NEARBY TRAVELS

There are so many beautiful places in the world. From the spiralling staircases of castles and cathedrals that are scattered around the cities of Germany to the white blasted beaches of Australia. I want to visit all of the beautiful places I possibly can before my time is up. I have a serious urge for travel and I feel because of my young age I am somewhat restricted. As soon as the balance between age, money and commitments levels out in my life, I want to be able to start my travels.

I live in England which is an exquisite country but I feel like as of late, I haven't been appreciating the unique beauty of my local isle enough. I live in the North, the North East to be precise, and my closest city is Durham. I like Durham because of it's vintage feel and the architecture of our most famous landmark - Durham Cathedral. Durham Cathedral was built in the 11th century, which I find quite marvellous, it is the home to the tomb of St Cuthbert (shoutout to any religious history fans out there!) and three copies of the Magna Carta can be found deep within it's library.

I recently paid a visit to Durham with my friend Frances, and after a good explore and impromptu picture taking session within the Cathedral's gardens and courtyards; we had a well needed catchup over a cup of tea and a slice of cake in a lovely little cafe nestled between a charity shop and a gift shop. It was a lovely day and I really felt like this vist enriched my appreciation for my local city.

I can't wait to explore the world, but the first step is going to be exploring my home country. This weekend, I'm going to London which I am so excited about. London is one of my favourite cities! I love the vibe of the whole city and I'd love to live there. But first things first, I'm going to explore my local environment.

London, last year. You can tell I love phone boxes.

BIRKENSTOCK ARIZONAS : A DUPE

I've always been in two minds whether I like pool sliders. I remember when my dad had a brown pair and he had them for about 20 years so I've always associated Birkenstocks and 'pool sliders' with childhood holidays to Menorca. Pool sliders have become really popular recently and I really like how Alexa Chung combined her black pair with jeans. Whether you love or loathe pool sliders, it looks like they're here to stay. 

I was very happy when I saw an exact dupe for Birkenstock's White Arizona sandals in Primark and I was even happier when I noticed the price tag of £8. What a bargain. I would say these are a pretty good imitation of Birkenstock's Arizonas, however the actual Birkenstock sandals have a smooth matte leather covering but my pair from Primark do not. They really do look similar and I've found my pair are very comfy to walk in. So if you fancy saving about £40, check out Primark for a pair of pool sliders, Birkenstock style.

MY HOLIDAY READS

I'm going on holiday to the Maldives in about a week and a half, I am so damn excited and I can't wait to just relax and get lost in a few good books whilst totally chilling out. I have decided that I'm going to take four books with me, although I'm worried that I'm going to read them within the first couple of days and then I'll be stuck for reading material!

The first book I'm planning on taking is the wonderful Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins. If you are a regular reader of my blog you'll probably know how much I love The Hunger Games. This is the last book in the trilogy and it is my favourite book of them all. A lot of people say that it's confusing but I think it is the perfect finish to the series.

Although I'm already a couple of chapters into this next book I'm going to talk about, I think it's going to be a very good read whilst I'm on holiday. I've wanted to read Wicked by Gregory Macguire for a while now and I finally ordered it a few weeks ago. You might of heard of the musical of the same name which has been running in London's West End for eight years. The musical is based on the book which retells the story of Elphaba who you may know from the Wizard of Oz. Elphaba is the Wicked Witch of the West and the book tells you a whole different side to the story of Oz and what happened before Dorothy.

I bought If You Find Me by Emily Murdoch purely as a spontaneous buy. I was in Waterstones with my mam and I was reading the blurb and noticed it featured someone with the same name as me so I decided to buy it. Don't get me wrong, the blurb drew me into buying the book swell. I'm excited to read this book because I don't know what the book is about so this will be a new experience for me as I've seen no reviews for it.

I am very excited about reading The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown. I don't know what it is that is making me excited to read this novel, I think it's the whole symbolism aspect, and it might also be the fact that it's based in Paris. I've heard this is a wonderful book and I can't wait to start it.

I am really excited to go on holiday now, even though I haven't even started to pack and I still need to buy a few things to put in my suitcase! I think I will get through a book just on the plane as I'll be travelling for a total of thirteen hours - but I'm sure the sun, sea and sand when I get to the Maldives will be worth the travel time.

