May Favourites

Essie Apricot Cuticle Oil
My cuticles are one of my most neglected areas & the skin around my nails is always really dry. I can't resist peeling the skin away which in turn makes my fingertips red & sore. I've been trying to take better care of my nails lately & the condition of your cuticles makes a huge difference to the finish of your manicure. Slathering on a bit of the Essie Apricot Cuticle Oil every night has really improved things & has made my fingertips look much healthier. The oil is quite light in texture so it sinks in quickly & doesn't feel too greasy. It nourishes both the skin & nails plus the lovely apricot scent makes it a pleasure to use. It comes with a nail brush applicator so it's really easy to apply & it's something you can quickly do whilst sitting in front of the telly. I'll never neglect my cuticles again, pinky promise!

Illamasqua Rosepout Lipstick
This is one of Illamasqua's newer Glamore lipsticks which have a creamy satin finish. Although I do own and love quite a few of the older Illamasqua lipsticks, they were often very dry, matte & unforgiving on the lips. The Glamore lipsticks are definitely where it's at & I would highly recommend these if you're looking for something that is colour intense, long lasting & comfortable to wear. Within the Glamore range there are seven different nude shades & they even have a guide to choosing the perfect nude lipstick for your skin tone. Rosepout is a gorgeous neutral pinky brown colour & works beautifully with my cool toned pale skin. It has a modern retro feel to it & looks amazing paired with 1960s style eye makeup.

The Library Of Fragrance Mountain Air Cologne Spray*
Having never climbed a mountain before, a perfume inspired by the smell of mountain air was very intriguing to me. It's normally quite easy to imagine what The Library Of Fragrance's fantastic range of single note colognes will actually smell like but Mountain Air is a lot more complex & very unique. This breathtaking cologne spray combines together all the different elements that you would find at the top of a mountain. It's a cool, crisp & clean concoction of snow, water, flowers, trees & soil. This wonderfully refreshing unisex scent is really something quite special.

Alterna Caviar CC Cream
Hair creams have become my weapon of choice when it comes to styling my locks. After a quick blow dry I love running a few pumps of this stuff through the lengths of my hair. It helps to smooth down any flyaways & adds just the right amount of hold. Whilst CC Creams are normally for facial colour correction, the Alterna CC Cream delivers 'complete correction' to the hair. This one product provides 10 different hair benefits which are moisture, shine, smoothness, softness, UV protection, manageability, strength, anti-breakage, heat protection & light hold. It really helps to keep my bleached hair looking healthy & it smells amazing too! The whole Alterna Caviar range is simply incredible & well worth the investment if your hair is looking a little lacklustre.

BECCA Flowerchild Mineral Blush
Peachy pink shimmery blushers are my absolute favourite & this BECCA Mineral Blush is exceptionally pretty. Flowerchild has the most gorgeous golden sheen running through it that really illuminates the cheeks & gives them a fresh Summery glow. The shimmer is extremely subtle with no chunks of glitter so it won't accentuate large pores. The texture of this blusher is silky smooth & it blends like a dream. The colour can be built up without it ever looking cakey or chalky. Flowerchild adds the loveliest flush of colour to my cheeks & really lifts my complexion. It doesn't look like much in the pan but this is a truly stunning product & it would look fabulous on many different skin tones.

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Sephora In The UK

It's the moment us beauty lovers have been waiting for - Sephora now ship to the UK! I remember visiting one of their London stores way back in the day but it didn't take long for them to shut up shop and they sadly became exclusive to places like the US, Europe & China. I was lucky enough to travel to New York a couple of years ago & their store on Broadway & Prince Street was a complete revelation. Makeup heaven. So when they recently announced their plans to start shipping their products to the UK I literally squealed with delight. I decided to place a lil' order & everything went off without a hitch so I'd thought I'd share my Sephora purchases with you. I'm sure I'll be doing some full reviews & swatches of all these products very soon.



The first thing I knew I needed to order was some of the Tarte Amazonian Clay 12-Hour Blushes. Tarte have just come to the UK as well via QVC. However they've priced the blushes at £26.50 each & only had a couple of shades available - none of which were on my wishlist. So I ordered them off Sephora and even with the shipping & customs charges it still worked out cheaper overall. The shades I picked are Dollface, Tipsy & Exposed. Dollface is a light candy pink. You can never have too many pink blushes in my opinion! Tipsy is a bright coral colour. I've watched so many of Leesha's tutorials where she's used Tipsy on her cheeks & she always looks beautiful. Exposed is a nude pink shade. It's quite similar to NARS Douceur but a bit more pink toned. It's a lovely natural looking blush that will help to bring out your cheekbones.



