Real Techniques: blush brush and expert face brush

Hi Guys!

Quite obvious from the title and picture but I finally got myself a couple f real technique make up brushes!

Boots had a buy one get one half price deal going on so I grabbed these two. I wanted the core collection set but I think I'll put that on my birthday/xmas wish list :)

I've been having problems with my foundation (revlon colorstay) - I'm finding it so dry and hard to apply, so I thought I'd give the expert face brush a try since everyone raves about it so much. How is it? It's ok. I think it's amazing for the price but if I won the lottery, I would definitely give other brushes a go - this is not my holy grail. I must say that I love the actual brush style/shape(?) - I've used either a traditional foundation brush and stippling brush to apply liquid foundation (on a day to day basis I prefer my fingers) but I do like this rounded/flat (can it be both?) brush.

Ok - so blush brush - to be honest I kinda picked this cos I wanted something of a similar price to make the most of the deal. I've used it everyday since I got it probbaly more out of the novelty of having something new and because by coincidence my mum gave me a blush palette (post to follow).

I gotta say this though - best thing about these brushes - drying time!!! I've had these 6 days and I've washed these 3 times because it's so easy and they dry so so so quick!!! And no shedding. Very impressive.

Concert: Jay Park in London

Hi Guys!

Not sure if I mentioned this but one of my favourite Kpop singers came to London and I'm so happy I got to go and see him last week :) If you've been a reader of my blog or know me IRL then you know what a big deal this was for me - and I can't beleive that in the last year I have now gone to two concerts (well, two concerts in my whole life lol).

The concert took place last Saturday 21/9/2013 in the Hammersmith Apollo. In total with admin and card fees my ticket cost me £35. I'll compare value for money with the Big Bang concert in a bit. 

The show started at 8pm with a rookie group called Victor. Until the Jay Park concert was announced I had never heard of Victor but it took about 30 seconds of them on stage for me to realise that I really liked them. They sang and danced well - it was fun. I was worried that I'd hate the opening act or it would destroy my experience but I honetly could have watched Victor for the entire show! I think going to a concert and especially a kpop concert you just have to get into the swing of things. You can't go to one of these things and complain about it being cheesy or hating on the funky outfits. If you're too cool for a bit of cheese, go watch Kanye. 

And then........Jay Park woo hoo

He opened with the youtube performance that got him back into the limelight, BOB's Nothin' on You  English/Korean mix. He performed Star my favourite song, which I was really happy about because it's quite an old song and I was worried that he was too cool for it but he did it and my heart was doing backflips throughout :) Jay Park also did a few backflips as would be expected. He didn't sing Welcome so there weren't as many boby rolls as I would have wanted - but he did take his top off so all in all I was happy ;)

He did a lot of his Cha Cha Malone collabs and I surprised myself and N (my date for the night cos A couldn't make it) by knowing quite a bit of the lyrics. I really like his rapping stuff and listening to him live in that venue you can't but help to admire his pure skill.

Best part of the night for me was Star and just being able to experience it all live. Now I know what people mean about loving live performances. He did dance a bit and there were a random bunchof backing dancers but all in all the performance was just a dude on a stage with a  microphone. And I thought he was amazing. I only have one other concert to compare it to and they were like chalkand cheese so I'll just say the concerts I have been to are amazing in their own ways.

The thing that I can compare though is value for money. Prior to the tickets going on sale I looked at the Apollo and sussed out where I wanted to sit - when the ticket prices were released the seats I had my eyes on were £88!!! So I did a quick reassessment and decided the £35 seats were more then good enough (and they were - loved my seat so much lol). So now you're thinking, hhhmmm  8-10pm , same period as Big Bang (paid £71) and only £35 - bargain - well, you're sadly wrong.

