Having fine, flat hair and not using heat is normally a complete disaster and my hair is very difficult to work with when I do absolutely nothing to it. Consequently, I have developed a range of different methods of styling my hair using the technique of leaving damp hair to dry into a style. There are a million different ways I use to create waves and volume in my hair, which I have posted about here and here (queue completely cringey-old post!) but this method is the one that I am liking at the moment:

After washing and towel drying my hair until its about 80% dry I scrunch in some volumising mousse (I use the Avon one) and plonk all my hair onto the top of my hair into a messy bun and leave it to dry overnight.

In the morning when taking out said 'messy bun' I am left with completely uncontrollable, scary-mary hair. One of the perils of having majorly fine hair is that it can get a little over excited and go even more crazy than regular hair! But never fear, my solution to this problem...

... is to twist my hair all over the head. Sounds strange and like it wouldn't effect the texture of the hair at all, but I find that just twisting each side of my hair a few times and then releasing tames the wild side of it down and leaves soft pretty waves...

 

So there you go, my method for heat free waves!

 

  Stay tuned for Part 3 of my Heat Free Hair series in which I'll be reviewing my favourite products for volumised hair! ♥

my skincare routine.

When it comes to what I slap onto my skin, I like to keep things reasonably simple and gentle. My skin is by no means perfect or blemish free- however I do think that it has improved noticeably by using a regular skincare routine.

In the past I've had some major skin disasters: massive spot outbreaks, random oiliness and allergic reactions to too strong cleansers; do not use Nuetrogena Visibly Clear Spot Stress Control Daily Cleansing Lotion if you have at all sensitive skin, that stuff is lethal...

However, over time I have finally figured out my own personal skin type (dry and a little sensitive) and worked my skincare around it. Bare in mind that if you have a different skin type these products may not work for you, but this is my skincare routine...

Morning

I am forever in a rush from the point I wake up to getting out the door, so easy, 'simple' products are a must for me in those early mornings before school. I love the Simple range because it is just that -simple. The Moisturising Facial Wash is lovely and leaves my skin feeling soft soft soft, and the moisturiser is moisturising enough for everyday without leaving my skin too greasy or shiny for the day.

Evening

Without doubt, the most loved part of my skincare routine is definitely my Liz Earle Cleanse & Polish, and although I was hesitant to buy it at first, it has impressed me no-end! The beautiful creamy formula leaves my skin to die for soft and clean, and when I'm being really lazy this can be the only step in my evening routine. However if I'm wearing a little more makeup which needs to be carefully removed, I generally use Boots Botanics Soothing Eye Makeup Remover to remove all traces of eye makeup and go over my skin first with cheap old Boots Cleansing Wipes before finishing up the last traces of makeup with my Cleanse & Polish. My last step is to apply copious amounts of Oilatum Natural Repair Face Cream, which has been an absolute saviour for my constant dry skin, leaving it lovely and moisturised at all times!

After applying all of the above, the final steps before I can go off into zzzz-land is a quick spray of facial tanner (Garnier Dry Face Mist) which is an absolute life saver for me. Being so pale naturally means that in the mornings I really have to work the bronzer to get even a hint of a glow, but this tanner saves me caking on the makeup in the morning and means that most days I can go foundation-free on my face. Before bed I apply a generous amount of Vaseline to my eyelashes, add a good lip balm and dab a little Freederm onto any little blemishes I have and voila- ready for bed!

So thats my little 'skincare routine' all wrapped up!

What are your miracle skincare products!?

all of the above were purchased myself.

prom practice makeup 1.0

Coastal Scents 88 Colour Palette, UD Naked Palette (Creep & Gunmetal), L'oreal Carbon Black Voluminous Mascara, Avon Supershock Gel Liner, NYX Peach Blush, Gosh Darling

With prom night looming ever nearer (30th June to be precise), I'm starting to panic about what makeup I'll be wearing on the all-important night! My dress is a dark purple-y colour with silver beading so I'm looking for something soft and shiny with accents of purple, a flawless base and nude-ish lips.

