September Life Round Up

HOW just how are we already at the end of September?!
This second half of the year has just flown by at sonic speed! September has been a tad bit mental, I was thrown into the deep end with work, which was an experience. Thankfully the people at work were tremendously supportive and nice, they made it a lot easier.
Dad had his operations and has gotten back to work, which has been good to see him jump straight back into things. He's done pretty well not letting things get him down, if it were me I would have refused to leave the house! I think I was more bothered by the stares than he was, so I admire him for that.
At home things are picking up speed, plans are slowly coming together and it's being to feel like a proper home. The weather hasn't been the greatest of summers and it's making me thing about the winter. Christmas Market's have already been written onto the calendar! Snow boots will have to been taken out of storage. I hate to say it but I think it could be a harsh winter!
October is just one sleep away and there's Halloween and Bon Fire night and the run up to Christmas! What's not to look forward too!

Hope you have had a good september and that the next month is even better!

Charlie xo
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10/52

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1. I noticed that the leaves on trees are starting to change colour!! Beautiful reds and oranges just peeking through the green!

2. The conversations that my dad and I have on our commute in is quite insightful, and I am thankful that he makes me want to question things and find out more information. Basically I am a sponge for knowledge, thanks to my dad.

3. Wednesday morning was a pretty stressful start to work, but I'm happy with how the day went

4. The realisation that I think I'm becoming a morning person is slowly daunting on me... I think I like it.

5. Having a day off work thursday and just enjoying a slower pace of day, chilled and relaxed.

6. Recently the night have been colder and there hasn't been many clouds in the sky at night. Perfect for just popping outside before bed to admire the stars. Perks of living in the middle of know where!

7. Finishing the working week happy for the weekend

8. I really have missed my best friend who is all the way down south being a grown up! But I'm thankful for Snapchat so when our schedules are super busy, we can still check in with each other!

9. payday... that is all that needs to be said.

10. Weekend off and I went to the Home Show in Aberdeen, saw some amazing home made crafty things, a B-EAU-TIFULL! flower display that I wish I could have in the garden!(alas I can't even keep a cacti alive so this would not of had a chance)

I hope you have had a good weekend and a positive start to your week! 

Best wishes Charlie xo
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My Everyday Face of September

Oh I do love a simple clean makeup look! A cat eye is possibly the most classic look there i, at least in my opinion! It is quite possibly the most iconic eye makeup there is and it will never go out of style!

From Marilyn Monroe to Audrey Hepburn, Elizabeth Taylor and Amy Winehouse, the cat eye is a beautiful style which can be adapted to suit anybody! It is so classic and simple you can change it up to suit your personal style! It is without doubt my favourite and I can not help but want to wear it everyday!

In fact, at the beginning of September I started switching up my makeup for work. Whilst I would have normal used MAC's Patina or Woodwinked, I decided to use my Urban Decay Naked 1 palette! Wanting a clean base for a cat eye I've been using the shades Naked, Buck and Virgin or Sin from the palette to create the look I've been wanted for some time now, of which I am finally happy with to share with you! So here after a lot of trial and testing, is my favourite clean and tidy cat eye makeup I've been wearing to work pretty much everyday! 

The Urban Decay eyeshadows are beautiful and pigmented, Naked is my go to neutral eye base blending into Buck on the outer V. I use Sin more than Virgin on the inner part of the eyelid blending into Naked in the centre. With a bold cat gel eyeliner it is the perfect base for me!

Like always I use my MAC Quarry to fill in my eye brows, and MAC Emphasis to highlight under the eye and cheek bones. Onto lips, my absolute favourite is Rimmel 077 Asia, I love this colour and pretty much where it everyday. I do use a lip balm first to moisturise my lips first, but the lipstick doesn't dry out my lips in the slightest! Truly in love with this lipstick! 

I only have the Naked 1 palette but the others look so beautiful! Do you have any Urban Decay makeup? What would you recommend?

Charlie xo
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Time to Reflect 09/52

1. Everybody needs a bit of tlc, so having the time to make yourself feel better, a little bit of a pamper session can go a long way and its a good start to a hectic week!

2. Having a good old sort out of my draws, throwing away all the things I thought I might have needed a few years ago, turn out I am just a sentimental hoarder!

