University of Birmingham Graduation Ball 2012

You may have spotted from my Twitter account that I have recently finished my degree this year, and the University of Birmingham decided to throw together an event for us to celebrate the end of university which was very nice of them! 

The event was called 'Grad Ball' which was a bit misleading to be honest as when I imagine a ball, I imagine something a bit like prom but even classier. I'd imagine a ball to take place perhaps in our university's Great Hall with all the ladies sporting floor length gowns, perhaps there'd be a band playing, a very nice sit down dinner with a pianist playing background music, a few ball dances and that would be it. Maybe my expectations were far too high for the event. Nonetheless, me and my friends did have a nice night, it was just a lot less formal than I would have liked...

There was actually a dinner on offer, but the tickets would have cost over £70 to go to the meal and considering the terrible reviews we'd heard from previous years me and my friends decided to give the dinner a miss. Instead we went to Jamie's Italian at the Bullring for a nice lunch and spent the early part of the evening getting ready and drinking wine. 

The weather was terrible and we were all having a nightmare because most of us were in floor length dresses or suede shoes, and we'd heard the event was to be held outside. This put a bit of a downer on the getting ready process as we were worrying that all the time we were spending on our hair would be a waste because of the rain, plus I was a bit concerned that all my mascara would get rained on so I'd be panda-eyed all evening. Regardless, I did my face as nice as I possibly could and hoped for the best...

*I used my Guerlain Lingerie de Peau foundation, shaded in my eyebrows as usual, used my Nars blusher in Orgasm with a coating of the Orgasm Illuminator over the top, created a basic smoky eye with my Urban Decay Naked palette and used my Topshop lipstick in Vamp with a No7 clear gloss over the top*

My friends all looked lovely, and some lads from over the road came round for some pre-drinks so it was a great opportunity to grab lots of awesome photos...

*You may recognize the red dress I have on as being my sister's prom dress... It was just too pretty to never be worn again, so I nicked it for the night! So sweet of her for letting me borrow it :)*

After rather classily strapping our vodka bottles to our legs with surgical tape so we could smuggle them in, we hopped into our taxi protected by our Poundland umbrellas, before walking the red carpet right outside the sky-scraping clock tower for which our university is famous.

*Red carpet looks nice, but the reflective jacket in the background lowers the tone somewhat...*

We headed straight into the bar marquee, holding our dresses up so they wouldn't brush the wet floor. The bar marquee was full to the brim of people I know from my course, from my work and from my past three years of accommodation. It was the perfect place to catch up with everyone and my friends all looked so brilliant. 

By this point we were all dying for the toilet, so we put up our umbrellas once again and headed over to the portaloos (yes, portaloos, at a 'ball'). Once we'd finished up, we spotted a photography tent, so went and had a couple of 'professional' photos snapped. Not sure how they'll turn out to be honest because the whole thing seemed a bit chaotic! After having our pictures taken we headed back to the bar tent, where the queue was about ten people deep just to get a drink. It was at this point when we realized Maverick Sabre was playing on the stage outside, but because of the rain (and the fact that there was now a queue to get back into the bar tent) we decided we'd have to give it a miss. Sadly, because of the weather (AGAIN) we didn't get a chance to have a go on the funfair rides, which was gutting as I love thrill rides!

*Wish I'd gone on this*

*And this...*

*And this. Stupid weather.*

After a little while, I heard Skepta performing so I headed over to the main stage with my umbrella and got a few pictures. The sound and lighting guys kindly let me hang out under their marquee for a little bit which was nice as them as the rain was torrentially pouring by now and although the staff were handing out free plastic ponchos they weren't long enough to protect my floor-length dress.

*Skepta IS IT???*

*There's too many men too many many men...*

I was a bit disappointed with the performers to be honest as in past years they've been much better known. For example, they had Ellie Goulding once! But Skepta gave a good show so I can't complain much. After watching Skepta I went to the Bandaoke tent which I thought was a great idea. Basically, there is a band and they know a set bunch of songs for the ball-goers to get up and sing. Me and my friends spent the rest of the night in Bandaoke and had a fantastic time dancing along to cheesy (and terribly sung) Eye of the Tiger, I Will Survive and more 80's tunes. It was a brilliant way to spend the last couple of hours to the night!

There was also a Silent Disco, but I gave this a miss as I was having too much fun in Bandaoke and I didn't want to brave the rain again, so stayed in the tent where I was. 

The night was a lot of fun and my friends and I really enjoyed it. Plus, the decoration and lights were beautiful. However, there wasn't enough planning regarding the weather and because of how bad the rain was there should have been gazebos marking the paths from tent to tent as the rain hindered us from making the most of our £45 tickets.

