Jaide Poppy | Colourful Cruelty Free Living

Everyone likes to give themselves goals for the new year, whether that be food related, organisational related or money, we all have things we want to improve and get better at. One of my things I'd like to get better at is to be more of a positive person. In general I'm quite positive, however can have a negative streak, which I don't wish to continue with. Being someone who spends a lot of their spare time on their phone, I was over the moon when Caseapp wanted to work with me again as what better way to continuously inspire yourself, than through a positive phone case.

I was able to choose two designs (*which were gifted) for my iPhone 6 and went for a plan leaf design and also went for a standard marble with a quote that I found online (because everybody loves marble). 



'Positive Vibes' and 'Eat, sleep, blog, repeat' are both very fitting for me and what my new year goals were. I thought that actually a phone case is something you see over and over throug…

Tis the season to pamper ourselves. Well, I'm speaking for myself when I say this, but,  the festive season gives me some what of an excuse to lay in the bath for hours (yes hours) with a hot chocolate or tea, watching a Christmas films with a face mask on. I obviously pamper myself all through the year, but Christmas Eve night before the big guy arrives is the perfect reason for a chill. 

Here are my top five things I do to get the most out of a relaxing evening preparing for Christmas Day, which I'll be doing myself after an evening of games, drink, food and laughs.

1: Free time - Make sure everything is done and ready by a good time. Nothing you need or have to do, nothing you have to watch at a certain time and nowhere you have to be. Doing this helps me and my mind to relax completely as it's not just your body that needs to rest, your mind needs to too. I even put the evening in my ical or my diary to make it a sure thing. This tends to be quite late on Christmas Eve (…

I always like a spot of baking on the run up to Christmas Day, and cookies are something that everyone loves and just an all round win. Perfect to just have in the house on the snack table (does anyone else do this for Christmas Day?) or just an evening snack after a day full of food. By the way, these are so delicious, and I'm not just saying this. Its an easy recipe thats quick to make and quick to eat. Enjoy!

Ingredients you need:
Gluten free self raising flour -300g
Caster sugar -300g
Dairy free marg - 200g
Dried cranberries - as many as you want
Freefrom chocolate - as many as you want
Xanthan gum - 1stp 
Eggs - 2 medium 


Step one: Requires you to engage your guns and cream the sugar and marg together. You need to keep going until its quite creamy with no lumps to be seen. 


Step two: Crack the two eggs in (making sure no parts of the shell has fallen in) Mix together until it's completely mixed up with the creamy sugar and marg. 


Step three: You want to pop in your flour and a tsp o…

With so many loved ones to think of, jobs to carry on with and an increased social life, the Christmas holidays can be manic. I mean, don't get me wrong, I absolutely love this time of year, but how do you get yourself ready for it, because before you know it, boom! It's right in front of you.

I like to section myself into categories to help me stay focused in such a busy time and have designated times and days for things I just have to get done. If you can't already tell, I'm a bit of a organisational freak and seriously love to organise anything.

Christmas shopping:
I'm a 'slow and steady wins the race' type of gal in terms of Christmas shopping and like to get a few things whenever I can. I know of people who go out for an entire day and buy in  bulk but I'm just not one of them. This year I joined in with black Friday and Cyber Monday (even if its just for a few items) and managed to get a couple of people ticked off my list. I've only just compl…

You hear a lot of chat about how important Instagram themes are to people. Well, having a wrapping theme at Christmas time is just as important to me which, as you can see is very traditional.

Brown paper has always been up there with what I feel is the nicest way to wrap presents. There's just something about it that looks good (and very Pinterest worthy). One year I actually bought parcel paper from Wilko and parcel tags and the overall look was nice, but felt there was something missing. Then I stumbled across these beauties in Asda and immediately knew that little red trees on my brown paper was what I was missing. It's just perfect and great quality paper too, actually can't stand thin wrapping paper that just feels cheap and just never looks nice. This holds shape well, looks festive and traditional with am up to date twist.

