January Favourites 2018 // Accessories, Lifestyle, Beauty

I used to write Favourite posts literally all the time (well once a month...) back in 2013 when I first started this blog, so I thought I'd start them again, as I personally really enjoy reading them, and also it's fun to reflect back on what stuff I've been enjoying over the month.

This is a particularly exciting post however, so make sure to stick around to the end to get to the good stuff. Or just scroll to the bottom, if you're really impatient.... Anyway, onto what I've been loving this month.

Beauty:

For Christmas my sister got me a set of five mini Smashbox Be Legendary Lipsticks, and they're actually really nice! The shade that's been my favourite so far is Fig- a gorgeous plum/purple shade thats really easy to wear. I've just realised whilst trying to describe the colour, it's close to the colour of Figs... it all makes sense now. I'm a genius, clearly. 

The full set is still available on the Smashbox website, and its gone down to £20 for five lipsticks!  You can find it here.

On a night out, instead of putting my usual eyeshadow primer on, I accidentally put the Mac ProLongwear Paint Pot in the shade Indianwood on. (In my defence, they are in the same packaging.) I actually really liked how my makeup turned out that night, though! This shade is a really nice golden copper colour, and it's really easy and quick to apply. You can find it here, if you're interested, but they also have soooo many other colours if this one isn't your thing.

When I saw that Revolution were releasing concealers I was pretty excited to try them. Named Conceal and Define I think these are supposed to be a dupe of the Tarte Shape Tape concealer, however they're priced at £4!! I got the lightest shade, C1 but I actually think it's a bit too light for me. It does have pretty good coverage though, similar to the Collection Lasting Perfection if you've ever tried that, and its 19p cheaper... You can find it here, and actually the shade range is pretty good too, which is nice to see.

Lifestyle:

Over the Christmas break, my Mum said I could take her old coffee machine back to Uni with me, and I've been loving it. It's really easy to use, and makes pretty good tasting coffee to me! My housemates enjoy using it too, so its a win win! The pods aren't that expensive either when you consider how many cups you're getting out of a packet. My favourites so far have been the Cafe au Lait, Chai Tea Latte, and the Caramel Choccochino. (A caramel hot choc) yuuuussss.

If you saw my post on my Biscoff Rocky Road you'll know I am obsessed with Biscoff. I love it so much, and this morning I discovered you can get biscoff flavoured coffee syrup. Life Changing. The obsession got pretty bad this month though, to the point where Adam had to ban me from buying anymore of it. Sad times. Didn't ban me from coffee syrup though did ya, Adam? heheheh 

My Dad got me a pair of Dr. Martens for Christmas and I was pretty excited to wear them. What I didn't realise though was how excruciatingly painful they would be. Honestly, I've never worn more painful shoes in my life, the blisters on my ankles were actually awful. You're probably wondering how they ended up in this post. I read online that you have to spend some time breaking them in, so after about a week of wearing the fluffiest socks I own in them to stretch them, they're actually extremely comfortable now. Was a lot of effort though, but they do look pretty cool and go with most things, so here we are.

One of my New Years Resolutions was to drink at least 2 litres of water a day, and I actually have been fairly consistent with it! I do hand it to this bottle though. It just reminds me to drink, and I feel bad if I don't. It was £11.99 on Amazon, and it's actually really nice quality. You can find it here, if you want to check it out- it does come in loads of colours as well.

Accessories:

I kept seeing adverts for Paul Valentine Watches all over my Facebook, and I actually found one I really wanted, I didn't buy it though, because I couldn't justify it. Then, they kept emailing me discount codes and I'd just been paid so I was chatting with Adam about how much I wanted it, and he kept trying so hard to persuade me not to, to the point it was getting a bit weird, and I was starting to get a bit annoyed.

Turns out he had already gotten me it for my 21st (which is in April, by the way) and didn't want me to get one myself. In the end, he told me to shut my eyes and then he went and got the watch from its hiding place, because he knew he couldn't win against me. hahaha, I'm the worst. 
I was very shocked, but also felt soooo sooo horrible hahahah. Sorry Adam, but thank you and you're the b e s t.

It's a gorgeous rose gold mesh watch, but the watch face is pearlescent and pink and beautiful. I love it.

