I don't want to...

Hair : model's own with the help of Batiste dry shampoo and lots of bobby pins

Eye bags : model's own c/o lack of sleep and no eye cream

Glasses : Tiffany & Co. with the purpose of making the subject seem intelligent

Jumper : Wildfox - loose fit to avoid hurting the accidentally sunburnt shoulders 

and/or to aid in smuggling snacks into the library.

Speaking of the library, it's currently where I'm holed up trying to get focussed for an upcoming exam and a couple of presentations. I'll resume some reviews in the next week as I desperately want to rave about another Dermalogica moisturiser. I'm also attending an event in London tomorrow evening so with any luck I can fill you in on the details of that too!

Just a little update to justify why I churned out a few posts last week but not a lot this week! See you on the other side (once my degree is done... AAAAAAH.)

a spring in my step...

It's officially been an entire week since the clocks went forward and it seemed to encourage the skies to give us beautiful weather all week. It's possible that this resulted in a patch of sunburn on my arm in a very bizarre shape but let's not dwell on that...
I've got three days of university lectures left and on Thursday I'll finally be going home to my lovely double bed and greeting my parents when they fly in from Dubai, wahoo!

Since it's been forever since my last "proper" post I'm going to fit a bit of everything into this. If you follow me on Instagram I've been much more active on there since it's easy to take snaps and caption them wherever I am but here's some little updates anyway...

 50th anniversary cocktails at The Langham Hotel

 best friend's 21st birthday giant cupcake, y u m!

 2 little jelly babies...they didn't last long!

 new favourite jumper and curly hair

you me at six being amazing in Bournemouth last week. 

The absolute peak of this week has to be me finally fitting into this skirt and wearing it to Bournemouth Beach on Wednesday..my friend is inept when it comes to using my iPhone to take a photo haha, hey finger! I'm aiming to be less than 140lbs come Monday so let's keep our fingers crossed please!

So, this week I WILL be posting about the Clinique translucent powder I bought a few weeks ago because I love, love, love it and want the world to know! 

Lots of love and appreciation for those of you who stuck around over my terrible couple of weeks posting-wise!

My Halloween Make Up

Like any student I am on a slightly tighter budget than on my gap year/any other year of my life, though I am fortunate enough to be able to call my parents and ask for a top-up if needs be! I was after a cheaper alternative to dressing up and looking like a pleb in a crap costume this year so my best friend and I decided to do our faces like Sugar Skulls. I was so, so pleased with the result and we had people complimenting us and asking for photos with us all night. ~celebrity lifestyle~ haha.

Here's a photo of what I looked like when my face was complete...

I could have done my whole face, but I found that actually only doing one half made it look much more dramatic as there was a contrast between the "normal" side and the skull side. 

I used a set of Snazaroo face paints that were £12.99 from my local fancy dress shop and a pack of 3 small brushes which was £2.79, a sponge and a very thin paintbrush that I usually use for nail art. It took around an hour and a half to complete and I found the colours lasted all night without running or smudging. The only problem I noticed was that the white did dry and crack a little bit after a few hours but as long as I didn't touch it there wasn't a major problem. All the colours are water based to the brushes are easy to wash and there's no staining of clothes with the more neutral colours. When I was home last night the face paints came off easily with a face wipe and my Garnier cleansing milk, so even in my intoxicated state I managed to avoid getting make up on my pillow!

What are you dressing up as for Halloween? Would you do the Sugar Skull look?

Lots of scary kisses!

xo xo

Uni Life- 2nd Year

So I'm now back in the South of England at university. I moved into a four-bedroom house with three of my best friends a couple of weeks ago and we've finally got the house set up to with tv and internet so it feels more like a home than just a house.

I havent been able to take many photos of the house, not that it's very picturesque, but I do have a few photos from my instagram over the last few weeks

My Clarins face cleanser and moisturiser. Absolute god sends if you ask me!

Our first night in the house with a tiny tv and a huge aerial. Thankfully this has been replaced by a fantastic 52 inch screen now.

My September Glossybox! I was so excited on the drive to pick this up from the Post Office!

Little texts bringing cupcakes to one of my old flat mates.

My new dog jumper from River Island. It's the first thing I put on for hungover mornings or afternoons after lectures. Definitely my favourite wardrobe item this month.

Okay, so this isn't from Instagram but this was the highlight of my week last week! Getting re-tweeted by a Mrs.Doubtfire twitter account with a reply like that is priceless.

