Hi my loves! I hope you’ve had a great week so far. This week I’ve been busy with work and I’ve caught up with family which has been lovely; and because I’ve been so busy this past week I’ve been making sure that I’m making a few minutes each day (minimum) to practice some self care so I don’t feel too overwhelmed and exhausted.
One thing I’ve been doing for my selfcare is my skincare routine, which I’ve recently switched up a bit after binge watching Skincare with Hyram on YouTube! In switching up my skincare routine and products I started reflecting on how my skin has changed over the last few years, and let me tell you, it’s been a ride.
So, today I’m going to be telling, and mostly showing you, my skin journey to how I got to where I am now!
And with that said, let’s jump into it!
Let me take you back to this time last year, where I decided after much deliberation that I wanted to come off the medication I was on for my acne and for contraception. The reasoning behind this was purely for the fact that the pill I was on (an extremely high dose of co-cyprindiol) made me feel low, tired and started giving me migranes.
I was hoping that my body would be able to cope and wouldn’t erupt when I came off of the pill, but boy oh boy was I wrong.
For reference, here’s my skin whilst I was on the pill:
Here’s my skin on the day I decided to finally give up the medication:
I had the odd pimple now and again but I was extremely happy with how my skin looked without makeup on; but I just couldn’t justify taking a pill that made my mood low that came with loads of other side effects just for clear skin. So, I stopped taking it.
After a few months, my skin seemed fine still, which I now realise must’ve been due to my body having so many hormones etc in it from the taking the pill for over 4 years! Here’s my skin in October and November:
Not bad at all right!
Well, Christmas went by and here we are in January, and as you can see, my skin has started to get a few more spots:
Here’s February:
Then in March, I had my worst skin I have ever had in my life. So bad in fact, that I did not want to go out, and refused to leave the house without makeup on other than for work. The first photo is on the 15th March, and then the other two are literally from 2 days later!
My face was painful to touch, and nothing I did was helping it, and I was beginning to think that I should just bite the bullet and go back on the pill again. But, nevertheless, I persevered! I started using an Adapalene Retinol cream nightly, which got my skin to this point:
Here’s after using the soap bar after a few weeks/months:
And as you can see, the soap bar seemed to work a bit of magic! It was at this point that I’ve really delved into my skincare routine and am beginning to make my skincare routine a real habit that I actually remember to do every morning and night.
Here’s my skin in April:
And then May:
And the we get to June:
And finally, here we are today:
As you can see, my skin is still far from perfect. However, I’m feeling a lot more comfortable in it and I’m not afraid to do photoshoots without covering my discolouration, roseacea, spots and scars up!
Since switching up my skincare routine and makeup products, I now no longer wear foundation or bb cream because I’m trying to love my skin as it is, and I often forget that my skin without makeup isn’t that bad anymore! It’s been a learning curve and shaving my head has also helped with this because there’s no hair to hide behind!
Also, side note: I’ve decided to grow my hair back out long and curly (like the previous photos!)! I loved it that length, and I can’t wait for my hair to be the healthiest it’s ever been! After a few months my hair is already beginning to curl like it did when it was longer so I’m looking forward to seeing how curl it’ll get since there’s no heat damage this time round!
And that my friends, is my skin journey from the past year. It’s certainly had some pretty bad moments, but I feel like I’m in a place now where my skin will only get better over more time. I also read somewhere that after being on the pill for such a long time, it can take around 2 years for you hormone levels to go back to normal and your skin to regulate itself again. So I guess I’ll be doing an update and where my skin is at in a 2021!!
Well, that’s all from me today my lovelies! What’s a skincare product you can’t live without? For me it’s definitely my cleanser and SPF! Let me know in the comments!
Hello my lovelies! I hope you’re having a great weekend so far and that it’s not pouring down too much! (That being said, I kind of love thunderstorms..) So, this week shops have begun opening again and lockdown measures are beginning to lessen, which is great news; and if you’re off out to them, please be safe and wear a mask! It’s amazing hearing that lockdown is sort of at its end now, and with shops opening it certainly feels a lot more like how it used to be; but at the same time it feels so strange because I’d gotten so used to everything being shut and no one going out!
Being in lockdown has allowed me to do a range of things I’d either forgotten about, didn’t feel like I had time for and has given me some time with myself and my thoughts. And with everything that’s happened (and still happening), if I didn’t take care of my mental wellbeing, my mind would end up a bit like this:
Naturally, having my mind acting like that is not ideal, so I’ve been taking care of myself by doing all sorts to manage my wellbeing; and I’ve learnt quite a few things about what makes me feel good and sets me up to have a good day.
So, what have I learnt? Well…
Something as small as a good cup of tea can work wonders when you’re feeling overwhelmed.
I’ve been trying all sorts of teas during lockdown and have finally landed on one that I absolutely adore, redbush tea. It’s naturally sweet and smells great. Plus it’s naturally caffeine free, and as someone who has anxiety, decaf is all I drink. I also used to have a heavy sugar and then sweetener addiction, and during lockdown I’ve managed to curb that to the point of only needing one sweetner in my tea since redbush is so naturally sweet. Anytime I feel like I need five minutes completely to myself, I go and get myself a lovely cup of tea and chill out for a few minutes.
