It's that dreaded time of year again - the annual week long UK summer. As of Sunday I started to notice my face getting a little melty, and by Tuesday I was basically competing against the sun to keep my makeup from downright sweating off. I don't know about you, but we whacked out the oscillating fans and took to thrice daily showers to keep cool.
As with any weather change, your skin will tend to react. A lot of us get slightly chapped (hopefully it's not just me?!) skin in winter on their face, and summer can have an effect too. The combination of excess sweat and the fact that my makeup doesn't have an opportunity to settle basically means that not only has this been heatwave week for me, but it could have been breakout central week. So, I made sure I stuck rigorously to my skincare regime and finally (hopefully) I've found a way to keep heat-induced skin issues at bay.
So, what's my miracle formula? Well, I've got combination skin, that's usually dry to combi, but there's been hardly a sighting of those little cakey-foundation inducing patches of horror recently. I used to be super lazy way back in those teenage years, and you were lucky if I actually washed my face in the morning, let alone had a full on routine for this stuff. Although I do have a routine, teenage Steph is still inside their somewhere, so it's by no means a full on 20 product every day kind of thing, but just takes a few minutes in the morning and evening to keep my skin happy.
Now let's get chatting this routine! First up I start my day off with a quick cleanse using my Nip + Fab Glycolic Fix Cleanser. I've actually got a whole post on this range and why I love it here. I just use water and the cleanser here to get rid of any grease that's built up overnight. If you've got dry skin I probably wouldn't recommend this, as sometimes it can leave my combi skin feeling a little tight.
Then we move onto preparing my face for the day. Usually I only include this step in my routine if I'm wearing makeup - on other days I just let my skin be free and do its thang to give it a little bit of a break. First up I spritz my face with LUSH's Eau Roma Water, which is an aroma-therapeutic toner water. It smells like lavender and rose so totally helps me to feel relaxed in the morning. Then, if my skin is feeling a little on the dry side I follow it up with Simple's Kind to Skin Hydrating Light Moisturiser. This is basically my fail-safe anti-foundation-cake product.
In the evening, I like to incorporate my skincare routine into my pre-bed ritual. Like a great many sufferers out there, my anxiety is worst at night, so having a set routine before I go to bed really does wonders in helping me get off to sleep. I don't actually take my makeup off until I'm already in my PJs and sat on my bed with just the lamp on. I use LUSH's 9-5 cleanser on some cotton wool to get the majority of my makeup off, especially my eye makeup as I find it is gentle enough to not aggravate my sensitive eyes.
Next up is the beauty blogger favourite: Garnier's Micellar Water. I pop some on a cotton wool pad again, and use it to get rid of any of the last dregs of makeup that I might have missed with the first cleanse. I follow this up with one of Nip + Fab's Dragon's Blood Daily Fix Pads. This combination keeps my skin totally hydrated overnight and even works to plump it a little.
And finally, if you're looking to treat your body to a little smoothness this summer, then totally give Korres' Fig body butter a go. It's not my favourite scent this summer (hello Pinita Colada), but it's made my skin so soft that I practically wave it at everyone to feel!
What's your summer skincare routine?
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Supporting local businesses is one of the most important things you can do as a consumer. Not only are you reducing your own carbon footprint, as the products you are purchasing don't have to travel from overseas, but you're also pumping money back into the local economy. I'm a big believer in supporting small businesses as well - I would much rather give my money to someone striving to make even with their dream, than a major corporation.
With this in mind, I gleefully set off to Tewskesbury's annual food and drink festival last Saturday. Tewkesbury is this tiny town near Cheltenham in Gloucestershire. I've recently moved near to the town, and the festival was a great chance to check out Tewkesbury Abbey, which the event was held in.
I'm not going to lie, I was ravenous when we turned up. I knew I'd want to sample everything and anything, and so came on an empty stomach. Although all of the stalls were absolutely beautiful, and offered stunning displays of food and drink, I definitely had some firm favourites.
As soon as I entered the grounds, the sight of Belgian chocolate cascading down a fountain had my little eyes glimmering with delight. I ended up with a cup full of strawberries, marshmallows and a flake, smothered in oozing milk and white Belgian chocolate. This even had my chocolate-hating boyfriend so intrigued he needed to give it a try.
