Twenty things I will tell my twenty year old children.

I've been gallivanting about to Sheffield and seeing my brother and family recently. But on my travels, I came across an article called 'Things every twenty something should realise'. Although it wasn't a great post, it got me thinking; if I were to re live these past couple of years, late teens to early twenties. What would I want to know that I didn't? And these are the things I came up with.

1. Spend less time getting ready in the morning - I distinctly remember getting up at six in the morning to leave the house at eight thirty, no one needs that much time.
2. Hit the snooze button less.
3. You are what you eat - don't fad diet, buy a really great cook book and learn to cook.
4. Run - everything gets better when you run. Less stress, more sleep, better skin, better confidence.
5. Realise that it's okay to take a break from partying, and read a book instead.
6. Know that reading a book is a lot better for you than reality TV, as much as you like it.
7. Always wear a condom.
8. Make a bucket list.
9. When you think you're missing out, you're not.
10. Sex is always better when you're emotionally involved with a partner.
11. Savings accounts are cool.
12. Stop expecting your relationship to be perfect, work at it, and if your other half doesn't work at it, ditch them and find someone who will.
13. Spend less time hating life and more time listening to people, because they're really interesting.
14. The most interesting people are those who are interested in others - so be interested in everything, art, music, media, criminology, aerospace engineering, business and accounting.
15. If you're going to get a tattoo, have an idea, then if you still want it in a month, then get it, because you know you'll still want it.
16. Don't raise your voice, better your argument.
17. Don't have secrets, if you have secrets, people can have power over you - my creative writing teacher told me this once and it stuck with me since, and he is the most emotionally healthy person I've ever met.
18. Live for a year in a big city, or abroad.
19. Make plans for the future, don't expect to stick to them, but make plans and get excited about things.
20. Don't be afraid to fall in love.

What would you tell your twenty year old self?

Love always,

Product review: Urban Decay Primer Potion

I don't know why I haven't sung this product's praises before. This is the only product I've ever bought and then re bought, in a bigger size, because it's the bomb.

This is the Urban Decay Primer Potion, you stick it on your lids before your eyeshadow and it makes the colour last, without creasing, all day. This combined with a MAC paint pot like [PAINTERLY] gives you eye make up that is monsoon proof, seriously, that stuff will not come off for any tsunami.

It also brightens your eyeshadows, making them really pop, and helps your mascara stay in place, a win win situation if you ask me. You can also swipe it under your eyelids to stop your concealer creasing.

They've got a few variations of it too, so whatever your preference there's something for you!

Eyeshadow Primer Potion - (as shown in photo, goes on creamy, dries to translucent)
Anti Ageing Eyeshadow Primer Potion - (translucent finish)
Eye Primer in Eden - (tawny, matte finish)
Eye Primer in Sin - (champagne, shimmer finish) 
Eye Primer in Greed - (yellow gold, shimmer finish)

The three coloured ones can also be used as highlighters too!

Each one is £15.00/11ml of product. I can't remember when I bought mine, it was so long ago, but it's still going strong!

There's also a little travel size one you can buy for £8.00/6ml - here which is great if you want to try before you buy!

Love always,

Growing out a bad haircut.

I'm sure every girl has a story to tell here, it's a sore subject for most of us and even looking back on distant memories of perms/colours/cuts gone wrong is probably enough to make you feel a little down, so sorry to bring up those memories - but it needs to be addressed.
This is a bit of a rant post, so please, feel free to skip ahead to the actual tips, (below the picture of Carol Brady from the Brady Bunch)

I have only been to one hair dresser all my life, but since I live in Bristol half the time, I thought it was time to be brave and branch out. Unfortunately, I had to turn to Groupon for a voucher because most hairdressers in Bristol tend to break my forty-pound-a-week budget. So I opted for a hairdressers called 'Hairticians', which wasn't the cheapest one on there, but at £26 for a half head of highlights, cut and blow dry, I thought I couldn't go wrong, boy was I mistaken.

I drove to the hairdressers, which has no parking anywhere nearby, and walked back to get there. I was booked in for ten o'clock, but when I arrived at the hairdressers at 10.10 it was shut, so I popped in to the Tesco express next door to get out of the rain and waited a good ten minutes before someone arrived to open it. I was then told I would have to pay extra if I wanted more than one colour highlight - which I had not been told when I booked the appointment - before being ushered to a chair. To give them their dues, it's a very nice hairdressers inside, all black, pink, white and chic, with floor to ceiling mirrors and pictures of people with fantastic hair on the walls. But over the next three hours, I witnessed my hairdresser shout at a man who came in to measure the floor of the salon, bitch about a client she had in the day before, and turn my shoulder length bright blonde straight hair into a khaki coloured mullet.

