Emigrating...

Hi all you lovely people, you! I thought it was about time I did a post on emigrating! I have told you so many time how I moved over here (here being New Zealand) from England and I thought I would tell you how it all came about, what I thought about it and advice to anyone who is emigrating to a new country.

New Zealand...
New Zealand is that place at the bottom of the planet - that tiny little dot near Australia. It is one of the many countries that is part of the British Empire and everyone thinks it's just full of trees and sheep.  Well, that might be true. There are a lot of trees here - and sheep too. However, there is so much more to it than that. I live just north of Auckland in North Island, New Zealand. I've lived here about a year and a half now and I love it here. It has sub-tropical weather, bright blue sea and cloudless skies. The people are lovely and it just has a lovely atmosphere over here.

Who I moved with?...
This might be a bit of a silly addition to the post because - who cares? Right? However, I will tell you anyways, just in case you are interested. I moved here with my parents and my two little sisters. However, my brother is someone we left behind. We all miss him more than anything and he is the most amazing person you'll ever meet but we know he's happy where he is and that's all that matters to us.

Why we moved...
We moved over here just to have more opportunities and a chance at a better life. As some of you will know if you watch my Youtube videos that I got really badly bullied at school in England and there was no way I could stay there throughout my school years because I would've ended up with no qualifications and no way of getting a job. Not to mention no self-confidence. So for me especially, this move was really important.

My thoughts on emigrating...
I love New Zealand and all the people in it. Everyone is so nice and welcoming and accepting here. I find it so much easier to cope with school over here than I ever did in England and I'm so grateful for the opportunities it has given me moving out here.

What advice I have for people who are emigrating...
Hmm... I don't think there's anything I can say to make the move easier on you. All I can say is; embrace it. All of it. If you give it a try, the chances are that you'll like it where you're moving to. However, if you spend all your time rebelling against your parents and saying that you hate it and you want to go home, the chances are you are going to be miserable. I know that you are under the impression that if you kick up enough of a fuss then your parents will just move back but that really isn't going to happen. If you are in a different country right now and your furniture is also there, you are not going back home with your family; you'll be moving back alone when you're 18. I know that sounds like a horrible thing to say but your parents would not have dragged you away from your home and your friends without good reason. Go easy on them, the move is just as hard for them as for you. Look at moving as a fresh start and a chance to get things right that might have gone wrong in England (or wherever you're from)

Will I ever go back?...
Well... I'm sorry to say I think it's highly likely that I will go back and live in Yorkshire. I love it out here and I love all the opportunities I have been given and all the friends I've made but after I have finished with school, the chances are that I will go straight back to Yorkshire and live in the Countryside again.

Why?...
Well, New Zealand just isn't me. I don't know if that makes any sense to any of you but I am totally homesick and I miss Chatsworth House and Gardens, I miss Bakewell market. I miss it all. I miss my brother. I miss having Christmas in winter. New Zealand has given me a fresh start and allowed me to have a life I wouldn't have had if I had still being living in England throughout my school life. No matter how much I love it here, it can just never compare to how much I love my home. The place I was born and raised. The place where all of my family is. I have a feeling at some point, we will all go back to England because I don't think New Zealand is where any of us wants to spend the rest of our lives. Home is just too important to us all.

I hope you enjoyed this post and I'll see you next Monday,
Laralu x

Back to School / Growing up and moving on

Hey everyone!! I'm so happy today! I have actually started writing my blog posts and filming my videos weeks or even months in advance since I am back at school now and I so much work to do I can't think straight. (Nothing a cup of tea won't fix though *;)* ) I basically upload them all at once and schedule them to be posted on a certain day at a certain time so as to make sure you still get a blog post and a video every Monday.

Confused?...
Some of you right now might be confused about what I mean when I say 'just started school again'. Well, I shall explain it to you. I am - as you all know - from England. Yorkshire in fact. However, I moved to New Zealand about a year and a half ago and the school years over here start in February and end in November / December time. However I am a senior in College so I leave school in October and get a full 3 months off school (which is pretty awesome!)

