The Spending Ban

So if you've been seeing my tweets this week you will know that I have officially put myself on a spending ban.
I may have just booked a holiday to the most magical place on earth.... Yup that's right I am going to Disneyworld in Orlando, Florida on September 16th 2014. 

Me in Orlando - March 2012

 So this means I need money and with my Disney obsession.... alot of it!
 Not only do I need to pay off the holiday (ouch!) but I need spending money to make sure we (my boyfriend and I) can do anything and everything we want too while we are out there.
I have been to Disney before - back in 2012 when I was travelling the USA with a friend so I know what to expect and how much money I should really take with me.
Not only is there Disney but Universal too - and we want to do the lot! (Very doubtful we'll get to Seaworld & Discovery Cove aswell.... but after hearing all these Black Fish stories and things I'm not sure I want to!)

So that has called for the Spending Ban - no more buying things for the sake of it. Before I buy anything I need to go through the thought process - Do I NEED this? and if the answer is well... no Kirstie you don't - then no purchasing for me!
This is going to be a tough one for me as I am such a spendoholic but I've done it before, when I went round the US, and I shall do it again and I'm hoping it will help me in a number of ways.

1. Get through all the products I already own. I have so so many products that are just at on a shelf, some I've used maybe just once and others I haven't even tried yet - so why do I need to buy more? I don't! Maybe I'll find some amazing stuff and new favs!

2. Find old favourites. I'm hoping by using only the things I already own and not buying anything new (unless it is something seriously need like when my Liz /earle products run out every month) that I'll re-find favourties from months/years ago! 
I have so much that I've used, loved and then something else has taken it's place - this has happened so many times that I just have so many products that I love but not enough time, face, hair, body to use them all - now I will have time because there will be nothing to take their place!

3. Wearing clothes more than once.  It isn't only beauty products that I am obsessed with over-buying I am also a serial offender for clothes. 
Buying a dress - wearing it once on a night out and then never looking at it again? Yup that is me (hangs head in shame)! 
This year I am determined to break this habit and wear clothes to death! It's time to start buying things that I know I can wear for a number of occasions both day and night and not just one item for one occasion! This, I know, will save me so so much money!

These are just 3 things I'm hoping to gain, as well as saving lots of money, through doing this spending ban! There's going to probably be less hauls coming up but hopefully alot more empties posts!
I know there is going to be so many products that test me.... I've already seen a few newbies that are going to be so hard resist but I know it will all be worth it when I'm driving into Disneyworld with a big smile on my face and a purse full of money to spend!

Are any of you on a spending ban or been on one before? Any tips you can give me?

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Kirstie's Travel Diaries #11 - LA Ink & David Beckham

Catch up with #10 here.

I know I have seriously been slacking with these posts and I'm sorry! But the travel diaires are back and I will be hopefully posting lots in the upcoming months! I love doing these as they bring back so many amazing memories and also I'm hoping it's going to get me excited for my trip to Florida /i just book for September - woohooo!

DAY 11 (10/03/12)
Now we had something planned for today, something we had booked and paid for months and months - we were off to watch LA Galaxy play... aka Hello David Beckham!
But as that wasn't until the evening we had a whole day to entertain ourselves - and we were in Hollywood so this wasn't going to be hard to do! 
Being reality TV addicts, LA Ink aka High Voltage Tattoo Palour was on our is of places to go and see  so it was down to me, my iPhone 3GS and google maps! And thankfully it worked! 

I love our walk down to LA Ink, we saw so many iconic Hollywood things including the Muppets studios and Mel's drive in!
We saw the huge sign with Kat Von D's name on and knew we ad made it..... to the surprise of myself and my sketchy directions (Thank you google!)

After doing the classic standing outside and posing for a photo we headed in, we were a bit dubious as we weren't sure whether it was okay to just go in and have a mooch around with no actual intention of getting a tattoo but we saw other people in there so went in!
It's always bizarre seeing something you've seen on TV for years and years and it really was as cool as it looked on there!
Everyone in there was super nice and even asked if we wanted to get a tattoo, which to this very day I regret not doing, but at the time it was very unexpected so I had just said ...ooo I'm scared haha!

After High Voltage we went next door to Kat Von D's store - Wonderland Gallery! Such a funky little store with not only lots of Kat's merchandise but jewellery, books and lots lots more! Again the staff in there were so lovely and we had a nice chat with them!

With that ticked off our list we headed back towards or hotel which was on Hollywood & Highland. (but keep your eyes peeled because that's not the end of Kat's appearances in these Travel Diaires!)

