It’s always a nice feeling to get something lovely through the post, and beauty subscription boxes can be both a great pick-me-up and a fun way to discover new products.
Over the years I’ve tried most of them on and off, but one my favourites has always been Latest In Beauty.
You get to pick your own products from a monthly edit, which ensures less waste as you know you’ll like everything you get.
I see a lot of people complaining about other sub services where they spend time filling in questionnaires that supposedly tailor the box to them, only to receive things they would never use.
Here, the choice is yours.
Don’t you ever wish life could be just a bit more simple?
That is the whole concept behind the Trinny London makeup line. There are a lot of mornings where life is just too complicated for spending time blending out five different eyeshadows, and most of us could do with a simple edit of ‘grab and go’ shades.
Sort of like a capsule wardrobe for makeup.
I’ve wanted a dog for almost as long as I can remember. It was never something my parents were keen on when I was growing up, so although I had other pets, a dog was never part of my life.
My first little part time job was actually walking a retired greyhound called Buddy for the elderly owner.
My husband grew up with dogs, mainly Labradors and was also keen, but until now, with careers involving travel, both the Mr and I working outside of the home all day, having babies and the house being a building site for the best part of a year while we did a huge renovation, it’s never been the right time before.
Now, finally, all the stars have aligned.
It may seem strange to be purchasing and writing about a travel accessory when so much of the world has been out of bounds this year.
And yet 2020’s global lockdown has made me realise just how much I’ve been missing out on.
From family holidays like last year’s adventure in Tuscany, big trips like going to China and small business jaunts to places like Belfast where you get to discover a little about another city, travel always brings you something new.
As a vaccination programme begins to slowly roll out, I’m hoping that by next spring, travel of all kinds will be back on the menu.
It’s my 2021 goal to go on a couple of getaways with my family, and as my job usually involves a little bit of travel too, a suitcase upgrade wasn’t a completely random idea.
There’s simply no denying that I’m a lash addict.
From the moment I first graduated from mascara to strip lashes, it was a game changer. Now, no matter what I’m doing and how much or how little make-up I’m wearing, I really do feel naked without some kind of lash enhancement.
Over the years, I have literally tried it all - from LVL lifts, to cluster lashes, individual extensions, doing my own lash enhancements and every type of strip lash going.
Nothing lifts my mood or my look more than that Disney princess flutter.
With the spate of national lockdowns over 2020 and into this year, getting salon extensions done has been hard to impossible.
And even without a killer virus on the loose, it's a time-consuming and expensive process. It looks amazing, but you WILL be spending hours of your life and hundreds of pounds on maintaining them.
Plus, if you have them continuously, they can make your natural lash growth sparse and patchy. But it turns out there is another way. And the latest lockdown gave me the push I needed to try it.
So, 2020 was the plot twist no-one expected - and so far, 2021 isn’t shaping up to be all that much better.
It’s been a long time since life was ‘normal’. Simple things like seeing friends, going out for meals and pleasures like holidays and nights out just haven’t been an option for ages. In the UK, it felt like people were holding out for Christmas, which was a very quiet one for us. But here we are in a new year and things haven’t changed.
That makes it a harder task to stay focused on the positives, even though a vaccination programme is slowly rolling out now. It feels like the goalposts keep moving and there’s no clear end in sight yet. This is real life at the moment - so what else has been happening?
