I've realised just recently that my skincare routine has taken a backseat. I was once that goodie two-shoes who would triple cleanse before bed to make sure every last scrap of makeup had left my face before hitting the hay, but all of a sudden I've found myself reaching for a pack of makeup wipes and totally disregarding any form of acid toner. I've moaned during the past month at the state of my skin; it's been patchy, blemish-y and shiny in all the wrong places. Feeling fed up of the state my face was in, I headed straight onto the Boots website in the hope of finding some super skincare products to give my skin the love (but also the kick up the backside) it needs to get back on the straight and narrow.

Boots have some incredible deals online at the moment, which gave me all the more reason to stock up on some of the products that I used to use time and time again until I forgot to repurchase them. One of those products being the Boots 3 Minute Clay Mask. Priced at £1.50 this is an absolute steal. I find it really helps to calm down my skin thanks to the extract of cucumber in the ingredients and it seems to make it appear much smoother and softer to the touch.

Rimmel's Hide the Blemish concealer has been around for years, and it's one of the first makeup items I ever owned. I remember liking it because it's very yellow-toned and has great staying power. I rediscovered this in my makeup collection the other day but it had worn right down to nothing more than a stump so I threw it out, but I'm glad I've ordered another one and look forward to giving it a go!

There's no better eyebrow pencil than Archery by Soap & Glory. I've tried so many drugstore/highstreet brow pencils and I always find they're too dark or too red-toned, or the nib breaks and never re-sharpens! This one has a super-fine tip so it leaves your brows looking soft and natural and it even has its own spoolie on the other end - perfect for saving that all-important space in your makeup bag.

Ah, the Clearasil pads. Whilst I'm aware i'm no longer a hormone-fuelled teenager, I grew up using these and they seemed to save my skin in times of desperation when a horror breakout occurred. I thought I'd give them another go as I have a few stubborn under-the-skin spots on my forehead and I've completely skipped using any sort of acid toner on my face for yonks. I figured these would do the trick and then some, claiming to not only even skin tone but also exfoliate, reduce shine & oil, unblock pores and remove dirt.

When I think of facial oils my initial thoughts are just "nope". I hate the texture for a start, but after reading the endless list of benefits I gave in and ordered the Botanics Organic Facial Oil. So many people have raved about this in the reviews section on Boots and I figured they can't all be wrong, so I pray this will be a product I fall in love with and banish my dislike of oils for good!

Last but not least, the Botanics Radiance Balm. Not something I necessarily need, but I tricked myself into thinking that this may just I've me the radiance i'm after, and I'm all for looking like a glowing sun goddess. I guess I just envisioned myself being hand-fed grapes while lounging on a sunbed in the mediterranean and, well, that was enough to get me to order it. 

Have you picked up any great beauty bits recently?

Chloë
x


(Disclaimer: This is not a sponsored post. All of the products mentioned above were purchased by myself). 

Today I wanted to try something a little bit different for lunch. Lunch is somewhat of a privilege for me as I typically don't have a break during my standard working day. 

As today is my day off, I decided to venture out in the pouring rain to go and pick up some goodies to make my very own plant-based pizza. 

I bought two thin and crispy pizza bases from Sainsburys along with a bag of spinach, some sweetcorn, a tomato and some tomato purée. 

Whilst the oven was heating up, I spread the tomato purée out onto the base and shredded up the spinach to add as part of the topping. Then I sprinkled on some sweetcorn and basil along with some diced tomato and placed it straight in the oven at 200 degrees for around ten minutes. Et voilà! It was absolutely delicious and totally guilt free! I was very impressed with how it turned out considering it was my first attempt; here's to many more in the future!

I'm currently sat writing this whilst being drenched in sunlight.

No, I'm not in a foreign country, I am in fact sat in the middle of my lounge in England enjoying the sunlight pouring through the windows. Madness, I know.

Today I wanted to share my breakfast with you. Well, not literally, but I took a few snaps on my new camera (Canon EOS M) which I'm loving right now. The image quality is dreamy! My only niggle is with the battery life, but that's hardly surprising considering how much the little guy can do; there are tons of cool features and to be able to produce SLR worthy images from a camera that is about a third of the size is phenomenal!

Anyway, back to breakfast. This morning I woke up with a spring in my step, despite being struck down with a cold/cough a few days ago. There's a bug going around at work (that I'm blaming on the builders for coughing and spluttering everywhere) and it's honestly infected 80% of the workforce! So, with having the constant need to cough or sneeze every .2 seconds I decided to go back to basics and keep my breakfast simple by just having porridge. Delicious porridge at that, mind.

