COLAB Dry Shampoo: Paradise

I'm a great lover of dry shampoo. It's a great way to get by if you don't want to wash your hair, or to give clean hair that extra boost it needs to create a textured look. But one aspect of dry shampoo always bothers me. White residue. This is where COLAB dry shampoo comes in. Created by one of my favourite bloggers, Ruth Crilly from A Model Recommends. I love her posts; she writes extremely well, full of humour and her posts are extremely entertaining to read!

The formulation is weightless, with no white residue. All of the original scents smell lovely (the London one is my absolute favourite) and so I purchased the new Paradise scent. It smells divine! The formula is the same, but they have completely revamped the packaging, which is a bit more fun! I purchased this in store at Superdrug, but if you bought online, it came with free flamingo themed stationary.

I would definitely recommend this to anyone who is looking for a new dry shampoo, which smells good but also works as well as it says!  

Eyelash Extensions: Cluster Lashes

A couple of weeks ago, I went to a local salon, and got some cluster lashes. I have always wanted to try the individual lash extensions, but these are a little more pricey, and so I thought I would try out cluster lashes first.

Never again...

The process took around 20 mins and cost only £10. The therapist told me that some people can make these last for up to two weeks, in what world?! The application was fine; she applied the cluster lashes, and after each was was applied, I was told to open my eyes, to stop it from sticking to the bottom of my eyelid. The glue fumes did sting my eyes a bit and made them water, but the therapist reassured me this was normal.

They looked ok.... not amazing. The same as if I had applied them myself, except they were stuck like super glue.

'Be careful when showering, as the steam can loosen the lashes!' Yup...Wise words. As soon as I got home, I jumped in the shower, begging the steam would loosen them away. It didn't. Instead I used a pair of tweezers, and pulled out the ones closest to my inner corner. Not my best idea. I did end up ripping a few of my natural lashes out, but not enough to make me worry.

After I had ripped out the ones near my inner corner...

This made them slightly more bearable. I just found them so irritating! Every time I blinked I could feel them. The rest lasted around a week, with me filling in my other lashes with a bit of mascara to hide the gaps...  

After the week had past I desperately wanted them all off, so with a bit of research, I found that leaving your head over a bowl of boiling water, loosened them. Then used a bit of olive oil to remove the rest. Ahhhhhhhh relief!

After this episode, even though I think the individual lashes would be better, it is a definite no no for me!

Primark false nails...V.2

£1.

Yes. You heard me. £1.

100 little 1p coins bought me this set of nails. (glue included)

Reading this post is not deja-vu.... I just had to post about these nails!

Again, I have been shocked at the quality and I am fully convinced now, that you need spend no more than £5 on DIY acrylic nails. I did have to file these down a lot, but that is because I don't really get on with really pointy, long nails. I have had these on since Sunday, it is now Tuesday and I have already had compliments from strangers. Only today I had a full conversation with a lady on the bus about how I do it, how long they last, is the glue any good? and when I tell her I did them myself and they only cost me £1, she's just as shocked as I was!

Love falsies? For a quid you've got nothing to lose!

I don't believe it! Primark false nails...

£1.50. No, this is not a joke. £1.50 is what these nails cost.

I couldn't believe my eyes! After years of being a loyal Elegant Touch customer, handing over notes rather than coins for good quality false nails, I thought there was no way, sturdy false nails could ever cost less than a fiver. Oh how wrong I was!

I picked these up from Primark as the shiny rose gold mirror effect was something I could not resist... the glue they come with works very well. The only thing for me was these were too pointy, but this is easily rectified with a nail file, elbow grease and patience. I have since gone back and stocked up on numerous other designs, some on sale for as little as £1. They lasted around a little more than a week, during which I received many compliments. Even a girl on the tram stopped me to compliment my nails! 

Primark, you never fail to surprise me.  

Bondi Sands Gradual Tanning Foam Review

  

Bondi Sands Gradual Tanning Foam

I wouldn't call myself a regular tanner, and I'm afraid to say I don't honour Tanning Thursday or see it as a day of celebration. However, from time to time, I do enjoy marinating in DHA, and waking up the next day with a golden glow.

The one tanning brand I have always used, and keep going back to is Bondi Sands. Australian made and not too expensive, it has always drawn me as a brand with a variety of products to choose from. I have been using the Self Tanning Foam in Light/Medium (read my full review HERE) for a couple of years now, and have also tried the new Liquid Gold product (a tanning oil, where no 'wash off is required' – branded for convenience. I will do a review on this product soon!).

Recently, I have been using the Bondi Sands Gradual Tanning Milk to maintain and enhance my tan, whilst moisturising my body. While this works a treat, I was pulled in by the sound of the Gradual Tanning Foam. The Gradual Tanning Foam has the exact same benefits as the milk, except that it is in a foam formula. It even has the same scent, Cocoa Butter.

