Ever since I cut my bum-length hair when I was 10, I have regretted it! (Apart from that weird phase when I thought a bob would look good on me *shudders*). I’m now 20 and I have tried EVERY possible way to make my hair grow, and I think it’s now at a pretty reasonable length! I’ll add some before and after pictures at the end!

I literally researched everything, watched countless YouTube videos, read articles and just experimented myself! So I thought I’d share my findings, because it’s a question I get asked quite regularly!

Okay, so my first tip is STOP USING HEAT! This might be easier said than done for me, because my hair is naturally straight so I don’t need to straighten it (can’t actually remember the last time I straightened my hair!), but even if your hair isn't straight, embrace your natural hair! I would actual killlllll for wavy/curly hair! I think using less heat definitely helped my hair because I’m no longer damaging it; I used to straighten it every day even if I didn't need to and it did me no good!

Second tip is don’t brush your hair as much. This might sound like a weird one, but try just using your fingers when drying your hair, or if you really MUST brush your hair, use a wide-toothed comb, because this will minimise tugging your hair!

Third tip is to wash your hair less! This is well-known, but I seriously live by it! I used to wash my hair every single day, and I wasn't letting the natural oils in my hair do their thaaang, but now I wash my hair every 2 days, sometimes every 3 days, just using dry shampoo in between!

I also used to take hair, nails and skin supplements that I got from Holland and Barrett; they tasted like fish but definitely did their job! My skin looked much better for it as well!

The thing that I think helped my hair the most is a product I found in Boots! It’s the Lee Stafford Hair Growth Treatment, “for hair that never grows past a certain length”. This is a miracle product! I genuinely believe in this product SO much! It made my hair stop falling out, it made it grow, and it also doubled up as a conditioner and made my hair super silky smooth! It’s pretty inexpensive as well at £7.99 a tub and the tub lasted me for ages!

There’s a tip out there that says you should get your hair cut every so often or your hair won’t grow, and I can say that I haven’t had my hair cut in like a year and a half, and it’s done my hair just fine. I think just as long as you look after your hair, then it’ll grow. Plus it’ll save money at for haircuts!

Before and after pictures, around 2 years in between photos!

Thanks for reading, and if you have any more tips for growing your hair, or even keeping it in good condition, I’d love to hear them!

Thanks, 

S x

I've been nominated for the Liebster Award!

So I only just recently started blogging, so I’ve only just heard of the Liebster Award as well! I got nominated by Chantelle Louise over at http://chantzlouisexo.blogspot.co.uk/, check out her blog! J

There are some rules that have to be followed and they are:

·         You must link back to the person who nominated you.

·         You must answer the 11 questions that were given to you by the person who nominated you.

·         After completing these questions you must nominate 11 bloggers and give them 11 questions of your choice to answer (must have less than 200 followers)

·         You are not allowed to nominate the person who nominated you. 

·         Make sure you let the nominee's know that they have been nominated and provide a link to your post for them, so they are able to learn about it. 

So these are my answers to the questions that Chantelle Louise provided me with:

1)      Who’s your favourite blogger?

It definitely has to be Zoella, I just love her! She just seems so lovely!

2)      Where would you love to go on holiday to?

Think I’d have to say Mexico! I’ve heard it’s amazing, and my favourite kind of food is Mexican, so imagine the real deal!

3)      What’s your favourite clothing brand?

You probably wouldn’t call it a brand, would you? But literally ALL my clothes are from New Look, so I’d have to say them!

4)      How many times a month do you like to blog?

I only started my blog this month so I guess I can’t really answer this question, but I would like to get at least 4 posts in a month (once a week) if not more!

5)      Who is your idol and why?

As cheesy as it sounds, I think I’d actually have to say my Mum! She’s been through lots of things, and she’s managed to always get through them, all while supporting us all as a family! If I can manage to be half as strong, then I’d be happy!

6)      Who would you not like to be stranded on a desert island with?

Any ex-boyfriend, need I say more?

7)      What is your favourite colour?

Yellow, but I’m loving pastel blue a lot at the moment!

8)      What beauty product could you not live without?

Nail varnish, simply because I hate unpainted nails!

9)      What is your best beauty tip?

Sudocrem is a life saver when it comes to breakouts, it sorts mine out soooo quickly!

10)   What is your favourite film?

This question is so hard for me because I love so many films! If I HAD to choose one, I’d probably say Grease, but then again that’s a musical!

11)   What’s a random fact about you?

I am a type 1 diabetic!

