Favourites of the Week #8

It's time for another weekly favourites! How the weeks fly by!

Track of the Week
Alive - Bo Bruce

I have fallen completely in love with this track from Bo Bruce's album. I fell a little bit in love with her herself on The Voice last year - there's something about her voice that just gives me chills. It might not be everyone's cup of tea, but it's certainly mine! I love the lyrics of this song (written by Bo and her coach from The Voice, Danny O'Donoghue), and I've listened to it I don't know how many times this week!



Album of the Week
The Great Gatsby Soundtrack

While I haven't listened to everything on it yet, my best friend just let me hear a few of the tracks from The Great Gatsby OST and wow. It's amazing. Definitely one to listen to! I'm including this amazing Florence and the Machine track, but look out for Andre 3000 and Beyonce's amazing rendition of Back to Black - it's insane!



TV Show of the Week
Dexter - Season 5

This week I watched the last three episodes of Dexter Season 5 and was completely blown away. This show honestly just gets better and better and while I'm a bit behind, I can't wait to jump into season 6 now! Michael C Hall and Julia Stiles just blew my mind, there was an actual, palpable vibe every time they were on the screen together, it sounds mad but there were moments I was literally holding my breath (ahh the dramatic response of a film and tv graduate!). And Jennifer Carpenter was as brilliant as ever. I'm thinking of writing a separate post on this actually...

Film of the Week
The Hunger Games

Again, this is something my best friend Emma and I were discussing, and we were actually talking about the problems with the film for people who haven't read the book first - there are definitely some things that you miss. However, I had read the book before I watched the film (way back last summer!) and I absolutely love it. I love the whole idea of The Hunger Games, and I think Jennifer Lawrence and Josh Hutcherson (team Peeta all the way ;)) are brilliant. I am absolutely Hunger Games mad, by the way, and I'm currently rereading Catching Fire (juggling three books at once haha) because I got so excited when I saw the trailer for the new film!

Beauty Product of the Week
Maybelline Baby Lips in Cherry

I love my Maybelline Baby Lips which I picked up when I was in Hong Kong - why can't we get them here in the UK yet?!!

Book of the Week
The Great Gatsby

I've literally just started it, but I need to attempt to read this before I go and see the film! I've wanted to read it for so long too, I don't know why I'm taking so long! I'm actually giving a copy away on my YouTube channel so check that out here :)

YouTuber of the Week
The Bumps Along the Way

This is a pregnancy channel which I know won't interest everyone, but I stumbled across this video when a couple of people I'm subscribed to liked it - I just think it's the loveliest video. I was really touched when I read what the channel is about, and a bit about Missy and Bryan's story.




Blog of the Week (new category!)
Indigo Buttons

Sometimes you read someone's blog and think 'Yep. We'd definitely get along in real life!", and that's how I felt the minute I started reading the lovely Kirsty's blog! Last week was Kirsty's six month blogaversary (check out the post here!) and I look forward to many, many more months (and years!) of her posts! It's a really interesting mix, so go and check it out :)

Website of the Week
Hello Giggles

Again and again I come back to this website - I can't get enough of it. Don't get me wrong, I blog about beauty and I'm just as guilty of catching up on celebrity gossip as anyone else, but sometimes it feels like there's a gap - like magazines spoonfeed us articles on beauty, fashion, sex and relationships and celebrities, without really getting to the heart of what ordinary women are interested in (thank goodness for blogging!). Enter, Hello Giggles. Without fail, there's an article on here every day that interests me, and I'm so glad it exists!

Style Icon of the Week
Isla Fisher




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I think Isla Fisher got it exactly right for both the photocall for The Great Gatsby at Cannes, and the premiere itself. Her white Dolce and Gabana dress, black peep toe heels and bold red lip looked simple and classy for the photocall and then she amped it up with that stunning scarlet Oscar de la Renta strapless gown for the premiere. Nothing too fancy with the hair, just simple waves, and a statement necklace from Bulgari Heritage finished off the look perfectly. You've come a long way from Summer Bay, Miss Fisher.

So that's it for another week! Let me know what your favourite things have been this week :)

Thanks for reading!

Instagram #1

Cocktails with friends/Harvey Nichols+Grazia Beauty Parlour/Fifi Lapin Tote
Birthday drinks/Marvellous Creations/Les Mis on DVD

Since I've never done one before, I thought I'd do a little 'my week in instagram' sort of a post - only issue is I'm a nightmare at remembering to take instagram photos! Must sort this out for future posts!

Last Saturday I met up with four of my lovely friends, three of whom I hadn't seen since I got home from Australia. We went for a couple of cocktails in Hortons Bar in Glasgow, and had a great catch up.

