I’m Lizzie from creative blog Head full of flowers and today I’ll be showing you how to make one of my favourite quick and easy facial masks/cleansers that smells like banana milkshake and really exfoliates, reduces redness and refreshes the skin.
Before I begin I’d like to say a big thank you to the wonderful Sasha for allowing me to guest post on her amazing blog here today. It’s such a privilege and I’m so happy to have the opportunity to talk to you, her wonderful readers and share a little snippet of what I do on my own blog with you!
You will need:
A handful of oats
1tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp ginger
1/4 tsp olive oil
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 banana, sliced
To make:
Simply mix all ingredients together well until you meet desired consistency, if necessary add a few drops of water to help this process.
To use:
Use mask immediately. Damp face, apply mask to face and neck. Leave for 10-20 minutes and then rinse and pat dry.
(I recommend using a sieve if you’re using a sink!)
I really hope you’ve enjoyed this DIY!
For more DIYs, cruelty free beauty and other creative bits and bobs please feel free to check out my blog-it makes my day! You can also find me on instagram, twitter and pinterest @Liz___zie
Hello my lovelies! I hope you’re all having spiffing days. WordPress has put wiggly red line under ‘spiffing’ just there. How disgraceful. We should revolt and eat crumpets in protest.
I felt so creative using the ribbon but now I kinda think it looks a bit daft
Today I thought I would share with you two of my favourite products that I use very often and absolutely love.
I went into the hairdressers a couple of months ago with the intent of finding a shampoo and conditioner that were perfectly suited to my hair. I was tired of ‘ultimate shine’, ‘ultimate volume’, ‘ultimate frizz protection’, ‘ultimate softness’ and all that malarkey. I was fed up having to choose between all of them; there must be one that gives me all of them, I thought.
However, I didn’t trust myself to find this ‘perfect’ hair wash. I spent hours on the internet searching, but they all seemed to want to place me into a particular box, and I thought I fit into most of the boxes. This made it very hard for me to find something that fit all of my needs.
This is why I decided to enlist the help of my hairdresser. I thought, this would be a person who can see exactly what hair type I am, exactly what my hair needs and exactly what product would give this to me.
Now, I have never really been one to stick with hairdressers. There are four or five hair salons on my high street and I have visited all of them, each time being tended to by a different hairdresser. This doesn’t really bother me as most of the time I just want a simple wash and trim with slight layering at the front, which any hairdresser could do. So I don’t have very much reason just to stick with one; I prefer to let the receptionist decide what is most convenient at my scheduled time.
At the time, I was switching between Regis and Tony and Guy. Both respectable hair salons, and I was happy with both of them, but I knew I wanted Regis for this one. The reasoning behind this is that Regis sells many different brands in their salons, so I felt like I was getting a real personal recommendation. In Tony and Guy, they only sold their own brand, so I had no way of knowing whether the product was really the best one for my hair, or just the best one in the Tony and Guy collection (I think it’s called label m). So I booked me an appointment at Regis.
I began by explaining to the lovely hairdresser that I had absolutely no idea what I was doing when it comes to haircare. I told her I was looking for the products, focusing on shampoo and conditioner, that would make my hair all those things I wanted it to be; voluminous, shiny, sleek, soft, weightless, moisturised at the ends, non-greasy on the scalp, long, manageable, etc. and her answer was something I had not expected.
Firstly, she began explaining to me how it was pretty impossible to achieve all these things. Volume shampoos, she said, create volume by stripping the hair of it’s natural oils. This takes away the shine. It was kind of obvious really; dry shampoo makes your hair voluminous because it absorbs and therefore removes the oils on your scalp, but even so I was heartbroken to realise that I couldn’t get everything I wanted.
Just then, I spotted a promotion package on the table in front of me. It was a Kerastase volume treatment which promised voluminous and shiny hair. I pointed this out to the hairdresser. Her excuse was that Kerastase is an extremely expensive brand, so unless you are willing to pay that amount of money, you won’t be able to achieve volume and shine together.
