Why Neom Candles are Better Than Diptyque

I was in London at the weekend and I'd tweeted several times expressing my intent to buy a Diptyque luxury candle; I'd seen them on various different blogs - each review raving about how good they were and how wonderful they smelt. I was expecting great things, especially for the £20 price tag for the smallest candle. I walked into the home department of Selfridges and started picking up each candle to see which one was my favourite. I smelt each one several times, but none of them jumped out at me as being an outstanding scent; Feu de Bois was one which I found particularly 'odd' shall we say - why would you want a log fire smell in your house, when you don't have a log fire? Some of them were nice but not '£20 for a small candle' nice, I considered Baies, Pomander and Ambre but then I turned around and realised there was a Neom stand; another candle brand I've been dying to try for ages. 
Neom pride themselves on using only organic and natural ingredients in their candles, whereas it's actually quite difficult to find out what Diptyque put into their candles - which suggests to me that they're synthetic (please correct me if I'm wrong, and point me in the direction of some information about this!). I went around the Neom stand smelling their candles, their fragrances are equally as strong and bold as Diptyque and some of them I really did not like but I finally found one which stood out to me as being the perfect home fragrance for me. The travel candles are £5 cheaper than the small Diptyque candles but they do have a shorter burn time (Diptyque mini candles burn for around 30 hours, Neom travel candles will burn for around 20 hours) so this was a bit of a deal breaker for me - I had to have the Neom one instead.

Neom Serenity Travel Candle £15
I chose 'Serenity' which is vanilla and sandalwood; it's not as overpowering as some of the others I smelled. Vanilla can sometimes be a little overbearing in a candle but the sandalwood seems to tone it down to a gorgeously soft relaxing scent. Neom only make their candles with vegetable wax and pure essential oils which means that they burn without releasing harmful chemicals, toxins or soot. The black ring you usually get round a candle - yep that's due to all the artificial ingredients in a candle, and you're breathing all those artificial toxins too. 
I've burnt mine for 12 hours so far and there has been no sight of any soot or blackening of the glass - it's burnt so cleanly; I've never seen a candle burn so clean! I have my travel candle in my front room which isn't a big room but maybe a little too big for a travel candle as they are more suited to small rooms such as bathrooms. Nevertheless the candle enveloped the room with the beautiful scent of a spicy kind of vanilla. For a small candle it packed a punch in terms of the scent it emitted; it fragranced the room far better than any Yankee Candle I've had.
Don't get me wrong, Neom is an expensive brand and I'm not normally one for spending a fortune on candle; I often think you'd get more enjoyment out of burning £5 notes but with this I have really been converted to organic candles. The essential oils content is so apparent and I absolutely love it. When I've finished this I just know I'll want to buy a 3 wick candle, it's a luxury that I'm going to make sure I save money for!
I do wonder whether some people buy Diptyque because they actually like the candles or whether they buy them just to say they have a Diptyque candle and they can take pretty blog photographs with it - surely people wouldn't be so daft?!

TRESemmé Platinum Strength Deep Conditioning Treatment

I've haven't used a good hair masque for absolutely ages, I've just been sticking to a simple haircare routine; shampoo, conditioner and a bit of dry shampoo if I've needed it. I asked on twitter if anyone could recommend a good intensive hair treatment, a couple of people suggested the TRESemmé Platinum Strength Hair Masque, given that there was 1/3 off this in Superdrug I thought I'd give it a try. I have blonde hair which is subject to colouring and heat damage so it can start to look damaged and dull very easily, I need something that is going to inject my hair with moisture and restore some life and shine. I've been using Tigi S Factor Serious Conditioner every other wash and then using this TRESemmé one twice a week.

The claim on the bottle is that it could 'visibly repair up to 2 years of damage', but upon looking a the small print this claim is only applicable if you are using the whole system; ie. shampoo, conditioner and treatment. I also find it quite difficult to believe that it can repair severely damaged hair, I would imagine that once your hair is split you cannot repair that... but I could be wrong?

TRESemmé Platinum Strength Deep Conditioning Masque £5.99 Superdrug 

My thoughts: After using this for a good 3/4 weeks I have felt a difference in the feel of my hair and how manageable it is. My ends felt very dry when I was just using a regular but by using quite an intense conditioner more frequently (the Tigi S factor one and this one) but they now feel much better and I can see a visible difference the ends of my hair aren't as visibly split and it feel much softer immediately after drying (before, it tended to look very frizzy). My hair is quite thick and using a 50p sized amount on the bottom half of my hair weigh my hair down at all, although I wouldn't recommend using it on your roots because it would be far too heavy I think. I would also air on the side of caution if you have very fine hair as this may be a little too much for your hair.

I do think this is good for a high street hair treatment but I don't think it matches Morocconoil light treatment which I haven't repurchased for a long time due to it being expensive; if you're looking for a nice conditioning treatment at a good price then I'd definitely recommend this TRESemmé one.

