Autumn is well and truly underway and I am thriving! Not only have I been loving the chilly weather and reason to wrap up warm, but I have also been loving the changing leaves and early evenings! Autumn is truly the best season of the year! Since I'm loving writing these conversational posts lately, I figured I would chat about all the best things about autumn!

Atmosphere and colours

The LEAVES! As soon as the first leaf turns orange I feel so excited and anticipatory about the coming change of seasons! I grew up living near a patch of woods and those autumn walks were everything to me! I love the colours all around during autumn, and the fallen leaves making even the dingiest paths look lovely! The weather may be cold but the colours are warm and inviting! I feel like there is a buzz in the air in Autumn. It's no longer summer and everyone has gone back to their daily grind, not quite tired of it yet! This is especially evident on the campus of my university! Everybody is making the most of being back and settling into another academic year!

Clothes

Autumn is peak fashion time for me! I am at my most stylish and confident at this time of year! The jackets and scarves are layered without being overbearing, and I can hide my bad hair days with a beret or beanie. Life is good. I've been wearing all those autumnal warm colours and loving all the purchases I have made lately, especially from New Look! Photoshoots are also incredibly lovely in autumn since the backdrop of the leaves is always exceedingly beautiful!

 Makeup

The weather is finally chilly enough for me to not feel like I'm going to sweat off all my foundation by midday and I love it! I have never been a lover of wearing foundation. I feel like most foundations make my face even greasier than it always is, and I can just never find a shade that perfectly fits my pale face! However, this month I have started using the new Revolution Conceal and Define Foundation and it has really been a game changer for me! I wear makeup almost every day, I feel super confident and I actually enjoy getting ready in the mornings!

After a great month of stats and social media growth, plus after finishing my summer internship and going back to having more free time to write, I figured it was about time I ran a giveaway! I gathered a few of my fave products, along with some products I've been eyeing up for a while. All you have to do is check out my giveaway tweet HERE, retweet it and give my profile a follow! If you want a second chance of winning, just follow my Instagram profile HERE and reply to the giveaway tweet with a link to your profile! For now, I can only afford UK shipping so this giveaway is UK only!

Prize List

• Revolution Reloaded Iconic Fever Palette
• I <3 Revolution Chocolate Elixir Glow Highlight Palette
• 3x Garnier SkinActive face masks
• Moisture Bomb Super-Hydrating Soothing Mask
• Moisture Bomb Super-Hydrating Re-Balancing Mask
• Pure Charcoal Purifying & Hydrating Pore-Tightening Mask
• Little Black Book by Otegha Uwagba
• Hempz Triple Moisture Herbal Whipped Creme Body Wash 
• (Gifted for this giveaway)
• Lush Deep Sleep Shower Jelly
• Revolution Crushed Pearl Pigments in Kinky
• 3x Primark Nails
• Squareletto Cashmere
• Almond Obsessed
• Almond Silk Grey
• Candy Kittens sweets in Wild Strawberry (Vegan)

 Have you joined the giveaway?x

My hair is in the best condition it has been in years and I wanted to do a post all about what I did to improve my hair quality and what products I use every week to keep it in good condition! Expect a rant about how darn good everything smells too! I love a good-smelling hair product!

In the shower!

So, years of using the same cheap shampoo had stripped my hair of all its oils and goodness and made it look super dull and lifeless! I don't know why it took me so long to switch up my shampoo and conditioner, maybe I was just in a solid routine of buying the same thing without wondering whether or not it worked for me! It clearly didn't. I replaced my shampoo, conditioner and daily heat protector spray with the Garnier Ultimate Blends Delicate Oat range and it has transformed my hair! Using the shampoo and conditioner is lovely because they smell so good and the shampoo lathers up like a dream! This is how shampoo is supposed to feel! Even after switching the products for the first time, I could clearly see that they were nourishing my hair way more than my old hair products!


As for the heat protector spray, it has the same wonderful smell and feels great and lightweight in the hair! I have been trying not to blow-dry my hair or put any heat on it at all lately since the weather has been warm and my hair dries pretty quickly on its own. Instead, I spray sea salt spray onto my hair while it's still wet and it helps to give it some more texture when it dries. I used to use the Fudge Salt Spray (nothing beats the smell of this) but lately, I was a bit more broke than usual and I picked up a Primark Salt Spray for £2, which does the job!


Yes, I dye my hair!

I decided to finally pay attention to my neglected roots and dye my hair again for the first time in months! I used the L'Oreal Casting Creme Gloss, as I always have ever since I was about fourteen years old! It always leaves my hair looking super healthy and smelling wonderful! I used the colour 'darkest brown' and it looks so natural and glossy! Most importantly, my hair looks way healthier and so many people agreed when they first saw it! Casting Creme Gloss is only semi-permanent so it requires quite a bit of upkeep but it's also gentle on the hair and makes it feel so healthy and smooth!


Hair masks and pampering!

One thing I have begun to do is to pamper my hair and not just my skin! I discovered the magic of hair masks and I wonder how I never thought to try them before! There are two that I use regularly and they make my hair feel so SOFT! My favourite hair mask is H'suan Wen Hua from Lush. It is INCREDIBLE! I personally love the spicy deep smell, although I know some despise it, and I love the consistency, which isn't too thin or too thick so it spreads through the hair super well! The other hair mask which I love to use is the Garnier Ultimate Blends Hair Mask, which is a good budget alternative to the Lush mask!


