If you've been a loyal follower of mine for a while, you may have noticed that my blog has undergone a little makeover. I've switched up the design of my blog a couple of times before, each time feeling a little pleased with its new look but not 100% satisfied. I wanted something crisper and more professional looking, and after trawling the internet in search of a template and dabbling with some super brain-puzzling HTML, I think I may finally be happy with the way my blog looks... hooray!

Of course you can just buy a template and save yourself the hassle, but when you have to work on your design yourself you really become aware of how much work is put into each design, and trust me - it's A LOT. I started switching things up at around 10am this morning. 

It's now 7:20pm. 

I haven't  even left the house today and I feel like a zombie with square eyes.

But my blog looks pretty now, so it's worth it... right?

Have you ever attempted to delve into the deep, dark world of HTML?

I'm aware it's been, uh, forever and a day since my last blog post *sigh*. However, i'm determined to be more productive this year and I'd like to get back into the swing of writing regular blog posts. 

Aside from that, I've FINALLY decided to apply for my provisional driving license, wahoo! Last Monday I sat down and made myself complete the form online, and today I forced myself into the nearest photo booth to print some updated photos that I could send off to complete the application. 

To tell you the truth, it becomes a whole lot easier to be productive if you physically force yourself to do things. When given the choice, it's easy to sweep things to one side and say you'll do them later (when really, deep down you know you have no intention of doing them), so in order to actually get things done you must take control and tell yourself you're going to get these things done whether you like it or not so you can move on to the next task in hand.

As well as learning to drive, this year I'd like to become more active as a bid to feel fitter and healthier. To help make this happen, I purchased a cross trainer just before Christmas which I absolutely looove so far, as well as buying a lovely new pair of trainers to keep me motivated.

Aren't they pretty? I've always wanted to own a snazzy pair of Nike Free Runs and now I finally do! I believe these are the Free Run+3's in 'Fireberry Electric Green' (I love the names they use for the colours!) 

Apart from looking lovely, these trainers are so comfortable and extremely lightweight; two necesseties  if you're looking to take up running or exercise in general.

I always used to pick the plainest looking trainers and shy away from the jazzy, brightly-coloured ones, but now I like to embrace the brights! The pop of colour really brightens up your dark workout gear and makes exercising that little bit more fun.

I hope you've all had a lovely Christmas, what are your goals for 2015? 

                          ♡

P.S - sorry for the not-so-great quality of the photos, I used my iPhone instead of my DSLR! 

So far I've found the month of November to be a giant blur. To me it seems to have whizzed by... how scary is it to think that Christmas is only 35 days away?! (*gasp*) I certainly find myself having a love-hate relationship with this time of year. Part of me does secretly love wrapping up warm and digging out all of last year's woolly jumpers, scarves, gloves etc. but at the same time I despise waking up and finding it pitch black outside, and getting out of a toasty-warm bed to face plummeting temperatures is extremely difficult. Oh, and another thing - attempting to somewhat smooth down my hair when it's cold and drizzly outside is a nightmare.. talk about frizz-city! Luckily I have a few products that I've been loving so far this month which is making this time of the year just that little bit more bearable for me. It is a rather random bunch of favourites this month but I figured it'd be a nice change to include a few things that aren't beauty or skincare related, so lets begin!

First things first, obviously I have to mention this baby. I did get this over a month ago but didn't get to fully appreciate its beauty as it took a while to transfer everything over from my old laptop (which is incredibly borrrrring) but my, it's SO BEAUTIFUL. It was expensive, but I find it so much more fulfilling knowing that I bought this out of my own money that I'd earnt myself, and who doesn't like a little (or in this case, rather big!) treat now and again?!

A lip product I've enjoyed using this month is the Calvin Klein lipstick in 'Henna'. I bought this from Fragrance Direct for the bargain price of £1.99 as I was looking for a fairly inexpensive, good-quality lipstick. It was a bit of a gamble as I wasn't sure of the exact colour (the swatches on the website aren't too accurate at showing the true colour), but it's a really subtle light-pink shade that I've found to be extremely creamy and blendable.

