August Favourites: Part One! || 2015

Hello me' maties. I'm aware I sound like a pirate so I'll not repeat that introduction any time soon!
Anyway it's a bit of a jumble of bits and bobs that I have collated from last month that I have particularly enjoyed using, or found myself liking or buying again. Don't know why I have just explained the whole theme of a favourites post but I'll just get on with it. lol. Does anyone even use that word anymore!? I've not put capitals on the 'L'because then it looks unsymmetrical and weird and I just don't like it. XD

1) The Great British Bake Off
If you haven't already heard about this programme and you live in the UK then why are you living under a flipping rock. Like I know how hard it is to buy houses recently but a rock was really the best accommodation you could find!? I'm only joking, don't worry. I'm sure half of you reading this are probably unaware of this programme. It is basically a baking programme (I know *yawn*) but wait 'till I tell you it's full of innuendos, cupcakes and Paul Hollywood and Mary Berry eating lots of soggy bottoms. It's on every Wednesday for a few weeks now, from 8pm-9pm and it's hilarious and comforting and just amazing. Seriously. Go watch it. Now. Well, it's not on now but you know what I mean. Probably...
I'll stop.

Sending my best wishes for your health, Sue. 

2) Patterned Glass Mason Jar!
I know that mason jars have been kind of 'trendy' over the past few months, so a lot have been designed and produced, and trust me I have a fair few in my collection now! This one, however, is really unique and something that I have never seen in terms of mason jars before. It has- oh gosh, what's the word... eeerm- indentations? Indentations wasn't the word I was after but it'll do, in the glass and so it gives it a really vintage look. It also hasn't got a handle like some of the quirky glass mason jars/ cups that are available and I actually really like that about it, as it allows it to be held a lot easier. I found your fingers get squashed between the handle when you try to hold it stably on the ones with handles, but that's just me XD. I also love the straw it comes with with is plastic, and the little gingham/ check pattern on the lid of the jar. I actually have three of these, one in a grey-brown colour, blue and then lime green, but I think they are available in others if they don't float your boat.

3) Maybelline Dream Fresh BB Cream
I've had this a while now (I'd say about half a year) but since I've found myself quite sensitive in terms of concealer anywhere near my ears I have been using this a lot more, and appreciating this a lot more this past month. It's a very light coverage foundation/ cream but I think of it as a tinted moisturiser as opposed to foundation. Usually things like this are recommended for people who have fairly clear skin, with only slight blemishes (which I have not got!) but I still use it, because I find foundation too heavy and scary XD. I actually look forward to applying this when I decided to have a day wearing makeup because it feels so nice on the skin, and I love rubbing it into my face with my hands as I find this gives it a more natural look. It evens out my skin and, for me, is the perfect base. I really want to try the Bronze spin-off of it, and I may try and find the one for oily skin as well, as I do find this one makes me look quite shiny, which I'm not a huge fan of! 

4) Rimmel Stay Matte Transparent Powder
I included this in the photo with the BB cream, just because they are base makeup items. As I mentioned before I find that the Dream Dresh cream can leave me looking quite shiny, and I actually prefer a matte finish on my skin, so I recently went out and bought this and now I just find it incredibly helpful. It has a lot of hype surrounding it in the YouTube world, and I now understand why a lot of people use it. For me, it conceals redness more than actual concealers, and tackles shine to give you a really even skintone to work with. Somedays I only wear this with/ without mascara if I only have a few minutes to get ready and I feel slightly less exposed. Exposed? Where was I going with this? Maybe I mean less self concious about my skin. Either way I love it! And a good price too!

5) Wishbone
I don't usually include apps in my monthly favourites because I tend to stick with my usual ones like Instagram, YouTube, Topshop, Pinterest and IMDB etc. But last month I really got into using this! It's called Wishbone, and if you are trying to find it in the app store it has a reddy-pink icon with a white wishbone. You basically choose between two options that have been selected for you over a series of around 50 questions per go. A typical sort of question would be: 'What car do you prefer' and then there are two different photos, you pick the one you like and you can then see what the public have chosen in percentages. There are some questions I skip past like 'who wore it better' and 'who is prettier' because I don't really believe in competitions and rivalry in that field but I find it's a great time killer, and it's free which is a bone-us! Get it!? No... ok... 








