The Analogue Tee Company

Bit of a different post today, but I thought I'd introduce you all to a new company that my sister has just set up - The Analogue Tee Company. They specialise in unique homemade tie dye t-shirts in a range of colours, and offer a 'custom design' service where you can even choose your own colours and style of tie dye to make your t-shirt totally one of a kind! My sister asked me to model the t shirts for the etsy store so I've popped some of the less awkward photos above for you to all have a look.

They are the perfect top to wear with high waisted shorts for a boho festival look, or oversized and dressed down in winter with a pair of leggings. The t-shirts come in a range of sizes and colours and are just £12.99 each, currently selling on Etsy at http://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/TheAnalogueTeeCo.

Best of all, if you use the coupon code 'LivFlorence' at checkout, you can get 10% off for the first month!

Review // Topshop Lip Bullet in Covet

Topshop Lip Bullet in Covet, £8

As most of you will know, I don't have a great track record with lip products - I'm not a great fan of my lips and tend to veer away from making them stand out in anyway. Cue my obsession with nude lip products! Recently I've been trying to crazy myself up a little, and make the massive step from total nude, to nude with a hint of coral... ok, not the greatest of steps but every little helps!

I'd heard bits and bobs about the new Lip Bullets from Topshop and decided that for only £8 I'd give it a whirl, in the totally outlandish colour that is Covet. Covet is a peachy pink nude colour (if any of you own the lipstick in Whimsical, it's basically the reincarnation of that in bullet form!) , and only needs a couple of swipes before it's full coverage and ready to go. Though it generally provides a lovely dewy finish over the lips, it can cling to dry areas so is definitely better after a good old scrub!

I'm pretty impressed with these new lip bullets - especially the new packaging which appears to contain quite a bit more product than the lipsticks (the lipsticks are across the room and I may or may not be in bed, don't judge me for not checking), and provide a great on the go application!

I just wish Topshop would release a few more colours in the lip bullets excluding total nudes and bright shades to tempt me out of my nudey cave (NOT LIKE THAT).
Anyone else enjoying the lip bullets?

5 Beauty Uses: Cotton Buds

I spend many of my posts getting all excited about various glamourous lotions and potions, but sometimes the most useful of beauty products are the simplest. One of the most used things in my makeup box fits under this roof: the lowly but oh so useful cotton bud.

1. Eyeliner Correcting
Everyone has this problem: you've just finished the perfect cat eye flick to your eyeliner and now it's time to repeat on the other eye - except you can never quite recreate that flick. By over lining my eye, I then use a cotton bud soaked in eye makeup remover to remove parts of the liner in order to match the other eye. For those with a rather over enthusiastic lining hand, this technique is also great for toning down the panda eyes!

2. Mascara Flecks
Another problem faced on a daily basis: applying mascara with particular force and getting those annoying little flecks of mascara everywhere: eyelids, temples or even down the cheeks! Again soaking a cotton bud in eye makeup remover and dabbing onto the flecks can easily remove them without any noticeable removing of foundation.

3. Acne Creams
On a slightly more unconventional note, direct blemish treatments are often seen as easiest administered by fingers - but fingertips carry bacteria which, when spread from spot to spot can cause more damage than the treatment prevents! Applying cream or gel products with cotton buds means no bacteria is spread and your skin can get to looking perfect again!

4. Eyeshadow Fallout
The classic smokey eye is a great look for any night out - but if you get a little over excited with it, you can end up looking a bit scarier than anticipated. A dry cotton bud can be passed along the line of the smokey eye to reshape it back to normality, picking up the eyeshadow from the skin effortlessly. Also, if any eyeshadow falls under the eyes during application, a swipe from a cotton bud will pick up the residue.

