Primark haul

I did a wee bit o' spending at the end of November in Primark so I thought I'd present you with a blog post and video showing you what I got. I must warn you, there is quite the Harry Potter theme.

Collared jumper - £10
Cable knit jumper - £12

Shirts - £6 each

Pyjama bottoms - £8

Sweatshirt - £10

Chequered shirt - £8

Cosy socks - £2

Are there are pieces you want to pick up from Primark at the moment?

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December wishlist

I feel like the obligatory 'I can't believe how fast the year has gone' comment has to be made, so there it is. I am getting increasingly excited for Christmas, but I also have my eyes on a few wintery items that I thought I'd share with you.

If you couldn't tell, I'm really wanting to buy into the tartan look over winter. The two skirts are pieces from Primark (which unfortunately I didn't see when I went in recently, however keep an eye on my blog for an upcoming Primark haul) and I think they just look lovely especially  for this time of year, yes you can wear tartan all year round but I personally think it looks great with thick black tights which isn't so easy to get away with in the summer due to the fact that I'll be writhing around on the floor in my own sweat complaining about the heat.

The nail polish can be bought from Wilkinsons and I know it's boring and black, but hey *I wear black on the outside because black is how I feel on the inside. Plus I think I raved on enough about one of the other Essence nail polishes for it to be obvious that I think they're pretty good value. Unfortunately this wasn't in Wilkinsons when I went so I may just look for another black gel nail polish (not from Barry M, I had a traumatic experience with their Gelly nail polishes).

It is cold and who says being warm can't be fashionable? Whilst it's unlikely I'll fork out for this Dorothy Perkins boyfriend coat I know for a fact there is one exactly like it in Primark which I'll hopefully pick up next time I'm in there.

Again with the tartan look, I really like this dress from New Look. It's a swing dress so it'll probably cover up the food baby conceived around the Christmas period, it's a bit more than I'd like to spend on a basic dress but this sort of style would be great.

What are you hoping to get over the next month?

How excited are you for Christmas?!

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*If you don't get the reference, try listening to The Smiths it'll change your life.

Book review - Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

Hello there readers, I am back with another book review. I know it's been a while but if you have me as a friend on Goodreads you may or may not have seen that I was reading a couple of historical fictions. Now I have nothing against people who enjoy historical fiction, some of my best friends like historical fiction, but I can't stand it so trekking through these books for History was a long, treacherous journey that I wish not to repeat. Once I finished those books though, I moved onto the one I am reviewing - Fahrenheit 451. This book is considered a classic by most literature nerds (of which I am one), so I knew that one day I would have to read it, but what really gave me the motivation to read it now was my Philosophy teacher who I have mentioned in countless posts now but he recommends books and films and whatnot and he recommended the film of this, and I like to try and read the book before reading the film generally so I decided to read it. Plus my parents have recommended it several times before, so the time was right.

I'd also like to point out that with this book, I completed my 2014 reading challenge which was to read 15 books, this may not sound like a lot but I really became unmotivated with reading last year so I'm quite proud of myself for doing it and completing it more than 2 months ahead!

Borrowing my parents books always means receiving a very old, battered book which for aesthetic reasons is  quite nice but makes it quite hard to scan into goodreads.. mostly because you need a barcode and there are no barcodes on the old books.

Synopsis:

Guy Montag is a fireman in a dystopian future where television rules and literature is on the brink of extinction, firemen start fires rather than put them out. His job is to destroy books along with the houses in which they are hidden, because they are the most illegal commodity.

Montag never questions this lifestyle, returning each day to his bland life and wife, Mildred, who spends all day with her television "family." But then he meets an eccentric seventeen year old, Clarisse, who asks him thought provoking questions and tells him stories of the past - back in the day when firemen used to put out fires rather than start them. Clarisse causes him to question his entire lifestyle, and the story continues on from there.

My thoughts:

I really enjoyed this book. It was so easy to get into, and it wasn't written in a complicated way at all. My only criticisms are that it was split into three parts rather than chapters so it made it a little harder to decide when to stop reading, but it's a very short book regardless so I didn't have too much trouble with that. I was so gripped in the third part, so much so that I couldn't put it down which was nice because I haven't read a book like that in a long time. I also enjoyed the philosophical themes in it - this could be because I am a generic pretentious Philosophy student, I like reading and watching things that make me think. I really want to watch the film now!!

