What's in my bag?

I bought this bag last week online in the sale from New Look after spotting it in the shop. The minute I saw it, I fell in love with it! It's so cute and I've always wanted a little backpack like this! I think this goes with almost all of my outfits too! The fact that this one is silver metallic is just so dreamy! Weird fact: I like to give my bags names and I've named this backpack spaceboy after one of my favourite Smashing Pumpkins songs ;)

So what exactly is in my bag? Let's find out...

I make sure that I always take my phone and my purse in my bag as they're essentials.This is one of my all time favourite purses and I got it a few years ago from River Island.
Next up, I have my Kindle and my Marilyn Monroe compact. I only bought the kindle last week as I'm such a book worm now! I can't believe I used to live life without a Kindle.
I always make sure I carry my lipsticks with me as I cannot live without lipstick. I always have a MAC lipstick with me. I don't usually wear lipgloss but I just bought this one today. Rimmel's lasting concealer is always in my bag. It's my favourite ever concealer and I recommend it to everyone!
The lastest addition to my bag is this Narciso Rodriquez perfume. This is my all time favourite perfume ever! I'm no good at describing perfumes so go give it a sniff! It stays on for hours and it just smells so beautiful!

What do you all have in your bags this summer? 

x x x

Saturday at the Beach

Today we took a trip to Ainsdale Beach. I love going the beach and Ainsdale is an amazing place to go to and relax. Even though the weather was so windy, I still had a really nice time! I was so cold though that I was wearing two jackets and I was still freezing - some summer this is! Hopefully it will be sunnier when we're on the beach in Devon in a few weeks for our holiday!

 I actually wanted to get some pictures of mine and Leah's outfits and our new hair! But obvioulsy our hair was just blowing everywhere. My hair is purple pink but it's kind of washing out right now. Leah has the ends of her hair dyed blue and I just think it looks amazing.

This was my Marilyn Manson t-shirt's second outting. You can't really see it on the pictures but I'll definitely do a ootd post on it soon. I love Marilyn Manson and me and Leah are actually going to see him in concert in November. I'm so excited and I'm already planning my outfit, ha!

Love Rachel, x

Visiting London & Seeing Korn!

The most exciting thing ever happened last Thursday! Me and Rachel went to see Korn in London. Not only had we never been to London before but our favourite band were playing the whole of their dubut album in it's entirety to celebrate the 20th anniversary! No words can describe how excited we were to see Korn but also, it turned into a mini adventure of London too!

We arrived in London on Thursday 16th July, the day of the concert. I was so surprised at how busy London is, I don't think I could live there. Plus, it was SO hot in London. We live in Liverpool but down south seems to have a completely different weather system! Enough about the weather now because then we went to the concert. It was at the o2 Brixton Academy, quite a small venue and the queue to get inside was outside the door and around the building! Everyone there (well, most people) had piercings, dreadlocks, long hair, band t-shirts and crazy coloured hair. KORN WAS AMAZING. Best show I've ever been to and me and Rachel were literally screaming out asses off, haha! We're the ultimate fangirls and with Korn being our favourite band - it was too much to handle!

The next day we went to see the crown jewels and went on a little boat trip around London. It was such a lovely trip and needless to say, going to London has definately made me want to travel more. Traveling isn't too bad when you've got coffee to help you through it!

Have you ever been to London?

Leah & Rachel, x

Lifestyle | Reasons Why We Love Eating Clean!

I couldn't find a picture so I just took this from our instagram.

''Eating Clean'' is something I NEVER thought I'd get into. I was never one for baking and to be honest, I didn't really think healthy food could actually taste nice. Whenever I'd read about someone eating fruit, eating 'clean' and drinking smoothies all day and actually enjoying it, I thought it was madness! But to be honest, I always felt disgusting and guilty after eating food out of packets, even if they claimed to be healthy foods.

Then one day we discovered an amazing healthy eating blog called Chocolate Covered Katie. Her blog is mainly a healthy dessert blog but she has recipes for gorgeous smoothies, pancakes recipes, oatmeal ideas and even healthy side dishes. I wanted to try something new so I couldn't wait to start baking! Chocolate Covered Katie has the most amazing recipes and they are so easy to follow! The first recipe we baked was Chocolate Peanut Butter Bites! Oh my god, they taste like snickers but better!

