Emma: Make-up lovers, this one's for you! It's Emma here, kicking off our Health and Beauty corner of the blog with something most of us are obsessed with right now- eyebrows, and how to master the perfect arch.

My wow-brow: before and after

Yes I know, they can be an absolute nightmare to perfect! Back in my early eyebrow days, even the thought of trying to get the perfect arch every morning was enough to make me want to hurl a hairbrush at my mirror. I'd watch endless tutorials on YouTube; the make up artists always made the process look so simple, yet as soon as I turned to the mirror with my eyebrow pencil I was quick to learn that simple and eyebrows are two words that are at complete polar opposites. 

HOWEVER, before you stop reading and close this article in disgust, I have an announcement to make. I, Emma Shallcross, am finally happy with my eyebrows. After two years of experimenting: slugs, sperm, chunky blocks and thin arches- you name it, I had it! After two years, I can finally look in the mirror and say 'dayum girl, these eyebrows are on point'. (I have actually done this. Just ask my boyfriend *awkward cough*) 

So without further ado, let's get this tutorial up and running. I'll try to keep it as simple as possible for you guys, as I know myself how baffling it can be when a 'simple' brow tutorial video results in us requiring ten different products, a skilled eyebrow threader as a mate and the tears of five infertile nuns. 

(By the way, Laur isn't contributing to the article as she doesn't appreciate the fine art of good eyebrows. Jokes, she just doesn't like drawing them on) 

Step 1: Remove any excess hair. Good news for anyone with hideous natural brows like me: To achieve this look, it helps if your eyebrows are really, really thin. 

A very rare picture of my natural brows

On the right, you will see a rare picture of my natural eyebrow as an example. See how there's barely any hair? This is because the less hair there is, the easier it is to create your own shape without having to follow lines from hair that is already there. Basically, if you have a lot of eyebrow hair, you will have to draw around the all the hair, which for me, gave me the appearance of having wide, chunky and unnatural slug eyebrows. (Before any make up artists or people who are overprotective of their eyebrows start kicking off, there is nothing wrong with having big eyebrows, I just find that this look looks better with thinner ones). 

You can get rid of eyebrow hair by plucking, waxing, or threading. For wimps like me, there are eyebrow shavers out there which only cost a tenner or so, however your hair does grow back pretty fast so I find that I am shaving them once every week or so. 

My brows when they've been outlined

Step 2: Outline your brows. For my brows, I swear by Maybelline brow satin eyebrow pencil in dark brown to give me my shape and colour. This is the ONLY product that I use (hallelujah) and costs something like a fiver from your local drugstore. Not only that, but the quality is amazing, and my brows stay the same all day, even in our horrific British weather!

Firstly, I will draw the shape of my brows, mainly following the lines from my natural brows. At this point, you don't want to be pressing on too hard as the colour will be too thick and dark, which may be difficult to master at first for people like me who tend to be clumsy and heavy handed (keep on trying, guys!). 

When it comes to drawing the arch, I will always draw above the natural line of my eyebrow. This is because my eyebrows naturally do not have much of an arch in them; however if yours do then you may not have to draw the arch so high above your natural brow line like me! 

Step 3: Shade, shade, shade. Here comes the fun part: the shading! Although there is a special powder nib on the other side of the pen which is specially for shading, I tend not to use this as it makes the brows look quite thick and dark, which isn't the look that I go for. 

To shade, I will continue to use the pen to lightly colour in the middle of my brows in between the two lines I have drawn, again not pressing on too hard. When it comes to the front parts of my eyebrows (closest to my nose) I won't shade these parts at all, which gives them a nice natural look instead of appearing chunky. 

Step 4: Perfecting (optional). If you're feeling particularly outgoing, you can grab some white eye-shadow 

I had to cover my nose- it likes to take centre stage

and lightly dab it on underneath the arch of your brows, which highlights the area and will make your brows appear more lifted. 

So that's it, there's not much to it when you get the hang of it. If you don't grasp it right away, I can't stress how important it is to keep on trying! Practice makes perfect, and to back this point up, I'll end this article with an old pic of me so you can see an example of what my brows used to look like (cringe). 

To each and every one of you reading this, if you found this tutorial particularly helpful, let me know and there'll be more like this in the future!

Emma x

Laura: Well, here it is... the long awaited first food post! Just to make everyone clear- me and Em aren't chefs. As students, we don't have the time or money to be buying ingredients for complicated recipes and spending hours perfecting them, as much as we'd like to. About as adventurous I get right now, food-wise, is making mine and Em's specialty: Cajun chicken pasta (which we will post the recipe for in the future), but even that isn't wow-she-can-really-cook amazing. 

So our food posts will be less of a how to make this complicated recipe tutorial, and more of a little window into the delicious, mouth-watering foods me and Em eat on a daily basis. Most of the dishes we'll post are really easy to make, but if not, we'll always offer an alternative way to make them without blowing the budget. So prepare to feel hungry! 

