University Lecture Tips ♥

Hey dolls,

As you may know I am currently heading into my third year of university (eeeek!) studying biology and thought that I would write a little post about my lecture experiences, with some tips that I have picked up along the way.

When people ask me what lectures are like I say:

"It's like sitting in a cinema but instead of watching a film, the lights are dimmed and a lecturer stands at the front with a PowerPoint presentation and talks at you for about an hour whilst you frantically try to scribble down as much as they say without getting lost and then you have a five minute chat with your friends before they start again."

I usually have either two or four lectures a day and trying to keep up and focused, especially when dealing with difficult material, can be quite hard and this is where tip number one slots in:

Tip #1 - get a dictaphone

I got a dictaphone in second year and it has helped me no end and I would feel lost without it now. Keeping up in lectures can be difficult, especially when you have lecturers that forget to print half the handout or are adiment that they will do two lectures back to back with no break. Having a dictaphone isn't a replacement for taking notes, but when I feel lost by something that has been said, didn't get chance to write down what was said or even found my self drifting away and thinking about what I was having for dinner, I quickly note down the time displayed and then replay this bit when reviewing my lecture notes sometime that week. This is where the next tip comes in:

Tip #2 - keep up with lecture notes

This is a must, as leaving them will make revision stressful! This doesn't have to mean you spend hours memorising notes but just make sure you understand what was covered and you have filled in any gaps that you missed (e.g. with the dictaphone). When I have done this I put a big tick on the front sheet so you know where you are. It's important to keep lecture handouts organised, as I have learnt from experience, it saves a lot of time when it comes to revision. 

Tip #3 - annotate handouts, but always have some paper or a notepad

When I started university, they told us not to annotate handouts but make notes - this is impossible and pointless as a lot of the information is already written down and therefore you may miss out something important they say as you rush to scribble down what you already have. Most people annotate their handouts but I always like to quickly add numbers to each slide on the handout and then if I run out of place or the lecturer goes off on a tandem, I write down the slide number on a separate sheet and the continue writing. When reviewing notes I like to staple this sheets together or file them individually with each lecture handout.

These are some of my tips for lecture that I think have helped me, so I hope that they will help you! Good luck to any of you new students and if you are already at university, what tips have you picked up along the way? I'd love to hear them. 

New Look little black cami top ♥

Hey dolls!

I have been on the look out for new vest tops for some time now, as I love the versatility of them but am not that keen of the v neck of the Topshop vests that I have as I don't think that they look that dressy.  Finally I found these tops in New Look, which are a steal at £9.99 and almost identical to the Topshop versions but nearly half the price! They are a chiffon like material and available in a range of different colours and I definitely plan on getting more!

I initially purchased the black top and thought that I would show how versatile it is and how it is a great dressy alternative to the traditional vest top!

Outfit one 

Topshop printed trousers
New look sandals

Outfit two

New look army style trousers
Topshop wedges

Outfit three

Abercrombie and Fitch shorts
New look sandals

Outfit four

River island blue scalloped shorts
New look sandals

Outfit five

Topshop pink pleated skirt
Topshop black heels


As you can see these are really versatile and do add that something extra that a traditional vest top lacks.

Have any of you girls got these or similar tops? How do you like to style them?

A day at the races ♥

Hey dolls,

Hope you are all well. On Saturday I grabbed my highest heels and favourite outfit and headed to the horse races! It was an amazing day and all girls had pulled out the stops to dress up. In the car on the way there I decided a target of an illamasqua eye shadow quad for how much I wanted to win. Unfortunately I didn't reach my target, but did win £13 on a £1 bet whoooo!!

Here is my outfit and makeup:

                                 

French connection dress

Topshop heels

Mulberry Lilly

                

As any beauty blogger or makeup enthusiast, doing my makeup was something I was looking forwards to as you can go all out! I actually got complimented on my makeup and asked if I had had it done!

Have any of you been to the races? What did you wear and did you make a big win?

Dubai night time outfits ♥

Hey dolls,

I have been a little MIA recently but that's because I've just returned from a wonderful holiday in Dubai!

