FIX by Neäl & Wolf

I got this gorgeous hair spray, FIX, from the Birmingham Blogger Meet Up last Saturday. I couldn't wait to get this one out and see if it really was going to do it's job!

"FIX is designed to give maximum long-lasting hold whilst intensifying shine. Spritz onto a finished style to create all-day hold with radiant shine." Ok Neäl & Wolf, lets see if this worked. I styled and finished with a sprinkle of FIX. Wow, the packaging is so romantic and indulgent. The product lives up to expectations. Normally, I find it so hard to get an all day hold because my hair is so thick and heavy. The curls normally drop beyond recognition. I admit it didn't quite last all day, but the longest hold I've found yet! I love the smell of this product too, it's very warm and just an added bonus. It's not teeming with chemicals, so you don't have to hold your breath, do a massive spray, run out of the room and cough the shit out of your lungs! It's quite the opposite actually, it's gentle and subtle. The spray itself isn't a continuos generic spray, it's pumped. I think this gives it more control which is great.  

Birmingham Bloggers Meet Up!

A few months back I was invited to meet up with a few beauty bloggers and some from other niches. I didn't know what to expect! I'd never been before, but from this alone I will never turn down another meet up. It's great to speak to other bloggers, especially since a lot of them were still in or leaving uni and around my age! I was very nervous initially, but as soon as I was on the train it all went away and I was just left with pure excitement. 

Gemma from button's blog put on the most incredible day, from shopping to free cocktails to a gorgeous meal. She was so stressed and worried we wouldn't make it from all the snow, but there was no way I was going to miss a free cocktail. I mean, come on! I love cocktails! 2 hours later, I arrived at New Street, grabbed a hot choc and we all got chatting. With the help of Clare from a teenie bit of this and that  and Sara from Pretty In Pink I think it was a great success!

After our coco, since it was freezing and I had to ignore fashion for once and stick some wellingtons on, we headed out shopping around the Pallasades and the Bullring. Unfortunately I have nothing to show you as I didn't buy anything! But I got convinced to put another hole in my person, I've wanted my tragus pierced for ages, now it's done and I love my new baby! From this to the free cocktails I mentioned ;) Wow. They were strong, I had two and I was nearly off my chair. But nevertheless they were delicious and refreshing, perfect afternoon tipple from Rodizio Rico. 

Click to enlarge.

Ice Ice Baby

The UK is getting hit with a 'snow blizzard' today and the past few days leading up to it have been unpleasantly cold to say the least. (I write this from midnight, so we may have snow right now... we may have been lied to) It came out of no where and it's absolutely freezing. The pavements are slippery and the puddles have frozen over. I have so many plans, but the UK is terrible with snow, any amount and the country comes to a stand still. Unwanted snow - is any time of the year that is not Christmas. My Bulgarian friend laughs at our thought of 'snow'! But the news usually over exaggerates the weather... so we will see.

Charity Find and Super Short!

As you all know, I love a bit of Charity shopping. I found this gorgeous grunge knit jumper from Wallis for £4.75. I was going to buy one from Republic last month at £45! This is just an outfit that was really comfy and actually very warm.. since the weather has decided to start snowing! Plus it was really snuggly for my exam, urgh. But to brighten up the day I had a few vouchers to spend on the high-street and I found the shortest, well what I think was a skirt! What do you think it is?

Gorgeous faux fur, mini mini - H&M

( I did not buy this skirt. It wouldn't even work as pants for me. A belt maybe?)

Jumper - Wallis/ Jeans - Primark/ Boots - Zara/ Coat - Superdry
Scarf - Dorothy Perkins

Also here's a bunch of pictures of me being awkward.. I'll get used to these outfit posts one day! What do you think? This outfit works a lot better with the scarf to add a bit more colour.

Until Next Time xo

This Came Around Quick!

