Blue skies and belated blogging

You may or may not have noticed that I've been taking something of a blogging hiatus since the New Year. Returning to university, exams and general hecticness have meant that I've not been able to do much in the way of writing blog posts, not to mention the weather - the UK's biblical storms have not exactly been conducive to my ramblings, as they've meant that I haven't been able to get out and about to take nice pictures of anything. 

However, this once-in-a-century/eight-in-two-months freak weather has got me reminiscing about the lovely weather that we had by chance when we visited St Ives, Cornwall, just after Christmas. By then, some of the country was already underwater and further destruction was already forecast, but somehow the far western tip of Britain managed to escape it for the most part. 

Taking advantage of a mid-winter deal, we booked to stay at Tregenna Castle, a beautiful hotel with views over the town and the Atlantic Ocean. Here are some of my favourite pictures from our brilliant mini-break - hopefully we'll be back in St Ives very soon.

Reviewing some of my favourite Rimmel London products - or, Why I don't do beauty tutorials

Happy New Year, everybody! I hope that you've all had a lovely break over the festive season, eaten lots of food and spent lots of time with family and friends. I've been home from university for the holidays and unfortunately have exams next week, so what with trying to find time revise here and there between all of this relaxation and chocolate-eating, I've not done a great deal of blogging.

If you've seen my Youtube channel, you may have noticed that I was a very lucky girl and Father Christmas brought me a new phone, which I have had great fun trying out. I've also used it to make what I thought was a flash little trailer for this blog post, but, as I may be the last person in the hemisphere to find out about iMovie, everyone else is probably over it by now. In any case, it was fun to make, so don't point and laugh at the luddite too much.

However, you will also see that my channel is sadly devoid of all of those beauty tutorials which are so popular on Youtube and there is good reason for this; I'm not really very good at make-up. Naturally, when I raided my local branch of Boots earlier in the week, I had forgotten this very good reason and set about making a video in which I would use my exciting new mascara and eyeliner and show everybody how nice it looked. This culminated somewhat inevitably in me stabbing myself in the eye with the mascara brush, causing a fit of the giggles, which then led to my meticulously-applied liquid eyeliner suddenly migrating up to my eyebrows, all of which has been recorded for posterity on film. 

Anyway, I thought that I'd still like to share with you the joys of Rimmel London, so I have taken some slightly cringeworthy pictures and shall proceed with my post. Being a student, the thing that I like most about this brand is that it's affordable and, better still, both Boots and Superdrug do near-constant 3-for-2 offers on all Rimmel products. So, after deciding that my make-up bag needed refreshing, I picked up six different things, including two concealers, two lip balms and the aforementioned mascara and liquid eyeliner, which cost me in total just over £25. 

The Hide the Blemish cover-up stick has been a cosmetic staple for me probably since I started using make-up, so I picked up a replacement, as well as the Wake Me Up concealer. Both are in '001 Ivory', because I have skin which resembles that of Casper the friendly ghost. Wake Me Up apparently has an 'instant anti-fatigue effect' and, although I like to think that I don't usually fall for the trade-marked faux-scientific names and descriptions on these sorts of products, it really is quite effective on dark undereye circles and also as a highlighter on cheekbones etc. It feels lighter on my skin than the more conventional Hide the Blemish, which I tend to use for covering up occasional big spots (delightful) rather than hiding the evidence of late night Tumblr sessions which manifest themselves under my eyes.

I treated myself to a new mascara because I think that the last time I bought one was in 2012, scouring the Brittany Ferries duty free while suffering from mild motion sickness. As you can see, I chose Rimmel's Scandaleyes Retro Glam in 003 Extreme Black and I am demonstrating it with my very best scandal eyes above. The brush is an hourglass shape, which gives even, unclumpy coverage and a similar effect to Maybelline's Falsies mascara, my previous favourite.

