The power of makeup

I am a huge fan of nikkietutorials on YouTube and I think that she is such an inspiration. Nikkie came up with the power of makeup video which involved doing a full face of makeup one side and leaving the other side completely bare. Since then it has taken off on YouTube, being recreated by hundreds of beauty gurus. 

Although the challenge is a whole lot of fun, the message behind it is that there is beauty with and without makeup. This is important and I love that she is doing something to make girls feel good about themselves. 

There is a misconception that girls only wear makeup because they're insecure or they're hiding something, which isn't always the case. Doing makeup is fun! It's a form of art, hence makeup artists.

I had a lot of fun doing my version of this. I am not a makeup artists so it may not be impressive but I really wanted to participate in the challenge due to it's powerful message. 

Here is how it turned out!

As a base I used seventeen 3 way highlighter primer. It gives you a glow without looking oily.

I used loreal lumi magique as my foundation. It gives you a natural summer glow and covers what you want to cover without looking unatural. 

I used maybelline age rewind concealer to conceal and highlight my face.

I used collection sheer loose powder to set the foundation and then left extra under my eyes for bake for 5 mins before brushing the excess away. 

For my eyebrow I used the collection eyebrow kit. I always use the middle shade to fill them in. 

For my eyeshadow i used the I heart makeup 'ur the best' palette. I used the purple, matte brown and silver shade. 

I used maybelline lash sensational to coat my top lashes and great lash for my bottom lashes as the wand is really small. 

To contour I used the elf bronzer and blush kit. The bronzer is the perfect shade for my skintone. 

For blush I used the third one on the top row of the makeup revolution hot spice blush palette. I also used a purple rimmel eyeshadow crayon on my lower lash line. 

My favourite part is highlighter! I used the makeup revolution golden lights highlighter to give me that intense glow! 

For my lips i wanted to use red as I find that red suits me the most. I used lime crime red velvet, which is extremely long lasting and matte. 

I actually put the makeup on the side that I have the LEAST imperfections to show how comfortable i am in my own skin. I can personally go out with absolutely nothing and be happy, however it isn't the case with everyone. A lot of people are dependant on makeup because they're not so confident. If you're one of those people, let me tell you that you're beautiful the way you are! You don't need to depend on makeup because you're gorgeous as you are. 

I hope that more people do this challenge and it continues to grow. Thanks for reading!

My NCS Experience!

My NCS Journey is officially over and I'm sad about that. It has honestly been the best experience of my life and I'm so grateful that I was able to take part in the program. I met some of the best people, that I've grown to love in less than a month! It's weird to think how quickly we all became so close.

Obviously, team Sabesan were the best team! They were the most supportive and motivating team. Nobody in our group left anyone behind and everyone supported each other when we tried new things and faced our biggest fears.

I found out that I'm not the best at riding a bike but regardless, doing mountain biking with my team was so much fun.

When we first met, nobody really wanted to speak and everybody was really awkward but now we're actually really good friends. I never thought I'd be as close to them as I am. This is for my whole wave too. I loved our wave so much and I've made friendships that will last a very long time.

Gorge walking was one crazy experience that I still can't believe I did! The funniest thing was getting changed in front of a dozen cows in a field. It was freezing cold and one cow didn't turn away, the whole time we were there! Definitely didn't think i'd ever be half naked in a field. It was kind of awkward when the farmer walked past...

We did a 6 hour hike in Scotland, which I liked because I enjoy walking. We did a total of 16K which is pretty impressive.

All the girls in my dorm were super sweet and we all had girly chats before bed. I was always the first to fall asleep, so who knows what happened once I was out but I had a lot of fun with them.

During the second week, our group got to do photography, which we showed friends and family at the skills show. I'm actually really happy we did photography because once I get a professional camera, I'll be able to take great photos for this blog!

We went to Kinmos, which is a mental health drop in centre, in my city. We did some gardening for them and took lots of pictures for the showcase. We ended up having a lot of fun and of course working hard. It felt good to do something that helped others.

We stayed at a university accommodation for the second week, which was such a great time. I love all the girls who were in my flat and I'm so glad we all got put together. We had the chance to cook together and have late night chats before bed. I really loved it!

During the second week, we also had a dragons den pitch. It was kind of stressful but everything went extremely well. We got the full budget from the dragons and we all developed our public speaking skills.

In my opinion, the final week was my favourite week. We had to be independent and work as a team to create a campaign for Kinmos. We went into their local town and talked to the public about mental health conditions. It went really well and we had a lot of laughs during the day. The process was a great opportunity for us to experience an enterprise atmosphere and lifestyle. We saw our partners that we were working with again and spent the day with the service users. We played games and decorated cakes with them. We even ended up having a water fight in the garden.

It was so sad finishing the program as it has honestly been the best 3 weeks ever. I was actually more upset finishing a 3 week program than 5 years of school!

If you ever get the chance to take part in NCS, please do! It will be the best decision you'll make! This is just the run down of my experience as words can't describe how amazing it really was!

Thanks for reading!

Change of plans... (Day 16)

As some of you may have noticed, I haven't been posting everyday like I said I would. I thought it would be easy due to all of my ideas, however because of other commitments and being so busy, there will have to be a change of plan.

