Hi everyone!! I thought for today's post I'd change it up a little bit and go back to my beauty post roots and do a skincare routine!

I'm a lucky girl in the sense that I've never had particularly problem skin, in that it's always been pretty clear and I've managed to stay away from hormone spots and just spots and acne in general. But, I've suffered with dry and sensitive skin for quite a few years, not to the eczema extent but especially in winter it can get very patchy and peely and just a little gross in general. Because of my skin tone as well, I get a lot of blotchiness and redness around my nose and cheeks, again more pronounced in extreme weather conditions.

I don't tend to change my skincare up too much, since I stick to products my skin likes and if I change it too much it gets kind of angry at me, hence why I've never done one of these posts, but I thought it'd be quite fun to guide you through mine and tell you the products I've found to work the best for my skin type and sensitivity.

Water!!

The first "product" we'll start out with, however basic, is water. I try and drink two litres every day and it does wonders for my dryness, and as well as that, instead of cleansing every day I just splash some on my face morning and evening and we're golden.

Garnier Oil Infused Micellar Water

This is one of those genius new makeup removers that has a layer of oil on top and you simply shake the two components together before soaking a cotton pad and gently taking off your makeup. I use this firstly so that my eyelids (one of THE dryest parts of my face) get a little bit of an oil boost, and also because it just dissolves makeup so well. I'm rough enough taking my makeup off as it is, as I tend to do it as quickly as possible because it's simply a job I don't like doing! But I do always do it and this makeup remover makes it a much gentler job for me and much less effort. It's also pretty cheap too!

Palmer's Cocoa Butter Cleansing Oil

When I do cleanse my face, this is what I use. I do this two or three times a week just to get some more moisture into my skin, and this product is definitely the best oil cleanser I've tried. I did try the L'Oreal one too, and while I like it, it leaves a sticky residue that I don't feel I get with the Palmer's one. This one also smells amazing and is cheaper than the L'Oreal one which is always nice, and makes a really lovely foamy lather on your face too. It also does a really great job at removing any residue makeup that the makeup remover doesn't quite grab.

L'Oreal Hydra Genius Moisturiser for Dry & Sensitive Skin

I've been meaning to do a review for this moisturiser for the longest time because I just love it! Before you come at me, I am of course aware that L'Oreal is not a cruelty free makeup brand, and while there isn't really an excuse, I am just going to say I bought this when it was a third off the price in Boots, and because I'm a student I do tend to go for the cheapest products I can get rather than putting anything else as high priority - please don't think this makes me a bad person! I know there are other moisturisers that do the same sort of thing as this for the same normal price but considering it was reduced I did just go for it as it was the cheapest. That aside, this product genuinely is fantastic and it's honestly worked wonders for my skin this winter. My dryness is seriously reduced, plus it did the most fantastic job at minimising my sunburn peeling after I stupidly didn't wear suncream on a skiing holiday! Definitely will not be going back to normal cream moisturisers after using this, I am completely sold on the liquid gel formula ones now.

The Ordinary Lactic Acid 5% + HA 2%

This is one of those products that I never would have put in a skincare routine as I've always been one to keep it as simple as possible, with a moisturiser, makeup remover and a cleanser. I don't tend to faff around with eye creams and toners and whatever but when I was looking through The Ordinary on BeautyBay, this caught my eye as I've heard lactic acid in small concentrations is really good for evening skin tone and getting rid of dryness so thought I'd give this a go and so far so good! I'm definitely noticing a difference in my skin tone and my dry patches have definitely been reduced too!

What do your skincare routines look like?

Em xx

A List Of Little But Important Things

As long time readers of my little corner of the internet will know, I've struggled with my mental health for about five or so years now - I've been formally diagnosed with clinical depression and informally (aka by a psychiatrist not a GP) diagnosed with mild bipolar. I've also struggled with self-harm and one suicide attempt, and it's fair to say that I've had a ride and a half. But, this Mental Health Awareness Week, I've hit 214 days clean of cutting (which is also 7 months) which is the longest I've been since 2015. It's safe to say I'm in a much happier place in general than I have been in a long time and while this week has brought a pretty huge setback (check my Twitter if you wanna keep up with ALL the rants about a certain male) I'm still okay. It doesn't feel like that all the time but in general, I'm okay. 

One of the reasons I'm more okay than I have been is Dodie's book 'Secrets For The Mad' which my friend lent me a few weeks ago and I made my way through it slowly but surely, the same way I've made it through the past five years. One of the things in Secrets For The Mad is a list of 'little but important things' and when I read this page I immediately made one of these lists for myself. It's a very little thing to do but I add to mine on the basis that every time I smile about something, it goes on that list. I have it in my journal which I always have on me and sometimes, when I feel like I need to go and have a cry or be angry, I nip to my room, stick some Friends on, write about my sadness or anger and then I look at my list of little but important things. And there hasn't been a time when I haven't smiled at that list, so I thought I'd share with you the content of my list. It's a little, but very important, thing to do for self-care and your mental health - for me, it's more than just a list of things that make me smile, it's also been a list of reasons to stay alive. It's been a list of reasons to keep going, to stay clean, to look after myself and make sure that I'm okay. And so here they are.

