Things that have helped me tremendously, that may also help you.

So it's now coming to the end of the 2016 which is seriously just crazy to think about; can we just take the time to think about how fast this year actually has gone?! To end the year, I thought I would write about some of my skincare favourites because I was reading through the skincare routine I wrote at the start of 2016 and I have incorporated quite a few new products over the course of this year which have made such a positive impact on my skin as I have been breaking out a lot less than I used to and my skin just feels a lot more smoother and hydrated than it used to. So I thought, why not talk about the products I have been absolutely loving and are also now my holy grails in regards to skincare!

But before I get into all that, I would just like to say I hope everyone reading this has had a lovely Christmas and that the New Year of 2017 brings everyone so many blessings and positivity as well as new and amazing opportunities!

And now without further ado, let's get into my updated skincare favourites!

I have been thinking about writing this but 95% of the content I wrote for this, I didn't know how to really word it. (when am I ever able to word anything I write though LOL), But I thought, let's try again and just really go for it and write anything and everything that I would tell my younger self. If could tell my younger self anything so far? It would be this. (Cue the cheesiest yet deepest post I've done to date).


To my younger self,

It is now getting closer to the end of 2016 and it has been an incredibly eye opening year for you to date. You've had to make a whole lot of decisions regarding a lot of personal things and it's opened your eyes up on so much that you wish you knew what you know now, back then.

With you being the oldest out of your siblings, you have never really known what to expect growing up and going through life since you never really had anyone to guide you in a way, so it pretty much resulted in you just going with the flow. Yeah, you've had a few bumps in the road along the way but all of those bumps in your life have resulted in where you are right now.

You use to worry so much back them about the situations you were in, the people you were around and what would happen to you if you were to ever drift apart or lose contact. Right now? You are doing more than fine without them. Yes, you have had people leave your life. People who you thought you have known your whole life since you had already known them for that long, buuuuut things don't quite work out the way you want them to. You have met so many new and amazing people who have all left their mark in your life, whether that be good or bad. You will meet more people in the future, some who may not like you and others who you will feel like you have known them for years. 

Let me give you some life lessons...Do not give a crap about what people say about you, especially if they do not know you personally. You will come across people who will speak fluent bullshit to your face. Known who have genuine intentions for you and keep those people close. You are honestly in the happiest mental state right now than you have ever been in your entire life. Don't ever let anyone bring your self esteem and confidence down again. 

I hope you are glad to know that you are now embracing your culture and heritage as opposed to you feeling ashamed of it when you were younger. Fuck every single person who ever made you feel ashamed of the culture you are from and made fun of your skin colour, told you to go back to your own country, made fun of your traditional clothing, you wearing mehndi and bindis, etc. Those same people are now wearing those as 'trendy' fashion statements. You are apart of one of the most diverse and rich cultures in the world and don't ever let anybody make you feel ashamed to be. 

Following on from my previous point, your skin colour is perfect the way it is. It does not need to be lighter!!! Embrace your shade of brown which glows in the sunlight. Don't touch any skin lightening creams or any kind of crap like that. 

Don't stress too much either. It's not good for your health to stressand worrying a lot will make you ill. You're still young, you're not supposed to have your entire life figured out at such a young age. Everything will work out even if things don't quite go the way you wanted them to go. Who knows? Maybe the reason something didn't work out the way you planned because there's something better in store for you. God works in mysterious ways. This leads me onto my next point. Seize every life changing opportunity you get. You have missed out on so many opportunities because of your shyness and constantly getting anxious that you would eventually back out. Always take a chance on even the smallest of opportunity that comes your way because who knows, that may lead to something bigger.


PUT DOWN THE TWEEZERS AND DON'T TOUCH YOUR EYEBROWS!!!!! You have always been so self-conscious about your eyebrows but trust me, thick brows will soon come back into style before you know it. Seriously though, put down the tweezers because you look silly with thin eyebrows. 

Reading will always be a means of escaping from reality for you because once you find a good book, you literally can't put it down until you know what happens next. As an 18 year old right now, it is still one of my favourite things to do till date and I hope you never get bored of reading books.

I know that you have had a lot of times where you felt like completely giving up because you feel as though you don't quite fit into the world and that you're simply just ''here' and existing, but you have so much potential to do anything you want in this world, so don't give up on yourself. You'll find your purpose eventually. 

Writing always helps. Buy yourself a journal again like you used to and write in it so you can look back on it when you're older. You used to do this so much and then you just completely stopped. 

It has been such a long time since I have wrote about my monthly favourites mainly because there wasn't anything I was really really liking enough to talk about, however last month I have had so much I loved and I just wanted to share with you! So without further ado, enjoy!

