RELAXING PLAYLIST FOR THE END OF SUMMER.

As summer is coming to a close, I thought I'd share a playlist of relaxing music to help ease anyone who reads this back into the daily grind. Whether you're going back to school, university or work, it's important take a bit of time out to relax. So please enjoy this set of songs that I've compiled for exactly that!

Skipping Stones - Claire de Lune

Surrender - Digital Daggers

Satellite Call - Sara Bareilles

In My Veins ft. Erin McCarley - Andrew Belle

Wicked Game - Gemma Hayes

Between The Bars - Elliott Smith

Hourglass - Catfish and the Bottlemen

This Far - Kina Grannis

Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea - XYLO

Livewire - Oh Wonder

We Were In Love - Ta-ku

I Will Meet You There - Ofelia

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5 FASHION ITEMS I COULDN'T HAVE LIVED WITHOUT ON HOLIDAY.

As you've probably guessed, I have indeed returned from my holiday to Spain. I spent a week with my family in one of Spain's most popular cities, Barcelona. It was pretty hot there with temperatures reaching 30 degrees Celsius, although on a couple of occasions we were caught out by rainstorms! Despite that, it was all in all a very enjoyable trip and a lovely way to spend some time with family before I head off to university in a month. There were a few specific fashion items that I seriously couldn't have done without during the week, so I thought I'd share these with you in today's post :)

1. A floppy sun hat. Although I had to make sure mine didn't fly off at some points in the summer breeze, it was great for keeping my head cool and providing a little bit of shade and protection from the sun.

2. Floaty patterned trousers. These are really useful when you need to cover up to go inside a religious building or cathedral, as well as being cool and airy. An added bonus is that you don't have to shave your legs on the day you wear them!

3. Birkenstock-style sandals. A last minute purchase from Primark but totally worth it for me, as this kind of sandal is super comfy and surprisingly mine didn't come off at all. I wore these pretty much every day in Barcelona - they were great for walking around the city in.

4. Kimono. These are cute, breezy and really good for protection from the sun. My shoulders are the bit of my body that are most likely to get burnt, so I just slung my kimono over them from time to time to give them a break from the sun's rays.

5. Maxi skirt. These have the same purpose as the patterned trousers. Also, they're pretty versatile fashion-wise - you can dress them up or down, both of which I did during my trip.

What are your fashion essentials for a summer holiday in the sun?

MY SUMMER NAIL PICKS.

Having only just realised that I'd never actually done a blog post about nails before - waaaaat?? - I decided to do a quick li'l post about the colours I've been wearing, am currently wearing or will be wearing this summer. These are chosen out of the colours that I already own, as I haven't actually had much chance to buy nail polish recently - I've been more concerned with getting outfits together for my trip to España!

On my hands I like to wear either this bold blue colour from Miss Sporty (no name on the bottle), this pretty purple colour by 17 (Purple Jewel), or for when I'm tanned (which will probably be never) I wear this bright white by 17 (Mini Skirt).

I'm not really too keen on wearing bold reds or pinks on my fingers, so I usually wear them on my toes, because I think those colours look so cute just peeking out of peep toe shoes or sandals. The ones I have are this random bright pink colour from an M&S nail set from yonks ago (again, no name on the bottle) and this bright red colour from Rimmel (030 Double Decker Red).


What are your favourite nail colours to wear in the summer?

FREE DOWNLOADS: iPHONE AND DESKTOP WALLPAPERS.

Today's post is a bit different, because I decided to create my first ever freebie wallpapers that you can download right to your phone or computer! I wanted to create something simple, fun, and of course summery, so I used the lyrics from a brilliant Beatles song that I've had stuck in my head for days as inspiration. I designed these wallpapers in a gorgeous slightly-darker-than-mint green and a beautiful coral colour, both of which, I believe, are perfect for the summer!

To download the wallpaper you want, click the corresponding link below, then right-click on the image that you are taken to and save it to your computer or phone. Then just load it up as your background and you're done!

Download the green wallpaper for:

Desktop  |  iPhone 4S  |  iPhone 5S

Download the coral wallpaper for:

Desktop  |  iPhone 4S  |  iPhone 5S

I really hope you like these and enjoy using them throughout this season - be sure to leave me a comment if you do actually decide to use one of them. I'm hoping they'll encourage the sun to come over to the UK - we seem to be immune to any sort of nice weather over here!

ONE SWIMSUIT TO RULE THEM ALL.

