Benefit’s boi-ing vs Gallery Cosmetics Instant Cover-up

Finding the perfect concealer that has the whole package can be a girl’s biggest nightmare; Benefits boi-ing concealer has just that.

With its creamy, smooth and pigmented texture, Benefit is true to its words for promising to leave our skin “imperfection-free”. It’s main positive is covering up the redness around my nose, no longer do I have to walk around looking like Rudolph this winter. 

Its downfall is the high price of £17.50 for a very small amount given. Gallery’s Instant Cover-up from Boyes pricing at 69p would surprise a lot of beauty fanatics, it’s texture is very similar to Benefit’s boi-ing and offers a lot more for your money. 

Although, the coverage isn’t as matte as Benefit’s and there are only three types of colour tones to choose from, unlike Benefit’s five. If you are looking for a concealer that has everything, even a catchy name, then I would recommend Benefit’s boi-ing. That’s if you don’t mind spending a bit more money., it’s christmas soon after all! 

Ellie

#FreeEducation

Thousands of students marched through central London on November 19, demanding free education.

The demonstration was organised by the National Campaign against Fees and Cuts (NCAFC) National Union of Students (NUS) and other groups such as the Student Assembly Against Austerity. 

These protests began in 2010 and have since progressed due to the trebling of tuition fees, scrapping of the Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA) and cuts to education. The government’s austerity agenda has brought a lifetime of debt to those students whose parents are unable to fund their education.  

It was in 2010 when the coalition government was formed after the election. Students had strongly supported the Liberal Democrats as they previously promised a free education initiative. After failing to deliver on this manifesto promise, students took it as a betrayal and now protest against the government and in favour of free education

 NCAFC organiser, Beth Redmond, said: “The Lib Dems essentially put the nail in their own coffin when they betrayed students. They will never be trusted again and will never be considered anything but a joke party.”

The London protests were deemed a success by the organisations involved but raised concerns over the violence and repression police allegedly handed out to student protesters, including arrests and assaults by the police officers. 

As a result of this violence and repression another hashtag has risen: #copsofcampus. This is in light of the police brutality suffered by some protests. Warwick University held a sit in on the ground floor of the building to discuss free education.  

Riot police and security from the university arrived and it is claimed that CS gas was used on at least 10 protesters, and tasers were drawn.  Police, some of them with dogs, then chased some students across campus, and others were assaulted by security.  

Since the central London protests there have been many other ways in which students have stood for free education. Cambridge saw its East Office of Department of Business defaced with a sign reading ‘our education not your business’. 

December 3 saw dozens of universities including: Manchester, UCL, Birmingham, Sussex, Warwick, Gloustershire, Sheffield and many others, partaking in mobilisations and occupations in protest of fees and cuts.

Both Lancaster University and Sheffield University had some of their demands met when they went into occupation on the 3rd - at Lancaster, university management has agreed to start a dialogue with those in the occupation about stopping rent and tuition fees increasing, and the vice chancellor at Sheffield has agreed to consider lobbying the government for free education. “Even so soon into the campaign we are seeing progress,” Commented Redmond.

However, the government released a statement after the London demonstration informing NCAFC that they were not going to consider abolishing tuition fees. But, according to the National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts, that isn't going to stop them organising and protesting.

Only four years ago higher education came at a maximum price of £3,000. One student who went to Northumbria University during this time was Claire Falkingham, 27, who said: “I don’t understand why people are paying three times more than I paid when they are getting the same, what’s changed?”  

What brought about this change was the massive deficit left by the previous labour government due to the global economic crash. This caused the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats to proceed with austerity measures. This then meant universities were given less money so therefore tuition fees had to rise to eradicate the newly created funding gap.

  

A life in the day of a homeless man.

Life in the day.

Deano, 44, is a homeless man living on the streets of Darlington’s town centre. He has friends and family but has spent the last six years of his life jumping from city to city begging and busking for money.

We don’t have curtains on the street so wake up time is when the sun rises. Obviously it’s hard, it’s bloody horrible. This time of year you get drenched if you don’t find good enough cover. Slides in parks keep you dry for a while, we get kicked out of bus stops and shop doorways. After I wake up I stash my sleeping bag somewhere dry and hidden then I start foraging for things.

