'Tis The Season

Well hello there,

I'm just going to apologise in advance for all the christmassy goodness I am about to obsess over! 

Although I have just spent the weekend at Brisnova I'm going to leave the PT2 of the supanova experience until Thursday, are you excited? 

So today I'm going to let you all in on a little secret... I LOVE CHRISTMAS! More than most normal people! It is my most favourite part of the year by far.  I'm not 100% sure why but I'm always happy over christmas ridiculously stressed but happy.  

Although there are numerous things I love about christmas there are still things I don't like.  Nothing in general really about the holiday itself, mostly about the weather and what that brings with it.  I hate summer for the most part, don't get me wrong though I like beaches and pools but I never go to them when its hot and air-con is ridiculously expensive! Mostly though, I hate that I mainly watch you-tubers that are in the Northern hemisphere and are now coming into winter, it's not fair at all! All I want is to burn a candle and wear a cute christmas sweater.  I want to be able to bake til my hearts content without dying of heat exhaustion! If only I could afford to move to Europe I would be much happier! I'll always want for a white christmas, maybe I should ask Santa!

That is however all I dislike about Christmas, I love the holiday, I love the decorating! I love the family time and I love the time off. I love the carols and the Christmas shopping.  I love the presents and mostly I absolutely love buying for others, I don't know why but I love the excitement coming up to christmas, I always have.  The unknowing suspense of them opening the present.  Today in the shopping centre I saw a little girl writing her list for Santa, how adorable! I do miss being a kid at christmas time, but that doesn't mean I don't have as much fun as I used too, I think I have more fun!  Decorating is one of my favourites, you can never have to many decorations! I have already put my tree up, and next Monday is my work christmas party, so I have decided my post next Monday will be about all the little christmas goodies I'm going to bake and make! Be ready for a few cute Christmas recipes!! 

Anyway guys, I won't bore you any further with christmassy goodness! What's your favourite part about christmas? Do you like it as much as me?

See you Thursday!!

Until Next Time

BrittanieDe-Ann xoxo

SUPANOVA Pt.1

Evening my beautiful little reader,

Firstly I am so incredibly sorry I didn't post on Monday, I was so overly exhausted from cleaning my house for an inspection and figured one Monday wouldn't make a difference (please forgive me). Secondly, I am actually one reader off 500 views on this wonderful blog of mine and I couldn't be more thankful! I honestly really enjoy writing this blog and every view makes me incredibly happy! Thirdly, did anyone see Gotham this week?? Oh My Goodness, Bruce and Selina are finally working together again! Lastly, Supanova is upon us! I am so incredibly excited for this weekend! Also, next Thursdays blog will be the Pt.2 of my Supanova experience! 

To say I am excited for supanova this weekend is definitely an understatement! I cannot wait to cosplay with my partner as Black Widow and Captain America especially considering the trailer for civil war has just been released! I did however spend the last week debating whether or not I wanted to melt in my Black Widow bodysuit or just regular clothes and I figured why not go for one day in my bodysuit considering it is my first and only chance this year to actually cosplay and I have been so pumped for so long!

I have also decided that Saturday I will be cosplaying as a very very casual Harley Quinn, nothing too fancy but I will be wearing my Harley tights and my Chibi wig from Arda wigs with a real dark smokey eye and red lips! I chose this purely because I have organised a few mini photo shoots and I'm super excited for them and wanted something quite simple and comfortable to wear and on Sunday I will just be wearing nice comfy clothes cause I have to drive back home and didn't want to have to change! 

If I had to choose what my I'm most looking forward to this weekend, I would have to say both meeting Matt Nable and Michael Rosenbaum and also I'm super excited to meet all the incredible cosplayers and get the chance to photograph them and learn from this great experience! Hopefully I'll get a few good shots and maybe get my name out there as a photographer! I'm also super excited to catch up with some good frends of mine and go see the last hunger games movie! Yay for an awesome weekend! 

Anyway guys, 

I'll talk to you again on Monday, expect a Christmas related post and for Thursday expect more Brisnova stories!

Until Next Time

BrittanieDe-Ann xoxo

EZCosplay Review

Evening Guys,

I find myself mostly blogging at night? Is that strange? Oh well, moving on.