For serious, I came away with a mullet. Ever seen Noel Fielding's hair? That's what it looked like. And I am not even ashamed to say that I cried a little on the way home. My hair is thin anyway and she had cut the top layers to ear height and left the bottom layers wispy and shoulder length. I had asked for a trim and my layers to be tidied up, and her exact words when she pulled my hair up to do my layers were: 'Don't panic when I cut all this off' and as my mouth dropped, she severed four inches off.

Nothing could be worse about this haircut. She gave me a short fringe, which doesn't weigh down my unruly cowlicks, I have a round face and the top layers are at the exact length that they hit the widest point of my face, making it look even wider. And, well, I look like Carol Brady.

So what do you do when you have a bad haircut?

Well there is some great news, hair grows back. (About six inches a year)

And in the meantime there's some options to consider:

1. Tell your stylist. Usually, they'd prefer you to tell them if you don't like the hair cut, and they'll try and 'fix' it at no extra cost, or show you how to style it in to something you might prefer.

2. If you're like me, and are constantly afraid of offending people, you may wish to pop to a different hairdressers to have your barnet fixed, find a recommendation from a friend.

3. If you're not afraid of going shorter, try that. It will make the layers all blend a little neater.

4. Wear your hair up, try accessorising with headbands and scarves. You may as well mix it up a little, maybe you'll find something you love!

5. Wear it wavy. This will obscure the ends, and disguise the layers.

6. Stay away from heat as much as possible, this will encourage your hair to grow faster.

So for all you wonderful people who have suffered bad haircuts too, let's embrace the hair bands, top up our make up skills and hopefully distract away from the bad barnet, until our hair grows back!

Love always,

Move yo' ass - Couch to 5k

Hey y'all,
So I've taken this time off to attempt to sort my life out. In all honesty, this post is going to be a mix of happiness and sadness - because I found it difficult to sort my life out. I realise that I rarely take pleasure in doing anything anymore, and everything that I actively do is all to please someone else and not myself, so then I asked myself what do I want? And I couldn't come up with an answer, I don't know where I want to be in five years, ten years, twenty years, and anything that I did come up with was quickly quelled by the fact that I would never have the funds to do such a thing, or that I'd never have the determination. I have no goals, no aspirations and no determination to stick at anything I would half like to do, what kind of life is that? I'm 21 and I can't dream. 
So I've decided to go back to basics because thinking about this was stressing me out, and as I said in my previous post Learning to be beautiful, I need to make myself happy before anything else.
One thing I decided to kick in the face straight away;
Fitness.
I used to work out quite a lot, but have drifted back in to couch potato mode. Exercising does you so much good that it seemed like a good place to start. I heard about this programme called 'Couch to 5k' run by the NHS, where in 9 weeks, you can get from being a couch potato to running 5k (or solidly for thirty minutes). You download a podcast each week, which you listen to whilst on your run, and they - the NHS people - have created a playlist with the right running tempo, and a lovely woman called Laura who coaches you, whilst you alternate between running and walking. I'm on week two, and so far it's going well. 

So if you're feeling a little blue after summer, maybe this will keep you going through winter, give you something to aspire to! 
You can find everything you need to know about the Couch to 5k here, and you can download the podcasts from iTunes.

All my love

Learning to be beautiful.

I've never written a post like this before, it's not going to be about a payday product I've been longing to get, or my excitement over my new Mom jeans. It's about learning to be beautiful again.

I'm not really an emotional girl, I'm happy to listen, but I'm awful at advice, and when I'm sad I'll hole myself up in my room and not emerge for days on end.

Recently I've had to be human, which is why I've been away from SDT for so long, too long. Unfortunately, my better half and I broke up, we're still on good terms and have promised to be friends in the future, but in the meantime, I'm having to learn to live life without him, and after six years, that's probably the most difficult thing I've ever done.

Few people are content with who they are, what they're doing and where they're going, and it's important to learn to love ourselves before we can love others, and expect them to love us, otherwise there will either be this little devil, niggling away in the back of your head, which prevents you from living your days the way you really want to. 

