Ask Her Friends Website Review

I love Christmas. Really really really love it. I love the cold weather, curling up in woolly things and fluffy socks, the food, cinnamon candles and the festive spirit. But most of all I love giving presents! (And lets be honest, I love receiving them too ;) ). So when I got an email asking me to check out a new website called AskHerFriends to help present buying I was really interested.

Ask Her Friends is a website which helps guys to pick out presents for their female loved ones (although I've been using it to find my mum pressies!). The website asks you who you're buying for (for me I chose mother), then price range (I chose £30-£60) and then there are two options 'That's all I know' or 'Wait there's more'. If you select 'That's all I know' you get loads of possible presents turn up, which isn't too helpful. But if you chose 'Wait there's more' (and hopefully most people know at least a little about the person they're buying for :P) you get further questions about the person to help narrow down the presents.

Ask Her Friends homepage

The question part is called the 'Idea Map' and I always find these things fun :P It has a couple of questions about what she normally wears and a couple about what activities she likes to do. The best part is that you don't have to select just one answer, useful when the person falls into more than one category.

Idea Map

Ask Her Friends finds presents fitting your answers from loads of different retailers, so there's a great variety. Here are the top four picks for my Mums present, and apart from the first dress I think my mum would really like them, so I was quite impressed :) Luckily there's a handy little 'She won't like this' button under each item, so it can switch with another.

Top four present choices

 Next you can create an 'Advice List' of the top three picks and if you need to there is an option to email these choices to the persons friends to ask if they think they'd like it (very useful for the slightly clueless males using this :P).

The website also acts as a normal shopping website if you want to, so you can just browse what's on there. Once you click on something to buy you're redirected to the original website for the item and buy it through them.

Overall I'm really liking this website, it's fun to use and I can imagine boyfriends, husbands and brothers finding it especially useful when they want to buy something nice, but don't know what! I'll be recommending this to all my male relatives (and probably some female ones as well :P).

The only downsides I can see are the fact that you have to know the person relatively well (but if you didn't you probably wouldn't be buying a present for them anyway) and that if you have lots of people you're buying pressies for the whole question part could get a bit time consuming.

Sunny xxxxx

Diorskin Forever Foundation Review

Hello! I've caught the dreaded winter bug that's been going round, so I'm curled up in bed (as I often am :P) with tea and tissues. It's days like this where I just want to go home, curl up on the sofa, watch tv with my darling mum and eat her delicious leek and potato soup, I hate being a 'grown up' sometimes :(

Anywayyyy, a couple of weeks ago I decided I wanted a foundation for nights out. I have Chanel's Perfection Lumiere, which is perfect for daytime, but I wanted something else. I decided to try out Dior, as I'd been eyeing up their foundations for a while now. The assistant slathered my face rather inexpertly with Diorskin Forever in shade 010. It looked ridiculous so I asked for a sample so I could take it home and try it out properly.

When applied with a sponge, and being not too heavy handed this foundation is just lovely. It feels so smooth and fresh on my skin, not heavy at all. It's a light to medium coverage, but I just added a little concealer over blemishes. I had enough in the sample to test it on two nights out, one with dancing and one just drinking with friends. It was fine for a quiet night, but I found that when dancing was involved I needed a little powder to set it.

My little sample bottle

One thing I did find is that it doesn't have incredible lasting power. It's fine for a night out, say four to five hours, but any longer and it will fade. I used my Smashbox photofinish primer and powder to keep it in place, and it worked well.

As this is a high end product, it comes with a high end price tag, £31 from Debenhams. Personally I think spending a little more is worth it for a good foundation as it really pays off. I'm going to have to save a bit before I can get this though > . <

Sunny xxxxx

Happy Halloween!

After going out two nights in a row I am dead...or as close as you can get whilst not technically being dead. I'm going to curl up, eat soup and recover today, but it was so very worth it.

I love dressing up for Halloween, or any other occasion really, it's just so much fun! As my brain isn't really working well enough for an actual post I thought I'd just show you what I dressed up as for both nights :D

The day before Halloween I was a zombie, such an easy choice :P White face paint and some fake blood. I decided to be a zombie in a cute dress because I hadn't worn it out yet...

On Halloween I went to a house party and everyone was dressed up really really scarily. Everyone put so much effort in, and with the smoke machine making the house misty it was terrifying > . < Especially my friend dressed as a ghost girl with a pale face and one white contact lens *shudders*. I decided to dress as a broken doll.

Now I'm going to crawl back into bed and vow never to drink again...

Sunny xxxxx

Naughty Topshop Purchases

Hello ^ - ^ I'm feeling good today, I've just finished and printed my salt marsh report (just need to hand it in now) and I'm going to Teifi tomorrow for a weekend of kayaking ^ - ^ I'm sure I'll be shattered when I get home but it's going to be so much fun!

One of my friends works in Topshop and she had an eight hour shift the other day, so I popped in to say hello and try and alleviate her boredom a little. Big mistake. I ended up trying on so many beautiful outfits and accidentally buying two items, spending £60 > . < As I am a poor student I might have to skimp on food for a while...

I got these Leigh trousers, in a kind of washed black colour, with a teeny hint of purple. I love these trousers and already have three pairs in different colours > . < I'm such a shopaholic.

Next is this pretty pretty little black dress. It was on sale for £18, originally around £30, so I had to have it. I don't have a plain black dress like this, so I thought it'd be great for nights out, or just daytime wear too.

