30 May 2011

'To GlossyBox or Not To GlossyBox' - that is the question . . .

Hello Followers,

Over the past few weeks, you have more than likely seen a mass of 'GlossyBox' reviews either on youtube or various blogs. However if you are not familiar with a GlossyBox, check it out here (if you are an American follower, it is similar, if not the same as the BirchBox). Anyway, the point of this blog post is really to express my opinions and thoughts about the box, as currently am I not convinced! You're probably thinking ''OMG what is wrong with her?'', well I will explain here why I have decided not to follow the crowd . . . 

Each month I believe, the GlossyBox will contain luxury products from high end brands which you can sample from the comfort of your own home. This box costs GBP £10 a month, and is on a subscription rolling basis, until you decide to cancel. Now when I first heard about it, I thought it was absolutely amazing; receiving a box of products every month to your front door, what more can a girl want, until I decided to have a proper think about it and discuss it with family and friends. Make up and beauty products from my experience, require an ample amount of time in order to really decide whether this product works for me and doesn't upset my skin. For many years, I have suffered with acne/spot prone blemished skin, which I have only just managed to get settled using Liz Earle products (click here and here to read my reviews). Not only that my skin is incredibly sensitive, and with anything that is in its slightest bit harsh, guaranteed I get the reaction, which lets be honest girls is not pretty or fun. The thought of receiving a box full of sample products no longer sounds so appealing after all, taking my skin history into consideration. 

Another issue that dawned on me was my skin complexion. I am black British with parents who are from the Caribbean, therefore I have a dark skin tone. From what I have seen in the first GlossyBox, 2 make up products were included; NARS Orgasm Illuminator 'Peachy Pink with shimmer' and All for Eve lipstick. Although the NARS product states that it is for all skin types, how could I guarantee that the shade included in the box would actually suit my skin tone? Same with the lipstick, it's a bright, bold red shade that states it will suit most skin tones. There is uncertainty within that statement that it won't suit all. From those short acknowledgements of skin tones, there is no guarantee, for me personally, that the make up provided in the box will suit me or agree with my skin. The thought of trying various products on my face just screams ''acne/spot army invasion'' for me!!

The GlossyBox I feel is a wonderful idea, giving ladies across the country the opportunity of sampling products, before purchasing the full size of a product. However my only problem with it is not all the products provided will suit or agree with everybody, which for the cost of £10 a month is not cost effective, but a waste of money. However if GlossyBox were to give customers the option of being able to select products that will suit them, then I may change my mind and subscribe. But for the time being, I think I will stick to being a 'back seat' passenger, and occasionally peek to the front to see what is happening . . . 
https://sterkeapotheek.nl/generieke-cialis/
So what do you think? Is the GlossyBox a fabulous idea? or are you like me, not really buying into it due to your skin type/complexion? I would love to hear your opinions on the matter.

28 May 2011

Attention Viewers. . . . . .

Hello All,


Today I spent the day revamping my blog (hope you like it so far), and I am trying my hardest to get my blog more friendly and abit more hair and beauty-like . Whilst faffing with various bits of my blog, I seem to have lost the 'followers' box with my current subscribers, and the button that allows new followers to subscribe to my blog. I am not sure whether it is just my blog or whether it's a blogger issue, as I have visited a few other blogs, and the same problem seems to have happened to those blogs too.

I just wanted to say that I am not deliberately ignoring anyone by preventing people from subscribing or anything like that, it is simply an issue which I hope blogger are currently working on to correct.

If you are a new viewer who would like to subscribe to my blog but can't due to a technical fault beyond my control, then please comment below with your name and blog, and I will let you know when the issue has been fixed. Or feel free to join my twitter, where the link is on the right hand side, and I will do regular updates to inform you when the issue has been resolved.


Hope you are all well,


EDIT 1 (27/05/2011):


At last, well sort of, I managed to get the 'nav bar' back at the top of my blog. So viewers are NOW able to subscribe and follow my blog. However the 'followers' box on the R side is still unavailable, which I understand is a Blogger issue according to this source! Hopefully blogger fix the issue soon.


EDIT 2 (30/05/2011):


Just a quick note to say all is now working; the followers box on the R side is back and the nav bar is back. So if you were trying to subscribe, but were unable to, you can now subscribe :).

25 May 2011

Ding Ding . . . fancy 10% off well known beauty and make up brands?



Ladies (and gents),

Fancy bagging yourself a cool 10% off beauty and make up brands? House of Fraser have just launched their 2 day brand event, with lots of fabulous bargains to be had from this wonderful department store. 

If you're not really keen on beauty and make up products, why not try and bag yourself some cool savings on clothes, shoes, handbags here.


So don't just sit there . . . get bargain hunting . . . 


Please note:


I am not affiliated with House of Fraser, nor am I being paid to write about this offer. I am blogging about this sale to inform my followers.

Oil do I hear you say . . .?



As mentioned in my previous hair posts here and here, apart from the products used during my hair care routine, I use nothing else but Amla oil on my scalp to help my hair grow, and keep it healthy and shiny. However it has come to my attention that Moroccan oil (which I'd never heard of) can also be beneficial to hair.

