My Summer Skincare Saviours

So, where to start when it comes to me and skincare?

I've got drawers upon drawers of products that I've collected over the years, as a teenager I definitely had problem skin and unfortunately the phase didn't falter once I'd hit my twenties. 

I can't remember who's blog I was reading but at the beginning of this year I came across a post talking about how bad face wipes were for your skin. I had always used face wipes to remove all of my make up and then usually a moisturiser (sometimes I'd fully cleanse and tone or treat myself to a face mask.) so this made me think twice.

Conveniently I had a trip to Paris planned for April and I already knew how well renowned their pharmacies were for skincare and bits and bobs so I drafted up a list and dragged my now ex-boyfriend around the shops.

The two things I hunted for were:

Bioderma Crealine H20 & Avene Eau Thermale

Since that day in April I have used both products religiously every single night and I honestly have not gotten one spot or blemish since. (I know what you're thinking 'its too good to be true' and to be honest it could be down to a number of factors other than my skincare regime but I genuinely havn't changed anything about my lifestyle)

Bioderma is a must have for many beauty bloggers and I can see why. You simply apply it with cotton pads and it cleanses and removes all make up/product; even the stubborn stuff! Then instead of rinsing, like you might with other make up removers, you just leave it on your skin. One of the large bottles lasted me two and a half months and I was using it every night to remove a full face of make up, so a little goes a long way!

The Avene water spray is also a staple for me now as well, its just a light cooling water mist, I usually use it before bed and also sometimes during the day if my face feels dry or my make up needs a quick refresh without re-application.

I've also found a new favourite moisturiser which I came across by chance. I had been using Effaclar Duo by La Roche Posay but my skin just didn't like it and I ended up with dry patches. I had seen the new Garnier range advertised loads, the one where they have a different moisturiser for each skin type, so I picked up the one for dry skin on the off chance and its been perfect! I don't have dry skin any more but I still use it daily, its fairly thick in consistency so I only use a tiny amount but it doesn't make my skin feel oily at all!

And finally my Clarins Liquid Bronze! I swear by St Moriz when it comes to fake tanning but I never dared put it on my face (especially now my skin is the best it has been) so I used to use a Boots own range facial tanner but it always made me patchy and too orange. I did a lot of research and decided to splash out on the Clarins Liquid Bronze (I think I only paid around £12 actually so not too bad but it usually retails at around £18). This is the perfect facial tan for me, you apply it with a cotton pad, its light in texture and colour, not brown and daunting, and you just sweep it over your face like a moisturiser. One coat leaves me with a light glow where as two coats matches me perfectly with my body tan (St Moriz Dark). It just fades after a few days so no scrubbing or streaking!

I've just come home from two holidays so no need for tan right now but I did need to downsize my toiletries bag to fit in my case so I ordered the travel sizes of Bioderma and Avene Eau Thermal and look how cute they are! (I'm not the only one who gets obsessed with miniature sized toiletries right?!!)

Both can be purchased on Escentual as can the Liquid Bronze and the Garnier moisturiser can be picked up fairly easily in Boots/Superdrug Etc. I have ordered most of my beauty products off of Escentual and their delivery is always really fast and reliable!

I would seriously recommend moving away from face wipes or maybe just saving them for those occasions when you really can't be bothered and investing in something like this especially if you have problem skin, as my friends know, I literally don't stop raving about this stuff!

Are any of these products in your list of skincare saviours?

A not so small shopping haul!

So I would say I'm still fairly new to this blogging thing, I'm still not really sure where to take this blog or whether to take it in any one direction at all! For now I'm just going to post what I feel like posting and see where it takes me...

I'm not going to lie I'm a bit of a nosy parker and one of my favourite style posts to read on other blogs is a haul post. If you know me well you'll know that I shop ALOT, definitely a lot more that I should be especially now that I've finished university (goodbye student finance it was good while it lasted..) and am unemployed!

However I have been on a few shopping trips recently and I can justify all of them (celebrating the end of uni, searching for an Ascot dress) ...I just can't really justify the things that I bought, but I thought I'd show you all some of my favourite purchases!

First stop Primark. First stop on any shopping trip with me is always Primark because I know how sneaky they are at copying the designs in other high street stores and I get very very annoyed if I've forked out on something elsewhere that they have for cheaper.

I picked up these 'midi rings' (they're the sort that fit above the middle of your finger rather than sitting on the bottom) for £1.50 for 8 rings I thought it was a complete bargain. I had a tiny silver version before and I lost it really easily but it looked so pretty on, at this price I won't really care if I lose these! I love the fact they had included rose gold ones too, I got a rose gold Michael Kors for my 21st and although I'm a fan of mixing gold and silver these dainty rings will really complement it!

