2015

2015

We're now a month into 2015 and for me, so far, it has been great. 

I have performed in my first pantomime, met friends I hadn't seen since secondary school (5 years), I've read 2 books in the last 2 weeks, for me that's good because I'm a slow reader, I managed to go to London to see the Christmas lights and the best part of January is that I passed my driving test first time. 

There are so many more things for me to look forward to this year, I'm going to see Olly Murs a week before my birthday, S club 7 a week after, my 21st birthday, I'm going to see Matilda the musical some when and hopefully I'll be going to Disneyland Paris with my best friend (it will also be my first holiday with friends). Obviously a lot more exciting/spontaneous things will happen during the year. 

"The best memories are usually unplanned and spontaneous"

I've decided to write this more positive blog post because so many people are negative about their years. The more I see the things people write about on Facebook, especially around New Year's Eve, about that year, the more I start to realise that we should all focus on the positive things we have done during the year, all the fun times we've had with friends and family. Obviously your year isn't going to be perfect, no one has a perfect life, but thinking back on all the fun things you did is a lot more fun than picking out all the negative things or the things you didn't do during that year. You have your whole life to do them so don't panic :) 

Personally I really enjoyed 2014 and did a lot. I went to so many concerts, went to the theatre, saw Les Miserablés (which is so good), I saw Wicked, Miranda Hart, I went to the cinema with friends, went to Ascot races, games evenings, ice skating with the girls from panto and then with my sister and so much more. Although there were a few negatives, more toward the end of the year, the positives definitely outweighed them. I've saved all the tickets from concerts or from the cinema etc so I can look back at them  and remember what I've done. 

I sometimes feel that people want to be miserable or feel bad about themselves, that's why they pick all the bad things that have happened. To be honest on New Year's Eve I just felt really deflated and I have no idea why, the last couple of years we've gone out and this year we decided to stay at home with our friends. 

I also think it was probably because I had such a fun Christmas with so many people around and the house if full of people, laughter and joy that when they all go it's so quiet and you're not too sure what to do. I was on Facebook and saw so many people saying how crap their year had been, it made me think of all the positive things I had done and I instantly felt so much better. 

Basically what I'm trying to say is that even if you don't think you've had a great year try and think about your favourite thing you've done, don't worry if you can't think of many at first because I guarantee when you do start, all through the day you'll remember more things, you can get your family involved and see what their favourite thing was about the previous year, it always nice to hear other people's favourite things.

Also think of the exciting things you have planned for the year, it doesn't matter when, whether it's for tomorrow or December it's nice to have something to look forward to or if you haven't got anything planned maybe plan something, it doesn't have to be expensive or extravagant it could just be a movie night with friends. The simplest things sometimes turn out to be the best.

I hope you enjoyed this and it made you think about all the stuff you've done, it certainly made me smile about last year and got me excited for this year. I'm looking forward to reading this back and remembering what I did. 

Leave a comment with your favourite thing you did or are going to do :)

Immy x

Benefit They're Real Mascara

I'm always a bit sceptical when it comes to mascaras that claim they enhance your lashes up to 10X and then when they have a before and after I just think it's been photoshopped or they're fake! So when Benefit brought out their 'They're Real' Mascara I wasn't bothered by it and when I saw the price I was just put off, the mascara is £19.50 and it was when I was starting to feel more confident about wearing make up so obviously didn't want to spend that much on a mascara.
Benefit claim that this mascara Lengthens, curls, volumizes, lifts and separates lashes, which is a lot for one product to do and for them to claim it does.

So when I saw a magazine, that cost £2, had it as a freebie I thought I would get it, it was the '4.0g Net wt. 0.14 oz' which is the smaller size, I don't know if you can buy the smaller size anywhere.

So when I got home I was really excited to see whether it really did do what it said it does. I was really pleased with the results because it really does separate, lift and curl your lashes. My lashes didn't go clumpy, the mascara stayed on for ages, where as some slips down under your eyes. I don't have really long eyelashes but when I wear this mascara my eyelashes just look so much longer and separated and fanned out. I think it looks like I'm wearing really natural looking fake lashes.  
I did find it hard to get the right look and get my lashes perfect but after I had mastered that it was easy, but I find its like that with every mascara, you have to get the right technique to get the perfect lashes. 

