Homeware Haul

Chalk Board: 14,99€

Key Holder: 9,99€

Little Pillow: 3,99€

Doorstop: 6,99€

Coffee Tin: 3,99€

Sugar Tin: 3,99€

Tea Tin: 1,99€

Bag: 1,00€

Casa is one of those shops that I go into not needing anything in particular and come out with about half a million things (much to my boyfriend's dismay). This time was no different. I went in and lost control. I swear. 

Casa and Blokker are both Aladdin's cave type of shops that sell knickknacks ranging from interior decoration to dishwasher tablets (for a good price too, by the way!). They usually both stock similar things, which is good if one is nearer to you than the other. In my case they were next to each other! But I ended up only going into Casa. I particularly like the shabby chic stuff they sell, such as trays and armchairs. 

Most of the things I bought are for when I move out. I like to plan ahead and I also just couldn't resist. The first thing I put it my basket was a chalk board. Why? I don't know, I just wanted it. I also got a matching key holder, which was just too cute. For the meantime, I'll find a place for them somewhere in my bedroom. 

The next few things will probably be stored away until I do actually move out. I got three retro style tins, one for coffee, one for tea and the last one for sugar (or biscuits). I love the pastel colours and the style of them and they will definitely be put to good use, since I drink both tea and coffee.

Lastly, I saw a few pillows and doorstops on display and thought they were really adorable. I love the cute little messages and the neon colour against the beige. My bedroom is mostly white with black accessories and these definitely brighten it up a little.

One of my favourite things of all is the bag! I think it's a perfect summery beach bag and it will definitely be coming on holiday with me!

KMS California Tame Frizz

My sister bought these products from lookfantastic after reading about them on the londoner's blog. All the girls in my family are cursed with frizzy hair, so I decided to give them a try. 

My sister didn't actually like these since the products weighed down her hair and made it rather greasy, so I began to worry if they would do the same to me. We have slightly different hair types though, so I still had hope that they would work for me. 

I always shampoo my hair twice so I decided to shampoo it once with my normal shampoo and then use the Tame Frizz shampoo the second time, followed by the conditioner. The first time I tried these products, I didn't use the taming creme, for fear that it might be too much. My hair wasn't greasy at all and I did notice that I had no frizz after blow drying it, so needless to say I was quite impressed. 

I would however recommend using the shampoo with a different conditioner and the conditioner with a different shampoo, so that it doesn't weigh the hair down as much. I definitely think you would have to try it out and see how it goes for your hair. 

The taming creme works nicely but again I would recommend using this instead of your usual products. I used it along with my Kerastase Ciment Thermique and my hair oil and it was just too much. I prefer to use it on dry hair to add definition and to tame the frizz (obviously!) rather than on wet hair, but that is just my personal preference. 

I got these from lookfantastic and they were on offer so I don't remember exactly how much I spent. The three products together cost about 30€ but Lookfantastic always has special deals so that's worth checking out.

Have any of you tried these products? Did they work for you?

Philip Kingsley Elasticizer Extreme

After having had highlights done, I decided to invest in some products that would keep my hair nice and soft. The first product I bought was the Philip Kingsley Elasticizer Extreme. It's a pre-shampoo treatment specifically meant for coarse, damaged, dry hair. It claims to add elasticity and to strengthen the hair, as well as smoothing and adding shine to the hair. 

I've never used a pre-shampoo treatment before so I wasn't sure what to expect. You are meant to apply this to wet hair and then put on the shower cap that is provided and let it sit for 10 to 20 minutes. Not wanting to stay in the bathroom for 20 minutes, I wet my hair in the sink and put the treatment on, focusing on the length and ends rather than the roots. I wasn't sure whether I was meant to use this on my roots, but I try not to use any kind of product apart from shampoo on my roots, so they don't get oily. Then I put the shower cap on for 20 minutes and did some work. When I rinsed it in the shower my hair already felt soft and had almost no tangles which is definitely new. I hadn't brushed my hair beforehand so I was expecting it to be a knotted mess. I made sure all the product was rinsed out before shampooing and conditioning as usual. 

The box says to use this every time you shower, but I don't think I will because it was expensive and who actually has the time to do that? I will probably do this once a week. 

It left my hair feeling very soft and I thought my hair was a lot more manageable. Even after blow drying and straightening, my hair still felt soft, even the bleached parts. I also noticed that there weren't a lot of split ends. So far this product gets a thumbs up from me.

I bought mine from lookfantastic and it cost 27,27€.

Have any of you tried this before? What are your thoughts?

Lush Haul

 

Snow Fairy Shower Gel 

Sandy Santa Sugar Scrub

Bubble Beard Bubble Bar

Golden Wonder Bath Bomb

Santa's Sack Bubble Bar

Rub Rub Rub Shower Scrub

Hi everyone!