So, after the shocking realisation that I cannot have everything, she proceeded to enquire what my main priority was. I decided, reluctantly, that I just wanted my hair to be the best it can be.
She then went on to tell me that if I, instead of using products simply labelled for ‘shine’ or ‘smoothness’, used the products that would restore my hair to it’s natural health, the shine and smoothness etc. would follow. In other words, I shouldn’t try and find the shine. If I care for my hair, the shine will come to me.
After this revelation had been digested, she presented me with this shampoo and conditioner duo from Paul Mitchell. I am not used to Paul Mitchell. Up to this point, I had used products from John Frieda, VO5, L’oreal and the like. This would explain why I am also not used to a price tag of £20. And it was on offer.
If it hadn’t been on offer, I probably wouldn’t have bought it, but I splurged knowing that if I didn’t buy it now I’d have to pay more later.
So far, I am very impressed with the results. My hair is shiny, feels great, looks great and is very manageable. I also enjoy the feeling that I am not simply slapping temporary, artificial shine on my hair, but that the shine is really coming from the inside. The product is also very natural (something Paul Mitchell is famous for) and I really think it’s perfect for my hair as I don’t dye my hair or use heated appliances very often, so an instant moisture kind of thing is much better for me than a rich, deep moisture. This also prevents my scalp from getting greasy too quickly.
Would I repurchase this duo, I hear you cry? I am going to have to have a long hard think about this when I run out. If I run out. This has lasted me what feels like forever and I think it’ll last me a whole lot longer. The reason for this, despite it’s almost daily use and a great loss of it on one fateful journey back from France, is that the treatment is so thick that you only need a very small amount (depending on how much hair you have, of course). It is pricey, but considering how long lasting it is it may even be better value than some of the high street brands I’ve been using.
If you are looking for a new haircare product or just something epic to splurge on, buy this product here or from your local salon.
This was originally going to be a NOTD post but then I got a very interesting tweet detailing something much more pressing and important:
At which can I just say, eep!
I was researching the Liebster award after I found out about it the other day and I got rather depressed thinking that I would probably never get one. :(
Firstly thank you so so much to Amy from the blog Style Storms for nominating me it made me super super happy and I never imagined this would happen! Also about three days after I discovered the award in the first place. Weird, huh?
Rules of the Liebster Award
1) You have to link back to the person that nominated you.
2) Write 11 facts about yourself.
3) You must answer all 11 questions given to you by the person who nominated you.
4) After completing these questions you must nominate 11 bloggers with under 200 followers and give them 11 questions of your choice.
5) You must not nominate the person who nominated you.
6) You must let your nominees know that they have been nominated and provide a link for them to your post so that they can learn about it.
11 Facts About Me
1) I think I might be the only person in the western world who doesn’t own an iPhone. I’m still stuck with my stupid Blackberry which I stupidly signed a two year contract for back when they were cool. If I don’t get an iPhone in the next week I think I might cry.
2) My mum owns a box which I call ‘My Box’, and in it contains all my work from school and summer camp and my baby shoes and certificates and all things from my childhood which we considered too precious to throw away (those science projects took me forever, you know). She says she will open the box and show me the contents when I have children of my own. I am looking forward to this day.
3) I am Jewish, a fact about which everyone I meet who is not from London seems to get pretty surprised about. For some unfathomable reason they seem to assume that I am ultra-religious, when in fact I am not. I would not even call myself semi-religious. Because bacon? Yum.
4) I am a dedicated food snob who enjoys eating at Michelin star restaurants, but only if I find deals on Toptable (now Opentable) and I can only afford it if the price for the set lunch menu (which I almost always get because it is cheap) is under £30. I do this with my mum, and it is a tradition I enjoy very much.
6) I don’t fill in my eyebrows. I hope none of the other bloggers reading this have fainted. I genuinly don’t need to; I never over-plucked and my eyebrows are big, thick and dense on their own. I am very grateful for this and have probably saved a lot of money on eyebrow pencils. Although the excellent growth does mean they are very unruly and have to get threaded very often, which is not fun may I tell you.
