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Showing posts with label saffron news. Show all posts
Showing posts with label saffron news. Show all posts


...that is the question. Well, Shakespeare wouldn't agree with that one but it's always good to paraphrase the Bard himself once in a while, right?

I've been fighting with myself over starting YouTube since I was around 12 (8 years ago - yeesh!) and when I brought it up to my Mum initially, she hated the idea. The thought of her precious little girl exposing her personality, accent and mannerisms through singing (yes, singing) videos on a website made her skin crawl. All she would say to me was 'What if someone liked what they saw, found out where you lived, stalked you and then kidnapped you? What if he kills you Saffron? SAFFRON WHAT IF HE KILLS YOU?!?!' ...now you know where I get my dramatic side from. Because of her strong views against YouTube mixed with my 'good girl' persona, I knew that it wasn't a great idea. Plus, she kinda had a point.

There was an absolutely brilliant TV show on Channel 4 a couple of weeks back called Cyberbully (watch here). It was based on several true stories and was about this hacker gaining control of Casey(the protagonist)'s computer and blackmailing her into doing things to stop nude photos of her from being posted on the internet. Now I know this isn't exactly the same - but it does show what can happen when you end up on the internet's bad side. This person knew all about Casey's life - from her ex boyfriend to her best friend - and even had access not just to her laptop, but to her phone too. For over an hour the cyber-stalker tortured Casey - both mentally and physically - and it really made you wonder how these extremely common objects control us nowadays. Almost everyone in the UK has at least one computer in their home, with a hefty majority having more than one to themselves. Not to mention the amount of people with iPhones... Cyberbully made me realise that the internet can be a dangerous place - but as long as you remember that there is life outside of the internet (yes, there really is) then you should be okay.

Putting yourself on YouTube is a big deal. Absolutely anyone with an internet-enabled device and WiFi at their disposal can view your videos. Many people think that it's just others like them that will watch their videos - teenagers who love their bed and food more than the fresh air and family parties. Kids who would rather watch a 10-hour Keeping Up With The Kardashians marathon (guilty) than going to school. Girls and boys who will stay up till 4am watching videos of a cat dressed as a shark riding a roomba (you have to watch it) and wondering how the hell they ended up getting to that when they initially started binge watching Salad Fingers episodes. But - shock horror - not everyone that watches YouTube is like me. I know it may sound ridiculous for me to say, and I know some of you may roll your eyes but it's true - the internet is never as safe as you think. Don't get me wrong - you shouldn't fear the internet, but at the same time you shouldn't think it's your friend either. There are too many people out there who can find out where you live by just knowing your name or your face - and that's scary.

As a blogger, these things do cross my mind every so often. I think 'if they can stalk someone because of YouTube, what makes me think they can't stalk me because of my blog?'. And I guess I'm still conflicted over the response. I go by my gut instinct a lot. If I feel that somewhere, something or someone is unsafe for me - I stay away. And YouTube is just another one of those things. My blog on the other hand, is not. When I initially set up my blog two years ago, I wasn't scared at all. I wasn't scared when my page views hit 10,000 or 20,000, but the thought of posting that first YouTube video terrifies me. I guess not only is the whole 'the internet isn't safe' thing looming over my head, but also what if my channel gets popular? What if people are mean to me because of my strong opinions, thick Yorkshire accent or simply because my hair colour isn't to their taste? To be quite honest, I'm very split when it comes to criticism. Either I get really upset or shake it off and think 'Balls to them, I'm fabulous' (which is very true, I am indeed fabulous). I guess what I'm trying to say is that there are currently too many negatives over my attempt at conquering YouTube. The idea of making a load of money for doing hardly anything may seem very attractive, but I don't quite think it's worth my safety. Not yet, anyway...

I have actually posted videos on my own YouTube before - two in total. The first was me singing a cover of Fly With Me by the Jonas Brothers for a competition yeeeears ago. I was absolutely obsessed with them, and to be honest I still do fangirl over them once in a while...
The second video was of me and my friend-but-more-like-a-brother, Connor. We did the cinnamon challenge and it involved a lot of sick. I was still finding chunks of spewed-up curry (TMI, sorry) weeks after the explosion.

