This or That Tag

Lately I've seen many bloggers doing the 'This or That' Tag and although I wasn't tagged by anyone, I thought I would join in and do it myself! Basically there are 5 categories consisting of some quick fire questions that I'm going to answer.

MAKE UP

Blush or Bronzer?

Blush

Lipgloss or Lipstick?

Lipgloss

Eyeliner or Mascara?

Mascara

Foundation or Concealer?

Concealer

Neutral or Coloured eye shadow?

Neutral 

Pressed or Loose eye shadow?

Pressed

Brushes or Sponges?

Brushes

NAILS

Barry M or OPI?

Barry M

Long or Short?

Short

Acrylic or natural?

Natural

Brights or Dark?

Brights

Flower or no flower?

No flower 

BODY

Perfume or Body Spray?

Perfume

Lotion or Body Butter?

Body Butter

Bath Wash or Soap?

Bath wash? What's bath wash? 

Soap

Lush or BOMBCosmetics?

LUSH

FASHION

Jeans or Leggings?

Jeans

Dresses or Skirts?

Skirts... Dresses... I like both!

Dresses

Long sleeves or Short sleeves?

Long

Stripes or Plaid?

Plaid

Flip flops or Sandals?

Sandals

Hats or Scarves?

Scarves

Studs or dangly earrings?

Studs

Heels or Flats?

Flats

Necklaces or Bracelets?

Bracelets

Jackets or Hoodies?

Jackets

Abercrombie or Hollister?

I don't own anything from Abercrombie and I only own my Hollister spray... 

Hollister

HAIR

Curly or Straight?

Curly

Bun or Ponytail?

Ponytail

Bobby Pins or Butterfly Clips?

Bobby pins

Hairspray or Hair gel?

Hairspray

Long or Short?

Long

Light or Dark?

Dark

Up or Down?

Down

RANDOM 

Rain or Shine?

Shine

Summer or Winner?

Summer

Autumn or Spring?

Spring

Chocolate or Vanilla?

Chocolate 

That's the tag done - I tag all of you reading this to do it too! Remember to follow me on Instagram @xdaisiechain and follow me on bloglovin'. Thankyou for reading, a new blogpost will be up soon!

Rachel x

Washing my makeup brushes

Back in January of this year, I finally purchased some Real Techniques make up brushes. I started using them around mid-February (so not too long ago) but it occurred to me last week or so that they were getting pretty dirty and were in desperate need of a wash.

I was aware you could buy various 'brush cleaners' but I wasn't sure what they actually were and therefore unsure about what I would be paying for. So after a bit of research (aka looking through blogposts) I came across various posts that mentioned washing makeup brushes using Johnson's Baby Shampoo. I decided to try it out and wash my own makeup brushes and in this post I'm going to explain how I did it; for any novices out there - just like I was!

All pictures used in this post are my own.

I squeezed a little bit of the shampoo onto my palm, took one of my brushes and began to move the brush in a circular motion on my palm (or instead use the motion you would if you were using the brush on your face).

Then rinse the bristles under the tap, (being careful not to wet the handle) and swipe the brush backwards and forwards on your palm, rinsing your palm under the tap every 30 seconds or so to get rid of the makeup that has been washed off the brush.

The brush should be starting to return to its normal colour; repeat the steps until it has.

Next, dab the brush onto a cloth or paper towel until it leaves no colour behind on the cloth.

Now simply leave the brushes to dry and they should look as good as new!

I was pleasantly surprised when washing my Real Techniques; they still feel super soft and no bristles came out.

I hope you enjoyed this post, if you want to see more 'tutorial' type things then let me know! Remember to follow me on Instagram @xdaisiechain and follow me on bloglovin'. Thankyou for reading, a new blogpost will be up soon!

Rachel x

Summary Sunday #1

Hi everyone, today's post is a little different than my usual ones! I've seen several bloggers doing this now and I thought it looked like a fun thing to do!

Basically this post will just be me sharing 6 photos with you from throughout my week. I'm not sure yet if this will be a weekly post yet, as I want to vary my blog content a little more so it may pop up every two weeks instead.

1. My cousins birthday cake from last Monday - it was a chocolate cake topped with Rolo's, Munchies and Smarties...yum!

2. My outfit for 'dress down day' (own clothes day) to help raise money for Sport Relief.

3. A gorgous daffodil from my grandma's garden - spring has finally sprung!

4. PIZZA from my trip to Pizza Hut yesterday.

5. I've had lots of cuddles from Simba this week as I've been feeling a bit poorly and had a really sore throat :(

6. A picture of my dirty Real Techniques makeup brushes that I washed for the first time this week (blog post on that coming soon!).

I hope you enjoyed that little insight to my life this week, let me know if you'd like to see more of these in the future!

