Just Say Yes: Snowboarding in Morzine

In April 2013, I got the chance to go snowboarding again with the Caring Cancer Trust, but this time in Morzine. I had the most amazing time ever and I learnt so much!
You can read about mine, and everyone else's, adventure by clicking here to go over to my full post about the trip on my 'Just Say Yes' blog!

You can also find out how this happened..

Until next time beautiful's,

xx

7 Day No Make-up Challenge

Whether it's just a little bit, or whether they plaster the face in it, pretty much every girl loves to wear make-up. We all just seem to feel more comfortable in it, whether that's to do with taking away our blemishes or just that we cover up our true selves because we don't like it, who knows.

But I wanted to prove to all you girls out there that we don't need make-up, we can be beautiful just be being ourselves!

I am like all you girls out there, I wear make-up on a daily bases and pretty much cover myself up. I feel prettier in it, I feel more comfortable and I find a lot more people talk to me and take interest in me when I do wear it, so to do this challenge, it was a tough decision for me!
But I did it for you girls, to prove a point.

Starting from Saturday 12th October, I put my make-up in the cupboard and didn't touch it.
I went to dancing with no make-up, I went to cadets and I even went to college every single day with no make-up (which was fab because my friend made some good looking boys sit with us the one week I didn't look great at all..). I felt uncomfortable for the first few days, but by the end of the 7 days, I actually debated whether I'd go back to make-up or not!
My skin felt so much fresher, I had so many less spots than usual and it was so much less effort, I could have an extra half hour in bed!

Everyday, I took a picture to prove I really did it.

Don't be afraid to show who you really are, because everyone of you reading this right now are naturally beautiful.

Try this challenge, even if it's just for one day. Step out of your comfort zone and hide your make-up for a day, or 7! See how much better you feel without that stuff on your face clogging up your paws and let people see your natural beauty, because it's there whether you can see it or not!

Don't feel like you have to hide yourself.

You reading this, you're beautiful!

Until next time beautiful's,

xx

Evening Outfit

Outfit
Dress - Primark

Shoes - Shoe Zone

Make-up

Foundation - Rimmel London Match Perfection

Concealer - Rimmel London Wake Me Up

Mascara - Miss Sporty

Eyeliner - Rimmel London Exaggerate

Blusher - Technic

Lipgloss - "The Only Way Is Essex" own brand

Everyone loves to dress up when they go to a party. But to this party specifically, I decided to keep it toned down. I love these little style dresses with a more skirted bottom because it makes me feel really girly! Even if it is a cheapy from Primark, I love Primark! Also, I'm not a big heel wearer so I keep myself comfortable in little dolly shoes. If you're not a fan of wearing heels, don't be afraid to wear something little that makes you comfortable!

Make-up wise, I don't have a big collection, but I use what I've got to give me more of a natural party look!

Until next time beautiful's,

xx

Just Say Yes: First Yes, Snowboarding in La Rosière

The first time I ever said yes was at an opportunity to go snowboarding in the French Alps with the Caring Cancer Trust, a charity that take recovering cancer patients (16 and under) away on holiday as a treat after their treatment.

Here is my story of why and how:

The guys I spent my week with. Miss them all a lot!

I got invited to go to the French Alps with the Caring Cancer Trust by the event organiser from Piam Brown children's cancer ward, the ward I was treated in for cancer 13 years ago. I was taking sponsor money up to the ward after running the Great South Run with my mum, I do this every year because I cant thank them enough for saving my life, when I was asked if I would like to go on the trip. The event organiser said she had invited me because I have raised so much money and done so much for the ward, she would like to treat me to say thankyou. I couldn't believe my luck because I had never been snowboarding or skiing before and it is something I had always wanted to do. I was a little anxious at the time because I wouldn't know anyone who was going with me, but am I glad I said yes! It was one of the best decisions I have ever made!

On the day of departure, I was really worried because it was the first time I had been away without my family and I felt like I was alone. But within 10 minutes on the coach, I felt like I had known everyone for years already. They were all so friendly and welcoming and I realised that they were all going through the same feelings as me. It was a long journey but sharing stories about treatment with the other children made me realise that I'm not the only child that's been through a horrible time with cancer. 

Driving up the mountain and arriving at the chalet we stayed in was beyond my expectations. It was honestly the most beautiful place I had ever seen! We went up to the top of the mountain almost straight away, got our boards and started learning the basics and throughout the week, we learnt more and more. By the end of the week we could all perform spins and jumps! It was unbelievable the amount we had learnt in such a short space of time! All of this was down to our two incredible instructors, Annette and James. They were true stars! 

