Laser hair removal - Is it worth it?

Alongside getting my eyes lasered, I have also been undergoing laser hair removal over the last couple of months (I haven't won the lottery I promise). After suffering from ingrowing hairs for many years, I decided enough was enough; it was time to eliminate those hairs forever. Not only do I have fairly dark skin, I also have coarse dark hairs (I take after my dad), and had previously tried everything; from waxing to epilating, to hair removal cream, before taking the plunge and opting for permanent hair removal. 

I am now on my last session (out of a total six), and I can honestly say - I wish I had done it sooner. I think the main reason why it took me so long to decide to go ahead with the procedure was because of the hefty price tag often attached to so many of the big names in the laser hair removal industry. However, after speaking with a former colleague of mine, I was reunited with the marvels of Groupon. I love a good bargain, and couldn't believe how cheap some of the offers were on here. In the end, I booked a six course treatment for little under £100 at Miss Couture in the Jewellery Quarter, Birmingham (which is amazing if you compare this to the likes of the Harley Medical Group or Sk:n). I didn't expect luxury and must admit, I was quite apprehensive on my first visit, but I can assure you; the end result is just as good as any other. The clinic itself was just like any other beauty parlour, and offered a whole host of treatments including botox, waxing, facials and so forth. The staff are extremely friendly and instantly put any doubts to the back of my mind. 

The treatment itself takes five to sixty minutes (depending on what area you are treating) and overall is fairly painless. Obliviously there are various discloser forms to sign beforehand and precautions you have to take, but apart from that, it is similar to going for a wax. Since attending Miss Couture laser clinic, I have noticed a significant difference as the weeks have progressed. The hair is almost non existent and ingrowing hairs are now longer a concern for me. If you are reading this and want to find out more, then why not have a look for yourself. The website has just been revamped and offers courses from as little as £300. Click here to find out more.

Have you ever had laser hair removal? What are your thoughts on the procedure?

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The Body Shop Haul

As promised, here is my Body Shop haul including those goody bag goodies I picked up from the Birmingham Blogger event last week. First off in my goody bag was this clever little Starbucks reusable mug, which offers 25p off any future Starbucks drink. I don't really go to Starbucks that often but I am sure this will come in handy for when I do! Along with this we got this delicious bag of popcorn, a Christmas lollipop and some mini Christmas edition body butters. The final little gift from The Body Shop was this Body Shop card which I still need to claim in store (I could be in with the chance of winning £100 off any products of my choice).

As it was 50% off everything in store, I couldn't resist picking up a few treats of my own - it would have been rude not to! After receiving a mini makeover during the event, I just had to get my hands on this amazing bronzer/highlighting kit (see below) which was only £7. I hadn't tried any of The Body Shops make-up prior to the event but I have been promised many great things Along with this bronzer/highlighter, I also picked up one of their matt primers, which again at half price only cost me £8. I usually use the Benefit primer but there is a huge difference in price as you can imagine. Finally, I decided to pick up some of the Hemp hand cream as part of one of my Christmas gifts, a lovely strawberry scented body set and some of their delicious Christmas Glazed apple products. I think the damage was £34 in total which isn't too bad considering how much I could have spent and how much some of the other blogger girls did spend! I am definitely going to be visiting  The Body Shop more often now, especially as I am more familiar with their product ranges and what suits my skin type. Again, I want to thank Abbigayle and the other girls for making this such a wonderful event. Tasty nibbles, bucks fizz and lots of pampering - what more could a girl ask for?

My Body Shop goody bag courtesy of The Body Shop

The amazing bronzer/highlighting kit

Do you shop at The Body Shop? What are your favourite products?

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Birmingham Blogger Haul

Following on from my previous post, I thought it would only be right to do a blogger haul of all the amazing goodies I received on the day of the Birmingham FABB blogger event. I can only say a huge thank you to all the wonderful brands who turned up to the event for all their hard work and contributions. It was such a brilliant day and I met some lovely people!

