Visiting Berlin

So i recently spent the weekend in Berlin with my friend who is living in Germany. Berlin is an amazing city with lots to see and lots to do. We stayed in an Ibis budget hotel which was located in Potsdamer Platz. If you are planning to go to Berlin i would definitely recommend staying in Kreuzberg. There's a lot of amazing places to visit and lots to experience!

The city of Berlin itself is beautiful. For a city it is surprisingly green, with lots of gorgeous parks to visit and trees on every street. It is quite a relaxed place in that respect. On the first day we went to Großer Tiergarten and had a relaxing couple of hours in the sun.


There was some spectacular graffiti to see all across the city. I even found myself taking pictures of park benches because they had amazing graffiti all over them! There were also remains of the Berlin wall across in Potsdamer Platz which were covered in gorgeous graffiti, these were also amazing to see.

Like i said, there is so much to see and do in Berlin. We obviously saw all of the sights like the Holocaust memorial and buildings like the Radio Tower but we also took lots of time to walk around the city to do some exploring.

The Holocaust memorial was amazing to see. As you walk towards it, it looks like a load of blocks that aren't very high, but as you walk through it, the floor gets steeper and the blocks get taller. You start to feel very closed in and trapped. Hats off to whoever designed it, it's a great piece of the city to visit.

We also visited the Buchstabenmuseum which is a musuem dedicated to typography and letters. I had researched this before i came as it sounded so interesting! It sounds really lame when you say it's just a museum with a load of different letters in it, but it was actually really good to look around! They had a guestbook where you could give a sample of your handwriting and then say where you were from. Unfortunately the picture i got of it was blurry! but it was really nice to see all the people that had come from all over the world and written in it.

As for the food in Berlin, we didn't really go to many restaurants as there were lots of food markets and places dotted around to grab something quick. The German sausage was absolutely gorgeous!

We did spend a lot of time sitting in cafes, having coffee and cake. There were so many quaint little places to go to which we couldn't resist!

Overall i had an amazing time and felt very lucky to have visited such a cultural place! Berlin is a great city with so many quirks to it. One minute you can be surrounded by tourists looking at a gorgeous building, the next minute you could be in a quiet little side street looking at a colourful bear statue!
 

Speedy Nail Paints

One of the latest offering's from Barry M is their Speedy Nail Paints. This range has a total of nine colours which boast to dry at 'lightening speed for a perfect mani in seconds'. As a completely hopeless nail painter, these sounded fantastic. I'm the type of person that will paint her nails and always without fail manage to smudge, redo the nail, smudge again, get pissed off and end up taking them all off.

The range do quite light, pastel colors which i really like for spring/summer. I was looking for a good pink shade so i went for 'In a heartbeat' which when i look at it, i think of beaches, barbie, and sun. I have to say that i think it looks quite different in the bottle to what it actually does on my nails. I'm not sure if that's just my eyes because they look fine in the pictures, but it seems like a much brighter pink on my nails to what i imagined it to be.

In terms of application though, this product is brilliant. I applied my first layer and it dried in about a minute. I was so pleased! It also comes with a flat applicator brush which makes application a dream. This stuff is perfect if you're in a rush or if you're like me and a complete mess when it comes to doing your nails. They should rename it the 'lazy girl/smudge bandit' nail polish. It is fantastic.

At £3.99 you really can't say no to at least trying it out. Have a look at the range here - https://www.barrym.com/product/Speedy

Have you tried this range out? Let me know what you think! xx

Inspired

I have been inspired recently by a few stories that I've read online and i wanted to share a little light reading for you:

• An article about a young female model who has a skin condition called vitiligo
  
• An article about a young beauty blogger who is blind

Firstly, how amazing are these women? Honestly, i think if i were in their positions i wouldn't know what to do with myself. I certainly don't think i could be as strong as they are to look at the world and think 'fuck it, i'm gunna carry on doing what i do'. 

What i took away from these stories was that these are people who don't let these conditions stop them from shining. One is a model and the other is a beauty blogger, they are not defined by their disability and condition, they just are who they are. I found this incredibly inspiring, to think that we are all different, we all have issues and things that can stop us from doing what we want to do. But we shouldn't let it stop us from doing what we want. 

I suppose the point is that you shouldn't let things stand in your way and you shouldn't crumble at the obstacles. The things that you think can hold you back might actually be the things that push you to where you want to be in life. 