Today's post is going to be a review of the Black Widow outfit I bought from EZCosplay.  Now I just want to say first and foremost this is my opinion on my experience and I honestly hope everyone else had a much better experience than I did. 

Roughly four months ago my partner and I decided it was only fitting to cosplay while attending Brisbane Supanova, so as we are definitely beginners we opted to buy our costumes.  I searched online far and wide checking prices, availability and reputations, I eventually came across an awesome costume from EZ Cosplay.  Now I had heard good things about this company and their products however I still initially balked at the price.  Converting the cost to AUD I found the price was approximately $330 including shipping.  I asked everyone I knew for their opinion, (is it worth it?) I'm not a big spender at the best of times so spending $330 on a costume really wasn't something I would do.  But considering it is something I could wear basically endlessly, eventually I was so excited that my partner and I decided it was a great idea, the costume looked great, honestly what could go wrong?

Apparently a lot; although there are a few positives.  Surprisingly the package did arrive sooner than I thought it would turning up just 10 days after ordering well packed and not damaged at all, however that's where the good seems to end.  Firstly when trying it on I found that they hadn't actually used the right measurements to make the bodice and thus giving me a wedgie whenever I put the bodysuit on; speaking of putting it on, that could not be done alone, I had to have my partner help me in and out of the costume simply because the bodice wasn't actually long enough for me to maneuver.  Secondly as I was hanging the bodysuit on the hanger (the second time I touched it) one if the teeth of the zip broke off causing the slider to come off one side.  While trying to fix this I found the slider was actually extremely frail and broke quite quickly causing me to have to buy a new zip to replace the slider.  Lastly the legs were ridiculously shaped, instead of being the measurements of my calf they basically fell from the measurements of my thighs straight down to my ankle causing a mass amount of bunched material when trying to put on my boots.

Getting back to the few positives, when I emailed the company they did reimburse me $15USD to fix the zipper, apologized to me, however did not take any responsibility for the mix up of measurements.  Luckily later that week I was given the name by a friend, of a lady near me who is a wonderful seamstress and all round lovely lady who in her own time lengthened the bodice, took in the legs and fully replaced the dodgy zipper for me, all for a mere $50AUD.  Without the help of this wonderful woman I would have been an absolute mess. I can not explain to you how distraught I was, this was my first ever cosplay and I was super excited all for it to be a major let down, I spent an incredible amount of my hard earned money on something that I probably could have made myself.  To say I was disappointed was an understatement. 

BeforeAfter

As I said at the beginning of this post, this was just my experience with the company and I hope to god yours may be 100 times better.  Although I will never be buying anything from this company again, it has also completely put me off buying costumes online at all. So please, if you are going to buy online try and make sure you are buying from a highly reputable source who you know has good products, cause I would never wish this experience upon anyone new or old to the art of cosplay.


Anyway my lovelies, thank you so much for once again reading!

Until Next Time
Brittanie De-Ann xoxo

Blogilates and My Journey

Evening my loves. 

Today's post is going to be once again a bit more personal, however it is also going to be a sort of review.  Today I am going to talk to you about my battling weight loss Journey and the difference Blogilates has made for me.

For starters, if you are not familiar with Blogilates it started off as a wonderful lady named Cassey Ho posting inspiring exercise videos on YouTube in the form of Pilates but put to music and has now generated into one of the biggest online exercise support systems I have found, from weekly YouTube updates to a blogilates downloadable app.  I found Blogilates in the Winter of 2012 and I haven't looked back since. 

In 2012 I was a young 17 year old girl; innocent, naive and bullied.  I had a crush (yes one of those stories) and he was a complete jerk, but for two whole years I doted on every word he said, every conversation we had I held deeply.  I was stupid. He and his friends would tease me, under their breathe they would comment about my weight.  One day they even said it to my face, that was the day I changed.  I spent hours in my bedroom crying, I honestly hadn't realised I was that big; but I was.  

I made a decision that day, I wanted to show them what I could really look like, how beautiful I could really be.  Now, I know how foolish that really was, I never again want to change myself for any one person but myself.  I was constantly seeking approval from friends, family, anyone who would congratulate me on my mile stones.  I ate only salads, drank only water and exercised every night, I swam in an ice cold pool in the middle of winter, I did everything I could think of to lose weight.  I had goals, I wanted to lose 20 kg, I did.  Mid year 2012 I found Blogilates.  

