A gorgeous Mothers Day gift (and exclusive discount code!)

 

If you're like me and don't live around the corner from your Mum then delivered bouquets are always an absolute winner - they're easy/convenient to order and make a fantastic impact. I was sent these flowers to review from the Debenhams Flowers Mothers Day range (click here to see more of the range), my bouquet is the Mums Lily and Rose one which funnily enough contains scented oriental lilies, lilac memory lane roses, pink aqua roses and greenbell.  I love tropical flowers and roses (especially pink and lilac ones) so this is a really great choice for me.

My experiences with Debenhams Flowers have always been really good - quick delivery, well packaged and beautiful flowers that last.  These have been in my house for over a week (about 10 days) and only one of the flowers is starting to look a little bit wilted now which I think is pretty good going.  The lilies were all closed when these arrived but they've all opened now and I love them!  I think my Mum would prefer planted rather than cut flowers and luckily they do them too - I'm thinking about getting her something like this from the range.

If you want to say it with flowers this Mothers Day I have an exclusive 15% discount code to use on Debenhams Flowers, just enter the code MDBLOG15 at the checkout to receive 15% off any bouquet.  As I said my experiences with them have always been great so I would recommend.

I'm sure I've mentioned before that I have a real love of cut flowers and would have them fresh in my house all the time if my boyfriend didn't rein me in!  Just call me Elton John.

Happy Mothers Day to all the Mums out there!  Have you got anything special planned for your Mum this weekend?

L'Oreal Preference Les Blondissimes Extreme Platinum Review

After thinking about it for ages I finally decided to try going a lot lighter at home.  After shelling out over £100 on a full set of highlights I went to Superdrug on the way home and picked up a couple of box dyes with the vague notion that at some point in time I'd try and get my hair really light. My hair is sort of mousy mid brown but it hasn't been that colour - at least not naturally - for years and I was still trying to get back to blonde after experimenting with ombre last year.

I then decided (when my roots needed done) to try another local hairdressers to save money and had the worst hairdressing experience of my life - to cut a long story short I had to dry my own hair and I came away with gingery highlights at the roots.  Not what I wanted.

After 2 weeks of being annoyed with my hair and watching loads of YouTube videos doing plenty of research I decided to just go for it and use the L'Oreal Extreme Platinum kit* that I had bought when I had a Sunday spare.  As someone who has never dyed her own hair (my Mam dyed it for me once or twice when I was at school much to her behest) I was really nervous but I found this kit and instructions really easy to use.  It comes with dye, developer and purple conditioner to use after bleaching which I really liked.  I also watched this video which helped my technique a bit I think.

What did I think of the end result? Well it's certainly lighter! On the lengths of my hair (where the colour was already kind of light due to highlights/bleach) the colour has really lightened up to a pale blonde but my roots fairly pretty yellow where I just had orangey highlights and my natural colour.  My hair doesn't look or feel to damaged but I think it could do with a little trim on the ends to neaten it up.

I'm a big fan of ashy/white toned blonde hair so the colour is a tiny bit too warm for me so again I've been doing my research only this time I've been looking at toners and purple shampoos to get and maintain that ashy look (as purple counteracts warmer colours such as yellow).  I've bought Fudge Clean Blonde Shampoo* and La Riche Directions Toner in White so I'll let you know how I get on with those.

Would I use this kit again? Quite possibly yes but I'd be a bit more prepared with toners and things next time! It's relatively inexpensive, easy to use and does lighten but as with every home hair dye make sure your expectations are realistic.  They seem to be on offer quite a bit too, plus you get everything you need in the right quantities, packaging and instruction.  I really like the conditioner it comes with too, the fact it's purple is great for light hair.

Now that I feel a bit more confident about bleaching my hair and happier that it isn't going to fall out/turn orange/green (top tip: don't wear or use anything metal when dealing with bleach) I've continued my research and actually just bought myself some bleach powder and developer from Salon Services to give it a shot without an actual kit next time...eek.  I'll let you know how I get on!

Grab your L'Oreal Preference Blondissimes Extreme Platinum from Amazon*.