7) My favourite actress is Tamsin Greig who features in most, but not all, of the TV show I love, including Friday Night Dinner, Black Books, Green Wing (all on 4oD) and Episodes (BBC). Some of these roles are quite opposite but she plays each one very well and I respect that.
8) I never knew what I wanted to be when I grew up.
9) I have a beautiful cat whom I love. When I got back from Turkey it was discovered he had got into a fight whilst I was away and had been bitten on the leg. He was limping and looked quite dazed. I was very worried but it was OK and he is recovering very well thanks to the lovely vet who gave him an injection that he didn’t like very much. He is old and tired but I love him just the same.
10) My best friend’s guinea pig passed away just over a week ago. RIP Suela-Pig.
11) I wasn’t half as obsessed with beauty products before I started blogging as I am now. Heck, I didn’t even know what a pigment was. I know, what kind of rock was I living under?
Answers to Amy’s Questions
1. What do you love most about blogging?
I really love that I get to share the interesting things in my life with people who care. And as my followers grow, I love that I am making an influence on people’s lives.
2. What was the last thing you ate?
I am currently eating my makeshift breakfast, which is a pot from my graze box. It’s called Little Figgy Went To Market and it contains dried apple, cranberries and diced figs dusted with rice flour, all of which I love!
3. What colour nail polish are you wearing, if you are?
This one! It’s got bobbly bits in it and I’m going to do a NOTD with it soon.
4. You’re stuck on a desert island and you’re allowed to take three things with you. What would you take?
I’m going to go with the conventional and rather boring 1. food 2. water 3. helicopter summoner or similar as expect phone will not have connection. Sorry but I don’t particularly want to die on this island.
5. What age did you start wearing make up?
I started properly wearing make up when I was 13 but I tried and failed at it quite a lot since the age of 11. I always got confused and never could figure out when my friends were going to wear loads of make up and when they were going to wear none, so I usually did it the wrong way round. By the time I was 13 I just gave up on trying to fit in and generally went with wearing more make up than any of my friends combined. I enjoyed wearing make up this way and was fed up with caring what people thought or if they were judging me on it, which they probably were. But I was being who I was and I didn’t care.
6. What’s your favourite thing to blog about?
Weirdly enough, the first thing that comes to my mind is haircare. My hair is a huge part of my look so it’s really important I get it lookin’ good, and I enjoy sharing how I do this!
7. Who is your role model?
I’ve always hated this question! I don’t really compare myself to other people, and I don’t idolise one specific any person or people. Instead I like to set goals for myself which I look up to, I guess I am idolising a certain future me.
8. Besides blogging, what do you do in your spare time?
I enjoy watching the TV shows I listed above, reading, and twitter. Lots of twitter.
9. What beauty product could you not live without?
I’m not sure if this is a specific product or not, but I think if I went without lip balm then my lips would dry up and fall off. Does that count…?
10. Chocolate or crisps?
Chocolate. All day and every day.
11. What is your favourite clothing shop?
This is a really tough one! I’m going to go for ASOS because I know I will always, ALWAYS find something I like. Which can sometimes be a bit of a problem, hello unhappy bank statement.
Now time to nominate other bloggers…I’m not sure what kind of ‘followers’ the liebster award rules are referring to, but I’m going to go with bloglovin followers.
1. Do you speak another language? If not, would you like to?
2. If I gave you £100 to give to charity, which charity would you donate to and why?
3. Favourite type of foreign food?
4. Chicken or beef? (Or vegetarian?)
5. You can only ever buy high end OR drugstore make up from now on. You earn the same amount of money. Which do you choose?
6. Evening make up in the daytime or daytime make up in the evening?
7. You can buy EITHER make up OR clothes for the rest of your life. You are allowed to keep your current collection of both. Your current make up and clothes are magical and they last forever. Which do you choose?
