THINGS I HAVE LEARNT

I have learnt some things recently. I am both shocked and thrilled by them. It's confusing.

The Truth Behind Bobby Pins- My Whole Life is a Lie:

The other day while browsing the bloggersphere, I discovered the 'true' way to use bobby pins/hair grips depending on what you call them; luckily I'm not the only one who didn't know about this, my mother and friends were equally as shocked. For my whole life I have been using hair grips with the bumpy side facing upwards, as everyone does, the bumpy side faces upwards in the packet. But apparently there is somewhere a secret rule that only the select few know that claims that hair grips are supposed to be used with the bumpy side facing downwards as that helps them to grip better. What. It makes so much sense. How don't we all know this? Having road tested hair grips with the bumpy side facing downwards for a whole day I think they might actually grip your head better as my hair has slipped out of position less but I am still very distressed by this. My whole life is a lie.

The previous way of wearing hair grips, with the bumpy side facing upwards, the obvious way

The apparently correct way we should be wearing hair grips, with the flat side facing upwards

A Different Type of Glove:

Recently I have been quite self conscious of my legs as they were covered in small spots that I assumed were some type of weird leg acne (lacne?). While discussing this with my friends, I discovered that:
1) I am not the only one who gets this; and
2) It's not actually spots but ingrown hair from shaving.
The answer to this problem is so simple that it cleared my legs up in about two days. Exfoliation. During every shower/bath or after every time you shave your legs all you need to do is exfoliate yourself and the ingrown hairs will clear right up; (you can also exfoliate your face to get rid of blackheads). I use body wash and then rub it in with an exfoliating glove as I find that they work best but you can also get special exfoliating body scrubs; the exfolaiting glove can also be used on your face but as it is quite rough I prefer to use a tea tree face scrub. Exfolation is my new favourite thing and is now a key part of my weekly routine.

GOING BACK TO THE BEGINNING

In honour of my blog turning one year old on 23rd August I am going right back to the beginning and writing a sorted of updated version of one of my earliest blog posts from September 2013, in September 2014.

I started my blog when Maybelline's Baby Lips had just launched in the UK and were a massive cult favourite. As per everyone else I wrote a couple of blog posts on them but overall I wasn't taken with them; I haven't used them in a very long time (though you can go back to the start of my blog to see my thoughts then) but I remember thinking that, while they were nice, they just weren't worth the hype and there were much better products out there.

The UK is always behind on makeup collections, everything gets released in the US and then takes at least a year to come out over here, plus we never get the whole collection or we get a slightly changed version. Maybelline's Baby Lips is a prime example of this, they were a cult favourite in the US for quite a while before being introduced to the UK in summer 2013, and there has also been at least four or five new Baby Lips collections in the US while the UK has only just got its second one- the Electro collection.

Not going to lie, I was fully prepared to pass this trend by, but I found colours that were too pretty not to at least try (plus Superdrug had a buy-one-get-one-half-price offer). While the US has a collection of six Baby Lips Electro balms, the UK only has four; not entirely unfortunately that we in the UK have missed out on neon green and yellow tinted lip balms, a strange choice that we can all probably live without. I'm not sure how long the Electro collection has been out in the UK (I bought mine in August and they hadn't been out long then), but we have four colours: a hot pink, a coral pink, an orange and a purple. Everyone knows my love of purple but I decided to give that one a miss as I already have a purple tinted Body Shop lip balm and I also passed on the hot pink as that has never been my thing. The orange and coral however...

Oranges and corals are some of my favourite colours for the likes of lips and nails so I couldn't pass up on the idea of these, especially since the name of the coral one. I love a good orange lipstick in the summer but you have to be quite brave to wear it (I currently have the neon bright orange lipstick that is Topshop's 'Infrared') so 'Oh Orange' definitely appealed in its promise of a sheer orange tint; 'Strike a Rose' (see, amazing name) was also a definite winner for me colour-wise as you can never go wrong with a rose/coral colour. Luckily for lip product addicts like me I was able to justify my purchase with Superdrug's buy-one-get-one-half-price offer.

