Powdered Sunshine - Lush review

 Hello everybody, here is the second of my Lush review series! I have already written one for 'Vanishing Cream' if you'd like to check that one out please click here and I've also got a bit of a story explaining why I have got so many Lush products haha xD So please click here to read that post.

Anyway, on with the review!
This product was actually bought for me as a present at Christmas time, therefore I'm not 100% sure of the price. 
Actually, I just check the website and it costs £6.95 per 70g (-70g being how much you get in one of the bottle pictured here ---->)

So to be fair, that price is pretty reasonable considering how a little of this product goes a long way! The price also matches other big brand sun creams on the market.

Some of the key ingredients include: Calamine powder, organic Sesame oil, Lemon oil, Lime oil and fair trade Cocoa Butter.

A very good point about this product is that I found it worked very well with make-up. I must admit that I did not use this product in the daytime when I was on holiday as I was worried that I wouldn't apply it properly and therefore get burnt or that it would get washed off in the sand and sea.

However for the evening this product is amazing! I would use a large make-up powder brush and brush it over my face and it would act as a translucent powder, helping to stabilise my makeup and provide sun protection! It was long lasting and made my skin shimmer a little bit which was kinda cute:3
Another great thing about this sunscreen was that it was non-greasy and you wouldn't have to wait a long time for it to soak in with many other sun creams.

One problem with this product would be that I found application hard. At first I tried rubbing the powder into my skin using my hands but that didn't work very well, and I would sometimes accidentally get it on my clothing which was a particular pain when I was wearing dark colours...
 (It was kinda like when you use to much talcum powder when getting out of the shower -.-)
 I think this problem would've been avoided if there was a more specific application method on the bottle maybe. 
In addition to this, the powder felt quite heavy and almost sticky. That may sound weird and maybe I just applied too much product but yeah. I don't know, maybe its because it sits on the skin rather than being absorbed but it wasn't the nicest feeling haha.

Okay so that was a pretty long review! Overall, I really do like this product but definitely in moderation. Would I buy it again? Well I probably won't need too considering how long this one bottle has lasted me so far!

I hope that you enjoyed this review and found it useful:) Feel free to leave any comments below and don't forget that you can enter your email address to the right hand side of the screen to receive an email update every time a new post is released:D

Thanks for reading!

'Education is the passport to your future' - really?!

Okay so as a Sixth Form student, exam season has just passed. Therefore my Sixth Form has stuck posters up around, supposedly encouraging students to work hard, revise and get good grades.

Now I might've simply read a bit too deeply into the meaning of that statement plastered on the bottom of the poster but I don't really think that it's portraying the most positive message to students who are already on the brink of a mental breakdown from the levels of stress and pressure which they're having to cope with. To me it just looks like a form propaganda to boost the statistics, but that might be a little far fetched...
By using this slogan, it is suggesting that without an education, you will not 'gain access' to your future as such.
If you don't pass these exams then you're a failure, basically. You've technically lost your 'passport to your future'.
I know for a fact, that education is not the only way to having a successful life. Okay so that's a bit of a vague statement as everybody considers success as something different. For example, for me success is when I'm very happy. Of course this can be achieved by getting good grades, or earning lots of money from my job but in all honesty, being surrounded by people who love you can also bring happiness personally. Maybe even loosing weight would make you feel very happy.
Therefore education is not necessarily needed for your future!
I don't know, I guess it just depends what you're striving for in the future but I think that posters like this are simply trying to force you into being something you may not really want to be and adding more unnecessary pressure to your life, which definitely isn't going to make you any happier.
What's the point in living if you're not happy?!
Of course everyone goes through periods of anxiety and anger in their lives but not getting an A* in that exam shouldn't limit your whole future.

Since writing this post, I've found an article on the BBC news website all about banning erasers in schools. Click here to view the original article. It talks about how there have been suggestions that rubbers should be banned in schools because they allow children to remove their mistakes from their work. I quote 'Claxton's argument is that by making children deny they make mistakes, we fail to prepare them for the real world, where mistakes can be made, and consequences ensue.'

So this makes sense, by allowing children to remove mistakes they're not being prepared for the real world, yeah fair enough.

However isn't this extremely contradicting to the whole system of exams and the idea that 'education is the passport to your future'?!? I say this because the original statement implies that if you fail and do not get an education then you've lost your future. So when you're in an exam, you're not allowed to make mistakes because if you do and you fail, BOOM game over.

Okay so I'm not sure if that made too much sense, but hey ho. Rant over.
Thank you for reading, what do you think? Have I read far too deeply into this poster?
Opinions are appreciated:)

How to survive working in retail!

