Wedding Bells: Why We Merged Our Surnames

I’ve been thinking about writing this blog post for a while now and was inspired to finally put pen to paper (as it were) today, after recently purchasing a book where lots of different feminists share some of their personal stories (Feminists Don't Wear Pink by Scarlett Curtis).
I think the topic I'm going to talk about is something that everyone is bound to have different opinions on, and different personal experiences too. This is mine.

Growing up, I just assumed that I would take my future husband’s surname when we got married (I also assumed I would get married, which is probably a whole other blog post!), it was never something that I thought to question.
The wife taking the husband’s name was just ‘normal’ it was just ‘how it was’. So why would/should it be any different for me?
I even remember thinking as a young girl (and it turns out, into adulthood up until the age of 26), that I didn’t yet know what my full name was going to be for the majority of my life!
What a funny idea when you think about it: having no idea what your own name will be.
But, as I say, at that time it never occurred to me that something might not be right about that. Or about what that said about me, purely because of my gender.

It was only when I got engaged, and suddenly what had been theoretical was becoming reality, that I started to feel conflicted about changing my name. It was almost this sense of unease: I was presented with what my new name would be and the exact date that it would change, but that person didn’t feel like me. I couldn’t identify with her.
I’d lived my whole 26 years as Lisa Woodlock, that was who I was, and the combination of having ovaries and new a ring on my finger wouldn't change that.

And the more questions I started to ask into why we take the man’s surname, the less sense it made.
Historically in the UK, wives only started taking their husband’s names around the time of the 15th Century, prior to that married women were regarded as having no surname at all.
As one court ruled in 1340, “when a woman took a husband, she lost every surname except ‘wife of’”. Seriously.
And then further back than that, 1000 years ago, hereditary surnames in England weren’t even a thing!

Which leads on to the line of argument that says that the “family name” should be carried on down the generations. But, what about the family name’s of women? Why are they less important than that of men’s?
My Dad has 2 daughters, is it ok for no one to take his name forward? And what about my mum’s maiden name? Does that not matter? To me, it just doesn’t add up!

As a Christian, I wanted to take my faith into account too, especially in such a big life decision. To cut a long story extremely short, the Genesis 2 verse that talks about marriage says “a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife” - note the only party leaving their parents here is the guy... and as far as the Ephesians 5 passage that talks about submission goes, it starts with “submit to one another in love”, and the rest I hold as contextual to the time it was written. (I said I was cutting a long story extremely short here!)

Married friends I spoke to gave me mixed opinions as well.
One friend told me about how she’d been so happy to take her husband’s name because she’d had such a hard time with her family and really wanted to feel part of his instead.
Another friend told me how hard she found it now to have given up her name, and the feelings of having lost something that she had. How she wished she’d followed her uneasy gut feelings about changing it.
I've also had at least 2 friends who haven't really wanted to change their names, but have done so with an almost fatalistic view of 'it has to happen because that's just how things are done'.

When I spoke to Tim about my feelings on this, he was totally wonderful and said that he didn’t mind and would be happy to take my surname instead... until 10 minutes later when he turned around and said that he totally got what I’d meant and didn’t want to lose his surname either!

We decided that whatever surname we had, we wanted it to be the same one as each other. So then we had 2 options that we could see (or that Google could suggest to us): double-barrel or merge.

We thought about double-barrelling but our names were a bit of a mouthful together, so then we started talking about merging our names. It just made sense; a way to represent both of our families and to bring them together to make a new family name. We felt this was the perfect way to symbolise what would actually be happening as we got married. It wasn’t that either of us were leaving our families behind, it was that we were bringing them together and making a new one!

How to merge the names though? We didn’t know anyone else who had!

We went through about every combination of Hearson and Woodlock that there is. From the first half of either name with the second half of the other, to completely random anagrams of all of the letters! In the end, Woodson was the option that actually sounded like a real name, so that was the winner.

Our decision to merge our names was largely met with excitement and enthusiasm (although occasionally with confusion or raised eyebrows!), and overall our nearest and dearest have been nothing but supportive, which we’ve been so grateful for.

This is mine and Tim’s story, the way we’ve chosen to approach our married names. For other people it will be different. The only thing I’d say to anyone who’s in a position of thinking about married names: make sure you ask questions before making a life-long decision. Things might have been a certain way for hundreds of years, but that doesn’t make it ok and it doesn’t mean that we have to live by it too. We can change things, we have that power.

Lisa xx

Reading Corner: My Childhood Faves

Today I wanted to take a trip back to the 90s/ early 00s and chat about my favourite childhood / young adult reads. There were so many beloved stories to choose from so it's been a tricky one to boil my list down to just 5! 
Here's what I've selected:

1. Harry Potter Book Series by J.K. Rowling (obviously!)

I had to put all of the Harry Potter books together, otherwise they would have filled up this entire blog post, and how on Earth would I have picked a top 5 out of the 7?! I love them all, they are all the best, forever.Even 17 years on from when I first started reading the series, I am still a massive HP geek. I didn't even want to start reading them when I was 12. I thought that they were this uncool thing that I had no interest in wasting my time over. But then one day in the library I spotted a copy of the third book, all alone on a shelf. I picked it up, took it home, read one chapter and wasn't that fussed about it so went to sleep. The next day I couldn't resist picking it up again and the rest is history!

2. Jacqueline Wilson Books

I used to absolutely love these as a kid/early teen. To the extent that I would get the books on the day they came out in hard back. Some favourites include the entire Girls In Love series, The Illustrated Mum, The Story of Tracy Beaker, The Suitcase Kid, Sleepovers (this totally spoke to me as a preteen with 'frenemies').

3. The Famous Five by Enid Blyton

I LOVED the Famous Five. They had such great adventures and I was always in total suspense over every scrape the 5 got themselves into. I loved that George refused to fit into a mould; she had a nasty temper, but was who she wanted to be. Anne, of course, let down the whole feminist movement. The girl was obsessed with kitchens! Here is a typical scene from the books:

All children: "Wowee, a cave, what larks! Lets have lashings of ginger beer!"
Anne: "It's like a little kitchen! Those rocks can be shelves for my miniature crockery! You all go on and have an adventure, I'll stay here and sweep the floor."

4. Confessions of Georgia Nicolson (Angus, Thongs & Full-Frontal Snogging, etc.) by Louise Rennison

I loved these as a teenager! Basically all the girls in my friendship group read them so we could pass them around to each other. They made me laugh so much and I'm not ashamed to admit that I now have them all as audiobooks.

5. The Sophie Stories by Dick King-Smith

When I was a little I loved these books. It was so funny because I loved Sophie even though she was so different from myself, and hated her enemy Dawn, even though was probably closer to me! There was an infamous scene where Dawn trod on Sophie's pet woodlouse, so Sophie jumped up and down on Dawn's My Little Pony. It was brutal. However it does explain why I used to love woodlice as a child - but I did have My Little Ponies too!

Other childhood faves included: Bobbo's Magic Stocking by Enid Blyton (Bobbo is a greedy kid who gets his comeuppance), Six Dinner Sid by Inga Moore (a cat with a massive appetite owns all the people in his neighbourhood), the Sweet Valley High series by Francine Pascal (could Jessica and Elizabeth have been any cooler?!), the Babysitter's Club series by Ann M. Martin (they were friends and they made money babysitting, I'm not really sure how so many books were written about that!), My Naughty Little Sister by Dorothy Edwards and Shirley Hughes (as the youngest sibling who was mostly well-behaved, I could live vicariously through this rebellious girl).

