How to get over someone

Hey there broken-hearted babes,

Well, I kind of assume that it'd mostly be those who have just gotten out of a relationship reading this because truth be told it was what I spent hours googling the day after I ended things with a guy. On a side-note, how very odd that in this generation we turn to the internet for advice about nearly everything?

Even though in my heart of hearts I knew it was for the best that things stopped, I still found it a little hard to not call him and tell him I changed my mind and wanted him back.

Maybe my situation is a little different and complicated but I still thought I'd write something to help if I can.

Here's the scoop, you might not stop wanting to get back together for a while but give it time and you'll realize that everyday you want him/her less. You've just got to convince yourself how this was the right decision! Things ended for a reason and if you go back there things will be different. You probably will never be able to go back to how you were before and that's a fact.

Only time heals all wounds. Maybe not physically but mentally.

 Do not under any circumstances follow the saying that to get over somebody you need to get under somebody else because you'll know when you're ready! Right now all you want to do is talk about how things went wrong and you just want someone to tell you that things will be alright. Do not mistake this need for a need for a new boy/girl.

That's about all I can think of at the moment.

Remember: stay strong, don't go back there unless you really think it can work out! There'll be other men/women, but until then you've got a cornershop that sells ice cream nearby haven't you?

The Problems of being Painstakingly Average

So you're painstakingly average too? Oh boy doesn't it suck. Not being the funny one, or the pretty one, or even the clever one. Life really isn't going in our favour is it?

Well at least not how you expected it to turn out. Because you always do think that things will be better as you grow older. You'll be beautiful, like a caterpillar turning into a butterfly but two years have passed and you're still the same person, wishing you'd be better.

Maybe that's just life. You get those who will always be the butterflies among us petty little caterpillars. Sucks doesn't it? I mean there's nothing you can really do to make yourself funnier, it just happens. And unless you have an extortionate amount of money I doubt you can really make yourself beautiful. 

That's about all I wanted to say really. How much it sucks to be average.  

How to get over all the embarrassing shit you do when you're drunk

Hey there drunkards who do embarrassing shit all the time,

Oh wait, maybe that's just me talking about myself.

You got it, I'm a drunk mess. And this is one of those mornings after when I'm not sure if I'm sober or not but every action of mine last night just makes me cringe and want to shop a lot. Like a lot. Spending nearly half my student loan kind of lot.

So let me tell you how your drunk or embarrassing stories can be no worse than mine. Take last night. I pretty much got talking to a really cute guy who seemed into me and vomited all over his leg. Then he tried to put me in a taxi and I wouldn't budge and kept on saying no because I refused to get in a taxi without him. At this point I must have been such a mess I don't blame him for wanting out. And I'm sure I did some more embarrassing and surely offending things, like asking someone if he was gay.

Yes. Classy lady aren't I?

So here's how to get over it:

You don't.

Sure it'd help if you tried to laugh it off but really, only time can make you feel less self concious about it.

Time, lots of episodes of Suits and good food.

Take it from someone who has been there many times and back.

Updates

Hey there good looking,

Yeah, I totally meant you because I am a shameless flirt. 

Enough so that the other night as a joke I told a guy that  if he wasn't doing anything for his birthday I'd give him an invitation to the pants party. He didn't get that it was from Anchorman and later on text me his address. 

So I should apologize for my lack of activity on this blog. As you might have guessed, I am back at university which means the party animal in me has been unleashed and I've been spending the last week partly drunk which would not make for a good blog post. 

Also I have been bombarded with reading to do and lots of work and events and argh I can't even. It feels like there's so much to do (in a good way) but so little time. It doesn't help that my application for a studying abroad is due in soon, as are my forms for a work placement. 

I shall try to review a face mask soon or talk about something vaguely interesting, instead of telling you these sorry excuses. 

You stay classy blog readers.

Appreciation

So it is that time of year again, where I move out of London and back to university. Where I spend four days panicking and the last hour hurriedly packing everything that catches my eye. Even the three mini garden gnomes I somehow have managed to find in my room.

It all fills me with a bitter-sweet emotion because I love my family, and I love how I never have to pay for food, but I can't wait to see my friends again and party hard get my shit together this year.

