Recent Purchases | Mini Haul

Hey guys, as it's pay day time I made a few purchases.
I needed some new, yet nice everyday ankle boots and spotted these cute ones in Miss Selfridge, they cost £38 which i think is good if I get a lot of wear out of them! I did a blind buy for perfume and bought the Rise perfume by Beyonce. In some reviews online people said it smelt like YSL Manefesto (which I LOVE but is too expensive to buy ATM) That is why I went for the Beyonce one for only £10!!! I do like the smell of this perfume and do liken it to the YSL one BUT it does smell a little more mature and quite woody with some vanilla.
I've been after the Xen Tan Absolute Luxe for AGES. I have read so many reviews and watched so many Youtube videos regarding this fake tan and have lusted for it! This is meant to be a really long lasting olive tan which sounds perfect for me.. wait for the review in a couple of weeks :) I bought the Body Butter from Soap and Glory from Boots. Soap and glory are amazing for body stuff and don't fail with this one, I love the smell. Finally I bought two outfits from Ebay.. yes Ebay. Now some of you may be judging me right now for that or saluting me, I don't know..
But anyways I found an exact copy of the Michelle Keegan dress from Lipsy. The real one retails for £60 HERE and a picture of Michelle Keegan wearing the dress can be seen HERE. I have tried on the real one in a Lipsy store and let me tell you it's a clothing dupe! I paid £20 for this dress, and as I only wear dresses once or twice I think it's a bargain! The exact one I bought was from HERE.
I also bought a coral embellished playsuit and unfortunately it has dissapointed me. Let me be honest, I bought a size bigger because I'm quite tall and yet.. I .... Still.. Get.. Camel toe :( Weep!! I think if I was shorter it would look so cute! You can look at the playsuit better by clicking HERE


Anyways that's my mini haul, I don't know about anyone else but it's REALLY hard for me to show and photograph clothing.  

Do you buy any clothing from Ebay?

Love Laura xx

Blusher VS Bronzer

Does anyone else have the dilemma whether to wear blusher or bronzer? I'm talking about on a daily basis and so I personally find it a bit too much to wear both. I like the look of them both individually on me and wanted to share my favorite bronzers and blushers and let you be the judge of what looks the best!

My top bronzers are; Bourjois chocolate bronzer, Mac bronzer in golden and Bobby Brown shimmer brick. I have a love/hate relationship with the Mac and Bourjois ones because I find them quite subtle and it seems to take a lot of work for them to show up on my skin?! I love the Bobbie Brown shimmer brick because it's a bronzer and highlighter in one. It's great to wear on a night out, I can't believe that I dropped it and ruined it though :(.
My top blushers are; Mac Stay Pretty, Body Shop blusher, Benefit Coralista, Sleek nude blush, and Sleek blush in Rose Gold. I think my favorites out of these are Mac Stay Pretty and the sleek nude blush. For me when I wear a blusher I want to look refreshed.

Which do you prefer to wear??
Love Laura xx


Ps. sorry not a lifestyle blog post today, I have a list of blog post ideas and was struggling to find a way to write some of the chatty style posts. If you have ANY blog post ideas, or have something that you'd like me to chat about please leave ideas below, tweet me or email me! Thanks everyone for your support on my blog, I can't believe I am over 600 bloglovin' followers!! xxx

The Red Bandanna

Ahh yes new trend alert (I'm probably a few months too late.)  But have you seen people wearing bandannas recently?! I saw Zoella wear one recently in her video and thought it looked really cute! 

I bought mine from ebay which cost max £2 so really cheap!  What do you think about the whole bandana look? I have to admit I've not been confident enough to wear one out in public just yet! x

Ps. sorry about the photo's, they were taken with a proper camera but came out weird when I tried to edit them. 

Love Laura <3 p="">

Tips For Growing Your Hair

Hey guys. So since I had my hair cut to a horrible length a few years ago,  I've longed for longer hair.
I have been through the phase of covering up the length by wearing hair extensions, and now I think my hair is finally at a length I like! I have found a few personal tips that have helped, and I wanted  to share.