There are probably so many more that I've forgotten! As a child I seemed to have much more time for reading, or maybe it was just life before the internet, Instagram and Netflix.

What were some of your childhood faves?

Lisa xx

Beauty Bar: Glossier Review

Ever since Glossier products became available to order from the UK, there have been a few products that I've had my eyes on. I waited this long because I'm always more tempted by make up products that I can actually test out in store - try before you buy - but I thought it was about time I gave in and gave these guys a go!
The items I wanted to try the most were Boy Brow, Generation G and Cloud Paint.

Boy Brow - Blond
I'd heard so many good things about Boy Brow! This brow pomade really seems to have quickly become a cult classic, so I wanted to see if I'd love it as much as everyone else does.
My eyebrows are a really light blonde and are basically invisible when left to their own devices, so a certain amount of eyebrow product is always needed. This shade has actually turned out to be a bit lighter than I’m used to, so when I tested it out I used a bit of eyebrow pencil with it to bring some definition. I guess its closer to my natural hair colour!
I really like the pomade formula of Boy Brow, which isn’t clumpy at all and applies really easily, defining each of the hairs. I'll definitely keep using it, but may order a darker shade next time.

Generation G - Zip
This lipstick is sheer and matte. It’s advertised as giving a ‘just blotted’ level of colour, going with Glossier’s ‘no make up-make up’ ethos. This is what actually drew me to this lipstick in the poppy red Zip shade, as I’ve been looking for a red lipstick that’s very wearable and everyday.
After wearing it a couple of times, I’m pretty impressed. It’s not quite the shade of red I was after, as it’s actually quite a pink-red, rather than the poppy red it’s advertised as, which I’d thought would have more of an orange base than a pink. But the colour is easily built up to more of a red tone, and the formula isn’t at all drying, which is a total bug bear of mine!
Overall, I’d say I really like this lipstick but time will tell if it makes it to the coveted position of my handbag.

Cloud Paint - Dusk
Cloud Paint is a liquid blush formula, which you dab onto your cheeks using your finger tips. I have to admit that I didn’t actually purchase this one myself, but borrowed my sister’s to try! However, I may well invest in my own as I was really impressed with it.
Once again it’s a very sheer colour pay off but can be built up to achieve your desired amount of pigment. The Dusk shade is a really flattering vintage rose colour, which I think would be versatile for lots of different make up looks.

Overall I really liked these products and am now feeling the urge to make some more Glossier purchases very soon!

Have you tried Glossier before? If so, do you have any favourites I should try?

Lisa xx

Real Talk: What's In My Handbag?

I've read many a 'what's in my handbag?' blog, each listing a fine selection of useful (and usually expensively branded!) items. However, the contents of my bag aren't really like that... I've mastered the Mary Poppins-style packing of fitting an unnatural amount of things in, but unlike Mary, a lot of the things in my bag are not particularly impressive.
But, here they are anyway!

1. Phone
It's summer, and the amount of jumpsuits and dresses I own without pockets mean that my phone has to go in my bag. Much less convenient for song-changing than tucking it into jeans or a coat pocket as I walk around town!

2. Keys
Similar to the phone predicament, summer means that my keys (3 sets to be exact - home, work and car), rather than living in my coat pocket, have to go in my bag.

3. Earphones
I never leave the house without these, ever.

4. Purse
Having a smaller bag for summer means I've switched to a small credit card size purse, rather than my usual fully grown beast.

5. Sunglasses
An absolute necessity right now!

6. Lipstick Purse
To try and organise the chaos of my bag a bit, I have a little purse to house my compact mirror, lip balm and about 3 lipsticks.

7. Instructions
A slip of paper with instructions of how to work my church's camera. (Because I'm pernickety and afraid of forgetting things...)

8. Tissues
Usually unused.

9. Ear Plugs
Not to be confused with the earphones! Loud noises make me dizzy so these are very necessary.

10. Hand Sanitizer
My current fave is by Soap & Glory; it smells amazing!

11. 2 Extra Lipsticks
You know, just in case none of the 3 in my lipstick purse are the right shade.

12. 4Head Balm Stick
This menthol balm is an amazing cure for headaches. Just a few swipes around the forehead and it starts its soothing work.

13. Hair Bobble
I like the twirly transparent plastic ones as they don't create too much of a hair-kink.

14. Polo Mints
As our grandparents teach us, mints are a necessity in life!

15. Receipts
At least 4 or 5. Plus a couple of vouchers.

16. Contact Lenses
As someone who has to wear contact lenses every hour that I'm awake, to be without these would be a complete (and very blurry) disaster.

17. Plaster
You never know when you might need one!

18. Misc
Consisting of 6p, a paperclip and a hair grip.

What's inside your bag? Are you super minimal or do you have not-so-organised chaos like me?

Lisa xx

Real Talk: Going From Negative To Positive

I feel a bit hesitant in writing this blog post because I think the subject matter might be a bit controversial. It isn't light or fluffy, and it isn't about the happy, shiny things in life. It's about an emotion that everyone experiences at different times to different extents: anger.

Anger isn't a nice emotion but is it a bad one? Can it ever be good or helpful? See, when we think of anger, more often than not the images that come to mind are violent and threatening. But what about righteous anger? What about that gut feeling when we see injustice in the world that says, "something needs to change here"?

I also think that even anger that isn't righteous, anger that's born out of irritation or tiredness, is a very natural emotion. It's what we do with it that makes the difference.
Do we let it rule over us? Snap at our loved ones or just plain blow a fuse and shout the house down? Or do we take back the control? Not suppressing the emotion but recognising it, acknowledging it and then finding a positive way to process it and let the feeling out, at the right time.

The other day, I felt so angry. It was one of those times where in the moment I locked the anger inside, so that it just boiled beneath the surface until I was able to leave the situation and deal with it.
Here's what I did to let it out and process it in the most healthy way I could think of:

1. Exercise
Before going home, I went for a walk. About 30 mins of brisk walking in total. At first, all I could do was seethe and silently rant, but as I channelled the energy out through my legs and breathed in the fresh air, something started to relax. The dust began to settle and my thoughts became quieter and clearer.
I began to be able to see beneath the angry emotion and ask myself some questions: What was it about the situation that was making me so angry? Could I do anything to change the situation? Did I need to change something about myself?

2. Slow Breathing
It's amazing the difference that slowing down breathing can make to our stress levels. If  you ever find that your breathing is shallow and anxious, then give this exercise a go:
Hold your breath for 3, exhale for 3, inhale for 3. Do this a couple of times and then when you feel able, start to extend the times of holding and exhaling the breath (this will correct your carbon dioxide levels and force your body to relax); it's a simple exercise that can be done anywhere and gives pretty instant results.

3. Talking
As an introvert, I need some time alone to process how I feel before talking to someone else. Once I understand myself and my reactions a bit better, then I find it really helpful to chat things over with my husband or a close friend/family member.

4. Meditation
Once I got home, I took some time to do a couple of short meditations using the HeadSpace app. It has tailored meditations to fit different needs, including ones for anger and frustration, which were the ones I used. The first one was 3 minutes long, the second was 5. Genuinely, after that combined 8 minutes I felt so much better.

Each of these steps didn't change the situation I was in, but they helped me to get some distance from it, so that I wasn't overwhelmed and could think clearly.
Once we can take a step back and look at things objectively, we can work out what to do to make a positive change.