It's like that feeling you get when you go back to school after the summer holidays and you just feel a bit like a new born deer. You've just been away from everything for so long, and you just never want to step out of your front door because you know it will mean that you have to leave all those long summer days behind.

But you do, you step out of your front door, you go back to school and it turns out to be okay.

Hopefully this year won't be go badly for me.

So after an eventful summer, where I begrudgingly worked at a superstore, gave a presentation at a conference full of lecturers, actually went to a conference full of lecturers, started my blog and learnt to appreciate my family, it's time to go back.

It's been a good four months.

Hello Fresher

Hey there,

So I know this might be a little late but I thought I'd make a post about some tips for freshers! Firstly, I would like to say congratulations for getting into university! You are going to have the finest, most memorable and crazy years of your life there.

We've all heard about the mental partying, missing home, not being able to cook for yourself and the work hard, play hard aspect of university. So let me not bore you with that and instead give you some small tips to overcome unusual/not so spoken about problems that I discovered last year:

1. If you live in a self-catered hall you will most probably have to do your own dishes and won't have a dishwasher. Now here's what you shouldn't do. Put your sponge in the sink assuming that it will not be destroyed and eventually have more food than sponge on it.

2.  You will run out of tissue paper. And kitchen tissue rolls.


3. If you are a girl you will have to shave/wax every other freakin' day for nights out. So be wise and get some tops with sleeves and leggings with patterns on it or something?

4. Eventually all your clothes will smell of spilled alcohol from nights out/generally smell because you just haven't washed them since you've gotten there. As will you bedsheets. And you'll have crumbs on them from all the times you eat in bed watching shit on your laptop. 

So either spray that shit with perfume/do NOT forget to do a massive wash. Or you will smell and drive all your shiny new friends away. 

5. You will meet a lot of people on nights out. But here's the thing, sometimes you want to meet people who actually like the same things as you. So a lot of people might tell you not to go crazy and sign up for a lot of societies but don't do the complete opposite and sign up for nothing.

Don't end up joining nothing and eventually realizing that it's too late to sign up for anything at all. 

That'll be THE best way to meet people who aren't in your course and live in your halls. Because by the end of the year you'll feel like you've limited yourself so much. 

There you are. All done. 

I really hope they helped and these aren't just problems that I faced. 

Once again, although I'm sure you've heard it before, don't get so pissed at freshers that you don't know what you're doing. And don't do something stupid while you're that drunk like losing your virginity or passing out in a field in the middle of nowhere. 

Also, try to redecorate the pavement with your vomit because I don't want to see that shit you animal.  

(Also avoid your kitchen table/bed)

On that note, good bye and RIP to FMF 

Revolutions, helplessness and other antics

I don't what it is about today but I just feel angry and sad and a little bit violent. Kind of sounds like the symptoms of depression. Don't worry, my job hasn't made me lose the will to live just yet. I'll see about that in a couple more weeks. 

I just feel like things aren't right. I feel so helpless and unable to do anything in relation to the topics I care about. Let me give you a few examples: 

- The current Syrian situation and how Britain can even contemplate going into Syria. Has history taught you nothing Cameron? Maybe the saying is true, that history does repeat itself because fools do not notice the patterns. 

- The continuous disrespect of the humanities in today's society. Because science clearly outweighs the humanities in importance. I am sick of hearing about things like new technology that can enable you to control someone else's actions through your thoughts. It's only a matter of time until that technology is going to be misused and no one else seems to care enough about this. I understand the importance of science. I know, being a History student, the fundamental role that Chemistry has in our lives from the materials around us to the sub-shells in an atom that allows it to have its functions. But why is it that History has become a dying art? History sculpts your mind in the best of ways, allowing you to think in unique way. 

But it's much more than just those two things. It's anger over poverty, the impacts of consumerism, greed, lack of morality and all these other matters. I guess it's just one of those days right? 

I just want to start a revolution on days like this. I want to join a march for something that counts, I want to stand up for what I believe in.

Alas, so lost am I in my thoughts I forget the coward that I am and the metaphorical cage that I trap myself in. I come up with excuses as to why I am helpless to do anything. I think of my bank balance, which is currently at a great big 0. 

And I come to the conclusion that maybe I am unable to do anything. Maybe it's not time yet. Maybe this just isn't my role in the world.

