Monday 28 November 2016

Living with chronic tinnitus

Earlier this week I had to leave a pub early, leaving all my friends there even though I was having a really good time. This was not because I was too drunk, not even because I had to get up early the next day for uni. It was because I knew if I didn't go I would have a constant horrible high pitched buzzing and ringing coming from both ears for weeks afterwards.

I have recently been diagnosed with tinnitus, a condition which affects your ears, making a constant background ringing sound or buzzing sound. When I'm trying to sleep and everything is quiet, my ears still ring and make a sound, making it harder for me to sleep. The condition means I can rarely go to clubs and I can never listen to my headphones, at least for these next 8 weeks and very sparsely after that. Most people get tinnitus after a club or a gig, a ringing in the ears that goes away except for me that ringing just doesn't go away.

As you can imagine, it's not a lot of fun but it is getting slightly better, the ringing is less constant. The whole idea is that it's creating background noise, something which you just physically have to get used too. Using earplugs when you have to listen to loud music or trying to avoid it completely also helps. When it was first happening I was obviously scared, I was worried it would affect my hearing, I felt too young to be having these kind of problems but as it turns out tinnitus can affect anyone at anytime, doesn't even have to be after a loud noise

Tinnitus can be made worse with anxiety and insomnia and depression, things which tinnitus can cause itself so there is a bit of a catch 22 going on. If you develop it while you're young, it's not too detrimental, give yourself 8 weeks cold turkey from clubs and headphones and it makes a difference, and be careful with the amount you do use your headphones. If you find it difficult to sleep, putting on quiet music just so you can't hear the ringing might help too. It's important to keep things in perspective and think about how things will get better.

Do any of you guys suffer from tinnitus? How do you cope?
Lots of love,
Eleanor x

Saturday 19 November 2016

Sphinx and The Map- T.S Learner review

Hey guys! I wanted to do a little double book review today. A few months ago my boyfriend's parents were taking a load of books to the charity shop and i went through and picked out ones I wanted to keep ( 2 bags full!) These two I choose and thought they looked quite intriguing. I have never heard of this author before and thought I'd give them a go. These two books are two separate novels but they're by the same author and they're very similar in many ways. They claim to be exciting mystery books, along the lines of  Dan Brown and Kate Mosse. Unfortunately, I did not on the whole enjoy these books, and I did not think the writing was as good as Kate Mosse books.

Both books have a similar main protagonist, an atheist male who the author describes as being very good looking and a "hero" in some sort of way, amazing at what they do. The description of the main character honestly annoys me so much it's like Learner just can't help herself but include all these details about the protagonist, it's so contrived and irritating, they seem to have no faults or the faults they do have are endearing and honestly for a reader I just found it insufferable.

Out of both books, I preferred Sphinx, both books are historical mystery books and with Sphinx I was genuinely quite driven and excited to see how it ended, it definitely kept me somewhat hooked when I got past the irritating main character or at least the irritating descriptions of the main character. The main fault for me for this book was that it just ended in the strangest of ways. The ending suddenly went very fantasy-ish and the rest of the book wasn't particularly like this, it didn't seem to fit in and seemed quite rushed. It's a fairly average book, nothing amazing and had some cringy sex scenes but if you're into historical mysteries it would be quite a good beach read.




The Map was the book I read second and I honestly really disliked it. It's a bit unusual for me to hate  a book so much, I like most books and I know I can be quite a harsh critic but I normally find good in most books. I just found it boring, at least with Sphinx I could look past some of the bad writing as the story line was quite hooking but The Map was so slow. I was disappointed as I thought I'd enjoy this more. The blurb says it's going to be about witches and covens but it had so many different lines none were taken to their full advantage and it ended up being less of an exciting adventure book and just a long boring book filled with how amazing the main protagonist is and some more cringy sex scenes. It was so slow and I felt as if nothing happened. There was nothing exciting until right at the end and then it was over so quickly. I honestly would not recommend this book.

