Wake up, lather on the sun cream, get ready for some serious lounging by the beach. That’s everyone’s morning holiday ritual right?
Well, we all know that sunscreen is crucial to protect your skin from damaging UV rays from the sun and, of course, sunburn.
Just in case you needed reminding about its useful properties, using sunscreen can prevent skin cancer or malignant melanoma. Super useful right?
But does it stand in the way of you getting that all perfect holiday tan?
As part of Pride Month, New York hosted its annual parade in honour of the LGBTQ community.
As expected, the Pride march delivered its fair share of elaborate costumes, floats, and eccentric celebrations as millions flocked to Chelsea and Greenwich Village in Manhattan.
Celebrating its 49th bash, the NYC Pride Organization, who put the show together, went all out for the glitter covered spectacle.
Among activists,… Read the full story
First we had clean eating, and then there was clean sleeping.
Now? Say hello to clean beauty. But what the hell is it?
Clean beauty means products that don’t contain any toxic ingredients – so really, it’s toxin-free beauty.
It’s important to note that just because something is natural, doesn’t mean it’s clean – many natural ingredients are actually toxic (like lead or poison ivy), and many products containing the word ‘natural’ may actually be full of synthetic ingredients.
The same goes for organic beauty – this isn’t the… Read the full story
Where were you when you found out caramel flavoured M&M’s are available?
Hopefully on your way to Poundland, because that’s where you can get limited edition packets of the sweet stuff with a crunchy caramel filling.
Chocolate lovers rejoice, the delicious mini buttons come in sharing bags that weigh 109g and cost – you guessed it – £1.
Picking up a bag of M&M’s isn’t as simple as it once was, as plain, peanut or crispy centres are also available.
Finding out that your partner is cheating is devastating.
There’s no good way to realise, but knowing sooner rather than later can stop you from wasting time on a doomed relationship.
But how do you know if your other half is cheating on you?
Research commissioned to mark the release of Finding Your Feet on DVD spoke to 1,000 couples about what the most common tip offs are from a cheating partner.
Much of what suggests you’re playing away is grooming related. Applying fake tan regularly, wearing a new perfume… Read the full story
Comedian Laura Lexx decided to take a year off comedy to try to have a baby.
Instead she had a breakdown. The trying-for-a-baby bit was part of it.
Laura had experienced depression before, but when she began plans to have a baby, depression came along in a new way.
‘I got completely obsessed with the concept of global warming,’ Laura says on this week’s episode of Metro.co.uk’s mental health podcast, Mentally Yours.
‘I think because we’d started trying for a baby, I had started to think about that baby’s life once it was here. I started to worry that there wasn’t enough planet left to have a life.
‘I didn’t notice it for months and months, until I’d got to a point where every second of my waking day was consumed with thoughts about fossil fuels and the temperature and everything I did contributing to this bigger problem.
If there’s one thing that can divide an office, it’s fish.
If you work in an open plan office with a microwave, chances are there have been some pretty heated conversations about the reheating of marine life.
During my time as an office-dwelling creature, I’ve had the pleasure of seeing a wide variety of passive aggressive posters – hastily typed out in Word, angry fingers pounding the keys – appear on a plethora of microwaves.
The signs appear and disappear almost as soon as they came, and the slippery scent of salmon is all the evidence you need that (some) people are defying the signs.
‘It’s… Read the full story
Step into a supermarket and you’ll probably see a load of excessive plastic packaging around food that really doesn’t have to be there.
Thankfully, more and more supermarkets are becoming more eco-conscious and are attempting to reduce the abundance of plastic waste we awful humans produce.
Morrisons is trying to do just that by rewarding customers who bring in reusable containers to purchase and take home meat and fish.
Environmentally-friendly folk who come in with their Tupperware will be given 100 points on their loyalty cards which is the equivalent of 10p.
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ll have noticed that it’s the World Cup at the moment, which means two things: 1) Football is coming home and 2) every company under the sun is trying to sell you football related things.
That’s lucky for me because 1) I love football in my home and 2) I love buying football related things.
So imagine my joy when I found out about The Blues Kitchen’s latest offering, a World Cup themed burger called, somewhat cruelly for England football fans, The Hand Of God.
In three weeks time, my running partner Ella and I are going to be running 100km.
That’s 62.1 miles. All in one go.
And although we’re both pretty fit, we haven’t been sticking to a rigid training plan by any means. We’ve been running here and there, chucking in the odd race as we go, but on the whole, it’s been a pretty random affair.
So it’s no wonder I’m now injured.
Yep, in the week when we should really be going as hard as possible in terms of training (ideally getting a 50k run in), I’m not running at all, thanks to a calf strain.
Absolute nightmare.
It began last week after we ran the Adidas One Mile Challenge (where you run a one-mile course as many times as you can in one hour), when I found that I was getting shooting pains up through my heel every time I tried to walk.
