Song Of The Week #4

Hi everybody!

Its been awhile since I've done one of these blog posts but that is because, as far as I can remember, I have not been completely obsessed with a song in a good while. The songs on the radio have been good and very much in my circle of music interest and taste. However, nothing has stood out which explains my incredibly delayed Song Of The Week blog post. This week's song is.......

Fancy - Iggy Azalea ft. Charli XCX

Its not the latest song out there, in fact I believe it has been out for quite awhile and I have been listening to it for quite awhile as well but only last week did I really fall in love with it. My girlfriends and I all love singing along to it all day and we just cannot get enough of this song. It is very upbeat and instantly puts you in a great mood and a positive state of mind. If you have not already, give this song a listen, put it on your spottily, check out the music video as well as my other social media sites. Comment below if you love this song as well and if you would like, check out my last Song Of The Week blog post which was All Of Me by John Legend.

Have a great day! Xx

Twitter: @jessieashleyyy

Instagram: @fashion_jessie

Email: jessicashleyyy@gmail.com

A Short Trip Down Memory Lane

Hi everybody!

This isn't my ordinary blog post relating to beauty, fashion or anything materialistic. In fact, this blog post is about something that cannot be bought for any figure.

Earlier this week, I took a couple of days off work and travelled back to my parents' house for a few days. As it was Father's Day last Sunday, I decided it was only right to pay them a short visit and at the same time, spend some much needed quality time with the rest of the family. I come from quite a large family and I have about 20 cousins and loads of aunts and uncles, and though we've all stayed fairly close knitted in the past, times have changed and we have all become, sadly, more distant. Besides the lovely and massive Father's Day celebration dinner with everyone, I also managed to sneak in some time chilling and having lovely chats alongside cups of tea with my parents as well as siblings. I have a fair few siblings, I like to think so anyway, two brothers and a sister. Although I am very thankful and feel so fortunate to have them in my life, I think it is pretty common to take these things for granted on a day-to-day basis.

The thing is- this blog post isn't supposed to be for me to share my experience with all of you. It actually is just me trying to spread a message. I know that so many of us are caught up in our lifestyles and feel so comfortable with it and that is perfectly fine. However, having busy days and crazy fun nights, we tend to forget the ones we've left behind... parents, siblings, grandparents, extended family, childhood friends. That is exactly what happened to me. I have lived away from home for a good 4 years and if not for special events and long weekends, I would rarely ever travel back which means that in a year, I would only go back a good 3 to 4 times, which I have to admit is way too little. I went back last week, quite spontaneously and I had, quite possibly the best 3 days since 2014 started. I have not been back since Christmas and I came very close to forgetting the feeling of comforting, warm love and support of family members. It was exactly what I needed as life has been a little too crazy even for me these days. My siblings and I synced our trip so that the whole family would be together at the same time, which made my parents very happy and made me feel very blessed.

So if you are reading this and you live away from your family or loved ones, and you've not seen them in a good while, why not make a trip to pay them a visit, even a short trip is better than nothing. I am well aware that there are some of you who live miles and miles away from home, possibly across the country or across the world and it is not that straight forward to go back. But if you live a couple of hours away, like I do, why not take a drive or hop on the train, like what I did and go see them. This trip was a good wake up call for me, not in a shockingly life changing way but in a comforting-take-things-easier-move-a-little-slower way. I plan on taking more of these short trips in the near future and I think its about time I make more of an effort to maintain and close knit relationship.

Anyways, thats all I wanted to share with you guys and hopefully this has been somewhat a good read for you guys. I don't usually write blog post like this but even someone like me has to take a break from the materialistic interests every now and then. Right guys, don't forget to check out my other social media sites and I love you all. I hope you've had a great weekend so far and enjoy this lovely Sunday. Its been a short blog post but I hope you've liked it, short but sweet. Big love everyone! Xx

Twitter: @jessieashleyyy
Instagram: @fashion_jessie
Email: jessicashleyyy@gmail.com

Product Of The Month

Hi everybody!

