10 things I definitely should not have done this week...

As humans we tend to beat ourselves up about less than trivial things. 'I can't BELIEVE I did that', 'I can't BELIEVE I did this', never mind the amount of times we judge other people in a day. Yesterday I decided that no matter how rubbish I feel about some of the silly things and annoyingly blatant mistakes I've made in the last seven days, I know that other people, everywhere, will be feeling the same about one thing or another. So for anyone feeling rubbish about their week, here's ten things I wish I hadn't done in the last seven days.

1. Ordered a jumper from an American site without checking whether the customs fees were included in the price.
2. Paid the customs fees so all in all paid £23 for delivery of a £16 jumper.
3. Accidentally drank 0 litres of water all day and ended up with cystitis.
4. Spent my last £40 on a pair of Topshop trousers. Jacket potatoes and pasta for the next week then.
5. Suggested shots in Font, Lola Lo's AND Digital.
6. Fell off the podium in Digital.
7. Woke my studious boyfriend up at 3am.
8. Woke my boyfriend's housemates up at 3.10 am.
9. Ate bodyweight of McDonalds.
10. Put soy sauce on smoked haddock (such a mistake!)


xx

We should just do more nice things...

After living in the library for a solid three weeks and stressing over every single word of my assignments, I finally reached my deadline and waved goodbye to ten coffees a day; crazy half hour periods at about 4pm where I wondered whether I was actually insane and finally, procrastinating for hours on ASOS. (Obviously I'm still going to procrastinate on ASOS, but this time, guilt-free thank you).

And yes, I was more than ready for a glass of Rose, or four.

So me and the girls got on our heels and skirts and hit Brighton town. Or in Hannah's case, her jumpsuit which as you can see, was fabulous.

So the night was a classic, cheap doubles on a Tuesday and chips on the way home, but my oh my, did I feel those doubles in the morning. I also had A LOT of making up to do due to the fact that I (in spite of being told not to), banged on the boyfriend's window at 3 am, kept him awake all night snoring and errr...he has deadlines this week. I am horrendous and I felt like the WORST human the next day.

So two lovely things happened. The first one was that my housemate bought me a bunch of flowers. Just because and I quote, 'you just seemed like you needed a bunch of flowers today'
SAY WHAT? So nice, right?

The next was that I asked myself, what on earth can I do to make things right with the boyf?
Well, we all know the way to a man's heart...just one of the lessons we learn from our wiser and more experienced mothers. FOOD.

It was the least I could do really, so I ventured out to Sainsbury's, feeling horrendous but determined.
Finally I arrived home and whipped up the tastiest Paella I've ever made. For some reason, the fact I was hungover seemed to work a treat, I threw in everything I could find - I still felt a little drunk so my inhibitions on what spices to use (and buy) were at an all time low and I found myself crunching saffron strands and measuring out turmeric...

It went down perfectly and amazingly the spices were just right. I think I'm forgiven but it made me think, we should do nice things more often. My day was completely made by the flowers - how nice that someone would think of you like that? And the Paella, I needed to do something nice to make something better, but it should be done more often. I decided that since Shill has deadlines and I've finished mine, I can make things easier for him in little ways. Tonight I'm making Indian spiced Shepherd's Pie...lets see how that one goes!

Why I love The White Pepper...

You know that feeling you get when you stumble across a new online boutique that perfectly epitomises your style and fashion? This is how I felt when I came across The White Pepper on ASOS Marketplace.

I often trail through the boutiques on Marketplace - with so many different styles there's definitely something for everyone. And The White Pepper was definitely one for me.

Beginning on Tumblr in 2011, The White Pepper have come a long way and are now stocked in Topshop, ASOS, zooq.com and other international retailers. As well as, of course there own online store which is beautifully designed - simplistic and stylish - just like their couture!

I love The White Pepper style because it combines a cute-vintage look with timeless designs and prints. Cute dresses, collars and printed shirts and skirts are classic pieces which are so versatile they could be worn with anything. I love the simplicity of their designs too. Whilst they have some eye-catching polka dot prints and glittery numbers, especially during the party season, my favourite pieces are the classic, smock style dresses and shirts which can be easily layered and accessorised. And speaking of accessories - where else can you get a clutch bag shaped like a Unicorn?

Their selection of brogues and boots is also enough to make anyone weak at the knees - a beautifully unique collection of stylish wedges of pastel colours, browns and blacks - they would look perfect coupled with any of their cute dresses or skirts.

I'm excited about The White Pepper, they seem to have so much ahead of them and I cannot wait to see what's coming next, bring on SS'14!

Here are a few of my favourites:

This beautiful combination of a lace shirt and a sleeveless white leather dress is definitely a winner!

How cute are these sparkly tights?!

Staying true to my Northern roots...

