For the most part I absolutely adore blogging and the lovely community of bloggers that we have, as I feel so lucky to be a part of it. Having said that, there are things and people that definitely spoil blogging for those who have a genuine passion or their individual love for blogging, but I also feel that the blogging community wouldn't be as strong as it is without a little bit of toughness sometimes. So here are a few things that I would class as my blogging pet peeves.

Drama - I had to have this as my number one pet peeve, as I hate nothing more than the amount of drama that I see on a daily basis on Twitter. I've briefly touched on this previously and as of late I feel that the amount of drama is a little bit ridiculous. I'm sure many of you are aware and I find it so sad to see certain individuals targeting people based on their own, may I mention valid opinion. I've come to the conclusion that it's better to just block out and unfollow any drama, as I find it instantly ruins the usual chirpy mood that i'm in.

Scheduling everything! - I know this is somewhat of a pure lazy thing, but having to schedule pretty much everything can be the most tedious of tasks! As I work full time, there isn't enough hours in the day for me to be constantly promoting blog posts, so relying on scheduling is my first port of call and don't me wrong it is a massive life saver, it's just boring as. 

Freebie hunters - Don't get me wrong, it's great that as bloggers we are able to get our hands on a few freebies here and there. But bloggers that have only just started blogging and expect freebies straight away, or those that post nothing but content on freebies definitely gets on my nerves a little. I try to keep my content and mixed as possible, by featuring products that I have purchased with my own hard money but on the flip side I completely understand when you're working with a brand to a deadline. 

Overhyped products - Back when I started blogging it was fun to try out new products, especially ones that were getting a lot of good reviews but after being in the game for a good 3 years now I have completely the opposite opinion. Don't get me wrong I love a well reviewed product but when all I see is the latest release plastered on every single blog, it can get a bit boring and uninspiring. Although I probably am being every so slightly hypocritical, as no doubt I post about overhyped products.

Pressure - The last thing that I think we all deal with is the pressure behind blogging. The pressure to create good content, and the pressure to also stick to a routine in order to grow your blog and as a blogger. 

So those are a few things that I would call my blogging pet peeves, the few things that often get me feeling a bit down about blogging from time to time.

What are your blogging pet peeves?

A week or so ago I was just scrolling through my social media timelines as you do when suffering from pure boredom, and I had been seeing a few bigger bloggers raving about the uh-mazing Benefit brow boxes they had been received and with that I also found out that in this months Elle you can actually get your hands on a mini of one of the new Benefit Goof Proof Eyebrow Pencils (£18.50). As i'm a big fan of Benefit I knew that I needed to get my hands on this brow pencil, as my brows are definitely a big part of my makeup routine, without them i'd look un-human and with that I was absolutely blown away with this latest release.

I went out pretty much the day after I heard the news that Elle were giving away this amazing freebie, and I instantly gave this latest release a go just to see how it compared to any previous brow products that i'd previously used as i've never really used a brow pencil like this. From all i'd read about the new and revamped brow range, and this has some pretty high expectations with what it claims to do. Being a super easy glide on and non sharpen tip that is said to be waterproof, and last up to 12 hours throughout the day - I was very intrigued to see how it stood up to these claims.

I've been using this for about a week now, on a daily basis replacing my previous brow product of choice and so far I am very pleased with the results i've had. It's very true when they say it is an easy glide on pencil that helps to not only fill in your brows, but it also helps to fill in any sparse areas of the brows. Initially I didn't really think about the shade, but luckily the shade I ended up with is the perfect colour for my brows and when this is released later on this month, it will be available in five different shades which is an amazing array of choice. Also with the waterproof claims, I wouldn't say it is 100% waterproof but it definitely withstands a good sweaty gym session and it stays put throughout the day, so much better than previous brow pencils that i've used.

All in all i'm really impressed with this latest release from Benefit and i'm super excited to try out a few of the others products within their new brows range.

Did you get your hands on this amazing freebie?

Early mornings are definitely like hell, sometimes but we all have to do it whether it be getting up early for work, school or just whatever plans you may have going on that day. Although being a morning person can come easily to some, it definitely takes a little getting used to and i've definitely found ways of becoming more of a morning person.

Getting an early night - For me I always try to go to sleep no later than 11pm, but usually i'll start to wind down around 9pm by just watching some tv in bed. I find that allowing myself to get a somewhat early night and a decent 7 hours of sleep means that I just generally feel really well rested and ready for the day ahead.

Showering in the morning - Another thing I do to make myself feel more awake in the morning, is by showering first thing in the morning. There is nothing better than a lovely hot shower to get yourself not only feeling good for the day ahead, but I find the steam from the water really wakes me up.

Breakfast is the most important meal - It's definitely true as I find that if I don't eat breakfast I really do lag energy wise and my brain just isn't as active as I need it to be. I usually try to have cereal thats low in sugar, as I don't want to be on a sugar high first thing in the morning and crash later on in the day.

