You might have noticed I've been a little bit quiet on social media lately. I've still been posting here twice a week but I've not been updating Instagram regularly, nor have I been tweeting as much as I'd like. Some days I tweet like mad, I'll be constantly chatting rubbish, retweeting competitions, and advertising my own posts and then other days I won't even open the app.
I'm the same with Instagram too, sometimes I upload every day and then I can go a week without posting anything. I used to feel really guilty about this, I'm trying to build a brand and gain followers and I know that if I want to take blogging further I need to be on these platforms a lot, but I just don't have the commitment right now. I've been really trying hard with my 'Instagram theme' lately, its mostly pink with the occasional splash of forest green and honestly I'm in love with it. I've wasted so much of my time comparing my account to other big bloggers and it used to get me down but now I'm really happy with how it looks.
So getting back to how quiet I've been lately on both platforms; Instagram is all about aesthetics, everything is meant to look good, and I get annoyed when I post a photo that doesn't go well with the rest of my theme. Not every part of my life is Instagram worthy and honestly I wouldn't want it to be either. My blog is my place to be a bit more raw, I want my Instagram to be more put together. I don't want to share everything I do online and I really I don't want to post bad quality photos just to get something up so if that means I only post once or twice a week, I'm okay with that.
I don't want my Twitter to be as polished as my Instagram but some days I just don't feel like tweeting or I wont have time. If I'm having a bad day I'm not going to pretend to be all happy online just to have some sort of presence. I've been told time and time again that I need to constantly be sharing my blog posts, bloglovin link and other social media platforms on twitter but really who can be arsed all the time? It's nice to get views but we all know blogging is so much more than getting clicks.
A few months ago I was looking at making this my job. After getting one sponsored post I naively thought I'd be able to quit my job and dive head first into the world of blogging but its bloody hard work. Sometimes I just want to not worry about views and followers and networking and posting regularly. I need to remember that sometimes its okay to take a step back. As much as I love this little space on the internet I will not let it take over my life, I have much better things to be doing than constantly posting to my social media. I won't be giving up my blogging schedule any time soon as its took me a long time to get the motivation to post twice a week however if I do seem a little quiet on my other platforms, I'm not giving up I'm just taking a little break.
Does social media ever get a bit too much for you sometimes? I'd really love to know I'm not alone on this one..
Thanks for reading
x
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So I wear perfume pretty much every day, even to work and I have a few that I purchase religiously. They've probably cropped up in other posts before now but I thought it would be nice to dedicate a separate post to the perfumes I buy and wear the most. So here are my 3 all time favourite perfumes...
Avon Rare Pearls - I'm going to start with the perfume that I've probably been using the most. This little beauty has been my signature scent since I was 15 and I don't think that will change anytime soon. Its strong floral fragrance almost has a boozy scent to it that takes me back to my holidays as a teenager. Although the bottle design has changed over the years the memories that flood back to me when I get a whiff are always the same. Rare Pearls retails at around £13 although it's often on offer.
Avon Little Black Dress - Another budget bottle from Avon, this one retailing at around £8. It has a pretty subtle floral scent that reminds me of celery but in a nice way. The bottle is pretty plain, as are many of the Avon scents but this doesn't take away from its beautiful feminine fragrance. This has been my 'go to' perfume for quite a few months now and I always get asked what I'm wearing when I'm out, I wish I could lie and say its Chanel but I'm a bit too common for a scent like that.
Marc Jacobs Dot - On the other end of the scale completely is Dot. Let's be honest, anyone who buys Marc Jacobs' perfumes usually do so because of the amazing packaging regardless of what it smells like. That was the reason I bought Dot originally, but it quickly grew on me and is now a firm favourite. As it's a little pricey I usually save this for nights out and special occasions but I always make sure I have a bottle open at home. Dot retails at around £50 for 50ml.
So those are the perfumes that I will always repurchase. As you can tell I'm a bit of a budget girl when it comes to fragrance but I honestly can't tell the difference between something bought in Bodycare to something bought in Selfridges.
Thanks for reading
x
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Me and Sean visited Paris last summer after an exhausting few days in Dublin. Things didn't exactly go to plan, mostly because there was no plan and we just wanted to play things by ear. This meant we were super unorganised and apart from the one day we did have planned in Disneyland, we wasted a lot of our time in the city of love thinking of things to do. Since returning we've thought of all the things we wish we'd have done..
The Catacombs - Ever since watching As Above So Below a few years back I've been fascinated by the Paris Catacombs. They have the right balance of scary and intrigue that makes me want to explore. We did try to take a trip into the Catacombs on our last day but the queue was hours long and it was more hassle than it was worth to book tickets on the French language website.
