Monday 27 February 2012

Week in Instagrams #2

I did one of these posts a couple of weeks back but didn't keep it up as I found I didn't always take enough photos to make a worthy Instagram post. I am going to try and keep it up now though!




1. Went to Ikea and came across these tea lights that were only about £1.67 per pack. They smell amazing too!

2. Have an assignment due today so a few hours were spent in the library last week doing research. So boring.

3. Popped in to Superdrug when I was finished in the library to pick up the MUA Love Hearts collection nail polishes. You can see swatches of them all here.

4. Subway breakfast- Bacon, egg and cheese sub. Best start to the morning.

5. 11 degrees with highs of 16? It was almost summer.

6. My first creme eggs of the year, way overdue. These were the only things keeping me together on a very stressful day at uni.

7. Bought this animal print sweater from Select. Absolutely love it!

8. Had to go into the TV studio at uni to set up our TV set for our assignment this week.

9. Our set, half way finished. It's supposed to be like a manor house, still need to add a fire place, some portraits and other bits and bobs to make it more homely.

10. This is what I really went to Ikea for. Attempted to build it on my own...

11. ... And succeeded! A proud moment for me, I'm normally useless! Haha.


I hope you enjoyed this post, will take more photos for you this week :)
If you would like to follow me on Instagram, feel free! @FrancesCassandra

Sunday 26 February 2012

OOTD #2

I adore the wrap dresses from LOVE. I also have the red feather print one which is featured on an OOTN here, but I think this plain wine one is great for dressing up for a night out and also down for the day time, like I am wearing it here. I also bought these shoes the other day and I am in love with them, I have been wanting a pair of sensible heels to wear during the day time for a while.

Oh how I hate taking photographs for these posts, always unflattering angles; it's so difficult when you're on your own.


 Dress: LOVE
Tights: Marks and Spencer
Shoes: Matalan
Jacket: Miss Selfridge
Hat: H&M
Belt: Primark



February Haul.

I thought I would do my February haul today as I don't think I will be going out shopping again this month; I actually didn't realise I had bought so much until I was taking the photographs! In my defense, none of the clothing items were bought at their original price :) As always, I have included links to everything that you can still buy online.

 Wine Wrap Dress: LOVE £32 £15
A couple of weeks ago, LOVE held a promotional offer on their Facebook page where they were offering this dress for just £15 for one hour only. Needless to say, I snapped it up quickly; I own another LOVE wrap dress and I love them.

 Animal Print Sweatshirt: Select £14 £9
I only got this last week and I have already worn it loads, it's a perfect transitional piece from Winter to Spring. I don't know if the offer applies online, but I bought this sweater with £5 off in store.

 Wild Rebel Jumper: Internacionale £9.99
For £9.99, this is already a steal, but Internacionale were (I'm not sure if they still are) offering a 20% student discount when I bought this so I got it for even cheaper! I love the colour of this and it's quite thin so it is great for layering.

 Bird Print Scalloped Top: Internacionale £6.99
This is another thing I picked up from Internacionale whilst they were doing a 20% student discount. I love the bird print and the scalloped edges; they had this style of top in so many different colours, I really want a coral coloured one too.

 White Sheer Blouse: Charity Shop £2.49
This is a size 14 but I bought it because I loved the detail on the collar. You can see this in an OOTD here.

 Two toned T-Shirt: Matalan £7 £4
I love tops that are longer at the back and I love the colour of this one.


 Camel Suede Heels: Matalan £18 £9
I have fallen in love with these shoes already and I only bought them a couple of days ago. I've been wanting some sensible heels to wear in the day time and at £9 these were a steal!

 Pack of 3 Belts: Primark £2.50
I have been wanting a skinny white belt to go with the spotty dress I bought from New Look in my last haul, so I picked up this pack of three belts for just £2.50 from Primark.

 Blue Jewel Ring: Primark £2
I think I saw this on Claire's blog or Instagram and I fell in love with it, so I hunted it down when I went in to Primark to buy those belts.


Bourjois Healthy Mix Foundation: £9.99
MUA Love Hearts Collection Nail Polishes: £2 each.
MUA Out There Plumping Lip Gloss in Buff: £2

You can see swatches of all the nail polishes here. If you would like to see reviews of the other products, let me know :)

I hope you enjoyed this post, have you bought anything nice this month?

Friday 24 February 2012

FOTD: Classic Smokey Eye.

Most of my FOTD posts up to now have had more natural eye make-up and often a statement lip colour. For the next few FOTDs I thought I would switch it about a little and give you some dramatic eye looks. To start, I thought I would just keep it simple with a classic, sultry smokey eye. I hope you like it :)




Make-up I used

Face
-Bourjois Healthy Mix Foundation, Shade 54
- Collection 2000 Lasting Perfection Concealer, Light
-Rimmel London Powder Blush, Smoked Oyster

Eyes
Urban Decay Alice in Wonderland Book of Shadows (This contains renamed eyeshadows from the permanent range, so I have included both the original names and the names in this palette).
-Lid: Mushroom mixed with Drink Me, Eat Me/ Sin
-Crease/ lower lashline: Mushroom
-Outer corner: Jabberwocky/ Oil Slick
Inner corner: White Rabbit/ Polyester Bride

-Upper Lashline: Maybelline Eye Studio Lasting Drama Gel Eyeliner, Black
-Water line: MUA Intense Colour Eye liner, Snow White
-Mascara: 17 Falsifeye False Lash Effect Mascara, Blackest Black
-Brows: HD Brows Palette, Bombshell
Lips
-Collection 2000 Cream Puff Lip Cream, Powder Puff
-MUA Out There Pumping Lip Gloss, Buff

I hope you liked this post! If you have any suggestions for more dramatic eye looks you would like me to try, please let me know! :)

Wednesday 22 February 2012

Where You Can Find Me + Giveaway Winner Announced!