Wow, how many times will you hear this tomorrow... this year flew by! It seems with every year that comes you become more and more busy and the days just roll by. What I've learnt this year? A very clever quote that I found just from Facebook so if you can slug through it here it is: 

When things in your life seem almost too much to handle, when 24 hours in a day are not enough, remember the mayonnaise jar and the 2 Beers.

A professor stood before his philosophy class and had some items in front of him. When the class began, he wordlessly picked up a very large and empty mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill it with golf balls. He then asked the students if the jar was full. They agreed that it was.

The professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the jar. He shook the jar lightly. The pebbles rolled into the open areas between the golf balls. He then asked the students again if the jar was full. They agreed it was.

The professor next picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar. Of course, the sand filled up everything else. He asked once more if the jar was full.. The students responded with a unanimous 'yes.'

The professor then produced two Beers from under the table and poured the entire contents into the jar effectively filling the empty space between the sand.The students laughed..

'Now,' said the professor as the laughter subsided, 'I want you to recognise that this jar represents your life. The golf balls are the important things---your family, your children, your health, your friends and your favourite passions---and if everything else was lost and only they remained, your life would still be full. The pebbles are the other things that matter like your job, your house and your car.. The sand is everything else---the small stuff.

'If you put the sand into the jar first,' he continued, 'there is no room for the pebbles or the golf balls. The same goes for life.

If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff you will never have room for the things that are important to you.

Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness.

Spend time with your children. Spend time with your parents. Visit with grandparents. Take your spouse out to dinner. Play another 18. There will always be time to clean the house and mow the lawn.

Take care of the golf balls first---the things that really matter. Set your priorities. The rest is just sand.

One of the students raised her hand and enquired what the Beer represented. The professor smiled and said, 'I'm glad you asked.' The Beer just shows you that no matter how full your life may seem, there's always room for a couple of Beers with a friend.

Its beautiful isn't it? If you didn't read it and skipped straight to today's festive post, here it is. This is for those of you who were so busy and just completely forgot about the dessert. Or just fancied a bit more cooking/baking to pack into the day. The ingredients are simple things from around the house because well everything is closed!

If you've got a ready made filo or short pastry pack, well use that because it's Christmas! But otherwise:

• 125g plain flour
• pinch of salt
• 55g cubed butter
• 3 tbsp cold milk
• 12 small apples (2 for each tin)
• Cinnamon
• Sugar
• Lemon juice
• Preferred poison

Rub the butter, salt and flour together between your fingers and thumb to create a breadcrumb texture. Take a sip of your drink. Add milk, mix to form a dough, take a drink. Cool in the fridge for 15 minutes. Core apples with a knife to form flat edges, slice thinly. Preheat oven to 200 degrees. Take a drink. Roll out dough and fit to tins after greasing. Prick the bottoms and bake for 15 minutes or until nearly golden. While they are cooking, mix apples with a bit of lemon juice, cinnamon and sugar to taste. Place the apple slices from smallest to largest from centre to outside respectively. Bake for further 5 minutes. Finish drink and be merry, done! Impressive yet it doesn't take much skill, its just time consuming. But while your waiting for that turkey why not?

I wish you all the best and a very Merry Christmas. 

Until Next Time xo

Surviving The January Sales

Well in reality if your a true bargain hunter, you'll be there with the rest, I mean thousands on boxing day morning. Queueing outside in the ice cold for a massive saving. But who hasn't got home and regretted buying nearly half of the items, some are broken and some don't even fit. Then wrapped up with New years ahead and eating the Christmas left overs we become too busy to return the junk. 

1. Get There Early

If you really want to get some serious bargains and hopefully something you wanted before Christmas but it didn't quite make it under the tree, you'll need to sacrifice those few extra hours in bed. Grab a coffee on the way there and you'll avoid some major traffic jams, parking troubles and get the first viewings for the sale. Of course you could always take the train but its undoubtedly going to be packed.

 2. Know What You Want

Before you end up like a kid in a candy store, running around aimlessly and showing each other some gorgeous clothes that you'll probably not end up getting. Be serious and go directly to what you want, then take a quick browse around before moving on to the next store.

