Back to School #4 - Natural make-up for school

So we're nearly back to school -eek- (where did those 6 weeks go?) so today I'm going to talk you through the natural make-up that I wear on a daily basis. All products in this post are from the drugstore, are quite cheap and  super easy to use. It consists of four simple steps:

1. Face

I use Seventeen BB balm as my base product, I love it because it's quite light but it gives a really good coverage. It leaves my skin with a really dewy, glowy finish, it also has an SPF 25 which is great for those sunny days when you need a bit of protection. The best thing about this BB cream is the price! It is only £6.99 and is available from Boots.

2. Eyes

For my eyes I keep it simple, no fancy eye shadow or tricky eyeliner, all I do is curl my lashes and apply some mascara. My eyelash curlers are just cheap £1.99 from Superdrug and the mascara I use is a really good thickening mascara called Lash Adapt from No7 which I couldn't find a link for but you can see a similar product here.

3. Brows

One thing that you might be surprised that I do lightly fill in my brows for school but it is something I think looks very natural and it does make a difference. First I lightly fill them in using this angled brush from New Look and shade 5 in the MUA Undressed eye shadow palette. I then use the brilliant Maybelline's Brow Drama in transparent to keep them in place.

4. Lips

To finish off my School make-up look, I use Baby Lips Electro in Oh Orange to give my lips a bit of moisture and colour. I also love the smell of this lip balm, it's delish!

What's your favourite make-up product for School?

Angels on bare skin review

Hey Everyone, a few weeks ago I went to the Lush store in Milton Keynes where they were holding an event. I got to make my very own Angels on Bare Skin cleanser which I got to keep so I decided that I would write a review for you today. Just bear in mind that I made this in a workshop so although it includes the same ingredients as a tub that you would buy it may differ slightly.

Packaging -

I love the black tubs that Lush use they are easy to open and they are a really good size. They are made out of recycled plastic which is obviously great for the environment and that means it is waterproof and doesn't get dirty.

Product - 

This product is gorgeous, I am absolutely in love with it! The product includes lots of lavender so it smells amazing and it leaves your face smelling of lavender after using the product. It also includes ground almonds which act as great exfoliators. The product is said to even out skintone, reduce redness and leave skin with a healthy glow. It definitely does all three of these things excently, I can't fault it!

How I use it - 

I use it at least once if not twice a day and the difference is very noticable. I take a pea sized amount add a small bit of water just to make it moist, massage it between my hands and massage it onto my face, then rinse.

Would I recommend it? - 

Yes definitely! I couldn't recommend it more!, it is a fantastic product which has definitely improved my skin!

It was a great experience to get to make this product and it was great to see all the natural ingredients 

that go into this product. If you are looking to buy a new cleanser I would definitely recoomend this one it is a fantastic product which lasts a long time. I hope you really liked this review see you next time,

Ella x

Back to School #3 - What's in my school bag?

Hey Everyone, so today's post is another back to school post and today I'm going to do a what's in my school bag post. Please excuse the picture quality the lighting wasn't great but I really wanted to get this post up.

This is my school bag it's from a company called classy-bags.co.uk I really love it because it reminds me a little bit of Cath Kidston. It is really practical because it is a waterproof fabric and it feels really sturdy. It cost £20 and came with a free purse which I think is a fantastic price.

In my school bag I have my pencil case which is actually a makeup bag from H&M which cost £1.99. I really love the colours of the feathers and the size is perfect I also quite like the fact that it is transparent. 

The smaller front pocket of my school bag is where I keep lots of small essentials, these include:

3 Lip Balms

A Small Perfume

My Bus Pass

My House Keys

My Locker Key

A Body Spray

The main section of my school bag is where I keep any books I have with me, my lunch box and my water bottle. I also have a pocket at the back where I keep sanitary products and my ohone.

I really hope you found this post useful, I'm sorry it's quite simple but I just really wanted to show you my school bag, pencil case and my everyday school essentials. See you next time!

Ella x

Healthy Eats 5 - Healthy Eating Motivation

Hey everyone, as you will be aware this post is my last weekly healthy eats post so from now on I will be doing the Healthy Eats posts monthly. Today's post is probably the most significant one, healthy eating motivation. Today I'm going to go through tips and reasons for eating healthily and I hope they help motivate you.

The first thing I want to share with you is a fact that at first I couldn't quite believe, I found this fact on @rebeccalouisefitness on instagram.

Your body is 80% the food you put in and 20% the workouts you do.

I've always been a big lover of chocolate so in the past I have eaten quite unhealthily, I always used to tell myself that it was fine because I do a lot of workouts and sport. However this fact proves that you can't just do a lot of sport and expect to have your ideal body you have to eat healthily as well.

