500 products of summer (almost!) part 2: everything

I really couldn't nail a theme for the products I selected for this post. I wanted to do the 5 senses until I realised tasting and hearing beauty products wasn't really as possible as I thought it would be. I also then realised i had originally decided to only do 2 posts so had to cram everything in - Now the 500 products of summer posts will be a 4 parter of colours, everything, nail art and protection. Hope you are as excited as I am!

Summer for my face...

will be hopefully as exciting as summer gets for a face. I have a lot of products I use for my face, I try to keep them pretty regular so not to disturb the PH balance or get a reaction to new products but I do love to try new things! (Hence why we are all here today). I have added a few new and exciting products to my face routine such as oils, day creams and masks but I picked these products as they were specific to my summer needs.

In the summer my face gets quite red and warm - meaning it sweats! - so I have to protect my make up. I try not to wear a lot in the summer but when you have work and then parties and birthdays and dinners and nights out planned you can't not put on a bit of tutti. To make sure my make up sets and stays where it is I have started using UR Cheeky Freeze Frame, which is a makeup setting spray. I never knew these existed until a few months ago, I used to use hair spray to set my make up as I am sure most of us do - but I can only imagine that that is terrible for your skin. This spray is light and non sticky (unlike Asda's own extreme hold hairspray) and actually does the trick of keeping my foundation and eyeshadow pretty perfect for longer!

To wipe away the end of the day make up we all love so much I have started using these Vitamin E by Superdrug Facial Cleansing Wipes - I LOVE these wipes due to my ever talked about appreciation of Vitamin E with all it's healing qualities, and the fact they smell gorgeous. I have taken a step away from my long routing, these are much easier and quicker for cleansing after a long day at work.

Shiny & sleek strands 

Once I have a hair cut my hair will be in perfect condition for now I have to take extra care of my dry ends and dull colour, i am dying for a trim (it's only been 7 months eek). To keep my hair perfect this summer I will use a lot of sleeking and shining and taming products alternatively, depending on how my hair feels. It's an ad hoc kinda deal. My current favourite product for my hair is Color Wow's Pop & Lock, which is perfect for summer - it is a just-in-time addition to my dressing table. This crystallite shellac is different to your regular hair serums as they would normally sit on hair, where as this non sticky shellac sinks in and protects the hair from toxins while blocking out toxic bits and bobs (we don't need technical terms here!). It makes your hair shiny and sleek like you have just stepped out the hairdressers. I use it pre-blow dry on wet hair and give myself a salon style blow dry for the best results, but you can put it on dry hair and dry it through roughly with a brush too if you prefer.

Skin that is ready for the sunshine...

No matter how pale. Aside from the obvious protection (which I will elaborate on in my next 500 products post) my skin has to have extra special treatment during the summer. Starting with cleansing, in the summer I use a creamy and milky shower gel as apposed to my usual clear fruity ones because my skin can get quite dry when it it dries after a shower I have to give it as much moisture as I can, this summer I have got (the same as last year!) Soap & Glory Clean On Me Creamy Shower Gel. It has a lovely orange scent to keep me fresh and summery smelling and a creamy and silky texture and built in body lotion that leaves my skin feeling utterly gorgeous.

After I have showered with this in shower gel I still need to moisturise to lock in the nourishment, here I will be using Nip + Fab Yoga Blend Body Lotion with yummy and scrummy lavender, coconut and rose. It's really lightweight so perfect for summer, and I tend to shower in the evening in the summer so it's unwinding and de-stressing lavender scent will help me wind down after an exciting day in the sun!

My skin can dry out over night too in the summer annoyingly so I can loose some of that lovely silkiness from my evening lotion, so to wake me up for my day and keep my skin refreshed and nourished I will use Aromatherapy Associates Revive Body Gel. This fragrant gel sins into the skin so quickly and wasn't at all as thick and gloopy as I first expected, it's so easy to apply and soothes the skin as well as evening out my skin tone and texture (sounds lovely doesn't it?)

