Tuesday 20 August 2013

♡Wantable Beauty Box - Review Part One♡

I'm sick at the moment and don't have much energy so I am so sorry for the lack of posts! I thought I would make it up to you by filling you in on something I bought recently.
I read a review over at junniku about a beauty subscription box from this company called wantable and straight away I was eager to try it out!

So going on the site you choose either an accessories box or a make up box which is then followed by a quizz where they try to determine your style, which I thought was so much fun! I love filling out questions like that so I really enjoyed it.
Here's an example of what the questions are:
Make up -
Accessories -
So going through the survey you say whether you like, dislike or whether you're simply in the middle in regards to how much you like something and they will tailor the box to your taste.
You can then subscribe for $36 every month or buy a single box for $40. The subscriptions are shipped automatically each month and you can also skip boxes or cancel the subscription whenever you want.
It's a bit more expensive than other beauty boxes but from what I can see others don't offer as thorough a quizz, some don't even offer it at all and a lot of them give sample sized beauty products and don't offer an accessory box option.
The box is also valued $80-$100 so that combined with the excitement of getting a surprise in the mail is worth the money in my opinion.
Unfortunately they only ship to America, Canada and Australia at this stage.
I ordered a box the other day which is an order for a September box and they said that it should arrive a month after my order, which is the 20th of September.
I'm actually really excited to get my accessories box! When I get it I'll show you all my products and write up the second part to this review.
xx

Monday 19 August 2013

♡Grrrl Power♡

Hiya guys :)
So this post here is one for me when I was younger. It's also for young women now, it's for all women! Yes, it's a tad bit lengthy but I believe it's a really important read.
This is a post that I wish I had read when I was younger, it's also how I wish I thought when I was in the middle of my teen years.
Society has tried to make us women fit in certain boxes for pretty much all of history. I am not 100 percent sure why but a part of me thinks it's because of fear.
Fear of what us women can do. 
We are powerful, we really are and, yes men are great too but I think the male leaders of the world from both the past and the present fear our capabilites.
We have the ability to juggle and do so much.
We can be mothers.
We can work hard.
We can work damn hard.
We are compassionate and passionate.
We have strong thoughts, desires and beliefs.
Yes, men and women should be treated as equals but not equally.
Women and men are different and those differences need to be addressed, instead of the needs of women being ignored and without us being told that we're 'not good enough' or that we should change certain aspects of ourselves so as to be what society wants us to be.
My mum would always say this to me growing up, "You are beautiful on the outside, but more importantly, you are beautiful on the inside," which I loved hearing. She tried to put a lot more emphasis on who I was as a person rather than what I looked like as I was growing up, which was great.
Women, you are all beautiful.
Heck, if you want to be ugly, in a non-destructive way, then that's ok too! Ugly isn't necessarily bad, it's just we live in a society that is obsessed with beauty.
You should love every bit of yourself and I mean that.
I have have seen so many young girls hurt so badly due to ridiculous expectations that have been put on themselves because society has drowned them with thoughts, images and expectations pretty much as soon as they were born and it is something I have experienced personally too.
We can complain about these things but change has to start with us.
Be loud.
Be passionate.
Stand up for yourself and women everywhere.
Ignore medias expectations, ignore mens expectations, ignore anyone elses expectations.
You are you and that is great!
I could go on forever here but I think I'll stop now before I become even more passionate.
Remember, there is no shame in being who you are, liking what you like, eating what you like and wearing what you like.
No one has the right to make yourself feel ashamed of who you are, not even yourself.
These are some excellently beautiful quotes I have come across, definitely worth a read:

"I don’t know why people are so reluctant to say they’re feminists. Maybe some women just don’t care. But how could it be any more obvious that we still live in a patriarchal world when feminism is a bad word? Feminism always gets associated with being a radical movement – good. It should be."
Ellen Page from her Guardian interview “Why are people so reluctant to say they’re feminists?”
"Apologize to your body.
maybe,
that’s where the healing begins."
Starting, Nayyirah Waheed

I swear to god I will lose my mind if I hear the “sex sells” fallacy one more time. Sex does not sell. If sex sold, we would see penises where we see boobs. Naked men would be on everything that naked women are on. Sex isn’t what they’re selling you. They’re selling you an impossible, pornographically fueled misogynistic idea of the perfect woman.
The fact that you’re struggling doesn’t make you a burden. It doesn’t make you unloveable or undesirable or undeserving of care. It doesn’t make you too much or too sensitive or too needy. It makes you human. Everyone struggles. Everyone has a difficult time coping, and at times, we all fall apart. During these times, we aren’t always easy to be around — and that’s okay. No one is easy to be around one hundred percent of the time. Yes, you may sometimes be unpleasant or difficult. And yes, you may sometimes do or say things that make the people around you feel helpless or sad. But those things aren’t all of who you are and they certainly don’t discount your worth as a human being. The truth is that you can be struggling and still be loved. You can be difficult and still be cared for. You can be less than perfect, and still be deserving of compassion and kindness.
— Daniell Koepke
"How to talk to your daughter about her body, step one: don’t talk to your daughter about her body, except to teach her how it works.
Remind your daughter that the best thing she can do with her body is to use it to mobilize her beautiful soul. Don’t say anything if she’s lost weight. Don’t say anything if she’s gained weight.
If you think your daughter’s body looks amazing, don’t say that. Here are some things you can say instead:
“You look so healthy!” is a great one.
Or how about, “you’re looking so strong.”
“I can see how happy you are – you’re glowing.”
Better yet, compliment her on something that has nothing to do with her body.
Don’t comment on other women’s bodies either. Nope. Not a single comment, not a nice one or a mean one.
Teach her about kindness towards others, but also kindness towards yourself.
Don’t you dare talk about how much you hate your body in front of your daughter, or talk about your new diet. In fact, don’t go on a diet in front of your daughter. Buy healthy food. Cook healthy meals. But don’t say “I’m not eating carbs right now.” Your daughter should never think that carbs are evil, because shame over what you eat only leads to shame about yourself.
Encourage your daughter to run because it makes her feel less stressed. Encourage your daughter to climb mountains because there is nowhere better to explore your spirituality than the peak of the universe. Encourage your daughter to surf, or rock climb, or mountain bike because it scares her and that’s a good thing sometimes.
Help your daughter love soccer or rowing or hockey because sports make her a better leader and a more confident woman. Explain that no matter how old you get, you’ll never stop needing good teamwork. Never make her play a sport she isn’t absolutely in love with.
Prove to your daughter that women don’t need men to move their furniture.
Teach your daughter how to cook kale.
Teach your daughter how to bake chocolate cake made with six sticks of butter.
Pass on your own mom’s recipe for Christmas morning coffee cake. Pass on your love of being outside.
Maybe you and your daughter both have thick thighs or wide ribcages. It’s easy to hate these non-size zero body parts. Don’t. Tell your daughter that with her legs she can run a marathon if she wants to, and her ribcage is nothing but a carrying case for strong lungs. She can scream and she can sing and she can lift up the world, if she wants."
— 
xx

