being at university and having loud, drunken teenagers shouting outside at all hours of the morning and music being played until late in the evening has meant that sleep can sometimes be a struggle. not only that but a bed that isn’t as good as the one at home and a sometimes messed up sleep schedule have all impacted the quality of sleep i get. here’s some things i do to try and deal with it.

lush sleepy – this body lotion is a life saver when i’m struggling to fall asleep. i’d been recommended it by many sources, and seeing as twilight is my favourite lush bath bomb (which is the same scent as sleepy) i was 100% on board to try it. it’s lavender scent and smooth consistency is warmly relaxing and always helps me to calm down when i feel frustrated about still being awake in the early hours of the morning. a little goes a long way.
https://uk.lush.com/products/lavender/sleepy

bodyshop lavender oil – this has been one of my greatest discoveries when trying to solve any sleeping problems i’ve had. i simply put a few drips of this onto the corner of my mattress and the smell fills the room and gets into my system and sends me off to sleep. a word of warning would be that using too much can cause a strong smell that has before made me feel slightly sick. another trick with this that i love is that you can drop this into your bath before bed to start the relaxing bedtime routine off early.
https://www.thebodyshop.com/en-gb/fragrance/home-fragrance-oils/lavender-home-fragrance-oil/

an eye-mask – this has absolutely saved my life whilst being at university. having to sleep in a room where the blinds don’t prevent the light from coming in at all used to be a big problem for me. i’d wake up way too early and not be able to fall back asleep or not be able to get to sleep at all (daytime naps were especially a struggle!). but now at a small expense of less than £2 i can enjoy darkness whilst i regain my energy and have noticed my sleep quality improve. my eye-mask also has a gel cooling pad inside it which is great for headaches.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B075V9GWB4/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

reading – everyone’s heard it a million times before… if you want to sleep better you should read before bed instead of going on your phone or watching tv. i find this enjoyable anyway as i read in my spare time and i do find the nights i read before bed i fall asleep much quicker. i also read a few chapters of a book if i’m unable to get to sleep throughout the night which usually works a treat at helping me nod off. even a non-fiction book will do the trick.

happy snoozing.

‘let’s start by taking a smallish nap or two...’ winnie the pooh

after spending (and wasting) too much money over the years buying skincare products that i haven’t liked or ended up not using, i thought it may be useful to share some products that haven’t let me down. (and even better they’re all cruelty-free!).

superdrug vitamin e oatmeal face scrub – potentially one of the best facial scrubs i’ve ever used and at an extremely reasonable price. i love many products from this skincare range but this one has to be my favourite. the scrub is so gentle but also full of a huge amount of exfoliating ingredients that feel natural and soft on the skin. (nothing like those scrubs you get that are more like a facial cleanser with a few tiny bits in them). i love the smoothness of my face after using this product and i will continue to repurchase it. it’s also made my skin clear up a lot.

https://www.superdrug.com/Skin/Face/Face-Scrubs/Superdrug-Vitamin-E-Facial-Scrub-100ml/p/282600

mario badescu rose water spray – when i first got this product i wasn’t convinced about it. i started out by using it as a toner water when i had no makeup on. after some time i decided i wasn’t a big of a fan of it for that purpose and it went back in my cupboard for a while. one day i was doing my makeup and a pinterest tutorial advised me to use a setting spray to make my glitter eyeshadow apply better and then to set my whole face of makeup afterwards. i read the back of this product and found it can be used for this purpose and now it’s an essential in my makeup routine. my glitter eyeshadow now looks even more pigmented and my makeup lasts even longer than it once did.

https://www.beautybay.com/skincare/mariobadescu/facialspraywithaloeherbsandrosewater/

lush grease lightning – i’m never against trying a lush product i haven’t used before. i was looking for a product that i could apply to individual spots when particularly bad ones appeared. i put this product on overnight when i find that i need its assistance and it brings the redness and swelling of the spot down to a manageable level. i don't use this product as frequently as the others but when it’s needed it does its job brilliantly.

https://uk.lush.com/products/spot-treatment/grease-lightning

‘be good to your skin. you’ll wear it every day for the rest of your life.’ 

if i was to ask you about the connection between animals and beauty products you probably wouldn’t think of any immediate correlation between the two. in my opinion, that’s because there doesn’t need to be one. why does a person wearing makeup or even just washing their hair have to have anything to do with animals at all? this is why i decided to start using cruelty free products.

this may sound very ‘hippy’ and expensive but i promise you are wrong. there are many more beauty brands than you would first think that are cruelty-free and affordable. similarly, there are also many that you (or certainly i) assumed would already be cruelty-free that aren’t. i was the most surprised to find out that simple skincare test on animals. researching the products i buy is something i do regularly now. assuming they are ethical isn’t enough. to find out if they're cruelty-free look for the leaping bunny logo on the back and failing that google!

so many alternatives to the products i was using that did test on animals were available and now i’m extremely close to being completely cruelty-free with my products. i don’t think it’s fair to say that you should straight away throw out products that test on animals if you decide to make this change. you spent money (sometimes a lot) on those products and there’s nothing wrong with using them until they run out and then simply not repurchasing them. (in my opinion).

to help inspire and encourage you, some of my favourite cruelty-free products include:

- anastasia beverly hills modern renaissance eyeshadow pallet

- too faced better than sex mascara

- no7 beautifully matte foundation

- nyx lingerie liquid lipstick

- soap and glory supercat eyeliner
- collection lasting perfection concealer

- superdrug vitamin e skincare range
- real techniques brushes

- erm absolutely anything by lush?! (it’s also all vegan)

as i’m not the most experienced in this area being quite a newbie, i’m going to leave some links here to pages on actual cruelty-free blogs. this is where a lot of my findings came from and if you care to look i’d imagine you’d be as surprised as i was with the findings.

full list of companies that test on animals (brace yourself)

https://www.crueltyfreekitty.com/companies-that-test-on-animals/

full list of companies that don’t test on animals (yaaaay)

https://www.crueltyfreekitty.com/ultimate-guide-to-cruelty-free-makeup/