Beauty Bay Haul

Hi Lovelies, welcome back!

So I recently treated myself and bought some items of Beauty Bay that I've been dying to try for aaaaages. I have been testing the skincare products out so there will be a full review coming up of those, but for now I thought I'd show the haul as a preview. 

The delivery of the package was pretty quick from what I can remember, although it was delivered by Hermes, who actually left a £50 package in my wheelie bin (eye-roll).

The Mario Badescu Essentials 50th Anniversary Edition cost me £32 and contains the Enzyme cleansing gel, the Facial Spray with Aloe, Herbs and Rose Water, the Drying Lotion, Silver Powder and a Flower and Tonic Mask. I've now tried everything  from the set so will do a full review in a couple of days. 

The Small Magnetic Z palette cost me £8.50 and can fit up to 9 shadow pans inside. There not a lot more I can really say about a z palette other than it holds the shadows nicely to be honest...

To go with the Z palette I bought my very first Make-Up Geek eyeshadows. I got the shade 'Bitten' as I had seen this shade recommended by a few people, and then I got the shade 'Peacock' as I don't own any blues and I wanted something a bit more interesting than my normal neutral look. I'm yet to really create any looks with these but will post when I do!

Thanks for reading guys! I hope you enjoyed this post, and keep your eyes peeled for future uploads! Any feedback is welcome xxx

A Week in the Life of Me

Hi Guys! So I thought I would do something a little bit different than I normally do, and do a weekly blog on what I've been doing throughout the week. I won't be doing this every week- However I've had quite a fun week so thought it would be interesting to write this!

Friday 

Friday daytime was quite a relaxed day for me. It was my last week day off before I returned to work,so I spent time at home catching up on a few things and pre-writing blog posts. Friday was also the day when the second season of Stranger Things was released, so I watched the first two episodes at night. I couldn't wait for Stranger Things to come back on Netflix, and was definitely not disappointed! 

Saturday

Saturday day time was spent by me having a huge tidy up of the whole house. I love it when my room is clean and tidy as it really helps to clear the mind and I just feel so much better once I've done so. I then started to get ready at around four in the afternoon, as I was going out into town with a group of friends for a Halloween night out. I loved doing my make-up for the night but annoyingly I didn't manage to take any photos before I went out.

Sunday

I spent most of the day with my family nursing a minor hangover and feeling slightly sorry for myself (Vodka is not my friend). I was so excited for the evening though, as me and Ollie were heading up to Birmingham for a drift experience I had booked him for his birthday. Watching Ollie learn to drift was amazing, and I even got to have a go as a passenger for 3 lap which was an incredible experience. I have only good things to say about the company Learn2Drift as they made it such a fun experience for us!

Monday

So today was my first day back at work after the half-term. I've actually missed being in the classroom so I was quite looking forward to going back, even though it really doesn't feel like I've had a week off. In the evening I went to my clubbersize class, and this week we all dressed up for Halloween. I needed something that looked really good but I could still dance in, so in the end I went for zombie 80's. This is actually my most favourite outfit ever and the class was so much fun this week!

I apologize for the crappy photo 

Tuesday

Today was a pretty chilled out day for me today. I went to work as normal, then came home and took my Mum and Nan shopping. Once I was home I carried on watching Stranger Things and tried to get an early night for once!

Wednesday 

Another chilled out day for me today. Wednesdays are an earlier finish for me so I went into town after work to pick up a package. Nighttime consisted of me watching the final episode of Stranger Things (sob.. I'm already so excited for the next one) 

Thursday 

I spent my day at work as normal because I lead such an exciting life... me and Ollie then attempted to go and watch a local fireworks display but couldn't quite see them from where we had parked so that was a bit of a fail!

Friday 

In all honesty I ended up feeling a bit rubbish on Friday so all I wanted to do when I came home was to eat crap. So me and Oll ended up buying a Dominoes and having night in front of the telly. I did feel better after the pizza though!

Saturday

So I know this day takes it over the week mark. However, I really wanted to include it as I had a really good day on Saturday. Ollie took me up to IKEA for the first time, and omg I'm in love with the place. I then went to Pitchcroft fireworks display with my brother, Ollie and my niece and we had an amazing time together.

