I didn't intentionally take a break from blogging, nor did I realise exactly how long that break had been. My explanation is probably pretty predictable: exams, coursework, stress, me time etc. are all behind why I've been absent for so long. It's very hard to find the time to write when life gets hectic and so many different aspects of every day life are feeding off of your attention. I'm not going to dwell on that too much. So much has changed in the almost 5 months its been since I last blogged. I've changed my hair, I have a new relationship, I've finished my first year of A Levels. I'm extremely happy right now. I've written posts in the past where I seem to flourish in happiness which usually dissipates pretty quickly. So, I wasn't sure exactly how to write to you today or what to write about without jinxing the future and making future me wince in hindsight. I have come to the conclusion that I want to show you what life for me is like at the moment now that I'm off college and have some time on my hands. So I'm going to write you through what I look like, what I'm loving, what I'm reading etc. It could be a long one, but it's been a long break.
First and foremost, I want to show you my new hair. This might surprise you considering that, not even 6 months ago, I was writing about how much I loved my longer hair and how glad I was it had grown back, but I've cut it all off again!
And so the story of my hair continues. You can read in my previous posts about how my hair got so damaged in the first place and why I had to cut it. Consequently I had decided to grow out my blonde highlights which looked cool for a while, similar to an ombre style; however, the longer my hair got the more out of place the colour looked. I decided to risk colouring my hair again and so I went back to brunette. I don't regret doing this but it did make the ends of my hair look and feel really dull and tired. I started watching Game Of Thrones (which I love, no spoilers please) and fell so in love with Emilia Clarke and her style, especially when she starred in the movie of one of my favourite books, Me Before You. I saw the pictures of her with shorter hair and decided, on a whim, to cut my hair off again. I love it. I would be lying if I said I didn't miss my long hair sometimes, but my hair feels so much healthier. Even more so than it did the first time I cut it. And so there we go, I have short, dark hair again.
I want to show you some products I've been using religiously lately- I don't have enough to do a full June Favourites so I'll just throw them into this post so you can see whats been going on whilst I haven't been blogging. We'll start with Morrocan Oil seeing as I've just told you about my hair. I know for a fact I've written about this before, many times. It's my holy grail hair product. I've never heard any bad reviews on it. Ever. After I cut my hair, I noticed an improvement in how this product worked on my hair. I guess because the ends were freshly cut, they felt softer anyway but I found the oil making it look even fresher and more alive. If you've never tried this product before, I would recommend it. When I worked in the hair salon (I left back in March :( ) I would recommend Morrocan Oil to every client who was suffering from dry, damaged or lifeless hair and it worked every time. It's a bit on the expensive side, but it's so worth it. 
I'm sure this is another product I've written about before; however, I painted my nails with this a few days ago and fell in love all over again. Barry M nail polishes are so underrated. Yes, they are high street products and so they're not massively talked about products but the colours are so beautiful, they're affordable and they last so much longer than many other high street nail polishes that I've used. This one especially is my favourite. The colour is a metallic green/blue. It's the shade, Arabian 522. The thing I love about it is the colour looks different depending on the lighting which is really cool. I also love how the colour looks adjacent to henna when I've done it. Unfortunately, I'm running out so I couldn't do some to show you how it looks alongside the stain but it's a really pretty combination. They do more colours in the metallic range so be sure to check it out because I'm definitely going to be investing in more. This next product I've been loving has surprised me slightly. I asked for a selection of higher end beauty products for Christmas and this was one that I got. I love Too Faced products. I have my heart set on the Sweet Peach pallet and I love the Chocolate Bar pallet; so, I figured I'd try the Better Than Sex mascara considering how much beauty gurus rave about it.
I hated it. I really didn't like it at all. It's very thick and the brush is so bushy that I found it really hard to build up without getting a really clumpy look. I used to make such a mess, especially when doing my bottom lashes because my lashes are very short and the brush is just so big! I don't know what made me persevere with this product. I grew very paranoid about how short my lashes looked, especially in pictures and so I guess I was just desperate for the product to work and I'm so glad I let myself get used to it. Once I got the hang of how to use the applicator despite the sheer volume of the product, I started to get much better results. I was using both this mascara and Benefit's Roller Lash alternatively and initially I much preferred Roller Lash. However, that's beginning to reverse. Roller Lash is a great product if you have time to sit and build it up; when I'm in a rush, Better Than Sex is definitely stealing my heart. It's now my go to mascara and it very rarely lets me down now that I understand it's flaws and how to use the thickness to an advantage.
This next product also surprised me a lot. I'd been looking at this range in Boots for a while before I purchased these two simply because the idea seemed a little odd. Charcoal didn't seem like a substance I wanted to put on my face; however, desperate times call for drastic measures. This isn't something many people talk about simply because of the prejudice and taboo of it, but I have been suffering really badly with blackheads. Lots of people assume this is down to uncleanliness and lack of washing your face. It's really not. I use various products including cleansers and face scrubs, face masks etc. I wear a lot of makeup because I enjoy it. I use a lot of different beauty products and I have pretty oily skin and that causes me to struggle a lot with blackheads. I've been so paranoid about it. It's very frustrating for me and I've spent the last year or so desperately trying different products to find anything that will help. I haven't found any miracle workers, but these two products have helped a lot. It's a brand called Biore. I've been using an exfoliating facial scrub in conjunction with the nose strips. They don't work miracles, they don't get rid of every blackhead on my skin but they do help. I've used versions of both of these products before and they haven't worked at all. The nose strips work well if you get it right. Many times I've removed the strip too soon and it hasn't worked at all but that's down to my own impatience. When I do get it right, it doesn't work as well as I'd like but I can see that a lot of impurities have been removed which is better than nothing. The facial scrub however, I love! Again, it doesn't work miracles in terms of clearing my skin but my face feels so clean when I use it. I can't describe the feeling from using it. Together, they haven't resolved all my problems but they help me maintain control of it. 
That's all for my beauty loves right now. As you know if you've been reading my blog for a while, I am a huge bookworm. I love reading so much and have done since I was tiny. At the minute, I've just finished reading Me Before You which broke my heart and I'm still not over it. Because of that, I've struggled to get into another book. I'm reading Spill, Simmer, Falter, Wither by Sara Baume. It's a lovely story about a man and his dog and it's written in a mix of first and second person which is a really interesting way to read it. It really adds to the atmosphere of the book. I haven't properly got into it yet but I like it so far. Also, I'm not one for reading two books at once but this is a bit different. My boyfriend got me to take a book called Amulet home last night to read. I really didn't think I'd like it. I have a soft spot for Sci-Fi stuff but I've never even attempted to read a comic style before. I was so surprised by how much I'm enjoying it. I've struggled to put it down long enough to even write this so if you're like me and looking for something easy to read after an emotional journey like Me Before You, give something like this a try. 
At the minute, I'm loving Gabrielle Aplin a lot. I'm working on a new original song called Walls & Oceans. I'm having the worst breakout on my skin ever. I have to buy so many books for college next year that myself and my bank account might have a breakdown. I've eaten so much italian food lately that I have a permanent food baby. I love drinking lemon water. I keep saying I'm going to start working out properly but I still haven't done it. And, I'm promising now I'm going to write more on my blog because, despite it being long, I really enjoyed writing this.
Take care...
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