Audiobooks are a great escape from the news.
The news has gotten so overwhelming and is the same thing repeated over and over again, so I’ve been limiting how much time I spend listening and watching it and have been listening to audiobooks instead. I found they’re a great way to escape the never ending covid news and just tune out and chill out for a bit.
Plants are an incredible way to brighten up any space and simply put, bring me joy and peace.
I have fallen madly in love with house plants over lockdown. Maybe it’s not being able to go outside much or something else, but I’ve gone from having three fake plants to over 10 alive ones during my time at home. I’ve found they’re a great distraction from everything going on, and they’re something you can focus your energy on even when you don’t feel like looking after yourself. And on top of that you’ll breathe easier with more plants in your space!
Redecorating is a great way to feel refreshed and give you that new start feeling.
I had been in the same space for several years, and it was a pretty dark room due to there being slanted ceilings and only one window. My brother had had the smallest room in the house for years and long story short he kept asking me when I was moving out (gotta love saving for your own place..) so he could have my room. So, I thought about it and decided it’s about time he got a big room. And so, over the course of a weekend we painted, moved furniture and reorganised each others room; now I’m in the smallest room in the house. You might think having a tiny room with only enough space for a clothes rail, bed, desk and bedside table would feel cluttered and give you anxiety; but it’s actually been incredibly refreshing and has encouraged me to completely declutter all of my belongings to what I actually need. My room feels fresh and bright and is the new beginning that I needed.
No one is looking at my scars when I’m out without makeup on. My skin looks fine with and without makeup.
Since we’ve all been inside for a long time, a lot of us who would normally wear makeup regularly have reduced our days wearing makeup to virtually zero. And as nice as I feel when I’m wearing a full face, not being able to touch my face for fear of my makeup coming off everywhere just isn’t worth it anymore for me. So now I only wear a full face when I’m doing a photoshoot. And even then it’s a much paired down makeup routine to my previous one. When I do go outside I wear a tiny bit of clear brow gel, clear mascara and lipgloss; and even then that’s a rare occurrence. At first I was concerned that my acne, rosacea and psoriasis scars would make people stare at me, but to be honest, no one really cares at all. And now I don’t even wear foundation in most of my photoshoots!
A light projector is a great way to rid you of night worries.
I picked up a light projector from amazon after switching rooms with my brother because I had individually stuck 800 glow in the dark stars to my old ceiling and my new room felt weird without them, so this was a great replacement. The light can change colours, project water and stars around the entire room. Plus this projector light is also a speaker and has a timer setting so you can leave it on when you go to bed without fear of it staying on all night and overheating. I like to put on a mix of red and blue light with the stars whilst I listen to meditations or read before bed. It’s super relaxing, and I’d recommend it to anyone who struggles to get rid of worries before bed.
Yoga is a form of meditation for me.
Before lockdown I would practice yoga on and off every now and again, but about halfway through lockdown I started practicing yoga for 30 minutes each day to chill out and reset. I’ve been watching Yoga with Adriene on YouTube and am about 3/4’s of the way through her 30 day yoga practice/challenge. These have helped me unwind after a day at my desk and spend some time acknowledging my thoughts and feelings and let them be what they are. Yoga is something I don’t go a day without now because it allows me to release and explore anything I need to without pushing my feelings down until they inevitably explode out of nowhere.
Just because I’m not going anywhere doesn’t mean I can’t look cute.
Something I used to do before lockdown was wear simple outfits during the work week with a hint of my unique style, and then go all out at the weekend. But since we’ve been inside an awful lot, I have taken pleasure in dressing completely unapologetically in my unique style, going all out with my outfits every day. Gone are the days where I would save outfits for an occasion; because after all, you don’t buy clothes to have them stay on the hanger only to be worn once in a blue moon.
Shaving my hair off is the most freeing and liberating thing I could have ever done.
As you probably know, at the beginning of lockdown I shaved my head. It was something I’d always wanted to do, and lockdown gave me the perfect opportunity to do it. Shaving my head was scary yes, but oh so worth it and I would do it again in a heartbeat because I’ve never felt more like myself. It’s helped me reassess what about my appearance I relied on as a comfort blanket and how I feel about how I look. I feel beautiful with and without hair and let me tell you, not having to do your hair in the morning is an incredible feeling.
Time really does heal.
So, at the end of February my ex and I broke up. We’d been together for over 8 years, since we were 15 years old. He was my first love and to be honest I think we weren’t sure what we wanted anymore. To tell you the truth one of the good things about going into quarantine is that its allowed me to process my feelings and work through what I needed to work through, and now, four months on I feel amazing. Time really is a healer and quarantine is the enforced time I needed for myself.
Days doing nothing are necessary.
