I don't know about you, but I'm feeling 22!

Cheeky Selfie

It's my 22nd birthday. Hopefully I will be spending all my dollars in Sephora and at the top of the Empire State Building right now, having been woken up by my sister and aunty dancing around to Tay Tay at half 4 in the moring because of jetlag. Anyone else who shares this glorious Virgoan birthday (cough cough Liam Payne) with me happy birthday too!

Lots of Love,

Hev

xoxox

Rome Ceilings

So this is a bit of a random post but when in Rome ALWAYS look up. You won't regret it.

Rome Vlog

So I have delved back into the world of youtube once again, this time to show you our shoddy vlog in Rome!

Hope you all enjoy!

Lots of Love,

Hev

xoxox

Rome: Santa Maria Maggiore

This is such a beautiful Church in Rome and this happened to be practically outside our hotels doorstep which was so stunning. Our hotel hosts told us that this was the second largest Church outside The Vatican and it really was huge. I get the feeling that this Church isn't really part of the main tourist drag but it is just too beautiful to ignore on your trip to Rome. Getting here couldn't be easier, either hop on the Metro A or B to Termini or walk up Cavour from the Colloseum. We took the 5 euro tour to the top of the Church which is so worth it to see the beautiful mosaic and statues at the top. Just remember to cover your shoulders and knees when going in, although sheeths are available.

I also think that my blog layout might be making my images look grainy and horrible, I promise you they don't look like that in real life!

Rome

Having just got back from the most fabulous city break ever I thought I would let you know that numerous blog posts are coming with ridiculous amounts of photos and me slobbering all over them like a crazy lady.

Rome is such a beauty and I want to go back again and again. Once you get past the selfie stick sellers (who magically turn into poncho sellers in the rain) not taking no for an answer it is definitely my favourite place I've ever been to (since I'm going to New York next week that might change...).

As someone who can't eat dairy I was shitting my pants about being able to eat but I had the most fabulous food time as well, topped off by finding dark chocolate dairy free gelato *inserts heart eyes emoji here* so don't be too worried about finding food over there if you have intolerances!

I also changed to about a quarter shade darker which is quite the achievement for me ;)

Bear with for the numerous blog posts as I can't find my camera...

Lots of love,

Hev

xoxox

Guerlain My Terracotta Bronzer

The My Terracotta bronzer was the prize I won in a competition ran on a model recommends blog, and I won the palest shade in this lovely rubberised green special edition packaging.

In all honesty I would never have brought this bronzer on my own, as the price tag is well out of my league as a recently unemployed cash strapped student. The bronzer is definitely a more orange toned bronzer with small specks of shimmer, which give a really nice glow to the skin, meaning I can go without a highlighter if I wanted!

The bronzer took a little while to get used to and discover what brush works best with it, and I find that a normal blush brush works best. I originally tried a duo fibre but I didn't feel like it gave off enough pigment to my skin.

The shade works nicely with my NW10-15 skin, as long as I don't go overboard and blend it well. This is definitely not a contour shade but more of an overall give some colour to your face shade.

If I had a a disposable income again and wanted an extremely luxurious product I would definitely repurchase, just like if you do have the means to buy it I would highly recommend as it is a great bronzer. If you aren't so cash happy there are definitely some high street dupes for this bronzer, which is probably what I will buy when this runs out!

The My Terracotta Bronzer by Guerlain is for sale for £37.50 at John Lewis now.

Have you tried the My Terracotta Bronzer out? Please leave me your thoughts!

Lots of Love,

Hev

xoxox

Roman Holiday Makeup

By the time you will be reading this, me and my sis will have taken off *fingers crossed* from Birmingham to Rome! I mentioned in my August post just how excited I am to be going off to one of the cities I learnt so much about during my A-Levels for 5 days of culture and pizza! So I thought I would give a run down of exactly the make-up I am taking with me, to withstand the intense Italian heat!

I am intensely pale, tanning evades me but burning is a star feature of my holidays no matter how much factor 50 I slather on! This is one of the reasons I have opted for my Bobbi Brown BB cream, as it has SPF 35 in and will help protect me from the sun. I have also opted for this for its lightweight feel, perfect for sweaty walking days! The colour is still a little dark (in extra light) for me so I am hoping by the end I may blend in with the colour better than before! I am taking my mac concealer in NW15 with me as it is slightly thicker than I normally wear, but is super creamy and will help to cover the blemishes the BB cream simply does not cover. I am also using my M&S powder as I have complete trust in its mattifying properties! Underneath all of this I am using my Laura Mercier Oil Free Primer, which is great at keeping oil at bay and keeping your make-up on for longer.

