Barney's February Favourites

Hello there :)

Hope everyone is fine and dandy! Can you believe we are now in March?! Where does the time go? I swear it seems to go faster as I get older, I remember time going so slowly whilst I was at school and wishing for it to go quicker, now I'm in the real world time goes so quickly I now wish it would go slower funny isn't it! However now it's March it does mean spring is quickly approaching YAY, and then before we know it summer will be with us which is an even bigger YAY! Anyway it's the time of the month for a favourites from the previous month and well this time I thought I would share with you something a little different! I thought I would do Barney's favourites from the previous month because lets face it, his are probably more interesting than mine :)

Barney has had a fairly busy February as he has been away on holiday to Wales with us and well as you can imagine being a dog is hard work and there is lots of sleeping, walking and eating to be done!

Barney has been enjoying lots of lovely long walks in February so going for 'Walkies' as we call it was definitely one of his favourites. 

Another one of Barney's favourites has been playing with his best dog friend Katie! They have had lots of fun this month, apparently running round in circles chasing each other is the fun thing to do these days :) 

Barney also has a thing about brown cardboard and toilet rolls so was over the moon when he found a giant toilet roll (it was actually from wrapping paper but he doesn't know that). He thought the world of it and was very proud of it until he felt the time was right to rip it all up and leave a mess for his mum (me) to clear up! 

Another favourite for February for Barney was sitting at the table with Simon (my dad) watching tv with him! I swear my dog thinks he is a human really! 

Barney has also had enjoyed going stick fishing in any water he can find, apparently the best sticks are underwater. 

this stick was obviously trying to float away from barney

Barney loved having a snooze by the huge log burner in the cottage in Wales that we stayed in :) He spent most of his time there :) 

So those are Barney's February favourites! As you can see being a dog is lots of fun ;) I would love to be a dog just for a day to see how they see and hear things, do they actually understand or do they just think we are pure crazy?! 

Hope you are all well and jolly :) 

Anna-Louise 

xx 

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Beauty | Current Favourite Makeup Brushes

Helloooo there :) 

How is everyone today?! Hope all is fine and dandy as always if not turn that frown upside down it's nearly the weekend :) Yay I hear you shout! Have any of you got any nice plans this weekend? I'm travelling back from a super holiday in Wales and then working :)

Today I thought I would do yet another beauty post, I'm really enjoying doing beauty posts as it's something I'm really passionate about so I find them easy to write and the words just flow from my mouth to my laptop or something like that!

Since collecting makeup has become a hobby of mine I have also started to build a collection of makeup brushes because the right tools are key for easy application of makeup, and well like makeup you can never have too many brushes so I thought I would share with you my current favourite brushes as I don't know about you but I'm always on the look out for new ways to apply my makeup. I'm also always on the hunt for soft and fluffy brushes as they are the best as they are unbelievably nice on the face.

My current favourite brushes are all face and eye brushes not that you can really get many other ones, I have also said they are my current favourites as they are the ones that work best with my everyday makeup that I'm wearing at the moment as I have found that some makeup goes on better with some brushes than others do. Does anyone else find this? 

Real Techniques Stippling Brush: Now I can imagine most of you will have come across real techniques brushes, who  have been created by the lovely Sam and Nic Chapman who also have a super youtube channel called Pixiwoo where they upload lots of really helpful makeup tips and tricks. I've so far only got a couple of their brushes but I have my eye on their bold metals collection! The great thing about real techniques brushes is that they are high quality brushes at a reasonably affordable price so what's not to love about that?! Now my current favourite brush of theirs is the Stippling Brush. I cannot sing this brush's praises enough, I love it, in fact it's probably my all time favourite face brush too. I use it every day to either put on foundation or tinted moisturiser and it always helps to give me a flawless look finish. I have tried other brushes but always come back to this one, it just helps to blend in my makeup so nicely and easily.

Nanshy Blush Brush: Nanshy is a brand I came across in the summer after hearing some bloggers and vloggers rave about the brand, and I'm so glad I invested in some, I've been super impressed with them and they even rate higher than some of my more higher end brushes. I went for their masterful collection in pearlescent white (I thought the white was a really cute colour for a make up brush) as I wanted both face brushes and eye brushes and I have both their face brush set and eye brush set on my wish list. Their brushes are so soft and help to apply make up beautifully. One of my favourite brushes from the masterful collection and one of my current favourite brush for applying brush is the Nanshy Blush brush. It is a really nice shape for applying blusher and is also really soft, I have tried a number of blush brushes but this is my definite favourite.

