Essie x Diet Coke

You know summer's definitely around the corner when you find yourself desperately reaching for a glass of something cold and realising that you should really sort your nails out.

Luckily, Essie and Diet Coke have collaborated to kill two birds with one stone: until May 24th, 2016, you can buy a 500ml bottle of Diet Coke and an Essie nail varnish in Cocktail Bling, Fiji, or Fishnet Stockings for only £5.99 at Boots. 

And what's more, Diet Coke has other tips for keeping your nails ice-cool, such as plunging your freshly-painted nails into a bowl of ice-cold water, keeping nail polish in the fridge for easier application, or even using a rolled-up Diet Coke label to create an ombré effect on your nails.

This all means there's more than one way to cool off this summer, with a nail shade for everyone and a refreshing beverage into the bargain. Cheers!

Hauling Your Makeup Hoard on Holiday

Whether your summer plans include hitting the beach, showing up in the hottest clubs in town, or just hoping to impress the buff bloke you saw at the gym, everyone’s hoping to look their best during the summer months. The sun is out, and everyone’s ready to have some fun after a long winter. Of course you don't want to look or feel dull or drab - and everyone knows how important it is to have a choice of colours in order to achieve this. It's natural, then, to want to take your complete makeup collection with you on a break, especially if you're going away for more than two weeks - because even though you’ve never worn that exact shade of pink lipstick, it might actually go perfectly with your new bikini.
But just how are you going to haul all of those essential items by plane, train or car? You could choose a soft, cushioned makeup case. However, while it is cushioned, it has no divided compartments, which means your makeup will probably get jumbled together. You could choose a tie and roll case. Though this option could possibly be easy to throw into your suitcase, it doesn’t allow you to take much along with you. And, if you're like me, you’ve got lots of makeup! You could potentially go with the age-old ‘throw it into a plastic baggy’ route; however, we all know that your favourite products are just very likely to get broken or lost this way.
What you need is not just any makeup case. Those at The LA Shop or The Salon Outlet are ideally designed for long trips. Their train cases are actually fold up boxes with separate compartments for your different makeup items. You have a large section in the bottom for bulky bottles and tubes and smaller trays close to the top for lipsticks, eye shadows and also other small items. Durable and affordable, they're the perfect way to travel in style. Now you're ready :)

Beauty Website Review: Instant Body Upgrade

With Christmas fading into a distant memory and summer holidays on the approach, thoughts often turn in January to the spare tyre sitting around our waists. How to shift it?! The problem with many diets or gyms is that we don't receive enough guidance and can easily fall off the bandwagon.

Donna Richards and Tora Cullip, health coaches, aim to provide an alternative through the Instant Body Upgrade programme, which is available for a one-off payment of £97. This payment gives access to the Instant Body Upgrade website, which supplies a host of resources and support from Donna and Tora themselves to help you get the body and confidence that you want. 

So what do you get for your £97? The three-pronged approach dealing with your mindset, metabolism and motivation is dealt with mainly through videos where Donna and Tora can talk directly to you and share their expertise. This allows you to see that their bodies really do look like the photos (!) and allows them to reassure you in a largely non-patronising way through their friendly hints, advice and tips. Inspiring fact sheets are also available for download, as are recipes to get your eating on track, and progress sheets to track your fitness and inch loss. Exercise videos, and Donna and Tora's responses to user comments, are equally valuable.

The nicest part about this programme is that it's got no gimmicks or fads attached. This is good simple healthy eating and exercise, packaged in a way that suits busy women and supported by Donna and Tora themselves. The diversity of resources available, presented using clear straightforward language, is another plus.

This is not to say that there are no possibilities for improvement. Firstly, as this is supposed to be a long-term lifestyle change, there need to be far more recipes available (rather than only a short ebook's worth). This could be easily achieved through having a recipe space available for users to upload their healthy finds and discuss recipes after trying them. Speaking of this kind of collaborative space, a forum page would be equally useful, allowing users to not only comment on individual pages but also interact with each other much more closely. However, as the Instant Body Upgrade site is merely a glorified Wordpress page, Donna and Tora would need to upgrade their website significantly to make this possible. Equally, a 'MyPlate' facility similar to that on LiveStrong would enable users to track their food intake in more detail, which is also important to a programme of this type.

Nevertheless, despite these suggested improvements and the fact that a 'body upgrade' can never be 'instant', access to this website is still worth the £97 price tag. It costs little more than a 3-month gym membership and has the added bonuses of free recipes and motivational support from professional coaches. The modifications mentioned above would make it even better value - but even as it is, it will see you well on your way to having something closer to the body you want by the time you have to hit the beach.

*Bianca's Beauty Blog was offered free website access by Donna and Tora.

Slapping it on

What do you use to put on your makeup? Sponges? A roll of brushes, makeup artist-style? Or just your fingers?

All of these methods have their advantages and disadvantages. People don't always like to get messy by using their fingers and some fear that sponges and brushes harbour too much bacteria. However, fingers and brushes can be easily cleaned, sponges can be cheaply replaced, and all provide good coverage, while brushes have the added bonus of providing extra precision (especially around smaller areas where more detail is required, such as around the eyes and lips).

