This Time Next Year | Update

Last year I was tagged in 'This Time Next Year'. The rules were you had to set yourself goals for the next year and to write how you were going to achieve those. In this post, I will be reflecting on what I have or haven't achieved.

I will be driving in my own car
I ACTUALLY LEARNED HOW TO DRIVE. I finally did it! I really pushed myself because I knew I needed to, and honestly I'm so glad I passed. I wrote a post last year about Passing My Driving Test

I will have travelled
Well, I didn't exactly get to travel around Europe for a few weeks as planned. But, I did get to visit Canada, Ghent, and Disneyland Paris so all in all, I think I did pretty well! I was so happy I got to experience three different places last year, I still have blogs and videos to go up so I'll post those when I can.

Be still blogging
I'm so happy that blogging is still a big part of my life. I've been invited to some amazing events and blogger meet-ups, and I've got some lovely blogging friends that I've met. You can read my blog's birthday post here where I talk about my blog a bit more.

I will have worked in the industry
So this hasn't really happened. Most of my relevant runner work happened when I was still at university. My current job is relative to my course by making videos for internal and external clients, and I get to do admin and producery tasks. It would be great to go further afield and get some experience in different areas of TV and film.

It's also quite hard to be seen in this oversaturated market, especially when people have more experience than you.

Be more confident
I still need to work on this. My self-esteem, confidence and self-belief are non-existent. That's not going to help me get anywhere in life.

It will be interesting to see where I get with these by next year!

What goals have you set yourself? I'd love to know.

Love Saffron x

The Body Shop Brighton VIP Event*

What do we have here ~ ANOTHER The Body Shop® Event??

I was so delighted to have an email from the event mastermind that is James - to go to an event in the Brighton store. Brighton is my favourite place, and it's also where the first ever The Body Shop® was located (they aren't in that exact store anymore).

Seeing as the lovely staff members told us about the history behind The Body Shop®, I thought I'd put an extract from their website here:

"Our founder Dame Anita Roddick began mixing her own products and infusing them with a new idea: that business could be a force for good. Following her vision, for 40 years we’ve been rule breaking, never faking and change making. We now have over 3,000 stores in 66 countries and employ over 22,000 people who help us bring our unique blend of ethical beauty with a sense of humour and serious purpose to the world.

Never afraid to stand out from the crowd and stand up for what’s right, we search the world for the finest ethically-sourced ingredients to create a range of naturally-inspired beauty products.

Today our dedication to business as a force for good is stronger than ever. As part of our Enrich Not Exploit™ Commitment, we’ve made it our mission to enrich our products, our people and our planet. That means working fairly with our farmers and suppliers and helping communities thrive through our Community Trade programme, being 100% vegetarian and always and forever being firmly against animal testing.

Together we can do it, it’s in our hands."

The Brighton store opened in 1976, and since it's doors opened they have been supporting amazing causes and campaigns. One of the lovely ladies at the store told us how The Body Shop® were giving out condoms on the counters during the aids epidemic, to show their support and educate society.

As mentioned in my previous The Body Shop® posts they have a HUGE campaign at the moment to stop animal testing worldwide. Only 20% of countries have banned animal testing. We need 8 million signatures to take the petition to the united nations by this summer. As of April we have 5,556,738. Please have a read of the campaign and sign here.

I'm planning to do a post with lots of information about animal cruelty soon, as a lot of my friends and family ask me about it and I don't want to bombard any readers who've just come here to see what products I got!

As you can see from my ridiculously happy face, I received a lovely hand massage using the Brazilian Cupuaçu Scrub-In-Oil, and the Hawaiian Kukui Cream  from the Spa Of The World™ Blissful Body Collection by the lovely Brieana. I love a hand/arm massage it's surprisingly relaxing. Brieana was a gem, she was so helpful answering all of my questions regarding skin care and gave me some samples to try.

I also got to try out what the The Drops of Youth™ range felt like on my skin, Brieana used the Drops of Youth™ Liquid Peel on the back of my hand by gently rubbing in a drop, then using the Drops Of Youth™ Concentrate afterwards. My skin has never felt to soft. The Drops of Youth™ range is good for skin which has started to show signs of ageing, I have been thinking of using it as I believe I have some sun damage/wrinkles on my forehead and I would like to prevent them from getting any worse!

