Christmas Shopping - The Nightmare Begins!

So, today is Bonfire Night, aka the 5^th of November, aka 49 days until Christmas. 49 days! How terrifying is that. In the past, I have been infamous for leaving all of my shopping until the very last minute and then running around like a headless chicken trying to get it all done. Well this year, I point blank refuse to do that again. I am determined. I am going to start now. I know some people that have finished, so I already feel behind! The only problem is that nobody has told me what they want and I am at a complete loss for ideas! Have you started your Christmas shopping yet? Seen any cool and quirky gifts out there?

 

B xxo

My Top 5 Skills

Albert Einstein once said "Everyone is a genius, but if you judge a fish by it's ability to climb a tree, it will spend it's entire life thinking it's an idiot", and no truer words have been spoken (other than potentially, "It's never too early for wine".) So that got me thinking. I may not be conventionally clever, but I've definitely picked up some life skills in my nineteen years.

1) Zipping dresses up on my own.

I can zip any dress up by myself and this will be a skill I will always be proud of myself for. Never rely on a man for anything, not even a simple wardrobe task. If you can probably do it by yourself, make the effort to learn how, you'll never be sorry.

2) My ability to say "No"

This is something I've only learned recently. Saying no is a big thing to me, I hate hurting people's feelings, but sometimes you have to. I've learned to say no when I don't want to do something, and it's a skill that I think will come in handy for a good few years to come yet.

3) Knowing when to call it a day.

Sometimes you have to cut your losses and know when it's time to leave the table. This is something I am willing to confess I've been having trouble with in a certain aspect of my life, but I'm still aware it's time to call it a day, even if I'm reluctant to do anything about it!

4) Sitting down and reading.

I know this sounds weird to put as a skill, but since I was a kid I've been able to sit and read, and I think that's a skill not enough people have. People want to watch films and experience it for themselves, but sometimes it's nice to read situations described beautifully in unnecessarily complicated words.

5) Pulling through.

Every few weeks I have a few days where I feel horrendously down and lonely and think I'm not going to pull through, but I always do. I think dragging myself out of holes that I get into is amongst my better skills, and it's one I'll be using for a lifetime. It's a skill that everyone should possess, being able to get through things that seem horrendously tough at the time.

So there's my unconventional top skills. I may not be able to climb trees or do science, but my god, if you want to judge me on the skills I've detailed above, you better believe I'm going to come out looking like a genius.

S xo.

Guess who's back!

That's right, I'm back. I know it's been a long while, it's no excuse but I've been trying to get blinkered barbie , my other blog, on it's feet and accidentally ended up neglecting Smekah. Here's my promise though, you'll be seeing a lot more of me over here (hopefully three posts ish a week, eek).

I can't wait to get writing back on here, I hope everyone's good!

S xo.

My Autumn/Winter Essentials So Far - B xo

So I’ve seen LOADS of people posting their Autumn/Winter Favourites/Essentials already this year, and every time I see one, I think to myself; wow. It’s only just really started to get yucky weather wise (In the UK anyway). So while I have a few bits that I would class as Autumn/Winter Essentials, I want to make it clear to everyone that these may change, or get added to, as Winter goes on! Okay, here we go.

We’ll go to skincare for my first product. It is, of course, Liz Earle Cleanse and Polish Hot Cloth Cleanser. You all know by now that I am head over heels in love with this product. Since I started using it a few months ago, I have not strayed from the path, I have been completely faithful. I haven’t even been tempted to stray. This is probably my favourite skincare discovery ever. I started using it in the summer and I’ll be honest, I did wonder if it would work as well for me in the colder months, as skin needs change depending on the weather. I had nothing to be worried about. I’ve used this constantly and had no problems whatsoever. Far from it, my skin has improved dramatically compared to before Liz Earle waltzed into my life. It removes every scrap of makeup with minimal effort and leaves my skin feeling quite frankly, luscious. At £13.25 for a 100ml bottle (more than I think I have ever paid for a skincare product, constantly at least) at first glance this may seem a bit expensive (to those of us that rely heavily on high street products). However, once you have tried this product, you will realise that you have got yourself an absolute bargain. You can’t afford NOT to buy it!

My next Autumn/Winter Essential is also of the skin care theme. It is… Astral Moisturiser! I am a bit of a moisturiser whore, I don’t mind admitting. I flit from product to product, never really finding anything that really floats my boat and just plodding along with products I deem average at best. When I ran out of my little Liz Earle moisturiser (which was really nice, just not for me), I was at a loss as for where to head next in my ever long moisturiser quest. Then one day when I went into Superdrug for a browse, I spotted this on display at the front of the shop. I recognised it immediately as a product that my aunty used to use. It was her holy grail of skincare, and I remember seeing it in her bathroom from when I was a tiny toddler to when she died. And as if that wasn’t enough of a sign, it was on offer. I think I paid £3.50 for a 500ml tub (or something along those lines). I LOVE this moisturiser. And I really never thought I would say that, but it is fantastic. My skin gets dehydrated quite quickly, but once moisture has been restored, it’s okay. This means that I normally struggle to find a moisturiser that deals with both skin situations. This does it, no problem. It goes on smoothly, sinks in to the skin beautifully and has left my skin feeling soft and radiant. I’m VERY impressed. And as it is getting colder here in the UK my skin needs a bit more help. I don’t imagine I will be leaving this behind any time soon.

Moving on from skincare to hair, another thing I would be lost without this winter, is Aussie Miracle Moist Shampoo. Again, this tends to be a little bit more pricey than the kind of shampoo that I used to buy but after using it religiously for a few months now (I’m getting much better at this sticking with products thing), I can totally see why. I tend to try and wait until I see this on offer to buy it, but regardless, it is definitely worth the price tag. No matter what I do to my hair, it is always dry. Before I started using Aussie, it would often be so dry that I had to condition for about 10 minutes before I could even dream of getting a brush through it. I have no more of that. The condition of my hair has really improved since I’ve stuck to this shampoo, and it smells gorgeous too!

