It's my birthday!

I had a theory that birthdays get worse as you get older but now that I'm the grand old age of 23 I think your priorities just change a bit. I used to get so excited for a party and a cake and to be treated like a princess for the day but since I've stopped being over the age of ten (okay 22) I tend not to make a big deal of birthdays. 

I woke up today and everyone was out. I opened a couple of cards, received some calls from my friends in Devon and then went to work. Then I came home and tried to organise my own birthday meal with my family but none of us could decide where we wanted to go. In the end we walked into the village where I live and stood in the snow for a while trying to decide if we wanted Chinese, Indian or Italian. In the end we went for the most expensive restaurant we could find guessing that it would have the best food and boy was I hungry.

Then by 9pm I was in my pj's! Clearly I'm getting more rock and roll with age!

So to make my birthday a bit more 'Wahooo!' I took it upon myself to buy my own presents and do what I always do when things are not going to plan- get dressed up and stick on a smile :D

Presents:

'Elizabeth Arden Pure Finish Tinted Moisturiser'

I have naturally quite olive toned skin and I think from using foundation every day it's made my skin tone more uneven, I don't know if that's even possible but I feel like that's what's happened. Sometimes I need full on cover up for bad skin days but on the rare occasions when my skin isn't having a tantrum it feels almost cruel to cover it up in foundation yet going without anything could potentially be a disaster half way through the day. The fine line between totally naked and fully clothed is tinted moisturiser- the equivilant of a sheer blouse if you will! I rarely impulse buy but today I did which is nuts because this was £24 (though I had £17 on a boots card so doesn't even count). I hardly even tested it first and the 'Elizabeth Arden' woman was on her lunchbreak so it wasn't like I could even ask her for bullet points that would lead me in the right direction! Mostly I went with this because the 'No7' tinted moisturiser I used a couple of summers ago wasn't up to standard and I'd heard so many good things about this brand that I thought 'To hell with it, it's my birthday!' and asked the lady on 'Benefit' to get me a shade medium.

• It lasts
• It's mattifying
• It's also illuminating
• The medium is quite dark so you get a nice even tanned glow
• It has an SPF15 which is very important!
• You do need to use quite a few blobs due to the fact it instantly dries on your face as soon as you start rubbing
• My skin felt very soft and moisturised though

'Essie Nail Polish in Mint Candy Apple'

This much hyped about nail polish didn't really strike me as anything amazing when I first looked at it, in fact it's taken me over a year to get round to buying it as I'm very loyal to my reds. In fact I thought it looked too similar to 'Minted' by 'Topshop' so I was hesitant about spending a tenner on something that didn't look too mind blowing.

On closer inspection 'Minted' is much more green toned whereas this more true to the mint shade.

This was my first coat so they're not too neat and the polish came out fairly streaky. It dried very fast though and after the second coat they looked perfect and super colourful and I fell in love a bit. Next on my list will be 'Butler Please', a bright royal blue! I'm feeling the cooooool shades ;)

I bought these three 'Topshop' hair bows in the sale for £1.50 each because now I've caught up with big hair I feel like these will actually stay on my tiny head now and they can bring a girly touch to jeans and tshirts which is what I mostly wear when I'm not having to dress up for work.

I also went for this 'Louise Gray' for 'Topshop' eyeshadow pallette which was £3 in the sale. I'm usually a brown shimmery eye type of girl but what with the blue nail polish, the tinted moisturiser and the hair bows I felt like I should follow through on this apparent 'throwing caution to the wind' journey I appear to have started on and give an electric blue eye a chance.

My eyes are blue-green and any shade containing blue seems to bring the green out in a massive way so go for lilacs or taupes and try electric blue mascara if you dare.

So those were my presents to myself.

And this was the card my mum got me, I'm hoping she's not trying to tell me something through the medium of a birthday card...

She also got me this 'Cherry Vanilla Yankee Candle' which smells AMAZING! All 'Yankee Candles' smell delicious but this one makes me want to actually eat it. Some people just don't get the point of candles but I grew up with my mum collecting them and lighting them only on special occasions. Plus they make everyone look beautiful, they're super romantic and they relax you in an instant. 

So this is me with my new favourite hair bow.

My sisters 'Topshop Jamie' jeans (in a size 6, that was a squeeze, I don't mind telling you), my 'Topshop' leather jacket and a 'Topshop' burgundy coloured peplum top. 

With my ever faithful white 'Converse'.

But because the weather looked like this ^

I had to cover up for the bus ride in my sisters khaki parka and my white bobble scarf, both from 'Topshop' (can you guess where we work yet?) accessorized with my mahoosive black croc bag, also from...you guessed it. Clearly I'm very happy about going to work in the snow! (my dog was making me laugh mid click)

Night time outfit went like this:

'Topshop' grey peplum top (now in the sale), jeans as before and bow flats by 'Primark'.

So that was my 23rd birthday. The most important things to me were the fact that my real friends all called, texted, messaged, wrote me birthday poems or went out of their way to somehow find my address (I will never know how!) and send me cards. 

And, although I already knew this, you should always dress pretty and buy yourself something nice. 

Another year older...

Bella

x