MAC Diva Review

I hadn't bought a lipstick in what felt like forever so when I was passing through duty free in the airport and spied the makeup counter's, I knew I needed to treat myself! Sometimes you just can't help it! This time I purchased MAC's Diva - a shade I haven't actually heard too many people speaking about!

I'm terrible at swatching but I still wanted to show you guys the colour accurately!

As I said, Diva definitely isn't one I've heard about all that much but after swatching the lipstick I knew I had to have it! It's so under-rated. Its a beautiful red/burgundy shade (perfect for A/W hint hint) with a matte finish. If there's anything matte in a lip product I will most likely fall in love with it. I know there's quite a lot of people that don't get along with mattes but I think even this lipstick would convert them! The lipstick isn't drying in the slightest, was smooth on first application and barely fades throughout the day.

When I'm wearing makeup or lipstick in general its usually for a long period of time, after applying early in the morning I rarely top up the colour until later in the afternoon. Its comfortable and even after eating (all lipsticks fade after eating, I'm still hunting for that one that doesn't) it hasn't faded that much either and with that hasn't left a horrible stain either!

I know that coming into the Autumn months, this lipstick won't be out of my makeup bag - its the perfect transitional colour and I'd highly recommend adding this to the lipstick collection. Over the past year or so, this is one of the lipstick shades that I keep gravitating towards and its brilliant because they're so universal, they genuinely suit all skin tones! Also considering I haven't heard much of a buzz about Diva, I'd definitely class it as one of MAC's unsung heroes and can't wait to use it now the darker nights are rolling in.

Thanks for reading, Jenny xo

P.s whats your favourite MAC lipstick?

Relaunching My Blog!!

Hi everyone! I'm not sure if anyone's been here since the beginning but if you have - thank you! I started my blog back in January 2014 (which seems like a life time ago now) as something I could do when I felt like I had something to share. I've went through phases in which I've blogged a lot and then life has got in the way and I'm unable to balance them both but I'm back! I think another major reason for my absence is my blog design and layout, I was uninspired and constantly thinking about what I could fix and then not having the time to fix it which was getting me down.

I'm not great at ICT or coding and therefore didn't necessarily want to play about with it incase I ruined my layout forever (dramatic I know). I was also forever visiting new blogs and thinking 'wow, this is so much better' or I really need to have 'a cleaner, minimalist layout' so I thought it was about time I fixed it. 

The first photo, above was of my blog at the very beginning, very square, plain and simple with a pop of colour and although I thought it was amazing just having my own blog then - it's not exactly great for others reading it. Once i realised this and had a bit more time, I started tweaking things as you can see in the photo below. 

I managed to centre my heading and create my own personalised one, insert a menu at the top for easier accessibility, enlarged my photo, added a bio, bloglovin button etc. Also the most important thing, finding the perfect font, centring it and making sure all of my photos were in line with each other. I find if they aren't, it just looks messy and off-putting for all. I thought this was brilliant and definitely lasted me a good year and a bit so this is probably what you remember Jenny's Everyday Life looking like. 

However fast forward 6+ months late and with a change of mind, I wanted to change it for good. Now theres lots of great places you can find blog layouts or you can have them custom made. If your really good at ICT (i.e not me) you can fix your blog up yourself. I did have sort of an idea of what I wanted it to look like e.g. featured posts at the beginning, instagram widget at the bottom, monochrome and minimalist theme and a similar sidebar. I just had to find it....

I kept looking and in the end decided on one from Etsy (see photo above), it was less than £10 and I'm pretty in love with it. It was a dream to set up taking less than an hour and all of the features are working just as they should be. This is one investment in my blog that I'm super happy with and I can it lasting ages. As for the new layout, comes plenty more motivation. I''m now happy with my workspace, blog design and how it'll look from here on out so with that, I'll be posting more often again - not a 5 days a week thing but a few days a week for now. I hope you enjoy reading the new posts! 

Thanks for reading, Jenny xo 

P.s has anyone changed their blog design recently? do you prefer pops of colour or monochrome? the traditional sidebar or the new style of massive photos? let me know 

I DID THE IMPOSSIBLE

Just a quick one! Once I had found out the brilliant news that I had been accepted to my chosen University and degree course back in 2012, my goal was to graduate a few years later with a second class uppers degree or a 2:1!

Now last September with my final year at University beginning I knew it was the time to buckle down and concentrate even more so than before if I wanted my 2:1. I regrettably said goodbye to blogging, a social life and probably my sanity lol! I spent my week working on assignments, attending lectures, commuting more than 3 hours by train per day and my weekends working in my part time job so really downtime wasn't an option. I just kept chipping away at my work whether it was 2am and an extremely late night or a 6:30am train journey (spoiler: it all paid off).