When you're next having a bit of a rough week, take some time out to remember why you love yourself, and if you don't know, then it's time to change a few things.

Often we spend so long in relationships, whether it be with your family or other half or friends, that we begin to take them for granted, make sure you remember the exact reasons why you love them, and go out of your way to do something nice for them, send them a kind text, meet them for lunch buy them a small gift, without a doubt they'll appreciate it. 

It's not a crime to mope for a bit when bad things happen, sometimes we need to realise that crying and remembering are good ways to deal with it, we need to grieve to move on. Find someone to talk to, and if you don't have anyone to talk to, or don't want to talk to someone who's close to you, look in to finding someone impartial that can listen. And remember, you're not sick, you're getting better.

I like to imagine future me, like this really awesome super Sherry who's teaching creative writing, or writing for a magazine, happily married and travelling, with a cute little one bedroom apartment, and I think I have to go through these sad times to get to that point. And even if things change, it'll be okay because I'll love myself and be prepared for whatever life has to throw at me.

So I'm going to take some time out from blogging for a couple of weeks. I'm going to Estonia and Russia anyway, perhaps getting out of the country and seeing some new beautiful culture will help to clear my head. Until then, enjoy the sunshine and take care of yourselves.

Love always,

Givenchy Pop Gloss Review

This month has been a limited spend month for me, as will next and the month after, which is getting boring, but needs to be done. So to occupy myself, I've been digging around in my make up draw and re discovering things I'd forgotten about.

I found this Givenchy Pop Gloss tucked away at the back behind various travel bottles of dry shampoo and moisturiser I haven't used in years and I cannot tell you how excited I was to find it again! I'd totally forgotten I'd had it, but the timing was perfect because it's such a summery colour!

Colour - 448 Pop Gloss Crystal

 It's the most stunning coral colour with peachy gold flecks in it to give your lips a slight shimmer. And the smell is delicious, it's very faint, like MAC's lipsticks slight vanilla scent - but it smells of popping candy, which makes me nostalgic for the 90's. The doe foot applicator is easy to use and the product goes on in a beautiful thick layer.

 So pretty! It's sheer, with the right amount of pigment to give a flush of colour, you can wear it alone, or I've yet to put it over a lipstick and not like it. The finish is high shine, but not at all sticky, which I often find is an issue with glosses.

Unfortunately, I think they've discontinued this gloss now, but if you like it, you can still find some on eBay here, or Amazon here. They start at £8.00 which is great for a high end product.

Sleek Pout Paint Review

Well hello again, I've been away from SDT for too, too long now. I thought student summer holidays were supposed to be a time of R and R, apparently I was wrong.

These are two little gems that I received in my July Summer Splash Glossybox, that made promises to be similar to Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics Lip Tars, and huzzah, turns out they fit the bill.

I know some people received the blue one, which may have been a little too nerve wracking for my safe tastes, so I was grateful to receive mine in Cloud 9 (left) and Rosette (right).

These little tubes contain some super highly pigmented lip stain, with a little notice on the back that states 'FYI a little goes a long way'. They are right, you can squidge the tiniest drop on to your brush and it'll cover your whole lips, so at £4.99, they're fantastic value for money. There's 11 shades, and they're made to be mixed and matched in whichever quantities you fancy to either brighten the colour or create a whole new one.

Cloud 9 - Ice White

Rosette - Vibrant raspberry pink

The two shades mixed

 They apply well, in a thick, rich consistency with beautiful pigment and opacity. Although they're beautiful colours, I wouldn't have classed them as a 'stain' as the colour didn't last as long as I'd hoped. But for the vibrancy and the price, I'd definitely re purchase again, and just keep in my bag for touch ups - I want to get my hands on the shades Milkshake and Mauve Over!

You can buy Sleek Pout Paints from Superdrug - RRP £4.99/8ml

Don't forget to follow me on bloglovin' here!

Getting the Golden Goddess Glow

Great alliteration or what? 

Summer is all about getting the glow whilst eliminating the shine, so I've got some great budget products for you to fake that beautiful glow. 

Left to right:
theBalm Bahama Mama Bronzer RRP £12.50 - This is a recent addition to my make up collection. I got some good reviews on make up alley, and I was looking for a new bronzer so popped it in my 'Payday Products Basket'. It is great for contouring, a real matte, muddy brown colour. It's also really great for bronzing on the high points of your face, but be prepared to use a really fluffy brush to blend it out if your a pale one like myself.

