My Everyday Beauty Regime

Just in case anybody was wondering...here is my everyday beauty routine and a few of my go-to everyday products!

Skincare

I use two cleansers, one in the morning and one in the evening.  In the morning I use Boots' own brand Cucumber Cleansing Lotion (£1.50), which is super cheap and cheerful and does the job for my fairly clear skin. In the evening I use DHC's Deep Cleansing Oil (£11) which I received in my goodie bag from the Cosmo Careers Masterclass and have since fallen in love with. This cleanser removes every last trace of makeup, and leaves my skin super soft and usually keeps it clear.

Shower

I absolutely loooooove Radox Shower Smoothies (£1.99, not pictured as I've currently run out) which you can often find half price in supermarkets. They smell divine and the scent lingers on your skin all day. In terms of shampoo, I'm currently using Mane 'N Tail, a crossover shampoo for horses and humans (£7.49 on Amazon for shampoo and conditioner). Yessssss I know - sounds a bit weird right? Well this is actually one of the best shampoos I've used, it leaves my hair feeling beautifully soft and adds volume. It's also famed for making your hair grow quickly, which is why I originally purchased it.

Hair

I use L'Oreal Mythic Oil (£13)  and Percy and Reed No-Oil Volumising Oil (£14 for a full sized bottle, but I got my miniature free from a magazine) in my hair before blow-drying. If I'm going somewhere special I will also use Tresseme's 24Hour Body Root Boosting Spray (£5.49). I try not to blow-dry, straighten or curl my hair unless I really have to, and if possible I don't wash it more often then once every three days.

Makeup

I always start with Nivea's Express Hydration Primer (£3.99) which I  mentioned in my Five Under a Fiver post to create a smooth base and hydrate my skin (I don't use a dedicated moisturiser as they tend to be too much for my skin).  My favourite budget foundation of all time is Maybelline's 24Hour Superstay Liquid Foundation (£9), which I massively prefer to their popular Dream Matte Mousse. A few of my other staple budget-friendly products include Avon Glimmerstick Eyeliners (£6 but often half price), Seventeen's Doll'd Up Mascara (£6.29), and MUA's Undress Me Eyeshadow Palette (£4). My favourite daytime lipstick at the moment is Shade 14 'Bare' by MUA, a really nice Made In Chelsea style nude for only £1. I remove my makeup using the pink makeup wipes from Primark, which cost £1 for 50 and work perfectly.

What are the staple products that make up your everyday beauty regime?

Haircare Advice for Blondes

I'd been planning this post before my disastrous trip to the hairdressers, thinking that my return to blonde would create the perfect opportunity for this post. Unfortunately, post-highlights I am still pretty much brunette (siiiigh). But hopefully there are still some blondies out there who will enjoy this post.

Lightening or bleaching your hair is always going to be damaging, and so keeping blonde hair in good condition can sometimes be very tricky. It's worth mentioning that if you have ever had bleach in your hair, dying over the blonde will not repair the hair - you should continue to look after the bleached hair as if it were blonde until the whole lot grows out. So, here are a few little things you can do to keep your barnet looking its best...

