University Freshers! Part one.

Sitting in my new twin room watching various undergraduate students roam around the corridors is something that I always thought of as some distant eventuality but here I am , doing just that. It is such a surreal feeling to be here, away from home and on my own, and I'm not quite sure how to react to it. I feel slightly lost if I'm being totally honest.

 

I arrived yesterday after a maximum of 5 hours sleep and got settled in as quickly as I could. I'm actually very proud of how I have managed to fit everything in my room. For a twin room I have a lot of space so my roommate and I are never in each other's way. I have one small wardrobe which somehow fits all my clothes, a desk and some shelves but the biggest godsend of all was the under the bed space to house all my food (plus other necessities such as my shoes and a rice cooker)!

 

My new bed! I love my fox cushion :)

Storage: My teeny tiny wardrobe, food stockpile and shelves. The white boxes are from IKEA and have DVDS/books in them and the Celebrations tin holds all my nail polishes. And yes, I do have apples on my shelves...

 

 I think it's safe to say the hardest part of making new friends was trying to find everyone! The closed doors to everyone's rooms makes it so hard to interact with anyone so I was glad to have a door stop so that at least I could say hi to people as they walked past. That is definitely something I would recommend everyone brings with them to university, it just makes you much more approachable! The kitchen is one of the only areas where people seem to congregate and is the only reason I've met most of my floor mates at all. I have made multiple cups of teas and snacks just for an excuse to go into the kitchen and see if there is anyone around to talk to!

 

We do also have a little garden at our halls and so I spent a lot of time down there meeting people and drinking (responsibly, obviously). It was decided that we'd go on a pub excursion as a group which had us going to two different pubs, the second of which was in Camden. Although it was nice to meet an abundance of new people at one time, there were so many people in the pubs that you couldn't move so a group of us decided to go back to our friend's halls for some (not so sensible) drinking games. In total there must have been about 12 of us crammed into a girl's tiny single room! It was very cramped but very funny. Unfortunately, some friends and I couldn't stay long because we had to make the 30-40 minute trek back to our own accommodation (which I was doing in heeled boots that I had been wearing all day-owww! ). If it was not for the other boy staying at my accommodation I think I would have gotten myself severely lost. I finally rolled into bed at about 2:30am.

 

I think it's fair to say that my first day as a uni student was eventful but I anticipate a lot of interesting things to happen in the coming days/nights. I'll keep you posted on them all!



Packing for university: Make Up

It's scary to think that I'm moving to London in less than a week to start my studies at University College London. It was also slightly worrying to think that I hadn't really started packing up my life at all yet so today that's what I started to do. Most of my stuff for university currently lives in the back room of my house but there are certain things which needed sorting and putting away properly, such as my make up (which of course is very important to me). 

Mum and I went to Dunelm mill and bought plastic storage drawers to house my make up and toiletries and I spent the night pain-stakingly rifling through my stuff trying to see what I could bear to part with! Of course the make up that doesn't make it to university with me will just be at home waiting for me when I come home for holidays, I could never throw it all away! 

 

So here is the finished product! It is still technically a lot of make up to bring with you to university but it's part of my identity to play with make up looks so I couldn't just have a small little make up bag- I'm sorry, I couldn't!

Okay this is my 'Eyes' drawer... It looks messy because I had to dump the eyelashes on top because they wouldn't fit any other way. I promise there is some rhyme and reason to everything's placement though!

Next we have my 'Lips and Face' drawer which I am so proud of because it actually looks somewhat organised and because this drawer really shows you how much I've cut back on my make up. That small container at the front would usually not even fit all my lipsticks in and yet I've fit lipsticks and lip glosses in it together! Plus my lip products used to take up a whole drawer altogether but now fit nicely with my face products! 