What about you? Do you have any tips for channelling negative emotions into something positive?

Lisa xx

Beauty Bar: Crayola Beauty Review

The other day, an email dropped into my inbox that really caught my attention. It was from ASOS, telling me that they'd partnered with Crayola (yes, the crayon company!) to create a limited edition make up range. Massively excited by this, I obviously went straight onto the site and made an order!

Crayola Beauty do a whole variety of products, from blusher to mascara, but the thing that caught my eye was the lip and cheek crayons. I bought one of the sets; partially because it comes in the cutest box, just like the wax crayons did - so much gimmicky nostalgia!

The shades in my set are Strawberry (a bright red shade), Mango Tango (a bright peach with a little bit of shimmer) and Very Cherry (a deep, rich berry red).
I was a little concerned that they might have the consistency of a wax crayon, as well as the look, but thankfully I needn't have worried.
I've found that their formula is really creamy, non-drying and smooth to apply. I also really like the crayon style for application, as I'm always rushing out the door when I do my lipstick, and this just makes it so quick and easy to do.

Something that could be a draw back, is that they are a very creamy formula and do wipe off extremely easily, so I don't know how long-wearing they would be, which could make the brighter shades pretty high maintenance.
The Mango Tango shade is also a lot more sheer than the other two, and I had to apply a lot of the product to make it particularly visible. This makes it much more wearable for an everyday Spring/Summer look, but doesn't really follow through on the 'rich and powerful pay off' promise we're given on the box.

Overall, I'm so impressed with these crayons. I love that there is actual substance to them, rather than just stylised packaging. They aren't just a gimmick, and could really compete with the quality of other beauty brands. I am genuinely tempted to try out some more of their shades now!

Have you tried any of the Crayola Beauty products?

Lisa xx

Beauty Bar: Urban Decay Naked Petite Heat Review

A few weeks ago I heard that Urban Decay were bringing out a travel-size version of their infamous Naked Heat eye shadow palette. I was immediately intrigued by it as I’d resisted buying the full size palette last Summer because of the cost - I just couldn’t spend £40 on eye shadow, no matter who it was made by or who endorsed it!

This smaller version was ⅔ the price and I had a Feel Unique discount code which gave me that little extra push to make the purchase. I was so intrigued to see how these hyped, high-end eye shadows would compare to the drugstore products I’ve only ever used before. I didn’t know if the warm shades would suit my skin tone, but I’d seen so many photos of such a variety of people wearing them, that I hoped they would work for me too. 

These are the shades in the Petite palette. They're brand new to the Heat collection and come in full palette pan sizes. Inhale, Hot Spell and Wild Thing are the ones that I've used the most, as you'll see below. What I love about Hot Spell, is that it looks like a muted beige in the pan, but once its on your brush and skin this warm orange tone appears. I don't know how it does it, but its such a versatile, build-able shade.

My first impression of the shades was that they were SO pigmented. You hardly need any powder on your brush at all to get a strong sweep of bold colour, and once it’s on - it’s on and there’s no budging. Even without using a primer underneath it, the shades don’t need a lot of building up and they blend together really well.

The bold colours leave little room for error - and I’ve made plenty of errors experimenting with this palette, including one memorable occasion where I managed to make it look like I had a black eye! Career change to be a movie make up artist maybe?!

I almost wish my eye shadow brushes were smaller to give my application more precision, because a flick in the wrong direction and it can be tricky to fix. The best solution I’ve come up with is to either blend it out using the lightest shade, Inhale, or to use concealer and start again. 

This is the daytime look I’ve created. I used Inhale to start with, all over the eyelid. Then, starting at the outer corner of my eye, I used Hot Spell, so that it was darker at the outside, growing lighter across the lid. I finished off with Wild Thing in the outer corners, to really bring that fiery warmth. I then completed the look with brown mascara, which I think looks so pretty with these warm tones.

To pare this back even more, I’ve also been loving just giving Inhale and Hot Spell a light sweep over my whole eyelids, before finishing with the brown mascara.

To create more of an evening look, I’d start in a similar way to my first daytime look, but would then bring in the darker shades, Heist and Strike, into the crease and outer corners of my eyes. I’d then finish off with some black mascara.

Have you tried these Urban Decay eye shadows? If so, what did you think? Worth all the hype?

Lisa xx

Wedding Bells: Cordially Invited

Invites and save the dates are the first taste of your wedding for your guests. They don't just communicate the details of the day, they also tell your guests how formal your wedding will be, what your wedding colours are and will hopefully show something of you and your partner's personalities.
One of the most memorable save the dates that we've ever received was a magnet. We just knew from this that the wedding day was bound to be quirky and fun. If this was their save the date, we couldn't wait to see what they'd do with the actual day!

Unfortunately the design of our wedding invites was actually one of the most stressful parts of planning our wedding. So interwoven with the tips below, I've included some of the things that I've learned and would do differently if we were to do it again. I hope it's helpful for you!

1. Pick Your Designer Wisely
It could be you, Paperchase, a creative friend, an Aunty with a glue gun or a professional stationery designer. Have a think about the kind of wedding stationery you'd like to have, your budget and the skills at your disposal to make it a reality.
Are you a creative person who would adore designing your stationery yourself? Can you use your gifts of lettering, drawing, photography, decoupage or Adobe Indesign? If you're confident with those sorts of things, then go for it! You'll be able to create something completely personal to you and your partner, with none of the faff or cost of hiring someone else to do it.

If, however, you don't feel you have the skills or time to do this, then there are lots of beautiful pre-printed sets of wedding stationery in shops like Paperchase and Hobbycraft, as well as a wide variety of professional designers out there to choose from.
We went down the designer route and I came across our designer through searching for Yorkshire Wedding Stationery Designers on Google. I had a look at her website, saw her previous designs and read some testimonials from her past customers, and was confident enough to go with her.

2. Extras & Details
Invites and save the dates can vary hugely. Have a think about the little details that you might want to include. Examples from our wedding stationery are that we made our save the dates and RSVPs postcards, to make sending them as easy as possible, and to save money on envelopes!
We also included a brief timeline with our invitations, so that our guests could get an idea of the shape of the day.

3. The Wording
Take some time to think about the wording you'd like to use. Would you like it to be formal or informal?
Who is inviting your guests to your wedding day? This is often representative of who is financing the day; is it the bride's parents (e.g. Mr and Mrs Pitstop request the honour of your company at the celebration of the marriage of their daughter Penelope Goody to Dick Bad-Guy Dastardly), the couple getting married (e.g. Penelope Pitstop and Dick Dastardly request the honour of your company at the celebration of their marriage), or is it a bit of both (e.g. Together with their families, Penelope Pitstop and Dick Dastardly request the honour of your company at the celebration of their marriage)?

4. Make Sure You & Your Partner Know What You Want
Here the Pinteresting from one of my previous Wedding Bells posts comes in handy. Have a look around at examples of other wedding stationery before you meet with a designer (or start designing your own). Go prepared with the types of stationery you would like (save the dates, invites, maps, RSVPs, menus, seating plan, etc...), the wedding colours and the general tone you'd like to set (e.g. formal or informal).
The problem that my husband and I ran into, was that we'd discussed these things a little bit before we met with our designer, but it turned out to not be enough. This meant that we weren't really on the same page and led to confusion when our designer was asking about things like colours and font preferences.
Feel free to take some examples with you of wedding stationery that you've seen and like, find out if your designer is able to achieve that sort of thing for you, and don't be afraid to look for another designer if this one can't do it.