The bloggers that I am nominating for the Liebster Award are:

1)      Cydney Helsdown at http://cydneyhelsdown.blogspot.com

2)      Jenna Louise at http://byjennalouise.blogspot.co.uk/

3)      Courtney Womack at http://brokebutnotbasic.com

4)      Alex Georgie at http://alexgeorgie.blogspot.com

5)      Lauren O’Dowd at http://animpatientscottishgirl.blogspot.co.uk

6)      Jennifer Sophie at http://confessionsofaclumsygirl.blogspot.com

7)      Zara at http://theglamourelle.blogspot.ie

8)      Zee and B at http://zeeandbblog.blogspot.co.uk

9)      Angelika Grigorjeva at http://prettyinglamm.blogspot.co.uk/

10)   Emily Gardner at http://emyleyg.blogspot.co.uk

11)   Sarah Barry at http://beautypadawan.blogspot.com

Sorry if any of you guys have already been nominated! But here are my questions for you:

1)      What is the meaning behind your blog name?

2)      What is one item in your wardrobe that you couldn’t live without?

3)      Where is one place you want to visit and why?

4)      Favourite Disney movie?

5)      If you could meet one person, dead or alive, who would it be?

6)      Favourite song at the moment?

7)      Do you have any hidden talents?

8)      What is your favourite season of the year, and why?

9)      What is your guilty pleasure?

10)   If you could be granted 3 wishes, what would they be?

11)   Which decade would you have liked to have lived in?

Can’t wait to read some of your answers! Thanks again for the nomination!

S x

Trip to the Zoo!

So last week I actually had a day off work, and my wonderful older sister, her friend and one of nieces came to visit me. We decided to go to Blair Drummond Safari Park! I can’t believe I’ve lived in Stirling for over 2 years and this is the first time I’m going, but better late than never!

I took my DSLR with me to take some photos but the memory card decided to break halfway through the day, so I’ve only got some pictures taken on my phone! If anybody knows how to get pictures off a broken memory card, that would be much appreciated!

The weather was fantastic, so perfect for a trip to the zoo! At Blair Drummond, you can drive around in your car to see the animals, as well as walking around, but when you drive around you’re actually in the animal enclosures, which was a bit scary because there was a very angry looking rhino near us!

I just love seeing animals that normally you wouldn’t be able to in Scotland. My favourite animal is a tiger, and I literally am in awe of them. I actually held a tiger cub when I was younger at a zoo in Majorca, best moment ever!

I was actually expecting Blair Drummond to be quite a small park, but I was so wrong! It literally had every animal, from big zoo animals to little farm animals! My favourite part of the day was the Sea Lion show, they are actually insane! How can an animal do that!? They were so cute as well; they always looked like they were smiling lol. My niece, Grace, said it was the best day of her life!

Because it was so hot we HAD to get ice creams, and I got the Calippo Shots. Now, I have not had these in foreverrrrrr. I used to get them all the time when I was younger and I actually thought they’d stopped doing them, but I got so excited when I saw them here! I also got some doughnuts which were amazing, and I’ve been craving more ever since!

mmmm!

All in all, it was such a good day out! I love the zoo and being able to have a picnic, and just seeing my niece have an amazing time! I'll post a few of my fave pictures from the day as well!

Do you like the zoo? What’s your favourite animal? Have you posted about a day at the zoo recently? Let me know and I’ll check them out!

S x

What's In My Bag!

I have a little bit of an obsession with handbags! I buy them ALL the time! The one I’m using at the moment, I only bought it last week! To be fair, it was in the sale, so I did get a good bargain on it! I mostly buy my bags from River Island, they’re bags are always so nice and SO affordable! I’m actually in LOVE with my new bag!

So what is in my bag?

I always carry a pair of sunglasses around with me, because the weather in Scotland is SO temperamental, it changes so much, so you never know when it’s going to be sunny!

I also always carry a bottle of water everywhere with me, mostly because I’m constantly thirsty lol.

There may be some things in my bag which look unfamiliar to some of you, that will be the yellow sharps bin, the grey purse and the blue wallet. Well, I’m actually a Type 1 Diabetic, so they are all things that I need to carry around with me! The blue wallet has got my two insulin pens in it, and the grey purse has a glucose meter in it, so that I can check my blood sugars, and the yellow sharps bin is for me to put my used needles into! The little black tub in my bag has test strips in, for testing blood sugars!

I carry perfume with me everywhere too, this week I’ve got Katy Perry’s Killer Queen with me. This is literally one of my favourite perfumes ever, it smells insane!!

You will always find some sort of make up in a girl’s bag, and I’m no exception! I’ve got my powder, the Crème Puff by Max Factor in Truly Fair, a Kate Moss Lipstick in 111 ‘Kiss of Life’ (SUCH a good lipstick!) and a lip crayon (the name has rubbed off so I’m unsure lol). I’ve also got two lip balms, one by Nivea, and then a tin of Vaseline.

My friends always call me the ‘prepared one’, and my bag will tell you why. I’ve got tissues, plasters (One Direction ones, what else?!), paracetamol, mints (and tic tacs!) and some pens. The only thing I’ve not got is the kitchen sink!!

