my 18th

So Saturday was my 18th birthday and I'm just about getting over it, it truly was the most amazing birthday I've ever had, I got some lovely topshop earrings from my friends, Illamasqua Load (hehehehe), an Ipod touch and a Tiffany Key

However

Yeah that's um a Mulberry Bayswater...Words fail me..

Hope you had a lovely weekend

Sophie

Woops. .

Sorry everyone I'm a total dipstick 

I totally forgot to tell you what shade it is!

It's Pearl Shade 12 and you can see it on the website here

Thank you for all your comments!

Sophie

xxx

MAC Club Dupe. . For £1?

If you're not familiar with MAC Club Eyeshadow, it's a beautiful duochrome shade with hints of green and reddish brown. I've wanted it for a very long time, but I read that it's one of those eyeshadows that might not suit everyone.

So when I saw this when I was browsing the Superdrug aisles I knew I recognised that greeny tone from somewhere. . . 

This is AMAZING. I haven't tried it without a primer, but with UDPP it lasts from the moment I put it on to the moment I take it off, so around 15 hours. When it's packed on it's a lovely blue green and when blended out it goes to a super flattering brown shade. I don't have MAC Club but what I've seen from Google images, this is an almost perfect dupe.

You can see the more brownish side of this eyeshadow in these swatches, but you can see the shimmer of it in the blended swatch (the bottom one)

This is from one eyeshadow. Yes one. You can see where I blended it in the crease the browner side of the eyeshadow really came through

I love this eyeshadow so much I'm not lusting after Club so much now. . .

What do you think ladies?

Love Sophie xx

I Love Ebay

I love Ebay, you can get the most amazing things for such great prices so when I found these earrings I was so happy, and then I saw the price and was even happier

You can find these earrings here for only £2.50 with free delivery

I love love love the jewellery this ebayer sells, and I ordered Friday lunch time and she had posted them so I got them Saturday morning, seriously impressed!

Are you an ebay fan?

Love Sophie xx

Valentines featuring Revlon Liquid Lipstick

Hello everyone!

Well considering I'm very single I didn't have a Valentines this year, but me and my friends went out for Pizza, so I decided to do a red lip, something I hardly ever ever do

Revlon Colorstay Ultimate Liquid Lipstick in Top Tomato - £8.99

I have a love/hate relationship with this 'lipstick'. It lasts for ages, which means it can be terrible to get off at night, and if you apply it too thickly it starts to form balls of red lipcolour. However the pigmentation is incredible and I love the colour

I find the best way to apply it is to dab it on, wipe the excess off the applicator and then rub it in using that. And try not to reapply because that just gets messy!

What did you do for Valentines day?

Love Sophie xx

It's Gross But I Love It

That is all.

My Hair History (and Cheryl Cole Mahogany. . .)

I actually love these posts, so thought I'd do one too. I then realised how boring I am with my hair but oh well!

Okay for about 12 years of my life I had really long, mid brown hair with a centre parting. We don't need to see that. But then it all changed and I decided to get a side fringe;

Then I cut it all off (kept the side fringe though)

Had a very awkward regrowth stage. . 

But kept growing it anyway, discovering curling tongs and blackish brown hair dye on the way

Cut it a bit shorter, and decided to use Sun-In. On almost black hair. NOT A GOOD MOVE PEOPLE.

 Only sun in'd the top layers so ended up with a gross gingery brown colour with mousy brown roots and dark brown bits underneath. Oh dear indeed.

Dyed my hair dark dark dark (even though the instructions said don't dye pre-bleached hair, I'm a rebel like that) and stuck in some Primark hair extensions (yes really)

 Got my trusty side fringe back, only for the hairdresser to cut it in a really weird way, so that my only choice was to pull it over in to a 'full' fringe

Spent about 6 months wondering how to get this new fringe (that was supposed to be a side) to work

But gave up and got a full fringe. In summer. High maintenance or what!? (also I think I was pulling a weird face in this photo. . )

 Full fringe got too much so yet again started sweeping it to the side (vicious circle)

By winter got so annoyed at this fringe business I found new ways to keep it off my face (something which my 14 year old self would NEVER have done)

Oh and what do we have here, 5 months later, in the Spring of 2010 I got a fringe back.

And yet more awkward fringe business (september '10)

Most recently, I kept pretty much the hairstyle up there, but added in flicky layers which I LOVE. This is taken a few weeks after I dyed it with the Nice n' Easy foam. IT HAD NOT FADED and it's darker than this IRL. Beyond impressed. .

And then I decided to put the Cheryl Cole hair dye on (L'oreal Casting in 550 Mahogany)

on dark brown hair and it's given me a reddish tint which you can see in the light and I love it as it gives my hair an 'edge' and makes it look less flat and I may consider doing it permanently

And that's my hair history, I hope I didn't bore you to sleep, and please link me yours if you have one!

Love Sophie xx

What Do You Think Of Tea Tree?

