Just three nights ago I was sat in a hotel lobby, becoming somewhat attached to using the free WiFi. Of course, this meant scrolling aimlessly through my Twitter, Instagram and YouTube feeds... which is when I stumbled across a new video from Tanya Burr. It instantly caught my attention as I was expecting a fashion or beauty-related video, but instead it was a recipe for a Healthy Green Smoothie. Now, seeing as I was in the middle of a Spanish hotel, I wasn't able to rush out and find the right ingredients and let alone find a blender, so I decided to save watching the video until I got home the following day. On arriving home, the cupboards were bare, the fridge was empty and the stack of fresh fruit in the fruit bowl was non-existent, so it became obvious that an emergency trip to Morrisons was going to have to be made ASAP. This gave me the perfect opportunity to stock up on the ingredients needed to make Tanya's green smoothie!

Once you've scouted your ingredients, it is best to chop it all up as finely as possible to help reduce the amount of work your blender has to do. After placing it all into the blender, you can begin blitzing!

When the ingredients have been completely blended, you can add juice or water to create a runnier consistency. If you prefer a thicker smoothie, simply use less liquid :)

In all honesty, I wouldn't say I was a great lover of smoothies.. the last one I made was quite revolting. But I decided to give this one a go and I'm so glad I did. It's so simple to make and most importantly, it is actually drinkable- it tastes great! 

Many thanks to Tanya for the recipe, be sure to check out her video here :)

I always find myself unable to resist buying Soap and Glory products. I mainly put this down to their cute, girly packaging that catches my eye whenever I go into Boots, but I suppose my terrible lack of self-control doesn't help either. Today was no different, and despite only buying a few products, I still felt somewhat guilty handing my money and Boots Advantage Card over to the cashier. I figured I wouldn't be feeling this way if I actually needed these items in my make up collection, but the 3 for 2 offer was on so you can hardly walk away with just one item... right?

For a while now I've found myself having a love/hate relationship with my eyebrows. For starters, I find it almost impossible to get them looking remotely similar on both sides, and I must spend a good 20 minutes on them some days which really isn't ideal. Today I decided enough was enough, and after spending hours last night watching endless beauty gurus rave on about the Soap and Glory Archery Bow Tint and Pencil, I decided I had to go and purchase it.

Having medium to dark brown hair, I always struggle to decide what colour brow products to buy, but luckily for me this pencil only comes in two shades; Love is Blonde and Brownie Points, so you can probably tell which one I opted for. The thing I like most about this product is that it is double ended, consisting of a fine-tipped brow tint on the left and a pencil on the right. The packaging instructs you to use the left side first, using light, feathery strokes to fill in any gaps in your brows. To add more 'oomph' and definition you can use the pencil over the top. I've found that combining the two is definitely the most effective way to achieve perfect brows, and after just one use I feel like I may have finally found my Holy Grail brow product!

Before discovering this little gem, I was convinced that the only way to have perfectly defined brows was to jump on the bandwagon and buy a Mac 266 brush and fill my brows in with a powder. Of course this doesn't come cheap, which is why I plummeted for the £10 option from Soap and Glory. I'll admit that for a brow product it is priced a little steep, but it's incredibly difficult to find a decent brow product for anything less, so for me it's definitely worth it.

I must already own close to a trillion-and-one concealers, but I've heard so many things about this one that I simply couldn't not try it out for myself. I may have only used this once so far, but I already feel that this really lives up to it's name- it honestly does kick ass. First of all there are two shades; one peach-toned designed for under-eye circles and one yellow-toned to use for concealing spots. Not only this, but there's also a secret compartment at the top containing a translucent setting powder to set everything in place. The concealers have a creamy consistency making them easy to blend and so far I've found that a little goes a long way. With many people comparing this to the £29 Laura Mercier Undercover Pot, this is definitely a great alternative at a fraction of the price! (Available here).

Having swooned over the Soap and Glory Sexy Mother Pucker Gloss Sticks for quite long enough, I decide it was finally time to try one out. I picked Bashful- a super-glossy light pink shade. I used to shy away from lip glosses as I used to find them quite drying, but if anything, this is the exact opposite. It glides effortlessly onto the lips leaving them feeling instantly moisturised, and it smells incredible. With the warmer weather coming, I think these would be a perfect alternative to ordinary lip glosses as they provide moisture as well as a pop of colour.

