Goodbye 2014

 Madrid, August 2014

I don't know how to begin this post without repeating what you've heard a million times by now, so I'm just going to go ahead and say it: 2014 has flown by. I cannot believe it's been twelve months since the last time I sat down to reflect on another year. 

Very often, I label things in my head as good or bad. What I like and what I don't. What's good for me and what's not. I always need to know that the villain is a real villain and I can't sympathize with a hero that's doing mean things. If you're a good friend, you behave like one. Most things are in black and white in my head, because that makes it easier for me to understand how I feel towards someone or something. However, I'm not sure I can fully label a year as good or bad. I keep hearing people talking about balance and that's always been an interesting concept for me. I'm attracted to the idea that we have to go through the worst to appreciate the best. It's not exactly fair, I suppose, but I like to think that balance exists, whether we like it or not, and that good times will always come.

To be perfectly honest with you, I also think that it all depends on your attitude. That's why without counting neither my curses nor my blessings, I'm going to say that it's been a good year. This year I don't want to look back and think about the days I've been sad or lonely or miserable, days that we all have. When I'm old and wrinkly and I'm rocking my chair back and forth thinking about the good old 2014, I'm going to think about the lessons I learned and the good memories we made. Trying to sneak into fancy hotels. Watching the sun rise from the beach. Tracking flights at 1 am. (Not so) early mornings spent lying in bed searching stuff on twitter, then falling asleep again. Crazy audio notes. Blogging more. Realizing that there's really no point in worrying so much about everything. That it's okay to be sad, upset and afraid and you have to allow yourself to feel all of it. Finding myself a little bit more every day. Finally coming to terms with who I am and what I want (and what I don't). Growing. Accepting. Moving forward.

I am a completely different person than I was twelve months ago and I am a completely different person than I will be next time I sit down to write about my year. And that's alright. Hopefully, next December I will tell you more or less the same thing: that bad things happen, but they will never be more relevant than whatever makes you smile. I'm happy. I hope you are too. And I hope 2015 is the year of your life.

Happy new year!

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2014 Beauty Favourites

And here I was thinking I shouldn't even bother doing a Beauty Favourites post because there would not be enough things to talk about...

First and foremost, I'd like to say that I know most of these products did not actually come out in 2014, but I chose them based on what I've been reaching for the most this year. Some of them are things I've purchased over the past twelve months, while some of them are now all-time favourites and will probably feature in all of my annual favourites until I turn 80 (hello Kate Moss 107). I will not go into too much detail for two reasons: one, I have talked about or want to talk about in the near future about some of these products in a separate post. Two, I have two academic papers to write!

Rimmel Wake Me Up Foundation (201 Classic Beige)

While I don't really understand the big buzz around it (yes, it's good, but that good? Hmmm...), I admit it's one of my favourite drugstore foundations at the moment. The coverage is great and the lasting power is actually quite impressive, although I'm not sure about the anti-fatigue effect and radiant glow it claims to have. Personally I don't see it, but it's a great foundation nevertheless.

Maybelline Fit Me! Pressed Powder (350 Caramel)

Until a couple of weeks ago I'd been using a Catrice pressed powder, I don't remember the details, but I dropped it and it ended up scattered all over the bathroom floor. Classic Tania. The next day, my desperate self went to the store and picked up the only powder they had in my shade - which, surprisingly, turned to be great. It is a matte powder so you won't become a disco ball in the middle of the day, but it does not make your skill look dull in the slightest. It's a win-win.

Sleek Blush By 3 Palette in Sweet Cheeks (Candy Collection)

I got this in the sales a couple of months ago and boy, am I glad I did. You need to be very careful when applying the product, especially the bright shade on the right, because otherwise you'll end up looking like a clown. I learned that the hard way. But once you get the hang of that, you will fall in love with it.

Rimmel Match Perfection Concealer (060 Natural Beige)

Ladies and gents, meet my new best friend. When I read on the tube that it was "skin tone adapting", I rolled my eyes. Skin tone adapting concealer? Yeah, right. Well, it turns out it wasn't false advertising after all. It looks quite yellow-ish when you first apply it, so that's kind of scary the first time, but it blends so well with your skin, even if you're not wearing foundation.  I've been using it since May and I'm not planning on trying a new one.

Makeup Revolution Girls On Film Palette

Makeup Revolution are the brand of the year. I think we can all agree on that one. They make such amazing products and they are so incredibly affordable that you just cannot stop buying things. A personal favourite of mine is the Girls On Film palette, with twelve shimmery shades and six matte ones. I rarely ever wear eyeshadow to university but with such wearable shades this palette makes me want to make more of an effort.

Makeup Revolution Redemption Palette Iconic 3

 Alright, the Naked 3 palette is absolutely beautiful. The shades are stunning, the packaging is incredible and we all know Urban Decay make some of the best eyeshadows out there when it comes to pigment and staying power. The thing is, when it first came out, I wasn't sure I was actually going to get much use out of rose gold toned eyeshadows. Do I want to spend 45€ on something I don't know if I'm going to use at all? The answer is no, I don't, so when the Iconic 3 palette came out, apparently being a dupe for the Naked 3 palette, I thought, "Well, it's so affordable that I'm just going to get that one and if I see that it's something I'm going to wear a lot, then I'll get the real thing."

I haven't even thought about buying the Naked 3 palette again. Do I need to say more?