Thanks for reading! Let me know what you think in the comments

Spring Face

Spring is here! I am so happy to be out of the dark, cold, depressing winter months and welcome those lovely, sunny, fresh spring days. With the new season comes the new beauty trends for spring, which got me so excited to take a trip to Boots to pick up some new products for a fresh spring face.

Primer - Nivea Express Hydration Primer
This is my go-to primer on most days. It is lightweight and makes the skin feel fresh and fully primed ready for make up. I tend to go for this in the morning when i'm doing my every day make up. Not only does it even out the skin ready for make up application but it's also very hydrating (as the name would suggest) and gives the skin that bit more moisture.

Foundation - No7 Instant Radiance foundation
So i went to the No7 counter and got a skin match (i am the palest shade - of course) I then decided to pick up the instant radiance foundation which advises a medium coverage. I chose this because i wanted a natural looking foundation that would give me a bit of a glow - along the lines of Rimmel's Wake me up foundation. I've used this foundation for about a week and i love it! It matches my skin perfectly, i don't think I've ever had a foundation that matches me so well. If you get the chance to go to the No7 counter for a skin test then i would recommend it if you're looking for a very natural looking foundation. The foundation definitely gives a medium coverage and a lightly dewy finish which i love for a gorgeous spring face.

Highlighter - Loreal Lumi Magique concealer
I've been using this under my eyes and down the middle of my nose to highlight my skin and it works a treat! You twist the bottom of the little tube and the product comes out at the top with the application brush. I've found that it blends really well and gives a gorgeous illuminating effect. It makes your eyes pop and hides the dark circles well which is what we like! Overall a great little concealer to use as a highlighter.

Setting Spray - Mac Fix

I use this after i have applied my make up for a lovely dewy finish. I have read that you can use it before make up application or after but i don't tend to use it before as i find it works better as a setting spray. This is a great product to use to give your skin a bit of a boost. It also helps your make up to last throughout the day.

So there is my spring face products that i will be using throughout the lovely season. Let me know if this helped you at all and if there's any other similar products that i should look out for

Giving up the slug

So it's January and I've been a slug. A big, fat, lazy, smelly, slug queen. 

I'm sure a lot of you out there can relate this time of year? I know it's a cliché to make the news years resolution to go to the gym more and be healthier. I hate it when I tell people that I've started back at the gym because I know exactly what they're thinking when I do "oh right, she'll have quit by February" it's true that we all have that judgement when we hear people say "new year, new me" but I don't think there's anything wrong with wanting to positively change. Even if you fall off the bandwagon, you had the best intentions for yourself and you have the power to change if you really want to (this is starting to sound like a quitter's speech, bare with me) 

I didn't want to say that I failed myself, so I didn't make it my New Years resolution to go to the gym more or be healthier (sly cop out I know). The reason that I started back at the gym was because I started to hate my body. Now that is a very serious thing to say, I had low self esteem but I didn't necessarily have a serious body image problem that effected my life as a lot of girls unfortunately do. I have always felt very comfortable in my body, pretty and sometimes even sexy, but recently that confidence has gone.

It's safe to say that I've had a very indulgent couple of months. I've had a series of 21st birthday parties (including my own) which resulted in drinking, drinking, and more drinking, meals left right and centre, weekends away, takeaways, you name it, I have treated myself more than any person should and what's worse is that I did all of this with absolutely no exercise. Not even a walk to the shops, I drove to work and back everyday where I sat at a desk, snacking and letting my body fester, and when I wasn't working, I was eating and/or drinking, lazing around like a sloth. I was just beginning to realise that I had put on a bit of weight, oh and then Christmas came. Well that intensified the situation, nights out, meals meals and more meals, quality street, buffets everywhere, chocolates in everything, "oh so and so has bought us some sweets in cos it's Christmas", the bloody Christmas wine raffle at work, and let's not leave out the monstrosity that was Christmas dinner (not to mention the mini buffet me and my boyfriend had that evening). Going back to work after the festive period, my skin was disgusting and my work trousers were noticeably tight. That was the moment I realised. I have had enough. The slug queen would like give up the throne please. 

