What I Use

Hey everyone, today I thought I would do a fun (and hopefully useful) post about the products which I am using at the moment, mainly because I think its an interesting change to see what things a man uses to achieve his daily look :)

I am vain and I can't help that - I'm a firm believer that men should take just as much care of their appearance as women do - to a certain extent. I do use lots of different things and some of them may be perceived as gay or feminine but I don't really care and also I don't go too far with it - I am a man and happy to be one!

So firstly Hair, and at the moment I am using 3 different products for style and a couple of different ones for washing. For about a year I have used T-Gel everyday (£7 Tescos or Boots), which I admit is really bad, as it effectively is burning your scalp to stop dandruff (and you're meant to use it occasionally, alongside a normal shampoo). So oops on that one. But its given me nice dandruff free hair for a year, which is a big problem for men and especially was for me!! I've just switched to herbal essences, the blue hydration one. I think you are meant to switch shampoo every 3 months aren't you? That may be a myth though!

As for styling, firstly a shout out to a great product that I would love to keep using but for some reason can't. It's Fudge Urban Texture Junk (£3.50 at Superdrug). I have loved this so much, and has served me well but recently has starting clumping into little white bits in my hair! I realise I am going on a bit but I'm really sad about it haha. So I've switched to my old faithful favourite, Messed Up by Lee Stafford (£5.50 at Boots)! It's the one that comes in a little pink pot! I use this along with Got2b Volume powder (£4.00, Boots). If you haven't used any of these powders before give them a go - they do work! They do a volumizing one for women, and a styling one for men. I've used both & It's exactly the same powder people!! So a slight marketing con, but they are the same price so it means I can pick up any (if the men's one is out of stock etc). For hold I am using the best (and only) Hairspray I can find which will make my hair stay. I have very fine hair, and like having it styled every day so it needs to be one which makes it stick. Got2b Freezing Blast Spray is what I use (£4.00 at Boots or Tescos), you may have seen it in the bright yellow bottle. It literally does freeze your hair, and kind of turns it rock hard, which is annoying - but you really can't tell.

Moving onto Face and Body now. In the shower I have just started using a Soap and Glory product, a range which I haven't used in a while, mainly due to me incorrectly thinking it gave me a bad body rash!! The one I've got at the moment is the whipped clean shower cream (£8.00 at Boots). Oh. My. God it smells amazing!!! Its kind of a feminine smell (its for girls really) but I don't care, it just smells so nice!! I'm tempted to try eat it some mornings! I had been using the Sanctuary Spa 12 hour moisturising shower cream (£6.50 at Boots. Can these products not have shorter names?!?) and I would highly recommend that one too.

I wash my face with just hot water. You may think that is a bit gross, but it was advice from my aunt to avoid spots and she is right and it worked. I never got spots as a teenager and never have since. If you think about it the skin on your face is very delicate and using perfumed soaps and washes isn't going to do any good is it! I occasionally use St Ives olive scrub (£4.99 Boots), if I have a spot or am trying to get fake tan off (which it is perfect for by the way). To Moisturise I have been using a product by Origins, its called GinZing. Its expensive, and you dont get a lot for the cost, around £30 from Boots. But in general im pleased with it, and I did get one compliment by someone saying my skin looked good. It's meant to wake you up, and it does kind of. I keep forgetting to use it and when i did for a couple of days, i broke out in a couple of spots.......so that could or couldnt be a coincidence.

For tanning, I have been through the mill of products, and still havent ever been fully satisfied. One that I am happy with at the moment though is U-tan (EEEK £30 from Boots), when my skin is good, it works really well, However at the moment I have really bad dry skin and so using it ends in a disaster! So to be honest i've given up fake tanning the last few months, but for a night out I use a little bit of Fake Bake Faux Glo (a tenner from Boots). I have recommended this to so many people and they all agree it is really good - it's a wash off spray, so its good for a night out. The only problem is you literally have to use the tiniest bit because the stuff comes out like paint and you can be orange in 3 seconds if you aren't careful!

Finally, cologne. I have to be honest - I do copy when it comes to fragrance. Its the one area where I am rubbish at being original. For the longest time I used Vera Wang for men, which I still like but you do get bored after so long. I then smelt Bleu de Chanel on someone and had to have it & it is my current fave!! I switch it up sometimes with a bit of Issey Miyake. If you are wanting a different smell to anybody else though, I recommend Pomegranate Noir by Jo Malone. Its a unisex cologne and damn it smells good!!

So thats it! I hope you enjoyed reading this and didnt find it boring, it certainly is a long post and apologies for that, but please leave me feedback or a comment, I'd be really grateful.

Take care xxxx

My Week

Helllloooooooo! Overdue blog post alert! Sound the alarms!!