If you know me quite well, you'll know I like to change up my phone cases quite a lot. I don't really know why but I just like change I guess. Anyway, I've had this Pink Holographic Marble case since just before Christmas and I actually love it! It gets so many compliments too, which is always nice!

My laptop case broke, so I thought I'd get a sexy new one and looooooook at this one! It's so nice! It's called Pink Clouds, and I think it looks amazing. This is actually a laptop sticker, and I thought if necessary I could just get a clear case, if I feel I need to, but the website does offer cases too.

Now onto the exciting part of the post! Well done for making it this far!

The website these are from-Coconut Lane UK- have given me a discount code for anyone reading this to get 20% off! They have sooo much stuff on their website, including iPhone cases, Laptop cases and sleeves, keyboard covers, notebooks, jewellery, literally so many different things! If you do find something you like use the code:

curiousginger20

And you'll get 20% off your purchase! How exciting! If you do decide to get anything please leave me a comment and let me know!

I think that wraps things up pretty nicely. If you've made it to the end leave a comment letting me know any things you've been loving this month, and as I said do let me know if you decide to get anything from Coconut Lane!

Thanks for reading,

Lauren xx

5 Facts About Me // Tag

Over the weekend my lovely friend Bronwyn from A Bee's World tagged me on Instagram to share 5 facts about myself. I thought instead of doing it on Insta Stories like she did, I'd do it on my blog, as I haven't blogged recently, and this seems like a good excuse!

Bronwyn's recent blog post was inspired by my Thoughts I had Whilst Doing My All Nighter post, and she wrote about thoughts she had whilst in the Gym. It was very funny, and as I've just started going to the Gym myself, it was very relatable! If you fancy reading her post, click here- it's worth it, and she's lovely so go spread some love!

We went on a college trip to Italy with our Classical Civilisation class and it was probably the highlight of college for me! I did a post a g e s ago about that trip, click here if interested.

Without further ado, 5 facts you may not have known about me: 

1. I have a phobia of slow worms, and also seesaws. 

I can almost hear everyone thinking "wtf?" at this statement. My fear of slowworms stems from the fact boys at school used to find them in the fields, and put them in my hair. Aren't teenage boys just l o v e l y? Because I have long hair, I sometimes wouldn't notice until one just fell out of my hair in Science one time. Traumatising. Also then our school thought it would be great to start an after school slow worm club?? Wtf! Literally my worst nightmare. 

The fear of seesaws isn't so irrational. One time after school two of my friends thought it would be funny to see how high they could get me to go on a seesaw, so both of them got on one end, and I got on the other. As a result of them literally jumping so hard, I flipped over the seesaw, smashed my face on the middle of it, and bashed up my lip so badly, it was swollen and bruised for days after.  

One time I accidentally made my cousin cry (he was about 5 or 6) because I refused to go on a seesaw with him. Sorry Lucas, but I don't trust them anymore. 

2. I'm allergic to Methylisothiazolinone.

Don't have a clue what that is? Neither did I this time last year. Basically its a preservative found in some shampoos and shower gels and other cosmetics.  I've mainly found it to be an issue in shampoos though, so I have to be careful to buy shampoos without it in! Basically if I use a shampoo/showergel with this in (can you tell I'm trying to avoid typing the full name out again?) I just get really dry, itchy skin, which isn't ideal, so I just avoid it all together. 

3. I have four tattoos.

I feel like people don't expect me to be the 'type' to have tattoos. Alas, they are wrong. I think tattoos are awesome, and I love mine. Me and my sister are looking to get a new one together this year, which I am excited for. I have one on my wrist, my back, my ribs, and my ankle. Maybe later on in the year when I get my new one, I'll do a proper post about them. 

4. Controversially, I really hate bacon. 

Don't really have much else to say about this! Although, because I am socially awkward, one time when I was a lot younger my friends dad had made us bacon sandwiches after a sleepover, and I reluctantly just ate it rather than tell him I hated bacon. That was the worst, but I felt bad he had gone to the trouble of making me a sandwich so just had to suck it up! 

5. If I ever won the lottery, I would like to get into the property industry.

After being a student and dealing with crappy landlords, I think if I ever won the lottery, after making sure family were all comfortable etc, I think I would invest money into student houses, but i would make sure I was a nice landlady. And i'd let people have cats. Because I feel if I had a cat, a lot of my problems could be solved. Also then on house inspections I could just come round and see their cats. Yaaaas.

