PRO:VOKE Hair Colour Remover

Be prepared for a long post, as there's quite a bit of explaining to do here!

Hello! Today we have a review of PRO:VOKE hair colour remover. When it comes to hair colour and things I would ultimately recommend going to a hair dresser, but I can't afford it and I don't really have the time having a young baby and all. I've always used box dyes for my hair, I know some of you will probably recoil in horror at that but I like to mess with my hair fairly regularly and I know you don't always get the colour you see on the box!

I've used a few different colour removers in the past and this is the one I like the best. The reasons for this is the price (it's the cheapest I've come across) and the fact you only leave this on for half an hour (others I've used you have to leave a full hour). There are a few things you need to know about colour removers:

• Always patch test!
• Leave plenty of time - you can't hurry the process and you have to do a lot of rinsing
• The smell is horrendous (like rotting eggs!)
• They can only do so much - most hair colours (even dark ones) contain peroxide which permanently changes your hair colour (you usually get a warmer and lighter result than your own colour)
• Bleached hair will never go back to it's natural colour as bleach strips the colour pigment out of your hair. 
• Some colours (e.g. Fashion brights) will stain the cuticle of the hair and permanently alter it's colour.   
• The result is so variable - lots of things can determine the result you get (e.g. previous damage, porosity of the hair etc)

These points are all explained in the box so make sure you read the leaflet before you proceed. Below I've inserted a before/after photo, I do apologise for the poor quality as I only have my phone camera and I had to use the flash for the after photo as it was a particularly dull day. To explain with words, before my hair was reddy brown (I previously had red hair and then coloured over with brown but the red still showed through and I want rid!) and after using PRO:VOKE hair colour remover it turns my hair a light, ginger colour (probably because of the red, when I've used it on over brown it goes more light brown). Before you gasp like worst nightmare ginger hair, it's removed some of the red, which is what I want and then I will colour over this with an ash brown that will hopefully cancel the gingeriness (making up words again but I'm sure you get the gist).     

Colour removing is a harsh process for your hair (even though it claims to have no ammonia or bleach). I'm not particularly precious about my hair, it's hair, it grows back! My advice if you are going to use this type of product would be tread carefully, leave plenty of time, be prepared to stay in (in case it goes horrendously wrong!) and have a colour ready to go over the top (the leaflet inside says you should use semi-permanent only immediately after, I don't always do this, and that's at my own risk).

Congratulations! You've made it this far! 

PRO:VOKE hair colour remover is available in places such as Bodycare (where I got mine), B&M Bargains, and Home Bargains for around the £3.99 mark or at Amazon HERE

Thanks for reading!

Wench x  

Freebie Friday! #4

It's Freebie Friday time again. 

Today I have another magazine freebie (I know it's not technically a freebie as you have to pay the £3.99 for the magazine but it's still good!) in the form of Marie Claire who are giving away one of four different Nails Inc nail polishes which are usually £11 each in their April edition!

The shade I got is Fashion and I am currently wearing this nail polish and it's a lovely lilac-grey colour as you can see below.

Please ignore the sloppy paint job, this was hastily done whilst Splodge was napping! 

Nails Inc polishes are lovely and amongst the best I've used but there's no way I'd spend £11 on a nail polish, however to their credit they do seem to come with mags quite a lot so worth picking up a mag if you see a colour you like in it!

Thanks for reading,

Wench x  

Collection Eyes Uncovered Nude Bronze Palette

Not another nude palette! But hear me out, Collection's new offering is well worth it. I had swatched the urban decay naked 1 palette whilst in Debenham's the other day and was super impressed by the butteriness (I don't think that's a word but what the heck!) and the pigmentation but I do not have a whopping £38 lying around and I don't even have £23 for the smaller basics palette either! I then went into Boots and swatched the Collection Eyes Uncovered palettes. 

These are the Nude Bronze swatches, and this is the palette I ultimately went for but they also do a Nude and Nude Grey. There's also a Little Mix All About Eyes palette too! I can only say that the matte shades swatched well as the palette I picked up are all shimmers but as you can see above the shades are really well pigmented (even the Ivory shade, but you can't see this very well on my very white skin!) and they have stayed on well without creasing (over a primer), and creasing is a big problem for me as I have hooded eye lids. The only downside to these eyeshadows is that there is quite a bit of fall out when you dip your brush in, but this can be reduced if your careful. Below I'm wearing Mink all over the lid and Nutty in the crease and smudged slightly under the eye.   