5. Make Sure Your Designer Knows What You Want
Before leaving your initial meeting with your designer, run through with them all that you've discussed, and make sure that they have fully understood the brief that you've given them.
They may well have plenty of other clients that they're catering to at the same time as you, so make sure that the hours they put in for you will be well utilised.

6. Ask To Meet With Your Designer Again
This is a step that I so wish we'd taken! Arrange a date to next meet with your designer, where they can go through the stationery they've created for you. This should help to ease communications, as you will be able to tell them there and then if the colours they're using aren't spot on, if the fonts aren't what you were looking for, or if it just doesn't look how you'd imagined.
As it was, we had to do all of this over email, and there was so much back and forth, so many new versions (which costed us extra money every time), and gave us so much stress and worry. We started to feel like we were a burden to our designer, when actually we were paying her for a service and it was her job to deliver it to a high standard.

7. Don't Be Afraid To Compromise
In the end, we had to ask the designer to abandon what she'd done for us, because it just didn't look good. We asked her instead to recreate one of the designs on her website that she'd done for someone else, but with a few tweaks (no butterflies please!) and in our colours.
I just couldn't face any more back and forth with a designer who was sending me things that weren't what we were looking for! It may sound harsh, but it was becoming a major drain on my and my husband's energy; I needed to rein the whole thing back in and regain some of the control.

Are you in the process of designing your wedding stationery? What approach are you taking and how are you finding the process?

Lisa x

Beauty Bar: My Year Of Drugstore Foundations

For me, putting on my foundation in the morning is one of the key steps to preparing for the day. It has the power to even out skin tone, cover blemishes, brighten the appearance of skin and generally make my pale complexion look more alive.
I've tried out countless foundations over the last decade, some to much more success than others, but here's a run down of the products I've tried in the last 12 months, how I'd rate them and how likely I'd be to repurchase.

Bourjois Paris - City Radiance
My Shade: 01 Rose Ivory
Rating: 8/10
Claims: To protect skin from pollution, give a brightening effect and give SPF30 skin protection.
My Thoughts: I really liked using this foundation. It's a light formula that I found to give around a medium coverage. It gave my skin a bit of a glow, without looking shiny. I really liked the protection that it gave too, as wearing SPF daily is so important.
The only thing I would like to see added to this foundation would be a UVA protection rating of 4 or above, particularly as skin protection is one of its main claims.
Would I Repurchase? Yes, I'd definitely repurchase this foundation to create everyday makeup looks.
Try It Here

Garnier - BB Cream / Tinted Moisturiser
My Shade: Extra-Light
Rating: 7
Claims: Miracle Skin Perfector that has 24hr hydration, evens skin tone, smoothes lines and imperfections, boosts healthy glow, contains SPF 15 protection and has Vitamin C.
My Thoughts: I know that this is technically a BB cream, rather than a foundation, but I did use it in place of a foundation for several months so thought it was worth a mention.
This BB cream is really brightening and does have a pigment to it to even out skin tone. It can leave the skin looking a little shiny though, so when I used it I always followed with a matte powder.
Would I Repurchase? Yes I would. I'd use this during the summer months when I don't want anything too heavy on my skin.
Try It Here

Bourjois - Healthy Mix
My Shade: No. 52, Vanilla
Rating: 3/10
Claims: To be an anti-fatigue foundation, that brightens skin and enriches it with Vitamins C, E and B5.
My Thoughts: I had heard amazing things about this foundation and it was recommended to me many times by friends and other bloggers. However, I was so disappointed with it!
I found it to be really heavy, and could both feel and see the foundation on my skin.
I think this might be more for you if you like a heavier coverage, but to me it didn't look natural enough and left me with dreaded Oompa Loompa vibes.
Would I Repurchase? Never.
Try It Here

L'Oreal Paris - True Match
My Shade: Rose Ivory
Rating: 9/10
Claims: Micro-Match Technology creates a true to skin feel and perfectly captures skin tone and undertone. Contains SPF17, 24hr hydration and is 'super blendable'.
My Thoughts: I love this foundation! It provides a medium coverage that is brightening, and doesn't look cakey. The range has a real variety of shades, which means that I've been able to find one that looks very natural on my skin. I also love that it contains SPF protection.
The thing that has impressed me most about this foundation though is it's longevity. I apply it at 8am, and its still giving great coverage at 6pm! I have never used a foundation before that has been that good, including designer products that cost triple the price.
Would I Repurchase? Definitely! This foundation is so good that I'd use it for any occasion, day or night. The only things that could put me off buying it again, would be that it isn't vegan and doesn't contain any UVA protection (although this can easily be remedied by my morning moisturiser and sun tan lotion).
Try It Here

Overall, I think the winner has to be the L'Oreal Paris True Match foundation. I think this will be a firm staple in my make up bag for years to come.
And for days when I want a more dewy look, I've started to mix with it a drop of the Bourjois Paris Sculpt Light highlighter - just a little extra tip there if you're after a bit more of a glow!

Have you tried any of these products before? If so, how did you find them and do you have any other staple foundations?

Lisa xx

Wedding Bells: The Venue

Back in the day, venues for weddings tended to either be in a church or at a registry office. Nowadays however, people are branching out to also use a variety of special places or exciting overseas destinations to say their "I do's".
There are lots of elements to take into account here of course, but it's good to think about the venue early on, as this can shape a lot of other things down the line.

Here's a few things to think about when selecting a venue for your ceremony and reception.

Shop Around
It's the boring one to start with but it does have to be said that your budget can massively affect the venue you choose.
If you have an endless budget then you can pretty much have your pick of wherever you want, but if you have a more modest budget then it makes sense to shop around and compare prices of venues.
You need to know if you're getting a good deal for your dollar. Research venues on the internet and then go and have a look around.
Meeting with a venue's events planner can be so helpful, as they'll be able to tell you the practicalities and possibilities of making your dream day a reality. You can also ask them about cost and any other questions that you have.
They'll likely ask you about the date and timings for the day, so it's good to have a think about those before you go to meet them.

Churches
If you'd like to get married in a church, you'll need to either live in the parish or have been regularly attending the church for 6 months. You can find out which Church of England church belongs to your parish by using this website.
Be aware that, as with all venues, there will be a cost to using a church, such as the venue hire and payment for musicians, caretaker, etc...

Set The Tone
The venue you choose will be a big factor in setting the tone of the day.
Want to stay traditional? Consider choosing a venue set in the home town of the bride.
Want a fancy day? You could go for a huge church for the service, or a luxury hotel.
Want a more homely feel? A cute parish church or converted barn could be for you.
Are you city dwellers? Why not use an unexpected city centre venue? We got part way into talks with Leeds Art Gallery for our wedding reception - as this was where we went for our first date and where Tim proposed to me! Unfortunately, the venue had to pull out as they unexpectedly needed to have extensive work done to the building.
Or is the great outdoors more your bag? There are plenty of gorgeous venues set out in the countryside, or even not that far from cities and towns. Last summer we went to a wedding in the grounds of a local mill. The bride and groom arrived on canal boats, the ceremony was outside in front of a beautiful willow tree and there was a giant tent for the meal, speeches and party.

Decorations
When you're looking at venues, think about how you could decorate them. How do they relate to any Pinterest or mood boards that you've made? Do the venue have any photos of previous weddings that have taken place there?

