GETTING FRESH

Ugh, Fresh, what a beautiful brand. I’ve been in love with them ever since I tried their ever so famous Soy Face Cleanser. I got it as a birthday present along with their Rose Deep Hydration Sleeping Mask and I’ve been in love with the brand ever since. I’ve tried almost all of their face masks, some of their serums and moisturisers, and I am yet to find a product that I don’t like. Loving so many of their skincare products, I thought I’d try out their body range. I’ll be honest, I didn’t even know they did bodycare until I went on their website. What a delightful surprise. After scrolling and reading about all their amazing products, I decided on the Hesperides Grapefruit Bath and Shower Gel and also their Life body lotion.

Let’s start with the shower gel; it smells incredible! It’s so citrusy and fresh. The smell spreads throughout the house after I use it and have even had my boyfriend ask me what I used as he loved the scent so much. I can tell it’s going to be a great one for summer. You know one of them you use after a day at the beach or the pool, come home and bathe yourself in a lovely, summer smelling fragrance? This is the one. It lathers up really well on its own, but works well with a loofah too. It’s also very nourishing and feels lovely on the body. 

Although the Life body lotion isn’t the same scent as the shower gel, they do smell somewhat alike, the body lotion just isn’t as fruity. The formula is very easy to spread which I love. I hate creams that require a lot of effort to rub in. This also absorbs pretty fast and doesn’t leave that horrid sticky feeling behind that some body creams sometimes do. It has vitamins C & E in it too to protect the skin which is an added bonus. 

Let’s move onto my favourite, the Sugar Roll On Deodorant. This was a purchase I didn’t plan on making, but I had a ‘what the hell’ moment and threw it in the basket. I’m not exaggerating when I say that this is the BEST deodorant I have ever used in my life. I am a massive fan of Sure and Dove roll ons, but I have to say that this surpasses anything I have tried before. It has such a lovely fresh scent (ha, how fitting!), not at all strong or overpowering, it just smells clean. It’s very wet so I try to let it dry before getting dressed, but you don’t even have to do that! It doesn’t leave the horrible white marks on your clothing, how amazing! But of course my favourite thing about this is the effectiveness at keeping me odour free all day long. I really put this to the test when I bought it. I wore it to work, went to the gym after for a heavy leg workout session, I was dripping in sweat and before I hopped in the shower I sniffed my armpits and I hand on heart, smelt nothing. It was such a clean, neutral scent as if all I did was sit at home all day. It’s also alcohol free which is a blessing for me as I have very sensitive armpits and most deodorants will aggravate them. The only downside is the price, £17 for a deodorant is a little hefty, but I just haven’t had the same results with any other formula or brand. I’ve been telling everyone about this and I couldn’t recommend it enough. 

Have you tried anything from the brand? What are your favourites?

Lots of love, SFS.

HOW TO TREAT SEPARATION ANXIETY IN DOGS - 5 SIMPLE STEPS

I dreamt about having a dog pretty much my whole life. Any friend or family member of mine will tell you that I would never shut up about how much I wanted one. In December 2018 my dream finally came true when we picked up our little fur baby, Twinkle Bear. She’s even cuter than the name *.* 

Having a dog for the first time was definitely harder than I imagined. The amount of attention they need, especially as puppies is a lot to handle. She turned our life upside down and I would be lying if I said I didn’t question our decision to get her at some points. However, we powered through and we now have the most adorable and loving little Bear. 

Very early on we decided that we wanted to get a dog cam to check on her when we left the house. We had an idea that maybe she didn’t like being alone as she would follow us everywhere in the house and she would cry when we had to close off a room while we were cleaning. However, the dog cam revealed that she was in massive distress when she was on her own. She would bark, howl and cry consecutively until someone came home. Sometimes for hours on end! I can’t tell you how much that broke my heart. Even though we hired a dog walking company and had an amazing group of friends who checked on her regularly and took her on walks while we were at work, it still felt like we weren’t doing enough. 

