Have you ever bought a product which you have seen appear on other blogs, instagram pages and youtube videos, only to buy it and be majorly disappointed?

I have and annoyingly I’m not learning from my mistakes. 

As I use to work in a hotel, I was never allowed to paint my nails. Until 2 months ago when I left my job for an office desk.

I jumped at the chance and went out and brought some new nail polish in some colours that I didn’t already have.

I had seen Essie nail polish all over twitter and many blogs raving about the colours and quality.

Previously, when I chose nail varnish, I have been playing it safe and buying Nails Inc. I love their colours, the packaging and the quality. And I'm quite happy to spend £11 on one colour, knowing I won't be disappointed.

As I walked into Boots, I stopped at the Essie section and picked up three colours. 

Mint Candy Apple, which is a light mint colour. Chinchilla, this is my favourite colour out of the three and I have received a lot of compliments about it and A-List, this is the most popular and I have seen it being used by probably everyone that I know.

Mint Candy Apple

A-List

Chinchilly; after a shower

The price for each bottle is reasonable £7 and at the time I believe there was a deal going on.

When applying the nail varnish I found that the Chinchilly needed 6 coats until my nail was covered and the A-List was a lot brighter than the colour in the bottle, while the Mint Candy Apple was fine. 

What disappointed me was how long they each lasted. Now I may of been silly and commenced a beauty faux pas and please let me know if I did. 
But after having the nail polish on for an hour, you expect it to stay on your nails and not remove itself when in the shower..

With in seconds the polish started peeling from my nails and I came out finding it in my hair.. not nice!

I originally put this down to the polish being fresh on my nails and re-applied the colour. However, it happened again a day later!
Soon I realised that it happened with all three colours!

This won’t be a brand I will be returning to in a hurry, however the colours are gorgeous and having them in my drawer means I can grab hold of them whenever the 'peeled' look comes in fashion.== 

I have never had this problem with Nails Inc. 

Has anyone else had this problem? Did I do something wrong, or maybe there is something I can do to prevent the nail polish from peeling in hot water? Let me know in the comment section :)

Until next time, 

Becky

On the 1st January, I , along with others, decided to take part in the 28 day water challenge.

If you are unaware of what it entails, then check out my post here. 

The original plan was to post a weekly update to show the difference. This was a massive fail as I just kept forgetting or something would crop up which had more importance. 

What I have kept to was to post at the end of the 28 days. 

Drinking 3 litres of water a day honestly did not seem that hard at the beginning.  However, when you cut out the amount of tea you drink and just limit yourself to water, thats another story. 

The first two weeks I felt awful in that I had to force the water down me. 

I planned that if I drank a pint every hour, I would be fine.  Every hour I would down a pint, worst thing to do ever!

I wasn't expecting to see any drastic changes, but my word did I wee a lot more! 

My work colleagues thought there was something wrong with me until I told them what I was doing. 

The bags under my eyes became less noticeable. Unfortunately, my dark circles are heireditry and will never disappear.

One change I did notice, no more dry skin!

This is one outcome I am happy with, I have struggled with dry/oily skin and I was told that my skin goes oily as it is it's way of saying it is thirsty! No matter how much moisteriser I put on, it just wouldn't work. 

I was a victim of so many beauty consultants on counters telling me to try this cream or that. When actually, it was all down to drinking more water!

By week three, I was struggling and found I was only drinking 1-2 glasses a day. Headaches were appearing and sometimes never disappearing, and my skin had gone back to it's dry stage :(

Annoyingly, this has carried on over to the last week.

I haven't stopped drinking water completely as I still drink my mountains worth of tea. I will admit that I have at least 1 glass a day and I want to improve this.

I will definitely try and carry on drinking more water a day as I really enjoyed having skin that wasn't flaky etc. I may just invest in a water bottle to ensure I drink plenty of water a day and keep it on me at all times. 

I feel that the plastic water bottles you get at super markets (that already have water in them) make the water taste a horrible plastic taste after a few uses. Just me?

Did you join in with the water challenge? How did you do?