Your Guests
It's important to take your guests into account when choosing your venue.
For instance, think about the distance that they'd need to travel, both to get to the service and then to go on to the reception if you're having them in separate venues.
If you're wanting to have a big wedding with lots of guests, then getting married abroad might not be the best idea. It's a long way for a lot of people to travel, and for those guests who aren't your close friends or family, the cost of travelling and accommodation might be too much for them to pay.

Catering
It's really important to think about the catering possibilities of a venue. Do they have their own caterers? Or are they happy for you to bring in your own? Do you like the sound of the menus they offer? Where would a meal take place? Are their prices within your budget?

Photos
The look, position and facilities of your venue are really important to think about in terms of the photos you'd like.
For instance, if you'd like some of the photos to be taken outside - would you like a cityscape in the background? Or a beautiful garden? Or something dramatic, like rolling hills or the ocean?
When we thought we were going to be using both a church and reception venue in Leeds city centre, we planned to go and have photos part way through the day in a park, so that we could have some photos that didn't have cement as a backdrop!
However, in the end our reception had grounds that we could have our photos in, so that was ideal.
When you look around venues, think about where group photos could be taken, and ask the events planner about ways that this has been done in the past.

What's the venue of your dreams?
Lisa xx

BlogLovin'

I've tentatively started using BlogLovin' (tentatively because I have no idea what I'm doing!)
Click the link below to follow me on there.

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Lisa xx

Vero: My First Impressions

Over the past couple of days, as I've been browsing through Instagram Stories, one app has been mentioned again and again: Vero.
What is it and where has it come from? Do we really need another social media platform to keep up with?
Here's my first impressions after researching, downloading the app, setting up an account and attempting to 'socialise'.

What Is Vero?

Although it suddenly seems to be popping up everywhere, Vero has actually been around for quite a while. It was created a couple of years ago, with a view to being a more transparent and honest (Vero means 'truth') social media platform.

Included in the manifesto on their website is the statement:

"In real life, people are never presented with a one size fits all audience. We share different things with different people. 

Most social networks reduce everyone to a friend or a follower. This encourages us to only share the parts of our lives we think are the most interesting.

When you can control who sees what, you can behave in a way that is more natural, which we believe ends up being better for you."

Vero aims to provide a natural and authentic way of connecting with others online.

So, Why Is It Different?

As the manifesto above states, a lot of Vero's focus is to be a better way for us to facilitate our varying social networks online, rather than having a one size fits all approach.

When you come across someone's Vero profile you have the option to either follow them (meant for people you just know online) or connect with them (if you know them in RL). If you select 'Connect' you're then given the options to categorise them as 'Close Friends', 'Friends' or 'Acquaintances'. This means that when you post something, you can select which category of people is able to see it.

One way that I can imagine this working for me, is that I'm always careful to never give away precisely where I live (e.g. photos of the outside of my house) when I post on Instagram, for obvious security reasons. But with this option on Vero, I could post a photo of my door number if I wanted to, but then only make it available for my close friends, who already know where I live, to see.

The bonus of this feature, is that no one can see where you've categorised them; so you don't need to worry about offending anyone.

As I mentioned above, one of the great things about Vero is that it won't fill our feeds with adverts, however, as it isn't making money through advertising, Vero has said that it will start charging people a small fee to use it, after the first million people have signed up.
The first million will be able to use it for free for life; so I would advise signing up asap, even if you're not sure whether or not you'll keep up using it long term.

Vero also enables you to not just share your photos, but to share links (great for bloggers) and recommendations for things like movies and books.

My First Impressions

Well, after 30 minutes of the server failing and retrying, my first photo has finally uploaded!
So far, I've found the app to be pretty slow and have been greeted with messages like 'Server side service timeout' whenever I've attempted to upload a photo or search for a hashtag.
Apparently, due to the sudden surge of people joining, the server is struggling, but we've been assured that this will soon sort itself out.

I actually hardly ever use Facebook or Twitter anymore, and Instagram is so saturated with users and content (although I do love it a lot), so its been fun to start connecting with the relatively small number of people on Vero, and to do things like start hashtags!

Overall, I'd say I'm enjoying discovering something new. I love their manifesto and their lack of using our data to advertise to us, or giving us infuriating algorithms like Instagram does.
I think time will tell as to whether or not Vero joins the big 3 social media platforms; but for the moment it's so fun to be part of something that's still in its relative infancy.

What do you think? Will you be giving it a go? Or if you've already started using it, what are your first impressions?

Lisa xx

Wedding Bells: Ideas & Pinspiration

What did people do before the wonder that is Pinterest? It’s such a great space for collecting ideas and thinking through the look of a wedding day.

Here’s a few thoughts and tips for the exciting ideas and Pinteresting stage of planning a wedding.

Dreaming Dreams

The great thing about using Pinterest or flicking through wedding magazines, is the wide variety of themes and ideas that you’re given. My advice would be to make the most of this time and explore a few different avenues, maybe creating a board for each. Have some fun dreaming dreams!

I went through several different versions of the general theme for our wedding day. (At least 1 of these was before we’d actually got engaged... Secret boards are everything! I ambiguously named mine ‘Special Day’, just in case Tim ever caught sight of it.)

I started off loving the idea of incorporating wild flowers throughout our day, and going for a fairly relaxed, boho feel. When I floated this idea past my husband-to-be however, he wasn’t the biggest fan and thought it didn’t quite fit with us.

In the end, we chose to have a fairly relaxed feel, but with a bit more classic romance mixed in, e.g. roses were our main flowers, with gypsophila to compliment.

Don’t Be A Lone Wolf

Getting married is the process of two people becoming united together; so resist the temptation to plan it all yourself.

One of my absolute pet peeves when it comes to wedding planning, is this attitude of the women planning everything and the men being disinterested and just rocking up on the day. Not only is this massively sexist, but it completely goes against the point of the day!

This is a time for working together, preparing to build a marriage and a life as one unit. Every aspect of the day should reflect both of you. Learn to compromise and work together, even if this is something that you find a challenge – if you can’t do it when planning a one-day event, you’ll be scuppered when it comes to much bigger and more important decisions and challenges later in life.

As someone who organises events as part of my job, it took discipline not to rush on ahead and do it all myself! For every aspect of the day I would think of some ideas, but then take them to Tim to hear his ideas too, before excitedly making decorations or meeting with a vendor together.

Decisions, Decisions...

 
All idea stages must come to an end at some point.

Have a look through all of the different ideas you’ve collected and begin to filter them down. Which are your favourites and why? Are they practical? Can you afford them with your budget? Do you both like them? What will your friends and family think? Do they reflect you both as a couple? Will you still like it in 40 years’ time when you look back at your wedding day?

If you’ve been using Pinterest, make a main board that all of your filtered ideas can be moved onto. Then take a step back, make a cup of tea, (you might even want to come back to it the following day) and see how the ideas work together. Are they cohesive? Will they fit within the shape of the day? Do you both like all of the ideas, and if not, are there any areas that you need to find a compromise on?

If you need to, start to filter some things out until you’re left with a core of exciting, practical ideas that you both love (or can at least put up with if you’ve had to compromise in one area to have your choice in another!).


Now it’s time to start making those dreams a reality. In my next set of posts we’ll be chatting through the practicalities and logistics of making bookings and organising each area of the day; starting with drawing up a timeline.

Are you a serial Pinterester or have you come to this with a really clear picture of the day in your mind?