*Look at how pretty the building was lit up! I wish the ball had been in there instead of in the cold and wet outdoors...*

It was a great way to have our final hoorah before finishing uni for good. Results day is next Thursday and I think it was a good idea to have the 'ball' (which should have been a 'fest' instead as it would have been way more accurate) before our results come out because everyone was feeling pretty carefree. 

Have you had an end of year or graduation ball? How do you think they could have planned for the weather so that we didn't feel ripped off? How can I make my face not be shiny??? No matter how much powder I use I still shine a bunch! Grrr.

Love and snuggles

gabriellasofia

x

Prom Make-Up Look...

Just a few weeks ago it was my baby sister, Amelia's, first ever prom and she was so excited, especially because she knew that I'm such a beauty enthusiast and had promised to do her make-up for her.

Amelia spotted her dream prom dress on a Mango advert in December (Kate Moss was wearing it so obviously it looked AMAZING) and she decided she had to have it. Blood-red, floor-length, Grecian-style, plunging neckline, thigh-high slit, it was a big deal trying to get our mom to agree that she could have it as it was apparently 'a bit too grown up for a sixteen-year-old'. Dad's always on our side, so we showed him the dress when we were shopping in the Bullring in Birmingham and as he is usually in charge of giving us treats he said that she could have it as one of her Christmas presents, which was genius because only a huge meanie takes a Christmas present away from a child and even my mother isn't THAT MUCH of a monster *onlyjokingmomyouarebeautifulweloveyouverymuch*. Anyway, the dress was a total HIT at prom and my sister looked absolutely amazing and so did her friends.

My sister's always had lovely long dark hair and we decided that it would look best in a far-side parting, curled and swung around onto one shoulder. However, unfortunately, the hairdressers didn't quite follow our instructions (in spite of the pictures we supplied them with of Kourtney Kardashian) so my sister ended up with ever-so-slightly wavy hair with a side parting and a little bit taken from by her ear pinned back. In all honesty, her hair looked lush, shiny and healthy so we couldn't complain at all, regardless of the fact it wasn't what we'd asked for...

See, not even similar hair, but it looked nice nonetheless. Whilst my sister was getting her hair 'did' I was pulling her face in all kinds of random directions with make-up brushes and eyelash curlers and tweezers and so on. All of the prom-goers finished school at 3.35pm and had to be back at the school for prom by 7.00pm and in between that their double-decker bus which they had chosen over a limo was picking them up from a friend's house at just 6.00pm. Which, when you consider travel time, left my sister only about an hour and a half to actually be getting ready. Hence me having to do her make-up while her hair was getting 'did'.

So, what did I use to create this Prom Make-Up Look? Well, we decided that we wanted quite a dewy finish to her foundation to keep her look youthful, so I began with some of my favourite benefit MoonBeam all over her highlight points (cheekbones, below eyebrows, cupid's bow of lips and length of her nose). Since my sister NEVER wears foundation and has amazing skin without it, we decided we'd just go for a thin layer of Garnier's Miracle Skin Perfector applied with my benefit foundation brush. To matte up her forehead I dusted my benefit Hello Flawless powder foundation lightly over her skin and left it at that. Using my Royal and Langnickel blusher brush, I packed on a load of Nars blush in the shade Orgasm. I used quite a lot as make-up can look a bit sparse under the glare of prom-night-photo-flash, in some of the pictures you can't even tell she has any on, but in person she looked nice and rosy. I took my Hoola bronzer by benefit and layered it beneath her cheekbones, either side of her nose, the temple areas and beneath her jawbones in order to contour her face. I used some of benefit's BrowZings in order to create a bolder brow (we're all about the brows in our family!) and got started on her eye shadow. Patting on a bit of Urban Decay's Primer Potion, her eye was now ready for the smokier colours in Urban Decay's naked palette. I started with Virgin all across her top lid, up to her brow, into the inner corners and onto the lower lash line. Next, I used a blending brush to dust some of Gun Metal from about two thirds into her eye getting darker towards the outer corners, creating a kind of smoky cat-eye shape. To make this more intense, I used Creep on her outer third of her eyes, buffing it into the crease of her eye fading towards the middle. I also used a smudger brush to give a smoky line on her lower lash line. Finally (shadow-wise), I packed a splodge of Half Baked right on the center of each of her lids, to add dimension. Taking my Soap & Glory Smoulder Kohl eye liner, giving her a tiny flick at the outer corner, lining her lower water line and buffing this out slightly with the smudger brush from before. We used Eyelure Individual Semi Permanent Lashes, for a more natural false lash look, and we piled on layer after layer of benefit's They're Real mascara after curling the lashes together. To finish, I used Topshop Lipstick in Blush across her whole lip.