I've started back at the gym, doing an actual routine and not just going on the treadmill for 15 minutes and then calling it a day. I've also started doing yoga at home (I'm sure a lot of you have heard of yoga with Adriene on YouTube, but if not I would highly recommend you check out her channel) 

I honestly do feel fantastic. I admit I'm still not in the best of shape yet, but I'm confident that I'll get back to the place where I loved my body in good time. Don't be scared of being a January gym girl, you're not alone and you have the ability to keep going and not give up. 

Lots of love and good luck!

Check out my motivation board on Pinterest for tips and fun workout routines -

http://pinterest.com/clavcakes/motivation/

Gone Girl - The book/film experience

*Don't read for spoilers*

So I went to go and see the film adaptation of Gone Girl a few weeks ago with my friend Jade, we had both spent the last month reading it and we were both hooked on the story. Once we had both finished it, we were buzzing to see the film because the story is incredible and we were both so interested in how they had adapted it for the screen. 

I thought this film was really good, it was really well filmed and the actors were great. I think Rosamund Pike was a brilliant Amy Dunne, purely for those crazy eyes! For me, in the opening scene when she turns around and you see her eyes, she looks terrifying! she's got that psychotic look about her that fits so well. (I also have big love for Ben Affleck <3)

I do think that they missed a lot of things out of the film that were included in the book. I understand that to fit it all into one movie that yes they would have to cut a lot out, but it does annoy you from having read the book to being like "ooh that didn't happen like that" or "oh no but they've missed out that part" it is a little frustrating especially when it's a book that you really loved. 

For my friend, this was the first time that she had read a book before seeing the film version and then going to see it afterwards. She came out really annoyed that they had changed so much and left so much out. For me, this has happened a few times so I was expecting as much. It does annoy me but I understand that they can't physically put every little detail into a film without them making it into a TV series or something, which my friend suggested would have been better for this book. 

It did get me thinking about all of the movies this year that have come out in the cinema that have been based on books. It's got to the point where you see a trailer at the cinema for a film and you can tell which ones are book adaptations just from a snippet of it. It makes me kind of sad that it seems like movie producers don't have any good fresh ideas coming in so they just take a book and turn it into a film. You do also get that annoyance that if you're a big fan of the book, you know that they will never do it justice to how you read it and how you felt it.

I had this recently when I went to see the book thief which is my favourite book of all time. I loved this book so much that I knew they wouldn't portray it in the way that I fully imagined it and how I took the story. On the other hand, I think they did do a great job and that it was a very good film, but the film never quite compares to your experience with the story.

What do you think about film adaptations of books? What's your favourite or least favourite? Also if you've read/been to see gone girl, let me know what you thought of it. I feel missing without the book to read now I've finished it! Such a good read 

Happy Sundays to all! xx

Naan Bread Pizza

This little tasty treat was a totally spontaneous cooking experiment that ended up being so nice that i had to share. Using things that you probably have lying around in the kitchen now, i created these really quick, simple, naan bread pizzas.

Ingredients - for two naan bread pizzas

• 2 Garlic and Coriander Naan Breads (or whatever flavour takes your fancy)
• 2 Salad Tomatoes
• 1 Garlic Clove (as a guideline, i used lazy garlic as that's just what we had in the kitchen but feel free to use more or less depending on how you like it)
• Cooked chorizo slices
• Cubed chesse (I used extra strong chedder but again, feel free to use whatever cheese you prefer. I think mozzarella would be gorgeous with this)
• Salt
• Pepper 
• Olive oil

Method

Okay so you want to start by making the tomato sauce to put onto the naan bread. Simply chop up the tomatoes into small-ish chunks, add into a pan with the garlic, a glug of olive oil, a dash of salt and pepper and a little bit of water. Bring to the boil and simmer for about 20 minutes. 

Once you feel the sauce is ready, spread on top of the naan breads. Then add the chorizo slices and cubes of cheese as you wish, you could get creative here and add any other toppings that you like to make it a bit different. Cooked peppers, cooked chicken pieces, mushrooms, etc. would be lovely with this. 

Once the naan breads are prepared, pop them under the grill for about 5 minutes until cooked. That is literally the whole process, they are so easy to make and they taste incredible! The naan bread flavour mixed with the tangy tomato is a gorgeous combination.

You can make so many variations of this recipe and you can also have it as a side to a lot of meals. When i made this, i had some leftover tomato sauce so i cooked it with some chicken which also tasted gorgeous.

Give it a try!