If you didn't already know, I currently work in a very popular clothes shop which I can't name for legal reasons, blah blah. I've worked there for almost a year and I thought that it might be fun (and helpful) to tell you some of my tips and tricks on how to cope with a job in retail...it's harder than you might think..xD

1. First of all, one major part of working in retail is the customers. As nasty or annoy as they can be, they are ultimately the ones who pay your wages. Sometimes it can be very hard to smile when you've been treated like a piece of dirt by a customer but it is kinda necessary, kinda. Personally, if a customer is rude to me or whatever I will still be polite but I will get revenge in other ways. For example insufficiently packing their clothes etc.  (I'm such a rebel, I know..)
However not ALL customers are grumpy! Some of them are very very lovely and will chat and be understanding if you have to call a supervisor or whatever. To survive in retail, I would say that it is very important to thrive off of these people because if you focus on the negatives the day will seriously drag!
Another important thing to remember with customers is that they are the same as you. They have problems and sometimes they may be having an awful day and it then becomes your opportunity to either try and make them laugh or be as helpful or quick at serving them as you can be so that they can get back home to eat ice cream and binge watch Netflix.
Moving swiftly on...

2. Another pretty damn big part of working in all jobs really is your colleagues. The best advice for this one is just try and get on with them. It will make your life 1000000000x easier, okay so that might be a bit of an exaggeration..
But basically, you're going to be spending extended periods of time with these people, it will be much more enjoyable if you're not hating each other. Of course there seems to ALWAYS be that one person who you just can't get along with but don't make it your life mission to annoy them because you can bet that they'll get revenge or karma will kick your butt.
Whilst there will always be people who you don't get on with there will always be people who make you laugh and you get on really well with:) One of the main perks of working in a big retail store is that there are lots of different people who I probably wouldn't have met if I didn't start work there and now they've become some of my good friends who I know would stick up for me and my job. They also make the rubbish days a bit more fun and interesting:P

3. This point also relates to the colleague thingy and that is avoid gossipping. When you work with other people who you may not necessarily know very well or at all it is very easy to hear an opinion of someone and then have that singular perspective of them. Anyway back to the point, gossipping just makes working harder to be honest. When rumours start, cliques are created and this can have pretty shitty results . At my job, I've known people be reported to the boss for something that was a total rumour however it led to them losing their job so yeah. Personally, I just stay out of the firing line as much as possible!

4. The final point relates more to your mental (or even physical if you've been stood up for like 7 hours straight) well being. It's important to remember that it's absolutely OK to have a break. Retail working can be incredibly stressful believe it or not. Sometimes when you've got a never-ending queue, grumpy customers or maybe your low on change - it can be tough. Minutes being to feel like hours and if you're unhappy then you will not enjoy your job. So it's alright to take a day off now and then to chill or maybe grab a drink of water if you need it.
Just remember that you are alot stronger than you think but at the end of the day what's more important.. Your mental and physical health? Or reaching the stores budget?!


Anyway there's just a few tips that I've learnt over these last few months, I'm sorry that I haven't been very active recently, but there will be more posts to come!
Hope that you're having a lovely summer, adios x

Vanishing cream - Lush review

 Hello, so here is the first of many Lush reviews of some of the products that I picked up in my recent visit to the Oxford street Lush. Click here to read the explanation and story behind the whole Lush thing...:)
One product which I picked up in Lush was 'Vanishing Cream'.
It costs £18.75 per 45g which definitely isn't the cheapest for a facial moisturiser but this product is pretty damn good.

Some of the key ingredients are; rose water, lavender, honey, jojoba oil and fair trade Shea butter and yeah.

Some good points about this moisturiser is that it is AMAZING
underneath make up! It literally 'vanishes' into your skin and makes it super smooth and perfect for makeup application.

It feels like its doing good to your skin and it smells lovely of course!

However the only problem with this product would be that for me, after wearing it for a couple of days/nights my pores get badly clogged up. This is a problem which I've experienced with many moisturiser but I particularly notice it with this one.

Overall it is a lovely product and it lasts a long time because a little goes a long way. However I would probably not re-purchase this product due to the price but as an occasional treat it is lovely!

The lovely Lush company.

Hello, this post is going to be very different to my previous - just a warning! I felt like doing something a bit different and more relaxed I guess you could say:)

Okay so a couple of days ago it was my birthday (yay!) and as one of my presents, I decided to go on a shopping spree to London. Specifically I wanted to visit Oxford Street and Westfield and I am so incredibly lucky to have the chance to visit these places and have such an amazing time there too!

In this post I would like to talk about Lush and the products that I bought there.
First of all, I was very excited to go into Lush on Oxford Street, not only because it has 3 fantastic floors, but because I knew that Rebecca Brown (known as Beckie0 on youtube etc), worked there.

Beckie0 and I:)

For those of you who don't know who she is, Rebecca is a very inspirational Youtuber, blogger, twitterer and all other social media star. She is very open and I find watching her videos really interesting because she is so raw and honest, in a good way. For many years, I've watched her videos and was so hoping that I might get to meet her in Lush.

It turns out that this birthday was one of the best I've ever had! So she wasn't there when I arrived at the store but I plucked up the courage and asked a member of staff of her whereabouts. Turns out she was going to be arriving at 2 and they organised for me to have a personal tour of the entire store!!!

2pm finally arrived and so did Beckie0! I had an absolutely amazing personal tour of the shop and I learnt so much from that visit! There is honestly so much more behind every product than you can possibly see at first glance.

