Hi, I'm Selina. I have just completed my degree at the University of Manchester and now work for my favourite brand Motel Rocks as the Promotions Assistant in Bristol! I am originally from Birmingham and studied in Sweden for a year too. Have a question?
Check out my about me page or email me at jelibaby[at]hotmail.com
I'm going on holiday to Madrid in two days ahhhhh!!!! I am so excited but also quite stressed as there seem to be a million little things to do and I have to go from Birmingham, so I have to do everything in advance. Hmmm. My solution recently though is to pack lightly on purpose, as if you try to pack a 'normal' amount, it will always feel like you have forgot something. At least if you pack lightly, you know you will only be dealing with a little load! I have eight dresses for 3 and a half nights though, oops.
So in prep, I got my favourite EVER polish put on, which could well be the last time I have gel nails for a while. My nails are so weak and thin underneath, they definitely need a break finally! I might get my gels off for a few weeks and obsessively apply coats of strengthening polish and oils. The polish is W7 Fluorescent Pink 2 (the 2 is very important) and it's a half fluro coral, half hot pink which is impossible to photograph! This is almost the right colour.
Then I've been curling my hair lots recently as I had a silly brain wave when I was fed up of my hair being flat on the top. No amount of backcombing would solve the problem but then I realised why don't I make sure the top section has curl to it so it naturally doesn't lie flat anyway... duh! Also curls seem to make your hair look longer too!
I just got a new Denman brush in the epic Boots 3 for 2 deals on right now so that should spruce up my blow dry as I've had my usual two brushes for years now, even though I do clean them (just wash them in a bowl of soapy water!). Then I really want the ghd air hairdryer and Peacock Collection styler with the purple plates - I love Katy Perry!! Anything mermaid related and I'm in. In fact anything celebrity related and I'm in; I still haven't had the guts to wear Viva Glam Nicki!
This is the colour of my hair right now as I'm still topping up with the £1.29 (previously 99p!?!) Superdrug dyes that are only meant to last for a few washes, so I use a small bit with most washes. I thought for a time they were being discontinued (oh the horror!) but they've just improved the packaging and er, upped the price. No worries though, these babies are my saviour!
Now I must go and write more lists and most likely forget everything ahh! Now where is my passport...
Hello! My short and sweet Aussie Giveaway is now over and the winners have been picked! I will be emailing and tweeting you for your addresses and chosen products for your Summer Party packs, yay! Thank you to everyone who entered, I was worried no one would!
In the end I could not pick out seven winners as there was so many funny and delightful reasons why you guys are celebrating right now! So I did pick 6 at random, and one special winner is Sarah of Sweet Potato Sarah because without her internet suggestion (I've been using BT Openzone for the past week!), I would not have been able to run this giveaway or blog at all for ages, or would have spent £££ on a dongle or at internet cafes! Yay! Here are the winners and a snap shot of their excuses to party:
Sarah: I'm celebrating having a second interview for a potential job this week! I've been looking for months and I'm so happy to finally have a chance to earn some cash :D
Lauren: I'm celebrating my little sister getting engaged!
Rebecca: Well, in roughly a month's time I'll be celebrating re-freshers back at uni - does that count?? For now, it's just being at home, and trying to get free drinks in every bar in my home town by bullying my friends into doing gigs, aha!
Seonaid: I'm celebrating my 21st birthday this Sunday! I'm so excited - for some reason I feel like this is the age when I will officially be 'a grown up'. Haha!
Helen F: I'm celebrating the fact that it's 3 weeks today until my trip to Barcelona :D
Shannon: I'm celebrating my first ever trip to Paris! I am an Aussie, and I've been living in London for the past 9 months but I still haven't made it to Paris yet. So this weekend I'm biting the bullet and taking myself off to the city of lights all by myself. Sooo excited!
Lucy D: This week I am celebrating leaving my incredibly boring and unfulfilling day job and going off to be ultra broke pursuing my dream of becoming a radio producer. Friday is my last day, and I can't wait to not be stuck behind a desk any more.
Congratulations ladies! I wish there was a prize for everyone xx
Hi all! I have a very special and out of the ordinary post today as I have a giveaway! Stop if you think 'ah I never win anything' because times are changing as I have seven prizes oooo.
