The InstaWeek that was #2 and You Decide!

Happy Tuesday everyone! I hope you've all had a wonderful weekend and that you've recovered from the inevitably blue start to the week. It's time for a quick recap of what's on my Instagram this week and if you follow me you'll know that I show photos of products and other things that aren't published here on the blog, and if you're not already a follower - why not check it out! I also want to let you know that I'm introducing a new regular monthly feature, and I'll be reviewing a product that you have decided for me. It can be anything you want - skin care, makeup, perfume or even a very specific product e.g. Barry M Gelly Shine Polish in shade Dragonfruit (example only of course) that you have in mind as long as I can get hold of it here in the UK. Please let me know either in the comments section, on twitter, on Instagram or via e-mail what you would like me to review and your wish is my command - You Decide!

The InstaWeek that was:

Blueberry frangipani, you don't need any other excuse than that! // So excited to get my very first Cloud Nine straightener, and a review will be coming up soon // Looking for inspiration on a Sunday afternoon // OOTN - Dress from ASOS, and Necklace from New Look // Sun worshipping Cat // Friday night, return of Him Indoors from another trip to Italy, celebrated with some Italian goodies and a goodie bag // Content of goodie bag // Most loved this week: Soap & Glory Breakfast Scrub, Caudalie Divine Oil, Roberto Cavalli Exotica EdT, YSL Gloss Volupte and Lush Bunch of Carrots bubble bars // Soap & Glory A Great Kisser lip balm in Juicy Peach 

Highlights this week:

- Him Indoors coming back from his travel and spending a lovely weekend before jetting off again.

- A brilliant Saturday with some shopping, stuffing ourselves silly on the best burgers ever (even for veggies like myself) at Gourmet Burger Kitchen and watching Captain America The Winter Soldier

- Dior launch event of Dior Fluid Stick - review coming up tomorow!

I wish you all a wonderful day! Xx

Manic.Monday: Ciaté's Tweed is anything but twee...

I know I've been raving about how much I've embraced the pastel trend this year, and it's true I've loved wearing pastels both in my makeup and my clothes. But it isn't the only trend this season and I thought I would break up the pastel bonanza with a simple but chic homage to the monochrome. It may be a paradox but as much as I love color, my favorite color is actually black which I guess is really an absence of color. To me black embodies the timeless, stylish and elegant and a monochrome look is all of those things. But there are many ways of doing monochrome and today's look also has an element of the whimsical to it. As a nail polish fiend I closely follow the latest launches from the Big Brands and Ciaté is undeniably one of them, and their fabulous Tweed Collection inspired by iconic fashions houses in Paris was very difficult to resist - so difficult that I just decided not to even try. The collection has six polishes with different effects and colors ranging from textured confetti looks to glitter. Ciaté's Brocade Parade (£9) is a glitter polish with an irresistible mix of matte silver, black, grey and white speckles to imitate a classic tweed look.

When you see the glitter polish in the bottle it look so rich with particles that you can wear it on it's own - and that's how I tried it the first time I wore it, but after four coats (!) it still didn't look right and although it may not be intended as a top coat, but for me that's really how it  comes into its own and in the photos I wear two coats of Brocade Parade on top of Maybelline Color Show Nail Polish (£2.99) in Blackout. The texture is nice and easy to work with, and not in any way gloopy as many glitter polishes can be and you get a good amount of product on the brush to get an interesting distribution of the particles over the nail. You should experiment to see how many coats you prefer for your look, but two or three coats for me is just right to show of the contrasting particles but if you prefer to wear even more you'll be pleased to know that the polish dries very quickly. I can't actually say how long this wears when you wear it on its own, however as a top coat it'll easily last about four days and should you get chipping, you can quickly correct that and the whimsical pattern will hide any touch ups you've made.

