I Got Acrylic Nails!!!!!

Hey Lovelies,

Life has been hectic. Work here, university there and somewhere in between all that I’ve kept my social life going. Unfortunately some things have suffered, like my blog and my tv watching and my book reading. With all of these crazy things happening lately I’ve really appreciated my down time and taken extra time just to allow myself to relax. For example, I’ve found it really hard to keep up with doing my own nails at least once a week and I’ve been hating how they’ve been looking. This weekend I was working all weekend and didn’t even have time to see Alex (a.k.a the partner) !!! So instead of the money I would’ve been spending on doing fun things with him I invested in some “treat yo self” time and boy was it fun.

One of my friends has been going to this nail salon close to me for years and they always look fantastic so I finally decided to go and get them done. I’ve had gel done before but never acrylic, people have always told me that they ruin your nails, but after the damage I experienced through press-on nails and gel, I though how much more damage could they be? Also I’ve heard that if you go to the right place your nails will be fine, so I made sure that I went to a good place.

The night before my appointment I was on Pinterest and Instagram just staring at nail pictures trying to decide what to get. I had NO idea. I felt so silly, and when I got to the salon I was just like, “PINK!”.

Envious Nails and Beauty is the name of the salon and I felt very relaxed and taken care of by the ladies there, it wasn’t scary at all (not that I thought it would be). If you’re in Brisbane, Australia, I would say it is definitely a place to check out. Here’s their Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/EnviousNailsBeauty?fref=ts.

I can’t wait to rebook and go back, still have no idea what to get but I’m sure I’ll know in the moment.

What’s your favourite way to get your nails done?

xx
Ohhkaye

Romantic Winged Eye Look – FOTD

Hello Lovelies, 
Since coming home from overseas I’ve been stuck into work and have hardly had the chance to get all dolled up, but I thought that today was a perfect excuse to just that. Me and my friends had to run a few errands in town an I wanted to try some new and not so new makeup and thought that since I want to post more I should show you what I did. Firstly I was going to do a before and after but my camera is being a complete moron. The colour settings are all messed. Everything either comes out really orange or blue and it doesn’t capture the essence of the makeup look I was going for. So out of the bazillion photos I took on my good Canon camera, the above photo is the only one worth posting. Hopefully in the next few days I will make a custom setting that will work perfectly with my makeup looks, I think I just need to play around with a few things and get the hang of the nitty gritty camera stuff, which I’m not all that educated on. Below is a photo I took on my phone and turned out amazing and I posted it up on Instagram (@kaitlynisabelm) and personally I was very happy with how it showed up.
The look was aiming to be a subtle yet romantic look with a hint of wing. I’ve been doing this wing that only goes into the middle of my eye then stopping. Sometimes I feel that going all the way across with liquid eyeliner can be too intense, especially for romantic or day to day wear. I would say that this look would work great for Valentines Day, if any of you have anything planned. A red lip is classic with any romantic or date night makeup look, it brings a total iridescence of sexiness into the entire look. 
How do you guys handle camera/editing troubles?

xoxo

Disney World, New Years and Caribbean Cruise!!!!!

Hey lovelies,

Some of you may know and some may not, but I have spent the most part of the last month overseas in the states. My family and I left on Christmas morning and preceded to spend the following 35ish hours traveling to Orlando, Florida. During that time we endured LAX on Christmas morning, which was an incredibly frustrating experience, 10/10 would not recommend.  I’m not going to go into too much detail about the entire trip because we’d be here forever.

We started at Universal Studios, which is home to Harry Potter World and it was spectacular to say the least, every detail was on point. The weather was crazy with 100% humidity and 30 degree weather in their so called winter. After 3 days of Universal fun including the Simpsons, minions and many more fun themed attractions, we moved over to Walt Disney World for an intense 6 day experience unlike any other. Walking into Magic Kingdom overwhelmed me with so much emotion and I practically cried from happiness. Even though we went during their busiest time of the year, both myself and the rest of my family enjoyed our time there thoroughly.

After conquering a week and half of straight theme parks, we all needed a break so what was the answer? Yes. Shopping was the answer. We hit most of the outlets in Orlando and Ft Lauderdale and boy did I get some deals. I also visited an Ulta and was so goddamn happy I could’ve spent every cent I had in there. (thank god I didn’t) My makeup and skincare collection expanded quite a lot and I can’t wait to try everything out and share it with you guys. We drove from Orlando to Ft Lauderdale which was quite honestly one of the most terrifying things I’ve ever experienced. I mean driving on the opposite side of the road was enough but add on that the others on the road weren’t the greatest of drivers, we were definitely in for quite a thrill. It’s okay though because the rest of our trip was all about resting and recovering.

