Lifestyle – Page 6

MY GARDEN BEFORE & AFTER

Published on August 16, 2017August 26, 2017 by simplycarinaxo2 Comments

Hello friends,

The other week my parents came over for dinner and brought me a little present. I’d been saying for ages that I needed to de-weed the garden and so they showed up with a little trowel and my own cute gardening gloves! The back garden almost looked like a little wilderness and I couldn’t wait to tidy it up! So on a sunny day off I got my fingers dirty and took out all the weeds!

After a good two hours of gardening, here are the after photos; from a weed infested garden, to a tidier, cleaner looking back yard! Although surprisingly tiring work I enjoyed myself and can now enjoy soaking up the sun again on nice sunny days!

All that is left to do now is the front garden!

Love Carina xo

HOLIDAY BLUES!

Published on August 11, 2017August 11, 2017 by simplycarinaxo3 Comments

Hello my beautiful readers,

I have been dreaming of a holiday for ages, the need to get away for a couple of days really gets to you esppecially when working 19 days in a row with no days off as I am at the moment! However I finally have something to look forward to now at the end of August! A mini getaway with my best friend Emily and perhaps a few others if they decide to join us. Just before she set of on her honeymoon interrailing Europe we booked our tickets for the Lindesfarne festival!

This will be our second time going to the Lindisfarne festival together; last year we wnt for the first time ad it was the first festival experience for the both of us. The Lindisfarne festival is a small new (this year is only it’s third year) local festival in one of my favourite places (a stunning coastal plot of farmland overlooking the beautiful Holy Island in Northumberland). Holy Island (see photos above) was were I had my first every job as a waitress in the holidays. I used to stay on the Island when working there so it was like a holiday for me even though I was working. I love the place; it it idylic, peaceful and just holds a speacial place in my heart. Thus it was without question a great descion for the Lindisfarne festival to be our first festival experience. As it is a small scale festival you can walk from your tent into the arena within minutes and there weren’t any overbearing crowds. It was a great first festival experience and I’m hyped to be going back again this year! Let me share some photos from last year:

The festival didn’t have any famouse artists playing, more local and smaller talents, but it was nice to discover new people; for us the highlight was Molotov Jukebox and meeting the artists afterwards including Natalia Tena (Tonks from Harry Potter/ Osha from Game of Thrones). Their music was bizar but upbeat and happy and got us all dancing with smiles plasterd on our faces! Loved it! Comedy was also offered there as well as the Sanctuary a wellness tent with holistic treatemants and the like. On our second morning we participated in meditation followed by partner yoga which was hilarious and great fun, even though my back killed afterwards from lying on the uneven ground aha. We treated ourselves to a massage afterwards and then continued to enjoy the music, views and general atmosphere of the festival. Not long now till this years festival and I can’t wait!

Love Carina xo

MY CURRENT CRUELTY-FREE & ECO EVENING SKIN CARE ROUTINE

Published on July 31, 2017 by simplycarinaxo7 Comments

Hey guys,

I have been wanting to blog my Cruelty-free Eco Skin Care Routine for quite a while now and I’ve finally got round to taking some photos and being organised again. I hope you enjoy and can be inspired to start in-cooperating your own cruelty free eco products into your skin care routine!

Firstly I want to introduce you to an amazing eco friendly cleansing pad hack which my best friend Emily told me about! I love it – it’s fab! Instead of using cleansing wipes or cotton pads which only add to our piles of landfil rubbish that can’t be recycled why not use Organic Nursing Pads which can be washed and reused time after time again and will save you a fair bit of money in the long run too! I find the nursing pads are gentler on my skin in comparison to the harsh chemicals on cleansing wipes which I used to use all the time!

Now as for my skin care routine, I’m feeling great knowing the things I ma now buying are cruelty free and mostly vegan too. In this blog post I am using products from the Bodyshop (a brand that doesn’t test on animals and which is mostly vegan bar products like the honey range) and BalanceMe (a brand that doesn’t test on animals and aims to be as natural as possible) just going to put it out there, I very often don’t use products the way they are designed to be used; eg. I might use a toner as as a makeup remover instead of using it as the last step in my makeup removal cleansing routine.

I begin taking my makeup off with the Bodyshop Vitamin E Hydrating Toner. I love this toner. It is gentle on my skin, works well at removing makeup and leaves it feeling fresh and bright. What’s not to like?!

The Bodyshop Tea Tree Clearing Foaming Cleanser is what I had originally bought to remove my makeup before using the toner, however even two pumps of the foam doesn’t go very far. It doesn’t wet the nursing cleansing pad well enough for my liking to efficiently remove makeup and just kinda disappears. Thus I use it after the toner to just remove the last dregs of makeup.

Next I use the Bodyshop Vitamin C Energizing Face Spritz. I’m not exactly sure it energizes my face, however it is very refreshing especially on a warm summer morning and I feel gives some hydration to my just cleansed skin.

Now these my next two products are testers I received in a magazine and I love them!!! I really want to repurchase them but they are on the pricier side of things although then again they do stretch quite far too. Both the BalanceMe Restore and Replenish Face Cream and the BalanceMe Wonder Eye Cream smell amazing! They really do smell like the natural ingredients that they use, which I love! I massage the eye cream onto my skin first and then follow with the face cream. I find they are also absorbed quite quickly into the skin and leave it feeling very soft and refreshed! If you haven’t tried any BalanceMe products yet but don’t want to splash out the big bucks, definitely keep you eyes open in magazines for testers!!!

Well that’s my evening skin care routine for you! I hope you’ve enjoyed it! Let me know of your favorite cruelty free/vegan products in comments below!

Love Carina xo

DIY HEN DO GOODIE BAGS

Published on April 29, 2017April 28, 2017 by simplycarinaxoLeave a comment

Hey guys,

I am currently away in Coldigham, Scotland, for my best friend Emily’s Hen Do! I shall tell you all about it once back, but for now I wanted to share with you the Hen Do goodie bags I made for the weekend. Emily wanted a bit of a spa vibe for the weekend as we have a hot tub at the house we’re staying in, so I have created the goodie bags with the wellness and pampering in mind.

Bath Salts: I spotted some test tubes filled with bath salts on Etsy and thought they’d be cheaper to make myself rather than buy. So I bought a massive pack of test tubes from Ebay as well as two different bath salts, Epsom and Himalayan and then some dried rose petals for the extra prettiness factor. I thought this was the cutest idea and I love love love the results!

Incense: Who doesn’t love incense, it’s the perfect way to add some atmosphere and relax, whether it be in the bath, whilst doing yoga or just chilling with a book or some music!

Throws: May seem like a random choice and it was a spontaneous buy aha, but I just fell in love with these little throws from non other than Poundland! Our cottage is just a short walk from Coldingham Bay beach so these throws can have multiple functions from beach towels, yoga mats or throws to snuggle under when we watch movies sitting in front of the log burner!

Vegan Truffles: Emily is vegan and so we are making the whole weekend vegan. So of course I had to ask Anna the friend I’m living with at the moment, to make me some vegan truffles for the hen do. She is a chocolatier and her chocolates are amazing!! And you can’t have a goodie bag without a little treat now can you?!

Tea Tubes: Again another idea I saw on Esty and loved. I also decided I could make these myself too. I got the loose tea from my dads cafe, a delicious Blue Lady and a Green tea.

Badges: Emily is turning into a bit of an eco warrior and so I thought although I know they won’t look as good as bought ones, I’d recycle some bottle caps and turn them into badges! Not amazing aha but ok I think!

Well guys I hope you enjoyed this post and are having as fabulous a weekend as I am!

Love Carina xo