Holiday Essentials / Summer Reading

I'm an incredibly fast reader so when I go on holiday, although they take up precious suitcase space, I have to take a lot of books. I decided to buy some new books for my holiday this year as I've started to outgrow some of the ones I currently own. Nowadays it's quite old fashioned to read an actual paperback book, but I prefer to have a physical book to read instead of reading on a kindle or something similar. I actually bought all 4 of these books from a seller on eBay and the total cost, including postage, was just over £8 which was amazing. 

The Art of French Kissing by Kristin Harmel

How do you say, 'So many men, so little time,' in French? 

Well, Emma Sullivan can always figure that out later. The point is -- she's in Paris! Which would be great, except that she's stuck doing public relations for one of the hottest -- and craziest -- rock stars on the planet. Making things worse is Gabriel Francoeur, the sexy and stubborn reporter who refuses to believe her when she tells him that her client was just playing Go Fish in that hotel room with all those scantily-clad girls....

But Emma will always have Paris. The City of Light, of romance, of high fashion and of unfathomable varieties of cheese. If a girl can't reinvent herself here, there's no hope! It's time to leave the old Emma Sullivan behind and become someone courageous, exciting, successful. The type of girl who, when faced with a reporter who won't stop asking questions, knows just what to do. After all, they don't call it French kissing for nothing!

The Marriage Bargain by Jennifer Probst

A marriage in name only...
To save her family home, impulsive bookstore owner, Alexa Maria McKenzie, casts a love spell. But she never planned on conjuring up her best friend’s older brother—the powerful man who once shattered her heart. Billionaire Nicholas Ryan doesn’t believe in marriage, but in order to inherit his uncle’s corporation, he needs a wife and needs one fast. When he discovers his sister’s childhood friend is in dire financial straits, he’s offers Alexa a bold proposition.
A marriage in name only with certain rules: Avoid entanglement. Keep things all business. Do not fall in love. The arrangement is only for a year so the rules shouldn’t be that hard to follow, right? Except fate has a way of upsetting the best-laid plans....

A Family Scandal by Zoë Miller

The mystery of rock musician Zach Anderson's tragic death has never been solved and now, twenty years on, renewed media interest in his life has thrown the spotlight on his daughter, fashion model Lucy, and her half-sisters Ellie and Miranda.When the pressures of notoriety and family become too much, Lucy returns to London full of unresolved questions about her father's death while Ellie flees Dublin for the anonymity of New York, and Miranda, desperate to spread her wings away from her family, reclaims her life in Hong Kong.

When their mother falls ill, the sisters return home to face each other and, in doing so, confront the truth about Zach Anderson and what happened all those years ago. But will their love for each other hold them together or tear them apart?

Torn by Casey Hill

Read the clues. Decode the science. Reveal the murderer. That's Reilly Steel's mantra. Find the answers, solve the crime. But the Quantico-trained forensic investigator is finding her skills aren't enough when a ferociously intelligent killer strikes Dublin. The modus operandi is as perplexing as it is macabre. What connects the two seemingly disparate, high-profile victims? Their corpses refuse to give up their secrets and the crime scenes prove a forensic investigator's worst nightmare. Reilly soon suspects that she may be dealing with a killer - or killers - who know all about crime scene investigation. The police are just as frustrated by the crimes' impenetrable nature and it's only when a third murder occurs - equally graphic and elaborate in its execution - that they discover that this particular killer is using a very specific blueprint for his crimes. Who is the killer's next victim, the real target? And what's his endgame?

I decided to choose a mixture of genres so I have a lot of romance but there's also a murder mystery type book. The only title I've ever heard of before is 'The Art of French Kissing' but I don't know if its supposed to be any good. I didn't look at any reviews before buying these books, all I looked for was the blurb and genre. 

Please let me know if you have read any of the 4 books, or perhaps if you'd be interested in me writing a review for them all once I've read them. 

#BeautyDaysOfSummer / Summer Eyes

It's week 4 of the beauty days of summer challenge and the topic today is summer eyes. It doesn't really feel like summer in England yet as our 2 weeks of sun seems to have passed, so I'm basing this post on what I would wear in warm weather, rather than what eye makeup I'm currently wearing.

When it gets hot, like everyone else, I sweat. There's nothing you can do to avoid it. So I try and wear less makeup on my eyes so that there is less makeup to smudge. I can't go without mascara so I still wear that, but I try and wear a waterproof mascara when possible so that it isn't as affected by the heat. I also continue to wear pencil eyeliner in my waterline and lower lash line to define my eyes. However I don't wear liquid liner on my upper lash line because my eyelids tend to get quite oily so there's the risk of the eyeliner transferring itself up my eyes. I don't wear eyeshadow either for similar reasons during summer, but I might wear it on a night if I'm going out when the weather is likely to be cooler. 

At the moment I don't have any specific products that I use on my eyes as I've recently bought some new products to try out. What are your holy grail summer eye products?

#BeautyDaysOfSummer / Base Makeup

During the summer the base for my makeup depends to vary on the weather and what I'm doing so I have 3 products which I currently use.

As you can probably tell from the picture, I love Rimmel products. I don't know why, it's just my favourite brand for most products so quite a lot of my makeup is Rimmel.

On days where I'm going out but it's unlikely that I'll see anyone I know, for example going to the supermarket, I'll wear the BB Cream. It's very lightweight so is good for the days I don't want much coverage or to look like I'm wearing a full face of makeup. I'm slightly disappointed with the colour range as the last time I checked there was only 3 shades available, but you can't really notice you're wearing anything when it's on so having the wrong shade wouldn't matter.

I don't really have an opinion on the Match Perfection, it's the first foundation I bought and is slightly too dark for me, however it does its job but is pretty average. I won't repurchase it but I get it in my makeup draw for after my summer holidays when I need a darker foundation. I would say it is light to medium coverage with quite a dewy finish.

Finally is my current favourite foundation, the Rimmel Wake Me Up Foundation...it's amazing. I've put off buying it for so long as I usually prefer a matte look but since I've been wearing it, it is much less dewy than I thought it would be and provides a good amount of coverage. I still wear a powder with it just to be on the safe side, but I could probably get away without one. 

This is definitely the best base product for the summer that I've found so far from the drugstore but I'd be interested to know which foundations or BB Creams you use.