Wednesday, 21 October 2015

Travel Adventures: Dubrovnik, Croatia

Okay, so in the last travel post, I left off with Korcula and Mljet.
So next was Dubrovnik, which is one of the main and most well-known cities along the Dalmation coast of Croatia. We were staying two nights here, opposed to one night as with the others, and so got to know the city a little better. 
Dubrovnik is absolutely stunning! The main touristy sort of area is the Old Town, which just has so much history to it and is all build in stunning white marble. The Old Town is walled off (which was a defence mechanism in the olden days), and so you can climb onto the walls and walk around the whole perimeter about 50 meters up and get a pretty cool view of the surroundings and surrounding sea. The old city has a long main road with lots of touristy little shops on it and some amazing places to get Gelato (which we ate far too much of)! If you walk down to the end of this street (but because it's walled off, it's all just people, like no cars or anything), there is a really beautiful cathedral and lots of museums and places worth checking out if you're into the history of the city. I went on a guided tour of the Old Town, which was so so interesting, and really cool to do, because you get to learn so much about the history. The Old Town has stunning architecture, a mixture of Baroque and Renaissance, and lots of swallows dipping down between all the buildings and narrow alleys. Croatia is a predominantly Catholic country, and so there are also lots of churches and a monkery in the Old Town. Dubrovnik also has a really stunning port on the other side of Old Town, which is worth going to see. We found some really cool places to swim just outside of Old Town (close to the entrance) and there were even a few little like caves/blue grottos, which is super cool! So yeah, Dubrovnik is amazing, there's so much to do, I feel like I could have stayed there for another week at least, but yeah, the nightlife is lots of fun too, and it's just a lovely city with a lot of heart. 











Friday, 9 October 2015

September Favourites 2015

Hey guys, 
so it's time for another monthly favourites, and I've really got some good-ies this month :D 


Okay so I'll get right to it, starting with make-up:
So recently my parents when to the UK and obviously I jumped at the opportunity to get them to bring me back as many make-up products that we don't get here in SA at possible! There have been a lot of products I have been dying to try but couldn't get hold of at shops or by ordering online, so I gave my mom a list of a few things, and was lucky enough that she brought me back a fair few!

So my first make-up favourite and one of the things my mom bought me from England is
Benefit Roller Lash Mascara
I have never used any Benefit products (cause like I said, I can't really get hold of them in SA yet), but I had heard people absolutely rave about this mascara, and seeing that I have pretty much stuck with my old Maybelline one forever, I was dying to give a new one a try- and oh my word have I been coverted! This is THE BEST mascara ever, it has such a perfectly shaped wand and just coats every lash and makes them so super long without clumping them or anything- it's just amazing, and it's going to be suuuper hard going back to any other mascara when this one runs out, so yeah, definitely a fantastic product worth trying out!




Soap and Glory- Archery brow pen in the shade "Brownie Points"
Soap an Glory is another brand that I haven't been able to try before, and again, after hearing lots of great things about this product, I was keen to give it a go. I have never quite found a really brilliant eye brow product, and so this kind of just shoved away anything else I've ever tried because it is so so easy and still looks super nice. I have quite dark eyebrows that do sort of mostly maintain themselves, so I often don't fill them in at all, but when I do a full face of make-up, it looks a bit weird without filling in brows as well, so this is perfect for that, and it is just the right colour for mine. It is almost a felt-tip like marker, and so you can super easily fill in a few individual streaks without sort of "colouring in" your whole brow. It's super easy, looks really lovely, and I have been absolutely loving it!


Collection- Illuminating Touch Brightening concealer in the shade "Natural 2"
So I actually asked my mom for a different concealer by Collection, and she couldn't find it, so bought this one instead, and I have to say, it is brilliant, and probably my favourite concealer I've used thus far over both Rimmel and Revlon, which I have raved about before. I was lucky in that it is the perfect shade, but what I love about it is that it is amazing for under your eyes, it gets rid of redness or dark circles or puffyness without it looking like you've caked on concealer. It also blends so well into the skin, I've been using the Real Techniques setting brush, and it is just so easy and has amazing coverage but still feels really light, yeah it's amazing! It's a very nice overall concealer, and I tend to use a concealer stick/crayon when certain areas are being particularly problematic and then this over it as a more general sort of finish. To anyone buying this though, let me just give you a heads up to save you the confusion I went through: this appears really hard to open, it took me a good while to figure out how the product comes out of the tube. Basically, you need to twist the bottom, it will make a clicking sound, for a long time before product comes out, and once the first bit is out, you just twist it a few clicks round each time you use it, for more to come out.


Collection- Cover Up Stick concealer crayon in the shape "Natural Beige 13"
So I mentioned above that I like to use the Illuminating Touch concealer with a cover stick concealer when my skin is breaking out or having some issues, and this is the one I've been using. If you've read this blog for a while, you'll have heard me say that I usually really dislike using cover sticks and MUCH prefer a more liquid consistency of concealer. But things have sort of changed with this one- whilst I'll admit, I still don't like to use a concealer crayon everyday, it just gives such amazing coverage when I have a spot or redness or anything like that, and so yeah, it also works really nicely with the Illuminating Touch concealer, also by Collection. 


So those are the make-up products I've really been lovely this last month. And now for some beauty favourites:
Sorbet Spa: Sea Botanicals- Nourish Hand and Nail Cream 
I'm not usually a bit hand cream type of person but as winter keeps on dragging on even though we're now into Spring, I just find my hands getting so terribly dry and actually had to start taking a bit of care of them. I bought this without thinking much of it, but it is actually so lovely. It smells delicious, and it's kind of an unusual smell, unlike any other product I've tried before, but so nice and not too overpowering, which I think is important in a hand cream. But the actual quality of the cream is amazing, it is so super moisturising and thick and just feels like it is really hydrating for the skin, but at the same time, I really like that it doesn't feel sticky or anything after you've used it. 


Essie nail polish- 'Marshmallow'
I'll be honest, I actually was really disappointed with this shade when I first bought it, wanting a similar shade to my previous white nail polish, which was 'Blanc', also by Essie. The reason for this, is that it is not a very strong colour, meaning that it needs at least 3/4 layers before it looks nice. So at first I was a bit irritated, because it is a bit of a mission painting that many layers, but what I will say is that because you are putting on so many layers, it stays on without chipping for ages, like at least 2 weeks! And also, once all the layers are on, it is not just a sharp white but rather a very pretty, pale white that looks really lovely. So yeah, I've actually really been enjoying it!


And then finally for some random favourites: 

So the first is actually a YouTube channel of this amazing singer called Sam Tsui who mostly does covers and mash-ups and a whole bunch of cool stuff. His voice is technically amazing, and yeah, it's just cool seeing how talented some people out there are!
Click here for the link to his channel, and then here are some of my favourite covers of his:

And then finally, my last random favourite is The Fosters, this is a TV show that I have definitely mentioned before on this blog, but it is quite unknown and I just really love it! It is based on a family with a whole mixture of adopted and biological kids and basically just their lives and challenges and stuff but all the characters are really relatable and I just really enjoy it! I'm currently watching season 2, but I think there is one or two more out than that, so I'm a bit behind. 


So yeah, those are my September favourites, check ya next month with some more from October xx