The Christmas Tag | Blogmas Day 3!

UGH. SO EXCITED FOR THE FIRST ACTUAL FESTIVE POST OF THE MONTH!

What better way to get in the festive mood than with the Christmas tag?! I've even made the questions all beautiful and festively themed for your (and my - mostly my) pleasure! Let's get right into the questions before I wee myself with excitement!

Sorry not sorry 'bout it - Love Actually is, of course, my favourite Christmas film. I've already watched it twice in the past two weeks! Honourable mention to the Glee Christmas specials which also always get me in the mood!

No!! Unfortunately in Australia it is summer during the festive season so we generally have 30-40 degree (Celsius) Christmases soooo definitely not! I'm sure I'll have one one day! (I'd better!)

I've always spent Christmas at home at my parents' house! We generally just stay at home all day unless we decide to go to the beach or for a walk somewhere.

The song "Sleigh Ride" always reminds me so much of Christmas because it reminds me of a decoration that we used to have at my parents' house. It was a silly little tree we bought that was motion activated, so when you walked past it it would open up and start singing while showing a little Christmassy scene. I have so many memories of that little tree where it has been activated at stupid times and my family have dropped what they're doing just to dance along. It unfortunately has passed on into Christmas tree heaven but the song makes me so happy every time I hear it. I'll also always love a bit of All I Want for Christmas is You (Love Actually version, of course). 

Nope! That's not really a thing I've heard of people doing in Australia, but I can see why people do it in other countries! I prefer the excitement of opening all of my presents on Christmas morning, but that doesn't mean that I don't think it's a cool idea, especially since I always buy myself a Christmas outfit and give it to myself. Maybe this year I'll wrap it up and open it on Christmas Eve!

Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner, Blitzen, Rudolph. Come at me, bro. 

(I am a little too proud of that)

Every year my mum and I go to White Christmas at Movie World (a theme park in Australia) where they have lots of fun Christmassy things and a Christmas parade with lots and lots of gorgeous lights and it's one of my favourite Christmas traditions which I love doing every year with my mum. It's also my mum's birthday on Christmas day, so I actually love giving her her birthday presents! We always do her birthday before we do Christmas so that pre-Christmas feeling is always my favourite haha.

Fake! My mum tried to get a "real" tree once but I am convinced that it wasn't even the right species of tree because it was so ugly. I don't think the trees can survive Australian heat! Our fake trees have to suffice, unfortunately! (although on the plus side... No messy needle cleanup!)

Chocolate crackles 1000%! I think chocolate crackles are Australian, but they are similar to a rice crispy treat? All I know is that we make them at Christmas time in Australia and they are pure heaven to eat.

I normally give my mum a Christmas list so I usually know what I'm going to get come Christmas time (she always manages to sneak lots of surprises in though!). My favourite thing about presents is them being a surprise so I'm normally much more excited to give people gifts (and spend time choosing, wrapping and decorating them!) than to receive them, but this year I haven't actually given mum much direction so I am very excited to see what my parents come up with this year! In general, I love receiving gifts but I don't like opening them in front of people, even though I love watching people open them!

I have the absolute memory so I can't even remember anything I got for Christmas past, like, last year! Last year I got a lot of things to take when I went travelling to England, and I got a lovely coat which kept me warm for a month so I'm going to say that! I'm sorry, gift givers!

I would absolutely love to spend a December in London or somewhere else in England, preferably when it's snowing! The twinkly lights and cosy weather are my absolute dream. I don't think I could enjoy it if I hadn't had my family with me though - my dream place to spend Christmas will always be with them! (aww)

I try really hard! I love putting effort into wrapping, with ribbons and tags and the whole shebang! Unfortunately, if something isn't box-shaped then I have an awful time wrapping it! My failing doesn't stop me from trying, nor from having a good time, though!

My favourite holiday moment is from when I was much, much younger, and would happen every year on the night before Christmas. My brother and I would be so excited about Christmas that I would sleep on a mattress on his floor so we could be excited together. We would always wake up super early (try 2am) with excitement, and instead of waking up my parents, we would play Pokemon together into the wee hours of the morning. We would always end up waking Mum up anyway, and getting told to go back to sleep, which we would eventually do. Just remembering how I would listen for reindeer on the roof during those times is so special and my favourite thing to remember about Christmas! (and it didn't even happen on Christmas day!)

