Soap & Glory Skincare

For Christmas I received the Soap & Glory The Whole Glam Lot gift set, this gift set contained an abundance of products but the ones that stood out the most to me were the two skincare products. If you know me you'll know I'm quite big on skincare, I've mentioned in a couple of posts that I have a lot of trouble with my skin and so I'm always eager to try out new products to see if they work for me. Over the last week I have been trialing the Soap & Glory Vitamin C Face Wash and the Speed Plump All-Day Moisturiser. I have quite enjoyed using them both.

The Vitamin C Face wash retails for £8 in boots but at the time of writing this it is on sale for £5! I have actually used the face wash before as my Grandma uses it. To use squeeze a grape sized measure of the product onto damp skin, rub into lather, then rinse. My favourite thing about the product is its colour, it is very aesthetically pleasing for me, but that's not really what's important! The Facial Wash smoothes and purifies for super clean, fresh and bright skin. The product has enough particles to exfoliate the skin without feeling to rough and scratchy which is something I really appreciate. After using my face felt quite soft. The scent is still pleasant although it is not quite as nice as the moisturiser!

The Speed Plump moisturiser is currently £13 in boots which is on the more expensive side. It is targeted towards dry/dehydrated skin, I usually find that these sort of products can be super heavy but this one is not. The product Instantly plumps up moisture from within- Smoothes fine lines & wrinkles- Energises & refreshes skin- Locks in moisture for 24hrs - Gives skin a youthful dewy healthy glow. It is intended to leave your skin brighter, tighter, dewier and plumping for joy. The finish is non greasy and provides a smooth base for makeup application, I mostly use this moisturiser in the morning as the refreshing scent wakes me up a little. The product contains watermelon fruit complex which smells so nice and fresh.

My favourite product out of the two is definitely the moisturier, the finish is perfect for applying makeup onto and my skin is always left feeling soft after use.

As always I hope you enjoyed this post and a follow would be greatly appreciated!

-Chloe

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Get To Know Me | Tag

This weeks post is something that I have been meaning to do for a very long time but just haven't gotten around to it. It came to my attention that I have never really shared anything about myself with you. In this post I will be answering 25 questions, I hope that this lets you know a little bit about me.

1. What is your middle name?: Ann, nothing special really.

2. What was favorite subject at school?: My favorite optional subject at school was Business Studies, I also got my highest GCSE grade in this subject. My favourite compulsory subject at school was probably Maths. My worst subject in High School were all of the sciences as I had to do triple science. My least favourite out of the three was definitely Biology as I had no interest in it whatsoever.

3. What is your favorite drink?: My favourite drink is a good old cup of tea, I can literally drink 5 cups of tea a day.

4. What is your favorite song at the moment?: I'm not really listening to much music at the moment but I don't actually think I have a favourite song.

5. What is your favorite food?: My favourite food is anything full of carbs, mostly cheesy pasta dishes though.

6. What is the last thing you bought?: I can't really remember the last thing that I bought that wasn't food. I think it was a micro SD card for my phone but that's not very excited.

7. Favorite book of all time?: I don't think I've read any books recently that I would consider to be my favourite book of all time. I'm currently really enjoying reading about mindfulness and self-care though.

8. Favorite Color?: My favourite colour is a burgundy purple kind of colour.

9. Do you have any pets?: I have a dog named Harvey. He's a Shih Tzu crossed with a Yorkshire Terrier.

Isn't he a cutie?

10. Favorite Perfume?: I have never really been much of a perfume fan but I am aiming to build up a little collection, I currently have four perfumes and my favourite out of those is the YSL Black Opium perfume, it is the most me scent I think I will ever find.

11. Favorite Holiday?: My favourite Holiday is definitely Christmas, I like how it's the one day that all of my family spend together. Also I like the week after Christmas that is spent visiting other family and friends. I just really love getting to see people I haven't seen for a while.

12. Are you married?: Nope, but I definitely hope to be one day!

13. Have you ever been out of the country, if so how many times?: I have been out of the country a few times, when I was younger we went abroad for a summer holiday pretty much every year. Usually to places like Spain and Portugal.

14. Do you speak any other language?: I have been trying to learn German as I really enjoyed it in school but I struggle to self motivate. I think according to Duolingo I am 30% fluent in German.

15. How many siblings do you have?: I don't have any full siblings but I have two half sisters, two step sisters and one step brother. The perks of having separated parents.

16. What is your favorite shop?: My favourite clothes shop is probably H&M. But I like any shop that sells cushions and bedroom tat.

17. Favorite restaurant?: My favourite restaurant is the Casa Italia in Liverpool, if you ever get the opportunity to go there I urge you too! Other than that I like most Italian restaurants.

18. When was the last time you cried?: Most likely some point in the last week, I'm feeling a bit stressed at the moment.