See you around,

Becky x

I know what you are saying;

'How can you possibly beat the last two weeks of fantastic blogs?'
The answer is, I can't. But what I can do is introduce you to a new blog that I have found :)

Each week I will be sharing  with you a blog that I am loving and what to share with you.
Feel free to join in, there are no rules and all you have to do is include this badge so others can join in to!
If you are just having a gander on Twitter, use the #bloglovetuesday while chatting :)

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This week's blog is ...

Tanya from Polka Dots and Cups of Tea

I will be completely honest here. Tanya's blog is one that I've never really sat down and read her posts.
I tend to follow and enjoy Tanya's content on Instagram, especially pictures of her gorgeous children and never really clicked on her blog, until now.
And oh my, I've missed out BIG STYLE!
Tanya gets to the point in her lifestyle posts, especially about budgeting and attending the Mental Health First Aid course.
As well as lifestyle, you will find posts about her family, beauty and fashion. The kids get involved and on the few occasions, you will see posts from one of her daughters.
I can only apologise for not finding her blog sooner, but I am glad I did.

Keep up the good work, I love reading your content and I am now off to read every post you have written :)

You can find Tanya on Twitter, Instagram and over on her blog, Polka dots and cups of tea!

What blogs have you been loving this week, share below :)

See you around,

Becky x

This week has felt like it has well and truly dragged! Just me?

It is time to update myself on the goals I have achieved this week.
Click on the link below to join in :) 

Last Week's Weekly Wishes: 

1) Write out an invoice - This didn't happen, again. BUT, I have been asked to go an take some more photos so I will incorporate the two invoices into one! 

2) Drink more water - This hasn't been easy at all. I really wanted to get a water bottle that I could keep on my desk,  I have yet to buy one. 

3) Write some new blog content - Yes, this has been accomplished. :)

4) Have a bath - Err no, but I have showered haha. Soon I will use up the LUSH products that are accumulating in my room!

This Week's Weekly Wishes: 

1) Get snapping! - I joined a photography group on Facebook and we were set the challenge of taking photos that resemble what home means to us. I need to upload 4 by this week :)

2) Buy car tax - not exactly a fun goal but it needs doing. Can anyone beat £99 for 6 months?!

3) Film YouTube content - Well, I got the posts up on my blog. Lets try my YouTube channel shall we?

4) Comment on posts and videos more - This is something I use to do, a lot. :)

5) Purchase my pass for The Photography Show in Birmingham for March - Let me know if you are going and on what day! Would be lovely to see you guys! :)


See you around,

Becky x

Sunrise at Caldecott, Rutland taken by my Dad.

Back in April 2013, Becky B Blog appeared on the Internet.

The reason why I started the blog was so I could use it as an escape from every day life. I wanted to write about things I love as well as keeping it as a log of my journey to improve my life in terms of self esteem and confidence.
Soon people found it and commented on what they loved. Friends found the blog and would come up to me at work saying they loved what I wrote.
I was given an opportunity of writing on a website about weddings and I met some amazing people on twitter, unaware that the blogging community was there all this time.

After a while, I found blogging hard.
I felt forced to write something, which is always the worse feeling, to keep those who read, happy, as well as making sure I still had my foot in the blogging door.
Hands up, I honestly feel that my increase in work hours and the fact I had a dissertation to write did not help one bit.
I became stressed, I looked and felt awful and I had no idea what to write.
I would have panics, that I had no idea how to control or stop before they got worse and I would find myself crying at night. And yes, thoughts of a horrible nature would go through my head.

Last year, was just the worst year for not just myself but for Becky B Blog.

The one thing I was good at was hiding behind a massive curtain.

In December, after starting a new job and getting back into a slight routine of blogging and getting my weekends off, I had a breakdown.
I finally confided that I had panic attacks and get nervous at the prospect of meeting people.

I am scared.
I am scared that I am going to stay on my own forever.
And that I will never change.

People say I can prevent this by meeting people, but I don't think they understood that that was what was stopping me.