What books are you taking on holiday this year?

THE FAULT, DEAR BRUTUS, IS NOT IN OUR STARS

Words can't actually describe how much I love this book. If you are an regular user of Twitter or Tumblr you will have probably heard of how amazing this book is by a lot of people, and let me just add - this book is not just for teenagers! As you have probably gathered by now, the book in question is The Fault in Our Stars by John Green. The Fault in our Stars (or TFIOS as it's known in an abbreviated form) comes under the genre of Young Adult fiction, which might just make a lot of older readers shudder at the thought, but I think this genre should be eliminated when people label this book because it is so versatile and I think that all ages would love it. This was proven when I found out that my RE teacher had even read it and she listed it as one of (emphasis on the one of) her favourite books!

The book centres around the story of Hazel - a sixteen year old girl who is fighting Thyroid cancer. Even though the book is based on a emotional and sensitive subject, the story shows that having cancer isn't just about the bad moments, it's about learning to appreciate the good parts of life and I admire the fact that John Green has put a lot of dedication into developing a understanding of the disease itself and how it impacts on so many people. I don't want to spoil any of the book for anyone who hasn't it read it but it is definitely a story based on relationships and friendship rather than a stereotypical sob story. Although, you probably will need to buy a packet of Kleenex.

I bought my copy of The Fault in Our Stars in December when I was coming home from Paris. I read it on the three hour train ride home from Kings Cross and it took me about twelve hours to read the whole thing, its the type of book that you just can't put down. My copy of the book has been well used as I've lent it to three of my friends to read, and they all loved it. The reason I am so enthusiastic about this book recently is because it has been made into a film and it's coming out in the UK on Thursday! I am literally so excited and I know I will probably cry my eyes out during the film because of how touching the story is and just because of how damn excited I am. I am literally counting down the days until I get to see this beautiful story come to life! I would thoroughly recommend this and I couldn't praise it enough.

Have you read this book or any other books by John Green?

HOW I WORE: CIGARETTE PANTS

After about a month of searching, I am now a proud owner of a pair of dress trousers that actually suit my figure. I've never been the type of person that wears trousers and in the past I have literally always worn leggings or jeans so this comes as a bit of a revolution to my wardrobe.

The trousers in question are a lovely pair of cigarette pants I have bought from Topshop which cost £22.00. They are such good quality for how affordable they are which surprised me. I love these trousers because I think they're the perfect mix between smart and casual and they remind me of something Audrey Hepburn would wear. It was nice to have a change from my trademark black jeans from New Look.

I went for a meal at Nandos with a couple of my friends on Friday night and I wore my trousers for the first time, I paired them with a oversized jumper (also from Topshop) and my new bag which I bought a few days ago. I will be reviewing the bag shortly in a blog post - so keep an eye out. This outfit was so comfortable and it felt good to not have to wear a jacket as it wasn't as cold as usual. I feel like everything in my wardrobe is mainly monochrome which needs to be changed shortly as I always like to insert a little bit of colour into my wardrobe as it creeps into summer.

How do you style cigarette pants?

FIX +

Up until around a fortnight ago, I hadn't seen the hype in makeup setting sprays. I had seen a lot of people on youtube rave about them, but I just thought it was pointless to spend money on something that didn't seem to make a difference - but then I bought Fix +.

Fix + is literally a genie in a bottle. A bottle retails for £14.50 from MAC and it is designed to be sprayed onto skin before makeup application to create a longer lasting base or after makeup application to prolong the staying power of your makeup. When I bought this I was a bit worried because I have oily skin and I didn't think it would work as well with my skin type.. but I was totally wrong. I spray Fix + onto my skin when I am just about to apply foundation and it makes foundation application so much easier and I have found that my foundation blends so much better when I have used this spray. I have also used Fix + to apply eyeshadow, I sprayed some of it onto a eyeshadow brush and then picked some of the eyeshadow up with the brush and patted the shadow onto the eyelid as I would normally. I was amazed at how vibrant the eyeshadow looked on my eyes compared to how it normally looks and the shadow also stayed on my eyes for longer than normal.