Lisa xx

Beauty Bar: Lip Balm Gold

Introducing Nivea's Hydro Care lip balm - unless you've used it before, it's not actually new or anything...
This is my absolute favourite lip product. Ever. Of all time.
I've repurchased it at least 3/4 times (which for me constitutes a life-long fave) and am coming to the end of my current one so will be buying another very soon!
I am always absolutely plagued by dry lips in Winter, which is a bit of a nightmare when you love lipsticks as much as I do, so finding a good, reliable lip balm has been key for me.

Reasons why I'm the number one fan of this lip balm:

1. It's a twist-up stick, which means that I don't have to worry about cleanliness when I apply it, and it doesn't gunk up my hand either. Super practical.

2. It is actually moisturising. This might sound obvious but I have used some pretty drying lip balms in my time; the worst culprits of all being lip butters from The Body Shop.
There was such a craze for those lip butters when I was in high school and I remember excitedly buying the coconut one because it smelt SO good and because I really like their body butters.
I wanted to like the lip butter so much that I just kept using it and pretending it was good, even when it was actually just worsening and worsening the dry lip situation... Never. Again.

3. It has SPF 15! As you'll know if you've read my blog about the importance of SPF and UVA ratings in skincare and beauty products; I am a massive fan of anything with this sort of skin protection. I mean, if you can put it into a product, why wouldn't you?

Do you have a beauty/skincare staple that you repurchase again and again?

Lisa xx

Wedding Bells: Bridesmaids & Groomsmen

Deciding on who to ask to be a bridesmaid or a groomsman can be one of the trickiest wedding planning decisions to make.
There may well be some people, e.g. siblings or life-long friends, who are an easy choice, but outside of this it can all become a lot more ambiguous.
Your wedding day will be one of the most special days of your life; make sure the people you ask are those who will support you through this major life event, but who you also want to still know in 10, 25, 50 years!
Below I've put some questions that may well come up as you make these decisions.

- "How many bridesmaids/groomsmen should I have?"
There really is no perfect number. I know people who have had 1, often a sibling, and others who have had 6+. Lauren Conrad had 10! And if LC says it's ok, you know it's ok.
Basically, ask as many people as you feel is right for you, but do remember to take things like your budget into account, which I'll talk more about in the next question.

- "Do I have to pay for their entire outfit/hair/make up, etc?"
This is really up to you and your partner. Take an honest look at your budget (as covered in my last blog post), and see what you might be able to afford.
If you're working with a generous budget, then this is a great opportunity to treat and pamper some of your favourite people.
If you're working with a more modest budget, then do be honest with your bridesmaids/groomsmen. Explain that your budget isn't massive, and then say what you'd like to buy for them, and what you'd like them to cover themselves. Make sure to enable honesty both ways here, so that your bridesmaids/groomsmen can tell you if they aren't able to afford that £500 dress you've picked out for them to pay for!
Being involved in someone's wedding party is such an honour, but it can be really expensive too, so do make sure that your special day (or even the hen party/stag do!) won't be clearing out their bank accounts or putting them under financial strain.

- "If someone asked me to be a bridesmaid/groomsmen at their wedding, do I now need to ask them to be one at mine?"
In short, no.
I'm not going to lie, this could create some awkwardness, and maybe even some hurt, but most people will understand that there are lots of factors that go into choosing your wedding party. One factor could be your budget, as discussed above, or another could be that you want to have the same number of bridesmaids as groomsmen, or that you've fallen out of touch with someone since you were involved in their wedding.
It is true that some people will be upset by not being asked if they're expecting to be, but most people, particularly if they've been through the process of planning their own wedding, will understand.
If you do feel like there could be awkwardness, then you could always involve the person in another aspect of the wedding (e.g. doing a reading during the ceremony), or just bite the bullet and talk to them about it, explaining where you've come from in your decision not to ask them.

As you might be working out if you've read my other posts in this series, there's quite a lot of biting the bullet involved in planning a wedding!

Do you have any other questions on this subject that I haven't covered here? If so, please ask in the comments below and I'll let you know my thoughts.
Equally, if you have any wisdom to share on this then please do write it below for us all to see!

Lisa xx

Lifestyle: The Art of Unbusy

In our culture it seems like being constantly busy is a badge of honour. Particularly if it makes you ill or loses you sleep - as long as you soldier on anyway!
For some people, let's say the extroverts of this world, that sort of lifestyle can actually be energising.
For me (an introvert with a dash of extroversion), that is not living, it’s just surviving. It's a way of life that involves collecting lots of experiences but not really being present for any of them.

A few years ago, I remember regularly looking at my diary and seeing that for the following 2 weeks, every single second of my time was accounted for.

I’d just be running from one thing to the next. It made me feel like I was on fast forward, that my life was just speeding past in a blur. Sure I was doing a lot, but I wasn’t really enjoying any of it. I was just checking things off a mental to do list; then always looking ahead to the next thing, and the thing after that, wishing some free time would appear somewhere.

In the end, it was getting ill that finally made me slow down and take another look at how I was choosing to organise my life.
All of a sudden, I didn't have the same capacity for busyness that I'd had before, and I didn't want it either.

Then came the slightly uncomfortable working out of a new way to plan my time. Not just saying yes to things, but taking a moment to think through each week and the allotted amount of energy that I would have. This meant working out who and what were my priorities. Once I'd done this, I could give more time to those people and things, and then fit everything else in as and when.

If I look at my diary and see that I'm busy for more than 3 nights a week, I get this anxious feeling in the pit of my stomach. To be honest, my preference would definitely be less than 3! 

As an introvert, evenings are my time to recharge, so that I can then go into the next working day as the best version of myself. Because I know this about myself, I know that I don't need to feel bad about it. There are times when I start to make comparisons with people who have a bigger capacity for busyness than I do, but I try to just shrug it off and not let it make me feel bad.

We're all different and that's ok.
The sooner we take an honest look at ourselves, the sooner we can learn to love and accept ourselves as we are. No apologies needed.

And sure, busier weeks will come along. But I'm careful to plan in some downtime too; to manage the balance as best as I can.

I think unbusyness is an art. To keep the balance between self-care but also looking outwards to the people and world around us. To think about how best to love and bless others, out of a healthy and well-rested place.

How do you find this? Are you someone who gets joy out of busyness? Or someone who, like me, needs the regular recharging time too?

Capsule Wardrobe: January's Verdict

Yesterday we (finally) reached the end of Jan 2018! A whole month of this capsule wardrobe experiment is complete. I have to say, overall I've been unexpectedly loving it!

I've enjoyed this experiment so much that I've decided to keep going in February, but am adding in 3 more items of clothing, to bring the count up to 20 (a much nicer number than 17!).

I went digging through the bags under my bed yesterday for my lovely pink velvet jumper and an extra t shirt. Both of these will work with any of the other clothes that I already have in my capsule wardrobe - which is key.

The other thing that I wanted to add was a dungaree dress (or pinafore dress). I wanted one in black denim, and you wouldn't believe how hard the search has been to find something!
ASOS had a couple of options, but their dresses all had distressed edges along the bottom, and that is not my style at all - I just can't get on board with paying £40 for something that's already worn out!
I also tried on a dungaree dress in Topshop but wasn't convinced of the fit, and it came up a bit short when I sat down. (I work for a church so if I can't wear something to a prayer meeting, there is literally no point in me owning it!)

