I see a lot of posts and videos along the lines of x things I've learnt in x years, and this post was initially going to be one of those but has become this instead. I've definitely learnt things, and maybe there are things that would be worth sharing but I genuinely struggled to think of more than three or four things I could write down. Instead I kept coming back to things that I still struggled with, or lessons that I liked to think I'd learnt, but definitely haven't yet. So I've ended up with this list instead, one that I'm hoping will take me from the stage of self-reflection to actual self-improvement as I start life in my twenties(!!!).

1. Talk to people - I know I struggle with rough patches, I know that I shut down when I do, and I know that only makes the rough patches worse because I isolate myself. Yet I still do this, even though I'm fully aware that I'm doing it. I need to work on plucking up the courage to actually tell the people around me when I'm struggling with something.

1. Stop holding grudges - boy do I hold grudges over petty things, and it stops me from appreciating moments with people because I'm silently stewing over something they said or did (usually something trivial, I'll admit that) days or weeks ago. I need to stop doing this before it starts backfiring in my face.

1. Stop overthinking - I never quite know if this is normal or not, but I frequently replay conversations and interactions with other people in my head over and over again until I've pretty much convinced myself that they either hate me or are entirely fed up with me. Rationally, I know that's not the case, but I find it so easy to spiral to that point where I start believing people genuinely dislike me, and I need to work on it. 

1. Stop sabotaging myself - I always prepare myself for failure, and while that's good to a certain extent I can't help but feel I do it so much that I start thinking there's no other outcome. I find myself saying no to things sometimes because I'm scared of failure, and that's definitely a habit I need to break.

1. Believe in myself - I suppose this is a lot like the last point, but put in more positive terms. I need to learn that just because I couldn't do something before doesn't mean I still can't. A rather silly yet pertinent example is maths. I sucked at maths for most of my life, but it clicked in high school and I ended up loving the subject and not being half bad at it. But for some reason I still don't actually believe I can do it. Studying for the GRE this summer, I'm consistently doubting myself on the maths even though rationally I know I can do it. 

1. Follow through - I'm the queen of half-baked ideas and projects. From childhood arts projects to half-finished novels, to plans for trips I never actually take, I've piled up a lot of unfinished business over the years. In the biggest twist of irony I even left this bullet point incomplete for the better part of a month. I don't want to look back on my life and see all the things I could have done if I'd actually bothered to follow through, I want actual memories.

1. Consistency - on a rather similar note, I need to become more consistent with a lot of things. My uni work usually comes in spurts, leaving me panicking before deadlines because I start essays ages in advance then suddenly leave them for two months. This blog also needs more consistency, though I often do have to put it on the back burner because the real world is a bit too hectic. I'm hoping that if I consistently work at a slightly lower level than my inspired spurts are at, I'll be less prone to burning out.

1. Stop the burnout - again a related one, but the one thing I truly seem to do consistently is burn out in January/February. It makes me miserable for a few months, and definitely prevents me from reaching my potential. I'm managing better as I get older, but I still have plenty of room to improve.

1. Language skills - come on Alice, you lived in France for nine years and you're not fluent in French? I need to work on this, and I'm determined that this will be the year I can finally push past the final hurdle with my French.

1. Feel comfortable saying no - I have a nasty feeling that I'm sometimes a bit of a pushover. I don't like it, and I've found myself only half enjoying things that I've been pushed into doing far too often. I need to learn to put my foot down and just say no when I don't want to go somewhere or do something.

1. Tell people when they're going too far - this goes hand in hand with my last point. I'm perfectly fine with friends taking jabs at me, but sometimes, especially if I'm already feeling low or stressed, it's just not entertaining for me and simply makes me feel a thousand times worse. Going back to my first point, I need to start telling people when I'm not in the mood for that type of humour because all it does is make me shut down more and feel more alone.

1. Stop the hangovers - I feel like this is a bit odd within a list of deeper character changes, but it's something I really want to work on. I don't drink excessively, I don't want to make it sound like I do, I just get debilitating hangovers. I'm fed up with losing an entire day of my life to migraines and nausea for the sake of a night out. It's not worth it, especially going into my final year of uni where things matter so much. I'm not saying I'm going to become a recluse, but I need to find the balance.

