A little hair adventure ♥

Ok, so I might have had a slightly crazy few weeks for colouring my hair & I thought I'd share my little escapade with you.

I've coloured my hair darker at home since I was about 17 years old, but five weeks ago for the first time ever I decided to lighten my hair at home.. in a the kind of balayage-ombre that Gemsmaquillage featured in her video but since then, I've actually dyed it back to an even darker colour than when I started. Call me fickle, I won't disagree!

Here's a little chronological collection of photos depicting the process my hair has had to endure for the last few weeks...

Above is pretty much how my hair looked before colouring - quite a warm toned medium brown...

This is now my hair colour after one session of lightening (I used the l'Oreal preference 'les blondessimes' in shade 03 Lightest Ash Blonde), not a huge difference but some lighter streaks in the bottom. Overall, I was quite happy with the outcome, I just wanted more of it...

So, I coloured my hair again, but using the Jerome Russel BBlonde hair lightening kit in Maximum lift, this photo sort of shows how I applied it to my hair. I just sort of painted it on here and there wherever I wanted my hair to be lighter, focussing more of the product on the ends of my hair. 

Above shows the end results, after having used two lightening kits as well as the Bleach White Toner kit... however my hair still looks quite orange-toned (the photo has been put through a filter through instagram, as have all these photos..[I believe I used the filter 'Valencia' for all but photo #3]...but the colour was if anything more orange toned in person). I was happy with the overall effect, but not completely satisfied with the end colour

I actually quite like how my hair looks here after the colour fading a bit, but it was just over-all a lot more warm toned than I wanted it to be, and whenever I would catch my reflection when out and about I would just think 'AGH! Awful!' ...and so, I just had to reach for yet another box-dye kit from Boots!

I went back to a trusty old semi-permanent line that I've been using for about 5 years, the l'Oreal Casting Creme range and used the colour 415 Iced Cocoa. I've used this colour before almost a year ago and it's the colour I had for my graduation... I love it!

My poor hair has been put through a really tough time over the last few weeks, although I did leave a good few weeks recovery time between each bleaching session and the semi-permanent colour, and I've been doing lots of DIY hair masks with natural coconut oil. I'm happy that I tried out the DIY ombre as it was something I'd considered doing for a while, and now I've got that urge out of my system I'm happy to be back to dark brown!

Have you tried bleaching your hair, or ombre-ing your hair at home? I'd love to see any blogposts on your hair adventures too so share in the comments! Love xx

Fashion Targets Breast Cancer ♥

These five beautiful ladies are ambassadors for a fabulous charitable cause Fashion Targets Breast Cancer. If you aren't already aware, FTBC have launched their 2014 collection of high street clothing, with at least 30% of the profits being donated to Breakthrough Breast Cancer. This blogpost is going to showcase just a couple of my favourite picks from the collection, all of the pieces will be linked below so if you like them - buy them! For more information on FTBC then click here! 

This adorable co-ord set is just the perfect peachy shade for SS 2014, and is available at Warehouse; Top £30 and Shorts £32 

These daisy print swimwear choices are so en-trend and super feminine. They're available from Marks and Spencer; Swimsuit £35, Bikini Top £17.50 and Bikini Bottoms £14

Another stylish swimwear edition is this funky floral versus aztec number available at Debenhams; Bikini Top £18 and Bikini Bottoms £14

Another piece available at Debenhams is this beautiful blush dress, perfect for a wedding or a summer garden party. A little on the pricier side, but totally worth it at £125

This years campaign is really about empowering women to make a difference, and to Wear Your Support... To see more of the Fashion Targets Breast Cancer range then check out their lookbook here. 30% of the proceeds for all of the products shown in this post will go to Breakthrough Breast Cancer, you can find out more about this charity here.

