Iain Duncan Smith doesn't deserve a pat on the back

On the 18th March, Iain Duncan Smith resigned from his post as Secretary of State for Work and Pensions in the Conservative Party resulting in cries of joy from lefties like myself, but whilst I can relish this moment, I have some opinions. I have seen all over my Twitter timeline and Facebook feed  that Iain Duncan Smith is a good person because he 'stuck to his principles' and resigned his post as he believed that George Osbourne's budget which victimised the disabled was, in his words, 'a compromise too far'. I gots some problems with this, so I'm going to dissect what his little letter said and explain why it is BS.

He opened with:

"I am incredibly proud of the welfare reforms that the Government has delivered over the last five years."

Really, Iain? You're going to say you're 'incredibly proud' of introducing Universal Credit which forces all low paid employees into desperate competition for casual work? You're 'incredibly proud' of the Bedroom Tax which charges the poor if they're given social housing with 'more rooms than they require', despite the fact that there is also a lack of social housing so tenants really don't have much choice in where they live so it's essentially arbitrarily charging the poor, you're proud of that, are you?

"Those reforms have helped to generate record rates of employment and in particular a substantial reduction in workless households."

Hm, are these jobs on zero hour contracts? Y'know those contracts whereby the employer has no obligation to offer work to the employees so the employee can't be certain they'll earn enough money to get through the week? Oh yeah, great job (pun not intended).

"I truly believe that we have made changes that will greatly improve the life chances of the most disadvantaged people in this country and increase their opportunities to thrive."

Is this some sort of sick joke? Just last week, Iain Duncan Smith was in full support of reducing the Employment and Support Allowance meaning that claimants would receive £30 less a week. Claimants include hundreds of thousands of sick and disabled people, such as sufferers of cancer, Parkinson's disease and mental illness - I mean, I could be wrong, these people are pretty disadvantaged and it seems like you're taking away what little opportunity they have to thrive, Iain, but that could just be me. 

"Together, we've made enormous strides towards building a system of social security that gets the balance right between state-help and self-help."

The Tories don't promote state-help, the concept of self-help is fundamental to Conservative ideology - so basically, every man for himself. This is why continually the Tories allow big businesses and bankers to avoid paying their taxes. This is why Iain Duncan Smith, like other Tory MPs, gets away with claiming expenses to buy a £39 breakfast, talk about scroungers, eh? The Tories literally take money from the poor to give other rich people like themselves tax cuts - the reverse Robin Hood effect.

"I am unable to watch passively whilst certain policies are enacted in order to meet the fiscal self-imposed restraints that I believe are more and more perceived as distinctly political rather than in the national economic interest."

Austerity is distinctly political and has been shown not to do much good economically (for a contemporary example, Greece was forced to adhere to strict austerity measures and this resulted in a deeper recession, mass unemployment, the widening of budget deficits, and a rise in debt levels). Austerity is purely ideological warfare used to target the poor and the vulnerable, it's used to restructure the state in a way that benefits the privileged leaving the poor fighting for scraps. However, I don't believe Iain Duncan Smith is against austerity like he seems to be suggesting. Let's not forget that he voted against raising welfare benefits, he voted against paying higher benefits over longer periods to those who can't work because of illness or disability, he voted for a reduction in spending on welfare benefits, he voted against spending public money to create guaranteed jobs for young people who've been unemployed for a long time, he voted against a banker's bonus tax, he voted against the mansion tax, he voted for reducing corporation tax, he voted for raising tuition fees, and he voted for academy schools - Iain Duncan Smith is not anti-austerity.

"You should be very proud of what this government has done on deficit reduction, corporate competitiveness, education reforms and devolution of power."

Okay right, George Osbourne inherited a debt of £1 trillion. By May 2015, the debt was £1.5 trillion. I'm going to really dumb this down for any conservatives reading, but £1.5 trillion is a bigger number than £1 trillion, have you got that? I know I'll end up just complaining about Capitalism with this claim of improved corporate competitiveness, but I'm just going to say is corporate competitiveness a good thing? Or is it just this capitalist mantra that greed and selfishness should be promoted? The education reforms like academisation of schools has done nothing but divide teachers' unions, pit schools against each other, and generally lower standards of education. For example, academy schools are given more money depending on how many pupils they have which results in overcrowded classrooms and a generally much poorer educational experience. Speaking as someone who went to a High School that became an academy, I did notice the teachers were generally a lot less happier, so much so that nearly the entire science department at my school left! Lastly, devolution of power is not a good thing, this is a neoliberal tactic to bow out of accountability. By devolving powers, the government can easily deny responsibility when they're faced with a backlash - basically, it's their get out of jail free card. So, no Iain, I'm not proud of what this government has done regarding the areas you've mentioned (I'm not proud of anything they've done to be frank, I'm not sure if you can tell) and I don't think you, or anyone else, should be proud either.

