Monday 31 July 2017

First impressions #2- Makeup Revolution pomade, lipkit and Miss baby roll mascara

Hey guys! By the time this goes up I will be going on holiday the next day! I am going to the Cotswolds for a week with my family so there will be no blog posts for a week! I know I have fairly recently just done another first impressions, but I loved doing it so much that I really wanted to do another one! Superdrug have a 3 for 2 deal on at the moment so I picked up a few bits and I wanted to tell you my first impressions! I have literally just put these products on my face to come and write this post.





The first new product I used was the Makeup revolution eyebrow pomade in soft brown. I think this was a good match for me, despite being blonde I have quite dark eyebrows! I have never used a pomade before so I can't really give you a review where I compare it to other products. But it was really easy and soft to use and I liked the consistency. I was a bit afraid it would be too "dramatic" compared to my brow powders, but I actually didn't think it was too extreme or anything and I am looking forward to trying this product out some more! For £6 you can't go wrong

The second new product I used (the one I originally wanted to go into superdrug for) was the Loreal miss baby roll mascara. This mascara has been everywhere lately and I really wanted to try it! I actually nearly bought this in teal blue until the cashier pointed it out! So I quickly went back and got it in black! My first impressions is that I do really like this mascara. It is really volumizing and gave my flat eyelashes some drama! It is quite a dramatic mascara but I  personally need that otherwise you just can't see them! Obviously I can't comment on how this lasts but I do think I will really like this mascara. I wish it was a little big more lengthening or curling.

Finally, the third product I tried out was the makeup revolution lip kit in Echelon. I have heard some really good things about these lipkits and only just got round to trying them. I really liked the lipliner, it was soft and creamy. I do have to say that the liquid lipstick feels quite drying and heavy, like it's sat on top of my lip in a sticky sort of way even when it's dried. I am also not 100% sure on the colour, obviously, this is personal opinion but it is a little bit darker than I expected actually and looks completely different to how it looks in the tube! I think I will like it more in autumn and winter, for me it's like a dark purple browny sort of colour whereas in the tube it looks like a ligher nude and did not look purplely at all! I don't have a colour like this in my collection which is good! I need to try this out a few more times and see what I think.

I hope you enjoyed this post! Have you tried any of these products? What did you think?
Lots of love,
Eleanor x


Sunday 30 July 2017

Blogger bookmarks

Hey guys! I have a little different extra post today! The very lovely Penny asked me if I wanted to be involved in a little project where some of us book bloggers get together and make some book marks for different genres of books! I of course said yes and I am obsessed with my own bookmark and the other bloggers bookmarks too! You guys can print these bookmarks off and you have a bookmark for every type of book you want to read! Penny is so talented having made all these bookmarks. All of these bookmarks have the bloggers favourite books in each of the genres we chose. For example, I chose to do romance books, and on my bookmark, you can see my choice of books, Pride and Prejudice, Me before you, Bridget Jones Diary and The fault in our stars. Each bookmark has four books chosen by the bloggers so if you are stuck for what book to read next these bookmarks have lots of ideas for you too!

This is my bookmark and I love it! I can't wait to print it out!

Here are everyone else's bookmarks too!
I have also linked everyone who was involved in this project here and the genre they did:

Fiction – Bookish Betsy (Betsy) - Classics – Love Serially (Christine) - Poetry – Fables and Tea (Hannah) - LGBTQIA – Magical Reader (Lori) - Fantasy – Books and Belle (Paige) - & Pebblepen (Penny) - Magical Realism – The Introverted Book Nerd (Danielle) - Romance – Little thoughts from little people (Eleanor) - Sci-fi – Pebblepen (Penny) - Thriller – Books and Belle (Paige) - Historical – The Introverted Book Nerd (Danielle) & Pebblepen (Penny) - Horror– All the Bright Places Blog (Beth) -

I hope you enjoyed these posts and that these bookmarks will help you decide on your next read! I want to say another big thanks to Penny who is so talented and lovely for inviting me to do this.
Lots of love,
Eleanor x

Thursday 27 July 2017

My blogging essentials

Hey guys! I hope you are well! Today I am going to be talking about my blogging essentials and what I use to create/plan blogs and other things that are important to me when it comes to blogging! I am writing this with my cat currently lying across my arms despite there also being a laptop on my knee thus my hand movements and view of my keyboard is somewhat limited. Needless to say, Casper is not part of my blogging essentials! He's a blogging hindrance!



