Songs I can't stop listening to #2

Become obsessed with a small group of songs, listen to them over and over, get bored and move on to some more - repeat! I did exactly that with my last little group of songs and now I'm onto these - and so the cycle continues: 

(You're the) Devil in Disguise - Elvis Presley

Prisms - Temples

Nosedive - Wolf Alice

Can't Stand Me Now - The Libertines

Taper Jean Girl - Kings of Leon

I Want You - Kings of Leon

On Call - Kings of Leon

Milk - Kings of Leon

The End - Kings of Leon

Quite a serious Kings of Leon phase taking place at the minute. What have you been listening to recently?

(Photos taken from Google Images and do not belong to me.)

Recent buys (Lush, Bleach London, Barry M and more)

Some little treats that I've bought recently:)

Lush "The Kiss" lip scrub - Yes, I am a sheep. Does anyone else feel like they've been bombarded with pictures and videos of this stuff for the last month or so? (That and a certain unicorn horn!) Well, all of the brainwashing has finally paid off as I had to give it a try and see what all of the fuss was about. The lip scrub (Which I'm pretty sure is limited edition? But don't take my word for it) is a cute combination of caster sugar, sea salt, edible heart "confetti" and hundreds and thousands sprinkles. Unlike some lip scrubs, The Kiss isn't harsh or aggressive on your lips and leaves them lovely and soft. That and it smells delicious!

Lush "Catastrophe Cosmetic" face mask - I'd never used a Lush face mask before this one, but I knew to expect good things! After looking through all of the masks on the Lush website and then coming across this one and reading reviews that included claims along the lines of "this helped clear up my acne prone skin"/"my skin has never looked so good" etc. I was pretty set on Catastrophe Cosmetic. I seriously cannot put into words how much of a difference this mask made to my skin even after just one use. My skin has been in a pretty bad state recently for no particular reason (it just has really bad bouts sometimes, which is GREAT) - spots and blackheads galore (not that anyone asked) and after just one use of this my spots were smaller, much less red and some of the smaller ones that were already on their way out had gone completely! And the results for my blackheads were pretty much the same; smaller, less obvious and some of them disappeared altogether. And overall - my skin feels softer, brighter and just generally "better". So I've been using the mask every couple of nights or so after my usual face cleansing routine and with each use my skin just keeps improving! If you haven't already please try a Lush face mask because I have never had skin results as fast as this.

Lush "Granny Takes a Dip" bath bomb - Ooh I've been wanting to try this so badly! There isn't too much to say about this other than it smells amazing and a majority of reviews I've read say that it leaves your skin feeling super soft. I can't wait to use this and turn my bath into a lemon, ginger and pepper scented load of psychedelic loveliness.

Lush "Space Girl" bath bomb - This is one of those where if you hold it for just a second you'll be finding glitter in random places for the rest of the day. The smell (and look of it I suppose, the lilac parts anyway) reminds me of parma violet sweets and when placed into your bath water, it fizzes like mad - can't wait to use it!

Lush "Butterball" bath bomb - This bath bomb just smells heavenly and, while it may look plain or boring in comparison to the others, it makes the most promises about treating your skin. They claim that "if you have dry, sensitive or irritated skin, this is the bath bomb to replenish it" so I'm looking forward to finding out if this is true.

Bleach London "Swamp Spritz" salt spray - Another one I've wanted to try for quite a while! I've already used their hair dyes "Washed Up Mermaid" and "Violet Skies" and since then have had my eyes set on both this and their reincarnation hair mask. I wasn't sure at first if I should be applying this to my hair when it's wet or dry as the instructions weren't very insightful - "Set the nozzle to spray and apply to hair" - that's literally it. But after trying both I found that it really doesn't matter because they both work just as well. It adds just the right amount of texture without leaving your hair feeling knotted or gross (I've had some bad hair experiences with salt sprays) and there really isn't much to fault. The only thing that I would change about the Swamp Spritz is the amount that comes out with each spray because if you weren't expecting it you could easily ended up soaking one patch of hair and then having to deal with the fun of brushing that out. If it was more of a mist then I think it would be perfect! So hopefully I'll be onto my next Bleach venture soon - the reincarnation mask!