Let's talk about the EU

OKAY, so important political stuff here - PLEASE do not click away if you are from the UK and especially if you're eligible to vote this year (if you're not, y'know the EU is still interesting stuff). Even if you know you're voting to leave or stay in the EU in the upcoming referendum, if you can't say why pleaaaaase either watch the video or check out any of the resources because it's really bugging me that people have made a snap decision and don't know why because this is one of the biggest things to happen to the UK in a long, long time, okay?


TOPICS MENTIONED:

• Reintroducing full powers back to Westminster
• EU is a drain on the British Economy
• EU is undemocratic and unaccountable
• 'British Identity' and Economy
• Immigration
• Trade
• New World Order
• Tuition Fees
• TTIP 

RESOURCES:

• Should the left leave the EU? | Owen Jones talks...
• The European Union, Greek austerity and microwave safety | Owen Jones talks back
• TTIP - Why we have to stop the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership | Owen Jones talks...
• What is the English identity? | Owen Jones talks...
• EU referendum timeline: What will happen when?
• DebateWise - the UK should leave the EU (I based my main points on this link)
• WriteToThem - select MEP if you want to write to your representative on TTIP, but this website is helpful anyway to talk to your constituency's MP as well
• Prevent review - I am going to do a whole video on Prevent but this is where they state what 'fundamental British values' are
• The Truth About Cameron, Immigration & Our Media: Russell Brand The Trews (E172)
• Nigel Farage: It is 'bonkers' to stay in the European Union - just included this for an opposing view okay I hate Nigel Farage 

I hope you found this remotely useful, I just feel like a lot of people don't know what they're doing in the referendum and it's coming up this year, we don't have time to sit back and pretend it's not happening.

A Level myth busters

Okay, so results day for GCSEs is tomorrow and if you're waiting on results believe me I know how nerve wracking it can be - I got very little sleep on the 21st August 2013 and it was the same with my friends, we actually stayed up playing Would You Rather on a group chat on Whatsapp (highly recommend this if you want some top notch #bantz whilst you're waiting for results day to come). So, I thought I would do a post debunking some theories about A Levels and giving my tips and advice for anyone moving onto that portion of their lives.

Check the time stamp on that tweet - literally just about a week before my GCSE results!

BS THEORY #1: 'A Levels are easier than GCSEs because you're doing fewer subjects'
This theory is probably the one that irritates me and many other A Level students alike the most - this is utter nonsense. Sure, you're doing fewer subjects and I understand at GCSEs when you're studying like 10 subjects, the prospect of doing 3-5 sounds a lot easier, but A Levels are about 50 times harder than GCSEs. You have to learn a hell of a lot of extra detail, like you know at GCSEs when learning specific detail was something you did if you really wanted the A*? Yeah, at A Levels the specific detail is bare minimum like it'll probably bring you to a C at most so already you're having to put in a lot more effort to get a C.

BS THEORY #2: 'You'll be able to do all your work and revision in your free periods so you'll have a lot more free time'
Again, this isn't true because you get so much extra work at A Levels and there's so much content  to revise, you're going to need free periods as well as time outside of school to do all the work you need to do. Don't get me wrong, you'll still have free time but you definitely won't have as free a schedule as you did at GCSEs.

BS THEORY #3: 'You have to do A Levels if you want to get into University'
I can't stress this enough, but if you don't feel like exams are your sort of thing, you do not have to do A Levels, you can do a BTEC and still get into University. There are certain courses at certain Universities that will only take A Levels and that's granted but for loads of courses they accept people with BTEC results and I know people who weren't so into exams but did amazingly on their BTEC and got unconditional offers from good Universities so please don't listen to all that crap about how A Levels are the only route into University and can we please stop with the whole 'BTECs are for stupid people' malarkey. Yes, I did A Levels but I know from other people that BTECs are still a heck of a lot of work, that's why you can get onto a University course with, for example, entry requirements of BBB at A Levels but DDM at BTEC - so if you don't feel exams are for you, please do consider a BTEC and don't let people put you off them because of the stereotypes around them, you know what kind of education is best suited for you I'm sure.