What are your favourite products from Soap and Glory? :)

 

This Wednesday it was my birthday. Unlike many people who write little lists of all the things they'd like and organise fun parties and fancy meals, I found myself doing what I do best: lounging around most of the day refreshing my Twitter every 2 minutes. In all honesty it felt like a pretty ordinary day for me. I woke up, (felt completely the same as I did the previous day) and sauntered into the kitchen for my daily fix of porridge. I then had to go to a lecture for English Literature in the middle of the afternoon, so it didn't leave me with much time to begin opening the delicately-wrapped presents and stack of cards that greeted me in the lounge. Seeing as it has been forever and a day since my last blog post, I thought I'd share a few pictures of a few of the things people bought me for my birthday. I hope people don't take this the wrong way and see it as me 'bragging'; that is really not my intention at all. I also have a few extra little bits and pieces I picked up throughout the week from Boots, and if you've read my previous blog posts you'll understand by now that I simply CANNOT bring myself to walk past without having a little nosy around at the latest offers.

When it comes to gifts and presents, I'll be the first to admit that I'm quite fussy and tricky to buy for, so I often have my friends and family having to ask me what it is that I'd like. This being said, my brother decided to do his own thing this year and did pretty well! I had a voucher for Topshop and a cute little box from Paperchase containing recipe cards that can be easily organised and filed neatly away. Although I'm not greatly skilled in the culinary department, I do like to try my hand at baking every so often so I'm sure I'll be putting these recipe cards to good use!

Recently I've been addicted to using glittery topcoats over my regular nail polish, and it seems that one of my friends must have noticed this as she bought me the Rimmel Lasting Finish Nail Polish in 'Disco Ball'.. you really can't get much glittery-er than that, right?! Last but by no means least, I thought I'd give these super-cute earrings a mention. I tend to wear a lot of studs and most of them are silver, so the two sets above will make a really nice change :)

The products I snapped up in Boots are rather random, and in all honestly, I don't think I physically needed any of them. For some reason or other I love to buy skincare products, so when I stumbled across Boots' own range I thought I'd try out their Vitamin E Eye Cream and Vitamin E Night Cream. I actually really like these, and it just so happened that they were on special offer at under £2 each when I bought them; for that price you really can't go wrong.

Much to my surprise, it was actually sunny the other day when I was in town... who'd have thought it?? I think it may have been the sudden burst of sunshine that influenced me to buy these two Rimmel Nail polishes in the shades 'Instyle Coral' and 'Tangy Tangerine'. Both colours verge towards being classed as pastel shades, and I think these will look especially great with a tan in the summer.

The Rimmel 9 in 1 BB Cream caught my attention with claims that it primes, moisturises, minimises pores, conceals, covers, smooths, mattifies, brightens and helps protect the skin. For any product, that is certainly a lot to live up to. I've only used this once, and I found the consistency very liquid-y (I didn't have to apply any pressure to the tube at all). The finish itself is definitely matte, and it reminded me a lot of the Rimmel Stay Matte foundation that I wasn't a very big fan of (let's just say that the Ivory shade used to make me look somewhat like an Oompa  Loompa- eek!) This BB Cream comes in two shades: Light and Medium, so I opted for the Light and still found it a bit too dark for me. Perhaps it's because I am rather light-skinned, but I had hoped it would blend in a little better so it wasn't obvious to tell that my face was a different colour to my neck (definite rookie error on my behalf there).

Maybelline's Fit Me Foundation Stick is definitely one of my favourite products from my mini Boots haul. I picked this up entirely by chance as it was in the clearance and the only shade left was 'Sun Beige'. Yes, from the name you can tell straight away that it isn't going to be the lightest shade, and you're probably thinking why on earth would you buy a product waaay darker than your actual skin tone??? Well of course I knew this, but it was £1.. who can resist that?! To cut a long story short, I was pleasantly surprised to find that this blended amazingly well into my skin. In some ways it reminds me of a slightly large concealer, so I like to use this as a primer before my foundation because it helps control shine. The packaging is ideal too, it's small and compact enough for you to carry around and use if you need to touch up during the day.

