March Hair Care Wants

You know sometimes when everything just becomes too much and you need a break from...well... life? 

I've had that for the past two weeks, hence the lack of posts recently. My life just became mental and I couldn't handle it all, so needed to take a breather from my blog. But now, I am back and with a fantastic month ahead of us! March. That little bit closer to warmth and moaning about the heat once again. Bring it on I say. 

With the cold weather my hair becomes very dry and rather meh. I have very bottom heavy hair that gets knotty very easily. 

Ojon Shampoo for Dry Hair & Ojon Dry Recovery Hydrating Conditioner : I tried the small bottles of these in January and it was the most amazing shampoo/conditioner I have ever used. Ever ever ever. My hair felt so soft and frizz free. My only niggle with these is that they are so ridiculously expensive. Nearly £20 for one bottle. Ouch. Maybe I will treat myself... maybe. 

Tangle teezer: Like I said, my hair gets very knotted and it is such a pain (literally) to brush through my hair, especially after having washed it. For £10.99 I am hoping that this little thing will alleviate my problem. The only thing is, what colour do I choose?!

Ojon Volume Advance™ Volumizing Mousse: My hair is very bottom heavy, so I have normal hair at my roots, that's nice and calm and easy to deal with and then the bottom that resembles a lion's mane somewhat. So you may wonder why then I would want a volumizing mousse?! Well I sort of like the lion's mane look and wish my hair looked a little thicker at the roots and considered this. Their shampoo/conditioner is amazing so why not their mousse?

Do you own any of these items? Are you able to convince me anymore to get them and part with my money? 

Revlon Just Bitten Lip Stain in Cherish Devotion

I am not usually one that goes for the hype of a product, but sometimes, I get dragged in. Even if it is a year later. 

I originally bought this last month and was featured as part of my January Haul. Like I said, I don't usually buy something just because of the hype. Which is why I have avoided the Apocolips craze. With lip stains I just couldn't find the attraction in having something stain your lips. For me, it just screamed 'dry lips', something I suffer quite badly from. It was also the weird crayon look that just put me off buying one. 

But, I was browsing through the Revlon stand and a very pretty lady next to me picked up the tester and tried it out. I couldn't help but look at the result and was shocked. The colour left on her lips was a solid glossy, almost like she had just applied a decent amount of normal lipstick to her lips. She smelt the product and then picked herself up one and left. I couldn't help it. So I tried it on my own lips to see whether it felt moisturising or not as colour is all well and good but I don't want something to damage my lips anymore than they already are. 

The result : Amazing. It left my lips feeling moisturised as well as full of colour. This product was awesome. Also, at the time of me purchasing this, it was just £5, usually £7.99 over at Boots where they now have a 3 for 2 offer instead. I have since bought another colour which I will swatch and review soon, but I adore this pink. 

Combination products definitely seem to be on the rise and people love them. We all seem to want a product that doesn't just give us one thing, but more. This lip stain balm does that. Lots of colour, moisture and cheap. 

Zodiac Inspired Make Up: Aquarius

Last month I posted about the Zodiac Make Up tag that I started to take part in, starting with Capricorn. This month is Aquarius. 

My original inspiration was the obvious; Blue. I sat at my dressing table and tried to envision how I would do my make up if I were dressing up as a blue themed mermaid and then went with that. 

I didn't want my face to be completely blue and end up looking like the Ice Queen so went for a nice warm pink blusher on my cheeks to make me look alive. The blue on my lips is lined with a blue eyeliner and filled in with blue eyeshadow and a speckle of white to add some 'shine'.

The products that I used to create this look were: 

Benefit's 'They're Real' Mascara

Ruby Recommends Palette

Rimmel Kajal Eyeliner in white

Avon Arabian Glow eyeliner in 'Vivacious Turquoise' 

Nars 'Angelika' Blush

Barry M Glitter Dust in 27 and 20

You can check out Fiona's original post on the tag as well as some other amazing interpretations of the tag here.

Keep an eye out for next month's Zodiac look. 

Andrea Fulerton Nail Tattoos

I had never really been a fan of nail art, or never really thought I would be able to do it myself. Then I found these little beauties. 

These were reduced from £2 down to £1 in Superdrug and were in included in my January Haul and I have finally had the chance to give them a go. 

You get about 60 of these little stickers as well as two 'chains'. There are lots of different designs available but I decided on this set as I have a little obsession with keys. 

I painted my nails with two coats of a nice bright polish and then, using a pair of tweezers, I removed the stickers from the paper and placed them on my nails. This wasn't fiddly at all and I did find that if I misplaced one it was easy enough to peel it off and place it again. 

Once I was happy where each sticker was placed ( I didn't cover all my nails as I think in this case; less is more) i then painted my nails in a thin layer of clear polish to make sure nothing caught the stickers and add an extra bit of protection.

(sorry about the little specks of glitter on my fingers, I literally couldn't get it off) 

I only expected these to last a day or two but they ended up lasting me a whole week! I was really impressed by their longevity and now only wished I had bought more. They definitely add something to a hand of plain nails and it's more fun than I thought working out where to place them. 

Carishea's Shea Scot Soap Bar in Scottish Honey & Oatmeal

I was sent this beautiful smelling soap from Semple & Semple last week to try out. 

