The Brand Focus | Percy & Reed

Recently I've been trying out both the It's So Cool Heat Protectant Styling Mist and Abundantly Bouncy Volumising Mousse from the Percy & Reed styling range. 

For those of you that are not aware of the Percy & Reed brand let me fill you in..

The brand itself was established by two very wonderful hair stylists, Paul Percival and Adam Reed. Both of whom wanted the same thing, to broaden the body of people that their skill and knowledge were available to. Meaning that it would no longer be just for the rich and famous. Hooray for the rest of us! 

They teamed up and achieved exactly what they had set out to do and so next came their product range which leads me on to these two products..

It's So Cool Heat Protectant Styling Mist

This was the initial product I set out trying from the range. I had been specifically keeping an eye out for a heat protectant that I thought would be both effective and budget friendly. 

It's hard to give an accurate account of a heat protectants effectiveness unless you've been using it for a large amount of time. That being said I've been using the mist for 6 weeks and  I'm going to try give you as close to accurate review of it as I can. 

The packaging, like with all Percy & Reed products, is very simple and minimalistic whilst remaining playful and girly. The monochrome colours used throughout the product range is really chic and it all looks very dreamy sat on your dressing table! 

Of course it's not all about the packaging. 

The product itself sprays out as a beautifully distributed mist meaning you're not going to end up with product build up among one section of hair. The scent is lovely and light leaving a fresh odour following you around all day which is a win from me as heat styling tools can often leave quit an 'off' scent to your hair. 

It's not at all heavy in the hair and if you weren't left with a silky soft feeling and the light scent give off, you wouldn't remember you had your entire barnet spritzed with the stuff! 

Abundantly Bouncy Volumising Mousse 

After trying the heat protectant mist from the range and loving it, I decided to broaden my horizons and try something I wouldn't normally go for. A mousse. I don't know why I tend to ignore mouses and all they have to offer. I just seem to instinctively reach for spray products instead. 

The volumising mousse from Percy & Reed is exactly as decribed. A mousse that adds fabulous volume without the sticky, crispy texture. Another wonderful product without any downfalls and one I am very glad I picked up. 

Again it holds the same light, fresh scent as the mist which lingers all day without being overpowering. 

Another bonus with all Percy & Reed products is the insiders tips, printed on to the back of the packaging. What more could you ask for? 

Pick up the products: 

It's So Cool Heat Protectant Stylist Mist 

Abundantly Bouncy Volumising Mousse

Be sure to check out the Percy & Reed YouTube channel here, for numerous style tutorials and 'how to use' product videos! 

New Puppies! |

Cuteness overload. I know. 

As a family we have been discussing getting another dog for a while. We live in the country and long afternoon walks are kind of our thing, meaning a dogs life will be pretty content being apart of our family. Although the idea of getting a new puppy had been tossed around our household for a while now, we had no official plans to actually get one. SO, when my dad came home from work on Tuesday evening and surprised us all with the news of our new puppy you can imagine all of the excitement. 

We popped by to visit our new family member the next morning and whilst there my mum and I spotted a second puppy.. 

Skip forward 12 hours and we now have two beautiful Labrador brothers. 

Sid, the golden of the two, sitting patiently next to Hettie and Manny, featured above in my Gran's arms. 

The Liebster Award |

A few weeks ago I was nominated by Sammy to do the Liebster Award! For those of you sat there thinking 'what on earth is the Liebster Award?!' as I was, it's a way of promoting your blog and connecting fellow new bloggers to eachother by passing along the nomination. Still confused? Keep reading. 

There are a few rules regarding the Liebster Award which include the following.. 

11 questions, asked by whoever nominated you, must be answered

11 new nominees must be selected by yourself

Your chosen nominees must answer a new list of 11 questions, again created by yourself

You must notify those you have nominated of their nomination 

How would you describe your style?

This is a hard one for me. I've always been really fashion focused but I've never really 'found myself' when it comes to my own personal style. I tend to fleet from one style to another depending on the season, my mood, where I am & what I have planned.

What is your favourite makeup brand?

I feel like it's hard to categorise makeup brands into 'the best' or 'my favourite'. This is because with most brands some of the products may be really good, and others may be not so good. A good example of this is Benefit. I love love love their mascaras and blushers, however after trying a number of their base products, I still haven't found any that I like or would repurchase. To try and answer the question at hand as well as I can I'm going to say Rimmel. Not because it is particularly my favourite, but because I own more Rimmel products than I do any other brand. 

