What's in my Bag?

Hello there!

I recently filmed a 'What's in my bag?' video on my youtube channel and I just felt like doing a small blog post on it too! (I say small, but we all know that I do like to ramble on and on!) I tidied out my bag before doing this blog post so normally my bag is also full of receipts, chewing gum wrappers and other weird and wonderful bits and bobs. 

So starting of with my bag! It is this gorgeous 'pleather' black backpack which is just the cutest thing ever. It has been my go to bag ever since I bought it a couple of months ago. It has really cute gold accents on the buckle and the zip and it is extremely roomy and comfortable to wear. I bought it from New Look and it was only £19.99 which is such a bargain. It is also available in different colours so click here to buy it or to have a wee nosey. 

I don't really keep a lot in my bag, just because I like it to be quite light because if I am out and about, I can sometimes have it on my back all day. When I am shopping, I like to put all of my purchases inside my backpack too because it is so much easier when it is out of the way and in my bag and plus you don't bump into everyone because your hands are full with shopping bags. Seriously, this bag is that spacious! 

So obviously I keep my purse inside my bag. My current purse is from Accessorize and is very simple but cute. It is a large grey purse which has a zipped section, two slip pockets and eight card slots. Again, it is very spacious as I can even fit my phone inside it. I am not sure if that is what it was designed for, but my phone fits nicely in one of the slip pockets which is great! Moving on to my phone, it is the iPhone 6s Plus which I absolutely love and I currently have this cute popcorn case on it from Skinny Dip London. I always make sure that my phone is in my bag because I would pretty much be lost without it. It's also great for those awkward situations where you are sitting next to a complete stranger on the bus and you don't know where to look, so you just take out your phone and scroll through Facebook! Voila, problem solved! Haha! 

And as I live in Scotland and it is always freezing, I make sure that I always keep a hat in my bag. I never used to really wear hats just because I don't think that they really suit me. But needs must! I would just freeze if I didn't wear a hat and so I have found a style of hats that I like and I now have quite a few of them. My favourite hat at the moment is this cute grey pom pom beanie bobble hat from New Look which is just so cosy and because it is grey it goes with everything! 

I also keep a small make-up bag inside my backpack. I use the Zoella Beauty coin purse because it is compact and is just the right size to fit inside your bag. I don't really top up my make-up throughout the day but I always keep my Rimmel London Hide the Blemish Concealer in my bag incase any of my spots need a little more coverage. I also keep my L'Oreal Paris Miss Manga Mascara and whichever lipstick or lip balm I am wearing that day in my make-up bag too!

I always carry my vlogging camera with me as I like to vlog as often as I can because I think that it is a lovely way to capture precious moments. The camera that I use for vlogging is the Canon Powershot S120 which I absolutely love. It is so compact and light which makes it perfect for vlogging and the quality is great.

A small notebook (and a pen) is something else that is always in my backpack. It is generally just incase I ever need to note something down or incase a blog post or video idea ever comes to me when I am out and about. The notebook that I currently keep in my bag is so cute! It has 'Dream' written on it which is probably my favourite word ever. I think it is such an inspirational word because I am all about dreaming and working hard to make your dreams come true. In my bag, I also have the Zoella 'travel pass and compact mirror'. I use this to hold my train tickets, bus tickets or ID because it is so much easier to find rather than having to rake through your purse for your train ticket when you have like a billion other cards in there. It just stops me from stressing which sounds ridiculous. But seriously, if I can't find my train ticket or bus ticket then I get in a panic! So having it in one place and knowing where it is, is so much easier and stress-free. Also it includes a mirror which is always handy if you need to fix up your make-up or check to see if there is anything in your teeth! (There's nothing worse than talking to someone and then looking in the mirror afterwards and realising that some of your lunch is stuck in your teeth!)

Some other bits and pieces that I keep in my backpack are my earphones so that I can listen to some tunes, like 1D! I also always keep tic-tacs in my bag or chewing gum because you've got to have a fresh breath! And lastly, I have some spare batteries for my vlogging camera because they are a must have for any vlogger! Mondpalast are a cheap alternative to canon batteries but they work the same, if not even better! I just bought mine on Amazon!

Okay, so it wasn't really a short blogpost! I just can't help it. Once I start typing, I just can't stop. Let me know in the comments what you keep in your bag and whether or not the items you keep in your bag are similar to the ones that I have mentioned. I hope you have enjoyed reading this blog post and stay tuned for more. Thanks for reading.

Lucille Xox98

Vanilla Cupcakes!

