June Wrap-Up: The Month of Women (called Sara)

June has been an odd month, with much of it filled with politics and all the excitement, disappointment, heartbreak, and annoyance that politics brings. If you follow my social media you'll know how hurt I've been by the referendum and truth be told I still can't fully articulate how I feel. With that in mind, this month's wrap-up will be a classic reading report.

Spill, Simmer, Falter, Wither by Sara Baume

About an old man and his dog, this book broke my heart a little. It speaks heavily about loneliness, isolation, and touches on emotional abuse, too. The book is written in first person as if the reader was the dog in the story and it is done beautifully!

The Shore by Sara Taylor

This is a book that speaks a lot about the female experience and male violence against women - this book definitely has trigger warnings for tale, assault, and all manner of other abusive behaviour. I loved this book apart from the 11th and 13th chapters, which for me spoilt the whole experience somewhat. 

A Book For Her by Bridget Christie

This book is funny with a number of pigment moments but for me it missed the mark - mostly because my expectations of if were mismatched to the reading experience. This book is an incredibly interesting insight into the writing process of a feminist comedy show and highlights a number of important social issues along the way however I expected it to be much more of an exploration of feminism than it was. That said I laughed a hell of a lot and had a very enjoyable reading experience.

Only Ever Yours by Louise O'Neill

With trigger warnings for all manner of eating disorders and body image issues this is an exceptionally powerful book and I raced through it in a matter of days. Set in a dystopian future, this book reflects an awful mutation of what society could become. 

Animal by Sara Pascoe

As you can see I'm only part way through this but already I am LOVING it. Scientific and hilarious this book is simply wonderful. 

With the exception of the first book, all of the books I've read have been centered around the female experience, which I have been really enjoying. Three of the books have also been written by a Sara, which is a bit of an unexpected theme! 

I've been planning a whole host of new projects which will hopefully come to light over the next month - I can't wait to share them with you!

#ootd - Office Attire #1 - Matilda Wormwood Inspired

If you were a follower of my blog 18 months ago (well done you if you were) then you might remember my 'Library Looks' series of badly lit photos documenting some of the outfits I wore to the library. Sadly my days of spending (often up to) 10 hours a day 7 days a week in the library are over and instead I've spent the last 12 months in an office job. This hasn't changed my style as much as you might expect - I'm lucky that I work in a very casual office, so much so that I wore a blazer and was mocked all day for being 'too smart'. I was still in jeans.

I miss my days of doing OOTDs, so I thought I'd start sharing some of the outfits I wear to work! This particular number was inspired by the 1996 Matilda film - let me know if you recognise which moment in the movie this outfit is from.

Top - Miss Selfridge, Jeans - Vintage (similar here), Shoes - Converse

This  look was inspired by Matilda Wormwood and, since I take a book with me to read on my lunch break, I though I'd share what I'm currently reading: The Shore by Sara Taylor

I also couldn't help but get a shot with the lady herself!

Hat - Accessorize (similar here)

I hope you enjoyed this Matilda Wormwood inspired #ootd! Let me know if you'd like more similar posts, because I really enjoyed making this one.

Spring Empties 2016

Since my bag of empties was getting fit to burst I thought it was high time to show you all the products I've been using over the past three months. 

Confession time: there is one product in this list that isn't cruelty free - Bioderma Miscellar Water. I bought it whilst I was in South Africa when I desperately needed something that would remove my eye makeup without burning my eyelids and I had very limited options! I haven't got on with this product at all, either, so I definitely will not be recommending it on any counts!

Hair Care Empties:

As usual this is my biggest category. I've used and reviewed these products many times before, but an honourable mention goes out to Lush Rehab Shampoo - mostly for its blissful scent! Simultaneously fruity, minty, and herbal - if I could smell like this all day I would!

Face and Body Empties:

 

Once again I've spoken about most of these before, but I will reiterate my love for the Superdrug Tea Tree range and I have repurchased both of these products already!

Are there any cruelty free products you think I should try? Let me know in the comments or via Twitter - I'm @VickiMaitland everywhere!