One thing that annoyed me about Fix + is the pump on the bottle. I was fiddling around with the bottle when I first got it and I must of tried for about half an hour to unlock it in order to spray it but it just wouldn't budge! I took to twitter to vent my frustration and then after a few google searches, I finally unlocked it. It really annoys me when pumps on foundation bottles/spray bottles don't work, considering how much money the product retails for - but thankfully the problem was solved.

Have you ever tried Fix + or any other setting sprays? 

WHAT I BOUGHT FROM LUSH

I don't really buy things from Lush as much as I would like to because of how expensive their products are, so it's a massive deal to me when I actually do pluck up the courage to purchase a few things from them. I must spend an hour each week simply trawling Lush's website just to research potential products. One thing about Lush that I love is the fact that they don't test on animals.

The first thing I picked up was Cupcake which is a face mask designed for oily skin. My skin has  been oily since I hit puberty and it is one of the biggest banes of my life. I went into Lush and had my mind set on buying a face mask and as soon as I read the words 'helps absorb excess oil' I knew this mask was the one for me. Since buying, I've used this face mask twice and I am really happy with how it leaves my skin. You are supposed to keep it on for about ten minutes but I am rubbish at time keeping so I normally leave it on for a tiny bit longer. When I wash the mask off it leaves my normally very oily t-zone slightly less matte. I paid  £6.25 for this wonder and I love how it leaves my skin, you get 75g of product but don't be put off by the price compared to proportion of product as a little goes a long way.

The second product I purchased was a dry shampoo called No Drought. I love dry shampoo because sometimes I am just too lazy to wash my hair and sometimes I feel like my hair needs a break from being washed constantly. For the past year I have stuck to Batiste's dry shampoo range but recently I read that their products contain alcohol because of their aerosol packaging and alcohol is seriously damaging for hair so I decided that I needed an alternative that would be a bit friendlier to my hair.

As you can see from the picture above, I made the right choice when it came to picking a new dry shampoo. Instead of other dry shampoos which contain nasty things such as alcohol, No Drought contains a variety of ingredients such as cornflour which is known to absorb oil and eliminates grease. I have used this dry shampoo countless times since buying it and I love how refreshed it makes my hair feel. It also smells absolutely gorgeous thanks to the Grapefruit Oil it contains.

I paid £6.75 for the big version (115g) of this dry shampoo. One thing I don't like about this dry shampoo is how sometimes the bottle sometimes squeezes too much powder out which is highly annoying as there has been occasions when my trousers have been covered in powder.

What was the last thing you bought from Lush?

CLEANING MY MAKEUP BRUSHES

I'm not going to lie, I really don't like washing my makeup brushes. This is primarily because of the amount of effort it takes and how messy it leaves my bathroom sink. This is disgusting to admit, but I have had my Real Techniques stippling brush for about two years and I've only washed it twice. I'm very lazy when it comes to things like brush washing and this is definitely one of my biggest beauty sins. I made a decision yesterday that I would kick the habit of neglecting my brushes and I would step up my cleansing game. That is exactly what I did. Today I collected all of my brushes from my trusty white pot in which they live in my bedroom and held them hostage for about twenty minutes in the bathroom and gave them a damn good clean.

It took me around twenty minutes to wash all of my makeup brushes individually and I was really happy with how clean they were when I'd finished. They normally take forever to dry but I was actually surprised with how quickly they dried on this occasion. 

To wash my brushes, I follow three simple steps. Firstly, I wet the brush with warm water to roughly rinse it of product. This is the first part of the cleansing process because it makes sure excess liquid (such as foundation) is quickly squeezed out. Next, I pump some of No 7's Makeup Brush Cleanser directly onto the bristles of the brush and swirl the brush on the palm of my hand which allows the cleanser to get to work. I've noticed that when I swirl the brush around in my hand, the remaining product that has been collected on the brush is washed away which is a vital step in the process. This is when I actually saw my brush gradually become cleaner.