Above is the only picture I snapped while in Aruba, because I was so damned relaxed I couldn’t fuss around with taking a million pictures. We all got to this beautiful island by hopping onto the Royal Princess and embarking on a 10 day Caribbean adventure. I had so much fun, other than I couldn’t enjoy a cocktail since the drinking age was still 21 on the cruise, but once I got to the islands I enjoyed many a pina colada on the beach. The experience was amazing and I was so relaxed before I had to trek all around the world to get back home.

Heading back to Australia took 40+ hours to get home since we had an 8hr layover at LAX. By the time we all found our way back to our house, we all collapsed and slept for the next day or two. Overall the holiday was amazing and I hope I get the chance to go back there again.

Where is the best place you’ve traveled to?
xoxo

Shoe Haul – Mr & Mare + ZU

Hello Lovelies,

First off, I’m 5’11” and quite awkward when it comes to my height and have been avoiding wearing anything that has even the slightest heel for my entire and recently I decided to defy all notions and wear heels and embrace being incredibly tall.

I sort of went a bit of a binge of shoe buying, which something I was completely new to. The white ones of the right were the first pair that I bought and wearing them in was quite painful but after surviving the feet torture, they are now my go to sandals since they are super comfy. They are by a brand called Mr & Mare which I found at the Universal Store.

The other two pairs were bought together on a shoe buying excursion. The middle pair were from ZU and when I tried them on it the store I was convinced that I was gonna love them, but since I’m still in the “wearing them in” stage, I haven’t decided whether they are comfy enough for daily wear. We’ll see though, they have potential.

I’ve always wanted a pair of huge chunky boots and these were super cheap and classy, not to mention comfy as all hell. I’ve worn them out dancing/dinner twice for 6+ hours and the only thing that hurt was my little pinkie toes but other than that I could easily dance and walk even after all that time!!!!

xoxo

Dramatic Clubbing Makeup – FOTD

 Hello Lovelies,

Just gotta say…I LOVE this makeup, I literally threw it together in 30 minutes and it fared wonderfully for a crazy night of dancing and I was so happy with it, but realized once I was taking it off the next morning that I had only taken one photo of it.

The look wasn’t that hard either!!!! I took a classic white and black cut crease and just added a few things, like some greys and a whole lot of glitter and of course, winged eyeliner.
The glitter was a NYX roll-on one and I took a small brush and dabbed it on all around my inner corner.

I found a cell phone photo that wasn’t that bad so I included it.

xoxo

Garnier Micellar Cleansing Water All in 1 Review

Hello Lovelies,

It’s been awhile again and I’ll initially apologize then get straight into it, since even though I’ve been swamped with life and planning for my upcoming month abroad, I still want to type up what I’ve been loving (or hating). I’m hoping to schedule a few posts that will come up when I’m overseas 😀

When the big hype of micellar waters came about I was personally a little hesitant since they honestly looked like expensive bottles of water. After humming it over in my head and reading all the fabulous reviews of the Bioderma one, I ventured into Priceline to pick some up and found out that a tiny bottle of the stuff was $30 and since I’d never tried this type of product I needed to try a cheaper alternative. One of the staff members suggested the Garnier one and after reading that it removed makeup and was soothing, I was anxious to try it out myself, the fact that it came in a huge bottle was also a big selling point.

As I’m typing this post I’m on my second bottle of the stuff, and there has never been a skincare product I’ve repurchased!!!! I’m not gonna blurt out that this product is some sort of holy grail since it doesn’t particularly do anything extra for my skin, but as a makeup remover/light facial cleanser it totally takes the prize.

I found that Garnier really found a way to remove makeup in the simplest form, and doesn’t have any weird extras like perfume. For example, I had been previously using an Elizabeth Arden makeup remover I got for Christmas and it was alright but left a slimy residue on my face and the smell was a little too much for me and I would also have to use and excess of 3-4 cotton pads just to get everything off. In regards to the Garnier one, I use one saturated cotton pad per half of my face and occasionally I use one extra all over if I was wearing heavy makeup. Side note; I have extremely sensitive eyes due to an incident in middle school and I found that even when this stuff got in my eye (on rare occasions) there would be no irritation.

Personally I would recommend this to everyone’s sister, mother and brother !!!! The makeup remover is strong but the cleanser part of this product is extremely light, but does a decent job to make me feel refreshed even if I’m not taking any makeup off.

