My Nose Piercing Experience

So, on the day of writing this as you can probably tell from the title and the picture above - I have just had my nose pierced!! I have wanted it done for absolutely ages, but never plucked up the courage to ask my mum. My friend recently got hers done so I showed my mum as a hint, she recieved the hint and said because it was my body I can do what I want - Huzzah! Even though I've currently had it for under an hour, I am so in love with it. I may edit this post after a couple of days with a changed opinion, however! I am going to write about my experience along with some top tips, so read ahead if you're thinking of getting it done!

The first thing, I think, is make sure that you definitely want it. I have been thinking about getting mine done for ages so when my mum finally brought it up and said yes, it took under 12 hours for me to get it done. This sounds spontaneous, but it really wasn't. I'd watched over 50 videos on YouTube of people getting theirs done and also their experiences, I went it to it knowing what to expect (sort of!) During this 'research' it became apparent that sometimes when taking the piercing out there is a little scar left behind, if you get your nose pierced on a whim; you will be left with this scar - is it worth it?

You then need to choose a reputable piercer. Usually, tattoo and piercing places are going to be your best bet. I went to Pulse where I know that it is safe, and clean. They sterilised all the equipment before it went in my nose and also wore gloves; which are two key things to look out for. My piercer was lovely, though I don't know his name - sorry! My piercing here was £19, which I thought was reasonable. You should make sure that you are getting your piercing done with good quality jewellry, such as titanium or surgical steel. Mine is titanium. Getting jewellery from somewhere like Claire's isn't a particularly good idea because whilst they do advertise their jewellery to be 'titanium' it is actually silver coated in titanium. This coating can rub off in the fresh piercing and cause infection, which is not what you want with a brand new piercing! You should also make sure that it is done with a needle and not a gun. With a needle, they should use a new or freshly sterilised one for every person whereas the same gun will be used. When a gun is used, due to the force of it, some blood may spatter onto it which is so small it goes by unnoticed. This could then cause infection so, again, not good!

Pain wise, it's not horrific. It definitely hurts, but it's more of a stinging sensation. Honestly, your eyes water so much that you get sort of distracted by that and then the pain is over. It does throb for the rest of the day and I would recommend taking anti - inflammatory tablets (such as ibuprofen) to help the swelling go down. The pain is most definitely worth it. (Editing this a week later and I am in love with it.) If you fiddle with it, which you shouldn't but I do oops, make sure that you have washed your hands before. Also, this can hurt - mine does whenever I touch it!

The watering had gone down by now but you get the gist.

My top tip would be : if you have hayfever, reconsider getting it in hayfever season. This may be gross, but if you have a running nose alllll the time it becomes very painful and starts to make the area go a bit more red. Sniffing is bad too. Aswell as this; sneezing hurts. A lot. In a way, I wish I had waited until after the hayfever months but also I don't regret it at all because I love it so much!


Sorry if this has been a really wordy post and you aren't actually that interested in nose piercings (you probably aren't still reading this if you're not...) but I hope this was informative to anyone thinking about getting theirs done! If you have any questions feel free to leave them in a comment below and I will get back to you as soon as possible!

- Sophie x

LouiseLIVE - Coventry

I was fortunate enough to be able to go to the pilot LouiseLIVE show in Northampton and had an amazing experience. I haven't been to many YouTube events in my time - yet - so don't have a lot to compare it to, but this is definitely up in my top 3. It was interactive, not overly rehearsed (I say this in completely a good way; it was spontaneous which made it even more funny) and personal. Personal is the most important thing for me, Louise really made an effort to make sure most of the audience was involved and I had the (un)fortunate experience of getting on stage with her at the beginning to dance to All About That Bass which was totally mortifying but also quite funny. Anyway, enough about Northampton - now on to Coventry!

Thanks to Louise being a lovely soul, she set me up with some VIP Tickets which allowed me to meet her before the show in a little room. As we walked in we were handed a golden tube (content to be revealed later!) and then shuffled through. We crowded into the room and started to chat between ourselves when someone pointed out that Louise was already in there. We all stood around, waiting until she made her way towards us. We had a friendly conversation which included some secrets being revealed, dresses swishes and selfies being taken!

The selfie lighting in this room was most fabulous.

