Saturday 30 June 2012

Clarins daily energizer!

Hey guys :)

Hope you're all having a good week so far! I've been working a lot and I am knackereddddd so just babysitting tonight chilling on the sofa! :)

So at work I got a couple of the Clarins testers; the daily energizer cleansing gel and the daily energizer cream. Clarins have ranges for different ages and this is the youngest age range for late teens/early twenties, obviously hence why I got these testers! I wanted a tester for the cleanser as my friend loves it but I have suchhhh sensitive skin I wanted to try it first! 

 I've only used this once and I love it! The texture is sooo nice, i've never used a gel cleanser before and it just melts and feels amazing! You can see it lift your make up off of your skin and it really made me feel like it properly deep cleansed my skin. It also definitely lives up to its 'daily energizer' name, my skin felt and looked so fresh and bright, also it was fine on my extreeeemely sensitive skin, yay! I may have to purchase the full size version once my tester runs out! The full size 75ml tube is £11 from most places which is also cheaper than the other Clarins cleansers!


My other tester was from the same range and was the daily energizer cream, I put this on after I cleansed my face with this cleanser and am also quite impressed with this!



 It smells really nice and again was a really nice texture which felt like it melted into my face; my face feels soft and moisturised but not sticky and greasy as some moisturisers can do! I hate it when moisturisers sit on your skin instead of sinking in, this product didn't do this it just melted straight into my skin! My skin did look healthier and fresher after this however the cleanser already did this so telling if the cream did or not is a bit of a hard one! I'll be interested to see whether these effects are just immediate and don't last, I hope they do as i'm really happy! I'll keep using the tester and see whether or not i'll be investing in the full size version, this hasn't impressed me as much as the cleanser but I definitely need to use it more! The full size 30ml pot is £20 in most places which again is cheaper than the other Clarins moisturisers!


I will try and do an update after i've used these products a lot more and let you know whether i'm still impressed or not! Have any of you guys tried a gel cleanser? I definitely recommend doing so! Have a good rest of your weekened!


Emily xxx

Thursday 28 June 2012

Scoliosis awareness month!

Hello guys :)

So I actually came on here to do my haul post but I can't get my pictures onto the laptop grrr! I'll try and do it when I can, meanwhile I'll do this post, I was planning to do it on Saturday as it's the last day of the month (I forgot to do it on the 1st) but ohhhh well i'll do it now! 

So this month is scoliosis awareness month which if you don't know it means a curved spine which is something I have/had.. It can curve in a C shape or S shape and can also twist therefore making you look wonky and obviously causing pain

My spine had 2 curves making an S shape with one curve bigger than the other, the bigger curve was around 46 degrees and obviously normal spines are dead straight. It's also a bit twisted which makes my ribs stick out a bit as if i'm breathing in. I also looked a little bit wonky, one side of my waist went in like it should but the other was straight, I didn't look as wonky as some people with scoliosis can as I had two curves and so it cancelled out a little bit!

My scoliosis was only discovered when I had joint pain and they realised one hip was higher and so did an xray which showed my spine was wonky bringing one hip up higher, at this point my back didn't actually hurt or anything, however the curve gradually got worse so causing  pain, eventually it got alot worse and was still curving and very quickly at that, and if it carried on part of my spine would have been sat in my pelvis and my organs would have got squashed sooo they decided they had to operate on it..


 This is my spine about a year before my operation but it did actually get worse than this, I don't have a more recent xray! Some people that have spinal fusion have posterior which means they are cut straight down the back and have it straightened and held there by rods and pins. However, I had anterior which means they went in through my side; they collapsed my lungs, took out one of my ribs and put pieces of it between my vertabrae because bone makes bone fuse.. (so the vertabrae they put it in is now fused as one bone) and held it in place with titanium rods and pins..

It was a major operation and had a small risk of paralysing or killing me but although higher risk than some other operations, still not a massive risk! And obviously it didn't happen to me :))

The operation took 5 hours and I was in intensive care for 24 hours and in hospital for 2 weeks, I had a tube in my chest for 5 days to drain out fluid and a catheter as I obviously couldn't get up straight away, after 5 days I sat up, then stood up, then took a few steps and gradually got more mobile so by the end of the two weeks I could walk to the toilet with a bit of help and my spinal brace.

