Remington Style Works Wand Kit

When I was in my teens I loved straight hair, like dead straight hair. I just couldn't get enough of it. Probably about 4 years ago I started to realise actually it wasn't so great, it was just plain boring. So now I like waves or loose curls. I've had wavy weaves or just had straight ones and curled them myself. Basically I just feel like hair has to have something to it, although realistically on most days I run a brush through my hair and leave it at that.

So before Christmas I purchased the Remington Style Works Wand Kit 

I had others in my basket, but in the end I actually just went for this because everything was purple and it came with the extra bits! Seriously I get so stressed out when it comes to comparing things and choosing what I think is best. 

So we have:

1 curling wand

1 paddle brush

2 clips

1 heat protect glove

1 compact mirror

In all honesty, I'm really happy with my purchase. I am by no mean a pro when it comes to hair (like I said before brush and go) or tools but of course this was easy to use and I got the curls I wanted. 

Here was the result when I first tried it, I actually rushed it because I had somewhere to be, but this is it without brushing it out:

I have tried it other times but to be honest I forgot to take better pictures of the curls, but here are some.

Anyway I'm really happy with the curling wand, when I am bothered to do my hair, I love using it. So I'm glad I finally have a curling wand in my possession. For the price it's great and it does what it's supposed to do. 

My main problem though, is finding something to hold the curl; I currently use VO5 Strong Hold Weather Resistant Hairspray, which couldn't be far from the truth. Even when I'm at home the curls drop. I sprayed this in for a night out on New Years and possibly an hour and half later, my curls dropped! Does anyone have any good recommendations for holding sprays?

Favourite YouTubers at the moment

So I hope everyone has had a fabulous Christmas! Mine was okay, overall means great! I worked Christmas Eve and Boxing Day so not much of a holiday for me. Buut as promised; I have selected some of my favourite YouTubers. They all do make up and beauty so it’s all nice and varied. I don’t think they are in any particular order if I’m honest, I was just scrolling through my subscriptions and writing them down – so that’s the order then I guess.

 First we have SianShutterbug:

 I can’t remember how I came across her (probably clicking from one YouTuber to another) but I absolutely love her! Not only is she gorgeous (I love her hair) and has amazing style and make-up taste. I purchased Sleek’s Fandango Purple because of her - oh the influence. I love Sian’s personality in her videos – she’s upbeat and likeable. I love seeing the things she reviews, especially make-up because I feel we have similar tastes. Her reviews always seem very honest and she reviews products to suit all budgets. I really encourage you to watch her – she’s even replied to a few of my YouTube comments and has been incredibly lovely!

 Now we have TheAnothergirlslife:

 I love her! Her car vlogs are the best and she’s really funny in all her videos. She seems really down to earth and so real in her videos. Like Sian, you can really see Mary's personality in her videos and it’s one that I love. She does great reviews of things too, really honest ones. And all round she’s bloody hilarious to watch, I love just getting a cup of tea when I watch her channel.

 StyleNina is another favourite:

A friend from uni actually introduced me to her and I absolutely love her! The one video that sticks out for me is her accent tag video which you can find here. Seriously so hilarious and how amazing is she at doing accents?! She is so excitable and funny (are you noticing a trend) and I love the variety in her videos. She’s American and I don’t actually follow that many American YouTubers but I am absolutely in love with her style and her hair!

 My next favourite is Shirley B. Eniang:

Shirley seems like such a lovely girl! Honestly I cannot get over how down to earth she is, such an inspiring quality in a person. And she is gorgeousss. I actually love following her and StyleNina because I can see what make-up looks like on someone with a similar skin tone to me – it’s good to see people review products but much nicer to see how it would fit your complexion. I looooove watching Shirley and her hair updates, they give me so many ideas and I just want all the hair she has! I’m actually watching one of her hair videos right now (good thing I've just bought a curling wand). I really encourage you to watch her channel and read her blog – she’s a huge favourite of mine.

 My final favourite is Annie Jaffrey.

Annie is American and when I was watching her she lived in America, but after like 2 weeks after subscribing she moved to London! At least now I won’t have to deal with wanting something and finding out I can only get it if I pay extortionate shipping costs. Annie has the most positive personality ever and she encourages her viewers to be positive – so so cute. One of my favourite things about Annie is her healthy lifestyle – her channel really is an all rounder. She does fashion, make-up and health and it’s just great. One of the best things I’ve found about her videos is that they are informative – it’s one thing to give reviews about things but it’s another to really know what you’re talking about and Annie really has that down.

 So those are my favourite YouTubers at the moment. I did have a couple others written down but I thought I would keep it short and sweet and 5 seemed to be the magic number. Sorry about the quality of the images, I've been trying to sort it out for a week but no avail every time I crop the quality diminishes :( I really wasn't sure what image to use to show you guys them, but in the end opted for those images so you could see what kind of things they post. Be sure to check out their channels – they are all such lovely ladies!

Look right through me.