BS THEORY #4: 'You should do a Science subject because it looks good on your UCAS'
Okay, this is true in general like you should never do a subject based on the fact that it looks good on your UCAS, but I know in Science this is a particularly big problem and it's something that actually happened to me.

As you may know, I did Biology for As and hated it within the first couple of weeks. I did actually really like Biology at GCSE and our teachers made us think that the course we were doing was basically A Level (which was complete and utter rubbish anyway, we were doing Cambridge CIE iGCSE, which is done in public schools and is a heck of a lot harder than a regular GCSE) so I assumed I'd be fine at A Level, but I absolutely hated it and found no enjoyment in the course anymore, but I didn't even question dropping it before A2 because I thought that having a Science subject there would make my UCAS look better but it really wasn't worth the trouble. Firstly, I genuinely despised going into school on some days because I knew I'd have Biology (Thursdays especially because, whilst I had a half day, I had 4 periods of Biology) and this made me really down on those days. Secondly, I wouldn't concentrate much in lesson or I'd get lost because I didn't care about what we were learning and I didn't find it at all interesting for the most part (although, gonna give it some credit, I quite liked all the biology on food and diet like that was pretty interesting.) Thirdly, I basically scraped a pass in it so I barely got any UCAS points from it anyway plus Universities only look at 3 subjects generally and they pretty much disregard As entirely.

This brings me onto another point, never do a subject if you have the intention of dropping it. During the first few weeks of A Levels, I knew I either wanted to drop Biology or History but after those few weeks I was dead set on dropping Biology and I'm pretty certain it's that mentality that contributed to me not working as hard in it. Essentially what I'm trying to say is, do subjects that you love. Also, if you're only doing certain A Levels to get onto a certain Uni course and you hate those subjects, you probably won't like the Uni course so you may need to reconsider what you want to do. Furthermore, to do well in a subject you should have some sort of interest in it otherwise revision is going to be a complete task (I don't really think revision should be the most enjoyable of tasks, but if you're bored to tears revising it like I was learning about bonds and Alpha helixes and all that jazz, you're doing the wrong course).

BS THEORY #5: 'Once you've made your choices for A Levels, you're stuck with them'
There's a degree of truth in this in the sense that if you're a few months into the course, then it's probably not worth changing because you won't be able to catch up on a new course in time for the exam (the year goes by dangerously fast, be prepared) but if you change in the first few weeks, there'll probably still be places on other courses that you can change to or you can drop a subject if you're not liking it. I feel like you do get a feel for the course you're doing in the first few weeks of it, I know I definitely did (especially with Biology, but lets not go through that again) so if you don't like a course in the first few weeks, don't hesitate to ask your Head of Year about changing. They may not let you drop it in the first few weeks because it's possible after a first assessment sort of dealio you get a good grade so they can persuade you to stay on the course, but you may be able to change to a different course that you'll enjoy more.

That's all I really have to say, I hope any of you receiving GCSE results are happy with what you get, and I hope it's enough to do what you want to do next whether that be A Levels, BTEC or an Apprenticeship (I think there are more options too but these are the main ones that I'm aware of).

What are your tips for those who've just finished their GCSEs?

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Last hope for the lefties

This is probably one of the first posts I've ever done on UK politics, I've spoken about topics of social justice before and I've mentioned my hatred for the government and how sad I was with the General Election results but this is the first whole post I am dedicating entirely to UK politics, and this post goes out to the lefties - so if you're a Tory, you might want to bugger off right about now, although if you're a Tory I don't see why you're following my blog in the first place . . .

As you will probably know, the Labour Leadership election is coming and votes need to be in by September 10th. Anyone can join the Labour Party in order to be eligible for this election, and if you're a true leftie, you really should consider it because Jeremy Corbyn could be Labour's last chance to win an election ever again. People are tired of Tory lite/austerity lite, hence why the Tories have essentially won the past two elections. If the results in Scotland from the last election show us anything, it's that people want an alternative to austerity and that's exactly what Jeremy Corbyn is offering as Labour leader.

So what is Jez offering*?

1. On the economy, he wants an end to austerity, higher taxes for the rich, and protection for people on welfare. An end to austerity means protection to the public services that ordinary people, at some point or another, will depend on. The existence of austerity perpetuates this war on the poor that maintains and strengthens the patriarchy, so considering Jez is the only realistic alternative to austerity we have in this political system, that alone was enough to convince me he was the way forward.

