Moving Into A Mansion!

The funky rug in my bedroom ft. pink rabbit slippers.

Last Friday I moved back down to Bournemouth, and into a brand new student house! After experiencing Halls last year whilst completing my Art Foundation, I decided that it would be more convenient, slightly cheaper and more ‘grown up’ to move in with a couple of friends to a house closer to my university. We found this 5-bed house, full of character and charm, but with enough modern influence to suit our lifestyles. We all chose our rooms, and I fell in love with the ground floor, double room with bay window, cream walls and wooden floor. It’s such a ‘me’ room and was just asking for a massive injection of pink to brighten it up!

My unfinished imperfect makeup desk.

The stairs.

The garden, palm tree and pond.

The bay window is my favourite part of the room. I’ve always viewed bay windows as being very Princess-like and a beautiful way to add lots of light into the space. I haven’t completely decided what I want to put in my window. Whether to leave it completely empty to really open up the space, or find an arm chair and stool for a place to chill and contemplate life.

My bay window.

The double bed is fantastic for me, even though I am only a small person, the extra room will be really handy for when I have friends round, especially as the wooden floors mean that this room is a tad chilly. It’s all ok though, I’ll just invest in some pink loungewear and fluffy jumpers in the winter. I bought a duvet and pillow set from IKEA in the same pale pink Toile de Jour print that is on my wallpaper back home. It’s my most favourite print ever, and I feel like I’ve brought a little bit of home with me down here! The throw has come from my bed at home as I felt it would be more handy being with me here! It’s a pink king-size throw with embroidered white flowers from Dunelm Mill. It’s really cosy and also makes my bed look pretty awesome.

My princess bed with all 10 pillows.

Wooden units, and my pink towel.

My cushion collection is just that, a collection of cushions that has built up over the years! My latest additions are the two pink and white gingham cushions from IKEA and are handy square shapes. The little heart pillow is from Primark, as is the grey fluffy one. The satin pink one is from Dunelm Mill and the feathery pink one was a gift from my boyfriends mum.

Art deco fireplace.

Too add just a little more princessness into the room, there’s also an original art deco fireplace with a wooden mantelpiece in the centre of the room. It’s a real statement piece, and very artistic. My landlord told me that my room actually used to be the family dining room, which explains the context behind the funky fireplace. Unfortunately the fireplace does not work, but instead is a lovely plinth for a large mirror on top in which I do my makeup.

The living room.

An arty shot of the dining table/ living room.

The rest of the house is very lovely, which is so strange for a student house, but very lucky for us! We have a big kitchen, with lots of light and storage space. The bathrooms are very standard. Our living room is perfect for us, lots of room to hold pre-drinks and house parties, as well as being very comfortable and homey for film nights in and studying around deadlines. We have a conservatory, which seems to be doubling up as our drying room, and a large garden with a roomy patio. Just to add even more fancy to the house, we have a pond, waterfall and fish which the gardener looks after every few weeks! Crazy eh!?

I am buzzing for this year. I have Freshers week next week, which is involving a lot of dressing up costumes and hopefully a lot of vodka, Lidl’s version of Southern Comfort and Subway’s at 4am.  And then I begin my degree course the following week. I cannot wait!

Conservatory/ drying room/ sauna/ greenhouse.

I am hoping to make as many blog posts as I can this year, both as a memory bank for me and hopefully an interesting read for you. Thanks for reading, and I’ll be back soon with possibly a makeup related post.

The kitchen.

Peace out girl scouts, Zoë xxx

Finding The One?! - Maybelline Lash Sensational Mascara Review and Photos!

What can I say? I have never found the one.  I’ve never quite discovered the one that can volumize in all the right places. That has sufficient length to suit my needs and stays around all day to have a bit of fun.

Of course I’m talking about mascara!? I have never quite enjoyed a mascara, let alone a drugstore one, as much as I do this*. It’s an absolute dream to apply, both the shape of the brush – stiff yet malleable to your eye curves, as well as the lightweight formulation of the product itself. I love how buildable this is, the first coat does not apply very thickly so if you’re into a one-job wonder then this probably isn’t ‘The One’ for you but I love the clump-free volumized look you can customise and build after a few coats.

*Very bold statement!

