Danny Gruff - The Coffee Beans Tour

Hey everyone! 

Welcome to a brand new blog post! Today, I thought that, I would talk to you all about a tour that I will be attending soon. This isn't a spon or anything like that, I just like the music and the person of whom I'm promoting, and, I think that it's great to promote artists when possible!

Wrexham born singer songwriter Danny Gruff got his big banging break after supporting artists like Frank Turner and Bastille to name a few. Within 2015, Danny created a project which was dubbed ONTAW which consisted of releasing one new track a week for a year which then led him onto a 2 official UK tours including a first headline tour. Danny has the spent since October creating his self titled album via the funds from singles, merchandise and tours. Danny is known for his cheeky yet friendly personality. 

In June 2017, Danny released a self titled album consisting of 13 amazing songs, under an album. This album covers a plethora of genres, themes and tempos, to suit a magnitude of moods. If you want to read more about what I thought about this breathtaking album then click here to read my full review of Coffee Beans. 

To match the name of the album, Danny thought that, it would be an interesting idea to hold the dates of the tour in actual coffee shops, and, small venues around the UK. Not only would it showcase the symbolism of the album as a whole, but, it would also give Danny and his audience the perfect atmosphere for a personal, and, intimate performance. 

The dates that are still available to purchase are, Leeds, Manchester, Nottingham, Cardiff, and, Portsmouth. Click here to find your nearest gig and purchase tickets. 

Check out Danny's music via his Spotify. 

Visit Danny's website to find out more about him and to purchase merchandise. 

I hope that you have enjoyed this blog post, Let me know if you will be attending any of the dates. Comment down below with your favourite song from Danny Gruff. I've also included the lyric video to Coffee Beans just in case you want to check it out. 

Thanks for reading! 

Jamie x 

Does It Work, Work, Work? | First Impressions Of Fenty Beauty Body Lava & Fairy Bomb

Hey everyone! 

Welcome to a brand new post. As the title says, I thought that today, I would talk to you all about the new body highlighters, but in particular, the new Body Lava and Fairy Bomb, that are available via Harvey Nichols and Fenty Beauty.

Unlike other beauty reviews on Jamie Sowden, I am going off my first impression of these products. you don't have to agree with me, and, there are many other reviews on the internet but the opinions in the post are mine.

That post-vacay glow is now yours year-round thanks to Body Lava. This smooth, gel-based body luminizer glides on and leaves skin feeling dewy to the touch. Get ready to bathe your skin in a high-shine finish that does to your body what highlighter does to your cheekbones. Celebrate the look and feel of glistening skin after a day of island hopping. Light-diffusing micropearls blended with a sheer tint of colour accentuate all skin tones for a silky, sun-soaked sheen any time of the year. Strip down in Who Needs Clothes?!, a rose gold, or glow up in Brown Sugar. Delivered in a generously sized bottle, Body Lava's ultimate drenched-in-light radiance - plus its addictive floral vanilla scent - was born to dew your body right. FENTY Beauty is 100% cruelty free.

I wandered into Harvey Nichols with my friend, Abbey, the other week, to have a look at some products. We stumbled across the Fenty Beauty counter, and, thought that we should finally see if the new products were wotth the hype that they were receiving on platforms such as Social Media.

The outer bottle that contains the product has a high fashion expensive glass look to it which ensures that you feel fabulous holding the product, before, you've even pumpled out some of the product. The product retails for £46, so, it's great that the packaging is lavish and fabulous, as it makes you feel like the product is already worthy of purchase before even using it.

The product comes in two different shades, Who Needs Clothes?, and Brown Sugar. I tried both at the counter. Who Needs Clothes is a silver shimmery colour, which I guess is for us pale folks who want to sparkle like Diamonds, and Brown Sugar, which is, for those with a darker complexion and want to feel like the only person in the world, but on me it looked like really bad streaky fake tan. The shimmer on both were to die for. The shimmer would look amazing, especially when the Sun hits it, but let's be frank, England gets sunny weather for one week, and then we don't see it again for another 4 years.

The smell of Body Lava is mainly, Vanilla with a hint of Peony, I would say. I think that some may find this a little bit overpowering, but I, personally love it. Most cosmetic brands have products that don't smell of much, so I love how Fenty have released a product that is nearly as good enough to eat as it it is to apply it.