We also had the chance to go into the photo booth (I will insert a photograph of course!) and she even gave me a free eyeliner as her 'Random Act of Kindness' for the day.

I had an absolutely amazing birthday thanks to her and the wonderful Lush company!!
Rebecca Brown is a very very lovely person who is so very true to her online persona and wow, I was blown away by her patience to show me around and letting me try so many products!

So yeah, basically I had a brilliant birthday and ended up spending almost £100 in Lush that day...ooooops...
Anyway I wanted to tell this story to say how lovely the Lush company are and they are very ethical. I know that it's definitely not the cheapest but you do get what you pay for in that shop!

I'm planning on reviewing many of the Lush products which I purchased that day and from other times so yeah, watch out for those ones if you like Lush products/want to know more about them!

But to my humble followers here on Google+,  I am still planning to keep up with the kind of posts which I've written so far as I understand that beauty reviews are not for everyone! I just want to try something a bit different:)

Thank you very much for reading and thanks again to Rebecca Brown and Lush in Oxford Street! And of course to my lovely parents who took me shopping that day:)

xx

Scary University decisions

For those of you who don't already know I currently attend Sixth form and will soon have to begin applying to University..but this really isn't as easy as it seems, at least in my head it isn't.
Everybody seems to say a different thing about University depending on their perspective.

Sixth form says 'go go go' - because of statistics and their reputation, they don't actually seem to care too much about the individual apparently...
Graduates either do exactly what they want and get the job they wanted or they end up doing a job completely unrelated to their degree which could potentially be seen as a waste of £30,000..
My parents personally try to stay objective and just want me to be happy I think but there is always that pressure to do well of course because I want to make my parents proud which is pretty normal I think.
Friends say no, its a waste of time, you'll have to make all new friends if you go to University and move away and lets not forget about the dept.
Other people just say that you should go to University if you know exactly what job you want to have etc but who really truly knows EXACTLY what job they can get which will satisfy them for their whole entire lives, of course there are some exceptions but I'm definitely not one of them.

So at the moment, deciding on whether I should even attend University is very very blurry. Personally, I'm a very undecided, easily influenced person who can change their life goals in a split second making the choice even harder.

Then there's the part of choosing a course and a place to go to and where to live and ahhhh so much to think about. It just all seems crazy and scary because making the wrong decision here could really negatively impact what happens in the future from my perspective.

Some people would say that an apprenticeship or a different alternative to university is a better option but then you hear the statistics such as ' Graduates Earn £200,000 more than those without a degree'. ( http://www.graduates.co.uk/the-graduate-premium/) Yeah, I'm just a little bit stuck and confused right now I guess :(

So please if you have an opinion or any suggestions on how I can make the right decision for me, I would love to hear about it!! Or maybe you're going through the same problems as me, let me know and we can discuss!

At the end of the day, I find security in thinking that whatever happens, will happen for a reason. 
For example If I completely fail my a-levels, then maybe I was never meant to go to uni but something else will crop up.
(This will also help me cope on results day haha..)

Thank you for reading! Please check out my other posts if you enjoyed this one and please feel free to comment or send me a message.

You're the only one who will be there forever.

First of all I want to say sorry for the lack of posts and activity here recently. I've finished my exams for this year and to be honest, I've just been having a little break from all social media and the internet etc.
But also I wanted to say that whilst I want to update this blog as much as possible, I really only want to write good quality material. Therefore I will write when something has motivated me or something has inspired me to go on a rant or whatever. Basically, I'm trying to focus on quality over quantity.
So yeah that explains my absence and now lets get on to this post!

This one was inspired by what someone said to me the other day. They said that I should 'stand up for myself'. I shouldn't let everyone get what they want and use me for what they want.

That may seem really obvious. I mean, why would you let someone treat you like shit if it's going to make you miserable?! It's totally counter-productive but sometimes you simply can't help it.

Personally, I grew up as quite a shy child. I would never put my hand up in class, or share my opinion because at the end of the day who really cares. This meant that if someone was nice to me or tried to be my friend I would welcome them therefore I would do what they want, let them treat me how they want etc.

But now I've kind of realized that you can never please everybody. Whatever you do or say will irritate someone so at the end of the day you might as well do whatever makes you happy. The number of friends you have may determine your popularity but it can't determine your happiness.

This can be really hard when it links to someone who you love very dearly, for example your closest friends. However, who's going to be around forever? Just you. Technically, no body apart from yourself will be present for the whole duration of your life. I'm talking about all the bad times and good times, all those secrets that you've locked up deep inside, at the end of the day you are the only person who will be there for all of it.

I guess what I'm trying to say is focus on making yourself happy. This might sound very selfish, and I'm not encouraging anybody to purposefully hurt other people, but you can't live to make someone else happy if you're not happy yourself.

Thank you very much for reading even if it was a shorter one this time! Please check out some of my other posts and don't forget that you can sign up to get email updates whenever there is a new update on this blog! Thanks again, have a nice day :-)