I'm tired and lazy so stock images today I'm afraid ;)

A couple of weeks ago I had my lady time and as per usual my skin went a bit crap. Add a new foundation in to the mix and my face was starting to resemble a pizza. Okay maybe I'm exaggerating but nonetheless I headed straight to Superdrug and got myself some concentrated tea tree oil (£2.99 for 10ml)

I would like to add that it took me about 5 minutes to work out why this one cost the same for 5ml. Then I realised it was 100% and that it came with a rather scary warning of although it's a natural product, dilute it to 1% first or your skin will explode (okay not really but still I do not have the time to dilute it for myself)

It smelt really familiar so my guessing is is that Tea Tree is actually in quite a lot of those 'on the spot' (or something equally witty) spot treatments. I think it has worked. I have had no more spots appearing and these current ones are actually showing signs of disappearing.

So I guess I caught the Tea Tree bug and with a face of dry skin (not linked to the Tea Tree Oil, but probably linked to aforementioned foundation and cold weather) I wanted a new face scrub. And then Boots had to have a 2 for £5 deal so I bought a peel off face mask too.

And I have a lovely radiant face (well in a dark room maybe with a bedside lamp on) which is showing signs of clearing up. And of course I love anything peely so the face mask is perfect for me, I love how it actually feels like you're pulling out dirt! Ha no placebo effect or anything. . .

But please let me know your experiences with Tea Tree oil, what are your HG skincare products?

Love Sophie xx

Foam Hair Dyes - A Comparison

In the past couple of months I've used both the John Frieda and Nice 'n Easy versions of foam hair dye, and I thought I'd do a comparison for you

Nice 'n Easy £6.99

John Frieda £9.99

First Impressions

John Frieda's definitely looks like it costs more (and it does) and I might've got a bit too excited over the fact that it provides you with black gloves. To be honest, Nice 'n Easy's looks just like any other hairdye.

Mixing

 John Frieda's seemed to magically turn into a foam, whereas Nice and Easy's (sorry cannot be bothered to abbrieviate the 'and' in their name anymore) went foamy but also really runny and quite wet.

Application

 I only managed to get a  picture of the John Frieda foam (was stressing too much when trying to get Nice and Easy's more foamy!) but as you can see it looks like liquid and comes out like foam!

JF applies more like a shampoo, whereas the NE one applied just like a regular hair dye. Both were fine, but if you're going for the novelty factor then JF wins hands down in this respect.

Both had nice smells, however Nice and Easy's was very sweet, like sweets and it did have the tinge of ammonia smell that made my eyes water. I also think Nice and Easy's was a bit messier, probably because it was more liquidy than JFs.

John Frieda One Month On 

ie the night I used Nice and Easy's

I dyed it a 'dark chocolate brown', and it faded quite a bit, ignoring the roots! Despite it's promises to remove orange/red tones (put your hands up if you get those too!) you can see that they're still present.

This is the final result of Nice and Easy's, taken this morning

Not an orange hair in sight!

Which would I recommend?

If you want to treat yourself. . John Frieda

If you're not too fussed about the foam aspect. . Nice 'n Easy

If you'd prefer a (rather generous and lovely smelling) tube of deep condtioner. . John Frieda

If you have any more questions just ask

Love Sophie xx   

Look Who's Back In Your Dashboard: Made For Me Naturals Lipstick

Bet you weren't expecting me any time soon? 

Thought I'd come back with a bang for my 100th post (okay not really a bang, but I've got some nice lipsticks to show you?)

These lipsticks are the L'oreal Made For Me Naturals (I think they're part of the Color Riche range?) and I love love love them. They don't get much loving on the internet (absolutely NO swatches anywhere) so I thought I'd do a post.

235 Nude on the left and 240 Dune on the right

After some Googling for a nude lipstick (and by nude I mean flattering and not concealer coloured) I thought I'd give these a try. If you watch Coronation Street, I have been lemming after Carla Connor's lipstick for a long long time. I'm terrible at finding things that match my skin tone, so with this range I reckoned not much could go wrong. I originally bought 240 Dune from Boots for around £8 so they're not cheap, and it's the lightest (I think) lipstick in the Dark Brunettes range.

I apologise for the poor photo conditions, I've just taken them and it's pitch black outside. This has a slight shimmer but it looks lovely with brown smokey eyes.

And that is where my love affair with these lipsticks began. I watched a video where L'oreal shows you how to get 'glamorous lips' and after much pausing and peering I noticed that they use the lipstick 235 (which I later found out was called Nude) and fell in love with the shade. However Boots being Boots didn't stock it so it was up to Ebay, and I managed to get my hands on it for less than half the price I paid for Dune.

This lipstick is (I think) for Blondes, but the model in the video is Brunette so I don't care. It's more pink than Dune and has more of a satin finish. 

I really recommend having a look through these (and then buying them off Ebay)

Let me know what you've been up to, and here's hoping I don't disappear again

Love Sophie xx