Bags, Bags, Bags...

Okay it occurred to me I haven't done a post about handbags, i'm a bag-aholic. I love bags. Basically any kind, size, shape, colour, if I like it chances are i'll buy it or just lust after it for a long time. Honestly my love for bags knows no end. Anyway because of this I thought i'd show you my favourite bags. I do own others but these are ones I reach for most often. I do have a little black going-out type bag that I also use a lot but I left it at my parents house so it had to be left out of this post.

Anyway my absolute favourite bag of all time is my Mulberry Alexa. (Just to let you know I did not buy this myself, it was a gift for my 23rd birthday, very very generous gift and was a complete surprise and shock, but i'm so grateful). Its gorgeous, its the chocolate soft buffalo and I just love it.

Slightly shoddy camera work here as the light was bad, but anyway I love it, the size is perfect, I like larger bags, I hate when you have a small bag and you're trying to squeeze everything you need into them, so this is the perfect size. The detail on this bag is lovely, I love the postman lock and the belt buckle straps. I also like that you can wear it on your arm or on the shoulder with the long strap, which makes it look more casual. I also love the inside of this bag, its got the classic Mulberry tree lining and its huge inside. So yes this is my favourite bag and its worn amazingly well, i've had it almost a year now and the quality is unquestionable, you definitely get what you pay for with Mulberry. This bag currently retails for £795, the Mini Alexa is £550 and the Oversized Alexa is £925. So very pricey and not something to be bought just on a whim, but I would save money to buy this bag if I didn't own it already just because I adore it.

Okay so moving into high street (i.e my price range!) bags. First of my favourites is this White and Blue fold over bag from River Island.



 I got this last Summer before going on holiday to Greece as I thought it was the perfect holiday bag. As far as I can remember I think this was £24 which in my opinion is pretty good. I love the silver hardware against the bright blue. It looks so pretty and summery. It's simple without being dull I think. The blue is definitely what attracted me too it and I love that the lining is the bright blue as well. It has a long strap and the bag folds over in the middle and joins with a magnet hidden under the outer fabric (very clever imo). So yes I used this a lot and as such it is a tad dirty, the only problem with white bags and i'm seriously hoping I can clean it with something, not sure what though, and hopefully it will look as good as new again because I really like this. Also its not too big and its very light even with things in so its good for sightseeing and travelling. I did see one similar to this in River Island today if anyone was interested, couldn't find it online but it may be new season.

Next on the list is this dark tan satchel bag from Topshop, this is also a fairly old purchase and was about £40 (overpriced I think but I loved it).

Do excuse the clashing purple duvet cover :/. So this is another fold over bag and its on a hinge type clasp (no idea what these are actually called!) but I like that makes it easy to open, and it has a zip so things don't fall out everywhere. This has a long shoulder strap and the size of this makes it perfect for uni as I can get a notepad in it and my pens and other stationery type items in comfortably. I like the details, especially the buckles at the bottom. This is just quite a plain casual bag, which is good for all seasons and goes with a lot of different outfits. These bags are sort of timeless i think as satchels always seem to be around, they're just very versatile and I like them for everyday use.

Last but not least is this...yes this will not be to everyone's taste as its a bit out there, but I saw this in Accessorize and just fell in love and my lovely mum bought it for my birthday. It was £18.99 I believe.

Ah its just lovely, its an amazing coral pink colour which is faded towards the top, and its got this amazing gold sequin detail on it. This is definitely a Summer bag, I wouldn't use this any other time of year as I feel i'd look a tad odd, especially in England where the weather is so bad. Its an over shoulder bag, and it just has a magnet popper close, inside is a cream silky lining and there's just one inside zip pocket but this is perfect as a beach bag. It's nice to wear with white linen trousers or denim shorts and a white vest, well at least that how I like to wear it. But yes Accessorize definitely know how to do a nice Summer bag, they've got some gorgeous bags in store at the moment, so definitely check them out if you're looking for one. I do find they can be overpriced so unless I truely love something, like this one, then I don't tend to buy from there.

Anyway those are my most used/favourite bags. Hope you liked this post and are having good days. I also hope the weather is better where you are than where I am...never seen so much rain in my life!

x



Current Skincare Favourites

Okay so i'm back in Bristol now, journey was fine, despite the embarrasment of how much stuff I had to squeeze into boyfriends car, but we made it so thats all that matters. So in true student form i'm procrastinating already by making this post but hey nevermind. So this is on my current most used/favourite skincare products. This is facial skincare, I do have body products but that might be better in a different post. Now I do use other products sometimes but these are my top four that I use regularly and always have to hand.

