Urban Decay Vice 3 Palette

I've been so out of sync with blogging lately, which makes me sad because 2015 was supposed to be my year and it kinda started badly. There's still 11 and a half months to make it my year I guess, I can't believe we're already half way through January! When you guys read this post, I will be fast asleep after being up until about 4am on Sunday morning, I'm going to Newcastle away to support my team, Southampton obviously, but I will be getting back ridiculously late. It's my first away day, trust me to start with the one that's the furthest away possible. Well, you were supposed to be, but blogger failed and this post didn't go up, why do bad things happen to good people?

Anyway, for Christmas my brother got me the Urban Decay Vice 3 palette! I decided not to do a 'what I got for Christmas' post, as I really didn't get a lot, as I usually just get money and giftcards. I know a lot of people hate that but I'm so fussy that it's perfect for me. When I opened this present, I was so so happy! This is my second Urban Decay palette now, and it's everything I ever thought it would be and more. 

 The packaging of this palette is beautiful, most of my palettes are just in a plain black packaging, nothing special. I love how this palette has a metallic tint to it, and it reminds me of an oil spill on a road. The VICE writing on the front just makes the palette, I love the bright green gem like style to it.  A massive bonus about this palette is that the mirror is the same size as the palette so it's actually usable and it stays up on it's own, so using this palette on the go isn't a problem at all. The packaging is sturdy, and it has that really satisfying click sound when you close it, which I think makes it a lot better as I'm not worried that the lid will just fly open at random times. The palette comes with it's own travel bag, which you could store it in, but it's also around the same size as an iPad Mini, so you could use it to store that instead. It comes with a double-ended brush, which I actually haven't tried yet as I like to use what I'm used to, but it feels so soft. 

I've always been a neutrals kind of girl, so when I opened this I was actually pleasantly surprised that it wasn't another neutral palette as I have way too many of them. I wanted something different, with a range of fully wearable colours and this palette just fits that perfectly. Although I may be a little hesitant to wear the greens, blues and lightest pink at the moment, I'm sure I'll get my use out of them eventually. My favourite colours so far have to be Undone, Lucky, Alchemy and Last Sin. I haven't used Freeze yet, but it's such a gorgeous colour, I just don't have the confidence to wear it which sucks. The amount of looks you can create with this palette is endless, it creates some lovely natural looks as well as bolder looks. 

I wasn't surprised about how pigmented the shades are, it's the same as my Naked Basics 2 which is insane. All the shadows I've used so far last all day without smudging or creasing at all, which is great when you have long days at college. They are all easy to blend when applied, and have a gorgeous texture. None of the shades are too shimmery, which is good because whenever I buy palettes they're usually too shimmery and you end up with glitter everywhere. Disaster. 

Truth, Undone, Downfall, DTF

Dragon, Freeze, Heroine, Brokedown 

Vanity, Lucky, Reign, Bobby Dazzle

Alien, Alchemy, Bondage, Sonic

Last Sin, Angel, Defy, Revolver

Overall I am in love with this palette and I don't think I'll be using many others for quite a while! Urban Decay palettes are the best of the ones I've tried and I am now totally convinced to buy all the Naked palettes.

What's your favourite palette at the moment?

A Reflection; How My Blog Has Changed

My Blog Photography (L-R)
January 2014
July 2014
October 2014
December 2014

As it was my blog's 1st birthday not long ago, I thought I'd do a reflection on how my blog has changed over the past year. There have been times when my blog has challenged me, made me want to give up and just feel useless, but it's all been so worth it. I'm finally starting to be happy with how my blog is looking and what my content is like. The main things that have changed are:

Photography and Editing;

This is a massive thing for me. As with most people, my photography has improved massively since I started my blog. I've started to learn how to actually edit my photos properly, and not just change something here and there and hope it looks okay. I feel that I've learnt a lot over the past year just by reading other people's tips on photos and editing. I taught myself that I don't need a flashy camera to take good quality photos, technique is key. Sometimes my photo quality can vary, due to the lack on natural lighting which I absolutely hate, so my next plan is to hopefully buy some studio lights and an actual camera, instead of using my phone.

Content;

Just after starting my blog, it hit me that I actually had no idea what to post. I had no idea what to write about, that I would enjoy and so would others. I had a few posts planned at the start but after that my mind went completely blank. It took my about 6 months to actually start posting properly and more regularly on my blog. Although I feel like I wasted 6 months, I'm glad I wasn't posting content of a rubbish quality that no one would want to read. I want to focus my blog on mainly beauty, with hints of lifestyle and eventually some fashion posts if I can pluck up the courage to do outfit posts. I love to write reviews on products, but I wanted to mix it up with some series, and just other general posts. I created my High End Lusts series, which I loved! I want to start a Top 5 series this year maybe, or a My Collection based one, like PorcelainBeautyx has!

Layout;

When I first started my blog I had no idea about html or graphic design at all really. I'd installed a theme on my Tumblr before and that's about as far as I went, so at the start my blog layout was pretty basic and to the best of my abilities. I always knew that I would never have time to learn enough html to design my own layout, and wanted someone to do it for me so that it was absolutely perfect and I wasn't going to lose my blog for days because I'd done something wrong. Serena from Pretty Wild Things designed my blog for me. I'm so much happier with my layout now, it's so simple and clean looking. I also now have a proper banner and a blog button, which I love as it's so easy to link to my blog. I'm not saying that I'll never change my layout again, because I can get bored easily, but I'm pretty happy right now.