To make:

• 1/2 cup oats
• 1/2 cup hot water (boiled)
• 1/4 cup almond milk (I used unsweetened but it's personal preference!)
• 1 banana
• coconut sugar to sweeten

I've recently discovered it's a lot quicker to mix the oats in a bowl and wang them in the microwave than slouching over the stove stirring like no tomorrow to make sure the oats don't stick to the pan.

All you have to do is pour the oats into a bowl, add the almond milk and wait for the kettle to boil. Then, pour the desired amount of hot water in and mix everything together before placing in the microwave for 30-40 seconds (depending on the microwave's wattage). It may look like a watery mess at this stage but fear not; the heat from the microwave will help it to thicken. After removing the porridge from the microwave, all that's left to do is add your desired toppings! I opted for a banana, some strawberries and a sprinkle of dried cranberries.

Aaaaaand you're done. A quick, easy & super tasty breakfast that's ready in just a matter of minutes :)

Hi lovelies!

This week seems to have been a somewhat lazy yet productive one for me, with the majority of my time being spent trawling the interweb gawping at anything and everything. I made a few rash purchases; some Soleil Tan de Chanel bronzer, a snazzy black and gold studded handbag that I had my eye on months ago (that I saw in a Zoella video) and a new camera somehow winged their way into my shopping basket... oh, the life of a shopaholic. 

Seriously though, i've been lusting over cameras since early December but couldn't make my mind up in time for Christmas. It was a struggle, but last night I decided it was to be between the Olympus Pen E-PL7 (definitely a favourite amongst bloggers right now) and the Canon EOS M. The EOS M is the slightly older model as its sparkly, new and improved M3 and M10 siblings are out now, but truth be told, I was after something affordable and didn't think the tilting screen was worth the extra £100+. You may have noticed that both of the cameras mentioned above are 'compact system cameras', or CSC for short. Essentially this means you can produce the same high-quality images that you would on a DSLR, but without the added weight and bulkiness of a larger camera body. Think the offspring of a DSLR, if you will. It was a tricky choice believe me; the Olympus Pen E-PL7 is certainly a super camera that would be sure to win 1st place in a technology beauty contest... the white one is so pretty! The Canon is certainly a lot less streamline but does have some advantages:

1. You can purchase a lens mount which allows any existing Canon EF lenses to be compatible - perfect if you already own lenses for a Canon DSLR
2. It looks a little more robust, thus less likely to get damaged
3. It's a Canon... 'nuff said.

So yeah, I went for the Canon. I figured it would be far more economical seeing as I already own a couple of Canon lenses and I've had my DSLR for years so I'm familiar with the settings. I'm hoping this means my blog photos will be nothing less than exceptional from now on!

Do you own a compact system camera?

Chloe

x

We're vastly approaching the end of January and it's suddenly occurred to me that I haven't written a blog post since last year... *gasp*. This year I haven't set any resolutions as such, but I have decided that it's time I started being more optimistic and appreciating the little things in life that truly matter. The year of 2015 saw me pass both my driving theory and practical tests first time, leave the country to visit the wonderful city of Paris with one of my closest friends and take the plunge to go ahead and get braces. Those are probably quite mere achievements in the grand scheme of things, but I am certainly not the most confident of beings so I'm rather pleased that I managed to get those things done and ticked off my ever-growing 'to-do' list.

So, what's next for 2016?

Well, I'm currently off work for a couple of weeks due to the shop undergoing refurbishment, so it's left me with lots of free time that I've been spending verrrry wisely trawling the likes of Expedia for any last-minute holiday deals. I'm pleased to say I've already got the first mini-break of the year all booked in for March so I'll be returning to sunny Spain in a matter of weeks.. yay! Also this year I'm hoping to step up my career game and look for another job with longer hours because, well, how else can I afford to live the lifestyle of a serial jet-setter?! 

In terms of accomplishments, I'd love to improve on my Spanish (seeing as Spain is practically my second home now!) I've already downloaded an app called Duolingo which is brilliant for learning the basics and it incorporates reading, writing, speaking and listening into each lesson which is great. I'd also love to plan and organise more mini-breaks for this year as I've really grown to adore travelling (despite not yet venturing outside of Europe, ha!) In general, I'm hoping to just spend this year having a good time and experiencing new and exciting things.

What are your plans for 2016?

