5 Things To Buy In April

I'm pretty sure I say this every month, but how is it even April?! It feels like Christmas was last week...

There's not really an overall theme to this months products that are worth parting with your pennies for, but I do feel like their all vaguely Spring appropriate!

Getting straight into things, lets talk about a cheek and lip duo I come back to every time the sun starts to make an appearance. The Dior Rosy Glow Blush looks intimidating in the pan, but on the cheeks it's a subtle pop of colour that screams springtime. It's not at all scary on the cheeks, in fact it looks quite natural, just a pretty pop of pink. It goes perfectly with the Maybelline Coloursensational Shine Gloss in Cashemere Rose, a beautiful sheer pink that just adds a little something something to the lips. I love glosses for Spring, and this one isn't at all sticky on the lips.

Whilst I originally didn't get on with the Beauty Blender for applying foundation, but I've persevered, and it works perfectly with all those lightweight, spring appropriate bases. It's perfect with anything with a more runny, liquidy formula, just press it into the skin and it looks natural, and flawless.

I picked up a mini bottle of the Lush It's Raining Men Shower Gel for my trip to Disney, and it's totally blown me away. It leaves your skin feeling totally clean of sweat/dirt/suncream, whilst being really moisturising, and it lasts forever! I've been using it daily for three weeks and you can see I've barely put a dent in it.

And lastly, I've been using the Balance Me Wonder Eye Cream since January, and I'm really reaping the benefits. It's not too thick, but it's really refreshing under the eyes, and my eyes are noticeably brighter, less puffy, and less dry too. I was starting to get some tiny wrinkles under the eye, mostly because my eyes were so dry, and these have all but gone.

What will you be splurging on this month?

High End Foundation Favourites

Whilst the drugstore has some strong contenders, I'll be honest, most of my foundation favourites come from the high end counters. I demand a lot from a foundation, I want coverage and lasting power, the perfect finish, and above all, I want it to feel comfortable on the skin. I haven't ever found anything in the drugstore that does all of that, but I do have a high-end wardrobe that does just that.

Let's talk about my first high-end foundation purchase, the YSL Le Teint Touche Eclat Foundation. I fell in love with the light glowy finish, the easy to apply serum formula, and the fact it's easy to build for a good medium coverage. I then worked at YSL for a spell, and fell in love with it all over again. If you have sensitive skin you may want to avoid this, it contains liquid gold particles which can irritate the skin, but I've never had a problem with this! It makes my skin look incredibly healthy!

Moving on to the Dior BB Creme, this is one of only two BB cremes I actually like. This is my go to summer base, when I don't want to think about my makeup. This stuff even looks good when it's applied sans mirror with your hands, it's that good. This just evens out the complexion and adds a little glow, but is virtually undetectable on the skin.

My one true foundation love, Chanel Vitalumiere Aqua, of course deserves a mention here. There's not an occasion that this foundation isn't perfect for. It's freaking amazing. It's got a good medium coverage, with a not matte but not dewy finish, just natural. It's long wearing and so comfortable on the skin, and despite the price tag, it's worth every penny and more.

I gave in to the NARS Pure Radiant Tinted Moisturiser hype back in September, and boy am I glad I did. We're talking glowy, perfected skin in a bottle here. It's got more coverage than your standard tinted moisturiser, and it just kinda....glows. It's amazing.

And lastly, the most recent stash addition, the NARS All Day Luminous Weightless foundation, a seriously lightweight formula with outstanding coverage, you can't feel this on your skin, it just makes you look flawless! It's pricey, but it's easy to wear this light or for fuller coverage, it's so versatile that it's worth having to hand!

What are your favourite high end foundations?

Walt Disney Studios

Today I thought I'd chat to you about the general park experience at Walt Disney Studios, the Park adjacent to Disneyland which is more Disney themed. 

You'll notice in this post that I have nowhere near as many photos of this park, and that can be fully attributed to two things. One, there's just not as much to photograph here. Sad but true, this park isn't quite up there with Disneyland in picture-perfectness. Secondly, the park is fairly poorly designed, instead of spreading out the rides, attractions, and photo-ops, they're mostly crammed together, leaving the rest of the park fairly empty, with just the live shows and a few of the 'scarier' rides, that don't have giant queues or anything visual around it. What this means is that the areas that had all the good design features that I wanted to photograph, were so busy I couldn't get any decent photos, which was a shame. There is a bit of footage in the vlog though!

This dodgy layout also meant that this was a less enjoyable park to be in, partly because the good areas were so rammed with people it was hard to move without going into the back of someone who stopped for no reason, or getting hit in the head with a selfie stick.

 There's not as much ride-wise in this park to appeal to small kids, the majority of the rides are definitely a bit scarier, and more appropriate for the older, thrill seekers of the group. There are a ton of live shows though that are definitely more geared up for the little ones. We found our group was split down the middle, my dad, my boyfriend, my sister and her boyfriend all wanted to be in this park, riding the terrifying coasters, whilst my mum and I ended up waiting around for them a lot, since we aren't really scary ride people! 

All this being said, the park has some seriously awesome rides in it. The Ratatouille ride is fantastic, a 3d ride experience which genuinely makes you feel like a mouse being chased around a kitchen. Unfortunately for us, the fast pass machines for this ride were out of action, and the wait time never dropped below an hour. we decided that instead of missing out completely, we'd join the single riders queue, which meant we were all on the ride in 5 minutes. The carts actually go round in threes, so chances are you'll still go around with your group, just in separate carts. My parents actually ended up in the same one by a stroke of luck, so providing you aren't with small kids this is a great option.

