How to Control Frizz on Your Winter Holiday + Winter Sun Giveaway

Now winter is on its way your hair is probably used to the cold, rainy weather here in Britain but once you step off that plane on your winter holiday this year into the heat and humidity of lands afar, the chances are frizz will attack. 

Even if you’re lucky enough to escape the heat then, by the time you’ve been in and out of the sea you’re almost certainly going to fall victim to flyaway hairs and messy tangles. So what can you do to control your frizzy hair whilst you’re away on holiday this winter? Here are my top tips on how to tame those locks and maintain the perfect hair on holiday. 

Hydrate Your Hair 

Damaged, dry hair usually means that the cuticles of your hair have been raised and it is this damage to the cuticles that cause your hair to appear frizzy. To help combat this problem, make sure that you’re using a moisturising shampoo and conditioner and try using a hair mask to help re-hydrate your locks.

Use What Nature Gave You

Your hair contains natural oils that help to combat frizz without even having to touch a bottle of hair care product. Avoid washing your hair every day to allow the natural oils to do their thing and use a boar-bristle hairbrush to help distribute these oils across your hair evenly. 

Don’t Over-Style Your Hair 

Being away on holiday gives you the chance to bathe in the endless sunshine, take a dip in the hotel pool or even splash around in the crystal blue sea. But all that sun exposure, chlorine and sea salt, unfortunately, isn’t so appealing to your poor hair. Understandably you want to glam yourself up as you hit the town in the evening but the trick to escape frizz is to not style your hair too much. 

Avoid blow drying your hair and if possible, try to find a style that suits you that doesn’t involve any heat styling at all. If you’re lucky enough to get natural beach waves, enhance these curls with a sea-salt spray or even use specially designed curly hair products to help add more shape and definition. If your hair can’t be tamed so easily try a simple up-do or an easy plait to keep your hair away from of your face.

To all my fabulous readers, I have been offered the chance of a giveaway, it is UK only and the winner will need to be aged 16 or over (or have parental consent because I will need your address) and you can win:

• 1 x Sheer Blonde bag
• 1 x Sheer Blonde Go Blonder Lightening Shampoo
• 1 x Sheer Blonde Go Blonder Lightening Conditioner

All you need to do is complete the form below - Good Luck

Some of the options are Mandatory and must be completed if they are not done so (and I check everyone) your entries will be removed from the competition.

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Boots No.7 Match Made Lipstick Service

I finally got my act together and went into a local Boots store to try out their matching service and the No.7 girl was so lovely she offered to do both foundation and lipstick - winning!  The match made service is totally free and the little device which is no bigger than the average television remote control, reads your skin precisely to decipher which shade of foundation, concealer and lipstick will suit your skin tone. 

So I sat down behind the counter and was asked if I was wearing any make-up, which as I was, it was removed for me and then the gadget was placed on my cheek and she did it on both sides of my face to ensure she got the right reading, both sides registered my perfect shades and before showing me the machine, off the lady went to collect the foundation to try on my skin and then gave me a card which listed all of the lipsticks I should try.  

My skin shade was matched to Cool Vanilla which gave me a huge amount of option with regards to lipstick, so I had a good time swatching them.  As you can see below there is a choice of 10 different lipsticks from the Moisture Drench side and 7 for Stay Perfect - all of which I swatched except Rose Mist as it wasn't in stock.

As I couldn't decide which shade I liked more than any others, the lady who was testing the products on me offered to make the choice with her colleague, which sounded interesting, so having agreed they went off and spent 2-3 minutes deciding which one they thought would look best and picked one for me. I wasn't allowed to see it until it had been applied and once I did see it, I knew I was going to be buying it. 

 The shade I was given is Spring Pink which is a No.7 Moisture Drench Lipstick designed to keep your lips smooth and soft. Hypo-allergenic, Fragrance free, SPF15.

As for the foundation, the shade I was matched too is a Stay Perfect Superlight foundation in shade Cool Vanilla which I have to admit is brilliant, I absolutely love it. Described as being a new innovation in life-proof, light weight foundation. It gives a naturally flawless look which stays perfect for up to 24 hours. It has an SPF 15 and is hypo-allergenic too.

The best part of the whole experience is that there was also a 3 for 2 offer on at the time, so I needed to select a free product and this is what I chose.

Overall, I am really happy with the service and wouldn't hesitate to try something like this again.  There will be pictures of both the foundation and lipstick in a future post as well as the highlighter.

 Have you tried it?

The Library of Fragrance Perfume

If you hadn't guessed by now, one of the most popular items in this household bwteen Beautykinguk and I is something smelly - either a candle or some perfume/aftershave, infact between us, we probably make The Perfume Shop look half empty! When I heard about the new launch of The Library of Fragrance, I was really excited, if you are a US reader then your version is called Demeter. The Library of Fragrance here in the UK has a massive collection of 101 different fragrances to choose from, and secondly, each of the 101 fragrances have been designed to smell exactly like an object and experience from life so imagine my difficulty when it came to selecting a scent!

