I'm sure I'm not the only one who has a truly ridiculous number of lip balms/glosses hanging around their general vicinity at all times. Five or six in the handbag, at least three in the bedside drawer/on the bedside table, one or two in the car, another couple on your desk at work and of course multiple on-the-benchers hanging round in handbags that you're not currently using. It really is crazy how many I own. I haven't actually counted because, honestly, I don't know where they all are, but anyway, these here are my current fave that I seem to grab over the millions of others I own. 

From top of the picture to forefront, let's start with the Kiko lip gloss. I have had a look on the Kiko website but I don't think they have the exact one I have, Kiko seem to change their product line so often it's hard to keep up. The one I have is actually a slightly plumping, ever-so-slightly creamy finished lip gloss that has a sweet mint flavour and a slight tingle on the lips. The one I've found on their website is the 3D Hydra Lipgloss which does also claim to be plumping so perhaps it is the same, although the one I have definitely isn't called the 3D Hydra lipgloss. It's really non-sticky and leaves a lovely, almost creamy finish to the lips, making them look healthy and happy. 

Next up is an absolute classic - the Clarins Instant Light Natural Lip Perfector. If you haven't heard of this before you must have been living under a rock, but this is an absolute beaut of a lipgloss/lipbalm. I have shade 2, Apricot Shimmer, which is a beautiful nude colour. The texture of these is beautiful, again quite creamy and not sticky, your lips feel cushioned and smooth when wearing this and as it's available in multiple shades, this is a winner for day to day wear. 

Third in line is the Bobbi Brown Crystal Lip Gloss. Now this one is more of a 'proper' lip gloss. It's much stickier than the previous two and can feel a bit tacky on the lips, but it is SO shiny and lasts a long time because of this. This is the perfect choice if you want that vinyl look to your lips and want to layer up over lipstick. This isn't one I reach for all the time because of the texture, but definitely has its own pros. 

Fourth is the Eve Lom Kiss Mix. I really do love this one because it feels like it's actually properly helping your lips whilst you wear it. This is one I generally try to remember to apply at bedtime and apply quite a thick layer to ink in overnight. It has an almost medicinal scent to it which really makes you feel like it's doing something. On the Eve Lom website it states that it can be used in extreme weather conditions, so it definitely is pretty hardy. It lasts a long time on the lips and definitely makes them feel soft and nourished. 

Finally, we have the Herbivore Coco Rose Lip Tint in Coral. As you'll know if you've read some of my more recent posts or follow me on Instagram, Herbivore is my current favourite skincare brand and this lip tint is great. I was looking for a lip balm that had a bit more colour to it because sometimes you don't want to be wearing a full on lipstick and deal with the upkeep that often comes along with that. This one is great as it definitely packs a colour pop, it's a lovely muted coral, whilst also nourishing the lips. It has coconut oil, shea butter and rose absolute oil in which gives it a great smell and consistency. 

What are some of your favourite lip balms and glosses?

Those early Summer, Spring fresh days are some of my favourite and also, I think, some of the easiest to dress for. Apart from Winter when you can literally throw anything on because you'd have a massive coat covering everything anyway, Spring/early Summer is great when it's around 15-20 degrees, the perfect outfit weather. It's not too hot so that a. you get flustered and sweaty just trying different outfits on, b. you can still wear a nice sleeve or a pair of trousers with a strappy top, meaning you don't have to have legs and arms and stomach out just to stop from melting away.

Life can be hard and the temptation to lunge half-heartedly from one exciting event to another can be draining. Life is about the big things, but it's also about embracing the every day, the mundane, the not-so-glamorous, to make each day special and to make sure you're not simply wishing your life away.

Here are four small things I like to do to bring a little happiness to my day.

1. Grab a coffee. Whilst not the most groundbreaking idea, my morning coffee genuinely feels like a treat to me and properly sets me up. It's not the caffeine boost that does it, although I'm sure that helps, but the anticipation of going in to pick it up, the small warmth and comfort it brings when I walk into work to face the day. My coffee of choice is an oat milk flat white, the perfect size to not fill me up with a milky sloshy feeling, but just enough to give me that morning pick-me-up.

