You Have One Life

'You've got one life to love what you do, if you even have to think about it, its not right for you!'
-The Script

I started off with a quote from an amazing band called the Script, their songs have so many great meanings behind them!

Recently I have had to make lots of decisions on what I want to do in the near future. A few times I have said no as it's too much work although, it would have been an amazing experience if I said yes. Sometimes you have to take a step back and think 'can I do all this' and I couldn't.

Recently I have sat in class and thought, I cant do this anymore, why did I choose this as a GCSE? I find it hard to cope with a fair few lessons. But then I remember, one day all this stress will be over, I will look back and think I'm glad I pushed through, it has all been worth it.

However, for some people they have chosen a certain path thinking it will be good, but then they have changed and want to move on, but don't have the courage to let go. Just remember, if you have to think about it, its not right for you, you have one life to love what you do.

Why live life doing something you don't love? Live life doing what you do love. From music to maths and photography to history. Its doesn't matter what you do as long as you love it!

Sorry it was a short post and if it was hard to understand. I sometimes find it hard to transfer things from my brain to writing (and sometimes speaking) when I am stressing over school and GCSE's. xx

Victoria. xx

Letting Go | Creativity

Life can be really overwhelming sometimes, whether that be school or life in general, we all have those days where we feel that we are about to loose it. I think thats absoulutely fine because we are all human and it happens to all of us. Sometimes it's important to realise that you need a break, however that can be easier said than done. Personally, one of my biggest passions is photography and for some reason I find it extremely theraputic and satisfying, but for some of you it may be that you find reading or writing mentally relaxing. Of course I'm not saying that as soon as I feel as if I'm about to loose it I reach for my camera and start snapping shots, but when I do have my camera with me, I see every angle in a different light. Most of the time without me realising, I forget about everything that might be stressing me out at the time and I focus on all the little things surrounding me, in this case it was nature. Creativity can be such a great outlet for stress, where you can escape and dive into your own world, leaving your thoughts behind. Another thing I love about taking photos is being able to look back on them and as I said before, I find it satisfying to look back on memories, even if they were only made the other day.

With that being said, I just wanted to share with you some of my creative-ish shots I took whilst on a family outing to Petworth. As you scroll down, you will probably be wondering why there are pictures of trains that look way too old to old to still be functioning! It's because they have been transformed from trains into cute, little rooms to stay in! Inside is very vintage looking and extremely
Downton Abbey-esk, as you can see from the old wooden furniture below!

Ellie x

Mental Detox | Being You

Recently, I've noticed how much is expected of teens and how high the standards are for most of us nowadays. I have also realised how much we compare ourselves to others in general, but more so on social networking sites like Instagram.

I have quite high goals for myself at school, in exams and for my appearance; the way I dress and look when I leave the house. I feel everything that used to be 'fun' isn't so 'fun' anymore, because everyone is so competitive with the things they own and the things they get to do. One of my main hobbies is beauty and I've always loved pottering around pampering myself, whether that be trying out a new face mask, having a bath, or just simply painting my nails! However, I feel this particularly for teenage girls, has become a competition in itself. Of course its good to set yourself goals but they need to be realistic, otherwise we compare ourselves to others and that slowly progresses to be a habit.

What you need to know is whats plastered all over the media is not always true and the majority of what you see is manipulated. Your skin, body shape, exam results and appearance does not define who you are, so don't let it. Just know, that you don't need to change yourself for anyone else or even to fit in with another group of people because then your striving for a certain 'perfect' thats impossible to find. If the media was right, that 'perfect' would be unreachable for everyone because out of the 7 billion people living on earth, not one of us is the same. You were born an original so don't die a copy, follow your footsteps and pursue your dreams because you want them, not because it's what everyone else thrives for.

"Quiet people have the loudest minds" - Stephen Hawking

Ellie x

P.S. If you have enjoyed reading this slightly different post, we are considering making this into a series where there is a different topic each month, so let us know what you think!

My Dressing Table Tour!

Hello everyone! 

