April Favourites | 2016

Usually my monthly favourites consist of food, television and random things with barely any beauty products. This month, it's a little different because even though I do still have the usual television and random favourites, I have a grand total of six beauty products to share with you! I want to try and continue including more beauty products into my monthly favourites and also into my day to day life but for now, here is what I have been loving this month.

Beauty

The first product I have been loving is only £1 for a two pack at Primark and it's their Cucumber Facial Cleansing Wipes. Waking up in the morning and cleaning my face with these wipes wakes me up, makes me feel fresh and clean and they smell divine; perfect for the warmer weather we occasionally get a glimpse of here in Scotland.

I mentioned Vaseline's Spray & Go Aloe Vera Moisturiser a couple of favourites ago and since then I haven't been able to find it anywhere! I'm not sure whether it has been discontinued or if my local shops simply don't stock it anymore but I've had to find another moisturiser as a substitute all the same. Luckily for me there was a deal on the normal Vaseline Aloe Vera Moisturiser so I picked that up to see if it was just as good. To my surprise it was! I am very fussy when it comes to moisturiser but I really like this one. It did not leave my skin feeling sticky, the consistency wasn't too greasy or thick and best of all, it absorbed into my skin almost instantly meaning I didn't have to wait around for it to dry before I got ready. This product smells really fresh and it genuinely moisturises my skin well.

Fresh scents seem to be the theme of the products I've been loving so far this month. The next product is the Herbal Essences Clearly Naked Fresh & Light Dry Shampoo. I never usually use dry shampoo, especially with my type of hair and I'm lucky enough not to get greasy hair. However, this month has been so busy with a lot of first aid duties as the football season came to an end and my uni exams started this month too. Dry shampoo's that I'd tried in the past always left white marks in my hair even with massaging the product in but this one doesn't. It has a lovely, fresh scent, sprays on nice and easily and massages in to my hair with ease. Even though I haven't used many dry shampoo's, this one definitely has the thumbs up from me.

During the colder months, my room is constantly filled with candles. Now that the weather is getting warmer I prefer to have diffusers in my room instead of candles. I have tried a couple of the Primark diffusers because they are so cheap but I wasn't very fond of them. They are fantastic products for the price, I just found that the scent was far too strong for the size my bedroom is. They would be much better use in quite a large room because of the strength of scent. Since then I've found quite a few softer scented diffusers that work a lot better with the size of my bedroom. Air Scents Cherry Reed Diffuser has been a particular favourite of mine. I love cherry scents and this diffuser fills my bedroom with the scent for most of the day.

The last two beauty favourites of mine are nail polishes. One of which is from the Barry M collection and is in the colour Ballerina and honestly, the name definitely drew me to product. It's a gorgeous dusky pink colour and is perfect for Spring in my opinion. I have been wearing this colour most days, pairing it with quite pale or neutral outfits and I've actually had quite a few compliments on it too! The second nail polish is from the Rimmel 60 seconds collection which is one of my favourite collections in general because I am so impatient when waiting on my nails to dry. Coralicious is the colour I've also been wearing a lot this month. It's a more vibrant colour but is also perfect for Spring. I have quite a pale complexion so this colour really stands out on me when I wear it.

Television

Without fail, I have another TV favourite this month. In all honesty, I watch far too much television for there not to be a favourite each month. This month it is Fear The Walking Dead. I am a huge fan of the original show so when they announced a spin off, I was very excited. I was even more eager about the show when I found out Alycia Debnam Carey (star of The 100 and a top notch actress in general) was going to be a member of the main cast. I deliberately waited for the first season to have completely aired and for the second season to be close to airing before I watched the show. I just knew I wouldn't be able to wait between seasons. This show is not as action packed or as gory (yet!) as The Walking Dead but that doesn't take anything from the show, I still love it. I would even go as far to say that I prefer it to The Walking Dead at the minute because the latest season of The Walking Dead has been a let down for me. If you like tension and drama, post-apocalyptic genres, violence and good but mysterious characters then watch Fear The Walking Dead for sure!

