Balmi Super Cool Lip Balm Review

Do you ever go through that phase where all the lip balms you own are just boring, don't seem to work as well anymore or they're just looking a little bit grubby? I get it all the time! Whilst doing a little online Boots order, I picked up the mint Balmi lip balm. It's not the first time I've bought one of these little beauties, I had one back in the day when they were circular before they rebranded their packaging.

My initial attraction to the Balmi lip balm was the packaging. It's simple, has an actual keyring so you can hang it on your keys!! (how cool is that?!) and is in a cutesy pastel green shade.  I'm always a bit sceptical when it comes to minty lip balms as I'm not good with the tingling sensation they tend to give. Fear not, this lip balm only slightly cools your lips and feels completely comfortable.  The fact that the balm itself is pointed makes for an easy application but obviously the point wears down after time which is a bit of a shame but alas there's not a lot you can do about that.

I'd say the lip balm moisturises your lips for a couple of hours but it's definitely not a wonder product. I just love the shape of it making it stand out from all the other lip products in my collection.

The Balmi lip balms are priced at £4.99 and you can buy one yourself here on the Boots website!

Have you tried the Balmi Lip Balms before? P.S I love the name 'Balmi'.

Zaks American Restaurant Review

I've never been to America but I've always been obsessed with their style of food, be it sweets, milkshakes, burgers...I want to try it! After going to Ed's Diner for the first time a couple of years ago, I've been on a mission to try out as many American Diner style restaurants as possible. 

My boyfriend and I decided to spend our Sunday afternoon at Zaks Waterside. Zaks actually started up as a little burger van but due to it's insane success, the founder opened up three restaurants in Norwich - Zaks Mousehold, Waterside and Poringland. They all have exactly the same menu with slightly different interior so it doesn't matter to much about which one you choose to go to!

The walls are adorned with vintage American neon signs, plaques and quirky little wall coverings. My favourite thing is the seating though - if I could have a kitchen with the American diner seating and tiling then I totally would! Check out the cute little tomato ketchup holders too, aww!

There's so much to choose from in the menu which usually results in me telling the waiter I need more time to look! The obvious choice to go for is a burger as they're what Zaks are most famous for but I highly recommend the pasta dishes and hot dogs too. The menu is reasonably priced for an occasional treat but it's obviously not somewhere you'd want to eat every day as those pennies soon add up.

I'm way more of a dessert gal than starter but my boyfriend feels sick at the thought of paying £5 for a slice of cake so we decided to share a portion of the most melt in your mouth cheesy garlic bread priced at £2.95.  Personally, this is one of the nicest garlic breads I've ever tasted. The bread is so thick and it's not that garlic-y (I can't deal with garlic overdose) and the cheese is just perfectly melted. For under £3, I think it's a bit of a bargain too!

AAAH, THE BEST PART! If your mouth isn't watering right now then what is going on?! I went for the 'Rock House' burger, chargrilled and smothered in a tangy BBQ sauce with a slice of monterey jack cheese with sweet potato fries.  My boyfriend ordered 'The Godfather', topped with mushrooms and Parmesan on a garlic toasted sour dough bread also with sweet potato fries. The sweet potato fries cost an extra £1.50 but they're so worth it! So much more less stodgy than regular fries and about a million times tastier. The meat is always of such a great quality and I've never had a burger that tasted less than amazing, I can't recommend Zaks enough.  Zaks have cut their portions down over the last year or so but I don't blame them as I can't ever finish a full meal and it must be disheartening to see so much food go to waste.

If you want to read more about Zaks then head to their website here. If you're ever visiting Norwich I'd highly recommend giving Zaks a go for a pleasant dining experience, I promise you'll love it!

17 things that every girl in her mid twenties secretly thinks

 1. That overwhelming moment when you realise you're 25. You were 18 like fifteen minutes ago, what the hell has happened?

2. Freaking out because you need to get a smear test and you're just not ready to let a stranger see ALL of you yet.

3. Dying for a hot chocolate but wanting to convince people you're mature so you order a flat white instead.

4. Having a mini meltdown because all your facebook friends have about 8 children when you can't even look after a plant.

5. Realising your colleague who you have bantz with was born in 1997 and suddenly feeling like you're his Mum.

6. Your boyfriend starts talking to you about mortgages and marriage and you break out in a cold sweat. I'M NOT READY FOR THIS OK?!

