4Ocean Bracelet

Last year I was educating myself in cruelty-free beauty and now I've expanded into an eco-friendly life and seeing how I can reduce the amount of plastic and packaging I use in my day to day life. I also try to partake in beach cleanups near me, you can read about my first one here. A friend introduced me to 4Ocean. A company whose goal is to reduce the amount of plastic in the ocean by selling bracelets - yes you read that correctly. Customers can either get one single bracelet or a sign up to a monthly subscription to these bracelets, which are made out of recyclable materials found in the ocean. By purchasing just one bracelet, it allows the company to pull 1lb of rubbish from the sea.

As you can see in the images the bracelet has the 4Ocean logo, a thin adjustable cord which is made from recycled polyester, and recycled glass beads. Each month 4Ocean bring out limited edition bracelets of which they give profits to different charities. For example, at the moment they have a green and yellow bracelet to support Marine Nurseries.

So far there have been 1,144,460 bracelets sold, therefore 1,144,460 pounds has been removed from our oceans.

According to 4Ocean, it's estimated that 16 billions pounds of trash makes its way into the ocean.

They hire crews from around the world to clean up different aspects of the ocean. Over a year ago I was conducting some internet research for a video production company on ocean waste. I hadn't personally seen or heard of how much waste was in the ocean, I had never thought about it before. Until that is, I came across The Great Pacific Garbage Patch. A floating trash island.

The fact that these bracelets are made from materials found in the sea just astounds me. Earlier this year the BBC reported that there were more than 80,000 tonnes of rubbish forming this floating island. This specific area is between Hawaii and California, this rubbish patch is just one of five areas across the planet, but it's by far the largest. The rubbish congregates in areas where strong currents sustain the "island" in strong whirlpools. As well as the literal plastic pollution made up from bottles, containers and the like, these plastics then start to disperse microplastics into the ocean's water.

These items end up here either just by the sea drawing in rubbish from the land, winds depositing plastics, tools and nets used by fishing companies and fisherman, or even via boats which are trying to move recyclable items or rubbish to another continent to be disposed of or recycled. In the past year, China has refused to take in and deal with other countries waste and recycling. This could have an even bigger environmental impact on the UK if we struggle to keep waste out of our environments.

I don't want to bore anyone too much with my preachy environmental views, but my blogger friend Sophie has a whole bunch of informative posts on Environmental Issues and Zero Waste living.

Because I love our planet and nature, I've been making baby steps to try and reduce my contribution to our world's waste. My favourite alternative is reusable coffee cups, you can get aesthetic one's from Primark from £2.50. Using these cups can save you an average of 15p per hot drink from most coffee shops.

Let me know if you'd love to hear about my personal changes to try and be more environmentally friendly, it's something I've been getting very passionate about this year.

Photo credit: Connor Cleary on his Canon 5D Mark iii.

Disclaimer: I purchased this bracelet out of my own money and I've not been sponsored to write about 4Ocean or the topics discussed - I'm just really happy with this product and have a chip on my shoulder about plastic waste.

Victorious Festival | Day 3

Saturday had such lovely weather, but this whole weekend I had to scrutinise the weather forecast to try and wear weather appropriate clothes. Especially as the festival is right by the seafront it's going to be a bit colder and windier.

I had seen that the whole day was supposed to be raining and potentially have up to 40mph winds! Considering how I did not have sensible clothes on Friday when it was raining, there was not a chance I was going to make that mistake again. I had some blisters on my feet from wearing my Doc Martens all day on Saturday, so I layered up with three plasters and three pairs of socks to pad my feet out a bit. I went for doc martins again as they are pretty good in the rain and I've worn them in the snow earlier this year. I decided to wear my Victorious tee from the 2016 festival, my new Victorious hoodie, my coat and a black cap to stop the rain getting in my eyes.

My friend Danielle had told me that the festival team had started to prepare the site for the rain and winds so they had removed some of the flags, the hammocks in the VIP area, the TV screens by the stages had been moved down. The site looked so gloomy when we arrived, puddles of water started to appear around what is Southsea Common and there was barely anyone in the main area, they had all sought shelter or gone home to come back later.

