Beauty Packing 101: Your Makeup Bag

I've noticed a lot of people really struggling to pack their makeup bag for holiday. If it's one thing I'm good at packing-wise, then it's definitely my makeup bag. Fashion packing on the other hand is a totally different story!

I try to keep to 2 rules when packing. Keep it simple, and be realistic. Are you really going to need 4 eyeshadow palettes? Or 10 different lipsticks? Chances are, you'll stick to one, maybe two, shades the whole holiday. As for all those travel minis, is a mini shampoo and conditioner going to be enough for your 2-week beach holiday? Definitely not.

Although I'm still taking a fair amount of makeup, it's nowhere near the scale of my normal arsenal.

For me, it's mainly basics and about not wanting to ruin any of my favourite cream products. Getting a highlight/contour palette like the Golden Sugar palette from Makeup Revolution is fab, as not only does it have your face covered, it also passes as an eyeshadow palette! 4 lipsticks so you have a range of things to choose from, without going overboard. Four is enough for me; red, orange, pink and nude.

Brushes are another hard one, but just take your favourites that you know do the job.

For the evenings, I'll have primer, BB cream, brows, mascara, highlight/light contour and a lipstick. For day, all I'll need is powder, brows and mascara! Planning out what you want is one of the best ways to do your makeup packing, as you will be able to condense what you take and able to decide on some multi-tasking products!

I hope this post helps with your holiday packing!

Ellie x

Doll White Teeth Whitening Strips

Thanks to the wonderful happenings at the Bloggers Hub, I was able to try out the Doll White teeth whitening strips* that seems to have taken the blogging world by storm!

Doll White offer teeth whitening strips that are made with no peroxide, so they won't harm your teeth! They claim to be able to make your teeth brighter and whiter within just 14 days. I received a 7-day trial, which I was told I would be able to see a difference. 

The strips themselves are really easy to use. In each sachet there is a set of strips, one for your upper teeth and one for your lower teeth. All you do is clean and dry your teeth before applying the strips, as this gives the best results. Make sure the strips are lined up with your gums. When I applied them, I folded back the excess strip to keep it out the way and to help secure it on. Just wait 30 minutes without eating and drinking, soak off the gel remaining on your teeth and you're done!

Now, although Doll White claim there will be no irritability or sensitivity with these strips, I did actually unfortunately get a very sensitive/painful sensation when using these and for the day after. I do have sensitive teeth occasionally, however I started to feel some pain during the 30 minutes and experienced really uncomfortable sensitivity for the day after, which I was really disappointed about. Due to this, I didn't use the other 6 strips.

As holiday is approaching fast I decided to stop as I didn't want any discomfort that could possibly spoil my time. I will definitely give the other 6 strips a go when I get back though!

I hope I have better luck with them next time. I'll do an update!

14 day Doll White strips - £19.99

Ellie x

My Shoe Collection

I've wanted to do a shoe collection post for a while now. I personally love reading collection posts, so I thought it wouldn't hurt to throw my own into the mix. My shoe collection grows all the time, I'm expecting a Boohoo delivery as I'm typing this, which includes another 2 pairs!

I never used to have a huge collection of shoes, and I still don't now, but I have a lot more variety than I used to. With shoes, I tend to buy a pair and wear them with absolutely everything until they are ruined. I've done it with everything, from Vans to Converse to little flats. But now my style is growing and changing and I'm feeling a need to expand my shoe-drobe! I also currently don't own any heels, haha.

 

THE FLATS

Sliders: Dorothy Perkins

White Open-Front Sandals: H&M

White Cage Sandals: New Look

Black Sandals: New Look

THE CHUNKY SANDALS

Jelly Shoes: Primark

Gladiators: New Look

THE LOAFERS & PUMPS

Fluffy Plimsolls: ASOS

White Points: New Look

Monochrome Points: F&F by Tesco

Zip-Up Brogues: Primark

THE BOOTS

Chunky Zip-Up Boots: H&M

Chelsea Boots: Primark

Jeffrey Campbell Coltrane Lookalikes: Bebo via TK Maxx

So that's it! Hope you enjoyed this post. I'm always looking to add to my collection, if anyone has any suggestions please link below! :) 

Ellie x

Current Favourite Summer Nail Polishes

I don't think I've ever done a favourite nail polish post, or if I have it was a very long time ago! I thought I'd share some of my favourite shades that I've been wearing on my nails through these last few weeks.

Barry M: Coral - I love this shade for a typical bright pop of colour during summer.

No7: LE Spring Meadow - although originally released as a spring colour, I'm loving pastel shades for this summer. This mint green is stunning.

Ciate: Cream Soda - I'm a huge fan of grey polish, and I wanted a lighter "pastel" grey for summer. Cream Soda is that exact description, although it needs a few layers to build up it's true colour.

Ciate: Raspberry Collins - a mini from the Beach House collection, this gorgeous bright pop of raspberry pink is your perfect summer pink. Currently loving on my toes!
Ciate: Doll Face - from the Porcelain Collection, this shade is pretty pastel nude. Be sure to topcoat with your favourite topcoat (or matte topcoat) to prevent chipping, these chip a lot without it.
Ciate: Baby Doll - from the Porcelain Collection, this is a pastel peach. Like Doll Face, this needs a form of topcoat to prevent any chipping.

Ellie x

The Bloggers Planner & Get 20% Off!

