July Favourites.

(...) Can time please slow down?! I don't understand how it's going so fast. I've loved my time in Australia so much that I should have just gotten married just so that I could stay there for longer than my VISA allowed and so that I don't have to pay international university fees. One thing I've been loved about my time there is that I've been wearing less make-up and, when I do wear make-up, I've only been wearing my holy-grail products. So, here's some of the beauty (and also non-beauty) products that I've been loving recently...

The Dior Sunglasses Dupe.

You know those Dior sunglasses that nearly everyone has or wants to have? Yeah, well, I want them. I could go out and buy a pair but, now that I'm technically an adult (scary) and growing up (even scarier), I'm a little more money conscious. Plus, I wouldn't have as much money to spend on travelling, which really is my one true love. Luckily for me, I've found the perfect dupe and they're even available in multiple colours! I'll take ever pair colour available please, and a few spares for good luck. You can find them here, and they're only $1.95!

Exploring a Tropical Island - Singapore #6.

If you've read my Meet KC post, then you'll know that, while in Singapore, I spent a day at Pulua Ubin, a tropical island located between Singapore and Malaysia. Your data provider actually switches  from a company from each place, so just buy going to Pulua Ubin you can say you were in two countries in one day! One thing's for sure though, I don't think I've ever breathed air as clean or felt so free as when cycling and hiking around this tiny island, exploring everything it has to offer. From palm trees to lily-pads, wild boar to monkeys, lakes to streams... Everything was just incredible. Definitely one for the bucket list, and a place I hope to return to one day. Though if I do return, I'll have to remember to take the mosquito repellent with me - a month late and I've still got bites!

I Put WHAT On My Lashes?!

Okay, this is your official warning, I'm about to big myself up, toot my own horn, etc, etc. - I'm one of those annoying people that has naturally good eyelashes. Like, people comment on them and ask what mascara I'm wearing, only to look seriously pissed off when I tell them I'm not wearing them and they're my natural lashes, so you can probably imagine how people look when they see me a few days later when wearing make-up. If people didn't look at me with such disgruntled faces, I'd probably share how my enhance my lashes with two easy beauty products, something they could so easily achieve too. Instead, I'll share them with you...

Crying Over a Perfume & Plenty of Empties.

While on my gap year, I've been determined not to spend so much money on anything beauty and fashion related and, after five months of travelling, I'd say I've done pretty well. There have certainly been a lot less transactions on my bank statements anyway, even if the same amount of money is coming out each money (Can Richard Branson please adopt me because I can't keep spending so much on air travel). Because I've been on an economy drive, I've been rediscovering plenty of beauty and skincare products that I had floating around in various drawers and make-up bags, so many in fact, that I'm probably going to end up having to repurchase everything at once (swings and roundabouts...), but that can wait until I'm back on British soil, just so that I don't have to pay so much for extra baggage... Now that my suitcase is probably about seven kilos lighter, here are some of my empties...

Hiking in a Tropical Rainstorm - Singapore #5.

It's official, after my trip to Singapore, I could survive on a deserted island with crazy rain and smoke monsters like the one in LOST. I've done it all. I've had my hair bobble break and had to tie my hair up with a piece of string I found in a tree, and I was even running on a treetop walkway through the jungle when it suddenly started to rain, heavier than I've ever seen, so much that I could barely see and had to shelter in a tree (100% had to refrain from shouting "JAAAAAACK". Kate Auston, eat your heart out)...  Before I let my imagination run wild and imagined just how I was going to kill a polar bear, my aunt and I visited the Botanic Gardens & Orchid Garden of Singapore. I don't know a lot about flowers and plants, but I can tell you that it was beautiful. We actually chose to go on what was the hottest and most humid day of the week, so just seeing the words 'cool house' was enough to help me ignore the sweat dripping down my neck and send me to a happier place. One too many selfies were taken but, with such a perfect backdrop it was hard not to...

Tips for Nervous Flyers.

I'm actually writing this while sat some 30,000ft in the air, on my way from Perth to Singapore. For someone that does a heck of a lot of travelling, you'd think I'd find flying a lot easier than I do. It never used to bother me, it would play on my mind a bit before the flight, but I'd soon be over it and be asleep before the plane even took off, only to wake up to someone prodding me, telling me we'd landed and that it was time to pack up my stuff. Now that I'm older and my anxiety has gotten worse, I find flying just that little bit more scary. I think it's the build up of it and generally over-thinking things. It's not the turbulence that bothers me, or being with strangers (I'm that annoying person that'll spend the whole flight talking to you, if you let me), I think it's the thought of being trapped, being in an accident and just the fact that planes are weird. Metal cylinders that somehow stay up in the air? Okay. Totally normal. But with the amount of flights I've been on in my life, especially in the last year (flying from London to Australia takes a bloody long time), I've slowly been finding ways to cope with it, so thought I'd share some of them with you...

Liberty London Lovin'...

