Santa baby

Christmas is my favourite time of year ever ever ever. Aside from the obvious giving and receiving of presents it's romantic, my family try not to argue for the duration of the day and it's an excuse to eat three times your recommended calorie intake. What's not to love?

I normally start writing my ''Christmas list'' in June like an over excited 4 year old but this year I've left it relatively late. Here's a very ambitious list of things I'd really like to open Christmas day...

[plus my dad/boyfriend read my blog and there's no harm in hinting]

Firstly - I am nowhere near as spoilt as this list indicates. This list is almost a ''if money were no object'' kind of thing.

A Fitbit - A serial yo-yo dieter I go through phases of being utterly obsessed with exercise to not giving a damn. This amazing gadget not only tracks your calorie burn but also monitors your sleep pattern - which by trial and error will allow you to sleep more soundly. It tells you how long you slept and if you woke up at all. It also tracks your steps, distance travelled so will make losing weight/calorie monitoring much easier. Hooray! The strap itself looks a lot more comfortable than other calorie counters on the market. For obvious reasons its imperative I get it in pink. Duh

The Too Faced Beauty Wishes & Sweet Kisses gift set - I've said it before and I'll say it again - I love Too Faced Cosmetics! This particular gift set includes 3 lush eyeshadows, 2 bronzers & a lipgloss. The Snow Bunny bronzer is one of my all time favourites so I'm dead excited at the prospect of getting another one. [In the time it has taken for me to write this post I have ordered this for myself. Patience is not a virtue I possess clearly.]

DISNEYLAND! I went to Disneyland earlier this year and I loved it. I am determined to drag my poor, long suffering boyfriend back there whether its against his will or not. The happiest place on earth is top of my list for 2015!

Emporio Armani Watch - I think this particular one is feminine and dainity and will go with absolutely anything.If I'm not fortunate enough to get it for Christmas it'll be a student loan day present to myself in January. Haters gon' hate.

Ted Baker Coat - How beaut is this coat? Definitely not a colour to everyone's taste but I love it. The most expensive thing on my list and with zero to none chance of me getting it - a girl can dream right? I love trench coats as I feel like they're a dressing gown it's socially acceptable to wear outdoors. So the fact this one is pink really speaks to me. Plus given the hefty price tag (£399!) and that it's Ted Baker its guaranteed to be well lined, good quality and last for many winters to come. I would almost consider it an investment ;)

Alien perfume - the perfume I have repurchased more than any other. I truly believe this perfume to be very unique and doesn't smell quite like anything else on the market. A very evening/night out scent, I wear it all bloody day.


So this is my round up of superficial things I'd like to open Christmas Day. What are you asking for this year? Is your list more modest than mine?

 On a side note, there are definitely more important things about Christmas than the presents. But there's no harm in indulging in the commercial side of it if only a little ;) This is a great time to donate any of your unwanted items to charity so someone perhaps less fortunate can too open something lovely on Christmas Day.

7 things you learn while being a student

I have had a nightmare 2 weeks at uni. Deadlines coming out my ears with various misspelled assignment briefs has left relatively straightforward assignments 100 times harder. When I sit and think about what I've actually learned this year, I feel I've learned more in terms of ''how to survive uni'' than anything particularly marketing related. Which is great given the amount of debt I'm getting in to study marketing. Awesome. Below are the 7 things I've learned:

1) It doesn't matter how much notice you're given on an assignment deadline, you will leave it till the last minute and have numerous nervous breakdowns 48 hours before it's due in. You will then vow to never leave it that late again before starting - but of course, you never really learn. Procrastination is rife and watching Harry Potter start to finish is vastly more important than starting your 3,500 word report.

2) The importance of Coffee/energy drinks/your energy boost of choice. Largely tied in with the point above, without coffee I would never have the energy or willpower to stay up till 2am the day before a deadline finishing off an assignment. In fact before coming to uni I never even drank coffee. I owe at least 50% of my degree to coffee. God bless you.

3) Coming to uni and going to lectures essentially means you're paying 9 grand a year to watch someone talk over a Powerpoint presentation. That's pretty much it. (I hope for the love of god none of my lecturers ever stumble across this I can't see it going down well) But yeah. A bit depressing when you think of the utter ball ache assignments are in comparison to the role they actually play in it,

4) There is nothing more soul destroying than group work. It makes you question whether or not you're a sociopath due to your pure hatred for having to interact with other human beings to get a piece of work done. More often than not it's left till the last minute which results in mad panic meetings the day before the deadline. I see a trend appearing...

5) With looming deadlines, daily lectures and other social commitments sleep soon becomes a luxury rather than a god given right. I, for the past 2 weeks have realised how much I in fact take sleep for granted. There's a common misconception that all students do is nap all day. I'd like to know who these students are and what they're studying.

6) The library, the place you scoffed at during your first year is now your second home. The only place that is dull enough to make doing assignments the more appealing option. Before deadlines I've calculated I've actually spent more time in the library than in my own house - unbelievably depressing.

