Transform Your Hair by Avoiding These Hair Care Mistakes

GIFTED

We've all been there - staring in the mirror, desperately trying to tame our unruly locks. Hair care can be a daunting task, especially when you're bombarded with conflicting advice from every corner of the internet. But fear not, my fellow hair warriors! Today, we're going to unravel the mysteries of haircare and equip you with the knowledge to transform your tresses into crowning glory.

Brace yourselves, for we're about to embark on a journey to uncover the most common hair care mistakes that have been sabotaging your mane's potential. From the perils of over-shampooing to the pitfalls of heat styling, we'll leave no stone unturned. So, grab your brushes, and let's get started because a bad hair day should be a distant memory!

The Art of Natural Beauty: Exploring Cosmetic Solutions for a Timeless Look

Natural beauty is celebrating your best features and achieving a healthy, radiant look. You love your unique self, yet a little confidence boost can go a long way. Sometimes, delicate cosmetic enhancements can help you feel refreshed and beautiful.

These options are ways to refine your appearance rather than radically change it. From simple skincare to more involved treatments, there's a solution to help you look and feel your best. 

Every journey is personal! So explore what's available and discover the path that feels right for you.

Hair tlc - top products and tips for self-care hair care

AD

Self-care is important for our mental health and wellbeing plus our body. Taking time for self-care to look after our mental health, relax and destress, have a good skincare routine, have a healthy and balanced diet and exercising is all brilliant and helps to improve mental and physical health and wellbeing. It is also important to take time to give our hair some tlc.

Participating in hair care that goes above and beyond a simple, standard shampoo and condition will give your hair extra tlc so that it is healthy from scalp to tips. Not only is giving your hair some tender loving care at home with self-care great for making your hair healthier and looking good but it is also therapeutic and confidence boosting for added positive mental health and wellbeing.

4 Beauty Treatments to Try as a New Mom

Collaborative post

Being a new mother is one of the biggest miracles in a woman's life. Of course, motherhood is not the easiest thing, it needs time and a lot of willpower to learn how to be a good mom.

The first months of being a new mom, need a lot of sacrifices and there are some habits that you consider leaving behind for a while, in order to spend more quality and quantity time with your newborn baby.  But there is one thing that you should keep doing, take care of yourself.

Spoiling yourself once in a while is the best thing that you can do. Especially if you just had a hard time in labor and you need some time to relax and take a deep breath. If you are looking for beauty treatments that you can try, you are in the perfect place.

Here you will find the best 4 beauty treatments for a new mom

Adults Christmas gift guide

#GIFTED 

Importance of Client Contracts for Beauty Therapists

FACT: it is a legal requirement for Beauty Therapists to perform a client consultation before every treatment – even if the client is a regular. Failure to do so can invalidate your insurance and cost you thousands if a claim is ever made against you.

Yet, how often does this actually happen? How often have you entered into a salon or spa and actually had the therapist sit down and go over your medical requirements (allergies or medical conditions) and what to expect from the treatment?

Wonderful wigs - Feel like a Diva with Divatress

This is a sponsored post. All opinions are mine.

Wigs provide people with a way of transforming how they look.

They are amazing for helping some people suffering from hair loss due to chemotherapy or illnesses such alopecia deal with the hair loss, their confidence and happiness with their appearance.

Wigs are also a fantastic hair care product that enable people to get the hair style they desire or to transform their look quickly and easily.

Put simply there are many reasons why people wear wigs.

With that in mind wigs are more available and mainstream than ever and the variety of wigs and styles available on the market is vast.

One leading beauty e-commerce company that offers thousands of wigs along with hair care products is Divatress.

Offering convenient online wig shopping Divatress’ customers include professional stylists, beauticians, mature women, working mothers, students, and young women.

Divatress founders who combined the word ‘Diva’ to signify a goddess or queen and ‘tress’ which is a lock of hair are passionate about helping everyone feel like a diva.

Whatever the reason for wanting to wear a wig, Divatress who specialise in wigs for hispanics have a wide range of hairstyles and cuts from long to short, curly to straight, stylish to glamourous, and a vast range of hair colours including blonde, brunette and even pink to name but a few of the shades of colours available.

What style would you choose?

Feel like a Diva with Divatress!

* Sponsored post  - #Divatress #Beauty #ad *

SENSSE Hot and Cool Ultrasonic Skin Tightening Facial Toner and Eye Massager review

What with getting older and suffering from poor skin condition thanks to PCOS and dermatographic urticaria (aka skin writing) I am always on the lookout for new ways to improve my skin condition so that it looks and feels better and healthier.

SENSSE Anti-Ageing Facial Cleansing Brush and Exfoliator review and giveaway

Getting older and having kids has made me want to take of my health and well being more than ever. I aim to be healthy inside and out, as well as look and feel good and healthy. Being a sufferer of PCOS with poor skin condition being one of my significant symptoms my desire to be healthy also extends to having healthy skin.

