It's been months since the last time I touched my watercolours, and one of these days filled with boredom and almost sadness for not creating anything in so long I just gave in! Pulled out all my materials and started sketching. I lost a bit of the practice I've once had but the love was still there... Watercolours have always been my favourite media alongside ink, and to be able to draw again was almost a disconnection to the real world. 

Here's some of the things I created while inspired! I've stopped for a while once again, the holidays approaching make me work more and more hours and have less time to take care of my personal life but hopefully once this season is gone I'll be able to loose myself once again in the magic of splashing colour! 

The festive season is usually all about glitter and pops of red everywhere but not all of us enjoy such bold statements, and the social pressure can be there to make us wear that red lipstick we've got since 5 Christmas ago that we hate...

If this is the case, you can be glamorous and season appropriate by twisting the red and going for the mauves instead! With these 5 products you can create a stunning look that will be festive yet not on your face and is a safe playground for those who are less experienced.

This has nothing of green in it apart from its beautiful packaging, worry not! Pixi has been in the spot light for quite some time now and the most popular thing is probably the Glow Tonic, or at least is the one thing I think about when I hear about the brand. Haven't tried that particular product but after some reads on this Sculpting powder I decided to give in and try it myself. All the raves were there so my expectations were high! It's not the cheapest sculpting powder either but oh it is a good one...

Glow is the key for the holiday season and since not all of us have the possibility or desire to spend dozens of pounds in cosmetics I decided it would be helpful to bring you some affordable glow givers!

Seventeen has always been that brand I look past when shopping, have no idea why since I've always been a fan of affordable yet good quality make-up, so since the day I decided to stop 5 minutes and have a browse there I found a few amazing products.

I guess I just need to justify why I've been absent for a month, and funny is I didn't even notice the time go by. If you're an avid reader you've noticed I wrote a post on why I was thinking of quitting blogging overall and just live life as it is, considering I'm not getting much further in my blogging path or accomplishing the targets I would've like to by this time. Truth be said I haven't given all the time in the world to blogging and even thou I love it and is one of my favourite things to do I just can't bring myself forward to leave everything else behind for this.

Long time no see, I know, shall I even mention?! Who knows in an upcoming post I write a life update. Onto new and exciting beauty stuff! Essence! You know this was the first brand being featured on the blog and many years before I used it non stop. Quality definitely improved and the trends are being followed, as expected!

Halloween is literally around the corner and if you're lacking inspiration for the dress up party just pop onto my last post for an easy yet fun look!

Season of the pumpkins also means season of the bold dark lips but since I'm that for all year around I decided it was more than fair to share my go to Halloween-y type of lipsticks!

NYX Cosmetics has a full range of Wicked Lippies which as the name suggest are very unique shades. I only own 3 of them and they sure are season appropriate!

After 3 years I can say, is frustrating not seeing major changes. What's wrong? The way I write, my photos, my content? I have no idea. I'm not the best at sharing my posts but when you have 500 followers you expect more than 18 reads a day, if you're lucky you'll have that much. 

I've always said to myself and other fellow bloggers, numbers don't matter but they do nowadays, it seems like if you don't have a certain amount of following at the end of X years you're just a failure as a blogger. It came to me that why bother sit down and write about things if people don't care to read? If it won't make them come back or if my photography is a bit grey because - hey I live in London what can you expect! 

I'm trying to move my life forward, I finished my course, I want to be a make-up artist full time but is so hard and takes so much money out of my savings to have a minimum decent kit. All of this together I still work 5 days a week at the bakery, and not having the best team ever with me it just sucks that I can't just quit because where am I going to get money to pay my bills right...

All of this together adds up to the fact I don't see progress as quick as I'd like to. I want to stick around but I come I write something and then I don't publish because I'm not feeling it. I've always been proud of my achievements but it comes to a point where there's so many people at my age doing so much better than me in life. So why bother if I'm not getting there even after 3 years. 

I'm not calling it quits right now but I don't want to spend all my life trying to be good at something that I potentially am not. 

Regina was the town we stayed for the most part, and where I spent all my money at Sephora! More on that to come later! 

Being it a small town and nothing like London it was good to get out and see some street art and different roads to the ones I'm used to. I can say I would not live there as I love Kingston way more. The problem in this part of Canada is that you need car to go everywhere which sucks when you don't own a license. Apart from that is a small town that has everything you need and good places to visit. 

Basically the Wascana Centre that I shared on last post is in here so you already have a good excuse to visit this part of SK.

On the weekend we've been to a closer city  - 3 hours drive away but that's their definition of close in a country where you get on a road that you just need to go straight for miles and all you see is fields with corn stover and sheep eating grass. The city in question is Saskatoon but the only pictures I have from it belongs to a park we visited, full of autumn-y leaves! I hope you enjoyed all this pictures from Canada and if you've been there recommend me a place to visit next! I'm planning on going to Vancouver next year! 

Kat von D arrived to the UK! Finally.... Now that I'm off in Canada and can pick everything they decided to contradict me and settle in UK soil. The good thing thou, if I happen to love a product don't need to order online. 