But when it comes to brushes it can be difficult to know where to start. Virtually all makeup brands sell their own, and pharmacies, supermarkets, and other beauty retailers usually manufacture their own brands as well. So how can we mere laymen know what to go for?

People aren't wrong to fantasize about the makeup brushes of makeup artists, such as those by MAC, Daniel Sandler, Jemma Kidd, Kervyn Aucoin, Sue Devitt, Laura Mercier, Paula Dorf, RMK, and Suqqu. They're made with high-quality materials and can be kept and used for years with proper cleaning. However, with all of the brushes listed above costing at least £10 each, it can become a costly endeavour.

I've personally had great success with brushes from ELF (Eyes Lips Face), which are affordable yet durable. But now there's a new player on the market thanks to some great foundation brushes from Mii that I've found: even though its cheapest brush is still £14.95, the website runs special offers regularly, meaning that you could still grab a bargain if you keep your eyes open. The brushes are especially adapted for mineral makeup (which Mii also sells) and the bristles are beautifully shaped for ultimate definition. This wide range of high quality makeup brushes offers something for everyone meaning that you should without doubt find something to suit your needs - and even if you don't manage to find a bargain before Christmas, you can always put a request for some in your letter to Santa (or better yet, on your shopping list for the January sales). That way, you can be sure to start 2014 by slapping it on in style.

Hair-raising Halloween

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With Halloween on the horizon, it's the ideal time to be pushing the boundaries of hair and beauty.

 

Paint yourself a pale face with lots of dark eyeliner and bold lips for a Gothic, vampiric look. I'd recommend Ellis Faas' bold, long-lasting colour pens to create these dramatic effects.

 

And who says you can't be a sophisticated witch during this spooky season? Thanks to glamorous, long wigs from Pauls Hair World, you can create realistic effects that are as scary or sexy as you like.

 

Don't forget your Stargazer eye dust for added sparkle, which will effortlessly take you from Halloween to Christmas. Barry M Glitter Nail Paint has the same effect.

 

Finally, cat's-eye contact lenses will make all your friends double-take as well as completing your costume!

 

But even if you're not into Halloween, you can shop online at Paul's Hair World all year round for your every need when it comes to hair accessories, perfume and skin care. What will your next look be?

Taking in your skin

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I hate exercise and have been through all of the excuses under the sun so as to get myself out of it. It's too hot out. Too cold out. I hate getting sweaty. The sofa is so comfortable and gym membership costs so much.

my gym

And yet I know exercise is so important - not just for our health but, on a more shallow level, our beauty and wellbeing too. Regular exercise has been proven to tone our bodies, help us lose weight, improve our skin condition, ease stress, make your hair healthier, create more collagen to stop wrinkles in their tracks, ameliorate sleep patterns and reduce bloating. But with autumn and winter just around the corner, the motivation to get outside and go for a run is bound to diminish. 

It was the motivation to exercise ALL year round - not just on days where it was sunny enough to go and chase some squirrels around my local park - that motivated me to join a gym in January (well, that and the post-Christmas flab). But unlike many January sign-ups, I've kept going to the gym and now go at least 3 or 4 times a week. It is expensive - but that encourages me to keep going to get the most for my money.

Happily, though, you have more choice in the UK than I do here in France: British gym memberships aren't held to the same restrictions and tend to be much cheaper. Britain is also better at special offers: Vibro Suite, for instance, is currently running a competition via its website to win four months' worth of free gym membership to celebrate its fourth birthday. Besides the contest, it also offers a free personal training session, and, throughout September, has waived all of the administrative fees usually associated with joining a gym. Plus, whenever you buy three personal training, beauty or sports therapy sessions, you'll get a fourth one for free, which adds further value. Additionally, if you're in charge of these sorts of benefits where you work, Vibro Suite runs special corporate deals whereby they'll waive the gym's administrative sign-up fees for your employees, reduce monthly membership fees, or even offer free membership depending on the deal you strike with them.

With September being the back-to-school season, it often feels like the beginning of a new year for many, meaning that it can be a good time to readjust your habits and change your lifestyle. There are good deals everywhere, so there's little excuse: MyGymCompare lets you compare prices for all of the gyms in your area, and the £30 deal they came up with for me (nearest my parents' house) looks a darn sight better than the going rate of €47 a month (that's £40 at today's exchange rate) that I pay in France. Just as good is comparison search engine The Gym Website, which got me a deal of £35 a month for a gym within walking distance. Even better are some of the deals on Groupon - such as a one-off payment of £10 for two months' access to Zumba classes.

So get yourself moving, and you could be taking in the sight of your new skin, hair and body in no time at all - which is much better than having to take in your clothes.

Real women

In the face of an increasingly Photoshopped and Botoxed society, many brands (such as Dove) have capitalised on the idea of using 'real women' to front their products, usually with the aim of making the general public feel less insecure and more like the brand's products are really for them, not just for celebrities. 