1. Live in the moment - I love to think about the future, and while that's not necessarily a terrible thing it can cause me a lot of stress. I want to enjoy my early twenties, rather than constantly thinking about how every decision I make might affect my late twenties or early thirties etc.

1. Do what makes me happy - in the past year or so I've become certain that I want to move back to the US. The main thing holding me back has been when friends (in the UK) and family have expressed their disappointment at me not wanting to stay nearby. As much as I don't want to upset them, I need to become more comfortable with putting myself first. I'm getting better at this already, this summer I've been working an unpaid internship in a field that I adore (wildlife conservation) rather than applying for jobs that might be more impressive on a CV but far less interesting to me personally. I can absolutely work on doing this more often though.

1. Being truly independent - I'm extremely fortunate to have parents who can provide for me while I'm a student and I truly cannot express how grateful I am for that, but I also feel like I use that as a crutch at times. I want to start being more independent even when I'm home for the summer to prepare myself for the point when I'm done with uni and I'm a 'proper adult'.

1. Be less apologetic - I don't want to be that person who never apologises, but I want to stop apologising for who I am and what I want to do with my life. I've caught myself a number of times apologising for what I've decided I want to do as a career even though it's what I'm passionate about and it's really not something I should apologise for. Similarly to a lot of points on this list, I want to be more comfortable with being me.

1. Be more positive - I'll admit it, I can be quite a negative Nancy at times, but I'm really trying to change this. I don't want to be naive, of course, but I do want to try and find more good in things rather than being a pessimist. It's not a fun way to live my life, and I want to make the change now while it's still relatively easy.

1. Be healthier - I'm not terrible at this, but I could definitely be a lot better. I eat reasonably well, but I definitely don't exercise as much as I should. I want to change that this year, and start these good habits while it's still relatively easy.

1. Spend more time outdoors - I spent a significant chunk of this summer outside at the place where I was volunteering, and it genuinely made me incredibly happy. It's so easy for me to get bogged down in uni work, but I think if I'm outside more often I'll also be happier and less stressed. I'm absolutely fascinated by nature and the world around us, so I want to spend more time properly connecting with it.

1. Improve my sleep hygiene - A slightly odd note to end on, but I think it's quite an underrated issue. I have terrible sleep hygiene. I sleep with my phone by my bed (sometimes in my bed when I fall asleep watching Netflix), I only sporadically get the eight hours I'm supposed to get and I constantly wake up in the middle of the night. I can get away with this now, but I know if I don't fix this now it could really come back to bite me when I'm older. It's also, I feel, a relatively easy fix, but one that will make a world of difference and make it easier for me to work on the nineteen other things I've touched on.

This is a really long post, so thank you so much if you've got this far. I know this won't be an overnight process, but writing all these things down has been an incredible exercise in self-awareness. What are some of the things you guys feel like you still need to work on?
xoxo
Alice

This is a slightly odd post to make considering my spotlight items so far have been beauty related, but I truly stand by this post. I wanted to feature something quite different this time around, but something that's truly been revolutionary for me.

For the longest time I swore against ever using a Kindle. I couldn't understand how people could read their books on screens instead of picking up an actual physical copy. Last year, I mentioned that my New Year's Resolution was to read for fun more, something I'd stopped doing without even realising at first. Being a university student, and having to fly back and forth across the Atlantic at the beginning and end of every term, physical books weren't the most convenient for me. I first used a Kindle a few years ago when I spent a month in India and my dad loaned me his Kindle so I could read on the flight. That was the point when I realised Kindles weren't the most evil and pointless things in the world, but I stopped using it as soon as I got back home. At Christmas the end of my first year of uni, my uncle very kindly gifted me an old Kindle Fire of his. This turned out to be revolutionary. I finally started reading for fun again because I wasn't worried about the physical space being taken up by books in my suitcase.

Last summer, I amped things up a notch when I discovered an app called Libby. It's run by Overdrive, which works with libraries to basically create a system for borrowing ebooks from your local library. I have two library cards, having signed up for one in my university town to gain access to more ebooks. This has been absolutely amazing for me because I now also don't have to worry about the cost of buying books for my Kindle. Last year I read 16 books, this year I've already read 20. I've truly transformed from Kindle sceptic to Kindle enthusiast, and it's helped me rekindle (pun not intended, I swear) my love for reading.