The Intimidating TBR Tag

I'm usually pretty good at keeping my TBR low and I hardly ever DNF books, but after my week at Cornerstone I've been left with a pretty hefty TBR pile so I thought it was high time to take on the intimidating TBR tag.

1) A book that I haven't read: 

As you can see I've actually started this book and I really enjoyed what I have read so far. I just need to actually follow its advice before I progress any further!

2) A book I haven't had the time to read:

I love Darling magazine but I tend to preference books over magazines when I grab something to read! I really need to make the time to have a proper flick through this to fully absorb its beauty!

3) A book I haven't finished because it's part of a series: 

I really enjoyed The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, I battled through The Girl Who Played With Fire but, 150 pages in to this book, I was so done with Lisbeth. It felt like she changed everything about her that was great and I wasn't down with that - although it has been over five years since I put this down so I could be remembering incorrectly! I don't think I'll be picking it back up anytime soon...

4) A book I haven't read because it's brand new:

This was one of the many books I got from my time at Cornerstone and I can't wait to sink my teeth into it!

5) A book I haven't read because I don't like other things written by the author:

If you've read this blog for a while you'll know that The Lover's Dictionary by David Levithan is one of my all time favourites but, as I don't tend to buy books by authors I don't like I really struggled with this category. However, this book is based on a character from Will Grayson, Will Grayson who I actively disliked, so I'm taking my time in picking this one up. My sister has read it and really enjoyed it, though.

6) A book I haven't been in the mood for: 

One of my reading goals was to read more classics and another was to read more books by women of colour. This book ticks both categories but I simply haven't been in the mood for it!

7) A book I haven't read because it is so big:

This actually isn't the biggest book on my list but it is one that I anticipate will be time consuming and its part of a series, so committing to this book is actually committing to three books!

8) A cover buy that I've yet to read:

I am normally good at reading my cover buys but this has been a big exception! It was second hand, however, so I don't feel so bad about leaving it unloved.

9) The most intimidating book on my TBR:

This book. I am halfway through it and have been for the last two years. I really need to start it over again because I've forgotten most of the plot but it's actually more like reading two stories at once and ahh! It is an intense reading experience, with lots of pull out bits and bobs and notes in the margins - maybe this will be the year I finally finish it!

Look at that stack! Wish me luck - what does your intimidating TBR pile look like?

#reviewsdaytuesday Lush Lemony Flutter

If you know me you know I can't resist a Lush, so when I found myself with half an hour to kill in London Liverpool Street Station of course I wandered up to the little Lush shop. I was just getting to the end of my hand cream, so I picked up this little tub of cuticle butter to replace it. 

£6.95, this Lemony Flutter Cuticle Butter is vegetarian (it contains beeswax) and smells exactly like lemon parfait. Very thick, you only need a tiny bit of this butter to work into your cuticles.

Because it's so thick it works best when your hands are warm already, especially if you want to use it as an all-over moisturiser. The smell is so lovely that I often find myself using it just so I can give my hands a sniff after! It soaks in pretty quickly - considering it's oil based - and doesn't leave things too greasy after.

I actually loved this cuticle butter so much that I went into my local Lush to buy it as a present for my nail-care living friend!

All Lush products are cruelty free.

Have you tried this? Let me know what you thought on Twitter or in the comments below. I'm @VickiMaitland across social media.

Book Haul #1

I'm going to start this post with an apology - sorry I've been AWOL for the past month. April and May felt like the beginning of the year, with lots of exciting opportunities and new things in my life. The culmination of these new exciting things was two weeks of work experience in Penguin Random House. At the end of the two weeks one of the assistants walked me round the office and let me pick up any books I wanted. As it turned out I only picked two books myself - the rest were recommendations from the office! There's nothing I love more than being given a book by someone whose eyes light up when they talk about it, so I can't wait to get my teeth stuck this huge pile of books!

I won't go through each of these, we'd be here all day, but here are five that I'm most looking forward to:

1) The House at the Edge of Night by Catherine Banner - I've started reading this already and it's stunning. Set on a small island off the coast of Italy, this tells the story of Amedeo, a man without family who finds home on the island. The story follows through the generations that follow and I'm completely besotted with the story so far.

