Beauty And The Band

hi all. since more frequently blogging, I've found it as almost an outlet of things people wouldn't usually seen to me. and so i feel like opening up, whether people care about what i have to say, is a different story.. but i just feel stuck at the moment. so i have just finished my second year at university, and it was all well and good but i am still in the phase of.. 'is this really what i want to do'. i love my course, and i love what i do. but i feel that there will always be self doubt no matter what i try and do, and that then becomes discouraging, and very difficult. along with that, i am just finding everything difficult, and I've finished the university year, and everything is meant to pan out okay. i think, coming from a  decent family has done itself good. but student finance is a bitch. and i recently found that the amount I'm getting definitely does not cover the amount i need for rent. though i have a job, and i love it. all i want for my f...

hi all! i thought i would do a skincare routine, as i found when i was slightly younger, al the products the beauty you tubers used, were pretty damn expensive. all of my skincare at the moment can be found in a drugstore, minus a few extra bits that i like to use on occasion when i feel like i need it. starting off with a day I'm wearing makeup, i use the No7 Makeup wipes, this i use to take off all my face makeup, and as much of my eye makeup as possible. for wipes £7 is a lot of money,  so life hack!  when boots have the £2 off makeup and £5 off skincare vouchers, USE THEM! you can use the £5 off on their makeup wipes and they're only £2! i tend to stock up on them when i can get them cheaper while that offer is on. after this, i use soap and glory Face soap and Clarity face wash . this has micro beads in it, and i use that all over my face to get any shit out. this stuff leaves your skin feeling so damn soft!! as for cleanser, i tend to use whateve...

hi all! this is no way associated with SHEIN, however i damn wish it was. this is purely just a fashion lover with an addiction to spending more money that she should on clothes and makeup, buying more clothes. i hope you guys enjoy! just for references, i'm a 14 in most tops (got big boobies) and a 12 on bottoms.  also a size 6 shoe if anyone wants to buy me shit. now, though i know myself, i am not plus size.. but with some of the clothing items on sheen they don't always fit nicely in their regular sizes. also a lot of the clothes i enjoy wearing are on an oversized vibe.. thats just my style and how i enjoy wearing my clothes. now i am aware...  i have a severe lack of t-shirts, and any kind of clothing for my top half in my wardrobe. in september i had a huge purge of all of my clothes, just to get rid of all the rubbish i knew i wouldn't wear again. i am gradually making my way around and starting to fill the wardrobe again, but with items tha...

Hi guys!! here is a quick tutorial on this second eye look made with the violet voss holy grail palette. i love how this look came out! i found the colours were so vibrant and came out amazingly. the duo chrome shade i used on the lid also reflects nicely in the sunlight. 1. to start off this look, draw your eyebrows and carve them out, then add your eyeshadow base and set with thanks a latte 2. using the shade crystal, apply to the brow bone. 3. using the shade transition, apply into the crease and up towards the brow bone. slightly blend out the shade crystal to avoid any harsh lines. 4. using the shade wine and dine, apply to both the inner and outer corners, packing it on and then blending in the crease to create the halo look. 5.using the shade teddy bear on a smaller blending brush, apply this on the inner and outer corners of the lid to add some depth, and then blend this lightly into the crease, but not as far as wine n dine. 6. take your concealer or eyes...

hi guys! here is a mini tutorial blog post telling you all how i created this look. 1. do either your face or brows, i like to do my brows before my base so i can carve them out. 2. using the shade transition, apply along the crease and up towards the brow bone. 3. using crystal apply on the brow bone, and go back with transition to soften. 4. using the shade r u kitten me, apply more towards the crease, only going above slightly. 5. take wine n dine on a blending brush and apply more directly into the crease and along towards the inner corner creating a round shape 6. taking the shade teddy bear, apply lightly to the outer corner and slightly into the crease, just to add some depth. 7. take a concealer of choice, and carve out from the inner corner half way into your eye. 8. blend the concealer to create a smooth transition, and use thanks a latte to set the concealer in place. 9. using a mixture o...

hi everyone! this is a quick review on the Violet Voss Holy Grail palette. though this palette has been around for some time and has already made its way through to being a cult classic. there is nothing in this review that could say otherwise. the pigment oh the pigment! is actually more than phenomenal. there is a perfect mixture between matte shades and shimmer shades, the shimmers have a range of finishes and the mattes are creamy and smooth..  the ONLY thing that i wish, is that there was a lighter red / pink than 'Wine N Dine'  but I'm not too bothered i can work with what i have. mine is well loved already for the whole two days and several looks i had been dying to create. these will come in a later blog post where i show you guys how to recreate them!! woot woot. time for the swatches! i think its fair to say the pigment is next level.. here are a few pictures of looks i have done with this palette so far. and for...