7) Declaring yourself poverty stricken 3 weeks after your student loan has been and gone. Doesn't matter how much or how little you're entitled to, it just never stretches far enough. The gap from September to January is a never ending cycle of eating whatever discounted, inedible food Tesco have on offer/weird concoctions you can create with what's left in the fridge. How are we expected to pay rent and go out 4 times a week with this?

So any sixth formers reading this wondering whether to go to uni or not - do it. It's SO worth it..


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Bring back the sisterhood

People can be very unkind to each other. For 80% of my childhood I was picked on for one thing or another ''your ears stick out'' ''your eyes are too far apart''  etc etc. Until the age of 18 I rarely wore my hair up due to the insecurities in bedded in me due to bullies picking on me for my ears.

Today I caught sight of myself in a shop window while wearing my hair up and noticed my ears. But rather than thinking ''bugger me jug ears'' I realised how far I'd come in relation to letting go of being paranoid about something so trivial and wearing my hair up regardless of the taunts I once suffered. I then thought you know what? I wanna share this.

Being obsessed with makeup is one thing but true self acceptance - staring your flaws in the face and being ok with them is the first step towards self love. (With the exception of Adam Levine) nobody's perfect. Everyone regardless of how poised they appear on the outside have parts of themselves they aren't crazy about - and that's life. Imperfections are what make us unique. But learning to love yourself regardless of these and accepting yourself for who you are is the first step towards self acceptance - and believe me one you accept yourself for you all you'll want to do is compliment everyone and make them feel good too. A compliment can totally make someone's day and may even help them to see themselves in a better light. Self confidence is life changing.

We as women have the worst reputation for backstabbing each other ''it's all that oestrogen'' - possibly the worst and most offensive stereotype ever. Rather than spending time knocking each other's bodies, life choices, clothes etc we should be encouraging each other to be the best we can be. We have enough trouble juggling work, uni deadlines, rent and all the other crap we have to deal with without added female fuelled drama. Just because we all have ovaries doesn't mean it's ok to be total bitches to one another. Let's rise above it girls.

The idea of a sisterhood, a society within society whereby women empower each other as opposed to wanting to claw each other's eyes out is the dream. The sooner we accept ourselves and stop projecting negative energy on each other the sooner we'll be rid of the awful stereotype that ''women are all bitches''. More often than not nastiness and bullying is a defence mechanism - so I say we nip this in the bud and just accept ourselves warts and all.

And if Mean Girls taught me one thing it's ''Calling somebody else fat won't make you any skinnier. Calling someone stupid doesn't make you any smarter. And ruining Regina George's life definitely didn't make me any happier. All you can do in life is try to solve the problem in front of you.''

That and it's totally acceptable to go out in your underwear on Halloween. 

Smashbox Studio Skin

When I find a new beauty product I actually love everyone needs to knows about it. My boyfriend will pretend to listen to me bleat on about it for ages because it's actually quite a rarity. So many products claim to reduce pores, even out skin tone, do your washing up for you and very few actually deliver on any of their promises. You'd only need to see how many foundations I've accumulated over the years to realise this.

I've been on the look out for a full coverage foundation to wear on nights out and the morning after nights out (I'm an eye bag lady). Cue Smashbox Studio Skin foundation! I was lucky enough to score a free full size one of these due to Smashbox's promotional event ''Foundation Friday''. Best freebie ever! Smashbox is a brand that is relatively new to me but I have to say I am desperately falling in love with it. Genuine quality, no gimmicky packaging and reasonably priced for premium makeup. It's a winner.

The coverage of this foundation is on another level. The best part of which is you don't need to apply much to achieve medium to full coverage. One application is more than enough to get a perfect looking complexion from top to bottom. I got the shade 2.2 due to my incessant need to fake tan - and I have to say this is a very very good match for my faux skin tone. It also claims to have hydrating properties which basically means it won't dry you out while you wear it - which is another massive bonus as with most foundations I've tried (except bareSkin) my skin is haggered and dry at the end of the day. Not with Studio Skin. My skin feels as if I haven't worn anything.

Now for the best part.....due to the fact Smashbox as a brand started behind the scenes on photo shoots and runway shows all their makeup looks exceptional in photos flash or no flash. My skin in photos with this foundation on looks like it was crafted by Jesus Christ himself. Beautiful. So if you, like me take 3972 photos on nights out/days in/any occasion this foundation is perfection. The fact it stays put for 15 hours is also great for nights out - I wore this on a night out recently and didn't need to reapply or touch up at all it was a makeup revelation for me. (Normally by 1 am my foundation is sliding off my face and making a dash for my neck. Not ideal)

Studio Skin is £28 and worth it! It was love at first pump for me (?!) and I can tell you now if you're looking for a medium to full coverage foundation you'll love it too. For best results apply after a primer and you'll have beaut makeup sorrrrrrted.