Cute Outfits And New Purchases.

Cute Outfits And New Purchases.

Hello my loves, I hope you’re having a fabulous July so far! This month I finally got my last few assignments signed off for my level 4 in digital marketing which I’ve been looking forward to for what feels like the longest time. And now that my college work is all finished, I’ve got something new to look forward to – a trip away at the beginning of August! So, to prep for my little trip away next month I started having a think about all of the cute outfits I could bring along with me; which brings me to today post, some of my current favourite outfits and new purchases!

Over the last year and a half I’ve expanded my wardrobe and style so so much and that’s because I finally found the most essential item you need in your wardrobe..

CONFIDENCE!!

It sounds cheesy I know, but it’s true, having confidence and feeling great makes anything look good. Just over a year ago I was so self-conscious about how I looked and continually put my body down, and since then I’ve been on a huge self-love journey and I’m happy to say that 9 days out of 10 I have a good body love day, and on the day that I’m not feeling as great about my body as usual, I still accept my body and thank it for what it does for me.

So, now that you know that confidence is the best item in your wardrobe, here’s some cute outfits that I love to wear that I wouldn’t dream of wearing before! A lot of my favourite crop tops are from Shein because your girl is on a budget, but I’ve also got some really cute trousers and other pieces from sustainable brands like Lucy and Yak.

(Just an FYI – I’m not sponsored by any of the brands mentioned in this post but I’ve included the links to each item so you can find them easily if you wanted to get yourself any of the pieces below!)

First up we’ve got some super cute crop tops from Shein. The first four pictured are a similar shape which I found comfy and surprisingly supportive for bigger chested people (I’m an E cup for reference in case you’re wanting to pick any of these tops up) and then the two gingham tops are backless – strappy back tops which are very supportive because you can adjust the straps as you wish.

Next up we’ve got some more crop tops from Shein and two from Pretty Little Thing, the first four are Shein and the last two are Pretty Little Thing. The Shein ones are just super comfy and crop tops paired with comfy high waisted jeans and trousers are now an everyday go-to for me, and the other two are super cute for dressing up or down. I especially love the blue and white corset top because it looks so nice tucked into my jeans and gives you a really nice shape whilst still being super comfy to wear so it’s great for going out to drinks and dinner because it’s still comfy after you’ve eaten!

You know when you love a print so much that you want everything in it? Yeah, that’s how I felt when I saw this green spongebob-esk print so naturally I got it in 3 different tops! Each one is so cute and makes me feel fab everytime I wear them. (These are also Shein!).

Onto dresses! If you know me well, you know I’m not really a dress kind of gal, mainly because I always feel like I’m going to flash everyone and I struggle to find ones that I like on me due to being petite (length is usually an issue), but after buying these on a whim to continue getting out of my comfort zone I found that the different shapes and lengths these dresses are look great on! The first two are Shein and the last one is Pretty Little Thing. My personal favourite out of these three is the second one because it’s extremely supportive for big chests and is fitted in all the right places, oh and it’s lined!!

Next up we’ve got my collection of gorgeous trousers and dungarees from Lucy and Yak! They are one of my all time favourite clothing brands because not only do all their clothes fit and feel super comfortable, they’re also a smaller business who are all about sustainable clothing! And do I even need to mention how beautiful their prints are?!? And also if you were wondering, the blue mom jeans featured in my other outfits are also from Lucy and Yak and they are the comfiest best fitting jeans I’ve every bought – they’re actually high waisted rather than high rise so they sit at just the right place. The clothes are a bit pricier than other brands but 1000% worth it in my mind!

Finally we’ve got some cycle shorts and tee’s combos! I always though I couldn’t pull off the cute bike shorts and tee combos, but after debating it I bought some and now I’ve managed to gather a collection of around 8 pairs of cute patterned/coloured shorts with tee’s that look really cute with them (they’re currently in the wash but I’ve got a blue gingham pair, lilac gingham pair, black and white checked pair, pink pair, two black pairs and the two shown below). My personal favourite of these is the green gingham outfit because it’s just so cute! All of my cycle short outfits make me feel so badass and as a bonus they’re incredibly comfy!! Plus these are perfect for these really hot days where you just want to be comfy. And plus plus, you don’t get chub rub with cycle shorts!! (The Bambi tee is H&M, the green gingham shorts and cherry shorts are Asos and the Coca Cola tee is Primark!).

And that’s all of my cute outfits that I’ve got to show you for today! Maybe in a future post I’ll give you a rundown of all the cute outfits I decide to take with me on my upcoming trip away so you can see how I plan on packing for a week away in the UK during Summer (I’m pretty much 100% sure I’ll be over-packing so it’ll be interesting to see if I can keep my packing light!).

What’s your favourite piece or outfit from today’s post? Let me know in the comments below!

And remember, it doesn’t really matter what you’re wearing as long as you feel good. Your opinion about yourself is what matters, so go out, treat the world as your runway and wear what makes you feel good.

Have a fab day my lovelies!

Love,

Victoria Signature
Cute Outfits and New Purchases Pin

Glossier Makeup Review.