Next thing I found was this floral bun topper, you've all seen the floral headbands and crowns that have been doing the rounds and although I do own one I just feel a little bit like a wannabe hippie in it so this was a perfect solution for me. I hope you can see from the picture but it's intended to fit around your bun or top knot!

I never thought I would buy one of these, I do think they are genius but I can't do without a clutch bag on a night out (where am I going to put my hairbrush and make up? ahah!) however after a bit of thought I realised this is still a good solution to the panic I get when I open my bag on a night out and cant immediately see my phone/purse...it will also be useful on holiday when I don't need to carry a bag and at £4 it was a steal compared to the Topshop ones I'd seen.

Again these shoes are something I wouldn't usually buy but I have two holidays coming up and I have lived in heeled ankle boots all year so I have become accustomed to having that little bit of extra height. At 5'3 I feel a little bit tiny in flats and although my trusty converse and flip flops will also be in my suitcase these are ideal for evenings out and they are actually so comfy! (and only £10!)

My last two purchases were handbags...

First was this white satchel with gold stud detail. I fell in love with it the moment I saw it and I am having a dilemma at the moment with handbags because I generally only have really big bags or really small ones?! So I thought this was a good in-between bag that'll be ideal for holiday and at £9 I couldn't resist even though my sister told me to put it back multiple times...

The main reason my sister gave me so much agg about buying the white bag was because the week before I had gotten this one! It is absolutely a dupe for the Zara zipped bowling bag and there are also very similar ones in Topshop...but this one was £10! I have to commend Primark, they have definitely upped the quality of their bags, this one doesn't look cheap or tacky in any way - I have already been using it for a week and so far it is passing the test of time. 

There is one last thing I wanted to show you and it is this beauty of a dress from Forever 21.

I was in Oxford Street on the hunt for my Ascot dress (which I finally found in Topshop!) when I found this dress. I have a love/hate relationship with Forever 21, I love the feel of their stores and they have so much variety but I hate that it almost feels like hunting for a needle in a haystack. There tends to be so much tack and bad quality stuff and it takes a good shop around to find anything worth buying. But when you do...its amazing! This dress is chiffon with double straps and an underlay mini dress, so from the thigh down its sheer. It was priced at around £25 but when I got home I realised it had gone through the till at £12! 

It is still online here

Let me know what you think by leaving a comment or find me on twitter!

My Vera Wang Primark Find

So I made a cheeky trip into Kingston on Monday to get a few bits with some of my birthday money and I ended up buying lots of stuff as usual but this post is about one purchase in particular.

I saw this bag in with the toiletries stuff in Primark, somebody had just dumped it there - initially I thought "ooh I really like that but its definitely more of a summer piece..."

I hunted around and found the rack which they were on and after a little deliberating and checking the price (£6) I though why the hell not.. So I bought it!

And here it is in all of its glory (excuse the shabby photography)

It's a straw weave clutch in a pretty pastel green, pink and gold geometric print with black leather trimming and a gold chain shoulder strap. It's actually really good quality (in terms of usual Primark quality), even the gold strap is nice and chunky.

So by the time I had gotten home I had already decided I was in love with it but a late night flick through Grazia revealed a little something special - I spotted a pair of wedges in one of their features with the exact same pattern/print as the bag!

A little bit of research revealed they were the new Vera Wang Tavie wedges which retail at around £215!

I was amazed! At £6 it was a bargain and it a perfect casual clutch, who knew it had a hint of designer as well!

I know most of the high street stores reproduce designer styles and prints but I usually steer clear unless I spot a really good dupe or something that looks like an interpretation of a catwalk style rather than a cheap copy.

I am actually really glad I picked this up now, as most of you know Primark stock changes almost every day so no doubt it would of been gone by the next time I visited.

(I am now feeling a little smug about finding it)

So what do you think?

Back to Blogging

As you may have noticed I've recently transferred some of the pieces from my old blog www.jodielovesjodieloathes.wordpress.com onto this one.

This is for two reasons:

1) I've just handed my freakin' dissertation in and I have free time for once which means blogging is back on the agenda!

2) I'm a control freak and want to have everything in one place = here.

In the time that I've been away from blogging I havn't stopped writing and have had some fashion related pieces published on The Surrey Scholar which you can check out clicking here

Generation Undecided: A Rant

My fellow twenty-somethings and late teens, some of you may be aware of the label 'generation undecided' some of you may not. I first came across the phrase when reading a girly mag last year (can't remember which but knowing me, probably Company/Cosmopolitan/Glamour), so the article pretty much branded all of us born circa 1990 part of generation undecided.

