August Wishlist

Hello readers, hope you're having a good summer. I have collated a few items together for a wishlist of things I would like to purchase over the next month or just of things that I like the style of and would like to purchase at some point in the future. 

I've read so many reviews on the Garnier Micellar Cleansing Water and I am pretty certain I've not read a bad one yet, I think this would be a generally wise purchase as you get so much product for the price and it works as a toner and eye make up remover.

I love the Marc Jacobs perfumes (although I've not bought one because they're quite expensive) and I think Daisy Dream has very pretty packaging, and would be a very nice summery scent even though the summer is fleeting and the time to wear these lovely floral fruity scents is running out.

I've never been much of a lipstick person, but recently I have been experimenting with the limited collection I have and I think I do want to venture into more colours, so I would quite like a staple red and I'd like the Kate Moss Rimmel one because I have read quite a lot of good reviews, and it's a drug store lipstick but still gets a lot of rave reviews so I reckon it's worth a go.

I haven't really worn shorts since last year due to a massive loss in confidence and changes in weather, but I want to get back into wearing them because they're so easy to wear with almost anything. I quite like high waisted ones and I have found some on eBay that are 'boyfriend shorts' so they're a bit baggy, I'm not sure whether I can pull them off though!

I literally have no summer shoes so I think this pair of shoes from Topshop (which I think have been sold out now so they're not on the website) would work quite well, I hope I can find some that are similar to these as I think they would work in colder weather too.

I do have a white pleated skirt already, but I really love the American Apparel tennis skirt and if money were no object I would definitely buy it but £46 on a skirt is a bit much for a student so I may buy a dupe from eBay, I think it looks so pretty on and I love monochrome outfits so I think it would suit me.

Thanks for reading this post, stay classy and I'll see you soon!

Music of the month - July 2014

Hello there readers, it is the end of July and time for another music of the month post because I prioritise finding new songs to socialising with others.

1. West Coast - Lana Del Rey

Lana's new album is so so so so good, I absolutely loved Born to Die and I didn't expect Ultraviolence to be as good but it was but it was different. I feel like I overplayed Born to Die, so it's nice to have something equally good but different. This was the first song I heard from the album before listening to the whole album in one go (which I have done several times now), so this song stands out to me on the album.

2. The Killing Moon - Echo and the Bunnymen

I reckon this became a favourite ever since watching Donnie Darko for the first time in my last Philosophy lesson, I actually wanted to watch the film for ages and it's one of my Philosophy teacher's favourite films so he decided to educate us in the world of film and so we watched it. I've watched it again since then - it was that good. 

3. My Judge and my Jury - The Diamonds

This song may seem a little out of place but I've always had a varied music taste. At the moment I've been listening to a lot of 50s/60s music because I am a massive Beatlemaniac but when it comes to other 50s/60s music I'm quite the amateur, so I ventured onto grooveshark and looked into songs of this era, I have been literally singing this song non-stop since hearing it. If I for some strange but lucky reason don't end up forever alone and I get married, this is definitely a song for the wedding playlist!!

4. Lisztomania - Phoenix 

When I first heard this song, I genuinely thought it was The 1975 from the intro, I already liked other songs by Phoenix and this is no exception. They're just very upbeat and fun to listen to.

5. Citizen Erased - Muse

I blame Dan and Phil for my recent listenings to Muse, I liked a few Muse songs before but as I'm off school and all I'm doing really is watching Dan and Phil videos over and over and over again, I've heard them mention Muse quite a few times so I took the liberty to listen to the Origins of Symmetry album (which is both Dan and Phil's favourite album allegedly) and I think this was Dan's favourite song.

Thanks for reading this post on my favourite songs of July, stay classy readers and I'll see you soon.

Collective beauty & fashion haul - Primark, Savers and more

Hello readers, hope you're all well.

Throughout the month of July, I have been shopping a few times and picked up a few bits so I thought I would show you what I got in video form and in blog post form. The link to the video will be down below, and below that will be a break down of everything I got.

1. White dress - £5 from Primark

This dress was a steal at £5, it's super soft cotton like material with a nice crochet-type detail on the torso and I'm sure I'll get plenty of wear out of it in the next month of summer.

