Bye Bye Blondie

I have been toying with the idea of heading over to the dark side for a really long time. In fact, when I discovered I was pregnant with Casey I actually asked my hairdresser if it was safe go dark, but they advised against trying new hair colours whilst pregnant. I decided on a total whim the other day to just go for it, and popped into the salon for a quick allergy test. Two days later I said goodbye to the blonde and hello to life as a brunette!

I went for an all over dark chocolate brown, which (as my hairdresser advised me would happen) has quite quickly faded to a light brown, and you can currently almost see the blonde shining through underneath. I quite like the colour it is at the moment, but I am definitely going to pop back in and get them to take the darker colour through again, as I am keen to stay dark brown for a little while.

Sitting in the chair and watching the dark dye move ominously quickly through the air to my blonde locks was quite possibly one of the most nerve wracking moments of my life. The second the dye splatted down on my hair I had a momentary bout of panic, and thought WHAT HAVE I DONE?! It settled down quite quickly however, and I just relaxed and let my lovely hairdresser work her magic. (Thanks to Michelle from Hair by Hanlon, in Glasgow, for being so absolutely wonderful, and extremely patient as I ummmed and ahhhed over the colour for what seemed like hours!)

My eventual aim is to have blonde highlights, and end up with a Lauren Conrad do', circa 2007.  For the forseeable future however, I am embracing the dark side and enjoying life as a brunette.

 

What do you think?

Stay beautiful, inside and out xxx

Bourjois '1 second' nail varnish remover

Who would have imagined that I would have been excited about shopping for nail varnish remover? It sounds a lil' cray cray when you see it written on paper, however I most definitely did feel a smidgen of excitement when I spied this in my local Superdrug, and promptly scooped it up along with a few other bits and pieces that I definitely did not need, but as always was enabled by the sneaky 3 for 2 offer.
This nail varnish remover has been touted among beauty bloggers as the best thing since sliced bread, and since I like removing nail varnish just about as much as I like cleaning my oven, I was very happy to pick it up and couldn't wait to get home and test it out.

One of the main things I wish I could change about most nail vrnish removers is the smell. I currently use a Superdrug own brand polish which actually makes me feel physically sick every time I open the bottle, so I have been on the look out for a new one. I am intrigued to find out more about the Butter London Powder Room nail varnish remover, as it is supposed to have a beautiful scent.
The Bourjois remover claims to have a red fruit and vanilla fragrance, and in the name of an accurate review I just went and took a great big sniff of it, straight out the tub as I couldn't remember if that was true or not. NOT ADVISABLE PEOPLE. Seriously, what a mistake. I couldn't breathe for ages.

If you use it like a normal person, your fingers are left with a delicate fruity scent which is unoffensive and actually, as nail varnish removers go, quite nice, but for the love of god do not stick your nose in it like I did.
As for nail varnish removing prowess, it certainly doesn't live up to it's '1 second' claim. I didn't for a minute think it would; I don't know why companies bother to make these ludicrous claims, it's just false advertising and simply sets you up for disappointment. I'd have been much happier if the bottle said '5 second' remover, because that's closer to the truth in my experience. Each nail had to be dipped in and swirled around a good few times to remove all traces of polish.

I am not quite sure why it's getting the rave reviews that it has been. The concept isn't new, these types of removers have been around for years, and it certainly doesn't remove polish in one second, so I am not sure what is supposed to set it apart from all of the other brands out there that offer this 'stick your finger in a tub and swirl it around' type of nail varnish remover.

Overall, I thought it was a nice product, with a fairly unobtrusive smell and it removed two coats of polish in a reasonable time. Not exactly a glowing review, but it just didn't blow me away.
I have yet to try it with glitter polish - who knows, maybe it is secretly the best glitter polish remover ever, and I will be sure to let you know if that turns out to be the case. Otherwise, I would say, not an essential product for the price.
This retails for £4.99 and can be purchased from Boots or Superdrug.

Bourjois products are not tested on animals.

Stay beautiful, inside and out xxx

L'Occitane Pivoine Délicate lip & perfume duo

I had a rare and unexpected day to myself on Sunday, and I spent it doing one of my favourite things - shopping. I took full advantage of the luxury of being able to meander round the shops without a pram and my beautiful daughter in tow, and spent hours browsing in Princes Square, with a large chunk of this time spent admiring pretty much everything in Space NK.

I stopped in to L'Occitane to take a peek at their most recent offering, the Pivoine Délicate collection. Immediately I was drawn to the Shimmering Powder, a beautiful glistening powder which is housed in a gorgeous vintage style dispenser, however as a new mummy, it has to be said that I would currently struggle to find a use for it. Having a shimmering decolletage is sadly rather unneccesary for my current social calendar!

