Apps I've been loving

Hey, thought I would update the blog! This post is going to be about some apps I've been liking recently, they're all kinda health apps but I thought it might be interesting to some. 

The first app I've been enjoying using is 'MyFitnessPal' which for those of you who don't know what it is, it's a calorie counter, food diary type of thing. I think I'm quite slow on getting this app because loads of people I know have mentioned or used this before, but I think it's really good to use because you get an estimate of how many calories and carbs you're having in a day and it just makes you mindful of what you're eating because you'll be putting the information into the app later, after that meal. You put your meals into the app either by searching for the food or scanning the barcode of a food product. I find that the app has most foods on there, I haven't had an issue with finding anything I've eaten as of yet. 

The app gives you a breakdown of what nutrients you have and a percentage of the overall carbs, fats and proteins you're having in a day- or you can also look at the week overview. I think this is quite handy and just interesting to know. 

The second app I've been using is 'Nike Training'. It gives you a fitness plan for the month, broken down into weeks. On certain days it will give you workouts with different exercises to do and recovery days in between (however, the plan isn't rigid, you're able to rearrange days you'd prefer to exercise to fit around your daily routine/lifestyle). After completing a workout, the app asks you how hard you felt you worked, (you slide the marker along a scale) and it also asks you where you worked out, for example, at home or at the gym. It logs all this information so that the more you workout, the more personalised your plans become as it is able to see what exercises you find more strenuous. 

The thing I most like about this app is that you are able to choose workout plans without equipment, meaning that you don't need weights etc, you're able to do these workouts at home. Although, there is an option for routines with equipment as well!

The best thing about both of these apps is that they're free! Although with the MyFitnessPal there is an option to buy the premium version which gives you more information about the nutrients your intaking etc., but I find the free version works well enough for me!

Hope this post was useful or interesting to some of you and let me know of any health apps that you like so that I can check them out!

Update

Hi, so I got a notification from my emails to do with this blog so I decided to have a look as I haven't been on here in a long while. It's so interesting reading what I thought and how I wrote from four years ago!

I seemed to be quite happy blogging so think I will give it a go again. I'm not sure what I'll write about but I suppose we shall see as I go along.

Thought I'd give a quick update for those who are reading.

I've changed the theme and colours of my blog and I personally think it looks pretty good!

Okay, update time.

When I was active on this blog, I was a high school student studying for my GCSEs. I am now currently a first-year student at uni and I am pretty proud of myself for getting here, not going to lie. It's taken me a while to get here, I've already been to uni once (admittedly very briefly, I was only there for 3 weeks lmao) but I found the course wasn't right so unfortunately dropped out and was unsure with what to do. Now, I'm back at a different uni again, doing a different course and I am proud to say that I've just submitted my last deadline and officially finished my first year at uni! I know this might not seem that big of an achievement because pretty much everyone goes to uni but ah well, I'm proud that I've finished this year (hopefully have passed this year, I don't know yet until I get my grades back)!

I'm not really sure what I'm going to be doing with this blog, but I think it's kinda cool to have an online personal blog.

It's crazy to see how much you've changed from old things you've written. Four years really isn't that long in the long run but I do feel like so much has changed since high school. One example is I feel so much more confident than I did in high school. I think I'm still shy but nowhere near as shy when I was younger. And I've actually managed to visit some of the places I've always wanted to see in the last three years. I may blog about it, I'm not sure.

Anyways, I think I'll stop typing for now, I didn't realise the time but it is 6am right now. My sleeping pattern has become so messed up recently and it sucks, I'm really struggling to wake up before 12.

Hopefully will be posting soon and hope people will stick around for some more blog posts.


Bye!

Image reference: https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/241575967486492946/

Review on Quinoderm10 (skincare/spots)

Hello! It's been a long while since I last blogged, and I apologise to anyone who has noticed. It's just I haven't really been in the mood to just start typing and blog. I don't want to sound like I am complaining, but I really want to enjoy blogging and so I don't really want to make it like a chore. I'm also in my last year at school at the moment, and the exam season is in less than a month away. -I'm kinda stressing out, like everyone is, haha. So yeah, good luck to anyone who is taking their exams soon!

Ok, so I am going to be reviewing this product in this post.

I have been personally using Quinoderm10, for just over a month. And I have to say I am really impressed with it! It's cleared up my spots amazingly, and even when it's the time of the month, I don't even break out that bad. I don't know if that's because of other factors or what, but I am just going to assume it's because of the cream.

It comes in a teensy tube, but as they say, a little goes a long way. This tube has lasted me over a month! It's a white cream, and you are supposed to rub a small amount into the affected area until you can no longer see the cream. I wouldn't recommend putting it on in the morning, because I feel if you are going out that day and wearing make up, then there is no point. So I only usually apply the cream at night, before bed, after I've washed my face or whatever.

