As Christmas is looming (16 days to be precise!!) it can get tough to decide what you’re going to brighten faces with when the paper is unwrapped. And your credit card must be exhausted! Can’t have it working every day, you know, you’ll tire it out…It’s time to give the endless cash-chucking a rest, but you can’t be expected to trawl the internet for hours finding the perfect purse-friendly gift! That’s my job! So sit back, relax, and let me do all the work with The Ultimate Under £5 Christmas Beauty Gift Guide…
*Christmassy add-ons were entirely my doing and are not in any way part of the products!
Aloha everyone. Today I’m sharing with you some super cool tips and tricks I use in everyday life to make everything that little bit easier, and you can use them too!
I read about life hacks A LOT, and most of the time they never seem to be relevant to problems I have or things that I need to do. I instead made up my own little life hacks that are relevant to me and my life, hopefully meaning it would be relevant to the people around me as well. It’s a mix of beauty, hair, DIY, food, travel and everything really! Enjoy!
1. Struggling to find space in your handbag (especially in that tiny clutch on a night out)? Take out that bulky hand cream, pop down to the Body Shop and ask an assistant for a sample of one of their hand creams. You’ll get a dinky little pot which you can just slip in to your handbag without fuss! It lasts a good few uses too and is super light, unlike a full tube! And you’ll be doing your hands a favour – the Body Shop hand creams cater for specific needs such as ageing and weak nails (that’s the one I use) and do well to soften and moisturise hands.
When the little tub runs out (or if you find it doesn’t work as well as your normal hand cream), you can always fill it up again with the hand cream of your choice, so you can continue to save space in your handbag. Recently I’ve been trying out dermaV10 anti-ageing hand & nail cream which was sent to me by the brand along with an anti-ageing moisturiser. DermaV10 is the UK’s fastest growing beauty brand and prides itself on providing cruelty-free products with prices starting from under £1. The brand has been around for a while but are just starting to make some noise! They rely on your positive feedback as advertising so they can keep product prices low. Their motto ‘Love yourself for less’ stays true to their products and this one doesn’t disappoint. It smells scrumptious and is formulated with beeswax and vitamin E which gives a rich formula to nourish and enrich the skin. The hand cream also has anti-ageing properties (you’re never too young for this) and SPF 10. This is from the Q10 Innovations range.
And whilst you’re at it, you could swap your normal perfume bottle for a little sample vial you seem to collect everywhere, or just add that in if you don’t already carry perfume. Spritz once or twice throughout the day, or when you think the scent is wearing off. Quite long-lasting too; I can usually get a good two weeks use out of a sample vial. A good chance to try the perfume sample out before you buy!
2. Having a hairy frizz-attack? CAN’T FIND YOUR SERUM?! Don’t worry. Hand cream (in small amounts) can work as a temporary solution. Spread the cream around your hands as usual, but instead of rubbing it all in, tame down the frizzy parts of your hair. It’s probably best to wash your hair that evening. Also, be very careful not to use too much, especially on the scalp, as your hair can get greasy fast.
3. Still battling that frizz? This DIY leave in conditioner will tackle tangles and fight frizz for that extra day of no washing. Take a spray bottle (possibly an empty leave in conditioner bottle, if you’ve ran out and need a new one fast) and pour in it one part normal conditioner to three parts water. Add another part water if you are using a thicker conditioner, and stir stir stir! A few sprays throughout the day will keep things under control.
4. Use white eye shadow as a base for your other colours to make your eyes stand out. It helps the colour lasts longer and gives bright colours a pop. I can’t remember the first time I heard this tip – it’s so simple and easy yet surprisingly unknown!
5. Making pancakes? I am the worst at keeping the mix in the ladle on that dreaded journey from the bowl to the pan. One thing I’ve learnt from the internet? Put pancake mix in an (EMPTY) ketchup bottle for a reusable, no-mess experience! It also gives you a lot more control over how much mix you want in the pan. A squeezy ketchup bottle is best for this, not the chug-chug ones.
6. Going on holiday? Well, it is the summer – and who doesn’t want a tan? Tie a small piece of brightly coloured or easy to notice fabric to your luggage handle. This makes collecting your bag after a flight so much easier, as you can immediately see which bag is yours!
I hope those tips helped you along in your daily life and made things just that little bit easier!
Before you go, leave a comment saying what your favourite tip was from the list above, or drop us your own little tip (and be sure to put your blog link if you have one)
Hello, all! I have been doing rather hairy posts recently and I thought I would add to the hairy fun with my 7 Haircare Tips I Couldn’t Live Without. I, along with most of you, have hair and am always striving to make the most out of it. To help you on your haircare journey of discovery here are some tried and tested tips to voom-ify your hair.