With Big Bang, they came on at 8pm, no opening act, no official breaks, no lull in the performance (yeah they did a bit of fan service chat but that is what we're paying for too), a few encores and they left at 10pm. With Jay Park, the opening act performed 8-8.30 and then there was a half an hour break, Jay came on stage at 9pm and left the stage by 9:48. So I paid £35 for 48 mins of a bit of singing, a bit of wiggling around and some rapping. In my mind, Big Bang was definitely more worth it in terms of 'bang' for your buck ;)

But anyway, I'm really happy I went, and I guess i can tick this off my bucket list twice now lol

Pure Coconut Oil

Hello hello!

I've jumped onto the latest bandwagon and hooked myself up with some coconut oil.
The blogger world has fallen in love with this stuff, and I have too!

I got mine from my local hair and beauty shop, £2.50 for 500ml. You can buy better packaged coconut oil for a much higher price, but it's pure coconut oil so you're not paying for a better product (am I making sense?) You can buy pure coconut oil for £15 if that makes you feel safer.

Anyway, you can use this stuff to cook with, put it on your skin, pop it in your hair. At a certain temperature the oil is 'solid' and when melted it's...oil. I purchased this primarily to use on my hair but find myself also rubbing some on my elbows, knees, ankles and ears.

I use to use olive oil on my hair and i can't say which gives better results as I purchased the coconut oil after the bleaching but I do like this. I don't know if  it's a miracle product as some people are saying but it's doing me no harm.
I really like the way it goes on and feels in my hair. Olive oil was, no surprise, wet and oily. It was messy and hard to wash out. Coconut oil is less wet and I find that it washes out really well. I just scoop out a bit of the hard oil and melt it in my hands - literally 5 seconds - and then just comb it through the entire length of my hair. Any residue I run through my scalp. I like to do this over the weekend and wash it out Monday but I've read that after a certain time (30 mins? Couple of hours?) hair stops absorbing whatever goodness you've put n it, but to be honest the no washing is also part laziness so I'm not too bothered.

Have you used this? Love it? Hate it?

Mini beauty bits haul

Hi Guys,

A while ago I picked up some bits that I thought that I would share with you all.

First up is a repurchase of my favourite 'budget' perfume - Intimately. This is my 7th bottle maybe? I got this from The Perfume Shop, £14.99 for 75ml - you can get this for under £12 online (try Fragrance Direct). Throughout the summer I was searching for a summer smell but I was unsuccessful and it's September now so I've just stuck with my fail safe fragrance. 

The next few bits I picked up from my favourite shop, the 99p store - needless to say, these cost me 99p each (BARGAIN!!!)

You can imagine that after my hair bleaching marathon my hair is a tad bit dry - I saw this on the shelves and thought I would give it a go. I'm not too fussy with conditioner as I don't apply it to my scalp so no negative skin reactions to worry about. I haven't given this a go yet - if it's amazing I'll give you an update. 

Having a love hate relationship with the face wash. Hating it because potentially it's too drying for me; but that's my fault for buying an oil free exfoliator/foaming scrub. So anyway, the good stuff - this leaves my face feeling nice and fresh - what more could you ask for from a face wash?! The scrubby bits aren't too harsh and the washy bit foams up easily. 

Last but not least - the oh so glamorous anti dandruff shampoo. The change in weather is playing havoc with my skin.  My face, ears ad hair are suffering the most. I don't have dandruff as such, but my scalp is really dry so I thought this might help? This is a repurchase and I like it because I find it more gentle than head and shoulders - not sure if this is actually true but it's ok and it's 99p so yay!

When I was younger the change is weather didn't really affect me and I used the same products all year round. Now I'm finding myself having to 'switch up' my shiz as my skin is an oil slick one day and then dessert dry the next. Annoying and costly. Oh well #firstworldproblems !!! Any recommendations for dry skin? 

Haul - Converse

Hi Guys!

Ok this post is long over due. Basically, I finally got my hands (feet!) on some Converse.
I went for the classic white ox. I gt them in size uk 6 (European 39) from asos and they cost approx. £40-45 (I got mine with a discount). 

