Be Beautiful Be You

Hello lovely ladies, I hope you are all well. I've been wanting to get a post up for ages about 'true beauty' seeing as anyone who reads my little blog either has their own beauty blog or is completely beauty obsessed like I am. I've never done a serious blog post on here before, but I thought it was about time, so I'll warn you now - I'm not sure 100% where I will be going with this, I'm just going to type and let my thoughts spill onto the screen, so it maybe long and seam like a little bit of a ramble (though sometimes we all love a good ramble on) and I hope by getting all my little thoughts out I maybe able to help if some of you relate. 

So... The other day I posted the '50 Random Things About Me' tag and my last random fact was I am a huge believer in the saying 'you must learn to love yourself, before you can expect anyone else to love you' and I had quite a few responses from you lovely ladies saying that it was a good way to think and it made me realise that we all need to take a few more moments out of our lives to think on the positives about ourselves, myself included. It is far too easy these days to get down about the way we look especially seeing as there as are so many constructed ideas in society of what beauty is and how we should all look. It brings the question to mind 'what is beautiful' and are we all showing the world and ourselves our 'true beauty'. I think it's fair to say that every woman, girl no matter how old or young are all far to aware of our flaws and sometimes it can be far too easy to focus on these, so much so that it makes us feel down about ourselves and just miserable. I don't understand why us ladies can't look in the mirror more often and see the good things staring back at us in our reflection, instead of picking out the bad and letting it get you down for the whole day.

Over the last few years I have really tried hard in trying to see the positives that makes me beautiful and really focused on changing my negative mind set about myself. I'm aware that that sounds incredibly vein, but I honestly believe each and every single one of us is beautiful in our own way and it's up to us to find our true beauty, embrace it and let it shine though for the world to see. I want to be completely honest with you beauties, for most of my life I used to have the most negative mind set about my body image and it caused me nothing but misery and had such a negative effect on myself and those around me. When I was around 5 I went though a stage of not wanting to eat at all and as I grew older this love/hate relationship with food developed into an eating disorder. When I was around 17 my body image was completely distorted and I lived my life for a good 6 years, not eating, looking in the mirror only to see flaw after flaw. Magazines and images online (which I know are all mostly photo shopped) gave me this idea in my head of what being beautiful was and I felt the need to look a certain way and be a certain shape and size. I became obsessed with looking in the mirror, standing there for hours on end thinking 'I look too fat', the longer this went on, the more weight I lost and the more I found myself hating my body image. My opinion of myself became so low, that I lost so much of my confidence, pushed all friends and family away because the only thoughts that I had room for was, loosing weight, food, the scales, the mirror and thinking when I can fit time in to exercise as much as possible. I got stuck in a horrible cycle for 6 years where  the only words in my mind constantly were - fat, ugly, imperfect, disgusting and 'I want to be skinny'. The truth was I was skinny, way too skinny and I found that not only was I looking terrible on the outside I was feeling pretty terrible on the inside too. My once bubbly personality was gone and I lost my 'spark' as so they say. At 22 I had caused the people that love and care about me way too much worry and reached out and got the help I needed to put me on the right track again... and the right track is where I am now. Yes there are times where I have my moments, but I've not counted a calorie for 3 years and haven't put myself on any ridiculous diets or intentionally tried to loose weight. 

I know my story shows an extreme way of how you can get down about the way you look, but I know that all of us beauties have our own battles with our appearance and I see it in those that are close to me down to women that come into work, trying on clothes; we all have our own body flaws. Which brings me on to my next point - How do we change our way of thinking and start to see how beautiful we all really are? Well I don't think it is the easiest task at all, but I do know that we all have something that makes us special and we just have to take the time to compliment ourselves a little bit more so we focus on the good rather than the bad. You may have the most amazing eyes, so take 10 minutes in the morning to do your eye makeup really well, to extenuate this feature. You might have spent years growing your hair, take time to have a look in the mirror and give it a swish and a flick to pop a smile on your face. You might think you have a really big bum, but could have the most beautiful smile in the world - focus on this. I honestly believe that for every bad thing we could find about our body, you can find at least two good features to outweigh this bad and this is what we need to focus on to help us feel more body confident. My number one tip to help with having a good body image though ladies has to be 

Don't compare yourself to anyone else, just be beautiful and be you!