Let's start of with the whole regular hair cuts business. I was told for years by my hair dresser that my hair will grow longer/quicker if I got my hair cut every few weeks. Now the truth is that it's half true. I did keep getting regular cuts, but because my hair grows so slow, it was getting shorter and shorter! I had to make a choice. Either have shorter but healthy hair, or have longer hair with slightly thinner ends. So when I say it's half true, I mean having ends that are breaking are not making my hair be any longer because the ends are breaking off anyways. I have spoken to a few people and friends that have lovely long hair. Each of them have told me different things, whilst one of my friends get regular cuts, the other friend gets their hair cut once a year. It all depends on the person. I have found my personal hair cut schedule and that's to cut it every 6 months.  I have to admit my hair gets the thinner on the ends the longer it gets, but I love long hair, and you will notice that every persons hair will be different the long it gets.

Once you've got your hair cutting schedule sorted, you need to think hair care products! Things you use on your hair make a massive difference. I personally try to use a hair mask once or twice a week. My hair is extremely dry and needs moisture to look remotely nice and to stay healthy. One of my favourites is the Frizz Ease Miraculous Recovery mask. I also recommend using some kind of hair oil treatment, one of the best is Coconut Oil. I have done a review on it if you click HERE
When You shampoo and condition the hair, you should massage the scalp. Ye ye ye you must have been told this or read this many times, but it works! I have always massaged my fringe/bangs with shampoo to make sure there is no grease (as it gets greasiest first) and guess what, that part of my hair has always grew the longest/fastest.

Another thing you should think about is your diet! I have always disliked many fruits and vegetables because I'm a fussy eater, but I do my best to eat what I can. At one point I did take the Skin, Hair and Nails vitamins, to be honest I couldn't tell if they worked or not. I kept forgetting to take the tablets and so gave up in the end. If you look online, you will find many reviews on vitamins that have helped hair growth. For me I just say eat healthier.

Now they are the main things you should do to your hair. But there's always the things you should avoid. Ah yes.. heat damage. One of the things I have limited is the use of is my hair straighteners. I used to use them every day, and couldn't understand why the ends of my hair were just snapping off. Nowadays I only use straighteners if I HAVE to, which is now 3/4 times a week. If you are using any kind of heat on your hair,  make sure you use a heat protectant, I love the Tresemme Keratin one. I would also say be careful on what hair bands you use on your hair, some rip the hair out! I love the thin ones from Primark.

So yea, there are some tips that you've probably hear many times over. But I wanted to give my own personal spin on them. I just want to say that it takes time for hair to grow. I have tried gimmicky things like the F.A.S.T shampoo ( Google it ) and guess what it doesn't work!
Do you have any tips for hair growth?

Love Laura xxx

2 In 1 Beauty Products

Hey guys! You've probably seen this kind of thing done before, but I wanted to give my take on it! 

1. Imperial Leather Foamburst
I bought this product because I wanted a change from shower gel. Little did I know when using it, it comes out like shaving foam. Those of you that use a shaving foam and shower gel, save your money and buy this product. It's a 2 in 1!
2. La Roche Posey Hydreane Riche
This is technically a moisturizer, but it is also a good primer (as it states on the packaging) The consistency is like a thick cream.
3. Soap And Glory Bright Here Bright Now
This product can be used before makeup application to make your foundation look a little more dewy and refreshed. This also can be used as a liquid highlight on the tops of your cheekbones etc.
4. Clinique eyeliner
This can be used as and eyeliner or eye shadow. The product has 2 ends, one for smudging and one eye line.
5. Kiko Velvet Stick Blush
Now I have mentioned this product within my "products I regret buying" post BUT there are many products sold like this that can be used as a blush or lip product.
6. Loreal Lip Balm/Crayon
This is so moisturizing, so can be used just as a lip balm. If you layer it on you can use it as more of a lip gloss.
7. Benefit Brow Zing
Now I'm kind of cheating with this one, but you can use the powder part of this palette as an eyeshadow!
8.MAC Fix+
This can be used as a setting spray or to dampen your makeup brushes before use.

