Day to Night Look with The Body Shop

Last Minute Christmas Present: By Invitation Perfume from Michael Buble

Traditional German Treats from Bahlsen

Bravura London Skincare

The Perfect Winter Candle from Skye Candle Co.

REN Skincare 35% Off Code & Other Black Friday Offers

Book Review : Beneath the Skin by Sandra Ireland

A Mini-break in Glasgow at CitizenM Hotel

The Beautiful Lancome Cushion Blush Subtil

Ren Glycolactic Radiance Renewal Mask

Recent Purchases I am Loving

The Last Books I Read

The Gin Festival, Edinburgh

Samaya Skincare and Self-Care (featuring possibly the best treatment oil ever)

The Tea Makers Glass Infuser Tea Cup

Samaya Ayurveda Skincare

YSL Mon Paris Perfume

Alzheimer's and the Importance of Community Projects with Homeserve

Products for Dehydrated Skin to Suit all Price Ranges

Lancome Juicy Shakers

The Body Shop Down to Earth Eyeshadow Palettes

Hylamide Glow Radiance Booster

The Body Shop Tea Tree Range

Scandinavian Home Inspiration

Madara SOS Hydra Repair Intensive Serum

Hylamide Photography Foundation

Madara Organic Skincare

The State of Blogging

This post has been rattling around in my head for a while and I feel I need to get it off my chest. I’ve been blogging for almost 4 years on and off now. I was really proud of that achievement and I was planning on doing a giveaway as a way of thanking my readers for sticking around. But, I’m just so deluded with the state of blogging at the moment, I’m actually unsure whether I want to continue. (I probably will, I’m just being melodramatic and a bit angry). 

There’s been a lot of changes in blogging over the 4 years I’ve been a small part of it. I’ve enjoyed watching small bloggers becoming absolutely huge and the impact they’ve had. It’s been fascinating seeing it unfold. I love so many different elements of blogging and the blogging community in general. BUT here it comes FAKE FOLLOWERS. It is such a huge bugbear of mine, and LOTS and LOTS of you feel that way too. (There's also the whole issue of non-disclosure which I talk about here).

For a while now blogging has had a problem with fake followers (I blogged about how to spot fake followers here). Most of the blogging community knows that it goes on but there’s still a huge amount of people that do not realise it’s happening. Instagram is particularly rife. Twitter isn’t much better either to be honest, but there’s easier ways of checking fake followers on Twitter than there is for IG. Sites like this one or Twitter Audit let you check people’s followers easily.  

Something I noticed about Twitter Audit that may be of interest to you. When someone has been audited a while ago it won’t show the most up-to-date results so you need to pay around 50p (I think) to re-audit (which of course I did). Examples: an old audit was showing someone with lots of fake followers but when I re-audited the fake follower count went down, this was also backed up with fakers.status check. And alternatively someone who had around 50% fake followers changed to 20% real. The most drastic was someone showing only 10% fake which then changed to a whopping 11% real! So nearly ALL their followers are fake. I double checked with fakers.status again and yeah that’s about right.

So that’s the crux: it’s easy to check if someone has fake followers so why don’t brands do it more? Ultimately, I guess humans are naturally trusting, unless you’ve a reason not to be. One particular person I noticed who has lots of fake followers was done by accident. I had no reason to believe they’d purchased fake followers and they always seemed “genuine” (and that’s a whole other blog post: perception of people over the internet). I was a little bit shocked tbh. Since then I’ve discovered quite a few bloggers with fake followers, ranging from small time bloggers to big bloggers. Bloggers with much, much larger following than I have who have absolutely amazing content are getting passed up because brands don’t think they are big enough. Instead brands are giving work to “big” bloggers who have a considerable fake following. Surely it’s easy to check engagement and real followers? So for the life of me I can’t figure it out. Instead of the tide turning on this it just seems to be getting worse and worse with more bloggers taking the easy route and purchasing a few thousand followers every now and again. Many have said this is a form of fraud and eventually it will catch up with them. But how are brands going to know if everyone is keeping quiet? *sigh*

Recently I discovered that some of my photos had been used without my permission. One case was completely innocent while I have serious doubts about the validity of the reason another person gave me. However, it was quickly sorted but this isn’t just happening to me bloggers are stealing other bloggers content, both images and words, and passing it off as their own. Corrine from Skinnedcartree.com blogged about her experience here. This is so disappointing and really pisses me off.