Glossier Makeup Review.

Hello my lovelies! It feels like ages since I last wrote but it’s only been two weeks; there wasn’t a post last week because I needed some time to relax as I’ve had family members in and out of hospital over the last few weeks. But I’m happy to say that from today everyone is now back at home. How have you been since lockdown measures have been lowered even more? Have you braved the shops yet?

As for me, I’ve avoided shopping anywhere in person due to having family members who are more at risk and because I’ve generally gotten used to just shopping online and not going out anymore! Something I’ve bought recently is a completely new collection of makeup as mine needed a serious sort through, especially because I think the majority of it (if not all of it) was out of date!

When I was scrolling through Instagram I came across Glossier, who I’ve seen and heard a little bit about from friends in the past, and decided to try out their makeup line.

Part of what made me want to try their products out was the super cute packaging, they’re cruelty free and all of the raving reviews. Plus, they seem to be all about enhancing your natural beauty and simple products that work well and are easy to apply.

Glossier Makeup Review
So, what did I order?
First impressions:

I’m a sucker for minimalism so I absolutely love the packaging and design. The products are a little smaller than they may appear but a little seems to go a long way so I don’t mind that; it also makes travelling with them a lot easier! All of the products arrived in these cute pink bubble zip lock pockets which I’m using as makeup bags as they fit everything in the perfectly.

The application and formula:

The spf formula is like a gel rather than a cream and applies smoothly to the skin and I found that it absorbed into my skin really quickly without that typical oily feeling you get with other sun creams.

The cloud paint blush comes in a small tube, which might lead you to believe that it won’t go very far, however, you only need a tiny bit as a little goes a very long way. I found that the ‘beam’ colour was very pigmented and I apply it with my fingertips to control how much I’m applying.

The boy brow gel works absolute wonders to tame and define my brows, and the formula is like a mix between a mascara and a gel in my opinion, which keeps my brow hairs in place all day. It also helps to cover up any spots of my brows that are thinner than the others (thank you early 2000’s..)!

The lash slick mascara is one of my favourite mascaras if not my all time favourite mascara purely for the fact that it just glides over my lashes and doesn’t cause them to clump together. Plus, it’s water-resistant and I found it easy to take off at the end of the day with micellar water and a cotton pad!

The lidstar cream eyeshadow formula is really creamy and has an applicator that is similar to those of liquid lipsticks. I like to apply it straight to my eyelid with the applicator and then smooth over the lid with my fingers. I picked up the colour ‘slip’ which is a shimmery pinky tone that is perfect for everyday wear.

I love the haloscope highlighter stick. It’s so incredibly easy to apply and it’s great for when you’re on the go and want a little glow. The formula is creamy and easily blended with your fingers; I like to swipe it over my cheekbones (or where my cheekbones should be..), the tip and bridge of my nose, my brow bone, temples, a little on my forehead, my chin and the cupids bow. The ‘quartz’ tone looks perfect on all skin tones and gives you a nice natural glow.

The lip glosses have a great consistency to them, they glide on easily, and stay on well without feeling too sticky. I found the formula quite thick/gloopy but still smooth and they don’t feel heavy on your lips. I love the holographic gloss as it has a pinky/blue sheen to it and then the red gloss gives you a tinted glossy look that’s effortless.

Final comments:

I absolutely love the entire collection of products I’ve picked up. They all apply extremely easily and give you a natural effortless look. All of the products are perfect for everyday use, and although are a little pricey, they’re totally worth it based on the quality of all of the formulas; and you can see the amount of thought that has gone into each product. I’d recommend Glossier to anyone looking for high quality makeup that gives you a natural glow, applies easily and is long wearing.

Since lockdown I’ve completely overhauled my makeup routine, giving up wearing foundation and finding a routine that works for me. My new routine is as follows:

  • I start by applying SPF 30 to my entire face
  • I then swipe a small amount of Bare Minerals concealer under my eyes and blend it in with a small beauty blender
  • I set the concealer with a small amount of powder
  • I then swipe boy brow gel over my brows
  • I dab on cloud paint over my cheeks and nose
  • Then I swipe haloscope over my cheekbones, tip and bridge of my nose, temples, forehead, chin and cupids bow and blend it in with my fingers
  • I apply the lidstar eyeshadow over my eyelids
  • I then curl my eyelashes and apply the lash slick mascara
  • And finish by applying a spray of setting spray followed by lip gloss

And that’s it! That’s all the makeup I wear now, I’m trying to become a lot more comfortable with showing my acne and rosacea without feeling bad or self conscious about it, and this new routine makes me feel good and I forget about my skin which is great.

If you want to see my new routine in action, let me know in the comments and I’ll film it and put it on my IGTV! Have you tried any Glossier makeup before? What are your makeup staples? Let me know!

And with that, have a great weekend my lovelies!

Love,

Victoria Blog Signature
Glossier Makeup Review Pin
DIY Embroidered Fashion.

DIY Embroidered Fashion.

