I SUCK at keeping New Year's resolutions: How to keep organised in school 1/3

If you know anything about me, you know that I seriously cannot keep a New Year's resolution, whether it be keeping a diary or working out. It has been almost 5 weeks since the new year started and I have done very little about my resolutions.

My first resolution was to blog more. Haha, that worked out well, didn't it? 5 weeks in and I'm making my first post of the new year. My second was to be healthier. To be completely honest, I could be doing a lot more about that resolution, but I got lazy. My third was to be more on top of things when in comes to school, and surprisingly I have actually managed to keep this resolution for the most part. And my fourth resolution was to be more self-confident, optimistic, and happy in general. This has been kind of hard for me because I've grown up with a generally negative outlook, but I do have some tips that have been working for me. Of course it is a work in progress and it's not going to happen over night, but I've found that these things have been slowly been helping me.

I've decided that this year I'm not going to to let these resolutions slide and I am going to make a conscious effort to keep my resolution. This is going to be a three part blog post because there is a lot to cover. If you haven't guessed by the title, part one is going to be about tips on staying organised in school. This past semester I have managed to stay organised throughout the year and I have been rewarded with better marks. Here are some ways I've managed to do it.

1. Use notebooks instead of loose leaf

I switched to using notebooks this year and it has really helped me organize my notes. By keeping notebooks instead of loose leaf, there is literally no chance of my misplacing my notes. They are all in one place and it is so much more convenient when it comes to studying for tests.

2. Date everything

Seriously, go out with all of your notes. Haha naw I'm kidding, but writing the date on all of your notes helps a ton, whether or not you use a notebook. By putting the date on everything, instead of digging through your notes to find that one sheet that you did that one day, you can just look that the top corner of all your sheets. Also, it helps if you put your notes in chronological order, which is why I prefer notebooks over loose leaf; your notes are automatically in chronological order with notebooks.

3. Plastic sleeves

If you don't know what I am talking about, you can find these plastic sleeves at any school supply store (i.e, staples, walmart, etc.) and you can put sheets inside of them. I have 3 sleeves in my binder at all times. One is for homework, one is for forms and things that need to be handed in, and one is for and sketches or doodles I do throughout the day that I feel like keeping. I find these sleeves help me to prevent loosing important forms and keep me on track with handing in my homework.

4. Make a strict homework schedule

As soon as I get home and finish eating, I always lay out all of my homework in front of my and make myself a little schedule. I look at all of my homework and I organize it in order of priority. For example, if I have 3 assignments to do, one is due tomorrow and is easy, one is due the day after and is moderate, and one is due the day after and is huge, I would do the huge one first, then the easy one, and then the moderate one. I make sure that I finish all of the things that I need to do before I relax. Of course you have to use your own judgment to decide what you think has higher priority over what

5. Keep motivation

Of course it is going to be damn near impossible to do anything if you don't have the motivation for it. I keep myself motivated by rewarding myself after I've achieved a goal. For example, I'll let myself go on tumblr for 20 minutes after finish and assignment, or watch 2 YouTube videos after I'm done collecting a certain amount of research. Once you get in the habit of doing this, if you try to cheat, you will feel disappointed in yourself, it really works.


This is just what I do to keep organised in school, hopefully it will help some of you our who have been slacking on your resolutions just like me.

Part 2, staying healthy, will be up soon :)

University Stress

Is anyone else feeling the heat of applying to university? I was stressed out beyond belief. I still don't know where I want to go and I'm not sure if my marks are high enough to get into my program. Last night I was in tears while I was starting to apply, but then I had a nice, calming talk with my mom and she helped me see all my options. I hope that her advice can help some of you if you are stressed as well. This is the essence of what she said to me:

1. Stress won't help anything

She pretty much made me see that stressing isn't going to solve anything. My parents used to put a lot of stress on me to get high marks and to get tons of awards and what not (they are brown after all) but then my mom came to the realization that all of this stress was just breaking me, not making me. Of course, some people work better under stress. I for one get a lot done when I am stressed, but the stress that I was feeling was the wrong kind of stress. The stress that helps be get stuff done comes from realizing that I have to meet a deadline. The stress from university application came from pessimism and thinking that I won't be able to get into my program. So she told me to stop stressing so much about getting into my program and concentrate that energy in trying to raise my marks, and if I can't get my marks high enough there are other options.