I love blogging, I love the community and I love the opportunities it’s given me. But, I am so disillusioned with it currently. How can you compete with someone who has actually got considerably less followers than you but it looks like they’ve got thousands more? If you want to work with brands followers still count (and so does engagement). I’d love to have unlimited funds to purchase items for my blog but I don’t so I rely on the occasional PR sample to give me content. It is so frustrating knowing that some bloggers are not what they claim to be yet us genuine, honest bloggers can’t say anything for fear we’ll experience the backlash because we’re “jealous”. Or do you think it’s about time we were more open about people purchasing fake followers or stealing content?

What do you think? 

Three Brightening and Smoothing Face Masks to Try

New Lanark World Heritage Village

The Best Box Hair Dye - Garnier Olia Hair Colour in Deep Cherry 3.6

Pineapple Clothing and Accessories

Kiko Makeup Purchases

Boots No7 Lift & Luminate Triple Action Serum Review

The New Fully Loaded Range from Bed Head

Tangle Teezer Lulu Guinness Limited Edition Review

Lancome Energie de Vie Liquid Moisturiser Review

I’m a big fan of Lancome, I like their makeup (you can read about my favourite products here and I’ve loved the skin care that I’ve tried; my favourites being Lancome Hydra Zen and Genifique serum. So I was keen to try Lancome’s new range Energie de Vie . Like lots of new skincare in the UK and Europe Energie de Vie is influenced by Korean beauty technology. I’m really excited to see the way skincare in Europe is being affected by Asian trends, there’s so much fascinating technology to be harnessed. Lancome’s newest moisturiser, I think, is the start of skincare going in a new direction in this country, and I’m very interested to see what we’ll be getting next. 

There’s three new products in the range, they are: Energie de Vie Liquid Moisturiser* , Energie de Vie Pearly Wake-up Lotion and Energie de Vie Sleeping Mask. I was sent a week’s worth of Energie de Vie Liquid Moisturiser* to try and I’ve just finished it up so here’s my thoughts! ( I bet you can’t wait).

Lancome Energie de Vie Liquid Moisturiser* is enriched with Goji berry extract and Lemon balm oil, both of which give the moisturiser a fresh scent. It’s not overpowering though and disappears pretty fast on the skin. As well as giving the moisturiser its scent Goji berry and Lemon balm extract brighten and liven up the skin. The texture of Energie de Vie Liquid Moisturiser* is really interesting, it actually feels more like a serum not dissimilar to their Genifique serum mentioned above. It’s much more liquid than a standard moisturiser and as such gives an amazing boost of hydration to the face. It sinks in really quickly leaving no tackiness or excess residue just comfortable, hydrated and smooth skin. Making it a perfect base for makeup application.  As well as Energie de Vie Liquid Moisturiser* giving a shot of hydration it adds a brightness or healthy glow to the skin. Lancome say it’s a post-gym glow in a bottle. I say it definitely adds a glow, thankfully without all the redness and sweatiness of a workout. 

I’ve only had a week’s worth, I usually like around a month to try out skincare or longer. Your skin generally renews every 8 weeks and this is when you get to see the real benefit of your products. But a week is still a decent enough time to find out if it's suitable and get a good feeling for it overall. Energie de Vie Liquid Moisturiser* would suit all skin types. It targets dullness, roughness and dry skin but it sinks in so fully and leaves the skin so hydrated that I think all skin types would benefit. It’s not at all greasy so if you’re oily but need hydration I’d think about giving this a go, it’ll keep your skin moisturised without any uncomfortableness. It brightens the skin up instantly and leaves it smooth. Energie de Vie Liquid Moisturiser is particularly nice in warmer weather because it feels so fresh and quenching on the skin. My skin loves this moisturiser, I have combination/sensitive with a slightly oily t-zone and occasional dry cheeks, and my skin just drinks this stuff up. I haven’t experienced any aggravation, it hasn’t caused spots or redness or any other problems. In fact, when I’m finished working through my current moisturiser(s!) I’m going to treat myself to a full bottle of this and maybe the Pearly Wake-Up Lotion and I may as well get the Sleeping mask too. 

Have you tried anything from the new Energie de Vie range?

