Radio 1's Big Weekend - Londonderry/Derry

Hiiiiiiiiii!! 

I've had the most amazing weekend, I've been at Radio 1's Big Weekend ... Wooo!!

Me and my best friend Becca were lucky enough to get tickets for the Friday and the Saturday and it was amazinnnng! Friday was more dancey and R'n'B focused, which are my favourite types of music so it was perfect for me :)

Saturday was more poppy and rocky, not my fave's but there were still some amazing acts on!

On Friday we seen... Katy B, Maverick Sabre, J. Cole, Wiley, Dizzee Rascal and Calvin Harris! All of them were amazing, and Calvin Harris was an amazing headliner! He played such a good set and the atmosphere was unbelievable!! Everyone was so hyped up to see him! Dizzee Rascal was great as well, he even brought Robbie Williams with him to play his new song.. SO GOOD! :)

You can see a little bit of Calvin Harris's set in this video on my facebook... Calvin Harris - I Need Your Love ... Apologies for the crap quality!

The acts we managed to catch on Saturday were ... Kodaline, The 1975, Kendrick Lamar, The Saturdays, Ellie Goulding, Labrinth.. And my favourite act of the two days.. IGGY AZALEA! I am bordering on obsessed with her, she's got the most beautiful body and she's just perfection to me! 

The picture quality is terrible and I apologise for that! I was dancing too much to get a decent picture! She's got such an amazing body! And her outfit was unbelievable!!

The weekend was amazing and we stayed in the most gorgeous hotel.. Such a comfy bed to relax in after such a packed Friday!! Here's a few photos of my outfit choices for the weekend :)

• Dress - River Island - This dress was £20 when I bought it down from £35.. Now it's £10! Bargain :) Especially as it comes with an attached necklace! 

• Bagpack - Primark - This was £9.. So much handier than having to carry a handbag, this little beauty was going nowhere!

• Denim Shirt - New Look - I got this for Christmas so it's gone off the website and I can't remember how much it was :( 

• Rings - A mix of Primark rings and River Island midi wishbone rings!

• Playsuit - Primark - This was £5! Such a cheapie and such a pretty pattern!

• Denim Shirt - Same as before!

• Belt - Primark - £3! Another cheapie and so similar to the style being sold in Urban Outfitters for a hell of a lot more!

• Necklace - Topshop - Sale bargain at a fiver! As you can tell I'm a big fan of the cheapies haha.

• Bracelets - Internacionale - £1 each! 

• Shoes - Primark - Converse style high tops for £7! I don't see the point of paying £42 for the real things when I'm gonna wear them out and ruin them! I can have 6 pairs of these for the price of 1 real pair!!

• Tights & Frilly Socks - Primark - Socks were £1.50, and they're identical to Topshops version! Tights are £3 for 3 pairs!

The weather stayed dry on Friday thankfully but the heavens opened on Saturday evening... At exactly the same time as Labrinth was singing 'Let the sun shine'!! Too ironic! We were well prepared with our raincoats and hats, nothing was ruining our weekend :) We danced in the rain and just enjoyed it!! My hats from eBay and was super cosy and warm :)

One last picture, we were lucky enough to bump into the lovely guys from Kodaline in the crowd when we were watching the 1975! They were so nice and more than happy to pose for a photo! They chatted away to us, and we walked past them a few more times during the night and they always gave us a wave!! Hopefully we'll see them in concert again soon because they were sooooo nice!!

We were filmed by the BBC dancing into the crowd for a montage going out on Friday (31st May) ... Keep an eye out, you might see Becca and I on TV! One step closer to being famous ;-)

Chat soon guys!

Rachel, x

Outfit Of The Night! Summer drinks :)

Helllooooooooo!

Last Friday, we were actually blessed with some summer type weather! It was warm, well above 10 degrees so I decided to break out a few summer pieces! I was going round to my friends for some pizza and drinks, so wanted to make a bit of an effort! :)

My outfit was basically all from Primark! I know people can feel that Primark is cheap and badly made.. But for items I'm gonna wear a few times during the season I don't mind not having the best quality! Cheap and cheerful is the way forward for any fashion addicted student, there's no way you can afford to rock Topshop or Zara every day!

