Shop Your Stash 3

Welcome to the Shop Your Stash Challenge. This is all about finding a gem in what you already own and creating a blog post on it. This is to let go a little of the stress that comes with being a blogger - even if it is just once a month. Rummage through your beauty products and climb through those clothes draws. You might surprise yourself!

For today's challenge we are looking at what you use to cope with the heat of the summer months.  For this particular post I decided to go down the makeup/skincare route and show you what I tend to use during the summer.

Hot weather is always rough on my hair because the sun rays usually turn my hair lighter and I am always throwing my hair up and out of the way giving myself endless split ends. To combat this (as well as using my usual John Frieda Brunette Shampoo and Condition) I tend to use the Tresemme Split Remedy which you put on after washing your hair but you can also use on the ends when they are feeling a bit dry.

For body moisturising I love the Body Shop Sweet Lemon Body Butter but at £13.00 it is a bit pricey and a bit heavy to lug around in your bag during the day so I carry the Vaseline Spray & Go which is both a lot lighter and also only £5.00 and it lasts for ages.

For my face I am a follower of the god that is Clinique but again, you can't always afford over £20.00 for a moisturiser so sometimes I turn to the pound shop to see what they have.  Typically their beauty products only have six months or less to go (hence the cheapness) but hey, when are you ever going to make a tube of moisturiser last so long?  I am using the Johnson & Johnson Morning Energy Moisturiser in my morning routine which works a treat and only cost me a pound.

The last in my arsenal is the NYC setting spray which I put on after I have finished with my makeup.  I think I paid £8.00 for it but you can probably get it for less if you hunt on Ebay.

A couple of things I use for my summer makeup routine:

If at all possible I try to avoid foundation when I can in the summer, during the day at the very least as my skin really disagrees with it on a hot day.  Instead, once my skin is properly moisturised I just use the Barry M Natural Dazzle at £5.99 which lasts forever and also the Rimmel Stay Matte Pressed Powder which you can pick up for around £4.00.

Finally, the favourite thing is my makeup bag is probably also the cheapest which is my Natural Collection Crushed Walnut Eyeshadow which cost me £1.79.  I use this all year round in order to fill in my eyebrows with a slanted brush which I have found more effective, and has more staying powder, than any pencil, wax or liner that I have used.

So that's it!  Some of my skincare and makeup routines for the summer!  What do you use?

Please check out the other ladies in the challenge and also my blog competition to win some Pamela Mann Tights, linked here

Shop Your Stash

Welcome to the Shop Your Stash Challenge run by the lovely Hollie of PrettyBigButterflies. This is all about finding a gem in what you already own and creating a blog post on it. This is to let go a little of the stress that comes with being a blogger - even if it is just once a month. Rummage through your beauty products and climb through those clothes draws. You might surprise yourself!

This month we were to chose something that we had brought back to life for the Summer.  What I have chosen to do is show you an old black (yes, I did say black) jersey casual dress and how I have revamped it ready for the Summer months.

It is a simple does what it says on the tin dress that you can throw on and let your accessories do the talking, if anything you choose to wear any!

The first way I am wearing it is designed for the daytime with black sandals and a big chunky necklace.  I would be happy going out for the afternoon, shopping with the girls and I have also on occasion worn this dress to work, styled much like this when it is hot.

Then imagine this.  You are at work, wearing the sad outfit when your work colleagues decide that tonight is the night to nip into the city after work for few cheeky cocktails.  No time to change, what do you do?  

What I have done here is simply swap out the sandals for some heels, changed my neck to a pearl costume jewellery piece and add something I have discovered recently which is quite frankly a genius invention.  Wingz !

If you have never heard of Wingz before, they are sleeves; either short, elbow or wrist length that you can add underneath your dress.  Whilst some may choose to wear them if they are not happy with their arms and want coverage, from my point of view I love the different options that they give you in being able to style in different ways.  In this case the lace Party Wingz * have helped me to bring a night time edge to my outfit  and also add an interesting detail with the lace.

 So what do you think?  I was sent the lace elbow length Wingz and also a shorter jersey pair and I am looking forward to playing around with different dresses and seeing what changes I can effect.  The things with wearing a dress is that it is a full piece and only by using accessories can you make it look different.  I think this is where the Wingz really come into their own.

Check out what the other ladies have done to change up old Summer outfits!

* gifted item