Nanshy Powder Brush: Another Nanshy brush!! I just love all their brushes but their powder brush is currently one of my favourite brushes. Their brushes are almost magically soft and this particular one just makes applying powder super easy and almost an enjoyable experience. I'd be lost without this brush for applying my powder!

Zoeva 101 Luxe Face Definier: Now I'm sure most of you will have herd of Zoeva makeup brushes, maybe the rose gold collection in particular. My current favourite is not one from this collection, I'm afraid I don't really like rose gold! Sorry I'm a silver and white gold type of girl. This brush is a fairly new one to my collection but I'm already a big fan of it. I mainly use it for my bronzer or contouring as the shape of it makes it great for this. Like all Zoeva brushes it is super soft and high quality making it easy to apply my makeup with.

MAC 217: Now I can't rate this brush highly enough it has helped to teach me what blending is all about and well I'm grateful to MAC for bringing out a brush for this purpose. I don't think there are many other brushes out there they are as great for blending as the 217 is. I'm a big fan of blending, and this brush has just made the experience of blending eyeshadows enjoyable. If you're after a brush for blending eyeshadows I recommend this brush 100%.

Zoeva 221 Luxe Soft Crease: In my opinion you can never have enough eye brushes as the more you have the less often you have to clean them, but I'm just lazy! I really like blending out my eyeshadows so this brush is another one of my favourites for that purpose and it sure does it's job well.  It's super soft and big and fluffy which makes blending out really easy and you don't have to use much pressure for it to do it's job. I probably use blending brushes more than actual shading brushes as I just find them so easy to use and this is another one of them. I use both this and the 217 on an almost daily basis.

Nanshy Shader: Another Nanshy brush I know but I just love them so much like I've said further up the post! This Nanshy brush is a flat shader which makes it perfect for applying eyeshadow easily to your lid with almost one sweep. I love this brush because it is a flat shader which means I find it easy to apply a good coverage of eyeshadow without it going everywhere. It's hard to describe this brush really as once you try it for the first time the brush speaks for itself! It's such a good quality brush and next to my blender brushes is my most used eyeshadow brush which is why it's one of my favourites I guess. 

What are your favourite makeup brushes? Are any of them ones that I have mentioned? I really want to try a beauty blender as I have heard they are great for applying foundation, have any of you tried them? 

The Barney picture today is one of him the other day whilst we were on a walk where my dad made me climb a scary big hill. Barney didn't find it scary instead he thought it was great fun and raced up it. He is pretty much fully recovered from his swimmers tail now thankfully so he is a much happier chap again! 

Hope you are all well and jolly :) 

Anna-Louise 

xx

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Beauty // My travel makeup bag

Hello there!! 

How is everyone today! Hope all is well and that you are smiley and happy :) A smile a day keeps the doctor away! I was recently in a local hospital waiting for an x-ray and on a white board there was a sign saying smile and something along the lines of it's good for you and people benefit from it. Anyway the funny thing was the receptionist was the grumpiest and most unfriendly person I have ever seen, I had to try so hard to not say anything and point out the whiteboard behind her. It sure did make me and my gran chuckle. 

Little update I have decided to change the days that I post to a Sunday, Wednesday and Friday as it suits my week a little better as I tend to write my posts on a Tuesday and Thursday as that is when Mum is at work and I have the most free time. 

Anyway I'm off on a family holiday to Wales this weekend! I've personally never been to Wales so I'm excited to see what it's like! Have any of you been to Wales or do you even live in Wales? I've said Wales a lot of times so now I'm thinking of Whales as in the ones that live in the sea! Have any of you seen the film Free Willy? Sounds weird I know but it's about a whale and setting it free etc! Was one of my favourite films as a child, we had it on video which probably tells you how old the film was! I have gone completely off topic now I do apologise. 

Right so today's post is going to be my travel make up bag and what I take with me on holiday :) obviously this changes at different types of  the year though so I'm sure I will do similar posts in the future. I always love being nosy and seeing what different make up people use and what they take away with them so thought this would be a great post today so I hope you all enjoy it :)

I'm never a fan of packing to go away but that's usually because I always want to take everything I own with me! I'm not very good at picking what things to take, and I always feel sorry for the things I leave behind. So I've had the difficult decision of choosing what make up to take away with me for a week. I tried to think logically about what to take whilst I was packing so I tried to pick little things and brought an eye-shadow and blush palette so I have lots of choice and can still do different looks without taking everything.

