A Week in my Wonderful London...

Hi all,

I love taking photo's and so over the past week I have been snapping my way around the city I love.

It is as simple as that really, so here is my week in the City! If you want to see another of these please let me know and I will do more in the future.

It all started on Monday when I walked along the river to Somerset House at dusk,

Then after an interview on Tuesday I admired this beautiful architecture on Wigmore Street, near Harley Street, 

And on Wednesday whilst en route to meet a friend, I was struck by this amazing office block on Southampton Row, Bloomsbury,

To the towering Queen Elizabeth Tower and of course Big Ben on Wednesday,

To the calm and sereene Australia House on Thursday morning...

and opposite St Clement Danes Church of course!

Then as the week ended the glitz of the Savoy...

and the bridge of the Charing Cross Hotel, carried me to my home and my weekend.

Here is to the beauty of my beloved city!

Hope you all had a lovely weekend!

Amber xx

Long-term Make-up Staples...

Hey all,

I have a few products in my make up bag that have been around since I started getting into make up properly and have stuck with me all this time! (Don't worry nothing here has gone off or is gross!) And as this is beauty post time I thought I would show you!

So this is the overall kit and starting from the top; Next Eyeshadow palette (I don't think you can still get this but I will find a similar one and link it here), Benefit Dandelion Blush, Dior 5 Colours Eyeshadow palette in 030 Incognito, Bobbi Brown High Shimmer Lip Gloss in Pink Tulle, Rouge Dior in 365 Pink Songe, Rouge Coco Shine in 55 Romance and finally Lancôme Juicy Tube in Toffee R&B (I think it's been discontinued but you can get similar shades here). 

 

This Next palette has been a long term friend of mine. It has six shimmery shades that are softer than glitter but just as dusty. I love them all and have used the to lighten smokey looks as I am very pale and occasionally a full on look is a bit too heavy, so the shimmer adds a bit of me too the look.

 

This Benefit Dandelion blush just keeps going, I use it fairly regularly although I am quiet pink toned anyway and have been turning to it's sister Coralista for the summer months as it has browney tones which double as a bronzer. However the cool pink is my perfect natural blush shade and I love it so much for barely there make up looks. 

In contrast to the shimmer palette I showed above, this Dior one is like the elegant older sister. The shades are all matte and the pink and the yellow are the definition of barely-there colour, if I blend the two they are essentially my skin type. The white, grey and brown are perfect blending shades and very useful for more neural looks. 

 

This is one of my favourite lip glosses and the minty taste is simply divine. It is highly sparkly but not as sticky as some other glosses I've tried. I love it as it adds definition to any lipstick I put under it.

                              

This is the first "posh" lipstick I ever bought. I saved up and went with my mum to the local Dior counter in Boots, and tried on loads of different colours. This one, Pink Songe, was the perfect colour for me and I love wearing it with a smoked eye (I wear a steel or a dark navy Kiko eyeshadow stick; smoked from the eye line and a natural base).                            

 

It's a natural progression from one fab posh lippy to another - and this is just that. I had been testing these on the back of my hand whenever I walked past a Chanel counter and in two airports when I finally caved and bought a colour I could not put down (and I had leftover Euros). These lip sticks are sheerer than most but they have a lovely sheen which makes it more than a simple colour. It's easily wearable and more moisturising than some lipsticks I've tried. 

Last but not least, is my favourite flavour lip gloss of all, it's toffee-tastic! The formula is slightly sticky compared to the Bobbi Brown but these are considered legendary and all the flavours I've tried have been excellent. The gold glitter is a great addition to a look by itself if you don't want to have lipstick on. This mini was part of a gift and it has stood the test of time!

So this was some of the staples of my make up collection, I hope you enjoyed snooping in my make up bag! 

I will be back with my Chanel post next week!

Luv as always,

LDN Teenage Fashionista xx♥️

Latest Beauty Reviews...

Hey everyone,

So my skin regime has been working really well on the whole recently (if you want to see the current post click here), but I noticed that tee tree alone was not strong enough to really get shot of my spots. So about two weeks ago I decided to pick up the Superdrug Deep Action anti-blemish gel which it claims has the maximum concentration of salicylic acid allowed, and based on the results I have seen so far, I'm impressed and a proper review will come after a months use. 

