There have been many YouTuber scandals going on recently, Logan Paul kicking off the New Year by glamorising suicide, Oli White (and others) continuously exploiting their teenage fans with rubbish and overpriced merch, and most recently, Alfie Deyes waving his privilege right in front of our noses as he attempts to only spend £1 on food and drink in a day.

Let's address this video of yours first, Alfie, shall we, before we get into the real meanings of this blog post? You may have uploaded the video as a 'harmless joke' and 'unintended to cause offence' but here's the thing, Alf - just because you didn't mean to offend anyone doesn't mean it's not offensive. The video was made in poor taste and to wave off living on £1 in a day as a 'joke' makes light of poverty and homelessness and the fact that some people in our country do actually face that struggle every day and they definitely don't live in a £1.7 million mansion in Brighton. Saying it's going to be 'difficult' because you live in a rich area? Going to town and buying the most pointless items just because you can? Do you need another way to point out just how wealthy you are for basically having what's a pretty easy career compared to some of the jobs people do? Basically, Alfie, no, you don't. I'm not in any way saying that the video was intended to be distasteful, I just think Alfie is extremely naive and immature for thinking a video like that was appropriate. Although not as bad as what Logan Paul did, it's the same sort of thing - no one points out to these people that what they're doing could be construed as offensive and wrong.

A Tanner For Tanning Virgins

Can't say I'm not creative with my post titles can ya.

As the title suggests, there's a gal behind this screen who has never touched fake tan in the nearly nineteen years she's been alive. In all honesty, I've always disliked my pale skin a little but have been way too scared of tanning to go anywhere near it. There always just seemed so many types, too many rigorous steps to follow and it just didn't seem worth it to me. But, your gal's also off to Mallorca and to be honest, the Caspar-the-friendly-ghost-blinding-everyone-in-the-sun look just wasn't working for me anymore. So I hesitantly went to my little sister's bathroom cupboard, attempted to use her Bondi Sands express one before deciding it was too complicated for me, and picked up the Dove DermaSpa Summer Revived gradual tanner instead. There wasn't much left in the tube she had, just enough to do my legs, so decided to test it out...and boy. All I'm going to say is that I now know why girls who fake tan never look back - the confidence I got just from doing my legs was just insane and I immediately ordered some more on Amazon Prime to do the rest of my body.

It's official, I've stepped into the world of fake tanning and I'm never going back. And, at £5.50 for 200ml, the Dove DermaSpa is insane. I apply it straight from the shower after exfoliating and the best thing is you can apply it as a moisturiser, so just with your hands, and it doesn't go streaky!! It's gone slightly patchy around my knees, elbows, shoulders and ankles I have to say, but I'm kind of thinking that's my extremely amateur and inexperienced application more than anything else!! I didn't use it on my face, although I'm sure you could because it's actually a really good moisturiser too, since my skin has been really smooth since using it!! It also doesn't have such a gross smell, it does linger a little but it's quite nicely scented. It develops over about three hours, I've found, so would also be great for a quick tan fix. The slight downside is that it leaves a slightly sticky feel to your skin like quite a lot of body lotions do which is a bit annoying but not something that bothers me too much.

Overall, all I can say is that I'm thoroughly enjoying being a slightly darker gal for once, it seems to make everything look better on me and gives me some actual muscle definition as well, so what can I say other than I'm impressed?? A tube of fake tan and confidence all in one and therefore a winner in my eyes.

Have any of you tried this tanner? If so, how did you find it? 

Em xx

Why We Need To Drop The Phrase 'Basic Bitch'

So here's the craic.

I recently saw a makeup artist I follow on Instagram post on her story today 'you know you can do other things with makeup other than a cut crease' closely followed by 'watch me do a basic bitch cut crease tomorrow' and it got me thinking about the phrase 'basic bitch' and what it means and why we should just cut the phrase and stop using it. 

When someone says the phrase 'basic bitch' or 'basic', what are the first things that spring to mind? Usually Starbucks, avocado, Instagram, high street brands, glitter and Pinterest. Ring any bells? Thought so, because most women have some of these things in common.

The term 'basic' was used at first to describe women who liked all these things, and then gradually the word 'bitch' was added onto it by those who felt that these women were somehow inferior for liking bottomless avocado brunch. If the phrase wasn't already unnecessarily derogatory, it certainly is now. Being labelled a 'basic bitch' somehow holds connotations that you're therefore less interesting or less worthy because of the things you like. It's a phrase that suggests you have no further depth of cultural knowledge and therefore aren't worth getting to know beyond your appearance and your tastes. Men slap a 'basic bitch' label on you and won't bother getting to know you for who you are because they 'hate basic bitches' and don't stop to think for on second that a group of 'basic bitches' are still a group of individual women who all have their own personalities and identities that set them apart from each other - and this is only done because they all like pumpkin spice lattes. 

