Winter Book Haul 2015/6

If I ever find a better way to spend a wet winter's evening than curled up with a good book and my dogs then I'm going to be surprised. There's nothing quite like lighting a fire, switching the fairy lights on and grabbing a good book. At the moment I'm sticking to History books for uni but I'm slowly building up a big old pile of books to read in the summer. These are the latest additions :)

Favorite CF Brands: White Rabbit Skincare

Happy New Year! I thought I'd start of a new year of blog posts with one of my favorite cruelty free brands from 2015. I'm sure it's going to keep it up in 2016 too! White Rabbit Skincare has got a lot of love from the cruelty free blogging community, but if you need some more convincing, then holla! - this could be the post for you. It really is as good as everyone says. :)

Life update!

So its been a while. 

I always read blog post where bloggers apologise for not blogging for a while and feel like they shouldn't need to, sometimes life gets in the way and that's okay. But, well, its been a fair few months so I felt like I needed a little explanation (and apology!). My third year of uni has taken over my life a little bit, I'm still making sure that I give myself breaks and a work like balance, but when I've spent the day staring at a screen, I tend to turn to knitting over blogging. 

Saying that, I have missed it! So I'm trying to get my blogging game back on and get some posts scheduled. I cant promise posts every week, but I can promise that they'll be more regular, and then the end of May will role along, and I'll be free, and Lucadonta wont know whats hit it ;) 

I have some cruelty free and ethical living posts lined up for you, but to ease myself back into the blogging world, and catch up with you all I thought I'd start of with a little life update. If you fancy knowing what I've been getting up to when I haven't been immersing myself in books about life in Stalinist Russia then this is the post for you...

Sea Inspired Nails

Autumn is probably my favorite season, I love jumpers, big scarfs and orange and red. But at the moment we're in an awkward in-between stage. Its September, summer is coming to an end, but we're also still getting a few sunny days, and Autumn, though round the corner, isn't quite here. I haven't been able to fully embrace Autumn yet, and I'm still morning the end of the holidays, so I'm going to cling on to them for a little while longer with some sea inspired nail art. 

Favorite CF Brands: Faith in Nature

I love finding new cosmetics to try, but there's nothing better than finding a whole, or big chunk of a company that you love. Having companies that you can trust, and know work for you make shopping for cruelty free products so much easier and gives you some great 'safe options' that you know you can fall back on.

I thought I'd start a mini series to share some of my favorite brands with you. Some of them will be old favorites, and others will be newly discovered gems. I'm planning to make this a regular thing, so let me know if you have any suggestions, or constructive criticism! :)

But anyway, back to the important stuff - Faith in Nature.

A Week in Devon

I've got a love hate meh relationship with Devon. Devon itself is pretty great. Its a place I've visited year after year for family holidays while I've been growing up. These holidays have adapted and changed with us as we've grown older, and they have a special place in my heart. We started off with some short walks and a lot of crabbing, dabbled with a bit of sailing in the middle, and now I've gone back to cliff top walking, with a few extra miles thrown in.

Sunday Stamping: Floral Nails

Nail art is one of my favorite hobbies. I love having something to do while I watch a TV show and I can happily paint my nails without getting distracted. Having something to watch also stops me from getting too impatient and smudging them before they dry! All in all, its a perfect combination :) Having to remove nail varnish for work is the worst part about my job, and the only downside to summer time nail painting.

This summer I've been loving stamped floral designs, and I've experimented with a few different colour combinations and patterns. I thought I'd share two of these with you in this post.

Cruelty Free Cosmetics: Evening Skincare Routine

 

To follow on from my morning skincare routine post, I'm going to share the other half of my daily skincare. Well, I say half, this bit is definitely shorter. In the evening I want to get into bed, and there's no time for dilly dallying. Depending on the condition of my skin, some of these products can be skipped, but I'll talk about that in more detail below. I just want to make sure that my skins clean, and there's no product build up so I can sleep easy and wake up feeling refreshed in the morning.