I definitely prefer the Gradual Tanning Milk over the Gradual Tanning Foam. I find that the Foam leaves my skin extremely sticky and does not sink in properly, unlike the milk which you don't notice is there after a while. I also found that it took a lot longer to sink into my skin. In terms of the colour, I found that it maintains the tan fine but does not make you any darker. Which is fine by me. It made my tan from the Self-tanning foam last for more than its usual 7 days.

The main problem I have with this product, is that it made me break out in an itchy, bobbly rash... I don't usually have sensitive skin, and I've not had a problem with any of the other tanning products I have used before from Bondi Sands. I wouldn't recommend using the product everyday, perhaps every other day if you have sensitive skin. I feel like I have to use it now as tanning products aren't the cheapest on the shelves!

The price for this product is £12.99 which is ever so slightly more pricey than the milk. At the moment it is on offer at Superdrug, literally a day after I paid full price for it which is a bit annoying! I would recommend the Gradual Tanning Milk over the Gradual Tanning foam, which is also on offer at the moment, so go grab a bottle! 

Have any of you tried this product before? What other brands would you recommend?

The Mysterious Disappearance of SugarPlumPosts…

Who? Sugarplumposts? Exactly… so where have I been these last few months? When I ask myself that question I start to think… what exactly have I been doing?! I have been nowhere, I have done nothing. I moved to a new city, got a new job and it has taken over my life. I have a boring routine… work, sleep, work, sleep…then the weekend arrives and I find I’m bored every weekend trying to think of something to do before the work, sleep cycle takes place again.

I completely gave up blogging. I thought what is the point? I don’t have the time anymore and no one reads it anyway! I felt completely unmotivated. I don’t have any other hobbies… I don’t play sport, I don’t do knitting much anymore, and I don’t play the piano anymore... I even invested in some sports clothes and a yoga mat with the mantra,’I WILL TAKE UP YOGA. I WILL TAKE UP YOGA…’ with only doing one session and realising I am the most unflexible human alive. I was starting to get stuck in the thought that I am only 22 and have no life apart from work and sleep.

However. When I take a step back, I realise, on a whole I am happy, and even though what I do is boring compared to some other people, I still have fun and I have a wholesome life.

I have a wonderful boyfriend who loves me and we are going to be renting our first place together, which is extremely exciting!

When I want to I really do have fun! Recently, I went camping in the Lake District which was beautiful and a good laugh. Something I’ve never done before.

I have a family home in Yorkshire, in a tiny village in the countryside. And I love going back home for visits.

I have also been almost adopted into a family in Manchester too. I live with my boyfriend’s parents and they are the most supportive, lovely, accepting people. I will always be grateful for everything they have done for me. I have the best of both worlds. My crazy family back in Yorkshire and the beautiful countryside, and living in Manchester with my boyfriend’s parents (soon to be in our own place!) with the hustle and bustle of a city.

I have started to make new friends at work too and feel a lot more comfortable with what I do… oh and there is a cute office dog too!

I am a young person who has responsibilities, and I like that.

And I do want to change the hobbies situation! I want to start blogging again! I want to practice yoga…. Exactly that, PRACTICE. With practice in anything we all get better.

So I think the message of this post, is to stop thinking about what everyone else is doing, and appreciate everything you do have and appreciate it when you do have fun! You don’t have to spend a crazy amount of money and go out every night to have ‘fun’.

See you all soon with a new post ;)

How to do a strand test

I've been blonding up my hair for around 2 years now. Before then I had never touched a hair dye. I've only also ever ombred my hair too, and only ever used one type of hair dye... so when I wanted to retouch up my ombre and couldn't find my trusted hair dye... I had to settle for another.

L'Oreal Les Blondissmess, Preference - 03 Lightest Ash Blonde

So, as I've never tried this dye before I was very reluctant to just spread it on my hair and hope for the best. I decided to do a strand test to try out the colour first and make sure it didn't turn it completely the wrong colour.

STEP 1: Take a piece of hair from the underside of your head, which will be darkest and less hard to see if it goes wrong.

STEP 2: Move all the rest of your hair out of the way by clipping it up or tying it up.

STEP 3: Mix your dye – take a plastic spoon and mix 1 spoonful of colour to 1.5 spoonfuls of developer. Make sure to screw the caps back on the bottles securely so it doesn't leak!

SETP 4: Apply to the strand of hair you sectioned earlier. Make sure you cover all the strand so that you can see the result clearly.

STEP 5: Leave to develop for the length of time which your instructions say.

STEP 6: Rinse the strand and let air dry.

From this process you should be able to see the colour which the dye will turn your hair. Obviously this might change over your full head as you do have darker hair under your head rather than on the top. For me, I found the strand test definitely showed the hair would be lighter but I didn't notice a massive difference. This made me confident enough to go ahead and use it, and I loved the results! I will do a full review on this hair dye soon!