Looking online I saw so many people talking about how they were working on their next project or finding a side hustle during their time at home, and it made me feel like having a day to do nothing was a waste of all of this new found spare time. But, as someone who hasn’t actually been furloughed and worked the entire way through lockdown whilst simultaneously running her own business, my spare time actually felt shorter than ever before and I began feeling guilty for wanting to spend the day in front of the telly. However, if you don’t take time to look after yourself and recharge, you’re going to burn out. So, I ended up taking a few days holiday during lockdown to literally do nothing. And they were just what I needed to recharge and refresh myself ready to get going again. You haven’t always got to be doing something!
Photoshoots are a great way to boost your mood.
Something I’ve been doing is having photoshoots with no real goal or purpose in mind other than to turn up some music and vibe; and let me tell you, it is such a great way to give you a mood boost. Plus, you get some super cute photos out of it too! I like using this as a tool for testing out new outfit ideas I’ve had as well, and the second I’m vibing in the outfit, it instantly brings a smile to my face making everything even cuter.
Family quiz nights are perfect for catching up with family without the awkward ‘how’s your love life?’ questions.
Most of us have been talking to family and friends even more than before over the last few months, and for my lot, we’ve been having two different game/quiz nights, one board game night on a friday with one side of my family and a quiz on the saturday night with the other side of my family. I love a quiz so these have been so much fun, and since we’re all focused on the game/quiz, all awkward questions you don’t want to answer hardly ever get asked.
Skincare routines are a small way to show yourself some selfcare.
I’ve taken this time at home to fully delve into my skincare routine and find things that truly work for my skin. In the morning I use my Carbon Theory soap bar, followed by a serum or complete care cream (I alternate these daily) and then in the evening I use an aloe vera cleansing foam followed by an aloe vera moisturising gel and then my adapalene retinol cream. I’ve stuck to this routine for about 3 months and my skin has never felt better. Yes, I still have my adult acne, but the texture of my skin has changed and I think my skin tone has evened out a bit. 5 minutes in the morning and evening to look after yourself can really work wonders.
Tarot card readings help me feel centered.
This one isn’t for everyone, but I personally love doing tarot readings. I like to burn some incense sticks, put on some relaxing music and then give myself a tarot reading, focusing on whatever question or worry I’ve had going through my mind. The cards don’t give you direct answers of course, but they can give you a gentle nudge into a direction you could take. And I personally find a little bit of calm in allowing other forces (believe what you want to believe.. if you don’t believe in that sort of thing that’s your choice and you do you) to give me a bit of guidance on what I can do.
Routines are necessary to keep me productive on weekdays.
As nice at it was to work in my pyjamas every single day, it stops the day from being broken up and you can lose a sense of what day it is. So, I’ve created a routine which I stick to every weekday to help my days stop blending into one. I wake up at 6.30am, go get breakfast by 7am, have a cup of tea and then wash my face and brush my teeth; then I watch some youtube or tv and then start work at 8am. I then work until 4pm with a lunch break in the middle and then at 4.30pm I start cooking my tea. By 6pm I workout and shower, then play some animal crossing, watch some tv and then get ready to go to bed and then go to sleep by 10pm. Having structure has helped keep me productive and make sure I’ve scheduled in some time for selfcare.
And those are what I’ve learnt from being in lockdown!
I feel like I’ve grown a lot during lockdown, at the start of lockdown it had been about 3 weeks since my ex and I had split, I was in a completely different space mentally and physically, I was surrounded physical clutter too and I was stressed about all sorts. But now, I’m single and happy, I’ve moved into a new space, I’ve thrown away and donated the majority of my belongings by going minimalist, I’m finally on top of my savings and can manage my finances with (some level of) confidence and I’m now adult enough to keep plants alive and I give even less of a care about how others view my appearance!
Looking back at who I was at the beginning of lockdown is truly like looking at a different person. My family and friends have said I seem more like myself and happier than ever and I can’t help but agree with them. Truth be told I think lockdown was the time out from the outside world that I didn’t know I really needed.
What have you learnt from being in lockdown? Let me know in the comments!
Hello my lovelies! I hope you’ve had a great week and you’re settling into a new routine. Over at my house I think I’ve finally settled into a steady routine and everything is beginning to feel normal now, which feels weird to say. One thing I’ve noticed from staying home a lot is that my skin has started clearing up a little, and i think that could be down to three different things; less pollution in the air and staying indoors, using my adapalene cream and from trying out Carbon Theory’s acne soap bar!
*little disclaimer – this post is by no means sponsored by Carbon Theory and I am not affiliated with them in any way, I just saw the ad for the soap bar with the claims of clearing up acne so thought I’d buy and try it so you don’t have to! Also, this review is simply my opinion on the product and what may or may not work for me could be completely different for someone else.
So, before I get started with this review, I thought I’d give you some background info about me and my skin journey so far; if you’ve been with me for a while then you may have read my last post about my acne journey and how I managed to clear my skin of adult acne.
And, well.. a lot has happened since then.
