My Travel Skincare Essentials

Hello, lovelies!

So, on Saturday, I made a post about how much I love travelling, and I thought I would do a series of travel related posts. Keeping with the beauty/lifestyle style of my blog, I figured lets do the most important things first. Skincare.

Skincare is literally one of the most important things in my life. I wish I was joking. No matter where I am, who I'm with, or what time it is, I always make time to fit in my skincare routine. Now obviously when I'm travelling I have a very limited access to my full supply of products, but I always take my trusted and true, which, of course, is mostly made up of Soap and Glory. For any occasion, no matter what, birthday, Easter, Christmas, or even just a Saturday sale, I get Soap and Glory gift sets.

There are a few things I have left off this list, like hand sanitiser, lip balm etc, this is just the things I use mid-travel. Like when we stop off at service stations, or I've been on a flight or train for a ridiculous amount of hours, these are my refreshers.

First off, hand cream.

Soap&Glory's 'Hand Food' has been my go to hand cream since I was in high school. I've switched up scents over the years but the formula has always been the same, thick and creamy and moisturising. I am a massive germaphobe, so I've always got at least two different types of sanitiser on me, using one after the other, especially on public transport, and then I follow with my trusty hand food. My beautiful baby.

Next, face moisturiser.

This little beauty you can pick up in Tesco, Asda, Bodycare, pretty much any store that stocks skincare that isn't extremely high end. It's only 99p, and you get an amazing amount of product for such a little tub (it can go in your hand luggage with no problem). You can use it for body, hands and your face, but I personally use it for just my face. Sometimes travelling can take a toll on your face, the recycled air making your skin dry and irritated, so I always have this to hand. Plus, its super moisturising, and smells amazing.

Now, I switch between these two products, but always have both with me: moisturisers.

Again, both Soap&Glory. Again, both absolutely beautiful. I have been known to disappear into the plane bathrooms just to use these, because I feel like I need a little bit of pampering. 'The Righteous Butter' is the original S&G body butter, and it's got the classic rose and bergamot scent. 'Sugar Crush' is for when I need a little bit of a 'ZING' in my life. It's citrusy, sugary, sweet and zingy! It wakes me up instantly. My bathroom is full of these travel sized products, because even when I'm not travelling, they're perfect for taking to visit friends, and it saves a heck of a lot of space.

These four products save my life whenever I need them to, and I will live by them until I find anything that makes me feel even half as good as these do.

I hope you enjoyed this post, thank you for reading, and as always -

I'll see you next time, then.

Ree xo

Serious Sunday - How Working Out Helped My Mental Health

Hello, lovelies!

I figured I would start a new series on this blog - Serious Sunday. Above all things I want to keep this blog true to what it started as... An honest, open insight into my life.

If you've been reading for a while you'll know I suffer from a wide variety of issues. Both mental and physical. From anxiety, to depression, to BPD, to OCD, there isn't a place in my head that feels like a "safe" place some days. That is where the gym has come in. In the last six months I have seen improvements in my mental health, as well as physically, just from going to the gym three to four times a week.

When I'm stressed - gym. When I'm angry - gym. When I'm happy - you bet I'm at the freaking gym. Spending that hour, two hours, three hours, on my body and focusing my mind on nothing else is incredibly therapeutic. I sleep better, I pay more attention to what goes into my body, I feel like I can breathe better. It doesn't matter if all I do is run on the treadmill for 45 minutes, and then picture who ever has pissed me off's face on the matt while I medicine ball slam out all my anger.

Working out, for me, is a way of clearing my mind. The thoughts that spend so long every day trying to pull me apart are the last thing on my mind, because I'm too busy focusing my mind on the muscles I'm working. On the same note - clearing my mind helps distract me from my physical aches and pains brought on by my Fibromyalgia. Of course there are still days when I physically can't go to the gym because my body needs to rest, but they are a lot fewer and far between than they were before, which is strange considering I've been working my body more, right?

My muscles are getting more used to being worked in such a way that Fibro pains, whilst still constant and always present, aren't as debilitating as they were before.

Basically, the point of this post, working out has changed that way I look at life, the way I look at my body, and the way I look at myself. I have a much healthier relationship with my body, and a much more positive outlook on life. It's true what Elle Woods says: "Exercise gives you endorphin's, endorphin's make you happy, happy people don't just shoot their husbands."

I hope you guys don't mind the addition of these more serious posts!

I'll see you next time, then.

Ree xo

Lush Granny Takes A Dip Bath Bomb Review

Hello, lovelies!

Now, I know I posted a Lush review not too long ago, but I've been having a very bad time of it with my mental health state this past week -- hence the horrific lack of posts, and a good Lush bath is a way for me to relax and try to bring myself back to myself. So, that's what I did.

This time it's their "Granny Takes A Dip" bath bomb!