The first thing that I used so much during August and majority of September was an eyeshadow palette from Makeup Revolution. This is their Ultimate Iconic Palette and it is literally iconic. I absolutely fell in love with the packaging and loved the eyeshadows even more. I haven't had the chance to use every single colour in the palette but judging from what shades I have used, the colours are so pigmented! It is a fairly neutral shades palette ranging from colours such as nudes and browns but then you've also got your blues, golds, dark reds and blacks which are both shimmery and matte. I have been thinking of doing an in-depth review of this palette sometime soon so let me know if you would like me to write one!

Can I just start off by saying that I can't believe we're already halfway through the summer holidays?! Summer is just flying by and I have made so many new memories this year with family and friends doing all sorts. One of my all time favourite things to do during the summer is to go on road trips. There's just something about long car journeys which I absolutely love! Sometimes I like to take a good book with me to read on long car journeys and most of the time I love to put some good music on for everyone to listen to!

If you specifically live in either America or Canada, then you could rent a car from Turo for your road trip. Turo are a peer-to-peer rental company and you can rent a car for whenever you need it or you can list your car so other people can rent it to use. Some renters may leave a custom playlist or CD's so worry not if you have forgotten your music! If you would like more information about Turo then click here!

My playlist is pretty much a huge random bunch of genres ranging from artists like Michael Jackson to The Weeknd so there's pretty much songs that you can just chill out to along with songs which you can jam out to. So now without further ado, here is my summer road trip playlist!

Click here to listen! https://open.spotify.com/user/114674240/playlist/72tdU0ZNYpspX5X2maXJ9q

I have been wanting to write/film something like this for the longest time and I have finally got round to writing it (I may also film it sometime soon too!) and it is a 'What's In My Bag' Summer Edition.

The bag that I have been using quite a lot recently is this bag from New Look. Usually I don't go for floral type bags but I thought why not switch it up and go for some pastel/floral colours rather than my usual black/brown bags for the summer.

I'm literally writing this a month early because I just can't wait until the 4th of August to publish this (LOL). This is going to be on a more 'deeper' and more personal level purely because I have learnt so much over the years, a lot of which I have seen and experienced, have shaped me to be the person that I am today.

I'm going to cut the introduction short and literally just get on with it. Enjoy reading!

1. Be patient. You will have times where you feel as though life isn't going the way you want or you feel like giving up completely because you feel like you have no clue what you're doing with your life. Good things come to those who wait but even better things come to those who put in the hard work to achieve their goals. Something may not necessarily go the way you planned originally but that is alright! The universe works in mysterious ways and what the future holds is better than what has just gone.

2. Sort of following on from my last point, you have your entire life ahead of you. There are so many opportunities for you to grasp and so many places to see and so many people who will cross your path in the future. Don't stress about things you should not even be stressing over. You're 18, you're still young. You are not supposed to have life all mapped and figured out because it could change in a split second and the career you have chosen for yourself now, might not even be what you do in 5 or 10 years time because you find something that is incredibly better.

3. When troubles arise, don't stress or worry or panic like you always do. View them as opportunities for you to learn and grow. And when good things do happen, see them as blessings, but every now and again, stop and take a look at your surroundings and see what you have already been blessed with. 

4. Do not ever grow up too quickly. You're only a child/teenager once. You have the rest of your life to be old and one day you will miss being young so take advantage of your younger years. Have some fun and be childish once in a while because it makes you feel as though everything is idyllic. 

5. BLOOD RELATIONS DO NOT MEAN ANYTHING. Just because someone has been born into your family, does not mean you have to consider them family. 

6. LISTEN TO YOUR GUT INSTINCT!! The amount of times you have had a good or bad feeling about something/someone/a situation and it has come true is crazy. If you are put in a situation where you definitely have a bad feeling about, more than likely, it will come true judging from past experiences. Remove yourself from that situation asap. 

7. Keep your true friends close. Even if you end up going your separate ways or no longer attend the same college, keep in contact with them. When you meet up further down the line, it will be one huge crazy catch up session! I have a friend (she will know who she is when she's reading this) who I last met up with nearly 2 years ago and even though we don't speak every single day because we're busy with our own personal lives, we're still close and it's 4 years of friendship going strong!

8. No matter how old you are, crying in your mum's arms will always make you feel like a 5 year old (and that is perfectly alright). Along with this point, it is okay to cry. And in front of people too! Don't keep everything bottled up. I guarantee someone will listen and you will have a huge weight lifted off your chest. Show your vulnerability, it doesn't make you weak. 

9. Education is important. But so is your mental health. When you find yourself skipping meals and staying up until 3am to do an assignment which has been giving you breakdown after breakdown, it's time to stop and give yourself a break and some time to relax. 

10.In your childhood, you always thought that the fairer you are, the more beautiful you are considered to be. That literally means nothing now. Go out, run around in the sun for hours on end and get that golden brown tan! Embrace your skin tone and flex your complexion.