2. My options

My mom sat down with me and explained the worst case scenario to me. The worst case scenario would be that my marks aren't high enough for my program. In this case there are two things I could do. I could go back to high school and do a victory lap and retake the courses that I need to get a higher mark in. This wouldn't be a huge deal for me because I am a year ahead in school, but I know a lot of people may be unwilling to do this for whatever reason, whether it be pride or lack of time. In that case there is another option that my parents opened me up to. The second option is that I take either arts and science or undecided major for first year at university and take the courses I need for my program to raise my marks. I know money is tight for a lot of people and if you are in that situation, I would suggest taking the first option. My mom didn't give me this option, but there is a secret third option. You could take a year off. This option is generally for people who are unsure of what they want to do, but since I have everything planned out I won't be taking this option. You could get a job, take some evening or online courses to bring your marks up, and this way you will have some money towards your tuition as well as a better chance of getting into your program. And if you need to, you could use this time to figure out what you want to do with you life, who knows, university may not be for you after all.

3. Talk to your teachers or your school's guidance department

My main source of stress is my marks. I just moved across the country and I am now part of a separate school board and education system and I am so anxious as to how the final exams look like here. What my mom told me to do is to talk to my teachers one on one and express my concerns to them. If you have good teachers, they will try to help you out and help get you prepared for the final exams. If you are unfortunate and have been burdened with bad teachers, you can talk to you school's guidance department, they are there to help students out with their school related or personal problems.

I really hope this has helped take the stress off of some people, I know it definitely helped me out a lot. Good luck with applying to university/college everyone! May the odds be ever in your favour ;)

New Beginnings

When I started this blog, I had the intention of making it into a beauty/fashion blog because I have a passion for beauty and fashion. In fact, after my first degree I am going to study fashion design and hopefully become a successful fashion designer if life is good to me. But, you may have noticed that I haven't written a blog post in almost 4 months. This is because I am super busy with school and I have neither the time or the money to run an active beauty/fashion blog. Running a beauty/fashion blog requires constantly buy new products and reviewing them, doing hauls, having the time to put together DIY's, OOTD's, etc, and unfortunately I do not have that kind of time or money right now being a high school senior and trying to get into university.

So I have decided to approach this blog with a new mindset. I felt like I was trying to force something to happen before, that I was trying to make this amazing beauty/fashion blog which was unattainable given my circumstances. I am the type of person that needs things to be just right, that needs things to be set in stone, and I need to loosen up a bit. I am simply going to write about my day to day life and see where this blog goes from there. Who knows, maybe some day I can start doing beauty/fashion posts, and good ones at that. But until then, I will just write about whatever comes to mind.

I'm sorry for the huge gap in my blog posts and the for the change of dynamics, but I hope you will still enjoy my blog, whoever is reading this.

Why I Believe Extraterrestrial Life is Possible

WARNING. If you have not guessed already from the title, this is not a beauty post, this is a science post. I thought I'd mix things up a bit. Also I can't think of any beauty/fashion post to write at the moment.

Some of you guys will probably dismiss this and think of me as crazy but I honestly think that there could be life on other planets. Why, you ask? Well its pretty simple. Take a look at this picture:

I found this picture on a website called imgur.com. I'm pretty well going to say everything that the post on imgur said, so if you would like to take a look at the post itself, just click here and it will take you to the website. OR you could keep reading, it's up to you. 

So about the picture. This picture was taken by the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) around 2003/2004. Basically the HST found a little black, and what appeared to be empty, area in the night sky and focused on in for 4 months so it could take in all the light it could and it came up with the image you see above. The black spot was about a tenth of the size of the full moon. Each dot in this image is a galaxy. Each galaxy contains up to 1 trillion (1,000,000,000) stars. Each star may have a system of planets. There are over 10,000 galaxies in the picture above.

Our galaxy contains approximately 100 billion (100,000,000) stars. Lets say that each star has a minimum or 1 planet, keep in mind that the star that we orbit around (the sun) has 8 planets (sorry Pluto!). That is at least 100 billion planets in our galaxy alone. Lets say that each of the galaxies in the picture has the same amount of planets as the Milky Way. That would be 1,000,000,000,000 planets. And that's just a fraction of what else could be out there. 

Can you honestly tell me that out of the more than 1,000,000,000,000 planets out there, that only 1 of them can sustain life? Can you honestly say that there is no way that there could be ANY other planet that has intelligence on it or an ecosystem thriving on it? Well, personally, I think that it is possible. I think it is possible that there is life outside Earth. 

Just so I make myself clear, I do not believe that aliens or extraterrestrial life have visited Earth. However, my opinion does change with new information, so if someone showed me solid evidence that aliens have been on Earth, then I might change my opinion on that. But until that has been proven to me, I do not believe that aliens come and leave crops circles or abduct humans. But I do believe that somewhere out there, in the vast mystery of space, there could be a planet with a thriving ecosystem and maybe even a species as advanced, both biologically and maybe even technologically, as humans. 

This is just my point of view, I do not mean to offend anyone in any way and if I have then I apologize, and I am in no way forcing you to believe what I believe. 