19. Favorite Blog?: I really enjoy all of the blogs that I follow and I couldn't possibly pick one!

20. Favorite Movie?: I enjoy pretty much any chick flicky kind of film that doesn't require my full attention.

21. Favorite TV shows?: I used to watch a lot more TV shows than I do now but I still watch a few: Gilmore Girls (currently the show I put on whenever I want to relax), Not Going Out, Red Oaks, Suits, Orphan Black, Supernatural, Doctor Who, Sherlock.

22. PC or Mac?: PC

23. What phone do you have?: I have a Moto X

24. How tall are you?: I'm around 5’6″

25. Can you cook?: I can cook, not very well but I'm trying to force myself to cook more rather than ordering a Domino's. Practice makes perfect after all!

I apologise that a lot of my answers were quite vague, I really struggle to pick favourite things haha. As always, I hope you enjoyed this post and you have been able to get to know me a little bit better! As always a follow would be greatly appreciated if you would like to stick around!

-Chloe

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The Body Shop | Frosted Berries

Christmas has come and gone and just like every year I received an abundance of shower gels and body butters. Aside from the standard snow fairy from lush which I look forward to every single year (it just wouldn't be Christmas without a snow fairy shower gel!) I also got some Body Shop products.

I have been a big fan of The Body Shop products for many years, especially their limited edition Christmas products and always get excited to try their new ranges.

For Christmas this year I received some of the Frosted Berry range from The Body Shop and I can honestly say that I am obsessed!

I received the miniature sizes of the shower gel and the body butter and also the lip balm and fell in love with the scent instantly. I then went out and bought myself the full size body scrub in the sales.

Scented with fresh notes of juicy berries, white flowers, creamy praline and sweet vanilla. I am a huge fan of any sweet and fruity scented shower products so this range is absolutely perfect for me. I'm not sure I can stress this enough but these products smell absolutely gorgeous. Although I couldn't get much of a lather out of the product it still left behind a lot of it's scent, I just quite enjoy bubbles! Hopefully, I will be able to pick up the full size of the shower gel before they all sell out.

I think out of the entire range the body scrub is by far my favourite. This was the first scrub I have used from The Body Shop. I have used the strawberry body polish before but the scrubs are on another level. Unlike most body scrubs this one felt soft and gentle on this skin whilst still exfoliating, most of the other scrubs I have used are too harsh on my sensitive skin. 

For me the miniature size of the body butter is much better. I find it very difficult to get through the full size tubs as I like to change up my shower products quite frequently. Like the shower gel the scent is beautiful. When combining all three of the body products the scent lasts for a long time and has invited many compliments from my family. As with all of the butters this one left my skin feeling very soft and moisturised.

This was also the first lip balm I have ever used from The Body Shop and I am very much a fan. It feels more like a lip butter than a lip balm so I tend to only use this product at night before bed. As with all of the products it has the same beautiful scent.

All of these products are currently on sale online and in store. If you can get your hands on them you definitely wont regret it! I really hope that they don't discontinue this product and it appears on the shelves again next winter. Judging by the positive reviews I am confident that I will see frosted berries again next year, I will for sure be stocking up!

Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed this post, as ever if you would like to stick around a follow on my social medias would be very much appreciated!

-Chloe

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My New Years Resolutions 2017

I know I'm a little bit late with my New Years Resolutions post but as I am quite an indecisive person I have found it very hard to actually pick my goals, which seems a little ridiculous.  I started writing notes for this post at the beginning of December and all of my ideas started to get a little out of hand. I don't want to over face myself and set so many goals that they feel unattainable.

I have settled on 7 goals that I hope to have achieved by the end of 2017 (I couldn't manage 17 so 7 will have to do) . I have tried to keep these as unquantifiable as possible in the hope that I will find them easier and less daunting.

1. Pass my driving test. In August 2016 I failed my first practical driving test, I put a lot of pressure on myself to pass first time as most of my family had done so and learning to drive is very expensive, but unfortunately the day for me was an absolute disaster and I started to feel very low and even a little anxious about ever driving again. Since then I started doing lessons with a new driving instructor in the attempt to achieve a 'fresh start'. This instructor has been amazing at rebuilding my confidence in my abilities and I am planning to book my next test in either February or March.

2. Drink more water. As I have mentioned in a couple of posts I have suffered with acne for many years and drinking water is something that I know I should be doing, not just for my skin but for my health in general. I recently downloaded a habit tracker app in the hope that it will encourage me to drink at least two cups of water each day, one in the morning and one at night. I know that may not seem like a lot to most people but hopefully it will be a good first step. Along the same lines I also want to continue to not drink any fizzy drinks on weekdays, although this rule has taken a break over Christmas I hope to get back on track.

3. Spend less time looking at my phone. Towards the end of last year I set a rule that I wouldn't use my phone before or during breakfast and I feel that this has really been beneficial. This year I would also like to make the effort to not use my phone whilst out with friends and family as I want to try to give my full attention to the people I am actually with at the time, especially when out for meals with people I haven't seen for a long time. I also want to make a point to not check social media when I'm out, of course having access to texts and messages is important but there is no need for me to check my news feed when I'm out.

