Black is the new black

Every since the tender age of 13 when emo was taking over the world and I wore nothing but mosher and batman tees (!!!) and covered my eyes in lashing of black kohl liner i've been a fan of black.

Needless to say my style has changed and my makeup techniques have hopefully improved, but one thing that has remained constant is that my wardrobe is still filled to the brim with black clothes. It kind of goes without saying that i'm not the biggest fan of colour and will always favour autumn/winter fashions over spring/summer. Whether it's the fact that 'black is slimming' has been drummed into my brain for the best part of 10 years, or if in fact that a small part of the pre-teen emo girl is still somewhere living inside me i'm not sure, but I can't see myself throwing out the black and embracing pink, orange, yellow and green pastel shades anytime soon.

It's universally known that black is classic. The LBD is one of the most iconic wardrobe staples and a black stiletto wins over any other colour. A black leather jacket can instantly make any outfit edgy and black jeans can easily take you from day to night. If it was a choice between black and any other colour, the chances are i'd opt for black. 

The beauty of black clothing is that it goes with anything, it's timeless and will never go out of style, and I think this is why I like it so much. Very much more into beauty and make-up than I am into fashion (don't get me wrong I love clothes, and I love shopping, but I wouldn't class high fashion as one of my expertise) it's easy enough to look stylish, classy and on trend with a bit of black in your wardrobe. If in doubt, wear head to toe black and it's almost guaranteed that you'll look like you know what you're doing. 

I've never been one to favour what I like to call more 'delicate' clothes; delicate ultimately being anything that doesn't have some form of embellishment, leather or stud emblazoned on it. And it just so happens that all of the above come on darker shades of clothes. I always find myself opting for clothes that edge towards the darker side of the spectrum and rarely find myself wearing anything lighter than a khaki. Even in summer I chose to complement my tan with a black, as appose to a cream or white. 

It seems that the goth inside me is still a lot more present in my life than I initially thought, and I think she plans to stick around for quite a while. 
After all, Christian Dior famously once said: "Black is the most slimming of colours. It is the most flattering. You can wear black at any time. You can wear it at any age. You can wear it for almost any occasion. I could write a book about black," and I couldn't agree more!

Products not worth the hype | Mini reviews

L'oreal Elnett Satin Hairspray - I used to be an absolute massive fan of this hairspray and rarely ever used anything else, so i'm surprising myself that i'm including it in this post. The fine particles of hairspray don't hold my hair the way I like and although you can't feel the hairspray in your hair at all (a massive plus!) I always find myself having to use far too much product in order to get any sort of style perfected and I find myself not loving this hairspray lately the way I used to. 

Rimmel Scandaleyes Mascara - I've mentioned this product in a post on my blog before and I just cannot get along with this mascara at all. I don't find it does anything to my lashes other than making them look wet. Initially the big brush wand attracted me to the product and I had high hopes, however it adds absolute no volume or length to my lashes and has been discarded at the bottom of my makeup bag ever since. 

YSL Touche Eclat - I'm apologising in advance for including this product because I know how much of a cult classic it is but I just don't find that it does anything to my face apart from change the colour a bit. It receives such rave reviews everywhere I look and whether i'm using the wrong shade, i'm not sure but I just hate what it does to my skin and the way it looks on my face. I don't find it illuminates or leaves my skin looking radiant at all. Sorry!

Revlon Lip Butters - When the lip butters first launched I was so excited and picked up a few of the different shades almost instantly. The formula intrigued me, however I found myself being less of a fan than I was expecting. The staying power is poor and I don't like the way they feel on my lips at all; I found myself wiping the product off within half an hour of application because they irritated my lips and made my entire face feel greasy. The shade range is pretty broad, however I don't find myself being a fan of any of them in particular and find none of them necessarily complementing my skin tone. 

Benefit 'Thrrrob' Blush - I actually think this particular shade of Benefit blush has been discontinued so maybe i'm cheating a bit including it. The 'thrrrob' blush was one of the first Benefit products I ever purchased and when I swatched it on my hand I fell in love. I was under the impression that the pale pink shade would leave a light dusting of colour over my cheeks and be perfect for everyday natural makeup. However, upon application I found absolutely no colour transferred onto my skin at all, regardless of the amount I felt as though I was putting on. I also found this product broke me out a lot and has consequently steered me away from all Benefit blushers since. 

Maybelline Gel Liner - Another very unpopular opinion but I can't get on with this gel liner. I don't tend to get on with liquid/gel liners in general because I find they don't complement my hooded eye lids anyway, but this product has been my least favourite i've tried. I find this liner creases and cracks a lot on the lid and prints constantly onto the upper part of my eye lid throughout the day - even when I think it's dry! Thumbs down from me. 

My weekend in Amsterdam

Amsterdam centre, the classiest of signs, ferry fun, floating bed

A trip to Amsterdam with my closest friends has been on my to-do list for the past three years, however it wasn't until last weekend that I got to visit the city i'd heard so much about. Back in November myself, along with nine others, booked a dutch dash for one of my friends 21st birthday and on 8th January all gathered at a local pub ready to start a weekend of fun. 

