New Year of Life Resolutions

Okay, granted this is a little lame, but it's in my nature to look for any opportunity for a new beginning and a chance to get motivated. I start my second year of University at the end of the month and am super excited to get back in to my routine, so I guess this time of year is like a new start for me. I turned 25 on Sunday, I start second year in a couple of weeks and we're a hop and a skip away from all of my favourite annual celebrations (Hallowe'en! Bonfire night! Christmas! Hurrah!) so here we go. The perfect time to re-evaluate, get myself in check and make myself a couple of promises for my 26th year.

In terms of the blogosphere, I am sucking right now. Don't think I don't know how sporadic I am! And, hello, what is the point in BLF? I want to set this in stone: I don't want to just be lifestyle anymore. In line with my next resolution, I want to make an effort to start blogging fatshion and beauty as well as just keeping y'all posted on my day-to-day.

It's all about body positivity! I want to find clothes that fit & flatter me and I want to tell every woman that she can be beautiful whatever size she is. That's why I want to get into fashion blogging and provide that platform that I spent so long trying to find. On top of this, I want to find my voice and speak up when I need to. Be that at University, in social situations, whatever. Just stop being so afraid and SPEAK!

I am 100% more positive and motivated when my surroundings are organised properly. I still have piles of paperwork that never got filed properly in first year; I am changing my organisation 'system' and I want to extend that into any aspect of my life that it's possible. I'm comfortable when I know exactly what's going to happen and where everything is. I might as well make that easy for myself!

So many memories slip by me because I forget to take a camera. I know it only means I'm too busy enjoying it, but if I took five seconds out of that happy day to take a photograph of us all having a whale of a time together, we'd have evidence of that memory forever. I want to get more photographs printed and start organising our photo albums. Starting with our wedding pictures.

My social anxiety can get really bad sometimes, so I want to push my own limits this year. Speak up, as I said earlier, but also put myself into situations that I would normally avoid. So if I get invited to a meet-up I won't immediately say no because it's easier to miss out than to stress, I'll think about it seriously - whether that's with one friend or twenty. 

Do you make New Year of Life resolutions? I'd love to hear them!

My £3 Hair Transformation

My life was a constant battle with dry, tangled hair until I had it cut back in October. Since then, things have been pretty good - I can brush my hair without my scalp swelling and I can almost run my fingers through it without it catching. Or at least, that was the case until I jumped on to the ombre bandwagon just after Christmas and dried out the ends of my hair all over again. I need to get it cut again, really, but until then all I can do is try various products and see how they work.

Fast forward to a couple of days ago, and I was where I'm normally found: in a bargain bin. I came across a range of Macadamia Oil Extract products for £1 each and thought I might as well give them a go - as they were that cheap I bought a shampoo, a conditioner and a matching hair mask. I wish I'd bought ten of each now.

Every Sunday evening I treat myself. Between the hours of 9 and 10pm I run a steaming-hot bath, I rest my tablet on the toilet so I can watch something awful on Netflix and I use all my best pamper products. Last night I even brought myself a cuppa, because I know how to live. These Macadamia Oil Extract products were tentatively added to my pamper collection for this Sunday night; the products totalled £3 so how good could they really be? 

It all felt normal at first. The smell was fine - nothing special, just that everyday soapy smell. I used the shampoo and conditioner as I always would (leaving the conditioner in for a couple of minutes, which is recommended on the packaging) and then applied the mask liberally to the ends of my hair and left that for a good five minutes. The mask was a bit less heavy-duty than I had imagined: quite runny and not dense at all, which hair masks usually are. I was worried this'd mean it wouldn't do much, but hey. Worth a try.

My hair was still wet when I fell asleep last night, which is usually a recipe for disaster. But this morning, when I brushed it, I was pleasantly surprised. The brush glided (glode? Glade?) through my locks smoothly, leaving them looking shiny and golden and bouncy. This NEVER happens to me. My fiance even commented on how soft it felt/that it looked shiny. I'm super impressed. I haven't used this enough to know if the hair mask did it or if the shampoo and conditioner would have been enough: I'll experiment next time. All I know is you need to get to ASDA and snap these beauties up before they put them back to full price or discontinue them all together. I haven't seen these for less than £3 each online (so almost a tenner for the set, which is a huge difference) so this is most definitely a deal to take advantage of.

Let me know what you think!