What? That must have a really great metabolism to be able to eat so many cookies in one night? I guess it's just common sense, really! 

I actually haven't made resolutions for real before! I mean I've made stupid little challenges for myself but nothing serious or anything to commit to before! I'm a huge advocate for goals though so I'm going to set myself a list of things I want to accomplish in 2015, rather than resolve to make changes. I'm totally the kind of person to make resolutions though, I don't know why I haven't done it before!

Now that I'm living out of home the most important part of this holiday is going to be able to see and spend time with my family. I can't wait to go home and put up the Christmas tree with them! Generally, my favourite thing about the holidays is the way that everyone just seems a little happier and a little more inclined toward kindness - that coupled with the complete normalcy of having fairy lights everywhere makes me the happiest little chappy in the world!

Delirium Series Review | Blogmas Day 2!

Hello lovebugs!

During my exam time last semester I decided that it would be the perfect time to start a new book series. I also managed to watch an entire season of Reign, and somehow study for my exams and hand in my last assignments at the same time. The Delirium series is something that everyone and their pet pigeon has already spoken of, but I still managed to have no idea what the series was actually about. It wasn't until I was pawing over the books in my book store that I actually decided to read the blurb and see what the hype was really about! The premise sounded so cool and I instantly went home to blab to my housemate about it - the concept of finding a cure for love sounded so interesting and cool and I couldn't wait to see how Lauren Oliver thought it would affect society. If nothing else, the series is really great for getting you think about some cool concepts!

Here is the official synopsis of the series which does a better job explaining it than I could:

Before scientists found the cure, people thought love was a good thing.They didn’t understand that once love -- the deliria -- blooms in your blood, there is no escaping its hold. Things are different now. Scientists are able to eradicate love, and the government demands that all citizens receive the cure upon turning eighteen. Lena Holoway has always looked forward to the day when she’ll be cured. A life without love is a life without pain: safe, measured, predictable, and happy.
But with ninety-five days left until her treatment, Lena does the unthinkable: She falls in love.

So basically the books are about a dystopian society where they have found the cure for love and anyone who exhibits symptoms of the love "disease" is shunned by society and either surgically altered or taken into custody. Protagonist Lena's mum was stricken with the disease and since then Lena has been terrified of it, living strictly by the rules outlined in their "bible" - The Book of Shhh. Pre-surgery, she is dealing with trying to keep her best friend Hana in line until the day they are both operated on and assigned life partners... That is, until she meets Alex - someone born into a world resisting the cure. Cue Aladdin's A Whole New World.

I'm going to break the review down by books but overall the series was another really great addition to the YA Dystopian genre. I'm really sad that the series was dropped by Fox as I think it has really great potential to be turned into a screen adaptation, but I haven't watched the pilot so I don't know how I feel about it at this moment. The books are a quick read and super emosh at times - my heart was broken and mended and soared and fell from chapter to chapter, and that's a great thing in a book series. I'd definitely recommend to anyone who is a fan of dystopian - it brings a very emotional side that is not often favoured over the segregation/omnipotent characteristics of the genre.

Also can we talk about the beautiful new covers for the books? I think that they suit the tone of the books perfectly and I love the shiny embellishments on them. I picked the book up in the store because it was beautiful before I actually realised what it was.

Book 1: Delirium

This is the first dystopian series I've read where I've enjoyed the first book less than the others. I have a tendency to get attached to the format of book one in a trilogy and then disliking the inevitable and logical digressions in the following books (see: The Hunger Games). That's not saying that this book wasn't good, but it seemed to drag on a lot and Lena's character is not very captivating in the beginning (I know this is intentional but it didn't make it any easier to read). Once the pace began to pick up it seemed that everything was happening too quickly, and then the cliffhanger!! Oh the cliffhanger!

