Tuesday 30 August 2016

First Impressions Product Review: Sleek

Happy Tuesday everyone!

 Today I have a different kind of post and one that I haven't done before. I picked up this Sleek i-Divine eye shadow palette in Vintage Romance this weekend and I fell in love. I think these colors are the perfect shades to transition from Summer to Fall. It consists mostly of bronze and purples which are two of my favorites to use. 

The palette has mostly shimmer and glittery shades with the exception of only one matte shade out of 12 which is one of the only downfalls of this item. Let's see what this beauty has to offer:







Pretty in Paris- shimmer shade


Meet in Madrid- shimmer shade


Court in Cannes- shimmer shade




Lust in LA- shimmer shade




Romance in Rome- shimmer shade




Propose in Prague- matte shade




A Vow in Venice- shimmer shade




Marry in Monte Carlo- shimmer shade




Honeymoon in Hollywood- glitter shade




Bliss in Barcelona- shimmer shade




Forever in Florence- glitter shade




Love in London- glitter shade



Left to right: Pretty in Paris, Meet in Madrid, Court in Cannes, Lust in LA, Romance in Rome, Propose in Prague



Top to Bottom: Love in London, Forever in Florence, Bliss in Barcelona, Honeymoon in Hollywood, Marry in Monte Carlo, A Vow in Venice



Another angle of the above


Overall, I would totally recommend this product and brand. It's my first time using Sleek and for a drugstore brand it's very high quality for the price point. It's a product that with just one application will get you plenty of color payoff and can be buildable to get a more intense look. Let me know in the comments if you have ever tried anything from the Sleek line before!

Have a wonderful week!

Ashley

Saturday 27 August 2016

#GRLPOWR


Hi Everyone!

Recently, there has been a bunch of girls that came up with an idea of creating a Twitter community that's all about spreading positivity and girl power! Each one of these girls are so sweet and will all be taking part in hosting a chat as well! These #GRLPOWR chats will take place every Tuesday at 9PM and Thursday at 8 PM starting Tuesday August 30th! ALL DAY on Sundays you will also be able to take part in a discussion, whether its getting to know the girls, share your posts, or even have a chance of guest hosting your own #GRLPOWR chat!

Let's get on to the admin ladies shall we:






















Em ( @ohfab ) : ohfab.co.uk




Please show these girls some love on their blogs! 


** If you use the hashtag#GRLPOWR or simply mention @grlpowrchat for your blog posts to get retweeted and shared on Twitter and Instagram! I am excited to get the chance to talk with more of you out there! I will be hosting my first ever chat on Tuesday October 25th at 9 PM!! Can't wait to speak to you all soon!

Have a lovely weekend and remember 




Tuesday 23 August 2016

Day Trip to Canterbury, England


Hi Everyone! Hope you all are having a fab day on this gorgeous Tuesday! I wanted to create a post about a little day trip that my husband and I took earlier this year. I was researching the area where we live and was in the mood to explore a new place so I thought, why not Canterbury? I think people from England tend to take for granted the fact that they live so close to all of these gorgeous monuments, castles, etc and have never visited them before! Canterbury looked like such a pretty place to explore so here is what we got up to!


We went to go check out the Cathedral first and it was such an experience! I know it seems silly to say but it felt like such a holy and spiritual place it got me teary eyed. I loved everything about the cathedral from it's architecture to it's history. I'm not sure if it's always like this but after we bought our tickets to get in, the tickets remain valid for a whole year so if you visit again you get in for free! I think we'll be going again for sure. The cathedral has various prayer times throughout the day and in the crypt you could fill out your own prayer and have it be included in the daily prayer. I think this was such a cute idea! We weren't allowed to take any pictures down in the crypt unfortunately. I'm not sure why but when we went down there it really touched me on a spiritual level. 

Canterbury Cathedral









Next up, we had seen this place in Canterbury that did boat rides on a river that runs throughout the city (reminded me of Venice!) so it was something that we had to check out. Unfortunately, we visited in March and the boats weren't in operation yet. It was very lovely to walk alongside the river and there were places to stop and have some photo ops. The town is really so pretty just to walk around and look at the different shops. 












I hope you enjoyed seeing our little day trip to Canterbury, England! It's only about an hour drive from me so it was such a cute place to visit. I would definitely recommend visiting this city if you haven't yet. I hope you take more time out and try to enjoy the cities and towns around you, because you never know what you'll find! 

Happy exploring!

Ashley



Saturday 20 August 2016

How to not be a doormat!

Hello everyone and happy Saturday to you all!


   For all of you nice and sweet people out there, I really wanted to talk about the importance of not being taken advantage of and different ways to not allow yourself to become a doormat. I consider myself to be a fairly nice and down to earth person (most of the time), but people can use my good nature to their advantage. Here are some things to remember: 





Rule #1~ Learn to say NO!  I still to this day have a hard time saying no for some reason because I like helping people out and am a hard worker. There comes a time when you realize that enough is enough and you just have to say no to something. At my old job, I would always be the one who would cover if someone was to call out for their shift. The extra money was nice, but I really wanted to have a life outside of work and eventually I just had enough of people relying on me all the time. It's nice to help out when you can, but learning to say no is also OK too!




