HOW TO: MOCHA CAKE

TIPS: HAY FEVER HELP

Hello! Now we are in the height of our summer we are enjoying the warmer weather and venturing outside a lot more, but this comes with a problem for some of us: HAY FEVER!

I have been suffering from hay fever my whole life and I have it ALL. YEAR. ROUND. which is pretty annoying as it makes you feel quite ill sometimes. 

Obviously it is generally worse in the summer though and especially this summer, as our year has been a bit different to the usual seasonal changes..

Our long and late cold weather and sudden 180 into the oven that is now our summer, here in the UK, has meant that pollen and hay fever have acted differently this year. Basically there are different kinds of pollen such as grass pollen and tree pollen and the different types of pollen start blowing up our noses at different times of the year, usually.. but the longer cold weather meant that some pollen that is usually release earlier wasn't released until the hot weather sprang up on us, along with ALL the other pollens! This has meant that even people who don't usually feel the effects of hay fever that badly, or at all, have had symptoms. 

For me, it made life particularly miserable for the first few weeks of the warmer weather and I didn't even want to go outside to enjoy the sun because I was being made to feel SO ill from hay fever! 

And then, one day when I had had quite enough because that morning I had taken my tablet, eye drops, nasal spray AND liquid medicine and this combination wasn't having ANY effect as I was literally sneezing constantly. I was so frustrated and sick of feeling like I had a horrid cold and not being able to breathe that I was ready to try anything. 

This desperation led me to discover a very neat trick that relieved me of my symptoms INSTANTLY, and it was so simple. Salt water.

Yes, for the past couple of weeks once or twice a day, or as I need it, I have been taking a pinch of sea salt and washing it down with glass of water. No joke, it is my saviour from hay fever. It isn't the most pleasant thing in the world but it isn't awful and if it works, I don't care!

I have still been taking my tablet once a day as well, but I find they NEVER last anywhere near 24 hours, so this little remedy has been amazing. 

I was dreading going on my camping holiday, as you can imagine, that would have been hay fever HELL if it wasn't for my new trick!

I think a big part of it is making sure you are drinking plenty of water, I definitely find if I am keeping on top of my hydration throughout the day that my hay fever symptoms don't tend to bother me, so keep this in mind!

I really hope this helps some of you, as hay fever is a really horrible thing and now hopefully you can all enjoy the heatwave without being overly worried about having tissues close to hand (or nose) or sneezing until you have a headache!

HOLIDAY: PEMBROKESHIRE, WALES.

Hello! Here is a photo laden holiday post, enjoy...

We walked round Dinas Head, this is the view #1

The view #2

The view + me!

Myself & my dog Kinney, dogs make holidays better!

Myself and my boyfriend Charlie who still looks in the flip screen & not the lens...

A rather tasty chicken something or other... *drool*

Waiting for cake

Being told to pose nicely! What a lady in my polka dot dress!

Someone else wanted cake too..

As did this little birdie! Oh look my ASOS bag..

Nature.

Kinney dug himself a cool spot on a hot beach.

Being lame and couple-y! Mwah!

I think this is where the heat started getting to me..

and I apparently wanted to catch flies for the rest of the day! (Dad & I)

Where we stayed..

In our nylon/ polycotton/ polyester castle! Totes posh..

So those were (quite) a few of my holiday snaps, we had a lovely week because the weather was amazing! 

I am off in a little caravan with Charlie to the Gower Peninsula a week today, what the weather holds for that I don't know, but I intend on getting lots of reading done!

I hope you enjoyed this post (:

Where have you been on your holibobs this year?!

REVIEW: MAYBELLINE THE FALSIES MASCARA

Maybelline The Falsies Mascara £7.99

I bought this mascara after I'd seen Tanya Burr loving it in many of her makeup tutorials. While I like the shape of the wand and the pigment of the product, I don't really like anything else about it...

But not because it isn't good! I think it's a very good mascara, it lengthens, it volumizes it gives you big beautiful lashes..

but it gives me far too full-on, almost spidery lashes. This is rather unfortunate, because I like the product in the tube. It might be the brush, it might be the consistency of the product and it might be a combo of the two, but it doesn't get on with my lashes.