Alarms and lots of them - Lets be real here, getting up early definitely sucks when all you want to do is to stay snuggled under the duvet. So in order to make sure I get up on time, I set myself 3-4 alarms to allow myself to wake up gradually in the morning so that when I do get up i'm somewhat already awake. It also means I don't feel as tired believe it or not.

Prepare the night before - This seems like a no brainer, but planning and prepping the night before allows you to not only not rush around in the morning thus stressing you out, but it also means you can get a few extra minutes in bed. For me I usually prepare my gym stuff, lunch and even wash my hair the evening before, but I don't go all out by planning my outfits as I can wear pretty much anything (within reason).

Persevere - If you're not a morning person, you can definitely train yourself to become one and after a year or so of getting up no later than 7am, my natural body clock will wake me naturally no later than 8am/9am on a non working day. Which for me is great, as it means I can get more done throughout the day if I want to or I can choose to stay in bed that little longer.

So those are a few tips of ways to become more of a morning person and ways i've found help me to feel more energised and prepared for the day ahead.

What things help you in being a morning person?

Over the past few months of trialling and testing various different self tanners i've come to find that there are so many that work for me, but I often struggle when it comes to the leg department. Although I always use a mitt when applying my tans I always find I either get some sort of streaky line or I find the tan really clings to my ankle region. Having said that, i've recently found that these two products work amazingly especially for when you're wanting a bit of colour on your legs and they are really good for if you're in a rush and have forgotten to tan for an occasion.

The first product that I always turn to when i'm in need of some lovely glow on my pins is a tan that is formulated or designed to work specifically on your legs. A recent addition into my ever growing tan collection is a recent new formula release from one of my favourite tanning brands and this is the Cocoa Brown Lovely Legs* (£7.99). What is different about this product is that it is a spray tan, which i've used before hand but i've never had a good experience with them. Much to my experience, I thought you had to apply the spray directly onto your skin, however you can use this spray in the same way as a normal tan by spraying this directly onto a tanning mitt and buffing this into the skin. The medium bronze shade of this tan I find is perfect to give your legs a lovely instant layer of colour that is glowy and natural, as i've found some other leg tanners can be really orange and drying on the skin.

Another product that i've found works hand in hand with the Cocoa Brown Lovely Legs in order to top up and also hydrate the skin is the Sanctuary Spa Wonder Body* (£8). This product is an all in one body moisturiser that is jam packed with many benefits including hydrating, illuminating, correcting to name a few and it contains a lovely tint that makes your skin just look luminous and glowy instantly. I love using this to give a fake tan that lift it needs after a couple of days as it smells amazing, leaves your skin feeling amazingly soft and with a beautiful sun kissed glow.

So those are my favourite products to use when my legs are in need of much needed boost of colour. Over the next few weeks i'll be posting more about some of my favourite self tanners, as i've been trialling and testing quite a few recently.

What are your favourite self tanners?

I've never been good at contouring and highlighting, I just sort of wing it and hope for the best and it must be somewhat paying off as a few of my good friends have commented on how good my highlight has been looking recently. For me I find that as long as have the tools to apply the products and have the less is more approach then you can't really go wrong.

My current favourite contouring or bronzing product is one i've spoken about a little bit already, and this is the Freedom Makeup Pro Contour Palette* (£3.50) which as you can see has two shades. Now this palette is actually one of the darkest shades, but I find it works really well to give a lovely bronzed glow that isn't too dark when i'm tanned. I tend to stick to the lighter of the two shades as it has a lovely ashy undertone so it isn't too warm, as I find some contours to be really warm and red toned which just doesn't work on my complexion. I definitely want to try out the lighter shade of this palette, as then it will be more of a highlight and contour palette, but this shade is definitely more of a contour palette for my skin tone.

Moving onto highlight and I find using a primer with some sort of highlighting elements really helps to give my foundation a really nice glowy finish. I have two products that i've been alternating quite a lot recently, which I find are both amazing for this. The first is a good oldie, the Loreal Lumi Magique Primer (£9.99) is a lovely light primer that looks just like a liquid highlighter but take my word for it, don't try to use it like one as it just pulls your foundation off. As this is a primer I apply this before applying my foundation usually on the natural highlight areas of the face and as I previously mentioned, it just really helps to give my foundation a lovely luminous finish. The second product that i've been using under my foundation is the Freedom Makeup Pro Strobe Cream* (£8) and this product is one i'm a little unsure about, mainly in the way that you're meant to use it as strobing is not something I know the first thing about. However applying this as you would the primer on the natural highlight areas, again just helps to give my skin a lovely luminosity to it that is just beautiful.

The last product is hands down my all time favourite highlight product and this is the Topshop Highlighter (£8), which isn't available online but i'm pretty sure they do still stock this in store. I absolutely adore this champagne shade as it has a lovely pop of shimmer to it that just attracts the light like no other highlighter that i've ever used. 