Rule #2~ The apple doesn't fall far...... Sometimes family issues can arise due to someone being a good natured person. A member of my family needed  help financially and because I had a really good credit score at the time, I decided to help them out because it was family so why not? I would generally do anything for a family member but when it comes to finances it's best to let them figure it out on their own and fix their own mistakes. I learned my lesson in the end, but because I decided to help them, I now have a very poor credit score which will take years to build up again. Even though you may love your family, make sure whatever you're helping out with is the right decision for you.




Rule #3`Always look out for yourself! You are the one that's in control of your own life and no one else! Don't ever allow someone to pressure you or make you help out or do something that you don't want to do. For example, I was working somewhere once and on the phone the person told me what they expected from me and when I started working for them, the hours had changed and they told me a different story. Even companies and different workplaces will use their employees to their advantage. Most of them only care about the money and not about the employees. I believe the more that a company values who works for them, it's more beneficial for that company in the end. 




Rule #4~ Learn when to go out of your way to help! Of course there are times when it's a great idea to say yes and be helpful to someone. You can usually tell when people APPRECIATE what you do for them, and it's those people that you should want to help out when necessary. The ones that expect things to be done for them are the ones you have to be cautious for. I'm always super thankful for the people that help me out in times of need and I would do anything in return, well almost anything! 




Rule #5~ Are they really your friend? Friends can even take advantage of you as well, that's if they truly are your friend. Obviously a true friendship is wonderful but you can pick apart the kind of people that take advantage quite easily. They might use you to benefit themselves in certain ways whether it's always asking for things or only doing things when it suits them. I've known my best friend since the 4th grade and if she ever needed anything I wouldn't hesitate to help her out because I know she would do the same for me. If you know someone wouldn't return the favor to you then that person is most likely just there to use you and can't be bothered. Be careful not to be used even by those "friends."



I hope this post might be helpful to some of you out there. There's too many good people in the world that get taken advantage of on a daily basis and it's quite sad really. The older I get, the more aware I am of what's going on around me. I've learned that saying no is actually fun because I'm looking out for myself. If you have a story of someone that took advantage of you, I'd be interested on how you dealt with it!

Keep staying strong!

Ashley



Monday 15 August 2016

How To Live With Difficult People

Hello everyone and hope you are all having a great Monday so far!

   I wanted to do a different kind of post to try and give some tips on how to live with people you would rather not live with but have to! I'm sure this is a very relatable topic for most of you and it's something I'm experiencing at the moment. When I was in my early 20's I lived with my father because it was the most convenient option for me at the time (even though it was hard at times). I love my father, but we didn't see eye to eye a lot and it made living with him difficult sometimes. Obviously the older you get, you start wanting more privacy and independence so I then told myself it was time for me to get my own place, and I did! It was very hard because you then have rent money you have to come up with and other bills to pay, but I worked hard to have my independence and I loved having my own space without people telling me what to do. 





   Now that I'm married, both my husband and I are living with my mother in law to save up enough money for a place of our own and for me to become more established in this country. If you have seen the t.v. show Everybody Loves Raymond, my situation reminds me of Debra's  in laws who live across the street from them and is always coming over unannounced! Living with in laws is definitely not easy, especially because everyone wants their own space and privacy. Here are some tips I've picked up along the way:


  1. Keep your friends close and your enemies closer! Don't get me wrong, I'm pretty easy to get along with but everyone has their bad days. If you don't like someone and that person knows it, life will be a heck of a lot harder for the both of you. The atmosphere is weird and you can tell there's tension between the two of you so it's best to remain neutral and don't cause any problems. 
  2. Like Selena says, "Kill Em With Kindness!" This is something that I really need to work on but I think if someone is being totally rude try not to stoop to their level and just act as nice as can be. I know it's hard to make a conversation that doesn't start off so well end in a positive way. As long as your being kind about things and not holding any grudges then things will start to work out smoothly. I'm not saying that it's okay for someone to mistreat you in any way, just learn to be kind because after all, they are your in-laws and you are living together so why not keep the air clean?
  3. Different lifestyle habits: One thing that ANNOYS me with sharing the same space with other people is their disgusting habits. It does not help when your mother in law treats the bathroom like its a hamper that you put dirty laundry in! I love keeping things clean and organised (mostly) but there are some things that you'll have to learn to put up with. If my husband did this I would kill him but because it's his mother I don't say anything because it's her place too (but seriously?!) There is a light at the end of the tunnel and I know that we won't be living with my mother in law forever and that keeps me positive at the end of the day. Try to stay focused on yourself and ignore the fact that the other person is not as clean as you are. I find myself cleaning up a little after her, but DO NOT let them take advantage of you!
  4. Remain positive & hopeful! Being around people that are negative is very hard for me because I tend to be a pretty positive person in general. It's hard for me to be close to my mother in law because almost every conversation we have her past is brought up and nothing positive is said the entire time. If you can relate to this, I highly suggest to change the subject and make it more positive! It's hard when people live in the past and constantly bring it up because it already happened and it's not happening now unless you continue it. People forget that we live in the present and we need to think more about what's  happening right now and start thinking about the future and NOT the past.