3. Dress Correctly

If your willing to queue up for the fitting rooms then be sensible and wear some easily removable clothes! By this, I mean a simple jumper and jeans with cute pumps. You'll also be more comfortable if you wear layers, it'll get hot inside and quickly cold outside. Rather than strapped up boots, tights and a dress. Imagine taking this off and on and off and on all day, you'll probably end up with a ladder. My best advise is to try things on top of your outfit in the mirror or buy roughly and take them home to try. 

4. Take Cash

Although you will probably regret this as soon as you leave one shop and have £10 left and wish you brought just £20 more. If you know your budget before you go and don't allow any way for over spending you'll stick to it. 

5. Subliminal Shopping

Have you ever noticed how all the sales signs are in red and white? The stores do this to promote a warm Christmas memory, this drives you to buy more to keep that Christmas feeling going. Beware of this and think twice.

6. Shopping Is Like Drugs

When you find something that you can afford and you are rewarding yourself with this, your brain releases a chemical called dopamine. The same that is released from taking heroine. (Wow this escalated quickly) But this is what gives you the addiction and push to buy more and more. The other problem is social, many people feel envious when their friends or family have stretched their money further than them! Be careful!

Remember you've probably spent a month's pay on gifts for loved ones, drinks, food and partying just a few days before. Take a snack with you if your going early and queuing up a flask of coffee too so you've got extra to spend just on sale items. Keep your bag and money close, don't flash your phone and have fun! If you missed my post about an over crowded student shopping lock in party, click here. I'd love to know what bargains you got this year in the comments!

Until Next Time xo

Christmas Gift Wrap Ideas

One of the best moments of Christmas is seeing a child's face completely light up when they run under the tree and see the tower of boxes and over flowing stockings. Making this even more exciting is by using your own wrapping or adding extra decorations. Instead of the standard store bought prints how about these gorgeous recycled packages?

I  think the manuscript paper is the best, very classy and elegant. But I'm probably going to shove a few jumbo lego boxes under the tree too. Match boxes are a great idea to package small items, like jewellery or stocking fillers. 

Until Next Time xo

Primark Nail Foil Review

Primark is usually known for quantity over quality. Admittedly there are some gorgeous garments that are pretty sturdy and will last you a while, but the majority is just a quick fix. So I was wondering about the beauty range and how well the varnish would fair against the other more established brands. Please excuse the poor photos!

These are definitely just a one day thing. Maybe if your going out or for a special occasion. The quality for £1 is excellent, but day 2 and they've chipped slightly. I would advise painting a faint colour underneath just so it doesn't give it away quite as easily. Also the application instructions are very confusing. Initially I thought the straight edges were meant to be closest to my cuticles, took a few attempts to realise that wasn't quite right! When filing and trimming the edges you need to be very careful not to pull away the whole design! Also these would last a lot longer if you paint a clear top coat.

What do you think? A perfect stocking filler if the price wasn't printed on the packaging, shame.

Until Next Time xo

Sneak Preview Motel Exclusive

Just for you, we've teamed up with Motel to give you the sale a week in advance. You will get the full 50% discount code, which will be activated for the general public in 7 days. How amazing, get some gorgeous new clothes at half price just in time for the Christmas parties! 

With this code you'll also get Free Next Day UK Delivery. For those in the USA free delivery as always. Hurry before the sale kicks in. Use code 'XMASPREVIEW50' you will also need to use this secret link: Click Here 

Until Next Time xo

I can see my breath

Yesterday I woke up to all the fields covered in frost, and about an inch of snowy ice layered on top of the fence. It was such a picturesque setting. I thought it would soon defrost with the sun, but I was wrong. As beautiful as it was, it was chilling to the bone. It stayed, the afternoon came and went. It stayed. It was cold. Cold. Got colder. I'd love to take a visit to winter wonderland, get my skates on and get into the festive spirit. But I'm afraid to leave my house. 

