Mini Summer Primark Haul

Who doesn't love a nice little Primark Haul hey?

I feel like I haven't done one in FOREVER, even though I shop at Primark all the time, but I'm one of those people who go in and buy a few bits here and there rather than a massive amount all in one go.

So this is more of a mini haul, but I love the things I bought so much I just had to share them with you!

I bought two of these rather plain and boring flip flops which were literally 90p each just to have as spare beachy shoes which can be quickly shoved on for summery beach or garden days. They are also so cheap so if they get lost, ruined or broken etc you it's not too much of a disaster...
As I have super large feet :( (size 8) I find it very difficult to buy nice sandals and flipflops around Summer time that go up to my size, as they usually stop at a size 6, which is SUPER ANNOYING.
So these were the only flipflops I could really find that went into a larger size.
The hunt for pretty flipflops in my size is still going for the time being!

Next I headed to the homeware section which is my favourite part of Primark, as it's all so affordable yet lovely! 
They also put it all into little themes so its easy to pick out parts that all match nicely together.
At the moment they have got their Spring/Summer collections in but I was good and restrained myself from buying everything.

How pretty is this?!
I love it!
I currently have 14 cushions on my bed (don't even ask) so I think this one being the 15th makes a nice little colourful addition to the ever growing family of cushions on my bed hehe.
It was £5!

Staying in the homeware section I also bought two of the cutest little photo holders I've ever seen.

I have a few real cactus and succulents in my bedroom so I thought these would tie in nicely with the theme in my room, and they will just look so cute next to my real plants, ahhh I love them.
They were £1 each :)

Moving onto clothes...

My legs are super pale - if anyone could recommend a easy-apply fake tan let me know in the comments!

I found these shorts hidden away, but they are a style I've been looking for for a few Summers!
I'm not really a shorts wearer as I don't really like my legs, and I especially don't really like to wear tight shorts, because I find them a bit uncomfortable and horrible to sit down in.
These are the perfect material!
They are light, airy, loose fitting and also have a cute pattern on them so that's a bonus.
I think these would be perfect for holidays and relaxed days in the sun, and they were a bargain at £5!

I also went into the pajama section which for some reason is another of my favourite parts of Primark.
Everytime I go in they have new pajama stock and designs and I love them!
After a looooong time of looking, I decided upon this little cute set.

Cactus again I know but they were my fav out of all the sets.
The trousers are fitted and tight but a thin material so perfect for Summer nights that are hot but get cold during the night, and the matching vest top is a nice loose fit as I don't really like tight fitting tops to sleep in.
Together they were £9.50, which was £6 for the bottoms and £3.50 for the vest top.

For my last item I picked up these cute little sunglasses for £3.

I already have a pair the same style but without the little pastel pattern around the outside, so these are to keep in my car just as an emergency pair, but they are so cute! And will look super cute in my car, hahaha these are things I think about - which are very important of course ;)

What have you bought at Primark recently?

Molly
xox

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Shampoo/conditioner Reviews For Thick Hair

For anybody else out there with incredibly thick hair you will most likely feel my pain on trying to find a shampoo and conditioner that cleans and rinses properly the density of your hair and doesn't leave a greasy or unclean feel, (unless you are incredibly lucky and found a decent one on your first buy). 

Both my parents have extremely thick hair and my Dad in his younger days used to rock an afro so I never really stood a chance of having normal thickness of hair - haha!
Don't get me wrong though, I feel incredibly lucky to have thick hair as I know some peoples are very thin and they spend a lot of money trying to get it thicker.

I have considered getting it thinned in the past but never have as it scares me that the thickness would never grow back and I'd regret it :(

In photos my hair doesn't appear that thick it's more until you actually touch it that you realise how much there is on my head!

But I will insert a couple of photos anyway so you can kind of get an idea...

So this is my hair freshly washed and blow dried upside down.

(Please ignore my dressing gown hahaaa).