"Little But Important Things"

The softness of my mum's cardigans when I hug her

Mine and my dad's identical (and stupid) sense of humour

Cathedral City cheddar cheese

A cup of tea made by a friend/Dad

Certain note patterns in certain songs

Reading

My starsign and laughing at my horoscope

Dog kisses

Cuddles when the person completely wraps you up

Being able to just cry and cry and cry

Daffodils

The light you get with rainbows

Friends who want me to come out with them

Putting together a really good outfit

Big jumpers and Big scarves

Snow! We love snow

Laughing until I can't actually breathe

Sunny morning light in my room

Opening windows on rainy days

The smell of a fresh rainfall

The way my dad appreciates things

The way my mum mutters to herself on the food shop

Waitrose decaf Earl Grey tea just before bed

"Smile at least 11.5 times today" (a message I received from a friend)

Matte nail top coats

There's more, but that's where I'll leave it for today. 

What's on your 'little but important things' list?

Em xx

The Ordinary Skincare | A Wee Review

Hello guys and gals!! So following my last slightly heavier blog post I thought I'd lighten things up a little and get back to the reason why I started blogging in the first place and go for a fun post about The Ordinary skincare and makeup.

The Ordinary is a brand I'd never heard of before but came across when I was scrolling through Beauty Bay and decided to give it a go, given that their serum foundation was only £5.75 and placed an order there and then. I only picked up three products because broke buttt the ones I did pick up I do absolutely love!! 

My VPS Story | The Conditions That Are Very Real And Very Unknown

Wow. This post has taken me a while to get up the courage to write and hit publish on, but it's here, I'm doing it, and following a diagnosis and my first therapy session I think I can finally start talking about this. It might be a little TMI for some people so I don't know, if you don't like reading about sex and whatever then don't carry on reading and seriously if you're a family member I don't think you'll want to so stop right here!! It's also a pretty long one so grab a cup of tea and perhaps a snacklet and buckle up.

May Bullet Journal

Weeee it's time for another bullet journal update!! You'd be right in thinking I didn't do one for April since I kind of messed up my colour scheme and calendar a little bit and just generally wasn't too keen, but I absolutely love how May's turned out, so let's jump in...

My colour scheme was a little limited, as I mentioned in this post I've been stuck at home for a week longer than planned, so left pretty much all my pens up in Manchester, so was restricted to my pastel highlighters and that was about it! But, the blue was perfect for May so I decided to go for a blue scheme with these cute little yellow and blue flower doodles. As usual, I used my Pentel Fude Touch sign pen for the 'hello' and then the block caps and cursive font for the 'May'.

Life In April & May Goals

pouty girl

I think it's been a couple of months since I did one of these posts!! But here you go, you got a new one and it's pretty busy.

Pretty much just like April. April was busy. That's literally all I can say about it. We arrived back from an amazing skiing holiday (there are pictures on my personal instagram @emilia_rxchael) once more on the 9th and it was back to uni about two days, straight back to some lovely power cuts and what was pretty much a massive shitstorm going down at my uni accommodation. A few days away from a massive deadline it was exactly what I didn't need but luckily everything got fixed in the nick of time but you best believe I held back a good chunk of my rent! Deadlines pretty much characterised April, I had two 3000 word essays due a week apart and honestly, after the amount of time I spent in the library I think I went slightly delirious. "Business" life (well, blog life, who are we kidding here) has been going swimmingly, I designed a shiny new media kit and hit 800 followers on my Instagram, and hoping to hit 900 very soon, as well as Twitter spiking a little bit too!! Very proud of myself.

Personal side of life in April kind of fell apart, I'm not going to lie. Me and the person I was seeing had to end our 'relationship' - look, I don't really know what it was, it was a complicated situation in the first place and will continue to be complicated so we've had to take a break over summer to reevaluate. It makes me sad, but I know right now it's definitely the best thing for us and our friendship right now. But, I really did enjoy the few days of sunshine we had, the sun always makes me feel so much better and spending some time with my friends has been much needed. 

smiley girl!!!

Unfortunately April ended with a trip home and a contraction of a pretty nasty tonsillitis infection so I'm currently staying at home a week longer than expected to recover before heading back to Manchester on Monday to finish up some last bits, attend some appointments (hair and doctor's and the like) and pack stuff I need over summer before moving back home and pretty much throwing myself into the full time work life. 

So what are May's goals? To be honest, not many. I'd love to hit 900 followers on my Instagram and maybe even 1000? I managed to gain about 200 in April so you never know, it could happen but I'm definitely not getting my hopes up with the state of Instagram these days!! I'm hoping to film a few tutorials while I'm alone at the flat and doing nothing next week so hopefully the YouTube game will be upped once more. I'd like to get back into running and start doing Parkrun with my Dad once I move home, but depending on my work shift pattern it may or may not happen! But nevertheless, as it starts getting warmer and lighter in the evenings we'll definitely go running around our village. Part of me wants to join a gym with my little sister but I don't know if I'll have the money for that so we'll see!! 

I don't want to set myself too many goals as like I said, I'll be working 40 hours a week and that won't leave so much time for anything else, so I don't want to be too harsh on myself! 

What are your goals for May?

Em xx