Event

At the beginning of the month my mum and I went to see Annie: The Musical at a local theatre, we even had front row seats! It was performed by local children and performers, with some of the children aged as young as three years old! Watching the performance brought back a lot of memories from when I was younger as I used to adore the film. I think the main reason I loved it was because I looked like Annie as I had a ginger afro as well. All the children were extremely talented and seemed to have no nerves whatsoever! I certainly wasn't that confident at that age. As you may have guessed, my mum and I share a common interest in theatre performances. Before the show, we went for lunch at a local restaurant and had a gorgeous meal of enchiladas with salad and fries. The whole day was really lovely and I cannot wait to do something similar again soon.

Next month brings a lot of excitement for me with a number of birthdays and events happening in May. I definitely have a lot to look forward to and unfortunately a lot of money to spend as well. Hopefully that means there will be more blog posts for you to read before my next monthly favourites, especially since my exams will be finished within the next two weeks. Something tells me next month will include a couple of hauls and maybe even a concert?! So keep an eye out for those.

xxx

Trying Weird American Candy!

I have three exams over the next couple of weeks so the majority of my time is being spent studying, at least it should be! There is only so much Psychology a person can handle at any one time, so what better way to take a break than to try a bunch of weird flavoured American Candy? My brother and I both decided to try all the weird flavoured candy we could find, even though we soon became quite limited in our options since I have an allergy to chocolate and the majority of American Candy contains or is coated in chocolate but we managed to find a good number of things all the same.

We had tried the original flavoured Fluff which is basically just a marshmallow spread. We liked the original and my brother liked the Strawberry flavour but we had never came across the caramel flavour before. Neither of us was too keen on it. In our opinion, it had a slight coffee flavour to it, which just doesn't appeal to us. Something we both enjoyed when we went to America a few years ago was Twizzlers so when we found the Strawberry and Vanilla flavoured ones, we could not resist. Stuart absolutely loved these and nearly ate them all to himself! I thought they were okay but didn't think they had a great deal of flavour to them. 

We did find another flavour of Twizzlers that I liked a lot better; Strawberry Lemonade flavour. These Twizzlers had the Strawberry Lemonade flavour as a gel in the middle of the normal Twizzler and tasted great, they were definitely one of my favourites. Mike and Ike's weren't something I'd heard of before but looked good and since they were one of the few American items that weren't coated in chocolate, I was definitely up for trying them. Berry Blast and Strawberry Melody were the first packets we bought and I much preferred the Berry Blast packet; it had Wild Berry, Strawberry, Blueberry, Blue Raspberry and Peach & Blueberry flavours. They are extremely flavourful and are quite similar if not identical to Jelly Beans, just with more flavour. The Strawberry Melody packet was my brother's preference because it had Strawberry, Strawberry & Raspberry, Strawberry & Banana, Strawberry & Peach and Strawberry & Watermelon flavours and he tends to favour those.

We then came across another packet of Mike and Ike's in the Tropical Typhoon flavour. Watermelon, Strawberry & Banana, Strawberry & Pineapple, Peach & Pineapple and Orange were the flavours in this packet and it's safe to say that I definitely ate all the Watermelon flavoured sweets and my brother ate the Strawberry ones! My brother picked out the Welch's Filled Liquorice Sticks next because we loved the juice when we were younger. Similarly to the Strawberry & Lemonade Twizzlers, these had the gel flavouring in the center of the sweet. We both liked these a lot and it's safe to say that they did not last very long at all! I would definitely eat these again. One of the stranger things we picked up was Cinnamon Bun Bites. These appealed to me because I absolutely love cinnamon buns! Unfortunately these were disgusting. They didn't have any sweetness to them whatsoever, they were extremely grainy and tasted completely artificial. I was a little disappointed with these but we still had plenty more things to try.

Since we got the Caramel Fluff it was only fair to get the original flavour as well. It was a different brand but it is essentially still a marshmallow spread. Stuart and I don't bother to use this as a spread, we simply grab some spoons and dig in. It is amazing. Basically pure sugar and the worst possible thing for your teeth but it is just so good. I am not keen on many of the Pop Tart flavours because they either have chocolate in them or tend to be flavours that don't appeal to me. When I found a Brown Sugar Cinnamon flavour, I couldn't wait to try them, especially when I hated Pop Tarts as a child. These are incredibly sweet and incredibly bad for you but again, taste so good. I could definitely see me eating these in the Winter months, nearer Christmas time for breakfast, the Cinnamon flavour just makes them seem festive to me. Onto one of my favourite sweets we found; Ice Breakers Sours. Both my brother and I favour sour sweets and both loved these. They have Orange, Apple and Watermelon favours, all of which I love. Especially the Watermelon so these became one of my favourites and one of my re-purchases. 