I really like the No 7 brush cleaner that I used to wash my brushes. It was a very spontaneous purchase when I bought it a few months ago. I have been wanting to try Mac's Brush Cleaner for a while now but I wanted to buy a cheaper product first just to get to grips with how to clean my brushes. Although, now I think about it, I wish I had paid an extra £2.00 and bought Mac's version. I paid £8.00 for this brush cleaner, I do think it is good value for money and it has boosted my confidence in No 7's brand. The only thing I have really used from No 7 before buying this brush cleaner is a powder foundation that my best friend Beth bought a few years ago and that was an absolutely amazing product.

Have you got a specific routine when it comes to washing your brushes?

PIN IT UP

I have been wanting to try a pin up makeup/hair look for quite a while so I was more than thrilled on Wednesday night when my best friend came over as this was a perfect opportunity to experiment. Beth and I are both really interested in makeup and when boredom hits, we normally decide to do each other's makeup. Once, on New Year's eve, we decided at ten o'clock at night to do each other's makeup just because we were sick of waiting for the countdown! I love doing Beth's makeup because her skin is just so flawless and smooth. She has long dark hair which is amazing to experiment with, so naturally I seize the opportunity to take advantage of her amazing features and she becomes my guinea pig.

I was so happy with this look when I'd finished it and it meant that we just had to have a impromptu photoshoot in my garage (vinyls included)

ON THE FACE: Soap and Glory's Archery Brow Tint and Pencil in Brownie Points, Nooner eyeshadow by Urban Decay, Blanc Type eyeshadow by MAC, Studio Fix Fluid in NC15, Coppertone blush by MAC, Red lipstick from Avon.

Pin-up makeup is so simple, it mainly consists of a strong red lip with a nice crease cut or a pale eye. I used Mac's Blanc Type eyeshadow, which has a cosy home in Beth's makeup bag, as a base for the eyes and then blended 'Nooner' from Urban Decay's wonderful Naked 3 palette into the crease. This resulted in a nice nude eye. I then preceded to use my much loved Magic Liner from Topshop to create a winged eyeliner look which really completed the eye makeup. For the red lips I used a lipstick from Avon which I got for christmas as part of a set. 

The hairstyle was my favourite part of this look. To get this curly up do I simply curled Beth's hair towards her face and twisted it into one big curl. I curled all of her hair individually in the same direction to make one big ringlet style curl on each side of her head. The versatility of Beth's hair made this so easy to create. When I had created the two big ringlets, I twisted them to the back of her head and used bobby pins to secure them. The actual look turned out a lot messier than I had hoped but I think this gave a nice twist to the look (excuse the pun). To give the hair a bit of a 1950s vibe, I created a quiff on each side of her parting which made it quite edgy.

AN UPDATE

Lately I haven't been blogging as frequently as I'd like to because of exams, thankfully I've got the majority out of the way.. such as two out of three of my dreaded History exams and both my English Literature exams (thank GOD that I never have to look at Of Mice and Men or The Crucible ever again!) I am so glad that I only have a few left so I can get back into blogging as regularly as usual.

As well as starting my exams, my final day of secondary school also came at the beginning of May. The day was filled with laughter and a few tears as the realisation of growing up sank in to many of our minds and the affirmation that exams were starting three days later hit me too! I am so grateful for all the friends I have made since starting secondary school five years ago and I still remember my first day. Looking back at how much my life has changed since I was a overly tall eleven year old in a blazer that was far too big for me compared to now, being a averagely tall sixteen year old with a blazer that is now far too short on my arms, I honestly can't believe how many things are different.

BRING THE BLING

My mam had a clear out of her wardrobe and I was therefore obligated to have a rummage through some of her hand me downs, so I picked up a stripy top she bought ages ago and it's now mine! I love french fashion and stripes just scream 'parisian'. She got it from a charity shop a couple of years ago but I think it's originally from Marks and Spencer. Even though my mam gets really good bargains in charity shops, when she drags me in them it bores me to tears!

The top looks a bit boring when you wear it by itself so to jazz it up a bit I styled it with a necklace I bought last year from Republic. I like the colour as I am a massive fan of rose gold. I love how simple it is to completely change an outfit just with an accessory! I really like statement necklaces, especially when they're styled with something simple and everyday.

SOAP AND GLORY'S ARCHERY

I have recently become a bit sick of my natural eyebrows and have began a personal eyebrow revolution. My eyebrows used to be really thick when I was younger but after many waxing sessions they have lost their natural thickness and shape.  I have always longed for thinner eyebrows and now they're a little bit thinner I am totally bored of them.