• Use a deep conditioner regularly. This applies to all hair types, but is particularly important for people who have damaged their hair with harsh colours. Choose a hair mask that is specifically designed to hydrate, since the main trouble with lightened and particularly bleached hair is that it dries out extremely easily. It's not exactly a bargain, but my favourite deep conditioning treatment of all time is Molten Brown's Mer-rouge Conditioning Mask - read my full review here. Whatever treatment you choose, try to use it overnight for best results. If you don't have time then try wrapping the hair in clingfilm once the mask is applied and leave for an hour. Use a treatment at least once a week.
• Use a hair oil. Using oils regularly can make such a difference to the moisture levels and therefore condition of your hair. Use an oil after washing your hair for soft and hydrated locks - I use Mythic Oil by L'Oreal which I love, but their popular Extraordinary Oil is cheaper and a massive favourite with the housemates. Make sure you choose the version aimed at coloured hair if you're not a natural blonde.
• Use reconstructing shampoo. Shampoo is one of the harshest products you will use on your hair - its primary purpose is to strip your locks of their natural oils that keep them healthy. A hairdresser recommended I try L'Oreal's Absolut Repair Cellular Shampoo, which is designed specifically to reconstruct the damage caused by bleaching or over-treatment of the hair. The salon price of the shampoo is around £14 a bottle (no chance) but I managed to find a huuuuuuge salon-sized bottle of the stuff on Amazon for a tenner. It's fairly heavy for a shampoo so I wouldn't advise you use a huge amount of it, and be sure to wash it out thoroughly to prevent your hair from feeling greasy once dried. If you find that the shampoo leaves your hair feeling a little heavy, use it on the ends only, and use a natural ingredients shampoo on the roots. 
• Get regular trims. Boring I know, but it's true. Even if you're trying to grow your hair out like me, it really isn't worth putting off a haircut when your ends are starting to go minging because it will only get worse, and you'll end up having to lop off more than was necessary. Try to have a trim every 6-10 weeks, even if you only get 1/2cm off each time.
• Wash your hair less often. If you are a bottle-blonde and wash your hair every single day, OH MY GOD STOP.  Nobody, nnoobbooddyy needs to wash their hair every day - it might feel nice at the time but you are doing your hair serious damage, particularly if you blowdry and heat-treat your locks every time. Your hair will be retaining very little of its natural oils, making it dry, brittle and probably causing sluggish growth. Accept that at first your hair might look a little greasy, and skip a day before you wash it. The key is to keep going - don't relapse back into your old wash cycle or your hair will quickly become dependent. Try not to wash your hair more frequently than every three days, I promise you will notice the benefits before long and be amazed at how much longer it takes your hair to become greasy.
• Don't brush your hair when wet. This is one of the most common mistakes people make, and one of the biggest causes of hair breakage, particularly on brittle coloured hair. Wet hair is weak, and yanking a hairbrush through it will rip the shafts apart. Instead, take your hairbrush into the shower and brush your hair whilst the conditioner is in. Then leave it until it's dry. Your hair will thank you for it.

Reading back over these tips I do realise that they are pretty basic, but if you follow them all then I promise you will quickly see a difference in the condition of your hair. I also realise that none of these tips are exclusive to blondes either, but if you have used harsh colours on your hair then this is when these things become more important. The obvious regulars also apply - try to cut down on the amount you straighten or curl your hair, and if possible avoid blow drying.

What are your top tips for keeping coloured hair in good condition?

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The Dangers of Groupon / My Latest Hair Disaster

This is my first post since I finally finished my degree (!!!) and so I'm hoping that from now on I will be able to post a bit more frequently. As a result, I'm no longer going to post each individual blog I write on Facebook as it will probably start to annoy people - if you enjoy reading my blog and don't want to miss out then I'd love it if you could follow me. You can do so via your Google account, through Bloglovin (simply make an account on their website, it takes seconds), or by entering your email address. All three of these options are displayed to the left. You can follow anonymously if you would prefer.

(Edit: the following post turned into a bit of a rant. Oops.)

So, as a post-exam treat to myself, I decided I wanted to retreat from the dark side and get some highlights put back into my hair, which was a kind of patchy light brown / dark blonde colour from where I'd been trying a few home dye kits with unsuccessful results. The problem: highlights are damn expensive. To just rock up to a chain salon such as Rush or Headmasters you are looking at around the £100 mark for a full head plus cut and blowdry, and this is certainly not within my price range. So you can imagine my delight when I found a Groupon deal for a local salon offering a full head of highlights, a cut and blowdry AND  a conditioning treatment for a mere £36. I snapped up the deal immediately, thinking it was a miracle and far too good to be true.

Unfortunately...it was. Upon arriving at the salon (Envy in Slough) I was ingored by the receptionist for a good ten minutes whilst she was on the phone to another customer. "Oh no, you're lucky you missed the Groupon deal", she told the woman on the line. "To be honest we only use our junior stylists on Groupon customers and they're very inexperienced. You might not have been happy with the results". FANTASTIC START. I was literally standing right there.