The lovely 'Mischief and Makeup' has tweeted and blogged about Moroccan oil, stating its benefits of strengething, conditioning (and get this ladies), reducing the drying time of your hair! Now if you're like me who has a lot of hair and it takes ages to dry (20-25mins with a hair dryer *facepalm* lol), then this oil is worth a try. I myself am yet to try it (currently waiting for payday to come around), but I have no doubt that it's a fabulous oil and it does what it sets out to achieve. 

If you're interested in purchasing this oil or finding out more, then check out 'Mischief and Makeups' blog and 'Moroccan Oil'. Both very reliable and informative sources.




 PS: 'Mischief and Makeup' also has twitter - go check her out here.


Please Note:

I am not affiliated with Moroccan oil nor being paid by 'Mischief and Makeup' to write this blog post. This is purely written based on my own thoughts and opinion.

24 May 2011

And she does it again . . .

 . . .Who am I referring to? Yep, Duchess of Cambridge, Catherine Middleton. 

Today the newly-weds the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge met with The Obamas, who are currently in London on an official state visit. Glowing with her tan from her honeymoon in the Seychelles, Catherine looked absolutely stunning yet again, wearing a high street dress from Reiss.


The dress is £175 and also comes in a navy blue. But if you're like me and checked to see if it was still in stock, you'll be greeted with the 'out of stock' message. The dress sold out online, within minutes of Catherine being photographed wearing it. Although I am not sure what stock is like in stores, but I can imagine, it is either 'out of stock' or very low in stock.

So what do you think? Stunning or not to your taste?

21 May 2011

Look what arrived this morning . . .

. . . Yep, my dress from Dressespro! 

Now if you have read my previous blog post regarding this company, you may know that last week (14th May) was my event date and I did not get my dress. This resulted in me hitting the high street in a state of panic trying to find a dress, shoes and handbag at the last minute. Now 6days later, my dress has turned up on my door step. I feel really disappointed because I had to spend extra money, which could have easily gone to something else (which I will blog about later in the year, if it gets the green light)!! After the courtesy call I received from Dressespro on Friday 13th May (spooky, I know lol), I thought my dress would have arrived on Monday 16th May like I was told. But nothing materialised yet again. So I just thought sod it, and took the attitude of ''when I receive it, I receive it'' which is the attitude Dressespro have in their responses to you via facebook/email/online chat. But hey ho, not to worry, my dress finally arrived and I will still review the dress so you are able to see the quality, style and finish of my dress. 

So the dress arrived in a typical courier packet, which I thought ''hmmmm ok this is a sign that the dress isn't packaged very well'', and blow and behold, I was right! I opened the packet, eagerly to see my dress, only to find it stuffed into a clear plastic bag with no receipt, in fact there was no acknowledgement to say it was from Dressespro or any information regarding returns. 


As you can imagine, poor packaging meant poor presentation of the product. When I took the dress out of the plastic bag, I was greeted with a dress, which if I am honest, I wasn't expecting. Ok I was expecting a dress, but in comparison to the dress advertised on Dressespro, it is in fact a copy of a designer and looked a lil cheap. I am not sure if it's because of the creases (it comes very wrinkled) and needs serious ironing/steaming, or the material. The dress I specifically chosen is actually by a designer called 'La Femme', and looking at the genuine dresses on their website, they are absolutely gorgeous. You can tell just by looking at the pictures, that they are of exquisite quality and well made. Before I had ordered I knew absolutely nothing about the dressespro dresses, I just assumed that they were exquisite dressmakers who custom make dresses to fit. How wrong was I!!



L Dressespro                                      R La Femme

As you can see the dresses are very alike, but not exactly the same. The first significant difference is the material, as previously mentioned. The material used for the dressespro dress is sateen, but I am not sure what material is used on the La Femme dress. But nevertheless, the dress seems to flow a lot better, and look classy. 
One thing I did like about the dress is dressespro have added an elasticated band, similar to that of a bra back and fastening. This has been stitched into the dress to keep you secure and to stop the dress from falling down. This I thought was a really good idea as it gives you that reassurance that your dress will stay in place, and you won't have to spend most of the event lifting, pulling and shuffling the dress into its right position. The dress also has 'cups', to provide support for the bust and is boned, to really give the dress/body definition.The dress is also fully lined with thin soft material.

 
{Elasticated strap stitched into the dress}
 

As the dress is custom made I was expecting it to fit like a glove. With anticipation, I slipped into the dress, got zipped up and hey presto it fitted. It's snug and fits well on the upper body. The only downside however is the hips; one side is bigger than the other, which is no big problem, as this can easily be altered. I did find however that the zip was a little stiff, which I think with little work will eventually become easier to zip up and down.

My overall experience with this company has been incredibly stressful, to say the least. The dresses on their website are stunning, but unfortunately they are not their own original dresses/designs. These dresses are taken from well known designers, for example Sherri Hill, Jovani, and dressespro have tried incredibly hard to replicate these dresses, which unfortunately from my experience, has not shone through. Processing and shipping time is a mixed bag; it took 7weeks to make the dress, but 3 days to ship the dress. 

Taking all the issues discussed into consideration, and its unreliability, I will not be ordering from dressespro again, but simply hitting the good ol high street!!


PLEASE NOTE:

I am not affiliated with Dressespro, nor am I being paid to do this review. The dress was purchased with my own money, and this review is based on my honest and genuine opinion/experiences.