Part of my daily skin routine to keep my skin healthy and looking its best is cleansing. At the moment my facial cleansing routine is traditional with me applying facial cleanser to my face and then gently massaging the cleanser into my face with my fingers in a circular motion.

As I am always keen to improve my skin care routine I have been testing a cleansing brush.

The SENSSE Anti-Ageing Facial Cleansing Brush and Exfoliator is described as a gentle skin care brush that helps reduce wrinkles and fine lines for youthful, firm and smooth skin.

Lee Stafford Curl Your Heart Out Cone Wand review

Whilst I have naturally curly hair, my curls are wild and tend to be at times wavy and very frizzy. Unfortunately I do not have sleek defined curls that are true curls without a hint of wavy hair or frizz.

As I do love curls and could do with a little helping hand to give my hair a head of beautiful curls I was happy to try out the Lee Stafford Curl Your Heart Out Cone Wand.

The Lee Stafford Curl Your Heart Out Cone Wand is designed to help you effortlessly create achieve salon quality curls at home. The curling wand boasts many features -

* Graduating tourmaline-ceramic barrel to help create long-lasting defined curls

* Ceramic coating for an anti-frizz finish

* 13-25 mm barrel to create root volume and drop curl tips

* On/Off switch with LED indicator

* Heat rest stand

* 3 meter swivel power cord

* Heats up to 210 degrees

* Includes heat protection glove

* Worldwide voltage

* 2 year guarantee

The Lee Stafford Curl Your Heart Out Cone Wand is a sleek curling wand that showcases a hot pink handle and silver ceramic barrel. The wand is lightweight to hold and use. I love that the barrel is 13-25mm wide as it is ideal for giving great volume at roots and fabulous graduating curls from root to tip. The high quality and very effective cone shaped wand creates a gorgeous curls that waterfall from root to tip.

The wand has a maximum temperature of 210°C and heats up very quickly. For safety the wand is supplied with a useful heat-proof glove that helps you protect your hand from the heat of the wand whilst curling your hair.

The wand is very easy to use. Simply turn on and allow to heat up then wrap your hair around the barrel, wait and release. Then repeat for as many strands of hair as you want for a little or lots of curls. The wand can help achieve different curl styles - lovely loose curls or a head full of sleek graduating curls or a handful of curls to complement straight hair.

I love how quick and easy the wand is to use. Thanks to it being a quick and easy hair styling tool I can update my style with ease and forget the normal ‘busy mum’ messy bun hair that I regularly adopt. I love the curls I achieve with this cone wand and that I can vary the curls from loose carefree curls to tight sleek curls.

It is available from Amazon and at the moment it is eligible for free Prime delivery which is perfect is you need a curling wand quickly to get beautiful curls.

Beauty routine for a busy life

Being a busy mum with very limited - extremely rare should I say -  ‘me’ time I often have very little or no time at all to spare on my looks.

Gone are the days when I would always have my hair styled to perfection and my face fully made up beautifully before I left the house. Hours dedicated to pampering and getting ready before special occasions and mad nights out are a distant memory.

Now I rock a messy mum hairstyle on a daily basis and my makeup bag is severely neglected with my makeup routine being non-existent. On a typical busy day with no time at all to think of making sure I look presentable before we dash out of the house for the school run - heck getting the kids fed and dressed is a priority - a splash of water on my face and lip balm on my lips is job done.

As I have vowed to make more time for me (organisation is key here) and invest in making myself look and feel good I have been finding ways to get ready quicker and products to help me preen myself on busy, early mornings.

Here are the tips and products I have been using to get ready quickly and easily -

Keep it simple

Whilst I want to make more of an effort with how I look I do not need to go full out on a makeup-tastic face that has been primed, contoured, glossed and adorned with eyeshadow and lipstick to within an inch of its life - I just don’t have the time to go to those beautifying extremes.

Keeping my makeup routine and style simple is the key. Mastering a simple yet beautiful makeup routine will mean I can get ready quickly without having to skip wearing makeup. So far I have been able to implement my simple makeup routine into my morning. It is refreshing to be able to pamper and give myself a little love, and I love having a dash of colour on my eyelids, a flick of mascara and a slick of gloss on my lips.

Be prepared

It may seem obvious but being prepared and having all the products I need for my hair and makeup routine in one place means I have the time to get ready and do not have to panic where anything is which wastes time and causes stress. My makeup bag is kept tidy and clean and left on my dresser next to my makeup mirror, with any products I take out to use when out and about returned of an evening ready for the morning. Hair care products are also stored on my dresser ready to use.

Hair care

I have bought a tangle teezer to help tame my wild hair, with it being amazing to quickly detangle my hair before styling. I have also found using quickdry gloves a lifesaver as they gently dry my hair quickly.