Our beautiful chalet.

Learning the basics.

Every day, we would go back to the chalet in the afternoon and we would play some indoor and outdoor games and even go in the outside hot tub with an amazing view before all sitting together to enjoy dinner made by the chef, James. His food was outstanding! In the evening, we would either sit down together and watch a film or sit around the camp fire together singing and roasting marsh mellows. Everyone made it seem so homely at the chalet, and the nights around the camp fire were the best nights of my life! 

The incredible view from the hot tub! Never seen anything more amazing!

Night around the camp fire.

At the end of the week, we all got given special awards and shared lots of memories. Two main awards were given out. The first one was for being the best snowboarder, this went to Henry who really deserved it as he was outstanding! The other was the Jenny Jones award, for being the most positive and most supportive to everyone throughout the week. To my surprise, I got this award, and I couldn't be more thankful for it! 

Throughout the week, I learnt that building a great friendship isn't as hard as I have always thought it is. I have made some friends for life on this trip, children and adult! My confidence has grown so much and I also learnt you can do anything if you really believe in it! 

 So that's my story of the first time I said yes. I hope it inspires you to say yes to more opportunities you get!

If you want to read a more detailed story or more stories, then you can read them on my other blog that's all about saying yes by clicking here!

Until next time beautiful's,

xx

Budget Prom Outfit

When you leave secondary school, you are more than likely to have a prom. Prom is a night where the year group leaving come together for one last night in fancy dresses and suits to celebrate the time they've had together at school. (Some primary schools do a prom now which I totally disagree with. I just had a leavers party when leaving primary school but hey ho). It started in America, but us Brits stole it!

When people think of prom, they think a big fancy night with a big fancy dress/suit and amazing transport to get there and all of this stuff that, at the end of the day, costs them hundreds, sometimes thousands of pounds!

However, I really don't agree with that. It's one night! You can find a lush dress and transport and everything else VERY cheap, and that's what I did. So I thought I'd share with you my 'budget prom outfit' for under £100!

Dress
I always wanted a straight down flowy dress. Nothing too fancy, nothing too big and nothing too 'gypsy wedding style'. So I went on a hunt and I found my first dress. I wasn't sure if it was 'the one', but I couldn't bare to leave it in the shop (TK Max) in case I couldn't find anything else and it got sold, so I bought it for a very cheap £36!

Then a few weeks later, I went shopping in West Quay in Southampton with my family to look for more dresses and we wondered into a shop, Jane Norman, that was shutting down so they had 70% off everything. In there, I picked up a few dresses and went to try them on. As soon as I put on the second dress, I knew it was the one! Even my dad was speechless. I bought it straight away for an extremely cheap £25! Bargain!

So even if you do want a big gypsy wedding style dress, you don't have to spend a massive amount. Just look in the right shops and you are bound to find something you love for a bargain price!

Accessories

I knew the kind of jewellery I wanted because I loved what my sister had for her prom six years before, a pretty necklace and earrings. I also knew where my sister had got hers from so I went there too, Debenhams. There, I found a beautiful necklace and earring set for just £6!
Unfortunately, one of the earrings fell out of my ear on the night so I only have one left..

Then on the shelf above, I found a matching bracelet also for £6, so I picked that up too. 

So I got the jewellery I wanted and extra for just £12! Pretty chuffed with that!

On the back of my dress was a big pink bow made of ribbon, so I decided instead of having a tiara like everyone else, I would just have a little pink ribbon in the back of my hair. To get the ribbon, I just went to my local cake decoration shop and got a metre of ribbon from them. I took my dress along to find the right match of ribbon and I actually got the exact match of colour, bonus! A metre only cost me around 75p so I couldn't complain about that!

Shoes

I didn't really know what sort of shoes I wanted, so I just had a look around. However, I didn't necessarily need to purchase any shoes because my sisters prom shoes worked perfectly with my dress, but I still had a quick look around. I found some pretty silver sandals with a sparkly bow on and a small heel, but in the end I decided to play it safe and stick with my sister flat shoes. That meant no cost in shoes at all. (Apart from purchasing a pair of heel grips because they were a size too big, but they were only 99p).