2. Pick a tarot or angel card. This one is pretty niche I'll give you that, but just before I leave the house I love giving my tarot or angel cards a quick shuffle and picking one out to see what my focus and thoughts could hover around throughout the day. Don't get me wrong, by lunchtime I've usually forgotten which card I had, but I like that small minute of mindfulness before I step out of my cocoon into the real world. It makes me feel peaceful and gives me a sense of something bigger out there, something I'm connecting to even if just for a moment.

3. Send a text to a friend or family member. If I'm feeling down or just want to start my day off on a positive note, I will send a text to my mum or dad just saying morning or something mundane. I always get a lovely message back telling me to have a good day and it instantly makes me feel happy and less alone (if I'm having one of those days where I feel lonely). Even reaching out to someone that you've maybe not spoken to for a while, I always find that if I make the effort to send out messages, the joy of receiving them back and reconnecting gives me a massive uplift.

4. Do something creative. The feeling of being excited to get back to a project of some sort can be a great way to make each day feel more enjoyable and give you something to really look forward to. I believe that everyone has something that makes them excited, whether it's writing, videography, organising your photos into an album, painting, colouring - you name it I bet there's something out there that sparks a little twinge of excitement within. Nurture that and focus on it whenever you're feeling down. Make the space and the time to do the things that you enjoy, rather than just sitting in front of the TV each evening.Even if it's just one night a week you put aside to do something creative, I'll bet this will be the evening you start looking forward to most. 

What small things make you happy?

Created with natural, plant-based, food-grade ingredients, including essential and cold-pressed oils, GMO free soy wax and many of those being certified organic, as well as using recyclable and reusable packaging, Hervbivore is the reasonably new hot brand on the beauty scene. 

Besides the beautiful, aethetically pleasing packaging that would take pride of place on anyone's bathroom shelf, the products themselves are fantastic and a pleasure to use. 

I had a short consultation with the Herbivore brand representative in Liberty London and was pretty much sold straight away. So far I've used a small selection of thier products, although their range isn't massively extensive anyway, and I've enjoyed them all so far. 

I bought the Sensationail at home gel kit a while ago because I was a bit over paying £30 a pop to have my nails done by someone else when I could easily do them myself.I was fed up of traditional nail polish never lasting more than a day though, so this was the perfect answer, and at around £50 for the kit, after just two uses you've already made a saving on what you would have if you'd gone to a nail salon. 

I recently decided I was bored of having blonde hair, wanting to fulfil my dream of being a fiery red head (not to mention getting peer-pressured by my work colleagues to do it) so I picked up a box of hair dye and went red-strawberry blonde-orange. 

I bloody love a good face mask and have really got back into using them recently. I find that they're one of those things that are easily forgotten in a skincare routine, but when you do start using them again you wonder why you ever stopped (laziness, let's be honest). I've loved using lots of hydrating face masks recently as my skin has really been feeling quite dehydrated (not enough water intake) so I thought I'd share the three that I'm absolutely loving right now. 

Uncomfortable as it is for me, I will be baring my naked face in this post, in the hopes that it might help anyone out there going through the same thing that I did! 

I had some skin issues throughout 2016 and I wanted to share my story with you, just in case anyone out there is suffering with similar symptoms. I'm lucky to have always had good skin, it's always been pretty clear, smooth and 'stable'. I obviously got the odd breakouts when I was in my teens and still get the odd spot here and there now (I'm 26) but I can also go months without any problems at all. So in May last year when I started noticing some differences in my skin, namely a dry red patch just at the corner of my mouth and slightly below my nose on the right side, as well as some bumpy skin above my right eyebrow that just seemed like some blocked pores, I wasn't too concerned and just thought it was a form of eczema or dermatitis (such a vague term). 

A list of 29 things before I turn 29 next month, that I would tell me younger self....

1. 29 is really not that old
2. Although compared to being 19, you will notice considerable differences in your ability to party and drink and generally socialise

As you'll know if you've read my blog for a while, I love a nude nail polish and I've found another love! This one is OPI's 'You Can Count On It' from their Infinite Shine 2 range and was a beautiful birthday gift from one of my best friends (thanks Kat!). This one is more of a pinky-peachy nude, compared to the Sally Hansen Miracle Gel in 'Bare Dare' (see comparison below) and has a lovely warmth to it. When I was wearing this in the pictures below I'd put some fresh fake tan on (Dove Gradual Tan) and it looked lovely against my slightly warmer skin tone. I'm never sure about a nude on my toenails, but I actually think this one would look really pretty so I'll be giving that a go in the next couple of days. 