• My trousers were £9! Absolute bargain and I'm in love with the pattern on them! 
• The crop top was £3, you can't say no to that! I bought it in a fluorescent pink as well but it was just a little early to break out that colour haha. I'm no skinny minny and I know crop tops can look a little dodgy on those on the bigger side of the clothing scale but the trousers were pretty high waisted so I felt I could get away with flashing just a hint of skin! 
• The necklace is ancientttttt and has been floating around in my wardrobe for at least 3 years! It was a bargain, £1 from Dorothy Perkins! I never buy full price jewellery, it doesn't stay in style long enough to spend loads of money on it, I'm a sale junkie!!
• I teamed this outfit with my favourite Dorothy Perkins wedged trainers! Another sale bargain at £15, and I've worn them to death! So comfy but yet give a nice bit of height :)
• I also stuck on my sleeveless denim jacket just for a slight bit of extra protection against the evening chill! This is a Topshop bargain and I think it was £15, such a steal :)

It was the first time seeing my friends since I got my hair done so I was looking forward to showing off a bit ;-)
My makeup was my basic look, strong eyebrows, nude eyes, lots of mascara and my new favourite lipstick! It's MUA's Shade 3, and in my opinion it's a complete dupe for Topshop's Brighton Rock that I posted about last week.. And the best thing is, it's £1!! A gorgeous bright pink, that unfortunately this pic doesn't do justice to! I'll have a blog post coming up on my recent MUA purchases that I'll share soon!

Hope you enjoyed this little outfit post, hopefully I'll be able to do a few more soon :)
Happy Sunday guys :)
Rachel. x

Benefit goodies!

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Hello again!

Where has the sun gone? Last week we had a few gorgeous days.  And now there's been rain, hail and even SNOW in some places? So much for global warming.. Lets rename it global cooling!

Anyyhooooo...

When I was on the boat from Stranraer to Belfast last week, the weather was awful and then boat was a rocky ride home! They announced over the PA system that in the shop they had Benefit makeup for sale, so to try and rid myself of sea-sickness and possibly due to tiredness I went and had a little splurge!

I'd been wanting to repurchase a few Benefit items for a while but due to low money levels I was waiting to find them at a good deal! Turns out shops on the boats appear to be a bit like buying items in duty-free, meaning there's no tax to be paid on them... YAY FOR NO TAX! I treated myself to two items, the two I'd been wanting the most! And here they are! 

I bought Benefit's "They're Real!" mascara and "The Porefessional" primer! They were both at a pretty good price so I thought why not? If you can't treat yourself who is ever going to ;-) 

My mum bought me "They're Real" after a few (read: a lot) hints for Christmas and I loved it! I have super short, super stumpy lashes that refuse to become volumised or curl, but thanks to this amazing mascara I actually look like I have nice eyelashes! Amazing! I saved £2.50 off this onboard, which is pretty good to me! This mascara does dry up quite quickly, my previous one dried up in April, so I had about 4 months use.. It seems short but after all you are meant to change your mascara every 3 months to stop bacteria.. So it's short shelf life probably makes the product way more hygenic!! 

My second choice was Benefits number 1 selling primer in the UK, "The Porefessional". I got a sample of this a year ago when I bought "That Gal" from ASOS and threw it away at the back of my spares drawer! I stumbled across it about October time and fell in love!! The mini sample nearly did me 6 months because you need so little! So I'm expecting this full sized version to stretch for a looooooong time! To buy this product now it will actually cost you £24.50, so I made a saving of almost £5! That's a big amount in the world of high end beauty! I love it's silicon consistency, really helps to minimise my pores, and my foundation goes on like a dream over it! Thank you ASOS for introducing this to my life!

These are my first ever high end makeup repurchases which is a pretty big deal to me! I was never brand loyal before, but after stumbling across these two beauties I think they'll definitely be a makeup bag staple!! 

What are your favourite Benefit products? Let me know in the comments! 

Or leave me links to any other blogs, I'd love to take a read and find out how to improve mine! I'm only learning! 

Also, can anybody help me with my GFC button? It doesn't seem to work :-( 

Chat soon dearies! Lets hope the weathers picked up a bit by then :-)

Rachel xxx

Summer Locks!!

Hiiiii everybody! 

"Hi Dr. Nick!" 

It's officially MEANT to be spring and coming into summer, however the weather refuses to accept that.. But anyway I've been breaking out my summer clothes, sandals and short shorts! So I decided the next thing on my list was to sort out my dark winter locks!