Many of us love glitter polishes, but the big question which sometimes decides whether we'll buy a polish or not is - how difficult is it to remove? Well, when I used Brocade Parade on its own it was definitely difficult to take off, BUT as a top coat over whichever base shade you choose, it's much much easier which is another reason why I'll continue to use this as a top coat. I really like this look and I find it sleek and sophisticated but also fun, showing personality without being too outlandish and one thing's for certain this tweed is anything but twee...

Micellar water à la Caudalie

Micellar waters were all the rave last year, and I even did a Face Off between products from four different brands that I had tried, but since then the hype has died down a little bit. The concept of micellar waters is excellent and it's a quick and easy way to get rid of make up, although for me they have never actually replaced a more heavy duty cleanser, and I tend to only use micellar solutions in the morning for a quick and gentle cleanse or as a full face cleanser when I'm traveling. Although every self respecting brand now has their version of micellar water, I just don't get as excited about them anymore as I did in the beginning - at least that was until I tried the Caudalie Make-up Remover Cleansing Water (£14.25 for 200 ml). It comes in a practical plastic bottle with a handy dispenser to make sure you only get the amount you need and it has wonderful, clean, fresh and "green" scent that is really refreshing. As with all Caudalie products the cleansing water uses ingredients from grapes and vines which are well known for being rich in anti-ageing properties, but it also contains camomile - another ingredient that you often see used in skin care because of its cleansing, moisturising, soothing and healing properties.

So it's a sweet smelling product with wonderful skin care ingredients, but does it actually do anything? YES!!!! Despite being such a gentle cleanser, it's very effective and removing both eye makeup and face makeup. If you soak a cotton pad with the solution, leave it on your eyelids for a few seconds, it dissolves every trace of makeup and even the smokiest of looks will be wiped away gently without any need for tugging or rubbing of the eyelids. Don't worry if you should get a bit of cleansing water in your eyes, it doesn't sting or irritate in any way and since it's so gentle this product is great even for very sensitive skin. When you've wiped away all the makeup your skin will feel very clean, soothed and refreshed without any dry sensation. It's a lovely cleansing water and it feels so relaxing that sometimes I even leave two cotton pads soaked with it on my eyes while I'm enjoying a nice pampering bath to treat the delicate eye area. If like me you're a bit blasé over micellar solutions, try the Caudalie Make-up Remover Cleansing Water and be prepared to get wowed and excited over micellar waters all over again. 

Face Five Challenge

Last year I did a post that counted how many products I used every day (you can read it here), and at the time 11 out of the products I'd used that day were related to makeup. So when the lovely Lauren at Will Sing for Makeup tagged me to do this challenge which is about creating a full face look using only 5 items (how CRUEL is that) I had to think long and hard about what I was going to use, which wasn't easy since I had to follow these rules:

1. Use only 5 products to create a complete makeup look

2. Each different product counts as 1 product. Multipurpose products count as 1 product, such as Benetint, Bombshell the One Stick, Nars Multipurpose Stick. 
3. No palettes are allowed. No trios, quads or multi-shade palettes.
4. Tag Five others to complete the Face Five Challenge

The key to get through this TAG for me clearly was to find great multi purpose products, so let's have a look at what I came up with. First of all I quickly eliminated primers and makeup setting sprays and for a while I even toyed with the idea of not using a foundation since my skin has been behaving pretty well lately, however since I was asked to create a complete makeup look I guess foundation should be included. To make sure that I didn't need to use a concealer I needed a foundation with medium to full coverage and you probably won't be surprised to hear that I decided to go with my beloved YSL Forever Youth Liberator Foundation (£37). I love so many things about this foundation; that it gives super coverage and still feels so lovely and light on the skin, that it includes skin care elements that drip feed the skin throughout the day, the long wear and the subtle glow that it gives. Deciding on foundation was an easy choice, but after that it got a bit more tricky and I thought of all kinds of product combinations that would do what I needed - could I use mascara on my brows? would it work with using a lip chubby on my eyes?