So there's my five facts about me! Thanks again Bronwyn for tagging me to do this! It was quite fun, but also made me realise I'm quite a weird person.

If any other bloggers are reading want to do this post, please feel free and leave a link in the comments! 

Make sure you all go check out Bronwyn's Blog, and Instagram!

Thanks for reading!

Lauren xx

Biscoff Rocky Road // Trying Pinterest Recipes

Finally a post where I'm not procrastinating! Hoorah!

Last night I decided I fancied making something, so went to Pinterest to try and find some inspiration. By the way, if you want to follow me on Pinterest, you can click here. I'm not entirely sure how to use it but I think it's fun and I'm definitely getting more into it!

I was looking for Biscoff recipes, because I love biscoff so so soooo much. If you don't know what Biscoff is, its basically a "cookie spread." It's essentially ground up Lotus biscuits (the little biscuits you usually get in hotel rooms, or on the side of a coffee) and it tastes amazing. My boyfriend had never heard of biscoff before, however, now I've introduced him, he is now a biscoff convert. Yaaas.

Anyway, I found a recipe for Biscoff 'Blondies' - basically brownies but without cocoa powder, but they didn't turn out toooo fab to be honest. They tasted okay, but not particularly biscoff-y. However, then I stumbled across this beauty- Biscoff Rocky Road. 

After a quick read of the recipe, it looked pretty simple, so I grabbed the ingredients for it whilst doing our weekly shop. If you are looking for a healthy recipe idea, you are very much in the wrong place.

Ingredients:

400g White Chocolate

125g Biscoff Spread

50g  Unsalted Butter

150g Mini Marshmallows (Although, I only used about 50g in the end)

250g Lotus Biscuits, Chopped (basically a whole pack of Lotus biscuits- healthy af)

Spare Biscoff spread for drizzle.

The method was pretty simple, in my opinion. It was a case of melting the white chocolate and butter together first, then adding the melted biscoff into that mixture. Then just mixing in the marshmallows and crushed up biscuits (which I lovingly forced the bf to do for me) and mixing it all up. Then I drizzled some melted biscoff on top! Very professional.

The mixture was v e r y thick and gloopy, and I wasn't convinced it was going to set properly, But after being in the fridge for about an hour it had set up quite nicely!

Yummmmm

I made a fancy hot chocolate to go with it, because there was no point in trying to be healthy at this point. It does taste very sweet, but it is really nice! And it does taste like biscoff, so that's a win! 

Also, I didn't use the suggested 150g of marshmallows in the recipe as I'm not the biggest fan of them, I think it still turned out fine. Also used the spare ones for my hot chocolate. Yummmmm melted marshmallows.

If you want to follow a step by step recipe then you can head over to Janes Patisserie Blog to follow her recipe! 

If you do end up trying this, leave a comment and let me know how it went for you. Also, if you have any other recipes you found on Pinterest let me know too!


Thanks for reading,

Lauren xx

28 Thoughts I Had On My All-Nighter // UNI

This post is not going to be worth reading, (New blog content off to a brilliant start) alas here we are anyway. Currently 00:28 am, I have three deadlines for 4pm, and naturally, me being me, left everything to the last minute. I hate myself and will never learn. I literally do this every term, and tell myself I work best under pressure, and to be fair to myself, I do always seem to get better results if I've left something to last minute, but I would not recommend. It's not worth the stress.

This year, I have seriously underestimated how much work third year entails, so I have ended up having to pull my first all-nighter. (Am I officially a student now? Nope. Just an idiot.) 

Having never actually pulled an all-nighter before I actually Googled how best to prepare for one. (I am so lame, but also it was another way to productively procrastinate.) After work I went home to make some pasta, and took the suggested 90 minute nap. I showered quickly and now here we are...

As I'm procrastinating anyway, may as well make it semi productive. (Can you tell I'm a fan of procrastinating productively?)  Here are some of my thoughts whilst on my all night library adventure. I am writing these as I go, so who knows where we'll end up. We can go on this journey together. Lucky you. 

