Happy One Year Anniversary!

Hi Everyone,

Today's post is a super exciting one. This time last year was my first ever blog post! I can't believe it either! If you do want to read it then click the link here. This past year has gone so quickly that it only feels like a few weeks ago since I first started my blog. Through starting my blog I have gained so much.

I asked on instagram what I should do to celebrate, but none of the suggestions felt like it would show my appreciation. I decided that today, I would share with you the things I have learned or gained through blogging. I am sorry if you expected something huge and exciting, but I hope this does at least help you in some way or even getting to know me a bit better.

Confidence:

This is probably the thing I appreciate most about what blogging has given me! I have struggled a lot with confidence since a young age. I am not slim, I have got opinions and I am clever. These things might represent me but that's not how everyone sees it. I have been bullied, I have been through tough things like everyone else. Starting my blog made me feel very nervous about whether people will actually read, or my friends finding out and picking on me for it but it only went uphill. Seeing my page views get higher and higher each day just made me feel special. Just because I felt like someone cared and understood me in a way that no one else did. I know it sound over dramatic but that is how I felt. Once I told my friends, they were nothing but supportive. I am so grateful that I can finally have something that makes me feel so proud of myself and something that has made me so motivated to try harder each time. I never had that until starting my blog.

Excepting who I am:

My whole life I have tried to fit in, I have never been that person who is accepted easily because I don't like that latest singers or don't wear the latest clothes. Even though I still am only young, I still regret things. Like making people believe that I actually was obsessed with that band or had everything they had, and saw their favorite film, but really I hadn't. As all my thoughts and opinions began revolving round everyone else, it got me really down, but after starting my blog it gave me a lot of confidence to have my own thoughts and not be afraid to share them.

Being myself:

This goes hand in hand with excepting who I am but this is a bit more focused on blogging. After my blog had been up for a few months, I felt like I was failing, reading other peoples posts and seeing how many comments and followers they had made me feel down. I know that it is jealousy and I am not denying it, I was jealous. Looking at them bloggers, I felt like I had to change my blog to look exactly like theirs, and that's why you might notice my blog setup changes around a lot. I use to just copy peoples blogs detail to detail, but now I take inspiration and put a spin on it. There really is a difference. Through this I noticed, it's not about having a certain layout, or banner design but it's about making it your own and unique  to you (bit cheesy I know). 

Internet friends:

This is my favorite thing about what blogging has gave me. I have honestly met so many lovely people through blogging. I would say them all but I would take forever! I love making new friends because I can talk to them differently to how I talk to my real friends. We talk about beauty recommendations, life hacks, future plans, colabs and of coarse blogging. On a day to day basis we talk over instagram and comment on each others blog posts. I love seeing their blogs get better and better and I love that they support me too.

I hope that by reading them four paragraphs you realize how much blogging has effected me and I could not be more grateful. Blogging to me is a distraction, this year I have been through some rocky patches but blogging has always kept me motivated to keep going. If you are reading this and feel like you might want to start a blog, then feel free to email me or contact me over any social media. Or if you want a whole post on tips for blogging then let me know in the comments!

THANK YOU !!!

I wanted to take this chance to say a huge Thank You. This has honestly been one of the best years ever! and it's all thanks to blogging. Thank you to everyone who reads my blog, comments on my posts and follows my networks. If you have been here from day one or you have only just joined, I appreciate you all so so so much! I love you all !!!! 

Have a great day!
Grace xx

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PS. I am sorry it was a bit cheesy!xx

Freedom Review!

Hi everyone,

Today's post I have been planning for what feels like forever. In September I won a giveaway with Freedom that consisted of £50 worth of there makeup. Which means today's post is going to be a review on Freedom! I have spent the last month or so testing these products out and there are definitely some gems in this brand. You may have also seen lots of these products mentioned in my previous posts so I am not going to go into much detail, but enough so you get a good idea. This is not sponsored and all these opinions are my own.

Freedom is a brand new to Superdrug and is very comparable to Makeup Revolution. There products are very affordable but giving a great quality at the same time.

Product 1 - Pro 32 Eye Collection in Innocent Collection - £8

(Images 1&2)

This is my new current favorite palette, it comes with mattes, shimmers and glitters all very pigmented. It has warm, cool and neutral shades that are great if your starting out with eye shadow. They are all so gorgeous, blend easily, pigmentation is great and is just such a great palette. It is also super inexpensive so great on a budget and because it has a mirror it works great for travelling.

Product 2 - Pro 12 in Secret Rose - £4

(Images 3&4)

This palette is very autumnal in my opinion. It comes with six mattes and six shimmers all with great pigmentation. I personally love the shades in this palette as it can create so many neutral looks. The eye shadows have the same qualities as the first one but they are slightly bigger in quantity. It does come with one of them padded brushes which personally I don't like but might come in handy. This tends to stay near the back of my makeup collection just because it doesn't have a mirror, but I still love it. This was also featured in one of my most recent post (linked here).

