Geisha Wigs - Precious Metal

my all time favourite selfie right here, etch it into my tombstone when I am gone

My hair is in such a bad state at the moment from all the dying and straightening/curling I put it through, I haven't had it cut for about a year (I have a bit of a fear of hairdressers...) and I found a dead end the other day that was about 3 inches long!!!!!  

I've been looking into ways to make it more healthy, majority of which say "stop straightening" but I can't! My hair is in-between straight and curly so it comes out as this AWFUL wavy texture (I'll update this post tomorrow with a photo of it if I remember) so to make it look decent it needs to be straightened, well I guess it doesn't need to be I just want it to be. Other ways to deal with it was to deep condition it which I've been doing and I can't see a difference, probably because I need to cut off the dead but I hate going to hairdressers - all that unnecessary talking like nah just ssh and cut my hair!

My friend introduced me to Geisha Wigs a few months ago when I was complaining about how bad my hair is, how much I want it to grow, blah blah blah. She's trying to grow her hair out from what used to be a pixie cut and has around 6 or 7 wigs from them and looks beautiful in every single one! I was a little bit unsure about it at first, I love having long hair and always nearly have my extensions clipped in but I thought with a wig it might be more obvious its fake so I held off from buying one for a while.

That was until another friend of mine put a photo on Facebook, I was in the background of it and from the back you could see my hair was different to the extensions and it just looked ridiculous.

This is how its meant to look!

This is how it looked at the back! Oh my god I'm so embarrassed!

Thats when I decided to ditch the extensions and try a wig! I thought nothing could be more embarrassing then what my hair looked like on that night!

I went for a bright blue wig, I have always wanted to dye my hair blue but the bleaching scares me a little and how expensive it must be to keep dying it every few weeks!
These where the stock photos on the site.

Beautiful aint it! I ordered it over easter holidays and used a sale code so it came to about £22 with p&p, normally it would have been around £24. It turned up the day after I left for uni - gutted! But kindly my mum forwarded it on and it came the next day! I was so excited, I ripped it out the bag and plonked it on my hair straight away, no wig cap or anything I just really wanted to see if blue suited me.

I was so impressed by the colour and texture, its super soft and sooo thick which can be a bit of a curse if you like to pin parts back like I do. It was far too curly for me, they all bunch up around my fat face and it just wasn't a nice look for me at all so I've straightened it now and I just love it so much. I'd read on previous blogs that to combat the shininess (it was very shiny) you cover it in dry shampoo so I spent a while doing that and finally added, or at least attempted to, roots by rubbing black eye shadow along the parting I'd created.

Because of how bright it is I was nervous to wear it out of my room incase my new flat mates was like "what the hell do you look like" but my friend reassured me it looked fine and natural - as natural as bright blue can be anyway! I finally wore it out to go to work in today and the amount of compliments I got off strangers while walking there was amazing, I felt a little sad to tell them it was a wig!

I've definitely caught the wig bug now, I've just, after a long 2 days debating about which one, ordered Firebug which is a beautiful auburn colour and I'm so excited to get it! Can't wait to be back to my gingerness!
I'm now currently struggling to choose between Tarot/Black Cherry Chocolate Cake or Storm Cloud for my next purchase! Drifting more towards Storm Cloud because I've wanted grey hair for sooo long, but we shall see.

I am just obsessed with this wig right now! I feel so beautiful in it and I can't stop taking selfies, which is quite a big deal for me because I don't have a lot of self confidence. It's just absolutely gorgeous!

It looks a lot lighter when I'm outside

lil chubby legs out on show!!

 I need my eyebrows doing so badly...

x

Farewell The Blackout

Bit late posting this but, along with forgetting my password, I've been having a sort of social media blackout to deal with family stuff and get my head around the fact my favourite band are no longer together. 2 weeks ago today The Blackout broke up and I still don't really know what to do with myself.

Since 2006 The Blackout have been a huge part of my life, they've helped me through tough times and, as cliche as it is, I don't know where I'd be, who I'd be - or if I'd even be here, without them. I stumbled across their myspace page early '06 and instantly fell in love. After begging my mum (she hated them at this point - no idea why) to take me to see them all year I finally saw them in '07 in Leeds Cockpit - what a wonderfully sweaty gig that was. After that I didn't see them again until 2011, a lot of stuff happened with my family and life in general and there wasn't ever an opportunity for me to see them again, plus I didn't have any friends to go and see them with, until they played Hit The Deck. Since then I've been to see them on every tour (I think) I don't know how many times I've actually seen them, it's only around 25-30.