Kindle's are particularly great when reading long books. I've been working my way through Ron Chernow's Alexander Hamilton, which if I were reading a physical copy would be extremely cumbersome. Instead, I can carry it with me absolutely everywhere because it's on my Kindle.

I still, of course, love nothing more than a physical book, and my Kindle will never completely replace them, but for the time being the Kindle is far more convenient for me. I'm so much happier now that I've rediscovered my love for reading, and I think that the me of the past who was so vehemently against e-readers would (just about) forgive me for making the switch.

What about you guys; how do you feel about e-readers?

xoxo
Alice

The palette in sunshine, the first two colours are a bit washed out (I'm sorry) but I felt that many pictures of the palette online didn't show the shimmers and redder tones well. Worth noting that in this picture He Devil and Dirty Talk look almost identical, but Dirty Talk is a shimmer and He Devil is matte.

I know the hype around this palette was huge a year ago and is basically non-existent now, but I only recently got my hands on it (uni student problems) and really wanted to tell you guys what I think of it.

First and foremost, this isn't my first Naked palette. I've had Naked 3 since just after it was released, and I got the original Naked palette for Christmas last year. I'm a massive fan of both the palettes, but

I definitely recognise their shortcomings (fallout being a major one). That being said, I did a lot of research before actually ordering Naked Heat, and most of the reviews seemed to imply that this was an improvement on the old Naked palettes.

Of course, this isn't an entirely revolutionary palette. Warm tones have been the craze for awhile now, and there were plenty of palettes like this when it was released. I hadn't owned one before though, and with my generally positive experiences of Naked palettes I was willing to spend a bit more money on this particular one.

I included both these pictures because I feel the lighter ones show more true on the left, and the shimmers show more true on the right. As you can see, Cayenne and Ashes (the second and third from the bottom) swatch quite patchily.

Generally speaking I've really enjoyed this palette. It's made warm toned eyeshadows feel approachable to me, and it's helped spark more creativity in terms of the looks I create. Before this I had two very warm toned eyeshadows in my collection, that was it, and I barely touched them because honestly, they intimidated me. I was always a bit scared of looking like I'd been punched in the eye or was suffering from really bad seasonal allergies. This palette has a good range of light to dark colours though to make a warm toned look feel approachable. My one gripe on the colour front though is the lack of a true light highlight colour. The lightest colour in the palette, Ounce, is a slightly pearly white, which is nice when I'm doing a more matte look, but falls a bit flat if I've used the more metallic colours.

Speaking of mattes, they're part of why I feel this palette is a huge step up from other Naked palettes. 1 and 3 only contain two mattes each, making it very hard to build up your crease effectively. It also means it's harder to create a really soft everyday look without reaching for another palette. Naked Heat has a whopping (by UD's standards) seven mattes, and they range from extremely muted brown (pretty much my skin tone) to a deep aubergine colour (which is admittedly a bit patchy, but can be built up well if you have time and patience). This is part of what makes the palette so approachable in my opinion, you can start really light and then build up. The first matte brown, Low Blow, isn't too warm toned, so the first few times I used this palette I used it before dipping into the more terracotta shade, Sauced. Doing so meant that I felt more confident that my eyes wouldn't look like a complete mess. Having seven allows for far more versatility, and means that I actually quite frequently create an all-matte look. The mattes are also incredibly buildable, which I think makes the palette great as a first foray into warm toned, reddish shadows. I go in with a very light hand, especially with shadows like Cayenne and He Devil so that I get the placement right, and then concentrate on building up the colour. This made me feel far more okay with stepping out of my comfort zone.