The thing about my lashes is that they are naturally VERY long already and I could probably get away with clear mascara everyday if I wanted to. Having lashes like this is nice and not-so-nice, because even if I don't want any more length I still need some assistance in separating my lashes out and giving them a bit of definition, which this mascara just isn't designed for!

Can anyone suggest a mascara for me that will separate, define and perhaps curl my lashes rather than just a lengthening/ volumizing one?

REVIEW: THIS WORKS DEEP SLEEP PILLOW TALK SET

This Works Deep Sleep Pillow Talk Set £22

Hello! I originally bought this because I started having terrible trouble sleeping when the warmer weather bumbled in and brought all kinds of hay fever with it, which basically knocked me off me feet as I already suffer most of the year with it, but because our summer was delayed by the cold weather all the different kinds of pollen that would usually be released at different times hit us all at once, lovely! This meant I practically had a cold for about 2 weeks due to hayfever and this kept me up all night as I couldn't breathe properly. I have recently discovered a good tip for long, hard-suffering hay fever sufferers, which I will make a little blog post about!

The pillow spray smells like lavender and is lovely, although I don't know if it helps me to actually sleep any better! For this reason I wouldn't buy the pillow spray on its own to help me sleep. 

On the other hand, the rollerball stress less I have found very helpful! It says to roll it onto your wrists and inhale it when you are lying in bed gong to sleep. I did this at first but to be honest with you I found it a bit annoying having to keep my wrists at nose-level so opted to roller it straight under my nose instead! It just made more sense..

It can be described as a posh version of Vicks vapour rub that I was always given as a child. It smells similar but is much nicer because it isn't at all sticky and it really does the trick to help you breathe easier!

I would consider buying the rollerball again, but I think this was a one-off purchase because usually I'm a pretty deep sleeper by myself! It did come in handy when I was camping recently though and I spoke about it in this video!

Other products I would love to try from the This Works range are the Skin Deep Dry Leg Oil as I get horrendously itchy legs, especially while I'm asleep and wake up with awful scratch marks on my legs, oops! I find oils help this, though. And the In Transit Muscle Therapy as this week I am aching all over from doing a tonne of gardening and cleaning because I'm getting ready to move out of my house! 

What do you think of the brand? What is your favourite product?

REVIEW: CREST WHITESTRIPS.

Hello! I've been quite rubbish lately because I have been bouncing all over the country and going on holiday etc so blogging took a backseat but I am going to try and put that right today with a few posts to get back into the swing of things and start planning some posts to keep content regular!

Today I am reviewing the infamous Crest Whitestrips. I have heard a lot about these and have watched a few video reviews on them quite a while ago now and had always been in two minds about trying them out myself. This was mainly because in some of the reviews people had said they had quite a bit of pain and sensitivity when using these, which really put me off because I already have quite sensitive teeth and I don't want tooth pains for days, because the people said their pain lasted ages!

On the 'pro' list, however, were the actual whitening results, which were apparently amazing and long-lasting. In the end I decided to try it for myself and bought just 3 strips (each with an upper and lower strip, as pictured above) just to try it out, rather than spending a lot on more and either not using them or them not working! 

I bought them from an eBay seller who sells them as separate strips in different amounts, which is really good, especially for me as I can't get them in the shops here in the UK, I will link the seller here.

So, the result. I was actually really pleased with them, they are pretty easy to use, you put them on for just half an hour and after the 2nd time I used them I noticed a difference and definitely after the third time. I will be buying more soon to keep going as at the moment my teeth are less yellow, but not super white. I don't want my teeth to look unnaturally white so I'll stop using them once I have achieved the nice 'pearly' white look, I think 3-6 more uses should do it. 

I would recommend them if you want to whiten your teeth, but perhaps not to use them every day, because the only time I had more sensitivity than normal was when I used them two days in a row. I do think, though, that the experience will be a bit different for everyone and I have been lucky to get on well with this product! 

Have you used these or any other whitening treatments? What do you think?