Long time, no post!

Oh my goodness it has been so long since I posted anything on here! This post is basically what I call 'welcome to a third and final year university student's life'. Can I just say that I appreciate everyone who has visited this blog while I haven't been posting i'm so suprised people still do!

Okay so my last post was in last Summer...a lot of things happened after that post, some good and some really not so good. I don't think i've posted about this before but I have panic disorder or at least I now know that is what it is after the end of last Summer turned into a pretty horrendous experience involving panic attacks and having a leave a job. Really truely something I would rather never experience again and if any one reading this has similar experiences then please know that you are not alone and feel free to message,comment anything if you want to talk. So yes that was not a good time in my life, however once I started back at university for my final year I was thrown into the land of dissertation and coursework madness!

If anyone has been through their final year at university/college you will know what I mean. I feel like i'm permanently attached to my notebooks and textbooks, its been one hell of a mission to get to this point. However i'm now two months away from finishing university and i'm really excited but also terrified! Is that possible? I'm looking forward to having no coursework and having my own place (student living is not all its cracked up to be let me tell you, look out for a future post on this!) and i'm also looking forward to having a bit more structure back in my life. I'm terrified because I don't really know what I want to do, but i'm learning that this comes with time and experience and trying to remember that is not essential to land your dream job straight out of uni!

 

Okay so enough of me waffling on about my life. I hope everyone is well. I've got some posts lined up, i've acculmulated a lot of products and various items since last Summer that I want to review and talk about and also just some general life posts which could well be dull as dish water but we'll see!

 

 

xx

Yankee Candles!

I think I have developed a slight obsession over Yankee Candles in the past few months. I have always liked candles, I like to have one burning in my room when i'm working or just relaxing, they just give a really nice atmosphere. I do like non-scented candles as well but I think I would always choose scented over non-scented. Last Christmas I was given a few small Yankee Candles, including Christmas Eve and Christmas Tree, which both smell absolutely divine and I wish it was acceptable to burn them all year round! Anyway due to the fact that most of other candles are Christmas scents I decided to get some new ones.

I bought Midnight Jasmine in a regular tumbler for £7.99 in the Debenhams sale a couple of weeks ago. I love it, it gives off a really strong jasmine scent which I love, its really relaxing but not overpowering, as sometimes I find the more flowery scents to be a bit heady. But this is quite light. The second recent addition is Cinnamon Stick in a small jar which was a birthday present from my sister, this smells amazing, I cannot tell you how much I love this candle! I love cinnamon in anything, on greek yoghurt, in my hot chocolate, so this candle is perfect. Now I know that it could be classed as a Christmas scent or just a general winter one but I don't care I just couldn't wait that long to burn it! Plus with the English summer weather leaving much to be desired I can pretend its winter anyway!

I believe the small jars are usually around the £8 mark but I try to buy Yankee Candles when they are on offer because they are expensive unless you just want testers or sample sizes. I do think that they are worth the money though, one of my pet peeves is buying a scented candle that doesn't actual disperse the fragrance in a room! Yankee Candles definitely do leave a room smelling amazing! Does anyone else love scented candles as much as I do or have any suggestions of ones I should try?

xx



Dare to imPRESS

So I've been a bit behind with my posting but it was my birthday this Wednesday just gone and i've got a few posts lined up about things I got as gifts but also a couple of mini hauls because i've been a bit naughty with shopping lately...oops. Anyway I had a lovely birthday and this first post is about the (relatively) new imPRESS nails by Broadway Nails. Now i'd seen a few posts on these and I wasn't really struck by them, i'm not really a fake nails kind of person and recently I haven't been painting my nails either. However the day before my birthday my sister gave me a pack of these to try out, and I was a bit dubious however after having them on for nearly five days now I have to admit that I really like them!

This design is called TGIF, and at first I was leaning towards the 'they're a bit tacky' feelings about these nails, as i've seen a lot of people say, however i've found that i've enjoyed wearing them and they are quite cheerful for summer, despite the atrocious weather we're having! My dislike for fake nails has previously come from the fact that they can be fiddly to apply and prone to dropping off at any given moment, however these are so simple to apply, I took me literally about five minutes after i'd decided on sizes. You just peel of the backing and press down, and these bad boys do not move an inch once they are on! It says on the box 'lasts up to a week' and so far i'm on day five and they are still firmly on and look exactly the same as when I put them on. I'm extremely impressed and today I went out a bought another pair called Rated R, which are a plain burgandy colour, which i'd seen before and really loved.

So overall I'd definitely recommend these, they are a tad tacky depending which pattern you go for, but to be honest who cares!? They are fun, easy and quick to use, you can get them in Boots and they cost £7.99 for plain colours and £8.99 for patterned ones, but the last a long time and i'm sure you can use them again if you wanted to with nail glue, plus you get 24 in a pack so plently to do another set with. I'll definitely be using these again.

x

Power of Botanics!

Apologies for the lack of posts i've been working at a summer school so i've had no internet for the past week and a bit, but i'm back now! For the past couple of weeks i've been trying a new day cream and I thought i'd do a review on it now. It is the Botanics Radiant Youth Protecting Day Cream with SPF 15 from Boots and it was £7.99. I couldn't find it online so maybe it's only available instore?!

First of all the packing is nothing special to be honest, although I do like the box it comes in, but its just a white plastic pot but that doesn't bother me too much as it just sits in my bathroom. You get 50ml of product which I think is pretty good and a little goes a long way with this product which I like, I much prefer lighter moisturisers than really heavy feeling products.

