Lollyrocket Candle Co.

Lollyrocket is a local company to me, and one that I've thoroughly enjoyed supporting for a good while now. I first became familiar with them when they opened up a store in my home town, selling homewares and vintage items, along with their own natural soy wax candles. When they sold their store, I was gutted, but you can imagine my excitement when I found out that they were opening an online store selling their candles.

I recently purchased three of their 1/2lb candles from a shop in my town, but you can see a full list of stockists here. One of my pet hates with candles is that they often come in a variety of bright colours. However, because all of the candles in the Lollyrocket range are white and come in glass jar casing with a gold lid to hold in the scent, these will fit beautifully within any home. I absolutely love knowing that these candles are made using natural ingredients, and the quality definitely reflects in the product. They burn beautifully, evenly, and give off such a strong (but never over-powering) scent, and supposedly have a 40 hour burn time.

The one I'm currently burning is brown sugar & fig, but I also picked up candy floss and candy shop.
Since the scents are so unique, the only way I'm going to be able to describe them is by taking the notes descriptions from the website and put them into 'Alice' terms.

BROWN SUGAR & FIG
Lollyrocket says: top notes of fresh figs, peaches, and passion fruit followed by middle notes of 
coconut milk, vanilla orchid, jasmine, muguet, and freesia. Balanced with base notes of vanilla beans, caramel, maple sugar, fig leaves, and musk.
Alice says: Fruity, floral, fresh and sugary mixed in a bowl and poured into a candle jar. It's quite a grown-up, classy smell, but one I think everyone would like.


CANDY SHOP
Lollyrocket says: A fruity blend of cotton candy, lemon drops, caramel and raspberry jam with subtle base notes of musk.
Alice says: The most unique candle I've ever smelt. Sweet, but really fresh at the same time. Every time I smell this, it reminds me of walking into a sweet shop on the seafront and brings back so many happy childhood memories.

CANDY FLOSS
Lollyrocket says: A delicious, sweet blend of fresh strawberry and French vanilla.

Alice says: The warm smell of candy floss but without the strong, sweet sugar. This makes it a little bit more fresh and more bearable for sweet scent haters. 


Lollyrocket 1/2lb candles are individually priced at £8, but using the code 'giveme3' on their website, you can get 3 for the amazing price of £20. I love knowing that my hard earned money is going to an independent, local company who invest a huge amount of time to the quality of the products and not to a large corporation. I've now got my eye on some of their other 1/2lb candle scents, and I'm desperate to try their new 1lb boxed candles. Every single one smells insane. I'll never buy another Yankee Candle again. 

Making A University House A Home

You'll have to excuse the awful photography and editing on this one (I have asked for a new camera for Christmas!) but I really wanted to write a post on how I achieved a homely bedroom at university when I'm 3 hours away from home.

Everyone who's gone to university will understand the struggle of being given a plain, clinical-looking room and having to attempt to make it somewhat homely in fear of going insane before the year's out. I have been so lucky this year to have found a really lovely home in Bath, but for those who haven't been so lucky, I've got a few tips to make your room seem much more live-able in.

001 // CHOOSE A CALM COLOUR SCHEME
My first year bedroom was way beyond the point of being calm. With clashing pink floral prints everywhere, it was almost enough to give you a headache. This year my taste has changed a lot and I opted for a grey and white colour scheme. Some people would probably say that grey's really boring and cold but for me, it's just really clean looking and calm. Make sure you try to stick to the colour scheme as well as possible. It will look much better in the long run.

002 // BUY AS MANY THROWS AND CUSHIONS AS YOU CAN GET YOUR MITTS ON
Honestly, this makes such a difference to how cosy your room feels. I'm speaking from experience when I say that you'll be so thankful you have all those throws and cushions to keep your bed as warm as possible at night time. I've definitely been wrapped up in 3 throws and a 13 tog duvet on numerous occasions, so bear that in mind! They not only keep you warm but they definitely make your room feel less empty and much more homely.

003 // HAVE WHAT YOU LOVE ON DISPLAY
For me, of course it's my makeup. Without my Muji stack taking pride of place on my desk, I'd probably just have to put uni stationery there and that's not nice for anyone to look at all day.

004 // PLACE PHOTOS OF FRIENDS AND FAMILY EVERYWHERE
Being a real home/family gal, it's really hard for me to be such a long way away from home for such long periods of time. For me, having photos of all my best friends and family in my room made things much easier last year. This year I don't have as many photos out simply due to space, but whenever I look at the photo of my baby brother smiling away, it always warms my heart.

005 // HAVE REMINDERS FROM HOME
Whether it's something you've brought from home, or a letter from home, it always helps to have something from home in your room reminding you of what there is to go back to. Last year I used to pin all my letters from home on my pin board so that when I was feeling particularly homesick I could go back, read the letters, and you know... feel even more homesick! Not really, it does help.

