So, recently, it has come to my attention that a lot of my favourite beauty brands test on animals (Mac, Maybelline, MaxFactor) and it's because of this that I've started looking into both high-end and drugstore alternatives.

I looked into replacing my foundation, powder, eyeliner and mascara with Urban Decay, which is one of my favourite brands, and it took my basket to over £80!  I have also looked into the brand e.l.f. but they have no counters in England and I'm not quite sure if I can risk buying their products for them to not match my skin tone.  Sleek is another good contender, it's cheap and it has good staying power, but I am trying to branch into high-end makeup as I've noticed my skin rarely agrees with anything cheap.

I own a lot of Mac, Maybelline and MaxFactor products, and while I'm on the hunt for alternatives, I will continue to use those products I've bought; both because I'll have nothing else otherwise and I hate waste.  However, I will no longer be purchasing Mac's beautiful lipsticks Maybelline's eye liner, and MaxFactor foundation, powder and mascara.  These three brands have got me through God knows how many years of trying to do my make up well, but the time comes for me to be morally sound than beautifully done-up.

While I'm on this note, I'm also taking the steps to cut meat out from my diet, not becoming a vegetarian or vegan straight away as such, but to make a conscientious effort to stop funding the way the meat industry works.  Again, this will be hard for me as I don't always cook the meals I eat, and I really love eating meat.  However, I am quite a fan of meat substitutes and will be making sure I am still eating healthily.

Basically, this year is going to be a year of bettering myself as a person, both mind and body (because I'm kinda going to the gym again).

If you have any recommendedations please let me know!

New video coming soon, on my first thoughts and opinions of Rise of the Tomb Raider, watch this space!

Alli x

Here is a little video I did for the Christmas period, going into the new year.  I will hopefully be getting a new video out next week that may even possibly be about Assassin's Creed:  Syndicate, but let's not get our hopes up.

Enjoy!

So, Tinder is a thing I've not been on in nearly a year now, and from what I hear it's changed quite a bit since I was last on it.  There's this thing called 'super like' now, and it appears you have one 'super like' a day and you can tell someone you think they're really something special by 'super liking' them.  I would've 'super liked' Aaron if that feature was about way back when, but it wasn't, so I just liked him.

For those of you who don't know what it is, have been in relationships spanning the time in which Tinder came along and took over everyone's lives; it's a dating app.  A really, really, superficial, shallow, dating app.  You swipe either right - for those you fancy - or left - for those you don't (if I remember correctly) but you can click on their profile and read their bio, if you're more interested than just their initial looks.  You set a radius, the furthest distance you're willing to travel, I suppose, and an age range, and then you get the people who fit your criteria - if you fit theirs.

Anyway, this isn't about Tinder, it's about Aaron.  But that's how we met.  You tell people you meet on Tinder and you're either greeted with an "Aww that's so sweet" or a "Oh.. right."  Many people think Tinder is only there for "one thing" but that's down to its user's discretion, if you want to make friends (I met someone who had just recently moved and wanted to make friends in the area), then you can; if you want to find a partner, then you can; and if you want it solely for that "one thing" then go ahead and try your luck, it's entirely up to you.

I certainly wasn't expecting to meet anyone like Aaron on Tinder.  I didn't even want a boyfriend for two years. It was an app that allowed me to meet many new faces, none of them really had any lasting impact on my life, but Aaron and I were talking for well over three months before we finally met.  We exchanged numbers not long after we started talking and then we were texting and Snapchatting pretty much every day, only adding each other on Facebook after we realised our birthday's were right next to each other.  After we did finally meet in January, Aaron practically moved in with me for two months straight as he had a lot of time off for work.  Now we're in December, getting ready for our first Christmas together, and I can honestly say I'm so grateful for that app.  Since knowing each other, we realised we have a lot of weird connections and we may have met one day eventually anyway; a few mutual friends, and a few crossed paths, but Tinder perhaps sped the process up somewhat.

I suppose what I'm trying to say is that Tinder isn't as a bad as everyone thinks - dating websites have existed for who knows how long, and they got a bad rep to begin with too.  Tinder helped me find my soulmate and I'm so glad that app exists.  For those trying to find love naturally, or to be set up by friends, or to wait for it to fall into their lap; good luck, but there is nothing embarrassing about using or being on Tinder and I know so many successful couples from it.

This sounds like I'm being paid by Tinder to write this (I wish), but honestly, it can work.

Aaron is everything I've ever wanted in life and he's the best thing to happen to me, so I wanted to do The Boyfriend Tag with him to commemorate our nearly one year anniversary.  I love him so much and I hope you enjoy the extra-long (10 and a half minutes) video because there are some points where he makes me laugh so much I just couldn't cut it out.

Sorry for the essay, enjoy the boyfriend tag!

Aaron and I went for a lovely day out with our good friends Cerys in Bristol, including going round the Bristol German Market.  

Sorry this is out late, I've had a lot of uni deadlines but now term has finished I hope I can get a few videos done next week (once my cold has gone) and start rolling videos out more regularly. 

Enjoy!

So... I filmed this on a Monday and I'm only just getting it out today, hence why I talk about "today" and "yesterday" because at the time they were relevant...  In this video I get really much deeper than I was expecting but I guess, in a way, it's a good way of explaining why I've been absent and what's been going on in my life over the past year.  I don't get too deep, I could get much deeper, but I scrape the surface of what I've been going through.  Hope you enjoy, and look out for the winter tag next week!

Alli x

Hello again!  I'm finally trying to get back into YouTube... So here's a video to get me back into it.

My lovely friends over at Without Reason Apparel sent me some brilliant SUPER SOFT clothes for me to try on and review.  I would 100% recommend this brand, from their customer service to their quality of clothes, there is nothing at fault here (and, no, I haven't been paid to say this).

The socks, the shorts and the t-shirt are all absolutely brilliant quality and I can't thank the guys at Without Reason Apparel for having such good quality, and well priced clothes - a student's dream!

Feel free to check out the video below, and here are some more links to get you into the world of Without Reason Apparel.

http://withoutreason.co.uk/
https://www.facebook.com/withoutreasonapparel/
https://twitter.com/WithoutReasonUK
https://instagram.com/WithoutReasonapparel/