Looking at the sheer amount of writing I have done- I promise you I do try to cut down on how much I do... it doesn't seem to be working!- I have decided to split this monthly favourites into two because I have been loving a lot of things in August it seems. See you in about two posts! Signed, Geekling. x

Thoughtless Thursday: Lana Del Rey

My favourite artist this week. Enjoy!

Signed, Geekling. x

Posts, Posts... Pinterest... and More Posts!

Hi everyone! Thought I'd give you all a big, but fairly speedy catch up! Not sure who this will help out more, you or me, as I need to get on top of all the different post ideas and when they'll be published etc. So please bare with this non post I just have a lot of things to say and organise XD!

PINTEREST!
First of all... I got my Pinterest account back! *pops party popper...if she had one... which she doesn't* Which makes me so happy and I've spent so long on there the past few days because I've been making up for all the time I missed and kind of savouring it whilst I've got it. I'd like to say an enormous thankyou to Grace, who was a member of the Pinterest... eerm... I don't know what to call them... *TEN HOURS LATER* help team! That's the phrase! She helped me out so much after I got past the automated reply and so, once again thankyou! Aaah. So relieved. 

Speaking of Pinterest I have set up a new blog account on there, so if you want to see the kind of stuff I like give that a quick look, maybe! My username is 'Geeklings Blog' and my little '@' name thingy is @geeklingsb. My boards (so far) are: 'Beauty', where I pin fashion and makeup, 'Interior and Exterior', where I pin house and garden design and bits and bobs for around the house, 'Art' which is pretty self-explanatory, 'Humour', which is once again pretty self-explanatory, 'Cute' which is mostly small fluffy animals or little illustrations, 'Extra', which contains all the random pins which don't fit into any other board, 'Blog', self-explanatory, 'Photography' same as before, and 'Wishlist' which is a board of all the things I admire or long to have! Hope you like looking through :)

POSTS!
Upcoming post ideas and mini sort of schedule for them so you know what to look out for! These aren't all the posts I'll be doing, there'll most likely be a few more dotted around, or if something strikes me/ happens I'll no doubtedly talk about in here so don't worry if you don't think there's many/ see any you like... although I'm desperately hoping you'll all at least like one. Or I have failed as a blogger. XD.

Early Next Week (Mon-Wednesday):

• Geekling Bakes: GBBO Week 3. Hopefully making either normal bread, or cranberry and orange soda bread. (I will be doing this up until the end of Bake Off hopefully and so I won't keep writing it down in all the other sections of this post. Same with Thoughtless Thursday!)
• A post about 'Dismaland' which I am currently about to edit and then publish! -Done!-

Late Next Week (Thursday-Sunday)

• Thoughtless Thursday! Either Lana Del Rey, more Benedict Cumberbatch (had to refrain from writing his non-normal names... the fandom will know XD) or Autumn themed things/ quotes.
• Hopefully my Makeup Revolution order will be delivered late next week so I will be doing a haul with all that. I think it'll include 7 items.
• POSSIBLY a review of a few of the new Tanya Burr Cosmetics if I can get my hands on some!

Early Next Month

A little warning that the amount of posts I publish may slightly decrease during this time

• August Favourites (If I have enough to post about!)
• John Frieda Sheer Blonde Go Blonder Lightening Shampoo Review (wow, that's catchy... may have to rethink the title of that post XD)

Late Next Month/ Very Early October

• Some of the Things I Got for my Birthday! (My birthday is in late September if any of you were wondering XD)

And that's it I think! Turned out longer than I expected I just wanted to plan it all out and tell you guys. Singed, Geekling. xxx

Lush Blogger Event!

Hey and hello! This post is the post I mentioned I would be posting soon in a previous post...