Primer : Now I'm still trying to decide whether I like primer or I don't. I have a couple at home but I decided to take Benefit's Porefessional as it's slightly smaller than the other ones I have so thought it would be perfect to travel with!

Foundation: I've been trying out a couple of different foundations over the past few months and I can finally say I have found my holy grail foundation! It's one that has been talked about loads by bloggers and vloggers and has lots of positive reviews so I thought why not give it a try! My new holy grail foundation is.......Nars sheer glow of course! After hearing so many good things about it I was very excited when I finally got my hands on a bottle and the colour match was great, the foundation feels amazing on my skin and doesn't bring me out in spots, it also gives a nice healthy glow to the skin and as I have dry skin this is what I want from a foundation! I'm in love with this stuff and could talk about it all day but I don't want to bore you and I think I may do a review post on it at some point! Have any of you tried it? What do you think of it?! 

Powder: Now when I travel I always tend to take pressed powder rather than loose powder which I tend to use a fair bit at home! My pressed powder is also smaller and as it's pressed it's doesn't make much mess! So I decided to take my favourite powder with me which is the Rimmel Stay Matte. I love this powder I think it does the job well as the other great thing about it is the fact that it's a drugstore one so it's not too pricey :) 

Bronzer: Bronzer is definitely something that is a necessity in my travel make up bag so I decided to pack my all time favourite bronzer which is a KIKO one. If you haven't checked out KIKO cosmetics already I highly recommend that you do! I've been really impressed with everything I've purchased from there so far and they are high quality at an affordable price, what's not to love hey?!

Blush: I have a real thing for blush, I have so many of them so it's always hard to decide which one to pack so I want to take them all however there isn't always room for this. So this time I went away I found the perfect solution which was to take a blush palette, then you have a couple of different shades of blush for different make up looks and it's all together so it doesn't take up as much room well that's my theory  anyway. In my current travel make up bag I decided to take my hourglass Ambient Blush palette which ticks all the boxes for being a great one to travel with. 

Concealer: Now this is something I sometimes use when I'm away but it all depends on how much time I have and where I am and how much sleep I have. So I decided to pack one of my favourite concealer's which is a high coverage one so I have something if my bags under my eyes decided to be enormous one day or if my face decides it wants to have a breakout whilst I'm away. I decided to pack MAC's Pro Longwear concealer :)

Brows: Now I am obsessed with eyebrows, literally obsessed. I rarely ever go out the house without sorting out my brows first even if I have no other make up on I will have nice brows. So of course I have had to pack my daily brow products. I like to use Anastasia Beverly Hills Brow Wizz and then I use NO7 lash and brow perfecter and these two products never fail to let me know so they had to come for a trip. 

Eyeshadow: I always find the easiest way to pick what eyeshadows to take away is by taking an eyeshadow palette as you then have a variety of shades and a palette is much easier to travel with rather than lots of individual eyeshadows. For the current holiday that I was packing for I decided to take my Too Faced Chocolate Bar Palette :)

Mascara: This is a beauty product they people take with them every where. Even if your not wearing any other make up mascara can make the world of difference, well it sure does to my eyes. The mascara that I have brought away with me this time is one that people have been talking about a lot recently in the blogging community and I can now see what the hype was all about! Of course it's Benefit's new Roller Lash Mascara and my goodness it sure does make your eyelashes look amazing! I'm in love with it. This was definitely a beauty product I was not going away without. The one I currently have is a tester one so it's a smaller one but that's great because it makes it the perfect colour to travel with. 

Lips: You always have to take some sort of lip product away with you, I tend to take some sort of lip product everywhere even in my handbag. Instead of taking a couple of different ones I made the brave decision to only take one lipstick and one lip gloss with me as it would then be less to pack and then I wouldn't be stuck for choice on what to wear on my lips when I was away. I tend to prefer nude and pink shades and these tend to go with most looks so I took my Urban Decay lipstick which is very pigmented and lasts a long while and my MAC lip gloss both of which are light pink shades. 