If you walk around town on a morning you can find all sorts of things people have dropped form the night before. I mostly look for cigarette butts and spare change but dropped clothing is always good; means the next nights sleep might be a bit warmer.

The drinking starts pretty early, I can usually find enough change for a few cans or I sometimes find half drank bottles and cans on the pavement; it seems disgusting to you but it’s all I can think about most days. The drink helps deal with the shit of living on the streets but I suppose without the drink I might not be living on the streets.

The one thing I’ve always hated though is begging for cash – I have my guitar now, a friend gave me it – but before I had to just beg and I felt worthless. There’s no pride in begging for cash. The guitar means I’m sort of earning my keep. I provide a decent quality of music in exchange for spare change. I say spare change but one time a guy came out of a bookie’s and gave me £100 of his winnings. I spent it on drink and drugs and I regret that ‘cause he’d told me not to waste it and that’s exactly what I did.

I regret a few things actually. Not being a great father for one. Before I became homeless I lived in Chorley for a while, I had two kids, one’s 9 and one’s 7. The woman I was with, their mother, she kicked me out because of my drink and drug addictions. That’s when the homeless life began. It’s my fault; I can accept that. I have another kid; he’s about 20 now, he lives here in Darlington. I see him from time to time, which is really great. He’s goes to college, I think he’ll make something of himself one day.

It’s usually around eight or nine o’clock when I start busking, it’s when everyone’s coming into town for work and school so I can make a bit of money then. Some of the kids can be little shits, one always asks if I’m still homeless and laughs when I say I am but to be honest most people are pretty nice. They either ignore the fact that I’m there, which doesn’t bother me at all, or they throw a bit of change down. Some of them give me bits of food cause they don’t want me wasting the money on drink and drugs, which is fair enough.

I only came back to Darlington a week or so ago, I was in Bristol for a long time because that’s one of the best places for soup kitchens and food banks. When I came back I went to the old peoples home to visit my Grandma. When I got there I found out she was dead. It hit me hard, the fact I didn’t know she had died. I was expecting to see her and then couldn’t... I contacted my mum but she didn’t want me to be at the funeral, she didn’t want to see me at all. She told me I was an embarrassment to the family.

Anyway, I busk until about two then I go to the church for their food bank. I know a couple of the homeless in town so we meet there and have a chat and a bite to eat. I am really grateful to the church for doing that. It means I rarely go hungry which is the worst aspect of being homeless. I actually prefer the term ‘home-free’; you have to look at life with the glass half full. The way I see it I can make as much noise as I like, I don’t have to worry about neighbours ‘cause I ain’t got any. You probably worry when you have house parties but I can have street parties all night long.

I was in a band in my twenties; we called ourselves The Viral Junkies. There was me and 3 other guys, one of them I’m still good friends with, he’s called Lou. I thought we were going to be huge but he saw through all the bull shit and left the band when he was 19 and moved down to London. London’s a great place, there’s so much diversity, and people in Darlington are pretty one dimensional to be honest.

After the church we’ll sometimes busk for a while longer but when it gets dark, which is pretty early at the moment, there’s not much point in carrying on. People can’t see you, can’t be bothered to hunt for their cash, and after a day at work they’re stressed; you can see it in their walk. I remember one time a guy asked me if I wanted to stop on his couch, he said how the weather was no good for sleeping rough and I wasn’t gonna pass up a warm home. An hour into me lying on his couch he came downstairs and asked if I wanted to sleep in his bed with him, I said ‘nah mate I’m fine’. He carried on pestering me so eventually I took back to the streets. I might have been warm and comfortable but it ain’t worth that, sometimes people expect something in exchange for their kindness.

Most nights I drink until I pass out, it’s a lot easier than trying to fall asleep in the freezing cold on a rock hard pavement. I know how bad it sounds, a father of three homeless and choosing to spend his money on booze. I get £500 a month sick pay, I could use that as monthly rent for a little flat but I choose not to. It’s an addiction, I’ve been in a few rehab centres and things but when I get out I do the same thing, buy a drink. Nothing works for me.

