Hair Growth Update - August

The end of next month will mark a whole year since I took the last of my hair off, after it started to fall out. For now, my hair isn't that different from my last hair post, I think it is slowly straightening out as it gets longer, but it is going to take a while and I don't think it will naturally be as straight as it was pre-cancer, without the help of a straightening iron.

It has reached a length now where I can get the top half into a little ponytail, which keeps it off my face, or the bottom half into a ponytail, but it doesn't all go into one ponytail... yet!

I'm still using Lee Stafford's 'Hair Growth' shampoo, treatment pot and conditioner which is the 'For Hair that never Grows past a certain length' range. 

Next September hair update (next month) will be my last hair update, as it will have been a year since the last of my hair was taken off. ♥

Urban Decay - Naked 2 Palette

The Urban Decay Naked Palettes, are definitely the most popular palettes between celebrity makeup artists, beauty bloggers and any makeup lover. I recently purchased my first Naked palette... Naked 2. Out of the three palettes, I thought this was the one I would use every single colour in as it has less pink/ purple tones and more brown/ earthy tones compared to the Naked 1 and Naked 3.

All of the shadows in this palette are usable, every day colours. The pigmentation of the shadow in the palette, is exactly what it will look like on the skin. It keeps the concentration and strength of colour when transferring from the palette to the eye... but then coming from the Urban Decay brand, you wouldn't expect anything less!

Below I've done swatches of each shade on my arm. There is a strong variety of shades ranging from light to dark, enabling you to create a more neutral toned down look with a mixture of the matte shades, or a dark dramatic smokey eye, combining the matte shades with the shimmery shades. It is a very versatile palette!

The palette includes 3 matte colour, (Foxy, Tease and Blackout) and 9 shimmery/ sparkly colours, (Half Baked, Booty Call, Chopper, Snakebite, Suspect, Pistol, YDK and Busted.)

• Foxy - Creamy/ yellow, with a matte finish.
• Half Baked - Golden/ bronze, with a shimmer finish.
• Booty Call - Creamy/ pinky, with a shimmer finish.
• Chopper - Coppery/ bronze, with a hint of glitter and a shimmer finish.
• Tease - Earthy/ brown, with a matte finish.
• Snakebite - Bronze/ dark brown, with a shimmer finish.
• Suspect - Light golden, with a shimmer finish.
• Pistol - Grey, with a shimmer finish.
• Verve - Pearly/ cream, with a shimmer finish.
• YDK - Light metallic bronze, with a shimmer finish.
• Busted - Dark brown, with a shimmer finish.
• Blackout - Blackest black, with a matte finish.

Comparing the colours in this palette to those in the Naked 1 and Naked 3, I definitely think it's the most usable and 'go to' palette out of them all. Purely because the other two palettes are dominated by more purpley/ pinky undertones, compared to the Naked 2 palette which is made up of more earthy and neutral shades, it is a much warmer palette, with a great 'basics' selection. ♥

Hair Growth Update - July

The end of July means that it is time for my monthly hair update! I took the last remaining bits of my hair off at the end of September... as it's now the end of July, I've had 10 full months of my hair growing back. I've religiously used Lee Stafford's hair growth range, which involves a shampoo, a treatment pot (which you use straight after the shampoo) and then the conditioner.

The pictures above show how my hair has changed within just a month. It's slow and steady progress and it's obviously not going to reach waist length overnight, but I think it's doing pretty well!

It is getting a tiny bit straighter with the length pulling down the curls, but other than that, there's not much else to say apart from that it's still growing, haha. I do run my straighteners through my hair on occasion and it does look longer compared to when it's left natural and wavy, as you can see from the pictures above.☺

*Metique - Tea Tree Oil Hygienic Skin Wash

* METIQUE Tea Tree Oil Hygienic Skin Wash

This product was sent to me to review after a lovely lady got in contact with me via Twitter. It's a Tea Tree Oil Hygienic Skin Wash from the brand Metique, which was originally produced and launched in Australia in 2001 by Steen Jorsal, then in 2008, husband and wife Jeremy and Jenny along with their team and the support of founder, Steen Jorsal, launched the Metique Tea Tree Oil range in the UK.

What I really like about this product is that it's gentle on the skin. There are no sulphates in the ingredients, which are known to irritate skin, (and can be found in many beauty products) and the tea tree oil that Metique use relieves and soothes irritated/ inflamed or infected skin.

I don't have acne, however I do suffer from breakouts on my skin, especially my t-zone area. The first time I used this skin wash on my face, my chin was extremely sore and inflamed due to a recent breakout, however I did notice a slight improvement after the first couple of uses. The spots on my chin didn't look as inflamed and sore and after only a couple of uses, my t-zone started to look clearer.

Tea tree oil is a natural antiseptic, which is why I think I noticed a difference so quickly. I have quite oily skin in my t-zone, but for those who have dry skin, it does state on the bottle that it is a 'Non Foaming and Non Drying' formula, so it's not going to dry your skin out even more when you use it.

Overall I was very impressed with this product, it's full of natural ingredients which are beneficial to your skin and I saw a difference in my skin as soon as I started using it. It won't damage your skin as it's sulphate and paraben free and you only need a couple of pumps from the bottle to wash your whole face effectively. The formula itself doesn't lather up, which means you don't lose any of the product to foaming and you can really massage it thoroughly into you skin and then rinse off.

One thing I would say about this product is that the smell is quite overpowering, because it is a tea tree oil product and the tea tree has quite a distinctive smell. (Unfortunately for me this takes me back to when I was around 6/7 years old, sitting in an empty, cold bath next to my brothers, our hair lathered up with a tea tree nit treatment, waiting for it to take effect.) But once I got past the smell, (and the memories of having my hair treated in an empty, cold bath for head lice) the product itself is really effective at treating inflamed and sore skin prone to breakouts.


If you'd like to look at any of the other products in the Metique range, or find out more about the natural ingredients that go into the products, you can do so by visiting the UK site *here!*