My next product, is a fairly recent discovery. However, it’s one of those things that everyone has been raving about for ages and I’m just late to the party. It is, of course, the Revlon Colourburst Lip Butters. There has been SO much hype around these, I thought, I just can’t hold out any longer. These are around the £7 mark, depending on where you buy them and whether they’re included in some sort of offer. A little pricey for what seems at first glance to be basically a lip balm. Or so I thought. I was wrong. At first, I didn’t really get this product. Now that I do, I absolutely love it. The formulation of these are quite unique. They apply like a balm, but have the pigmentation of a lipstick. I find these to be uber hydrating and lovely, they make my lips feel gorgeous. The shade range is VERY impressive, although a lot of high street shops don’t stock them all. The staying power isn’t great, but as this isn’t actually a lipstick, I’m fine with that. The only negative comment I have about these is the packaging. I don’t like it. It seems cheap and impractical and just, not to my taste at all. Apart from that, I think these are brilliant. Definitely worth the hype and I hope to be expanding my collection sometime soon.

Have you guys got any products you'd be totally lost without in the Autumn(Fall)/Winter Months? Let us know in the comments below :)

B xo

Back In Business

Hola bambinos! I know Smekah has been off the radar for the last month or so, hence I just thought I'd do a quick little post to update you on the blog/me/sam/wdf situation. (I've written, deleted and rewritten this about a million times this week so bare with me. If there's anything I haven't covered, feel free to get in touch).

Basically, Smekah is back in business. I know I know, I can hear you all jumping for joy as you read this. After a kind of hiatus, it's all kicking off again here. As you know, Sam is now posting from Blinkered Barbie, however all of us here at Smekah hold a special place in her heart (ew, sickly sweet alert) and she has decided she's going to carry on posting here as well, probably around 3 times a week. I am going to step up my posting - it's going to be everything from reviews on beauty products, ootd's/lookbooks, lifestyle posts, reciepes, all manner of random things, so beware! If ever there is a lull and I've slipped back into my old habbits of not posting like I should, please hassle me into it. Peer pressure is most effective.

So I'm sorry that we haven't been around, but we're back now yaaay. We hope that you're all okay! 

Love,

B xxo

Do's and Do Not's for Autumn/Winter.

Compiled a list of things I need to do more of and things I need to do less of, in the next few months, so I thought I’d share it with you guys. Plus if it’s written down here, that might motivate me a bit more to actually do it!

Do.

Wear Coats

Wear coats. This may sound like a bit of an obvious one but whatever. I am terrible for this – basically I never bother. I own a winter coat, and several jackets for varying types of weather. But despite the fact that I have Raynaud’s (and I live in England, hello, it’s cold here) I pretty much never wear them. I’m not even sure why. Most of the time it just seems like a mahoosive inconvenience. But this year I am going to make a conscious effort, to wear my coats. Not doing so is frankly quite stupid. So I’ve started going out with my winter coat already – keep reminding me!

Drink more water.

Sam will happily tell you, that I am totally caffeine dependant. I’m pretty much like a little gremlin – if I’m tired or hungry or my caffeine levels have dropped, I am a holy nightmare. So I drink a lot of coffee, and tea. During the summer I did a caffeine detox, and completely swapped my cups of tea and coffee for water. This was extremely hard at first, but by the end of it, my skin had improved loads (and I wasn’t quite as grumpy as everybody had expected). But admittedly, as soon as this was over, I kind of forgot about water and went back to tea and coffee (and ovaltine of a night, which is amazing). So now I’m making myself drink at least 2 litres of water a day, in the hope that a) I can get into the habit of it, b) my skin will be all lovely again and c) just for a bit of a change really. This is surprisingly easy. For now anyway. Whether it will be easy to keep up or not, who knows. Time will tell!

Note: the constant needing a wee is driving me insane.

Blogging!

When me and Sam first started this blog, I had a lot going on, and I never really got into the habit of blogging consistently. Recently, I have done. I’m enjoying it, and hopefully you guys reading it are as well. So I’m going to try my very hardest to keep it up J

Do Not.

Hair dying.

I have been dying my hair since I was about 14. It has been every colour under the sun and as a result, it’s gone through some pretty unhealthy stages. When I first started dying my hair, it was a confidence thing. Then it was an experimental thing. Then I realised I had greys coming through, and it became a OH MY GOD I’M TOO YOUNG TO BE GREY kind of thing. A few months ago, I just stopped dying my hair. I’ve been trying to get it into a healthy condition and it is getting there. Growing the colour out and seeing my greys appear, is a whole other matter. I’m not saying I will never dye my hair again, but I don’t want to get back into the cycle of dying it constantly. Watch this space.

Ex boyfriends.

 STAY AWAY FROM THESE, THEY ARE TROUBLE. Even if they try and entice you with things they know you like, this is a very bad idea.

Christmas shopping.

DO NOT leave this until 2 days before Christmas (family trait, totally not my fault). A woman at work told me yesterday that there are only 15 Saturdays left until Christmas, how scary is that! I think I better start saving/shopping now…

B xxo

Sam's New Blog.

If you haven’t noticed this already, Sam has recently started her own (personal as opposed to co owned) blog. It’s a mixture of beauty, fashion, lifestyle, and basically all things Sam.

 It would mean a lot to her if you all went and followed her – she’s working really hard on it, and blinkered barbie is brilliant. 

B xxo