August favourites

August has whizzed past even though it feels like my holiday was months! I am so excited for my favourite season Autumn and I guess it wont be long before we see Christmas decorations on the shelves (I already saw some Christmas tree and snowman cake toppings in Sainsbury's!) Anyway, on with the items which I have loved this month:



Benefit High beam has slipped into my hands this month as I have tried to catch on with the strobing/highlighting trend this summer. I also tried Benefits watts up but I preferred this product as the application is a lot easier and because it is a liquid formula the highlighter blends easier. This highlighter lives up to the name of being a highlighter however  my goal for September is to get my hands on the Becca champagne pop which is so highly recommended. Another beauty item which I have been enjoying this summer is a recent purchase from Bourjois and is their  from their colorband line. This product can either be used as an eye shadow, which is why I originally purchased it, or an eye liner which I have been loving to use it as. The only eyeliner colour which I have ever used is the traditional black but as I love a bronze eye I have been applying a lot. I am absolutely rubbish with eyeliner but I can miraculously apply this eyeliner in an okayish way.

Following my trip to Oxford street lush I have found a new favourite shower gel which is The Comforter. I have already used the bubble bar flavour the comforter and I adore the berry fragrance so I already knew this would top my list of shower gels.

This month I have really caught the Great British Bake Off fever (which on that note is a TV favourite) but following my love for the show I have been getting my bake on a lot more. This led me to purchase the Lola's cupcake recipe book in hope that I could sculpture some of their cupcakes. I really love this recipe book as it has pictures of each cupcake and I do love images in a book as a visual aid. The book contains some of the most adventurous recipes from Oreo cupcakes to chocolate tray bakes-it really is a cupcake addicts delight!

Nearing the autumnal months I thought I would invest in a candle with a warm, baking fragrance and I am in love with this scent, it has been so hard to resist not to crack it open now! Here I have the Vanilla cinnamon brulee flavour by the company Langley's home. This flavour is a twist on cinnamon and smells like I have just been baking cupcakes! The brand is really affordable as well as for this candle which would be £25 in Yankee candle I managed to purchase for £5.99!

In the shock realisation that I am going back to school in less than a week I went for a bit of stationary shop- the only thing which makes going back a little more bearable! I came across these pastel Sharpies which I really don't need but I thought just looked really pretty! I have seen so many shades of sharpies but never in these pastel colours, I probably won't use them for ages but at least I will always have them in my pen pot. Also, Sharpie is such as trustable brand for markers, even if you cannot write on the other side of the page!

Now for a clothing favourite which is these espadrilles from Superdry. These are my first ever pair of espadrilles and I managed to pick them up in the sale! The colour goes with all my clothes and they are just so casual and comfy! They are so flexible as I could pair them with jeans or a skirt.

Saving the best to last, my final favourite is Glee Season 6, it makes me want to cry that it is the final season and I am already on episode ten:( I love the music, characters, EVERYTHING about this show and I think I am going to have to do another post on my love of glee otherwise I will just ramble on about my love of glee forever!

What products have been your favourite in August?

DSLR camera for beginner bloggers

For a while I have been debating whether to invest in a decent DSLR camera as spending that much money on a camera would mean me making a major commitment to blogging. I then came across the issue on whether I would even be able to use proper DSLR camera as they just look like a load of buttons which control lots of settings, if I am honest I just wanted a camera which when I clicked on a button, magically, an amazing blogworthy photo would appear! So summed up I was a complete beginner photographer (who doesn't even know how to attach a lens to a camera) who wanted a camera which produced high quality photos, with little complications and was willing to spend around the £300 benchmark.

The camera research then commenced and I was immediately launched into the Nikon vs Canon debate as the brand which you start up with is the brand which you stay with as lenses(which are never outdated) only fit onto one brands camera models. In the end all the technical terms which is each blog/review site was using confused with and I simply just went onto my favourite bloggers accounts to see whether they used a Canon camera or a Nikon camera(I know technical!) Overall it tallied up that most of my favourite bloggers used a Canon camera- so Canon it was!

