Orla Kiely | iPhone Case | Review

Known for her bold vintage style prints and that unforgettable Mad Med-esque presentation at London Fashion Week 2013 with those impeccably dressed 'office girls' and the messy beehives that i've never quite managed to recreate, Orla Kiely is absolutely iconic. She's been coined as the 'Queen of the Prints' and her designs are that enviable mix of contemporary cool with more than a hint of the retro, the perfect tipping point between gratuitously kitsch and effortlessly chic.

Kiely's stylised graphic prints, which take inspiration from 1950's, 1960's and the 1970's, are no longer reserved for the catwalk and now appear on everything from notebooks to cushions, mugs to suitcases and almost everything in between. Short of switching up my entire room in favour of beautiful sixties prints and swapping my usual messy topknot for a statement beehive, i've been pining for a little slice of that Orla Kiely magic for months and months. Aside from being a strong believer that every thing is just a little bit better when it's just a little bit vintage, one of the main things in my life that I would be simply lost without (although, perhaps slightly sad to admit...) is my iPhone 5. Mix these two things and you have a pretty heady combination.

When I discovered that the lovely Orla Kiely had teamed up with Belkin to create some pretty lust-worthy phone based fashions, I was smitten and when I was very kindly offered the opportunity to review one of them by the lovely people at 3 Mobile I was more than a little bit chuffed. I opted for this rather lovely style, the Orla Kiely Multi-Stem Case, with it's creamy background and iconic Kiely stem pattern in a mixture of navy blues, oranges and leafy greens, it's the perfect antidote for those soggy autumn days while still being suitably autumnal. While i've always loved the vintage-loveliness of Kiely's designs, i've also always admired their simplicity. I'm not a fussy person whatsoever- I grant you, I love myself a floral pattern but over complicated, geometric patterns and overly vibrant colours most certainly don't float my boat. I'm a muted pastel girl through and through, so theres always been something about those big but simple florals and the graphic patterns in simple colour palettes thats appealed to me.

The first thing I noticed on opening the case was how sturdy it was. A lot of the cases, especially for iPhones, that clip only onto the back are more of a fashion accessory than a protective measure for those of us that are perhaps erring on the side of clumsy (or in my case, completely, unashamedly accident prone). This one on the other hand seems really quite substantial, in a much thicker plastic than other cases i've tried meaning that although it doesn't cover the screen portion of my beloved mobile, it does feel as though if- more like when - I inevitably drop my phone on the floor in some half woken state, that it's going to be pretty protected. The fact it's a little chunkier does also help out when trying to find it in the depths of my handbag which can never be a bad thing! 

Review | Soap and Glory | Supercat Felt Tip Eyeliner

Since I discovered my unwavering admiration for a certain lady by the name of Alexa Chung, my determination to perfect her enviable cat eye flicks has become almost like a mission. That means that i've tried more liquid eyeliners than I would care to remember and had a fair few wonky eyeliner days  where one eye just will not for the life of me match up with the other. I've always found it a bit of a tricky little business and short of just being Alexa Chung thought that there was no hope for us mere mortals... That is, until I discovered the genius that is the felt tip liquid liner.

Again, i've been through a fair few of these little babies and I must say, i've liked quite a few, but being ever the optimist, i've swapped brands quite a bit in the hopes of finding that perfect one. The one that stays put all day, doesn't smudge and gives you a crisp Alexa worthy flick that even the queen of the eyeliner Brigitte Bardot would be jealous of. Now before I get into this review, I'm not saying that I've found the perfect one... it's a very, very good one, but it's not the perfect one that search will have to continue.


Anyway, although I have always been an absolutely massive fan of Soap and Glory products, their make-up is something that i've never ventured into. Everything else is another story altogether, from their amazing body butters to their shower gels, I find it a hard push to find a company that rivals them. When my trusty eyeliner ran out not so long ago though, I took a little wander over to the Soap and Glory make-up stand and stumbled across the Supercat Felt Tip Liner. What i've always loved about felt tip liners is how easy they are to apply, you have none of the faff of having to fiddle around with a teeny tiny pot of liquid liner and one of those plasticky stick like brushes that they always come with... worst still, the faff of gel liner and a brush. Theres none of the mess, and I always think that for whatever reason, the actual eyeliner product is much easier to correct if it does go awry (which unfortunately is pretty often in my case... curse of the unsteady hand!).

This liner is not only a bit of a bargain at £6, which makes it a whole lot cheaper than a lot of others out there, but it's also one of the first ones that i've tried that doesn't bend the truth slightly when it says it is 'Carbon Black'. When they say deep, rich colour, believe me, they mean it. The product itself goes on super smoothly, and because of the brilliant pigmentation, one (hopefully steady) line and you are good to go. The tip is also something that drew me to it initially as you have the option of two different looks, you can either use the tapered fine tip to create a delicate, super thin line or the thicker edge to create a more defined, dramatic flick.


