This past weekend me and Jack fancied a little shopping trip, and headed out to East Midland’s designer outlet, just off the M1. It’s not too far from us and it’s a great place to get good deals and find some interesting stock you don’t see in normal stores.

I've been waiting so long for a new mascara its unreal, my lashes have felt like little boy lashes for weeks now and I've been itching to try a new mascara. So imagine how thrilled I was when this came through the post this morning!

I've been wanting to try this specific mascara for a while now, I love benefit products but I don't really own many at all. I managed to get this one for quite a bargain, as I *think* this is quite old now.
I got it on ebay for £2.79!! With free postage too! I'd definitely recommend taking advantage of that if you're in the market for a new mascara.

So my first impression of this mascara are great, when I first saw how small the end of the wand was, I was thinking it could be too small to get a lot of product, but once I used it I really loved it. The small size really helps the mascara not to become clumpy and deposit too much product in one place. It gets a good amount of product and I really loved how it looked on my lashes.

I also really LOVE the packaging for this product, it's so girly and fun, and I like how the mascara itself is nicely designed, so it's not just plain when unpackaged.


Now onto the MAC studio fix foundation. This isn't the first time I've used this product, I actually used to buy it religiously as a teenager and it's still one of my favourite foundations. It looks really sleek in a minimal glass bottle, and you do get a fair amount of product for the price. This is usually around £25 new from the MAC site, but I bought mine on eBay for £9.85!

I feel like there's a good range of shade in this foundation, although I don't buy the darker shades so I'm not too sure on that side of the scale, but I like how you can easily mix shades to get slightly lighter or darker (great for navigating fake tan). The coverage is buildable and matte, and I like how it doesn't crease or flake when you do apply it a bit thicker to cover blemishes.

The only thing that annoys me a little about the MAC foundation is that since it's a glass bottle you can't squeeze it or cut the end off to get those last bits of product, you just have to leave it sat upside down or try and get a small brush if you want the product at the bottom (and you do end up throwing away quite a lot of product that gets stuck in the bottle due to the small hole).

Overall, I really do rate both these products highly, especially the foundation as it is tried and tested for years by teen me.

What are some of your favourite mascaras or foundations? Any recommendations?

I've been wanting to dye my hair dark green for a while now, and yesterday I just thought, why not, bought some dye and went for it! Overall I'm super happy with how it turned out!

I'll keep you all updated on how the dye lasts once I've washed it a few times.

Overall it was a super easy process and didn't take too long, I applied the lightener to dry hair, only on the ends, and left it for half an hour. Then I rinsed it out and shampooed my hair, then after rinsing again and towel drying my hair until it wasn't dripping, I applied two tubs of the Directions Alpine Green dye to the top half of my hair, and then applied the one tub of turquoise to the bottom half.

I left that for half an hour and then rinsed and shampooed my hair again, dried it and then wala!

I've made a quick process video of the whole thing on my youtube, so check out the video below!

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?

Looking back on 2018 it feels separated into different sections, there's been ups and downs as I'm sure every year has and will always have. I think 2018 has given me a lot of firsts, and looking back on it now I feel like I've grown up a lot this year, and learnt a lot of important life lessons that I was oblivious to before.

In January 2018, I was bogged down with stress trying to balance my uni work and my home life. I honestly hated living in uni halls, I was lonely, isolated and hated leaving my room. I didn't get on with my flat mates at all, and so my uni room felt like a prison to me. I constantly was up at my boyfriend's flat to get away from halls but then that left me struggling to find time to fit in my work. Needless to say I'm so happy that I decided to stay with my boyfriend this year for uni rather than staying in halls again.

In February 2018 I celebrated Valentines Day and Jack's birthday. I didn't get to see him on Valentines day since he was working, but then he surprised me when he came to pick me up for the weekend by getting me some beautiful flowers. Definitely a highlight of 2018.
At the end of February we went on a spontaneous day out to Skegness, it was lovely and carefree and fun. We bought loads of cheap sweets from the market and went on a long walk down the beach.


In March, I finished my animation I'd been grovelling over for uni. So far I'd say this is the piece of work I've been most proud of myself for making. It took months, I'd never animated anything before let alone even use After Effects, so accomplishing a finished animation with a narrative, illustrations and sound, I was so so happy to say I did it!

June was a tough month. Me and Jack had a big argument and ended up having some time apart for a few weeks. It was a really low moment of my year mental health wise, but we made up and got back together and I came and visited him on my birthday. My birthday was lovely, we had loads to talk about since we hadn't seen each other for a while, and it was a lovely reunion.
I also got my first ever professional graphic design job over the summer, I had my interview the day before my birthday and managed to get handed the job on the spot. It was really nice to build up my portfolio with some design work that hadn't just come out of my own head. I learnt a lot about working with clients and drafting up designs.

