As per usual I turned a pretty non-eventful couple of days into a weekly vlog. If you want to catch up with my daily life and see me making a bacon sandwich, then watch away! ha. See you tomorrow for another beauty blog post.
Hands Off My Bacon! // Weekly Vlog
THE BLUE SLEEPING NIGHT OIL
Let's start by talking about the elephant in the room. This face oil is £85.... £85! For the target audience and regular Sunday Riley lovers like my mum, the price point is probably right but I got sent this and I'm not 100% sure I'd feel comfortable spending £85 on repurchasing it. It's something to think about, but for now I thought I'd tell you why it's definitely worth £85... for some people.
Luna is the newest addition to the Sunday Riley family, a brand that is stocked at Space NK and loved by many professionals. Luna is a retinoid oil that aims to "reduce pore size, improve the appearance of damaged skin and help fight wrinkles". It includes a mix of essential oils as well as some interesting ingredients I was surprised to see such as cold pressed avocado, chia and grape seed oil. What's crazy about this oil is that it's blue and not just the packaging, the actual product is blue! The reason for this is the Blue Tansy oil which is a deep-blue green that helps to heal damaged skin and calm any irritations. There are actually quite a few calming properties in it including chamomile which helps to encourage healthy inflammation.
Despite the deep blue tint, it doesn't stain your skin blue and quickly disappears as quick as the oil sinks into the skin. It's not as oily as the Sarah Chapman Overnight Facial so I find 3/4 drops works best and it feels really lovely on the skin. It doesn't feel at all greasy and leaves a fresh glow on your skin (shame none sees it, apart from my pillow!).
So you're paying for the ingredients (all listed below) and that can be really important to some people. If this is a bit pricey for you I would recommend the Sarah Chapman Overnight Facial which isn't quite as much, but Luna is really nice and I'm enjoying using it. So are you intrigued by this blue overnight oil? Americans you can get it here, UK gals you might have to wait a bit here.
Key Ingredients (full ingredients listed here)
Trans-Retinol Ester - for the wrinkles and loss of elasticity Blue Tansy - To heal damaged skin, strong anti-inflammatory and helpful with eczema German Chamomile - For treating inflamed, irritated skin Avocado Seed Oil - Rich in vitamins B, C, D, E, and A Chia Seed Oil - Rich in Omega 3 Cape Chamomile - Helps skin irritation and encourages healthy inflammatory response
DISAPPOINTING PRODUCTS
WEAR LIFE EATS 02.05.15
Quite a bit has happened this week and I feel really excited about it. I'm still loving Snapchat - who would have thought?! I like telling stories and that's exactly what Snapchat is all about, so if you want to follow my stories add me 'lilypebbles'.
At the beginning of the week I was given the opportunity to meet Bobbi Brown, like the real deal, BOBBI BROWN! I'e respected her as a makeup artist and loved her products for years so it was incredible experience and I was hugely grateful. We all sat around sipping tea whilst she told us her life story from start to present. I never really knew her story so it was fascinating and completely inspiring! When she finished her presentation I was the first one to ask a question and when she finished the Q&A I was the first to ask for a photo - standard.
I also had a hair cut and colour this week at Hershesons in Harvey Nichols. I've literally found my dream team in Jason and Katherine and now I can't/won't go anywhere else. Jason does my balayage so well, it's just a subtle hint of colour that doesn't look obvious when it grows out and Katherine cuts the perfect collarbone bob. She also knows how to thin out the sections of my hair that tends to go puffy.
In case you haven't noticed over on my YouTube channel, I've started Every Day May! So I'll be vlogging every day in May, uploading Monday to Friday at 6.30pm with a 'main' video on Sunday at 9.30am. I'm petrified but ready for the challenge and I really hope you all enjoy it!
It's bank holiday weekend in the UK so three days off for some of us. If you're in the UK enjoy it and have a great weekend!
MODEL’S OWN POLISH FOR TANS (AGAIN)


SUMMER FASHION HAUL
BOBBI’S EYE TRIO
After meeting Bobbi Brown last week and hearing the BB story from the lady herself I felt inspired to visit a counter and get back in touch with some of the products I used to love.
Back in the day, before I owned two towers of makeup I used to swear by Bobbi Brown's corrector and concealer. So I thought I'd get colour matched, try them again and use them alongside her famous eye cream (which I've never tried!).