(If you note on more or less every review post I start a paragraph with 'one thing I must say is...' so here you go). One thing I must say is that you need to have perfectly smooth lips to wear these lip balms as they drag on the areas of dry skin that (I personally) sometimes get round the edges of my bottom lip and you them get a patch of neon coloured dry skin with is obvious to everyone and does not look good. With smooth lips, though, they're perfectly fine.

Comparrison of the American (left) and UK (right) packaging- the UK one is miles nicer

There's not all that much I can say on these lip balms as, to be honest, I'm still not wholly taken with Baby Lips. I'm comparing them to the clear Baby Lips in Hydrate (which I actually have an American version of- I don't know if this affects anything?), but the consistency of the Electro Baby Lips feels thicker than that of the clear one. Personally I prefer a thicker formula as I feel like the product is more likely to stay in place, and I don't feel like my lipstick is about to slip off the top.
The products have an okay scent, for me rose scented things can be iffy but 'Strike a Rose' does actually have quite a nice smell (the smells fade after a while on your lips which is good), I'm less keen on the scent of 'Oh Orange' and I hate to say it but I think the smell has got worse over time, it still has a tangy orange scent but it just doesn't smell anywhere near as good as it did when newly bought.
Though I have been quite negative about these products so far, I have to say that I actually really like the colour of 'Strike a Rose' on the lips (it is by far my favourite of the two overall), it gives a very pretty cross between very-pigmented-and-sheer colour that I think looks really nice on; 'Oh Orange' has quite a nice colour as well but there's something a little weird about it and, though I love it as a lipstick colour, it will never be my go-to for a tinted lipbalm but I see it could be wearable.

Though I will carry on using them, these lip balms are too high maintenance for me for what they are. I personally just want to whack on a tinted lip balm for a tiny bit of colour on more chilled days, and I don't like the fact that I have to spend so much time making sure my lips are super smooth before I use this product. 

SPAIN #3- TRAINS AND BOATS AND PLANES

These photos come from the most incredible train journey I have ever been on through the heart of the Spanish Pyrenees, the view from the window was breathtaking, as was the place where we eneded up (photos also included in another post). What pains me the most is that I have over 100 photos of this train journey but it was impossible for me to include all of them here.

I also thought this would be a good time to show my new blog icon picture in full as it's a picture my father took of me on the train journey that he absolutely loves but I don't like all that much, I just needed a new picture. Expect another change soon.

Dress- Primark
Lipstick- Rimmel Colour Rush Balm in 'Not an Illusion'

MARY POPPINS BAG

I'd like to apologise for the fact that I've taken some really, really bad photos today, the lighting is awful and I've been out all day.

I mentioned in my Summer Essentials post that I was thinking of doing a 'what's in my bag'... So I did. Because I am a nosey sod. And these are my favourite posts/videos that people do.

1. The Bag
You can't do a 'what's in my bag' without first having a bag, and here it is, my lovely bag. I've been wanting a satchel since last summer (my best friend got a monogrammed Cambridge Satchel with her initials on and I am unbelievably jealous) and this one is from Accessorize back in May when it was reduced to £17 from £32 (fabby deal if I say so myself). The colour is actually a lighter brown than it appears here in the picture.

2. Scarf
Sometimes it's nice to tie a pretty scarf around the handle of your bag just to add an extra something. This is my all-time favourite scarf to wear in the winter (scarves aren't really acceptable in the summer) but sadly I am not sure where it is from.

3. Notebook
(And pen, essential really). I take the tube quite a lot living in London so sometimes I have super awesome ideas that need to be written down straight away. I keep two notebooks of different sizes in my bag, one from The Beatles shop in Liverpool and one from Paperchase from the best friend as we have a long-running joke about my fear of hummus. The pen is your bog-standard BIC black biro. Exciting.

4. Sunglasses
Since it's summer there's still some blindingly sunny moments alongside the rain here in England I am still keeping my sunglasses in my bag for the time being, though they will probably be traded in for gloves by the end of the month. I find it hard to find a style of sunglasses/glasses that suit me (my actual glasses are cat-eye ones) but every year I love this style of sunnies (this year's ones from Accessorize).
I also got this monster sunglasses case from Claire's Accessories as I have the tendency to break or scratch my favourite pairs by leaving them loose or in those flimsy cases that do nothing to protect them.