If you read lots of blogs, you may see people going off to Aussie Hair Care parties and adventures and I always though, I wish I was invited! Well it seems you can actually apply to be an 'Angel' and I did just in time for this theme - Any excuse to party! As it's 110 years since Australia became a country (literally any excuse to party right!), they are having a huge bonanza in London this October and are celebrating with limited edition packaging covered in fireworks. I received a Summer Party pack after much hunting and waiting for the postman, and seven of you will receive a Summer Party Pack too!
They will include an Aussie product of your choice in the limited edition packaging, from the Take the Heat, Miracle Moist and Luscious Long collections. Then one winner across all the Aussie blog giveaways will win TEN tickets for them and their mates to a huge Aussie party in October in London with all the Aussie Angel bloggers! If you are a blogger, this will be an event not to be missed.
So to win one of seven Aussie-versary Summer Party Pack prizes and be in with the chance of attending the big party, just comment here telling me something you are celebrating! This giveaway is quite well timed as I am going to celebrate loads on the weekend as my friend is visiting who just actually spent months away in Australia, yay! So what do you have to celebrate? It can be big or small; maybe you've over the moon with your A Level results, maybe you got a bargain in the reduced supermarket section, maybe you got a text from that guy! Everything counts! I will draw out of a hat I think as I am terrible at making a decision, let alone seven.
I don't usually run giveaways as this blog is more like a diary and I don't really 'push' it out there, it's just happy in its own little internet corner! However Aussie do incredible things for their campaigns, they're really impressive and I haven't used their products in years; I did when I used to straighten my hair as a fresher four years ago! That smell of the Frizz 3 Minute Miracle haunts me from then but I am trying out the Take the Heat products now, yum.
So what are you celebrating right now? Check out the Aussie collections to name your favourite product in your comment too and don't forget to leave your email address or Twitter so I can contact you if you win! You only have 24hrs so this giveaway will end at 10pm on Tuesday 23rd August! I'm sorry, this is only open to UK mainland residents, Aussie's rules! Good luck!
P.S. OMG on the Aussie site I just spotted they have a weather forecast you can download which warns you of frizzy hair weather! I check the weather every day without fail to dictate my outfits and apparently tomorrow has 46% humidity so I'd better overload on serum tonight! I just washed my hair as I went to the gym and holey moley am I going to hurt tomorrow! I thought their 'legs, bums n tums' would be more of a classic church hall-type class but it was so hardcore and I can barely walk!!
Hi all! You may or may not know that a couple of months ago, I took part in a John Frieda live web programme where I straightened my hair on webcam! Haha that sounds very random but it was to try the 3 Day Straight Spray. You can see an edit of the whole show at the end of this post which was FULL of hair tips, like how you could start from the top rather than the bottom to dry your hair so your top layer looks the nicest. I always go from the bottom and end up not being bothered when I finally get to the top layer of my hair! I made YouTube videos on how I dry and style my hair a few months ago too but here are the products that I'm using right now. Some are LOVES, some are strange and some are damn necessary, a lot like air. If you have any recommendations for me, I'd lovelovelove to hear! P.S. Bought all ths myself, no sponsor or anything (or ever!), just felt like talking about hair!
I have two sets of products, one for frizz taming and drying and one for pumping up the volume and sorting out a third day 'do!
John Frieda Frizz Ease Straight Fixation Light Weight Creme: Anyone with frizzy or dry hair will know a cream is an essential as sometimes you want to tame and soften if everything's gone a bit like straw. This cream goes a little sticky too which helps mould my curls and define them.
John Frieda Frizz Ease Serum Extra Strength Formula: NOTHING is like this! I've said a million times that when I lived in Sweden, I actually spent £12 on this per bottle, and the millimetre of product at the end of the bottle really does last weeks as I used to use mine up 110%! When I section off my hair for blow drying, I'll put a pump through each part (about eight sections in total) so the serum is then almost dried into the hair so it really penetrates it and drys smooth. Then I'll rub some between my fingers and run it over each curl a few hours later to define them so they hold for longer. Sometimes I'll rub a pump lightly through my hair maybe on the 2nd day to keep it sleek. No other serum is as thick as this so it goes a long way.
