Look of the day: Christmas Edition

Happy belated Christmas to you!!

Lately I've been so busy with work and Christmas prep that I haven't had a chance to blog for a while so I thought I'd kick-start my reintroduction with a Christmas outfit and look of the day.. outfit... hair... make-up & nails !

Selfie of the day

This year I opted for a matchy/clashy vibe sticking to a grey colour palette. I recently purchased this top and skort from River Island when their new spring collection started appearing in store. I don't believe that grey is going to be one of the huge key colours for this spring but it is a very wearable colour. 

I really love this top... it's high neck and slightly cropped but the long sleeves will keep you warm - it's fairly thin material but I love it and I think I'll be wearing it a lot. It would look great with jeans or a skirt and a simple but bright statement necklace. Yellow is a hot colour to go for if you're thinking spring time trends !

Crop top and Skort from River Island 

I really wasn't intending on wearing the two pieces together when I bought them, but I do think they work well together in a strange way. Iv'e never actually worn or purchased a skort before, not for any specific reason other than I just haven't been drawn to them.

The floral watercolour print on this piece is stunning. The colour palette acts as a strong transition from winter to springtime wardrobe and would look great worn with or without tights. 







...Moving on ... it's Make-up time!

So the make-up look of the day sometimes ends up being more important than the outfit for me.. but in this case everything was new new new so it was all a real treat on Christmas day!  I'd asked for a new MAC eye-shadow palette and a few eye-shadow refill pan's from my lovely parents this year and of course I had to use them on the day!

Here's what the palette looks like, Its black with a clear plastic top that says 'MAC',You have to but buy the inserts separately to hold the eye-shadows and they hold 15 shadows. It's not necessary to buy the inserts because the shadows are magnetic at the bottom but I like the palettes this way, and they're intel £2.50 so I think it's worth it. 

Left to right: Brulé, Cranberry, Quarry, Sketch and Trax

Note: The refill pan's retail for £10 where as individual shadows in plastic containers retail at £13. I only have one of these in the plastic pots which I use everyday for my brows - but I won't be adding it to my palette quite yet because I'm not an expert on depotting shadows! 

For a base I used a Becca resurfacing primer (which I'm obsessed with and love), Mac Studio fix fluid foundation and Mac studio fix powder. Then Mac eye-shadow in Espresso to fill in my brows, for blush I opted for Mac's breath of plum and Bourjois maxi delight bronzer to contour and finally Mac's Brave lipstick with Rimmel's Nude Delight moisture renew lipstick in the centre of the lips. 

For Eye-shadow.... 
I started out using Brulé across the lid and quarry in the crease.. I couldn't decide which to use next so i ended up mixing them all together anyway using mainly cranberry and trax across the lid with sketch in the outer corner teamed with a black gel liner and false lashes. 

Next up: Hair 

I had the Babyliss boutique deep waves hair tool as a present, which so far i really love. It gives a similar effect to a crimping hair tool but gives defined small waves. My first impression of this hair tool is really positive and I really do like the natural effect that it brings, I did notice that the curls started to drop after a few hours which isn't normal for my hair but I think next time I'll use more hair product before and after styling.

Finally ... Nails 
I'm one of those girls that never goes a day without having her nails perfectly painted. I'm a big fan of the (YouTube beauty guru) nail polish by Tanya Burr which is produced by the brand Eye Candy. They also have their own line of polish which I have discovered to be identical to the formulation of Tanya's, and they offer a slightly different range in colour. In an attempt at festive i went for the shade Riding Hood - I didn't want to opt for any crazy nail art that was too time consuming so this deep red was the perfect choice for me.

Tanya's collection is available in Superdrug at £5.99

Tanya Burr nail polish in shade Riding Hood

I really can't praise these nail polishes enough. I love the range of colours, the amount of product that you get is great value for money (12ML) and you can't fault the clean and bold packaging. Most of all the staying power and the fact that they all seem pretty chip resistant for days and days on end means that any nail polish produced by Eye Candy - if it's got Tanya's name on it or not - is a definite winner for me! 

Thats it for the Look of the Day Christmas Edition .. 
Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas time !

Love Amy x

The statement necklace

This week I took a trip to one of my favourite high-street stores New Look. I popped in just before work hoping to pick up a plain ribbed jumper that I had seen online .. Luckily the store's layout hadn't changed and I managed to find it straight away. 

I headed over to the jewellery section in search of a new statement necklace - potentially to wear with the jumper .. And just to treat myself. I really love a statement necklace, they literally make a statement and can turn any plain jeans and jumper combo into a more dressy or smart outfit! With this is mind I took my time comparing their new collections and ended up walking around the store holding 6 necklaces. I decided that it was a bit of an excessive amount to add to my collection and decided on the three below. 

All £7.99 from New Look, Cardiff

When I got to the checkout the sales assistant told me that it was buy one get one free on jewellery. Obviously I took advantage of the offer and headed across the store to pick up an extra necklace! Their jewellery is very reasonably priced and such good value for money, can you really tell that this necklace was £14.99 from New Look, or £34.99 from Topshop - the quality is great. 

£14.99 from New Look

New Look have so many styles to chose from and a statement necklace is a brilliant party accessory to add some more sparkle to your outfit! 'll definitely be paring this purple style with my new grey jumper (purple and grey/silver look great together). I'm not sure how long the offer is on and it wasn't that clearly advertised within the store - so head down to your nearest  and grab yourselves a few bargains, it's definitely worth it! You could pick up one to wear to a Christmas party and save another as a Christmas present for somebody else?