*PR Sample

(contains affiliated links)

Lacura 3 Minute Cell Renewal Peel Mask

Last year Aldi launched their Lacura Caviar range which is a much more affordable version of the expensive La Prairie skin care. I was too slow when it hit the shops the first time and only managed to pick up the 7 Day Intensive Treatment which I blogged about here. I was so impressed with it that I was keen to try some other products from the range. Aldi had the Caviar range as a special buy on Sunday, but if it’s sold out in your local store or you can’t get to an Aldi you can now also buy some products through their app and online, it’s currently free delivery. So I bought the Lacura Caviar Illumination 3 Minute Cell Renewal Peel Mask.

Lacura Caviar Illumination 3 Minute Cell Renewal Peel Mask is Aldi’s version of the much more expensive La Prairie Cellular 3 Minute Peel, it costs a whopping £153. Here’s a comparison of the ingredients:

La Prairie Cellular 3 Minute Peel Ingredients:

Water, Hydroxyethyl Acrylate/Sodium Acryloyldimethyl Taurate Copolymer, Lactic Acid, Polysorbate 40, Glycolic Acid, Tetrahydroxypropyl Ethylenediamine, Polyglyceryl-3 Laurate, PEG-8/SMDI Copolymer, Hexylene Glycol, Salicylic Acid, Malic Acid, Glycoproteins, Panax Ginseng Root Extract, Equisetum Arvense (Horsetail) Extract, Sucrose, Glutamic Acid, Aspartic Acid, Hydroxyethylcellulose, Glucose, Fructose, Disodium EDTA, Tocopheryl Acetate, Disodium Lauriminodipropionate Tocopheryl Phosphates, Butylene Glycol, Dextrin, Urea, Polyquaternium-7, Alanine, Fragrance, Hydroxyisohexyl 3-Cyclohexene Carboxaldehyde, Butylphenyl Methylpropional, Alpha-Isomethyl Ionone, Linalool, Citronellol, Hydroxycitronellal, Phenoxyethanol, Chlorphenesin, Benzoic Acid, Sorbic Acid, Methylparaben, Titanium Dioxide

Lacura 3 Minute Cell Renewal Peel Mask Ingredients:

Aqua, panthenol, sodium acrylate/ sodium acryloyldimethyl taurate copolymer, caviar extract, tocopherly acetate, disodiumlauriminodipropionate tocopheryl phosphates, carbomer/papain crosspolymer, gluconic acid, ascorbic acid, glycolic acid, salicylic acid, tartaric acid, citric acid, lactic acid, malic acid, algin, xanthan gum, propylene glycol, 1,2-hexanediol, caprylyl glycol, parfum, benzyl salicylate, alpha-isomethyl ionine, linalool, phenoxyethanol, benzoic acid, dehydroacetic acid, ethylparaben, methylparaben, CI 77891. ( sorry if I’ve made any spelling mistakes, I’m not a chemist and I typed this out by hand, and my eyesight isn’t brilliant!) 

Lacura 3 Minute Cell Renewal Peel mask relies on several ingredients to chemically exfoliate the top layer of skin, they’re a mix of AHAs, papaya enzyme complex and caviar extract which is essentially what La Prairie’s version does. La Prairie’s is so pricey because it contains professional strength AHAs and BHAs, I’m unsure how the Lacura version compares here. But I can tell you how effective Lacura 3 Minute Cell Renewal Peel mask is: VERY.

If you have particularly sensitive skin or reactive skin I’d do a patch test of this first because wow does it pack a punch. I applied a thin layer of the white mask to my damp skin making sure to avoid the eye and lip area. The texture reminds me of a thick moisturiser. It’s not gloopy nor does it run when applied. You don’t need much product to get good coverage so I think this would last quite a while. Once applied you can really feel the ingredients getting to work. If you’ve used a powerful peel mask before you’ll recognise the sensation, or of course it might just be my skin. I had to remove the mask around the 2 minute mark because it just felt so strong. 

I’m so impressed with the results of Lacura 3 Minute Cell Renewal Peel mask after just one go. If my thoughts change I’ll update but I can’t see why I would. My skin immediately felt so much smoother, more so than pretty much any other peel mask I’ve used. My skin tone looked slightly more even and brighter, and my pores refined. It really is quite a brilliant mask and I’d quite happily pay much more for this but it’s only £6.99! 