I had an amazing time topping up the tan and chilling around the pool and of course dressing up to go out at night. Dubai is definitely a dress up destination with everyone opting for dresses and heels as opposed to shorts and flats, and well which girl doesn't love to get dressed up?! I thought I'd share some holiday outfit snaps with you:

Topshop cream and coral lace dress and French connection heels with a gucci clutch

Lipsy nude feather dress with French connection heels and gucci clutch

Lipsy pink diamanté pocket dress with new look heels and accessorize clutch

French connection jumpsuit with mulberry diamanté stud clutch

Topshop blue peplum dress with new look heels and mulberry clutch

 

Topshop dress up range jumpsuit ....

....with topshop bandeau 

Topshop coral lace back playsuit with French connection heels and gucci clutch

River island beach maxi

Pixi Lott lipsy jumpsuit with mulberry Lilly and new look heels

Topshop white sequin top with topshop pink skater skirt, accessorize clutch and new look heels

French connection shoulder ruffle dress and French connection heels with gucci clutch

Lipsy white dress with new look heels

I had a wonderful time and every time I visit Dubai I fall a little bit more in love with the place haha.

Have you girls been away this summer?

OOTN and FOTN ♥

Hey dolls,

So after finishing the stressful time of exam season, I let my hair down with a night out with the girls and good old dance!

I wore a topshop purple peplum dress - I think I have a bit of a peplum dress obsession, as I have this in three different colours! Does anyone else do this when they like a dress? I have their skater dressers in four colours too haha.

NOTD - Illamasqua collide & Models Own Juicy Jules ♥

Hey dolls,

The sun has been making a little bit of an appearance and so out have come the summer bright nail polishes! I am definitely a girly-girly; if somethings pink, sparkly and full of glitter I will probably love it and do love this nail look.

Collide by illamasqua is a bright pink polish, and I think that it is best applied with a coat of a pale pink nail varnish below to prevent any streaks and then two coats of collide give a beautiful opaque colour. Initially I was only going to apply models own juicy jules polish (a holographic silver glitter) to my ring fingers, but I couldn't resist applying it to all my fingers.

What colour are you girls rocking at the moment?

PrincessJuicyT ♥

Illamasqua haul ♥

Hey dolls,

A few weeks ago I was in the middle of a hectic exam season, when Illamasqua put on a 50% off flash sale to celebrate reaching 50K twitter followers. As Illamasqua is one of my favourite make-up brands I obviously made some cheeky purchases to brighten up my revision doom! In addition to the flash sale price I also received a further 10% discount for being a repeat customer and actually regret not purchasing more! The website was going extremely slow as people rushed to take advantage of the amazing offers available so mine and my mum's orders were put through with minutes to spare - this was definitely more stressful than Immunology revision!

As Cheryl Cole is my beauty icon, my aim is to emulate her contoured cheek bones and as an avid watcher of pixiwoo's you tube channel, I opted for the raved about hollow cream pigment. The cream is a warm brown colour with a slight grey tone, meaning that it is perfect for contouring, as it lacks the orange tones and shimmers of some bronzers meaning that it enhances the natural shadows of the cheek bones as apposed to leaving an orange stripe, which is definitely a beauty no no. The cream is perfect for contouring as the product can be built up easily but can be blended into the rest of the skin.

The second product that I chose was gleam cream highlighter, which I have wanted for a long time. It a gorgeous shimmery champagne colour, which I put onto my cheek bones, under my eyebrows, down the bridge of my nose and on my cupids bow using my finger tips and then use a small blending brush to blend the product in. In previous beauty reviews I had read people said that the product didn't last very well, but so far I haven't had that problem. Again with this being a cream product I think that it is quite versatile as it can be applied quite sheer or can be built up to the be heavier.

My final product was an illamasqua blusher brush, which is one of the softest brushes I have ever used. The bristles are quite dense and I think that the brush is ideal for applying cream products and I use it to apply the hollow cream. I also think that it would be quite good at applying foundation and so if a deal like this comes up again I will certainly be grabbing another! (Lets hope that they do 75% off when they reach 75K followers or 100% off when they reach 100K follows - well a girl can wish!).

I am certainly going to make a list of products that I would like to speed up any future purchases in one of their amazing flash sales! Did you girls get anything in the sale?