If there's one thing I love to do in London, it's window shopping. With department stores like Liberty, Selfridges & Harrods on every corner, it's hard not to. No matter where I am or who I'm with, I make it my mission to head into one of these stores to lust after one of the many items that I have my eyes on. During a visit to Liberty on one of my last days in London, the particular item I wanted to try on was a pair of the Valentino Rockstud pumps that everyone other than me seems to have. Unfortuntely for me, a UK size 7 & 8 (my shoe size varies) seem to be the most popular sizes, meaning every colour I wanted to try on was unavailable. The only pair left in my size were white, though thankfully they weren't the kitten heel version. Despite being very high and having such a thin heel, they were pretty easy to walk in, and even with a pointed toe, they were pretty comfy, though I don't know just how long that would last for. Though I wouldn't buy these in white, I'll take one in every other colour, please.

The Highest Roof-Top Bar in the World - Singapore #4.

While in Singapore, I got the chance to see two sides to the country. Half of my time was spent in poorer, rural areas, while the rest was spent in areas that make it easy to understand just why there are so many millionaires in Singapore. As people have mentioned, it's safe to say I had a gentle introduction to Asia. While I enjoyed visiting the poorer areas, with some of the most welcoming and open people I've ever met, I'm glad I got to explore the other side to it too. One of these places was the designer shop filled shopping centre located near the Marina Bay Sands hotel (an amazing experience in itself). From here, you see the entire skyline of the city, including various different old-fashioned hotels, the Lotus building and Louis Vuitton Island. Being a girl who loves her labels, I obviously had to visit LV Island, which is basically just a giant LV store located in the middle of the river, with a boardwalk leading to it. It's made of glass so the first thing you notice is the reflection of the water, lily-pads and lights reflected on it. We wanted to see the area both at night and during the day, so went back twice. It's safe to say we did plenty of walking, so much that I actually had to just have a lie down on the floor outside the shopping centre (lying and sitting down on the floor is actually illegal in Singapore, so I feel like I should point out that I was just watching a light show!)

The Best Day.

You know when you visit a new place and just know that you will visit again and again, and never tire of it? That's how I felt about Seville. I grew up in Malaga and thought that Seville would be similar, and it definitely was, but it also might have been a bit better. I love going to the beach, but historic towns and cities are definitely more my thing. Seville is home to some of the most beautiful architecure and historic sites I have ever seen. You immediately know that if they film Game of Thrones there, then it's going to be pretty special. The best part? I got to experience it with some of my favourite people. If you're ever there, you need to visit Alcazar. Word of advice: don't hold hands with your favourite person and walk/skip/run down the alter at the cathedral with your favourite person, pretending you're getting married, because they will threaten to kick you out and also bar you from one of the oldest cathedrals in the world. Probably wasn't my finest moment. The best part was seeing my History & Music teacher, both of whom came with us, getting extremely angry as they defended us and the security guard slowly going redder and redder, not realising that there was Chinese tourist behind him doing ballet with an extremely long selfie stick in her hands. SERIOUSLY?!

The Best Place You'll Ever Visit - Singapore #3.

I am a massive fan of museums: Science, History, Fashion, Art... You name it, I'm there. I especially love visiting them in new countries. So, when researching the best things to do in Singapore, one of the things that most caught my eye was the Art Science museum, in particular the Big Bang Data exhibition, and another entitled Future World. I think it's safe to say that I wasn't disappointed. The first was all about the concept of The Cloud, the buildings where all of our data, internet and every detail that we consider private is stored, the theories and devastating effect this could have on us, and just how people are using this power. It was actually incredibly moving and really made you think about what you share on the Internet. A few highlights were someone's entire Facebook history (messages, statuses, every time he signed in, etc.), so easily accessible, and a room filled with every single photo uploaded to Flickr in 24 hours. Next up was Future World, and this is the one that I had been most excited for.

July Wishlist - MAC Lipsticks.

Can someone please tell me how it's July because I seriously do not understand. I know everyone has been saying this, and people say it year after year but this year has seriously flown by. July for me will be spent on the east coast of Australia and I will be spending a lot of time on planes (nothing new there...), flying up and down the country, so I'll be spending a lot of time in airports and, of course, duty free. One stand that I always have to stop and have a browse at is the MAC stand, mainly for the lipsticks. I'll often end up having multiple swatches on both hands and having to repeatedly wash my hands before getting on the plane in order to get them off. Here are a few that I'm hoping to pick up while at various duty frees...

A Letter to Heather and Tim.

Before arriving in Australia, I'd only met Heather and Tim once. It was the first time Heather and my Mam, who are cousins, had seen each other in 30 years but, unfortunately, we only got to spend a few hours together. During that visit, we talked briefly about how much I'd love to visit Australia, but it wasn't until two years later that I finally made the jump and booked tickets to Perth, where they have spent the past twenty years. Fast forward four months and I'm still here. Anyone else would probably have gotten sick off my constant singing (only Heather would join in when I told her that I had the Pink Panther theme tune stuck in my head) or how I talk about my eyebrows more than I talk about my own family, but not them. They have been my adventure buddies and taken me up, down & all around Western Australia and even on a trip to Singapore. You can tell just how many adventures we've been on just by looking on Heather's Facebook page, which is filled with photos of our escapades (and my selfies).