Tips and Tricks #9

Foot care is something that's not spoken about very often, as let's be honest it's not the most pretty thing to talk about or even do. With working in socks on a kind of hard flooring it doesn't do my feet much justice and the poor beggars are suffering from dry, hard skin. I wanted to try something pretty low maintenance and easy to achieve and I think I found just that.

So pretty much every evening, unless I forget, I wear these socks to bed, attractive I know. I've had these ones a while now but you can buy them from Boots I know and they are pretty inexpensive. Basically what I do, is whack a load of moisturiser on my feet and then pop the socks on, and done! Yes it really is that easy. There are probably better moisturisers you can buy, specifically for your feet, but I have so many moisturisers from gift sets that I need to use up that I thought this is a great way to use them up.

I must say this isn't an overnight process, you have to give it a while to see any results, as you do with most beauty products but I can assure you it does work. It makes my feet feel so much smoother and the hard skin not so hard. The only thing you have to get over is wearing socks to bed which I know not everyone likes. There have been a couple of times when I must have taken them off in my sleep and awoken with them on my bed side table totally and utterly confused!

Overall though this is a great, inexpensive way to getting Summer ready feet if you like. It's also a great way to use up those moisturisers if you're like me and have a load stored away!

A Sunday in Southwold

With relatively recently purchasing a new camera and not using it all that much out and about, I wanted to take advantage on a recent trip to Southwold. My mum and I took the dog in the car and went for a lovely walk along the beach front and then through the little streets. Southwold is such a pretty, picturesque place and is located in Suffolk if you've never been before or are wondering where I'm talking about. I didn't take many pictures as was more having a good old fiddle with all the settings, I'm still such a newbie when it comes to using a big, good camera like the one I have now. So I thought I would simply just share a couple of shots I did take with you on this dreary Sunday, as looking back at these pictures I'd love the sunny weather to come back! I hope you've all had a lovely weekend :-)

Toyshades Zephyr Aviator Sunglasses

You can buy them online here

 

I've been currently lusting over the Ray Ban Round Metal sunglasses but I simply cannot invest the money in them, not when I'm supposed to be saving to move out, no matter how pretty they are. I've been looking at them for quite some time but when Asos recently had a mid season sale, I couldn't help but have a browse. I wasn't actually looking for sunglasses but I came across these ones from Toyshades. I had never heard of the brand before but they were in the sale for £7 and they really caught my eye. They caught my eye for the simple fact that they looked the same shape as the Ray Ban ones that I've been after but at a fraction of the price.

 

I then couldn't help but purchase these sunglasses before they went out of stock and they then arrived on my door step the next day. Now obviously these aren't quite as good quality as Ray Bans but they are actually pretty good. They were originally £20 before going into the sale so that's a pretty decent price for a pair of high street sunglasses. These are super comfy when wearing, it honestly feels like I'm not wearing sunglasses which is a bonus. I love the brown colour as they simply go with any outfit.

 

I'm really pleased I purchased these sunglasses, I have left the link above if you want to check them out. I would definitely recommend them if you're like me and simply cannot part with the money for a pair of Ray Bans. They are the perfect dupe!! Now I just need some more sunshine in the UK to be able to wear them...

Maybelline Brow Satin

I don't think I'm the only one who would say that my eye brows are my nemesis and I hate doing them. I actually have those days when I cannot be bothered so just draw a few random lines where they're looking sparse and walk out the door (in fact I do that quite a lot). It's bad I know but that's how much I hate doing my brows each morning.

I picked up the Maybelline Brow Satin what seems like a while back now but I have only recently started using it. I think I can go as far as saying that this is one of my favourite brow products, alongside Soap & Glory's Brow Archery. At first I was like why are there two ends to this product, fair enough one is a pencil but what on earth do I do with the sponge end? But it all makes sense now. I picked up the shade Dark Brown, I believe it's called that, and it's the perfect shade for me. So since beginning to use this product, I've found my brows not so much of a chore and here's why.

I brush through my brows with a simple eye brow brush and then get straight into using this product. I use the pencil end first and basically draw around the outline of my eye brows, using small strokes of the brush at the start and more defined lines at the end of my brows. I then flip this tool over and use the sponge end and simply fill in the gaps! It's a bit like colouring in, yes it is that easy. Yes the first part, outlining your eye brow, can be tricky to begin with but if I go in to hard then I go back to my eye brow brush and brush my brows through again to lighten the mistake I made, then carry on.