Baking is one of my favourite pastimes and there is something about it that is so therapeutic and calming. You will often find me baking in my spare time because it is something that I really enjoy and look forward to doing. For Christmas my parents bought my sister Laura and I a ton of new baking equipment which I am so grateful for and I just couldn't wait to use it all. So last weekend Laura and I excitedly took out all of our new baking gear and made some vanilla cupcakes. We had so much fun baking them! They are so easy to make and they taste delicious! So I thought that I would share with you guys the recipe that we followed to make these super cute and yummy vanilla cupcakes. 

Ingredients

• 175g butter 
• 175g caster sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract 
• 3 eggs
• 175g self-raising flour

Equipment

• Scales
• Mixing bowl
• Sieve 
• Measuring spoons
• Wooden spoon or electric whisk 

Firstly you preheat your oven to 170 C or Gas 3. Then you mix the butter and the sugar together in a large mixing bowl until it looks light and fluffy. Next you add the vanilla extract and crack in the eggs. I crack the eggs into a separate bowl before adding them into the mixture because, without fail, I manage to get shell in it every time. Then you want to continue to mix it all together. (Totally thought of Hannah Montana there! Haha!) After that you sift the flour into the bowl, a little bit at a time. Once you have added all of the flour, you again continue to mix until it is really smooth. Once you have a smooth mixture, you can separate it into cupcake cases. I managed to make 20 cupcakes but it really depends on the size of your cupcake or fairy cake cases.  Leave them in the oven to bake for around 20 minutes. Keep an eye on them because again it can differ for everyone. My first batch of cupcakes were ready after 20 minutes but the second batch took longer than 20 minutes. They should look slightly golden and if you touch them, they should bounce back up. If they don't do this then leave them in the oven for a little longer. Leave the cupcakes to cool for around 30 minutes and then you can decorate them however you wish. Keep reading if you want to find out how to make the perfect vanilla buttercream icing. 

These cupcake cases are super cute and fun!

For the Buttercream Icing

Ingredients

• 100g unsalted butter 
• 500g icing sugar 
• 2 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract 
• 50 - 100ml milk

Equipment

• Scales
• Mixing bowl
• Wooden spoon or electric whisk
• Measuring spoons
• Measuring jug
• Piping bag or palette knife 

Firstly beat the butter in a bowl until is very light and fluffy. Gradually sift the icing sugar into the bowl and mix together. Honestly, add the icing sugar in bit by bit as it really does go everywhere! Next add in the vanilla extract and then add in 50ml of milk. For me, 50ml of milk wasn't enough as the icing wasn't smooth enough so I ended up just adding in more milk until I reached my desired consistency. Overall, I added around 100ml of milk into the mixture. Then you just go ahead and start putting the icing on the cupcakes using either a palette knife or a piping bag. For decoration I added coloured strands and silver crisp pearls which are simple but cute. Of course, you can decorate your cupcakes however you wish and be as creative as you like! 

      

So definitely try out this recipe and let me know what you think! I'd love to know what you guys use to decorate your cupcakes and let me know what your favourite thing to bake is. I really enjoyed making these cupcakes, apart from burning myself when I took the cupcakes out of the oven! But that was me just being careless, so serves me right! Anyway, this is what the cupcakes turned out like! I think they look so cute and girly! 

Thanks so much for reading! X

Lucille Xox98

Iphone 6s Plus!

I never thought that I would be saying this...  but I got an iPhone!!! Ahhh I am still so ecstatic and I am just over the moon! I have never had an iPhone before but I have always wanted one. Lets face it, they are so expensive! But now that I am working and I am earning money for myself, I felt like it was time that I treated myself to something big, something that I have always wanted. I am really good at saving my money and I very rarely spend it and when I do, I like it to be spent on something really special that I know I am going to use. And so I ordered an iPhone 6s plus and I am in love with it! I chose the gold one and it is absolutely stunning!

So I am not much of a technical person so I am not going to even attempt to try and tell you the different specs of the phone and so instead this will just be a little chat with you guys about the iPhone 6s plus without all those confusing technical terms!

So lets start with what's in the box. Obviously, you get the beautiful iPhone 6s plus in the box. You also get a small user guide, apple stickers and your Apple One-Year Limited Warranty along with a USB power adapter and USB cable. Also included in the box is a pair of Apple EarPods with remote and mic. I must say the Apple EarPods are pretty decent, the sound is really crisp and clear and extremely loud. 

Moving onto the design. The first thing that you notice when looking at the iPhone 6s plus is just how enormous it is! I can't believe the size of it! I absolutely love the big screen just because I feel like it is so much easier to do everything on it, it's like a mini tablet. The iPhone just looks so stunning, everything looks so perfect and the gold just makes it look even more fancy and pretty. The only thing that I find difficult about the iphone is that it is so slim and fragile that I am afraid to even touch it at times. But then again that's just me, I always like everything that belongs to me to look immaculate, without any finger prints on it or any scratches. 

