Castle Court Student Discount Night

Image courtesy of The Belfast Telegraph

Last week Castle Court had a student discount night with the majority of shops offering larger student discount than normal. Some of the shops that were taking part included; Miss Selfridge, New Look, Holland and Barrett, Superdrug, among many others.

The night started from 5pm until 9pm with music and competitions from Northern Ireland's biggest radio station Cool FM. The first 500 students there received a Student Survival Kit and were automatically entered into a competition to win a free holiday to Rhodes or a free Ipad mini. (Both of which I unfortunately didn't win, boooo!).

At the start of the night I picked up my complimentary Student Survival Kit which included the following items;

Tin of beans.
Energy drink.
Crisps.
Pencil.
Toilet Roll.

I think any student will agree that this is a pretty staple survival kit. Although it isn't exactly glamorous it contains the main neccessities that are needed on a daily basis.

I have never actually heard of the "Evolve" energy drink but I am drinking it as I write this post. It tastes nice, however, I think all energy drinks tend to taste the same and they all taste like Red Bull!





While browsing the shops in Castle Court I was approached by a journalist and photographer from The Belfast Telegraph for a style spotter type section of the paper. I don't think I have ever been in the paper before so it was really exciting although really strange to see myself! I even had a man come up to me while I was in the library and ask if he had seen me in the paper that morning!

There's me peeking in above Rory McIlroy's head!

 

WHAT I WORE

 

Image courtesy of The Belfast Telegraph

Crop top - New Look

Tartan Skater Skirt - Primark

Messenger Bag - River Island

Biker Boots - New Look

The Fashion Spy article is also online here if you would like to read the full feature!

I had a great time at the Castle Court Student Discount night and picked up a few clothing items which I will be featuring in outfit posts in the near future :)

                                                                                        Rachael x

Random Favourites

As it's coming into the Autumn/Fall time I thought I would share my random favourites with you at the moment. This is undoubtedly my favourite time of the year, I'm appreciating the crappy Northern Ireland weather again, hope you enjoy :) 

1. Barry M Gelly Polish in Satsuma



I love this shade for the autumn, I'm really into my dark polishes and orange/red polishes at this time of the year :)

2. Halloween Décor

I become a little bit obsessed when it comes to festive decorating, I've recently decorated my room for Halloween, I got these two tea light holders in Poundland for a £1 each, a complete bargain!

3. Lucky Charms

I may have nearly had heart palpitations when I discovered my local Tesco Express was now carrying Lucky Charms for £4! Until recently in Belfast we had to pay around £7 for a box, couldn't be happier these are back, so yummy!

4. Arctic Monkeys - AM Album

Have not stopped listening to the new Arctic Monkeys album since it was released on Monday, being a die hard fan I will never be disappointed at anything they produce and in my opinion this is one of their best :)

5. Eminem

Another rediscovered love in music this month has been Eminem with his new album The Marshall Mathers LP 2 being released in November, in particular his extremely early stuff. Every now and again I will go on marathons of listening to him non stop. Definitely not an artist for the easily offended or offended by cursing to say the least but without a doubt one of my all time favourite artists.

6. Life is Sweet

If you live in Belfast or you are planning to visit, I highly recommend you check out Sarah Smallwood at the Life is Sweet stall in St Georges Market on a Sunday or have a peek at her site LifeIsSweet. I have followed her Facebook page for a while now and always wanted to try her stuff.  A few weeks back I finally went to the market and picked up some of her baked goods including red velvet cupcakes and snickers brownies, this girl is an amazing baker, I highly recommend her!

Well that's all my favourites for the minute :) I hope you enjoyed this post and let me know down below what you are loving lately :)

Love Amy x

Lipsy Bow Sunglasses

Sunglasses      Lipsy London - Avon £18

  

I had been seeing these sunglasses by Lipsy London featured over and over again in the recent Avon brochures. Although I did fall in love with them the first time I saw them I was undecided whether to buy them for two reasons.