The look above was just a practise piece and is a little too blue-toned for my liking, although I'm hoping to do something reasonably similar but with more purple and mahoooosive false lashes... you know, for that 'natural' look ;)

I also really want to get MAC Face & Body foundation as a base for the event, however I'm hesitant to buy  as I will be getting a major spray tan a few days before prom- pale child that I am! But the downside is that I have no idea how tanned I will be so cannot predict the colour I will need for my base.

But in regards to being ready for prom, which is scarily only one month away... eeeek, I am feeling pretty damn ready! Dress- check, shoes- check, makeup- almost check, limo- check. The only things left on the to-do list are to alter the length of my dress (at the moment its about a mile long), figure out what exactly I'm doing for my hair and finally find a matching bag! Not much then...

sigma miss taylor kabuki & giveaway!

As part of the Sigma affiliate programme (which any bloggers can join here, if you want to), I was gifted the Miss Taylor Kabuki and also offered one to giveaway to my lovely followers!

The brush itself is a dense, synthetic haired kabuki, which blends in foundation beautifully! Its also the perfect handbag sized brush for quick on the go touch ups and the hairs are just so darn soft! The only downfall I feel to this brush is that mine seems to be shedding rather a lot after only 3 washes, but otherwise its definitely a lovely ol' brush!

So if you want to get your hands on one of the Miss Taylor Kabukis enter my giveaway! :)

Rules:

♥ write me a comment below telling me your favourite things to see on my blog!

♥ follow this blog!

♥ this giveaway is open internationally and will close Sunday 12th June 2011!

♥ the winner will be picked at random from random.org!

♥ for an extra entry tweet about the giveaway!

♥ for another extra entry do a blog post on the giveaway!

♥ please leave an email address so I can contact you if you win and your twitter/blog in the comments if you want the extra entries :)

Good Luck!

here we are again.

♥ Its officially half term here in England (thank the lord!) and I'm well over half-way through my GCSE exams! With 13 down and just 7 to go (the easy ones, thank god!) summer is literally within touching distance and I cannot wait. The exams are completely draining my energy, so I'm extremely thankful for a week off just to relax before they start again, full force! Most of the exams have gone well generally, except for a disastrous English Language exam where the exam board forgot to write a question on Love Poetry, leaving my whole year completely screwed, having to write any old random crap on Environmental Poetry! Shame on you AQA!

♥ Speaking of summer fast approaching, I am in desperate need of a summer job! All those ice creams, trips to the beach and holiday shopping do not come cheap and I am determined to find a good job sharpish! My dream job at this age would be in Boots or Superdrug or even the BodyShop, simply because I could ogle the makeup all day long- my idea of heaven- however my only offers seem to be coming from a dry cleaners and a pub... and all at absolute rock bottom minimum wage! So I'm still on the hunt for a fun job which actually pays over £3.64 (which transpires into just pennies after bus fare and lunch deductions!)

♥ I feel like I haven't blogged in forever! Since the exams started I've felt guilty even just reading through a few other blogs but now I have a bit of free time on my hands I seem to have a million ideas for new posts, so prepare to be inundated with posts next week! Also a lot of my friends seem to be starting to read my blog, which I am surprisingly cool with, so if I know you- hiii!

♥ In other news, I've been featured over on Em's lovely blog here, check it out if ya want!

 

 

Currently obsessed with Adele- Turning Tables, anything Conor Maynard covers and Sophie's Blog! 

 

peaches&cream.

Orange lips are absolutely ma-hoooosive this summer and when I discovered Sleek's new True Colour Lipstick in Peaches&Cream, I couldn't wait to jump on the bright-lips bandwagon...

Words cannot describe how much I love this lipstick: soft, creamy, long-lasting... and most importantly- ORANGE!

