How to: Dye your hair like a pro in ten easy steps!

Here's the basics you will need:

Two or more old towels.

One tin of Vaseline. Aloe Vera optional.

One comb.

One timing/music device. I decided to use my phone.

And of course, one hair dye of choice. 

I decided to use Schwarzkopf LIVE Salon Style in 3-3 Dark Violet, Permanent.

(NB. Permanent my arse!)

Here is what my hair looked like before I started. Bear in mind that I'd used this hair dye last time I dyed my hair about a month ago...and it pretty much faded into a reddy-purply-brown. Butttt, I guess any hair dye fades after time and I like the colour, so I will keep using it!

Step one. Get set up. Lay an old towel on the floor to avoid sneaky spillages on the carpet or tiles. Wrap an old towel around your shoulders so you don't ruin your clothes. (Top tip: Don't wear your favourite clothes!) Comb through your hair.

Step two. Read the instructions of your hair dye.

Step three. Follow them carefully! (Perform an allergy test if you're new to dying your hair, have sensitive skin, or if you're using a different brand to one you have used before!)

Step four. Grab your Vaseline and smear it all around your hairline, forehead, ears, back of neck etc. This sounds revolting but will help you wipe away any dye that you accidently get on your skin during application. If you're like me and get hair dye everywhere then you should probably use a fair amount of Vaseline and put it pretty much all over your entire face and shoulders.

(Not really, just around your hairline is fine...)

Step five. Put on your gloves! 

Side note: Why are the gloves included in hair dye packets ALWAYS too big? Come on, who has thumbs this long?

Step six. Follow your hair dye instructions on how to mix your ingredients. Shake it, sh-shake it, shake it, sh-shake it!

Step seven. Put that shit on yo' head. Rub it in! Make sure every hair is covered in hair dye.

This is what it will look like when you've finished if you're as messy as me. Now, who wants purple face hair and sideburns? NOT ME! Avoid this by following step eight.

Step eight: Get a bit of tissue paper or an old face cloth and dampen it with water. Rub away any excess dye that has gone onto your skin. Because we put Vaseline on our head before,  it should wipe away super easily.

Ta-daaa!

Step nine: Now comes the waiting game. I had to wait 30 minutes for my dye to work its magic. I set the timer on my phone, ate some birthday sweeties and had a little boogie to Katy Perry. I suggest you do the same.

Step ten: Wash out the hair dye as to the instructions on your information leaflet. Wait for your fabulous new hair to dry and Voila! Done!

Hope you like it! Maybe try it yourself and let me know how it goes. :)

Sparkles!

Glittery nails, here I come!

Firstly I painted my ring finger nails with Black Barry M Nail Paint, one layer. Whilst still wet I used a cotton bud to scoop the glitter out of the container and onto my nail.

(Make sure if you do this at home you have a spare scrap of paper folded in half and unfolded again. Work on top of the paper so any excess glitter that falls can be poured back into the container easily.)

I then repeated the same process with the pink glitter and Fuchsia Barry M Nail Paint. I worked on one or two nails at a time so that the nail varnish layer was still tacky enough to stick the glitter onto. 

After all nails are glittered, wait around 10 minutes, or as long as possible for the base layer of varnish to dry and finish off with a thick top coat of clear varnish. I used the Barry M Top Coat.

Here are the nails without flash.

And with flash.

Super glittery!

I got my black glitter pot from ebay (I bought it as a set of 5 or 6 different colours) and they were super cheap. The trouble with the glitters from ebay though is that they're quite chunky and so your nails don't feel smooth even after a top coat. The pink glitter I used was a tester pot of MAC pigment. I forget the colour, but I bought it ages ago online somewhere. I'm sure you can find similar glitters all over the place. The reason I like this one is that the glitter is finely milled. It's more like a powder than chunks of glitter so creates a significantly smoother nail than the other glitters do - still not completely smooth though, but am I bothered? GLITTERY NAILS!