OOTD; Casual Spring/Summer ♥

Shirt - Jack Wills 

Vest top - H&M

Leggings - Marks and Spencer

Espadrilles - Brora 
Watch - Daniel Wellington

Phone Case - Etsy

This is a super simple, casual outfit that I wore last week - great for the warmer weather we've been having! Love the boyfriend-fit denim shirt from Jack Wills ♥

NARS Haul ♥

After spying Fleur de Force's post about the free-gift available at Space NK when you spend over £150 in store or online (this deal has now finished unfortunately, as it was only on for 2 days!) I decided it was high time I get my butt into Space NK for the first time ever, and have a splurge of some much wanted NARS products!

Duo Eyeshadow in 'Tokyo' 

Duo Eyeshadow in 'All About Eve' 

Blush in 'Douceur'

Satin Lip Pencil in 'Isola Bella'

I'm so in love with these products, so far I've only used the satin lip pencil and it's amazing! Long lasting, smooth, great colour and non-drying! I'll do reviews and swatches of the products once I've gotten to know them a little better, and I'm sure I'll do some 'Face of the day' posts featuring them too.

Me and my mum teamed up our purchases to get to the £150 mark and we got the free gift too, which is amazing! It has some super expensive products for us to try out, and we've shared some of the gifts between us so when I review the goodie bag a few little bits might be missing..

Make sure to check me out on Instagram @KittWills as this is where I post a lot of my photo's first! Love & Hugs xo

FOTD: Everyday Makeup Look

This is my current 'everyday makeup' look, it's so easy and fresh that I thought I'd share it with you. It's also super affordable as the products I used were (almost!) all drugstore. Here's a list of what I used:

Rimmel Stay Matte Mousse Foundation in 010 Light Porcelaine- £5.99

Maybelline Fit Me Concealer in 15 - £5.99

Sleek Brow Kit in Dark - £8.49

Maybelline Brow Drama in Dark Brown - £4.99

MAC Pro Longwear Paint Pot in Camel Coat - £15.00

Max Factor False Lash Effect mascara - £10.99

Sleek Face Form in Light - £9.99

ELF Blush in Tickled Pink - £3.95

L'Oreal Colour Riche Collection Privee in Barely Greige Cheryl's nude - £8.19

My Shirt is from Jack Wills

My Necklace is from H&M 
(This is a different, but in my opinion nicer, necklace!) 

All products are linked so you can find them online! 

This post is not sponsored. 

Love & Hugs xo

Cosmopolitan Beauty Blender Review

As you can see from the above picture, I have well and truly used the hell outta my old Cosmo Beauty Blender sponge. The one on the left is one that I've had for around a year and a half, and used probably 80% of that time to apply my foundation. On the days when I didn't use it, I deeply regretted it!

My old sponge has been on it's last legs for a while now so I've been hunting for a new one but every Superdrug I ventured into didn't stock it, and Boots doesn't stock the cosmo line at all! So, I ended up buying it on Amazon, you can get it here too. 

The review

To use, I wet the sponge and ring it out. I then apply my foundation to my skin using my fingers, almost covering my face, but doing a very messy, basic 'covering' of my face with my fingers. I then use the sponge to blend the product in, and get to the spots that I missed.

I do it like this because I find it's the best, most efficient way to do it, with the least product wastage and the most even coverage. It gives a flawless, airbrushed finish and couldn't be simpler to use. I use a 'bouncing' motion rather than a dragging motion.

Comparisons

I've tried a few other makeup sponges that follow this specific style, most notably the Models Own version, and the Real Techniques version. Both of these do not hold a candle to the Cosmopolitan one! I find the RT one is sort of the texture of memory foam, and just doesn't seem to do too much when I try to blend my make up gently, and when I try a little more firmly it seems to take away too much product. I won't even go into the Models Own sponges, awful. 

Findings & Recommendations

Findings and recommendations?? I've clearly been at university too long - to sum up, I seriously recommend you trying this sponge! At only £4.95 it won't break the bank, and it's completely transformed how my foundation looks - it's taken me from patchy, dry and flawed, to dewy, smooth and flawless, with little to no effort!

Love and hugs - leave comments! Xx