Posting Regularly and Schedules;

As I said, when I started my blog I didn't actually know what to post, when to post and how to fit it all in really. I really struggled with trying to get things posted at the start. After reading many people's tips on blogging regularly and how to keep posts flowing I learnt a few things. Keep a notebook of blog ideas on you at all times, you never know when you'll get an idea and want to jot some notes down. Take blog photographs in blocks, even if you don't end up posting about all the things you've photographed, at least you've got them there. This helped me cut down time a lot as if I was in a blogging mood I had photos there and ready to go, and you can't always rely on the lighting to be good when you want to post. That is literally the burden of my life. Lighting. I now aim to post every Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. Although this doesn't always happen, I do try, I'm only human. If you post everyday I literally bow down at your feet please teach me your ways.

Have you recently hit a blogging milestone or birthday?

My Blog Is One!

Image Source: GoodFon

This post is actually a little late, but I've been under the weather for a few days, so I've only just got round to writing it! On the 1st of January 2014, I started writing my blog on perksofbeingami.blogspot.co.uk. It was a new hobby, something I actually thought I'd get bored of very quickly and never even look at again. It's now 2015, a whole year on, and what a year it's been. Blogging has introduced me into a whole new world, I've made some amazing friends, and had some great experiences all from my little space on the internet; which by the way I now actually own! Last month I bought my domain, so as you probably know I'm now writing on perksofbeignami.co.uk. Like wow, this is something that I'd never actually thought would happen.

Blogging is the only hobby I've actually ever stuck to. The only thing that's actually interested me long enough to keep me going for a whole year. Except football, but football is my life so that doesn't count right? Looking back over the past year in my last post, here, made me realise what a good year 2014 actually was for me. If anyone asked me before writing that post how my year was, I would've said it was awful and I couldn't wait for it to be over, and yes I had bad points, but I actually achieved so much. Most of my highlights linked back to me starting my blog which is amazing. I actually started my blog after having a themed instagram account @perksofbeingami, I'd seen other girls start blogs after having their instagram accounts, and read a lot of blogs in the past so I just thought why not!

My blog introduced me to Twitter, this may seem a weird concept but without Twitter I wouldn't have met 5 of the best friends I could ever ask for Alice, Amy, Karis, Tanya and Mandy. I may have only met them 6 months ago, but they really are the best. Meeting people of the internet isn't all bad. Twitter also introduced me into another way to be addicted to football, I have an account which is full of football, to keep it away from my blog account to prevent spam. You can find it here if you're actually interested. Through this account I have met a friend for life, he's the reason I have a signed shirt and have met basically all the Southampton FC players and I literally just booked my first away day because of him! How exciting! What a tangent to go off on, but as I said they all link back to my blog some how. I seem to link a lot of things to football, I guess you all love that somehow.

I'm going to stop waffling otherwise this post will be thousands of words long, but blogging has really given me my own little space that nobody can ever take away from me. My blog has progressed so much in the past year, and I will be sharing that progression in a later post, but I just wanted to say thanks to everyone that's supported me over the past year. I just reached 700 followers, which for a year of inconsistent blogging, with about 12 blogging breaks is an amazing achievement to me! I'm literally so shocked that people actually want to read things that I write. 

Blogging has changed my life completely, and although I spend a heck of a lot of time on my blog, it's all so worth it at the end of the day. I've been introduced into a world full of people who will always be there to talk me into that item of makeup or clothing that I don't need but really want. God help my bank balance. The blogging community is wonderful place, and I'm so glad I jumped in. Here's to many more years of blogging!

Over The Past Year..

2014 has been an eventful year, a complete rollercoaster to be honest. It's definitely had it's good points, but also a lot of bad points.. I can't believe that it's the end of 2014, hopefully 2015 will be better. During the year I have achieved a lot, had a few high points, and learnt a lot along the way. I wanted to make a collage of my high points of last year, and it's made me so happy to look back on them.

My 2014 highlights:

• I started my blog, and have achieved many blogging milestones.
• I met the most amazing people I could ever ask for through my blog and attended some great blog events.
• I got through school, and came out with pretty good GCSE's considering my attendance was about 50% for the last 3 years. It's safe to say I hated it.
• I showed my little munchkin Bailey, and came out with some amazing results.
• In the space of two weeks I met almost every player from the Southampton Football Team.
• Playing county rugby, and going on tour to Cardiff with my district club, and meeting Leigh Halfpenny. (I have now severely sprained my ACL and cannot play sport for at least a year)
• Seeing Southampton beat Sunderland 8-0. Yes I'm obsessed with football.
• I met my boyfriend, and making a kind of long distance thing work for nearly 6 months, and counting.
• I finally got back into riding horses and have come so far and learnt so much in the past year.

Things I learnt in 2014:

• If people are dragging you down, let them go. 
• Life's too short to try and please everyone, live your life for you and the people closest to you.
• Meeting people off the internet isn't such a bad thing, it's actually pretty cool.
• You have to learn to love yourself before you can believe that anyone will love you.
• It's okay for someone to not like you.
• Not everything will work first time, if it's not working out, take a break and come back later.

I hope you all had an amazing year and achieved everything you wanted to. If you didn't good luck for 2015, and I hope it's a great year for everyone!