So my first product is the ever faithful Liz Earle Cleanse and Polish Hot Cloth Cleanser. Sigh I love this product, a firm favourite and a product i'll continue to use for probably well ever. Its lovely both in packaging and in the product itself. It's a concentrated cream that has eucalyptus and cocoa butter (smells lovely) and basically you rub the product into your skin, on a dry face (rather odd I know but trust me it works!) and then you take a muslin cloth and run it under the hot tap, wring it out and then use it to take the make-up and just daily grime off your face. It leaves your skin feeling amazing and so soft. It's helped my skin so much, eased the dryness and definitely helped with my oily t-zone which is amazing because nothing i've tried before has worked this well! You can buy the starter kit which includes a 100ml bottle of the Cleanse and Polish and 2 muslin cloths for £14.25, the Cleanse and Polish on its own is £12.75, both of these I think are bargains as its honestly the best skincare product I own by far. I buy mine from John Lewis but you can order it online from Liz Earle .

The next two are both Clinque products. First is the Superdefence SPF 25 moisturizer, this is my favourite moisturizer ever, it just works for my skin. It doesn't leave that horrible sticky feeling on your skin like some moisturizers do it sinks in quickly leaving your skin feeling really smooth and it's easy to apply make up over this product. It's fragrance free which I like because i'm not a fan of really heavily scented moisturizers for the face. It's designed to combat the signs of aging...now i'm only 23 so I don't know if this actually works or what but hopefully it will do! This retails at £35, which yeah ouch but it lasts a really long time and its a great product, so i'd definitely recommend this if you're looking to splash out on a good moisturizer.

Second product by Clinque is the Anti-blemish solutions moisturizer, this is meant to be step 3 in Clinque's anti-blemish solution kit but I just use this by itself. If I start to have a break-out i'll use this usually over night for a couple of days and it really does help with blemishes and pimples. I can definitely see a difference even just using it for a couple of days, especially around the time of the month, thats when I tend to use it most. It also controls excess oil, also good for when your skin is feeling the effects of extra hormones. So this is another favourite that I'll continue to buy, also another fragrance free product. This is £17.50 for 50ml, which again is a tad expensive but in my opinion worth every penny!

Last but not least is Lush's Ocean Salt facial scrub. This is a fairly recent addition to my favourite skincare products but i'm so glad I found this. Its a sea salt based scrub which has lime, coconut, seaweed, avocado butter and vodka! It removes dead skin and acts as an antiseptic, also good for blemishes. It smells amazing, kind of like a cocktail, and it's an amazing blue colour when you stir it all together. One thing I would say is go easy with the scrubbing as there are some quite large salt pieces which could be quite abrasive on the skin but apart from that its a great product. It's £6.75 for 100g, which isn't bad, I don't use this everyday as it would seriously dry my skin so its lasted me a while. It's great for when you want to feel really fresh and feel like your skin could do with an intense exfoliation.

So there you go my top four skincare products, i'm in no way appose to trying new things but these i've found work best for me at the moment. Oh in case anyone was wondering my skin is combination, tends to get dry on the cheeks but quite oily around the t-zone, so if anyone is similar to me i'd recommend any of these products :).

Soap and Glory = Love

Okay so anyone who knows me will vouch for the fact that I am Soap and Glory obsessed! I first started using their products a couple of years ago when I got The Righteous Body Butter and Hand Food as a Christmas present, I instantly fell in love! First of all the packaging is cute, girly and instantly recognisable as Soap and Glory, which I really like, it always pleases me when you can tell which brand you are looking at. Secondly the smell of each of their products is just amazing, I literally cannot get enough (oh one exception here have to say that I'm really not a fan of the Breakfast Scrub smell, sorry but it reminds of something I can't put my finger on but really don't like using it). Thirdly and most importantly these products do what they say they will!

So I recently made use of the fact that Soap and Glory are currently doing a spend £10 get the Foam Call body wash for free (good move by the brand i'd say!), oh this is at Boots in the UK, i'm not sure if this is case in other countries, I know they now stock Soap and Glory at Sephora in the USA. Anyway yes so you can get a 500ml bottle of Foam Call for free which I think is insane because it's a huge bottle but i'm not going to complain! So I bought Sugar Crush which was £8 I believe, again you get a lot of product for your money (300ml).

This smells so nice, a really fruity sweet lime scent which I love and its different to other S&G products. When you use the product you do get the sweet scent of the sugar and almond as well which is nice. This really works, especially on knobbly bits like knees and elbows and leaves your skin feeling super soft, I would recommend using a moisturiser after showering with this to avoid dryness but I haven't experienced any as of yet. I would definitely recommend this scrub if like me you're not a fan of the Breakfast Scrub.

The second thing I got was the 500ml Clean on Me clarifying shower gel which was £5.50, which I think is steal, I know that you can get shower gel for like £1 but this smells so so good and it lasts for ages due to the size of the bottle and it has a pump which means you don't end up using way more than necessary.

