I think in recent years feminism has come leaps and bounds. It's become a much more accepted thing and I think more people feel comfortable about telling people they view themselves as a feminist. However, saying that I think that when you tell people you're a feminist or talk to people of feminism their minds automatically go to one of the following.

1. All feminists are women:
   I think when people hear the word feminism, they hear 'fem' and automatically assume that it's just for females and female rights. The actual definition of feminism is about having equality of the sexes, it isn't all about women although that can be a big part of it. As a feminist I personally feel that EVERYONE deserves to feel safe, happy and comfortable with who they are and the life they lead.
2. All feminists hate men and think women are better than men:
   This is a huge misconception that I know so many people who don't understand feminism have. I don't hate men, at all and I count myself as straight so I certainly don't hate men. What I hate is ignorance, whether this is from men or women. I certainly don't believe that women are better than men, there is no way to judge whether someone else is better than the next. Radical feminists believe that male supremacy should be completely eliminated in all contexts of life, but a large majority don't count themselves as radical feminists anymore and believe that all men and women should be equal (equal being the key word).
3. Sexism isn't a problem anymore:
   Ofcourse sexism is nowhere near as bad as it used to be; we as women now have the vote, we can work and do just as much as any man can. However, saying this we still have so many areas in the world where we are complete behind on the times. Abortion is still considered a horrendous crime, child marriages are still the norm in so many countries, FGM is still happening and people still feel ashamed about coming forward about rape and abuse. There are still so many awful places in the world where feminism is needed. Feminism is needed for EVERYONE.
   
   

Hiiiiiiiii,
so it's been a while hasn't it? I've got to apologize, because if you read my last post (around this time last year...) I said that I was going to try and start posting again. Well, that clearly didn't happen did it.

This past year has been INSANE.
There's been a few ups and many downs and things have completely changed in my life, I almost feel like I'd taken 3 step forward and now I've taken about 10 steps back. I'm not ready to explain in detail what these changes have been, but I'm sure I'll explain in another post at some point.

The fact that so many things in my life have changed has made me feel like taking up my blog again would really help me express and use my energy in a more productive way. So this is me, apologizing for disappearing and asking you all to forgive me and bear with me while I return to something I love to do.

It'll be a slow process, but I'm excited to get back into the blogging community that I love so much.
Speak to you all soon!

xoxo

After seeing the hype that was taking place on the internet over the new Benefit Roller Lash mascara, I felt that as a beauty blogger it would be so wrong if I didn't get a sample myself a review it.

I think the packaging for this product is so cute and pretty, I love the pink/ rose gold colour of the lid and the pink and black together just looks so vintage, I'm a really big fan of it. Although it's not a full sized one, I actually think I prefer this size purely because it's the perfect size for your handbag and make up bag and doesn't take up much space.


I do see why everyone likes this product and I think the wand is perfect for separating lashes and lengthening them as well, I don't find it makes them very thick but I'm not a fan of big thick lashes as I prefer for my lashes to look more natural and this definitely achieves that look. I also like that it doesn't have brush bits at the end like they're real which always causes loads of product to clump on my lashes and it just gets EVERYWHERE. I also find that it really adds so much curl to your lashes as well, I've never had particularly straight lashes so they are pretty curly as it is but this just makes them look that bit better. It's like a 'your lashes, but better' type affect.

Hopefully from the above photo you can see what I mean! They don't look overly fake, they just extend my lashes without making it look like I've got much mascara on and I absolutely love it. I think it's definitely worth trying if you're interested in trying a high end mascara as it seems to give every single person a different look, but it always seems to be the desired effect.

I've nearly run out of my Urban Decay flushed palette which I reviewed on my blog here, and so I've been on the hunt for a new highlighter, bronzer and blush. So far I'm still looking for a highlighter, but I've managed to get the other two and they are absolute dynamite!


