British Summer Time Hyde Park

Love Kerry xxx

My Gap Year Travels To Australia (Part 2)

Here's the second instalment of my 7 week trip along Australia's East Coast!




Love Kerry xxx

My Gap Year Travels To Australia (Part 1)

Here's Part 1 of our 7 week backpacking adventure along the East Coast of Australia!

If you have any questions about anything we saw or did in this video, feel free to ask me in the comments!




Love Kerry xxx

Well Hello There 2016!

Hello there you hungover little thing, (am I right???) and welcome to 2016!

As sad and unsociable as it seems, I'm actually writing this on New Years Eve.. I'm sat in my fabulous new Joules (ooh fancy I know!) navy and white striped, dressing gown (which was an absolute bargain by the way, at just £19.95 John Lewis clearance! Sadly it's out of stock online, but if you're passing through this weekend, you might just be able to nab the last one!) Anyway, I'm sat here writing a blogpost on New Years Eve and for some unknown reason I am feeling very motivated and excited for the new year, (you know "new year, new me" and all that rubbish) so I thought I'd come and get my thoughts down in writing!

As many of you know, 2016 is going to be a very exciting but also, as corny as it sounds, a bit of a life-changing year for me. On March 10th, Loz and I will be hopping aboard a plane heading for sunny Sydney and all that Australia's East Coast has to offer! (EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEKKKKK!!) 

Every year, I make the New Years resolution to be more spontaneous and travel more, because unfortunately I am not a massively seasoned traveller, yet here I am with plans to spend 6 weeks, (4 of which are completely unplanned, with no flight home booked, across the other side of the world!?) Now if that's not spontaneous travelling I don't know what is! 

The other big event happening towards the end of 2016 is that I am of course, heading to Bournemouth University to study Multimedia Journalism, (yaaaayyyy!!!) In all honesty I keep forgetting that I have secured a place at Bournemouth and that I am actually moving away from home and getting back on the education bandwagon (that's gonna be a tough one isn't it...) 

The prospect of actually living two and a half hours away from home is probably going to be the toughest part about going to uni. Being part of such a close-knit family, means that the thought of not being around them everyday is very daunting. However, that being said I think I have reached that stage in my life now where I'm kind of ready to branch out a little bit and be more independent. (cue Destiny's Child- Independent Woman lyrics..) 

I will obviously try and keep you up to date with said events above as often as I can, which brings me onto my 2016 New Years Resolutions. I'm not normally one for New Years Resolutions but seeing as this year is gonna be a big year for me, I'm feeling very inspired and motivated to make a few changes.

1. UPDATE THIS BLOG MORE OFTEN!! 

One of my main resolutions is, as cliche as it sounds, to do more of what makes me happy! And writing on this blog makes me ruddy elated! I've had a few people say to me recently; "Kez what happened to your blog?" And in all honesty I have completely neglected it due to the fatigue that full-time work brings (i know 99% of y'all can relate.) But I have set myself a completely achievable target of AT LEAST 1 blogpost each fortnight. Now I know that sounds like nothing, in comparison to how regularly I used to post, but I know that if I say, "oh I'll post 2 blogposts a week," I won't be able to stick to it and then I'll end up doing what I've been doing and just completely neglecting it again! 

(Now that I've put this resolution down in writing hopefully it will make me stick to it.. fingers crossed!) 

2. Drink at least 2 litres of water a day!

Again another typical 'white girl, new year new me resolution, but one that I am really s**t at doing. Everywhere, I see and read the importance of staying hydrated, yet when I'm at work I'll be lucky if I have more than  2 cups of water a day, (awful I know.) Now I know that 2 litres breaks down into roughly 8 glasses, but personally I find it a lot easier if I just condense that down to one easy to visualise object, a mahossive 2 later bottle. I'm going to make a pledge to take that to work everyday and finish it (at least) by the end of the day. Hopefully I'll see the effects through my skin and the fuller feeling that it gives which will hopefully stop me from snacking!!