Where you can personalise your body butters!

I cannot wait to try the Camomile Gentle Eye Make-Up Remover!

I currently have the Tea Tree Skin Clearing Mattifying Toner in my facial regime.

My favourite hair products: Banana Truly Nourishing Shampoo, Banana Truly Nourishing Conditioner and Banana Truly Nourishing Hair Mask

The notorious Hook-A-Duck was back!

Another of The Body Shop® big campaigns at the moment is to save Red Panda's. I don't know about you, but I absolutely love animals, and Red Pandas are super fricking cute. When you purchase the Himalayan Charcoal Purifying Glow Mask a portion of the proceeds go towards protecting Red Pandas. Plus you can buy this cute headband for when you apply/remove make up as modelled by myself below.

My beautiful friend Lily has a blog ~ you need to check it out.

It was lovely seeing these beauts: Max, Lily, James, Charlie.

I can't believe how lovely all of the staff have been at all The Body Shop® events I've been to ~ which is turning out to be quite a lot...they always amaze me with their customer service and pure loveliness. I feel like I'm building a relationship with these stores, and it makes me want to come back time and time again as I always have great experiences.

Above is the little bits I picked up at this event, I needed a top up of Banana Truly Nourishing Shampoo, Banana Truly Nourishing Conditioner and Banana Truly Nourishing Hair Mask. I love the smell of this range, it's more of a sweet banana smell than an actual fruity smell. The products are thick in texture displaying the quality of the ingredients.

As shown above I purchased and wore the Red Panda Headband, and I bought the Facial Mask Brush to help apply all of the face masks I've collected. It's much easier to apply the masks, and more hygienic than using your fingers.

I had to buy the Tea Tree Anti-Imperfection Night Mask I love Tea Tree products, as I'm prone to redness and blemished skin. I'll do a little review when I get to use it!

I've been needing some hand sanitiser for a while, I'm one of those people that has a bit of everything in their bag, you know just in case. This Strawberry Hand Cleanse Gel smells amazing, and they have lots of other great scents and they are usually on a three for two offer on their miniature products.

Above are the lovely goodies which James put together for us! We got a voucher for Wagamama's as well as a nifty ladle for soup and ramen. There's a Coconut Treats set, a sample of the Banana Truly Nourishing Hair Mask, I Am Forever Against Animal Testing Neckerchief for your pet, a small Almond Milk & Honey Soothing & Restoring Body Butter,  samples of Oils Of Life™ Intensely Revitalising Facial Oil,  Drops Of Youth™ Concentrate, Japanese Matcha Tea Pollution Clearing Mask, and Amazonian Acai Energising Radiance Mask.

Please enjoy my failed attempts of getting my dog; Missy to wear the neckerchief. She's so beautiful but hates having her photo taken, or if she knows you're taking a photo she will make it increasingly hard.

I really enjoyed myself at this event in Brighton, The Body Shop® has quickly become my favourite brand! I've been trying to add up how many of their products I now own, and I don't think it's a pretty number. I just love the quality of The Body Shop® products and what they stand for.

Tell me in the comments what products you're loving or want to try out!

Love Saffron x

*Disclaimer - The products mentioned in this post are affiliate links which means that I can make commission from sales used by the links in this post.

My First Beach Clean | Earth Day

Today is Earth Day, and a lot of people are starting to recognise that we need to look after our planet and make changes to reduce their plastic usage.

Yesterday, I went to my first beach clean to start helping my surrounding environment. Over the past few months I've been becoming more aware of my own plastic waste. Thanks to following amazing people like my friend Sophie, I've learned so much about better alternatives for the environment.

Surfers Against Sewage organised this beach clean, but there is also another the first Saturday of every month in Portsmouth (I recommend doing a Facebook search for clean ups near you!). We arrived at 10.30am to sign in and pick up gloves and pickers ~ these get snapped up really quickly so I advise getting there early or bring your own if you can. We then listened to a safety talk about what to do if you find sharps or items like flares, which is to notify the team and do not attempt to pick them up yourself.

Myself and Sophie then tried to scour the beach for any plastic pollution. As the weather had been very summery this week I was expecting a lot more rubbish to be found. We were behind a lot of other volunteers, and some of the rubbish could've already been swept into the sea or covered up by pebbles and sand.