Hot Chocolate vs Winter Wonderland Cardiff

There's a fairly simple solution to try and remove yourself from a snuggly blanket, cosy fire and indulgent hot chocolate. That's the gorgeous winter selection from Next. I was surprised at the value for such thick, warm material. 

Beanie £10/ Gloves £12.50

But as gorgeous as those ski mittens are next, I think I'm just going to give it a miss and stick with these guys. Oh yes, snuggly penguin slippers and funky pj bottoms. 

Flannel pants £24/ Boots £14

Until Next Time xo

Winter lips

Stupid me, I forget every single winter that the cold literally destroys my lips. But every year I let it happen no matter how many chap sticks I have in my draws I always forget to transfer them to my bag! What I've found over the years is that many chap sticks will dry out my lips more than they do moisturise. This is due to the petroleum, although it is very oily and thick when it dries it feels like its pulling the moisture out and beginning to crack. Does anyone else have this?

Those cute little tubs of vaseline that make you addicted is for me always because I have to keep reapply and so continuously buying the product. My lips become dependant on it instead of curing the dryness. I love savonnerie nutritive lip balm. (here)I love keeping it with me just because of the smell, but in this case is really does sooth my dry lips, finally! 

Keeping with my natural addiction, Savonnerie is 100% natural so I know there aren't any nasty chemicals drying out my lips. Plus I don't need to keep reapplying all day. If I've forgotten it one day my lips will survive. Although Vaseline is only £1 I'd rather pay £4.95 and have something that actually benefits me!  Have you tried Savonnerie, what are you favourites?

Until next time xo

Carrot Cupcakes

I love carrot cake, its one of my favourites. The name just makes it feel slightly less naughty when you've got your feet up with a cup of tea and a large slice. But when I looked up a few recipes online the name is very deceiving. The recipe I took uses 200ml of sunflower oil?! I was really unsure if it was   just a typo or a joke. It felt pretty disgusting putting that much oil just on top of eggs and mixing! But as Ive learnt from so many disasters in the past, always follow the recipe! Especially if like me, your just a home baker haha. If you not like me and count your calories daily then you may want to cut down on your carrot cake intake!

I wish I had picked up a few little carrot fondant decorations to make it a bit more obvious but hey ho. I used around 200g of grated carrots but it still didn't quite give the taste, I think if you try this then 1 whole tablespoon of cinnamon would be advised. It brings out the taste of the carrot a lot more.

Recipe
275g caster sugar
200ml sunflower oil
4 medium eggs
300g carrot (more or less)
150g nuts or dried fruit
225g wholemeal or plain flour
1 tbsp ground cinnamon
1 tbsp cocoa powder

Cheese frosting:
125g unsalted butter,
125g full-fat cream cheese
275g icing sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
Edible decorations 

1.Cream the eggs and oil together
2. Mix in carrots
3. Add sugar and flour
4. Mix in nuts
5. fold in cinnamon and cocoa powder
6. Cook for 15 minutes at 170 degrees
7. Mix all frosting ingredients together and spread over cooled cakes

Over the Nail

Trend alert. Over the nail rings popped up on my radar about a month ago. They came and I thought they would soon go. But nope they are catching on. Big time. I've started seeing them on the high street and flooding into eBay and cheaper online outlets. They looked a bit deadly and pointed but here are a few more dainty ones. I'm still unsure, what do you think?

Happy Halloween!

Until next time xo

Cookie Dough recipe

Everyone has become addicted since Americans have broadcast it all over their sitcoms and then trickled into Domino's and American style diners and of course Ben and Jerry's. Its delicious and really fattening but it does taste amazing. The only problem is after about 5 teaspoons, its so sweet and rich that you get a bit sick of it. So its probably best to make these as cake pops which I might try soon. I got this delicious recipe here.