Last week, I was shopping with my mum for stuff for our family holiday, and we took a quick trip to M&S, seeing as its my mum's favourite shop. Typically, you only find stuff there for the middle-aged/older woman, however in the past, I have actually found the odd nice thing there for myself. This trip was no exception. I found this beautiful all-in-one swimsuit in the sale section, and was so relieved when the only one there was my size! I just love it when that happens, don't you?

I'd been looking round for a decent swimsuit for a while, seeing as I'm not really confident enough at the moment to wear a bikini on holiday. Firstly, because I'm just not too keen on my stomach area, and secondly, I've had bad experiences with bikinis in the past, such as diving off a boat and my pants going walkabouts in the sea :') how embarrassing… So for me, a nice summery swimsuit is most definitely the way forward!

This one has blue and cream stripes and a rope-like string to tie around your neck - it actually has quite a nautical feel to it. It also has grippy strips around the top edges, so it definitely won't come down. When I tried it on in the changing room, I was extremely surprised, because it actually looked nice on me! I felt comfortable in it too, which I think is essential when choosing swimwear. It was £20, reduced from £35, but even so, it was more than I was expecting to pay for a holiday swimsuit. However, M&S are pretty famous for selling only items of the best quality, so I'd much rather pay a little more than usual for a good quality swimsuit from this shop, than a cheaper one from elsewhere on the high street.

MAXI DRESSES FOR PETITES?

At the ripe old age of 18(!), I am reluctantly coming to terms with the fact that I will probably not grow any taller. However, I cannot actually recall having any kind of growth spurt during my pubescent years, so I do still remain quietly hopeful (somewhat naively) for a couple more inches. Or centimetres. Or just one centimetre… please...? Still, my immediate problem is to do with buying clothes, more specifically maxi dresses, designed for the more petite ones amongst us.

ASOS usually have a decent selection of petite maxi dresses - they have just over 50 different styles in stock right now. The thing is: as soon as you remove the word 'petite' from your search, you find that there are over 1000 different maxi dresses to choose from. I'd say that this is approximately proportional to what you'd find in the shops, i.e. for every 20 maxi dresses you spot in the normal height section, you find about one in the petite section. This really annoys me because most of the time, you see a maxi dress in the normal section that you really like, but then you realise that it would be ridiculous for you to even consider buying it, as it would simply be dragging along the floor the entire time you wore it. That is unless you wear huuuuge platform heels, which I'm pretty sure none of us really wanna do when we're just chillin' on holiday. And if the one design that they actually do have in the petite section just isn't your thing, then where does that leave you?

This whole thing also bothers me because the average height for women in the UK is about 5'3" to 5'4". This means that there has to be a whole load of women smaller than the average in order for it to even be an average (hell yeah, statistics skills finally coming in useful!) - so why can't shops reflect that in what they sell, instead of always having a minuscule petite section?!

Anyway, rant over! These are my picks from the current selection of petite maxi dresses on ASOS:

Is it just the shops where I live that have teeny tiny petite sections, or do any of you guys have this same problem? Feel free to comment if we're in the same boat!

THE SUMMER TAG.

I found this tag on Georgina AKA Makeup Pixi3's blog and thought, "I quite like the look of these questions!". And seeing as I haven't done a tag post before, why not have a go?

1. What's your favourite thing about Summer?
Probably just the fact that the academic year is over, exams are finished, and I literally have three months to do whatever I want. No deadlines, no responsibilities - just pure relaxation!

2. Do you have a favourite Summer drink?
Definitely iced tea! I get mine from Aldi - they sell lemon and peach flavoured tea. It's just so refreshing with a couple of ice cubes in a glass on the hottest days of the year.

3. Is there a location you like to go to each Summer?
No, unfortunately there isn't a place that I go every year with either family or friends. My parents like us to go to a different place every year so we can experience different things, which is really interesting and fun, although I do sometimes wish there was one place that we could call a sort of second home and go to every summer.

4. Favourite makeup look for Summer?
To be honest, I don't really wear much makeup on a daily basis, especially in the summertime, as I'd rather just have a fresh face. Occasionally I'll wear a bit of tinted moisturiser when I want to even out my skin tone, and a bit of concealer to brighten up the areas under my eyes.

