Denman Brush Review

With my hair naturally being very flat at the roots, I'm always looking for ways to give it more life and body.

I do back-comb my hair in order to achieve this, and I have heard a lot of people rave about back-combing brushes. Though I could not find them anywhere on the high street.

Whilst watching a youtube video by the lovely Sailor Jennie, I spotted she had one of these brushes. She told me she got hers from Amazon, so I went and purchased one straight away (I checked on ebay too, but they were more expensive there).

The Brush:

I chose the Denman brush for just £3.50. It arrived really quickly, and in great condiotion.

The bristles are very strong, and barely move. You can see from the photos below that the brush contains 3 rows of these firm bristles, and they are relatively compact.

How I Use It:

I used the narrow handle to section off the top half of my hair, and clipped the top layer up.

Holding my hair out at a 90 degree angle, I used the brush to backcomb my roots.

I then applied my favourite hairspray to hold the hair in place.

This process was continued all the way up to the crown of my hair.

To stop my hair looking like a birds-nest, I lightly brush the top layer of my hair to smooth it.

Before & After:

Before: Very limp roots                                                                           After: Lift & body   

Overall Effect:

As you can see my hair isn't stuck to my head (like it would be naturally).
This is more of a subtle lift for the day. If you want more volume you can easily achieve this with a bit more back-combing, and doing it further down as well as at the roots.

Overall I am really happy with this brush, and it was such a bargain!

Better Late Than Never!

So it's been an absolute nightmare trying to get hold of my first Glossybox (The Royal Mail lost it), but it finally arrived yesterday!

This is going to be a short one as I'm sure you've read enough reviews on the September box already, but I thought I'd share my thoughts on my first ever box.

Here's what my box contained:

01) Green People Day solution: 

"Suitable for all skin types this alcohol-free daily moisturiser helps to balance & nourish the skin."

02) HD Brows Palette (Bombshell): 

"Eyebrow experts have developed this fantastic multi-use palette containing four matte eye-brow colours. They double up as and eyeshadow and eyeliner & last 24 hours!"

03) Moa The Green Balm: 

"Crammed with organic yarrow and lots of other lovely natural stuff this little pot of Moa balm has many weird and wonderful uses."

04) Plum by Mary Greenwell Eau de Parfum: 

"A stunning classic chypre with a memorable modern twist."

05) Rahua Shampoo and Conditioner: 

"For longer, stronger hair. Adds bounce, body and shine. Ideal for colour treated hair."

My first thoughts:

01) From swatching it it seems like a really good moisturiser. Though I doubt I'll ever be able to get past the smell of it :/
02) I was so happy to see this in my box, as I've said before I am eyebrow obsessed. Though, having dark hair, I'm quite disappointed I got this in 'Bombshell' as it's clearly for blondes. Having said that, I haven't tried it out yet so I won't judge it too much until I've used it.
03) This has quite an unusual smell, but I actually really like it! I love multi-use products, so I will definitely be looking up all its uses.
04) At first I didn't think this perfume was anything special, but once applied it's really growing on me! Its a lovely musky floral scent, and I really would consider buying this (though the £90 price tag does put me off).
05) Finally the shampoo and conditioner: They claim to do everything I want in a shampoo and conditioner. I really cant wait to try these. They supplied 2 sachet's of each, so hopefully I'll get a good enough impression to do a review on them.

Value for money? With the HD palette alone, this box is definitely value for money!

Glossybox's customer service in regards to my lost box was amazing, and I couldn't have asked for any more from them. I always think customer service is so important in a company.
For this I would definitely recommend them to others.

As for the box, (despite the colour of the palette) I am really impressed with it as they definitely fit my beauty profile, and I can't wait to see what's in Octobers box!

Holy Grail: Haircare

This post was quite hard to write because I'm still learning what works for my hair, but here are the Holy Grail products that I continue to buy over and over.

Without further adieu, here are the products and tools I love:

HAIRSPRAY:

I use hair spray a lot, particularly when getting ready for a night out.

I use the L'oreal hair spray to hold any curls, or at the end to hold the overall style. I find this works really well.

My absolute favourite is Umberto Gianni's 'Backcomb in a Bottle' (read my review here).

I love volumnous hair, but naturally my hair is quite limp. I use this spray to aid in my backcombing, as it holds it well. Yet it feels like it does less damage when I use this.