Do you have any multipurpose beauty items?

Love Laura xxx

So, You Have Writers Block...

Ahh yes, the dreaded bloggers "writers block". I get it very often, I would say every few months. I run

out of ideas, or when I have ideas I don't feel inspired to express them over my blog. I have thought of a few ideas/tips just to help those that have ran out of ideas and need some inspiration.

1. Listen to your favourite music through your laptop

I am the type person to be on my laptop whilst watching TV. For some of you that might seem weird, others it may seem normal. I have noticed a massive blog motivation improvement when I turn off the TV and just listen to music!

2. Keep A list

Do you ever think of blogging ideas just before you fall asleep, or randomly travelling around? I DO! I keep a list on my Iphone within the notes section. This helps because I have started to collect a bunch of ideas for when I don't have ideas ;)

3. Do a tag

If you like to be a regular blogger yet you have no ideas, do a tag! I wouldn't recommend doing too many tags because that can get quite repetitive and boring, but the odd tag helps your readers get to know you.

4. It's ok to steal ideas...sometimes

Even though I personally like to be unique with my blog posts, there's probably posts I've done that other people have done 100's of times. If you go onto someones blog and LOVE a post of theirs, why not ask the blogger if they mind you doing your own take on the post?

5.Google Ideas

Now if you're really stuck, Google can be your best friend. Many bloggers like Lily have done posts on "blog post ideas". Like literal lists!!

6.Get another blogger to write a post for you

Now I guess this is cheating, but it can sometimes help. Maybe contact a blogger you like and see if they'd like to do a collab or a post on your blog. It may inspire you for your next post.

7. Take pictures

Yes literally take pictures. It could be of your face, your room, outside, anything. Once you look back at the photo it may inspire you. If you take a picture of your face, you could use it for a makeup post or talk about the facial expression..  anything, you can find so many post ideas from one picture.

8. Take a break

If you don't have anything you want to blog about, then don't. I don't mean that in a harsh way, but there's nothing worse than reading a post someones written "for the sake of it". I feel like after a break I become really motivated to blog again.

Do you have any other tips that help with writers block?!

Love Laura xxx

A New Blog Schedule

I've done this whole schedule thing before, and failed MASSIVELY at it. I thought I would give it another go as I'm back onto the whole blogging scene again and still have some lovely people that come back to my blog. Thank you to those of you that support "Laura Thinks About" It's something that I can call a hobby, and love doing it.
I have written this before, but some of the more famous and bigger bloggers out there seem to have a schedule in which their readers know if and when there will be a new post and sometimes what could feature on it. Working along side the #bbloggers tag, I thought I would post twice a week on Sundays and Wednesdays. Sundays will be the more beauty/hair/fashion posts eg. A product review. Whilst Wednesdays will feature more lifestyle posts which could be talking about my day, updates and chatting about more serious matters.I hope this will work and I keep to it (fingers crossed!)

If you have any blog post ideas/requests, or would like to collab please don't hesitate to contact me :)
Thanks guys! xx

Laura

How To Make Blue/Green Eyes Stand Out

Heyy, so I don't know about you, but I love to make my eyes stand out! There are many ways to make your eyes stand out depending on what eye colour you have. You've probably read many posts about the color wheel, but I thought I would give you my spin on it (ha! see what I did there, cringe!) Basically, use colors on your eyes that are opposite to your eye color, hence the colour wheel. I've been practicing and trying out different products that help my eyes stand out, and I've narrowed it down to; golds, blues, greens, purples and blacks. I've also tried to use a combination of the two, eg. green and purple, there are some amazing makeup tutorials on Youtube.

My favorite makeup look at the moment is using golds. I usually use the golden shade from my Naked palette, I've also been using Amber Lights from MAC. I use gold on the lid and along some of the lower lash line. I then use eyeliner on the tightline (sometimes liquid liner on the top) and tons of mascara. TA DA!

