The Almighty Green Juice

Well I gave in and jumped on the bandwagon by trying the infamous 'green juice/smoothie' today, and I have to say I was not disappointed.

Charlie's normally produces delicious drinks, my personal favourites including the 'Old Fashioned Lemon Quencher' (which is basically a traditional homemade style lemonade) and 'Honest Berry Whole Fruit Smoothie'. Even though I've loved their drinks in the past, the main reason I chose Charlie's out of the multitude of options was its lack of celery. If you're craving celery, one, you're crazy, but you're gonna have to go somewhere else.

The colour is quite frightening. The first taste was fairly nerve wracking, I was half expecting to spit it out in disgust. The first sip you really taste all the fruits, which is a tad overwhelming, but not in a particularly bad way. The next couple of sips are much more enjoyable, but it takes a while to get through the whole thing (even though the bottle is tiny).

The most noticeable flavours (to someone who is completely oblivious to the subtleties of flavours) are orange, apple (especially the aftertaste), and whatever the heck 'spirulina' is! I'm sure the other couple of fruits are more noticeable to green smoothie experts, health fields and the like, but honestly I have no idea.

The only fault in the drink is the size to price ratio. A small bottle is around 4 bucks, and the big bottle around 6, but you can't really buy the big one to walk around with so you're kind of forced to go with the small option. Even so, if you think about the price of smoothies from speciality health stores, its still pretty good.

All in all, the green is a hit.

~ Jess x

Glorious Shower Gel

Australians seem to miss out on multitudes of brilliant beauty products only available in the land of the Brits. But alas, we've conquered another brand...

It's finally happened, Myer has started stocking a small range of Soap and Glory products. When I was wandering through the store and saw the stand of pastel pink, I knew my moisturing dreams had come true. As melodramatic and slightly sexual as that may sound, seeing review after review on how brilliant the products are, while stuck in a Soap and Glorious-less country has really taken its toll. The 'Kit' stall has fairly small collection of their best-selling products. Although I was mildly disappointed they weren't stocking the new 'Orangeasm' range, I wasn't gonna let it kill my buzz.

Deciding on a product to begin my Soap and Glory journey was difficult, but I went with a classic, the Clean on Me Shower Gel. After having a little fangirl over the packaging, I checked the price to make sure it wasn't going to be double the price of the British product, around £6. At $13 Australian it was only a couple of bucks over the exact British price, so I wasn't going to complain, especially with the amount product you get.

 Looking for a subtle scent was fairly difficult in the stock they had, I'm not normally a big fan of smelling like baked goods. The Original Pink fragrance is still noticeable, but is fresh and light, although I am atrocious at picking smells accurately. The amazing fragrance stays on your skin for the majority of the day, but completely disappears if you put a non-scented moisturiser on afterwards, but I think that's just my stupidity more than an actual issue. The heavenly smell is super strong when you're in the shower and seemed to wake me up a bit more (I shower in the mornings) although I'm not entirely sure that wasn't just my imagination getting a little over excited about using a S&G product. Overall though, the scent is just really lovely.

I swear, this actually is the gel and not that other white gooey fluid, you dirty people!

Using the pump in the shower is a lot more convenient than trying to use a squirter thing that ends up going everywhere (I'm looking at you, Lush), but you need to angle it a certain way to actually get any gel out. You also need to do a couple of pumps if you're wanting to cover your whole body, but its lathers really well once you have a good amount, although if you like a super foamy lather this isn't the product for you.

How many ways can I photograph the same product? 

My favourite time to use body gels in the shower is straight after I've shaved. My skin already feels smooth so putting the creamy gel on afterwards is, dare I say it, orgasmic. I haven't used it long enough to say whether it keeps your skin moisturised in the long term, but on a day to day basis, I haven't gotten any gross white/dry patches like I did before with a non-moisturising shower gel (I was previously using the Smith Street shower gel in pineapple, smells great but kills the skin).

I am definitely going to go back and by more S&G products, hopefully more with the Original Pink scent. Thank the shower gel Gods that S&G has come to Australia!

All Time Low Concert

On Wednesday (28/082013) my friend Kyroe and I headed to Brisbane's Tivoli to witness the joy that is All Time Low. We were in the mosh the whole time and it turned out to be the best concert experience I have ever had.

Jack & Alex plus the amazing moshers - My favourite photo of the night

Let's start off by saying All Time Low is one of my favourite bands. They're a pop punk band from Baltimore (although at the concert they decided they were relocating to Brisbane, little jokesters) and consist of the members Alex Gaskarth, Zachary Merrick, Rian Dawson and Jack Barakat. The are brilliant showmen in concert and I couldn't count the times they mentioned boners throughout a 2 hour performance. Trust me, they said it a lot.

Jack talking in between songs (I'm pretty sure about boners). Notice the bra collection on his mic.

