Monday 26 July 2010

Aussie, Aussie, Aussie!

Thursday night was the Aussie "Aussome Volume" party in Manchester. The whole night was 60's themed and was help in the basement bar of Bluu in the Northern Quarter.


The whole night, as you can probably guess, was based around how to get huge hair. And what better theme to have than the 60's.

Amber and Zara the Aussie hair stylists used my hair to show everyone one way to get lots of volume by using heated rollers and backcombing.


And the finished result..


Voila -  Huge hair!!

As the rest of the Aussie angels got their hair styled we were treated to lots of yummy cocktails and nibbles and a fab singer called Shola Kaye. It was a great opportunity to meet all the girls from Aussie again, they're so lovely and great fun.


Of course there was lots of other bloggers there and their friends and it was lovely to catch up with old faces and meet new ones!

At the end of  the evening there was some rather entertaining kareoke!


Me and my sister had to leave early so missed out on the rest of the fun, but thanks so much to the Aussie girls for inviting us. We had a fab time and everyone was really lovely.

Friday 23 July 2010

My first Wahanda experience..

When I was contacted by Wahanda asking if I wanted to help them promote their deals in Manchester, I jumped at the chance. I think what they do is fantastic, they always have fab deals on and I know they're already very popular amongst bloggers around the country.

Wahanda offer daily deals on spa and beauty treatments in London, Manchester, Birmingham and now Leeds with up to 90% off. You all saw the post I did on Monday about their £2 deals and that's just an example of the fab offers they do.

Here's how it works if you're not familiar with them:

1)Using the power of collective buying, Wahanda negotiates special volume discounts with top spas, salons and studios to offer one exciting MobDeal every day from Monday to Friday.


2)The deal is open to everyone but is only available for 24 hours, and only comes into effect if enough people sign up for that day’s MobDeal (the number varies by day and deal).

3)Customers are encouraged to share the deal with friends via email and social networking tools such as Facebook and Twitter because if the minimum number of purchases is not met, no one gets the deal.

4)Once a MobDeal has been purchased by the minimum number of customers, the unbeatable deal is officially “live” and is available for the rest of the day for anyone to purchase
 
They also donate £1 to a charity called Water for every purchase made, which is pretty amazing.
 
I had a voucher for a hair cut and an intensive conditioning treatment at a Mahogany salon in Manchester. When this was on offer it was £25 for the voucher and its value was £77 so that's a saving of £52 which is a massive saving! I would be more than happy to pay that for a haircut in a city centre salon as I'm sure well know a decent haircut doesn't come cheap.
 
When I arrived I was taken to a chair and told Karen who is a senior stylist at Mahogany what I hated about my hair (its lack of volume and that I'm trying to grow out a graduated bob) and what I liked (the length at the front). I asked her not to make all of my hair the same length as when I'm growing out my old graduated bob as it just wouldn't suit me and I expected to be told it would look silly but she listened to me and I was lead to the sinks to have my conditioning treatment. After it was applied I sat under the heaters for 20 minutes and was looked after very well!
 
I told Karen I tend to leave a long time between appointments as I have a phobia of having my hair cut, hairdressers just seem to get a bit scissor happy on my hair. So I may have put her under pressure to make sure I was happy but I was really happy with it! Generally hairdressers make a pigs ear of my fringe but she cut it really nicely and made sure it lay right. As she dried my hair she was giving me tips on how to get more volume and she also gave me some colouring advice.
 
As I dye my hair at home I tend to buy different colours all the time so I thought I had to put it on all over my hair for the full time. However she told me that all the colour has built up on the ends and the follicles have sucked it all up. So the ends of my hair are a lot darker than my roots, she told me to put the colour on my roots and to leave it on for 20 minutes and then whack the rest of the colour on my ends for the last 10 minutes. Which is what I did the day after my appointment so I'm hoping I'll soon have healthy hair!
 
The treatment left my hair feeling lovely and soft and healthy looking and I was really happy with it. The cut looked fab and I left feeling really happy. I don't have one bad thing to say about the salon they made me feel comfortable and confident in their hands.
 
There are some fantastic Offers on the Wahanda website for hair cuts and treatments at the moment and I definitely recommend you go and have a look and buy one, a lot of them are in London but there's a couple in the Midlands! When its time for me to have my next cut I'll definitely be looking for another MobDeal!
 
If you're looking for deals in the Manchester area check out this link as they are still offering the £20 worth of treatments for £2.
 

My new hair! I did have to clip back my fringe as I'm not having a good fringe day! x

Tuesday 20 July 2010

Saturday night..

I hope you all have Whigfield stuck in your head now because I do!

On saturday I went away for the night for mum's 44th birthday! We stayed at a Village hotel and we were watching "Fake That" in the evening. As well as mum there was lots of her friends and my sister! We had a fab time, although I did pay for it yesterday which a rather bad hangover. Seeing as I haven't had a proper night out since my hen night nearly two years ago, I think it was well deserved.