I found that it was way too easy to compare myself to someone else, thinking I wish I had her body, looked like her and all that do will make you feel crappy about ourselves.I used to cringe thinking about what features I liked about myself, but I found that starting with others can be a great way into building that confidence up. If you find it hard to compliment yourself try complementing those around you and let others know that they look beautiful; this will be sure to spread some good beauty love around and will help others to be more body confident and I can guarantee that it wont be long before the beauty love starts to come back your way. Most of the things we don't like about ourselves can be changed, although there can be extremes as I have mentioned, but I've learnt that it's so important to just be comfortable in our own skin. We can change the way we look, but our bodies are always changing everyday anyway, which makes it all that important to learn to love the things about ourselves daily and embrace your body confidence in the moment.

Being beautiful is not just about looking beautiful too, true beauty definitely comes from within and the saying 'the best accessory a woman can wear is her smile' couldn't be more true. I think its very easy for our personalities to shy away when we get wrapped up in negative thinking and as a result you miss out on all the important things that are going on around you and you aren't showing the world how beautiful you really are. I love how we are all so different and each have a bit of sparkle in us that makes us beautiful on the inside and out, we just need to embrace this and love ourselves a bit more. So ladies before you leave the house tomorrow be sure to be happy about one thing about yourselves and try to leave the house with a smile on your face. What you feel is what you are and what you are is beautiful (can anyone name that song). 

I would love to hear your thoughts on this ladies, let me know if you have any good tips on being body confident so we can really spread the beauty love. And remember you are beautiful!!

Lot's of Love

50 Random Things About Me | TAG

Hi beauties, I'm sure that you have all seen this tag flying around blogs and YouTube and I thought its such a quick and fantastic way to get to know each other all a bit more. I love how random this tag is and yes 50 maybe quite a large number, but there only facts and I've been surprised at how quick I've read through other peoples and how much I have enjoyed reading them. So if your still 'umming' and 'arrring' about whether to give this one a little go... I would say just do it and if you do let me know as I would love a read. Let me know if you get to the bottom of this post and hopefully you will get to know a little more about me!

1. I don't think before I speak.

2. I'm really ditzy.

3. I am one of these people who will get on with almost everyone.

4. I studied drama/dance at College and University and would love to teach it one day.

5. I have never tried tea or coffee and the thought of drinking it makes me want to be sick.

6. I can't drink out of anything that isn't see through, unless its disposable and I know I am the first person to have drank out of it. The thought of drinking out of a mug makes me want to be sick - Weird.

7. I've broken both my wrists (not at the same time). 

8. I was once a brownie (pixies) and a girl guide (blue-tit) - You other brownie and girl guide girlies will know what I mean! 

9. I never realised how much I love photography, until I started blogging 

10. I am a really bad sleeper, take forever to drift off and always wake up though the night - Weirdly though I can nap anywhere, any time of the day.

11. I can't cook a meal unless I have a recipie to follow, or someone in the kitchen with me to answer all my cooking questions (even on meals I've cooked before).

12. I believed the 'If you say thank you after a sneeze a fairy dies' saying, and always did the two claps if I did just to stop the fairy dying... Secretly I still do it, just out of habit. 

13. My favourtie TV show has to be 'America's Next Top Model' I've watched every series at least twice. 

14. I am a huge fidget bum

15. I play with my hair when I get nervous.

16. I overthink everything and think way too much.

17. Sometimes I think I'm secretly a bit psychic.

18. I am so so so clumsy. Always tripping up, falling over or dropping things, can't take me anywhere.

19. I like to laugh a lot and loudly.

20. I love to dance, if I'm in the house I will get so side tracked and dance in between jobs.

21. I've never been a bridesmaid :(

22. I went to an all girls school. Bitchiest place ever!

23. I made my first best friend on the first day of school and we are still best friends. Our teacher used to call us Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum and everyone still calls us it when were together. Louise I love you!

