High Street v High End: Lip Crayons

I love this sudden influx of easy to use lip colours in the form of chunky crayons - lipstick for dummies! The Chubby Stick from Clinique was the one that kicked off the trend and I'm going to compare it to a cheaper high street offering.

High Street: Bourjois Colour Boost in Proudly Naked - RRP £7.99

This is a lovely pink-toned nude which is great for everyday wear. It's got a slightly glossy finish to it, which I wasn't expecting and I'm not hugely keen on, but that's just personal preference. I'm not massively impressed with the staying power - if you do any eating/drinking it's gone within a second! It's very easy to touch up though and can be done without a mirror. One thing that I do love is that it somehow manages to make my lips look fuller than they are. I've already bought this in a different colour!

High End: Clinique Chubby Stick in Super Strawberry - RRP £17.00 

The staying power of a chubby stick is pretty good for a lip crayon and I only need to touch up as often as I would if I was wearing a lipstick. As with the Bourjois crayon these are really easy to touch up on the go. The main thing I love about these is that they don't dry out my lips as they are quite moisturising which is an important factor for me. The price of these do put me off, but I've had this for ages and used it quite a lot so I do think you get value for money.

Winner: Clinique Chubby Stick - I love these too much for them not to win, but if you are looking for a good high street alternative I would definitely recommend the Bourjois Colour Boost.

Have you tried either of these products? What did you think?

Amy x

A Weekend Away

Warning: photo heavy post! This weekend Nick and I decided to go to Newcastle. It's my home town, but I moved to Yorkshire when I was 9 so I don't get there all that often and Nick has never been so I had to take him and show him what a lovely city it is! I'll let the pictures do the talking because who has time to read a rambling post on a Sunday? Apologies if you follow me on Instagram as you may have seen some of these already!

The boating lake at Exhibition Park - gutted the crazy golf isn't there anymore!

Lovely walk along the quayside

Still walking along the quayside...

The BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art

The BALTIC viewing terrace

Drinks by the river 

Breakfast round one

Breakfast round two

Breakfast round three - yep, all in one sitting

The restaurant in our hotel had lovely pictures literally all over the walls

Tynemouth

Windswept at Tynemouth

Tynemouth Priory

The cutest little shopping arcade inside a church!

Angel of the North - a lot smaller than I expected! (I definitely had unrealistic expectations though...)

A lovely weekend in a beautiful city - I also got to catch up with my oldest friend who has just had a baby! Hope you all had lovely weekends too!

Amy x

Why TX Maxx is the best place to buy nail varnish from

I recently discovered the nail varnish section of TX Maxx and I really don't know how I haven't heard about it before! It's got so many good brands at such bargain prices. I'm not one to spend a lot on nail varnish as I think cheaper brands such as Barry M are just fine so it's quite exciting to try out some that I wouldn't usually buy! I'm going to have to not go in TK Maxx for a while now as I walked out with quite a few!

Nails Inc in Kensington Square and Marylebone Road - £2 and £3.99

Essie in Ruffles and Feathers, Haute in the Heat and Roarrrrange - £6 for all three

Illamasqua in Load - £3.99

These are all perfect spring colours so I won't need any more nail varnish for a while! Have you seen the TK Maxx nail varnish section? What do you think of these colours?

Amy x

Milan Outfits

As you may have seen in my previous posts here and here I recently went to Milan for a couple of days (I'll stop banging on about it after this post I promise!). I wanted to show you what I wore while I was there - the weather was beautiful and sunny, but not too hot so the perfect temperature for walking around and enjoying the sights!

Day 1

Top - Topshop 

Sleeveless cardigan - Tu at Sainsbury's (not online)

Jeans - Topshop (here)

Shoes - Hoxton Chic at TX Maxx (not online)

Bag - Primark

Sunglasses - Primark

Necklace - Primark

Evening 1

Top - Next (old)

Trousers - H&M (here)

Shoes - Asos 

Bag - Primark

Sunglasses - Primark

Day 2

Top - Topshop 

Shirt - Topshop 

Trousers - H&M (here)

Boots - Topshop (similar here)

Bag - Primark

Sunglasses - Primark

Which outfit is your favourite?

Amy x

Two Days in Milan

You might have read in last Sunday's post (here) that I went to Milan for a couple of days last week and in this post I wanted to share some pictures of the trip as well as recommendations of things to do if you fancy going yourself!

I went with two friends from work and we chose Milan simply because it was the cheapest place on Skyscanner (anyone else love going on Skyscanner and searching for 'Everywhere' as your destination? Yep, that's how it happened). We were there for two nights and almost two full days, which actually was enough to see and do everything that we wanted to.

The Duomo

The Duomo is a beautiful building, the highlight definitely being the roof terrace - the roof itself is beautiful as are the views you get from it!

Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II and la Rinascente

There are two shopping centres off Piazza del Duomo worth a visit - the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II is just beautiful especially the glass roof and la Rinascente is lovely for lunch as it has a roof terrace with a choice of three restaurants with a view of the Duomo and piazza. I wouldn't recommend actually doing any shopping in either of them though unless you're a millionaire!

Castello Sforzesco and Parco Sempione

Down the road opposite the Duomo is the Castello Sforzesco which is well worth a see and out through the back is Parco Sempione which is such a pretty place to stop and have an ice cream!

Navigli District

The Navigli District is a system of canals, alongside which are lots of restaurants, cafes and bars so it's a lovely place to go for a coffee/meal/drink. We wandered down there at about 6pm and stayed until 10pm so that we could experience it both in daylight and at night time.

Those would be my main recommendations for things to do although there is obviously a lot more worth doing and seeing on top of those! As you can see from the pictures the weather was absolutely beautiful for us and I'll share some of my outfits in a post soon!

Have you ever been to Milan or if not would you like to?

Amy x

The Shirt Dress

The sun is shining hurray! So much so that most of these photos are horribly over-exposed, but I'm too happy about the sun to worry about that. I had a little splurge on Asos at the beginning of the month and these were two of my purchases. I'd been searching high and low for the perfect shirt dress and this is it - comfy, summery and stripy! Paired with my new flatforms this makes for a perfect sunny day outfit. 

Shirt dress: New Look via Asos 

Flatforms: Asos 

What do you think of shirt dresses?

Amy x