3. Enjoying a little lye in, which I would never had considered 8am a lye in! I never used to be a morning person, I would honestly be at war with myself getting out of bed at 6am for work, but like everything routine makes things easier.

4. One week till pay day! I am awful at saving my money, especially when I wonder into Superdrug or Boots (which happens whenever I am in town) so I decided this week I am NOT allowing myself to spend ANY money on makeup - YOU DON'T NEED IT CHARLIE!!

5. Although this should have technically been post 100 I decided to post one to describe why I started blogging in the first place, so this is 101! I can't not believe I managed to get to 100!

6. No matter how utterly rubbish thursday was, to get home and get into a nice warm cosy bed was exactly what I needed, I should not have left my bed in the morning, things only got worse.

7. There is such a supportive network of people at work and I am so thankful for each and everyone of them!

8. Getting things done! Jobs started pilling up and it does start to get to me, so when I finally had a moment to sort myself out getting those jobs done and sorted feels so good!

9. Saturday we went out as a family to Dobbies garden centre and enjoyed a few hot drinks and cake, because why not! Also if you follow on twitter you might have seen something I brought from the garden centre, and can now no longer complain about how early places bring out their christmas things...

10. Sitting down with dad, whilst waiting for dinner to cook, watching the highlights of the Grande Prix.

Charlie xo
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100 POSTS!

I can tell you, honestly, I never thought I'd ever reach 100 posts, or at least not this quickly, there's a whole load of things people do when they reach 100, but I thought I'd tell you the whole reason I started blogging.

At the beginning of 2013 I was starting a lengthy process of finding out whether I was dyslexic. After years of struggling and getting angry with myself as to why I could work harder than anybody and still come out worse than somebody who did work the day before. I didn't understand what the difference was. It wasn't until I was in my final year at sixth form that one of my teachers pulled me aside and mentioned that she recognised mistakes I was making in my work. Nothing happened until I got to university, when I spoke to one of my tutor's about it. He offered me help and guidance as to where I should go to find out. If it hadn't of been for their help I wouldn't have tried to find out if there was something different. In the second term of first year I went everywhere, all over the campus (and to other uni's) to meetings and tests to finally find out I was dyslexic. To be perfectly honest with you, I was over the moon to find this out. There's nothing worse than remembering and holding on to all those horrible comments from other kids when your a young child and finally being able to just let it all go!

Long story short, I did a lot of research into dyslexia and found loads of people, celebrities in particular, that I've respected are also dyslexic. That summer I had found blogs of Youtube Beauty Guru's like FleurDeForce and ViviannaDoesMakeup and really loved reading them! I began playing with the idea of creating my own personal space online. It would be something, for myself, something to help me develop my writing skills.

I've always struggled with writing and making paragraphs, so the idea of committing myself to a blog seemed like a good idea. I never imagined still being here two years and 100 posts on, still full of ideas and passion for my blog! I am so happy just writing on this blog, whether anybody reads anything or just passes by, I am happy just planning and writing even if it is just for myself.

Two years on I feel more confident in my writing, and willing to keep learning. I love being here, typing away, and with my 100th post I look forward to the future to my 200th post! Imagine, and here is to the next 100!

Charlie xo
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My Top 5 Lipsticks for this Autumn

1. I probably wear this 5 out of 7 days a week, if I am working or going outside I absolutely LOVE IT! Rimmel Asia is a muted pink toned brown, which helps to make my lips look bolder whilst not outlandish. I love the colour and the formulation doesn't dry out my lips at all!

2. My mum had originally brought this L'Oreal Color Riche lipstick in Bois De Rose and it turned out to be a bit too purple for her, ok ranted the first two in the picture do look kind of similar, I promise you, on the lips it does look rather purple if you layer it up, however I prefer to use a light hand when using this lipstick.

3. Cosmo, I LOVE this colour, I should admit that the name was the thing that drew me in initially but once I swatted the colour it was mine! In the picture it look fairly pink however it does have pink undertone, but on the lips it appears as a muted pink-red.  Cosmo was my second MAC lipstick and it absolutely love it, it's an amplified formula and can dry out my lips a little bit but it's manageable.

