dalal tahira

Depending on your understanding of slang, you'll probably be wondering what my blog post title actually means. Or not. Well anyway, I've got a cold so the past few days have just been me rubbing VapoRub under my nose and also reminiscing on all the times I could actually breathe clearly and how I took that for granted. Seeing as the whole flu season is ahead of us I thought I'd share a few things that have been getting me through...

VapoRub has been an absolute GEM. My nose is so blocked and congested (sorry if that's tmi) so I just put this all under my nose and it does help to 'unblock' everything. If you have a cough this is also really good at helping with that, just rub some on your chest and it decongests everything, making you feel normal again.

I also really love lavender essential oil, I put a few drops onto my pillow before going to sleep and it helps me drift off much quicker. There are a few nights when I legit cannot get to sleep because I can't breathe because of how blocked my nose is so this helps a little.

A hot drink is always a good idea, mine's in my camera lens flask (which I adore) I only tend to drink hot chocolate, not coffee ew so that's what I always have in there.

Carmex is a life-saver, I ran out of my old tub and I basically suffered until my mum bought a new one. My lips are always dry (this is an actual struggle) but when I'm ill they just get that extra bit drier so this is really good and moisturising your lips. You don't even need to reapply because it hydrates for such a long period of time.

Just like my lips the rest of my skin gets extremely dry, especially on my face. That's when I use the Aveno moisturising cream, it's really light and also unscented so it doesn't irritate the skin which is especially good for when the bit under your nose is raw after blowing your nose countless times. It just helps to smooth and properly moisturise your skin.

My laptop is basically what gets me through the day, I just sit and watch YouTube videos, read blog posts and online shop the whole day (such fun much exciting)

Yeeeah so those are my sick essentials, I'm going to get back to trying not to die. I shall see you in my next post, which will be soon because I'm trying to post everyday/every other day during the half-term holiday oi oi.

Back at it again with a skincare post seeing as I haven't done one in a while. I thought I'd update you on how I take care of my face, seeing as the season's transitioning and whatnot.

To remove makeup...
If I am wearing makeup, specifically mascara, I use the Clinique 'take the day off' cleansing balm to remove it. This easily melts away anything I have on, it's extremely effective at getting rid of those long-lasting and waterproof mascara.

To cleanse...
I use the La Roche Posay Effaclar cleanser on my Clinique cleansing brush to thoroughly clean my face, these two work really well side by side however I do alternate between the LRP and the Clinique Sonic cleansing foam. Either way, they both foam up really well (my very unprofessional indication that my face is clean) and leave my skin feeling good. It only takes 30 seconds to deeply clean my whole face with this too, so yay for time efficiency.

To tone...
This is a step I do only when I can actually be bothered, most the time I just skip this and go straight to moisturising. I use the Lush breath of fresh air toner just to remove any extra dirt however since I started using my cleansing brush, there hardly ever is any. It does help to balance my skin as well as calm down any redness I may have after cleansing.

To hydrate...
During the summer, I used the Simple light moisturiser twice a day and it done a v good job at keeping my skin all soft and supple but as we move into the colder months, my dry skin is getting even drier. This means that not only do I use this moisturiser, I use 100% argan oil on top to seal it in and also repair my skin. The argan oil isn't in the picture as it kept rolling away lol #wowsuchgoals

For spots...
I need my own juju master to banish my stress spots, it's actually a struggle. In the meantime, I use the Daktacort ointment for them (which I think was originally prescribed to my mum) but as it contains hydrocortisone, it's really useful for lessening the redness and swelling of spots. I dot this on any spots I have, leave it overnight and in the morning it's much less inflamed.

So, that's everything I use in my skincare routine! It's much more than I used to do but it works at keeping my face clear and smooth (she writes as I have sudocream smeared over the two monsters I have protruding from my face)

If you read my handwritten post, you'd know that I rambled on about needing new clothes and hinting at a wishlist I have so here it is. It isn't too extensive, which is definitely a good thing, I'm not trying to get broke but it's enough.

First are these embroidered mom jeans (Pull and Bear) which I am actually in love with, I know I say this about many items of clothing but these are seriously something else. I hardly ever wear colour so the embroidery on these is definitely a new way to incorporate it into my outfits. I also really like the wash of these, it's the perfect mid-blue, true denim shade with just enough distressing.

I really need to buy new sweatshirts and hoodies, hence the appearance of two of them in this wish list, both of which from Zara. The khaki/olive green hoodie kinda gives me Yeezy vibes (which I'm not mad at) I think it's down to the colour and the slight distressing off it. I've tried it on in store and love the slackness of it, it looks like it'd pair well with the majority of my jeans. The next sweatshirt is a high collar 'Insider' one, and no the left sleeve is not missing, it's just white. I like how different it is and the chunky, yellow text makes it look quite comical -in a good way- it looks hella comfy too.

Last are a pair of trainers that I don't really need but just really want. Not only are my slip on Vans mashup, it's also getting way too cold to wear them, same with my Roshes, leaving only one pair of trainers which are my New Balances. I want an extra pair of trainers okay, I'm trying to justify it. These look soo comfy and look really good too, they're the Tubular Viral shoe. If I do get them I'll either get the black and white, Raw pink or Talc colour way (kinda leaning towards the raw pink...let me know what you think)

• watch the arrow and the imbetweeners AND SEASON 4 OITNB ended up watching narcos and jane the virgin instead but I did watch OITNB
• learn about the vietnam war and russian revolution (basically everything in modern history that my curriculum doesn't cover, I would've done this earlier but don't want to confuse myself because I'm that much of an idiot) 
• learn more about philosophy, I've been self teaching myself so far and have gone into the root of evil and how God allows free will etc but need need need to learn more
• meet my zimbabwean hottay, fran irl I MET HER
• take some goddamn outfit pics 
• my dad has an old canon camera that uses film so I really really really want to use that this summer and develop the photos he left it in morocco last year :) :) :)
• visit the andalusian cities, in Spain, like Seville, Cordoba and Granada- my dad and I are thinking of going as soon as I finish school (14th!!!) but after prom. he's fluent in spanish whilst I'm getting there so I've actually done this, my dad and I travelled to Seville, Cordoba, Granada and Malaga!

To be real, only three of the things in the photo are actually new- the rest I just used as props otherwise the flatlay would just look a bit bare ygm? I somehow managed to fuck up my "post every Friday" schedule because I forgot that yesterday was indeed Friday (fob) but from now on I will actually schedule my posts so that I post on the actual day I've promised to do so.

I decided to actually spend some of my birthday/results money now, but spend it wisely and on clothes that I will wear during sixth form so I obviously went to Zara first. Although I've slightly gone off Zara a few pieces still did stand out to me when I went in yesterday, the jumper and the faux leather jacket. Surprisingly, the jacket was only £20 which is such a good price for it, it will work as a really good transitional piece- only limitations are that I don't really know what to wear with it :/ leave outfit ideas below.
If you know me, then you'd know that I am always cold so I got (another) grey sweater with cream pipelining on the sleeves and collar and it's so so soft I love it. I then went into Primark to look around and saw this beige snood for £2 so I thought that I might as well just fuel my scarf addiction and add to the collection. Right. The LV wallet isn't mine unfortunately but my mum has let me use it until she needs it sooo I will count it as mine hehe- I love the neutral colour palette of it and it looks much more sleek and elegant than the original brown colour way. Oh, and the nail varnish has been mine since like January so that's definitely not new, it's Barry M 'eat my dust' if you were curious.

I guess that concludes my "haul", I've still got my eye on a few more items (that'll be shown in my wishlist that's coming up soon) so there will most likely be another post like this soon...