♡ iyastevie ♡: kat von d

♥ Whats In My Handbag?

I think, personally, that a hand bag is a very private thing. I think every girl, lady, woman, boy or man that carries a bag with them has different necessities that they must have on their person at all times, and sometimes they don't want to share what they keep on them.. I am not one of those people and I quite enjoy seeing people on YouTube go through their bag and empty it for all to see. I've found quite good tips for keeping a clean handbag through these videos and I also love to see what purses people have, what make up they carry around and what bag they're using at the moment. I can agree that my bag is nowhere near as cool or as exciting as any YouTuber or blogger that you may have seen take part in this tag, but I don't care!

My handbag was bought in the Christmas sales 2016 and is from Accessorise. If I remember correctly, this bag was originally like £45 and was reduced down to £18 in the sale! I really liked the colour and I liked the size as it has plenty of space inside.

Firstly, I have my purse, an item you will find in most peoples handbags! Mine if a very lovely Ted Baker purse in baby pink that I grabbed for a total bargain on Depop. I'd been looking for a new purse for months and I really badly wanted a Ted Baker one, but I was not handing over £75 minimum for a purse! I managed to get this purse in near perfect condition for only £23 including postage! That is a bargain in my opinion! I want to get a new purse so I think I'll wait till the after Christmas sales at the end of this year and hopefully I'll be able to grab a new Ted but for a cheaper price. I really like the style of this purse, it's a great size, I have plenty of space for cards, notes and change! I also have some very cute (of Reece!) photos of myself and Reece in my purse which we took in the one and only photo booth we've ever been in together, as you can tell, I was slightly camera shy!

I carry my diary with my in my bag at all times. I use my diary to keep track of doctors and hospital appointments, birthdays, LUSH releases and most importantly, my flexi hours at work. As I work in an office, many days I work more than my contracted hours, so I get flexi time. This is where I can build up extra hours and either take a shorter day or build up enough to take a full day off work. It's really helpful when I need to leave work early for any reason and also for if I have a really busy day and need extra time to complete my tasks. It's also good for keeping track of my holidays and being able to see how much time I have left to take. I used to use diaries when I was a kid to keep a memory of what I did each and every day. Every year I try to keep a full diary, accounting the days, but in the last few years I've failed within the first month. It is quite nice to read over the diaries I have from when I was younger and I do wish that the past few years I'd kept a diary. I do have a travel diary for when I go abroad, but I haven't been abroad since 2012 so it only contains memories from that year. I'll definitley keep that one up as I think it's lovely to look back on.

As I said above, I haven't been 'abroad' as such since 2012. Going to see Reece doesn't count as that's Northern Ireland and I don't have to get money changed! So I don't carry my passport around with me for travel reasons, I carry it as a form if ID. Lately, I haven;t been ID'd for age restricted items, but I know that I'll be caught one day with no ID and I'll be stuck! I also like to keep it on me as I do travel to see Reece quite a bit and even though you don't need a passport to travel to Northern Ireland, you do need proof of who you are and this is all I have as I don't drive. I know for a fact if I didn't keep my passport on me, I'd end up misplacing it somewhere in my room and when I come to go to Northern Ireland, I wouldn't be able to find it. So in a backwards kind of way, it's safer if I have it on me at all times!

Yes, you guessed it, I carry keys with me. This includes my house key and a key I have to my mum best friends house as I look after her house when she is away from home and I also used to look after her kids a lot when they were younger, so it made sense for me to have a key of my own. My favourite part of my keys, obviously, is my key rings. I have a chunk of amethyst that I bought the first time Reece came over to England to visit me and we visited my cities cathedral on his last day before he flew home. I also have a geode that I bought when me and Reece visited the continental marker on our first Christmas in Belfast. This has now become a tradition of ours, where I visit him every year the week before Christmas and we go to the continental market because I love it so much! I get so excited every year! And the final key ring is a chunk of citrine that I bought the first time me and Reece visited the Lake District together and went to one of my favourite shops, The Rock Shop in Ambleside. I love that shop and all the crystals that they sell, so I wanted to mark the occasion that Reece finally went after me telling him out if for years.

Like most, I keep a small make up bag in my handbag at all times. This one, I bought in TKMaxx for a whole £3! I really liked this one as I thought it was quite Kate Spade esk. In here I tend to keep whatever lipstick I am wearing that day, which to be honest accumulates to about 20 lipsticks and I carry my bag around wondering why it's so heavy or look in my make up drawers for a particular lipstick that I can't find! Today I have my Kat Von D mini in Bow and Arrow in there today as I have been totally loving this liquid lipstick lately and it is the perfect size for keeping in my make up bag. I usually have a LUSH solid perfume in here too, and as you can see I currently have my The Comforter solid in there. A new addition to this bag lately has been my sunglasses as we have officially hit the British summertime and the sun is so bright on a morning it makes my eyes water when I'm looking for the bus, so these are a must have for me for now. I also keep my medication, tampons, some mints, a bottle of deodorant, my work pass and flexi card in here, but I highly doubt you all want to see them!

