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