I do realise that a large majority of people don't want to buy a phone just because of it's design, and that they in fact want to buy a phone for its performance. The camera and the 'selfie' camera are unbelievably good! I just can't believe how clear the pictures are that I take using my iPhone and the video quality is also amazing as it can even record 4K at 30fps! I am literally considering whether I should start using my iPhone to vlog! The graphics are pretty incredible. Everything looks so crisp and clear and the screen is so bright and colourful. Another feature that I think is so cool is the touch ID. It's a great measurement of security but I just think that it is so clever and it's pretty amazing to be able to unlock your phone using your fingerprint! 

Overall, it is such a powerful phone, where everything works unbelievably fast, even when you are using your phone to do 2 or 3 things at once. And therefore I do think that at the end of the day it is worth the money because it can do everything you could possibly want a phone to do and more. 

So enough about the technical stuff that I don't really have a clue about and onto the fun things. Apps. Well I have a massive list of apps and games on my iPhone but I thought that I would just share a few of them with you guys just now, because I am thinking of doing a 'What's on my iPhone 6s plus' video on Youtube. Obviously I have all of my social media apps like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Youtube, Blogger etc. so I won't go into detail about them. One of my favourite apps that I have just come across is 'Wish' which is perfect if you love online shopping and you like to find a bargain like me. It is basically an app where you can purchase a ton of different things like clothing, make-up, gadgets, shoes and home decor. Pretty much anything you can think of, it is on there and it is all at discounted prices. Like seriously I thought I was seeing things at first because everything is so cheap! I absolutely love it! Some games that I have been loving are 'Don't Touch the Spikes' and 'Color Switch'. I am so addicted to playing these games because they are both those types of games that you cannot put down because you just want to beat your high score. 

One thing that I was so excited about when I got my iPhone was being able to choose from such a variety of phone cases. Going from having a Nokia Lumia 520, where there were only boring, plain cases for, to having an iPhone where there is an endless selection of cases, is pretty exciting. So I have already got three cases for my iPhone and I can tell that I am going to end up with a lot more because they are all just so cute. So the first phone case is not very exciting. It is just a clear silicone case, pretty simple but I just bought it to help protect my phone. One phone case hasn't arrived yet but it is a really cute Stitch one, because I love Disney and Stitch is probably my all time favourite Disney Movie. And Last but certainly not least, I got a phone case from Skinny Dip London which is quite frankly the most awesome thing that I have ever seen. 

Ahhh! It's a popcorn phone case!!! I still can't get over how cute it is! The eyes are googly, they move and everything. This phone case is so me because I am always stuffing my face with popcorn! I am in love with it. This phone case was a lot more expensive than the others but it was totally worth it! Come on, look at how adorable it is!

And so there you have it! I have an iPhone and I am so chuffed about it that I had to do a blog post on it and share it with you guys. Let me know in the comments what apps you have on your phone and whether or not you would be interested in me doing a 'What's on my iPhone 6s plus' video on my Youtube Channel. Thanks for reading.

Lucille Xox98

What's in my Make-up Bag?

I have only recently become a lover of make-up and therefore my make-up collection is very small but I wanted to share it with you anyway! Make-up never really interested me until about two years ago, when I realised that a little thing called 'foundation' and 'concealer' could be a life saver for me. My acne had gotten pretty bad and so I just wanted something that I could use to hide all my spots and that would hopefully help in boosting my self-esteem. And that's where my love of make-up started. I began to take an interest in trying out different foundations and concealers to see which ones worked the best for me and it really helped me to begin to build my confidence as I didn't feel as self-conscious as before. At this point I was also binge watching a ton of beauty youtubers like Zoella, MakeupbyMandy24 and Siena Mirabella and I enjoyed watching how they created different make-up looks. So then I went out and bought basic things like mascara, lipstick, eyeshadow and I started to create my own makeup looks and experiment with different things. And I am far from a professional when it comes to doing my make-up but I enjoy doing it and I like learning new things. And so hopefully my love for make-up, and my collection, will continue to grow!

So the make-up bag that I am currently using is the Zoella Beauty Rose Gold Vanity Case, which I am in love with. Zoella is a massive inspiration to me and her Zoella Beauty products are just stunning. I love using this vanity case as my make-up bag because it is so roomy, you can fit so much in it and therefore it is perfect if you have an ever-growing make-up collection!