For example, I have come off of what I was using as birth control and my acne treatment in one go. Why might you ask? Well because I was on something called co-cyprindol which is essentially 2000mg of oestrogen where women are supposed to have 20mg (at least that’s what my doctor told me) and like many medications, there were some pretty annoying side effects. For me, the acne pill I was on not only gave me migraines every now and again, but it also made me feel extremely low. And so, in August last year, I decided to stop taking it and pray that my skin would magically be fine and the acne would stay away.
Unfortunately for me, that did not happen. My mood was so much better, in fact I’m happier than I’ve ever been, but my skin decided to get angry with me straight away and just got worse and worse, until it was the worst it had ever been.
And that has led me just over a month or two ago, when I’d tried all sorts of skincare routines that were supposed to help and I was at the point of giving up or going back to the doctors to find some form of other treatments that wouldn’t effect my mood.. and then a certain pain in the butt called corona hit and I didn’t want to take up the nhs’ time with something like my skin when they’ve got bigger problems to deal with.
It was then that I was sent a link to Carbon Theory’s acne soap bar by my sister. I was a bit dubious at first because I didn’t think a bar of soap would do much for my skin, but for £6, what did I have to lose!
Here’s the day that I came off of my acne medication, the 10th August 2019.
Then months later, we were here with my skin – 18th March 2020. Please excuse the facial expressions, it was very early that morning!
Once my soap bar arrived it’s safe to safe I was willing to try anything if there was a chance it would clear up my skin. Even if it entailed having slugs on my face. I would have done anything! So, here’s day one of trying out the soap bar along with my acne cream:
As you can see, we’re not in very good place skin-wise. You can also see that this was when I was slowly starting to shave my head! I started using the soap bar every morning and evening by lathering it up in my hands and leaving the suds on my face for thirty seconds before washing it off, like it was recommended on the packaging. It made my face feel tight and moisturised and clean which I liked (and still do).
So, onto where we were at at the end of week one:
So, as you can see, me face was pretty angry with me for trying something new, but that is to be expected when trying any new products on your skin. Especially for me, because I suffer with psoriasis and can sometimes get it on my face, so naturally any new products could trigger it if I’m not careful!
Here’s where we were at after two weeks:
As you can see, it looks like the soap bar with my adapalene cream appears to be doing something! It definitely seems to have taken down the redness on my cheeks and reduce the spots on my forehead.
Onto week three:
This week my skin didn’t like me that much and had another flare up again, with my skin being a bit red and a few old spots popping up that I thought were gone!
But nevertheless we persevered, and got to week four:
Week four and my skin started to clear up a bit more again, and the redness was once again starting to go down which was great! Another thing that I think has helped is that my hair is no longer all over my face, something I completely forgot about!
Onto week five:
It was this week that I was starting to finally see a difference on my right cheek which was one of the worst places my acne was. I also noticed that my skintone had started to even out a bit too!
Here’s where my skin was at just a few days ago!
So, here’s where we’re currently at, it’s safe to say my skin is loads better than it was when I started using Carbon Theory’s soap bar and my acne cream; and I think it’s been the combination of the two that has really helped. What’s left of my acne actually appears to be acne scars, with the odd new spot coming up every now and again, and when that happens I use some acne stickers from Starface which are brilliant at stopping you from popping, picking and scarring your face. Plus, they look cute too because you get little stars on your face!
Just for comparison, here’s before using the soap bar and after:
In conclusion, would I recommend Carbon Theory to someone wanting to reduce their acne? For sure. Even if it only helps a little bit, you can’t really go wrong for £6! Plus, it comes in a great resealable pocket which makes it great for travel and it keeps the soap from getting anything on it whilst it’s not being used. If I’m being honest, I really didn’t think that this would work, especially because it’s so cheap, but I’m certainly glad I tried it out because it’s going to be a permanent featured in my skincare routine!
Next up for my skin journey is a whole host of new products that I intent to slowly implement with the soap bar in order to help with my scarring, so be sure to stay tuned ready for that in a few more weeks or months! Have you got any staple skincare products you can’t live without? And have you tried this soap bar out for yourself? Let me know in the comments!!
Happy Saturday my lovelies! I can’t believe we’re already half way through September! Everyone keeps saying how they can’t believe shops are already putting out Christmas decorations and presents but for me, I love it! Plus, the seasons are changing so you can’t blame shops for prepping early.
And speaking of seasons changing, two things that I change with the seasons are my hair routine and my skin routine. As for today, I’m going to be taking you through my skincare routine!
Here’s the products in my routine:
My morning routine:
Step 1: Face wash. First up I wash my face with my face wash and warm water, rinsing it off with cold water.
Step 2: Cleanser. I put cleanser on a cotton pad and use circular motions all over my face.
Step 3: Toner. I put toner on a cotton pad and swipe it all over my face, and let it absorb for a few minutes before my next step!
Step 4: Eye gel. I dab a small blob of eye gel under each eye and eye lid to help with puffiness and dry eyes.
Step 5: Serum. After letting my toner sit and applying my eye gel, I apply two pumps of my serum onto my face and gently rub it in.
Step 6 : Moisturiser. I then add moisturiser to my entire face, especially because I tend to get dry skin.
Step 7: Suncream. Finally I add a little sunscream to top it all off because you can never be too careful with those uv rays.
