New hair (before and after pics)

My hair's been a bit of a mess lately - totally overprocessed, damaged and a weird mish-mash of blondes.  To give my hair a bit of a break from bleach I decided to go for more of a dip dye.  My hairdresser used three different colours to blend the colours in my hair and keep it looking nice and natural.  I still wanted it more blonde than brown, just a nicer blonde colour.

 

And here's the end result:

I'm so pleased with the results - it's ended up looking a mixture of highlights/lowlights with a bit of ombre/dip dye which I absolutely love.  It looks a lot classier and even my boyfriend likes it (he's not normally one for "fashion" hair).  I've had ombre hair before bit it was darker and less broken up than this, I much prefer how it is now!

 

Really pleased with my new look for winter.  Hopefully it gets the condition of my hair back up to where it should be so I can go back to just having nice natural highlights and lowlights in future.  Being bleach blonde for a while was fun but is far too much upkeep, work and damage for me!

A quick review for a quick product - Pretty Twist & Out Instant Nail Varnish Remover

I got this as a bit of a "stocking filler" type of present but didn't use it until I didn't have any other option and had used up my other removers - I've used this type of remover before where you dip your finger into the middle of an acetone sponge in the pot, twist and it removes your polish.  Except sometimes they don't and it's frustrating!

However, this remover has pleasantly surprised me as it works really well.  Even glitter is removed easily and quickly.  I don't know how long this is going to last and be effective for but definitely worth having in for polish removal situations (especially if you're on the go).  I'd definitely buy this in future!

The National Wedding Show at Manchester Central - what did I think?

At the weekend my future sister in law (argh, weird to type that) and I visited the National Wedding Show in Manchester, hoping to pick some inspiration for my as-yet-not-organised wedding.  We had a fantastic day and it was exactly what I was hoping for - lots of ideas about venues, dresses, entertainment, invitations, catering, wedding make up and venue decoration.

Here's a few of my favourite things we spotted at the National Wedding Show - there was a lot to do and see through the day so this is a tiny snippet of what was actually there:

Drop Top Guest Book

Instead of a boring, traditional paper guest book your guests write their names and/or a message on little wooden hearts that slot into a wooden photo frame.  If you're a Pinterest obsessive (like me), you'll probably have seen these.  I think they're such a lovely idea, way more interesting than a guest book and it's a proper keepsake that you can display as a fab reminder of your wedding day.  You can find them at www.bspoak.co.uk - they come in a range of sizes and finishes and you can personalise them with your names and wedding date...n'aaaaw! 

'Av A Go Taxi Photo Booth

I've never seen this before and I loved it - it's a white taxi, decked out in wedding swag which is actually a photo booths.  I think photo booths are a really popular thing to have at weddings but this is so different and gorgeous, absolutely amazing!  We didn't go in it as the queue was huge but you can find out more at www.avagobooths.co.uk 

Foto Fusion Cards

Again, something I haven't seen before that I really really liked.  I'm not sure how clear it is from my photo but what makes these different is that you can customise the cards to show whatever image you want and they print it on to transparent film that is slotted in to the card.  The overall effect is so different and classy to anything I've seen before.  This example shows some cute baby pictures of a bride and groom for their wedding invitation but I really liked the Thank You cards that showed a photograph of the happy couple on their wedding day.  Check out their range of cards at www.foto-fusion.co.uk/

The thing we got most excited about was the dresses and catwalk shows - throughout the day there were bridalwear catwalk shows along with hair and make up demonstrations where they picked someone from the crowd and made them up into a bride.  The make up demos were run by Andriani Vasilou of L'Oreal Paris and celebrity make up artist Ariane Poole.  Here's a lucky bride getting made over as part of the show - they did a big reveal once she was all done up:

And it wouldn't be right for me not to include an obscene amount of dress and catwalk show photos as the dresses were by far the thing we saw the most of and are still talking about the best part of a week later:

There were some male models on the catwalk too showcasing some groom looks but that's not why we were there so I didn't take many pics!  There are loads of stalls selling wedding dresses of every shape, size and colour (including the ones in the catwalk show).  We saw a lot of teary eyed women trying on their dream dress in front of equally teary eyed family - there are a lot of discounts to be had, so if you're on a budget or you just want to pick up a fab dress for less, this is the place to be!