I don't think I would read any more of T.S Learner's books, I wanted to like these so much but I am not a fan of her writing style, both books were very similar and I think I'll give her other books a miss. As harsh as it is I'm looking forward to not having to read this anymore!

Have you read these books? What did you think?
I'll be back with another book review very soon! If there are any books you want me to read and review or have any recommendations for me let me know!
Lots of love,
Eleanor x

Sunday 13 November 2016

Acne skincare routine

Hey guys! So i thought it was about time I did an acne skincare routine. Those of you who have read my blogs previously may have known a lot of the time I talked about my clinique face routine but I actually abandoned clinique this summer as it was no longer doing anything whatsoever for my face. I basically have a massive breakout (possible stress related) during exams and clinique was doing nothing to help. I had been using the anti-blemish system for 2 or 3 years anyway and decided it was high time I changed. I have suffered with moderate acne for a long time and its such a pain. I will be doing more acne related posts I think because I know how often I am googling tips and "what makeup won't break me out" ect and I know how frustrating it is to find makeup and skincare that actually works and this is so rare; so I want to share what works for me.



Most of these products in my skincare routine are actually Liz Earle. My Aunty first suggested Liz Earle and I was not convinced since she is older than me and I didn't think products that work well for older skin would work well for me but I was wrong! I honestly think the Liz Earle cleanse tone and moisturize system is better than the clinique system and it is cheaper! Liz Earle is by no means "cheap" the products are midrange to a bit on the pricey side but nowhere near as expensive as clinique or some other brands like Antipodes for example. I was so sceptic since these products had oils in like avocado oil and I was so afraid of putting oils on my face incase they broke me out but this system has really helped my skin. I have broken out a little now but it's definitely due to stress!

You can buy a little starter pack system for £26 (I think) in boots which includes minis of the cleanse and polish cleanser, skin tonic and moisturiser (i picked the light moisturiser) as well as a face mask, one of their amazing face clothes and 2 little sponges. The full sized pack is £45, this includes their cleanser, skin tonic, and a moisturiser, 2 face clothes and a free gift, I choose to get their exfoliator.




These products smell so nice! The my face feels so clean after cleansing it really feels like it takes all my makeup off. Their face clothes are also a bit abrasive so it feels like it really gets deep into my pores to remove every inch of makeup. I love the toner as it feels so refreshing and smells amazing and the moisturiser is a good combination of richness and lightness. I use this twice a day. I find that its not the best at taking my eye makeup off so I take that off with my Garnier micellar water first. If my face is quite bad, I also like to apply some of my La Roche-Posay effaclar duo after moisturising but I have a bit of a love/ hate relationship with this so I don't use it all the time. For individual spots I love my body shop tea tree night lotion. I also use two creams which I get from the doctors. I think these have made a difference too. For those of you interested these are Zindaclin and Differin.



Twice a week I exfoliate using my Liz Earle exfoliator or I use a face mask. I am loving the Liz Earle mini facemask that I got as well as my Lush mask of magnaminty and I'm using this loads recently.



I hope you enjoyed my skin care routine! I am still finding new products all the time for my skin and finding what works and what doesn't so I'll definitely keep you updated. Tell me what you guys think of these products and I'll be back next week!
Lots of love,
Eleanor x

Sunday 6 November 2016

Get to know me tag

Hi guys! Since I'm starting up bloging again I wanted to do a get to know me tag, I've probably done something similar before but I wanted to start as I mean to go on and let you know a lil bit about me! I've kinda done this loosely off other get to know me tags I've seen online but also added my own questions!



Full name: 
Eleanor Hilary Paige Smith

Age
19 years old! 20 in three months (scary) 

Zodiac sign:
Aquarius 

3 things that make you happy:
Things that have made me happy this week are walking through the autumn leaves, fireworks and hot chocolates! 

3 habits you have:
Biting my nails (gross I know but I can't help it!) clicking my pen ( I am that annoying person) and buying way to many lattes. 