Topshop Cream Blush in Head Over Heels. RRP £6.00 - I cannot get enough of this blusher. I'd never used a cream one before, but it has great longevity, a sheer bright peachy pink colour, that could double up as a lip colour. Has no shimmer and is great for getting that 'been in the sun a little too long' look.

17 Lasting Lipstick in Blonde RRP £4.29 - Often when people attempt the golden goddess look, they will opt for a bronze colour everywhere. The key is to use similar tones but different colours, and this lipstick contains the same peachy pink colour as Head Over Heels, but a little darker with bronze speckling. It's super pretty and lasts all day.

Collection Shimmer Shades in Way To Glow RRP £4.19 - If you buy one budget product this summer, buy this beautiful block of shimmers. Each one with rose-gold tones can be used as a highlighters, bronzers and eyeshadows. They're sat next to me right now and even looking at them makes me smile.

 Head over Heels. Bahama Mama Bronzer. Blonde.

 The Shimmer Shades.

Rose Gold. Bronze Gold. Pearl. True Gold.

Are there any particular products you love for getting that sunkissed look?

Don't forget to follow along on twitter and bloglovin'

Blog Makeover

Why hello there and welcome to my sparkly new blog, it's still undergoing a bit of a make over, I have some more widgets to add in and an RSS feed to set up, so much to do! But I just wanted to mention the designer of this template.

Kaylah, from Rockaboo Design Studio has a lovely little business making oh so pretty templates for blogger. I'd spent ages looking for a template, something pretty and simple. One day I stumbled across her store on Etsy, and absolutely fell in love with all of the designs she has. 

So I just wanted to say thank you to her, and if you want to give your blog a makeover, go check out her site on Etsy, or on her main site Rockaboo Design Studio's.

Thanks again Kaylah!

DIY Sugar Scrubs

You can never get enough DIY posts. Everyone loves to know how to look pretty from your kitchen cupboards, you don't even have to leave the house.
I am a confessed fake tanner in summer. As soon as those yellow rays peep through the clouds, I'll be out purchasing a bottle or two of St Tropez and slapping it on. It is a hassle though, I'll agree to that, especially the prep, I can never bring myself to buy the Fake Bake Passionfruit Body Polish or the St Tropez one for that matter, since I've just forked out for tan, so I concocted a great scrub of my own for that pre tan exfoliation.

What you'll need:

2 tbsp some kind of bodywash
4 tbsp of oil (coconut oil, sweet almond oil, olive oil, any of these will do)
300g coarse sugar (granulated, demerara)
A bowl
An empty jar

Method:
1. Measure out 300g of sugar into a bowl. (I did 150g of demerara, and 150g of granulated because it looks pretty)
2. Pour in your chosen oil and body wash. I opted for Sainsbury's basics body wash, it's about 60p and smells delicious. Oil wise, I picked a mixture of coconut oil and sweet almond oil which I got from Just a Soap - here.

 3. Mix it all together

4. Spoon it in to your empty jar and screw the lid on tight!

They smell amazing and really get the dry skin off, you can add more oil to your liking depending how scrubby you like your scrubs. These are also brilliant budget presents for people, you can add colours and essential oils and really dress them up.

Try them out and see how you like them!

Sherry x

Liebster Award Tag

Hallo all!
I've been very kindly tagged by the lovely Hannah over at Hannah's Beauty Blog, to do the Liebster Award Tag! If you don't know what this is about, basically you do 11 Random Facts about yourself, answer the person who's tagged you's 11 questions, then tag 11 people with under 200 followers and ask them 11 questions, so without further ado, here goes!

11 Random Facts 

1. My all time favourite person in the world who I would love to meet is David Bowie. Actually, it's a toss up between him and Bruce Springsteen.
2. I drive a red Smart Car called Mo.
3. I LOVE hedgehogs.
4. I've dyed my hair so many times I cannot even remember what my natural colour is. Poor hair.
5. I play bingo every Monday and I have never won anything. Ever
6. If I could be any superhero, it would be Wolverine from X Men because he is the coolest.
7. I don't own a single pair of high heels.
8. I have a shelf dedicated to different tea's in my room, it's my favourite shelf
9. More than any beauty product, I love to buy underwear, so much so that I have to avoid lingerie shops and websites because my entire earnings will somehow disappear.
10. I'm actually really good at Call of Duty, ha.
11. My favourite biscuit is Fox's Cream Crunches because they're so creamy and delicious.

