Spring favourites and a lil' catch up

Long time no favourites, eh? Everything's been a bit sporadic on my blog over the last few months whilst I find my feet in my new home. I moved house at the end of April and I've spent a lot of time making it feel more homely and really getting comfortable here. 
So what else has been happening? I turned 24, and spent a whole lot of family time celebrating. I went down to Plymouth for a weekend to visit my sister and it was just fab. My boyfriend and I have spent so much time just being together over the past couple of months (and binge-watching a buttload of TV of course), and I've been loving it. 
Taking time back from my blog has allowed me to re-prioritise things. I'm no longer beating myself up over not constantly putting out more content and I'm spending more time keeping our house a place that I'm proud and happy to live in. But I've also discovered that I feel a bit lost without my blog, and realised how important it is to me and to my idea of who I am.
In other news, I passed my driving test, so I'm officially road legal and I finally got that pink license through today! Now I need to work on saving up for insurance to get behind the wheel. 
I'm doing my first ever 5K as an adult on Sunday and whilst I'm hella nervous, I'm also proud of myself for actually having a few training sessions. I'm raising money for the BCRT with this race, and you can read about why here. If you fancy donating anything, here's my JustGiving page too!

Beauty
I've finally found a whole bunch of things that suit my skincare needs to a tee and I'm v V excited to share them with you. 
First up is a cleansing duo that I've paired. For reference, I have spot-prone combination skin, with an oily t-zone and dry forehead (the dream). In the mornings I'm using the L'Oreal Pure Clay Detox wash. It gets down into my pores and smells FAB. In the evening, I've gone for something a bit more gentle and nourishing to remove my makeup. Soap and Glory's Peaches and Cream Deep Cleansing Milk is sensitive enough to use on my eyes, and really feels as though it's taking care of my skin, rather than clawing my makeup off. Plus it has that fake peach smell which I *love*.
With all the rubbish weather we've had over the last few months, my skin has been hella dry, and I really didn't expect much from nSpa's Pineapple body butter, but it totally shocked me. nSpa is Asda's own beauty brand, so completely affordable and this stuff was incredible. It's the most butter-like body butter I've ever used, and still sunk into my skin quickly. It also had the most divine scent. Think fruit salad chewits, or a pina colada, or somewhere between the two. At the moment you can only get it in a set with three other scents (here), but for £5 for all four, that's still a massive win!
Right at the other end of the price spectrum is the best face cream I've ever used, and I'm feeling so lucky that I got a mini pot a recent Reading in Heels sub box, because the full size tub is £147 *sweats*. Argentum's La Potion Infinie seeps into my skin almost instantly, making it feel plump and hydrated like nothing has ever done for me before. I pop it on before bed and it's the only face cream I've ever tried where I've not woken up with a greasy face in the morning. I'm officially a convert to using face cream now. 

Lifestyle
There are some shoes that have had me utterly obsessed over the past few months. True Blood is the main one here tbh. I never got around to seeing it when it was originally on TV, and during the first week in the new house with no internet and a need to rely on DVDs, we got through a WHOLE lot of this. If you're into anything supernatural/an excessive number of weird sex scenes then this is your bag.
I also got through the whole of SAFE on Netflix and need someone else to obsess over it with because why is no one else watching it??
I've read some pretty great books in the past couple of months, alongside a few completely shoddy ones, but one really stuck out. The Kite Runner is the best book I've read so far this year. The narrative was beautiful, the plot was just perfect, and it gave me a glimpse into a culture that I don't know masses about. It's a story of friendship and family and our attitudes towards others; we all need to read this. 
Last (and sort of least), I've found a washing up liquid that's good for the environment and doesn't set off my sensitive skin. Ecover's washing-up liquid is cruelty free, the bottles are made from recycled materials, it's plant-based and I've completely waved goodbye to Fairy.   Follow me on Bloglovin | Twitter | Instagram | Youtube | Facebook