They was always my escape from stuff happening in my life, for some reason everything always seemed to kick off just before a tour would start so I'd be able to go away for a few days and by the time I was back, everything had settled or improved to a standard I could deal with - I run away from problems all the time so it was always ideal for me to just bugger off to Cardiff or Bournemouth for a night.
Seeing them preach how they had a dream and became the band they was really drove me to do something with my life, I'm currently at uni trying to achieve my own dream because of them. They've always been nothing but nice to me when I've met them and spoke with them.
I've met so many wonderful people because of this band, they've made every date I've been to amazing and so much fun. I'll admit I had a little cry on the last date because I never know when I'll see them again which is a shame because I love spending time with them - even if they don't like spending time with me, ha!

The last tour was amazing. I did London, Manchester, Glasgow and Merthyr and cried at all but Glasgow. Normally through Start The Party... I know what you're thinking, how stupid! It's not even my favourite song! Stupidly, I didn't take any photos of my travels as I'd completely forgotten about this blog due to forgetting my password! If you want to see any of my videos I took  (all four of them woooo!) , they're over on my instagram page which you can find here!

This band meant, and still do, the world to me. They've helped me so much and I just have everything to thank them for. I wish them all the best in the future x

I'm back!

Forgot my password and every time I tried to sort it some error occurred! But I finally guessed it right and I'm back!

I've not been up to a lot in my absence, just uni, work and binging on episodes of Catfish. Followed the last The Blackout tour so I may do a little post about that later on...

Still have no real idea what I'm doing with this blog so I apologise for the rubbish that will be posted!

What's in my bag

I just purchased myself a new bag and purse (finally)! When I tipped everything out of my old bag to transfer it to the new one I realised that I always carry around so much unnecessary junk with me everywhere I go. Whether it be just popping to the local shop or travelling home.

I try to make sure its empty of bus tickets, shop receipts, general rubbish but it always end up full of it - why haven't I binned the empty Ted Baker body spray????? I'm such a lazy, slobby person aren't I!

Amongst the rubbish at the bottom of my bag you'll always find a collection of make up, my old bag was no stranger to this. Looking at it all now it seems ridiculous - carrying mascara and liquid eye liner round with me everywhere JUST IN CASE! But I know all this Superdrug bought stuff will get added to the new bag at some point! Below are links to my 3 favourite things in this pile!

Barry M - Cor Balmy in Current Bun £3.49 - saving my lips life in this cold weather and makes them  a lovely tinted dark red colour!
MUA - Cover and Conceal wand in Natural £1.50 - best coverage I've ever had with a concealer! I have dark circles around my eyes and freckles that I hate and want to hide and this really does the trick!
2True - Effortless Eyeliner in shade 1 £1.99 - I used to struggle putting liquid eyeliner on (my hands shake a lot for no reason!), but this is a dream! SO easy to apply and no matter if my hands are shaking it won't go wobbly! 

Are you as bad as me with the amount of stuff in your bags?

p.s. I strongly recommend reading the A Song of Ice and Fire/Game of Thrones books.

x

DIY Night Light

I love sitting, watching films/tv shows, in a dimly lit room. I aren't ~supposed~ to light candles in my Uni room but I sometimes do, but I struggle with lighting them a lot of the time (I know what you're thinking - what king of idiot can't figure that out???). So my next idea was to try fairy lights! But wait! I aren't allowed to stick things on the wall without glue dots! I don't know if you've tried to pin up fairy lights with glue dots but let me tell you - it's ridiculous, they just don't stick! 

I've seen a lot of different things on pintrest to do with fairy lights and this idea was by far my favourite! 

Just stick them in an empty bottle! I love Fireball so it was obviously going to be the only empty bottle I had lying around :(

A lot of the pintrest ones (probably all of them) instructed you to drill a hole through the glass to thread the lights through. Glass + drilling = NO THANK YOU!! I aren't afraid to admit I am a wimp, there was no way I, or any of my family, was going at a glass bottle with a drill. 

I just threaded the lights through the top and left enough wire out so the battery pack can sit behind the bottle. You can't even notice it once you place it correctly! 

