Sunday 5 December 2010

Alberto Balsam review and my 20th birthday!

Hey girls!

Hope you all had a lovely weekend. It was my birthday today... I'm 20 now! Have any of you ever actually felt different on your birthday? I always wondered if it was just me that never does because everyone always asks! I had a good time though, even though I'm actually going to celebrate in a couple of weeks because of exams and the snow and stuff. My parents came down to see me and brought my cards and presents down and my boyfriend later took me out for Mexican food (Fajitas - my favourite!) and a Sheesha smoking session. It's only the second time I've ever smoked Sheesha and despite the fact I could barely feel my hands, feet and face as it was so cold and you can't do it indoors, I really liked it. Have any of you ever smoked Sheesha? If you haven't it's basically flavoured tobacco that you smoke using a bong:



                      Picture from amazon.co.uk

Anyway, what I really wanted to share with you today was my experiences with the Alberto Balsam range of shampoos and conditioners. When my mum came down to see me today she brought along the Sunkissed raspberry shampoo and conditioner duo as well as the limited edition Mandarin shampoo and as I grew up with the range and loved it I couldn't wait to try them.

I know everyone is always searching for effective shampoos that don't break the bank and some of the drugstore brands can actually do more harm than good to your hair. This range contains natural ingrediets and only costs about £1 for 400mls of product! Not only that but it consists of various shampoos and conditioners for all hair types, anti-oxidant products and herbal products and it's very easy to tell which type of product you are buying as it is written very clearly on the front, something I am very grateful for because I sometimes buy shampoos thinking they are conditioners!


Some examples of the range of products. Pictures from Google search. From left to right: Sunkissed raspberry shampoo, Sunkissed raspberry conditioner, Limited Edition Mandarin shampoo, Green Apple shampoo, Blueberry shampoo and Pomegranate conditioner.


The product comes in a tall plastic bottle with a simple black flip lid which fastens nice and tightly to avoid spills. It's nothing special, but as it only costs £1 you wouldn't expect it to be. As for the product itself, I have found that all the shampoos have a similar effect on my hair and as do all the conditioners so I thought it appropriate to include all in one blog post.

The shampoos have a thick consistency, which is good because it doesn't run off my hand when I apply it. It also lathers up nicely and really feels like it is cleaning my hair, not to mention the fact that they all smell absolutely AMAZING (seriously, I could eat these!) The shampoo on its own does leave my hair a little tangled afterwards but the conditioners really sort that out.
The conditioners are a little thinner in conistency than the shampoos, but still smell equally as amazing. The product feels a little like its just sliding over your hair as you apply it instead of sinking in like a conditioner is supposed to, but as soon as it is rinsed out my hair already feels super smooth.
After drying my hair feels really nourished and if I haven't used the brand in a while I can definitely notice the difference when I switch back. My hair feels very light, healthy, smooth and is very shiny as well as being very manageable without any tangles and flyaways. It does not feel at all weighed down and I love how the scent remains on my hair even after styling. It's not a overpowering smell, and my boyfriend even compliments it when he gets a whiff!

All products wash out really easily and I have never had an instance where I have had some left in when I've gotten out of the shower. It also does not strip the natural oils out of the hair and my mum (who colours her hair) says it doesn't strip the colour either. I've found that the effects of the conditioner last around 2 days, which is pretty average and the smell lasts just as long! Overall I think this is definitely worth a try, especially as it only costs about £1 :) What are your experiences with the Alberto Balsam range?

See you soon!
xoxo

Saturday 4 December 2010

Perfumes!

Hey girls!

The snow's starting to melt... that means no more uni snow days :( I've always been childish like that, my mum always told me that the moment I stop being excited at the prospect of a snow day is the day I start to grow up. Not sure it's going to happen anytime soon though!

I recently saw that Boots are offering a 30ml bottle of Britney Spears' perfume Midnight Fantasy for £10! That's £10 off! I absolutely LOVE the original fantasy although I know that it is too sweet and sickly smelling for some people's tastes. My boyfriend always compliments me when I wear this perfume, so I'm sure that's a good sign! Apparently Midnight Fantasy is just as nice as the original, just not as sweet, so I know I will definitely be making a trip to Boots pretty soon to pick this up. Do you think you will take advantage of this offer? What are your opinions of the Fantasy range?


Click the link above to see the offer at Boots.

Another perfume I definitely want to try is Katy Perry's 'Purr.' I love Katy Perry - I listen to all her music and I think she is a breath of fresh air compared to some of the other singers around. She's so talented and has such a big personality so I wasn't at all suprised by her promotional image:



I think she looks great! Sorry, I'm rambling (she's sort of my girl crush at the moment!) So yeah... onto the perfume!