I have wanted a pair of Converse for literally years, maybe a decade but for £40 they're not really 'me'. When would I wear them? What would I wear them with? What handbag do you carry with trainers? Can you wear as much eyeliner as I do and then wear white Converse? Drag queen on a day off? So many questions. 

An asos discount and the realisation that I'm getting old and if I didn't get them now I would probably die without ever owning a pair of Converse( dramatic much?) convinced me to part with my money, and go casual on my feet. 

And? I hate them. They bloody hurt. 5, 6, 7 - none of them fit me. Pain. Pain Pain. They don't fit my wide farmer's feet and they don't look god on my hippo legs. They don't go with my handbags or my eyeliner. I'm not cool or casual enough to wear Converse. I look like a very clean tramp wearing these - I don't have that cool, nonchalant blogger look that I was aiming/wishing for (you know what I mean). And seriously, they hurt!!!! :(

I'm glad that I got the Converse craving out of my system. I'm really happy I only got one pair, cos boy you know me I was ready to get them in all the colours, in the dainty and in the high top. They hurt within 2 minutes of putting them on so these may stay fresh forever. I'll probably put them on ebay, but I'll keep them n my life for a bit longer, so that I can hold onto my youth for a bit longer!!!

new clothes, new nails and new hair

Hi Guys!

So I think that the (London) sun has definitely gone away for the rest of the year. And I am loving it. Autumn is my favourite fashion season. I love the outwear, footwear, colours, layers and just over autumnal feel.

To give autumn a big hello I (messily) painted my nails in Leighton Denny's Saturn Seduction which I thought was a deep plum wine red but on closer inspection was a gorgeous chocolate colour, but still red and not brown. I don't know - but I loved it. I love my bright nails but nothing like a deep sexy colour to make me feel all grown up and powerful.
Am I being weird?

Even though the sun is pretty much gone it isn't actually what I would consider cold. I work indoors and my journey to work is 10 minutes so apart from shoving an umbrella in my handbag I don't feel the need to start wrapping up yet. Dress down is over at work - I've been wearing my favourite dorothy perkins cut out booties to work but once there I have 5 pairs of heels to choose from to office-fy my outfits - 3 black, 1 nude and 1 tan. {Above pic] I'm wearing my new shirt (chiffon blouse?) from old faithful Primark (£12). This isn't a very flattering photo but I wanted to capture the dip hem. 

[Above and below pic - same outfit but with and without the 'jacket']

This outfit consists of my usual skinny Next trousers, velvet peplum New look top and then I popped on my new Primark jacket/cardi thing - a faux tweed with faux leather trimming - a bit Chanel but for around £15 (that's a total guess, it was between £10-£20 - sorry!)

I titled the post 'new hair' and frankly, I lied. This isn't new because you would have already read my previous hair post (if you haven't - go read it :)) However, it's the first pic of my hair 'done'. For the first 5 days after bleaching my hair I had it up - because I wanted to give it a rest from heat and also because honestly I was a bit scared of what I would see when I brushed and straightened my hair. In those 5 days I've been researching long bobs non stop and contemplating making an appointment with my hairdresser but....but now I feel much better about my hair. I'm use to the colour (even though it seems to look a different colour every day) and the texture isn't too awful all things considered. I'll probably have to get it cut sooner rather than later but for now I'll enjoy keeping my longer hair.

How are you guys doing? Have you had to shift your wardrobe around for the weather or are you still holding onto your sandals?

Review:Nivea Pure & Natural day and night cream

Hi Guys!

So I've been looking for a silicone free face cream for a while and can't believe that I didn't know about the Nivea pure and natural range until now!

It's great to find a product like this for such a great price. I usually wait for it to be on offer and pay around £3.50. RRP is just over £5 I think. The day cream is nice and light and I've nearly used up my first pot and I've got pot number 2 of day cream ready to go. A few people have actually commented that my skin has cleared up so this gets 2 thumbs up!