Remember to follow me on Instagram @xdaisiechain and follow me on bloglovin'. Thankyou for reading, a new blogpost will be up soon!

Rachel x

'I ♡ Spring' Tag

Since it is the first day of spring today, I'm going to be doing the I Heart Spring Tag. Now that the weather seems to be warming up a little, spring definitely seems to be on it's way! 

(Please note: all images used in this post are my own.)

I've seen a couple of other bloggers doing this and I thought it was a fun and unusual tag to do so I thought I'd give it a go! 


1. Favourite spring nail polish?
Personally I like trying out new brands of nail polishes so I don't have a particular favourite, but during spring I love wearing bright and pastel colours.

2. What is your must-have lip colour this spring?
The on trend colour this season seems to be orange, but it tends not to suit my skin tone so I like to stick to pale pinks.

3. Show us your favourite spring dress!
No matter how many pictures I take of this dress, they never do it justice. I bought it in springtime last year and continued to wear it throughout summer as well. 

I adore the detail on it - it's so pretty! The dress also has gorgeous back detail and it is 'skater dress' style.

4. What's your favourite flower?
During springtime I love seeing daffodils popping up all over the place and to me they mean that spring is finally here and I also like seeing daisies in my garden over spring time. 

5. Favourite spring accessory?
I love wearing dainty bracelets and scarves; they're my favourite accessories any time of the year - not just spring!

6. What sprind trend(s) are you most excited about this year? (Make up, fashion or both!)
This spring I'm looking forward to wearing tops and dresses with collars on; I think they're so cute and perfect for spring time. Makeup wise I'm looking forward to hopefully purchasing the 'wake me up' Rimmel foundation because lots of other bloggers have said it will be ideal for spring and summer. I'm also excited to hopefully purchase the Maybelline Colour Tattoos in the shades 'Pink Gold' and 'On and On Bronze' because I think they will be the prettiest eye colours for spring.

7. Favourite spring candle?
I'm not really a candle lover but if I was I would probably love fresh floral scents during springtime.

8. Favourite body spray/perfume for spring?
I don't have a particular fragrance that I wear at this time of year but at the moment I'm loving the Cresent Bay Hollister Spray and Gold perfume from Next, both of which I will probably continue to wear throughout this season.

9. What is spring like where you live?
Currently it's very early spring so it's quite cloudy most of the time but over the past few days it's been quite warm and sunny. 

10. What's your favourite thing about spring?
My favourite things about springtime are: seeing a vast improvement to the weather, seeing lovely flowers appearing everywhere, longer days, being able to wear pretty lightweight clothes instead of having to cover my outfit with a heavy coat as well as loving the idea of lots of baby animals being born this time of year.

11. Are you a spring cleaner?
I'd like to think I am, but I'm really not. I'm not any type of cleaner - I'd love to be able to keep my room tidy and organised but I never seem to be able to. This spring I might encourage myself a bit more to do a spring clean because I'm in desperate need of a clear out!

12. Any plans for spring break or an upcoming holiday?
In around 2 weeks time I'm visiting London for the first time which I'm SO excited about! 

I hope you enjoyed this post; why not let me know what you love about spring? Remember to follow me on bloglovin' and thankyou for reading, a new blogpost will be up soon!
Rachel x

Mini Lush Haul

A few weeks ago I took a trip to Lush; in fact it was my second ever time of going there! Despite having a list as long as my arm of things I wanted to purchase, I only bought three things, which I'm going to share with you in this "mini haul".

(Please note: the reason behind this post is to give my opinions on these particular products and perhaps give ideas of possible future Lush purchases to all of you.) 

All pictures used in this post are my own.

The first thing I couldn't wait to get my hands on was the Sex Bomb Bath Ballistic. I think this is by far one of the prettiest products sold at Lush, which was what drew me to it in the first place. However, I wasn't too keen on the smell of Sex Bomb; to me it is the characteristic Lush scent (the smell of the shop when you walk in) but slightly more overpowering. The bomb turned my bath a lovely pale pink colour, but since it's a bath bomb, I only managed to get one bath out of it - this was a shame. Although I wasn't overly taken with it's scent, I would love to use this again and at only £3.25 I don't see why not!

The second bath bomb I bought was Ickle Baby Bot. Initially I didn't plan to buy this product, but it's overall cuteness must have persuaded me! This lavender scented bomb is only £1.95: it's one of the cheapest products from Lush. I haven't actually used this yet, so I can only imagine the explosion of gorgeous colours and smells it releases when it fizzes in my bath.