These are available in many places but you can get yours at Boots HERE for a very purse friendly £3.99! 

Thanks for reading,

Wench x

Nip + Fab Deep Cleansing Fix

I just have to tell you about this!

This stuff is the bomb!

Nip + Fab Deep Cleansing Fix is a deep cleansing cream and as you can see from my tub, it's well loved by me! You can use it in the following ways:

• Massage into dry skin and rinse with warm water 
• Or use a cloth (like a hot cloth cleanser) to remove make up.
• Use as a 10 minute face mask.
• Apply a thin layer as an intensive overnight treatment.
• Apply directly onto blemishes.

I've used this in all these ways except overnight and it has done wonders for my skin. It doesn't strip your skin but does give you a really nice clean feeling. It's effective at removing make up even stubborn mascara, I've never got out the bath with panda eyes and it doesn't irritate my eye area either. It contains sweet almond oil and tea tree oil which are both great for your skin (especially oily skin like mine). Be warned though the smell is very strong (this is why I haven't used it overnight), described as "uplifting eucalyptus" but I'd say it smells more of tea tree (I suppose these smells are similar). I know it contains both of these so it's to be expected and at first it did put me off, but I got over it and I'm glad I did because I love it!

Full price is around the £7.95 mark and available at Tesco HERE but I got mine on offer (I can't remember exactly) but do shop around as it's on offer a lot.

Thanks for reading!  

Wench x

Freebie Friday! #3

Hello Wonderer's! It's that time of week again! 

So this time we're talking store freebies, and today's instalment is a gush about Lush! I was in Lush yesterday picking up a gift for my sister-in-law and I received great customer service, they asked if I was okay and when I said I was just tooting they left me to do so. When I was actively looking for something they asked if I needed help and the lady I spoke with was really obliging and helpful and had great product knowledge. 

Now this brings me to my point, when I asked the lady for the sea salt shampoo I was looking for she took me to it and she was telling me about it. We we're chatting about it for a bit and then she was like "why don't I give you some to try first and then you can buy it if you like it." I was really impressed by this, I'm sure it's something they'll do regularly and in Lush they have pots of stuff open for you to sniff and play with but I never knew they did this. It makes sense because if I like I will go back and buy it. What's more, is this was before I'd even picked anything up to buy so it wasn't even a "well since your buying stuff we'll give you this" scenario if you know what I mean. She gave me a sample of the Big sea salt shampoo and the sea salt spray (I don't think this had a specific name other than sea salt spray!). It obviously depends where you are, there probably not going to give samples away in Poundland but if your lucky and your visiting a make up or fragrance counter, even Lush or places like it you might go home with something good to try out!

I think there's a lesson we can learn here, I'm not saying walk into stores demanding samples because you'll probably get no where and that's just cheeky but that a bit of friendliness can go a long way and you might be surprised what comes your way from something as simple as a smile!   

 Have you had any good freebies recently?

Thanks for reading,

Wench x 

Zoella Beauty - Soak Opera and Fizz Bar

I have a review for you today!

I know the Zoella Beauty range is all over the bloggersphere already but I picked these up because it's my first mothers day and my hubby promised me a bath to myself! (I get in the bath with my baby, so it has his baby bubbles in. I know it's not recommended blah, blah, blah, but my hubby passes him in to me, it's what works for us and keeps our little family happy) needless to say it excited me greatly and I wanted something new for my special bath! 

As you can see from the photo above (please excuse my piles of products around my bath!) , I used the Zoella Beauty Soak Opera to make this awesome amount of bubbles (well, my hubby ran the bath for me). This may seem silly to some but I took this picture because I have bubble trouble. I come from Manchester, in the north, where our water is lovely and soft and makes lots of lovely bubbles just by showing the water the bubble bath (okay, slight over exaggeration but you get the gist!) but since I moved to Stoke, where the water is harder I can't for the life of me run a bubbly bath! So getting this amount of bubbles made me very, very happy! 