One such campaign has Boots' No7 products at its forefront, and it's just hitting the airwaves. In the video featuring Yasmin (see right), what appears to be a real woman (as opposed to an actress) is shown being frank about her insecurities and what makeup means to her. She's then pampered and given a new look which seems to really boost her confidence.

What I really like about this campaign is that specific products from the No7 range are not pushed, implying that we should choose products that are right for us as people, not products that a specific person (celebrity or no!) has worn. I especially like the slogan - "a brighter shade of me" - as this, to me, emphasises what makeup is about. You don't put makeup on necessarily to be a completely different person, but rather to enhance the very best bits of you. And by making yourself feel better on the outside, this can be a step to making yourself feel better inside too.

So go on - experiment with new looks, shake up your routine, and start feeling good today :)

Secrets of summer beauty

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I already wrote recently about protecting our eyes in the summer sun. However, Annie Levy (makeup artist to stars such as David Guetta and the Made In Chelsea cast, as well as author of blog Make Art Not War) has even more tips for us. She's teamed up recently with World Duty Free and Biza Tax and Duty Free to make these tips into a visual reality thanks to the power of Youtube - and as more videos will be added to the World Duty Free channel over the coming weeks, we should be definitely keeping our eyes open for more of this:

(Try to ignore Annie's mispronunciations of some of the brand names if you can! The rest of what she does is great :)  )

Experts like Annie love to stop by duty-free areas to bulk buy and to get airport exclusives. But that's not all from Annie, oh no. To achieve the epitome of summer beauty, she also suggests the following. As well as always using a sunscreen all over your body (SPF30 or above is ideal, and tinted suncreens for your face are even better, so that you can avoid makeup yet still have a base), Annie extols the virtues of mist sprays for instant refreshment, whether you're in the office, on the tube, at the gym, or on the beach. I like the one by Green People, which smells of orange.

As well as protecting your face and refreshing your body, Annie recommends that you don't forget about your hair. Use deep conditioners in the mornings or evenings to counteract the effects of salt water or chlorine, and you can even buy SPFs for hair: Malibu, Wella, Redken, and many other renowned brands offer choices in this domain. Another top tip to keep hair looking shiny is to apply shine products (if you use them) with a brush to stop hair from looking weighed-down and greasy.

But what about the makeup itself? Beyond the tinted sunscreens for face mentioned above, Annie naturally points out the advantages of waterproof makeup, with many brands now offering mascaras and eyeliners that should stay put even after a swim. But Annie's colour of the season is gold, to help offset a tan with subtle use of shimmer bricks on cheekbones and decolletage. You can even enhance the look with glitter mascaras or lip products. Just go for one at a time though :)

All of the brands that Annie uses in the video above are available in duty-free outlets so that you can bag yourself a tidy discount. Brands I'll be using this summer range from the budget (such as Avon) to the B-list (including Makeup For Ever) - but I'll certainly be looking to get hold of Annie's recommended Clarins Splendours palette from the video too. Have fun following her tips!

Cosmetic Contemplations: Beauty Bargains

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As befits my role here as a beauty blogger, I love trying as many new beauty products as I can get my hands on. But while I do get sent lots of lovely things for free (perfume from Grasse has arrived in the mailbox this morning), I too am of limited means and so am always on the hunt for bargainous products. So how can you get the best deal? Here are my tips:

1. Shop in the country of origin. As I noted recently in my post about Dr Hauschka's Rejuvenating Mask, importation costs inevitably add to the retail price of a product. Dr Hauschka's products, for instance, cost around €20 more in the UK than in their country of origin (Germany). So if you can, get your products directly from the host country: shop when you go there, or give money to a friend who's going and get them to purchase for you.
2. Wait a while after a product has been launched. Occasionally, products will have promotional launch prices. However, most of the time they will be more expensive at their launch and then prices will calm down later. Often, it's worth waiting.
3. Look out for special deals. Some pharmacy chains are particularly good at offering deals - when you buy your preferred product, you may get something for free with it (I bought an Estée Lauder foundation last year and got the matching full-size concealer gratis), or the pharmacy may offer discounts on bulk purchases (such as buying 2 or 3 of the same product at once). Boots is pretty good at this, but so are French pharmacies, which can be particularly handy if you are following the advice detailed under point 1.
4. Hunt for lookalike products. Sometimes when you're really strapped for cash you just can't afford the latest brand-name product that you've got your eye on. However, plenty of people are in the same situation and can report back on products that do the same job for less money. One of my fave finds is Sephora's Colorful Duo vs. Nars eyeshadows - but you can find lots of other tips on discussion fora online, such as MoneySavingExpert.com's "Cheap Smellalikes" thread, which offers alternatives to expensive perfumes.
5. Use Google Shopping for the best prices. Google Shopping is basically my best friend. Type in the product you want, and they'll find just about all the retailers selling it, which you can rank by price (with or without postage costs). Google also for reviews of the retailers if you are unsure about their reputation - this will also alert you to any retailers that may be selling fakes.
6. Wait for the January sales. This applies to online and in-store sales; you can often get brilliant bargains. This January, I got the Benefit Cabana Glama palette for a mere €18,50 (£16) at Sephora, as opposed to its usual retail price of €37 (£31.99).
7. Search for discount vouchers. More commonly available in relation to online transactions, discount voucher websites can get you codes for all kinds of things from free postage and extra freebies to money off your order. Reliable websites include Voucher DiscountCode, VoucherCodes, and MyVoucherCodes.
8. Buy "secondhand". This one is a bit more fraught with risk: we're all familiar with the world of product expiry dates and the potential risk of infection from using products that have already been used by others. However, I've had so few problems (and even then only very minor issues) that I've been happy to "buy secondhand" before now and would do it again. Quite often on websites like Ebay, you will find products being sold that have only been used once or twice. Because of this, you can have the product you want at a heavily discounted price when it's essentially as good as new. Some products will also be ex-display and will be sold at a reduced rate for this reason.
9. Use group buying sites and gift sites for beauty treatments. Spa breaks can often seem so out of reach - but thanks to group buying sites and gift websites, which have been able to negotiate special deals on your behalf, there's a chance that you'll be able to pamper yourself for only a few pounds.
10. Grab free samples whenever and wherever you can. Sign up to free sample newsletters, check brand websites, 'like' your favourite brands on Facebook and Twitter, and shop for your favourite products in department stores or on websites where you know they give samples with purchases. That way, you'll always be aware of competitions or special giveaway events, and if you've had the chance to try a product before you buy the full size you'll know if you like it or not - and if you don't, then that's a massive saving.