Another Tarte product I got was The Sculptor Contouring Face Slenderizer in Park Ave Princess. This is basically a cream contouring product housed in the oh so convenient form of a chubby stick. It'll make contouring a breeze & I think it'll be especially good for slimming down your nose. I've never seen anything like this before but it's such an ingenious idea! I expect to see many brands copying this product very soon.



The last item I ordered was the Alterna Caviar CC Cream. I adore Alterna's Caviar haircare range & have heard so many good things about this hair cream. I think you can actually get this in the UK but it always seems to be out of stock everywhere & it ended up being cheaper ordering it from the US. CC stands for complete correction. It's a styling cream offering ten different features including heat protection, UV protection, moisture & shine. I've only tried it on dry hair but so far, so good!



They also throw in a few samples of your choice with every order. I picked GLAMGLOW SUPERMUD Clearing Treatment, Clinique Acne Solutions Clinical Clearing Gel & AmorePacific Future Response Age Defense Creme. I thought GLAMGLOW only had one type of mask but looks like I was wrong, they have several different ones on Sephora including an eye mask! I didn't get on with the GLAMGLOW Youthmud mask but I figured this one might be different. It's always good to keep a spot treatment handy so I wanted to give this Clinique one a go. The full size version of the AmorePacific moisturiser costs a whopping £123 so although I'll never be able to buy it, I thought it would be nice to try.

The shipping restrictions are fairly annoying as I would've loved to have gotten my hands on some nail polishes, NARS or Hourglass products. You also have to spend £75 to get the £10 shipping deal, otherwise you can end up paying crazy expensive postage & customs fees. I would suggest choosing the UK as your international shipping destination before browsing as it automatically converts all the prices to GBP. If you're worried about getting hit by customs charges when your parcel arrives at your door - don't be. Sephora use a company called Borderfree who add on some charges to your order so you're totally covered when your package arrives in the UK.

To break down the prices for you my order came to £80.51, I paid £10 shipping & then £18.09 on top of that to cover taxes and Borderfree's customs charges. In total I paid £108.60 which works out at an average of £21 per product. I placed my order on April 12th & it arrived on the 19th via a DHL courier. I've bought things from the UK that have taken longer than that so I was really pleased with the fast delivery. Overall I'm really happy with my Sephora buying experience. I stupidly didn't sign up as a Beauty Insider before placing my order so I missed out on another freebie. Make sure you register an account beforehand & you can pick a deluxe sample as well as the little sachets. The amount you have to spend to be able to place a UK order means you'll definitely earn enough points for a Beauty Insider reward. I can still claim it with my next order though & I'm sure I'll be buying plenty more things in future!

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Current Haircare Routine

When it comes to haircare my main concern is trying to stop my hair from looking dry and straw like. I've been bleaching my hair this colour since 2006 with a one year break in 2009 so I've tried a fair few treatments in my time. I've noticed the last few times I've washed & styled my hair its been looking better & healthier than ever, even more so than when I sported my natural hair colour. I think I've finally got my haircare routine locked down to these few products so this might be helpful to anyone with dry or damaged hair.

L'Oréal Professionnel Serie Expert Silver Shampoo / Tigi Bed Head Urban Antidotes Resurrection Shampoo & Conditioner / Neal & Wolf Harmony Intensive Care Treatment*

I've used an absolute ton of different purple shampoos but the L'Oreal silver shampoo is the best one if you just want to eliminate all signs of brassyness. I found that many others would leave my hair tinted rather than just white blonde. Clairol Shimmer Lights often left my hair with blue tones & Lee Stafford's offering made my hair really pinky. Purple shampoos are normally quite drying too but the L'Oreal one keeps my hair feeling soft. I picked up the Tigi Urban Antidotes duo in TK Maxx but you can find them just as cheaply online. I really like all the Tigi duos because the bottles are so big they last for months. I used to use the Dumb Blonde ones but switched to Urban Antidotes as these are specialised towards extremely damaged hair. Over time this duo has definitely helped to strengthen my hair and reduce breakage. They also have the most amazing bubblegum scent. A product I recently introduced into my haircare routine is the Neal & Wolf Harmony Intensive Care Treatment. I received this at a blogger meetup and when I tried it I couldn't believe the difference it made! It has worked so much better than every other conditioning treatment I've tried including those expensive Kerastase ones. This is a must buy product if you have dry or damaged hair. It just makes my hair look so healthy & glossy. Neal & Wolf are a brand I definitely need to investigate more because if the rest of their products are as good as this I am converted!

