December Moodboard

Hello again guys; for someone who said that they wouldn’t be religiously taking part in blogmas I’m feeling really inspired at the moment to the point that it’s so easy to find content to post, which is crazy (in a good way) as I wasn’t expecting to be posting so often. Christmas this year is really exciting for me, as I have a bit of time off which means that I’m seriously getting into the festive spirit (which rarely happens to me, haha!) one of the reasons that I’m looking forward to it is that I get to spend some time with family and friends, as well as having a good rest and some excellent food. All of the collages have been put together by me, but all of the images have originally come from Pinterest using the keywords December, Christmas, Christmas Decorations, Festive, Christmas Food and Harry Potter Christmas Decorations. I don’t own any of the images but I love getting inspiration for any season from Pinterest, but the festive season looks absolutely amazing, the amount of beautifully laid out dishes and homeward literally had me drooling. One day, I hope to have a house that looks as beautiful as these interiors! I love putting together a moodboard of what I’m loving each month, it’s such a lovely way to start the month off. Let me know in the comments if you like these kinds of posts! :)

Beauty Confessions Tag

 

Hello again! I found out about this tag from lifewithb and actually I've completed another tag through reading her blog, which is awesome by the way! I love getting inspiration from other bloggers to post on my own blog. I think most people have a bit of a beauty addiction and I'm certainly no exception to that; this tag was super fun to do and very easy because there's so much to talk about. If you're interested in beauty, keep on reading!

1. What is your biggest beauty product addiction? (Lippies, blushes, highlighter, bronzer, mascara, etc.)

I'm in love with pretty eyeshadow palettes at the moment, but honestly I think it's lipsticks as I own so many lip products. I have so many liquid lipsticks and lipsticks but literally when I swatched my lipstick collection for a post I realised how many lipsticks I actually have, as well as how many of them are red, haha! I am trying to buy more of a range of products and shades now.

2. How many products do you have from your addiction?

I actually have so many lipsticks... In total there's probably at least 15, which doesn't sound like much but without realising I always seem to end up having more lipsticks suddenly appear! Aside from lipsticks and considering my whole make up collection I definitely own too much stuff. I have a stacking make up box and five make up bags as well as pots full of brushes. The addiction is real!

3. What is one type of beauty product you hate? (highlighters, hairspray, etc.)

I'm not a fan of hairspray, although that's likely from years of overuse from when I was a dancer. I'm also not a lover of cream products, like cream blusher or highlighter because they feel super sticky on my skin; another thing I hate is too dark foundations... Even most ivory shades are too dark for me, which is a nightmare.

 4. What has been your biggest challenge in beauty? (ex: a technique you learned or leaving a beauty comfort zone)

It has to be the perfect cat eye flick! One eye is always perfect and then the other just won't ever match. It irritates me every single time. Aside from that, I have my boyfriend to thank for encouraging me to understand that less is more. I know that sounds a bit pathetic but I used to wear a complete full face all day, every day and my skin was so bad. Now I let my skin breathe much more often, but at the same time it's hard to be fine with wearing only a bit of concealer and mascara for everyday. It sounds so self centred but it was so difficult for me to learn to love my natural face!

5. What is one beauty comfort zone you don’t ever think you’ll leave?

In all honesty the one product I need in my life is mascara, I really love the ways it opens up my eyes and helps me to look more awake. Another thing I love is a classic red lip, I always feel so sophisticated and 10 times prettier when I've got a red lipstick on for a night out.

6. What is one beauty thing you suck at? (ex: eyeliner like cat eye or taking your makeup off at the end of the day, etc.)

I mentioned in another of these answers that I'm awful at the cat eye look; one eye is always good and the other awful. I'm also not great at contouring; I'm always trying to improve my technique and I've watched countless YouTube videos on how to contour like a boss but I always end up looking like I've got three different shades in straight lines across my face... Even blending doesn't work wonders for me.

7. What is one thing in beauty that you don’t understand its hype? (Technique, trend, etc.)

There are so many weird trends and techniques around at the moment, like using a tampon and other crazy stuff as a beauty blender... I'm always freaked out by textured nails too, like velvet or fur and stuff. I have no idea why but I just hate it!

I have no one in mind to tag to complete this 'tag', but if another blogger is reading this, I'd recommend this tag as not only is it fun to complete it's another post idea which is always great! :)

 

Things I hate about Adulthood!

 

1. The older I become, the more distanced I feel from the person I was in my teens. If I'm honest, I'm 23 now so my teens were not that long ago, but I feel like I've changed so much even in the past year. People that I was close to when we were around 15. Or perhaps younger I feel we have nothing in common now. I don't have an issue with growing older or growing as a person, but I wish that I'd kept up some friendships I had from earlier days.

2. Somehow, everything is about money. You need money for everything and even if you're earning a decent wage, it's never enough. The goal of owning my own home is definitely years and years away and it only feels possible due to having a steady partner. There's so much negativity surrounding the whole 'generation rent' tag, when the true is you need a ridiculously high deposit which isn't possible for all of us. For example, you need to pay for yourself in every way; phone contract, travel costs, food... So many things you never realised cost so much until you worked for a living!

3. People who knew you as a child always look surprised that you're managing to survive as an adult; only the other day an elderly family friend was amazed that I have a proper, tax paying, student loan paying 'real' job and a degree under my belt. I was even more annoyed because you can have a fanstasic job even without a degree or other things; it's all about passion and experience in the job world right now. A lot of people always assume that I'm not very clever, when actually I just don't enjoy bragging about how good I could be at different things, I find it rude and bad taste to be honest.