5. Eyebrow Shaping
Only recently have I discovered this method for keeping your eyebrows looking tame. Though I (through my excitable overplucking) have quite small sculpted eyebrows, they tend to go a bit wild throughout the day, and can end up facing all over the place - a fact my boyfriend finds incredibly amusing. Using literally a tiny amount of vaseline on the end of the cotton bud, it can be dabbed onto the part of the eyebrow past the arch in small measures to keep them set and in place - who needs brow setting products?! A note of caution on this one - do not use any more than the teeniest tiniest amount of vaseline, or apply the vaseline onto the larger part of your brow - unless you fancy looking like your eyebrows have been dipped in a vat of grease.


Can you tell I love a good cotton bud?! I hope everyone found this useful, feel free to comment below if you have anymore ingenious uses for your lowly cotton buds!

So... I went to the zoo! OOTD

So, today I went to the zoo! I haven't been in years and it was so nice to take a day out and just go enjoy myself, especially after the exam stress of the last few weeks. While I was there I took a couple of outfit snaps of me and the friend I went with to share with you all, and also thought I'd add a few cute animal photos I took! (Warning, maybe a little photo heavy!)

White scallop top - Topshop
Leather jacket - Oasis

Bleached Shorts - Homemade

Bag - Topshop
Shoes - Converse

Dress - ASOS

Jacket - River Island

Bag - Topshop

Shoes - Boohoo

We had a brilliant day out at London Zoo and even managed to pop into Topshop on Oxford Street on the way home! To anyone who has had exams, I hope they all went well and good luck to anyone still slaving away!

Cosmopolitan Blend Perfection Sponge: A Fad Too Far?

I'm an easily influenced person, and something that greatly influences my buying habits are the words and praise of fellow bloggers. When bloggers get on the 'bloggers hype', I'm normally one of the first to jump straight in and trustingly submit myself to the product. It's worked for a lot of products: the Liz Earle Cleanse and Polish is still the most wonderful skincare product ever, and my Estee Lauder Double Wear graces it's way onto my face almost every day. One craze that I was however a little more dubious of, was the blending sponges.

If you (somehow) haven't heard about these blending sponges, they surfaced a few months ago in the form of the 'Beauty Blender', a little sponge meant for applying foundation that somehow costs around £17. Bloggers swore by these, as they claim to provide a professional finish and flawless complexion that is only dreamable with makeup brushes.

Now I wasn't about to jump straight in with the proper Beauty Blender, so I chose to try it out with a cheaper version - the Cosmopolitan Blend Perfection Sponge. This was only around £4.99 on Amazon so was much more affordable, and I was planning to purchase the more expensive one for longer term use if this one went well.

Unfortunately, I absolutely without a doubt hate it. The idea of using a sponge was weird to me at first, and after two days of struggling, it's still incomprehensible to me.The sponge used far too much makeup - needing at least double what I would usually use in order to cover my face, because it soaked half of it up.

I tried many different techniques and however I tried, I could not get even a half decent finish. By the end of the ordeal, my face would be streaky with orange lines - something I'd never experienced before with my Double Finish, and it wouldn't be blended at all, no matter how hard I tried. I ended up both days wiping it all off and starting again with my lovely stippling brush.

I love the idea of the two ends (the larger for face, the smaller for harder to reach areas like under eyes), but the fact is that the material just didn't work- understandably, the sponge soaked up the makeup, shock horror!

I think it's safe to say I'll be sticking to my brushes for now - and that sponge will be going straight in the bin!

What are your opinions on blending sponges?

Look at my beautiful blog!

I recently contacted Stephanie from StephanieGDesigns about giving my blog a makeover, as I was sick of the old boring design! After looking through the portfolio on her website, I decided she was definitely the right girl for the job - I loved all her previous designs and hoped she'd be able to make me something beautiful!

So this is the unveiling of my new masterpiece - isn't it gorgeous!

Stephanie's let me know that if any of you fancy using her design services, mentioning 'LivFlorence' with get you $5 off any package throughout June.

Thanks Stephanie!