This is the best photo I could find that shows the how thick my hair is so hopefully this gives you the general jist.

But then once straightened it just looks like normal hair - does that make sense?

Not that it ever stays that straight for long and ends up looking like the photo above - especially in the rain.

My aim is to help out anybody who - like me - finds shopping for hair cleaning products so difficult due to the type of hair we have!

I'm not one to spend a lot on products but feel like you get what you paid for in cosmetics so there is a mixture of price ranges but nothing too high-end.

I have tried all these myself so I'm reviewing how I found them to work on my hair, so hopefully some of you may find this helpful :)  

This was one of the first shampoos I started buying with my own money when I got my first job - back in the day!

It's super cheap and has a very strong apple smell which I used to get a lot of compliments on after washing my hair, which is always nice.

Unfortunately you do get what you pay for on this so for my hair this left it feeling quite dry and greasy the next day after washing.

Brand: Alberto Balsam

Shops: Boots, Superdrug, Tesco, etc

Price: Around £2 per bottle

Good bits: Smells great! And very cheap.

Not so good bits: Get what you pay for, leaves hair feeling a bit dry and greasy the next day, a lot is needed to wash thicker hair.

This was my favourite shampoo and conditioner for so long.

It smells really clean, fresh and is creamy and thick which helped it get through the thickness of my hair when washing.

I used this for a long long time and it seemed to be working great until my scalp started to look greasy straight after washing and blow-drying. 

At first I thought I hadn't been rinsing my hair properly but after a while - and the hair was still coming out the same - I  tried washing my hair using the same techniques just with a different shampoo (I used my boyfriends shampoo haha!) which proved once and for all that it was the Pantene shampoo making my hair greasy :(  

This could just be my hair type not reacting well to the shampoo after a lot of uses but I had to stop using it because it was noticeably greasy looking.

Brand: Pantene

Shops: Boots, Superdrug, Supermarkets

Price: £3.99

Good bits: Fresh smelling, cheap and creamy so gets through thick hair!

Not so good bits: After a lot of uses gave my scalp a greasy-look.

I purchased this shampoo and conditioner set to try and deep clean my hair and get rid of the greasiness that the Pantene one had given me.

It's a bit more pricey than a normal shampoo as it's a little bit more 'high end,' butt the bottle is huge and lasts for ages!

This is a great shampoo but one that I found for thick hair you only want to use once or twice a month just for a cleanse, as I found using this everyday or every other day much too heavy for thick hair and it gives it that weighed down and flat look which is not great!

Brand: Tresemme

Shops: Boots, Superdrug, some supermarkets

Price: £5 per bottle

Good bits: Smells great and gives your hair a good deep clean. Comes in a huge bottle so it lasts a long time.

Not so good bits: Can't use it everyday as it makes your hair a little heavy and flat, and more on the pricey side.

As I loved the Deep Cleanse Tresemme shampoo I went into Superdrug and looked at the other products they do and came away with this one. It made my hair SUPER soft and shiny and worked well with my thick hair.

If you have dry hair or just want to give your hair a bit more of a shine this one is great to use, although I would recommend only using it every other day or so rather than everyday as it's quite heavy and you don't want that flat look that I got from the Deep Cleansing shampoo!

Brand: Tresemme

Shops: Boots, Superdrug, some supermarkets

Price: £5 per bottle

Good bits: Makes your hair super soft and shiny, comes in a huge bottle so lasts ages!

Not so good bits: Bit more on the pricey side, and can make hair seem heavy if used too often.

Recently I started using this shampoo and although I love the smell and texture of this one, I feel like it doesn't work well with thicker hair types. 

A lot is needed to get through the thickness of my hair meaning the bottles ran out very quickly which worked out expensive to keep buying new bottles over and over. My hair also felt a little bit dry on the ends after blow-drying even though I always put extra conditioner on my ends to help them stay fresh. 

I think this would be perfect for thinner hair types - especially if you want a strong smelling shampoo!