I will be cutting down from everyday posts to 3 posts a week. I love blogging, so I feel extremely bad when I don't live up to people's expectations. Every day that I haven't posted, I've felt really guilty. By posting less blogs, it will mean that I will write better quality content too! There may be days when I'm doing absolutely nothing, so I'll post extra entries, however 3 times a week will be the basis of my summer uploads. Apart from days posting, nothing will change. Thanks for being understanding!

My next post will be on Wednesday.

Have a good day!

My 2016 Summer Scrapbook (Day 15)

Last year I made a summer scrapbook and I wrote on my bucket list to do the same this year! I had so much fun making it. Arts and crafts are very therapeutic and I genuinely enjoy making things. I decided to keep the scrapbook a little more mature than last year and I love it!

Here is how I created it!

I started off with a plain A5 notebook which I purchased from pound land. Poundland is one of my favourite places for arts and craft purchases.

I had some marble effect card in my craft drawer so I decided to cut it to shape and glue it to the front of the notebook. I just used regular PVA glue and made sure to keep it as steady as possible when placing it, to avoid air bubbles. The edges kept peeling away so I used my hot glue gun to keep it secure.

I used a piece of tan coloured paper across the book to make it look less plain. I then put a tag in the centre to make it look more sophisticated. I kept it at an angle and added some ribbon to it.

I then included a decorative strip at the bottom for extra detail

In the middle of the tag, I used a stencil to write summer and then some gold stickers for '2k16'.

As an extra addition, I included a 3D sticker in the corner.

Finally, at the back, I put a sticker to allow people to identify who it belongs to.

I plan to put photos, tickets, receipts, packaging and notes in the book. I found it extremely fun to do last year and I'm looking forward to documenting this year's summer!

NCS week 1 (Day 13)

NCS week 1 was such an incredible experience! If you get the chance to do NCS, definitely do it because it's already been such an amazing experience. I've completed my first week of the course and I thought I'd briefly sum up the week.

Day 1:

The first day was a little nerve wrecking. We met at an arena and met all the people who were going to be in our wave and individual groups. When we all first met, it was kind of awkward because everyone was shy and kind of anxious to talk. We bonded really quickly though and of course we're obviously the best team too.

We waited at the arena until the coaches came and played some games that would get everyone to talk to each other.

We went to Scotland for our first week and it was a 5 hour coach trip. That gave us time to talk to more people and make friends before we even got there. We got stuck in the mud at one point and some of us girls were scared that we were going to have to walk the rest of the way with our cases.

Once we got to the accommodation we were told who we would be staying with for the week. The girls I was with were all really nice and sweet. We bonded pretty much instantly. Even during our first night we were having deep conversations and revealing secrets.

Day 2:

The second day was our official day. We had to wake up really early in the morning and make our own lunches. The first activity we did was team building. It rained a lot but it was a lot of fun. We had to build a rocket as a team and launch it outside. My team's rocket didn't get so far but we participated and that is all that counts right? We had to use fake money to buy our resources and do push ups for extra when we ran out of cash. I ended up doing like 20 push ups just for 10cm of cellotape.

In the afternoon we went gorge walking. Gorge WALKING. There was 0 walking involved! I thought it was going to be like a hike or something through water but it turned out we were jumping off cliffs! I was petrified! I was 100% sure that I didn't want to do it but some how I did. I never in my life thought I would jump off a cliff into a river. The water was FREEZING cold and the wet suit didn't really keep me warm at all. I still get flashbacks when I think about the cold. It was the worst. I was really proud of myself for jumping, even though I didn't do the highest cliff. We crossed the border separating England from Scotland. It was kind of cool. On the first day of activities I had already faced a fear. My team were really supportive and we all cheered each other on.

Getting changed afterwards was kind of awkward though. The girls had to get changed in a field full of cows. One cow watched us the whole time and the farmer walked through the field whilst we were still undressed. It's a moment that can never be forgotten.

Day 3: 

The third day was a day full of accomplishments. We did more team building activities. We did the low ropes course which was so much fun. It was hilarious watching everyone fall in mud and slip around on wet tires. For one of the activities we had to get across a pond with one rope. I had to go first and almost let go half way through. I made it to the end but I had rope burn for a while. It was a lot of fun to do though.

In the morning we did mountain biking. I learnt that i'm not the best at riding a bike. I managed to stay on for the most part but I did fall a few times.

In the afternoon we did rock climbing and abseiling. I got to the top when rock climbing, twice although the second round was a lot harder. I only thought i'd make it half way so I was so proud of myself when I got to the very top. I was extremely nervous to abseil at first. I'm not the biggest fan of heights so I have to admit I was pretty scared. My team were really encouraging and watching the rest of my team go before me made me more determined to do it. I'm so glad I did it because I know I would have regretted it otherwise.

Day 4: 

On the fourth day we went on a 5 hour hike. We walked a totally of 16K and it was a lot of fun! It was tiring but I enjoyed it. I like walking so it wasn't really a big deal to be out for 5 hours. We took some pictures on the hike as a team and bonded lots too. We all know lots more about each other now. It was really interesting finding out how different each other's schools are. We learnt facts about Scotland and plants that grew there. We got to see two really cute dogs on the way and sheep too. I've never seen so much poo in my life!

There were a lot of laughs on the walk. Especially when people fell several times in the mud and down the hills.

This is just a brief summary of each day at NCS. I really enjoyed the first week and I can't wait for week 2! I will try to be more detailed about week 2 and hopefully I'll include pictures too!

Thanks for reading.