Product 3 - Pro Blush Palette in Peach and Baked - £6 
(Image 5)
Lets get the bad part out the way first. As soon as I had opened this palette for the first time, the insert, with all the blushes in, just fell out. I must have been given a faulty one, so if you do want to buy this, just check that the insert stays in and doesn't fall out like mine. On a daily basis, I do reach for cream blushes over powder blushes. Never the less, this palette comes with a great range of shades all very warm toned. This palette includes 6 blushes, all with shimmer and two highlighters. The highlighters are super lovely and wearable but when I wear a blush, I would rather it be matte. I will still wear the shades out of this palette as they are super pigmented and bendable. It is so well priced for only £6 and it comes with a mirror, which you all probably know is an added bonus for me. 

Products 4,5,6 and 7 - Pro Lipsticks - £1 each
(Images 6,7,8&9)
Shades left to right - Adorn, Red Wine, Juicy Lips and Space Luxe
Before this, I barely had any nice lipsticks but now I have these beauties. They remind me a lot of the MUA lipsticks because of their packaging and prices but I do think Freedom have some more obscure shades. My favorite one at the moment is Adorn, which is a lovely for this time of year. It is a berry shade with golden shimmer, which I find really complements my skin tone. There packaging is really simple but I like that the bottom of the lipstick opens into a lip gloss, much like the MUA lipsticks. For £1 the pigmentation is great, the colour range is great and these would be perfect for any beauty addict or beginner that would like to extend their collection.

Products 8,9,10 and 11 - Pro Butter/Melt Lip glosses - £3 each
(Images 10,11&12)
Shades left to right - Cat Whiskers, Sugar fix, (both Pro Butter Lip glosses) Wanted and TGIF (both Pro Melt Lip glosses)
These are really lovely! The Pro Butters are a more sheer, on the go, moisturizing, everyday sort of lip product, and the Pro Melts are more pigmented, thick  liquid lipsticks. I love the formulations of them both but I think the Pro Butters are more suited to me as they are just so easy to apply and are really wearable colours. Saying that I really love the shade range these lip glosses have to offer. My favorite thing about these lip glosses is that they are the only ones I have found that are not sticky. I don't know how Freedom have done it, but they have created a none sticky lip gloss, which is why I am giving this product a massive thumbs up. For £3 these are so worth the money and I think there would be a shade for everyone. I would highly recommend these lip glosses.

Product 12 - Pro Mattify Primer - £5
(Image 13)
Since it is winter, I haven't been using this much, as I like to use a more hydrating primer in the colder seasons. Saying that I have been using this for parties, Halloween and it was in my Dubai makeup bag (which you can read here). This applies really nicely, makes my skin feels smooth but giving a matte finish. This does good a job at taking away some of the access shine and making my makeup last longer. I will have to be repurchasing this as it is so affordable and does the job.

Product 13 - Pro Highlight in Glow - £3
(Images 13,14 and 15)
Honestly, I am not a fan of this product. I hate saying that because it is one of the only products I just can't work with. My first impressions was that it was crazy pigmented was a lovely golden highlighter. As soon as I applied it to my face it just looked like super chunky glitter, it didn't really sit nicely on my face and it just would blend. For £3 I think it is a really gorgeous product looks wise, but not a very good product itself. If you are into a really bold, glittery highlighter, then this may be for you, but I much prefer the ones in the blush palette.

Product 14 - Pressed Powder in Translucent - £2
(Images 13 and 15)
As my Rimmel powder had broke, this was a lucky replacement. I really like this powder, I have been using this daily and I am enjoying it very much. For £2 I think it is brilliant. I really like that whichever brush I use, it picks up a lot of product which I find really rare in a translucent powder. This doesn't give a matte finish but it does set my makeup in place.

Product 15 - Long Lengthen Mascara - £2
(Image 16)
I hate saying this, but again I don't like this. For £2 I wasn't expecting much, but all it did was stick my lashes together. The formula was really sticky, the wand is not very good and it did nothing but bad things to my lashes. I'm sorry, but I really would not recommend this product.

Product 16 - Mono Eye Shadow in Brights 230 - £1
(Image 17)
This again, like the lipsticks, are a lot like MUA's eye shadows. This is a lovely mid-purple with blue, glittery undertones. I am a neutrals girl when it comes to eyes, but I would use this if I am ever feeling adventurous. The pigmentation is really nice, the colour range is really nice and it is super affordable.

Product 17 - Pro Studio Fixing Spray - £5
(Image 18)
I have never tried a product like this before. I use this to set my makeup or to make my eye shadows more pigmented. It does a great job at both of these and I think it would be comparable to the Mac fix plus and the Urban Decay setting sprays. When you set your makeup with this it does make your makeup quit dewy, s this would be great if you have dry skin. As mine is more oily I prefer using this for my eye shadows. Never the less it was a really great product to try.

