COCONUT LANE HAUL

A few weeks back I was kindly asked by the lovely girls at Coconut Lane to become one of their Coconut Queens. I'm so delighted and couldn't be more grateful. The products on their website range from home ware to accessories and each and every one of their products are so unique and beautiful!
The three products I ordered was the Luxe Miami Silver Sunglasses, the Silver Mirror Case and the Silver Bar Ring. Coconut Lane also offered a deal that all Coconut Queens would receive one of their newest products which was this beautiful ring that will be hopefully coming out soon!

Firstly, these sunglasses are an exact dupe of the Dior 0204S. They are so beautiful and definitely on trend right now. These sunglasses are mirrored and they have four different colours to choose from. I picked up with Silver mirrored ones as I personally feel they will go with more outfits but I am seriously contemplating buying their Rose Gold shade. These sunglasses are so lightweight so they're perfect for traveling and everyday use, I love how edgy they are and really differentiate from any other sunglasses I have ever seen. These glasses cost at £24 which I personally think are really worth it!

The next thing I picked up was the Silver bar ring, this ring comes in one size but is resizeable which I find so useful as you can change it up. The other ring I received I'm not so sure what it is called but I absolutely love it! It's so beautiful and perfect for everyday. The bar ring is priced at £9 which is amazing as it's such good quality.

Lastly, I bought the Silver Mirrored case, not sure if you can tell but I went for a bit of a theme here, but I am IN LOVE with this case. Not only does it look great but it's perfect for when you need a mirror quickly. This phone case is priced at £9.50 which is really good for its amazing quality. If you lovelies see anything you like feel free to use my 20% discount code ISABELLOUISE20

I hope you enjoyed this post! I'm so sorry for the lack of posts, but with exams coming up I thought I'd post once a week until they're over! I hope you don't mind.

Hope you have a lovely week! Love,

WHEN ELLE AND YSL TEAM UP

A few days back I was kindly invited to attend a Beauty Masterclass hosted by the gorgeous Sophie Beresiner, a beauty director at ELLE Magazine and the YSL Beauty team. During the event we would be given a handful of tips and tricks whilst applying our make up using a range of Yves Saint Laurent's most popular products. We would also be told two new trends coming up this summer.
The day would end in receiving an amazing goody bag worth £70!

The top four base products that the YSL and ELLE beauty team recommended to use for this summer were the YSL Touche Éclat Blur Primer, the YSL Touche Éclait concealer and the YSL Touche Éclait foundation. These three products worked amazingly together. The primer was one of the smoothest and perfecting primers I have tried. It helped the foundation to glide on so smoothly and evenly. I was colour matched by one of the YSL beauty team members to the YSL foundation in BD25 which is a perfect match for my skin tone. As I tend to fake tan around once every two weeks, it had enough yellow tones to match. This foundation glided on so well and didn't require a lot of work at all! The ending result was quite a matte finish which I tend to prefer over warmer months as it helps lengthen the lasting time. The last base product was the YSL concealer in 1 Luminous Radiance. I fell in love with this concealer as soon as I used it. It gave a light to medium coverage whilst also highlighting. This is perfect for the under eyes and gives you that touch of brightness. We were also given a range of the Yves Saint Laurent Touche Éclat Neutralizers to try out.

After being given the opportunity to try out some of YSL's most talked about products we were told about two new trends for this summer. The first one was called 'Sun Stripping'. This trend focuses on the areas where the sun naturally hits you to give you a gorgeous sun kissed look. We used the

Yves Saint Le Teint Saharienne to create this look and began by dotting it across our cheek bones and over the nose then blended it together. Watch THIS video for a full demonstration. A tip to help set this product was to apply small amount of a powder bronzer on top. The next trend was all about the freckles, as a more natural and fresh look is becoming one of this years trends, freckles had to make an appearance. To do this we used the YSL eyebrow pencil to lightly dot freckles around the same area as the Sun Strip. A tip given by Sophie was to lightly dab the freckle as the warmth of your finger against the warmth of your face would help blur the freckle making it appear more natural and also enhance the wear. 