This brings me nicely onto my third and final resolution, 

3. To live a healthier lifestyle!

AGAIN ANOTHER CLICHE but it is SUCH an important one. At the beginning of this year, I was doing the 30 minute Belly Blitz 3-4 times a week and I was feeling so much more confident with my body and my overall well-being, but somewhere along the way, I feel off that bandwagon and with the beginning of full-time work, I sadly stopped dancing completely :( This means that my only exercise is about an hour of walking, when I walk to and from work and the train station every day. Now when it comes to exercising/healthy eating I definitely find the exercising bit the easiest, I reckon that with some will-power and sheer determination at the start, I would be able to exercise either at home or at a gym at least 3 times a week and so that's what I'm going to aim for. At least 30 minutes of exercise 3 times a week. 

Now comes the tricky part, healthy eating.. The only way that this is going to happen is if I gradually cut things out and only have unhealthier foods in moderation. In reality if I tried to cut something out completely, that would lead to binge eating like a ravenous animal.. So we're not going down that path.. I'm not going to make any strict resolution with this one, but I am just going to aim to opt for healthier alternatives at each meal and maybe even keep a food diary? I've heard that keeping one of these, even just for a week is surprisingly eye-opening, as it makes you realise just how much you eat in a day, maybe even some things you sub-consciously ate without even realising (i.e: the 10 bourbons as I'm watching First Dates..) 

I'm gonna round this post up here, but basically I just want to wish you all a year of good health and happiness and I hope that this year is as exciting and (hopefully) as rewarding as mine is shaping up to be!

Lots of love 

Kez xxx

"These Are A Few Of My Favourite Things."

10 points for you if you identified the Sound Of Music title reference there, good job!

I felt that after my opening, Lionel Richie lyric-titled blogpost, the horrifically unfunny blogpost title's needed to make a reappearance. So TA DAH!

Anyway! Over the past few months, I have discovered a few new favourites! Hooray! Whether it be music, make-up, food or movies, I thought it would be nice to impart these new found gems onto you guys!?

Lets talk about the best one first shall we?

Favourite Food: DARK CHOCOLATE MCVITIES DIGESTIVES. 

Now if I'm being completely honest, dark chocolate is not my fav. It is a bit too bitter for my lil' tastebuds and I just generally prefer to gorge on the milk kind. HOWEVER. OH MY LORDY. If you like normal, milk chocolate digestives then I can virtually guarantee that you will thoroughly enjoy these. Because the digestive part of the biscuit is a little bit sweet, this contrasts the bitterness of dark chocolate, which results in a rather delicious sweet treat. (That was not meant to come out sounding like a review in a food magazine... Apologies.) Furthermore, I would like to put a disclaimer out there that I cannot be held responsible for those, who (like me) finish a whole packet of these in approximately 20 minutes..

(I wish I was lying.)

Favourite New Album: Disclosure- Caracal 

I know, I know, that this album has been out for a little while now and I'm a bit late on the bandwagon. But personally when a new album comes out, I like to listen to it on repeat for a week so that I can identify my favourites, then play those ones in particular on repeat for another couple of weeks until I get sick of them.. Obviously, everyone is familiar with Omen featuring the fabulous Sam Smith, Holding On featuring the powerhouse that is Gregory Porter and possibly, a long time favourite of mine, Bang That. However, I have identified a few new, current favourites! These are:

Superego (ft Nao)
Magnets (ft Lorde)
Jaded 
Nocturnal (ft The Weeknd)

And my absolute favourite

Moving Mountains (ft Brendan Reilly) 

I binge watched all of the videos that Disclosure posted on their Youtube channel of their 'AmexUnstaged' concert. So when I came across this live performance and this guy's voice, I had it on repeat for a solid hour. Alas, a new favourite was born!

Oh I nearly forgot to mention! As I'm sure many of my close friends will tell you, I have been DYING to see Disclosure live for SO long, not just because I may or may not have a crush on Howard (google him, if you're not sure which one he is.) But because after watching videos of their show at Alexandra Palace last year, I just knew I had to somehow get tickets for their next tour.
So when the gorgeous duo announced their latest tour to promote this new album, I scanned the dates in approximately 5 seconds, saw that they were doing 2 (now 3) dates at Ally Pally and I GOT ME SOME TICKETS! (dancing lady in red dress emoji)
So on the 2nd of December I will be seeing these boys live! EEEEK! Of course I will try and get as many pictures and videos as possible so that I can write a blogpost about it!