I have always been into reading, I remember as a kid, other kids my age asked for PlayStations and bikes for Christmas and I always asked for the latest Harry Potter or Jacqueline Wilson book. Ever since I came back from staying with Reece, I have really got back into reading. I always read when I travel as the signal is awful on the train to Newcastle and of course I can't access the internet on my crappy easyJet flight! I was reading Girl Online: Going Solo during my travels but I finished it when I got into Newcastle. Typical easyJet being delayed, I missed my train back to Carlisle so I had to wait for two hours in the train station for the next train out. Luckily, Reece's mum had given me a book when I was over there and really recommended it to me. I nearly forgot it as I had put it with Reece's very few books but she reminded me just before I left. I started reading the book, No Time for Goodbye by Linwood Barclay and I totally fell in love with reading again. I read it on the train home, on the bus to work the next day, on the bus home from work and I finished it on the Monday night. I really got into the story and I'm not going to give anything away, but if you enjoy a mystery thriller book, this is the one for you! I am currently reading The Girl on the Train which Reeces mum bought me for my birthday back in March and I am really enjoying it so far!

I also carry one of my LUSH tote bags with my everywhere. I buy my dinner every day for work and I use my tote to carry it back to the office with me. I also need a bag on me at all times because I never know when I'm going to pop into LUSH on my dinner and buy a couple of products, and even though their bags are free and they are paper so harmless to the environment, I can take my own so why not? I love this tote bag that I have been using lately. This is the Botanical tote bag that was first available in the kitchen last year. I really wanted this tote but it sold out really quick and I had no spare money to buy one at the time. I was so upset! But I managed to find a lovely girl on Facebook who was selling hers and her Botanical t-shirt so I bought them both and they got to me just in time for my birthday way back in March! You can now purchase this online and in your local store for a limited time so go go go! I will leave a link at the end of this post!

As I said, my bag is really boring! I keep it clean and I don't keep old receipts for long so there were no interesting purchase reminders hanging around in the bottom of there! I'd be really interested in what you keep in your bag, let me know down below in the comments if there is anything I carry around with me every day that you do too!

Please take a look at these articles and web pages-

Ted Baker purse (closest I could find!)

Kat Von D Everlasting Liquid Liptick in Bow & Arrow

The Girl on the Train book

LUSH Botanical tote bag

Thank you for taking the time to read my blog post, it is very appreciated! Make sure to follow so you can see the next time I post! ♥ xo

**Disclaimer: All views, opinions and photos are my own.**

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, by iyastevie

♥ May Favorites

I didn't post a March or April Favourites as to be honest, I feel like I blinked and the months were taken from me, with my birthday and Reece coming to see me and then literally two weeks later it being Reece's birthday and me travelling over to him, it's been a real quick and busy couple of months! This has been a very fast year so far, I can't quite believe it's nearly the summer already. I have been really enjoying a few new things this month so I thought it was time to get my act together and starting blogging again and share my favourite things from this month!

Back in June 2016, out of nowhere, LUSH released a new shower gel that was to be sold in their flagship Oxford Street store only. It really annoys me when LUSH release brand new never seen before products and only sell them at Oxford Street. I understand why they do it and even that they are testing the response before the products go on sale to everyone via either online or by selling via all stores. I wanted to try this shower gel as I am a massive shower gel hoarder and I was curious to see what it smelt like. I hunted down a a tiny bottle of Plum Rain shower gel on Depop from a lovely seller that I have done many swaps and sales with, and in October last year, Plum Rain finally joined my collection. I completely fell in love with the scent straight away and I knew that this was going to become my new favourite. For one, the deep purple colour and the thick nearly putty like texture of this shower gel are a complete winner for me, as I hate really runny shower gels as you don't get as many uses from the bottle. And then the scent. With ingredients such as fresh plum juice, petitgrain oil and Sicilian mandarin oil, the combination makes for a stunning scent. You can smell the sweetness of the mandarin oil but also the tartness of the plum juice. It's perfect and made it straight to my top five! So imagine how happy I was in February when Plum Rain was released to all stores! I have never been so happy to see a product on my locals shelves. I went in on release day and bought a 250ml bottle to add to my collection. And then, to make my day, week, month and year even more, LUSH released some body sprays in a few different scents in April, which had been teased by Simon Constantine back in February when he posted an image to his Instagram (@sigorilla) showing three spray bottles with Plum Rain, Lord of Misrule and Twilight written on them. The sprays were originally released with the opening of the LUSH Spa in Cardiff, and then went online a short time later. As you can imagine, they sold out basically instantly. I think it took three restocks for me to catch them available online. I was sat at Reece's when he was having a day doing assignments and I was browsing through the LUSH website when I saw that the body spray was available. I hesitated for only a moment before purchasing. I was super shocked when it was delivered by DPD the very next day and I had to patiently wait to fly back home from Ireland to smell it. It was the first thing I done when I get home, screw talking to my parents or emptying my case, I needed to smell my body spray! Honestly, this product exceeded my expectations. When you first spray this on your skin, it smells very much like the shower gel version, the sweet mandarin and the tart plum scent. As I wore it for work the next day, I noticed that as the day went on, the scent changed. The scent started to smell more and more like the Over and Over bath bomb, which I'm not going to complain about because I love that fizzy orange sherbet scent, but I just wish this had more plum to it. Looking at the ingredients, plum juice isn't listed as it is on the shower gel, but I know LUSH keep their perfume ingredients hush hush so nobody can steal their products, so maybe they have followed that on through their body sprays. I 110% recommend the Plum Rain shower gel and the body spray, two of my most favourite products in my entire LUSH collection.