''And the award for worst and most confusing blogging introduction goes to Geeklings Blog!'' *manic cheering*

If you didn't catch the post about the meetup- damn just remembered I reverted it to draft... *re-posts it*- I said that me and my friend kind of gate-crashed a Lush blogger event that evening, which the friendly Lush organiser said was fine. It's not like we were just members of the public, we both have blogs and this would be something we'd post about, we were just not on the list as we hadn't made earlier kind of... reservations *that's the word!*. In fact, she said it's good to have fresh new people talking about things like this. I'd never been called 'fresh' or 'new' before so I was actually very pleased! XD

*freakishly dances to the song which just came on*

Anyway, it turns out that the bloggers which attended got a goodie-bag with a few testers of products which I think were either new or being brought into all shops from the Oxford St. store (which was the main reason why Lush held this event, I think). And so I thought I'd give my first impressions of them and just show you what I got. 

1) Love and Light Hand Cream 

So we got three mini tester pots of different products and the first one was the Love and Light Hand Cream which is the far left pot in the photo. My first impressions after just sniffing the contents of the pot (which sounds weirder than it did in my head XD) was that it didn't have a really strong smell, but I was completely wrong. When you start working the cream into your hands the smell gets a lot stronger and it is an amazing scent. If any of you have got the Burt's Bees cuticle cream, it smells exactly like that! And if you haven't it smells quite citrusy, but it isn't really sharp because the cocoa butter kind of evens it out. It just smells delicious and your hands immediately look and feel a lot softer and smooth. I can tell I'll be using this a lot!

2) Beautiful Shower Gel 

The name of this shower gel does sound like I am describing it whenever I don't put speech marks around it, however if I had to review it in one word I would use the word beautiful! In the photo the gel looks a lot darker and more green than it does when you use it, really it is a vibrant yellow colour with lots of sparkle! Whenever I use this in the shower it instantly lifts my mood just because it's such a happy colour and such a happy scent. Before I researched this on the Lush website I believed the main kind of fruity ingredient was lemon, but turns out it's apricot! Smelling it now actually, I can tell it's apricot... 'Memoirs of Me and my Dodgy Sense of Smell...'

3) Cup O'Coffee Face Mask 

The Lush lady whom was leading the group I was in actually demonstrated this mask on my hand and when she did I could instantly name the smell, it's a really rich, strong coffee and I love it! She explained that because this mask actually includes lots of ground coffee beans it's perfect for when you and your skin need to look and feel a bit more awake! I've just used some on my hand quickly (so I can talk about the product more accurately!) and after I washed and dried it, you can definitely feel the difference- my hand feels so much smoother. I think this is my favourite out of all the goodies we got given on the night. 

4) Yoga Bomb Bath Bomb
This bath bomb has a fairly subtle scent- by this I don't mean that the smell is weak, but the ingredients used are purposely not in-your-face, in order to take a relaxing and calming bath. I actually crumbled a bit of this in a ceramic pot to show you guys (photo below) and it dissolved fairly slowly, with little bursts of turquoise and purples in the water and then a really fine golden glitter which doesn't leave your body in need of another bath, just to wash the glitter out! It's surprisingly really calming just watching the bath bomb fizzle (is this even a word!?) and gradually spread and mix with the water (this was just from my experience with the ceramic dish on my desk so I bet it would relax me so much I'd fall asleep when I actually take it in the bath!). Another thing I noticed was that you could probably easily get away with using only half of this in the water and keeping the other bit for another bath because you get the same atmosphere and affect with only a small amount- great value for money! Highly recommend this. 

And that's all of what I recieved. Thanks to Lush and to... eerm, I don't really know who else I was going to thank! Thanks to you I guess! I've almost hit 9000 pageviews which is crazy, remember if you like what you see you can type in your email at the side of this blog and receive my posts via email after I've published them! Love you all. Signed, Geekling. xxx

I Love Autumn!

Hello! Sorry I have been inactive for a while but I won't explain or anything I'll just get straight into the post because I am trying to cut the blabbiness *not even a word*! On we go...

If you didn't already know, Autumn and Winter are my favourite seasons simply because everything turns cosy. For instance you can have warm frothy hot chocolate when you get home, and then put on six million scarves and hats to go out and see all the leaves which are golden and orange and deep reds, then when they shrivel up and die (took a slightly depressing turn XD) the carcasses are the perfect subject for photography. I love sitting by the radiator when its chilly outside and to wear big, soft jumpers which make you feel like you're being hugged all the time! Aaah I just adore it... come on weather get cold!

