So this is it!

As you read this I am currently getting happily drunk at my friend Debbie's house - but this is a scheduled post because I love you so much! I like doing these little round up of the year posts, because I like looking through pictures on my computer..
(A quick note - I don't really show pictures of my artwork on my blog, because I like to keep it mostly separate, but there will be some pictures included here, because it's been a massive part of my life this year, obviously! So saying that, these pictures are all mine, taken by me, with my own camera. Please don't reuse them! This is why I made them really small..)

January

- Celebrating New Year with Debbie, drunkenly in my front garden.
- A beautiful evening at St. Pauls with my friend Tam.
- Discovering the Hunterian Museum - my new favourite place in the world.
- Embracing scruffy fringes and a lack of makeup.

February

- My dad had a knee replacement, in payment for driving places, I took pictures of his bruising.
- I just like fish, okay?
- Learnt how to silkscreen - made prints inspired by my dads bruises.
- Good nights out with good friends!

The rest of the year is under the jump!

Merry, merry, merry, merry, merry Christmas..

Oh my God. I suppose that is what you do at Christmas, but oh my God, I feel like I have never eaten so much in my life. I have also been drinking since lunchtime and I don't think that is too good either, haha. Me and the family have had a lovely day, watching DVD's and other things. 

Our christmas tree and some decorations - my mum makes these beautiful handmade quilts and most of the decorations in the house have been handmade by my mum.. so it feels really lovely at home right now.

Food. So much food. I made lots of gingerbread and mince pies and sausage rolls and banana cake and so much other food! My brother also made a lot of eggnogg.. and I must admit, I am quite partial to it. It tastes a bit like a White Russian drink, if you've ever tried one. It sounds really foul, but it's so good! And my mums Christmas pudding all lit up.. I don't like Christmas pudding, but I like watching it all lit up!

Below the jump are some of my favourite gifts.. Just because I'm really excited over them! Plus I love seeing what other people get.. 

Bad Blogger

Oh my gosh, I actually cannot believe what an awful blogger I have been! In truth, it's basically because I've barely had a day off since I've started at university! And the days that I do have off, I've spent them catching up on lost sleep, or trying to get all the little errands and crap that I have, done. I wish I could tell you that I've been doing something crazy and exciting, but really I've just spent lots of time working at uni until 7PM most night, the weekends are spent working at my job..excuses excuses, I know. Anyway, I just wanted to let you know that I appreciate you all for still following my little blog after all this time! I haven't had any exciting outfits to show you, and my makeup has resorted to literally just mascara every day, my nails have become completely cut down from all the etching I have been doing.. But I am getting my hair cut later today, so maybe I'll post about that for you, haha.
Thank-you all so much, maybe I'll buck my ideas up one of these days!

Clare Marie
x

Take a bite of my heart tonight!

Quick evening post for you all! I got in from a work meal a little while ago and thought my hair looked quite nice - all over the place and fluffy is my idea of nice! - so snapped a quick picture on my computer. Also thrown in for good measure are my nails which everyone at the meal were fascinated by! Might do a proper post with better pictures soon.. 

Anyway, this the the Primark dress I posted about previously - my dad hasn't seen it yet and he called me a hussy for wearing such a bright red. I don't know either, i thought that was red shoes..haha.

I have my induction at uni tomorrow - I don't know why we need one for second year but we apparently do - then I'm having a speedy lunch with some friends before going to work in the evening.. and then an early bedtime because I have to be in work at 7.30 on tuesday morning! God.. haha.

Hope you've had a nice day - apart from the wind it's been pretty nice here.

White-Van-(Wo)man in Training!

I guess this post is what has become known as a "Sunday Summary" but that term kind of makes me shudder! Basically just a collection of photos that I've taken over the last seven-ten days. A little culmination of my obsessive compulsive photograph taking..

Anyway, as you read this I am probably out in the vans at work, being trained how to do the home deliveries for the supermarket I work at! haha

1. Using the cupholders in my dad's brand new car as a rest for the plants I bought..

2. ..for my terrarium! (He was not pleased with me by the way! haha)

3. The beautiful view from my window one day! Actually gorgeous. 

4. Visiting a warehouse space that I could potentially exhibit work in, in Vauxhall.

5. My mum made me a wolf cushion.. haha!

6. Checking on my fishy because I've left him with my house-mate for a weak or so!

7. I baked some bread because I wanted to test out our oven and try and make something tasty.
8. Ohh, and burning my hand whilst cooking said bread.