"This ginger, pepper and lemon-scented bath bomb turns your water psychedelic and puts some colour in your life. Simply drop into a warm bath and watch as it's fizzing centre dissolves into multi-coloured waters. It's spicy, citrusy scent will pep you up: lemon oil boost the mood, while ginger and pepper are warming." - lush.co.uk

The colours and scents of this bath bomb are completely mesmerizing. I was totally drawn to it when I seen it in the store, and I recognised it from a lot of blog posts very much like this one, singing it's praises. Pairing this with a mix of The 1975 and One Direction's new album (Stockholm Syndrome could come on while I'm in public and I'd still find a way to bust out some horrific singing) playing, I managed to bring myself from my slump, to somewhat human.

 

It took a good while for it to fizz through all the colours completely, and every time I noticed a new colour coming through I had to snap photos of it. In fact, a friend of mine received a Snapchat video of how cool it was. I was totally blown away.

Eventually, the water does settle into a deep purple colour, much like Vimpto.

Typical bath photo, but I couldn't get over just how lovely the colour had gone. My cousin had recently told me that when she used this bath bomb, the colour had gone a lot more murky, and I've seen a few people on here say so as well, but I was more than impressed. It left my skin lovely and smooth, like most lush products should, and I still smell vaguely like ginger.

Overall, I absolutely loved it. One again everything Lush has done with this is completely perfect, from colour to design to scent, I have another new favourite to add to my ever growing list.

Just a short post to get me back into the swing of writing, because I always seem to lose touch with it when I'm struggling. I hope this was alright for you all, lovelies, and as usual -

I'll see you next time, then.

Ree xo

Day In The Life: Pamper Time

Hello, lovelies!

Sometimes at the end of a long week, I like to spend my Saturdays completely pampering myself to get rid of the aches and pains. Starting from the minute I wake up to the minute I go to bed, the day is spent with lotions and potions to make myself feel better.

That's how I spent my Saturday this week, and I figured why not turn it into a day in the life type post? Since I'm an incredibly nosy person (don't lie, you are too) and I love reading these kinds of posts and watching these kinds of vlogs, I'm doing one of my own.

First things first? I've gotta wake up.

My alarm goes off at 9:30, which means I actually manage to pull myself from bed around 10:30, after checking my emails and scrolling through my Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter and Instagram feeds.

It may be a lazy day, but that doesn't mean I'm not gonna make my bed. In my opinion, even if the rest of my room is a mess, it doesn't matter when my beds made. Plus, why would I pass up an opportunity to cover my bed in adorable cushions?

Breakfast! My favourite meal of the day as of recently. I treated myself to a chocolate covered waffle (which I then added more Nutella to) and strawberries, a bowl of honey Cheerios without milk, and a glass of orange juice! Quite a big breakfast for me (I used to never eat until dinner time,) so I was quite proud of myself for finishing all of this.

Usually while I'm eating I'll have a flick through Marie Claire, or like this weekend, cry over how amazingly beautiful Elie Saab's Haute Couture collection at Paris Fashion Week was.

Once I've finished and washed all my dishes, I'll go run myself a bath. This weekend I used Lush's Candy Mountain Bubble Bar, which smells absolutely divine, and lost myself in the bubbly wonderland it created. I'll usually shave etc while I'm in the bath because again, it always makes me feel better. Using Soap & Glory's Clean On Me as a shaving cream always leaves my legs feeling super super soft, and even though you're not really supposed to use their Sugar Crush Body Scrub after shaving I always do, just to keep that extra smoothness in.

My bath is always accompanied by good music, and recently I've been obsessed with Hozier's album, so of course I was listening to it.

After I'm done in the bath, I'll jump into the shower to wash my hair. Anyone else do that? Bath then straight into the shower?

I've only started using this shampoo and conditioner again recently, there was a L'Oreal one that I was OBSESSED with, but I decided to pick this one up again when I dyed my hair, and I remembered why I love it so much. It keeps my hair nice and smooth and soft and fluffy, and it keeps my colour nice and bright. Which is great, because if it didn't I'd be dying my hair every three weeks.

Once all of that is out of the way, I'll retreat back to my bedroom for another hour and go wild with the lotions. Soap & Glory are my holy grail for lotion, so I use their Hand Food, Righteous Body Butter, and Heel Genius. They're all pretty self explanatory.

For drying my hair, I'll always put Avon's Argon Oil onto it, and then Schwarzkopf's Got2B Guardian Angel heat protection! I've noticed the biggest reduction in split ends since I started using these, and the spray does have such a lovely smell to it. Neither are very expensive either, so if you're like me and use a lot of it at a time, you're not going to go broke trying to keep your stash up to date.

It's very rare that I'll actually wear make-up on a Saturday if I'm not going out, but if I do, I'll go very light with just some concealer, eyebrows and mascara. 

The rest of my day? I spend it vegging out on the sofa with Netflix. This weekend I was babysitting, so a grand majority of my Saturday was spent watching Barbie's Dream House and Bugs Life, but when my niece and nephew leave it'll be onto Sons Of Anarchy (Jax Teller? Hello there!)

That's it! I hope you enjoyed this post my lovelies!

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See you next time, then!

Ree xo