As I was having such a good time with the day cream I picked up the night cream. It's much richer but not greasy and still quite light for a night cream.

Have you used anything from this range before? Any recommendations for silicone free face creams?

Girl gone wild (ombre) again!

Hello hello.....so we meet again.

A total impulse move but I decided on Thursday that I wanted my ombre to be lighter. I had V sleeping over aka live in hairdresser.

There was a 2 for £10 deal in Boots on Jerome Russell products (so I saved about 10p!) soI picked up the blonding kit in medium lift [above picture] and a colour toner [picutred somewhere below]. Sorry about the box - V is an animal :) She did tell me to google image a nice box but I thought that I would keep it real. 

So we brushed out my hair and V mixed up the blonding kit and put it on my hair where it was already ombred, she then wrapped it in foil and she pinned it up to keep it out of the way. Not sure if I mentioned it last time but keeping it wrapped keeps things hot, and heat helps the chemicals to really do the business.

No pictures cos it gets a bit icky but after 30 mins V removed the foil and I rinsed my hair using the conditioning shampoo supplied in the box. We could already tell at this point that my hair was Barbie blonde. V's reaction was "holy f**k!!!".

[above - colour toner]

I towel dried and brushed my hair again and then V plopped the colour toner on my blonde hair. 

V wrapped my hair in clingfilm and I blow dried the cling filmed bit for 5 minutes and then left it for....I can't remember....maybe 20-30 mins? I then got back into the shower and washed my hair using my normal shampoo and conditioner. The best news at this point is that my hair wasn't feeling all melted and dead and weird. 

So erm....yeah.....this is my hair. The blonding kit worked!!! This is blow dried not straightened; not sure if my hair csn take 230 degrees heat at the moment.  (Sorry abut my nightie!! lol)

Friday morning I was still blonde and I was still scared to straighten it so I did a fishtail braid. I had people pulling at it thinking it was a clip in plait. I had people ask if I had extensions. And I had a lot of looks at horror.

I honestly don't know how I feel about my hair as a whole. I'm really happy with the colour just for the fact that I never thought I could be this blond. I'm really impressed with the products used. As a whole? It's not ombre at its best is it? Oh well. It's only hair!

Carboot Sale

Hi Guys!

On Sunday 1st September I did a carboot sale!
Been wanting to do one for absolutely ages, years and years, but the lack of a car has been an obvious obstacle.
However, finally just went for it and Saturday 31st my friend AY came round and put my stuff [pictured above]into her car and I slept over at her house. We woke up Sunday morning and added her stuff into the car (poor car!) and drove to the carboot sale near her: Pedhsam Place, Swanley, Kent.

That's me selling our junk! [above] Please forgive the face and hair; getting up at 4.30am isn't really my thing!
OOTD was flat pumps, black skinnies, and denim shirt over at shirt. The lovely across body handbag is my money bag in lieu of a bumbag. Sunglasses are literally there to keep my hair up!

We had a clothes rail, ground sheet, crates and a table to display our bits and bobs. We sold clothes, shoes, bags, books and knick knacks. 

It was £12 in total entrance fee and we made (in profit) £80 and £110!!!! And that's with only half a car worth of stuff each. Imagine how much we could have made with a car each!!! I really liked Pedham Place, it was really big and there were loads and loads of people. I would definitely recommend this site and will return once I've got more stuff to sell. I didn't eat anything but there were the usual hotdog and burger places around. Toilets (portaloos) were good considering the amount of people using them.  

Initially I found it quite hard selling my stuff for such low prices - a carboot sale is not the place to go to make a lot of money; that's what eBay is for - but once I got use to saying bye bye to my  babies it was great just thinking about all the space I would have in my home. And all the new things I could buy to fill up the empty spaces lol

Do you enjoy going to carboot sales to buy or sell? Any recommendations of great places to go?