So this is everything I have taken away with me in my travel make up bag. Obviously it varies depending on where I go and what time of year it is, but as this was a holiday to Wales in February I have taken enough to do a full face of make up. I hope you have enjoyed this post, I love knowing what products other people use and what they take away with them so here is what I take with me! 

Where is your favourite place to go away to? What is your holy grail product that you take everywhere with you? 

The Barney picture today is one of him in the car the other day! Obviously it was too bright for him to have his eyes open! He is loving the canal next to where we are staying! He is in and out of the water all the time! I love watching him splash about in the water and have lots of fun!

Hope you are all well and jolly!

Anna-Louise

xx

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My go to shoes

Helloo there :) 

How are you all today? I hope you are all fine and dandy and that you had a great weekend! Did you get up to anything exciting? I spent most of my time working, sleeping, watching Call the Midwife (does anyone watch that?!) and taking part in the bloggers chats that were on over the weekend. Did any of you take part in the bloggers chat's this weekend on twitter?! If so which ones? 

Instead of the typical go to make up looks etc I thought I would be a bit different and do a post about my go to shoes. Thought it's nice to do something a little different and well I hope you guys will enjoy reading this one. Let me know what you think :) 

So like most girls out there I LOVE shoes, like make up and clothes I think you can never have too many shoes. There is always a new pair that will look great in your wardrobe right?! Over time I have collected a number of shoes and today I want to share with you my favourites, my go to ones, the ones I can't live without you get where I'm coming from! I will warn you now though, there are no heels or sandles in this collection. No heels because I can't walk in them and find them uncomfortable so don't see the point in getting them when I can have my feet firmly and comfortably on the ground in a nice flat pair of shoes. No sandles because well I hate feet! I don't know what it is about them but I hate them! They give me the creepy crawlies, all feet even my own! I will even not use public swimming pools because of the feet and well because I don't want to swim past a plaster eww yuck! Sometimes in the summer when I'm feeling brave and my feet are tanned and my toes are painted I wear sandles but usually only when I'm on holiday. I obviously also wear flip flops by the pool on holiday otherwise I would boil but again toes have to be painted and my theory is that because I'm out in the open and so is everyone else feet are clean. Weird theory that doesn't make sense I know but that's just me :) 

My face at the thought of feet!!! 

Now to some of you my go to shoes may look well rather boring and bland but I love them to pieces! I love pretty little ballet pumps etc but it seems to be that my go to shoes seem to be of more of a bland colour, maybe it's the time of the year, perhaps I will do a summer go to shoe collection who knows. 

UGG boots!! Who doesn't love them?! I certainly love them to pieces, I constantly wear them in the winter especially when it's chilly as they keep my toes all nice and warm. 

Timberland boots! These have become incredibly popular over the past couple of years again! I think they must have been popular when I was a young kid as well as I remember owning a pair and thinking I was the coolest kid about. I treated myself to a pair last year again and they are just so comfortable and water proof which for me as a dog owner is great! 

Now these shoes are known as deck shoes and these particular ones are the Chatham Deck Lady.  I find them so comfortable to wear and their colour means that they go with most my outfits perfect. I have a similar style by the same make in pink too but they mainly only come out in the summer. These are not to everyone's taste I will admit that but I'm a country girl and well these are just up my street. 

My go to trainers are my Nike blazers. I love trainers always have done probably always will do they are just so comfy and I love the material and the style of the Nike blazers. I have a couple of the high top ones as well but these have to be my favourite.

I have a little bit of a thing about plimsolls too. I love them with a pair of jeans or shorts or even a dress or skirt, you can pretty much make them work with anything and again they are comfortable. Shoes being comfortable is a big thing for me. 

Dubarry Boots. What can I say about these apart from they are my pride and joy. I spent my first ever pay check on these and 3 years down the line still have no regrets. I never used to be a fan of long boots until I had these probably because I have short legs and could never find a comfortable pair, but these boots changed my whole opinion of them. Now they are a countryside boot so would probably appeal more to those looking for that type of boot but I wear them everywhere even out for dinner. Give them a good clean and theses boots can look rather smart. 

Let me know what you guys thing to this post. Do any of you have the same shoes? What are your go to shoes? 

The Barney picture today is another one of him snoozing lazy thing. Safe to say when he's not eating, walking or pooping he's snoozing! 

Hope you are all well and jolly

Anna-Louise 

xx

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January Favourites

Hellooo!