Thanks for reading Guys! I really enjoyed writing this blog post and if you read the whole thing I can only say thank you! It still feels weird to just constantly type about my boring life and I can't actually imagine people reading this, so truly thank you everyone xxxx

Friday Shopping Trip

Hi Everyone!

So to make the most of the week me and Ollie had off together, we decided to get up early yesterday morning and go for a mooch around town. I love going shopping during the week as town is so much quieter, even during half term. I feel that working weekends in a shop for four years has traumatised me and I do my utmost to avoid the place mid-day Saturday, so being able to go during the week was a real luxury. (How easily pleased am I?!) 

I've had a River Island gift card burning a hole in my purse now for months, so that was the first place I went to. Ollie is a man of many talents, and was able to pick out the perfect little bag for me and after using my £10 gift card it only cost me £14, so winner winner chicken dinner!

After River Island we then went over to Primark. Unusually, I wasn't wowed by anything in there today which is a surprise as I was expecting to fall in love with loads of winter clothes in there. However, I do often find that Primarks in other places usually have better things in than ours so I guess I'll have to just keep looking. I did find a really cute beanie in there which only cost me £2. It came in a range of colours so I may have to go back and get some more as I love a good beanie.

After looking around a few more shops we ended up in Sports Direct. The only thing I ended up buying was an Ab Roller, which i genuinely think may have the power to kill me off. I've only tried using it once and it failed miserably, so I'll update if I ever get better at it!

As always guys, thanks for reading! Any comments or feedback is much appreciated xxx

My thoughts on: On and Off the Wagon

Hi guys! 

So it's been a while since I last wrote a blog post, life has just been hectic and I felt like I've been really struggling to write anything from a beauty perspective.. I guess I've been stuck in a bit of a rut with my make-up routines and the products I used so I felt like I lacked the ability to write any meaningful content. However, I started this blog with the intention of discussing my (slightly boring) life as well as one of my main passions, so I decided to just start typing and see where I ended up!

The thing I want to talk about today is something I briefly spoke about in a previous post- my weight loss story. At that point when the blog post went up, I was in a really good place with my health and the direction it was heading. Shortly after that post, I went on a holiday for a week and allowed myself to relax a bit more whilst down there. When I came back home I only had a day to settle back into a normal routine before returning to work and then working a very busy seven week term. Through all this, I let my healthy eating habits completely slip- I was back to only eating one really unhealthy meal a day, I was back drinking energy drinks again. The gym got sidelined all together and during that time the only thing I carried on with was my clubbersize classes as I absolutely love going to those. Whilst during all of this I only put 3 pounds back on, I ended up feeling so tired and lethargic and I missed the feeling I had when I was on track.

Fast forward to just over a week ago when I realised that payday fell on the wrong side of half-term and I was facing a week of having a good week off with very limited funds. It was at this point that me and my partner decided it was time to get back into the gym seeing as we pay for it monthly, and to focus on our nutrition. To say we went hard is an understatement. We have been going to the gym every day, as well as also going swimming (sometimes on the same day) and both been sticking to strict calorie limits. The results of this have been amazing, and although I haven't weighed myself since the start of the week, I can already feel the benefits of regular exercise and ensuring my body has the right nutrition.

However, I feel like it is important to say here that it's not always perfect. As previously mentioned, I have a history of unhealthy eating patterns, and when I'm calorie counting I can very easily become too obsessed with tracking what I eat and overly restricting myself to the point where my body isn't getting enough fuel. This led to a moment of slight panic today when I sat having a family meal that had been planned for a while, I glanced at the menu and had to decide between my favourite foods and food I don't like as much of the 'lighter' menu just to fit in with my calorie limit. This was when my lovely partner stepped in and reminded me that enjoying myself is more important that constantly obsessing over calories and not enjoying food. So I opted for the smothered chicken and I can honestly say I don't regret my decision one bit. I even let myself be talked into having a pudding I'd been dying to try for ages and yet again, I 100% do not regret having the cake. I just think that sometimes I need a gentle reminder to enjoy things as a treat, and not then eat far too much or too little.