In the end, the dress I've gone for is from Zara Kids! It's a relaxed fit, with pretty embroidered flowers and I love it.

If there's one thing that having a capsule wardrobe has taught me, it's to only buy something if I absolutely love it and if it will work with the rest of my wardrobe. I have to be so smitten that I'm happy to wear it ALL the time.

I'm interested to see how things progress month-by-month. I don't want to put too much pressure on this by committing to a year or anything like that; I'm going to see how things go, and then adjust my wardrobe as the seasons and temperatures change.

What type of shopper are you? Fast fashion or carefully planned purchases?

Lisa x

January Joy?

Here we are with one week left of January 2018. How are you feeling? Over it or sad to see it go?
I have to admit, I don't think I've ever met anyone whose favourite month is January. I usually class it as being like an entire month of Mondays. I can't believe that New Years was only 3 weeks ago! It feels more like 3 months!

This year I've been trying to enjoy January for what it is; to find the positive things and to try to live in the moment, rather than constantly longing for something else. My Mum always tells me to be careful not to 'wish my life away', and I think there's a lot of wisdom in that.
However, on the darker January days, when the sun doesn't make an appearance and the black ice creeps out, it can be a big challenge to find this time of year enjoyable.

As we've only got one week of January left, I want to decide right now to make the most of it and find the joy in each day. Here's a few of the things that I've been doing and will continue to do this week:

1. Blogging
Starting this blog has been my best decision so far this year. I've really loved the space to write about a variety of different things, and I'm excited to expand this into other areas throughout the rest of the year. I'd been a bit apprehensive about blogging as I wasn't sure that I'd have anything to say. But actually, I keep feeling inspired to write. I know that it's only early days, but I'm being relaxed about it and am doing it as something that I enjoy, rather than having a strict blogging schedule or anything like that. There's no pressure to achieve here.

2. Staying Cosy
One of the best bits about Winter is getting all cosy with knitwear, blankets, candles and cups of tea. I seriously miss this during Summer, so I'm trying to remember that and make the most of the opportunities for cosyness while they're here.

3. Getting Up Early
In December I started getting up everyday at 6:20am, and I have been loving it! I am not naturally an early bird at all, quite the opposite in fact! But I've found that if I do it everyday then my body-clock adjusts to the waking up time and it's not so bad. I've really come to treasure that time of quiet slowness to start off my day. Not rushing around but having breakfast with my husband and watching as the sun comes up - which is happening earlier and earlier as the month goes on!

4. Reading My Bible
Last year I followed a read the Bible in one year plan, as I wanted to be able to get the scope of the whole thing, and I wanted to know that I'd definitely read it all! This year however, I'm going to keep using the same app but I'm not going to go back if I miss a day. The app that I use has an audiobook function, so part of my morning routine is David Suchet (a.k.a. Poirot!) reading me the Bible whilst I do my make up.
I love starting everyday with Jesus; it helps to put everything else in life into perspective.

5. Capsule Wardrobe
As you'll know from my other blog posts, I've been challenging myself this month to only use a wardrobe of 12 items of clothing. I've had to exercise a lot of self-control not to go clothes shopping, but actually I've really enjoyed the project overall!
I'll be writing a post in the next few days all about where I'm going to go from here: keep the minimalism or release the clothes from under my bed?!

6. Taking It Slowly
I always think that this time of year is deceptively busy. We might be led to think that all of the busyness happens around Christmas, and that once that's over we can all return to our quiet lives, but every year I'm surprised at how hectic January is!
Last year I got really ill in early February, because I was so run down from the busyness of life. This year I'm trying to take things a little slower, be wise about what I say yes to, and try to look after myself. Particularly as I'm going through a tough time at the moment in my personal life.
It's important to be kind to yourself. As part of this, I'm going to try to get some early nights this week, especially as one of my eyes has been twitching from tiredness over the last few days!

Do you have any tips for enjoying January?

Lisa x

Beauty Bar: Brows

Over the last few years, bold brows have shown up everywhere. Gone are the days of over-plucking for the thinnest brows possible; now a much more natural look is favoured, and the search has been on to find a product that can make our brows thicker and bolder.

For this post I've tried out a few different products to compare them to one another. There are lots of different brow needs out there; for me, I naturally have full brows but the hairs are blonde so they're often almost invisible.
I first noticed this when I saw a photo of myself where sunlight was shining on one side of my face and made it look like I only had one eyebrow! Since then, I've been trying to achieve a fairly natural looking brow that's a few shades darker than my own.
Here's what I've found:

1. Benefit Gimme Brow
Shade:1
Rating: 3.5/5
I find this product to be very hit and miss. Some days it's really quick to use, other days it tends to clump up and I end up with more product on my skin than on the actual hairs themselves. I think this might be easier to use on brows that are already pretty full and bold, and that just need a little something extra.

2. L'Oréal Paris Eyebrow Pencil
Shade: 02 Blonde
Rating: 4.5/5
For me, this eyebrow pencil is perhaps the most reliable and consistent of all the brow products I've tried. This is the one that I reach for if I'm in a rush and need a product that will get me good results fast. The only negative thing that I find with using an eyebrow pencil is that it can be easy to be too enthusiastic and create a 'drawn on' look that isn't very natural.
I love that it's double ended, with wax for keeping hairs in place, and a little brush for achieving a more natural look.

3. L'Oréal Paris Micro Tattoo Brow Artist
Shade: 103 Dark Blond
Rating: 3.5/5
When I originally bought this product I really liked it and filmed my first impressions on my Instagram Stories (@lisaerinwoodson). However, I've since used it daily for a couple of weeks and sadly my rating of it has gone down slightly.
The idea behind this eyebrow pen is that it is a semi-permanent version of microblading. In terms of it being semi-permanent I have been pleasantly surprised that even after I've taken off my make up and done my entire skincare routine, my brows are still slightly more visible than they would naturally be. The bold colour is gone, leaving a much more subtle colour that suits a no-make up look.
The pen nib is split into three fine points, which when I first used the pen worked really well without having to apply a lot of pressure. It was highly pigmented and the three point nib gave a much more natural look than the single nib alternatives. However, the second time I used it the pen was much less pigmented, meaning that I needed to apply way more pressure, which was trickier to use and gave less natural looking results.

4. NYX Micro Brow Pencil
Shade: Taupe
Rating: 4.5/5
One of the things that I love most about this product is that it comes in a cool blonde tone! So many products only have one blonde shade, which is usually a warm yellow colour and doesn't look right with my skin tone, meaning I have to go for a light brown, which is a bit too dark for me.
I also love how thin this pencil is - great for creating a natural look - and it's wind-up so it's always precise and never needs sharpening.

I think for me, the winner has to be the L'Oréal eyebrow pencil, which I occasionally use in combination with the L'Oréal Brow Tattoo pen.
How about you? Have you tried these products before? Or do you have a favourite that isn't on this list?

Lisa x

Wedding Bells: The Budget

I have never been a lover of finance or really anything maths-related, but one of the crucial things to work out before doing any other preparations for a wedding, is the budget.
Wedding budgets can vary massively and this will impact basically all of your other planning decisions, e.g. venue, number of guests, any music or entertainment, the honeymoon, etc...

