Project Empties #23

My empties for this month seem to be mainly skincare and haircare products. I always find that I finish way more skincare and haircare products than makeup - Probably because I'm fickle with my makeup and change it up fairly often, whereas I generally stick to the same products for my skin and hair. Does anyone have any tips on how to use up makeup items quicker? As I feel my collection will never decrease in size and the products seem to last forever!

Skincare Empties:
I got this mini sample of Bioderma Matriciane Rides when I bought my new bottle of Bioderma Crealine Micellar Solution. I really enjoyed using this moisturiser, as it was quite thick and left my skin feeling really soft. This is definitely a contender for when I have to buy a new moisturiser. I also finished another tube of my beloved La Roche Posay Effaclar Duo. I'm not crying too much about finishing this tube, as I already had a back up tube in the wings and I have started using it already.

Haircare Empties:
This bottle of John Frieda 3 Day Straight is my best friend when I heat style my hair. It really helps to keep my straightened style in place until my next wash and my hair feels sleek and soft. I have repurchased this already and will definitely continue to do so. Batiste is my favourite dry shampoo, however I don't think I will repurchase Batiste Boho again. The scent was a little questionable. I can't quite pinpoint what it smelt of, but it definitely wasn't fruity or sweet (even though it claims to have a 'heavenly sweet fragrance'). I personally still prefer the Tropical version, which smells like coconuts. I have had this Tara Smith Feed The Root Conditioner for ages. In fact, the packaging of this has changed and they have now started stocking it in Marks and Spencer. The scent reminds me of minty chewing gum and unfortunately, as I didn't really like the scent, lingers in the hair. I really like how this product has no nasty ingredients (e.g. SLS, parabens, etc) and that it isn't tested on animals. It doesn't have much slip when applying to wet hair, but it does leave the hair feeling super soft and not weighed down.

What did you finish last month?

Thank you for reading. xoxo, Joy

P.S. As a quick side note, I thought I'd let you know of the free mini Benefit 'They're Real' Mascara with the June issue of ELLE (the one with Miley Cyrus on the cover). The magazine costs £4 and you get a generous 4g sample worth £9.50. A full sized tube of 'They're Real' is £19.50 for 8.5g - You do the math.

July Favourites 2012

Today I thought I would share my favourites from July with you:

Haha, Youtube always choose such unfortunate thumbnails

Thank you for watching. xoxo, Joy

June Favourites 2012

I can't believe it's the end of June already! These are my beauty, skin and hair favourites from the month of June. If you want to see my June Favourites video, where you can hear why I've been loving these products, then click here.

Every month I include a random favourite with my monthly favourites. This month, my random favourite(s) have been buying white items of clothing. I usually stick to dark colours and tend to wear black all year round. However recently every time I am in town, I am always drawn to white items of clothing, especially crochet or broderie anglaise items. The ones below are two of my recent purchases:

Top: New Look £12.99

Dress: Urban Outfitters £30 (Reduced from £65)

What have you been loving this month?

xoxo, Joy

The Bigger, The Better

If I leave my hair to dry naturally, it tends to be wavy, a little frizzy and quite flat. I'm always on the hunt for bigger hair and I have found a few volumising products, which I use quite frequently. I don't always use them all everytime I wash my hair, but these are the products I go to when I want big hair.


Revlon Powerdry Glamour Hairdryer - £30.63 and ghd hair straightner - £99
I got my hairdryer for Christmas and it is great. It came with a number of attachments and other accessories and has 4 heat settings and 3 speed settings. I LOVE my ghds! I've had them for almost 4 years now and they're still going strong. Now I can't imagine using any other straightner - Once you go ghd, you never go back.

Kent Round Brush - £5.99
I've had this for ages and use it with my hair dryer. I mainly use it around my crown and then pull it through my hair to straighten it and to style my fringe. This just gives a nice lift at the roots, especially if you bring the brush up and out before bringing it through the length of your hair.

Tigi Small Talk - £13.25 (You can probably find it cheaper if you look around online)
Tigi says that this is a 'thickifier, energizer and stylizer'. I've had this for ages and have only recently discovered how good it is. It really thickens my hair and gives a really nice amount of volume and bounce. It has a fruity smell, which I really like but some would probably find it overpowering. The smell stays even when you hair is dry and styled. A tiny bit of this goes a long way, you literally need less than a pea size otherwise your hair may look greasy and feel weighed down. It can leave a slimy residue on your hand if you have too much or don't work it through the hair enough.

Schwarzkopf Got 2b 2 SEXY Collagen Lift Effect Hairspray - £3.99
The instructions on the can state to spray it in short bursts generously onto the hair. When I use it on dry hair, it gives a lovely amount of volume and hold, but it made the areas I sprayed it on a little crunchy/crispy. I wonder if it was because I hadn't used the spray in short enough bursts, since I'm not used to that. That said, it would be suitable if you used it on your underneath layers after backcombing for some extra hold or if you tip your hair upside down and spray it on the base of the hair. I generally tend to spray this onto my hair after it's been towel dried and before I blowdry it for some extra voluminous hold. I love the smell of this hairspray, it's kind of fruity and sweet. The smell doesn't linger on the hair.

Velcro Rollers - £0.99 for 6
I bought these from Bodycare and like to put them into the roots of my hair when my hair is nearly dry just to give it some extra lift. Because the rollers are velcro, they stay in place and you don't need to faff around with clips. They're really gentle and don't pull your hair out.

Other products I use in my hair are Schwarzkopf Guardian Angel (Heat protectant), Redken Smooth Down Heat Glide (Heat protectant and serum) and John Frieda 3 Day Straight (Review here).

What products do you use for volumised hair? I would love some recommendations!