Tangle Angel Brush Review

The Tangle Angel and its innovative design make it easier to manage knotty hair keeping it silky smooth and easy to style. Tangle Teezers seem to be the go-to detangling brush among most beauty bloggers but just recently I was kindly sent a new detangling brush, which for me beats Tangle Teezer on lots of points - a lack of awareness of the Tangle Angel has to be the only reason for it not being the favoured detangling brush. Suitable for all hair types, this is not only a detangling brush but it can also be used as a blow drying brush because its bristles are heat resistant (the fact that you couldn't use the tangle teezer with heat was one of its biggest downfalls in my opinion). It comes in five different colours; pink, blue, pearl, silver and black and is possibly the cutest brush design you've ever seen - it reminds me of something that might come with a Barbie doll!

Tangle Angel* £15.99 Tangle Angel Website What I love about the Tangle Angel: - It has two places in which you can grip it; on the handle for everyday use and around the wings for a more controlled grip. - Contoured bristles which detangle the hair on several levels rather than just tackling the first couple of layers. - Heat resistant bristles mean that you can use it with heat styling tools - this is a massive plus for me because you can just use one brush for all instead of having to switch up half way through. - Anti-static properties mean that it reduces flyaway hair when brushing.
I've been absolutely loving using this, it detangles really well and I love, love, love the fact that you can use it with heat tools without the bristles becoming mishapen. If you were to buy two separate professional brushes; one for detangling and one for blow drying and hair styling, you'd be spending at least £20-25 whereas this one is only £15.99 and it does both things. I would recommend this brush 100% to anyone who has hair that is hard to manage or that breaks easily with regular brushing. Tangle Angel also do a similar brush for children called the Tangle Cherub which has all the features of the Angel but in a smaller compact size.

Glam Glow Super-Mud Clearing Treatment review

There's been quite a bit of a pattern on my blog just recently with regard to skincare reviews, I've been trying lots of things to get my skin as clear as it could possibly be; I've addressed active spots & scarring so the last thing on my list is blackheads. The absolute bain of my life, believe me. I have always suffered with blackheads on my nose and chin and they can make applying makeup in those areas an absolute nightmare, I long for a smooth canvas to apply foundation to. 
Glam Glow is one of the more expensive face masks on the market, at £39.99 for a 34g tub it isn't suitable for everyones pocket but I've been dying to try it for ages so I decided to buy a 2.1ml sample sachet which involves a lot less of a financial commitment at around £4 on eBay. Let's face it, almost £40 is a big commitment for something which might not work or you might only use once and never use it again.
Glam Glow Super Mud has been massively hyped up both by bloggers and magazines and it's claim is that it will clear up lots of common skin concerns such as spots, blackheads, visible pores, razor burns and even ingrown hairs. It helps to brighten and even complexion, de-clogs and minimises pores while speeding up the healing process of your skin. A full pot of this should give you 17 applications or 1000 on the spot treatments.  

The mask is actually really thin, which isn't what I expect from a clay mask; when I saw how small the sachet was I didn't think it'd cover my nose let alone my whole face. A little goes a long way with this mask though and it's really easy to cover most of your face with very little product. It is really dark in colour and has some little bits in it which feel a bit like a scrub (I believe these 'bits' are tiny pieces of leaf). It dries quite quickly and feels ever so slightly tingly whilst doing so. 

Glam Glow Super-Mud Clearing Treatment uses 'Pore Matrix' technology with Activated-X charcoal which is a carbon which absorbs and attracts toxic mass upto 500 times its volume meaning that it can attract substances from from the toughest areas of your face. It also contains K-17 clay which extracts and holds on to excess sebum (awful word), bacteria and toxins. These two ingredients create the 'Pore Matrix' which shows extraction areas in the darker spots, ready to be washed away with clean, warm water. The look of the mask when it's been on for 15 minutes can be seen below; it looks pretty gross because it highlights my problem area which is my nose and surrounding area but I actually quite like that it does this because it makes me feel like it's actually doing something. Most clay masks just dry up and go really really tight. Although they look it, these areas don't feel wet - they're actually completely dry.

  I left this to work its magic for 15-20 minutes and I wiped it away with warm water and a flannel. It comes off incredibly easily; probably the easiest face mask I've ever taken off. It left my skin feeling really smooth even after just one application. My nose wasn't completely smooth; I could still feel some of the rough black heads but for a first application I was really impressed. I applied La Roche Posay Effaclar Duo Plus afterwards and it tingled a little bit, which made me think that my pores were still open from the product extracting the oil from them. 2 days later my nose still feels very smooth which impresses me because usually treatments which seem to work wonders for my nose don't have long lasting effects.
I am so tempted by the full sized tub of this, the only thing stopping me is the price; I should have got it when Beauty Mart had their sale on but I just never thought on... kicking myself now! £40 is just such a big commitment for me, I don't have money trees in my back garden unfortunately!