Next up, we took one walk around the entire tent sampling little bits and pieces with a cup of sweet apple cider in hand. I'm that person that meanders everywhere and has to look at every stall before deciding what to purchase. So we had to walk around the tent three times. Obviously.
The Croombe cheese stall was a firm winner on my first journey round - I tried about 10 different cheeses in the end and fell a little bit in love with all of them. The roasted garlic and parsley cheese was literally heavenly, with the scrumpy and crunchy apple cheese coming in at a close second. Seriously though, those flavours. Get in mah belly.
The Queen's Park Preserves stall was another one I had to practically be dragged away from. I've got such a soft spot for jam and always get drawn into buying it, before remembering that I rarely actually finish a jar before it goes mouldy! The Chuckleberry jam was like nothing I had tasted before, and I was so impressed. Plus they even do a pear and chocolate version so um, hello, need?!
There were SO many things to choose from, but I limited myself to only picking up a few (HA). The first was some rhubarb fudge which oh my god totally melts in your mouth and 100% deserves the title 'moreish'.
After spending an age at the Garlic Farm stall because garlic is my one true love really, I finally picked just one bottle of garlic infused extra virgin olive oil. Y'know the stuff you drizzle on your pizza when you go out to eat and it smells like garlic in a bottle? Now I can drizzle it over my homemade pizzas and I am SO READY.
What I'm trying to say with this post, is that if you have a local food and drink festival coming up soon you should totally check it out, because there are some amazing little gems in these events.
Have you been to a food and drink festival before?
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This heatwave in the UK really means one thing: it's time to get the grill out and start our (let's face it, pretty poor) attempts at barbecuing. From blackened sausages to chicken that's more than slightly on the raw side, it's the barbecue failures that cling most dearly to our hearts. Or mine at least. I have such fond memories of family get-togethers revolving around the grill.
However, last time I had a barbecue it was in a student house, in which I was the sole girl. It consisted of a road sign to put the charcoal on (of course) and a broken piece of trolley (separated from its mother by a rolling pin) on top of some empty beer bottles as a grill. The next day I'm pretty sure we were all fairly ill, and not just from the hangover. This time I was determined not to let any Bear Grylls wannabes take over, but put together a nice meal which didn't involve hundreds of health and safety violations.
As I turned 22 last Saturday, and the weather was pretty darn hot I figured a barbecue was in order. So, we hopped down to the shops to pick up some lovely fruity cider and ice (of course - what summer party could be held without this?!) and all of our barbecue gear. Amongst our guests were a bunch of fairly carnivorous meat-eaters, but also a couple of vegetarians. Me and my sister set to work on a whole range of items for the grill, including garlic chicken and pepper skewers and these lovely vegetable kabobs.
Although we stuck to tomatoes, peppers, onion and baby corn, you can choose a whole variety of vegetables for your kabobs. Next time we're going to add broccoli and courgette, as I think they'll be super tasty fired up on the grill.
This was honestly SUCH a simple recipe to make, and it makes for a visually appealing dish to add to your spread. Everyone at our barbecue gave the kabobs a go and they offered a yummy, light accompaniment to birthday cake and barbecue meat!
We used wooden skewers for ours because everywhere seems to stock them at the moment, and they're a really cheap alternative to metal ones. However, metal skewers would work just as well (possibly even better).
Ingredients (makes 4 skewers):
The vegetables:
1 bell pepper (we chose a green one, but any colour is good!), cut into chunks
5 baby corns, cut in half
1 small red onion, cut into chunks
3 salad tomatoes, quartered
For the marinade:
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
Salt and pepper
Method:
1.) Mix the marinade ingredients together.
2.) Place the chopped vegetables in a bowl. Cover and mix with the marinade.
3.) Leave in the fridge for 30 minutes to an hour.
4.) Place the marinated vegetables onto wooden skewers.
5.) Hand them to your barbecuing delegate and grill until hot.
What's your favourite barbecue dish?