I am a huge fan of bath and shower products, which is why I am such a huge 'Lush' fan. So when I was  sent this I was really excited to try it out, as my current soap was running low. 

As soon as I opened the parcel I was greeted with a strong smell of lavender. Lavender for me is one of my most favourite smells, very soothing and there is something about it that I also find very calming. This particular soap is their Scottish Honey & Oatmeal one, which you will see how that looks in just a second.

Because I have such sensitive skin, I am always very wary of the ingredients of a product before I use it, especially with cleaning products. Because this soap is mostly made of natural ingredients and doesn't include I any parabens (known to be a trigger of cancer) I was happy to start using the product, as well as a little excited. I hadn't used any soaps that were not from Lush in years!

I was also quite intrigued by the company 'Carishea' so gave them a little research and found that they are a 'Trade Right', ethical company which means they have values which help the poor through their business. Fifty percent of their profits go to community development projects as well as education. All in all, they have core values which benefit the poor and they help train and employ those that need it most. So you aren't paying any bad men when you buy this product (Which only costs £4.50, in my opinion, cheap for the amount you get: 110g). You can read more about the companies values here.

With the fifty percent of Shea Butter this is definitely going to be a lovely moisturising soap. So let's quit faffing around and see what the soap looks like shall we? 

Almost looks good enough to eat. Also the smell only gets better when you open up the product. If you love a good smelling soap this is the one for you. Because of the size of the soap, and it not fitting into my soap dish, not my hands being that big I decided to cut this in half and wrap the other up in some cling film for a later date. The Oatmeal almost acts like a scrub when you use this soap, helping to get rid of any dead skin on your hands. The actual soap is divine, leaving your hands feeling very moisturised, soft and smelling amazing. You really don't need that much either, so this block of soap will last a long, long time. 

If you want to have a look at this soap, you are interested in purchasing one or want to look at the rest of their range, they can be found here. I intend to get the Spice soap bar next when this one runs out. 

Meeting Claire Richards (From Steps!) & Talking about Fashion

This week I was asked to meet and interview the beautiful Claire Richards about her being Fashion World's new ambassador. 

Claire is most well known for being, what I would say, the lead female singer in the UK Pop Group 'Steps'. More recently she has come back into the spotlight by being on the reality TV show 'Big Brother'. Steps was the first concert I went to as a child, so for me, this was an amazing opportunity and I couldn't wait to see the clothes she had chosen for Spring/Summer from the Fashion World collection. 

The meet was at BB Bakery in Covent Garden. Upon arrival, the first thing that caught my eye (apart from the mass of press photographers) was how beautifully decorated the place was. There was lots of sweets, meringue, biscuits and cakes that for me, reflected perfectly at the end how sweet Claire was. But we shall get to that part in a moment. 

These were the items that were in the Bakery window. How amazing and delicious is this tower of yumminess? 

After the press had been given their time for the PhotoCall, I was brought inside where we were given wine, cupcakes, and tea. I went for the wine as well as treating myself to some of the divine little cupcakes that were on the table. 

 After waiting a while and watching the world go past, several journalists interviewed Claire from behind me. You can here them chatting away, with Claire sounding very confident and bursting into laughter every so often. In-between each interview, Claire would have her flawless make up reapplied, her 'Impassioned' by Mac lipstick just helping to bring out her beautiful eyes. 

Then, I was next. She was sat at a cute round table, wearing one of her outfits from the collection, she looked glowing. We started off by talking about the range that Claire had chosen for the Spring/Summer. She said that she was given a large room full of Fashion World's pieces and Claire went through and chose the pieces she liked the most, which apparently she ended up choosing too many and ended up having to spend a lot of time whittling it down to a more suitable number. "The things that I would wear and just the things that I liked" were the rules that she went by when choosing the items. She also let us in on a secret, she has been designing her own collection which will be available at the end of the year! 

My question next was then if she felt conscious of what she was wearing whilst she was in the Big Brother  house and if she put a lot of thought into what she took in. Claire said she put a lot of thought in because it was important that she felt comfortable but also looked good. She found it annoying that she could only take in two suitcases and a joke was made about Rylan's clothes being a lot smaller so he essentially was able to take more clothes, we all had a little giggle about that. 

Claire talked about how her confidence has risen recently and she was able to wear a lot more dresses whilst in Big Brother which she didn't feel she would have been able to do before. Over time she said that she has just learned to feel happy in the skin she is in and not worry about what other people think. Claire said "When I first put the weight on after Steps I just didn't know what to wear, the idea of having to wear a sports bra just filled me with absolute dread." 

"The one thing I have learnt that helped me is stop worrying about what other people think of you, just because you are bigger doesn't mean you can't be beautiful". Claire said it has taken her a long time to get herself in to that frame of mind but she is a much happier person now that she is and hopes that whilst her daughter grows up she can grow up with the same knowledge. 

Claire is a fantastic role model and I hope that her success continues so that little girls have her to look up to and know that they don't have to be a size 0 to be beautiful and confident, as I have never had such envy of a woman's looks. 

With sizes ranging from 12 to 32, "Claire's picks" of must have fashions can now be found at Fashion World.