Kerastase Elixir Ultime: I haven't had a JF Serum in months because I was trying to use this up, but it lasts forever and ever! It's the same thing as Moroccan oil as it's got argan oil in it, and a bunch of others, but it's just too thin for my hair. It makes it soft but I prefer my hair to have hold, so I have defined curls rather than loose waves.
The main thing in my volumising routine is my Denman Dressing Out backcombing brush but I must have left it at home, damn! It's really thin so you can get right to the roots of your hair. I always backcomb my roots a bit just under my top layer of hair or else my hair hangs flat when I have just washed it. And then on a night out, I love BIG hair!
Schwarzkopf got2b POWDER'fulVolumizing Styling Powder: This comes in one box for girls and one for boys, LOL! I was tempted to buy the boys just because they're exactly the same product. This is basically a powder that you rub into your roots (I shake it straight onto my already backcombed roots as rubbing it into your hands first just gets rid of it) and it makes your hair matted. Matted hair sounds gross and it smells BAD but it really locks in your teased hair for days! And no one is really going to start feeling your scalp right?
Batiste Dry Shampoo XXL Volume: I have heard loads of hype on this but it isn't great! When I first got it I was impressed but realised your 'volume' doesn't last until you even step out of the house so what's the point?!
TIGI Catwalk Root Boost: I have had this for a while but recently fell back in love! It's a mousse but comes in a spray can so you don't need to squirt out a huge blob and get it all over your hands. I spray it in my teased roots for extra hold but also spray a fine layer over my curls and gently pat it in, which makes then super defined and shiny. They have hold but they aren't crispy or stiff!
Schwarzkopf got2b 2sexy Hair Spray: OMG go buy this!!! Seriously!! This is my tenth can maybe? It smells like raspberries and has hold but doesn't give your hair crunch. You won't want to stop spraying it! And Boots have it for half price at £2 right now! Or maybe it's Superdrug, I'll have to check in store. Before I buy anything, I check in Boots and Superdrug first to see which has the best deal! But the new Superdrug beauty card has 10 points per £1 while Boots is only 4/£1 I believe, so you must factor that in.
TIGI Bedhead Defrizzer, Smoother, and Instant Restyler: I was walking in Bristol town and nearly bypassed a girl promoting things when I heard 'free hair product' and was like 'Well, hellooo!' She gave out some samples and also a hair scratch card (omg scratch card from heaven!) where I won a free TIGI product from a salon. I couldn't decide between a deep conditioner or red hair shampoo but in the end I got this spray in an INSANE bottle. Really this product should be in a mini bottle as it's for touch ups a few days after you wash your hair. Sometimes when you have washed your hands, do you feel like smoothing them over your frizz while they're still damp to calm it down? However you don't because you know adding any dampness to your hair will result in more frizz later! This product seems to slightly dampen your hair at first so it's just like smoothing down your frizz but it doesn't end up frizzier. I'd love this for the end of the day if I'm going out straight from work as it really refreshes your hair, but the bottle is just too mental and huuuge.
Check out the John Frieda show here and see me with suuuper straight hair haha!
My wardrobe isn't as big as my sister's, who accepts all my castoffs willingly, but I do have a few things that I don't take to Uni that I just sorted through. Hopefully there will be nice weather over the exam season, and then during the week after when you recuperate! If you've read for a while, you might know that I used to be a vintage fanatic and spent loads of time on eBay US hunting secondhand summer dresses. Now I don't really have time for those dedicated searches but I have a stack of dresses I've just been looking through. All the above are vintage apart from the Topshop cherry dress. I'm not sure if I'm too old for the one on the right as it's a teenage Jessica McClintock Gunne Sax dress, very pale and embroidered. Maybe if I wore it in a bit more of a boho Kate Moss way?
I also have the floral playsuit that I wore on a blogger trip to Paris, it needs some alternations though! It seems handmade in the first place as the metal zip is a bit weak and the stitching has came away on one of the straps.
I also have this super cute romper/playsuit I got on eBay US too. The vintage clothes on there are less 80's than on the UK site. I'm quite long-waisted so this playsuit is a bit short, and also the bones have moulded into a funny shape from storage. Do you know any way to shape them back?
Haha I also got these cuuute tissues from New Look and had to show them!