So there you have it! I hope some of my advice will be able to help out some of you out there that may be going through a similar situation. I really feel for you and hang in there because you won't be living with that person for forever. Stay focused on yourself or you and your husband/wife and don't let the in laws get the best of you!

Good luck!

Ashley

Wednesday 10 August 2016

August Makeup Wishlist

Hello everyone!


Hope you all are enjoying this wonderful Wednesday. It's already the 10th of August and Summer will be over soon. I wanted to create a beauty wish list of items that I'm craving this month! Reading product reviews on some of these beauties has persuaded me just a bit more to cave in and purchase them Asap! I love finding both high end and drugstore products that are worth the hype and that ACTUALLY WORK! 


Chanel Vitalumiere Aqua foundation, £33.00

It is so hard to find the right foundation type and color that it seems like a never ending battle that is so hard to win. I have heard many people rave about this product and that the formulation is lovely. I know the price point is pretty high for a makeup product but you get what you pay for right? I have never owned anything from Chanel before, but this will definitely be the first item I'll be buying!


Urban Decay Naked 3 Palette £38.50

I am a proud owner of the Urban Decay Naked 2 palette so naturally I'm adding the Naked 3 palette to my wishlist! The quality of these shadows are wonderful and the you get great color payoff as well.   Getting 12 shadows for the price is a great deal too! It works out to about £3 for each when a single UD eye shadow goes for £14. Anyway, I'm SO needing this palette in my life because of the rose gold shades. I've had my older palette for about 3 years now so it's time to add this to my makeup collection.


Milani baked blush £7.49

It's always nice to have a really gorgeous blush in your makeup collection. I don't wear blush all the time, but it's a nice touch if I'm going somewhere special and adding a splash of color to my cheeks. This baked blushes by Milani are another beauty product that people rave about. Every time I would visit my local drugstore in the States, they would never have the most sought after shades in stock. I'm not sure if Milani products are sold in the UK or not, but if they are please let me know!  These blushes are perfect for a nice summertime glow or could be worn in the winter time as well! I'll definitely be purchasing a few of these online very soon!

Jo Malone perfume from £43.00

Jo Malone is a brand that I've always been interested in after seeing reviews from various Youtubers. The first thing that caught my eye were the candles, they have a very sophisticated look to them and I keep hearing how lovely the scents are. I didn't realize that they also sold perfumes and colognes as well. Anything that smells floraly or fruity is right up my alley and I really need a perfume because I have none at the moment! The next time I visit London I think I'll be making stop to the Jo Malone store to purchase this!

Tanya Burr birthday suit eye palette, £5.99

I wanted to include a few items that were not high end because you can still find some great finds at a lower price! Lately, I've been obsessed in finding Tanya Burr's newest collection in stores but I haven't had much luck because they're usually sold out. This little eye shadow quad is the cutest and I love the packaging. I've heard the pigmentation is good and you can use the colors for a day or night time look which is a plus! This palette includes a mix of matte, shimmer and glitter which makes it perfect! Can't wait to get my hands on this one.


Garnier Micellar Cleansing Water, £4.99

I'm so glad this micellar cleansing water came on the market because I've heard nothing but good things about it. I purchased an eye makeup remover recently that I don't like at all but I think this one from Garnier will definitely be replacing it! I will be picking up this product on my next shopping trip for sure!


Laura Mercier Illuminator, £32.00

Laura Mercier is another beauty brand which I have yet to try. This illuminator/highlight looks absolutely lovely and paired with the right bronzer will give a gorgeous summertime glow. I love that highlighters are multi purpose because you can use them as in inner corner eye shadow to make your eyes pop or even use them as an all over eye color. Any product that makes your face light up or have that glowy effect, I am all for!

Benefit Hoola Bronzer, £23.50

Last but definitely not least is the Benefit Hoola bronzer. Again, I have yet to try a product from Benefit (I know where have I been right?) Since I have fair skin, I hate when I put on a bronzer and its too dark so it looks like I put on dirt and this looks like the perfect shade! So many people rave about the blushes and bronzers from Benefit so why not give it a try? The right bronzer can be a wonderful way to show off your cheekbones. 



If you have tried any of these products, I would love to know your thoughts on them! When I'm able to purchase these, I will gladly do a review on them as well so I can be another form of persuasion for you all. It's always nice to have beauty products that you love using and are proud to have purchased. I can't purchase expensive things all the time, but I can dream right? I'd love to know what beauty items your craving to buy this month so please feel free to comment away! Thanks for reading!



Ashley