So those are a few current contouring and highlight products that i'm really enjoying at the moment, and i'm excited to get into trying more products.

What are you favourites?

To my utter misfortune, my local Boots doesn't actually have a NYX stand as of yet so I made a half an hour trip as I knew I needed to get my hands on a few bits and i'm so happy that I did. After a hand full of swatches and a good 15 minutes of scanning both sides of the stand, I left Boots a £40 lighter and a huge smile on my face.

The main reason that I wanted to visit a NYX stand was obviously for their lip products and they definitely did not disappoint although they didn't have any of the Lingerie Liquid Lipsticks, which was a bit of a shame but i'm happy with the products I did get. First up is the NYX Liquid Suede Cream Lipstick (£5.50), which was the only liquid lipsticks they had and I was lucky enough to grab the last shade of 'Tea and Cookies', which is such a me kind of shade. I've been loving the plum nude pink shades as of late and this one is definitely going to be getting a lot of wear. 

As NYX are well known for their butter glosses I knew that I had to at least pick up one, but in the end I walked away with three! The NYX Intense Butter Glosses (£5.50) really caught my eye as they similar to the original butter glosses but with a much more pigmented colour pay off that I really liked the formula of. I picked up two shades, the first is 'Toasted Marshmallow' which is this beautiful plum cherry shade that is such an autumnal shade for me and this reminded me of how much I love these kind of shades. The next shade is 'Tres Leches', which was a shade I kind of settled for as the other shade I wanted they didn't have but this is a lovely nude shade, that is a little different for me but I thought it would be a nice everyday shade. I also picked up a NYX Butter Gloss (£5) in the shade 'Maple Blondie' which is really similar to the other butter gloss I picked up but with a more sheer colour pay off and I can't wait to see how I get on with these.

After perusing the lip products I thought I had enough products, but then I found the face products and got sucked in a little, so I picked up a few products to try out and I thought I can always try more once more people start to review and talk about them. As i'm really into my skin looking luminous at the moment I picked up the NYX Born To Glow Liquid Illuminator (£7) in the shade 'Gleam'. I'm really excited to see how I get on with this as i've never used a liquid highlighter, but the colour looked so lovely and luminous. I also spotted that they do a lovely range of blushers and I instantly fell for the NYX Baked Blusher (£6.50) as i'm a huge lover of baked blushers and the shade I picked up looked so lovely for when i'm all tanned and glowing. Finally, the last product I picked up was the NYX Tame & Fame Tinted Brow Pomade (£5.50) which I picked up on a bit of a whim just to see whether I could be converted into liking a brow pomade. I will definitely be reporting back!

So those the bits I picked up from NYX, have you managed to get to a NYX stand yet?

Back when I started blogging, these tips and tricks style posts didn't exist mainly because blogging wasn't as diverse as it is now and I feel that some newer bloggers definitely would benefit from a helping hand, as I didn't have it when I began blogging and also for those looking to improve their blog photography.

Use a simple background - Back in the day I didn't put much thought into my images and I'd leave any random object in the background of my pictures, which is never a good look. Over the past few years i've learnt that using a really simple and clean background to be the best thing to do, as your images look clean and it means there aren't any object distracting from the main focus of the image. For me I usually use a white surface, either my desk or my duvet (when it's white) and for me these are the cleanest backgrounds to use.

Use props and play around - Another thing that makes or breaks a flat lay in my opinion are the props that you use. For me i've found my few favourites, but its good to play around and use different props here and there. My favourite props to use are pretty notebooks, cute dishes and makeup brushes as I find these fill any empty spaces without looking out of place. You can also add things like rings and hair grips, but if i'm honest you'll find what works for you.

Good lighting - This is kind of the number one rule when it comes to blog photography, it's using good lighting. For me natural light is the best and I make sure the surface i'm using is near a window where there is a good source of light. Some bloggers also photograph outside, using a large white foam board which I personally haven't tried but it definitely works for some people.

Hold your camera high - This sounds like a random one, but in order to master a good flat lay is by making sure you're camera is high enough to get a good picture. Back in the day I used to just angle my camera, whereas now you'll see me standing either on my tip toes or on a chair in order to get my camera as high as possible.

Be patient and take several pictures - For me practice makes perfect and a flat lay is definitely a working progress. Sometimes I can get it in one picture, but I find that being patient and taking a few different images at different angles to be the best as it gives me enough options when it comes to editing them.

Blue tac is your best friend - When I began taking a little more pride in my blog pictures it used to really wind me up when my products wouldn't stay still and after a few months I had a sudden realisation that using blue tac was the saviour that I needed! It stops your products rolling around everywhere and it means your flat lays are that little less hassle free.

Get inspired - For me if i'm in a bit of a rut or i'm in need of some new ideas I turn to other bloggers , instagram or pinterest for new flat lay ideas. Whether it be props or just ways to switch up how i'm laying out my images I find it to be so useful and refreshing!

What things do you find helps perfect your flatlays?