Brand: Ultimate Blends

Shops: Boots, Superdrug

Price: roughly £3.99 per bottle

Good bits: Smells amazing, contains nice natural ingredients, well priced

Not so good bits: A lot is needed for thick hair, doesn't last very long, only sold in drugstores and not all supermarkets :( 

I came across this shampoo in my local supermarket when looking for a replacement shampoo as my current one (Ultimate Blends) had ran out, and ended up going back a few days later for the conditioner because I loved it so much!!

I'm using this currently and although I've only washed my hair in it two or three times I am obsessed.

I love strong fresh/clean smelling shampoos rather than fruity scented ones so this is perfect for me. It gives off a extremely fresh smell that you get wafts of during the day after washing which I especially like.

Although I bought this whilst on sale it is priced pretty well and the bottles are a nice size that should last a long while.

The texture of the shampoo is creamy and thick which works so well with my hair type. I put a decent amount (but not too much conditioner) into my hand, rub it through my hair and then comb it through to make sure it's got right into the middle and then rinse.

It's also extremely easy to rinse which is a god-send when having thick hair as this is usually the longest part of my shower - making sure everything is rinsed out of mountains of hair! 

Brand: L'oreal

Shops: Tescos/supermarkets, Superdrug, Boots

Price: £3.99 per bottle

Good bits: Smells AMAZING and fresh, good sized bottle, good price, thick and creamy which gets through thick hair nicely!

Not so good bits: None to find just yet...

Molly

xox 

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Skin & Hair Care Products Review

I love trying out new products, especially skincare.

My current morning and night-time face washes and creams etc are all pretty basic and I always come away after watching YouTubers routines feeling like I should probably put a bit more effort into how I look after my skin, (but too be fair who actually gives them self a spa treatment every night?!).

Free sample products from magazines I find really useful as they usually come in quite a decent size meaning they'll last at least two weeks before you need to decide if you want to buy the actual product or not.

I have a draw full of these little sample pots and some of them I love (such as the Ren day and night creams - which I've reviewed previously) and others I am not so sure about, but I guess that's what you get for trying out new things.

Some of the products reviewed below are sample pots and others are ones I've found myself whilst browsing in drugstores or things I've seen other bloggers use and give good reviews and I want to try for myself, so hopefully I have a few bits below you haven't tried yet and may want to go out and have a look for :)

Firstly I've heard nothing but good things about this Micellar water and mentioned it in an earlier post so won't go into it tooooo much.

A little of this goes a long way which I found out the hard way so just putting a few drops onto a cotton wool pad is enough to remove all makeup at the end of the day. The after effect of this product is lovely. My face always feels soft and refreshed and you don't necessarily have to use it for taking off makeup, it just makes a nice general face cleaner - especially if you've had a long day at work or outside and you're feeling like you need a refresher - this is perfect!

Brand: Garnier

Shops: Superdrug & Boots

Price: £4.99 (currently on sale for £3.29)

Good bits: refreshing, good value, little goes a long way, good sized bottle.

Not so good bits: Stings if it gets into your eyes when taking mascara off!

Would I use again & recommend?: YES!!

I think Ultimate Blends is my new hair-care obsession.

It smells amazing and does wonders for my hair.

I've recently got my hair cut from being quite long (scary scary time) so decided to buy a new shampoo and conditioner duo that would suit my newly length hair.

I picked this one out mainly because it treats split ends which my hair is extremely prone too and it also smells amazing. After using this for about a week or so I can tell you know I wake up in the morning and my hair would have been washed the morning before and it still feels clean and fresh - perfect! As for the split ends treatment..I'll have to give that a bit more time.

Brand: Garnier Ultimate Blends

Shops: Boots, Superdrug & most superstores

Price: £3.89 per bottle

Good bits: smells amazing, nice sized bottles, good price, easy to store as the bottles are thin! Keeps hair feeling clean on the non-washed days of the week.

