This weekend, my boyfriend Nathan and I celebrated our 7 year anniversary together in Edinburgh. This trip was a gift from Nathan's mum for Christmas who had sorted everything, even all our travel arrangements.

So on Friday morning we set off on our little weekend away in Scotland :) 

I've only ever been to Edinburgh once and that was on a high school art trip when I was 15years old, so many, MANY moons ago. (almost 10 years, WHAT?!)

We had such a lovely weekend! My parents had booked us onto the city sightseeing bus tour, which takes you round the city on a lovely double decker bus. This was great as there are a lot of hills in Edinburgh and on the Saturday we wanted to spend the day walking round the castle. 

It was beautiful. Scotland is beautiful. We had a fabulous weekend.

It's hard to really sum up the weekend, so i'll share some of my photos with you instead :) 

Can't believe we have been together for SEVEN YEARS. SEVEN! As they say, time flies when you're having fun ^__^ <3

Hello my beautiful fellow Blogees! 

Thought I would dedicate this post to all things face and what I use when i'm cleaning, cleansing and prepping my skin. This is something that tends to change quite regularly because i'm yet to discover a perfect regime for my skin type. 

I have such a love/hate relationship with my skin. It tends to get dry rough patches and I also suffer with redness on my cheeks, chin and nose. Though i'm really fortunate that i've never had any issues with spots even when I was a teenager (when I do get them, it's one or two big ones, but I consider myself extremely lucky that outbreaks weren't an issue.)

EXFOLIATION REGIME:

My skin, just like me, is very sensitive. It doesn't take much to irritate it. I luckily don't suffer with spots, but dry, rough patches is a problem. The best face wash/exfoliator i'm currently using is Clean & Clear Morning Energy Skin Energising Daily Facial Scrub. I've used a few others and found that they only made my face feel worse (including one from Soap and Glory, which gave me a rather ugly, bumpy rash.) so to find one that works is amazing.

I love this stuff. It's really gentle, which for someone who suffers blotchy red skin it's really good. Afterwards my face feels SO soft and really smooth. It smells amazing too and in the morning the fresh scent really wakes you up.  It says it's so gentle you can use it everyday, but I stick to once every 2 days because my skin is so sensitive! 

Price: £2.39 from Boots but is also available in supermarkets.

REDNESS SOLUTIONS REGIME

This is a long description, apologies!

Clinique supply an amazing line of Redness Solutions products. (View the blog that includes their Redness Solutions Foundation I did in December.)

What you can see here: Daily Relief Cream, Soothing Cleanser & Mild Clarifying Lotion (which actually isn't part of the Redness Solutions range, I was conned into buying this item.)

I didn't go into Debenhams that day expecting to come out with 5 products (these three, my foundation and the Protective Base - the only two things I actually had in mind). Now, I know it's their job to make you buy as much as possible... and to an extent I fell for it. It cost me a LOT of money. There was probably no reason for me to have all these and for about 6 months I didn't bother using them, especially the clarifying lotion as it wasn't anything to do with combating redness. It was only a few months ago when I decided to start using them as a regime. 

I wish I had just given it more of a chance to begin with.

The Daily Relief Cream helps sooth my cheeks when they flair up. My skin might not particularly sore, but it can feel hot and this helps calm and sooth. I use this twice a day. (Price: £39.00 for 50ml from Debenhams)

The Soothing Cleanser is great in the morning and at night - once i've removed my make-up I gently lather this up and wash my face. It helps remove any left over makeup and keeps my redness down.  (Price: £18.00 for 150ml from Debenhams)

The Mild Clarifying Lotion is the final step in the mornings. Simply just sweep it across my face with cotton wool after cleansing. I particularly use this on the dry patches that randomly show up on my face, especially round my nose. (Price: £16.50 for 200ml from Debenhams)

In all. This range is great but it's expensive, so if you're serious about sticking to this regime you have to be willing to part with a large amount of money! 

MOISTURISER

Now, I couldn't take a photo of this because i've just realised i've ran out, so this stock image is from Boots! This is Clean & Clear Dual Action Moisturiser. Clean & Clear are so amazing.

As far as moisturisers go, this dual action one is definitely one of the best i've used in a long time. You literally only need a pea sized amount on your skin, so the tube will last you at least 2 months (unless like me you share with your sister haha.) 

I just love how smooth and soft my skin feels! It really helps tackle the nasty blemishes on my skin and if you're prone to spot break outs this will clear it right up. Makeup easily glides on my skin after i've used this. 

Now, I don't have issues with spots, but unfortunately my sister does - when she uses this moisturiser she doesn't have ANY problems with bad break outs. The only time she gets bad spot breakouts is when we have run out and can't get any for like a week. Seriously such an amazing moisturiser, can't recommend this enough! 

Price: £2.98 from Boots. 

What are your favourites? Do you use any of these i've listed - if you do, what do you think?  

Hello Blogger friends!

I hope you're prepared to see some pretty interesting hairstyles!

Firstly:

Thank you so much to Char for the inspiration to post this.

I loved her hair timeline, so wanted to create my own.

Please make sure you go take a look at Char's hair history post, too :)

This evolution takes you through the journey my hair seems to have taken

since 2004, when I was just 13/14 years old.

2004:

^ Just before I began my hair dying years. This is just natural hair

(and eyebrows - Eep!) 

2005:

^ Decided to get my hair into a bob and a fringe that covered my eyes.

(This was an MSN pic - LOL the cringe)

Spring 2006:

All photographs in this blog post are mine and © Rachel Victoria Photography

I've mentioned it once or twice already during this blog, but I thought maybe it was time to go into a little more depth about what I do and why I LOVE it so much.

The hardest decision I think I have ever made was starting up my own business, from scratch, straight after graduating from university. I wasn't completely clueless when I made this choice, for the past couple of years I had been an assistant for a photographer, so I was learning so much. 

I had been doing portraits for family members for a few years, which was really fun. Weddings are a completely different ball game. The days a long, you barely get a break and there's a LOT of pressure to get it right - but I absolutely LOVE it. If you go back 2 years I never would have thought I had the confidence to ever do a wedding.

What is there not to enjoy about a wedding? You get to spend an entire day surrounded by happiness and love all day long. Especially the bride at home moments, which is the first glance you get into the day. Any nerves i'm feeling during this moment melt away once I see the bride and her girls all excited and getting ready. What reason do I possibly have to be nervous? 

I love capturing all the tiny little details during this time, like the bride's hands, makeup application and even toenail painting - as well as the dress and shoes. For me all these tiny details are kinda overlooked, but are still part of the day!

Each wedding is so different, even though the formalities are always the same. That's something I really enjoy, as every one is unique. That's also something I try to bring into my style of shooting. The way I shoot now is very candid and natural, trying to give the impression of somebody looking in on a very special moment instead of setting up moments. I feel that taking a step backwards from the day can create some really special, organic moments - it's hard to feel natural when someone is shoving a huge lens in your face all day.

Here's a little selection of a few of my favourite Newly Wed Portraits after the ceremony :)