There have been nights I haven’t drunk; nights I’ve had to attempt sober sleeping on the streets. The thing is though, you don’t sleep, not really anyway. You’re too cold, too worried, and too uncomfortable. When you do drift off you wake up at the slightest noise, the slightest change in wind. It’s a shit life but I guess I’ve made my bed, huh; actually I never have to make my bed.

It's a mans world.

I was given an assignment for my fashion journalism course on the styling module to create a themed photo shoot. I decided to name it 'It's a man's world' and the theme being masculine smart wear with a side of femininity.

 For the first look I decided to incorporate black and white clothing to put the look of a typical working day. I used an umbrella as a prop so the pose didn't look too boring, it also highlighted my models face, contrasting the black and white colours used.

 I then started to combine the masculine look I was going for with a feminine touch shown in the second photo, the first pose shows my model slouched but holding a cocktail glass, showing both the sexes.

 Still using the black and white theme I had my model drape her jacket over one shoulder to appear sophisticated but still keeping the masculinity, the doctor bag was a touch added at last minute which I made my model hold as if she were holding a briefcase.

The last and final image shows my model in a black and white shirt as if she was sorting her cuff links out as a man would if he wore a suit, all looks were simple but I made the poses as masculine as possible on a womans frame.

Ellie Gibson. 

The struggling student...

Hello people of blogger!

Ellie and I are now half way through our second year at University. For the most part it's true what they say about University being an amazing experience but believe me when I say it has its drawbacks. Big ugly drawbacks.

1. Increasing overdraft.



I started out my student life getting my massive £1,600 maintenance loan. For a while life was sweeeeet! Then I paid the £900 rent, then I went out a lot, then I bought books and clothes and food and before I knew it my bank balance was -£500. And from then each term my overdraft grew and grew and now when I look at my bank balance I weep a little. Any student who manages not to get an overdraft I applaud you. You did the right thing.

2. Student nights.



Student are on weekdays, weekdays are days with uni in the morning. This does not make for a comfortable week. The nights generally pretty good but the morning after sucks! You either drag your half drunk butt into lectures and fall asleep mid way through or you don't go in at all and spend the day thinking about how much you might miss.

3. 101 things to do...



Take this week for example: I have to catch up on blog posts that I've forgotten to do, write two court reports with commentaries on each one, create a newspaper page layout, write articles for SR News, write a news backgrounder, study for a shorthand test and study for a court reporting exam. Oh and I need to remember to eat, sleep, do Christmas shopping on Thursday, shower and go out on Wednesday night for, 'my house mates finished their essay celebrations'. Can I get a Butler with that?

4. The mental breakdown when you think you might not get your dream job.



Sometimes I start thinking about how I'm going to be in £50,000 worth or debt before I'm 22, then I think about how much time and effort I've so far put into 20 years of education, then I think I hope I'm the Editor-in-chief of the Guardian one day. And then I think what I'm just a cashier at Poundland? ...Then the mental breakdown begins.

5. Noodles are as good as it gets.



There's chicken, curry, BBQ, bacon and beef. You boil them in the pan, eat them from the pan and that's breakfast, lunch and tea all sorted.
They're 5 for £2 at Iceland if anyone's bothered.

6. Dishes.



I live with two boys, Joel and Coner and Ellie. Joel generally cleans his dishes after he uses them but us three just use all of them and wash them when there's none left. The problem here is though actually bothering to wash them. There's usually a long debate about who should do them and then long break where we avoid the topic and hope they'll wash themselves but eventually we all help out like one big happy family.

Amy x

Taylor Momsen Inspired Make-up

Helllooooo blogerino's!
I hope everyone is felling festive! 1 month 2 weeks until Santa Claus comes to visit.

Ellie has created a Taylor Momson inspired make-up tutorial and to be honest that has little to do with Christmas, well she was in the Grinch so we'll go with that being festive...