2) Sweet Home by Carys Bray - this is a collection if short stories. I've been wanting to read more short story collections and I've heard wonderful things about Carys.

3) A Book for Her by Bridget Christie - Bridget Christie is hilarious so I'm really looking forward to this!

4) The Four Dimensional Human by Laurence Scott - I've been trying to read more non-fiction and this book looks like it is going to be a fascinating examination of the space humans inhabit.

5) Shame and Wonder by David Searcy - another non-fiction to add to my growing collection, this collection of essays has a beautiful cover.

Are there any books in this (massive) haul that you're interested in reading? Let me know by leaving a comment below or tweeting me @VickiMaitland

Spring Brights - Cruelty Free Eye Make-Up

Even though it looks as if the weather hasn't got the memo, it is technically spring. I almost always wear a neutral eye so I really wanted to try something different. When it comes to our looks, in many ways my sister and I are chalk and cheese. In fact, other than our shared dark, curly hair, we hardly resemble each other at all. I thought I'd abuse this difference by trying out a bright spring eye makeup look on us both, to show how the same makeup can look different in different complexions/eye colours.

All the colours in this look I have taken from the elf Brights palette. We both did our base, brows, lips, and cheeks with our own products. Already, even with our eyes shut, you can see how different this makeup looks on our different complexions. 

I used the shimmering orange colour (3rd down, 3rd in) for the inner 3/4 of the lid and the shimmering mint (3rd up, 3rd in) for the outer 1/4. In the very outer corner and the crease I blended the teal (3rd row down, 2nd in) to create a little dimension.

 

This eyes open picture really shows how the green elements of the look complement my sister's baby blues. You can only see the hint of teal over her lid but it makes her eyes really pop!

I think the orange looks a lot darker on my lid than on my sisters. I have a lot of orange in my skin tone, so the orange is emphasised on the lid.

We had a lot of fun with this look - it's certainly not everyday but I think it would be lovely for a warm spring afternoon party! Let me know if you try it out!

March Wrap-Up

March was quite the month for me - one I'll remember for the rest of my life. I'll get into the watery-eyed 'holiday of a lifetime' stuff after I've had a look back at the books I read in March!

Books

The first book I read was The Martian by Andy Weir. I watched the film at the end of February and loved it, so I thought I'd give the book a go too. It was just as hilarious as the film and I'd really recommend it!

The next book I finished was Modern Romance: An Investigation by Aziz Ansari. I love Aziz, both his stand up and as Tom in Parks and Rec and I picked this up after Leena (I think) talked about it in a video. This book is non-fiction and my poor friends had to put up with me reading them interesting facts the whole time! I really enjoyed this book and though it was an incredibly interesting examination of modern culture and heterosexual romance within that.

The third book I finished in March was a re-read of We Were Liars by E. Lockhart. The first time I read this was two summers ago whilst on holiday in Austria and I've been dying to re-read it ever since. It was almost as enjoyable the second time around (knowing the twist made it somewhat less of a thrill but I still appreciated the writing).

The final book I read this month was Very Good Lives, a transcript of JK Rowlings address to Harvard graduates. It's very short, about 70 pages, but beautifully illustrated and very inspiring.

Films

The flights to and from South Africa were 10 hours, so I watched a lot of films! I watched The Program (excellent) and Burnt (surprisingly good), but my favourite was Steve Jobs. I wasn't sure if I was going to enjoy it but I loved it! It's almost all in real time which made it completely compelling and both Kate Winslet and Michael Fassbender were excellent.

South Africa

As I've mentioned, the majority of March was taken up with my trip to South Africa. I went with two of my very best friends and I can't even begin to express how difficult it is going from spending every moment with people you love for three weeks in a beautiful country to coming back to cold England and work. I miss everything about the trip and it has taken me a very long time to readjust to normal life. I'm going to write a full post about SA in a couple of weeks when it doesn't make me so sad, but suffice to say I really recommend going!