Anyway... maybe it is wishful thinking but I believe that Autumn is almost here and so I ventured outside my pit of blankets on the floor of my house (I know, I know... the outside world surprisingly wasn't as bad as I thought!) and took some Autumny *gosh my English is appalling* photos for this kind of mood board/ random Autumn bits and bobs themed post. Hope you enjoy. 

Country Living Magazines in my Garden

Read a good book or a home and lifestyle magazine with your hot chocolate and biccies. A book I have loved reading recently has been 'The Shock of the Fall'- however old favourites are 'Looking for Alaska', 'Gone Girl' and 'Frozen Charlottle'. I really want to get a copy of the either 'The Halloween Tree' because I love a good scary book or 'The Night Circus' because that seems to have a really magical plot, to read during October (particularly halloween!) Hehe.

Walking amongst the leaves

This lantern with a little white tea light inside is one of the things I am most looking forward to in Autumn. It's going to sit in the middle of my desk at night and the candle will flicker and make me feel all snuggly inside! I think this was under £5 from IKEA... I did a haul including this a while ago though, so click here if you want more details! The candles were in a pack of 100 I think, also from IKEA.

I really love the star cut-outs on the frame as well, because they'll cast some really amazing shadows on my walls. 

*Little disclaimer* Be safe around candles and open flames... (Fun fact: When I was little and I wanted toasted marshmallows -before I discovered I hated them!-  I just put them on the radiator in my room to warm up! Also don't leave candles alight when you leave your house for long periods of time...

Fairylights on my Garden Shed

In my garden, I have about 5 long lines of fairlights tied and weaved and scattered along my shed, a fence, in the leaves and in trees and plants and when the day turns to evening you start to notice the little lights turn on. I highly recommend them, they make your garden (whatever size) look so cozy and magical- which are two very Autumnal words!

Paint Your Nails Like Autumn!

What better way to bring the beautiful shades of Autumn to your outfit than by your nails? Left to right: Essie in 'Bahama Mama', Barry M in 'Mustard' and Ciate in 'Cream Soda'. 

Swatches of the above nail polishes. Pinky finger is Essie, ring finger is Ciate and middle fnger is Barry M.  I love how glossy all these shades are and so easy to apply. 

Put Purple on When Your Lips are Blue! Excuse the barcode- I deleted the better one by accident!

An ultra creamy edgier, glitter duochrome lipstick. Definitely a buildable product. It would look great on Autumn nights out! Shade 338 'Midnight Plum' by Maybelline.

Swatch of the product after only 2 coats. The photo makes it look a lot more pink toned, but it is definitely purple.

Autumn in a Mason Jar

This is the perfect Autumn scent. Smells like cinammon, freshly baked banana bread and yuminess! The packaging is so original as well. This large mug was £10, sent from America.

And that's a wrap! I actually really enjoyed going through the photos and editing and constructing this post so I hope you will too. It's kind of inspired me to do a post like this when each season changes (darn I just missed summer! XD). Have a nice day and a great Autumn. Love you all. Signed, Geekling. xxx

Great Day!

*Little Note* Sorry this is a re-upload, but I reverted it to draft because I just wasn't happy with it. I've got over that now though, so here you go!
_________________________________________________________________________

Hi guys,
So if you saw my quick post (I think I posted it Tuesday... maybe Monday?) I said that I was going to a meetup sometime soon (not like, myself doing the meetup I mean attending one) and Wednesday was the date! The meetup was hosted by Anastasia from the YouTube channel Floral Princess, Amber from Amber Rose, Eve from Eve Bennett, Lewys from Lookingforlewys and Danni from Danielle Carty. I thought I'd tell you a bit about it for those interested in this kind of stuff, such as what happened and just the day in general. 