My New Favourite Lipstick (that I really did not need, but purchased anyway..):

Mac- Fast Play

Here are some shameful selfies just so you can see what the colour looks like on. (Yes I forgot to save the first picture without the snapchat banner on.. We've all been there lets be honest.)

As I mentioned in my Everyday Make-Up post, Mac's Soar lipliner with Mehr lipstick over the top, is one of my favourite lip combinations and probably the one that I have had the most compliments and questions on! I always get told that the shade that this combination ends up as on my lips, is one that compliments my skin tone! So with that in mind, I wanted to get a similar colour but with more of a berry undertone to it and a bit deeper in colour so that it was a bit more autumnal. With much deliberation, I decided to go with Youtuber, Lily Pebbles' recommendation of Fast Play! I definitely did not need this lipstick, as I have many similar colours and dupes in my make-up stash. However, that being said, I am so glad I bought it! Because it is an amplified finish, it is a lot creamier and therefore easier to apply (which is great news for a lipstick noob like myself..) I find that with Soar and Mehr, they leave my lips feeling very dry and looking a bit too matte for my liking, so this is a perfect alternative for when i can't be bothered to faff with both lipliner and lipstick! I would thoroughly recommend!

My New Favourite Film (and consequently) New Crush:

Film: The Longest Ride

Crush/ Future Husband (in my dreams): SCOTT EASTWOOD. (insert unlimited love heart eyes emoji.)

2 words, Google him. 

No descriptive paragraph needed..

Lets just say, I've already pre-ordered the film in preparation for it's DVD release on November 2nd.

New Favourite Youtuber: 

sunbeamsjess/ extrasunbeamsjess

I discovered her whilst I was in my gap year planning/excitement bubble.. She had uploaded this v.helpful gap year planning video and I've been hooked ever since!
I just love how natural she is! Her videos are so easy to watch, especially her vlogs, she just seems so genuine and natural on camera, not like she is putting on a front if you get what I mean? And she is  so so gorgeous and her sense of style is so refreshing, like I would DIE for her wardrobe! She has a very eclectic style which I love and I am so obsessed with her ear piercings and her rings/sunglasses collections, however I would never be able to pull most of these off, so I think I'll just admire through my screen..
As I say her vlogs have me hooked! Her current vlogtober series are the first videos I watch every morning whilst I'm getting ready for work and her travelling vlogs, seriously, just wow. Trust me once you've watched them you'll wanna hop on a plane and jet off around the globe! (Like I will hopefully be doing next year!)

I hope you have all enjoyed this post and are currently eating McVities Dark Chocolate Digestives, whilst googling Scott Eastwood and listening to Dsiclosure's new album!

Kez xxx

Oh Hi Stranger!

I'M SO SO SO SO SO SO SO SO SO SO SO SO SO SORRY.

When I started my blog, I said to myself, "I will never become one of those people who starts a blog, and then a few posts in, just neglects it completely."

Yet here I am..

To cut a long story very short, in order for me to be able to fund my travelling ventures, (which I will update you on in a bit. VERY EXCITING.) I have had to go full time at my current job. This means that when I'm not working I am either catching up on sleep or eating... (What a life I lead eh.)

However, as I have obviously just passed my test I have been on the lookout for a car. (WHICH HAS BEEN VERY UNSUCCESSFUL AND FRUSTRATING) This meant that my days off were spent galavanting around our area, looking at cars in the hope of securing one of my own!

However, much to my disappointment and frustration, this didn't happen. Every car we looked at just wasn't right in some way or another, so here I am, over 3 weeks post-test, STILL without a car (*cries*).

So as I had spent my days off getting frustrated and upset about not securing a car, consequently this meant that;
1. I wasn't in the right frame of mind to write blogposts.
2. I hadn't spent my days off doing/buying anything interesting worth writing about..

Nevertheless, I thought that instead of forcing out a new make-up or clothing post, I would just give you a little update on what's going on in Kez's life!