This acts as a great base for make-up and i've definitely noticed that my foundation and powder stay in place a lot longer than without this cream, so that's been a huge plus while i've been working long days, I haven't had to worry about reapplying and the SPF has worked a treat (well on the two days of vague sun we had last week!). My skin has felt much better as well, not as tight and the dry patches on my cheeks have cleared up which i'm really happy about. The only thing negative about this product is the smell when it you first put it on, I cannot describe it but I really don't like it at all, however it doesn't last long which is good, but it is slightly offputting to start with, however i've persevered because it has really helped my skin a lot. So all in all I would definitely recommend this product to anyone looking for a light day cream suitable for young adult skin and i'll be repurchasing this when mine runs out.

I hope everyone is well and having a lovely weekend.

xx

Return to The Body Shop!

So today I decided to go a do a bit of shopping and to be honest it was mainly just window shopping just to see what was about. I must say there are some nice things about, i'm particularly liking H & M and Zara at the moment! I could spend a lot of money in both shops! Anyway I was walking past The Body Shop when I noticed they were having a sale, now I used to get bits from The Body Shop as a child (did anyone else have the animal shape soaps? So cute!) but as an adult i've never really shopped in there. Mainly due to the fact that in my hometown its really out of the way and I tend to forget it exists! So today I decided to have a look and was pleasantly surprised. The smell of the products in there remind me of childhood and birthdays, which is nice and they have certainly increased their range vastly since I last looked in there. So after browsing for quite a while I bought two products and they were both in the sale!

The first is the Fuzzy Peach Bath and Shower Gel which was £2, such a good price considering they are normally £4! This smells amazing, its quite sweet and reminds me of Robinson's peach squash which might be off-putting to some but I love it! It's soap free and contains peach extract and Community Trade aloe vera, so good stuff! I'm excited to use this and I think I will take it with me when i'm working at the summer school next week as its a good size to fit in my suitcase.

The second product I bought was the Cucumber Freshening Water, also £2 down from £4. This is branded as a toner that refreshes and cleanses, which sounds good to me and its for all skin types, so I would imagine its quite gentle. I'll probably do a full review on this after using it for a while. Anyway this also smells lovely, cucumber is such a refreshing scent, it almost smells cooling if that is possible so I think this will be nice for hot days (if England ever sees any!!). So i'm pleased with both products, and i'm definitely going to heading to The Body Shop more often now especially when they are having sales, and if anyone has any Body Shop product recommendations i'd love to hear them!

Hope everyone has had a good day :)

x

Giveaway winner!

Congratulations to Clare at Happy Go Lucky who has won my giveaway!! (I've sent you an email) Thank you to everyone that entered and I will be doing more of these throughout the year so don't worry if you didn't win this time there will be more opportunities!

I am finally over my cold/flu and will be posting again later on today and tomorrow. I hope everyone is well and having a good week!

x

Little shop and the dreaded flu!

First off I apologise for the lack of posts recently, I've been really busy over the Jubilee weekend and am now pretty ill with some sort of cold/flu type thing. Its actually driving me mad now, I hate being ill! I hope everyone else is well and had a good weekend/long weekend if you're in the UK! I celebrated the Jubilee first at a dinner party on Saturday night and then me and boyfriend did a massive BBQ for his family which was nice. Yesterday was my sister's 21st, unfortunately we were both pretty ill and spent most of the day on the sofa watching dvds, I had to go to Bristol in the morning for some work training, I'm an ambassador for my university so in a couple of weeks i'll be doing a summer school, which will be good but having to travel yesterday feeling like death warmed up was not fun! Anyway my sister had a good day regardless and didn't seem too disappointed that she spent the day inside with the tissues so thats alright. Anyway last week I did a bit of shopping so I thought I show you a couple of bits I got. Nothing amazing but I just wanted to write a post.

The gemini necklace was one of my sister's birthday presents, I found it in Topshop and really liked it, its simple but cute and also it doesn't look horribly cheap like some of the jewellery in there, it was £7 which isn't too bad and the chain is a good length, I hate it when they are really short! My sister liked it which is good!

The nail varnish was from Urban Outfitters and was £6, so a similar price to the Topshop polishes, i'm undecided about whether I like this or not to be honest. Its called 'Twinkie' and its a clear polish with tons of holographic glitter in and pastel pink and turquoise stars. It looks so pretty in the packaging which is what made me buy it but actually getting the stars out and on to your nails is a bit of a mission! They don't stick well to the brush so I have a feeling that the more I use it the more i'll just end up with a load of stars at the bottom of the jar which is disappointing! However it does look lovely over pastel lilac nail polishes! Oh you will need a good topcoat over this one, otherwise the stars will disappear within a couple of hours!

Okay now i'm a bit ring mad to be honest, and I should probably stop buying them, however I couldn't resist this one! Yes its huge as you can see from the below photo.

However I love it! It was £2.99 from H&M, absolute bargain if you ask me, it feels weighty, not cheap and the stone is set nicely and doesn't sound hollow or loose if you tap it. I love the detail on the silver (e.g. some kind of metal that looks silver) as well. I've worn it a lot already so i'm really happy with that!

So thats just a couple of bits i've purchased recently, I will hopefully be feeling better soon so I can post more, me and boyfriend are meant to be going to Brighton this weekend if i'm better so i'll hopefully get some photos and maybe do a bit of shopping so I can post about that! I'm pretty excited to go to the lanes to shop and to try some of the vegetarian restuarants there! If anyone has any suggestions of where we should go let me know! Hope everyone is having a good day, ooh and remember to enter my giveaway if you haven't already!

xx