8. If you could change one thing about the way you look, what would it be?
9. What is your blogging aim? E.g. Get 2000 bloglovin followers, you can write your aim for this week/month or your ultimate aim.
10. Do you prefer having one best friend or a group of friends?
11. Would you rather wear the same colour lipstick or the same colour nail polish forever?
I love BarryM nail paints. I wish I had more of them!
My collection
These nail art polishes have long and thin brushes for bold lines or elegant flicks, or even retro spots!
I love the Metal Flip range from Miss Sporty, they are quite sheer but can be layered up to be really bold and beautiful.
These were a gift – I don’t think I have ever used them! (BUT I WILL)
I can never say no to the Model’s Own 6 for £20 offer! I love their new Speckled Egg collection, I have the green one but I want the purple one too, it’s so pretty!
Yes, well. I have forbidden myself from buying any MORE nail polishes, OK?! Apart from free samples. They are very much allowed.
As you can probably see, I am a nail polish lover turned hoarder and this is my nail polish collection. I own brands from Chanel to Primark, and I dare not even consider how much I have spent on nail polish over the years. I haven’t even opened some of these.
I think one of the reasons I have so many is unless the nail polish has some super amazing quality like it only takes one coat or something then I will tend to use it once, get bored with it, and never use it again. It looks like I am subconsciously wasteful and excessive! yayyy #firstworldproblems
This turns into a bit of a pain whenever I buy Model’s Own polishes – they are HUGE so are priced above other high street brands, but I don’t use half of what I payed so much for! I’d rather pay half the price for mini bottles like the Max Factor Colour Effect Mini Nail Polish, which would be SO much better value for me.
And I don’t give the unused ones away either! The colour looks so pretty in the bottle, I just can’t bear to part with it – and I seem to have the need to possess every colour in the spectrum. So, instead of going to a needy human, these polishes are sitting on my shelf gathering dust. I have made myself a Summer Resolution to start using colours I wouldn’t normally use, such as the cheap looking ones, and to avoid bare nails as much as possible in order to make use of my lengthy nail polish collection.
The Ones I Actually Use:
Beautiful, eh? That’s why I use ’em.
The Ones I Don’t Use As Such And Should Probably Give Away But They’re So Darn Pretty
I just can’t bear to part with them! Especially not the Model’s Own ones.
The Most Used Ones
The sparkly Miss Sporty one (Sparkle Touch) used to be my most used nail polish, I would even use it on it’s own sometimes but I drifted away (wave after wave) from it when my collection began to expand and it as replace by Model’s Own and Barry M. The Model’s Own base coat is not very good as it chips really easily, but I am not allowing myself to buy another one until I have finished this one because it is massive. It also doubles as a top coat.
The Ones I Wish I Used More
I do use some of these a lot, but I want to use the even more because I feel like I have been slacking a bit recently. The Miss Sporty ones I used to use all the time and I want to re-instate my love for them, the Model’s Own ones I have not even used yet and need to because they were not cheap (and SO beautiful, the sparkles just put me off a bit as they are really hard to remove), the Rimmel one…well, it is black, but I still want to get a good usage out of it.
Comment/tweet/email if you want to know any of the specific colours!
Bonjour, everyone! A bit of a different post for you today. I’ve been reading more and more blogs recently and I really felt I should give my amazing new finds some credit for their fabulous work. They all really deserve it, I know how much hard work it takes to run a blog, and I can only imagine how much it must take to run a really successful one!
Before we start, if you click on these links and realise that all of these blogs are far better than mine, please don’t ditch me. I am genuinely scared this will happen.
This is especially relevant with the Cosmo shortlisting that’s been going on, so maybe we should call this The Hope Blogger Awards. I like that name.
The Hope Blogger Awards 2014
IMPORTANT NOTE: If you were not included in these awards, please do not be offended. It is probably through a fault of my own, most likely that I haven’t given you a chance. If you believe this is the case then please leave me your link so I can get reading or your twitter so we can get chatting, and you may be shortlisted in the next Hope Blogger Awards!
IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER
Blogs I Most Enjoy Reading Shortlist:
A Yellow Brick Blog – I love everything about this blog. The fresh, clean yet girly layout, the friendly, funny and personal writing style and the beautifully original posts (her ‘dress like disney’ series is so cute and I can see the work she puts into it; I still love it even though it’s almost completely pointless) are just a few. This blog is light-hearted, humorous and fun – and the photography isn’t half bad either! With 2287 bloglovin followers, this blog simply sells itself. To be honest, I’m quite surprised she wasn’t shortlisted in the Cosmo awards (although the Hope Awards are obviously much more important).
Thumbelina Lillie – This lovely blog was nominated in the Cosmo awards (not that I care), and quite rightly too. I love the photography, the variety of posts and the writing style, which is quite different to that of the above blog. It’s more to-the-point especially with reviews, but still has a bit of humour and personality thrown in, which is just how I like it really! I feel like it’s more down to earth, and the posts are useful and relevant. I can SO see why this blog has 2775 followers on bloglovin.
Temporary Secretary – The product photography. Is. Fantastic – I always keep her ‘Photography tips for beauty bloggers’ post open on my browser because she has such great tips, if my photos were half as good as hers (they’re not) then I would be a happy bunny! I also love the template/layout (not too pleased about the adverts though) and the writing is also very good. Very light and bright, but when it comes down to it the reviews can be very detailed. It is a joy to read, and to look at.
Bags Of Style Blog – A blog about bags. Nothing more, nothing less. Well, maybe a little bit more – there’s something about it that just keeps me coming back even though I’m not a very baggy person (Hm. baggy person). Perhaps it is the expert nature of the posts, which makes me think she is some sort of bag-expert with a full blown degree or something. Or perhaps it is her astounding ability to create such a diverse range of posts whilst still talking about the same thing – bags. She has an amazing personal style that shows through in her posts (and her bags!) and she does some lovely photography. This blog deserves much more credit than it is currently getting.
My Pale Skin – Not only do I find this blog incredibly helpful in dealing with my own pale skin, it also features some of the best face photography I have ever seen, making the FOTD’s and tutorials so clear and easy to follow and recreate. I guess it does help if you’re super pretty. As with most of the nominated blogs, the layout is clear, simple and uncluttered and there is an impressive variety of posts. The make up looks she creates are also some of the most beautiful I have seen. I’m sure it is easy to see why she has 1249 bloglovin followers!
Ems Says – I guess I just really like this blog because I’m interested in all the posts. The products she posts about are relevant to me and my life, more so than other blogs. I’m not exactly sure why or how this happens; maybe we were BFFs in a past life or something. This keeps me interested because I really feel like I’m not wasting my time reading random posts I’ve been sucked into about products that I’ll never buy or places I’ll never go. I always feel like I’ve gained something from reading her blog! Once again, beautiful writing style. Needs way more credit.
Friendliest Bloggers Shortlist:
For all you bloggers out there who don’t feel established enough in the community, these lovely ladies will welcome you right in! I treasure all of their mini convos on twitter, or just really friendly and lovely tweets/emails. An example to the blogging community! Here are their names/blog names and the ways in which I keep in contact with them.
Going on holiday? These are my tips for better tanning (and ultimate pampering relaxation!)
Since it is now summer, I thought I would share with y’all my pre-tanning routine which I do to get the best tan I can (rhyme intended)!
I do this before every holiday (abroad, may I add, I don’t trust Britain) to maximise and prolong my tanning and highlighting and not dry myself out too much. I like to do this because I’m so pale and awful at tanning that I need all the help I can get, and I also find it a nice way to relax before a holiday!
As I say, I also aim to highlight my hair on holiday, because my hair is a horrible dull mousy inbetweeny colour between blonde and brown, and I miss the bright blonde locks from my youth which have rendered me with an unwanted and unattractive natural dip dye in a yucky colour. Yes I’m annoyed.
