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Flashback Friday: Oxford Visit #1 - Easter 2014

As you may or may not know by now, one of my very best friends whom I have known for 20 years now (WOAH!)named Grainne (GG) lives and goes to university in the University of Oxford, in England. I went over to her for a visit earlier this year and to see her in a play she was in (she is a WONDERFUL actress), took tonnes of photos and had an amazing time. I never got to share these photos with you lovely people reading this (whoever you may be - thank you!) at the time as I had not started my blog yet. So, I figured I would do a 'flashback' kind of post and share them now, as I am going over again this Friday (the day this goes up) with my Mom and boyfriend Seán (and meeting Grainne's family over there) to visit again and see another play she is in! It's called 'Orlando' and she plays the main character. I am very excited to see it and also to show Mom and Seán how beautiful Oxford is, as I went by myself last time and met Gráinne's parents there.

Hope you enjoy the photos - if you ever get the opportunity to go to Oxford I would absolutely recommend it - it is such a beautiful place with tonnes to do and see. I am currently either on the plane or in Oxford already if you are reading this the day it goes up, and I plan to do another blog post on Oxford this time around when I get back.

I hope that long explanation wasn't too confusing; basically this is a throwback post and there will be a new post coming soon after my visit this weekend. Just wanted to share both. Enjoy!

BEST coffee I ever had - A Salted Caramel Mocha with Whipped Cream. A limited edition flavour which makes its deliciousness even harder to bear!

Hope you enjoyed this photo-packed post!

Thank you for reading,

Siofra

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September/October Favourites

GREETINGS! This post will be a collaboration of my favourite things from both September and October - I didn't do a post last month solely on products from September as I didn't have that many new things that I was using by the end of the month, so I decided to put it together with my October favourites. Also apologies it's so late - it's been written for about 2 weeks I just never get a chance to take the photos in natural light because I leave home in the morning and it's dark, and when I come home it's dark. So apologies for the lighting here - it was dark! Hope you enjoy reading, and let me know what some of your favourite things have been recently - or anything new you've tried that you think I'd like too!

MAKE-UP:

1. Bourjois Healthy Mix Serum - Gel Foundation - This is a light to medium buildable coverage foundation and it leaves a really healthy, glowy finish on the skin and I really like how it brightens up tired or dull skin. I use it with my Collection Lasting Perfection Concealer and I find it a really good combination for my skin. I haven't consciously tested the 16 hour claim, but I did fall asleep with it on one night and I can confirm it was still on my face in the morning. Not the best way of judging, I'm aware. I use the shade 'No. 51 Light Vanilla' and I use it as an everyday foundation when I'm not wearing fake tan - only needing to bronze my neck up slightly.

2. Sleek Make-Up Face Contour Kit in 'Light' - this is a bronzer and highlighter duo and I find it the perfect natural contour shade, while the highlight shade is subtle and pink-toned, leaving a glowing but not OTT sheen on the skin. They stock Sleek make-up in Boots stores in the UK but otherwise it can be purchased online.

3.Sleek Make-Up i-Divine Mineral Based Eyeshadow Palette in 'Au Naturel 601' - This palette has a great range of shimmery and matte shades - all quite neutral but also not just your usual browns and golds, it contains a lovely deep matte plum colour as well as a shimmery muted olive green. This can create so many different looks and different intensities.

4. MAC Mineralise Skin Finish in 'Soft and Gentle' - I have loved this highlighter for about 3 years, and after trying out other highlighters and using them up, I re-found this in my stash a couple of weeks ago and fell in love with it all over again. While it is a powder, a small amount during the day will make it look more natural rather than packing on loads and it just looking like glittery chunks on the skin, however at night if you are going out - go for it! It looks amazing in photos also. A beautiful pale goldy colour - very natural looking.

5. MAC 'All that Glitters' eyeshadow - This is a gorgeous shimmery gold colour. Mary (one of my best friends & ultra amazing make up artist)put this on me for my birthday and really smoked it out and it looked so PURTY.

6. Rimmel Moisture Renew Lipstick in 'Dark Night Waterl-oops' - amazing dark lip colour for Winter, super moisturising and comfortable to wear (mentioned in my Autumn/Winter Make-up Favourites - which includes favourites from the past two months also, however I will link it here rather than repeating them in this post - click to see more close ups/swatches ( http://siofiee93.blogspot.ie/2014/10/my-autumnwinter-make-up-favourites.html )

FRAGRANCE:

7. Marc Jacobs Daisy Dream Perfume - Apart from this GORGEOUS bottle, this scent is amazing and really fresh and floral. I always adore the Marc Jacobs scents so I was so excited to get this from my boyfriend for my birthday. It also came with an adorable make-up bag and shimmery body moisturiser!

8. Giorgio Armani Si Perfume - On the complete other end of the scent scale but equally as gorgeous, this perfume has quite a musky, sophisticated smell that I absolutely love.

FOOD:

9. Barefoot Contessa's Peanut Butter and Jelly Bars - SO. GOOD. Recipe: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/peanut-butter-and-jelly-bars-recipe.html

10. Marks and Spencer's White Chocolate Butter Cookies - This is pretty self explanatory. If you like white chocolate and you like cookies then these will become a new staple in your diet. No photo because I finished yet another packet.

MISCELLANEOUS:

11. My birthday - SUCH a fun night. Blog post here: http://siofiee93.blogspot.ie/2014/10/its-my-pardaaay.html

12. Halloween - I don't ever have good memories of going out on Halloween so I stayed in and carved pumpkins with Sean. He did a Stormtrooper one and mine was Olaf the Snowman from the movie Frozen. We were QUITE pleased with the results!

"HI I'm Olaf and I like warm hugs!"

CLOTHES:

13. Penney's/Primark Men's Jumper - This is SO unbelieveabley comfy and on the plus side can also be made stylish! Sometimes I just throw it on over some plain black leggings if I'm feeling lazy, or over any kind of jeans it looks great too. I got the men's size Medium because I wanted it quite oversized. This is the only photo I could find of it on!

BOOK/FILM:

14. Alexa Chung 'It' - This is a really nice book to read, not long at all so you will be finished it quite quickly. It contains lots of life advice - make-up/fashion/hair related and hilarious quotes from Ms Chung herself, along with lots of photographs and illustrations as well. Very entertaining read, and also looks really cool on my shelf.

15. 'The Fault In Our Stars' by John Green - The tears. MAN ALIVE I cried so much for the last few chapters. A great book, written in such a lovely way but will absolutely make you emotional. Also if you are in any way upset at all, don't read the last few chapters that day - you'll want to stay in bed for a week.

16. 'Love Actually'- One of my favourite Christmassy movies - partly because of Hugh Grant and partly because of the storyline and how all the characters eventually link together and you realise they are all linked somehow! It makes me feel so Christmassy and is always good if you need to laugh (Bill Nighy) :)One of my favourite scenes, particularly 0.36-0.39: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKuDoTdxvb0

(image sourced from fanart.tv - not mine)

YOUTUBER:

17. Claire Marshall - I recently started watching Claire's Youtube Channel and I am HOOKED! I have watched tonnes of her previous videos and am always excited for a new one to come out. She is so stylish, amazing at make-up (she is a make up artist) and her editing skills are beyond impressive, making her videos always so entertaining to watch. I also really enjoy her instagram: @heyclaire