So to start the day off, we were all given a pink goody bag as we signed in downstairs which contained some amazing samples from some very well known brands. This was followed by a whole range of other goodies as we wandered around and mingled with all the different brands. This included a goody bag from Me Me Me cosmetics who gave us some amazing full sized products including a mascara, some of their gorgeous bronzing balls, eye-liner and foundation. I haven't actually tried any of the make-up yet but it looks amazing. A real up and coming makeup brand, I think Me Me Me cosmetics have a lot of potential. Along with this, for those of us who went and spoke to the other brands, we got given some full sized products from Anovia, another up and coming brand who sell some affordable but amazing beauty products in your local drug stores. Most of their products in fact are priced at only £1 which is unreal. I have been using their shampoo just lately and I must say I am very impressed. It not only smells divine, (something one of the creators of Anovia couldn't help but mention at the event), it also contains keratin, an ingredient that every hairdresser seems to be talking about just lately. 

During my mingling, I also managed to catch up with the creators of Bee Good, a brand I was already familiar with from the last blogger event. I also got my hands on one of Bodhi and Birch's amazing shower gels after testing about 10 different scents on my hand. I cant wait to use this, and just look at the cute little travel bag that came with it (below)!

Just some of the amazing goodies from the FABB Birmingham event including Skinnyboo tea, NKD skin fake tan, Benefit Porefessional and some luxury hair masques

Anovia spoilt us with their full sized treats including this BB Cream

I love the smell of the Bodhi & Birch shower gel

Not forgetting the amazing full sized Me Me Me cosmetics which we all got given

I really wasn't expecting the sheer amount of products we were kindly given on the day - there is just so many to talk about. On that note, if you do want a full review on any of the products listed in this post, then please let me know. I think Me Me Me cosmetics is a must once I have got round to sampling all of the products.

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Fabb Birmingham Blogger Event

A couple of weeks ago I was fortunate enough to hear about and grab myself a ticket for the amazing #FABBBirmingham event which took place at the Custard Factory in Digbeth. For those of you who are not familiar with Birmingham, the Custard Factory is one of Birmingham's treasures as I like to call it. It's located just outside of the city centre and hosts a whole load of quirky shops and underground raves. I love it and knew I would be in for a treat from the offset.

To say we were given no information prior to the event only added to the excitement. Would there be food, drink? Unfortunately there was no food and drink on offer which left me feeling a little bit nauseous I must say as I walked around trying to disclose my passing hangover. What there was however were a whole bunch of bloggers and many exciting brands. I don't think the day could have gone any better. This was my second ever blogger event and I was thoroughly impressed. The last event I went along to was organised by a Birmingham based blogger so I cant really compare in terms of content. Not only were we inundated with freebies on the day, we also got the chance to get our hair styled by Toni and Guy and speak to some amazing up and coming brands. There was clearly a lot of effort put in to this event and it really paid off. 

FABB Events host blogger events all across the country in fact, so I will definitely be checking to see if they have any more coming up in the near future. One thing is for sure, we certainly need more events like this in the West Midlands. There is so much potential for brands to mingle with like-minded bloggers and hopefully they will start to see this now. 

One of my highlights from the day has to be meeting the lovely Lauren over at Shy Nature.  We had a right old giggle and she even managed to get secure some work with Style Edit, one of the brands who were sponsoring the event. Unfortunately I don't have enough followers on Instagram at the moment to work with them, but this has only made me want to strive for more. 5000 Instagramfollowers - lets make this happen! Instagram is definitely something that needs to be pushed so if you do have 5 minutes to spare, I would love for you to check out what I have been up to lately on my profile (expect lots more blogging photos). Along with meeting the lovely Lauren, I also met up with some of the other girls from the previous Birmingham blogger event. This included the adorable Rebecca over at Dash of Cheeky, the gorgeous Emma at Emma Victoria Stokes, and not forgetting the wonderful Elena at Lenny Loves Life. It was nice to actually see some familiar faces this time rather than walk around looking a bit lost. 

So there you have it, my second blogger event and what a great day it was. I can't wait to see what the next one has in store. Hopefully I wont have to wait too long!

Have you been to any blogger events lately? What do you think about this FABB event?