Do you prefer to read books or watch films?

For me this a no brainer. I absolutely love to read. There is nothing better than finding a book you love so much you cannot put it down until you've read it cover to cover. Your own imagination is far better than any film can ever be produced which is why when you read a book and then watch the film production of the book, it never quite lives up to your expectations. 

Do you dye your hair?

Naturally my hair is as dark as it gets on the brunette spectrum and after a long winter with very little sun to lift it a few shades lighter, I decided I would take matters into my own hands and throw some dye on it in hope that I would miraculously turn into a 'mousy haired' kinda gal. No such miracle actually took place and instead I was left with coppery, bronzey locks which resembled the same texture as straw. Not quite what I was going for. Fast forward four years and I am pretty much back to my healthy, shiny 'do and will never touch hair dye again. 

What would be your dream job?

Event management, which I am currently fighting my way into. 

What is your favourite car?

Volkswagon Beetles! I hope to trade in my little Polo and get myself a beefy Beetle at some point this year. Even if it will make my already traumatic parking experiences even worse. 

If you could go anywhere in the would, where would you go?

I've been to Australia before and I would love to return, I previously traveled down the East cost, visiting Cairns, Brisban, Byron Bay and Sydney. If I returned I'd love to do the West coast and visit places like Perth and Melbourne. 

What is your favourite colour?

Grey. 

Do you prefer designer brands or high street fashion?

Highstreet fashion all the way! Like I said before I fleet between different styles and clothes so much that if I spent a lot on designer brands, I'd never get my moneys worth! 

Gold or silver jewellery? 

A bit of both, again depending on my outfit and mood. 

Do you have any pets? 

I have a very old, very loved Bassett Hound named Basil/Baz/Bowie, as well as Baz I have my own pig. I very unoriginally named her Peppa back when I first got her, she lives on a family farm and she is also quite old now. When she was younger and had litters of piglets I used to sell them and keep the profits, however now she's too old she lives the high life doing not all that much.

The lovely ladies I'd like to nominate

Jenna from beautyxpress0

Becca from rebekahmaryx

Lilly from A Little Lilly

Paula from Beauty & Other Stories

Lucy from beautyworthy

Nikki from Copper Boom

Jodie from The Quest For Perfection

Tash from pompom bonbon

Laura from F.B.L Savvy

Vanessa from evanessage

Hannah from Promise of a New Day

The questions I'd love love love to see my nominees answer are as follows.. 

Where did your blog name come from?

Apart from the Liebster award post, what was the last blogpost you read?

Where is your favourite place to eat out?

Which types of posts do you most enjoy reading?

What is your favourite scent?

What is the most expensive thing you have ever bought?

When was the most you ever laughed?

What is your biggest regret?

The best book you've read?

If you could do absolutely anything tomorrow, what would you do?

If you could have been in any Disney film which character would you have liked to play?

A massive thank you to Sammy for nominating me, check out her lovely blog here and give her a follow if you enjoy all she has to say! 

The Repurchase | St Tropez

I can't help but think of fake tanning as risky. So much can go wrong, too dark, streaky, missing patches, runs.. need I go on. However, sometimes you just have to take the risk and so to ease myself gently into the tanning world, I opted for the St. Tropez Gradual Tan. I knew nothing about it before I separated with my money and picked it up from boots but I wasn't let down. 

St Tropez is a well known tanning brand and I'm sure every one of you reading this has heard of the brand. Exactly the reason I went for this product. 

I bought it before I went to Latitude festival last July as I needed something to spruce me up a bit before I pranced around the festival with my legs out. It is the perfect product for tanning noobs like myself. 

It's a cream/lotion product which you can slap on with your hands, no mit needed! It's designed to be applied regularly on a day to day basis to let the product develop gradually over time. However I didn't use it like this as such, applying a layer, letting it dry and then applying another layer all within an hour. It stills takes a few hours to develop but you end up with a beautiful natural golden shade that doesn't really need any re-applying for a good 3+ days. 

All in all, a fabulous, easy to use, natural tanner that's not going to break the bank and I'm now on my second bottle of the stuff! 

Pick it up here for £14 

The Skincare | Exfoliating Toners

If you're a follower of the wonderful Caroline Hirons, you'll be all to familiar with these three products. All of which are skin exfoliants in the form of a toner which means no more abrasive bead exfoliators! Hooray! 