So first and foremost. LAUREN AND I HAVE (pretty much) PLANNED OUT OUR TRAVELLING ROUTE!! We have yet to properly book anything yet, but after spending 5 hours in STA planning flights, accommodation, routes etc etc..
We have decided to do a two week tour in Australia, going from Cairns all the way to Sydney. I will go into a lot more detail about this tour when we have definitely booked it, but lets just say this is probably the part of the trip that I am most excited about! Because as you know from my Top 10 Places That I Want To Visit post, Aus is top of the list! We then decided that after a whirlwind 14 day tour in Aus, a week in Fiji would be rather delicious don't ya think!? We are looking to stay at the Blue Lagoon Resort which is on a secluded island in the middle of nowhere. Bliss. Now obviously we haven't booked it yet so I can't get too excited, but if you're a jealous person, don't type the resort name into Google images..

Lastly, we decided that if we were going to do Aus, it would only be right to do Thailand too, right? We are HOPEFULLY going to be visit an elephant sanctuary which looks after old and sick elephants (*heart melts*) for 4 days, before venturing onto do a 9 day tour of Thailand. This is the area that is a bit up in the air at the moment so I can't confirm anything for sure, as we don't know what tour we want to do yet. But nevertheless I am so bloody excited!!!!!

Obviously this sort of once in a lifetime trip comes at a cost.. And as I will be paying for it all myself this means that I will be work work workingggggggg. Unfortunately this means that I probably won't be able to update you guys on here as often as I would like :((( However! I will try my absolute hardest to write at least 1 blogpost a week!?
I apologise now, as I can see myself having to refrain from writing about travelling in every single blogpost, seeing as we are having to pay for the 6 week trip in bits. But I have a few outings planned that I may be able to blog about in the near future, so keep your eyes peeled!

Thank you for your patience, you lovely people! I promise I won't leave it so long until the next blog post!

Kez xxx

Say Hello To The MAC 'Warm Neutrals Palette'

Just going to start off by saying that I am well aware of my complete contradiction to my last blogpost... If you cast your eyes over the opening paragraph, you'll see me talking about how 99% of the time I'm too lazy to put eyeshadow on as an everyday occurrence. Yet somehow, when payday CRAWLED rolled around last week, alongside repurchasing my beloved Strobe Cream and Fix+, (they've both reached holy grail status for sure), the MAC 'Warm Neutrals Palette' somehow (??!???) found it's way into my basket?!! (How that happened I have no idea!?) (No seriously, when it's supposed to be £65, but with price match and discount it becomes £44, you just cannot pass that sort of deal up.) So anyway, off I skipped down to Customer Collection the next day to pick up my parcel of MAC goodies, and after the longest day at work, I finally arrived home, grabbed a pair of scissors and ripped open the box (*cue angels*)

Now at first I'm not gonna lie, the palette itself was a lot smaller than I remembered from when I had been lusting over it in the store, but once I saw the eyeshadows themselves, that was soon forgotten about. As the name suggests the palette is filled with neutral colours with warm undertones, I chose this one over the 'Cool Neutrals Palette'. Firstly, because I preferred the colours in this one, so therefore would get a lot more use out of them, And secondly, with autumn coming up, the deeper browns and berry shades are going to be bang on trend (especially with my green peepers) which will hopefully inspire me to brave a bolder eye more regularly!

So I'm sure, the vast majority of you, (like me) have seen and/or are lusting over this palette, but for those of you who haven't seen the palette, (have been living under a rock) Here's a look at the palette that's prettier than most people I know..

Top Row (from left to right): Hey, Warm Breeze, Gingersnap, Dark Brew and Dance In The Dark.

Middle Row (L to R): Brule, Vanilla Extract, Honey Lust, Amber Lights and Saddle.

Bottom Row (L to R): Lemon Tart, Creative Copper, Butterfudge, Devine Decadence and Unwind.

Now I know alot of you will be thinking, Kez what makes this palette better than the millions of other neutral, smoky, brown palettes on the market?? And how the jeff did you justify spending £44???
To answer the first question, if I compare this to my Urban Decay Naked 3 palette for example, I know the Naked 3 palette is a lot more on the rose gold side of the spectrum rather than deep brown's. But in term of the eyeshadows' formulation, it is identical to its older sisters the Naked and Naked2 palettes which consist of deeper brown shades. The reasons why I prefer the MAC palette over the Urban Decay palette; are the pigmentation of the shadows, the lack of fallout and the blend ability of the shadows. In terms of pigmentation, you get a lot of bang for your buck! These shadows sure do pack a punch! Now obviously some of the more neutral colours such as the four in the picture below, are a lot less pigmented than most of the other colours. However, these shades are vital in creating a beautiful eye! These colours can be used as transition shades, to highlight under the brow or to dab, (or smother in my case) onto the inner corner of the eye for a more wide awake look. These are also perfect if you're doing a super simple daytime look where you want to make it look as if you're not wearing any makeup at all. Buy just dusting one of these colours over the lid, you can conceal any unwanted redness or even veins on the eyelids with the help of some eye primer or even concealer!