Don't let those cuticles dry out

I have to keep on top of mositurising my hands in the summer, but I always manage to get dry and flaky cuticles (not pretty when you take so many pictures of your nails). I will be using the wonderful Sally Hansen Gel Cuticle Remover, it has a built in pusher tip so you don't need all the tools of the trade to keep your cuticles perfect. it is so easy to use - it makes manicures easy and keeps my cuticles looking very pretty.

Hairless legs

Avoiding waxing my own legs after waxing my friends I turn to the second best thing in hair removal. Veet hair removal cream is miraculous, it gets rid of all the hairs so quickly. I put it on before my shower as I have still not mastered the in-shower hair removal cream routine (it just comes off, or I am stood there like a naked melon in the shower for 10 minutes with no way of timing myself - i don't get it). So, on it goes before I ditz around playing on my phone, making a hot hot coffee for after my shower or whatever pleases you then bish bash bosh silkiest legs I've ever had!


So there we have it, part two. What is on your summer products list?

#beWOWd with Ken Paves & Color Wow

Wow. 

Known as the reaction any sane person has to the Color Wow Root Cover Up amongst Color Wow's other wow-worthy products. I got to go to a wonderful event this week to see the lovely Ken Paves, stylist to the stars (such as good friend of his Eva Longoria) and learn more about their gorgeous products. I have reviewed Color Wow products previously, the two from their recently new stylers range - the Speed Dry and Raise the Root (both brilliant products I can't find any fault with) - and one of their star products One Minute Transformation.

The lovely creative director of Color Wow, Kevin Moss, demoed a few of the products for us, the two that got the biggest reaction from us all, were the Root Cover Up and the One Minute Transformation.

The Root Cover Up, an incredibly innovative product, worked wonders on the models grey roots, and filled in some blonde highlights. The colours include Platinum, Blonde, 3 shades of Brown and Black. Unfortunately none for us gingers/redheads. BUT you could add in some blonde highlights/brown lowlights if you don't have roots so there is a root cover up for almost everyone really. (Apologies for the glare in the photo, I hope you can see the effect!)

The One Minute Transformation is another miracle working product, taking frizzy hair and giving it a sleek salon blow dried look in seconds. I've been using this product recently after a hard day in the sun; I have sunscreen on my scalp and no time to wash, humidity has gotten to my locks and made it incredibly dull - in comes the One Minute Transformation. (I unfortunately don't have a picture of this!)

Especially for the event I gave myself a Color Wow mani - using my friends gorgeous Barry M Gelly Hi Shine Nail Paint in Coconut and my black nail art pen. They went down a storm with the ladies from Color Wow.

I started reading one of the lovely gifts I received in my goodie bag on the tube ride home, Ken Paves You Are Beautiful with an extremely sweet foreword by Eva Longoria (who I love!). I got through a couple of pages and it is a lovely, inspiring book so far! I can't wait to carry on reading his book, with a brew and a biscuit, feeling beautiful!

I will also take away from the night the desire to watch Blue Jasmine - due to a hilarious scene Ken showed us and referred to for the rest of the evening!

I can't wait to try my new Color Wow products, so should you! xx

PS apologies for the lack of images but the glare from the mirror means my shots of the demos aren't very good at all!

give your roots a boost

as a sworn hair volume lover I naturally have had my fair share of volumising products from Elnett hairspray to the essential hair comb over to my Schwarzkopf OSIS hair powder. I am an experimenter by nature, I am not always loyal to beauty products and thats why I rinse through so many and ended up writing a blog about my product experiences! Currently, and not in the least bit surprisingly I own 5 root lifting and texturising products.. so I am here today to review them for you and let you know if they are good as they say they are...

