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