For this post, I thought  I'd share with you one of my favourite breakfast/dessert foods that honestly tastes like heaven on a plate- these blueberry and whipped cream pancakes that I sampled at The Pudding Pantry in Nottingham.

I feel so lucky to live in a city and be surrounded by so many tempting food outlets, and the Pudding Pantry has quickly become one of my favourites. It offers a whole range of pancakes, from maple syrup and bacon to caramel and ice cream, but I chose blueberry and whipped cream and wasn't disappointed. 

I dipped my pancakes in the blueberry compote and whipped cream, which was the perfect mix of flavours- the zingy, slightly sour blueberry compote bought out the sweetness of the cream and stopped the dish from being too sickly. 

Ever since visiting the Pudding Pantry, I've been longing to go back and eat my meal all over again, but at just over £5 per dish, I've instead come up with a less expensive alternative. The ingredients you need for one person are shop bought pancakes, a tub of fresh double cream, a handful of blueberries, and sugar.

Once you have your ingredients, all you need to do is empty the tub of cream into a mixing bowl and whisk with an electric whisk for less than a minute- the cream should thicken immediately. 

Then, for the blueberry compote (the most difficult part), empty the blueberries into a saucepan with 1 tablespoon of water and 1 tablespoon of sugar. Cook on a low heat for 10 minutes. Add a dash more water if your compote isn't liquid enough, and an extra pinch of sugar if you have a sweet tooth.

Once your dips are finished, toast the pancakes for a couple of minutes in the toaster until crispy and browned around the edges. 

And that's it, you're all done! Presentation is entirely up to you- you can pour the blueberry compote all over the pancakes and follow up with a good helping of the whipped cream, or you could take the more organized approach and put each dip into a little serving pot. However you do it, this recipe does not disappoint and almost tastes as good as the real thing.

Laura x

Emma: Hi guys, it's Emma here! I thought I'd kick off our blog with a post about what it's like for me and Laur to date guys and how being a twin affects this. This is very significant to us at the minute as we both have a boyfriend and there's plenty of crazy myths and assumptions circling round about what it's actually like.

One of our lazy nights

Just as a brief overview, I'll tell you a little bit about my boyfriend, Ryan. We've been together for just over a year and a half now after we met at our job at Alton Towers. About 50 other people got together at Towers as well but we're pretty much the last couple standing (seriously guys, if you're British and looking for love, Towers is the place to be).

Ryan is 23 and lives on his own in a nice modern flat close to my house, though technically I'm there so often that he hasn't got much time to feel lonely! He's weird and crazy, which means we fit together like a jigsaw puzzle; we share so many inside jokes together that everyone must think we're mad. 

Although we have our differences, we both love to travel, eat out and visit new places so we're lucky to have a hell of a lot of adventures together (I'll tell you guys more about these in the future). I'm going to pass my laptop over to Laura for a second so she can enlighten you guys about her boyfriend, Brad. Seeya! 

Laura: So, what can I tell you about me and Brad's relationship? I suppose I should start with the thing that causes most people to raise their eyebrows judgmentally when I tell them (which is also on our bio, if you've read it)- me and Brad met in a club on a night out. 

We don't look like this all the time, I promise...

I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a liiittle bit on the tipsy side when I first saw him. I was pulling my best moves on the dance floor, Uptown Funk was blasting from the speakers, and I was having a great time.

My confident side that really comes out when I'm not quite sober came out, and when he smiled at me, I gestured him over. I guess the rest is history! 

People always say no guy you meet on a night out is worth your time, but Brad managed to prove them all wrong. He's honest, silly, sweet and caring, and now he's in my life, I don't know what I'd do without him.

We have an insane amount of things in common, and I'm still finding myself surprised at discovering another little trait we both share, or something we both adore. 

The main thing that sets Brad out from other guys to me is his passion for things; he wants to go places in life instead of sitting on his backside working nine-to-five in a job he doesn't really like but sticks at because "it pays the bills". And, of course, he shares my dream of moving to California with me at some point in the future, so he's a keeper!



Emma: Separate relationships aside, the real reason you're reading this post is to find out what it's like having a boyfriend when you're a twin, and we're here to tell you. First, the positives:

There's always someone to double date with

As cheesy as it sounds, there's nothing better than double dating with the twin and her boyf. As me and Ryan are always out for meals (we practically live at Pizza Hut) it's nice to have some more company every so often, as it is usually a chance for me to catch up with Laur about how uni is going, and for her to ask me about my job. It helps that both Brad and Ryan are super friendly so we all find it easy to chat and have a laugh together. 