2. Friends shirt - £6 from Primark

I do love my graphic tees and friends so this was the perfect combination, it is such a soft material and it has rolled up sleeves because that's what the cool kids are doing these days. I'm probably going to wear this with skater skirts as skater skirts are among one of my favourite things in the world, if I don't wear it outside at least it's a super cosy top to wear indoors.

 3. Stripy black and white tee - £3.50 from Primark

This top is just a staple and I will definitely get wear out of this, I wanted to buy this last month (which I did a haul for and you can read that here) but they didn't have it in Primark when I went so I had to leave it for a while but now I have it and can flaunt my stripes with pride.

4. Nirvana vest top - £8 from Primark

Nirvana are one of my favourite bands and I really like this vest top, I usually feel a bit insecure wearing vest tops because I don't like my flabby arms being on display for the most part but I wore this just yesterday and thought it actually looked quite good and didn't make my arms look worse, if anything it made them look better. Plus the material is super soft. The only thing I worry about (because I buy far too many graphic tees) is that the design will come off, but I've had some of my graphic tees for over 2 years and the design hasn't come off on those so I reckon they'll last.

5. Nail polish twist pot - £1.00 from Primark

I haven't given this a whirl yet so I don't know how good this is at removing your nail polish, but the idea sounds ground-breaking. I first heard of a nail polish twist pot from this video and I was considering making my own but I thought I'd try out this one first seeming as it's only £1.

6. Barry M nail paint in Navy - £1 from market

I wasn't sure whether to mention this as it's not something that will be available to everyone, but where I live there is a market every Thursday which I usually don't go to because of school (despite the fact I have half days on a Thursday) but my Mum wanted to go so we went, and I thought that £1 is such a good price for Barry M. I like the normal Barry M nail paint formula, I've had problems with the gelly one I've tried but that is another post for another time.

7. Barry M lip gloss - £1 from market

Barry M must be quite cheap wholesale at the moment because there was lots of Barry M at the market. I picked up this because I've recently been loving lip glosses and I've used this a few times, and I can confirm that it is not as sticky as most lip glosses and it smells like these French Haribos I receieved in a Cyber Candy Mystery Box (which I did a haul for and you can see that here) so this was a good purchase. It's not too pigmented because it doesn't come out the colour of the gloss in the bottle but most lip glosses don't so that's not an issue.

8. Beauty Formulas rejuvenating glorious mud mask - £1 from Savers

I highly highly recommend this, for a £1 you get a really nice facial. It's not the best face mask in existence, but I would be willing to argue that it's the best face mask, that costs £1, in existence. I use this twice a week and keeps my skin feeling healthy.

I also got a toner which I spoke about more in this blog post so you can check that out if you want to read about that, it cost £1.50 from Savers.

Thanks for reading, stay classy readers and I'll see you again soon.

Current night-time skincare routine

Hello there readers! You already know what to expect in this post by the title of it so I won't bore you by explaining what it is.  So skincare, very important stuff, I don't change up my actual skin care routine too often but I change around the products fairly often so I thought I'd do a post on what I'm currently doing.

Step 1: Remove the make up

The number one rule of make up and skin care is to remove make up and skin care to maintain good skin, so that's my first step. I use baby oil to remove it currently because I keep forgetting to buy a proper one (however I'm planning on buying the Garnier Micellar water soon which I believe removes make up). I use a cotton pad and add a bit of baby oil to it, and then hold it on my eye for a second and rub it off, and repeat until it's done trying not to drag my eye too much. After removing all the eye make up, I swipe it around my face to remove any foundation or concealer. 

2. Use a hot but not skin burning temperature flannel to wipe the baby oil off

After using baby oil to remove my make up, I find that my face is left quite oily (who would've thought baby oil makes you oily?) so I use a hot-but-not-boiling-temperature flannel to wipe away the oil. The hot temperature water also opens up the pores so I can thoroughly clean out my pores.

3. Use cleansing lotion

After removing traces of baby oil, I take some cleansing lotion and squeeze some of this onto some cotton wool. I usually alternate between using the Simple Cleanser and this Boots Cucumber Cleanser, both are as good as each other in my opinion. Plus they're under a couple of pounds so they don't break the bank. When I have some cleanser on the cotton wool, I move it around my face until there are no longer traces of cleanser on the wool but dirt and foundation that wasn't quite removed before.

