House of Fraser MAC £25 UK Giveaway!

As a huge thank you for allowing me to reach another a-mazing milestone, 700 followers (300 followers in three months is cray) I decided to host a little giveaway, the lucky winner will win a House of Fraser MAC £25 gift card, all the terms & conditions are set out below. Thanks a lot ladies/gents for your continued support, my little blog's almost been running for a year now and I'm surprised at how much it's grown in such a short space of time, something that wouldn't have been possible without the support of you lovely bunch (the blogging community truly is a lovely place) okay enough hippy talk, time to get entering good luck guys!

T&C'S

1. This competition is open to those aged 16 years or over

2. You can enter using the Rafflecopter widget below, a winner will be chosen at random. If the winner does not respond within 24 hours I will draw again. 

3. All entries must be received by the closing date Saturday 5th July 2014, 12pm closing time. 

5. The winner will be contacted via twitter/social media platforms, if you do not wish to be contacted in the following way please leave a direct email address in the comments section below 

6. This competition is only open to UK residents 

7. I will not be liable for lost/delayed post, please note giveaway will be dispatched within two weeks of closing date

8. Giveaway prize will be sent 1st class Royal Mail 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

VO5 Smoothly Does It

If you're a Hollyoaks fan like me then it's only a matter of time before you too are purchasing something from the VOS Smoothly does it line. The power of advertisements ey? But yes after seeing these products countless times on the Hollyoaks ad break I decided to try the Straightening Lotion, and Heat protect serum. Boots had a two for £5 offer on at the time so these products didn't break the bank but how did they perform?

Well, the VO5 Straightening lotion was one big disappointment. I liked the concept of this product, it's basically a cream that can be applied through the ends of hair to protect from heat styling, it's also meant to offer up to three days of straight frizz free hair. My current haircare routine consists of a balm for blow drying and a heat spray for straightening so if this worked it would have cut my styling routine down to one product, minimal haircare at it's finest. So after washing my hair I got my shake on, and pumped out some of the product. My first reaction was only that of surprise as this had a clumpy/bitty texture. Weird comparison alert but you know when you make icing and it's a tad lumpy resulting in those tiny clumpy bits throughout? Well that was the texture of this product, assuming the bits would some how disappear I went for it and applied through the ends of my hair. Well, the bits transferred to my hair white clumpy bits. Being the lazy girl that I am I continued styling as usually and the finish result was uber straight hair, super straight I even ventured out in the rain that same day and the moisture didn't affect my hair in the slightest, however the white bits were visible. You'd have to be super up close and personal to the see the bits, but it did disturb me a little that I'd taken freshly cleaned hair and put clumpy white bits in. This product is a thumbs down for me, it may just be that I was unfortunate enough to buy a faulty product, but even after shaking vigorously the product remained the same. If you'd like to avoid that "I have dandruff look"stay away from this product, it's a no go especially if you have darker hair like mine.

Negative nelly moment over, time to tell you about the product that saved the day the VO5 Heat protection serum. I'll start by saying, I really don't know how this product is meant to be used (I'm a helpful blogger) I used this before blow drying and followed up with my regular heat spray, as I didn't feel like the serum alone would protect my hair. There's probably instructions on the back of the box that currently sits ripped up in my blue recycling box but hey ho. Before blow drying I applied this through the ends, I did think this would feel sticky or tacky but it was actually quite the opposite the serum felt super lightweight in my hair, it didn't make my hair greasy or weigh it down. I can imagine that this is one of those serums where if you're a little heavy handed the end result won't be greasy locks, as my hair literally drunk this stuff up. I'd even recommend this to people with fine, thinner hair types as it was weightless. After blow drying my hair it felt and looked visibly smoother. It just felt soft (but not to soft you can work with it and add a little grit) the end result was smoother, sleeker hair that actually stayed frizz free for a little longer.

So I'd give the straightening lotion a miss, but if you're after a new hair serum that won't break the bank I definitely recommend checking out the VO5 Heat protection serum, as it's highly comparable to serums I've tried from Redken (especially the Anti-snap serum) but for less than a fraction of the price!

Have you tried any VO5 haircare products? What are your hair care favourites?

OOTD: Talk That Talk

Love it or hate it there's no denying some pieces of graffiti truly are a piece of art. The detailing on the graffiti above is just incredible, it's so tasteful and adds a little character to the area. I think the detailing and colours used on some of the pictures are amazing, someone happened to be working on a piece when we took the pictures above and it truly does require a steady hand and attention to detail.

Anyway onto the outfit, I think this outfit works really well (if I do say so myself.) I'm loving all things canary yellow at the moment, I'm thinking it will most likely be my colour of summer 2014. Pairing bright colours with simple monochrome pieces adds a little 'something something' to the outfit. I love the print on my shorts, they're high waisted but I have to admit they're not the most flattering of shapes. Thing's can look a little puffy which can add on a few pounds but as they were only £20 I'm prepared to rock them. My trademark sandals (that I seem to wear in almost every OOTD) were from New Look a good few years ago, I seem to recall them being a little pricier than your average sandal (£30 I think) totally worth it though as they still look good as new three years later!

Shorts- River Island £20
Top- River Island £16

Thoughts on graffiti? Do you mix monochrome pieces with bright colours? How do you style your high waisted shorts?

P.S I recently joined 'Lookbook' so if you'd like to be a fan (teehee!) give me a follow here

Two Step Concealing

After reading this post here on The Beauty Department, I had a route through my makeup stash and decided to try two step concealing. In the 'Lumin-eyes' post The Beauty Department actually uses the concealer to highlight the brow bone area, I've not shown that step here as realistically for my everyday make up times limited, so it's a step I feel I can miss.

Everyone should have at lest two concealers in their makeup collection, a creamy/thick one that conceals dark circles/blemishes, and a luminous sheer concealer that has brightening properties and can double up as a highlight. The two I used are the NARS Creamy concealer (the best I've tried, words can't describe my love for this) and the YSL Touche Eclat, unfortunately this product receives a lot of hate in the beauty community I believe when used correctly it can be a fabulous multi use product to have in your makeup collection.

Apply the creamy concealer to the outer eye area. Random fact but when I conceal my dark circles I literally apply this just to my eye area, I'm a firm believer in pin point concealing, I'm always surprised by how many ladies apply tons of concealer on their whole face, I believe if you find a foundation that works well there's no need for the added layer of concealer. By using the thicker concealer on the outer part of the eye area there's no fear that dark circles will shine through as you still have your coverage.

Next take your luminous concealer, and apply from the centre of your eye right through to the inner corner. This step makes your under eye area look a little brighter and almost adds a sort of highlighted effect. Everyone knows the wonders of a slight bit of shimmer in the inner corners, I find blending the concealer makes my eye area look a lot brighter.

Once you've blended the two concealers your left with a brighter eye area, dark circles are covered and this just transforms my overall look everything looks a little more fresh and radiant. I see this concealing method as double duty it's a saviour for those mornings where I haven't had much sleep, (which seems to happen an awful lot a lately.)

Do you mix concealers? What are your go to concealers for dark circles?

P.S If you like my blog don't forget to follow me on Bloglovin here