I imagine this is how all potential revolutionists die inside a young person.

Here I am, complaining, letting my inner revolutionist wither, as I think oh well, I feel like having a piece of red velvet cake. 

Belief

Oddly enough I've been thinking about a higher power of some sort a lot recently; odd because this is never a topic I like to dwell into a lot. It leads to a nasty spiral in my twisted mind where I go from belief to the meaning of life to inevitably ending up at a point where I begin to wonder about my existence on earth and how indescribably insignificant the impact of my existence has been. Although may I add, not in a suicidal way, just in a 'losing all hope, why am I even doing anything when I will amount to doing nothing in the eyes of the world' manner. We all have our moments.

Whilst I am a follower of the Jain way of life, I find that religion makes me feel guilty. Religion makes a lot of people feel guilty. Maybe that's the ultimate role of religion and even the idea of a higher existence...to make you feel conscious about your actions and thoughts. Don't get me wrong, that's not a bad in any way because more often than not I have recently been feeling that I need to be reminded about my morals. Morals keep me grounded, and personally my morals are the strongest when I am around my parents who often remind me of right and wrong.

Here is what I have concluded over my summer of being mostly isolated of all decent company (no, my parents and little brother do not count). The thing is about being so withdrawn is that you begin to think a lot more. People's thoughts affect you a lot less and frankly after my numerous incidences in the past year, which I shall not get into, it is just what I need.

Sorry, I've just gone off topic. I believe. That is what I have concluded. I think everyone needs a bit of belief in their life. Everyone needs a higher power to look up to when life does not turn out how you expect it to. Belief in that higher power, whether it is science or God, is what keeps us going in our times of hardship. Even thought you do not realize it, religion becomes a part of you.

It is good that religion makes you feel conscious of your actions. Of course I am not referring to extremism, or supporting homophobia. I am talking about how a higher power can make you a better person because you want to do more good. And I hate it when people are so adamantly against religion because surely anything that often provokes a person to change for the better and do good in the world is something to support. A higher power is something which I cannot avoid. There must be something greater than the human race out there which controls the fate of our actions. A puppeteer to the puppets would be a cynical way to look at this. But you get what I mean. I don't know if it is Allah, or God or simply an invisible force which has no consciousness. I just know that the universe is big and ever expanding, and there has to be something out there.

I think that belief in anything is brilliant. My crisis now is what I believe in. 

Apivita express beauty with orange review

Oh look it's the return of Face Mask Fridays! I know, exciting times.

So this week I popped into the huge Marble Arch M&S near work and saw face masks on offer for £2.40 so obviously I couldn't resist myself. It was a double wammy, face masks on sale hit me hard. 

As I've probably said before my skin is normal, it never gets very oily nor dry unless it's winter or I've used a bad face wash. That's why I find it so hard to pick face masks because there are so many for oily skin. Because I'm such a little dare devil I went with orange, it's been a while and I've never seen a face mask with orange oil before.

As per usual, here's a picture:

I was expecting good things from this packet mostly because it looked fancy and it was from the one and only Marks and Spencers. It also said that it was paraben free at the back and I've found that products without parabens/SLSs have a better affect on my skin and hair than other products.

It all started out well as I applied the face mask because it smelt really fresh and refreshing. In an odd way it reminded me of the refreshers sweets in a good way. The minute the mixture hit my skin I could feel the tingling. Personally I love it when I can feel something because it shows that the face mask is actually doing something to my face.

I quote, the orange essential oil is supposed to 'tone and moisturise leaving skin with a natural glow and radiance'. After about ten minutes I started washing off the mask. This was an aspect I absolutely hated because the face mask was so hard to wash off due to its oiliness.

Eventually when I took off the mask I could see that the effect was not what I hoped it would be. The mask made bumps on skin more prominent and my skin felt a lot skin drier after washing it off. I expected this face mask to make my skin softer and clearer but it did not achieve that.

Therefore this FMF will be given a 1.5/5.

Good thing it smelt so nice and I'm easily won over like that.

Just give me something that smells good and tastes nice and I'm yours. Seriously. If you ever want to woo me, all you have to do as you see me busting a move on the dance floor of a club is come up to me and say these exact words:

"Want to grab a pizza and maybe a slice of cake?"