Creamy Candy Bubble Bar was my third and final purchase and is actually the only Lush product I have re-purchased. What drew me to this in the first place was how cute it looked. It is a  pretty pale pink coloured bar, with a little coloured flower on top for decoration. It smells like the name would suggest: candy/bubblegum. Personally, I think it is one of the most delicious smelling products at Lush. It is only £2.50 and because it has a creamy texture, it easily breaks and therefore you can get several uses out of it. When I crumbled half a bar under running water, mounds of bubbles quickly appeared and I was in bubble bath heaven! The smell lingered on me, long after my bath which I thought was great since the smell was delicious! I will continue to buy this bubble bar long into the future as it's my favourite Lush product at the moment.

I hope this mini haul was helpful, if you want to know any more about these products then please don't hesitate to ask in the comments or on my Instagram page (@xdaisiechain). If you'd like to see a more in depth review of any of these or if you want to see more hauls then simply let me know. 

I hope you enjoyed this post; I'd love to know what your favourite Lush product is. Remember to follow me on bloglovin' and thankyou for reading, a new blogpost will be up soon!
Rachel x

Fairy Cakes in 7 Simple Steps

A few days ago I came across a fairy cake recipe in a magazine that claimed the cakes only had 98 calories in them. So yesterday I tried out the recipe and tweaked a few of the steps so it then suited me and my methods of baking.

Recipe:

Makes 12

110g caster sugar

2 eggs, whisked

110g self-raising flour

1 tbsp vanilla extract

For the icing:

3 tbsp 'lighter' butter 

2 tbsp icing sugar

1. Preheat the oven to gas mark 5 (190℃) and line a fairy-cake tin with 12 paper cases.

2. Beat the caster sugar, eggs, flour and vanilla extract together and then divide the batter equally into the paper cases.

3. Bake for 18-20 minutes until they spring back up when touched.

4. Remove the cakes from the tin and leave to cool.

5. Mix together the butter and icing sugar until smooth. Add more icing sugar if nessaccary.

6. Pipe onto the cakes when cooled and decorate them how you want to.

7. Enjoy!  

When I baked these cakes, they had less colour than a normal fairy cake would. The cakes include no fat hence why there was less colour (and why the calorie count is so low). Also the texture was different; they were less spongy but the top was slightly more crunchy and they tasted more sugary - they were delicious (even if I do say so myself!).

If you are looking for new things to try out or are trying to cut down on fattening foods; I recommend this recipe. Although you can tell by taste, colour and texture that they include no butter or source of fat, I really liked these fairy cakes and I think this recipe is a fantastic alternative as they are still really sweet and really tasty.

As you can see from my decoration the calorie count probably went up a lot on these cakes from what the magazine stated! The original recipe said to use 3tbsp of cream cheese for the icing, so if you want to keep the calorie count low then I would suggest using that as opposed to butter or glacé icing. 

Instead of using chocolate and sprinkles to decorate like I did (yum!), perhaps try topping the cakes with fresh fruit. 

I hope this post inspired you to try out some new recipes of your own; if you want any more details about what I did please don't hesitate to leave a comment below or on my Instagram page which is linked above. 

If you'd like to see more recipes then let me know and remember to follow me on bloglovin'. Thankyou for reading - a new post will be up soon!

Rachel x

Baby Lips Review

Today I will be reviewing a product that I think is quite controversial in the beauty world; many people love them while others loathe them. Yes that's right: it's the notorious Maybelline Baby Lips.

From around last summer onwards, there was a huge craze over the plain and tinted moisturising lip balms that had fun names and bright colourful packaging. I'm not going to deny it; I was obsessed too. For weeks I couldn't wait to get my hands on one of these 'Baby Lips' - the latest lip product that filled my Instagram feed. 

The first one I bought was Pink Punch (£2.99 from Superdrug), which was pink and had a yellow lid and is also one of the three tinted lip balms from the Maybelline range. As soon as I used it I loved it; it left a nice bubblegum pink sheen on my lips which could be built up to a stronger shade of pink. I wore this every day for school for around 2-3 weeks and soon I was eager to try some more.

Next I decided to purchase Hydrate and Peach Kiss: the blue one with pink lid and purple with the peach lid. I quickly began to love these too. Hydrate was one of the plain baby lips meaning it left no colour however I found this one the most moisturising of the three I have. Peach Kiss left a lovely, slightly sparkly, peach glaze. Of the three this smelt the most delicious. Even now, I couldn't pick my favourite because I think they're all great when I'm looking for something light on my lips.

6 months after the Baby Lips craze, I'm finally realising these products aren't as "too good to be true" as they seem. Although I quite like Baby Lips, there are a few flaws;

• Rather than sinking into my lips like a good lip balm should, they usually just stay on top and can during cold weather, they can make my lips feel quite dry. 

• There are only 6 flavours currently available in the UK, and other ranges/flavours are quite hard to get hold of.