For the rest of my face I am taking my Guerlain Bronzer, as it gives the most gorgeous sun-kissed glow and a great sheen on the top of my cheeks, negating the need for highlighter! For hiding the appearance of what will be an intense pizza and pasta face I am taking my Illamasqua Eye shadow in Justify, which is a great contour shade, and transition shade on the eyes. On the lips I am taking my beloved L'Oreal lip liner in Labbra which I have mentioned before in case I want a darker lip, and over the top my L'Oreal The Nudes lipstick in Julianne's nude for day to day wear.

For my eyes we kick off with the Urban Decay Primer Potion which needs no explanation. I am taking my mac quad for whatever look I fancy plus my L'Oreal eye liner just in case I want some drama to my eyes. Topping this off with my L'Oreal Volume Millions Excess mascara with the Soap and Glory Thick and Fast layered over the top to create huge, dramatic lashes. Finally, I will be taking my Charlotte Tilbury Eyebrow pencil (which I think is the Brooke shade) which has a spoolie on one end and a great pencil on the other.

What make-up will you or have you been taking on holiday this year? I would love to hear all about it!

Lots of Love,

Hev

xoxox

Pilonidal sinus update

I AM HEALED AND I FEEL LIKE THIS!!!!

Exactly 7 weeks after my op I am healed. I don't think I could quite put into words how happy I am that my arse has gone and closed up. I feel like I've been on such a roller coaster over the last 7 weeks with my booty, dealing with such an embarrassing yet all too common problem among the population. 

I am acutely aware that I have had it extremely lucky, especially after watching last nights embarrassing bodies where a man didn't have his heal for 6 years!!! In the grand scheme of things, even though my stitches split, my adverse reaction to morphine and I had to get my bum packed everyday I have had a pretty straightforward affair.

Would like to say a big thanks to my surgeon for cutting it out, all the nurses at the hospital for putting up with me and the nurses at my doctors for making me feel at ease and for finally telling me I'm healed! 

If you believe you have a pilonidal sinus I would urge you to get it sorted out, even though the op is silly painful and you won't be able to sit down for a while it is well worth getting it looked at as soon as it appears, don't let it get bigger and tunnel down further as this will probably leave you with a bigger hole! 

So all in all I couldn't be happier that I am now fully healed, not having to attend the doctors everyday just in time for Rome on Monday!

If you have any questions on this please feel free to ask

Lots of love,

Hev

xoxox

London Zoo

For Charlotte's birthday we ventured into London for the weekend. We had a great weekend, saw Casablanca at the Opera House (tears), ate all the food and popped into London Zoo. Make no mistake, if you know me you know that zoos are one of my favourite places in the entire world. I think its because whatever your age you can feel like a child again, and see so many animals that you would never be able to see in the flesh without a zoo being present.

The zoo was massive and took up our entire Sunday which was lovely. Based in Regents Park, we got the tube to Regents Park Station and walked the leisurely 20 minutes to the zoo in some glorious sunshine! As we are both students we got the concessionary price of I think £24 which included a donation to the upkeep of the zoo.

We walked round so many different areas it was hard to keep up, only missing going into the Bat walkthrough *shivers* and the butterfly farm as there was a massive queue outside. We had food there, which was expensive but I didn't care as both pizzas were made purely out of Buffalo Mozzarella which doesn't contain cows milk so I could actually eat a pizza!

Overall I thought the zoo was brilliant and on a par with my favourite Jersey Zoo! My favourite area was the aquarium, fish are so beautiful and it was lovely to see so many different species from all over the world! It will get expensive if you have a large family like ours is but it is well worth it for a nice summer day out with your family or friends!

What are your favourite animal to see at the zoo?

Lots of Love,

Hev

xoxox

August 2015 Skincare Routine

My Skin is the absolute pits. I have had intense acne since I was 11 and I am 21 now and nothing has changed. I used to just abide by only cleansing and toning and was terrified of moisturiser as I thought it would make me even oilier silly me. I decided at the start of this year to try and get my skin care into some kind of check to give all the skin medication I am on (Erythromicin, Dianette etc etc) Some room to get on with things. I have been using this routine on and off (I am the definition of lazy) but I think it is making some improvements, even if it is just in moisture retention. So lets go through what I do's. Oh and I am in no means an expert, I am le pants at this stuff and I know no routine is going to cure me, but anything that can help I am into.

We shall go from left- right of this picture shall we?

1. Ren Clear Calm Mask: This is something I apply about once a week, it leaves my skin feeling a lot nicer but I have to be honest not sure on its spot fighting powers.

2. L'Oreal Micellar Water: Great at removing eye and face makeup, this normally comes out if I am wearing anything super heavy on my face, or if I can't be arsed to cleanse at all.