I hope you enjoyed this post. Thank you for reading. xoxo, Joy

Review: John Frieda 3 Day Straight

I bought this product in the middle of February and wanted to write a review about this straight away, but I waited a few weeks because I wanted to really make sure I knew how I felt about the product and write an in depth review about it. I warn you now, this is going to be long!

What they say: (From JohnFrieda.co.uk) Transform curly, frizzy hair into a straight, smooth style that lasts up to 3 days.* Designed to work with your hair straighteners, this weightless spray with heat protection blocks out frizz as you straighten. A revolutionary blend of polymers with keratin protein wraps each strand, sealing in straight style for up to 3 days.* Keeps hair glossy, smooth and swinging with body. Safe for colour-treated and chemically-treated hair. *Or until your next shampoo if less than 3 days.

Price: £6.99

What I think: Firstly I want to tell you two things: 1) If I let my hair dry naturally, my hair is wavy and slightly frizzy with a little volume and 2) I'm a straightening addict. I've tried a few times to go on a 'hair diet' and go straightner free, but that normally lasts about 3 days (if that). I've also had my hair chemically straightened twice in the past. You're probably thinking that I've just given you two pieces of useless information and you could have saved that minute reading the previous sentences on something more worthwhile, but it does tie into the review... Somewhere.

The photos were taken in the days after I used 3 day straight for the first time, since I thought it would be a good representation of how the product works, even on the first time it's used. (Click to make the images bigger)

Taken just after I had finished straightened my hair with 3 day straight.
Please excuse the lack of makeup and my pyjamas!

I had spritzed about 7 sprays throughout my hair, run my fingers through my hair to distribute the product, sprayed some heat protectant, blow dried my hair to a straight-ish finish (I officially suck a blow drying) and then straightened it with my ghds. The spray smelt nice and was a nice fine mist. The process was really easy and left my hair feeling so soft and sleek. I couldn't stop touching it! I normally wash my hair in the evening and put my hair in a ponytail when I sleep. I woke up the next morning, took my hair out of the ponytail and gave my hair a quick brush - My hair was exactly as it was the night before. Perfect!

At the end of day 1.

I had had my hair in a ponytail for most of the afternoon and I had been to the gym. I took my hair out of the ponytail, gave it a brush and ta-da! My hair still felt super soft and sleek and I impressed with how straight it still was, despite having it up for most of the day.

At the end of day 2.

As you can see, my hair is generally pretty much straight, except there are is a slight wave and a few flicks to the hair at the front. By the end of day 2, my hair did still feel soft, but it was looking a little lacklustre. I very much doubt that that was due to the product, just my hair needing a wash. I was going to hold out until day 3 before washing my hair, but my hair was looking so blah by the end of day 2 that I had to wash it.

A few things I've noted is that:

• If you want super straight hair for all 3 days, you need to make sure you straighten it so that it's poker straight on the first time you do it.
• You can leave your hair to dry naturally and then straighten it, if you would rather save on heat damage. However, I have noticed that the effect of the 3 day straight works better when you blow dry AND straighten your hair, rather than just straightening it.
• There have been a few times where I have noticed my hair looking a little bit fluffy around the crown of my head (like a wispy halo, lol) after straightening it. I don't know if that is due to the 3 day straight making the rest of it so smooth that that top part looks a bit fluffy or something else.
• If you spray the 3 day straight onto your hair and don't straighten it, it still makes your hair feel so soft.

Basically, I LOVE THIS PRODUCT. My hair is definitely thanking me for using my straightners on it less. I was getting compliments about how sleek my hair looked, even on day 2 when I thought it was beginning to turn a bit greasy. This product makes my hair feel like it did when I had it chemically straightened - I could wear it in a ponytail or in a tight bun (when I had ballet), brush it and then it would be perfectly straight again - but for a fraction of the price. I would highly recommend it to you all if you are a straightner addict like me. Since it holds straightness in the hair, I wonder if it would hold curl... I don't tend to curl my hair very often, but I might do an experiment with this. Let me know if you would like to see a post about it.

I'm really sorry for how long this review turned out to be! I could probably ramble on for England, but I really hope it was useful.

Thank you for reading. xoxo, Joy

ETA: After reading the comment from Rainy Days and Lattes, I decided to add in a picture of my hair if I let it air dry into the post for reference.

After washing and left to air dry

Check out hair extensions and haircare at BuyHair.co.uk or clip in hair extensions at HairExtensions.co.uk.

Recent Purchases

Happy Valentine's Day to you all! ♥

I quickly popped into a couple of stores today whilst I was in town and bought a number of things. I decided to document it in a video, because I thought it would be fun to mix up my posts a bit and have something different to just posting pictures, like I normally do. I also thought it would be less time consuming since I didn't need to resize and tag all my photos, however I forgot that I'd have to edit the video, oops. Once I'd gotten the hang of iMovie, editing the video didn't take me as long as I thought.

I was a little hesitant in posting the video, but I thought I would to see what reaction I get and to ask if it's something that you guys would like to see more of.

As a pre-warning, please excuse the quality of the video (I just filmed it on my Macbook) and how jumpy the video is! (I will work on that if I make another video). Be kind, please!

Please let me know what you think, would you like to see more videos? If so, what would you like to see? I'm tempted to do a 'What's in my bag' video, since I love watching those and maybe do some OOTDs? I'd love to hear your thoughts - If you never want to see my face on your screen again, please feel free to tell me!

I just wanted to quickly add in, I noticed that my follower count has creeped up recently. Thank you all so much! :D I really appreciate it and I am glad that people are finding my blog interesting, since it makes me keep working hard to make it as best as it can be. When I hit 50 followers, I'm going to do a giveaway. :)

Thank you for reading/watching. xoxo, Joy