My new brogues!

Good morning! Yes this is actually a post centred all around my new brogues! They are beautiful! I feel like I could just stare at them for ages, yep I'm still talking about shoes...

I had been wanting some shoes like these for a while and decided to skip the cheaper lookalikes and went for some (hopefully) long lasting clarkes brogues. They are so well made and designed to be really comfortable. The padding is amazing, it almost feels like slippers! And I'll be honest I love the little shoe heel they have, because it makes that really satisfying clipclop sound when I walk. You can get them from here. I'm thinking of acquiring some more of their beautiful designs, as they come in a range of colours and slightly altered designs, (perfect for a shoe fanatic like me!).  Anyway enough chatter from me, here are a few images, enjoy!

And so, here we come to the crux of the post the quick shoe review!

Style: Well these shoes are so versatile! I've worn them with so many different outfits already, I should really upload some pics in a new post about my favourite outfits I have centred around my brogues #inspiration.  I've worn these with a dress to get a cute girly look. I've worn them with green jeans, a striped top and blazer for a preppy look, and possibly my favourite outfit is the one I wore for work, the brogues, cropped patterned grey trousers, an oversized blue shirt and white jumper, this gave the shoes a really good tomboy style. If your wanting to make an impact with your style, these can do that, but they can also be toned down if your  not looking to do that, but still love the shoes.

Durability/wearability: These shoes are surprisingly durable, they haven't worn down and I haven't even needed to do a bit of shoe polishing yet! I found it has taken a while to get them broken into, but now they have they don't appear shabby like some shoes tend to go. If anything they just look like they have more character.

Comfort: As I have already mentioned, these shoes are very comfortable. Especially for people like me who tend to pull the padding of their feet. I have noticed though that if I wear these with thin socks they rub a bit, however if I wear no socks or thick socks they don't so that's not particularly an issue!

Compliments: These shoes get so many compliments from people I decided to add this as a new quick shoe review category. Even the students in the school I work at think they look great!

I hope this review may have helped anyone looking to get some women's brogues, thanks for reading!

Charlotte x

NB: All of these opinions are my own.

Outfit of the week #2 - White Floral Dress

Its really starting to feel like summer now! I checked the weather today and its supposed to be hot and sunny all week! Yesterday I spent the majority of the day in the garden practising my photography skills and reading. It was a wonderful day, and during the day I realised I wanted the outfit I was wearing to be my outfit of the week; my white floral dress bought last year toward the end of summer. Due to when I bought it I wasn't able wear it that much, so I was thrilled at the chance to wear it in the hot balmy weather.

Dress - Last years summer collection dress at new look. 

Hat - My Granddads (he left it by accident!)

Footbed Sandals - Next £20 (a great cheap alternative to Birkenstocks)

Watch/activity monitor - Misfit wearables, Misfit shine. Amazon £64.67

I had a lot of fun doing this shoot, all of the photographs were taken using a tripod and self timer on my Nikon D3100. There were a lot of mishaps; blurry images or me not being in the right place or too much light making me pull weird faces! The ones I chose were the better quality images, however I still think some of them could be better focused, and definitely better posed! I felt a bit more comfortable taking these photographs than last time, as there was no one around but me, however I still felt uncomfortable looking through them and editing them, hopefully like I've seen other bloggers say, it will become more natural.

p.s In some of these photos I tried my best to have a straight face, but as I've mentioned before I have a bit of a resting bitch face so I'm not really that mean... its just my face!

Charlotte x

Outfit of the Week #1 Mom Shorts!

Happy Monday everyone! Hope you all had a lovely weekend, and if you were working this weekend I'm sorry.

This is a first for me on Charlotte Emma, I'm doing an outfit of the week post! I decided to do it on Monday instead of Sunday, honestly because I had another post planned already for Sunday. However I'm now glad I did because it's the start of the new week and to me the perfect time to reflect on the week passed. (I know Sunday is technically classed as the start of the week, but to me Monday is).

