New Boots: Keep or Return?

I bought these boots on the weekend. They were a steal at £10 in the sale in Primark but I can't decide whether to keep them. I'm not in love with them but they're quite nice and I like how tall they make me, but I'm on a tight budget and that £10 could be put to better use elsewhere. What do you guys think of them? 

Should I keep them or return them?

FOTD Simple Rockabilly

I was going to a vintage clothes fair type thing today and thought I'd do a Rockabilly look for fun. I don't really know what kind of colours are considered right for this style so I just left the eyeshadow out.

Excuse my collapsed fringe! It was really curled up but slowly dropped before I took the pictures. Being the bargain hound that I am, I have to share that all the cosmetics I used (other than foundation and mascara) added up to just £5.48!

I used:

Vichy Dermablend Foundation

Maybelline Dreamy Creamy Foundation

No7 Mineral Perfection Foundation

Barbara Daly High Impact Mascara - Black

The Bargain Bits!

MUA Lipstick - Shade 1 - £1 (Superdrug)
Collection 2000 Fast Stroke Eyeliner - Black - £2.99 (Superdrug)

Active Eyelashes - Style 05 - £1.49 (Home Bargains)

EOTD Purpley

 Purple is probably my favourite colour to wear on my eyes. I wear this look all the time, even though it's not very subtle, it just makes me feel like I have pretty eyes!

I used:

Primark Prime of your Life - In The Pink

MUA Eyeshadow - Shades 4, 9 and 13

Collection 2000 Fast Stroke Eyeliner - Black

Barbara Daly High Impact Mascara - Black

EOTD Totally Turquoise

 I'm so annoying. I want to change the name of this blog again! I'm currently brainstorming ideas. I'm aiming for something original, short and that will give new visitors a bit of an idea of what the blog is about. I really hate the current name, it just sounds wrong to me.

I used:

17 Eyeshadow Solo - Starstruck

MUA Eyeshadow - Shade 8

Front Cover Freeze/Sizzle Palette - Bayou

E.L.F Cream Eyeliner - Black

Barbara Daly - High Impact Mascara

EOTD Day or Night

I hope you can see these pictures okay. They looked fine on my camera but when I got them on the computer the colours didn't look quite right. I'm still getting the hang of this make-up thing so bear with me while I learn!

Please excuse all the stray eyebrows. They aren't visible to the naked eye, or at least not mine, but when you get this up close and personal with a camera everything comes to light.

This is quite a heavy eye for the daytime but I felt like rocking a bit of a moody look today. So I suppose this eye quad, Day 2 Night from Eyes Lips Face, does its job perfectly because I would quite happily wear this for a party look too.

I used (in this order):

Primark Prime of Your Life - In The Pink

E.L.F Brightening Eye Colour Quad - Day 2 Night

Collection 2000 Fast Stroke Eyeliner - Black

Dimples Eyelashes Style 118 - Black

Recent Shopping Trip

Last weekend I went out with my brother, mum and grandmother. We visited two small towns just west of Bristol called Clevedon and Portishead. Even though there are hardly any shops in either of these places, every time we go I always manage to find something that I fall in love with on the spot!

Bag from M&Co £9

Corsage Necklace from New Look £1.50 (Bargain!) 

La Femme Nail Polish from £1 shop

Earrings from Argos (£6.99)

I know you can't see the earrings in the top pictures so here they are a bit closer up. It's just three pairs of silver studs with CZ sparklies. I originally intended to just buy one gold pair for my latest piercings (I have 5 holes going up each ear now :s) because it's better for the healing process but the poles were really short and I have quite thick earlobes so I resorted to these. They looked so twinkly in the display cabinets I just couldn't resist.

This M&Co bag was in the sale at £9. It's super versatile and I love the understated studs. You can wear it across the body or on the shoulder with a shorter strap. You can popper it up or use the drawstring to keep your stuff inside and each way will give you a different look.

I think M&Co is very up and coming on the high street. It's moving away from it's frumpy image, redesigning it's stores and stock and placing itself in the market next to stores like Peacocks and New Look (literally and figuratively). Most of the clothes are still very demure but they're really vamping a lot of it up so it's more appealing for all ages. I plan on doing a post showing you some of my picks from the website as soon as I have some time on my hands. For the mean time I have to make it through my exams without suffering a nervous breakdown.

Edit: You can see some pictures of one of their new stores here.

My first EOTD

Here is my first ever EOTD post. I've been meaning to break in to these for ages but I've never been able to get pictures that I feel were up to scratch. Thanks to the camera that I got for Christmas with a great macro setting, those woes are over and hopefully there will be more of these to come.

