Lifestyle | How to keep warm in a university student house

We all know that student houses suck. Actually becoming an adult and paying for bills isn't the best thing in the world and if you're in second, third or final year of uni (and perhaps even first year if you weren't lucky enough to go in halls) then you will agree with me when I say it's cold. Freezing. It's not great. And with bills being so expensive, it's not an option to keep the heating on as much as we do at home. It's hard to do work when your hands, head, feet, nose and everything in between are frozen. So here are my tips to keeping as warm as possible when living in a student house.

Invest
Hot water bottles, slippers, bed socks and blankets - buy whatever you can to keep yourself warm! Hot water bottles are great when your sitting down doing work or watching TV, and the microwavable ones are even quicker to heat up, bonus!

Hot drinks
It's surprising how much a hot drink can actually make you warm inside. Whether its tea, coffee or a hot chocolate, get drinking.

Layer up
From personal experience, it's not nice having to wear 6,000 layers whilst just sitting in your room but it is necessary. Long sleeve tops, jumpers and thick fleeces are the way to go and don't forget those slippers.

Keep your door closed
If you housemates are nice enough to let you put the heating on for a couple of hours a day then make sure you keep the door to your bedroom closed, even when you're not in it. It will keep the warmth in and will be nice to come up to if your sitting down stairs.

Wipe the condensation off your windows
Not only does this keep your room and house a little bit warmer, it also reduces the risk of mould. Get a spare or old towel and whenever your window has condensation wipe it off straight away.

Keep your hair down
This ones a weird one but it does work. Keeping your hair down keeps your head a lot warmer then when its shoved up! One more reason to procrastinate and do your hair in the morning!

Let me know in the comments if you have any tips on keeping warm, because I definitely need them! If you liked this post then don't forget to follow on Bloglovin' and Twitter.

Maybelline New York Dream Sun Triple Bronzing Powder Review

I'm going to go straight into this post expressing my undying love for this bronzer. Maybelline New York is one of my favourite high street brands and was actually the first makeup brand I ever tried and I will always be a returning customer.

For ages I found it really hard to find a bronzer that was light enough for my pale skin, many of the ones I found made me look ridiculously fake and dark or were very orange. I was automatically attracted to this product as I saw the three different shades so I bought it and gave it a go. The colour I got was 01 Blonde. No I'm not Blonde but as it's the lightest colour I bought it anyway.

This product is perfect for my light coloured skin and gives it the glow it needs. What I love about this bronzer is when it's on my face, it doesn't look brown or orange, it just looks like glow - if that makes any sense at all. I think that is because of the three colours mixed in together. You may be able to see in the first picture that the powder actually has a very slight shimmer to it. Now I have never been one for shimmery makeup but I reckon that it is the 'shimmer' that makes my face glow so much.

When applying this bronzer, I use my Real Technique Buffing Brush and circle it around the palette to get all of the colours equally. When I first used this I only tried to use the two lightest colours so I didn't look too dark, but as I have used it more and more I have become more comfortable with the product and have realised that when all the colours are mixed in together, the end result is perfect for my skin.

I first bought first over two years ago and I only just bought my second palette in December. That is ridiculous! Although it may have something to do with the fact I was only using two of the colours beforehand. Maybe now that I am using it more regular it might run out a little bit quickly but with the price so low, I won't be complaining about having to buying it more often.

I have seen liquid bronzers but I'm not too sure whether I want to give them a go or not. If you tried them before, comment below and let me know what you think of them! If you like this post then why not follow me on BlogLovin' and Twitter?!

(A bit late) 2015 hair resolutions!

For me 2014 was the year of awful hair. Splits ends, frizzy, dry and breakage - it wasn't brilliant for me. After thinking about what's causing my hair to become so damaged, I have realise that I'm probably not looking after it as well as I should be. I just became really lazy with it in 2014 and it's really starting to show now. So it looks like 2015 is the year of the healthy hair! Below is a list of my hair 'resolutions' this year to bring back beautiful locks!

Brush it at least twice a day -  OK, so this is going to sound really bad but there have been quite a few days that I have gone without brushing my hair at all. Sometimes I have been guilty of waking up, neatening my up-do then going to bed with the same style. Awful, I know! But this year I have already started to brush my hair a lot more and I think I'm already seeing a difference! I have notice that my hair has been coming out quite a bit more and I've read that the lack of brushing can make it do that, so fingers crossed!

Let it hang free more - As you can probably tell if you follow me on Instagram, my hair is usually styled in some sort of up-do whether it's a simple pony tail or a messy bun. I've realised that by putting my hair up and taking it down every day is most probably causing the breakage - it's most probably the hair bands pulling my hair out. I feel that by having my hair down a bit more will at least stop any further breakage.