Even though I'm still in the middle of the 'should I or shouldn't I' conflict going on in my head, for now I'm gonna stay away. I'm almost 20 now, and even though I'm legally an adult (hahahahaha) I still trust my Mum's judgement and advice. She doesn't think it's safe for me, plus I'm still terrified of the idea. So until I gain a little more confidence behind the camera, you lot won't be able to hear my hilarious jokes and sassy statements. You'll just have to read them for now instead.


What's your take on YouTube? Would you ever take the plunge?

"The more helpless the creature, the more that it is entitled to protection by man from the cruelty of man." - Mahatma Gandhi 
♥

Like last year, I've been pretty late to post this... but Happy 2nd Birthday my precious little blog!

It doesn't feel anywhere near like two years ago since I published my 'Top 5 Perfumes' post... time seems to have flown so much (ignore the cliché plz) I guess, but I'm still super happy that I started writing on here as not only have I met some lovely people through it, but it's given me an outlet to express my emotions (and fuel my addiction) and let my very loud voice be heard! 

Followers
GFC: 5
Blogger pageviews: 22,310
Google+: 18
Google+ pageviews: 163,995
Bloglovin: 79
E-mail Subscription: 4
Twitter: 296

A big thank you to each and every one of you that reads my blog, as I know that the hefty majority of you don't follow me - but I promise I won't hold it against you!

Stay fabulous forever and ever. Till next time...
Saffron
♥


I would like to formally apologise for being so AWOL recently, I have no serious excuse apart from losing all motivation to write. I see all these other bloggers who've been around for a few months doing so well and in turn that makes me a little jealous. And instead of it making me want to prove everyone wrong, it just caused me to retreat back into my shell.

Sometimes I have to remind myself that my blog is for me, not for anyone else. I need to write about what I want to write, not what I think people would want to read about. Don't get me wrong, I love it when you guys give me suggestions as I do suffer from the occasional writer's block but I'm always worried that I'm gonna let some of you down. Instead of having thousands upon thousands of one-off readers, I have a handful of you that always come back. And because of that, I want to be able to make you smile each time you come here. Whether you're cringing over the amount of products I've indulged in that month, giggling over my attempt at a joke or simply rolling your eyes with a smile whilst I go off on a tangent (which, if you didn't know, is a regular occurrence), I want you guys to be happy that you visited my little blog.

I promise to post more often, and with less fear of what you'll think. I always used to try and post every Friday at 8PM GMT, and I'm gonna do my damned hardest to stick to it. After all, this is something that's super important to me, and I can't wait to see it grow even more. Even if it is at a snails pace ;)


Stay fabulous!

Saffron
♥
Before I get started I want to write a little disclaimer. I tried not to make this a rant but me being my over-dramatic self made it into one anyway, so be warned! This is entirely my opinion on the matter of 'body shaming' and I know this a fairly controversial topic. It is one that is predominant in many teenage girls lives, as well as everyone else's. I don't want to come across as bitchy or nasty, I just felt like I should air my views from the 'slim side', and give you all a taste of what it's like to, despite having a so-called 'envious figure', receive a lot of hate for it.


