Apricot

I've now successfully embraced my new dip dyed hair, but I was hoping the result would be a bit more orange than yellow and it's definitely destroyed the ends of my hair! I've been using my 'Dark and Lovely' conditioner religiously but it still needs something more.

 I then remembered about my beloved Directions semi permanent conditioning hair colour. I've used this for years and years (even through my nu-metal stage when my hair was anything from green to pink, rock n' roll eh) for the past few years I've stuck to Pillar-box Red though as it's the exact colour I like in my hair. I then remembered the hairdresser confirming my love for the stuff when she recommended leaving it on for as long as possible as not only does it colour but it conditions the hair no end.

 It can end up being a pretty messy rigmarole if you're not used to using it. And even though I've used it for years I still have to be extra careful not to make as mess as it stains like a motherbitch. Always make sure you wear gloves!! Having bright orange hands for 2 weeks isn't an attractive look.

 I left it on for around an hour altogether and also refreshed the lengths and roots with the pillar-box red. It's made the ends of hair a lot less dryer than before (although I know they're still very damaged and brittle) and overall the condition appears a lot better than before I used it! I will be 'topping' it up with this every other week as the colour fades.

You can get Directions dye from quite a few places... Mainly alternative shops like Rowfers or if you go on eBay you can get it too. Expect to pay up to £4 a pot. I really recommend it if you have red hair that needs a bit of a boost between colouring or if you have particularly dry coloured hair, and the colour range is pretty good too!

Dove Hair Therapy

After never really being interested in any of the Dove hair care range in the past, then trying their intensive conditioner and being amazed by the results, I've a new found intrigue about the other hair products Dove do. I came across this new Hair Therapy intensive repair spray in Tesco the other day on an introductory offer for £2.66

 It's meant to be a damage solution, preventing breakages and split ends, and boy do I have my share of those.

 You can use it on wet or dry hair, it's not a dissimilar concept to the Clynol Moisture spray I tried a while ago, where you need to shake it up to activate the ingredients.

 I was expecting great things from this and it's kind of let me down. It smells great, like sherbet or something. And that's about where it ends for the pro's of this product. I've tried it on wet hair, dry hair, towel dried hair, every wetness/dryness of hair I can think of. And the same result happens. Which is mainly nothing, it makes little to no visible difference to my hair whatsoever. Apart from just feeling like it has a weird coating on it, and not even a coating that makes it shiny or anything either. Sorry Dove, I won't be buying this again. It came in 3 variations for coloured or frizzy hair, give it a go for the price but don't hold your breath.

Short Shorts

Even though the weather outside is frightful and I bought these culottes from Matalan when it was uber sunny, I thought I'd mix it up a bit and wear them in the grim weather. Just to remind me of sun once had.

 In retrospect it was probably a bad call. I should of at least worn thicker tights because my legs were FREEZING all day! Do you like how I've un-intentionality matched my outfit to my new hair colours too? Haha.

Shorts - Matalan £6

Blouse - TK Maxx £12

Cardigan - Primark £5

And even though my new Michael Kors Trench Coat (bought from TK Maxx for £30 and it's about £150 everywhere else online!!!) kept me dry, I'd still probably avoid this outfit again until this torrential wind and rain disappears though!

Stila Steals

I absolutely love the packaging and style of Stila products, but in Boots they're a little expensive for my pocket. So imagine my utter delight when I spotted them in TK Maxx, in little packets containing 3 products for £7.99! In Boots you can expect to pay £7 plus for one product so to obtain 3 is a mega bargain.

 I've been eyeing them up for a while but in each pack they had 2 things I'd use in and one I just wouldn't touch... Or 3 very similar products. So I was a bit naughty and swapped one of the things out of one pack for the moisturiser, I just don't need 3 lip products, sorry. It's not like I was stealing or anything though as they were all the same value of goods inside! Shhh don't tell anyone.

 I was particularly intrigued by the moisturiser, I hadn't seen this before. But it was for dry skin and it smells just like the Benefit b.right moisturiser! Which is promising as that is my favourite one at the moment but I can't afford the full size pot. I have high hopes for this!