Happy Saturday my lovelies! How’s everyone’s week been? Mine has just flown by, which I’m not mad at haha. Onto this weeks post! Well.. more like last weeks post to start this one. So, I had so many lovely comments on my last post and Insta about my Harry Potter House inspired outfits and my Unique Fashion post and I’ve had a few requests for a DIY for the embroidered Hogwarts tee I made, so.. of course I had to make you lovely people a tutorial!

DIY Hogwarts Pin

P.S. I love getting requests for posts so please feel free to drop any of them in the comments so I know what you want to see from me!

Plus, it’s pretty easy to make! So don’t think you cant do something before you’ve tried it just because it looks hard or scary, because you’re so capable of doing everything you set your mind to! Alright, motivational pep talk over. Let’s get into it!

Here’s what you’ll need:

  • An image you want to embroider (you can get this online or draw it yourself)
  • Tracing paper or Baking paper
  • A pencil
  • A t-shirt or any other clothes you want to embroider
  • Interfacing, enough for your design (You can find it on amazon cheap – here’s what I use, or you can use a scrap of fabric that’s fairly sturdy, linen or cotton I’d recommend!)
  • Embroidery Thread (whatever colours you want!)
  • Embroidery needle
  • Scissors
  • Embroider hoop the size of the design you want to embroider

Here’s the drawing I used for my tee, you can use it yourself if you want, and if you do, let me know how it turns out in the comments or tag me on insta @theweightofmyworlds !

Hogwarts flatlay

Step 1 : Find or draw the image you want to embroider, then if you’re using an image your found online you can either print it out or place tracing paper over the screen and trace the image you want, or draw it free hand on the paper!

Step 2 : Cut out interfacing the size of your design. Then iron it (shiny side goes to the fabric) to the underneath of where you want your design.

Step 3 : Put your fabric in the embroidery hoop and make sure the fabric is pulled tight. (I wouldn’t recommend using super stretchy fabric because the embroidery will shrink once it’s taken out of the hoop and it’ll be harder to embroider).

Hogwarts embroidery

Step 4 : Place the image on tracing paper over your hoop on your t-shirt. Then thread your needle with your chosen embroidery thread and make your first stitch through the paper, so the paper will no longer move when you’re sewing.

Hogwarts embroidery

Step 5 : Using small stitches go over your line drawing, tracing your drawing with the stitches to complete your design.

Hogwarts embroidery

Step 6 : Carefully tear away the paper (I used an unpicker to get under the tiny pieces of paper, you just need to be careful to not unpick your stitches!) to reveal your design!

Hogwarts embroidery

Step 7 : Optional – if you’ve got a ring where your hoop was, you might need to iron it out!

Ravenclaw outfit

Finally : Wear your creation with pride!!

And that’s it! Depending on the size of your design this can be a really quick DIY or it could be one you do over a longer period of time; I managed this DIY in 2-3hours on and off from start to finish.

I love being able to make clothes my own, and having that sense of pride and achievement wearing something you’ve made is amazing. Embroidery is also pretty therapeutic to do whilst watching the TV, so why not put on your favourite show of film and get creating! My next piece I’m customising is an old denim jacket which I can’t wait to show you when it’s done!

So.. what do you think? Are you inspired to make your own? Or do you already personalise your clothes with little touches? Let me know in the comments!

I’d love to see your creations so be sure to tag me in them on insta (@theweightofmyworlds)!

Have a great weekend everyone!

Love,

Victoria Blog Signature
Unique Fashion.

Unique Fashion.

Happy Saturday lovelies!! This heatwave is certainly going on for a bit longer than I’d like! Do you like the heat? Or are you more of a autumn/winter person?

DIY Unique Fashion Pin

Anyway, on to the subject of this weeks post: DIY Unique Fashion! I couldn’t decide what to call this post for ages and I think that title sums it up the best. I toyed with DIY Fashion, Personalised Clothes etc. but unique fashion fits better.

Where did the idea for this post come from? Well.. as you know, I love wearing whatever I want, no matter what other people think; and because I’m a creative I often dream up outfits in my head with pieces I don’t own or that would cost way too much money that I don’t have.

And voila! The decision entered my mind that since I have some sewing skills I could probably create some of these pieces myself.

First up I had to decide what I wanted to make, and for my first project I chose shoes. Floral embroidered ones to be exact. I got the idea for these from seeing some checked vans when out and about shopping, those shoes take me back to my teens, everyone used biros and sharpies to draw the check pattern themselves haha.

So to start, I had to work out what shoes to buy as a base, and I figured some cheap converse would be a good plan since there’s loads of fabric to work with. I got mine from Primark in the end because they’re cheap and cheerful and if my idea went horribly wrong then I wouldn’t have wasted a load of money.

Then I ordered myself an embroidery starter pack from Amazon. If you’re wondering which one, you can find it here. It cost about £16, and it came with everything I needed. One thing I will say with this set is that the needles aren’t massively strong so I bought some extra needles which worked a lot better with the thicker fabrics.