I went to the counter in Liberty's and a really lovely girl helped match me to the 'Light Peach' Corrector and 'Sand' Concealer. I've been using all three products together and used the right way, I'm definitely still a fan. The eye cream is nice to start with as it hydrates and primes the under eye area before applying the concealer and if you get dry, like me, this is a really good starting step. The lady at the counter applied the corrector and concealer with a brush but as it's really creamy I find it can crease quite easily. I like to apply it with my finger, pressing it into the skin and then blending out the edges with a fluffy brush.
The corrector is a peachy pink that balances out the blues and purples under the eye and there's a range of different shades depending on the type of dark circles you get. So I apply the corrector mainly in the inner and outer corners of the eye and the concealer is then patted on top on the areas that still need a bit of coverage.
If you have dry skin this trio is amazing as it's really creamy and hydrating but if not, you may find it too creamy. Worth checking out if you haven't ever tried them, they're cult for a reason!
ps. I really wanted to do a before and after photo, but it seems it does not come across well on camera. Well, I tried!
EVERY DAY MAY CATCHUP 1
FREE YOUR MIND & COLOUR IN!




TOO FACED BRONZER GUIDE


Too Faced, as a brand, sits in the same category as Benefit for me. Slightly confusing as their price tag doesn't really match their young and fun packaging, but despite that the products always impress me. If you can see past the gimmicks and fancy shmancy marketing, you've got yourself a really lovely brand with great products.
Something they are well know for is their huge range of bronzers, there are eight in total and there's literally one for everyone. Let's break them down into categories:
Chocolate Soleil // There are three basic bronzers to chose from; Milk Chocolate, Chocolate and Dark Chocolate. All three bronzers are matte and made with real chocolate that you can definitely notice in the scent. The lightest shade is perfect for pale skin tones and works nicely as a subtle contour on light/medium skin tones like mine. The Chocolate shade is a nice all over bronze shade and their newest Dark Chocolate edition works best on deeper skin tones and has a nice amount of red tones in it for a natural look.
The Bunnies // There are three 'Bunny Bronzers'; Snow Bunny, Beach Bunny and Sun Bunny. Sun Bunny is the easiest to wear as it's a split shimmer bronzer with a lighter pinky shade on one side and a bronzer on the other. Beach Bunny has four shades in one ranging from a very dark bronze to more pink and golden tones. Mixed all together these look really pretty and can be used on your neck and chest as well as the face. Snow Bunny is supposed to mimic that fresh, bronze look you get after coming off the slopes. This one is an illuminating bronzer with white and pale pink shades to mix in with the bronze.
Extra Special // The Endless Summer Bronze is a 16-hour wear bronzer that's made with a "double bond" formula for a longer lasting bronze. The shade is similar to the Chocolate Soleil but with shimmer, so it's not as good for contouring but nice as an all over, easy bronze. The Pink Leopard is a shimmery, pink and bronze highlighter that looks gorgeous on the tops of the cheekbones. I'd say it's too pink for all over the face but to just use on your cheeks it's really pretty and the leopard print is mesmerising!
My favourites? Milk Chocolate, Chocolate and Snow Leopard. They'll be coming home with me...
I hope this guide was helpful if you're looking to get a Too Faced bronzer. They're £21 each - which one is your favourite?
GET UP & GLOW


WEAR LIFE EATS 09.05.15
If you watch my vlogs or follow me on Instagram, Twitter or Snapchat you will definitely already know about what I've been up to this week. A couple of days where spent in Paris and Anna and I were lucky enough to meet someone we've looked up to for a very long time. Lisa Eldridge was even nicer, even prettier and even more sophisticated in real life. She was so kind to us, we sat and chatted and she even let me do a quick quiz with her (without having to pre-read the questions!). It was a wonderful experience I'm sure neither of us will ever forget.
The search for MAC soar lip liner continues and not because I want Kylie Jenner lips, but just because now it's in my head, I need it!
Tomorrow's video is a little different so I really hope you enjoy it. I've been enjoying #EveryDayMay, although it's hard I have been enjoying the challenge. Reading all the comments every evening is a massive highlight and "highlight of the day" has given me something positive to focus on every evening. I hope you have all been enjoying it too.
So another week gone in a flash. Let's catch up tomorrow with a brand new video and nail post. Have a good Saturday!
