Hey guys!

I hope you're all doing well! 

I've got something super exciting for you today so sit back, get a cuppa ready and enjoy.

Purchasing Jelly and Gelato 

I first tried to purchase the range last Sunday (23rd July) at Telford Superdrug (Telford is my neighbouring town, I live in Shrewsbury). After walking around for 5 minutes, slightly confused, I spoke to one of the girls on the shop floor. She said that although they had the products in stock, they weren't allowed to sell any of them yet. Oh. I was so eager to get my hands on this oh-so-instagramable beauty range (not to mention that it was a Zoella beauty range, a favourite youtuber of mine who has been for years) that I was actually too early. I ended up making an order online to collect at the Shrewsbury Superdrug, my more local store. I originally ordered the body mist, shower shake, cream body scrub and the bath frosting, but when I was in Superdrug collecting my things, I thought that I might as well buy the rest of the range. The only thing i didn't manage to buy was the beauty bag, I'll probably purchase this another time as it is exceptionally pretty, and I'm sure I'll put it to good use. So, I basically ended up with every single product, and after a few people requested that i write up a blog post, I got to taking some flat-lays and thinking of what I was going to say. And here it is!  

Gelat'eau Body Mist (£8)

This is probably my favourite thing in the whole range. The design on the packaging is bursting with colour. This made the best flat-lays. It's shiny, gold lid really complemented the pastel colours that lay lower down on the ceramic bottle. This feels expensive. The scent is another big talking point. It's easily my favourite range from Zoella Beauty purely for the scent. It's fragrance is that of elder flower and pomegranate, and this theme runs throughout the products, but somehow feels different for each one. The scent from the body mist is strong, a beautiful kind of strong. It isn't overpowering and definitely smells of summer walks and drinks with friends. Not only does it look good and smell good, but it's a perfect bag sized bottle. 

Shower Shake - Moisturising Body Wash (£6)

First of all - HOW CUTE! The details on this packaging show the thought process behind this entire range. The gold, playful font that's present across each of the products really stands out against the pastel pinks and oranges. I haven't tried this yet, but i did put a small blob on the end of my finger and I could instantly tell how gorgeous it's going to feel when I do use it. The pomegranate scent is ever so present, making it the kind of product you'll wanna use every day this summer. THE SMELL IS KILLING ME!

 

Shower Sauce - Body Wash (£5)

The name makes me chuckle. Shower Shake and then Shower Sauce. It makes me think of a big ice cream milkshake with drizzly strawberry sauce; and that's exactly what this body wash looks like - strawberry sauce. This smells so refreshing out of the bottle, so I can't wait to smell this in the shower. This really does give off summer vibes, but could definitely work all year round if you love the scent. 

 

Cream Scrub - Body Scrub (£8)

The first thing that attracts me to this cream scrub is the pale grey rimmed lid, and pink candy stripes around the tub. 

I was initially shocked when I opened this. I think I was expecting a white cream with pastel coloured beads (a little bit like the Body Cream in this range, I guess). However, when I dug my finger into the bright orange, gel like substance, I was again shocked. It felt good, so soft and gentle, but at the same time those little 'polishing sprinkles' really told a story of how they were destined to give me the most luxurious exfoliation. I'm a body/face scrub addict. My drawers are full to the brim of numerous scrubs from different brands and a range of prices, so I know a good scrub when I see one. And this has already become one of my favourites. 

Body Pudding - Body Cream (£8)

This certainly does look like pudding. At first I thought "hang on, when I rub this in, what do I do about all of the sprinkles? Do you use this in the shower??" NOPE. Once you massage this cream in, the sprinkles just.. disappear. Yes. They just melt away. I immediately called my boyfriend over to witness this magic. Once he'd tried it, and I'd tried it again, we were both in awe. This leaves your skin feeling very moisturised, very soft and very smelly. A good smelly, of course. And it's just a plus that it has magic pink sparkles in it!

Body Frosting - Bath Milk Powder (£7)

Again, this packing was exciting and had me intrigued. A soft pastel paper wrapped around a lilac tin/tub. The lid pops off to reveal four cute sachets of the bath milk powder.