5. Dresses or skirts?
I've always been a bit of a tomboy growing up, and it's only over the last couple of years that I've got into wearing more feminine clothes. I'd say dresses because I feel like you can just throw one on and be out the door, whereas with skirts you have to find a top that goes with it and decide whether you want to tuck it in, and for me it's just ugh… effort! :P

6. Sandals or ballet pumps?
I used to like sandals more in my early teens, but at the moment I'm quite into ballet pumps. I got some simple nude ballet flats recently that I've been wearing literally everywhere since I bought them - they're just really versatile!

7. Do you prefer to wear your hair up or down for Summer?
As Georgina said in her post, I'd like to wear my hair up more often to keep cool, as mine is really long (it's almost down to my bum!), but I just don't think I look too good with it up! So, yeah, it's usually down during the summer.

8. Deep smokey eyes or bold lips?
As I said in question four, I don't really wear much makeup, but in answer to this question I'd go with bold lips. I wear glasses and find it extremely difficult to do eye makeup evenly without them on, especially a smokey eye, so lips are a much more practical option for me.

9. Favourite perfume for Summer?
Well, my perfume collection is currently extremely limited, however I have a load of body sprays from a few years ago when I was strangely obsessed with it! My favourite for summer is the Laguna Beach Body Mist from Hollister - it's just a pretty scent that's really refreshing and floral - perfect for summer!

10. Last but not least, favourite music for Summer?
I kinda like light, upbeat music during summer that's really fun and happy. I've been putting this playlist together on Spotify over the last year, all ready for summer!

I hope you enjoyed reading my answers! Be sure to do this tag on your own blog - all the guidelines for the tag are on Georgina's original post. Have a great summer!

SUMMER EVENING OUTFIT.

I'm not sure whether it's technically summer yet, but the weather has warmed up all of sudden here in England, so I thought I'd share a summery outfit with you all.

I wore this outfit for an evening out in Spain with some friends last year. For the body, I actually used this multicoloured aztec print bodycon dress from River Island and put a black skater skirt over the top of it. I think this is a pretty cool way to style more form-fitting dresses. The extra layer underneath was pretty useful when I was actually wearing it, as I had a slight Marilyn moment when the wind took me by surprise and basically blew my skirt up! But I held onto my dignity because the dress was underneath so I didn't flash anyone, thank goodness!

I paired the outfit with these gorgeous black suede heels from Primark - they were a complete bargain only setting me back £12! They aren't that difficult to walk in seeing as they have a platform and a chunky heel, however if you were going for a more casual look or you just don't like heels, you could wear some black gladiator sandals or something similar instead.

Disclaimer: I bought all of these items of clothing with my own money and photographed them myself.

CASUAL SUMMER/AUTUMN OUTFIT.

It's that really annoying time of the year in the UK again, when it's just a bit too cold to keep wearing shorts but not cold enough for thick, fluffy hoodies. I know that many people find it difficult to work out what to wear during this transition period but hopefully this post will help.

Jumper
I got this jumper quite recently from H&M for £12.99 and it is a brilliant layering item. Despite the fact that it looks woolly, the maroon/burgundy coloured jumper is 55% acrylic and 45% polyamide, which gives it an interesting texture but is very comfortable to wear. It is a slightly open knit jumper, which means that you can just about see the colour of the garment you are wearing underneath through it. The jumper doesn't weigh very much compared to woollen jumpers and the slightly boxy fit makes it quite airy. It has 3/4 length sleeves, which is great for creating that horizontal line level with your waist to accentuate your body shape and give it more of a feminine touch.

Shirt
I added a white polo shirt, buttoned up to the top, underneath the jumper to give the outfit more of a smart, preppy look. It also creates more of a contrast with the dark jumper and the bright, white shirt poking through. I bought this a while ago from H&M for between £5 and £8.

Jeggings
These patterned navy blue jeggings aren't really the fit that a jegging usually is, but that is what M&S have decided to call them; I would say the fit is closer to a slim leg or skinny jean. The bird print reminds me more of summer but the colour scheme in the whole trousers is more a palette associated with autumn, which is why I think these are a great piece of clothing to wear at this time of year. They were originally priced at £25, but I bought them for £18 from the M&S Outlet.

Shoes
These shoes are a bit grubby now because I've worn them so much - they are really comfortable! I also got these from M&S for about £10 in the sale. I thought that another pop of white at the bottom of the outfit would really brighten everything up a bit.

You could wear ballet flats instead of the pumps, as well as some jewellery to make this slightly more of a formal look.


Disclaimer: I bought all of these items of clothing with my own money and photographed them myself.