TOPSHOP ANNIVERSARY NAILS

The 5 best sellers make a really nice group of polishes for this collection. Adrenalin is the all-time best seller and is a pink, very sparkly glitter. Heart of Gold is a classic gold that works nicely by itself or used for nail art. Green Room is a gorgeous bright green with quite strong blue tones (this one is right up my street!) and Boy Next Door is a powder, baby blue. Finally, Parma Violet is the one I've been wearing all week, a soft and gentle lilac, perfect for Spring.
The re-released polishes all come in the limited edition gold packaging, pretty enough to display on a shelf! So which one if your favourite?
INSIDE MY SKINCARE CUPBOARD
Whilst I try to keep up with daily vlogging, I thought I'd do quite a casual video for this Sunday. Come with me to take a peak inside my skincare cupboard whilst I talk you through my morning and evening routine. Enjoy!
NEW MAC LIPSTICKS



EVERY DAY MAY CATCHUP 2
Another week has passed and I'm still going strong with Every Day May. I am really loving the challenge of filming and editing every day and hopefully I'm keeping up with the usual quality of my videos. If you want to catch up with all the Every Day May vlogs you can watch the playlist here and that will take you through each video one after the other.
I hope you're enjoying watching the videos as much as I'm enjoying reading all the comments! You can expect another vlog tonight at 6.30pm - so see you then!
COOKBOOK COLLECTION
When the doorbell rang with yet another Amazon delivery I stopped to look around the kitchen and suddenly noticed my mum's addiction... cookbooks. I have never known anyone to have so many (and actually use them!) so for today's post I thought I'd run through some of her favourites and take a look at how cookbooks have evolved over the years.
This is just some of them, you can double this collection to get an idea of how many sit on our kitchen shelf. It all started with a Mary Berry book in 1978 - this came free with my mum's first ever food processor. A whole book of baking with a food processor and still to this day we swear by the chocolate brownie and apple cake recipes. Delia Smith was probably the first chef she really started following as her cookbooks were simple and great if you were just starting out. Her recipes range from all different kinds of meals, but it's just great everyday food.
Jamie Oliver came next and he was the first big TV chef to catch my mum's attention, the first 'celebrity chef'. Jamie Oliver launched as the 'Naked Chef' and he suddenly made cooking really exciting and fun. Jamie's recipes had more of an Italian theme to them and she liked how he'd use a lot of fresh ingredients. Nigella Lawson sits in a similar boat to Jamie but with a slightly more luxurious, indulgent feel to her cooking. Her recipes were always quick and easy and my mum liked how they would always work - there were never any cooking disasters with her recipes. Nigel Slater has some gorgeous ideas in his book but the way the cookbook is set out makes it more reading material than cooking material. My mum finds her self reading this one like a book rather than flicking to a quick recipe when she fancies something.
So now let's talk about Ottelenghi and I think this is where it all changed. My family love his restaurants so of course my mum eagerly bought all of his cookbooks as they came out. His recipes are middle eastern themed using a lot of raw, fresh ingredients and personally I think he kick started the "healthy eating" trend that we see so much of these days. Honey & Co is very similar and takes inspiration from the middle east with delicious, healthy recipes and this kind of food is a personal favourite of mine.
My mum has always been into healthy eating, she's a massive salad lover, but at this point she really started cutting out excessive sugar from her diet and trying to eat healthier overall. She found loads of great recipes in Sunday supplement magazines, so as well as all the cookbooks there are books of papers all over the place too. She finds good ones in magazines too such as Good Housekeeping and Woman & Home.
Gwyneth Paltrow's book "It's All Good" came after Ottelenghi and this is a massive favourite in our house. It's healthy but not vegetarian and with a house full of meat eaters this makes things much easier. She really got us all into healthier eating but whilst still making delicious, filling food.
So then what I find really interesting is how things changed after that. Suddenly our cookbook shelf is filled with super super healthy recipes with books like Deliciously Ella, Hemsley Hemsley, Get The Glow and The Detox Kitchen. My mum didn't even know who half of these girls were but she found them on Amazon and thought they looked interesting. We don't eat vegan or gluten free in our house so she tends to take the recipes for flavour and healthy eating tips but then adding in our own meat and good carbs where possible.
Cookbooks have come along way and I think right now we are in some kind of crazy health craze, but the recipes are more interesting than ever. If you're like my mum I thick it's great to be able to take a recipe and play around with it to suit you. Take inspiration from the books but make it your own. What's your favourite cookbook to take inspiration from?