The only thing I don't like is the brush, which is stupid because its the main part, but the bristles are really long (obviously, so the lashes separate) but I managed to keep poking my eyes if I got too close to my lash line. 

The wand brush is a bit scary when you first look at it, because the bristles are much longer than other mascara wands, but thats so that you can get the perfect lashes, which I think I do get with this product. 

I have now run out, which I'm really upset about, but I have kept it because I will use my everyday mascara and then use the Benefit They're Real wand to separate my lashes.
This is definitely a 'splurge' product but 100% worth it.
You can get They're Real Mascara from most places, here are a couple of links 
http://www.benefitcosmetics.co.uk/product/view/theyre-real

http://www.debenhams.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/prod_10701_10001_123901000399_-1

http://www.feelunique.com/p/Benefit-Theyre-Real-Beyond-Mascara-8-5g?q=benefit





A mascara I find almost as good but a lot cheaper,  is the 'Collection No Clumps'- This mascara is really good if you don't pile it on, I use this first and then my everyday mascara to build up, but only when its dried because if you're lashes clump up the bristles aren't long enough to separate your lashes. The bristles on this wand brush aren't as long but they still work and for £2.99 you can't go wrong really. I would definitely recommend this even if you weren't on a budget! 
You can get this from any drugstore that sells Collection Make up :) 

 http://www.superdrug.com/eye-make-up/collection-no-clumps-mascara-black/invt/713759&bklist=


Anyway I hope this helped you and you enjoyed it, please follow me or share this with friends and leave comments because it would be lovely to see if anyone reads my blog:) 

Thank you
Immy xx

Superdrug Haul

Hello, I have a little 'Haul' for you today,

I went into town to send some clothes back which meant I had to go to the post office -Great Story Bro! 

But since I was in town I had to go into superdrug and I was pleasantly surprised with their deals on their hair products. 

I came out with 3 things, 2 herbal essence's shampoo and conditioner and a herbal essence's leave in conditioner. Herbal essence's is my favourite hair product, its not too expensive but I think that it feels like a high end product!

The shampoo and conditioner are from the 'Hello hydration' range and the leave in conditioner is from the 'Bee Strong' range. All of the herbal essence's products are better than half price right now in superdrug, which is amazing!! 

Both of these products are normally £3.79, which is still very affordable but in the sale they were both £1.86 Bargain I think!

I then picked up this, the leave in intense cream for £1.96, when normally its £3.99! Im really pleased with these bargains because recently I don't feel like my shampoo and conditioner is really hydrating my hair and I just felt like it needed something different to try and make my hair feel less dry.

Herbal Essence has been a favourite hair product of mine for such a long time, it really does what it says it does as well as makes your hair feel hydrated and looks shiny and healthy, even the ones that don't say they're for hydrating your hair etc, they still do. Also they smell really good.

Anyway I hope you find some products you like in the half price sale!

Im sorry if it doesn't seem like a very good 'haul' but I've never done one and Im just sort of working out what I find easiest to write about etc :) 

Thanks for reading 

Immy x

Homemade christmas gift ideas for the family.

Hello, so because its been christmas I have decided to do a post about the homemade christmas gifts I made for my family members, I always find it easy to buy gifts/presents for my parents but when it comes to the grandparents I never know what to get and I don't want to get things that they don't really need, so this year I decided I would make something for them.

I decided to make Mince pies, Chocolate Truffles, apricots dipped in chocolate and some ginger bread christmas shapes, when I made them all I put them into jars lined with fabric. I thought this was going to be really simple and there would be loads of time to do it all but I didn't really think about timings and that I had to do a load of other stuff during the day.

I found the recipes I used on the internet so will post the links below :)  

Truffles- I actually used the recipe from the Green and Blacks chocolate recipes book but found the recipe here   http://www.organicukfood.com/recipes/detail/micahs-truffles/120 

Chocolate dipped apricots- So I didn't have a recipe for these but they where pretty straight forward. I actually saved some of the cream and chocolate mixture from the truffles recipe, I literally just covered one half of the apricots in the mixture and let it cool in the fridge. I must add that the mixture wasn't really runny as I had let it cool for a bit in the fridge, also when I put them in the fridge one side of the chocolate stuck to the plate and came off when I took the apricots off of the plate.

