My day in photos

Hey guys,
On the weekend my family and I went to a small village called Cowbridge near where I live. I decided to take some photos and blog about it so, enjoy! :)

We had coffees at a cute little cafe before heading to the shops.

Yummy hazelnut latte time

After some coffee and cake we headed off to the shops. Everything looked so pretty and Christmassy! (I'm allowed to get excited now that it is December)

 

I hope you have enjoyed this slightly different post - comment below what you think AND if there's anything else in particular you'd like to see on my blog.

Love, 
Emily. Xxx

Tweet me: @emilyford1_
Instagram (themed): @emilyford1_
Instagram (personal): @emilyford6

PS: Follow me on bloglovin'!

Mini Mac Collection

Hey guys.
Today I've decided to do a quick blog post on my little Mac collection.

First up I have 3 Mac eyeshadows. Woodwinked is probably my favourite, it's such a lovely and wearable colour. However, I would definitely recommend it to more tanned skin people (unlike myself..oops). I do like Pink Venus however as it's quite a bold colour I don't wear it that often. But, it looks great for a night out or something similar.

Pink Venus, Honey Lust and Woodwinked

Next, we have my all time favourite Mac purchase. The studio fix fluid. This stuff is heavenly! It is more suited to oily skin types and therefore may not work so well on dry skin. It is suited to oilier skin because 1) it is oil free and 2) it helps absorb and disperse oils from your skin. It is quite high coverage and very buildable.

Mine is in the shade NC15. (C will cancel out redness)

Finally and my most recent Mac purchase is my studio fix concealer. I had wanted to get this for quite a while as one of my friends has it and absolutely loves it! At £15, for the quality of this concealer, I would say it's definitely worth the money. It covers every single spot! It is slightly less effective under the eyes, for that I would recommend the pro-longwear concealer (sticking to the Mac theme).

Studio Fix Concealer in the shade NC15

Thank you guys for reading and I hope you enjoyed this post. Comment if there's anything you want me to post on my blog in particular!

Love, 
Emily. Xxx

Tweet me: @emilyford1_
Instagram (themed): @emilyford1_
Instagram (personal): @emilyford6

PS: Follow me on bloglovin'!

Yankee Candles

Hello again everyone!

Today I am writing a blog post about one of my favourite things, candles! And for all you Yankee junkies out there: this one's for you.

There was never really a day I started buying candles, however I do remember starting to use and buy them a lot more near my year 10 exams as I find them very calming.

Firstly, I have my jar Yankee candle as you've seen many times on my blog! If you don't already know my sister bought this for me for my birthday this year. I have the 'Lake Sunset' candle. It's a very light and soothing smell (I really can't describe scents...) This size of Yankee candle is however very expensive (mine was around £16.99) so I haven't bought myself one yet, fingers crossed I might be lucky enough to receive one for Christmas!

Next, I have a few tarts. These are different to the small sampler candles because you burn them in a tart burner. In my opinion these are better than the sampler candles because their smell seems to fill the room and is stronger.

Pink sands is my favourite of these

This is the tart burner I have been using. It's from Poundland! I'm looking to buy one from Clinton's or anywhere that sells one that is a bit more attractive but, this will do the job for now.

Next, I love using these little sampler candles. You can buy these in all the same scents as the bigger candles but for a much cheaper price. I believe they're around the £1.80 mark however I'm not too sure. These aren't so powerful as the tarts when burnt however they are still lovely, especially on a cold, wintery night in!

As always with Yankee candles the packaging is super cute and the colours on these specific ones are lovely too! I've been burning a lot of these as we go in to the autumn / winter months which explains why I only have more summery scents left!

These little tea light holders are from Ikea.

This is my favorite way to burn tealights / Yankee candles, it's from Ikea.

This blog post was an idea from a lovely follower who's instagram is @bethaniebriggs, big thank you to her!
 I hope you guys have enjoyed this post and follow me on bloglovin' if you want to see more from me.

Tweet me: @emilyford1_
Instagram (themed): @emilyford1_
Instagram (personal): @emilyford6

Lots of love,
Emily Xxx

My Halloween Makeup

So this year I went to two Halloween parties. I went as a cat for one and a vampire for the other. As the cat was a much simpler look, I thought I'd show you guys how I created the vampire look!

I started with my MAC studio fix foundation. Try and use a foundation slightly too pale for your skin if you can. Next I used my MAC studio fix concealer to conceal any blemishes.

I then focused on the eye make up. I began by putting 'blingo' by benefit all over my lid. I then took 'holy smokes' benefit's cream eyeshadow and swept this in to my crease. I used the collection 2000 eyeliner on my upper lash line and a chocolate pencil liner on my bottom water line. For mascara, I used the benefit they're real! mascara. My favourite.