Color Wow Raise the Root, £16.50

Spray this on your hair before you blow dry - concentrating on roots. The results are what you expect, volume but not too much oomph. This product isn't too sticky, is easy and light to use, and smells like the hairdressers (which I love). I really have nothing bad to say about this product, good results, lovely product. This is the more expensive option, but given how long it lasts and that you only need a few spritzes to get great results I would say it is worth the investment.

Blow Pro Blow Up Root Lift Concentrate, £9.99

This product is used in the same way as the Color Wow product - spray directly on roots and blow dry upwards.  The advantage with this one is that it has a special pointed nozzle to make it easier to concentrate on spraying your roots. The texture of it is quite sticky compared to the lighter Color Wow one, however it gives more lift. - again this product smells great so when I blow dry my hair it smells & looks just like the hairdresser did it!

VO5 Give Me Texture Instant Oomph Texture, £4.19

I've reviewed this product in my April Favourites, so it is obviously up there with the best of the best. the cream of the crop. I love this product, because it gives you an instant lift with dry hair - so there is no need for the effort and sweat of blow dry. I reallllyyy recommend it for girls with thin/flat hair. No backcombing necessary just powder beneath your top layer - scrunch and bumpf - and done. It's also in a handy tiny bottle so you can take it in your handbag on a night out too!

Blow Pro Textstyle Dry Texture Spray, £10.99

This spray has a dry powdery texture so it acts like the VO5 dusting powder and can be used in the same way, but you can also lightly mist it over your hair if it is feeling flat and silky to give it some juice and life! It's not as compact and full on as the VO5 so if you only need a light lift I'd go for this product instead of the more intense VO5 powder.

KMS California Hair Play Texture Spray, £11.99

This texture spray isn't really for just concentrating on lifting your roots, it is for those of use with naturally thick hair who just want to be able to style and lift our hair out of its 'just blown dry flat and too silky' coma. Honestly, it is perfect for that and I will definitely be buying this product again.

What are your favourite root lifting and texturising products?

my percy & reed needs .. amongst other hair essentials

So, I made a courageous decision a couple of weeks ago to invest in receiving a beauty box every month.. After feeling particularly pooped about being so skint I thought 'Why the hell not?' and it worked out to be pretty worth it. I got some really nice bits and pieces that I will blog about once I've had the chance to use and abuse them all. I have to say, I am most excited to try the Beautify Me supplements as my skin has been really bad lately, you can look out for that in a month when my current pack has run out!

One product I used straight away and instantaneously loved was the Percy & Reed Dry Conditioner. My hair as I have said before gets itself into bad condition fairly quickly despite the fact I hardly ever blow dry it or straighten it - so I was pretty eager to see what it was like seeing as the piles of oil I've been putting on my hair is starting to give me an uncomfortable oily feeling on my face. I LOVE IT. It just makes my hair super soft - just like the Keratin did the other day - but with no need to start from the beginning. It's brill if you have - like me- spent the day trekking around Manchester in the wind and rain, hunting something down for your niece after 3 hours on tubes and trains from London, right before you run out of time to get ready for a night out with the girls! (and breathe) - it's a really good quick fix (and I don't particularly like that phrase however this time it's true!)

I have also found out how amazing the one minute transformation is by Color Wow after kindly getting a little sample from a feelunique event for LFW this week. It was pretty magical when I slapped it onto my 'fro to see just how good it was - but don't apply too much! (my major product tip when it comes to hair, avoid over usage or you will end up washing your hair daily and that isn't good for the natural oils that make your hair grow).

These aren't the only amazing instantly transforming - from work to night out - products I use. I obviously am a massive fan of Batiste Dry Shampoo (pairs well with the dry conditioner I think) and am head over heels for the new oriental scent as it is right up my alley (and prepping me for my trip to Thailand/Vietnam).

Then, once all creams and spritz's and sprays have been applied, you can quickly comb through with the amazing Tangle Teezer (which I have always avoided due to the fact I NEVER brush my hair but I am happy to say it is well worth the wait) and voila, instant hair in an instant for a night out, instantly. 

Good luck ladies xxx