In the end I thought I would play it more safe and to go for a natural look using browns and corals. On my eyes I went for a Bourjois Little Round Pot Eyeshadow (£6.99) in shade 16 Orange Epicew, which is a lovely golden cinnamon color, and I love how it brings out blue eyes. The Little Round Pots are wonderful eye shadows bases - they are soft and easy to work with and you can be creative with the intensity of color using them wet or dry. I used the Rimmel Soft Khol Kajal Eye Pencil (£2.99) to line both the upper lid and the waterline. I really like using a brighter color on the waterline for a lovely contrast, but if I were to stick with the multi purpose product approach I don't think that my eye brows would look good in green or purple so in stead I went for the shade 011 Sable. It's a lovely soft and blendable texture and it's long lasting, which is always a plus when you wear it on the waterline. Since it's so soft it worked surprisingly well on my eye brows, although the color is a bit darker than I would usually go for. Mascara is a must wear for me if I'm going for a complete makeup look and since this 5 product look would be fairly natural and subtle I applied the YSL Babydoll Mascara (£24.50) in Brown for wonderful long, volumized lashed. I really love this mascara and the brush is great for reaching every single little lash which creates a very full and wide eyed look. 

Now I only had 1 more product left to use, but this was another easy decision for me since the last product I had in mind is a true 2-in-1 product - Benefit's Cha Cha Tint Lip and Cheek Stain (£24.50). When I first got this little product I thought the color was stunning but I was a bit worried about applying it. It's a creamy liquid tint that you blend into your cheeks but if you just take your take time and use tiny amounts to build the color up until it's right for you, it's very easy to use. The shade is a beautiful coral shade that sets into a lovely matte finish and it's very long lasting. I would usually only wear this on my cheeks since I prefer to use a very moisturising lip product, and although the color is very pretty, and if feel light when you apply it the formula isn't hydrating enough for me to wear as a lippy on regular basis. 

This was fun but surprisingly hard to do and I really had to plan which products I would use. The learning point I guess is that you can actually get by with fewer products - but why would you to yourself when there are so many goodies waiting to be tried out! As usual everyone is welcome to join in and I'd also love to see what the following lovelies can come up with using only 5 products:

Anoushka from Anoushka Loves

Catherine from Catherine Loves

Laura from Petit Moi Big World

Sarah from MyBeautySleuth

Shubha from Blue Velvet Addict

Have a wonderful day everyone! Xx

Survival kit for insomniacs

The best beauty advise in the world is to make sure that you get enough sleep since not only do you rest and heal your body and mind when you sleep, but the skin regenerates and it's during the night that your skin is most recipient to treatments. Some people don't need a lot of sleep to still function properly, but I'm not one of those people and if I don't get my required 16 hrs of sleep (no wait... that's koalas...) I'm cranky, can't focus, feel almost hung over even though I haven't touched a drop of alcohol (honestly!) and I'm so peckish I could eat a cardboard box, if I don't have any yummy goodies at home. Getting back into a healthy sleeping pattern can be difficult and it takes time, but today I'll show you some products that have helped me through those horrible times of sleeplessness.

Some common advise when you find it difficult to fall asleep is to avoid tv, laptops, alcohol and food a few hrs before bedtime and to take a hot relaxing bath. For me it works best having a nice long soak with aromatic scents, and traditionally scents like lavender and camomile are supposed to work really well to relax you. Lately I've been using St. Grape Exotic Pink Bath Salts which are made from Himalayan salt. The bath salts have a lovely sweet, and light lavender scent with a menthol punch to it and the salts are wonderful for softening up your muscles and detoxing your body at the same time as they make the skin feel very soft and nourished, which is great since the last thing I want to do after a relaxing bath is to start moisturising.