I know everybody seems to go crazy over berry-toned nail polish and lipsticks during this time of the year, but I still like wearing fairly neutral, muted tones on my nails and the Rimmel 60 Seconds polish in 'Little Bo Peep' is one of my favourites at the moment. Although I disagree about it drying in 60 seconds and only needing one coat (I had to use three coats), it's still a lovely pale grey colour which dries with a light shine. The brush is also a good size too; it's wide enough to coat the nails properly which means you don't have to go over and over the same area so you can avoid the horrible sticky feeling you get when the polish hasn't had long enough to dry!

As somebody who uses straighteners or curlers on a daily basis, the ends of my hair are often left feeling incredibly dry - not to mention I already have ombré hair! I popped into Poundland a while back and while I was down the hair and beauty aisle, this product caught my eye. I know argan oil can be terribly expensive online, so I thought i'd give this a go as, of course, it was only going to cost me £1. I only apply the teeniest amount to the palm of my hand and then smooth it through the ends of my hair, and it really does make it feel so much smoother and healthier - absolute BARGAIN!

Another hair-related favourite of mine this month is my beloved Tangle Teezer. This is amazing for smoothing down hair to eliminate tangles and best of all, it doesn't yank all of your hair out in the process! I'm sure we've all been there where you try and run your fingers through your hair and they get stuck, so you use a hairbrush as an aid to brushing out the tangly mess you've just made and losing a trillion hairs as a result. This, however, is so gentle on your hair - it just glides through effortlessly and saves so much time in the mornings.

This is a fairly new addition to my skincare routine after discovering the queen of  skincare Caroline Hirons talking about facial spritzes on her blog. This one in particular smells super lovely and fresh and can be used before or after makeup to freshen up your face. I've mainly been using this at night after I've finished cleansing my face but I'd imagine it would be more effective to use before applying makeup in the mornings to give your skin a little bit of a glow.

Since buying the Real Techniques Travel Essentials Kit, the 'Multi-Task Brush' has been my go-to brush when applying my foundation. This brush really allows you to buff the foundation into the skin and leaves your complexion looking completely flawless. It's also extremely versatile; it can be used to apply foundation, bronzer, blush.. basically any kind of product!

The 'Miracle Complexion Sponge' by Real Techniques makes applying foundation a dream. I do believe it'd drink your foundation if you didn't soak it under a tap first, but it's a relatively small price to pay for achieving an amazing foundation base. You can really build up the coverage by pressing the foundation into any problem areas, and I believe it would do the exact same job as the Beauty Blender for a smaller price tag!

I rediscovered this necklace earlier this month which was given to me as a birthday present from one of my friends; it's so pretty! I love the different coloured flowers all clustered together with the tiny silver sparkles in the middle - and the gold chain makes a nice change from the usual silver jewellery I tend to wear :)

In case you can't tell, this is the Collection 'Lasting Perfection' concealer. Ahh, this has definitely been well loved! I bought this a while ago but only just rediscovered it in my makeup bag, and it's made a nice change from the Soap & Glory 'Kick-Ass' concealer I usually use. The coverage is brilliant for such an inexpensive product and it lasts a lot longer than I would've expected it to.

Case: Nicole Miller

Case: Case-Mate

Another random favourite of this month are pretty phone cases. I recently splashed out on a shiny new iPhone, which of course means you have to get shiny new phone cases! I decided to get the gold iPhone 5s as opposed to the 6 (mainly to save a bit of money), although I opted for the 64gb one to make sure I had enough space to store all of my music, pictures and apps.

My last favourite of my month comes in the form of music and is, of course, the new One Direction album.. how could I not include it?! My favourite song so far has to be Night Changes, but i'm yet to listen to the whole album in full!