That being said, I absolutely love the metallics and shimmers in this palette. They completely blew my mind when I swatched them, and they truly don't disappoint. You can use them for a quite subtle sheen if you apply them dry with a brush, but if you go in with your finger or a slightly wet brush they pop incredibly. Some reviews I read said they all come out quite similarly, and while I feel they definitely could've been more distinctive, they're still definitely different shades. Lumber stands apart as one with far more gold reflex to it, though I occasionally like to whip out Half-baked from Naked 1 just to make it pop that little bit more. Scorched and Dirty Talk are certainly in the same family, but I find Scorched to be that bit deeper. Could Urban Decay have taken this palette to the next level by making these shades a bit more different from each other? Definitely. Is it a tragic dealbreaker for me? Definitely not. I mentioned fall out being a problem with previous Naked palettes (especially with the shimmer shades), but I really haven't experienced much with Naked Heat. With Naked 1 I end up looking like I have a black eye because of the fall out (which I'm okay with as I don't wear foundation so I know I can easily wipe it away), but Naked Heat really creates minimal fall out. I don't know exactly what Urban Decay did to the formula, but they definitely tweaked it for this palette and it's a real success.

Really, all reviews boil down to a simple question: would I recommend this palette? I definitely would if you're new to warm toned palettes. I've found this palette to be perfect for a first dip into this colour scheme, and it's helped me create completely different looks to what I've done in the past. That being said, if you already have some warm toned palettes I don't think this one is so unique that you can't live without it. Like with many Naked palettes, and Urban Decay in general, it's good quality but not entirely groundbreaking.

I'll try and post some looks I've created with the palette in the future, I just didn't want this post to get ridiculously long and I'd like to be able to go in depth about how I created the looks without feeling like I've created an overwhelming post. Until then...

xoxo
Alice

The Windle and Moodie Invisible Day and Night Cream did something that's pretty much never happened before; it made my day two hair manageable. If I put most creams in my hair when it's dry it ends up looking greasy or crunchy, neither of which are ideal looks. This product however is incredible, I can use it on wet or dry hair and it completely revives my curls.

My hair the afternoon after using the cream specifically on my roots

What's really great about this product is a little goes a long way for me, and that's despite having had thick, long, curly hair when I first got it. I got this as a Christmas present in 2016, and ended up
asking for it again this past Christmas because of how well it worked on my hair. I've recently cut my hair short (just below my collar bone) and I've found that this product helps give me volume at the top of my hair, giving me that 80s perm look that I've kind of been loving recently.

The cream has a bunch of great ingredients in it, including sugar beet for moisture (a must for my hair) and aloe vera to smooth frizz. It's been a great replacement for my Moroccan Oil which I leave at home when I'm at uni. The aloe vera does a great job of smoothing out any frizz that's been created either during the day or overnight while I've been asleep. I've found that if I'm having a bad hair day this usually helps to reset the curls and frizz, and even if it doesn't get my hair looking wonderful (sometimes my hair's so far gone it needs a miracle, but I don't have time to wash it) it can at least get me to the end of the day without needing my hair up in a ponytail. Another major bonus in the ingredients list is that it has a UV filter. Your skin isn't the only thing that needs protection from the sun! The cream is also vegan, so if you live a vegan lifestyle this is definitely worth a try.


I tend not to use this on my hair when it's wet just because I want to make it last as long as I can, but on the occasions that I have, I've found that it gives me bouncier, more defined curls, and much more volume at my roots. If I use it on dry hair it feels like a no-hassle dry shampoo in the way that it revives my hair, adds a bit of volume at the roots and redefines curls while minimising frizz. I honestly can't rave about this enough. Even on dry hair, it seriously lives up to the 'invisible' part of its name in a way most hair products don't for me, which makes it less of a hassle to use.

The smell is also a major plus. It's one of those creams that has a nice fresh scent. I don't really know how to describe it beyond that, but it's really pleasant without being overwhelming. The shampoo I'm using right now is coconut scented, and when I use the cream on my hair right after a shower I honestly feel like I've walked into a spa because everything smells so nice.

This is definitely on the pricier side of the spectrum, so if you don't want to stretch your budget and you've got low-maintenance hair this isn't a must have. However, if you're like me and you've got thick hair that's quite temperamental I'd say this is worth the price tag. My day two hair has always needed to be confined to a ponytail or a bun in the past, but this product has allowed me to leave it down without looking like I've been dragged through a bush. I'm not exaggerating when I say this cream has managed to turn quite a few bad hair days into at least decent hair days if not fully-blown good ones.


xoxo
Alice

I bought this in Marks and Spencer's when I realised that it was high time I started filling in my brows. At first I didn't really like the Water Resistant Eyebrow Pencil as I found it a bit too hard and felt like I was having to work far too hard for very little payoff. So I dumped the pencil and only used the spoolie on the end. A few months ago I got sick of the pencil I was using as it wasn't a very good colour match, and I decided instead of going to Boots and buying another product that I'd give this pencil one last try. I am so glad I did that.