7. If everything fails you can just go back to living with your Mum right? right?!

8. Getting a lump at the back of your throat when you realise you'd be in the over's category on X Factor.

9. A person refers to you as a 'lady' and you're like who?! me?! no, I'm just a girl.

10. All your friends are talking about credit cards and savings accounts whilst you're sitting there with £43.20 in your bank account after you've blown your months wages on expensive makeup and notebooks.

11. Trying so hard to like wine and olives because that's what adults like, isn't it? then giving up and getting a malibu and coke and a packet of wotsits because you must just be allergic to them.

12. Going into a night club and you're convinced you must have come to an under 18's night because these party animals look like they've just exited the womb.

13. Mentally preparing yourself for the day you find a grey hair but getting a shiver down your spine every time you think about it.

14. Realising that you've woken up on a Saturday at the time you would've been getting home after a night out on a Saturday five years ago.

15. Whipping your ID out of your bag before entering a bar only for the doorman to announce 'you can go straight in, love'. WHOLE NIGHT, RUINED.

16. Debating whether your love for One Direction is slightly inappropes?

17. Feeling like death every single time you get your period but you should be used to this by now, you've only had like 120 after all!!!

PLEASE TELL ME I'M NOT ALONE AND YOU THINK THESE THINGS TOO?!

Nailin' it.

A month or so ago, Models Own had a 50% off sale on all their products which I'm sure you would have all heard about.  I'm a sucker for Models Own so I just had to make an order because a girls gotta have new nail polishes right? and half price? come on! 

I can't remember putting Blizzard into my basket but I'm pretty happy that I did as glitter nail polishes are an easy way to make it look like you've made an effort with your nails. The chunky bits of glitter look lovely when they're caught in the light but I can't help but feel it's a glitter that's more suited for the festive period.  I don't know what it is about silver glitter but it just feels wrong wearing it when it's not Christmas!

Blue Glint is from Models Own's Hyper Gel collection but I personally can't notice a difference in the formula as opposed to the regular polishes. The colour is actually beautiful and so much more vibrant in real life than in the photos especially in daylight. I'd definitely recommend buying this if you want to be pleasantly surprised.

My only gripe with Models Own polishes is that they just peel so easily especially when you add a layer or two of glitter! I only get about 3 days wear out of any polish at max which is a shame as I'd like to rock them for longer but I guess that's just an excuse to paint my nails with another pretty polish eh?

If you could only wear one nail polish for the rest of your life, what would it be? 

Frank Coffee Scrub | Worth the splurge?

 http://frankbody.co.uk/ - £11.95

I purchased the Frank coffee scrub last year after hearing a crazy amount of bloggers going wild for it, I just got sucked in to the hype. There's no way I'd be willing to fork out £11.95 for 200g of shower product that came in a bottle but because it's gimicky (the whole coffee scrub thing, you don't see very often do ya?!), I just wanted to try it!

There's four different varietys of scrub - Coconut, Cacao, Peppermint & Original and since I'm not a very adventurous person, I settled for Original.  The first thing that was apparent when opening the waterproof bag was the strong scent of coffee with a slight orange hint that nearly made me choke. The scent is something you definitely get used to after a while though, I was just shocked at how powerful it was!

Frank is meant to target dry skin, stretch marks, cellulite, eczema, psoriasis, varicose veins, acne and scarring.  I have a few dry skin patches on my body so I wanted to see how well it coped at combatting them mainly.  Call me silly but I was a bit scared to try it at first as I'm one of these people that manages to get a rash from anything at all, even air. Ok, I exaggerated that a tiny bit. After getting over my initial fear, I set to work with my new fancy Frank taking a handful of the scrub and rubbing it over my skin in circular motions. Frank feels a little scratchy on the skin but that's what an exfoliater does. My only concern when using it was OH MY GOD, MY SHOWER IS FILTHY! Frank gets EVERYWHERE and that's my only gripe with the product.

After I'd washed the scrub off, I could instantly tell my skin was moisturised, not even a little bit moisturised, the type of moisturised you feel after you cover yourself in Righteous Butter and that made me smile because I hate moisturising, it's such a chore! With regards to the dry patches, Frank isn't a miracle cure sadly enough.  After 3 or more uses, the dry patches did feel well, less dry but they didn't completely disappear.

I like Frank as a little treat as it's fun and takes the hassle out of moisturising but I wouldn't say I'd rush out to buy this when I finish my current packet. On a separate note, how do you feel about the packaging?! I love it! I think it's really unique and simple.

You can buy Frank here if ya fancy!

