A few years ago I upgraded my humble Ford Fiesta to a Mercedes Kompressor.
Boy, did I love it.
I lived with my mum at the time and her house is surrounded by motorways.
This meant I could really feel the smooth cruising of this magnificent German engine on the widest of roads.
What I wasn’t prepared for, however, was the bump to earth Mum gave me when she told me my new car may be a stench that warns men off.… Read the full story
So you didn’t manage to find someone to smooch on New Year’s Eve.
That’s okay. You don’t need a romantic relationship to feel content, right? It’s just that all those coupley photos on the ‘Gram of loved up people ice-skating and drinking hot chocolate have left you feeling a bit, well, desperately alone.
We’ve made it through cuffing season (that’s the lovely period of winter when everyone wants to couple up so they’re not alone over Christmas), but the mad dash to rub our genitals against another person’s isn’t over yet.
It’s clearing season.
Coined by Emma Garland and Hannah Ewens over… Read the full story
Hooray! Pressure on brands to make their packaging more environmentally friendly is mounting – and it’s actually working.
While the majority of McDonald’s packaging you’re met with in UK stores is made of cardboard, for certain menu items and in certain locations, you’ll still find old-school foam.
An extra-large drink, for example, tends to come in a foam cup.
There’s an issue with that – foam is pretty much impossible to recycle.
The majority of McDonald’s packaging isn’t foam, and hasn’t been for a long time (back in the early days, you’d be handed a burger in a foam package rather than a little cardboard… Read the full story
If you’ve stepped into the beauty and skincare bit of the internet recently, you’ll have noticed a lot of people talking about Baebody Eye Gel.
What is Baebody Eye Gel, you may ask. Do I need to spend more money on another eye cream that will inevitably gather dust in the back of my cupboard?
Well, read on, beauty-curious types. Let us break down the hype.
Baebody Eye Gel is an £18 eye gel that’s seeing massive sales thanks to some truly incredible reviews.
It claims to be firming, anti-ageing, and hydrating, reducing the look of wrinkles and puffiness and completely ridding you of dark circles – and the reviews appear to back all… Read the full story
Screw that New Year’s resolution to ban beige food. You weren’t going to stick to it anyway, and now there’s a job on the line.
B&M is on the search for a chicken nugget connoisseur.
Yep, they’re hunting down someone who’d be really, really good at eating chicken nuggets.
The role will include eating a bunch of chicken nuggets from the discount brand, both fresh and frozen (don’t worry, you can cook them first), and providing feedback.
Ideal prior experience listed includes getting a 20 share box of McDonald’s nuggets and eating them all yourself and going to an event or party because there’s free food.
Which may sound all… Read the full story
For me, Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) is like having a controlling, selfish ‘friend’ who always gets their way.
And what happens when IBS doesn’t get its way? I get instant pain, bloating and stomach cramps to say the least.
So naturally, you try to avoid that discomfort at all costs by giving your IBS exactly what it does (and doesn’t) want.
Congratulations, you’re now basically a hostage to your IBS.
They say your stomach is your second brain and I definitely agree. It makes… Read the full story
January; it’s everyone’s favourite time of the year for repenting for the sins and excesses of the Christmas period.
Nevermind the fact that Dry January could actually be bad for you, going cold turkey during a particularly chilly time of the year just doesn’t seem like much fun.
I’ve never been one for dieting – in that I’ve never been on a diet – and I don’t believe in cutting out food groups… Read the full story
A thing we miss about being a kid: Lego.
A thing that makes us glad we’re grownups: Booze.
Put the two together and we’re going to be excited.
So rejoice, fans of both little plastic bricks and cups of beer, for a Lego themed popup bar is coming to London.
We don’t know many details just yet – not even the important ones, like the exact date and location – but what we do know is enough to make us want to head there the minute it opens.
Legobar will be, obviously, a bar made up of one million Lego blocks. One million.
There’ll be Lego sculptures as well as plenty of Lego… Read the full story
I get it. It’s frustrating when, suddenly, a day after you were knocking back mulled wine and downing shots of Baileys, none of your mates are up for a pub trip.
It’s even more annoying when they sanctimoniously declare that they’re doing Dry January, and you feel like you’re a terrible person for continuing to drink.
It feels weird to chug rum and Coke while the person you usually get hammered with sips a mocktail. It’s a change you can’t quite get used to. That’s understandable.
But with all that irritation and confusion bubbling around, make sure one thing doesn’t slip out:… Read the full story
Oh hey, remember when news came out about an epidemic of ‘text neck’ or ‘tech neck’ and we all melted into a puddle of panic?
Well, it turns out there may have been no need to worry – text neck might not actually be a thing.
A new study involving 150 young adults in Brazil found no association between using a phone and neck pain, finding no correlation between a person’s neck posture and the frequency or intensity of their neck pain.
Ash James, a physiotherapist and the spokesperson for the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy, told the Mail Online: ‘Text neck isn’t an epidemic –… Read the full story
This week’s Is It Worth The Faff is a little different than normal, because this product requires next to no faff.
