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✨ Glow on a Budget: The Student’s Guide to affordable Skincare and Haircare

For many university students, maintaining a consistent beauty routine can seem like a luxury rather than a priority. Between lectures, late-night study sessions and part-time jobs, carving out time for self-care often falls to the bottom of the list. But the truth is, looking after your skin and hair doesn’t have to be complicated or expensive. With the right approach and a few smart choices, you can achieve a radiant look and feel confident every day, all while sticking to a student budget.

The Foundation of Radiance: Smart Skincare for Student Life

Skincare isn’t just about appearances—it’s about protecting your skin from environmental stressors, preventing breakouts, and fostering a sense of personal well-being. Establishing a consistent skincare routine is the most effective way to nurture your skin and no, it doesn’t require an arsenal of luxury products or ten complicated steps. Below is a simple step-by-step skincare routine with cheap recommendations for all the essentials.

Cleansing

A basic skincare routine begins with cleansing. For students juggling a hectic schedule, a gentle cleanser is both practical and essential. It helps remove dirt and oil without stripping the skin’s natural barrier. Micellar water is a great low-maintenance option, especially on nights when you’re too tired for a full skincare routine. We also love Cetaphil Gentle Skin Cleanser

Cetaphil Gentle Skin Cleanser is a dermatologist-developed formula that effortlessly removes makeup while being exceptionally gentle on your skin. This soap-free cleanser maintains your skin’s natural moisture balance and pH, leaving it soft and protected. Trusted by dermatologists for years, t’s fragrance-free, non-comedogenic, and suitable for all ages.

Moisturising

Moisturising follows cleansing and is crucial even for those with oily or acne-prone skin. Lightweight formulas that include ingredients like hyaluronic acid or glycerin are perfect for maintaining hydration throughout long campus days. A great moisturiser that delivers on hydration but won’t break the bank is Q+A Hyaluronic Acid Moisturiser.

Sunscreen

Perhaps the most often overlooked but critical step is sunscreen. Even on cloudy days or while working indoors it’s non-negotiable when it comes to daily skincare. But why? Not only does it protect your skin from the sun’s harmful rays, but it also helps to keep your skin looking more youthful for longer. Make sure to look for a broad-spectrum SPF that protects against UVA (the rays that age your skin) and UVB (the rays that can cause skin cancer) and wear SPF 30 as a minimum. It’s recommended to use two fingers’ worth of product to protect your face and neck – don’t forget those often-overlooked areas like your ears or your lips. Here is a list of the 10 best sun creams in the uk

Affordable, student-friendly brands like CeraVe, The Ordinary, and even Superdrug’s own skincare lines offer effective solutions to every skincare step for under £10. These products are often dermatologist-approved and focus on functionality rather than marketing frills. For example, The Ordinary’s niacinamide serum is widely praised for reducing inflammation and helping to control oil production—ideal for managing stress-induced breakouts.

Navigating the Ingredient Jungle

Understanding skincare ingredients is empowering. Instead of falling for the latest TikTok trends, you can make informed decisions based on specific skin type and concerns. Ingredients such as niacinamide are helpful for calming redness and boosting the skin’s barrier, while hyaluronic acid helps retain moisture without adding heaviness. Salicylic acid is beneficial for acne-prone skin, as it penetrates deep into pores to clear blockages and prevent breakouts. Vitamin C, meanwhile, is excellent for brightening dull complexions and fading pigmentation over time.

On the other hand, students should steer clear of alcohol-heavy toners and products with synthetic fragrances, especially if they have sensitive skin. These can strip the skin and cause irritation, exacerbating rather than solving skincare problems. Always remember to patch test new products—a simple yet often forgotten step that could prevent discomfort and inflammation.

To break this down we have created a handy chart below:

For those eager to dive deeper into ingredient knowledge, websites such as Paula’s Choice ingredient dictionary provide reliable, science-backed explanations of product labels.