What I'm interested to know is where we got this idea from that people who like mainstream things are somehow less special or less interesting? I have a Spotify playlist filled with typically 'indie' music (Stone Roses, Oasis, Courteeners, The Smiths, etc) and still have to excuse the fact I have two Ed Sheeran songs on it. I get told that I'm 'basic' because I like Ed Sheeran's music. But, I hate to say it, the subcultures of 'basic' go deeper than just a 'basic bitch'. I also get slapped with the label 'basic' by the indie subculture because I like 'mainstream indie' and therefore I'm not 'properly indie'. I'm a 'listens to the Smiths once' girl. Yeah, I know, the quote marks are getting ridiculous now.

There must have been a point where we decided that we can roll our eyes at some people because they were a certain style of clothing or listen to a certain type of music, or for just doing things the same as a large majority of other people. And moreover, when did we decide that these people just living their lives in the way they want to affect ours in any way? 

But it also has a deeper, more twisted side to it. 'Basic bitch' is a term exclusively used for females. There is no male equivalent, unless you count 'bro' or 'lad'. But more often than not, 'lads' are still seen to be deeper than their interests. We say 'oh, he wears tanks and goes to Crossfit but there's so much more to him' and a 'basic bitch' doesn't get the privilege of someone bothering to find out what's underneath the G&T in a mason jar. Moreover, the word 'lad' has never been a derogatory term for a male, by any stretch of the imagination - so why do we think it's okay to walk around proclaiming people as 'basic bitches'? Of course, there are the people who accept the label and wear it proudly and by all means, reclaiming the term is something we definitely need to start doing as we have done with the word 'slut' - but at this point, men and other women need to cut using it as a derogatory phrase filled with snobbery and hatred for the mainstream. 

I think society is so eager to put us all into categories and subcultures, and the mistake we're making is letting it. We're forced to try and fit in with some label based on what we wear or what music we listen to, and okay, to some extent, people will naturally gravitate towards others like them, that's just a  thing that happens. But next time you're going to call someone a 'basic bitch' just think about the fact that that term reduces that person to their appearance and their interests, and someone who's not worth getting to know because they like mainstream things. We're all individuals, with individual tastes, styles, thoughts, dreams and creativity - so let's stop jumping for separatist terms the minute a girl with perfectly shaped eyebrows posts a picture on Instagram of a Starbucks pumpkin spice latte.

What are your thoughts on the phrase 'basic bitch'?

Em xx

Who Should And Shouldn't Be Included In Pride? | A Quick Guide 🌈

Hello helo hello and welcome to a fun social awareness blog post!! I wanna just put a quick disclaimer out right now that this post is chock full of my own opinions - don't take anything I say as gospel or fact because it's most likely not, and I'm only gonna encourage healthy discussion on this topic rather than hate and backlash!! Aight, back to rainbows and happiness.

makeup deets are over on my instagram!!!

There's been many a tweet floating around on the internet about 'who Pride is for' this year. As far as I know we've never really had this narrative going on around Pride Month before, or if we did I've not really seen it, but this year it seems to be even more prevalent. And the one thing that seems to be incredibly prevalent is asexuals, aromantic and agender people being excluded from Pride on the grounds that they can still be cishet (cisgender/heteronormative) and therefore are excluded from Pride and celebrating Pride Month.

Here's a bit of education for ya. Asexual (ace) = people who are not sexually attracted to other people, aromantic (aro) = people who are not romantically attracted to other people and agender = people who don't identify with either male or female. The updated LGBT acronym is now LGBTQ+A, meaning Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer and Ace/Aro/Agender. As far as I know, the term 'queer' (having studied this in depth in my first year of uni) includes anything outside social norms, therefore becoming an umbrella term for all types of sexualities that aren't exclusively cishet. There are a lot of terms to get your head around, trust me!! Now, the tricky thing is, these terms, especially queer, have many different meanings and people attach different things to them, but that's what I understand those terms to mean and that's how I explain them to other people.

In my opinion, the purpose of Gay Pride has changed a lot in the last ten or so years. It's a movement designed to end discrimination and violence against LGBTQ+A, as well as to promote our self affirmation, equal rights and increase our visibility as a community. While Pride is still for all those things, it's also now to celebrate our differences and the differences in the ways in which we love, and to break the stigma down surrounding our sexual diversity.

Because of this, I really disagree with the narrative that 'aces aren't included in Pride'. I'm gonna throw back to the days when bisexual people weren't just discriminated against outside the LG community but also inside it. I remember gay people online saying to me 'you're just a lesbian and can't admit it' and 'you're not really gay, you're just pretending to be bi because it's different' and this narrative is even still going on someplaces, with people saying 'you're only bi because it's fashionable'. I remember the exclusion I faced and I remember feeling unwanted in a community that was to celebrate sexual diversity. Bisexuality, like any sexuality, is a tough thing to understand if you don't identify with it, but that doesn't mean it isn't valid. Bisexual people have faced abuse at previous Pride marches due to being in a m/f (male/female, aka hetero) relationship. In my eyes, this just isn't fair. Bisexuality is real, it's valid and no one should be made to feel like it's not.

This is exactly the same with asexual/aromantic. 