When not styling my hair in a basic plait or making the most of my natural curls, I have also been straightening my hair regularly with my Lee Stafford Straightener. Using these sleek straighteners which boasts ionic function technology my hair is smooth and frizz free.

Love those lashes

Inspired by my past pampering ways I have once again started getting my eyelashes tinted. Having tinted eyelashes means that if I don’t have time to do my full makeup routine my eyelashes still look lovely and alluring. With tinted eyelashes, a moisturised face and glossed lips I achieve a refreshingly simple natural look that leaves me feeling happy and relaxed.

On days where I make use of my makeup routine, mascara finishes off my look perfectly by enhancing my eyelashes. At the moment I am loving Benefit They’re Real! Mascara as it lifts and extends my lashes which being non-smudging and non-flaking.

And for times when I want to go all out on my makeup routine for special occasions or rare nights out to paint the town red I opt for false eyelashes for a dramatic, glamorous look.

Skin care

I am making an effort to care for my skin better. I am drinking more water to make sure it is hydrated and I have a good skin care routine of exfoliating, cleaning and caring implemented.

One product I love at the moment which is heaven to my skin is Weleda Skin Food. It is amazing for giving instant moisturisation and it is also brilliant as a super-hydrating mask treatment. On busy morning when getting ready I can also mix it with foundation for a moisturising foundation.

Other products that  I have found great for skin care and are great for quick makeup routines where time is limited and moisturising, priming, concealing, and applying foundation is too time consuming are 2 in 1 or 3 in 1 skin care products. Tinted moisturisers are great for moisturising and adding a hint of foundation. SPF creams are very moisturising so you can skip the moisturiser and use SPF lotion then foundation. 3 in 1 skin care products that work as a primer, concealer and foundation are great at giving a flawless finish that lasts in one go quickly.

Multiuse products

Like 3 in 1 foundations there are a huge range of other beauty products that are 2 in 1 / 3 in 1, or are products that are very versatile and can be used in many ways to achieve the look you want. Double pencils can be used for eyes and brows, lip stains can be used on cheeks as well as lips, and there are beauty products that work great on eyes, cheeks, and lips.

A few of my favourite versatile makeup products include The Multiple by NARS, Benetint Lip & Cheek Stain by Benefit, Crayon Combo by Pixi, and Master Contour V Stick by Maybelline (fabulous for contouring and highlighting).

What beauty products do you love to use for a quick and simple beauty routine?

* Collaborative post * 

Lee Stafford Academy Ionic Flat Iron Hair Straightener review

My current straighteners are a good 10 years old. Since becoming a parent they have very little use as I often find I don’t have the energy or inclination to bother straightening my hair. When I do manage to use them to tame my hair I love the result and find once straightened my hair is a lot easier to style…..yay for less knots and frizz!

Whilst I love the result of straightening my hair, more often than not I don’t straighten it and tend to stick with a messy bun or quick messy plait just to get my hair up and out of the way.

As I have recently vowed to myself to put more time and effort into ‘me’, taking time for pampering and actually buying myself new clothes once in awhile I also want to make more of an effort with my hair. Pre-kids I used to go to the hairdressers regularly, I dyed my hair and styled it daily but now I tend to only give my hair a little trim myself, never dye it anymore and rarely bother styling or straightening it.

Looking and feeling good for a special event

Since my teenage years I have struggled with body confidence. For many years now I have been overweight.

Having PCOS does not help. From when I was a teenager which was when I was diagnosed with PCOS I unfortunately have had to endure the symptoms of weight gain, excess body hair and poor skin.

Going hand in hand with weight gain I struggle to lose weight. Over the years I have tried countless exercise regimes and diets in a bid to shift the bulge. To my sadness nothing has ever really worked. I thankfully have reached a point where I maintain my weight rather than pile on more pounds but regardless of the effort I put in (trust me I've put in blood, sweat and tears and a heck of a lot of determination and dedication) I never seem to lose weight.

enail personalised nail polish.

If you are looking for a lovely last minute Christmas gift for friends and family who love beauty products in particular nail polish then look no further than enail.

Passionate about nail polish, enail are nail polish specialists who have worked in the industry supplying brand labelled varnishes to high street stores, salons and top nail polish brands since the 80’s.

Using their expertise in the nail polish market enail now provide customers with salon quality nail polish via their website www.enail.co.uk

enail’s nail polishes which are made in the UK come in a gorgeous gift set. Customers can choose 3 nail polishes from a choice of colours, personalise the nail polishes with their own custom label and choose what gift box to display the nail polishes in.

Bye bye ingrown hairs.......Tweeze’em Tweezers by Majestic Bombay review.