THOUGHT ONE // 00:34 am

 I should not have dressed so comfortably. The library is way busier than I thought. I feel gross and also of course today is the one time i've bumped into people I know in the library. If any of you happen to be reading this, all i can do is apologise for looking like a human toe nail.  On a positive note, the colour of my Vans matches the colour of my hoodie, so at least people may think I kind of tried?

OOTN? Featuring a lovely background of the Library toilets.

THOUGHT TWO // 00:56 am

Redbull tastes disgusting, and makes me shake a lot. On the plus side though, I don't feel tired yet, but equally I am sat here writing this, as opposed to doing work, so i should probably get back to that...

THOUGHT THREE  // 00:58 am

I feel like someone has managed to sneak a Dominos into the library. I can smell pizza and its quite distracting. Also a genius idea, and I'm quite jealous.

THOUGHT FOUR // 1:04 am

There is a cleaner hoovering right behind me. Hoping they're not reading over my shoulder.  I know the library needs to be cleaned, but does it really need to be hoovered, right now, at 1am in the silent area? To be fair, I imagine this is usually a quiet time for the library. I'm sure they don't want to be doing it either to be honest, but its quite annoying.

Why you lie?

THOUGHT FIVE // 1:10 am

The girl in the pod next to me has some weird methods of studying and a verrrrrry annoying habit of tapping her pen on the table constantly. She keeps getting up and down, peering into my booth, wandering around a lot, sighing. I mean, I get its a struggle to be in the library at this time, but 

jeeeeez. 

All these thoughts are very close together, I need to buckle down for a bit...

My home for the night

THOUGHT SIX // 1:25 am

(Wow, buckled down for a solid 15 mins!) 

I have finished my 473ml can of Redbull. Scared for the rest of the night. Going off on a tangent but imagine if Redbull actually did give you wings. I could just fly around the library. Wonder if people would think thats weird, or report me to security. Now i'm laughing at the thought of me flying around the library and someone reporting me. "Get out the library, you can't fly in here." I'm sat here sniggering to myself now.

S e n d H e l p.

THOUGHT SEVEN // 2:07 am

People on snapchat are also pulling all nighters, it seems I am not alone. Also I keep shaking but I don't really know how to stop it... Waiting for my wings to grow any minute now.

THOUGHT EIGHT // 2:17 am

I hate myself.

THOUGHT NINE // 2:22 am

I have nearly finished 1 out of 2 essays I had to do tonight. Truly do not recommend leaving work this late.  I needed a break though and also can't stop shaking so going for a wander round the library. 

Library adventures

THOUGHT TEN // 2:30 am

My New Years resolution of drinking 2 litres is going very well. Admittedly it is half two in the morning and i've only just finished my second litre of the day, but i'm still counting it. Am still yet to set foot in the gym. Thats a task for next week. 

THOUGHT ELEVEN // 2:47 am

I'm annoyed because somehow a whole tube of Pringles has spilled in my bag. It's very difficult to try and manoeuvre them back into the tube in the silent area of the library. Sometimes I even feel my typing is too loud. 

In actual essay updates, only 100 words to go on the first essay. 

THOUGHT TWELVE // 3 am

Why on earth is someone on FaceTime in the silent section of library?! Can they not feel the death stares of everyone on them? I do not understand this. Please be quiet. 

THOUGHT THIRTEEN // 3:06 am 

FIRST ESSAY IS DONE WOO. I won't submit it yet, I need to fully read it again, but cant face that right now. 

Now have 13 hours for my next one... urghhhhhh

THOUGHT FOURTEEN // 3:19am

I'm not strong enough for this next essay. Feeling tired now. I do have another energy drink with me, but i feel it could come in more useful later. urgh. 

THOUGHT FIFTEEN // 3:35 am

Went to the loo to discover it had been deep cleaned. That was nice. This is what my life has become now. Also closing tabs on google is one of the best parts of finishing an essay.

THOUGHT SIXTEEN // 3:38 am

Strongly debating taking a 20 minute nap somewhere.

THOUGHT SEVENTEEN // 3:44 am

Wandered round the library again, bumped into my friend who was also wandering round the library. Agreed if we're both still here we will go for breakfast at 9am. Meanwhile, i've moved over to the comfy chairs for a bit of a break. Also can hear some birds tweeting now. That's when you truly know you've messed up.

Abandoned my desk for the comfy chairs, this could be a mistake. 

