August Round-Up

OMG! Can you believe it's September tomorrow? Every month I am so shocked at how quickly time is going. September is my birthday month whoop whoop. This month has been more "summery" than the previous, as I didn't work at all in August. Here is a little breakdown of things that happened this month.


A N S W E R E D   P R A Y E R S

I was going through a really hard time this year. Pretty much since January, which sucked because I named this year "Growth". Every year I have a keyword or focus for the year. This year I wanted to grow in all areas of my life, but instead I felt stuck more than anything. I had been praying endlessly that God would handle my situation and restore my peace of mind. This month, I finally feel like my prayers were answered. One day I just woke up and felt so much peace. I felt so light, as if a burden had been completely lifted off me. I truly feel so blessed and I KNOW it was all because of God. All I did was pray and believe that he could do it and he did. The funny thing is that number 8 in the bible is a symbol of new beginnings. God always has the best timing.

Y O U T H   C O N F E R E N C E

My church had a youth conference in London called ABLAZE. It was so powerful! We took a minibus from Birmingham to Brixton and spent the day in fellowship with hundreds of other youth and believers. Fifteen young people got baptized that night which was so amazing to see. The word really spoke to my situation and confirmed God had answered my prayers. It made me understand how it was all part of God's plan for my life and my vision. I named my year GROWTH and from those trials, I well and truly grew and became a stronger person. I already feel like I have more confidence and my faith has developed. Although it was a route I wouldn't have chose for myself in order to meet my goal, it was the best route. You cannot grow without being out your comfort zone or experiencing rain.


M Y   F I R S T  H O L L Y W O O D   W A X

If you've read my Holiday Prep post you will know I got my first ever Hollywood wax. It was actually something I put on my bucket list about 2 years ago. The idea of not having to shave for like 6 weeks was music to my ears, however I kept putting it off because I was scared of the pain. People had compared it to childbirth and a form of torture! I decided to just be brave and book an appointment this month. I booked it at the beginning of the month and got it done on the 19th. Honestly it wasn't nearly as bad as I had imagined. Of course there were areas that hurt more than others but I didn't cry or scream at any point, which is something I anticipated. Oddly enough I wasn't uncomfortable being completely exposed. I thought I would be anxious as hell getting naked in front of some random woman and literally spreading my legs as wide as possible haha. I'm glad I got out of my comfort zone. I'm definitely converted to waxing now.

O R L A N D O   F L O R I D A

The main part of my month has been my trip to Orlando. As I write this, I am sitting next to the air-con in my hotel room. After this I'm probably going to go to the pool. I'm having such a great time spending quality time with my family in our favourite location. It is SO hot (as usual) here. So far we've gone shopping, had our first day at Universal, ate like KINGS AND QUEENS and rejuvenated for a new semester and to go back to work. We have another week before we go back to the UK and we're making the most of it.

So this is my August Round-Up. What have you gotten up to this month? Let me know in the comments.

Thanks for reading,
Have a great day x

Holiday Prep: Florida

I'm super excited about this post!! Not long left until I fly to Florida. By the time this post is published, I will be on my way to the airport in about 6 hours. Every year, I go to Orlando with my family and I'm super excited to go back. I've had this post planned for months now, so I'm glad I finally get to share it with you all.
Recently I have been obsessed with watching holiday prep vlogs. If you've never watched one before, it's basically just a chilled follow me around style vlog, where girls do a bunch of stuff in prepararion for their holiday. I wanted to do a blog post version, showing some of the things I did to get ready for my vacay. So without further ado, here we goooo.

University Dos and Don'ts: First Year

A huge congratulations to everyone who got their results yesterday. I hope you got what you wanted and worked hard for. If not, it's not the end of the world! I definitely didn't get what I wanted, but God still had a plan for me. Don't beat yourself up if you didn't get what you expected.

Now that you have your results, the majority of people will know what university they will be attending/if they will be going to university at all. I thought this would be a good time to share some DOS and DON'Ts for your first year.

Disclaimer: 
This advice is based on my own experience. Some of the don'ts are things that I did and learnt weren't the best thing to do, and the dos are things that I did and benefited from. I am definitely not a model student, dishing out advice because I think I'm so great at this uni thing. The advice is there to help you out if you're feeling a bit anxious about your first year. Use it as a guideline, not instruction.

Bible Study: James 1 (NIV)

HAPPY SUNDAY EVERYONE. You made it to the end (or beginning depending on how you see it) of the week. Either way, it's a huge achievement. You really do have to thank God everyday for allowing you to see another day.
Speaking of God, today's blog post is a little different. I originally planned to make a part II of my Gospel Playlist post, however I was studying James 1 today (Saturday) and really felt called to share my study. I've not done a post like this before, so I'm not sure what the response will be like, but when God puts in your spirit to share something you just have to trust him and do it.