I never realised how hard it was to think of facts about yourself, suddenly it was like I'd been a hermit all my life, and never done anything or seen anything. Not that being a hermit is a bad thing, I imagine it's quite relaxing.

Now for Hannah's questions!

1. What’s your favourite smelling beauty product? 

Would have to be, without a shadow of a doubt, Umberto Giannini Purrfect Hot Styler Spray, or anything out of the range in the black bottles. They have the greatest scent, sweet and musky and you can build it up with lots of the products and the scent lingers all day.

2.Describe yourself in three words.

Smiley. Awkward. Pale. - How simple does that make me sound? :p

3. Lipstick or lipgloss and name your favourite.

Lipstick all the way. As for my favourite, it varies week to week, but at the moment I really love my new Topshop Macaroon, which is a pretty summery pink.

4. Plain eyes and a red lip, or statement eyes and a nude lip?

Plain eyes, red lip. I've never worn a smokey eye in my life though, so you never know, it might change.

5. What beauty product do you feel like everyone has tried, and you should have, but you haven’t? (A bit like me and the MAC scenario!)

Ha, good question. The Bumble and Bumble hair products, especially the thickening hairspray, everyone raves about the Bumble and Bumble products, but I just cannot bring myself to spend that on shampoo's, cause that's like a weeks worth of food, maybe even two, and I prefer to eat.

6.Can you remember the first makeup you bought, and what was it?

I was actually thinking about this the other day! It was a Natural Collection Foundation, which was about three shades too dark for my skin colour. I'm sure I looked like a nutter.

7.Where is the nicest place in the world that you have ever been?

This is a difficult question! Hmm. I went to Berlin a couple of years ago, and we visited a beer garden called Prater Beer Gardens, and by far it was the best moment I've ever had on holiday, cheap as chips, the beer flows freely, tonnes of fairy lights and lovely people and great food. But then I visited Rome with my better half earlier on this year and it was absolutely beautiful

8.Would you ever consider starting a YouTube channel?

I'm currently working on one right now!

9.What was your favourite subject in school?

Drama, so much so I decided to study it at Uni. I haven't decided whether it was a great or foolish idea yet.

10.What are your favourite blog posts to write?

Reviews! I'm such a scatty blogger, there's post it notes covering my wall with ideas for posts for each day of the week, but I'll always fall back on a review! I love to read collection posts though, and haul posts.

11. Do you have any pets? 

No puppies unfortunately! But I have two little black witches cats, one who is the gobbiest cat I've ever met and just shouts all the time. And a teeny little ginger hamster called Bear who is refusing to stay still for a picture, but he looks like a miniature version of this:

That's the end! Hope everybody learnt some new things and I hope you pass the exams.

My questions for y'all are:

1. The classic desert island question, what's the one product you'd take to a desert island and why?

2. If you had a snail that could magically grant wishes, what would you name it?

3. If you had a superpower, what would it be and why?

4. The world ends in one hour, what are you going to do with it?

5. Favourite skincare brand?

6. If you could only eat three foods a day, what would they be?

7. What's your first memory?

8. Have you got any claim to fames?

9.  Pastels or bright colours?

10. If you could be anyone for a day, who would it be?

11. If you could go anywhere in the world for free, where would you go?

I've tagged:

Amyloo from Amyloo's World

Mia from Make Me Up Mia

Taylor from Seams and Smiles

Chelsea from Calico Courage

Mackenzie from Easy, Lucky, Free

Ashley from That Teenage Chic

Laura from Lost in Wonderland

Rosie from Rosie Alexandra

Megan from Little Miss Average

Anya from Crazylins

You're all deserving of the award, so carry on blogging ladies :)

x

Lipsticks lipsticks lipsticks!

I am a lipstick loser. I will spend ages, choosing the colour, choosing the finish, pay a significant amount of money for it, covet it, pop it in my bag and promptly lose it.

Story of my life.

So I indulged in two new, not so expensive lipsticks from our good ol' friend Topshop!

The beautiful candy floss marshmallow pink shade on the left is Macaroon, and the blue toned red on the right is Rio Rio. Topshop make up is a new thing to me, I usually stick with brands who know their stuff and do their research, but I could not resist the amount of colours they had. And in such beautiful chalk-board packaging!

Macaroon - Velvet Finish

Rio Rio - Matte Finish

Although not as thick of a formula as my favourite MAC Russian Red, I think Rio Rio could be built up to a better opacity.