I have very straight short eyelashes; almost so straight that they poke downwards so getting a good curve is very important to me. I always use an eyelash curler to aid me here, but now have found a mascara that holds the shape from the curlers for longer than a minute! I particularly like this mascara for my bottom lashes, the little handle on the wand means that I can move my little fingers easily and the strong multitude of bristles on the wand help to coat bottom lashes easily without any blobbing or clumping.

Because I also really like opaque cream concealers, even under my eyes, I usually find that after a few hours of wear that my mascara has joined the party under my eyes too. However as I’m writing this, I’ve had it on for a good 8 hours and we’re all good in the hood! 

Naked eyelashes without any product.

Eyelash (forgot to do my left one!) after using the Lash Sensational Mascara. 

I can’t leave this post without commenting on the beautiful baby pink/baby lilac metallic packaging. (Lots of words that fill my brain often!) For a drugstore and slightly cheaper product they have done a very good job on making it look a little more expensive than some of their other mascaras, however I’m obviously very biased towards the shiny metallic outer. Kudos to the design team, I like a lot.

I bought mine from Superdrug for £7.99 (minus Student Discount hehe!) and they also seem so sell a waterproof version for all you mermaids out there!

Thank you for reading, I hope you had a fabulous time! Stay tuned for a cheeky YouTube video possibly being uploaded this week over on youtube.com/itszoedennis mwahahaa!

Lots of love from Zo xxx

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ZARA Pointed Espadrilles - A Pair of Summery Shoes!

Shoes are something I am both very picky about and very creative with. Having size 4 feet is a bit of a blessing when it comes to buying shoes, mainly because it’s a size regularly available in most high street stores and I can always find during sales. I popped into my mothership store ZARA today and stumbled across this pair of slip-on espadrilles. I’ve never worn nor owned any espadrilles before, mainly because I’m not too keen on their aesthetic and they’re not very comfy on my feet. However after falling in love with this pair and trying them on I knew they would become a simple staple in my summer wardrobe.

I love the material they’re made from, breathable cotton with an almost suede like feel to them. I feel like the black tips distract from the typical espadrille look, and that’s probably why I liked them so much! The insides of the shoes are really spongy so much more comfortable than any I have tried previously and the pointed toe makes it comfortable for my toes to sit inside them without being squished. Obviously I bought them in a pastel pink colour, however they also sell them in a beautiful baby blue. Pink is such an easy and staple colour for me, it goes with everything in my wardrobe because my wardrobe is pretty much a pastel rainbow!

I’m very happy with my little purchase, I know I’ve gone and dedicated a whole blog post to a pair of £20 shoes, but hey ho I love them! I’ve added a link to the ZARA website where you can view both colours, as well as links to all my social media pages if you fancy a nosey around*!

*May or may not be a shameless plug to my social media…

http://www.zara.com/uk/en/trf/shoes/view-all/pointed-espadrilles-c719525p2510579.html

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Twitter: https://twitter.com/itszoedennis

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YouTube: itszoedennis

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/itszoedennis/

Thanks for reading! Love from Zoë xxx

NARS Sheer Glow Foundation Review in Fiji

My skin type is normal/dry, NC25 in MAC foundation shade.

NARS Sheer Glow Foundation in the shade Fiji.

Surprisingly, I have never owned a product from NARS cosmetics before, probably because I’m such a big MAC junkie. Whenever I feel like having a splurge on makeup I’ll usually head straight to MAC, however since running out of my Pro Longwear foundation I decided I wanted to try something new.  Obviously I had done a lot of research beforehand, almost re-purchasing my trusty L’Oreal True Match because it was a fraction of the price I’d usually pay. However something about the NARS Sheer Glow foundation really drew me in. I had a consultation and little test in Space NK with an artist there, and fell in love straight away.

Packaging

This wouldn’t be a makeup blog post without giving some mention to the packaging of any product. I really like the look of the sleek black lid, corresponding logo and luxury-feeling glass bottle. It’s a weighty item, so could be a bit troublesome in transit, and I am very scared to drop it in my bathroom! However I feel like it is a beautiful product to have in my makeup collection and kit as it is a simple cubed shape and a practical size. I feel like the lid is definitely compensating for something, as the opening of the glass bottle is about 1cm wide! (I’m thinking Lord Farquaad in Shrek!) Obviously the major downfall of the packaging here is the lack of pump. For a makeup artist this isn’t too big of a problem as I can easily pour the product out onto a palette to work from, however I do worry about how sanitary the bottle would be as it doesn’t have the pump to disperse product without any contact to the bottle/product inside. On day-to-day use, I’d really like to have the pump, just to make the process quicker and easier. I’ve also found I’ve been tipping way too much out because I don’t have the pump – and issue I had before with a MAC Studio Fix Foundation bottle which I managed to use up way too quickly!