I've placed my introductory exclusive kit by the same time I got the Nikkie palette but just now had a chance to try all the products and have my thoughts.

For a long time I haven't done a halo eye and since we're in transition times between seasons what a better way to put that to work. I personally love bold smoky eye looks in the Fall, compliments the weather in a way.

This time I opted for browns and the only eyeshadow palette I used was the Tartelette in Bloom, which gives you an idea of a look to create with it if you already own the palette. If not, is not a problem since all the shades are standard and pretty much found in any neutral palette.

I hope you enjoy this look as much as I do!

Recently the hype was all over the new Too Faced collaboration, this time with Nikkie Tutorials, whom I've been a loyal follower for the past 6 years. I can say I wanted it for her, but of course mostly for the make-up! I've played with the palette for a while now and I have my opinion on it.

As if you were not expecting something like this to come up... So, let's start by saying there's no gold in here... so far.

The bold is a state of mind, a way of expressing feelings and one that makes you feel like you own the world... or at least is all it gives to me.

I'm a sucker for anything weird, and lipstick is no exception, I hope you enjoy this little (big) collection of fun colours and get inspired to rock that blue you got last month but still had no "chance" to wear.

A little play with glitter to brighten up the days! Summer is over but glitter is here to stay, have a play around and if you're not one for a super bold glitter lid you can always go for the easy liner! Get inspired!

As a make-up artist I need to think more often about my clients than myself when it takes to buy make-up nowadays. At some point I had to start building my kit and since Inglot is a professional and very high quality brand I decided to get some of their products to add to my kit but firstly test myself if they're any good! I know what you're thinking! I can't use products on myself and my clients at the same time but fact is when you buy powder products you have to use them in more than one person otherwise you can't make a living out of it. Of course things are disinfected with proper sprays between uses and between different people, I'm fully aware of hygiene, as every make-up artist should be. 

So here we are! Finally the day came and by this time I'm probably freaking out inside the plane for my stupid fear of flying... 

I guess we can only think about make-up to relax! So, here's what I'm probably packing with me to Canada, and by probably I mean it's already in the suitcase weeks prior... no shame! I'm not gonna give you a full on description of every product otherwise you would fall asleep reading, instead I will write the name and shade and link any post where I talk about it if there's any. Wither way, if you're interested in something in particular you can always point out and a review will come sooner or later. Thank you very much for staying around and I'll see you in Canada!!!!! 

Inspired by The Birthday Massacre this look came alive. Kill The Lights is one of my favourite songs ever and I thought would be appropriate. Also the bunny ring is there for a reason! 

Hope you enjoy this look and somehow wear it this Fall!

 

I know I know, I'm yet to share my experience on my make-up course and it will come soon, but meanwhile you can always take a peek on what I got for my SFX experiments at home!

In a quick shopping trip to Boots I fell the temptation of getting a weird eyeshadow, something I didn't own in my collection... an acid green shade that looked stunning on the shelf. And to myself I thought, that would look cool with my brown eyes! So here's a look using that weird shade, and to be quite fair I ended up loving the combination of purples. Definitely one to repeat!

Starting with the big old excuse of there's no such thing as too much make-up... well, I guess there is when you find yourself forgetting about products you once loved.

At this point in time I decided it was good to clean my make-up drawers and organise them, which made me realise how many lipsticks I just stopped wearing for no apparent reason, other than keep trying new ones.

Catrice has been on my top brands list since I first started wearing make-up, something like 8 years ago?! I've tried a fair amount of products and I can tell things get better each year. I've managed to round up some of my favourite face products to share with you today.

Empties! I can't remember the last time I did a post on my beauty trash! I haven't been using a lot of products anyway that are not make-up so here's just the usual things that run out fast. 

How do I even start... last week I was told I looked like a 17 year old and being honest I didn't like to hear it. It's not a bad thing to be 17 when you're 17, but I felt like if you don't know me just by the looks you judge the things I achieved. And this is a way of proving wrong. Looks not always are what they seem to be.

Anyway, I actually turned 21 yesterday, sounds weird to say it. In Portugal 21 is not a big deal, the 18th is thou, but at this place and time I'm not feeling it like the most important thing ever. It's nice, is my birthday. I just stop to realise how many things I achieved in the past 21 years and that's what makes me feel complete. So here's a little story of my life ( since I was 15).

Nail polishes, long time no see! Finally I'm not working full time on the bakery and can rock my long colourful nails for the most part of the week! It sounds a bit irrelevant but I've always liked to do my nails and be creative with them, one of the first posts was actually a nail art, which unfortunately I had to stop improving as my pastry course started. For health and safety reasons we can't have long nails let alone with chemicals on top. Since I'm just working part time there from now on I can do my nails on the days off which made me get so excited I bought tons o new polishes.

Soap & Glory is a brand I haven't explored much but the things I own I love! In order to celebrate the brand individuality I decided to put together a post where I share my favourites from the brand to achieve the Summer Glow! (not sponsored, every product was bought with my own money)