Sock Curls

Hi Beauties!

I love to style my hair into loose boho kinda curls, thats just the way I prefere it as opposed to my boring straight hair. I'd been styling it like this most mornings using GHD straighteners, and only recently have I kind of realised how much damage I've been doing to my hair. So i've decided to go on a heat ban! I've successfully stuck to my ban for about a month now, with the exception of sometimes using the heat on my side fringe, but I've still been styling my hair the way I want it. How? Socks! Sounds a little wierd at first, although its so easy and I do it every night now. I got the idea from this video here, although heres how I specifically like to do mine: 

I only use three socks as its easy, quick and I like loose curls in contrast to tight, little ones. Before I begin, I wet my hair about 20% and spray lightly with Lee Stafford sea salt spray. I push the top part of my hair back as if I were to pull it into a ponytail, twist a sock around it and tie it together tightly at each end. I then seperate the hair left at the bottom into two parts, making sure both of them are roughly equal to the one I've already tied up. I repeat the steps of tying the sock in the hair, and then go to bed to leave it in overnight! The curls so come out a bit tight at first, as they do in the video, although if you brush it out and leave it to droop a bit, it gives it a nice finish. Sorry if my explanation was crap, but do check out the video, its literally been a lifesaver for me and so easy to follow! 

Lee Stafford Sea Salt Spray 150ml £7.49 from Boots

Speaking of hair, my blonde hairs turning really brassy lately, and i'm a little dubious of dying it all a lighter blonde. I get highlights done at the hairdressers every now and again but it can be expensive to get done often, can anyone reccomend me some cheapish highlighting kits to buy for doing at home?

The blonde one.
♥

wishlist #002

1, 2, 3, 4, 5

001. I've always wanted a Mulberry replica, I actually brought this bag off ebay a few weeks ago and keep forgetting to post it on here! Despite already buying the bag though, I was excited to see Mozzypop are releasing these same bags onto their website, and in a great variety of colours too!

002. I have a worrying obsession for both lace and peterpan collars, so when I saw this beauty I literally fell in love. But being the Topshop junkie I am, it comes at a price, not a price a teenage girl like myself can buy at the click of my fingers. Boo.
003. I've heard some brilliant reviews on this Cetaphil cleanser, and i've taken an interest to it because its so hard to find a cleanser suitable for my sensitive skin but still battle breakouts. This claims to be perfect for dry and sensitive skins though for a reasonable price, so i'll be getting my hands on this at some point!

004. May be one of the very few people who havn't tried this product yet as its been massive in the blogsphere. I'm such a nail junkie, forever changing my nails with different designs and patterns, so really this looks ideal.

005. Topshop again! I love the colour of these shorts and the design, I can't seem to find any other nice high-waisted shorts of this pale denim colour that I like, and yet again Topshop has got me wrapped round its little finger.

The blonde one.

♥

Beauty Buy Review

Hi lovelies!

Seems like the last time I posted was a long while ago now and I'm sincerely sorry to all our new and loyal readers.

The other week I took a visit to the ELF cosmetics website after Cara recommended it to me. I don't usually wear make up but I was mesmerized by how cheap it was, so I just had to buy something. I'd wanted to get my hands on some bronzer for a long time as I don't like to use foundation. So I bought 'warm tan' bronzer, as from the pictures on the website the others either looked too light, dark or pink. I also bought a cheap powder brush. The delivery was fast, which was what I was expecting because of the high delivery price of £2.95.

When the bronzer arrived, I was quick in front of the mirror to try it on. Although it looks fine in the compact, once I put it on it was glittery and way darker than it looks online and before I applied it. It also made my skin itchy and I had to apply my trusty Neutrogena moisturiser to stop me scratching. Maybe its because I bought the bronzer online and couldn't determine the colour or maybe its just because it was a cheap buy. But whatever the reason, from what I experienced I will not be buying this bronzer again.

On a lighter note, my birthday is in a month! I was thinking of going to London dungeons but you have to have an adult with you. So, have you guys got any ideas of what I should do for my 15th in London?

Best wishes,

x

Small Benefit Haul

1 2 3 4

Hi beauties!

I was given a travel set a little while ago of several miniture benefit products which includes High Beam, Posie Tint, 'That Gal' Primer and Some Kind-a Gorgeous Foundation Faker. I was thrilled to have gotten a travel pack instead of one individual benefit product as I had a small selection of products to try and if I wasn't keen on a certain product then it wouldn't exactly be a waste of a large bottled product. I said product one too many times in that sentence, sorry! So here goes!

