7 things we think are worth saving for / splurging on

Saving

Travel 

We will NEVER EVER feel guilty about saving money and spending it on a holiday. The memories and fun to be had is priceless! There are enough things in life to feel sad or guilty about and we refuse to add travelling onto that list

Festivals

We've just resigned to the fact that we're going to spend hundreds each year on festival tickets. We've put a rough value because if we actually counted the overall cost of our summer we'd potentially cry, besides denial is waay more fun! 

Future

We both have separate accounts that are used for future life goals. Amy's is a 'rainy day' type of saving whereas Lorraine's is for a house. If you're lucky enough to have some cash left over at the end of the month it just makes sense to put it into savings - it's way to easy to spend if left in your current account

Splurging

Hair 

It's no secret that we both have hair extensions and the maintenance of them is a bit of a splurge especially when we get brand new ones buuuut it's a cost we're more than happy to pay for - price ranges from £80 - £300. Good quality comes with a naughty price tag folks.

Make-up

We have quite sensitive skin (especially Amy) and the high end brands are kinder on our skin than others. PLUS the quality and longevity is better

Alcohol

We like to kid ourselves that expensive spirits give us less of a hangover.

Gifts

If we're buying you a gift trust that we've put lots of thought into it and will try to get you something you love and if that means going over budget so be it!

xxx

The 3 beauty products we’d pick to take to a desert island

First beauty post of the year!!! We thought we’d start off with a fun one! Now we know everyone has played the infamous “what X items would you take to a desert island” but do you know what you’d take if the items had to be beauty products only?

We love questions like this and have written our answers and reasoning below:

Lorraine

False Eyelashes

I wear false eyelashes everyday and trust that being on a desert island wouldn’t stop this! I find them so easy to put on and I’d use the sea as a mirror FYI

Cocoa butter

I don’t do dry skin and this is my all time fave body lotion. Will especially come in handy considering I’d be sunbathing everyday (doubling up as aftersun) PLUS who doesn’t want their skin to smell like chocolate?!

Lip balm

I keep a lip balm on me at all times; if there’s not one in my jacket pocket there will be one in my clutch and if I ever forget (if I’ve been rushed whilst getting ready usually) I end up sprinting to the nearest Boots! Shout out to the one at London Waterloo x

Amy

Straighteners

Now before you ask 'how is she going to plug it in?!' I assure you I've thought this through... You can buy battery powered straighteners now so problem solved yaas

Vaseline tub 

I'm talking about one of those mahoosive ones; as big as my head. I'd use this for my lips AND to moisturize my face. Our nana had used it for years and I promise you she has about 4 wrinkles. If that! It's insane

Eyelash extensions

To be applied on Island with the adhesive provided in pack haha

Also, we didn't discuss our answers and both wrote them down on paper first and in this hypothetical scenario (Amy's orders) we would not be sharing our items. 

Thank you for reading lovelies, we've just ordered quite a few products from MAC so keep your eyes peeled for an upcoming post reviewing them!

xxx

8 Travel Quotes we LOVE LOVE LOVE

We don't need much, if at all any persuasion when it comes to travel but with the festive period having just gone by, we thought we’d give it a rest... HOWEVER we love a good quote and whenever we need an extra push to book a holiday these 8 gems definitely do the trick!


1. 

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”

-Mark Twain

2.

“To my mind, the greatest reward and luxury of travel is to be able to experience everyday things as if for the first time, to be in a position in which almost nothing is so familiar it is taken for granted.”

-Bill Bryson

3.

We travel because we need to, because distance and difference are the secret tonic to creativity. When we get home, home is still the same, but something in our minds has changed, and that changes everything

- Jonah Lehrer


4.

We travel not to escape life, but for life to escape us.

- Unknown


5.

Traveling it leaves you speechless, then turns you into a storyteller

- Ibn Buttuta


6.

The use of travelling is to regulate imagination with reality, and instead of thinking of how things may be, see them as they are


- Samuel Johnson


7.

The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only one page

- Saint Augustine


8.

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do.

- Mark Twain


xxx

9 ways to recover after a festival

Just because it isn't festival season doesn't mean we're going to stop blogging about them! Having attended over 10 different festivals we consider ourselves experts now and have dedicated this post on the recovery part. 

Truuuuust us this will come in handy x

Vitamin B

We swear by this little tablet when feeling run down. It helps provide energy – if you want to get technical it basically aids your body in extracting energy from the food you consume. We normally buy the B12 (500ug) from Holland & Barratt, priced at £8.99. 

Food

If you’re like us and have grazed over the festival period instead of eating a proper meal from the vendors this my friend, is your time to binge. You deserve it, you’ve basically been dieting? At least that’s our logic. 

Sleep

Self-explanatory really!

Make a playlist

Be prepared for tears though – we literally had just come back from Hideout and used to well up whenever we heard any of the songs we saw live or used to listen to at pre drinks; especially MK and Jamie Jones.