This is a type of blog post that I particularly enjoy to read and so I thought I would recreate it myself! Recently, I've been moving things around in my room, especially on my dressing table and I think I'm finally happy with it! 

Lets delve inside...

So this is sort of an overview of my dressing table, with a snippet of my desk on the left. I think my dressing table is a 'one of a kind' or at least unavailable to purchase anymore, however, I do particularly love the hemnes dressing table from ikea... I guess they are more or less the same thing!

To the left of my dressing table is a pandora bag for decoration purposes; I thought it looked rather cute just sitting there! Next up, is a lantern from Hobbiecraft! I did get this quite a while ago, although I have see VERY similar ones in home base and B&Q that are reasonably cheap. Beside that, I keep a rustic, wooden heart box, containing most of my current favourite rings in it! I got this for Christmas recently but it is from B&M, retailing for about £3.99.

In the centre, is my beloved Urban Decay Naked 2 palette which was gifted to me for Christmas and I love it to pieces! These are quite pricey and I believe they have just upped the price to £38! However, if you are in need or fancy a palette that has every neutral, matte and shimmery colour you could ever ask for, Urban Decay have got your back! I highly recommend this and not just because of its brand name, the pigmentation is insanely good and the colours have great staying power without using a primer!

Moving on the right side of my dressing table I keep an old jar containing my everyday makeup brushes which I love to death! They are mostly from Real Techniques, which can be a little pricey with their new bold metals collection, however they are so worth the money as they have not lost any of their bristles after a year of use! They are also incredibly soft and can be bought in sets instead of buying single brushes which are around £8 per one. I also keep my current makeup bag here, which was handmade by a friend of my mums, along with a photo frame of me and my dad.

In the first draw I keep most of my makeup as some of it is in sets or scattered around in other random makeup bags! Some of my favourite makeup products are my Rimmel stay matte powder, Benefit roller lash mascara, and Loreal Julianna's nude lipstick! I highly recommend them all!

Ellie x

Summer Smoothie

Summer is on its way!!!!

Summer fruits are slowly getting into season and becoming slightly cheaper, the quality and packet sizes are getting better. So there's every reason to make a healthy smoothie. ( or my version which is a smidge less healthy but so much nicer if you want the full summer taste. soon you will see why.)

You will need:

Summer fruits of your choice (as not everyone will like what I put in mine.)

A glass

Smoothie maker --- or hand blender. Put a tea towel over the top so it doesn't splash when blending.

Lemonade

A knife

Cut all you fruit up small, put it into the blender, blend without any lemonade at first, now add the tiniest amount of lemonade and blend. Add a little more then bled. keep on repeating until it gets to the consistency you desire.

Finally pour it into you glass. I find it so cute to add a strawberry onto the glass, to give that summer feel. 

Sit back and relax in the beautiful beaming sun and drink your special smoothie. 

My smoothie:

I used 1/4 of a mango, 3 strawberries and a handful of grapes. It sounds strange that I used grapes, but it makes it look much prettier and taste even more mouth-watering. I ended up using Indian tonic water, as I had no lemonade left . The great thing about smoothies is you can use what ever you have left in the cupboard. The colour of my smoothie personally I think is beautiful. Also it tasted amazing. !!!!!

I hoped you liked this post.
Victoria xx

How To Style: Midi Rings

Midi rings have become a bigger trend recently, after they were spotted on many edgy stars such as Rihanna and seeing as one of our recent posts is a ring review, I thought I would share with you the different ways I like to style them!

Obviously how you choose to wear them is completely up to you, but if you need some help or inspiration, carry on reading! There are a few rules I like to follow when styling midi rings with outfits to make sure I don't look too overdone.

The first rule I like to follow is to not over-think it, as the style seems to look more relaxed and 'thrown on'. What I mean by this is to not make it look symmetrical, where more or less the same type of rings are on both hands on the same fingers. This way it looks more casual and is not as much of a focus point if that makes sense. 