So that’s my AM routine! And as for my PM routine, it’s very similar but it goes like this:
(Potential Step 0: Micellar water. I only use this to take off my makeup at the end of the day if I’ve been wearing it, it’s much gentler than makeup wipes and is a quick way to take off makeup.)
Step 1: Cleanser. I first cleanser my face of everything my skin has been in touch with during the day.
Step 2: Toner. Next up I tone my face and let it sit for a minute of two like in the morning.
Step 3: Eye Gel. I then refresh my eyes with my eye gel, after staring at screens all day this is a must.
Step 4: Serum. Two pumps of serum is then swiped over my face and left to sink in for a minute.
Step 5: Retinol. After my serum has sunk in I use a small amount of my retinol cream (the retinol cream I use is my Adapaline acne cream) on the zones of my face that need it, and with retinol less is more rather than more is more trust me.
Step 6: Moisturiser. After I’ve let my retinol cream sink into my skin I add my moisturiser. And that’s it! All done and ready for bed.
So that is my entire skincare routine from waking up – to going to bed to get my beauty sleep haha.
Whenever I try anything new for skin I always get a bit worried because I’ve suffered with adult acne for a few years and I get worried that new things will set it off again. Medication seemed to be the only thing that helped my skin clear up for the last two years, and I’ve recently tried to come off of all of my medications except my retinol cream.
Since starting this new routine my skin hasn’t yet exploded with spots other than the first week adjusting to it so so far so good! I like to use any time that I spend on my hair and skin and just general appearance as some selfcare/me-time.
All of the products I use for my skin are from Superdrug’s own brand and Wake Skincare; I like trying to use products from the same brand and line because I find they always work better together, but it takes time to see what works out for you.
What’s your favourite skincare staple? Have you got a specific skincare routine or are you more of a wash and go kinda person? Let me know in the comments if there’s any skincare brands you’d like me to try!
Hello my lovelies! I hope you’re having a great Saturday in the sun, we’re in the middle of a heat wave here! So a few weeks ago I was contacted by some of the lovely people at Wake Skincare, and they asked if they could send me their eye gel for an honest review. Not wanting to pass up an opportunity, of course I said yes! Who doesn’t love getting to try new things out!
*I was given the eye gel in exchange for an honest review so this it technically an AD-Gifted but I will always be honest with all of you and not endorse anything that doesn’t work for me or go against my values!
So, to start off, why not hear from Wake Skincare on how/why it was created:
Our generation are always switched on. Glued to phones, Surrounded by screens and always connected to work, our friends and family were forever complaining about dark circles, bags and lacklustre skin. Then our friends started having children and the tiredness really kicked in.
When we opened our eyes to the tiredness around us, Wake was born.
And now that you’ve heard a little about how Wake came about, here’s the what they eye gel looks like!
What the eye gel claims:
Smooths and brightens
Anti-aging
Lightweight
Hydrating
Combats puffy eyes and dark circles
How much does it cost?
The gel can be bought on the Wake website or on Amazon for £16.95 for a 30ml bottle which you may or may not think could be a bit pricey for an eye gel. As an apprentice my funds are limited, so initially I thought this would be pretty expensive for an eye gel, but upon receiving the bottle, I think it’d last me a pretty long time, especially since it comes in a bottle with a pump, so you don’t accidentally squeeze out too much!
My review:
Well, without any further ado, here are my first thoughts when I received the gel; for a start, the packaging is so pretty and I love that it is minimal and what’s even better is that it’s a glass bottle! Which means it’s a bit more eco-friendly and it feels a lot more expensive than the plastic tubes you normally get.
Something I love about this gel is that it is all natural ingredients, and as someone who has very sensitive skin and psoriasis, this was great to hear. And my skin loved it.
Another thing that’s great about Wake is that they don’t test any of their products on animals! So no worrying about animals being harmed!
So… does it work??
Here I am before using the gel and a week after using it in the morning and in the evening.
You be the judge, but I personally think it’s had a big impact on the bags under my eyes and how puffy they get. For reference, here’s how puffy my eyes can be when I wake up in the morning:
You only need a small amount on the gel, I’d say half the size of a pea? It depends on you and how much you want to use! But a little goes a long way. I then smoothed it under my eyes and over my eyelids and then used circular motions to rub it in. Then over the next 5-10 minutes my eye’s started feeling more awake, looked brighter and less puffy. Plus, over time the bags under my eyes seem to have faded a bit too!
My take away?
If you have never used an eye gel before, I recommend trying this out as you won’t be disappointed! And it’s great knowing that it’s made from natural ingredients, and lasts an entire year after opening. Trust me, with the bottle being pretty big and it going a long way, this will probably last you 6 months to that entire year.
I honestly don’t think I’ve got anything bad to say about this gel or Wake, they’re a small British company, and not only are their products are aimed at everyone regardless of age, gender or race, they also make a donation to Women’s Aid from every purchase!
If I had to say one thing that isn’t great about the Wake skincare products is that they sometimes run out of stock because it’s so good and people can’t get enough!