Isn't she lovely??? Haha, I was so proud of this face I painted. Finally, we had to add the finishing touches of the nails as my sister is a TERRIBLE nail biter. We used some Elegant Touch false nails and painted them in a No7 varnish in a lovely semi-matte effect gold colour. She was really happy with the novelty of long nails.

So to conclude I think I definitely made my sister more beautiful than she has ever been before! Haha. No, I know she's beautiful as it is, but prom night was pretty huge for her as she looked so glam. Here is a collection of a few of my favourite pictures of her throughout the night...

 

 

 

And before we knew it, with all the crazy excitement, it was over! My sister had a fantastic night and I know it seems like I'm bragging (BECAUSE I AM) but I really do think she looked amazing. She's quite possibly the most beautiful person I know in real life. But enough of the gushing *oo-ermadam*.

How did you do your make-up for prom? What was your dress like? Do you have any hilarious prom-night memories you'd like to share? 

Love and snuggles

gabriellasofia

x

150 Follower Giveaway Winner is...

So I'm sure you've all been waiting on tenterhooks to see if you'll win my giveaway... NOT haha. However, I really wanted to run this giveaway so that I could pay all of my followers and subscribers back for all of the help and support you've offered me. Starting and running a blog takes up a lot of my time and my energy and yet every minute is worth it when I read a comment, or see a retweet, or gain a new follower or subscriber. Really it is :) So watch the video to find out who has won my selection of goodies plus some random surprises also. Thanks for everything

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Love

gabriellasofia x

Haute Future Haute Haul... Christmas Gifts!

I know this is late... I apologize but as I've said in my previous post, I've been laid up in bed with a horrible cold for the past few days (since the day before Christmas Eve in fact!) Poor me. But never fear, I am in relatively good health again, which means that the excitement of all the lovely goodies I've had has actually hit me! Here are my pressies before I opened them... I couldn't for the life of me work out what the big one was. My mom thought she was hilarious when she went, 'It's the doll you asked for!!!' My parents made me leave it until the end. What could it be? :)

Here are a couple of Christmas dinner pictures to keep you in suspense...

Mummy sets the table so pretty... 

Prawn Cocktail and Brown Bread to start!

TURKEY TIME!!!

And now, without much further ado... it's present time! Let's start with my stocking fillers. Since my sister found out 'The Truth' we have chosen items to put in each other's stockings. We buy the bits, wrap them up, then leave them in a bag. Then, overnight, Father Christmas puts them in our respective stockings and adds extra goodies :) The bits for my sister are in the festive pine-cone and snowed-on-leaves paper, I thought it was so cute!

Weeee presents for meeeeee!

Here is the mess I created after opening all of my goodies...

These are the bits my sister chose for me... I have some chocolate lady-bugs in a ice-cream cup, four (already burned one) Yankee Candle tarts in yummy winter scents like cinnamon and apple cider, some dill sauce (random, but nom nonetheless), a hot chocolate stick, a Hershey's Cookies and Cream bar, a mixer for making raspberry mojitos, some Twizzlers (my favorite US candy), two pairs of earrings and a silver ring. Thanks Meewps :)

These are the bits which Santa Claus added for me... I also had a couple of sachets of delicious popping candy but they're long gone now. In my belly. Thanks Santa :)

As if that's not enough sweets and chocolate, these are some more that I found all wrapped up downstairs too! I'm going to be FAT in the New Year. And I don't even care. That is of course until the New Year...

Now, let's get onto the best bits... The Beauty Pieces! First up, I got the Trevor Sorbie Beautiful Volume collection. I love this brand since I received it last Christmas. It makes my hair look so healthy and their leave-in conditioner is the best detangler I've found so far.

This one has been a long time coming, but I am finally the proud owner of an Urban Decay NAKED palette! Rejoice! I can't wait to practice some awesome new eye looks... the possibilities are endless with this collection and I simply cannot wait :)

These are the five little pieces which I've wanted for ages... Two beauty-product celebrities, NARS blush in Orgasm and my first ever MAC brush, the 219 (this seems to have been cut from the top of the picture somehow, no fair.) I've also got some great benefit bits which I've had my eye on since the summer. The mango-tinted stain ChaChaTint, Moon Beam and the 2011 miracle mascara, They're Real!

As requested, I received a gift box of Soap N Glory goodies. They include Clean on Me, Flake Away, Glad Hair Day, Hand Food, Girligio, The Righteous Butter, a loofah and this nice big toiletry bag. I prefer showers when I'm sick, so I can't wait to have a nice long pampering soak in the bath now I'm better...