I think it's lovely, it gives off just the right amount of light and makes a really cosy atmosphere. Can't wait until I've drunk my Jäger and I can use that bottle, I've got a skull decanter thats currently not being used so that will probably get turned into a light as well.

Have you tried this? Was you brave enough to drill?

x

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Go give it a follow to keep up to date with me, if you wanted to of course!!

x

10 Favourite Game of Thrones moments

Game of Thrones announced the season 5 premier date in the past week. I am unbelievably excited for it to start as I'm a huge fan of the show and the ASOIAF books - I'm still on A Dance with Dragons: Dreams and Dust so I probably are up to where the show will be based on but I have no issue with reading after its happened, after all I did started reading the books after I'd watched 3 seasons. I'm always reading up on the newest conspiracy theories - even about the silliest things! I just love this who franchise so much.

Anyway, the announcement got me thinking about my favourite characters, moments, quotes, dresses etc... I decided to try to make my own Top 10 lists (I love making lists like this). I've gone with my favourite moments from the show, so here they are! Obviously if you aren't up to date with the show there will be spoilers and probably some distressing images which is why I've put it all under the cut!

Anyone reading this who is still in two minds about watching GoT, I would strongly advise you too but only if you can hack all the gore/sex. 

If you watch/read what are some of your favourite moments?

x

Top 10 Golden Globes looks

I tried to stay up as late as I could to watch the Golden Globes yesterday morning but finally gave in to the burning eyes and fell asleep shortly after Amy Poehler and Tina Fey's amazing opening monologue. I managed to catch majority of the red carpet show though, in-between revising and making cups of tea so I've complied my own top 10 list of my favourite looks from the night!

10 - 
Emily Blunt
The dress is amazing but her make up was gorgeous - definitely something I'm going to try and recreate and cry about when I can't get it right.

9 - 

Lorde

8 - 

Pedro Pascal

Anyone who knows me knows how much I love this guy so of course he was going to be in this list. He just looks so dapper and fancy (love heart eyes emoji). 

7 - 

Uzo Aduba

6 - 

Emma Stone

I love the beaded top and giant sash. Emma's always one of my favourite people to look at when she's at award ceremonies - she's just absolutely stunning.

5 - 

Gina Rodriguez 

My girl crush. The look is so simple but so striking, I love it!

4 - 

Amal Clooney

A lot of people don't like the gloves but I do! The dress would have been lovely without them but I think they really make the outfit 10 times better. I can't wait to see what she'll look like when she attends the Oscars!

3 - 

Amy Adams

The woman I wish I was. The look is just so effortless and beautiful. I adore her hair and simple make up. Ohhhh why can't I be you :(

2 - 

Kate Hudson

This doesn't even need any explanation. Pure sexiness.

1 - 

Jessica Chastain

When I turned E! on this was the first look I saw and no other dresses could beat it. It's just stunning. I can't even explain why I like it, everything just works so well together and she looks amazing. 

What were your favourite looks of the night? 

And how did Game of Thrones not win the best drama tv series???

x

New nails!!!

For the first time in my life I've gone and had Acrylic nails done! There was an offer on them at my hairdressers, Dazzling, £10 for a set! I've seen them normally average at £20 and i've been thinking lately that I'd spend that and have them done, so you can imagine how happy I was when I saw the offer!

I went with a darker colour as I'm not really into bright ones on my nails, think it was "Starburst Blue". They used Shellac varnish, its supposed to last a lot longer than your normal varnish - not as likely to chip.

I chose the stiletto style as I've seen them a lot recently and love the way they look! I also really don't like the more square styled ones, not my cup of tea at all. I wasn't sure if there was any other shapes available apart from the square and stiletto but I just did a quick Google image search and found this handy little guide!

If I have them done again after this I think I'll ask for almond style, stiletto are a bit too pointy for me - forever scared I'm going to rip my eyes out or cut my skin open!

I love the little gem detail she put on them! They was 50p extra each nail and it was £3 extra for the shellac varnish as well, so altogether it came to £14, still a bargain when other stores charge £20+.

They're definitely taking some getting used to! Scared I break one! It's also proving really difficult to type with them! Do I just use the tips of them or do I try and use the palm of my fingers... I can't even remember how I used to type before, it's not something I ever payed attention too! I do love them though, make me feel girly :)

Have any of you ever had acrylic nails done? Whats your tips on how to do everyday things with them on?

x

Jumper wish-list

I love jumpers, particularly ugly jumpers. They're probably my most favourite item of clothing, easy to style and extremely comfy! 

