I’ve had my beady little eye on Zatchel’s satchels for a while now. They’re made to order and come in a tonne of different designs and colours. So when I had to choose one I ummed and aahed for a few days before finally deciding on this lilac beauty. I almost chose one of the Hello Kitty ones but I’m 32 so figured I’d better opt for something a little more grown up.

All of Zatchel’s bags are made to order and the craftmanship and quality were apparent as soon as it arrived. This is one of those bags that will still look good 5 years down the line so an investment piece worthy of its price tag. I was actually surprised at how roomy it is. I can easily fit my DSLR, makeup bag, hairbrush, phone and purse and still have plenty of room to spare. You can guess what’s going to be my go to bag for trips to London where I need to carry a lot. Good job because my previous go to bag which was from Rabeanco is looking a bit worse for wear.

I’m thinking of purchasing one of their saddlebags soon for those days when a smaller bag is needed. What do you think? Isn’t she a beauty? (Yes it is a ‘she’)

You can find this particular bag here but give their website a browse they have tonnes of lovely stuff.

*Gifted by the brand*

Social sharing is vital for the success of a blog. Users need to be able to quickly and easily share your content on their social networks and WordPress makes it oh so easy. Jetpack comes pre-installed with a sharing facility and adding them is a cinch.

But what if you want your share buttons to match your blog design? In this tutorial I will show you how to add your own sharing buttons to your self-hosted WordPress powered blog and it really is easy. No messy coding required.

First things first source your buttons. A quick google search should lead you to 1000s of free sets or you can of course create your own. Once you have your buttons saved on your computer you can proceed to the next step.

1. Click on this link and download the Simple Share Button Adder plugin from the WordPress repository.

2. Navigate to your WordPress dashboard and go to Plugins>Add New>Upload.

3. Upload the plugin and activate.

4. Go to settings>Share Buttons.

You’ll see the following:

Choose the location for your buttons and select custom from the dropdown. Now in another tab upload your icons to the media library. Return to the settings page for the plugin and place the image source url in the corresponding field (like below)

Last but not least drag the networks you require from the available box to the selected box and save!

That is all there is to it and no coding skills required. You can see mine in action at the bottom of this post.

I love nothing more than sitting in my bedroom with a face mask on and a candle burning on the table. I love the smell that fills the room from a scented candle and I find it highly relaxing too. This candle is the Wild Mint variation but comes in other scents too.

It would also look beautiful on my bedside table. Of course it makes Diptyque look cheap so it would be a really luxury purchase. The White Company do have some other much less expensive candles though and I can declare that their candles are some of the best I’ve tried. Check out he White Company’s candles here.

As I mentioned in my Ikea post I am currently doing up my bedroom so I’ve been surfing the net and gathering inspiration. I want something clean but pretty. My room isn’t huge so I want pieces that utilise all of the available space. Colour wise i’m drawn to white, pink, coral and gold.

Each of these images inspires me. From colour schemes, to decorative mirrors, to gold wall detailing. I’ll be referring to this post to aid me and will more than likely do a before and after post. Interior design has always appealed to me and now I finally have somewhere permenant to call home. Would love to DIY pieces for my bedroom as much as possible so link me to your favorite DIYers in the comments.

Where do you look to for inspiration?

I was recently given Clinique’s City Block Sheer in SPF25 from a friend of mine. I must confess to not owning a lot of their products as it isn’t a brand that I gravitate towards. I know the blogosphere seems to gravitate towards Clinique products but I never really got the hype.

City block sheer is a face protector formulated to help protect your face from the usual suspects – smoke, smog, dirt etc. It contains SPF25 and is a chemical free SPF so particularly good for those of you with sensitive skin. When I squeezed it out of the tube I thought ‘uh-oh’ since the formula resembles a very pale foundation but on the skin it is more like a very faintly coloured tinted moisturiser.

It is lightweight and absorbs into the skin quickly and easily. It is also fragrance free and non greasy. It works equally good as a primer so could be worn under makeup or on its own for days when you require a fresh faced look. It provides protection against excess oil and perspiration. But seriously whose face actually sweats? It is the perfect sun block for day to day wear but isn’t really suitable for a week in Hawaii but that’s not what it is intended for anyway. Overall I’m pretty impressed with this product and it seems it is pretty much suitable for all skintones. I’m fairly dark skinned and it didn’t leave my face with an ashy appearance.

So my foray into the world of Clinique has been a successful one. So what other products should I try?

Last week I moved house. After months of searching I finally found somewhere that suits my requirements. Close to family, decent sized, well priced and in a quiet neighbourhood. I looked at a lot of pretty grim places so I’m overjoyed to have found somewhere. The only problem now is getting my bedroom how I like it. I spend quite a lot of time in there as I work from home and it is the quietest area in the house so getting it right is important. I want somewhere cosy and quaint. I have a fondness for pink and white. I want girly but not childish and I like lots of accessories.