The highlights of the night was them performing Therapy (one of my all time favourite songs) and Weightless, both from the album Nothing Personal. I was so unbelievably pleased they played songs from other albums (although I adore their latest album Don't Panic). Therapy is such a beautiful song and it really has helped through some hard times (yes, I'm one of those 'music has saved my life' people). Weightless's lyrics really hits home for me. The line "this may not be my weekend, but its gonna be my year" has inspired me on multiple occasions that even though i may be have a crappy day, or a crappy week, the year can still improve. I don't know if that's what they meant by the lyric, but that's what I get from it.

Jack's microphone stand. Yes, those are bras.

Another highlight was how much you could tell the band was enjoying themselves. Alex would stop singing and let the audience sing a lyric, and laugh at how well we knew the words. You could really see they still enjoyed what they were doing. I've been to other concerts where the artist literally just looked bored, and it really takes away from the excitement of the night. But these boys just kept going, they had sweat pouring down their faces and they just kept jumping and dancing around the stage.

Jack jumping in the air (source)

The mosh pit was brilliant too. I only got elbowed a few times, and everyone was just getting really into the music without being selfish or rude. It was extremely hot, but if someone was feeling dizzy or had fainted, everyone would make a path for him/her to get out. There was also a balcony above the mosh that people were watching on, but I was really pleased to be moshing. My friend and I got about 3/4 of the way to the front of the mosh, and managed to avoid the extremely tall people who were in the pit. I did not participate in any circle pits, but even the people who went in weren't too savage about it like they can become at some concerts.

Jack signing some lucky person's phone case

Jack stayed behind for about 5 minutes to sign some people's merch and phone cases. I was so close to getting my case signed, but alas, I was not lucky enough for such a blessing. It really was a lovely thing to do though, I honestly love it when band members take the time to appreciate the fans. You would never see a massive top 30 artist staying behind after a concert to sign someone's phone. Its the little things like that, that really make me love All Time Low.

I would also like to point out how massively long the line was for the concert. The venue isn't that big and I was worried we wouldn't even get in. The line photographed above was only half. I did not know All Time Low had such a massive fan base! A band called Masketta Fall were singing outside as we all lined up, and they were really talented! I had met them once before at different concert, so it was quite the coincidence that I saw them twice. The starting band Skyway were also amazing. 

Thanks for the amazing performance guys!  It was honestly my favourite concert ever. 

Jess xx

When In Rome

In June, my family and I took the massive flight from Australia to Europe and the UK. We went to Italy, France, Holland and England, over a total of four and a half weeks. It was exciting, breathtaking and exhausting to say the least!

Taken on the deadly 12 hour flight from Singapore to Rome

We had a stopover in Singapore, splitting the 20 hour flight into 8 hours and then another 12 hours, but we spent our time sleeping and stocking up on pringles, since none of us were a big fan of plane food.

A Snapchat taken at Changi International Airport

20 hours later, we arrived in Rome. After recovering for a few hours, we headed out into the bustling streets. The fashion was different to what I expected, it was very very colourful. Scooters lined every street corner and fountains (such as the Trevi Fountain pictured below) popped up and you wandered through the city.

Me at the Trevi Fountain

The absolute highlight of Rome (as well as the food) was the Borghese gallery. You weren't allowed cameras inside, but the rooms was absolutely breathtaking. My all time favourite artist Bernini (check out his statue Pluto and Prosperpina) was a massive feature in the gallery. If you're into art at all, it is definitely worth a visit!
                                         

  Above: The sandwich I enjoyed in the gardens of the gallery (Salami and Brie, mmmmm)

Food was another major part of my Italian experience. Pizza and pasta are of course a must, but my personal favourite Italian delicacy was the infamous gelato. 

Watermelon, Banana & Vanilla

My favourite flavour was watermelon, it was so refreshing on those baking hot 30+ degree celsius days. But seriously, with the pavement reflecting the heat, it was boiling!

This was the second time I've been to Rome (once before when I was ten), but I feel like this is the first time I really got to experience the culture. The first time it was tourist attraction after tourist attraction, but it really is an experience in itself just to walk down the streets and find some hidden gems.

Well, that's all from me for now.
Love Jess xx

Hello Blogosphere

Hey guys,
My name is Jessamy, I live in Australia and I have officially created the blog that currently fills your computer screen. Yay!

I'm the one with the frizzy hair in the pic below...

                         

I've been wanting to make a blog for a while, but I've never really been sure what to make it about. But, I've finally decided to throw caution to the wind (that is the saying, right?) and make a lifestyle blog and hopefully someone might find my life vaguely interesting.

I am also going revise my youtube channel and make videos about my "top fours" such as top four movies, top four sad songs etc etc. I might make a couple of blog posts like that.

So yeah, stick around and let's see how all this goes.

Jess xx