September Empties #2!

Liz Earle Cleanse & Polish

My favourite cleanser and pretty well known by blogger's. I was gutted when my bottle ran out even if they do last me age's. I tried to find a replacement cleanser but in the end... I've just re-purchased my good old Liz Earle.

Oilatum Natural Repair face cream

This is my new favourite item (I say new but this tube has lasted me month's & month's) I have a review coming up of this soon, I'm definitely re-purchasing it!

Liz Earle Instant boost skin tonic spritzer

This came free when I brought my Liz Earle C&P back in December, it only cost a few pound's more for the set so thought I would try it. I love this, I don't know why I didn't expect much from it but it leave's my skin feeling so soft, refreshed clean and just over all lovely. Yet another product I will be re-purchasing. I did buy another toner to try but after I finish that this will be on my list again!

Collection Lasting Perfection concealer

This little gem has been in my make-up bag for year's, it used to be the only item of make-up along with my mascara I wore to school, I'm so glad it's so popular now because it really is such an amazing concealer for the price.

Johnsons Hand cream

I've been using this hand cream since I was in year 7 (wow, ok a long long time ago) I strangely remember that because it was the first ~shopping trip~ I went on with my best friend. This of course isn't that same tube, I've gone through countless of them over the year's. It's one of my holy grail item's, may possibly review this soon. Such an amazing product for only a few pound's.

Overall, these are again all my favourite item's, and all will be re-purchased at some point!

What empties do you have this month?

Follow me on:

Twitter / Hello Cotton / Bloglovin'

Floral Cushion Cover's - D.I.Y

Fabric - Ikea

Zip - Hobbycraft

I can't believe it's taken me this long to find out Ikea sell fabric! they have so many nice one's and a good amount i'll be going there again! When I spotted this I decided it was about time my pink bed cushion's should have a new lease of life. It's so pretty because it look's like the flower's are painted with watercolour's.

 p.s- they also have some lovely Cath Kidston dupes of floral's!

This was only my second project using my new sewing machine and the fabric was so easy to sew it just ran through nice and quickly. It's a super easy project that you could also do with a needle & thread (which is what I did before when making a clutch bag) 

Don't forget to allow a little extra for seam allowances when cutting.

Sew inside out (best side facing eachother) it's up to personal preference if you want to sew the zip on first or last, I did one side first but doing the other side last actually came out much neater and straighter. I'm not the best at sewing zip's and sewing 'Invisible Zip's' were a little trickier to sew in. 

I recommend giving it a really good iron, concentrating ironing extra on the part's you stitched (every side) to make it look neater and stay better. Turn inside out and pop in your pillow and it's finished.

I love how it came out and will now do my other matching one once I buy another zip.

Would you try this? Have you tried making pillow/cushion cover's before?

Follow me on:

Twitter /  Hello Cotton / Bloglovin' / Subscribe to youtube channel

See more diy post's

Kerastase Elixir Ultime hair oil review

Kerastase Elixir Ultime - £25.85 (for 125ml) - I brought mine in a salon but available here 

When I go to the hairdresser's they always used to use this before blowdrying/straightening and sometimes as a finishing product.  I was always so impressed with how shiny and soft it made my hair (then again wouldn't we all like to look like we do when we stroll from the salon, all the time?) 

I finally purchased it to see if it would work as well at home. 

I use this after I've washed my hair and let it dry for about an hour so it's still damp yet half dry, I concentrate mainly at the end's, then when less product is on my hand's rub it in higher up the hair avoiding the root's.

I also use it as a 'finishing product' just to make my hair that little more 'finished' shiny & soft. This stuff make's curl's look amazing and equally straightened hair too, actually this stuff makes every hair style look amazing. I even use it on my pony tail when I went it to look a little bit more 'slick and shiny' 

Here's what Kerastase say's:

" Our first versatile beautifying treatment enriched with a complex of four precious oils. Maize, Argan, Camellia and Pracaxi oils combine to create a luxurious Elixir for all hair types.

-with a few drops of elixir Ultime, hair is transformed into silky, weightless matter

- applied before cleansing, hair is instantly nourished and visibly regenerated

- applied before styling, hair is incredibly supple and protected."

1. Pracaxi Oil: Celebrated for its rich conditioning properties

2. Argan Oil: One of the rarest oils in the world, famed for its nourishing benefits

3. Maize Oil: A Kerastase heritage oil used in their first ever masque

4. Camellia Oil: A luxurious a fragrant oil extracted from camellia flowers

The oil itself is actually quite light and runny which is nice, I'm not a fan of heavy product's on my already heavy thick hair. It has quite a strong smell of coconut which I'm personally not a fan of as I'm allergic to it. I've been searching and looking at the ingredient's & I can't see coconut listed unless I missed it!