I swear I will look at you like you are Ryan Gosling and worship you for your wise words. 

There we go, a FMF that was on time and tips on how to get me to fall into your arms.

Until the next time sports fans. 

Finally a working woman?

Hey there,

I would just like to apologize for the absence of Face Mask Fridays for the last two weeks. The thing is, an unexpected event has finally occurred; someone has finally had the good fortune of hiring me. Gosh, about time right?

No, I'm just kidding. It was a combination of applying for roughly 100 jobs and that tad bit of luck. I should be grateful for the fact that I'm being paid by this chain store (I'll just leave it to that, I don't know if I'm really allowed to mention where I work because I might have put my blog down on my cv. I know, it's slim pickings). 

Obviously being the poor broke little thing that I am I accepted. But oh woe, the fates were not on my side. A couple of hours later I got an offer for an interview at a corporate bank and a job offer for an internship. Now I feel like a douche working at a chain store straightening up shelves and asking customers if they want a bag with their shopping. 

I hate not being able to use my brain and doing the same mind-numbingly boring tasks every day that require no skill at all for eight hours straight. Especially when I finish at 11pm.

So there you have it. The reason for a lapse in FMF (a little abbreviation always helps matters). 

I'm finally a kind of working woman. Except I'm not sure I like it. I hate how rude the customers are, I hate not being appreciated, I hate not being able to use my brain. But I mostly hate how I know I could do better than this, because as arrogant as it may sound to some I have complete faith in my abilities and I know that I shouldn't be in this dead-end job that eventually kills all hope and ambition you have. 

Maybe it's because this job is not for me and I need to be at a place where I can think, be able to input my thoughts and have control. 

I'm just glad I have to endure only five more weeks of this monotonous lifestyle.

I am pretty sure if this carried on for any longer I may have had to abandon all my feminist principles and just marry a rich man so I wouldn't have to work. 

Let's leave my complaining to that shall we? I will of course try to do a FMF post the coming week, because a girl needs a treat every now and again. 

Don't forget to be awesome.

Honey & Oat 3 In 1 Scrub Mask by The Body Shop review

Bonsoir the part of the internet that's into face masks,

As promised in my past review, I am going to be reviewing TBS's hit product, 3-in-1 Honey and Oat scrub mask. Now let me tell you I was very very excited about trying this product out, mostly because I gave it a sniff last week and it smelt heavenly. I was interested to see if the product would really be worth its retail value of £10.00 for 100ml. Most Body Shop products I have encountered have actually been worth what I paid for them, like the body mists, which smell wunderfullll and don't run out for a good six months. 

Now here is what the product looks like on the shelves if any of you have severe difficulties in locating it and/or are merely interested in the packaging:

Very good. Now let us move on to the glory that is held inside this pot. The texture of this face mask was unusual. It was a smooth creamy mixture with some gritty bits in. You know, to make it seem natural and exfoliating. Did you know you could put sand in a body wash/face mask and you'd have the exact same exfoliating result, if not better? 

So the first thing I noticed was the gorgeous smell of the mixture (which I've mentioned like five times already). It was an amazingly sweet yet natural fragrance. The whole product seemed to scream natural at the top of its lungs. In fact I must have awarded it 2 out of 5 in my head just for the smell regardless if it gave me rashes or not. I just thought to myself, even if I do get dry skin and spots everywhere, boy there would be no better smelling way of doing it.

As I put it on I felt a cool sensation and hoped that the mask was really going to be worth it. Surprisingly, it was. I took it off after 10-15 minutes and not only did my face smell lovely, my skin actually looked cleaner and shinier, in the good way, like I had a healthy glow or something. Dead impressed, well done The Body Shop! Unfortunately all good things must come to an end so the effect of the mask did not last long but none the less, it was lovely to go around for a day with my skin looking as it did (i.e. slightly improved).

Overall, 4/5. Smelt amazing. Loved the natural feel of the product and the fact that it actually brought good results. However, the price was too high for me. Maybe it does bring mega results after long term use but honestly, £10 is a good roast, drink and dessert at 'Spoons. And I'm the kind of girl who chooses to get fat over good skin. Aw yeah. 

P.s. Any French readers, can you tell me how to say 'aw yeah' in French? If there is such a saying for that in French. If not, don't worry, I'll improvise and put a French accent on while saying 'aw yeah'. Yes, I know, I am terrible. 