11. Do not ever be ashamed of your culture and your heritage and do not allow others to make you feel ashamed for keeping in touch with your heritage and culture. Never also lose touch with your culture. Don't be embarrassed to speak in your native tongue to your parents in front of other people like you used to. Be proud that you know another language or two. It's something you will be able to pass down to your kids and future generations to come. 

12. No matter what you do or where you go in your life, your family and your close friends will always be there for you. They are some of (if not the most) important people in your life who you can truly truly trust, apart from yourself. They will pick you up when you're down and you can turn to them when you need them the most and you know they won't judge. After all, they're only a phone call/skype call/message away. 

13. You have spent far too long being sad and feeling so shit and down about yourself. Forget every single person who ever made you feel bad about being yourself and bought your self-esteem+confidence down to literally nothing. You do not need that kind of negativity in your life and I am glad you now know that. You have spent years building up your confidence and self-esteem and they have seriously never been higher and you've never been more at peace with yourself and who you are as a person. Do not ever allow anyone ever to bring you down to the point you were at a few years ago. 

14. Dream big and don't let anyone or anything stand in the way of you achieving your dreams. You are capable of so much more than you will ever know. 

15. Everything happens for a reason.

16. Put down your phone once in a while and stop looking at life through a glass screen. Yes, taking photos and videos are great for making memories,but time is passing by too quickly so live in the moment rather than through a glass screen. 

17. Know your worth and do not settle for anything less. 

18. Live in the moment and don't be afraid of living. Create memories that you will look back on when you are much older. You will never be as young as you are now, ever again. 

Earlier this week, FarFetch had got in contact with me and asked me if I was interested in sharing my skin care secrets. This got me thinking about how I could share all of my skincare secrets that I use which have helped tremendously over the years to keep my skin looking smooth and clear! It has been a case of trial and error with many different products but I have finally found quite a few which I now use on a regular basis.

Now, I am not even exaggerating when I say that I struggle like crazy to find foundations that match my skin tone. This is because they either end up being too dark or too light & I can never find a shade which is in between (this results in me having to mix to foundations together). 

During the spring/summer, my skin tone gets a lot darker/tanner compared to how it is during autumn/winter time. This means that I end up having to use a foundation which is a few shades (not a lot) darker than the ones I use during winter time. As far as I am aware, I have a warm (yellow/golden) undertone. Before I found this out, my foundation would look grey/ashy on my skin which is why it is important to find what your undertone is to prevent this from happening. 

I thought that I would write a short blog post about what foundations that I personally like to use or have used in the past, are not that expensive and can be found at your nearest drugstore. Everything that I write are my own opinions.

1. Meybelline Dream Satin Liquid Foundation '60 Caramel' - When it comes to foundation, I use the Meybelline Dream Satin Liquid Foundation in the colour '60 Caramel'. I use this in the summer and you literally do not need to apply so much because a little of this definitely goes a long way and it gives you quite a full coverage without looking overdone. Using a damp beauty blender, I gently dab the foundation on my skin so it's blended in and evened out onto my skin. This foundation leaves you with a satiny/slightly dewy look which I love during summer and it is also perfect for any special occasions e.g. weddings and parties. This can be found at your nearest Superdrug store or online and it is £7.99. 

This is a quite a touchy topic which I have wanted to write about for a very long time but I just did not know how to process what I was thinking, down into words but I'm going to have a go. 

I have days where I put on an outfit, look in the mirror and just think 'damn I look great' and feel so positive about myself and feel positive for the rest of the day and then there are days where I think 'why doesn't my butt look as big as Kim K's'. I think that near enough everyone, whether you are male or female and also including myself, have had thoughts about how they see themselves whether that be in a positive or negative thought. I'm sure we all have said or thought things such as 'Oh I wish I looked like her', 'my bum and/or boobs aren't big enough.', 'I need thicker thighs/slimmer legs', 'I need killer abs/muscles' or something along those lines because I most definitely have. 




I began exercising at home from 2013 but never really took it seriously until I think December 2014. When I did begin to take it seriously over 2015, I have made quite a lot of progress when it comes to my core, waist, butt and thighs/legs and I am really happy to have reached my body goal. But even then, when I'm scrolling down Instagram and seeing all the IG fitness models, I can't help but think 'wow I wish I had a bum like hers' or "Why aren't my hips that big and my waist not that small" which just makes me want to exercise and work out even more even though the model's body type/proportions are no where near similar to mine. I've had times where I look at a photo and think 'I need to get my body like hers', when in reality, my body type is no where near similar to the girl in the photo so I'm basically just being unrealistic.