006 // BUY A REED DIFFUSER OR A NICE CANDLE
The world is a whole lot better when you come home from uni, walk into your room and it smells really nice. Sometimes student houses can be really old and often damp, so having a nice reed diffuser and candle in the room just really helps to mask the smell when there's very little else you can do to get rid of it. I'm not saying to go crazy and buy a Jo Malone reed diffuser and a Diptyque candle, but you can get some really nice and affordable candles that really make the room smell lovely and much more homely.

007 // TRY TO KEEP THINGS AS TIDY AS POSSIBLE
With me, this is a bit of a 'practise what you preach' situation, as the majority of the time I have underwear and worn clothes spread all over the floor and makeup I used that morning still on my desk. However, if I have the chance, I do like to tidy my room and make sure it's nice and clean. I know if any of my housemates are reading this, they'll laugh at the hypocrisy of me! It's not always easy to keep your room 100% tidy 100% of the time, but it's true what they say. Tidy room, tidy mind.

Be the Best Version of You: How I Gained Confidence

I want to talk about something today that's very much a topic close to my heart. Without this turning into a full blown pity party, confidence is something I've struggled with for as long as I can remember. Being a shy person all my life turned into the belief that somehow I wasn't good enough and that I couldn't be confident in myself. My main confidence issues concerned my appearance and my belief in myself, so I wanted to share a few tips on how I've slowly but surely began to accept myself for who I am and learned to love myself. Ps. this is going to be a long old post, so grab yourself a glass of water and a snack before you start reading!

1: EMBRACE AND ACCEPT YOUR IMPERFECTIONS
For the longest time, I wouldn't leave the house without makeup on and I'd constantly beat myself up over things I had absolutely no control over. I've always been insecure about my body and it's something I've only recently accepted. Being naturally slim due to a fast metabolism, I've always been told that I either a) need to eat a burger or b) need to go and see someone - when in reality, there was nothing wrong with me at all. I've began to accept that I am the shape I am because of my biology and there's little I can do to change it, so why not accept it? In terms of my face, I've accepted that I don't have the smallest nose or the smallest eyes, my front teeth cross over slightly after I chipped them as a child, my eyebrows aren't even, I do have spots occasionally - but this is me, and the day I stopped beating myself up over things I cannot change was the day I began to love my imperfections and see that they're what make me who I am.

2: WEAR AS LITTLE MAKE UP AS YOU CAN
Part of the issue with not being able to accept myself was that I didn't really know what I was like without a good primer, heavy duty foundation, different shades of concealer to hide and highlight, bronzer, blusher, highlighter, eyebrow powder, eyebrow gel, lipstick, lip gloss, eyeshadow, eyeliner, mascara. You get the idea. I'd set up the belief for myself that I wasn't good enough without makeup and that I should be embarrassed of what I look like when I'm not dressed up to the nines. Obviously, this was where I was going wrong. These days, if I'm not going anywhere particularly special I won't even wear any makeup. If I'm going to leave the house and need to look presentable, I'll just put on a bit of concealer, bronzer, blusher and mascara. Now that I don't put the pressure on myself to look 100% presentable 100% of the time, I feel so much happier and more confident in myself. Of course, I love makeup, but I love it so much more when I don't feel like I NEED it in my life.

3: REALISE WHOSE OPINIONS MATTER TO YOU
I've always worried about what other people think about me, but I have one word for you. DON'T. I know it's easier said than done, but these days the only thing I'm really concerned about is being healthy & happy, and not caring what people who have no real relevance to my life think about me. It's really helped me on my way to being truly happy. I know there are people out there who don't like me and have opinions on me, but truthfully, I couldn't care less. The only opinions I care for are of the people who really hold a special place in my life. If you can feel confident about yourself not wearing any makeup and casual clothes in front of someone, only their opinion on you matters, not a total stranger's. I used to be so preoccupied with what people thought of me when I left the house, but it didn't take me too long to see that nobody even cares. I can't say I've ever seen someone when I've been in the supermarket and thought "god their skin looks awful" or "their eyeliner isn't very neat". If someone sees you and thinks that, then their opinions shouldn't matter to you. They probably have much worse things in their life that they need to sort out before they are entitled to have an opinion on you.

4: DON'T SET IMPOSSIBLE GOALS FOR YOURSELF
I've seen a lot of tweets recently saying things along the lines of 'dress like you're going to see your enemy everyday'. I don't agree with this at all. If you're constantly putting pressure on yourself to look perfect and impress other people constantly then you're never going to be happy and confident. YOU should be the only person to care what you look like. Don't allow other people to dictate how you should look and how you should feel about yourself. Be yourself and don't be too concerned about impressing other people - no one looks perfect all the time and no one needs to look perfect all the time. You are who you are and you don't need to aspire to be any different.

Most importantly...
5: YOUR LOOKS DO NOT DEFINE YOU
More than likely, the people you care about most in your life couldn't care less about how you look or how you dress, they care about you as a person. If someone doesn't accept you despite all your flaws then they're not worthy of being in your life. You don't need people like that. I know for a fact that I'm not an oil painting. There are people out there who are 10x better looking, 10x more toned and have 10x more money than I'll ever have, but I know that I am a good, kind, caring person who is loved and that's all that really matters to me.