In terms of longevity, it's a hardy little product. It lasts literally all day. One of it's downsides though is that fact that it isn't exactly waterproof. I do get quite watery eyes at times and my eyes are very easily irritated which means that panda eyes are often a bit of an issue with things like mascara and liquid eyeliner. While this didn't leave me looking like i'd escaped from Edinburgh Zoo, it does do a bit of a disappearing act as soon as anything watery goes near it and can get a bit smudgy... not exactly ideal, although, it does mean that when it comes to removing your eye make-up in the evening, it comes off like a dream, a big plus point if, like me, eyeliner is a bit of a signature of yours. Another thing that i'm not a huge fan of is the scent. It's not an overpowering scent by any means, which is what you would expect from an eye product, but it does have a hint of the artificial about it. It's not something that would put me off buying it again but in comparison to other liners that i've tried which have literally no scent at all, it's an odd one.

For £6, I think this is well worth a purchase and it's something that I would most definitely buy again next time i'm on the hunt for one, it has also made me quite curious about some of the other S&G make up offerings. For the time being though, i'm just hoping and praying that the lovely people at Soap and Glory bring out a version that is just a tad more waterproof for us watery eyed ladies!

Review | LUSH | D'Fluff Strawberry Shaving Soap

Everyone commits the odd beauty based crime. Whether it's your secret occasional use of a facial wipe or all those times you bypassed your heat protection spray for that extra couple of minutes in bed, we all have them. Mine? Always skipping the shaving gel when i'm shaving my legs. I find the whole thing a bit of a slimy faff if i'm totally honest, plus, i've never been a fan of the overly artificial scents that they always seem to have. Although it might be minutely quicker to skip the gel when defuzzing my pins, it doesn't exactly leave me with legs worthy of the Gillette advert... you know the ones- impossibly smooth, impressively shiny model type legs, the type every girl strives for... well yeah, i'd probably be a whole lot closer to that if I opted for a bit of a shaving foam occasionally. So while it's unlikely (well, impossible) to get Victorias Secret legs overnight, we could all do with a little help on our way.


That, is where a snazzy new product from Lush comes in, in the shape of D'Fluff Strawberry Shaving Soap. I spied this little baby on the Lush website a few weeks ago and was pretty intrigued to say the least. As with all Lush products it is made with completely natural ingredients (so no artificial scents here people!) is completely cruelty free and on top of that, it's cutest shade of pink i've ever seen. Seriously, it's adorable. Again as with all of their products, it's completely hand made, from scratch by the lovely Lushies, tucked away in Poole, Dorset, theres even a little sticker on the back telling you exactly whose fair hands worked their magic on your pot. The thing that interested me the most was the fact that it's not a a shaving gel but a shaving soap- gone are the days of slimy gels and instead is a luxurious lather which allows your razor to glide right over your skin, avoiding any tiny cuts and leaving legs perfectly de-fuzzed.


As you might have guessed from the name D'Fluff is packed with fresh strawberries which not only creates its beautiful colour but also makes it smell like a strawberry milkshake. I'm ordinarily really not a huge fan of sickly sweet scents, but this really does smell like super fresh strawberries. These have been whipped up with skin softening cocoa butter and some gorgeous smelling lovelies like Rosehip oil to leave your skin super smooth, soft and smelling amazing. In terms of consistency, i'd be more inclined to describe it as mousse-like, this is due to the whipped nature of it, but it makes application super smooth and means that it lathers really easily. Unlike some shaving gels i've tried in the past, the product leaves your skin super moisturised which means that even before you've popped your usual post-shave body butter on, you're halfway to shiny VS Angel legs... perfect for making the most of what we have left of the British summer! 



As you have probably gathered, I can't sing the praises of this product enough. My legs and underarms have never felt so soft and its nice to know that i'm using a product that is entirely natural. D'Fluff retails for £5.75, which is an absolute bargain for how brilliant it is. As it's a fresh, handmade product, it does have a use by date, but I can guarantee, it will all be gone by then and you'll be skipping off to Lush for your next pot! 

DIY | Date Night Jar

Six years later, and Dan and I are no longer in a long distance relationship! Yaaaay! That means that we not only see each other each and every day but it means that all of those date nights that we could never do because of only being able to spend a week together every now and again can be finally popped in the schedule. Now, if you are anything like me, and you are just a tiny little bit of a Pinterest addict, you've probably seen this little idea floating about and pinned to more than a few peoples boards, but as soon as I saw it I knew I had to make one. It's easy to get a bit samey when you've been together for a long time and you tend to end up going to the same favourite places, doing the same little things so to avoid slipping into a bit of a routine, we both came up with a list and got to making... 