Haircare Without the Hassle

While dry shampoo and top knots are staples of student style, your hair deserves just as much care as your skin. Over washing is one of the most common haircare mistakes, washing your hair two to three times a week is sufficient for most types and allows your scalp’s natural oils to maintain balance.

Heat protection is non-negotiable if you’re using straighteners or curlers. Just a few seconds of applying a heat shield spray can prevent long-term damage and keep your strands strong. Deep conditioning once a week can work wonders, especially during exam season when stress and lack of sleep take a toll on your overall health—including your hair.

DIY treatments

Can offer nourishment on a budget. A simple hair mask made from ingredients like coconut oil and honey can restore moisture, while a mixture of yoghurt and lemon is ideal for oily scalps. These natural remedies are not only affordable but also avoid the harsh chemicals often found in commercial products. Here are 13 at home treatments to try!

Styling

Styling your hair on a student budget doesn’t mean compromising on style. With smart choices and affordable tools, you can achieve versatile looks that are both trendy and wallet friendly. Below is a Pinterest board we created full of the best student friendly styling tips and hair styles.

Student Freindly Hair Styles Pinterest Board

The Power of Positive Beauty

Ultimately, beauty is about more than looking good—it’s about feeling empowered, confident, and ready to face the day. In a university environment where pressures can come from many directions, taking care of your skin and hair is a small but powerful act of self-care. It provides structure, encourages discipline, and boosts self-esteem.

📣 Your Turn: Share Your Tips!

Have a skincare product you swear by or a hair hack that saves your life on lecture days? Drop a comment below and share your best tips with fellow students. You can also link your favorite tutorials, product reviews or add your favorite styles to our public Pinterest board!

Study Tips

How to get a higher GPA ?

5th May 2025 jxuLeave a comment

For many college students, GPA is not only a number, but also an important threshold for scholarships, graduate school, further study abroad and even job hunting opportunities. However, in the face of the increasing pressure of coursework, it is not easy to improve GPA. In this blog post I summarize a set of practical strategies to help college students steadily improve their grades.

Understand the components and course weightings

Understanding the components of GPA and course weights To improve your GPA, it is important to first understand its components.GPA is not simply a grade point average, but is calculated according to the ‘credit weights’ of each subject. It is calculated according to the ‘credit weight’ of each subject. Different courses are graded in different ways. Some courses have a higher percentage at the end of the semester, while others are more focused on regular performance. It is important to be fully aware of these details in order to improve your grades more efficiently. It is recommended to prioritize your efforts on high-credit courses. These types of courses have the greatest impact on the overall GPA.

Develop a reasonable study plan

A clear, realistic study plan not only helps you organize your time efficiently, but also ensures that all your study tasks are completed in a limited amount of time. A proper plan can make reduce stress and provide you with a clear direction for your studies.

Pre-course pre-study: pre-course pre-study is often a part of studying that many people overlook, but it is, in fact, a key step in boosting your GPA. Through pre-study, you can understand the basic framework and content of the course before you formally listen to the class, so that it will be easier to follow the teacher’s thoughts in class, and you can also identify in advance what content is more difficult and worth focusing on.

Taking notes in class: Taking notes in class is a basic skill for many college students, but there is a big difference in effectiveness between doing it well and doing it poorly. Through effective note-taking, you can quickly organize the key points and difficulties explained in class into your own knowledge system, laying the foundation for subsequent review and in-depth understanding.

Review after class: Reviewing after class is an important part of boosting your GPA. Many people feel that they can “relax” after class, but in fact, if you don’t review in time, what you have learned will be easily forgotten. Research has shown that the brain forgets a lot of information within 24 hours of learning, and only through timely review can you effectively consolidate your memory.

Stage summarization: It is very important to conduct stage summarization on a regular basis. By summarizing, you can review the progress you have made, identify existing problems, and adjust your learning strategies in time.

Full utilization of resources

In our academic life is not only we alone in the fight, the rational use of other resources can be twice as effective with half the effort.