24. I would love to have a one on one dance lesson with Ashley Banjo.

25. I've always been quite flexible.

26. I was once a vegetarian for three years.

27. I have a younger sister, who looks and acts way older than me.

28. I am a big F1 fan.

29. I love being at home, and love my home comforts.

30. Dogs, penguins and elephants are my favourite animals. 

31. I find people watching fascinating and love sitting by a window and watching the world go by.

32. I have three stepbrothers, two of them are twins and I have one stepsister who is Polish.

33. I am the worst person ever to ask for directions, I have no sense of direction whatsoever.

34. A lot of people come to me for advice and help with their problems, I make a good listener. 

35. I spend way too much time on my phone.

36. My favourite film has to be 'Bring It On' - Cheerleader for life <3

37. I sometimes wish I had a much more exciting last name, Smith is so dull. 

38. I ask an awful lot of questions, just because I get confused way too easily. 

39. I've always been a bit of a 'good girl', never doing anything wrong or breaking the rules, over the last few years I've seen the fun side of breaking a few - which has been fun!

40. I would love one day, to walk to work and for the whole world to break out in song and dance just like in a musical. 

41. I read 50 Shades of Grey and didn't like it at all. 

42. I can't bring myself to throw away any of my nail polishes, even the ones that have gone horrible and yucky. I'm such a hoarder.

43. The simple things really do make me so happy.

44. I think that if your having a good hair or makeup day, then your day will automatically be a lot better. If your lucky enough to have a good hair and makeup day at the same time, then your day will just be perfect - Very true I am sure ladies.

45. I've had driving lessons and found out that I am a really bad driver - On my first lesson I forgot how the breaks work and pulled back on the steering wheel to try and slow the car down - Total fail!

46. I love peanut butter, especially on something hot like crumpets so the peanut butter melts and sinks into the food - scrumptious.

47. I go all shy and feel a bit intimidated when there is a large group of guys - especially when I'm at work, working on men's wear with no where to escape and I have to talk to them because it's my job. 

48. I hate failing, what ever I do I will always try my to my very best.

49. I love cheerleading and everything about it - It's dancing, stunting, tumbling; a sport that's all about teamwork, bows, sparkles, glitter, facials and it's just so much fun!

50. I'm fully aware of my flaws, but I am a huge believer in the saying 'you have to be able to love yourself, before you can expect anyone to love you'. So I'm just going to say it... I love me! 

So that's it ladies, 50 random things about me :) Hope you found it interesting and let me know if you think were similar in anyways. 

Lot's of Love

Soap & Glory The Righteous Butter

I absolutely love body butters and nothing beats the feeling of getting out of the shower, feeling squeaky clean, then smothering a load of scrumptious body butter onto your skin, letting it work its magic so your skin feels soft soft soft.  Besides washing my hair, it has to be the favourite part of my whole shower routine. What really gets me excited with a body butter, is when you get one that works like a dream and smells absolutely scrumptious, you can guarantee that I am one of these girls that will stand there in Boots  and do the all important 'sniff' test, before purchasing the perfect body butter for me.

For Christmas I received a little Soap & Glory moisturiser gift set which contained this small travel size of the famous S&G Righteous Butter. I cannot believe I have left this famous body butter left on the shelves for so long and have never thought to pick it up before. I am just completely in love with this body butter and it is by far one of the best ones I have ever tried, it's simply divine. For me the S&G Righteous Butter completely ticks all the boxes - it has a really rich and thick formula which feels heavenly when you apply it to your skin, I find its one of those body butters that you feel really works into your skin, long after is application. I love that it doesn't feel to greasy and gives you that horrible sticky feeling afterwards, especially when you pop your clothes on after. And... did I mention that  the smell of this is just luscious, heavenly and oh so yummm!! - It has the recognisable signature S&G smell to it and if you love that smell as much as I do, you will be most pleased to hear that the smell stays put on your body for hours and hours afterwards - Hallelujah!! 

Although I've only used a small amount of this dreamy body butter, I feel that the Righteous Butter and I have become the best of friends and would suggest that anyone who is suffering from dry skin will love this - the application of this moisturiser distributes very evenly over the skin and works amazingly on all those dry areas such as elbows and knees and everywhere else in between. As soon as my little pot runs out, I know I will be getting myself down to Boots and be purchasing the full size 300ml tub which retails for £10.50 which you can find here. I've seen online and from other reviews people saying that the S&G Righteous Butter will last you for the longest of time; but I honestly don't see it lasting long at all - only because I am one of these people that feels the need to cake body butter on me; I don't like to use them sparingly at all. But if you wanted to a little pot of this could go along way, it just depends on your personal style of body butter application. Either way though I think this is a fantastic product and one I have fallen in love with right away. If you love this as much as I do, I would love to know your thoughts beauties. 