4. Buttery and moistersing! Revlon Pink Truffle the first lipstick I ever tried! Before jumping into the world of lipsticks I new I needed to try and work up. My lips have always been a massive problem for me, they are so easily affected by a change in weather that I need to have a lip balm whenever I go outside the house. I'd heard about the Revlon Lip Butters on other blog posts and Youtube videos so I thought I was give it a go. They are a very moisturising formulation, they feel and look like a colour tinted lip balm and for me it was the perfect beginning to trying out colour for my lips.

5. I have a leather jacket almost identical to this colour, and I should probably admit I brought this because of the colour of the packaging because it was very similar to the jacket! Bourjois Plum Russian was the first Lip crayon I brought and although I haven't used it as much as i thought I would when I brought it a year ago, I have fallen in love with it again this Autumn, Its creamy and moisturising enough for me but I it doesn't have great staying power for me, but Im excited to get to use this beauty again!

Charlie xo
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Time to Reflect 08/52

1. Waking up at 5:30 to go to hospital for an appointment (dad's third surgery, all is good) does have it's advantages. The view for the sky from our back garden was breath taking! The Moon, The North Star and Sunrise were all visible, it was something I had never seen before and it made me forget about how tired I was! Honestly it was stunning, unfortunately you can only just make up the North star it my photo (it was on a phone) but I promise you, It is there!

2. Dad's op went well and he only had to stay in over night the one night, so he was back home on tuesday!

3. Getting to grips with work and feeling like I know what I'm doing

4. Catching the train when you think you've missed it, is possibly the best feeling, when your running late and slightly stressing out

5. Helping a fellow makeup shopper in MAC, is it a bad thing when I can confidently inform somebody else the prices of the makeup when the price sign is gone... maybe I should step back from the blusher and walk away...

6. I brought some fleece pj bottoms from Tesco's F&F range, they are hands down the softest, fluffiest and most comfortably pj bottoms ever!

7. New series of Doc Martin, how did nobody tell m
e about this?! I missed the showing so I am so thankful for catch on the inlayer!!

8. Fish and Chip Friday, nothing tastes better than a fish and chip supper when your hungry!

9. The girls at work are so amazing they have been super supportive and friendly! So happy to be working with them all!

10. This week has been pretty work heavy, and it's resulted in a messy room! Sunday's task, super tidy and sort out, feels good to have things sorted! It's kind of like therapy for peace of mind!

Have a good weekend!

Charlie xo
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New to my M.A.C Collection

I've been meaning to write this post since before I finished university but I wanted to test some things out. The lipstick Cosmo has been the thing I have used the most but I am just dipping my toes in when it comes to the eye shadows! Anyway I am still very much inspired by the beautiful products of M.A.C and that latest trip ended up a looking a little bit like this. 

My last visit from my parents whilst I was at uni, lead us to Sheffield. We were just there for a day out, and as the weather was pretty awful, Meadow Hall was the place to be. The day was lovely, not buying anything to crazy, a few bits from Boots and my mum brought some sandal style wedges, (which she wears as an alternative to slippers around the house. They will be WELL worn!)

Anyway the end of the trip mum took me into Debenhams and we looked around the MAC counter.  And this is what happened...

I've been looking at the eyeshadow - Club - for some time now, its a beautiful colour and depending on what direction and lighting you see it under the look changes slightly. It has a pearlescent colour change to it, often showing brown, purple and a green colour but is wearable during the day. I'm slowly finding times to wear this as its one of the most adventurous colours I wanted. That was until I spotted Mythology! Now this is the craziest colour I own! It looks great with green eyes but I am finding it a lot harder to find time to wear it at the moment, regardless I LOVE it! Now I just have to be brave enough to work it...

The Lipstick was a slight impulse, I'd been looking at the lipsticks for some time, just scoping out the beautiful endless possibilities available, and this one caught my eye. I loved the colour and the texture and instantly wanted to take it home with me! Cosmo is beautiful and a great choice for an implies buy, ZERO regrets here!

The top small tubes were free mascara testers. I've tried them out a little bit but overall Im not reacting well to them, I feel my eyes are very irritated by them but I will be trying them again at a later date. 

So that was the sudden splurge of the day for me, I haven't ever spent as much money on MAC items in one day as I did here, but I can see how people love it! If you have any of these items, including the mascara, let me know what you think of them! Also if you've got the two eyeshadows, how do you wear them? 