Where are you from?
I was born in Sunderland but have lived in Leeds for most of my life! 

Future goals:
At the moment my long term goals are to continue studying, maybe a do a masters but I haven't fully decided yet. At some time in the future I would really like to become a clinical psychologist or at least that's the goal at the moment

Favourite food? 
I think my fave has to be pizza I adore pizza! I also love pasta and peanut butter but not together obviously!

My pets:
I have 2 cats, Casper and Pebbles. I'm such an old cat lady honestly. My cats are quite old now they're 17 but they're still my lil babies. 

Fave films? 
I think my fave film might be Love Rosie! I also love the pirates of the Caribbean films and Lord of the rings. 

What's worrying you at the moment?
Right now it's uni work! I have two deadlines coming up and I am not feeling prepared!

Favourite places to shop?
I love shopping in h&m, primark, Superdrug and boots! 

Fave beauty product? 
This is really hard to just pick one product! I think my Liz Earle cleanse and polish cleanser is definitely a holy grail! I will do an updated skin routine soon! 

Fave YouTube channels? 
I am loving Hellooctober, Just Jodes and Soph does Nails at the moment! 

Current relationship status? 
Currently I am in a relationship for those of you who didn't know! Me and my boyfriend have been in a relationship for nearly 4 years now. 

Where would I like to visit?
So many places! I'd love to Thailand, Hawaii, Norway, Sweden and Croatia to name a few! 

Celebrity crush? 
Has to be Orlando Bloom I love him! 

3 things that upset me? 
Feeling lonely/ have no one to talk to, being homesick, uni stress
Favourite song? 
I'm not sure what my favourite song is actually, but I have been loving the Angus Thongs and Full frontal snogging soundtrack which is kinda embarrassing but I love it!

Hope you enjoyed this! I'll be hopefully back posting next week, I am thinking Sunday nights are a good time to post for me so we'll see how that continues!
Lots of love, 
Eleanor x

















Saturday 5 November 2016

I'm back...

Hey guys!

So wow, I have been the world's worst blogger for a really long time. I haven't blogged properly in such a long time, and I keep making all these blogs saying I'm going to blog again and I just don't carry on. 

I guess I haven't had the motivation to blog in a really long time. Like I wanted to, but couldn't bring myself to physically do it somehow, I didn't really have any ideas. I liked the idea of blogging but wasn't feeling blogging itself.

But recently I have actually been motivated to start. I want to start blogging again, not because I feel like I have to, but because I want to. But there are going to be a few changes.


"I liked the idea of blogging but wasn't feeling blogging itself"



Back in the day when I used to blog regularly I would stick to my routine and I did really love that but that's not really how I want to blog anymore I don't think, or at least it's not how I want to blog at the moment. I don't really want to stick to routines or certain topics I have to talk about on certain days ect. I am stressed enough without adding extra things for me to worry about! I just want to blog about whatever I want to blog about.

I want to blog about make-up more which I never used to really blog about a lot but I really want to start blogging more about makeup and beauty products. I want to start blogging about things that interest me on my course in uni, topics in psychology that I love. I want to do more book reviews, maybe even everytime I finish a book. I just want to blog about anything that I want to talk about, from makeup reviews to politics and feminism. From what I've been up to on a particular day to contraception. Just anything and everything. I want to talk more about myself and things I am going through and things I love and personal topics more. I want to try and upload once a week but if I can't or I'm too busy I'm going to try and not get too upset with myself. I also want to try and post on instagram more so I'd love it if you'd follow me at littleblogsfromlittlepeople! At the moment I'm just going to focus on this blog, maybe if i start getting really serious with blogging again I will think about starting up my other blogs, but I really just want to focus and be happy with this one so I'm leaving it here for now.

I hope that if you used to read my blog you will continue to do so and will stick with me on this and enjoy some different topics to what I used to blog about, there's definitely going to me more of an odd mix but I am excited and I really hope you are too.

Lots of love as always,
Eleanor xxx