Princess Juicy T ♥

Look who's back, back again! ♥

Hey dolls,

After a very hectic year I am officially back to blogging! Here are a few picture of what I have been upto in my blogging absence:

Working hard on my Biology degree. I have now officially finished my second year as a university student studying Biology and it is nearly time to start work on my dissertation - scary times!

I was a hairdresser at a local beauty pageant, with the winner representing my town in the upcoming Miss England contest.

I went to the clothes show where I was a model for a Lee Stafford demonstration and met Amy Childs.

I celebrated Christmas with my little munchkin.

I Turned 20! Unfortunately my birthday fell right in the middle of exam week (eugh! Who wants a statistics exam at 9am on their birthday) but I made up for it at the weekend with a night out with my friend.

I've had some fun nights out with friends.

I went to see Cheryl Cole

....and Girls Aloud!

And along the way I've had this little cutie keeping me company!

Princess Juicy T ♥

Jessica geleration nails ♥

Hey dolls,

I recently jumped on the gel nail polish bandwagon as I was intrigued by the idea of having perfectly polished nails for 2-3 weeks with a fantastic shine. The idea behind these gel nail polishes is that they are a hybrid between a gel and a nail polish and because there is no buffing involved to apply or remove the polish, they do not damage your natural nails, meaning that they are great for occasional use for special occasions, like holiday (as they don't need re-touching as they don't chip - meaning more time can be spent catching the sun rather than painting nails!) or even for everyday wear (as who doesn't want perfect nails?!) With many brands from shellac, gelish and jessica to orly gel fx and opi having the salon gel nail varnishes I was stuck with who to opt for but the decision was made for me when I spotted a local salon doing the jessica geleration nails for £10, whereas many other salons charge between £20 and £25.

As a post holiday treat, me and my mum visited the beauty salon and the entire process took around 45 minutes each and began by selecting the polish colour ( I chose a lovely coral-pink colour and also a subtle glitter over the top) and having my nails shaped. Then a foundation gel polish was applied (basically a base coat) and this was cured under the lamp for a minute prior to 3 coats of colour (which were each cured under the lamp for two minutes) and finally a top coat (which was also cured for two minutes). The process sounds quite lengthy but as one hand was under the UV lamp, the nails on the other were being painted and as we chatted away, the time soon flew and I was left with lovely shiny nails (the shine that is achieved by the gel polish is amazing and much shinier then any nail polish I have used before).

When they were first done

The gel nail polish is meant to last for between 2-3 weeks, without chipping or loosing its shine and as you can see from the pictures below, the shine didn't change and my nails didn't chip - I was amazed! The only things that I noticed about the nails was that on some nails, particularly my thumb (in the picture below) the gel had begun to separate from my natural nail, which was a little annoying because apart from this my nails looked perfect and also I got a lot of growth away from the cuticle ( I think that it looks a lot more than normal as the lady in the salon left quite a gap when she first applied them).

After 2 weeks

As you can see, the gel is just starting to come away from my natural nail

To take the gel nail polish off, you can go back to the salon or you can easily remove it at home. I removed mine at home by lightly rubbing a nail file over the top of the nail to roughen the gel (this lets the acetone soak in more) then I placed a cotton wool ball with pure acetone on (which I bought from home bargains for £1) over the nail and wrapped this is tin foil and left it for 10-15 minutes. When I pulled the tin foil off, I placed a little pressure on the nail and twisted and then used a cuticle stick to push off the gel polish and my nails were perfect underneath.

With the tin foil and acetone on 

My nails after removing the tin foil and acetone, which was left for 10 minutes

Removing the gel with a cuticle stick (note my mums gloves to protect her gel polish nails from the acetone haha)

I loved my nails with the gel polish and it saved a lot of time as if I wear nail polish I chip it every day and so constantly need to re-touch my nails or re-paint them, whereas with this I didn't have to touch my nails  for 2 weeks. After having them done and seeing how easy it was to apply and remove it, my mum purchased the UV lamp and everything that is needed to do the nails (but we went for gelish instead of jessica geleration as there were more colours that we liked) so look out for a future tutorial post! As you may have seen, you can apply pure glitter to the nails before the topcoat to achieve 'rockstar nails' - if you love glitter definitely google this because they are amazing and I will be trying to recreate them!

My nails in gelish passion (applied at home by my mum)