Dress review: blue floral dress (Albaray)

I received the good news in July of this year that I passed my last actuarial exam, which marked the end of me studying for the actuarial qualification since 2018, as well as the end of me studying for the rest of my life! 

After accruing an undergraduate degree, an MSc, a PhD, and then the actuarial qualification, I feel like I have thoroughly had more than my share of studying, and am very much looking forward to having my evenings free to relax! (and hopefully blog a bit more!)

To celebrate, I treated myself to this pretty blue floral dress from John Lewis, in the hopes of having a not-so-Cruel Summer (obligatory Taylor Swift reference). The dress is from Albaray.

As you may have gauged from my outfits in the past, I really like having flowers on my clothes (exhibits A, B, C and D).

Alcohol review: The King of Soho Copacetic Vodka and Variorum Gin

As I said in my previous blog post, I’ve really been leaning into playing host of late, and an integral component of that is ensuring my guests have a drink in their hand at all times. If the drink is made from an exotic spirit, such as those from The King Soho, even better!

I was provided with a full bottle of The King Soho Copacetic Vodka and a sample bottle of The King Soho Variorum Gin

Alcohol review: Kwai Feh Lychee Liqueur

Since moving into my flat in September last year, I’ve been really enjoying hosting friends, and part of my hosting duties include mixing fun cocktails for my guests. I was kindly sent a bottle of the Kwai Feh lychee liqueur to review, and had lots of fun using it to jazz up some well-known drinks recipes. 

I love lychees as a fruit, and this liqueur both had a strong lychee taste and smell. This lychee essence goes with a lot of alcoholic spirits, making it a very versatile ingredient for drinks. In the photo below, I made lychee mojitos:

The ingredients for this drink were: a handful of mint (I have a mint plant which I use for this, very helpful!), 25ml of Kwai Feh, 25ml of rum, 25ml of freshly squeezed lime juice, 15ml of sugar syrup, topped up with lychee juice.

Whilst I enjoy rum cocktails, I don’t actually love the flavour of rum on its own, so it was pleasing to my taste buds that the lychee liqueur overpowered the rum in this drink! The lychee mojito was very fruity and fresh, with the mint leaves and lime really bringing out the tastiness of the lychee in the drink.

The next drink I made was the pink señorita cocktail, partially inspired by the pink aesthetic of the Barbie film!

The ingredients here were: 25ml Kwai Feh, 25ml tequila, 25ml Cointreau, 10ml lemon juice, topped up with pink lemonade.

Book review: THE ULTIMATE ACTUARIAL JOKE BOOK (John Lee)

John Lee, whose two books Actuarial Fairy Tales and Confessions of an Actuarial Tutor I have previously reviewed on my blog, continues with his streak of actuarial high jinx with his latest offering, The Ultimate Actuarial Joke Book. I was entertained greatly by those two creations, so I expected more comedy from this book, not least because it is, quite literally, compendium of jokes.

It certainly didn’t disappoint. The book features a wide variety of types of jokes formats, from zingy one-liners, jokes that follow classic ‘knock knock or ‘Doctor, Doctor’ formats, visual comedy in the form of memes, or gags that require more of a build-up because the punchline is delivered. By mixing the way the jokes are delivered, this means reading The Ultimate Actuarial Joke Book never gets stale, with the reader kept on their toes.

Cosplay for Hallowe'en: SQUID GAME with a touch of MIDSOMMAR

For Hallowe'en this year, I dressed up as 456 from Squid Game. Like most people, I was obsessed with the show when Netflix dropped it last year. However, I got on the bandwagon a little too late for Hallowe'en 2021, with most of the items of my cosplay, arriving after last Hallowe'en.

Thus, this year was the perfect opportunity for my 'make-up cosplay', and I did it in style, at the Ballie Ballerson, a place in Shoreditch with two colourful indoor ballpits!

it's me, hi, i'm the problem, it's me!

Product reviews: Fenty Beauty Crush on Cupid blush and Girl Next Door x Chic Phreak highlighter

Fenty Beauty, the makeup brand from Rihanna, was launched in September 2017. It has been praised for its inclusivity, especially in offering products for skin tones where previously there had been scant choice.

Fenty Beauty also broke down gender norms, with its products being accessible to men as well as women. One of its most high-profile advocates was Daniel Kaluuya, who wore shades 480 and 490 of the foundation when attending the 2018 Oscars, where he was nominated for Best Actor, and several media outlets commented on how glowy his skin looked.

As I’ve discussed before on my blog, I have tended to be quite rigid in the makeup products that I use, with MAC constituting about 80% of my makeup collection.

But, following the positive word of mouth for Fenty Beauty (if it’s good enough for Danny Kaluuya, it has to be good enough for me!), along with the fact that I adore Rihanna’s music, I decided to see for myself, and treated myself to two products from the line – the blush and highlighter.