Rimmel London "Match Perfection" foundation - As a ridiculously pale person (I've had to grow up with people always asking me if I'm ill, it's that bad) I've always struggled to find a foundation that really matches my skin and is also affordable (and I'm a skint 17 year old so by "affordable" I mean cheap). So after reading this post on the blog "From Roses" about her favourite foundations I'd found yet another foundation that I was ready to try after being drawn in by the words "I think this line from Rimmel is the best option for us pale girls on the high street" (sold!). So I bought it in the lightest shade '010 Light Porcelain' (it's usually £7 but it was £5 from Asda, yay!) and I just love it so much already. It gives good coverage whilst still managing to be light and hydrating and lasts pretty well throughout the whole day (but, like with most foundations, lasts perfectly when set with powder). So any pale and porcelain people looking for a nice and very reasonably priced foundation, give this one a try! 

Barry M "Gelly Hi - Shine Nail Paint" in Blue Grape/504 - I am so late onto the bandwagon for this one. I've been using Barry M nail polishes for quite a few years now and love them as much as the next person, but had never got round to trying the Gelly Hi-Shine range. So when I saw the vibrant "Blue Grape", I knew that it would be the one to "have a go of". It's bright, very pigmented (even after one coat), super glossy, very chip resistant and I love it - and there's not much else to add!

Topshop Elephant necklace - I'm probably one of the last people on the planet that needs a new necklace, but this teeny tiny elephant necklace from Topshop is so sweet and was only £4.50! It would have been rude not to.

What have you bought recently?

(This is not an advertisement for any of the above products or companies nor am I being paid or sponsored for this post.)

Current favourite Hair Products (Part 2 of 2)

The second half of this post is all about my current favourite hair care, styling and dye products. So again, from left to right:

John Frieda Sheer Blonde, Blonde Hydration Leave-In Conditioner - Unlike some leave-in conditioners, this one doesn't leave any kind of grease behind in your hair. So I obviously took advantage of this fact when I first bought it (which is when my hair was the most damaged) and just attacked my hair with it all the time. It helps to keep your hair feeling strong when it's drying and just gives a bit of extra protection on top of your regular conditioner.

Umberto Giannini Mend My Hair Rehab Salon Smooth Damage Repair Protein Spray (is there enough words there?) - Regardless of all the excess words, this stuff is so great for saving your hair. Again, like the John Frieda spray, it doesn't leave any grease behind, so I of course was drowning my hair in the stuff when it was really, really damaged and it made so much difference. It doesn't really do much for shine but it does so much for strength, which is great when your hair is basically falling apart! Also, the added heated protection is perfect for people who are trying to look after their hair but can't face not using heat.
Toni & Guy Classic Medium Hold Hair Spray - I really don't use hairspray that often any more (I left that behind in my embarrassing excessive back-combing phase) but I've always used Toni & Guy hairspray just because I can rely on it to do the job. Despite being medium hold, this hair spray holds really, really well without leaving your hair crunchy or greasy and gross. And it also brushes out really easily which is always nice in a hairspray!
Phil Smith Argan Oil Hair Transforming Cream - Granted, I only have the travel size version of this, but because you only have to use a pea-size amount each time, it's lasting me quite a while! You just apply it through the mid-lengths and ends when your hair's wet and then "blow dry as usual" or just leave it to dry like I do. I like this because even though it's only a little extra something, it's nice to get as much protection in my hair as possible (without it going greasy of course). This is also great for if my hair starts to feel a bit dry, I just add a tiny bit to the lengths and ends again and it gives it an instant boost without making it greasy.
VO5 Plump It Up Weightless Mousse - It took me a while to find a hair mousse that didn't leave my hair greasy or crunchy or both, but this one does neither! It gives your hair a nice and natural looking lift and a very dramatic lift when dried with a barrel brush (win-win). I like to just add a small amount to my roots to keep it looking natural but still having some added body and volume.
VO5 Cherish My Colour Full Bodied Spray - I mainly only use this spray after I've re-dyed my hair so that it keeps for longer and also stays nice and vibrant for longer. This spray is so handy to use if you have pastel colours in your hair (like I currently do) as they are an absolute pain for fading quickly which means more colour top ups which means more damage for your hair (not great). So this stuff is great for keeping hair colour touch-ups few and far between.
Garnier Ultimate Blends The Sleek Perfector Oil - Ooh this stuff is lovely, but I might be biased because I love anything with a coconut scent. This can be used for so many things, as it says on the bottle: Before washing, before styling, after styling, between washes or any time. My favourite time to use this oil is before I wash my hair; I like to apply a generous amount and massage it into my scalp for a couple of minutes (either to do the "inversion method" or just to give my scalp a treat) and then run some more through the lengths and ends and leave it for about 30 minutes before washing my hair. It fills my hair with moisture which helps to keep it from drying out when I shampoo, feeling soft and also smelling gorgeous.