4. The insane pressure of being a twenty something; the whole world seems to expect you to achieve either everything or nothing, which is super daunting. The true is, yeah I have goals - I'm sure the majority of people my age have some kind of goal, but no idea how to get on track with making the said goal a reality. It's ok not to have a clue, but for some reason it feels like the world has an expectation that you have to be mature, confident and constantly successful to be an achiever. I class getting to work on time an achievement for me, oops.

5. The expectation that your younger self had about being an adult; you would grow up and have the perfect job, career, and life. You thought you would sleep 8 hours a night, own your own house, eat the most amazing food, buy the best clothes, go to the gym and have the most amazing bod, an incredible social life... The list goes on and in reality you cannot have it all, it is impossible. Which is depressing as even as an adult, you wish for that dream to come true.

6. Looking younger than your age; I often pass for a 19 year old. Everyone treats me like a child whilst expecting me to function as an adult. That is the most frustrating thing... The most irritating part is that age is just a number. You can be a 40 year old child and an 18 year old adult. It's all about your mental state and attitude to the outcome of life, not the year you were born!

7. The word 'adulting'; maybe I'm just being incredibly passé about it, considering it has become a kind of movement within lost late teens or early twenty-somethings who are obsessed with being #relatable or #millenial but for me, I know that's it's not a word. At the end of the day, it's adulthood and it's something we all have to do. It's not a new phenomena, it's a part of life, one that no one likes. Adulting isn't a new thing, it's just a new word - a rather useless one at that.

8. Paying a massive amount of tax... It feels as though everything has some kind of tax placed on it and as you get older you learn that nothin in life is free and that is such a depressing moment. Student loan, income tax, council tax, national insurance; it feels literally never ending and all you do is dream about what you could be doing with that money instead, oops.

9. Once you've left education, being ill isn't so fun anymore; you have to learn to force yourself to get into work unless you're actually dying because everyone in the world will hate you for being a massive pain.

10. Having to be polite, even when you hate someone with a passion. You can't be a bitch as you grow older, because it will eventually come back to haunt you. Sometimes you want to feel young and free again by writing swearing stuff all over social media, but ultimately that won't end well. Friends, family and workmates won't think highly of you and you just end up embarrassed but it's just so hard to learn to be nice!

 

Zoella Beauty Haul

Hello again! After being pleasantly surprised by the Zoella Beauty Ginger Cream which I got as a part of a gift set, I decided that I wouldn't mind trying out some other products from the range. As I bought the gift set via eBay, I was given some suggested and similar items through an email so naturally I had a quick sift through because who doesn't love a bargain? So I cam across the items pictured below. I have to say, I do love a good eBay bargain, but I'd warn against the sellers that put the prices of items up becauase it's a popular brand, or because it's no longer available in stores... Although, with that said, if you hunt around patiently enough you'll usually find what you're looking for a reasonable price so you can't complain really.

 

The items pictured above weren't parts of the Zoella Lifestyle or Beauty ranges that I was desperate for, but they came as an added extra in the eBay listing so were a nice surprise. The first item was The Key to Inspiration which costs £6 from Superdrug and although it's in the most gorgeous marble patterned packaging and I like the rose gold themed key ring, I felt like it appealed to a younger audience than I am. This may be because I collected key rings as a child and teen so I've subconsciously connected the two. Similarly, Tutti Fruity Cosmetic Purse which has the same price point of £6 is equally as lovely in person but it's not an item I would've rushed out and bought. That said, I do like the size and I'll be using it as a mini make up for essentials for work I think as the design is nice in person and it feels sturdy so I'm more than happy with the quality. 

 

The main reason that I decided to bid on the listing was actually for the Zoella Beauty Let's Go Places with the RRP £25 from the Christmas collection. It had sold out in my local Superdrug so that was why I went on an eBay hunt after seeing some similarly suggested listings in my email inbox. I was actually very lucky; I paid a grand total of £16.50 for all of the items shown in this blogpost, which feels like an absolute steal when you consider the overall price of the items together. I like the suitcase style packaging and the pastel pink and white stripe scheme is cute especially matched with the rose gold style luggage tag. I have to say that I really love the style of packaging Zoella goes for from all of her products, they're cute and seem to appeal to a lot of people. I have no idea what I'm going to do with the suitcase though!

 

The three creams that were inside of the suitcase packaging are absolutely lovely; the Ginger Cream I actually have two of now as it was also in the Bake My Day gift sets I knew as soon as I saw it that I loved it. It's always good to have a spare product that you know you like so that you can use it again when you run out. Particularly as this is a limited edition product, so it's not so easy to find now. I was very excited to see a Hungry Hands hand cream included in this set as I suffer with bad excema on my hands, so hand cream is (naturally) one of my favourite things. On the whole I'm not a huge lover of Christmas but when it comes to these creams I'm definitely madly and truly in love with the scent as well as the consistency of the creams. I didn't even realise that I'm such a fan on sweet and spicy scents, although that said I do love the smell of ginger in general. I've been loving the Shower Glaze recently too, I love the feel of it against my skin. It's not too light or too heavy, but it has a very frothy and creamy texture which somehow provides a lot of bubbles on my skin and actually makes my body smell insane, I could literally eat myself haha.

 

Overall I'm really happy with my purchase, although I'm not sure I would've bought the purse or key ring separately; they're not items that seem like a must have from a beauty range for me. However, I'm in love with every single one of the creams from the Let's Go Places suitcase set and the inclusion of a shower sponge is great as it works really well alongside the Shower Glaze, which is also my favourite out of all of the products listed. I hadn't purchased any of the Zoella Beauty or Lifestyle ranges until recently as I wasn't entirely sure about the quality of the products in comparison to say, the Body Shop but I have to say that I've been pleasantly surprised by how good the quality of the Zoella products actually was. The only negative comment I have is that I wish there was an option for different types as I'd love a range for sensitive skin. I would definitely recommend the creams from her ranges and I'm planning on buying more for sure!