Primark at ASOS

Just a quick post today (chemistry exam tomorrow, boo hoo), to quickly express my excitement about the movement of Primark online! Ok, so it might not be a whole website yet, but the lovely Primark people have got together with the slightly more pricey ASOS people, and are trialling a collaboration - 20 of Primark's most 'fashion forward' pieces have been selected to feature on the website to see how well they sell.

I for one love the idea of this! It's often difficult to get out to the nearest Primark and even then the shop is usually something of a female hunting ground - clothes thrown everywhere and women fighting for the pieces that are actually wearable and in average sizes. I definitely love the look of some of the chosen pieces and can't wait for more clothes to be released!

To find the clothes, head to the 'New In' section of ASOS and select Primark in the brands list.
Happy shopping!

Mini Haul: H&M, Topshop, River Island and MAC

So this week, I did what every other 17/18 year old girl mid-revising for their A-levels does - I used my revision break to go shopping. It's amazing what a few hours of retail therapy can do for 'study leave depression'! 

Seeing as I hadn't done a haul for a while, I thought I'd write a little post on the few items I picked up - I know they're not the most exciting of buys, but seeing as I've recently quit my job, I've had to do the unthinkable and cut back on spending... so bear with me for now!

MAC pro palette, £14, MAC insert, £6.50, Typographic, £10

The first item I was intent on buying was a MAC pro-palette. I have wanted one of these for as long as I can remember - though I have wanted the palette of 4. So I walzted happily into the MAC shop (Cambridge if anyones interested, have a gorgeous shop!), only to find that the palette of 4 was out of stock everywhere. Not to be deterred, I decided to make a bit of an investment and go for the 15 palette - I'm hoping to fill it up over the years and eventually have a gorgeous collection of eyeshadows to be proud of!
As the palette was much more than I hoped, I decided to only get one eyeshadow to start myself off with, and I chose 'Typographic', which is a lovely charcoal grey colour (darker than appears in the picture). I chose a matte shade, as all my MUA palettes are all sparkle! From first impressions, this is highly pigmented and long lasting - I may have tried it on, only to sit at my desk and revise for a day, oh student life! :(

Primark belt, £1

I then stopped off at Primark and was a little disappointed. After the many blog posts I'd read raving about this spring's stock, I couldn't find anything! I may have just been a little late to the party, but I did find this gorgeous woven brown belt - I snapped it up for £1!

Topshop crop top, £8

Topshop was also a bit disappointing for me.. though they had lots of lovely stock in, their prices seem to be going through the roof and I just can't justify spending £30 on a top or £50 on a jumper, it's insane! However I did spot this little fuschia crop top and the classic scene of me strolling down a sunny beach on holiday popped into my head. After a quick jump in the changing rooms I was sold - though I'm not the type to go walking around with my stomach out, I think this will look really nice with a high waisted skirt or pair of shorts.

River Island skirt, £18

Speaking of high waisted skirts, I also ordered this online last week from ASOS (not strictly part of the shopping trip haul, but I thought I'd pop it in). It's originally River Island and is a light blue, faux denim style. It sits nicely around the waist for a high waisted fit, though is quite big - I ordered this in a 6 after assuming it would be big on me! I've also spotted a gorgeous coral bralet in River Island that would go perfectly with this - please come back into stock in a size 8!!

H&M dress, £19.99

The last item I bought was this dress from H&M. I really enjoyed H&Ms new stock, and spent a good hour wandering around all their lovely items, before heading into the changing rooms with a pile to try on. Due to my little spending cutback, I decided not to in fact purchase the whole store, but pick one item - which happened to be this little skater dress. I love the back detail to this dress, and think it will be great for a casual summer daytime look, with some little flats and a belt to cinch in the already elasticated waist.


My last exam is Tuesday, so after that it's time to start looking for a new part time job so I can afford proper hauls again! Hope everyone else's exams are going well, not long till summer now!

Liv