2. On foreign policy, Jez wants to secure peace in the middle east by talking instead of invading - an approach that should regain those who became disillusioned with Labour under Blair. He's also spoken out many times on the oppression of Palestinian people and Israel's violation of international war.

3. On the EU, Jez wants to stay in but have a reform as the EU is precious especially regarding trade amongst other benefits like protection of workers, more jobs being generated, freedom for citizens to work, travel or study in any other European country, low prices of goods, a louder voice for the UK, and it aids in the development of economically deprived countries. He also outrightly disagrees with TTIP, which if it went ahead could result in the privatisation of the NHS, lower the standards of regulations on food and environmental safety (which could be pretty dodgy to say the least), give a hell of a lot more power to bankers, as well as resulting in a lot of unemployment, and it would introduce Investor-State Dispute Settlements (ISDS) which essentially means unelected transnational corporations could dictate the policies of democratically elected governments - so if I were you, I would definitely want someone opposing TTIP to be representing the Labour Party.

4. On education, he wants a national education service, and state-funded academies and free schools would be returned to local authority control as these systems divide the unions. He also wants to scrap tuition fees and he plans to do this by increasing national insurance for those who earn over £50,000 and a higher corporation tax - I don't know about you, but free or at least cheaper university sounds pretty good to me (especially since the Tories are getting rid of maintenance grants)

5. On housing, Jez wants rent controls in places such as Central London to help families on benefits pay their rent because obviously it's a lot more expensive there.

6. On defence, unlike the government, less money would be spent and Trident would be scrapped, which is a controversial issue in itself but I personally think this is a good move as it's an unnecessary, expensive deterrent - building and operating a new generation of nuclear weapons will cost the UK £97 billion, and the weapons are far too powerful for their own good. In fact, every submarine in Britain's Trident fleet carries up to 48 nuclear warheads, each of which is eight times more powerful than the bomb that destroyed Hiroshima**.

7. On travel, Jez wants to renationalise the railways which has a multitude of benefits. It would mean rail fares would go down, standards for rail workers would improve, customer service would improve, trains would be more likely to be on time, and the trains would be more clean and comfortable. Furthermore, railways are a natural monopoly which is bad because this means they can set any price that they choose and if it's not nationalised then its main priority is going to be profit, so this means higher prices than necessary. Secondly, a monopoly means that the business has no obligation to provide good service so they can provide inferior service and charge a high price for it because there aren't really any major competitors. There are more reasons than this why monopolies are bad, but these reasons alone are enough to show that it's vital for this natural monopoly to be nationalised. Plus, the benefit of having a state-owned railway means that any surplus, any profit, can be reinvested back into other public services, so even if you don't use the railways that often, it's still beneficial to you to have nationalised rails because other public services can be funded from any profit.

8. On energy, again Jez says he wants to renationalise energy. The reasons for this are basically the same reasons aforementioned on why monopoly is pretty bad, but essentially it's good to have nationalised commodities because any profit can be reinvested into other public services which at the end of the day benefits everyone.

If you want to sign up to the Labour Party in order to be eligible to vote in the Leadership election, you have to sign up by the 12th August at 12pm - so basically, y'all gotta hurry the heck up if you want to vote in this because time is running out. You can sign up as a member, like me and my brother did, and for us, it only cost £1 a year because we fit into the aged 14-19 bracket, or, like my parents, you can sign up as a supporter which costs as little as a £3 one off payment. There are other options for membership but you'd have to have a click around and see which one you feel would suit you most (this doesn't take long at all!) If you're a true leftie and want to see a socialist gain power of a major party, in my opinion this is the best thing you could do so sign up as quickly as you can - #JezWeCan.

Are you a member of the Labour Party?

*The basic information for Corbyn's policies was found on the BBC website 
** Source

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Primark and H&M haul

This post could also be called 'the haul that was supposed to be summery but resulted in all black clothes' but it doesn't have the same ring to it. Anyway, I hadn't been shopping in a couple of months so I decided to go out with my friends and pick up a few bits (big beauty haul coming soon), without further ado, let's see how I've been funding the capitalist system.

Ribbed Crop Top - £3
Primark

Fine Knit Jumper - £7.99
H&M

Circular Skirt - £12.99
H&M

What fashion bits have you been eyeing up recently?