I decided to go to Lush after hearing so much about all the Christmas stuff they have in now. I'd seen a few blogposts and videos and they inspired me to make a list of the products I wanted to try. I bought a few things to try out because I hardly ever go to Lush and I love taking baths when the weather starts to get colder too.

Snow Fairy Shower Gel

This is probably the most popular Christmas Lush product. It's the first time I've ever bought it and I can definitely see why, it smells so nice (if you like the smell of bubblegum and candy floss!) I bought the medium size to try it out and it cost 13.95€.

Sandy Santa Sugar Scrub

I bought this purely because it looked cute. It's a body scrub (obviously) and it's ingredients include rosewood and sandalwood oils. I love anything that has sandalwood in it so decided to give it a try. I don't usually buy any kind of body scrub so this is a first. It cost 5.95€, which is a lot considering it's only £2.95 in England but I suppose you could try and use it a few times.

Bubble Beard Bubble Bar

This is the product I was most excited about. It's a moustache! You swish it around in your bath to create bubbles and you can reuse it, which I think is great considering it cost 8.95€. It has quite a musky scent and contains sandalwood oil as well (yay!). I really liked using it and will probably buy it again.

Golden Wonder Bath Bomb

I'd heard a lot about this and really wanted to try it out. It's shaped like a little golden present with white ribbon and once put in the bath it turns the water yellow, green and blue. Then all these little stars start to appear, which is such a cute surprise! They dissolve after a while, so don't worry that they'll stick to you! It smells really fruity and christmassy. The only problem with this product is that it has slightly stained my bath gold and it cost 5.95€ for only one use. The stain did go away after a bit of scrubbing though so don't be put off!

Santa's Sack Bubble Bar

The final thing I bought was this bubble bar. It smells quite spicy and christmassy, which I really like. You can also use it multiple times, by breaking off pieces instead of using the whole thing. I only used a little bit at a time to save it as it cost 7.95€. It made the bath slightly red and produced a few bubbles (it would probably make more if you used the whole thing) and made for a really relaxing bath. This is probably one of my favourites of the bunch, along with the bubble beard.

Rub Rub Rub Shower Scrub

I also got a little sample of a shower scrub. It contains salt and lemon juice and it smells really fruity. I used a bit of it on my arm as I'm quite wary of scrubs, but it left it feeling nice and soft afterwards and it wasn't too gritty. I'd probably buy it in the summer though as it smells really fresh and not so wintery.

Hair Care Haul

I recently decided to invest in some hair care products and thought it would be a good reason for a blogpost and I'll probably be reviewing them on here too. I bought them from a website called Lookfantastic which is a luxury hair and beauty product website and they always have really great offers going on. They ship internationally and it's free so it's definitely worth checking out. I didn't buy these all at once though, I waited for the best offers and bought them over the last  few months.

I won't go into too much detail on the products as I will be reviewing them, but I'll go through them and tell you what they're for and how much they cost.

Kérastase Resistance Ciment Thermique is a leave in, heat-activated, reconstructing milk for brittle and damaged hair. It costs £16.07 for 125ml but I got it for £15.12 as it was on offer.

Kérastase Resistance Bain de Force is a reinforcing and resurfacing shampoo for weakened and damaged hair. It costs £13.52 and you get 250ml in a bottle.

Kérastase Nutritive Masquintense for Thick Hair is a highly concentrated nourishing treatment for dry and sensitive hair which you leave in for a few minutes and then rinse out. It costs £21.16 and you get 200ml.

Kérastase Nutritive Bain Satin 2 is a nourishing and hydrating shampoo for dry and sensitive hair. It costs £13.52 and there's 250ml in a bottle.

I also got a free sample of Kérastase Age Premium Bain Substantif which is a shampoo for mature hair and contains an anti-oxidant ingredient. I'll probably give this to my mum (no mum, I'm not saying you're old) as it is for mature hair and I probably wouldn't use it anyway. The full sized version (250ml) costs £13.52.

The last two products, Redken All Soft Shampoo & Conditioner, basically tell you what they do in their names. This is the third time I've bought them and I absolutely love them! The shampoo (300ml) costs £9.45 and the conditioner (250ml) costs £10.70.

Have you tried any of these products?

ELF Haul

Hi everyone!

A few weeks ago ELF were having a loads of special offers and I decided to take advantage and order a few bits and bobs. The offer was "spend over 15€ and get a free mystery bag with products worth at least 11€", which sounded great since I love the idea of not knowing what I'm getting.