This is said cake. Did this cake take me over my calorie allowance for the day? Absolutely. Did I enjoy eating it? Definitely. Do I care that it took over my calorie allowance for the day? Absolutely not. Yum.

So this actually turned out to be a massively long post! If you made it this far, honestly well done for reading my waffle! I just feel like this is such an important topic to discuss as there are so many people like myself in the world who have a distorted view of food and healthiness and if I can help just one person overcome this then that makes it worthwhile. 

So as always lovelies, thank you so much for reading!xxx

Why I Took a Break

Hello lovely readers!

As the title would suggest, I took a break away from blogging and Instagram for a while. I genuinely felt that I needed a break away from being online so much as it had become a slight obsession for me, and I found myself starting to compare myself to other people online and wondering why my life didn't seem as fun and interesting as theirs. I then starting to stress about the way I looked, so once I reached that stage I knew it was time to take a step back and re-evaluate where I was. However, I'm back now with a whole new mindset and I'm really excited about getting stuck in again! 

So while I was away the first big change I made to my life was that I finally quit smoking! I'd smoked solidly since my early teens, so by the age of 21 the addiction was well and truly set. However, during that time the price of tobacco has steadily increased to the point where I simply didn't want to pay it any more, and I was ready to start living a healthier lifestyle. I started my journey by using a small vape pen and lasted for three weeks using that alone, but I felt that it wasn't enough to kill the cravings, so I went out and bought a SMOK Stick and I've never looked back! I can honestly say quitting has made me feel so much better in myself and having the extra money has really made a difference. If you are considering quitting, all I can say is just go for it,you won't regret it!

The second big change I made in my life was to overhaul my eating patterns. I don't really want to call it a diet as to me it is the way I intend to eat for the rest of my life now, whereas a diet is a short term fix. My background with dieting and my eating pattern is a very messy one, for years I have had an incredibly unhealthy relationship with food. At one point in my life I would consume roughly 800 calories a day and would weigh myself at least twice a day, and another point in  my life saw me bingeing  massively in one day and then restricting myself for days afterwards. Years of yo-yo dieting and an unhealthy lifestyle have now lead to me being overweight and not happy at all with my body.About four weeks ago I decided enough was enough and set myself the task of eating at least two meals every single day and ensuring they were healthy meals. To help me with this I use My Fitness Pal to track my calorie intake and make sure I stay under my calorie limit. I've also started going to the gym most nights a week and I go to a Clubbersize session once a week. After four weeks of hard work I've lost nearly a stone and my mindset towards weight loss and exercise has completely changed and now I love it!

So this turned out to be a really long post! If you've made it this far then thank you sooooo much for reading this post. I have a tendency to waffle but I really wanted to explain a bit more about my life and why sometimes you have to take some time for yourself. 
Love you all xxxxx

ColourPop Order/ First Impressions

Hi guys! 

So today I'm going to be discussing my first ColourPop order. As I live in the UK, Colourpop is a hard brand to get hold off as you can only order it off their website, meaning you have to pay for shipping and customs. However, they recently held a free international shipping event and because I spent under $19, I didn't get hit with a custom charge, wooo! I ordered my items on the 6th of May, they were dispatched on the 10th of May and they arrived on the 18th of May, meaning the whole process took just under two weeks which considering the amount of orders they will have received is really good. 

I ordered three products which totalled $18. At the time I ordered ColourPop had an offer where you could buy three liquid lipsticks for about $12 (I think), so I saw a few people order these and then another item to bring their total to the $19. However, these people were still stung with a customs charge as the total declared is the products value, not the price you paid, meaning people were being charged for a $20+ order. I was unaware of this at the time so I'm so glad the other lipstick shade I wanted was out of stock! 

Instead I chose to get two liquid lipsticks and a gel eyeliner. I ordered the Ultra Satin Lip in the shade 'Alyssa' which is a collab with Kathleen Lights, and the Ultra Matte Lip in 'Saigon', which is a collab with Karrueche. They eyeliner is a simple black gel eyeliner in the shade 'Swerve'.