I loved seeing volunteers from all backgrounds and ages, it really showed that everyone does care about the environment and that's an amazing message to share. Everyone was cracking on with their children or dogs by their sides, working as teams to dig out some items.

When we started to reach the Pyramids, we were running out of beach. We started to follow a trail of rubbish up towards the common and Southsea Castle, as this waste was so close to the sea, it would eventually make it's way there.

A lot of the waste we found were plastic bottle lids, beer bottle lids, cigarette butts, plastic and glass bottles and there were a lot of plastic bags that were stuck in some of the sea defences.

It seems like a lot of areas down the beach get forgotten about by cleaners. Southsea gets a lot of events in this area and there were leavings from events just left there. Cable ties and suspension type clamps just left behind bushes, I think the council need to be more vigilant of event teams cleaning up to make sure they leave the area as they found it.

Caught red handed? Cheeky straw left abandoned. There's great alternatives for straws; paper and reusable metal straws!

We found a dead star fish, poor thing.

When we went back to the station where we began the clean, it was great to see all of the hard work of the volunteers, and that some of the findings where being separated into recyclable piles. I know it's not good to actually find all of this rubbish, it's a very strange experience that you want to find rubbish, but it would be better if there was not this amount amongst the beach and surrounding areas. For the sake of the wildlife, public and their dogs, children and for the environment. Some of the waste washes up on the beach from boats, such as ropes, fish hooks and bits of wood.

This was such a rewarding experience and I thoroughly recommend volunteering your time to causes like this. I can't wait to do more, and I've been doing more research into recycling and waste for my local area, as certain items can and can't be recycled in areas across the U.K.

After we gave over our rubbish bags we took some blog photos, as you can see there are very photogenic areas around Southsea and it would've been rude not to.

Me and my findings.

Behind the scenes photo of Sophie shooting for her blog post.

I'm really getting my teeth into becoming more environmentally aware and I'm loving it, it can take it's toll learning about the harsh realities of human society and the affect it has on our planet. I'm looking forward to sharing more information on my blog and social media pages.

Above is the team photo that was taken, you can't see myself and Sophie, but I think I can see my arm. As mentioned before it was great to see so many people give up their time on a Sunday morning and I look forward to my next clean up.

Have you been to a clean ups or have any environment posts? I'd love to have a read, comment your links below.

Here are some other blogs to read if you're curious about being eco friendly; Alanna and Lizz.

I hope you've enjoyed this post!

Love Saffron x

Love Simon Review

*Disclaimer: this post doesn't have any spoilers or information that isn't accessible online already.

I was very lucky to see Love Simon early in Cineworld as a Secret Unlimited Screening. This was a really nice surprise as there was zero information about the film before screening, and I wanted to watch this film anyway!

Myself and my boyfriend missed a small fraction of the beginning of the film, so for the first ten minutes or so I wasn't sure what film I was watching, until it was revealed that Simon is gay. Love Simon is about a guy in high school who is secretly gay, he fantasises about a new homosexual lifestyle when he will move away to college to be openly gay. He doesn't plan on telling anyone until he reads on an anonymous website that there's another closeted gay guy at school.

The film then turns into this mystery-love story, which keeps the audience trying to guess who the mysterious gay guy is. It uses hilarious and heartfelt fantasy scenes to display what's going on in Simon's head. I love that Nick Robinson who plays Simon just looks like a regular guy, that the filmmakers haven't portrayed him as a "stereotypical" gay guy - not that there is a stereotype, it's just that previous films can have certain depictions of gay characters.

Whilst watching Love Simon, I wondered why is there only now a film aimed at young adults with a gay main character hitting mainstream cinemas? It's 2018? It feels like this film should've come out years ago. From my perspective gay characters are usually the protagonists "gay best friend", this is probably the first one I've watched where they are the main character. And I love it.

I love that this was chosen for the secret screening, as people of all ages and with different film preferences would've been drawn in for this. They potentially might not have seen any publicity for this film. I don't think anyone walked out of my screening, but I read online that some people did. Fair enough it's not for everybody, but you could at least sit down and see how the film pans out. I also read that whilst a lot of people said they wouldn't have chosen to watch the film, they actually loved it. My boyfriend really loved this film - and he's not a fan of young romantic comedies!