Liz Earle Deep Cleansing Mask Review

I have to say, I didn't realise how much I loved this product until I lost it. I had it for something like two weeks, and lost it mysteriously on the travel between my uni house and my home, a drive that is like twenty minutes, whatttt?

Anyway, I SO didn't appreciate what it was doing for my skin until I couldn't use it anymore! It has worked wonders, so much so that I have gone and repurchased it this week, because I couldn't live without it any longer. Already, I feel my skin clearing up, and I used it a few hours ago.

The review is a mixture of first impressions, and my love of the product!

Initial things that you notice; the smell and the packaging. I bought the 75ml "Starter Kit" and it comes in this little mesh bag with the two sponges, and it retails for £13.25 (I got my 25% discount!). I think you get a good amount for what you pay really, I've certainly shelled out a lot more on face products! The tube is all nice and simple, so that's cool, I have no worries about that!

The smell and the consistency/product texture are the next things that I notice, really. This is my first Liz Earle product, and I heard they were "natural" smelling, but it definitely smells like it's made of good lovely things, not as 'fresh' as I would like, but not bad. It's 

It's a dark, greenish colour, which reminds me of seaweed. It's not so bad, not exactly glamorous, but not bad,.

The consistency of the product is odd, it doesn't really spread very well on my skin, and at first I thought I wasn't doing it right, because it says to apply a "generous layer" and it's hard to do that, so I just kinda slap it on thicker in my worse patches!

Then you leave it on for five-ten minutes! It feels good, comfortably tight, by which I mean that I can still move my face and talk and such, although I do feel like I am wearing a face mask, obviously!

Immediately after, my face feels really good. Very smooth and clean, and like it's soaked up all the impurities. However, using the sponge doesn't make you feel very refreshed, so I definitely recommend giving your face a quick wash afterwards, and trying to keep the sponges as clean as possible. When I'm finished, i place them in the bag, to kinda dry off. Because the bag is meshy, that's possible, but otherwise I don't really know what to do with it! Here's a picture of the sponges, too, to get an idea of the size;

Generally, I love this product, and have repurchased because it's the only thing that has completely cleared my skin up like this!

My only complaint however is the shocking customer service I received in the John Lewis in Reading, because I literally received NONE, both times I went there. There is a lovely, fully stocked counter, but there is just never anyone there and I have questions that need to be answered! Like I wandered around and waited, and no-one came, which is super disappointing, and this time, I wanted to know the price of someone and had to try and find someone capable of telling me.. which really let it down, in my opinion!

Price: 4/5

Packaging: 5/5

Product: 5/5

Customer Service: 0/5

Overall: 5/5

Would I buy this product again?: Yes, and I did!

Have you tried any of Liz Earle's products, let me know in the comments below!

Regular Jewels!

I've wanted to show you these things for a while.. these are my favourite rings, that I wear virtually every day.. and I think they're all beautiful, and completely precious to me.

I made a decision recently to stop wearing awful, cheap jewellery that turned my fingers green and to invest in lovely, good quality pieces that I would be able to wear for a long time, and cherish, and hopefully mean something to me. 

The oldest one is the blue oval, which I got about a year ago now? Maybe less, from a carboot sale. Although this one, and the one on my right hand, made up of triangles of shell and mother-of-pearl, didn't mean a great deal to me, they were beautiful finds, and didn't cost more than £7 put together. The blue one was £5 and is plated silver - with a stone of indeterminate nature, haha. The other was £2, and I think is also silver plated, although it bears no hallmark, which makes me think it isn't. It's some kind of silver metal, at least.

The other two on my ring finger, however, are the most meaningful. (This isn't the best picture of the rings, below, but I apologise for the icky cut on my hand - the pleasures of working with knives, eh?) 

The top one was a 21st gift, half from me, half from my mother, from when I went to Italy. It was about twenty euros, but I think it's a wonderful memento of the trip, and a bit different from like, watches and things people get when they turn twenty-one! It's got these lovely little flower-type details, which I think is beautiful, and it looks so nice next to the other one..

Which has a little story to it. My mum found it whilst cleaning out a cupboard, and remembered that my Gran had given it to her, because she didn't wear it. The ring is very similar to an eternity ring my mum wears already, so she said I should have it. I thought it was lovely piece of costume-jewellery, so I had it on straight away, thinking that it was sad it was so grey and tarnished. But then I bought a silver-cloth, and gave it a little polish and it came all off, and my dad told me that they were sapphires and diamonds! So I was so impressed and have been paranoid about it ever since!