So me, Amy and Jen went for dinner and drinks last night at Browns. Amazing, two courses for £10 throughout January. Obviously no sophisticated girly meal is complete without a cocktail and this fabulous number titled, 'Liverpool Limelight' was ALL alcohol in classic Northern style. Koko Kanu rum, strawberry liquour and champagne! Laavleeey.

After all, things change, so do cities, people come into your life and they go. But it's comforting to know that the ones you love are always in your heart...

Leaving a place that you adore is very unsettling. Made even worse when you leave behind people you love and are forced to break out of a bubble that you’re very content in. Living in Brighton has been the happiest three years of my life! I’ve met people who I want to know forever and someone I never want to be apart from! And I’ve never said that about anyone…So the thought of leaving is very strange. 

I never planned on being here either…if I’d revised a little more for my Chemistry A-level I could be sat in Newcastle right now. None of my other friends were going further south than Nottingham; one of us was even living at home. But as I got older I was enchanted by ideas of big cities; the images of London in my glossy magazines and the colourful terraced houses in Skins captured me irreversibly and soon became an itch I had to scratch.

As soon as I got to Brighton I felt like this was the place I was meant to be. It sounded ridiculous but anywhere south of Birmingham felt like another world which deep down, underneath expectations, I wanted to be a part of. When I selected Brighton as my insurance choice, I always wondered if I would end up here.

Me and Cath have been planning travelling since we were sixteen. Five years ago! But we underestimated how difficult it would be to save at Uni (especially living in Brighton, by the way. Maybe I should have considered this, but in a way, I’m glad I didn’t). My desire to go hadn’t reduced in the last five years; in fact I wanted to go more as time went on. What prospect is more enthralling than travelling the world with your best friend?! I can’t even write about it without wanting to scream from the rooftops with excitement.

Up until about two days ago I thought I could save up money working full time in Brighton, but after long consideration, I realised the impossibility of this; with having to pay rent, bills, live and fund my lifestyle, moving back to Manchester seems like the only realistic option.

I’m terrified if I’m honest…Shill will hopefully be in London so it’s not too tragic, two hours on the train every weekend is something we can and will do. And all the girls will be at home. For those of you who are in long distance relationships, maybe even transatlantic, I’m sorry if you’re thinking, ‘my god girl, you wanna try living in MY shoes’. But I’m a bit of a hopeless case when it comes to missing someone. When he went travelling last Summer, 85% of my brain was occupied at all times. Yeah, I know what I sound like!

It’s not just that, it’s the girls. Hannah! One thing I did in this whole decision is completely fuck up my organisation.  I told Hannah we would live together next year and then obviously had to retract this, for which I feel very guilty about. And not just guilty, disappointed! Living with Hannah would have been so much fun, we would have made a hilarious team.

There’s so much talk about starting Uni…but what about finishing? I genuinely think it is just, if not more daunting. At least when you start you have a whole year to get used to it by getting drunk, getting fat and sleeping.  (Y)

Women will kiss fifteen 'frogs' before they get hitched...

During January and May when exam season comes around and I’m forced to live in the library, dragged kicking and screaming by the pressures of time (and by those people who finish everything four weeks before their deadlines), I tend to go through a phase every day (or ten times a day) which nearly everyone will know as procrastination.

Today, like any other day, I scrolled through Topshop’s New In section, devoured Company magazine's website and flickered around on Daily Mail. Yeah I know, I had it coming…

Funnily enough I didn’t find this piece of information on Daily Mail, I found it on Msn News but it doesn’t matter because it was everywhere last week and somehow with my head in a pile of books and skinny coffees, I missed it.

I quote, ‘The average woman will kiss 15 men, enjoy two long-term relationships and have her heartbroken twice before she meets 'The One', a study reveals’.

WHAT?!

I’m aware that by challenging this I am running the risk of coming off quite badly, but please what on earth? I think I speak for every woman everywhere when I say that this is just not true.

‘The statistics emerged in a study commissioned to mark the paperback release of the international bestseller The Rosie Project - a tale of one man's quest to find his perfect wife’.

Did these women never play spin the bottle when they were 15?! Some of my friends could and have achieved this in one night. Maybe not the four bad dates but fifteen kisses? Okay it’s a lot but I’m pretty sure it’s happened. Fifteen kisses girls, this is all we are allowed before ‘research’ claims we have to settle for life? If this is true me and my friends would be celebrating our 4^th wedding anniversaries right about now, because I’m pretty sure we kissed fifteen boys between the ages of 14 and 17. I mean what’s a kiss anyway? Is it a peck? A full-on tongue down your throat? Or the one that’s sort of in the middle, like a peck but more?

I can deal with the other parts of this statement, they’re believable yeah, two long term relationships, two broken hearts, sounds about right for averages.

But then I scrolled down. And this is only the half of it.