Brighten up your January

POST SPONSORED BY SCHWARZKOPF

  I am a complete sissy when it comes to hair. I have greasy roots and dry ends, and I'm definitely a wash-and-go kind of girl: no straighteners, no styling. Getting it done as quickly as possible is the name of the game. I have also never ever dyed my hair (OK, beyond those 80s-style hair mascaras). It's not that I've never been curious to see what I'd look like with a different hair colour; my eyebrows and lashes are dark, and I'd like to see what my blonde hair would look like if it were the same colour. And red appeals too, just because it looks so lovely when it catches the light. But the maintenance of it terrifies me, along with the subsequent expense, and we've all heard too much about how damaging hair dye can be to hair.

But for the braver amongst you, Schwarzkopf's Live Color XXL sounds right up your street: its Ultra Brights range features three semi-permanent colours in different shades of red to suit all personalities and tastes (Fiery Copper, Raspberry Rebel, and Pillar Box Red). While it can be applied to hair normally for bold and daring colours (after carrying out an allergy test beforehand of course!), but can also be mixed with normal hair conditioner for pretty pastel results (which should definitely appeal to people like me who fear that hair dye will damage their hair). It also washes out in 6-15 washes, meaning that you can also go back to your normal self easily if you're not a fan of the final result. At £5.49, it's also an affordable luxury. Maybe someday I'll also have the guts to have a go...in the meantime, I look forward to hearing all your stories of your hair-dye fun :)

Smoothing your skin into winter wonderment

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just one of the brands of body lotion lurking by my bedside

 If you're anything like me, you've got a whole host of body lotions by your bed (and in a big box under it...and stuffed into the bathroom cabinet...) in a quest to find the best one to keep you from turning into a lizard. From Molton Brown to Bath & Body Works, and from Villainess to Body Shop - you'll probably find it all within arm's reach at any given time at my place. Heck, my collection probably deserves its own postcode.

One of the perks of blogging is that I get sent quite a few different kinds to try. One of them is Deep Heat's latest version - great for easing physical and mental stress thanks to its aromatherapeutic qualities, and its warming sensation means it's great for autumn and winter too. People tend to go into overdrive in the summer, moisturising and buffing their bodies to a state of perfection so that they're ready for the beach, but come winter they tend to let themselves go. Not I: I'm constantly basting myself not just to combat dry skin and ageing generally, but also in pursuit of a luxurious experience that will make me smell lovely. 

Some creams and oils are extremely effective - such as Astral's body lotion and Johnson's baby oil, both of which I was also sent this year by generous PRs. However, they err more on the side of functional than spa-tacular, and when I get to choose, I'm looking for a product that not only leaves me smooth and strokable (sort of like one of those hairless cats) but also feeling like a million dollars - all year round.

The Japanese Cherry Blossom body butter...one of my undying favourites

Consequently, the Body Shop bodycare collection is one that I keep going back to. Catering for every possible need (including aromatherapy, massage, deodorants, and intensive foot rescues), they also don't forget the classics that people love them for while still adding new stuff. Their body butters are one such classic (and there's 50% off them online at the moment with the code 50BUTTER, woo!), and looking at the array of scents available, it's easy to see why one is sold every two seconds. There really is something for everyone, from the summery pink grapefruit to their typically spicy and fruity winter collections (candied ginger, anyone?). 

