May Favourites

It's almost Summer :)

Miss BB

OOTD Archive

 

For a while I've been toying with the idea of separating my outfit posts from my beauty stuff. I've gone some way to doing that today by setting up an 'outfit archive' blog. It will be purely photos, no chatty content and really more of a reference for me of my own wardrobe. I will continue to post outfits here for now and see how it goes but if you're interested in that kind of thing you can check out my new blog 'outfits only' here. 

Miss BB

Coming Around To Summer

*What I'm Wearing*

Dress - H&M Maternity (last summer)

Flats - H&M (last seasons sale)

Sunglasses - H&M (current season)

Today's H&M outfit was entirely accidental I just love so much from them that it seems to be happening more and more lately that my whole ensemble is H&M exclusive.

I'm not massively in to summer, I prefer the Autumn weather and of course the Winter for Christmas. The British summer never seems to live up to much but this year might be different.

As per our usual Sunday routine we went to my parents house for lunch and had our first barbecue of the season. My Mum and Dad break out the grill as early as possible every year so May is late for us. They're already prepping for next weekends Jubilation's which you'll be glad to here will include lots of Unions Jacks, Pimms and MASKS - you'll see. But for this week the food was delicious, the weather was warm and best of all the baby.. was asleep!

The dogs had different idea's as to how to enjoy the heat.

Happy Sunday

Miss BB

It's Summer In The City

I am beyond frustrated right now after losing most of the pictures I took in London yesterday with stylesocoy leaving me with very little to share with you and her with no OOTD shots. Today is not going to be my day. Long story short I was filming, I was exporting and things were deleted never to be retrieved.. ugh! Anyway I thought I'd share the snaps I did salvage from the Dorothy Perkins/Herbal Essences Event in the afternoon and then hopefully I'll be able to cobble something together from my instagram pics *sob*

The Dorothy Perkins range was part of the summer collection so the event was a refresher I guess.. it's nice to see season appropriate clothing on the hottest day of the year! What we saw will be available in stores soon and some pieces are already online from what I've seen here

You can get a little peek of Kat's outfit in the background here.. she was wearing a really lovely coral shirt dress and white blazer, very summery compared to my black, grey and navy ensemble! I was excited to see the tousle me softly range from Herbal Essences being promoted as it was one of my favourites last summer and you never know what might be discontinued but it looks like this is sticking around - good news!

That's all for now.. I'm off to scream in to a pillow!

Miss BB

Las Vegas Outfits

*What I'm Wearing*

Skirt worn as top - Gap (10+ yrs ago.. vintage?)

Jeans - Levis Demi Curve

Wedges - Nine West 

Necklace - Ebay copy of HOH

Vest - Primark

Cropped Khakis - Warehouse

Wedges - Nine West

Necklace - Primark

Top - F21 

Jeans - Primark

Heels - Primark

Necklace - Tiffany

The last photo was our last night and quite possibly my favourite outfit of the trip.. the 3 photos just go to show how different shapes and colours can manipulate the look of one persons body. Between the second and last photo I look like I lost half a stone!! I need to accentuate my legs which are always slim and hide my upper half which is well.. never. You can expect some colour blocking and 'dress for your body type' posts soon as this inspired me to learn more about the clothes I choose.

Miss BB

Grow Your Own..Hair?

So you may remember some weeks ago I blogged about Alpecin, a caffeine shampoo available at the drugstore that claims to stimulate hair growth and prevent hair loss. For those unfamiliar with my current situation I am suffering post-natal shedding and losing a considerable amount of hair with every wash leaving me with almost bald temples. I will say that the Alpecin improved the situation, - you can see my 'before' shots here and my current ones lower down this post - but it's target market is men and I found the formula much too drying on the ends of my hair, a problem I doubt men worry about. So.. when I was contacted to review the LA Science Anti-Hair Loss System I was dubious. The thing that really swung it for me was that the directions state that no additional conditioner is required as the formula has conditioning agents.. very much the opposite of the Alpecin so I thought, why not?