What are you enjoying so far this month?

 x

Since starting my job in July, it may be hard to believe but I haven't had a single weekend day off. I'm contracted to work both Saturdays and Sundays, however I wasn't put down on the rota this Sunday which left me with the perfect opportunity to catch up on an old hobby of mine - baking. I was in the mood for something sweet but nothing too sickly, which was when I remembered I had a recipe for some oat & raisin cookies that I'd left lurking in the middle of an old baking book amongst many others all crammed onto the bookshelf. These are what I'd describe as the perfect 'sweet treat'; they're super tasty and don't leave you feeling guilty for over-indulging. I believe I found the original recipe for these on the BBC Good Food website, however I did do a bit of tweaking and decided to tailor this recipe to meet my needs :)

To make 6 large-ish cookies, you will need:

• 75g self-raising flour (I used wholemeal as it was the first thing i found in the cupboard, but any self-raising flour will do - even gluten free works well!)
• 75g sugar (I lessened mine to 60g and found them sweet enough)
• 75g oats
• 75g butter
• 1 tablespoon of milk
• 1 tablespoon of Golden Syrup
• 1 teaspoon of Baking Powder
• 1 handful of raisins
• Flaxseed (this is entirely optional - I just add a teaspoon or two to make them a little bit healthier!)

METHOD:

1) Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees.

2) Line a baking tray with baking parchment (that's grease-proof paper to me and you).

3) Sift the flour into a bowl. Mix in baking powder, oats & sugar.

4) Melt butter, syrup & milk in a saucepan. Stir until heated through.

5) Add to the premixed ingredients dry ingredients. Mix well combined.

6) Spoon onto the baking tray & shape into rounds.

7) Bake for 10-15 minutes or until golden brown.

8) Leave to cool for 5 minutes before removing from tray.

And voilà! There you have six, super-tasty treats that are perfect for snacking on during the day. If you decide to make some yourself, I'd love to know how you get on and what you think to them!

Chloe 

-x-

When it comes to make up brushes, I always try and look for good quality ones that are also affordable -  a combination that is sometimes quite hard to come across (apart from Real Techniques brushes of course). A lot of the time it seems you have to make a compromise somewhere along the line by either paying a lot of money for a super-fancy brush or making do with a bog-standard, mediocre one to save a few pennies. This is where the Coastal Scents brushes come in. I first discovered these last summer when I was looking to start my brush collection. I hadn't owned any makeup brushes at this point so I was a bit sceptical about buying a complete set for under £20, but I decided to give them a go nonetheless.

Honestly, i'm so glad that I took the risk of buying these brushes because they are AMAZING. The quality is excellent and in my opinion they look and perform just as well as more expensive brushes on the market. The set consists of 12 brushes with both synthetic and natural hair bristles which all fit into the case provided. The case fastens with magnets and each brush has its own little pouch which keeps them separated and makes it easy for you to select which brush you want to use at a glance. The case also means that this set is perfect for travelling; it's roughly the same size as a small/medium sized clutch bag and it's fairly flat - definitely not bulky in the slightest.

My only teeny-tiny issue with these brushes is the amount of bristles I seem to lose from the powder brushes when I wash them, but in all honesty I don't consider this to be much of a problem and it is to be expected with the bristles made from natural hair. Both the synthetic and the natural hair bristles apply makeup effortlessly and are not scratchy in the slightest, which of course is a huge bonus when so many other brushes around this price range seem very artificial and feel rough on the skin.

In order from the picture above, the brushes included in this set are:

• Lash & Brow Comb
• Blush Brush (natural hair)
• Angled Blush Brush (natural hair)
• Foundation Brush (synthetic)
• Doe-foot Blending Brush (synthetic)
• Pointed Blending Brush (natural hair)
• Medium Shadow Brush (synthetic)
• Small Concealer Brush (synthetic)
• Pointed Detailer Brush (synthetic)
• Rounded Detailer Brush (synthetic)
• Small Angled Liner Brush (synthetic)
• Angled Liner Brush (synthetic)

As I mentioned above, this set is currently priced at £19.95 with free p&p and is available  from BeautyStore4U.co.uk: my ultimate go-to site for all things beauty and brush related!

What are your favourite, must-have makeup brushes? 

♡

**Disclaimer: This was not a sponsored post, I just wanted to share my genuine opinion on how fantastic these brushes are :) **

For those of you who are familiar with my blog, it'll come as no surprise to you that I am quite obsessed with popping into my local Boots and having a little nosey around at all of the makeup and skincare products that they have to offer. Last Sunday was no different - the minute I finished work I just had to go in and suss out the latest offers (and of course have a little rummage around in the clearance section!)

