Skin, Hair & Nail Care Haul | Boots

I recently went shopping (well yesterday) looking for some sales, as most of you will know there are quite a few at the moment. There were a few things I also wanted to try out as well, therefore I ended up buying quite a few skin care products, and some hair and nail care too!

My favourite part to the element of shopping is actually going through all my purchases when I get home and re-viewing what I can't wait to try. I realised that I had actually bought a fair amount and for all under £10 (well £9.91 to be exact), which is pretty good if I'm honest. Therefore I thought I would share this with everyone - I did come across a few sales and offers but nothing too special, sorry I'm not the best at sale hunting!

3 for £3 - Boots Essential Skin Care Range

I have heard about this deal, I didn't know if it was permanent so I grabbed it whilst I could! 

3 Minute Clay Mask

 Moisturising Cream 

 Eye Gel

I'm very indecisive and therefore picking 3 products out of the range took me a while. But I eventually opted for: 3 Minute Clay Mask, Moisturising Cream and an Eye Gel. The clay mask was one of the first things I picked up as I have never had a face mask actually in a tube and have only ever bought the single 'tester' packaged ones, which never seem to agree with my skin either. Therefore this product looked good, as well as smelling really good! All the products in this range are enriched with the fresh scent of cucumber and are very refreshing - which I love.

The second was the moisturising cream, I was 'uhming and arhing' about this but ended up buying it as I needed a plain old moisturiser for morning and night - I'll keep stealing my mothers otherwise. This was scented with cucumber more significantly in comparison to the rest and has a light consistency absorbing into the skin fast. 

The last product I picked up may seem strange but totally makes sense, this eye gel 'enriched with soothing cucumber and vitamins' and reduces puffiness - I love using this in the morning before applying my makeup as it's refreshing and, like it says, reduces puffiness - which I find very useful. 

I was pretty happy with this deal as 3 for £3 obviously means that comes to only £1 per product, which is very good in my opinion. 

Extra Skincare From Boots

On the same shopping trip (yesterday) I bought some Nivea Creme, a product I have been willing to try. This is a stronger moisturiser which can be used on the: face, lips and body... I think. I will be using this when I have dry patches on my face or experience flaky skin as this is a much thicker and I believe stronger moisturiser than the Boots essential one I also bought. This may sound strange but I actually have very dry elbows and shall be using this for them because I think it will work a treat! 

Just before buying all my products I was queuing and came across an anti bacterial hand gel, which coincidentally I was in need for. It was a fairly big bottle and I had used this make before and liked it, the scent is cucumber (I think I'm enjoying the scent of cucumber at the moment, haha) and garden mint. The scent is very refreshing and I much prefer this to the mango and passion flower scent this brand does. This was the only product on sale actually but I think it was reduced from £1.55 to £1.05. Not sure if any of you would be interested, but I cant go anywhere without hand gel, haha. 

As well as yesterday the other day my mum picked up some skin care from the drugstore for me, both products of which I really like and was in need for - I don't think I will need any more skincare for a while!

I didn't actually read the bottle before applying this late at night, I just grabbed something to take my makeup off with. I thought it was just a normal cleansing lotion but actually is a 'spot stress control' cleansing lotion, therefore isn't meant to remove makeup, in my case eye makeup. Therefore I stupidly applied to this to the eyes to try ad get rid of my eye makeup, but then it began to sting...oops. I read the bottle and just applied it to the rest of the face, but it still made my skin sting. However I think it's the formula working as it helps to clear spots, but I shall not be putting this near my eyes again, haha!

Here we go! Eye make-up remover, haha. My mum also picked this up for me and I actually used this afterwards to get rid of the excess eye make-up I still had on. It is a very oily product but this doesn't bother me as it's a makeup remover and afterwards I'm going to sleep... but this may bother some people if their skin is already oily? Anyway, I really like this product, it says 'soothing' and I agree it does sooth the skin with the oil based ingredients in this product - perfect! 

Hair Care

This was a product I had on my list whilst shopping yesterday and was actually recommended this by Catherine (candyxcosmetics.blogspot.co.uk) via twitter and I'm glad she did as I love it! I'm very impressed as this leave-in conditioner that boots supply comes to a price of only £1.39 and works lovely with my hair. It detangles and smooths the hair leaving a scent of coconut and almond! 