Carefully avoiding my currently manky face...

I would say that that's work on my laptop...but no it's facebook :P

I went to the doctors today and she told me to keep moisturising my face and to take antihistamines as it is an allergic reaction > . < If it's not gone in a week she might give me steroid cream which I REALLY don't want :( Hopefully two days of kayaking in freezing rivers and two nights of getting completely smashed won't be too bad for my face...

Sunny xxxxx

(p.s. I've been listening to Taylor Swift's new album non stop since it came out, I think I'm in love * - *)

My Terrible Skin Week

I've had four days of skin from hell. It started with me buying a new face wash on recommendation from my friend, it was quite cheap so I thought I'd give it a go. It was Biore's Ice Cleanser which I bought from Boots for about £4, I'd never used it before, but it said things like 'removes 99% of dirt and oil' which sounded good.

The first time I used it I felt the 'ice' sensation, it didn't hurt, it just felt pleasantly cooling. That evening I used it again and accidentally got it onto the side of my mouth, which really stung. I used it again the next morning, but during the day I realised that my face was feeling really tight and uncomfortable. I moisturised, but I think the damage was done.

My skin is now red, sore, itchy, bumpy, rough and flaky, with a few breakouts to add to the fun. I've never experienced anything like this in my life ever before, and I really hate it. I can't wear make up, I can't put my face under water in the shower, it just hurts too much.

I have an appointment to go to the doctors in a couple of days, and hopefully I'll be given some magical cream or something to fix the mess that was my face.

The ironic thing is my face was actually getting better. Since getting the clarisonic mia for my birthday I've had lovely smooth skin, a bit of purging, but I was just getting over that. I haven't washed my face properly in four days, so I'm afraid all the hard work my mia's been doing will be wasted and I'll have to start again :(

In happier news I got to go out on my uni's research boat yesterday to catch and record benthic fish. Apart from accidentally taking the drowsy seasickness tablets (I fell asleep on a plastic chair on the deck for a couple of hours) it was great fun. Lots and lots of little sharks, rays, gurnards and other exciting things :D

Sunny xxxxx

(Late) September Favourites!

September has been such an amazing month! Back to uni, my first time living in a house without my parents (scary scary), fresher’s, and the start of my second year! With every new month comes new favourites, so here are a few of mine:

Umberto Giannini Overnight Beauty Moisture Balm :

This stuff is magical, it feels like a really thick moisturiser for your hair. I don’t use it every night, just when my hair feels a little dry (especially recently as it’s getting colder and windier). When you put it on it feels a bit greasy and too much, but as you sleep it sinks in and makes your hair look much better conditioned and less dry. It also lasts for ages, I’ve had mine so long that they’ve changed the packaging of it! I noticed in Boots the other day that the drawing of the girl on the front has changed :P

John Frieda Frizz Ease Curl Reviver Styling Mousse :

After washing my hair I run a small amount of this mousse through my hair and it helps keep my wild lions mane of hair under control. Especially when I leave my hair to air dry, but this also helps when I blow dry it too. I really love the Frizz Ease collection, but this is the one thing I always have to have, it’s become a necessity, and although I use it all year round it’s become especially useful now that the weather’s been turning.

Re-Gen Cream :

Unsurprisingly my favourite new product of last month, in conjunction with my Clarisonic Mia (not a favourite this month as I haven’t been using it long enough) my skin has been looking so much clearer, for a full review look here.

Benefit Benetint Lip Balm :

Benefit’s famous Benetint stain as a lip balm, it’s so convenient to carry around in my bag and top up if I’m on a night out. The colour is rich and glossy, it’s a lot deeper in colour than a lip balm and it gives a lot of colour (not as much as a lipstick of course), but I love using this when I want a bit of colour on my lips.

Non beauty favourites:

Pokemon! :

I never really got into Pokemon when I was little, but all my housemates (and my boyfriend :P) play it.  So one of them gave me his old gameboy and Pokemon Red, and I’m now obsessed. We once spent a very hungover morning (technically afternoon :P) all sitting in the living room, not talking, just playing Pokemon. We’re such wild Uni students :P

Firefly :

The most favouritest of my favourites of this month! How have I never seen this show before!? In my first week here it was only me and my housemate Ben in the house, and he bought Firefly on a whim because he heard it was good. Our friend Amy really, really loves Firefly, so we all watched the entire series over three days, just curling up on the sofa in the evening (this was before fresher’s so there weren’t many nights out) and watching three of four episodes in one go. We still have Serenity to watch, but once that’s been seen it’s all over! I almost don’t want to watch it so I can know that’s there’s still more to go....

Sunny xxxxx

New Bedroom!

Hello! I've finally arrived at uni, but as of yet have no internet :( So right now I'm curled up in a pub writing this. But in two weeks I'll be able to curl up in bed using the internet!

I thought I'd just make this one a quick post showing you some pictures of my new room at uni :) I've put up loads of posters and pretty things to make it girly and homey. Unfortunately my wardrobe is tiny (the brown cupboard above the bed, so I need to find a separate place to store my big bulky winter coats, not sure where yet...

Loads and loads of photos

I need to organise my makeup better

My shelves

I'm sure it won't stay this tidy for long...

In two weeks I'll be back to regular posts!

Sunny xxxxx