In my mind I had an idea of what I wanted; I was looking for a facial wash to replace my moisturising one from Simple that I've had for literally years. I'd heard great things about the Neutrogena 'Visibly Clear' Facial Wash and read many really positive reviews about it, which persuaded me to go ahead and buy it. But my spending didn't stop there - I decided to get the moisturiser from the 'Visibly Clear' range too as there was on offer on which meant you could get two Neutrogena products for £5, what a bargain!!

As you could probably guess from the names of the products, both the facial wash and the moisturiser smell like grapefruit. The scent is subtle and clean-smelling - definitely not strong or overpowering in the slightest. I like to use the facial wash first thing in the morning to remove any of the moisturiser and spot treatment products that I used on my skin overnight and follow on with the moisturiser. I particularly like that it's oil free as I feel my skin is normal-combination and my T-zone is the one area that gets particularly oily during the day. I've only been using these products for around a week and I feel like my skin is clearing up already - for weeks I've suffered with spots around my nose and chin and have tried so many different products to try and combat them... I even tried products containing natural plant extracts from the Nelson's Pure and Clear range but they had little to no effect on clearing up my skin.

While I am still on the lookout for a super-effective, instant spot-zapping miracle treatment, the Neutrogena products have made my skin look considerably clearer than it was a few weeks ago which i'm verrrrry happy about and so for now, I shall continue using both the face wash and the moisturiser to combat any remaining spots and blemishes until they decide to pack their bags and leave the surface of my face (those little blighters owe me weeks' worth of rent!!)

Hey guys :)

It has certainly been a while since I last found myself sat behind a laptop screen writing a blog post, but I can assure you I have quite a few (fairly plausible) excuses! 

First of all, I managed to get myself a job... hurrah! I am no longer sporting the 'poor unemployed student without a penny to her name' stereotype, though this unfortunately does not mean that I have all of a sudden become Britain's richest teen earning megabucks *sad face*. 

Secondly, my laptop was becoming verrrry sluggish in its old age, and it was a nightmare trying to upload photos and write blog posts on a machine that took around 10 decades to load anything. After seeing footage of many successful Youtubers and bloggers tip-tapping away on their shiny MacBook Pro's, I took the plunge and decided it was time for me to upgrade - which hopefully means more frequent blog posts!

Anyway, as the title suggests, I wanted to do a little review on a few of the Real Techniques brushes that I currently own.

The contour brush is definitely one of my most-used brushes from my ever-growing Real Techniques collection; you can use it for so many different things! Aside from contouring the cheeks, I like to use this brush to set the concealer that I use under my eyes, and it's also the perfect size for powdering around your T-zone.

Next is the buffing brush, another strong favourite of mine. This works really well with liquid foundations as it enables you to achieve a perfect, streak-free finish. The bristles are slightly less dense than those in the expert face brush, which is why I prefer to use it on foundations of a slightly runnier consistency.

The blush brush has tapered bristles which allow you to apply blush to precise areas on the face. While it is a great brush, I don't use it as often as some of the other Real Techniques brushes which is probably down to the fact that I very rarely use blush... although I have used it with bronzer before and was pretty happy with the way it turned out :)

I remember buying the powder brush and thinking "wow, it's bloody huge", but it's honestly one of my favourite brushes EVER. You can apply powder to your entire face in seconds and it also works great with bronzer if you're looking to achieve that perfect all-0ver, sun-kissed look.

The stippling brush is another of my absolute favourites. It works brilliantly with BB creams or foundations of a runnier consistency and can even be used with cream blushes.

If you haven't yet purchased any of the Real Techniques brushes but you fancy giving one a go, you really cannot go wrong with the expert face brush. The bristles are super dense which makes blending foundation into your skin a whole lot easier, especially foundations of a thicker consistency that are otherwise quite difficult to blend.

The pointed foundation brush is one of my less-used brushes from those that I own mainly due to its size; I find it a little on the small side for applying foundation. However it does come in very handy for applying concealer under the eyes as it's the perfect shape and size for getting right into those pesky inner corners.

Last of all is the tiny detailer brush. In all honesty, I've only used this once or twice when I was applying lipstick but it does have other uses. I'd imagine it'd work really well with concealer to hide any unwanted blemishes or to conceal any dark circles under the eyes :)

What do you think of Real Techniques brushes? I'd love to know which one is your favourite!