Happy Shopping ! 

Love Amy x

Faking your way to star baker status

I really fancied baking a nice batch of cupcakes to take into work tomorrow. We've seen all kinds of creations from home made giant Reese's peanut butter cups to bacon frosted cupcakes in our office so I thought i'd make my first contribution with some chocolate on chocolate cupcakes! If you haven't got the time or really can't be bothered Betty Crocker's Devils food cake mix (yes in a box) is a winner! I've used this mix several times before, it's quick and easy, cheap and you save on the measuring and washing up! 

I really do love baking all sorts especially from scratch, but tonight was the turn of the packet mix ... I picked up a £1 bag from Tesco .. 

...the instructions are literally as easy as 1..2...3

1. open the mix
2. toss the mix into a bowl
3. add two eggs and 8x tablespoons of water.. then bake!

The mix makes around 12 cupcakes or one 12 x 12 sponge, I bought two bags (so obviously had to double up on eggs and water) and there was a 3 for 2 offer - so I couldn't resist this amazing Betty Crocker icing to finish!

Try not to overfill the cases.. there must be baking powder in the mix because my cupcakes were HUGE!

To make them look even more yummy I picked up a set of decorations for around £2.99 from The Co-Op. It comes with 4 varieties of chocolate sprinkles.. so spread your icing in a messy but stylistic way.. sprinkle some sprinkles and wahey you're done! You'll have everyone thinking you're the next star baker in no time.. They won't be a Mary Berry approved creation but if you want to cut corners and save time then this is easy option is the way forward... shhhh!

Packed up and all ready to go tomorrow 

Have a great day and happy baking!

Love Amy x 

No tricks just Treats for me!

Despite the title of this post it actually has nothing to do with Halloween, - other than the fact that Halloween has just been and gone ... and I decided to treat myself to some new goodies!

Working in a busy high street store I am always travelling into town and wittingly allow myself some browsing time before work starts. We've recently had a brand new shiny MAC store open up in Cardiff and I seem to be 'popping in for a look' most days before work. This week I made two new purchases to add to my expanding MAC collection; Subculture lip liner and Stubborn pro longwear blush. 

I have had my eye on Fever blush for a while now thinking that it would be my next purchase, however when I did pay a visit to MAC last week they didn't have it in stock. Just as well because I spent a considerable amount of time comparing the two yesterday and I think I actually prefer stubborn! I was in the market for a deep red or mauve toned pink autumnal blush would work well with berry toned lipsticks- i thnk stubborn is a perfect shade!

Subculture on the other hand was a purchase attempt at creating the famed Kylie Jenner lip look, not for fullness but colour. A few weeks ago I finally got my hands on Brave hoping to achieve her look, but for me this shade isn't 100% spot on next to my nw25 (Mac) foundation. I really love it and it's a great everyday lipstick for work or even a night out - it's one of those 'your lips but better lipsticks' so I would definitely recommend it to everybody! I think it has too much of a sheen to be comparable with Kylie's mystery product and there are so many suggestions and comparisons online in pursuit of her look - this probably isn't her exact shade! (Some YouTubers suggest velvet teddy.) Youtuber Kandee Johnson, (who I adore!!) Has got the look pretty much spot on in my opinion using Urban Decay and Makeup Forever lip liners (check out her amazing lip liner tutorial here) and Nic from Pixiwoo also produced a fab Kylie tutorial check it out here. She used Soar lip liner and Honeylove Lipstick, both from MAC.

After some experimenting I found a mix of products that work well for me in pursuit of emulatin Kylie's trend. Subculture to fill in and line the lips with Brave on top and to finish off Urban Decay's Rapture Lipstick (review coming soon). I'm sure there is a much easier way of achieving the desired look (probably with less product and to a more matte finish) but for now this works for me and I think it will be my go to look for a while.

Finally, along with a few new purchases from Barry M, and another Tanya Burr Lip gloss, I also got my hands on some items from her new range...false eyelashes! I wont go into too much detail about them as I want to do a review post soon, but here are some snaps of the ones I picked up, I'm sure wont be disappointed with these!

Tanya Burr lashes in Pretty Lady (left) and the Individual set (right)

How do you achieve Kylie's lip look? Comment Below!

thanks for visiting!

Love Amy x

Welcome to my blog !

Hey guys and girls and welcome to my new blog!

I finally decided on creating a blog after about a year of debating it. I've wanted to start up a Vlogging channel for ages, and one of my really good friends Grace keeps trying to convince me but seeing as I don't quite have to confidence to do so I thought creating a blog first is a great way to start! 

This past summer I graduated from University with a degree in Media Studies (which i am so proud of!) and I am currently looking for a degree related job in PR /Marketing or anything similar that takes my fancy to be honest. 

I have been watching YouTube beauty guru's for the past five years now which is what or who have inspired me on this endeavour and I've been lucky enough to meet some of them too..which just inspires me even more to be honest. It's really amazing how you can make a career out of anything that you are inspired, obsessed or consumed with! Life and Lifestyle by Amy is aimed at revolving around all things fashion/beauty and anything incredibly girly (just life myself!) So stick with me on this new adventure and we'll see where it takes us!


Side note: as suggests by the title of my blog, yes - my name is Amy - Hi and thanks for visiting! x


Follow me on Twitter

Follow me on Instagram