Bag

Everyone needs a bag! My sister, again, had a bag from her prom that matched the shoes perfectly, but I decided I couldn't deal with her bag because it was a clutch bag and clutch bags are not my closest if friends in the bag community. So I went searching for a bag with a shoulder strap. I found one in the shop I found the silver sandals in. It was the same colour as my dress and it had a long shoulder strap, what more could I ask for?! So I got it. Bag sorted! (I don't know how much that was, my mum bought that for me.. under £10 I think!) It wasn't the roomiest of bags, but it just about fitted in what I needed, my phone, a camera and a pack of tissues.

Hair and Make-up

I didn't want anything too 'wowcher' for my hair, just something simple, and I wanted it down. So a half up half down style sounded good to me!
I found a few images on Google to get a rough idea of what I wanted and saved them to take to the hairdressers for them to work around.

I then found another picture, and I got stuck between these two:

I asked a few people and then decided on the first picture.
When I got to the hairdressers, I showed her the picture and asked her to incorporate the ribbon into it and  she said it would be about £25 which is a stupidly expensive amount! But after she did it, she decided to give it to me for £15 which is still pretty bad but more reasonable.
The cheapest way I would reccomend is to get a friend or family member to do you hair for free. I only didn't go for this option because I don't know anyone who is a hair dresser, damn!

Make-up wise, I did want a professional to do it for me (I was bound to make a mess of it myself) but my parents wouldn't pay for and I didn't have any money. So I did end up doing it myself. I practiced a few days before, but it didn't turn out much more than my every day wear, but it did for the night!

So your local hairdresser may be able to do some sort of deal for you, but the cheapest place to go is to someone you know personally who can do it for free, I'm sure they won't mind!
And don't go and spend out a bomb on getting a professional to do your make-up either, it's always worth it to DIY (see what I did there.. yep haha) or even get a friend to do it, you'll still look beautiful either way, natural or made up!

Transport

There was a big dilemma with transport. Seven of us did want to go in something fancy, but then arguments happened and we ended up going just three of us.
We went down the cheapest route and borrowed a family friends car. This meant we got it for free (we just had to pay £5 each for petrol which isn't bad at all!) and we got a driver! We went in a white Mercedes. Nothing to big and fancy, but nice enough to satisfy us!

I apologise if I gabbled on a bit there, but that's how to get a budget prom outfit for under £100!
Who need's to spend hundreds or even thousands of pounds on one night when you'll have as good a night and look just a beautiful going for al the cheapies!

I hope this helped/helps you spend as little as possible but still look just as stunning on your prom night! Let me know in the comments how much you spent!

Until next time beautiful's
xx

Tuesday Tunes

I'm still new to blogging, so I'm finding it difficult to think of blog ideas that you will enjoy reading. So I've been looking at other peoples blogs for ideas and there are certain ones that have caught my eye and I really enjoy reading myself. These are Marcus Butler's Sunday Sounds and Finn Harries Music Monday.

Now I don't mean to copy what they do, I just enjoy reading theirs and seeing what music they like so I would hope you enjoy seeing the music I like!

So every other Tuesday, when I've discovered a song (or song's) that I really enjoy, I'll write them in a post and share them with you!

So the first song I've really been enjoying lately is Taylor Swift ft. Ed Sheeran - Everything Has Changed. I've always been a massive fan of Ed, I mean, he is beautiful and SO talented! But I've never been a big fan of Taylor Swift, but when I heard they came together to create a song,  I couldn't resist listening and got addicted straight away! Here it is:

Now the second song I've really liked lately is Justin Timberlake - Mirrors. I've never really liked his music and especially this song when it first came out, but after listening to my sister play it over and over and over and over, it's safe to say I started to love it. And now I can't stop listening to it!

Now the last song I've been loving lately isn't a recent song at all. It's from Demi Lovato's third studio album 'Unbroken' which was released in September 2011 (you can download off iTunes here!). It's called Who's That Boy. I've listened to it several times before, but I it came on my ipod after a party a few weeks back and I realised it related to my situation that night exactly, and then I got slightly addicted..

So, I hope you enjoy them songs as much as I do!

Until next time beautiful's,

xx

Review: Clean & Clear Deep Cleansing Lotion

My sister gave me this cleansing lotion a few years back because she bought it for herself and decided she didn't like it. I didn't use it for a while, but when I did start using, I realised how good it really was!

Suitable for sensitive skin, it's formula helps cleanse your skin gently to remove every-day build up of oil, dirt and grease and helps reduce spots.

I don't have sensitive skin, but when I first started using it, I'll admit, it did sting a little bit. However, after, lets say, the third time of using it, I no longer felt the stinging feeling. I started using it once a night after I had cleared off my make-up and it left my face feeling clean and refreshed.

