Life. Happenings and Oh Lordy 5 weeks until London.

It feels like yesterday that I decided to move to the other side of the world. It felt like such a straight forward thing way back in ?? when I decided to go. People kept telling me (and still do really) how brave I was to go, and to go it alone. To be honest though, it doesn't feel brave, it just feels right. As if I am meant to do it. Since I made the big decision, everything that I have needed to happen has happened and although I am starting to get a little breathless when I think about actually leaving, I am not terrified or nervous. I am grateful, excited, overwhelmed, impatient, joyous and in a state of disbelief that it is actually happening. But it feels right. 

I am good at making big life decisions, but hopeless at waiting for them to happen! I have been in this strange limbo for a couple of weeks, where it's almost like half of me has already gone and I'm out there somewhere waiting for myself to catch up. I have loads to do between now and leaving, but if I do it all now, I'll just end up going mad waiting to get on the plane. So, I am putting off things like packing up the rest of my room and renewing my license. I have been doing my best to keep busy, but teaching work has been light on the ground this month, and there are only so many things you can do in my town!

I had an amazing weekend not long ago with all my family and some close friends. It was an early farewell party at my Aunts house. It was such a fun and relaxed night, but the next day and having to say goodbye to some family I probably wouldn't see again before I left was hard. I guess I hadn't thought about how difficult saying goodbye to people might be and how sad I felt really shocked me. I'd have it together for a minute and then just the thought of saying goodbye to my mum and sister sent me over the edge again. The airport is going to be tough but also so exciting as well; lots of emotions to process. My sister has basically decided that I can't leave, or that if I do I am to come back pretty quickly.

I planned on doing a photo tour of all my favourite spots near where I live today, but it has come over all overcast and cold. I might head to my favourite hangout and chill with spicy chai and a book instead.

33 days....

xx Samantha Alice

Pretty. 60 Second Outfit of the Day.

Ok. I know. I've been absent again after saying I'd be posting more often. I have all the best intentions, but I just haven't been feeling it of late. It's frustrating, but whatever, I'm here now. More importantly, I'm here with something a little different than usual. I'm a little youtube obsessed of late, something about the format just feels so accessible or something.  And with that in mind, I've made a quick little outfit of the day video. I plan on doing some vlogging around moving to London, so I wanted to start making some little videos now to build up my confidence. I hope you all like it...

xx Samantha Alice

Pretty. Winter Favourites.

So Spring is definitely here in Australia and the weather is really starting to warm up. I am basically pretending it is Summer already as I will be missing out on a real Summer (not that I mind missing 40C days and insane humidity!). Lucky me, I get two Winters this year, albeit one far more extreme than the other.

I thought rather than doing a month by month favourites I'd fill you in on a few things I was hooked on over winter, though they are pretty much still in high rotation!

1. My favourite body wash was Bathox Dry Skin Milk and Honey body wash. I cannot possibly convey how amazing this smells. Winter was a month in which I basically stopped eating sweets, and this became my sort of daily sugar fix. It smells like rich and yummy caramel sauce  and leaves the skin smelling oh so nice. Plus it is moisturising and managed to stop my legs turning into scaly ickyness over winter.
2. For foundation I have been flicking between my long term favourites, Bourjois Healthy Mix Serum (read my review here) and Garnier BB Cream for those days when I want a light coverage that just evens out my skin tone.
3. Pretty sure I found my holy grail mascara. By complete accident I found Rimmel's Day2Night mascara and I haven't used anything else since. I hate, like really hate, volumising mascaras. I think they make my lashes look clumpy and awful, so I tend to veer towards lengthening products, but even then I am not always that happy with the result. This is one of those gimmick products that claims to do both (it has two lids that when removed leave a different amount of product on the brush) but I only ever use the lengthening part. It has the perfect amount of product on the brush, leaves my lashes separated and long and holds a curl really well. I am seriously in love with this!
4. I didn't realise what a difference makeup brushes could make until I got my hands on some amazing ones. Obviously the Real Techniques brushes are not new, but they are relatively new to me! They were recently launched in Australia but the price was so ridiculous I ended up getting them from iHerb (highly recommend this store!) I got the Core Collection which of course has the much coveted Buffing Brush but the other brushes have been amazing also. Using my two favourite foundations with the Buffing Brush makes my skin look amazing and pretty much halves the time I spend on my makeup. 
5. With my oily skin a constant problem, I do tend to lose any powder eye shadows pretty fast, so I was excited to try the Maybelline Colour Tattoo cream eyeshadows to see if they would last longer. These shadows are a great consistency, though a little goes a long way and you need to blend fast before they dry. When they do dry though, they do not budge until I take my makeup off. I got the colour tough as taupe because I thought it would be a good matte base shade and I love the colour. It errs towards purple unlike some brownish toned taupes which I like. It is also one of the only matte colours they have released. I want to try the others but can't justify it right now!

xx Samantha Alice