I may have shed a few tears watching her in distress, and inevitably this ended up having a huge impact on our social life as we would feel so guilty for leaving her alone that we would actively turn down any invitations to go out, and even stopped having date nights so we wouldn’t leave her alone more than we already had to. 

After a couple of months we realised that we weren’t able to deal with the situation on our own and that we needed professional help. That’s when we hired a dog trainer. The trainer came to the house and asked us many questions about Twinkle's behaviour and gave us endless advice and tips to follow which we started implementing immediately. Hiring a dog trainer isn’t the cheapest thing in the world, so here I am sharing my knowledge with you so you can hopefully save some money and help your pup. 

REDUCE AROUSAL 

Before going to work we would always take Twinkle to the park and have her run around like crazy so that she could get tired and hopefully fall sleep while we were gone. This was the wrong technique. The dog trainer said that yes, we should go out with her before leaving the house, however, it should be a relaxed, non stimulated walk. If you don’t have time to go out with your dog, make sure you don’t excite them before leaving. They need to be in a relaxed state so that it’s not such a drastic change when you leave. 

PUT YOUR SHOES ON 

These next tips are a bit weird at first, but they are so effective! Twinkle would always chase us around the house whenever we moved from room to room. She would get particularly stressed if she saw us putting our shoes on as she would associate it with us leaving the house and her being alone. The dog trainer told us to start putting our shoes on at random times while we were at home, so we started doing that. We would be sat on the sofa watching TV and would get up, put our shoes on, walk around the house, take them off and sit back down on the sofa. Of course Twinkle would follow us in the beginning, but we would ignore her, and eventually she stopped going after us. 

JIGGLE YOUR KEYS 

Going hand in hand with what I wrote in the previous point, start jiggling your keys at random times. Say you’re cooking in the kitchen, pick up your keys, jiggle them and put them back down. Do this as often as you can, always ignoring your dog. They’re always looking for a reaction, even if you’re telling them ‘don’t worry, I’m not going anywhere’, they don’t know what it means. Just be very casual about it, pick up your keys and put them down as if it’s something normal to do. 

WALK TO YOUR DOOR 

I think you’re probably starting to see a theme here. Do things that indicate that you’re leaving the house but actually aren’t. Start walking to your door, your dog will follow you the first few times thinking you’re going to leave, but simply open the door, close it and go and sit back down on your sofa. Start doing all these things on their own in the beginning and with time, start incorporating all 3 things at the same time. Put your shoes on, pick up your keys, walk to the door, open it, close it and go back in the house as if nothing happened. 

GET A NOVEL OBJECT 

This one we didn’t actually use because we didn’t need it, but if you’re still struggling with your dog being stressed out, it’s worth a try. The dog trainer told us about getting a novel object, could be anything, but something new and something your dog has never seen in your house before. You’re meant to use it when you’re at home and you want to tell your dog that it isn’t play time. Dogs are used to having all the attention when their owners are at home, having this object ensures that they know when they have your time and when they don’t. Let’s say this object is a candlestick. You take it out at random times, and during these times you completely ignore your dog. This way, the dog knows that while this object is in sight, he/she won’t have your attention. So when you leave the house, you put this object out and your dog knows that he/she won’t have any play time. 

I’m sure there are plenty more tactics out there, but these are the ones that really helped us and now Twinkle stays home by herself without being stressed. She no longer barks when she’s alone and she even falls asleep! That’s a miracle. She never used to sleep when she was home alone, no matter how tired she was. We’re honestly so happy that we went with a dog trainer, it really changed her life and ours. I hope you found this helpful if you’re also training your puppy. 

If you have any other tips, feel free to share them below. 

Lots of love, SFS.

DRUNK ELEPHANT D-BRONZI - REVIEW & SWATCHES

I’m back again with an Allana influenced purchase. Listen, I know that I’m repetitive and that I’ve been talking about her too much, but the obsession still hasn’t gone away, so bear with me ok? And I mean, she has great recommendations, so… She’s mentioned the Drunk Elephant D-Bronzi Sunshine Drops many times on her channel and me being a Drunk Elephant fan, just had to try it. 