  I was expecting there to be loose powder inside, but seeing the sachets I realised how much of a bad idea loose powder could have been. This is a good way to avoid wasting the product. And to make this even easier, at the bottom of the tub was a little sticker hat reads "re-seal me"

Pink Bath Wafers - Moisturising Bath Fizzer (£5)

The packaging reminds you of little ice cream wafers, the paper surrounding the product is embossed with a waffle pattern, and the peachy colours make you feel bad for tearing open the packaging (saying that, I managed to get into the packaging without damaging it!). 

If the pastel pink coloring of the wafers wasn't enough, they're also embossed with little Z's. The plastic wrapping is accompanied by a sweet but informative "Do Not Eat!" sticker, which definitely needs to be said, cause the fruity smell that these wafers give off is enough to make your mouth water. They even smell fizzy. My senses are tingling. Zoe, you have outdone yourself. 

My Overall Thoughts (£0)

I couldn't be more proud of Zoe. The whole range shows off the hard work, thoughtfulness and love that's gone into designing these more than amazing products. I definitely won't be able to get enough of this range. From the refreshing smells of the body spray, to the creamy texture of the body pudding. I don't usually get involved in beauty hypes, but this is different. It's not like a beauty hype at all, in fact, it isn't your usual beauty range full stop. The elder flower and pomegranate scent is so unique and you will not get bored of it!

The range is available at Superdrug (in store and online) and over at FeelUnique.

You can watch Zoe talk about her new range here! It's also a great vlog, containing the cutest product launch you've ever seen. 

So, let me know what you all think of the new Zoella Beauty range, and I'll speak to you all soon!

Bye 😙

Oreo Cupcakes Courtesy Of Tanya Burr!

Hey guys! 

So I've decided to stray away from my usual posts and do a proper foodie post. I love baking (I make an amazing banana loaf) but I never blog about it, and I think it's time I started documenting my baking adventures.

 To start off easy though, I'm gonna write a quick post about the time I tried out Tanya Burr's Oreo Cupcake recipe. I am NOT trying to pass this off as my recipe!! I just thought as been as they turned out so well that I'd show you some pics and talk you through the recipe, and how I personally took my own twist on it (okay, all I did was use 3 different Oreo flavours but give me some credit!).

Here goes..

Ingredients:

Cupcakes:

175g butter

165g caster sugar

3 eggs

40g cocoa powder

125g self raising flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 pack oreos

Frosting:

2 packs oreos

100g butter

200g icing sugar

First thing I did was take a trip down to my local supermarket to grab 3 packs of Oreos. I picked up the original flavour for the frosting, mint for the base of the cupcake and chocolate for the decoration (Tanya kept it less complicated and stuck with the original flavour for all 3 parts, which I'm sure was just as good, but I was feeling ridiculously adventurous). 

Once I got home I did as instructed and turned my oven to 180 Degrees. I then realised I'd forgotten my cupcake cases and ended up using some blue with snowflake patterned cases left over from christmas.. Once I realised how cute they were actually going to look I put them in the cupcake tins ready for pouring the mixture in, and continued to mix together the butter and sugar until it was the creamy/smooth texture described by Tanya. Next step was to pop the eggs in with the butter/sugar mixture. Then I folded all of the dry ingredients into that mixture (flour, coco powder, baking powder). I just want to add that I used a stand mixer for this part, but it doesn't matter whether you do this or do it by hand!

As I said, I got 3 different flavours of Oreo, so I placed one mint Oreo in the bottom of each empty cake case. I thought the mint would look great in the bottom because the cream filling is a cute green colour, and I thought that when the cupcake was cut in half (always thinking about getting that perfect insta-shot!) you'd be able to see that minty green layer! Then I poured the mixture into the cases and let them cook for about 20-25 minutes (Tanya says 14-17 minutes, but the oven I used at the time wasn't great with baking cakes, so mine took a little longer). 

This is the part I found most fun: Frosting!

All you need to do is mix together your icing sugar and butter until it's looking smooth. Then you wanna take half a pack of oreos and crush them into Oreo crumbs! I used the original flavour Oreo for this part. I didn't use a blender on an account of not having one, so did like Tanya said and used a sealed food bag instead which worked just as well. Now add your crumbs to your frosting and stir them in! 