And that pain just hasn’t gone away.
So, I went to… Read the full story
As festival season hits full swing, perhaps you’re rushing to bag tickets, a tent or even a pair of wellies.
Will you also be planning how you’ll act if you’re sexually harassed or assaulted?
A new poll by YouGov for the Press Association revealed that this is the reality for almost half (43%) of women festival-goers under 40.
As a co-founder of the Good Night Out Campaign, I can’t say I’m surprised. This research backs up countless first-hand testimonials we’ve heard since 2014, when we first started to challenge these behaviours and the culture that enables them through… Read the full story
Attention, chocolate fanatics: Giant white chocolate Freddo bars exist and we’re so ready to bulk buy.
The white chocolate versions of the teeny Freddo bars – which have caused ongoing rage with its ever-increasing price hikes – are made using the same creamy chocolate as Dream bars. Yum.
The bars are almost twice the weight at 35g – with the original bars weighing 18g, and have 193 calories, instead of the 95 calories in a milk chocolate bar.
While they sound amazing, they don’t come cheap.
Alfie, the pampered therapy dog, loves nothing more than coming home from a long day working with poorly kids, putting on his pyjamas and climbing into his bunk bed at 8pm on the dot.
The three-and-a-half-year-old pug comes home from a day looking after children at Manchester Children’s Hospital to a nice bath run by his owner Suzy Emsden, 44.
Suzy, a doctor in children’s intensive care transport, then helps Alfie into one of his dressing gowns to dry off before she gets him into his pyjamas – of which he has around ten sets.
And then at exactly 8pm, and absolutely no later, Alfie climbs into his bunk… Read the full story
We’ve all been there.
The power goes and you realise that you don’t have any candles, because it’s not the 1800s and you’re not Wee Willie Winkie.
The shops are shut and you can’t go get any more bulbs, so what do you do?
You grab a tin a tuna, that’s what.
Someone on Twitter showed a great amount of initiative by turning a tin of tuna into a light source, and they shared their method.
The key thing to note is that… Read the full story
A couple of weeks ago we brought you the news that Pretty Little Thing was making anti chafe bands, bands that you wear around your thighs to protect your skin from abrasive chafing.
Now most people reacted to this news nicely, realising that for people who get chafing these bands will be a big help, and for those who don’t get chafing they’re hardly hurting anyone.
But of course there were some who reacted to the invent of these bands by saying ‘or you could just lose weight’ or even ‘you should just lose weight instead.’
To those people, we thought it worth… Read the full story
Festivals are pretty magical places.
However, they can turn into pretty miserable places if you don’t arrive prepared.
But how are you supposed to know what to bring if you’ve never been to one?
Festival websites are great for giving you the basics, and telling you how to get there and what you can’t bring in, but who should you turn to to ask what you should bring in?
Handily, someone’s collated all that info in one big, useful impartial website – called Festival Safe.
It covers everything you need to know from what tent to bring, how to deal with portaloos, and how to keep yourself… Read the full story
A young mum says she owes her life to her ‘miracle’ son, after a cancerous cyst was found during an examination in the early days of her pregnancy.
Elishia Donnellan fell pregnant at 19, and doctors say she would be dead if her rare bone cancer had not been found when it had.
The now 21-year-old is grateful to her 18-month-old toddler Caelan.
The trained beautician, from Winsford, Cheshire, was finally diagnosed with rare bone and tissue cancer, Ewing sarcoma, in September last year after suffering with pains in her hip.
It was 17 months… Read the full story
A psychology graduate is living her best life as a mermaid, after investing in a four-day long course at a mermaid camp.
24-year-old Caitlin Hardy, who works in a bank during the day, was determined to fulfil her childhood fantasy of being a mermaid, so booked a four-day long course at a mermaid camp at a private mansion with a pool in Penrith, Cumbria.
During this time, Caitlin created her own mermaid persona – Mermaid Liana Waterfall.
Now fully-trained and sporting a bespoke £160 tail, which she designed, Caitlin charges £100 an hour to swim like… Read the full story
When it comes to engaging in sexual activity, many in the British Asian community are all too aware of the conflicts around juggling community expectations and modern day dating.
Belonging to the British Asian community is wonderful in many ways; the strong sense of familiarity and cultural connections allows us to blend two identities together and celebrate our heritage.
But when it comes to having sex or openly talking about our sexual experiences, things can get a little tricky.
British Asians who, like me, are second or third generation in the UK are having sex outside of marriage. But here’s… Read the full story
Jetting out of town for a cheeky sunshine weekender is a summer rite of passage – but trying to get all your face creams packed in a carry-on is a massive headache.
All less than the required 100ml for the plane, these travel-sized, hold-free heroes will see you sailing through security and ensure you look good from the moment you touch down.
