Trends - Seventies Style

The seventies have come back in a big way these past few months, we've seen the trend not only in fashion but in home decor, hair and beauty trends etc. I have to admit initially I really wasn't on board with it, tie dye, spandex and fringed EVERYTHING, yeah I'm definitely not a fan of any of those things. But, after seeing what the shops have in store for us I've quickly changed my mind. Thankfully they've come out with more of a modern take, seventies inspired with muted tones and in slightly more flattering cuts making it easier to wear. 

// Brown Suede Ankle Boot - Dorothy Perkins // Metallic Leather Bag - Olive Bonas // Camel Shirt Dress - New Look // Van Halen T Shirt - Topshop // Denim Flared Jeans - Dorothy Perkins // Flare Platform Block Heel - Office // Cream Smock Top - Topshop // Pineapple Jewellery Stand - Oliver Bonas // Pleated Front Shorts - New Look //

I'd love to give the look a try but I'm not normally one for fads, I'm just not sure I would be interested in wearing denim flares this time next year and generally I don't like wasting my money on things I know I'm only going to wear a few times. Now that I think about it, didn't flares have a bit of a resurgence in popularity in the early noughties? I'm pretty sure I had a pair when I was seven or eight! Everything else in the list though, yeah I definitely think I'd buy/wear it. Especially the dreamy, burgundy platform boots!

What do you guys think, will you be trying out the seventies look? Let me know below!

Ellie x

Nuxe Reve De Miel Lip Balm Review - Is It Any Good?

 

A couple of weeks ago I put out a tweet asking for recommendations on what to buy with some M&S vouchers I had. Quite a few people told me I had to try the Nuxe Reve De Miel Lip Balm, it's a real favourite with loads of beauty bloggers so I thought I would give it a try. First I'll admit it's probably not something I would have bought if I hadn't had the vouchers, I'm jsut not sure I'd normally spend nearly £10 on a lip balm. 

I ended up buying the 20th Anniversary Edition in Red (although it's pink if you ask me!). The Reve De Miel Lip Balm is a best seller for Nuxe, according to their website 'one is sold every 28 seconds throughout the world!' Phew, that's a lot of lip balm. Seems like everyone and their aunt has tried it, I'm obviously very late to the bandwagon!

So a little about the product itself, it contains a highly concentrated mix of honey and precious oils; sunflower, musk rose, almond oils, shea butter and grapefruit essence. All of which promise to help 'nourish, repair, soothe and protect'. I love the idea that it contains all these natural ingredients, that always makes me feel better about what I'm putting on my skin. Plus it smells amazing, kinda citrus-y, very zingy and refreshing. There is also a slight citrus-y taste when it's on the lips, it's not unpleasant though and doesn't last very long either. 

So is it any good? Well yes it's a very good lip balm. The thick consistency means it lasts for absolutely ages on your lips! I like to put it on before I go to bed like a sort of mask for my lips and when I wake up in the morning it's still mostly there. It's also very moisturising, my lips were very chapped thanks to the cold, British weather but within a day they were as soft as anything. Do you know what I like most though, unlike most other lip balms it doesn't make your lips look and feel all shiny and slippery! Just nicely nourished and really soft, as well as feeling really luxurious to use and comes in a cute red (pink!) tub! What's not to like?

Nuxe Reve De Miel Lip Balm - £9.50 uk.nuxe.com

Ellie x

My 2014 Favourites Giveaway! (UK ONLY)

2014 favourites posts have been some of my favourite types of posts to read recently, it's always interesting to see what products other bloggers love most, I've got so many great recommedations from reading them. Lucky for you guys, I've decided to go one step further and give one of you the chance to win some of my favourite products of 2014!  My last giveaway was around a year ago so I thought it was probably about time I did another to give back to my lovely readers. Keep reading to see what you can win!

2014 was the year I discovered the brilliantly amazing L'Oreal Miss Manga mascara so I really couldn't leave it out of this giveaway. It's easily one of the best mascaras I've ever used, it both curls and lengthens lashes so much so that I'm always getting compliments on my lashes! Take a look at my review here. 