When Life Takes Over...

Sometimes, no matter how many times you try and organise your time wisely, attempt to fit everything in and even when you write lovely little to-do lists that end up as long as your arm, there just isn't enough time in the day. I don't feel like my feet have touched the ground for the past two weeks or so. I've packed up all my stuff, somehow fitted it into a van and a Mini and I've moved counties. I've managed to get not one, but two jobs, one of which, after nearly 6 months of applying, I was interviewed for and got only 12 hours after arriving in Staffordshire. I've viewed flats, filled in more forms than i'd care to remember and temporarily lost half of my stuff to the pile of boxes in the corner of my boyfriends bedroom. I had the best sandwich of my life. I've been to a wedding in Kent, caught up with family that I haven't seen in 4 years and spent a day in the Science Museum with my Dad and Rosie. I've spent 3 and a half hours stuck on the M25, followed by another 2 in traffic on the M6 on the way home. I am now awoken by the sound of a cockerel each morning and the first thing I see every day is fields. I've been trying to get used to the fact that I now wake up next to Dan every morning and go to sleep next to him every night and the fact that we're no longer in a long distance relationship. All of this, while attempting to get my head around the fact that I don't live in Devon anymore, I still have some dissertation to get done and I now work full time, writing. 


This is just to say, I am still here. I haven't completely disappeared from the Blogosphere, it's just that sometimes, life really does come first. I've been beating myself up about not making enough time in my already ridiculous life to blog, but sometimes, life completely overtakes everything and it's nice to go back to basics and not live my life through a screen. For this little moment in time, i'm enjoying crazy, unpredictable, totally winging it, seaside girl in the countryside life just as it is. I will be back properly very soon, just give me a little time for my feet to touch the ground and my head to catch up with the rest of me. 

If you want to keep up with what i'm doing, you can follow me on Instagram @thesophodiaries, you can even search for #sophoinstaffs for all of my countryside goings on if you should so fancy. Thank you for sticking with me and I will be back very soon. 

Sunday Catchup | #3

Hello lovelies! So this week has been another manic one, between catching up with friends before I move and attempting to pack (operative word there being attempting) I don't feel like I've stopped really! The weather has been gorgeous though and Plymouth is seriously doing a very good job of showing me exactly what I'll be leaving behind! So here's a few pictures from my week...

YouTube | Lush Event & Mini Haul

Following on from my post on Saturday, I unpacked the video camera, set up the studio lights and had a little chat about the Lush event in Plymouth last Thursday and shared some of the products that I picked up. Sort of a very mini Lush Haul. I'll be reviewing all of the products mentioned, in a lot more detail on here over the next few weeks, once i've had a really good test of them all. If you're more of a video person than a blog post person, take a peek! 

I'd also like to pass the reigns onto you guys a little and would love to know what kind of videos you would like to see over on my channel. Please feel free to leave any suggestions in the comments below, i've got some ideas of my own but ideas are always very welcome! 

Sunday Catchup | #2

Bonjour my lovelies! Nope, i'm not entirely sure why I came over all French either, but there we go... Anyway, as promised, week 2 of my Sunday catchups. It's been a surprisingly busy one this week actually. I've been trying to keep myself as busy as possible, i'm in the house on my own for the next week or so before I move so I've been spending lots of time with lovely friends, trying to make the most of it before I disappear off, between that and a blogging event at Lush, it's been a little manic to say the least!



I spent a couple of days with my lovely friend GemGem. GemGem is one of my oldest friends, we actually met while crab fishing on the Quay where I now work, when we were 8 years old. She has just returned from a year abroad in Germany teaching and it's absolutely lovely to have her back on British soil. We've been doing lots of catching up in the form of shopping trips to Exeter fuelled with Italian food, tea and cake along with a drive through South Devon that saw us stuck in traffic for about an hour after i'd tried to be a clever bean and take a detour to avoid traffic... karma at it's best. This week GemGem also managed, somehow, to trip over a traffic cone in the middle of the outside area of our local garden centre (we went to look at candles...don't worry, I haven't actually morphed into an 80 year old quite yet...) scream like i've never heard her scream before and terrify some chickens in the pet shop... I'm still chuckling now at the sheer thought of it. Bless you, GemGem, you are truly hilarious, most of the time without even trying to be.