If you're like me and are not a fan of doing your eye brows I would definitely recommend giving this product a go as it has made a difference to my routine. Although I may not do this every day, I don't bother with this when going to work, I don't dread doing them as much at the weekends when I use this product. It's also really affordable and I don't think the shade range is all that bad! Let me know your thoughts on this product if you have already tried it :-)

Tips and Tricks #8

Firstly I apologise for not posting one of these blog posts in quite a while, a long time in fact. But to be honest I think I just ran out of current ideas and didn't want to just post any willy nilly so I went away and had a good old think. I've now got another few ideas behind me so these posts will now run again, hopefully continuously but there is always the chance I could run out of ideas again. Sometimes I like it though as it actually makes me think about what I want to post on my blog, a little time to refresh my mind. Anyway I'm back with another Tips and Tricks post for you guys!

A few weeks back I was shopping with my mum and sister and my sister was saying how she swears by these gloves and they've really helped the appearance of her legs. It must be a family thing, although I know others will suffer with this too, but we tend to get dark spots on our legs particularly after shaving them. My sister said I should buy some of these exfoliating gloves as they have helped her legs and nearly stopped these patches on her legs. As soon as she said that I had them in my basket and was at the till. I do often hate the look of my legs so if this little trick helps the appearance then I'm all over it.

I've been using these gloves alongside this scrub from Garnier but you can obviously use whichever scrub you like, it doesn't have to be this one. Although I've actually really been enjoying this one, it smells great and is really invigorating. When I first started making this part of my routine, when having a bath, the first thing I noticed was how soft my skin was feeling and that was before I had even moisturised! I did then moisturise as well as I didn't want the scrub to dry out my legs even more and obviously this helped a treat. I try and do this every time I have a bath and as I said make it part of my pamper routine if you like. It's really been helping the appearance and feel of my legs and is such an easy step to add to my routine.

I absolutely am converted and love using these gloves. I will also be using them when it comes to Summer and when I begin to fake tan more than I am at the moment. These particular gloves by the way are from Superdrug but I'm sure there are many other place that sell them. I hope you enjoyed this new Tips and Tricks post :-)

Divergent Trilogy Book Review

If you love The Hunger Games then you will love these books by Veronica Roth. These books are the Divergent series which are just as good as The Hunger Games books in my opinion. There are also films alongside these books which you can get on DVD and the final one is currently in cinemas. Back to the books, my friend actually recommended these to me so I jumped on the band wagon and ordered the first one on amazon there and then.

To begin with I did find it slightly confusing, simply as there was so much going on, but it really didn't take long to catch on. When I got to about a quarter of the way through the first book, I was hooked! I honestly used any of my spare time reading these books just to get them finished quicker. The only trouble with that it, once you reach the final chapter, you want to know what's going to happen but you really don't want it to end. Unfortunately that's the trouble with all books, especially series of them.

In brief words these books revolve around a character called Tris and her family who are brought up within a "faction". When children reach a certain age they have the choice to choose a new faction, there are four to choose from, and Tris picks a different faction leaving her family behind. There are then a lot of challenges Tris goes through to stay within her new faction. I won't go into too much detail because I don't want to ruin it for you but the plot takes off from there really and that's when I became gripped to these books.

I would highly recommend these books if you are a fan of The Hunger Games or are just looking for something new to read at the moment. I cannot wait to go and watch the last film at the cinema, eeekk!

Ooharr Face Masks

I find face masks are quite a luxury as at the moment I just don't seem to have that down time to sit down, relax and put a face mask on. I was recently sent these three different face masks so wanted to make sure that I used them when I had time too. I basically made time to use these so I could give you guys honest reviews on these masks, it also meant I had at least 15 minutes to relax in the bath.

I was sent three different face masks; one to rejuvenate skin, one to refresh skin and one revitalise skin. The fact that these masks targeted something different was great for me but right from the off, when I received these, I was drawn to the middle one photographed. When read in more detail the middle one is targeted at blemish prone skin therefore right up my street. I do love these packet face masks as if you don't like them then you haven't spent lots of money on the full size and you actually get two face masks out of one packet.

As I mentioned I was keen to try the blemish prone skin face mask and actually this is the one I enjoyed using the most. There were particles in this one which also exfoliated your face, so kind of like a two in one face mask, and it just left my skin feeling refreshed. This one in particular actually felt like it was working on my face, it wasn't one of those face masks you could forget about once you applied, but it wasn't a horrible feeling. I found after using this mask that my current blemishes didn't look quite as red or noticeable. This mask was my favourite out of the three but I did enjoy using the other two; again the one names Rosie Glows smelt so lovely of Vanilla which is one of my favourite scents but it wasn't to overpowering.

Another great thing about all of these face masks is that they are made with naturally effective ingredients; such as pure essential oils and natural extracts. I love using more natural skin care items as I do find some of the results are much more noticeable. For example my skin just seems to really prefer it in some ways and it feels much softer.

Overall I enjoyed testing out all of these face masks and think it's a great way of testing out new skin care products which can ultimately cost a fortune in the long run. I would definitely consider repurchasing the Dead Sea Cooler mask as I really enjoyed using it :-)