I'd noticed in the small print before I headed off to the salon that there was a £10 surcharge on the day for customers with hair below shoulder length - I was hoping that since my hair is only slightly below my shoulders and hardly what you'd call long hair, I might get away with it. No such luck, I was told straight away that I'd be paying £10 extra. Then (after sitting in the chair waiting for a further 15 minutes whilst all the stylists were having a mothers meeting behind me) my stylist came over and made a few suggestions as to what would look good in my hair. "I think definitely two colours would look nice, maybe a bright and a honey blonde or even a few lowlights. We'll use a toner to remove any brassiness. How does that sound?"

It sounds good, thanks.

"Brilliant okay. Just so you know, that'll be an extra £15 for the second colour, and an additional £13 for the toner."

WHAT.

I look grumpy 'cos I hate having my photo taken

If you're no good at maths, this now meant that I was being asked to pay an additional £38 - more than the original cost of the Groupon, meaning I would have paid a total of £74! Against the salon's advice I scrapped the second colour because I literally couldn't afford it, but had to accept that the toner was necessary in order to stop my hair from going orange and stripey. How such a basic thing could count as an optional extra, I honestly have no idea.

Once my stylist finally started putting in my foils, I couldn't help but notice that the client next to me, who wasn't a Groupon customer, had at least twice as many foils as me despite the fact that I had paid for a full head. When I queried this I was just told that I was being given a more natural look as this was what would suit my hair. Total con, of course.

Oh, and the "treatment" advertised in the offer turned out to be conditioner left in for a couple of minutes - brilliant.

To be fair to the salon and my stylist, the end result is fine. It's a very natural look, probably more natural than what I was hoping for - you definitely wouldnn't call my hair blonde, but I guess it will continue to get blonder as I keep topping up the roots. Annoyingly, I think the end result would have been exactly what I was hoping for had I been given a proper full head of highlights like the woman next to me, very annoying. Likewise, I would have walked out of the salon happy with the results if it had only cost me the original £36 rather than the grand total of £59, plus a £5 train ticket to Slough (I would literally never in a million years have been to Slough had it not been for the Groupon).

So, the moral of the story is: if it looks to good to be true, it probably is. If you find yourself tempted by a Groupon, DO NOT BUY IT UNTIL YOU HAVE RUNG THE SALON AND ASKED IF THERE ARE ANY ADDITIONAL CHARGES. Even then, I wouldn't touch Groupon with a barge pole ever again - it was very clear that Groupon customers received very different treatment to regular clients.

Have you ever used Groupon for a beauty treatment, or for anything else? Please share your experiences in my comments section down below. If you can't see the comment box, Click where it says 'X Comments' (depending on how many comments have been left) and it should appear. You can leave your comment anonymously if you would prefer.

Five under a Fiver

Hello! I thought I'd do a quick post to share my five favourite products of the moment that cost under £5, so here they are:

Top row: Superdrug Coconut oil - Nivea Express Hydration Primer - St. Moritz Tanning Mousse. Bottom row: Model's Own Kohl Eyeliner Pencil - MUA Shimmer Highlighter

I know I keep bannging on about the Superdrug Coconut oil so I'm not going to waffle on about it agian here, but if you want to know more about my current favourite beauty bargain then you can read my original review here. As for the other four.....

Nivea Express Hydration Primer, £4.99

I love this primer,  and it's a brilliant steal at £4.99. It creates a lovely smooth base for your makeup, and if you have normal to dry skin then it will provide a lovely burst of moisture too. The only thing I would say about this product is to wait a minute or two after applying it before adding foundation on top, or it may start to peel and it won't be attractive.

Model's Own Kohn Eyeliner Pencil, £4

These pencils are great because they glide on smoothly, are easily smudgable (is smudgable even a word? If not then it is now) with the attached tool at the end of the pencil, and last throughout the entire day. It also comes with a sharpener built into the lid which you may not be able to see too clearly in this picture, but it works perfectly and means that you will always have a beautifully sharp pencil. Also available in white, pink, blue and brown. 

MUA 'Undress Your Skin' Shimmer Highlighter, £3

This is an ideal budget highlighter. The picture doesn't really do justice to how big it is, so you're getting plenty of product for not a lot of money. Sweep a little product across the top of your cheekbones or smudge a teeny bit into the corners of your eyes for a fresh-faced look.









