How To Make Your Hair Grow Quickly

I've always wondered how to make my hair grow quickly. I'm an inpatient person and ever since that dreaded 10 year old decision to cut my hair into a bob I've been desperately waiting for it to grow back.

A few months ago I decided that I was fed up of my never growing hair and did some research into how to make it grow. Of course the obvious came up - don't use heat on your hair, let it dry naturally, don't brush it when it's wet - but I already did all these things. I wanted something that would really work, I wanted to be able to see a difference in as short amount of time as possible.

One product that I noticed was mentioned quite a bit was a shampoo. Naturally, I turned to Google for answers and found that it was, in fact, a horse shampoo. I was understandably suspicious but at this point, I was willing to try anything. I took to blogs to read some reviews on this mysterious horse product and for the most part, it seemed promising.

I decided to bite the bullet and order Mane 'n Tail from Amazon - not that it was at much expense, retailing at around £6. I used only this shampoo, along with the Mane 'n Tail conditioner until it ran out (which was about 2 months). I didn't straighten my hair in these 2 months, which I normally would about once a week. At the end of the two month, I straightened my hair for the first time since using the shampoo and I was stunned. My hair had grown a noticeable amount, more so than I was expecting.

 I stopped using the shampoo after it ran out but I recently purchased another bottle. I've already started noticing a difference in the length of my hair and I couldn't be happier!

Having A 'Thing'

Everyone seems to have their thing - whether that be their blue hair, their ability to pick up a guitar and play it or their flawless instagram account. Everyone has something that's theirs, and no one can take that from them... So why don't I? 

Surely I can't be the only one who feels this way. Whenever I think I've finally found my 'thing', someone else takes it and out stages me which causes me to look like the copycat. I know it's just a massive case of jealousy-itis, but I just can't help myself. When you try so hard at something, and then someone else comes along and they're 10 times better than you without even trying, it's easy to get discouraged.

In the summer holidays last year, I dyed my hair purple - then pink - then blue, and I absolutley loved it. Weirdly, it made me feel like myself (which is odd considering I stood out like a swore thumb) and I thought that finally, I might have found my thing. But no. Before returning back to school for my last year, I had to dye my hair back to brunette as my school seems to think that you shouldn't be allowed to express yourself or feel comfortable (there she goes, ranting again). I had no problem with this as I'd promised myself that I would return back to my happy purple/pink fluffball after my exams. However, I have heard multiple people talk about dying their hair crazy colours once they leave and many of them talking about dying it the exact colour I was planning to go. 

I know that this really isn't a big deal at all, but it still really bothered me. It's not really about the whole hair thing though, it's the fact that whenever I finally find something that I love or really enjoy, someone else always seems to pull it off with more style than I ever could. Let's face it, I'm not really the most stylish of people. I just wish, that for once, I could find something that really could be my 'thing'.

Do any of you feel like this? Let me know!

Thanks for reading!

Lip Liners - Who Needs Them?

One thing I've always wondered is - are lip liners really that important? 

There are split opinions when it comes to lip liners, for many people they're a holy grail product and others just don't see the point. I have to admit, up until recently, I really didn't understand the need for them. I thought that you just drew the outline of your lips and once your lipstick wore off, you'd just be left with this weird looking outline - this can happen, but there's an easy solution to stop it.

 

I purchased this red lip liner from Kiko because I'd been told that lip liners are more important when wearing a bold lip, and as I was buying a red lipstick from Kiko anyway, I thought I'd get the liner to match. The trick when applying lip liner (especially a bright one) is to first outline your lips. Make sure you do this carefully and lightly - don't rush it incase your lips end up looking wonky, no one wants that! Once you've done that, colour the rest of your lips in using the same liner. This is great because not only will it make your lipstick last longer (result!), but it also means that when the lippy starts to wear off, it won't notice as this will still be on underneath.

I'm yet to try a lip liner with a nude lipstick, but I'm definitley in the market for a nude lip liner, so if you have any recommendations, let me know! 

In my opinion, when it comes to a bright lip, liner is a must! It makes the lipstick wear more evenly and makes your lips stand out perfectly. What's your opinion on lip liner? Let me know!

Thanks for reading!

Don't Let Society Think For You

I never used to be a confident person. I was so painfully shy when I was younger, to the point where I would even be too shy to talk to my own family. I got a little better when I started secondary school - but there was always plenty of room for improvement. It got to the point, around the age of 14, where I had to make a stand. It got a little bit ridiculous and so I lied. I lied to myself and to everyone else. I pretended I was confident - and I managed to convince everyone, including myself, that I was confident. I still have a way to go, but I'm more confident now than I ever have been. It's just a case of 'fake it till you make it'.

School. It's meant to be a place where you find yourself and learn to become a person, as well as learning how to pass exams. Stay with me, I'm going somewhere with this. We all know that the education system is messed up, these days we are not taught the life skills we need such as how to pay taxes or how to buy a house, but it's OK because at least we know how exactly how an atom is structured. However, I'll save this rant for another day.

I had a little bit of faith left in schools when it came to encouraging you to form your own opinions and finding yourself. Surely, if nothing else, schools and the teachers inside of them should help you to express yourself and truly become you. 