What’s your go to makeup remover/cleanser?
xoxo 

Surprise Romantic Weekend Away – One Year Anniversary

Hello Lovelies,
Just over one year ago Alex and I started dating and it feels as if time has stopped for us as well as flewn by. Although we went out for a special dinner on the actual night of our one year anniversary, Alex had been planning something special and been keeping it a surprise for months. I literally had no idea, other than I had to pack enough clothes for a weekend away and that we were going to go to dinner somewhere nice. 
I was beyond surprised and taken a back with excitement when he told me that we would be escaping to Bribie Island for the weekend. We ended up staying at this amazing B&B that had a gorgeous king sized bed with access to spa, sauna and pool facilities. We spent the day relaxing to the max in the spa and indulging in a Lush Bath Bomb!!!! Dinner was exciting and we splurged and got a couple of drinks as well as entrees and sides.

 Even though we experienced the first heat wave of the season (the temperature got above 40 degrees Celsius) the entire weekend was pure bliss and we both had such an amazing time.

xoxo

Black + Gold Sugar Skull

Hello Lovelies,

Halloween is one of my favourite times of the year, I swear I’ve become obsessed with looking and watching videos of everyone’s looks, everyone gets so creative. It just happened to be exam time for me the entirety of October, so yay! All I wanted to do while I was studying was to transform myself into something creepy or different, so I personally used that as fuel to study extra hard. When I finally got around to sitting down and trying something out, the only idea I had in my head was a sugar skull and I thought a black and gold colour scheme would work well, so I just winged it.

I started by contouring (very lightly) with black eyeshadow around my jawline and the sides of my face. The eyes were very fun to create and I started by placing down different yellows and golds to create an opaque colour around the eyes. Then came the black outline and the blending, which in all honesty took me the longest, but the trick i found was to keep applying gold/yellow where needed and placing some black lightly over those areas where you’ve placed more gold. Filling in the half circles around the eyes are pretty simple until you get to the ones around the nose, they can get a little tricky so take your time. I just used a pencil eyeliner, so if you use gel or liquid you’ll have to be extra careful since they’ll smudge easier.

Personally I found the nose tricky since the area is all curved, I spent way too long trying to clean up the edges but in the end I sort of just left it the way it was. Lastly you can really improvise with the mouth, I’ve seen so many interpretations, I tried to keep it simple.

Of course I put a deep face in !!!!
Hope you all had a wonderful Halloween!!!!

xoxo

19th Birthday Wrap-up

Hello Lovelies,

WOW!!! I’m getting old now. It’s unreal telling people that I’m 19, especially since 18 was so much fun. This year was probably the best birthday I’ve ever had, since historically I’ve had horrible birthdays. For example I spent my 17th birthday at a funeral, was not fun at all let me tell you that. This year though was in a totally different category, I had two weekends of fun and friends.

The weekend before my birthday I hosted a pajama and cocktail night with a lot of tequila involved. Everyone loved that they could rock up to a party in their onesies and we were all fabulously comfy and we smashed through multiple margaritas. I rocked my new storm trooper pajama pants and fluffy slippers and stayed super warm all night.

On my actual birthday I decided to keep it  little low key and spent my day with my boyfriend, Alex. I really wanted to spend my day baking and cooking since my kitchen at home is bust so we ventured out in the morning to gather ingredients. Firstly we stopped for my favourite coffee, which is a White Chocolate Mocha with lactose free milk and a double shot from Zarraffas by the way. For the last couple of months Alex has kept his eyes out for some yellow tulips since they are only in season for a little while during winter, low and behold there is a bunch of yellow tulips at the Coles we went to, it was like fate. I had decided I wanted to make red velvet cupcakes since they’re my favourite, and the cupcakes turned out fine but boy do I need to learn how to make frosting properly. For dinner Alex and I made pork fillet with potato gems (or tater tots) with homemade cheesy garlic bread, which Alex made all by himself and it was amazing.

My makeup was amazing as was my outfit but with all the cooking and the dinner party that followed, I forgot to take a photo. Two of my closest friends came around and we had dinner and played Cards Against Humanity before heading to Fortitude Valley. We danced for awhile and decided to end the night at a cocktail bar called Alfred and Constance. My friend Siobhan and I tried the lychee martinis and they were an absolute treat for our bodies, sooooo yummy.

All in all I had an amazing day and it was definitely a day I will never forget.

xoxo