I found these 4 on Romwe, they're all one size which is a bit disappointing because of how different "one size" clothes look on different sizes/body types. I've never used this site before but I think I might in the future! I've read a reviews on them and it seems like a mixed bag... For the price though it is tempting to buy from them, I'm a student I love cheap stuff what can I say!!!

The Simpsons jumper here

Six pointed star jumper here

Aztec jumper here

Geometric jumper here

These 3 are from Rokit, a vintage website. I love second and third, they are just lovely, I might have to save up and buy one!  

Green, Red and Grey Fairisle jumper here

Navy, Red and Yellow Fairisle jumper here

Black, Blue and Red Fairisle jumper here 

x

Dream Cream, Lush Review

As previously mentioned in past blogs, here and here, I've been struggling with a skin issue. I went into Lush mainly to buy a face/body scrub but as I was talking to the assistant she recommended I try the Dream Creams and gave me a sample of both the Self Preserving (S.P) and standard versions. I was a bit hesitant at first because I don't often use moisturiser or lotions but as it was a free sample I went with it! 

So far I've mainly only used the standard version of Dream Cream. I can't really see an obvious difference between the two.

They both look very thick when in the tubs but once you touch them you can tell they aren't thick at all! They spread very easily across my skin and leave it feeling lovely and smooth. 

I have found that the S.P takes a little longer to go into the skin and keeps the smell - a lovely Rose Oil scent, for a longer period. The standard soaks into the skin almost straight away and the Rose Oil scent doesn't stay for long, which is a bit of a shame because I love the smell. They both feel fine though, neither feels like its heavy or clagging up the skin. 

I currently use the standard as a sort of primer before I put my make up on just because it's the quickest to soak in out of the two. It works really well as a primer! I wait around 5 to 10 minutes before I start applying my foundation just to give my skin plenty of time to soak it in. I haven't ever really used a primer before but it has helped my make up stay on a lot better than usual. I had dry patches of skin from the dermatitis and after a few hours it would become visible through the make up but once I started applying this, my make up would stay for a lot longer! 

It has certainly helped my skin to calm down. Before I got the testers my skin was so painful and itchy, yet as soon as I applied the cream onto the area it calmed down immediately and I couldn't believe it! It's packed with soothing and calming ingredients but I (have no idea why) didn't expect it to be so effective. As I mentioned in previous posts I have been using a lot of different things on my skin to try and get it under control and better but this was the first thing I used as soon as I got home from my shopping trip. 

I will definitely purchase one of the big pots one I'm done with these testers, it's likely that I'll buy the standard as I'm impatient and hate waiting for things to soak in my skin (I'm awful with fake tan!!). I can't wait to get another product from Lush, they never disappoint! 

x

Bûche de Noël, Lush Review

I am a huge fan of Lush. I love their morals, the staff are always so friendly and helpful, they only use natural and organic ingredients if possible - the list goes on! I've bought a lot of their products in the past (and still buy them, though theres a few I would wish to never have a repeat of - henna hair dye anyone????) and theres still so many that I want to try out! So obviously Lush is my number one shop for a face and body scrub. As previously mentioned in my last two blogs, here and here, I bought Lush's Bûche de Noël face and body scrub and got two tester posts of Dream Cream and Self Preserving Dream Cream to try out (which I'll review in a separate post). I got them mainly to try and combat the awful skin issue I have going on.

    

 I originally went into to purchase the Dark Angels scrub but when I got in there and started talking to one of the lovely assistants I was reminded of how harsh that one is on the skin. As my skin was so painful at the because of the dermatitis I needed something that wouldn't be so rough. She showed me two alternatives, Bûche de Noël and Aqua Marina. As lovely as Aqua Marina was, it was just too soft and as I wanted to get something to get rid of the dry, flakey skin I needed something a bit more rough. 

 

 The Bûche de Noël is packed with almonds, cranberries, satsumas and nori seaweed amongst all the other stuff. It smells oat-y, like Aveeno, which is to be expected. Its, apparently, a limited Christmas edition to the store and they had it last year but I never knew! The assistant claimed that the fruit it in makes the skin glow, I'm not sure if I'm doing it wrong but I haven't seen my skin glow since she did my hand to help me choose between this or Aqua Marina.