This book focusses on Lena's life before her procedure - it follows her counting down her last days of childhood before she is analysed, paired and sent off to live the rest of her life in monotonous matrimony. The book feels very nostalgic; I'm not sure if this was just because it made me feel nostalgic about when I finished high school, but it definitely had me reminiscing about summers back home. Lena and Hana's friendship is really sweet and it felt really authentic in this world where everything is superficial and constructed. Hana at the end of the novel broke my heart - she was definitely my favourite character, along with little Grace!

I think this book did a really good job of making you think about how sad this world is - especially in the flashback's to Lena and her mother when they used to play secretly around the house.  It had me thinking for a few days about what life would be like if we weren't allowed to love our friends or family, even our pets! The worst part was that it wasn't only romantic love that was taken away - platonic love was taken away too! It made me feel like I was taking all my freedom for granted which is exactly what a good dystopian does.

Last but not least, let's talk about Alex. I didn't really warm to Alex very much, mostly because our introduction to him was a whirlwind where we didn't get to learn much about him past his history with the invalids, but I did grow to love the Lena that Alex brought out. She began to think about her world and she made some bad decisions but they were exciting decisions. When Lena met Alex she gained some agency and started to think for herself. (Mild spoiler ahead) This is what made the ending bittersweet for me - I was sad about Alex because of what he stood for but I was kind of excited to see what Lena could do on her own two feet. Alex had rolled the snowball but Lena took control as it was hurtling down the hill.

I'd give this book 3/5 stars purely for the slow start but it is definitely worth the read. It was a great introduction into the world and the slow beginning was probably necessary. If you liked this book then I'm certain you'll like the next ones even more!

Book 2: Pandemonium

Pandemonium picked up the pace and managed to cover a lot more plot-wise (although I don't think it spanned over a much longer time frame). I really enjoyed this one as we got to see this new Lena who was strong and capable and realising that although she's taking her life into her own hands, there are still forces everywhere removing her agency. Every time she said "the old Lena is dead" I got quite excited because, let's face it, the old Lena was hella boring and this new one was brave and interesting.

This book was written in an odd now/then perspective which was difficult to understand at first. I didn't quite understand the jumps in location and I still don't really understand the point in which the two perspectives met. It was a great way to keep you reading though and I found myself powering through this book as both the "now" and the "then" storylines were action-packed, with almost every chapter ending with a little cliffhanger. It was much better paced this way, and I found it much easier to read, despite my original confusion.

I loved all of the new characters in the Wilds - because they hadn't had the procedure they were all much more packed with personality. The dynamic of a random assortment of people thrown together by circumstance kept the conversations flowing and exciting, and kept us on our toes. We, along with Lena, weren't sure who to trust or what to do in this strange new world. It was great and exciting and I love that there are some novellas delving into the back stories of these other characters (which I'm yet to read!).

I'm going to be honest - I didn't like Julian. You know that I didn't warm that much to Alex but I just didn't really like Julian at all. It was pretty understandable that Lena fell for him - he was there and she had all this freedom that she hadn't experienced to know how to deal with it. I should have liked Julian but like the Jacob Blacks before him, I don't think we're ever meant to move on from a characters's First Great Love. (SPOILER) I actually thought that we were going to get something different in this book - I was hoping that Alex really was dead and we were dealing with the real-life situations of learning to move on when relationships end. I was warming to Julian when Alex came back but as soon as he was back I realised there was no hope for him, made like Elsa and let it goooo.

This book was great compared to the first - all action-y with vibrant characters, which is a great contrast between the two (or three, or four, I lost count) groups living in conflict in this world. Pandemonium set up a lot of great plotlines to be resolved in Requiem, without being annoyingly ambiguous.

Book 3: Requiem

Ah, the third book in a trilogy. Normally, you are the bane of my existence; trying to take the story to new levels while leaving me with a supposedly fulfilling but ultimately disappointing ending. This book, however, blew all my expectations away! This was mostly due to the fact that we got my dear precious Hana back, and we even got a dual perspective between her and hardcore-Lena. I really loved this book as we were given a much more exhaustive understanding of the society as a whole.

