WHAT 2018 TAUGHT ME

2018 has lasted approximately 5 years. I'm not even exaggerating, we literally had an OLYMPICS that we all just forgot about. So much crap has happened this year that has made me lose a little bit of my faith in humanity, so here's what I feel like I've taken from this year.

Trying to be confident and face your fears is always the best way.
This October I moved to Birmingham, much bigger and much busier than where I'm from. Luckily I got to move up and live with my boyfriend but it was still pretty daunting to start a new chapter as big as this one. The reason we moved up here was to start university and I was terrified to meet new people and make new friends, I didn't see myself as a particularly confident person and I got into my own head a little too much, worrying about what people might think of me. The first day of Uni I decided to pretend I was super chill and confident, I spoke to loads of people and made loads of friends! When I look back on it I realise I wasn't putting on this confidence I just actually decided to suck up my fear and try to face it. If I hadn't channeled confidence at the start of Uni I wouldn't have made such great friends and had such a good time as I have so far, so I'm glad I was able to realise this early on.

Self sufficiency is hard
As I already said I moves out this year which was a big transition for me. Cleaning has particularly gets on my nerves but probably for reasons different to others, I like things to be very tidy and clean, this means vacuuming and getting rid of crumbs is something I like to do quite often. Before I only really had to keep my bedroom clean but now I have a two bedroom flat to keep in tip top shape, beds must be made and clothes must be away everyday otherwise I feel like I can't get on with other things I need to do.

Clothes washing is something I didn't think would be a big deal but I appear to run out of socks quite quickly. Another problem I ran into is trying to do as little washing as possible, this means I mix colours, whites and darks in the same wash, this morning for instance, I put a load of washing in the machine and now all my boyfriends white socks and my white bed sheets are bright pink, whoops.

Food shopping is another thing that doesn't seem hard, it's actually quite fun to be able to buy whatever food you like. This problem is actually walking home with food shopping. We don't have a car and as it's only a 15 minute walk to Morrisons we don't see the point of getting the bus or an Uber, but those 15 minutes walking back from the shop is awful.

Keep things exciting
Moving in with boyfriend has been wonderful, I love him and getting to wake up together everyday makes me super happy. The only thing is trying not falling into habits of just sitting around watching TV and just co-habiting rather than spending time together making memories. Sometimes we don't have too much to share with each other as we literally spend all the time together, especially now the weathers getting colder and going outside sounds horrible.
To combat this we try and plan days out wether it's meeting up with friends or planning a cheap date night. After dressing up a little to even just go to the pub for dinner we always feel closer and it just feels more special than staying at home. Saying that though, some of my favourite date nights have been making an el paso taco kit together and eating it on the sofa while watching a movie.

Friends and family are super important
Moving cities means missing everyone. I have such a tight family and such good friends who I love very much and knowing that I can't just pop in and see them whenever I like is really hard, but when I do get to see them every minute is precious. This year I saw people so close to me go through so much and every bad thing bought everyone so much closer and made me appreciate what I have. Making a conscious effort to just message people to make sure they're ok and just have a catch up lets them know that you're there.

Self love and care is vital
This year I've tried to step up looking after myself, both mentally and physically. Instead of forcing myself to be happy all the time I just started being nicer to myself and showing myself love. Simple things like having pamper days or having days where I know I can just do nothing and know that that's ok. Forcing yourself to feel a certain way isn't healthy, if you're sad letting yourself feel sad is natural and completely normal. Cutting off negative people and thinking about you isn't selfish or mean, it's a progression of self respect, you should be your main priority.


I have become a completely different person throughout this year, there's been so many experiences both good and bad that have shaped me into who I am now. This doesn't mean I am the woman I'm meant to be but what it does mean is that I am shaping into the person I want to be. This time next year I might be a completely new version of myself and I'm excited to know who that'll be.

MY FAVOURITE ALBUMS OF 2018

IDLES
JOY AS AN ACT OF RESISTANCE
PARTISAN RECORDS

IDLES latest album was released in August this year, with the pressure from the massive success of their first album fans were unsure of how the band would top it. Of course they went and created the best album of 2018 and spoke about some pretty hard hitting issues that rocked the world as well. This album is bringing post-punk back into the 'mainstream', debuting at number 12 in the charts and hitting number 8, their message of saving the social values we hold was reaching millions. Saving the NHS and loving one another being shouted at the people over insanely well written instrumental makes the message behind the music as well as the actual music my favourite album of 2018 if not my entire life.

COURTNEY BARNETT
TELL ME HOW YOU REALLY FEEL
MILK!, MOM+POP RECORDS, MARATHON ARTISTS

Courtney Barnett released her fourth album in May of this year, 'tell me how you feel' is comprised of beautifully human lyrics and painfully relatable quotes. The album oozes personality and feels more exciting than her previous albums. With stand out songs such as 'Nameless, Faceless' and 'I'm  not your mother, I'm not your bitch' talking about gender inequality and the changes she's faced as she's grown as an artist. Barnett also manages to talk about common, small struggles that have been written about before in a way that sounds fresh and new, it's impossible to not relate to her lyrics.

ARIANA GRANDE
SWEETNER
REPUBLIC RECORDS

'Sweetner' projects the perfect mix of R&B and pop for Ariana Grande's voice. Throughout the album Grande takes a stand against the mainstream and sends an empowering and important message to her young and predominantly female audience. The album features collaborations from A-list celebs Pharrell Williams, Nicki Minaj and Missy Elliot, all of whom fit into the album perfectly. My favourite track from the album has to be 'the light is coming'. This track was the first single released in anticipation of the 'sweetener' album and showed instantly the differences that would define Grande's evolved sound.