Nail Care

Recently I have been growing my nails (I'm a nail bitter...but hopefully no more!) and so far so good really, I just find it hard to stay out of the habit and easy to get back into it (a new years resolution I think). However I was close to purchasing OPI's Nail Envy but this is at a price of £18.80 and for one nail polish for me that's a lot. But I found it on amazon for only £8.80, which is great! I was close to buying this and thought it couldn't be duped because of how great it is, but just to check I researched and found that there actually is a dupe! which is this - Rimmel's NAIL NURSE nail rescue a 14 day nail treatment, very similar to OPI's Nail Envy. Therefore I was very impressed and thought to buy this at £4.49 instead, the price would only be four pound more if I were to get the Nail Envy but still every little counts! 

I hope you enjoyed reading this post and it helped you in some way, or you just enjoyed reading it! What skin, hair or nail care have you purchased or been loving recently?

Have a lovely New Year! 

  

Wavy Hair; Overnight | Current Hair Care Routine

Merry Christmas Eve! I know this may seem a strange post to post on Christmas eve, this was supposed to be posted a few weeks back but I never got round to editing the photos and typing it up. This post will include what I'm currently using on my hair and how I currently style it. 

You could say my hair is naturally straight, but as I wash it before I go to bed it ends up a mess when I wake up. So most mornings I would straighten it, this left my hair with little volume and I would damage it with heat everyday. Therefore I came up with a solution to place my hair in 'neat buns' overnight to achieve natural looking 'beachy waves' with more texture and volume! This is overnight and that means no heat, but if some days, like me, you don't mind adding a small amount of heat, then it's nice to using curling tongs and give it a bit more definition if needed.

How I achieve Messy Waves...

To create natural looking long-lasting waves, I simply place my hair In 2/3 (depending on how wavy I want it - the more the buns the tighter the messy waves/curls). However you have to be careful as if you make the buns too 'messy' then this may result in less defined wavy in the morning. Meaning when I do this I twist the hair to the point it forms itself into a tight neat bun. I then take some hair grips and pin it in place, sometimes I use a thin small hair elastic on top to prevent it from falling out. The reason I do this instead of shoving a normal bobble on, is because it stop the hair from loosing the spiral like wave and becoming 'crimped' due to being caught in the bobble. 

Before placing my hair in 2 or 3 buns, I use a hair mousse. I find this holds them in place and also prevents the hair from frizzing. If you don't have mousse having damp hair works just as well!

This does look slightly ridiculous but once you've slept for a while and taken these out, your hair will look naturally wavy. I can't promise anything as everyone has different hair, this may work on others and this may not. But  I thought it would be a nice idea to share which some people could try successful or not. 

The result... 

Here is the result after taking the buns out in the morning, but don't be fooled this is not how it looked straight after taking them out. To begin with it may look a little too messy or not as defined. Therefore I run my hands through my hair and sometimes if needed use a curling tong to adjust certain parts which don't look their best. You could then say this is not a 'no heat' hairstyle but the heat is optional. 

To finish off the hair I will normally use a salt spray to give it more texture and even more of a 'beachy waves' look. But be careful not to use too much salt spray as it can leave your hair dry and crispy. 

How I style It

Most of the time I will just leave this down, but sometimes there are different ways I think looks lovely to style it.

Style 1 - As you can see the first picture shows a style of plaiting the hair around the head. The picture only shows one side of my head but I plait either side and bring them both together at the back with a small hair elastic. I got a few compliments whilst wearing my hair like this and I think it looks very pretty and feminine. My little brother actually called me a princess when I had my hair like this, haha! An alternative to this is if you don't have much time just grab some hair from the front (as you would for the plaits) and just pin these both at the back too.

Style 2 - This style is just to place my hair in a high pony tail, which is messy and has lots of volume. I like the way this looks as well as my hair being out my face all day. I like to make it a fairly hair pony tail and tug at parts of the hair, giving it a more messy natural look. 

Style 3 - This would be to just have it down and natural looking. I find this the most simple as when you may not have much time in the morning it's simply the case of taking your hair out adjusting it slightly and that't it! I love this because it looks like you may have spent a while when really it's a simple no heat (optional) hairstyle. 

Current Hair Care (Mini review)

As this is a 'hair based' post I thought I would include what i'm currently loving in the hair region. At the moment I have been using an old time favourite and thought I would share with you how much i'm loving it!

Herbal essences shampoo/conditioner is a product I used to love, even when I knew nothing about the blogging world! They recently, well a year or so back now, brought out their new range. Their new range had different packaging and I’m guessing a different formula as I wasn't as fond. Their old range/formula became less accessible but recently not so much. Therefore my mum had bought some more of it, and I’m glad she did. 