If you're free this bank holiday, I made another video of a little haul and haircut you might like to see. At the hairdressers they usually dry it straight so I won't wear it like this but I went to Nicky Clarke in the Mailbox instead of Umberto Giannini in Selfridges for a change and really liked it, I would go there again! Happy Easter everyone!xx
Wooooo exams are over!!!!!!!!!!! I am so happy, soooo happyyyy! Although I have lots of dissertation work in, at least I don't need to spend every waking moment revising like at least the past 6 weeks. I was a bit naughty anyway and did my nails this week, it's silly to revise with no breaks or fun! And bejewelled nails are good to inspect at boring times such as on the bus instead of playing with your phone. I was in the mood for pink this week- no black at all! I also rounded my gels just by filing the sides, they look shorter but I think the shape is nicer! I added the sparkles at Blingee.
I just did the other hand leopard but didn't have time to do anything to the ring finger! Below are some pics from some amaaaazing nail blogs I found, they're photos from salons in Asia. I wish I could go there! As I'm applying for things to do next year, I keep looking at placements there but most mean you actually have to pay to do some kind of internship?!
The cartoon nails are from aminail and the gemmed nails are from Cynful Nails. I forgot how I came across them I'm afraid! Straight after my exam yesterday I had a MAC makeover too, where you pay £25 and they do your full face for an hour, and you get to buy £25 worth of products! The earliest appointment was at 1pm so I went straight there after my exam, in which I had the classic exam failure: my calculator ran out of battery! It wasn't too terrible as I just chose the questions with the least calculations but it was definitely an FML to the max moment. I had the makeover at the House of Fraser concession and I think the girl might have been called Julie, she was great! She did really smokey eyes because I said how my MAC makeovers always end up with pink and purple eyes, and she made my eyebrows really wide which I think I'll adopt!
I made a reeeally long video too showing what I bought and talking about the stupid burglary. Looking forward to blogging again! My timetable is a bit annoying this year as I'm working on my days off, and I have some lectures in buildings on main campus which is not great as it's always so busy!
This is my first post on my new laptop!! I've totally forgotten what I was going to post today though, but I have some new buys to show. And it's pay day tomorrow! Although I must remember I need to pay my rent and bills and get back into the black, and also have enough for next week before my student loans come in! So therefore no shopping! Well I saw it's 2 for £7 on Umberto Giannini products in Boots and I really want to try the Backcomb in a Bottle. That's already about £5 so I might as well stock up on conditioner too! I'll probably get an intensive conditioner or hair mask and use that as a conditioner each time I wash my hair, which isn't that often! Maybe every 4 days. I have a webcam with this laptop too so I can start making some YouTube videos again, and it might encourage me to take more photos in general. You know I am a woman of action, and I did dye my hair with a wash in/wash out Superdrug own colour! It's got rid of any blonde I had and now it's a super shiny, bright copper/red colour. I'll review the dye maybe tomorrow! I want it just like Judith Bedard's here.
I was at work today and on the train I read an amazing book from the suggested reading list for one of my modules, all about weird ideas that work in business. Did you know M&S use the same technology that silk screens patterns onto their bedsheets to screen butter onto all their sandwiches?! How cute! My day started quite strangely though because my sister made me a cup of tea while I was in the shower that I thought tasted kind of weird. I put it down to her not adding sugar, but then she asked me if I liked the tea when we were getting the train to town (her to go shopping), and then revealed she'd spiked it with some coffee!! She said she thought I needed help getting up haha, no wonder it tasted gross! Yeah she thinks she's soooo funny...!
Tomorrow evening I might be going out which will be light relief from all of this revision! Also I can't decide whether to get my gel nails done again, because I either need them taken off or replaced. I'm not exactly doing anything fun in the next three weeks apart from revision and exams, so it feels like I'm getting them for nothing, but I'd have to spend about £10 having them taken off anyway! It's just because I fear my nails underneath are very weak now I've had 6 months of gels, but it will take me a few weeks to get them back into shape. I don't want to bite them off during exam stress! Maybe I'll see how they're looking and then decide if I want a new set of gels. Natural nails would depress me a lot!