After being taught some amazing tips and tricks and having a go at trying out a range of YSL's spring inspired lipstick and blushes we were given the chance to take a photo of our gorgeous new glowy make up in the ELLE photo booth. After this we headed on over to the YSL beauty counter where we were given our fabulous goody bags and have another chance to look at more YSL products. In the goody bag we were so kindly given the Yves Saint Laurent Top Secrets Moisture Glow Base, the YSL Touche Éclait concealer in 1 Luminous Radiance, a copy of ELLE's May edition and some tasty popcorn! Lastly I treated myself to the stunning YSL Touche Éclait foundation with the golden ticket given.

I would like to send a huge thank you to the ELLE UK and YSL beauty team for such an inspiring and useful beauty class! I really enjoyed this fun pact day! I will definitely be taking these tips on board. Have any of you tried any of the YSL products or know of any upcoming summer trends? Lots of love,

LEARNING TO LOVE YOURSELF

From my early teenage years until the past year I always struggled to love myself and accept me for who I am. Comparing myself to others and hating on all my flaws was pretty much a daily thing but this year I've finally learnt to love my imperfections, and love myself inside and out. In this day and age, personal image has become a huge aspect to everyone's daily routine. Wherever you look the media have portrayed their perception of the "perfect" women or man which puts pressure on a lot of us. I know many of you, like I, work on self image for self happiness and to be the best you can be. But some people still may find this difficult, like I did while growing up.

Stupid and negative comments would convince me to change the way I looked just because someone "didn't like what I'd done to my hair" or "how I applied my make up". But eventually I'd learnt to block out all these negative comments and be how I wanted to be and do what I wanted to do. Learning to love yourself in most cases is just a learning process, I'd always come across blog posts and YouTube videos on how to do this and agree with every word they'd say but I could never apply it to myself. Saying this, I found that these tips definitely helped me to eventually be happy with who I am.

1 - Don't compare yourself with others. This is a tricky one but probably the one thing that has helped me overcome my negative thoughts. Being able to look at other people and admiring things about them instead of comparing yourself to them really did help. It lets you accept others and not become envious which definitely helps accepting yourself.

2 - Accepting flaws. For me personally, I have always wanted a smaller nose and to lose a stone or two. But if it wasn't for these what we call 'flaws' we wouldn't be who we are today, unique. I used to spend days pointing out areas about myself I hated, but why? All I achieved from this was getting myself down and end up eating my body weight in food. Definitely not a good start to achieving my goals! If you're guilty of doing this sometimes, once in a while when you find yourself moaning about the way you look, take this time to admire something you love about yourself and remember what's inside matters most.

 3 - Don't put pressure on yourself. Setting goals and working towards something is definitely something we should all do, the feeling that you've achieved something is probably one of the most amazing feelings you can feel and it definitely helps appreciating yourself and taking time to look at the hard work you have accomplished. Whether it's reaching 500 blog followers or graduating with a first. By breaking up goals into smaller, more manageable goals, you will make them more achievable and will definitely help you in where you want to be resulting in a happier you.

4 - Take time to breath. When times get a bit tough and busy, we end up running around and not thinking about our mental well-being. Whether you have school or work deadlines make sure you give yourself enough time to take a break and de-stress just to remember why you're doing what you're doing.   

5 - Explore. I recently saw an Instagram post that quoted "Travel while you're young and able. Don't worry about the money, just make it work. Experience is far more valuable than money will ever be." Making sure you spend either your weekend off or a weeks holiday exploring the outdoors and being with the people you love will definitely help you gain happiness! Of course we're all allowed our nights in wrapped up with a pizza watching Bridesmaids, but trying something new and exciting will help you feel so much better about yourself.

6 - Do favours. I've found that by helping others and not expecting anything in return definitely shows your kindness from within. It gives you the feeling of worthiness and accomplishment, making you gain happiness from the inside which will show on the outside!

I hope this post has helped some of you out there, and remember if you do struggle with finding it difficult to accept who you are, you are not alone!

Love, 

SPRING TIME BEAUTY BUYS

Since it's now finally spring I decided to make a Superdrug order and change up my make up bag with some of these old, and new favourites! I've been using the same products for my face make up for far to long now and thought spring was the perfect time to change it up a notch.