The scents of these are amazing, very floral and zesty. As seen in the pictures I have the 'Chamomile, Aloe Vera and Passion flowers extracts' shampoo, as well as the 'Rose hips, Jojoba extracts and Vitamin E' conditioner - both of which smell so good. 

They say that the shampoo is 0% silicone i.e. silicone free. At first this meant nothing to me, but as this was presented in a large text on the front on the bottle, surely they wouldn't show it off for no reason. After a bit of research I found that many shampoos in fact contain silicone, this is a popular ingredient in many shampoos - even popular/high end hair products. Silicone is an ingredient which creates the hair to become shiny and 'frizz free' but at the time. As when you use a shampoo containing this ingredient it creates a coating of the silicone on the hair, which builds up over time. It can lead to hair loss (not drastic, don't worry) and leave your hair dry overtime. Additionally, if you dye your hair a silicone shampoo wouldn't be appropriate as the silicone will create a barrier and after dying your hair it will supposedly fade very quickly. Also any hair treatment to help your hair e.g. oils, will become less effective due to the silicone barrier. So after researching and finding this out (assuming it is true) I was happy to see this product was silicone free!

Now for me these work so well with my hair, I have long thick hair which gets greasy maybe every 2 to 3 days. However shampoos and conditioners are a hard product to review as they will work very differently with different hair types. But whilst talking about my current hair care/routine I thought I would give these a mention. 

Thank you for reading, I hope you gained some form of tip or something useful you didn't know before out of this. Also hopefully give a try some of the ideas or products I've been using.

Have a lovely Christmas!

♥

Christmas gift ideas | DIY and baking

To me it seems Christmas shouldn't be this Wednesday, it's just all gone too fast! But the time has come when we all venture out on gifts and presents to give to our family or friends. Sadly this year I didn't have much money, but appropriately was asked to baby-sit 3 times in the duration of a month - Good for me! So I gained a decent amount to spend on presents, most of which I spent on family and leaving 20 or so pounds for friends. 

Christmas is all about giving and giving a gift which you've put a lot of thought into. I'm a strong believer of not giving money, although that's what my grandma is giving me this year, she didn't actually want to. I can understand as it shows there is minimal thought and just shoving some paper in a card, so I told her I will keep it aside for a warm winter coat! But this year I really wanted to make the presents myself, as well as buying something I know the person will love. 

I'm fond of baking and also a bit of 'Do It Yourself' i.e. DIY. Therefore this year I thought it would be a lovely idea to bake and make something. I decided upon some festive biscuits and a DIY 'Sharpie mug', however I used a 'paint marker' to do this and I actually think this worked better. As well as this I thought I would add some extra personal gifts too. To present this I actually thought it would be a lovely idea to place the biscuits and extra presents within the mug I decorated!

DIY - 'Sharpie Mugs'

This is something I have seen a lot around Pinterest and the internet, originally people use Sharpies - as seen by the name. However I actually used a metallic paint marker which I think worked just as well. If anything I recommend paint markers as they show up more and don't loose their colour in the oven, like the Sharpies would. 

 I recommend buying cheap mugs as normally, the cheaper the mug the thinner the glaze. In this case that is appropriate as it helps the marker sink into the glaze easier when being heated. Once you have finished your design, another tip is when heating the mugs make sure you heat them around 220 degrees Celsius, as well as letting them heat up and cool down in the oven. If you don't do this the china will crack due to the sudden change in heat.  If you are to use a sharpie, two coats will prevent the marker from fading - but only one is needed for a paint marker. When finished hand washing them will also avoid the marker from chipping at all!

Festive Baking!

Baking is something I thoroughly enjoy, no matter how much I go wrong I still find it a very therapeutic hobby - learning from your mistakes is key so you can improve and not make the same mistakes again. So to give some of my baking as a gift I thought would be nice and also a nice idea to inspire whoever reads this.

I decided upon making gingerbread men and shortbread snowflakes!

You can simply look upon the internet to find a recipe, but I chose to use one from Sainbury's recipe book!

The fun part... 

Shortbread snowflakes

Gingerbread men 

Finished!

Time to decorate! (my favourite part)

After baking the shortbread snowflakes I thought adding some edible glitter would give it a festive touch!

Decorating the gingerbread men was very fun, however I decided to package them in cellophane bags and the icing I bought didn't dry so I ended up adding on two small smarties for the eyes! (I recommend using icing that dries to prevent smudging).