I love this, but I now save it for 'special hair day's' because It's a teeny bit expensive. 

I'm sure L'oreal are part of Kerastase and they recently brought out a hair oil which basically look's exactly like this, I haven't tried it though.

I'd also love to try the hair oil in the 'pink' range Kerastase have recently released, which I think is aimed at thicker hair.

Have you tried this? What's your favourite hair serum/oil? 

Just a brief description of my hair. It's very thick, I don't have any issues with it (dry, oily etc) it's quite normal. My hair is naturally quite shiny and always has been since I was young.
 I used to straighten my fringe & hair regularly but very rarely do now. 
I try not to use heat to keep it healthy. 

Follow me on:

Twitter /  Hello Cotton / Bloglovin'

Custom Eye-Shadow/Blush palette-D.I.Y

Eyes lips face - £1.50 each

For age's I've been wanting to make a custom palette so I could just take my favourite's on the go instead of individual's. I didn't really want to spend £10-15 on other empty palettes I found etc, so instead tried out the custom palettes from ELF, at £1.50 it's a bargain and not a huge deal if anything broke in my bag.

I picked up two and one of the eyeshadow's (which unfortunately didn't work too well for me, it arrived with a huge chunk out of it and when swatched it didn't have the most colour pay off, I'm a huge fan of ELF but the eyeshadow wasn't great at all)

It arrives with the pan divider (as seen on the left) which easily pop's out. The bottom of it has a magnetic sheet. You can buy circle magnet sheet's which are really thin here but I just took one off an old fridge magnet, I stuck it to the back of my eyeshadow pan with some craft glue, or temporarily double sided tape.

These palette's aren't as large as other palette's available but are great if you just want a couple of blusher's and shadow's to go.

Would you try this out?

Follow me on:

Twitter / Hello Cotton / Bloglovin'

A mini afternoon D.I.Y

Jumper - Primark, men's section

Stud's- Ebay

Just a little post on a mini 'up-date' I did to a jumper I brought recently.

Large fitting jumper's are one of my favourite's during winter, especially under jacket's when it's so cold, anyone else think this year has gone by so fast? it's only a few month's until Christmas!

Autumn/winter is my favourite season though and I'm already picking up bit's to wear for winter.

I picked this up in Primark the other week in the men's section, it was on the sale rail for only £5 bargain.

I definitely recommend checking out the men's section in Primark it's great for jewellery and basic's.

This is good if you just fancy doing a spot of diy on one afternoon and updating something in your wardrobe. I only had a few left as I've been using them on my denim short's. I've been doing lot's of diy's lately and will try to write up some post's soon!

Do you like studding thing's?

Follow me on:

Twitter / Hello Cotton / Bloglovin'

Week in photo's - Start of September...

torch bearer at the Parade, Train ride home, EBay Bargain, Face, Sign Paralympic's, DIY Velvet skirt (Post here), Jessica Ennis at the Victory Parade, New thing's, View from the train, Lemon Ice!, Treat after College, OOTD, Yummy hot chocolate, Sunny shade's, Amusing train waiting time's, Red Arrow's while on the train home

Apologies for barely blogging this week, College has started and it's basically taking up much of my time, and sleeping and life the other half.
I do have lot's of post's planned, I just haven't had time to write them up but once I get a lot more organised I'll schedule post's!

As part of my college project I had to interview & take photo's of the Olympic Victory Parade Monday which was really great to see, I took so many photo's and the streets really were packed (thank you zoom lense!)

Been browsing EBay so much lately & seen soo many thing's I like. Currently loving this  this  and this 
I'm actually typing this up on my iPod for a change mainly because I'm so tired, hopefully it publishes ok!

Liz Earle instant boost skin tonic

Liz Earle-  £13.00 for 200ml Spritzer

I picked this up in John Lewis at Christmas when I needed to re-purhcase some Cleanse & Polish, mainly because It was only a few pound's more to pick up a set which included this so decided on it instead. 

This 'toner' is actually suitable for all skin type's and my dry skin seem's to like it quite a lot. 

I cleanse, lightly dry my face and then spritz some of this over my face, it's so refreshing and smell's fresh like C&P. It's lovely to use just before going to sleep as it smell's quite calming (if it makes any sense at all) 

My skin instantly feel's soft, clean and over all quite lovely. My skin seem's to look healthy and fresh after this has dried.

I would definitely re-purchase this as I really liked using it, but I do want to try Caudalie's elixir. 