I've wanted to purchase Posie Tint for quite some time now, but been sincerely put off concidering its price. So you can imagine my delight when I recieved it in the set for my birthday, and must of applyed it to my face several times for the sheer sake of it! If you don't already know, posie tint is a lip and cheek tint, and it looks absolutely beautiful applyed to both the facial feautures. The pinky toned colour looked lovely against my pale skin and really gave it a natural flush of colour, and gave my lips a nice, smooth pinky finish. It is quite pale though, so I don't know how it'd show up on darker skinned people so you'll have to try it for yourself!

High Beam has been another product i've been desperate to get my hands on, i'm so facinated by the idea of using a highlighter. I was glad I recieved High Beam in the pack as it is directed at people with pale, or pinky toned skin, as opposed to Moon Beam which is directed at people with an olive toned complexion. I applyed it to my browbone, just above my cheekbones and on the bridge of my nose, and it brighened my faced nicely! I could notice the small difference when my skin was exposed to light, and it blended in well too.

Although this is irrelevant to the actual quality of the product itself, I loved the packaging and the colour of the primer! The packaging of the product is bright and looks fun and appealing, and the colour is a sort of musky looking pink that blends in nicely to my skin. Its quite creamy so it kept my skin smooth throughout the day, and my makeup stayed in place pretty well.

I really wasn't keen on this foundation in my opinion. It was creamy, but the sort of creamy that you get in cream eye shadows and hairs easily get stuck in, which may sound like an odd example but thats just what I thought of! Concidering I have dry skin it really didn't look like it was going to help with that matter, but obviously I don't know how perhaps oily skinned people would like it. My overall thought is just that I really don't like it. Shame the packagings so cute, though!

Despite my opinion on the last product, I don't care about the price of Benefit products, their just too lovely and cute to ignore! Lots of love,
The blonde one.
♥

Recent Photos

Newspaper print nails, The most amazing Raspberry Lemonade ever, Churros from Chimichanga for my birthday, Strawberry carmex (awrharhehefjtjr!), Me looking pretty cheesy, Strawberry nails, Tinseltown meal, Trying out new hairstyles and a lush hot chocolate!

Hiya beauties!

Planning on doing occaisonal posts like these now to keep you briefly updated on my life, seeing as I've neglected the blog so much and so you know that me and Holly are alive! I won't drone on about how I've been so bad not blogging in forever but it was pretty much down to sheer laziness, sorry guys! Got some ideal blogposts lined up though which i've already got on to, and just in general going to try to improve the whole blog. So do keep visiting, following of twitter, commenting, be social! hehe. It was actually my birthday quite recently but I didn't make a deal of it, although now I've got plenty of bits to review and post about for the blog luckily! Heres to a better blog.

Lots of love,

The blonde one.

♥

Newspaper Nail Art

Hi beauties!

I discovered this marvy looking nail art on Dollybowbow a while ago and kept meaning to do a blogpost on it, so here I am having overcome my laziness and getting on to it! In my photos i'm wearing Nail Inc in Basil Street, which may seem pretty boring but i'm getting into the whole pastel neutral colours faze. Its beautiful nail art without looking tacky, its simple and effective, and heres what you need to do it..

• A nail polish of your choice, i've used Nail Inc in Basil Street (pale colours work best)
• 10 strips of newspaper
• Rubbing alcohol or a spirit (I've used gin)
• Top coat
• A small pot or glass

1. Paint your nails in your chosen colour and leave to dry, (make sure they're properly dry, otherwise it won't work!)

2. Once your nails are dry, pour your alcohol into a small glass, dip a nail into the liquid, then take a piece of newspaper and hold it down onto the nail for about 20-30 seconds. Keep the paper still so the print doesn't smudge, then carefully peel away the paper.

3. Continue these steps on each nail, then finish by painting over your design with some top coat.

And there you have it! Have any of you got any nail art tutorials to share? I'd be more than interested to find out :-)

Thanks for reading! Lots of love,
The blonde one.

♥

To live doesn't mean that your alive..

Hello beauties!

Hope you've all been enjoying the snow! For some it came a long, long time ago but for us in London it only started snowing last night. And I think you could all join me when I say that I wish school is closed tomorrow. I just have too much to do! The thing that's on top of my list at the moment is to pack for my skiing holiday in France that I'm leaving for at the end of the week. So excited!

