It's that time of the year again, when we all make the dash around numerous City's and Towns searching high and low for presents and gifts for our loved ones. Last minutes Christmas shopping is the worst! I'm just going to throw this out there too, it's the one time of the year a lot more men leave their caves in one big men-mass swarm, all grunting and groaning in the shops looking for something to get their wives, girlfriends, sisters and mothers (okay, we know that's not entirely true, and some very organised and thoughtful men did their Christmas shopping in February...YEH RIGHT!) This year, I have completed my Christmas shopping AND wrapping by the 20th (not bad).
Although Christmas is a time for giving and receiving, I am one of these people that is ALL about the giving. Putting lot's of thought into people's presents, wrapping them nicely, and PRESENTing (see what I did there?) them to special people in your life is SO exciting. I always feel a great sense of satisfaction when the presents are all bought and wrapped ready for the 25th and popped under the tree.
I thought i'd share some of my wrapped presents with you, in order to get your creative juices flowing if you lack a little in that department or just to give you a few ideas!
Red, Striped & Snowflake Wrapping Paper - M&S
Retro Wrapping Paper - Urban Outfitters
Red Ribbon, Natural Twine, Bakers Twine, Sequin String - M&S
Naughty Swear Word Paper (For the Christmas Un-Enthusiast) - Urban Outfitters
Where's Wally Paper - Urban Outfitters
Red Bells - Wyvale Garden Centre in Northampton
Plush Hearts - Wyvale Garden Centre in Northampton
Red and White Stitch Ribbon - Wyvale Garden Centre in Northampton
Present Labels - M&S
I hope this has inspired you, or if you just like to have a nosey at how people decorate presents, then this has fulfilled that desire for you. I'm a firm believer in how a present is wrapped is a good judge of character and says a lot about someone as a person ;) No pressure guys!
Have you done all your Christmas shopping? Do you love giving presents as much as I do?
Every year, I will be given a chocolate advent calendar from my grandparents (yes, i'm 22 years old) and each year, I still find it just as exciting opening the little door and having a cheeky piece of chocolate for 24 days of the month (even though we all eat chocolate all year round, but it's in the shape of Snowmen and holly...thus making it 100% DIFFERENT...okay?) . However, being a complete beauty junky, when these got delivered to my door, I suddenly lost all enthusiasm for my chocolate advent calendars.
The first one is a Liz Earle advent calendar. As most of you know, I am a huge fan of Liz Earle. I've used their cleanse and polish for well over a year now, and although I dip my toe into the realm of other cleansers, nothing ever comes close. This is the perfect pre-christmas, skincare lovers treat. I appreciate that not everyone will have £100 to splash out on a lavish advent calendar, but look how amazing it is! The perfect early Christmas present for your best friend, Mrs or your Mum. It houses samples of all their best selling skincare, eye care, haircare and body care. I can't express to you how excited to am to start opening this. The end of December can't come quick enough..
The second beauty advent calendar has been created by Latest in Beauty to celebrate their 1 year partnership with You magazine. If you aren't really much of a skincare enthusiast, then this would be much more "up your street". The calendar is made up of 24 different branded beauty samples including Benefit, St Tropez, Espa, L'Occitane, Eve Lom and Dermalogica (a few of my favourites from the long list). There is much more of a variation of products in this one, from mascara and lip balm, to hair masks and hand cream. The calendar is worth over £210, so you are getting yourself an absolute bargain. It's like one giant beauty box! :) You can click hereto go the site and take a peek at the products included (or if you want it to be surprise i'd advise you don't scroll down on the website and go straight to the "add to basket"). I, myself have looked at the products included (as I wanted to see if the advent calendar was worth the price tag), and I can confirm that it is! I'd probably use almost all of them.
Have these interested you? Are you contemplating spoiling yourself or someone else during the exciting Christmas run up? I personally think these are a brilliant concept, I just wish they'd been around sooner.