I had a love hate relationship with the scales.  To this day I won't use scales, I will never use scales, I believe they are not correct and honestly they put me in terrible moods but that's all for a different post.  I am an extremely sensitive person and stepping on the scale was a horrifying feeling, seeing the scale numbers go down was amazing, I used to run out to my parents and excitedly tell them the news, but if the scale went up I was a ticking time bomb, it was only a matter of time before I exploded into a fit of emotions; anger, sadness, disappointment to name just a few. My poor parents took the brunt of it. My school formal came around and I fit into the size 12 dress I bought, it worked, all the hard work and tears paid off.  That night was amazing, but it wasn't what I wanted.  I realised just how stupid I had been, how naive.  I vowed that I would no longer change myself to please anyone, however I did still continue on with Blogilates.

I took a break for a few months, early 2013 I started again, this time with a different mindset.  Blogilates helped me change, helped shape me into who I am, especially when it comes to my weight.  At the moment I am going through a really difficult time accepting myself and loving my body.  Days are difficult, looking in the mirror is hard, but the support and love through the blogilates community helps me.  The videos put out by Cassey herself help me with my struggle.  I absolutely adore the energy and personality Cassey puts into each and every one of her videos.  She is such a vibrant and happy person, but even she would have her bad days.  Bad days are excepted, they are okay! 

I wish I could personally thank Cassey for the inspiration she has given me to succeed when it comes to not only my weight goals but all my life goals, I can only hope that she may see this post and know just how much she has done for me, and possibly many more like me!

The YouTube videos are for all exercises, from cardio to squats, obliques to arms, so varied you can barely find two the same.  I have made myself a training schedule from bits and pieces from a varied range of videos and I can't wait to start it and see results! 

I would highly recommend Blogilates to anyone and everyone, if your looking to lose weight or just stay in shape, the programs are for everyone.  The community is amazing, and the mentor is inspiring!  

Thank you for reading! Please have a wonderful day and if anyone in this sort of situation or any for that matter need to talk, send me a message on my Instagram or Facebook! I want to help!

Until Next Time

Brittanie De-Ann xoxo

Pink Smokey Eye Tutorial

Hey guys, 

Today's post is going to be my very first makeup tutorial! Today, I found myself playing around with my make up and created a sort of pink smokey eye effect! Very pretty and very simple to replicate if you ask me.  Although this post is predominantly based around my eye makeup, I am going to explain how and what I used for my whole face.

As you can see a lot of my products are savvy products, one of my favourite drug store brands. Although I can not wait to buy higher end make up, Savvy does the trick for now!  So; starting with my face as I always do, (keep in mind I have just washed my face with my body shop products) I first went in with my Savvy primer all over my face, focusing on my cheeks and eyelids.  Following that I took my Fit Me Matte and Poreless foundation on my ecotools domed bronzer brush and applied this once again all over my face making sure to cover down to my neck and into my hairline so I didn't have any of those horrid makeup lines.  I then took my Fit Me concealer in the shade fair and dabbed this on my under eye, taking my trusty beauty blender to then blend this out, lightening up my under eye area.  Taking my Starlet Translucent Finishing powder on my small contour brush I then set my under eye concealer to ensure I had no creases as my under eye creases badly when not set.  I then took my Savvy loose mineral powder on my ecotools foundation brush to set the rest of my foundation to once again set any creases and make sure my makeup didn't run, I always opt to set my liquid foundation with a powder no matter what I'm doing for the day.

Bronzer was next, taking my Savvy mineral baked bronzer on my flat contour brush, I placed this along my contour lines and blending onto my cheeks and also on my temple areas just to warm up my face a bit. Following on with blush, I used my Fit Me blush in medium pink on my domed buffing brush placing this on the apple of my cheeks and sweeping towards the top of my ear.  Next was my Mosaic Jumbo Bronzer on my powder brush and I use this just underneath my jaw line to give the illusion of a thinner neck (smart, I know).  Lastly on my general face makeup I used my Savvy Highlighter on my angled blush brush sweeping a small amount along the top of my cheeks, my chin, the middle of my forehead area and the centre of my nose. 