St. Moritz Instant Self Tanning Mousse, £2.99

This fake tan is probably one of the worst kept secrets in beauty, but since we've actually had a little taster of summer this week with some sunnier weather I thought it was definitely worth a mention to refresh your memories. St. Moritz is a brilliant dupe for St. Tropez tanning mousse, and at a tiny wee fraction of the price - what's not to love? Wait for the tan to dry and then whack a small amount of Coconut oil on top for lovely supple-looking legs.





Have you tried any of these products? Or are there any bargains you think I should have included on this list? Let me know! :) xx

Are you killing your hair with kindness?

I probably mess about with my hair colour more than I should, and since deciding to grow it out I've been on the look out for ways to keep my hair in good condition. As a result, I have been using a whole host of special products that claim to hydrate, protect and repair my hair, and feeling quite pleased with myself for being so good to my locks - that is, until I made a slightly alarming discovery.

Long story short, was looking up reviews of Colour B4, a home stripping kit to remove dye from your hair (anyone used it? Please pop a comment below if you have), and I found an interesting statement from Scott Cornwall, the product's inventor. Basically, Scott was explaining why some people may find Colour B4 less effective on their hair - the main reason being silicone build up.

Silicone is present in the majority of hair products, and coats the hair leaving it looking shiny and feeling soft. However, since all the silicone is actually doing is COATING your hair, it is actually doing nothing to improve its condition, it simply disguises the damage. In the long term silicone actually leaves your hair dry and lifeless, meaning that most people will unwittingly chuck a load more silicone based products on top to sort it out, resulting in a nasty vicious cycle.

Perhaps the scariest part of what Scott had to say, however, was what happens when people add straightening irons and curling tongs into the mix with silicone products. Once your hair becomes coated in silicone, applying the 200 degree heat of straighteners etc seals the silicone into the hair shaft and eventually fuses the two together, which results in your hair essentially becoming synthetic. This is why over treated hair is so prone to snapping and burning off - it is behaving as synthetic hair would do as your hair has far too much silicone enclosed within it.

Pretty much every shampoo, conditioner, hair treatment or colourant will contain silicone, unless it is specifically advertised as being silicone free or using natural ingredients. Using silicone is the cheapest way for companies to create a product that appears to have a positive effect on hair, so generally speaking the less you pay for your products, the more silicone you can expect to find. Check the labels of your hair products: any ingredients ending in -one or -cone will be a form of silicone.

The worst offenders in terms of silicone tend to be damaging hair dyes such as the Schwartzkopf XXL range, as they use the silicones to appear to cancel out the damage of adding such a harsh colour to your hair. Once your hair is packed full of silicone it is nigh on impossible to get out, so if you're having trouble removing certain colour pigments from your hair then it is probably because the colour has been sealed inside a fat layer of silicone (laaavely). For this reason, products such as Colour B4 do not tend to work on silicone-abused hair, and in extreme cases even bleach can't get rid of the colour.

Having been through all of my hair products and searched the labels, I can vouch for the fact that it is very tricky to find products that don't contain any silicone. I'm not going to chuck out every silicone containing product I own since as I'd have next to nothing left, but once I run out I will be careful to only purchase silicone free products. Here are a couple of purse-friendly shampoos and conditioners are that completely silicone-free: TRESemme Naturals Collection and anything Organic Root Stimulator's range, such as the Olive Oil & Aloe shampoo displayed to the right.

If you're worried about excess silicone build up in your hair, try rising your hair with apple cider vinegar once a week to cleanse some of the build up, and avoid using heat styling products at all costs.

Are you concerned about silicone? Do you plan to switch to natural products? Let me know down below!

March Splurge

Although the chief purpose of this blog is to sniff out the best beauty bargains, sometimes I have to admit that luxury products are simply superior, and worth shelling out for. My favourite beauty product in the whole world right now is an example of this, so if you're planning to treat yourself to one naughty thing this payday, make it the Molten Brown Mer-rouge Deep Conditioning Mask (£23), the best hair conditioning treatment I have ever used by a country mile.