Shopping - This seems like an obvious one but we didn't do a single spot of shopping while in Paris. I don't really think a quick whiz around the supermarket for a sandwich counts. It would have been nice to rummage in a few vintage shops or even have a mooch in a Sephora but we were lacking in energy for anything like that.
Centre Pompidou - You know that funny looking building with stairs that look like a waterslide going down the side? Well thats the Centre Pompidou. The inside is holds the biggest collection of modern art in Europe and the exterior divides opinions worldwide.
Eat French Cuisine - What even is French cuisine? I wouldn't know I only ate subway and burgers! But really I would have liked to have gone to a traditional french bistro and eaten delicious French food and I don't mean frogs legs or snails.
The Bataclan - Without sounding too strange I wish I'd have seen the Bataclan. The same morbid curiosity that almost drove me into the Catacombs also made me want to visit the Bataclan theatre and pay my respects to people who lost their lives there.
National Museum of Natural History - I've been to the Natural History Museum in London and I love it. I've always been fascinated by dinosaurs and fossils so it would be nice to see how the French version compares.
Palace of Versailles - Thinking back now I honestly can't believe we didn't even try to visit Versailles! I've been obsessed with Marie Antoinette since I was 15 and to pass up a chance to see her home is just unthinkable. Yeah its a little far out from the city but I know it would have been worth the trip.
The Islands - I'd never heard of these until Sean mentioned them to me but they sound really interesting. The Islands are literally two natural islands in the middle of the Seine where the City of was Paris originally founded.
I know we must have missed a thousand things in our disorganised state but I can honestly say I won't be making that mistake again when visiting anywhere.
Have you ever been to Paris before? What are your favourite things to do?
Thanks for reading
x
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So for this months High End vs. Budget post I thought I would do something a bit different. In the last few posts I've written about my favourite product from that category, whereas this time I'm doing more of a first impressions style post. If you haven't already, you can catch up on my previous post here and Amanda's previous post here.
As soon as we decided this months category would be eyeliner I knew I wanted to try something different. You've heard me banging on about how much I love my Kat Von D Ink liner for ages now so I didn't want to just rewrite that again. I thought it was about time I picked up a new liquid liner from a brand I'd never used before. I settled on this little green beauty from Pixi as I've heard good things about other products in the range.
Price
So this product isn't super high end like some of my other makeup items but it's not something you'd find in Boots either. Its reasonably priced at £12 which, if like me you purchase it through Asos with your student discount comes down even further to £10.80. Like I said this isn't that expensive like my treasured Ink Liner but its a bit more than others I've used in the past from brands such as Miss Sporty.
Packaging
Now the packing is something I can really get on board with; I actually think it's what sold the product to me in the first place. The liner comes in a matte minty green box with rose gold text and trimmings - if that doesn't just shout luxury I don't know what does. The pen itself is the same shade of gorgeous green again with gold writing and honestly I'd give this product a 10/10 for packaging design.
My Verdict
I've only been using this liner for little over a week - that's why this is more of a first impressions than a full review - but I think I've got a good enough idea of how I feel about it. The impressive exterior is really where my love affair with this product ends. I found the nib to be the biggest problem, its far too long and doesn't draw nicely at all. The amount of product that comes out is also pretty inconsistent and I've found myself time and time again having to fix my wings with my Ink Liner.
I did find the solution to be pretty hard wearing however and it does live up to the claim that it is waterproof. So would I buy this again? Honestly no, it's too much hard work to apply some simple flicks and even though the ink itself is good quality, the nib just doesn't do it for me.
Shop Pixi Eyeliners
So my 'high end' product didn't really work out that well for me this month, but you should head over to Amandas blog now to read all about her chosen budget Eyeliner!
Do you have a 'go to' liquid liner? Let me know in the comments or over on Twitter!
Thanks for reading
x
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I've just booked a holiday, my first holiday of 2017 and I cannot wait. Me and Sean are off to Warsaw, Poland in March and while it's still a little while away, I'm dying to pick up a few new bits before I go. I've decided to put a small wishlist together in the hopes that its all still in stock in few weeks time.
So I have no idea what the weather is going to be like when we land. I know it can be a little hit and miss around this time of year and I'm probably being overly optimistic with my outfit choices but I guess I can always layer up.
One thing that I would really love to get my grubby hands on for the weekend is that gorgeous pink Grafea rucksack. I know they are expensive, pretty heavy and just a bit impractical but its literally amazing so I really don't care. Also can we just talk about those leopard print boots for a second! Again completely the wrong thing to wear for walking around a rainy city all day but bloody hell they are lovely!
While I'm talking about my holiday, if anyone has any blog posts about Warsaw or Poland in general I'd love to read them, so please leave the links below or tweet me!