When I filmed my video on "Dealing with Panic Attacks & Anxiety", I didn't think for one minute that I would have had such an overwhelming response from so many of you. It took quite a lot of courage for me to sit down and speak out loud about my experiences and difficult aspects of my life on camera. I know that all it involved was me sitting in my bedroom and talking to a piece of photographic equipment but I knew that there would be an awful lot of you watching, so at the time, the pressure was on a heap more than if I were to be showing you the products I'd enjoyed using that month. The video also made it onto YouTube's homepage, which made the experience all the more nail-biting. Not only were my loyal viewers and subscribers hearing about my struggles with panic attacks, but now anyone that landed on the youtube homepage was also watching. Although scary, it meant that it was helping a lot more people, and this made it all the more worthwhile. I wasn't really too sure what the feedback from the video would be, I only wanted it to be seen, and for it to have helped at least one person. After attempting to try and read through all (5,300 currently) comments, hundreds of tweets and a brimming email inbox, it became apparent that I had in fact helped an awful lot of people. I can't even express how happy this makes me. I wish I could sit and reply to each and every one of you, but I think it would take me a lifetime, so instead I just want to say thank you for all your kind words of support and love. I have shed many a tear hearing about how some of you have changed your lives around because of my gentle push. From 12 year old girls to 40 something men, the spectrum is so wide and so many of you have been affected by my rambly video. Whether it has helped you to realise what you are experiencing is panic and anxiety, helped you to help someone close to you, given you the reassurance you aren't alone or given you a virtual cuddle, I am so pleased that it has affected you positively in some way. If you are reading this and you are one of those people, please remember to stay strong, stay happy and keep positive. I wish you all the luck in the world with whatever it is you are battling, you can do it, and you aren't alone.
Are you a little bit bored with your blog? Do you wish you had the capability to make it look more professional and add a personal touch?
To kick start November, I have something I think a lot of you will like! My friend Dana who runs the ever so fabulous blog "Wonder Forest", and who is also responsible for my amazing blog design, is giving one of you the chance to win a complete blog re-design/make-over to the cost of $300. If you're anything like me, and find designing things exceptionally hard, along with HTML, then this is perfect for you.
“Hey friends of Zoe! I’m Dana and I blog over at Wonder Forest. I am a professional designer who had the pleasure of working with Zoe on her own blog and wanted to offer the very same services to one of her lucky readers! I know how hard it can be to stand out in a sea of bloggers and a custom design can do just that. I will work with you to design and develop a blog that conveys who you are. If you’d like to check out some of my select past work, just click here. I am excited to work with one of you, and if you are in need of any other design services, premade Blogger templates or graphical goodies you can always visit my new design shop at Envye.com.”
Rules of the Giveaway
♥ Be a follower of my blog via Google Friend Connect
♥ Follow Dana's Blog via Google Friend Connect
♥ "Like" Dana's Facebook Page
Competition is open worldwide
Design services only for blogger blogs
You must already own a blog/have one set up Giveaway is open for exactly ONE week ENTER BELOW
a Rafflecopter giveaway Good Luck everyone! I will announce the winner of the giveaway in exactly one weeks time here on my blog.
So, I had these photo's stored away in my "Things I want to blog about" file, and although I feel a little late to the party blogging about LFW when that was "so yesterday", I still wanted to share these photos with you. I went along with Zoe (The London Lipgloss) and Lily (What I Heart Today) to get their makeup done by the mac artists at London Fashion Week. I had tried to book one myself, but all the slots had been fully booked on the first day (obviously). I enjoyed watching the girls get their makeup done, and took some snaps for them so they could blog about it etc. Once the lovely girl doing Lily's makeup had finished, she asked me if I'd like a little "touch up", being a typical polite and reserved english girl, I half said "Oh nooo, not to worry! You don't have time before your next slot", but Lily insisted (she knew deep down I was screaming out for a free makeover haha). I sat down in the chair and she worked her magic. She touched up my lipstick with mac's cherry lipliner and russian red lipstick and created a really cool cat eye with blacktrack fluidline. I totally wish I could do that to my own eyes, but I know i'd fail miserably.