We hope you enjoy, thanks for watching, Shade of Pale x

MISSGUIDED HAUL | Crazy Cat Lady

Hey guys I  shopped, I rambled about my/the streets/ the mysterious cat!

I hope you enjoy my little winter haul!

Thanks Amy x

What we wore...

I know, I know. It's been. It's gone. I need to stop.

I can't help it though, I love halloween and now I miss it. We have to wait another whole entire year before we get to dress like psychopaths again!

But in the mean time we can always reminisce what we wore...

Let us address this peculiar image first. 

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No it's a cabbage. It's Conor the cabbage. Conor is my house mate and decided that for halloween he would dress as a cabbage. The idea came from the fact that in the North East, when you're really drunk it's customary to say "I'm absolutely cabbaged". Absolute brilliance. 

This is the only image I have of our very own Ellie at the moment. £ guesses who she dressed as and the first two don't count. WEDNESDAY ADDAMS - everyones favourite little psycho... The whole outfit cost £20 I think. The wig, the dress and the white stockings she wore were all from Ebay. 

I was browsing masquerade masks as I knew I definitely wanted to wear one this year, being that they're fabulous and all. I stumbled upon this magical one; a jester type of masquerade mask. So I figured I'd go as my own take on Harley Quinn. The mask was £35 including delivery from www.justposh.com. The face paints were £10 and took me about an hour to do and the dress I already owned. Believe it or not I wore it to my prom in year11 when I was a total gothy girl. 

This is Bahram! He went as that scary clown that I did for Ellie on one of our YouTube make-up tutorials! His outfit cost him nothing as he wore his own clothes and my face paint, but he looked amazing!! 

If you wore anything particularly crazy please send us your images and we'll do a blog post of the top ten! Thanks for reading, Shade Of Pale. x 

Creepy Chesire Cat HALLOWEEN MAKE UP TUTORIAL

Hi guys, this is our last instalment of how to's on halloween make-up!! *Sad face*

I'm actually really sad about this, I've really enjoyed doing them and found something I'm sort of good at...

We really hope you've enjoyed them, thanks Amy x

CREEPY CLOWN MAKE UP TUTORIAL | Halloween

Hi guys!

Ever wanted to look like a creepy killer clown from hell?

Well your dreams have been answered, we hope you try this look out for halloween as it''s super creepy and scary and surprisingly fun to scare your friends with!
+ This look totally reminds me of the crazy clown on this seasons American Horror Story - Freak Show.

Thanks Amy and Ellie at Lighter Shade of Pale. x

The worst game ever invented!

Possibly the most offences game ever invented, still hilarious though! We actually couldn't believe what some of the cards said but to be hones that's half the fun.



Hope you enjoy! x

To Halloween or not to Halloween...

This blog post is about to get seriously biased to one costume site: www.partycity.com
I googled fun halloween costumes, since it is right around the 9 day corner, and this site was the first result.

After looking through their collection of funny costumes I felt obliged to write a blog post to make sure all of you out there with a love of laughter are aware that it exists.

Gag costume #1. Ollie Ostrich costume:
This is possibly my all time favourite costume ever to exist. A friend of mine wore a horse version of this a few years back and it was absolutely hilarious.

Gag costume #2. Pregnant Cheerleader
Mildly offensive but no less funny, especially since it's a man's costume!

Gag costume #3. Inflatable morphsuit

I think whoever chooses to go out in this would likely have the funniest night ever in the whole existence of fun! I might get this. 

Gag costume #4. Peanut Butter Jelly Sandwich

As couples costumes go I'd say this is about as cute as it gets. Kudos to any man who agrees to wear something so corny! 

At this point I jumped over to www.escapades.co.uk

Gag costume #5. Stewie Griffin 

Who wouldn't want to be Stewie for a night, this costume is a tad on the creepy side but isn't that the point? 

Gag costume #6. Superhero Sperm

It's vilely inappropriate yet fantastically fun. Why not....

Gag costume #7. Groping Granny

Because grannies can be scary too 

(Sorry about the quality) 

Gag costume #8. Down for the count:

Although no one should get offended by this I'm sure everyone will have plenty of views a person stumbled into a club wearing this masterpiece of modern costumes. 

Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed these wacky, wonderful costumes! Amy x

Horrors of terror!!

There are some terrible examples of horror films out there, the ones that rely solely on disgusting the audience as much as possible - which is sometimes fun to watch but I often find I just want to shower afterwards!

This list consists of 5 of my favourite horror films out there. Since Halloween is right around the corner we might as well delve into some scary shit and get in the spirit of scaring ourselves silly!


         1). Evil Dead (2013)
Rotten Tomatoes 63%
Setting - In a remote cabin in the middle of the woods; already we have a definite horror story, not many rom-coms start like this. Let's take things further, the weather sucks, when was the last time you saw a horror which took place in the middle of roaring summer? Well a good one anyway... The film is everything a modern horror should be, it's ful of blood & gore, almost everyone dies, the murderer is an unknown spirit of sorts and there's a tone of dead cats! I don't know if I was just so terrified because I watched it in an empty cinema (just me and my boyfriend) and the chairs kept creaking but whatever it was I couldn't even go to the toilet on my own by the end of it. No, seriously, I held it in until we got home and left the door open just in case...


2). The Descent (2006)
Rotten Tomatoes - 85%
OK, so some of you may be thinking,'is she for real?' & I understand. This is a questionable option. I can tell you in all honesty I absolutely shit myself at the same point every time I see this film; when the strange mutant creature pops up on the screen out of no where. Even though I don't understand what these creatures are, they still scare me quite a lot so this film deserves a place in my horrors of terror list.



3). Scream (1996)
Rotten Tomatoes - 76%
It's the ending! "My mom and dad are gonna be so mad at me!" Says Stu after learning Sid's rang the police. The whole film is full of cheesy one liners with a pinch of chilling suspense. It's a genius mix of comedy and horror and you can't not fall in love with Dewey the dumb cop! 



4). Halloween (1978)
Rotten Tomatoes - 98%
Mike Myers. Creepy child clown. Stab. Stab. Stab. Jamie Lee Curtis.  Mental asylum. Freedom. Stab. Stab. Stab. Death. Death. Death. Oh he's not dead. Trying again. No that didn't work either. Never mind. This is the ultimate slasher movie, it does not matter that it was made in 1978, that fact makes it all the more beautiful. It holds the kind of tense suspense that Hitchcock managed in his 'Psycho'. Interesting fact: Jamie Lee's mother Janet Liegh played Marion Crane in Psycho.


5). The Ring (2002)
Rotten Tomatoes - 72%
I kid you not, I watched this film 6-7 months ago in the middle of the night when my boyfriend was asleep, after the film I tried to go to sleep, suddenly, the red light on the TV started flickering and I almost cried! The well scene is so heart thumpingly tense I was 30 seconds away from a cardiac arrest before the climax finally hit. If you've seen that distressed child eerily jitter out of the TV you'll completely understand this films necessity in the top 5 horrors of terror.

I hope you enjoyed this list and that you all get scaring yourselves in the lead up to the scariest night of the year! Thanks, Amy x

American Horror Story: Freak Show – “Monsters among us” review.

There are many things in life which people consider to be an acquired taste, take marmite for instance the entire selling point of this product is ‘you either love it or you hate it’.  

American Horror Story (AHS) is definitely characterised as an acquired taste; I’m sure plenty of people have heard about it or watched a few episodes and thought ‘this is disgusting’ probably a natural reaction but these people are committing sins against art by ignoring the poetic beauty within the insanity.

The fourth season premiered last Thursday, it was pure brilliance, insane, ridiculous brilliance. The cast members this season delve into the world of a 1950’s freak show based in Jupiter, Florida. Admittedly I had my reservations at first, these days’ people aren’t considered freaks, they’re not relegated from society and mocked; because of this I believed the show would not achieve the horror it has managed in the past. However, it seems the big scare factor this season, much like Asylum, is human murder; killer clowns, freak show gang murder, daughter – mother murder. You name it, they’ve likely got it.