Here are some reasons why we love clean eating:
♥ We now make every meal and snacks so now we know exactly what goes into our food.
♥ Everything we make leaves us feeling full which is unbelievable. I was almost always hungry before clean eating.
♥ Smoothies our are new favourite drinks! They taste like heaven in a cup! My favourite one right now is peanut butter, avocado and banana, mmm. 
♥ There are so many amazing recipes to make! They are all full of favour too.
♥ Because everything we bake is low in calories we can eat all day, ahah.
♥ We can all all of our favourite foods but they're healthy. They actually taste better.
♥ I feel a lot more comfortable in my own skin now :)
♥ Eating more healthy is really helping my low mood. I feel more happy within myself.
♥ My hair, skin and nails are feeling and looking better. 
♥ It's so fun to bake! 

The benefits to clean eating are endless! Here are some of my favourite recipe blogs so you can start baking and eating clean!
♥ Chocolate Covered Katie - Katie's blog was the first blog that we discovered and I think it will always be my favourite. I click on her blog atleast 1000 times a day to try out all of her amazing recipes!
♥ Fit Foodie Finds - There are so many amazing recipes, especially the over night oats!
♥ The Big Man's World - I love the rice pudding recipes and no bake bars.
♥ Laurenda Marie - I love the honey cinnamon overnight oats and there are even face mask ideas!

There are so many amazing blogs out there but the ones above are my favourites. They have so many recipes and I honestly cannot wait to try them all out! We have both found a new found love in baking! The five foods I'd take to heaven would be peanut butter, bananas, oats, smoothies and curry flavoured sweet potato wedges! Honestly, I'm in love with peanut butter (obsessed)!! This has changed my whole life for the better.

Would you ever eat clean? Are you going to try out some healthy recipes?

Love Rachel & Leah, x

Here's The Moon Asking To Stay | First Tattoo!

 Introducing my first ever tattoo, the cutest little smiling moon man on my left wrist. I had this done a couple of weeks ago but could only put a post up now as it's only just fully healed. I absolutely love it! Obviously, getting a tattoo is a daunting thing as it's going to be etched on your skin forever but I knew I needed some sort of moon tattooed on me. I've always been obsessed with the outer-space theme! My moon tattoo is better than I expected! I couldn't of asked for a cuter little face on my moon tattoo. I love the detail, the shading and the slightly bumpy lines so the moon looks vintage. I look at him whenever I feel alone or upset.

It didn't take long at all, probably around 30 minutes if that! and I didn't know what to expect when it came to the tattoo pain but I deal with needles and pain quite well, haha! I actually didn't find this painful at all, rather a hot scratch. Either way, I am SO pleased with my tattoo and I definitely want more already!

Have you got any tattoos?

Leah,x

1000 Followers | Facts About Us!

As we reached 1000 followers on bloglovin! we wanted our followers to know more about the bloggers behind Beyond The Velvet! Thank you to everyone that follows and reads our blog, it means so much to us as this blog means a lot to us. We've always wanted to blog but it wasn't until August last year that we finally started to blog. Since then we have fallen in love with blogging and couldn't imagine not having a blog! Thank you for following and all of your lovely comments mean everything to us!

Here are some facts about us! 

• We're identical twins.
• Rachel was born 10 minutes before Leah.
• Leah is taller even though she is the youngest.
• We're best friends and we hardly ever fight or argue :)
• We have an older sister called Caroline.
• We love listening to Rock music and heavy metal!
• If we had to choose, Alice In Chains, Korn, Slipknot and Pantera are our favourite bands but is so many great bands out there that we're obsessed with!
• Jonathan Davis (singer from Korn) actually liked our picture (of us!!) on instagram. I literally died. I love you so much Jon! I can't believe he's saw our faces and knows we exist ahaha.
• We play guitar, drums and bass guitar. 
• We were homeschooled since the age of 15 because we were bullied in school. 
• We're both very shy and suffer with social anxiety.
• We smoke the odd cigarette, haha.
• We're aiming to dye our hair every colour of the rainbow (semi-permanent of course!)
• We love the sun and summer.
• We're addicted to Coffee!
• We like to think our style is differnet to the norm. We love anything lace, velvet, vintage, goth and grunge.
• The Walking Dead is just the best show ever! I love The Following too!
• We love accessories and everything with a pentagram on it is just dreamy.
• Leah has a tattoo and we're planning on getting some more soon.
• My favourite lipstick right now is 'Diva' lipstick from MAC.
• We've saw Korn and Slipknot in concert and we're seeing Korn again in July this year! To say we're excited is an understatment!
• Our favourite films is 'Some Like It Hot' 
• Marilyn Monroe is one of our idols.
• Putting makeup on is such a chore but I can never have a day off!
• We want very long hair, so long that we can sit on it!
• I love my little furbaby more than life itself! My little Heidi is just the cutest and I love her so much. My sister's dog Megan is also so cute and loving. I really don't know what I'd do without my dogs in my life. 
• We love, love, love drawing. Art is just so fun and relaxing but it is very frustrating at times.
• I have too much makeup.
• We're both addicted to buying lipstick.
• We're the biggest fan girls you'll ever meet, haha. 