I don't tend to use a lot of lip products, but the other day I found an extremely red Rimmel Kate Moss lipstick in one of my old make up bags and obviously had to try it out. I'm not too certain that bright red suits me, (just think MirandaSings on Youtube) so I thought I'd try a pink shade instead. I bought the Rimmel London Lasting Finish by Kate Moss Lipstick in Shade 16 which is a lovely orange-y/ pink-y coral colour which I think would compliment all skin tones. The pigmentation is great and the formula is very creamy and moisturising, which is an added bonus as some products tend to leave your lips feeling extremely dry and unnourished. They also smell soooo great; slightly sweet and no where near chemical-like.

Have you come across any beauty-related hidden gems recently? :)

Despite feeling quite content with my skincare and make up products at the moment, I simply cannot walk past Boots without popping in and having a little nosey around to check out the latest offers and bargains. Over the past week alone I must have gone into Boots more than a handful of times, and of course I couldn't walk away empty handed when there's a 3 for 2 on. I thought I'd compile a few recent purchases into one blog post instead of reviewing everything separately, so here we go!

If you've read my first ever blog post, it'll come as no surprise to you to know that I am slightly obsessed with making sure all traces of make up are successfully removed from my face. When I was prowling down the aisle in Boots I came across this: the  Garnier Micellar Cleansing Water. I believe this may have been on offer when I bought it but I'm not 100% sure, although at full price it retails at £4.99 for 400ml which I think is very reasonable. The bottle states that it removes make up, cleanses and soothes, which I definitely agree with. It's incredibly gentle on the skin and it doesn't leave your face feeling dehydrated afterwards, which I used to find with other 'water-like' cleansers. I cannot compare this to the likes of Taaj or Bioderma as this is the first Micellar Water I have used, but I'm pretty sure it does the same job at a fraction of the price. It's interesting to note that if you use 2ml of product at a time, you'll get a whopping 200 uses from just one bottle... perfect if you're looking for an effective make up remover on a budget!

Another skincare product I bought was the Eucerin DermatoCLEAN Calrifying Toner. I've owned a number of different toners in the past as I really like how they leave your skin feeling refreshed after cleansing. This was a bit of an impulse buy as I do already have a Garnier toner stashed away in a drawer somewhere, but recently my skin has gone rather dry in patches so I wanted something gentle enough to cleanse my skin without causing further irritation. This has been doing the job perfectly, it soothes your skin as opposed to stinging it and leaves it feeling super clean and refreshed, what more could you want?

This last skincare-related product was placed on the clearance shelf in Boots for the extraordinary price of £1... and of course I just couldn't resist. After having a quick browse on Google I've come to the conclusion that Boots no longer sell this or it's unavailable; it isn't being sold on their website any more which perhaps explains why it was reduced in-store. Anyway, this is the Witch Anti-Blemish Skin Clearing Primer. I've started using a primer more recently to prevent any oil building up throughout the day, so I thought I'd try this one out to see how it compares to the one I've been using from Seventeen (featured in this blog post.) Consistency-wise, it feels more like a moisturiser than a primer, but that could be because I'm used to the feel of silicone primers. It absorbs quickly into the skin leaving your face feeling smooth and ready for foundation, and I particularly like that it's oil and fragrance free meaning there are no nasty chemicals going to irritate your skin. In all honesty, I have only used this once or twice since I got it so I don't really have an opinion on it as of yet, but i'm sure it'll grow on me the more I use it. Despite it being unavailable at Boots, it is still being sold at Superdrug and I believe at full price it costs around £6.99.

Ahh, now onto the 3 for 2 beauty bargains. First of all, I really LOVE the plain old pressed powders from Collection. I'll admit they don't look anything special, but for the price of £1.99 they do a pretty good job of reducing shine. I'm particularly fond of the shade 'Translucent', as it's very yellow-toned and I like to counteract some of the pink in my skin. Funnily enough I actually picked up the wrong shade in this, as I thought their other shade 'Candlelight' was the one I was looking for with the yellow undertones, but for some reason it contrasts entirely with the name and is in fact lighter than the one in 'Translucent' (verrry bizarre). 