11:05 am
Went to my friends house, picked her up, began the journey to the shopping centre where the meetup was held. Played some Pitch Perfect, Troye Sivan, Ed Sheeran, Nirvana and Birdy songs in the car. 
12:30 pm
Arrived and managed to find a place to park
1:45 pm
Went and had a pizza (deep pan margherita, if you were wondering) and a little salad and headed off into the shopping centre to firstly find the meetup location and then do some hardcore shopping!
2:10 pm
Finally found the meetup place after we got lost. Oops. Commenced shopping!
4:10 pm
Concluded the first part of our shopping experience after having visited: Boots, Superdrug, Paperchase, Tiger, John Lewis, River Island, M & S, Simms Olde Sweetshop and the Models Own Bottle Shop which I stood and discretely took photos of for a while because, for a nail polish addict like myself, it was awesome! *Haul will be going up soon* Headed down to the meetup place quite early
4:30pm
Popped into New Look, Topshop (I love Topshop!) Lush (basically walked around sniffing everything in our reach, but doesn't everyone!?) Walked round to get a Starbucks and race to the opposite end of the centre to buy something and saw Amber and Anastasia. Fangirled completely. Embarrased myself. Promised my friend I'd calm down before we met them for real.
4:40pm
Dashed back to the meetup, popped into Starbucks to get a hot chocolate and then sheepishly followed the clan of YouTube fans and YouTubers before plucking up the courage to speak to Eve and get a photo with her. She was really lovely and had some funny things to say. She said I looked like Taylor Swift which kind of made my week... summer. From then on we went round getting a photo with each of them and chatting a bit to them about their channels, and things we liked. I repeteadly admired Lewys' hair. I want it. Like, can he please start manufacturing wigs. Ok I'm getting weird. On a different subject, Anastasia's eye makeup was gorgeous, with a pale deep red cateye effect and I think cream on the lid. And Amber was so lovely, along with Danielle who came up and talked to us about TV!  
6:00 pm
Bought something to eat on the way back and drove home!

Apart from quite seriously burning my tongue (three days later and it only just feels normal!) after anxiously sipping my drink, the day was great and it met my expectations, so thankyou, anyone involved, if you are reading this! We also attended *cough* gate-crashed *cough* a Lush blogger event so details about that will also be going up in a post in the near future. 

Signed, Geekling. xxx
And look I'm being all mysterious pixelating my face out... but here are the photos I had with them! Didn't manage to get one with Lewys though *sad face* XD.

Geekling Bakes: GBBO Week 2!

Voice of Hindsight: Don't add as much baking powder as it said on the recipe. Whoops.

You join me here for another post! Hello again. Put your feet up, brew a nice tea and read on...

So I am a lover of all thinks baking and so when it's this time of year I love to sit down and watch the Great British Bake Off. A show full of baking innuendos, lovely cakes, humour and all round yuminess. So when I was thinking of blog ideas today, a close friend suggested this one! I'm basically going to pick one of the things which the bakers make on that week and then have a go myself! 

This week was biscuit week and I thought I'd try out making biscotti which I love to eat! And if you don't know what they are supposed to look like, click here to see some photos! So I googled a recipe, turns out it was by the BBC itself, so I followed that. If you want to follow the same recipe as me (please scroll a bit further before deciding though. Please. XD) then the link is at the bottom of this post.

So after the 25 minutes of the first bake I took the log-shaped biscotti out of the oven. Fortunately it had risen and expanded a lot as I couldn't imagine getting 12 biscotti out of the tiny amount of dough which I had placed onto the baking tray half an hour before. It had also got a golden brown colour to it and had started to become crispy. 

After the first session in the oven and before being divided.

So I went along and cut it up into long, thin pieces and as I was slicing it some of it came off with the knife. I tried it. 

WORST BAKE I HAVE EVER DONE.

Seriously. It tasted so salty I dashed into the cupboard to find a drink to wash it down with, because otherwise it was coming out! TMI, I know, but dear god it tasted foul. I'm just happy I didn't have to present it to Paul and Mary because I would've chucked it in the bin I think. 'The Biscotti Gate- Who sabotaged my recipe!?'

The only positive I can think of is that they looked like biscotti- but it helps if it actually tastes vaguely like biscotti which this didn't. I checked after I tasted them (I didn't even bother putting them in for the final 10 minutes because there was no way these were salvageable) and I followed the recipe exactly how it was written. There was definitely too much baking powder in there... So I'm rating this week a big, fat FAIL. 

So I'm hoping next week goes better. I'm doing this for hopefully all the weeks of the bake off, so it should be fun! Please let me know how you got on, and tell me where I went wrong!

