Sunbeds are not my thing, I'm putting that out there right from the get go. I have been on a sunbed once in my entire 22 years of living and it was for 3 minutes and it was the worst experience of my life.
Then I decided to try fake tan.
Sunless Tanning with St. Tropez.
Sunbeds are not my thing, I'm putting that out there right from the get go. I have been on a sunbed once in my entire 22 years of living and it was for 3 minutes and it was the worst experience of my life.
Then I decided to try fake tan.
SKINCARE // The Run Up To Summer/Gradual Tan After Care
During the hot, summery months I like to be a little more bronzed and sun-kissed, don't we all? Don't get me wrong I embrace my pale all year rounds (mainly due to being lazy) but when I can be bothered I like to get a bit of a glow on and I've been trying out a few new products to help me get there.
Before I shave, tan or moisturise I like to exfoliate and I usually use Soap & Glory's Pulp Friction or Scrub of your Life but I wanted to try something different so I went for Boots Mango Sugar Scrub which smells absolutely amazing. I also bought the body mist to go along with it.
I use exfoliating gloves and body wash first then I go in with this on its own and scrub in circular motions all over my body just to get ALL the dead skin cells off before I go and shave my legs. When I shave my legs and body I just use ASDA's own Shaving Foam for Sensitive Skin to get an extra close shave.
After I've finished showering I pat my skin dry and wait for about 15-20 minutes for the pores on my legs to close up to avoid the tan going into them and creating that dark brown spotty thing that tan does!
I don't tend to use moisturiser when I'm using this gradual tan as Dove products tend to be very very moisturising so I find this is enough for my on it's own.
As for aftercare I just shower every other day and put the gradual tanner on everyday for 5 days to build it up, then when you get the tan to the level you want just put it on every other day to maintain it and exfoliate once a week, the exfoliater will scrub a little bit of the tan off but if you don't exfoliate your skin with tend to go scaly/the tan with stick to every dry patch it can find!
Hopefully you can take something useful away from this post, let me know your favourite summer skincare items in the comments!
Love Alicia x
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FASHION // The "those look like something my Nain would wear" Shoes
New Look Birkenstocks/Pool Slider - £12.99
The Rise of the "ugly shoe" the shoe that everyone can't stand to look at but for some reason can't stop wearing. I myself have fallen victim to the Birkenstocks or Pool Sliders, whatever you want to call them and rather than sticking to the norm and buying the black or white offerings, I bought red ones, to add a pop of colour into my usually monochrome wardrobe.
My boyfriend actually said "They look like something my Nain would wear" I was like gee thanks, he did save the insult with a follow up of "if you like them, buy them who cares what anyone else thinks!" Though which was pretty well worded. To add insult to injury a lovely old lady sat next to me and said "Oh I love your shoes" which while I was delighted, just reminded me I was in fact wearing old lady shoes as my boyfriend so kindly pointed out.
I bought these from New Look a few days ago, literally on payday and now they've gone into the sale for £9.74 - why me?
I don't particulalry have an amazing fashion sense so will probably wear these with a bikini and a kraftan/cover up on the beach or as you can see me wearing them here with jeans and a kimono.
The one thing that irks me about these shoes is the curved rims, they really began to rub on me during the day and almost gave me blisters, as for the red buckle faster/strap, that DID give me blisters, full on top of my feet, can't wear any other sandles for weeks type of blisters - ouch!
I will definitely be sporting these again when I recover from my tramatic blister experience/when I can be arsed buying compeed!
So what do you think of the pool slider/birkenstock/ugly shoe trend? Let me know your thoughts in the comments!
Love Alicia x
The Rise of the "ugly shoe" the shoe that everyone can't stand to look at but for some reason can't stop wearing. I myself have fallen victim to the Birkenstocks or Pool Sliders, whatever you want to call them and rather than sticking to the norm and buying the black or white offerings, I bought red ones, to add a pop of colour into my usually monochrome wardrobe.
My boyfriend actually said "They look like something my Nain would wear" I was like gee thanks, he did save the insult with a follow up of "if you like them, buy them who cares what anyone else thinks!" Though which was pretty well worded. To add insult to injury a lovely old lady sat next to me and said "Oh I love your shoes" which while I was delighted, just reminded me I was in fact wearing old lady shoes as my boyfriend so kindly pointed out.
