SLIDER

Lone living

Friday, 7 June 2013


This is a post I've been looking forward to writing ever since I started my blog. Its something very personal to me and I hope that my writing will inspire you to take the leap and choose lone living at some point in your life!

Throughout my years at university I lived in halls of residence and shared houses with friends. Whilst at the time the living arrangements were perfect I look back now and shudder. How did I cope?! 

I've lost count of how many friends I've lived with and subsequently lost. Unfortunately its true.. you never know someone until you live with them. 

A year and a half ago I decided enough was enough... I could no longer put up with other people. I didn't want to be the third wheel in someone's relationship/friendships, I didn't want to hear the night time antics of housemate's and their partners and I didn't want to feel like I had to constantly tidy up to please someone else. 
At first the idea of living on my own scared the hell out of me. This was at a time when I was rather dependent on the people around me to entertain me and keep my mind occupied but I knew I had change something in my life so i took the plunge.

I thankfully knew someone who was moving out of a place in the perfect area. Right in the centre of town in a beautiful old factory building.  I spoke to the landlord and within a week I'd signed a contract and planned a date to move in. 

Then came my next problem, telling the person who I lived with that I was leaving. A long story short..it didn't go down too well but I hadn't signed a contract at that persons place and it was never meant to be forever.

I realised that I can't continue making decisions to please other people...i got to look out for me!

The day I moved in....ohhh i was scared. I hired a man and a van and shipped all of my stuff into my swish new place and within days I began to love it. 

I've been thinking of the best and worst things about living alone, heres what i've come up with!

Best

  1. You can lounge about in your PJ's all day and no one will pass comment!
  2. Who the fuck is going to tell you off for not doing the dishes?!
  3. You can eat EVERY meal on the sofa
  4. You can watch Eastenders and no one can say otherwise
  5. You'll never be forced to watch someone play playstation.
  6. You can eat as many crisps  at 1am as you want without anyone tutting at your disgusting eating habits
  7. Get drunk on your own (occasionally okay!) whilst watching shit on tv or youtube
  8. You can eat food out of whatever you want.  Even straight from the fridge!
  9. Reorganise the furniture weekly and then move it back without asking anyone
  10. I can swear out loud whenever I want
  11. You hardly ever need to wash your glass.. just reuse it..... thats okay right?!
  12. Evening/afternoon/morning naps go undisturbed
  13. If you wake up in a mood you don't notice as there's no one to take it out on
  14. Your toilet paper/shampoo/toothpaste/everything bathroom related lasts forever
  15. If you go out and splurge in shops or on the internet no one ever need know!

Worst

  1. Spiders... I need not elaborate.
  2. There's no one to sign for your parcels when you've splurged too much on ebay.
  3. You have to take the bins out every time.
  4. You never have those surprises when you get home; dinner on the table, tidy house.
  5. If you are skint there's no one to go "oh don't worry i'll buy us dinner"
  6. If you are anything like me I can sometimes stay up until 2am faffing about on the internet, I need someone to tell me to stop and sleep!
  7. If you hear a noise at night, its surely someone trying to kill you.
  8. The bills are huge
  9. You sometimes get used to mess.
  10. No one to make you a cuppa when your upset.
  11. If you miss your alarm in the morning your late for work.
  12. Getting ready for a night out on your own is rubbish plus you can't borrow an outfit off anyone!
  13. If you lose your key's that's it. 
  14. Living alone encourages hoarding... I cant throw anything away... just incase..
  15. You end up talking to the TV...


As you can see, there are so may pro's and con's for living alone for me personally. 



So.... this is just the beginning of posts about my home....that's if you guys want to see more?
I was thinking of doing a tour of my home... either in video or pictures. I've had to learn how to store things well due to not having tons of space, maybe I'll share those ideas?

This is really something I want you to direct... What else do you want to know about lone living? Would you be interested if i did a post about how it's helped me develop personally?

Hope you enjoy this read!

xxxx

Born Lippy Bodyshop Lip balm

Thursday, 6 June 2013

I am worried.. I think my love for Bodyshop has been reignited again recently. 

Over the years I've had an on/off love for the place. This began as a child, discovering the kids line of products they used to do...do you remember the crazy growing flannels and yummy flavoured bubble baths?  

After working as an xmas temp there a few years ago whilst still at uni I think my love was dampened slightly; I was done with the smells, some what cringingly happy sales assistants and the not so reasonable prices.

So, last week when I fancied adding a new lip balm to my collection (very large collection may i add!) I thought I'd brave it and pop in for a browse. 

I had it in my head that I'd go for a lip butter, I'd seen youtuber, Velvetgh0st mention the sweet lemon lip butter and it sounded yum. However, the price wasn't so yum £4 for a teeny tiny pot... yes I know that isn't that expensive but if you saw the amount of lip products I have that are half used you'd know why I was a little unwilling to pay £4!