Lots of Love

Beautifully Bronzed in MAC Tempting

Hi beauties, hope your all well and are not too cold with all this snow around us. At the weekend I decided to take the plunge and sort out though all my makeup and give it a good clean up, anyone else like me and find it so hard to keep organised? Whilst sorting though my beloved eyeshadow's I cam across MAC 'Tempting', a little gem that I've neglected for way too long. Tempting has to be the most beautiful bronze shade I have ever come across and holds a special place in my heart as it was the first MAC eyeshadow I ever bought. The reason for neglecting it for so long, has not been because I had fallen out with this shadow. As you can see from the pictures I've more than hit pan on it and I've been trying to make it last as long as possible as I rarely get the opportunity to get myself to a MAC counter. 

Tempting has a 'lustre' finish, which I know is not to everyone liking due to them being prone to 'fall out', but 'Tempting' has the most amazing finish and problems with fall out have been next to none. The lustre finish gives it a sparkly effect once applied and blending it is a dream. I especially love how this shade gives you a little bit more than your average bronze eyeshadow as there are tiny flecks of gold glitter hidden within the shadow and I love how these really reflect when the light catches it. Don't be put off by the glitter beauties, you wont look like a disco ball once its on as the glitter bits are so finely milled that it gives a lovely shimmery finish to the shadow, which I love. Not only is Tempting one of those eyeshadow you look at and think 'my how stunning are you!' but its also extremely pigmented - my swatch above really doesn't do it justice (apologies).

I think I wore this eyeshadow though best part of last year and I found that it's perfect for creating a bronze smokey eye for a dramatic evening look - But equally it works perfectly for daytime, especially in the summer months. In the picture I have used 'Half Baked' from the UD Naked Palette, swept over the lid and used 'Tempting' for my crease colour, as you can see its a lovely look for the daytime too. If your wanting to create an evening look with 'Tempting' I've found that pairing it with the Maybelline 24hr Colour Tattoo in the shade 'On and On Bronze' (review here) creates a fantastic look that is sure to 'wow'.

I've decided I'm just going to give into temptation and use 'Tempting' as and when I like and I've missed this beauty way too much, and plus when it does run out, its just another excuse to get some more MAC goodies right? If you looking to get your hands on this you can find it directly from MAC's website here. If you love bronze shadow's as much as I do, then I would definitely recommend having a look at 'Tempting'. Have you been tempted by 'Tempting' ladies? I would love to know your thoughts.

Lot's of Love

Estée Lauder's Advance Night Repair - Review

Hi ladies, hope you are all having a fantastic weekend and enjoying the snow or if your like me and like the comforts of your own home and are enjoying being cosy in the warmth while watching the snow though the window. I have been wanting to get a review up of Estée Lauder's Advance Night Repair since receiving this little sample bottle at a House of Fraser beauty event I attended way back in the Summer, but seeing as its such a pricey beauty product I really wanted to give it a thorough testing before sharing it here on my blog. Well it's been well over 5 months since having the ANR as a part of my evening skincare routine and I can honestly say that it really amazing and worth all the hype that it gets. 

ANR I would say is mostly seen as an anti-ageing serum, but from research it seams to be one of the best all rounder serums on the market - helping to hydrate the skin, reduce the appearance of acne scaring, redness and uneven skin tone. Its ever so easy to incorporate into your night time routine, as you just massage a few drops of this onto your skin before applying your evening moisturiser. I've never tried any other beauty serums before, so I don't have anything to compare the ANR too, but I always stayed away from them as due to the fact that I have oily to combination skin and thought that any serum would just add more oil to my skin and bring out spots - oh how wrong I was. The ANR serum's formula sinks right into the skin once applied, leaving your skin feel lovely and hydrated and it's left on all night to work its magic. 

After using this daily for the last 5 months, I've seen that my skin looks a lot more even - which is fantastic for making your makeup look flawless. I have also noticed that areas that were always a bit red and blotchy on my skin are now a thing of the past. My skin is not prone to major breakouts, but when I do get the odd spot, I'll pop ANR onto my skin and in the morning any breakouts are dramatically reduced - it seams that the serum is tackles every skin woe and the only result you get in the end is waking up with your skin looking radiant. As for tackling anti-ageing, I'm not so sure on how well it works - I can't really say my skin is at an age where I look at myself in the mirror and think 'gosh, it's starting to loose its youth' but I like to think that the ANR is a good defence for the skin and as with a lot of things prevention is always key - why start using anti-ageing products when its too late? 

