Wednesday 30 November 2016

Travelling diaries: Lisbon

Back in September I went away on a long overdue girls holiday to Lisbon. It was lovely and just what I needed! We had the perfect mix of the beach, sun, sightseeing, eating great food, drinking too much wine and dancing away to Portuguese music and samba til the early hours.... thinking about it, I think I need another holiday already!

Friday 18 November 2016

Lush Christmas goodies

The other week, I was walking past a Lush shop and couldn't not go in and look in awe at all the cute new Christmas bits and bobs. And, of course, I couldn't then not buy anything!

Thursday 20 October 2016

Charlotte Tilbury Matte Revolution Lipstick The Queen

It's arrived.... well it arrived last week but I've been testing it out :) The Queen Matte Revolution Lipstick by Charlotte Tilbury - limited edition!

Monday 17 October 2016

Trying essential oils and DIY

A few weeks ago, I was sent these beautiful essential oils to try by Eden's Semilla*. A few months ago I tried their Jojoba essential oil and fell in love with it. So I was really excited to try out so many new ones! I ordered Set 2 (pine tree, lavender, cinammon & bergamot) and Set 3 (sweet orange, eucalyptus, sandalwood & peppermint) and the rest individually: Tea tree, Lemongrass, Frankincense and Rosemary.

Monday 19 September 2016

Working out / gym gear

About a month ago I decided to buy a fitness tracker.... as it was my first time looking into fitness trackers and I didn't know if it would work for me I decided to find the best cheap one out there. I went for the Xiaomi Mi Pulse 1S. I've used Xiaomi before as I've ordered some phone chargers etc and I've loved their products


Tuesday 13 September 2016

Let's talk... eyebrows

For the longest time (nb. before I turned 20) I didn't really do anything with my eyebrows aside from the odd plucking session - apart from an unfortunate event when I was 11 with a pair of scissors which ended up in a bald patch!

Sicne then, I've become an eyebrow fan - they really do 'make' your face and if done well, make you look, younger, older, go with your make up. Whatever you feel like.

Recently I've been using these three above, the HI Impact brows, brow perfecter, the Rimmel Brow this Way gel and my trusty The Vintage Cosmetic Company tweezers and of course my favourite eye cream from Eucerin. 


One thing I've learned along with way: don't over pluck - in this case more is more. It will take ages to grow back those few hairs you've plucked and you'll have that surprised / angry look for weeks! Instead, just pluck the few over grown hairs you have at the top or bottom, use scissors to trim (carefully) and brow gel and powder / pencil to shape.

What do you use for brow maintenance? Any great products to recommend?

Wednesday 7 September 2016

Home decor wishlist

Lately I've been really into minimising my home decor and just life in general. From re-organising clothes and clearing out old make up to changing up the whole look of my home decor. It was all inspired by this book: The life changing magic of tidying by Kon mari / Marie Kondo

The new look I envisioned is very much neutral, natural tones with splashes of copper. So wood, metal, white subway tiles and exposed brick (What I'd love in my house, unfortunately I rent a dated 1970 build at the moment so can only change decor items!),

The pieces above I've fallen in love with!

The copper lamp is from Etsy - you can find it here.

The light grey duvet cover set is from H&M home.

Next, the metal boxes which I think are just brilliant for storage and kind of timeless - are from Zara home

This cute little cup and saucer are also from H&M home - I love the copper spots!
HM cup

Lastly, what kind of copper fan would I be if I didn't have copper saucepans. These beauties are from John Lewis and cost quite a lot - but so worth it!


What are your favourite home decor pieces at the moment? What shops would you recommend?

Sunday 4 September 2016

Eden's Semilla and Jojoba oil

A few weeks ago I was sent this beautiful essential oil to test out from Eden's Semilla. This Jojoba oil is 100% organic and perfect for skin, nails and hair.



Thursday 25 August 2016

Korean Beauty haul

Last month I placed on order on YesStyle (FYI best Asian beauty online store I've come across  + not too expensive shipping!) for a bunch of Korean beauty and skincare bits that I'd been dying to try!

For skincare, I went with TonyMoly, Etude House, Missha and Biore. 

Tuesday 16 August 2016

Feel Unique pick 'n' mix

I'm sure many of you have seen the new Feel Unique pick'n'mix samples that have been going round the blogospheere.

I loved the sound of it; get 5 samples of your choice, pay £3.95 for postage, but then get a voucher for that off another order - brilliant.

There were so many things I wanted to try and when I saw the Replica At the Beach Perfume I knew I had to try it! The Eucerin Hyaluron filler day cream sounded interesting too - I love my Eucerin eye cream! The Bioderma nourishing cream, Isa Dora vitamin gloss and Miller Harris Vetivert fragrance were also products I'd wanted to try for a while.

The Replica fragrance has been by far my favourite and I will be purchasing. Love this system! Only criticism, they need more!

Have you tried the Pick'n'mix samples?

Thursday 11 August 2016

What I've been eating lately

Summers well and truly here (I hope still when this post is live in a few days!) and I've found my tastes have changed slightly with what I'm eating. I'm not wanting carbs as and craving fresh tastes like limes, fruit and zesty salads. Here's a small snipped of what I've been eating:

One of my favourite things to cook as it's so easy but soooo yummy; mexican chicken and pico de gallo. Spicy, smokey chicken breast simply served with guacamole (if I have any avocados) and a tomato, onion, parsley, coriander and lime Pico de Gallo!