Now, if I was smarter, I would’ve drawn out the design I wanted to create. But I decided to just wing it and see what happens. If you aren’t sure what design you want, I’d suggest drawing it out first to be safe.

Then comes the fun part! Time to start sewing! If you’re struggling for ideas on what you want to sew or how to sew certain stitches, there’s hundreds on embroidery tutorials on Pinterest, TikTok and YouTube.

My trainers took me about 2-3 weeks, and that was by working on them on and off in the evenings. Then I got myself some weatherproofing spray and gave them a good covering.

And after all that, I’m super happy with my results!

DIY Unique Fashion

I love my trainers, they’re unique and no one else has any like it! Plus I have the satisfaction of knowing I made them, and you know, you gotta celebrate your successes no matter how small!

Onto my next 10 minute project that anyone can do, I had a pair of dungarees and I kept envisioning a pretty sunflower on them, so that’s exactly what I did. And it took no time at all. All you need is a needle, some embroidery thread (or even thick normal thread would work to be honest) and some interfacing if you’re working with stretchy and flimsy fabric.

Interfacing is something you can buy in two forms, iron on or sew on. I use iron on interfacing for clothes and adding small designs onto things, but if you were to make your own handbag for example, you’d probably use sew in as it tends to be a bit thicker.

DIY Unique Fashion

And here is my super cute dungarees! It’s such a small simple thing to add, but I feel like it’s brought a bit of new life to them.

Tips for starting a creative project:

  • Plan what design you want to do/what you want to make.
  • Do some research into different techniques.
  • Make a list of everything you’ll need.
  • Make it in your own time.
  • Take progress pictures if you’re making it over a long period of time. (It’s always great to see how much you’ve progressed!)
  • Wear whatever you’ve made with confidence.
  • Celebrate your creativeness!

And that’s about it for today’s post! I love being able to channel my creativity into my style, and I’ll definitely being making some more changes to my clothes to make them unique. And I can’t wait to wear these shoes out and about to show them off! And as for my dungarees, well I’ve got visions of wearing them with either a bottle green, red wine, mustard or deep purple coloured jumpers in autumn/winter. After all, I am a winter gal at heart.

What do you think to my dungarees and trainers? Let me know in the comments! Has this inspired you to make some of your own personalised clothes/accessories? It’s really rewarding and therapeutic to do. Perfect for days when its pouring down or something to do whilst you lay in the sun.

If you’re out in the sun today make sure you’re keeping cool and hydrated, and wearing sun cream! Have a great weekend everyone, see you next week!

Love,

Victoria Blog Signature
DIY Unique Fashion Pin
Styling A Black T-Shirt 7 Ways

Styling A Black T-Shirt 7 Ways

Hello my lovelies, I hope you’ve had a great week so far! We’re well into March now and Spring has finally begun! This week I decided to try out creating my first ever style video; and I thought that starting out with 7 ways to style a simple black t-shirt. Let me know what you think! All comments are welcome, I love continuing to make my work better for you all!

 

Music Title: AM . Music By: @Ikson .

Let’s get into each outfit!

Outfit number 1

Outfit number one:

  • Black t-shirt
  • Denim skirt
  • Nude trainers
  • Bright clutch
  • Hoops
  • Dainty silver layered necklace.

Outfit 2

Outfit number two:

  • Black t-shirt
  • Mom jeans
  • Belt
  • Nude suede biker jacket
  • Leopard print heels
  • Hoops
  • Necklace

Outfit 3

Outfit number three:

  • Black t-shirt
  • Lucy and Yak Dungarees
  • Blue ballerina pumps
  • Blue clutch
  • White retro hoop earrings

Outfit 4

Outfit number four:

  • Black t-shirt
  • Denim skirt
  • Polka-Dot tights
  • Blue heeled boots
  • Hoops
  • Simple locket necklace

Outfit 5

Outfit number five:

  • Black t-shirt
  • Skinny jeans
  • Rainbow tartan sandals
  • Handbag
  • Bright yellow earrings

Outfit 6

Outfit number six:

  • Black t-shirt
  • Textured skirt
  • Burgundy heels
  • Burgundy scarf
  • Heart Hoops

Outfit 7

Outfit number seven:

  • Black t-shirt
  • Textured skirt
  • Heart hoops
  • Black hair band
  • Red ballerina pumps

I love wearing simple pieces and dressing them with bold bright accessories or going with nude/tan pieces. My wardrobe has a bit of all sorts in it, including street style, classy chic fashion and everything else in between. To stay up to date with my fashion and style journey follow me on Instagram @theweightofmyworlds!

What’s your favourite way to dress up a simple tee? Are you a jeans person? Or how about skirts? Let me know in the comments! I hope you enjoyed today’s post, I had so much fun filming and creating it! What would you like me to style next?

Have a great weekend lovelies! Love,

Victoria Blog Signature

My Winter Staples.

My Winter Staples.

Hello lovelies!! Winter is in full swing and it’s absolutely freezing here! Which means I’m wrapping up in bundles of jumpers.. and my duvet. Since Winter is well under way, I thought I’d let you into what I’ve been loving and wearing this season.