The second rule I think is crucial is not to wear them alone, as unlike other accessories I think midi rings look their nicest when they are paired with more jewellery, along with more rings on the same hand. In most of the images below, I pair smaller rings with larger, statement rings to create a varied look I suppose!

The third, make them stand out! Of course its important to not overdo it at this stage, however midi rings shouldn't go unnoticed! This could be by wearing one bold ring with a design to it, perhaps one with a word on it or a bird of some sort; whatever floats your boat! The only thing with opting for a 'blinged-out' midi ring is that it may look a bit overpowering when paired with another piece of hand jewellery but if your feeling brave, GO FOR IT! Also, another way to make rings stand out is to vary the height of them on your fingers, as you will see from the images below, this is one of my favourite things to do with midi rings!

The last rule I follow when styling out midi rings is to make sure their metallic! This might sound bizarre seeing as most shops sell metallic midi rings anyway, however some are plastic and to sustain that feeling of quality I prefer to stick to gold and silver. Not to say I dislike the pastel designs as I think they would look quite 'tumblr-esk' in the summertime, I just feel metallic rings give off more of a classy or expensive look when dressing up an outfit. 

Now I will share with you some of the ways I like to style midi rings on an everyday basis... 

Unfortunately, I didn't have enough hands to focus the camera and take the picture whilst modelling the rings so just the left hand shots will have to do! Normally, I will thrown on a statement ring on the other hand if I'm not wearing one already and pair it with a smaller ring with a different height! 

Simple Style:

                                                                                            

Rings from left to right: 

Plain crinkle ring - New Look

Arrow ring - Primark

Rings from left to right: 

Plain crinkle ring - New Look

Frosted diamond ring - New look

Rings from left to right:

Plain crinkle ring - New Look

Opal gem with studded frame - New Look

Slightly More 'Done up': 

Rings from left to right:

Simple diamond ring - Primark
Daisy chain ring - Primark
Arrow ring - Primark

Rings from left to right:

Arrow ring - Primark

Daisy chain ring - Primark

Crinkle ring - New look

Rings from left to right:

Crinkle ring x2 - New Look
Marbled gem with studded frame - New Look

My kind of brave:

Rings from left to right:

Plain gold ring - New Look
Dusk pink diamond ring - New Look 
Dusk pink and white lily flower ring - New Look 

I hope this gave you some inspiration or help with styling midi rings ready for the summertime! 

Ellie x

Setting Up For Spring!

Superdrug currently has a mix and match 3 for 2 offer and so I decided to pick up some new lip colours for the spring time! 

First up, is probably my favourite purchase of them all! A Revlon colourburst matte balm in the shade 245 Audacious! I've been wanting a really lovely coral lip colour for what seems like forever and I swatched this in superdrug and loved it! It has a matte finish, however it seems to be incredibly creamy with great pigmentation! They are quite pricey for what they are, retailing at £7.99.

Another thing thats been trending lately is the 'oh so raved about' MAC lipstick in Velvet Teddy! This is a Rimmel Kate Moss lipstick in the shade 03, a beautiful muted pinky mauve colour and a great dupe for Velvet Teddy! From the previous Kate Moss swatches I've done, the pigmentation is so good, unbelievable for it's cheap price of £5.49. These have been raved about for their great staying power too; a must-have for spring!

Next, is a Maybelline Baby Lips in Pink Punch! These are really light and moisturising and give the smallest hint of colour, lovely when your going for a subtle look or just want to throw on more than vaseline! This looks like a neon shade but sort of wears as a nice baby pink colour, which I quite like.

This is a purchase made purely on other people's recommendations and as it was only £2.99 I thought I would give it a go! It's in the shade 3 fairy cake and claims to have a velvety finish to it. Again, this has a great pigmentation, better than any lipgloss I've tried before and is probably more of a liquid lipstick, with hint of coral in it. Its quite a creamy formula - hence the name! And seems to be very moisturising on the lips! From the packaging it looks like more of a pink shade, which it is, however it is build-able to make the perfect coral shade I was after. I would recommend applying a lip balm before this as it has a matte look to it and may cling to dry patches. If your on a budget and want something thats more than just a plain lip gloss...this ones for you! 