Personalise your present

This is the part in which you can simply personalise this gift by adding whatever else you wish! So far this present is all homemade, therefore not costing a huge amount - so if your budgeting this year this is useful. It's not about the cost and its the thought that counts! Therefore I simply added some extra gifts from an online shop at e.l.f. and of course whilst shopping online for friends I couldn't help but buy myself some e.l.f. products as I don't own many, and some products they provide are amazing for the price!

Something I love to do is package my gifts all pretty, therefore I went and bought some cellophane bags and ribbon. 

Alternatives

As well as giving 3 larger presents to 3 of my friends, I also gave others some of my baking wrapped nicely with a card. I think this is a lovely thoughtful and yummy gift, I gave one of these to my form tutor and she was very grateful. If you don't have time you can alternatively just buy some sweets or chocolate and package them nicely, this is what I did for a secret Santa gift!

I hope you liked this post, I have been posting quite spontaneously and not on a weekly basis, which is bad! But as it's the holidays I shall have more spare time i.e. no school, so I will be posting more regularly. 

Merry Christmas!

♥

Festive Makeup Look | Blue Eyes

Christmas is only 1 week away now and I think its time to explore some different festive makeup looks, therefore I decided to create a simple yet festive deep gold makeup look. I did this with my friend Kathryn (effievanity.blogspot.co.uk) who has also posted a makeup look, which is lovely so I recommend you check it out after this! I have blue eyes and think gold and pinks compliment this eye colour well, looking through the photos I took it really shows how much the gold makes the blue stand out. I have heard silver compliments blue eyes too, however I personally don't feel silver is a very versatile colour for me as I love my neutrals - if I was to ever use silver I would use it in the inner corner, apart from that I don't think it’s for me. 

As a result in this look I opted for faded gold, bright gold, deeper gold, matte browns and a darker shimmering brown. To accomplish this look I mostly used my MUA undress me too palette - this palette is a dupe of the Naked 2 palette by urban decay, MUA also supply an undress me palette (Naked 1 dupe). I use these palettes on a daily basic and I highly recommend them! 

Face

For the face makeup I kept it really simple, as always, I just apply a concealer my current favourite being the Maybelline 'Fit Me' concealer. Recently I have been using the 'make up for ever' HD high definition powder, but only small amount underneath my eyes to set my concealer in place. For blush I thought I would use my Estee Lauder blush in Nude Rose, I hardly use this palette as I find the bronzer to shimmery (I think a matte bronzer is a must, no shimmer for me).However I love the blush that comes in this palette, it’s a fairly muted rose shade and looks lovely for Autumn or Winter! As well as this I also used an e.l.f. all over colour stick in Persimmon I used this as a highlight above Nude Rose. To finish of the face and keep it lasting all day I use my trusty Rimmel Stay Matte powder. 

I don't actually wear foundation anymore, as much as I find it therapeutic to apply (weird I know, haha) I just find it will clog up my pores and there's no need unless I have a major breakout, which luckily for me they're rare. 

Eyes

This is my favourite part by far, I just love experimenting with so many different combinations, I have to admit I not the best when it comes to eyeshadow and don't actually own very good eye brushes. Luckily Kathryn has recently received some a Nanshy Eye Brush Set, therefore she let me try them out and use them for this post. No word of a lie, I do love them, the set contains 7 brushes of which most I used for this look. 

As mentioned before I used the MUA undress me too palette for this look, with an exception of Natural Collections single eyeshadow in Barley. I used Barley as a base and thought it looked lovely (I also applied it in the inner corner as seen above). However before applying Barely to the lid and inner corner, I applied Artdeco's eyeshadow base and also e.l.f.'s eyelid primer in sheer, I used two primers to increase the pigmentation of the eyeshadow as well as it helping the eyeshadow last longer. 

After applying both primers and Barley, I took Devotion from the MUA palette (dupe for UD's Half Baked) and compacted this onto the inner half of the lid with the Nanshy large shader brush. Then applied fiery (UD's Chopper) to the outer lid and slightly into the crease, again using the large shader brush. At this point I had very harsh lines as a didn't blend them but did this on purpose and I then took Lavish (UD's Tease) and used the Nanshy eye crease brush to blend this into the crease, taking away the harsh lines. To follow on from this I then Obsessed (UD's Busted) and applied this directly into the crease with Nanshy's tapered crease brush. I then used Nanshy's blending eyeshadow brush to blend out any imperfections or harsh lines. Last minute I decided to take Devotion and fiery underneath the bottom lash line, using Nanshy's flat definer brush - I applied devotion in the inner half and fiery on the outer half. I finished off the look with Naked (UD's Foxy) and applied this on the brow-bone as a highlight. 