I've shared a few faith posts in the past and I definitely want to do more of them. I guess this is a good start. This is going to be a more concise version of my actual study. The study was 17 pages long (yup you read that right) and took me 3 hours, so it would be a bit much to share all of that on here. I'm just going to share the points that I think God wants me to share the most, and that particularly stood out to me. If you've never read James 1 before, you could perhaps use this as a guideline or for extra pointers for your own study. Or maybe you're not Christian and just want to know more about this chapter. Either way, I hope you gain something from this post. This is going to be a LONG one.

Beauty Gurus I Trust

The YouTube beauty community has had its fair share of scandals over the last few years. From racist pasts surfacing and bloated egos to unacceptable quality, product releases. Despite that, we can't help but love watching makeup tutorials and beauty videos. For me personally, I find beauty videos super relaxing and therapeutic. There is something about watching someone apply makeup in ways that I'm incapable of doing, that brings me joy. Although the beauty industry is full of scandals, I have a few beauty gurus that I watch regularly and completely support. I thought I would share a few beauty gurus that I trust and believe deserve recognition.

J U I C Y  J A S

Jasmine is an American beauty guru currently at 610K subscribers. I have been watching her consistently for about 3 years. I remember subscribing when she hit about 50K subs and it's been so amazing to watch her channel grow. One of my favourite things about Jasmine is that she always produces amazing content. She is creative with her looks whilst making them wearable. I've even re-created a couple of them. She uses a mixture of drugstore and high-end makeup which is nice. Her reviews are also really great. I trust her opinion when it comes to foundations and base products. Plus she has incredible skin.

C H L O E  M O R E L L O

Chloe is originally from Australia but has recently moved to LA. She is currently at 2.6M subscribers. I have been watching her for a long time. I remember finding her whilst watching a Lauren Curtis video. Her channel was suggested and I watched a few videos of hers before subscribing. I love Chloe's channel because all of her looks are super wearable and realistic. She isn't like your typical beauty influencer in the sense of applying a million layers of makeup. She is all about "your skin but better". All her looks are very much focused on enhancing your natural beauty. If you like tinted moisturisers, cream products and sultry eye looks, you'll love Chloe's makeup looks.

J A Y D E.   P I E R C E

I have been watching Jayde since she was my age which is kind of weird. She was 18 when she started YouTube and I believe she was about to turn 20 when I started watching her channel. She is now 23. She is a UK beauty/fashion influencer with 406K subscribers and 1M Instagram followers. I love her looks because she has INCREDIBLE skin and definitely has good taste when it comes to complexion products and skin care. We have a pretty similar skin tone too so I like to use her as reference. Her usual look is quite glowy skin with a glossy or nude lip, which is definitely my favourite too.

H O L L Y.   B O O N

Holly Boon is a UK beauty guru with 671K subscribers on YouTube. She is definitely more adventurous with her makeup looks. She incorporates lots of colour and detail with her eye makeup. I'm not very creative when it comes to makeup, but I love watching her tutorials. She is really talented and I find her makeup looks very original. She has just started her own cosmetics line 'HBN Cosmetics' and I definitely want to try some of her products one day. She has had great reviews so far and she uses smaller influencers to promote her products and receive PR, which I think is so great. I like that she gives smaller makeup artists a platform to show their own work and be able to work with a brand.

I T S S A B R I N A

Sabrina is a UK beauty guru currently at 315K Subscribers on YouTube. I particularly love her one brand tutorials because she uses a range of products from brands, that may not be as hyped up as others within the community. I enjoy her makeup tutorials and reviews. All of her makeup looks are super wearable, therefore easy to re-create. She loves glowy skin (just like me) and simple eye makeup.

M A K E U P.   C H A R

Charlotte is a London based beauty guru. She is a smaller YouTuber with 2.5K subscribers on YouTube and 19.4K followers on Instagram. I found her through Pinterest maybe a year ago. Her eye looks are beautiful and she has a lot of skill. I'm really surprised she doesn't have more subscribers. She is just as talented as some of the big influencers with over 500K. I trust her opinions when it comes to product recommendations. She receives PR but with her being a smaller channel, she buys a lot of her makeup with her own money. I find that makes her more trustworthy as she doesn't have the fact that half her collection was free, to cloud her judgement. I also love that she uses colour, but makes it seem so easy to use. Whenever I see people like NikkieTutorials use colour, I think "wow that's impossible!". Charlotte makes using colour seem a lot less scary.

T A M M I.   C L A R K E

Tammi is one of my absolute favourite people to watch. Her makeup tutorials and reviews are so informative and her talent is insane. She is another woman who loves her colour! She is another UK based beauty guru, with 147K subscribers on YouTube. She has her own eye-shadow palettes with Revolution makeup (which are on my wishlist) and she has convinced me to put so many other things on my list too. I love that she uses a mixture of luxury and affordable makeup. She even tries brands that you may not know of or much about.

So these are some beauty gurus that I trust and love. Who do you like to watch? Let me know in the comments.

Thanks for reading,
Have a great day x