OH MY GLOSS! I believe this is a new lipgloss launch from Rimmel, claiming to have a staying power of up to 6hrs! I swatched this in Superdrug and again this has a really nice pigmentation to it and looked lovely over the top of the Rimmel Kate Moss lipstick in 03! This is in the shade 150 Glossaholic and could be worn on it's own as it has a really nice sheen to it, with a hint of colour and is sort of a classic Kylie Jenner nude.

I won't go into too much detail about the Rimmel wake me up concealer because it has been raved about way too much and you have probably heard it all before, however, if you are looking to cover spots this might not be the one for you as it has an anti fatigue affect, which is good for highlighting under your eyes and around your face. The anti fatigue affect would highlight and make your spots stand out if you were to use it for that, as it contains a slight shimmer! Other than that it seems to be a nice, light and creamy consistency and many people love it!

Lastly, because I had spent my money on three items on the 3 for 2 offer, I got a free cosmetics bag! It's a nice little size for daily essentials or even as a pencil case for school. If you want one, hurry to Superdrug before you miss the offer!

The main gripe I had about these products is the difficulty in getting the security tags off of them. It sounds silly, I know, but It was such a pain to get them off when they left a horrible sticky residue on the products - not impressed! Apart from that, I hope this gave you some beauty inspiration for spring/summer and sorry this was such a long post!


Ellie x

H&M Ring Review

Hey!!! This post will be a H&M's ring review.

I have been looking out for some new rings for a few months now, but I wasn't prepared to pay like £8 for one ring. I was out shopping for my sister as she has grown out of all her clothes, we went into H&M. I thought I would take a look in the ring section and try my luck to find some rings and I found what I was looking for. I bought two packets of rings. I find them so beautiful and their prices were great.

H&M's prices for what you get is really reasonable (most of the time). Not only do I love their clothing ranges, I have now fallen in love with their rings. I've never really brought rings from there before, but so far I am liking their rings.














This packet of rings were £1.99 I think they have priced them well as they are really thin, as long as you treat them carefully I doubt they will snap. The packet has a range of similar rings. Some have pearls on some don't. There are small ones for the tops of your fingers and bigger ones for the bottom of your fingers. (There is an image at the top of the blog, that will show what I mean).















This packet of rings were £2.99 It costs more than the other packet, this is because the rings are thicker and there is more detail on them. All the rings in this packet are the same size. Personally, my favourite one in this packet is what I call the pearl in the basket. (only way to describe it). the ring at the top of the pile in the photo.

The only down side to these rings is that the gold starts to rub off sooner then I would've thought. I suppose that happens to most fake gold rings, but not as soon as mine have done. (maybe that's why they are cheaper than other places). other than that I highly recommend them. They look so stylish and you don't have to dig deep into your purse to purchase them.

Victoria x

P.S if you have any comments or questions about any of mine and Ellie's posts please feel free to comment. x

Hello!

We are useless when it comes to makeup, fashion and beauty but somehow we manage to get through it in the end.

This is a space where makeup is a treat and beauty is a hobby. If you are reading this, you will understand the large impact the media has on us as teenagers and no one should feel pressured into being someone their not. Yes, this is a blog about beauty tips and makeup for those of you who feel you need it, however, it is not here to force you into hiding yourself behind the cosmetic world. 

As teenagers, we are influenced more to try to fit in with the older crowd and many of us tend to enjoy watching beauty videos on YouTube, most of which we have an attempt at ourselves. What we forget is that these videos are not specifically targeted towards our age group and this can sometimes cause us to feel down about ourselves and try and hide our true identity. 

Being the busy people we are, with school and homework to do, we will not be uploading on a schedule and will most likely be posting separately at random times, so just stay tuned. 

We are not contradicting what we are saying but these blogs are good for the times you want to treat yourself when your going someplace nice and you need trusty tips and helpful products! 

Ellie & Victoria