The next thing I bought was this Collection 'Intense Colour' eyeliner  in the colour 'Birdy Song' (how cute is the name?!) I was after a brown eyeliner for a while, as I think it really compliments blue eyes and isn't as full-on and dramatic as black... perfect for days when you want to wear less make-up. I have to say, I'm actually very impressed with this. I've had hundreds of inexpensive eyeliners in the past that have all felt scratchy, so I didn't hold out much hope for this one. It's pleasantly surprised me though, as it's very pigmented, applies smoothly and can be blended out easily for a more smoky look. (£1.99, available here.)

Last but by no means least is this Natural Collection Colour Corrector. I've never tried one of these before, but it caught my eye while I was mooching around looking for something to make up (excuse the pun) my 3 items in order to only pay for 2. From what I know, the green counteracts the redness in your skin, so I've been dabbing this over any areas prone to redness and blending it in, adding a little bit of concealer over the top before applying foundation. Now, it is a little scary at first, (I looked somewhat like Casper the Friendly Ghost the first time I used this) but after adding some concealer over the top and blending it in, I do think it makes a difference in reducing redness, and at £1.99 it's an absolute bargain.

Have you bought any beauty bargains recently?

As you may (or may not know), pancake day is vast approaching, which to me means it is totally acceptable to start planning scrummy pancake ideas right about now. I usually opt for lemon and brown sugar or treacle, but last year I decided to venture out and try banana and Nutella, and O.M.G it's amazing. As much as I love all of these pancake combinations, my guess is that all of them contain a whopping great load of sugar (*sad face*). It wasn't until recently that I remembered a super simple pancake recipe that Cassey (a.k.a Blogilates) came up with, consisting of only 2 eggs and a banana. I'm not a great lover of eggs, which is the main reason I'd never tried this recipe before, but today I thought "sod it", and went ahead and made these über tasty and incredibly healthy pancakes! The great thing about this recipe is that the pancakes are 100% natural: they're free from gluten, flour and sugar!

It really couldn't be simpler. All you need to do is crack the 2 eggs into a bowl, mash up your banana and mix it all together.

You really don't have to be too particular here, as long as the banana and the eggs are all blended together you can crack on.. (hehe, excuse the pun.)

Add a little bit of oil to the pan and heat on a medium-low setting. Pour some of the mixture into the pan, and after 20-30 seconds, flip your pancake over so it can cook on the other side.

As much as I loved this recipe, my pancakes turned out to be not-so visually appealing.  If you'd like to see a better picture that actually does them justice, I've inserted Cassey's photo below, so be sure to check out her blog post and video if you want to know more!

As you can see, this is how your pancakes should look!

First of all, this is a very different blog post for me to write about, as I feel it's something I'm still trying to deal with myself. On the whole, I wouldn't say I was a very confident person, so you may well be thinking "how is this going to help me if she isn't confident herself?" That's a valid point, and I guess the reason I'm writing this is so I can come back and read it myself when I'm having off days, but primarily I hope I can help some of you who may feel or have felt unhappy due to having low confidence/ self-esteem. So without further ado, I've jotted down a few ways in which you can make sure you feel happier with yourself as a person.. because you (yes, you reading this) deserve to be happy.

Ever since I was little, I've always been referred to as "the quiet one". This view that people had of me is something that always played at the back of my mind as I was growing up, and would often leave me thinking "people are going to think I'm miserable if I don't speak", or "If I don't contribute to a conversation they'll assume I'm boring". Even now I still think things like this, but one way to overcome this is to completely turn it on its head. If you constantly have that nagging little voice in your head telling you that you're boring and that you're not as funny or pretty or as good as anyone else, you'll start to believe it- which of course is going to lower your confidence. Instead of over-thinking these things and letting your inner thoughts take over, start focusing on the conversation you're having and really force yourself to listen to what is being said; you'll find it soooo much easier to respond to the person instead of worrying over not knowing what to say next or whether they like you or not.

I think everything changes once you become a teenager, and I'm not just talking physically. You become pressured into thinking you have to act or look a certain way in order to be perfect, and you trick yourself into believing that you can't be happy unless you look like a stick-thin model that's been airbrushed to the extreme. First of all, nobody is perfect. This will sound super cliché, but I truly believe that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. What you consider to be beautiful or "perfect" is going to be different to what somebody else thinks, so don't feel as if you have to conform to being this "ideal" human being, just be yourself!