Shortly after writing this post, my mum comes back from a funeral of her aunts, I guess my great-aunt - I met her when I was younger and she was this lovely woman, and I am a quite sad that I didn't know her better. I've kind of made a little resolution to get to know my family better. Anyway, my mum got given some of her jewellery, and she passed on one of them to me - it's absolutely gorgeous, and really unique, take a look;

It has this sort of bow/cross design in the middle and all these swirls around it, and the metal is kind of crimped, which I've never really seen before, and gives it an interesting shine in the light. Unfortunately it's a little bit big for me (it only fits securely on my thumb!) so I'm going to see if I can get it reduced at a shop or something. 

What pieces do you wear every day? Show me, I'd love to see! 

Moving!

Hey guys! I wanted to give you guys a quick update of what I've been doing in a super speedy post because I have work in half an hour. I have moved out! But I was back the next day. Our lease for the house started August 1st, so I moved a bunch of stuff in and spent the night there, and made it all homely and junk, but because we don't get internet there until next Wednesday, I've been staying at home. I have a few extra shifts at work and want to get the most of seeing my friends before they head back to uni! I'm only half an hour max away from home, so I can luckily flick back and forth between the two. Besides that, I popped to the shops today and bought a few things, but I thought I would show you some pictures of my room, and a lovely nail varnish I picked up today!

Fantasy worlds, and going back to school!

Ah, I have so much I need to write about! I still haven't had a chance to show you some pictures from my holiday. The week I arrived home, I had to work at my job all week, and then this week just gone, I've been teaching at my old school all week! I'm so very tired now! I have this week to return to normality, before I move into my university house on August 1st! So it's all been a bit up and down really, and it hasn't felt much like summer - also due to the weather. Whilst I'm here, I thought I'd show you a few pictures I've snapped this week.

MAC Blue India swatch

Here's a nail swatch of Mac's Blue India. I had this picture chilling in a folder, so thought I would upload! It came out with the Liberty collection, whenever that was. I don't keep up with them any longer because they're all so awful, but I remember I really loved the packaging on the boxes because I adore Liberty scarves.

Think of me today whilst I'm getting my tooth pulled out!

Paranoid Blogging!

Basically, I have to have this tooth out tomorrow, and although I've had loads of dental work done before, like fillings and root canals, and such, I've never had one taken out, and I'm a little bit terrified. Well, a lot terrified. I'm paying extra to be sedated during the process because I get really panicking when I think I can feel pain, even if it's just the sensation, or whatever. It's pretty traumatic for me, haha. But now I'm worrying mostly about having a giant hole in my mouth afterwards.. ugh! 

So to take my mind off it, I'm trying to blog, but I'm just worrying! This will be long, and rambly, but you don't have to read, don't worry!

It was my 21st birthday this week! And I've had a lovelyyyy time. I saw my wonderful friend Tam on Monday and we had a lunch and saw X-Men First Class which was amazinggg, I adored it, I'm now a little bit obsessed with Michael Fassbender. 

Tuesday was my actual birthday. I had croissants for breakfast with my mummy, and then lunch with my friend Amy, and went to a Chinese and Thai restaurant with my family in the evening. A lot to eat in one day! haha. 

On Friday I went to dinner with a bunch of my closest friends, minus the few that were unfortunately still at university. ): We went to really good restaurant where I had chicken stuffed with ricotta, wrapped in parma-ham with sweet potato chips and roasted pepper. So good! And lots of wine, and some amazing banoffee pie. Haha.

And to finish off my wonderful week, me and my friend went down to Wookey Hole yesterday, and saw some awesome caves! I am a huge fan, so I geeked out over it. 

That all out of my system, have a gander at some photographs from this week!

Standing on the sofa to pretend that I'm taller than my six foot four brother!

Poke at my iris, why can't I cry about this?

I apologise if you're not enjoying this backlog of outfit-posts. In my downtime, I still take regular pictures and such, I just forget to write the text! Thinking of doing less wordy posts, so I shall make this short and sweet! An outfit I wore to the cinema a few weeks ago.

Top: Primark, about £10 

Trousers: ASOS, £13

Wrap: New Look (very old, I can't remember the price!) 

Watch: Ice Watch. 

Jewellery: Owl Ring from H&M, £3.99, others are vintage.