Back to School...
Well for most of you, this blog post will be pointless till September but because I am going back to school now; I thought this would be the best time to do this blog post because you can always come back to this in September.
My first day back at school was literally today. I was scared out of my mind about being in classes with people I don't know and having new teachers and being in uncomfortable situations but apart from that, there was nothing much wrong with going back to school after a nice long break.
(You may also be wondering why I was scared. Well, I suffer with anxiety and it is particularly bad in school situations)
It turns out I had a really excellent first day.  I am taking Health, Photography, Classical Studies, Early Childhood Education, Maths and English. All these subjects are ones I am really passionate about and I love learning about. However, I do have some doubts. I took health in year 10 and 11 and really enjoyed it so decided to take it this year for year 12 but realised today that I'm getting pretty bored of it and am actually thinking about dropping it and then I will have a free period to finish off extra work etc. It's not that I don't like health and don't find it interesting but after two years of it, I'm just not sure if I want to do another two. All my friends who did health have also left to do bigger and better things.
Classical Studies is going to be amazing! We get to go to University lectures and visit the libraries there etc. I am SO excited for this year.

What's the problem then?...
What's the problem with all this amazing stuff and amazing opportunities? Well one simple little thing. At the end of next year, I leave school forever and never go back. This is scary as hell for me . I know that I will take a year out after year 13 to have a break from the education side of things and decide what I want to do with my life. As you know - I'm not that keen on going to University myself.
The thought of living by myself and paying the bills and cooking the food and being totally self-reliant scares me. I'm just not ready to grow up yet. I'm not ready to leave childhood behind and be an adult. Every time I think about it, it makes me feel a little ill. It's just all happening so fast and with no warning. You just wish time could slow down and you could be suspended in that moment forever. It would make things so much easier to deal with.


I also did a video on the same subject just a lot more rambling and a lot less coherency. I hope you enjoy.

Let me know your thoughts on growing up and moving on into the big wide world! I would love to know how you feel about it.
Love you all and see you next Monday,
Laralu x

Beauty Review:- CoverGirl's Aqua Smooth Foundation!

Hey everyone!
I hope you enjoyed my last post on 'Sunburn'. I know it sounds quite boring but you wouldn't believe how useful it is.

SUPER Scary...
My blog is growing quite quickly which is SUPER scary but I love it. My YouTube Channel is going a lot more slowly but I don't mind. Now that I have editing software, my video's might become more 'watchable'.
Today's post is going to be on a foundation from CoverGirl.

Just to explain quickly...
(Just for the purpose of this post, I did buy this myself, it wasn't gifted to me by any person or PR company and I am not being paid to do this review. If I should be asked to review something or gifted something to review it will have an (*) next to it. If I've been paid to review something, I shall tell you. (All of this has also been explained on my 'PR' page)

How I discovered it...
Okay, so I shall first of all tell you the story of how I got this foundation. I got $100 (NZD) for my birthday and I mainly bought clothes for the summer, since all the clothes I had were for (New Zealand) winter. I realised my skin was getting darker and my BB Cream didn't match my skin tone anymore so decided to get a 'summer foundation'. I went to the local supermarket and I wasn't looking for anything in particular, just something fairly cheap. Anyway, the CoverGirl Aqua Smooth foundation was on offer to I got it. It didn't look very impressive, there wasn't anything too special about it and there didn't seem to be a lot of product. It was an impulse buy. One of the BEST impulse buys EVER!

The Review...
Okay, so I know everything I just said is a little boring and you're waiting for me to get to the point. Well, I think it's amazing.
Packaging...
Packaging wise, this foundation doesn't have much to be desired. It lets the product down a little. Most people would just skim past this foundation because the outside doesn't look too pretty. As I've started to do reviews online, I've realised just how important visual aid is to selling a product. To be honest, if this foundation hadn't been on offer at the time, I would have gone right past it too.
However, the packaging is light, easy to open but secure so there is no worries about product going all over your bag etc.

Applicator...
As you can probably guess, I wasn't best pleased with the applicator. However, this isn't unusual - for anyone! I always find that applicators in any makeup products are a waste of time but I try them out just the same so then I can talk about every part of the product and give my full opinion. I think, if you are on the go and you can't take makeup brushes with you, this applicator will do okay. I just feel it leaves the foundation a little streaky on my face and doesn't apply it evenly.However, this is my personal opinion, so don't be deterred from trying applicators that come with products! You never know - you might like them.

Foundation...
Well, this foundation is amazing. I honestly don't think I've ever found a better one. It is a cream foundation so there is no need to worry about leakage. It applies beautifully to the face, it doesn't feel like you are wearing any foundation at all and - most importantly - doesn't look like it either. It is a matte (or semi-matte) foundation and there is absolutely no need to apply powder. In fact, I feel powder makes it look too heavy. The foundation lasts easily 5 hours on your face without primer, moisturiser, powder etc. to set it. However, if you do use all these extra things, it should last about 10 hours.

I also did a video review on this so check that out:

I hope you enjoyed this guys and I'll see you next week for another 'Let's Talk' post!
Love you all,
Lara x