The scent of this is a lovely, sweet floral smell which I seriously love! Smell is very subjective mind, so a downside to this would be if you don't like the smell, then the whole range of bath stuff is not going to appeal to you as its the same across the lot. However, I was impressed by how soft and nice my skin felt after I got out of the bath, I read on the bottle that it contains vitamin E, shea butter, and aloe extracts that claim to soften and condition the skin, I was sceptical but actually I have to agree with that and it does this is such a way that doesn't leave a residue making you feel slimy.

Now on to the Zoella Beauty Fizz Bar. The chocolate bar design is very cute and it gave my bath an added boost of that lovely scent (not that it needed it, with just the bubbles you could really smell it). I think it goes without mentioning that I enjoyed watching the fizzer fizz! The best thing about this is that you get more than one go out it. You could if you really wanted throw the whole thing in or you can break it up however you want, if you only used one at a time you'd get 8 uses out of it which is great, that brings me to my one sticking point, and that is that I found it really hard to break up, I'm quite a weakling though and lucky for me I have a macho, strong husband to break it for me!   

Now the Zoella Beauty range isn't the cheapest in the world but it certainly isn't the most expensive, for me it's a price tag I'm willing to pay for a treat and when you compare the fizz bar with a bath bomb from Lush for example, you pay a similar price but can only use a bath bomb once. You get 490ml of product in the soak opera so you do get plenty for your pennies!

You can get your mitts on Zoella Beauty Soak Opera HERE and the Fizz Bar HERE both for £5 each. 

Thanks for reading!

Wench x

Next - Make Me Beautiful

Today, I bring you a new discovery I recently made! In the form of a new make up range, Make Me Beautiful by Next.

Next Make Me Beautiful Range

Next Make Me Beautiful Range

The very first thing I need to say is about these images. I took them in store on my phone and the only person in them is me (reflected in the mirror). I honestly haven't a clue about rules and such on that one so if I'm breaking any I will remove and delete the photo's on request. Also, if anyone out there reading DOES know about these things I would really appreciate it if you could let me know! As prices are visible here just be aware that prices and offers seen here are correct at the time of publishing.

Moving on, I knew there was a new range coming because I went in store and asked where the NYX stand had gone and they said they weren't selling it any more (this almost made me cry) but the nice lady told me something new was coming to replace it soon and to keep a look out and here it is!

Now I haven't tried anything from this range yet, truth be told it's simply because I can't afford it yet! However, from browsing the range it looks promising. The packaging is eye catching and looks nice and sturdy, it has an almost mirrored effect to it which I quite like. It doesn't look cheap and nasty either. Price wise, it's not the cheapest, but at the same time it's not the most expensive, the range isn't massive, there was just a little table with it all on in store however it is a new range and I'm sure they'll expand on it as time goes on. The stand itself was really nice, you may be able to see from the pictures but it's not your run-of-mill make up stand more like an actual table which was nice and clean although this may be just because it's new! Everything on it was clearly visible and easy to get at not like those horrible, sharp plastic cassettes where you can never get the products out and can't see a darn thing like your usual stands (and trust me when I say they are sharp and awkward, I've had to work with them the last ten years and have had so many cuts and tantrums I lost count!) So far I'm impressed but I'm still yet to try it, the proof will be in the pudding! 

The Next Make Me Beautiful range is available HERE

Have you tried any of this make up yet? Let me know what you think!

Thanks for reading,

Wench x 
    

Mother's Day!

Good morning! Just a quick post that I hope you don't mind me sharing! 

I hope all you Mummy's of the world had a lovely mother's day yesterday?! I celebrated my very first mother's day yesterday and I was very spoilt indeed! I got a lovely card with my babies very first (and very scrunchy!) hand print.

My hubz made me facon (fake bacon - I'm a veggie you see!) butties for brekkie and I got some lovely flowers, new PJ's (I not-so-subtlety hinted at!), a cute little bear, and a little plant.  

My husband made me a special fake steak tea (lots of fake veggie food going on!) and even ran me a nice, relaxing bubble bath (I have a post on that coming up!). I was treated like a princess but most importantly I got to have lots of cuddles with my special little guy! 

It was all a bit much for some!

I hope you didn't mind me sharing a few snaps of my first mothers day with you. I had a great day and wanted to share it with you!

Thanks for reading!

Wench x