Sorry.

I've had a hectic week and made a mid week decision to just blog about it at the end of it, so here we are.....monday through friday was a blur. Work and gym work and gym. So when it finally came to friday I was ready to let loose!! The Vino was being poured at 4.30pm and this pretty much summed up my Friday night! I ventured into town with lots of my close friends for a night on the tilessss and had a great time, even though town was slightly quiet slash dead.

Anyhow, in my hungover state on Saturday I decided to mosey on back into town and spend the rest of my Topman voucher which I had great difficulty doing...NOT. Of course i ended up spending the voucher and then some. The voucher was pretty feeble in helping when I made it to the Till. Here's some of what I bought:

This was like a varsity style jacket, with leather look sleeves. I've tried countless jackets like this on and never really been sure but this one fit so perfectly, usually they tend to look a bit clunky on the shoulders and I hate that. It was £75, a little on the expensive side, but i doubt i'm gonna find one I like again so I just went for it.

I also picked up this hoody. Theres not much to say about it other than its light grey and comfy haha. The sizing was a bit weird on these hoodies, I bought XS and it was still quite roomy! Not really sure if its meant to be oversized or not! £20 & a bargain :)

I popped into Lush to get some of the sea salt spray. I'd been wanting to try this for a while, Im a fan of using salt spray to style my hair. its a nicer texture than using gel, and after receiving abuse from my hairdresser (apparently the texture of my hair makes him cringe) I decided to give it a go. Its £10 for a bottle of the stuff.....and while its ok......its not amazing! It smells nice but it kinda just does the same as all the others. As for giving my hair curl......it just doesnt work im afraid. Probably wont purchase again. I also have an ongoing cracked lips problem so I tried some new lip balm as nothing seems to work (blistex, nivea, carmex, lip smacker) so i went for Burts Bees. Hadn't really heard of it but so far its doing a good job and I like it! Yes gay I know but im sick of having gross lips.

 

That brings me to today. I met up with one of my good friends and her little boy, Noah, who's 15 months old & what a lovely little boy he is!! I can't get enough of the little lad. I had such a lovely time with them both. We ate at Zizzi - was impressed with not only the food but the family friendliness, as i know my friend can worry about eating out etc. All 3 of us enjoyed it and didnt feel like a burden to the staff! After that we strolled around York, and through the Musuem Gardens.

And that brings me to now. Sunday night and I am wiped!! Time to spend some of my weekend relaxing, ready for Monday Morning. 

This week I've been listening to London Grammar a lot. I'm really starting to love them. If you haven't given them a listen - go for it! Not everyones cup of tea but worth a mention :)

Enjoy your week whatever you get up to!

xxxx

London Weekend!

Hello and welcome to the start of a new week! I had such a lovely weekend - I mentioned in an earlier post that I was heading down to London this weekend so thought I would inform you of what fun things I got up to!

Having done all the typical touristy side of London numerous times I left it up to my trusted tour guide to show me some different sides of London and he didnt disappoint! On the Saturday we started the day with a visit to Greenwich with a great view of the financial district across the Thames and a quick look at the Cutty Sark. Then we wandered on up to the Royal observatory which is part of the Royal musuems, to have a look at an exhibition that's running at the moment - "Astronomy Phototgrapher of the year". This was fascinating and would recommend going to see it if you can - plus its free!

We then had a mosey through Greenwich Market and then onto Borough Market for some food!! This market was solely a food market and it was amazing - I had the best roast chicken and stuffing sandwich I think i have ever eaten in my life!! We walked the indulgence off with a nippy stroll by the Thames, past Shakespeare's globe theatre and the Tate Modern.

Such a lovely day then finished off with a meal in Islington - at a restaurant called Meat People. The name is a giveaway - lots of meat. Probably not one for the Veggies! But it was excellent and I would highly recommend to meat lovers!

On Sunday we ventured out to Hampsted Heath and had a gorgeous (although muddy) walk up to Parliament Hill, a fairly well known place because of its spectacular view over London. It didn't dissapoint! After that we walked to Hampsted Proper and then finished the day off with a "passing" stop at Buckingham Palace!

It was sad leaving on Sunday I can tell you that, but alas all good things must come to and end and back to the daily grind it was. I hope you enjoyed reading about my trip. I loved the things I got up to, exploring different sights and foods is really my idea of happiness! I hope everyone had a great weekend too - Monday's over now so breathe a sigh of relief and here's to next weekend! :)

xxxxx

Londres

I'm heading down to London again tomorrow!! Should (fingers crossed) have quite a busy weekend so expect a lovely blog post about it on Sunday/Monday. Have a great weekend whatever you get up to! :) xx

Mens Fashion - Golden Globes 2014

The Golden Globes took place on Sunday night, and whilst the attention is always on the female fashion, I wanted to take a closer look at the male fashion on display! Obviously at this kind of event it would be out of character to not wear a suit, but still theres plenty of variety to see within this.

