*CLOSED* Selfridge's Beauty Box....Giveaway!!

Good morning ladies!

I hope you've had a lovely week and are looking forward to the weekend as much as me!

As most of you will know, Selfridge's are opening up a new beauty hall which is in fact THREE times bigger than it was previously.

This is the kind of news dreams are made of!

When they announced that to celebrate this, they were creating their own version of the infamous beauty boxes making the rounds of the blogosphere this was quite frankly the highlight of my year!

Having seen a few bloggers post about the contents I drooled for a little while and then hastily signed up, and text M to hurry up and do it too!

When the time came we obviously missed the original 50/100 boxes that were snapped up before 7am because we completely forgot (i.e. I was asleep!)

However we were both ON FIRE when the second lot (around 125 more) of them came out and managed to snap up one each and were massively excited.

We'd been thinking about doing a giveaway for a while having hit another milestone in our views and generally just to thank anyone who reads our blog and interacts with us on twitter as we have really enjoyed writing it over the past few months.

We met up one evening in the past few days and were discussing the contents to find that actually we could split a box between us as there were certain products we wanted more than others.....and being conscious of the massive back log of products we both have to get through we decided to share. (see Beauty Rehab here!)

Which basically leads me to say that against all of our beauty hoarding tendencies (it almost breaks me into a sweat thinking about it!) we now have a brand new, fully stocked Selfridge's box TO GIVE AWAY.

Yes.

To. Give. Away. (!!!)

So, if you missed out when furiously refreshing your page or didn't get your details online in time then this is your chance to get your hands on one of the 200(ish) boxes.

Firstly, here's a reminder of the box and the products that you could win:

A little slice of heaven!

Omorovicza Deep Cleansing Mask and Aesop Parsley Seed Anti-oxidant Serum

Estelle and Thild Lip Balm and Bioeffect EGF Serum (EGF-Epidermal Growth Factor)

Philip B Katira Hair Mask and the booklet that explains all of the brands and products, as well as details on the new beauty hall

Stila One Step Correct serum and Antipodes Avocado and Rosehip Divine Face Oil

Drool worthy aren't they???

What we love most is that they're from all over the world (incl. New Zealand, Budapest, Hungary and Sweden) and many contain natural and organic products, something that we are both very conscious of, and so this is the perfect give away for us.

So, onto the small print:

The winner will be drawn by rafflecopter so it is randomised.

The giveaway is open only to people in the UK. 

The winner will be contacted within 48 hours of the end of the giveaway, if there is no response after 1 week another winner will be generated. (remember to leave all your details!)

Following via GFC and on twitter, as well as leaving a comment and supplying your email address are mandatory but all others are optional. 

If you do enter, all options will be checked so be warned ;)

Good luck!

L and M xxx

a Rafflecopter giveaway

(please note that the time for the giveaway is in EST as I couldn't change it, meaning it is set to 5 hours behind UK time)

NOTD: Catwoman Inspired Nails

So I don't know about you, but I absolutely LOVE me some super hero films.

I loved Avengers, I love all of the Spiderman, Hulk, Thor and all the previous Batman films.

I'm not really that girly when it comes to film watching, I'm ten times more likely to see action with a buff man in than I am to see a romance like the Notebook.

Needless to say then, I absolutely loved The Dark Knight Rises and was so excited for it to finally come out, especially with the Tom Hardy/Christian Bale muscle show!

After I saw it however there was one thing on my mind (in the nicest way possible)...Anne Hathaway as Cat Woman.

Quite frankly I think she looked unbelievable in her leather cat suit and she's currently my motivation to go to the gym and replace stuffing myself with cake and ice cream with fruit and salad:

How is it that she can have such a tiny waist!

I read somewhere that she spent 10 months in the gym, good on her!

With this in mind, I decided to do my take on Cat Woman inspired nails

Here's my final result!

I went for simplicity over cramming too many details in.

I like that if you think about it, you can probably work out what the nails are about (if you are into the film as much as I was!)

Basically I used the black crackle from Barry M to paint 4 of my nails and the red colour to paint my ring finger.

The black crackle layered up looks great as a nod towards her leathers as they have some kind of pattern put to them which you can see in the pictures above.

The red is of course a nod towards her red lipstick, which she has for most if not all of the film.

I also covered all of the nails with a matte top coat.

