Tresemme Split Remedy Split Mend Shampoo and Conditioner

I got this gorgeous deluxe sized sample free with last month’s Marie Claire (I think!) and just had to give it a go.Like most of us, I dye, blow dry and straighten my hair so it’s no wonder that I suffer from split ends. To be honest it doesn’t bother me that much but if there’s something out there to fix it then I’m all for it!The Tresemme split remedy collection claims to give an up to 80% reduction on split ends after 3 uses.

I used the Split Mend shampoo (to cleanse and restore) and conditioner (to repair and smooth) in the shower as normal, although I did leave the conditioner in for around 5 minutes to give it a chance to work more intensively.  The conditioner in particular smelt really nice and was a good thick consistency.

After blow drying my hair I did find it to be a lot softer and more manageable than usual. I have to come clean, I didn’t try the split mend and protect leave in treatment as I’m so wary of leave in products in case they leave my hair looking greasy.

The 10ml sample sachet didn’t go very far and I only got 1 use out of them. It does say on the packet that you need to try it at least 3 times to see a difference, but of course the sample size didn’t allow for that! After 1 use I didn’t see any difference in the state of my split ends, but I’d love to try it for a bit longer to see if it does. 

Overall, I haven’t used Tresemme in a long time: who can forget buying those huge salon sized bottles when they first came out?! But this seems to be a big improvement and I’d happily try it out for a few weeks to see how it goes if I got the chance.

How did you guys find it?

Matalan Shopping Haul

It’s been a while since I did a clothes haul post, not because I haven’t been shopping but because I keep taking the pictures and then forgetting to write up a post! Anyway, I did a spot of shopping the other day on a very rare day off and it ended up being a pretty successful day! Lots of classics which I think I’ll wear for a while but I still want a few trendy pieces to liven up my wardrobe. I’ll do a separate post on these soon.

First stop was Matalan for a change as I usually head straight to Primark! I was really lucky they had some nice pieces so here they are. I found two pairs of black pumps, some bargain jewellery, a black skater dress and a winter Nordic ski jumper as well as some jewellery bits.

The pumps are both black, the first pair is an embellished ballet pump (£12), the second a pair of slip on loafers but in a pony hair (£10)! 

Picked up some boring tights (yawn but it’s an essential) and check out all this jewellery! 4 pairs of earrings for £1 which I bought just for the gold horseshoes earrings, a pair of brushed gold dove bird stud earrings, a gold coin necklace similar to the one Holly Willoughby wears all the time and this gorgeous vintage look enamel A initial double strand pendant. 

The black skater dress is plain but perfect! It’s the style of dress that I wear most and that suits me the most and it also has an exposed zip at the back.

Last but not least is this cosy cream Nordic ski jumper. It’s quite a long style which I’ll be wearing loads no doubt in winter; don’t you always find your wardrobe full of short sleeved tops and never any jumpers?!!

Have you guys got your jumpers out yet?!

Winter Reading - True Blood Novels

I must be the last person to be jumping onto this bandwagon but I've finally got round to purchasing the True Blood novels!

I'm usually a fan of vampire novels and TV but the TV series was just too gory for me. So hopefully the books won't be as bad.

I've got a whole 10 books to get through so I think this will be keeping me busy until the end of the year....

Have any of you guys read the True Blood novels? What did you think?

I'm trying to be good and update the blog a lot more and include non beauty related posts too. Let me know what you think!!

Chanel Rouge Allure Sample

Did any of you guys get an email from Chanel recently with an invitation to try out Rouge Allure? I love the way they phrase that, don't you?!

This was a few weeks back but I just wanted to share this with you anyway.

The sample is for four red lipsticks from the range in shades 97 Incandescente, 104 Passion, 102 Palpitante and 99 Pirate. It also came with a teeny tiny lip brush!

The samples are quite small but enough I think for a decent trial. Remember how years ago you used to get those tiny little lipstick bullets as samples?!

Have you tried these out yet? What's your favourite colour?

November 2012 Magazine Freebies - Marie Claire In Style Benefit and L'Occitane

Do you ever feel like it's feast or famine when it comes to magazine freebies?

Some months there's nothing, and other months I end up blowing loads on multiple copies of the same magazine just so I can get the gorgeous products they come with.

This month was a definite feast! I purchased In Style and Marie Claire (three times, I'll explain later!).

First up is In Style with Naomie Harris on the cover.

