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

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

Our Moment - One Direction perfume.

A lot of you are probably, understandably, thinking that all Directioners were bound to buy Our Moment, regardless of whether they liked it or not. I can see where you’re coming from, however, this is not me. I am very particular about perfumes. A lot of them make me feel extremely nauseous and therefore if I don’t like it, or if I have any reservations at all, I just won’t wear it, let alone buy it. So when I heard about the impending release of Our Moment I thought oh god, this is potentially going to smell disgusting. If so, I certainly will not buy it. Perfumes in general are not cheap, and I wasn’t going to spend out on something and then not use it.

So last weekend when I was in Liverpool, I popped into the shops to investigate. The perfume had been released that week so naturally, there were cardboard cutouts and displays galore. I was impressed to hear that The Perfume Shop had completely sold out, and were waiting on a delivery of the fragrance. So I popped over the road into Superdrug to suss out the situation there. There was a large crowd gathered around the sample on display. Groups of teenage girls, mothers and daughters, even a man buying it for his girlfriend (how sweet, awh). I took a step back and watched the rabble for a few minutes. It became clear that Superdrug had sold out of the large and medium sized bottles, and only had the 30ml left. The sales assistant behind the counter was frantically phoning around other stores to try and find out who had what in stock. It was, crazy. When I could get close enough, I bought the 30ml bottle (£20).

I love this scent, it is exactly my taste. I do not love the packaging. When H Styles was asked, he said that they wanted to make the perfume as affordable as possible, in the best interest of all the fans. In my opinion, the box kind of does look like it’s a child’s perfume. The floating heads of the 1D boys is quite frankly weird, and there is a whole lot of pink. What I did like, upon opening the box, was the cute little booklet/note basically saying thanks for buying this, you are amazing, with all of the boys signatures. (Nice touch there, Modest). The bottle itself is…interesting. The pinkish tinge to the glass is fine. As is the Our Moment written across the front. The crazy lid certainly makes it stand out. It is kind of shaped like a crown (apparently, we’re all 1D’s princesses…) which is okay, but the big pink netted bit in the middle of the top not only makes it look cheap and tacky, but it’s quite impractical. This makes it difficult to carry it around in your bag because of how big it makes it, and it’s also so quite tricky to actually get in to.

Once you do manage to open the bottle, you discover that the perfume smells amazing. What I will say is that I can imagine this to be a total marmite product. You are either going to love this perfume, or you’re going to hate it. My first thought was, this is very sweet, it’s a little bit like Black XS. (I adore Black XS). My Mumma disagrees completely, and thinks that it smells like Red Door (I love that, too). She doesn’t like it, and described it as a very sickly smell. It has top notes of pink grapefruit, forest fruits and red currants, although to me I don’t think it smells overly fruity when you first spray it. The middle tones of freesia, jasmine and frangipani work to mute the fruit element, without actually taking any of it away. What really comes across as the day wears on, are the undertones of patchouli and musk. All of these different elements compliment each other beautifully to make admittedly, a particularly sweet, yet not overpowering fragrance. It sits on the skin beautiful and does last a long time with no need to reapplying. This product gets a huge thumbs up from me – I smell yummy.

B xxo

A Film, A Band, A Book.

As Autumn/Winter comes in, so does the time for a) going to lots more gigs (this always happens when the weather is rubbish),  b) snuggling up and watching a plethora of weird and wonderful films, and c) reading lots of lovely books. Mine and Sam’s tradition of snugging up to watch utterly crap films kind of prompted this last week. So I’m joining the trend of picking a film, a band, and a book that I think deserves mentioning, each month, and telling you lot about them.

A Dangerous Method

When I originally wrote the intro to the post, I wrote film/band/song that I’m loving. I had to change it, for this film. I can’t not mention this, but it certainly is not something that I am loving.

So as most of you probably know, Netflix recommends you films that it thinks you will like, depending on what you’ve watched/shown interest in before. For months now, Netflix has been recommending A Dangerous Method to me. I didn’t watch it. I didn’t even look to see what it was about – because the cover looked completely rubbish. Then last week when I was looking into Michael Fassbender’s filmography, I stumbled across the description of a film that sounded brilliant. To summarise, A Dangerous Method supposedly documents the relationship between Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung, along with the catalyst of their controversial patient Sabina Spielrien. Freud fascinates me, and through a very good friend I have heard a lot about Jung. Coupled with Michael Fassbender, who is clearly some kind of god, I thought hello, this film is going to be mind-blowingly amazing. So imagine my surprise when I went into Netflix and discovered it was the very film they had been telling me I should watch. Naturally I took this as a sign that I was going to love this film. Let me tell you know; I did not love this film. Everything about this film, dictated that it should be brilliant. It isn’t. It is utterly bizarre – the angle that it chooses to portray the story from is quite frankly crazy. Viggo Mortensen plays a very good Freud, however this was completely wasted on the audience as the whole film seems to work to undermine everything that Freud ever concluded. In fact, there is very little mention of his actual work – bar the odd few lines of Jung mocking his thoughts. Michael Fassbender is, as per usual, brilliant. The part that he plays seems to be a million miles away from the truth about Carl Jung – but as he did a lot of whipping and whatnot, I won’t complain about that. I have watched this film twice (hoping maybe I could teach myself to like it)  and both times I have reached the end of it thinking, what a wasted opportunity. It really could have been such a fantastic film – could have given a lot of people a better understanding of how two brilliant minds came together and shaped a science still applied today. But no, sadly not. Nice one, Cronenberg.

Sensorites. 

If you follow my personal twitter you will know that I’ve been loving this band for a while now. I am the first to admit that my music taste is…varied, to put it mildly. My spotify playlists jump from Death Metal to manufactured boybands, and any number of things in between. I like it that way. So anyway, Sensorites. Completely accidental discovery I won’t lie. I think it was around February of this year. In the midst of breaking up with my now ex boyfried, who I had spent a lot of time at heavy metal gigs with, I was very ready to go back to something sounded completely different. So I toddled off to a Parlour Flames gig (I’m the biggest Oasis fan ever, of course I was going to go) in Liverpool. I will admit, I was a bit sceptical about how this was going to go. The venue was an unusual choice for the kind of event and it wasn’t as busy as I would have liked. So we sat down, and on came the first support act. I can’t even remember who it was, I think I’ve blocked him from memory (if by some weird coincidence you get to read this, sorry honey, you just weren’t my style at all). So by that point I was feeling pretty, yk, what the hell have I walked into, when Sensorites started playing. If you’re into music, then you’ll know exactly how it is when you discover something new and amazing. When your ears prick and the hairs on the back of your neck stand up and the sound just seems to seduce your brain to a puddle on the floor. They have a sound that I won’t even try and describe because there’s no way that I’d do it justice, and it’s the kind of thing that you should discover for yourself. I’ve seen them twice since that night and both times, they have sounded brilliant. I’m just completely loving their sound – it is definitely my soundtrack for the moment. Go and check out their website!

I’m obsessed with reading, but I’ve been that busy this month or so that I haven’t had 5 minutes to pick up a new book, which is kind of soul destroying. Trying to find the time to sit down and read the highway code for my driving lessons is hard enough! Watch this space for a little review on the book I have sitting at home desperately waiting for me to pick up J

B xxo