There's always someone to help you through the tough times in your relationship 


And who better to relate to you than your own twin? No relationship is perfect, so when me and Ryan have the odd fall out (or vice versa with Laura and Brad) it's helpful to have someone to talk to about what to do. Some people have their best friend; I have Laur. Being able to talk to my twin about these things is super fab as I know that she will always be honest, even if it means her turning to me and saying 'Em, you have acted like a crazy psycho b*tch'. 


Laura: But, like everything, being in a relationship as a twin has its downsides. I don't mean the relationships threatening sort; most of them are actually pretty humorous. So here are a few negatives me and Em have experienced so far:
Sometimes you get really concerned that they've mistaken you for your twin.

Em's ex (he who shall not be named) once walked up to me with the lovey-dovey expression he used for her on his face and I thought, 'oh God, I'm for it now'. I panicked, wondering if it would be more awkward for me to point out my true identity, or to just suck it up and accept the kiss I knew was coming my way. Instead, I acted distracted by something else until Em saved the day and made an appearance. 

Luckily, Brad has never made any accidental advances at Em so far! But if he saw her on her own without me, would things be different? Possibly so. To be honest, I'd probably find it really funny if it happened.

There's an unspoken competition over who can get the first boyfriend.

And Em definitely won this one. She had two boyfriends before I even had a proper relationship! 

Before I met Brad, I genuinely felt as if I was going to be single forever, and I couldn't understand why Em seemed to be getting all the luck. But I guess it was just spending the entire of high school labeled 'the twins' that made us more of a novelty than actual human beings at the time, and it only took splitting us up at college to allow us to branch out a bit. That's when people began to notice I actually existed, anyway. 

So if there is anyone out there who's 18 and never had a relationship, don't worry- that was me not long ago! Relationships are so random and that's why some people go through so many, whereas others don't even have the one until they're a bit older. And I always say that the longer you wait, the more chance you have of Mr Right coming along the first time.


You worry that they find your twin more attractive. 

This was definitely my case at the start of my relationship with Brad, back when I was still self-conscious and trying not to act too weird in case I scared him off. 

I've always thought Em was prettier with me (she has a smaller nose for a start- so unfair!) and like I mentioned before, she'd already had two boyfriends by the time I'd met Brad, whereas all I'd had was something you couldn't even call a relationship a few months before.

When Brad met Em, my inner voice was yelling: "He's going to find her more attractive!" If he'd found me attractive, and Em is, in my opinion, my prettier double, surely he'd find her even more so? But apparently not, as according to Brad, me and Em 'don't even look similar'. Which, to be honest, is the sort of answer I'd hope he'd give truthfully. 

So there you have it- the positives and negatives of being a twin in a relationship. There are probably plenty more that we missed, and more that will come over the years, but hopefully that gave you guys some sort of idea of what it's like to date as a twin. So long for now,

Emma and Laura x

Laura: Hey guys, I'm writing this at a very exciting time for me and Em as we've decided to start a blog! It's something we've both wanted to do for a while and we thought it made sense to make one together so our readers have the novelty of experiencing a blog written by identical twins (and we do virtually everything else together, so it made sense to do this. Plus, I knew Em would only go moody with me if I made one without her).

Our bio on the right pretty much sums up what to expect from our blog. We're lifestyle bloggers, which is basically what it says on the tin- we'll give you a peek into our (not so) glamorous lives, from our daily routines to our struggles with mental health and everything in between, not forgetting our opinion on everything from makeup products to nose jobs. 

Then, of course, because we're twins, you should expect the occasional twin post, about what it's like being one half of the same egg. Whether we've pranked anyone, the craziest things we've done together, what it was like going to high school as a twin... expect it all.

Our posts will usually be written by both of us, which is why I'll pass on to Em to have her say now (like I said, she would not be impressed if I took over). But just to let you know, we'll always begin our posts with our name, so you know who's talking when.

Emma: Hi guys, It's Emma here, writing my part of our first post of hopefully many more to come! Me and Laur are both super excited to be writing a blog together and being able to showcase our passion for writing, moaning, giving advice and maybe even teaching things.

Being a twin for 18 years, it's actually hard to remember that we're different from other sisters, and walking down the street to all the stares from passers by has become so normal to us that we don't even notice it any more. 

It does help that we have different coloured hair! I dyed mine dark brown, from our ash-brown original colour, so long ago that I can't even remember when it was now, and Laur dyed hers blonde soon after. We did it partly so that people would stop confusing us on such a major level, but it just so happened that hair colour was something we actually disagreed on- I've always wanted to be a proper brunette and Laur has always fancied being a blonde (bimbo jokes aside, it really suits her). 

This blog is like so many other blogs out there; there are so many amazing lifestyle blogs I've seen already, but with one exception: it's managed and written by identical twins (us!). So if anyone out there is curious about the day-to-day life of being a twin, this blog is a little window into our personal lives, from the highest of the highs, to our lowest points- we will share all.

Well, that marks the end of our first post! We look forward to getting to know you all soon.

Emma and Laura x