One of the most recent things to catch my eye is The Bloggers Planner. I find it hard to keep up with blogging sometimes, there's just so much to do! Writing, editing, scheduling and more. I've found that planning things out, setting myself schedules, writing checklists, ideas for future posts and even outfit ideas that spring into my head. Whilst I'm happy using a plain notebook I picked up from Tesco, as a blogger and sucker for all things pretty, I was hankering after something nicer.

[credit: The Bloggers Planner]

The Bloggers Planner offers a wide range of planners, notebooks and printables to keep you organised with your blog, such as style journals, blog planners, meal planners, to-do lists and monthly calendar print-outs. You can also build your own planner, and each planner gives you the option of your own wording. Pretty neat, huh?

I haven't ordered mine yet, but I'm planning on buying either the Bloggers Planner or the Content Planner. They both include really great pages to help you keep on top of your blog, such as a stat tracker and even haul tracker. I'm finding it hard to decide!

The reason why I couldn't wait to share this before I'd even picked up my own copy, is because the lovely folks over at The Bloggers Planner have given me a 20% off code to share with you all!

Simply use the code "TREATME20"!

Enjoy!

Ellie x

Homemade Pub Favourite: BBQ Chicken Melt ft. Posh Pickles

I'm starting to enjoy cooking. It's something I've never really done before, as I started full time work I didn't have too much to pay for so I ate out a lot, or bought in quick and easy meals. Not good, I know. Anyway, now having a bunch more to pay for I decided that it's more affordable, and better for me, to cook myself!

Thanks to The Bloggers Hub, I got the chance to work with Posh Pickles, who let me sample their Spicy Sticky BBQ Sauce*. I'm a huge fan of BBQ sauce, so I was really excited to be trying this out.

At first I wasn't sure what to do with the sauce as I had a lot of ideas floating around my head, but then I thought I may as well create one of my favourite pub dishes - BBQ chicken melt! The only difference is I used pre-diced chicken, as that's all I had in my fridge at the time.

Cooking up was simple. I just cooked the chicken in a pan on the hob, then when done, I covered them up with cheese and popped into the oven til it melted. Finally, topped with the Posh Pickles BBQ sauce, and served with a side of curly fries we were ready to eat!

The sauce is gorgeous, I highly recommend. It's sweet and smokey, with a kick of heat to boot. I also love that it's not totally smooth, it gives it a lovely homemade feel. Food is better when it's loving made and not from a production line!

All in all, I really loved this sauce. I'm considering buying a full-size bottle, and trying out their other products!

Posh Pickles Spicy Sticky BBQ Sauce - £3

Ellie x

* This post contains products that have been sent to me for purpose of review

Deepening & Prolonging the Life of Natural Tan

As summer seems to be officially here, I thought I would do a post on natural tanning. I'm definitely a fake-tan-free kind of girl, although I have been thinking about it more recently, but I still haven't caved. As I have olive skin, I tan very easily, so my main challenge is prolonging the colour. I haven't really been out in the sun properly for years (due to health reasons) so this year and on my holiday I'm making the most of the sunshine, especially as I look super ill with pale skin!

PROTECT YOUR SKIN

It is so important to protect your skin from the sun, even if you don't burn. The sun can really damage your skin, cause ageing and even skin cancer so I think it's really important that you use the correct SPF for your skintone and where you are in the world, also check out the star rating on the back of your sun cream bottle to check out the protection it gives you from other rays.

For the UK, I use a Factor 20 spray and that is enough protection for my skin tone. For my holiday in August, I have bought Factor 30. My BF however, is very white and needs more protection.

When your skin burns, it really damages the skin and doesn't leave you with a darker tan. It may be darker for a few days, but will quickly fade. You also really don't want that irreversible damage.

EXFOLIATE!

To deepen your tan, all you need to do is exfoliate. By constantly removing that dead layer of skin, you tan has a chance to deepen and darken without being "shaved off". If the dead skin cells aren't removed, they will come off when you shave, which will slightly remove your tan.

For everyday, I use a gentle everyday exfoliator from Sanctuary Spa. For a couple of times a week, I use a very scrubby scrub from Superdrug. It's probably one of my favourite things I've bought recently, as it leaves skin incredibly smooth and soft thanks to the added oils.

AFTER CARE
For my time in the sun in the UK, I only use after sun if I've been in the sun all day at work. Otherwise, I just mosturise as normal. But for my holiday, I will be using after sun everyday, and everyday once I'm back home. After sun helps sooth and repair your skin from being in the sun, whilst helping the colour last that bit longer.

MY TOP TIPS FOR NATURAL TANNING

- Always use an SPF that matches your skin tone, Boots have a good quiz on what sun cream you need depending on where you are and your skin tone. My general rule is the paler you are, the higher SPF and the hotter it is, the higher the SPF.

- Exfoliate for a deeper and longer-lasting tan

- After sun and moisturiser to help look after your skin, soothe and repair it

I hope these tips help!

Ellie x

West Midlands Safari Park & Dinosaur Exhibition!

This time last week me and Aaron took ourselves off to West Midlands Safari Park. As it's so local to me (about 20 minutes drive), I have been loads of times but I haven't been for a couple of years, plus their new dinosaur attraction really made me want to go. So much dinosaur hype at the moment! (Jurassic World is amazing if you haven't seen it already!)

I never get bored of going to safari parks, zoos or anything to do with nature or animals really. I absolutely love nature and animals, I love learning about it/them and like to support conservation and breeding. Also, it's not everyday you get to see such amazing animals so up close! My favourite parts of the day was petting an over-friendly zebra, having huge giraffes wandering around us and going on the off-road lion track and having lionesses walking right next to our car. So awesome! I took a lot of snaps of my day, so I decided to post my favourite images.

Ellie x