Well, hope that wasn't too boring haha. Thanks for reading and I hope your all having a great Easter Sunday if you are celebrating.

Got any facts about yourself that you'd want to share? We'd love to know :)

Love Rachel & Leah, x x x

March 2015 Favourites & Life Lately

Yay, our blog reached 1000 followers yesterday! Thank you everyone that reads our little blog. Creating Beyond The Velvet has been one of the best things we have done in a long time and we love writing it. Thank you everyone for following our blog, it means so much to us!
March was a good month for spending our money on things that we didn't really need but every girl needs to treat herself once in a while, haha. Let's have a look at our favourites for last month!

We bought our mum Makeup Revolution's Ultra Blush Palette - £6 (full review here) for Mother's day and she let us share it with her. Neither of us have owned a blush palette before but all of the colours are so pretty in this palette and perfect for spring and summer. I especially love the highlighting shades and this palette has some darker blushes for all the contouring junkies out there! We're also loving Shop Moon Child! Shop Moon Child sell gorgeous jewellery with a mystic gothy vibe and I couldn't help but buy the Cosmic Chain Choker - £4.99 (full review here). This choker is so unique and I love the different coloured stones.

We bought Maybelline's Lash Sensational Lash Multiplying Mascara - £7.99 a few weeks ago after hearing so many good things about it and it has definitely lived up to the hype! This mascara is just like Benefit's Roller Lash mascara which is double the price of Lash Sensational mascara. After being sent Yves Rocher products we have fallen in love with the brand, especially the Serum Vegetal Night Cream - £21* (full review here). I have really noticed a difference in my skin since using this night cream as my skin looks hydrated, moisterised and so much clearer! As a complete lipstick junkie, I need to added L'Oréal Paris Color Riche Lipstick - 703 Oud Obsession which is a true 90's inspired lipstick!

This colour is my dream nail polish. I'm a fan of Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Nail Colours - £6.99. Red Zin is the perfect red shade. I've been wearing this polish for a few days and it's hardly chipped. The colour is so intense and pigmented. I love the look of this polish too as it looks so glossy and almost gel like.

My new favourite eyeshadow palette is Yves Rocher Quad Eyeshadow Sumptuous Colour - £12.50 in Red-hot brown. The shadows are so easy to apply and are really pigmented. There is also no drop out during the day and they are so long lasting without creasing.These eyeshadows create the perfect smokey eye look. I will do a full review later on this month :) Yves Rocher are such an amazing brand!

☾ Life: Leah got here first ever tattoo! It's a small half moon on her wrist and she's so in love with it. It's so perfect and will definitely do a post on it soon but you can see it on our instagram :) We're both going to get 'twin' tattoos and we can't wait! Life had been pretty boring lately other than feeling super shit and down about things haha sorry to be depressing!

☾ Music: My love for Alice In Chains is stronger than ever and I'm constantly listening to 'Dirt'. That album is just perfection.

☾ Watching: The Following is finally back on again and I'm obsessed, especially as Joe has came back in it again. We've both started watching The Walking Dead and as you can probably tell, we're both obsessed. We're now watching season 3 and oh my god Daryl is just amazing. I'm so inlove with him ❤ We're also watching Bates Motel which is just amazing!!

☾ Reading: I'm so tired I can barely keep my eyes open to read before I go to sleep but I'm reading the 'Fallen' series. I'm still undecided about these books but I just need to know what the hell happens at the end, haha, x

What are your favourites from last month?

Love Rachel & Leah, x

Our Top 10 Tips On How To Relax

Life is pretty stressful, don't you agree? Suffering with depression and anxiety, I often forget how to relax. Relaxing is such a nice thing to do and I love nothing more than getting all cosy before bed and watching some T.V to calm down. Here are my top tips on how to relax!

