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

Life Updates. B. xxo

As most of you know by now (hopefully), I’ve been trying to make it clear that this is by no means just a beauty blog, but has lots of other bits (lifestyle/music/fashion etc) going on as well. So, in keeping with this theme, I thought I’d do a bit of a “lifestyle”, this is what’s going on in my life post.

So I started my new job on the 1^st of August, and it’s actually going really well. Just over a month in, I feel pretty settled. A few things are still yet to be sorted, eg if I can keep my desk where it is and what specific duties I should be solely responsible etc. But apart from that, I’m actually loving it. Everyone is really nice, the work I’ve been doing is interesting and I’m sort of sorted into a routine with my days. In general, this part of my life is good.

The other thing that kicked off at the end of July/beginning of August was driving lessons. I’ve been saying that I’d do this since my 17 birthday and for many reasons just hadn’t managed to get round to it. But I was itching to. I’ve always said that I wanted to learn to drive as soon as possible, as I think that for me, it’s just, the right thing. The first instructor that I went with did not suit my learning type at all. In that kind of environment, you have to get along with the person or you’re just going to get nowhere. The instructor that I have now, is really good. The driving is…getting there. My spatial awareness has improved greatly, so that’s something at least! I’m really enjoying my lessons anyway, and hope that it won’t be too long before I’m ready to take my test.

Love and lust and everything of that elk. It’s been 6 whole months since I broke up with my ex. Typing that is crazy. In some ways it feels like it was last week that we were together and in other ways, it feels like a lifetime ago. Us breaking up, for me, was not a difficult decision to make. Actually executing it, was tricky. But I had amazing support in this, and the transition from having a partner of 2 years to being single again was pretty easy. Much easier than I had expected anyway. For quite a long time now, I’ve sort of bounced from relationship to relationship, with varying degrees of seriousness. This 6 months, I haven’t done any of that. I’ve had some time, solely to myself. It’s been really nice. I think I needed to remind myself that I don’t need anybody else, to valid how I feel, about myself. And for having that time and experience, I feel a lot better. Having said that, I am know more than ready to get back in the game. I’m not saying that I need to be in a committed relationship right away, definitely not. But I don’t want to close myself off from any opportunities, be that romance or friendship or whatever. (And if other elements of this could pick up, that would be gr8).

I’m mega keen to get back into photography again, as I kind of fell out of this when I was with my ex. I really miss it. Watch this space!

I’ve also started baking again, and it will soon be time to start my annual Christmas cake. I’m really enjoying trying out new recipes and experimenting with the new baking bits I got for my birthday.

While we’re on the topic of birthdays, I’d like to say a massive thank you to everyone that sent me birthday wishes a few weeks ago – I really appreciate it!

If you’ve read this, thanks. If you’d like to see more or less posts like this, let me know in the comments below. I hope you’re all having a good week. Mwah.

B xxo

Non Beauty things I have been loving lately

If you come here solely for the beauty posts, this is definitely not one for you. Turn away now and come back another day. I like reading people’s non beauty, lifestyle kind of posts so I thought I’d start doing a few on the off chance that you lot do as well.

The first non beauty thing that I have been loving recently is The Great British Bake-off. This is something that’s been going a few years now, and the new series started a few weeks ago on BBC2. The bake-off is definitely a love/hate thing. As a keen baker myself, I think this is brilliant. It’s really interesting to see how people interpret recipes differently, how their personal preferences effect their styles of baking, and how their skills progress throughout the series. It can also be very funny, and I am loving it being back of a Tuesday night. (Also, eye candy alert in the form of Paul Hollywood, he is yummy).

The second non beauty thing I have been loving lately is actually a re-discovery. If you are a female between the ages of 14 and 25 I’m willing to bet you will think these books are brilliant – The Heather Wells Mysteries. They’re written by Meg Cabbot, of Princess Diaries fame, and quite frankly they are brilliant. I read them over and over again. With titles such as Size 14 is not fat either, and Size 12 and ready to rock, how could you not love them. They follow ex pop sensation Heather Wells in her new job as a New York college residence hall worker, and document the fact that death seems to follow wherever she goes. I won’t give too much away because if you haven’t read them you really should. They aren’t too heavy, are full of laughs and just a really great series. Love them!

Another thing that I’ve really been enjoying lately is going to make me sound like I’m about 80, but I really do not care. I  have a lot of trouble sleeping. I don’t know why, I just do. It either takes me hours of tossing and turning to get to sleep, or I fall asleep straight away and then wake up in the middle of the night. As you can imagine, this is most inconvenient. However, I recently discovered…ovaltine! I know, I know, old lady alert. I’m only 19, I swear. I was reluctant to try this – my Grandma used to drink it for goodness sake. But to be honest, I’m willing to try almost anything for a decent night’s sleep. So I invested in some ovaltine (if you’re from the UK you’ll find it in any supermarket, it isn’t expensive) and gave it ago. I don’t know how it works, all I know is, it works. I’ve been sleeping so much better since I started drinking it before bed. Sam described it as a warm drink that tastes like maltesers and she’s right. You can get a kind that you make with milk, or a kind that you make with water. I have the kind you make with water because I don’t like milk sitting on my stomach right before bed. Honestly, this stuff is amazing. It tastes relaxing and it really has improved my sleep pattern. Magic.

B xxo 

Catching Up.

Hola bloggies!

In contrast with recent post, this isn’t actually a review, more of a catchy uppy kind of post. There is a lot going on currently, life and product wise, that I really need to get round to telling you about in detail. If you follow us on twitter you may know that me and S took a trip to the Trafford center a few weekends ago, where we each purchased a few looooovely bits. I am currently getting to grips with real techniques stippling and blusher brushes that I bought, as well as some more Aussie Miracle products, a Nars blusher and some soap and glory goodies. As well as this, I had my birthday on Monday. This meant that I was treated to some lovely bits, and I also treated myself (naughty, I know!). I was lucky enough to receive YSL touché éclat (highlighter, not foundation), something I have been lusting after for a loooong time now. As well as this, I bought myself a Liz Earle cleanse and polish starter kit as I have heard so many people raving about this. A little sneak preview of a review I will be writing on these shortly – I LOVE THEM. So once I’ve had chance to get a real feel of all of these products, there will be a haul style review post going up, I promise!

As well as this, me and S are planning our very first ever vlog, so that will be coming at you soon – exciting!

If you’ve taken the time to read this, if you follow us here, or anywhere else – thank you. We really appreciate it and we seeing that you guys are interested in what we have to say. 

 B xxo