I had to wear a spinal brace for 5 months which on the front was just canvas that went from under my boobs to the bottom of my stomach and the back of it was rock hard and went from my neck to the top of my bum, I actually liked wearing it cos I felt supported in it! I had to wear it all the time except I could take it off once in bed and put it on before getting up! It took a while to get back into things and for a year I have all these restrictions of no bending my back, no stretching, no twisting, no impact etc.. and it will take two years to fully fuse!

 This is my spine after the operation, allll straight :D it's like 9 degrees now so not perfectly straight but almost! It's also still twisted a bit as they can't correct that but it's not a big problem! If you look closely you can see where one of my ribs is cut off but I dunno how to explain where it is, on the left of the picture kind of in the middle haha! I think what they did is amazing, who on earth thought of this operation!!

I'm basically back to normal now apart from the restrictions and I still ache a bit but yeah basically normal! :)

Just me chillin in intensive care haha! Hello tomato face and TERRIBLE roots haha!! Oxygen tubes, 5 canulas, blood pressure monitor, heart monitor, pulse monitor, morphine button (yes I just had to press a button for shots of morphine ;)!!)

I went to Stanmore RNOH and I honestly think they are amazing! Best hospital I have ever been to and all the surgeons/doctors/specialists/nurses are just amazing! The play specialist Zoe even got rid of my needle phobia haha! All my nurses were so lovely, especially Emma and Carl my favourites hehe! I even got the nickname little miss sunshine cos I was always smiling hahah!!

Wellll, I hope this has raised awareness of at least one person! I was actually thinking about adding a page to my blog about scoliosis and also about Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (seee my EDS awareness post) as I know it would have helped me to read other peoples stories about it and I also have a few stories to tell about hospital, what do you think? :)

Have any of you got scoliosis or know someone that does? I'd loveeee to know!! :)

Emily xxx

Monday 25 June 2012

Liverpool OOTN!

Helllooo guys!

Can't believe I havn't posted in over a week aghh i've been sooo busy! Last week of college so I have been soo busy getting work done and i've had alot of other stuff on aswelll! 

So this weekend I went to Liverpool and it was amaaazing! I wanna live there just for the shopping, the shoes in St. Johns and the accent! I went up there as my best friend Sophie has family there and on Saturday we went to her nans 70th birthday party where we got her nan on the jagerbombs haha! It was such a good weekend, we went shopping saturday then to the party and on sunday we went for a bacon roll hangover cure and to albert docks which was SOO windy!!!! I literally got blown into Sophie haha! 

So anyway, the point of my post, here is what I wore saturday night!


 How unreal are my shoes from St. Johns market oh my I am in love with themmm! I dunno if you can see but they have studs on the heels! There are sooo many more I want from there!!

Dress - New Look sale £12 last year!
Blazer - Primark £15
Shoes - St. Johns market £20
Clutch bag - New look £14.99

I do have earrings and two rings but you can't see them... I'm gonna do a haul post soon on what I bought in Liverpool so they will be in there! I'll also put my shoes in there so you can see them properly :)

I've got Crazy Angel fake tan on in extra dark just one coat but two coats on my legs and also Rimmel instant tan on my legs, yes I like having dark legs haha!

This is me and my best friend Sophie! Her shoes are also £20 from St. Johns market!! Leave a comment if you wanna know where she got any of her outfit from :) 


Hope you all had a great weekend too! Have any of you been to unreal shoe heaven (st. johns) and got any shoes? I'd love to seee them!! :)


Emily xxx

Friday 15 June 2012

Weekend nails!

Helllooo guys! :)

Hope you've had a good week and are looking forward to the weekend! I'm babysitting tonight and working tomorrow, boooo! But i'm out tomorrow night and seeing my dad sunday so got that to look forward to! :)

Anyway, to the point of the post, I bought a new nail polish with my boots points so got it for free, wahoo! And it's such a nice colour I had to use it straight away! 

It's a Barry M one and it's called 'coral' and the random glitter one (why do I always do this) is also Barry M and is a limited edition one I got near christmas and I love it so much I bought two before they stopped selling it! It's got so much glitter in you can use it on it's own and it looks so good! The coral one I bought is actually slightly strange, in the light it looks orange and in the dark it looks a corally red, I actually prefer it when it looks more red but I still like it in the light! It does look bright orange in the picture but it is more corally!

