Tigi S Factor Review

If you've been reading my blog for a good while, you'll know that I'm a bit of a haircare junkie; always looking for the next big thing to give me silky smooth, shiny locks. Blonde hair has to be the worst hair colour to try and get a shine on but over the past 3 years of being blonde it has become my mission. I've tried lots of different shampoos, some costing a fortune, others costing the measly sum of £1... and I have to admit that haircare is probably my favourite thing to put to the test. 

Recently I was sent the 'Serious Lustre' set by Tigi S Factor which contains two products; a 'Serious Conditioner' and a 'Smoothing Lusterizer' both packaged together in a cute little white bag (gotta love a bag that I can cram a load of products in reuse). This is the ultimate duo to fight frizz and rescue dry and damaged hair... I use heat styling on my hair pretty much every day so you could say that the ends of my hair are a tad dry and damaged; the amount of hair which falls out on a daily basis is quite alarming to be honest.

 Tigi S Factor Serious Lustre Nourishment Set* £22.45 Look Fantastic

Tigi S Factor "Serious" Conditioner First of all, I love intensive conditioners; there's no better feeling than washing your hair and popping a treatment on let it work its magic. The S factor "serious" conditioner contains sunflower seed oil to give your hair the injection of moisture it needs to get it looking shiny and healthy My thoughts: I like how this dispenses out of the tube, it comes out of a long tapered end which means that you get just the right amount of product out without wasting any. The conditioner is really thick and creamy, I use it once every other wash on the bottom half of my hair and after about a week of use I started to be able to see a difference. I leave it on for between 3 and 5 minutes when I apply it and it leaves my hair really manageable to style and it doesn't seem to break as easily.
Tigi S Factor Smoothing Lusterizer
This is to be used on either wet or dry hair in place of a serum and is packed with cyclomethicone to target and eliminate frizz from root to tip.  My thoughts: The main thing I absolutely love about this is the smell, it smells exactly like strawberries and cream... it's sooo nice! I use this on my hair both when it's wet and I find that using a 5p sized amount is perfect. I still prefer my frizz ease serum for when my hair is dry but using this on wet hair has made my hair really soft, shiny and manageable... also how cool is the shape of the bottle?!
If you're looking for a set to 'rescue' damaged hair then I'd definitely look into this because not only do the products work, they also work out to be a bargain in this gift set because if you buy them individually from the Tigi S Factor range it would cost double the price of this gift set. The individual products are bigger but I think if you're looking to try something from the range this is ideal, these work out at just over £11 each which I think is very reasonable for luxury hair products!

The Best of Body Butters

Is it just me or do you seem to get lots of body butters at Christmas time? They seem to be in so many of the lovely gift sets I receive and before I know it I've got a massive oversupply of body butters! Not that I'm complaining because I do like a choice of bath and body products but I thought I'd share my little body butter collection with you today and tell you a little bit about each.

Treacle Moon 'Her Mango Thoughts' - I actually did a full review of this around this time last year, I was raving about how much I loved using it, this is my second tub as I grabbed it when they were on offer in Tesco. To me it smells just like Lilt and it even though it's really thick it absorbs really quickly into my skin leaving it feeling lovely!
Caudalie Vine Body Butter - This is the most luxurious of the 4 body butters, for me it's ideal as an after sun product because it relieves tight feeling skin, it's lightly perfumed and packed full of grape and shea butter... I think the packaging is also really nice, simple but pretty.
Ted Baker Body Souffle - The largest of the 4 tubs, this one holds 300ml of product and it's full to the brim. It's the thinnest in consistency of the 4 because it's a 'souffle' but seems to leave a bit more of a greasy residue than the others. This tub will last absolutely ages though so 
Champneys Skin Comforting Body Butter - A 300ml pot of this is only £5 at the moment in Boots so if you're in the market for a body butter and you can find one in store, I'd highly recommend this one for the money. It has more of a mature scent but one that reminds me of being in a spa; it's more of a powdery scent rather than a perfumed or fruity scent. It's quite a thin consistency for a body butter but I find that it's perfect for melting into your skin after a hot bath/shower.  So I suppose you could say that I've currently got enough body butters to moisturise a small army, but who doesn't like a bit of choice?! I actually can't believe that none of these are from the Body Shop, when I think 'Body Butter' I automatically think of that brand but for some reason I don't actually own any!

