Why am I only discovering gel nails now?

I always loved having painted nails on. I feel a little more put together and sophisticated when my nails are all neat and glossy. It's like every other aspect of my life may be in shambles but at least my nails look good. Not to mention, how satisfying it is to type out notes in lectures with a manicure or how good your hands look while driving when your nails are a little more glam-ed up. Except, trying to do them myself is an impossible task on its own. I'm not that great at painting my right hand especially so it always ends up with one hand looking fine while the other will never see the light of day. I'm also always so impatient when I do them myself, either I am attempting to multitask or I haven't waited long enough for them to dry. So they end up smudged on furniture or chipped within a few hours which bugs me so much when they aren't perfectly smooth to the touch. Not to mention, since I usually do them at night too, 9 out of 10 times I end up waking up with imprints on my nails from a night rolling around under the covers.

Festival season!

How depressing is it that festival season is looming to an end now, basically one of the indicators that summer is almost over. Okay fine, summer's half way through but still. Good Vibes Festival was basically the only thing I had to look forward to this summer, because of my internship, I just haven’t had time nor the energy to plan anything else fun so you could say I was pretty excited for a fun weekend away from my current life that seems to only revolve around my job. Anyway I thought I’d share one of my outfits for the 2-day festival.

We drove up to Genting Highlands and stayed at a hotel at the most odd location. It was basically perched on this cliff at the furthest end of the highland. It wasn’t too bad actually. There was a shuttle provided to get to the main mall and cable cars area and the air was crisp and cool because we were closer to the forest. It was sorta gorgeous in the morning, if you were awake early enough you could see the fog slowly rolling in over the massive stretch of green dense forest. All the artists were so impressed that they get to perform basically “in the middle of the jungle”, it wasn’t really because the area was pretty developed but still I guess driving up the serene highlands to perform at a big festival in the midst of it was a new experience for most. It was kind of amusing to see how in awe they were, I sort of appreciate the highlands a lot more now. It is gorgeous. Not to mention the fact that the air was cooler helped sooooo much when you’re dancing around and pressed close to a couple thousand people.

Failed thrifting attempt

A couple weekends back, I rounded up my friends for a little trip to this big thrift store 30 minutes away from us. We had pancakes for brunch, finally satisfying my cravings and solidifying my stance in the pancakes over waffles category before heading over there. Not gonna lie, it was a massive fail. The store just had soooo many items, there was a crazy amount to go through and the rails were packed closely and it was a hot day and it just didn't really work out to be honest. There was of course some decent items in there but when I did finally find something good, I couldn't really justify the price for it or it was just too big of a fit for me. I think one of my pals did end up successful so I guess maybe it wasn't a total thrift failure. I was just a little disappointed, I have no clue why I thought it was going to be like discovering buried treasure and getting to leave with an armful of reasonably priced gems. I haven't lost all hope though, am planning to hit another pretty popular thrift store at some point too so hopefully I end up with a little more luck there. We ended up just leaving and driving to a mall and wandering through the usual highstreet stores (I didn't buy anything, self control: 1 me: 0) which brings me to this little OOTD I have for you ft. Dans the bestie. 

Shopping with money I don't have

hello, is anyone else as pleased as I am with how summery my lil buys are??

I didn't even realise myself until looking at these pictures and I'm quite chuffed. I mean it's not exactly like unicorns have spat rainbows on my bed but am slowly but surely adding some life to my goth wardrobe. I fell ill last week and had 3 days off work to recover so obviously I decided to use one of those days to "recover" in the mall. I was planning on trying to find something for the festival I'm going to in a couple weeks and I came out semi-victorious. Not gonna lie but I'm not that impressed with the stores at the moment. Not sure if it's some awkward mid-season choices but I didn't fancy very many things they had in stock. These white jeans from Mango are the exception though, I tried them on and fell in love. Literally, had 5 outfit combinations rush to my head in the fitting room and even though I don't need anymore pairs of jeans, I manage to justify this purchase because my wardrobe isn't home to any white straight-legged jeans. I'm already excited to style them for uni in Autumn. I picked up a bikini top (& bottom that I've forgotten to photograph) from H&M. Nothing special, just a cute lil bikini in case there's an impromptu holiday happening (HINT) ((please please I beg someone goes with me on holiday, I'm suffocating from this 9-6 working life)). 

What's the fentea?

Killawatt Highlighter - Trophy Wife, Match Stix (Concealer) - Walnut

Sorry I couldn't resist the title, I've been using twitter too much I know. Also, yep I'm severely late on the Fenty bandwagon with this post but if it helps I tried Riri's products around late last year and scrolling through my photos I cam across these photos and figured it's never too late to share my 2 cents about the whole Fenty craze. Actually, I'm just gonna speak about these 2 products here but if you'd like to know my opinion about Fenty in general, I wrote a little article here for my student newspaper last year (omg only now am I realising I wasn't credited for my article...yet again!! ughhhhh). On the bright side this may come a little handy considering, I've been using the products for over half a year now so maybe it's a little more helpful than a first impressions type post. The fact that I'm running out of the concealer and have barely left a mark on my highlighter may give you an idea about where this post is heading. 

Second Year - done!

Andddd that's a wrap on my second year of university! Honestly the years are literally flying by at this point. Second year was a bit of a messy one but I enjoyed every little bit of it. I think I would count this year as my "honeymoon year", a large part of it compromised of friends, partying, travels and a sneaky Fall Out Boy concert thrown into the mix. I definitely made the most of it, cruising through my last year of fun before things get serious in third and fourth year. And I do mean very serious. Considering I'll be doing 10 modules next year, I'm sure any free time I have will be happily spent catching up on sleep. I didn't get any particular revelations in second year, it was more about cementing the foundation of friends and studies that I built in my first year of uni and painting it all with more brilliant memories. Among the usual balls and fashion shows we St Andreans dutifully attend each year, I picked up golf again, spent winter break in Australia and spring break in Italy, had the most enlightening experience work shadowing a psychiatrist in Glasgow and spent significantly more time reading for fun again. I've gotten closer to loads of special people around me and befriended a couple new faces as well. I had my usual regrets about leaving revision to the last minute and went through the typical breakdown and ice cream binging nights of panic but yknow' what else is new?