british

Why You Should Filter Your Feed

blog, celebrity, contour, inspired, instagram, life, lifestyle, reflection, self improvement, social media, twitter, Uncategorized

Something I’ve become increasingly aware of over the last couple of years is the need to filter the media we expose ourselves to. For me, this began with making a connection between the television I consumed and my overall mood.

I spent years as a self-confessed Soap Queen. Eastenders was my vibe and I lived for the Christmas Day tragedies. Nowadays though, the thought of sitting through an omnibus leaves me feeling like Shirley Carter upon finding out about the murder of her beloved Hev. Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t a total avoidance tactic, simply a curation of content. For instance, after watching the hit series ‘You’ on Netflix, I moved on to ‘Brooklyn Nine Nine’ for an easier watch. It may sound bizarre to some but I find it important to seek out lighthearted content in order to maintain a balance. It’s like when you watch a horror film before bed and have to follow it up with an episode of Friends after.

What began with television and film has now evolved for me and I am working to get to a point where my social media reflects a realistic yet uplifting view of the world. So with this in mind, I figured I’d share some of my methods for achieving a better relationship with the media.

As a former journalism student, for many years Twitter was my go-to place for news. I felt like I had to know about every major event going on in the world and be prepared to discuss such in great detail. I then realised that the news very rarely consists of positive stories. It’s okay to disconnect from these stories if they are having a negative impact on you. I find it best to follow broad news accounts such as BBC News and Reuters in order to know the top headlines without being overwhelmed by the details within them. Twitter is terrible for people Retweeting sad, disturbing or offensive content. I see people complaining all the time of the level of ‘trolling’ and scrutiny on this platform. Personally, I don’t see much of this side of the app thanks to my fondness of the unfollow button.

Instagram is amazing, I’m definitely a little too invested in it right now but I’m okay with that as long as I’m following the right accounts. I am particularly partial to a dog account, @tunameltsmyheart is a firm favourite. I’m making a more conscious effort to follow accounts that represent ‘real’ people with less facetune and more desire to inform and inspire. I can love the Kardashians and at the same time be totally aware that their fame and success have given them a platform unlike any other that we as ‘normal’ people could begin to comprehend. Whilst I don’t necessarily agree with every sponsorship or brand collaboration they post, I am more than happy to support them for the monumental business empire they have created as a family.

One tricky thing to tackle when filtering your social media is real life friends. Often I see things being posted by people I know in actual real life that I disagree with or find to be somewhat negative. I’m sure there are those who feel the same about my pages too and that’s okay! There are many reasons why you may still want to maintain a connection with these people and so in that respect, an unfollow is probably not the right option. Instead, mute them. They won’t know you’ve done it unless they suprise you with a random Instagram related pop quiz and you can continue to flick through instastories without seeing their billionth Brexit related post.

If you take one thing from this post, let it be this. The block, unfollow and mute buttons are your best friends. Your social media is exactly that. It’s yours. Don’t let it be dictated be the views of others. I really do believe that social media is a wonderful thing if we just learn to use it in a more positive way.

Sophie

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The Makeup Revolution

bargain, beauty, makeup

A while back I wrote about an amazing Naked Palette dupe which you can read here. This dupe was a Superdrug discovery that introduced me to the brand Makeup Revolution. So of course I had to go straight back and see what else they had to offer! With a bored friend in my ear telling me to “hurry up” every few minutes, I only picked up three products. I’ve had a chance to use them all and these are my thoughts…

Oil Control Fixing Spray – On the whole I’m a big fan of setting sprays. I normally use Mac Prep + Prime Fix+, which I love, but at £15.50 for 100ml there had to be a cheaper option. And there is! The Makeup Revolution Pro Fix comes in at just £5 for the same quantity. I use this before I apply my makeup and then again once it is complete. My makeup definitely lasts longer when using this, although I’m not sure it’s as long as the ’12 hours’ the bottle suggests. Most importantly it keeps shine at bay meaning I don’t have to powder as much as I usually would. This is a perfect summer night out essential and I won’t be without it any time soon!