My favourite suit fit wise has to go to Bradley Cooper - whilst i'm unsure who he is wearing, the fit is perfect on his body and he has obviously had it impeccably tailored. The style is classic, so he can't really go wrong here. He looked great and to me definitely one of the best dressed of the night. I much prefer the black suit and dickey bow combo as oppose to a tie!

For style I liked Usher's suit - he was wearing Calvin Klein. I love the burgundy colour which I tihink makes it look expensive and it is a tasteful colour to wear if you are going to stray from black. The fit is ok but looks slightly tight to me - but overall a really good look! I dont think many people would be able to wear this colour and make it look as good as Usher did. Yay for Usher!

The final look im going to talk about was worn by Idris Elba. As a fan of Gucci suits, I couldnt help but  love the Gucci tuxedo he was wearing. The colour is just beautiful, I love blue and if i was going to one of these events (in my dreams ha!) I'd probably go for this steel blue colour. The style is slightly different to those worn by most but it works and definitely stands out from the others! If you can stand out, but not like a sore thumb then you're onto a winner in my eyes!

I didnt want to make this post too long - I could easily talk about each look in these pictures but I just wanted to highlight my favourites. I Hope you enjoyed reading this post, if you did, let me know :)

January Fashion Pick

So now Christmas is out of the way the time has come to stop wearing my beloved christmas jumpers (boo!) but whilst its still winter i'm focusing this month on layering, and the key piece which i've been using a lot is this Lumberjack shirt!!

Its a kind of tartan style, and i'm loving tartan print at the moment. I have been wearing it as just a button up shirt, but have mainly been layering it over a plain white tee, with a zip up hoodie over the top and then finishing the look with a leather jacket. It also works quite well with a sherpa style wooly coat I have! It's a nice change from chunky jumpers and also keeps me nice and cosy!! On my bottom half i've just been wearing dark wash skinny jeans and then plain blue pumps.

I hope you like this shirt as much as i do - it's definitely a daily item that I'm sure I will be wearing a lot throughout this month! Let me know in the comments below what you think!

P.s  - a little style tip I picked up on - Ralph Lauren t-shirts like the one i have on in the bottom right picture are cheaper if you buy them from their sleepwear range & they are exactly the same as the normal line (if you dont mind that it says sleepwear on the label!)

Lumberjack Shirt - (Reclaimed Vintage @ Asos) £35

Jeans - (Asos) £28

Tee - (Polo Ralph Lauren) £45

Amazing day - Harry Potter Studio Tour!

I've chosen this as my first post because I wanted to share the amazing day i've had and hopefully this is a fun way to introduce my blog! So today (11/01/14) I was up at the unthinkable hour of 7am, filled with plenty of excitement for the day ahead. HARRY POTTER!!

After a shaky start (almost missing our slot after travelling all the way from York to London) we made it and queued up for the start of our tour around some of the real sets used in the Harry Potter films! The tour begins in the great hall - at first its kind of surreal and it takes a while to accept that these are the real sets used - once that sinks in it becomes much more fascinating!

Once through the great hall you are free to roam and explore - from Hagrid's cottage to Dumbledore's office - there's so much to see. What is apparent is the amazing detail that goes into these films and you soon realise why they cost millions to make! Each scene has hundreds of different pieces that make it work - from oil paintings specially painted just to hang on the walls, or handmade wand boxes to fill the shelves! For example all the wand boxes used in Ollivanders shop scenes are handmade and hand decorated - no CGI trickery!!

My Favourite part had to be the next stage of the tour - outdoors. This is where you get to witness some of the amazing exterior sets such as Privet drive and of course the Weasley's car (see above pic!). I should mention there is also a chance to have a go with some special effects - you can watch yourself fly around london on a broom!! Pretty fun as long as you're brave enough to get up in front of everyone and do it (which sadly i wasn't!).

Back inside again you get to see a model version of Hogwarts - this was pretty cool! It's basically the model they used to film external shots of Hogwarts, so clever! Towards the end there was of course a gift shop - which I have to say the prices were just mental - but worth getting a momento of your day even if its just picking up a few sweets like i did!

I had such a great day and it is well worth a visit - I highly recommend to anyone, even if you aren't really a fan of Harry Potter, it's still a magical day and something worth doing whilst its around!

I hope you enjoyed reading my first post about my day & let me know if you have visited the Harry Potter Studio Tour and what you thought of it!!