Charlie xo
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Time to Reflect 07/52

1. Two years ago, whilst I was on placement at a theatre, I had my 21st birthday. Being on placement meant I was there from 9am to 11pm due to the amount of work we had to sort before opening night. Obviously I didn't get to see any friends or family during the day, but the people at my placement were so lovely and kind that they set up a surprise for me, it involved a spot light, cake and champagne. All in all it was a fantastic surprise and I felt so honoured that these (effectively) strangers wanted to help celebrate my 21st! It is something I will NEVER forget and it will always bring a huge smile to my face! Well the reason I'm reflecting on the memory is because on tuesday night I finally popped open the bottle with family! (First attempted at opening a corked bottle too by the way!) I am so thankful that my placement thought to do something for me and I will always remember them!

2. The last few nights have cooled down a lot in comparison to a few weeks ago, it defiantly makes a nights sleep easier

3. Being trained up at work for more responsability as well as getting to spend time with one of girls at work who I haven't really had chance to speak too has been really nice, trying to get to know people is difficult when things are busy so it was nice to get to know somebody a bit more.

4. On wednesday we reached 50 followers on Bloglovin which I never expected and I am so thankful for anybody that stumbles upon my corner of the internet! Much love to you all!

5. Grabbing a Costa coffee or hot chocolate in my case with my dad on our morning commute to work! Just what you need on a windy rainy morning!

6. Changing your bedding and looking forward to getting into a clean fresh bed is so underrated!

7. The entire day on friday at work was just the best, you couldn't wipe the smile of my face no matter what!

8. We have had a lot of trouble with second hand car's in the past and with some annoying news about my car needing a new engine, dad received a well timed V.I.P invite from the dealer ship we brought the other car from for the coming week! So Saturday was spent looking around the dealership for a car that all three of us could drive.

9. To finish of saturday we went for a carvery before heading home, I do love a sunday lunch, especially when you don't have to cook, clean up or worry about anything. Easy peasy!

10. Beautiful weather on sunday meant we had bacon sandwiches for brunch and enjoyed the sunshine!

I hope you too have had a fantastic week, and may the next one be even better!

Charlie xo
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M.A.C | Pro Palette | Eye Shadow No.4 Woodwinked

Woodwinked was one of the shadows I new I needed in my life. Normally I'm a silver kinder gal through and through. I thought I could never pull of gold in any way, especially in makeup. However, the gold of the shadow is pigmented enough to be a muted gold to in your face gold! Both of which I love! 

MAC's Woodwinked is an absolutely gorgeous shade, ideal of most eye colours, I believe it will suit most skin tones, complimenting and bringing out the warmth in your complexion. The pigment is fantastic, I can wear this colour for an everyday look, making sure to lightly dust it over my lids or I can pack on the pigment to make a statement! The staying power is quite decent, however I prefer to use MAC Painterly Paint Pot as a primer, and my eyeshadow will last eight solid hours of work, with just a little bit of fading but zero creasing. 

It applies evenly, has a smooth application and I have no problems with fall out. I would highly recumbent this eye shadow from MAC, I will definitely be repurchasing this whenever I inevitably run out. 

Charlie xo
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August Life Round Up

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I completely forgot to round up the month of August! To be honest I feel like it should still be May or something, the year is flying by!

Anyway, the month of August, has been quite a tame month really. Besides dad's operation, which is healing really quickly and well, the only thing that happened was at work, were I was given more responsibility. At the moment I'm still in training but on friday I am completely on my own! Slightly scared but also super excited about the chance to develop I never expected to get any higher in my job.

Although I have absolutely no idea about what I want to do with my degree or life, having the chance to develop my skills, and confidence is something I am very grateful for! Hopefully I pass the test with little problems, but hey its all part of the learning curve!

Since finishing university, I have had a lot more time to focus on my blog and really adjust to having it as a bigger part of my life! I've never been the type of person to stick to things, as soon as I have gotten tired of an activity or routine I'd do a 180 degree turn and do something else. However two years and a couple of months on I am still really interested in the world of blogging, connecting with people and learning all the time! I'm not bored and as things keep changing I think I will be more intrigued and excited about this hobby of mine. I hope things continue to grow and develop as time goes on, I will still be here blogging away till my heart is content!

So as we are defiantly into a new month, I will leave it here to see how the next month treats us!

Charlie xo
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