In an effort to restore what I once had I try to highlight my hair back to blonde as often as possible in the sun, meaning I must moisturise it a lot to prevent drying. In my routine I use my favourite moisture treatment, but on holiday I use a repair shampoo and nourishing mask which are much more intensive (separate post on that later).
And yes, I could just dye my hair, but I’m too lazy for the maintenance, too poor to lose the money, and too scared I won’t like it. But the sun is free and all I have to do is lie there under it.
I may miss out a few shower steps which aren’t particularly relevant to tanning such as washing your body, but you should probably do those anyway.
1. Body Scrub
Exfoliating your skin before tanning is a sure-fire way to get a longer lasting tan. By removing all the dead skin cells with the scrub, you will go straight to tanning the live skin cells which will take longer to die and drop off. There is no point tanning the dead skin cells because they won’t last, and you will be left with live skin cells underneath which didn’t get a chance to tan. I hope that wasn’t too complicated.
It is widely accepted that one must moisturise in order to keep a tan. I’m not sure if this is relevant to pre-tanning, but since you’ve just scrubbed you will want to moisturise so your skin doesn’t dry out (a big no-no for tanning; dry skin flakes up and falls off. Along with that gorgeous tan you worked so hard for), also we want the skin cells we have left after scrubbing to last us as long as possible to prolong that fabulous tan.
As you may be able to tell, this list is not in chronological order (I use big girl words), unless you use the Nivea in shower moisturiser or something. I washed my hair with my favourite moisturising shampi/condi (post on that later) to prep my hair for the incoming heat/sun damage it was about to endure. If you have greasy hair, you don’t have to use a moisturising shampi/condi just yet but I do recommend it if you know your hair will get heavily sun damaged.
So those are my tips on how to prep yourself for the ultimate tanning experience! Hope you enjoyed reading and that this post was helpful to you in some way.
Yesterday evening I was feeling low. I was tired out of my mind and I just thought to myself, ‘Right. I am going to give my body some love’, and I took my most luxurious body lotion and spent around ten minutes rubbing it in before I had to go to sleep. This inspired me to describe to you how to have the perfect pamper time!
NOTE: You can do these things in order of preference or convenience, but I have put them in order of head to toe for whole body pampering! Enjoy!
1. Use a hair mask
After cleansing with your favourite shampoo, apply a hair mask to condition and moisturise your locks in a way that feels truly luxurious! You won’t just feel pampered whilst doing the hair mask; as soon as you emerge you will truly appreciate the wonders of a real deep condition. Be careful not to apply the mask too near to your roots as your scalp may be overwhelmed with moisture and become greasy.
The staple pamper activity, a face mask is a sure way to feel like a spa at home. Depending on what you love, you can use a hardening mask, an overnight mask, a non-hardening mask or a self-heating mask. I prefer hardening masks because I find them so much easier to remove, but it really just depends on what the mask claims to do. For example, I have never come across a hardening moisture mask, yet I still love moisture masks because of my combination skin. Whenever I do a pamper session, I always like to use as many face products as I can find! I go completely all out! Normally my routine is cleanse, exfoliate, mask, tone, moisturise, spot gel (on a pamper evening, not every day!), but you don’t have to do all this!
In a bubbling bath filled with fizzes and petals and smells, use your favourite body wash to cleanse your skin. And don’t forget to scrub! Also, you may want to use the Nivea In Shower Body Moisturiser whilst you’re in there, to give your skin some silky smooth hydration. And then you soak.
After your bath, immerse yourself in a world of sumptuous smells and silky smoothness with The Body Shop body butters! My favourite is the passion fruit butter because it smells SO GOOD. These aren’t the best moisturisers out there however, Weleda Skin Food is the most moisturising and luxurious one I have come across, but the smell lets it down. Click Here for my best moisturiser tips, including my holy grail 5 second gem!