Let’s get into it!

Winter Staples

1 . Striped Dresses.

I love stripes for every season, including when it gets chilly outside, and wearing them in the form of a dress with tights and boots looks so effortless chic in my opinion.

Winter Staples

2 . Bright Jewellery and Textured Skirts.

I’ve been seeing a lot of skirts in varying colours and textures popping up all over the place recently and I think they look great with a simple jumper, tights and trainers!

Winter Staples

3 . Chic and Comfy Oversized Jumpers.

Cosy jumpers are perfect for the cold months, and not to mention you can wear loads of layers with any form of bottoms. Plus, oversized jumpers are great for if you don’t feel like wearing a bra! Haha!

Winter Staples

4 . Black and White Skirts.

I’m absolutely in love with black and white patterns recently, and wearing them with a pop of colour looks gorgeous.

Winter Staples

5 . Simple Outfits with Unique Accessories.

For the days where I’m wanting to be super comfy but still need to go outside into the world, I find a simple top French tucked into ripped jeans looks fab as well as feeling like I’m still in pyjamas.

Winter Staples

6 . Nightwear for Day-wear.

Have you seen the pyjama shirts as day and date night wear? They look so chic and cute and I think they look amazing when paired with sleek hair, winged liner, a nude lip and simple accessories.

So those are my Winter Staples! To be honest, with Winter being my favourite time of year, I wear most of these things year round and they’re sort of my year round staples!

But all in all, wear whatever you want, as long as it makes you feel good!

What’re your fashion staples for this time of year? Let me know in the comments!

Love,

Victoria Blog Signature

Easy Christmas Nails

Easy Christmas Nails

Merry Christmas everyone! Christmas parties are in full swing and that means not only am I looking for outfit inspo on Pinterest and Instagram, but also Christmassy nails that you can actually do yourself at home. So I decided to try a few of the designs out for myself to see what ones are actually doable for all of us at home!

1 . Classic Red and Gold.

Red Christmas Nails

These were simplest to do, just paint your nails red, let them dry and then add a simple tree onto either your ring finger or any other finger you want to stand out! This one can be done with any colours too if you’re not into red nails!

2 . Candy Cane Stripes.

Candy Cane Nails

It’s impossible to mention Christmas nails and not add some candy cane stripes into the mix. I did these by painting my nails white, then adding on the stripes with a small brush, if you’re a bit shaky when doing your non-dominant hand, get someone else to paint the stripes for you!

3 . Christmas Puddings!

Christmas Pudding Nails

These went pretty well, I didn’t have a green nail polish so the holly leaves on these ended up being a gold shimmery colour, but I think the glittery look makes these even more festive.

4 . Snowmen.

Snowman Nails

Who doesn’t think of snowmen when they think about Christmas and Winter time? This are so easy to do and only require 2 nail polishes at the very least! A white for the base and another one for the snowmen faces, you can use a different colour for the carrot noses if you want too. These are a classic for Christmas nails!

5 . Blue and White Christmas.

Blue Christmas Nails

I think these are my favourite out of all the designs because it’s something I haven’t really seen that much and because even though this is one of the more complicated designs, it can still be done at home. Also, these nails will look elegant in any colour! For these I painted all the nails white except for the navy glitter one and then added all of the designs on with a small brush (any kind of brush should do the trick as long as it’s small! I use a tiny acrylic paint brush.)

6 . Pinky Nude Snowflakes.

Nude Christmas Nails

These are another favourite of mine, when I think of pinky nude colours I don’t really think of Christmas; and that is what makes these perfect for the person who wants a bit of festive cheer that isn’t screaming at you in the face. For these I used the same method as the above nails!

Which nails do you like best? I think I’ll be going with the blue and white or pinky nude designs, I love the different patterns on the nails with a bit of sparkle! Are you planning on having your nails done for a party? Let me know what you like for your Christmas nails in the comments below!

Merry Christmas lovelies!

Love,

Victoria Blog Signature

The UKBlogAwards voting is now open! It would mean the world to me if you could vote for me (the weight of my worlds)! You can vote here!

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Easy Halloween Pumpkins And Snacks

Easy Halloween Pumpkins And Snacks

Hello lovelies! Halloween is fast approaching; which means we’re all thinking of cool decorations and snacks that we don’t see everyday! And this often means searching the depths of Pinterest for hours on end finding some pins which don’t look impossible to do at home.

So I’ve decided that I’ll put together some pumpkin decorating ideas along with two quick and easy things you can do for Halloween snacks!

Let’s get into it!

Snack first; and because it’s Halloween, that means sweet treats! So I decided to make some cute mini shortbread skeletons and mini meringue eyeballs! They’re pretty quick and easy to make and only took me about 30 minutes from start to finish.

Shortbread skeletons

How cute are these am I right?!

On to making them! You can buy a simple shortbread mix from most supermarket nowadays so that’s what I did as I was short on time.

Here’s the steps:

1 . Make the biscuit dough (you can use any biscuits you like).

2 . Roll out the dough out on a lightly floured surface, making the dough roughly 5mm thick.