Thursday 15 August 2013

♡Chai Tea Syrup Recipe♡

Hey guys so I thought I would share a recipe for Chai Tea Syrup which is absolutely delicious. It's great for if you need a little pick me up and is a lot cheaper than buying it from the coffee shop.
Ingredients:
1/2 tsp ginger
1 tsp cinnamon
Ground cloves
A bay leaf
3 tbsp vanilla
Honey or agave nectar
3 Black teabags or 3 chai teabags

Directions:
  1. Firstly, fill a medium sized pot with 3 cups of water and wait until it reaches boiling point.
  2. Put in the 3 tea bags that you have chosen to use and turn it down to a simmer while you stir.
  3. Once the tea has seeped into the water a bit add a teaspoon of cinnamon, a sprinkle of ground cloves, 1/2 teaspoon of ginger and the bay leaf and stir. By now it should be smelling really good!
  4. Add the honey or agave nectar to taste, the amount just depends on how sweet you like it so make sure to try it.
  5. Stir again with a wooden spoon for 20-30 minutes or until the mixture has thickened and is an almost soup-like consistency. If you're impatient like me, just mix it for as long as you like but taste it to make sure all the flavours have combined and have been absorbed.
  6. Turn off the stove, remove the bay leaf and teabags and add 3 tablespoons of vanilla.
  7. Let the mixture cool and pour into a glass bottle with a top to store in the fridge for later. You can add it to soy milk or almond milk etc and drink it hot or cold!
Alternatively, you can make the chai to be drunk straight away instead of storing it. If you choose to do so, pour in the amount of water that suits how much you want to drink and also include the milk that you have chosen in the stove process :)
Enjoy!
xx

Wednesday 14 August 2013

♡Salvador Dali Exhibition♡

Again, sorry for the delay in posting! I was going to post this when I was still overseas but I didn't have any time and then once I landed back in Sydney I was straight back into Uni and work.
So as I'm sure you know I had been travelling for five weeks and one of the places I visited was Berlin for a couple of nights.
During high school I did Modern History, where I had a German teacher who taught us about Germany during the Second World War so it has always been a place of interest to me as I've heard a lot about it. We weren't in Berlin for very long, a total of three days but I know I will definitely be back as it is such a beautiful city - people are so kind, it has so much history and a really cool alternative scene.
One of the most memorable things for me was the Salvador Dali exhibition.
I went to a selective visual arts and design high school as I was always a creative kid and was pretty good with a pencil and paint brush but after my last year of high school where we had to create a piece of art that suited the education departments opinion of a 'successful artwork' I lost all inspiration and motivation to create anything, which is terrible because my creativity is something really important to me.
I was only able to spend an hour in the exhibition, when I could easily have spent six hours or more, because we had a lot to do in the day.
Salvador Dali is mainly known for his surrealism, especially the melting clocks and the exaggerated camels that are in his work but this exhibition really opened my eyes as to how broadly talented this man was! It really inspired me to crack open my art boxes which makes me extremely happy. Here are some of my favourite pieces I saw:
☆ These first two are designs for theatre costumes that he was asked to create. In this set of costumes he used butterflies as a motif to symbolise growth and rebirth ☆ 
☆ This here is one of the many statues that he fashioned☆ 
☆ This cartoon below is a part of a series that he did which was apparently very scandalous at the time as they were seen as very vulgar pieces as each work had something that was seen as vulgar 'hidden' within them☆ 
☆ These works are a part of an Alice in Wonderland series he did and are my favourites. He, as many artists, loved the abstract and almost psychedelic series. Dali would read the books to the daughter of a friend which inspired him to create a series where he played with the colours from Alice in Wonderland but explored darker concepts. A new edition of the book was also released and who better to provide the illustrations for a surrealist fable than Dali himself?☆ 
None of these photos have filters or anything like that because, come on, as if they need them!
Every piece was absolutely amazing, I know that I will definitely go back one day soon so that I can go through the exhibition at a much slower pace. I seriously recommend it!

I promise guys that my next post will be up in the next couple of days, maybe even tomorrow, I am still trying to get into a normal routine which is taking longer than I anticipated!
In the mean time, feel free to follow my instagram :)
xx
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