I have found a miracle product that makes my eyebrows look 'presentable' and is so easy to use. I'd like to introduce to you all Soap and Glory's It's no secret that I love Soap and Glory. I've never tried their beauty products before trying this product, only their skincare/bath range, but I was pleasantly surprised. I bought the colour 'Brownie Points' and it is a really good match. There isn't a massive colour range though which is a negative thing about this amazing product as there's only two shades available, one for blondes and one for brunettes. I really like how easy it is to apply, you run the brow tint through your brows with a few strokes with the felt tip applicator and then you switch ends and apply the eyebrow pencil to shape up the brows. It takes about two minutes and then you're good to go.

The photo below is what 'Archery' in Brownie Points looks like on my eyebrows. This picture was taken after I had been to school and I had worn my makeup for about 8 hours. The staying power of Archery is quite good but I think it could be improved as my eyebrows don't look as good at the end of the day as they do at the start.

I am so glad that I've found a decent product that actually does my eyebrows justice and is so easy to use! I absolutely love Soap and Glory.

                         Do you fill your eyebrows in or do you just leave them au natural?

HOW TO REVISE

I think I speak for everyone when I say that I hate revision. It is just so tedious. If you are in year 11, like me, you will feel my pain when I talk about these upcoming exams.

My first tip would be to condense the material. This always helps me as I find that I learn better when I read smaller amounts of information. I would much rather read a couple of bullet points in biology whilst revising anaerobic respiration than a whole page on it!

One of my teachers always tells my class to use different methods of displaying information when revising because your brain is more likely to remember information if you look at it at different ways. I think this is a really good tip, because there's nothing more frustrating than having to read pages of notes; mind maps are a good way of looking at notes because you can see a whole unit of small notes in a condensed form. If I'm trying to revise a certain process, (such as how a glacier is formed or how meiosis works), I find it useful making flow charts of each step.

Music can help me concentrate whilst I'm revising but I get really distracted if it has a lot of vocals in. I normally just play a playlist of instrumentals or piano covers on 8tracks. This really helps me get into the zone and I actually get my work done.

Another thing that really helps me revise is Quizlet. Quizlet is a website that contains lots of learning tools and it's really helpful for learning key terms. I have been using Quizlet in school for about 2 years now and it has helped me learn loads of key vocabulary in Spanish. Quizlet also comes in app form and you can download it from the App Store for iOS which is brilliant if you have an iPhone or iPad.

Good luck to everyone who is sitting exams in the near future, I hope these tips have helped you and I may or not have written this post as an attempt to get out of revision.

THE MOTHER OF ALL MAKEUP

I was having a case of serious bloggers block and whilst I was busy taking pictures to include in a blog post, I spotted my mam's makeup bag sitting on the windowsill and suddenly a post idea came to my head. So, when I asked my mam to describe her makeup bag in three words she said "Stapled, Boring, Essential." I couldn't of summed it up better myself.

Included: Rimmel Day 2 Night mascara, Mac Cremesheen lipstick in Vegas Volt, 

Loreal Paris Colour Appeal Trio Pro eyeshadow, Tweezers, 

Eyebrow and lash brush, Estee Lauder eyeshadow set, Chanel Inimitable mascara.

My mam is not one for wearing makeup every day and she only really wears it on special occasions so it's not surprising that she only has a small collection of makeup. Her favourite brand is Estee Lauder, which she has used since she was younger.  My mam swears by Astra Cream to moisturise with and ever since I was little I have seen her use it nearly everyday. Her skin is quite clear so she doesn't need foundation (lucky or what?) Although her makeup collection is quite small, she owns the best mascara that I've ever used. I bought her Chanel's Inimitable mascara for her birthday, I've tried it out and I can confirm that it is amazing. 

THE NAIL GAME

Summer is my favourite time in terms of colours. In the winter months I feel like darker colours are more fashionable but when it comes to summer the bright colours always make an appearance. I don't paint my nails much when I have school but thanks to the six week summer holidays (which is going to last about ten weeks for me this year) I have the freedom to paint my nails whenever I want.