There’s a couple of things I don’t like though. It states that it’s for all skin types but I wouldn’t recommend this on sensitive skin. This is a powerful mask and I had to remove it just shy of the three minutes recommended because it was so strong on my skin. It hasn’t caused any further aggravation but oh boy this mask packs a real punch. Secondly, and this is a mini gripe though. The brush that it comes with is rubbish. It fell apart when I went to clean it so I would recommend using your own brush for it. I suppose you could use your fingers but a brush will give you a nice even layer. These are my only issues with this mask, it’s otherwise absolutely brilliant. I think I might stock up!

Have you tried anything from the Lacura Caviar range?

Jamie's Italian Glasgow

I was kindly invited to try out the new evening meal deal at Jamie’s Italian in Glasgow. The Evening Meal Deal is three courses for £18.95 which I think is a pretty good offer. I’ve heard mixed reviews of Jamie’s Italian and the man himself is slightly contentious but I was keen to see (and taste) for myself. 

Jamie’s Italian in Glasgow is handily situated at the corner of George Square. The restaurant is vibrant, lively and welcoming. I went with just my husband but it’d be great for a family meal too. My son has a dairy and egg allergy and one of the things that I really liked about viewing Jamie’s Italian menu online is that you can select dairy free choices which saves a lot of hassle looking through the ingredient list. In fact you can select vegan, gluten-free, healthy or vegetarian which really is a nice touch for people on special diets.

There’s a range of seating available at Jamie’s Italian and if you read my previous food reviews such as Prezzo here you’ll see that seating is important for me. We chose to sit on booth type seats. Our server was incredibly helpful and polite, taking time to go through the menu and any other questions we had.

So onto the food! There’s five starters to choose from. My husband went for the Cured Meat Plank. A selection of cured meats such as fennel salami and pistachio mortadella is beautifully presented on a wooden plank with mini buffalo mozzarella, pecorino and chilli jam with pickles, olives and rainbow slaw. This was absolutely gorgeous and makes a perfect starter (although it’d be great for a savoury end to the meal). There’s also an option to make this vegetarian. 

I went for Mushroom Fritti which is a mix of King oyster and Paris brown mushrooms coated with herby breadcrumbs and served with garlic mayo. I really enjoyed this starter and it was actually deceptively filling. The coating on the mushrooms was crispy and not greasy in the least while the garlic dip added very nicely to the flavours. My husband also enjoyed this. (Please don’t touch my food again).

There’s also five mains to choose from. There’s a good mix of dishes and I went for the Italian steak and fries. The flash-grilled prime steak was very tender and cooked beautifully. It comes served with heirloom tomato salsa (although I’d say they were sliced tomatoes) with Parmesan, and spiced fries on the side. I can’t fault this dish at all, the tomatoes were fresh and juicy, the steak tender and the fries were amazing. 

My husband chose the Famous Prawn Linguine. Prawns and locally sourced Scottish langoustine tails are used in this pasta dish. They’re mixed with garlic, fennel, tomatoes, chilli and saffron in a fish broth with lemony rocket. My husband said this was a well-balanced dish that didn’t have an overpowering seafood taste. Everything was cooked just right. ( I didn’t try this dish, I’m not a fan of prawns). 

By this time I was pretty full but for the sake of you guys I forced myself to have a dessert. How am I supposed to give you an idea of what the food’s like if there’s no dessert included? I’d be a terrible, terrible blogger. So, dessert! There’s a choice of four desserts, my husband went for the Baked White Chocolate Cheesecake. The cheesecake is made from mascarpone and served with fresh raspberries and smashed amaretti. Now this I did have some of. It’s rich but not overly sweet, just really creamy and delicious. 

I picked the Molten Chocolate Praline Pudding for my dessert. Oh my goodness, this was good. The soft and warm chocolate cake has an oozing praline centre. It’s a rich dessert and I couldn’t actually finish it all off, but I did try. The vanilla ice-cream helps off-set some of the richness of the praline pudding. It comes with a tiny Jamie’s Italian flag which is a cute touch. 

So despite my initial reservations I thoroughly enjoyed my evening at Jamie’s Italian. The food was good and the surroundings friendly and comfortable. The next time I go (and I will go back) I’d like to try out some of the cocktails. They looked absolutely amazing and there’s a brilliant selection to chose from. Also, I should mention they do a special lunchtime menu for just over a tenner for two courses of if you fancy £13 for three which I think is a really good deal. 

Have you been to a Jamie’s Italian? 

* Our meals were paid for but thoughts very much my own (and my husband’s).