We also finished my office room in June, it was finally fully painted with the desk installed. Rover loves it too.


July was mainly spent working, creating designs for my graphic design internship. One of my highlights of July was going camping with Jack, we bought a load of camping stuff, including a mysteriously cheap bright yellow tent (which turned out to be cheap because it attracts flies like a floodlight), and headed off out into the peaks to camp overnight. We haven't camped since 2016 so it was so nice to get to go out and experience it all again, I loved sleeping out under the stars with the beauty of the peak district around me.
We found out in the middle of the night that we were in a cow field though, and ended up getting scared and nearly chased by a big scary black bull, so that was terrifying.

I feel like whenever I see a trending topic or a national mental health related day, it's my sign that it's something that needs to be talked about. Or maybe just a sign I need to get brainstorming some more original ideas, but anyway...

The other day I saw that it was Stress Awareness Day, and thought that it would be a great topic to introduce into my mental health series.

So firstly I want to talk about the things that cause me stress, and how I deal with them and take time for myself so I don't get too overwhelmed. Growing up I've slowly come to realise that I actually am quite a sensitive person, and I do take a lot of things to heart easily, and I feel like I'm constantly trying to consider how other people will feel about things as well as my self. Now this isn't necessarily a bad thing by any means, but it has made me the kind of person where sometimes I will just find myself so burnt out by looking after myself, and then trying to keep everyone else happy too.

I'm also a massive over thinker, as I'm sure a lot of people are, I get worried about scenarios sometimes that haven't even happened yet. To be honest I don't think it's a completely terrible trait to have, sure sometimes it can lead you into ruminating over the same thoughts, which can cause a bit of a head tangle, but I also feel like overthinking is something that makes me feel very prepared. You see because I am always expecting or at least considering, the worst case scenario. So in the very unlikely situation that the worst case scenario (dun dun dun) does happen, I've prepared myself for it!

For example, if there's something I'm super nervous about like a job interview, I'll overthink to the point where I might google maps check the street name fourteen times before I leave the house. But in the worst case scenario that my phone might die and I might be left stranded having to navigate purely off the basis of street names, trust me I've got it covered.

I think the main thing that I want to emphasise throughout my mental health posts is that yeah some people are different to others, but what some people may see as something 'wrong', there's always something positive to find out of that situation. It's just life, things may not always go to plan or work on the first try, but at the end of the day a lesson can be took from everything, good or bad. Just in the same way that stress can make me feel more organised.


So now onto ways that I handle stress when it gets a bit too much.

I'm not going to start talking about yoga as everyone may have predicted, although I'd love to try it. I've got pretty mundane ways of dealing with stress. My favourite thing to do is to go on a long walk, whether it be grabbing Jack and heading out into the peaks for a massive hike, or just taking ten minutes by myself to follow the dog walking path behind my flat. I think walking lets you get everything out and clear your head, as well as taking a bit of time away from whatever it is that is stressing you out.



I also, weirdly, like the take a bath or a shower when I'm feeling stressed. I just like to feel like I'm on top of things and looking after myself, especially if I've been sat all morning frantically trying to finish by uni work before a deadline and my hair looks like a greasy bush on top of my head. A good thing about this too is that I always come out of my bath or shower feeling refreshed and ready to carry on anything I've got to finish.

Finally, my last tip for handling stress might sound a bit silly. I'm sure a lot of people will just think 'as if it's that easy' but something that I've had to force myself to do is to just learn to accept that sometimes things don't go to plan. Not everything works out exactly like you want it to, but it's the same with everyone in life, and that's something that makes it better because other people understand (I know crazy right). You can't be afraid to ask for help sometimes or just to let people in on what's going on in your head.

Like for example, I had to miss a university session on Monday because our water tap in the bathroom decided it was going to start leaking and making horrible noises in the middle of the night and I had to wait in for the technician to come and fix it. Not a big deal, right? But I was stressing out over it naturally because I didn't want to miss the session. But then I talked to my university tutor today and told him why I couldn't make the session, thinking he was going to be annoyed at me, and guess what he said. He just went, 'Oh Becky you should've just emailed and told me, I wouldn't have minded!'

And there it is. The majority of the time people will understand, people will get that it's been a hard week, that you're tired, or didn't have time, or forgot. I think the biggest thing I've had to learn is to just go with the flow and not get too caught up in my own little plans I make prior to a situation, because life doesn't really care about your plans, it's got it's own.


As always feel free to contact me if you have any post suggestions or even just need a little chat!

I've always loved Halloween.... and bonfire night....and christmas. I think really autumn and winter are my favourite seasons just because I love all the excitement and the build up and the events. Everything so back to back and one after another, it's just exciting.

I've had my flat decorated for halloween with a selection of poundland halloween goodies and wax melters filled with 'spicy pumpkin pie' since about the beginning of September. Yes the full skeleton in the window and everything.