I would just like to apologise for the distinct lack of photographs, I don't know about you but I find it very awkward getting someone else to take pictures of me posing on the street for outfit photographs, so there aren't many! Hopefully as I get used to doing this I will feel more comfortable, but for the moment you'll just have to put up with my shyness! You can probably tell from my photographs that I look a bit uncomfortable, and I know a lot of bloggers that take these kind of photos don't always smile at the camera, but I just couldn't help it, plus I tend to have a bit of a resting bitch face so I just look moody in photographs when I'm actually trying to look aloof or something!

 Yep! I really am that awkward!

I was actually talking when Owen took this, thankfully I look more natural without a moody face!

This was incredibly awkward to pose for! I just really wanted to mix it up a bit, plus I suppose it provides some humour which is good! 

 It was so windy! I swear whenever we get beautiful weather in the UK, its tainted with crazy gusts!

Mom Shorts - New Look

 (They don't have the same ones I had but the link is for some similar).

Ombre Vest top - Tesco 

(Again they don't have the vest top online, but they may have it in store in the sale maybe?)

Kimono - New Look 

(They have a huge selection of Kimonos online, just not this one anymore!)

Converse - Schuh 

Bag - New Look

I actually bought these Mom shorts last summer from new look, but didn't wear them very often because they were a bit big for me. They only had a size 10 and I'm normally a size 8 but when I tried them on in store they seemed to fit alright. I swear this happens nearly every time I try on clothes, they feel fine in store and then, when I actually wear them in real life they feel completely different! However I thought in the spirit of summer I would try them again and lo and behold! They fit perfectly! I was so happy I knew I had to make them part of my outfit of the week, plus they look great on so that's another reason!

I fell in love with these shorts because they honestly do remind me of some my mum used to wear when I was a kid, they were only for walking around the house or sitting in the garden but I remember I used to think how great they looked on her, (This is probably the first my mum is actually hearing of this!). The ones my mum wore were actually just cut off jeans, which is what made them so high waisted, come to think of it I used to have loads of cut off's as a kid because my legs grew so often! This is one of the things I love about style, eventually it comes back around, it's just a matter of waiting. Although now I may never get rid of my clothes just in case they come back in style!

What's your outfit of the week?

Charlotte x

Everyday Makeup Style

After coming across lots of make-up style posts whilst reading through my feed on bloglovin I decided that this would be my next blog post, I love that time in the morning when I take time for myself and don't have to stress about anything whilst I'm doing my make-up. So! this is what my everyday make-up style and routine consists of:

Base:

•  The main base i use at the moment is a Nivea rich moisturising day cream. I tend to suffer from really dry skin so this is perfect for making sure its hydrated and soft, another reason why I use this cream the most is because i have really sensitive skin, especially on my face and this is made especially for people with sensitive skin and I can tell you now it works a treat. I put it on every morning even if I'm not wearing any make-up or even going out and it really helps to brighten my complexion and works as a great base to keep my make-up on most of the day. 

• Quite recently I've also found myself using a loose translucent powder on my face before any other make-up in place of foundation. I've never been a really big fan of foundation anyway and find it very hard to find one that matches my pale skin without making me look like a ghost so if I do feel the need to use anything like that I usually opt for a BB cream or a tinted moisturiser. However most of the time my Rimmel match perfection loose powder is able to give my face that overall coverage that brightens and gets rid of shine without feeling like I have an extra layer on my face and blocking my pores. I'm so pleased i made the switch from using products such as foundation and even the lighter BB creams and tinted moisturisers to the loose powder, I've definitely noticed a huge change in my complexion, it's massively reduced the amount of blemishes I get, my face hardly ever breaks out any more and its just generally brighter and clearer which has definitely boosted my confidence enough to not wear any foundation ect. It was really hard to stop 'covering up' my face to begin with as it made me feel quite exposed, but after sticking with it I feel much better about it, because now instead of using products to 'cover up' my skin I use them to enhance it. 