Having been influenced by so many factors, (one of which I think the biggest factor is through the media), society has created this image of what is considered to be 'perfect' in terms of when it comes to individuals and what they look like, whether that be body wise or appearance wise. We see things in the media, whether that be on the television, in magazines or online, celebrities and models having the most perfect tanned airbrushed skin with no imperfections at all and this causing many young girls trying to fit into this image of 'perfection' i.e. girls have to have long legs, long hair and curves in the right places but still be slim and guys have to be tall yet built and muscly.This image that is being passed onto young people is when a preoccupation of wanting to be thin or 'perfect' takes over their mind in which it leads to eating disorders such as Bulimia and Anorexia. 

When it comes to eyebrows, I take way too much care of them and this includes trimming, threading and plucking any other stray hairs. Now my eyebrows in the beginning and middle are dark because the hairs are extremely thick. This means that if I go 2 weeks without threading, the unwanted hairs will already grow back and it's so painful when pulling them out! Towards the end, the hairs are a lot finer and lighter so I prefer to just fill that part in.

Below is a photo of pretty much how my brows look. The first photo is what my eyebrows look like when they are not filled in at all as well as just being threaded and the second and third photos are how they look when they are filled in depending on how strong I want the brow (like the third photo shows). I personally like a strong brow on myself.


The products that I do use to fill in my brows are:

• L'Oreal Brow Artist Shaper in 04 Dark Brunette - this comes with the brow pencil on one end & fix and finish wax on the other with a brush on the lid.
  http://www.loreal-paris.co.uk/make-up/eye/eyebrow-pencils-gels-kits/brow-artist-shaper/04-dark-brunette
• Rimmel Brow This Way Styling Gel in Dark Brown

Whether it be a big situation or even just the teeny tiniest thing, I am the type of person to stress over things a lot. I am that type of person who will constantly over think situations and my mind will make up scenarios which make out the situation I am in, worse than it really is which results in me feeling incredibly overwhelmed. To make things worse, I will keep what is stressing me out bottled up instead of releasing it.

I'm sure that if you are reading this, you may have been in situations where it resulted in you feeling stressed or overwhelmed because life does have it's ups and downs with the bumps in the road. Some of these situations may be certain life events such as having to deal with a divorce of your parents or someone passing away or things such as exams for school subjects, etc, and it can be hard to deal with these types of situations you are possibly in. When you are stressed, you may feel nauseous, tired, scared of what is going to happen, etc and too much stress can be very bad for your health and well-being causing health problems such as headaches, depression and anxiety.



I'm sure all of us have had people tell us to 'calm down' or 'stop stressing' which is easier said then done especially if they do not know why you are worrying or stressing about something. Over the years I have learnt how to get stress and anxiety under control and I thought that I would share some of these ways. These may work for you, they may not work for you, who knows? They are just particularly some of the ways I am able to feel less stressed/overwhelmed/anxious in any given situation. 

1. I know that for quite a lot of people, exams are coming up whether you are in University, doing A-Levels or are at GCSE and you'll be doing mock papers and revising a lot. When it comes to exams, I get extremely stressed and especially worried, about how it will go down and some of you may also feel similar. You might end up overworking yourself when it comes to things such as revision which won't help. I know for when I had to revise for exams, I would end up revising non-stop without breaks until it got really late at night. This did not help me at all as it meant that I was trying to cram information into my brain in order to remember it. On top of that, I would go sleep later and wake up early which meant I was really tired the next morning.
   
   When it comes to things such as exams or tests and trying to keep my stress and anxiety levels to a minimum, I make sure to take time outs and breaks over the time that I will be revising for. For example: if you are planning to revise for 4 hours, revise first for an hour and a half and then maybe take a 20 minute break for your brain to rest for a while and carry on for another hour and a half, etc (you get my drift). During the breaks you could go outside and get some fresh air if you are inside or maybe read a book before going back to revising. TIP: During the Spring/Summer time, if the weather is sunny outside, you could take your books and notes outside to revise! I did this once a few months before an exam in June and it helps. Also, make sure to get enough sleep. Making sure that you get enough sleep before the day of a test or exam is key because it allows your body to get the rest it needs especially if you have been feeling stressed.
2. I find that listening to music and just clearing my mind also helps with coping with stress and anxiety. For me when I'm stressed about something, I enjoy listening to music that is calm or chilled out which I know will put me in a relaxed mood. You could search up calm music on YouTube and just listen to that and see if it helps. If you are unable to sleep, stick some music on which may help you to fall asleep and just clear your mind for the time being so you can fall asleep,
3. Talk to someone! If there is something on your mind and it is making you feel anxious or it's overwhelming, talking to someone can help to lift the 'weight off your chest'. Whether it be over exams and you're worried about whether you know the right stuff for it, maybe get someone to quiz you. If it is a personal matter which you are stressing about and it is what's making you anxious, maybe talk to someone who you know will sit down and really listen to you.