1. This one is courtesy of my hairdresser at Regis salons. She told me to treat my hair like my favourite fluffy jumper. You wouldn’t wash it unnecessarily at regular intervals in the week, you would only wash it if it got dirty or really needed it. This preserves it’s colour, texture and quality. The moral of the story is don’t wash your hair too often. It may be tempting to wash it before it gets greasy but overwashing is damaging to your hair and does it no good at all. Wait until it needs the wash, then wash it.
2. Thick, voluminous hair in an instant? Oh yes! This tip was found in an earlier edition of Vogue magazine. Although blowdrying your hair upside down is a surefire way to increase volume, a lesser known daily trick is to brush your hair upside down (and then again the right way up if it needs it). This is a lot quicker and can be done every morning without heat-traumatizing your hair. It pumps up the volume without side effects…have we died and gone to hair heaven here?!
3. Talking of blowdrying, anyone suffer from frizz-mania after they’ve finished? I used to, until I discovered what I was doing wrong. This tip is from the Elle magazine website. Point the airflow of the hairdryer down the shaft of the hair – if the hairdryer points down, the hair will stay down! Makes sense really, doesn’t it? Point the airflow upwards and the hairs will rise upwards individually, therefore hello frizz.
4. This is a very simple fact that I’ve found is surprisingly unknown. When your hair is wet, it is very fragile and susceptible to breakage. Using a normal hairbrush will cause damage and breakage to the hair fibre as it is much too harsh. Instead, use a wide tooth comb or a tangle teezer when your hair is wet, which are much gentler on the hair and will not cause breakage. For blowdrying, use a tangle teezer whilst the hair is still substantially wet.
5. This is something I have been doing for a long while to smooth down flyaways in my braids. Apply hair gel to your already braided hair to increase the longevity and neatness of the braid. It can also be used to direct flyaways back into the braid to keep it smooth and tidy. It makes your hair super shiny too, which is always a bonus!
6. Another braidy tip for my long haired chums is to apply a deep conditioner to the remaining hair at the end of your braid. It is a great way to keep your ends nourished so they don’t get dry or (shock horror) split, and this can be a real problem when your hair gets really long because the nutrients in your scalp oils don’t travel so far down the hair shaft. It is also much more subtle to apply when your hair is in a braid than if it was down. You could even apply it to the whole braid if your hair was really troublesome!
7. This is one I hate doing, but it works just the same so I thought I should share. Rinse hair with cold water post-condition. This leaves hair silky smooth and radiant. It also seals the cuticle of the hair which reduces frizz. Personally, I can’t stand having cold water on my head after a nice cold bath! But it’s a great tip for the more brave amongst you!
I hope you enjoyed my haircare tips! My hair is a big part of my look so although I am not an expert in all things hair, I have spent a lot of time and money and tried and tested many different techniques so I feel I can at least help to guide you towards your perfect hair destination!
Before you go, leave a comment with your favourite haircare tip (and be sure to leave your blog link if you have one!)
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?
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.
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?
Bonjour! I hope you’re having a very nice day. If not, I apologise on behalf of the Universe.
I have been trying John Frieda Sheer Blonde Highlight Activating Shampoo and Conditioner for you blondies out there. I was attracted to it as I really want highlights but I always think dyed ones look so fake, so I wanted all the help I could get (no thanks to you, British weather) Here’s some notes on what happened:
Just washed for first time, hair feels fantastic; soft and light, shiny, voluminous, moisturised.
End of day, slightly frizzy after day of rain and having my hood up, less voluminous than morning but still more than normal.
Second day (no other products added so far), still voluminous and super soft with no tangles! yaaaayy. Easy to manage, no need for hat, ponytail, dry shampoo, or even hairbrush as I left it in a plait overnight to avoid knots. Ends feel slightly dry but don’t look it. Overall hair is shiny and brightened, slightly heavier than yesterday. Also roots are ever-so-slightly greasy due to moisturising properties of shampoo. In all v.impressive and much nicer than my usual shamp/condi
Third day, slightly greasy (impressive for 3rd day as is usually very greasy), still soft and v.voluminous. Rather impressive!
I will definitely use this again; it makes my hair feel and look fantastic, it lasts, it may even help me achieve my long sought after highlights.
It has Sasha’s Seal of Approval – Go out and give it a go!
Which type of products do you want me to review next? I’ll try my best to base my reviews on whatever you request in the comments!