Group work:Many courses have set up a group work program, to actively communicate with a wide range of group members to listen to the views. Reasonable distribution of tasks can reduce the burden of learning can also focus on the work. And other people study in teams, explain to each other, discuss the difficult points, than a person to study alone is much better. Especially when you don’t have an idea, a reminder from others may help you clear your mind.

Tutor help:Tutors are not only experts in course guidance, but also guides in study life. Whether it is in understanding complex knowledge points or encountering bottlenecks in the dissertation writing process, tutors can provide you with valuable guidance. Don’t be shy, actively communicating with your tutor can make your study more oriented and efficient.

Online resources:The internet is an important part of our lives nowadays. Utilizing search engines such as Google allows us to access information in a cost-effective manner. In addition, many platforms provide free online courses, many professors will publish professional courses in these platforms, these courses can significantly improve our knowledge.

Tips: Be sure to recognize the authenticity of online resources!

Health and Mind Management

The physical and psychological effects on learning efficiency should not be ignored.

Maintain sufficient sleep time: Studies have shown that sleep plays an important role in memory, especially after learning new knowledge, sleep helps the brain to convert short-term memory into long-term memory. Through a night’s sleep, the information learned is “reinforced”, which is why staying up late to revise is often ineffective. Getting enough sleep ensures that you remember and apply what you have learned better the next day.

Eat healthy: Eating a healthy diet is not only essential for your health, but also has a direct impact on your brain function and ability to learn. Proper nutrition improves concentration, memory, and the efficiency of your brain’s functioning, while poor eating habits can lead to fatigue, poor concentration, and mood swings. A proper diet provides adequate energy and support for your studies.

Moderate Exercise: Long hours of studying can easily lead to physical fatigue, lack of concentration and even anxiety. Moderate exercise not only improves physical fitness, but also helps keep the brain energized and enhances learning efficiency.

Adjust your mindset: In the pursuit of academic success, it is vital to maintain a positive mindset. Learning is long-term, so don’t be defeated by one or two failures. Learn to accept imperfections, allow yourself to make mistakes, and learn from them instead of beating yourself up. Excessive self-blame will only exacerbate anxiety and put you in a vicious cycle.

Summarizing the learning experience

Learning is a process of trial and error, adjustment and growth. If you want to improve your GPA, you not only need to work hard, but also need to summarize your experience in practice and find the most suitable study method for yourself. Each course has different content, assessment methods and difficulty, so your study strategy should be different from course to course.

Have my learning strategies helped you? Please leave your comments!

Continue reading How to get a higher GPA ? →

Lifestyle

Work, Study and Photography

5th May 2025 hliu4 Comments

“Balancing work and study sounded like nothing until both started doing combo on you”

Between the non-stop calls from hungry customers and getting chased by the “deadline demon” somehow I find time to get my hands on my precious camera.

Life In The Takeaway

Working in a takeaway shop while trying to do some assignment doesn’t sound exactly like a pretty plan, one minute, I am handing out prawn crackers to customers the next second you see me tapping on my laptop with my greasy fingers and dropping curry sauce on my notes, balancing work with study for a full-time university student feels like juggling chopsticks-messy, awkward but sometimes impressive and surprised how I manage to make it somehow I get this rewarding feeling?

In this blog, I’ll share how I cope with the chaos of work and university, along with general photography tips, and how I still manage to smile at that one customer who orders two banquets at closing time-no extra pay or tips 🙁

Finally Have Money But At What Cost

While earning money 6 days a week gives me a pretty decent budget to spend, however, free time isn’t really on my side, no free time to spend on socialising, or travelling, but in ROBUX!! It created distances with all my friends, multiple times I got invited to parties and hangouts but I always pulled the same lame answer “Sorry bro, finishing at 22:30 today” Eventually each and everyone stopped inviting me, while I was earning money, I am missing out in creating core memories. Working non-stop might boost your wallet, but for sure it starve your social life.