(I took the picture of the dyes in the bowls from my instagram so please excuse the poop quality!) I didn't include the Boots Pro Vitamin Classic Care Conditioner in the first post because I rarely actually use it on it's own as a conditioner and just use it to dilute my hair dyes instead. It's cheap, it's white (which you need to dilute) and it keeps your hair feeling soft despite dyeing it - perfect! So the three dyes in the bowls are what I'm using currently (my hair's mainly pastel pink with hints of lilac and pastel blue) and all three of them are mixed in with the pro vitamin conditioner.

The Live Colour XXL Ultra Brights in 93/Shocking Pink is one of my all time favourite hair dyes. I've had pink hair on and off for a year now and I love this one so much because it's still so vibrant even once you've diluted it. Also, because it's so dark on it's own you only need to add a small amount to your conditioner, meaning that it lasts for ages. If you're thinking about dyeing your hair pink I would definintely recommend this one because, even though a lot more pastel pink dyes are being released recently, this one gives you the option of having more variety of shades of pink in your hair rather than just the same colour (unless that's what you want then go for it!) but I personally like having the option of doing my hair as dark or as light as I choose so I can change it up every time I refresh my hair.

Bleach London Super Cool Colours in Washed Up Mermaid and Violet Skies - I'd never used Bleach London before using these dyes but had wanted to for a while after seeing lots of people rave about them. Now that I've tried these there's so much more of their collection that I want to try, in particular their hair mask and salt spray (which is called Swamp Spritz which I just think is fab). The dyes are a lot more pigmented than I thought they would be, especially Violet Skies, which looks quite pale in the bottle. The main thing that I love about Violet Skies is that it stays nice even when it fades - pinks tend to fade with an orangey tint to them and blues tend to fade to a weird green but the violet has stayed violet even when it has really faded. I had all of my hair lilac at some point last year and that was one of my favourite things about it - it's pretty low maintenance compared to pink. So yes, I'll definitely be buying more of these when I run out!

What are your favourite hair products?

(This is not an advertisement for any of the above products or companies nor am I being paid or sponsored for this post.)

Current favourite Hair Products (Part 1 of 2)

I decided to split this post into two parts as I'm greedy and chose quite a few products and they just weren't all going to fit into one picture (trust me, I tried). So the first section is Shampoos & Conditioners and the second section will be Hair Care, Dye and Styling Products. You'll probably notice that a lot of the products include keratin, argan oil, "nourishing", "caring", "repairing" etc. and that's because around September last year I bleached my hair (for the 100th time) back to blonde, which basically just left it on it's arse and in a completely non-hair like state. Word of advice: don't bleach your hair several times, then dye it several colours numerous times, then bleach it again, then dye it dark purple and then bleach it twice to get the purple out because your hair will NOT thank you (I did all of that over the space of about 2 years by the way, I'm not a hair psycho). So since then I've been persevering through some very awkward hair stages (a lot of it broke off leaving me with some random short patches which wasn't pleasant) and trying any hair health restoring products that there are. So if you've got ridiculously damaged hair and just feel like shaving it all off (I have too, don't worry) just PERSEVERE and give your hair the love and care that it's been deprived of, because mine is slowly getting there and yours will too. I might do another post focused solely on caring for extremely damaged hair because I'd certainly be speaking from experience haha!

