Glossybox June 2016 - First Impressions

Monthly subscription boxes have been massively growing in popularity over the past few years. I've been looking for one to treat myself to for a while and stumbled upon 'Glossybox'.

There are a few things that tempted me to try this box, first of all that you get a variety of beauty products, not just make up. I tend to stick to the same skincare routine and thought it would be refreshing to receive some new and exciting things.

 I live in quite a small area so I don't really have much of a chance to get to the big beauty shops to browse anymore, I wanted a box that would give me a few different products a month to try out.

The second reason was the price! At £10 + £3.25 P&P it's quite reasonable for a monthly spend.

June's box arrived this morning, I ordered the box on the 22nd of June which means it only took 3 days to get to me. Really fast shipping, brilliant.

The products came in a gorgeous sturdy pink box and nested safely with tissue paper.

I received 6 products this month, most of which I still have to try! I'll update here with my thoughts once I've had a chance to sample them properly.

They were;

♥ Starskin Smoothing Bio-Cellulose Second Skin Eye Masks, 2 packets. I am really intrigued by these as I've never used an eye mask before, the packet recommends putting them in the fridge 10 minutes before use, they sound really soothing.

♥ Spa To You Natural Konjac Sponge. There are a lot of claims on the back of this sponge packet! The leaflet says this is one of the latest trends from Japan and Korea who always seem to be way ahead in skincare. I'll write back with my thoughts later.

♥ De Bruyere After Sun Lotion, 50ml. This smells amazing! I don't have an after sun lotion so was really happy to get this.

♥ Ladival Sun Protection Spray SPF 15, 150ml. The SPF count is a bit low for me to use this on a particularly sunny day outdoors, but for everyday wear (when I will be out of the house a little bit) I can see this as being useful. It's got a non-greasy formula which is great again for everyday wear, it definitely feels a lot less greasy than my Nivea sun cream. It also offers protection against four types of UV rays.

♥ Emite Make Up Lip & Cheek Tint. This one sort of reminds me of Benefit's 'Benetint'. This is the first product of the bunch I tried and it gives my lips a lovely rosy look, although it does tickle a bit when applying it, haha.

♥ Aussie 3 Minute Miracle Reconstructor Deep Conditioner, 20ml. I have tried and loved this product in it's full size in the past, so I was happy to receive this little packet. I love Aussie, it's a great quality haircare brand and their conditioners smell divine!

I'm really happy with my first Glossybox! It was lovely to get something in the post all wrapped up and pretty, it almost felt like a present!

Download Festival 2016

It's been a while since Download Festival but I wanted to write a little bit about my experience as a first timer. I've been wanting to go for years, so when I saw the lineup for this year on Sunday the 12th of June, I decided to get day tickets for me and my partner to go and have a feel of the atmosphere.

First of all, the weather was awful! I felt terrible for those that were there the whole weekend. The ground was completely sodden, everywhere we walked was sloshy mud. I think it looks about the same at Glastonbury this weekend, why oh why would you do this rain?

Ponchos and wellies were essential, although I saw someone walking through the crowd while we were watching Breaking Benjamin wearing flip-flops! I got these ponchos before we went and I'm so glad I did! They were really big and a lot more hard wearing than the paper thin ones we were planning to pick up from the pound shop.

The first thing we saw at Download was actually some live wrestling as NXT had their own tent and events going on throughout the festival. Dave is more of a fan of the wrestling than me, although I did enjoy myself.
We got a really great spot close to the ring. I laughed a lot and found the wrestling crowd to be pretty funny with their chanting, most of which involved swearing so I won't repeat it here.. Let's just say the referee is something that rhymes with 'banker'.
David Draiman (lead singer of Disturbed) also showed up to watch some wrestling, which was pretty cool, I got to see the back of his head quite close, haha!

The first band we saw properly were Breaking Benjamin, who were one of the main reasons I wanted to go. I've pretty much had their new album on repeat since it came out.. They've never toured in the UK before so when I heard that they were coming to Download on the radio in the months leading up to the festival I did a stupid happy dance (thankfully alone at home so no one could see it).
I can honestly say they didn't disappoint one bit. They were probably in my mind one of the best bands I've ever seen live. Their sound was brilliant, the crowd and atmosphere felt like nothing else. I could see others singing along to this band I've loved for such a long time and felt butterflies in my stomach, I couldn't stop smiling and singing. Benjamin Burnley (the lead singer) kept saying how great it was to be there and you could hear a sincerity in his voice that told you he was having as much of a brilliant time as you were. 'Blow Me Away' was my stand out moment from the set.

We then ran over to the main stage to watch Disturbed. The other band I've been desperate to see for years. I was massively excited last year when they released their newest album Immortalized after a haitus and thought, that means there's a tour on the cards!

Since it was the main stage there were loads of people! I loved seeing 'Ten Thousand Fists' in the aiiirr! My favourite moment was seeing the lead singer from Breaking Benjamin coming to sing Killing in the Name with Disturbed, and everyone singing along because Rage always get a crowd going! I could hear Dave singing loudly next to me, and it made me smile a lot.

Other bands we caught were Jane's Addiction, a little bit of Nightwish and Iron Maiden. I really loved Iron Maiden's stage setup, the visuals were gorgeous, as was the sound, those guys can really rock.

Overall it was an epic first experience for me at Download and I'd definitely go back again if the lineup was right. Thanks for going with me Dave!

Hand Painted Pillows

I've been wanting to try fabric paints for a while, just to try a new medium and possibly reduce the strain that my fingers feel from sewing so much. I wasn't sure how the work would turn out. Below is my first attempt at painting an ice cream, which looks quite messy. I think I prefer the little 'errors' you get with hand painting though, it adds a bit of charm. But saying that I'd love to try screen printing in the future, just to neaten and speed things up a bit.

Here are my next attempts at hand painting fabric. I took a little more care with the paint and so they turned out a lot neater than the original. I also had more of an idea of the amount of paint I'd need to mix beforehand which helped to eliminate some of the differences in colour. I turned the first one into a pillow but found it was a little too small for my liking, so the three below are slightly larger.

The details took me a while to complete, the sprinkles and the eyes aren't all perfectly the same shape and size but I think they look great. They have a very different look and feel to them than my original fleece ice cream pillows. It's hard to say which I prefer, these feel a bit more 'sturdy' since cotton seems to hold it's shape slightly better than fleece, although they lose some of their softness.

I'll definitely try fabric painting again soon, and may consider expanding my range of pillows next year to include pillows like the ones above. It's so exciting trying a new medium and seeing the finished outcome isn't too bad at all!

Card Progress

I don't often look back at old work because I'm always so focused on moving forwards and creating new pieces. I recently reworked some old card designs to get printed and it's nice to see how things improve over time. My photography and editing has gotten a little better, the cards in the newer shots look less overexposed.

I've improved the colours, darkened and thickened the lines of the artwork and changed the text style.

Some designs haven't changed much, but little tweaks here and there are effective.


My favourite rework so far is the new Happy Birthday card which features bold rainbow text and a happy dancing cupcake. I think the composition worked out well, and all the cards look a lot cleaner. I'll definitely be looking into redoing more older designs in the future!

Happy Friday everyone!