This book split its focus between Lena, out in the Wilds when it's coming down to crunch time, and Hana, newly operated on and getting ready for her wedding in a few weeks. We can tell immediately that the two stories are going to converge at some point. I actually thought that we'd see this a little sooner in the story, and I also thought that their reunion would be a little more fulfilling than it was, but when I was reading it it seemed more realistic than what I had imagined it to be. I like to imagine that later on Lena and Hana manage to reverse the "cure" and take over the world side by side!

There were some absolutely heartbreaking moments in this book - I found myself attached to all the characters by now, so I was very emosh about anything that happened to my favourites. I even found myself getting emotionally invested in Alex/Lena (I'm sorry I'm a sucker for some love angst). I loved getting to read from Hana's perspective, although I would have loved to have heard her voice pre-procedure in the first book!

The ending of this book was very ambiguous but hopeful in a realistic way. It could have tied up all the ends but I like the way it left us to our ambitious interpretations. We know the fight isn't over but we've ended on a high. There was never going to be a perfect way to end the series, as there never is when you create these horrific worlds, so I felt like this was a natural compromise for an ending. Although it ended quickly, speedily, it didn't drag the moment out. 

I really enjoyed this book, as I said it is the first ending to a dystopian trilogy that I've found satisfying, let alone loved! (*cough* Allegiant *cough*). If you like the genre then I'd definitely recommend this series as it is something different the formulaic others I've read!

Phew. We made it. Hope you enjoyed and I'll be back tomorrow!
XOXO

Welcome to Blogmas! | Blogmas Day 1

Hello everybody!

I've got such exciting news today! This year I'll be participating in my very own Blogmas! This means that every weekday in December up until Christmas I'll have brand new content going up on my blog. Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays are going to be festive posts, whereas posts on Tuesdays and Thursdays are just going to be regular old blog posts about whatever I feel like posting!

Despite having had my decorations up for almost a month already (just trying to get value for money!), I am feeling especially festive today as I sit sipping from my Christmas cup surrounded by cosy candles and Christmas lights! I've got Michael Buble's Christmas album on repeat and I'm singing merrily along. My cat is not too happy about the reindeer costume I've put him in but I'm sure I'll have a photo of him later on. The fact that I'm finally finished uni means I have much more time for blogging and fun... Bring on December!

Also make sure to head over to my Instagram and follow me on there to see daily festive posts about everything I get up to this month!
This is such an exciting time and I can't wait to see what this December brings! Festive mode, engage!
XOXO

#SkyeBBAU Makeup Tutorial | First YouTube Video!

Hello everyone!

This is a very exciting post, as it marks the creation of my first YouTube video! I've been wanting to make a video for such a long time and I'm so happy that I've decided to take the leap and make one!

The video is a makeup tutorial for Skye from this season of Big Brother, and I made it to celebrate the finale this Wednesday. I love Skye so please vote for her to win because I think she's a little ball of sunshine who deserves the world!

The tutorial is for a pretty summery bronzed look, so it's not just relevant to fans of big brother.

I hope you enjoy! Please give the video a like if you enjoy it as I'm very nervous about putting myself out there and posting it! Be nice, it's my first try! I can only get better from here!

Much love,
Kate XOXO

University Assignment | Kate Does Life

This post is going to be a bit different than normal but I always love getting little insights into bloggers' personal lives so I thought I'd do the same on my blog. It will probably be more interesting to me than anyone else, but I just thought I'd like to have a document of this because I spent a long time on it and I'm quite proud!

So if you didn't know, I study communications at university, and this semester I took a course on visual communication. This meant that we had no written assessment, and everything was submitted in visual form. It was really fun to be allowed to be creative at uni and I had a really great time procrastinating by taking these photos! This is around half of the photos I submitted for my assessment.

Our aim was to create any photo story comprising of fifteen photos, which focused on our manipulation of viewpoint and light. Earlier in the semester we had a week where we looked at film noir and since then I knew that that's what I wanted my project to be styled as. My tutor helped shape my story and in the end it ended up as a take on a femme fatale. I love some of the photos I took, so I thought I'd share them on here for a nice little keepsake, to remember that it is possible to enjoy uni!