Next was the show. We were told to go into the theatre, which I believe holds around 550 people and was full - a lot more than at the Northampton one! Louise Split the show into segments to allow it to flow smoother and she was supported by props and a Microsoft Powerpoint. This show was brilliant. I think I preferred the Northampton show because it was more rough around the edges and felt more intimate (that may have been because I was more involved in the Northampton one, however.) We had the fortunate experience of being joined by Zoe(lla) and she did a little appearance at the beginning. This is one thing I disliked about the show. I found that the audience screamed louder for Zoe than Louise and even after being told not to, I saw people taking pictures of Zoe throughout the show and at one point Louise was being asked questions about Zoe for a solid 5 minutes. I know this isn't Louise's fault at all - I just found it very disrespectful of the audience. 

My photos of the show are allllll awful because of the lighting and me being no camera whiz but I was actually quite grateful that I figured this out early on and allowed myself to sit and enjoy the show instead of worrying about taking photos. If you watch Louise on her main channel (here) you only really see a smidgen of the true Louise. Her second channel (here!) has a much more accurate representation of what she is like in real life. She is so funny. There was one point that my friend and I thought we were going to cry with laughter - and that doesn't happen often. She talks about things in a way that you would talk to your friend, and shared personal details with us - such as 'the secret' which can't be discussed anywhere online; soz. LouiseLIVE is so different to any other Youtube event because it is personal, both for Louise and us. It's just so wonderful.

By far my favourite part of the show is Glitter Tips. The best Glitter Tips is the one on body confidence. Louise has a way with words and this segment is moving. Honestly, I welled up a little bit. I won't go into detail on what was said; all I will say is that it's especially lovely and will stay with me forever. Honestly, I would recommend going to the show even if the only bit it included was this. You leave the show feeling confident and uplifted and you can tell that she aims to make you feel like this. 

As I mentioned earlier, we were handed golden tubes as we walked in to the VIP area. They were these motivational, signed posters! They were also for sale for £10 outside of the theatre. 

I LOVE this. 

Aswell as this, when we walked into the theatre there were some cards on every single seat. I really hope the effort that Louise puts into these shows does not get overlooked by everyone in there, it is clear that she really wants to provide an experience. 

Excuse the chipped nail varnish....

Louise if you read this; you done good. I hope the rest of the shows go aswell as this one did (even with the few mishaps...)

See you next week with another post! (Hopefully. I go back to school next week so who knows what is going to happen)

- Sophie x

My Trip to Florida

It wasn't actually my 1st visit
(technically I was too young to remember the other trips) but I'd heard if you
 got one of these then you got special treatment from the characters.
We did. I don't regret it. 

After being arranged well over a year ago, my trip to Florida finally happened last month. Though it wasn't exactly as we envisioned our family trip, we still had a blast. I have been before but this time I was more excited than any other. Ironically, I love Disney a whole lot more nowadays than I did in my younger years. We were in Florida for just under two weeks and finished the holiday with a few days in New York, though those days won't be mentioned in this post! We stayed in the Renaissance at Sea World, which in my opinion was a little too far away from the parks but is a gorgeous hotel. Florida is absolutely stunning and I desperately want to move there (the scenery is one reason for me wanting to do the Disney Cultural Exchange Program!)

I stepped out of my comfort zone (post on comfort zones coming soon...) big time whilst in America. I went to the Magic Kingdom, my favourite of the Disney parks, by myself for a day. This consisted of getting the bus from my hotel to Disney's Transportation Center and then a monorail from there to the park. I had to queue for things alone, order my food and eat alone and speak to adults. Woah. However, I had the most magical day. I did everything that I wanted and didn't have to worry about it boring my 'too cool for Disney' brother. I watched the parade, twice, and met a load of my favourite Disney characters! The staff were all lovely, calling me Princess and helping me if I ever got lost - which I did, a lot.

The Festival of Fantasy Parade is one
of the best things that's ever happened to me.

Florida is one of the best places to photograph out of everywhere that I have been. There is so much going on and the beaming sun makes all the photos bright. At Disney especially, I find it easy to capture the magical atmosphere into a photo. I'm no professional photographer, but I really wanted to document this trip so I took pictures of everything. And I mean everything. I've looked through my pictures once since I've been back and only regret it a little, I guess filling two memory cards is a little excessive. I met all my favourite Disney characters and just had the most wonderful time.

Me and my pal Snow lookin' all cute.

I'm sorry that this post may have been a little boring (I think I apologise for this in every one of my posts, maybe you should just come to expect it now...) All of these photos were taken from my Canon 1200D. I hope you enjoyed reading this and I definitely would advise a trip to Florida, especially Disney, at least once in your life.

- Sophie x