Tuesday morning getting ready for lectures. I had just used my HD Brows palette and I'm still totally in love with it.

This is a little kitten who lives down the road. She comes right into the house most days and on Wednesday she fell asleep on the sofa!

This is a photo from when I went out on Thursday night. Everything looks normal until you look at the bottom left and Aimee is drying her face under the hand dryer whilst taking pictures to see her expressions.

I don't fully understand it either. 

There you have it. The last couple of weeks of my life through my iPhone. I'll get back to proper updates in the next few days and big love for those of you who stuck around while I've been slacking

xo xo

September is definitely here!

I don't know what the weather has been like in other parts of the country, but where I am it's been horrible!
I went out for a walk with my mum this morning and we were rained on a little, and then the minute we stepped back into the house it started pouring it down. We also went to a barbecue at my brother's school this afternoon. He's climbing to Base Camp on Everest next year and this weekend they did a 30 mile walk in 2 days to begin some more serious training. I took the barbecue as an opportunity to do my first ever outfit photo... I'll leave it to you to decide if it was worth it!

Blazer: River Island

Vests: Marks & Spencer

Jeans: H&M

I refused to let the weather deter me from wearing my favourite pink blazer! I paired it with two layered vest tops and an incredibly old pair of skinny jeans.. I aimed for casual but I still wanted to look a little smarter than day-to-day. I've had the jeans since I was 15 and I can fit into them again so I'm taking all the opportunities I can to wear them. 

Nails: Models Own "Lilac Dream"

Jewellery: Links Of London, Hui San Designs, antique family ring, Tiffany & Co. and Love Hearts and Crosses

I hope this has been a successful outfit post, please let me know what you think in the comments section!

xo xo

P.S. If you have a few spare minutes could you check out my friend's jewellery business Hui San Designs. They make lovely little beaded bracelets and watches as well as necklaces!

yaaaay for employment!

I went in and saw my boss this morning and he gave me my job back! Yaaaay :)

I gave smart/casual a go with black leggings, layered vest tops and a pink blazer

And did very simple make up with cat-eye liquid eye liner. I found the most beautiful earrings that I'd forgotten I'd bought. They are exactly the same pink as my blazer!

I also celebrated after by buying 3 Models Own nail polishes from Boots. I only paid for two as Lilac Dream is currently free when bought with any two other Models Own cosmetics (apart from the Pro range)

A great start to my day :)

xo xo

Summer Holidays 2011

Since I'm back in gloomy England I thought I'd relive my travels by posting some photos from my trip to Florida.

At the beginning of July I jetted off to Disney World with my boyfriend and his family. We went for just under two weeks and I had an absolutely incredible time! We met all the characters we could find including 3 of the princesses! Here are some of my favourite photos from the trip

Cinderella's Castle!

We went out to dinner at The Peabody hotel one night and this is the dress I wore. I've got my Coach clutch bag as well but you can't see it very clearly (just as well as it was brown so didn't match my dress!)

Lots of shopping happened but I was very pleased with these 3 items! I love how America has better sizing than England, so for once I found jeans that fitted at the waist and on the legs!

The jeans in this photo are the same ones pictured above. 

 2 of my birthday presents! I couldn't help but spend a little two much on these two items, my new Ted Baker purse and a Tiffany & Co. ring!

Hogwarts castle at Universal Studios. I had one of the best days here and the ride in the castle is my favourite. It's terrifying and brilliant at the same time!

Welcome to my home!

And finally, July 4th fireworks over Cinderella's Castle. It was absolutely magical!

xo xo 

Who Am I?

Hello Blogspot! 

I'm Isabelle. I'm twenty years young and I'm currently in my second year of studying English in the South of England. I've recently moved to blogspot from tumblr as I wanted to move away from the generic reblogging of photos which had some how turned into a popularity contest. My blog is still active on there but I will slowly be moving my reviews and other posts to this blog. 

I live with 3 of my best friends in a little house where we mainly watch Sex & The City, Made In Chelsea, TOWIE, Criminal Minds and read countless book relating to our course. 

My favourite things are music, fashion, beauty, spending too much money on whimsical purchases, family, boyfriend, hello kitty, best friends, good literature, blogs, happiness, love, holidays, Teddy & plenty of other things that I'm sure I'll blog about!

I'm trying to find a good balance between writing about my personal life and things that I've bought or products I want to share with you.

I hope you find something you like on here and of course, any feedback is much appreciated so feel free to leave it in the comments section or email me at helloissyxo@gmail.com

Big love, Issy xo xo