On the packaging it says to test a small amount of the cream behind your ear and leave it for 12 hours (or something like that?) This is to see if your skin has a reaction to it. If it does, definitely don't use it! (Obviously, haha) But yeah, in all seriousness I wouldn't recommend it if you have sensitive or dry skin. This is because the cream dries out the skin (and makes the spot smaller and eventually disappear). I have combination to oily skin, so yeah, it seems ok for me. But we're all different, so definitely just try it out first. Before I tried the cream, I read up a lot of reviews, there were a lot of negative ones and some positive ones, so I was really unsure. But I think it really just depends on your skin. However, it seemed to really work for me, so I would recommend this cream!

I believe you can get it from Boots, but I'm sure you can get it anywhere? I think it ranges from £2.50 to £5, but definitely check that up, because I'm not sure.

Hope this was useful to any of you, especially if you're just looking to try something new?

I'M ALIIIIIIVE!

Hey guys!

It's been a while, I think it's been like nearly 2 months since I last blogged, and so I am sorry to any of you who have noticed! But I can explain, (hopefully you care) I kinda lost motivation/had no inspiration to blog and then my computer got a virus afterwards and so yeah, that is why there is a massive gap between this and my last post! My computer still hasn't been fixed, I'm using an old computer (that my mum's friend lent to her) which is quite old and incredibly slow. But still I am thankful, aha! I was having to use my sister's tablet to get my daily dose of the internet, buut I think she got annoyed. Anyways!

So, although I'm kinda late, I just wanted to announce some "new year's resolutions" that I have! And, I hope you have all had a good 2014 so far, (I can't say 'happy new year' it is definitely too late) I've been keeping to my resolutions quite well personally, well, a couple of them at least, so I am happy!

Here we gooooo!

• Eat more fruit and veg -unfortunately, so far, I still haven't improved or even tried, I'd say..
• Drink more water-yep! I've stuck to this one quite well!
• Go to bed earlier!
• Exercise regularly-I'm quite proud of how I've stuck to this one so far. I hope to lose a bit of weight and tone up this year.
• Be more organised (this is with like, school work and revision. I'm basically trying to tell myself to prioritise.)
• Blog more often-I'm not going to give my self a particular pattern/schedule to how often and when I blog, but I hope to be able to at least post once a week. I just don't want to make blogging seem like a chore to myself, if I'm too strict with it. I definitely want to keep enjoying this!

I have a lot of catching up to do on reading blogs, and now that I have a computer, I hope to do just that! It's quite late this evening, so I'mma say bye! I'm sorry this post was quite boring, but I just kinda wanted to let you know I'm still here and plan to blog! I have lots of ideas for future blog posts and hope you all stick around! But I hope you all have a lovely rest of the week now! Byeee! Oh, annd side notee! I reached over 100 followers (altogether) on my blog! Thank you to everyone who's followed me and to the people who comment, it makes me feel happy to know that there are some people reading this! As silly as that sounds! Thank you all so much! Honestly, it means a lot! :) (Please enjoy this random picture of glitter I found on the internet-this is how I feel inside :D ) xoxo

OOTD

Hey guys!
So this is just a little post, but I really liked my outfit and wanted to share it with you! I think it's very wintery!

 So my attire consists of a little red dress (it has a sparkly red bow on it!) a ombre jumper, thick leggings, a red beanie and a looong white scarf! It's all verrry red! I also took a little red bag to stick the essentials in and although I don't think it goes, I wore a red coat cus' it was cold outside! For shoes I wore my combat style boots! Most of this stuff you will be able to see in my older haul post!

For make up (I was quite spotty) so I went all out on liquid foundation, concealer and powder. I wore a black/grey smokey eye, I put a bit of white shimmery eye shadow in the inner corners of my eyes and also went all out on eyeliner on the tops of my eyes with the usual flick and then put a bit of black eyeliner blended/smudged in with black eyeshadow on my water/lashline. I wore "bold" eyebrows here (they're really wonky ahahaha), a smidge of blush and a shimmery/goldy pink on my lips! Done! 

 Selfie tiiiime!

I wore this outfit to town and to the cinema, I WATCHED CATCHING FIIYYUUUUH!!! I highly recommend it! Hope you all had a great weekend, and have a great week! Buh-bye!

Skin Saviour! (Tea tree oil)

Hey people! I know I haven't updated in a while and I definitely haven't done a "beauty" related post recently, so to start off I would just like to apologise for my lack of blogging (if any of you noticed).. I feel quite guilty, I guess I've just been really unmotivated and busy recently but I do want to start blogging a bit more often, even if I only started this blogging thing recently. I musn't get into bad habits..-anyways!

