My Top Tips for Christmas Shopping

Hey,

I just thought I would share with you ways I make Christmas shopping easier.

1) If I see something instore before I buy it I will check online to see if I can get it cheaper elsewhere or if there are any deals on.

2) Amazon and other internet shopping sites are my go to for Christmas shopping as I can usually get plenty of ideas from them even if I don't necessarily buy the items off of them sites.

3) I also find that if you are wanting to buy Christmas chocolates for people you may find it better to look on Amazon to buy it in bulk or buy the hampers that they have on there.

4) I also use discount and voucher apps on my phone so that I can by more for my money and get some good discounts on things I wouldn't usually buy for people.

5) The majority of vouchers and coupons I get throughout the year for extra points or money off mainly for Boots I use as I then have more money to spend on Christmas presents.

6) It's never to early to start Christmas shopping especially when the sales are on, if you see something you know someone would like and it's a great price buy it and put it somewhere it won't get ruined or in the way just make sure you don't forget about it. August is the busiest month for Christmas shopping I started mine at the end of August, mainly because I have a lot of people to shop for.

7) Make a budget for each person but make sure it's not a stupid one, I tend to roughly add up all the things I want to buy them then add a little extra so I know I will have enough money for each person.

8) I tend to buy what I can for people then make a list for each person to see if I need to buy anyone anything else I can without going ridiculous and buying too much.

9) I will make a list of Christmas cards I need to buy, then go out and buy them all at once so I'm not having to make multiple trips to the card shop.

10) If you don't have much money don't be afraid to make gifts for people, I looked on pinterest for ideas this year and adapted them to make them my own, this is also the case with gift boxes and bags there are plenty of DIY tutorials and gift wrap ideas if you don't want to spend much money on gift wrapping.

I hope this is helpful, thank you for reading.

Lou

X

Halloween Zombie Look

Hey,

As I am now too old to go trick or treating and the majority of my friends work on Halloween, I don't go to any party so there's not much for me to do. I still carve a pumpkin and put up a few Halloween decorations but I miss dressing up, so I decided that I would put a bit of effort in for all the trick or treaters that come.

I usually do easy and cheap things as I don't want to spend that much money on something not many people will see, but last year I decided I wanted to put a bit more effort in than usual but I didn't decide this until the actual day so I had to think quick on what I could do, so I decided Zombie but there are a lot of things to think about. I already had the clothes side of things sorted I just ripped some of my old clothes that already had holes in.

So the next thing I had to think about was the make up and how I would create the wounds, the majority of people use liquid latex to create this look but I wasn't able to go buy any as I cut it too fine so me and my sister decided we would use PVA glue and toilet roll. This didn't give as good effect as liquid latex would have but it was good enough.

1) I applied white face paint from a cheap Halloween palette then added grey to make my skin look more dead. I then also used the grey with a little black and layered this to contour my face properly so the right areas appeared sunken. So underneath my cheekbones, my jaw line, around my eyes, down my neck in places and my temples.

2) I then gave this a bit of time to dry while I made some fake blood as I only had a small tube. I made this by mixing 1/4 cup of water, 3/4 cup of golden syrup, drops of red food colouring until I achieved the right shade, then I added a drop of blue and green food colouring to achieve a more realistic shade ( keep adding blue and green until you think the shade is realistic enough), to thicken this I then added cornflour until I achieved the thickness I wanted. Then I left this to thicken for about 5-10 Minutes)

3) Whilst the blood was thickening I carried on with my makeup and used grey and black eye shadow to deepen the contour.

4) I then decided where I wanted each of the wounds to go on my face and used a red eye shadow to redden the areas to make them look sore before applying the glue and toilet roll.

5) Once I had decided where I wanted the wounds a applied a thin layer of glue with an old make up brush, then applied small pieces of ripped toilet roll, I applied about 5 layers of each then let this dry. Once this had dried I used some tweezers to make the effect of a cut by pulling part up and away for the skin whilst making sure the edges stayed smooth.

6) When I had received the desired look I started with a dark red face paint to the middle of the wound to give it the effect of being deep and bloody before adding the fake blood. I then reddened to outside of the wound to give it the sore and realistic look. Then came the messy part using the fake blood, I used my finger for this part so it looked more realistic and applied it over the dark red face paint I had applied and I also applied a bit of this around the opening of the wound and around my mouth so it appeared like I had just eaten someone. Then I used the fake blood I already had to drip down from each wound.

7) I then put the clothes I was going to wear and splattered them with blood and applied blood around the tears and underneath them where you could see my skin so there appeared to be more wounds.

8) Finally I backcombed my hair a little to make it appear messy and added any finishing touches I thought I needed.

I hope this has given you some ideas, thank you for reading.

Lou

X

Ps. The good thing about making the fake blood with syrup is that it is edible and you don't have to worry about getting any in your mouth.