Cheeks:

• I don't really tend to use traditional blushers, usually to save money and time i just quickly dab up my cheek bones with my Rimmel colour rush lip balm in "on fire" and blend in across the cheek. I really love the way that the balmy texture of the colour rush lip balm blends into my cheeks and creates an effortless dewy look which helps my face look fresher and more awake. 

Lips: 

• Funnily enough the lip stick i usually adopt on a daily basis is the Rimmel colour rush lip balm in "on fire" again! coincidence or what!? I love the peachy pink colour of this lip balm, its basically a more vibrant and all round better version of my actual lip colour so it works really well as a natural looking lip. Also as mentioned above the balmy texture is great for creating a fresh dewy look and it also helps to keep lips from getting chapped and sore which is a massive bonus, especially as i find a lot of drug store lipsticks dry lips out more than anything. 

Eyes: 

• To get rid of under eye circles i use a combination of the MUA pro base CC palette  and the soap and glory trick and treat dark circle concealer. I've always had a big problem with dark circles under my eyes, even when i get plenty of sleep I still have them, so its likely they are genetic in which case i just have to try and cover them up which is why I was delighted when I found the MUA CC palette. The yellow section is perfect for neutralising dark purple shades under the eyes which is the one I use the most, and it does a really good job of neutralising the purple tones but then my under eyes just look yellowy which is where the soap and glory dark circle concealer comes in. Its great at covering up the dark circles too but doesn't last as long on its own because its quite watery in consistency. The pigmentation is really good at blending with individual skin tones as well, because at first glance it looks too dark for my pale skin tone, but when i blend it in it matches quite well with my skin and thankfully doesn't make it obvious I'm using under eye concealers. 

• For my eye shadow I pretty much always wear purple, as it is known to compliment green eyes and I love the colour purple! again I use a bit of a combination of two different eye shadow products to help the colour last longer and keep it vibrant. As a base colour I use superdrug's own brand cream eye shadow in royal, although after looking for a link to the eye shadow in that particular colour on the superdrug website, it doesn't look like they actually do it any more, I'll have to check in store and get back to you on that one. The creamy texture of this eye shadow is perfect for loading powder eye shadow onto to improve colour as well as wearing, especially as the pigmentation isn't particularly vibrant in the first place. The powder eye shadow I use is the Rimmel glam'eyes quad eyeshadow in smoky purple. I love a good smoky eye, even for an every day look so this is my go to eye shadow palette. The range of shades are lovely and work really well for an effective smoky eye. In the image of the palette the one with hardly any left is the one I use to sweep across the entire lid, i then use the shade across from it to highlight the inner corner and outer corner, the really dark shade I don't use very often as its not really an every day shade but if I did I would use it in the outer corner and in the crease. 

• I use three different eye liners on my eyes, all different colours and useful for different things! The first eye liner i use is a Rimmel scandal eyes kohl in nude which I use to make my eye look bigger and me more awake by applying it to the bottom waterline. I then use a regular Rimmel brown kohl pencil to again make my eyes appear bigger by applying it under my waterline on my lower lash line and blend it slightly for a smoky effect, i use the brown shade as it isn't so harsh looking for every day wear and really dark liner highlights dark circles. The final eye liner I use is the scandal eyes eye liner pen in black, which I apply to the lash line and just above the lash line on my eye lid, this is really good for precision and creating a cat eye look. 

• And finally the mascara i use is a fairly new one, I only bought it a few weeks ago after seeing some good reviews on it, also I really wanted to try out a mascara with argan oil in. Shockingly its another Rimmel product (cant seem to get enough of them!) and i have to say it does work really well. I usually give my upper lashes a quick coat of this and then use the end of the brush to focus on the outer corner of my lashes to open my eyes up a bit. I also give my lower lashes a quick coat of this but only the ones closest to my outer corner otherwise I might risk highlighting my under eye dark circles and who wants that? 

What make up do you use on a daily basis? any of the same ones? which is your favourite drug store brand? comment below :)

Charlotte x