February Wrap Up

I hope you all enjoyed my little poem last week! As promised, my somewhat more official wrap up:

Books

This was the first book that I read this month. Best described as a series of vignettes on time, this book is the story of Einstein working out his theory of relativity (although rarely is this said explicitly). I'm actually going to review this book in a later post, so watch out for that!

With Valentine's just around the corner, I thought I'd pick up this, wrongly assuming it was a lovely little love story. It's actually a surprisingly heartfelt tale about two teenagers suffering from a new strain of TB. Whilst there was the typical YA love plot, there were also some rather toughing musings on life too. Lane and Sadie have their flaws - and parts of their love story I just didn't buy into - but all in all it was a nice, if sad, read.

Still riding the YA train, I picked up Tape - unaware that it was written by the poet PolarBear! A story about love, family, and finding yourself, this was another nice little read. I was left a little underwhelmed by certain aspects of the story (particularly involving Ameliah and the boy she likes) and the 'plot twist' at the end I wasn't totally convinced by (it would have been nice for me to have at least had the chance to guess at who the mysterious Joe was - as far as I was aware there weren't any hints but it wasn't a dramatic enough of a twist to be shocking). All in all, I did enjoy this book - I really enjoyed the way that time twisted when the tapes became involved.

Film

I watched The Martian (late to the game, I know) this month and LOVED it! I actually laughed out loud and was genuinely drawn in by the story. I'd definitely recommend it.

Life

I was really ill right in the middle of this month, so it's felt like a bit of an odd one for me. Most of the month was spent planning for South Africa (whilst you're reading this I'll be on a safari!) and I also squeezed in a trip to London to say goodbye to one of my very good friends who is off to live in Chile for a year!

That's about it for this week! Let me know if you've read any of the books I mentioned and what you thought of them!

#reviewsdaytuesday: B. Vibrant Shimmer - Lizzie

Today I thought I'd do a quick make-up review. I have been loving the Vibrant Eye Shimmers from B. recently, but this shade (Lizzie) has to be my favourite. I've worn it constantly for the past two months, so you can look at almost any photo to see how it appears on my eyes.

As you can see it is a beautiful irredescent pink champagne colour. The gold running through it catches the light beautifully and the pink shade is very natural. It's very 'no-make-up'.

The product is very creamy and easy to apply. I use a stubby brush because I don't like getting it under my nails. But if you were to have shorter nails using your fingers would be fine too.

Here's how it looks on my skin. As you can see it's very natural yet it still holds its pigment.

All in all I've been very pleased with this little product! At £6.99 for a pot it's slightly more than I would normally spend, but it's definitely been worth it!

B. is a cruelty free and vegan range, exclusive to Superdrug.

#reviewsdaytuesday: Einstein's Dreams by Alan Lightman

I picked up this book for free and it's been sitting on my shelves for a number of years. I'd actually already moved it to a pile to throw away when I heard Jen Campbell mention it in a video of hers. I trust Jen's judgement on books, so I moved it back into my to be read pile and finally got round to reading it in February.

Told in a series of time-bending vignettes, this is the story of Einstein figuring out his theory of relatively. Alan Lightman is a physicist, so it was interesting reading such a literary book from someone with a clear science background. The stories in this book are quaint. They all take place in a small German town and each have their own, very unique, sense of time. Sometimes time moves backwards, sometimes it speeds forwards, sometimes it doesn't move at all, and sometimes it is different for different people and places.

I've never read anything quite like this book. It's a really short read, only 179 pages, but it felt like a book that needed to be indulged in. I really enjoyed it and am very glad I didn't give it away before reading it! Poignant and surreal, I'd recommend this book to anyone interested in time or how we live/experience our lives.

Cooking For One: Beet and Mint Smoothie

After many months Cooking For One is back! I was a very lucky girl this Christmas and my family bought me a NutriBullet! Since then, I've been enjoying smoothie breakfasts almost everyday. They're relatively quick to make and I take them to work to drink. I've tried out a lot of recipes over the past two months, but this has to be one of my favourites.