I really hope you enjoyed this post as I have worked really hard on it. There will be another post tomorrow as it is a very special day and then that's it until Blogmas. Have a great day!
Grace xx

Dubai Series: My Experience

Hi everyone,

As you can see by the (many) pictures above, today's post is going to be a little experience post about my recent trip to Dubai. I hope you have enjoyed the pictures above, I took lots more, but these are my favorite, if you have any questions about the pictures or Dubai in general comment them on this post or email me at Gracesss100702@gmail.com and I will reply as soon as I can. This is going to be very brief as I don't want this to be a super long post but I will try to cover as much as possible.

Firstly, I just want to say, we went to Dubai to celebrate my brothers 21st birthday so it was a family holiday. I went with my mum, dad, brother, brothers girlfriend and my granddad. Dubai was honestly one of the best holidays ever! I had so much fun and I can't wait to go back. I shared a room with my granddad, we had a queen size bed each and a huge room.

I am going to break down certain things I did and go into a bit more detail.

Atlantis Hotel
The Atlantis Hotel was so beautiful. Even each detail was to perfection. It was probably the best hotel I had ever stayed in. My room had an amazing view. Every afternoon they would come in and clean and make the beds. The staff their were so lovely and it was just a great experience. One of my favorite things, was the lobby (picture 3) as it was just suited the whole concept of the Atlantis. Let me know if you want a hotel room tour, of the room me and my granddad shared.

The Lost Chambers Aquarium
Even though this is in the Atlantis Hotel, I think it deserves it's own section. Again, I might do a separate post on all the pictures I took of the different creatures in the aquarium. Anyway, it was utterly stunning. They had so many different tanks/sections with all different creatures. My favorite were probably the white alligators, stingrays, sharks or the fish. You probably must think I covered all the creatures, saying they were all my favorite, but there were so many different creatures there, that I had never heard of. Images 2 and 4 are an example of things you might find in the aquarium. It was just such a lovely experience and it was truly beautiful.

Atlantis Water park
This was obviously not in the hotel but was on the same land (if that makes sense). To get from the hotel to the water park you just had to wait no more then five minutes for these carts to come and pick you up. I am a massive ride fan so I went on lots of these rides. Honestly, they do the best family rides. Even if you are not a ride fan, there is something for everyone. The lazy river was super fun. If you have been to a water park before you know you have them rides in huge plastic hoops (they are actually called inner tubes, which I didn't know) but in the Atlantis water park you didn't have to carry them up endless stairs. You just had to sit in them and you went up an flat escalator type thing which was so convenient and amazing. 

Burj Khalifa
In case you didn't know, the Burj Khalifa is the tallest building in the world. It is joint up to the biggest shopping mall in the world but I didn't manage to take any pictures (never mind). We went to the 124th floor and we got up there in the worlds fastest elevator. The view from the top was breathtaking and you just realize how amazing it is. I got so many great pictures (most featured above) and it was just amazing. This was probably the best highlight of the trip and it will always be one of my greatest achievements.

I hope you enjoyed this little breakdown of a post. Let me know if you want more of my Dubai series. Have a great day!
Grace xx

The Best 2 Drugstore Eye Shadow Palettes For Autumn

Hi everyone,

As you can tell by the title, today's post I am going to be sharing with you two palettes that I think are perfect for autumn/winter. Both are super affordable and can make so many great looks. I hope you enjoy!

First palette is the MUA LUXE Paradise, Plush plum and copper, 10 shade palette. This retails for £8, for 10 shadows, a huge mirror and super sleek packaging. All these shades are super shimmery and glittery and come in a huge range of colours. As you can see by the pictures, it has great pigmentation and the blend-ability is also really good for such affordable eye shadows. The packaging reminds me of something from Bobbie Brown but it is so much cheaper, as it is super condensed, simple and sophisticated like Bobbie Brown. The eye shadows almost looked baked but there are lots of pinks and gold/copper shades. I really like the maroon shade on the end, and the white with pink glitters on the other end. 

This palette is great if you are travelling as it is super compact, but also if you don't like the simple colours but don't like to be too bold at the same time because it comes with a great variety.

The second palette is the Freedom Pro 12 in Secret Rose. This costs £4, I repeat £4!!! This was mentioned in my Freedom post (linked here) so I won't talk about it too long. Never the less I love this palette. It comes with 12 shades, mattes and shimmers, and a double ended sponge applicator "thing". This is so worth the money, the only thing it's missing is a mirror, but for £4 you cannot complain.

I hope you enjoyed this post, let me know if you have tried either of these products and whether you will. Have a great day!

Grace xx