It is another Product Of The Month blog post !!!!!

I honestly cannot believe May has come and gone so quickly. This month has been absolutely crazy for me and I have put aside almost everything including shopping, meals with friends, going to the cinema and sadly to say, blogging. The month of May for me has been fully focused on work, which is something only a workaholic would say and to be honest I have felt like a workaholic this month. I am now in the 'recovering' stage and getting back to the usual busy weekdays and relaxing weekends. Due to the work life chaos, I sadly did not get to try out new makeup products as I have been travelling and tend to stick to products that I am comfortable and very familiar with.

This is quite an oldie in the world of makeup. It is the One Night Stand Blush Palette by NARS. This palette came out during the holiday season for 2013. I purchased this palette around mid November of 2013 and I remember being obsessed with it for a long time and then it just got lost in the unspeakable mess, also known as my makeup collection. The thing that really made me fall in love with the palette is that it consists of shades that are already the top sellers for NARS. In fact, I have already bought some of these blushes in their individual compacts but having all of them in one reasonably wide but slim palette changes the game completely. As I have been doing a fair bit of travelling for work, I pulled out this palette and I must say, it has been an absolute life saver when it comes to easy, quick face makeup.

This palette consists of 6 shades, which has 4 blushes, 1 highlighter and 1 bronzer. As you can tell, having all of these options in one palette makes it incredibly travel friendly. With this palette, NARS pay homage to Guy Bourdin's seductive and suspenseful images with cheek palette of signature shades and dramatic blushes and highlighters. The One Night Stand Palette is perfect to help the everyday modern women create cheek looks with the ultimate palette to pop, contour and sculpt.

IN THIS PALETTE:-

• Devotee Highlighting Blush - frosty highlighter with the slightest sheen of pink
• Mistinguette Blush - bright baby doll pink
• Orgasm Blush - peachy pink with a slight gold shimmer
• Laguna Bronzer - classic bronzer with a shimmery gold undertone
• Deep Throat Blush - sheer pink with a peach undertone
• Goulue Blush - very pigmented medium pink

To give you a breakdown of my thoughts on the shades individually, Devotee is a beautiful highlighter and I have not used it before getting the palette but I love it. Mistinguette is a little on the more daring end of the spectrum for me, I usually tend to stay away from baby doll pinks like this one. Orgasm is the most gorgeous peach-pink and I absolutely adore it. Laguna is the bronzer in the palette that I love although I tend to stick to more matte bronzers entirely, I do think that the slightest hint of gold shimmer just lifts the bronzer and prevents it from looking a little muddy. Deep Throat is just the most wonderful blusher that NARS has ever released in my opinion. It is right up there with the other high-end makeup products in terms of pigmentation and quality and I do own this shade of blush individually and have loved it for the longest time. Goulue is without a doubt, the most pigmented shade in the palette and having said that, I love the colour but not I am not too crazy on the extremely dewy finish. However I quite like the finished look when applied light handedly.

I am sorry to say that this palette is limited edition exclusive for the Holiday Season 2013. However you can always pick them up at a NARS counter individually. My favourite shade in this palette is Deep Throat, which sounds a little rude, but I guess you can say that's just the humour of a NARSissist. I also think Orgasm and Laguna are pretty amazing as well. Although I am sure that many of you have already picked up one of these for yourselves but I got mine at Space NK for £45, if memory serves well. I am also well aware that due to the fact that this palette was released to the public months ago, almost every beauty blogger or beauty guru have used/blogged/featured/raved about this product, so do excuse my late arrival to the party.

If you would like to check out my previous Product Of The Month blog post on the Early Harvest Raspberry Range by The Body Shop, there will be a link to that below. Also, don't forget to check out my other social media sites as well. Thank you for taking the time to read this post and I hope you have enjoyed it. I would just like to add that if you plan to do travelling this summer, make sure you take this along, do not leave this behind, I promise you will not regret it. Have a great day ! Xx

Twitter; @jessieashleyyy

Instagram: @fashion_jessie

Email: jessicashleyyy@gmail.com

Check out my previous Product Of The Month blog post here

5 Amazing Smoothie Recipes

Hi everybody!