Also included is one of my all time favourite eye shadow palettes, the Sleek i-Divine au naturel Palette. It includes a mix of 12 matte and shimmery neutral colours. They're incredibly easy to blend, highly pigmented and best of all there's no fallout so you don't end up with panda eyes. Take a look here for a closer look at the palette. 

I am a huge fan of thisworks Deep Sleep Pillow Spray (read my review here) so I'm chuffed I can giveaway not only that but the sleep balm too, both of which are included in the Deep Sleep In Progress set. They're a real must for me to get a good nights sleep.

To top it all off, also included in the giveaway are two nail polishes from two of my favourite brands; Essie and Barry M as well as my all time favourite lipstick from Bourjois (review here), my go to cleanser Cleanse and Polish from Liz Earle and three mini versions of my favourite makeup brushes from Real Techniques.

- What's Included? -

• Sleek Makeup i-Divine Au Naturel Palette
• Real Techniques Mini Brush Trio
• Bourjois Rouge Edition Velvet Liquid Lipstick in 'Ole Flamingo'
• Benefit the POREfessional primer 7.5ml
• Barry M Aquarium Nail Effects in 'Mermaid'
• L'Oreal Miss Manga Mascara 'Black'
• Essie Nail Lacquer in 'Lots Of Lux'
• Liz Earle Cleanse and Polish Hot Cloth Cleanser 30ml
• thisworks Deep Sleep In Progress

- Giveaway Rules -

• The Giveaway is open to UK RESIDENTS ONLY
• You must be following A Girl Called Eleanor on Bloglovin and following @agrlclldeleanor on Twitter to qualify entry.
• There will only be one winner
• The giveaway will start on 22nd January 2015 and finish on 6th February 2015
• You must be over 16 to enter or otherwise have permission from a parent/guardian
• The winner will be announced via Twitter. If they do not reply within one week then a new winner will be announced. 
• Entries can be made via the widget below

Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Ellie x

Trilogy Botanical Beauties - Rosehip Oil Review

After hearing many a good thing about rosehip oil and it's amazing skin benefits I was dying to try it out. Turns out this stuff isn't cheap but thankfully I had some amazon vouchers to use that I'd gained from doing online surveys. (In case you're interested, the websites I use are valuedopinions.co.uk and pinecone research.) I decided to go with the trilogy Certified Organic Rosehip Oil, mainly because the free Botanical Body Wash and the pretty reusable box it came in swayed me. 

So lets start with the benefits, well according to trilogy, rosehip oil is 'clinically shown to help improve the appearance of scars and stretch marks' as well as delivering 'all over nourishment and hydration'. I have very sensitive skin which gets irritated easily by perfumed products so I decided I could use this in replacement of moisturiser. 

I already feel a lot happier about using a natural product on my skin and my face is really thanking me for it too. Initially the idea of a facial oil didn't appeal to me as I have oily skin and I didn't much like the idea of adding to the problem. Thankfully it works really well, it sinks in really quickly and doesn't leave behind any kind of oily residue. Honestly, it makes my skin feel the softest it has ever felt and not only that it seems to have toned down the redness too. 

So far so good but the main reason I bought this was the promise that rosehip oil reduces the appearance of scars and broken veins. I have both scars from spots and broken veins around my nose which irritate me immensely. I know, I know, silly things to worry about! The scars have pretty much disappeared which is great and I've noticed a slight improvement in the broken veins but nothing significant yet. I have only been using it for about three weeks so I'm hoping to see more improvement the longer I use it.

The Botanical Body Wash included in the gift set is an added bonus, It 'contains native New Zealand kawa kawa extract' which smells absolutely amazing. Really refreshing, kind of like how a spa smells. It's a good size bottle too considering it's an added gift.   

The trilogy Botanical Beauties Gift Set is slightly on the pricey side but it's good to know that it contains natural, organic ingredients and is SLS free so it won't irritate my skin. There are cheaper alternatives of Rosehip Oil available but this is a really great luxury gift set and would make a perfect gift for any skin care loving friends you might have.