That doesn't work for all the rides though, we all split up one afternoon to do our own thing, and my sister and her boyfriend joined the single rider queue for Crush's Coaster (seriously awesome ride, but quite vicious and scary, not for the little ones!), and ended up queuing for 45 minutes, only 10 minutes less than if they'd joined the normal queue, so it's worth taking the estimated weight times with a pinch of salt. 

The big thing that happened in this park, is I somehow got strong armed into going on my first ever rollercoaster with a loop in. I'm not really sure how it happened but I suddenly found myself strapped into a car on the Rock'n'Rollercoaster, which boasts a starting 'launch' from 0-60mph in 3 seconds, a full loop, and a barrel roll or two chucked in for good measure. I should mention that the whole thing happens in the dark, with the sounds of Aerosmith blaring through the speakers. In all honesty, the wait and getting on the ride was worse than the ride itself, but I still rode the entire ride with my eyes squeezed firmly shut, and my hand cutting off the circulation in my boyfriends. My dad actually bought the photo because he thought it was so hilarious. Parents hey. I've included the photo for your amusement. As you can see, there is pure joy in my dad, sister and boyfriends faces, and pure horror in mine.

Attractive, huh?

Bad layout choices aside, this park is great, but you couldn't spend more than a day here! There's much less going on here than in the Disneyland park! 

Don't miss: Crush's Coaster, Ratatouille, Rock'n'Rollercoaster

Daily Staples

Even in a stash as obscenely large as mine, there are still products that day in, day out, make it into the rotation. These are the daily heroes, the products that I just can't get enough of, and that really don't get the recognition they deserve on this here blog. They're really awesome, and they deserve to have the spotlight shone on them today.

First up, lets talk shower gel. A fairly boring product, but an essential nonetheless. I'm on my second bottle of the Original Source The Quench Moisturising Shower Gel with Peach and Apricot Oil, and I really like it. The water in London is really hard, and I get out of the shower with incredibly dry skin. I'm lazy, and I don't have the time to moisturise my whole body after every shower, but with this I don't need to, it's so moisturising! And, it smells incredible.

Now, I might shower every day, but I don't wash my hair every day. And any girls out there with fringes will know that by day two, they're in dire need of a wash. The Colab Rio Dry Shampoo is a total lifesaver, it refreshes second day hair perfectly, removing oil and not leaving a trace, and it smells so good that my boyfriend always comments on it. If a boy notices, you know it's good.

Skincare wise, I tend to switch things up depending on what my skin needs, but there are two items I use every day, no matter what. The first is the Caudalie Vinosource Moisturising Sorbet, my morning moisturiser of choice. The lightweight, whipped formula means that despite being incredibly hydrating, it sinks in quickly without leaving a residue on the skin, making it perfect for pre-makeup application. The second is the Bioderma Sensibo H20, which I use without fail daily to remove my eye makeup. It's just the best, gentle but effective.

I tend to switch up my brushes, depending on what products I'm using, since different products work better with different brushes. However, there's a reigning queen of concealer application, and it's the Nanshy Concealer Perfector Brush. A densely packed, artificial bristled, tapered brush, which fits perfectly under the eye, and presses in the product without pushing it about or absorbing any. The perfect brush for high-coverage, flawless concealer.

Speaking of concealer, there's no way I could write a post like this without mentioning the NARS Radiant Creamy Concealer. This stuff covers everything, and looks flawless on the skin. I can't not use this!

What are your daily beauty staples?

The Afternoon Pause

I'm lucky enough to get to spend a day hanging out with my best friend pretty much every week, deadlines permitting, and we seem to have fallen into a routine. We meet at Kings Cross for coffee, and then peruse Boots, Mac and Accessorize. We meet on Oxford Street and go to Franco Manca or Honest Burger, before hitting up H&M, or she comes to mine and we invariably end up driving to Ikea for meatballs and a candle restock. We live in one of the busiest cities in the world, with a thousand and one things to do on our doorstep, but we rarely do anything else.

Whenever we head Oxford Street, we tend to walk past a ton of cute independant coffee stores, and we always say 'we should go there one day', but we never do.

So this week (after pizza at Franco Manca and hitting up H&M), we did!

Under the advisement of Katy, we headed to Taylor St Baristas, hidden behind Claridges, less than a five minute walk from Bond Street Tube Station (and our favourite central London Boots store). We were pretty exhausted from the previous three hours of pounding the pavement and we were definitely experiencing an afternoon slump, so we headed through the grey door in desperate need of a caffeine and sugar fix!

Both of us agreed on arrival we needed to come back for lunch, Daphne was eyeing up the Brocolli and Stilton Soup with a sourdough roll, and I had my heart set on a giant superfood salad complete with sweet potato chunks and beetroot, mmmm.

But since we'd gorged ourselves on pizza a few hours before, we settled for a snack instead. Daphne had a slice of coffee and walnut cake to accompany her latte, whilst I went for a a Tangerine and Ginger loose leaf tea, and a flapjack. Daphne demolished both of hers pretty speedy, so I assume that means they were delicious, and mine were freaking fantastic. The tea was sweet and gingery, and the flapjack was jam packed with delicious berries and almonds too. So good.

We spent half an hour resting our feet and recharging a little, and it felt so good. Everything is so go go go right now, that just stopping and letting the world go by for a while felt so good. When you have a lot going on it sometimes seems like the right thing to do is just keep going until everything is done, but taking a little time out can really help re-energise you, and stop everything seeming so overwhelming.

I think I've got the coffee shop bug! If you've got any recommendations, hit me up!