The winner though, is definitely Macaroon, I love LOVE this colour, it's so flattering and goes on like butter with a slight sheen to the finish. It's super moisturising as well as being so pretty. I may even pop back tomorrow to buy a second one, and maybe a coral shade if I'm feeling rich.

You can buy them for £8.00 here. Or in store!

Don't forget to follow along beauties!

It's Glossybox time!

Is it a new month already?
I love Glossybox day, it's like Christmas again, I think it's the element of surprise, and that not everyone has the same thing. The postman rocked up earlier today and presented me with this beautiful summery Glossybox which I am ever so excited about.

Beautiful coral and turquoise packaging

I could not get over how summery this box made me feel. Inside is all products perfect for the beach and holidays, all in handy travel sizes which you can pop in your hand luggage.

Left to right:
1. Alterna Haircare - Bamboo Style Boho Waves Tousled Texture Mist. This sounds right up my street, anything with the word boho in is a draw for me. I think there's something a bit romantic about bohemian-ness that I just can't cast aside. I love a bit of sea salt spray me, so hopefully this will be a new permanent addition to the hair care shelf. I haven't yet tried it, but I had a quick spritz to smell it, not as summery as I hoped but very refreshing.

2. Coola Original Suncare Collection: Coola Mineral Face SPF 20 Unscented. This promises to be a tinted suncream, which is interesting. However the shade seems kind of pale, so if your of a darker complexion this may make you look a little ashen, maybe worth investigating if they do other shades. It's supposed to have UVA/UVB protection, pore minimizing and anti ageing agents set to work whilst soothing and toning the skin. Hopefully it'll be the wonder product it claims to be!

3. Sleek Pout Paint. By far the thing I'm most excited about, retailing at £4.99 each, I'm hoping they're going to be as good as the Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics Lip Tar. I received two, one in Pinkini, a dark blue toned pinky purple colour and another in Cloud 9, a frosted white, which you can mix with other shades to add vibrancy/make lighter.

4. Essie Sleek Sticks. Like the Nail Rock wraps, Essie have brought out a similar version which promise to be a lot more resiliant than others. I have never ever got on with nail wraps, I keep buying them thinking 'This time will be different!' but it never is, and my nails always end up looking awful. So hopefully these will win me over on the nail wrap front. You can't see too well from the picture, but these are in a black and grey zebra stripe which appeals to my vampy side.

5. Anatomicals Spray Misty for Me Facial Spritz. Although laughing at the Anatomicals slogan 'We only want you for your body', this is a product which doesn't particularly appeal to me. I don't understand why you'd spend money on a bottle of scented water that you can spray yourself in the face with. So I'm half looking forward to trying this out, but I'm not too optimistic! - Not yet easily obtainable in the UK.

Hope you got goodies in yours too!

Happy Glossyboxing!

x

Bourjois 10 Day Nail Varnish

Just a quick review tonight. In all honesty, I find nail reviews a bit of a cop out, because you can pick up any old nail varnish and whack it up, but I was kind of excited about this nail varnish since it's so summery and bright that I decided I'd share it with you anyway.

This is Bourjois 10 Jour (Day) Nail Varnish.

It's a deliciously blue toned pink, and I'm desperate to find a lipstick just like it to match. This nail varnish claims to stay for ten days - and comes with a slanted touch up brush. The colour goes on pretty much opaque, but it helps to add a second layer for longevity.

It comes in seven colours, but you can only buy it in two on the Boots website for some reason - here, so I'd suggest popping in to store.

Bourjois 10 Jour Nail Enamel RRP £5.99/9g

Prime your way, to make your make up stay all day!

So I think there was too many syllables in that title to make it rhyme perfectly, but at least I tried.
In summer time, we're all so busy we need our make up to last all day, but when we're rushing around with no time to touch up, and when the sun is shining down on us, there's no way we can manage that, right!? Wrong.

We're going to talk primers. I am the biggest fan of primers, I will more likely go sans make up if I'm wearing a primer because I find it makes my skin look just that teeny bit better. I haven't yet fallen in love with a face primer, so here are some of the ones I've tested, and my thoughts on them.