But back to that killer clown, that terrifying, sadistic, sporadically child-like killer clown. Need I go on? OK, he pops up during a romantic couples picnic, savagely stabs the man to death, kidnaps the young woman, takes her to his sewer based lair where there is also a young boy and shows them his toys. In a competition with Ronald Mcdonald and Pennywise the dancing clown I’d say AHS’s murderous maniac takes the gold for most disturbing.

One of the best aspects of AHS is that the actors change their characters in every season, we’ve seen Jessica Lange play the mother of a rapist ghost, a nun who runs a mental asylum, a head witch and now she adorns her glitz and glam to play Elsa, a German ex-patriot who runs the freak show in hopes of having her singing talents spotted. Evan Peters (the once rapist son) now plays Jimmy a boy with large webbed hands who uses his freakishness to pleasure housewives for extra money.

By far the most intriguing character comes in the shape of a Siamese twin; Sarah Paulson plays both Bette and Dot, a two headed woman who slaughtered their own mother. To be able to play two completely different characters emerging from the same body both perplexes and outstands me, give the woman an award!

Actual give the whole show an award, especially writer, creator and director Ryan Murphy for gracing us with this elegant portrayal of genuine horror. Love it or hate, but please appreciate it. 

Harley Quinn Make up Tutorial

Hello people!

This Harley Quinn inspired make-up tutorial for halloween is pretty difficult but definitely worth it!

We hope you enjoy the video, thanks.



Amy & Ellie

Perfect Winged Eyeliner | How to

Hi guys. I know a lot of people including myself struggle with getting those wings nice and symmetrical and neat. So I have created this video in hopes that it will help people passed the serious irritation which is eyeliner!



Thanks for watching, Ellie!

My Birthday Blog Post...

On the 1st of October I turned the dreaded 20! I thought perhaps something would happen, being that I'm no longer a teenager, I was sure some knitting needles would appear in front of me and that would continue to be my life.

But that didn't happen, I feel no older and 20 isn't too bad, 21 sounds fine but I think I might stop there. 21 forever seems like a good way to be.

As for the actual day I spent 9-12 in lectures, then I went on a 2 hour bus ride to get home so my parents could see me.

Sorry about the terrible quality of this fishy pictures but they wouldn't stay still or pose for me, socking I know...

The fish are a present from my brother and future sister-in-law, the goldfish I named first as he was there first, he is called The Great Depression; it's not hard to guess why... All he did for the first few days was lie underneath one of the plants looking suicidle.

We put his severe depression down to him being lonely, he had after all just gone from being in a tank of 50+ mates to being completely alone; well except from my giant face peering over the side of his bowl.

For this reason I went to purchase the Black Moor as soon as possible, I named her Cilla Black. This wasn't because I'm huge Blind date fan... It's the more obvious, 'this fish is black, I know I'll name her Cilla Black.' I know my imagination is impeccable.

On the left is a picture of me with the bag my mum bought me from River Island, it was £45 and I love it! It has wooly sides which is really in this season and it is HUGE.

I'm also holding one of the presents my boyfriend got me - jelly alcho shots which were from prezzi box and look delicious.

I left the cocktail kit he got me (also from prezzi box) at home but it's so fantastic; it has a cocktail shaker, the stirring spoon, a stainer for when you have fruit and stuff in your cocktails and a measuring shot thingy!

He also got me flowers which was sweet since no-one had ever bought me flowers before but I left them at home too...

The t-shirt I'm wearing is a present from the boyfs mum and is from River Island, a super comfortable vest! I have no  idea how much it was but obviously you can check on www.riverisland.co.uk.

She also got me and drew (the boyfriend) a 30 minute go-karting experience, my brother an dad ended up coming too and it was brilliant! We went with F1K Newcastle Indoor Karting. It's £22 for the 30 minutes and completely worth it. Although when you finish your arms and legs and back all ache loads and you feel like you've just ran a marathon you're sweating that much.

Thanks for reading, Amy.

PRIMARK HAUL | With Amy!

Hello friends and bloggers and everyone else!

I hope you enjoy watching me blabber on about how great and cheap my new stuff is & if you do remember to like, follow, subscribe, share or whatever you want!
Thanks, Amy

Sometimes, I seem useless.

