My First Experience With False Eyelashes

My eyelashes are alright. They are pretty long, dark and are naturally slightly curled. And they are one of the only things that I don't have problem with. But somehow I have managed to get through 19½ years of life, and almost 2 years of beauty blogging without trying out false eyelashes. I know right? How is this possible?! So as you can imagine, I was thrilled when Harvey Nichols asked me if I would like to try out some lashes from the brand Threads. 

Over the last 7/8 years I've watched a lot of YouTube videos, featuring beauty mavens who can apply false eyelashes in a matter of seconds. Thinking it would be super easy (due to the amount of videos I'd watched over the years, and how others made it look so easy), I picked up the tweezers, opted for the Celestial lashes and whipped out the eyelash glue. And what did I end up doing? Gluing my own eyelashes to my eyelid. Don't ask how I managed this, the honest answer is I have absolutely no idea. About an hour later (after I realised I will never be attempting this again), I pretty much managed to get them on. They were slightly wonky and you could tell they were fake as I wasn't able to seamlessly blend them with my own lashes no matter how coats of mascara I applied over the top.

And what did I learn from this experience? I'll tell you...

1. I will never, I repeat never be attempting to apply false lashes ever again. (Probably will though).

2. "Do I leave the glue on for 30-40 seconds? Closer to 30 or 40? 35?" #Helpme

3. Once I applied them, they actually looked gorgeous - and I 100% recommend the Threads brand as they felt reasonably comfortable. If only I had my own personal makeup artist to apply them for me.

4. Eyelash glue is very sticky, and you should be more careful when trying to apply it (or you'll glue your eyes together).

5. If you have failed to pay attention to point 4, make sure you invest in some industrial strength eye makeup remover to unstick your eyes once fused together.

6. If you ever decide you want to give eyelashes a go again, buy a magnifying mirror as you are ocularly challenged and it makes it difficult to see where you are applying said lashes.

Have you ever tried false eyelashes? What was your first experience like?

Thanks for reading!

Love Charlotte x

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The 'Celestial' eyelashes (RRP £9), the 'Sex Kitten' eyelashes (RRP £9), and the Illuminata Brow Pencil (RRP £15) were kindly sent to me by Harvey Nichols for the purpose of a review. All thoughts are my own and you can read my full disclaimer policy here. 

December Beauty Favourites

I can't believe we're in 2016! I know I've already written a post this year, but I wrote that last year so technically this is my first post. At the start of December I didn't really expect myself to switch things up from the previous month, however I did - massively! With the festive season in full swing I decided to switch out my hypothetical makeup bag (I for some reason don't own one?) and chuck in some more luxurious products. First to go in was the Essie top coat in 'A Cut Above' Obviously everyone needs a smidgen of glitter in their life and this was one of my go-to polishes throughout December. I worn it on my fingers and toes at every opportunity, and personally I thought that it looked sexy af. Carrying on with the glitter, I developed quite an addiction to the Lush Christmas range. In particular those with glitter! I really liked the Bar Humbug bubble bar, which smelt like blackcurrant and liquorice. I repurchased it quite a few times as the scent was really relaxing and perfect for soothing the end of semester deadline stress.  

After much consideration, I finally decided on the Revlon Colourburst Lip Butter in 'Candy Apple' as my Christmas day lip. I had so much trouble deciding and seeing as though I had worn it pretty much everyday throughout November and December, I felt it only fitting to wear it on the big day. Of course it had nothing to do with how low maintenance it is, and the fact that I couldn't be bothered to waste my time topping up anything else! I worn it alongside my Bobbi Brown Limited Edition Warm Eye Palette, which I actually wore last Christmas as well! I love how buttery the shadows are, and they felt so luxurious! On the day I worn every single shade in the palette, however I have been wearing each in different combinations throughout December so I just had to include it in my monthly favourites post! 