In summer I like colours that compliment my tan and when I went to Majorca last year I bought two really nice nail varnishes from Barry M's Hi Shine gel collection. I was really happy with the gel consistency of the nail varnishes, which are called Prickly Pear (the purple shade) and Pomegranate (the hot pink shade). They left my nails feeling and looking very nice. I must say, they have amazing staying power as I think I only had to repaint them once throughout the fortnight of of sun, sea and sand.

Another brand I absolutely love for nail varnishes, whatever season, is Sinful Colours. I first discovered Sinful Colours in Boots about a year ago. Their nail varnishes retail for £1.99 which is so cheap - it's a really good price for a drugstore high quality nail varnish. I particularly love the shade 'Unicorn' which is a cool toned yellow shade that just screams summer, however it's the type of colour that you need to wear on top of a white undercoat as yellow nail varnish has been known to stain nails.

I might have to go on a nail varnish haul sometime soon because at the moment I am craving nail varnish, I think the last time I bought nail varnish was in September! There's no doubt that I will probably have a huge obsession with colourful nail varnish again this summer.

Do you have a staple nail colour for summer?

PRODUCTS I WOULD NOT REPURCHASE

My blog is always so positive about products so I decided it was time to tell you all about a few products I really did not like. I feel a bit bitchy slagging these products off but here are my honest opinions on a few items that disappointed me.

Okay, so me and mac lipsticks have had a bit of a love affair in the past couple of years. I went through a phase where I used to buy a lipstick a month from Mac (which was very silly). When I went to Glasgow with my cousins and my best friend last summer I picked up this lipstick from the Mac store on Buchanan Street. I had blonde hair and pale skin at the time and I really do not know why I bought it. The lipstick is from Nicki Minaj's Viva Glam range for Mac and it is a really light lilac colour. It is really the most unflattering colour on me, I think it's the worst lipstick shade I've ever bought. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love Mac lipsticks and they are such good quality but I literally hate this particular lipstick. It cost me £14 and it was such a waste of money - I think I have worn it twice.

When Baby Lips launched in the UK I was so excited. For months I had seen various beauty gurus on youtube such as Sammi and Zoe rave about Baby Lips and I would get so upset because they were only available in America! I had seen so many people rave about them and I was so excited to try them. I love lip balms but unfortunately, I was let down by Maybelline's Baby Lips. The pink Baby Lips is absolutely awful, I really did not like it. It leaves an awful colour on your lips that looks like a lipstick you would get out of a children's magazine and it leaves a nasty residue on your lips. I bought mine for about £4 in Boots when they first launched last year and it really was not worth it. I would definitely not repurchase Baby Lips and I would much prefer to invest in a good lip butter rather than a lip balm which does nothing.

The last thing that I would not repurchase is MUA's Pro-Base Eye Primer . I really did not like the consistency of this primer, it was really liquidy which is not surprising as it only cost £2.50 from Superdrug. MUA is a good brand at times and I really like their naked palette dupes but this really let me down. I agree with the phrase 'you get what you pay for' and this is a prime example that sometimes you have to pay a little bit more for a good product. I don't think I would repurchase this product although I do like MUA as a brand on the whole.

What products do you feel haven't lived up to the hype?

THE SLEEK RESTORER

A shampoo and conditioner combo I am absolutely loving at the minute is Garnier's Sleek Restorer range. My mam always seems to purchase new shampoos on a weekly basis so I was pretty impressed with her choice this time. I have been using the Sleek Restore shampoo and conditioner for about 2 weeks now and I am honestly so impressed with how it has helped my hair. As I have mentioned in previous posts, my hair is in need of a little bit of TLC so I am constantly on the look out for anything that combats dryness or frizziness.

I was really surprised to see that Garnier have brought out a haircare range as I have always associated Garnier with skincare related items. One of my favourite things in the range is the '1 Minute Treatment'. I love deep conditioners and I especially love this one! This has made my hair so soft and lovely, I love it so much. It contains coconut oil which is amazing for your hair, a lot of people swear by it for healthy and strong hair - those people are totally right. My favourite thing about this product is how you can actually feel it on your hair, it is quite heavy and you can actually notice when it's still on your hair which is a massive advantage. I actually look forward to washing my hair when I use this.