1. Revlon Photoready Perfecting Primer - This is a new addition to my make up collection, it's a brightening primer and so far I really like it. It's a really light consistency and makes your skin feel super smooth, more so than the other primers, I don't necessarily notice it brightening, but it does make my skin look like it's in soft focus. And you get tonnes of product in the bottle, you'll get bored of it before you run out! RRP £9.99/27ml

2. Beautiful Movements Cosmetics Prime and Create Mixing Medium - what a mouthful. This little see through number didn't particularly work for me as a primer, I find it makes my skin a little greasy. However, it is fantastic mixed with eyeshadow to create cream eyeshadows or blush or eyeliners, you can also mix it with foundation to get a sheerer coverage. RRP £20.00/20g

3. MAC Prep and Prime Skin Base - This has been knocking around in my make up draw for ages, and I have a bit of a love hate relationship with it. I always love how it makes you skin feel, so silky and smooth, I want to touch it all the time! My problem with it though is that it's sparkly. Albeit very fine sparkles, but sparkly all the same, in the winter time this isn't such a problem, but in summer, I step outside and look like a character from Twilight. Definitely an acquired taste this one! RRP £20.50/30ml

4. Benefit Cosmetics That Gal Primer - I think this is up there with my favourites because I can see it makes a difference to your skin. Smother this delightful smelling primer on your face and you get a really pretty glow at the end. It doesn't, however make your skin feel anything special, unlikes the others. Cute packaging though. RRP £22.50/11ml

5. No7 Colour Calming Primer in Green - I think this was my first primer, and I still repurchase it for days when I've over done it in the sun, or mistreated my skin and it's a bit redder than usual. I find it best to squeeze a bit on to my hand, and mix it with my foundation before applying, and this tends to neutralise any redness. RRP £10.50/40ml

What primers do you use? Do you have any suggestions?

Travelling Toiletries

It's that time of year again, where holidays are coming up and, if you're unprepared like me, you're running around the shops two days before hand, looking for new books, clothes, travel sized toiletries and whatnot, without breaking the bank. So this year I've vowed to myself to be more organised.

I tend to decant my current toiletries like shampoo, cleanser, face wash etc in to smaller bottles, because then there's no break in my routine and it's a hell of a lot easier than taking full sized products. I usually pick up some disposable bottles and tubs from Primark or Boots. But this year, I decided to spend a little bit extra and pick up some of these reusable bottles and pouches from Lakeland.

These bottles are great, they're made from squishy silicon, ensuring you can get every last bit out, rinse them out and use them again next year. They also have a suction cup on the back so you can stick them to your shower wall - less fuss, less hassle, quicker showering. They come in small medium and large and are all 100ml or less, so you can even take them on the plane!

They also come with a collar saying Shampoo, Conditioner, and Shower Gel, which you twist round, making sure you know what they contain, rather than having to label them or, as I so often do, end up sniffing what's inside to try and identify it.

These bags are brilliant, as well as being the cheeriest things I've ever seen. They come in small medium and large and are perfect for filling with makeup and popping in your hand bag, so you don't loose track of things, or in your hand luggage so your passports, handgel and wipes are all in one place, and you can get all three for £7.99.

You can buy the trio of bottles here, £15.99 and the pouches here. £7.99

Faking it. (On a budget)

We've all faked it, and if you told me you hadn't, I'd call you a liar.
We're so unprepared for sun here in England. As soon as the slightest bit of sun peeps out from behind the clouds, everyone's in shorts and t-shirts and families are heading down to the beach. It's so unexpected when we get some  nice weather, that suddenly everyone's running to Boots to pick up some fake tan so that we can get our pins out without looking like some kind of extra terrestrial.

A good, lasting fake tan can be expensive, and I agree, you shouldn't skimp on a good tan, lest you end up looking tangoed. But there are some brilliant budget fake tans you can buy, just to tide you over until your bank account feels a bit more healthy.

Old packaging of moisturiser shown.

Before I left Bristol, I popped in to their huge Primark and discovered that they were selling Sunkissed Bronze Tanning Mousse for a fiver, so I picked it up in Medium Bronze and headed home to test it out, to the outrage of my little cousin,  who has more sense than she needs and said 'You're trusting Primark with your fake tan?'

But I was astounded with it. It comes out in a mousse, and if using a tanning mit spreads evenly and quickly over the skin. Fast drying, it comes with a fresh tropical scent, reminiscent of Pina Colada's on the beach. It's so easy, it took me two minutes to do a full body application. The colour is great too, the medium bronze worked even for my fair skin, it's not orange at all and slightly ruddy in colour, as if you've been out in the sun just a little too long.