I looked at each and everyone within the catalogue to choose from and randomly rattled it down to five - Jasmine, Holy Water, Bulgarian Rose, Peony and Rain. All of which to me sounded like scents I would love. That said Thunderstorm, Fresh coconut, Fireplace, Wet Garden and Play Dough are all quirky enough to have caught my attention.  So if you do struggle to select a scent and want to order a few, then you can actually layer these scents one over the other to create your own individual scent - how amazing is that?  This is the first time I have heard of doing something like that and it is definitely something i am going to try.

I was sent the Jasmine scent which happens to be my favourite scent currently and it is every bit as amazing as I was expecting it to be. firstly the packaging, it is such a great rectangular shape that it stands out immediately, then the label which is quite old-fashioned but clear to read, with everything you need to know being visible right on front of you. described as follows:

"Jasmine – exotic, sweet, warm and heady. Our Jasmine fragrance is the experience of the living flowers picked on a beautifully fragrant spring night – at night because this is when the jasmine flower opens its petals and bestows us with its most intoxicating fragrance.

Captivating and seductive, jasmine is one of the flowers most valued by perfumers, and is largely grown in the French region of Grasse, the home of perfumery. Jasmine’s mood-inducing scent is one of the most distinct of all natural odours. If you like your fragrance to make an impact and to announce your arrival, our Jasmine is the scent for you"

I absolutely love this scent and have worn it a lot since it came into my possession, it isn't over the top when first spritzed but it does last a good 4-5 hours before you need to re-apply and given the size of the bottle, it is a handy size for carrying around in your handbag.

You can purchase The Library of Fragrance's scents from their own website, or you buy from selected Boots stores. Each of The Library of Fragrance perfumes are 30ml in size, and cost just £15 each.

What do you think to this concept? Has any of the scents caught your attention?

MasqueBar

MasqueBar is a Korean brand that has just launched at Boots. As the Korean beauty trend seems to have well and truly kicked off here in the UK, I was really interested to see what MasqueBar had to offer.

There are four masks within the range and they are; Anti-Blemish Mud Mask, Brightening Sheet Mask, Pore Refining Creme Mask and Anti- Wrinkle sheet mask. So a little something for everyone.  If you don't like sheets masks, you can use the cream/clay mask and vice versa.

What I love is the bright coloured edges around each mask sachet to denote which one it is, I love little things like this and I love that they are easy to open, yes even with wet hands and if like me you are stingy, you can get a good 2-3 masks out of each sachet, obviously not the sheets ones, but there is plenty inside.

So what do they do?

Pore-refining creme mask - said to minimise the appearance of pores for a more refined even complexion. Using a gentle blend of Coenzyme Q-10 and anti-oxidants to leave your skin feeling balanced and looking radiant.  The key ingrediants for this mask are Raspberry extract to soothe and calm the skin, Lemon Fruit extract to detoxify and clean blemishes caused by excess oil production whilst also brightening dull skin and lightening the pigmentation of acne scars and Vitamin E to protect the skin from environmental pollution and repair damaged skin!

Anti-Wrinkle sheet mask - A collagen-infused facial sheet mask which contours your face to help reduce wrinkles as well as hydrating your skin, leaving it feeling soft and looking refreshed.  The key ingredients here are Green Tea extract which reduced the UV damage to the skin and prevents collagen breakdown and Vitamin E to protect the skin from environmental pollution and repair damaged skin!

Brightening Sheet Mask - Helps minimise the appearance of dark spots and pigmentation for a more even complexion. This facial sheet is effective on all tones, leaving the skin noticeably more radiant.  Key ingredients are Vitamin C to reduce inflammation and promote collagen production and Liquorice Root to encourage a more even distribution of melanin to naturally brighten the skin.

Anti-Blemish Mud Mask - This mask is said to soothe irritated skin whilst helping to control excess oil. This mask is a non-drying formula which purifies and balances the complexion, leaving skin feeling calm and looking clearer.  Key ingredients afe Tea Tree to calm irritations and breakouts, Kaolin to increase the skins circulation, helping to stimulate healing and reduce irritation and Vitamin A to stimulate the turnover of skin cells and increase collagen production.

I have used the pore refining mask and after thoroughly cleanses my face with warm water, you apply the mask using your fingertips, or a brush if you prefer, ensuring you cover the whole of your face (except the obvious) and neck. Then lay back and relax for between 15-20 minutes before rinsing with warm water. 

As I applied the mask to my face, it was quite a thick texture, so it is a case of a little going a very long way. White in colour as it is a creme mask, once applied to the skin it does begin to dry quite quickly, so if you want to remove after those initial 15 minutes it will be dry, but I decided to wait for the full 20 minutes.

After removing the mask did it live up to its claims? Well I don't have large pores so I didn't notice any difference but I do have combination skin which leans to an oily t-zone for me and I did notice that for a few days after using, my shiny head and nose had almost disappeared, so that for me was quite impressive and did my skin look brighter, well it felt much more refreshed and definitely much cleaner, so the answer for me is yes it did.

I am really looking forward to trying the rest of the masques which I was kindly given and put them to the test.  They will be sold in boxes of three at £9.99.

Do you use any Korean skincare products?  Do you think you will try these masques?