A diary
My first blogging essentials is a diary. This is used to plan out when I am going to be putting my blog posts up. especially when I am at uni, blogging requires a little bit of thought and planning ahead so I like to get everything organised by using a diary.

A Notepad
This might be quite an obvious one but it is a really important one. I could not blog without my notepad. I use it to jot everything down, all my ideas and even to plan out some posts. List style blog posts (like this one) require a bit of planning out I find and favourites and things like that so I use this to plan out these type of posts. If I am doing reviews sometimes I use it to write down my thoughts too.

Buffer
This is an app I use to schedule my tweets. This is really useful, when I upload a blog I write numerous posts on this app to tweet my post a few more times during the week. I definitely do not tweet about my blog posts enough and this app has helped me get more into the habit of doing it and I've definitely noticed a difference with my views! It's also useful if I'm going on holiday, stops me worrying that my engagement is going to drop massively when I am away.

Photo grid
I use this app to group pictures together and put them into a layout. I also like to use it for writing on pictures.

VSCO
Another app I count as an essential. It's my favourite photo editing app at the moment. I have only recently really gotten into editing my photos and I know my blog and insta photos are not the best but I think they're getting better!

Twitter
The blog community on twitter is a big blogging essential for me! Blog pages and chats have really helped to increase my engagement and are a big help for inspiration!

A blog book
Another big inspiration help is getting a blogging book. There are quite a lot out there now and I would love to try some more but one I really love is called 365 blog topic ideas. I love flicking through it for inspiration and it really does have a blog idea for every single day of the year! If you have any blogging books you like please let me know I would love to buy some more!

So there are my blogging essentials! Do you have any blogging essentials you couldn't live without?
Lots of love,
Eleanor x




Monday 24 July 2017

What to do when you can't sleep

Hey guys! I hope you are okay! Today's post is going to be all about what to do when you can't sleep. I know as well as anyone how annoying it is when you have something important the next day and you can't get to sleep no matter how tired you feel. The frustration and panicking about not being able to sleep makes it worse. I definitely get this a lot and it can be such a pain in the arse so I thought I would share with you some things that help me to finally get some sleep.

Don't keep checking the time 
This is more of a don't than a do but it is perhaps the most important one. Believe me, checking the time every five minutes and calculating exactly how much sleep you could get if you could go to sleep in just ten minutes does not help. It just adds to panic and frustration. It might even be best for you to avoid going to your phone at all, especially going onto social media.

Take a mini walk/ do some gentle yoga 
When I can't sleep I get really restless and sometimes it can be good to try and stop twisting and turning in bed and expel a bit of energy. It's not a good idea to do something that is going to make yourself wide awake or excite you, I wouldn't recommend some hardcore cardio. But sometimes I like to walk around the house for a little bit or do some very gentle yoga. Maybe have a go at doing this video. It's by Yoga with Adriene my favourite youtube yogi and it's a gentle 10-minute video focusing on some relaxing stretches and massages.

Run hands under tap 
This is sort of a bizarre one but it is something that calms me down when I'm nervous and sort of works in the same way here, running my hands under a cold tap for a bit seems to work.

Get naked
This works in the same way as the last idea, to cool you down. When I can't sleep I tend to work myself up and get frustrated and too warm. I find that by taking my duvet off and my clothes off and maybe doing another one of these tips until I get cold. By that point, I can't wait to get back under my covers and get warm and comfy again and then I fall asleep.

Warm up
Conversely, if you are too cold and that's why you can't sleep try adding blankets or wearing a pair of fluffy socks or using a hot water bottle. I use all of these in the winter when I'm cold.

Read
Some times it's good just to admit defeat. It's best just to admit that you're not going to sleep anytime soon and turn your light back on. Sometimes I'll read for another half an hour to take my mind off the fact I can't sleep until my eyes get tired.

Breathing Techniques 
Focusing on your breathing and not on the fact you can't sleep can help settle you down and calm you down.

Counting 
This is a really old fashioned one I know but it seriously works for me. Counting can really help my brain focus if I'm unable to sleep because of thoughts flying everywhere.