THOUGHTS ON EPILATING
Ever since this video I have had so many questions on here, my YouTube channel and Twitter about epilating so let's do this...
Epilating was never something I'd thought about until my friend Keisha suggested it to me. In the past I'd shaved my legs but despised doing it as it was becoming a daily task. Even once I'd shaved I never really felt like my legs were smooth and hair-free.
The idea of epilating is horrific... it pretty much looks like a mini lawn mower. It looks like an electric shaver but the wheel spins, plucking the hairs as it goes. If you've ever plucked your eyebrows you'll know how it feels, it's not painless like shaving. The first time I tried epilating on my legs it was tough as the hairs were stronger and thicker than ever (thanks to my shaving habits). I'm not going to lie it hurt... but with some loud music on and a bit of screaming it was doable and not too bad. At this point I was debating whether I'd continue epilating but what happened next made my mind up for me. It was about 4 or 5 days until I saw any hair on my legs. Now let's remember that I have thick black hair and sometimes when I shave in the morning it's grown back by the evening. This was a miracle! For me personally, the frequency of hair removal is the most annoying and this was a life changer. I also loved how smooth the skin feels after epilating, which I have never achieved with shaving.
The second time I tried it on my legs it was a lot less painful and as the hair grows back in cycles you don't have to do your entire leg. You can just epilate the hairs that are showing through and it makes the process a lot quicker and easier. I also tried epilating my arms and as you saw on camera the first time I did that it was really painful. I've always stayed away from arm hair removal because I didn't want to have visible stubble on my arms but using an epilator means the hair grows back softer and thinner. It's harder to do my arms because the hairs all grow in different directions and because you have to go in the opposite direction of the hair, it's tricky sometimes to find out what that is.
The world of epilators is a daunting one and as an epilator newbie, I am no expert. I know that some come with a shaver plug and some come with a plug you can use anywhere, it is possible to get an adaptor though so that's not really a deciding factor. I started with the most basic model and the most affordable. The Braun Silk-Epil 5 is a basic entry level epilator and it's good for beginners. It doesn't do anything particularly fancy, it has two speed settings and it just does the job. There are some more expensive, fancy epilators around, some of which can be used both wet and dry. With any technology products, the more expensive it is the more features and advanced technology it has. Some of the more expensive ones have wider heads and better tweezers for a smoother finish. They also come with extra add-ons like a skin buffer or face epilator too. I'm now testing out the Braun Silk-Epil 9 which is their most advanced and newest addition and so far I'm loving it. It's still quite painful but easier to use, especially around the knee area and it picks up more hairs so speeds up the process.
I just love how if you see a hair, you can just grab the epilator, remove what you want and carry on with your day. It fits in better with my lifestyle and the results are amazing. I'm a convert.
Have you tried epilating?
FRIDAY FAVOURITES
It's finally Friday and before the weekend rolls in I wanted to highlight some bits and pieces that I've been loving recently. A bit like a mid-month favourites!
I used to wear my Acurist watch religiously until I got this beautiful, very similar watch from Daniel Wellington. It's black and rose gold with quite a large, flat face. It's light and comfortable on the wrist and I think it looks really classy. I love grandpa style watches and this one is grandpa-chic.
If you've been watching my vlogs you'll know about my search for MAC Soar lip liner... it was a long one! I finally found it in Selfridges and purchased it along with Mehr lipstick. They match perfectly together and with the matte lipstick on top they are incredibly long lasting. It's hard to describe the shade, like a muted rosy/nude. If you want to see it in action, check out this vlog.
After meeting Lisa Eldridge and seeing the beautiful polish she was rocking, I have really been enjoying wearing red/orange nails. This Nails Inc and Victoria Beckham collaboration polish is gorgeous and I've spoken about it previously here. It's perfect for when you're wearing all monochrome and it looks incredibly classy.
Finally, the new Jo Malone charity candle White Lilac & Rhubarb. Not only does part of the proceeds go to charity, but it's a gorgeous scent that I've loved burning in my office. It's floral and fruity... and well, it smells great.
So what are you guys loving mid-month?
BEAUTY CHAT: TRAVEL EDITION
It's time for another monthly beauty chat and this time we're talking all things travel! We get pretty giggly in this one so no changes there... enjoy.