Since then, I've been out twice, the first was to meet someone I haven't seen in years!
I was nervous and slightly scared but a good friend of mine, from blogging, was on the other end of my panicky texts, calming me down. And she was right, there was nothing to be scared of.

After last year, I have so much to catch up on to help improve my self esteem. I am slightly happier and calm, but sometimes I will have relapses.

I would be lying to say that I have not found this easy to write this post, but I feel a whole lot better. A slight weight has been lifted and actually feel.. happier.

I know I'm not the only one to feel this way but I just feel that people should know the real me.
I don't want to hide anymore, I want to improve.

For those that have been there since the beginning, I'm sorry and I thank, you.

This is my journey to a better me.

See you around,

Becky x

Good day!

Welcome back, for today is Blog Love Tuesday! 

Each week I will be sharing with you a blog that I am loving and want to share with you.

Feel free to join in, there are no rules and all you have to do is include this badge so others can join in to!

If you are just having a gander on Twitter, use the #bloglovetuesday while chatting :)

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This week's blog is...

Beth from WhatSheDid!

Some will not be surprised by this choice at all, but Beth is honestly one of my best bloggers that I have had the pleasure of 'meeting' in the blogging community!

In fact, I came across Beth the same time I found Suzy, Caitlin and many others who I chat to regularly. :)

Out of everyone that I have met through blogging, Beth is the only one that I chat with outside the blog world, so far ;)

If I need a rant, she is there. 

If I need any advice on things, you guessed it. She is there!

To be honestly, Beth is a really good friend to me and I wouldn't wish it any other way.

Anyway, enough of me raving about my new friendship. I need to tell you about her blog!

Beth is the most creative and imaginative person I know when it comes to writing her posts. 

The most popular series Beth did was the 100 looks in 100 days. She came out with the most beautiful looks you could think of, though I am still waiting on the Unicorn look, I reckon it would catch on! Haha

Because of Beth's love for make-up, it is down to her who points me in the right direction. Her tutorials on YouTube are so easy to follow and she uses affordable products. :)

If you are not following Beth already, then you really should guys. You can find her on Twitter, Bloglovin' , YouTube and Instagram. 

Hopefully this year I will be meeting Beth in February which will be a bunch of mixed emotions :)

Let me know what Blogs you are loving this week in the comments below,

Until next time, 

Becky 

Howdy!

I took a week out of blogging due to personal problems.
This included feeling sorry for myself, for no apparent reason. Which, thinking about it now, may just be the 'carried over' meltdown from NYE..

ANYWHOOO!

It is time to update myself on the goals I have achieved this week.
Recently I have been enjoying writing this series as it not only gets me involved in the blogging community, but sometimes I even surprise myself when I look on the blog and realise that I had set myself those tasks. Some of which, I had forgotten I had set! aha!

This week has been okay in terms of goals I think...

Last Week's Weekly Wishes:

1) Pick up my camera - Well, my mum actually picked it up for me. Same thing, right? I am so happy to have it back. I was given a 64GB memory card for Christmas and part of my Christmas present was to buy a new lens. Just currently looking at the different ranges. Do you have any recommendations? Comment below :)

2) Write out an invoice - This should of been a priority and actually hasn't been done.. at all. Well, I started putting it together..

3) De-clutter my wardrobe - I started.. chucked out a few things.. but honestly, it's not good enough. What I have noticed is that I have FAR too many jumpers..

4) Purchase the Zoeva Brush Set - Yes, this is a goal from the previous week. But I can confirm that I have a set of brushes in my paws.. and I LOVE THEM!


This Week's Weekly Wishes:

1) Write out an invoice - This definitely needs to happen.. like NOW!

2) Drink more water - Seems silly, but I set myself the challenge of drinking 3litres of water a day and honestly. I am failing!

3) Write some new blog content - I have so many ideas, I just need to get them up!

4) Have a bath - What an odd goal, I know, but I do shower all the time. The family bathroom is used by my brother.. need I say more! He is currently away for the week, and I want to take full advantage and have a bath with one of my LUSH products :)


Hopefully, I will complete this... they seem so simple!