Product Rave: TRESemmé with Argan Oil Glossing Spray

I wanted to tell you about this new hair product that I recently started loving. Since having my hair cut short I've been having problems with the ends being very dry and coarse feeling, causing my hair to stick out in horrible directions instead of looking sleek and sophisticated. 

I'd heard a lot about Moroccan Oil original Oil Treatment, read more HERE, but wanted to try a quick fix with a cheaper alternative product. I decided to go with "TRESemmé New with Argan Oil from Morocco Glossing Spray". This product should be £4.99 but I got mine on a 2 for £5.99 offer from Superdrug. Available HERE.

TRESemmé says that this product should add "gorgeous glossy shine" and "protect from frizz" as well as taming flyaways, helping to keep your style smooth and shiny.

I'm a bit of a non-believer in hair products, I always think that stuff never really works and never really does what it says on the bottle but, to be honest, this product has definitely helped me. Even though this is a cheap alternative (Priced at £4.99 for 75ml) to the Moroccon Oil (Priced at around £30 for 100ml or around £13 for 25ml) I think it worked very, very well. The only thing I would say is that it didn't particularly make my hair super glossy, but it definitely helped with the de-frizz of the ends of my hair.

 Now I'm even more eager to try the Moroccon Oil to see if it works even better than the TRESemmé. I think I may ask for one of the smaller bottles as a Christmas present.

Do you have any favourite hair products that you think work particularly well? Please let me know in the comments!

Birthday haul!

Just posting to show you what goodies I got for my Birthday last week. I was very lucky and got some lovely things from my family and close friends (as well as treating myself!)

The first is a new fragrance that I decided upon after seeing raves about it on youtube. Stella by Stella McCartney. This is one of the three Limited Edition McCartney Print covered bottles containing her signature scent.

I bought mine from my local Boots on their points event so received £10 in points back on my purchase.

You can purchase Stella by Stella McCartney on the boots website, HERE. Unfortunately, this print is out of stock on the website right now :( However, the other two are still available!

Recently I broke my Amazon Kindle somehow (didn't leave it on my floor and stand on it, honest!) so contacted Amazon Kindle Support and spoke to a very enthusiastic American person who kindly sent out a new replacement. The replacement arrived within two days, I was very, very impressed seen as I didn't have any order or purchase information for my original Kindle.

My friend asked what I would like for my birthday as she had no clue what to get me, so I opted for this little number from Cath Kidston. You can purchase this Cath Kidston Kindle case HERE. It is also available in a cute shooting star print.

From my mum I got a Nikon 'Time Teller' watch in hot pink. An obvious choice. I wanted something I could wear to work without being too wary of knocking it. My other metal watch is getting a bit scratched and damaged through banging it about while working, so this plastic watch is perfect. (And bright pink, bonus!) I got this for cheaps off ebay, you can find lots on there if you want to look!

Next are my new 'Isla' mittens. So exciting. The leather is so soft and they smell absolutely amazing. Very excited for the weather to get colder so I can wear them every day. I got these off my boyfriend from Kurt Geiger HERE. There's a £20 gift voucher in Elle Magazine December edition, available now which I used to get money off.

Also from my mum I got this amazing scarf. She literally spent nearly two years crocheting it by hand. I love it so much!

Another item I bought for myself (with my ebay clear-out earnings) is my Penfield coat. Second time lucky, this one I love. 

She is the Penfield Gillman Jacket with Jamiesons of Shetland's Fair Isle Knit

Filled with 80% down and 20% feather it is definitely the warmest coat I have ever owned. Perfect for the coming winter months. The cute knitted pockets and shoulders is what really makes it for me, though. Available HERE.

Lastly, my Cambridge Satchel came! Finally! I ordered it over a month ago hoping it would arrive in time for my birthday but it came a couple of days later. It is the Cambridge Satchel Company 11" Classic Satchel in Black. Available HERE. Bear in mind that the bags are made to order so there is a waiting time of 30 days (mine took a little longer) for your order to be processed, made and dispatched.