I bought these from New Look a few days ago, literally on payday and now they've gone into the sale for £9.74 - why me?
I don't particulalry have an amazing fashion sense so will probably wear these with a bikini and a kraftan/cover up on the beach or as you can see me wearing them here with jeans and a kimono.
The one thing that irks me about these shoes is the curved rims, they really began to rub on me during the day and almost gave me blisters, as for the red buckle faster/strap, that DID give me blisters, full on top of my feet, can't wear any other sandles for weeks type of blisters - ouch!
I will definitely be sporting these again when I recover from my tramatic blister experience/when I can be arsed buying compeed!
So what do you think of the pool slider/birkenstock/ugly shoe trend? Let me know your thoughts in the comments!
Love Alicia x
Why not also keep up with me and my blog on social media? Alicia Jade is also active on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Bloglovin'
Alicia's Declassified Festival Survival Guide: Part Two - Outfit Do's and Don'ts/My ultimate festival wear for days 1-4
*Again, I'd like to say I'm not an expert and I know this I'm not trying to come across that way I'm just offering advice for the festival season, it's just common sense/comfortable-ness that i'm keeping in mind and sharing knowledge of previous festivals :)*
Do's
- Pack for all weather scenarios - Don't want to be stuck in shorts, t-shirt and sunnies if its pouring down!
- Pack enough underwear - nothing worse than focusing on everything else and forgetting to pack them! Or in case of rain and you need to chance
- Take a Mac or rain coat
- Take warm clothes for the night, it gets colddddd. Especially on the floor!
- experiment with clothes, festivals are places of freedom!
Don'ts
- Don't wear instant fake tan, I've seen this happen, it then rained and it's not pretty. Think paint dripping.
- Don't wear jeans - it's highly uncomfortable!
- Don't wear heels or anything of the sort. It's just common sense...
- Don't forget suncream!!!
I've assembled four outfits that I would wear and probably will wear this festival season! Here they are :)
Day One: Travelling there I just want to be comfortable so this is the outfit I chose.
Day 2: Festival is starting up, gettin my festival wear out!
Day 3: Festival wear
Day 4: Going home, but don't want to leave - still in festival wear.
So this is my little look book of sorts of festival fashion looks I'll be hoping to wear at a festival!
And that concludes part two of this series of posts!
What're you planning to wear?? :)
Alicia x
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Where Is Summer? Garnier Summer Body: Review
Right, so I don't know about anyone else but I want some sun! It takes me around 2 hours sat in hot sun to even start to tan or burn (as I seem to do more often than tan!) Since we haven't had much sun this "summer" I've opted for alternative methods of becoming brown and tanned.
My first method was tanning wipes (a few years ago now) and needless to say they turned out awful, I had the dreaded fake tan palms and even more dreaded, streaky tan. I think the brand I used was from Home Bargains (a UK discount store) and they were like 95p! So I should have realised really that they wouldn't be great. If you have any fake tan wipe recommendations that are up to scratch then please so comment below!
I decided I would be like any other normal 18/19 year old and try out some instant spray tan and bought St.Moriz instant spray tan £2.99 (again from Home Bargains) which is brilliant and I love but the only problem is you have to keep reapplying it to keep the tan up to scratch and no have any fades in certain areas (that are more moisturised than others) so I bought St.Tropez tinted body moisturiser (any UK drug store, not sure about the US sorry!) but it just made my skin really oily and I couldn't really see the tan.
So i opted for a cheaper solution in Garnier Summer Body for £3.49 in ASDA. Originally i didn't read the label and bought the "Deeply sun-kissed skin" lotion which is basically like fake tan in moisturiser form, if you have pale skin as I do. I now use that as a fake tan if I'm going out and my skin is feeling dry. When I went back to ASDA I bought this one (in the pictures) and it is brilliant, I love it! I applied it after showering off my fake tan, my legs were looking pale and patchy so I rubbed some of this lotion on and the morning after my legs were looking slightly tanned again after 3-4 applications, every 3 days my legs were looking wonderfully tanned! I left the tan to fade and it faded naturally no streaks of patches!
I would definitely recommend this to people who are wary of fake tan or are looking for an alternative! I hope you've found this post helpful! Give me you're thoughts on it! Thanks!
Alicia x