Trilogy Botanical Beauties Gift Set - £19.50 amazon.co.uk 

Ellie x

L'Oreal Miss Manga Punky Mascara Review

I've already mentioned countless times on my blog about how much I love the L'Oreal Miss Manga Mascara so when I saw they had brought out a new version I couldn't not try it could I?! It's the new Miss Manga Punky mascara with a 'texturising formula created by L'Oreal Paris researchers' which supposedly creates 'unique spiked lashes' with 'mega volume'. 

So first things first lets take a look at the brush. well it doesn't look like any kind of mascara brush I've ever seen before. It has short plastic bristles spread out across it and yet still manages to hold a lot of product. It also doesn't bend which was one of the unique feature points of the original 

- One Coat On Right Eye -

One similarity however is the very wet formula that again takes a little getting used to before you get it right. I can sort of see what they were trying to do with the short bristles and wet formula creating long lashes that stick together. Almost like a punky mohawk on your eyelids, slightly strange I agree!

Fortunately I found it to be more lengthening than anything else and after one coat there were no spiky lashes to be seen. Instead it seemed to fan out my lashes and produce the mascara evenly, totally not what I was expecting!  

- Two coats -

The second coat was slightly harder to apply as the mascara had already dried quite quickly but the end effect really lengthened and curled my lashes to the point where I actually thought it looked as if I had used eyelash curlers or even lash extensions

So all in all I'm a fan of the new Miss Manga Punky mascara. It's not going to become my everyday mascara as I tend to like a more natural look day to day. I'll more than likely use it when I'm going out for the night and want more of a false lash look. I'm just going to say this though, I still prefer the original hands down!

L'Oreal Paris Mega Volume Miss Manga Punky Mascara £5.99 (introductory offer)  boots.com

Ellie x

Best Posts Of 2014

I didn't really do as much blogging as I would have liked in 2014, I had a really bad case of bloggers block that just wouldn't budge! Looking back on 2014 however there was surprisingly still quite a lot of posts to choose from for my best posts of the year. I've chosen a mix of the most popular posts as well as some of my favourite posts for you to get stuck into, enjoy!

Review - Maybelline Color Drama Intense Velevet Lip Pencils

A review of one of my favourite new releases of 2014 and also my most popular post of the year, seems you guys are big fans too!

Review - L'Oreal Miss Manga Mascara

This mascara has a firm place in my makeup bag since it's release at the beginning of 2014 and good news, they've just brought out a new version! be sure to keep an eye out for a review on my blog soon.

Bourjois Rouge Edition Velvet Liquid Lipstick - 'Ole Flamingo'

Another firm favourite of mine this year were the Bourjois liquid lipsticks. I just wish I could wear this colour more often, I need to go on more nights out!

French Beauty - Hair and Makeup

This year I discovered all things french, specifically the amazing skincare that became more available in the UK. La Roche Posay has been my skin saviour of 2014!

Review - No7 Pop and Glow Cream Blush Stick

Another favourite with the readers, the pop and glow blush stick also became one of mine too, I just love makeup that's portable!

A Quick Trip To Amsterdam

I'm lucky enough to have the opportunity to travel quite a bit and one of my favourite trips of 2014 was this one I took to Amsterdam with my lovely Mum.

A Weekend In Italy

I had a completely unforgettable time in Italy this summer, I finally got to tick off Italy as one of the countries I was most desperate to visit. I really have been so lucky this year to visit such amazing places!

25 Things To Do Before Turning 25

2014 was the year I really tried to get my butt into gear so I made a list. Since I've made the post I can cross off a few more things on the list too!

5 Things I'm Thankful To My Anxiety Disorder For

Talking about something I haven't really mentioned on my blog before was a little daunting to say the least but it was the one post I really wanted to write in 2014 and I'm really happy with how it turned out.

A Visit To The Harry Potter Studio Tour

This was my first of TWO trips to the Harry Potter Studio Tour in 2015, what can I say, I love Harry Potter. I was completely blown away by the place, it really is magical!

OOTD - A Girl In Berlin

I really wanted to do more outfit posts in 2014 but it just didn't happen. If I have one aim for my blog this year it will definitely be to do more.