Most of my make-up bag is full of bottles of foundation. Most of which I don't use anymore. I go through phases of loving one foundation one minute and then questioning why I ever thought it looked good. I think that sometimes a foundation seems really good until I find a new one and compare it to that and realise that it perhaps doesn't match my skin tone as well as the other one, or it doesn't give as much coverage. So the foundations that I don't use as much anymore, but I still keep because you never know I might go back to using them, are Maybelline Superstay 24hr Foundation in Light Beige, Max Factor Lasting Performance Foundation in Fair 100 and Revlon Colorstay Foundation in Ivory 110.  These are all really good foundations, I just found that the Maybelline Superstay Foundation in the lightest shade was still too dark for my skin tone and I felt that the Revlon Colorstay Foundation dried up my skin a little.

The foundation that I currently use and that I am in love with is the L'Oreal True Match Foundation in the shade 1.R/1.C Rose Ivory. I just feel that it does exactly what I want it to do. It gives me great coverage, without drying out my skin whilst it matches my skin tone perfectly and is super blendable! I also use the L'Oreal True Match powder in 1.R/1.C Rose Ivory to set my foundation so that it does't move around and it also prevents my face from looking really shiny!

I also use concealer a lot for when I need that extra bit of coverage. (So basically when I have one of those humungous spots that foundation just won't hide!) My favourite concealers at the moment are Rimmel London Hide the Blemish Concealer in Ivory 1 and Collection Cover Up Stick in Light 1. I alternate between both of them because I love them equally although the Collection Cover Up Stick is a lot more affordable as it only costs £1.99! That is an incredible price for a concealer that really works and that even manages to cover my worst spots. My go to blusher is the Rimmel London 001 Spring Flower 3 in 1 Powder Blush because it looks really natural and again is great value for money.

Moving onto eyeshadow, my favourite palette is the Revolution Redemption Palette Iconic 2! The colours are so pretty and they are super pigmented. There are a variety of colours, some matte and some shimmer shadows which you can create a ton of different looks with. I think that it is such a great product and again it is so affordable, costing just £4! I am also in love with the Ted Baker London Eye Shadow Trios! The packaging is super cute to begin with and again the shadows are really pigmented and add such depth to your eyes. The make-up brushes that I use are from Primark mainly because they are cheap and cheerful! They are priced at around £1 per brush and they do the job so I am happy with them!

The mascara that I have in my make-up bag at the moment is the Maybelline New York Lash Sensational Lash Multiplying Mascara. It gives my eyelashes such length and volume but doesn't clump up at the ends or make my lashes look really fake! I have even been given complements on my eyelashes whilst wearing the mascara where people have said that I have lovely natural long lashes! I absolutely love it!

When it comes to lip products, I mainly wear Baby Lips because my lips are always dry no matter how much vaseline or nivea lip balm I use. Therefore Baby Lips is perfect because they hydrate my lips and make them feel super soft whilst adding colour to them. There are so many different colours of Baby Lips available now so there is lots to choose from and I think that they are perfect for people who can't really wear lip stick because it dries out their lips too much. When I do occasionally wear lip stick, I use Primark's P.S. Love... Lipstick because they are super affordable and are available in a variety of colours. I feel like they last really long, pretty much throughout the whole day and I feel as though they don't dry out my lips as much as other lip sticks do.

And there you have it! That is everything in my make-up bag! I hope to continue to grow my make-up collection, learn new techniques and experiment more with different products in the future. I feel that make-up can be so expensive, so I like to look out for bargains and cheap alternatives to expensive brands and I enjoy trying them out to see what I think of them. Let me know in the comments what your favourite make-up products are at the moment because I would love to know. Thanks for reading!

Lucille Xox98

Bowling!

Currently I am on holiday and therefore I like to make sure that I have lots of things planned to do so that I can make the most of the holidays. So my sister Laura and I went to Aberdeen to do some shopping and then we also went ice-skating which was a lot more difficult than I expected. I mean a lot more difficult! Seriously, I was clinging to the wall with one hand whilst the other was hooked onto Laura's arm as I attempted to move on the ice, determined not to fall over and embarrass myself! 

So for the last day of my holidays I wanted to do something fun, something I hadn't done in a while! And so I suggested bowling, which my siblings were extremely keen for. And so that is what we did. 

As soon as we got to Roller Bowl we were told that we were going to have to wait half an hour for a lane, which I was fine with as I am a very patient person. My dad on the other hand was not amused as patient, he certainly is not. But lets not get into that. So of course, being the big kid that I am, I automatically ran over to Electro-city, which is basically a small section like an amusement arcade. 