So here are a few of my favourite photos from the shoot, which has taken basically this entire semester to take and refine into these fifteen photos! *screams from the rooftop about how I AM NOT A PHOTOGRAPHER and there are probably so many things wrong with this but for someone with NO photography experience I think I've done pretty well!*

And there it is!
Talk to you soon!
Kate XOXO

Review: Royal Explosion nails by House of Holland

Hey there sunshines!

I recently got an email from ASOS highlightig a set of Elegant Touch's House of Holland nails. I fell in love with the design featured on the email, Ghetto Gold, but wherever I looked that shipped to Australia had sold out. I happened to be in Priceline and saw that although they didn't have the same style, they had a gorgeous set of black and glittery nails - the Royal Explosion design - that would suffice. I've never worn fake nails before but I've seen a few people wearing the Elegant Touch nails and loved the look of them so I thought I'd try them out.

The pack (and isn't it a beautiful pack?) came with twelve glittery and twelve black (with glitter on the underside - so cute) nails, so the design was up to personal interpretation. It also included nail glue and a nail file. I decided on doing a glittery hand and a black hand, as I knew that a "statement" nail would feel out of place and annoy me after a while. Let's stick to asymmetry.

The application was SO quick and easy. I've never applied fake nails before and I just popped a YouTube video on as I did them, and I was done before the video ended! The variety of sizes that they give you is great as you can really find a nail that will fit nicely in your natural nail bed.

I loved the "claw" style of the nails but found that I couldn't do ANYTHING with them that long, especially type, which is not good for a uni student who blogs in her spare time! I cut and filed them down to a more manageable shape and length, and I'm still going to call them my claws because I haven't had nails this long in a while! I still have trouble texting but they look so good that I can't bear to cut them down any more!

My only complaint is that the glittery nails have an uneven dispersal of glitter - some nails have more than others. My middle finger nail is completely coated where as on the others you can see the black through the glitter. I still love these nails and can't wait to purchase and wear more House of Holland designs. I've also got my eyes on the Little Mix 2 collection, so please stop me from buying them before I take these ones off!

Seeing as I'm new to the fake nail game, let me know some of your favourite brands and I'll try them out!

*tap taps new nails as I type... Weeeee!*

Kate
XOXO

Review: Maybelline Baby Lips Electro Pop

Hello sunshines!

I was at Priceline today mooching about, as you do, and I came across a sale bin of Maybelline Baby Lips lip balms! After returning from England at the beginning of this year with what is probably a three-year supply of the internationally-packaged Baby Lips, I have become increasingly angry at the small and badly packaged range on Australian shores. You could therefore imagine my happiness at finding out that the new Baby Lips Electro Pop range in Australia is packaged like their UK and US counterparts! I don't know why but even the formula of these improved balms seems smoother and nicer, and the packaging that makes them more lipstick than chapstick makes for an all round happy Kate!

I managed to pick up what I believe are the only three available colours at the moment - Pink Shock, Oh! Orange! and Berry Bomb. The packaging is chic and bright, and the formula is smooth and absorbs into the lips instead of sitting on top, which is a feature some of the UK versions sometimes miss. Being a tinted lip balm, the colour is not too vibrant and pigmented, but add a nice coloured sheen to your lips while moisturising them. I'll definitely be wearing these through summer to keep my lips bright and happy!

Oh! Orange! is probably my favourite colour of the three. I'm a sucker for anything orange this season, so I'm loving that this adds an orange sheen as my pasty complexion doesn't agree to well with bright orange shades. The only downside is that this has a very orangey flavour, which I wasn't too peachy keen on, but it's nothing that would stop me from using it.

The next colour I tried was Berry Bomb, which I was dubious about as I've never worn such a bright purple lipstick before. I was pleasantly suprised when the colour came out very subtley, but if you're looking for a super pigmented purple then maybe give this one a miss. The purple one has a lovely berry flavour, which is similar to the flavour of one of the UK Baby Lips balms.

And last but not least, we have Pink Shock. I really love this colour and the only reason that it isn't my favourite is that I already have so many pink tinted lip balms. The flavour of this one is delicious (probably my favourite of them all) and it's a lovely, bright rosy pink colour.