I then lightly bronzed using my bourjois chocolate bronzer.

For the lips I used a YSL red lipstick in the shade Rougue Par Couture 13. I also put this around the edges of my lips to look like blood.

Finally I took benefit's 'raincheck?' eyeshadow and mixing this with the red lipstick created a wound on my face. I wore this make up look with a black lacy top and a leather skirt.

The finished look!

Darkest swatch: holy smokes! Middle silver swatch: blingo! (ignore all other swatches)

I hope you all had a FAB Halloween and I'll hopefully blog for you soon! 

Lots of love, 
Emily Xxx

Instagram Q&A

Hey guys!

Sorry I haven't blogged in what seems like an eternity, I am yet again blaming school. Anyway, on with the show!
Today I have decided to do a Q&A blog post. I put a picture on my instagram (@emilyford1_) asking you to leave me comments of any questions you'd like answered and I've chosen some of my favourites below.

1. Favourite drugstore products? As I'm only 15 I mostly stick to drugstore make up and therefore this is quite a difficult question as I use and like lots of products. Umm, I love the sleek blushes, Kate Moss lipsticks, babylips lip balms and I'm sure there's more but my brain has frozen...

2. Favourite MAC product? The studio fix fluid! It's amazing. It costs £21.50 I think but in my opinion it is SO worth it. It's especially good for me as it works best for oily skin.

3. What are you going as for Halloween? Pretty boring this year, just a cat.

4. How old are you? I'm 15 :-)

5. Do you like chocolate? Of course!

6. Favourite 'IG'? I have lots of accounts I love but my all time fave is probably @amybastiani. Her photos are so pretty and she seems lovely.

7. How do you edit your instagram photos? I don't do too much. I use an app called afterglow and put the brightness up a little bit and the exposure up quite a lot. My #1 tip for instagram photos is LIGHTING! Natural lighting is the way to go guys. Your photos will look so much prettier.

8. Favourite shoes? My new Topshop boots of course. They're so comfy!

These were £52 but I sneakily borrowed ma good pal Alice's student discount so I had around 20% off. Yipee!

That's all for now guys! I hope you've enjoyed this slightly different post. Make sure to leave me a comment if there's anything else you want to see on my blog.

Tweet me: @emilyford1_
Instagram (themed): @emilyford1_
Instagram (personal): @emilyford6

Lots of love,
Emily xxx

Lush Lip Scrub

Hi everyone! 

Sorry I haven't posted in what seems forever but I do have an excuse! School :( However I'm sure I'll get in to more of a routine soon and be posting much more regularly. Anyway enough of the boring bit, on with the review! 

Lush's Lip Scrub in Bubblegum.

This lip scrub has been a favourite of mine for sooo long however I recently re-purchased one so I just couldn't resist a good ol' blog post. Haha.

Even the packaging, as always with Lush, is so pretty!

The lip scrub has quite a thick texture, I'm presuming this is due to all the sugar inside. The sugar is what exfoliates your lips and leaves them lovely and clean. It is also meant to bring out the true colour in your lips (you will notice the change depending on how dry your lips are) as all the dry skin is a lighter colour than your natural lip colour. It also tastes SOOOO good! I don't even know if you're meant to but after exfoliating my lips with his scrub I admit I do lick the remaining scrub off... I've only tried the bubblegum lip scrub however I am pretty sure Lush do two other types. A minty flavoured one and a popcorn one. Yum! 

Overall I love love love this scrub, I have dry lips all year round and now winter is approaching I'm preparing for the worst! If you suffer from this too I highly recommend this product as it really does help! It's around the £5 mark which I believe is a total bargain. Mine always last super duper long and work so well! Thanks for reading guys and I hope you enjoyed this post. 

Do you use this product? Do you like it too?

Lots of love,

Emily xxx

Cadeaux de la France

Bonjour!

Earlier this week I posted a picture on my Instagram (emilyford1_) asking you guys if you were interested in seeing a blog post on some French goodies my mum bought back for me. So, here it is!




Here's a picture of all the gifts together. They all came in this pretty box that my mum had chosen, she also got to choose the gifts for the inside.

The first thing I noticed was this gorgeous smelling pink soap! I haven't used it yet (I only got it today!) but I'm sure it'll be lovely. If you'd like me to blog a review of any of these things just let me know! 

Next, there was a few more soaps. These however are much more of an unusual scent. I would recommend them as I myself like the smell however I would say make sure you do before purchasing them. The purple and white are especially unusual and I'd have to say the purple is not quite to my taste but my mum likes it so she's going to use it instead!