There was a Victoria Secret campaign a couple years back called 'Love My Body'. There was a lot of controversy surrounding the campaign, with people saying that the models bodies were unattainable and unrealistic. I can understand to a certain extent why there was so much hate directed towards the photo, but at the same time it seems that those people need to be reminded that the campaign wasn't titled 'Real Beauty' like the Dove campaign back in 2004, it was titled 'Love My Body'. Therefore, I don't understand why it's so preposterous that these models shouldn't be happy in their own skin. You get told that you should love the skin you're in but just because these are supermodels that are the envy of many a woman, they shouldn't love themselves, and that being naturally slim is wrong and not beautiful too.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not condoning that being underweight or overweight is good, as it can affect your health. All I'm saying is that this prejudice over being 'too skinny' is getting ridiculous. I have read countless articles in magazines from overweight women saying that being slim is 'disgusting', and that 'size 0 isn't a size', but being a size 18 (and at risk of several serious illnesses including heart attack and diabetes) is beautiful and 'curvy'. See, that's another thing. The word 'curvy'. To me, being curvy is like Beyonce's figure. She's a US size 2 but well known for her curves, despite having a flat stomach and being generally slim. Yet in these magazines these overweight women claim that they're the curvy ones, and that unless you are 'fat' you can't be considered curvy. I couldn't disagree more. Like I said, Beyonce is a size 2 and curvy, and there's no denying that. It's just in my definition curvy is having a small waist and either big boobs, wide hips or a big booty, or all three. But maybe that's just my opinion.

I don't understand how it's wrong to call someone fat but to call someone 'disgustingly skinny' is perfectly acceptable. It completely baffles me. You wouldn't ask an overweight person 'why are you so fat?' so why is it okay to ask a slim person 'why are you so skinny?'. This body shaming has lead to a serious increase in eating disorders, something that people seem to forget about when they're calling someone vile for being slim or disgusting for being overweight. Sometimes it just can't be helped!

I'm 5ft2, weigh 7 stone, have a waist-to-hip ratio of 0.66 and I'm a dress size 4(UK). According to my BMI of 17.9, I am classified as underweight for my height. To me, I'm perfectly fine, and as long as my rib cage isn't showing then I'm happy. Because I'm a US size 0, people seem to instantly think that there's something wrong with me. I'm naturally slim, it's not as if I starve myself or eat nothing but low-calorie foods, I just have a very fast metabolism. But still, all they hear is 'size 0'.

You hear of many overweight people struggling to lose weight and to diet whereas for me, you could say that I struggle with my 'anti-diets'. Because of my super fast metabolism, it's very difficult for me to put on weight. If you didn't already know, I'm a vegetarian, and so a lot of the food I eat is fairly healthy and I like it, except my thyroid (the bit of your body responsible for your metabolism) doesn't. If I eat healthily for too long I lose too much weight and that's when I have to start going on my 'anti-diet' where I eat nothing but calorific, fatty foods. It's disgusting. I know most of you will be reading this and thinking 'I'm so jealous, I wish I could eat as much as I want whenever I want!' and don't get me wrong, I used to love being able to eat loads of fast food and not put on weight. But it's not until you eat healthily that you realise how awful bad foods make you feel. They make me miserable, tired, and weak. Not fun.

A few months back I saw a tweet from a boy that said 'I don't understand why girls are so obsessed with having a thigh gap', and I agreed. A friend of his then went on to reply with something along the lines of 'Yeah but if they don't have a thigh gap they're fat'. Wow. As I gave you pretty much all my details on my weight and size, you know I'm slim but I don't have a thigh gap. I'm considered a pear shape 'cause I have small boobs, a small waist but wide hips and 'large' thighs for my size. That tweet drove me so far up the wall that it will forever be angrily engraved in my skull. I'm blatantly not overweight, but because I didn't have a thigh gap I was still considered to be 'fat'. Guys like that that obviously don't understand the female body and our ability to have curves are one of the many reasons why cases of eating disorders are increasing.   

I'm going to do something that slim girls have been shamed into not saying. I love my figure. I do. Although I've been told countless numbers of times that I'm 'too skinny', that I 'need to put some meat on' and at one point even got asked if I was anorexic, I love my body. I have flaws, like everyone else, but I'm truly happy with my figure because there's no point in thinking otherwise. I'm not going to stand in front of the mirror in my underwear beating myself up over the fact that my hip bones stick out, nor am I going to cry over not having a thigh gap. I am who I am and I'm freaking proud of it. Don't like it? Then you know where you can put your opinion.