 The next product is a cheek and lip cream in 'petunia'. I love cream blushers and this is the perfect colour. I also like how it has a little mirror in too. It's really creamy and easy to blend although a touch drying on the lips. Also the packaging is just so cute.

 And finally there was a long wearing lip colour in 'coquette'. It's a lovely soft pink shade with a touch of a brown hue. It's really soft and moisturising, I think it's my new favourite ever. But I'm fickle like that.

 Over all an amazing little selection for a mere £7.99. It's a great way to introduce yourself to Stila products and although these are possibly old or imported lines (as the packaging and products are slightly different than the current range in Boots) you're still getting the same high quality, amazing products.

Competition Time!

So, after the whole Lush Saga this week, I bet you're looking for an awesome replacement for all your finest handmade, natural and animal friendly bath bombs and smelly stuff huh? Well pop pickers, look no further than Bomb Cosmetics. I discovered Bomb a while back and instantly loved their bath blasters and creamers. As my house mate quoted, one of the bath creamers I'd given to her was like 'bathing in yacks milk'... Probably not the best analogy, but you catch my drift; high quality, lovely smelling, skin softening, pampering goodness. After speaking to the ever so friendly Bomb-ers they have kindly donated their amazing Vintage Velvet Gift Set just so I can give it away and share the Bomb Cosmetics love! You seriously need some Bomb in your life.

So, the closing date shall be 12pm on the 8th May. 

Terms and Conditions are pretty standard. Open to UK residents only, over the age of 16. 

There can be multiple entries as follows;

Follow this blog on GFC and leave a comment saying what product you would choose if you could from the Bomb website + 1 entry

Follow @BombCosmetics on Twitter + 1 entry

Follow @hello_terrilowe on Twitter + 1 entry

Tweet about the competition tagging both @BombCosmetics and @hello_terrilowe + 1 entry

In total a person can enter 4 times and the winner drawn at random and announced on the 9th of May. Also make sure you leave a way I can contact you after the winner is announced (e-mail/blog link/twitter)! 

Also this competition is open to EVERYONE. My comments are set so 'anonymous' people are allowed to comment, although if you enter, probably best not to be anonymous so I can contact you about if you win!
Good luck guys!!

Specs Appeal

This week I decided I finally needed to get myself back to the opticians after putting off my scheduled eye test for over 2 years. For the whole of my adult life I've had to wear glasses/contact lenses to see and they have progressively become worse as the years have gone by. They started off at around a -2 when I was 16 and now 10 years later they're a -6. Every time I go they're worse! Specsavers currently have an offer on glasses as 2 for 1 and I'm ever so inpatient so didn't want to wait up to 10 days ordering them from elsewhere.

 It took me the best part of an hour choosing some glasses. I wanted some that were a bit different but not too ironic. Even though part of me would love to rock some Timmy Mallet-esque frames I feel I would look a bit silly. 

I didn't bother with thinner lenses as the plastic frames are going to be my 'main pair' (even though I never wear my glasses, I always stick to contacts) and the metal frame my back up one. There's a slight issue with this though, as the lenses are so thick they won't close properly! The plastic ones are absolutely fine though, which is good because they're my favourite. Now, are you ready for some gratuitous posing in my new glasses?! You better be, butter bean!

 Should of photoshopped out a few of my spots really, thanks to the moisturiser from this months Joliebox I've broken out in spots harder than a breakdancer at a disco. Anyway, the focus is the specs, right? From the side it emphasises the thickness of the lense even more, they're a bit like goggles really!

 I also didn't go for that glare coating stuff. As you can tell by the reflection from the window eradicating my actual eyes. I like the colour of these ones, I thought the purple would clash with my hair but it doesn't too much.

Do you wear glasses? Do you get endlessly annoyed that you have to PAY just to SEE? I certainly do. Although these two were on offer and I paid £69 altogether, I still feel really hard done by, as without glasses I really wouldn't be able to do much. It's really not like paying for the dentist and stuff, I can function without teeth, but without my glasses/contacts how would I be able to put my make up on? Yes, I'm very vain.

