Je fais du shopping - my birthday Radley Grosvenor

So. This was really a present to myself! After dragging Matthew into the Radley shop in Bath and bemoaning the price tag which is justified by the beautiful leather and shape of Radley's Grosvenor bags, yet not really justifiable to me as £200 is a LOT of money, especially when I already have a rather fabulous bag collection... I bought one.
Last weekend, I went to visit my parents and we ended up at the Designer Outlet place in Mansfield. All of their Grosvenor bags were half price, due to being (mostly) shades they don't carry any more as this year they seem to be doing bordeaux, a brownish tan and black. They had black, a very yellowy tan, red, and... purple. So, having had £100 to spend from my very generous in-laws, I splurged £100 on a medium flapover.

 The bag has a green lining embossed with the Radley logo and a small silver dog in the new style, with no swing tag. I don't mind this, as I think the bag is still quite distinctive. I chose the medium style as I have a few bucket-style bags, but nothing smaller and structured with only one strap so you don't get that annoying thing where the second strap slides down your arm. This will be perfect for my upcoming New York trip. Not being in the black or brown family it won't clash with any footwear that I take.

After I chose this, Matthew bought me the matching purse. It's amazing and I am a very happy girl!

L'anniversaire

I turned 28 this past week and I really need to do a birthday haul - for now though here's a teaser.

http://www.dune.co.uk/laidley-d-high-top-trainer-prodlaidleyd33taupe/

These babies are finally mine thanks to my wonderful husband!

Vetements - OOTD and FOTD - Lazy Sunday cinema date

Just a quick Outfit of the Day - I'm going to see Dredd 3D in Bath with my husband and grab a burrito:

Top - Urban Outfitters
Vest - GAP
Jeans - Levi's Curve ID in slight curve (bought in New York) - sorry for the mirror smudge!
Boots - DUO
Bracelet - Primark

 Face:

L'Oreal BB cream
Eyeshadow from Urban Decay Book of Shadows II in Mushroom, Peversion and Sellout on the brow bone
Mascara - Boots Natural Collection Waterguard (LOVE this!)
Lips - just some Carmex lip balm
Hair is in a messy bun for the day

L'Opinion - Redken Nature's Rescue Cooling Deep Conditioner

Just a quick review today - I was looking for a deep conditioner without silicones, so when in TK Maxx the other day I picked up the above deep conditioner from Redken. I paid £10, but this retails for about £13 for 100ml.

http://www.redken.com/products/haircare/natures-rescue/cooling-deep-conditioner

The mask is a light green colour. I'd say I needed a blog about the size of a 50p to do my whole head and I left it on for 15 minutes even though it doesn't specify on the packaging. This really is cooling and makes your scalp tingle as there's a definite minty thing going on.

When I rinsed and let my hair air dry I was pleasantly surprised - this definitely helped with my heat damage on my canopy area, and left my hair soft without coating it in silicones.

All in all, a winner!

Je fas du shopping - Wildfox Couture dupe - Primark!

On my travels today, I spotted a new link in Primark in Bristol (one of their largest stores) and upon closer inspection it appeared to be a very good imitation of the Wildfox baggy beach jumpers/sweaters that are so popular on bloggers and general rich girls who can afford to spend hundreds on loungewear. Granted, this is more polyester than cotton and has 3/4 length sleeves rather than full length like most of their styles, but the material feels the same and this cost me the grand sum of £8.

Je fais du shopping - Collective AW haul

Today I decided to go into Bath. Now, Bath is great for shopping, but it's also considered great for being touristy/poncing slowly up and down pavements/sitting and being pretentious in coffee shops, so it can be a nightmare on a Saturday. Put it this way - there's a reason we moved. Nobody wants to battle through crowds of schoolchildren on a mass tour or hungover hen parties with their supermarket shopping. 

Anyway I got a few things - I went wanting a black cardigan, black leggings, and black tights. I was semi-successful. 

First, I went into Urban Outfitters and got a Sparkle and Fade top, reduced to £10 from £38. It's a really nice thick sweatshirt material and when you turn it over...

It's got cut outs! I bought a little black bandeau to go under this and one of my dresses but I could easily just wear a vest. 

Then I went to Apricot and got 2 dresses, which I'm seeing with tights or leggings and boots (bare legs for September with boots, if the warm temperatures keep up). 