Overall rating:

I gave this a 5/5 on Goodreads - yep that's right, you read that correctly. I hardly ever rate books a 5/5 (with the exception of Harry Potter) but I can't point out any faults with this book really.

Have you read Fahrenheit 451?

September Wishlist

Hello readers, hope you're all well. It's the end of August which means it's time for a wishlist for the month of September, if you look below you'll see an image of the things I want with links of where to get them and whatnot. It's a somewhat longer wishlist than usual because Autumn and Winter fashion is what I live for (I just can't get by in the summer, I need the darkness that only colder seasons can provide)

The makeup brushes are from eBay for only £8.95 in a variety of colour, the picture actually doesn't show all the brushes that come in the set because it's actually a ten piece set which is amazing value for under a tenner. I've read a review on them and apparently they're very good for the cost, and you can get them in a variety of colours like black, white, blue and pink - I'm actually thinking I might go for the pink ones because they look really cute!!

The Revlon lipstick in Really Red is £7.49 in Boots and Superdrug at the moment but in Boots you can get 2 for £10 on Revlon products which is amazing so I'll probably buy it there, plus I prefer the points system in Boots. This is a well known dupe for Mac's Ruby Woo and it's half the price of a Mac lipstick which is great value, I think red lipstick looks really nice and I'm becoming more confident with wearing bright lipsticks now so I think this would look really nice in the Autumn/Winter.

The oversized jumper from H&M is £12.99 which isn't bad for a nice quality jumper, I have barely any jumpers and I think I need to get some in for when the weather gets colder. I'd like either a burgundy one or a black one for winter colours I think.

The boyfriend jeans from H&M in the picture were £13 but they are now sold out, so the ones I have put a link for are similar but just darker and they're £29.99 which is a little pricey for me as I hardly ever wear jeans due to body confidence, but I would like to buy boyfriend jeans and gather the confidence from somewhere to wear them because I think they can look really nice.

The scuba skirt from H&M (can you tell I love what H&M currently has in stock??) is only £10 at the moment, I reckon it will be sold out soon but I essentially just want a black pleated skirt. I have a white one that I ordered from boohoo a while ago but I think a black one would be more versatile, and I'm always looking for new skirts as I wear skirts whenever I leave the house (why bother to wear a skirt at home when you can wear pyjama bottoms?)

The pleated skirt from H&M (I think I'm going to be shopping at H&M a lot over the next month!!) is only £12.99 which is a really good price, I love the polka dot pattern on it and I also love navy as I think it suits me? I think this would be a versatile item that could be worn in the winter and in the summer.

The black platform sneakers from H&M cost £14.99 but I know for a fact that Primark is doing some like these so I'll probably just buy them from there. I'm 5'7 so I'm aware I don't need the height, but I think platform shoes look really nice and make your feet look a bit smaller so I'm all about that because I have pretty big feet (you know what they say about big feet right?)

Thanks for reading my wishlist!

What's on your wishlist for September?

Collective beauty & fashion haul - Primark, Savers and more

Hello readers, hope you're all well.

Throughout the month of July, I have been shopping a few times and picked up a few bits so I thought I would show you what I got in video form and in blog post form. The link to the video will be down below, and below that will be a break down of everything I got.

1. White dress - £5 from Primark

This dress was a steal at £5, it's super soft cotton like material with a nice crochet-type detail on the torso and I'm sure I'll get plenty of wear out of it in the next month of summer.

2. Friends shirt - £6 from Primark

I do love my graphic tees and friends so this was the perfect combination, it is such a soft material and it has rolled up sleeves because that's what the cool kids are doing these days. I'm probably going to wear this with skater skirts as skater skirts are among one of my favourite things in the world, if I don't wear it outside at least it's a super cosy top to wear indoors.

 3. Stripy black and white tee - £3.50 from Primark

This top is just a staple and I will definitely get wear out of this, I wanted to buy this last month (which I did a haul for and you can read that here) but they didn't have it in Primark when I went so I had to leave it for a while but now I have it and can flaunt my stripes with pride.

