The H&M Jumper

Last week I told you about the Dorothy Perkins jeans I was loving, this week it's an H&M jumper. I have two of these jumpers now. One grey one and this purple one. I use the grey one as a pyjama top and Karl got me the purple one so I had one I could wear out of the house as well.

I have the grey one in a Small so it works well as a pyjama top because it's a little oversized. This one is an Extra Small so you can get an idea of sizing.

Everyone should have one these jumpers, I plan on collecting all of the colours! It's so comfortable.

H&M Sweatshirt - £5.99 (Hopefully it'll be back in stock online soon)

Review: GOSH Make Up

I have been researching cruelty foundations and while I'd found some luxury options, I was struggling to find much on the high street. I've previously ruled out B. and this time I went for another Superdrug-sold brand, GOSH.

At home takeaway: Vegan Curry

I love a good takeaway. Karl and I get them once a fortnight or so and just relax about cooking for a night. Since the start of vegan month though we haven't had a single one. I really wanted a curry but didn't want to spend the time making it from scratch so we popped off to Waitrose to see what we could find.

We went for the Patak's Masala Chicken curry sauce and mini poppadoms to add to some Waitrose bhajis and samosas.

11 reasons to join the National Trust

When I was younger I used to get taken to a lot of National Trust properties. I always pretended not to like them but secretly I was hoping I'd get swept off my feet by the heir to the place and get to live in a stately home forever. 99% of the time I'd discover the house hadn't been lived in for 60 years or the heir was 35 with no children. I told Karl this the other day and he looked at me like I'd completely lost it, so maybe that was just me and my over-active imagination.

Image from their website

Now I'm older I realise that living in a mansion would be expensive and not very practical but I still enjoy looking at them. I feel as if the National Trust is thought of as being made up of retirees and history loving parents. So here's why you should join the National Trust when you're under the age of 25.

Wishlist Wednesday: Sweaty Betty

As will probably become apparent on here over the next few weeks and months I'm on something of a fitness journey. I hated P.E at school. I was bad at all sports and vividly remember crying in one of my primary school classes because I couldn't do a forward roll and everyone laughed at me.

However, now I'm older and wiser I know that forward rolls aren't the be all and end all of being athletic. I have previously considered running but never had the motivation to get out there. Being an anxious person scared of going outside and being sick doesn't help matters either. In January I told myself I would complete the Yoga with Adriene 30 Days of Yoga and I did it without missing a single day. I fell in love with yoga and now try do to it at least once a week.

I have also fallen in love with workout gear, so this week's wishlist is what I want from Sweaty Betty.

The Dorothy Perkins Jeans

For someone who lives in jeans, it seemed strange to me that I only had two pairs that I would actually wear on a regular basis. So I went on the hunt for a third pair.

I love Topshop Joni jeans, that what my other two pairs are and I would definitely get a third pair of them, but currently I don't have the budget for £36 on jeans.

I opted for Dorothy Perkins and spent slightly too long looking at all the different styles online. After a lot of deliberation I went for the Petite Harper Jeans.

Cruelty Free Beauty Struggles and Triumphs

I announced at the beginning of the year that I intended to only buy make-up that hadn't been tested on animals. I don't believe that make-up needs to be put on animals for any reason. I stand by this decision and will keep to it until the laws change across the world.

Photo from leap bunny.org

Week In: Song Lyrics

Another new series as part of the blog's new look. I've never really known what to do with weekends, I'm not very good at Instagram so a week in Instagram posts wouldn't really work. So I've decided to do a "Week In:..." so it could be a week in inspirational Pinterest quotes, yoga poses, jokes, etc.

This week it's the song that inspired me to make the change to the blog. I've put the lyrics over my view of Friday's eclipse. A plan that the weather scuppered.

George Ezra's Listen to Man is the song in question. It reminds me to take the plunge, and to listen to Karl more often because he's always right.

Vegan Cookies

Food Fridays will be a thing now. Hopefully this will encourage me to have more exciting things for lunch. Being woefully unprepared this week I'm afraid I don't have very good pictures.

We didn't do Vegan-ary but we're doing Vegan-arch (so to speak). This means we've been experimenting a bit more with our meals. I really missed having sweet things so did a bit of digging and found this recipe from This Rawsome Vegan Life.

They were pretty easy to make and taste like normal chocolate cookies. Not many things will be sticking around once the month is up but I'd definitely make this again. I would say you need to spread the blobs of mixture out a lot or they'll stick together like this.

What other vegan desserts should I try?

Walking back to happiness

Thursdays are going to be set aside for rambling, life updates, reviews of non-beauty things. Today it's about how I'm battling my mental health issues. You can get my life story here and what exactly I'm dealing with in life.

I'm currently have counselling with a therapist Anxiety UK put me in touch with and she's great. Treats me like a grown up and lets me babble on about what I've done recently and helps me to be proud of my achievements, no matter how small.

Wednesday Wishlist: Charlotte Tilbury

As past of my new look I've got a new schedule, including the ever-so-ordinal Wednesday Wishlist. Sometimes this might be a really long wishlist, other times it might only have one thing on it.

This weeks it's all about Charlotte Tilbury. A firm favourite of my cousins and legions of beauty bloggers it's been a brand that's been on my radar for a while. I recently found out that they're all cruelty free too, so not only can I lust after them, I can buy them too!

Times are changing

The eagle-eyed among you may have noticed some changes going happening on my little blog. I've been having a complete make-over! So may I present to you all.....

Yes, I've changed the name and everything!!

I was feeling uninspired by my previous blog incarnation, I didn't like the colours as much any more, I had run clean out of ideas and felt I couldn't do being a beauty blogger justice anymore. I'm not getting rid of beauty, but giving myself more room to write about other things without feeling like I am betraying my blog name. Now alongside beauty I'm going to be talking about lifestyle, fashion, food, fitness, random things. I'm also going to be charting my recovery from anxiety and its related issues. Maybe I'll even start vlogging.

I'm sad to be saying goodbye to Ellie Mae's Beauty Blog, but it was time to move on. All my old posts will remain and I'm still Ellie Mae on social media. So it's not really gone. (Genuinely a little emotional writing this).

The name was born out of a conversation with Mum. I didn't know what to do and she asked me what I looked forward to in life and made me happy and I said "five past five" because that's when my boyfriend gets home from work. So here it is - five past five: the things that make me tick.

Review: B. Concealers

I hauled these concealers just over a month ago and now I shall be reviewing them for you. I actually got them mid-January so I've given them a good run through.

The concealers in question are the B. Flawless Long Lasting Concealer and the B. Radiant BB Under Eye Concealer. I said in the haul that I wasn't sure and after all this time I'm still left unconvinced. B. is such a good idea, cruelty free makeup at a low price point and easily accessible, but I just haven't tried any base products from them and enjoyed them.

Pink Hair, Don't Care

I dyed my hair pink, on a whim, to cheer myself up from a depressive funk a couple of weeks ago. It worked so I decided to do it again but this time I'd photograph proceedings. I used a mixture of Bleach London's Rose and Awkward Peach. I put Awkward Peach on my under layers and Rose on top. I put it on dry hair and left it for two hours before washing it out in lukewarm water. Fairly simple steps really.