I will certainly be keeping this in my skincare routine and I can’t wait to get my hands on their face cream next! What you should take away from this is that you really should believe the hype!
I’ve never reviewed any skincare or beauty products before, so please let me know if this is helpful and if you want me to do more reviews! Have a great weekend everyone, and make sure you’re wearing sun cream!
It’s #SelfcareWeek ! And it’s got me thinking, what do we actually think classes as selfcare? For me, I typically start thinking about face masks and bubble baths. And well yes that can be classed as selfcare; but as amazing as those things are, there are hundreds of other things you can do. And over the last few days, I’ve been partaking in a few of these myself.
The thought for this post came to me whilst I was walking home from the gym; it occurred to me that even though I think of lots of luxurious things as self-care, there are lots of small things I do for myself that make me feel good, and these count too.
Here’s a few things I’ve been doing for myself that aren’t always considered self-care:
Going to the gym, and doing what I want there, if I don’t feel like doing the stair climber today, I just don’t do it and I refuse to feel guilty about it!)
Buying myself a hot chocolate when walking home after going to the gym.
Putting on my moisturizer.
Listening to the Peptalk app (I highly recommend this one for when you’re commuting and walking anywhere, it’s a great motivational tool!)
Watching Nikkietutorials (believe it or not I watch Nikkie’s videos when I’m at the gym and they make me so happy!)
Cleaning my room.
Playing with makeup.
Putting on makeup when I’m not going anywhere!
Lighting scented candles.
Having a bubble bath.
Unfollowing any social media profiles that make me feel bad about myself.
Watching my favourite films.
Cooking my favourite food.
Singing in the shower.
Talking to friends.
Finishing work ON TIME.
Related to the above – not looking at work emails when I’m off work.
Making myself a great breakfast.
Blogging.
Painting, drawing and being creative.
Getting 7/8 hours sleep.
Wearing thermal socks.
Using a 99p face mask.
Chatting to my sister.
Seeing my Niece and Nephew on FaceTime reeking havoc in my sisters house.
Driving round to look at Christmas Lights when they go up.
Making myself a cup of tea.
Meeting up with friends for a chat/food/movies (basically spending time with the important people in your life)
Wearing my favourite clothes.
Honestly the list could go on and on. I love selfcare, sometimes I do still feel selfish or guilty for spending time on ourselves, but we really shouldn’t. We’re stuck with ourselves for life so we better take care of that person we see in the mirror.
And at the end of the day, if something makes you happy and feel good, it’s probably your own version of selfcare. We’re all different so it’s impossible to say that one thing will work for everyone; telling someone to go take a bubble bath to relax if they hate having baths is pretty pointless. It’s a personal thing.
Some of the things in my list you might not consider to be selfcare, but for me, they are. Just doing one small thing for yourself a day can make such a difference to your mood and wellbeing. And myself from a year ago would say something along the lines of “I’ll start next week or in the new year”, but that’s not how I think anymore, the time to start is now.
That’s all from me today, I’m off to go get myself a hot chocolate and sit in a blanket with a book. Have a great weekend lovelies! You’re all amazing!
Love,
P.S. The UK Blog Awards are now open for voting! It’d mean the world to me if you could vote for me my lovelies!!
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:
First thing in the morning I take my first lot of acne medication, ‘Doxycycline’ with breakfast.
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.
At 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.
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!).
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!!
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:
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!
Here’s me at 12 years old, my hair was still completely natural here!
Here I am at 14 years old, I think my hair might have been bleached slightly at this point?
Here is where my hair escapade starts to go downhill.. I had dyed it a few times by here so it’s big, frizzy and very straw like hair!
I dyed my hair red when I was starting sixth form and you can see how damaged my hair had become by the ends of my hair!
About 2 months into sixth form I decided to bleach all of the life out of my hair and fry it constantly by making it wavy every damn day.
After sixth form I decided to cut my hair into a pixie to try and salvage it, I then dyed it brown and then as it was getting healthier and growing out I decided I wanted blonde hair again.
A year later came around and I couldn’t stop myself from going auburn again, and here you can really see the damage!
My hair survived for a little while longer by going brown for a few months and it grew to a good length, then I wanted to go blonde so bleached it to bits, then I decided I wanted red hair again..
As you can see here, when my 21st birthday came around I decided to try and get my hair healthier again by cutting it into a pixie, and it was bleached blonde during the summer.
I actually have healthy hair in this photo! Here is my hair a few months after I turned 22, I’m starting to grow out my pixie here!
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!
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!
I brush my hair to get rid of any knots or tangles before I wash it in the evening.
I 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!
I 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.
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!).
Then, 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’!
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.
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!
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.
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!
Happy Saturday lovelies! So this week I’ve finally managed to sit down and write a post you’ve asked for a few times, my acne journey. Just putting this out there now, this is my journey with my skin and what has worked for me, this may work for you, this may not work for you; so please don’t assume all of the products I talk about in this post will or will not work for you. Also, I’m definitely not saying my skin is the worst ever or best, I’m just sharing my story.