4. Nirvana vest top - £8 from Primark

Nirvana are one of my favourite bands and I really like this vest top, I usually feel a bit insecure wearing vest tops because I don't like my flabby arms being on display for the most part but I wore this just yesterday and thought it actually looked quite good and didn't make my arms look worse, if anything it made them look better. Plus the material is super soft. The only thing I worry about (because I buy far too many graphic tees) is that the design will come off, but I've had some of my graphic tees for over 2 years and the design hasn't come off on those so I reckon they'll last.

5. Nail polish twist pot - £1.00 from Primark

I haven't given this a whirl yet so I don't know how good this is at removing your nail polish, but the idea sounds ground-breaking. I first heard of a nail polish twist pot from this video and I was considering making my own but I thought I'd try out this one first seeming as it's only £1.

6. Barry M nail paint in Navy - £1 from market

I wasn't sure whether to mention this as it's not something that will be available to everyone, but where I live there is a market every Thursday which I usually don't go to because of school (despite the fact I have half days on a Thursday) but my Mum wanted to go so we went, and I thought that £1 is such a good price for Barry M. I like the normal Barry M nail paint formula, I've had problems with the gelly one I've tried but that is another post for another time.

7. Barry M lip gloss - £1 from market

Barry M must be quite cheap wholesale at the moment because there was lots of Barry M at the market. I picked up this because I've recently been loving lip glosses and I've used this a few times, and I can confirm that it is not as sticky as most lip glosses and it smells like these French Haribos I receieved in a Cyber Candy Mystery Box (which I did a haul for and you can see that here) so this was a good purchase. It's not too pigmented because it doesn't come out the colour of the gloss in the bottle but most lip glosses don't so that's not an issue.

8. Beauty Formulas rejuvenating glorious mud mask - £1 from Savers

I highly highly recommend this, for a £1 you get a really nice facial. It's not the best face mask in existence, but I would be willing to argue that it's the best face mask, that costs £1, in existence. I use this twice a week and keeps my skin feeling healthy.

I also got a toner which I spoke about more in this blog post so you can check that out if you want to read about that, it cost £1.50 from Savers.

Thanks for reading, stay classy readers and I'll see you again soon.

July wishlist

July wishlist 2014 by bess-oates featuring flower pots

Boohoo dress
boohoo.com

American apparel skirt
$82 - yoox.com

Jelly sandals
$26 - newlook.com

TMOD tote bag
$28 - thegrandsocial.com.au

Lip gloss
$12 - superdrug.com

Clarins lip treatment
$31 - harrods.com

Beauty product
$6.81 - superdrug.com

Flower pot
ikea.com

Hello there readers, as the end of a 'sunny' June in the UK a new month approaches. To match this 'summery' weather, I have compiled a wishlist of the types of things I'd like to buy over the next month or over the summer. 

The 'summery' UK weather should explain why there are jelly sandals, dresses and skirts but you'll notice they are also wintery colours so I could wear them all year round! You may notice the pastel pink dungarees as well which for some reason haven't gone down into the boxes below with prices, but this is from Primark and I'm unsure as to whether I'll definitely get this. I think it's adorable but I'm still not very confident with my legs although they are improving, plus I think denim ones may be more versatile :)

The tote bag I think is adorable with the moon phases, but essentially all I want is a tote bag that's under a £5 so hopefully I can find one like this! 

You can also see the Tanya Burr lip gloss and the Clarins lip balm crayon which are fairly basic, I really want the Clarins 'my pink' stick that's been on my blogger radar at the moment - I really want to see what my shade is!! I want to try Tanya Burr's lip gloss purely because I've loved her videos for ages and she knows a lot about make up so I'm hoping this good, I've heard very mixed reviews though so who knows? 

Next on the list you can see the Urban Decay dupe by Make up Revolution, I believe it's the Iconic 2 palette because there are very neutral colours so even for someone who doesn't wear much eye shadow I'm sure I'll get a lot of use out of this plus it's only £4 in the UK! 

Lastly, you can see cute little fake cactuses from Ikea - I want a cactus so badly!! I think a fake one would be better though so I won't need to take care of it, I think Ikea is one of the best places in the world (sorry to get a bit '500 days of summer on you').

Thanks for reading!

Is there anything you're really hoping to buy over the next month or summer?