Once back on Hollywood Boulevard and after eating a Subway we decided to carry on walking and have a look around - needless to say... there are alot of tattooists and people smoking cannabis.
After that realisation we thought we'd go back to the hotel and get ready for our exciting evening ahead!

We ordered a taxi through the hotel and for an hour or two before the match was due to begin - we knew how crazy LA traffic was and wanted to have a little look around the grounds before the match started so the earlier the better we thought!
As the grounds were down in Carson (I think that's what is was called) it took about 30minutes maybe even 40 to get there BUT we were highly entertained by our lovely taxi driver HARRY!

Harry became our driver for the rest of our stay in LA so you are definitely going to be hearing more about him - he was one of the highlights of our trip, an Armenian man with so many stories - he had me crying with laughter! (even though I don't think that is what he intended!)

So we were there - The Home Depot Center and not only was I excited about experiencing an American "soccer" match but it was my friend's first ever football match so I was looking forward to her thoughts on it all!
First stop was the gift shop - I can't go anywhere without buying a some sort of merchandise - so an Adidas LA Galaxy tank top was mine mine mine! (The best workout top ever!)

The match was the first one of the season and against Real Salt Lake and ..... they lost. Opps! But it was a good match, we met some lovely people in the crowd and we got to see Becks up close - happy bunnies we were!

Another great experience on our trip - I love that we planned so much in advance!
Next time on Kirstie's Travel Dairies : A hop-on, hop-off tour of Hollywood, Millions Of Milkshakes, The Grove & The Chinese Therate - another magical day in LaLa Land!

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Soap & Glory's Face, Soap and Clarity 3-in-1 Daily Detox Vitamin C Facial Wash Review

Soap & Glory - a brand that I'm sure not only I love but YOU love aswell!
 I have tried everything from footcare to body creams to eyeliners from these guys and everytime been blown away with the quality and results!
Something I hadn't tried until recently was their skincare range. Over the last year or so the skincare range has had a slight make-over and although they've kept their indiviual tounge in cheek names for products the skincare range packaging has become alot more clincial and professional looking. (not that this makes any difference to the product itself!)

After buying The Yule Monty last month and receiving a money off voucher for Soap and Glory's skincare products I have been looking through what they have to offer to find some new products to try out!
As it was 3 for 2 recently I took full advantage and grab 3 items, paid for 2 AND got £5 off with the voucher aswell - total bargain.
One of those products is this the Soap & Glory Face, Soap and Clarity 3-in-1 Daily Detox Vitamin C Facial Wash. (longest name for a product ever?)

I'm quite good with my skincare routine - always take my make-up off before bed (unless I've had a few too many to drink) and moisturise day and night.

But I rarely using my cleanse and polish hot cloth cleanser from Liz Earle if I'm not wearing any make-up, I like to save it for make-up removal and make-up removal only! 

So I always need a wash or cleanser that I can use daily every morning and this seemed to fit the bill.

This is tucked in my shower with the rest of my hundreds of products and I use it every morning when I shower to prepare my skin for the day ahead.

This stuff is packed full of amazing ingredients -my favourite being the ultra-soft, jojoba scrub-beads. Which means I get a fab rejuvnating and refeshnig wash aswell as a gentle scrub all in one! No only that but it also includes super-tasking vitamins, minerals and amino acids.

This stuff is "Strategically forumalted for oily/combination skin" - which is great for me at the moment as I seem to be rocking both oily and dry patches!

Each morning this has kept my skin feeling clean and fresh, it seems to be the perfect wake up call for my face!

As much as I love this product I probably wouldn't spend the £8 this normally costs for it as I think it is a tad expensive for my budget but luckily these products are always on some form of offer so nine times out of ten your going to get it cheaper anyway!

Have you guys tried out any of the skincare range from Soap & Glory yet?

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My Dream Birthday Wishlist

Recently on twitter a few of you lovely beautys have been asking me whether, as it is only a matter of weeks away, I would be uploading a birthday wishlist - so I thought I would grab that idea and run with it!
I will turn 24 on 8th February and to be honest right now I am more excited about seeing Taylor Swift at the O2 on the 4th ( I cannot wait! ) but  here it is, a dream birthday wishlist of mine - things I would love to get my hands on at the moment!
1. Forever 21 Griffindor Sweater
I spotted this a couple of weeks ago and fell in love. I already have one of these sweaters from F21 (a toy story one!) and I live in it when I am a home - it is so so comfy and pretty damn cool. So when I saw a Harry Potter themed one it when straight to the top of my most wanted list!

2. Urban Decay Naked 3 Palette
Well this is an obvious product on my wishlist! I've wanted this since the day it was announced and am still without one (feel sorry for me please?) I've seen so many blog posts,reviews and youtube videos about this palette and it looks so gorgeous, I have the first Naked palette and use it to death - these are such a great investment.