So from the above picture, left to right:

OGX Beauty Argan Oil of Morocco Conditioner - This was one of the first products that I bought in the quest to save my hair because I'd always read good things about it and it just seemed like an obvious one to try. It's "rich in natural Vitamin E and super-charged anti-oxidants" and obviously, argan oil - the main ingredient! I would recommend this to anyone, even if their hair wasn't damaged, because even after just one wash your hair starts to feel stronger and less dead and is left feeling softer, shinier and smelling lovely! 
OGX Beauty Ever Straight Brazilian Keratin Smooth Conditioner - This is a blend of "coconut oils, keratin proteins, avocado oils and coconut butter which work together to bring new life to your hair" - and it does what it promises! Plus all of the coconut goodness that goes into it just makes it smell amazing.
TIGI Bed Head Urban Antidotes Recovery Shampoo (Damage Level 2) - Like it says on the bottle, this shampoo is great for hair that "needs a moisture hit". After just the first use my hair felt so much softer and moisturised and like actual hair again! (Seriously it had gotten to the point where when it was dry it just felt like chalky straw and when it was wet the texture was unidentifiable) And you can continue to feel the difference with each use, as your hair just feels softer and healthier every time.
TIGI Bed Head Urban Antidotes Recovery Conditioner (Damage Level 2) - There isn't much else to say about the conditioner, as everything about the shampoo applies to this as well, except that this is even more moisturising than the shampoo (as conditioners usually are) and leaves your hair feeling so silky.
Tresemmé Keratin Smooth Shampoo - This stuff is just brilliant, not just the shampoo the whole collection. I could not recommend the keratin smooth collection enough and again, not just to someone who has damaged hair, just anyone who feels like giving their hair a real treat. Often between rinsing my shampoo and applying my conditioner my hair can feel quite dry (because annoyingly washing your hair does dry it out considerably - hence conditioner!) but I genuinely don't get that when I use this shampoo.
Tresemmé Keratin Smooth Conditioner - Like with the TIGI conditioner, there isn't too much to add except for the fact that it is so, so moisturising and soft on your hair! It's just lovely to use because it feels nice, smells nice and you know it's doing your hair some good.
VO5 Nourish My Shine Conditioner - Which promises "manageability and luxurious shine for damaged hair" and it delivers! This always leaves my hair feeling ridiculously silky and soft and I just love it.
And in the middle is the Tresemmé Keratin Smooth Deep Treatment Masque - AKA hair mask of the gods. I've tried so many hair masks and hair treatments that it's actually a joke but I've now found one that I love and I'm sticking with. This treatment is so thick and soft it's just amazing. It leaves your hair moisturised, soft, shiny and just lovely (and has the standard amazing Tresemmé smell). Seriously I love this. 

What shampoos, conditioners or treatments would you recommend?

(This is not an advertisement for any of the above products or companies nor am I being paid or sponsored for this post.)

Songs I can't stop listening to (Mini Playlist)

Does anyone else find a song they love and then listen to basically that and only that for the next couple of weeks or so? Or fall in love with a song, listen to it until you physically can't stand it, forget about it for like 6 months and then fall in love with it all over again? Well I do that all the time! Here are my are current favourites which have been on repeat:

Requiem for O.M.M.2 - Of Montreal

Bros - Wolf Alice

Last Living Souls - Gorillaz

Kids With Guns - Gorillaz

Toe Cutter-Thumb Buster - Thee Oh Sees

40 Day Dream - Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros

Just a short list, but they're all great songs that I recommend making yourself acquainted with if you have the time:)

(Images taken from Google Images and Wikipedia.)