Monday, 6 September 2010

Review: Schwarzkopf Country Colours

Yesterday I died my hair using Schwarzkopf Country Colours. It's a temporary colourant that can last 'up to 8 weeks'. I used shade no. 58 - Grand Caynon which is Red. I got if from Savers and as far as I can remember it was either £1.99 or £2.99. My box looked like this...


...but I think that's old packaging and the product now looks like this...


I use a lot of hair dye and in the past, my go-to for temporary colour is Boots' own brand but they stopped doing a red shade years ago. In fact, I spent a long time looking for a semi-permanent red in all of the high street stores and the only ones I found were over £5 which is a lot to spend on a DIY colour that, on my porous hair, will only last about 3 weeks.

The Kit
The gloves are old-school - like the ones you get at the petrol station. Many dyes now come with much better fitting gloves but this wasn't a problem.
The colour was orange in the bottle but as always, that's no indicator of how it will turn out - it was just a bit off-putting.
It comes with 22.5ml of conditioner which is a lot, but unfortunately it's in a tube with no way of resealing so you either have to use what you want and throw it away or keep it for later with the risk of spilling it everywhere.

The Process
This dye has to be applied to wet hair. Not after washing - you are just supposed to wet your hair before using this dye. This was strange to me since most hair dyes I use have to be applied to dry hair.

The instructions say processing time is between 20-30 minutes depending on how intense you want the results to be. This seems a lot for a semi-permanent dye.
My hair is just longer than shoulder-length and there was more than enough of the product to cover my hair. It advises using two boxes if your hair is below the shoulder but I think you would only need two if you have very long hair.

The Result
I left it on my hair for the full 30 because, in my experience, colours need longer to take to my hair and the result is indeed very intense considering I had brown hair to start with.
My hair feels amazingly soft but it's not very shiny.

I really liked this product and it would now be my first choice for semi-permanent dye. I liked that there was plenty of product because in the past with other brands, when I had longer hair, I'd have to spread the product really thin or buy two boxes.
The range of shades available is also great, as is the price. I'll be using this one again in the future.

Sunday, 5 September 2010

More Primark Bargains



More stuff from Primark:
Marvel T-Shirt - from the mens section. Originally purchased for my brother but I like it and he doesn't!!

Wayfarer rip-offs. Reduced to 50p and they matched my outfit - these are actually the first pair of white sunglasses I've bought this year. I also have these in black.

Flower hair slides. Recently I've been wearing my hair up and I wanted something to jazz it up a bit so these will be great for sticking in for a bit of flair.

I'll try not to post so much shopping. I just love buying stuff!

Thursday, 2 September 2010

Ikea Trip!! Shall I buy a Helmer?!

I went to Ikea yesterday with one of my House mates for this year! We were just browsing to get some ideas for decorating our house and went to the cafe too for some of the famous, yummy yummy, Swedish meatballs.




The best part of any Ikea trip - the meatballs and chips. Mmmmm.
With my Ikea family card, I got the meal for £1.50 - such a bargain. I don't know if it's a nationwide offer or just in Cardiff but it's available Monday to Friday 3-6pm.




I bought an absolutely deeelicious smelling candle. It's called a Tindra and I bought the medium sized one but you can also buy them as tealights or huge ones. 
This is the nicest smelling candle I've ever had the pleasure of sniffing! I was holding it up to my nose most of the way round the store. There are no flavour names, but the picture on the label was of a selection of berries. So next time you go to Ikea, pleeease give it a sniff!




And finally - the first Helmer I ever laid my eyes on! Every time we turned a corner, I was immediately scanning the area for the Helmers.
I've wanted one for ages to house my ever expanding nail polish collection but there's no room for it in my bedroom at home. I have a bigger bedroom in the house I'll be living in this year so I think it's inevitable I'll end up with one.
It's bigger than I was expecting and my polishes won't quite fill it up which is a good thing because I also need somewhere to store my similarly growing collection of make-up.

The only dilemma is, which colour shall I get? Red, White or Silver? It's a tricky decision since whichever one I get will clash with the colours in my room.

Have you tried Ikea meatballs? Do you love them as much as me or are they not for you?


Tuesday, 31 August 2010

Primark Buys

Tomorrow, I get the keys to the house that I'm sharing with my friends for the next year of University so I'm moving out for a bit. Since today was my last opportunity, I nicely asked my mum if we could go to Primark - only the best store in the world ever - because she buys me nice things and I'm always penniless throughout the school year. She didn't want to go but gave me her credit card to go and buy some new clothes, score! So, Broseph (that's brother) and I, set out to Bristol to go to the amaazing Primark store they have there.

I have a hard time spending money, even when it's not my own, I have no idea why - I just don't like spending large amounts of money. I could easily drop £40 on Nail Polish in a fortnight over 8 different occasions, but spending a big chunk at once doesn't come naturally to me - I'm sure there must be a psychological reason behind that but whatever.

So, I ended up buying:
a Cardigan, a T-shirt, a Mini Dress, two Skirts, a Pair of leather gloves, a Necklace and a Bag
I came away absolutely gutted that I had someone else's credit card and only bought 5 items of clothing. HOW?!

Anyway, here are the gloves and necklace

I saw these gloves here a while ago and NEEDED them from that instant. So when I spotted them today I knew they would end up in my basket.



I like to buy a new bag at least every term for school. This one's not very big so it may become obsolete within a few days of accumulating paper and books but in that case, it will also serve me well as an everyday bag!


What were your last Primark purchases?

Monday, 30 August 2010

I went to see it again!!

GAH! I just love this movie more than anything right now!
Scott Pilgrim vs. The World
I went to see it last Friday with some friends but since my brothers wanted to see it, I went with them today too!
Before this year I'd never once seen a film at the cinema more than once. This year, I saw Eclipse twice - because I kind of betrayed one of my friends and went to see it with someone else, so then had to go and see it with her - and now Scott Pilgrim.


This is one of my favourite bits from the movie!! 
Oh, and I ♥ Brandon Routh.


Saturday, 28 August 2010

Yum Yum, SOTM (Snack of the Month)

This month, I have been crazy in love with Pineapple and Grapes. Stick them in a bowl together and you've got a little taste of heaven!


I love eating this so much but preparing pineapple is such a PITA but it has to be done since the pineapple from a can doesn't even come close to fresh.

Yummmy!

What's your favourite fruit?

Friday, 27 August 2010

I give up! And my TOTW (Tune Of The Week)

Okay, I officially give up on the 30 day tag!
There are only a few days left and it's so hard to remember the last month, let alone the last year, in detail, plus I don't think it would be very interesting even if I could remember every detail.
So from here on, I will be posting anything random I feel like writing about but doesn't really belong on The Nailasaurus.

So today I went to see Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. I've been really psyched up to see this for nearly 3 months from when I first saw a trailer and it doesn't disappoint! It's funnier than I expected in a kind of dorky way and the action sequences are AMAZING.
But mainly I wanted to share an amazing song from the movie. It's originally by Metric, but the version featured in the film is slightly different with a different singer.
All the youtube videos I could find have embedding disabled so here is a link.

Have you seen Scott Pilgrim vs. The World? Did you like it?