This last drawer is an eclectic mix of toiletries (minus shower stuff which will live in a toiletry bag ready for shower use). This drawer is also very messy but that's because I haven't packed it properly since I still need a lot of this stuff before I leave, it will look a lot nicer when I get to UCL. This drawer is mainly hair products (a lot of hair = a lot of products) and my face routine plus a million boxes of contact lenses for good measure.

So there you have my make up storage in a nutshell. I do feel very guilty about bringing so much... Let me know if you think that this is an acceptable amount to bring or if I'm bringing way too much. Also leave a comment if you're going to university and tell me how you're feeling about it! Have you overpacked too? Are you sharing a room like me? Are you nervous? Get in touch! Lots of love, Kira x

New York Make Up Haul!

As promised today I intend to show you all the wonderful products that I picked up while in New York. Most of these I have wanted for absolutely ages and others I picked up because they were just too good to leave behind. So first off here is an overview of all the make up I bought (all from Sephora with the exception of the MAC items). There was another OCC lip tar in 'Strumpet' but it exploded in transit which caused me much distress as you can imagine.

 

Ta da! Doesn't it all look beautiful?

 

We have: Benefit's 'They're Real' Mascara ~ Smashbox Megatint long wear lip colour in 'Punch ~ Urban Decay Revolution Lipstick in 'Catfight' ~ MAC lipsticks in 'Rebel' and 'Lustering' ~ OCC lip tar in 'Lydia' ~ MAC lipliner in 'Nightmoth' ~ Urban Decay Naked palette ~ Anastasia Brow Wiz in 'Brunette' ~ Urban Decay 24/7 glide-on eye pencil in 'Deep End', 'Smog' and 'Mildew' ~ NARS eyeshadow duos in 'Dogon', 'Habanera', 'Rated R' and 'Mad Mad World' ~

 

Here are some swatches. From left to right, top to bottom we have the Urban Decay pencils in 'Smog' (golden brown), 'Deep End' (bright blue) and 'Mildew' (forest green). These felt very nice and creamy when I swatched them. The first lipstick is the Smashbox Megatint in 'Punch' and is a beautiful bright pink that I think could suit most skintones. The next colour is 'Catfight' by Urban Decay. Although it looks almost identical to 'Punch' in this photo, it is actually darker than it looks in the picture but it's another brilliant shade. MAC's 'Rebel' is next and it's a gorgeous berry purple colour. 'Lustering', also by MAC, is a lovely light pink colour that will suit every skin colour. I was drawn to it because I wanted a lighter, more everyday pink colour but I usually have trouble finding one that suits my dark skin- but this one works! It's a lustre so it naturally has a softer finish than other formulas. The beautiful lilac swatch beneath is OCC's 'Lydia' lip tar. Lilac and green are my favourite colours so this caught my eye straight away. The lip liner beneath 'Lydia' is MAC's 'Nightmoth' which was recommended to me by the nice MAC lady in the store to give it a more vampy look perfect for the colder months!

 

 

I don't think I need to tell you what this is. The Naked palette by Urban Decay has become a bit of a make up product celebrity and is used by pretty much everyone nowadays. It was about time I got my hands on it, don't you think?! Most of the make up artists and consumers that I've spoken to swear by this thing. It's a great product to splurge on if you just want one eyeshadow palette and you like your neutrals

 

Ahh NARS... somehow you had managed to evade me all these years but not any more! I finally own some duo eyeshadows and I could not be more excited about that! Just look how amazing they look in their packaging!

The order above corresponds with the swatches below. In order we have: 'Dogon' (metallic taupe/charcoal black), 'Habanera' (silver/ glittery plum), 'Rated R' (glittery yellow-green/glittery cobalt blue) and 'Mad Mad World' (pacific blue/glittery green)

These are all so beautiful and I can't stop staring at 'Mad Mad World' because I just can't find the words to describe the green colour! Unfortunately the taupe side of 'Dogon' didn't swatch very well on me because my skin is too dark, but it is a nice neutral colour.

 

So that was all the make up I bought, I hope you enjoyed snooping around my purchases!