1. I have a pair of RayBan Aviators & a pair of RayBan Wayfarers which have pretty much been my two staple pair of sunglasses for the past few years. and 2. We don't get a lot of sun here in the UK so the use of sunglasses is very limited. However, they kept cropping up in each brochure I read and as time went on I felt myself giving in to temptation. In the end I decided to buy them as they are very different from my 2 pairs of RayBan's. I don't own a pair of large or oversized sunglasses so I felt this justified the purchase. When I have a pair of sunglasses I will keep them for a good number of years as well and I don't really tend to buy a new pair each summer, I just reuse the ones I have. Another reason I just couldn't pass them up was the fact that they were reduced from £40 to £18!! And no girl can resist a bargain!

    The sunglasses have black lenses, pale sugarpink legs and gold hardware. In the brochure it said to allow up to 6 weeks for the sunglasses to be delivered but mine came within 2 weeks. They came in this beautiful metallic gold case, which has "Lipsy London" written in purply pink writing along with the signature "L♥ " logo.             

Inside the case are the sunglasses and a little handkerchief for cleaning the lenses.

On the frames of the lenses there is gold hardware and on the legs of the glasses are a beautiful gold bow. I think the detailling of the bow is very delicate and just adds a lovely extra something to the glasses.

 

The bottom of the right lense has the signature logo (pictured left). And located on the bottom of the right leg is "Lipsy London" in white lettering (pictured right).

 The inside of the case is a bright pink and says "Catch some rays" in gold. 

The handkerchief is plain white with the logo of the L♥ embossed on it and on the bottom right corner is Lipsy London  along with the website in pink writing. 

 Unlike the typical UK weather, it has been quite sunny recently and I have actually got the chance to wear these on several occassions which I am pleased about as I thought buying them late August I would not get the chance to wear them until next summer. I would really recommend these sunglasses as I think they are the perfect oversized pair and I am completely in love with all the little detailling on the glasses, case and handkerchief. Good job on these Lipsy & Avon!

                                                                                                                     

                                                                                                                          Rachael x

Raspberry Ruffle Cupcakes

Baking has started to become a real hobby for me and what better time than the summer holidays to fill your days with baking.  Today I want to share a Raspberry Ruffle Cupcake recipe with you.. hope you enjoy :)

Vanilla Cupcakes (Makes 12)                                           

115g Self Raising Flour
115g Caster Sugar
115g Butter (Softened)
2 Eggs (Lightly Beaten)
1 TSP Vanilla Extract
1 TBSP milk







Raspberry Buttercream
4-5 Cups of Icing Sugar
1 Cup of Salted Butter
200g Raspberries
4-5 tablespoons Double Cream
Bag of Raspberry Ruffle Sweets

Method

1.Preheat your oven to 180oC and

line a bun tray with 12 paper cases.

2. Using a mixer and a large bowl,  

beat together the butter and caster

sugar until pale, light and fluffy.

3. Gradually beat in the eggs, a little

bit at a time, then beat in the vanilla

extract.

4. Using a spoon gently fold in the

flour until thoroughly incorporated.

5. Add the milk and gently fold into

the mixture.

6. The mixture should now be smooth and drop easily from a spoon.  Now spoon the mixture into your bun cases.

7. Bake in your preheated oven for

around 15-20 minutes until golden

in colour and firm to the touch.

8. Leave to cool for around 10 minutes and then transfer to a cooling rack.

Buttercream Method

1. Whilst buns are in the oven heat a

saucepan over a medium/low and add the raspberries.

2. Continue to crush them with the

back of a spoon until they turn into

a sauce.

3. Take off the heat and put through

a sieve to remove any unwanted seeds.

4. Leave to cool completely before using.

5. When buns and raspberry juice has cooled you can now work on your buttercream base.

6. Cream the butter and add the icing sugar (about a cup at a time), when incorporated add in the raspberry juice (about a teaspoon at a time) - please note- don't add too much or your buttercream will be difficult to pipe, you want to keep it stiff around 3 teaspoons should suffice.

7. Now your buttercream is ready

to pipe onto your buns, decorate

how you wish and top with some

raspberry ruffle sweets :)

I hope you enjoyed this recipe and let me know if you try it out or if there is any recipe you swear by :)

Amy x

Purple Passion

 I have purchased a lot of new make up and beauty products lately so I decided to do a makeup tutorial using some of the new additions to my make up collection.


                            
I am very versatile when it comes to makeup and fashion and love exploring other styles rather than just having one particular style and sticking to it. On the day that I did this makeup I was in a grungey-rock type of mood so I teamed my makeup to suit that. 