Relaxing music/ video
Another calming technique can be to listen to some relaxing music or a relaxing video. ASMR works for some people, causing tingly and relaxing sensations. Try listening to this video and see if it helps you!

There you are, guys, some of my tips for when you can't sleep! You can also try some natural herbal sleeping tablets, I have never used them but my friend swears by them and that they really relax her!
Lots of love,
Eleanor x

Friday 21 July 2017

Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell- Susanna Clarke, book review

Hey guys! I hope you are okay! Today I am bringing you a book review but before that, I just want to mention a new little book club I have set up. It is a body positivity book club, where each month we will discuss a new book that will often (but not always) be a body positive book. I will also be sharing lots of book related and body positive content so if you love books and/ or body positivity please go and follow the twitter account here (@ lilposbookclub).

Anyway, today I wanted to do a review on a mammoth book I have been reading lately! I have to admit this took me a little while to get through (nearly a month!) but I did take a week off for my holiday! Despite it being rather large (over 1000 pages) I have to say never once was I bored of reading this book!



It is set in Yorkshire about a magician who wants to restore magic back to England. However, he is somewhat thwarted by the rise of a new magician who has rather different ideas. Despite being about magic and faeries, it is by no means a children's or YA novel. It's a book for any good reader and despite being extremely mystical, it makes magic seem very realistic. If you are sick of YA faerie type books do not worry because this is not one of them! It makes magic seem so intrinsic throughout England that I forgot it doesn't exist in the real world!

The book is set in the 1800's and although it was written in 2005, the language and style used make's the book read like it was written in the 1800's too. I mean it's not as hard to read as a Bronte novel or a Dickens novel or anything, but it does take a bit of getting used to if you haven't read many books written in old style English before.

It is not often that I read a book and have no criticism of it but I genuinely can't fault this book one bit! Absolutely nothing about this book annoyed me in any way and I think that this is my favourite novel of the year so far! I even loved the ending (which is a rarity for me!) This book does look a bit daunting with its large size and it's old fashioned language but I would really recommend giving it a go! I found it extremely funny and enjoyable with just the right amount of sadness and action too.

I probably would not recommend it to take on holiday though, it weighs a tonne! Unless you get it as an ebook of course!

Overall I would definitely check this out! I can see that it might not be to everyone tastes but at least give it a go! I loved it!
Lots of love,
Eleanor x

Wednesday 19 July 2017

Lanzarote 2017

Hey guys! I am back from my holiday! I had such a lovely time in Lanzarote, I went for a week with my boyfriend. I thought I'd show you some of the things we got up to on our first holiday together abroad (spoiler, a lot of relaxation!)

The weather was lovely (as expected) but Lanzarote is known for being quite windy so there was always a breeze which kept the heat down! We arrived on the Saturday at about four and we got a taxi to our apartment. We were only about 15 minutes away from the airport luckily so we didn't need to get a coach. The place we were staying in was called Camel's Spring and it was a lovely quiet place with a little pool. But the pool was always quite cold! On the day we arrived we checked out our little apartment, we had all the basic stuff and a little kitchen area it was really lovely and our apartment was right next to the pool so it had nice views. Here are a few photos of the apartment.



Then we unpacked and relaxed before going out to tea. I have to admit, this holiday we ate out a lot! Nearly every night but thats what holidays are for, right?

The next day we had a lovely relaxing day by the pool. I started reading Miss Peregrine's home for peculiar children.
I actually really enjoyed this trilogy and I would recommend them for a summer read!

On Monday, we went on an excursion. We got up at half 7 (!!) to get the bus down to the south of Lanzarote for a tour of the Volcanos, a camel ride and wine tasting! I was kind of nervous to ride the camels actually, and even more nervous to tour around the narrow roads up the volcanos! But I had a lovely time actually, and if you go to Lanzarote the "short south tour" is worth doing. Unfortunately the day we did this it was actually quite cold and a little bit rainy because we were so high up!




The Camel ride I actually enjoyed! It was very bumpy and I was quite nervous I have to admit but I did have a good time and luckily the camel we were on behaved!

The volcano was so hot that it was used to be cooked on which I thought was really cool!
I didn't get a picture of the wine tasting but I have to say, for someone who doesn't like wine I really liked the Lanzarote wine! It was delicious I wish I had bought myself a bottle or two!