Thanks to my PCOS I have to contend with excess hair and the unfortunate problem of getting a lot of ingrown hairs. Whilst I have used an array of hair removal methods with varying success to tackle my excess hair what I always struggle to deal with is ingrown hairs.

But now my struggle to deal with ingrown hairs is a thing of the past thanks to Majestic Bombay’s Tweez’em Tweezer.

The brightly coloured Tweez’em Tweezer are made with stainless steel and feature perfectly sharp elongated and aligned tips that allows for surgical precise tweezing of hairs including stubborn ingrown hairs and troublesome splinters.

Dance into the holidays with L'Occitane........luxury gift set guide.

I love this time of year when the magic of Christmas starts to bubble away.

The hint of upcoming Christmas is brought to our attention thanks to the tempting Christmas gifts and decorations that adorn shelves in shops. Whilst the whisper of the ‘C’ word on people’s lips fills the air with excitement and anticipation. Christmas is also highlighted in the realms of the World Wide Web, with social media and blog posts featuring Christmas crafts, gifts and food ideas adding to the anticipation of the festive season. For me the excitement of Christmas starts to come alive when magical Christmas adverts are showcased.

One Christmas advert that has enchanted me in particular is the beautiful Dance into the holidays with L’Occitane advert.

The bewitching advert perfectly encapsulates the luxury of L’Occitane – who are one of my favourite natural beauty and skincare brands (take note Lee!). An air of mystery is created as we see fleeting glimpses of the dancer’s beautiful, floaty dress as she dances through cobbled French streets and a picturesque L’Occitane En Provence shop filled with beautiful L’Occitane gifts.

But don’t take my word for how enchanting and pretty the video is, delve into the opulent world of L’Occitane and dance into the holidays…….

My red carpet beauty look.

In celebration of BAFTA season, House of Fraser have invited bloggers to create their own red carpet beauty look.

Whilst my own style and beauty skills may be a little lot lacking most of the time especially thanks to so little time and energy needed to beautify myself plus a severe lack of funds to have a spending spree on make-up, beauty products and clothes, I love everything beauty and fashion related.  I admire other people’s style and beauty and especially love this time of year when I can check pout the beauty and style trends hitting the red carpet at the BAFTA’s.

As I love watching the beauty and styles seen on the red carpet when I heard about House of Fraser’s Red Carpet Beauty Look competition, where bloggers have a chance of winning a £100 House of Fraser voucher for creating their own red carpet beauty look I had to take part.  Being a huge fan of House of Fraser was a driving force in me entering this competition along with my hope of taking better care of myself.  As I want to look after myself a little better I thought this competition would be a great starting point so I thought I would be brave and take a step out of my comfort zone of not taking photographs of myself and dedicated some ‘me’ time in an attempt to beautify myself and create my own red carpet look.

Whilst I love the classic, glamorous Fifties inspired style often seen on Angelina Jolie and Dita Von Teese thanks to a very limited make-up bag I simply did not have the make-up to attempt to achieve a timeless red carpet look with pale complexion, cat-eye liner, fully bodied lashes and bold red lips.

Pebble Grey LED Cosmetic Mirror giveaway.

Following on from my review of the Pebble Grey LED Cosmetic Mirror the lovely people at Pebble Grey have kindly offered my readers the chance to win one of their LED Cosmetic Mirrors.

Specialising in contemporary and modern mirrors and bathroom accessories, Pebble Grey have a vast range of bathroom mirrors, cabinets and accessories that are both stylish and practical with feature LED lighting and pre-installed extras such as demister pads, shaver sockets and motion sensor switches.

Pebble Grey LED Cosmetic Mirror Review.

When I was recently given the opportunity to review a compact cosmetic mirror from Pebble Grey I jumped at the chance and kindly accepted their generous offer.

Pebble Grey are a company who specialise in market-leading, contemporary mirrors and modern bathroom accessories.   Not only are Pebble Grey’s extensive range of bathroom mirrors, cabinets and accessories stylish and at the forefront of design but they also transform the practicality of bathrooms by featuring pre-installed extras such as shaver sockets, demister pads and motion sensor switches.

Using their expertise on contemporary and illumined mirrors Pebble Grey have designed an LED cosmetic mirror.  The Pebble Grey LED Cosmetic Mirror is a well-made handheld compact mirror that is elegantly slim and fits easily in the palm of my hand, measuring only 1.5cm deep, 6cm wide and 8cm long.  The mirror’s hinge is a tad bulky but the strong hinge feels very sturdy and I doubt it would break easily unlike some cheap compact mirrors I have previously bought that have broken.

Weleda Calendula Weather Protection Cream Review.

I was over the moon when the lovely people at Weleda offered to send me their Calendula Weather Protection Cream to test and review. With the colder weather arriving fast and Bug’s constant dribbling from his teething I was pleased to be testing this cream to see if it would help protect my little man’s skin.