3 .  Using a cookie cutter the shape of a person (pick whatever size you want!) cut out as many people as you can. You can always use any small pieces of dough left to make an extra biscuit for when you have a cuppa later!

4 . Bake the biscuits for however long your biscuit recipe requires and leave to cool.

5 . Once the biscuits are cool, using whatever colour icing you want, pipe on a smile, or funny face (it is Halloween aft0er all!) and the rest of the skeleton bodies!

6 . Once the icing is dry. Eat!

Shortbread skeletonsFor the meringue eye balls:

1 . Buy some meringue kisses and some googly eye cake decorations.

2 . Make up a slightly on the thicker side icing with just water and icing sugar.

3 . Dip the googly eyes into the icing and stick on top of the meringue peaks! Done! Nice and simple.

Now, when it comes to Halloween, one of the first things we think about is sweets, costumes and of course, pumpkins. And I don’t know about you, but I love picking and carving pumpkins.. however, I’m not a massive fan of the mess that comes with it.

So this year I decided I would look into some other ways I can decorate some pumpkins, without all of the mess from carving huge ones.

Here’s my pumpkin display:

Pumpkins

These didn’t take very long to do which I was quite surprised about! The pumpkins that took the longest were the ones that required paint, but even then they didn’t take very long.

For the painted pumpkins I used cheap Tesco water based paint as a bottle of these are £1 each which is a bargain! I also used a sharpie for the calligraphy on the large pumpkin, that one is my favourite.

Pumpkins

Decorating the painted pumpkins were my favourite to do overall, because I love to paint anyway. The multi coloured pumpkin was decorated by squeezing paint over the top of it, a bit like how you would chocolate drips on a cake, and I simply layered up the different colours until the top of the pumpkin was covered and the paint were dripping down the sides. I suggest doing this over newspaper or some kind of wipeable surface as it gets pretty messy! I left mine to dry over a few days and the paint ran down to the bottom leaving a cool pattern.

Pumpkins

For the biggest pumpkin, I mixed a mint green colour because I wanted the calligraphy to really stand out against the paint. Because pumpkins are pretty shiny, I ended up applying three layers of paint, but it didn’t take very long as I used my hairdryer to speed up the drying process a bit! Once I was happy with the colour of the pumpkin, I lightly drew out the ‘trick or treat’ and then filled it in with a sharpie!

The last pumpkin I painted was a tiny one, and I realised that I like the simple look of the painted pumpkins so I painted this one black and then splattered white paint on it which I think looks pretty elegant.. especially considering it’s a pumpkin!

Pumpkins

I bought a bag of cobwebs and spiders which I used for the only pumpkin I fully carved, and I think it worked quite nicely. I actually carved this pumpkin from the bottom, because I think it looks nicer than the open top, and you can hide your carving marks. I also found a cool tip for making your carved pumpkins last longer, which is by brushing the carved areas with vegetable oil! I also stuck some spiders on the top for eyes, because I hadn’t seen anything like that done before and just thought why not.

Mini Pumpkin with fangs

I will admit, I think I like these two pumpkins nearly as much as the painted ones; not because they’re elegant, because they certainly aren’t that! But they are cute and pretty funny. I recommend that you have a sharp knife for cutting a mouth for these because these small pumpkin/squashes are very hard to cut! I bought some cheap vampire fangs and used peppercorns for eyes on these, all I had to do was cut a section large enough for the fangs and made some indents for the eyes and tadaa! Mini silly pumpkins!

What are your favourite ways to carve and decorate pumpkins? And what are your favourite sweet treats to make at Halloween? Let me know in the comments!

And lastly, Happy Halloween lovelies!

Love,

Victoria Blog Signature

Pumpkins

My Hair & Skin routine

My Hair & Skin routine

We all love having silky hair and smooth skin. And for me that’s been a bit of a journey; over there last year I’ve managed to put together my own extremely simple routine that does everything I want it to whilst still being pretty cheap.

I’d definitely recommend trying these quick and simple routines out for yourself as all of the products I use are less than the price of a fancy coffee.

I can’t guarantee everything will work for you, but it’s always nice to try something out!

So, my skin care routine. Well as some of you know, I have suffered with adult acne for a long time and also suffer with psoriasis, so finding skin products that work for me is sometimes a challenge. (Check out my Acne Journey here!)

I use acne medication prescribed to me along with a few other things to keep my skin in tip top form. (If you think you’re suffering with any form of acne then I highly suggest going to your GP where you can find something that works for you.)

My skin routine goes as follows:

  1. First thing in the morning I take my first lot of acne medication, ‘Doxycycline’ with breakfast.
  2. Simple protecting moisturiser spf 15Then after breakfast I wash my face with just cold water and put some ‘Simple Kind to Skin Protecting Light Moisturiser SPF 15‘. That’s it for the morning, nice and quick!
  3. Lunchtime is when I take my next acne medication, ‘Co-Cyprindiol’ (you have to have frequent check ups when you’re on this one as it doubles up as contraception.
  4. Microdermabrasion machineAt the end of the day (this bit is typically once a week) I use a microdermabrasion skin care machine to exfoliate, promote blood flow and just generally get any nasty stuff out of my pores.
  5. Before I go to bed I then apply my ‘Adapalene’ topical acne cream medication.