I have been so MIA it's terrible. But I just have not found the inspiration or the will to post. See I've put on weight in the past year and a half and quite honestly I just feel gross! So I wonder around in baggy clothing and leggings. And now that I only go to work (I wear a uniform) or round to my best friends house to moan about life (leggings and a top), I don't actually need to wear actual clothes right? Right. Okay that's a lie - I volunteer, a lot, but even then I'm a volunteer I don't actually need to look good! 

This is an outfit  from maybe two weeks ago? Not the best quality of photos - sorry! I picked up the boots from Primark for all of £18! I love wondering around in them, they are comfortable and I got a size up for my insole - double comfort. 

Whilst I haven't been blogging I have been reading blogs and getting very much into YouTube and make-up. Which has just left me ridiculously poor because I buy everything I see! I got myself the Real Techniques Core Collection and fell in love with the buffing brush - it is my holy grail now. I threw out all my old make-up brushes and have not looked back. Talking of YouTube influences, I just got my Muji Acrylic draws in the post, who would have thought I would ever own enough make to even put in there! Although I'll probably just jam all the other crap on my table in there. I also purchased Sleek's 'Smother' the other day, this I actually saw when I was shopping with my sister. 

Isn't the colour gorgeous?! I feel like it's perfect A/W (see YouTube has it's influences, I even know trends). So anyway back to YouTube - I will have to do a post with all my favourite beauty/fashion YouTubers! I now have a huge beauty wishlist! 

I'm also waiting on my New Look order, they had 20% off the other day and I got excited. I also ordered a pair of jeans because I am in desperate need of some. I LOVE Topshop's Joni jeans, the fabric is great and they don't feel like jeans - even better! But they tear easily - I have gone through 2 in about 5 months! For someone that doesn't wear jeans all the time I cannot be repurchasing something I know wears quite easily, especially now that I don't have my student discount! So I thought I would see what New Look had to offer me. Has anyone got jeans from there? 

I think that's all for my update/ramble! Orange is the new black has just finished downloading so I am going to busy for next couple of hours! 

How often do you feel blue?

So sometime this week I had to complete an online test for a job role, LOVE doing these things (not). However this particular one annoyed me. I don't know if it's actually common to have these questions as I don't even do that many, or if this particular one was just incredibly discriminatory. 

So I'm clicking along to things that sound like me etc. And I come across this:

How does one even define "easily depressed"? I don't get "easily" depressed. I get depressed and there is nothing easy about it. My triggers are not broken down into "easy" and "hard". 

So I grumble about it and then move on, and I come across two more questions relating to depression. When I came across the fourth I was royally pissed off:

What is feeling blue? Honestly? When I am depressed there is nothing blue about it, in fact there is a complete absence of anything let alone colour. The whole focus around trying to determine (I'm assuming here now) whether someone is emotionally stable for the position is ridiculous. If you haven't experienced depression you are not likely to know how "easily" you get depressed. I'm going to go ahead and generalise but most people don't know what depression is, thus will never be able to answer that question properly. And if we go further into the question, what an employer defines as "easily" may not be what that individual defines as "easily". The test was embarrassingly discriminatory. 

Why did you not ask any other questions about my health? Or does my physical health not have a large impact on how I do my job? Because I can tell you standing for longer than 10 minutes still hurts my left leg, but you didn't ask about that did you? Furthermore the large focus on depression as being the only illness that could possibly affect your job is laughable. If we take the mental health route we have anxiety, OCD or bipolar that could affect how you work. If we go down the route of other illnesses that could affect your ability in a job we cancer, broken bones and so on. But the main word is could. 

It infuriates me that depression seemed to be so prominent in this test. Evidently stigma still exists around the illness. It's always interesting how people are labelled benefit scroungers when they are signed off with depression but then those who are trying to find work are met with things like this. Nevertheless this hasn't discouraged me, rather enraged me but quite frankly for me working in a company that wants to pry that deeply into my personal life about one issue, isn't one I want to work for. Whether I have a history or a present with mental illness is my own business and if that then affects my ability to do my job then me and my employer can discuss it. But you can try and ween me out by having a selection process that seems to single me out because I've suffered with something I've had no control over. 

Have you come across anything similar in job searches? Please do share. And do know I plan to contact the company (who of course shall remain nameless) in the nicest way possible about how their test singles people out. In the mean time please continue to fight the stigma about mental health! I'm part of Time to Change, which supports talking about mental health to breakdown the stigma attached to it. Find the campaign website here: www.time-to-change.org.uk   and you can follow on Twitter here: Time to Change

They are also currently running a brand new campaign in which they have loads of ways you can show your support and spark up a conversation about mental health, so you can splash it all over your Social Media sites! Find it here: new campaign 

If you need help OR want more information on certain mental illnesses then visit Rethink or Mind and have a browse around and it will have everything you need! 

Holiday snaps!

So it's actually been over a month since I got back from my holiday, but I thought I'd share some of the pictures I have of my wonderful time!

I'm wishing I was back without a care in the word and an endless supply of drinks!