I'll share some pictures with you


My Face of the night which was
Dior Forever foundation
Xen Tan bronzer
Nars Orgasm
Eyes were done with the Sleek Graphite pallette
Urban Decay 24/7 liner in Zero
MAC 7 lashes
17 Bee Hive lipstick.
I think there's something wrong with my sisters camera as all the pictures look grainy!



My outfit..please excuse my horrible muffin tops!! Argh I hate them I really need to get stuck back into WW!

Anyway, dress is from Primark, shoes are New Look and the jewellery belongs to a friend so I'm not sure where its from!



Me and mum harassing "Jason Orange"

Classy!


The Birthday girl.

As you can see "Fake That" looked nothing like Take That, and they weren't on for very long either. Apart from that we had a great time and a lot of wine was consumed, I really reccomend these nights for a girls night out!

Monday 19 July 2010

Wahanda £2 Mob Deal is back!

I'm sure many of you have heard of Wahanda already, if not then this is a great oppurtunity for you to check them out and get a bargain in the process!

Wahanda already offer fantastic beauty deals in Manchester, Birmingham and London, now they are launching in Leeds!

To celebrate this they are offering £20 worth of treatments in all four cities for just £2! Bargainous eh?



To find out more head over to the Wahanda website Wahanda

This post isn't affiliated with Wahanda but if you do use my link I get a lovely £5 voucher which would come in very handy! Sign upto their newsletter and you will also get £5.

Keep your eye on my blog later this week for my thoughts on my first Wahanda experience.

Thursday 15 July 2010

The Hills...end of a era!



Picture from MTV.com


So I just watched the last ever The Hills, and I feel sad its all over. I only started watching it 2 years ago but after watching one episode I just went online the next day and spent a couple of days getting up to date with all the episodes. I love the drama, the clothes, and the friendships.

I hate Spencer (Pratt by name, Pratt by nature), Heidi seems to have lost the plot, Brody doesn't deserve any of the girls, and Justin Bobby definitely doesn't deserve Audrina.

There's been so much talk over whether its real or not and you do find out at the end of the episode (I'm not spoiling anything for anyone but its likely you already know as I read it on the Daily Mail website) And as much as I didn't want to, I started to like Kristin.



I think my favourite person is Lo, I love her. She's cute and she's normal and funny. She's not been in it as much as she should have been but I loved hers and LC's friendship and is the one I identify with the most.

Have you seen the episode yet? What did you think and do you have a favourite character or favourite moment from the whole show?


x

Illamasqua Jo'mina

This is such a beautiful nail polish and even the photo's don't show it.




I've never had an Illamasqua polish before as I have a bit of a problem with spending over £10 on one nail polish, but I've wanted this colour for a while and spotted it in the ASOS sale for £7.75 and with a bit of persuading from the girls on Twitter I ordered it. And I'm so glad I did.
I worried it would be very similar to the other lilac polishes I have, but its completely different and I've had a lot of compliments on it. It applied easily and dried quickly, this is 2 coats but I did add another coat as it looked a bit patchy (possibly my application). I've not had any tip wear with it, but I haven't been using my laptop the past couple of days I've just been catching up on the iPad. I got 2 days wear before it chipped which isn't bad! This is easily one of my favourite polishes now.

Thursday 8 July 2010

MAC Jazzed vs Ever Hip..(and a little rant!)

SO if you follow me on Twitter you will know the nightmare I've had the past couple of days with DHL and MAC. My order was supposed to be delivered on tuesday but it didn't come, DHL told me it had to be here by 9pm wednesday evening or they will be breaking their contract with MAC. Anyway it didn't come and this morning I had to phone the big DHL call centre, then the local one and then the driver to find out where it was, and he told me DHL had given him too much work and he'd forgotten about it. I really don't think this is good service and I know I'm not the first person to have problems with DHL but I was quite relieved to have my lipstick because its now sold out!


Anyway, a lot of people have been saying Jazzed is similar to Ever Hip, which I didn't hear until after I ordered it and I was a bit worried I'd ordered a dupe but when I compared the two they are definately different.



No Flash



With Flash.

So you can see Ever Hip is more Pink than Jazzed.

Here is Jazzed on the lips



And Ever Hip



I hope you can see the difference between the two, I can in real life but I'm not sure it comes across in photo's. I love them both, they're both very wearable. Its just a shame they're both limited edition.

Monday 5 July 2010

Revlon Colorburst Lipstick..

I know I'm a bit slow with this but I had to blog about it! I wasn't actually planning on buying them but Boots gave me £5 of points today for signing upto the Prescription Collection service (boring!) and me being me the points were burning a whole in my purse so I had a little browse and was about to buy another Models Own loose shadow when I remembered the Revlon lippies!


I bought the first one I picked up which was 020 Baby Pink


I really like the packaging, its black and sleek and I wouldn't be embrassed to take it out in public.

Its a standard light bubblegum pink lipstick



I love the embossed Revlon on the actual lipstick, I'm not sure why but I just like looking at it.

