Christmas is Coming!

It's the run up to Christmas and all through the house, EVERYONE WAS PANICKING. This time of year is great, everything just seems that little bit more magical and people seem to be so much happier. And though it's all to easy to get caught up in the mayhem and madness, there's so much fun to be had that it all balances out in the end. 

We LOVE Christmas and so we thought of a couple of top tips and ideas for how to have the BEST CHRISTMAS EVER

(more or less)

1. Visit a Christmas market. Or attend an event where the Christmas lights are switched on. Whether that's just the people in the street or you go to a city to watch it happen, there's something special about all watching the lights sparkle. Markets are great to grab a delicious treat or maybe even find that perfect unique present for a special someone. You can find a list of Christmas markets in the UK here!

2. Make someone smile. The festive season is all about doing good for others, celebrating peace and love and remembering what is really important in life. You could donate to your local homeless shelter or serve in a soup kitchen, or why not send a letter to a poorly child? Post Pals is a charity dedicated to making seriously ill children and their siblings smile with cards and letters! All you have to do is check out their website, write a card, maybe draw a little cartoon or include a little gift and send it off to give a poorly child a special smile in time for Christmas. 

3. DECORATE DECORATE DECORATE. It's not essential to enjoying Christmas, but for me personally it's waaay up there. I just love to sit in the living room with a cup of hot chocolate, fluffy slippers and the lights twinkling on the Christmas tree. Why not split the cost with your flatmates or if you can't afford one why not create your own using whatever you can find (last year we painted a large triangular box green and stuck tinsel to it- tacky? Yes. Fun? YES). Put on some cheesy Christmas music and have fun decorating together. 

4. Spend time with loved ones. Christmas is that one time of year when (after all the panic buying and mayhem) everyone slows down, reflects on the year and just enjoys spending time with one another. If you can't travel to see someone why not watch a Christmas film together over skype with Costa takeaway coffees and mince pies?

QOTD:

What are your top tips for enjoying Christmas?

What are you most looking forward to?

Hope you enjoyed this post lovelies!

Twitter: @beboldbebright

Instagram: @embracethelight

BlogLovin: Embrace the Light 

Confidence.

Light.

Happiness.

Love, 

 Kimmy & Ayah xxx

PS. All photos in this post are taken by Ayah & Kimmy 

Little Lights

As courses get busier and the Christmas season rolls in it's easy to get lost in the stress of it all. Deadlines to meet, people to see, presents to buy, events to attend. It all seems to pile up. And though it's a time of so much fun and joy, it's important to remember not to do too much or you'll find yourself burning out.

So this is our little reminder to you to put your feet up! Make yourself a cup of hot chocolate, wrap up in front of a film and treat yourself!

We'd also like to set you a little challenge! Take a look around you, at your friends and family, colleagues or classmates and think about who could do with a little slice of sunshine. Perhaps they need a coffee, or a meal cooked for them, or just a night in! Be a little light in your community and just think; what can you do to make someone smile this week?

~Embrace the Light~

Twitter: @beboldbebright

Instagram: @embracethelight

BlogLovin: Embrace the Light 

Confidence.

Light.

Happiness.

Love, 

Ayah & Kimmy xxx

PS. All photos in this post are taken by Ayah & Kimmy 

MAC Studio Fix Fluid Foundation REVIEW!

I've been using this foundation for the past 5 years of life! Pretty long time? I KNOW!

It works so perfectly on my skin, keeps it hydrated and moisturised and it applies really easily, without too much mess! 

For my normal everyday make-up routine, this is my go to foundation. 

I usually put on one or two layers of foundation depending on how my skin feels; and that leaves a dewy finish that is on-trend right now and perfect for a casual day out.

I use NW20 which fits perfectly with my skin colour! In the past, I struggled to find the best colour that works with my skin, and then I found this one that I really love so our tip would be to have a look around before you choose your foundation! 

The foundation also includes SPF 15, which is great since it protects your skin; especially for the rare sunny days in England! 

Except, one problem I face with this foundation, that not everyone might be fond of, is the fact that 

it doesn't last long on your face.

For my skin, it usually lasts for three to five hours at most, which can be a bit annoying at times.

That pretty much sums up how I feel about it. Am I still using it? Yes I am!