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September Wishlist

Hello readers, hope you're all well. It's the end of August which means it's time for a wishlist for the month of September, if you look below you'll see an image of the things I want with links of where to get them and whatnot. It's a somewhat longer wishlist than usual because Autumn and Winter fashion is what I live for (I just can't get by in the summer, I need the darkness that only colder seasons can provide)

The makeup brushes are from eBay for only £8.95 in a variety of colour, the picture actually doesn't show all the brushes that come in the set because it's actually a ten piece set which is amazing value for under a tenner. I've read a review on them and apparently they're very good for the cost, and you can get them in a variety of colours like black, white, blue and pink - I'm actually thinking I might go for the pink ones because they look really cute!!

The Revlon lipstick in Really Red is £7.49 in Boots and Superdrug at the moment but in Boots you can get 2 for £10 on Revlon products which is amazing so I'll probably buy it there, plus I prefer the points system in Boots. This is a well known dupe for Mac's Ruby Woo and it's half the price of a Mac lipstick which is great value, I think red lipstick looks really nice and I'm becoming more confident with wearing bright lipsticks now so I think this would look really nice in the Autumn/Winter.

The oversized jumper from H&M is £12.99 which isn't bad for a nice quality jumper, I have barely any jumpers and I think I need to get some in for when the weather gets colder. I'd like either a burgundy one or a black one for winter colours I think.

The boyfriend jeans from H&M in the picture were £13 but they are now sold out, so the ones I have put a link for are similar but just darker and they're £29.99 which is a little pricey for me as I hardly ever wear jeans due to body confidence, but I would like to buy boyfriend jeans and gather the confidence from somewhere to wear them because I think they can look really nice.

The scuba skirt from H&M (can you tell I love what H&M currently has in stock??) is only £10 at the moment, I reckon it will be sold out soon but I essentially just want a black pleated skirt. I have a white one that I ordered from boohoo a while ago but I think a black one would be more versatile, and I'm always looking for new skirts as I wear skirts whenever I leave the house (why bother to wear a skirt at home when you can wear pyjama bottoms?)

The pleated skirt from H&M (I think I'm going to be shopping at H&M a lot over the next month!!) is only £12.99 which is a really good price, I love the polka dot pattern on it and I also love navy as I think it suits me? I think this would be a versatile item that could be worn in the winter and in the summer.

The black platform sneakers from H&M cost £14.99 but I know for a fact that Primark is doing some like these so I'll probably just buy them from there. I'm 5'7 so I'm aware I don't need the height, but I think platform shoes look really nice and make your feet look a bit smaller so I'm all about that because I have pretty big feet (you know what they say about big feet right?)

Thanks for reading my wishlist!

What's on your wishlist for September?

Cybercandy mystery parcel unboxing

Hello there readers (has that become my catch phrase yet? I notice that I've said it at the beginning of every blog post!) As you can see by the title of this post, this post is a Cybercandy haul or mystery parcel unboxing. What is Cybercandy you may ask? Well according to the website:

"Cybercandy is the UK's longest running online retailer of American Sweets, American Foods and American Soda."

I believe for a while they only ran an online shop but they do have shops in several locations which you can find on their website. I feel I should mention that Cybercandy does so much more than just American products, they also do Japanese, European, Australian, Canadian and more which you can check on the website. 

If you click over to their 'Amazing Offers' page, you'll see that there is an option to buy a bargain mystery parcel, and I have received many in the past, usually as rewards for exams. As I've finished my first year of sixth form and my first year of A level exams, my dearest Mama decided to order me a box so in the video below you'll see me unboxing it, but I wouldn't leave you with just a video - I've also taken pictures of the things I received and I'll give some information about each item.

1. Strawberry bear puffs

Place of origin - Japan

Original price - £0.69

According to my brother who had the chocolate flavour, they're just like sugar puffs, I haven't tried these yet but they look great and you can click here to buy them!!

2. Haribo smurfs

Place of origin - France

Original price - £0.69

These are the epitome of perfection in the Haribo-verse, I don't know why they're so good but they're like tangfastics but a bit harder and with lots of flavour, I would definitely repurchase these! You can click here to buy them!!

3. Maken gummi in Cola and Cider

Place of origin - Japan

Original price - £0.39 (currently reduced)

I haven't tried the cola flavour yet but I tried the cider, the flavour isn't too strong but it's your basic gummy sweet, it's extremely gummy but not slimy if that makes sense, you can click here to buy them in several flavours!!

4. Wonka chocolate bar in Creme brulee 

Place of origin - fairly certain it started in the USA but is now available in the UK!

