I've always been very self conscious of my skin, from about 11 I've had acne, and I've always hidden it, never really talked about it, always treated it as something to be ashamed of. I think there's also a lot of stigmas associated with acne, like that you don't wash your face enough or you're unclean if you have acne. This isn't true at all.

Lots of things can cause a breakout, whether it be the products you use on your skin, what you eat, smoking, hydration, stress and mood levels, hormones, etc. It's not just as simple as 'wash your face'. In fact washing your face too much can even sometimes cause breakouts.

Now while I am going to talk about certain products that led me to see a change in my skin, I want to make it clear that these products might not work for everyone, everyone's skin is different and there unfortunately isn't a one size fits all to skincare. There are a lot of different skin types you can have, so I would suggest figuring that out first, and then choosing skincare that fits your skins needs.

I've found over the years that I have oily/combination skin, I tend to get oilier skin in the summer and then dryer skin in the winter - like at the moment I've got dry skin on either side of my mouth, I usually get this when the weather gets a little colder, and once it gets more into summer again I tend not to have any dry skin on my face at all.

An important tip that I've learnt for my skin is that even when it seems oilier, in the summer, to keep moisturising as part of my skincare routine, moisturising your skin actually helps, as your skin then doesn't feel the need to secrete excess sebum (oil) to keep moisturised, sebum buildup is usually a big cause of spots, so make sure you keep moisturising regularly even if you feel like your skin is oily.

Now onto products, I tend to mix up products rather than stick to a definite regime, I like to try things out and switch things up. My skin is a lot better than it used to be, but sure I still get spots now and then, so it's always nice to try something new on my skin. I tend to try out a product for a month or so first before changing, as it takes a bit of time for my skin to react to a product, so it's easier to see how my skin reacts if I stick to the same products for at least a month or so before changing them for something else.



I've found that The Body Shop do a lovely tea tree collection for oil prone skin. I really love this collection and I've been using it on and off for a good year and half now. I use the tea tree facial wash, tea tree toner, and then also the tea tree oil. I've previously used the night lotion and 'anti imperfection daily solution' (which is like a tea tree serum- definitely recommend!).

I tend to take off my makeup with a general soap, as I find the tea tree stuff doesn't really take off makeup well and it would just be a waste to use this to take my makeup off. Then I rinse my face and use my cleansing brush with the tea tree facial wash to give my face a good wash.
I've had my cleansing brush for years now, it takes two AA batteries and basically spins and vibrates so that when you clean your face it cleans it more intensely and exfoliates. Mine is from Olay, you can find it on amazon here, but honestly you can find LOADS of these all over the place, I just bought a basic one and it's lasted me for years, but if you want to get something more high tec a good place to look is the clarisonic products, they're a lot pricier but I've heard they're great.


I also use Bio oil for my skin, as I have a few hyperpigmentation marks left from past breakouts. I like to wash my face to get makeup off, then wash again with my cleansing brush and tea tree wash, then I dry my face, and mix a little of the tea tree oil with some bio oil, and apply that to my face as moisturiser. In the summer I prefer to use something a little lighter as a moisturiser so I tend to use something like the Simple light moisturiser, of Olay's beauty fluid, as they're both water based rather than oil based, so they're not greasy or oily in the sun.

So that's my skincare routine! Simple! I try to stick to a general routine but products change and sometimes I can only be bothered to do a quick wash, but hey ho, it’s not the end of the world if you miss a few steps here and then. I hope this routine was helpful, and if there’s any questions or suggestions feel free to leave them in the comments below!

I’ve always been quite behind on the Valentine’s Day wagon compared to my friends, growing up I’d never been that girl that got all the valentines cards and presents, anonymous love letters or anything like that. The earliest I can remember getting a present for Valentine’s Day was when I was in year 7, and my ‘boyfriend’ at the time (and probably for about a week) got me a little chocolate heart with my name spelt wrong. It wasn’t the most accurate present but the thought was there. It could’ve just used a bit more. 

