essie - bikini so teeny

Bikini so Teeny - £7.99

Essie nail polishes are highly raved about within the beauty blogging community, I first heard of them when literally everybody went mad for 'Mint Candy Apple'. Of course, I was drawn into the hype & when Essie released their diffusion line in Boots & Superdrug I soon snapped up my first, reluctantly paying the slightly scary price tag. I say it's scary, as the most I used to pay was £5, so almost £8 for a little glass jar of a pretty colour was a tiny bit off putting! However I have absolutely zero regrets spending the extra few pounds on Essie polish because I can't fault them. The consistency is smooth & creamy, it glides onto the nail so well, especially with the rounded brush, literally 3 strokes across the nail & voila! I can also get away with one coat & wear time is great, it rarely chips for me & can last around a week, even without a top coat! 

Bikini so Teeny is a cornflower blue, with a slight shimmer to it. I cannot get the true colour to show up on photos properly at all. How annoying! Although you can see the shimmer quite clearly in the bottle it doesn't really transfer to your nails as much. I love wearing this colour with a glitter accent nail, Models Own Disco Mix is a perfect combo in my opinion! I'm wearing it in this outfit post. A better picture can be seen on my Instagram web profile, here! As Christmas is approaching I'm also going to try out some nail art with this colour, perhaps using this as a base colour with tiny white snowflakes on top!

Lastly, I stumbled across Fragrance Direct which often have various shades of Essie, for only £1.99! Only yesterday I was browsing & noticed Bikini so Teeny was available for this price, sadly it's disappeared but I'm going to keep checking back as they update their colour range quite regularly.

If I wasn't such a poor student I know my Essie addiction would have spiralled out of control by now, have you tried Essie polishes? Which is your favourite shade!?

L x

Follow me on Twitter | Find me on Instagram: loulabeth | Follow me on Bloglovin 

a little haul

It’s been such a pain trying to post this, I’m in London at the moment and currently don’t have an Internet connection at my new house! I had planned to go across the road to the library but lost track of time and had to be elsewhere. Here I am at Doms uncle’s house in Old Street, tethering my iPhone so I could quickly upload! I’m on the third floor of the house and my laptop refuses to connect to the wifi here, so thank you iPhone for saving the day, once again!

I thought I’d blog about what I’ve bought recently as these are one of my favourite kinda posts to read from other bloggers, probably because I’m so nosey... I definitely wish I was brave enough to create a YouTube video for this post, it’d make my life a lot easier as I can sense I will have loads to type about!

Everybody loves a Yankee candle and after buying quite a few various scents in sampler size I thought it was time to buy a proper jar! Vanilla cupcake is my all time favourite smell, but I also love Mango Peach Salsa after getting it for Dom (yes my boyfriend likes candles haha) and Strawberry Buttercream is heavenly! I cannot wait for all the Christmas scents to appear in the shops, especially Christmas Cookie, mmm.

I bought the Aussie shampoo, conditioner & three minute miracle reconstructor full size after I tried out the minis of all 3. My hair/scalp is quite sensitive so I often buy the mini version of a shampoo first to see if I can cope with it! I’m going to write a proper review on these products as my hair loves them and I’ve seen such a difference. I bought these when they were on offer in Tesco, 3 for £10, and I think Boots are currently running a similar offer.

St Ives Apricot Scrub was a much loved product during my early teens. I’ve never had particularly bad skin, luckily, so this is ideal to purely freshen up my skin in the morning!

MUA reached 25,000 likes on Facebook and to celebrate they offered 25% discount on orders over £10 plus free postage, obviously I couldn’t resist this! I’ve been meaning to pick up the Heaven & Earth palette for ages now but found it hard to get hold of, so I’m glad I finally own this! I also bought the Undressed palette as I’ve heard it’s a great dupe for Urban Decays Naked2 palette. The blusher is shade 4 and has quickly become my go to blusher, it is super pigmented though so a little goes a long way. I did buy a lipstick too, shade 15 or ‘Juicy’ but I gave this to my sister as she wanted a peach/nude toned lipstick but was yet to find the perfect one until now, well done MUA!

L’oreal Liquid Superliner is my current eyeliner, it’s easy to use and lasts all day. I’d like to try some other liquid eyeliners though, please feel free to leave me some suggestions (:

I really hoped I wouldn’t fall in love with anything from the latest Essie collection, but of course I want almost all six shades! I really liked Mojito Madness, it’s a perfect grass green & Fear or Desire is a fab, fiery orange colour but I managed to decide on Bikini so Teeny eventually. I can’t fault the Essie polishes though, they apply so nicely and last well.

Why has Primark been SO good the past couple of weeks!? All my recent wardrobe purchases have been from there! I am over the moon that I finally got my hands on the khaki/leather jacket that is an amazing dupe of the Zara/River Island/Topshop version, plus it was less than half the price. The cream chunky knit jumper is super cosy and has cute coffee coloured elbow patches too! Finally I picked up the black studded bag for uni as it will fit A4 folders in, plus my laptop and anything with studs is a must for me! I NEED the studded clutch bag that lots of you seem to have, I’m going on a hunt for it tomorrow in fact...