Skin is such a personal thing because everyone’s skin is different and needs to be taken care of a certain way to suit that person. After all, skin care is very important since the skin is the largest organ in the body and protects us from so much. So why wouldn’t you want it looking it’s best!
Let’s get into this; so, my journey with my skin has been a long, stressful emotional journey and is by no means over yet. When I was younger I had little to no problems with my skin, being a carefree kid I never did anything to it and lucky for me, that was what worked. Then puberty hit, and again I was lucky enough to only suffer with a spot every now and again, nothing major.
I wish I had appreciated those day more now that I’m a bit older. Especially because as soon as I hit my 20s I developed adult acne, rosacea and my psoriasis began flaring up. Not great for someone who was already a little insecure because she wasn’t happy in her own skin anyway.
I’m now 22 and I’m happy to say that my skin (touch wood) is at a point where I’m reasonably happy with it, I still get the odd angry spot (or mountain/volcano/crater, you decide haha) ever so often but it’s ok.
For my skin to get where it is today, it took a lot of trial and error. To begin with a tried doing face masks about 3 times a week because I thought that maybe something was clogging up my pores and that they might make my skin less red and calm down a bit. For me, this didn’t work. That was when I bought the ‘La Roche-Posay Effaclar 3-Step Anti-Blemish Kit’ in the hopes that this would clear my skin up..long story short is that it made my skin a million times worse.
Which led to me deciding in February this year to finally decided to go to my doctors to get some medical help with my acne. So, here’s what my skin looked like before I did anything and after starting the ‘La Roche-Posay Effaclar 3-Step Anti-Blemish Kit’; also, please excuse my facial expressions in these photos as you can imagine how having acne makes you feel as also, I took these before bed over several weeks to document my skin journey! (It took around 6 months from starting my acne journey to where I am now)
Also, just thought I’d mention that it was at this point that I decided to drink pretty much only water from then on; that was hard at first but after about 2 weeks of making myself do it, I didn’t need to force myself to drink water anymore! It just became routine.
Here’s my skin before trying any treatment.
My skin after using ‘La Roche-Posay’ treatment for a week.
As you can imagine, after trying this acne skincare treatment for a week and my skin only getting worse and really irritated, I decided to stop it. Also, side note; I’m not saying that the ‘La Roche-Posay Effaclar 3-Step Anti-Blemish Kit‘ is a bad product, it just didn’t work for me, you never know, it might work for you!
So, After this I decided that I was finished blindly trying to clear my skin up without really any knowledge on what was causing it. So off to the doctors I went! To begin with, I was prescribed a different contraceptive pill called Cerelle, because at the time I was taking the progesterone only pill which has no oestrogen. I was also prescribed an antibiotic topical treatment called ‘Zineryt (erythromycin, zinc acetate)’. I took this for about 2 1/2 months and here’s what happened!
So, after using the ‘Zineryt‘ topical cream for 2 1/2 months my skin was looking a lot better! And I was feeling a little better about my skin and appearance, which was when it stopped working. Which was a huge bummer!!
So back I went to the doctors again in the hopes that they can give me something really powerful to stop my skin re-erupting!! Which is when I was prescribed ‘Co-Cyprindiol’, ‘Adapalene’ and ‘Doxycycline’. I was lucky that I was prescribed this amount of stuff to tackle my skin at once, I will say that I was a little apprehensive about having to use ‘Co-Cyprindiol’ as this had to replace the pill that I was on because it’s so much oestrogen!! 2000mg to be exact and the doctor told me that you usually have about 20mg..
Also, this pill isn’t classed as a contraceptive pill as you can’t take it for long periods of time so all I was thinking is what happens if it works and they stop me taking it and my skin reverts??! The other medication I was prescribed was the topical cream – ‘Adapalene’ to apply every night before bed, the other medication I was prescribed was ‘Doxycycline’ which is another antibiotic that I have to take every morning with breakfast!
If any of you suffer or have suffered with acne then you know how anxious switching up your skincare and medication can be. Which is why when I switched to these new medications and my skin started reacting badly, I freaked out and called the doctor asking to be taken off them.
Lucky for me, the doctor told me I had to give the medication longer to work and to give it 3 months to see any effect on my skin; because after about 3/4 months of taking all these meds my skin started to clear up!!
I’m so so so glad I stuck with the medication, because after taking everything for a few months, the doctors allows me to continue all of these meds for longer than typically recommended because I wasn’t having any side effects and my body was reacting well.
Now, I’m on a lower dose of ‘Co-Cyprindiol’ in order to continue the treatment safely alongside the other meds. An important note with this is that I do have to go for regular check ups with these pills in order to stay on them. But this is just so the doctors know how my body is coping with the hormone levels.
I also use a microdermabrasion skin care machine once a week to exfoliate and remove any blackheads. I got my machine from amazon for £20 when it was on offer and it’s rechargeable so I haven’t got to worry about paying out for batteries. Here’s the link to the machine I use!
And here is my skin now!
As you can see from my face here, I’m a lot happier with my skin now than ever before!