Finally, the black cardigan! I got the perfect one - it won't bobble, it's lovely and cosy, it's not exactly cable knit but it's chunky like I wanted. It was £17.99 from New Look and it's part of their new range.  I also got my leggings from H&M for £7.99. Not bad! The whole lot cost me under £60 as the dresses were £10 and £12 respectively. 

I finished all this off with some rather fantastic jeggings from Matalan. 

http://www.matalan.co.uk/fcp/product/fashion-to-buy-online//Skinny-Fit-Jeggings/61962%2526smid%3Dfbli?fb_action_ids=10100320104315793&fb_action_types=og.likes&fb_source=timeline_og&action_object_map=%7B%2210100320104315793%22%3A10151038678909930%7D&action_type_map=%7B%2210100320104315793%22%3A%22og.likes%22%7D&action_ref_map=%5B%5D

L'Opinion - Gum Hair Conditioning Cream

Or, to give it its full name, Gum Hair Salon Expertise Double Cream Super Rich Californian Walnut Conditioning Cream. Mouthful!

As mentioned in a previous post, I have curly hair. I tried following what's known as the "CG" or "Curly Girl" method, which works on the principle that sulfates like sodium lauryl sulfate are very very bad for curls because they are a harsh detergent, but you need these to wash out the silicones in most conditioners otherwise you end up with stringy, build-uppy hair. Therefore, you can either wash your hair with silicone-free conditioner, requiring a good old scrub at the roots, or use a sulfate-free shampoo and a silicone-free conditioner.

Anyway, about a year ago I tried this for a month and it really worked so I'm sort of giving it another crack this year. I stumbled across this Gum Hair product in Home Bargains for £1.69 and I wanted to share it with you, basically because it's FREAKING AWESOME. 

The texture is quite thick, as it is a cream conditioner like it says on the bottle. The smell is a kind of creamy, nutty scent, which reminds me of luxurious body butter. I found the effects were very similar to a mild deep conditioner, and the smell lingered for a while. 

All in all, a bit of a bargain and completely silicone free!

Je fais du shopping - Matalan stripes

Just a quick flash of these amazing tops from Matalan - they're thick, have little buttons on the shoulders, the perfect length and they're only £6. Bargain.
I got these 2:

They can be found here:

http://www.matalan.co.uk/fcp/product/fashion-to-buy-online/Tops/Boatneck-In-Navy/60108&resultsPerPage=100&attrList=Dept,brand

L'Opinion - Colour B4 review

So 2 weeks ago, I had a haircut. My hair is shoulder length and curly so I had some layers chopped into the back and a trim. I loved it. I then decided to use Schwarzkopf Live Colour XXL in Bitter Sweet Chocolate. It came out black. BLACK. My natural colour is a medium brown and this is what it looked like. 

This stuff is evil, and apparently almost impossible to remove. I was facing having to resign myself to growing this out for about 5 years with a lovely black hair, brown roots effect. And then I discovered reviews online for Colour B4.

http://www.colourb4.com/home

Despite the fact that XXL dye has silicones in it that mean it's impossible to wash out and won't fade, I went and bought a box of this in the extra strength version for £10.

I won't lie - it's messy, stinky (it smells like hair remover or perm solution - very eggy) and a pain in the arse. You apply the stuff, wait an hour, rinse for ages and ages, but if you follow the directions exactly, and I do mean exactly, it shrinks the dye molecules and you can wash them out. This was the result.

Holy shit! It's my natural colour! Just so you can see, this is before I dyed it

Pretty close, right? So I can categorically state that this stuff works, even on XXL dyes. Ta da!
I wouldn't suggest doing it all the time as I've needed to use a really good deep conditioner a few times, just to get my hair back to normal, but it's great for those times you wish you could turn the clock back and put the dye box back on the shelf in Boots.

I have pledged to leave the damn hair dye alone from now on. Dark hair does not yellow-toned skin suit, my friend.

L'intro

Well, hello world.

I've been blogging since I was 16 but it's now 11 years later and I find myself married, living in Wiltshire of all places, and working in fashion. I don't really know yet exactly what I want to talk about but... I used to write a lot and I need to get the old creative juices flowing I think. So it'll probably be about shoes, makeup, TV, my time at university, coffee, my rats, food, weight stress, hair stress, travel and fashion. Yep. It will not be about my job although I might mention it from time to time. You never know. I do have to go there 5 days a week after all and I love it, too.