I've been dyeing my hair since I was about 15, a mixture of hair salon jobbies and out of a box jobs! My hair is naturally a bit of a mousey brown, basically pretty boring so I'm glad I don't have that anymore! My hair had turned into a really dark red after several XXL colour attempts, however those things never actually turn out right on dark hair!  *angry face*

So I decided I wanted a lighter shade & to reintroduce some blonde back into my life! I took a photo of what I was aiming for to my hairdresser, and she came up with a gorgeous light brown/dark blonde base with lots of blonde through it! I've been going to my hairdresser ever since I was born so she really knows how to tailor looks to suit me now! :)

Because of all the dye that had built up in my hair, it needed to be stripped of all the colour! Unfortunately getting it stripped manages to turn your hair bright orange!! 

I actually quite liked this colour on me but decided against keeping it like that!

A few hours, lots of hair dye, cotton wool & colour sections I was looking like this.. 

Not my best look in my opinion :-/

Eventually the end product is this... 

I love the colour, so warm and luxurious! After getting dyed my hair always feels so much glossier! My hairs so thick and it loves getting a good pampering! Jill used an INOA base on it which is extremely nourishing for the hair and not as damaging as other dyes!

I got it cut as well, I originally had an asymmetric cut, but now I'm into an all over crop with just one slightly longer side! 

I love the change and it always feels so nice to have a little change for the summer months :)

Do you have a specific summer style?

Let me know! 

Chat soon everyone! 

xxxx

Topshop Lips Wishlist!

Helloooo everyone!

Exams are DONE! Yayyyy! They went well, I think I've managed to at least pass them all which means I'm not gonna be worrying until results day (which is the 28th of June for me!)

I'm finally home in Northern Ireland for the summer! 10 hours on a bus/boat was a loooong journey but I had my boyfriend at least so it wasn't too bad! Definitely was a weird experience though!

Ever since Zoella talked about Topshop lipsticks about a year ago I've been interested in them.. I thought they would be typical fashion shop makeup items & not much use.. But when I bought Nevada (a creamy nude) I was totally proved wrong! They're a gorgeous consistency and so easy to apply! And a steal at £8! They have a high end formula at a drugstore price point! 

I've also now become the proud owner of Innocent, a very light pink in a creamy texture & Hazard which is a matte dark red lipstick that I LOVE. Both of these lipsticks are actually still available on www.topshop.com so go have a nosey!

Now onto my wish list! I tried Brighton Rock on my hand a few weeks ago and fell in lurveeeee but tried to restrain because my makeup spending has been slightly extravagant the past little while! But now I just can't thinking about that gorgeous bright pink shade! I've been trying to be more adventurous with my lips, and I think a bright pink is just what I need! 

Next on my hotlist is Jewel! Jewel is a pH controlled bright orange which reacts with the natural pH of your lips to give you your perfect shade of orange! I seen Megs from Wonderful You talking about the Barry M pH adjusting lipstick which is pink, but after discovering topshop's version I'm more likely to try them because of the wider colour range! The pH adjusting lip tints are £9, which is double the price of the Barry M one, but I already own so many pinks I think I'd rather spend the money on a daring orange! 

Finally on the lipstick front is The Damned, a gorgeous dark plum/purple shade! You can see from a few posts back I bought Kontrol from Illamasqua, and I'm well and truly obsessed with it! I've worn it on every night out since & even during the day! The thing I'm most surprised about is that my boyfriend loves it and he's not usually a fan of me wearing heavy makeup! I fancy another purpley toned lipstick and at £8, half the pice of the Illamasqua one I'm certainly tempted to give it a try!

My last potential purchase from the makeup department in Topshop is a lip liner! I'm quite of a fan of a matte lip, after figuring or how to sort my dry, chapped lips (LUSH's lip scrub & Korres lip butter) so I'm definitely intrigued on wearing a full lip liner as a lip look! These lip liners are only £5 each and I find that pretty acceptable price wise! This is a dark red liner & I think it would look amaze with my Hazard lipstick! 

 

One final, amazing point with shopping at topshop is the student discount! It's only 10% but ultimately every little bit makes a difference, especially when it's so difficult to shop at places like Superdrug because you can't get discount without an NUS cars! But Topshop let you use your Unidays account for the discount which is much easier and FREE!

So, the question is... Which should I purchase? Just one? Two? Or them all? 

Let me know! 

Chat soon m'dears!

And if anyone has upcoming exams or assignment hand in dates... GOOD LUCK! 

Rachel xxx