I'd heard a lot of stories about Amsterdam from people I know that had previously done the trip, the main comment being that the ferry is the most fun and ultimately the best part. Well, they're right. Boarding the ferry at 6:45pm (you had to be on for 7pm, we were pushing it!), and after finally finding our cabin through the maze of corridors, we managed to unpack and get the drinks flowing by 7:15. 

The ferry entertainment kicked off as we set sail at 8:30pm and we were all soon singing along and possibly drowning out the singers on stage with our rendition of each of the songs - oops! After a long karaoke session to a variety of 80's and 90's classics and multiple attempts at drinking games that never really went to plan, we hit the casino. I say casino, it's more a single blackjack and roulette table placed towards the corner of the room. Regardless, we managed to cause havoc and ultimately spent the couple of hours we were there just screaming at people as to where they should place their chips; '24, 24! NO, IT'LL DEFINITELY BE 11'. Needless to say, it never actually landed on either. The highlight of the night was possibly a rather drunk man giving us multiple handfuls of chips to 'do what you want with them, just don't cash them in'. I think it goes without saying that we in fact did cash them in. I want to take this opportunity to thank him for the round of tequilas he unknowingly bought us - never again!

With plans to set our alarms for 6am (vile!) we finally decided to head to bed at 2am, not before heading to costa and attempting to haggle the woman for a pasty!

The next day we awoke bright and early ready to catch the coach and head into Amsterdam for the day. After a slight delay we finally got into Amsterdam at around 11am and were ready to explore. First stop, the red light district, of course. If only it was that easy. We somehow managed to head in the complete opposite direction and end up in a Mcdonalds. How very cultured of us. I have to say though, a spicy McChicken sandwich and green mayonnaise is not something I can stomach at 11:30 in a morning and so feel refreshed (ahem) we headed back out on our search for Amsterdam's most famous street once more. This search resulted in us doing one big 360 and ending up exactly where we started from, typical. After ending up in Amsterdam's shopping area, and passing a huge MAC store which I did nothing but think about for the rest of the day, we were left with no other choice but to ask someone for directions. 

After a nice man showed us the way, not before asking money off us for the privilege, we finally dipped and dived our way through more bikes than I care to remember, and ended up in the red light district. 

There's no denying that the place is an eye opener. Where else would you find every other building offering you a real life sex show and the chance to stand in a window yourself. No thank-you, I think i'll give that offer a miss. After a lot of umm-ing and ahh-ing we finally settled down in a little cafe in the middle of the district. 

A couple of ciders and some special cake (it did nothing to affect any of us and i'm left wondering whether in fact it was indeed just standard brownie) we headed back out onto the street with plans to see a show. Well, if you can't in Amsterdam, where can you. However, this idea didn't exactly go to plan. With a charge averaging on €45 each we decided to give it a miss and instead continued on a sight seeing walk around the city. These sights included a rotting bed floating down the canal that some of my friends thought may be used by people who wanted to pay a little extra for some fun. Honestly, I think i'd have paid extra not to touch it, it was disgusting and definitely would have collapsed with even the slightest touch. We, of course, found it hilarious either way. 

Time was getting on and with instructions to be back at the pick-up point by 5pm we decided to have a last few drinks in a pub before heading back. The returning coach was equally as uneventful as the one there and after a quick nap we had pulled back into the ferry port and were ready for another night of fun. After a quick freshen up we headed back down to the entertainment area with a quick stop in duty free to pick up an all important, and very necessary perfume purchase. The second night continued in a similar fashion to the first, with plenty of drinks and a whole lot more singing. 

As the night drew to a close and we ended up being the only ones left in the bar, we decided to request some songs. These included the classics of Will Young and Blue with a bit of Gary Barlow and R Kelly being thrown in - I think it's a good idea we were the only ones left because our music taste is clearly awful. 

The day in Amsterdam had been a full one, tiredness was starting to take over and by 1:30 we were ready for bed. We all woke up the next morning having not had nearly enough sleep and thankful for a day to do nothing but rest and sleep in our own beds - cabin beds are not the most comfy of things.

We all departed ways as we left the ferry with heaps of brilliant memories and plans to do it all over again in a few months.  

I'm back | Happy 2014

Hi guys, I'm back and I guess I should start by wishing everyone (a late) Happy New Year! 
First things first, sorry for the lack of updates, there was no real reason for me to stop blogging but I started university again and was enjoying spending time with my friends before the work started piling up. But I'm here again and back to, hopefully, blogging on a regular basis.

Amongst many other cliche new year resolutions (eat less, exercise more etc) I'm going to try and get back to blogging at least once a week as it was something that I genuinely enjoyed doing over last summer. I'm also aiming to start pulling my finger out and write a lot more posts for MyStudentStyle (link here!) and will be sure to post the links to all my work for you all to check out and read. In the mean time make sure to check out the website as lots of interesting and different content is being uploaded daily.

I already have a couple of posts in the pipeline so it shouldn't be long until I'm back into the swing of things and getting things posted up frequently again. 

Stay Tuned xo


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