How to Rock Girls Night like Ellie & Emma

You guys remember Emma, right? My wonderful flatmate who is the biggest shopping enabler ever, makes the best veggie stir fry going and occasionally but unintentionally dresses like a minion. Well every week - usually every Thursday, but today is Emma's birthday (HAPPY BIRTHDAY EMMA) - we have girls night, where we drink wine, wack on a face mask and have a good lol. Having a night just once a week, when you truly get to pamper yourself and forget about the stresses of uni, is super refreshing, and the perfect solution for a nice, chilled, anxiety-reducing evening. I think we've mastered the girls night routine now, so here's a step-by-step guide on how to rock a girls night like the pros.

1. paint your nails. What's girls night without a good manicure? Thanks to Emma's vast collection of polishes and my refusal to be seen in public without painted nails, this is a vital step in our evenings, never mind how bad I am at it. A polish that I'm loving at the moment is 570 Vixen by Revlon. It's a gorgeous dark berry shade; the ideal winter colour, and, as Emma puts it, "very Ellie." As a lover of all things glittery, Emma chose the Barry M Boots Limited Edition Nail Paint in Mystic Purple. And while your at it - if you're of age of course - why not pour yourself a glass of wine? Perhaps in your designated smiley face glasses, if you wanna replicate us to the max. 

2. put on a face mask. Every time I put on a face mask, I feel well and truly pampered. Our face mask of choice at the moment is L'Oreal's Pure Clay Purity Face Mask, which (unfortunately) isn't as Shrek-green as it looks. This is a great one for purifying skin plagued with spots after eating all the chocolate - which we do quite a lot. My skin always feels super fresh and clean after using it, and lovely and smooth. 

3. watch some netflix. While the face mask sets, we usually turn to our good friend Netflix for some TV or a good film. Past girls nights have featured The Notebook, Brooklyn 99, and we also love some Buzzfeed Unsolved over on YouTube, but since Riverdale's return we usually stick on the latest episode. Side note: anyone watching Riverdale? Not quite sure how I'm feeling about it now. Season 2 seems to have gone quite down-hill imo, and I see it as more of a guilty pleasure show nowadays. Still love Cole Sprouse though. Anyway, back to girls night...

4. skin care. After the face mask have done their job, we take it off with warm water and a muslin cloth, and then it's time for skin care. I was very kindly gifted a lot of Benefit skin care products for Christmas, so this is now our go-to stash. The Total Moisture Moisturiser gives the skin that extra boost of smoothness, so after the face mask too, it feels amazing. After that, a little of the Instant Comeback Face Serum pressed gently into the most troublesome areas goes a long way. I think my favourite thing from the set I got is the It's Potent Eye Cream. I get quite dry under eyes, so this product in all it's moisturising glory is a life saver. You will look like a bit of an oily disco ball after all of these products, but it's 100% worth it, and they all smell gorgeous too. 

5. music & chit chat. We're both massive music fans. We have 3 concerts lined up in the next three months and I can't wait for any of them. So rounding off the evening with a nice relaxed playlist is ideal. We tend to just lie on my bed, having a good ol' gossip, watch some Lonely Island sketches, and have some music in the background. I'm a big lover of making Spotify playlists - I have one for every occasion - so here are some of my favourites for girls night: 

And that's how to rock girls night like Ellie & Emma. A big thank you to Emma for taking some of the photos for this post, hope you have an awesome birthday with me. 

From, 

Eleanor

p.s. I don't think any of these products are cruelty free. I received them as gifts or had them before I made the switch to just cruelty free makeup and skin care, but I'll be sure to replace them with cruelty free dupes once these products run out. If you are interested in cruelty free makeup, here's my everyday cruelty free edit. 

p.p.s I think I just set the record for how many times you can say "cruelty-free" in one paragraph.