Until next week,

Becky

Wow,

Chosing a new blog each week to feature in this post, is getting harder and harder!
This may be the forth, but if I could I would just put all the blogs here.. but were's the fun in that eh?

Each week on Tuesday, I will be sharing with you a blog that I am loving. Majorly!

If you would like to join in, please include this lovely badge so others can join in, and use #bloglovetuesday while chatting on Twitter :)

<a href="http://www.beckybrown91.blogspot.co.uk"target="_blank"><img src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-058eM73g0IM/VJitR4Jy_eI/AAAAAAAAEnA/_4c9yuzQN6o/s1600/BLT%2Bbadge.jpg></a></h3>

This weeks blog is..
Suzy from Eeep! I'm a Blogger

Before anyone starts, this is not favouritism at all.

Suzy is a lovely, fellow tea-drinker person and I really do love reading her blog posts.

Over December, Suzy did an amazing Christmas Extravaganza giveaway for 12 days and this girl is not afraid to speak her mind, when it comes to Feminism.

Last year she received the highly commended award for her blog in the UKBlog Awards 2014, and she has entered again this year!

I can not say enough for this lovely lady, she really is a great friend who is always commenting on my posts, and kept pushing me to get back into my blog. Even though we 'met' towards the end of 2013, I honestly feel like it has been longer.

Thank you so much Suzy, we WILL meet up this year! (Twice if you're going to the Blog Awards!)

Go and check out her blog, it has recently had a face lift and looks FAB!

This post has made me quite emosh, off to grab the tissues...

Feel free to join in, tell me what blogs you've been loving!

Let's push the hate aside, and share the love!

Becky

It is week 4 of my Weekly Wishes, which means i've pursued this for a whole entire month!
Those that know me, and have kept in touch, will know how much of an achievement that is. :)

If you don't know about Weekly-Wishes Link-up, then you can find it here!

After last week's failure; I can happily say this week was far far better.

Last Week's Weekly Wishes:

1) Purchase the Zoeva Brush Set - Right, ok you got me. I didn't purchase it. Surely there is a local supplier for these brushes rather than Germany?! Let me know in the comments below.

2) Blog Post Writing - I did it! I was so organised for the week!

3) Say goodbye to 2014 - I did go out to a local village party, which had a 'fun' turnout. I had a bit of a meltdown.. in the car.

This Week's Weekly Wishes:

1) Pick up my camera - This may sound silly, but you have no idea how happy I am my camera is back from the repair shop! Just need to pick it up :)

2)Write out an invoice - I need to type up an invoice for the last photoshoot I did! Eek, my first one as well!

3) De-clutter my wardrobe - Since my meltdown, I promised myself I would declutter my wardrobe from all the clothes I don't wear etc.


So excited for this week's goals, and I know I will complete them!
I may just sneak in a few purchases..

P.S Did you read my yearly goals?

Until next week, wish me luck!

Becky

I honestly thought I was mad when I agreed to join LaLa Loves Chic for the 28 Water Challenge.

With the word 'challenge' it genuinely put me off, but after reading about it on the web, it seems slightly easier than originally thought!

The whole point of this challenge is to drink 3 litres of water a day, which is just over 5 pints, over 28 days. The outcome? Better skin, puff-free eyes and feel less tired throughout the day, WINNER!

I really am up for this, especially as I have dry skin due to dehydration and bags under my eyes, all the freaking time!

Bare faced selfie :)

You may say that my skin doesn't look that bad. If I told you to come closer, you'll see why I'm doing this.
Others have recommended using different moisturisers or cleansers, but I'm going to give nature a chance and drink more water.

I'll allow myself two cups of tea a day (one in the morning and one in the evening) as I know I get crabby if I don't have my daily intake! In between, if I feel like a drink, I'll grab a glass and tap water, thank you very much :)

If you have any tips, comment below or if you would like to join in then come and follow myself and LaLa Loves Chic over on Twitter.

I'll update weekly with photos to see if there is any development :)

Becky