Epsom Bath 

After all those hours of dancing – we don’t know how the salt does it but it fixes every 

aching muscle and joint. 

Detox

The liver is a beautiful lil organ and will repair itself if given the chance. Try and go 2 weeks without any alcohol and you’ll be back on form. 

Photos

Upload your photos, get them printed whatever floats your boat. 

It'll help eases those post-festival blues we promise.

Countdown till next one

We managed to go to a festival in May, June, August, September last year so there was always another one in less than 30 days to keep us going.

Sign up for pre-sale

A lot of festivals are cheeky and send out an email for pre-sale for the following year straight after the current year's has ended. Although this is taking advantage of the post-fest blues we’re absolute fiends so always end up signing up and are grateful for it once summer comes round.

xxx

our 7 tips to prepare for any holiday

Doing your research and booking the hotel and flights are obviously the first point of action before a holiday but the steps that follow are also super important to ensure you have a fabulous stress-free time!

We ourselves have two holidays coming up quite soon (can't wait to share with you guys closer to the time!) and have written a list of things we still need to do which we hope you'll also find useful:

1. Airport Transfer

If we're going on a city break we tend to research if we can away with taking the train and metro lines available - depending  on when our flight gets in. We used this method in Barcelona and Milan and it worked out perfectly!

If the trains aren't an easy method we normally book an airport transfer from a private taxi company.

2. Plan Outfits

How else are we gonna slaaay? If we could throw our whole wardrobe in a suitcase and just decide on the day we totally would but as life would have it we have to be little miss organised and plan in advance.

We normally end up going rogue and Lorraine ALWAYS ends up stealing Amy's pieces.

3. Instagram/Pinterest search

Now don't get us wrong we love and live for those moments when you find a cute cafe or amazing restaruant by chance whilst on holiday.

However, we are also addicted to using Instagram and Pinterest for finding cool spots and locations in our chosen holiday destination. There are so many people that have visited and shared their photos or experiences and we feel its silly not to use these apps to our advantage!!

4. Research Customs/Culture

We like to have a quick look at the culture and customs of any country we'll be visiting. More so to ensure we dress appropriately outside of the hotel and also to ensure we don't seriously offend!

We also like to check on tips eg. tipping etiquette.

5. SAVE

As we're sure you are fully aware we love a meal out and a cocktail or two normally, but when we go on holiday we just go overboard. Luckily we are aware of our lack of control and save a few pennies pre-holiday to make sure our fun is not limited hehe

6. Exchange £££

Once or twice we have been those fools that exchange their money super last minute and get the shitty rate, even done it at the airport *rolls eyes*

To avoid this drama we now order and collect about 2/3 of our holiday money beforehand. The other third we keep in Pound Sterling and exchange as we need it whilst there!

7. Travel Insurance

We have too much pride to ask our parents to bail us out if anything goes wrong so we always buy travel insurance.

xxx

6 January Cliches We Are Totally Doing Right Now

1. Drinking less (well attempting to!)

We don't believe in Dry January because our relationship with cocktails is too precious to give up. We prefer the less committal approach of trying to take it easy. Amy however due to unforseen circumstances cannot drink for 2 months.

2. Eating a little bit healthier

We're not actually sure if we're eating any healthier than pre-Christmas buuut we went INNN on the cheese, carbs, roast, chocolates, biscuits, cake you name it hun so any reduction in those make us feel like we're eating well haha

3. Writing goals for the year ahead

We don't call them resolutions as that just screams 'I'm only doing this to kid myself and I'll have given up by Feb' and mama didn't raise no quitters so we're calling them goals *smiles sweetly* 

4. Craving a holiday

We've been having this baaaad at the moment and so alas we have ended up booking another one. 

If you didn't see on our Instagrams we're heading to Ibiza in summer yaas 

5. Posting throwbacks

If 2017 was an amazing year for you there is absolutely no shame in posting a few cheeky old photos now that its all behind us. We're especially guilty of this because we've been trying to delete some of the content on our camera roll to leave room for 2018.

6. Beginning to organize our lives

i.e add more routine - whether it be exercise, meditation, work on your goals etc. the beginning of a new year always seems like the perfect time to add more structure to your day to day.

xxx

Happy New Year Lovelies!!!

We're sorry for abandoning you lovely lot over the past 2 weeks but we totally got caught up in the whole festive period and neglected ALL responsibilities not just the blog x

We hope you had an aaaamazing Christmas and New Years and we cannot wait to show you all the exciting trips, festivals and opportunities we have in store for 2018!!!

One of our goals is to post at least twice a week so keep your pretty lil eyes peeled AND you can now access the 'subscribe' button if viewing from your mobile - just scroll down to the bottom of the page

Lots of love,

Popex Sisters

xxx