If for you (like myself) chocolate or sweets are your biggest weakness, I would recommend only allowing yourself to eat them as a reward for example:

For every 5 pieces of fruit you eat you allow yourself one bar of chocolate.

Or for every 3 workouts you do you allow yourself one packet of sweets.

I think using sweet treats as rewards is a great idea because not only are you eating less sweet treats it will also motivate you to do more exercise or to eat more fruit. You just need to make sure that you stick to the rewards and targets you have set yourself.

I think there are 2 things that are the fall down for most peoples diets and healthy eating routines:

Cravings and going to parties

Cravings are most peoples biggest weakness so if you want more information about how to stop your cravings I do a more in depth cravings post here.

If you know that you are going to party so you know you will probably end up pigging out on an unhealthy but delicious selection of treats then my you would be to eat extra healthily the few days before. That way if you end up eating unhealthily at the party it won't hurt as much because you have eaten extra healthily in the few days leading up to it.

I feel like I've just rambled for ages, sorry! I just do hope that this post can be of some help to you, it certainly made me rethink some of the things I'm eating. See you soon!

Back to School #2 - School Hacks

Hey everyone, 

So today I have a list of 4 school hacks that are really going to help you get through the school year smoothly. I sourced these hacks from the Internet and YouTube and here they are.

Are you always waking up late so you don't have time for breakfast? Worry no more, I've got you covered. Before you go to bed make sure you have your breakfast planned. A really good way of doing this is to buy some breakfast biscuits or make your own breakfast bars. Both breakfast biscuits and breakfast bars are fantastic because they are easy to eat on the go. Breakfast biscuits can be bought from all supermarkets and breakfast bars are easy to make. All you have to do is grease a mixing bowl and then mix together some Cheerios and mini marshmallows and put the bowl in the microwave for 30 seconds. Then mold into bars and leave in the fridge overnight. Voila!

Hack number 2 is super simple and really helpful. Does your timetable always seem to go missing just when you need it? Here's the simple solution, take a picture and save it as your home screen. Then when you need to see your timetable all you have to do is whip out your phone, you don't have to  rummage through your bag for a flimsy piece of paper, problem solved!

Most teenagers including myself find revising and homework a chore so give yourself an incentive. Your incentive could be that you put a gummy bear or sweet at the end of each paragraph or page you have to read. Or you could give yourself 10 minutes of instagram/snapchat time for every hour of work you do. Having a study incentive is a really good idea because it motivates you to complete your work quicker therefore giving you more time to do other things.

This helpful hack is probably something you already do, maybe without realizing! This hack is to have an emergency kit in your bag, emergency kits are a really good idea because they prevent awkward situations from happening. Here is a list of things I would recommend to include in your emergency kit: deodorant, body spray, powder, hair grips, hair bands, hair brush, concealer, plasters, toothbrush, toothpaste, sanitary products, lip balm and hand cream. What things do you have in your emergency kit that I have forgotten? (tell me down below)

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I hope this post helps you, I will definitely be using some of these hacks ( most probably the first oner seeing as I'm not a morning person)! I want to apologize for the messiness of my posts in the past two weeks I went on holiday so my posting schedule sort of disappeared, I'm definitely back on schedule now though so don't worry! See you next time,

Ella x

Netflix Top 5

So today I have a really helpful post for you guys. It's getting to that point in the holidays where you just want to get back to school or you have run out of things to do. So what do we all turn to? Netflix. Today I wanted to share with you my top 5 favourite films and series to watch on Netflix. I'm going to talk about them in reverse order.

5. Material Girls



Material Girls is a good film, it's nothing amazing but its good enough to entertain you on a boring summer afternoon. I really like the fact that this film includes both the Duff sisters, it makes their relationship in the film even more realistic. What I do like about this film is that it has a more unusual story line which is unique and different to most other films. It is about 2 sisters who go from super rich to extremely poor really quickly. It is really entertaining to watch them struggle without money, the only thing I would say is that the film is very predictable.

 4. Clueless

Clueless is a chick flick classic that pretty much every teenage girl has seen. I love re-watching it on the days when you feel a bit down in the dumps, it is definitely a feel good film. 


3. Just Go With It

I really love this film its so funny and really entertaining, the fact that it is set on a summer holiday resort it definitely has those summer vibes. This film has a great cast including: Jennifer Aniston, Adam Sandler, Brooklyn Decker and Nicole Kidman.

2. Fired Up 

Fired up is my favourite film on Netflix, it is super funny and really entertaining. It's about 2 players who decide to join the cheer team so they can go on cheer camp. Why would they want to go on cheer camp I hear you ask, well at cheer camp there are 200 girls and about 3 straight guys. See their logic? It's a really funny light hearted film that you should definitely watch. I actually did an in depth review of it which you can see here.

