Back to blogging!

Hi guys, after a long break I have decided to try to start blogging again. A lot of things have changed since last time I posted so my posts are going to be slightly different this time around. For one thing I am now 23 weeks pregnant (YAY!) so I will be posting a few pregnancy/motherhood related items. I have also bought a house with my partner and become somewhat of a housewife, I do a lot of cooking and cleaning so will also be blogging about general lifestyle things, maybe the odd recipe here and there. I will still be rambling on about all the beauty related bits and bobs I get my hands on, just with a few extra lifestyle articles thrown in! 

I'm very excited to give blogging another go, and I'm still new to it all so please be patient, and I look forward to entertaining you with my posts.

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Bluesky Shellac Review - Blackpool

It's no secret that gel nails are huge at the moment, and after completely destroying my nails with acrylics for years, I decided to go down the gel polish route to try and get my nails happy again. I have had them done a few times at a salon, but as I'm cheap and don't like spending a lot of money, I wanted to have a go at doing them myself and have seen a fair few good reviews of the brand Bluesky, so I bought myself a little lamp, a Bluesky base and top coat and a colour, which in this case is Blackpool.

 

First off let me apologise for the different nail lengths and the bad application, I did them in a bit a rush just to try them out. And I have to say, I'm more than a little bit impressed. First of all the cost for the whole lot, including the lamp, the 3 polishes and the shine wipes came to around £40. This has paid for itself in 2 applications compared to getting them done at the salon.

 

The thing I was concerned about was how long they would last, as normal shellac would generally last around 2 weeks, and I have to say, I need not have worried at all! I actually took this photo 3 weeks ago, and haven't done my nails since as I have been busy, but they have lasted incredibly well! I do have a few chips on them now, but for three weeks that is expected! They lasted the 14 days looking awesome and didn't chip at all in that time.

 

The colour is a beautiful shiny jet black. I am so so happy I've found this brand, and I will definitely be trying out more colours! Have any of you tried Bluesky? I'd love to hear your opinions :).

MUA Lipstick Review.

 I have seen so many good reviews about these MUA lipsticks, and at £1 each, I could not resist the urge to try them, so I bought 3 in the colours I like to wear the most. These were Shade 16, which is a orange/coral colour, Shade 1 which is a deep red and Shade 4 which is a bubble-gum Barbie pink shade.

 Strangely enough I am both extremely happy and extremely disappointed with these. To explain why I will talk about them individually in the order of the photo.

 

 First of all is Shade 16, also called Nectar, and weirdly enough the only one out of the three I bought that had a name as well as a shade number. The first time I put this on I absolutely hated it. I've had colours similar to this that suited me really well. This one did not at all. I can't put my finger on why I disliked it so much but it just did not suit me at all and looked kind of plastic-y. However I decided to give this another shot, I applied it in a dabbing motion then topped it with Soap & Glory's Sexy Mother Pucker in Pink Apricot and I really liked the outcome. The gloss seemed to dull down the strange look the lipstick game my lips and the colours really complimented each other for a nice wearable orange shade. It's definitely not my favourite lipstick, and it's not the worst. It just did nothing for me and I would never wear this without the gloss.

 

 Secondly there's Shade 1, AKA my new favourite lipstick! It really is a beautiful shade! It's more purple toned than I expected, but I'm glad it is. For me it is the perfect deep red without being too dark and looking gothic. And it lasts pretty well. Even if it didn't I don't think I would mind as I love the colour so much re-applying often wouldn't be an issue. I've worn this pretty much every day since I bought it and I'm in love, it's just so wearable.

 

 Now, last and definitely least is Shade 4. I was actually most excited to try this one as I love being girly and wearing bright pink lipstick. I expected a lovely bold bubble-gum Barbie pink 'pop' to my lips. What I got was, well... nothing. I am so disappointed with this. I thought my prayers had been answered and I'd found a gorgeous pink without it costing the earth. There is no pigment to this lipstick whatsoever. I tried layering it up, but still after 10 coats it gave nothing but a slight sheen and extremely little colour. It's possibly the worst lipstick I've ever tried. I'm just thankful it only cost £1.

 

 So there's my review of these lipsticks, I find it so strange that one of these is my new favourite lipstick, another is just 'blah', and the other is hands down the worst I've ever used. But for £1 each, being able to try all 3 of these for way less than the price of an average lipstick is pretty cool, and I'll almost definitely try more if I see any more shades that look nice.

Batiste Big & Bouncy. Get massive hair!

 My first post and review is going to be quite a boring one (dry shampoos on the whole aren't the most exciting products I guess), however this has to be one of my favourite products at the moment and I'm really excited by it! It's Batiste Dry Shampoo XXL Volume - Big and Bouncy.

 First off, I absolutely adore Batiste's dry shampoos, I always buy them and love trying all the different scents. I have tried other more expensive brands, which just do not work half as well as Batiste. However, for general de-greasing and refreshing, I probably would recommend one of their other dry shampoos over this one (I personally love the Tropical scented one, the smell of coconut is incredible and actually lingers for ages, I always catch whiffs of it through the day when I use that one), but if, like me you're a fan of big, voluminous beautiful hair then I 100% recommend this product, but not to use typically as a dry shampoo.

 How I use this is more of an actual volumising spray product. For a dry shampoo, I don't feel like it 'refreshes' my hair at all, it actually feels a bit more dirty than if I had not used anything on it. It doesn't make it look greasier, but you can definitely feel that it's there.

 I spray it on, brush it out then back-comb and fluff it out with my hands, it feels quite sticky and holds really well. I find it holds better than a lot of hairsprays without giving it that shiny coating that you get from hairspray. You definitely need to brush it out before styling to get rid of the typical dry-shampoo dusty-look.

 My hair has never achieved such natural looking BIG volume as it does using hairspray or other styling products and I'm absolutely in love with this product, but as I said, not as an actual dry shampoo. It works so well at pumping up my hair that it's become an absolute staple in my hair styling routine! Go and try it out if your sceptical! It's slightly more expensive than the original one which is around £2.99 at Boots. This one is still really cheap at £3.99 and is well worth the investment! Let me know how you get on with it, I'd love to hear your opinions!