Where The Devil Have I Been???

Hello fitties...

I am ever so sorry for my slight lapse in recent blog posting. I really don't have much of an excuse to not have posted to be honest. I guess I've just been kind of busy getting into the swing of things at work and this has kind of re-organized my lifestyle to an extent. Allow me to explain.

Working at Phones 4u Head Office, I work from 9am until 6pm from Monday to Friday. This means that by the time I get home at night it is 6.30pm (at the earliest). I've recently been trying to cook quite a lot at home because I live with my parents rent-free at the moment and I like to be able to give a little something back, so this means that at least two out of seven nights I am cooking and eating until about 7.30pm at the earliest. On days that I am not cooking, I go an have a go on my dancing pole for half an hour before going to take a bath. This takes me to about 8.30pm or 9pm. By this time I am already thinking about how I have to be awake by 7am the next morning, so begin winding down, watching a bit of television and flicking through magazines. Then I do the whole thing the next day and so on.

Plus, my social-life has changed quite drastically. My best friend has dramatically disappointed me, so I no longer speak with her. On the flip-side, my love life has improved immensely so I have been investing much of my free time into that. Of course, for those of you that follow me on Twitter, you will be aware that my father and I are in the final couple of weeks of planning our local Halloween music festival Hippy Horror, so I've spent the majority of down-time being involved in family meetings and the like. 

I guess I'm just getting used to finding a new routine. Amidst all that I have TOO MUCH blog content! For those bloggers out there, I'm sure that you're thinking, 'Bah, I get writer's block and yet GabriellaSofia is whining about having too much to write about!' but I genuinely feel like I do. I've recently attended Style Birmingham, the Bullring fashion show The Show: Enchanted, London Fashion Weekend and the launch party for Ted Baker's line of men's accessories. Plus, I've been reading a bunch, watching a lot of films and trying out tonnes of new products. Basically, I just need to organize all my thoughts and ideas into some kind of structure so that I can get all of my content written, filmed and published before they all fall right out of my head!

Anyway, I just wanted to keep you all posted on what has been going on with me recently, and here are a few photos for you to peruse until I next write...

*En route out for a curry... nom...*

*A delicious salmon dinner I made for me and the family... nom again...*

*Nom.*

*My face, pre-night out*

*My father and I at a local radio station interview*

*Ooof, how I love playing with my eyeliner!*

*Reading Fifty Shades again, having read it and Tess of the D'Urbervilles. Still don't like it*

*Bought another peplum top... obsessed, much?*

*What I wore to Style Birmingham*

At the risk of sounding a tad too 'Terminator'... I'll be back.

Love and snuggles

GabriellaSofia

x

Louise Gray for Topshop Makeup on a Budget...

If you are anything like me at the moment, you'll be saving up your pennies for Christmas already (I like to be WAY prepared so I don't have to scrimp around the festive season...) so although Louise Gray's colour-popping cosmetics collection for Topshop is absolutely beautiful, you'll be hunting for a cheaper alternative.

As a lipstick lover, I made it my goal to track down some dupes for the two Lips in the collection entitled  Mexican Wave (a rich blood-orange-peel colour) and Legend (the hottest of hot pinks in a deep hue). After seeing that they cost a whopping £10 (!!!) each I scribbled with each of them on the back of my hand just so I would have a swatch for colour comparison.

*Mexican Wave is on the bottom, Legend on the top*

The formulas are absolutely heavenly. Usually I find that with glossier more moisturising Lips that the colour pigment suffers, coming out slightly fainter and needing a couple more coatings just to achieve the colour you see in the stick. However, with these they are both true to the colour in the tube and incredibly creamy and soft. An absolute dream. Nonetheless, they are still £10 and I can't really justify spending that much when I am trying oh-so-hard to save. So I put the Lips down and had a quick glance over the rest of the counter before planning to head off in the direction of Boots to find my dupes...

HOWEVER, and here is the real clincher. As I was 'glancing' I spotted the Lip Sticks in the shades Hedonist and Clueless which looked almost identical to the Louise Gray colours. Amazing right? And better still? They are only £7 each. 

See, Hedonist is the orange line and Clueless is the pink one! Once again, the pigment is fantastic and in the pencil form the Lip Sticks are easier to apply for a more precise finish. The only drawback is that as the Lip Sticks are intended for a matte effect they don't have the same kind of glossiness as Louise Gray's Lips do. Having said that, we all know that this can quite easily be resolved by slicking on some lip balm underneath and dabbing on a little clear lipgloss over the top.

Now, I know what you are thinking, '£7 is still a lot babez! You'd only be saving £6 if you bought both! NOT GOOD ENOUGH." And I would be inclined to agree with you.... that is if I wasn't mad on the Louise Gray Cheek Duo in Up In The Air too...

The duo costs £12.50 which once again, I can't really justify. But just look how those colours pop in the palette! I very nearly couldn't resist... That was until I swatched a little of each colour on my hand and was horrifically disappointed with the pigmentation. 

You can hardly even see the colours! I soon realized I got a colour which was much truer to the pan when I scribbled a bit of the Lip Sticks on each finger and patted them into the apples of my cheeks. So technically, these Lip Sticks dupe for not just one product each, but two. Great success.

Needless to say, next payday I will be heading out to buy Hedonist and Clueless for £14 as opposed to buying the Louise Gray Lips and Cheek Duo for £32.50. A whopping save of £18.50 is to be made here. You. Are. Welcome.

Have you given into the temptations of Louise Gray? Do you know of any other amazingly cheap dupes for the Lips and Cheek Duo? Do you ever put lipsticks on your cheeks in place of blusher? I do it all the time, the creamy consistency is WAY better for staying power.

Love and snuggles

GabriellaSofia

x