A plus tard.

'I am drunk/pregnant' and other things you should avoid saying in French

Hello reader,

So yesterday I had lunch with a friend of mine who is fluent in French and incidentally a couple of her French speaking friends. It started off as a nice meeting, I love meeting new people, especially if they're from a different culture than me. As the lunch went along everyone would use little French phrases which I would totally pretend to understand while in my head I'd be freaking out, not knowing what I had just nodded in agreement to. For all I know Sexy-French-Ben-With-The-Stubble (also known as Ben to his friends), could have been saying how he thought right-wing politics was the way forwards and animal testing was completely justified.

Now as a wannabe French speaker I naturally wanted to impress these people and show off the little French I remembered. The problem was I couldn't remember a single French phrase that would be appropriate so I thought to myself, "hey, you know how to conjugate verbs, you know how to say I am. Come on brain, whisk me up a phrase. How hard can it be to get three words wrong?"

Oh you are about to find out where it all went wrong.

Sexy-French-Ben-With-The-Stubble was going to order a dessert of some kind and asked us all, "does anyone else want anything?". Then the ego monster rose in my chest, oh so eager to impress Sexy-French-Ben-With-The-Stubble and show them that I too could speak a little French. So the words "non merci, je suis plein" escaped from my lips.

Let me go through that with those who do not understand what just happened. Naturally I wanted to say, "no thank you, I'm full" in French. I am, would translate to je suis, and the verb full would be conjugated to plein. Which I thought was correct at the time.

Then everyone kind of froze and looked at me suppressing smirks, understanding my intended sentence, and Sexy-French-Ben-With-The-Stubble just shared a small chuckle with his friend and smiled politely at me. Knowing I must have said something wrong I pulled my friend aside after and asked her why they were all laughing, and it was then she told me that "je suis plein" often meant "I am knocked up" in English.

Yes, "je suis plein" = slang for "I am knocked up".

I looked it up later and it can also mean "I am drunk".

Great. Sexy-French-Ben-With-The-Stubble will never look at me in the same way again. They all understood my mistake and what I actually meant to say but it was still a little embarrassing.

Naturally I looked up other phrases which don't mean quite what you intend them to mean in French. Here are a few if you, like me, are a self-embarrassing French speaker:

• Je suis chaud - I am hot (expected meaning) - I am horny/warming up for something (actual meaning) - J'ai chaud (what you should say instead)
• Je suis fini - I am finished (expected meaning) - I am dead (actual meaning) - J'ai fini (what you should say instead, I HAVE finished)

Here are a list of other words in which you should use the verb avoir, because as per usual, there are some exceptions to the "je suis". http://french.about.com/od/expressions/a/avoir.htm

I have some others too but I think I shall build them up and make a new post some other time when I have enough mistakes. Hopefully I won't find these mistakes the way I found out this one and embarrass myself in front of  Sexy-French-Ben-With-The-Stubble.

Salut

Garnier Pure Sauna Self-Heating Mask Review

Hello there,

Yes, it is in fact a Sunday, but let's go ahead with the Face Mask Friday thing. Because it's catchier than Face Mask Sunday right? And I'm all about the alliteration. I should make that a theme too, "All About Alliterations" and start posting up cool alliterations. Except no one will read it. Moving on, my apologies for making this two days late. I was preparing for an interview and dragged to Oxford Street with my mother only to spend three hours in Marks and Spencer wondering what my life had come to.

The mocking, sorry reviewing, of today's product is based around Ganier's Self-Heating mask. All jokes aside, I will refrain from mocking, and try to 'tell it as it is' - after all how many other ways are there of telling 'it'? Go on, give us a ball park figure politicians (like they'd be reading this blog, I mean look at their pores).

I picked up the face mask at Boots, mostly because it was £0.85 for two 6ml sachets which was the cheapest face mask I had brought yet. Considering this was produced from quite a known brand it seemed like excellent value for money. For all you animal lovers, unlike The Body Shop or Superdrug Tea Tree products it had no guarantee against animal testing. It also looked highly professional and because I could never in the next three years afford to go to the spa I very much liked the sauna aspect. Now to make my room steamy and get someone with a Russian accent doing my face mask. At least that's how I imagine spas work.