Also I've been loving some lip products. First are two lip balms, one is the Lip Service from Lush which is very healing and good if you have dry or chaffed lips. It is very solid when you get a new tin but it soon melts with body heat and becomes a perfect consistency, which when applied to the lips is just perfect. It is very neutrally tasting so perfect if you have a favourite flavour gloss to go over the top as it won't ruin it.

But then my tin of Lip Service, which had been outlasting everything in my make up bag, got used up and so I bought my second lip product, which was the Nivea Essential Care lip balm. This is an old classic but personally I used to hate the taste of the balm, which I know is only minor to how well it works, but on trying for the past days I've learnt to really love it and it's healing properties are better than any of my other Chapsticks, so for now I am choosing nourishment, especially in this colder weather where my lips dry out a lot.

So finally to a face mask. I love doing a weekly mask and I previously was using the Tea Tree on from The Body Shop, but I had loads of Lush pots cluttering up my room so I exchanged 5 of them for my ultimate mask Catastrophe Cosmetic. It is blueberry based and smells divine as well as containing calming calamine which is very great at bringing down redness if you are having a bad skin day. The mask dries nicely but as it has so many healing and soothing ingredients it doesn't actually dry out your skin and is perfect in my opinion!

I hope you all enjoyed my beauty reviews,

See you soon for a fashion week related post
All the best,
LDN Teenage Fashionista xx♥️  

My Favourite Nail Polish Atm...

Hello all, 

My beauty reviews are coming soon but as I am still testing the products, I wanted to post a review of my favourite nail polish of the moment, instead. 

The polish in question is the Kiko Nail Lacquer in Shade 303 Beige Chrome (currently £3.90) not only is it inexpensive but it is a great colour that suits all outfits. 

One coat is good enough for a sparkly top coat action as it is can be applied slightly sheerer with a think swipe of the nails, but two coats are recommended for the fullest colour. 

I then also apply a top coat. The one I have is the Sally Hansen Mega Shine which just causes the sparkle to, well, shine and helps the polish last. 

I find the polish lasts 4/5 days depending on what you do. Which is great considering it's price! The brush is fairly wide for easy application and it's by far the best polish to apply by yourself. 

I would recommend Kiko to anyone as I love there other beauty products too!

Anyway speak soon,

LDN xx♥️

N.B. This post is not sponsored and I my hope is to post one beauty and one fashion post a week :) 

The Birthday Blog!

Hey everyone,

So last Tuesday was my 18th Birthday! And it was such a lovely day I had the best time! So I thought I'd give you a diary style post about what I did!

5:00am: My beautiful kitten sings me happy birthday - well no she howls to go out, mum lets her out and I sleep for a bit longer! 

6:00am-ish: Woke up eventually and go downstairs to see parents, have tea and open my lovely presents! Hotel Chocolat chocolate for breakfast - perfect! Then nap for a bit longer till parents go to work. 

9:00am: Get up and run a Lush bath with the Space Girl bath bomb I got in one of my presents. Smelt amazing! Watched YouTube while in the bath. Then get ready to meet mum in Canary Wharf for lunch. Am wearing my favourite pink skirt outfit (seen in this post). Make up wise I wore my natural base, accentuated with a gold sparkly eyeshadow from a Next pallette and on my lips I used the Rimmel Lasting Finish Colour Rush in shade 100 topped with the Lancôme Juicy Tube in a Toffee flavour (not sure on the exact shade sorry). The jewellery that I wore: my new Michael Kors bracelet and my F21 heart necklace.

        Image from: goldsmiths.co.uk

12:15am: Meet mum at Carluccios. Fritto Misto (my fave) was not on the menu, but we had Bruchetta and a breaded Chicken dish (Millanaise I think) from the set menu and it was lovely! I also had Cherry juice which is rare to get hold of and was so tasty! We had a lovely chat outside in the sun, then I went round the shopping malls and met Max Chilton the F1 driver and Natalie Pinkham from Sky F1 which was soo cool for an F1 fan like myself. 

I also unashamedly bought another fluffy pen for my collection which is so cute! It's a tiger aww! 