Thanks for reading
x
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A few months ago I was contacted by the guys at Kiy-oshi to test out some of their products. The items on offer were the Eyelash Enhancer Serum and the Eyebrow Enhancer Serum. Needing a little help in both of those departments I gladly accepted their offer and the products were sent out to me. I wasn't able to start the trial until basically November due to my broken hand but its been just over 2 months now and I can finally show you the results.
Kiy-oshi Eyelash & Eyebrow Enhancer Serums RRP £25 each*
About the serums
The enhancer serums claim to increase the growth of eyelashes and eyebrows including the length, thickness and colour. To use the serums you simply apply to your clean and dry eyelashes and eyebrows before you go to bed. You should see an improvement between 6-8 weeks of daily use however I was told some people start to see a difference after just two weeks. The serums retail at £25 each which is quite pricey, but considering the cost of false lashes and eyebrow tinting you may end up saving money if they follow through on their promises.
Before using the Serums
So do they actually work?
After the first few weeks I didn't notice much change. I used the serums each night religiously but I couldn't really start to see a difference until the 4 week mark. I put this down to my overall hair growth rate which is naturally quite slow anyway. My eyebrows were the first to start filling out, after using the serums for around a month I did notice that they were starting to look fuller. Although this wasn't by much, it was a start.
At around the two months of using the products however I did notice quite a difference. My eyelashes were significantly longer and slightly thicker and my brows had really plumped out. Although its hard to see on the photos my eyebrows have started growing in toward the centre which I'm really quite happy about. I was overly keen to pluck my brows as a teenager and I'd honestly thought I'd ruined them for good.
After using the serums for 2 months
My verdict
I've been using the serums nightly for just over two months now and so far I'm happy with the results. Although the difference isn't as significant as I would have hoped I'll just put this down to how slow my hair grows anyway. My eyebrows were the first to start showing growth however I actually think you can see the most improvement in the length of my lashes. I'm going to carry on using the products until they run out and probably do another update then.
I'd love to know if you've ever used these serums or if you've ever tried anything similar!
Thanks for reading
x
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So last weekend me and Sean were bored. Like really, really bored. The weather was shit and as always money was a little bit on the tight side but we wanted to get out of the house and do something fun. Sean jokingly suggested that we go skiing. Assuming that he meant we should jet off to the French Alps or somewhere else just as luxurious I came up with the next best thing, Tamworth Snowdome.
I'd visited the Snowdome plenty of times before but I hadn't been for years. After checking the activity prices and times we were soon booked in for a 2 hour Ice Skating session and a half hour Tobogganing session the following evening. Both activities were priced at £8.75 per person which didn't break the bank too much.
We arrived the next day in our cosiest clothes ready for a bit of fun in the cold. After popping our boots on were were soon ready to skate and even though it was Sean's first time on the ice and I was a bit wobbly myself, it didn't take too long for us to get the hang of it. Before we knew it we were whizzing around the track and despite a couple of slips I think we did pretty well. I wasn't sure if two hours would be enough time to get on our feet and actually enjoy the experience but I don't think you'd really want anymore than that.
We had around an hours break before our highly anticipated tobogganing session so we grabbed our packed lunch and a little hot chocolate each from the on site Starbucks.
After our short but well deserved rest we headed down to the slope for the main event of the day. The slope is much bigger than it looks at first as it curves round slightly at the top. Although I'm sure this was a space saving idea it makes for a much more fun run. In our half an hour session me and Sean probably got around 6 or 7 runs each and only crashed into each other once, which I didn't think was too bad. Although I can't say we're expects I think we got the hang of this pretty quickly too and I know we will be back again soon to master it!
I absolutely loved our time at The Snowdome and if it wasn't so far away I honestly think we'd go every weekend as it really is the perfect place to spend a rainy day. We want to try out snowboarding lessons at some point so maybe I'll review them next time!
Have you been to the Snowdome?
Thanks for reading
x
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Lately I've been in a funny place with my blog. Don't get me wrong, I still love it, but I can feel the passion I once had slowly fading. Blogging has changed a lot over the last few years and while I probably missed the golden years of the early 2010's I can still feel the difference.
I started my blog in mid 2013; I was getting ready to leave college and honestly I was terrified of starting a boring job and not having anything creative to do. I've always been a bit artsy and photography had always been a big thing for me too, so to leave all of that behind to work full time was such a shock. I needed a creative outlet, something of my own to put my time and passion into but now I'm not so sure what I'm doing anymore.
I loved posting hauls, telling you all about my holidays and maybe snapping the occasional outfit photo and while I still post those kinds of things I feel my little corner of the internet and blogs in general is changing rapidly. Bloggers are making magazine quality content now, with photographs you'd mistake for something out of Vogue. Their posts are written in such a professional way and I can't help but wonder what happened to diary style blog posts? Where did all the basic bloggers go? Don't get me wrong I love looking at content I know someone has spent hours on but sometimes I just want to see something a bit more raw.