5. Glasses
The power of sight is a wonderful thing (cat-eye glasses by Miss Sixty).

6. Purse
I am in the midst of getting myself a new purse as I am not a major fan of the one I currently have. I love having a plain bag as I personally love the way a patterned purse goes with the plain bag- call me sad. The purse I want is the most perfect size ever and is the Cath Kidston 'Zip Wallet'.

7. Hair Things
Sometimes when I wear my hair down by the end of the day all I want to die is tie it up, and it is agony when I don't have any hair ties on me. Another essential is hair grips, these end up lining the inside of my bag but they are just the most useful things.

8. Another Purse
I have yet another purse but this time a small, one-compartment one (my friend got if for me from Turkey and it is the most perfect size for things like this). I use this as a kind of 'emergency kit' as it contains the aforementioned hair grips and hair ties (because how annoying is it when you have a bag full of loose ones floating around the bottom), paracetamol, a mini guide to CPR, cotton wool, and girl-things (you know). It can also be used for receipts, loose change, nail files and the occasional bit of makeup.

9. Mirror
Very useful for checking your face on the go, mine is from one of the London museums (can't remember which) but it has a picture of one of Degas' Ballerina paintings on the back and he is probably my favourite artist ever (recommend Googling pictures of his ballerina paintings because they are beautiful).

10. Things that Make you Smell Nice
A body spray or mini deodorant is always good, especially when you've had a long day or have been on tubes and stuff. Under this category comes gum which I believe is an essential for any day; and also handcream. My current body spray is just a Boots-own strawberry one and my handcream is the Body Shop one in Vanilla Bliss (which I'm sorry to say was part of their Christmas range but still smells amazing).

11. Lip Products
Obviously I couldn't not fill my bag up with lip products. My current favourites in the world of balms are Burt's Bees (I've had this since last summer and it's perfect for topping up throughout the day as it's a harder balm and is not at all greasy, I also associate the minty smell of it with summer as that is when I got it) and the EOS one in pomegrante-rasberry (I really need to get another one of these as I am swapping it daily between this bag, my school bag and my bedroom). I also carry my lipstick of the day- if I'm wearing one- around with me; and a Maybelline Baby Lips in 'Hydrate/Quenched' (depending on your country- I have an American one) as I'm trying to encourage myself to get more use out of it.

12. Hand Cleaning Items
I carry both wet wipes and antibacterial hand gel around with me as I really, really, really hate having sticky hands and sometimes when you're out and eating/have eaten/have been on the train it's nice to be able to clean your hands. Antibacterial hand gel is a god-send as you're not left holding a wet wipe at the end of it that you have to carry until you find a bin as it will make your pocket/inside your bag all wet. I do carry wet wipes though to avoid shiny faces during the day, but mostly so I can wash makeup testers off my hands when I'm out shopping. Genius.

13. Planner
I bought this to double as a daily life/college planner and it is so useful. Plus it makes me feel grown-up and organised when I use it. (From W H Smiths).

I'm in love

SPAIN #2- WALK THIS WAY

These are pictures from a walk I did with my mother whilst everyone else in the group was kayaking (I don't do boats). I've also including some photos from the same day of my quick family trip to the near-by town (of the kayaking place) called Berger.

'Carry/bring a new world in our hearts'

'If you destroy the lands... *missing translation* ...raised barricades'

SPAIN #1- A ROOM WITH A VIEW

I thought I'd share some of my Spain holiday photos, to open us up with have the views from my windows in the Spanish Pyrenees and in Barcelona.

The Spanish Pyrenees:
I apologise for these as I forgot to take pictures out of the window until the last day when it was foggy. The view was incredible and luckily the fog doesn't ruin it all too much.

Barcelona:

The most incredible view in the world here, we were directly across the road from the Sagrada Familia and the view was breathtaking. The zoom was not used once to get these pictures.