I also have some snaps of Lily and I doing some awful LFW posing. "How NOT to pose outside Somerset House"...?
Do you ever experiment a little more with your eyeliner? I had never thought something like that could actually be quite wearable but I would totally wear this on a day to day basis! Would you?
So, I thought i'd start this post with a little apology. I have been somewhat MIA, and although this may have been a slight annoyance for you lovely lot (or not, depending on how much you like to read my blog..haha) but it has been a positive time away for me. A battery re-charge shall we say! After my last post on "Just saying YES", I took my own advice and started doing lot's more things. Things i'd always been a bit scared to do, meeting up with old friends, making new ones and banishing my anxiety, as it had got quite bad. I also had somewhat of a mental block on the blogpost front. You know sometimes when you sit with a blank page/screen and you just don't know what to write? Yeh, that. FEAR NOT though, I have returned, with a much brighter outlook on life and feeling much more positive about certain aspects of my life. I was also extremely overwhelmed by the HUGE positive response I received from THIS blogpost. That is the whole reason I love blogging, being able to reach out to lot's of people and help in some way, even if it's just a teeny bit.
So, whilst away from my laptop, I started to get into the habit of doing my makeup a bit more. Feeling a bit "meh" in general, meant I stopped doing creative things with my makeup or even making the effort to do it most days. However, I have started spending more time on it, and I found my beloved "Mekong" eyeshadow by NARS in the back of my makeup draw, and since then I have been having a full on love-affair with it. I have been applying it all over the lid and smoking it out with a blending brush, then applying my eyeliner for a more edgy, smokey look. I haven't been doing it every day, as it is quite full on, and doesn't pair too well with my beloved bold lip, but I feel like it makes my eyes stand out a little more. Mekong is a deep brown, with flecks of gold sparkle in it. Being a Nars eyeshadow, it's highly pigmented and will probably last me millions of years. I highly, highly recommend it! If any of you are also interested in which lipstick I am wearing, it's "Desert" by Topshop.
Another thing I have been loving is bobble hats. This one in particular is from Topshop. Being small-headed (a pea head..ehem), I didn't ever think they would really suit me, or fit me properly, but I actually quite like them. I also like that they can hide bad hair days, or dress up an outfit AND keep your ears and head warm (it's main purpose). I can see myself wearing hats all of Autumn and Winter.
"Just say yes, just say there's nothing holding you back"
How often do you turn things down or shy away from doing things a little out of your comfort zone? How often do you say NO? For me, this word would crop up an awful lot more than the word "yes".
As most of you may or may not be aware, I struggle with anxiety and panic attacks (read more on that here), so for me, sometimes saying no, I believe, is the only option. My mind takes control and makes me think that I will be safe doing the things that are within my comfort zone, things that don't scare me. But, what kind of a life is that? Do I really want to be confined to doing things with baby steps over and over? Life is too short for that. Do I want to live my life turning things down and missing out on so many opportunities just because it scares me a bit? No, and neither do you.
If you are reading this, and you suffer with anxiety disorder, have panic attacks, depression, have social anxiety or are just a very negative or shy person, then I know full well, you want more than anything to be able to say yes to so many things, but the way your mind works, means you are terrified to do this. What is the worst that could happen though? Will you drop down dead? No, the chance of that happening are slim to none.
It's taken me so long to try and push all my negative thoughts surrounding different activities that are linked with my panic attacks, but i've just reached a point in my life where I think "SOD IT". So what if I have a panic attack? What's going to happen to me? I would rather do more things, that I can look back on and think "I'm so glad I did that" than think "I really wish I'd done that". I don't want to ever be left with that awful question floating around in my head of "what if?". There may be times when you do panic, or you do get in a flap about something, but if you know that ultimately you're going to be okay, at least you can say you did it, or you tried it, and at least you won't be left thinking "what if?".