I attached my faux fox tail (bought from ebay) onto the strap. I like it because it makes me look like I have a tail when I walk. :) Although I'm quite wary of vicious looking dogs who may decide to attack me on my walk to work!

The ring on my ring finger on the picture above is from my boyfriend, a little mood ring from Hawkin's Bazaar. Available HERE :)

So that concludes my birthday haul blog post. As I said, I've been very lucky this year and received lots of lovely presents of which I'm very appreciative. 

When is your birthday? Do you have a wishlist?

Let me know in the comments...

See you soon!

Birthday outfit!

Today is my birthday and I'm spending the day with the boyfriend who is currently making an amazing smelling lasagna. I'm so excited to eat it, it looks awesome. Although it has got pretty much a whole block of cheese and a whole tub of creme fraiche in it. Slobberrrrrr...

Thought I'd do a quick outfit of the day on here, I wanted to wear something comfy but also wear some of my favourite pieces.

Skinny jeans - Seven Eighths, Topshop

Jumper - Topshop

Boots - Meds, Jeffrey Campbell

Scarf - Hand Crocheted by my Mum for my Birthday

Watch - Time Teller, Nixon

Thumb Ring - My Granny

Skull Ring - Alexander McQueen

Bracelet - Sam Ubhi

Bag - Rocco, Alexander Wang

Nail Varnish - Victoria, Nails Inc. (Crap!)

Unlucky, again!

So I'm not having much luck with my birthday presents to be honest. The beautiful Penfield coat that I ordered arrived today and was not as beautiful in person. I decided the brown leather yoke would just clash with most things that I wear so, unfortunately, I'm going to send her back tomorrow. Free delivery and free returns though, so that's a bonus. 

I did however order a replacement. I have my fingers crossed that this one will be more my style. I very much need a warm winter coat and the padding in the Penfield range is second to none so I went with another style by them.

I chose black this time as I think it will go with a lot more - hopefully!

Penfield Gillman Jacket with Jamiesons of Shetland's Fair Isle Knit

Can be purchased from ASOS HERE

One thing I can guarantee now is that we will have a scorching winter.

New winter coat!

So, I'm going to have to go and sit in the naughty corner. About ten minutes ago I made the most impulsive buy I've done for a while.
Today, my friend showed me her new Penfield coat that she bought for her holiday and let me try it on. Honestly, I have never put something so comfortable on in my entire life. 80/20 premium down insulated and feels like you're in a sleeping bag.
First thing I did when I came home from work was to visit the Penfield website to have a look at the other styles of coat. It was between a choice of two for me, firstly the Black Penfield Rockford with red tartany/ginghamy shoulder yoke, and secondly the Penfield Stapelton Tweed in Green with brown leather shoulder yoke detailing. I decided to go for the latter.

Just look at this little baby:

You can purchase this item from Asos HERE

Now, I know what you're thinking. Penfield coats ARE super expensive buttttttttttt this very morning I sold a load of crappy, unloved items on ebay and made pretty much the equivalent amount of money. So it was a good swap of old crap for new loveliness!

Due to arrive on Tuesday 15th just in time for my birthday on the 16th, hurray!

This is the style my friend got by the way:

Penfield Landis Down Filled Toggle Hooded Jacket which can be purchased HERE

Cuuuute!

Winter mittens!

I've just been perusing through last month's issue of Elle magazine with the lovely Emma Watson on the cover and I came across the "In next month's Elle" page which featured an advert for £20 to spend in Kurt Geiger. (Out since November 2nd so deffo going to go purchase that tomorrow before they all go!) Kerchinnnng! Kurt Geiger is one of my favourite places to buy shoes so I headed on over to have a goosey gander at what they had on offer on their website. Lo and behold the one thing that jumped out at me wasn't even a pair of shoes but were these beautiful winter warmers:

These are the "Isla Mittens" and can be purchased HERE

Now, they are priced at £70, but with £20 offer from Elle, surely that makes them a bargain?!....

....No?...

....Okay, maybe not. But I'm now longing for these in my winter wardrobe.