• Be kind to yourself. If you want to stay in all day and watch films, you should do that! Having a lazy day is perfectly fine.
• Listen to your favourite music! Nothing helps me more than my favourite songs when I feel stressed. 
• Sit down and have your favourite drink. My favourite is Coffee. I swear I'm addicted! Having a hot drink always helps me relax.
• Pamper nights! Need I say more? I love pampering by doing my nails my favourite shade of red, putting on a face mask and exfoliating to make my skin better!
• Watching my favourite T.V shows always helps me feel so much better. I LOVE ''The Walking Dead'', ''The Following'' and ''Bates Motel''. Okay, might not be the most relaxing shows on at the moment but I'm obsessed.
• Watching Youtube videos. I love watching hair video's especially! I've been watch 90's inspired hairstyles lately and really loving them.
• Reading books and drawing always helps me feel peaceful. Reading before bed is just the best.
• Lighting some scented candles. I can't remember the last time I lit a candle but oh well, it seems really relaxing to me haha!
• Taking a short walk outside in the fresh air always clears my mind. I can't wait until Summer though. Short walks in the cold weather doesn't sound too appealing!
• Pyjamas and cuddles with your pet. Nothing is better than a cuddle with a dog :)

I hoped you liked this post! What do you like to do to relax?

Leah, x

Happy Mothers Day Mum!

This is going to be a small post dedicated to our beauiful mum because it's Mothers Day! We want to say Happy Mothers day to the best mum in the whole wide world. Me and Rachel are best friends with our mum and there are no words to even describe how our mum helps us through the bad times. She always cheers us up when we're sad and is there when we're happy too! Mum is the most loving, caring person and beautiful inside and out! Even if she is annoying when we're watching The Following or The Walking Dead and keeps on screaming in horror, haha! But she is always there, no matter what! & needless to say, we both love her to bits! We'd be lost without mum and I hope she knows how much we love her!

Mum, Leah, Rachel on a boat trip too many years ago

Happy Mothers Day, Mum! P.s, I just want to say to anyone out there that doesn't have a close relationship with their mum or has lost their Mother, I hope you have a lovely day no matter what and celebrate yourself instead! :)

We know our mum will read this post as she is the biggest fan of our little blog! 
Love Leah and Rachel, x

Things We Have Learnt This Week!

Hello everyone! Me and Rachel thought we would write a little post on things we have learnt this week. We've made some big steps with out confidence and anxiety so I'm going to share what's been happening lately.

Things We Have Learnt This Week -
1. Not all people are horrible. Okay, might sound stupid but we were bullied so badly in school that I actually hated people and I had to be homed schooled due to anxiety. I thought everyone was going to pick on me, laugh at me, hate me for being quiet for the rest of my life. It was so sad and I remember sitting aalone by myself all the time. Even now I have no friends because of my anxiety but for the past couple of weeks, I've realised not all people are going to be horrible to me. Most people are quite nice actually, haha! But I've been trying to be more social lately but going to drum lessons and talking more with others has made me realise that I've got to leave the past behind and move on with life. I can't let people that bullied me in school ruin how we both live now!

2. Social Anxiety gets better! Both me and Rachel never thought we'd go to drum lessons because I thought I'd die of a panic attack before I actually got in the room to learn. Oh, and because I don't have much experience with talking, I had no idea how to have a converstaion with someone! But guess what? We did it and now we're going to get some extra lessons on guitar! Once my social anxiety was so bad I never went outside the house but now I finally feel like me and Rach are getting more social. Obviously we suffer still but it gets better.

3. Buying clothes after not buying anything for a while is the best feeling ever. Before this week, I couldn't even the remember the last time I bought some clothes. But then I went on ASOS and broke my buying restriction and now I want to go crazy buying clothes haha! Clothes make me feel better though. The best therapy is retail therapy!

4. Cuddles with my dog Heidi cure sadness. My little Beagle/Jack Russell Heidi is our best friend in the whole entire world and no matter how low I feel, my little girl is always there for me and makes me laugh. And my older sister's dog, Megan, is such a great little comfort too!