After much deliberation, I ended up purchasing one item from the new collection, a rollerball perfume and lip gloss duo. I love the concept of this; it's perfect for popping in my makeup bag for a top up of my scent and gloss throughout the day, and means I don't have to weigh myself down with a full size bottle of perfume in my handbag.

The perfume in the duo is a feminine, delicate fragrance, inspired by the beautiful Peony, which makes me feel very ladylike and has fast become my favourite scent for Spring and Summer. Since describing scents is not my forte, I'll let L'Occitane do it for me.

'The Pivoine Délicate Eau de Toilette celebrates the most tender garden Peony, with its pastel shades and large, luscious petals. Its fragrance blends the delicateness of Peony petals with delicate and fresh green scents of Rose and Lily of the Valley. Made with a Peony extract from the Drôme region of France, this fragrance has a luminous floral accord with a soft powdery trail.'

I will definitely be purchasing the full size bottle of the perfume, as I am quickly working my way through the sample. I love that it's fairly unobtrusive; it is the kind of perfume that you just get a gentle whiff of in passing, but it lingers and leaves a lovely light, fresh flowery scent in it's wake.

The lipgloss side of the duo is a very sheer pink with a subtle gold shimmer, and has a lovely formula which isn't sticky at all. It's very lightly pigmented, and is just a nice neutral every day gloss.

One of the things I love about L'Occitane is their customer service. It's impeccable. Whether you are just browsing, spending £10 or £1000 you are treated like the most important customer in the world. Every item is loving wrapped in beautiful tissue paper which is liberally sprayed with a gorgeous fragrance, and packed inside a beautiful bag, with a generous handful of samples added for good measure. Shopping in L'Occitane is always a pleasurable experience, which is more than I can say for a lot of the high end make-up counters in Glasgow.

The duo retails for £16 and you can purchase it along with the rest of the Pivione Délicate collection in store or on the L'Occitane website.

L'Occitane are BUAV approved and do not test on animals.

Stay beautiful, inside and out xxx

The perfect summer manicure ft Bourjois

I was mooching around the nail varnishes in Superdrug, searching for a new 'go to' summer colour, in a pretty grumpy mood as I had just spied the new Essie stand in Boots. Although I wanted to buy every single colour, since I found out they follow their parent company animal testing policy, they are now off limits. I was wandering around mentally cursing L'oreal for testing on animals when my eyes landed on this little number from my new favourite high street brand, Bourjois. I fell in love with it the moment I saw it. It's elegant, pretty, and perfect for the abundance of summer weddings I have coming up over the next couple of months. It is the type of  colour that makes me feel polished and put together, and slightly shameful of the numerous garish neon colours in my nail varnish collection.

Unfortunately, although it's a gorgeous colour, the formulation is not great and I would strongly advise you not to apply this if you are in a rush. You need two coats to get the opaqueness shown in the picture, and each coat needs a chance to dry thoroughly before the second is applied. Otherwise, like me, you will need to remove it and start again after putting some serious dents in it. Annoyingly, the bottle is not very clearly labelled, so I *think* it's shade 14, in the '10 days' range. What an enticing name...

I would also advise that you make sure you do lots of prep work on your nails before applying this. It's not one of those colours you can just slap any old way and it looks great (Barry M Red I am looking at you). The nail needs to be buffed and filed, and the cuticles need to be pushed back and trimmed to really show it at it's best.

However, none of that matters because when all is said and done, you are left with a beautiful muted shade of dusky, rosy pink, which in the sunlight has a hint of golden shimmer; it very much reminds me of the gold flecks in NARS Orgasm which of course, I absolutely love.

I applied this for the first time this morning, and I simply cannot stop admiring my nails. I am finding any excuse to point at things or wave my hands around dramatically just to show them off. (Sad, but true.)

If you like the look of this little gem, you can pick it up in store at Boots or Superdrug and it retails for the very pocket friendly price of £5.99.


Bourjois products are not tested on animals.

Stay beautiful, inside and out xxx

N.B
Please excuse the fact that in the picture my index finger is hiding behind the bottle; I experienced one of every beauty blogger's worst nightmares and broke a nail on my swatching hand. Sad face!

Fashion: Rare dress

If, like me, you suffer from a spot of body confidence issues, then you will understand how choosing an outfit for an event or a night out can be somewhat....distressing. I don't know how many times I have tried on everything in my wardrobe, flung it all on the floor and thrown myself in a heap on my bed moaning that I have no clothes to wear (lies) and I hate how I look (true in the moment).

However, I have become a master at choosing clothes which flatter my body shape, and I found this little gem which I wanted to share with you all. The areas I dislike most on my body are my arms, stomach and hips and when I am choosing a dress I tend to go for something which will conceal those areas if possible.