It must be that it was just the top layer of the pencil that was too hard, because the pencil works like a dream now. It's still on the harder side, but it's that right level where you can use it very lightly and build up the colour to get a nice and natural brow. I use the shade Dark Brown, which is pretty much perfect for my brows. Unlike a lot of brown brow pencils out there, this is a really cool toned shade, which
makes it that much better for my brows. That being said, there're only three shades and they're all browns so it's not the most versatile range.

The pencil is relatively thin, though it's definitely a pencil and not a fine nib like the Anastasia Beverly Hills Brow Wiz, and it's certainly thin enough to fill in the tails of my brows. That being said, I've never used the Brow Wiz so I can't offer a comparison. I mentioned before that it has a spoolie on one end, which is seriously helpful for prepping my brows and also lightening my touch if I've gone in too heavy. The spoolie's firm but not too abrasive, so it does the job without being uncomfortable to use.

I usually use the Rimmel Brow This Way Styling Gel over the pencil to set everything in place, and with this combination I find that my brows are always still filled in and in place at the end of the day. It has that great level of water resistance where it won't budge in rain or if you get sweaty, but it's also not a pain to get off in the evening. I find that using micellar water or a makeup wipe always removes the product easily.

This product is actually the only non-drugstore product that I use on a daily basis, which says a lot because I usually swear by the drugstore and only occasionally treat myself to higher end products. I'd definitely say it's worth the price tag (£14.50); it does the job, and I don't find myself having to sharpen it extremely frequently so I'm getting a lot out of it. I used to pretty much never do my brows because I didn't have a product that could make them look good. Since I started using this regularly though, I pretty much never leave my brows bare because this pencil makes them look good without being too made up.

My main New Year's resolution this year was pretty straightforward: start reading for fun again. During my senior year I had so much reading for school that it sort of lost its appeal, and that made me pretty sad because I've always been a bookworm. So I decided that 2017 would be the year of the book for me, and I've been keeping a list in the back of my diary of the books I've read for fun. So far I've read six books for fun, which isn't too bad considering the amount of work and reading I've had for university. Here I'm going to highlight two of my favourites so far.

Hamilton: the Revolution by Lin-Manuel Miranda and Jeremy McCarter

As a history student, a piano player and a resident of New Jersey I've fallen deep into Hamilton-mania, which made this the perfect book to kick off my fun reading. Whether or not you've been lucky enough to see the show (I haven't yet, but I enter the lottery every time I'm at home) this is an incredible book to read. It gives you a glimpse into Lin-Manuel Miranda's mind, and personally I walked away with a new appreciation for the complexities of the musical's lyrics, story and choreography. The book walks you through the entire musical and has chapters on different characters, actors, and people who helped Miranda along the way, as well as annotated lyrics to every song in the musical. The annotated lyrics were a highlight for me as they revealed details that I'd never noticed before and pointed out homages to hiphop artists and cultural references that added deeper meaning to the musical. All in all, this is an absolute must for anyone being consumed by Hamilton-mania.

His Bloody Project by Graeme Macrae Burnet

Nominated for the Man Booker Prize in 2016, this book works on a really cool premise that I've never seen before. It's a account of fictional murders committed by the main character Roderick (Roddy) Macrae. In the book, Burnet compiles the recently 'found' account of these murders written by Roddy himself, affidavits by residents in Roddy's village, an account of the trial and journal articles about Roddy. Right off the bat you know that Roddy committed the crime, but the real questions are whether he was of sound mind, why he did it, and whether he will be found guilty in trial. It's an incredibly compelling read, in part because the book is written as if it was non-fiction and Burnet was actually compiling all these documents instead of writing them himself. I found the style of the book refreshing and the plot gripping. This definitely has some mature themes to it, and Roddy's account of the murders is extremely detailed and gory, so you might want to steer clear if you're a particularly squeamish person. If you're not though, I highly recommend this book.

If you've read either of these books, or if you've got books you think I'd enjoy, comment below and let me know!

xoxo
Alice