Got a party to go to? Rushing from work? Then you need to watch this! day to night | how to | natural | office to party | party | red lips | tutorial | two looks | when flowers fall | whenflowersfall | youtube

As you all know, I attended the #northernbloggersxmasparty on Friday night. 

In this case, I was lucky that I don't work. But for some of the girls, they either has to book the day/afternoon off, or rush to get ready in between finishing work and the party starting. 

I had planned to film something different today, until I thought about creating this tutorial. 

I show you how to take a simple work look, and turn it into something a little more evening out appropriate, using only three extra items. 

Let me know what you all think of the new layout to my tutorials. 

I think I like it!

Evolve Gentle Cleansing Melt cleanser | cleansing melt | evolve | evolve organic beauty | leedsbloggermeetup2012 | natural | organic | review | when flowers fall | whenflowersfall

Hello, my lovelies! 

We were given a sample of this product at the #leedsbloggermeetup2012 and I'm always keen to try out new cleansers. I thought I'd really put this one to the test buy waiting until I had done a strong look tutorial over on my YouTube channel.

The instructions tell you so apply the gel to dry skin. As you can see in the photos, the gel completely melts away make-up, including mascara!! This has to be the first cleanser I have used that's removed mascara without me having to rub my eyes red raw.
After this step you can apply water, which turns the gel into a milky consistency. It's very creamy and perfect for dry skin. It certainly doesn't take much rinsing and wiping of the face to be completely clear of any make-up.

After using this cleanser, my skin was so soft and I cam incredibly impressed.

Due to the fact this cleanser is natural, soap free and ridiculously hydrating, this is the perfect cleanser for sensitive skin.

A full tub of this product retails for £13.99 and is available here.
This is the first product I have tried from Evolve Organic Beauty and I'm now dying to try some more.

I now swear by STEAMCREAM cute tins | gris gris | lavender | leedsbloggermeetup2012 | ltd edition | moisturisor | natural | review | steamcream | when flowers fall | whenflowersfall

Another #Leedsbloggermeetup2012 goody!

We were all lucky enough to receive a cute little sample of this wonder product in our goody bags, but I must of had a little extra luck that day because I won the first 'raffle' prize, being a full size tin! 

I'd heard of Steamcream before, but I had never tried it, so as you can imagine I was pretty excited.

When I got home, the first thing I did was take off my make-up and smother my face in this ridiculously gorgeous smelling cream.

To me the scent is lavender, which I adore. The moment I smell it, I feel instantly relaxed. 

The cream itself is smooth and rich, but thanks to the 'shot of steam' used in the ingredients, it is anything but heavy and the cream is absorbed by the skin super fast.

If you would like to see a full list of ingredients and why they use them, you can head over to the Steamcream website.

Steamcream can be used anywhere that needs it. So far I've only tried it on my face, but I can see myself using it on my knees also, as they're prone to dry skin. 

The other thing that really impressed me was the adorable tin the product is housed in. The tin I received is the ltd edition 'Gris-Gris', which is perfect for me, considering how much of a cat lady I am.

There is a huge selection of different designs and Steamcream are forever producing more and more. 

The current newbies are in collaboration with renowned make-up artists, and I must say that I feel the need to get all three. 

Each Steamcream tin retails at £12.95 and you can find a full list of stockists here.

What's your favourite tin design. Let me know in the comments. 

I want them all.

My Tan Testing Thursday - Make Believe colour | fake tan | false tan | holiday | leedsbloggermeetup2012 | looking | make believe | make believe beauty | natural | review | self tanner | skin | tan | when flowers fall | whenflowersfall

This is the second of two self tanner reviews, the first was posted yesterday. :) 

 On Thursday I went swimming with my girls and I figured it would be the perfect night to try out a couple of new self tanners. Last Saturday we were given a little treat from Make Believe in our goody bags. 

The product we received was the self tan lotion in zone 3. (RRP £24.50)

 During my little swimming sesh I snuck into the sauna to give my skin a bit of a treat. When I got home, I jumped in the bath and exfoliated like crazy. My skin felt amazing. I then proceeded to smother myself in various lotions and potions to try and achieve a cracking glow for this bank holiday weekend.

Make Believe  

I decided to use the make believe tan on my legs. I felt as it the lotion was white and had no colour guide, this was probably best. My legs are the hardest part of me to tan, purely because due to previous jobs, I have a lot of dry skin in this area. 

Just like the Xen-Tan I posted about yesterday, I made sure to moisturise any areas I felt the tanner may have clung to. This included my knees and around my ankle/heel areas.

The lotion itself seemed to take a long time to soak in. I felt very tacky for about an hour after applying it, meaning I was walking around my house pretty much half naked until I felt I was able to put on a pair of loose fitting pjs. Other than this, the application was easy, I just felt you have to be very careful not to apply too much product to one area, and to make sure that it's all rubbed in. Circular motions really help in getting a result with no streaks. 

The Make Believe Lotion also had an amazing tropical fragrance. Extremely fruity and very pleasant to work with. None of the burnt biscuit scent here!

As you can see in the photos above, again the tanner started to develop within the hour, and by the time morning came around I had a very nice tan.