I was browsing Topshop for a dress to wear on my recent adventure to Sheffield (read that post here) and I found this little number from Rare. I decided to just add it to my basket as a back up in case I couldn't find anything else, but I didn't really hold out much hope as it seemed a little boring online. I want to conceal my problems areas, yes, but I also don't want to look like an old granny, covering up with an old sack. (It's a fine line)

However, when it arrived and I tried it on, I knew immediately it was The One. It is tight fitted, but a thick enough material that it doesn't cling and show off any imperfections. It cinches in your waist and flares out over your hips. It covers your arms and although it is short at the front, it is slightly longer at the back and has a respectful and elegantly high neckline. In short, it's freakin' PERFECTION.

It is pretty much everything I look for in a dress and I am so pleased that I found it. It came with a cheapy little belt which I switched out for this jaguar belt, and I paired it with super high platforms from Next. Overall, I loved the finished look and I cannot tell you how comfortable I felt in this dress. It has now officially become my staple 'I have nothing to wear and I feel FAT so I will wear this and feel fabulous'  dress.

It's now sold out on the Topshop website but if you have any similar body hang ups, and you are looking for the perfect night out dress, I urge you to RUN and grab your purse, and head straight over to the Rare website, where you can pick this up for the rather pocket friendly price of £32.

I just discovered today that it also comes in red, and nude. SOLD.

Rare are currently offering free UK delivery until Tuesday 8th plus 15% student discount in case you needed any more persuasion!

Stay beautiful, inside and out xxx

Sheffield Meetup

 One of the things I love most about the blogging/youtube community is that I have met some really lovely girls who I chat to regularly, and this weekend I finally got the chance to meet a few of them in person.

On Saturday, I made the rather long trek down to Sheffield to meet up with Lauren, Maxine, and Hollie.  (Another two lovely girls, Haidee and Helen, were supposed to join us, but sadly couldn't make it in the end. We raised a good few shots for them though ha ha)

I arrived at lunchtime, and was greeted at the station by Lauren and Hollie which was completely surreal as I have read both of their blogs and tweeted back and forth to them for such a long time, so to finally meet them 'IRL' (lol) was very bizarre.

We had a bit of a moment on the train platform, being all girly and squealing, and then Lauren took us back to her house to let us get settled in and have the grand tour. I was SO excited for this, as Lauren has an absolutely gorgeous home with every girl's dream - her own dressing room! She filmed it for us a while back but I couldn't wait to get a live tour!

Once I had freshened up (and died of jealousy at her amazing dressing room) we went out for a bite to eat at Bella Italia, and absolutely stuffed our faces with the most amazing pizza and a desert that I am scared to even write about as I fear the calories will jump off the page and into my belly. Suffice to say, it was YUM.

Afterwards, the lovely Maxine finished work and we picked her up from the train station. She phoned Lauren when we were waiting for her in the car park and I actually got a bit fan girly when I heard her voice, as I have watched her youtube channel for so long, and she was one of the first girls I started chatting to on Youtube (along with Haidee who sadly couldn't make it).

Once we picked up Maxine, we all went back to Lauren's to get ready. Can you imagine the combined amount of make up and beauty items that four beauty bloggers used to get ready for a night out?! It was pretty ridiculous!

I was absolutely dying with the flu, so Lauren decided the best way to cure me was get me DRUNK, so shots were definitely on the menu!

After taking lots of silly photos and messing around in the house, we went into town and round a few bars in Sheffield, drinking lots and causing mayhem along the way, and generally just having a complete giggle. The night gets a bit blurry after my fifth Jaegerbomb and third Tequila, but the great thing about the night is that it didn't feel I was out with three girls who I had just met for the first time, it felt like we had known each other for ages. (On that note, how random when people asked how we knew each other....ER, WE ARE INTERNET FWENDS!)

I had such a lovely time, it's just a shame I was so ill as I definitely wasn't feeling 100% myself, but I battled through and stayed out till the death. (Gold star for me) I definitely paid for it the next day, as the train journey home was hell on earth, but it was worth it!

Thank you so much to Lauren for being such a great host, and to Hollie and Maxine for generally just being absolute babes.

Can't wait till the next time girls.

Stay beautiful, inside and out xxx

500 Follower Giveaway winner

I used random.org to generate the winner of my 500 follower giveaway (omitting duplicate comments etc) and it threw up number 13. Unlucky for some, but not for Lileth!

Congratulations

Lilith (@lisforlil)

You are the winner of my 500 follower Giveaway

*Puts on imaginary party hat and blows imaginary party blower*

I will send you a DM to get all the info I need to send you your prize.

Thank you so much to everyone who entered. I appreciate every single one of you for reading my blog, it means the world to me. 

Lots of love to you all

Stay beautiful, inside and out xxx

P.S.

I just had to share this as it made me half laugh, half shake my head at the world we live in. I couldn't remember what those things were called that you blew on at birthday parties, so I had to google it. This was one of the answers that came up in Yahoo answers.

'I never had a party, my parents said they'd corrupt and poison my childish and overactive imagination...
I buried them alive under three feet of concrete.'

That is all x