Chloë

x

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Ok, so Christmas is officially over for another year. I truly hope everybody had a lovely one filled with plenty of festive cheer and one-too-many mince pies, as well as, er, several glasses of mulled wine *hic*. Despite not asking for any gifts in particular, Santa certainly did well this year so I guess I must have made his 'nice' list - yippee! Some Soap & Glory body wash was lovingly welcomed into my arms along with a rather snazzy Fitbit and some cosy Christmas pjs... rather a random assortment but great nonetheless. As soppy and cliche as it sounds, I always think Christmas is more about spending quality time with loved ones and as much I appreciate the gifts, they don't have the same appeal to me now I'm a little older. That's also probably because you learn to appreciate people so much more after you have lost those who you were closest to, so spending as much time as you can with those who are most precious to you is so important to me now.

So after eating everything in sight on Christmas Day, I went to bed feeling fulfilled in every sense of the word. I had to drag myself out of bed the following morning though and head into work which I was completely ecstatic about as you can imagine! Busy was an understatement; there were people everywhere and I literally couldn't move without nearly stepping on someone. I can't understand who in their right mind would rush into town on Boxing Day in desperate need of new shoes (why on earth didn't they just ask Santa for a pair?!) Working in retail is certainly no fun at Christmas that's for sure.

My current to-do list goes pretty much like this:

Christmas Eve

Christmas Day

Boxing Day

New Years Eve

New Years Day (I have to work, boo!)

On that note, I wish everybody a happy and healthy 2016 and sincerely beg that it'll be a better one than this year. In terms of resolutions, I'll probably go with the one about toning up and magically turning into a  petite Victoria's Secret model for about the fourth year running... I cant wait to see how well that turns out!

Do you have any resolutions?

Chloë

x

I've gone through quite a few drugstore foundations in my time, but I feel there are still more gems out there that are yet to be discovered. I tried the original True Match foundation last year, and while I got on well with it, I wasn't entirely convinced by its runny consistency and the way it liked to slide off my nose in the afternoon. Recently I discovered that this foundation is back with a BANG; it's been completely repackaged and reformulated, so I knew I'd have to give it a try.

Firstly, I'm impressed with the huge variety of shades that this foundation comes in as I know it's typically quite tricky trying to match up your skin tone with foundations from the drugstore/highstreet. I'm usually towards the lightest end of the scale (if not the palest shade) and I always find it such a task trying to find a shade that isn't too pink-toned to avoid looking like a porcelain doll gone wrong. I try and stick to yellow-toned foundations to counteract some of the redness in my cheeks but to also match up with my neck and the rest of my skin. Out of all the drugstore foundations I have tried, this is definitely the palest, yellow-est shade I have come across so far (Golden Ivory, BTW). Prior to this I fell in love with Bourjois' Healthy Mix foundation in Vanilla (no.52), but it's a little bit too dark for me now it's winter and I'm ghostly pale. 

In comparison to the first True Match formula, I can't say I've noticed much of a difference. It's still a very light and runny consistency that blends effortlessly into the skin, although L'oreal claim it's now "softer than ever, looks more natural than ever, and matches your skin's unique tone and texture even better than before." It certainly does look natural, though. I typically prefer a medium-high coverage foundation without it looking too fake and heavy, which is exactly why this True Match foundation is so perfect as you can easily build up the coverage without it looking cakey on the skin. 

Packaging-wise, the shape of the bottle has been elongated and it looks a little more modern compared to the old design. The chrome pump was seen on the previous bottle too, however it's now more square around the top which looks a lot neater but I found it almost a bit clumsy when trying to pump out the product. Besides from that though, the new design is really quite visually appealing as it sports an expensive feel and could easily be mistaken as being a product that is up there amongst some of its pricier, high-end competitors.

How it wears throughout the day is still a little bit of an issue for me. I applied it this morning after moisturising and priming my skin and by around 1pm I did notice my nose starting to look a little oily. If you carry powder with you then it's not really a big deal to do a two-second touch up, but I'd really rather not have to bother if I'm busy at work and my powder is locked away up two flights of stairs. Perhaps it depends on how you apply this foundation, though. I used a Sigma F80 brush this morning whereas recently i've been using (and loving) the Real Techniques Miracle Complexion Sponge. I used to love using brushes until I discovered a sponge - it gives such a light, flawless finish!

On the whole though, this foundation is a winner due to its huge variety of shades, its affordable price and its light-but-buildable coverage. Going from my personal experience though, I'd say it's probably more suited to normal-dry skin, but if you use a primer beforehand and set the foundation well it should see you through the day with minimal touch-ups!