Skin Routine

I thought I would do you a little post a bout my skin-care routine. I was talking about it on Twitter and wondered if anybody was interested, and a few people were... and here we are.

L-R:

Boots Botanics Soothing Eye Makeup Remover

Shu Uemura Skin Purifier

The Body Shop Seaweed Deep Cleansing Facial Wash

Decleor Paris Tonifying Lotion

Neutrogena Visibly Clear Pink Grapefruit Daily Scrub

One:

Make sure all your makeup is removed. I use a liquid eye makeup remover, and then a face-cleanser. I like this Shu Uemura one, but I'm probably not going to repurchase. Both this and the Boots Botanic are oil-based cleansers, and as a chick who likes a shit-ton of eyeliner and is a fan of bright, staining lipstick.. these are godsends, literally. Matte red lipstick stains like hell, and this gets it off. If you're feeling lazy and can't be bothered, cheat and use a makeup wipe and THEN use a cleanser like the Body Shop one (i'll get onto that in a second). Generally I don't use both the Shu Uemura and the Body Shop, as this dries my skin out. To remove eye makeup, dampen a cotton pad with your remover, hold on eye makeup for ten-twenty seconds, then sweep off, removing makeup and mascara.
Two:

Cleanse, cleanse, cleanse. This seaweed one from the Body Shop is inexpensive and great quality. Even if you think you've got rid of all your makeup - you probably haven't. It'll be lurking. If you want to use a deep-pore one, those are great, you can kind of tell when they're working well as you feel really clean and your skin is nice and smooth, but not dried out. This will get rid of any traces of dirt or oil, and everyday yuck like that. If you remove your makeup properly and cleanse every single day, you're much less likely to get spots or blemishes.
Three:

Exfoliation. Some people say this isn't necessary, but I think it's important to do it every so often. If you have sensitive skin, do it twice a week, or something. I find it just helps remove any dead or dry skin, and keeps my skin feeling fresh and smooth. My skin always looks brighter and healthier, and more glowy. Don't use a scrub that's too harsh, or you're scratch and hurt your skin. I've just upgraded from a veryyyyyy gentle one (with barely any exfoliator in it) to this Neutrogena, and I feel like it's on the border of being a bit too harsh, but I'll see how it goes.
Four:

Tonerr. This step definitely isn't completely necessary. Some think they're awesome, others claim that some are too harsh and can remove your nail-varnish (ahem, Clinique..). A good toner tightens your pores and gets rid of anything left on your skin. If you feel like your cleanser does this, leave it out. Genuinely, I have had this bottle for ages now, and only bust it out when my skin is in real need of rescue, but I do recommend Decleor for face-essentials. They're a pricey brand but they're a good name with good products, in my opinion. This is a very nice, gentle product that doesn't hurt or sting, and has a really lovely, fresh smell. Investigate and try out your toners, if possible, and read many opinions before settling on one for yourself. If it stings or feels too harsh, stop using it. To apply, just sweep all over your face with a cotton ball (these seem to work better than with pads, I'm not really sure why).
Five:

Moisture. I haven't included a picture, because I need to buy a new one, but my ultimate favourite is Clinique's Dramtically Different Moisturising Gel (such a mouthful). They do two, a lotion and a gel, the gel is infiniteeely better, imho. It sinks into your skin immediately, leaving wonderful, soft, soft, soft skin. This makes sure any moisture you've removed from your skin by cleansing and exfoliating and scrubbing is put back in, ensuring you don't get dry skin! Simple.

Was this helpful? Do you have any questions..? What is your skin routine..? Let me know! (:

Sincerest Apologies!

Hey guys, I am so sorry I haven't posted recently! I have been trying to do overtime at work so I can save up some pennies, and this involved me starting at 7.30 three times last week and only having one day off all week! To someone that normally works on average eight hours a week, it's been a bit of a shock. And I've generally just feeling a bit low and depressed all this week so I haven't really felt like blogging a great deal, if I'm honest!
Gonna take a minute here to be completely open with you guys. I mentioned in a previous post that I suffer from seasonal-depression, when really I just suffer from depression. I say 'just', it's a very consuming illness. And yes, it is an illness, and a disability.With me, it manifests itself as an intense sad feeling, where I can't get out of bed in the morning, I find it very hard to sleep during the night and find myself sleepy and lethargic all day and nap quite often. I cry a lot and don't want to leave the house. So as you can see, it's not really conducive to blogging.
If you're interested in awareness, here's a link to the Depression Alliance with more information.