I think something becomes an official trend when it is sold in Primark. A trend like when every other girl on the bus has one and you start to think 'why don't I have one?!'. I love spotting trends and knowing what's selling the best; not just for my degree but I just love to see what girls are wearing! I swear teenage girls nowadays dress so much better than I did at that age, probably because your money goes further with the likes of cheapie Primark and Peacocks. At work I'm always people watching and some girls look so great even just out shopping! I don't have any need to dress up for lectures or anything and only go all out if I go out at night, but I know that if you have to wear a uniform at school all week, then you put all effort into looking great on the weekend! However you can always look eye-catching if you make sure everything you buy is the best version of itself and maybe spend a minute putting on a bright lipstick or some cute hair accessories. I've spent years trying to figure out how some girls just look naturally great!
Anyway, I'm looking forward to checking out the SS11 collections soon, but in the summer I was excited to wear chunky knits this season, especially Prada style knitted headbands! I got one from Warehouse in September when it was still hot but haven't worn it until now! The main problem was that I don't ever tie my hair up, usually because it's less time consuming to leave it down and I'm a bit conscious of having my hair pulled back. I just feel a bit more comfortable with my hair down when I'm travelling around as I do a side plait all the time but never put it up. In Sweden I did but it was a bit different in that tiny town and literally every girl has a high hair bun there! Check out Fritha Louise's (of The Fish Tank) fantastic tutorial on how to get a Prada beehive- it looks great!
I've seen a million girls in knitted headbands right now and they look really cool; I especially like them with big messy hair. They're actually really warm and I've been wearing mine every evening at home when the heating goes off! My Warehouse one was actually a straight, thick band like the Prada look but it didn't look right with hair down so I sewed a gather in it to break it up a bit. I'm still a bit conscious of wearing stuff on my head even though they're a definite trend, hands up if you have a knitted headband?!
Images from tumblr and by me, the leopard is actually my dressing gown hehe.
Hiii! Finally an evening to blog, sorry it's been so long! As I said before, the internet has only just been set up in our house and I've got loooads of work! I'm trying to start early though and divide it up over the weeks, which is probably better in the long run but it means I have work to do every day. I'll get back into the swing though! The picture above was from my lovely holiday in Newquay and the first thing I did when I got home was get a Keratin treatment on my hair, or sometimes it's called a permanent or Brazilian blowdry. Basically your hair is made of keratin so it's like turning your hair into new hair! They shampoo your hair loads and then paint on the keratin on dry hair, which kinda looks like gel. Then they straighten it in and you have to keep poker straight hair for day, without tucking it behind your ears or putting glasses on your head or else you'll dent it! One day I did wake up with a few kinks but I just put the hairdryer on it a bit to make it straight again. I was going to get it done for my birthday but it's around £150! Toni and Guy quoted me £200, and seems as it only lasts around 3 months, that's way too much!
But luckily I happened to ask when I was getting my hair done for my birthday at Umberto Giannini in Selfridges and they needed models for their training! Woohoo, must have been good karma! On the day I did have four different stylists doing it though, most for the first time, but it went really well and I washed mine out after only 2 days so it would keep some curl. The treatment takes out all your frizz; literally my hair just won't get frizzy! For the whole of freshers week it rained and rained, but it didn't matter! Before it took around three hours to do my hair from wash to finish but now I could even leave it and it would be fine. And after a month it's still great! I've mainly been wearing my hair with big curls on the ends or back-combing it a bit on top. Drying take 20 minutes! Ultimate hair freedom! I made some videos of my natural hair and when I just had it done, and then after it was washed out, but I've included my September Favourites video too to show what it's like now how I wear it. A few people said there was nothing wrong with my natural hair but I'm not realistically going to ever wear it out like that, it's too crazy! And I always think that the unexpected will happen and feel much more confident when my hair is done, hence why I spent 3 hours doing it each time I washed it for the past three years!
New video up about the products I'm using at the moment! If you're not into videos, I've listed the products at the bottom of this post, but if you are then I hope you enjoy.
Pantene Pro-V Ice Shine Shampoo Cien Daily Shampoo Tresemme Remoisturising Conditioner Pantene Pro-V Ice Shine Conditioner John Frieda Frizz-Ease Extra Strong Serum L'Oreal Professional Tecni Art Extra-Strong Fixing Spray