On the Wednesday, I went to the Grazia Beauty Parlour in Harvey Nichols in Edinburgh (I will do a full post on this at some point!). There were lots of interesting beauty related talks, a glass of prosecco on arrival and I got to catch up with Roisin (Lost My Heart in Wonderland) and Laura (The Likely Lady). Had such a lovely night and came home with a cheeky wee purchase from MAC ;) They also sent us home with a gorgeous Fifi Lapin Tote bag with some lovely samples inside, all of which I'll show you in my upcoming post.

The following Friday was my lovely friend Emmeline's birthday night out, so we went to Bread and Butter in Glasgow, a bar I had never been to before. I really loved it though - they had such interesting cocktails. I tried one called an Um Bongo (yep, just like the kids fruit juice, but with a kick!) and will definitely be going back again!

Saturday night saw me immerse myself in the first Battle Round of The Voice UK, and it featured some amazing and some downright terrible performances. It also featured Danny O'Donoghue (Ok, fine, I'm one of those girls who decided she fancied him once he became a coach on the voice!), so I was happy. I demolished half a large bar of Cadburies Marvellous Creations (the popping candy and jelly kind!) in the process.

And that brings me to today, which included job hunting, blog giveaway prize buying (keep your eyes peeled!!!), getting drenched in Glasgow with my mum - where is the sunshine?!! - and being unable to resist buying Les Mis on DVD... I swore I wouldn't buy it on day one, and totally failed!

So that's it for my first instagram post - I quite enjoyed doing it, so maybe planning posts like this will help me remember to make more use of instagram! Hope you're all having a lovely week, and remember to enter my YOUTUBE GIVEAWAY over on my channel here!

MY FIRST YOUTUBE GIVEAWAY!

I've just launched my first giveaway over on my YouTube channel! I'm giving away a copy of The Great Gatsby book, in honour of the film release, AND a Revlon Lip Butter of your choice! Hop on over to my channel to enter, I'll embed the video below, but pop onto the channel and subscribe/comment for your chance to win :)

INAA #shaba2013 Blogger Event!

I arrived home from Australia on Saturday 27th April and on Monday the 29th I was lucky enough to be invited along to the I Need An Appointment (INAA) Scottish Hair and Beauty Awards (#shaba2013) 'Bloggers do it Best' Party, which was held in the swanky Apartment 29 in Glasgow.



The event was held to give us lucky bloggers a little bit of insight into who the frontrunners are in the lead up to the awards itself, which will be held on the 26th May. It was such a lovely event, and a great chance for me to catch up with some of my favourite bloggers (and meet some new bloggers I haven't met before!). We were greeted at the door with a lovely Long Vodka and the founders of INAA gave us a bit of background about the company itself, the Hair and Beauty Awards and then introduced Lauren Goodger (of TOWIE fame!), who was kindly donating some of her own beauty products from her range ''Lauren's Way'' as part of our goody bags!


Lauren Goodger*

After the introductions were out of the way, we moved through to another room where INAA had gone all out to impress! There was a tanning booth courtesy of Lauren's Way, Bumble and Bumble were there to give us some of their tips and tricks for styling your hair (lots of bloggers left with some amazing hair that night!), Bare Minerals had a stall to talk us through their lovely cosmetics and there was plenty of wine and some super cute INAA chocolates to keep us going!


Little miss jet-lag in the left hand corner there having a blether with some of my favourite bloggers!*


Posing with Lauren


Cute little INAA chocolates!

I had an absolutely lovely night thanks to INAA and Alison Jameson PR, who organised the event. At a time like this when the economic climate is so unstable and the weather's so rubbish, it's easy to get a bit down in the dumps, but treating yourself every once in a while to a little pampering is a sure fire way to lift your spirits! INAA provides a brilliant service that allows you to book an appointment for whatever treatment you desire with just a click of a button! Check out the nominations for the Scottish Hair and Beauty Awards here, and if you fancy booking yourself an appointment for some sort of well earned beauty treatment why not visit the INAA website here :)

*Photos 2 and 3 are taken from the INAA facebook page :)

Favourites of the Week #7

It's the return of my weekly favourites!!

While I was travelling I didn't really have time to do these posts, and I've missed them. So, without further ado, here are the things I've been loving this week...

Track of the Week
Can't Hold Us - Savannah Outen and Jake Coco (Macklemore & Ryan Lewis Cover)

This week I've been testing how fast I can sing/sort of rap by having this cover of Macklemore and Ryan Lewis on repeat on my iPod. Trust me, there's nothing like the feeling of satisfaction when you realise you've learnt all the words...