Daily vlogs are probably one of my favourite things right now. Youtubers like Helen Anderson record every aspect of their lives, the ups, the downs and even the arguments. Thats what blogging was about, sharing you life with the world. I still love the blogging community and I've never had any negativity shown towards me or my blog but I can feel it getting a bit more catty. Bloggers are changing from friends to competitors. Now that money is involved, and its not pennies either, bloggers seem to be climbing over each for opportunities and jealousy is rife.
I'm still a small blogger, I'm probably not known enough to warrant nasty comments about my content but it does make me wonder what could happen if I do get a bit more popular. I'm quite sensitive about this site, I put so much effort into it and I'm not sure I could take negative comments. Would it make me quit? Most of my friends don't even know I blog.
I've noticed a lot of really unnecessary comments on Gracie Francessas videos lately, granted a lot of that has come from Youtube users and not other bloggers, but it could make her lose sponsors. She even commented in a recent vlog about how worried she was that so many people reacted negatively to a sponsored video she put out and it made her concerned that she would no longer be given paid work from that brand. That's her bread and butter, she needs to do sponsored work so she can make the content that people originally followed her for. When did it become okay to be so horrible about peoples work, sponsored or not?
This year I was also given my first ever press pass for The Clothes Show. I was over the moon. I'd been going for the past couple of years and now to actually be invited as a blogger was just incredible to me, and all of this was just after my weekend in London at The Vuelio Blog Awards. I was on a high, my blog was taking me so far and I can't even explain how happy it was making me. The day was quite nice, I handed out a few business cards and chatted to a few other bloggers but honestly I left incredibly disheartened.
I didn't look like the other bloggers, I was fatter than most of them, I didn't have half the followers, I hardly had an Instagram theme and my blog didn't look as professional as theirs. My confidence was knocked like it never has been before and I just didn't feel good enough. I know you shouldn't compare yourself to others but its just so easy. When everyone else looks like they've got it all together and you can barley find time to slap up a blog post how do you go on?
My blogging mojo has been wobbly at best lately. I'd never publish anything I didn't love 100% and this has left me with pretty basic content recently. I really enjoy writing product reviews and my latest OOTD post was my favourite yet but I still feel like there's something missing. I wan't to write more honest raw posts like this, I wan't to talk about things that are important to me, not just makeup and clothes. I wan't to express my opinions on Brexit, health, sex, politics, feminism and anything else that I feel passionate about.
If I died tomorrow I wouldn't want my legacy to be Asos Hauls and Eye Shadow Palettes. I want to make a difference. I want my blog to be positive, make others feel good and talk about the important things.
I know this has been a bit of a ramble and if you got this far well done but I just needed to get this all out. Lets take blogging back to its roots and write for ourselves again.
Thanks for reading
xxx
You might remember a few weeks back I reviewed a pretty pricey Benefit eye shadow primer and I was less than impressed. When I fork out £30+ on an eye shadow palette I don't want that pigment to budge all day so I need a half decent primer. As I didn't have much luck with my previous one I thought it might be nice to try one on the other end of the scale.
I've been using this Collection Primed & Ready Eye Shadow Primer for a couple of months now, enough time to give it a proper review. This product comes in at £4.99 which is really quite cheap for a product that should keep my eye shadow fresh for hours. I've used Collection for years now and even though its incredibly affordable, I've always got on really well with their products so I had high hopes for this too.
The formula is really silky and dries on my eyelids quite quickly, leaving them smooth and ready for the eye shadow to be applied. Unlike a lot of other eye primers this one isn't tinted so it wont give your eyelids an even tone or cover up any little veins, it does however have a very faint shimmer which leaves a subtle glow once applied. I find the formula to be quite soothing and some days I use even if I know I wont be wearing eye shadow just because I like the feel of it on my skin.
So does it actually make my eyeshadow last any longer? Yes. Well yes if I'm using sparkly eye shadow. If I'm using shimmery eyeshadow this product is perfect. It applies really smoothly and keeps my makeup looking fresh for hours without it creasing. If I'm using a matte eyeshadow however the story is a little different. Although it does stop it from smudging it doesn't stop it from looking a little tired after a few hours and I've also noticed after a long day of wearing matte eyeshadow it tends to gather along the crease of my eyelids.
SHOP THE POST
So would I repurchase? Yes I probably would, but I am still on the hunt for a decent primer that works for all types of eye shadows. Even though this works well for shimmery eye shadows I've been tending to wear a lot of dusty pink mattes lately and I wan't them to look fresh all day too. Overall this product is just okay and if you're on a budget £5 for a primer isn't bad at all.
Do you have a favourite eye shadow primer? Let me know in the comments!
Thanks for reading
x
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