4. Reach out to more people. I found myself feeling quite isolated and alone very frequently last year and that is something I hope to not repeat next year. Although I'm not completely to blame for this I hope to surround myself more with people. I have a lot of family that I barely see throughout the year, including my dad and I would like to make more of an effort to see them. I lost my grandad in 2016 and one of my biggest regrets is that I didn't see him anywhere near enough over the last couple of years. Also I hope that I can keep in touch with some of my close friends next year. 2016 was the year we all moved around to different parts of the country for university and this has made it very difficult to keep in touch. I don't have many close friends any more but the ones I do I want to try to make more of an effort with, I have arranged to meet up with two friends next week and I am very excited to do so. As well as old friends I hope to make the effort to reach out to new people as well and to push myself out of my comfort zone more. There are people like me out there I just have to find them and I hope to do that it 2017.

5. Figure out my career path. At this moment in time I do not feel like I am on the right path whatsoever, and this has caused me to feel quite down and unmotivated over the last couple of months. I'm really struggling to take matters into my own hands and try to change the aspects that I am unhappy with but I am hoping that I will have achieved this by the end of 2017. Whether that be a different degree, a new job, anything. I just hope that I am in a better place than I am at the time of writing this.

6. Read more books. In my first reading challenge post I mentioned that I don't read anywhere near as much as I used to and I would really like to change that. I have always enjoyed reading but recently I've found it difficult to dedicate time to doing so. I have loads of books that have been sitting on my bookshelf for almost 3 years unread and I would like to get through a good fraction of these in 2017. This goes in hand with my last resolution but I would like to continue to read books about mental health as I think it is beneficial to understand how the mind works to enable myself to change the way I think. I would also like to challenge myself to read some classic books this year but I'm not expecting any miracles, if I manage to read at least 5 books I will be proud of myself.

7. Focus on my mental health. This is quite a general resolution but I feel like it may be the most important of all. For the most part of 2016 I would say that I was unhappy, this is mostly down to the way I feel about myself and where my life is heading and I just generally feel very overwhelmed by life in general at the moment. For me 2017 will be dedicated to myself, I have spent many years doing things because I think other people will approve of them and honestly I'm just very tired of feeling like I have to prove myself to people. As cringey as it sounds I want 2017 to be my year, I want to feel powerful, I want to spend less time sitting around feeling bad about the things that I'm not doing and just live my life. At the end of 2017 I want to be able to look at myself and be impressed by the person I am.

Although I am very scared to embark on this journey and subconsciously I keep trying to hold myself back I am optimistic and excited for my future. I really honestly believe that 2017 will be a great year for me.

Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed this post and I hope 2017 will be kind to us all and I can't want to see what it has in store. As always a follow would be greatly appreciated if you would like to stick around.

-Chloe

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My Christmas Day | 2016

I had originally planned on doing a what I got for Christmas style post but as I had such a lovely day I thought I would share the whole thing with you.

This year my boyfriend stayed on Christmas Eve so I was lucky enough to spend Christmas morning with him and we were able to open our presents together. This was the first year we had done this and it was absolutley lovely, I hope to be able to do this again next year. Both he and I were spoilt by my family and it was really nice for us to see him opening all of his presents, even though the presents he was most excited about was a £5 tripod I got him from amazon. My morning was spent having his camera shoved in my face.

We then dropped him off at home and when we returned we came back to my stepdad dressed like this.

He had been hinting about a 'Christmas suit' for the whole of December but I did not expect to come back to this at all. It was really funny and had us all laughing. He even wore the suit whilst cooking and eating Christmas dinner.

As a joke presents we got my Grandma and blow up zimmer frame and my Grandad a blow up walking stick. Luckily they both saw the funny side of it and posed for a photo, I really love this photo.

Finally it was time for dinner. Dinner this year was amazing and I ate way too much, I also managed to find a wine that I actually enjoy drinking. The white peach and mango Echo Falls wine is definitely worth a try if like me you're not really a fan.

I had been looking forward to Christmas dinner for weeks and it certainly did not disappoint! I'm looking forward to next years already.

What I got for Christmas:
My main present this year was a new pair of straighteners. I got the copper GHDs, these were very much needed as I had burnt through the wire of my old pair which I highly doubt is safe to use. I then got lots of copper/rose gold themed gifts. As always I received lots of makeup including the Urban Decay Ultimate Basics pallette and a Mac lipstick in Velvet Teddy and enough Lush and Bodyshop products to last me the whole year. I also got way too much chocolate and a massive tub of jelly beans which I have been eating all week, From my boyfriend I got a new pair of headphones as my old ones broke last year, I also got tickets to go and see All Time Low in March which I am so excited for, I've wanted to see them since I was about 13.

I always feel a little sad when the festive period comes to an end but I think this year has hit me harder than any before. I've been struggling to find motivation to do anything the past couple of weeks but hopefully I will be able to get back on track soon.

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and New Years. I'm very excited to see what 2017 brings for me and my blog. As ever thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed this post!

-Chloe

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