The shampoo itself is much thicker than I'd expected and so I took it at it's word and didn't condition. I rubbed it in to my scalp for 2 or 3 minutes and then left it on my hair for a further 10, it doesn't state that this is necessary but I can't see that it would hurt. After towel drying I applied the serum to my temples and a little over the rest of my scalp and went to brush it through. Unfortunately my hair is very tangly so although my hair may not need the moisture a conditioner provides I definitely need one to get a brush through it so I did have to apply a generous helping of Macadamia Oil through the ends in order to de-tangle the lengths but I have to say after blasting it with the hairdryer my hair looked and felt thicker and fuller after only one application. I'm not yet sure how/if conditioning will alter the effects but I am very interested to see the results in a few weeks time.

 

Alpecin did do something and for the money it's impressive but after taking so long to nuture my hair back to almost full health I'm not going to ruin it now by using a shampoo that will strip it of every drop of oil it's ever produced. I would recommend it as an occasional clarifying shampoo or for those with very greasy hair but for the rest of us girls it's just not going to work I'm afraid. The LA Science already shows more potential and althought it's a pricier treatment hair loss can be really traumatic and if it works I know I'd pay whatever the cost. Saying that the shampoo is actually pretty reasonable at £15.29 for 250 ml, it's the serum at a whopping £30.59 for 50ml that's the kicker but rest assured I will be back to tell you whether it's worth all those hard earned pennies!

Have you suffered with hair loss? Permanent or not it's never nice so if you've found a miracle cure or just something that you feel is working/has worked leave a comment and let us know.

Miss BB

A Night In Pictures..

*What I'm Wearing*

Top - Dorothy Perkins

Jeans - Jamie from Topshop

Heels - Primark

Scarf (love!) - Primark

Bag - Zara

Watch - Michael Kors

Bracelet - BCBG

These photos are from a few weeks ago now and have been sitting in my drafts all lonely waiting to be posted but as with post pictures from a night out.. The accompanying text never comes to me so this will be a post in pictures! We went for a meal and drinks with friends, one of which was K from stylesocoy.com. It was still dreary and rainy so much as I'd have loved to dress up I still liked my outfit and felt warm and comfortable as opposed to glamorous and freezing!

Blooper!

Miss BB

Best Body Products

Beauty bloggers and vloggers often keep up with the monthly favourites trend, outlining our most used products of the moment but so often we fail to mention products which never leave our routine since they're not new or fresh. I wanted to do a little run down of my most used body products and include those that perhaps haven't made the cut to be mentioned before.

It's basically a run down of my favourite lotions and potions, notably absent is my Soap & Glory Righteous Butter which I absolutely love but is just so expensive on a cost per use scale so I switched it for the lotion equivalent which definitely provides more for your money. That being said I'm about to slather myself in the butter formula and lay on the sofa til bed. Ahhh...bliss...

Enjoy!



Miss BB

Glossybox For Men - Spring/Summer '12

I know I've been a bad blogger lately but I can't believe I forgot to post on this! As you know I've cancelled all beauty box subscriptions as of this month but I've kept the Glossybox for Men as I get it for Lee and he rarely treats himself to anything but when this arrives he's always really keen to test stuff out. I'm not going to bore you by listing the contents as you can read all that here but I will share the highlights since he's had it for a couple of months now.

The Organic Homme repair serum was very well received, in fact I think it was the first thing he used up. He's getting more interested in anti-ageing as he approaches 30 (this November) and little samples like this are a great way to introduce products to men without a steady routine. The Legends London also deserve a mention as they've produced a genuinely unique product. From looking at the site it seems this is the only thing they produce, Alum Matchsticks Aftershave Astringent. It's effectively a book of matchsticks that have ends coated in an aftershave balm as opposed to the regular striking material. The idea is that each match gives the exact amount of product you need to soothe your skin after shaving and as they're disposable they're more hygienic. I though they were a bit of a gimmick for travel etc but if would seem this is something that The Legends London sell in their own barber shop as well as shops all over the country. You can't buy individual books of 20 but 50 books will only set you back £14.00 which is 1000 matchsticks.. that's almost 3 years worth.. you can't beat that for value and it would be an awesome gift!

Wow.. who knew I'd have so much to say about after shave lotion? The last honorable mention has to go to the Liz Earle face scrub. Generally Lee steers clear of anything abrasive as his skin is very sensitive but providing he sticks to his non-stubble zones he really likes this and the 30ml sample will last him forever the way he's using it - sparingly, once a week. Lastly, not a product I want to rave about but one I questioned as soon as I saw it, Dr Bronners Magic Hand Sanitizing Spray. Now I know florals are all the rage right now and all but really? Lavender scented products in the Glossybox for men? I'm not saying that Lee doesn't use my shower gel from time to time but Lavender is a really strong scent to be spritzing on your hands during the day.. am I the only one that found this addition to be peculiar?