I went to Curry's for the final browse and decided that the best candidate was the Canon 1200d, I think it was the part in the description which screamed at me 'GREAT FOR FIRST TIME DSLR USER!' There was the two options for either the 1200d with the 18-55mm lens (which it always comes with) which was £279 or the slightly more expensive canon  1200d with the usual 18-55mm lens and the 70-300mm lens which was £363. I decided to bite the bullet and choose the latter as I realised that lenses on their own are around £100 at the cheapest so buying another lens now _even if I do not use it immediately) would probably save me money in the long run and I somehow managed to purchase the bundle for £330 anyway. Alongside this I had to purchase a memory card which I had no idea I needed to do until the shop assistant showed me (I told you I was a complete beginner!) I ended up purchasing this PNY 32 GB which would apparently hold up to 4000 photos.

http://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/cameras-and-camcorders/digital-cameras/dslr-and-compact-system-cameras/canon-eos-1200d-dslr-camera-with-18-55-mm-telephoto-zoom-lens-22001914-pdt.html

http://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/cameras-and-camcorders/digital-cameras/dslr-and-compact-system-cameras/canon-eos-1200d-dslr-camera-with-18-55-mm-f-3-5-5-6-zoom-lens-70-300-mm-f-4-5-6-dg-telephoto-zoom-lens-with-macro-10132477-pdt.html

http://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/cameras-and-camcorders/photography-accessories/memory-cards-and-readers/pny-turbo-performance-class-10-sd-memory-card-32-gb-10132838-pdt.html

All I needed to do once the camera was unboxed was to check out the app and watch a couple of youtube videos on how to apply a lens then after half an hour I was already up and taking photographs. The camera has the automatic setting to automatically apply the correct lighting/ focus to the scene you are in, then it has other settings best for moving photos, close up photos, the flash setting then the portrait setting. The camera also has the option to create videos and for when you become more experienced with your camera and want to adventure out there is the manual settings where you can adjust the focus yourself, e.t.c. This camera basically does the work for you, so for beginners like me this is a great investment. Here is some photos I took on the same day that I unboxed the camera, here I am displaying them against the iPhone 5s which we can appreciate that it has a good camera installed:

DSLR camera

 

iPhone 5s

 

 

DSLR camera

iPhone 5s camera

 

 

DSLR camera

iPhone 5s camera

A day trip to London

Considering I live in Kent I think it is pretty shameful that I only visit London twice a year and I have still only visited few of Londons spectacular sights.























On my latest visit to the capital my family and I visited the new and improved London Dungeons which was a fun visit. I usually find places like this boring but credits due to the staff who are amazing actors and actresses and actually make the information interesting. I didn't find any of it too scary but I was always kept at the edge of my seat (especially at the Sweeney Todd part!) The rides were amusing even though I did have to go on the last one alone as the rest of my family chickened out. My only complaint is that the queue to get in is really deceiving, you think you are at the end of the queue go through some doors and queue again, get your photo taken then queue again, go down a lift then queue again- so basically be prepared to stand!

We then popped along to Pret to have lunch and these are not a rare sight in London with one around every corner. Afterwards we joined the queue to the London eye which I had not ever been on before, this queue was not as deceiving as London dungeons and what I thought on appearance would be a two hour queue was actually only forty minutes and is constantly moving. I was extremely delighted to find a sweet stand right at the end and I think my family was happy too as I stopped complaining! We were quite surprised to have to get on the moving pod but once you are on you hardly feel as if you are moving. From a distance I thought that the eye would be an hour long but it only really lasted for 20 minutes and once you are up high it doesn't seem too bad (and this is coming from someone who has a fear of heights!) I would definitely ride the London eye again but I would like to experience it at night.

What is a visit to London without Oxford street? Unfortunately I could only visit one shop as my Dad was refusing to waste his London visit 'pointlessly' shopping. However I chose well and paid an over due visit to Lush Oxford Street which, with three floors and its only mini spa, I do believe is the largest in the world. However I think my purchases will have to wait for another post!

 

 

Thank you for reading, what are your favourite places to visit in London?

My phone in apps

-The socials

• Twitter
• Youtube
• Facebook
• Pinterest
• Instagram
• Snapchat
• Edmodo(a 'learning' app so that we can stay connected with school all the time!)
• Whatsapp

-The necessities

• Trip advisor
• Daily mail
• Mail online
• Google
• G-mail
• Google maps

-Photography

• Whitagram
• Pic collage
• Photo editor

-Blog related

• Blogger
• Bloglovin
• Google analytics

-The 'fun ones'

• Two dots
• Covet
• Tapped out
• Icon pop quiz
• Game of life
• Montezuma blitz
• Flappy bird (that ones a keeper)
• Dad trigger
• Quiz up

-The randoms

• Followers +
• Britain's got talent 2015
• Be my eyes
• Nutracheck

Yes that is a crack on my phone:/