First and foremost, this is a skincare product. It’s a bronzing serum that helps protect the skin against environmental damage. It has loads of great ingredients such as platinum peptides to help reduce the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles, white tea extract which is a great antioxidant and has anti-pollution properties, vitamin E to preserve the skins natural lipid balance, and of course marula seed oil which is a star ingredient for Drunk Elephant. These are just some of the great ingredients, read more about the rest here. As if this product didn’t sound good enough already, it’s also free from fragrance, silicones, essential oils and is cruelty free. I mean, wow! 

The bronze shade is quite dark, so you have to mix it in with something. Personally I love mixing this with my moisturiser. As you start to apply it on the face it can look a little crazy, but just keep working it in and you’ll be left with the most insane glow like you’ve just been away for a weekend in the sunshine. Once blended in it’s very natural looking, but it makes such a difference! It’s ‘my skin but better’ kinda vibes. It works really well under makeup, but I personally love using it on my makeup free days. It gives me that extra boost of confidence in my skin. 

This is a great product for those of you that want a sun-kissed look but without the sun damage, and without the faff of applying a self tanner that most times ends up looking patchy. With this, you’ll still look sun kissed and you can wash it off at the end of the day. I also wanted to mention that it doesn’t transfer onto things. I was initially scared that it would rub off onto clothes or something of the sort, but it stays put all day. You can also customise how dark you want it to be by how much product you apply, so it’s very versatile. I also love that it comes with a pump and is compact enough to travel with. It’s definitely the step I look forward to the most in my skincare routine now. 

Have you tried anything from Drunk Elephant? What is your favourite product? 

Lots of love, 

SFS.

5 WAYS TO BOOST YOUR MOOD DURING A HARD TIME

With everything going on in the world at the moment I’m sure most of us are feeling stressed or anxious over the uncertainty of the next few weeks or even months. So much worry over money, jobs, health, friends and family. It’s a lot to worry about and It’s hard to switch off from the news because it’s everywhere! Even on social media where we would normally go to take a break from life. The internet and the news are a blessing, but I think we need to know when to switch off for our own sanity and mental health. Here a few tips on how to get yourself into a more positive mind frame and hopefully improve your mood. 

CLEAR YOUR SURROUNDINGS 

Clutter and untidiness causes me so much stress and unease. It makes me feel like my life is a mess. So on the days where I feel anxious or stressed, I always make sure to tidy my house. Making your bed in the morning is a great start and ensures that you’re going to keep on the right track throughout the day. Put your dishes away, fold your laundry and cleanup as you go. If you keep leaving things out of place or dirty, chances are that you’ll feel overwhelmed with the amount of things that you have to do and you will most likely put it off because you won’t want to deal with it. Remember, clean house, clean mind. 

KEEP IT MOVING 

With all the gyms being closed it makes working out very challenging, especially if you like weight training and don’t have access to equipment at home, but it’s very important to keep your body moving. I don’t know about you, but I spend 90% of my days on the sofa either glued to my phone or binge watching Netflix. I feel the need to move and to get a sweat on otherwise I start to get restless. I’ve been switching it up and training different muscle groups on different days, and I also like to throw in a HIIT somewhere in the middle to really get a sweat on. There is a lot of pressure on people to workout at the moment, and I understand not everyone is in the right mind frame to do it right now. Personally, exercise has been an escape and crucial to keeping my mind in a healthy state. If you’re not in the mood to workout, try going on a walk, but do something. I promise it will make you feel more energised and happier! Get those endorphins!

DO SOMETHING NICE FOR SOMEONE

This is something that is guaranteed to boost your mood. There is nothing quite like helping others. Check in on your neighbours, especially the elderly ones. Ricardo and I recently wrote letters to our neighbours offering to walk their pets or do their food shop. It’s something so small, but it makes you feel good about yourself and is also a great gesture. If you really don’t want to leave the house or can’t leave the house, look for a charity to donate to online. 