LUSH Plymouth | Blogging Event | Thursday 10th July

On Thursday, I along with a few lovely blogging ladies from the Plymouth area were invited to a little gathering at Lush. Now Lush is one of those shops that i've always loved, it's the one that you smell before you see, the one that always has the most colourful of displays and the one with some of the nicest and most knowledgeable staff you're likely to find on the British high street. Aside from it being one of the most photogenic shops, well, ever really,  I was really looking forward to getting to know some more of the ins and outs of this lovely brand while getting to chat to a few bloggers and try out some gorgeous products.



Lush originates in Poole in Dorset, where all of it's products are still made completely by hand today. Everything that goes into the products is totally natural, with none of the chemicals or various other nasties that you might find in other products. On top of that, the brand is completely cruelty free and widely promotes the fact that they are completely, 100% against animal testing. They're probably best known for their array of brightly coloured bath ballistics and those covetable, amazingly scented soaps but the range is expanding all the time. All sounding pretty good right? Well, you haven't heard the half of it!



The event was organised by Adam and the brilliant team at Lush and after being greeted with the most adorable mini cupcakes, chilled soft drinks and various other pastel coloured loveliness (only the most Instagramable of snacks, of course)  set to a soundtrack of twinkly relaxing tunes courtesy of the Lush Spa, they talked us through the plan for the evening which was to be a bit of a whistle stop 'magical mystery tour' of some of their newer product lines, in particular their brand new SPF packed summer products while getting to know a little more about the ethics of the brand and exactly what goes into making all those amazing smelling goodies. The aim was basically to show us all of the products that are ideal for getting summer prepped and beach ready head to toe...quite literally!


We learned about some amazing products like Buffy, an in shower body conditioner packed with moisturising cocoa butter and shea butter along with exfoliating, body polishing ingredients like ground almonds and ground rice. Not only does it smell AMAZING (a phrase said numerous times over the evening!) with scents like lavender and lemon oil, but it makes your skin silky smooth by removing dry and dead skin, leaving it buffed and totally moisturised, perfect for prepping your skin for a day on the beach. For lovely summer feet we heard all about a fab little product called Stepping Stone, a pumice and sea salt packed, citrus smelling life saver for feet in the form of a little green foot. You simply scrub the little bar all over wet feet and rinse off for super soft flip-flop ready tootsies. You can even pop it in some water like you would a bath ballistic and use it as a foot soak.



Speaking of bath ballistics, we even got to see how these infamous fizzy little things are made and very excitingly, got to make our very own Big Blue, a relaxing lavender and lemon scented bath ballistic with seaweed and sea salt to soften the skin - a beach in your bath essentially! We each got a mould complete with the Lush logo and after a lot of scooping, squishing and twisting (technical terms, of course) we each got to take home our very own, handmade products. It was brilliant to see what actually goes into making the products, which is actually a whole lot harder than it looks, especially when we were told that guys up in Dorset can do about 10 per minute...it took us significantly longer than a minute for ours let me tell you!



We then went on to talk about some of the new summer sun products. From super innovative product,  Sunblock, an in-shower, SPF 30 body wash which is effectively an all over body sunscreen that you pop on like a body wash in the shower, before you've even seen a sun ray to SPF packed facial moisturisers like The Million Dollar Moisturiser, packed with more moisturising butters than you can shake a stick at along with natural sunscreens and super subtle glowy pigments to leave your skin super radiant, dewy and ready for a day in the sun, they've really pulled it out of the bag with protective skincare.

One thing that was abundantly clear from the evening was the fact that the whole team are hugely passionate about what they do, they know the products absolutely inside out and they absolutely love them. In my opinion there is nothing better than sales people that really know what they're talking about from their own personal experience, it means you get a much better and much more honest opinion on products and you really know what you're buying. The fact that everything is handmade just makes all of the products that little bit more personal, and theres even stickers on the back of each, telling you exactly which 'Lushie' made your product along with the date that it was created and it's use by date- every single product at Lush is fresh. It was fab to hear all about the teams personal favourite items and try a few out, I came home feeling super soft and smelling absolutely gorgeous!



We got to bring home a lovely bag of goodies from the evening including a Stepping Stone foot scrub, our handmade Big Blue bath ballistics and we got one of the new SPF range of our choice to take away which was really lovely - prepare yourselves for a barrage of Lush reviews! A huge, massive thank you to the whole team at Lush, it was such a brilliant evening and I think I speak for all of the lovely blogger ladies when I say that we're all very much looking forward to any events in the future, it's so nice that Lush are so keen to work with bloggers and the fact that this could be the catalyst for a bit of a blogging community is really great, so thanks guys, it was a truly (get ready for an awful pun...) lush evening...

You can find Lush Plymouth online on Twitter- @LushPlymouth, Instagram- @lushplymouth or Facebook - www.facebook.com/Lush-Plymouth | You can also find more photos & videos from the night and check out these lovely ladies blogs by searching for #lushplymouthblogs on Instagram.