Update 24.01.19 I've been vegetarian for over a year and a half now and have been giving Veganuary a go as well, so I thought I'd re-share this favourite vegan dish for some inspiration. 

I haven't discussed it here on the blog yet, but I've been giving vegetarianism a go ever since watching a truly shocking documentary called 'Earthlings' a while ago. The documentary was really difficult to watch and there are some images that have stuck with me ever since, so having given the idea of vegetarianism some thought on and off for a couple of years, I thought I'd make the change and eliminate meat and fish from my diet and see what happened. I haven't gone full vegan, yet, although it's not off the cards, but where I can I will see if I can stick to a vegan meal without it causing too much of an issue. 

I bloody love mascara. Weird thing to say but it's one of my favourite steps of my makeup routine, probably partly because I know I'm coming to the end of it (I do love doing my makeup but sometimes it's nice to just have it done and be ready for the day, ya feel me?) but also I do love spending a little extra time plumping and separating those lashes to finish off my eyes. Its been a while since I've found a mascara that I really love, I've tried a few recently that I used to use and like but found that they weren't really doing it for me anymore, so when my last one was drying up and on the verge of dying I perused my local Boots in search of a replacement. 

NYX recently came to the big Boots in my local town so of course I had to pick a few bits up to try. I've had some bits and pieces from NYX before, but I've never tried any of their contouring products and so thought I'd give their cream contour and highlight 'Wonder Stick' a go.

There's really nothing better than switching on your 'Out of Office', leaving work behind you and taking a long visit to a beautiful place. That's exactly what I did last week and, by gosh, was it needed. Sometimes you can be so entwined in the day to day goings-on of life that you don't realise how anxious and wound up you're feeling (well, actually, I did know. I feel permanently stressed at the moment, but that's another story). So there really wasn't a better time to take a few days off and enjoy what England has to offer. 

Everybody loves a bit of fluff, right? So I thought I'd share the newest addition to our household; meet Victoria Sponge and Battenburg. We adopted these two beauties from Cats Protection at the beginning of February and I am in love! I haven't had cats before but the boyfriend has and I've always wanted a feline friend, so when we saw these two sisters on the website we just had to go and see them. We weren't decided whether to get one kitten or two, I would have been happy either way, but now that we have both of them I couldn't imagine it another way. They love to play together and it's good because they keep each other company whilst we're at work.

Back in January I, like everybody else, wrote about the new year's resolutions that I am hoping to keep this year. In order to try and stick to these I've written them on my fridge, written about them here, got them on the notes in my phone and promised myself I would do a monthly update on how they're doing. 

Well, as you can probably tell, I already failed at one of those by not posting this in February. Whoops. But alas, February is a short month so that's my excuse, and I'm sticking to it. Let's recap what the resolutions are:

Since moving into the new house, I've really wanted to start growing our own herbs and, eventually, vegetables in the garden. I went down the whole cactus route (they've been very popular recently, haven't they?) and I love these, but obviously there's not much you can do with a cactus apart from look at it. So I wanted to start growing some herbs indoors that we can use in cooking.

There has been a lot of talk about this and its contouring counterpart, Curvy Contour, since it was announced that Clinique were going to be releasing them. Part of the sculpting duo, the highlighter is a creamy, almost pink pearlescent highlighter to use along cheekbones, as an eyebrow highlight, collarbone highlight etc. I've used a few of these before, most notably one from The Body Shop which I have had for (far too many) years but that I just find myself reaching for time and time again because it gives such a beautiful, dewy but not shiny sheen to the skin. The Body Shop one leaves the skin feeling slightly tacky, which generally I don't mind but sometimes I find that this can go slightly patchy on my skin, so I was hoping from the Clinique one that it would be a slightly less tacky finish.

I mentioned in a previous post that towards the end of last year I moved into a new home with my boyfriend and it is my mission this year to get at least two of the rooms in the house completely finished. Now, we were going to start on the lounge pretty soon and already have paint swatches and mood boards going on, but at the moment it seems like we never have a free weekend to even begin thinking about putting plans into action! As far as creative inspiration goes, I think I have a more clear idea of what I want the home aesthetics to be (although maybe he does too but I just don't let him get a word in edgeways!), and here are just a small handful of the images that I've come across through numerous trawls of Pinterest and interior blogs.