Her cat suit and lipstick are both matte finish and I felt this would look better than a shiny top coat.

Lastly I used my new Model's Own nail art pen in white to add dots in a half moon shape at the base of my middle finger nail.

This is as you've probably guessed a nod towards the pearl necklace that she steals/wears during the film.

I couldn't find any other Cat Woman style nails but I hope this is something different to any others that are around.

What do you think of them?

Simple and enough? Or would you have added more?

Also....HAVE YOU SEEN HER SHOES?!

Those boots are to die for. But obviously strutting around Uni wearing these might cause some suspicions!

I'm going to give a very subtle hint that you should come back and check our blog tomorrow, as we have some AMAZINGLY EXCITING NEWS that I can (almost) guarantee you will love.

All will be revealed at 9am tomorrow, but you should definitely check back!

L xxx

Review: Colour B4 (before and after photos)

I've been meaning to write this post for a while. I'm sure a few of you have died your hair and then regretted. I know I have a few times. I have naturally blonde hair and regularly alternate between blonde, brown and red. The First time I died my hair my mum told me I would never get it back blonde.

I'd heard of Colour B4 but never thought of trying it as it costs £9.99 in boots and I thought it can't really work that well. 

The first time I used it was last year after dying it red and getting fed up with the maintenance it needed and how quickly it faded. I knew I couldn't dye over the red so thought I might as well try it. 

When you read the information inside it says it works by shrinking the colour molecules on your hair so they can be washed out. It doesn't contain ammonia which is a good thing. It returns your hair colour to your lightest natural stage when the colour applied is darker than than your natural hair colour. It doesn't work on removing hair colour that is lighter than the natural hair as when hair is lightened the natural pigment in the hair is chemically altered.

Here is my hair pre colour B4

Do not believe online where it says it takes 20 minutes!! There are buffing stages and in total it takes over an hour. You start by mixing two part together and apply to the hair similar to an all over dye.

Ignore the silly poses. The Colour B4 applied all over.

You can already see it lightening and is more back to the colour of my eyebrows.

Now comes the time consuming stage. You rinse the solution out like you would hair dye, rinse till you can't feel it in the hair any more. Your hair probably won't feel nice right now. I recommend a stopwatch and having a shower at this stage as you now need to use the buffer on the hair. You apply the buffer leave it for two minutes then you need to stand under the shower rinsing for at least 5 minutes but best to do for 10. Once this is done you need to repeat this stage again. After the second buffer and rinsing you can leave it at this stage. I would thoroughly recommend a good condition and leaving the conditioner in for a while.

After this I decided to try the Lee Stafford hot shots to help brighten it more. I can't say they did a great job. Colour B4 removes the colour really well especially red from blonde hair but don't think your hair will be back to it's normal colour. As the Colour B4 process can't slightly lighten your natural colour. I tend to leave mine at this stage but you can put on another hair dye to make it your natural colour.

So what did my hair colour look like after?

 From Red to Blonde. What do you think? Pretty Impressive but slightly brassy. I find the process can be a little drying on the hair so I don't put another dye on it for a few weeks and deeply condition.

Colour B4 is a great product available from Boots and Superdrug. I will continue to use it after I think it's a good idea to dye my blonde hair red. It's also available in extra strength for colour build up.

Have you tried Colour B4? Would you? What do you think of the Results?

Love M

xxx

London Haul

On Saturday I went up to London for a day of shopping (even though I'm skint, bad me) and to catch up with a very old friend. I've not seen this friend for 5 years now. Circumstances like university separeted us and although we are in regular contact I haven't seen her in person for some time.

I actually got nervous waiting for her. Stupid considering I've know her for 23 years (all my life) I did worry things would change. I shouldn't have panicked we spent the whole day nattering away and gossiping as well as being a bad influence on each other. Cocktails of course were consumed too!! Yum

Here's all the bits I picked up. I did get some gorgeous neon lilac skinny jeans from Next which I loved but returned today as I was worried I wouldn't wear them.

Firstly we visited Topshop where I really needed to pick up some new sunglasses. I recently found a lot of pairs of aviators are wonky that I try on. The lenses don't seem evenly bent it's really odd. I've found some like this in Topshop and H and M.

In the end I went with some lovely bug eye ones that had cute bow detail on the sides of them. They can be purchased for £16.