Liquid eyeliner is something of which I'm a big fan and, seeing as I already have an Exaggerate by Rimmel that's really easy to use, I thought that I would invest in another from the same range. So I'm now the owner of Glam' Eyes 'professional liquid liner'. I'm not sure if 'professional' is advertising-speak for 'more difficult to use', but unfortunately that is what I have found it to be so far. Only slightly more difficult, mind you, but the brush is a lot thinner than Exaggerate's and feels a little more spindly to use, so my application wasn't as straight or smooth as before. Having said that, this might be something that I get used to, the more I use it. 

I've always loved bright lip colours, particularly in recent years since 'discovering' vintage styles, but I've never quite been confident enough to make red lipstick part of my usual look. So I was really pleased to find the Lasting Finish Colour Rush lip balms, because they come in seven different colours and are light enough to wear every day without looking too much. I bought 220 Rumour Has It, a pinky-magenta shade, and 500 The Redder, The Better, because I just can't resist a retro-style red.

As I've said, I think both shades are very wearable, even though they're bright, and one application did last for several hours before I had to reapply (though it'd undoubtedly last longer if you can go more tham half an hour between cups of tea, unlike me). 

It's been ages since my last post, as I lost my blogging mojo somewhat towards the end of last year, after quite a stressful term at uni, so I'm glad to have finally written a new one, and particularly on a topic that I've not featured before. Hopefully I've been able to show you that, even if you know next to nothing about make-up, like me, you can still have fun experimenting with new colours and products, and here's hoping that I'll have time to get back into blogging in 2014!

If you've been trying out some new make up products recently, or if there's anything that you'd like to see me write a post about in the New Year, feel free to leave a comment below!

The festive joys of late-night shopping at Princesshay

Not a lot of things make me feel more festive than late-night shopping. The fairy lights, cold winter air and bustling streets could make even the most unremitting Scrooge feel Christmassy in no time - when it goes right, that is. But if you think that tackling the High Street for presents, particularly under cover of darkness, is hell on earth, perhaps Exeter's Princesshay could help to persuade you otherwise.

The lovely people at the shopping precinct have been organising an array of events over the festive season to make your Christmas gift-hunting an exciting, enjoyable experience. When we visited a couple of weeks ago, we refuelled during our shopping trip, making the most of the free churros and Pimms offer, exclusive to Princesshay customers with a receipt from any of the centre's stores or cafés.

Younger children can be difficult to keep happy, but Princesshay had Father Christmas, the Snowman and his Snowdog on hand to entertain even the tiniest shoppers - and even my boyfriend, who will be 20 this week, the big baby...

Official style spotters were also recruited to seek out the best-dressed shoppers and some of Princesshay's most stylish buys were on display on the winter catwalk; pieces from the likes of Oasis, Reiss and Coast demonstrated that fashion doesn't have to come with a designer pricetag and can easily be found on the High Street.

If you're not quite sorted on the Christmas present front, there's still plenty of time to get down to Princesshay before the big day - and tomorrow the Coca Cola truck will be in Bedford Street from 9am-5pm, so if you're a fan of that iconic festive advert, make sure to pop down and have your picture taken! 

Written in partnership with Princesshay shopping centre, Exeter.

Just a quickie - winter in Wells

It's almost December and I'm so excited about Christmas! A mountain of uni work and other deadlines meant that recently I've had barely any time for blogging, but Oli and I managed to take a couple of days off last weekend and visit his grandparents in Wells.

Strangely, although it was November and we had last visited Somerset in July, the weather behaved itself and was much better for most of this trip. We were lucky enough to have the very best sort of winter weather: clear and sunny, but absolutely freezing! After arriving on Friday evening, we decided to take a stroll around the tiny city, which in fact is England's smallest. Our first stop was Cathedral Green, where I spotted the above house and immediately decided that I must live there. It's also home, as one might expect, to Wells Cathedral, featured on a recent BBC documentary.

Oli's grandparents caught up with us in the market, which runs every Wednesday and Saturday outside the town hall. We browsed the local produce and potential Christmas gifts, then headed through the Bishop's Eye - as peculiar as that sounds, fear not, as it is actually one of a pair of medieval gateways, the other being Penniless Porch, where people are permitted to busk - to the Bishop's Palace.

