My Three Holiday Beauty Essentials

Here are my three must have holiday beauty essentials. They're key to keeping me feeling refreshed and looking composed rather than, quite frankly, a humidity stricken, chaos.

Body Shop Vineyard Peach Body Mist 

This gorgeous sweet fruity fragrance is my favourite odour for summer! My Mum bought me this a few months back and as soon as I smelt the fresh, dreamy and almost delicious scent, I knew that I had to save it for my holidays. This fragrance is quite strong however as it is so sweet it is not overpowering. Whenever I wear this it gets tons of compliments, which is always a good sign. Most importantly is that the scent stays with you pretty much all day! So I'd say this 100 ml bottle will certainly last at least 3 months and that's if you were wearing it everyday, not bad at all for £7.50. 

VO5 Smoothly Does It Frizz Free Creme

I can only describe my natural hair as a frizzy, curly and untamed mop with a mind of it's own. Over the years I have tried product after product and very few can keep my hair tamed in England's mostly miserable weather, never mind in a hot country! I picked this up in Tesco, specifically for my first holiday of this summer which was earlier this month, for something like £4 which is cheap for a syrum of it's kind. I must admit I was not expecting much purely due to my hairs history for being defiant against frizz taming hair products. However I was pleasantly surprised when I used it for the first time when in Barcelona and it worked just like it claimed to on the box! In the humid weather it kept my hair feeling soft and smooth until the next wash. I was so relieved that I didn't have to spend as much time as usual on my hair as I normally do when on holiday. 

Simple Kind to Skin Replenishing Rich Moisturiser 

As I suffer from sensitive skin I am not very experimental with what moisturisers I use, especially for my face. Simple is a brand that specialises in sensitive skin so I often buy their products and I am yet to have a problem with them. I really love this rich moisturiser because it makes my face feel baby soft and keeps it replenished and moisturised all day. I also find it helps to ease breakouts and make them go away quicker, which is always good! 

Until next time,

Hayley x

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Barry M Lip Liner Review

Today's blog post is a review on the Barry M Lip Liner in shade Mulberry 9. 

Over the past year my love for lipstick has rapidly increased so I thought it was about time that I invested in some lip liners to go with my substantial amount of lipsticks... So about a month or two ago I headed to Superdrug to find a lip liner to start my collection. I wanted to buy one that was reasonably priced because well firstly I'm a student, and secondly I wasn't 100% sure whether I would like lip liner so I didn't want to spend too much just in-case. 

I ended up buying this Barry M Lip Liner in the shade Mulberry 9 for £2.99 which, I will tell you now, has become one of my most used pieces of make-up! Below is the colour on my hand and lips so you can see what the colour will actually look like. 

Pros

•  Lasts for a good 4-5 hours before it starts to fade
• Very pigmented so you do not have to spend ages building up the colour
• Can be worn as both a lipstick and lip liner
• Glides onto your lips smoothly
• Retails at £2.99
• Comes in a range of different colours from pinks to purples to nudes

Cons

• It does not have a fragrance 

All in all for £2.99 I think with this product you get your money's worth and more! I know that the next lip liner I will be adding to my collection is going to be Barry M's Lip Liner in the shade Tan. I hope you have enjoyed this post and that this review has been helpful to anyone on the search for a new lip liner.

Until next time,

Hayley x

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H&M Haul - Last minute bits from H&M before Madrid ☀️

On Wednesday I am travelling to Madrid to be an Au Pair for 6 weeks, which I will talk about in more detail in a blog post or two's time. It's going to be a completely new experience for me and I can't wait to meet my host family and explore the city. 

Today I went to my local city centre intending to get some euros and toiletries, but of course, I couldn't resist buying two last minute dresses to take away with me. Both of these dresses are from H&M and they only set me back by £19 well, £18.98 to be specific... Bargain ey! 

The first dress is this flowery smock dress which I actually bought in a size bigger to make it even more baggy for when I am abroad. That way it will keep me nice and cool in the scorching 30 degree heat. I am also lookin forward to wearing this dress in Autumn for university. This cost £14.99, the more expensive of the two but definitely my favourite.

The second dress I bought is actually a vest I think? Don't worry! I got it in a Large so that it is long enough to wear as a dress. At only £3.99 it is an absolute steal. I only wish there had been more colours as I would have definitely got a few more. 

This is such a small haul but I plan on doing lots more shopping in Madrid. So I'm trying to stop myself from buying things here otherwise my suitcase is certainly going to exceed the luggage weight on the return journey.... I'm ridiculously excited to go to Zara as I've heard it's amazing in Madrid! Expect bigger hauls in the very near future. 

