Battling London's Hard Water with AreaH20

When I opened up the mountain of products; and yes it was a mountain, I received at the #Livebloggers event on the 11^th of Sept. I was super ecstatic to see that a AreaH20 Shampoo and Conditioner set had been included in the goodie bag especially after reading a review about the AreaH20 Set on Fleur the Force the day before and thinking I would how well that would work on my hair.

AreaH20 is a brand new haircare brand that tailors its product to the water type of the area you live in. London is a hard water area, but the further north you go the softer water gets. If you aren’t too sure about your water type for your area, there is a cute little map on the back of the packaging to help you out (so as long as you passed GCSE geography you are fine).

I am not going to lie. As Fleur’s review was not the most positive, I was shitting bricks (aka a bit apprehensive) because I have quite dry and fine hair and if all the moisture in my hair is stripped without being replaced my hair breaks like straw . . . .straw that has been left in the hot sun on a metal sheet in the middle of the desert (and yes I am slightly exaggerating with that metaphor but you get the idea) but I actually quite like this shampoo.

After shampooing my hair felt very light and squeaky clean and the conditioner works like a deep conditioning balm (and we all know how much I love my deep conditioning hair products). As I detangle my hair as I wash and condition it, I didn’t have a detangling problem and overall I think this did a good job.

The only thing I didn’t really like about this shampoo & conditioner set is its smell. I prefer my shampoos to smell sugary sweet and this has a very natural and cool scent; which would be great as a skincare fragrance, but I’m just not a huge fan.

Overall I actually think this did a better job on my natural chemically straighten afro hair than on my human hair extensions, but I’m going to wait a few more weeks before I subscribe to that train of thought. I think I would class the shampoo as being in between a good clarifying shampoo and a moisturising shampoo as it doesn't completely nourish hair or strip all the oils from it. I’m going to start using this on my natural hair as a replacement for my normal clarifying shampoo from Concoctions and see how that goes.

What do you think of this shampoo and its formulation to work with your area’s water? Is it another gimmick or something that would actually have a big improvement on your hair?

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Keziah Connections Event at Becca Cosmetics

An event about 'Beauty, Equality, Legacy' and Knowledge.

Keziah Connections is a monthly networking evening where entrepreneurial, enterprising, professional women of colour with a passion for beauty gather to share their expertise and experience to encourage and motivate. With Founder, Blogger and Host for the night, Natalie Clue (Beauty Pulse London) on hand all evening, introducing guests to each other and encouraging everyone to mingle, there was no doubt that the Keziah Connections debut event was going to be successful and meet its aim of nurturing and networking women of colour involved in the UK beauty industry

My main purpose for going to the Keziah Connections event (well apart from networking – I do love to network) was to show support for Hafsa from Muslimah Beauty who was giving a talk on her beauty blogging experience, how she got into blogging, her niche position in combining beauty with her Muslim belief & culture and how she combines this into her blog. Hafsa was absolutely FANTASTIC!!! She was clear, passionate, relateable and honestly I think she might just have a future in public speaking.

 ‘Getting into the Marketing Mix’ with Becca Cosmetics London, Marketing & Communications Coordinator Lara Odunsanya left the audience with a message that getting into the Beauty industry is more Passion and drive, over Book Knowledge. Talking briefly about her journey, Lara touched on her interest, the competitiveness and the rapid pace of the beauty industry, and also her views on internships.

She then gave a quick makeup demonstration of Becca Cosmetics on a guest, informing the audience of the key factors of Becca, its origins and how each product can be used to get a natural, dewy and even finish (Great for the days you don’t want to look like you are wearing an entire bucket worth of makeup).

 Lukwesa Burak was just amazing!!! Anchor for Sky World News and Founder of online haire care and beauty retail store Gidore (Home of products for Kinky, Curly and Multi-textured hair), Lukwesa is just amazing!!! I could probably gush about her all day about meeting her (and how I got gob-smacked and started stumbling over my words . . . (-_-) . . . typical) but what stood out for me was her knowledge and drive to create a portal and community for the knowledge of quality products, what certain ingredients do for your hair and relevant advice. Speaking on her personal struggle and frustration with trying to find products which were marked by brands as being able to work for curly hair but never lived up to their claims and promises, through Gidore she only supplies products which have been tried and tested. She also takes it one step further by putting up before and after pictures of customer who have used a certain product so it is easier for you to take their recommendation and judge for yourself whether a certain product is good for you or not.

She raised many good points throughout her talk, especially on the EU-certification of products, which I plan to do more research on and do a blog post as it is something I feel you should know.

Overall I had a great time, gorged on strawberries, met some wonderful people and with the recommendation of the Becca Staff, bought a new foundation and foundation brush which I can't wait to take pictures up of

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Does The Sky Look Pink To You?

 I don't normally do fashion or clothes posts but on the rare days I've managed to put together an ensemble that picture worthy, I'm sure as hell going to make a post about it.

I really just love the effect the sun and water play on these pictures . . . Living by a river sure has it's benefits sometimes

Denim Shirt Zara, Rose Chiffon Skirt Crafted, Grey Military Boots Office. 