Next to the lip butters were the Born Lippy Lip balms in a number of different scents. I took about 10 minutes just smelling them all! 

I decided to go for watermelon in the 10ml tub.



 You can also get them in-

Pink Guava
Raspberry
Satsuma
Strawberry
Watermelon
Passionberry

Then in the stick form you can get-

Lychee
Plum
Toffee
Pink Berry

The Bodyshop website describes it as-

Our cult lip balm in a pot. Gives colour, flavour and moisture for more kissable lips.
Moisturises and conditions lips
Soft pink tint
Shine finish
Fruity watermelon flavour

Packaging
I love the packaging of this, I like the redesigned logo.

I know some people don't like tub lip balms as you have to stick your fingers in but it doesn't bother me. The tub is small but holds a fair bit of product. When you open the lid you get a huge waft of scent which I love rather than having to dip my nose in it to get an idea of scent!

Quality
This lip balm definitely does taste like watermelon. Its not too sweet but leaves a lasting taste on your lips. Its consistency is smooth and not at all greasy or sticky which is a huge plus for me. I HATE sticky lip products!

 I've been using this for a week and it hardly looks touched so hopefully will last me a while! I have noticed a slight improvement of my lips. I have been applying this product 4 times a day.

I haven't noticed much of a tint  but it gives them a bit of sheen for sure.  
£2 for this tub too, great price!


Overall,I am very happy with this new purchase, I now want to try the Guava and the toffee stick balm. Have you tried the stick products? Are they just as yummy?

xxxx





MUA Lipstick Haul

Wednesday, 5 June 2013

Now that summer is hopefully here I'm totally feeling lipstick. So last week, just after payday i began the search for the perfect shade. I spent a stupidly long time on the MAC website looking for 'the' one but without having a counter nearby I was weary in spending a small fortune on something I may not like /might not suit me. 

So... i decided to look for cheaper alternatives and came across the MUA website. I was so surprised at the prices... £1 for a lippy- bargain. Being this price means if I don't like it then it's not the end of the world. With that in mind bought 6! Free postage and packaging too!























 The lipsticks turned up about 4 days after ordering and I immediately wanted to try them all out!I prepped all of the lippy's take pictures and swatches of then realised that none of the lipstick tubes have any indication of which shade they are... only on the lids... massive error of mine! Rather than me guessing from the swatch pictures and getting it wrong I think I'll do an overall post on the lippys. All I know is that i ordered- 

shade 1
Shade 2
shade 7
shade 11
shade 14
shade 15

I was worried that due to them being cheap as chips they wouldn't be great quality but my goodness I was wrong to make that assumption, they are all so creamy and moisturising.  Some of the shades I got aren't the most wearable in the daytime but I think I love all of them!

The packaging is lovely, I like to keep things simple, plus the sneaky little tub of product on the top is a bonus. My only complaint is the lack of numbering on each tube... I can't believe this has been missed!

The pigmentation of the majority of shades is good, for most only one sweep is needed to provide a full and glossy cover. They also taste rather good too!

I'd recommend these to girlies who aren't quite sure where to begin with lippy,just like me! Once you've found your fav shade then maybe it will help when looking for a more expensive brand?

I'm planning on next week doing a week (well 6 days) of MUA lipstick on my instagram @hollylucyhp so you can see each shade teamed up with outfits etc!

Does the number thing irritate you? What do you think of the shades I've picked?

xxxxx















The obsession begins...

Monday, 3 June 2013

Bonjour all!

Wow... how amazing has the weather been this weekend?! 

Last week whilst it was pissing it down with rain I happened to be browsing all your lovely blog's and I came across Claire's amazing outfit on her blog; Indigo Girl (Indigo Girl: The heart has taken control.

She had an beaut pair of sunnies on and the wonderful blogger Claire is she linked to Ebay where I could find a similar pair, this got me investigating Ebay a bit more and I found a seller in the UK; and of course I couldn't help but buy a pair!





I'm loving the roundness of these glasses; in the past I have had a tendency to buy glasses and either sit on them or realise they make me look rather bug like but I think these ones look pretty good....


What do you think.. a bit bug-esque but I'm liking it!

The BEST thing about these glasses is that they were only £3.99! Here's the link Allcalender sunglasses, this ebay shop seems to have a lot of really on trend sunnies and they are all quite reasonably priced with free P+P... can't really go wrong! They arrived within 3 days too!

I've now gone and ordered myself another pair in brown! Lets hope the sun sticks around for a while ehh!

What shades are you wearing? Are you like me and awful at looking after your poor sunnies?

Send me some links of others you think I should add to my collection!

xxx



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