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Despite having lived in the UK all my life, I haven't actually travelled much around our little island. This is something I really want to change in the next couple of years. My sister is currently studying at university in Plymouth, and my boyfriend knows just how much I miss her, so a couple of weeks ago we made the four hour trek down there to stay for a few days. Whilst he drove I provided the entertainment of shouting 'road trip, road trip' every few minutes, and making up my own lyrics to songs on Radio One (a standard long journey process for us).
As we're both currently job hunting and saving for a flat, we really didn't have much cash to spend, and thankfully, we really didn't need to. We stayed for four days and spent hardly anything, despite drinking on a couple of nights and going out for dinner. The first evening we hit up Revolution Bar, and had some awesome cocktails and surprisingly really tasty food. I posted a whole review of it a couple of weeks ago. Side note: if you go, get the nachos - they have vodka salsa and it's really damn tasty. This was a great place to go to enjoy a nice atmosphere and yummy food and drinks without a massive price tag.
The best thing to do when you're low on money and visiting Plymouth is definitely to go to the Hoe and the Barbican. The Hoe is not only glorious because you get to take pictures with road names like 'Hoe Approach', but because it's basically the main seafront-y area. Plymouth doesn't really have a formal beach (correct me if I'm wrong), and this is really where the centre of everything is. it's got the awesome lighthouse as well, which you can go up if you pay a couple of pounds. We opted not to do this, and instead we bought some picnic bits, and sat in the sunshine to eat a (slightly hungover), but really picturesque lunch together.
Next up was the standard night out. We honestly probably spent about a tenner each on this (including food) after pre-drinks, aka it was my kind of night out! As my sister is a first year student, we hit up all of the bars near her that turned into clubs later on in the night and had a whirl. The best part of the night? The fact that there was a cafe called Caffeine Club open 24/7. I mean, guys, I GOT NACHOS AT 4AM. The town I live in has nowhere open at 4am for food, let alone somewhere that will actually serve you food on a plate. I was basically in Steph food paradise, and the price of the food at Caffeine Club is astounding. Plus, for all you tea lovers out there, you can walk in at any time of day or night and get a pint of tea.
Anyway, these were basically my favourite parts of heading to Plymouth for a few days on a budget. let me know in the comments what you would include!
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Blog props are beginning to take a more and more important hold upon my life (and flatlay goals), so I've been on the hunt for some pretty stationary and home decor items. I'm also a big believer in helping out "the little people" - supporting independent UK-based businesses with goals I can really get behind. This is where That Lame Company comes in. Run by Chloe and Charlie, a pair of recent graduates, they have a whole host of phone cases and pretty stationary, some of which is made from recycled materials.
I picked up some motivational stationary - I really need to get my act together at the moment and having these around me, especially when I'm creating blog post and Instagram photos is a fab way to get motivated. I picked up the Great Ideas Notebook to jot down my freelance articles in, and the Do More Art Print to remind me of why I recently quit my job to go freelance and improve my blogging.
An added bonus was the awesome set of Incentive Art Prints which I got sent for free with my order (yay!). They remind me on a daily basis that #pugstagram is not a hashtag I should be searching on a daily basis and tweeting is not always productive!
What stationary are you lusting over at the moment?
Recently I haven't quite been keeping off of the dairy, despite my lactose intolerance (understatement of the year!), so my skin is in a pretty dire state. Urgent TLC was needed and came in the form of this purifying, cleansing dead sea spa mask. Now, I'm not going to lie, this was possibly the weirdest facemask I've ever tried, and I try a LOT.
For starters, it originated as a powder, and I had to mix the actual mask myself. There was enough in the pack for two applications, so me and my sister both underwent this experiment. Then. there was the application itself: you smeared this slightly lumpy, very gooey mixture onto your face with a wooden stick the pack provided. Finally, there was the drying process. Have you ever played with putty? Or, alternatively, had your teeth tested for braces at an orthodontists with some weird mouth putty? Either way, its texture was exactly like that. I sort of felt as though I was trying out some special effects makeup and dressing up as some kind of obscene creature, especially when the drips of facemask dried and oozed off of my face.
All in all it was a hilarious experience, perfect for a girls night in, and left my skin feeling utterly cleansed and soft for days.