But for those of you who don't like the thick-and-creamy feeling so much, the Body Shop's fantastic body lotion offers a lighter option, without losing that sumptuous feeling. Browsing the website makes me marvel at and fall in love with their innovative concepts all over again. The classic yet creative Dewberry and Satsuma scents that I've loved since teenagehood is still there, but there are plenty of new ideas too. You can bet your bottom dollar that once I come back from this week's business trip to the south of France (OH isn't life awful?!), you'll find me down my local branch discovering their Love Etc body lotion (which contains babassu oil and grape seed oil), as well as their Dreams Unlimited lotion (its ingredients include sesame, brazil nut, shea, coumarin, lemon and geranium).

The Body Shop's 2008 winter collection

That should certainly tide me over until the Body Shop's newest winter collection (of which no word yet, sadly). It's great to know that there are ranges you can always rely on for efficacy and luxury - come rain or shine - and that thanks to this, none of us should have no trouble keeping our smooth summer skin in a state of winter wonder.

And the winner of the fake tan tights giveaway is...

STEFANIE HURRELL

Congratulations Stefanie! Please leave a comment below, or email me via soprano_seraph[AT]hotmail[DOT]com with your address so that I can send you your fake tan tights. Well done :)

Dashing for diamond

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It's Olympic time, and the nation is going for gold. But here at Bianca's Beauty Blog we're dashing for diamond - a classic trend which proves ever-popular. In spite of the market's bad press in recent years due to conflict diamonds, diamond sales jumped 53% in 2010, going up a further 26% in 2011. So it would seem that girls still love diamonds, and this is reflected everywhere in the fashion and beauty industries. Diamond rings remain at the top of the tree when it comes to engagements, Nails Inc released an amazing limited edition nail varnish in celebration of the Diamond Jubilee (encrusted with diamond-style stones; left), tiaras and sparkly silver eyeshadow continue to appear on the catwalk, and the Queen and Kate Middleton rocked the cameras with their Diamond Jubilee fashions. 

But with the passing of the Jubilee and the collection of silver, bronze and gold medals at this year's Games does not come the passing of diamond trends and treatments. Even the very word 'diamond' is continually used as shorthand for glamour and high quality - just Google, and you'll see a whole wealth of salons containing 'diamond' in the name (even when diamond-based treatments are not offered there). It suggests the customer will have a high-end experience, and the proliferation of the word in association with fashion and beauty implies that consumers continue to find the idea alluring.

But if you want to have diamonds on your face, and not just in an engagement ring, this too is possible. The new kid on the microdermabrasion block is diamond microdermabrasion (as opposed to crystal microdermabrasion). The diamond version acts more as a 'sandpaper' for the skin, using the diamond's hard surface to abrade uneven surfaces. Crystal microdermabrasion, however, shoots tiny crystals across your face, making the technique more like using a sandblaster. There are other differences too: the diamond treatment depends more on the skill of the operator, while the crystal option is more dependent on the machine (for example, how efficiently the equipment can shoot them across your face and how well the vacuum cleans up the debris afterwards). Naturally, both forms of treatment have their pros and cons: the diamond tips allow for greater precision in delicate areas, such as around the lips and eyes, and don't have to be replaced as often as the crystals. However, they cannot always fit the exact irregularities of skin, despite the existence of different wands for different skin types and depths of resurfacing. There is also the risk of transferring bacteria across the face via the wand.  

If all of that sounds a bit scary, plenty of beauty products that you can use at home give the diamond touch more effortlessly and less expensively. Judith Williams' diamond day and night creams retail for around £32 each on QVC, and include diamond powder for radiance. Even more affordable is Leighton Denny's Diamond Hand and Nail Scrub, which at £11 promises to invigorate and smooth (and all for less than the cost of a round of drinks). Finally, for bling at your fingertips, there's Swarovski's nail wraps, which come with strips of Swarovski crystals for you to make up your own nail art look. 

Diamonds are therefore definitely not going away - so take your marks and dash for diamond this summer.

Anti-age with your whole body

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It's fairly well-known that when it comes to anti-ageing prevention is better than cure, and there are many approaches we can take on a day-to-day basis to combat the ravages of time, all of which are basic and fairly well-documented: drink lots of water, exercise, moisturise, eat well, use sunscreen, don't smoke...

Given all of that, it's all very well for us young 'uns to be virtuous and say we'd never go under the knife. But how are we to know until we get there? One of my neighbours looks great in her late 50s/early 60s, but I wouldn't have known she'd had fillers if a little birdy hadn't told me (which just proves that cosmetic surgery doesn't have to make you look like you've been the wrong way through a vacuum). I know other ladies of a similar age who are considering treatments, and one of my colleagues in her early sixties certainly looks amazing after a few procedures (and you can tell these have been well done, for it took me a while to work it out, and she definitely doesn't wear a permanent expression of surprise on her face either).

And ladies considering plastic surgery are spoilt for choice. As well as the famous Botox, there are several other options, such as the more invasive nose job or facelift, fillers, or blepharoplasty (that's eyelid surgery to you and me). But what about more 'natural' options? After all, Botox is the most acutely toxic substance known to man, and some medical professionals have already responded to this concern through treatments such as Evolence, which uses pig collagen due to it being the closest possible to human collagen. 