Until next time,

Hayley x 

DIY Hair Stripping - How to Naturally Strip Hair Colour

In this blog post you will find...

Background - A little bit of information about my hair, how many times I have dyed it, how many colours it has been and why I wanted to strip it

What? - The products I use to naturally strip my hair

How? - The method I use to naturally strip my hair

Overall Opinion - Pretty much explains itself doesn't it

Background

For as long as I can remember I have never been happy with my hair colour. I'm one of those people who, as a child, had blonde hair which naturally darkened to a medium brown as I got older. Since I have dyed my hair lots of colours, some intentionally and some unintentionally... Red, purple, blonde, orange, green almost black and many shades of brown. You can probably guess the unintentional hair colours I have supported, where my hair dying skills have failed me... Orange and green! At this moment in time I have brown hair. Well I have bleached hair, which I dyed over brown after having a bit of a attempted home ombre disaster the day before I was due to go on holiday! My only option was to reach for the brown box dye and so I dyed my hair with L'Oreal Preference Mousse Absolue Permanant Hair Dye in the shade Natural Dark Brunette 400. I couldn't face going on holiday with a half blonde, a quarter orange and a quarter brown hair.

What?

It has now been three weeks since I dyed my hair dark brown and it has started to fade (yipee!!!) However, impatient little me has been doing some 'googling' into how to speed this fading process up at home. DIY hair stripping you could call it. The most commonly suggested method was anti-dandruff shampoo, bicarbonate of soda and vitamin C. So for the past two weeks I have been washing my hair four times a week with these three items. I can certainly say I have noticed a huge difference in my hair colour. The ends of my hair which were bleached blonde before I dyed it brown have really lightened up again, as has the top but not as dramatically as the ends. 

Unfortunately I haven't got any pictures of my dark brown hair without extensions in, but as you can see my hair completely matched my extensions and was a very dark brown. The picture on the right is my hair now, a medium brown on the top and dark blonde at the ends. 

How?

I'm no DIY hair stripping expert but I am under the impression you can buy whatever brand anti-dandruff shampoo, bicarbonate of soda and vitamin C tablets you fancy because they all do the same job, don't they. Here are some pictures of the ones I am currently using.

Before washing my hair I make the mixture. I firstly use a rolling pin to turn my vitamin C tablets into a fine powder, I then add a spoonful of bicarbonate of soda and a generous amount of anti-dandruff shampoo and then I mix it all together. I then proceed to the bath or shower to wash my hair. I use it as I would shampoo, I layer it on, leave it for a few minutes and then rinse it off. However I have read other blogs where people put the mixture on their heads, wrap it in clean film to keep the heat in and leave it on anywhere from fifteen minutes to an hour. Although I would recommend doing it the gradual way, as I am, because I find even when I leave it on for 5 minutes my hair can be left feeling very dry... So don't forget to use plenty of conditioner afterwards, and even use an intense conditioning mask on your hair once a week to keep it looking nice and glossy!

Overall Opinion

I would definitely recommend this DIY Hair Stripping method to anyone who's had a hair disaster or has lots of colour build up and doesn't want to:

A) Spend a fortune at the hairdressers
B) Use chemicals to strip their hair

It is obviously not going to give you an overnight result BUT I can see a change in my hair after two weeks, so it's proving to be not too long of a process. 

I hope this blog has helped anyone like me who's indecisive and can't keep their hands off home box dyes... I am 99% sure that in a months time I will have changed my hair colour yet again and I will be here writing another blog post about it!

Until next time,
Hayley x
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A Snippet of Hayley

I suppose you could call me someone who jumps in with both feet, dives in head first, an eager beaver; as my very young self may have embarrassingly said. Once I cook up an idea in my head I am determined to pursue it. I guess this could be an explanation as to why this is my third attempt at blogging. I highly anticipate the start of something, but I tend to shy away from the end. What does this say about me? It could be that I have the attention span of an ant, or it could be something much more complex than that. Although my bet is on the first option. It is most likely that I, a self-professed fidget, has the attention span of an ant.

I am a third year student studying Public Relations. This so meaning that my time at university is soon coming to an end. Oh how I will miss living off chicken nuggets, chips and microwave meals. Having nights out and lie-ins. Glorious Sky TV where I can watch reality TV and soaps until my heart is content. However to me what is most important is the amazing friends I have made along the way. I plan on making the most of my last year at university, before I am ready to face the big and wonderful world.

Here I will write about things I like, things I don't like, things that intrigue me and things that confuse me. Significant events in my life and all the other little things in between. Popular culture, travel, fashion, beauty, public relations and anything else that tickles my fancy!

Well that's me, this is my blog and here is a silly picture of me in Spain...

Until next time,
Hayley x 
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