However. Whilst in an English lesson the other week, we somehow stumbled onto the subject of feminism. A controversial subject to say the least, especially when it comes to a room full of rowdy teenagers - although, if a good teacher was to have come across this subject with their class, I like to believe that they would have handled it by openly discussing it - instead of trying to push their own beliefs down the thoats of their easily influenced group of teens. That, however, was not the case when it came to my teacher. My teacher, who has before taken our class off subject to talk about her own personal life with her ex-husband, seemed to have it in her mind that every single man on this earth was the devil. She also seemed to believe that women are in no way equal as it stands currently and that we should all be fighting for women's rights. 

Now don't get me wrong, I personally believe that we should have equality for everyone as far as possible. However, I also believe that we cannot have FULL equality. The reason being that men and women are different. We have different body parts. Our purpose on this earth is different. How can men and women be equal when women can't produce sperm? How can men and women be equal when men can't carry a baby? We are different - which is why I, personally, believe that gender equality is what we have now. Sure, there is the occasional exception in which someone is paid more due to their gender, but on the whole, we're pretty damn close to gender equality. I have to ask, how much further are we willing to take this? Do we really want to take it to the point where men and women are so 'equal' that it's difficult for our brains to distinguish a difference? Because surely that will take us to a place where we are no longer aroused by a persons jiggly bits.

When I, for the first time in my life, decided to voice my opinion in front of a whole class, I was instantly shot down. This teacher, who was obviously shocked that I even had a voice, had taken it upon herself to make sure that I knew my OPINION was 'wrong'. She instantly became defensive and struggled to contradict the point I had just made. This made me feel as though there was something wrong with me for thinking outside the box, like I was weird for thinking differently. But then I thought to myself that surely, as a teacher, they should be encouraging me to think for myself, instead of how society has taught me. I wouldn't have minded had she of challenged my opinion in order to make me think even more for myself. But no. Instead, my idea was immediatly given the red flag and I was made to feel like a complete idiot. Please keep in mind that this is the teacher who downright refused to talk about our upcoming exam, but instead spoke about how she changed her name 20 odd years ago.

This, however, will not put me off thinking outside the box. If my opinion is different from others, then so be it. Opinions are meant to be your own, not society's. Don't let society do the thinking for you, think for yourself.

Let me know if anything like this happened to you at school,

Thanks for reading!

Barry M Aquarium Collection Arabian | The Review

When I popped into Boots the other day my eyes instantly fell on this Barry M nail paint. I'm not normally a massive fan of the collections they bring out and I wasn't aware that they had even brought out this aquarium collection. However, for some reason I was completely drawn to this colour (Arabian) and another one called Pacific. I decided to only get one in case I didn't like the finish and so I picked up Arabian.

 It's a gorgeous iridescent toned green with gold flecks through it. On the nails it looks super interesting and unique. I've had quite a lot of compliments on this colour and loads of people have asked me where it's from, it's the kind of polish that you just can't ignore.

What's your current favourite nail polish?

Thanks for reading!

 

Making A Change

I started this blog with no idea in which direction it was going to go. I started off with writing posts about my opinions - admittedly, they weren't the best thought out, but they were my true and honest opinions. I later deleted these posts due to how cringe worthy they were. I carried on with this blog, but instead I decided to write about beauty - after all, beauty was how I was first introduced to the blogging world and it seemed to be what everyone else was doing; of course I decided to be a sheep. What else does a mildly unpopular, confused teenage girl do?

Two years and many deleted posts later, here I am - still writing about beauty. Don't get me wrong, I truly love make-up and anything beauty related, it's one of my passions. Of late, however, it has occurred to me that I'm not really happy just writing about beauty. 

I think I now, after a number of years, I finally know what direction I want to take this blog in. And that direction is?

The 'a bit of everything' direction.

I will continue to write about everything make-up and lifestyle; at the end of the day it's a massive part of my life, but it's not me. I want to make this blog a sort of documentation of my life, a place for me to write down my thoughts, but mostly, a place for me to escape. My mind is full of thoughts, controversial opinions and things to rant about - where better to share them than the internet?! (That was sarcasm... sort of). 

From now on, this will be my 'a bit of everything and therefore doesn't fit a label' blog. It won't be a what I think everyone else wants blog. It won't be a what everyone else is writing about blog. It will be MY blog.

Current Beauty Favourites

Monthly favourites. I never really do them, I don't think I use enough products a month to warrent doing them. With saying that, I decided to tell you my current beauty faves. 

 Firstly I've beeing loving the Maybelline gel eyeliner and the Real Techniques fine liner brush. I love the effect they give together and the brush makes the application of the liner soooo easy. I've also been loving the Covergirl clump crusher mascara. I have super oily eyelids and most mascaras smudge around my eyes within a couple of hours, but this one doesn't, which gives it a massive thumbs up from me!

 Taylor Swift. Oh, Taylor. I love her, I don't even care, there's just something about her and I can't help but love her. This purfume is amazing. Wonderstruck is definetly a more wintery smell for me and it lasts a pretty long time.

 My mum recently visited New York and I sent her off with a list of products that I wanted. One of them was the NYX mega shine lip gloss in beige after seeing loads of people raving about it in the blogger world. After trying it out for a couple of months, I can safely say that it's become my go to lip gloss - I comepletely understand the hype now.

 

When me and Ryan visited last month (which I vlogged here), we went into Boots and I picked up a few new nail polishes for New Years eve. They were Barry M matte nail paint in Espresso which is a gorgeous matte black. The second colour was Essie Summit of Style. For New Years, I wore the black on every single nail, with the glittery polish on my ring finger and thumb - it looked pretty cool.

Let me know what your current beauty favourites are,

Thanks for reading!