Now these colours (above) on the other hand are P I G M E N T E D. Normally with my Naked3 palette, I have to spray some Fix+ onto my eyeshadow brush to make it damp, so that when I dip my brush into the colour and then dab it onto my lid, it is a lot deeper and more opaque. With these, this is NOT the case.

In my opinion, the biggest downside to the Naked palettes are the amount of fallout!?  Even though they are filled with some of the most gorgeous shades, that look like they would be absolutely stunning on the lid, as soon as you go to apply them, half of it ends up under your eye or on your cheekbones! As a result of this, the colour pay off isn't as good as the MAC shadows. Furthermore, I don't find the Urban Decay shadows to be very build able or easy to blend? I use (mainly) my MAC 217 blending brush to blend out my eyeshadows and I've found that the MAC eyeshadows are SO much easier to blend than the Urban Decay ones? They don't move around or transfer elsewhere when you're trying to blend them and they blend out nicely so that you can build on top of them or leave them be!

Obviously, I cracked open this palette, the morning after I got it.. (I mean it would be rude not to right?!) And this was the look I created!

As you may be able to tell by my attire? I did actually wear this look to work! So in my opinion, this is a perfectly wearable everyday look! (If you're brave enough to wear it of course!) First of all I took 'Brule', and patted it under my brow bone as a highlight. Then I took the matte brown shade 'Saddle' and blended this through my crease with my 217 blending brush, I repeated this step twice to get the desired colour payoff I wanted! I then took the GORGEOUS dark, shimmery brown shade 'Divine Decadence' that I believe is exclusive to the palette and packed it onto my lid. Now this is one of the shades that is VERY opaque and one that you literally only need one application of onto the lid (v.pigmented!). I then took another one of my favourites 'Dark Brew' (another palette exclusive I believe), the dark, berry-toned shade, and blended it into the outer corner of my eyelid and slightly into the crease. I then took 'Saddle' again and blended it just above that 'Dark Brew' shade that I had put in the crease, just to add a slightly lighter transition shade between the berry shade and the 'Brule' highlight. Oh and I also added a bit of 'Warm Breeze' into the inner corner of my eyes as an inner corner highlight! (Can't forget that bit!)

Another new thing for me was taking the eyeshadow under my eye slightly! Now I have tried to do this step in the past and it has turned out to be disastrous.. I mean this in the sense that it legitimately looked like I had either been punched in the eye or hadn't slept for a month. However! I've found that if you literally use the tiniest amount and just run it along the underneath of your lower lashes, then just blend it so that it is a lot softer, it can look quite nice! So just in case you were wondering, I took 'Dark Brew' and 'Divine Decadence' under my eye and blended them out.

Obviously you can decide whether you like this look or not, and/or whether this palette is top of your lust list now, thanks to me, (aka Kez the enabler.) Sorry...
However, I'm sure a lot of you will still be wondering whether it is worth the money? Now I know most of you don't have the luxury of the discount I obtained and so £65 is very steep for some jeffin' eyeshadows! However, if you simply can't wait till Christmas when you can whack it onto your Christmas list and you fancy treating yourself, I would say go for it! If you are, (like me) a make-up lover or just enjoy experimenting with makeup and are on the hunt for a new eyeshadow palette, I would recommend this one over the Naked palettes! Although this one is double the price of one Naked palette, there is a good reason for that! If you're still not convinced by my persuasive ways, get yourself down to a MAC store and get one of the makeup artists to try a look out on you! They'll also be able to tell you which palette out of the Warm or Cool Neutrals, they think would suit your eye colour and skin tone best! It may be that you are more of a Cool toned gal?

Hope you have enjoyed this post?
Who knew I could ramble on so long about bloomin' eyeshadows??
Congratulations if you have made it this far, your letter for your knighthood is on its way to you as we speak!

Kez xxx