Mince pies- For the mince pies I had a jar of mince so used that, because I was being lazy haha, and then for the pastry I bought it, also to save time as I didn't have much time left, but I used the just roll short crust pastry, I then cut out the size I wanted for them and filled it with the mince then cut out different christmas shapes for the top and then 'painted' milk over the top then put them in the oven for about 10 to 15 minutes on a 180 degree heat, once they were cooked and cooled I sprinkled a little bit of icing sugar over them :) 

Ginger Bread- I used the ginger bread recipe from the bbc food website

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/1300638/gingerbread-men

I didn't have ginger bread men cutters so used christmas trees and snowmen cutters that I had. 

I didn't manage to a photo of the finished product, with the jars, but these are what the 'treats' looked like. Also Im sorry my presentation isn't the best, but it should give you an idea as to what they looked like :) 

I hope you enjoyed this post, I would've posted this earlier but I was really busy over christmas! Also these don't need to be just christmas presents you can make them for birthdays, easter etc :) 

Thanks for reading, 

Immy xx

Review: Batiste Dry Shampoo

Hello,  so I'm going to  do a review on Batiste dry shampoo as I've started to use it a lot more recently because Im trying to grow my hair :) 

I went shopping a couple of weeks ago and went past some people handing out free miniature bottles of dry shampoo so, me being me went to get some because I love anything thats free and actually useful. 

I love dry shampoo, its so useful for when you're having a lazy day or second day hair that doesn't feel too nice. Im trying to embrace second day hair a lot more now a days as I want to grow my hair and washing it too much is bad for your hair, I don't know if this is as bad as shampoo but when I use it, it does feel like I washed my hair and leaves it looking refreshed and matte, not so greasy/dirty, I also feel a lot more confident where as when I haven't used it I feel like I need to wear a hat to hide my hair and I can't wait to wash it. Anyway enough of me rambling haha.

I got two bottles, I didn't get to choose which is annoying because I got one for blonde hair and one for brown, they have a hint of color in them so it blends in with your hair and doesn't leave a white powder on your hair, I don't have blonde hair but I used it anyway. 
I personally didn't like these two as much as the original ones just because when I used them I couldn't tell if I had massaged it in enough.

I found that if you sprayed the blonde one too close to my hair then it would come out yellow, but if it wasn't then I think people with light to medium brown hair then you can get away with using it, I would recommend this to people with blonde hair because it would definitely work and not leave any powder so it wouldn't be noticeable. I also found that I didn't need much for my hair to feel and look refreshed. 

The brown batiste dry shampoo made my hair look darker than normal, which I suppose is a good thing?  Naturally I thought this was better because I have dark hair, so obviously it will be better haha, the only down side with this is if you want to massage your hair after you've had it up all day the dry shampoo color goes over your hand and under nails, which is grim!
They also don't smell as good as other ones, and you want your hair to smell nice as well, especially when its second day hair.

Overall I am glad I didn't pay for these because I think I would've been a bit disappointed, as amazing as this product is I didn't like the ones with color, I do think thats because Im more used to the original white ones. I would repurchase the one for brown hair but I would go for the white powdered ones if I had the choice :) 

Anyway Im sorry the photos aren't that great and this may be a bit boring but it's my first ever 'review' type thing and Im learning haha! 
I hope you enjoyed it or found it helpful

Immy x  

Introduction

Hello, Im Immy and Im 19 years old. I've basically decided to start a blog because its something a bit different to what I would normally do, so I finally got round to making a blog. I thought I should do an introduction to explain what it will be like, I also felt that it was a bit weird to just go straight into a blog with out an introduction.

I want to make it a Beauty/Haul/Reviews/Lifestyle blog, So basically if I do or buy something I think people might want to see or read about then I'll blog about it, I suppose you could say it will be a bit like Zoella and Sprinkle Of Glitters, but not as heavy on the make-up side of things.

So I hope you all enjoy the blog posts that I plan to post in the near future, I was thinking of doing a review about batiste dry shampoo because I got a couple of free cans

Immy x