If you have read my blog post yesterday on the Nutribullet, then you would be well aware that today's blog post is on smoothie recipes. After having done the blog post yesterday on the Nutribullet, I thought it was only right that I share some of my favourite smoothie recipes. For a long time now, I have been trying to branch out and try new smoothie recipes and change up some of the ingredients every now and then but these are mainly the recipes that I find myself coming back to very often.

Cranberry and Raspberry Smoothie
This is at the top of my favourite smoothies list and the one that I have the most often. This is amazing and I love it for early and busy mornings on working days. A small tip that I would like to share is that I would usually weigh out the raspberries and freeze them as it just makes things more convenient.

• 200ml cranberry juice
• 175g frozen raspberries
• 100ml milk
• 200ml fat free yogurt
• 1 tbsp castor sugar
• 2 mint sprigs

Creamy Mango and Coconut Smoothie

This is another amazing smoothie, it has a very tropical taste which is quite unique and so lovely especially in the spring and summer. Drinking this just makes me feel like I am sitting on a beach somewhere. This recipe calls for dairy free coconut milk but what I usually do is substitute that for half low fat coconut milk and half almond milk. I also tend to substitute coconut yogurt for regular yogurt. 

• 200ml dairy free coconut milk
• 4 tbsp fat free coconut yogurt
• 1 tbsp flaxseed
• 1 tbsp pumpkin seed
• 120g frozen mango cubes

Chocolate and Banana Smoothie

This is a twist on the usual healthy style smoothie. Who says smoothies can't be decadent ? I must admit, this isn't something I make very often but when I do, it is an amazing treat and I absolutely love it. I think its amazing for when you have a small party with some mates. Also, it cannot be more straight forward and it uses chocolate syrup as an ingredient, which I love.

• 1 banana
• 2 tbsp chocolate syrup
• 1 cup milk
• 1 cup of crushed ice

Fruit and Oat Smoothie

This is perfect for breakfast and it tends to fill you up better compared to the other smoothies as it contains oats which is a little more hearty. If you would like to have less of that unhealthy sugars in your smoothie then try substituting the maple syrup for honey which is something I do quite often as well.

• 1 cup frozen strawberries
• 1 sliced bananas
• 1/4 cup of almonds
• 1/2 cup old fashioned oats
• 1 cup vanilla yogurt
• 1 tsp maple syrup

Avocado and Pear Smoothie

This is my version of a "green juice" and although it doesn't contain veggies of any sort, it still is green! Im a little picky when it comes to drinking veggie juices, I just do not like the taste or the idea of it. However, we all need a little green juice in our system and I love this recipe. I was a little unsure about this recipe to begin with as it contains silken tofu which is not an ingredient that I am not at all familiar with, but you can barely taste it and its mainly there to give a more creamy texture.

• 1 riped avocado
• 1/2 cup silken tofu
• 1 cup pear juice
• 1/2 tbsp honey
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 cups crushed ice

One thing that I would like to say is that if you plan on making any of the smoothies above, it is no rocket science. In fact they are all extremely straight forward and so simple to do so don't get too caught up in the accuracy of the measurements and do change it up to fit your preference and convenience. I hope you have enjoyed this blog post and it has hopefully given you some ideas to recreate your own smoothies.

If you have not done so already, do check out my previous blog post on the Nutribullet, which is a blender/juicer/smoothie maker that I recently got and have been loving and I do use it to make my smoothies currently. I am also well aware that it is the beginning of June and I have not uploaded a Product Of The Month post but that will be up this weekend so do look out for that and I apologise as its timing is a little delayed. Check out my other social media sites as well and comment below sharing your favourite smoothies. Have a great day! Xx

Twitter: @jessieashleyyy

Instagram: @fashion_jessie

Email: jessicashleyyy@gmail.com

Check out my Nutribullet blog post here.