Urban Decay Eyeshadow Primer Potion

The lovely girls at Sephora gave this to my mum when she got me the Naked 2 palette for my birthday last year and I haven't used any other eyeshadow primer ever since. It is a bit dry so you need to be quite quick working your eyeshadow, but it is incredible. Sadly it's running out now and I'm going to start using the Shadow Insurance primer by Too Faced. I'll keep you posted!

Sleek True Colour Lipstick in 797 Smother

As soon as I saw that shade on the website I knew I had to get my hands on it. I don't have MAC's Rebel, mainly because I have many lipsticks with similar shades, and I think this could actually count as a dupe. I know it looks incredibly dark in the tube, but looking at the swatch you can see it's actually more of a deep pink/purple colour than a vampy shade.

Rimmel Kate Moss Collection in 107

Isn't this everyone's favourite lipstick? It is mine. I love it so much I think I might just get married to it and we'll just ride off into the sunset together and live happily ever after.

KIKO Velvet Mat Satin Liptick in 614 Dark Berry

While the 107 one is my favourite lipstick ever, I don't actually wear it every day because as you know it is quite a dark red. This one right here is the one I reach for the most. It is deep without being over the top, so I can easily get away with wearing it every single day.

Rimmel Lasting Finish Lipstick in 077 Asia

As I have said a thousand of times before, I've never thought I could pull off a nude lip. My skin is way too dark for most of the shades. What was my surprise when I found a nude shade that didn't make me look like I'd been dead for months!  (More to come on this lipstick in the next few weeks - stay tuned!)

Topshop Lipstick in All About Me

I got this in London back in September 2013 after spotting it in one of Zoella's videos and until this summer I wasn't sure I was actually going to wear it much. As you can guess, I'm a dark lips kind of girl, so I don't own many bright lipsticks (alright, I do, I just don't really like them that much). Well, say hello to the lipstick I wore all summer!

What have you been loving in 2014?

Any of what I mentioned?

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Six Christmas Songs

Ho, ho, hooooo!

I know I said I would start posting on Wednesdays and Sundays but given that it's Christmas Eve tomorrow and most people will be busy spending the day freaking out about what to wear, including me, I thought it'd be a good idea to move it forward to Tuesday just for this week. I wanted to write about something festive today and my first idea was a Christmas gift ideas posts, but haven't we seen a thousand of those already? Plus, don't you all have your Christmas shopping done by now? You should, at least, if you don't want to end up on the naughty list this year!

I'm sure you all have seen a few posts on Christmas songs as well so I know this won't be ground-breaking material, but I felt like sharing with you a few songs I've been listening to this season. Some are new, some are classics, but I hope you enjoy them all nonetheless.

Baby It's Christmas - Travis Atreo & Colton Haynes

All I Want for Christmas Is You - Love Actually Version  

Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) - Michael Bublé

Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town - Mariah Carey

Santa Tell Me - Ariana Grande

Jingle Bells - The Vamps 

And as a bonus track, here's One Direction playing classroom instruments (yeah Zayn, smash that triangle!) and singing Santa Claus Is Coming to Town in festive jumpers. Enjoy!

What Christmas songs have you been listening to this year?

Merry Christmas everyone!

 

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We need to talk...

No, I'm not breaking up with you.

When I wrote a blog post back in October saying that my week long break from blogging had accidentally been extended to ten days, I really didn't mean for it to go any further. However, I was fully aware of the weight my final year of university might put on my shoulders and before we started classes I had a very serious chat with myself: I had to learn to take things easy and start doing what my body and mind asked me to do - which surprisingly I'm becoming quite decent at. I often joke that this semester is turning me into the laziest version of myself, but really it's just me trying to keep myself together (...okay, and maybe being a bit lazy too). That being said, and as much as I love blogging, once I started feeling a bit overwhelmed by the thought of having to sit down and write I simply stopped posting.

To be quite honest with you, I've been finding it hard to write in the past few months and not only for the blog, which I hadn't even tried again until thirty minutes ago, but also for myself. I always say that I don't really understand what's going on in my head until I put pen to paper, and it's absolutely true, but not even the worst headaches have made me want to write. I have been turning to my friends a lot, which means I've been sending ridiculously long text messages complaining about boys being idiots, work being stressful and me being a soon-to-be spinster with five dogs. Alriiiiiight, I'm 20 and I have one dog. Whatever. You get the idea. My point is that I've never been one to openly talk about my problems like I've been doing lately, so it's nice to be able to open up for a change - even if my notebooks are now really sad and hate me for it. 

I'm rambling. 

The reason why I'm sitting here writing all this instead of watching Breaking Bad, which is the only thing I've been doing with my time lately, is that I want to get back to blogging. Yes, again. For the millionth time. Initially, the idea is to start posting twice a week, possibly Wednesdays and Sundays, and maybe I can squeeze another one in between every other week (especially more personal posts - you know I like those). It's definitely not an overwhelming amount of work, at least not until I start my second semester at uni in February, so I should be able to keep up. And if I don't, feel free to tweet me saying I'm the least consistent blogger you've ever met.

Lastly, thank you for being so patient with me. Over the course of the past couple of months I've seen the number of views and followers grow, just when I thought that the outcome would be the opposite. Thanks a million. I'll make sure Santa gives something extra special to all of you. ;) xx

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