I’m so much happier with my skin now then ever before, it’s something that I had struggled with for a while and it really got me down to the point where I didn’t feel comfortable going outside at times! And if you’ve ever suffered with acne or currently do, you know what it can feel like and what it can do to your mental health.
I know that with my acne journey I have been pretty lucky in being able to find a treatment that works for me and that not all people are as lucky as I have been. Moral of the story is that if you are struggling with acne or any skin issue, go see your GP because they will be able to help you; and if something isn’t working for you, keep going back and eventually you’ll find something that works. It just takes some trial and error.
Hope this helps any of you suffering with acne or skin issues!! Have a great weekend lovelies! Love,
Today’s blog post is all about my recent journey of not wearing makeup for a few months. Now, don’t get me wrong, I love wearing makeup and feel great in it and I think it looks amazing on other women and men. You’re all definitely more skilled than me!! And I still love watching makeup tutorials on YouTube and putting on a full face every now and again for special occasions or if I just feel like having a play. But recently I decided to stop wearing it all the time and go bare faced pretty much everyday.
For some people, going makeup free will seem like nothing, but for me this was quite big, partly because I suffer with acne and rosacea. So when I say that I’ve not been wearing makeup, I mean that I’ve gone from wearing heavy foundation, powders and concealers to wearing nothing on my skin on a daily basis. Now I only wear mascara and very thin eyeliner when I’m off out. It’s amazing how much time I have to spend on other things in the morning now!
After the initial few weeks, it’s been surprisingly easy, when I first started this it was for a few reasons:
I started a new acne treatment and wanted to get the best out of it. (update on that in a future post)
I wanted to feel better in my own skin and not feel like I need to wear it in order to feel pretty.
I wanted to be able to hug people without my face transferring everywhere..
I didn’t want to go around worrying if I’d smudged my face.
I wanted to be able to go to bed without having to think of taking my makeup off.
Week one was definitely the hardest, my acne was bad and all I wanted to do was cover it up. And because I’m so pale, my rosacea was really bad. Oh and I tend to go bright red easily so I was panicking about that.
I was so scared about what people would see and think that I did my best to avoid going out and only showed my face to the people I am closest to. And the funny thing was that when I went into work I got compliments about how bright and fresh faced I looked!! And no comments that I looked tired, ill or red or that my skin looked bad, but nice things that gave me so much motivation to go makeup free for the long run.
So.. that was about 3 and a half months ago, and part of the reason why I’m writing this now is because I’ve only just realised this week that I’ve not been thinking about putting makeup on to cover up my skin to go out at all!
I still love wearing makeup, and I wear it for special occasions, but only when I feel like it and can be bothered to put it on. One thing I’ve noticed from doing this is that my skin has definitely got better, whether that is a result from not wearing makeup or my acne treatments, or both, I’m not sure. My skin isn’t completely clear yet, and it’s still got a long way to go before it’s completely clear, but for now I don’t totally hate it (well.. at least on a good day). I’ll do a post about my acne pretty soon when I reach the end of my treatment.
Something I’ve noticed from going makeup free is that funnily enough, no one gives a shit. No one said anything horrible or made comments, I wasn’t stared at in the street and no children ran away from me screaming after seeing my face. All a bonus really haha..
If you’re thinking about going makeup free and you’re worried about what people will say, just know that it’s not as bad as you think, and it’s quite refreshing to have clean skin out and about. Also, if you aren’t sure you can go completely makeup free straight away, work your way up (or maybe down is more appropriate?) to it but gradually using thinner layers of makeup and cutting certain things out of your routine over a few days/weeks, whatever works for you!
What I think you should take away from this post is that you’re all beautiful in your own skin (mushy post alert!) and deserve to feel amazing in your own skin without having to worry about what anyone else thinks. And if you want to wear makeup then you should! And if you don’t want to wear makeup, then don’t wear makeup!! Do what makes you feel good, and that’s what’s important.
Don’t let anyone tell you you should wear makeup and don’t let anyone tell you you’re wearing too much makeup. And if they are saying you’re wearing too much then tell them that that’s good because you paid good money for that makeup so you’d better be able to see it! If someone tells you you should wear makeup then tell them that they should go fuck themselves because you don’t have to conform to their beauty standards!
I hope you all have a great weekend my lovelies!! Love,
![Wake Skincare Eye Gel Honest Review. [AD-Gifted]](https://theweightofmyworlds.files.wordpress.com/2019/06/acs_0485.jpg?w=299)
I honestly don’t think I’ve got anything bad to say about this gel or Wake, they’re a small British company, and not only are their products are aimed at everyone regardless of age, gender or race, they also make a donation to Women’s Aid from every purchase!![Wake Skincare Eye Gel Honest Review. [AD-Gifted]Pinterest graphic](https://theweightofmyworlds.files.wordpress.com/2019/06/gendered-clothes-1.png?w=200)
Then after breakfast I wash my face with just cold water and put some ‘
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I then wash my hair with warm water, using 
I 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.
When I get out of the shower I wrap my hair in a micro-fibre hair turban (
Then, 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 
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