The frosting was incredibly easy to make and I thoroughly enjoyed licking the bowl after I'd used as much as I needed. I actually found I had enough frosting left to ice another couple of cupcakes, so I'm not sure where I went wrong, but it just meant I got to eat the remaining frosting (why waste it!?). 

Once my cupcakes were cooked and cooled (I put them on a cooling rack for this bit), I spread on my Oero frosting. I didn't want to do it neatly, I thought they looked good with a messy vibe going on. Then with the chocolate flavour Oreos, I used them as decoration by breaking them in half, and putting one half on top of each cupcake.

And we're all done! 

What's on my iPhone 6 Plus?

Hi guys!

So I've seen a few people do these posts, and it really made me want to give it a go. Now, it's got to be said, my phones actually pretty boring, but I'm sure some of you will get a kick out of having a nosey around my phone. Here goes!

My Phone & Phone Case

I have a 16gb iPhone 6 Plus in white and silver. I'm with EE, and I've had my phone now for nearly 2 years. I'm due for an upgrade next month and I really don't know what to get next!

(yes, this pic was taken last August BUT I loved the photo)

 The phone case above is a Sailor Moon silicone phone case.I got it from an app called Wish, and it came with the cute little charm! I did recently have different phone case on, but I only had it a few weeks before a pen exploded in my handbag, and the ink dyed the gorgeous pink, marble effect into a not so aesthetic smudged blue.. It was a plastic snap case and did only cost about £7 from Amazon, and it made me realise how much I loved my big squishy phone case. 

My Lock Screen/Home Screen Wallpapers

Sticking with the Sailor Moon theme, my wallpapers are just a gorgeous, pink/purple gradient, Sailor Moon inspired background I got from a twitter account that just asked for a retweet if you used any of their stuff, unfortunately I don't remember the name of the account, or else I'd attach a link!

My Home Screen Apps and Folders

As I said, my phone's quite boring really. From top left to bottom right my apps are as follows:

Twitter / Snapchat / Instagram / Facebook / Facebook Messenger / WhatsApp / Camera / Photos / Depop 

My Folders then read:

Games / Bookmarks / Extras

And finally, the little row of 4 apps at the bottom are:

Music / Messages (iMessage) / Safari / Phone

I'm one of those people who leaves her apps with a million different notifications for weeks on end. I also have over 4,000 pics in my camera role, and probably a quarter of those are worth keeping. I kinda ordered my apps by most used-rarely used and then put my folders last, and the ones at the bottom have always been like that (I think that's how they come when you first get the phone up and running?). I only ever usually have one home page, because (this may shock you) I like it to be clean and organised (yes, I've kind of contradicted myself there. I am indeed a notification hoarder, but I'm not a complete mess, jeez ((totally a complete mess)) ).

Games

I don't usually have many games downloaded. I DO usually have Pokemon Go and WWE Supercard, but I got rid of them for a little while as I haven't been playing on them much and the take up so much room, but I'm sure I'll probably re-download them soon and complain when i have no free storage. I always have Disney Emoji Blitz and Neko Atsume cause they're my two fave games, I get so lost in them, so if you want a couple of games that can help you escape reality for a while then I recommend downloading these (plus they're both sickeningly cute). The other two games are just a couple of random games, I don't tend to play on them much. I find Roll The Ball quite difficult and my boyfriend gets annoyed at me asking for help, and 100 pics was one of those games that makes you forget to sleep at night and you play on for a solid 3 days, and then never open it again. I often play on 100 pics if I'm out and about on my own, and I'm feeling a bit anxious and I need something as a distraction, something I can concentrate on to ground myself (so again, if you need a little escape or suffer with anxiety, this has been particularly helpful in calming me down in social situations). Last but not least, Flappy Bird. I don't play on it. I never really did. But I will not delete it. I don't know why cause it was so bloody annoying. Sentimental reasons maybe??

Bookmarks

This isn't gonna be a long description. My bookmarks are usually something I've seen that I'd love to buy next payday, or crochet patterns I want to jot down in a note pad sometime. Nothing really that interesting. 