Anyway, moving on from that and to something more suitable for this blog, I thought I'd show you something that I've enjoyed doing recently. I was watching an episode of the Graham Norton Show and Kelly Rowland was on it - and she had one of what I am calling ring-finger manicures. She had a bright yellow colour, just on her ring-fingers and I wanted to try out something similar.



On my nails I have China Glaze's Turned Up Turquoise (A full picture and review of which you can find here) and China Glaze's Frostbite on my ring-finger, both of which cost £5.99 from Sally's.

I realllllly like this idea. I was worried it would look a bit childish, but I think as long as you use colours that work well together, like this, it looks really good. Turned Up Turquoise is actually a neon, and as such it is matte, but with a top-coat it works well next to Frostbite, which is a deep, frosty blue. Have you done this? Show me pictures! (:

Yves Saint Laurent Rouge Volupte Review

Now whenever I saw these, I wanted them all. Recently I was watching a video by lollipop26 who raves about them, and I couldn't help but go check them out when I was in town.

#13, Peach Passion
First off.. they look incredibly pretty. I'm immediately drawn in by the glossy gold packing, the stylish logo around the middle, and the little mirror on the end.. It's generally just a very pretty product. I'm a sucker for pretty packaging, and this definitely hits the mark. They feel expensive, too. It's a heavy product, physically, compared to other lipsticks, such as MAC, which makes it feel classy and more like a product to take care of, rather than throwing it in the bottom of my bag with all the dust and icky things that live in there.
It is an expensive product, also. One of these will set you back a full £21. I will pay a lot for lipsticks, but I think over £20 is starting to push it! But.. they are so very very pretty, haha. I work for a place where I can get a discount on it, so in the end it only cost me just under £16. Which mentally I, of course, round down to £15 and that doesn't seem so bad to me..
The colour is gorgeous. I don't really have anything like it. I have things that give a similar colour with sheer coverage, but this is something else. It looks very creamy in the tube, and I assumed this wouldn't be very pigmented. I was wrong. You put it on and it comes out highly pigmented, and super glossy. It slides on almost like lipgloss. I love the texture, however, I don't know if I'll be wearing it an awful lot in this thirty degree heat.. but still. The colour is very similar to that on the tube, a pinky-peachy coral, leaning possibly towards the 'salmon' end of the spectrum, but sort of milky. A bit like peaches and cream. Which I suppose is about right for the name.

Here's a side by side comparison of my lips bare, and then with Peach Passion. Please ignore my little freckle on my lip, haha. This picture doesn't really show the difference that well, now that I'm looking at it. In person, it adds a really pretty, bright, creamy looking finish. I've heard people complain about these being super-drying when on the lips, but I haven't really found that? I do tend to use a lip scrub most days, but I think if you already have dry lips in the slightest, it will cling in all the lines on your lips... which pretty much means bad times.

I could go on but I'll stop! Here's a little breakdown for you;

Price: 3/5

Packaging: 5/5

Colour: 4/5

Texture: 5/5

Would I buy this product again?

Probably! As long as I have my trusty John Lewis discount card by my side, I'm sure I'll be looking into some other colours in the future, because there is a deep purple (Forbidden Burgundy) with my name written all over it...

Beauty-related posts will return shortly..

I just read a blog by someone I went to college with moaning about summer. 690 words complaining about how they hated the summer. Hated children in summer. Hated adults in summer. Hated driving in summer. Hated shopping in summer. Hated leaving the house in summer.

God. Really? Be grateful you don't live with depression or seasonal-affective -disorder, why don't you.

I live for summer. Sunshine works absolute wonders. I didn't realise until recently how much something like the sunlight effects me, and how much of a different person I am in the winter. I love Autumn with a passion, honestly. There is nothing I like better than cold walks with my dad and coloured leaves and fires burning and rain. But by the time the days shorten, I feel like my personality leaks away.
I don't want to do anything, my mood drops considerably. There's the typical winter-blues, but when you physically cannot bring yourself to move, you know there's more to it than that. I dread winter, every year. January and February are my worst months and I don't have good memories about these times. I'm virtually bedridden, some days. The hardest thing is when you never really see the sunlight. You get up and it's dark, you do things all day and it's dark by the time you get home. It's a horrible thing.