Beauty questions of the day:

What type of foundation do you use?
Have you ever used this mac one? What did you think of it? 

Hope you enjoyed this post, let us know your thoughts below!

Twitter: @beboldbebright

Instagram: @embracethelight

BlogLovin: Embrace the Light 

Confidence.

Light.

Happiness.

Love, 

Ayah & Kimmy xxx

PS. All photos in this post are taken by Ayah & Kimmy 

Autumn Playlist '15

Summer has come to an end! It's time to listen to chill music, drink some hot cocoa, study

and of course do a lot of blogging! To celebrate the first day of the new season we've put together a list of our current favourite songs for any mood you might be in! 

Brand New- Ben Rector

Wildfire- Seafret

Reality- Lost Frequencies feat Janieck Devy

Disarm- Ben Rector
Feel Again- One Republic
Bittersweet- ARCHIS
Wildest Dreams- Taylor Swift
Agape- Bear's Den
Call Me In The Afternoon- Half Moon Run
Fight Song- Rachel Platten

Remember! You can find our Autumn playlist here on youtube!

QOTD: 

What is your song of the moment? 

What are you most looking forward to about Autumn??

Confidence.

Light.

Happiness.

Love, 

Ayah & Kimmy xxx

PS. This post is not sponsored in any way, shape or form.

PS. All photos in this post are taken by Ayah & Kimmy 

The Versatile Blogger Award!!

Thank you to the lovely Amy from SmoothAmy for nominating us for the Versatile Bloggers Award!

The rules:
1. Thank the person who nominated you and link their blog.
2. Nominate 15 other blogs.
3. Give 7 facts about yourself (Because there are two of us we decided to split the facts between us and answer the extra about us both!)

All dressed up for Ayah's birthday!
Ayah is on the left and Kimmy is on the right!

3 Facts about Kimmy...
1. My birthday is on April Fool's Day (and yes, I've heard aaalll the jokes before...)
2. I do the odd bit of sketching, so you might see a couple of pieces on here in the future!
3. I taught myself to use a proper camera at around 15 years old on a reeeeaally old film camera using negatives and slowly moved onto modern cameras!

3 Facts about Ayah...
1. I love dancing and started ballet from a veeryy young age, then picked up hip-hop, contemporary, modern, lyrical and street jazz!
2. I am a singer and sang at a big charity ball in front of around 500 people which was prettyy funky!
3. I lovee film-making and acting! I've directed and produced my own films and tv shows and even had acting roles in them too!!

Our final fact is that when we're together we are suuuper talkative, we pratically live in each other's flats! Definitely our funniest moment is when Ayah saw someone with gooood fashion sense and sub-consciously said "Oooooh la laaa!!" so loudly they turned around!


We're nominating:
Ivana Avitabile
Ink Dreaming
Glitter Infatuation 
Through New Eyes 
Kiran Alix
That Gent
Chasing Rubies Chasing Pearls
Scottish Stef's Nails
That Everyday Girl 
Amy Farrell Says 
The Flower That Blooms
Bethany Georgina 
Dizzy Miss Lizzy 
Miss Mandana
Running White Horses


Hope you enjoyed finding out a teeny bit more about us! It's so hard to think of interesting facts about yourself! What do you guys like to do in your spare time?

BlogLovin: Embrace the Light 

Twitter: @beboldbebright

Instagram: @embracethelight

Confidence.

Light.

Happiness.

Love, 

Ayah and Kimmy xxx

How to get a summer body!? Tips & Advice! | Embrace The Light

NOO!


NONONO!
NO!

There is no thing such as a summer body!
If you exist during summer and you have a body, then guess what? You have a summer body!
Being thin and slender is not your aim and it shouldn't be!

The world is full of diverse shapes and sizes and that is something to be celebrated- not hidden away or changed. 

As we get closer to summer we get crowded by adverts and magazine covers all trying to sell us the 'perfect' body. They tell us to slim down, fill out, tone up, but not too much. The world is full of double standards when it comes to how a person 'should' look and frankly, it's frankly just a load of rubbish.

Perhaps you've seen the Protein World adverts for weight loss which imply that in order to look good on a beach you have to lose weight and fit their criteria of a 'beach body'. You may have seen their responses to people's criticisms of the adverts saying things like: "why make your insecurities our problem?" Guess what? It is their problem. In fact, this is a GLOBAL PROBLEM.