I've had so many panic attacks I can't even keep count, but do I remember all of these and relive these panic attacks every day of my life? No I don't. What would be the point? Anxiety is really rubbish, panic attacks are really rubbish, but you can't let these things take complete control of your life or you will be consumed by nothing else, and it will make you desperately unhappy. You are more likely to remember all the amazing times, than you are to remember times where you felt anxious. Why miss out on any opportunity to make happy memories you'll keep with you forever because of this?
One thing I find very difficult about living with anxiety, is the hold it takes over you without you even realising. You get used to it, and you get used to the way of living, and you don't see how your behaviours are so varied from the norm. I am very jealous of people that ooze confidence. I sometimes think "If only I never had to worry about anything", but then do I really have anything to worry about anyway? Are the things I worry about really significant in the grand scheme of things? The answer is no, probably not.
I hold back on so many things, that I feel like I can never 100% enjoy myself in any situation. There are very rarely times in my life, where anxious thoughts are not floating around in my head, ruining a situation for me. Sometimes i'll even be driving to Asda and they'll be there. I feel like my anxiety is a little demon living inside my head (I know, i'm getting slightly freaky on yo asses, but you know what I mean), and the only way to ever destroy it is to be like "LOOK, SEE, I'M FINE, I CAN DO THIS, NOW GO AWAY", and eventually he will get bored, and leave (I'd just like to make it clear at this point that I am not possessed, all clear on that? Yes? good).
More recently, I've had a bit of a wakeup call. I felt myself becoming too consumed by certain aspects of my life, certain people, situations and mostly, my anxiety. I stopped going to events in London, I stopped meeting my friends as much, I stopped eating out in restaurants as much, I stopped getting the train. I let my anxious mind take complete control. Some days, I just spent on my own, speaking to nobody and doing nothing, because I felt safe that way. Nobody should be living their life like this, and sometimes it takes a small (or large) slap in the face for you to realise which path you were heading down. Consider this yours.
Over the past few weeks, I feel as though I have turned over a new leaf. I want to be more positive about things. Being anxious means you are more likely to find the negatives in any situation before the positives, and this becomes so draining. Not just for you, but for others around you.
I have started to say YES to things I'd never normally say yes to. I'm not saying yes to absolutely everything, but i'm making a conscious effort to agree to more things. I recently went to a Festival, and yes, it was only for the day, but I have a slight fear over festivals. Large crowds, drunk people who will probably end up vomming (fear of vomit), but I put all this to the back of my mind, and just went. I had such a good day and got to see one of my favourite bands and make happy memories. The alternative to that, would have been to stay at home doing nothing, which a few weeks back, is exactly what I would have done. I went on 3 trains to meet a friend to film YouTube videos to a place i'd never been before. I know most of you reading this will raise an eyebrow here and think "Zoe, that really is no biggy", but for someone who couldn't even get on one train, to one stop without being on the brink of an anxiety attack a mere few weeks ago, this is a huge achievement for me, and again, had such a good day!
I feel so much better for saying yes to things. It has improved my confidence drastically, and it's made me want to go out and do more things that i'd normally never think/want to do. It's making me feel a lot more positive, and with positivity, comes happiness.
I guess the point i'm trying to make with this post, is please think about this for a second, try and step away from your anxious/negative mindset, and look at the bigger picture...
You get ONE life (unless of course you are a feline), one chance to do anything and everything you want. Do not let something like this control your decisions or ruin experiences for you. The same goes for people. Don't let people ruin things for you, or control your behaviours or your life choices.
It's YOUR life. Share it with others but don't let anyone, or anything take over the control you have.
Say YES. Make it your mission, to do things you'd never normally do, go places you'd never normally go, meet people you'd never normally meet. How can you make memories, and take new paths in life if you turn everything down?