And finally! Last but not least, we have the No7 Sheer Perfections Blush in Soft Damson. I wear this pretty much everyday anyway, but it got an extra lot of loving throughout the party season! I have spoken about it many times before so I'm not going to bore you all to death, but it is a gorgeous pink-berry powder blush! 

What did you love during December?
Thanks for reading!

Love Charlotte x

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Happy New Year and Blog Goals For 2016

Happy New Year!

I wanted to do a post like this last year, but I had no idea what to say, where I wanted by blog to go, or even if I would continue running a blog! My only goal was to reach 100 followers by the end of the year and I soon managed and surpassed that!  I didn't really expect to carry on with my blog, with university getting in the way, but I'm still here over 18 months later! The last year has been so amazing. My blog has blossomed and improved in so many ways. Some of the biggest highlights of my year have been blog related. Reaching 1500 followers on my blog, getting shortlisted for an award, and getting shortlisted for a bloody award!!!  I've loved getting to talk to like-minded people, being asked to attend events (if only for the free cocktails!), and being offered some incredible opportunities! As my blog is starting to get off the ground, I thought I'd start off the year with some simple business cards and a custom domain. I finally bitten the bullet and purchased myself a domain name as I'd been toying with the idea of a custom domain name for well over a year and it became set in stone around October?

With this air of change, the blogging community has become such a big part of my life, and I've found myself making little goals and targets over the last couple of weeks or so. So of course I had to share them on my little corner of the internet - and here is what I want to do and achieve with my blog over the next 12 months…

Engage more: Engagement is extremely important to me. I've always made sure I engage with my readers by replying to my comments and tweets, checking out any links left behind, and just generally trying my best to engage with you all. Tacking into account how much my own comments mean to me, I want to do the same for others and show my support. I've been pretty rubbish at letting other bloggers know that I bloody adore them so hopefully I'm going to up my game this year!

Be more creative: Although I'm generally pretty happy with my blog images, from time to time I get a bit bored. Back in August I started to really push myself, and for a while I was really happy, buttttt as always - I'm starting to get a little bored. I want to try and mix up my backgrounds and fall in love with photography again! Over the last month of so you may have noticed a couple of portrait shots, which I haven't really included in blog since I first started over a year and half ago. I would love to invest in some new camera equipment - maybe a new lens and a fancy af studio light, but they are on the expensive side, so I'll try and see what my budget is. 

Go out of my comfort zone: I hate meeting new people. Hate. It. It's just something I've always tried to avoid. I dread to think how many blogging events I turned down because I was terrified of meeting people I didn't know! But from this moment on, I want to try and make more of an effort with meeting up with my blogger friends! I was so proud of myself for turning up to the Bloggers Blog Awards and Rhianna's Xmas Meet, when I felt so anxious (and actually physically sick). I mean even my best friends started out as a stranger to me in the first place!

Find new blogs to read: Even though I'm constantly on the hunt for new blogs to follow, I find it pretty difficult to find ones that I've not heard about before. Even when Bloglovin tried (and kinda failed) to promote 'undiscovered' bloggers. This is why 'share the love' style posts are so important as it can give some undiscovered little gems the chance to be 'found'. So if you've got any blogs you love then please share them in the comments below!

Gain more followers: Cliché I know, but I'd really like to get up to 2000 followers this year. Although that sounds like a huge target (to me it does anyway), it is less than a third of what I gained over the last year - and hopefully my blog will continue to grow it's following this coming year.

Build up a backlog of posts: Over the last months my backlog of backup posts has completely diminished. I had all my posts planned, but I kept finding myself writing them the night before they were due to go up - in some cases even mere hours before they should have been published. This totally isn't like me and I have been finding it hard to just sit down and write. Occasionally, the planned posts have been written but there have been no photos to go up alongside them (due to bad lighting), so I've had to use a backup. Meaning I need to get myself sorted at plan ahead again!

Thanks for reading!

Love Charlotte x

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