I know what I like but that isn’t the issue – money is! I don’t want to spend a fortune kitting it out. So of course when you have limited funds Ikea is your first port of call. They have some great stuff at a reasonable price. I already have my list sorted so when I visit there later this week I know what i’m getting. See the wishlist above? It all comes in at well under a £100!

So where else should I be looking for lovely bedroom accessories?

So I have another freebie for you guys. I’ve released bloglovin badges before in the past and they proved hugely popular so I decided to create a new set. In the download at the bottom of this post you”ll find a file containing all 4 badges as per the above image.

These were created in Photoshop and they are designed to resemble actual badges. I hope you all like them and use them in your blog designs.

Click on the link below to download

Download

The UK has come on leaps and bounds in creating makeup suitable for dark skin tones with ranges extending their colour choices to cater for the non caucasian beauty. This seems especially true to luxury brands like Giorgio armani, Mac and NARS.  But there is one area in the beauty world where we are lagging.  Where are all the non celebrity darker skinned models in beauty advertising?

I couldn’t remember seeing many so I sent the following tweet to my followers on Twitter earlier today -

beauty bloggers? can you tell me of any current uk beauty campaigns featuring dark skinned models?

All the responses were for non UK brands. Of course MUA recently collaborated with Alexandra Burke but she is a celebrity and not a model. The only UK brands that come to mind when talking about dark skinned models are Sleek and Illamasqua. It is a sad state of affairs when they are the only two brands that come to mind. But Illamasqua only use dark skinned models occasionally and their use of them can be a tad gimmicky. While Sleek seem to be drifting further and further away from their original ethos of creating makeup for darker skin types. Of course I realise that women of colour only make up around 2.5% of the UK population but would lighter skinned ladies really not buy from a brand that used a dark skinned woman in their adverts. Dove have the balance right with their real women advertising campaign featuring women of many different races and skin tones (as well as different sizes) The success of that campaign is proof that diversity can and does sell products.

Of course this lack of diversity in advertising isn’t just limited to the beauty world. The fashion world also has the same issues and I think it is time that brands embraced different races and made their advertising all inclusive. Mixed race and black women spend insane amounts of money on beauty products and the lack of representation for them can make them feel undervalued and pushed to the outside. I don’t know any woman who wouldn’t buy from a brand who used dark skinned models and the success of the likes of Joan Smalls and Jourdan dunn prove that dark skinned models CAN sell products. In a world where Rihanna and Beyonce are used to sell massive amounts of all kinds of products, dark skinned women can and do sell products to women of all races.

I long for a day when beauty advertising truly represents the women of Britain. I do believe that time will come. Ten years ago I wouldn’t have thought that I’d actually be able to purchase a foundation at John Lewis and now I actually have a choice of brands. There is no doubting that the beauty industry has made huge strides towarsds tackling the lack of makeup for darker skin tones in the last ten years but I hope it won’t take them another ten years to redress the balance in beauty advertising.

Thoughts?

I love a good glitter polish. I own quite a few glitter polishes but most of them have two things in common – the glitter isn’t dense enough so it takes a million coats for full coverage and they feel like sandpaper on the nails when dry. These two points are what stop me wearing them on a regular basis. I guess i’m just hard to please.

This polish looks very pretty in the bottle but does it apply well, last and what is it like to remove? These are the most important things in regards to glitter polishes.

This polish applies smoothly and evenly. The design of the brush helps pick up the glitter and enables you to cover the nail in one stroke. I have a tendency to prefer wide bushes. I despise the really narrow ones. This polish dries very quickly and the glitter is very dense. The gold tips in the photos above were achieved with just one coat. So two coats would be sufficient for full coverage of the nail.

It also feels fairly smooth when dry. No glitter polish will be completely smooth due to the texture of it but this one gets pretty damn close.  The photo above was taken three days after application and as you can see there is no tipwear or chipping. This polish lasts very well and I didn’t even use a topcoat.

All in all I am very pleasantly surprised by this polish. Not only is it beautiful but it applies easily, dries quickly and is durable. I can also testify that it is not a nightmare to remove. It removed fairly easily even when multiple coats are applied.

Have you tried this polish or any other Sally Hansen polishes?

It has been a very long time since I’ve created any blog design freebies. This has been a mixture of lacking time and lacking inspiration. I am particularly in love with watercolor effects in web design at the moment so thought these labels would slot in nicely. I have tried to cover most widget types and I am sorry if I have missed any. These are simple png images with transparent backgrounds so they can be used on blogs that don’t have the standard white sidebar.

I hope you like them and will use therm to spruce up your blog design. Of course if you do use them i’d love to see a link so I can see them in action. If you’d like me to create a particular type of freebie in the future just leave a comment and i’ll see what i can do.

Happy sunday!

Download below

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