Moving on to the lashes and lash-line, I used e.l.f.'s cream eyeliner to apply a thin layer of this to the top lash line; I used Nanshy's precise bent eyeliner brush to do so. I feel this increased the volume of my lashes before applying benefits they're real mascara. 

Lips

It was hard to pick a lip colour, but I opted for Chanel's rouge allure luminous intense lip colour in 217 radieuse, this lip colour has an obvious blue undertone and therefore suits my skin-tone well. However the consistency of this lipstick is quite drying on the lips therefore I applied a balm before this and finished it off with a BarryM lipgloss!

I hope you enjoyed this post and tell me if you want anymore makeup looks in the future! Have a lovely rest of your week and enjoy the weekend ahead!

♥

An Autumn Weekend | OOTD's and Photography

Winter is around the corner and slowly autumn is coming to an end. Photography is something I thoroughly enjoy and something I would love to share with others out there, so I decided to capture elements of autumn which I think represent the season well. Therefore last weekend I and a friend Laura (lerreve.blogspot.co.uk) went on a ‘photography walk’ on Saturday to take some shots before autumn draws to an end. As well as that, last Sunday I went out with my dad and sister by the riverside and I spontaneously started taking pictures as it was all so beautiful! I ended up with hundreds of autumn shots from through out and the weekend and some extras throughout the week; it was so hard to narrow them down so I somehow managed to fit most of them into one whole post. 

Along with this I decided to show you some of the clothing I was wearing throughout last weekend (Saturday and Sunday OOTD’s) I hope you enjoy this post – It’s probably going to be a long one!

Saturday 

Green Parka - Topshop | Floral Skirt - Newlook | Maroon Knitted Jumper - Newlook  

Boots - Newlook | Knitted Tights - Primark | Scarf (Snood) - Newlook | Both Earrings - Dorothy Perkins 

For this time of year I just love pairing a floral skirt with some thick knitted tights, especially when you can add some boots with a small heel - I just think it looks comfy and warm but sophisticated at the same time.

To continue here are some photos I managed to capture with Laura...

I was pretty pleased when I came home to release how many pictures I had taken that I was happy with, however that meant spending a while narrowing them down. Luckily me and Laura woke up that morning to a frosty cold but sunny day - just perfect for some photography we had in mind. 

Sunday

Green Parka - Topshop | Maroon Skater Skirt - Newlook |  Black Long Sleeved Top - Newlook 

Grey Knitted Beanie - Newlook | Scarf - Lombard & Lombard | Maroon Vans - Vans  

Again I paired a skirt with some tights, but this was more of a casual look as me, my sister and my dad went on a dog walk and breakfast by the river. Along the way I couldn't help but to take some more pictures as luckily brought my camera with me!

We took our dog Alfie for a walk down the river and after went for breakfast at a cute local cafe...

The customer service was lovely and so was the cafe itself, I just love that feeling when you get inside after a long walk in the crisp air and enjoy a lovely cup of tea to warm yourself up - the wood burning stove was also warm and toasty! 

Extras

During the week I also felt to need to take some more photos, I just can't resist! As the sun is rising later and setting sooner, during the morning just before I leave the house the sun begins to rise. Depending on the morning the sun can rise and light up the whole sky with warm orange and pink tones reflecting off the clouds, Wednesday morning resembled this the best. I just felt there was need to capture it so I did; from my bedroom and bathroom windows.

The past few weeks the sun has been setting just as I've been returning home, after this lovely Wednesday morning sunrise it was followed that evening with a stunning sunset. It looked most gorgeous around 4 o'clock however I was still on the bus at that point and therefore as soon as I returned home I decided to grab my camera and head off outside! 

  

The first picture was actually taken on Saturday with Laura and the one on the right was take just after I took pictures of the sunset on Wednesday night. I do find that pretty areas can become so much more prettier at night. I just loved the feeling of walking through my village wrapped up in my coat with the cold breeze, everything was almost silent and my village looked lovely lit up by just the street lamps and the setting sun. 

I hope you enjoyed reading this post, it was a pretty long one and took some time but I think autumn is such a lovely season I didn't want to have to wait another year to capture it!

What your favorite element of autumn?