Now that the face is finished, I moved onto my eyes, using my tapered blending brush I took a small amount of my grey eyeshadow and started blending this fully into my crease adding more colour when necessary, less is more with eyeshadow I find, it's definitely easier to add them remove so I tend to build the colour slowly.  When I was happy with the colour intensity I then moved onto the pink. On a large flat shadow brush I took a small amount of my pink eyeshadow; making sure to tap off the excess I then pat this onto my whole eyelid until once again it was to the colour intensity I desired.  I then went back in with my blending brush to blend out any harsh lines.  Next was my black shaded eyeshadow in the outside corner, this was taken on the same blending brush and in small circular motions gently applied and blended into the crease to approximately the middle of the eye. Very small amounts were taken at a time and once again built up.  Then with my medium flat shadow brush I took my white eyeshadow on the inner corner and my brow bone to highlight the eye.  I then took a very small amount of pink and blended this just under my lower lash line along with a small amount of my white on the inner most corner of my lower lash line.  Once more I went over the whole eye with my blending brush making sure that everything was blended to decrease the possibility of any harsh lines. 

Lastly I went in with my Lash Sensational mascara on my top and bottom eyelashes and with my sparkle grey eyeliner I lined my waterline.  Using my setting spray from BH Cosmetics I gave my face a generous once over and was then good to go on my wonderful lunch date with the girls! 

I really enjoyed this look and think it's definitely one I'll use in the future!  Let me know if you like it and what you think? Hopefully you all enjoy this style of post just as much as I did, if you have any comments, advice or requests feel free to post them below.

Until Next Time 

Brittanie De-Ann xoxo

Gotham Review

Fact: I am addicted to TV Shows.

As of right now I would have to say without a doubt that Gotham takes the top spot.  It is by far my favourite show and hence I'm going to review it for all you wonderful people.  However before I start I have a few announcements I guess.  Firstly I have decided that once a week blogging just isn't enough for me but if I am going to blog twice I figure I have to have some sort of schedule.  So I have decided that Mondays will be my day to posts anything I want, whether it be a personal post or a TV review or even a recipe review and Thursdays will be my day to post a cosplay or beauty related post!  So make sure you watch out for my twice weekly blogs!  Secondly I just want to thank everyone and anyone who reads or views my blog, I never thought I would actually have people wanting to read what I have to say so it really does make me all warm and fuzzy inside.

Now that I've covered that let's get to the good part.  I have been watching Gotham for quite a while now, since it started to be exact and I can not fault it.  There has not been an instant when I found myself not enjoying the show or not wishing for the week to hurry up just so I can sit down and watch the next episode!  Honestly, having to wait a week is the worst! Everything about this show has me in a constant state of awe from the amazing character building to the magnificent atmosphere the town of Gotham seems to uphold.  

Season One was incredible but I find myself even more in love with the second season.  Rise of the Villains has taken on a much darker (who knew it could happen?) atmosphere and I feel like it has really taken on the comic book effect!

I honestly have been thinking about this all day and cannot pick one favourite character, I can however choose a top 3. Those being first and foremost Edward Nygma, James Gordan and Victor Zsasz.  I am currently absolutely loving the portrayal of Riddler, I love that they are basically showing the beginning of each villain and each episode I find myself reaching for my DC Comics Encyclopedia to find which one has been entered into the story line next.  As for James Gordan well he is just ruggedly handsome and an all round good guy and I love what he stands for.  I love that he wants to be good but knows that sometimes bad things have to be done.  And Zsasz, well he's just a badass haha.

Now as for my least favourite character, I once again don't have one I really dislike so I have tried to pick 3 of my lessor favourite characters.  Bear in mind this was extremely tough to do, firstly we have Bruce Wayne, now don't get me wrong I think the actor is doing a fantastic job portraying him, however I do just feel like obviously he is a teenage boy acting on emotions and hormones and it just bugs me that he doesn't see the little things in plain sight.  Secondly I would have to say Barbara Kean, purely because they have strayed so far off the story line of her actual character, however my partner did inform me that Barbara's maiden name wasn't Kean so maybe it's not her?  Lastly I would have to say Tabatha Galvan as I just feel like she has had no character progression but I do hope she gets more in the future. 