Vivid Baked Highlighter – I love a highlight, trust me I have A LOT of them. Up until recently I was using theBalm Mary Lou Manizer Luminzer but it’s £17.50, extremely pigmented and I find it works best with pale skin. I saw this Makeup Revolution one in Pink Lights and at £3 decided it was worth a try. I worried it would be very glittery but thanks to its baked consistency the product is deceptively smooth and blends out into a soft sheen. I have used this on both pale and tanned skin and love it in both cases. It’s gone straight to the top of my collection!

Depraved Lipstick – At just £1 for a lipstick, it took all my willpower not to purchase the entire collection, but having never owned a lipstick from Makeup Revolution before I thought it best to stick with the one. I went with this bright purple lipstick as festival season is right around the corner and it’s just perfect for that. The formulation is quite glossy so it takes a couple of coats, but I like that as it means less room for error. Because of this, I was concerned about longevity so I have found that applying this over a neutral lip liner makes it last longer with less smudging. Cost is everything with this product after all who can resist a quality £1 lipstick?!

Sophie xoxo

The Best Boring Beauty Buys

Uncategorized

We all have our favourites, the daily essentials we simply cannot live without, but never really get enough credit. So I thought I’d share my Top 5 with you…

1. E45 moisturising lotion

This is a fairly new discovery. Recently my arms have been unbearably dry and nothing was working. Exfoliating only made them painful and red, and as a fake tan addict, the patches were getting out of control! It’s not exactly the most attractive packaging on offer, but I needed something industrial and E45 has not disappointed! After a couple of days of use, my skin felt ten times softer and the pain was gone. The surprisingly light formulation insures there’s no greasy residue that a lot of other brands have and it’s perfume free which personally I prefer. Despite only having it a couple of weeks, I’m already about half way through this bottle but an inexpensive price tag of £4.70 means I’ll never be without it again!!

2. The Wet Brush

I thought I had found detangling heaven in the Tangle Teezer until I found this!  Years of having to battle through unbreakable knots, ripping out clumps with a comb made hair washing a rather unpleasant experience, so finding the Tangle Teezer was a real breakthrough moment. I was utterly content with it when I discovered the Wet Brush which had the one thing that the TT was missing…A HANDLE!  I know this doesn’t sound like much, but trust me it just makes everything that little bit easier. So if you hadn’t thought to try it, take my advice and I’m pretty sure you’ll find your Tangle Teezer is thrown to the back of the cupboard, just like mine 🙂

3. Lip Balm

I have way more than I’d care to share, but my holy grail will forever be Burts Bees lip balm. It’s the perfect all rounder, used before makeup or throughout the day and best of all it lasts so you don’t feel the need to constantly reapply. There’s nothing I hate more than those little tins of Vaseline that people slather all over their lips in the hopes of achieving the perfect pout. Their sole purpose is to make you buy more, essentially they are the cause and effect of your dry lips, AVOID THEM! If your lips are seriously cracked and painful, you might want to investigate something a bit more heavy duty like Blistex, but for regular lip balm users, I’d always recommend a softer product. Carmex is great, I’m just not a fan of the tubes (formulation) or pots (hygiene issues).

4. Flannels

As a fan of skincare Queen Caroline Hirons, I try to cleanse my face morning and night, the days of falling asleep in makeup are long gone and I now rely on Emma Hardie cleansing balm to remove the sins of the day. With this came a flannel come muslin cloth that has become a firm favourite. Previously, I was using a bog standard muslin cloth but found it could be quite harsh on my skin, this alternative allows for the choice to use each side based on the sensitivity of different areas of the face. Though, an ordinary, run of the mill flannel is just as good!

5. Cotton buds/pads

Beyond boring, but totally essential. Cotton buds can be the best friend to a girl who hasn’t quite perfected the art of winged liner, as well as cleaning her ears. Personally, I use cotton pads for a range of things, mainly for taking off makeup, a couple of pads covered in Bioderma can remove a full coverage face in seconds. I use another pad to wipe my toner (the infamous Pixi Glow tonic), all over my face after cleansing. Any cotton pads from drugstores or supermarkets tend to do the job although occasionally I’ve found that very cheap ones can break apart. (They’re also handy for cleaning dogs eyes)

Sophie xoxo