THOUGHT I'VE STOPPED COUNTING NOW // 3:56 am

Starting to panic a bit. 12 hour until my deadline. Haven't done anything the past hour. How has that gone by so fast?! Might crack open the next energy drink.

THOUGHT 19 // 4:25 am

Guy opposite me is snoring. I'm actually a bit jealous of him.

THOUGHT 20 // 4:53 am

Suddenly got really cold so had to put coat on. These thoughts are getting more and more exciting.

THOUGHT 21 // 5:24 am

I was feeling absolutely crap so decided to go get a coffee and some fresh air. The coffee was absolutely rancid, could only manage half of it, but did enjoy the fresh air. Walked up and down the library steps a few times to burn off some energy. Took a pretty cool photo. I'm going to really get my head down now and get this done.  I just want to go to bed. Cry.

THOUGHT 22 // 6:03 am

Do they make the lights brighter in the library in the morning? I feel the lights have just gotten a lot brighter.

THOUGHT 23 // 6:48 am

The girl sat next to me (the one from thought number 5... who's really keeping count though) Anyway we both kind of just decided to take a power nap. She has stolen the comfy seats though. I rested my eyes for about twenty minutes using my coat folded up as a pillow, but it wasn't comfy. Just went to the loo again to wake myself up. Determined to get this done by 12pm.
A lot of people are napping right now. Also, Im so hungry.

THOUGHT 24 // 7:30 am

My alarm just went off. Was very awkward. In the process of trying to switch it off in a hurry, i knocked my phone on the floor, meaning it kept going for a bit longer. Ah. What a lovely morning.

THOUGHT 25 // 9:36 am

Normal people are coming into the library now, which is making me feel even more vile. I really have no motivation for this essay whatsoever at this point. 10/10 do not reccomend all nighters.

THOUGHT 26 // 11:36 am

THOUGHT 27 // 11:52 am

Thought this diagram depicting what sousveillance is was pretty cute.

THOUGHT 28 // 15:45 pm

It's been a while. In that time though, I managed to get everything done and submit my essay with 15 minutes to spare. Currently my back really hurts, i dont really remember much of my night, and I'm hungry and tired.

FINAL THOUGHTS

I would highly suggest you are never as stupid as I am, and put yourself through this. It sucked. I dont even feel relief that i've finished, I just feel a bit empty! heck. The library has broken me.

Anyway, I am sure by this point you all think I'm an idiot, which you would be correct in assuming.  I haven't even read over these yet so who knows what they're like.  If you did stick around until the end, bravo to you.

If you want more q u a l i t y  content like this in your life you can follow my blog by E-Mail to be notified whenever I post. Or bloglovin' I don't know anything anymore, what is life.

I'm going to go crawl into bed and listen to Troye Sivans new song on the drive home. Good luck to anyone else who may be pulling an all nighter or going through exams- I dont envy you one bit, but you can do it!

Thanks for reading,

Lauren xxx

A Fresh Start // New Blog Logo + Layout

This is such an exciting post!

You may have noticed that my blog now looks significantly better than it did before! I am actually in love with it, and am hoping it inspires me to write a lot more!

The lovely Alice Thorpe designed for me such a beautiful blog header, complete with a tiny version of my cat Smokey! (which I think might be my favourite part) Its a mini cartoon version of me drinking coffee (a new found love of mine) which is, in my opinion, adorable, so hopefully you guys like it too!

I would highly recommend Alice if you need any Graphic Design work done! She was genuinely lovely, and put up with my rambling emails and created something I'm in love with!

You can check Alice's work out here on her website.

She also makes YouTube videos about University Life and fashion etc which I have been watching for about a year, and is the main reason I knew who to contact when thinking about rebranding my blog. Go and check her YouTube out here and spread some love peopleeee! She's very deserving of it!

I am obsessed with her illustration! I can't stop staring at it! Ahhhh

Now my blog is looking all fancy, once my horrendous deadlines are all over, I'm looking forward to start making some more content on here. I want to start taking better pictures, and just writing whatever I feel like, whether thats about makeup one day, and something Uni related the next, who knows.

If you want to be notified when I make a new post, you can follow me on social media, (which are all conveniently linked under my profile picture, or if you're on a mobile its just curiousginger on Instagram, and @ginger_sn4p on Twitter) or you can just type in your email, and be emailed any time there's a new post.