4. Use toner

After using a cleansing lotion, I like to use a toner afterwards just to remove any other impurities in my skin and to leave my skin feeling fresh. I'm currently using the Derma v10 one which was under £2 in Savers (I usually choose what cleanser or toner to buy based on which one is reduced - keeps life a bit more interesting). Honestly, this isn't my favourite toner. It smells a bit like alcohol and feels a bit like alcohol, it does clean my skin so it's good on that level but given the option I'm not sure whether I would repurchase it again. I use this the same way as I use the cleansing lotion, by squeezing some onto a piece of cotton wool and moving it around my face until I feel the toner has been used to the best of its ability.

5. Cleanse with flannel once again

After doing all the cleansing, I like to use a hot flannel again to wash my face, and then straight after I use a cold flannel as this closes the pores up a bit so I hear.

6. Use moisturiser 

After closing up my pores with a cold flannel, I like to use moisturiser to replenish the moisture that I cleansed out of my skin. I'm currently using the Simple moisturiser, and I love this but I feel like my skin is dryer now so I might need to switch to the Simple rich moisturiser rather than this one. I squeeze this out onto my hand and massage it into my skin and my eyes even though I don't think it helps with under eye circles, I still need to take care of my eyes.

That's all folks - hope you enjoyed reading about how I keep my skin clean!

What skin products do you use?

The lifestyle post - face masks, food and fun

Hello there readers, this post is my very first lifestyle post on this blog - such fun! As it's the summer, I've already started doing things with my friends so I thought I'd share a little snippet of my life with you all! The dates this post covers is the 10th July - 11th July where I had a sleepover with two of my buddies, we decided to bake and watch Miranda because Miranda is one of the greater things in life. We also got through most of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, but we got a bit carried away and forgot to get back to it (Harry Potter is an emotional journey anyway and I don't think I was up to it)

To start off, we made a red velvet cake following the Hummingbird bakery recipe (if you want to see a blog post with this recipe, please leave a comment down below because I will definitely be making this again as it was really moist and tasty even though it wasn't the reddest of red velvet cakes)

As my other friends were fasting for Ramadan and I'm not religious, they couldn't eat anything until the evening but they claim that baking  helps them get through it (each to their own, eh?) 

Next on the menu was peanut butter stuffed brownies - I'll give you a second to think about how amazing this was.. If you want a recipe, you can find it here. I may do a blog post on this, but I'm not sure as my friends and I have a long list of food we want to bake over the summer so we may not have time for repeats and my family aren't the biggest brownie fans (let us shun them). We actually didn't  use paper to line the tins so it was quite the struggle getting these out after they had cooled over night, but these tasted best straight out of the oven anyway!

We stayed up until the early hours of the morning so that my friends could eat before their fasting started back up again, in which time we watched a lot of Miranda, and a few videos from 'the youtubers' i.e Joe Sugg and Caspar Lee (don't get me started on Joe Sugg... I think he's a bit tastier than the brownies...)

After a late start to the day (as we had gone to bed late we didn't really wake up until about 11:00am, and even then we didn't really move for another hour as watching Miranda and Jack Whitehall was much more important than movement). Once we had gotten up, we decided to do a face mask which is what we usually do - pamper sessions are a lot of fun with friends, I'm still sitting here stroking my face because of how smooth it feels, don't judge me.. I did the sea mask which was so moisturising, I have normal to combination skin so I could've done any of the masks really but I did  this one and I think I'll be doing it again because my skin feels so hydrated!

Shortly after doing the face masks, one of the group had to leave and then there were two, which wasn't a problem at all. We watched a few more Joe Sugg videos and threw in a few Tanya Burr ones too, and then I left as well so as to not impose and to make it back in time for dinner even though I had eaten so much and wasn't too hungry!

I always feel so tired after a sleepover because of the overload of sugar and lack of sleep, so I took it easy when I got home and watched a classic, Spiderman, with my brother - the Tobey Maguire one. I hadn't really watched it since I was a kid and I always say I prefer the Amazing Spiderman with Andrew Garfield, but I had forgotten how good the original was!

Thanks for reading my lifestyle post, please comment if you'd like to see more posts like these :)

Do you like to bake with friends?

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?