Illamasqua Lipstick in Corrupt: Review

I got this lipstick ages ago now, it was a Christmas present from my family! One of the things I love more than anything is bright lipsticks. I have a selection in my stash from pink, orange, red, purple, and most things in-between. I really adore bright, shocking colours, and this lives up to that reputation.

Illamasqua Lipstick, Corrupt, £15.50 

There's another picture of me wearing it here, just after Christmas (looking at that post makes me miss all my big comfy Winter jumpers!) I got it from the Illamasqua store just off Carnaby Street in London and the girls there was so lovely. Sat with me whilst I uhmed and aahed over various shades before I decided on this one! She also showed me how to blend it with a blue eyeliner to get a really interesting shade of purple, which I've attempted! Here's a closeup;

 

It's a really lovely lipstick, and has a beautiful matte finish. The only problem with that is it's quite a drying lipstick, so you need to make sure you have super moisturised, free from cracks or flakes, and I recommend not wearing it for that long a time, because when it starts drying out, you can tell. But then, that is an issue with all brightly coloured lipsticks, and |'m used to it, so it doesn't bother me that much anymore. The only real issue I have with it is that their lipsticks are a funny shape, which isn't really that useful when you're trying to apply them. 

   

They cost £15.50, which | think is a little on the pricey side, but it's a beautiful colour that I'm willing to pay the extra for! I'd be more comfortable with a £10-12 tag, though. At least we're not talking Rouge Volupte here! The packaging is nice, I like a more square tube, actually, like Nars lipsticks. 

Price: 4/5 

Packaging: 5/5 

Colour: 5/5 

Texture: 3/5 

Would I buy this product again?: Definitely. I have my eye on that navy blue lipstick that they do..

Tiger's are my spirit animal..

Quick outfit post for you today! I went to Longleat at Easter with some friends because I had a sneaky discount and we wanted a little Easter break. It was quite nice, wandered around Bath a bit, had a lovely time. And I bought an amazing shirt. For five english pounds. I couldn't believe my luck. I bought it super big so I could wear it like a dress, and I do.

I don't look myself in these pictures, I'm not sure why that is, haha. I look a bit like a demon. Sorry for the awful lighting! I tried editing them a bit, but I just looked more and more strange! Here's the graphic on the shirt;

 

You can't really see but theres a black leopard under my hair! Snow Leopards and and Tigers are my ABSOLUTE favourite (hence, my blog title!) so I was in love. I've been wearing it with my Primark boots, but now it's getting warmer again, I may have to put these away. We shall see! Hope you en joy my silly taste in clothes..!

Ombred!

It has been FOREVER since I have posted, I am so sorry! I have been having a rather hectic time at university. I had a month or so where I was really panicking about whether I was doing the right course and now I'm feeling better about it, I've realised how behind I am and I'm trying to catch up.. Bit of a bad cycle. And then, I've just paid the deposit on my house for next year, so I'm spending all my money on second-hand table-ware and things for my new house, and neglecting beauty a tad.. However.. I got my hair dyed yesterday. If you follow me on twitter you'd have seen me tweeting about this all day, but I loved it so much! I got my hair ombred! I don't even dye my own hair with packet dye, I'm that paranoid about it, so there was no way I was doing this myself, but there are tutorials online about it, and I don't think it's that hard. Now that it's done, I think I could lighten it up myself, because the ends aren't that light, really. I'd see, haha.

The first picture is of it yesterday, and the second is of it today. My hairdresser friend had curled my hair yesterday, and I couldn't really get an accurate picture of it until today. LLYMLRS tells you to just "rub it in" which is pretty much how my hairdresser did it. She sectioned off the top bit of my hair, and did the bottom first, and backcombed the hair before applying it upwards, rubbing it in. I also had my roots darkened a teensy bit, and she applied a tiny bit of the brown dye over the ends *right* before she washed it off, so it made the bleach less orange!

I reallllly love it! Like I said, she darkened the bleach a little bit more than I would've liked, but I didn't want it to go to orange, and it was leaning that way (I have a lot of coppery/red tones in my hair, as you can probably see). Next time I'd probably get the very ends lightened again, because I'd want them slightly lighter.. But I really love it!< Here's a picture from the front, and you can see how it fades;

 

(Excuse the geeky shirt!)

And just for fun, here is my hair after curling it! My friend used the Cloud nine O's! which were amazing! I need them, now The big ones weren't so good on my hair, the 40mm ones gave the best curls, definitely. Sadly, we worked out that altogether it would cost £300+, so for now, it remains a dream..