5. Nails!!
Give your nails some pampering (toenails included)! Just paint your nails as usual but with a nail oil or hand and nail cream to prep your nails. And be sure to use a conditioning base coat.
I’ve recommended hundreds of products in my time, and reading other blogs I always wonder which products it is really worth buying as I only have a limited budget – and every post seems so be recommending something! So I have compiled a list of my most concise and heartfelt recommendations which, if I was approached with the question, ‘I have £20. What should I buy?’, I would answer as follows.
L’oreal Super Liner Perfect Slim
This has got to be my favourite liquid liner. I use it every day to create such a wide range of different looks and styles. From ultra thin lines (to define the lash line) to a sultry, dramatic blockbuster line this simple eyeliner has it covered. Usually with this I do a small cat flick with a fairly thick line, and then I always have to join it up to my bottom lash line because it really annoys me if my lower eye and my upper eye are distinctly separated, it just looks so fake to me. I then dab a bit of the liner onto my bottom lash line to define it a bit, or I do a full blown sweep if I’m feeling generous. I have told myself I’m going to start experimenting and perfecting thinner lines on my top lash line for a more natural look however, because I think my current day look is a bit too nighty, do you know what I mean?
What I really love about this liner is its versatility because I feel like I can really use it to experiment with lots of different looks, you can even smudge it if you get in there before it dries. Once it has dried it really doesn’t budge, but it just lifts of with one sweep of remover, ‘totes’ convenient! I also love the design and the sleekness of the bottle as well as the grip which makes it so easy to handle and gives you really good control. Buy this here for the cheapest option or pop into Superdrug or Boots.
Max Factor Glossfinity
Regardless of colour, this is one of the best nail polish formulas I have ever come across, the other being Model’s Own Hyper Gel. I love them both because they only take one coat as they are super-pigmented. This is always a huge relief for me as I hate doing my nails for how much time it takes, so if I only need one coat I will end up using that nail polish much more often than one that takes forever, even if it is a nicer colour. I also always seem to manage to put coats on that are much too thick, so when I have to do lots of coats it usually ends up in a big mush and gets damaged whenever I try to eat a piece of toast, etc. This is greatly worsened when I have to use a base and top coat too, and I personally don’t think this needs a top coat and it lasts 3-4 days on me without a base coat. I also adore the colour, it’s one of the prettiest I own. The colour is 119 Forever Glam and it’s a rich, glamorous deep pink which I think adds a pop of colour to any outfit. The colour in the bottle has tiny tiny sparkles in it but these don’t come out on the nails. This is probably my most used nail polish out of about thirty. I do recommend buying this colour though because I swatched the Snow White shade as well and it wasn’t half as pigmented, definitely needed 2+ coats.
Avon Glimmersticks Eyeliner
A while ago I was on the hunt for a brown eyeliner, as I wanted to tone down a little from the harsh black lines of my previous look. I really wanted the Mac pencil in Coffee but it was much too expensive so instead I opted for this eyeliner stick from AVON in the colour Cosmic Brown. The colour is beautiful and very matte (despite being called ‘GLIMMERstick’), it’s quite a dark brown so it still enhances my eyes without being too harsh. It’s much more rich than a black liner and also much more natural, pair it with bold lips or cheeks to avoid looking OTT or with neutral, fresh looking skin for a refreshing and natural spring look (yes I know it’s summer, shush). I just think a brown liner is great when you are feeling as if your black line is a bit too harsh or obvious, it’s a great alternative and very flattering.
It is so easy to apply, very creamy and never need sharpening. It can be smudged and blended but it is waterproof and usually lasts me the whole day. Very impressive for £6, eh? Buy this item here.
So as you can see, I’m a very eyelinery person, they just really suit me much better than shadows as I have a rubbish crease (any tips/products for dealing with this?) and I’m very used to working with them.
There we have it! My ultimate recommendations for the products I use most often and all under £20. Happy shopping!