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.RAW .MOV .DMU Exhibition at the Free Range

As these last few weeks have been all about fashion and the appreciation of fashion, I thought it would be a honour to inform you about the the RAW MOV DMU exhibition taking place at the Free Range on Brick Lane.

Each graduate artist's practice in photography is diverse and unique in every way that make each artist an individual.

Showcasing pieces in documentary, fine art, fashion and portraiture, all bring a unique and powerful vision

The showcase runs for 4 days and you can catch it on:-

Friday, the 22^nd  - 10:00 to 19:00

Saturday, the 23^rd  - 10:00 to 19:00

Sunday, the 24th - 10:00 to 19:00

Monday, the 25^th - 10:00 to 16:00

at

F Block

The Old Truman Brewery

91 – 95 Brick Lane

London

E1 6QL

It would be great if you could come down and give support to the industry’s newest talents.

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Nazila Nail Glitz in GB Rules

It’s not that I’m not patriotic or loyal to my country.

I’m very loyal to the fact I got two days off work to renovate my room, sleep and bully the Mr.

I’m just a bit tired of seeing tacky flags plastered all over the place . . . and don’t get me started on the cardboard cut out of the Queen I saw outside a pub on Liverpool street

*flipping creepy is what that is*

Despite my cringing every time I’ve seen something red, white and blue these 2 weeks, Nazila Love Glamour’s Nail Glitz in GB Rules is the only Jubilee themed products that has activated made my inner Golem voice 

 

Embellished with crystals, stars and a heart shaped UK flag. With 24 different nails sizes to choose, whether you decided to rock the entire set diva style or more subtly as a single decorative nail, these nails are guaranteed to make a right royal statement.

If I did decide to wear this today, I would expect to be treated on hand and foot because let’s face, with nails like these you deserve to be treated like a queen.

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Book Me In For Surgery at Surgery PR

A few weeks ago, Surgery PR invited me down to their office for a meet and greet with a big bunch of social media savvy people.

 It was great to see all their PR Clients products grouped in one room . . . and super tempting at the same time *as I saw a few shoes and bags that would look right at home in my room*. It got so bad that Joy and I started online shopping on our iPhones trying to find this absolutely gorgeous Aldo bag.

What I would give to own all these shoes!

Surgery are fronting some seriously gorgeous brands like Aldo, Baratts, Superdry, Dirty, Sexy Things to name a few. If they ever need to shift any stock . . I volunteer to take it off their hands!!!!

I claim this Bracelet in my mind

One of the bags that I spend all night iPhone shopping for

So sparkly!!!

New nailpolishes coming out 2012, so ladies and gentlemen keep an eye out 

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My Freaky Night out with Illamasqua Freak

*Ahem*

I have a confession to make . . . 

I am an Illamasqua Freak!!!!

Ok, forgive me for the pun-like opening but I seriously couldnt resist doing that. I have become a super huge fan of the Illamasqua brand ever since I tried their skin base foundation a little while back. Since then my collection of Illamasqua products just keeps growing. I mean I've hyped on about Illamasqua so much, I've even got my mum using Illamasqua as her foundation of choice (click here to see how Illamasqua skin base no. 17 looks on her).

Thursday Night, Illamasqua opened the doors of their flagship store in London to the general beauty public to launch their first fragrance  . . . Freak

Freak is an exotic and dark perfume that captures the magic of night-time by using exotic (and poisonous) flowers to create its scent and I can honestly say without a doubt that  . . .it definitely smelt . . .interesting loooool. I actually really liked the scent surprisingly, it smelt like a lighter version of Estee Lauder's Sensous Noir. Right now you can purchase this mysterious scent for £59 (75ml, Eau du Parfum) at the Illamasqua Flagship store just of Carnaby Street, on their website or in selected retailers like Selfridges when it is launched on their counters

I loved the event and actually had a lot of fun. Everything was so 'nightmare on elm street' gothic sprinkled with 'Tinker bell's fairy dust' that I was just amazed by every little touch. The wine served had food dye added to it to give it a darker bloodier colour (and it looked a bit too realistic that I chickened out and didn't give it a taste *I suffer from an over-active imagination*).

As they were doing a big discount on some of their stock and I have a huge shopping habit, I just couldn't leave empty handed. I mean eyeshadows had gone down from £15.50 to £5 . . . the mathematician in me calls this a SEXY DEAL!!! I went home with a lot of discounted Illamasqua goodies which will definitely keep a big goofy smile on my face for the next few weeks.

I picked up the Illamasqua:-

- Cream Eyeshadow in Malevolent

- Cream Eyeshadow in Debauch

- Cream Eyeshadow in Entangle

- Cream Eyeshadow in Linger

- Nail Varnish in Glory

- Nail Varnish in Fern

- Eyeliner pencil in Eerie (which is basically a black in regular English language)

I plan to post up a review and swatches on each of these eyeshadows at a later date, so keep you eyes peeled. 

I hate snails . . but I could see myself getting friendly with this one

Theatre of the Nameless Collection

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