I'm really super excited to see where Gotham is heading in the future and I really do hope it has many seasons to come.  The one thing that I am extremely looking forward to is Harley Quinn coming into the story line but that might not be for a while yet.  I'm also excited to see what they do with the Joker story line as that did not play out how I thought it would.  I really did like Jerome! I thought he had great personality and flare!

Anyway guys, I better leave it there or I won't stop writing and that won't be fun!

Hopefully in a few more months I might be able to write a follow up review on my thoughts and hopes for this wonderful TV show. 

Until Next Time

BrittanieDe-Ann

xoxo

Half Skull Halloween Makeup Look

Hey guys, 

Today's post is going to be a kind of tutorial/review of a Halloween makeup look I found on YouTube and re-created. I was searching through YouTube looking for a not so hard Halloween makeup tutorial that I thought I might be able to try and found this Half Skull Makeup Tutorial by Giulia S. It looked pretty awesome, creepy and I hoped it wouldn't be too difficult.  I decided to watch the video a few time to get the rough idea of how to re-create it then started from there.  The video was actually extremely easy to follow and although it didn't have directions I felt like it was pretty straight forward and basic.

Firstly, I thought it would be a good idea to insert my one green contact from Lensvillage in the eye on the same side as the paint, I did this first as I've found that putting contacts in before makeup doesn't irritate my eyes. You can find my review on these contacts Here. I then decided I would style my hair in the particular style I thought might look creepy but also keep it off my face.  Later on I opted to put on my red wig to see how that looked with it. Priming my face was my next step just to make sure I didn't dirty my pores too much.

These were the only products I used to create the skull look, on the right side of my face I just used my normal makeup to create my everyday look. I used my favourite Ben Nye Clown White face makeup for the white sections using two different sized brushes, one for the small precise areas and one for overall coverage and for the black I used my trusty black pencil eye liner with some of my black eyeshadow over the top.  I used my Setting Spray from BH Cosmetics to finish off the look. 

Now lets get into the how's.  Firstly I sectioned my face into two halves using a line of my white straight down the centre of my face and from there I outlined - using my black liner - all of my black sections.  I then went back in with my liner to basically colour in the black areas including a line from the side of the mouth roughly to the dimple of my cheek.  I did at this stage draw in the lines to represent teeth but if I were to do it again I would leave it until after I did the white as it just smudged and I had to go over it again anyway. Moving on, I then went in with my medium sized brush and my white to fill in the remaining spaces (this took a while).  

Once I had finished the white I took my beauty blender and sponged over my white just to take out any harsh brush lines. I then cleaned up any white that may have smudged into the black and set the liner by using a separate small brush and my black eyeshadow. Next came the teeth; boy was this fidgety, it wasn't difficult as such just time consuming.  I took my small angled brush with black eye shadow and lined where I wanted the teeth to be, how far apart etc. 

Once I was happy with that I went over it a little more with the same brush just bringing each tooth to a kind of point as you assume a skeletal tooth would look.  I finished this look off with some of my new lash sensation mascara and continued on with the other side of my makeup as normal.  You honestly have no idea how hard it is to only put makeup on one side of your face until you actually have to do it yourself. Before setting my whole face I made sure all my lines were blended and as I wanted them and the white was nice and bright and I finished it off with a good spray of my BH Cosmetics setting spray.

I am absolutely inlove with this halloween look and I feel the pictures really don't do it justice! I honestly wish I could wear this all day everyday but I don't have a spare hour everyday to make my face like this.  This is definitely going to be one of my go to looks for next Halloween and I hope I can perfect it even further.  The only downfall and yes, there is one, is the fact that when your nose gets itchy you can not scratch it without messing up the makeup and that was not fun at all!

Anyway Guys, I really hope you enjoyed this as much as I did, if you have any questions or comments please do leave them below! Just a side note, I am going to try and push it back to one post a week as I don't want to run out of topics to talk about and I don't want to become a nuisance to anyone reading my blog! Thank you again for all the views, I'm really enjoying blogging and hope to continue it for a while!

Until Next Time

BrittanieDe-Ann xoxo