I got this conditioning mask from my parents Father Christmas this year, having never heard of it before. I'm on a bit of a crazy mission to keep my hair in perfect condition at the moment - I've given up my straighteners for lent and only wash my locks every four days in order to keep them strong and promote growth, so I was excited to try it out. I've been using it for about three months now, and I never want to be without it! Here's the jargon from the Molten Brown website:

- Atlantic Ocean mer-rouge seaweed deeply conditions
- Vegetable proteins help enrich and smooth
- Intensive conditioners help soften, detangle and reduce risk of breakage
- Amino acid to help improve shine,


but all you really need to know is that this mask will make your hair incredibly soft, hydrated and shiny after just one usage, and the natural ingredients mean that the treatment is actually benefitting your hair, rather than coating it in chemicals that trick you into thinking it looks and feels healthier whilst actually drying it out. I try to use this treatment once a week, and my hair really misses it if I forget. Besides the obvious benefits to your hair, the mask has the most gorgeous aroma that I find incredibly relaxing; the perfect addition to a de-stress bath! Although you only need to leave this treatment in for a couple of minutes to reap the benefits, I prefer to leave it on for at least half an hour to give my hair a bit of a birthday. 

At £23, I am willing to admit that this isn't exactly a bargain. What it is, however, is good value for money - the tub is big and you don't need a lot of product to make a real differene to your hair. My clever Mum managed to find this half price in a Molten Brown outlet store in Portsmouth, where it was reduced as they have just changed the packaging, so if you live near an outlet store then go and have a snoop. Even at full price, I don't feel like I have much of a choice but to repurchase this when it runs out - it's as close to a miracle product as I'm ever going to get!

However......

If the Molten Brown is too expensive to be considered, give Mark Hill's Colour Hydration Bomb (£6.49) a go. It may not have quite the same effect as Mer-rouge, but it will still do a world of good to your hair at a fraction of the price.

Budget vs Blowout - Hair Strenghtening Treatments

Even though I'm a big-time bargain lover, I always find myself tempted by the bigger name brands which tend to carry the higher price tag. Luckily, when it comes to hair products, I rarely have to splurge to try a higher end product thanks to my Aunt, an ex-hairdresser who likes to sample every shampoo, conditioner and treatment going, then pass them on to me after a few uses reveal that they aren't suitable for her super fussy hair.

 The last time I saw her, she donated a 250ml bottle of Redken Anti-Snap Leave In Conditioner. I was pretty pleased with this result as I'd been longing to try a Redken product for some time, but could never quite bring myself to spend twice as I'd usually pay for a highstreet alternative. At over £13 a bottle on Amazon, I'd usually consider this product to be out of my poverty stricken student budget (sobs).

In contrast, I recently decided I wanted to give coconut oil a try in wake of Moroccan Oil Mania (see my review of Avon's budget friendly version here), as it sounded like it could be a purse-friendly alternative. To quench my curiosity, I picked up Inecto Pure Coconut Oil Hair Repair Treatment from Amazon for £2.36, in the hope that I may have found a new favourite that I can actually afford!

The Redken treatment promises to strengthen hair and prevent split ends, as well as hydrating for instant results. I found that I didn't need to use too many pumps of the conditioner to be able to get good coverage of my ends, and the smell was pleasant too.
I didn't notice a massive difference in the feel of my hair immediately after using the Redken conditioner, but in the long term I have noticed a reduction in the amount of split ends - whether this is down to the conditioner or the fact that I have shorter hair than I used to, I'm not entirely sure. 

The Coconut Oil Hair Repair Treatment is a masque rather than a leave in conditioner, making it more of a hassle to use than the Redken strengthener, which you can just apply to hair and then blow dry as normal. The packaging promises that the treatment will nourish and hydrate hair making it softer and stronger, helping to prevent breakage and split ends. The smell of the Inecto product is divine (providing you like the smell of coconut as much as I do), and the scent lingers on your hair until you next wash it. My hair did feel immediately softer and shinier after rinsing the masque - more so than after using the Redken treatment - but the feeling fades fast, leaving me wondering whether the product is actually benefiting my hair at all in the long run.

Despite promising the same results,  I've found that I've been using these products for different reasons. The Redken Anti-Snap conditioner won't provide immediate benefits but will instead work its magic in the long run, whereas the Inecto conditioner is perfect for using before a special occasion, as it will leave your hair shiney, soft and smelling gorgeous. For under three quid I'd recommend investing in the Coconut Oil masque, but in light of the £13 price tag I probably won't be re-purchasing the Redken treatment when it runs out.