The texture, sadly, is the main disappointment for me. When you apply it, it has a wet oil texture to it, which is expected due to the description, but when you leave it to dry on the body, it becomes really sticky and tacky, which doesn't feel right at all on the skin. The tackiness calms down during the day, but honestly, for £46, I expect it to glide on and to sink into the skin without leaving a sticky feeling.

Like no body luminizer you’ve ever seen before, this limited-edition Glittering Pom Pom is pre-packed with superfine 3D shimmer, born to let loose with every touch. Just dab and glow! Ultra soft and larger-than-life Fairy Bomb makes old school glam an everyday luxury, delivering smooth, hyper-reflective glitter in all its glory. Bless your body from head to toe in a superfine glittering veil. The single rose gold shade, Rosé On Ice, coats skin in the perfect prismatic pink designed to light up all skin tones. Plus, it’s softly scented with irresistible vanilla coconut for a full-on sensorial experience you can’t get enough of.

So first of all, a Highlighting Bomb is a completely new concept to the beauty world, and, I give kudos to Fenty for that.

The scent is a little bit sweeter than Body Lava, but I still love it as it represents the Fairy-ness of Fairy Bomb. I love how the scent lingers so, you don/t need much of a fragrance on top of it, which is fab for those days, where you want to look fab with minimal effort.

The packaging again is exquisite and lovely, but, I wouldn't expect anything less for a product that retails for £34. The box that it comes in could definitely be used for many other things such as little trinkets and jewelry as it has that luxurious bazaar feel to it.

The product itself is a cute pink puff that you dab to release the highlighter on the body. The only main problem that I found with it, was that, you had to forcefully dab/batter yourself to get the highlighter due to it being in one main place. I feel like trying to do this in a morning when getting ready, would end up in, injuries and screaming at a beauty product. I think that a puff with highlighter in it for £34 is a bit expensive, even I'm a cheaper puff, and you get more than just a highlighter with me... I think that the novelty of it is good, but, I would definitely prefer it in a powder in a form of pan form.

Apparently, you're meant to use both products together. Even though, this might be a great idea and it would mean, that, you smell amazing and look sparkly as hell. I don't think that it would be worth the combined £80 price tag.

Let me know what you think of these new two products down below. 

Shop Fenty at Harvey Nichols and Fenty Beauty in the UK. Other stores for worldwide purchase include Sephora and many more.

I hope that you're having a great day. I hope that you enjoy this blog post and I hope that you come back to read another one soon!

Thanks for reading! 
Jamie x 

If It Can Moisturise Cassandra, It Can Moisturise You | Cetraben

Hey everyone! 

Welcome to a brand new post. Today, I thought that I would talk to you all about a few amazing beauty products, because well, we all love a good beauty product every now and again!

Cetraben is a range of beauty products, for the face and skin, that are designed to help anyone manage problematic, dry and eczema-prone skin This wonderful line of products are suitable for sufferers of all ages. Cetraben helps to relieve discomfort, reduces the itch and the need to scratch it. Cetraben is not tested on animals and does not contain any ingredients derived from animals.

Cetraben sent me three different products to try out as a part of my beauty regime. Now, like with all the beauty products that I try, excluding makeup, I tried this for two weeks to ensure that I could give an honest review. The three products that Cetraben sent me were, Cetraben Daily Cleansing Cream, Cetraben Cream, and, Cetraben Cream.

 Cetraben Daily Cleansing Cream is specifically formulated for use as a cleansing soap substitute, for use in the bath or shower, and as a daily moisturiser to keep skin hydrated and protected. Sadly, I didn't know that you could use it as a Moisturiser, so, I've stuck to using it as a cleanser, for when my skin has felt dry, or, for the morning after having something that includes lactose. (That is when my skin is normally at it's driest.) The product has a clean, yet, slightly medicinal smell to it, which is to be expected, due to it being mainly for dry skin/eczema, It was very smooth applying to the skin which is great, as, I could instantly tell that this would soften my skin, compared to something that is harsh/something that will be a little extreme on my skin. Once I had ensured that I had rinsed all of the product off my skin, I could instantly tell a difference. My skin felt smoother, brighter and clearer. I thought that it would be best, but it felt like a product where I wouldn't need to shove on moisturiser, if I was in a really bad rush.