They come packaged like this but I removed it and took another picture so you can see all the lovely soaps below:

Now moving on to lovely smelling things for your drawers! I don't actually know what they're called but basically you can put them in a drawer, cupboard, maybe even a handbag and they give a mild refreshing scent to wherever you put them! My mum got me two of these one with paper packaging, one with fabric.

They both smell lightly of lavender which although I'm not usually a fan of, I like in these circumstances as it's not too strong.

Thank you all for reading and I hope you enjoyed this blog post. Make sure to let me know in the comments if there is anything, prehaps a more detailed review of one of the products in this post, you'd like me to blog about.

Love,

Emily xxx

The Liebster Award

Hello everyone!




A few days ago I was lucky enough to be nominated for the Liebster award by the lovely Anabel Kate. Being quite honest I didn't even realise what it was and only found out I was nominated when my dad text me saying to look at the comments on my most recent blog post! *cringe* Anyway, The Liebster award is all about giving bloggers with under 200 followers recognition, how cool! Anabel has asked me 10 questions that I will be answering below, then I will link some blogs and write some questions for them to answer.

1. If you could travel to any country in the world, where would it be?
When I'm older I'd love to travel so this is a tricky question! Either America or a remote, tropical island somewhere.

2. Where do you blog?
I mostly blog on my laptop in my bedroom or living room.

3. Favourite book?
The Prince of the Mist by Carlos Ruiz Zafon.

4. If you had to change your name what would your new name be?
I really don't like my name as I think it's so boring but saying that, I'm not too sure what I'd change it too! Maybe Grace or Isabelle or something pretty like that!

5. Percentage of the day you spend day dreaming?
Hmm this varies I'd estimate around 20-30%?

6. Favourite gig you've been to?
I haven't actually been to many gigs! Looking back I don't think either were that great as I don't support the artists majorly anymore or even listen to their music as much. In the future I'd love to see McFly *hint hint, dad*

7. Do you prefer summer or winter?
I love them both! In summer, I want it to be winter but in winter I want it to be summer! However maybe summer as there's no school. Yay!

8. Top three favourite songs?
This question is so hard; I can't possibly answer it! I love way too many songs to choose!

9. Would you like to live in the city or country when you're older?
I think I would like to live in the city when I was a young adult but when I get married and have kids I'd like to move to the countryside.

10. Main aim in life?
To do something I love and be happy!

I nominate:

Evangeline Young

Nikita-Marie Bridgeman

Stephanie Johnson

And my ten questions are...

1. Favourite under-rated beauty product?

2. What's one thing you couldn't go a day without?

3. Are there any celebrities you'd like to meet?

4.  Why do you enjoy blogging?

5. Why did you start blogging?

6. If you could be anyone in the world (dead or alive) for one day, who would you be?

7. Favourite film?

8. Do you like to follow the trends or set your own?

9. If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?

10. Describe yourself in 3 words?

Thank you for nominating me!

Love,
Emily
xxx

My Night Time Routine

My bedtime routine varies quite a lot depending on the time of the year. For example in school time I won't have as much relaxing time however the night before an exam I like to have a nice bubble bath and relax as much as I can. But, today I am going to be talking about my night time routine during the summer holidays (which can get quite pamperlicious I warn you...). I wash my hair every 2 or 3 days so obviously I wouldn't go to this much effort that frequently! I probably do as followed about once a week or maybe a tad less.

Firstly, I will need some shampoo and conditioner. I am currently using the Aussie Miracle Shine shampoo and deep conditioner as shown below. It is slightly pricey but smells so lovely and never fails to leave my hair silky smooth! The third Aussie product shown in the picture is the deep conditioning and de-frizzing milk. My hair isn't that frizzy naturally but I find it calms my hair and helps keep grease-free for longer (as long as I don't use too much of course!)

In Boots they currently have a 3 for £10 on Aussie products offer so you can get all of these for £10!

Next on the list has to be bubble bath. Today I've decided to use the 'Peppermint Ice Cream bubble bath' which also triples up as shampoo and shower gel! It was a gift so I'm not sure how much it was however it's by the brand 'Possibility' and I will defiantly be re-purchasing it.
I also pop in a bath bomb. Today I am using a turquoise coloured bath bomb from the bomb cosmetics.

The bath bomb in action...

  I will nextly light some candles and place them near the bath for utter relaxation. I have chosen to light the Yankee candle my sister got me (as shown in my birthday blog post) called Lake Sunset. 

After washing my hair I like to exfoliate with my Soap and Glory breakfast scrub (see 2 blog posts ago) and then I might pop a face mask on.

After that I will wash my body with the peppermint ice cream shower gel and maybe read a magazine.

