Review: Aussie Miracle Hair Insurance

Aussie Miracle Hair Insurance - £4.99 (currently 3 for £10), Boots

I'm a huge Aussie fan; the products smell amazing, the packaging is pretty damn funny and it's nearly always on 3 for £10. That's just the start. 

I've got a few Aussie bits I plan to review but first up is Miracle Hair Insurance - a leave in conditioner aimed at protecting hair from every day wear and tear and leaving it tangle-free when things get a bit wild. 

The smell of this is absolutely gorgeous, it's just the freshest, fruitiest scent ever. I can't pinpoint it because I've never known anything similar but just trust me on this one, folks, it's fabulous.

Superficial details aside, you're all here to know if it does the job. This really does detangle and soften my hair, and I truly believe it helps my hair through the stress I put it under with it being long, usually not tied up and super knot-prone. I find it good for taming down frizz too, just a quick spritz before you brush it through and it smooths your lion mane instantly. 

I spray this onto my hair after washing and conditioning as usual and have a quick tidy up with my Tangle Teezer before leaving the ingredients to do their job - I never use heat on my hair but you can go right ahead and style as usual if you do, though their Luscious Long version aimed at heat styling might be a wiser choice for you. 

Overall, it's love. I'd definitely repurchase this stuff as it's cheap, smells divine and seems to be doing the job just fine. I'm still a complete hair oil addict and tend to add some over the top of this when I fancy an extra boost, so this should slot in with your current holy grail hair bits with no problem.

Have you tried this? What do you think of Aussie?

Fashion Fancies: Topshop

With the exception of a couple of competition entries back in March I haven't done any wishlists in ages, despite them being a weekly feature back in the day. So here you go, a new 'Fashion Fancies' feature. If that wasn't alliteration, I don't what is. Here's a hopefully snappy lowdown:

- Ponte treggings sound like a recipe for disaster with thighs and hips like mine but hey - they're black, they're fitted and they're high-waisted so I'm all over them.

- Similarly it might take 8 pairs of Spanx to get me looking decent in a tube skirt but if I want to expose myself indecently then I'll go ahead. It's a gorgeous skirt though, isn't it?

- The bouquet print mini skirt with the snazzy little zips was just too cute, I fell in love. Maybe a smidgen too short but, as we all know, pretty florals right all wrongs in a garment.

- Socks with lace trim are just calling to me everywhere I go lately and I think they'd look really sweet over tights peeking over the top of my trusty desert boots or even with dolly shoes for a quirky little bit of foot wear. Plus Topshop's 3 for £8 offer is pretty damn good (but I'd have a look at Primark first, wink wink.)

- Cute shorts are a no brainer as, despite the damning that the fashion moguls give it, the tights and shorts combo is always a winner in my eyes. £28 is steep but I've been impressed with what I've seen of Topshop's denim quality.

- Staying on the summery theme, cat eye sunglasses need to walk into my life this summer because they are just divine (and I can't master the eyeliner so I need a feline alternative.)

- Lastly, HOW GORGEOUS IS THIS BAG. I keep seeing the lovely orange version on Instagram but this adorable soft blue had me straight away, beautiful. Plus it's mini and all mini versions of things are cute. Obviously.

What's taking your fancy at Topshop?

"You're not Going to Uni?!"

I'm now coming towards the final stretch of my A Levels and by the end of June I'll no longer be an A Level student. For the past 6 months I've been swept up in the whirlwind that is university applications with all of my peers - writing personal statements, going to open events, anxiously awaiting replies from my 'dream' courses. The offers rolled in, I got all 5. But one day I found myself staring at UCAS Track with a horrible feeling in my stomach as I tried to figure out which offers to decline.

'That's natural' everyone said, 'You're bound to be unsure of which to pick.' But that wasn't it. I wasn't struggling over which university to pick; I was struggling with the sudden realisation that the niggle at the back of mind for the past 6 months wasn't nerves or excitement. It was regret - I didn't want to go to university. I don't want to go to university.

I know, it's hardly the event of the century, but I've been ushered through nearly 14 years of education now with the goal being that I'd go to university. That's just what you do. So what happens when that's not what you want to do?

I did what any sane, right-minded person would do. I freaked out. Then I made pros and cons lists - one for uni, one for...well, not uni. The lists pretty much made the decision for me, so I put my future in the hands of a Tesco Value jotter pad and withdrew my entire UCAS application. Then stayed up until 3:30am researching alternatives to university and eating sprouts straight out of the steamer.

The point of this post is to say that you don't have to follow the crowd if that's not what's right for you. After revealing my new plans to a few people at college, some of them found they needed a rethink about their futures too - whether it was wondering whether the law career their parents picked out for them at birth was really what they wanted or reconsidering their decision to do dentistry when all they'd ever wanted to do was ballet. (Note: I completely made both of those situations up, don't quit school to become a dancer on my behalf.)

It's ok to be terrified of the next step, that doesn't mean it's not the step for you, but if that fear is more 'Oh sh*t what have I done' than 'Oh God this is huge', step back and really think about your decisions. If you need any help I've found websites like Not Going To Uni and GoThinkBig massively useful, without those resources I'd be too busy weeping into a university prospectus to write this post.

Now I'm looking towards September with a massive sense of uncertainty, preparing to take a leap into the unknown. Jobs, apprenticeships, internships - who knows what's about to happen for me. All I know is that this feeling of being unsure is completely outweighed by an enormous sense of relief - I'm doing what's right for me. Not my tutors, my family or my friends. Me.

Review: L'Oreal Elvive Triple Resist Masque

The veteran readers amongst you might remember this review of one of L'Oreal's other masks (which is still fantastic and still available, should it take your fancy), and just like that little pot of joy all those months ago - this mask is impressive.

Targeted at hair that breaks and falls out and offering the benefits of reinforcing serum, the Triple Resist range boasts a shampoo, conditioner, intensive conditioner, mask and leave in treatment. It's no secret that I'm addicted to oils and deep conditioners so this weekly mask was the go to product for me. Amongst friends and family it's no secret that I constantly molt and leave hairs EVERYWHERE I've been either...

After one use the lengths of my hair felt stronger and smoother and my Tangle Teezer wasn't needing 'emptying' every 2 seconds. The ends were also sealed like with most products of this kind and as someone with long hair and an aversion to scissors, this was welcome. 

My hair was silky soft afterwards and SO bloody shiny. Seriously it was like a glorious brunette mirror hanging round my shoulders. 

If you've bleached the living daylights out of your hair, this won't be the answer to your prayers. BUT it will provide short term solutions to damaged ends whilst strengthening the hair, thus guarding against breakage and fall out. The widespread hunt for longer locks that many of us beauty bloggers are on means that this product needs more recognition than it gets.

£5.20 in major high street stockists is a pretty good deal, but I picked mine up for around £3 in my local Bodycare so have a sniff around before you loosen those purse strings ladies.

Are you a fan of hair masks and deep conditioners? What hair saviors do you swear by?