hi all. i always forget how difficult juggling multiple things at once until reality hits again. after a lovely easter break which has ultimately ended in me getting a cold (as usual), getting back into the swing of 'regular' life is proving difficult. you may have thought coming to the end of my second year at university i would have learned my lesson to not leave my work to last minute, or at least get some structure into my life. but no. thats not for me. university is hard f u c k i n g work.  but thats how its always going to be. and next year will only get worse. when you get to this point of life i guess you can say, you start to realise how much you took for granted. balancing a boyfriend, work, friends, university, alone time is always going to be difficult. and finding things to do after you finish university, or what you're going to do for the summer and where you will be living next year or what you will be doing causes a million and one thoughts...

hi all!! so I'm back with another review on the colour pop Cute AF eyeshadow palette. this one unlike the CP x Kathleen Lights i have some mixed reviews on. the formula for a lot of these shades are thankfully very similar to the Dream St palette, if you haven't read my review on it, then click here  but it describes in depth on what i think of colourpop's formula and how well the palette works as a whole. when you first look at this eyeshadow palette, on mine you can see its taken quite the beating. the packaging and colours are nice, but the feel of the palette is a pain in the booty to clean. its not quite paper or cardboard or even quite plastic feeling. but whatever the packaging is made out of.. it sucks and i dislike it. the actual design, spot on. its nice and light, petite but a good range of colours. but for staining is shite! especially with colours such as the reds and dark burgundy.. they're just a bitch to get rid of from anything, and thi...

Hi all!! though this palette has been out for some time now, i wanted to wait until i had tried it and found out whether i really liked this palette. or not. now i have some mixed views on it. the overall palette? beautiful. i love the rose gold, the shade choices are nice. a good variety. one thing i will say, is that the 'darker shade' on the bottom row, isn't that dark when you put it on. even through swatches it looks so much darker, but when it is actually on the eyes i personally feel the colour changes a fair amount and goes a lot lot lot more red than brown. this is a look that i did from my instagram @lauren.jonesmua  and i loveeeeee how pretty it came out. of course all credit goes to RawBeautyKristi, as i followed her phenomenal video. shades used: shooting star, moony, spark, potion, water bearer, mermaid boy, kaleidoscope, sweet dreams  now for the colours! please excuse my horrendous swatches. I'm trying! the shimmer shade...

Hi all! this is my review on the Kat Von D Shade and Light eyeshadow palette. I first got this palette around July last year, and i used it on occasion. firstly, I cannot fault the quality on this palette. for matte eyeshadow shades, the range is lovely. and i love the fact that you can create three separate eyeshadow looks from the 'neutral' 'cool' or 'warm' toned quads. the only thing i dislike, is there is not a shimmer shade for the lid. i feel like this would have completed the palette and therefore made it a one hit run for everything you could need in a nice base, transition shade and a crease shade. although as i said, the main shades i would change, are the three largest. now, i do use the cream shade from the neutrals section regularly, however the other two i just dont. they're too dark for me to use to set my eyeshadow base, and not dark enough for my skin tone to use as a transition. i feel that this is where shimmer shades would go perfec...

hi all! here is a quick review of this Vichy Dermablend foundation in shade 15 - opal now I'm usually an NC15 in mac, and this is comparable. i actually prefer the coverage on this compared to Mac Studio fix fluid. i find it to be a lighter weight foundation. as i have rather oily skin, vichy claims to be 16 hour wear. to this i somewhat agree. the foundation can last a good 8-10 hours on my face (whilst at work) however it starts to disintergrate around my nose and chin. however no matter the foundation and powder i use, it always seems to break apart in those areas.  none the less the coverage is lovely, and definitely hides any redness that i have that day. as i mentioned it is rather light weight, however it is very very shiny if you do not set it with powder. i decided to take photos before i started work as well as after work on a busy day (that i dont have time to touch up my makeup) and show you all how it works for my skin. for people with dry skin...

Hi all!! as many people know, z palettes have been the life and soul of the makeup community as they're just so damn convent. i have started to incorporate this palette into my everyday life as it becomes so convenient to have shades i love all together.  the palette that i decided to use is an old mac palette, i had originally bought the palette and inserts along with a few of the bottom row colours, but decided that the insert was useless and is much easier for me to use it without. each of the shades that are not magnetic i bought some magnet tape (just a cheap one from pound land) and cut it to the size of the bottom of the eyeshadow, and voila. starting with the top two rows of eyeshadows from this palette, if you had read my 'whats in my makeup bag' you would have seen that this palette is in it. i decided that the packaging on the 'Zoeva Matte' palette was just becoming inconvenient to me, and so i decided to depot it and place it in this...

Hi guys! wow its been a while since I've done a blogpost. but I'm feeling ever so determined to continue posting new content. for my first post back, i thought i would do a 'whats in my everyday makeup bag' and show you the products I'm currently using and loving.. so here we go.  the first being palettes! the Kat Von D shade and light eye palette £37  this is my main palette, as i use it for my eyebrows! of course i also use it on the eyes, but that is my main purpose. next is the Zoeva Matte palette £18  again these are pretty much my every day eyeshadow palettes. between the two there is a really nice mix of neutrals, warm tones and a few colours i like to play around with regularly. the last palette i use on an every day basis is the Zoeva Basic moment blush palette £13 . this carries a bronzer / contour shade, a blush and a highlighter, which is extremely handy that i can use one palette for all of my needs. also as both of my eyeshadow palette...