The bottle is so cute! I'll admit it's part of the reason I want this perfume - I'm a little shallow like that. The official description of the perfume is as follows: 'Purr by Katy Perry begins with the aroma of peach nectar and forbidden apple, evolves with a distinct floral bouquet of jasmine blossom, Bulgarian rose and vanilla orchid, and slowly reveals accents of creamy sandalwood and musk.' Have you tried this perfume? If so, did you like it? If you haven't tried it yet, will you?


I'd also like to share with you my two newest fragrances and my opinions of them. The first is Lady Million by Paco Robane and I think one word is appropriate here: 'WOW!'


As soon as I heard Paco Robane released Lady Million I knew I had to have it. I absolutely LOVE One Million for men and was always a bit gutted there wasn't one for women. Everytime my boyfriend wore it my legs would turn to jelly! I think it definitely delivers with its sweet and fruity scent and certainly matches up to the men's version! I love it!


The second one is Pure White Linen Pink Coral by Estee Lauder.



My boyfriend got this one for me a couple of months ago as an anniversary persent. He really knows my tastes well as I adore this scent! I think it smells very delicate, fresh and feminine and it's a nice perfume to wear during the day as it's light and quite sweet and is certainly not overpowering.

I would recommed these perfumes to you if, like me you adore feminine and sweet smelling scents. Both are long lasting and have gotten me lots of compliments from friends and my boyfriend, so that's a plus! What do you think of these perfumes?

See you soon!
xoxo

Friday 3 December 2010

Introduction and body shop nail varnishes!

Hey there!

So I finally decided it was a good idea to come out of lurking and start my own blog. I have been really enthusiastic about starting this for a while now as I have been religiously following many of your blogs for months now and wanted to share many of my experiences both from the past and the future to come. J

So let me introduce myself. I’m Steph, I’m 19 years old (20 on Sunday!!!) and I have a weak spot for the arts and all things beautiful. I’m lucky enough to live about a 10 minutes walk away from a Fenwick’s store (which now that I think about it is the reason I’m always broke, so maybe I’m not so lucky!) so I mainly get my make up and other things from there, Boots and online.

This post was inspired by a blog post I recently read about the two new nail varnishes from The Body Shop. They are the only two nail varnishes available there at the moment and are actually part of their Limited Edition Party Makeup collection. Of course I can’t find this post to link you to it now (always the way, isn’t it) but the collection also consists of a lip gloss, eyeliner, eyeshadow palettes and star dust but I didn’t manage to buy or swatch these. Here they are though; the picture is from the Body Shop website.



Sorry for the stock photos, but on the way back from town today my iPhone gave its life to save my butt when I slipped on the ice (blush) and the photos I took with my other camera made the nail varnish colours look really murky so please bear with me until I get a new camera!
Check out the damage though…



Ouch…

Anyway, onto the nail varnishes! They looked just as pretty in real life as they did in the photo; however I was a bit disappointed with the size of the bottles. I thought £5 each was a little much for the amount you get (only 5mls of product!) Also, just thought it might be worth mentioning that you got £5 off if you bought another item from selected stalls, which was nice, I didn’t do this though as I only bought the £10 needed to buy the two varnishes.

The first nail varnish is a light shimmery pink called ‘Twinkling Pink’. This is the colour that first caught my eye online as it looks very cute and it looks like it sparkles in the light. I love pink varnishes and this one definitely delivers! The colour is gorgeous and I haven’t actually seen any dupes for it myself (if there are, let me know as I’d love to try them!)  This is actually now my favourite pink nail varnish that I own.

The second one is a sparkly black called ‘Starry Night’. Although I am usually not that into black nail varnishes as I think I am a bit too pale to pull them off without looking like a corpse I actually like the look of this one. It contains bits of different sized silver glitter which is very easy to see (unlike many of the other sparkly black colours I’ve tried) and so I think it would be perfect for a night out.
Overall, I really rate these nail varnishes. The drying time is average and they both provide good even coverage. The only downside I think is the price and the size of the bottle. So, will you be heading down to The Body Shop to get these polishes despite the price?

I also received two free samples at the counter: Their spiced vanilla body butter (smells SO good!) and tinted body lotion which I will include in my next post as this one has turned into a bit of an essay… sorry!!!

So that was my first post! I hope I haven’t bored you and I’m really hoping I’ll get better at this in the future! I also have new found respect for bloggers as this took me FOREVER to write! Haha J I really enjoyed it though.

See you soon
xoxo