It's now my favourite thing to use if my face is feeling dirty or greasy and I use it two or more times a day. I just love the clean feeling it leaves me with.

Since I started using it, I can definitely tell the difference! My skin feels so much smoother than it used to and I get barely any spots now, just one of them odd annoying ones every now and again.

It's worked so well on my face that I've started using it on my chest and my back (who knows if you're meant to!) and that has definitely reduced the amount of spots I get!

I'd like to try other brands of cleansing lotion too, but I'm just too scared it won't be as good as this one! Maybe in the future! For now, I'm very happy with how the leaves my skin feeling and how much it has helped!

It's also a cheapy too! Only £3 in boots! Definitely worth a purchase!

Until next time beautifuls,

xx

Just Say Yes: Introduction

Between other beauty and fashion posts, I thought I'd start a new series of posts, "Just Say Yes".

In my life, I've missed so many opportunities because I've been too scared to do something on my own because I've always been a very shy person and to meet new people is something I hid away from.

Looking back now, I wish I had just said yes!

At the end of 2011, with the encouragement of other people, I decided enough was enough, and I said yes. What's the worst that's going to happen? I won't enjoy myself, big deal. I just wont do it again. 

However, saying yes to that opportunity has changed my life. I have grown so much in confidence and since, I have said yes to so many more amazing opportunities and I have met the most amazing people who have become some of my best friends! 

Now, I can look back and think "I'm so glad I did that" instead of thinking "I so wish I did that.."

Over this series of posts, I'm going to write about the opportunities and trips I have been lucky enough to be a part, some that I have coming up, and share my experiences with you and hopefully inspire you to say yes too!

This is something new, so I hope you enjoy reading about everything and everyone who have changed my life for the better. I'd love to hear your experiences of saying yes too!

Until next time beautifuls,

xx

Christmas Nails

So, Christmas is over for another year (I wish it wasn't!). But I thought I would quickly share with you my Christmas nails:

My sister treated me and paid for me to get them done before Christmas. The lady isn't usually keen on doing patterns but I showed her a picture of some nails I found on Tumblr that I thought were really cute and she said she would give them a try. So here they are!

Pretty and sparkly Christmas red with a little Christmas pudding (even though I don't really like Christmas puddings, I just thought it would look cute).

My sister also got hers done too:

Hers are just red and green sparkly tips which I thought were simple but sweet!

So I hope you like them too and it might inspire you to have Christmasy nails next Christmas, I can't wait!

I apologise for the bad quality of the pictures, they were just taken off of my phone.

And if you had Christmasy nails, send me a picture, I'd love to see them!

Bye!

New Year Resolutions

First off, HAPPY NEW YEAR!
I decided to start blogging after reading other peoples blogs and deciding it looks really fun and you can make a lot of friends out of it. It took me a while to decide to make one, but as it was coming to the end of 2012 I thought 'what a better time to start than the new year'. So here I am, starting a blog on all things beauty, fashion and lifestyle.

As it is the new year, I thought I would do my first blog post on new year resolutions.
Lots of people make them, but I bet only half of them people actually stick to them. I have never made proper resolutions before, only the little ones that the teachers made us do every year in primary school. But as little as they were, they went on a piece of paper and got forgotten about. Trust me! So this year I decided to make a couple and share them with you:

Jogging: I would really love to be a lot fitter than I am so I thought an enjoyable way of doing that would be to start jogging. Every year I join in at charity events such as Race For Life and Great South Run but I'm never able to run far and start walking most of it. So recently I started jogging every Monday and Friday, but it only lasted 2 weeks. So as it is the new year, I'm going to start again, and keep it up!

Working out: Again, this would benefit me in keeping fit. However, the main workouts I want to do is to strengthen my arms. For the career I want to do when I'm older, I need arm strength, and I have none of it! I can't even do one push up! So I have decided to start using weights, small ones first obviously! At least 3 times a week, I want to do different weight exercises on my arms for at least half an hour and hopefully this will be enough to get me started!

Eat 2 pieces of fruit a day: I'm always being told to eat healthy, but I never have and that has resulted in a problem for me. So I recently started eating two pieces of fruit a day and that has helped a considerable amount already! So I want to keep this up!

Revision: As I'm in my last year at school, I have a lot of important exams coming up and to get into college and do the courses I want to do, I have to get them top grades, and I'm not doing well so far. So if I want to get them grades, a lot of revision is needed! Around an hour everyday.

So they're my new year resolutions. If you have made any, I hope you stick to them! We'll work together!