Waitrose Baby Body Butter

A few weeks ago I blogged about Waitrose's Baby Bottom Butter; a thick balm like substance which had been hailed on beauty forums far and wide for a good year or two now. I know for me, the formula of that can be slightly too greasy to use as a face cream so I tend to only use it in 'dabs' here and there when I have a dry patch (on my face, not my bottom), and it was brilliant when I got caught by the sun a few weeks ago too. I then discovered they did an incredibly similar product in a tube, I swatched it in the store and it was a much more cream like product, perfect for the face! Sorry babies.

 The ingredients vary slightly from the original Baby Bottom Butter, it seems to contain all the key ingredients of the butter though, in fact but with a few things added in. The smell isn't quite the same either. This one smells more of chamomile than vanilla, like the butter does.

 The cream itself is still pretty thick, very creamy but absorbs quite well. I imagine some people would find it slightly greasy but like I said, it is no where near the levels of grease one would encounter when using the bottom butter. A little bit goes a very long way.

I've been using it as a facial moisturiser mainly but it's delicate to use anywhere (it is meant to be for babies after all) On the face it's quite nice and a pretty good base for make up. In fact, I would liken it slightly to Benefit The Porefessional a little bit! Not too much though as The Porefessional is a whole different level of cream/primer/magic good stuff. But if you tried this you might *GET* what I'm implying. It retails for a fraction under £3 and you can find it with all the baby stuff in your local Waitrose store.

My Last JolieBox

Oui oui, I have made the executive decision to cancel my JolieBox subscription. Although JolieBox (formally Boudoir Privé) has been, for me, the most pleasing beauty box available, I have decided I could do with saving that £10 a month and put it to better use. Namely not on products I neither need or want.

I'm not going to lie, this months selection was actually really good. Items included a full size mascara from Bellápierre, a hair product, some cleanser, some cream and some nice coconut oil stuff. But alas, I am so apathetic towards the whole Beauty Box craze now that I really cannot be bothered to write about it in more detail! I will however, review the individual products if I feel that they warrant being written about. I've already tried the mascara and it's pretty average though! 

What do you think about the whole Beauty Box thing now? At the start I really did get bitten by the bug and absolutely loved the idea, but alas it has become boring and the novelty has certainly worn off for me.

The Body Shop Beautifying Oil

I was pretty intrigued when I spotted that The Body Shop were releasing a new 'Beautifying Oil' which could be used on the hair, skin and face. I do enjoy the odd thing from The Body Shop (namely their coconut scented antibacterial hand gel) but I can't claim to be a massive fan or anything so hadn't formed an opinion either way before I tried this.

 It's recommended retail price is £9.99.... Or I think it's £9.99, even though I bought this online I just had a look to double check that price and I cannot find it anywhere on the website! However, I paid around £4.49 for it as I found a few discount codes and it was a certain percentage off as an introductory offer. Sorry I can't share the love by sharing the link though!

 So, you can use it in a few ways as mentioned. I've tried it on my hair and like many oil products you have to be SO careful not to use too much. A little goes a very long way, I ended up looking like I'd worked a shift in a chip shop after the first use. Alas all is not lost though, as I applied even more and left it on for a hour or two before washing. The result was pretty darn good! I didn't use it again post wash though. For the skin it's pretty average I'd say. It didn't blow me away yet it didn't completely suck. The smell is quite nice but not like the other cocoa butter products in The Body Shop; it's way more floral than that. Overall a nice all round product for the price I paid but I very much doubt I would reinvest or pay the RRP to have it again.

Pinkerton

My escapade into shocking pink lipsticks continues this week as I discover Collection (2000's) Lasting Colour lipstick in PINK SHOCK. This one comes in slightly more vivid than the Beauty Collection Minx Lipstick I posted about the other day.

 I read about this over at Zoes's blog (The London Lipgloss) and instantly knew I had to have it. Like her images though, I feel that mine simply can't justify how shockingly pink this lipstick is; as it appears a lot brighter in real life than either of our images are demonstrating.

 It's a super creamy and highly pigmented colour. I always tend to find lipsticks dry my lips out so kind of avoid them at all costs really. But this one is absolutely fine. I do put on a little bit of my Einstein Lip Therapy beforehand though. 

