I've never been a huge jewellery person.  I mean I have bracelets that I wear every day, but aside from that and my watch I don't really faff about with much else.  However I have recently realised that a good statement necklace can do wonders for a drab outfit (basically everything I wear to work ever) and have found one that I am currently in The Love with.  

This particular necklace is from New Look (here) and comes in at the rather purse friendly price of £8.99.  I've been wearing it pretty much non-stop with just about everything; work wear, dresses on a night out and just plain old t-shirts.  It adds some much needed colour to my neutral wardrobe and makes me feel like I have made an effort when in reality I have made no effort whatsoever.  Excellent!

The second little gem (haha, gem, jewellery, I'm a hoot) comes in the form of this dainty little Marc by Marc Jacobs bracelet that my favourite Geordie export sent me as a birthday gift.  I absolutely love it, it's delicate but has that little bit of colour that you get a glance of every so often.  Look at me with my big statement necklace/little dainty bracelet juxtaposition!  I know this bracelet can be found at Selfridges but as it was a gift I'm not going to look it up as that's just rude.  Right?

So tell me, where else can I find some great statement necklaces that won't break the bank?

I, like pretty much everyone else in the blogger world and beyond, have been sucked in by the Real Techniques brush hype.  You know what though?  They are really great.  Like, really.  Some of the best brushes I've ever tried.  They're not suited to their intended purpose some of the time but I have always found a much better way to make them work for me.  Case in point: the Expert Face brush.

I initially did not like this for foundation.  It is a very dense brush and I don't feel the shape supports it for a flawless application.  Then I gave it a go with cream blush and BOOM!  Revolutionary.  With my trusty Expert Face brush in tow I am yet to meet a cream blush formula that doesn't apply effortlessly to my cheeks.  

Some of my favourites at the minute are MAC Creamblend blush in Something Special (£17.50 here), Stila Convertible Colour in Gladiola (£16 here), Illamasqua cream blush in Zygomatic (£18 here) and NARS The Multiple in Orgasm (£30 here).  All pretty different shades and formulas, all work just as great with the Expert Face brush.  The cheapest I have found it is here, by the way.  

Now, do I need more cream blushers just to make 100% sure that I'm right about this brush?  Yes, yes I think I do.

Exams ruined me.  I was hugely stressed for about 6 weeks and it really took it's toll on me; spots, eczema and a dry scalp were but a few of the delights that I was plagued with.  So gross.  Things just started to get a bit out of hand so I placed a wee order for these two in a bit of a desperate bid to return my scalp to it's former glory.  Melodramatic maybe but completely necessary!

The first product I ordered was the Exfoliating Scalp Mask by Philip Kingsley (£4.70 from here) which is a bit of an odd concept, granted, however it is undoubtedly effective.  You basically wet your hair and fire this along your parting and anywhere else you may wish, massage it in and leave for 20 odd minutes, then just rinse it out and go about your shampoo business as usual.  There are no exfoliating beads or anything in it, it's just a white cream so I am a bit unsure as to how this actually works.  I won't question it though, my scalp was almost completely back to normal after one use so I'm chalking that one up as a win!

The second hairy item to make it into my basket was the Phyto PhytoProgenium Intelligent Shampoo (£11.50 from here) which I actually bought by mistake whilst scrambling to buy one of my other favourite Phyto shampoos.  I thought I would let it have it's day and I am really glad I did, it lived up to it's scalp-soothing claims and my hair felt light and clean afterwards.  I would assume this has to do with the oats and almond milk that it is enriched with so I guess in a roundabout way it's a bit like putting breakfast in your hair.  Ok it's not.  It's really not at all.

All in all I am very pleased with my panic buys and would recommend them to anyone with similar problems.  Now just to deal with all the other ailments still hanging around...

As soon as I saw pictures of the polishes from the Chanel Summer 2013 collection I knew two of them had to be mine.  Metallic?  Blue?  I'm in.  Chanel Azuré and Bel-Argus are two of the most stunning shades I have clapped eyes on in a while.  Azure (on my nails) is a bright teal and Bel-Argus is a bold royal blue, I have it on my toes at the minute and it is completely perfect with a tan.  I definitely don't have anything similar in my collection but I can only assume that there will be a plethora of dupes popping up in the next few months!

The formulation of these is beautiful, I have used two coats of each but you could easily get away with one.  They also apply very easily, you can see the brush strokes once dry but that's a pretty common trait with metallics and if it's something you're not keen on then steer clear.  Simple.

I love how Chanel do metallics, the first experience I had was with Peridot and Graphite Le Vernis from the Fall 2011 collection; in fact Graphite is probably one of my favourite polishes of all time.  These shades signalled a change in Chanel formulation for the better i.e. longer lasting than 24 hours.  Although I cannot comment on the wear time of Azure and Bel Argus just yet I don't think I would be awfully upset if they didn't hold out for too long, the colour more than makes up for it.  Plus I got them both for free with my Boots points.  You know what they say, the only thing better than Chanel is free Chanel.

The entire Chanel Summer 2013 collection is now available from Boots, House of Fraser, Debenhams etc in the UK with polishes priced at £18. 

P.S. I am back!  I had a bit of a forced hiatus with my professional exams (who knew revising on top of a 10 hour work day would be tough?) but I am done now.  I hope you are all keeping well!