Original price - unknown (£1 in most supermarkets)

I had already tried all the Wonka bars but they are on point, they're a bit like Galaxy, this isn't my favourite flavour but this was still very nice and I would repurchase this, although as it's available in supermarkets I wouldn't repurchase it from Cybercandy. I couldn't find this specific bar on the Cybercandy website, but if you live in the UK you can get it in most supermarkets and even pound stores!

4. Furuta candy dummy

Place of origin - Japan

Original price - £0.79

I haven't tried this yet, but it looks and feels like a hard gummy sweet, you can click here to buy this!

5. Pop tarts in the flavour frosted cherry and wild berry (a.k.a my favourite things in the world)

Place of origin - USA

Original price - £3.99 for a pack of 8

I could literally go on forever about pop tarts, I am obsessed. You can buy these in the UK but you get barely any flavours (seriously we get strawberry, chocolate and cherry, if you want any more you have  to go to the American section of the supermarket where it costs a bomb) plus the Cherry flavour in the UK is slightly different to the one in the USA, in the USA you get sugar on top of regular frosting. We don't get wild berry flavour here, and I love it - it's very similar to the other berry flavours. Oh my gosh I'm writing a whole paragraph just on pop tarts, but basically if you like icing, jam, and pastry you won't be disappointed! You can click here to find many different flavours of pop tarts!!

6. Coris chick sweets

Place of origin - Japan

Original price - £0.43

I haven't tried these yet, but according to my brother they're a bit like polos but softer, you can click here to buy these!!

7. Wham fizzy belt in sour raspberry

Place of origin - UK

Original price - £0.29

These are available in the UK but they are still delicious, I love sour sweets with a passion so this was a nice thing to receive despite the fact I can get these from the supermarket, you can click here to buy these although I'm fairly certain you can buy these at any supermarket in the UK!

8. Twix limited edition in white

Place of origin - Finland 

Original price - £1.29

This was extremely tasty, I'm not sure if you can get white twixs here (what is the plural of twix?)  but we should have them, they taste so good! You can click here to buy this!!

9. Kasugai gummy candy

Place of origin - Japan

Original price - I'm fairly certain these were part of a multipack, which costs £3.30

I haven't eaten these yet, but melon gummy candy sounds amazing - melon flavoured things are better than life itself, you can click here to see a variety of flavours if you want to buy!

Thank you so much for reading/watching, I hope you enjoyed this post because I've loved Cybercandy for years and I don't think they get nearly enough credit for what they do, and I got all of this for £15!

Have you ever bought anything from Cybercandy?

If you haven't, do you plan to?

Empties #1

Hello there readers, today I have an Empties post which is part video part blog post - I have a video on my youtube account but if you keep on reading, you'll find that I have also typed up mini reviews on these products (which will you can read in your own comfort without hearing the sound of my voice and in a more eloquent way)

1. Miss Sporty Liquid Concealer in Dark

Pros:

- Cheap

- Smooth consistency that is easy to blend

Cons:

- Was too pink toned for my skin tone (damn you makeup companies that don't cater for the mixed race makeup enthusiast!!)

- Didn't really help with dark circles and sometimes made spots stand out more

- Was sparkly which sometimes was good but for the most part wasn't too nice

Repurchase?

I'm afraid not Miss Sporty, for I have found another who satisfies my needs better and that is Collection. However, if you're lighter skinned this may work for you, it just seems that makeup companies don't understand that mixed race/dark does not equate to dark pink!

2. Soap & Glory Peaches and Clean 3-in-1 Wash-Off Deep Purifying Cleanser

Pros:

- Made my skin very smooth

- Smelled lovely

- Worked well as a face mask

Cons:

- I sometimes go a bit red if I leave it on too long, or you'll at least get redness on the first go but that is because it's so strong!
- Not cheap for a cleanser

- The pump isn't efficient to get out those remains at the bottom

Repurchase?

I think I will be repurchasing this, it is about £8 usually which isn't cheap at all but I use it as a face mask so it has lasted me a very long time so I think I got my money's worth (I also got this in the Yule Monty so it was cheaper anyway)

3. Nivea Powder Touch Anti-Perspirant

Pros:

- No white marks on clothes

- Long lasting

- Smelled satisfactory
- Convenient size

Cons:

- I prefer roll-ons.. (not really a con but that goes to show what a good product it is)

Repurchase?