How cool is this badge I picked up from Cineworld?!

There's a short clip on YouTube you can watch of one of the funny scenes, where some of the characters come out as straight to their parents. It's a fantasy scene, but it's completely relevant as it's asking why is straight the default? I think when families bombard you with questions like "so when are you going to get a girlfriend/boyfriend?" (delete as appropriate) We could instead change it to "so are you interested in anybody?" or "are you in a relationship?". These are just brief examples I've thought of, but my point is why are we assuming the sexual orientation of other people? I remember getting these loaded questions when I was younger - I am straight, so it never offended me. It must be hard for those wanting to come out to family and friends if they've been on the receiving end of straight orientated questions.

I think Love Simon can open up a discussion amongst people of all ages, but most all of it's a really enjoyable film. The film has a really good structure to tell the story, and even though it's been two weeks since I first saw it, it's still on my mind and I will have to see it again.

I definitely recommend this film to watch, as it'll have you laughing and nearly crying at the same time, you get to go on a journey with Simon. Love Simon is out in cinemas NOW.

Let me know your thoughts!

Love Saffron x

Happy Third Birthday To My Blog

It was my blog's third birthday this week! Happy Birthday! But that doesn't mean I've only been blogging for three years. I first starting writing on an older blog EIGHT YEARS AGO. That's kind of crazy.

This past year has been amazing. I put so much more effort into my writing, the presentation of my blog, I started enrolling my boyfriend Connor Cleary for photo shoots, I bought a blog template and personalised domain. I'm so happy with my little corner of the interwebs to write what I want.

In celebration of my blogs birthday, I wanted to talk about the three best things that have happened to me since starting this blog.

~ My Mental Health

This blog didn't start out as a lifestyle and mental health blog. I started it mainly to look at the beauty industry, and my take on it. I didn't know much about beauty ~ I still don't. But I'm glad that I've been able to use my blog as a platform to inform others about anxiety and depression, and it's been a good release for me as well.

By writing about my experiences I managed to find others around me who felt the same. I didn't feel so alone, and it was good to have other people around who understood what I was going through. I don't know how I would've got through the worst of my mental health without my blog.

~ Getting Invited to Events

I made a bath play-doh pumpkin at the Lush Halloween event

Every Blogger's dream is to go to swanky events for brands, and get an exclusive look at products and post tonnes of Instagram stories, and enough Boomerangs to make you feel queasy! I couldn't believe it when I started getting brands reaching out to ME?! My first event I sought out myself and asked to be on the guest list as the event was made public. Then once you've made a bond with that company, they will usually ask you back ~ which is amazing!

So far I've been to Lush events, The Body Shop events, opening night of Pryzm night club with the help of Pompey Bloggers, a complimentary meal with Beefeater, and I've got plenty more upcoming events to share with you all!

~ Networking

L-R Me, Charlie, Charlie's partner and Mike at Pryzm

I say networking like it's really formal, but actually I mean all of the friends I've made over the internet. I never would've imagined meeting up with people via Twitter, but these are the people I speak to on a regular basis and we're all really supportive of our work. It's just lovely, and I'm so grateful for meeting some of my internet friends in real life!

They definitely help motivate me, if I didn't have my friends I'm not sure how far I'd have gotten. Don't get me wrong, I love writing just for me, but I want people to read my posts and interact and bounce off of my ideas. It's always great to have people to proof read risky posts!

Please check out their blogs! Mike, Sophie L, Charlie, Alanna, Sophie E, Poppy and James to name a few.

~

I'm really proud of what I've accomplished so far. I've even had my first sponsored post with Adorli, but my blog is still purely my hobby. I mean if it did become something I could do full time, I'd be more than happy to write for a living. My younger self would be ecstatic!

I'm going to keep growing my blog and my content, as I've got plenty of ideas and I still want to return to making YouTube videos as well.

One thing I have learned about blogging and social media is that it's really beneficial to engage with other bloggers, by commenting on others posts it starts a conversation and gets you more involved with the "community". This also can encourage others to engage with your content as well, the blogging world isn't always "if you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours". My mantra is just to be nice to people in the real world and online, as I believe in good karma and I like to be a nice person.

I hope you liked my little blog birthday post! Let me know some of the things you're proud of/have achieved in the comments.

Love Saffron x