Get ready for my 21st birthday with me!

Hello lovelies!

So, as you all know this blog is primarily centred around tips and tricks to help people improve their mental health, or at least keep the thoughts at bay for an hour or two. However, I’ve been dying to write a post about my 21st birthday (because, well… it’s my 21st!!!) so I thought why not? Just because my blog was created with a main focus doesn’t mean I can’t write about other things every now and again, right?!

So, I thought I’d talk you guys through how I prepared myself for my 21st birthday – hair, makeup, skin care, hair care, hair style, outfit, everything! I hope you guys enjoy reading it as much as I’m sure I’m going to enjoy writing it.

The night before

I’m going to start by talking you guys through what I got up to the night before, as that’s my favourite part: pamper night!

Me and my friend, Sydney, seem to have developed an annual tradition of having a pamper night before our birthday’s, and this birthday was no different! We basically take a trip to our local Body care shop and pick out all our favourite pamper products – face masks, foot masks (yep! we’re that extra.), moisturisers, fake tan, pore strips, collagen eye strips, cucumber eye masks, and anything else we for (like hair spray, heat protection spray, bobbles, any makeup we might need to pick up last minute because, yes, we’re that unorganised…)

So, we set up our salons in Sydney’s bedroom and got to work. I started with a ‘Beauty Formulas’ purifying charcoal cleansing nose pore strip. I simply left it on for around 15 minutes then ripped it off like a plaster. Don’t let that fool you; it REALLY hurts. Worth it for them clean pores through! At least that’s what I tell myself… Anyway, next I applied a Ruvuele charcoal black face mask, which also hurt to peel off (Why do I do this to myself?) As the mask was drying down on my face, I applied my XBC Xpel Body Care foot exfoliating boots. I looked HILARIOUS! The boots are basically white paper boots that you keep down at the side with a sticker. Sydney got some fab pictures of me in them, of course. After my face mask and foot exfoliating boots were done, I applied the moisturising and exfoliating foot mask and waited for it to do it’s magic. I am telling you now, that stuff is absolutely magical. I’ve never had smoother feet! 10/10. I finished off the pamper night with some cucumber eye masks, some Balance active forumla collagen under eye masks and a lip mask. I can honestly say this was one of the most relaxing moments of my life, and I felt so fresh afterwards! Although I have to say, the lip mas was a bit disappointing… it didn’t really do anything.

To round off my pamper night, I moisturised my body using the Soap and Glory ‘Smoothie Star’ deep moisture body milk, which left my skin smelling AMAZING! Highly recommend. I left this to soak in to my skin for an hour then followed with the St Moriz ‘darker than dark’ fake tanning mousse with a standard fake tan mitt. The tan is quite, shall we say, intimidating at first… But trust me, once you’ve slept in it and washed it off in the morning it leaves you with a nice golden glow to your skin! It’s one of my favourites, closely accompanied by St Moriz ‘dark’ tanning mousse (which isn’t much lighter when washed off, to be honest.) Just for clarification, I tan my whole body apart from my face as it apparently causes ageing, and this gal definitely does not need any wrinkles. Don’t worry, it all looks fine when I use foundation the next day to match my face to my body!

My final step was, of course, skin care. I washed my face using the Soap and Glory vitamin c facial wash, followed by the Liz Earle hot cloth cleanser. Next, I used the No7 night cream, leaving my skin with and amazing, soft to the touch shine in order to give myself a head start in the morning.

On the day

Finally, it’s the day to get druuuuuunk!!! I woke up extremely dark from my fake tan and washed it off immediately so I looked a bit more like myself… I then proceeded to moisturise again with my fave Soap and Glory product I used the night before (I love having smooth skin, ok?!)

After making my skin beautiful and glowy, I made breakfast to make sure I lined my stomach for the day of drinking I had ahead of me – it was going to be a heavy one! I blended 1 banana, some frozen raspberries, Whole Earth peanut butter, and frozen blueberries together with some almond milk. After I was satisfied with the consistency, I poured the smoothie into a bowl and topped it with EVEN MORE peanut butter (I can’t help it, I love peanut butter!!!) and some strawberries. I can honestly say this is my favourite breakfast I’ve ever made, and definitely helps me feel fresh and energised to start my day.

After a few hours of cleaning my room up ready for when my friends came over, I started on my hair. I tend to do my hair before my makeup as it leaves it a few hours for the curls to drop into a more bouncy, wavy look (my favourite look, if I do say so myself!)

I then began on my makeup. I first applied my No7 day moisturiser followed by the Nyx Angel Veil to prep my face. For eyebrows, I applied my trusty Freedom pomade with a Morphe E24 angled brush. After this, I used a flat circular brush and my holy grail Collection Lasting Perfection concealer to my eyelids and underneath my brows to calve them out (this gives me brows the flawless, sleek look in no time at all!) Next, on to eyeshadow: I used my Anatasia Beverly Hills ‘Modern Renaissance’ palette – a firm favourite of mine – to create an orange/bronze eye look with gold glitter; gold glitter transforms any standard eye look to something glam!

For my base makeup, I mixed together my LA Girl Pro Coverage HD foundation (dewy) in shade nude beige and my Milani Conceal + Perfect in shade Light Beige (matte.) Due to one being dewy and one being matte, I find it gives me the best coverage without being too dry or so dewy that it slides off my face. After applying my Collection concealer under my eyes, under my chin, on the bridge of my nose and the middle of my forehead (with my trusty Real Techniques beauty blender), I set my under eyes in place with my Anastasia Beverly Hills banana powder – I do NOT want that stuff budging and revealing my horrendous eye bags… I then appliy my Soap and Glory ‘Kick Ass’ powder (my favourite to date, but still trying to find a better one. Any recommendations are welcomed in the comments!) to my whole face using my Real Techniques powder brush. Following the powdering process, I used my Real Techniques contouring brush to apply my Anastasia Beverly Hills contour to my cheekbones, forehead and chin (got to get rid of that double chin, am I right?!) After this, I finished off my base with my Anastasia Beverly Hills bronzer (applied with a Real Techniques stippling brush) and my Ofra highlighter in the shade ‘Rodeo Drive’ with my Zoeva Luxe highlighting brush. I finished off the look with my staple Jeffree Star Celebrity Skin and then popped some of my Soap and Glory lipgloss on top!

Once my base makeup was finally finished (it took FOREVER!) I lightly and carefully brushed the curls out my hair, leaving it bouncy and shiny. I backcombed my roots a bit and, just like that, I’m ready to go! Well, not before a million pictures of course…

And that’s the process of how I got ready for my 21st birthday night out! I hope you all enjoyed and leave a comment if you love any of these products, want to try any out or have any recommendations!

Lots of love,

Soph. xx