The cute bow detail on these sucked me straight in as well as the tortoiseshell print. They are a little more than I normally spend on sunglasses (cheap and cheerful for me as I break or lose them within a year) but it was a hot day and I needed some. I just need a sunglasses case now if you know of cute ones let me now!!

Next up was River Island. My friend had given me a £20 voucher for River Island which I hadn't spent yet as I was planning on picking up a new handbag! Bags appeared in my August Wishlist. I loved the dogtooth one I posted on my wishlist but decided to go for a classic black bag in the end. This one was £35 found.

The bag looks a nicer leather in person. I love the shape on this bag and the fact it has a short handle so it can be held in the crock of the elbow and a long strap which can be put over the shoulder. I love the detail on the front pocket and the fact the clasp can be looked in. I choose this one over others in the end as it has silver detail and I wear silver more.

Boots was next on the list. How could I not go in there and I wanted L'Oreal Mythic Oil (which I've now learnt isn't available in Boots or Superdrug) I've run out of my Lee Stafford oil and my hair is feeling so dry. It needs something drastic. I picked up the VO5 Miracle Concentrate Elixir with Argan Oil. It was only £5.19 so I thought it was worth a try. 

It seems very liquidy so I'm not sure how I'll get on. I also spied an amazing looking Bourjois Mascara but none of the ones in boots were sealed so I decided to wait and see if Superdrug has better ones.

I couldn't resist picking up some accessories in Dorothy Perkins. I love their jewellery ranges and I love getting new rings to wear. I'm lacking gold costume jewellery so couldn't resist some rings when I saw they were buy one get one half price on all non sale jewellery.

I loved the big multi ring and it looks so nice on. This one was £6.50  and the bow was so simple and cute I couldn't not have it. It was £4.00 full price but I go it for £2 

I also picked up a belt. I'd previously spotted this earlier on in the day in New Look but the ones in there were already missing studs on them so when I saw it again in Dorothy Perkins I couldn't resist it. It was £7. I can't find it online but there were lots in store. It's also my first studded item. I know shocking right. I need some dolly shoes next.

Superdrug them tempted me to more make up. I just have no will power.

At the till these were on offer on 2 for £5 I couldn't resist as I love the other two I have. I didn't have much time to pick so quickly grabbed too. I love navy nails and this shade looks pretty not sure the name cloudy blue is really appropriate though. More of a midnight blue in my opinion. Sunny pink is a gorgeous monochrome shade with hints of gold through the pink.

They are £2.99 each (currently a £1 off) or 2 for £5. Found here and here. I love the Max Effect polishes. 

Then I saw the mascaras shrink wrapped, so much more hygenic. So quickly grabbed one up. The Bourjois Mascaras are currently £2 in Boots and Superdrug making then a pretty bargain at £7.99. 

I haven't used it yet so can't comment. The brush is a big bristle brush which I love so it seems promising already. Though I have now noticed I accidentally picked up the waterproof version, luckily I'm off on holiday soon so it won't go to waste. I will pick up the normal one to try soon.

Lastly in Superdrug I picked up a Me Me Me liquid highlighter. A copy of the Benefit ones. I've wanted to try the liquid highlighters for a while as I love my MAC MSF in soft and gentle but with some foundations it seems to cling. I'm hoping the liquid one will be better. Plus it was £2 off so I couldn't resist. Bargain for £3.25 (here)

I went with the shade Sunbeam. It's the golden version. I couldn't decide between the two so might go back for Moonbeam while it's still cheap. I'm hoping it's good. I really want the cheek tints they do as well as a blushed I've been recommended. A lot of there products are similar to Benefit with a more affordable price tag so I can't wait to explore this brand more.

Lastly I went into H and M to return my wonky sunglasses. They were new and when I tried them on noticed the lenses were different shapes. I picked up a second pair of shorts I bought a few months back in a size smaller as I've lost a bit of weight and they are the comfiest shorts I didn't want to not have them.

These are boyfriend cut and loose and comfy but a really nice shape on. They are £19.99 and worth it. They don't have them online but they did have plenty in my local store still too.

I love them and I'm hoping they'll last a while. They seem a thick good denim. I loving H and M this summer for clothes and I've bought a lot from there. I just found these cute lace shorts I know really want.

So that's the end of my rather large shopping spree. What do you think of these items? Do you have any of them?

Love M 

xxx