Grey

Dress: Boohoo // Vans: Office // Necklace: Your Fashion Jewellery*

How cute is this necklace? It has a tiny thimble, sewing machine and scissors on a long chain - perfect for wearing with a t-shirt dress like this. I like wearing simple, comfy outfits for lazy days - a plain t-shirt dress with some jewellery and a scarf is right up my street for daytimes.

These photos were taken down in Southampton last weekend. My boyfriend runs Roller Disco events all over the place so we had been doing that in Winchester the night before, then stopped at Josh's sisters house for the night. 

While taking these photos we witnessed someone reversing into a car which was pretty bad, they left a note on the damaged car's windscreen but I can't help wondering whether they would have if we hadn't been there. I am so cynical!

I'm very excited for a quiet weekend this weekend - my only plans are drinks/night out on the Friday night and a hangover Nandos on Saturday - hopefully I'll get some blog posts written up and lots of exciting housework/tidying/shopping! Have you got any exciting plans? x    

No. 7 Cleansing Brush

No. 7 - Beautiful Skin Cleansing Brush

I've always been intrigued by the Clarisonic cleansing brushes, so when No. 7 at Boots released this much cheaper version I was very keen to pick it up. I can't justify paying £100ish for something I'm not sure will suit my skin - No. 7's version was a much less risky alternative.

This is an electronic cleansing brush, with two speed settings. The slower speed setting is designed for those with more sensitive skin, whereas the faster setting is for those with more oily skin. I personally have been using the slower speed as I feel the faster setting can be a little bit too harsh on my face (and cleanser gets sprayed all around the bathroom...). The brush is very soft and gently exfoliates while cleaning your skin. No. 7 recommend using their foaming cleanser with the brush to get the best results.

The brush and cleanser combined leave me with very fresh, clean feeling skin. I only use this around once a week, as it's quite an extensive clean. After using the brush and cleanser, I do feel like I need to thoroughly moisturise (you should anyway) but sometimes it can make my skin feel quite tight.

Over all, I think the No 7 brush is great for a harder weekly clean but I wouldn't recommend using it much more than that. I can't directly compare to the Clarisonic version, but for the price, this definitely stands up as a competitor in my eyes. My skin has had no problems after using the brush, I have heard that the Clarisonic can sometimes make people break out.

Have you tried the Clarisonic or the No. 7 brush? What do you think? x

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Wishlist: prints

I was away in Devon last weekend and for what feels like the first time in ages, the sun was out! I may have been slightly over-optimistic, but I was dreaming of wearing cute prints, pastels, bold shades and outfits without jackets or coats! I've picked out some of my favourite spring time pieces below.

Pastel prints:

Blouse // Dress // Skirt // Trousers

I'm really looking forward to wearing cute pastel prints. I love the floral brocade pattern on the skirt and trousers, they're a great way to wear the pastel trend without having to wear solid blocks of colour. I feel like delicate is the way to go with pastels, otherwise I worry that I might end up looking like a giant sweet or something like that. I also like the grey to purple ombre effect on the dress, again it's a slightly more subtle way of wearing both pastels and prints!

Bold prints:

Satchel 1 // Satchel 2 // Kaleidoscope dress / Tie dye dress // Bold print dress

As much as I'm loving pastels, I'm also exciting to start wearing some bolder colours. I'm pretty bad at sticking to my comfort zone in outfit choices, I do like to stick to grey, black, purple and burgundy. But I am hoping to move away from this in spring time and introduce some brighter prints into my wardrobe. I love the kaleidoscope dress from the selection above, it has still got some black in there but it's a nice bold print contrasted with the coral colour, so it counts ;). 

Re-vamping your wardrobe ready for a new season can be pretty tough on your purse, so check out NetVoucherCodes for fashion and footwear discounts.