But now there's a new kid on the block (well...kind of...it has been around since 1975, after all, which is longer than even I have been *cough*). Platelet Rich Plasma Therapy, or PRP, has also picked up a few more gruesome names in the mass media, such as 'Dracula therapy' or 'the vampire facelift'. However, all it does is take Evolence's idea a step further: instead of using pig collagen to plump up faces and reduce the appearance of lines, your own plasma from your body is used. And this treatment isn't just for older ladies, which the St Andrews-trained founder of La Maison de l'Esthetique, Dr Vincent Wong, also recommending the treatment for those who suffer with acneic skin, or have cellulite, sun damage or scarring.

The first treatment in the world to be 100% autologous (meaning the treatment is derived from the same person who's receiving the treatment - meaning it's closer to a skin graft than a blood transfusion), it's also perhaps up there with the quickest of them - from start to finish, Dr Wong promises that this only takes one hour. He also seems to be realistic, commenting that "heavy smokers and those who drink beyond the recommended limits are less likely to benefit from the treatment" and that like with most treatments a series of sessions is needed for the best results.

So how does it work? Here comes the science. Our blood is composed of two parts: the cellular part (with red and white blood cells) and the liquid (i.e., the plasma). In plasma, platelets are found, which release several healing-associated growth factors. During the treatment, a small amount of blood is taken and then separated so that the platelet-rich plasma can be extracted. This is then mixed with a calcium solution, which acts as an activator and stimulates wound healing and collagen production when injected back into the face. 

This more natural approach to beauty and skin repair can definitely seem appealing in the face of various chemical assailants found in other treatments and off-the-shelf skincare products (did you know, for instance, that some products contain caustic soda, which is also used in the home to strip paint and clear drains? Yep.). And this promising method of using DNA to repair skin also could have even greater consequences in, for instance, the world of athletics, where it is already being used as a treatment for injury.

With 3 sessions of PRP costing £1200 at Dr Wong's flagship Harley Street clinic, this isn't a cheap option in itself, but competes well with other methods of cosmetic surgery: fillers can cost up to £750 a session, for instance, while procedures such as a facelift can run into thousands of pounds. Even though I can't see myself having cosmetic surgery - mainly due to my chronic fear of needles - who knows what the future holds? And, either way, I'm all for newer and more advanced procedures like this one which rely less on artificial stuff and more on what our own bodies can achieve.

WIN a pair of fake tan tights

Yep, you heard me right. FAKE TAN TIGHTS.

Thanks to my friends at TIGHTSPLEASE, I'm giving away a pair of these (in medium):

In short, they're for people who've tried every fake tan method in the book: sunbeds, spray tans, lotions, sprays...and been disappointed with the lot of them.

Equally, they're for people who've never forayed into the fake tanning scene before and fancy giving it a go. 

Either way, they should be simple to use and give satisfying results. Put the tights on and massage your legs (they do provide a pair of plastic gloves too in case of staining, but there shouldn't be any), and when you take the tights off, you should be left with a gorgeous even tan. Once you've used the tights, they can be washed and kept as a normal pair of sheer 8 denier tights for you to wear all year round.

They're worth £10 and I have a pair to give away.

For your chance to win, comment on this post. It's just that easy!

The competition's deadline has now been extended and will run until August 11th 2012 (23:59 UK time), and the winner will be announced on August 12th 2012. Good luck!!

All packed and with nowhere to go?

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Suffering from the British downpours? Watching friends swan off on their holidays? Feeling even more sucky because the British rain is making your hair frizzy? 

Look no further: Perfumesclub.co.uk are hoping to not only fulfil your holiday hopes but also to sort your hair out with their latest prize draw. To boot, you can be sure you'll also be smelling sweet this year thanks to their other prizes: there are fifty £10 vouchers up for grabs to spend on the perfume site, as well as 100 Travalo refillable atomizer bottles to give away.

But those aren't even the main prizes, oh no! I hear you screaming "but what about my hair?!" The second prize is a pair of GHD hair straighteners (the Peacock model; available in green, blue or purple), ensuring you'll be the envy of your friends for free. The first prize is even better, though: a 2-night trip to Mallorca for two, including travel and accommodation expenses.

Any UK resident can enter via the Perfumes Club website, with winners being announced in October. It is so easy to enter (I just have) and who wouldn't want a free holiday in the Mallorcan sun? (Or GHDs, or vouchers, or perfume...)

And when you've entered the competition, you should take a look around the Perfumes Club site while you're there. As well as selling perfume, they also sell aftershaves and other products for men, and offer highly tailored search options on makeup and tanning products, which allow you to search by price, brand, age, required SPF, skin type, and more. The products are heavily discounted and are from end-of-line ranges by brands such as Shiseido, Piz Buin, and Clarins. In addition, you can consult their own blog, get advice from their resident beautician, use their gift finder, and watch videos. I'll definitely be bookmarking for my future purchases. Until then, though, I'll be sitting back and waiting to see if I won anything. Winning stuff rules :)

Gimme head with hair, long beautiful hair...