The first step is to sit down with your future husband or wife and have a frank chat about where this budget is likely to come from. It could be savings, help from parents or donations from friends.
Then if you're hoping for some outside help, bite the bullet and have those conversations. It's always a bit awkward to talk about money, but just ask if that person would be willing to give anything towards the wedding and see what they say.
A way that a friend of mine thanked all those who had contributed to her wedding, was to allocate each monetary gift to something specific; this meant that when the couple wrote their thank you cards they could say that the money was used to buy the flowers/wedding cake/invitations.

Once you know the budget you're working with, my advice would be to sit down together again and create a spreadsheet that has everything you'll buy on it. I found Pinterest really helpful for this, as there are loads of checklists on there that help you to think through every part of the day. I also found it really helpful to ask a few close friends who had recently got married, what the breakdown of their budget was - once again, money can be a sensitive subject, so maybe have a think about who you ask!

Then go through each item on the spreadsheet, prioritising the most important things as we talked about in my previous wedding blog post, and put down a realistic budget for each of them.

Keep referring back to this spreadsheet with every purchase you make. Weddings can so easily become very expensive, so make sure you're keeping track of your spending and logging all receipts.

Also, if your wedding budget is small, don't worry! I have been to some absolutely beautiful weddings that have been done on a tight budget. In fact these have been some of the most creative and personal weddings I've attended, where every aspect of the day reflects the couple getting married. Sometimes the bigger the budget a couple has, the less personal the details of the day are. This is because not being able to just buy things forces you to come up with creative alternatives or make things yourself.

The point is, you can create a really special day no matter what your budget is. You just have to sit down and work it out, then stick to it!

Do you have any wedding budget tips?

Lisa x

Evading Those January Rays

January weather in the UK = cold, dark and rather uninspiring. At this time of year I can hardly remember what sun cream is, let alone contemplate putting it on my face. So why did I buy a tube of it yesterday?

Sadly, it's not because I'm off to somewhere hot and sunny, and it's also not because Leeds has inexplicably been forecast a heatwave (the reality is basically rain and snow forever).

I actually bought it after watching a documentary on BBC iPlayer called The Truth About Looking Good with Cherry Healey. (Which I SO recommend for anyone who is a fan of beauty and skincare.)

On it, a scientist said that 75% of lines and wrinkles are caused by a lifetime of sun damage, and that this damage isn't just caused by being on a beach in Barbados, but also by sitting indoors, in front of a window, in the middle of winter. This is because UVA rays are not blocked by glass.
I couldn't believe that this could be true, but when they compared the wrinkles around each eye of a coach driver, the side that tended to get the most sun exposure through the coach windscreen, had noticeably more lines.

Apparently, we should be wearing something with both a high SPF and a high UVA rating everyday. The UVA rating is shown in stars, often on the back of a product. I'd thought that a product containing both of those things would be easy to find, but I actually couldn't spot anything at all in Superdrug, and could only find 2 sun creams in Boots that had anything above a 3 star UVA rating (the scientist said you need at least 4 stars).

So many brands, such as Garnier Ambre Solaire and Hawaiian Tropic, only had a UVA rating of 3 stars. In the end, the only 2 products I found with 5 star ratings were both made by Boots: one from their No7 brand and the other from their Soltan range. As there was a £9 difference I went for the Soltan option; why pay more than double the price when the skin protection is the same?

I was, however, really pleased to see that the daily moisturiser I already use, from Boots Botanics (see the photo at the top of this post - which I promise is not sponsored by Boots!), is SPF15 and has a 5 star UVA rating! So my new routine is to use that in the morning, then top up with a bit of Soltan at lunchtime.

Are you someone who wears sun cream daily?

Lisa x

Capsule Wardrobe: When Inspiration Runs Dry

So here we are: half way through. The middle point. 16 outfits worn, 15 to go.
By this point I've worn almost every item of clothing several times.
I've found that doing this challenge in winter has seriously decreased the number of clothing combinations I can do; because it's so cold that I basically never take off my jumper. So it's pretty much a choice of 4 jumpers with a selection of 2 pairs of jeans or 1 skirt...

I have found that having free reign over accessories has really helped though, particularly with jewellery and scarves. I was very excited to receive this month's Gambettes box (a subscription box where you get 2 pairs of tights a month), as fun tights can instantly make me feel more excited about an otherwise very simple outfit.

I also have to admit that I've started to daydream about some of my off limits items of clothing... a bit sad I know! A velvet green dress previously owned by my mum and Aunty, a cosy and oversized pink hoody, and a pair of black denim dungarees to name a few...

But I am at the half way point! And I'm proud of myself for that and determined to stay strong for the rest of the month.
I'm starting to also think about what to do once January is up: keep it minimal or release the clothes? There may well be a post coming next week all about that...

Do you have any tips for getting through the halfway slump of a challenge?

Lisa x

Pre-Spring Cleaning

Even though Spring is still a few months away, I think January is a great time to sort through things and have a bit of a clear out.

Last year I discovered a clever little hack for sorting out and storing necklaces. We've all experienced the frustration of attempting to extract one necklace from a tangle of twenty. It takes ages and I for one am so terrible at detangling that I just give up half the time and end up hiding the lot away again.

So here is the answer that I've come up with... cling film.

Take a little square of cling film (or Saran wrap as I think it's called in the USA), pop a single necklace on top of it and simply wrap up. Et voila! They store away very compactly and are ready to bring out and wear - no knots!

Do you have any handy life hacks to share?

Happy pre-Spring cleaning!

Lisa x

Capsule Wardrobe: Staying Strong

I'm pretty good at self control in most areas (sometimes too good, but that's another story), but 2 of my biggest weaknesses are snacking and shopping. My main shopping vices are clothes, beauty products and homeware. (Oh and mugs! We have to have them on a rotation as they don't all fit in our cupboard anymore...)

I am pretty terrible at not spending money, unless I stop spending altogether (stay with me here!). I've found that if I can manage to not buy anything at all, then I can hold out for a while; but if I give in just a little bit and buy something small, then that's it: the floodgates are open, my money is gone and my wardrobe is even more full of things I don't need. Things tend to escalate pretty quickly.

This month, as I've been using a capsule wardrobe, I've been trying really hard not to buy any clothes. Here are a few tips that I've been learning along the way:

• Avoid clothes shops
  Don't even walk through the doors. Or past the windows. Basically, go nowhere near them.
  The moment I walk into my favourite shops, I immediately see so many items that I can't live without. Even if I don't buy them in the moment, I'll think about them and find myself making my way back to the store the next day. If I don't go in the shop, I won't see the clothes so I wont miss them from my wardrobe.
  
  
• Same goes for online shops
  This is particularly difficult at the moment with the January sales in full swing. My email inbox is full of offers and sale deductions. My advice on this is to either unsubscribe from the emails altogether or just glance through them and then quickly delete, without clicking on any links to go to their website!
  
  
• Stay away from haul vlogs
  Haul vlogs are a great love of mine, so it pains me to type this, but I can't deny the amount of clothes I've bought after watching them! I know that Alix Coburn (I Covet Thee) recently put up a Topshop haul on her Youtube channel, and I've been resisting watching it ever since. This is because I just know there's bound to be something so beautiful on there that I won't be able to resist buying! If I don't watch it, I won't be tempted.
  
  
• Pinterest
  Build a Pinterest board with outfit ideas using clothes that you already have. Upload photos of some of the outfits that you've enjoyed wearing in the past. I have a secret board like this, so that when I'm feeling uninspired at 6:30am and don't know what to wear, I can bring up the board and pick something from there. Ready-made outfits at your fingertips. 

Do you have any tips for resisting shopping?