YouTube: Christmas Day Makeup Look Tutorial

I have been wearing this makeup look a lot recently, especially when I have been out and about doing Christmasy things! Which made me think... This is the perfect makeup look that I'd like to wear on Christmas day. Now that I have worn this makeup look a few times I know that I can count on it lasting all day! Perfect for having your photo taken and for sticking around after Christmas dinner!

What do you think?

Love, Laura 

xoxo

Hull Bloggers Meet!

On Sunday I attended the Hull blogger meet up that was held at Fudge, an awesome cafe, restaurant, bakery down Princes Avenue in Hull. It seriously has all kinds of yumminess! The event was very well organised, when we arrived there were these huge goody bags, each labelled with our names scattered around the seated tables. 

I wore my Christmas jumper from Matalan that says "Ho, Ho, Ho" and to match the red theme I brought out my Ruby Woo lipstick by MAC. This was the perfect lipstick to wear because I knew that it would stick around even after food and drink!

Later on the staff from Fudge brought us out a lovely selection of afternoon tea goodies. Along with some very pretty china cups and saucers for a nice cup of English tea! They also brought out each table a bowl of nacho's which were also incredible! They do nacho's GOOD!

The food was presented very nicely and now for the scones...

The perfect amount of cream and jam (spilling out the sides, just the way I like it!!).

I ate mine burger style... Honestly I couldn't find a fork!!

Now I wanna talk about one of my favourite brands that were involved in the meet up. Some lovely girls from the company, Arbonne joined us to talk about their skincare brand. I was so impressed with their products but mostly at how passionate and knowledgable they were about their products. We had the chance to test out a selection of products from a few of their skincare collections! One of my favourites was their SeaSource Renewing Body Gelée.  

This product was so refreshing and cooling, I particularly loved the way it sank into my skin 

so quickly and how it left my skin feeling super moisturised! With it's calming scent it 

really  reminded me of something you would pick up in a luxurious spa.

Towards the end of the day their was a fabulous raffle! Unfortunately I had to leave early because me and Scott had previously made plans to go to the panto! Before leaving I bought some raffle tickets and I was lucky enough to win some great prizes that my friend has kept safe for me. 

Before leaving we were all given an extra little goody bag wrapped up as a Christmas gift. The whole day was fantastic and I can't wait to attend more events like this. The event was very informal and friendly and the atmosphere throughout the day left me feeling super happy and excited about blogging in the future! 

If you'd like me to do a more detailed post to show you exactly what I got in my goody bag, please let me know because when I opened up all the wonderful things it made me extremely giddy!

Thank you Alex & Jaye for organising such a great meet up! :)

Love, Laura 

xoxo

YouTube: Drugstore & High End Beauty Haul

Hi there! Today I have for you a big old beauty haul over on my channel! Last weekend I went to York to do my Christmas shopping but I also ended up picking up a lot of beauty bits! A lot of these products I have been getting on with so well in the last week & I can already see some of them being in my monthly favourites!

Let me know if you've tried any of these products & what you think!

Love, Laura 

xoxo

Thursday's Thoughts #4

Right now I am in the perfect scenario to reflect... Zara on one side curled up asleep (basically being a normal dog for once!) and a cup of tea on the other side. Oh and of course I'm sat in bed in my onesie and for the Dodds household it's actually pretty quiet. Oh and by quiet I mean normal... Nobody shouting and people just generally speaking at a normal noise level for half nine at night! 

Anyway, as you can tell from the photo's I am feeling pretty damn festive! The last couple of weeks I have been gradually trying out all the Costa Christmas drinks and so far the orange hot chocolate and gingerbread latte are by far my favourites! Last night we put our Christmas tree up and for those of you wondering what the heck the third photo is (Queue story)... When I was three years old at nursery I made some of my own kind of "special" tinsel made from dried pasta and milk bottle tops! I was a very creative child (haha) and every year it makes an appearance towards the back of the tree! 

I also wanna talk spots. The last couple of months my skin has been really playing up! I was getting really down about them and because I wasn't seeing any improvements they were starting to stress me out! Every morning and night I was cleansing, toning and moisturising and I really couldn't see where I was going wrong! It was driving me insane! You would think having a strict skincare routine that my skin would be beautifully clear. BUT recently I have seen some pretty good improvements on my face, I have had no new mean spots and the redness has definitely reduced dramatically! I have started using something that I am calling "the magic serum". I am using it every night before bed and I am finally seeing a difference!!!! God, please don't jinx me *touches wood*. I have only been using this a week but I am so happy with the improvements so far! It is the Pai Copaiba & Zinc perfect balance blemish serum that I saw Estee write about on her blog! After being so fed up with my skin I instantly bought this after reading her blog post, now I am so glad I have made the splurge and fingers crossed the improvements will keep on coming in week 2. I also have a 'before' photo of my skin, so I am hoping to do take an incredible 'after' photo to show you just how great this stuff is. Watch this space for an excitable review!