Just in case I don't manage to get a lovely night's sleep I'll also apply the Gatineau Age Benefit Ultra-Regenerating Nigh Elixir (£90) that at least makes my skin look like it's rested. The formula is a very intense anti-ageing treatment for night use only that revitalises the skin by targeting fine lines and wrinkles. The texture is lovely and silky with a slight glowing tint to it and it has a lovely clean and fresh smell. You only need a small pump of the serum to cover your face, and when you wake up in the morning the skin looks smooth, radiant and energised as if you had had a really good night's sleep. When it's eventually time to go to bed to try and fall asleep I'll spray Avon's Planet Spa Sleep Serenity Pillow Mist (£1.30) which is an aromatic and light scent with camomile and lavender over the bed clothes and in the room to make the bedroom a nice, peaceful and relaxing space. I also use the Avon's Planet Spa Sleep Serenity Balm (£0.90) on my pulse points - so on my wrists, on my neck and on my temples, although the balm smells a lot less of lavender than the pillow mist and I mainly pick up on the very subtle and harmonious scent of camomile that should help to send me to the land of nod.

Hopefully the bath and the relaxing lavender and camomile scent is enough to help me relax and get a good few hrs sleep, however if in the morning I haven't managed to get what I need and I'm feeling and looking tired I'll use The Body Shop Elderflower Unperfumed Eye Gel (£7) on the eye area. It's a fabulous eye gel that cools and soothes the eye area, and the elderflower helps to get rid of the build up of fluids under the eyes that cause dark rings. I keep mine in the fridge to enhance that refreshing sensation when you apply it and within a few minutes you should see how the eyes look less puffy and those pesky dark circles starting to fade. The last must have product for insomniacs is Dermalogica's Total Eye Care (£37) which I've mentioned a few times before, but it's such a great product that it deserves to be mentioned often. It has a light consistency that hydrates and smoothes out the eye area and since it has a slight tint to it and light reflecting particles, it works like an under eye concealer, making you look much more bright, fresh and rested. What do you use to help you fall asleep and do you have any tips on how to at least fake 8 hrs sleep?

Eyeliner romance with Bourjois Liner Feutre

I have a thing about eyeliners or maybe it's more of a love/hate relationship. Out of all the amazing makeup looks you can create I absolutely adore a chic feline flick and wearing eyeliner is an easy way to subtly introduce some color without making too bold a statement. As much as I love eyeliners I am unfortunately not very good at applying them and even though I take my time and carefully plan the look, I rarely seem to get that perfect flick that others seem to master perfectly - and when I do manage to get it looking decent it's more out of luck than anything else. For that reason I prefer to use felt tip liners with as fine a tip as possible, so that I have as much control as possible of the amount of product that goes on, and also so that I can at least try and be precise with the shaping of the line. Another stumbling block in my relationship with eyeliners is that quite often I'll apply the eyeliner in the morning, think it's dried and set well and I'll get on with my day only to discover horrific black grey smudges in the crease of the eyelid throughout the day... does this sound familiar? By now I've tried quite a lot of eyeliners in the pursuit of feline flick happiness, and although my relationship with many of them has started out rosy and full of promise, they all usually turn sour at some point. That is at least up until now...

A few weeks ago I quite unexpectedly came across a new eyeliner - I wasn't really looking for something new since I was still recovering from my latest disappointment, but when I saw the Bourjois Liner Feutre (£6.99) it was lust at first sight. It's a felt tip liner in a very slim, sleek and handy format that will easily fit into even the smallest of clutch bags and it comes in 4 different colors; Black, Ultra Black, Noir Violine and Noir Moka. After some swatching I just couldn't say no to the beautiful and silky aubergine color of 12 Noir Violine and the velvety tawny copper shade of 14 Noir Moka.

The felt tip is very fine and so soft that you hardly need to apply any pressure at all to get a lovely even line in a single stroke, and for me to accomplish that is saying something. The eyeliner dries very quickly into a glossy and polished look with phenomenal pigmentation, but even better is the wear. It stays solidly as a rock in place exactly where you've applied it (so you had better get it right...) all day long without any smudging or creasing, and although it doesn't claim to be water resistant (it's probably too shy to brag about all its excellent qualities) you could probably even go swimming with it without it showing, and you'll need a gentle but effective eye makeup remover to take it off. Bourjois Liner Feutre and I just click, but then again what's not to like - the shades all have a gorgeous silky glossiness, it's so easy to apply with beautiful definition and it's lovely to wear. I know it's still early days for this budding romance, but I think I might finally have found true eyeliner love!