Like I said I'm sticking with the Glossybox for men because unlike me Lee wont go out and try things without it so I think he's the target market for  beauty boxes in general but any suggestions you have on male skincare are always welcome, I think for his 30th I'm going to treat him to some nice stuff.

Miss BB

Skincare Routine in Action

As promised my week of skincare posts is ending with my 'Skincare In Action' video that went live yesterday. For those of you that haven't already seen it.. here it is...

Miss BB

Soap & Glory Hot Cloth Cleanser - Skincare Week

Of everything Soap & Glory has to offer on the facial skincare market right now this has to be the one thing that is recommended to me most. As a result it's the product I was most interested to try. You've all heard of the Liz Earle Cleanse and Polish, it's a blogger favourite and everyone out there is looking to find a drugstore alternative. So far I've tried two, this and the Superdrug Vitamin E Hot Cloth Cleanser - you can read about that in my Cleansers 101 post here. I do like the Liz Earle but it's not readily available and I don't like to get my skin hooked on something I can't run out and buy when it's all used up. This is a great alternative but I'll run you through some of the differences.

As with it's beloved counterpart it has a certain herbal scent but I personally prefer this, it's a little fresher and well.. just more my kind of fragrance. The formula is very similar, a thick cream designed to remove makeup and cleanse your skin though I would say this is a little thinner in consistency and it's not designed for eye makeup removal - this was disappointing! It works well with the supplied muslin cloth as well as with my Clarisonic where as the Liz Earle is a touch thick so that was a bonus and hey, can we take a minute to look at the pink edges and S&G tag on said cloth? Little details!

Overall I think this is great! If you take your eye makeup off prior to cleansing then my only disappointment with this cleanser is moot. I prefer the thinner formula, the scent and even the packaging and let's not forget you can buy this at boots on your lunch hour.. oh and it's cheaper!

Soap & Glory's Hot Cloth Cleanser can be purchased online here

£10.00 for 100ml

I finally tried it, have you?

Miss BB

Fab Pore Facial Peel - Skincare Week

I don't know about you but I'm always a bit excited by a face mask and this was no exception. First of all I feel I should make clear that the Fab Pore Facial Peel is in fact not a peel off mask.. it's not really a peel in any sense and I don't see an unmissable pun there so I'm not sure quite why it is so named. Regardless I thought I should mention it as it may influence a purchase when in fact it bears no such feature.

This product is targeted at greasy, spot prone skin and while I don't tend to fit in to that category these days I do sometimes still suffer from a shiny t-zone and the odd breakout and in my opinion, enlarged pores! I have tried pore refining masks in the past and while the majority do nothing I have found one I like and that's from Clinique. With this in mind I believe that the 'technology' to do such things is out there and Soap & Glory have so rarely failed me I had no reason to doubt them.

The mask itself is thick and clay-like interspersed with little blue beads that burst when you rub it in to your skin. The directions ask that you massage the mask in circular motions in to your problem areas until all the beads have burst and then leave for 5-15 minutes depending on whether you want a quick freshen up or a real deep clean. Well let me tell you my skin has never felt so clean! With my Clinique mask I felt the need to steam and scrub before hand so I wasn't just closing clogged pores but this really feels like it's giving a deep cleanse. I found the longer I rubbed the product in to my face the more in tingled, you may not like that but I've mentioned before that if I can feel it I believe it's working and placebo or not, I like it!

I use it once or twice a week but only you know how often your skin needs/wants it. You can concentrate it on your 'problem areas' as I did below or give yourself an at-home facial as I tend to and slather it all over before a long soak in the tub. This is one of the best masks I've tried from the drugstore in a long time and from the amount of viewers/readers who recommended I try this is would seem I'm not the only one that feels that way.

If you've tried this yourself let me know, I will address the pore shrinking as so many will ask.. I've not seen any WOW results with regards to diminishing them in size but they look clearer and are less noticeable as a result and as I mentioned earlier, there's no point shrinking them if they're full of gunk, is there? 

You can find Fabe Pore Facial Peel here for just £8.00

Miss BB