Also now I have a fancy new comment section on all my blog posts, so if you do fancy leaving a comment that would be coool!

I'm so excited to start blogging again. I've had this blog since 2013, and I don't think i've ever been this excited about it! I'm putting it down to the cutest blog header ever. Although, I may be slightly bias.


Hopefully the next time I post, wont just be a way for me to procrastinate!


Speak soon,

Lauren xx

Goals for 2018 + Reflections on 2017...

Some people who have made my year so fab!

It's currently the 1st January 2018, I am procrastinating doing the disgusting amount of all of my Uni work which I have yet again, left far too late, so instead I thought I would do a little blog post about my New Years Resolutions, and reflect a bit on how my 2017 went.

2017 was actually not too bad for me to be honest. I met some incredible people who I think I'll be friends with for a long time, I started a relationship which I am genuinely so happy in, made some hilarious memories with old friends and new, and also I took on a huge challenge which terrified me at the time, but now I'm honestly so glad I did. It was also the year I think i decided on a career path, which is exciting!

I took on the role of Producer for my Uni's musical theatre societies main show, which seemed stupid at the time, as I have no experience with musical theatre whatsoever, but my boyfriend said he thought i'd be good at it as I'm organised, and now we're in January and I am actually really enjoying myself, and am so thankful that I took on this opportunity! I have met so many incredible, talented people from it! The show I'm producing (Jekyll & Hyde)  is in March so it's creeping up slowly on me, so there is lots to do! But its all fun and exciting and I'm excited to see how it all goes. 

As a result,  I'm kind of thinking that I would like to go into the Human Resources industry. I'm currently debating whether or not to do a Masters next year in Human Resources Management, or to try go straight into work, I'm really torn! On the one hand, I think if i did a masters, it could make my CV stand out, I can still apply for more Grad schemes, and also it would be nice to study something different for a year. Also it would allow me to potentially go straight into quite a high level position which can always be a good thing! Only downside is the money side of things would really stress me out, but if i do well in my undergrad, I can get some money off. Decisions decisions...

I've decided when I graduate I'd like to stay in Brighton, as it just feels like my home now, and I know I would really miss it if I left.  As it stands currently looking at 4 bedroom houses with my boyfriends and friends, (I basically live at their house anyway) which I think will be really fun to actually live with them.

Also Abby comes back from her year abroad next year, and even if we don't live together again, I'm sure she'll always be at mine, or we'll end up at hers smashed at the end of a night out stuffing our faces with some disgusting takeaway... can't wait for that to be honest. Also another reason I'm leaning towards a masters is because most of my friends will still be studying as well, and I know that's a silly thing but I think i would feel better that way, gaaah idk, the only thing stopping me is the money, and i'd have to work at least 20 hours a week on top of studying in order to afford it. I'm aware i've just been rambling... I feel like I needed to get thoughts out of my brain and into writing though.

Anyway, looking forward to 2018, I'm feeling positive about it! I graduate this year (heck) but also I've made some resolutions which I really want to stick to. 

1.  Drink at least 2 Litres of water a day. I got a cool new water bottle which has like time limits on the side so I'm going to aim to drink two bottles a day. So far so good! (I started yesterday) Although it is making me have to pee so so much, which is kind of annoying. 
2. Go the Gym 2 times a week.  This one I'm actually SO determined to try and do! When I tell people this is one of my resolutions they just laugh and think I won't do it, so I just want to prove people wrong. Also if i use my Uni gym I can also park my car there all day for much cheaper which might motivate me to go. I know i can do it, and it would be nice to feel slightly better about myself, so I really want this to happen.
3. Be better with my Money. This year i was actually so bad, but it stressed me out, and i hate being stressed about money, it seems so stupid, so this year I'm going to try and be much better.
4. Make more of an effort with friends- I'm so bad with just not meeting up with people, but I have so much more fun when i'm with friends so really want to try meet up with them more often! 
5. Graduate with a 2:1-  Pretty straightforward!

Hopefully this time next year I can look back and pat myself on the back for sticking with them all year. Fingers crossed anyway.

I hope anyone reading this had a fab new year, and are excited for the fresh start! Thanks for reading my rambles xx

Lauren x x