1. Once upon a time 

Asbjcgfls! Where do I start? Once upon a time is my favourite TV series ever! It is so so so clever how everything fits together. It is a series where all the fairytale characters are stuck in our world due to and evil curse, it is amazing! It includes all the fairytale characters, Snow White, Mulan, Aroura, Belle, Cinderella, Red Riding Hood, Hansel and Gretel, the Mad Hatter, Captain Hook, Rumplestiltskin, Elsa, Anna, I could go on for ages. What I really love about this series is the fact that it all fits together so well and how it shows the past as well as the present. This series is so clever and brilliant, I could gush about it forever but all I can say is that you HAVE TO WATCH IT!

I really hope this helps you cure your end of summer boredom, what are your favourite films on Netflix?

Ella x

Healthy Eats #4 - Smoothies and Juices

Hey Everyone, today is another episode in my healthy eats series. After the fifth episode I am going to continue the healthy eats series monthly instead of weekly. Today I thought I would give you a list of links for the best smoothie and juice recipes and give you some of my own favourite combinations. I personally love juices and smoothies because they're so delicious and healthy. Here are my favourite recipes for you to try:

Niomi Smart - What I eat in a day

This blog post includes 3 Fruit Juices which all look absolutely delicious, all with vibrant colours.

Native Juicer - Recipes

A fantastic website that has so many brilliant recipes that specialize in different health aspects.

 

BBC Good Food - Smoothie Recipes

I love the BBC Good Food website for recipes including their smoothie recipes, their recipes all have vibrant exotic flavours.

My Juice Recipe - Link here

I love my own recipe because although the colour is not very appealing the fruitiness is unreal! 

 Hope you enjoyed this post, see you next time!

Ella x

Summer Fashion // Stripes

Hey Everyone, today's post is something slightly different from usual. Today's post is a fashion post and I wanted to show you my favourite clothing pattern of the summer, navy and white stripes. Before I start I would just like a to say a huge thank you to my brother who was the photographer for me, it is hugely appreciated.

Outfit 1 → Beachy Vibes

Sunglasses // Primark // £1.50

Top // Newlook // 

Shorts // Primark // £3

Shoes // USC // £35

Outfit 2 → Floral Fun

Flower Crown // Claire's //

Top // H&M // 

Skirt // Primark //

Outfit 3 → Funk it Up

Sunglasses // Primark // £2

Denim Jacket // Primark // £15

Top // Primark // £4

Leggings // Primark // £4

Outfit 4 → A Walk in the Park

Top // Newlook // £4

Short // Primark // 

Jeans // F&F //

Outfit 5 → Just Chillin'

Top // Primark // £6

I'm really sorry but I don't know the prices for everything and the only makeup I'm wearing is lipstick hence why my face looks a bit bare. The lipstick I'm wearing in all of the pictures is Natural Collections Raspberry. I really hope you have enjoyed this different style of post see you next time.

Ella x

Adding Social Media Buttons to your Blog

I'm ok using HTML to design and code my blog but I do have to read tutorials made by other bloggers most of the time. I think the main difficulty with designing your blog and using HTML is that the slightest mistake could mean that what you're trying to do wont work. Today I decided to share with you a tutorial for adding social media buttons to your blog, I hope it helps!

First you need to get your buttons, the website I used is Icons DB it is really easy to use. If you want to get your icon in the colour that matches your blog go on to Template and click on customize and find the colour you want. so i wanted the colour of my social media buttons to match the colour of my links. e.g.

You can see that the colour I picked is circled in red, you have to have the colour you want in the form of a hashtag. I then copied this colour and pasted it in the colour bar on the Icons DB website:

After you have picked your colour you need to pick your company/website (instagram, bloglovin, pinterest). To do this you search for the company/website in the search bar on the right of the screen.

The search results should come up with a few possible options click on the one you want.
NOW LEAVE THIS WINDOW OPEN BUT OPEN A NEW TAB, GO TO BLOGGER AND OPEN THE THE LAYOUT OPTION. Click on add gadget in the side bar and scroll down until you find the text widget.

 Open the text widget, click edit HTMl in the top right hand corner and copy and paste this code:

<a href="SOCIAL MEDIA WEB ADDRESS"><img border="0" height="48" src="LINK TO ICON IMAGE" width="48" / /></a>

The parts you need to change are in red for your social media web address you need to put the web address for the page that you want your icon to link to. For example if it were an instagram button you would have the web address: instagram.com/YOUR INSTAGRAM USER NAME


The link to the Icon image is the harder part, this is where we go back to the icons db website. All you have to do is right click on the image you picked earlier and click View image info.

 You should then get a list of addresses that looks something like this:

They will be one address highlighted and that is the address you need to copy and paste into your html code. Repeat the same steps for any other icons you want to add, save your text widget and you're done!

I hope you found this useful, if you have any questions do not hesitate to ask!