Tea tree oil..(I am a lil' slow on the bandwagon but..) where do I even start with this little beauty?! Tea tree is know for it's anti-bacterial properties. It is literally a life saviour, ahem, skin saviour! I absolutely adore this item even though I haven't been using it for very long (just over a month!) I wanted to give tea tree oil at least a month before I raved about it, in case it suddenly broke me out or something, but no it hasn't and I absolutely love love love it!

I know most of you already know of this 'magic', but for any of those who don't or any of you who are looking for an alternative to toothpaste or Sudocrem(love this stuff too) tea tree oil is amazing!

This may be a bit cringy for some, but erm, about last month, I broke out real bad. I mean like worse than ever before and I believe it was because of hormones, as it was also, um 'the time of the month' for me. I literally had like "MASSIVE BOILS" (sorry to be so graphic) which were supposed to be spots on my face, Sudocrem didn't seem to be working for me at the time, so I picked this tea tree oil up and used it. I noticed the next day my spots had gone down, and after about 5 days, the "boils" were gone! It was the worst breakout of my entire life (I know I haven't been around for long, but seriously) my mum commented that the spots looked extremely painful. This tea tree oil really worked!

I apply tea tree oil to any of my spots just before I go to bed. Mine is just a small bottle with a screw cap lid, so I have to be careful when I 'pour' or drip it. I put it onto my finger (my hands are washed before I touch my face obviously) and then dab my finger onto each spot. This probably isn't the best way to put it on, but idk. Any suggestions are welcome! (If there is a better way, I probably sound like such a noob, aha..) I put this tea tree oil on after having cleansed and moisturised (normal skincare routine) then when I wake up in the morning, my spots have been noticeably reduced and less red, or even-gone! Woah! It really is that good and simple! Average sized spots tend to go after 2/3 days (for me anyways).

It definitely does have an affect on my face, some of my friends even commented on how clear my skin looked! (I was so happy, aha-silly me!)

Recently, I stopped using it because I was reaaally lazy last week/weekend, if any of you follow me on Twitter you may have noticed I have tweeted a lot about 'Skyrim' and ohmy! this is a whole different story which is completely unrelated to beauty. I only recently got the game last Wednesday and I am addicted (as you can see I have a running theme of being "slow to join the bandwagon") so I was erm, kinda up late, into the early hours of the morning and being very very very lazy with my skincare routine. So, it's kinda taken a toll on my face. Meh.. Serves me right, I guess.

But I'm just getting back into using the tea tree oil again, and it never fails to amaze me.

I'm not sure where mine is from, as my mum had bought it but I am pretty sure you can buy tea tree oil from any shop really, well like a drugstore or whatever.

For any of yous who are particularly interested, the tea tree oil I use is 'HERB GARDEN tea tree Essential Oil' It's only 10ml, but I'm not even half way through the bottle yet and I have been using it for a month. Also, btw my skin type is oily/combination and I know results vary from person to person, but even though I have oily skin, using tea tree oil was fine!

Sorry this is such a long blog post, that probably isn't very informative but I felt the need to really rave about this, aha. Have a great week! x

Q&A/Interview-#BritishBloggerSelection

Hey guys! First thing I'd like to mention is you guys should go check out SimplyDolly's  YouTube channel, she's just starting out and her videos are really good! 
This is my #BritishBloggerSelection post for this week! This week's theme was a Q&A. If you yourself are interested in joining the #BritishBloggerSelection, click on the Join #BritishBloggerSelection button, which is further down the side of my blog. 

Here we go, guuuuys!
Question One: Why do you like blogging? I don't really know why I like blogging. I just find it a nice way to relax and a good way to pass time. :)

Question Two: How did you come up with your blog name? I named my blog 'Secretly Blogging' because I wasn't sure what else to call it and I thought, why not? I wanted this blog to be anonymous at first, as I didn't want any of my friends to find this, but, ah well. 

Question Three: Where from the UK do you come from? The West Midlands, I live about 45 mins away from Birmingham. 

Question Four: Favourite colour? Light blue or pink. :)

Question Five: Do you like Lana Del Ray? I haven't really listened to her music, but from what I have heard, I don't really like it. (Sorry, don't hurt me..) But I do like her as a fashion icon, I love some of the clothes she wears. 

Question Six: Hidden Talents That You Have? I don't really have any hidden talents, I don't really have any talents, I like to draw?

Question Seven: Celebrity Crush? Niall Horan, ohmylord! I love his accent! -Or just any member from One Direction.

Question Eight: Favourite Blog Of All Time? Zoella and/or Kayleigh's blog. 

Question Nine: What made you want to join #BritishBloggerSelection? I saw someone mention it, so I thought why not?

I'm sorry the last few posts on here haven't been very beauty related, and I promise to do a more 'beauty related' post some time this week. I just have been feeling very ill this weekend and this week was very hectic with exams!

Bye guys, and have a great week!