Please let me know in the comments if you've tried any other Pai products! :)

I also discovered this week that my boyfriend has never seen the movie, Elf?! How can anyone not have seen this movie! So tomorrow, I have made some really lovely Christmas plans. Me, Scott, my mum and my little brother are going to stay in and watch Elf, order takeaway and make Bailey's hot chocolates. Having cosy nights in with the people I love is one of my favourite things to do and that combined with Christmas I just don't know how my Friday night plans could get any better?!

On that note I am going to cosy up in bed and scroll through twitter and Instagram until I fall asleep!

Only 21 sleeps till Christmas!!!

Love, Laura 
xoxo

YouTube: York Christmas Shopping Vlog!

On Sunday me and my friend Hannah spent the day in York doing our Christmas shopping! I thought i'd take the opportunity to experiment by filming a little daily vlog. Though I found it pretty nerve racking vlogging in public, I thoroughly enjoyed putting all these clips together to create this masterpiece (I joke!). But I have definitely exceeded my own expectations with the fancy background music and annotations! I hope you enjoy this kind of video because I will be filming a lot more around Christmas time! Fingers crossed I can learn how to talk in public with a camera as much as I can ramble in my usual video's! ;) Let me know what you think in the comments!

Love, Laura

xoxo

YouTube: November Favourites!

Hello!

My usual Sunday video went live on Sunday (duh!). Head over to my chanel if you'd like to see all the things I have been loving in the month of November! I get a little over excited about food, who am I kidding? You can't get OVER excited about food! I've also discovered some winter skincare must haves! Be sure to leave me a message in the comments section, I love reading & replying to them all!!

Have a lovely week & remember only 24 sleeps untill Christmas!!!!

Love, Laura
xoxo

Zoeva "Complete Eye Set" Makeup Brushes

I purchased this gorgeous set of makeup brushes from Zoeva a while back in the summer. So now that I have been using these for a while, I feel I can give them a proper, good old review!!

It is safe to say I freaking love them and they have become an absolute staple in my makeup collection. I bought these from the Zoeva website for €60 (around £47.50). Pricing each brush at around £4 each, not bad at all! The quality of all these brushes are fantastic, super soft and no fall out of hairs so far! I feel with this collection you're definitely getting the full package! I can't think of one eyeshadow brush they're missing from this collection. Originally I didn't have many makeup brushes so this is the perfect starter kit and would make a lovely birthday or Christmas gift. 

Okay, now for my favourites... Although they are all fab I do have my go to favourites! So lets start with the furthest to the right, the 228 crease brush. This is by far my favourite and most used brush, this brush blends like a dream. Perfect for creating a lovely smokey eye! Oh and FYI this is definitely a great dupe for the MAC 224 tapered blending brush!

Now to the second brush from your left, the 142 concealer buffer. Although this is fab for blending your under eye concealer I do prefer to use this when I'm only wanting to use a single eyeshadow. I like to us this brush to buff my eyeshadow all over the eyelid. 

The 230 luxe pencil brush (second from the right) is perfect for bringing your eyeshadow underneath your lower waterline. Then to smudge out,  I like to use the 231 luxe petit crease brush (third from the right). To add a little highlight to the tear duct area I like to use the 237 detail shader brush (fourth from the right), this brush is great because it's super tiny so that you can add your highlight precisely without your highlighter going everywhere!

Along with the makeup brush set you get this lovely faux leather, hot pink, silk lined makeup bag! When I ordered the set I wasn't expecting much from the bag, but man I was wrong, along with the makeup brushes it is brilliant quality and the perfect size for carrying your makeup brushes whilst you're travelling!

Have you tried any of the Zoeva makeup brushes? What do you think?

Love, Laura 

xoxo

You can buy them here!

YouTube: Gold Smokey Eye & Nude Lip Makeup Tutorial

Let me know what you think! :)

Love Laura 

xoxo

New In At Topshop // Autumn Winter

1. Roll Neck Crop Sweater

2. Matte Satin Stripe Dress

3. Flat Front Luxe Joggers

4. Monocrome Cardigan

5. Faux Fur Holdall

6. Sno Faux Fur Twisted Snood

7. Golly Metal Toe Court Shoe

Every Morning morning, come break time at work. I sit with a cup of tea at my desk and open up the Topshop "New In This Week" page. Sad I know. But true. Not wanting to break the tradition, I did the exact same thing yesterday morning! Slurping away at my tea, I came up with these beauties!!

I am loving the dark burgundy and navy colours at the moment! I am especially loving the burgundy court shoes with the gold edgy detail in the toe and heel. Great for the Christmas party season! Also with your toes being covered you don't have the fuss of painting your toenails! Bonus!

Number 4 has to be my favourite piece! I tried this cardigan on in store and had a bit of a moment staring at myself in the mirror thinking, damn this looks good on me. Somehow I managed to convince myself to leave it on it's hanger. But now I can only think, that was a bad move!

Topshop have a fab selection of cropped, long sleeved jumpers in this season. They are the perfect thickness so that you can layer up in the winter and I think these would look perfect paired with a faux leather skirt, black tights and a sleeveless fur jacker. To me it sounds like the ultimate Autumnal look.