Extras

The apps in the extras folder never really get used, so I like to have them hidden away. The ones on the first page get used occasionally. I actually use the notes quite often, there's probably about 40 different notes in there, and the only one i ever refer to is the passwords note. And obviously the other one that gets used fairly often is the app store, but as you can tell from my home screen, I don't tend to bother downloading new apps, and as you can see from the 11 notifications, I don't update the apps I have. I used to use the news app quite often, and have a good read if I was bored, but I don't think I've bothered with that for a while. 

Overall Review/Conclusion

I need to sort out my phone. I need to delete some pics, some notes and get rid of those pesky notifications. I need to do a technology spring clean (summer clean??). But then again, in a months time I'll probably have a new phone and that makes me think that maybe there's no point, but I'm also really lazy and who can be bothered to sort through over 4,000 pictures?

Not me, that's who. 

So thanks for reading guys, I apologise if I ramble a little too much, and also that there wasn't much to show, but that's what these posts are about I guess. The point was to show you whats on my phone, what kinda apps I use etc, and I think I've done just that.

Speak soon!

My Anxiety Journey - Am I Coping?

Hi guys!

For a while now I've wanted to do a post about my tiring journey with anxiety. This is something that's always been difficult for me to talk about, but in light of recent personal events, I think now is the right time.

I recently left my job in retail (i worked at Dunelm for 3 years!). As the 3 year mark was creeping around and my anxiety had never been worse, I thought a change in job would make all the difference. My thought process was, if I find a less face-to-face contact kinda job, I might not worry about my day so much. I might not wake up feeling sick. I'd be able to go to work each day and come home without being a shaken-up, traumatised mess. 

I have high functioning anxiety. Usually triggered by loud, overwhelming noises, large crowds and traffic, it had become quite debilitating. 

This all started at the age of 4. Yes. Four years old. 

When I started nursery school I was diagnosed with separation anxiety. Each morning before school I was physically sick, I'd be exhausted from being up all night thinking and I often got sent home from school "ill" (99% of the time it was panic attacks). This went on well into my primary school years. 

During year 5 at primary school, me and my parents moved to Australia. Briefly. After a few months we came back to the UK (for several reasons I won't go into). 

So, on my timeline of anxiety, we're now at aged 12. The big move to secondary school was upon me. I wasn't very bothered, I had my friends around me and it was the first time in our lives where we're allowed to feel a bit more like adults. But my anxiety was still in full effect, even when things needn't of been worried about, or if I actually wasn't worried at all, I still found the time to panic. Aged 12 was when I was diagnosed with clinical depression. I received both home visits and counselling in school. All in all, I felt very alone and I was definitely embarrassed. Most of the time I had no clue what was going on around me, and I didn't know why I felt so numb. And at the time, I didn't even know what depression was. I just remember those daunting school mornings when I wouldn't move from my bed, and when I did, I found myself crying while trying to brush my teeth. 

Long story short, I've had a scary battle with depression now for 7 years, making it twice as hard to cope with the anxiety. Before depression, I had a little more motivation to turn my life around, whereas now, some days I couldn't care less and I let it swamp my body.

At the moment everything is controlled. I'm taking medication. I'm currently transitioning from Mirtazapine to Fluoxetine (the only antidepressant i'm yet to try, so fingers crossed this one gives me some relief.) And I'm on the waiting list for exposure therapy (a form of CBT).

So, if you're struggling, please remember, there is always going to be somebody somewhere going through what you're going through. And there's probably more people around you suffering from mental illness than you think. A lot of people cope well, or prefer not to let it show. But take it from me, finding somebody who you can trust and confide in takes a load off your shoulders. Whether it's a significant other, a parent, friend or medical professional. Whether you think there's no help out there for you. It's always worth asking, it's always worth speaking up. At one point recently I was 100% certain that my brain had malfunctioned at some point in my life and that there would be no fixing the mess that is me. But after doing some soul searching and chatting to friends and family, I can see the end of the scarily long, dark tunnel. It might be a long way away, but every time it gets hard, and you overcome each obstacle, it's you getting stronger, because if you weren't getting stronger, you'd still be sat behind that very first obstacle wondering what you're meant to do. 

I'm not a medical professional, and by no means do I know everything there is to know about mental illness, but I'm a long time sufferer, and if you need somebody fresh to chat to, please do chat to me! You can find me on twitter @peachmilkshakes, so don't be shy and definitely don't be scared. I hope to hear from some of you!

ttyl, peachy x