Fragrance Direct haulin'

So you know those times when you don't need any makeup but you just desperately want to spend some money?! Of course you do, fellow beauty blogger ;). Fragrance Direct is my go to site for times like those as everything is as cheap as chips and everybody knows it's ok to buy makeup you don't need when it's a bargain, right? REASSURE ME!

Essie is the section I scour first purely because of the fact that the polishes are all £2.49 each which is AMAZE compared to the £7.99 Boots sell them for. I don't know why they're so cheap, maybe because they're from a few seasons ago perhaps? but I'm just grateful for the bargain. I picked up Fall in Line, Strut your stuff, Take it Outside and Muchi Muchi. I can't wait to wear that beautiful blue on my nails - perfect Summer colour!

Lip products are my obsession and I don't think I'll ever get bored of them. I always go a tad cray cray (yeah, I just said that) in the lipsticks section on Fragrance direct because they're just so cheap! I'm most excited to try the W7 butter kiss lipsticks but I'll review all of them at some point. I swatched the W7 lip liner and it's a dreaaaaam. It glided on so nicely so I just can't wait to see what the staying power is like. I love it when a product that looks naff (W7 lip liner) from the outside is amazing, like that old cliche, never judge a book by it's cover. I'm not gonna go into detail with each of these as as I said, I want to review them all but I'll just tell you that there's not one lip product in this picture that cost over £2.50 - gasp.

It's warming up outside which means I need to look glowy like Blake Lively so I bought the W7 make up & glow bronzing base which is meant to be a dupe for the Chanel soleil tan de Chanel bronzing base. I'll never be able to confirm this because I can't afford Chanel, soz but obvs I'll let you know how it is.  I've been watching Loz Curtis on Youtube and she raves about the L'oreal true match foundation all the time. I tried it a couple of years ago but I can't remember if I liked it or not so wanted to give it another go! It was only £4.99 so worth a punt n all that.

So I bought these bronzers from Famous by Sue Moxley mainly because they were £1.49 each and I like the tacky packaging but also because they remind me of the MAC mineralized skin finish powders.  They look hideously orange but I think I can work with them - i'll keep you posted.

I get a bit excited about fake tans I haven't tried before so I had to get this Ibiza Honey mousse. Apparently this is meant to be £15 but it's £2.99 on Fragrance Direct which slightly alarms me but I'll try it anyway! I need a brush that'll make my contour 'on point' and this W7 face blender brush looks like the perfect cut. It was £4.25 - my most priciest purchase of the whole haul so it better be good! Finally I got this L'oreal hair mask which looks pretty boring but I'm hoping it'll make my hair all glossy and smooth.

Do you ever shop at Fragrance Direct when you're bored?!

A peek into my week #2

HIYA! This post is kind of what I've done over two weeks because I don't have an exciting enough life to post one every single week.

My family all live about 5 hours away from me (sob) so I like to travel down to Hereford/Wales every month or so to spend time with them. Last Thursday I caught the Megabus to Birmingham and my Mum picked me up from there with her cute tiny new dog, Eliza! LOOK HOW CUTE SHE IS! She's a 10 month old, shih tzu cross maltese and she is just the most well behaved dog I've ever seen. She was in the car for 4 hours and didn't whimper at all, all she wants to do is sit on your knee and cuddle you. Even my Grandad loves her (he's holding her in the photo and he never even strokes dogs). BTW, she was meant to have a 'trim' but she was cut a little too short so that's why her legs look like chicken drumsticks.

It was my Grandad's birthday and we went bowling to celebrate the big 71st because it's his fav thing to do. We went to the pub afterwards and did lots of shots of sambuca and jagermeister and I got horrendously drunk. I tried taking a few selfies but honestly my hair just ruined them every time, I don't want a fringe but I'm seriously running out of options?! It was so nice seeing all of my family and just having a good old laugh with them - here's a pic of me and my poser brother.

Grandad made us all a fry up to cope with our hangovers and it was the best thing ever. I sometimes underestimate the power of fry ups, I genuinely think they have special healing powers.

I just want to read everything I can about blogging at the minute in a bid to make my blog like a thousand times better. I bought Blog Inc a couple of months ago and flicked through a few pages but I've had a good old read of it this week. It's a good book but in short the message is just be consistent, find your niche and interact with other bloggers and that's the recipe for blog success.