I'm in the mood for an outfit post today. :) Seeing as I never do one and I think our loyal readers deserve it. So, I thought that I'd review my favourite outfit at the moment:

 Sorry about the blurriness, I blame my crappy focusing skills rather than blaming my camera.

Fleece £30 - David and Goliath

Hot pants £28 - http://www.topshop.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?beginIndex=0&viewAllFlag=&catalogId=33057&storeId=12556&productId=4531288&langId=-1&sort_field=Relevance&categoryId=208529&parent_categoryId=203984&pageSize=20&refinements=Colour%7B1%7D%7E[blue]&noOfRefinements=1

 Not sure where I got the tights from, but they're just plain black silk touch ones that you should be able to get at most stores. I also love David and Goliath atm! I've been wearing this fleece all the time lately because its so comfortable. There's a shop in Covent Garden where they sell the most adorable tee's, pyjamas and accessories!

For my next post I'm hoping on doing a round up of whats happened in the past month or so which should be fun. :)

Best wishes,

Title lyrics - Nicki Minaj moment 4 life

E.L.F magic

If you follow the buddingbeauties twitter, you'll know that I recently ordered some ELF products online, (couldn't help writing the cheesy title pun!) I'd heard of the brand but never really thought much of it, but after finding a free shipping code I thought i'd see what all the fuss was about. And after discovering its amazingly cheap prices, I was fixated instantly! Here i've brought a eyebrow treat and tame, makeup mist and set, shimmering facial whip and a lipstick (havn't got a picture of the lipstick as it broke, not sure whether that was down to the not so great quality or me having just broke it because I don't take gentle care with my makeup so much, I shall review it still though!)

Eyebrow Treat And Tame £3.50
I love using this! The 'treat' clear gel keeps my eyebrows groomed and neat, whilst the 'tame' eyebrow mascara defined my eyebrows nicely without darkening my fair eyebrows too much. It comes in light, medium, dark and ash, so I obviously opted for the light one. I did have one little fault which was the quality of the mascara wand on the 'tame' side, the bristles looked used and sort of tufty, but i'd probably repurchase this again as the product itself was good and a bargain at £3.50! I can't comment on the other colours as I havn't tried them nor seem them in the flesh, but i'm sure their just as good.

Shimmering Facial Whip £1.50 in Persimmon

(Sorry the lighting on the second photos not very good, artifical light is annoying) I wasn't too sure on what the facial whip was at first, I intended on buying a cream blusher but the ones on there were like £6.50 (little pricey for E.L.F!) and came in the tiniest pot ever, so I brought this instead. It says that you can put it on your eyes, face, and lips. It looked tacky on the lips, and I havn't tried it on my eyes as i'm not keen on that idea but I quite like it on my cheeks. I apply it to the apples of my cheeks and it gives a nice looking glow that doesn't look too glittery or tacky.

At first I wasn't overly sure on this product, but i'd finally scraped the last bits of my primer and I decided it was time to try this out. Its pretty good, it sets quite nicely and kept my makeup on my face that bit longer; it did feel a tad sticky at first but on the packaging it says you can spray on your face then blot slightly, and that did help. Not a massive change and its not something I use every day, but there are no particular disadvantages.

I found the packaging of the lipstick quite cheap looking and the lipstick itself was a little drying, although at an amazingly cheap £1.50, I can hardly complain! Unfortunately the lipstick turned out a more orange than the coral I expected, but blotting my lips gave a nice matte look. I was so disapointed to have broken the lipstick, it was probably down to it being battered in my makeup bag alot, but I plan to rescue it by the mixing it with vaseline trick and turning it into a coloured lipbalm! So thats that, don't forget to leave a comment or follow us through bloglovin, GFC or our twitter @buddingbeauties. Sorry some of the shots are light and dark, artifical light can be a pain and I've also adapted to a new picture taking spot, not too sure on it but maybe it'll stick. Lots of love,

The blonde one.

♥

*All my opinions are written from experience, so do not be startled if you have a different reaction to the products then i've had, were all different!

Spontaneous

Sorry for the boring-ish blogpost, mine and my sisters bedrooms are getting redecorated and refurnished so all my bits have been shoved into different boxes and the house is sheer mayhem! I've wrote up a blogpost of my recently purchased E.L.F products so within about a week i'll probably be able to take some pics and share the review with you!