Burnout Is Real

A lot of the time, I come home from work so tired I just sit there, staring at my laptop, clicking random spots on the desktop like I’m unlocking a secret level of procrastination.

I physically want to open that assignment document, but mentally, it’s like my hands are rebelling. Next thing I know, it’s 5 a.m. and I’m still looking for sources and references I probably won’t use. This phenomenon actually has a name: task paralysis. It’s when your brain taps out even though your to-do list is screaming.

Burnout isn’t just being tired, it’s that deep-fried feeling where your brain feels like it’s been tossed in the deep frier along with the spring rolls. I’ve genuinely considered submitting a takeaway receipt instead of an actual assignment, just to see if my lecturer would notice.

Trying to balance takeaway shifts and Uni life is physically draining and mentally numbing. But what keeps me going is knowing I’m not the only one in this mess. There are loads of people out there on the same boat with half a paddle.

Eventually, I stopped pretending I could “power through” everything and started taking proper breaks. I even picked up photography again. It doesn’t fix everything, but it reminds me I’m more than just work and deadlines.

What I’ve Learned With Street Photography

It had been a while since I picked up my Fujifilm camera, there is something about Fujifilm’s APS-C cameras that I can’t explain, the classic vintage look. Or maybe the “Film Simulation” that it offers, while modern cameras like Sony or Canon focus on ultra sharp and feature-filled cameras, Fujifilm offers something different, vintage old yet fused with modern technology, and it just sparks some sort of feel to it, making feels less “Digital” but “Alive”.

Upgrading from a Fujifilm X-T4 to the X100VI felt like a release. Switching from a bulky, heavy setup to a compact, fixed-lenses essentially a point-and-shoot-style camera was like finding my place in heaven. No more lugging gear around or feeling like I was getting punched in the stomach every time I hung a camera around my neck. The X100VI is pocket-sized, discreet, and effortless and the 23mm (35mm equivalent) f1.4 its just my perfection for capturing moments without disturbing them.

Now, I can take photos without turning heads or interrupting what’s unfolding. It’s just me and the streets, documenting the pure, unfiltered scenes that convey a story. There’s something magical about catching those real, in-between moments nothing staged, nothing forced. Just life, exactly as it is, just right there and then, unique moment that does not happen twice.

Street Photography

Street photography wasn’t a part of the Uni curriculum, but it ended up teaching me more than many of my lectures. Somewhere between work shifts and late-night assignment sessions, I picked up the camera again, not because I had time, but because I needed a better break than lying face down on my bed to recover from work.

Who I learn about street photography from?

I love wandering around with a camera instead of applying SWOT and PESTEL, I constantly remind myself and learning how to used to the “Exposure Triangle” managing Aperture, Shutter Speed and ISO it gave me a way to stop and make sense of the world around me, and it honestly helped provide a little bit of peace and recover my mind. It forced me to slow down and take a look at my surroundings, rather than racing through life on autopilot, and pay attention to life and feel alive for a short while.

Photography It’s an expensive hobby to pick up, I constantly find accessories I can buy especially for non-fixed-lensed cameras wanting to experience different focal lengths, but for me, 23mm is just perfect, but photography isn’t essentially about the gear, it’s about preferences and basic knowledge and more importantly, the person behind that camera, you define what you want to capture and what story your want to tell.

Fujifilm Camera Recommendation

If you want to get into Fujifilm I recommend the X-E4 it is compact here’s why you should get explained in a video I watched.

If in a budget I do recommend the XT-2 , in fact this was my first camera I ever bought! had so much memories with it !

Photography really had changed me, every time I hangout I just want to bring my camera with me even if I don’t think I am going use it, but every now and then I look at something and just want to take a picture of it just because it feels nice to look at, I never really understand why, but I love capturing this unexplained feeling, and a great way to escape my work and Uni stress.

Check out my photography Instagram page

Don’t forget to share your opinions and tips in the comments!

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Glow on a Budget: The Student’s Guide to affordable Skincare and Haircare