Once you take a small section of it in your palm, you add water and mix it till it creates a paste. I'm guessing it's supposed to look a little like the image below.

It is very gentle on the skin because of the almond oil but just rough enough to take off some dry skin. It's great for people who have sensitive skin or painful skin like I did, but if you're looking for something a bit more tough I'd go with the Dark Angels. I do love this product and I will probably buy it again at Christmas if it comes back! However I think now my skin has toughened up, I might have to go and purchase Dark Angels as that will be a lot rougher and hopefully get more of the dry skin off.

 x

Skin Salvation, Pure Potions Review

I don't have any before pictures because I never imagined myself writing a blog about it, I'm quite personal so writing this and the previous blog post is a big step for me but I'm hoping that it may help someone in a similar position in the future! However if you click here theres a picture which is very, very similar to how my skin looked before I started using Skin Salvation!

I started using Skin Salvation on the 22nd December after suffering with what I think is Perioral Dermatitis for many months and the things doctors was subscribing me didn't seem great and definitely wasn't for long term use. I was recommended it in Holland and Barrett after asking if they had anything for it. I was also drinking Activa, eating Actimel yoghurts (the mango one is amazing) and taking an all in one vitamin, I don't know if any of this helped but thought it would be best to mention it.

This is how it looks today (06/01/2015) I am still in the process of treating it hence why I still have patches.

It's quite weird at first as you have to really scoop it out of the jar but once you warm it up in your hands its just like putting on a normal cream or moisturiser! It doesn't really have a smell - its not constantly noticeable anyway, you have to really sniff to smell it!

I think the feeling is fine, it isn't heavy on my skin at all but I do find it doesn't "soak in". At the beginning I was putting it on twice a day, one in the afternoon and one just before I go to bed. I aren't sure if it was related to the ointment but I often felt like a tingling/tickling sensation after about an hour of it being on. I say I aren't sure because just before I'd started using it, the area was extremely itchy and painful.  

I find that it can make the area look worse than it actually when its applied. 

After the first day I noticed an improvement! Not a lot but it was certainly better than the day before, from the angry, bright red it was it was now more of a deep pink. I'd read around about it before I used it just to make sure and I saw loads of people saying how amazing it was and how they saw a huge difference the next day so I was a little bit disappointed when I only had a very slight difference (stupid I know but still!). 

The second day, even more improvement. Again it was only a slight improvement but I was just happy to see it getting better and something working! I started using the cider vinegar on this day, a little bit mixed with water. This is because the ointment just seemed to sit on the area and because I kept getting a tingling feeling I was using the cider vinegar as a way to wash it off, instead of a face wipe incase they caused it to flare up more. 

After a week it was down to a very faint pink, as I've really pale it was still quite obvious there was something wrong but I never leave the house without make up on so once I had all of it on it was barely noticeable. It just looked like I had dried skin around my nose from a cold. I was still using the cider vinegar - it helps to dry the skin out. I was also putting on Dream Cream, which I got a tester pot of from Lush, before I put my make up on, I still am using it it makes a great primer! I can't believe how much it has improved in such a short space of time. I still have a lot of dried skin which I'm trying to get rid of by using the Lush Bûch De Nöel but I may need to get a stronger scrub. 

I'm still using Skin Salvation but only once a day, before I go to bed. I think I'm going to start doing it twice a day again though just to see if it can speed up and get rid of the faint pinkish colour thats left. It's an amazing product and I urge anyone with eczema or dermatitis to try it! You can buy it from Pure Potions here or from Holland and Barratt. They have a huge collection of products; rescue salves for burns, cuts, cold sores, bites, chapped skin etc... Baby products, sun cream, scalp oil.

I've just bought the Skin Salvation Bath and Body oil from Pure Potions as well and use it every day after I shower, I think its originally meant to be put into a running bath but I only have a shower in my university accommodation and the bath at home takes far too long to fill up! But you can definitely use after a shower! I've only been using this a few days but its great, it smells lovely and its great to help rehydrate the skin after a shower as water really dries the skin out! It soaks in almost straight away, I used 2 drops of it and it just goes right in! As much as I like the product I don't think it is helping a lot so I would definitely recommend someone trying the Skin Salvation ointment first and using the Bath and Body oil as an extra.

This is more than two drops, I wanted to show the colour of it.

x