3. Super Facialist by Una Brennan: This stuff is such a nice first/ morning cleanser for me. It doesn't remove the heaviest of makeups but it smells divine and makes my skin feel really nice and smooth afterwards. I sometimes use this rubbed in before then washed off in shower, as the texture changed from oil to a more watery, emollient finish.

4.Emma Hardie Amazing Face: Smells incredible, with a lovely balmy texture which glides all over my face and takes away any of the remaining makeup on my face. This is my second cleanse baby, removed with a nice warm flannel. The only issue I have is with the packaging, as the lid has decided to completely fall apart on me.

5. Botanics Ultra Calm Night Moisturiser: This is a great budget night moisturiser, sinks into the skin nicely and I can always, always tell when I haven't used it.

6. Ren Clarimatte Clarifying Toner: This is my delve into the acids world, I use intensely in my spotty areas and around my jawline to prevent the rough skin I can sometimes get under there.

7. La Roche Posay Serozinc: The newest member of my skincare family, this is such a refreshing spray, which I bought specifically to try to heal my spots faster and I think this one might be helping with that.

8. Vichy Aqualia Thermal Serum: Super moisturising, super pungent of roses for about 10 seconds and I will use instead of my day moisturiser most days.

9. Simple Rich Day Moisturiser: This is ok. Smells strongly of suncream which can be off putting when I am hanging out of my arsehole but it works. Currently on the lookout for something better.

So there you have it! My current skincare routine. It seems stupidly long and I will skip alot of this if I am being lazy but I try to keep at least the cleanse and the serozinc in 100% of the time.

What are your thoughts on these products?

Lots of Love,

Hev

xoxox

Happy Birthday Charlotte

Hope you have the best day because you bloody deserve it

Lots of love

Hev

xoxox

The New Baby: Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ70

Soooo I got a new camera...

As a joint present between me and my sis for our birthdays, we got this absolute beauty of a camera. We had been looking for a decent camera for ages, one that would photograph beautifully and video in full HD (a pants attempt at vlogging anyone?) and we feel like we found ourselves in this camera. We purchased it from John Lewis for £294 and can be found here. I am rubbish at knowing all of the ins and outs of the camera but all I know is it takes really nice photos in a variety of settings!

This should mean that for the most part my blog post pictures should improve dramatically, and I might get to do a few youtube videos too.

We are going to London at the weekend so will be trying it out in all its glory around the sights!

If anyone has this camera and has any helpful tips and tricks please let us know!

Lots of loveage,

Hev 

xoxox

August

My favourite month has arrived on my doorstep. Why is this month my favourite month you may ask? Well its ma bifday month and so is the month of spoiling Miss Heather Lauren O'Neill rotten. August is also the month that the little gremmers my darling sisters were born to try and fail to steal my thunder hehe. 

Why am I writing a blog post about August? Probably because I could wet myself with excitement for this month. I have so much planned, which I probably cannot afford with my newly found unemployed status, but I cannie wait. 

I AM GOING TO NEW YORK AND ROME!

This is me at the moment, shouting left right and centre about my magical holidays I have coming up and spending my placement money wisely...

ROMEEEEEEEEE

Rome is somewhere I have been gagging to go for a stupidly long time, I studied Ancient History and Classical Civilisation at A-Level and you just cannot be not gagging to trot off to see the Roman Empire after that. So yeah, in the middle of August me and my darling sis are trotting off to Rome and I cannot bloody wait *cue millions of blog posts on ancient history and food*.

NEW YORK NEW YORKKKKKK

The land of shopping dreams will be where I spend my 22nd birthday this year. This was an unintentional trip that started from a tiny idea and snowballed into me, my sissy and aunty trotting off to the other side of the world for 5 days. I want to see everything, Times Square, Sephora, Empire State Building, you name it I want to see it. I am scared pooless of the flight and the jet-lag but apart from that I can't see anywhere else I would like to spend my birthday this year. I am also going to wander into the mothership and encase myself in all the brands I need in my life but we can't get over here.

I would like to try to blog and maybe vlog some of our trips, not just for others to watch but so we can try and show our family and friends just what we got up to. Please let us know if that would even be remotely interesting. 

So holiday talk over, I am also popping to London a few times, the first to spend my sisters birthday there and see a show at the Royal Opera House ooh fancy and go to the zoo, and the second to hopefully see one of my besties who I haven't seen for about 18 months.

So there we have it a little low down on what I plan to be getting up to this month to enjoy my last month of freedom before FINAL YEAR *shudders*.

Let me know what your plans are for this month too!

Lots of Love,

Hev 

xoxox