You will not catch me stepping out of the house this summer without this little beauty slathered all over my lips for sure; orange lips are my new obsession, fact.

What are your thoughts on the tango-ed lip trend?

heat free hair; rollers.

This is the first post of hopefully many, in a series of heat free hair styling posts. As you may know, my hair has been on a major heat ban for more than a year now, and it has done my hair's health a world of good. So if your on a heat ban or just looking for ways to cut down the damage to your hair, I hope you like these posts.

First up is styling with hair rollers, as modelled by my lovely sister Sophie...

These rollers are two different sizes from Sally's Beauty Supplies. They were inserted into natural, dry hair, and in Sophie's very thick hair we used about 17 rollers, but if you have thinner/fine hair you may need a lot less. The best method of application I find is to start at the front and go down the middle and then apply to the sides, using about 2 inch sections for each roller. Leave for about 1 to 2 hours (longer for more effect) and if your feeling a bit naughty blast with a hair dryer (not that I'm encouraging breaking your heat ban, but if you do, use a heat protectant ;) and uncurl the rollers slowly from the hair so you don't lose volume.

Et voila...

...and your left with big voluminous hair.

Hope this helped in some way, and check back for more in the heat free hair series :)

don't believe the hype! xen tan review.

Summer's here in full force and its time to start baring legs to the world, however if your legs are as pale as mine you'd understand that skirts, shorts and anything else leg-baring is a big no-no for me until I get a bit of fake tan going. In previous years I have tried countless tanners- St Moriz, Dove, Garnier, to name but a few, however none of them really wow-ed me like I believe a fake tan really should. The thing that really irks me about sunless tanners is the smell- I really do not understand why they must always make me smell like biscuits for days after, however much I try to scrub away the smell.

When I heard about Xen Tan - the supposed 'gorgeous smelling fake tan' - I had to try it; it could have been the saviour to my fake tan nightmare. My sister, another fake tan addict was also interested in the product, so as it was mega expensive (£17.99 from http://www.feelunique.com/, RRP £26) she purchased a bottle of Xen Tan Dark Lotion for her and for me to try, hoping it would turn out to be her new HG fake tan.

On first impressions out of the box, our first thoughts were, £18- for that!?. The bottle is in fact very small, and definitely did not look worth the small fortune my sister, Sophie, had payed for it.

We both tried out the tan once, and since then my sister has been using it regularly for the last month.

My thoughts: My first thoughts on this product when applied was that it smelled AMAZING- just like marzipan and cakes and everything yummy rolled into one. I applied it all over my body with a tanning mitt (Primark £1 - woohoo!) and the base colour looked lovely. It applied evenly without patches and felt quite moisturising on my skin. I left it on for about 4 hours and by that time the smell was really getting to me, it had morphed from gorgeous marzipan to that disgusting old biscuity smell - hate hate hate! I washed it off quickly and it seemed that all the lovely base colour washed off in the shower, leaving me with only the tiniest golden glow, and nothing 'dark' like I had expected. Overall I was really disappointed and will definitely not be buying the tan myself.

Sophie's thoughts: When I first tried Xen Tan I HATED it. I bought it under the impression that it would give me an amazing tan, but not smell disgusting like ever single other fake tan seemed to. When I tried it it just did not deliver the colour I wanted and I had to build it up about 3 times before I got the colour I wanted, and at £18 a bottle I can't afford to be using it like that! However after using it for about a month I have come to quite like it; it doesn't dry out my skin, and its pretty even to apply, however the colour needs to be built up at least twice to look dark enough. Overall I probably wont be repurchasing just because it just isn't worth the massive price tag.

 

So overall, we are still in the market for an amazing fake tan, any suggestions!? We were thinking of trying out Fake Bake tan next up :)

 

how to: get long and healthy hair!

As many of you may have read in my previous 'hair journey' post, me and my hair have a love-hate relationship. I cut off a lot of my hair (to just above shoulder length) a few years ago and ever since have been desperately seeking the perfect hair growing methods to get my hair back to its original state with long flowing locks! I am by no means an expert at hair growth, but the tips I will share with you today help me personally, so feel free to try them out and good luck with growing beautiful hair!