 Face - Using a Real Techniques foundation brush, I applied a small amount of Bourjois Healthy Mix foundation. I think this is the perfect foundation for me as my skin does not need a lot of coverage and this gives me a light and natural effect. Then I took a Real Techniques contour brush and highlighted my cheekbones with Benefit's Hoola bronzer. Because my skintone is very pale I blended the bronzer in with a buffing brush also by Real Techniques.


Eyes - Firstly, taking my Color Riche Le Kohl eyeliner by L'Oreal, I drew a smooth line across my top lashes and lid. The next product I used was a creaseless cream shadow by Benefit which is a very pale, shimmery baby pink. I covered my whole lid with this shadow and then used a blending brush to smudge the line of eyeliner over the cream shadow to create a darker colour. For my lashes I applied a coat each of They're Real by Benefit and Lash Architect 4D by L'Oreal. To make my eyes stand out for a more dramatic effect I also decided to wear a pair of false eyelashes by Eylure Naturalities. To finish my eyes I added a coat of mascara to my bottom lashes and applied eyeliner to my waterline. 


Lips - I love a bold lip colour and I think that a dramatic lip can transform any outfit. Anytime I go out I really like my lips to stand out. I'm not afraid to try new colours on my lips and I had been searching for the perfect purple lipstick for a long time! In the end I decided to try MAC Up the Amp and I absolutely adore it. It is one of MAC's "amplified" lipsticks which is very pigmented but can be softened by blotting it after application or can be built up for a more dramatic effect. I think this was the perfect lipstick to use for my grungey-rock look and it makes a nice change from the typical statement red lip. 

Swatch of MAC Up the Amp & Benefit Bikni Tini Cream Shadow (which is barely noticeable against my skintone)

Below are a list of the products I have used to achieve this look ;

Make up bag - Ted Baker

Make up brushes - Real Techniques

Benefit kit - The Bronze of Champions

   










Foundation - Bourjois "Healthy Mix Serum Gel Foundation" in shade 53 Light Beige
Mascara - Benefit "They're Real" and L'Oreal "Lash Architect 4D"
Bronzer - Benefit "Hoola"
                                                                                                                             
Eyeliner - L'Oreal "Color Riche Le Khol" in 101 Midnight Black
Eyeshadow - Benefit "Creaseless Cream Shadow" in Bikini Tini
Eyelashes - Eylure Naturalities 
Lipstick - MAC "Up the Amp"

Benefit "The Bronze of Champions" Kit

Let me know in the comments if you enjoyed this make up look. If you would like a full review of any of the beauty products that I have used then let me know in the comments and I will do a separate post on them. Thanks for reading.

                                                                                                                   Rachael  x

I Got Soul but I'm Not a Soldier.

        Dress - New Look
        Utility Jacket - Peacocks
        Studded Boots - New Look
        Purse - Lipsy London
        Nails - Avon Nailwear Pro shade Loving Lavender
        Lips - Rimmel Apocalips shade 501 Stellar
        Owl Scarf with Pockets - Primark


I'm so happy that we finally got round to doing an outfit post. It really feels like our blog is coming together now :) . Amy and I had a few locations in mind to shoot our first outfit at. We wanted to make a good impression with our first fashion post and have a good background. After driving to a few of the locations early this morning we realised we couldn't take photos at ANY of the locations!! (Cue panic stations). This was due to wind, rain and fog. I'm pretty sure Belfast has to be the wettest place! It's about time we were treated with some good weather! We eventually found a good place to take our photos that was sheltered from the wind and the rain.
        The look I decided to go for today was a bit of a mix of different styles. I enjoy teaming up a girly dress with tough boots to make it look more edgy. I took a simple, white lace dress and layered it with a khaki utility jacket. In keeping with the military theme, I decided to wear these black, studded foldover boots. I love these boots as they can be worked into different outfits very easily as they are grungy, yet because the heel is so high they are also very girly. (And they are black so they go with everything). I wore tights with this outfit as it was extremely cold today, but I think this would look great with some chunky knit socks as well.
       I hope you enjoy this post. Amy and I had a lot of fun taking these photos and playing with different special effects. What do you think of this look? Do you like the military trend? Please let us know what you think in the comments below :)
                                                                             
                                                                                                              Rachael x