I haven't tried spraying this over make-up so I'm not sure how it would react but it definitely would be refreshing during summer.

Have you tried this? 

Follow me on:

Twitter / Bloglovin'

How to make a simple velvet skater skirt - D.I.Y

After taking a walk around Hobbycraft the other day and spotting some velvet fabric I came up with the idea to make my own skirt. Velvet is one of my winter favourite's and this year I wanted to make my own skirt. I finally brought a sewing machine the other week so was feeling rather adventurous. Even if I hadn't done sewing since school day's as a year 9. I grabbed some elastic from the aisle, picked up the rather heavy velvet and paid my pennies. I only needed a metre of this because they fold it over, it only cost me £3 something. 

 What you will need: 

-Velvet fabric (I used 1mtr) 

-Elastic (any colour as it's hidden anyway) 

-Needle & thread or sewing machine 

-Pin's to hold it all together 

-A nice cup of tea (optional)

I brought a skater skirt the other week and knowing it fit's nicely a little high waisted I decided to use this as a guide line to marking out a shape I want, it's always a good idea to use something you already know fit's then to just drawing. I always use normal white chalk to draw on fabric but if you have dressmaker's chalk it does the same job! Measure your waist and half the number, this is how much you measure a straight line across as the waist and then draw your skirt shape, I didn't take a photo of it un-fortunately I forgot. I made it quite long across with'tips' at the bottom of the skirt and a semi-circle as the bottom too like the image above but wider, so that when it was on it formed natural looking pleat's and fell better like skater skirt's do. Don't forget to allow hem allowance on every side you will stitch, especially the sides and the waist as the waist band is made by folding it over.

When I had sat down with all the pin's in, tea made, sewing machine ready to go it just refused to stitch two layer's together, I stitched a cotton fabric to make sure it wasn't the machine and it stitched perfectly so I decided to hand stitch the whole thing. This wasn't as bad as I first thought it would be, it's super easy and took me one evening to complete with no problem's. After having a little Google about stitching velvet it seemed even pro's do not love using velvet, special footer's improve the stitch but it just refused to stitch because of the un-usual texture. 

The fabric was folded over so when you cut out your shape you're left with two pieces. At the top where the waist is, fold over the velvet side into the inside and pin in place. I then stitched a straight stitch line across leaving enough room for the elastic to fit through later. Do this too both of the pieces and then line them up straight and pin them together good sides (velvet) facing each other.  

I wouldn't recommend  doing a straight stitch on the side's as these will be the part's that need to be strongest holding it together, I used an overstitch to stitch the two pieces together which work's very well. Make sure to start stitching from the bottom of the line you stitched at the waist leaving the gap's each side at the top as this is where you will insert the elastic on the next step. 

You can also hem the bottom to neaten up with a straight stitch exactly how you did the waist band or use a fray check which is like a glue to stop it fraying. Because this is curved like a semi-circle it's a little hard to stitch using a machine. 

All that's needed now is to insert the elastic which can be annoying to do, sellotape it to something long to feed through the waist and then pin the two end's together just in case it decides to fall out. Just simply stitch the two end's together and then stitch up the two side's of the skirt and it's finished!

I hope I wasn't too confusing, I didn't think to take photo's of each step which is why I made the above on clipart, sometimes It's easier to visually see something then to just read how to. 

This only cost me £3 to make as I found some old elastic at the bottom of my sewing drawer instead of using the one I brought. I'm really happy with how this came out and really want to make another, just with a cotton or jersey material next time so I can use the machine!

Will you have a go at this? Have you ever made a skirt or dress?

Follow me on:

Twitter /  Hello Cotton / Bloglovin'

See more diy post's

Week in photo's 12th August - 2nd September

L-R

Photo taking, Woof falling asleep on my fabric, New sunglasses, Homemade pie for dinner,  

mini Giveaway! (enter here), Collaging, Cute dog at the Kennel's, Christmas post idea's, 

Moschino belt arrived (sadly have to wait for my b'day :/) Lot's of pretty Topshop polish, 

Walking home  in the rain storm's,  Apple crumble, Horses near my house, Long wait at the Post Office (35 people!!), Paralympics opening ceremony, Soaked from the rain, Slate heart's in the Garden, Face, Oh Harry!

I've been slacking on regularly posting these every Sunday, and so instead will try and ramble them all up to one every other week.

I've got a few DIY's that I'll be posting soon including simple skirt's etc's. 

I also posted a giveaway the other day, there's still lot's of time to go over and enter here.

I booked my driving test this week which is sort of scary, eee. 

Hope everyone has had a lovely week!

Follow me on:

Twitter /  Hello Cotton / Bloglovin'