Since they arrived, I've tried both the liquid lipsticks and can say that I honestly love them both. I'm always really worried about ordering make-up online as I haven't been able to swatch the products, so I never know if the shade actually suits me. However, I love both of these products. Alyssa ($6) is a gorgeous nude colour that I imagine would go with pretty much anything. Saigon ($6) is a true red and I feel that it suits my skin tone and it compliments my eye colour, something I struggle with when choosing a red normally. I've only worn them for a few hours a day just to test them out so I can't comment on the longevity of the products, but they did feel really comfy to wear and I didn't experience any uncomfortable or tightening sensations.

I have also tried the eyeliner once. However, I've not got too much to say about the eyeliner yet as when I used it, it honestly didn't go too well. However, I'm putting that down to my poor application as opposed to the product, as it's been such a long time since I used a gel eyeliner and brush that I had sort of forgotten how to do it, which has nothing to do with the product or the brand!

Swatches- Saigon on top, Alyssa underneath

Also, as a sidenote Saigon is hard to remove. I tried to do a  pretty, Instagram-worthy swatch on my wrist but I cocked up on the edges., When i went to use my wipes to remove it the product just did not budge. Four hours and a lot of wiping and oils later and there is still a trace of the product on my arm. I'm kind of dreading removing it off my lips now!

Thanks for reading guys, let me know what your favourite ColourPop products are as I'm so down for trying more things from them! Any feedback is appreciated as always xxx

Boots/ Soap and Glory Haul

Hi Guys! 

So today I'm going to be discussing my latest Boots/Soap and Glory buys. I bought these a few weeks ago, when Boots had offers on most of the Soap and Glory products. Anyone who knows me will know how much I love this brand. It's my go to brand for good moisturisers and skincare products, and for every birthday and Christmas present I was end up with some form of Soap and Glory Product, so I was so excited when this arrived!

I'm so awful and didn't write down how much I paid for everything, and I can't get back to the emails from when I ordered it (thanks technology), so I wont be able to list how much I paid. Sorry! 

So as well as there being offers on the products, I do remember at the time there was a special offer where if you spent £15(?) on make-up, you received a free gift which I was so down for. I already knew I loved the Thick and Fast Mascara and the Supercat Eyeliner, and was so excited to try the Pillow Plumper XL. I can honestly say I love everything that came in this gift and I use the products nearly every day.

Who doesn't love a free gift?

For skincare I bought the Speed Plump All Day Moisturiser. I received a Soap and Glory gift set for Christmas just gone, and this moisturiser was in the set so I knew I liked using this product based on past experience. I'd used it for a while before it ran out, and after I stopped using it I definitely noticed a different to my skin and the reappearance of dry patches, which has since gone away since using it again. Also, this product works really well as a primer as it makes your face feel quite tacky after application, making your foundation stick to it which I found very interesting! 

I also bought the One Heck of a Blot Primer after hearing good things about it. When I first started using this primer, I was impressed with how my foundation looked when applied. However, part of me is now thinking that I wanted this product to work so much I fooled myself into believing it was amazing, as after a few hours my oils are breaking through my foundation. This primer would probably work a lot better for someone who's skin isn't as oily as mine!

And finally, I bought the Smoulder Kohl Waterproof eyeliner in a dark brown. Again I had high hopes for this as I'm a big fan of the Supercat eyeliner as was expecting another great eyeliner. While it is a really nice shade of brown, nothing about this eyeliner wows me as it is literally just an eyeliner. However, I can'r fault it and maybe I should just lower my expectations. 

Oh and lovely lovely Boots sent a free sample of the Black Opium perfume from Yves Saint Laurent. I had never tried this perfume before, but now I'm absolutely in love with this and I will treasure the sample forever as there is no way I'd be able to afford a full bottle for myself :(

So there was my Boots/ Soap and Glory Haul. Thank you guys so much for reading if you made it this far, and as always any comments are appreciated. I would absolutely love to know what your favourite Soap and Glory products are! Thanks xxx