I bought this for the Benefit products it came with as I wanted to try out Sun Beam. For the £3.80 cover price there is a choice of Benefit Sun Beam, Cha Cha Tint or Benetint. These are all 4ml in size.

Inside, there's also a voucher for a free sample of Benefit Bad Gal Lash Mascara which I've pictured with the magazine.

Next up is Marie Claire with Taylor Swift on the cover. I knowingly purchased this twice. The first copy I got is the full sized edition which came with the L'Occitane 30ml Mango Flower Hand Cream. In some places it seems you also get a free 50ml sample of a Dove product which doesn't seem to be advertised in the magazine. I got Dove hair Therapy Conditioner Colour Radiance.

I then bought the travel sized edition to get the Rose Petals Hand Cream.

When I actually started reading Marie Claire I realised it was looking really familiar. Which is when I realised I'd started a subscription for Marie Claire (it was a special offer of 3 issues for £1) but had received the magazine ages ago and forgotten all about it. Needless to say, the subscription version doesn't come with a freebie which is one reason why people are often put off subscribing.

Marie Claire is also meant to come with a three sample packet of Tresemme Split Remedy Shampoo, Conditioner and Leave In Treatment, but I only received this once with my travel sized edition from in store. But I'm glad I;ve got one sample at least and I'll definitely be trying it out.

Which magazines did you get this month?

September Empties - Steam Cream

Hi everyone. So sorry for my shamefully long absence from blogging. I went away on holiday for two weeks in September and since then I've been playing catch up with everything! But I'm going to try and get back up to speed, at least 2 posts a week asap.

So, my empties posts are so shamefully short, but I wanted to do this one so I could rave about Steam Cream!

I was going to do a holiday mini's post which may still happen, but until then I'll show you a few pieces  that saved me from overpacking hell (that's pretty much a lie, I still overpacked!).

The outstanding product award goes to this beautiful tin of Steam Cream in the Yoshino cherry blossom tin.

Before I left this was new. Now it's finished. That's because I used it every single day whilst I was away. I used it on the plane as a hand cream (it's small enough to take on board) and every single day as a facial moisturiser, hand cream, body cream and after sun lotion. It performed so well in every category! This is definitely my number one recommendation for anyone who's packing for a holiday; do not leave without it!

Other than that it's just my sample size Sensodyne Repair and Protect toothpaste (this 20ml tube was not enough for a 2 week holiday!!) and a Sure roll on in Radiant which is so much smaller for travelling than a spray.

Until next time....

Nail polish collection dupes and nail polish blog sale

First up, so sorry for not posting in ages! I managed to squeeze in a holiday and between getting ready to go off and catching up since I got back I don't know where the time's gone. 

But I've got a whole host of post ideas so hopefully I'll be a good blogger soon. Anyway, back to the post!

I don’t consider myself to have a big nail polish collection, but can you believe how many dupes I found in a collection of under 30?

I thought you might be interested to see how we all gravitate towards the same colours without realising we’ve got a similar one at home already.

From left to right, here are my nail polish collection dupes:

NYC Expert Last Nail Polish in 253 Mint Macaroon 9.7ml 

Nails Inc Haymarket 10ml

Accessorize Nail Polish Tuscan Clay 10ml

Tesco All About Nails Praline 7ml

Revlon Nail Enamel Endless Possibilities 14.7ml

Tesco All About Nails Cashmere 7ml

Nails Inc Tate 10ml

George Quick Dry Nail Varnish Scarlet Kiss 5ml

Icing Black Nail Polish 15ml

MUA Nail Varnish Shade 2 6.2ml

Barry M 292 10ml

MUA Nail Varnish Shade 1 6.2ml

Once I’d gone through my collection, I decided I should do a little nail polish sale so here you go guys!

The following from my dupe collection are for sale, plus a few extras for good measure:

Nails Inc Haymarket 10ml £6

Tesco All About Nails Praline 7ml 75p

Tesco All About Nails Cashmere 7ml 75p

George Quick Dry Nail Varnish Scarlet Kiss 5ml 75p

Golden Rose Silver Glitter 75p

Collection 2000 Hot Looks Hip Hop 8ml 75p

Barry M Nail Paint Cyan Blue 10ml £2
Collection 2000 Hot Looks Sherbet Lemons 8ml 75p

All of them have been used between 1 and 3 times and are pretty much full. Postage will be £1.50 plus 50p for each additional item.