Night time beauty routine

Hey honeybunches!

I tend to use the most beauty products at night, as part of my night time beauty routine. By using these products, this helps to keep my skin looking at its best and it makes sure I don’t miss anything before I go to bed.

Here’s what I use for my night time beauty routine:

Nivea Double Effect Eye make up remover

This has to be one of my all-time favourite beauty products, as it does an amazing job at removing my eye makeup. I just apply a little bit to a cotton wool pad, rub over my eyes and the makeup just glides off within a few seconds. The best part about this product is that it doesn’t sting at all (I’ve used make up remover before and it’s made my eye’s stream!). It’s also really effective at taking off heavy eye makeup, as it comes off just as fast.

Clinique 3 Step Skin care

I use this in the morning as well, but it’s still part of my night time routine (plus it’s good to have a skincare routine both morning and evening, especially in the evening as it makes sure your face is completely clean before you go to sleep). I’ve been using the 3 step skin care routine for a year now and I love it. The products are just right for my skin, as they don’t cause any irritation. My face is left feeling both clean and soft.

Lush- Bubblegum Lip Scrub

My lips tend to dry out during the day so I use this lip scrub to exfoliate my lips before I apply lip balm. Now can we appreciate this lip scrub, I’m pretty sure it’s every beauty bloggers favourite! Not only is it pink and tastes delicious but it leaves your lips feeling super soft. It’s the best lip scrub out there.

Carmex Lip Balm

If you’re a regular reader then you’ll know carmex is my favourite lip balm as it works best for me. I find this lip balm really soothing and it doesn’t dry out my lips (which I’ve found some lip balms do). It helps to keep my lips moisturised and prevents them from becoming chapped.

Vaseline intense rescue hand cream

I always make sure I apply hand cream at night, as I tend to forget during the day. I’m currently using the Vaseline intense rescue hand cream which is really good. It’s made my hands less dry and it has strengthened my nails as well (BONUS!)

Soap and Glory heel genius foot cream

This is possibly one of my favourite foot creams (plus it’s by Soap and Glory, so what’s not to love about it). I tend to use foot cream more during the summer as my feet get dryer. Personally, I believe it has quite a minty smell and it’s really soothing on my feet. Its super moisturising and my feet are left feeling so soft afterwards, it works almost instantly!


I hope you enjoyed reading this post, if you haven’t already I would suggest you try out these products. Do you have any specific products you use for your night time beauty routine?

Eat well for less: Chorizo and bean stew

Hello!

With going to university in September I desperately need to learn how to cook. The other night I had the BIG achievement of cooking a meal for my family for the first time! My family really enjoyed what I cooked them and it tasted amazing.

I’ve recently been watching the “Eat Well for less” series and with living on a budget, whilst at university, I choose one of their recipes. All the eat well for less recipes are healthy and made on a budget.

I choose the chorizo and bean stew to cook for my family (when I say family I mean my parents and brother).

Ingredients (to serve 4)

· Sunflower oil (the actual recipe uses rapeseed oil but you can pretty much use any oil you want to heat the pan up)
· 220g chorizo
2 onions
2 garlic cloves
2 tins of chopped tomatoes
2 tins of cannellini beans in water
handful fresh flatleaf parsley
crusty bread
salt and ground black pepper

Method

1. Finely dice the onions and crush the garlic cloves

2 .Heat the oil in a frying pan using a medium-low heat. Add the onions, garlic and chorizo. Cook until the food starts to go orange, stirring from time to time, until soft.

3. Add the two tins of tomatoes and stir occasionally. Wait for the tomatoes to begin to bubble (TIP: If you want to get all tomatoes out of the tin, add some boiling water, swirl around and then empty the rest into the pan)

4. Whilst waiting for the tomatoes to begin to bubble, drain the beans

5. Once the tomatoes begin to bubble, add beans. Also add in the salt and pepper and stir well.

6. Cover with lid, turn the heat down to low and leave to simmer for 10 minutes.

7. Just before you serve the stew, chop the parsley up finely, add to stew and stir well

8. Serve the stew with crusty bread

This recipe is simple and really easy to follow, perfect if you’re a beginner like me! 

     

Summer likes and dislikes

Hi sunshines!

With it being summer and the holidays there are so many things to look forward to and to enjoy. However like everything, there are also things that we dislike about summer.

This brings me onto what I like and dislike about summer.