Summer is a good thing. Do not underestimate how good the sun can be for you. Yes, it can be bad. But for people like me, it's literally a God send. I love everything about the summer.
So here is a blog to counteract those 690 words of misery, because I need this.

I love the heat. I love sitting outside and just being so overwhelmed by heat, heat, heat. I love the light. God, I adore the light. Getting light at 4AM? It's beautiful.

And the sunset's in summer are intense.

The light is one of the best things by a long shot. The sky seems to take on this amazing quality in the summer. I don't even know, but it makes me feel fantastic.

Clouds are gorgeous. I could write a whole blog about how I love clouds. I won't. But trust me when I tell you how pretty they are. Look up.

If we're talking nature, remember how green everything looks in the summer months. It's got to beat snow or bare trees, right?


The places you visit seem even better in the sunshine. It adds a great colour to all your memories.

Italy was one of the best places I've ever had the privilige of going to.



And whilst we're on the subject of traveling.. you don't even have to leave your own country, god. My dad has a phobia of flying, so my family holidays have always been British-affairs. And I'm okay with that, pretty much. The weather can be bad, but it can be excellent too. Just wake up to it. I love British beaches. They're a staple from my childhood, and it makes everything excellent. Take a trip to the Lake District and go on a boat. Walk up a hill. Go to Oxford or Bath and look at some excellent architecture.


In general, I love cities in the summer. Despite the heat. I like how the heat descends on a city and everything seems to slow down.

I love travelling in the summer. It makes me feel like something exciting is going to happen. One of the best things in life, I feel, is having music up loud, driving somewhere, a car full of your friends and the windows down and your hair being blown all over the place. Driving like this, it solves everything.

Here's a good time: get some food in, start your BBQ going, get some wine or fruity drinks and get your friends over. Continue until the sky goes black. Then light candles and carry on.

Cocktails and pub gardens are a must.

So yeah, maybe hot, stinking tube trains suck, maybe screaming children on a trampoline at 7AM next door when you're trying to have a lie-in in August get on my nerves, the 4PM customers on a sunday when we're clearly sold out of anything barbecue related are beyond irritating.. but get over it! There are far too many good things to waste your time complaining about the bad things.
Do not under value your summer, your seasons in general. My bad winters make me appreciate the summer a thousand times more.

Please tell me you like the summer too?(All pictures are my own.)

Happy Birthday to me!

Well.. not anymore.. it's now Tuesday, but we'll ignore that fact (and the fact that I should be in bed but I can't sleep!). Just wanted to say thank-you for all the birthday wishes I got.. and show you the amazing birthday cake my mum made me! It is absolutely unreal...haha.


The outside.. 20 candles, count 'em! You may notice it is quite a tall cake..


And this would be why. Layers of rainbow cake.
My mum makes some pretty awesome cakes and when she asked me what I wanted for my birthday, I jokingly said I wanted a rainbow cake. Then yesterday we spent a good few hours in the kitchen making the layers and perfecting the food colouring.. I love it so much and almost didn't want to eat it. Cutting into it was the best thing ever.
I saw this idea forever ago on i am baker's blog where she made a green cake, and didn't think it was possible because it's a right pain in the bum to find white cake mix here, but me & my mum made a batch of pale cake mix, and managed to successfully add colours. We also found this recipe really useful, too.


A slice.. (: You will not need second-helpings. Trust me, haha.

For two layers of cake you'll need:
4oz of butter/marg
4oz of flour
4oz white caster sugar
2 large eggs
As much food colouring as you like!
2 small pans (I recommend small, thin pans, mine were probably like 20cm across)

Basically you just mix the cake like you normally would, then add the food colouring, making sure it's super vibrant, as it fades a tad when cooking, then cook the cake like you normally would. The outsides, where they cook, will go a strange colour - a sort of dull, greenish version of the colour you made.. but do not despair. Layer the cakes as you want, and I used some Betty Crocker icing inbetween each layer, and then smoothed around the top & bottom (I say *I*, my mum did this bit because I can't ice cakes for shit!). And then have the time of your life cutting into it. I am going to bedoing this for all my friends now, haha.
If you opposed to such things as E numbers, i am baker also does one coloured by natural substances like strawberries, blueberries and kiwis.. which I really want to try.
And I would highly recommend trying to find an American food shop (I'm visiting this one later this week haha) to get white cake mix because that is a, cheating, and b, a hell of a lot easier, haha.

That concludes my food-themed-blog post, haha. Hope you had a good day, too. (: