Thursday 20 March 2014
Wednesday 19 February 2014
Is Social Networking Destroying Our Relationships?
We all hate being the third wheel. The gooseberry. The unnecessary, and more often than not, unwanted presence during a date disguised as a catch-up, when your “under the thumb” friend can’t bear to be apart from their significant other for longer than 10 seconds.
You feel awkward, they feel awkward, but nothing is said.
So if we hate third wheeling so much, why do most of us allow one in our relationships permanently? Omnipresent and inescapable. Intruding our lives like a big, fat, clumsy burglar, stealing our attention and wreaking havoc with our emotions.
Who is this third wheel, you ask? Social media. Yep, the one thing that brings us all together is ironically tearing more and more relationships apart. Not even just testing relationships, I mean really tearing them apart, ruthlessly.
And no, I’m not being melodramatic, for once in my life. Imagine relationships are like cashmere jumpers. Delicate, they need handling sensitively and respectfully. They make us feel all warm and safe. They snag easily, but there’s nothing a touch of good ol’ TLC and a little handiwork can’t fix. Then there’s social media – the barbed wire fence, to be approached with caution because one wrong move can cause serious damage. And we all know that cashmere jumpers and barbed wire fences are not exactly a match made in heaven.
I’m a 23 year-old woman and the only two relationships I’ve ever been in have both been jeopardised, then ultimately ended (quite nastily, in fact, very nastily) all because of social media. Social media didn’t just break my relationships up. They literally were destroyed – as in “please never speak to me ever again” destroyed. And that’s sad, isn’t it? Not even sad, just plain pathetic. How come you can be so close to someone one moment, then the next you’re cursing the day they were born? And all because of this fictitious, virtual world that exists because of social media, where we project the very best versions of ourselves to the world, self-censoring the undesirable bits and ugly truths.
Is it really normal for our partners to be lying in bed with us, and instead of whispering sweet nothings into our ears and a spot of cheeky kissing and canoodling, they’re posting “witty” statuses and scrolling through a never-ending virtual stream of monotony? I’m sorry, but no. JUST. NO. Hello, I’m here! Lying next to you, with a pair of tits that should be occupying you for hours! Oh, what was that? Ah yes, sorry, I forgot about you having your iPhone permanently welded to your hand. My bad!
My pet hates are Instagram and Facebook, and although you’d be reluctant to admit it, a lot of you probably feel the same way too. Do we really live in a society that’s so shallow and attention-starved that we need to have a “like” button under the photos we upload? Under “life events”? I mean, really, come on!
This is just getting a bit too silly. A heart button under a photo of fucking beans on toast? Are we all really so insecure, that we need the click-click-clicking of meaningless virtual approval from friends, admirers and voyeuristic strangers as fodder for our egos to grow and grow? Are we all really so bloody stupid, that virtual dalliances give us a bigger kick than actual real-life interactions with an actual real-life person who we’re in a real-life relationship with, who we supposedly love?
Yes. Yes we are.
Posted by
Lauren Davis
at
04:26
Labels:
discussion,
facebook,
instagram,
love,
relationships,
selfie,
social media,
social networks
Tuesday 14 January 2014
The Glittery Pink Jelly Shoes: A Tale Of Jealousy, Longing & Disappointment
I
remember the very first time I had shoe envy.
I was seven (yes, seven), and the shoes I coveted belonged to a girl
named Leanne, who lived in my street.
It was the same sort of longing I’d feel today for a pair of £925
Alexander McQueen leather biker boots, only these shoes cost about ten pounds
and were bought at the local Brunswick Shoe Warehouse in Sunderland. This was basically the shoe-shop equivalent
of Netto, which now, rather ironically, stands where Brunswick once was.
The glorious image of those shoes will be forever burnt into the psyche
of my seven-year-old self. Made from
garish pink glittery PVC, and with a clumpy heel of about two inches – I had
officially fallen in love for the first time, albeit, with a pair of
shoes. And for a girl whose idol was
Geri Halliwell, the jellies had absolutely nothing on her red patent-leather
platforms, but maybe, just maybe, if
I could have possessed those shoes, a smidgen of her sass and confidence would
have rubbed off on me.
I vividly remember the day Leanne debuted the heeled jellies. It was a muggy blue-skied day, back in the
summer of ’97. Down the street she
pranced, with as much ease and elegance as a Ballet Russes prima-donna, despite
the perilously high heel. I watched in
awe, mouth agape, suddenly feeling ashamed of the grass stained no-brand
trainers on my own big-for-my-age feet.
Before I knew it, I was pleading with her to let me try them on. Desperate, I know, but what’s a shoestruck
girl to do? It was the first time I
truly believed I could be someone other than that Big Lanky Goofy Girl, all
because of the most glorious pair of shoes I had ever had the privilege of
laying my young eyes on.
Of course, she refused at first, with the sort of bare-faced arrogance
and smug self-assurance that would cause Supernanny’s Jo Frost to spontaneously
combust. The sinister Cheshire cat grin
painted across her otherwise angelic face genuinely frightened me. She was about a foot shorter than me and was
blessed with the skeletal structure of a sparrow – but she had something I
wanted, and she was intoxicated on the unfamiliar thrill of having this unseen
power over me.
She knew how badly I wanted those shoes, and she took great pleasure in
shamelessly flaunting them at any
opportunity – sprinting into her porch (probably faster than Hussein Bolt) to
change into them each time she saw that I was playing out in the street. She didn’t care one iota there was the very
real possibility she could end up breaking her ankle and/or neck when she wore
them when joining in our games of tiggy scarecrow and hide ‘n’ seek. But it was a risk worth taking in her
opinion. She was evil.
Three packets of strawberry Hubba Bubba, ten Pokémon cards and a
fortnight later, Leanne eventually caved in.
Yes, I bribed her relentlessly, but it paid off. Sort of.
The moment she removed the jellies from her own tiny feet seemed to play
out in Matrix-style slow-mo. I almost
cried with happiness, and I’m certain I shrieked with delight, as she passed
them over to me as if they were the Holy Grail.
My feet were a good two sizes bigger than hers, but somehow, I managed
to bundle them into the jellies. My
dreams were cruelly shattered the moment I attempted to walk in them. Imagine Bambi, drunk on Lambrini,
blindfolded, before being strapped into a fairground Waltzer for fifteen
minutes and then catapulted like an Angry Bird into the middle of an ice
rink. That gives you an idea of how I
must have looked.
Of course, my mother would never buy me my own pair of heeled jellies.
She was all for ‘practical’ shoes.
Her definition of practical? Really, really, REALLY ugly. Like,
hideous. Abominable. I painfully recall the thick-soled navy
atrocities she’d pick out for me ready for the new school year. Let’s not even discuss the aforementioned
no-brand trainers she bullied me into wearing throughout my childhood.
Our next trip to the Brunswick Shoe Warehouse resulted in us negotiating
on a flat version of Leanne’s jellies.
Broken-hearted, I convinced myself I didn’t need heels anyway. I was tall enough without them, wasn’t
I? At least the flat ones wouldn’t hurt
my feet! Ha! Ah, forget it, who was I kidding? I would have given my whole collection of
Pokémon cards, Spice Girls album and
my beloved Spotty dog teddy for those freaking shoes. I may have waited five painfully long years
later until I owned a pair of my own heels (knee-high black suede boots, bought
especially for the birthday disco of the most popular girl in school) but I’ll
never forget how I felt in those fleeting moments of wearing the heeled jelly
shoes.
They may not have been the most practical shoes, or the most
comfortable. Heck, I could barely fit my
big toe in them. They may have been
aesthetically hideous, despite seven-year-old me deeming them absolutely
impeccable in every sense. But for the
first time in my life, I realised that by simply wearing a pair of shoes, I
could transform myself and feel like
a different person. I could feel
fabulous, and confident, and special, all thanks to two crudely constructed
pieces of PVC being worn on my feet. And
that was the moment fashion changed my life.
A pair of jelly shoes made all of those dreams about the person I always
wanted to be a reality.
Saturday 26 January 2013
Orange Blossom Cologne by Jo Malone
Orange Blossom Cologne 30ml £38 Jo Malone
Another fragrance review, (you'll soon discover that I'm quite the parfum connoisseur) and today it's Jo Malone's Orange Blossom Cologne.
A Christmas present from my wonderful boyfriend, this is a fragrance which is already extra special to me. At 22 years old, I finally feel like a proper grown-up. A young lady. Long gone are my teenage years, when 99p Charlie and Impulse body sprays were my weapon of choice. It's official, Orange Blossom Cologne marks the start of a new, exciting period of my life.
I normally choose warm, musky oriental-floral fragrances, but Orange Blossom Cologne falls on the opposite end of the scent spectrum.
It's uncomplicated; light, clean, fruity. What I love most about this perfume, is that the first time I tried it, the smell instantly took me back to my childhood (I'm a sucker for nostalgia). In the summertime, me and my younger sister would sit on the front step, peeling and eating tiny, sweet clementines. Of course, the smell was beautiful, so we would rub the peel across our wrists, with the natural oils serving as a makeshift perfume that would last on our skin for hours.
For me, Orange Blossom Cologne captures the essence of that memory, and maybe that's why I love it so much. It's pure happiness in a bottle. Just one or two sprays is enough for the scent to linger on your skin, hair and clothes for hours.
There's no denying that Jo Malone fragrances carry a high-end price tag, and look as though they were made to sit on only the most beautiful dressing tables - but if Orange Blossom is anything to go by, a place above commercial perfumes and mass-made eau de toilettes is well-deserved for this range. Jo Malone proves premium fragrances can be simple, but still can come up trumps against the more exotic, gourmand concoctions which are experiencing such popularity. After all, we all have heard the saying "less is more".
A quick peek at the Jo Malone site, and I discover you can create your own bespoke scent by wearing several of the colognes from the range at once - as they are "designed to be layered with complementary and contrasting" scents. If I ever win the lottery, I am DEFFO buying the whole range. Imagine the hours of fun! Yes, I love a gimmick.
My wish-list includes Vanilla & Anise, White Jasmine & Mint and French Lime Blossom. I bet they're divine.
Have you tried a Jo Malone fragrance before?
Posted by
Lauren Davis
at
14:54
Saturday 19 January 2013
Black Peony by Zara: the £9.99 Flowerbomb dupe
Black Peony eau de toilette 50ml £9.99 Zara
It was pretty much love at first sniff when Mother Bear bought me a bottle of Flowerbomb for my 18th birthday. But at £55 for a 50ml bottle, my pitiful student budget can't fund such luxuries!
So you can imagine my delight, when out bargain hunting in the Trafford Centre on Monday, I finally discovered a fragrance that comes amazingly close to mimicking the gorgeousness of Viktor + Rolf's heaven-scent (sorry, couldn't resist) creation.
Zara's own brand fragrance, Black Peony, comes in at a purse-friendly £9.99. Yes, it is only an eau de toilette and doesn't have the staying power of Flowerbomb, but when a little slice of luxury is so affordable, who cares?
For those of you who haven't tried Flowerbomb, it's a distinctive, addictive fragrance that smells like a bouquet of fruity, oriental florals wrapped in spun sugar and topped with a sprinkling of vanilla fairy dust. Basically, it is the ultimate girly fragrance.
The only difference I believe there is between the two, is that Black Peony is slightly less musky and lacks the heady sweetness of Flowerbomb. However, the differences are so slight, even the most well-trained nose could be fooled by this brilliant dupe.
It was pretty much love at first sniff when Mother Bear bought me a bottle of Flowerbomb for my 18th birthday. But at £55 for a 50ml bottle, my pitiful student budget can't fund such luxuries!
So you can imagine my delight, when out bargain hunting in the Trafford Centre on Monday, I finally discovered a fragrance that comes amazingly close to mimicking the gorgeousness of Viktor + Rolf's heaven-scent (sorry, couldn't resist) creation.
Zara's own brand fragrance, Black Peony, comes in at a purse-friendly £9.99. Yes, it is only an eau de toilette and doesn't have the staying power of Flowerbomb, but when a little slice of luxury is so affordable, who cares?
For those of you who haven't tried Flowerbomb, it's a distinctive, addictive fragrance that smells like a bouquet of fruity, oriental florals wrapped in spun sugar and topped with a sprinkling of vanilla fairy dust. Basically, it is the ultimate girly fragrance.
The only difference I believe there is between the two, is that Black Peony is slightly less musky and lacks the heady sweetness of Flowerbomb. However, the differences are so slight, even the most well-trained nose could be fooled by this brilliant dupe.
Have you tried Black Peony?
What is the best dupe product you've found?
Posted by
Lauren Davis
at
06:38
Labels:
bargain,
black peony,
cosmetics,
dupe,
flowerbomb,
fragrance,
perfume,
scent,
viktor and rolf,
zara
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