On Tuesday we decided to go to the beach! There were two beaches near us, a black beach which was closer and a white beach which was a bit further away (but not too far!) we went to both. The problem was, the breeze meant the sand got EVERYWHERE! We were so sandy, it stuck to our sun cream.




For the rest of the week, we relaxed some more and chilled by the pool or the beach. It was actually really lovely and relaxing. We went for cocktails a few times which were really nice (they do measures really big there, took me by surprise!)

We had a lovely time and a lot of lovely food (I would recommend the goats cheese it's amazing!) and I can't wait for my next holiday!
Lots of love,
Eleanor x

Friday 7 July 2017

What I'm taking on holiday

Hey guys! I am going on Holiday on Saturday so there will be no blog posts next week! But I did want to show you some of the things I am bringing with me on holiday. I am going to Lanzarote for a week with my boyfriend and I am really excited! I actually haven't been abroad for a few years, and even more time has been since I've been abroad for a summer holiday for nice weather so it feels really nice having been packing shorts and tee shirts! I hope you like this post.



First of all Shoes:

I am packing four pairs of shoes (as well as taking some unpictured converse with me for travelling). The sparkly silver roman sandals are a recent buy from Primark, they were £8 I believe and I'm excited to wear them! The Pink flipflops were also a recent Primarni purchase, they were only 99p. We will see how long they last anyway! The black roman sandals I got the last time I had a summer holiday abroad (probably three years ago?) from Office and the pink sandals are my comfy walking around in shoes and I've had them for god knows how long. Not elegant, but comfy!

Now for some everyday clothes!
For day to day clothing, I have brought two pairs of shorts, a blue pair and a black pair. I have also brought 7 tee shirts. I have also got an old top to go over my swimming costumes to cover my shoulders for when I go swimming in the hottest parts of the day. I am also bringing some dresses and other outfits but I have decided not to show them as I will do a holiday outfit post when I get back! Plus I will show some on my Instagram too and I want them to be a surprise!

Swim wear:

 I am bringing three swimming outfits with me. The first is a full body but backless swimming costume. I got this for around £20 from H&M a few months ago. The spotty bikini I got a few weeks ago from Primark, I think it was about £8. The other blue and white bikini is my old "spare" bikini. I've had this for a few years and I'm bringing it as a spare one in case my other two still need to dry off! I will also be bringing my goggles and a sarong.

First aid:
I am also bringing a little first aid kit. For suncreams, I am bringing p20, which is so good as you just put it on and it lasts all day. I also have a mini suncream for my bag and a factor 50 suncream too as the P20 is only factor 30.  I also have some wet wipes, Savoln, plasters, anti-bite cream and painkillers.

Toiletries and Perfume:
For skincare and haircare, I am bringing all of my usual stuff so I have not bothered to show all of that! I am bringing two perfumes, my Christina Aguilera Royal Desire, as I want to try and use this up, and my Swarovski perfume in Aura. I am also bringing some adorable mini's. A sure deodorant, a mint and tea tree body wash, a strawberry body wash and a toasted marshmallow body lotion.

Sleepwear:
I am bringing two little short and tank top sets! It's going to be so hot so I need cool sleepwear (if I need any at all!)

Makeup:
This is the makeup I am binging with me! I do not think i will be wearing too much makeup on a day to day basis. I am bringing quite cheap makeup, just incase it smashes or I loose it and so everything is easy to replace. I am bringing two £4 eyeshadow palettes, a primer and foundation (these are the most expensive things here but my foundation is running low anyway) and all of my usual eye makeup. I am bringing four lipsticks, lovely coral pink colours and a palette with a contour, highlight and blush. I am bringing a strobing cream too (I know I'll want to look glowy on holiday!).

Extras (bags, sunglasses):

I am bringing two bags, one unpictured that I am using for my carry on, and my sunnies and a sun hat! I don't really have a nice sunhat so this old cap will have to do!

Carry on:
In my Carry on I am bringing my Ipad and Kindle. For this holiday I am bringing Miss Peregrine's home for Peculiar children, all three books on my Kindle. I also have my sunglasses, passport, bobbles and two purses.