Though the trees had by now shed their leaves, I think that the bare branches are still strangely beautiful, particularly set against a bright blue winter sky. The Palace grounds are one of my favourite places to visit when we go to Wells and I've actually never been inside the buildings. This may have a little something to do with us being tight students, but I like to just wander around the garden and the moat outside.

The moat surrounds the Palace's outer walls and is now just a decorative feature - I'm sure that the Bishop of Bath and Wells is very pleased to hear that he's no longer under any great threat as he goes about his business - and is home to such specimen of British wildlife as the giant swan. This swan and her friends make up the Swans Of Wells, a public art project to celebrate the Queen's Diamond Jubilee in 2012. 

The next time we visit Wells will probably be in the New Year now. There's so much to do between now and then, but luckily I managed to get some Christmas shopping done over the weekend, particularly at the Clarks Village in nearby Street.

In any case, I had a fabulous weekend and there are only two weeks of term left before the Christmas holidays. I'll be back soon with new posts about Princesshay's shopping events and more festive fun!

It's beginning to look just a little bit like Christmas...

The weather has got a lot colder recently and I'm starting to feel festive! Although I'm not sure that we're properly into winter yet, we've had a couple of frosty mornings and there's a late autumnal chill in the air. The colours of the trees on our street here in Exeter look so pretty and fortunately they seem to have remained intact, in spite of the 'storm' we supposedly had a couple of weeks ago. 

Oli and I took a break from our heavy work schedules last weekend and strolled down towards the quayside, with our trusty Exeter Trails Café Culture map in hand. We visited the Coffee Cellar, a lovely independent coffee shop situated in one of the Victorian wool and cider cellars, and I made what I thought was a valiant attempt to finish the most enormous slice of carrot cake known to man. 

After our refreshments, we walked along the riverbank. The storm seemed to have done a little damage here but it was still a lovely excursion and it's always nice to have a break from the textbooks, translations and such like.

This weekend, Crikey It's Vintage held their Christmas handmade, retro and vintage fair at the Thistle Hotel in Exeter and I braved the planned march by the English Defence League to do a little Christmas shopping. There were some lovely festive decorations, including bunting, baubles and tree ornaments, as well as pretty handmade gifts. These earrings from Kimbows would make great stocking fillers and you can mix'n'match any of the necklaces and bracelets for a set price.

Although I've seen and admired The Peagreen Furniture Company's stalls at many of Crikey's previous fairs, I've not bought anything from them until now. While I was smelling some of their festive scented candles (including eggnog, spiced gingerbread and cinnamon toasted almonds - yum!), I spotted a perfect present for a loved one. Of course, I couldn't tell you what it was or who it's for until after December 25th!

Kitsch In Sync and Otto Retro both had stalls at the fair. I thought that Kitsch in particular had a vast range of pretty little gifts for Christmas; the problem with trying to shop at Crikey is that I saw far more things that I wanted to buy for myself than for others, which is v selfish, but everything was just too lovely. 

I really ought to pay a visit to Exeter-based Otto, but I've not yet made it! I rather wanted to try on all of their hats and there was a beautiful evening dress on display. There's a masquerade ball for the joint languages' societies in January, so I may find myself in want of a new-old ballgown yet...

As well as some familiar favourites, I came across Ravintsara for the first time. Based locally in Crediton, Sara creates hand-crafted, unique accessories and bags, including these pretty felt ones above. Most of her products are made using recycled materials, so they're good for the environment and, at affordable prices, good for your purse too; I'll definitely be looking out for Ravintsara at future events.

The Christmas lights are being switched on in Exeter's city centre on Thursday, and the German-style festive market will be opening on the same evening, so there's going to be lots to look forward to over my next few weeks in the city. 

Don't forget that the Unique Boutique arts and crafts market will be at Exeter Phoenix on November 30th and December 14th, so do come along and, in the meantime, keep an eye out for a new blog post in due course!