Ingredients:

1 Fresh Beetroot

1/4 Fennel Bulb

Handful Mint

Method:

Peel the beet and chop it and the fennel into blendable chunks. Add the mint (stalks and all). Fill to line with water. Blend. Add more water.

I love the colour of this smoothie and thanks to the sweetness of the best and fennel it tastes really good! The texture is a little thick/gritty, but adding the extra water at the end really helps to counteract it. Letting it settle overnight in the fridge helps too. Let me know if you try this by commenting below or tweeting me @VickiMaitland

February Was... : A Poem, with Pictures

February was planning.

It was booking things
and tight purse strings.
It was sickness.
It was swallowing snot in my sleep;
constricting throat, unable to speak.
It was Shoreditch.
With good friends and good food,
late nights and good booze.

It was coming fourth in a pub quiz
(three times in a row).
It was resolutions, stunted in growth,
by things I couldn't control:

February was quick quick slow.
The shortest month allowed to stretch it's legs
only to stub
its toe.

My garlic, chili, and thyme smoothie that I used to cure my cold.

Paid my respects in Brixton.

Some of my lovely friends and I at The Water Poet (great pub)

#squadgoals

Two of my favourites

Scary - running through Shoreditch at midnight

The worlds most consistent pub quiz team (ironically taken on the night we lost our streak)

I hope you don't mind that this post was a little different to my others. I wrote this poem late Sunday night and I've tried not to edit it too much - the memories felt more organic this way. I'm off to South Africa on Friday, so the next three/four weeks of posts will include a more official monthly wrap-up, a smoothie recipe, a beauty highlight, and a book review. I don't except I'll have that much internet access whilst I'm out there because of where we're staying, but do expect lots of stories on my return!

Award Season Cruelty Free Make-Up

This is going to be a slightly different make-up look post. Firstly, the make-up isn't on my face, it's on my sister's. Secondly, I don't have any product photos - so you're only going to see pictures of her face. This make-up look was born from me playing around with some new products, but I really liked the end result, so here goes!

I let my sister do her base as normal, and then I let loose. The main reason I started this look was to play around with the B. Contour Kit. This kit features a creamy highlighter and a powder contour. My sister is the palest of the pale, and the light shade was pretty perfect for her. However, the contour colour is a little warm - it's more of a bronzer style contour than a typical contour but it did the job. Both my sister and me were slightly confused by the placement of the pale cream and the dark powder - it would be so easy for the powder to stick to the cream and ruin it. That said, the highlighter is very glowy and natural. All in all, it's an okay kit, but I prefer the Barry M offering.

Staying with the 'face' element of the look, I also tried out a B. Glowing Shimmer Block in Just Peachy. It's one of those blush kits that has lots of colours running through it, and they blend to this gorgeous rosey glow. This looked stunning on her pale skin and gave a delicate warmth.

Moving on to the showcase - the eyes. I framed the eyes using the GOSH brow gel in shade 003. This is actually the shade I've been using on my brows recently, but because my sister has such dark hair she can get away with a darker brow then her natural.

On the lids, I began with a base of B. Vibrant Shimmer in Golden Sand. I love this colour and I think it looks stunning on her lids. In the inner corner I went in with B. Vibrant Shimmer in Moonshine. This really brightened up her eyes. On the outer edge of her eye I went to town with a black shadow from the elf Brights pallet. My sister wanted a very bold look and I definitely achieved that! I even brought a little of the black down under her eyes too (sticking to the outer corner) to give a really bold smokey look.

Her waterline is lined with a White Kajal eyeliner from The Body Shop and her lashes are coated in Showgirl from Barry M.

Finally, as this look could handle a bit of lip we went for the B. Rose Quartz.

I'm pretty happy with how this look turned out, especially considering I was just winging it and hand't tried out half the products before! Looking back, I think I could have gone darker on the bows and contour, and perhaps a little paler on the lips, but I love how deep the eyes look! If you were to try this look I'd probably recommend setting the lids with gold and silver shadow but the only ones we had to hand weren't cruelty free so I've chosen not to include them in this post.