Which is your favourite piece?

Love, Laura
xoxo

YouTube: My Everyday Makeup Look!

Every year when we reach the colder months my makeup bag goes through an exciting transition. In come the bolder lipsticks and the darker, smokey eyeshadows! So with this happening I thought I'd upload a new makeup tutorial showing my current, everyday makeup routine! I am so happy to have a  classic red lipstick back in my life!

Head over to my channel (or click on the link above) for a step by step tutorial!

Love, Laura
xoxo

Dressing Table Tour

For a while now my room has been undergoing a make over! So now that I am 100% happy with my room I am very proud to share a big part of my little place of happiness! This being my dressing table. I have never owned a grown up dressing table before, so this makes me extremely happy! Having a dressing table reminds me of being a little girl first starting out with make up! I remember my mum used to flick through the Avon catalogue, letting me pick something out for myself! So now that I am half good at make up and can buy as much of the stuff as I please,  I can finally sit at a proper dressing table and apply my make up, peacefully. Instead of sitting on my bed and shamefully causing a lot of makeup stains on my carpet and bedding. If you'd have seen my carpet before, you would have cried!! I am far too ashamed to put up a before and after picture!

My dressing table is still fairly small as the size of my room is also small. Therefore I try to keep the top as uncluttered as possible! I like to keep my current perfume that I am loving along with my jewellery box! Now that I have a nice size collection of make up brushes, I like to keep them on show too! Underneath I like to keep some coasters because I aint standing for no mug marks on my brand spanking dressing table!  I also keep the book that I am currently reading on the side because I can't fit a bedside table in my room! This also reminds me to take a break and read, because with all the great YouTube videos available to watch at the minute, it's hard to fit in reading time too! In the two drawers I like to keep some of my fashion jewellery along with my chargers for my phone, laptop and camera, just so that I know exactly where they are!

Let the pretty pictures commence...

Please let me know in the comments if you have any dressing table storage ideas! I'd love to hear them!

Love, Laura

xoxo

Christmas Gift Wrap Heaven

So recently I have become a tiny winy bit obsessed with buying Christmas gift wrap! But more importantly really, really affordable too. Which admittedly makes me very happy inside! Cute and inexpensive festive gift wrap? I am all over it right now! It was only until my friend Em said to me "at this rate you'll have more gift bags than presents". I can't disagree with that but soon enough, at the end of this month I am hitting York for some serious Christmas shopping. Personally I find with gift bags it makes giving a present to someone that little bit more special! Also if you're like me and not so great at the wrapping part, gift bags are a great way to disguise your rubbish wrapping skills!

My favourite shops to buy my gift wrap have been, The range, Asda and T.K.Max. The Christmas fawn wrapping paper is my number one favourite! This was from Asda and they have a deal were you can buy 3 rolls of 5 metres for £5. Fifteen metres of wrapping paper is most certainly enough for me! Along with the wrapping paper they have the gorgeous gift bag to match! £1 and they are very generous in size! They also had a cute little pillow that goes too!

The paper bags with the felt Christmas designs on are from The Range! As soon as I saw these in the shop I knew I was going to use these for all my girlfriends' presents! They are just too cute! The gingerbread biscuit gift bag was from T.K.Max and they also had this one in a couple of smaller sizes too! They also have a great selection of baubles! I have a feeling baubles are going to be my next Christmas addiction, once I have bought one, there's no stopping me!

Please let me know in the comments if you know of anywhere else to buy such adorable gift wrap!

Love, Laura

xoxo

YouTube: October Favourites!

Hi there! This morning I uploaded my October favourites up on my channel. Head over there if you'd like to see all the things I have been loving in the past month.

Enjoy your day!

Love, Laura 

xoxo

www.youtube.com/doddslaura

What The Fudge?

On Sunday, Emma and I had such a lovely girly day out together. To start things off, of course we had to get some food in our bellies! Somewhere we had both wanted to go to for ages, The Fudge Bakery & Restaurant,  It is such a cute place, pastels galore! I ordered the granola, yoghurt and berry breakfast (oooooh healthy!) and Em ordered the fluffy pancakes with bacon and syrup (I tried them, they were amazing)! I went for the tea option, which came in the most humongous mug!! Whereas Emma went for a flavoured latte! After a late shift, I think she needed waking up a little bit! The outside area was adorable, I really want to go back in the summer so that we can sit outside! Then we popped next door to their bakery, which was also incredible!! I bought a posh sausage roll and a vanilla iced doughnut for take out! Completely defeating the whole point of having a healthy breakfast... ah well! We then headed into town for some well deserved retail therapy! It's safe to say the Christmas shopping has began! I bought three Christmas gifts (eeeeeek!). It felt oh so good! I also received my Boohoo order later on that day, and oh my I did myself proud. Look out for a haul on my Youtube Channel soon. Here are some photo's from our day.

I hope you all had a lovely weekend!

Love, Laura 

xoxo