There were places to get afternoon tea, champagne and food too which is fab if you're treating it as a day out.  There's even a VIP section where you get goody bags and VIP treatment.

If you're a bride lacking inspiration, someone who loves all things wedding or you just want to pick up some ideas it's well worth visiting the National Wedding Show.  I thought I was quite well versed in all things wedding given my obsession with Pinterest and various wedding TV shows but there were plenty of surprises here for me!

The National Wedding Show exhibits around the country twice a year - visit www.nationalweddingshow.co.uk for information about the next show dates and venues.  I actually might go to the show in February provided I've got a wedding booked at that point to pick up some deals and get even more inspiration. 

If you're looking for some wedding inspiration or you just want to have a nosy at some of the wedding ideas I like, you can view my Pinterest wedding board here:

Follow Lucy -'s board Wedding Inspiration on Pinterest.

Marc Jacobs Daisy Delight Eau de Toilette Spray

I've never actually owned any of the Marc Jacobs Daisy perfume - there have been quite a few different editions out I think - which is weird considering that my boyfriend wears Marc Jacobs Bang! aftershave and I love it.  This was another impromptu birthday gift that I'm really pleased with!

It's the perfect mix of sweet, fruity and floral without being too overwhelmingly any one of them.  The top notes of this are apple, quince flower (I have no idea what that is) and freesia.  It also has notes of iris, gardenia and peony.

In terms of packaging and "dressing table appeal" - something that I think is important for a perfume as it's something you leave out as a decorative item as well as a scent - this is a fun, colourful design that looks really pretty on my white dressing table.

Marc Jacobs Daisy Delight is available from Debenhams for £48.

My first Tom Ford lipstick - Lip Colour Sheer in 05 Sweet Spot

I was lucky enough to get this gorgeous lipstick for my birthday from one of my friends - Tom Ford Lip Colour Sheer in 05 Sweet Spot.  It's absolutely gorgeous to look at, the packaging is typically luxurious, even down to the gold box it comes in.

I actually didn't realise this was sheer at first and thought "ooh bit of a lippie for when I've got a tan this" as I expected it to be a bright, dense orange but it's actually a really wearable, every day sheer orange colour that looks gorgeous on (ignore my pale hand!):

Formulation-wise it's actually really creamy and doesn't have that slippery glossy feeling that sometimes comes with a sheer lipstick.  It lasts really well too, again especially for a sheer lipstick. It also has that sweet, vanilla-y scent that MAC lipstick wearers will be familiar with.

Overall, I'm extremely pleased with this product - my friend obviously knows me well - and it's got me craving more from the Tom Ford cosmetics range, some of which is eye wateringly expensive.

Savings with salon size haircare (Joico K-Pak Deep-Penetrating Reconstructor for Damaged Hair)

Right, this post might be stating the total obvious for a lot of you but just in case I thought I'd share.

Whenever I find a professional/premium hair product that I find works well for me I always look for a way to make buying that particular product more cost effective - whether that's using discount codes, points totals or buying in bulk.  

With hair products that usually means buying salon-size products rather than smaller consumer sizes, I know I'm going to use it and it works out much better value too.   You don't need to buy from a salon supplier either, a lot of internet retailers sell the salon sizes too.

My latest haircare love is Joico K-Pak Deep-Penetrating Reconstructor for Damaged Hair.  My hair is feeling a bit sad after bleaching it to an all over platinum for about 6 months so I was looking for some products to help it back up to it's formerly good (for bleached hair anyway) condition.  

This product is fantastic and noticeably makes my hair look and feel much better to the point where people comment on it - this never happens to me!  I genuinely would recommend this to anyone trying to get their hair in better condition.  It's a treatment you leave on your hair for 5 minutes after shampooing and then rinse out, it has a really sweet synthetic smell which isn't really my cup of tea but it does the trick and smells quite nice after it's rinsed out.

150ml of this product costs £12.75 from feelunique.com whereas 1 litre costs £32.95 from besthairbrands.com (and I used a 10% discount code you get with your first order) - ok, you outlay more money initially but you do save as if you bought a litre of this at the price of consumer size it would cost you nearly £85!  Definitely well work investigating...