Ella x

Healthy Eats #3 - Satisfying the Cravings

Hey Everyone, (I need to change up my intros!) today is the 3rd installment of my healthy eats series and today I'm going to talk about cravings and how to sort them out. I read a post on The Sunday Chapter which inspired this post, because we all get cravings and I want to help you guys put an end to them. When we crave food we always crave unhealthy food and I know that my cravings really do affect my diet.

Source Pinterest

I did some research and found an article on ELLE which was really useful and helpful and I also found the blog post on The Sunday Chapter really helpful. I always always get Chocolate Cravings, all the time, fortunately I do a lot of sport so it doesn't affect me very much physically but it certainly doesn't have a good affect on me (obviously). When I do give in to the cravings and eat chocolate it just makes me want more and it doesn't make me feel good. It gives me no energy, makes me feel lazy and it doesn't make me feel very positive. This is why I (probably just like you) want to stop eating chocolate to satisfy my cravings and eat more healthier things instead.

Here's a food chart to show you what you should be eating instead, I think that this chart is super helpful to prevent the cravings in the first place.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Source: ELLE

If you search and look around on the internet you will find lots of tips and advice as how to stop and solve your craving problems. Cravings are killer because they're so easy to give in t, you tell yourself 'I will only have one square" and ten minutes later you're well into your second bar! Being able to say no to your cravings is the only way to stop them.

Source: Buzz Quotes

I hope this post helps!

See you soon,

Ella x

Back to School #1 - School bags for September 2015

Hey Everyone, today's post is a start to my new series, a back to school series! I'm super excited for this new series because I really think it will help some of you guys. The first post of this series is a back to school bags ideas to help give you guys some inspiration if you are yet to get a bag for September. Here are some of my favourite school bag picks.

1. Backpacks

My favourite pack backs are the mi pacs and hype ones, I particularly like the floral patterned ones, they are also the perfect size for school. My school bag is actually pictured above, it is the one in the middle on the bottom row, I got it part way through the last school year so I wont need a new one for a while. My favourite of the ones pictured is probably the floral hype one (top middle).

2. Handbags

My favorite types of handbags are the style pictured above, I really like the bags that are shaped like an upside down trapezium. The only thing with handbags is that I'm not sure if they would be big enough for me personally. The bags pictured above are from Topshop and Newlook but you can buy cheaper very similar versions from Primark. My favourite out of the above is probably the bottom middle or the bottom right.

I hope this has given you some inspiration or some ideas, what do you prefer backpacks or handbags? Which is your favourite of the ones pictured?

Ella x

The Alternative to Fake Tanning

Hey Everyone, so recently I discovered a new product, tinted moisturiser. Seeing as its now officially August  I am in desperate need of a summer sun-kissed look because I'm rather pale! I have tried 2 different tinted moisturizers and today I am reviewing my preferred one.

Pros

• I like the smell and appearance of the lotion.
• The bottle has a cute packaging and it is a very good size.
• It is very cheap at £4.00 in Boots or £3.50 in Savers.
• It does its job, it does give a light natural tan.
• Really easy to apply.
• Very moisturising.

Cons

• It can go a bit streaky 
• It does fade quite quickly

 As you can see the pros considerably outweigh the cons and the cons are easily solved, the fact that it can go a bit streaky is probably completely down to the way I apply it. Also the fact that it fades quite quickly can be easily solved by buying the darker version and anyway the fact that it makes a difference in the first place is impressive!

 

I you enjoyed this review, I would definitely recommend this product especially whilst its on offer at Boots. Be sure to follow me on bloglovin' so you never miss a post! See you next time (when I start a new series).

Ella x

Healthy Eats #2 - Healthy Breakfasts

Hey everyone, so today's post is the second installment of my Healthy Eats series and I thought I'd show three of my favourite healthy breakfast recipes.

Strawberry smoothie 

Ingredients: 

5 strawberries 

1 teaspoon of vanilla essence 

Approx 1 cup of vanilla or natural pouring yoghurt 

• First prepare the strawberries so cut the leaves off and wash them. 
• Put the strawberries yoghurt and vanilla essence into a blender.
• Blend until smooth and enjoy! 

 Healthier Toast with Green Tea

Ingredients:

2 slices of wholemeal bread
Low fat unsalted butter
Nutella
Banana
Green Tea

• Toast your slices of bread
• Spread with butter and nutella
• Cut your banana and lay it on top
• Serve with green tea and enjoy!

Granola with yoghurt and berries

Ingredients:
Plain Granola
Pouring yoghurt (I particularly like Onken vanilla)
Summer berries

• Pour your granola into a bowl
• Add your pouring yoghurt
• Sprinkle with berries and voila! A healthier alternative to cereal.

Thank you ever so much for reading, recently I planned all my blogposts for the summer and I'm super excited for some of them! I also added new tabs to my blog so be sure to check them out!

Ella x