hey guys! so today i thought i would do an updated whats in my makeup bag. i think its extremely fair to say that my makeup skills and products have changed so so so much over the past year and a half and so has my skin; and so the products i have used have to cater towards that. some products i am still trialing out again, to see how well they work and i am beginning to venture into some more expensive brands which are working wonders on my skin but not for my bank account. i tend to switch up a lot of my makeup, and so this is my basic pretty much every day makeup. enjoy. PRIMER: - Benefit Porefessional -Max Factor facefinity -Too Faced shadow insurance (candlelight) -MUA pro base mattify fixing mist FACE: -Vichy Dermablend foundation (15 - Opal) -Max Factor miracle touch (40 - creamy ivory) -Collection Lasting Perfection powder (2 - medium) -Rimmel Stay Matte loose translucent powder -Revlon Colourstay concealer (01 - fair) BROWS: -Benefit Browvo Conditioning P...

Good morning guys. I'm up bright and early which is a surprise for me. I'm never up this early, like ever. But 4 days ago I embarked on a new adventure in my life. University. So on Saturday 03/09 I moved from my little village in Essex all the way up to Birmingham. My new home. I was so ready to make a fresh start and now I've made some amazing friends, most I'm sure will last a lifetime. Or so I hope. And so as I carry on my journey through the next three years of living in Brum, studying makeup and slowly but surely making my way through the industry, who knows what could happen in a few years time. You might be seeing 'Lauren Jones' in the credits of a horror movie you watch - or maybe even Vogue (but that one would just stay a dream for the time being) As I'm moving forward I realise I have hoarded and gathered a lot more makeup than what I thought I originally had. Especially lipsticks, and also highlighters. I can never get enough (they're ...

Hey all! So today I thought I would speak to you all about my 3rd McBusted encounter. So my first McBusted show was on April 25th 2014, and it was one of the best nights of my life - to put it short, I felt like I was 10 again listening to them on my CD player. It was great, and the 2nd time was July 6th 2014 at British Summer Time, when they headlined in Hyde Park, where I also saw so many other rad bands like Hollywood Ending, Backstreet Boys, The Vamps and Wheatus. All of which were so freaking awesome live, and the overall day was amazing.  So on Sunday 5th April, like any other normal ish day I woke up and got the train to London with my sister and my mum(we got the tickets for her this year as she couldn't come last year) and had a nice meal and then went and saw the supporting acts, which were Symmetry and New City Kings, who were both fab and i'm now going to see Symmetry with my bestie on May 4th(STAR WARS DAY WOO).  I was also extremely lucky, that I m...

Hey all! So today I went into my local Superdrug, and picked up this beauty, I was debating to get the What You Waiting For or Girls On Film as they are both absolutely stunning, however I went for this one. All of the palettes that have a case around them have a huuuuge mirror in the top when you open it which I definitely see as a bonus as you dont have to have multiple bits around you. The palette itself comes with 18 shades. 12 of them shimmer - which are the first two square rows, and 6 matte in the circles on the bottom row.  Firstly to start with the packaging it is stunning, its sleek and the palette itself barely takes up any room. Also inside when you open the palette it comes with a clear sheet saying the names of the eyeshadows, which are quirky and fun in this palette, as well as a sponge eyeshadow applicator.  below are swatches that i have not used primer with, as the colours seriously do not need it. as it says on the back, 'all super pigmented' whic...

Hey all! so yesterday (13th March) the Mac Cinderella collection came out in stores in the UK, and my lovely sister managed to pick me up a lipstick and lipglass, so i thought i would do a review on these products and tell you what i think of them.. HINT - im in love... like fo' real. first lets start with the lipstick Royal Ball - holy cow, can we just talk about the packaging for one second? the pearl blue/pink and gold is life. im actually obsessed.  this is a lustre lipstick, but its so beautiful. i'd say its a light pink with nude undertones, and comes out reasonably opaque (for a lustre) and has a gorgeous shine, and will look amazing on most skin types. its hydrating on the lips, and doesn't come out too thick or too thin.  Royal Ball Lustre Lipstick next the lipglass Glass Slipper - jheeze. again the packaging guys. its so beautiful. this lipglass is a nude/pink based glitter lipglass. the colour is definitely to die for! in the ligh...

happy Mondays all! here is a review on the Maybelline colour sensational lipsticks in three shades - 725 tantalizing taupe, 842 rosewood pearl and 630 velvet beige. love love love these. there isn't really much else to say. they're super moisturising and hydrating and have an amazing stay power. ive never really used any of maybellines products apart from the odd mascara or baby lips. but these I am so impressed with #630 velvet beige - this is probably the darkest nude shade ive owned, and on a good day it makes my face a bit brighter and not that i'm slightly dying.. but other than this it is such a beautiful colour. #842 rosewood petal - the only colour that has tiny glitter specs. when I saw that it had these specs it worried me as I thought it may be grainy however, it is far from that and I am so so happy with it. #725 tantalizing taupe - probably my favourite of the three as well as the palest. it is so unique as ive never seen a colour...