They each retail at $3.95 AUD and I am so happy with all three of them! I'm officially starting up a petition for all Baby Lips products in Australia to be repackaged like the UK/US ones! Let me know if you agree below, and if you've managed to get your hands on them yet!

Much love!
Kate
XOXO

Book Review | The Lux Series by Jennifer L. Armentrout

(whispers from the abyss of a very long absence)

Hello? Is there anyone there?

I'm not going to bore you with apologies over my absence. Basically, I started uni, got suuuper busy, turned 20, read books, ate food, went to a ball and had some super fun adventures. Amongst all that I ran out of time for blogging and I'm very sorry! Please love me!

But let us not dwell and crack on with the show, My Dear Reader Chum!
(what do you mean "This isn't Miranda Hart's book"?)

Over my break I read what is my new favourite go-to happy book series; the Lux series. The series comprises of five books - Obsidian, Onyx, Opal, Origin and Opposition. I tend to rate books on the way I feel after reading them, not the technical aspects of the book. Therefore, I have to give the series five stars! I went away from these books with a warm gooey feeling in my stomach (most of the time. Let us not speak of the Opal/Origin and Origin/Oppisition cliffhangers). I really loved these books and I think that anyone who likes books and cute, lighthearted romance would love them too.

The series centres around Katy, a book blogger/vlogger in the US who has just moved across the country to a new town. Her new neighbours turn out to be aliens, and typical supernatural drama/angst/love ensues - except these books aren't your typical supernatural romance. They're super self-aware, and current, and littered with fantastic pop-culture references and even references to the genre and OH I'm getting in a flush just thinking about them. A lot of reviews will draw parallels to Twilight, but today I'm not about that and frankly, I can't even compare them because although there are definite parallels, the characterisation in the Lux series is so on point that they're not even in the same universe. Strip back the plot and the aliens of the Lux series and you're left with well-rounded characters with such chemistry and such a great dynamic that you'd read a book about them working in a sewage plant and still enjoy it. Can we actually make this happen please? Any way to have more Daemon/Katy in my life.

So anyway, Daemon and Katy are, like, mega cutie pants x100000. They're the main reason to read these books. Daemon is my newest book boyfriend even though his overprotectiveness is SO annoying and SO not with my feminist ideologies, but he gets bonus points for his development over the course of the series. The parts of the series where Daemon and Katy are apart tend to drag on a bit, but the payoff is worth is because as soon as they're back together they get right on back to their adorable selves. Katy is absolutely perfect. She is emotionally and physically strong and stands up for herself, and super sassy to boot.

The plot of the series is interesting and realistic (as realistic as a book about Aliens is going to get) with really great and interesting characters popping in and out. It can switch from serious to jovial from sentence to sentence, which is surprisingly great. One of my favourite scenes was in Opposition when Katy is in the car with some Luxen and things get crazy, but some of the imagery used had me laughing out loud in an action-packed moment. As the series progresses, *spoiler aliert* I found myself really missing Katy's home and school life, as I found them super fun and interesting, but I was still happy with the way the plot turned out. Apart from one character's death, which still has me shaken just thinking about it.

To put the books in my favourite order:
1. Obsidian
2. Onyx
3. Opal
4. Opposition
5. Origin

If you couldn't tell, I loved these books and think they're so cute for anyone to read! Pick them up if you haven't already, and if you have feel free to drool over Daemon with me in the comments.

I promise I'll be back soon!
XOXO
Kate

Style Inspirations | The Kardashians

Hi Everyone!

So if you know anything about me, you'll know that I love reality TV. I started marathoning Keeping Up With the Kardashians about two months ago, and am FINALLY up to date. While watching, I've fallen completely in love with all of their fashion and beauty styles, to the point where last week I begged my hairdresser to "PLEEEEEASE MAKE ME A KARDASHIAN!!!". I'm so in love with all of the Kardashians. Haters as far away from me as possible, please. Here I have compiled for you my top 5 things that those Kardashian girls have got me wanting.