As you may be aware from Blake Lively‘s ads, L’oreal have introduced a ‘revolutionary’ thickening haircare product. This line, entitled Elvive Fibrology, includes a masque, a double serum, a shampoo, a conditioner and a booster, all designed to thicken and revive hair in the best possible way. Described as ‘a breakthrough in the science of hair‘, the shampoo and conditioner together claim to thicken the hair fibres wash after wash with a build-up effect. The magic all lies in the rather ambiguous Filloxane, a patented technology which, according to L’oreal, has been proved to penetrate deep into the hair fibres and expand and thicken each hair strand, whilst then remaining in the hair fibre for a long lasting effect.
Elvive Fibrology Range
I, possessing unforgivably thin hair, was enticed and intrigued by this product and couldn’t wait to try it out. However, I had been warned by my hairdresser not to use thickening products as they strip hair of natural oils rendering it dry and undernourished. This didn’t sound like such a bad thing to me, as my scalp often gets greasy so my natural oils and I aren’t really best buddies. I did give this a go, and here were my results:
Well, I can successfully say it made my hair thicker! I had volume galore and was overall very satisfied with the condition of my hair. It isn’t perfect though, my hair wasn’t too shiny or silky, but I guess this happens with all thickening products unless you are willing to pay a very high amount of money. I also found that it made my hair a little frizzy after continuous use. Overall, this is the best thickening product I have ever tried, and DEFINITELY the most affordable!
Also lovely shower smell whilst using – always a bonus.
I would ‘totes’ repurchase and recommend!
Buy the range at Superdrug HERE (apart from the serum which you can find on Amazon HERE)
Have you tried these products? What’s your favourite haircare brand?
NOTE FROM SASHA: Hello all, I have a guest post here for you today from Jennifer, also known as the beauty blogger Jennywren7. It’s an eyeshadow look using Bare Minerals products (mostly), enjoy!
So it’s no secret to anyone that I love Bare Minerals makeup. When Sasha tweeted if anyone wanted to write something for her blog, I thought that Bare Minerals would be the way to go. Bare Minerals have recently revamped their eye makeup range, and it honestly looks amazing!
One of the new products they’ve launched as part of this are the new 5 in 1 BB cream eye shadows. They are basically a matte version of the prime time collection, and retail at £17. I’ve only had mine for a few days and I love the feel of it; it’s so creamy and will last all day!
In tribute of the eye event, I thought I would show you my take on the ‘Green with Envy’ look. (PS- If you want help with some new looks, the Bare Minerals eye shadow cards are really easy and have some gorgeous looks!)
Anyway, enough of me ranting. On with the tutorial!
To do this, you will need:
Benefit’s gimme brow mascara
Clinique bottom lash mascara
Bare Minerals Ready Eyeshadow 4.0 in The Soundtrack
Bare Minerals 5 in 1 BB Cream Eye shadow in Delicate Moss
Bare Minerals Lash Domination mascara
First of all I patted the Delicate boss cream eye shadow all over the lid and blended it into the crease with my fingers. You don’t need a lot to do this. One or two dabs of the wand on your lid is enough to cover the entire lid! Leave this to dry for a few seconds before applying the powders. I tend to fill in my brows with the brow mascara in this time.
Next, apply Speaker Box with a fluffy brush all over the lid and blend upwards over the crease. It may look like delicate moss has been lost, but it adds more definition to the lid whilst also acting like a lid primer.
Then pat Remix into the inner corner and around the tear duct and lower lid. Yes it looks a weird yellow in the palette but it looks a gorgeous bronzey-gold on the lid. If the line looks a bit harsh, blend a bit of Rhythm over the crease and the brow bone.
On the lid, blend these colours all together using Louder. Concentrate the colour more on the outer lid and crease.
Finally, mascara! A nice bold black looks amazing with these shadows. Lash Domination is an amazing mascara for standing out against darker shadows like these ones.
And that is the finished look. Thank you Sasha for allowing me to write on your blog.