Philip Kingsley Elasticizer

I am rather lazy when it comes to my hair so I don't use this product very often but when I do, the difference is just incredible. Elasticizer is a pre-shampoo treatment so it is a bit of a faff to use. You have to wet your hair, apply it, put on a shower cap and then leave it in for ages before shampooing it off. You can leave it in for just 20 minutes or overnight if you prefer. I like to apply it to the ends of my hair and leave it overnight before washing it out in the morning. It restores your hair to almost virgin condition making it feel silky & sleek. This product can also help with hair growth if you use it often enough as one of the main ingredients is castor oil. It is very expensive for a hair treatment but worth every penny.

Kérastase Ciment Thermique / Moroccanoil / Bumble & Bumble Brilliantine / Alterna Caviar Rapid Repair Spray

I'm still using my Ciment Thermique & Moroccanoil combo as my blow dry base products. Together they give me the perfect amount of heat protection & moisture. A couple of months ago I added Bumble & Bumble Brilliantine to the mix and this stuff is basically a good hair day in a tube. You can use it on wet or dry hair to add definition and lots of shine. I've started to use this through the lengths and ends of my hair before blow drying and it just completely renews my hair. It makes my ends look super healthy, like I've just had a trim even though my last hair appointment was a few months ago. So much love for this product! After I've finished drying my hair I like to use a bit of the Alterna Caviar Rapid Repair Spray to add even more shine & get rid of any fluffyness. I've never come across a finishing spray as lovely as this one & it smells divine to boot!

Babyliss Pro Speed 2100W Hair Dryer / Babyliss Big Hair Rotating Styler

I always have to blow dry my hair as I cannot stand having wet hair. Air drying would just make my hair stringy and lifeless anyway. I don't really like to use a curler or straightener so blow drying allows me to get the shape I desire. I know its not the best thing to do to your hair but I only wash my hair once a week and use heat protection products every time so I guess its not too bad. First of all I blast my hair with my hair dryer and run through it with my fingers. I use a Babyliss Pro Speed hair dryer which is really brilliant. I'm pretty loyal to Babyliss when it comes to hair dryers, they always last me years. Theres a newer model of this now but this one is still going strong. When my hair is almost dry but still a bit damp I switch over to my Babyliss Big Hair styler to add volume and shape. I couldn't live without this styler. It just gives you a perfect blow dry without all the effort of sectioning your hair and drying it against a round bristle brush which can be quite tricky to do by yourself. I never used to be able to do it as well as my hairdresser but Big Hair really does help to give you that professional blow dry at home look.

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Alterna Caviar Go Out Blowout Duo

Alterna Caviar Perfect Blowout Creme / Alterna Caviar Rapid Repair Spray

Due to the condition of my hair I much prefer to wear it straight & sleek. It makes my hair look thicker, neater & better cared for. I love the messy bedhead look but I just can't really pull it off without looking like I've been pulled through a hedge backwards. It also makes my roots look even worse than they are! I always always always blow dry my hair (cannot stand wet hair!) and finish it off with the Babyliss Big Hair styler so I like to try out new products that can help to protect my hair as well as make it look better.

The Alterna Caviar Perfect Blowout Creme is a thick cream that really helps to add a polished look to your hair. I apply this to my towel dried hair before blow drying it. I use a small amount, probably about the size of a 2p, and smooth this through the lengths of my hair. The thickness of this product means that it does take a little bit longer to dry your hair but the finished look it helps you to achieve is worth that extra effort. I'm really impressed with the hold this product gives my hair which means that my blow dried style lasts longer. It leaves my hair feeling so soft & thicker too. You can even use this on dry hair to help smooth down the ends. When used on dry hair it reminds me of the Percy & Reed Finishing Polish which is another product I absolutely adore.

I've been meaning to pick up a bottle of the Rapid Repair Spray ever since I received a sample of it in the first ever Glossybox back in May 2011! The smell of this stuff is amazing. I wish they'd make a perfume of it! This is such a lightweight spray & you only need a few quick bursts for it to make an incredible difference to your hair. I think this might be my favourite finishing spray ever. It makes your hair so glossy without making it greasy and completely eliminates frizz & fluffiness so it hangs a lot better. My blonde hair also looks brighter because of the shine this spray adds. After using this I've found I get less split ends so it has great long term benefits as well as immediate results.

I bought this set from Beauty Expert where their Winter sale & a 20% off discount code reduced the price from £52.50 to just £21.60 which is less than the price of one of these products alone. Sadly it is now sold out but you can still pick up both of these products individually & they're well worth the money! These products work so brilliantly together & I can't wait to try out some more of Alterna's Caviar range. Have you tried any Alterna products?