Before I spread this face mask onto my face the smell hit me. It smelt like a Garnier face wash I had tried out a couple of years ago. It isn't a bad smell, more of a raw but fresh cosmetics smell. However I am concerned that what if all the Garnier products have the same signature smell? Let me just give you a piece of advice if you're starting a cosmetics company: if you want your products to have the same notable smell, do not make it smell like Garnier's face mask. I want the products that I apply to my body smelling nice, hence why I spend a fortune at The Body Shop. Nevertheless I applied to concoction to my face, and surprisingly enough as I massaged it around my face I could actually feel it heating up my skin. I then removed it after five minutes (despite the packaging saying three minutes). It hadn't hardened or anything but was still in it's liquid form.

My skin felt drier after the ordeal and two days later and my skin no longer felt fresh like it did on the day of the face mask despite a promise for skin to feel purified "for up to 7 days". Luckily it also didn't feel as dry either. I guess you can't get it all huh?

It'll be a 1.5/5.

Marks deducted for the smell, how the effect wore off, the dryness, and how there wasn't as much of an effect as I thought there would be. It didn't make my face as clearer as some of the other products I've tried but good affordability and definitely for those with oily skin.

Anyway that is all the juice I can give you on face masks this week. Next week I'll try out the Honey and Oat Scrub Mask from The Body Shop. I've been wanting to try this out for a long time but the £10 price tag attached to it scared the poor student inside me. I happened be in a luck and met a lovely lovely lady from a store in London who gave me free samples of two face masks so I could figure out whether I liked them or not.

I'll mix it up a little next week and try to post about something that is not about face masks, as well as continuing with Face Mask Fridays (yes, really, it will be on a Friday this time, Sunday shall be used as God intended it to, for rest, video games and eating fatty food without regrets).

À bientôt.  

Body Shop's Seaweed Ionic Clay Mask Review

Salut,

Well look at that, Face Mask Fridays is so a thing. I mean if you've done something twice it's a thing isn't it? At least that's how it works in my world. Which is probably why I consider myself an expert at yoga from having been to ten lessons or so in the space of a year.

Moving on from my lack of yoga skills, I was browsing in my local branch of The Body Shop this week (they're having a sale so it's only understandable why I was won over). Then I saw the sachet version of Body Shop's Seaweed Ionic Clay Mask on the counter. The original pot packaging looks something like this:

The pot is £12 for 100ml and my sachet was £1.50 for 6ml. I know, The Body Shop wins again for its brilliant affordability factor. Okay yes go on all you Body Shop fanatics, throw a rant at me about how this is because The Body Shop goes out of its way to avoid animal testing but may I just point out that my Tea Tree face peel from Superdrugs (refer to last weeks post) was more than a third cheaper and for more product too, as well as the fact that it stated at the back that it did not test this product on animals. 

The question is, was this face mask worth it? I applied the clay like mixture onto my face, so well done Body Shop for really sticking to the title there. The face mask smelt lovely, really fresh and clean which made it bearable to sit around improving my yoga until I realized my face was so stiff I could only mumble. It was time to see the results. I washed off the stiff bits of mask and in that aspect Superdrug's Tea Tree mask was more fun because I could easily peel it off. Well life is not fair, so I continued in my struggle to remove the concoction from my face.

Now the result was pretty non-existent. In all fairness this face pack is for oily skin which I do not have but it seemed like a bit of a fluff product to me. Body Shop describes it to "draw out impurities" be "clarifying" and "refreshing". Refreshing it was. I really enjoyed how fresh my face felt but it still left my blackheads as they were and my skin looked a little clearer. But that could have just been a bit of the clay mixture left over. 

I'll give it a 2/5. Lovely smell, felt fresh after but made no difference to me really, could have achieved the same by washing my face in cool water and I would have saved myself a good bit of money too. 

That's all on Face Mask Fridays.

À bientôt.  

Tea Tree Peppermint Peel Off Face Mask Review

Hello my lovely lovely blog viewers,

So today I thought, hey, it's Friday, let's get crazy. The sun is shining, it's nice and warm. It's time to bring out the face mask I brought upon impulse yesterday in Superdrug.