Even though I did moisturise, I found the product still managed to cling to some stubborn dry areas. This was remedied pretty easily just by exfoliating those areas again whilst in the shower. 

Just like the Xen-Tan from yesterday, I'm incredibly happy with the result of this product. The colour is maybe not as strong as the Xen- Tan, but it definitely natural looking and I couldn't see any streaks. 

Like I said before, this lotion is a zone 3. The zones run from 1 to 5 and each zone includes different products for different skin types/outcomes.

If you want to find out which kind of Make Believe product/zone is right for you, you can check out their zone guide here. 

I'll be using every single drop of this bottle up, and I may even repurchase a zone 4, because you can't let the grey English clouds stop you from at least looking like you've been on an amazing holiday!!

They also sell a zone 4 airbrush aerosol version which has caught my eye.

You can both purchase and find out more about the Make Believe products on their website here! 

I had never heard of Make Believe before, had you?

My Tan Testing Thursday - Xen-Tan bronze | fake tan | holiday skin | natural | review | self tanner | skin | skin care | tan | tanned | when flowersfall | whenflowersfall | xen tan | xentan

This is the first of two self tanner reviews, the other will be posted tomorrow! :)

On Thursday I went swimming with my girls and I figured it would be the perfect night to try out a couple of new self tanners. 

We had been given a couple of samples from Xen-tan last Saturday at #leedsbloggermeetup2012.

Tomorrows review will be of a self tanner from Make Believe, again of which we received last Saturday.

During my little swimming sesh I snuck into the sauna to give my skin a bit of a treat. When I got home, I jumped in the bath and exfoliated like crazy. My skin felt amazing. 

I then proceeded to smother myself in various lotions and potions to try and achieve a cracking glow for this bank holiday weekend. 

Xen-Tan

I applied the Xen-Tan dark lotion to my arms and décolletage, this is the product I had most faith in. 

Before I did so, I made sure to moisturise my elbows, this is the one area most prone to psoriasis and I wanted to make sure that the product didn't cling to any dry skin that I may have missed. 

The self tanner is very dark in colour. It looks really scary. When applied to the skin the colour isn't as crazy, it gives you a slight colour guide and this really helps with applying the product as smoothly as possible. This way you can avoid any kind of streaking.
The thing that you notice straight away is the very strong scent of marzipan. Personally I love it, but it might not be for all. It does definitely beat the smell of biscuits though.

The self tanner dries very quickly, which I loved, and you are able to put clothes on without them sticking to you. It is advised to steer clear of any light colour clothing though. 

As you can see from the photos above the product starting to develop nicely within the next hour, but I decided to sleep in it and wash it off in the morning. 

In the morning my arms looked amazing. In the above photo it looks rather orange, but I can promise you it was not. The photo was taken before my shower, so afterwards the colour was slightly less in your face. I really did look like I had been lying in the sun for the past week. Another bonus was that my elbows were not dark at all! 

Xen-Tan is a little pricey, this lotion in particular is currently on sale on the Xen-Tan website for £21.74, but I honestly feel it's one of the best tans I have ever tried. It gives the most natural colour, I had no streaks of patches and it is wearing so well. 

I'm trying really hard to make the sample I have last as long as I can, but I would most definitely re-purchase this product. 

You can find out more about Xen-Tan here.

Check back tomorrow for the review on Make Believe tan, which I tried out on my legs, (my harder to tan area.)

The One Hair Product I was Scared To Try colour | colourb4 | hair | lightener | natural | natural hair | purple to blonde | review | striping | treatment | video | whenflowersfall | youtube

You've probably all heard of ColourB4, a product which claims to strip hair of dye and colour build up!

I'd seen a ton of mixed reviews of the product myself, some claiming that it just turned their hair orange, some saying that their hair went back to being dark a few days after use and ever some claiming it was a miracle product.

About a week ago I saw that ColourB4 were asking for bloggers for reviews on twitter, I replied showing my interest and in return they supplied me with a box of the Extra strong treatment. 

Like I said, I was so scared to try it out, but I figured that seeing as I have been dying my hair since I was 13, it would be good to start a fresh. 

I read through all of the instructions and set to it, below is a video of the whole process.

As for the issues I had heard of before I trying this, I can set a few things straight. -This product will only turn your hair 'orange' because the dye you are trying to rid of has lightened your hair and contains red tones. Even the darkest of dyes lighten your hair to make sure the dark shade is as deep and shiny as can be. Therefore you will most probably not be able to achieve your actual natural shade.- You have to follow all of the steps and you must complete 3 ten minutes rinses when washing out the treatment and buffer. If you don't do this the colour molecules in your hair will expand again and the colour will darken. The rinsing process releases the shrunken molecules from your hair meaning that they are no longer present to expand. If you follow the instructions completely, this product works wonders.I absolutely loved the result, as you can seen from the video above, and I will most definitely be using it again. Like I said in the video, I did this to ensure that my new colour goes on nicer, and I will reveal that colour tomorrow! 
ColourB4 isn't necessarily cheap, but it's most certainly cheaper than going to a hair salon.Visit www.colourb4.com to find out where you can purchase the treatment.