1. Kylie's Hair (EVERYONE'S HAIR. EVEN KIM'S RIDICULOUS WIGS.)

This family just has a way of making anything look good. Now I saw Kylie's hair before I started watching the show, and I thought that it was pretty cool. Now, as I've grown attached to Kylie (and since I followed her on Instagram), it's all I can think about. I go to sleep thinking about Kylie Jenner's hair. I dream about Kylie Jenner's hair. I lead a Kylie Jenner's hair appreciation life.

2. Khloe's Hoops

Since I've had my ears pierced for a long time, the novelty of statement earrings wore off a long time ago. That was until I saw Khloe rocking her hoops and high bun/pony. Khloe is my favourite Kardashian and girl has got me wanting those hoops more than Kylie wants an Italian greyhound.

3. Kendall's Invitation to the Met Ball

I've got two years on this girl. What have I done with my life?

4. Kourtney's Cat Eye Sunglasses

I have the biggest thing for cat eye sunglasses. Every time I see Kourtney wearing them it intensifies x1000. I swear she has a new pair every episode; I'd pay so much money to see her sunglasses c(k)ollection.

5. Kim's Butt

Seriously. Every time I see one of those "Get Kim's butt in 30 days!" scams, I'm ready to whip out my credit card and yell "TAKE MY MONEY!!!". She got that bootay bootay.

Tell me some of your favourite Kardashian things in the comments! If they aren't your thing, please don't leave any negativity in the comments and I promise there will be something more to your taste in my next post!

XOXO

Friday Favourite | Tangelo

Happy Friday everybody! I hope you all have been having a splendid week and are looking forward to an even more splendid weekend! Today I have my first Friday Favourite post, where I will be posting some of my favourite things for you to enjoy. This week's favourite is not an item but a colour that I've been obsessed with recently, which has been named by a quick Google search as "tangelo". As it is the middle of winter in Australia (although the existence of winter in Brisbane is debatable), I've been really enjoying having a pop of colour to keep me out of my go-to wardrobe of black, black and black. This colour brightens things up but isn't vampy like your traditional winter reds, so it's great for an untraditional Australian winter. My three favourite items in this colour are listed below.

1. My (dupe) Michael Kors wallet
This has been a recent acquisition as it finally arrived in the post the other day. Having a bright wallet is great because it makes spending your money a little more fun. It also is great because if you just want to carry it, it still makes a statement and will brighten up a winter outfit. I've been obsessed with Michael Kors wallets for a long time so having the faux MK brand just makes me feel luxurious without the hefty price tag. I know that people are opposed to dupe brands but I have a tendency to wear wallets out quickly so I am enjoying this one for now.

2. Maybelline Color Whisper in #40 Orange Attitude
I'm not going to lie; the only reason that I bought this is because needed to spend a little extra in order to receive a gorgeous rose gold makeup bag, but oh boy am I glad that I did! From the first time I wore it, this has become my go-to lip product. It was the first Color Whisper that I tried and I absolutely love the line! I love the sheer coverage that makes it more like a balm than a lipstick, without compromising on pigmentation. The colour is buildable too so if you were looking for a more opaque orange then it is definitely achievable. I can't say enough great things about this product, and I have never gone through a lipstick so quickly from such frequent use! I will definitely be repurchasing another in the near future to make sure there's not a time when I don't have it in my life!

3. Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure in #560 Kook A Mango
After a solid four months of obsessing over nude and neutral nail colours, it came as a shock when I suddenly decided that I HAD to have this colour on my nails! I've had the same colour on for a solid month and I'm still not tired of it. I love the Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure range. I'm yet to have one dry out on me and I love the formula and how quickly it dries. My absolute favourite thing about them is the application brush. The only other nail polish I've had with a wide brush is the Rimmel range (which I love but often dry out very quickly), and I haven't been able to use a thin one since. As someone who is absolutely useless at painting my nails, the brush makes a huge difference and I will definitely be buying more colours from the range in the future. This is definitely my favourite nail polish right now, so the fact that they had my favourite colour just served to seal the deal.

So that is my Friday favourite for this week! Let me know below what your favourite colour of the moment is, or if you've seen anything in this colour that I can get my hands on! I recommend all of these products and if you're looking to put a pop of colour in your winter (or even to brighten up your summer!) then look no further!

I hope you have an amazing weekend!
XOXO