THE ULTIMELT

I popped into boots when I was shopping yesterday and picked up a tube of the  Ultimelt Deep Purifying Hot Cloth Cleanser by Soap and Glory. It retails at £10.00 but it was reduced to £6.67 (I love a good bargain). I have seen a couple of blog posts about this little gem and I have been interested in purchasing a good 'deep pore' heavy duty cleanser for a while so I thought I'd give it a go.

I have always loved Soap and Glory since my sister got me a big gift set from Boots by them a few christmases ago. Soap and Glory are definitely a brand I trust, they have such a good range of products and everything smells so nice. I  used this cleanser a few hours ago when I had a shower as part of my facial cleansing routine and I really liked it. It smells a bit like lavender which is surprisingly really refreshing. Soap and Glory also gives you a muslin cloth with this cleanser which I really like considering many 'hot cloth' cleansers don't actually come with a cloth! The whole idea of the cleanser is to wash it off with a warm/hot cloth, thank you Soap and Glory for having some common sense. I am sitting writing this post now and my skin feels so soft and it actually feels clean! A lot of products make my face feel really greasy, like I haven't totally washed it off properly (even though I've washed my face with water 5 times), but this has left my face feeling totally cleansed.
My first impression on this product is positive, I really like it! Fingers crossed it keeps my face soft and spot free.

PRETTY PHONE CASES

First, let me just say that I'm not getting bribed in any way to compose this post which will more than likely compliment Sighh Designs up to the high heavens. I have been following Polly and her company SighhDesigns on twitter for about a year and a half now, and both her accounts are amazing. Her personal account is full of funny anecdotes and generally amazing tweets, whereas SighhDesigns showcases the variety of phonecases/pocket mirrors/etc you can buy from the comforts of your laptop. Anyway, enough on the contexual side of things.. lets get to the good bit.

One of my favourite things about Sighh Designs is the typography included on the phone cases. It makes the cases look so original and Polly always gets it right (she is a genius). For example, look at this biology based case, there is such a variation of font that just stands out and the background consisting of cells and organelles just seal the deal. What makes it even better is that this case was hand drawn, talk about dedication. I also love the pink/green colour scheme of this case.

Sighh Designs also make little pocket mirrors which contain the same kind of kooky designs. I love this one; this is basically my life summed up in four words. I am always getting lipstick on my teeth!

If you haven't got the general idea from this post already, I absolutely love Sighh Designs and I am so inspired by how Polly has sucessfully developed her own little business over time. In my opinion, her cases are so much better than the ones you can buy in shops such as Urban Outfitters - because they ooze individuality. She is so popular on Twitter and Instagram and I have seen so many people rave about her cases! She also has a blog which is very cute. You can check that out here .

Please go and check out Sighh Designs today, if you are anything like me (a sucker for cute designs) you will love everything.

All of the photos included in this post were taken by the wonderful Polly , founder of Sighh Designs. I take no credit whatsoever for the any of pictures included in this post.

RECENT PURCHASES

I love reading/watching hauls and I thought that I would take the opportunity to show you all a collection of things that I have bought in the past couple of weeks.

The first thing on the list is a pair of curling tongs. I have been looking for some curlers that will define my curls when I have it natural, as I find it really hard to curl my hair with straighteners. I picked up the Remington Keratin Therapy Hair Tongs from Boots! I paid £24.99 for them which is a pretty good price for a quality pair of curlers! I have used them once already since buying them on Saturday and I think they work really well. They have a variety of heat settings so they can be adapted to use on any hair type.

After seeing Gabriella aka Velvetgh0st include Topshop's Magic Liner in one of her makeup tutorials, I just knew that I was going to buy it. I had previously been using a liquid eyeliner by Loreal and I felt the need to find a new one because the one I was using was drying up really quickly. I really like the Magic Liner because it is so easy to use, it is highly pigmented and it has a really pointy nib which helps you get the perfect line.

I also bought a lipstick from Kate Moss's Collection. I owned this lipstick a while back and I lost it but I am so glad I finally found it again! The shade is 016, which is a lovely coral colour, it's really moisturising to your lips as well which is a big advantage. Coral coloured lipsticks are great for summer.