These two items are total luxuries! The In Crowd Nails INC collection contains 15 of the companies best selling polishes, and the benefit Crescent Row perfume collection carries four of the most beautiful scents I've known so far. I'm already a massive fan of So Hooked on Carmella by benefit, so I'm sure I'll get on with these perfumes like a house on fire!

I've also been gifted these two little toiletry boxes. My next door neighbors gave me the Champneys box which contains a couple of rich body creams, a loofah, a body wash and a bubble bath. My cousin Ruby treated me to this Natural Moods set which contains a soap and a body wash also... Thanks guys! 

My best pal Vikki so kindly bought me ALL THESE BITS!!! A super-cute little brown satchel from Primarni, a pair of adorable socks from New Look, the Terry's Chocolate Orange (featured in my chocolate and sweets pic), an electric blue nail art pen by Flirt which I can't wait to experiment with, an eyeliner from Soap N Glory's new cosmetics range and finally, one of my all-time favorite perfumes, Ghost in Ghost. What did I do to deserve all these presents Vik??? Hardly complaining though! Thanks a dozen baby. 

 

Look at all of the jewelry my mom got for me... They all suit me so well. I've already worn one pair of the H&M earrings as you can tell from their absence on the card... 

My mom also bought me a lovely pajama set from Topshop... She also got me a lovely purple stripy dressing-gown from Topshop too, but it's not been off my back since I got it during opening my presents, and since I'm ill I've hardly had any photographs taken since then. You'll just have to trust me when I say it's really, really nice.

And the super-cool hot pink 80's jumper I sported on Christmas day. Jazzy, huh? I love it! 

I got two books about the Harry Potter series and films which will be perfect as I can use them in my dissertation of Children's Literature in the 20th Century. My grandma and grandad got me a cheese-board (I'M OBSESSED WITH CHEESE) and also a copy of Uncle Tom's Cabin which apparently revolutionized American Literature, so I'm excited to read it. My parents got me a subscription to one of my favorite magazines, Company, plus two books about Retail Business. My dad took it upon himself to surprise me with  a book about how to recreate vintage-inspired make-up looks! So sweet!

And also... I GOT A KINDLE!!!!!!!! YES YES AND YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!

We're now coming to the end of my haul. This next piece was a total suprise. Now, everyone who's anyone (even haters apparently...) know that I live in the box room as my parents moved my sister into my old room when I left for uni, and now I've returned home for my final year to save some money, it's only fair that I take her old room so she doesn't have to move all her things again. This is totally fine. However, this means I can hardly fit a wardrobe in my bedroom, so we've had to be creative with clothes storage ideas... My parents found this clothes hanger from a chic furniture store in Chester. It's absolutely perfect and I can't wait to put it up in the corner of my room and hang my prettiest dresses from it for the world to see :)

Finally, this is the big one. The one I never expected to get but have been quietly pining over since my interest in beauty began. My parents, crazy-beautiful people, have treated me to a big pink make-up train storage case!!! This is absolutely perfect, I can't believe they even got the one I've been fantasizing over!

This means my make-up won't be spread across my dresser anymore in a disorganized mess. There is a section for everything! I may even have space to store my hair-dryer and curlers in the bottom. My God, I can't thank them enough!

Isn't it beautiful?

I've really been terribly lucky this year. I also got a super pretty Kindle and laptop case and three pairs of socks which didn't get separately photographed... On top of all that, I also received about £65 worth of store vouchers. I can't wait to get spending in the sales... Boots, Topshop and River Island, here I come, and I'm taking no prisoners. Check out the bits I'm on the lookout for here.

So that's that! All of my presents are still stacked up in the living room so I could gaze longingly at them when I was sick...

I couldn't wait to start practicing with the make-up and sporting the gorgeous jewelry, but when you're sick as a dog, you don't even feel like getting dressed in the morning never mind painting my face or hanging my accessories. I couldn't even enjoy the chocolates as I couldn't swallow :(

SO glad I'm back on form and can eat myself into oblivion. After all, that's what Christmas is all about!

Thank you to everyone who bought me a gift this year! I hope that everyone I've bought for has enjoyed their presents as much as I am now enjoying mine :) Thanks to this haul, you can expect a ton of beauty reviews on the way pretty soon, so keep an eye out!

What have you had for Christmas? Do you know what you're spending your vouchers on? Did any of you get a Kindle too? I love mine already and I can't wait to work out some more of the features!

Thanks guys, and I wish you a (slightly) belated, Merry Christmas :)

Love

gabriellasofia