Even though I like the brown wrapping paper, a lot, I felt I needed something to break it up whilst remaining with the traditional theme I had go…

Palettes are handy to have, as in general they cater for daytime and evening looks, so the perfect thing to take away with you on the go. As we're in the festive month of December I'm trying to add a little something to my go to neutral looks, and delving into the other end of the palettes for help. 

Heading more to the burnt copper and burgundy shades is my safe option when trying to use more of my palettes. Although I can pretty much buy any neutral palette and be happy with it, I'm really getting into these palettes you can arrange yourself because you can completely make them your perfect selection. Coppering and Cranberry  are my perfect 'That little extra' shades for me to liven up my neutral looks.



The MUA Heaven and Earth palette is a really affordable palette however, the consistency and payoff of the shadows really does allow you to build well and is like the quality of a much more expensive brand. By just including a darker brown in the crease ( Valley or…

Not being much of a traditional tea drinker, and only a coffee girl at the weekends, I tend to live off herbal tea, green tea and hot chocolates during the week. I like starting my day with a fruity one that's quite light, and finishing off my day with a comforting, rich drink and thought I'd share as I understand the struggle of these colder days. 


Green tea ~ Tetley BeautyTetley ImmuneTwinings Fudge Melts
These teas are one of my fav ways to enjoy a little warming beverage to kick start my day. The beauty tea is cucumber and apple and is so refreshing and really tasty. It contains B7 and is supposed to help maintain healthy hair and skin, which is always a bonus. I also really enjoy the immune tea, which is more fruity and tropical with pineapple and mango. This tea has added vitamin C and helps to support your immune system (and mine is shockingly bad so this is much needed). Both are lovely and easy to drink and a nice alternative to regular tea and coffee. 

The fudge melts d…

Recently I've started to panic as secret Santa is something I'm going to have to take part in soon, and also, will be off buying stocking fillers for my mums stocking as soon as my dad sends the text with the subject 'Help-mums stocking'. Your brain goes into overdrive and you start worrying about what items to buy and what they like and what if they don't like certain things. I'll always go straight to these types of items for 'her' no matter what age really as they are safe options. Never have I experienced a secret Santa/friend/female family member to be disappointed or not please with their present following these staple presents.

This Works - Deep Sleep Pillow Spray -
Being a daily user of this and majorly addicted to it, I like to share the love of this product with everyone I know. Some people really don't believe that things like this work, but even if that's the case, it smells so nice and to receive a mini is a perfect trip away accompa…

Last week I had a little switch around of a few items that I had just completely forgot about. You know what the deal is, when you have too much 'stuff' that you end up just picking the same thing every day. So, I selected a few products I'd not used in a while, or never used, and put them in a make up bag which I was determined to solely use for a certain period of time, until I had a good opinion on the newest items. I'm pretty proud that this exact line up has been on my face since I shared this snap on Instagram last week. I'm honestly love this gang and thought I'd let you know why they're spicing up my make up bag.
It's all about the lashes for me right now and I'm ditching the liner as in all honestly, I just can't really be bothered right now. I'm in a liner rut and am kind of waiting for the greatest one to land right in front of me as I'm fed up searching for it. For now, it's my lashes that are dominating my eyes and I coul…

Being a full time teacher limits me in terms of how much time I can spend filming, blogging and taking pictures, and over the past couple of months I'd really been thinking about going that extra mile this December. I'm so limited during this time of year as I leave when it's dark, and get home when it's dark, so thought, why not give both blogmas and vlogmas a go and alternate between the two and lets call it #jaidemas 

Over the years I've been a devoted blogmas and vlogmas supporter and have always fancied taking part myself. The reason behind #jaidemas was for me, to document my December and my life, but also, to share more of me with you lovely lot. I've come up with a little timetable which goes a little like this.

December 1st - 7th - Blogmas (8am upload)
December 8th - 14th - Vlogmas (6pm upload)
December 15th - 21st - Blogmas (8am upload)
December 22nd - 29th - Vlogmas (6pm upload)

This works well for me as I'll be vlogging the weeks when I have things go…