According to BeReal: 8 is the average age that girls start dieting and half of men feel bad about their appearance after reading a magazine.

1 in 4 of us feels bad about the way we look.

INSECURITY
It is an issue for everyone. EVERYONE.

We need to come together and give the media a strong message that this is not going to work. The media, advertisers, companies cannot shame us for our natural appearance. You want our money? Then don't make us hate ourselves, and don't make us hate you- like what kind of a marketing strategy is that? HUH?.

Now lets get one thing straight.

By all means, live an active life, exercise, eat healthily, go to the gym and get rock hard abs- if that is what you want to do. If that is not for you, then rock on! Who cares? Nobody can tell you how to look or how to live your life, so get out there, put on whatever clothes make you feel good and don't let anybody shame you.

It is ALL just a twisted body image that is being portrayed in the media.
It is not healthy.
It is not okay.

Eating disorders and a dissatisfaction of one's body

It's UNHEALTHY

PLEASE

Embrace your body and the way you LIVE

Stay HEALTHY!

Eat whatever you want to eat (except if you're allergic, we don't want that hehe!)
Drink whatever you want to drink
BUT Most importantly, take care of yourself and your body.
Be who You want to be, not who someone forces you to be.


Don't let photos deceive you, it is incredible what can be done in editing


Both of us at Embrace the Light have felt the pressure to look a certain way and that's part of our inspiration for running the blog. To encourage confidence and body positivity, to remind you that you are beautiful!

If you find this hard to believe then we want to challenge you to look in the mirror every day and say, I Am Beautiful. It's truly amazing how your life changes when you realise that you look darn awesome and nothing will change that.


We'd love to hear your thoughts and opinions:

Do you agree with what we said? What do you think should be altered in the media?
Do you think having a summer body is even a thing?!

BlogLovin: Embrace the Light 

Twitter: @beboldbebright

Instagram: @embracethelight

Confidence.

Light.

Happiness.

Love, 

Ayah and Kimmy x


PLEASE NOTE: If you feel you need someone to talk to about the issues raised in this post, please go to one of these links for advice and professional advice.
UK: B-eat
US  NEDA
A country by country list of support lines can be found here, credit to Together We Are Strong


Disclaimer: This post is NOT sponsored in any shape or form, this is just a topic that we really care about and wanted to write about. 

Let's Go To London!!

If you follow our Instagram account you'll know that Kimmy recently went on a trip to London!

We love visiting London. It's so unique as a city- so incredibly full of life, colour and tradition. Every step you take shows you something different, from the loud fairground to the calm parks, from gratified back-streets to the pristine up-market lanes.

We were so inspired and we hope you are too!

We hope you enjoyed the pictures! What was your favourite?

What's your favourite city to visit?

BlogLovin: Embrace the Light 

Twitter: @beboldbebright

Instagram: @embracethelight

Confidence.

Light.

Happiness.

Love, 

Ayah and Kimmy x

Dating Advice: Top 5 Tips for a Healthy Relationship

Starting a relationship can be nerve-wracking. You've met this person and you really like them, but you don't want to mess it up! Here's our top 5 tips for a healthy relationship.


1. Talk 

My boyfriend and I talk about everything, from the most mundane to the most serious topics, we will cover them all- multiple times. Being able to be completely open with someone is so important to a relationship. 

It takes time to get to know someone and for trust to be built up but don't worry, you'll get there.

A page from my diary before we were dating,
the underline was added after he asked me out

2. Encourage each other

Your significant other is one of those elite few who you trust to have your back, no matter what. So you need someone who will tell you (lovingly!) when you're wrong, be there for you on the bad days and encourage you to achieve your dreams- wanting you to reach them as badly as you do! 

When we started dating we were still going through the process of applying to universities and it was tempting to move close to each other. However, we both have career ambitions that are really important to us and we decided to choose our universities based on the courses, rather than each other. Which is how we ended up living 189 miles away from each other! It's tough but we both love our courses and we're gaining really important life experiences we might not have if we stuck together. 

3. Make time for each other

It can be so difficult to make time for each other in between school, work and family- particularly if, like me, you're in a long distance relationship! Sometimes it can feel like you go through the whole day just catching each other, for long enough to say hi, before you're both rushing off again. 