After this I will probably get out of the bath and moisturise. I literally bought a new all body moisturiser today which is the Jergens original beauty lotion which I have wanted for AGES! I tried a small one a while ago and had been meaning to buy another when it ran out but I could only seem to find ones for dry skin. On my face I'll most likely use the Neutrogena visibly clear oil free moisturiser.

Ok so now for the final step...pyjamas!

See previous blog post for the cost of these!

Even though this is called my night time routine, it's certainly not what I do every day as it is more like a pamper evening! I like to do about the same the night before exams or other stressful events to help me relax as I have been known to panic quite frequently!

I hope you enjoyed reading this and be sure to leave me any comments of anything else you'd like me to blog about!

Lots of love,
Emily xxx

Mini Haul

Hey guys!
Over the past few days I have been shopping quite frequently and I decided to do a mini haul of some of the things I purchased for you lovelies!
One of the first shops I went to was Primark. I hardly ever go there but recently I've been hearing lots of good things about Primark so I thought I'd go and have a look. To my surprise I found some nice things!

How cute are these pyjamas? The top was £3.50 and the bottoms were £5. How could I resist!

I also picked up this pretty pink bra. This was £7 which is really good value for such a cute item! I love it already.

Next I went in to Superdrug. I didn't actually spend too long in here as I knew beforehand what I wanted to buy! I bought the sleek blush in the shade 'Rose Gold'. It is so pretty and has a lovely shimmer to it. It's super easy to apply and looks lovely with most make up looks.

 After my quick Superdrug shop I went to New Look. I haven't actually been to New Look in about 5 years as I can never really find anything in there! In my opinion it is more suited to pre-teens. However, I did find some pretty rings and therefore I will most likely be visiting the shop more often from now on.

I bought a pack of about 5 for £3.99 and a pack of 3 midi rings for £2.99.

The next and last shop I bought something from was of course, Lush. I have wanted a new face mask from Lush for what seems like forever now and I finally got round to buying one! I have tried a few before for example 'Cupcake' which is a very chocolatey mask good for all skin types. However this time I wanted to try something which was slightly more specific for my skin type. The staff at Lush are always so helpful all you have to do is smile and they'll ask if you need any help! The lady who I spoke to showed me three masks which would be suitable for my skin (oily) and in the end I chose the blueberry one. (Not like I'm already considering going back and buying the others...). This mask smells so so good and leaves my skin feeling extremely refreshed and hydrated! It even has small bits of real blueberries in it.

If you look closely you can see some of the blueberries; yummy!

That's about it for today! I hope you guys enjoyed reading this and leave me a comment if there's any other posts you'd like me to do. Maybe a review of the Lush face mask? Hmm.

Lots of love,
Emily xxx

Soap and Glory: The Breakfast Scrub

Hello everyone!

If you read my previous blog post 'My 15th Birthday' you may have noticed one of my gifts was a soap and glory breakfast scrub. This was one of the things my best friend Ellie got me and I was so excited to try it! However as I was on holiday, and didn't take it with me, I only got to test it out for the first time fairly recently. However, once I tried it I was certainly not disappointed!

To begin, I thought I would show you guys the packaging.

 

 

As you can see the packaging is so pretty and just as lovely as the product! You may have noticed on the label it says 'with organic cupuacu, bio scrubs, bananas, almond & honey extracts'. I'm sure most of you will know honey is AMAZING for your skin; often a feature in face masks and scrubs. This is because honey is a natural moisturiser and is packed full of antioxidants. Organic cupuacu is especially good for dry skin as it promotes long lasting hydration, and bananas also help with the same thing. (Interesting fact I came across: the skin of bananas can be used to cure acne. Wow bananas are super foods!) Finally almonds are good for your skin as they contain vitamin E and bio scrubs is just the grainy exfoliating bits.

 

 

 

When you open the pot, you are almost immediately hit by the amazing scent it gives off! It may be slightly sickly for some people but I love it. It's so hard to describe scents but I would say it's a refreshing vanilla time of smell (does that even make sense?!..)

 

 

To use, you simply scrub the exfoliator in to wet or damp skin. I would say to keep doing this until your skin starts to feel softer (which isn't long!) Then, wash off the exfoliator and enjoy the results! I have found that this scrub leaves my skin feeling radiant and soft! I have quite oily skin so it is also good at unblocking pores and keeping spots at bay. I will defiantly be repurchasing this and I highly recommend it for all skin types. After using it I like to apply the soap and glory body lotion (there seems to be a theme running here...) on my body and the Neutrogena oil free moisturiser on my face.

I hope you guys enjoyed reading this post and make sure to comment if there's anything else you would like me to review!

Lots of love,
Emily xxx