♥
Liebster is the German word for dearest, sweetheart, beloved person, darling etc and so when I was nominated for the Liebster Award by the beautiful Caitlin, I was a little confused. I thought there would be an online poll or something where people voted for their favourite bloggers. I was wrong. Basically, the Liebster Award gives the opportunity to the lesser-known bloggers to mix with other bloggers, strengthening their connections which have the possibility to form into friendships. It's quite sweet, really.

Last week, whilst I was on holiday Sophie also nominated me, so instead of doing another post I thought I'd just add her questions onto this one. Thankyou Sophie for the nomination!

The rules are as follows:
1. You must link the post back to the person who nominated you.
2. You must answer all 11 questions that have been chosen by the person who nominated you.
3. You have to pick 11 people to nominate - but they must have under 200 followers.
4. You can't nominate the person who nominated you.
5. You must tell the nominees they have been nominated.


These are the questions that Caitlin gave me - and my answers:

1. What's your favourite drugstore foundation?
- That'll have to be No7's Beautifully Matte Foundation that I did a review on here. It's been a fave of mine for years.

2. What are you goals for your blog in 2014? 
- I'm really hoping that it takes off this year. I've been doing it for around 14 months now and I keep seeing all these beginner bloggers have thousands of loyal followers mere months after they've started. I know I shouldn't compare to others but sometimes I can't help but feel like I'm failing and that I should quit whilst I'm ahead. Especially seen as that's what so many people keep telling me to do, seen as writing a blog will never put food on my plate. Ah well, I'll just have to keep everything crossed! 

3. Name a lipstick you couldn't live without
- Oooh, this is a toughie 'cause I'm a huuuge lipstick junkie. My faves would have to be Illamasqua's Ignite, Bourjois' Rouge Edition in 11 Fraise Remix or Barry M's 162... I love so many but it's so hard to pick haha!

4. Where would you like to see yourself in 5 years time?
- I hope I'm still blogging and have a YouTube channel by then, maybe even have moved out and got a job in the beauty/fashion industry! 

5. Have you got any beauty resolutions for this year?
- Yes! I'm gonna try and get my skin into the best condition possible (more than I have been these past 6 or so years!) because although I adore makeup, I don't enjoy having to wake up early to put it on. It's less enjoyable spending at least an hour on my makeup when I'm tired! Also, I wanna start contouring properly, white foundation n'all!

6. A skincare product that's an essential
- Montagne Jeunesse (I can't pronounce it to save my life, I also had to google the spelling *hangs head in beauty blogger shame*) face masks - they smell amazing, do wonders for my skin AND they're cruelty-free and vegetarian. I love 'em I do!

7. What's your favourite healthy food?
- I'm slightly addicted to falafels and houmous at the moment (ooh hark at me being a good veggie for once!).

8. Who's your current favourite blogger and why?
- This will have to go to Zoe Sugg, a.k.a. Zoella. I pretty much idolise her and she's the one that gave me the inspiration to start blogging.

9. How many posts do you aim to post a week?
- Usually I go for two - a Manicure Monday and then a general post on Friday. I'm pretty rubbish though and sometimes don't post at all, or when I do I post late *tut-tut*.

10. What are your thoughts on Maybelline Baby Lips, yay or nay?
- NAY. Maybelline test on animals and therefore I refuse to purchase any of their products.

11. What products are you hoping to try this year?
- Urban Decay Naked3, Illamasqua's Skin Base Foundation...and probably many more cult products that my mind has just decided to erase.



And these are the questions Sophie asked me...

1. Where would you love to travel to?
- California probably, I've never been to America ya'see.

2. What's your favourite High Street shop?
- Oooh this is hard... Jack Wills, Zara and H&M are my faves, but I can't pick one 'cause I love them all for different reasons haha!

3. What are your favourite skincare item/s?
- Answered this in Caitlin's questions (No6).

4. When did you start blogging?
- Monday 3rd December 2012. Check out my first ever post here.

5. Favourite singer/songwriter?
- LORDE ALLLLLL THE WAAAAY!

6. What are your hopes for 2014?
- That I've passed my driving test, got my Mini and earning a proper wage!

7. Are you a student? If so what are you studying?
- No, I'm not a student.

8. What would be your dream job?
- Honestly? Doing this...blogging, YouTubing (if that's a word?) because ever since I was little, I never knew what I wanted to be when I grew up (apart from being a princess...the dream still lives on!) and now that I've 'grown up' this is what I'm passionate about, what I think about every day and what I'm excited to do - even when I'm watching TV I've got my laptop on my knee and writing out new posts!