SEPTEMBER PLAYLIST

My most favourite recently discovered songs.

Zorbing- Stornoway 
I mentioned Stornoway in my 'August Favourites' post so obviously I had to mention them here as well; Zorbing is a beautiful song from their 'Beachcomber's Windowsill' album and it was a hard choice between Zorbing and The Coldharbour Road for my favourite. It is music that makes me smile.

I Saw You Blink- Stornoway
I had to include another Stonoway song in my playlist this month (which is slowly growing longer and longer as I write this) but this song is too good not to mention specially.

Auto Neutron- Fat White Family
Fat White Family are another new discovery of mine (not going to lie, their name was a big attraction for me) and I can see why they are growing increasingly popular. Again, this type of music/sound is not my normal go-to music but I have become obsessed with Auto Neutron (this song in particular reminds me a little bit of Black Sabbath's Iron Man).

Gun- Chvrches
Believe it or not, Chvrches is not something I would normally listen to, but Gun is an incredibly beautiful song (whilst also sounding a bit threatening if you listen closely to the lyrics) and I could listen to on repeat. Chvrches' sound is very relaxing and melodic and this song is the height of all that.

Seen It All- Jake Bugg
I'd never properly listened to Jake Bugg before Reading but he was surprisingly good and this song was my favourite of the set he played. I must add though that I think he might actually be better live than on album, this song was amazing live.

I Want Out- Young Guns
Another believe it or not moment here, I actually do listen to Young Guns on a regular basis!!!! (Fun Fact: I really, really hate exclamation marks). I Want Out is their new single that I fell in love with straight away, it's been a very long time since we've had new Young Guns music and this does not disappoint. I cannot get over how good this song is and it is another Young Guns classic that I want to scream at the top of my voice (good thing for YG at Reading!).

I Wanna Be Yours- Arctic Monkeys
I saw Arctic Monkeys at Reading Festival this year and they were absolutely incredible and I'm still slightly in shock that I saw them live. They played 'No.1 Party Anthem' which is my all-time favourite but 'I Wanna Be Yours' was a pretty spectacular song and it was unbelievable live. Also just to put here because I'm super annoyed and I need an outlet for it, none of my Arctic Monkeys photos printed from my Reading disposable cameras and I'm actually so upset about it. Boo.

AVERAGE BRITISH BAKE OFF

I am super excited about this recipe as it's one that I've kind of adapted and added my own personal touch to. The lemon mixture for these raspberry and lemon cakes is a Mary Berry lemon cupcakes recipe, but the raspberries are something I have added in a way that will, hopefully, give a creative and different twist to your normal fruity cupcakes.

Makes 20

You Will Need:
-125g soft butter
-125g self-raising flour
-125g caster sugar
-2 tbsp milk
-2 large eggs
-The zest of one lemon
-24 raspberries
-Icing sugar
-Water

To Make:
Apologies if my instructions aren't very clear, especially for the icing. I have put pictures at the bottom to show you what each step should look like.
1. Preheat your oven to 180 degrees Celsius or gas mark 4.
2. Beat the butter, flour, sugar, milk, eggs and lemon zest together with an electric whisk. To zest the lemon simply grate the outside skin of the lemon using a cheese grater.
3. Put your cupcake cases the the tray, here is where my special twist comes in. Put one raspberry upright in the bottom of each cake case and spoon in the mixture around it so the raspberry is completely covered.
4. Cook the cakes for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown. When the cakes are done, leave them to cool.
5. For the icing I am simply following the instructions on the back of the Tate Lyle icing sugar box. HOWEVER, for the way I am wanting to decorate my cakes I only want the tiniest bit of icing so I am making enough icing for 2 cakes instead of 20.
6. To make the icing (for 2 cakes) you simply need to mix one teaspoon of warm water with icing sugar, I don't have a set measurement of icing sugar but just carry on adding until I have the thickness of icing that I want.
7. Put one drop of icing in the centre of each cake and then put one raspberry on top of each. The secret use of the icing is simply to keep the raspberry in place so therefore I think a thicker icing will work better here.