One thing I've learnt recently is that in order to become more confident, you have to learn to let step outside of your comfort zone. Yes, it's difficult, but after you've done it once it becomes easier each time you do it. To give you an example, I absolutely HATED public speaking, but as an A Level student I knew that one way or another it was going to crop up, and sure enough it did. Once you accept that there is no way of sneaking out of it, you force yourself to just get on and do it, and afterwards you feel so much better. Don't get me wrong, I'm still not a fan of talking to large groups of people, but I've starting noticing recently that I haven't been getting myself into so much of a state. I used to blush and get panicky which would make me fluff up my words and all my sentences would get jumbled up and blah blah blah, but then I just thought: "who cares?" In the grand scheme of things, my 5-minute ramble about something English-y is not going to change the world, and it's not as if I'm being elected to become the next prime minister.

I used to be the type of person to say "no" to pretty much everything- whether it was a family gathering, a party, or just meeting up with my friends to go shopping. Any kind of social event would quite honestly terrify me, as I'd always assume something bad would happen or I'd embarrass myself in some shape or form. Of course at the time, you make up any old excuse just to avoid letting yourself get into these situations, but as you get older, you start to look back and wonder why you didn't push yourself to go ahead and do these things. The more you allow yourself to be in social situations, the better you become at being able to deal with them; resulting in you feeling totally comfortable instead of finding yourself nervous or thinking about what to say next. This is something I've definitely forced myself to do this year. I don't want to be that person sat in their room hunched over their laptop while everybody else is out having a great time, and neither should you. By involving yourself with other people you can really improve your social skills, which in turn will raise your self-esteem and confidence. The more you shy-away from things, the harder it becomes in the long run, so the next time you get invited to go somewhere, step outside of your little safety bubble and say to yourself "Yes, I'm going to go and I'm going to have a great time!"

I don't want to get all soppy and for you all to have to dig out your snorkels in case we get a little deep, but letting go of negative thoughts can make such a huge difference to your outlook on life. I've always been the person who saw the glass as half empty, and I'd always be scared of trying new things in the instance that something could go wrong. Just think, the more you sit and huff about having a rubbishy life, the less time you get to spend actually enjoying yourself. Another very relevant cliché is to live your life to the fullest. Life is too short to be unhappy, so make the most of what you have and think positively- you'll find yourself so much happier :) 



Oo-err, I'm sorry this blog post was rather ramble-y and unstructured.. there were so many different confidence-related things I wanted to write about, but I feel if I'd have included all of them you would still be sat reading this in the year 3000. In a nutshell, your confidence will improve if you start thinking more positively and become happy and content with who you are as a person. Once you learn to accept who you are, you're well on your way to living a better, happier life. I really hope this post could help you, love Chloë :)

Since the beginning of the year, I have become obsessed with porridge. I'm not really sure how, or where (or even why) this obsession began, but recently I've been loving the stuff. If you'd said to me last year "Chloe, you're going to stop eating cereals and learn to love porridge", the chances are I would have laughed in your face and replied "no chance". I loooooved cereals, you only had to check the cupboards and you'd see enough cereals to feed the 5000. My love for cereals began to frazzle out when I started hearing that they can cause havoc on your blood sugar levels. I'm by no means a expert in the science-y stuff, but cereals contain a lot of sugar, which means your blood-sugar levels go sky-high, and your body has to release insulin to try and bring your blood-sugar level back down. Obviously this isn't a good thing, so it's best to start your day off with a healthier alternative to make sure you don't find yourself reaching for chocolate every 5 minutes.

I have to admit, porridge isn't the most visually-appealing thing in the world. (I used to run a mile every time I saw the saucepan in the sink, eww.) You can definitely jazz it up though, I like to add chopped banana to mine (and arrange it in a pretty pattern to make it look, er.. pretty.) If you don't have time for all that malarkey, buy a box of instant porridge sachets. Just add milk and bung 'em in the microwave for 2 minutes.. voilà!

If you're not feeling the whole fruit thing, adding honey is another alternative to make your porridge sweeter. Honey is really good for you too, as the sugar is all natural and it tastes delicious! 

So the next time you find yourself delving into a cereal box, STOP. Porridge has waaaaay more fibre and will leave you feeling fuller for a whole lot longer than the sugary cereal will. Mmm, mmm!