If you would like to learn more on this topic, here is the Hubble website: http://hubblesite.org/hubble_discoveries/hubble_deep_field/ . And hey, if you want even more, you know how to use Google ;). 

Using BB Cream as a Primer

A little while ago I went to Shopper's to pick up some BB cream. I had done my research and I read so many great reviews about L'Oréal Paris' Magic Skin Beautifier BB Cream so I picked it up. I gave it a try and as a BB cream, it did not work at all for me. 

If you can read the label on the picture above, it promises to prime, perfect, hydrate, and correct. Only two of those promises came true in my case. I'm not sure if it is just because of my skin type or skin colour, or if it's just the product, but it did not perfect or correct my skin in a way that a BB cream should. 

Above is a swatch of the BB cream. Unlike most BB creams, it's not even skin coloured which made me a bit suspicious of the effectiveness of this product.

Although two if the promises did not come true, the other two did. This BB cream in particular works wonders as a primer. It keeps my foundation on longer, and my eye and skin makeup looks less creased and smudged. Also, a little goes a long way, be careful not to use to much or you can get a weird sandy residue on your face. You'll know when you've put too much on. It's hydrates well too, so I don't even have to moisturizer before I put my makeup on.  And the best part is that it's inexpensive. 

Lets take a look at Urban Decay's Eyeshadow Primer Potion. It costs $20 and it is a 11 ml (0.37 US fl oz) tube, plus it's only for eyes. This BB cream costs $18, comes in a 30 ml (approx. 1 US fl oz) tube, and can be used all over your face. Of course, it being a BB cream, it may not be as effective as Urban Decay's primer, but it will definitely work for people on a budget, just like me. 

Blogger's Block

Hi everybody!

Sorry that I have not posted anything in a LONG time. To be honest, I have no idea what to blog about. I really want to do hauls and OOTD's, but at the moment I do not have many fashionable clothing items and I do not have a job so I can't go shopping. So, until I get a job, I won't be blogging too often and if I do blog it'll be on the more life and science  side rather that the beauty and fashion side. I am so sorry for the inconvenience and I'll try my best to post more beauty and fashion posts and to just blog more in general.

Thank you for you patience,

Prakritia.

P.S I will be filming a hair tutorial and maybe a makeup tutorial tomorrow to kick off my YouTube channel, so stay tuned for that.

Covergirl 'Flamed Out' Mascara Review

So I was in Shopper's Drugmart a few months ago looking for new tweezers since I'd lost mine, and I found myself in the make up aisle (big surprise). Of course, me being myself, I walking out with a few beauty items, my favourite being Covergirl's new 'Flamed Out' mascara. I am literally in love with this mascara. In my personal opinion, it's better than Maybelline 'Falsies', and that's saying something. Here is a  picture of it, in case you haven't seen it yet.

I also thought I'd add pictures of the brush, so here it is:

I actually really like the design, I think it's really pretty! I would've expected it to be more edgy, considering it's called Flamed Out ad Pink is the spokesperson for it, but it's still pretty. I thought I'd add some pictures of how it actually looks on because whenever I read a review, I always think it's more effective if you can see the proof of how good the product is. The only make up I have on in these pictures is foundation and concealer. There is no other eye, face, or lip makeup on my face, so please ignore my ugly face and concentrate on my lashes!

Here is my ugly face with only foundation and concealer on.

Here is a creepy picture of my eyelashes without mascara on them

And another even creepier one.

I've applied the Flamed Out mascara to my right eye (the camera on my phone flips the image) and my left eye is bare. Look at that difference!

And here it is on both eyes.

NOW ONTO PROS AND CONS. YAY.

Pros
-give lots of length
-voluminous, as promised.
-only need one coat
-looks natural
-the shape of the brush makes the outer eyelashes bigger, making your eyelashes look super long
-brush grabs every lash
-lasts all day (no raccoon eyes)
-easy to wash off

Cons
-starts too look unnatural after more than one coat
-not waterproof

Tips and Comments
If you prefer clumpy lashes opposed to natural looking lashes, I would not recommend this product for you. I would recommend Maybelline Falsies. When you have a natural looking lash like this, I wouldn't recommend you go really heavy on the eyeliner, I think a thin liner close to the lash line would look really nice and natural. If you are going for the more bold look, again I would recommend Maybelline Falsies and doing a thick (not too thick) liner. Again, if you are going for a clumpy look, do not go for this mascara! More than one coat just ends up looking messy, not clumpy. Also, the applicator is bristle, not plastic, so if you dont like bristle applicators, then don't go for this mascara, but if you do, get this now!

I hope you found my review helpful! If you have any questions don't hesitate to comment below with it and I'll try my best to answer them. Thank you for reading!


Hugs and Kisses

Prakriti