5. Listening to 'softer' music is great too! We have both spent ages listening to rock/metal and of course, I listen to rock music ALL THE TIME. But Slipknot, Korn, Pantera aren't always relaxing when you feel anxious haha. I mean, they are my favourite bands - especially when I'm angry but I love listening to this band called Incubus too when I need music a little more rock than angry metal :)

Hope you liked this post! Have you learnt anything this week? Who is looking forward to ''The Following'' starting up again tomorrow? I am!

Leah and Rachel. x

Things That Have Made Me Happy This Week

Rachel wearing MAC 'Diva' lipstick | Our four new MAC lipsticks! | Amazing tees in Topshop | Benefit mini skincare kit | Birthday necklace | Urban Outfitter's tie dye dress | Best friends Heidi & Megan | Leah wearing MAC 'Dubonnet' lipstick | Finally finished my Audrey Hepburn drawing!

As complete lipstick junkies, we went along to MAC on Sunday and bought four new lipsticks. The shades we bought were 'Diva, Spirit, Dubonnet and Spice it up!' We're gonna write a review on them all that should be up on the blog on Moday :)

Topshop have amazing tees in at the moment like this Megadeth one! Our birthday is coming up in February and my birthday necklace arrived and I can't believe how stunning it is. It's from Swarovski and it was luckily in the sale. This dress from Urban Outfitters was also in the sale and you can see it in our ootd post here. We're also testing out the Benefit skincare for the first time with this mini kit from ASOS. I'm so suprised at how amazing it as and it's definitely on my birthday wish list!

I'm also really happy because I finally finished my drawing of Audrey Hepburn's eyes! I'm still a newbie to art after not drawing for years but I'm really happy with how it turned out at the end! I also included a pic of Heidi & Megan. Megan is our older sister's dog and she's 11 years old. Meg is best friends with our dog Heidi and she's so happy to be staying over at our house for a week while her mum is on holiday!

We hope you all enjoyed this post as we're wanting to do more lifestyle posts on the blog! I hope you all had a great week and have a great weekend! 

Love Rachel & Leah, x

New Years Eve Walk & New Year's Resolutions

Happy New Year's eve everyone! I know many people are thinking this but can you believe it's going to be 2015 tomorrow? A new start and a new chapter for everyone. I hope everyone has a really nice day! I'm really going to make 2015 wayy more better than 2014. It's been a pretty tough year. So we both thought there would be nothing more relaxing than saying 'f*ck off' to this year than going on a nice winter walk to the park with our parents and doggies. I wanted to get a photograph of the dogs but they never stay still! They were both too busy slipping all over the icy pavements. Doesn't it all look so beautiful with the frost and the left over remains of snow on the ground? My favourite type of Winter weather.

We also thought we'd add in some quick New Year's resolutions for 2015. I never stick to these but I think it's still great to make them and have personal goals!

1. Don't hate on yourself so much. I know, me and Rachel are terrible for this and it's something I've never talked about on the blog before. We constantly pick on ourselves and sadly make ourselves feel worthless. We have very low self esteem because of being bullied in school I think. I think trying to boost our self esteem is going to be the best thing for us.

2. Continue art and guitar. I love being creative but obviously I can start losing focus. Especially with guitar - sometimes I want to smash it because I feel so frustrated learning it! But I want to make sure I keep on learning borth art and guitar because I do love it really. No matter how frustrating it might get!

3. To be more positive. I should probably say not to worry as much too. I swear my mind never stops torturing me and making me worry about things that don't matter/aren't true.

Have you made any New Year's Resolutions?

Leah and Rachel, x

Christmas Markets in Liverpool.

Can you believe it's Christmas next week? I can't! It seems like it's just came out of nowhere but I'm so excited. Looking around the Christmas markets are always the most perfect thing to do to get in the Festive spirit. So on Sunday we decided to do just that! It wasn't a nice day and it never stopped raining but I still enjoyed myself. I would have taken more photographs but the weather really was a let down! A Christmas market always comes to Liverpool and I love how much they add to the city. I think I'll be upset when they go come January. I think there used to be more stalls but there was still quite a lot to look at. Food, drink and seasonal items are the main attraction. There was a mulled wine stall, fudges, sweets and crafts stalls in the market. There really is something for everyone to enjoy while out Christmas shopping!

Christmas in Liverpool is amazing. This week we'll be going to town to see the Christmas lights too! So, we'll be hoping to write up a little post up on that too. I hope you liked this festive post. I hope you all have a great Christmas. 

Do you love the Christmas Markets?

Leah, x