Be voluptuous with YSL Gloss Volupte

All we beauty junkies are really very lucky that there are so many many amazing products available on every beauty counter in every shop to tempt us, and I love trying them all. Saying that, I'm going to stick my neck out a little bit and say that regardless of price point, some brands simply do certain products better than others. When it comes to lip products, for me YSL is an incredible brand and every time I try a new product from the range, something magical happens and I seem to have found the Next Big Product that I just can't be without. I've never really been a fan of lip gloss and had you even mentioned lip gloss to me a year or so ago I would get horrible flashbacks to the cheap, sticky and plasticky goo that my hair would get stuck in but if any brand could convert me to a lip gloss fan - of course it would be YSL, and my latest obsession is the fabulous YSL Gloss Volupte Lip Gloss (£21) in the shade Golden (no 4). These come in 24 different shades and Golden is a beautiful French Rose pink, with a faint blue undertone and I would imagine that it would suit most skin tones really well. In the tube it looks like the finish would be quite glittery, however there isn't a single speck of glitter on the lips.

I have confessed previously that I do love beautiful packaging, even there's isnugh of course it's not the only important aspect of a product, so it won't be a surprise to you that I'm completely taken with the elegant and chic look of the gold, silver and a clear base so you can easily see the color of each gloss. I think that even the most "pretty packaging resistant" among us has to admit that it's a pretty sleek looking product. The formula is very smooth, lightweight, hydrating and completely without stickiness and after application, your lips will look plump, hydrated and exceptionally glossy. The lip gloss has a fruity scent and a slightly synthetic peach taste, but it's very subtle and not unpleasant or intrusive in any way and it does also becomes next to unnoticeable after a little while. If you thought that the heart shaped applicator to the YSL Glossy Stain was unusual, just wait until you see this one - it's a patented applicator with a squiggly shape (see a photo of it on my Instagram) which is quite firm but flexible enough to follow the shape of your lips with just the right amount of product to get a very precise contouring and an even, flawless finish. The pigmentation is excellent, and right after application you get a gorgeous glossy look, that sets into a very long lasting natural looking stain. There is a slight transfer from your lips when you eat and drink, however the stain remains -  almost perfect. Applying quite a generous amount of lip gloss in the morning, the finish lasted a bit longer than 6 hrs on me with several coffees and a few nibbles, which for me is an amazing result especially since my lips never felt or looked dehydrated.

I was a big fan of the YSL Glossy Stain and while it's still a great product that I love to wear, I LOVE the YSL Gloss Volupte even more. The silky high gloss finish, the hydrating properties and the wonderful long lasting wear have completely won me over, even turning me into a lip gloss lover and I can't recommend it enough. If you are going to follow the lip gloss trend this season and you are willing to invest in a super product - THIS is the one to get.

Avon's Gel Finish Nailwear + Winner of Sephora giveaway

I know it's not Monday today but I just couldn't wait until next Manic.Monday to tell you about these Gel Finish Nailwear from Avon (£7) so let's just focus on the Manic.ure bit, rather than what day of the week it is. I've never had a salon gel manicure done, but I've been a mahoosive fan of gel finishes ever since Barry M launched their amazing Gelly Hi-Shine effect range last year and by now we've seen other brands catching up with their own versions at different price points. The Gel Finish Nailwear is the latest nail polish release from Avon available as of April and it promises to give a high gloss gel like shine which is also supposed to strengthen the nails by up to 42% without any need for using a UV lamp, it has built in base and top coat and intense pigmentation in one coat. Since Avon is famous for their value for money products I was very excited to take this formula for a test drive. For being a new launch, the range of colors is very impressive - there are 24 different shades available ranging from bright, vibrant, sunny colors that just POP, darker and more sophisticated chic shades to everybody's favorite this season - pretty creamy candy colors, in short there's something for everyone! Since I'm all about pastels this year I decided to try the formula in the shades Sheer Love which is a very pale white petal pink, and Lavender Sky which is a beautiful pale mauve shade.