I had my tooth taken out on Wednesday, it was a bottom molar. Basically, I hadn't been to the dentist in years and I cracked my tooth about a year ago and didn't do anything about it. It escalated into an abscess which meant I had no option but to go to a dentist which terrifies me more than anything. I'd rather work 10 hours a day, 365 days a year than go to the dentist - that puts in to perspective how much I hate them. I built myself up for my tooth extraction and I DIDN'T EVEN CRY GETTING IT OUT. I thought about posting a photo of my gum but then I realised that was gross and would make me lose all my followers.  I know it's big headed to admit but I'm SO PROUD of myself for actually going through with it. I feel like I could conquer the world (insert arm flexing emoji here).

Because of my successful dentist experience, I wanted to treat myself so I spent FOUR BLOODY POUNDS on this Cadbury Marvellous ice cream. I would pay ten for it. I love it, it's like a fairground in your mouth, defo my new favourite ice cream!

Over the past month, I've been obsessed with Pretty Little Liars and I'm now completely up to date which I'm a bit sad about because I just want there to be a constant stream of episodes. Next week we find out who A is and I have so many theories inside my head, I've accused everyone of being A. Me and my friends are having a little Pretty Little Liars finale party so I won't find out until Friday - eek!

I started watching Glue on 4OD which is a bit like a darker Skins slash murder mystery programme set in the Countryside. Jessie Cave plays a character called Annie who I really like. Whenever I find someone on tv I love, I stalk them on the internet and I found Jessie's website Pindippy. You need to see her Youtube videos, they actually made me laugh a lot and I don't really laugh at a lot of things on Youtube. Anyway, watch Glue too because you'll like it if you liked Skins!

I've been obsessed with Hannah Gale's blog for months now because it's just everything I love in a blog. I feel like I should explain what it's all about but I feel like everyone must know because her blog's too good not to read, y'know? Read it here and I promise you'll find every single post relatable if you're a gal in your twenties like me. I just want Hannah to be my BFF and teach me her blogging ways.

I've wrote a lot in this post, I feel like I could go on and on but my necks hurting and I really want an Options mint hot chocolate so I'm going to end it here as I don't even think a lot of you will have fun reading it. I just loved writing it and that's what it's all about isn't it?

How has your week been? Excited for Monday? ;)

A blustery day in Southwold

My boyfriend and I went on a little road trip to Southwold yesterday. When I say little, it's about an hour away from Norwich so not the nearest beach we could've visited but it was just somewhere new for us to visit!

If you've ever been to Great Yarmouth you'll know that it is tacky but that's what I love about it! So lets say Great Yarmouth is Primark and Southwold is like, Zara. I'm trying to say it's more upmarket than your regular 'seaside', somewhere you'd go if you wanted to enjoy a nice walk rather than log flumes, sugar dummies & 99p hotdogs.

Considering it's March, the weather was actually so beautiful! So windy but you'd forgive that as the sky was so blue and the sun was shining. We walked across the hut adorned beach and can I just say that I've never seen so many beach huts in my life! We giggled over the names of some of them - look at the one in this photo, so imaginative that I just had to take a photo! I've now decided that I want to live in a candy striped beach hut on the beach for the rest of my life. Who needs a real house.

You can't go to the seaside without having fish and chips right?! I wish we'd have gotten actual chip shop chips rather than the ones in this photo which were just from the Beach Cafe on the pier but it was far too windy to eat outside and I'd end up eating all of my hair instead - seriously, my hair was up and it wouldn't stay out of my face (imagine angry emoji here).  They were actually quite pricey - £8.99 I think but what can I say, Southwold eh?

The most interesting thing about Southwold is the 'Under the Pier' show. Under the Pier is filled with homemade arcade machines that are completely different to anything else you will have ever seen. They're all created by Tim Hunkin an engineer and cartoonist and a VERY intelligent man. When you're looking at the machines, you're just confused. They don't make sense as they're so hilariously bizarre but you can't help but feed them your money. I went onto Tim's website after - http://www.timhunkin.com/ which I wish I'd have read before going as he tells you how/why he made the machines and oh my god, completely mindblown. 

We finished off our blustery adventure with a mooch around the gift shops and an average mint choc chip ice cream - they didn't have bubblegum, what kind of seaside doesn't sell bubblegum ice cream?! come on! I always get scared about taking photos in gift shops because I don't think it's really allowed is it? I bought a couple of little gifts for my Grandad as it's his birthday on Friday but I don't want to say/show you what they are as he occasionally reads my blog. 

I really like Southwold but it's definitely a more grown up place to visit. There weren't as many 2p machines as I'd have liked, no tacky rides and they didn't sell candy floss but maybe I'll love it more in 10 years when I don't still feel 12 in my head.

What's your favourite seaside town in the UK to visit and why?