We spent a good half hour there attempting to win a teddy bear from one of those 'grabby machines' which surprise surprise we did not win anything. I know that those things are like impossible to win and yet I waste so much money on them! I guess I will never learn! My sister Laura and I also went on these motorbikes which she had to persuade me to do as I was a bit nervous because I thought that people would be watching me! Anyway, I did it. 

I basically sat on one motorbike whilst Laura sat on the other and we raced and I won! I really don't know how that happened because I was crashing into everything and so it must have been a fix! After spending half an hour in Electro-city, there still wasn't a free lane for us! And so we basically sat chatting for the next half hour. There was a bar there but we were all too tight to spend our money on something to eat or drink, yet we wasted all that money in the arcade!? And finally a lane became available for us and we walked over to the counter to get our bowling shoes! And snazzy they were!

I have never really been good at bowling and if I could, I would still be using bumpers! It's just so difficult! I roll the ball wanting it to go left, and it goes right! I just can't do it! But I like bowling because it's fun and it's a laugh! You shouldn't dislike something just because you're not good at it! All that matters is that you have fun! And if you're as bad as me, then you can also have a good laugh!We played two games, both of which my brother won. (He had bumpers though, that's why! I mean if he hadn't then I would have won! Right?!)The thing that I found hardest about bowling , excluding the fact that the ball wouldn't do what I wanted it to do, was that none of the bowling balls were the right size for me! I couldn't fit my fingers in any of the light bowling balls and the ones that my fingers did fit in were way to heavy! I couldn't even lift them! And so each time that I went to roll the ball, I was scared that my fingers would get stuck and then all sorts of crazy thoughts ran through my head about would could possibly happen! What can I say? I overthink things... a lot! 

Then, once we had finished bowling and I had taken a billion snaps of bowling balls trying to find the perfect shot, we played air hockey! Boy had I forgotten how competitive I could be! My brother Daniel and I were in one team, whilst my sister Laura and my Dad were in the other team! It started of pretty casual, but then I got so lost in the game and I was so determined to beat my dad because he is a pretty competitive person too! Seriously, Daniel and I wanted to win so badly, you could see the concentration in our eyes, we would do anything to make sure the puck didn't go in our goal. At one point Daniel hit the puck so hard with his mallet that it went flying off the surface and landed on the floor! Well I was wetting myself with laughter! Only Daniel could be capable of doing something like that! Haha!

So I guess that the message I would like you guys to take from this post is that it is the little  things in life that matter the most! A non-expensive day out bowling has given me so many great memories that I want to remember forever. And so you don't always have to go some place expensive to have fun and create memories! If you are doing something with the people you love then you will have great fun and you will create so many memories that will last forever! And those are my favourite kind of days. The days where you have the most fun ever with your family when you aren't even doing anything that special. But because they are with you, they make the day special!

Lucille Xox98

Welcome to my Blog!

Welcome to my Blog!

Hello everyone! After swithering for a long time as to whether or not I should start a blog, I have decided that I am going to do it and see how it goes. I have wanted to have my own blog for quite some time now as it seems like a good way to document all of my memories, photos and other favourite things of mine.

My Youtube Channel!

For those of you who don’t know, I started a Youtube channel in December 2014 and I have grown to love vlogging! It still amazes me that I have the last year of my life on Youtube, which I can just click on and watch! It’s amazing how quickly you can forget the things that happen in your life, the little moments that you can only relive through watching your own vlogs back in years to come. And that is why I love Youtube, why I love vlogging and why I will hopefully grow to love blogging just as much. It’s just another way of documenting my life and the little things that I want to remember!

And so I am starting a blog! It’s a little challenge for myself and it’s a New Years Resolution of mine to blog as much as I can. I feel like I have become so comfortable with vlogging and now I want to set myself the challenge of mastering blogging! And yes, it will be a challenge for me as writing has never been my strong point! In School, English definitely wasn’t one of my skills but I am pushing myself out of my comfort zone and I am giving it a go!

Filming videos for Youtube!

I am definitely going to continue with Youtube as well because filming videos is something I really enjoy doing and I love being creative and coming up with new video ideas and improving my editing skills! I am so excited to get into this blog as I also love photography and I feel like Youtube isn’t really a place to showcase your photographs whereas a blog gives you endless opportunities to do so!

And so I want to welcome you all to my blog! Whether you watch my Youtube videos or whether you don’t, you are all welcome to get involved with my blog and read my posts. I hope you enjoy what is yet to come and I would like to thank everyone for taking there time to read this! I look forward to getting to know you all and interacting with you on this blog and I hope that everyone goes into this New Year feeling positive and determined to make your dreams come true and to do more of what you love!

Lucille Xox98