Some things I also do to help my skin stay clear and healthy are:

  • Drinking mostly water. I know I know, we hear this one all of the time, but water helps keep us hydrated and out skin looking moisturised.

 

  • I try to not touch my face as much as possible, (don’t want to spread any oils or any traces of stuff that could be transferred onto my face!).

pillow image

  • Wash/Change my pillow case often. (dead skin cells, sweat and all sorts get on these and can cause breakouts after build up!)

 

  • I ALWAYS take my makeup off before bed. – I cannot stress this one enough!!

healthy diet image

  • A balanced diet; this doesn’t mean eating super healthy all of the time, it’s about not eating mountains of sugary, oily, fatty food all of the time, you can still have your favourite guilty pleasures, but just in moderation.

 

  • Speaking of food: I always wash my face after eating any form of takeaway; I always feel super greasy after eating foods like Chinese or Fish & Chips, so washing my face after stops me from developing mountains of spots around my chin.

 

  • Sun cream. Wear sun cream no matter what weather it is, you skin is always vulnerable to the sun even when it’s cold outside. And if you’re not great at remembering to put it on, get a moisturiser with SPF already in it!

 

Now, onto hair care!

A bit of background on my hair journey:

My hair has been through it. Like really through the ringer. It’s been blonde, brown, auburn (so jealous of all you natural red heads out there!), orange, red, pink, green, strawberry blonde and several other colours. There was once a week where I decided I wanted to go from bright red to blonde.. my mum and I decided to do it in the space of two days; it involved 4 lots of bleaching and a lot of laughing. I’m incredibly lucky to still have hair on my head to be honest.

I have cut my hair off numerous amounts of times in order to salvage what was left of it after copious amounts of bleach and box dyes. One time I decided to go red again after bleaching my hair and putting blonde box dye on it and my hair was so damaged that after one wash my hair had millions of blonde and pink patches where the dye could no longer stick to my hair.

That leads me to now, I cut nearly all of my hair off in September last year in order to finally give up what had become a hair dye addiction (fellow hair enthusiasts know the struggle haha). And from January this year I have been growing out my natural hair in order to get it as healthy as possible again and not felling like straw. I am also slowly getting my naturally wavy and curly hair back!

Here’s just a few images of my hair journey over the years:

Natural hair baby me
Here I am as a baby next to my older sister, that’s me on the right, and as you can see my hair is pretty curly and mad naturally.

As you’ll see in these photos, my hair goes from nice and healthy to getting more like straw and shorter as it kept snapping off!

So that is what my hair went through, I’m sure there are more photos all over the place of even more hair colours but that’s something for another day, you’d be here for hours!

My hair now
Here’s my hair now! It’s finally healthy and all my natural colour; I’m working on styling my natural air dried hair as it’s a big crazy at the moment!

So now you know a bit about my hair past, on to my routine!

  1. I brush my hair to get rid of any knots or tangles before I wash it in the evening.
  2. Tesco Pro V ShampooI then wash my hair with warm water, using ‘Tesco’s Pro-Vitamin B5 shampoo damaged hair’; I stumbled across this when looking for a new shampoo to try, and for 90p it’s a bargain! This shampoo is absolutely amazing on my hair and I definitely recommend it; it lathers nicely and is super cheap!
  3. Tesco Pro V ConditionerI then use ‘Tesco’s Pro-Vitamin B5 conditioner for damaged hair'(it is nowhere on the website at the moment but you can find it in store!) on the ends of my hair and work my way up avoiding my roots, like the shampoo, the conditioner is also 90p and makes my hair feel so silky and less frizzy.
  4. I then rinse the conditioner out with cold water (it takes a bit of strength to not jump out of the shower at this point haha!).
  5. Wilko Hair TurbanWhen I get out of the shower I wrap my hair in a micro-fibre hair turban (you can get them from wilko for £1.15!).
  6. Aussie Miracle hair spray in conditionerThen, if my hair is feeling a bit dry I put some spray in conditioner onto the ends of my hair. I use one I picked up by chance at Aldi (it was on their special buys) which is a dupe of the ‘Aussie Miracle Hair Detangler Conditioner Spray’!
  7. If I have time I’ll let my hair dry naturally and if I’ve got to be somewhere then I’ll dry my hair on the cool setting with my hair dryer.
  8. I usually leave my hair overnight and style my hair with my straighteners in the morning, this is usually straight, but if I do style my hair in the evening it will be curly ready to be clipped half up the next day.

And that’s my hair routine!

Some things I do to help with my hair growth and health:

  • Brush my hair before washing it so it isn’t too knotting when I wash it and there’s less damage when I wash it as your hair is a lot weaker when it’s wet.