I happily picked out a few products I wanted and waited for my package to arrive. It took a week to arrive and when it did I was like a child at Christmas (like I said, I like surprises!) I was a little bit disappointed because they'd made a mistake and sent me products worth "only" 6.40€. After sending them an email, they were quick to reply and apologised for the mix up. They also sent out a second mystery bag to make up for it, which is really nice of them and I'm very impressed with their customer service.

Anyway, I thought I'd show you what I ordered, as well as the mystery bag contents, in this blogpost.

The first product I ordered was the Studio Blush Brush, because I wanted a smaller one for days when I just want the tiniest hint of colour. It cost €4.50 and is very soft and quite good quality. (I've heard ELF brushes are quite hit and miss with their quality, although so far all the brushes I've ordered from them are nice.)

Next, I ordered the ELF Professional Nail Buffer, which is a four-sided block, with four different steps to remove rough edges and file, polish and buff the nails. I've been getting more into nail care recently, so I thought I should treat them a bit too. It cost €1.70 and is very compact, so it's easy to store.

Then I got the Nourishing Cuticle Pen, which is supposed to help dry nails by moisturising the cuticles. Apparently it contains avocado and almond oils, as well as Vitamins E, A, C and Pro-Vitamin B5. I've used it once so far, and didn't really notice much of a difference, but we'll see how it goes. It cost €1.70.

I also bought the Wet Gloss Lash & Brow Clear Mascara, which has a gel and brush for your lashes on one end, and the same thing on the other end, but for your brows. I only got this for my brows, because I'll need a new one when my little Revlon brow gel runs out. It was also only €1.70 and works like you'd expect it to, keeping my brow hairs in place. I don't like using anything but baby oil on my eyelashes though, so I'm not sure I'll be using the clear mascara.

Then I bought the Zit Zapper, because I was running out of ideas of what to get. It contains Tea Tree Oil, Witch Hazel, Salicylic Acid and Camphor (and I have no idea what either of those last products are). It claims to fight and prevent acne, reduce redness and swelling and minimizes pore size. It cost €1.70, so if it works, great, and if not, oh well! 

The last product I ordered was a Mineral Lipstick, and to be honest the colour on the website looked a lot nicer than it does in real life. It looked like a very deep, perfectly ripe cherry colour, you know, when they're so dark they almost look black in some lights. Obviously the lipstick didn't look black, but very deep, dark red. It's also called Cheerful Cherry, which goes very well with the website colour. In real life though, it's a whole different story. It's more of a light red, like the cherries you can still eat but aren't perfect yet. It is described as light scarlet red with gold shimmer, but the picture doesn't suit that description, so they should probably change that. It is nice though, just not what really I wanted. It was the most expensive at €6.

Mystery Bag N°1:

I got a Nail Polish in the colour Innocent, which is a nude colour, which apparently "creates a chip resistant shield for longer lasting colour". I personally wouldn't have chosen that particular colour but it is a Mystery Bag, so you can't choose. It's worth €3 and I haven't used it yet, so who knows, it may look better on the actual nails than in the bottle. ELF do seem to have some lovely colours on the website, I don't know what the quality is like, but the colours Coral and Red Velvet look really nice.

The next thing I got was a Brightening Eye Colour in Teal Dream, which is a brightening, shimmery eyeshadow quad. The colours are quite nice, the blue and green are more pigmented than the other two nude colours. It's worth €1.70 and comes with a little applicator and a tiny mirror. I'm glad I got this, since I really wanted a blue eyeshadow.

The last thing I got was a Shimmer Eyeliner Pencil in Grassy Green, which is a shimmery, metallic eyeliner. It's worth €1.70 and comes with a built-in sharpener. I think it'll look quite nice applied on the bottom lash line with nude eyeshadows on the lid for a pop of colour.

Mystery Bag N°2:

 

In the second bag, I received a Cream Eyeshadow in Purple Pleaser, which is a really nice, shimmery purple shadow. I'd always wanted to try out an ELF cream eyeshadow, so I'm really happy that I got this. It's worth €4.50 and is part of the Studio line.

 

 

 

I also got a Eyeliner and Shadow Stick in the colours Purple and Plum. It's a double ended pencil that has a twist-up dark purple eyeliner and  a light beige purple eyeshadow. I really like the colours, not only does purple really suits brown eyes, they're also perfect for Autumn! It cost €4.50 and is also part of the Studio line.

 

The final ELF product I got was a Mineral Moisturising Lip Tint SPF 8 in the colour Pink and I think on the website it's called Pink Pop, but the packaging just says Pink. It's a sheer peachy pink nourishing lip tint that's supposed to moisture your lips, as well as protect them from UV rays. It contains shea butter, jojoba oil, coconut oil and Vitamin E. It's worth €4.00 and is part of the Mineral line. 

Let me know what you think of ELF products and which are your favourites!