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Eyebrow Envy

There is no denying the impact eyebrows have had on the beauty industry over the past year or so. I certainly have eyebrow envy a lot of the time when I'm out and about. Gone are the days when it seemed the thinner the better. Big eyebrows are in and I am always on the lookout for ways to make mine more defined. I stopped threading my eyebrows about two years ago now and have tried to grow them back as best as I could. I like my eyebrows to a certain degree but I do feel naked now without any eyebrow definer on. I can't seem to grow them back to their full thickness, probably because of all the plucking and threading over the years. Thankfully there are hundreds of products on the market now to fix this.

I must say, I have tried my fair few eyebrow definers over the last couple of years and in this post I am going to talk you through a few of my personal favourites.

First off is this Mac crayon. I have mentioned this in one of my previous beauty posts here as it is truly amazing. However, it doesn't last that long if you are using it everyday and therefore not the best value for money. In terms of coverage there are a range of shades to choose from and it is very long wearing. There is certainly no need to touch up your eyebrows throughout the day, the crayon is both sweat and waterproof resistant. If you haven't already tried this product then I would 100% recommend it. Possibly my favourite eyebrow product on the market at the moment.

I would give this product a 9/10.

Secondly is this fairly new product by Benefit called 'Gimme Brow'. After a Benefit makeover in store quite recently I was reluctant to part with £17.50. However, of course I caved in and went back last week to pick one up from store. I have only been using this product a few days but I must say it's as amazing as I remember it to be during my makeover. A wand applicator, it is recommended that you apply this product backwards through your brows for ultimate definition. I am not to sure how long it's going to last me but it's definitely one of the better products on the market at the moment. It's very natural looking and again is long wearing. You can always rely on Benefit to bring you some of the best beauty products on the market to date.

I would give this product an 8/10.

Thirdly is this Rimmel eyebrow pencil. I am not too keen on this product but it's cheap and good for those days when you aren't going anywhere special but still require a bit of eyebrow coverage. Another great thing about this product is that it's very long lasting. I have this one for over a year now and even though I don't use it everyday it is still going strong. A word of advice, there aren't many shades in this product compared to the Mac definer for example, so make sure you test this beforehand to make sure you get the closest shade to suit your eyebrows.

I would give this product a 7/10.

Finally we have this eyebrow palette by ELF cosmetics. Again a different format to the other products in this post, this eyebrow definer comes with both a gel and powder section. I think this may be the cheapest eyebrow definer out of those featured in the post. I ordered this Ebay and I can't say I am overly impressed. I find this product quite difficult to use on my eyebrows for some reason and won't be purchasing it again. The gel which is used to shape your eyebrows rubs off quite easily, whereas the powder which is used to fill in your eyebrows is fairly light. Obviously you can see a difference but it's not a quick process like the Mac crayon which is so easy to use.

What is your favourite eyebrow definer on the market? Do you have any recommendations?

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Cleansing water vs cleansing and toning

Cleansing water appears to be a life saver these days but is it really as good as people make out? I love cleansing my face and know too well how important it is to do so after wearing make-up. I also love Garnier and have been using their cleansing and toning products for a very long time now. It 's no surprise then that I recently jumped on the bandwagon and bought their cleansing water too. 

In terms of cleansing my face and getting rid of any excess make-up I don't think this product is as good as the classic cleansing and toning routine I have adhered to for years. The main reason for this being that the water itself isn't as powerful in terms of removing any excess make-up or dirt from the skin. My skin doesn't feel like it has been cleansed either which is something I look for in a product. After cleansing and toning, my skin looks much cleaner and also feels much tighter and smoother too. Unlike the cleansing water, my cleanser and toner also help to control my spots too.

Even though this cleansing water was brilliant value for money - only £3.99 from Boots for this huge bottle - I don't think I will be repurchasing. Obviously it works to a certain degree but I much prefer the classic cleansing and toning routine that has been around for years. It works much more effectively (for me anyway) and isn't as expensive as some of the cleansing waters on the market at the moment. Obviously this is only one cleansing water which has been tried and tested so by no means does this apply to cleansing waters as a whole.

What experiences do you have using cleansing water?

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