Taking the quote in the song in THIS blog post "Do one thing everyday that scares you". I probably wouldn't take this too literally if you have severe anxiety, but apply it to making decisions every once in a while to begin with. So what if it scares you? Think about how you'll feel when you accomplish it, think about the opportunities it could bring you. Think how happy it could make you!
Now, after reading this blog post, there are a few things I want you to do:
♥ Say YES to something you wouldn't normally say yes to, and let me know in the comments what it was
♥ Listen to the song posted below, I likes it!
♥Watch the film "Yes Man"
♥ Alternatively, download/buy the book "Yes Man" written by Danny Wallace & read it
♥ Put your favourite song on and dance around to it (not for any reason other than i'm sure it will make you feel at least 10x better than you did before reading this)
♥ Remember that you are not the only one feeling this way, and that only you can change the outlook you have on life
As I'm not really your average Festival-goer, it was most unlike me to jump at the chance to use my brothers spare ticket for Reading Festival on Sunday (I'm trying to say yes to doing more things i'd normally not do & I'm enjoying it thoroughly - more on that in another blog post). For those of you who may not be aware, Reading is a place, and although you could also look at that and think "Zoe, what kind of a Festival is one where you go to learn about literature", I promise you it was nothing of the sort, it's a weekend long music festival. It was a really fun day, and has possibly cured my small fear of Festivals (mainly due to the unpleasant toilet facilities and overly drunken loons). Consider it my "dip in the festival water". I just wanted to share some snaps with you all, hope you like them!
♥ Wearing:
American Apparel "disco pants" in black, American Apparel initials t shirt with sleeves rolled up, Goldfish wellington boots (goodness knows where I got these bad boys from), Sunglasses from New Look (mens section - they are smaller than the womens for some odd reason), Earrings from Love, Hearts & Crosses, Lipstick is Topshops "Firecracker".
♥ Company & featured in photos above:
Alfie - @PointlessBlogTv
Joe - @Joe_Sugg
Chai - @Mrchailis (I'm afraid I don't know the guy holding the sign, so his twitter name will remain a mystery)
♥ Highlights:
Hanging out with and meeting lot's of lovely people
Two Door Cinema Club (they were amazing live)
Foo Fighters
Bumping into one of my good friends
Learning how to clap properly (essential for a festival)
Having long hair means that the maintenance spent on it, can add up to quite a considerable amount of time. I love having long hair, don't get me wrong, but there will always be days where I think chopping it off would be so liberating. However, I am far too much of a wuss to even contemplate snipping inches off my long locks. So for days where I think having long hair is a bit of a faff, I'll sling it up in a messy bun. The bun is never the same each time I do it but i'm always happy with how it turns out. I attempted to show you how I do this in a VIDEO on my youtube channel, although explaining it is actually quite difficult. It's all just trial and error. Sling it up, use many hair pins and hair bobbles and voila. It doesn't need to look perfect, and that's why it's one of my favourite go-to hair styles. I also really like that now it's ombred, there are little bits of blonde in the bun (easily amused).
Sometimes, when life get's a little complicated, it's very easy to loose sight of all the good things and you become soley focused on the negative. This song is sure to bring you round.
If any of you have seen my most recent video, you will notice that I have had my hair re-ombred. It was a bit of a spur of the moment thing, and I just went with it. As most of you will know, I've had my hair ombred twice before (the second time was more of a "top up"). I eventually got bored of my ombre, and had forgotten what it was like to have an all over colour, so I went to my hairdressers, and asked them to cover over the blonde (although by this time, the blonde had pretty much faded away). All of a sudden, I craved having ombre again. I like that it gives the hair a lot more texture, and having such long hair, texture is key to making it appear voluminous rather than lack lustre. I went to my hairdressers (Gemma and Lisa), and asked them to re-do it for me. I'm super happy with how it turned out. They used a few different shades to create the blend and put peroxide on the very ends. A lot of people ask me what to ask for at the hairdressers if you want this affect and to be honest, all you should need to do is show them a picture and they'll know what to do to create it. They may all have slightly different techniques or call it different things (Dip dye, ombre, smudged) but ultimately, if they have a good image to go by, they will recreate it for you.