When it comes to Valentine’s Day it’s all about feelings and that mushy goodness, there’s no point in spending a fortune if you’re buying all the things your partner hates. The important thing, no matter what the budget, is that it’s something thoughtful. 

A lot of people just see Valentine’s Day as a pointless tradition and a waste of money, but you don’t have to spend a fortune to enjoy Valentine’s Day with your partner. I’ve made a short list of a few Valentine’s Day date suggestions that aren’t too hard on the bank account. 

Romantic Walk with a Picnic

Movie Day 

Another of our favourites is just to grab all the cushions we can find, grab some bedding and blankets, and just chuck everything on the floor in front of the telly. It’s great to just snuggle up and get super comfy, pick a few good films, maybe even grab some snacks like popcorn or sweets, and get your movie day on! This is great when you’re on a budget because all you need to buy is the snacks (or if you’re not on a budget hey just go crazy with the snacks).

Treasure Hunt

This idea is awesome because you can adapt it to any weather or any location. Grab yourself some sheets of paper and write down some clues for locations for your partner to follow. You can stay inside the house using cupboards and hidey spots to stash your clues, or head outdoors and take the scale even bigger. Jack once surprised me with a treasure hunt where all the clues were in spots where we’d had our first few dates. It was so nice to talk about all the memories and visit some old haunts. 

Make something together 

Making something together is always a great way to spend time together, just remember to keep it carefree and fun, it doesn’t even matter if you make it wrong, whatever you do choose to make, as long as you have a nice time together. Don’t get annoyed if your partner burns the cookies or doesn’t put enough glue on the collage, it’s memories, you’re in a safe space, chill. 

Spontaneous Road Trip

Another fun one me and Jack like to do occasionally is have an unplanned road trip, so say we might go up to Skeggy for the day or up to Blackpool, just pick a spot on a map and head for it. There’s always somewhere interesting to find. I love to have a look on Atlas Obscura, self described as ‘Definitive guidebook and friendly tour-guide to the world's most wondrous places’. There’s all kinds of awesome finds on there, from abandoned houses to hedge mazes. The websites pretty great, it tells you all the important things like whether you have to pay to enter or to park, what’s the best place to park, etc. Definitely a good website to check out if you’re racking your brains for a place to visit near you. 

So there you have it, 5 date ideas for Valentine’s Day. Foolproof and tested by yours truly, but I know what you’re thinking; I’ve got the date sorted but now what do I buy them? 

Oh honey, Valentine’s Day isn’t all about spending tons of money on a ridiculously large extravagant pile of presents. Sure you can if you want to, I’m definitely not one to say no to a box of chocolates, but if you’re wanting to make something a little more special, why not try one of my handy present ideas. 

Favourites hamper

Simple and easy, just get yourself a hamper basket (pretty sure you can find these at Wilkos, home bargains, etc) and fill it full of your partner’s favourite things, from favourite sweets, to dvds, fluffy socks, candles, makeup, sunglasses, there’s loads of options, and it’s a great way to show off how well you know them.

What I love about you 

Another great present that you can diy yourself is making notes of things that you love about your partner, whether it be filling a jar full of notes, or making a little book, it’s always lovely to be reminded of how much you mean to someone. I made a jar like this last year for Jack’s birthday, I filled it with a few different colours, each representing different things like ‘what I love about you’ and ‘remember when..’. It’s  something nice for your partner to just dip their hand into when they’re feeling down and they’ll instantly be reminded of how much they mean to you. 

Love coupons 

Another fab DIY is to make love coupons, simply put it’s just a collection of coupons made by you, with various different things that can be redeemed with them. Some good examples could be ‘hug’, ‘kiss’, ‘washing up’, ‘movie night’, ‘bath together’, etc. They’re great prompts for something to do on a night in, or perhaps to convince your partner to do the washing up once in a while. 

Get Creative

Another great present idea is to make something yourself that your partner will love. I made jack a digital drawing of all his past cars and printed it to go on the wall for him, he really loved that I’d taken the time and effort to make something personal to him. It’s the thought that counts!