So that's about it! Switching up my hair products and finding what works well for me has completely transformed the condition of my hair and I'm super pleased with how my hair looks and feels now! What are your hair holy grails? x

So, exams are FINALLY over! I am so relieved, it feels like such a weight off my chest. The day after my final exam, I took a day's holiday from work and went into town with my lovely friend to do some bank account damage! We both agreed that this is our last major spending day in a long time as we both need to save some money so we kind of went all out! Here are the goodies that I picked up!

Sometimes we just need an entire evening off! To switch off and recharge for a while! While it is always lovely to light a fancy candle and have a Lush bath, having a tight budget can prevent you from having these luxuries and even discourage us from giving ourselves a treat and a pamper! Fear not! Here are a few items which can help you to pamper yourself and have a proper 'treat yo self' evening without any guilt!

The bath



If you are fortunate to have a bath and haven't made use of it for a while, this is your sign to run those taps and create some bubbles. Let the warm water melt away the tension in your body created by stress and being on the go. If you have the budget for it, a Lush bath is always a fave (Twilight bath bomb, yes please)! However, having a Radox bath is just as good! A big bottle of Radox bath is only 98p at the moment in Superdrug and it smells so good! It creates loads of bubbles and fills the room with relaxing scents! Alternatively, this little Zoella bath set is on offer for just £1.99 in Superdrug and is a nice bathtime treat with bath milk powder and bath tea bags!


In the bath, take the time to pamper your skin! Exfoliate away all your dead dry skin and leave the bath with baby-soft skin and a clear mind! I found this lovely scrub in Primark on sale for just £1! After wanting to pick it up for ages, I snapped it up and I cannot wait to use it in the bath on my pamper evening!

The surroundings

When you want to get into that relaxed frame of mind, your surroundings can make all the difference! Make sure that your room/flat/house is fairly tidy so you don't feel stressed about having to tidy it later. I let my room get so untidy when I am super busy and stressed and tidying it all up again and getting to be in tidy surroundings once more is such a great feeling and lifts my mood so much sometimes!

As a student, I am not allowed to have candles in my room, so I make up for it with a pretty ridiculous amount of fairy lights! All my fairy lights are the battery operated cheap ones from Primark. They are super affordable and do so much to a room! When I switch them on my room feels so much more pretty and cosy! Because I can't have scented candles, I always make sure I have a good reed diffuser in my room! My current diffuser is a fresh linen scented one from ASDA.

The treatments

Can't afford a fancy face mask? No problem! Primark has really upped their beauty section and they have a massive range of face masks for all skin types (not sponsored, I just work there so I see their products all the time)! I have a bit of a thing for rose scented products at the moment so I cannot wait to use the rose cleansing rinse off mask! Plus, 80p for a face mask is super great value!


Go through the whole works for your face, doing a complete skincare routine and pampering that lovely face of yours! I have a massive obsession with the rose water range by Garnier at the moment! Their products are super affordable and leave my face feeling wonderfully clean and taken care of!


Don't just pamper your face! Give your body a proper treat too! Superdrug has several super affordable ranges of body products and the products I have tried have never failed me! This big bottle of cocoa body lotion is £1.49 and is a lovely moisturising product at an incredible price! This hand cream was also £1.50 from Primark and smells lovely! Cheap and cheerful products are wonderful finds and great to pick up when you're on a tight budget!


Thank you so much for taking the time to read this post! I hope that it gave you some inspiration for the greatest cosy night in ever! Take care and let me know if there's any posts you would like to see in the Self Care 101 series! Always open to suggestions! xo

This weekend was a long, frustrating rollercoaster of co-workers calling in sick and a very busy retail job. Coupled with deadlines, this weekend was utter torture. By Sunday afternoon, I was so ready for some much deserved retail therapy!

I'm normally the girl with short, cracked and badly painted nails, something I am pretty fed up of. I'm a busy student who works all weekend and doesn't really have the time or patience to spend much time on fixing my nails. As a quick fix, I decided to give false nails a go and wanted to start as cheap as possible.

Primark has a massive selection of nails in all different shapes, colours and finishes. I was in Primark on Monday afternoon and figured I would grab a pack and I settled on the 'Squareletto Matte' nails in the colour 'Antique Stone'. The pack comes with 24 nails and a small tube of adhesive and the colour is a beautiful beige nude.

The 'Squareletto' nails are a lovely shape but super super long and as someone who is used to having pretty much no nails at all, it takes some getting used to. However, it's not an issue most of the time. The adhesive that comes with these nails has really surprised me the most! It is actually really good and is pretty strong! I'm impressed! The nails were really easy and quick to apply and the glue set very quickly. Once set, these nails do not budge and I have only had to re-glue a nail once since putting them on yesterday! (update: I kept these on for 5 days before soaking them off, but they could have easily stayed on for longer)

I am steadily becoming obsessed with this range of nails and have already gone back to Primark for more! I have found that the almond-shaped nails are best for me due to the fact that i'm not used to very long nails and also because I work in retail on a shop floor so I am constantly opening boxes and putting out stock and I can see very long nails getting in the way of that for me. These are the 'Almond' nails in 'Shameless':

These nails are significantly shorter than the 'squareletto' nails and are a wonderful plum colour. I am in love with these nails! They survived a weekend at work so I am more than impressed! I will definitely be buying more nails in this shape as they are super wearable and I love that they are pointed subtly, a shape that I have never had on my nails before! Since wearing both sets of nails I have received loads of compliments and people can't believe that I only paid £1 for these! I would totally recommend Primark nails for anyone starting out with false nails and whoever wants to get great nails for a super low price!