My First Haul Post | Superdrug and Boots Loving

Well girlies this is a momentous occasion in my blogging life as it is my very first Haul post. Seeing that I have had my blog for a year it is totally shocking!! A little bit late but better late than never I say!

I am sure I am not alone when I say I love nothing more than spending an hour (or 3) browsing around the makeup isles in Boots or Superdrug trying every tester I can find. When I went to Boots and saw the 3 for 2 offer I was delighted. I have been after a few new nail polishes for a while and thought I would try the Barry M ones as I haven't before. I definitely wanted something sparkly as I love sparkly... who doesn't? But I also wanted to try the gellies so after some serious deliberation with myself, I settled on Barry M Gelly Hi-Shine 311 Lychee, Barry M Nail paint 349 Rose Quartz and Barry M Nail Paint 355 Gold Mine Glitter.

I was seriously desperate for a new mascara and had seen that Carli Bybel recommends L'oreal Telescopic in carbon black so I had decided that was the one I was going to get before I even went in.  And one more thing I needed was a moisturiser/gradual tanner. After asking for advice from my fellow gorgeous and friendly #bbloggers I decided on the Dove Summer Glow Nourishing lotion for Fair to Medium Skin.

Off I went to the till ready to cough up my hard earned dough. To my delight the chashier informed me that I had enough points on my card to pay for all the nail polishes... amazing! Don't you just love it when that happens. Three free nail polishes!! It is like I am getting rewarded for shopping, I should do it more often.

I then hopped along to Superdrug and was delighted to find a good selection of MUA products as I have been lusting after a few of their pieces. See my wishlist here. I tried out quite a few things on my wishlist like the Undress Your Skin Highlighting Powder but I felt it was too sparkly. After some serious perusing, I settled on the MUA Heaven and Earth eyeshadow palette. I have wanted it for so long. I also liked a few of the other pallets, if this one goes down well I may pick up another soon.

Well that was fun. My first Haul post. Here is to many more whoop!

Let me know if you liked it or if you think it could have been better xx

Products Galore! What I Used Today

I haven't done one of these posts before so please bare with me, I thought I would give it a try.  These are the products I used today. It is an average day in Ashly land and I am not up to anything super special :-)

Aveda Pure Abundace style & prep is one of my all time favourite hair products, I will do a full review of this at some point soon. It smells absolutely divine and despite the size of the bottle it lasts at least a couple of months.

La Roche Posay Effaclar Duo needs no introduction really. It is definitely in the beauty hall of fame, especially after all the aclaim it has had this past year. I really highly recommend this product.  I haven't done a full review on it because there are already so many out there. It works very well for me and also lasts a couple of months.

Clarins Gentle Foaming Cleanser is a must have product for me. It leaves my skin smooth and soft, smells gorgeous like marshmallows and lasts for around 6 months using everyday. Read my full review here.

Sanctuary sensous foaming shower burst. I used this for the first time today and I have to say I am not really a fan, it just feels like shaving gel and doesn't smell particularly nice. I will use the bottle but wont be buying another one. 

Collection 2000 Lasting Nail Colour. This product is great and as my nails are aboslutely horendous at the moment. Peeling and awful and I can't stop picking at them. Yuk. The only thing I could think of to do was to use a few coats of this so at least they look nice and shiny. Read my full review here.

Rimmel Stay Matte foundation. This is a new foundation I am trying at the moment so I haven't done a review yet as I like to use it for a while before I form a solid opinion. So far so good.

What have you been using today?

OUTFIT POST Totally in Love with Fringing

OK lovelies, this is my very first 'proper' outfit of the day. I know I have done a few before but the pictures I used weren't actually intended to be for a blog post. But this one I was brave enough to have pictures taken of myself especially. For the past little while I haven't really wanted to take pics of myself. So I hope you all like it.

The Jacket

TK Maxx £30

This is a lovery faux leather, or pleather, jacket that I got quite recently. I love the fringing on it which you can't see too much of in the pictures but it is really great. I think the staple of a wardrobe should be a black leather jacket, it really goes with anything.

The Jumper

£200 American Retro

I got this jumper just before Xmas as it is so cosy. The fringing drew me to it as I think it is a bit different. I am not sure if you can see but there is a navaho type pattern woven in to the front. The fringing also goes down the side of the jumper from under the arm, it is so preeetty!

The Jeans

£210 Current Elliott

These beauts I have blogged about before here. I love them like lollipops. They are super comfy and stretchy and are also really long. I think the colour will be wearable right through spring and summer with a white tee.. Yip!

The Shoes

£20 Primark

I love a good trainer wedge. I have a few pairs from the wonderland that is Primark. These beauts are faux suede but I think they look pretty snazzy. The best thing about them is they are super duper comfy, hooraay for Primani!

The Bag

£850 Louis Vuitton

Ahhh my faithful Denim Louie Neo. No doubt you will see a lot of this bag as I wear it all the time. I already featured it here in a previous outfit post. I love it because you can literally wear it anywhere with anything. I have had it for quite a few years now and it still looks like new.

Well that is it gorgeous people of the interweb. 

What did you think of my OUTFIT POST?

Lots of love and snuggles.

And the WINNER of my 1st Giveaway is....

Thank you all so much for entering my 1st ever giveaway! There was such a great response and lots of enteries. So *drum roll* I am pleased to announce that the winner is...