Hey girls,

Today is going to be a bit of a boring post (I'm sorry!), but I thought it might also be useful, especially with Google Friend Connect being removed from other blogging websites. I just wanted to make you aware of all the social networking sites that you can find me, follow me, and contact me on as I have recently signed up to a few new ones. But first of all, it's time to announce the winner of my giveaway with Wahanda :)
I used the random number generator on random.org to pick my winner and the person selected was...



3. Victoria

Visit Victoria's blog here!

Congratulations, Victoria! You have won a £50 voucher to go and pamper yourself with a spa treatment! An email will be on it's way to you soon :)

------------------------------------------------------------------------

So, on to where you can find me! I'll start with the more obvious...

Twitter

Follow me on Twitter if you want to keep up to date with my every day rambles and blog updates. It is also a good way of contacting me as I am a Twitter addict and I am always on it!

Bloglovin' 
Follow FrancesCassandra♥

If you find the Bloglovin' website easier to read and more user friendly than the blogspot reading list, then feel free to follow me there :)

Facebook
I only created a facebook page for my blog a couple of days ago so there isn't much going on there at the moment, but I am in the process of tweaking it up a little bit and will soon be posting all my blog updates and some random chit chat on there. You can also contact me via this page. Click here to go to my Facebook page.

Hello Cotton



Hello Cotton has recently taken the blogging world by storm and so many bloggers are signing up on there now. If you haven't already I would recommend you sign up, the layout of the website is lovely and it's great for finding new blogs you may have never discovered before. Hello Cotton features different bloggers for different categories every day, and I have seen my own blog in the featured section a few times since I signed up, so it is a great way to get your blog noticed.

Pinterest
Pinterest is another one that is little bit deserted as I only signed up last night. If you want to, however, check out my page here as I will soon be using it to pin fashion and beauty photos that inspire me, along with pictures of my own outfits and make-up looks.

Instagram
Since getting an iPhone, I have been loving this app. I am always uploading random photos of my own and browsing everybody elses so feel free to follow me on there! @FrancesCassandra :)

Bloggers.com

Frances Cassandra - Find me on Bloggers.com

I am not a huge fan of this website, I don't really understand the whole "voting" concept and since I joined I have had 30 friend requests from really random people. But hey, it's another way of reading my blog if you prefer it, so feel free to follow me there :)


I have also recently created a YouTube channel as I plan to start making fashion/ beauty videos some time soon. I won't give you my username just yet, though, I'm going to wait until I have a plan for my first video :) If you have any ideas for what I should do for my first video, let me know! :)


Tuesday 21 February 2012

OOTD #1

I have done a couple of OOTN posts before, but this is my first Outfit of the Day :) I am not normally one to plan my outfits for the day, I just throw on whatever is clean and looks good together. I bought this shirt because I really liked the detail on the collar; it is actually a size 14 but I work with it, I think it looks okay tucked in to whatever pants/ shorts I'm wearing. The tooth necklace is something that I never usually wear, however I just found it today and thought it looked nice peeking out of the buttoned up collar. I have just realised that this outfit actually cost me less than £10 haha (minus the jacket, but that was bought for me) :)

Time for some awkward posing.


Blouse: Charity Shop
Culottes: Primark via Charity Shop
Tights: Marks & Spencer
Jacket: Miss Selfridge
Necklace: I bought this whilst I was on holiday in the Philippines a few years ago.
Ring: Primark


I hope you enjoyed this post! I will try and do more OOTDs if you like them :)

Monday 20 February 2012

Review and Swatches: MUA Love Hearts Collection Nail Polishes.

So I am sure that most of you by now have heard of the Love Hearts collection that MUA have recently brought out. If not, it is a range of nail polishes and tinted lip balms that come in a selection of pastel and bright colours, perfect for summer. I am a bit late on the bandwagon to purchase some of the products as they don't stock the collection in the Superdrugs in my home town, so I had to wait until I went to Liverpool today, where I picked up the entire range of nail polishes. There are six different shades to choose from, so I thought I would make this post to give those of you who are still pondering over what to buy an idea of what the colours are actually like on the nails. I stood outside to take the pictures to try and get an accurate picture of the colours as I am sick of the lighting in my house not doing my nail polishes justice in my NOTD posts haha! I have also stated underneath each picture how many coats it took me to achieve opacity.

 Left to Right: U R FAB, LOVE U 24/7, U ROK, I <3 U, U & I, I WANT U


 "U R FAB"
One coat for opacity.

 "LOVE U 24/7"
Two coats for opacity.

 "U ROK"
Two coats for opacity.

 "I <3 U"
Four coats for opacity.

 "U & I"
One coat for opacity.

 "I WANT U"
Three coats for opacity.


Although I can't really comment on the longevity of these polishes yet, I have read in many reviews that they are just like an average polish, lasting around three days before they start to chip. I found that some of these were easier to apply than others, the purple/blue colours and the yellow applied quite smoothly, however I found that the nude and the orange streaked quite a lot, which is why it took a lot of coats to build them up. These polishes are quite fast drying, which, if you are impatient like I am, is always a good thing. My favourite colours have got to be LOVE U 24/7 and I <3 U. I have been looking for a lilac and a nude that suit my skin tone for ages and these are both perfect, I just wish the nude colour didn't take so many coats :(

At £2 each, I don't think you can complain about these polishes, and I would definitely recommend you try them, along with most of the MUA range. These can be bought at selected Superdrug stores and also on the MUA website.


I hope you found this post helpful!
Have you tried anything from the MUA Love Hearts collection?