Keep an eye out for upcoming outfit posts featuring the clothes I’ve shown above and also full reviews of the products I purchased!

L x

Follow me on Twitter | Find me on Instagram: loulabeth | Follow me on Bloglovin

my week in photos #6

Having a dilemma in Boots over which colour to choose, I went with Bikini so Teeny | ombré hair! | the best kind of chocolate | I found my old bb case I'd decorated | tonnes of old deco pieces | New yankee candle | Cute hello kitty socks | Blue nose teddy | Pretty sunset

This week has flown by, it feels like a blur I can barely remember anything! I decided to nip into Boots with Abi on Friday to pick a few things up & treat myself to a new Essie polish... I also finally dyed my hair ombré after being undecided for so long & I really love it! It was so easy to do, does anyone want me to do a post on it? :)

I've been packing all my stuff up ready for my move back to London as my Mum is driving me down on Tuesday & I've come across all my deco things! I used to be obsessed & spent many many hours decorating my blackberry case, followed by my iPhone 3gs case & I also customized a little mirror :) I can't decide if I should sell all the pieces or carry on being creative? Is anyone interested in buying a handmade phone case off me? Or has that craze kind of got boring now? Let me know!

Dom & I celebrated our 4 year anniversary last Sunday so I took a few days away from the internet! We usually book a mini trip, but this year we really couldn't afford it so we chilled out & gave each other homemade gifts :) I always make him a gift every year as it's more personal & I enjoy researching/thinking up ideas.

I'm sorry I've been a really inconsistent blogger recently, I know I keep saying this but I can't find the time to blog! I actually miss it as I got into a good routine of having blog posts up regularly, so hopefully I'll be blogging properly again this week!

L x

Follow me on Twitter | Find me on Instagram: loulabeth | Follow me on Bloglovin

wednesday wishlist #2

one | two | three | four | five

One - I'm in need of some simple tops that I can wear with my disco pants for a casual outfit, this is ideal and I don't own anything in this colour!

Two - Omg how adorable is this! I had a ring exactly like this from H&M but I've misplaced it :(...

Three - Essie polishes are so popular at the moment, there colour range is amazing though, these two need to be in my collection asap! (Tart Deco & Neo Whimsical if anyones wondering)

Four - A set of three little heart rings, I'd probably only wear one at a time, but it's cheaper to buy three than one so...

Five - I already have three pairs of these Topshop socks, everytime I go in store I have to stop myself buying more, I'm a massive fan of pastel colours, especially when it comes to accessories.

L x

Follow me on Twitter | Find me on Instagram: loulabeth | Follow me on Bloglovin 

recent buys!

Recently I have been going a crazy and spending a fortune, I wanted to update my wardrobe a little as I feel like I always wear the same old outfits! I've also bought quite a lot of new products to try out, so some of these feature in this post too! Above are a few of my purchases, sorry I've used photographs from the internet rather than my own images, my camera is currently charging so I'm hoping to feature a few of these things in outfit posts/full reviews!

Topshop petite dark wash denim shirt - I finally found the perfect denim shirt! I can't even remember how long I've been searching for a shirt like this, so when I saw it in Manchester yesterday I ran over and grabbed it. I think everyone needs a denim shirt in their wardrobe, they're a great staple item and can be worn in so many different ways. This cost £32, but I got student discount.

Topshop basic crop tee - I LOVE these! I'm so glad I got hold of one, even though it's been raining and quite chilly in England recently I'm hoping it warms up so I can wear it with my other recent purchase DISCO PANTS! I bought those when American Apparel emailed their subscribers a 30% discount code. I feel like my life is complete now they are in my life (saddo)! (£8)

Soap & Glory flake away body scrub - I've heard good things about this exfoliating scrub so I thought I'd give it a whirl! I did only buy it in the travel size just in case I didn't like it, plus I adore mini products, but I absolutely love this stuff. The smell is amazing, and it's not rough on my skin either which is great. My skin feels lovely after using this. I will definitely be repurchasing the full size! (£2.50)

Essie mint candy apple nail polish - Okay so I really did jump on the bandwagon with this product, but I couldn't resist the colour sorry! I think it applies quite nicely, and if you use a topcoat it will last ages. I recently painted my nails with this colour as a base and then did leopard print accent nails, see my instagram (loulabeth) for a picture! (7.99)

Spike earrings - I found these via Victorias blog vipxo, as she does an eBay post each week, which I love to read! The earrings arrived super quick, considering they were from Hong Kong and they are a good size, not too big or too small! also, they are ridiculously cheap which is another bonus! (£1.39)

Hope you're all having a lovely sunday afternoon, I'm about to go and tuck into a roast dinner, mm!

L x