Sunday 12 June 2016

Origins Maskimizer.... late to the party

I kept meaning to post this about two months ago! But days turned into weeks.... and here we are! Back in April / March (if forget now it was so long ago), I ago I was kindly send the Origins Maskimizer and Origins Original Rose face mask - both of which I hadn't tried before. So I very pleased to have been sent them!

After now using them both for two months, I feel I have at least have a decent opinion on them! The Maskimizer is a bit of a funny one. I do think it works to some extent. I can feel it making my face feel tighter when I spray it one before applying the mask (and it smells great) but is it a bit of a princess product.... like the Caudalie Beauty Elixir?
As for the Original skin mask with rose clay - I loved it! The colour of the clay was (literally) rosy and the smell was amazing. Unlike some other masks, you really don't need to leave it on for long and it does the trick. Wouldn't say it's amazing or a 'miracle' product. But I am really enjoying using it about once a week!

Have you tried the Origins Maskimzer or Original mask? What did you think?
sdfsd

Friday 15 April 2016

What I've been eating for breakfast

For breakfast lately, I've been giving myself a lot more time to make, eat and enjoy what I'm having than the usual grabbing whatever is there before rushing off to work.
There are some of the things I've been enjoying lately:

Smoothie bowls


Tuesday 12 April 2016

What I've been reading lately

About a month ago I was feeling quite bored with reading and stuck in a routine (of not reading), so I thought what better way to sort it out than order some new books! I've now finished reading all of them so it seemed like the perfect time for a review.

Tuesday 5 April 2016

My first winter holiday: Sweden/Norway

Back in February I decided to go on my first 'winter holiday'. That's not to say that I hadn't been anywhere cold before when going away and visiting cities etc; but never this cold! The place I went to in Sweden, Ã…re, was a bit of a pain to get to but know for being one of the best Ski resorts in Sweden and also around -19°C

To get there, first we had to fly to Trondheim in Norway and stay there for a night before catching the train over to Sweden. I really liked Trondheim and had a bit more time to explore on my way home luckily.

Saturday 2 April 2016

Trying HelloFresh

Back in December, I decided to give the Hello Fresh box a go. I'd seen them advertised all over social media and TV and thought it sounds like a great idea but a tad pricey for my liking. So when a £25 off voucher came through the letter box I signed up to get the box next week.

Wednesday 30 March 2016

New in Skincare

After my recent holiday to Sweden and Norway (more on that soon); my skin felt sooooo dry, especially around my cheeks and nose.
My normal moisturiser just wasn't cutting it, so I felt I needed to up the game and try out some much loved skincare.
After browsing Look Fantastic trying to find something for my dry dry skin, I was recommended the Embryolisse Lait-creme Concentre and I'm so glad I decided to get it. At only £20 plus a 10% discount voucher it didn't seem overpriced. It has a nice smell and the creme itself is lightweight but really moisturising. I love it!

Next was the Eve Lom Rescue Mask which is a bit of a cult beauty buy and one I'd heard about before. So I was keen to try it out, but at £35 for 50ml it ain't cheap!!
It was different than what I expected and felt more like a clay mask with exfoliating bits, but after leaving it on for 10 mins (and sparingly applying it - that's 70p a ml!!) my skin did feel amazing.
Lastly, was this Avene Eau Thermale Spring Water, as my Caudalie Beauty elixir had run out and I could't justify another. So this sounded a little similar and it's cheaper and you get 5x more! I haven't had the chance to try it out yet, but I'm sure it'll be good.

What new skincare items have you been trying lately? Any recommendations?


Saturday 26 March 2016

A bit different for Easter.. Chocolate bark

This Easter I decided I wanted to make something a bit different to the normal Easter egg (note- I've never made an Easter egg!). I'd seen these chocolate barks or slabs, or whatever they're called, a lot on Pinterest and they looked so pretty.

Wednesday 13 January 2016

What I got for Christmas / Birthday

I usually love watching these kind of videos and reading these blog posts. Hopefully noone finds them bragging or vulgar - I think they're fun! I'm sharing just a few beauty and home bits that I got for Christmas and my Birthday as they're only 3 days apart. 
First up, I got the ever so stereotypical 'blogger' candle. But I can't help it - it was copper and smelt nice. All the important things right? This one is from Anthropologie -- Similar here
Next from my lovely friend *STOP READING THIS KIM, I KNOW YOU DO*. I got a copper terrarium. As she knows my love of copper and these are so pretty at the moment. I'm still deciding what to put in it!
I've been wanting Charlotte Tilbury for so many months now and couldn't decide between the lipsticks or eye palettes. In the end this Dolce Vita eye palette won me over.
Lastly, and kind of the star of the show as they were by far the most expensive / extravagant things were these Hakuhodo make up brushes. I got mainly from the J and G ranges.
L-R: G510 M round powder brush, G5544 angled powder brush, G5521 Highlighter brush, B004 eye shadow flat brush, J142 eye shadow brush round, J 162H angled eyeshadow brush.

What did you get for Christmas? What have been your favourite 'What I got for Christmas' videos?