Summer likes

The Sun: With it being summer it’s “supposed” to be sunny (unless you live in the UK like I do, where you’ll blink and miss the sunny weather). I love it when the weather is sunny as it instantly puts me in a good mood and I love being able to stare up and see clear blue skys. Also at this time of year the sun is perfect for taking brilliant photo’s when the sun is setting (yes I have an obsession with taking photo’s of sunsets) 

Ice cream: The warmer weather is a perfect excuse to be eating more ice cream, whether it be bought on a day out or being eaten at home as a dessert. Plus there are literally hundreds of different flavours to try, all of which are super tasty (I recently went to France and on a day out I had the most delicious raspberry ice cream I had ever tasted).

Days out: With having over 6 weeks off this gives me plenty of time to go on days out. I love getting out, visiting old places and discovering new ones (I have a serious case of wanderlust!)

Summer Dislikes

The Heat: Whilst I love all the sunny weather, I hate the heat as it ends up making me fell rather ill. There is nothing worse than overheating and not being able to cool down. It makes me feel really uncomfortable, especially at night when I’m trying to get to sleep. My ideal temperature during the summer is where it is warm but there is a breeze. That way I can enjoy the warm weather without overheating.

*Photo from google images*

Insects: Firstly, I don’t mind most insects. However the warm weather attracts a lot of unwanted insects. In particular: flys, wasps and ants. It’s especially annoying when you’re trying to eat and you have to keep swatting away at flies or when a wasp comes near you. I don’t have a problem when ants are outside but as soon as they come in the house, they are a nuisance.

Long time off: Don’t get me wrong I love having time off and being able to relax. However I don’t like it when I’m not doing anything as it leads to me getting bored and I end up just counting down the days. I prefer to be doing things and making the most of time off.

These are a few things I like and dislike about summer. Is there anything you like/dislike about summer?

Looking after coloured hair

Hi!
Looking after your hair once it’s been dyed can be a challenge, especially if it’s been dyed ginger or red. Not only do you need to keep your hair healthy but you need to maintain the colour as well.

With having my hair dyed ginger twice (which I love BTW) I know the struggle of trying to stop the colour from fading.

  

Here are the products I use to maintain the colour and look after my hair when it’s been coloured.

Schwarzkopf colour protect shampoo

I always find that using shampoo specifically for coloured hair helps to stop the colour from fading as quickly. I’ve been using the Schwarzkopf colour protect shampoo and it has done a great job of stopping the colour fading quickly. The shampoo is supposed to stop the colour from fading for at least 10 weeks, whilst I don’t think that this is true it did help me maintain my coloured hair for longer (I’ll say about 6 weeks). As well as helping to maintain the colour, this shampoo also helps my hair to look shiny and it has a really nice smell as well!

L’Oreal colour protect conditioning protect spray

I was given this spray as a present the first time I had my hair dyed ginger. The L’Oreal spray is designed to keep your hair nourished, protect the colour. It can be used to detangle hair and can be used on either dry or wet hair. I tend to use this spray every other night before I wash my hair the next day. I found this spray really light and it doesn’t make my hair feel sticky, it also helped my hair to feel fresher (especially if I hadn’t washed it in a couple of days). This spray has really helped me to maintain the colour of my hair.

For anyone with coloured hair I would defiantly recommend these two products as they’ve really helped me. What products do you use to look after coloured hair?

My holiday in France

Bonjour!

On Sunday I came back off holidays after spending 2 weeks in France. I loved being away for 2 weeks as it gave me a chance to properly relax, something I haven’t done in ages.

Here’s what I got up to whilst I was in France:

We stayed in the Port of Dinan, Dinan itself is a lovely medieval town located in Brittany. If you’re a regular reader of my blog you’ll know I stayed here 2 years ago (although we weren’t in the same cottage this time)(LINK TO POST HERE: http://tinyurl.com/zhytntu) 

Every morning (well, the days when it was sunny) we would eat grapefruit, melon and croissants from the local bakery for breakfast. Let me tell you now French croissants are divine, especially coming from the bakery!

Like last time, we had a restaurant which was literally on our door step and the food is always really good there! We ate there one night and we all had steak, chips and salad. French steak is super tasty (although the French laughed at me and my mum as we like our steak well done, whereas the French like their steak medium or rare!)

This time we were staying in Dinan was a special time as the second weekend we were there they were holding the Fete de Ramparts which is a medieval festival that they hold every 2 years. There was a medieval market up in the town and lots of people were dressed up, I was actually gutted about this I would have loved to have dressed up. However next time we go I’m hoping we can get dressed up. Sunday was the final day of the festival so we stayed and watched the procession in the evening which was amazing. There were lots of people taking part who were all dressed up, there were even people on stilts, jugglers and 2 guys who literally breathed fire.

FUN FACT: Whilst the procession was taking place, a person dressed up as a peasant, gave me a kiss which my parents found hilarious.

Places we visited

During our 2 week stay we went and visited various places within the Brittany region.