 As you can see from the above photo I decided to go for the Bourjois bronzing powder, and so far I am so impressed with how much I love it. It's absolutely brilliant! I love the shade it's so warm and looks very natural and it's a lot less shimmery than my Urban Decay one so it looks much more natural on my skins and although I was really worried it was going to be too dark, it works so well and blends like a dream. It also smells absolutely amazing, I cannot get over the smell! Whenever I'm using it I force Adam to smell it because I love it so much.

I wasn't sure how I would feel about the cardboard container as I was worried it would get quite battered up in my make up bag, but so far there hasn't actually been any problems with the packaging which is a huge plus and I actually really like the packaging. I can see why some people probably don't, but I love it. As you can see in the photo above it does appear to be quite dark, but I promise its not that noticeable! It just gives a really natural gorgeous glow.

It retails for about £7/£8 in the UK which isn't really that bad, I didn't think it was too bad anyway but maybe I'm wrong. I'd definitely purchase it again because for the price you get your money's worth and I just love it so much!!

Have you used Bourjois bronzing powder before?

Here are some of my absolute favourite songs from the past month, it's quite a mixed bag of music but I love them all equally and keep listening to them on repeat!

What songs have you loved this month?

Here are some of my favourite songs from the month of February, I personally feel like there are some new amazing artists and songs coming out this year and that makes me so excited. February has been very similar to January in that it has all been up in the air and manic but things are slowly staring to calm down and I'll hopefully be able to blog a lot more in the coming weeks!

• In the earlier part of the year, me and some of my best pals went to Norwich for our baby boy Zachy’s 19^th birthday and although I ruined the night because of my crippling stomach aches (sorry again guys) it was definitely one of the best nights of the year. We all played drinking games and took photos and had chats and danced so much and it was just a bloody beautiful night with some of the greatest people ever.
  
•   In July Adam and I went to Spain together for a week and it was just everything I had hoped it would be a more, spending a week together sun bathing, exploring, eating and drinking the week away was definitely what I had needed. It was such a chill out holiday and was just wonderful and reinforced all the reasons that I love Spain, because who doesn't love Spain!?
  
• I don’t like birthdays, don’t get me wrong if it’s somebody else’s birthday then I love it because I like to make people happy and get them what they want. If it’s my own birthday I just struggle to feel upbeat about it and don’t really want to do anything, this year was completely different. I spent the day with my family and Adam and it was just completely chilled and great because I got such wonderful and thoughtful presents from everyone; my family, Adam and Adam’s family all put such effort into what they got me and I was so thankful.
  
•  Now this joins to the last point I made about my birthday.  A week after my birthday, me and all my closest friends in the world (excluding frasmine) and Adam went out for my second ‘birthday’. This was hands down my favourite night of the year, I had one of the best nights out I have ever had which is hilarious because it was in our home town which is NOT good for a night out at all. It was absolutely amazing though, and at the end of the night I just remember lying on a hill and being so happy and thankful for all my friends. It was an emosh moment and I still get stupidly happy if I think about it now.
  
•  Going to Liverpool and seeing my family after such a long amount of time was so special for me, especially being able to take Adam with me. I've always gotten on so well with that side of my family and so just being able to spend as much time with them as I could and just doing really casual things like going shopping and watching TV and stuff, it meant a lot to me.
  
• Going to the Bury Christmas Market with my parents and Adam was great, we've never really done anything like that and so being able to mooch round and just look at all the great things that the market stalls had to offer was great and I think we all enjoyed it.
  
• Adam decided that for a Christmas present he would buy us tickets to go to the first ever BBC music awards and it was wonderful! We went shopping, went to Winter Wonderland and just did all cute London things and spent time together. I loved cute little days like that, they make my life.

What were your favourite memories?

I can feel myself gradually getting more and more tired because I know that I break up from work next week and my body is just going "nah don't worry about it Ashleigh, you can go to sleep for days now it's nearly Christmas anyway". No, my body is wrong and needs to be stopped now. My parents have added the finishing touches to our Christmas decorations now; a few fluffy clouds are hanging about as well as some glittery/glass stars and it looks so cute I just cannot handle the sweetness of it all. I never want these decorations to go; they can stay for Easter, bonfire night even Halloween.

Me and all my pals have arranged to go to the cinema this weekend and it's going to be so good, I miss them and it's probably one of the main times that I'm really going to have a chance to see them over the Christmas period. Hopefully we'll be able to see each other a bit more, if not then atleast I will be able to see all of their beautiful faces this Saturday night. In all honesty I've not really got much else to say today because I've just been doing the normal stuff of work and just coming home, blogmas is very boring if you don't do something fun everyday. With vlogmas atleast it's slightly easier to make moderately interesting videos, when you write it's either interesting or it isn't and unfortunately tonight I am super boring. HOWEVER, I have put up a wishlist post tonight as well. So if you get bored of this (I will completely understand if you do) you could go and check that one out instead like the lovely readers you are.

I hope you all had more interesting days than I did!

I have so many posts planned that I'm finding it hard to actually figure out when to post them, which is an absolute first for me! It's growing closer and closer to Christmas and although I will over the moon with any gifts I am lucky enough to get, I thought I would do a wishlist of stuff I'd like to be able to buy myself for Christmas!

Tomorrow I'll be on blogmas day 15, so I've technically caught up in my own messed up crazy way. I hope it's not been too confusing for any of you! So after the amazing night at the BBC music awards we were unsure of what we wanted to do for the last few hours we had in London and eventually we settled on going to winter wonderland which I've been super excited to do for a while.

I know what you're all probably thinking and yes I know that 13 doesn't come after 11. I'm not quite that bad at maths! I was obviously in London for Thursday and Friday and so I've not really had any access to a laptop, and as I knew I wouldn't be doing much this weekend I thought I'd combine Thursday with today and then I'll do tomorrow and Friday together. I'm sorry if it's a bit confusing, but it does make sense in my head I promise!

So Adam and I woke up early Thursday morning and got in the car to drive to London, yes you heard me right; we drove into London. Why we decided this would be a good idea I have absolutely no idea, but it was an experience to say the least. We were obviously in London to go to the first ever BBC music awards, so we still had a few hours to kill before we needed to get ready and so had a bit of a mooch around London. I've been obsessed with trying five guys ever since I had heard there was one in Covent Garden, it just needed to happen. So when we saw it wasn't that busy we ran straight in and thank god we did because it was so so worth it! You definitely get what you pay for and I cannot wait to go back. We then went to have a look around Convent Garden and I fell in love with the Christmas tree because who couldn't?! It's bloody beautiful



 After a few hours of shopping we hurried back to our hotel to get ready for the music awards. I'll say now, this was the first ever BBC music awards and if they decided to do it again next year and you can get tickets; then go. It was one of the best experiences of my life so far, the music was amazing, the atmosphere was fabulous and the crowd was just full of really polite nice people apart from a couple of inconsiderate douche-bags. We were stood up and we were actually really close to the front of the stage which was insane, although we are both really short it was quite hard to see but there were big screens so the little people could see which was great. In all honesty though it was just an absolutely amazing experience that I'm so glad I was able to see for the first time.

The highlight for me was Coldplay, Clean Bandit, George Ezra, Catfish and the bottlemen and Will.I.am & Cody Wise. Coldplay started off and were so so stunning, they put the crowd in such a mental and up-beat mood and I genuinely want to see them again. Clean Bandit have been one of my favourite bands this year and so I was super stoked to see them and they were worth the wait, they are such an interesting mix of genre's and they were just as good live as they are in the music videos. George Ezra was just an absolute darling, which I thought he would be and I just love him so much! Catfish and the bottleman won an award (WOO BEST NEWCOMER) and me and Adam were cheering so loud for them because they deserved it 110% and Will.I.am and Codywise were fabulous; I've always been a huge fan of Will.I.am so when he was announced as an act I did a massive fistpump.
My phone died, but here are a few photos that I managed to get.