Prep

As I have slightly dry skin – mainly where I have bouts of acne and scarring – I added a tiny bit of moisturiser just to those areas. This is a very dewy and luminous foundation, so even on my dry skin I did not need to add a layer of moisture beforehand as it’s consistency meant that it did not cling to my dry patches. I’ve read otherwise about this, so it’s probably pretty dependent on your skin type.  I did not wear a primer here either, just because I have run out, but if I were to wear this on a night out or for a prolonged period of time then I would be much keener to, as with any other foundation.

Application

I used my Real Techniques Buffing Brush to apply this, although the lovely lady in the shop used a flat foundation brush and too had a beautiful finish to the skin. I was matched to Fiji which has yellow-undertones and is a medium-toned colour. I applied a blob of the product to the back of my hand and begun to apply it on the lower of my face, as usual, with circular motions. I would say that this product is definitely a medium-to-full coverage foundation, as I was able to create an almost ‘flawless’ finish very easily and quickly. As the product began to dry on my skin, I used the flat of the brush to stipple over the foundation. This really enhanced the finish and removed any unsightly lines from the circular motions.

After-Care

As always, I applied a lighter concealer under my eyes and around my mouth where I suffer from dark pigmentation. Here, I used the Collection Lasting Perfection concealer in Light 1 to somewhat recreate that Kardashian-esque highlight and contour. I then set my whole face with a large fluffy Real Techniques brush and MAC Translucent Loose Powder. This did slightly mattify the foundation, but without the powder it did feel too dewy and moist on the skin – so I would definitely recommend doing so.  I found that after a few hours of wear the foundation did become slightly shinier around my T-zone and nose and therefore did find myself reapplying some more powder to reduce the shine.

 (Above: Images wearing the NARS Sheer Glow Foundation in Fiji, with Bobbi Brown Extra Cream underneath, MAC Harmony blush to contour and Peaches to add colour on the cheeks. On my lips I have a Topshop Lipliner in Beestung and MAC Pink Plaid Matte Lipstick over the top. For my eyes I used MAC Vanilla eyeshadow with a mix of MAC Omega and Woodwinked blended through the crease. I have the Bobbi Brown Extreme Party Mascara on my lashes and used a Collection black pen liner to add a little flick. As always, my brows were a mix of MAC Brun eyeshadow and MAC Pro Longwear Brow Set in Brown Ebony - yikes that's a lot of makeup!?) 

Final Thoughts

This foundation is a beautiful product. I cannot sing it’s praises enough, as it is so perfect for my skin and desired makeup look. I will mention here that I like to wear a full-face of makeup. If I am going to the effort of wearing a full-coverage foundation, I will also take the time to ‘finish’ my face with corresponding lips and eyes etc. The colour match was perfect to my skin as it is quite yellow-based which helps reduce the darkness and scarring on my face. It applied really easily, giving a really flawless looking base once fully buffed into the skin. It definitely made my skin look really vibrant and healthy, something that I hadn’t found before with other foundations, and found myself getting lots of compliments when I wore it! There are two downfalls to this product, number one is the lack of a pump, however lots of places sell them (Space NK was out of stock when I bought this) and I’m sure I’ll find myself purchasing one soon. The second is the ‘wetness’ of the product, as after a few hours I did have to add some powder to the middle of my face. I personally really like luminous and dewy foundations, as my skin is really dull and dry, so I liked that it had a ‘sheer glow’ to it but still had really good coverage.

(Left: A photo taken in the evening wearing the foundation, here I had used MAC Prep & Prime underneath and MAC Loose Translucent Powder over the top.)

I hope this review was helpful; I was looking for a post like this before I purchased the foundation so thought I would add mine to the line-up! I would definitely recommend going to a NARS counter and testing out colours before purchasing, as I nearly ordered Punjab online and was matched two shades lighter in store!

Thank you again for reading, and have a beautiful day!
Best wishes, Zoë xxx