Not so good bits: Have to use quite a lot meaning the bottles don't last as long. (But I do have very thick hair...)

Would I use again & recommend?: Yes!

This face mask was given to me free with a magazine and honestly I was drawn to buying the magazine due to this being inside. For a free sample the bottle is a pretty good size.

I've never used a face mask in this way before, I normally buy the little pouches where it comes out like black tar and you leave to go hard for ten minutes, this one is a little bit different.

It is a cream consistency and has exfoliating beads and the instructions say to spread all over the face avoiding the eyes and mouth and leave on for just five minutes and then wipe off with a damp flannel.

I did this after having a shower one evening when I was having a more 'pamper-shower' (basically I do all of the skin care and moisturising I should do every shower) and to be incredibly honest was left very disappointed.

When spreading the mask on my face I found the exfoliating beads very rough and uncomfortable and once the five minutes was up the mask didn't feel ready to come off yet - it still felt creamy and not especially hard or mask-like. The bottle didn't state how thick to put the mask on either so it was hard to tell whether you needed lots or not.

After taking off the mask my skin did feel soft and exfoliated and that was that really.

Until the next day when I woke up I noticed a really dry path next to my nose just under my eye which I quickly put some of my own Simple moisturising cream on!

I don't know 100% that this dry patch was due to the face mask used the day before but it seems a bit of a coincidence. 

I'm tempted to try it again just as an experiment to see if it happens again but I think it's put me off ever buying this product if I were to see it in a shop..

Brand: balance me treatments

Shops: Debenhams

Price: £18

Good bits: has a lovely fresh smelling scent, and skin felt soft after use.

Not so good bits: exfoliating beads felt rough on the skin and left face feeling a bit dry the next day.

Would I use again & recommend?: May try again but wouldn't buy for the price.

You may have seen a previous post of mine which featured the forest holiday my boyfriend and I went on in January.
During out holiday we visited the Eden Project (which is an amazing place may I just add!)
and in the gift shop at the end they had a selection of skincare products all made from natural, cruelty free substances. After boring my boyfriend to death from standing looking at all the products for ages (they were just so pretty!!) I decided to go for a hand cream, as when it comes to skincare its my hands that suffer the most from bad weather and get extremely dry.
It comes in this cute little jar - that I will definitely be cleaning out and keeping once it's empty - and it smells so strong of lemons, so if you like that sort of citrus smell you will love this!
The cream itself isn't too thick but it spreads really well and covers  lot of your hands with a small amount. 
The only thing I'd say that I'm not so keen on is I feel like my hands get dry again really quickly after using it.
I am prone to dry hands in the winter anyway and tend to carry hand cream in a tube around with me in my handbag or at work during the day and just use this particular hand cream before bed, so maybe I'm not getting the best benefit from it as I only use it once a day??
Who knows!
But it's not really the sort of cream you carry around with you,
one because it's in a jar so harder to just chuck in your bag and it also leaves a bit of a greasy feel after use (especially if you accidentally put too much on) so you may end up with slippery and greasy hands if you use it out and about!

Brand: 

Shops: Eden Project gift shop

Price: £5.50

Good bits: smells lovely and has good coverage

Not so good bits: leave a bit of a greasy feel, and my hands tend to feel dry quite soon after use.

Would I use again & recommend?: Still using it currently, and would recommend for a 'before bed' hand cream only.

Protecting your hair against high temperatures is SO important, especially if heat is used daily.
I've been using the same protection spray by Tresemme for about a year now but recently decided to try out something different and a little less on the pricey side.

I found this bottle when looking for my shampoo in Boots and it looked intriguing.
It's the same as a previous Ultimate Blends shampoo I've used containing natural oat and milk ingredients which gives it a lovely fresh and clean smell.