What are you looking forward to in Spring? Will you be choosing the pastel or bold prints? x

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Whimsical

Topshop lipstick in Whimsical - £8

I bought this lipstick from Topshop a while back as I loved the peachy/nudey shade. I probably have around 4 other similar shades buried in my drawer somewhere, but I just can't stop myself from buying another one.

The colour is very subtle when it's on the lips, but it does just finish a simple daytime makeup off nicely. I'm not quite sure what was happening to my hair when I took this photo - it's pretty frizzy and fluffy so please ignore that! The application of the lipstick is quite smooth, but it can sometimes look a little streaky. I have found that with other nude/peach lipsticks though, so I think it's probably more down to the pale colour than the standard of the lipstick. 

Have you tried any of the Topshop lipsticks? What do you think? x

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Red Velvet

Last weekend I had a random urge to bake, so thought I'd try out the blogger's favourite, Red Velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting. I had never tasted one of these cakes let alone tried to make them before!

I followed Hummingbird Bakery's Red Velvet recipe and it made about 15 smallish cakes. They weren't too tricky to make and they tasted amazing! I was surprised about the amount of red food colouring you're supposed to use though, 400ml - a whole bottle! That's some crazy e-numbers going into these cakes! I didn't quite use 400ml as I didn't have a full bottle so used about 300ml and they didn't turn out very red really. 

I'm not sure why I've only just discovered cream cheese frosting, it tastes so good. I took some of these cakes into work and Kim very rightly questioned why we don't combine cream cheese and sugar more often?!

Have you tried Red Velvet & cream cheese frosting before? What do you think? x

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Area H20 shampoo & conditioner

Area H20 Shampoo and Conditioner for hard water*

Your hair will be affected by different types of minerals in your water, depending on where you live. These minerals can be the cause of frizzy, fly-away hair so this is where Area H20 step in.

They have devised shampoos and conditioners for hard, medium and soft water areas meaning that your hair will always be properly clean, soft and silky smooth when you step out the shower. To find out what type of water is in your area then have a look at their handy map here. Their shampoos and conditioners remove the excess minerals from your hair, leaving it naturally frizz-free and soft.

I was kindly sent shampoo and conditioner to try out in my hard water area. You can sometimes notice in hard water areas that your shampoo, shower gel or any foamy product doesn't really lather up very well at first, this is again down to the minerals in the water. However, Area H20 have got this one sorted with their hard water shampoo, it created loads of bubbles in the first wash. The packaging of the products is also great, the lids on both are really easy to open and use - especially the conditioner. 

After using these products I felt that my hair was much softer than when I use my normal shampoo and conditioner, but it didn't feel weighed down at all. Sometimes with shampoos and conditioners that claim to make your hair softer/silkier, I often feel like my hair is just coated with something, but the Area H20 products didn't feel like that at all. It was definitely calmer too, much less flyaways and frizz! Always a plus.

Overall, I'm really impressed with the Area H20 products. I hadn't even considered that it might be my water type giving me un-manageable hair, so I'm really glad I had the chance to use these products! It's also meant that I've been able to use less hair oils and serums after washing my hair, so saves you a bit of money too! :)

Have you ever tried Area H20 products? Do you have frizzy hair straight after it's been washed? x

P.s. you might have noticed that I've had a bit of a design change! There's still a few bits I need to change, but what do you think so far?

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Rimmel Apocalips #2: Celestial

Rimmel Apocalips in Celestial

So I jumped on the band wagon for a second time (read my review of Luna here, or just scroll down a bit) and bought another shade of the Rimmel Apocalips lip laquers - Celestial. 

I'm not usually one for buying something in multiple shades unless I really love it, so this is a pretty big deal! I won't go into too much detail on the product as I did that in my previous post, but again it's a gorgeous shade, non-sticky and long lasting! I did notice it has a bit of a weird smell if you sniff the applicator, but luckily you don't notice that when it's on your lips!

Have you tried any of the Apocalips range yet? What's your favourite shade? x

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