Fairly cheap ingredients

My indulgent dough

Original recipe

Recipe:
200g butter
230g brown sugar, 
200g all purpose flour
1 tsp vanilla extract
4 tablespoons of milk
toppings

1. Cream butter and sugar together until smooth
2. Add vanilla extract and 2 spoons of milk
3. Mix in half the flour
4. Add all the flour and milk and mix well
5. Mix in all the toppings
6. Eat raw

This would probably taste amazing, stuffed into the middle of a cupcake. What do you think? You need to serve this straight away as if you keep it for too long, the butter melts and seeps out. blegh.
Until next time xo

Fuggs

I'm not sure about the rest of the world but for the UK, autumn means UGGS. As much as I used to be a fan and couldn't wait to splash all my savings on a pair (£120!!) the cheaper version are just a no go. Please don't do it. It looks horrible and screams fake. They've even now been labelled 'Fuggs' (fake uggs) Theres so many types of shoes and shoes you can get for cheap that look great. If you really really need a pair than just save up that cash over summer.

I'm not a n UGGS fan anymore, but it must be said that they are the comfiest shoe I've ever worn.

I hope I haven't offended anyone, but I just don't think a broken shoe is a good look.

Dead Bling

I wish I could finish uni now, my degree in hand so I can buy and go where ever I please! But until then heres a wish list of things I want but can't have. For now. I love the new skulls, studs and spikes trend. And these fit in so well but I've never seen any like them until now. They're eerily gorgeous. What do you think?

The average around $90 each, which is probably why I haven't seen too many around university campus. But worth the investment if you have the cash flow, no? But they also offering 10% if you pin your top 5 favourites to pinterest!

Until next time xo

Aztec In Autumn

I don't know about you, but for me layering clothes is really difficult. I can never seem to get warm enough without looking like the Michelin man! In a lot of magazines recently, layering up summer dresses is a new trend. It looks very girly but very cosy and warm too. Take 1 summer dress, Add 1 pair of leggings and 1 scarf. If needed also add gloves and leg warmers. Take 1 pair of boots and go. I took some prints to add some interest leopard and aztec, never thought they'd go together but I like it.

 What do you think? Too much or just right? No jewellery today, to tone it down! Another big statement for Autumn, well this whole year, Aztec and now Aztec boots. They are literally everywhere. I've seen them on other blogs, adverts, high street, designer, celebrities. Usually for a hefty sum too, but mine were just £25! Bargain and I love them. The heel has a large base which makes walking so comfy instead of punishing my toes.

Don't forget to enter my vintage giveaway ending soon just click here, good luck! xo

Cape Town

Theres Duffle, Leather, Tweed, Blazers and now cape. This autumn's must have. Nearly every high street you walk down or designer label has their own range. Personally the designer range is well out of my pockets reach, but heres how to do it on a budget. The gorgeous, girly float or the stand out, edgy cape. 

Asos

Love Clothing/ Next/ River Island

What do you prefer? I've always gone with high street, not sure whether its my pocket or my taste. But I think the cheaper versions have more edge and personality, where as some designer items are just trying to fit into a certain genre? But then again you get what you pay for in most cases, if you want quality and a product that will last.. its always going to cost a little more! 

Until next time xo

Winter Accessories

Its getting colder, swimwear is well in the back of the wardrobe and the wellies are out! It rains so much here in Wales that an umbrella is simply a winter must have. Well all year round accessory really. But styling it up can make the day seem just slightly less drab. How about a brogue umbrella? Very cute! I love bobble hats, great for bad hair days and also keeps you very warm. 

Alongside some gorgeous boots this season, leg warmers are a must. Not only are they so comforting and cosy. They look great jazzing up some plain boots or a simple jean-jumper outfit. I've seen some very on trend scarfs this autumn. Seems they aren't just a practical item anymore, there are so many with bright patterns, jewels and studs. There's so much on the high street to choose from ranging some simple thin layer ups in primark £3 - to thick, winter warmers from Zara £30. Whats your choice?