No Fuss Slimming World Meals

So I've been doing the Slimming World plan since the end of September 2013 and I feel like I have come so far since then so I thought I'd write a little blog post to update you on my progress and to show you some of the things that I love to eat and STILL lose weight! I'm now in week 22 and feeling the benefits of losing weight in so many ways, I knew I was ready for it and I knew I could get my head into the Slimming World plan because it's so easy. 
So far I have lost 2 stone 11.5 pounds... in the last 22 weeks there have only been 2 occasions where I have gained weight; my birthday week which I put 2lb on and last week when I put on 0.5lb. I don't think that's bad going at all, I've had a few maintains but overall my average weightloss per week has been 2lb. It doesn't feel like I've been on Slimming World for nearly half a year, and I think that's because it's not a drag, it's not a total pain to be doing. You can still live your life and lose weight at the same time. I'm never hungry and I mean NEVER, I eat properly and my plate is always full of food. I even have chocolate.
Here are a few of my favourite things to eat...

 Sausage and Mash - Using Tesco Healthy Living cumberland sausages (1 syn each) and Bisto beef gravy (1.5 syns for 100ml). 

 Huge Ocean Salad, couple of syns in the extra light mayo but mixed that with tomato puree (free) to give me a very low syn seafood sauce.

 Spaghetti bolognese made with extra lean mince and a jar of Dolmio (half a jar is 5.5 syns). So easy and so delicious; I don't like the spag bols made using SW recipes so I'm more than willing to use some syns on this.

 These chicken breasts are packed with garlic in the middle which is absolutely gorgeous and feels so naughty... but it's not! They're from Iceland's new 'Posh Grub' range and they're 2.5 syns for both breasts! Served with actifry chips (used fry light instead of oil) and a big salad.

Who doesn't love a big bowl of stew in this horrible weather, I can eat this until it comes out of my ears because it's complete free as I used a stock pot instead of gravy granules and it was absolutely beautiful. Packed with superfree foods and really comforting.

Here we have 10 syns worth of chocolate, some Cadbury Bubbles bar and some Cadbury Caramel. It might not seem like much but if you really enjoy chocolate it's well worth the syns, I've learnt that chocolate is not for chewing it's for savouring!

 My all time favourite - Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, these are 3 syns per cup and worth every single syn in my opinion!

Finally when I'm really craving a takeaway (which isn't a good idea if you want to stay within your syns for the day) I go to Iceland and pick up one of these Chicken Jalfrezi frozen ready meals, it doesn't come with rice it's just the curry but they're only £1.50 and it's 3.5 syns of pure luxury when you haven't eaten a curry for ages! You can make curries using Slimming World recipes but I find these are quite complicated and I don't always have time for that! So there were are these are a few of things I eat, and I've still lost almost 3 stone!! I think I've decided that my ultimate goal is 5 stone so I've got just over 2 to go... Hopefully I'll have lost at least another stone before I go to Florida in May as I expect some serious damage will be done during those 2 weeks!!

Seventeen Lasting Fix Nail Polish in Midnight Sapphire

Today I'm bringing you a nail polish which I bought the other day on another one of my trips to Boots, I had a voucher for £1 off a £5 spend on makeup... how could I let that expire without using it up?! I've been looking for a budget navy nail polish ever since I've seen navy shades on the likes of Sam from Pixiwoo, Sam was wearing an OPI shade which usually retail at about £11.95. I love OPI nail polishes, don't get me wrong, but I've been on a bit of a high street rampage at the moment, determined not to spend a fortune on the stuff I want. I looked at all the stands in Boots and the only Navy shade which stood out to me was one from Seventeen which is one of Boots own brands.

Seventeen Lasting Fix Nail Polish in 'Midnight Sapphire' £2.99 Boots Although I really wanted to try a navy shade, I was a bit worried that a dark colour would make my nails look short and stubby but I actually really like how it looks. It looks classy and shiny, I think. The applicator brush is just a regular size which for me makes application a little more difficult, I like wider brushes which you often find with Rimmel polishes. It also says that you should get up to 5 days wear with this, you don't and it's as simple as that. I applied this last night and by 1pm this afternoon it was already chipped and I hadn't done anything out of the ordinary with my fingers. Having said that, for £2.99 I don't expect miracles and I'm willing to overlook this because I do really like the shade.