PUT ON A HAPPY SONG 

I know that when you’re depressed or feeling down the temptation is to throw on a really sad song so that you can cry and feel sorry for yourself, and that’s ok! I would highly recommend that you let it all out instead of suppressing your feelings. However, after you’ve had a good cry, put something happy and bright on! Listen to a song that brings back happy memories, or a song that is really upbeat and makes you want to have a little dance. Honestly, never underestimate the power of a good song. 

PLAY WITH YOUR PETS 

Ugh, pets are so underrated! Since having my little dog, Twinkle, there hasn’t been a single day where I’ve woken up in a bad mood. Just seeing her on my bed first thing when I open my eyes fills my heart with joy! So if you’re lucky enough to have a pet in your life, play with them, cuddle them, go out for a walk with them. Just the fact that I now have someone to look after other than myself makes me feel so good. She makes me leave the house even when I don’t feel like it and I love it. I love that at least once a day I go out on a walk and breath in some fresh air. It really does wonders for my body and brain. If you don’t have a pet, offer to walk your neighbours pets or to take care of them. I guarantee it will you make you smile from ear to ear. 

BONUS: LAUGH IT OFF 

I understand that not everyone has pets or likes animals, so I wanted to throw a little bonus point in here. Laughing is a great way to improve your mood. Watch a funny movie, play a game with your family or housemates, FaceTime someone who is uplifting, hey, laugh at yourself! The amount of times that I’ve laughed at myself for falling down, or for saying something really stupid… I mean, if you can’t laugh at yourself, how in the hell are you gonna laugh at somebody else? If you know, you know #RuPaul 

I honestly hope you are all doing well. I know I feel like I’m going insane sometimes being locked up in the house. I swear most days I don’t even know what day it is. It’s been tough, but at the same time we need to remember to be grateful! Be grateful for our health, for our family, for the fact that we have a roof over our head. It’s the small things that matter the most, and I think that now more than ever we can see that so very clearly. 

Stay safe everyone. 

SFS.

CHANEL ROUGE COCO FLASH - THE PERFECT SPRING LIPSTICKS

With Spring finally here I had an urge to buy some new lip products. I spotted the Chanel Rouge Coco Flash lipsticks at the airport a couple of weeks ago and after swatching almost the entire collection, I ended up buying two shades. 

First things first, let’s talk about the packaging. Classic black and gold Chanel packaging but with a twist! The lid is see through so you can see the colour of the lipstick through it. I love how they somehow made something that can sometimes look tacky, look so elegant. 

Now onto the colours! I picked up shade 53 Chicness and 62 Fire. Chicness is a lovely brown toned nude. It’s very much ‘my lips but better’. I’m always drawn to these shades and if I’m being honest with myself I probably have about five or six lipsticks in my collection of a very similar colour, however what sets this one apart is the formula. The Rouge Coco Flash lipsticks are so creamy and moisturising, they feel like a balm. They contain a blend of oils which make them hydrating and they also leave a glossy look to the lips. If a lip balm, a lipstick and a lip gloss had a baby, it would be this. 

My favourite of the two is definitely Fire. I mean, the name says it all really! I live for orange toned lipstick during the warmer months and I can tell this one is going to be in my handbag all summer long. Because this is a hydrating formula, I like to swipe this on my lips and then rub it in with my fingers, exactly as I would a lip balm. I find that rubbing it in makes it look a bit more natural… well, as natural as an orangey red can look. 

They don’t last very long which is probably the only downside I can find to these, apart from the price of course, but it’s Chanel, so you know what to expect. Even though they don’t last very long on the lips, they do leave a slight tint behind once they’ve faded which is really nice. 

Have you tried this formula? What is your favourite colour? 

Lots of love, 

SFS.