If I wrote a biography I feel the vast majority of it would depict all the humiliating and hilarious stuff that’s happened to me in my life so far.

I would never consider myself as a ‘dumb blonde’, most of the time I am actually quite intelligent but somehow I manage to screw up quite a lot or witness something rather humiliating happening to others.

I would also not consider this a flaw as it provides a great talking ground most of the time: ‘Hey you OK?’… ‘Yeah I'm fine you?’...

This morning I headed into the bathroom for my morning wee, I stood in front of the toilet (everyone knows how to go to the toilet right?) and pulled my jeans and pants down.

A strange clanking sound occurred and I looked around trying to figure out what it was; then it dawned on me. My phone, in the toilet, soaking up all of the bacteria filled bog water.

In my haste to save it from its impending doom I plunged my hand into the depths to retrieve my soaking phone; still in a state of panic I chose to wrap the phone up in the t-shirt I was wearing further covering myself in toilet water.

Jeans and pants still round my knees I heave them up as far as I can and run down the stairs, top rolled up to my bra, jeans unzipped and still not fully covering me.

My house mates had obviously heard my shouts of “No...No, no, no, please shit no!”, as they were in the living room watching me fly down the stairs in this ridiculous state. 

Anyway, after all my efforts of hair drying, rice soaking and every other internet fuelled tip I could find I gave up and laid my phone to rest.

Perhaps the damage may not have been so final had I not, 6 months earlier, dropped my phone in a club as I attempted to take photos and stood on it in 6 inch heels as I attempted to pick it up.

Or perhaps if this wasn't the second time I’d in fact dropped it into the unholy water; or perhaps if I hadn't left it in the freezer for several hours after I’d been fumbling around for fries.

Regardless of this my Samsung Galaxy S4 mini was a trooper, a survivor until the end; it deserved a better owner than I could ever be.

RIP phone, you served well. 

Amy Stark.

GOING OUT EYE MAKE-UP | How To

Hi guys, I thought I'd share with you's how I do my make-up when I go out, It's pretty simple and looks intense so really pulls attention to your face!



Products used:



Colours by technic palette

Cheryl Cole fake eyelashes

Rimmel London's lid liner

Collection Longer Lashes mascara



Thanks hope you enjoy x

I am Switzerland but please shut up!

Once upon a time if you were an avid user of drugs you kept it more or less to yourself, you were the dark horse, the bad boy of the neighbourhood. Things have since depleted.

I don’t condone drug use and neither do I respect it; on the subject of drugs, I am Switzerland. Normally.

Nowadays you have the teenagers in the height of their rebellion screaming from the rooftops about how they hot boxed their car… Well done. You've officially achieved something the majority of people have tried.

  

“Oh dude, I took so many drugs last night, here let me list all of them for you until you can’t take it any more and want to punch me in my nuts”.

 It’s like when my Granny wants to tell me all about her trip to the doctors. I don’t care. I never will. Unless something particularly amazing or tragic happened. Which it never does.

It doesn't stop at simply informing people of all of the random crap they ingested last night, they then let you know all the 'crazy' things that happened and lastly they complain for the rest of the day about how horrible their come down is.

If I could summon enough interest to even pretend I give a flying rat’s arse I would. But I can’t. Because I don’t, and I can just about guarantee the rest of the human race don’t care either. 

I know the vast majority of people who take drugs know it's nothing special, they are actually just enjoying themselves and not using it as something to brag about. However, to all of those people who do, please, just shut up. 

NEW CRIB YO

Following on from Amy's post, I decided to also make a room tour in pictures. Living in a house instead of student halls has definitely been good for everyone, boy do we not miss getting told off by security guards 5 times a day.. everyday! 

For my room, I decided to go with a fresh look, meaning white everythaaang. My bedding is from IKEA but I'm sure places like Wilkinsons and other cheaper stores do simple white bedding, due to the long hours I spend in bed, great quality bedding keeps me happy from day to day. The only downside of white bedding is that anything shows up on it, so don't hold your foundation in your hand and sneeze - it will only end badly. 