'Scuse the scabby lipstick, I'd had it on for a few hours by that point, and eaten and drank and such. 

Hope you like this! I'll try and post more..

Carboot Sale Treasures

I got home from the carboot sale I went to the other day, when I realised that I never posted about the last one that I went too! I got some wonderful bits of jewelery that I've been wearing quite a lot. So I thought I would do some kind of bumper post, especially after being inspired by Zoe's post about what jewellery you can find at carboot's & in charity shops! Which is pretty fantastic. 

I can't really tell you how much these were individually, because I just got from a stall where I collected a giant handful of everything I liked, and they charged me about £2-3 for the whole lot, which you've got to admit, is fairly excellent. 

The green triangles I call my Quality Street earrings, 'cause I'm a dork. 

The rings I wear on a daily basis, and the bracelet needs a few links replacing, so when I get on that, I'll be wearing it!

Just quick shots of me wearing some of them. The white enamel earrings are my absolute favourite, I wear them so much. They look really excellent with a slightly more dressy outfit, or to dress up a t-shirt and leggings. They're really good quality, too. 

The giant 'pearl' and gold ones are clip on's, and although they make me look a bit Pat Butcher, they make me laugh. I haven't really worn them much cause they hurt a little bit, just around the house to keep me amused. 

This is what I bought on Sunday! I didn't really find as many earrings, which upset me, but hey, I can cope. I can remember what some of this cost:

The silver ring on the far left: £4. For real silver, it's not too bad! 

The silver owl brooch: £2. So gorgeous.

The colourful owl: I think about £3-4? There was an entire stall selling just owl-related stuff! It was amazing.

And the choker at the bottom cost me £2. 

The other things I just picked up because they looked cute. The other silver ring with adjustable band is a mood ring! I didn't realise at the time because my hands were so cold, so it didn't change colour, but I'm fascinated by them! Haha. The earrings were just sort of cute, and the sovereign ring, although tacky, looks pretty cool. 

I picked up the choker because it looked so similar to the bracelet I bought before!

The bracelet is on the left, the necklace on the right. Like I said, the bracelet is missing a few links, and the choker missing a clasp, but I'm gonna pick them up next time I go to Hobby Craft or somewhere, and wear them together!

This was the silver ring, it's absolutely gorgeous. It's actually too big for me, but it doesn't stop me from wearing it. I am in love with the shiny blue glass stone. Along with the white earrings, they're the best thing I've managed to find!

Also realised the best way to store my jewellery is in bowls and plates, so I picked up this little gold enamel bowl for 50p to keep my rings in!

I also picked up a cheeky Polaroid camera for a fiver, so I'm hoping it works! Need to hunt down some film on eBay. (:  I hope that was interesting! Do you guys go to charity shops or carboot sales? Let me know if you pick up any bargains. (:

Also I was thinking of having a little blog-sale, would anyone be interested?

Outfits & Faces

I hate the term outfit/face of the day, really. It just sounds awkward, but thats what this is. Here is what I wore for a little night out in town with some friends, having drinks before my friends went back to uni again! I'm actually quite an unconfident person, if I'm honest, and I don't ever really think I look that good, I just hope my appearance is not vomit-inducing, haha. I don't normally like going out because I feel self-conscious, etc. Anyway, that said, I felt quite nice! Which is an unusual occurrence.

Black lace skater dress, was £20.00

I bought this dress ages ago, but forgot that I had it! I tried it on at this Outlet up the road from me, but they didn't have it in my size there, so I bought it online.. and I don't know, I just kind of forget when I buy things online, because I consider it much more, when I buy things in person, they're more impulsive and I want to wear them straight away.
Anyway, I've had it in my cupboard for a couple of months? I wasn't really sure with what shoes to wear it with, but in the end I wore it with my black Primark boots. I think I looked a bit of a goth in the end haha, but I liked it!
Eyes:
Illamasqua Liquid Metal in Surge
MAC Eyeshadow in Idoleyes
MAC Eyeshadow in Nylon
MAC Eyeshadow in Parfait Amour
MAC Eyeshadow in Top Hat
L'Oreal Voluminous Mascara
MAC Kohl Power in Feline  Face:
Diorskin Nude Concealer in Ivory 001
MAC Studio Sculpt Foundation in NW15
MAC Select Sheer Pressed Powder in NW20
Nars Albatross