Concale

Unlike last time, this time we were lucky enough to be able to visit concale itself twice, both times we visited were market days. Concale is a seaside town, a half hours drive from Dinan and their speciality is oysters (much to my disappointment, I didn’t get to try any)

The market itself was your typical French market selling everything from clothes, jewellery to fresh fruit and veg and rotisserie chicken (one of our favourite’s). I was quite unfortunate the first day we visited Concale as it was a really warm day so I ended up getting sunstroke.

Fougeres

Fougeres is a French medieval town which has a chalet (castle) in the centre of the town. Whilst we didn’t go into the castle itself we walked on around the outside of the castle and it was really impressive. The town itself is beautiful and has a few timber houses which were common during medieval towns. Out of all the medieval towns we visited Fougeres was one of my favourites as it was so picturesque.

Vannes

Another medieval town we visited was Vannes and like Dinan, it also has a port (which is much bigger than Dinan’s port). Like Fougeres, Vannes had a few timber houses as well. I really enjoyed looking round Vannes as they had lots of different shops (including my favourite French clothes shop, Pimkie). All you beauty bloggers would enjoy Vannes as they have a Sephora there!

La Gacilly

We visited La Gacilly on the same day we visited Vannes. La Gacilly is quite a unique town as it’s known for its art (I remember it as the town of art). All around the town there was an art exhibition going on (I think this time it was an around the world theme). There are also lots of art shops which sell one of a kind items.

“King Arthur Land”

I’m sure many of you are familiar with the tales and legends of King Arthur and the round table. There is a section within Brittany which is known as King Arthur land and is believed that the stories originate from there. Within King Arthur land there are lots of different sites you can visit which all relate to King Arthur. This time round we visited the Giant’s tomb and the lake of secrets.

I hope you’ve enjoyed reading about what I got up to whilst I was in France. Are you going on holiday or have been on holiday this summer?

Teenage Voices #4

Hello!
      I'm now up to number 4 of the teenage voice series. I've enjoyed speaking to different people and being able to ask the question "Do teenagers have a voice?"

Teenage Voices #4

For number 4 I interviewed Madeline and here are her responses to the questions I asked:

The older generation often believe teenagers don't have any opinions, do you think this is true?

I do think older generations believe teenagers don't have good opinions. They think we aren't old enough to express our opinion. 

Do you think teenagers voices/ opinions are listened to? If not, why?

I think teenager's opinions are heard to certain extent. For example social media pays attention to younger people since younger people tend to use it more. 

What do you think needs to change for teenagers voices/ opinions to be listened to?

I think adults need to stop thinking maturity comes with age. I think maturity is something that is learned.

How important do you think it is for teenagers to have a voice/ opinion?

I think it's important for a teenager to have a voice because it helps them grow as human beings 

With issues surround teenagers what's one issue you have a strong/ personal opinion on?

I think drugs are something we teenagers need to stop doing.

I hope you've been enjoying this series, If you'd like to take part then please let me know!

3 years of blogging

Hello lovelies! 

Yesterday my blog turned 3! I apologise for this post being a day late, I was on holiday (look out for upcoming posts all about my holiday). This is also the reason why I haven't blogged in a while. In honour of blogging for 3 years I thought I would share with you how my blog has grown over the years.

My 3rd blogiversary

I can’t believe I’ve been blogging for 3 years now! That’s a long time to have been blogging for. Despite sometimes not knowing what to write and feeling like my blog gets stuck in the rut, I’ve grown to love blogging and I’m really proud of what I’ve created with my blog. I love being able to share my opinions, share little snippets of my life, being able to give advice BUT most importantly, let my blog be a reflection on who I am.

Looking back to when I first started blogging, I never in a million years expected my blog to end up where it is today. If you’ve read my recent post you know I’m part of the blogging community, which I love! I’ve made some amazing friends through blogging and discovered some incredible blogs out there, which keep my inspired.

I’ve also picked up on a lot of key blogging tips (look out for a future blog post on this) which have also helped my blog to grow and develop. 2 years ago I didn’t ever plan my posts and I’d never heard of Buffer. I’ve started to plan posts and I use buffer for whenever I’ve updated my blog.

The future of my blog

This year is a BIG and IMPORTANT year for me because a) I will hopefully be going to university in September b) I will be turning into an adult. Despite these 2 things I still hope to be able to blog and to be able to continue to express myself. As I grow I hope that my blog will still grow with me.

Finally…

Thank you so much to everyone who has read my blog!!! Over the years I have received so much love and support for my blog which always brings a smile to my face. This year I achieved 10,000 page views, a small milestone for some but this was a HUGE achievement for me. I hope you all continue to enjoy reading my blog.