I hope some of these ideas can be of use for you this Valentine’s Day, and if you’re single this Valentine’s Day why not treat yourself and have a date with yourself this Valentine’s Day, or wait until after for the cheap chocolate! 

Now before I start, I've never been the most confident person, and I'm not going to pretend now that I'm some kind of Beyonce, flipping my hair and looking fabulous all the time. But that's the thing. I'm sure Beyonce doesn't look 10/10 every second of the day, just like everybody else on the planet.

There's so much pressure put on us to look good all the time that we're actually making our bodies feel worse. I've had acne on my face since I was about 11, and the entire time growing up and moving through school, I was bullied for it, made to feel self conscious about it, and made to feel that I should be wearing foundation an inch thick just so you couldn't see it. But the thing I didn't see is that wearing that inch thick foundation and stressing myself out to high heavens about my face only made things worse.

Your skin is incredibly complex, and even after years of researching my skin to try and find some magic solution to my acne troubles I still don't know everything there is about it. There's so many aspects that can effect your skin that I don't want to just release a skincare routine saying you should wash your face more and moisturise. It's so much more incredibly complex than that. Your mood can effect your skin, if you're stressed out or self conscious, yes it is probably going to give you a breakout.

The most helpful tip I've ever learnt about keeping my spots at bay is to stop caring about them so damn much! Now I'm not saying if you ignore your skin it will magically get clear, but I found that my skin got much clearer (not clear, but better!) once I stopped worrying about how I looked, and started thinking about how I felt. I stopped giving a sh*t about wearing so much foundation, tuned it down a little and switched to a BB creme, even through I could still see all my spots, because I honestly just couldn't be bothered with going through tube after tube of foundation and feeling like my face was in a mask because of it. The same thing that I thought all those years was helping, was actually hindering my skin. When I decided to just accept I am who I am, well that's when I felt like I'd finally found a cure. And no- my skin isn't perfectly clear now, I still get plenty of spots, but I feel so much better now that I'm not hiding them.

I think there's too much suffocating pressure on us to look right no matter what. I used to be so self conscious that I would do a full face of makeup just to run to the corner shop, I'd never be seen dead in anything but a perfectly planned flawless outfit. But what I've realised is that it's okay to be whatever you feel like. If I want to get dressed to the nines at half 9 on a Thursday night because I want to feel good about myself even though I'm not actually going anywhere, then why not? If I want to go to uni in some joggers and my hair scraped back in a bun then I can, I'm still me. The important thing for me is that I feel comfortable in my own skin, because at the end of the day no one else is going to wear it for me. My body was made for me, destined to be for me. So why should I decline that and say it's not good enough? I am absolutely good enough, whether I'm wearing makeup or not, whether I shave my legs or not, whether I have a spot showing in that selfie or not.

I think the main takeaway from this post is that we need to stop bringing each other down, because at the end of the day it's only making it worse on all of us. If you are stood bitching about another girl's outfit as if it's the end of the world, then you are just feeding into the culture that makes us all feel more self conscious. It's funny really because we all try and pretend for social media that we are these perfect photoshopped humans, but really we're all the same imperfect but equally beautiful messes. We all bring ourselves down thinking we're inferior but the standards we're comparing ourselves to aren't even real most of the time, they're just someone else pretending because they're worried they're not good enough.

So lets end it now. You are good enough. You can wear, say, do, whatever you want to. Just be you. How can anybody tell you you're doing it wrong when there's only one you?

I think it’s fair to say that everybody has their good days and their bad days, whether you have a past of mental health issues or not. For me, I see mental health as something that effects everybody, it’s like physical health, just because someone gets a broken leg you don’t then claim they’re ‘broken’ or ‘f*cked up’ for the rest of their life, time heals wounds. I see mental health just the same, sometimes it’s worse, sometimes you go through a bad experience or a stressful time, and sometimes you require a little more attention for yourself. That’s okay!

Hey everyone! I hope you all had a lovely start to the year, I know I’ve been a little absent from the blog lately so I thought I’d kick start a return to regular blogging with a review! Why not ay?