All of the disaster dates, mismatched relationships and awkward one night stands can leave many feeling like they are never going to meet their soul mate.

The study of 2,000 Brits who say they have already met 'The One' found that women will also go on seven dates - as well as a further two blind dates and two dates with someone they met over the internet.

But men will enjoy eight dates, three blind dates and meet three people online.

The study also revealed that men will have six relationships - two of which will last more than a year, while women will have five.

Men and women both face getting cheated on once in their quest to find 'The One' - but the average adult will also be the cheater on at least one occasion in their dating lifetime.

Brits will also go through one long distance relationship before finally settling down.

But it also emerged that almost six in ten Brits reached a point where they felt they were never going to find 'The One'.

And another 59 per cent said they think their path to their 'Happy Ever After' was a difficult one.

Eight in ten adults said they met the one when they least expected it, while more than a quarter said their current partner isn't the type of person they thought they would settle down with.

More than half would even describe their partner as their complete opposite.

Researchers also found that while 94 per cent of women believe in true love, just 88 per cent of men feel the same way.

Errr…is anyone else confused?

In the end I had read so many contrasting statements about the dating habits of men and women that I came to a little conclusion of my own:

Maybe, regardless of sex, we will all have a different number of relationships; sexual partners, affairs and who knows what else? Not all of us will go on a blind date or meet someone over the internet or consider our paths to true love ‘a tricky one’. Maybe some of us would never even use the phrase, ‘path to true love’ (whose with me?)

Maybe categorizing how many bad dates a woman will go on before she has her heartbroken, before she gets cheated on and eventually before she gets married is the most ridiculous piece of research to do. Will we be following this as some sort of guideline now?

No, probs not. 

The only thing my face needs right now...

Quite a few of my friends have amazing skin. I literally cannot tell when Hannah is wearing foundation - she seriously needs to be in a MaxFactor advert or something.

If you’re lucky enough to be one of those girls who can put body fake tan on your face and wake up beautifully glowing instead of wondering how you could have contracted chicken pox overnight, then you probably won’t get much out of this article.

But if you’re like me and suffer from seriously pissed off skin – I swear I just look at a bar of chocolate and I get a spot – then you may appreciate this.

I’ve just started using Clinique’s anti-blemish range – maybe I’m a bit behind and maybe you’re all like – I tried that ages ago, catch up – but up until about a year ago, I could leave a full face of make up on for an entire night and it wouldn’t make a difference. Not that I practiced that regularly, but we’ve all been there after a night out when you don’t even have the mental capability to peel off an eyelash never mind the risk of breaking your neck looking for make up wipes. I’m a newbie. I used to watch my best friend Catherine spend 45 minutes before she went to bed, cleansing, toning and moisturising and I used to think…wow, I’m so glad I don’t have to do that! Usually I don’t go to sleep until I’m physically exhausted so I couldn’t imagine anything worse than setting to at midnight. A quick Tesco value make up wipe suited me fine, but one day my skin had had enough and everything changed.

I’ve been trying the Clinique range and I’ve got to say it is amazing. Their 3-step anti-blemish routine is exactly what I needed. After being on anti-biotics for a while, I didn’t want to carry on – something felt weird about being on anti-biotics for a whole year? There was a whole host of problems so I sacked them as soon as possible. I’ll be honest I don’t think I could have gone straight onto Clinque. As anyone with acne will know, cosmetics and topical treatments are good but they’re not powerful enough in a lot of cases, especially in the early stages.

For anyone with bad skin who just uses make up wipes (I’m hoping I wasn’t the only person doing this), it really is a fact that they do not remove all the make-up. Once I started with Clinique, I couldn’t believe how much make-up I still had left on my face after only using a make-up wipe, sometimes even two just to be sure.

I highly recommend this range by Clinique, especially for fast results. It is amazing, but one piece of advice which is crucial when using this collection, is that for the first week, you’re skin will get worse before it gets better - this is because it draws everything out of your skin now rather than later; everything that would become a spot or a blemish eventually. This terrified me at first but please persevere because it is worth it.

I really feel the star of the show goes to their moisturiser, ‘Clinique Moisture Surge Intense’ RRP £32 per 50ml. A bit pricey for a moisturiser yes, but SO WORTH IT. If I’m honest I wouldn’t describe it as a moisturiser; it’s so much more. The problem is, the 3-step leaves your skin dry. It’s not so much a problem because the 3^rd step of the 3-step is a moisturiser, but as the lovely Clinique lady told me (and I personally don’t think she wasn’t just trying to sell it) you really benefit from this extra product, especially if you have dry skin anyway or combination skin (oily and dry in different places). It feels amazing; more a gel than a cream, it leaves your skin feeling sublime, completely hydrated and it doesn’t clog your pores like a lot of thick cream moisturisers. Honestly, 10/10.