The Sunday line up was ok, but all three acts that I wanted to see were all on at the same time: last performance of the evening on their respective stages. I wanted to see Years and Years (who I've already seen twice - they are amazing by the way), Lucy Spraggan and The Prodigy. As much as I wanted to see Year and Years and Lucy Spraggan, my younger teenage self would never have forgiven me if I passed on The Prodigy.

I wanted to try and catch some different bands throughout the day so I headed down fairly early to try and get some content. The weather was just atrocious. It was raining quite hard and constant and there weren't too many areas to seek shelter and I didn't want to stay out in this weather all day.

I had decided I wanted to get my hair braided as I knew it was going to get wet and thrown all over my face, and I just needed a neat girly hairstyle. Fortunately, I came across the All Out Beauty station, they had different compartments on the ground level where you can get your hair styled and take pictures with instagrammable backgrounds, and upstairs was a VIP viewing area of the festival with more aesthetic decorations.

All of the staff there were in high spirits despite having to sweep water off of the walking areas and their ponchos getting blown in the wind. They were all so lovely and friendly it made up for the horrible weather.

By this time I was soaked through, I bought some yummy warm churros and retreated back home for a nice roast dinner. Then headed back in the evening with Connor for The Prodigy. The band before TP were called Friendly Fires, and after questioning the frontman's (Ed Macfarlane) thrusting and bopping on stage and the crazy fans manoeuvering their bodies in no particular pattern, I was actually really into their vibe. It was upbeat and entertaining, I will definitely be checking out their music and would love to see them again.

We were so excited for The Prodigy to come on, we really wanted to be down in the crowd but Connor had really bad feet from working all weekend and didn't have suitable shoes on <insert eye roll emoji> but at least I could see the stage and all of the festival goers from the VIP area. I love watching the crowd and feeling the vibe from the audience, I soak it all in.

The minute that TP came on stage they completely changed the atmosphere, they had a crazy lighting set up and smoke that clouded over the stage. Maxim, Keith Flint and Liam Howlett were absolutely incredible. They had so much energy that you couldn't help but sing and dance along to all of the classics. They had made some changes to some of the tracks which made it seem more modern - I'm a big fan of a lot of Invaders Must Die tracks.

Out of all the acts I had seen over the weekend, The Prodigy were by far the LOUDEST. I don't know if it was because of the genre or the fact that they were the big headliner for the weekend but it was so great to have to music pulse through you. They were the highlight of the weekend without a doubt. There were so many great acts, but with their performance and the reaction from the crowd it was just unforgettable.

photo credit: Tom Langford

It was an amazing end to the weekend and I loved every second of it - even the rainy parts. I would one hundred percent go back next year. Victorious have got early bird tickets here - including whole weekend tickets!

Did you go to this years festival, or are you interested in next years? I'd love to know in the comments.

Disclaimer: Carousel PR were generous enough to grant me a press pass for the whole weekend at Victorious Festival which included access to the VIP area. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Victorious Festival | Day 2

Saturday was a beautiful day, and because Connor had to work at the festival filming I invited my lovely friend Charis (as seen above) to explore and be my photographer.

We got to the site early to have a look around and get some photos with no one else around and grabbed a bacon roll from a food truck in the kid's area. There was also a chocolate company called Montezuma's giving out free bars of chocolate which was actually really nice, they have dairy free, gluten free and vegan chocolate bars. I'm a little bit in love with their chocolate and will have to seek out their Chichester store soon!

I love that at festivals there are cute little market stalls, especially as they might have something that you need like Charis needed sunglasses and lots of stalls had them! Plus it's another way to kill some time if you're waiting for an artist.

We survived mostly on the free Coca-Cola cans being given out, they had vanilla, peach and cherry mini cans and you could recycle them back to their area, and if you queued to go inside you could win prizes. Probably the best incentive to recycle cans ever and the vanilla was my favourite.