This is my favourite part of my room - my arse shelf. It's perfect to hold my shoes, books and decoratives. It was already in my room when I moved in and looks oddly small in this picture! My fairy lights really make my room cosy at night when I don't want my bedside or main light on, they tie the room together and sit perfect on my shelf.

This part of my room is just little necessities and me and my friends' shisha's. I first got the idea to store beauty products and jewellery on one big plate and when I went to IKEA I found thee perfect white plate to do so, it looks cute, it's super useful and organising, double whammy. 

My room initially came with a sofa so I figured I'd go out and buy my own desk but when I moved into the house, it had disappeared and there sit a desk. I was quite disappointed but it meant more space in my room, keeping to the white theme I loved the simplicity of the desk when I saw it in IKEA. It took my dad about 4 hours to build but he got there in the end and it's still standing 4 days later, well done Paul.

COCKTAILS! | HOW TO

Hey blog kids!
We were heading to a house party and figured we'd give you a little tutorial on how to make cocktails! The Shade of Pale which we invented and the Zombie, quite a famous cocktail.

They're super easy to make and really delicious too, hope you enjoy!!



Shade of pale xx

New Room Excitement!

Hello bloggerinos!

Today I'm going to do a little post on my new room, me and Ellie just moved into our new house share in Sunderland with our friends and over this week we've been none stop decorating.

This is basically a room on a budget, a lot of the things I already had and the other things I found in barginous shops like Matalan, IKEA, B&M Bargains and more.

We absolutely love our new home; when we were living in halls accommodation it never really became home because it wasn't a house, but now we're living with our favourite friends and it's like the best thing ever.

So here are quite a few pictures showing all the best bits in my new room, I hope you like it!

TV stand minus the TV as my house mates are currently using it in the living room until we get a bigger one... I got the actual stand of my Sister-In-Law, it's perfect because it's black and the theme I'm going for is black, red & cream. There are loads of little bits and bobs on it like: books, pictures, jewellery & so on; I love clutter because it just makes things more comfortable for me. 

My friend Bradley gave me (allowed me to have) this in college, he basically got it free with a take-away one night and I loved it! I really like Chinese culture and their animal year of things. My year is the year of the dog which according to this means I am "Honest and a loyal leader of men. Generous but stubborn. Earmarked for success", sounds pretty good to me. 

MOST IMPORTANT!! 

I got this nifty little shoe rack from Boyes for £8.99, it's not the worlds best by a long shot but what do you expect with that price... It was a faff on to put up as well but I think it looks good now and I love having my shoes on display like this. 

SECOND MOST IMPORTANT! 

Clothes rack! The wardrobe in my room wasn't big enough to fit all my clothes in so it was pretty lucky that I'd already stolen this rack from my Sister-In-Law, (I get all her hand-me-downs). I think she probably got it from Home Bargains and I can't imagine it being any more than £5-£10. 

Sofa! This came with the room which I find pretty cool. It's actually cream underneath which I didn't particularly like so I got these throws to make it look a little better & added some more comfort items like pillows and a teddy. The throws were from Pound Stretcher and Boyes and were about £7-8 each, I actually made the denim pillow when I was like 12 or something & I got the others from Matalan, they were reduced to £8 from like £15 so that was definitely good! 

BEEEEEEED! The sheets here look pink for some reason but there a dark red in reality. My boyfriends mam gave these to me so yet another free find from family. 

Wardrobe, mirror, flower hula thing, post-it situation... Everyone needs a long mirror to check themselves out in & this one was £15 from Matalan (yes I love the home area in that store). 

A map of the world for inspiration as I want to travel a lot in the future! 

A canvas picture from Matalan for £4, a lamp which I turned into a cute jewellery holder and my ferb doll which I got of my besties in year 11 after we'd spent an entire summer watching Phineus and Ferb over and over again, complete which picture of me and the boyf camping.

The last three images here are of the desk and chair, another canvas from Matalan for £6 and my make-up station. 

Thanks for reading I hope you enjoyed this and found it useful! Send us pictures of your rooms and we'll do a huge post on the best ones. 

Amy xxx