It’s mascara. How much effort can it be?
So rather than questioning whether we can all be bothered to wiggle the wand of Essence’s Lash Princess mascara through our lashes, we’ll be questioning whether the mascara is worth the hype… and there’s been a lot of hype.
Over on Reddit, people are singing the praises of Essence Lash Princess mascara, sharing incredible before and after photos of mega long lashes.
Given that it’s only £3.30 from Wilko, you can see why it’s quickly become a cult favourite… but… Read the full story
Communication is key to a healthy relationship, and that communication needs to include talking about money.
Sure, ‘money doesn’t buy happiness’ and ‘all you need is love’, but if couples don’t talk about money it can become a source of conflict.
In some cases the conflict can be… Read the full story
They say sh*t finds its own level.
That applies to friendship groups as well as potential dates; most of us think our pals are as attractive as ourselves, or more so.
And according to a new study, that might be down to the fact that mates are more genetically similar than strangers.
A team of researchers from Stanford, Duke and the University of Wisconsin examined the data of 5,500 American teens.
After carrying out a series of genetic comparisons between pairs of friends, they found a whole load of genetic similarities between them – far more than between teens… Read the full story
The vast majority of people would crumble under intense bullying.
But not Julianna Mazzei.
She’s a plus-size activist who has overcome trolling to inspire other large women to embrace their bodies and ignore the haters.
Julianna, AKA Jewelz, shares ‘#BigandBlunt’ photos of herself to her 98,000 followers on Instagram – including bikini and nude shots – to show that body positivity for everyone, regardless of size.
But while her account is brimming with body positivity, she admits that she wasn’t always so confident about her size.
‘Until I was 23-years-old, I hated myself,’ she says.
‘Through finding inspiration online and coming to terms with who I am and what I need to do, I… Read the full story
If, like me, you feel you have a lot in common with cold-blooded reptiles when it comes to the long British winter, then you will no doubt already be dreaming of sunnier climes.
No need to start Googling ‘where the hell is hot this time of year HELP’, ‘cos I’ve found your next destination – it’s only bloody Palm Springs!
The small, LGBT-friendly city nestled in the heart of California’s Coachella Valley has been a Hollywood celeb bolthole for decades – loads of classic Hollywood stars used to live or holiday in here as it was the perfect getaway from nearby Los Angeles (and just within the 100 mile residential radius they were contractually restricted to).
Here’s why you should book a flight over ASAP.
There’s not a problem in the world that can’t be soothed by the presence of a kitten.
No matter how down you are, little cats can pick you up like nothing else.
And that goes for anxious dogs too.
When Samantha Kreisler decided to adopt Lady from a centre, she was told that she’d be a lot of work due various dietary and skin issues. But Lady’s biggest problem was crippling anxiety.
‘I saw from an early age that she had anxiety whenever I left her alone,’ Samantha tells The Dodo.
‘She would literally get physically sick whenever I left her.’
And that was a problem because Samantha was a student… Read the full story
People always say you need to get eight glasses of water a day to stay hydrated.
However, this has been debated, partly due to the fact that we already get water from our food and other drinks, and partly because who can tell what a standardised glass size is anyway?
We all know the benefits of staying hydrated, though, which include clearer skin and a clearer mind. On the opposite end, being dehydrated can be seriously dangerous, which is why it’s so important to get your recommended daily amount.
Every so often, the fitness world tries to reinvent the wheel by coming out with a ‘new’ craze.
HIIT classes have been the thing for the past couple of years, with heavy weight lifting also coming back into fashion – particularly for women.
But these kinds of exercise put the body under intense stress and often lead people to neglect their cardiovascular fitness.
How many of us know people who gym every day but couldn’t run for a bus?
So it’s sort of gratifying to see steady state cardio coming back into fashion.
Dubbed the ‘lazy girl workout’, Low-Intensity Sustained State cardio (LISS) involves walking, jogging, cycling and swimming for up to… Read the full story
It’s party time.
A phrase that used to mean imbibing yourself silly until 3am on the dancefloor of Fernando’s has now taken a terrifying twist in parenthood.
The Saturday afternoons you used to spend recovering from your amazing Friday nights, such as Sally and Big Trev’s The Dark Knight-themed fancy dress party, is now spent driving out to a village hall: the realm of the toddler birthday bash.
Overdosed on sugar and excitement, toddlers are essentially like the incoherent drunk people you used to hang out with. Only smaller. And louder.
While you used to be able to tolerate… Read the full story
Fitness might be a traditionally male-dominated world but when it comes to mental wellbeing, we’re often guilty of concentrating on how women feel.
We know that bikini models often have to deal with a lot of stress and anxiety in the run-up to competitions (there are plenty of body transformation posts on Instagram talking about how miserable women have felt during comp season).
But we rarely stop to consider how emotionally and mentally draining the world of men’s competitive fitness can be.
To compete in shows, men often have to drop well below 10% body fat, eating well into their essential fat stores. Around 22% is considered to be a ‘normal’… Read the full story
