Soap & Glory offer of the year

I had to let you know that it's that time again girls - as part of the Boots 12 weeks of Christmas offer series, Soap and Glory fans will be able to get their hands on a bumper set of products for a truly tiny price.

This year it comes in the form of the Big Splendour - originally £60 but starting tomorrow, for 1 week only, will be less than half price.

This year's set heralds the truly classic Righteous Butter and Hand Food alongside some less well known members of the line such as Pulp Friction body scrub.

Although on for a week, make haste girls - these fly off the shelves in record time!  I got last year's equivalent and loved it; cannot wait to snap this up tomorrow!

The Essentials

As a self-confessed beauty product and cosmetic junkie I have a myriad of lotions and potions.  I always have numerous hair sprays, lipsticks, moisturisers etc on the go at any one time.

However, there are those special few items that I will never be without.  The loves of my life in the cosmetic world.  The items I stress about if I potentially lose or use up and don't have a back up.

Let me introduce you to:

THE ESSENTIALS

Clockwise from left:

Sudocrem - The only thing that clears my skin up when I break out.  My saviour.

Nivea Young Tinted Moisturiser - My daily essential to even out my skin tone.  Amazing on its own or as a base for foundation.

Olay Regenerist Thermal Skin Polisher - I should probably dedicated an entire post to this beauty.  Makes my skin feel incredible.

Boots Expert Build Up Removal Shampoo - I've talked about this before - thoroughly rids your locks of a multitude of products, leaving your hair clean and full of life.

Olay Complete Care Multi-Radiance Moisturiser - This is the only moisturiser I've found that provides a matte but radiant finish whilst keeping my moisture levels topped up WITH an SPF.  This deserves a medal!

Seche Vite topcoat - I honestly won't do my nails without this.  No waiting around for half an hour for polish to try and leaves my nails so incredibly shiny.

Neutrogena Visibly Clear 2 in 1 - I stopped using this for about 2 weeks and my skin went insane.  The moral of the story?  I will never be without this again!

Olay Eye Make Remover - My mum has used this for as long as I can remember and she turned me onto it a few years ago.  It just easily removes all my eye make up and doesn't sting my very sensitive eyes - all round winner!

Exfoliating Glove - Just turns any old shower gel into an exfoliator - perfect when my St Moritz turns me all patchy..

No 7 Créme Touch Powder - I have never tried MAC's MSF Natural (call myself a make up enthusiast?!) as  this provides me everything I want a powder to - slight coverage with a semi-matte finish that lasts hours.  I'm not taking the MAC off my to-buy list just yet though... ;)

If you want me to provide a full review for any of these, just let me know in the comments!  

As for me, I'm off to watch The Vampire Diaries.  Stefan, Damon, just how do you choose?!

The most unglamorous post yet

If, like me, you are not naturally blessed with sleek, glossy locks then you probably have to use a multitude of products to get the hair of your dreams.

My hair is naturally coarse, wavy and potentially frizzy if I leave it to air dry.  Alas, not exactly the look I go for.

I therefore use an arsenal of deep conditioning treatments, leave in conditioners, protein treatments, serums etcetera etcetera to give me hair that looks a little something like this...

However, as always, some things are just too good to be true.  And every so often my hair can't take the overload of products and becomes lank, greasy and just generally overwhelmed.  So glamorous...

The first time this happened I was totally distraught - a standard hair wash does not clean this up.  Oh no.  For this problem, a heavy duty, detoxing shampoo is needed and thankfully I discovered my saviour..

Boots Expert Build Up Removal Shampoo - £2.99

What Boots say:

No matter how thoroughly you shampoo, your styling products can hang around, leaving a residue on your hair that can really weigh it down. Get rid of the unwanted build-up with Boots Expert Build Up Removal Shampoo.

Well, it does what it says.  Any bouts of build up are now distant memories from using this, without fail, once a week.  Prevention is better than cure as they say....

Hair Routine

For a good few years now I have been obsessed with big, sexy, voluptuous hair.  I decided that my naturally wavy but perma-straightened hair was doing nothing for me and that a big, glamorous 'do' instantly made me feel happier.
Below is a picture of me around this time last year - having just had my hair attacked by a hairdresser.

Admittedly, my hair does look healthy but I just didn't feel nice.  For me, the more hair, the better.

(Excuse my attire - standard University geek night out)

It was only a few weeks after this that I realised how easily attainable the (old) Cheryl Cole look was with the use of extensions.  I always thought extensions were only for the women willing to pay thousands to have millions of pieces of hair glued in.  Cue my introduction to the beauty community and the realisation that a girl can get herself a set of clip in extensions around the £50 mark. 
Result??  Happy George with a full head of long, luscious locks!

Since then, I have hardly gone without extensions - constanstly increasing their quality from synthetic to standard human to remi.  I am also on a mission though to grow my own hair so that one day I will only need my own hair on my head.

Thus, here is my hair care routine which I carry out every other day.... Enjoy!

• I wash my hair usually with a volumising shampoo followed by a heavy duty conditioner - I have quite a lot of hair naturally so I am quite lucky as it does not get weighed down by heavy conditioners
• Towel dry and comb through then apply 2-3 pumps of Redken Anti Snap to the ends
• Spray liberally with Aussie Luscious Long Leave In Condtioner which doubles up as heat protector when blow drying                                            

• Blow dry as straight as possible, which leaves hair looking something like this i.e. an awful hybrid mess of straight and wavy

                                                       

• Spritz hair all over with a heat protectant spray - at the moment a cheapo choice from Boots
• Curl random sections with a large barrrel curling tong until whole head is done

• Add pre-curled extensions - 1 large weft at ear level; 2 smaller wefts at eye level - lighter in colour to give illusion of highlights

• Spray with a generous amount of hair spray and voila!

I actually really enjoyed doing this as the photos have proved to me how much my hair has actually grown and how my 16 inch extensions don't really make that much difference anymore?!  Time for 18 inch wefts?!  I think so!

Any questions?? Let me know in the comments! xxx

My Nail Savour: Boots Nail Strength Solution

After my first year at University I realised in the Summer that my nails were seriously damaged. I had had so much free time on my hands during term time that I had changed my nail varnish once, sometimes twice a day, with no regard for nail care. I sawed my nails with emery boards, never used a base coat and if I ran out of nail varnish remover I would quite happily just buff all the polish off. Urrgghhhhh it sends shivers through me now! In the end, my nails were paper thin and so short they became little circles as you can see in this photo.

They looked so awful and I couldn't wait long enough to grow them that I had a brief love affair with fake nails.  I loved how they looked but didn't love how ridiculous I looked when I lost one in the middle of the day or how thin my natural nails became underneath them.

I therefore decided this Christmas to get my natural nails long and healthy.  And the result one month on??

I really can't believe how good they look now and I put this all down to this little beauty...


I bought this from Boots purely because of the price. I think this was £3 or £4 compared to the £8 mark for Sally Hansen which I have used in the past but don't really rate.

I am so glad I bought it as it has done wonders for my nails as the pictures show!  I purely use this as a base and top coat and well, it does what it says on the bottle.... My nails have become so strong that in turn they have grown rapidly and do not break, chip, flake or peel. 

If you are trying to grow your nails I highly, highly recommend this!