• I have to reapply this product several times throughout the day (however I think the price compensates for this).

Aside from those three negative points, there are many things I do like about them;

• In drugstores (Superdrug/Boots) they tend to cost around £2.99 and are often on offer for '3 for 2' so they are well within my (and probably many other people's) price range. 

• The ones I have all have a really nice smell.

• They all leave a satisfactory tint which can be built up to leave a stronger colour.

• The packaging is fun, cute and colourful - which is what drew me to them in the first place.

• They are pocket size and therefore ideal for school.

• I love the idea of 'lid swapping'; which I have seen many people do on Instagram.

• You get a lot of product in these little balms, a lot more than my Revlon lip butter has (and Baby Lips were a quarter of the price). 

Overall I really like Baby Lips. They are one of the cheapest lip products available but I think people are expecting too much of them. Personally I think they're good value for money. They do have their flaws but they are quite cheap so that is to be expected. 

I hope you enjoyed this review and if you would like to see some more then please let me know. There is a page above which leads to my Instagram (click the drop down arrow which appears next to 'Home' and select 'Instagram') where you can leave me a comment if you prefer. 

Also, let me know what you think of Baby Lips or which lip products you like. I'd love it if you followed me on blog lovin'. Thanks for reading - a new blogpost will be up soon!

Rachel x

25 Facts About Me

Image from We Heart It

Hello everyone! Since it's my second blog post, I thought I should do a get to know me/personal type of tag because that way you get to learn a little bit about me and I really enjoy reading personal posts from other bloggers. So here are 25 facts about me!

1. I'm 14 and currently preparing to sit my GCSE's next year.

2. I am an extremely fussy eater - I eat quite a lot but I tend to stick to the things I know I like. Eating out worries me a little bit sometimes in case there's nothing I'm going to like!

3. 3 is my lucky number.

4. Harry Potter is my all time favourite series of books and films.

5. My favourite Lush product is the Creamy Candy bubble bar - it smells gorgeous!

6. Lately I've been really enjoying baking and trying out new recipes. 

7. I have such a baby face and look a lot younger than my actual age (which probably going to be a good thing when I'm older but now it's not so great when all of my friends look a lot older than me).

8. I don't own any high end make up products. *sobs*

9. I usually get grumpy when I'm tired, hungry or when I'm brushing my hair (weird but true).

10. When I was younger I wanted to be an author.

11. As much as I want to like it, I just can't eat ice cream - it hurts my teeth.

12. I'm a really quiet/shy person.

13. My blog inspiration came from Sprinkleofglitter, Zoella and Tanya Burr

(who are also my favourite youtubers!).

14. I'm very superstitious.

15. My favourite colour changes practically every day depending on what mood I'm in. 

16. I'm really short (another thing that contributes to the fact I look younger than I am). 

17. I'm scared of the dark.

18. I'm also scared of lifts; glass ones aren't so bad because you can see out of them but I get really claustrophobic in normal ones so I refuse to go in them: I'd rather take the stairs than get stuck. 

19. I was a born worrier - I worry about literally everything (including getting stuck in lifts).

20. I hate it when people are late.

21. Summer is my favourite time of year (apart from Christmas, obviously).

22. My family mean the world to me.

23. I played the guitar from being 8 to 11 years old; I loved it but haven't played since.

24. I don't like tea or coffee but I like hot chocolate - I can never quite seem to finish one though!

25. In my opinion, FRIENDS is one of the best tv shows is of all time.

So there's 25 facts about me. I hope you enjoyed this blogpost and I'd love if you left a comment telling me some facts about you too. Don't forget to follow me on bloglovin' and thanks for reading - a new blogpost will be up soon!

Rachel x

A New Start

Image from We Heart It

After several weeks of reluctant blog writing and thinking "should I, shouldn't I?"; I have finally decided to start my blog afresh. Yet again I have changed my blog user and it's layout, but now I am so much happier with it and hopefully I can concentrate on my blog content more.

When I first started my blog, I wasn't completely sure of what kind of posts I wanted to write or what I wanted my blog to be. After 3 months I've decided to change it completely because I just wasn't happy with it. I didn't see much point in trying to persevere with it if I didn't like the way it was going, so I thought it was best to start anew. 

I'm going to try and post more often and now that I'm happier with it I think that should be easy. Hopefully you will all still enjoy my blog because I really enjoy writing it. Also I'm going to start taking pictures for my blog (which should be fun!) to make it look more appealing. I can't wait to start writing new posts; I have so many ideas floating around in my head at the moment! 

I'd love it if you followed me on blog lovin' (for those of you wondering, it's an easy way to find out when a new post is up - it's a little bit like Instagram but for blogs instead). Thanks for reading - a new blogpost will be up soon!

Rachel x