  What I love most about this product is how small and easy to store the bottle is (because I don't know about you but my desk where I do my makeup is almost over flowing with hair product bottles!) but it lasts for such a long time, which is exactly what you want - plus it saves you a little bit of money in the long run - woohoo!
I spray a small amount of this onto wet hair after a shower and comb it through before blow-drying.
My hair is quite prone to heat damage but I feel like so far this protection spray is working wonders - and it leaves a lovely scent behind with it :)

Brand: Garnier Ultimate Blends 

Shops: Boots and Superdrug

Price: around £3.99

Good bits: smells great, small easy to store bottle

Not so good bits: Only sprays a small amount out so needs a couple of sprays to cover the area you want it too, also not on the Superdrug online website :(

Would I use again & recommend?: Yes and yes! :)

For now that is all the new skin and hair care products I have been trying out and using on an almost daily basis.
I'll be sure to be doing more reviews/first impressions posts soon as I'm in need of some new makeup products - so keep an eye open for those or follow me on Twitter (linked below) to never miss a post!

Molly

xox

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Quick & Easy Vegetarian Cooking || Tomato Quorn Noodles

Following my last post which was a quick Vegetarian Q&A I had a couple of people who said they would like to try being a Veggie so I thought I'd try something a little different and show you an easy Vegetarian meal which I love to eat on those nights when you are going out and need a quick meal, or you just can't be bothered to cook a huge dinner!

I made this recipe up myself one evening when cooking for me and my boyfriend (who isn't Veggie but likes to eat the same as me every now and again) so it's one of those ones you can literally add or takeaway any parts you like or dislike, so enjoy!

- All ingredients and cooking information I will include at the end - 

Step one.)

Firstly I start off by heating a small amount of vegetable oil in a frying pan on a medium heat and then add a portion of Quorn chicken pieces which can be bought at most supermarkets.

Step two.)

I fry this for about 12-13 minutes until all pieces have gone a golden brown colour.
During this time they will need to be turned over using a spatula or spoon just to make sure they are all cooked on each side and it also makes them all an even colour so the end presentation looks a lot better. 

As this is Quorn so therefore meat-free you don't need to worry too much about it being under cooked.

My pieces were frozen before hand so it's just to warm them through really.

  Step Three.) 

Once 12 minutes is up, leave the Quorn in the pan and add a portion of noodles with another small drizzle of vegetable oil over the top just to help break all the noodles up and give them a bit more moisture. You also want to add another 3 minutes to the timer.

Any noodles of your choice can be used at this point! I just like to add plain ones but that's a personal preference.

Step Four.) 

At this point I like to add some vegetables just to give the meal a bit of colour and also a bit more flavour.

When I was cooking this meal I decided to put in a few pieces of cut up green pepper as I looooove the taste of fried pepper.

You could also add sliced carrot (this will need extra cooking time) mini sweet corn, garlic, green beans, anything really!  

If you want to add a lot of veg especially those which take a longer time to cook you could place them in a separate frying pan and then add them at the end so they cook a big quicker or steam them if preferred. 

Step 5.)

Once the last 3 minutes is up and all the vegetables are cooked I like to add a tomato and basil sauce for some flavour.

Tip the sauce in and mix until all the noodles are covered and then stir over the heat for 30 seconds or so.

Then tip into a bowl, serve and enjoy!

You can also add grated cheese on the top or olives etc for extra taste!

Ingredients used - 

Vegetable oil (roughly 2 tea spoons at start)

Quorn Chicken pieces

Noodles 

Vegetables of your choice 

Tomato and basil sauce

Grated cheese (optional)

Olives (Optional)

Cooking heat - 

Medium 

(my cooker is 1-6 and I usually use heat 4 all the way through and then turn it down to 1 for just stirring in the tomato sauce at the end)

Total time - 

Roughly 17 minutes depending on what vegetables are used.

Can easily be cut down to 15 minutes.

Rough cost to make - 

Under £10.

Easy rating of out 5 (1 = very easy 5= very hard)

1!

Molly

xox

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