Insinuating that we were part of a generation with a plethora of freedom and choice, so much so that we refrained from making decisions, whether they be life changing or everyday decisions, and suggesting that when we did finally come to a decision we spent hours upon hours pouring over whether we had made the right decision or not.

I don't know about you but I see the fact that we do have so much choice when it comes to pretty much everything quite refreshing and exciting.

Lets take the humble Kit Kat as an example, as Wikipedia describes

Each bar consists of fingers composed of three layers of wafer, covered in an outer layer of chocolate. Each finger can be snapped from the bar separately. Bars typically have 2 or 4 fingers.

Only now days buying a Kit Kat isn't so simple, we don't just have the option of a two finger bar or a four finger bar, we have the almighty Kit Kat Chunky, Kit Kat Dark, Kit Kat Orange, Kit Kat Mint, Kit Kat Double Choc, Kit Kat Caramel, Kit Kat White and of course the yummy Kit Kat Peanut Butter

(and if you think we are spoilt for choice check out the Kit Kat Wikipedia page, in Japan there are over 50 variations!)

So as you can see, the Kit Kat is a wonderful metaphoric example for the extensive choice we have available to us, choice that perhaps wasnt available to our parents and the generations before them.

My main issue with the phrase 'generation undecided' is that it connotes negativity, the suggestion that we don't know what we want, and we never will...

Personally I believe that most of us know exactly what we want, we are just too afraid to admit it. A prime example being career choices.

What do you want to be when you grow up? The question is posed to us pretty much as soon as we learn to babble, with parents in hysterical delight when their toddlers announce that they want to be a "fire man", "brum brum driver" or "pop star". The same question asked over and over up until we leave education and reality hits home!

My career ambitions aged 5-12 can probably be summed up through the medium of song, this one song in particular

As you can see below I had the supermodel poses down to a tee from an early age,

Like all 'girly girls' I longed to be a pop star, actress or a Disney princess although the chances of the latter were significantly reduced (besides the fact that Disney princesses are fictitious) when my good friend Rosie decided we would play a game of hairdressers with 'real life scissors' which resulted in my long flowing blonde locks being transformed into a choppy mess that could only be saved by a bowl cut style courtesy of the nearest hair salon. As you can tell I am still very bitter about the situation as was my mum who, at the time decided to keep my treasured hair in a plastic bag (weird).

But the point is that with age, we change our minds, and if you're anything like me, I change my mind over and over again. But this does not mean that I am 'undecided' because most of the time I know exactly what I want to pursue.

Right now, I am planning on becoming the friendly version of Miranda Priestly a la The Devil wears Prada, a magazine editor, watch your back Anna Wintour!

Ambitious I know, and I truly think that is the reason why when most people ask us what career path we have chosen, we lie, or pretend that we are unsure (I know that I do all the time) because being modest and 'undecided' is much more approachable than being a go-getter. Deep down most of us do know what we want, we just aren't sure how were going to get it and don't want to be seen as a failure if it never happens, so keeping quiet is the safe option.

Sometimes its okay to be undecided, sometimes it results in us getting the best of both worlds because we can't choose between the two. When shopping my motto is usually, if in doubt, buy both, that way you can't go wrong!

I resent the label 'generation undecided' because  most of the time we have already decided what we want before the decision confronts us, I think a more appropriate label is 'generation spoilt for choice'.

Rant over,

Facebook Displays of Affection: A Rant

Please note: I loathe public displays of affection in their entirety however sloppy lovey-dovey ness drowning my newsfeed really grinds my gears hence the omission of 'public' and the replacement of 'Facebook'.

I have a boyfriend, believe it or not, and I do love him...I think (Josh if you're reading this the 'I think' is for effect only). Despite this, I have yet to feel the need to make my declaration of love so public. Many of us would like to rub our relationship in other people's faces, our exes, the girls that got their first kisses years before us. There are, however,discreet ways of doing so, I feel the simple 'in a relationship' status gives a pretty clear indication.

Look at me, I'm kissing someone, we just had a lovely day out, he paid for dinner, somebody cares about me and they want to see me naked, look at this absolutely hilarious snap of us together, we happen to be in bed, oh and he's topless, we probably just had sex, bet you didn't have sex last night like me...PISS OFF.

I spend a lot of time with my boyfriend and yes, there are a variety of pictures of us as a couple but not one of them features us in bed together. But I strongly recall seeing a shed load of "bedtime" pictures on my news feed lately....

Facebook is fast becoming a tool for employers to seek out the perfect employee, a fuzzy iPhone picture of you and your significant other doing something outrageously unfunny in bed is not appropriate in the slightest. Nor are pictures of you snogging each others faces off..bleurgh.