The formula has a good consistency, not too runny and not too thick, and with the averagely sized brush it's easy to get a good amount of product to try and minimise the amounts of brush strokes used. I have previously been quite skeptical towards formulas that claim to have a built in base and top coat, but after having used the amazing Sally Hansen Salon Manicure Formula, I was much less reluctant to try these polishes without any base coat, and I'm very pleased to say that neither of these shades stained my nails and they also lasted and wore really well after I'd applied them with a natural glossy finish. Personally I quite like my Gel effects to be super shiny, so even though there was no impact on wear I think I'll still apply a high shine top coat for that brilliant shine. So far so good, however there were some differences between the shades in terms of pigmentation. You may remember that Avon claims that one coat should be enough with this formula - well, that's definitely not the case with the shade Sheer Love. Admittedly it is a delicate pink, in fact it's almost a nude color however for a good streak free and opaque coverage I had to apply 3 coats of it, which is not at all what I would expect from a gel effect (especially not one priced at £7), even if the color is sheer and it's probably because of the amount of coats needed that this only lasted about 3 days before starting to chip. With Lavender Sky on the other hand it's a completely different story and you'll get a gorgeous, creamy and opaque look using only one coat with minimum brush strokes and it lasted flawlessly for almost 5 days. Sheer Love is without a doubt  a very pretty shade, but for me it just doesn't live up to my expectations of a gel polish. If I'm underwhelmed about Sheer Love, I'm exactly the opposite regarding Lavender Sky - the color is pure and simple beauty, the coverage phenomenal and it lasted quite a long time.

 

Since I have only tried two different shades of the Avon Gel Polishes, I don't want to go as far as to say that the overall quality is inconsistent, however if you do go for a sheer shade you should be prepared that you might need to use more than one coat for a lovely opaque finish. The Avon Gel Polishes will be priced at £7, but if you order now you can get them at 50% discount.

Before we finish today's post I am very happy to announce the winner of the giveaway of Sephora makeup products to celebrate that I had reached more than 100 000 pageviews. Thank you so SO much for all the entries, but unfortunately there could be only one winner this time around, and the lucky girl is Hayley Todd - congratulations Hayley and I really hope you'll enjoy the products! Have a great day everyone!

March on my mind

When I was preparing to write this little regular summary of the month, I really had to think long and hard about March and list what I've done and initially I didn't think I would be able to come up with a lot, but I have to say that March has actually been a fab month. Let's just cover the weather and get it out of the way, in the South of the UK we've been lucky to have had several sunny days with temperatures around the 20 Celsius mark, which is unbelievable for this time of year.

As you may know I love taking photos of  well... everything actually... (after all I am known as The Happy Snapper), and at the start of the month I had the privilege of getting some private tutoring from a professional photographer which was an amazing experience and I learned so much, not only about how to use my camera to take better photos, but it was also very inspiring, and I have a feeling that I'll become a real photography geek eventually. I have one more session with the photographer in April and now that I've had time to learn about all the manual settings, I'm ready to experiment with different effects, so hopefully you'll see some slightly different coming up soon on the blog. I also attended a lovely Jo Malone event with the launch of the London Rain Collection, 4 wonderful scents themed on the scents after a refreshing March or is it April shower, and needless to say perhaps I picked up some goodies for us, which are yet to be reviewed. For someone who hates flying I spend a surprising amount of time on aircrafts and since it was my Dad's birthday I plonked myself on another flight, to spend some time with my parents in Sweden and since we hadn't seen each other since Christmas it was well overdue. We had some lovely days together just chatting away the time, having some amazing food (of course...) and going out on little day trips to familiar places that I love but don't get to see very often anymore. When I came back to the UK, another big event this month came up - I had managed to get more than 100 000 pageviews on the blog, which is an incredible milestone to reach and again I'm so thankful to all of you for the wonderful support you've given me since I started this blogging adventure!