 

  • Rinsing my hair with cold water is something I found makes my hair less frizzy, shinier and it helps promote blood circulation to your scalp, which helps with hair growth!

hair dryer image

  • Use heat protection sprays even when just using the hair dryer. I recommend putting heat protection spray on your hair when it’s wet, as you avoid potentially making your hair feel greasy when applying it to dry hair.

bun hair image

  • I avoid washing my hair everyday as this can strip my hair of it’s natural oils and prevents any oils from penetrating into the hair.

So that’s my skin and hair routines! What’s your hair journey? And what is your skincare routine? Let me know in the comments, I love reading and responding to them all! I hope you all have a great weekend my lovelies!

Oh, and don’t forget, there’s still time to enter my giveaway! Check out how to enter here!

Love,

Victoria Signature

 

 

Going Minimalist.

Going Minimalist.

So, what is minimalism, and why have I decided to go minimalist?

Minimalism is usually defined as the process of identifying what is essential in your life and eliminating the rest, so less is more.

So, why minimalist? Well, I’ve always loved how minimalist rooms look, and it seemed like a nice way of leaving stress behind and away from your personal space/stuff. My head has felt a bit scrambled, more than usual recently and in order to de-clutter my head I thought a good way to do that was to physically de-clutter my possessions. You see, I’ve always been a bit of a hoarder.. Never mountains and mountains of stuff so you can’t move around in your own home, but just generally not throwing away silly little things for some reason, which gradually built up over time.

Going minimalist isn’t something that I would suggest doing over night. It can take a fair bit of time. For me it’s taken about two weeks to get my space cleared out, and I think there’s still some more stuff I’ll throw away in the coming weeks. If you’re thinking of going minimalist, I would suggest you set yourself a plan before you begin. Because I’m a person that likes writing lists, I made two. The first one was:

  1. Get yourself some inspiration.
  2. Pick a time-frame.
  3. List what areas you are going to clean out and sort through.

If you’re thinking of going minimalist and wanting some inspiration, here’s a Pinterest Board I made for inspiration:

Once you’ve got your inspiration and set your time-frame, it’s wise to write a list of what you want to sort out and throw away. I set myself a time-frame of two weeks to do the initial clear out; I decided one area per day was feasible for me. If you’re struggling for where to start which clearing out your stuff, here’s my clear out list:

  1. Clothes and Shoes. (I created a Capsule Wardrobe – post coming soon)
  2. Underwear, Bags and Purses.
  3. Toiletries, Makeup and Nail Polishes.
  4. Papers, Books and Magazines.
  5. DVDs.
  6. Electronics and CDs.
  7. Receipts, Bills and Important Documents.
  8. Stationary and Hobby Stuff.
  9. Junk Drawers and Random Boxes.
  10. Workspace.
  11. Emails, Subscriptions and Phone Apps.
  12. Photos and Sentimental Stuff.
  13. The Car.
  14. The Mind.

By going minimalist, I’ve been able to stream line getting ready for everything, all because I know and can see exactly what I own. I also feel less stressed, can find anything I need quickly and I now have more space.

I found it easy to fall into the trap of organising instead of purging, so I would recommend having an image that was your inspiration or write down why you’re going minimalist so you don’t just organise and keep unnecessary things. I’ve decided that if I don’t use it and it’s not an important document or sentimental then I need to lose it.

Something I’ve learnt from this is to stop bargain hunting. This one is a big one for me, I love a good bargain, but that’s part of the reason why I needed a good clear out in the first place. So I’ve started avoiding meaningless impulse shopping, which has been pretty good for keeping my room clear and my bank account fuller.

When I decide to buy something, I try and think of how it will be used in my room in six months time. If I think it will be no longer useful then, I have to think if it was really worth my money right now? Is it something that I am willing to swap/replace another item I own.

As I was sorting through everything I made a few different piles of stuff:

  • Keep.
  • Bin.
  • Check back in 6 weeks.
  • Charity.

Putting everything into different piles allowed me to sort through everything without any guilt. I decided to have a ‘check back in 6 weeks’ pile because some things I was not ready to give or throw away. Becoming minimalist is going to be a bit of an ongoing project of mine, I plan to go through everything every 6 months to make sure I don’t re-clutter and keep everything streamlined.

Just a pre-warning, when you start clearing stuff out, it will look worse before it gets better. So don’t worry if your space looks like a bombs hit it!! Here’s my room before and during the clear out!!

 

 

I ended up finding that I had 200 DVDs, about half a wardrobe of clothes & shoes that I didn’t wear or that didn’t fit which were donated to charity and I had roughly 11 bin bags full of just general rubbish that I used to hide away in my wardrobe. I realised that having 200 DVD’s was taking up a large amount of space and just didn’t look great on display and
I had no space for them anywhere else; then I had a flash back to the 90’s where we all carried around CD books with us everywhere. So that’s why I then ordered a big DVD case that holds 208 discs from Amazon, which can be taken anywhere and it’s nice knowing all my films are in the same place.

Here’s some pictures of my space now it’s all cleared out!!

Hope you all have a great week and let me know if you try going minimalist!

Love,

Victoria x Blog Signature