The Cream,and, Lotion in the Cetraben range, are simple to apply. The Cream and Lotion come packaged with a pump dispenser, helping you avoid mess and waste while ensuring easy and measured applications whenever you need them. I used the Cream mainly on my face and neck area, whereas, I use the Lotion for the rest of my body. I'm not sure if I'm meant to do that. I loved both of these products due to ensuring that my skin stays dry, for the entire day, no matter what I am doing. Whether that be something like a day at University, a bloggers event or hanging around with friends. The scent is the same as the Cleansing Cream, therefore, I think that if you have a fragrance, that doesn't irritate you that much, then it would go perfect with the clean scent of these products. The pump packaging ensures that, you can pump some product out andf apply it quickly, compared to other beauty products where you end up spending ten minutes, trying to get through the packaging. This ensured that my whole body was still soft, even after having lactose, which I absolutely loved!

I think that if you need a touch of moisture (like myself) in your life, or, you suffer from eczema, then Cetraben is the brand for you. I am still a bit unsure about the scent of the product, but it's not what it smells like, it's the purpose of the product (which is to solve dryness which it absolutely does).

Have you ever tried Cetraben? Let me know down below! 

If you haven't checked out Cetraben, then please do so!

I hope that you have enjoyed this little beauty based post. I know that I haven't posted in a whole, due to personal reasons, but I'm starting to publish again, and I would love for you to come back and read the next post!

Thanks for reading! 
Jamie x 

This post was in return of goods and/or services. All views, opinions and ramblings are my own. 

This Is Me | My Gender

Hey!

Welcome to a brand new blog post!. I thought that I would do something different.

I have talked about it on here before, and, I will probably talk about it again and again. Gender is something that I've never been 100% fully sure about and I thought that today's post would be a good time to talk about it in a bit more detail. I know that discussions about gender can across as intense, but I think that, we all need to be educated on gender. This probably won't be the best laid out post, but I hope that this post does help the conversation in some shape or form. 

A stock image provided by pexels.com

Sex and gender are two completely different things. Sex is what you're assigned at birth due to the biological attributes that you have (including things such as your genitals), but gender is based on society and the things that surround you in the world. I believe that gender is on a spectrum, and things, such as the nature V nurture debate could affect it but I think that's definitely a post for another time. Gender does not have to relate to the genitals that someone has, but also gender could relate to the genitals that someone has. It depends on how the person feels.

Personally, I feel like I'm slightly on the more man side of the middle of the spectrum between man and woman. I'm going off imagining the spectrum being like the Kinsey Scale, which talks about defining your sexuality via heterosexual is on one end, and, homosexual is on the other side with numbers such as 1 being completely heterosexual and 5 being homosexual with marks such as, heterosexual with homosexual tendencies and so forth. I think that's right. (Side note, I need to stop writing blog posts at 3am.) I feel like like I'm masculine ti a degree but I'm also pretty feminine in many ways. I definitely don't feel like I adhere to many masculine attributes or stereotypes, and I feel like I don't adhere to all of the feminine attributes/stereotypes so I've always felt... well confused because society tells us that we should fit into a paradigm. We should be either male, or female. We should either be fat or thin etc and honestly, I hate it.

I want to say that I'm genderqueer. Genderqueer is a person who feels that his/her gender identity does not fit into the socially constructed "norms" associated with his/her biological sex.
Genderqueer is an identity that falls anywhere between man/boy/male and woman/girl/female on the spectrum of gender identities. The only problem with this for me is, that I'm still at the stage where I don't know exactly where I fit which means that labels don't exactly work that well for me at the moment. Don't get me wrong, labels can be great, as they can help others know who you are and they can help you find communities where you feel safe but also they attach an instant assumption and stereotypes to whatever label we decide to go with. I don't want to commit to a label and everything that comes with it until I'm completely sure. That might sound pretentious of me but it's what I prefer and that's what matters.