And that is pretty much what I am bringing! There are a number of things that I haven't shown you but they are all quite boring things!
I hope you enjoyed this post and I'll see you when I get back.
Lots of love,
Eleanor x

Thursday 6 July 2017

First impressions- TK Max brushes, MUA and more

Hey guys! This is a cheeky extra post today! I have an exciting pre-holiday blog post for tomorrow but since I am not going to be posting at all next week I spontaneously decided to squeeze in this little post today. Today I am going to be doing a first impressions of several new makeup bits I bought yesterday. I have literally just sat down having just put them on my face and I thought I would share my thoughts.



Here we have the MUA brow define tinted mascara in Mid brown (£2), the Makeup Revolution single blush in Now (£1), the MUA Silent Disco eyeshadow palette, and these Isabella Scott eyebrow brushes (£6.99- TK Max).

So first of all I did my brows as I had two new eyebrow products to try. The brushes come with a slanted brush, a spoolie, a sponge eyeshadow brush and a comb/brush. I really like the handles on these brushes, an almost marble white effect and for only £6.99, four brushes is not bad. I used the spoolie to comb through my eyebrows and then applied my usual brow powder product to my brows using the slanted brush. I don't really have any problems with these brushes. They are sturdy and not flimsy and they don't shed or anything so if you are looking for some cheap brushes I would check these out. The slanted brush is a little on the thick side, but nothing bad. The only brush I won't use really is the sponge brush as I never use these, but it is a pretty one so I will hang onto it in my collection.

After I had put my usual powder in I used the MUA brow tint over the top. I have to say on my first go I am not overly impressed with this. The brush is really thick and makes it hard to be precise with my brows. I ended up with a lot of product like all over my face as it was hard to concentrate it, and because of the brush size it gave off random clumps. I will be trying this again but I'm not so sure at the moment.

After finishing my foundation and concealer, I moved onto eyeshadow. I was probably most excited to try this (this was what I had gone in to Superdrug to originally buy.) I don't have any colourful palettes and now its summer I have been wanting to play around with colour more. These colours are really pigmented, I have swatched a few and I have to say the dark blue and purple I love and I am excited to put them on my lids. First of all though, I used the two pinks, the yellow and the darker orange to create a sunset look. I did like this look (pictures below) but I wish the pink had been more of a hot pink, it was not deep enough for me.

Finally, after doing the rest of my eyes and face and finished off with the blush. This blush is really highly pigmented, I would be scared to get a bolder colour! This colour is right up my street, a lovely pinky mauve colour. It came off so pigmented and kicked up a lot of product in the pan however I do really like this blush. It reminds me of the Clinique blush in iced lotus which is my all time favourite blush and this is unbelievably low in price in comparison.

Here is the finished result! (Ignore my dodgy eyeliner- I am obviously no inspiring makeup artist but I wanted you to see how it looked. I also didn't bother contouring or bronzing so I look somewhat washed out)


I hope you enjoyed this post!
Lots of love,
Eleanor x


Monday 3 July 2017

Solait tanning oil review- £5 tanning oil?

Hey guys! Today I am doing a review of Superdrugs own tanning oil. Superdrug has released a new (I think) tanning range and today I am talking about the tanning dry oil. This costs the grand price of £4.99.


First and foremost, I am in love with this tanning product. You spray it on and buff it in with a mitt and it leaves a golden colour straight away so you can see where you have already tanned. The tan develops in a few hours fully and is such an amazing golden colour. It's so beautiful and looks really natural as well, definitely does not look orange one bit.

It does take a little while to fully absorb, I learnt the hard way and got fake tan all over my white bra because I thought it had dried, it takes about an hour to an hour and a half to stop transferring I thought. Despite claiming to have a tropical scent, I do think that this does take on a fairly normal fake tan smell, to be honest, but I am not too bothered about that. I also found that a lot of tan from this product does come off in water, it's not 100% water resistant however it does not all come off in one shower. I even found that with scrubbing with a scrub still kept some tan on! But for the full effect of the tan I wouldn't shower after applying it for a special occasion.

It is quite a small bottle, probably about 3-4 applications in a bottle but I have not finished mine so it may be more than this! Overall, I love this product a lot, I have definitely found my favourite tanning product and I would love to try more products in this range! The colour is such a gorgeous natural golden colour and if you are looking for a new fake tan I would recommend this!

Lots of love,
Eleanor x