Album of the Week
Ellie Goulding - Halcyon

I've said it before and I'll say it again, I love Ellie Goulding to pieces and this album is most definitely top of my playlist this week. There are a few standout tracks (Figure 8, My Blood and I Need Your Love being three obvious favourites), but there are a couple that really grow on you the more you listen, which is one of the things I really love about Ellie's music - Don't Say a Word and Hanging On are two examples of this.



TV Show of the Week
Veronica Mars

I never need an excuse to revisit Veronica Mars and something told me (maybe all the Kirsten Bell interviews I've been watching!) this week that I should make the always exciting move of rewatching the Pilot - I'm hooked again already. Honestly, it is one of the best television shows of all time!!! I couldn't be more pleased that a film is finally in the pipeline!

Film of the Week
Silver Linings Playbook

As I mentioned in my What I've Been Watching post the other day, I absolutely adored Silver Linings Playbook and went out and bought the dvd. Never, in recent times, have I parted with £12 for a newly released dvd - I'm more of a 'wait till it's been out a few months and get it cheap on Amazon' kind of gal. But in this case I couldn't resist. I love everything about this film, from the plot to the soundtrack to the brilliant acting from every single member of the cast (with Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence both completely deserving their Oscar nominations). If you haven't seen it, you should! I know this is one I will watch over and over again.

Beauty Product of the Week
Revlon Lip Butter in Wild Watermelon

I treated myself to this when they were on offer for £5.99 in Superdrug and I've fallen completely in love with it! I adore the Revlon Lip Butter's anyway, but this colour is gorgeous. It's much more vibrant than what I usually wear on my lips, but I really like it, and will do a proper review, complete with photos and swatches soon!

Book of the Week
One Hundred Names by Cecelia Ahern

As you all know, I love Cecelia Ahern and I downloaded her most recent book on my Kindle while I was in Australia. I didn't get a chance to start reading it till I got home though, and I'm about a quarter of the way through it - really enjoying it so far. It's the story of a journalist named Kitty who has found herself in hot water after wrongly accusing a man of a crime he didn't commit, with disastrous results for her personal life and career. Alongside this, her friend, mentor and boss has just passed away, leaving her with a list of names connected to a story she wanted to write before she died. Kitty is left to figure out how these one hundred people are connected and hopefully write the story Constance never had the chance to. It's another interesting concept from Ahern, and I just love her writing style.

YouTuber of the Week
Louise - Sprinkle of Glitter

We all know I love Louise, but this week she uploaded an interesting video addressing the tricky subject of self-harm and I think she handled it brilliantly. It must be difficult for YouTubers with a lot of subscribers when people ask them to make videos on this sort of serious topic. But it was a well balanced, properly researched video and didn't go on for too long - it said exactly what it needed to say. Apparently it was mentioned on the BBC and Sky News too!

Blog of the Week (new category!)
Roaring Twenties

You know when someone has a distinctive style that you just instantly love? For me I found that when I first started reading the lovely Margaret's blog a few months back after meeting her at a blogger event in Edinburgh. I love the tone of her posts, the film quotes and the fact that she rarely writes a post that doesn't have me laughing out loud (I wish there was a way to describe that that didn't instantly make me see LOL in giant letters!), she just has a brilliant writing style. Anyway, go and check out her blog, and if you're anything like me you'll love it :) (http://roaringtwentiesblog.blogspot.co.uk)

Website of the Week
Twitter

Loving twitter again - I found out about the Harvey Nichols Beauty Parlour through twitter last week and attended the event tonight! It was great fun and I got to catch up with the lovely Roisin from Lost my Heart in Wonderland and meet Laura from The Likely Lady for the first time, which was great (more on this event in another post)! I also thoroughly enjoyed the #lbloggers chat on Sunday evening, it was nice to join in again after my travels!

Style Icon of the Week
Emmy Rossum

I'm just going to ignore the fact that Emmy Rossum's Donna Karan Atelier gown doesn't exactly fit with the punk theme of the 2013 Met Gala, because it is beautiful and I want it. I love the colour, I love the shape, I love the beaded detailing and I love that she didn't overdo it with the train. It's perfect. And her heavy smokey eye, nude lip, perfect brows and braided up-do compliment it perfectly. Love. It.


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Hope you enjoyed that guys, what have you been loving in the film, fashion, music and blogging world this week?

Thanks for reading!

My Top 5 Travel Tips!

The lessons I've learned from my travels will stay with me forever, but while they are still fresh in my mind, I made a little (14 minutes is little, right?!) video to fill you all in on my top 5 pieces of advice for travelling to Australia!

If you're looking for specifics, skip to...
1:51 for money tips!
4:05 for sun protection tips!
5:30 for packing tips!
8:07 for communication tips!
9:33 for tips on making it the right trip for you!

Hope you enjoy :)

What I've Been Watching...