BEAUTY FIEND 

Congratulations! I will be emailing you for your address and these beautiful polishes will be on their way to you xxx

Picture Posting Fun... My week in photos!

The last picture post I did seemed to go down quite well so I thought I would do another one for you.  This one is more of a what have I been up to this week rather than random pictures of myself.

Starting with the top left x 

Pic 1
I am totally obsessed with glitter nail polish most of the time. I love sparkly things. This particular one I got as a present from my sister, a few people have asked and it is ModelsOwn Pink Fizz. At the moment I am trying to fit it in to every manicure I do on myself. It is just so pretty and sparkly. The darker shade is OPI Every month is Oktoberfest which I got from Harrods a little while ago.

Pic 2
I decided I wanted to take a close up picture of these cute little jumping lambs in the field but everytime I got close to them they ran away so I ended up with this picture which I think is ok. I thought "this is something you don't see in London". Well, unless you go to the farm which I do quite often.

Pic 3
I wanted to watch a film on Easter Sunday and picked this one "the time travellers wife" which I have actually seen before but I forgot how sad it was. I was like a tap I couldn't turn myself off. Seriously... do not watch this film unless you want a snot fest. It should come with a warning thats for sure.

Pic 4
This is my little chi chi if you can spot her poking out between the banisters. She likes to sit here at the top of the stairs and watch people coming and going in and out of the house. She looks so cute. I was going out and she was sitting staring at me, I felt so bad, even though I only went out for a few hours. EEp what a sap I am.

Pic 5
Now these are my nephews apple flavoured organic rice cakes which I tried the other day and I actually am in love with. They taste so yummy and they are pretty healthy. I do feel bad stealing food from a baby but well a girls gotta eat!

Pic 6
This is of course a pic of my OPI giveaway which ends in a few days so enter now or you will miss out!! (shameless plug) but seriously I am very proud of the picture and of my 1st giveaway I thought the day would never come. But it did and here it is hooray!

Pic 7
I was in the car when I realised the landscape looked like a winter wonderland. It was so pretty I nearly cried, well not really but it was very pretty. I half expected sugar plum fairies to start falling from the sky.

Pic 8
Ahhh my knee socks. I love socks like this they keep your legs warm under your trousers... a pratical girl I am. These particular ones are Christian Dior ooooh I know very posh! I got them at an outlet centre either in Oxford or one in New York I really can't remember but they are nice and bright like the sun which I hope will come out again soon!

Pic 9
Now this my pretties is Audrey Hepburn. I love her. she is so beautiful and classy and beautiful and classy, wait did I say that already? Anyway she had a tough childhood during the war and overcame it to become a movie star, what a fairytale eh. I recently watched a film about her life and I am a bit more obsessed with her than I was before.

Well that is it my gorgeous peanuts! I hope you enjoyed reading a little of what I have been up to.

Lots of Love

Bloggers... do you care about followers? I do!

The funny thing is I first titled this post "Blogging... things I have learned and how to promote yourself" and I think you will see it has turned it to something completely different. A post full of positivety, I hope :-)

I have seen a lot of bloggers say that they don't care how many people read their blog or how many followers that they have. And maybe they don't but, Well the truth is I do care... there I said it. I care. If my hit counter says 1 or 100 it does affect me. 

I started my blog like all others talking (or typing rather) and not knowing who if anybody was listening. I waited and waited hoping to login and see a comment from somebody, anybody just so that I would know I wasn't alone. It took months until I got my first one and even then it was more of a link bump than a 'real comment'.  But I had to keep going, some of these words I just had to get out. I needed to focus on something else for a while, something away from my 'real life' and do you know what it helped, it was a distraction and I believe blogging is really helping me get through one of the toughest times in my life. 

It isn't blogging alone getting me through, but the community. Having something in common with all of these other people. I have always found it very difficult to make friends and I think as you get older it becomes more so. Bloggers are supportive, helpful and caring towards each other. Put up a post saying that you are feeling down and no doubt you will have many comments wishing you well. Put up a post saying that you are happy sharing some good news and no doubt you will have comments congratulating you on your happiness.  It is this support from other bloggers that is so special.

Reading about problems others are facing which I can relate to helps me so much too. It gives me courage to share my own story and opinions. It makes me feel like I am not alone. And being lonely is the worst feeling in the world to me.


I have always been shy about sharing my true feelings and opinions.  I didn't want to be singled out or to be seen as 'different' if I gave my opinion, I was afraid of what people would think of me. I so badly wanted to fit in and at the same time I wanted to be special, different (I think this is something that caused me a lot of problems... but thats another story for a different day). 

Blogging has opened me up. It is making me less afraid of telling the truth and saying my own opinions. Hell if I can announce them to the bloggosphere for anyone to read.  Surely I can speak up if I don't like carrots (I do by the way).

So if I am sharing all this with the interweb then I do hope that somebody else is reading and that maybe just maybe some of the things I have shared might help them too.

The thing is that anybody can be a blogger no matter who you are or where. As long as you have internet access and a computer device, the blogging world is your oyster. There are blogs about beauty, animals, fences, farms and food. So if you have an interest there will be a blog about it. This is what makes it so special. You really can find others who care and share about the same things you do.

So that is the truth, I do care if others are reading my blog, and I am not ashamed to admit it. I want them to read and comment and communicate with me via instagram and twitter. It makes me happy.

So thank you blogging for giving me so much. It may sound cheesy but its true and that is my opinion :-)

It would be lovely to hear how blogging has helped or not hepled you...

love