Outfit: winter is coming!

Brrr, it's cold out there! I'm trying to avoid the winter trap of wearing jumpers & jeans every single day, but it's hard! Especially when it's dark and chilly, and I just want to be as cosy as possible.

This is my outfit from a slightly more colourful day. I'm clashing two patterns quite massively here, but I don't care! I think it's nice to be bright on a dull day (and I can never really resist leopard print).

Jacket - Primark
Scarf - Primark (so cosy!)
Dress - JOY
Cardigan - ASOS
Shoes - Dr Martens from Spartoo*

I've got my scarf pretty much glued to my neck at all times now. I bought this from Primark along with a matching cream bobble hat (and a couple of festive-looking cardigans). I try to avoid buying everything from Primark, but it's just so cheap & the knitwear is so colourful and lovely and hard to resist. Ah!

Shoes-wise, I'm still living in my Doc Marten boots. They are SO comfortable and wonderful and brilliant. If you've ever considered buying them then do it! I really like this pair too as they don't have the traditional yellow stitching, so they don't look like I've nicked them from a grungy teenager. Hooray.

Elemis tranquil touch bath elixir

One of my favourite things to do is disappear into a big bubble bath, listen to good music & shut the world out for half an hour (or an hour if I'm feeling especially lazy!). A little while ago the nice people at Pure Spa (who did my nails & hair all fancy last year) got in touch & asked if I'd like to review on of their Elemis products. Obviously I said yes, please!

I received a sample of the Tranquil Touch Bath Elixir* - a "sensuous bath soak". Ooooh. As well as being the leading luxury British spa & skincare brand, Elemis have got seriously good morals. They don't test on animals or use any animal extracts in their products. It's all natural oils & organic extracts.

This elixir is made up of a combination of patchouli, cedarwood and vetivert aromatic oils, and enriched with natural cocoa butter. I had never heard of patchouli or vetivert before, but after a quick google discovered the former is a mint plant (earthy, musky aroma) and the latter is a tall tropical grass (sweet, woody aroma). Another fun fact, vetivert oil is known as the 'Oil of Tranquility' because of its excellent calming action. Yes please. 

This is a bath. Not a sink (ha).

I normally use quite girly, flowery bath products, so it was a real treat to use this. The scent is really rich & does make me feel like I've just stepped into a spa. It produces a good amount of bubbles (which to me is pretty much the most important part of a bath product!) and my skin felt super smooth afterwards. 

A full-size bottle (300ml) costs £21 so it is quite an expensive product, but it definitely feels super luxurious (and would be perfect as a present for the busy person in your life). Thanks again to Pure Spa for giving me the opportunity to treat myself! 

My hair history

Yesterday I saw this hilarious post by Gillian from elevatormusik & was inspired to dig out my old photos and cringe/laugh/regret my old hair decisions!

My hair is naturally red (gingery/auburn) so as I was growing up I was always told how lovely it was & that I should never EVER touch it. So I had long red hair til I was about seventeen years old. Then I went to uni & realised that I was a grown up (ha ha ha) & could do what I want. So I did. CRINGE.

Age 17 - 19

1. My first big hair change! A couple of months into uni I went into my hairdresser with a photo of Willow (from Buffy!) and asked for her hair. Didn't really work. I look like I have 90's curtains. Sob.

2. I let this grown out a bit and hacked shorter layers in. Also started wearing blue eyeshadow (!).

3. Decided to dye it all a dark brown with big bits of pink all over. Was terrified to show my dad (shouldn't have been, he was actually very nice about it). What an awful haircut. It's just so shapeless?

4. I then dyed it almost black (WHY?) and add blue bits in that faded to a horrible green after a few weeks.

5. When I was too poor to redye it I just had massive yellow patches all over my head. Here I am with my pal Patrick from Fall Out Boy. Note the wrist warmers.

6. I joined myspace at this point & thought this was a perfectly acceptable photo to take. Oh lord.

Age 19 - 21

7.  Kept dying it dark brown with random colours in it. Where are my eyebrows?

8. And let the colours fade to a weird white/yellow when I couldn't afford to buy hair dye. Worringly, this hair isn't too far off what I have now.

9. I'm in third year of uni at this point & I decided to start wearing hot pink eyeshahow to match the pink bits in my hair.

10. Dyed the whole thing a weird red colour (which had odd lighter patches throughout). Scowled a lot at this point apparently.

11. Finally made a sort-of sensible hair choice, and dyed it a lovely chestnut brown (that actually looked okay with my skin tone). I reckon if I ever dyed all of my hair again it would be to this shade!