What's your favourite eye makeup look?

Love Laura xxx

The " 5 Product Face"

Hopefully you guys have seen this tag going around and don't think I'm a little weird.. 

The tag is simple, pick 5 products to cover your whole face. I actually found this kind of easy because I like to keep the products to the minimum. I didn't include eyebrows, highlight, eyeliner or eyeshadow. So I guess it was a little difficult to cut out those products..  I tried to multitask with the blusher as it can be used as a blush or bronze?!

The products I used are shown below :)

From left to right;

• Estee Lauder Double wear light
• Loreal Lumi Magique highlighting pen
• Rimmel Volume Flash ScandalEyes mascara
• Sleek Nude blush in Suede
• Loreal lipstick in 09 Cheeky Magenta

Thanks for reading :) I tag all of you! 

Love Laura xxx

Estee Lauder Double Wear Light Review

Hey guys, so here's another foundation review!
I have been using this foundation everyday for the past 2 weeks and I think it's enough time to give my personal thoughts on the product. I bought this for £29 from Boots ( A little pricey huh? ) and in the shade Intensity 1.0.  I think this shade is perfect for me when I haven't fake tanned AKA Au naturel ;).When I was browsing the high end counters in Boots for a new foundation, I kinda knew I wanted something from Estee Lauder. I wanted something long lasting, that didn't cake or go patchy. I have previously used the original Double Wear (in like 3 shades too dark) and so had a bad experience with it. But to find that they do a lighter version of the foundation made me want to give Estee another try.

Packaging
The packaging is VERY travel friendly, it's actually very small at just 30ml. Even though the foundation isn't in a pretty glass bottle, I feel that the foundation still looks classic and from an expensive brand.
The fact that it's a squeezy tube means that you can get every little bit of product out before chucking it in the bin.
Colour Range
I bought this foundation very quickly, and found it really easy to determine which shade would match my skin tone. I don't think there's a massive range of colours, but it's more like one shade could match a few skin tones.
Texture/Finish/Coverage
I would say the finish is semi-matte. I think it's similar to the original Double Wear. I have dry skin, yet I'm still able to wear this foundation no problem. Estee Lauder describe the foundation as "Sheer to light coverage" but I would say it's more light to medium.
Longevity
This was the most important factor when buying this foundation. This foundation is meant to last 15 hours, and I almost agree with this. Usually after a long day at work my foundation is melting and going patchy on my face. Yet Double Wear Light seems to last all day. I do think the foundation does "fade" throughout the day, and so it just looks like I have less foundation then I did at the beginning (which is expected).

So yea, these are my thoughts on the foundation. I do recommend this foundation to people that want a natural long lasting look. I give this foundation 4/5.
Have you tried any Estee Lauder foundations?

Love Laura xxx

Loreal Mousse Absolue - Rich Dark Chocolate No. 425

Hey guys! 

 I do love dying my hair, to change/refresh my look every few months, and so I thought I would go back to my old favourite colour "chocolate brown". 

This is the first time I've tried this hair dye, and so I thought I could show you before and after pictures, aswell as my honest opinion. I liked the idea of a "reusable" hair dye, the packaging was ready to use straight away without having to mix anything! 

Application..
The application was incredibly easy. Loreal uses a mousse formulation (hence the name) and so I applied it myself layer by layer to the roots and ends.
I waited 30 minutes for the hair to develop before washing the dye out.
The box also included a conditioner in which I used once the dye had washed out.

Colour.. 

My hair had become a really light brown from the amount of sun we've had here in the UK. As you can see there is definitely a difference. I would say the colour lives up to the expectations, and represents a chocolate brown.


From first impressions I do really like this hair dye, although I don't find it majorly different to any other dye I've used. As I said before, the application was really easy and so I would recommend this to anyone who's dying their own hair!
Have you tried this dye?

Love Laura