I love Barry M polishes, they do such nice colours! Can't wait to try their chameleon polishes! I used a Rimmel 'stronger' base coat and a No7 top coat with two coats of the Barry M colours

Now i'm off to do some business coursework as i've got a bit of work to do before I finish college next friday, wooohooo! Cannot wait to finish, despite not finding a full time job yet and being a tramp for life in a cardboard box woopeee

Emily xxx

Tuesday 12 June 2012

My new hair protector and de-frizzer!

Hey everyone! :) 

I was in boots last week and had a voucher for £5 off No7, I love these vouchers! I wasn't sure what to get so had a little search about the No7 area and came across this product I didn't know they did! It's the 'hair protecting spritz' which is a UV protector for your hair




 It was £6 and so with the voucher only £1! I thought this was amazing for such a big bottle aswell and i'm all for hair protecting products seeing as my hair has been bleached, straightened, curled, dried, backcombed etc. many times! It says to spray it on your hair before you go out which I do however I decided to spray it through my wet hair after washing it and it dried so much less frizzier! I've used it like this a couple times now and love using it! 

I actually had two vouchers so I went back to buy these eyelashes...

 I havn't worn them yet but they look so nice in the box and don't look plasticy like some do! When I wear them which will hopefully be soon i'll let you guys know how they are! These were £7.50 and so £2.50 with my voucher


PS: i'm very very very excited as i'm going to be modelling in a hair show in London in a few weeks! My cousin is a hairdresser and is doing the show and asked me to be a model for it! I'm so excited yet very nervous that I will fall on my face or something haha! I'll make sure I do a post on the show with pictures and that! 


Hope you've all had a good day! :)


Emily xxx


Sunday 10 June 2012

My DIY shorts!

Hi everyone! :)

So I had some old shorts I never wear anymore, I think I actually only ever wore them once! They're from the New Look kids section and age 14! I'd seen loads of youtube videos on people dying their shorts and so thought I may aswell give it a go :)

 This is the original shorts, they actually look darker in this picture, they're paler in real life! 

 








I unpicked the stitches which luckily I had a proper un picking thingy, but it can be done with scissors if you're careful!


As I rolled them down, they were obviously longer so I cut them just with normal scissors! I didn't want a perfect line so I distressed them a bit just using my scissors along the cut edges. Thennnn I dyed them!

 







I bought a sachet of Dylon fabric dye in Powder Pink which was I think 50g and cost me £2.99 from Wilkinsons and you can use any old salt so I just bought some Sainsburys basics salt which was around 30p! The instructions are on the packet but you need 6 litres of warm water, mix in I think 5 tablespoons of salt and then mix in the dye. It says to wear gloves i'm guessing because it will stain your hands! You literally put the shorts in and stir them for 15 minutes straight, surprised I don't have popeye biceps! You then stir them regularly for 45 minutes and then I just left them overnight to make sure the dye sunk in properly! In the morning I rinsed them in cold water and then wash them by themselves in the washing machine and voila!




They look a lot more pink in real life but you can see how they've gone pink on the paler parts and slightly purply blue on the darker parts and I love how they look! I have also ordered some studs from ebay but they havn't arrived yet, when they do i'm gonna put them on one of the pockets I think! New shorts for about £5 is pretty good i'd say! 


I might buy some white shorts from Primark which are £5 and DIY them as they will take the dye better! I might try and do them tie dye so they get paler towards the bottom! If I actually do this I'll make sure I do a post on it! :)


So I definitely recommend you try this if you have some old shorts you don't wear! Have any of you guys DIY'ed some shorts? If you have or are going to i'd love to know how they turned out!


Hope you've all have a good weekend! Monday tomorrow, boooo!


Emily xxx

Wednesday 6 June 2012

Shoes wishlist!

Hey everyone! Hope you've had a lovely 4 day weekend or beginning of the half term! :)

I've been spending alot of time shopping and online shopping (probably a bad plan) and there is SO much I want! Especialllllyyyyy shoes! So here are a few, well quite a few, of the shoes I want!...

 My favourites are probably the first new look ones or the first topshop ones! I just love shoes, why can I not have a huge cupboard full of every existing gorgeous shoe! :( So unfair!

Anyway, i'm off to have a shower, wash my hair and fake tan, wooopeee :) Anywhere that sells gorgeous shoes I don't know about?! Let me know!


Emily xxx