GROW IT - I always do this. Grow it and then chop it off again. Why do I do that when I regret it immediately after leaving the hair salon?! I am so jealous when I see people with ridiculously long hair (uh Zoella for a start! Her hair is so gorgeous I just want it now!). My hair length is about just higher then my waist at the moment, which is quite long but I'm not completely satisfied yet.

Zoella - Image from Google

Get the ends chopped off - OK so this may contradict the point above but as you all should know, the best way to grow your hair is to cut off any split ends. You should do this every 3 to 6 weeks.

Style it in different ways -  At the moment my hair is either straight and down, pony tail or bun. I really want to try different ways to style my hair like plaits and beach waves. I think it will just make me a little bit less boring.

ALWAYS use heat protective spray - Now with this one, if I have heat protective spray I always use it every time I straighten my hair. However, when I run out I don't exactly sprint to the shops to get some more, meaning that I have been known to go weeks without using it! Whoops!

Stop spraying it with perfume - I read a couple of months ago that hair keeps a scent more than your skin, so when using perfume spray it on your hair as it last longer. Ever since then I have done this without realising it every time I apply perfume, which is most days. This most probably isn't the best thing to be spraying on my hair!

My new fragrances: Marc Jacobs Daisy Dream and Prada Candy L'Eau

Before a couple of years ago I was never one for perfume. I didn't really see the fascination with spending all this money on a bottle of smelly stuff that may wear off within an hour or so. I've been given small bottles of perfume for birthdays and Christmas', things such as So...?, Britney and JLo yet I wasn't that interested. Every Christmas since then my opinion would be changed slightly every time I saw my sister or mum get a bottle of perfume and I was starting to be more and more interested in what it smelt like. I also remember being around my friends at College or University and being able to smell a distinctive (yet gorgeous) smell. The first proper perfume I got was about 2 years ago and it was Ralph Lauren's Big Pony 2, it was a strong scent that lasted for a while. Since then I have gone onto Paco Rabanne Lady Million which I absolutely adore and still wear a lot now - with this one I notice many people complimenting me on the smell when I wear it and it makes me feel that little bit better about myself!

I have been bought these two completely different but gorgeous perfumes this year and I am so head-over-heels in love I just couldn't help but share with all of you! Firstly, Daisy Dream. I have always admired - and been a bit jealous of - my mum's Marc Jacobs Daisy perfume. Every time I smell it I think about her and it's such a dainty fragrance. So when I saw that Marc (on first-name basis now) had released a follow up to the oh-so-popular Daisy, I gave it a sniff as soon as I could. I completely feel in love with its light and dainty (ever more so than the first one) fragrance. To me it smells clean, fresh and floral, like the kind of scent you smell on your clothes after your mum has used the fancy fabric conditioner. Like the bottle, it is very feminine and 'cute'.

Secondly it's Prada Candy L'eau. Again, like Daisy Dream I prefer this one than the first: Candy. I was stood in Boots for a long time sniffing all three Prada fragrances in the collection - Candy, Candy Florale and Candy L'eau - which only had very small differences between the three. I chose the latter as it was the gentlest of the fragrances as well as the most feminine. The other two were quite strong and sweeter, and even though this fragrance is a lot sweeter and stronger than Daisy Dream, it is still a kind-to-your-nose scent.

Both of these are gorgeous and I just don't know which one I prefer out of the two. But what I do know is that these do stay on your body for quite some time, I've notice this a tiny bit more with Daisy Dream. I've put it on in my morning and I can still smell it on my skin when it gets to dinner time. My only little 'problem' is that I haven't notice many other people smelling these two scents as much as they do with Lady Million.

When I put this on Instagram, my followers seemed to like Daisy Dream more than Prada! What do you think? Let me know in the comments!

Goodbye 2014, Hello 2015

So here it is, my first blog post of 2015 which means that this blog is just over a year old! If you have been a follower of my blog for a while then you'll notice that there has been quite a few changes on this blog, not just the look but changing the name (twice) and the content of my blog. I will still be writing a lot of beauty post but I just wanted to widen the area of what I actually post about.

Personally though my 2014 has been eventful and although nothing significantly huge has happened this year there has been a lot of great things that have happened. Here's a few of my 2014 highlights...

Finishing my second year of uni with a 2:1

Starting my third and final year of my degree

Work experiences at places such as Heart FM and BBC

Celebrating my second year anniversary with my boyfriend

So here's what to look forward to in 2015:

Having four weeks work experience at Cosmopolitan magazine (!!)

Finishing my degree

(Hopefully) starting my first full-time, media-related job

As you can see I have had a brilliant 2014 and I'm excited for what this year has in store for me! Let me know what amazing things have happened to you last year and what you're looking forward to in 2015.