In order to get to and from Australia, I spent quite a few hours on planes! I had never been on a plane for more than 4 and a half or 5 hours at a time before, so 12 and 14 hour flights were a bit of a shock to the system! Unfortunately, I couldn't get to sleep on ANY of them, so that left me with a lot of time to watch films and tv programmes on my Cathay Pacific and Emirates flights - these airlines had an amazing selection of viewing material, so I wasn't short of entertainment! I watched a few episodes of New Girl and Don't Trust the B---- in Apartment 23, both of which I love, but thought I'd focus on the films in this little post :)

MOVIES

Silver Linings Playbook


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Silver Linings Playbook is the story of Pat and Tiffany, two people facing some serious emotional issues (Pat is a recently diagnosed bi-polar while Tiffany is a recovering sex addict, who has recently lost her husband) and how their unusual friendship helps to repair some of the trauma they've suffered in the past. I absolutely love Jennifer Lawrence, but I've never been a massive fan of Bradley Cooper. I don't really see the attraction (sorry guys!), and I've found him a bit arrogant when interviewed. However, he is beyond brilliant in this film! The entire cast is excellent, and I loved this film so much when I watched it on my flight to Hong Kong, that I ended up watching it again on my flight home last week! I am now the proud owner of the dvd and can honestly say this is a new favourite. I completely agree with all the Oscar nominatations it got, and I'm so glad J-Law walked away with best actress. It's funny, sometimes sad, uplifting and heartwarming, and it also has a great soundtrack.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower


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This film had a far darker undertone than I had been expecting! I hadn't read the book (I have since downloaded in on my kindle though, and will share my thoughts once I have read it!). It follows Charlie, an introverted teenage boy dealing with what appears to be a severe case of all the ordinary issues of any shy adolescent boy. As the film progresses though we discover that he has some seriously troubling memories from his past - not going to include spoilers, don't worry! - and his new found friendship with hippy step-siblings Patrick (Ezra Miller) and Sam (Emma Watson) leads him down an even more complicated path. I enjoyed this film, but would advise preparing yourself for a bit of emotional turmoil before you watch it!

Pitch Perfect


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If you liked Bridesmaids, you'll like Pitch Perfect! It's another one of these you-think-you-know-what's-coming-but-you-don't movies. It's the story of a college a capella girl group competing to win the Nationals. When Anna Kendrick's character Beca reluctantly arrives at college, the last thing she expects is to join the 'Barden Bellas'. But with her dad breathing down her neck to give college a proper go, she finds herself joining an unlikely group of girls, including the hilarious Rebel Wilson, to change up the dated Bellas routine. This film has some absolutely hilarious one liners, inappropriate jokes and a cute romance which doesn't take over the rest of the storyline (hello Skylar Astin, where did you come from?!). Another must see.

Ruby Sparks


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I've wanted to see Ruby Sparks for a while, and was really excited when I saw it on the list of movies I had to choose from on my flight home. The basic plot follows a young author struggling to come up with an idea for his next book. When he starts dreaming about a free spirited young girl named Ruby, he starts writing a story about her, only to find that she suddenly appears as a living, breathing human in his house, who thinks they are in a relationship. It blurs the boundaries of fantasy and reality, and I have to say, it's a much darker film than I had expected. The general tone is fantasy and romance, but it definitely has some heavier moments! It's a quirky little film, but I'd still recommend giving it a watch if you have some spare time!

Robot and Frank


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Again, after seeing the trailer for this film a few times, I was keen to see it. It is set in the near future and is a sci-fi movie with real heart. I have to admit I shed a tear at this one. It stars Frank Langella as Frank, a former thief and conman who has served time and is now getting old and forgetful. In an attempt to help, his son (James Marsden) buys him a robot home help, to cook for him, clean the house and help him into a better daily routine. While initially reluctant, Frank slowly realises he can use this little companion to his advantage, with dramatic results. Another brilliantly cast film, I really enjoyed this.

Ice Age 4: Continental Drift


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I'm a massive fan of the Ice Age films! I hadn't managed to see the fourth one in the cinema, so I was quite excited to get the chance to see it on the plane! In this instalment our favourite bizarre little family are separated due to continental drift (caused by another unsuccessful attempt by Scrat to bury his acorn in the ice!). As always, this film had me laughing out loud, with the brilliant dialogue between Manny, Sid and Diego as sharp as ever. In this film, Diego meets his match in a fiesty white sabor tooth tiger named Shira (voiced by Jennifer Lopez), and Sid's crazy granny joins the gang. It's one of my favourite series of animated movies ever!

So that's it for the films I watched on my recent long haul flights! Hope you enjoyed :)

I'm ridiculously excited for the Les Miserables dvd release next week! What films have you been watching recently - I love recommendations!