It is branded as their signature scent, I don't really know how to describe it because there is nothing like it, definitely go and check it out because its just lovely, a really relaxing smell. It makes your skin feel amazing as it has a built in body lotion, it also lathers up really well and you don't need to use loads. This is by far my most used product and one that I have continued to buy and use.

Onto Foam Call, the freebie! Again a 500ml bottle with pump, this is a dual use product for bath and shower, I've tried it out in both and I must say I preferred using it in the shower because its quite oily and I found I wasn't keen on the feel of it on my skin after having been soaking in it for a while but that might be just me. It's a more fruity scent than Clean on Me but it's nice all the same, this is going to sound bizarre but it really reminds me of the scent of the Hollister stores (once again this could just be me!). Anyway that didn't bother me because I do like that scent. I'm not sure if I would buy this, it retails at £6.50 out of the offer, hmm yeah i'm not sure about this one, I like it but not as much as their other products.

Anyway those were my recent purchases, but I do use many other S&G products on a regular basis so here's a quick run down of those:

Peaches and Clean wash-off deep cleansing milk - £7. This I really like, I have combination skin with quite an oily t-zone and this has done wonders for it, makes my skin feel refreshed and soft. Now I don't suffer with bad breakouts, I tend to get a couple of spots maybe once a month but this is gentle enough not to aggravate them and they clear up quickly when I use this.

Glow Lotion - £5.50. This was a gift but I love this, usually put this on if i'm going out because its a really good moisturer that has a bit of shimmer (don't fret its not like you've bathed in body glitter or anything its very subtle!) and it smells lovely, again I think its the signature scent and it lingers so you could just put this on a skip a perfume. Very nice product.

And finally Scrub Actually - £7. Oh my gosh this smells so good, its a sugar scrub with an apricot scent, ugh I could sit and smell this all day, definitely one of my favourites! Again as with the Sugar Crush its a brilliant exfoliator, and makes your skin feel very smooth. The only issue I have with this product is the packaging, because its a tube once you get close to finishing the product it is the devil to get out! Which makes me a tad stressed out in the shower when I can see that there is still product left but I cannot squeeze it out. But minor issue that I could solve if I were sensible enough to swap it into a different container!

So there you have it a run down of my current Soap and Glory products, definitely my favourite brand at the moment for shower/skin care products. I would recommend these to anyone, especially as they usually do some great offers in Boots.

Fresh as a daisy...

So i'm a bit of a perfume hoarder and tend to have quite a few on the go at the same time. I know a lot of people only like to use one but I'm quite fickle with scents and tend to tire of them quite quickly. So anyway I thought i'd give a run down of my favourites at the moment.

Daisy by Marc Jacobs has been a long standing favourite of mine, I first got it as a gift when it had just been released and since then i've had a few bottles of it. The bottle is just stunning, it may not be to everyone's taste but I just think its really cheerful and kind of whimiscal. Its a really lovely light fragrance which does have really good staying power i've noticed. I'm not amazing at picking out the notes of perfumes but it is marketed as being a floral bouquet, with violet top notes and vanilla and musk base notes, which does sound a bit heavy but its honestly not at all, it just reminds me a summer meadow scent. Just really nice. Marc Jacobs perfume's are pricey, this retails at the moment for around the £45-£50 price mark, depending which size you want so its one to save for, but definitely worth it.

No.3 L'Imperatrice by D&G was part of their Anthology collection and I cannot get enough of how this smells, unfortunately it doesn't seem to linger as long as Daisy does but I still really love it. It's quite sweet and has a really distinct smell, top notes of watermelon and other fruity scents and again i'd say its got a musk base, as with Daisy (I'm starting to see why I like these now!). The bottle itself is okay, i'm not a huge fan of the massive black cap and the white section on my bottle is slightly skew-whiff which grates me a little (must say my sister has a bottle and her's is fine!) but the glass is heavy which I like. I tend to get a lot of people ask what i'm wearing when I have used this which is always a good sign with perfumes, so it is one that I will probably continue to use. I believe this is around £39 for 100ml which I think is great value as my bottle has lasted me a long time.

Finally my most recent addition to my perfume collection is Ellie Saab Le Parfum, first off the bottle is really nice and that's what caught my eye in the store. It's an interesting shape and nice to have on the dressing table. I must admit this is probably the perfume I use less often out of all three, I do find it a bit sickly sometimes, I definitely have to be in the right mood for this one. The top note is orange blossom, but to me it smells a bit floral, kind of a rose scent almost. The base note is described as being cedar wood, to be honest I have no idea what that smells like but whatever it is seems to work! I tend to use this perfume for a few days then change to one of the others, but I do really like it, just in small doses. This price for this ranges quite a bit but for a 30ml bottle its around the £37, 50ml around £55 and for a 90ml it's £70, which as far as i'm concerned is quite overpriced, I don't think I would spend that much on it, but I can see myself buying a smaller bottle in the future to use now and again.