For as long as I can remember I've been using the Rimmel 'Match perfection' foundation mixed with the Rimmel 'Lasting finish' foundation, and I absolutely love these two foundations but unfortunately their colour range is slightly on the pink side which is the complete opposite to my skin tone as I have more yellow undertones. I used to be a huge fan of the L'oreal 'True match' foundation and their colour range is outstanding! They have 10 different shades, each with three different undertones of either warm, neutral or cool to perfectly match your skin. I'd noticed that recently L'oreal had updated their packaging for the 'True match' foundation and also slightly tweaked the formula so I was excited to give this another go. I picked up the shade W1 as for some reason they don't stock W2 anywhere, which is the shade I used to be without any tan, but luckily this shade matches me perfectly as I am quite pale at the moment. This foundation is more on the matte side with a medium coverage, I would recommend this to those of you who struggle with oily skin!

Next I had to stock up on my favourite concealer from Collection, from their 'Lasting perfection' range. I will one day venture out of my comfort zone and try some new concealers but this one is always a must for me! It's so high coverage, and for my under eye bags I need all the coverage I can get. Let me know in the comments below any of your favourite concealers as I really do need to try out something new!

Due to buying a matte foundation, I thought buying a more glowing powder would help give me a more dewy look as my skin type is dry to combination so it tends to look a bit more on the matte side with this foundation. My sister always raves about this 'Java rice loose powder' by Bourjois and I had to get it. This loose powder had THE finest shimmer particles that it instantly gives your foundation a slight dewy look without looking like a disco ball and I am in love! It's great if you have dry skin and want a more dewy effect. The colour of this powder is white but once applied it doesn't leave any colour which is always a bonus for me!

The next thing that I've finally got my hands on is the 'Infallible sculpt contour palette' by L'oreal in the shade light to medium. I've been really getting into contour and once I heard that this was a cream product I was so intrigued to try it out and hopefully finally be able to master the whole contouring malarkey. I was thinking on doing a first impression of this product, let me know in the comments if you would like me to!

The last thing that I decided to buy was one of my old favourite mascaras. Lately I've been on the hunt for a good new mascara and unfortunately none of the ones I'd tried were cutting it for me, I firstly tried out the 'Divine lash mascara' by Collection as the brush looked an exact dupe of the Benefit 'They're real mascara' but unfortunately the formula was way to dry and impossible to work with on my lashes. Another one I gave a go was the Maybelline 'Great lash mascara' but this would print on my under eyes after a few hours. After failing to find a new mascara that would work with my lashes I decided to go back and splurge on my old favourite the Max Factor 'False lash effect' in black. For me this mascara works wonders for my eyelashes, it gives great volume with a good amount of length also. It stays in place all day and doesn't lose it's curl, a winner to me!

Next on my list is to venture out on a new eyeshadow palette, I've been using my Urban Decay Naked 'Smoky' palette religiously, what eyeshadow palettes are your current favourites? I would love to know! I hope you enjoyed this blog!

MUA LUXE // VELVET LIP LACQUER

Although I'm being super tight with money while I wait for my next student loan, I couldn't stop myself from making a Superdrug order as obviously I need make up more than I need to pay rent and bills. Just kidding, don't worry. As soon as I saw these new beauties from MUA Luxe I knew I had to get my hands on them all, however unfortunately only two were in stock! But luckily these two colours were two of my favourite from the range.

The two shades I managed to pick up from the Velvet Lip Lacquer range were Reckless - 656 and Tranquility - 694. When I first received these I was amazed by how pretty these two colours were, it's always risky ordering lipsticks online! Reckless being a lovely red with a slight pink undertone, perfect for when I get my tan on, and Tranquility a gorgeous orange based nude, perfect for an everyday make up look.

Tranquility was the first shade I manage to try on, at first I wasn't so keen on the colour on me as it seemed a tad too orange undertoned for my liking, however saying this, once this dried matte it was a gorgeous nude with a browny orange undertone. In my opinion I feel that this type of colour would suit all skin tones! Reckless is THE perfect red shade, not to bright and not to dark! Both shades look more brighter in colour when first applied, however once dried the colours tone down a bit and are stunning.

These lip lacquers have easily made their way into my April favourites, they are extremely matte and dry within about 2 minutes, I prefer this as I always tend to get that problem of my hair sticking to lipsticks and lip glosses. The wear on these are amazing, I've been wearing the shade tranquility since 11am until now which is currently 5pm and have had lunch in between and haven't needed a touch up! They're perfect for a night out and I would definitely recommend these to those of you who are looking for a long lasting matte liquid lipstick.

Have you tried any of these yet and what are your thoughts?