Right now I am loving how healthy my skin looks and I honestly believe that I have the ANR to thank for it. Like I said at the beginning of this post, this is a pricey product with a 50ml bottle selling for £58.00 which you can find here, but a little really goes a long way - You only need the tiniest amount of product each time when using it. The little bottle shown in the pictures is only 15ml, I've been using it religiously and still have just under half a bottle left - So if your not put off by the price then the ANR is definitely a good investment. I will be honest and say I am not looking forward to my little bottle running out as forking out a lot of money for one product is a bit of a biggie, but after using this so frequently, I really can't see myself without this product, it's become a bit of a holy grail item for me. I've spoken to a lot of women since using this product - young and old and from what I've been told it is the key and secret to ageing gracefully! I have no idea how true this is, I suppose only time will tell. But for now I love how this is making my skin look and I love how hydrated my skin feels, no makeup days are not such a big deal anymore. I would definitely take the plunge and give this ago, especially if you have been thinking about getting it for a long time. The actual serum is not sticky, nor too thick, but has a water like consistency and leaves no greasy feeling on your skin afterwards. In my opinion a fantastic all rounder serum. Have you tried ANR yet? I would love to know your thoughts ladies.

Lot's of Love

PS Sorry about the writing rubbing off the bottle in the pictures, as you can see this little bottle has had a lot of love :)

Soap & Glory - The Breakfast Scrub

Being a regular fake tanner, I have a lot of love for scrubs, but it has to be said that Soap & Glory's The Breakfast Scrub is my ultimate favourite. The sugar scrubs from S&G seam to have been a winner in the world of beauty blogging and their Sugar Crush scrub seams to be the most popular, I've only had the pleasure of smelling this one in Boots and I can completely see  what the fuss is all about as it smells lovely. But with this being said, I have to say my favourite scrub from S&G and possibly most favourite scrub ever has to be The Breakfast Scrub. 

First of all the smell of this scrub is absolutely divine, it has the most delicious smell of maple syrup which makes you go 'wow'. It has to be the best smelling beauty product I've ever owned, I would actually eat it if I could! Seriously taking pictures for this particular post has never been so fun, all I could smell was the yummy scent, especially getting up close and personal with the close up pictures - my nose had a field day :). If you've not had the pleasure of smelling this scrub yet, I urge you to get yourself down to Boots immediately and take a whiff. When your in the shower or bath and its time for an exfoliate, rubbing this all over your body is just heavenly and the smell does transfer on to the body a little afterwards, which is always nice. If your one of these people who can sometimes forget to exfoliate on a regular basis then this scrub will pop you in a good routine because if you love the smell as much as I do you will be most excited to use this when an exfoliate is due.

As a scrub the Breakfast Scrub works amazingly too, its very rich, thick but gentle on the skin all at the same time. The scrub contains oats, shea butter mixed in with bananas, almonds and honey (where the maple smell comes form, I have no idea). The scrub is a sugar based one and as soon as you dip your fingers into it, it feels very sticky and you can feel all the different layers to this scrub. Because the texture of this scrub is of a thick consistency you can massage it into your skin without having all the bits that exfoliate your skin dissolve away and really rub it into those dry areas. It works wonders on buffing your skin and priming it ready for your fake tan - what I really love though is how incredibly soft your skin feels right away, even when I'm still in the shower and wash this scrub off I can feel a difference - And once your out the shower your skin is practically glowing. 

The packaging has that classic S&G look to it and I love how its in a cute rounded tub so you can see it in all it's yummy scrub glory. It retails at £9.50 from Boots, which I think is around the same price as the other S&G scrubs and you certainly get what you pay for. A bit pricey that may seam for some, but a little really goes a long way with this scrub and I can see this tub lasting me for ages.  What I really wish though is for the scent of this scrub to stay on your body all day as it seams to disappear after a few hours which is a real shame for me. I would love if S&G could bring out a moisturiser that matched the smell of the breakfast scrub so I could carry on smelling as gorgeous as this scrub long after using it.

What's your thoughts on the S&G Breakfast Scrub, have any of you beauties gave into temptation and had a nibble of this delicious smelling stuff?

Lot's of Love