Ace/aro is still a 'queer' sexuality. They are included in the acronym. They are confused about their identity and who on earth are we to say that Pride is not for them because they appear to be cishet? I know what exclusion from this community can feel like and while I can't completely understand ace/aro, I know people who are ace and therefore have secondhand experience of what it's like to be excluded from something that should be for everyone. Ace/aro people have their identities erased all over the place - the fact I had to put a note in the beginning of this post explaining what these terms and identities mean shows this - and we don't need this same sort of erasure in LGBT spaces either. The acronym used to be LGT before bisexuality got included, so why are we still not accepting Q+A at the end?

In my opinion, the only people Pride is not for, are people who are going to hurl abuse at the celebrators for whatever reasons - homophobia, biphobia, transphobia or for just being cishet. It's my opinion that straight allies (straight people who support Pride) shouldn't be excluded from Pride either. While Pride is not exclusively for them, why should we stop anyone celebrating love? Pride is not for gatekeeping.

Surely, Pride is to celebrate love for just being love, and it doesn't matter HOW you love.

I know that there are some seriously differing opinions on this topic and it's very sensitive indeed, but this narrative that Pride is only for a certain approved list of identities and sexualities has really only cropped up very recently, and I think it's plain wrong and it actually draws just more boundaries than we need - it's entirely counter-productive and defeats the point of Pride. Our queer community is one of the most inclusive out there, so why are we excluding people that are in the same boat as bisexual people once were? It can feel confusing enough to not know how to identify yourself, or not know where you fit in, but being told that you don't belong at a festival of love - it's just awful that we're still supporting this idea in 2018. 

There are no rules over who gets to celebrate all the diverse, beautiful, messy ways in which we love.

What do you think about ace/aro people and their 'place' at Pride?

Em xx

Current Skincare Routine

Hi everyone!! I thought for today's post I'd change it up a little bit and go back to my beauty post roots and do a skincare routine!

I'm a lucky girl in the sense that I've never had particularly problem skin, in that it's always been pretty clear and I've managed to stay away from hormone spots and just spots and acne in general. But, I've suffered with dry and sensitive skin for quite a few years, not to the eczema extent but especially in winter it can get very patchy and peely and just a little gross in general. Because of my skin tone as well, I get a lot of blotchiness and redness around my nose and cheeks, again more pronounced in extreme weather conditions.

I don't tend to change my skincare up too much, since I stick to products my skin likes and if I change it too much it gets kind of angry at me, hence why I've never done one of these posts, but I thought it'd be quite fun to guide you through mine and tell you the products I've found to work the best for my skin type and sensitivity.

Water!!

The first "product" we'll start out with, however basic, is water. I try and drink two litres every day and it does wonders for my dryness, and as well as that, instead of cleansing every day I just splash some on my face morning and evening and we're golden.

Garnier Oil Infused Micellar Water

This is one of those genius new makeup removers that has a layer of oil on top and you simply shake the two components together before soaking a cotton pad and gently taking off your makeup. I use this firstly so that my eyelids (one of THE dryest parts of my face) get a little bit of an oil boost, and also because it just dissolves makeup so well. I'm rough enough taking my makeup off as it is, as I tend to do it as quickly as possible because it's simply a job I don't like doing! But I do always do it and this makeup remover makes it a much gentler job for me and much less effort. It's also pretty cheap too!

Palmer's Cocoa Butter Cleansing Oil

When I do cleanse my face, this is what I use. I do this two or three times a week just to get some more moisture into my skin, and this product is definitely the best oil cleanser I've tried. I did try the L'Oreal one too, and while I like it, it leaves a sticky residue that I don't feel I get with the Palmer's one. This one also smells amazing and is cheaper than the L'Oreal one which is always nice, and makes a really lovely foamy lather on your face too. It also does a really great job at removing any residue makeup that the makeup remover doesn't quite grab.

L'Oreal Hydra Genius Moisturiser for Dry & Sensitive Skin

I've been meaning to do a review for this moisturiser for the longest time because I just love it! Before you come at me, I am of course aware that L'Oreal is not a cruelty free makeup brand, and while there isn't really an excuse, I am just going to say I bought this when it was a third off the price in Boots, and because I'm a student I do tend to go for the cheapest products I can get rather than putting anything else as high priority - please don't think this makes me a bad person! I know there are other moisturisers that do the same sort of thing as this for the same normal price but considering it was reduced I did just go for it as it was the cheapest. That aside, this product genuinely is fantastic and it's honestly worked wonders for my skin this winter. My dryness is seriously reduced, plus it did the most fantastic job at minimising my sunburn peeling after I stupidly didn't wear suncream on a skiing holiday! Definitely will not be going back to normal cream moisturisers after using this, I am completely sold on the liquid gel formula ones now.

The Ordinary Lactic Acid 5% + HA 2%

This is one of those products that I never would have put in a skincare routine as I've always been one to keep it as simple as possible, with a moisturiser, makeup remover and a cleanser. I don't tend to faff around with eye creams and toners and whatever but when I was looking through The Ordinary on BeautyBay, this caught my eye as I've heard lactic acid in small concentrations is really good for evening skin tone and getting rid of dryness so thought I'd give this a go and so far so good! I'm definitely noticing a difference in my skin tone and my dry patches have definitely been reduced too!

What do your skincare routines look like?

Em xx