On the lips is slightly frosted which you wouldn't think from looking at it in the tube! I was slightly disapointed but I do like the colour, it's more of a lilacy pink


The consistency is nice, I would compare it to MAC, not too soft and it lasts well. There's also no nasty tastes or smells! This was on offer in Boots for £5.99 they're usually £7.99 which I think is a bit steep for a drugstore lipstick. I'm really starting to prefer lipstick to lipgloss, which was a shock as I always felt like I'd been raiding my mums make up bag as a kid when I wore lipstick but its so much easier than sticky gloss's.

Have you tried these? What did you think?

Sunday 4 July 2010

Lovea Tahitian Monoi Moisteriser..

The other product from MyPure!

I must admit to not using moisteriser very much but my husband uses lots of it, he has very dry skin! So I let him try this one out, I've used it a couple of times but we've just been on holiday so my skin is a little bit dry whereas usually its fine.


Ingredients -




I really love the smell of this so when it came I packed it in our suitcase ready for our holiday as it does smell like holidays! We never use a proper aftersun, we usually buy Vaseline Aloe Vera moisteriser.
The consistency is quite thin but a little goes a long way. So, seeing as I didn't really use it I'll let Col tell you what he thought...
"As you've already been told I have very dry skin, I'm constantly rubbing moisteriser into my skin to try and get it smooth. We took this away with us last week and I did burn a bit, as soon as I got in I applied this and it felt soothing on the sunburn and when I started to peel it helped to stop it and put moisture back into my skin. Its easy to use, no slippy hands trying to squeeze stuff out of a tube and it smells like a holiday! I've also started using it as a balm for after shaving and its better than the Nivea cream I usually use. I probably use more lotions and potions than Jen. I give this a 5 out of 5 and will be buying more of it!"
This can be bought from the MyPure website for £6.99 for 200 ml

Saturday 3 July 2010

A'kin Jojoba & Lavender Light Conditioner..







This was one of two items I was sent from MyPure this month.


I was a bit dubious when I saw the bottle, I thought it looked a bit old fashioned but I put that to one side and took it to my shower with me!

I still don't think I'm used to the smell of organic things as it took me a few days to get used to the smell and I quite like it now.


The blurb from the MyPure website - "A'kin Jojoba & Lavender Conditioner combines certified organic lavender flower extract combined with cold pressed Australian jojoba to provide light conditioning and natural lustre to fine or oily hair."




When I applied it I noticed it didn't feel as smooth to apply as usual conditoners and my hair didn't feel as soft as normal conditioners make it feel. Once I dried it I noticed my hair definately did feel softer and was so much shinier! I'm really impressed with this product, if I had a bit of spare money to treat myself I would definately repurchase.




Ingredients in the conditioner




And lovely soft, shiny hair!




You can purchase this conditioner from the My Pure website for £7.49 for 225 ml http://www.mypure.co.uk/akin-hair-care-b2/jojoba-lavender--conditioner-p13

Friday 2 July 2010

DuWop Lip Venom Gloss..




DuWop isn't really a brand I know a lot about, I think they did the Twilight make up last year? But I've never used anything from them. This lipgloss claims to give you full,soft, hydrated lips by "Blending that same spicy concoction of cinnamon, wintergreen and ginger with skin softening ingredients like jojoba, avocado and sunflower oil, beeswax for protection, and green tea for soothing"

I have it in shade Pink Champagne which is a lovely nudey pink colour, it comes in a squeezy tube with the plastic angled applicator.

The first thing you notice when you apply it is that it is a thick gloss, and it is the sticky kind! Then your lips start tingling as you get with these plumping glosses. Its not an "Oh my god quick get this off my lips" tingling, its actually quite nice. I'm quite addicted to the sensation actually!

I feel like when I look in the mirror I can see a difference in my lips but when I took photo's it doesn't show.Maybe I just pout a bit much when I'm looking in the mirror! I'll post them anyway seeing as I went to the effort of taking them...

Before

After

I do like the gloss, but at £15 I don't think I'll be repurchasing as I can't justify the cost. I would reccomend it if you have £15 to spend on a plumping gloss however.
Have you tried this gloss? What do you think?

Thursday 1 July 2010

Eyeko Graffiti Liner..

I was sent this (with a number of things that I'll review this week) from Sam at http://www.makeupadviceforum.co.uk/


I haven't used many Eyeko products, just a couple of their polishes. So I was happy to try this, and I have a bit of a thing for liner pens rather than gel liner.



I just applied it with a shimmery eyeshadow this morning and did a big of winged liner with it. Its been really hot today and I've been sat outside in the sun, my hayfever has also been quite bad so my eye's have been watering and I've been rubbing them. But its been on for 9 hours now and its still perfect!




Purple isn't a colour I would've picked but its a nice bright colour to brighten up your face when its too hot to be wearing tons of eyeshadow. It looks like a felt tip pen and its really easy to apply, it makes quite a thin line so I did have to go over it a couple of times to make it thicker.
Overall I'm really impressed and will definately be purchasing the black one, for £5 it would be rude not to.