♥ The main and most important tip for hair growth I feel is to have a heat ban. Whether it is a complete and strict ban or just cutting down on the straightener action, this will drastically help your hair to get it into good condition and consequently grow out nicely, without needing a million trims to banish those pesky split ends! I have been on a strict heat ban for about 2 years now after being a straightener addict and ruining my hair, and I now never use any heat (including hair dryers) on my hair except for the most special occasions e.g. Christmas, birthdays etc. I think this has really helped my hair to be healthy, strong and generally to grow quicker and fuller!

♥ When growing hair, a lot of the theories for quick growth is to trim the ends of the hair every 6-8 weeks. For me, this just does not work at all, as having a trim that often just puts you back to square one after your hair has finally started growing. I generally get my hair cut every 2-3 months and by using no heat on my hair it doesn't usually need any more trims than that.

♥ Of course, the old hair growth secret is just to be healthy. Fresh fruit, vegetables, and 2 litres of water a day will do no end of good with your hair growing plight! Try foods such as fish and nuts which have been linked to helping hair growth and try to avoid caffeine, excess sugar, fat and fizzy drinks which can be detrimental to your hair!

♥ Find a fantastic shampoo and conditioner which really suits your hair type to get your hair into perfect condition. Also deep conditioners such as Aussie 3 Minute Miracle will help to soften and revive your hair, making it healthier and subsequently easier to get longer!

♥ Be careful with the hair accessories you choose. Rubber bands are an absolute no-no, tugging on the hair and other heavy clips or bands may also pull on the hair and weaken it!

♥ Don't wash your hair more than once every two days, this will enable the natural hair oils to restore the hair and by washing it too often you are stripping it of these oils. Use dry shampoo as a substitute for daily washes!

My dry shampoo-ed barnet!

♥ Keep in mind that one hair can grown from 2-7 years, meaning that as your hair grows longer, a lot will fall out as it reaches the end of it's growth cycle! Some of the hair on your head may have seen up to 7 years of damage, so be gentle with your hair so that it can grow to its maximum potential!

♥ And finally the only thing that can really help lengthen those beautiful locks of yours is patience. Time is the main factor in hair growth so give your hair time and space to grow long long long!

I hope I helped in some way with your hair growing plight! If you have any other tips or questions pop them below! :)

batiste 'tones' dry shampoo.

A few years ago I was a huge fan of dry shampoo; it was a complete life saver when my hair was a huge messy grease-bomb and I just could not be bothered to wash it out. However after a while I started to notice my normal Batiste dry shampoo was making my hair look dull and almost grey (eeek!), so to prevent this 'premature ageing' of the hair, I switched to washing my hair more regularly, not using the Batiste product. However, when Batiste sent me their relatively new 'tones' dry shampoo I couldn't wait to try them out, hoping it would solve the 'dull' hair problem!

As I have a really weird hair colour- not really blonde but not really brunette- they offered to send me both the blonde and medium to brunette version of the tones shades, so I could pick which one suited my hair better.

Upon receiving them I immediately sprayed them onto plain white paper to see if their claims of a tinted colour was true...

As you can see they do indeed spray a tint into your hair, although when rubbed into your hair this isn't too noticeable, so no yellow barbie hair here!

These perform in exactly the same way as normal dry shampoo, making your hair fresher and a lot cleaner looking, while not leaving that grey 'granny' residue in your hair.

I found that the blonde version suited my hair colour more than the brunette version as it brightened up my hair colour, and the darker spray made it look more flat. I think the blonde version would be perfect for someone who wants to lighten their hair very subtly!

blonde version ↑↑

Overall I was really impressed with these 'tones' and they have definitely re-kindled my love affair with dry shampoo! A definite future re-purchase for me! :)