This can really wear you down so why not arrange a date once a week, it doesn't have to be expensive or spectacular- maybe a quick coffee together in a lunch break, or marathon a TV series one night? (We went for a candle-lit dinner of nachos and pastries in front of Game of Thrones). 

If you can't always catch each other find a decent app, like Facetime or LINE and call each other before bed for a quiet catch up of how your day was. It might not seem like much, but you really notice the difference when you don't.

4. Be silly 

Have tickle fights, wash up together and dollop soap suds in their hair, have a Disney sing along at 3 in the morning. I think everyone can get a little too hung up on being 'cool' sometimes that they forget to let their hair down and just have fun. 

And laughter is good for you, it can reduce stress and anxiety, lower your blood pressure and can even reduce pain!

He was taking part in the Santa Run where all the competitors
dress up as Santa, obviously I demanded a picture...

5. Most importantly: be you 

The morning of my first date I was in chaos. Whilst running round the house ironing my clothes and trying to tame my hair into something that looked socially acceptable, I was rattling off my worries to my mum.

What if he doesn't like me! Does this look okay? I don't want to look weird? Should I go for casual or slightly dressy? What if he doesn't even want to be my friend any more?

And my Mum stopped me and said something that has stuck with me ever since. She said:

"If he doesn't like you for who you are, then he's not right for you and he's not the person you thought he was" 

Please lovelies, don't settle for someone who doesn't love who you truly are. I don't just mean the person you'd like people to see. I mean the person who sleeps with a light on because they're scared of the dark, the person who will kill anybody who gets between them and a morning coffee, the person who cries when someone raises their voice. Find that person who loves those hidden parts of you that make you who you are. 

You are an amazing person and you deserve somebody who sees that and loves that! 

Hope you found this post helpful!
Are you lovelies in relationships? We'd love to hear about them!

Ps. Ayah is fabulously single and will someday meet someone as equally crazy as she is!

BlogLovin: Embrace the Light 

Twitter: @beboldbebright

Instagram: @embracethelight

Confidence.

Light.

Happiness.

Love, 

Kimmy, Embrace the Light xxx

Spring Playlist: 2015

Spring is finally here!! We created a playlist of all our Spring favourites, filled with happy, inspirational and motivational songs for the perfect start to your day!

1. Michael Bublé// It's a Beautiful Day

2. Maroon 5// Sugar

3. George Ezra// Blame It On Me

4. James Blunt// Bonfire Heart

5. Taylor Swift// Style

6. Echosmith// Come Together 

7. Calvin Coolidge// Daylight

8. Ingrid Michaelson// Be Ok

9. Ellie Goulding// How Long Will I Love You

10. Corinne Bailey Rae// Put Your Records On

Hope you enjoy!

If you like our playlist you can listen to it on our youtube channel here!

What's your favourite song this season?

Confidence. Light. Happiness

-Love, Ayah and Kimmy xx

Embrace the Light TRAILER!

We made a trailer for our blog to give you all a little sneak peak at what we have in store! 

We love fashion and hope that we can inspire you to love yourself and to just have fun! 

Hope you enjoy the trailer, we'd love to hear your comments! If you have a YouTube channel or any trailers for your blogs we'd love to see! Leave your comments below. 

Check back with us next week for an exciting new post! 

Remember, you can find us on:

BlogLovin: Embrace the Light 

Twitter: @beboldbebright

Instagram: @embracethelight

Facebook: Embrace the Light 

Confidence. Light. Happiness. 

Love, Kimmy xx

*Pretty Happy* // The Meaning Behind Our Motto

Behind every human, there’s a story.

Behind every picture, there’s a message.

Behind every friend, you will probably find your food. (haha!)

 Even though this post got deep pretty quickly! (haha)

 I’ll get straight to my point!

Our motto *Pretty Happy* is designed to express how one can both look pretty & fashionable and at the same time be happy… but not just average happy……..*Pretty Happy*
(#woah)

We would love to know if you also have a double meaning to your motto!?

And what’s your opinion on our motto?

Really looking forward to hearing from you all!

Remember, there’s always going to be light at the end of the tunnel.

Taken by Ayah A. Mokhalalati, The Ponderosa, Sheffield, United Kingdom. 

Confidence. Light. Happiness.

Stay Updated! xx

Love,

Ayah xxx