3. Ed Sheeran 2014 Tour Tickets
Ed announced his new tour last week and I would do anything to go! I've only ever seen Ed in concert once and that was when I was in Florida - I actually got to meet him aswell which was awesome, he is such a nice guy! I would love to go to the O2 and see him again - he is so talented!

4. Laura Mercier Silk Creme Foundation
This is something I've wanted to try for literally years. I first heard about this foundation when watching Blair Fowler aka JuicyStar07 on youtube ages ago. I've only ever heard good things about it but the price tag has always stopped me from making the purchase!

5. Panic - Lauren Oliver
Some of my favourite books of all time are the Delirium trilogy by Lauren Oliver so when I heard she had a new book being released in a couple of months - Panic - I was so excited! This can only be pre-ordered at the moment but I cannot wait to get my hands on it!

Are any of you having your birthday this month or next? Do you like wishlist posts?

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Herbal Essences Bee Strong Strengthening Intensive Mask Review

So after a busy Christmas and new year full of parties and seeing friends last week I realised  my hair needed a little something to bring it back to life and looking healthy!
Endless heat and styling over the holiday period had left it feeling drier and a bit more ratty than usual! (Not cool.)

So I decided to take matters into my hands and grab something to make it feel a little normal again!

One of my beautiful friends has recently mentioned that she has been using the new Bee Strong range from Herbal Essences and how much she was loving the results from it!
So when I saw that it was half price in boots I decided to grab the 200ml Strengthening Intensive mask to try out on my poor lifeless locks!

The last few years I have stayed away from your everyday drugstore branded haircare and stuck with the salon brands that I love like Lee Stafford and Charles Worthington.

 Even though other brands like Herbal Essences are cheaper I always felt like I went through the bottles so so quickly and was more or less spending the same by buying a slightly more expensive brand that lasted a lot longer!

But with the price for this weekly treatment mask being only £2.09 (half  the usual price of £4.19) and the Bee strong range being something I haven't tried before I thought I had nothing to loose by giving it a go!
(And let's me fair the fact Nicole Sherzy is promoting this stuff definitely makes me want to try it out....I'm a sucker!)

First of all the smell..... At first I really wasn't sure on it. It is meant to smell like honey but compared to other honey based products I have had in the past it didn't have that nice sweet scent to it!  

But nevertheless it isn't awful and it slowly got better the more I smelt it!

Once I have shampooed and conditioned my hair like normal I grabbed an egg sized amount of this stuff and whacked it all over my hair from root to tip!
I then left it in for around 3-5 minutes and washed out as normal!
This is advised be used once a week and that is how often I will be using it!

I always let me hair air dry unless I am going out somewhere and need to have it down and styled (hardly ever). I feel like my hair feels so much nicer and smoother if it is just left to dry naturally!

My first thoughts on my hair after using this product was 1. How much less frizzy my hair seemed to be once dried (a miracle!) 2. How much shiner it looked and 3. how much stronger and healthy my ends felt, I'm always worried they will look stringy and limp.

Overall I have been really pleased with the results from this mask! If you fancy a little pick me up for your hair , if it's feeling a bit damaged and dry, then go grab this while it's half price - it is a bargain and has even tempted me to try out the rest of the Bee Strong range - have any of you tried them out yet?

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Wonderland Wigs International Giveaway

It's time for a very exciting post today, something I have been so so excited to share with you all, readers old and new!  As you may or may not remember back in October I was lucky enough to be able to work with the fabulous ladies at Wonderland Wigs!

Wonderland Wigs is a heaven of hair extensions, hair pieces and wigs and as soon as I had checked out their website I was itching to try out a new look!
I managed to get my hands on one of the Layered Flicked 3/4 Wig Half Wig Hairpiece's and even though I was apprehensive at first (the word "wig" being why), once I had tried it on that all melted away and I was obsessed! 

Here is my original post - Fabulous Hair In Seconds With Wonderland Wigs.

My hair went from thin shoulder length average looking hair to gorgeous long, thick and fabulous in a matter of seconds - it is a god send!

So myself and Wonderland Wigs are giving one of YOU the chance to win ANY one product of your choice from their huge range online! (Excluding human hair extensions... Obviously!) 
Not only do I and so many other bloggers love this brand but even celebrities having been seen rocking new do's from Wonderland Wigs - amazing! 

All you have to do is fill in the Rafflecopter below.



a Rafflecopter giveaway




Good Luck everyone! I cannot wait to see the winner rocking some new fab locks! 

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