I may repurchase this, although as I explained in the video I got this as a free sample whilst in Superdrug a long time ago so I have no idea how much it is usually, but I wouldn't imagine it's too expensive. Whilst I prefer roll-ons, I think this is probably more hygienic and long lasting - you can't go wrong, right?

4. Soap & Glory The Scrub of your Life

Pros:

- Worked lovely on my legs and arms

- Lathered up very well with bubble bath

- Big sugar granules so I felt like it really exfoliated my skin

- Lovely scent

Cons:

- Not cheap

- Didn't help much with my dry elbows

Repurchase?

I'm unsure as to repurchase this, yes I did like it  and I love soap and glory but one of the main reasons I started using it (besides the fact it was in the Yule Monty that I received for Christmas) was to help with my elbows and it did very little for that. I may try one of their other body scrubs though, who knows? I liked this product so it's likely I'll return to it despite the fact it didn't help with my elderly man elbows.

5. Simple Kind to Skin Soothing Facial Toner

Pros:

- Made my skin feel very fresh and clean

- Cheap

- Good for sensitive skin

Cons:

- Not much of a scent

Repurchase?

I would definitely repurchase this, and I'm fairly certain I've repurchased it in the past. It is your basic staple toner, so when I feel like I don't want to spend too much or I'm not going to be adventurous and try something new I will return to this. As it says on the packing, it is 'simple'.

6. Superdrug Dry Shampoo (Head in the Clouds)

Pros:

- Not too powdery

- Cheap

Cons:

- Not much of a scent

- The spray can make it harder for me to breath (that could just be me, but I'm not asthmatic or anything so I don't know..)

Repurchase?

I am unsure as to whether I'll repurchase this. It's a very very basic dry shampoo, and I know the pound store does brands like Batiste in there sometimes for dry shampoo so I think I'm going to check the pound store before returning back to this!

Thanks for reading/watching, I hope you enjoyed this post and if you'd like more things like this in the future please do comment  down below!!

What products have you used up recently?

Book review - Catcher in the Rye by J.D Salinger

Hello there readers, by the title of this post you will have guessed that I am reviewing yet another book. I'm sorry for all of the book reviews and not much else at the moment, but I have a video filmed (and a blog post to go along with it), and two other posts planned which are not book related. Furthermore, I've been reading a lot more since exams finished and all that jazz. Anyway, today I am going to review a book that is considered a classic and by the title of this post you know that the book I am talking about is 'Catcher in the Rye' by J.D Salinger. I've wanted to read this book for a very long time because, if you didn't know I'm a massive beatlemanic, the person who killed John Lennon (Mark Chapman) claims that it was this book that made him kill John Lennon or it was a contributing factor, so I've always wanted to read this book to see whether his claim has any justification whatsoever and let me just say now it doesn't, nothing could justify the murder of John but even if something could - I don't think this could.

Does anyone else love the look of battered old books? This copy is so old it doesn't even have a barcode on it! Courtesy of my Dad (I think), just so you know my parents are massive book hoarders so lots of the books in my household are old and battered and very nice looking (to me)

Synopsis:

Holden Caulfield is a seventeen- year-old dropout who has just been kicked out of his fourth school. Navigating his way through the challenges of growing up, Holden dissects the 'phony' aspects of society, and the 'phonies' themselves: the headmaster whose affability depends on the wealth of the parents, his roommate who scores with girls using sickly-sweet affection.

My thoughts:

I didn't really have any expectations going into this book, except I knew my Mum didn't like it and my Dad did, and I know Mark Chapman used this book to justify murdering John Lennon. My thoughts on this are clear and simple. I love the writing style, it's so easy to read. I would compare it to the likes of the Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath, the only difference between the two books is that I didn't like the main character in this whereas in the Bell Jar I felt some sort of affinity to Esther. 

Okay so I said I don't like the main character. Holden doesn't really say anything nice about anybody, he doesn't really seem to care about anyone except a couple of relatives and a girl he knew from when he was younger. This put me off.. at first. Then I watched a video of John Green talking about the book, and he rightly pointed out that when we read a book we want to read about characters who we like or who we want to be which after watching I discovered that I think this is true for the most part. 

The actual story itself doesn't have any serious plot twists or drama in it, it simply follows the tale of Holden over a short period of time because he doesn't want his parents to know that he's been kicked out of yet another school, so he meets up with a few people from his past and essentially procrastinates going home. Nothing super dramatic happens to be honest, but the thing that makes this book interesting for me is the symbolism and basically getting inside the head of someone who has some issues to sort through (which is basically every character in a book ever)

The chapters are short (I found myself reading several in the space of one bus journey) and there aren't any words that I found hard to understand, so I would say pretty much anyone can read it however there are some sexual references (quite subtle in some parts but I looked up what some of his slang meant and I recommend you do the same if you don't understand what Holden means by 'chewing the fat' and so on..)