Nutribullet Review

Hi everybody!

When I started this blog, I initially intended for it to be a beauty, fashion and lifestyle blog. So today, I will be focusing more on the lifestyle aspect. This blog post, as you can tell by the title is about the Nutribullet. If you have never heard of it or seen one before, it is basically a juicer/ blender. Although having said that, the Nutribullet actually works in a way where it does not blend nor does it juice, but it EXTRACTS. It is brilliantly designed in a way where it keeps all the nutrients in raw ingredients and fully breaks down these ingredients in order for it to be consumed.

I wouldn't say that the Nutribullet is one of the cheaper kitchen appliances that I own but it is one of the better investments that I have made. This is because I love making my own smoothies almost everyday for breakfast, or even snacks. Before purchasing the Nutribullet, I have used just an ordinary blender which works perfectly fine in my opinion and it does the job well. However, a few of my mates had started talking about the Nutribullet therefore I decided it was only best that I went and did some research on it as it really caught my attention. I found out that many people have started using the Nutribullet and I discovered a long list of benefits and pros about the Nutribullet. Personally I find that it has worked very well for me so far and I have been using it constantly for about a month and a half. I haven't really done massive trials with the Nurtibullet but I usually only use it for everyday smoothies which consists of ingredients like frozen berries, frozen bananas, almond milk, ice and pretty much only basic smoothie ingredients.

Breakdown of the Nutribullet:-

• Extractor blade - breaks through tough seeds, thick stems and skin)
• Miling blade - flat blade for grinding herbs and chopping nuts
• Power base - power source
• 3 cups in different sizes

As you can see, the Nutribullet has well thought out elements designed such that maximum nutrients are kept and you will not be throwing away the nutritious parts of your ingredients. This means there is minimum hassle and I find that it really makes a massive difference as I don't spend time peeling or chopping of stems etc. Honestly, I love it because for someone who is as lazy/"busy" as I am, all I have to do for a perfect smoothie is throw all of my ingredients into the cup and blend for less than a minute and I'm good to go. Cleaning up is also very easy and convenient as all of the remaining residues and leftover bits gets washed away extremely quickly and with zero fuss which is a bonus.

With my purchase of a Nutribullet, I also got a user guide and recipe book as well as a pocket nutritionist and all of it has been very helpful and informative. I actually was very inspired by the recipe book and with the risk of sounding too over-optimistic, I do think that using the Nutribullet more often and with a little extra research, I can hopefully branch out to more unique tasting smoothies with different ingredients (hopefully ones with more greens) as I am way too attached to my ordinary fruit and berry smoothies. With that said, I will be uploading another blog post tomorrow about some of my favourite smoothie recipes that have stuck with me for the longest time so do look out for that.

If you are at all interested in buying a Nurtibullet, then I do recommend it and I got mine at Argos for £99.99 in the standard grey colour. Also, do check out my other social media sites when you get the chance, I will leave a list of them below. I hope this blog post and it has been hopefully helpful or informative. I did a tonne of research on the Nutribullet and I found that I was very interested in knowing what real users thought of it and so I thought this would be a good blog post for those of you out there if you are still on the fence about buying it. However, I do want to point out that although I recommend it and have gone on about everything good about the Nutribullet, I only speak from my thoughts and opinions and this is just based on my preference. If you would like to know more about the Nutribullet then there will be a direct link below as well as a FAQ page on the Nutribullet that will hopefully clear your doubts. I hope you have enjoyed this blog post and once again, do remember to look out for my smoothie recipe blog post that will be uploaded tomorrow.

Have a great day ! Xx

Twitter: @jessieashleyyy
Instagram: @fashion_jessie
Email: jessicashleyyy@gmail.com

To know more about the Nutribullet, click here
FAQ about the Nurtibullet, click here
To purchase the Nutribullet through Argos, click here