Tumblrs really growing on me. At first I thought it was a load of crap, but now i'm getting obbsessive about posting pictures! Check mine here and feel free to leave yours in a comment, i'd love to see them! The pictures above are from my tumblr but I have no copyright over them, I took them from other tumblrs :-)

And to interject a proper topic to this blogpost, i'm also really getting into the natural side of beauty, meaning homemade facemasks, heatless hairstyles, the whole shabam! I'll go into detail with pictures and bits in a seperate blogpost, but here are a few tips of mine: rub sugar around your lips to exfoliate them and keep them soft, it can also be done with vaseline and a toothbrush but I find this more convinent and tasty! Oatmeal facemasks are also lovely; just take some plain porridge oats, wet them with warm water to make them mushy and spread over your face, its lovely and calming and reduces redness to your face. And lastly, the easy, quick trick of getting beach curls without heat- dampen your hair, pull it into a ponytail and split it into two pieces, twist them around each other and pin it up tightly into a bun, leave for about an hour, let it all go and vwola!

Lots of love,

the blonde one.

♥

Cause they say home is where your heart is set in stone.

Hello beauties!

Firstly, some of you may know about the One Direction concert that me and Cara went to on the 11th.

It. Was. Amazing.

 Unfortunately, me being me, I forgot my video camera which made me really annoyed! But my friend, Isabel who was also there took quite a few good pictures! So here they are:

The concert was just amazing, our seats (though expected to be rubbish) actually turned out to be quite good! And I have to say that after the concert my obsession for Harry Styles is still forever growing. Its rather scary.

We were also fortunate enough for our 'I love Harry Styles/Liam Payne' tee's to arrive just in time which was astonishing judging on how bad my luck has been lately. *sigh*

In other news, for all those who know about the Miss Teen GB pageant I competed in; the lovely organisers are about to celebrate the grand opening of their dress shop in Cheshire! You can visit the website here, where you can order cheap designer dresses.

Can I also say a thank you to the lovely Danielle who always takes a minute out of her time to carefully read each of our blog posts and comment. :)

Best wishes everyone!

x

Title lyrics - gabrielle aplin home

Clinique Goodies

I think an obvious start to this blogpost would be to wish you all a very happy New Year.. it's 2012! I can't quite believe how fast 2011 has gone, it seems like just yesterday that Ronnie snatched Kats baby in Eastenders, (slowly revealing my obbsession for soaps. And yes, that event did occur on the previous New Year, wow!)

Also, I'm still in fits of laughter at how many comments we got on the last blogpost Holly did which mentioned discovering your name in Japanese; so many of you tried it! Just shows what little things on the web can get us momentarily facinated.

I managed to bag a two little clinique goodies to review for you all! Its not much but their both pricey products so I was fortunate to get them for free.

I have naturally very short and thin lashes and I havn't used an eyelash curler.

 Clinique High Impact Mascara in Black (£15 for 8g on Clinique)

I'd been in need of a new mascara for quite a while as i'd been using an old Maybelline one that had started to lose its knack. The Clinique mascara promises to 'add maximum volume with definition and length' and I felt this was one of the few products that actually does what it says on the label! Aswell as giving my lashes a defined, very black colour, it lengthened them well and left very few clumps. The only default was the fact that it wasn't very waterproof, and although i'm not a huge fan of waterproof mascaras as it can be a nightmare to get off, the other day I got a teeny bit of rain splashed on my face and I ended up looking like a panda! I own a small 4g one in comparison to the 8g one you can buy online, and whilst I don't think i'd purchase twice I still think it works pretty good for it's money.

     

High Impact Lip Colour in Sassy Spice (£16 for 3.8g on Clinique)

This lipstick felt quite festive to me! As you can kind of see from the pictures, the colour is a sort of reddy brown with a tinged sparkle to it; the colour felt abit too grown up for me, as i'd usually opt for subtle corals or pinks. Again, I probably wouldn't be prepared to pay £16 pound for a lipstick, but the quality was pretty good! It felt super hydrating as I suffer from really dry lips and some lipsticks just dry up and end up looking dodgy, and it rarely bled as I didn't use a lipliner.

Thanks for reading! and don't forget to follow our twitter @buddingbeauties :-)

All the best,

the blonde one.

♥

*All my opinions are written from experience, so do not be startled if you have a different reaction to the products then i've had, were all different!