BAKAR
BADKID
BASH*

'BAKAR' is the best sound coming out of the DIY scene right now. His debut album comes after a year of multiple successful single releases and sticks to his unique sound while still throwing in a wonderful mix of genres. Bakar set himself the challenge of breaking the stereotype thrown onto him and aims to shatter the preconceptions people may have about his music. If anything shows his confidence, the first track on the album finishes with the repeating line 'if the government calls put my dick in their mouth', absolutely love it.

LYKKE LI
SO SAD SO SEXY

RCA RECORDS

When I went through by brief obsession with Sweedish pop earlier this year I ran into Lykke Li. The album travels through bittersweet happiness and raw sadness, the emotions you're left with emulate those of the album title, so sad but so sexy. The guardian summed up the vibe by saying that her latest album 'so sad so sexy', "has the power to trigger both shape-cutting and existential crises", I have done both while listening to it.  My favourite track on the album is , 'hard rain' starts with simple harmonies and a lone violin which develops gently into a chilled R&B influenced synthy verse which compliments her voice perfectly.

REVOLTION 12 DAYS OF CHRISTMAS BOX SET

As I was browsing round Superdrug the other week I walked past the christmas gift set aisle and noticed everything was HALF PRICE so naturally I saw this as an opportunity to buy myself some new make up. This is the Revolution 12 Days of Christmas boxset which contains over £80 worth of make up for just £60. As I said, I got this at half price so only spent £30 and it is currently still on sale on the revolution website for £40. This set is completely worth the money and contains some amazing goodies for a christmas present for a friend or for yourself. In my opinion this would be the perfect gift for someone who's just started getting into make up as it has pretty much everything you could ever need and it looks super professional.

Inside you get 12 different products, hence the name, to create a near full face of make up. The packaging is high quality and feels very luxe. The box is the same size as a standard shoe box and is made if high quality board with a lovely rose gold and nude finish. The inside is just as pleasing with each individual item being placed in black, nude or rose gold packaging.

The first item in the box is a set of three travel brushes and holy shit they are SO SOFT! I didn't know that revolution did brushes at all but I am so impressed. They're absolutely adorable and super easy to just throw in your bag to touch up through out the night. The little eyebrow brush makes it so easy to create more natural brow hairs as the tip is so fine, I'm not sure what I'll use the eye shadow brush for as it is so small? If people do those fancy cut crease things maybe that'd be good for fine lines?? The foundation and powder brushes are just super cute and useful for powder and cream countering as the size is just perfect for getting right under the cheekbone.

Next you get a set of three lip glosses. I'm not really a lip gloss kinda gal but the colours are pretty standard, nice and neutral. The gold shiny gloss gives a super pretty sheen over neutral lipsticks or just by itself to give a pretty glossy look. I was thinking I could use this one on my eyes to do that cool wet eyeshadow look but the formula of all of them is super thick and sticky so I probably won't even try.

This mattifying primer really fixed up my oilier areas and kept my make up looking fresh all night, it does have that silicone feel to it but most mattifying primers do which I don't really mind as I don't ever wear make up for long periods of time. It filled in all the pores on and around my nose nicely and after applying foundation I didn't feel the need to pack my powder on as usual.

The illuminating spray gave a really nice, as natural as you can get with a shit tonne of foundation on, look. I also apply it before my foundation and it almost looks like there are tiny specks of glitter mixed with the spray, I love this but others may not. It gave a lovely glow and stopped my face looking powdery which was wonderful. The cooling fixing spray is pretty much the same as the illuminating spray without the sparkles. It does feel really nice and refreshing on the skin, it's just like a normal setting spray that wakes you up a bit more.

I've never used eye primer before as I always assumed it was just a useless product but this one really brightens and intensifies the colour of the shadows. I applied a shimmer shade onto my lid without it and it just didn't pop as much as when I used the primer. Even without a shadow over it, it's super sparkly and glowy and actually looks quite nice on its own.

I wasn't sure if I wanted to buy this box set mostly because I don't wear eyeshadow on the regular but I'm so glad I did because these palettes are beautiful! They're SO pigmented which surprised me because I wasn't expecting so much due to the little price. The velvet mattes palette holds a great variety of transition shades that all work really well with the metallic crush palette. Putting these three together in the box set was a good move as all the shadows across the three palettes compliment each other so well. The formula is so buttery and easy to blend even I could do it and it actually looked good! The metallic and shimmery shadows are so pretty and you get such a good choice of colours to experiment with from neutrals to bright purple.

I was shocked that there was a full contour palette in this box set, and on top of that theres four blushes and four highlighters? The range of shades is great in the blush and highlight palette but if you do have a darker skin tone you may struggle with the bronzer shades as they're still quite light.  The pigment in both palettes is the perfect formula to build up the intensity of the colour to your desired look.
The eyebrow palette has a mixture of waxy pomades and powders which work really well for me as I am literally missing half of each eyebrow. I use the wax to draw on pretend hairs where I'm lacking and then fill in my actual brow with the powder. You also get a subtle but pretty brow bone highlight, and a clear wax which I have't yet figured out how to use.

Overall this box set is an amazing collection. I've heard that some of the products you get in this boxset are exclusive and can't be bought separately so that just adds to the amazing value you receive.    Considering this is still on sale so you only have to spend £40 to get all of this make up when one palette from urban decay is pretty much the same price, I'm voting revolution all the way!