The Strongbow area were giving out free Dark Fruits ice cream, it was 1.1% alcohol in it so after they ID-ed me I enjoyed my ice cream. I loved how many companies were giving out free food and drink at the festival, I think it's a great way to try new things without having to burn a hole in your pocket.

As it was busier today there were a lot more people about, and I noticed a lot of rubbish just thrown on the floor when there’s plenty of bins. Literally, Victorious organisers had so many bins, recycling bins and even points where you give the cups in to be reused. 

Even in the VIP area a group of people threw all of their cans on the floor and just left about 10-15 cans of rubbish and they pushed crisp packets in between the wooden bench. Myself and Charis helped clean up the area when a litter picker came by.

It was lovely to walk around the full site today and have a look at all of the other food vendors and market stalls that had opened up. I even saw a human fruit machine, I’m not sure what they were promoting but it was hilarious. Lots of families invested in those inflatable sofa things where you have to run around with it to get air in it. Top quality entertainment right there.

There were a lot of younger festival goers today, and a lot more scantily dressed ones. The weather was a lot more suitable for that kind of festival vibe, but some of them looked so young and I saw a lot of bums and boobs.

Today I was most excited to see Gabrielle Aplin and Paloma Faith, I've been fortunate to see both of these artists before and loved them so much I needed to see them again. Gabrielle was on quite early in the way which was a lovely way to compliment her soft voice in the sunshine. I always forget how many of her songs I know, and I enjoyed singing along to Panic Chord, Night Bus and Please Don't Say You Love Me. I made a mental note to add some of my faves to a Spotify playlist.

I ran into some family friends who said I needed to watch the Happy Mondays, which I can say I only know about them because of Shaun Ryder when he was on I'm A Celeb. We didn't have anyone else we wanted to see at this time, so we thought we'd educate ourselves and see what they were like. It was fantastic, maybe not in the way of a good quality performance but one of the band members; Bez was so entertaining. He was playing the "maracas" but you could obviously see he wasn't contributing to the music as he sauntered up and down the stage doing a little mince-type dance and waving the maracas around. Bez absolutely made my day and I was in stitches.

One of my favourite independent restaurants is Pie and Vinyl in Castle Road, Portsmouth. They do amazing pies with all the fixings, it was so good to see them at Victorious. They had changed the names of the pies to have Victorious themed pies, I chose Chick-torious as it's one of my favourites and it's just delicious. They also have options for vegetarians, vegans, gluten free and dairy free food.

photo credit: Tom Langford

The line up for Saturday had a few well-known legends, as well as the Happy Mondays, Victorious also had Brian Wilson from The Beach Boys - with some of the original members, and also Paul Weller from The Jamm. I must admit I didn't know too many of their songs but I love God Only Knows What I'd Be Without You by The Beach Boys and Town Called Malice by the Jamm.

After hearing some of the golden oldies, we moved over to the Castle Stage to see the lovely Paloma Faith. Admittedly, I don't know much of her newer songs but I loved her first two albums. Paloma was wearing a pink patterned A-style cut dress with funky pink glasses - she kind of reminded me of Linda from Gimme Gimme Gimme but it was a good vibe.

photo credit: Tom Langford

I wasn't really into Paloma's performance, it was a bit odd and I know she's a very quirky person but I personally wasn't really enjoying it and it just felt like something was missing? We left after four songs as I wasn't feeling it and we partied our butts off in the Strongbow arena and met with my boyfriend and friend. It was really good to just let loose the dance moves as everyone was having a good time and the DJ set had constant tunes playing. It was a really good way to end the day.

The Saturday was so amazing, it was great to have a bit of sunshine and there was an amazing sunset behind the festival. It's in an amazing setting taking up most of Southsea Common, the D Day Museum, and Southsea Castle.

#peasandlove

My Sunday post will be up soon!

All photos taken of me were by my friend Charis on my Canon EOS M10.

Disclaimer: Carousel PR were generous enough to grant me a press pass for the whole weekend at Victorious Festival which included access to the VIP area. All thoughts and opinions are my own.