How are you all today?! Hope all is well and that you have all had a great week! We actually got a bit more than a dusting of snow where I am this week, nothing to get excited about but enough to go for a snowy walk! Barney met his first snowman too, which was rather funny for us to watch. 

Oh I forgot to say happy February everyone! Pinch punch first of the month and all that! January sure did fly by, time definitely goes quicker as you get older I think. I hope you all had a great January :) Now that January is all done with it's time for a January favourites, I'm sure you will be reading lots of these at the moment so here is another one for you to read.  

I'm so sleepy writing this, I can feel my eyes shutting zzzzzzzzzz. 

There have been lots of things I have liked this January, however there are only a few that stand out as favourites so I'm going to share them with you! You may love some of these things to or you may not but either way let me know would love to know your opinion. 

It's been super chilly this January and I don't know about you but I just love getting in comfy cosies of an evening and wrapping up warm so therefore I thought I would treat myself to a dressing gown in the sale and oh my word I love it, I don't take it off! It is so warm and cosy and soft and fluffy, "It's so fluffy I'm gonna die!" Couldn't resist that quote from Despicable me, which is a great film, what do you lot think of it?! Anyway back to my dressing gown, it's kind of a blue/grey colour with white spots over it. The other great think about it was that it was in the sale at John Lewis and who doesn't love a sale purchase hey so this definitely had to make my January favourites. It's so cosy and warm it makes me sleepy well more sleepy.

My next favourite is the Lush Cosmetics lip scrub! I have herd lots of good things about these from other bloggers and vloggers so thought I would try one myself and well let me tell you it is amazing! I wish I had tried one of these sooner, it is sooooooo yummy, not that you eat it but you know what I mean. It also smells delicious and works great on your lips, one of my best purchases in a long while.

Another thing I have been loving this January is the LORAC PRO palette. I was given this for Christmas and well it's currently my favourite eyeshadow palette. The colours are incredibly pigmented and there is a good range from light subtle colours to dark colours so pretty much something for every occassion! The packaging of the palette is also really smooth to touch and well I like that. 

 I've been suffering from really dry skin this winter so my Grandma bless her recommended me Liz Earle products and I'm really glad she did as I have become a big fan and they have saved my skin! Thanks Grandma! The product that I've been loving the most though this January is the Hot Cloth cleanse and polish which I spoke about in previous blog and you can read that here. Taking make up off has never been so easy and quick!

I love different perfumes and body sprays etc, and my current favourite is the YSL Black Opium. I absolutely love it! I was given a tester a few months back and then got the actual one for Christmas and it's definitely become my scent. I can't describe smells so I'm not going to try but they describe it as a combination of black coffee, white floral's and vanilla, I describe it as delicious. Have any of you tried this yet? 

So when January starts it's all about getting fit and doing lots of exercise, everyone wants to lose the Christmas puddings, and the roast potatoes, the extra mince pies etc. Anyway despite all that I love exercise and am very keen on trying to keep fit and stay in good shape especially as I'm on medication that makes me put on weight.  I used to do a lot of horse riding however I have lost a lot of interest over the years from bad experiences and a bad back has got in the way so I wanted to find a new way to exercise that was the gym or an exercise glass as I'm not a social person and I don't like people or being around them really! Good old aspergers for you! My dad being my well dad very kindly treated me Charlotte's 3 minute belly blitz. ( Charlotte from Geordie shore) It's honestly one of the best and most fun ways of exercising I have ever done, it's great me and mum rearrange the living room 4x a week and start our routine! They are great and easy to work through although they do make you work hard, me and mum have a right laugh along the way. 

My last January favourite is something I'm sure a lot of you in the blogging and vlogging community have been talking about, it's Tanya Burr's new book Love Tanya. I love this book, I think Tanya has done amazing with it. It's full of lots of useful tips and hints as well as things about her life, it's like the perfect book to help you with growing up and life :) I also spoke about this book in my last blog (here). 

Have you guys been loving any of these products let me know!

Yay I have just realised it's Sunday therefore it is Call the Midwife later, I love that programme. 

Barney is not in my good books today, whilst I was at work he decided he didn't like my room how it was and thought he would redecorate by pulling a big chunk of my wallpaper off thanks a lot Barney. Naughty dog. I'm going to include some pictures of Barney in the snow because he looks cute and so does the snow!

Barney playing with our other dog Katie :)

Hope you are all well and jolly 

Anna-Louise 

xx

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