5:30pm: I returned home for a bit and relaxed before getting changed into my favourite summer beach trousers and vest top, styled with my Dorothy Perkins denim jacket with the sleeves rolled. Then I went out and met my parents in Zizzi's (mum gave me the Hello Kitty balloon which was on my Instagram and seen below) where we had amazing food, including a chocolate and banana calzone - Awesome! Then we saw the new Transformers film in 3D which was the best 3D film I've seen all year, yet it was an almost 3 hour film which was a tad long and didn't get home till quite late! 

00:05am 16th July: Finally went to sleep on such a high after such an amazing day! 

Thank you to everyone who made it the best birthday ever! Also I can keep my statement that it hasn't rained on my birthday in 18 years (bar a slight bit of drizzle first think that morning), which I think is pretty cool too. 

All the best, 

Update: I've been 18 a week now and I love it. I feel older which is strange as it never made an impact before! Woo! 

Anyway lots of luv as always,

LDN Teenage Fashionista xx♥️

Super Skin Saviour: Tea Tree Truth!

Hey all,

I am not used to writing full length beauty posts but one of my friends asked about how I had got my skin under control as she had noted a change for the better and I decided to write it down into a post, and I can almost review everything that I use. Very soon I am going to technically be an adult, but like most teenagers I suffer spots. Over the years, I tried everything. I mean everything. Even now I'm not sure if I've got it perfect but for the moment I've tamed my skin, not completely fixed it but it's 100% better than it was. 

I basically was at the end of my tether and my mum went to The Body Shop because she wanted to get some stuff for herself and bought me back a set containing some products from the Tea Tree range. I have been using it since February and the results have been revolutionary. 

(I just want to point out as a disclaimer this post is not sponsored by The Body Shop or any other shop but I will be singing their praises.) 

At first I was  only alternating the Cool and Creamy Face Wash and the Squeaky Clean Scrub day and night, depending on the condition of my skin. Once a week I used the Face Mask and the Tea Tree Clearing Lotion acted as a 'on the spot' treatment to dry out the blemishes. 

Eventually I found I really needed to introduce a good moisturiser into the routine because Tea Tree is quiet drying if you aren't careful, so I also bought The Body Shop's Mattifying Moisturiser with SPF which covers sun protection and helps with the oiliness of hormonal skin while helping prevent the drying. I have also been mixing this with the Tea Tree Pore Minimiser which is brilliant at reducing the size of open pores under make-up.

At night I was using only the Tea Tree Night Serum, which was great at reducing the red scars left behind from previous spots, and my moisturiser, but I found that it was not enough moisture for my skin so I decided to add more products to my routine. 

Straying away from The Body Shop slightly, I've also introduced two extra products into my routine. The Ultra Calm Skin Relief Serum from Botanics at Boots is amazing to help calm my skin when it is red and rebelling in the morning. And at night I mix it with the Tea Tree Night Serum and my Simple Kind To Skin Vital Vitamin Night Cream to create a lovely moisturising yet health giving night treatment.

N.B. I am also trying out the Tea Tree BB Cream in Light and although it is a great base for make-up, I hope that this will become a good way to reduce the amount of make-up I wear which in turn helps the skin as it means there is less need for a fuller coverage and more for targeted coverage only on the areas it is needed.

Altogether my skin is much better than it was, I have to also watch that my hair doesn't get oily as that also affects my skin, as does the amount of water I drink and how late I stay up. Recently I have been up quite late and I'm feeling it, my skin is not happy. It will get under control though. I have faith. 

I hope this helps anyone who is trying to get their skin under control, however most of the time it is personal and someone's recommendations will not always be perfect for everyone. I know for definite that once you've made a plan you have to stick it out for a long time before you start changing things, as your skin takes time to adapt and take on the effects.

Hope you are all well, 

All the best, 

LDN Teenage Fashionista xx♥️

Links:
The Body Shop Tea Tree Range
The Body Shop Moisturiser - Mattifying
Botanics Ultra Calm Serum
Simple Kind To Skin Vital Vitamin Night Cream - this can be bought at many shops including Superdrug, Boots and Asda (the three I know of, but I am sure it can be found elsewhere too)