What is love?

I would like to think that there are a lot of things that I believe I understand in life, but for the longest time, love has not been one of them. I based my whole understanding of love and relationships off the big screen, off the fairytales that I gripped so tightly to growing up. Maybe it was my own way of escaping reality, but I believed it none the less.  I used to believe that if you loved someone, you would do 'anything' for them. However, as I grew older, I  learnt that it wasn't exactly true.   I discovered that for some people I had to minimise my net worth to keep them happy,  and with only the phrase 'you are nobody till somebody loves you' keeping me attached to them. Sometimes we have a very narrow view of the world, and we idealise a certain type of love. Even more so in today's world of social media where the hashtags 'relationship goals' have blurred the lines of what is central in our lives. Love doesn't always have to be that of the romantic kind. Love is whatever you make of it. So, maybe the question we should ask instead is "what does love feel like?"  Love can be that feeling of warmth in a memory of a time when your best friend comforted you after the loss of someone you cared about. Love can be found in the little things, like popping out to the shops in the middle of the night because someone you care about is hungry and there's no food at home. Love can be that time you graduated, and all your most important people were there to cheer you on.  Love can also be a different kind of feeling, a feeling of distance. Just as a plant won't grow any better if you watch it, sometimes you have to let things be to allow them to develop. Sometimes love can stop us from moving on. If we go back to the plant, you're watching grow, in some cases your shadow may prevent the plant from getting any sunlight. Sometimes you have to step back to let things develop to their fullest. So if there are people in your life who have distanced from you, it may not be because they love you any less, but sometimes they're doing this because of the very fact that they love you. Its because they don't want to hurt you.  Honestly, it took me a long time to realise it, but I had 'love' all around me, in different forms and different memories. The truth is it just took me a long time to understand it. It might not have been in the way that movies and novels pushed it to be, but I have love nonetheless. Sometimes it means stepping back and looking at what is in your life. No matter how alone life may feel If we all look close enough love is there. 

The Ultimate Guide to University. #BackToSchool

Ok I lied. This is probably not an "Ultimate guide" because I'm sure I missed a lot of things however I can say that I have developed some unique tips when it comes to saving money at university. Back to School season always gets me excited because it's and excuse for me to enjoy one of my favourite pastimes...shopping for stationary. I thought it would be helpful to create this guide for all my friends joining university this year and giving them tips on how to save money and what to buy. I do have to say that although this guide will be predominately aimed at students in the UK, i'm sure a lot of these tips can be transferred to other parts of the world. Brace yourselves because this is going to be a big read...

What do I need at University?

In all honesty what you need to bring to university actually depends on your course, however there are some generic things you  can bring that will greatly help you bing prepared. I've made a little college supply Wishlist (as seen below), to be complete honest not all the stuff is necessary.  

Summer Beauty Favourites 2016

It's honesty been such a long time since I last did a beauty post (or any kind of post to be quite honest) and I did a summer favourites post before and a lot of you really liked it, so this year I'm going to do it again. 

I've been obsessing over this make up brand for so long. I'm not exaggerating when I say that I spent my entire trip in UAE scouring every make up store to find that the NYX lip creams had gone out of stock. As soon as I heard that NYX came to the UK, my lovely brother in fact went to buy me the lip creams because I was at work. It was so funny the way my brother was surprised at how busy the make up counters were. 

The two lip creams that I've been loving are Stockholm and Abu Dhabi. They're just so creamy and the colour pay off is just beautiful. I've also been recently using the Matte setting spray, I do really like it but I'm still on the look out for a better brand, so please let me know any good ones in the comments. 

This Eid my cousins bought me the large Passion Fruit Body Butter from Body Shop and this has become my new favourite. It has such a fruity and fun summery smell and it is really good for moisturising after showers. 

Another thing I've been loving is nail care. As a Muslimah we don't typically paint our nails because we need do wudu (abolition) before prayer and our nails need to be water permeable. However when I'm not praying and I get my "monthly gift" I like to make an effort to look cute by paining my nails or wearing stick ons. My favourite nail polish brand is MUA because it's so cheap at only a £1 and it lasts so long and doesn't chip that easily. I've also been obsessing over the Elegant Touch French Manicure stick on nails, It really sticks on and it's so easy to remove.   I hope you liked this quick favourites post and let me know what products you've been loving this summer.