I'm a bit of a culture vulture at heart, and something I had been looking forward to since September last year (and I'm not exaggerating in any way) was to see the fantastic Matthew Bourne version of Swan Lake. It's a provocative, sensitive and humorous interpretation and we had a fantastic time - and I needn't have worried, Him Indoors was absolutely thrilled about the performance, and if you do get a chance to see it I would highly recommend it. I don't know about you  but I'm already looking forward to April - more photography tutoring, Easter and some other exciting events coming up that I'll of course share with you.

The Body Shop Rainforest Volumising Shampoo & Conditioner

As part of Operation Rapunzel, I have tested a lot of products the past 6 months to help my hair grow, to improve the quality and overall I am very happy with the results and along the journey I have discovered products that now have an honorable place among my staple items e.g. the Lee Stafford Hair Growth Treatment. So what's next in Operation Rapunzel? Well, while I may have a lot of hair, I would have also like to have that amazing lift and body that lasts all day long, so let the search for the perfect volume creating products begin! The first volumising products I've tried are from one of my favorites stores - The Body Shop. I've been a big fan of The Body Shop for as long as I can remember, and what initially attracted me to the brand many moons ago was their campaign Against Animal Testing, which is one of their core values that I deeply admire. Since then I've learned more about the other values: Support Community Fair Trade, Activate Self Esteem, Defend Human Rights and Protect The Planet, which all underpin the ethos Beauty With Heart: "Beauty is much more than a pretty face. It's about feeling good and doing good too". It's a wonderful mission statement which I completely agree with, and also think it's important to be reminded of, especially in the world of beauty blogs.

Let's look at the products, starting with the The Body Shop Rainforest Volumising Shampoo (£4.50) which is specially developed for fine hair, and the shampoo is supposed to boost the volume, making the hair looking shiny with lots of body. Neither the shampoo nor the conditioner contain any silicones, sulphates, parabens or colourants and it has a gorgeous fruity strawberry smell. However, I thought it was quite difficult to work up a good lather, which I quite like when I wash my hair which is also why I ended up using perhaps a bit more shampoo than I would normally use, and if like me you like a good bit of foam another way of doing it of course it to double wash. The shampoo gave a really good deep cleanse, but I felt that it was a bit harsh on my hair and it did feel just a tiny bit stripped of moisture afterwards so I loaded up on the The Body Shop Rainforest Volumising Conditioner (£4.50) and left it in for quite a while before rinsing. The conditioner is of quite a light consistency but it still has creaminess to it, but since I'm used to quite rich and heavy conditioners again I used a lot more of the conditioner than I usually would have done. This scent is also nice, although it's sharper than the shampoo and more on the herbal side. The conditioner did make my hair feel quite soft, although not nearly as restored and nourished as I would have liked, so I will only use these two products together every now and then, and I will probably replace the conditioner with a very hydrating masque. I usually let my hair towel dry before I style to minimise the strain on it, but after I'd used my BaByliss Pro Perfect Curl my hair felt light, volumised and with a nice light bounce to it, and I imagine that had I also used a blow dryer, the effect might have been even more noticeable.  

All in all, I've got mixed feelings about the Rainforest Volume range; the shampoo gives a superb cleanse and adds volume, although it doesn't lather enough and worse - it a bit harsh on my hair, and unfortunately the conditioner isn't rich or nourishing enough for me to be a great match with the shampoo. It seems like the hunt for a great volumising shampoo and conditioner continues, so which products would you recommend that I try to get lots of volume?

Beauty with Heart http://www.thebodyshop.co.uk/content/beauty-with-heart-infographic.aspx