12. Then I got bored, chopped it all off and discovered the joy of a blunt fringe!

Age 21 - 24

13. Attended a "favourite decade" fancy dress party where Craig & I were the only people who had dressed up. Hahaha. My hair was boring and shoulder length.

14. The chestnut dye grew out (and I didn't ever bother to try and cover the regrowth) so I had my natural colour for the first time in four years! Went back to a middle parting (bad idea).

15. Became addicted to wearing it long and super straight. Didn't use any protecting products & caused ridiculous levels of damage to my hair.

16. Tried to wear it wavy, but felt a bit unsure about it. Hence the scowly face!

17. Chopped in a short diagonal fringe. Bought Riley!

18. Started wearing it in a sweeping fringe again. Still trying to learn how to style it wavy (the curls in this photo were a total fluke!).

Age 24 - present

19. Cut my fringe SUPER short and a bit spikey. Shaved the other side of my head slightly (annoyingly don't have a photo of this, but it was fun!).

20. Grew out my fringe and FINALLY learned how to curl my hair (and not look like I'd been dragged through a bush). Stayed in New Zealand for almost a month & my hair lightened up quite a bit in the sun.

21. My hair naturally went a bit darker in winter. Cut in a blunt fringe again. Finally sorted out my eyebrows!

22. Badger hair appears! Dyed a big section blonde and absolutely loved it.

23. My fringe is getting shorter and shorter, blonde panel more prominent.

24. Present day! Still in love with my weird badger hair & now dye a little bit white blonde on the other side too. I can't imagine not having a blunt fringe any more (and this journey back in time has taught me to avoid centre partings!).

Well, that was fun. If a little embarrassing! If you have any old hair photos to share then please post them in the comments & we can all laugh at each other. My poor, over-dyed, over-heated hair! I promise I'll be nice to you from now on...

Animal jumper wishlist

I think I've mentioned this on here before, but I am a total sucker for an animal jumper. I think I just haven't outgrown it yet - when I was little I had an amazing horse jumper that my mum knitted for me (aw, thanks mum!), and I find it hard to walk by a good animal motif in shops without purchasing!

So, as it's getting colder and colder (although weirdly not cold enough to stop an ice cream van come round our neighbourhood at the weekend - nutter), I thought it would be fun to put together a wishlist of my favourite jumpers!

Top row

Cat jumper - JOY | Dalmatian cardigan - Modcloth | Bunny jumper - Topshop

Bottom row

Zebra jumper - Topshop | Owl jumper - Modcloth | Schnauzer jumper - JOY

I've also started a wardrobe zoo board on my Pinterest (name inspired by Sarah, who is also a fan of animal clothing), so apologies if you follow me & I've been spamming you with knitwear. It just looks SO cosy & I want it all! 

John Frieda Full Repair range

I'm pretty lazy with my hair. It's really thick & easily gets tuggy, has bleached panels on either side (that can get really dry), and I use heat on it pretty regularly. I also can't be bothered to wash it more than every few days & get REALLY BORED any time I have to dry my hair. No wonder my hairdresser gives me rows!

So, it was pretty good timing when I was offered some John Frieda products to try out. I've only ever used their Frizz Ease serums before, and didn't realise that they made so many things - everything from hair dye to hairspray.

Perfect Ends Sheer Mist* - £6.99
Full Body Shampoo* - £5.89
Full Body Conditioner* - £5.89

I was sent three products from the Full Repair range, which is designed to revive overworked hair (hello), repairing the damage of frequent hair styling & colouring.

The products all smell really fresh, and even a day after washing my hair smelled really CLEAN, which is always good. Because I have thick hair I can handle heavier products, so it was actually really refreshing to use products that were very lightweight (and it feels like they've removed some of the build up in my hair). After washing my hair felt very well behaved (although I did have my usual few tugs when brushing it out!).

I'm always cautious when using products designed to add shine for the first time, as I don't want to end up with greasy looking hair! To play it safe, I've been using the spray mist on the ends of my hair & the blonde panels - basically the bits that could use some repairing! Like the shampoo & conditioner, the mist feels super light, and my ends definitely felt less frizzy.

All in all I'm really pleased with these products! My hair definitely felt super clean and soft after using them, and I feel like a much better long-hair-wearer using heat protection for once! Because my hair was so soft, it went quite wavy across the day as I didn't use any other products, so if I wanted super straight hair I'd need to use more products on top of this. Still, I think that is okay - wavy hair is fun!