Admittedly, it's a wash off one, but it does leave a slightly golden stain, so you don't go back milky white straight away.

My other product which I love for faking a golden glowing tan is Avon's Skin So Soft Golden Gems Moisturiser - long name. It's a super light moisturiser with tiny golden luminescent particles which catch the light, great for the legs, across collar bones and arms. I like to put this on first and then Primark's tanning mousse over the top for a really sheer, healthy glow.

Sunkissed Bronze Tanning Mousse RRP £4.99/200ml here, or in Primark stores.
Avon Skin So Soft Mineral Gems Glamorous Gold Moisturiser RRP £2.70/250ml - link.

365 plays...and books #2

I recently just finished reading American Psycho - which I'll review at a later date when I've figured out what I think of it - and started scouring my bookshelves for another read when I came across a much dusty well loved book called Birdsong.

Some of you might know Birdsong from the BBC production of it starring the absolutely drop dead boyishly beautiful Eddie Redmayne. I studied this book for A Level, a long time ago now, and it was the first book I had ever read which made me shed a bucket load of tears.

It's split in to three parts and follows a man named Stephen Wraysford through the First World War and the time he spent before hand in France. Sebastian Faulks creates some really wonderful characters who you get to love. It's also a really interesting book, in that I never knew there was almost a whole second war going on underneath the ground. Soldiers from both sides would tunnel underneath no mans land and try to bomb each others tunnels, and they would take a caged bird down with them so they could be warned if the tunnel was filling with gas, the bird would die and they would have enough time to scarper before explosions hit/the gas killed them. Pretty clever right?

Sebastian Faulks has written a few other books too, one of which I will definitely put on my summer reading list.

You can buy Birdsong from Amazon for £5.59 here, or you can pop it on your Kindle for slightly cheaper.

Confessions of a Concealaholic

 So for those who Benefit Cosmetic kit virgins, you are missing out. They are the handiest little things, all of them are perfect sizes to fit in your hand bag, and they contain all the products you need in one place, which makes them fantastic for travelling and summer - especially if you're heading to a festival this year!

This is my most recent gain into my make up draw. It's called Confessions of a Concealaholic, and contains everything you need to eliminate any flaws on your face, and enhance all the good stuff.

Products from left to right:

1. That Gal Brightening Face Primer

2. Lemon Aid - Colour Correcting Eyelid Primer

3. Eye Bright - Instant Eye Brightener

4. Erase Paste - Brightening Camouflage for Eyes and Face

5. Boi-ing 02 - Industrial Strength Concealer

6. Boi-ing 01 - Industrial Strength Concealer

I'm so excited about this little kit because it's just so perfect! You can mix the colours, and use all the products or just a few depending on how unfriendly your skin is looking that day. One thing I really like about Benefit's products too, is that they all smell really yummy, in a really natural way. The kit also comes with a little 'how-to' booklet, in case any one is new to concealing and needs a point in the right direction, but is also still handy for those unfamiliar to the products.

You can Confessions of a Concealaholic from Boots. RRP £28.50

Product Review - Korres Cleansing Face Mask

Whilst doing a little payday shopping, I decided to look for a face mask. My skin has been unfriendly as of late and in desperate need of a little soothing. I found this little number on feelunique.com.

It's a Pomegranate Cleansing Face Mask by a Greek brand called Korres, which I've never encountered before, but am pretty sure I'll have a further peek at what goodies they produce. The masks come in a range, for all different skin types, but I picked up the one for my oily skin, and it completely surpassed all my expectations, which was a fantastic surprise!

It's made with clay and pomegranate and smells really delicate when applied, so if you don't like a lot of fragrance in your face masks, this would be good for you.

I used a tiny amount and can easily cover my whole face with it, you could probably get a good few uses out of it. The consistency is really creamy as well which I love in a face mask. What I was most taken by though is the finish it leaves on the skin. I have okay skin as far as things go, apart from it being oily, so it's rare that I see a significant difference after using a face mask, but this made my skin look and feel really fresh, and evened out some slight discolouration around my brow bone, which was greatly appreciated.

Pros:
- Cute simple packaging
- Creamy consistency
- Delicate scent
- Bright fresh look left on skin

Cons:
- Could do with more product in the tube (but hey, when isn't this a con?)

Verdict:
Will definitely re purchase!

You can buy the Korres Face Mask here. RRP £7.00/16ml

P.S. They do some nice sets which be fabulous for festival season!

Sherry x