So let me say, this is the first time in my nineteen years of existent that I have used a face mask. I know, I hear all you well-groomed gals yelling "how could that be?!". As it turns out I'm not so well-groomed. I tend to get by on the odd splash of water on my face.

So anyway, I thought it'd be a lovely pampering thing to do for a jobless university student. I even thought about making it a thing you know? Like Face Mask Fridays! We'll see how far my budget stretches (yes I am that broke, all money is welcome).

Tea Tree Peppermint Peel Off Mask costs £0.89 at Superdrug which I thought was quite good, and it's enough for two masks (if you've got a small enough face like myself). The minute I put the jell like goop on my fingers the smell of peppermint hit me. Quite nice if you like that kind of thing. I'm more of a grapefruit girl myself.

The first thing I noticed after I spread a thin layer of it on my face was the cool burn of it. Before you go on about the paradox I just created for you let me try to explain. It numbed my face but I could also feel a kind of sting to it. I just went along with it, what do I know about face masks after all? I'm guessing this was the peppermint playing its part. The description did say "Peppermint oil is renowned for its therapeutic effect on skin disorders and for its cooling sensation". The slightly uncomfortable sensation continued for the next five minutes or so until the mask had stiffened on my face.

Now to see the results. I peeled the mask off my face and for a moment my skin looked a little brighter but then I went to wash the remainder of the mask off my face with water and my skin just kind of went back to before.

See, my skin's quite normal. The occasional spot and a bit of dry skin but nothing face cream can't solve. The tiny spot on my chin was still there after the mask, and maybe, if it wasn't the light of my bathroom messing with me, it had gone down a little and lo behold the blackheads on my nose were fading too. My skin hadn't brightened, it wasn't softer and my complexion was pretty much still the same. 

All in all, nice treat, face felt refreshed and my skin was a bit cleaner. Good for a girls night in, but soap does the exact same function if you're broke like me. 3/5 at a push.

I guess sometimes face masks are all about the psychological effects they bring. Maybe my spot hasn't really gone down and blackheads are still there. Who knows, but I think I'll try another face mask next week (a brand called Amie or Superdrug's finest depending on money - side note Superdrug did not pay me to do this aha). 

Face Mask Fridays  is rapidly becoming a thing.

À la prochaine fois!

Is marriage a form of prostitution?

So today I want to talk about marriage.

Not high on my set of goals in life, but then again being a 19 year old university student miserably failing her French modules probably really affects my opinion.

Nevertheless, it's a matter that's been on my mind since a cousin of mine recently got engaged, the feminist lecture I sat in on last month and then hearing the phrase "marriage is a form of prostitution". So let me get out my thoughts on this wonderful blog of mine and avoid learning French conjugation eh?

The definition of prostitution according to oxforddictionaries.com is "the unworthy or corrupt use of one's talents for personal or financial gain". It can apply to marriage in many ways, for example if you have no sustainable income of your own, maybe your husband is just a tool used for financial forms and your relationship consists of using your talents as a housewife, or cook to keep your husband happy and have access to his funds. But in my opinion it's all about mental respect. If your husband/wife respects you and treats you as their equal there isn't anything "unworthy or corrupt" about your talents. And surely you aren't gaining anything out of it either because marriage should not be about financial gains but it can often come down to it.

I'm confusing myself a little here. What I'm saying is that a form of prostitution in marriage can only exist if you allow yourself to be unequal to your partner regardless of if you're male or female. To a certain point I agree with this statement, because everywhere around me all I see is marriage as a dead end without and escape route. People are stuck in it because of financial reasons, or because of emotional ones (i.e. children). I guess I just have to see more successful marriages built on love that seems to last (that last bit made my insides cringe a little), on mutual agreements and respect.

Maybe after thinking about this I'm not all opposed to marriage. Marriages shouldn't have a hierarchy but that often tends to be the case and sadly it often seems to work out. I guess a marriage is really what you make of it. I am the quietly stubborn kind of person who wouldn't be satisfied if I didn't get the respect I deserved and be infuriated if I wasn't an equal in any sort of personal relationship. So if marriage really is a "form of prostitution" it isn't for me and all those other individuals who have the same views as me.

Just some thoughts from a hesitant borderline feminist. Feel free to agree/disagree in the comments section (if I've got one!)

À bientôt.