Just over a year ago I hit crisis point with my skin. I never had what I would consider 'bad' skin and to me it was just fine but once I left school it deteriorated into outbreak galore. Having gone from 'good skin' to a face full of outbreaks I started to panic and tried untold of rubbish products to try and miraculously clear up my face. Nothing worked and I was actually left feeling quite low and self conscious about my appearance. 

And then I found Caroline.. 

Across her blog Exfoliating Toners kept cropping up so I began to look into a few of the ones she had specifically mentioned. The first one I tried was the Ren Clarimatte Clarifying Lotion (formerly known as the Clarifying Toning Lotion). Within a few weeks of using it twice daily the breakouts I had been experiencing had already started to clear up and by the time I had finished the bottle, my skin had returned to its (mostly) blemish free state. Once I had used up every drop of the stuff, I left it a few weeks before repurchasing and sure enough my skin began to play up again. Instead of ordering the same Ren toner, I popped to my nearest Clarins counter and picked up their version of an exfoliating toner, the Gentle Exfoliator Brightening Lotion. 

The Brightening Lotion from Clarins is also another recommendation from Caroline, so I had every faith it would do the job just as well as the Ren lotion had. Although I didn't see the results as quickly as I had previously whilst using Ren Clarifying Lotion, it did sort my breakouts out and by the time I was half way through the bottle my skin had began to clear up again. 

I have since repurchased,and used up, another bottle of Ren toner and I'm now half way through the Pixi Glow Beauty Elixir. This again is another product the fantastic Caroline Hirons has recommended and out of the three it's my favourite. It was by far the quickest at producing noticeable results and i'm absolutely loving it. 

In terms of price they're all relatively affordable -
Clarins £20 - £25
Ren £18 (however I have seen it for about £12 on some websites!)
Pixi £16

Do let me know if you've tried a similar product and have seen great results! 

The First Day Of Spring |

So today is both the first day of spring as well as international day of happiness and what better way to spend it than out in the fresh air!

Spending my day with this little lady was a bit of a spur of the moment plan. My trip into Cambridge ended up being called off so,  after a spot of breakfast we piled into the car and headed off to a big country estate. It is an absolute gem situated just outside of my town and as well as a fantastically facilitated children's play park, there's also a tea room, a gigantic maze, sports facilities in addition to the hundreds of acres open to walk, cycle or run until your hearts content! 

The estate is full of rows and rows of blooming daffodils and it looks absolutely beautiful at this time of year - nothing could have made it feel more like the first day of spring! 

Southwold |

 

After all the beautiful weather we have been having, myself and a friend decided a trip to the seaside was definitely in order. Of course mother nature was against us and when I woke up on the morning we had arranged to go, the sun was barely visible amongst the dull, gloomy clouds. We stuck to our plan though, wrapped up in numerous layers of clothes and piled into the car heading for Southwold, just over an hours car journey from where I live. 

The route there is beautiful. A majority of it consists of rolling countryside along the quiet backroads of (not so sunny) Suffolk. We passed clusters of colourful villages filled with dainty little cottages and old fashioned windmills, as well as eyeing up a few country pubs with good'ol hearty menus. 

Once we arrived at Southwold beachfront and parked up the car, we took a stroll across the pebbly beach heading towards the main town. After a lot of wondering around we decided to opt for an underground tea room for lunch, which was set in the cellar of an art gallery. It sounds a lot more exciting than it was. In reality it was a little overpriced cafe, serving basic sandwiches and crisps, but it done the job and the hot chocolate was pretty tasty. 

After a bite to eat we headed back along the streets of the little town for another mooch around the quirky shops and stalls, only to be disappointed by the weather which had taken a turn for the worst. The wind really began to pick up and it had started to drizzle. Even my multitude of tops and knitwear weren't going to be enough to keep me warm in a storm on the coast so we began a brisk walk back towards the car. 

Southwold is a really beautiful unique little coastal town and is definitely worth a visit if you live not too far away (just maybe in the summer months to avoid gale force winds). 

Unlike a lot of seaside towns, Southwold has managed to hang onto it's quirky charm and hasn't been taken over by too much tourism. There isn't lots of purpose built entertainment facilities in the town but I think this just makes the town even more special. It's a wonderful place to visit for sailing, cycling, walking, crabbing and relaxing in the summer sunshine and if you put your mind to it you can really have fantastic time here.