-I recommend this to anyone who back-combs, or who needs that extra oomph.

VOLUME:

These are two more products I use to give my hair volume. In slightly damp hair I spray Catwalk's Root Boost into my roots (sectioning my hair to reach most of the head). I then massage it slightly in, and lift my roots up whilst blow drying.

I also use John Frieda's Blow Dry Lotion before hair drying, spraying it through sections and brushing through. It works especially well if you blow-dry with a round brush (which I'll admit I cant always be bothered to do!)

STRAIGHTENERS:

I have used GHD's for nearly a decade now, and I can't see myself ever using another hair straightener. In that whole time I've only had to replace them once, and that was only because I stood on my 1st iron :'(

DRYER:

If your hair is limp like mine, you'll probably find no high-street dryer has enough power to give it lift.
Sallys stock dryers with a higher wattage than on the high-street, and they supply hair dressers so you know you're getting the best!

This hair dryer came from Sallys, and it is amazing. With normal dryers I always felt like I'd get more power from having someone blow on my hair instead. It's a little pricey (around £40-50),  but the power is enough to actually give my hair body! Plus it comes with 6 attachments. I can't claim to know what they're all for, but I love using the 2nd one from the right to heat up rollers.

HAIR BRUSHES:

On the left is a cheap brush from Superdrug, which does the basic job of keeping my hair knot-free. The bristles are quite firm, so they are very good at getting through my very knotty hair.

The comb I use to section parts of my hair, and then tease/back-come it for more lift.

On the right is my compact Tangle Teaser. This is for when my hair is a little too knotty, and its amazing at brushing out back-combed hair.

HAIR EXTENSIONS:

I wear these on a night out, or if my hair is looking a bit limp or thin.
I don't wear them for length (my hair's the same length of them anyway), but I do wear them to make my hair look thicker.

These came from Sallys, and were about £20 each (I have 3). I got them nearly 3 years ago, and they've lasted amazingly as they're 100% natural hair.
I would definitely recommend this for people with limp hair, but don't want to back-comb for thickness (though I'd recommend 4 for volume, or 3 for length).

So that's it for this week! My next Holy Grail post will be up next Wednesday.
Until then I'd love to hear your Hair Holy Grails.

Boots 200 Clear Nails Review

As much as I hate to admit it, for most of my life I was a serial nail biter. From about the age of 2, up until I finished college, I continued to bite.

I dreamed of having beautiful long nails like everyone else around me, so by the time I did eventually stop I was very disheartened to discover I was never going to have nails like that.

My nails are very weak and bendy. I have grown them quite long(ish) before, but their shape is very distorted and they are very prone to breaking. So I've finally admitted defeat and decided to give falsies a go!

£7.50

A friend of mine absolutely raves about Kiss's pack of 100 nails, so I popped into Boots to buy some (I tried their Everlasting Nails at the beginning of the year, and they were incredible!).

However, when I go there I saw Boots had their own version, but instead of 100 nails this pack contained 200, at less than £1 more. So I figured I'd give these a try (though I was a bit doubtful about the strength of the glue in this pack).

The pack contains 10 different sizes (20 of each) and nail glue.
Unlike Kiss's sets, these don't come with a nail file, which I think it could have needed.

-To begin with I picked out all 10 nails that were the closest match to my nail size.
-I then applied the glue to one of my nails, and then placed the allocated false nail on top, holding it firmly in place for a few seconds.
(note: I recommend cutting your own nails as short as you can before fixing a false nail to it, especially if your nails are prone to breaking)
-Once the nail glue has set, you can trim and file the nails to your desired length, and then you're done!

To remove these you simply soak them in acetone nail polish remover, and wipe away the nails and glue when soft.

Finished Result

I did go on to paint my nails, and no surprise I went for my absolute favourite colour: Tempting Taupe by Famous (see here).

My nails are naturally flat, but you can see these false nails are not. I have used false nails in the past but with disasterous results. Within 10 minutes I'd notice at least one was missing (with the rest soon to follow), and the glue would barely hold.

BUT, I've had these on for a few hours now with no problems at all! And they promise to last about 7 days.
I will update you to let you know if they lasted the full 7 days. So far, though, I'm very impressed.

I have 2 jobs which are pretty hands on, so if these can stand up to my lifestyle then the are pretty damn good!

I'd love to know if anyone else has tried these before?