9. Do you have any hobbies?
- Blogging, collecting beauty products, talking to my cats...I'm a very boring person haha.

10. Do you have a blog you read everyday without fault?
- ...does my own count? Haha! I don't have a blog that I read everyday to be honest because I know that once I start reading, I won't stop.

11. If money was no object, what would you like to buy? Only one!
- Can I be really sensible and say a mansion? That way I could rent it out and make a bunch of money from it, and then when I'm ready to move out I've already got my house sorted! God I sound like I'm in my 40s or something...

Now, I was meant to nominate other bloggers but after being unable to find any that hadn't been previously nominated, I sent out a tweet to which no-one replied to. Sigh. Oh well, I really enjoyed doing this little post so once again I'd like to give a huge thankyou to Caitlin & Sophie for nominating me.

Have you been nominated for a Liebster Award?
♥
Yes I started my blog on the 3rd December and yes it's January but I thought of this post a little late so don't judge me. Anywaaaaaaaaaaay

HAPPY 1ST BIRTHDAY MY DARLING BLOG! 

Last week (Saturday 28th December to be precise) I woke to find that I had passed the 3,000 page view mark which has put the biggest smile on my face. 

Also, I've reached a total of 81 followers so I'd like to give a big hug to every single one of you that reads my blog, it honestly does mean a lot. 

And to all of you that talk to me on ask.fm and give me ideas on what to post, there would probably not be as many posts without you haha! You give me the motivation to write! 

Some people might think that I don't have many followers or page views to say I've been blogging for a year but I don't care about all that, I only care if you guys enjoy what I have to say and if that's only one of you, I'm happy with that.

Followers 
GFC: 2 
Google+: 7 
Bloglovin: 68 
E-mail Subscription: 4 
Twitter: 171 
Tumblr: 36
Ask.fm: 16 (4913 answers!!!) 

p.s. if you're a follower and you like my blog, you could always tell your friends about it, you know, if you want to ;)

How have you all been this week?
♥
Follow my blog with Bloglovin

You can now follow me on bloglovin, which is an easier way to see when I've published new posts and you can even mark when you've read them so to never miss a post! Because I know most of you will be at -5 on the 'effort' scale, signing up literally involves your first name, e-mail address and a password, perfect for us lazy lot.

So what are you waiting for?! Get signing up, and don't forget to follow me on there!


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Hey everyone, just wanted to inform you all that I've just put up three new products on my eBay account - two Bourjois Limited Edition Little Round Pot eyeshadows, one in 25 Argent and one in 94 Citron Givre and a Les Creme des Levres Lip Cream in 01 Beige Veloute. I'll be putting up different shades of the Lip Cream too, but only if this one sells.

Fancy taking a peek? I hope you're all having a great day, and happy eBaying! 
♥
I've started buying genuine makeup in bulk and selling them on eBay at a cheaper price than sold in shops. Because I've only just started I can only list 10 things every month, this month I'm selling Bourjois La Creme des Levres Lip Cream in various shades which is RRP'd at £6.99 but I'm selling them for £3.50 - bargain ;)

In the future I will be selling No7 Stay Perfect Nail Colour, Bourjois Bio Detox Organic foundation, Bourjois eyeshadows, Urban Decay Lipsticks, Bourjois Rouge Hi-Tech Lip Tint and many other products. I'll pop a post on here before I put new products up, and may even give a review on them too!

I only ship to addresses in the UK via First Class Royal Mail so I'm sorry if you live overseas. There is a link at the top of the page to my eBay account so check out my products and comment below or send me a message on ask.fm telling me what you'd like me to sell! 

Happy eBaying!

♥