LIPSTICK | Favourite Winter Lipsticks

I know all that 'seasonally appropriate' colour talk is annoying and boring. If it's snowing outside and I want to wear a coral lip, then I damn well will. However, I have found myself leaning towards certain colours now we're into the colder months. Basically, I'm in love with anything vampy. While I still haven't found my perfect dark red shade, these are a few colours I've been especially enjoying lately (a few may also be in my all-time favourite lipsticks too, but oh well). They're not even all red! The only place I really enjoy colour variety is on my lips, apparently. (Although not brand variety, it would seem, as all but one of these are from Revlon. What can I say? They offer a good colour range.)

REVLON MATTE LIPSTICK IN 'WINE NOT'

I think this colour is discontinued? Or just incredibly hard to find. Either way, I got mine on eBay from a seller overseas and the day it finally arrived was awesome. The wear on this isn't the greatest. I think it was one of the first shades launched in the Matte line so it's a little unforgiving if your lips are really exfoliated and reapplication can be a pain (I guess this is why it was discontinued...). It's a great colour though so I put up with all the palava anyway.

MAC LIPSTICK IN 'TAUPE'

This is my Twin Peaks lipstick. If I'm feeling like channeling a little Sherilyn Fenn, I put this on. It's more brown than it appears in the picture, which may not be everyone's cup of tea. A bit 90s/odd, maybe? That's why I like it though, being a bit drawn to ugly things. It's dark enough that it's not nude but still a bit pink, so I don't feel ridiculous.

REVLON LIPSTICK IN 'CHERRIES IN THE SNOW'

Cool toned raspberry-red that lasts for ages and seems to go with almost anything? That about sums it up. This colour and I go way back; I've loved it for years now. It goes well with any season and looks good whether I'm a bit tanned or my usual ghostly pale self, but I do tend to reach for it more during the winter. 

REVLON LIP BUTTER IN 'RED VELVET'

So good I bought it twice. I'm nearly through two tubes of this lipstick. I keep one at university and one at my mum's house, so wherever I am I'm never without it. I don't particularly care for any other colour in the Lip Butter range and I'm not usually a fan of glossy lips (I have a drawer full of lipgloss that I never even wear. Hate the stuff. I don't even know why I have so much) but this is my love. Deep red that can be sheer or nice and bold, the latter being my personal preference.

OUTFIT | #88

dress (worn as a skirt), sweater: H&M; boots: Clarks; watch: Swatch; necklace: Primark; hair cuff: Topshop

Yes, these are my favourite boots of the season so far. No, I'm not going to stop wearing them any time soon. (Although this love is somewhat necessitated by the fact that I desperately need my beloved River Island chelsea boots reheeled before I ruin them, poor babies. I've worn them to destruction) I did finally get my hands on a pair of Topshop Alexys this weekend, but they're a Christmas present from the mother so I will have to pine over them a while yet. 

Enough melodramatics over boots, let's talk about this dress (though I'm wearing it as a skirt here). I don't wear it nearly enough, despite owning it in black too. It never fails to make me feel pretty fantastic about myself. I know I talk about clothes a lot and tend to be a bit self-depricating but I think (without trying to get too preachy here) it's really important to acknowledge when you think you look good and, for want of a better phrase, own it. If you don't agree with me and you hate what I'm wearing, that's cool too. You can call me arrogant, it's no matter. If I can leave the house in the morning thinking 'Yep, I look great today' then that's enough for me. 

INSTAGRAM | #1

my face, casual; lunch at The Waffle House, Norwich; hazelnut latte perfection

wining and dining for a friend's 21st; even No7 Stay Perfect nail polish chips on my nails; Rocky Road sundae time
mumsy bought me Alexys for Christmas; trademark lipstick marks everywhere; chuffed with my new initial necklace from Primark

I mentioned a few posts back that I'd finally traded in my Blackberry for an iPhone, so of course I've been being an obnoxious asshole and Instagramming everything. I'm not sure if I'll do the whole 'Week in Instagram' thing that a lot of people do, maybe occasionally. My life isn't that exciting guys, soz. 

Plus, if you follow me on Twitter, you'll see all these pictures anyway and that could get repetitive. 

If you do want to follow me on Instagram, my username is @ginenthusiast

OUTFIT | #87

jumper, skirt: H&M; boots: Clarks; lipstick: Revlon 'Really Red'; necklace: River Island

This is the yellow jumper I talked about in a recent post. Isn't she a beaut? It felt kind of good to wear something bright and obnoxious for a change. Plus it stands out nicely against my regular uniform of blacks and greys. I read somewhere once that yellow is a colour that you like less as you get older. I'm picky about what shades of it I like, leaning toward to the mustard over the canary, but I'm still a fan of the odd yellow garment from time to time. 

I had all kinds of potential titles lined up for this post. I know some bloggers like to use song lyrics and calling it 'Black and Yellow' did cross my mind but I figured that would be seriously uncool. My music taste definitely isn't hip enough to go around posting lines from songs I like on here (I'm still loving the Biebs new album, what can I say). There's also the obvious comparison to bumblebees but there are only two things I really hate in this world and that's people who walk too slowly and bumblebees (or wasps, I hate them equally) so that was quickly vetoed. 

OUTFIT | #86

jacket: Forever 21; jumper: Zara; jeans: Topshop; shoes: Converse

It's always a good day when it's cold enough to break out your favourite jumper. I love this Zara knit to death. I'll always regret not buying it in every colour. Boo hoo. If I could wear it every day, I would. It goes with basically everything. I'm not usually a fan of brown but I guess it's autumnal and all of that. Reminds me of falling leaves, who knows. In this instance, I like the brown anyway.

I wore this on Sunday to run some errands. Admittedly, I prefer wearing sweatpants on my weekends, especially when I worked 'til 3am the night before (life of a bartender, eh?) but I had to brave the cold and rain. The number on my new iPhone hadn't been transferred from my old phone properly and drama with useless phone shop staff ensued. I did a bit of retail therapy after that and bought another knitted jumper in H&M, because you can never have too many.