Four years down the line from sitting my A-levels, a whole degree and placement later, I can officially say I'm a graduate (well as of the beginning of the month). I'm absolutely over the moon and to say that after 4 wonderful years, it's finally time to graduate with a first class honours degree fills me with a great sense of pride. I didn't think it was possible but alas after all the stress, late nights and hard work its paid off! My time at University has been amazing and I'm so grateful that I have met so many friends for life whilst studying something that I loved. The moral of the story being: don't listen to others. Don't let them tell you that you can't do something or won't succeed. If you put the effort in and believe in yourself, you'll do great. Now reflecting on the past 9 months, I can say yes they've been tough but they're over and I couldn't have possibly done anymore. Also don't stress yourself out, you don't need it. Uni has been such a rewarding experience and dare I say it its flew past in blink of an eye so just enjoy it while you can and hopefully you'll find a job that you love as the end result. I know that's my next step, finding a graduate job as enjoyable as my degree!

Thanks for reading, Jenny xo

My Graduation Day!

Hi there! I know my most recent post was a graduation post as well (read here) but it's such an important day and with such an important day finding the perfect outfit is key. I'd had the usual panic in the weeks coming up to the day about what to wear... trust me it was hard.

Girls have more of a choice with what they can wear, yes but there's still the usual dilemma of  'what dress?', 'what style/colour?', 'what heels?' and the most important question: 'what if I fall?' It really is a struggle and so I thought I'd write this post to dicuss how I found my perfect dress in the end.

A lot of my friends had already found their perfect dress months before and I sort of panicked that three weeks before the big day I hadn't. I knew it was top priority but with my hectic schedule I knew that the time window I had to shop for the dress and accessories was limited. From the offset I knew I wouldn't be able to order it online although I'd seen soo many beautiful ones because it would be touch and go whether a) they'd arrive on time and b) fit me properly so a few trips to town were needed!

I thought the whole thing would be a bit daunting, the one thing I had been sure of was that I wanted something natural and quite plain so it wouldn't clash with my robe and hood which was green. I also thought it would take quite a long time to find something that I would fall in love with however after the first shop and seven dresses later, I had found the one. It was figure hugging, smart, simple and classy with such pretty lace detail. Once I had tried it on, I knew this was the one that I wanted and it wasn't until I reached the till that it was on sale too! I always assumed a graduation dress would be expensive but that's not the case at all as this one was from Miss Selfridge.

The only problem I had was finding shoes to match the colour of the dress exactly as they were more of a blush nude but eventually I managed to find just that from New Look. At the same time I realised that I wanted more of a statement clutch for the day and the dinner afterwards so I picked up this navy (also New Look) which had plenty of jewels and the blush colour running throughout. As for jewellery, I luckily managed to pick out the jewels in the clutch and match them perfectly to a necklace and bracelet from Next. I wanted something to stand out against the dress and around my robe with such a high neck line and this did just that. I then matched it with my silver Pandora rings and my Accessorize watch which again was a blush nude.

I wasn't able to book in to get my hair and makeup done as planned - my ceremony started at 11am and is 2 hours away from my house so we knew it would be an early one and nowhere would be opened in time. However us graduates actually needed to be there for 9:30am instead and so we had to wake up even earlier and I decided doing it myself would be the only option. I kept the makeup minimal for the day and curled my hair loosely the night before.

As for the ceremony itself, it was over in the blink of an eye and all those little worries about tripping on stage seem so far away. For a start, we had a ramp and so tripping wasn't even an option. In addition we were presented with our degree and shook hands with James Nesbitt - an actor from Northern Ireland and also our Vice Chancillor. Afterwards, we were able to catch up with all of our friends and lecturers with lunch spreads on in the gardens. I made sure to talk to everyone in amongst the glasses of wine and buns. Everyone was in such high spirits and of course photos had to be taken. Let me tell you: group photographs are so hard to organise, especially with 7 odd sets of parents all wanting us to look a certain way haha!

After giving back the gowns and hats, it was time to spend some quality time with my family. We went for a gorgeous lunch at the Bushmills Inn - it wasn't too packed but the food was absolutely delicious and the sun was out so it made the day all the more enjoyable. Before we started off on the trek home, exhausted from the day we stopped off for an ice cream by the sea and it was incredible. All in all, the past four years have been hard at times but definitely worthwhile and its hard to believe that Graduation day is finally over! As cliché as it may be, it's time for bigger and better things

Thanks for reading, Jenny xo

P.s Have you Graduated recently? What outfit would you pick, simple or bold? Are you at Uni?