A couple of days after Stuart and I had bought the first packet of Ice Breakers Sours, my mum came home with a new kind. This packet had Cherry, Strawberry and Raspberry flavours in it and are just as good as the first packet we bought, some flavours are more sour than others but we don't mind. Onto the last two things that we picked up, a standard packet of Nerds in the flavours Cherry and Watermelon. These are my favourite packet of Nerds to buy because it combines my two all time favourite flavours; cherry and watermelon. My brother liked them too but he didn't manage to get many from the packet before I got my hands on them. The last thing we tried was incredible, I loved it so much that it made it's way into my favourites for last month! Flipz White Fudge Covered Pretzels. There are not enough words to describe how amazing these snacks are. If you are a fan of sweet and salty flavours together then you will absolutely love these. I went through so many packets of these after initially trying them, so much so that my brother thought I had a problem. He liked them but isn't a huge fan of sweet and salty things so didn't love them as much as I did. They also have Flipz Chocolate Coated Pretzels which my mum liked so if you prefer chocolate, definitely give those a try.

Out of all of the candy we tried, for me the Flipz White Fudge Coated Pretzels, Ice Breakers and Cinnamon Pop Tarts were definitely my favourite. The Mike and Ike's, Twizzlers and Welch's Liquorice became my brothers favourites. Even though we didn't like all of the things we bought, it certainly gave me the break away from studying that I needed! Let me know if you try any of the things I mentioned here of if you have tried other types of American Candy that you really liked!

xxx

What I Got For Easter | 2016

Since it's the beginning of the Easter holidays here in Scotland, I thought I would share with you what I got for Easter. My family are not religious, some family on my dad's side are but for the most part, we are not religious. Therefore, Easter is not that big of a celebration for us. My brother looks forward to some chocolate and goodies from my mum and dad and some money from grandparents. Me, I am allergic to chocolate so I don't really look forward to that. Instead, my mum and dad buy me a few little gifts and some sweets.

I did tell my mum I wasn't that fussed about Easter but as usual, she didn't listen. She picked up a selection of sweets for me that she thought I'd like, including Gummy Milk Bottles, Drumstick Squashies (which are amazing), Fruit Salad Softies, Haribo Bunnies and a Ginger Bread Egg. Safe to say they didn't last very long! She also picked up the cutest copper/rose gold bunny necklace. This necklace has a very long chain which I like a lot and the colour is gorgeous. It is perfect for Easter!

My mum has noticed my growing collection of Colouring Books for adults recently and decided to add some Easter and Spring themed ones to my collection. I am quite fussy with the types of patterns and pictures in the books, but these are perfect and I cannot wait to get started on them. Even my mum wants her own colouring book to give it a go now too!

I have always loved Cath Kidston. All the prints are gorgeous but depending on what type of thing you are looking for it can be quite pricey, unless you are lucky enough to grab a bargain during a sale. This is normally what I do. My mum has been paying attention to what styles and prints I tend to gravitate towards which is why she selected this bag and mug. Both items were on sale at more than 50% off and they are absolutely gorgeous. The bag is just a little cross body bag, perfect to carry a few necessities throughout the Spring months. The mug has such a stunning print, I have heard people say before that Cath Kidston Stanley Mugs are the perfect size and I have to agree, they most definitely are! 

I did also receive some money from grandparents this Easter which was spent on even more Cath Kidston items which I will write a post about soon. I am very thankful for the gifts I received this Easter, they are 100% me and my style. I can't wait for the weather to get a bit better so I can sit in my garden with a cup of tea in my Cath Kidston Mug and colour in some Spring images. It'll be just what I need after the stress of all my exams! I hope you had a lovely Easter Weekend and enjoy the Easter Holidays, especially if you get time off school, college, university or even work!

xxx