No matter how we like to style or wear our hair, looking good is a concern all year round. For some people, making their hair looks good requires the best possible kit at affordable prices - a combination which can be tricky to achieve with new, trendy bits of equipment seeming to arrive in the shops hourly and it becoming harder and harder to make your monthly wages stretch. But there are ways of keeping costs down and still keeping a hold on your style.

I understand the importance of browsing in the shops and having a chance to physically touch, look at, and sometimes even try the item before buying. But sometimes it can pay to browse in store but then buy online; even with postage fees it often works out cheaper. Google Shopping is one of my best friends for this reason.

It also pays at times to look in unexpected places. For a range of hair straighteners, for instance, would you have thought to try Argos? Or Lloydspharmacy for heat protection spray? These places, which are perhaps more famous for jewellery, gifts, prescriptions and TENS machines, also offer a variety of big brands and the latest technology at low prices - the heat protection sprays I mentioned start at just £1.99, for instance, while Argos' selection of straighteners sees BaByliss, Philips and Remington straighteners being offered at competitive prices.

But along with taking care of hair comes times when we want to remove it completely - unwanted body hair and the beach just aren't compatible, after all. I usually wax, as my local salon charges just €4,50 per zone - meaning I can get my legs, bikini line and underarms done for just €13,50. But waxing is often more expensive in other areas and plenty of people are on the hunt for lower-cost or better-value options. Expensive hair-removal creams and constant-maintenance shaving regimes are frequently frustrating alternatives. You can visit Argos for laser hair removal too in the face of costly courses of salon treatment - their options are priced affordably, and even their more expensive hair removal systems, such as the Philips Lumea and the Rio Salon IPL Hair Removal System, still work out considerably cheaper than a professional course of treatment. Plus, there's the upside that you get to carry out the treatment in the privacy and comfort of your own home, at your own pace.

It's things like this that sometimes make me think men have it easier - just a short back and sides at the barber's once a month to deal with, and the idea that body hair makes you more of a man means they can breathe much more easily. This is compared to women, who have to weigh up the costs of at-home hair removal versus the salon option, use four different products on their hair to remove the bed-head look and have to deal with hair dye on towels and ingrown hairs regularly. But luckily everyone - male or female! - can benefit from the one-stop-shop called Argos - complete with its laminated book of dreams - that seems to embody men's general desire to get shopping over and done with. Thanks to the system of ordering online or collecting in store, minimum queues and so much being under one roof, everything from model makeover days to laser hair removal is possible with next to no fuss. Great for those last-minute summer birthday buys and for great hair all year round.

This post was brought to you in conjunction with Argos

Have you tried the cure for overworked hair?

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Being a natural blonde, I've always fallen back on my tried and tested faithful on the rare occasions that I've actually been allowed to choose my own shampoo and conditioner: John Frieda Sheer Blonde. It gives smoothness and bounce like virtually no other shampoo and conditioner, without weighing my hair down with any lingering greasiness or heaviness. En plus, it gives great luminosity to already naturally great colour. Brilliant Brunette, the accompanying shampoo in the range along with Radiant Red, also does wonders for the brown-haired beauties in my family. It can really be said that there are John Frieda hair treatments for everyone, whether you're looking to colour your hair or reduce frizz. 

This is even more true with the arrival of their new kid on the block, the family of John Frieda Full Repair hair products. Touted as 'the cure for overworked hair', it not only includes traditional shampoo and conditioner but also has one treatment that's just for the ends of your hair (where damage is often most visible - remember those split ends?), and a heat-activated styling spray, which ensures you don't undo all of your good work during blow-drying or straightening.

Claiming to help strengthen and detangle hair, the shampoo is available not only in the form of a 250ml stand-alone tube, but also in a travel-friendly 50ml format. The conditioner is only available in a halfway house of 150ml, but bolsters the work of the shampoo through one of the product family's main ingredients, Inca Peanut Oil. When used in the Perfect Ends Deep Infusion in conjunction with crambe oil (which contains omega-9 and is a relative of rapeseed oil), it promises to "[absorb] into worn-torn strands instead of just coating the surface" and to "leave hair smooth, shiny and full of body". There's a Sheer Mist too for the ends of hair, for those who aren't fans of infusions and just like to spray and go.

The styling spray uses similar ingredients and assures us that manageability will be improved and hair will be protected from heat to create natural movement and long-lasting hold, which certainly sounds like something I could use (to keep a style in place in my hair often seems to involve the use of products with similar strength to cement). I also often forget to use a heat protection spray, but with this coming in a 100ml bottle that can come everywhere with me, there should be no excuses.

But there's more to the Full Repair range than this: also on offer are a Touch-Up Flyaway Tamer (to combat frizz all day - oh John, is there nothing you don't know about my hair?!) and a Protecting Root Lift Foam, which adds extra volume right from the roots of your hair, as well as providing heat protection and preventing breakage. It just needs to be worked through your hair before the use of heat styling products such as curlers.