I read a book about a year ago in a whole day. It wasn't because the book was really popular and I'd never heard of the author. I used to buy books on the 'buy one get one half price' table in Waterstones like it was going out of fashion, hence why I have such a large collection now. I finished this book in a day as we were really quiet at work and we had absolutely nothing to do, but as I was working for an agency if I didn't turn up, I didn't get paid. I picked a book from my bookshelf that morning, not really taking much notice of what I had chosen and shoved it in my bag. A couple of weeks ago I saw all over social media that people were watching 13 Reasons Why and I thought the title sounded familiar. It was only when I saw the trailer that I realised I'd already read this book and I remembered the story line. While Reece was over, we binge watched the entire 13 episodes. I know that this show has received a lot of negative feedback and quite a bit of backlash for the story line, but unpopular opinion alert - I really enjoyed the show, probably more than I enjoyed the book, which is quite rare for me to say. I liked how the story is told from Hannah's point of view. It's not somebody else trying to piece the puzzle together, it's told in her words, which in my opinion, doesn't happen often when this situation is depicted in a film or a show. It showed the audience how you may think something is very minor, but it can be very big to another person. It explained how cruel people can be and reminded people of how nasty school life can be to a teenager. It showed how you can be held accountable for things that you may not even realise you were partly to blame for. I've heard a lot of people say that this show is triggering and advising teenagers not to watch it. I disagree. I think a lot more people should be watching this show. I think teenagers need to realise that the words they say and the actions they decide to take, can hurt and can lead to a lot more than they think. I think they need to see how the choices that they make can effect other people in a way that is irreversible. I also think that people who find themselves in Hannah's situation, so hurt and broken by life that they think the only way out is to end it all, need to see what happens after they are gone and how it effects the people that are around them. They need to know that no matter how alone you feel, no matter what your situation is, there will always be someone who will listen to you and try to help you. Suicide is not the answer, and it isn't an answer to any problem a person may be facing.

I love liquid eyeliner. If I could only wear one make up item for the rest of my life it would have to be liquid eyeliner. If I ever go into work and I haven't had time to put on a full face and I've not applied my normal every day cat eye liner, I have people ask me if I'm feeling okay or just say that I look really different. It's unbelievable how much a tiny black flick can make a difference to your appearance! As much as I love liquid eyeliner, liquid eyeliner does not like me. I have been wearing the Supercat eyeliner from Soap and Glory since I was at school, I loved the felt tip liner, and how easy it was to apply. My only issue with that eye liner was that my eyes tend to run a lot. They leak in the summer as I have hay fever and even when it's just a bit too bright outside my eyes are pouring! The cold also effects my eyes, when the wind is that extra bit chilly or super powerful.. I just can't win! I needed an eye liner that stayed in place all day and I have finally found one, the Kat Von D Ink Liner. I had heard really great things about this liner, that it stays in place all day and doesn't budge, which is exactly what I wanted. This liner retails at £16, so I thought I would buy the mini one that came in a set with an everlasting liquid lipstick to see whether I actually liked the product. My gosh, I love this liner. I can go to work all day, having got two buses in any weather, sit at my desk in a stuffy office and rush around town on my half an hour dinner break and it literally will not move. It will not move. The only downside to this liner, is that I think it's dried out pretty quick. I've been using this for just under a month and I am finding it quite hard to get a complete flick out of it now. I also find that due to this, it kind of hurts to apply. It drags the skin slightly which can be a bit painful, but I do believe this is just because the product is nearly out. I will be purchasing the full size liner and giving it ago as the staying power is just what I need!

I was pretty late to the party with Prison Break! I started watching it when I was in Sixth Form, so around 2011 or 2012 and I was hooked at the first episode. I must have watched all of the seasons twice or three times and I was devastated when I reached the end of season four and there was no more to watch. As you can imagine, I was super excited when it was rumoured that Prison Break would be back for another season in 2017 and I was not disappointed when it finally aired - which felt like waiting for forever and a day! I'm not going to spoil anything, but I strongly suggest that if you haven't already watched Prison Break, you should watch it right now! You can purchase the box sets from eBay for a couple of pounds per season. Just watch it, you will not regret it! I am devastated that it is now over, probably forever! I feel like I need fill a void in my life, so if you have seen Prison Break and you can think of any shows I may like, please let me know!

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Thank you for taking the time to read my blog post, it is very appreciated! Make sure to follow so you can see the next time I post! ♥ xo

**Disclaimer: All views, opinions and photos are my own.**