The colour lasts for a good 4 hours and even when it's come off after eating and drinking there's still a hue of pink left.

I'm very sorry that I am so bad at taking pictures of lipsticks on! It's impossible and pictures of lips often make me seriously cringe! But here is is anyway, the bottom half of my pudgy little face minus photoshopping mah spots out, demonstrating the pinkness on. Like I said; it is so hard to translate via screen how awesomely bright/vivid/shocking this shade is, but I absolutely love it. you can pick it up from Superdrug for £2.99 and selected items of Collection make up is currently on offer as 2 for £4.99.

Delving into Dip Dye

I'm not one to buy into trends too much, but I will admit I have been quite a fan of the dip dye/ombre thing. I haven't really seen too many red haired people rockin' the look though so there was my excuse to try it. The quality of these photo's isn't amazing, as usual I've done things in a massive rush and it's a mix between my actual camera and web cam pics.

So that's my hair before the attempts at RUINING THE ENDS OF IT. I'm so bored of it lately. I've not had it cut for 2 years now and it's literally stopped growing. It just wont get past this length. That should be a thumbs down really.

So because I wasn't sure if the whole thing would work I went looking in the £1 shop for some dye. I picked this one up. I kind of knew it wouldn't work. I put it on 3 times!! And this was the result;

Really, not a lot of difference and actually just looks like my hair colour has faded rather than a dip dye that's been done on purpose.

So I went to my local Bodycare shop and picked up this Born Blonde Lightener. This is just for lightening your hair before you tone it, which is great for an ombre style. I've put this on twice, although I probably didn't need to do it a second time....! *I forgot to add I put it on 30 minutes each time. As I mixed the formula twice I think it was weaker the second time around. If you're not sure how light you want your hair do it in 20 minute spats perhaps.

This is the result. apologies again for the poor picture quality. I fell asleep with my hair wet and kind of in buns. I do that occasionally if I want it slightly wavy. This morning it went hella wavy and big though.

It's the effect I wanted but I kind of want the ends more orange than the yellow colour, although I can live with that as it looks quite nice anyway. The ends of my hair have completely dried out now so I'm putting lashings on the Dark and Lovely conditioner on to try and rectify the damage a bit. Over all it was a successful endeavour though! I know this is a rushed post but I just wanted to share the dip dye love with y'all. Oh and it looks slightly greasy in the last picture because I just accidentally put too much of the new Body Shop Beautifying Oil on, that I shall be reviewing very soon!

Double Bargain Hunt

Today I have TWO Bargains to share with you. The first is this Buffing Brush from Poundland. And you guessed it, it cost A POUND.

 I don't know who Studio 35 are, but that's who makes it. It seems a pretty legit quality for something in Poundland really and probably wouldn't look too out of place in Boots or Superdrug.

 The brush itself is probably a little large for what I would use it for but it does apply your blusher like a dream and blends it perfectly. The bristles are pretty nice quality and only about 3 shed from it the first time I used it and non since.

  Definitely recommended if you're a make up brush newbie like me and just want to try them out of intrigue.
 .....The second bargain was this Lipstick from Bodycare. For some reason I am going through a massive obsession with bright pink lipstick?!

 The packaging wouldn't stand out in a 80's make up bag and boarders on slightly more cheesy than glamorous. But it's what is on the inside that counts....

 And on the inside we have a bright pink creamy lipstick, which I like! It has slightly lilac undertones when on but still very very pink. It lasted a good 3 hours before I needed to apply it again and it still left a pink hue when it rubbed off. And how much did it cost??..... 99p! Bargain.

Brogues and Loafers

I'm not really one of those types of people that goes mad for shoes. I mean, yeah I wear shoes but I cannot understand those ladies (or men) that will spend 100's of pounds on shoes or lust after certain designers. It's just not my bag at all. At the end of the day they go on your feet which ultimately go on the floor and the floor is dirty and gross. Also the fact I find it so hard to find shoes I like and that are comfortable. I noticed today though, that the shoes I do have are pretty much ALL THE SAME. 