Signed, Geekling. xxx

And if you are mad, and after reading this you'd like to follow the recipe I chose. The link is here for you: BBC- Food- Biscotti

Just Stripes From Now On...

Hello! *starts dancing along to the song playing in her one earphone because the bud broke on the other one... but she's not bitter. oh no* Ooh. Guys. (This is turning out to be the most random introduction ever) but do you ever feel that like... your phone and your phones music...I don't know how to explain it... gets to know your music preferences. Like when I put my own music on shuffle and I'm feeling like a bit of Birdy... it puts 'People Help the People' on. Or if I'm in a happy/ confident mood it starts the songs off with the Flawless remix. I don't know. It's just a theory I have. Don't even know why I shared that but oh well. On with the post!

Ok so one of my I use Ok way too much.

So one of my summer aims was to get clearer skin *scoffs*. Reflects on how her skins doing. *un-scoffs* and so I popped out to the shops to try and buy some skincare products. I came out with the essential Waitrose 4 in 1 cucumber facial cleansing wipes and the Clean & Clear deep cleansing lotion for sensitive skin. I also dug out a skin product I had kind of forgotten about which was the Witch naturally clear blemish stick (why call a skincare brand Witch. Like, isn't that the skin we are trying to avoid!? XD) Anyway I thought I'd let you know a bit about them and how I have got on with them!

1) Waitrose 4-in-1 Cleansing Wipes.
I decided on these makeup remover wipes mostly because they were meant to smell of cucumber and I really like fresh and clean smells like that. However when I opened the packet and tried them out I realised that they smelt like watermelon!? I don't mind at all because it happened to be one of my favourite scents but I don't know whether they got it mixed up at the factory or my nose is wrong or something but that's just a little warning. For £1 these are really good- they aren't really dry like other wipes I have tried out and they remove makeup (especially tricky mascara) really well, and leave you feeling refreshed. Definitely worth a try if your around Waitrose!



2) Clean & Clear Deep Cleansing Lotion 
I bought this because it says it works especially well on oily skin, which is my skin type, and also because the liquid is bright turquoise! You can tell I didn't really know what I was after when I was looking as I bought things based on their 'pretty colours' XD! Anyway I've been using all these products for about a week and a half now and this product has made me notice a real difference in my skin! It is a lot less oily and I've only got two new spots on my face since using this, which for me, is a huge improvement. I use this every night and every morning before applying my makeup for the day, and because it tightens your pores it reduces their appearance and so shows through makeup a lot less. I think I got this for £4! *Little note* I've not tried the Garnier Micellar cleanser but I really want to give it a go! If any of you already have please tell me how you got on with it.


3) Witch Naturally Clear Blemish Stick
I've had this product quite a while now but I've only just got into using it! As opposed to the two other products I've used this isn't part of my morning and night routine, just because I'm scared that it might be too harsh on my skin if I apply it twice daily! All you do is twizzle the stick up, dab/rub it over the areas you want to treat and then wind the stick down and put the lid on again- simple as that! Don't do what I did one night when I had a significant amount of breakouts and completely rub your face all over because, oh my goodness, the fumes that came of that thing! My eyes watered and I couldn't smell for a few minutes *maybe a slight exaggeration but at least you get the picture!* You can almost instantly notice the difference in the size of your spots, as it tightens them up. Because of the really fresh smell it leaves you feeling clean and the perfect end step to your routine. I think this was £2.59 so bargainous!

Hope you found this helpful, I'm not an expert in this category (or any category for that matter!) but it's just what I've been using and for the first time, I've noticed a positive signifcant difference! I think all of this can be bought for around £10 so a good deal! Signed, Geekling. xx

I'm Still Alive!

Hello! I'm aware that I haven't been active for a few days, and before I went I was daily posting I believe but I just wanted you to know that I've not had a break from blogging- I've actually been working quite hard and putting lots of effort into the posts coming up! So look out for a new post coming tomorrow! 

Signed, Geekling. xx

Also- quick catchup!- I'm meeting some of my favourite youtubers soon so I'll be blogging about that, and I'll be doing some shopping beforehand so one or two hauls may be posted by the end of the week- so keep your eye out!