If you can't afford to go to a salon to have this done, then check out my DIY ombre hair post, where I explain how I did it myself the first time round. And you can also see how I did my top up (I used a different dye) on this post here.
Super happy to have my blonde ends back, makes me feel a little more exotic haha
If you live in or around Somerset/Wiltshire and want information on the particular salon I went to, feel free to privately email me & I'll give you the details.
If you read any of my monthly beauty box posts, you may recognise this brand as being something included in the June GlossyBox. I didn't really think too much of it initially, and put it aside. Oh how silly of me. I then stayed a night at a friends house and threw this into my handbag as a quick (and nifty travel sized) mascara option. When I first opened this, I grimaced at the size of the brush head. It does look massive, in length and thickness. It scared me a little, putting this near my eye. I once owned "bad gal lash" by Benefit, and that too had a very large brush on the wand, and I didn't get on with it at all. It was messy, difficult for accuracy and sometimes a little painful (bristles in eye scenario). Now, I believe I have normal sized eyes, and that although Louise calls me Chumbolina (in reference to Thumbolina), my eyes are of normal size, so if you're thinking "but Zoe, everything looks big compared with you", i'm pretty sure someone else would feel the same way. Once I had gotten over the sheer horror of the size of the brush head, I went to use it on my eyelashes and very surprisingly, had absolutely no problem using it to apply the mascara. The shape of the brush allows you to easily grab each lash with no difficulty what so ever.
So what makes this mascara so amazing? The first thing I love about it, is the bristles. They are really dense, which means they literally grab every lash, which also means minimum clumping. I am someone who really likes volume in my eyelashes, and this is exactly what "sexy pulp" claims to add, and I really feel that it does. It makes them appear fuller, longer and curlier than that are naturally and I feel like they make a nice impact without going to "false lash" measures. I loved the little sample so much, I immediately went on the Yves Rocher website, and ordered myself 2 in full size. I got one in brown, and one in black, as I do wear a variation of the two shades. When going for something a little more natural I'll opt for brown, and then if i'm going all out i'll go with black. I even stopped using and didn't repurchase, for about the 10th time, my beloved No7 Exquisite Curl mascara which I thought no other mascara could top.
Here are some scary eye pictures of my mascara in use. I was wearing the black mascara in the images above and only had on 2 coats. If you were really mascara crazy, I think you could carry on with another few coats before it might start clumping. I would highly, highly recommend this mascara to anyone that wants volume, length and curl to their lashes. I had never even heard of this brand before, but that's the joy of beauty boxes, finding absolute gems in them, that you then go on to love and repurchase. Although this mascara is originally priced at £16.90, I was fully intending to spend that much on it because I loved it that much, but was pleasantly surprised to find it was half price on the website, so i'd hurry over and grab one if you were interested as i'm not sure how long that may last for.
What is your favourite mascara at the moment? Have you tried anything else from Yves Rocher?
Although my blog is mainly beauty related, I do like to throw in a few life related posts too. I enjoy capturing special moments on camera, and equally enjoy sharing them with you all. Recently, my Nan and Grandad celebrated their 50th Wedding Anniversary. It was such a lovely day, and it felt really special. 50 years is such a long time to spend with one person, and it's definitely something to crack open the champagne for. I thought you might like to see some of the photographs I took of the day. I especially love the before and after photos of my grandparents together 50 years ago, and today. I honestly don't even think they've changed that much either. I hope one day, I can look back over 50 years of marriage and still be just as happy as they are.
*Raise a toast to Nan & G-pa*
(as a small side note, I asked my grandparents permission before posting this, and my Grandad added "will I get spotted in the street now?" haha - So if you see my Grandad on your travels, be sure to say hello)