 I mean, why do I need 3 pairs of brogues which all look pretty much the same? I like my purple ones on the left a lot though. They were from a real shoe shop and cost a few pennies. They're made properly though with screws in the sole so they don't fall apart. I've had so many cheap brogues from primark that have literally fell to pieces. The two on the right are ones which have survived though. I like the tweedyness of the centre ones. I heart tweed.

 My most recent purchase is the yellow brogues. They have a small block heel so I'm hoping to wear them more in the day time. The centre ones, which appear to be the most dirty are Kurt Geiger ones, which are probably the most expensive item of clothing/footwear I actually own!! I certainly need to look after them more. The brogue boots are my current favourites but are wearing out so much lately. I need some replacement ones!

 The brogue obsession continues with some more heeled ones I got from new look, but then we progress onto loafers. I think I have a thing about granny shoes. I really like the style of them! The ones on the right I haven't actually worn yet. They're a bit too bulky but were £5 from a charity shop. They're Clarks too so a bargain eh.

These two pairs are my all time favourite shoes ever. They're from Clarks also, the brown pair were from a charity shop and once again cost £5. They were as good as new when I got them but now look at them! They were so good I bought another pair in black from eBay for £3. They're now getting tatty too. But they're just so darn comfy!

Are you the type of stick to one certain style or do you have a variety of shoes? I have a few pairs of trainers now as I'm hoping to dress a bit more casually nowadays, but it's so hard to find things to go with them. Loafers and brogues go with EVERYTHING.

Another Pastel Dress

I have acquired quite a collection of pastel dresses lately. Like, about 10. This is the latest one. It's from Dahlia, which is a brand I really really like. Their dresses are so cute and quirky and as soon as I clocked eyes on this one, I knew it was meant to be.

 I absolutely love the collar and buttons on this, and better still it was £20 reduced from £59. How good is that? It's a light chiffon material with a pleated skirt.

 I teamed it with this 'Soundgirl' Cardigan I got about 6 years ago from TK Maxx, I always forget I own this cardigan but every time I rediscover it I remember how much I like it!

 It has the cutest buttons on it ever, which are little pink hearts. I thought I'd caught them in that picture but it appears not, sorry!

I also love my little brogue boots, I've been wearing them non stop for the past 6 months. So much so the bottoms of them have gone completely smooth and are now really slippy when I go into shops! I got them from New Look about a year ago in the sale for £7. Bargains galore.

Topshop 'Face' Make Up Kit

During my occasional rants about Topshop, people have often recommended their make up. I've been intrigued about it but obviously due to my utter disdain for the store I never actually took the time to have a browse. However, this weekend I was feeling frivolous so battled my way through the grotesque garments and shit to the make up stand. I went with the view to maybe purchase either a blusher or a lipstick....

 ...I spotted this little kit though which contained both lipglosses and blushes and only cost £8. As the blusher alone was £6 and around the same price for a lipstick I thought this would work out for the best for all round value.

 I will admit, I do like the overall design of the packaging. It's quite quirky yet simple. My main issue though was the fact they stuck a massive security sticker over the back which took a while to get off and still caused damage to the box. I know this is only a little thing but it niggled me somewhat.

Inside we have 4 eyeshadows, 2 lipglosses, a blusher and a applicator which enables you to apply the eyeshadow and lip stuff.... But what to apply the blusher with? That sucks a bit that a little brush wasn't included. The applicator for the eyeshadow and lip gloss provided was pretty poor quality too. However, the make up products themselves are of reasonably good quality. I did expect the blusher to be the cream formula not the powder though, as when I tested the blushers on the stand they were all creamy so why is this a powder? The tone is slightly too pink for me too so I need to be extra light when putting it on. The eyeshadows are highly pigmented but not the easiest to blend in, which resulted in a very bold result. The best part of the whole set is the lip gloss and the packaging. The lip gloss doesn't dry my lips out completely and can last the best part of 3 hours. It's a good set for 'on the go' but not one I would be purchasing again. Each thing is nice individually though but when I tried it all at once I resembled a clown. It would be nice if there were a range of palettes in different shades for different skin tones too. I'm afraid to say this hasn't altered my opinion on Topshop whatsoever. Woe is me.