Carrying on from this, I think that it's a good time to talk about my name, pronouns and all of that jazz. All of the above and the thoughts about my gender that I've felt for a long while. Call me Jamie. It's as simple as that when it comes to names. My birth name is James, so, Jamie is probably the closest thing to a unisex name that I will ever achieve. Jamie Lee Curtis and other stars like Jamie Lynn Spears reinforce that Jamie can belong to anyone and not just one sex. Don't call me by my birth name unless I say it's fine, or, unless we're family/I completely trust you with my life, If you're unsure about what you should call me, ask. I only let people call me by my birth name at education because it's easier due to paperwork.

I let people such as lecturers call me by my birth name as I'm not sure what would happen in terms of paperwork, but also it saves ignorance. By that, I mean, a lot of people are ignorant on these fronts and, I honestly don't have the energy or the time to correct everyone because I would end up wanting to hit my head on a brick wall very quickly. I normally tell lecturers that I prefer Jamie but if they need to then call me by that. I think because this isn't the norm, the 'norm' (cis het people) don't understand what to do and instead of asking, they dig their own grave that little bit more and I don't want to be pushing them easily into it. If you call me by my name, I won;t be furious, I'll tell you and I'll probably tell you what I prefer and if you keep doing it if I'm in a shit mood, then I'll probably ignore you. Simple as that.

Pronoun wise, I prefer they/them. Before you start to ask why they/them, it's because of the above reasons but it's also because I'll have days where I won't know how I feel so they covers both him and her and it makes me feel less skittish and uncomfortable when using it. If I'm in a good mood then I don't mind either he/him/she/her depending on many things including how close we are. Try and only reserve him/he for when it's needed to be honest. If you have no clue and your head is confused by all of this, then please, ask. It will make myself more comfortable and it will make you feel a little bit less awkward when talking to me. I haven't changed, I'm still me. If you misgender me then I will tell you but to keep you less confused stick to they/them or he/him if needs be. I get that you might not know and it's best to ask because if I don't know how I feel/I'm still figuring out how I feel, then how the hell are you meant to know?

Dysphoria is a sensation of discomfort, loathing, anxiety, and depression revolving around one's social gender role and/or physical sex characteristics. It's a very serious experience that leads to larger anxiety/depression problems, depersonalisation, thoughts of suicide, social withdrawal and many other things. I've had serious waves of dysphoria in my everyday life, and, trust me, it's one of the worst sensations in the world. It's weird to explain to anyone that feels comfortable within themselves that they don't have to experience it. Feeling out of place when it comes to being a circle of friends that are comfortable with themselves sometimes triggers it, social media triggers it sometimes and my own body can. I know I post pictures of myself on social media which includes showing nude parts eg topless photos, but those take a lot of energy. If I'm not feeling my absolute best then they don't happen. I also know that represent body and self confidence but as soon as I think, screw it, I'll post it, I also get moments of self loathing and regret due to hating my body because it doesn't fit into one box. I don't think it does and I hate that sometimes.

I think that my aesthetic is pretty neutral when it comes to items that could be perceived as either 'masc' or 'fem'. but I would like to incorporate more fem styles of clothing into my wardrobe, if I ever have the confidence to rock it. I'd love to just wear a bad ass patterned dress and some chunky heels and be like, well this is my look. Take it in... I'd also love to give zero cares to the world, and wear things such as crop tops, and show my body off in all of it's glory. I'd love to experiment with makeup a bit more and just feel like I can rock a bright lip and a smoky eye someday. I've started experimenting with makeup slightly, but, I think that I would light to delve deeper into it. I'd also love to keep my facial hair and have crazy rocker quiff hair and own loads of leather jackets, and, casually just rock a suit to something casual so I can be extra when I want to feel masculine. I want to walk into a club, wear whatever I want, have glitter smothering my face and not feel like I'm emphasizing on being a 'freak to the norms of society.' I wish for all of these things, but hopefully, in the future, I can look at this post and think back on everything that I've done.

I hope that this post gets the conversation going a bit, I hope that it ensures that the representation of everyone that isn't already represented can have a light shined on them, and, I hope that this post educates someone. Just one person would be fine.

Be respectful of everyone around you, respect pronoun's and preferred names. Have conversations about anything that you don't know or understand with others and help to remove any stigma that society and the media create.

Talk below and further the discussion!

Thanks for reading! 
Jamie x