I mostly wear a lot of purple and neutrals and my make-up collection is limited but I'll just keep posting pictures and hopefully my collection and make-up skills will both improve with time!

I've also been thinking for quite some time about making youtube videos. I really want to - especially for nails - but I'm hesitant about putting myself out there like that. Youtube is a world away from blogging in the sense that it's a completely different audience so we'll see how that goes. I need to get a memory card with a decent writing speed for my camera anyways, so I'll get over that milestone first!

I used (in order):

Primark Prime of Your Life - In The Pink

E.L.F Brightening Eye Colour Quad - Hazy Hazel

MUA Eyeshadow - Shade 1

E.L.F Cream Eyeliner - Black

Dimples Eyelashes Style 118 - Black

Want to be rewarded for sitting at your computer?

I know the title makes it sound like a spam post but I assure you it's not! I just want to tell you about a website called Valued Opinions. It's a market research website for residents of the UK. You take their surveys and get rewarded with store vouchers.

You basically sign up and fill out some details about yourself then when a survey comes up that you may qualify for (based on the information you've given them) they send you an email and you can choose whether or not you want to take it. It's up to you how much information you provide - it is kind of personal, they ask you things like which bank you're with and what kind of mobile phone service you have - but the more you give, the more surveys you'll be invited to. Before you take each survey, they tell you roughly how much of your time it will take and how much you'll  be rewarded.

I've been a member since last July, so about 6 months, and I've accumulated just over £20 in rewards already. I think this is a great deal considering all I have to do is sit at my computer every so often and answer some questions. A lot of the surveys are even fun and interesting to complete.

You can claim vouchers for as little as £10 for loads of places like Amazon, Tesco, HMV, Boots, Argos, Arcadia Group (Topshop, Dorothy Perkins, Wallis) and more or even choose to donate your rewards to charity.

I love this website, it really has something for everyone. I mean, who wouldn't like a gift voucher now and then to treat themselves and with all the voucher options you can practically buy whatever you want.

It's especially great for people like myself who don't have a lot of disposable income and like to treat themselves on occasion without feeling guilty for splurging cash that would be put to better use on books or food! 

On the 29th of December, I cashed in £10 of my rewards on a Boots voucher. They tell you to allow up to 28 days until you receive the voucher but mine came super quickly. I don't know exactly how long it took because I have been away but it was waiting for me when I got home on the 10th. I went to Boots today and I'll let you know what I bought in an upcoming post.

I think I'll order an Amazon voucher next so I can buy some more Nail Envy - I'm never going to be able to live without that stuff now! The great thing with the Amazon vouchers is that you get them immediately - they just email you a code.

Is anyone a member of any survey sites?

Just some musings

I feel like there are so many things I need to get out in the open and I think here is probably one of the best places I can do it. Hardly anyone will read this and I hope the ones that do won't judge me for anything I divulge. I'm just going to write and not think about it too much or go back and change things - this is really just brain spew.

Over the past 3 months, I've felt myself sliding down a slippery slope. For anyone that doesn't know, I'm currently in my 2nd year at University, my course is Accounting & Finance. I got my first taste of accounting when I was 16 and doing my Business Studies GCSE - one 3rd of that year was spent on accounting and I had an exam which I scored highest of my class in. I think I got 92%. Since then I've wanted to be an accountant. The stuff just came easily to me.

Anyway - the next year I moved up to Sixth Form to complete my A-Levels. The final step in my education before University.

I have always planned to go to University since I was a kid. It was just something I knew I would do because I've always liked being in education. I'm not a 'nerd'. I never do my homework and was never top of the class (apart from that accounting exam and in ICT - I am a computer nerd) but I just enjoy being in school. Making friends is easy and you're not shouldered with any real responsibilities.

So here I am - 19 years old, still in the education system, but slowly falling out of love with it. My long standing hatred for homework and my penchant for procrastination means I'm really behind on all the work. I have four exams coming up this month and if you sat me in one of them tomorrow I would probably have a nervous breakdown.

This is what's plaguing me at the moment. I wake up every day and I can feel the dread of these exams hanging over me but I just can't bring myself to open a book and learn some shit. 

So back to my feelings about the last 3 months. When I started uni at the start of October, it really hit me how hard I'm going to have to work to get a good,even respectable, degree and I really started to get down about it. I don't work hard at anything unless I really enjoy it and even then I get real bored real fast. However, I convinced myself that I was going to do it - I was going to prepare all my classes the week before, I was going to complete all the recommended reading for my lectures and essays weeks in advance. Low and behold, this didn't happen and I've found myself here today with these exams coming up and not a clue how to pass them.

I don't know if anyone was able to comprehend that. I know I can't write anything concise or to the point!

Does anyone have similar thoughts to me?