Sorry ladies, but I have to admit that it seems to be primarily females who are suspect. Admittedly it is ashamedly amusing to see couples arguing over Facebook and airing their dirty laundry, it's like a live feed of Jeremy Kyle (un-necessary seeing as there seem to be repeats on tv hourly every day).

We all love to have a bitch about other people's relationships but don't make yours the hot topic by posting a status asking if anybody would like to buy the present you bought your boyfriend for Christmas off of you as he no longer deserves it (yes, true story). Even worse, don't then follow-up that status two days later with a slushy 'love ya babe had the best Xmas ever together forever babe...babe babe babe'. At least let singletons bask in the glory of knowing that relationships can be pretty crap sometimes.

And finally, the worst offenders, couples who insist on having full-blown conversations via wall posts. Last time I checked, most of our generation owned mobile phones, and I would hope that most couples had each other phone numbers.

 So why does anyone feel the need to post a private conversation for all to see..and critique. I've been in a relationship for five years (a long time, I know, everybody's told me, and it's scary) yet there's has only been two possibly three instances that I have spoken to my boyfriend over Facebook and all of those have been because either of our phone batteries have died. That is the only acceptable excuse *

(*I would just like to state that I probably have been found guilty of some of the above early on in my relationship however I WAS FOURTEEN therefore I didn't know any better)

Guys and girls, being in love is great and I'm really glad that people are in happy loving relationships but have a heart for all the singletons out there, and those like me who squirm at the sight of lovey-dovey ness. A relationship is between two people (usually...) so keep it private!

Rant over.

Wireless Festival Review 2012

Let's get one thing straight, I am not a festival sort of girl. Some of the more 'hardcore' festival goers will probably claim that Wireless is not a festival at all, however with my hatred of mud, camping and portaloos Wireless is the closest I am going to get to experiencing a festival.

After attending in 2011 and absolutely loving it I decided to bite the bullet and pay the 50 something pounds for a 2012 ticket. Compared to most other festivals Wireless is inexpensive, day tickets without camping for some of the bigger festivals such as V are triple the price!

The line up over all three days was pretty damn good if I may say so myself but we decided upon Saturday 7th July.

The weather forecast was atrocious (torrential rain and possible thunderstorms) but luckily there were only two major downpours. We all bought rain ponchos for a bargain price of £3, a steal considering a burger was £6 and a pint of magners £4.50!

They were the size of tents which meant we didn't look particularly attractive but did mean that I could bust out some hilarious dance moves and stay dry at the same time.

In general everything apart from the rain macs was overpriced so I would definitely advise taking in your own food ect. (£30 for a jug of cocktail, are you mad?)

It was a difficult choice over who to go and see as there were 4 stages in total and some of our favourites clashed but we decided upon Clement Marfo and The Frontline, Professor Green, Wiz Khalifa, Josh Osho, Mikill Pane, Example, Nicki Minaj and Drake. All of them exceeded expectations. I have seen artists in the past who sound dire live but everyone we saw were amazing, so much energy.

(Its probably just me but I always expect famous artists to be massive in real life? They were all so tiny.)

I managed to only need a wee once throughout the whole day (you really needed to know that right?) and was pleasantly surprised to see that as well as horrible portaloos there were portable cubicles which had Andrex toilet paper (living the life of luxury) and mirrors (constantly had crowds of girls around them).

We managed to wiggle our way slowly to the front of the main stage for a few of the acts but unfortunately the crowds were not very friendly and generally consisted of partially naked pretentious 16 year old girls and boisterous weed smoking fools.

This meant that although you got a great view you couldn't stand for more than a minute without some idiot barging into you or inhaling someones second hand drug smoke (Security bag searched everyone but not very thoroughly so it is no wonder that some managed to bring drugs in).

I am not very patient and don't enjoy having strange teenage boys rubbing up against me so we left the crowds after a while and found a spacious area nearer the back.

The litter was so disgusting, I have never seen so many bottles, kebabs, cups ect in one place, there probably wasn't a square inch of ground which didn't have some sort of rubbish on it!

I also have to mention that I have never seen so many girls in the same damn pair of butt cheek exposing high waist denim shorts. (this would have been acceptable if a) the weather was remotely summery, b) they had remotely toned legs) I DON'T WANNA SEE YOUR CELLULITE GIRLLLLL! We all have it I know, but save it for a sunny day please...

Overall Wireless was magnificent, if you love live music, hate camping, can't afford £150 for a day, live in or near London and prefer chart music this is the 'festival' for you!