Overall rating:

Overall, I am going to give this book a 4/5. Yes, I didn't like Holden as a character. Yes, nothing very dramatic happens. What drew me into it and kept me reading it was the style of the book, it was like reading someone's personal journal, I found it so easy to visualise every scenario to the point that I could hear the voices of the characters in my head whilst reading it. What I am basically saying is, I would recommend it. If you look on goodreads you will see that the reviews are very mixed, some people say it's 1 star whilst others say it's 5. I think for a 5 star book, I need to be so gripped that I stop breathing and nearly die from oxygen starvation, but this isn't a terrible book so I think to rate it only 1 star is quite harsh. Seeming as the reviews are so mixed, I would say you have to read it to see - it's often compared to perks of being a wallflower (haven't read yet) and the bell jar for its writing style so if you like those books purely for the style go for it and I wish you well, if you refuse to read anything where the main character is anything other than what you want to see in a person then this may not be the book for you.

Have you read the Catcher in the Rye?

Collective haul - Primark, Superdrug, Boots and more

Hello readers, hope you're all well.

I recently went shopping with my friend Isabella (she has been inactive on blogger for a while but she said she is planning on making a comeback and possible showing what she bought so please do go over and follow her) and picked up a lot of things from Primark, I also went shopping a couple of other times and bought a few bits and bobs so I put it together in a youtube video which you'll find below.

As promised, I have pictures of a couple of the outfits, two of the nail polishes, a sneak peak of what Isabella bought and close ups of some of the other item, also there are some things I've bought since filming the haul so I thought I'd throw those in here too.

These are the nail polishes I bought. From left to right: Seaside, Rose Hip, Pearl 

This picture includes the nail polish Isabella bought as well, it's one of the chameleon nail paints but I'm not sure of the colour

From left to right: Baby lips SPF20 and Collection Mardi Gras strawberry lipbalm

These were both bought by Isabella: an MUA lip liner and a Kate lipstick (both were under £5 I believe)

This is mine, it is the Collection lasting perfection concealer in warm medium

This is also mine, this is a P.S love primark brow pencil in the colour medium

These are mine and Isabella's sunglasses, I bought the pair at the top and she bought the other ones, they were all £2

These were Isabella's: a Watermelon scented candle and a Vanilla one, they both had a strong scent and were under £2

These were Isabella's, they're a collection of gold hoop earrings ranging in size, and this was £1

This was Isabella's, I've used Argan Oil before and it made my hair very soft, I'm not sure whether she's gotten round to using it yet though

This is the Rimmel 25 hour foundation, as you can see it's not very thick and it's not very thin and I think that's good as it's buildable - I got this in the colour True Nude which has pinky undertones but seems to suit my skin tone, and it stays on all day and gives my skin a natural look

This is what the Pearl nail polish looks like on, it's matte but shimmery which is nice - plus it dried so much quicker than the gelly one!

I apologize for the mirror selfie, taking a nice photo on an iPhone is almost impossible without either another person or doing a mirror selfie

Kimono - Primark

Shirt - Primark

Skirt - Forever 21

Tights - Primark

Ponyo necklace - Etsy

Sigh, another mirror selfie..

Shirt - Primark

Skirt - Forever 21

Tights - Primark

Ponyo necklace - Etsy

The packing of the things I ordered on etsy was too cute not to include...

Here you have the necklaces, both of them were £5

The Ponyo one can be ordered here

The Harry Potter Marauder's Map one can be ordered here

They're both from the same seller so the postage was cheaper, they're both of good quality and arrived quickly too!!

This is what the Rose Hip nail polish looked like on, honestly I'm a bit annoyed with it. It stayed tacky for ages because it took so long to try.. although it did come out quite shiny but I didn't keep it on for very long as the tackiness upset me too much

Another mirror selfie...

Shirt - Primark

Skirt - Forever 21

Tights - Primark

I bought this a while ago at the Who shop in Upton park, it was only a pound and there's a mini museum in the shop too which is a must-see for any whovian (although it took a long time to get there and there's not much else to do in the area unless you go over to the Stratford Westfield, but I still enjoyed it)

Thanks for reading/watching - see you soon!!