While I haven't been sent any of this product range to test (yet!!) it definitely sounds like an excellent complement to my hair routine and one I can add to my arsenal of friendly, reliable products to fall back on when the deluge of free press samples subsides. (While I know other bloggers sometimes just throw products away, even if unfinished, or pass them on to friends and family, I always try to use up the vast majority of products I'm sent, leaving the opportunities for free choice few and far between.) It definitely sounds like it could be a 'cure' for me and that, as is often proved to be the case, John Frieda's products meet almost every conceivable haircare need.

On a Quorn-style quest for a higher-quality life

We're always being told that we are what we eat. On the one hand I am naturally sceptical of this: having suffered with acne for nigh on 15 years, and having found that no change in diet seems to have helped the spots at all, I have no real reason to believe in it. On the other hand, I spent a little over a year as a vegetarian, giving up only when I got myself a French boyfriend (now husband) and realised a move to France (the land of the carnivore) was a real possibility. During that time, not only did my food bill go down, but I was also slimmer and had more energy. Even now that I eat meat again, I am still a vegetarian sympathiser and don't see the need to eat meat or fish every day at all.

There are plenty of beauty-related reasons to go veggie - as stated above, even without any meat substitute, my energy levels were through the roof and I enjoyed a slim yet pear-shaped figure (just "slim-ish" these days!). But what about those days when you just really, really miss sausages? Meat replacement products like Quorn can be helpful in this situation (although not in France, where I now live: even though the situation is improving, I have in the past picked up "meat replacement" products here to find chicken in the ingredients list). For those of you who aren't aware, products like Quorn are made up of mycoprotein, which is a protein that chiefly comes from a fungus named fusatium venenatum. And this protein/fungus has a lot of beauty benefits - basically, it is a superfood.

• It's got all 9 essential amino acids, which are classed as 'essential' because the body doesn't make them - so we have to put them in. These not only contain anti-oxidants but also help to keep your hair, bones and nails in good condition. 
• It's low in fat, which can be good for slimming if you're trying to achieve beauty through thinness. 
• It's an alkaline product (other alkaline products include herbal teas, carob, and whole grains). This is good for your overall health: our diets should be 70% alkaline as our bodies find it harder to digest acids.
• It contains minerals, including selenium (which protects cells from damage), zinc (helps keep hair and nail cells healthy, and helps with detox), iron (which is important for collagen synthesis, and thus anti-ageing), magnesium (for healthy bones and teeth), and calcium (which is good for strong bones, hair, teeth and nails - which is great news if, like me, you don't consume much dairy).
• Quorn also contains plenty of B vitamins, which help with eye health, are anti-oxidants, help treat skin complaints such as acne, are anti-ageing and anti-stress, help with wound healing, and help to regulate mood.

Shepherd's pie - made with Quorn. Yes, really.

All of this (especially the bit about it helping with acne) made me wonder why I hadn't tried it (or at the very least, hadn't tried it for a very long time; I genuinely cannot remember if I ever sampled it during my vegetarian days, as I cooked a lot from scratch). I therefore set about trying to find some in France, which is as good as impossible. A shame, as I had (in a funny sort of way) been quite looking forward to sampling it. But it's certainly affordable (£2.09 for 2 quarter pounders, for instance), and could be a good, healthy way of satisfying a meat craving without actually eating meat. All other ingredients in your recipe stay the same, so it's hassle-free too. And if it helps your skin, your mood, your weight, your energy levels, your hair or your nails, so much the better, surely!

To set off on the road to a more beautiful and varied life couldn't be easier; there are plenty of recipes to get you going on the Quorn website and elsewhere. And let others know how you get on, be it here (should you have any beauty-related benefits to share) or on my other site, Ferret Food and Wines: make dishes! Upload pictures and recipes! Share your tips and experiences! You can also do the same on Quorn's Facebook page.

It looks as if I'll need to try Quorn in England if I'm ever going to (somehow I don't think I'll be able to convince my carnivorous French husband to become some sort of elaborate Quorn rustler on his trips to Belgium - where it is sold). But hopefully with the majority of my readers being in the US and UK you'll find it easier to come by - and will be able to report back on its effects on your skin, your health, your mood, and your life.

Net-A-Porter Faces of Fashion

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One of my favourite games when the weekend paper comes into the letterbox is to get out the magazine and drool over all of the fancy clothes and accessories - specifically through the "If I Could Have Anything" game. I look at a page of products, without looking at brands or prices, and decide which item I would have were money no object. The best part of the game is the rare occasion when you find that the item you've just been lusting over is under £100.

Viral video by ebuzzing

Now you can play the same game via Net-A-Porter's spring ad campaign (entitled Faces of Fashion): watch the video, and enjoy the exclusive peek into the luscious wardrobes of four of fashion's most stylish women (including Theodora Richards and Elin Kling), deciding just exactly what you would purchase too in an ideal world. Lamentably my fave item (this skirt by Miu Miu) is £720. Doh.

Further information can be found at http://www.net-a-porter.com/Content/facesoffashion#1/