Of course I’ve got my purse, another River Island purchase! I absolutely adore the bright orange colour! I’ve got earphones, because I constantly listen to music! I’ve got the keys to my house too!

Being diabetic, I have to carry something around with me that will keep my blood sugars up, so today’s choice was a little bar of dark chocolate from Cafe Nero. I’ve recently got into dark chocolate, and I loooove it! I’ve also got a Costa loyalty card which I actually need to put in my purse, but I only got it the other day, when I was ordering my usual Caramel Latte, so yummy!

And last but not least, I have my watch (because I’m late for everything!) and my phone, which is the iPhone 5c in yellow!

If you’ve done a similar post, pop you’re link below and I’ll check them out! I want to see if I’m not the only crazy prepared one out there!

S x

Best Hair Tool for Perfect Waves

I have seen so many posts about the perfect waves, but they usually involve some hair tool that costs a little bit too much for those of us that are too skint! But I have found a cheaper alternative! The Babyliss 2286U Waving Wand (click to buy) may just be the best hair tool I have ever used!

I have long, thick, straight hair, and personally I find it so annoying! I dream to have some sort of wave or curl to my hair, and the only way I can make this happen is using some sort of heated tool. I heard about this waving wand because my friend always uses it, and she has the BEST hair! The Babyliss wand only cost me £24.99, incredibly inexpensive!

For a cheaper tool, you would expect a result that wasn't great, but this exceeds expectations! Because I have straight hair, I always want to wear it curly or wavy. In the past, I have never had the time to style it so much daily, for work or university, but with the Babyliss wand, I can wear my hair wavy every day, because it is such a speedy tool! I don’t have to keep my hair on the wand for too long, and I have thick hair so I thought that I would! It does take longer if you want to curl the whole length of your hair, but I usually curl the bottom half of my hair, and that takes a maximum of 15 minutes, so quick!

 I use the wand mostly for when I’m going out. It makes me look like I’ve put a lot more effort in than I actually have! You can actually create so many different hairstyles! It depends how tight you wrap your hair around the wand, and how thick the sections of hair are! You can even brush out the waves to create a loose wave, and a more volumized look! I’ll add some pictures of the different kind of waves I’ve created using the wand!

 This look is more of a loose wave. I did this in less than 10 minutes. I brushed out the waves to make them looser

 With this one, I styled my whole hair. I kept the wand in for a little bit longer to make the waves tighter!

This is my favourite look I've created! I used thicker sections of hair to make the waves a little bit bigger and I brushed them out with a wide-toothed comb

Do you have straight hair? What do you do to add a little bit of something to your hair? I always want to try new things with my hair, because I usually wear it down, so any new ideas would be appreciated!

S x

5 Things I Can’t Wait For

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As much as I love summer, there are certain things that I just can’t wait for!

Number 1 is for uni to start back! We literally get the longest breaks EVER. Don’t get me wrong it’s great, but sometimes they just feel too long, there’s only so many times you can go to the cinema or to the zoo. All my friends live so far away from me as well, so I’ve been really missing them! When uni starts back everyone will move back to Stirling and I literally can’t wait! We have a little mini reunion every year, and usually celebrate with a Nando’s. Not only do you get to see everyone, but the start of uni only means one thing, FRESHER’S WEEK. The most important week in a student’s calendar. The past two fresher’s weeks  have been so much fun! There is always something happening every night at the clubs, you get bundles of free shit, and you get to make loads of new friends. But most importantly, you get to dress up on all of the theme nights. Personally my favourite night is the schools out night!

Twin Atlantic are my favourite band everrrrr, and if you haven’t heard of them, seriously check them out. https://www.youtube.com/user/twinatlanticVEVO. Anyway, it’s been a while since they released new music, but NEW ALBUM ALERT. They release their new album in August and I am literally about to burst waiting for it! I’ve seen them live a couple of times, and I think they might actually be my favourite band to see live. The first time I went to see them was kind of traumatic though. I had a broken ankle (ridiculous that I was at a gig, but I was totally dedicated to the cause lol), and they played ‘Better Weather’ which is quite a slow song, and everyone started to sit down, and I started to panic because I couldn’t sit down because I had this huge moon boot on my leg, my friends literally couldn’t stop laughing at me. Hey, if it got Sam McTrusty to notice me, then who’s complaining?

I haven’t been to the cinema in forever, but there are a few films that I will definitely be going to see when they’re released! I must have watched the trailers for each of these so many times! The first movie I’m looking forward to is ‘Sex Tape’ (film trailer) starring Cameron Diaz and Jason Segal, it looks absolutely hilarious! Plus Jason Segal is looking rather handsome! The second film I can’t wait to see is ‘Begin Again’ (film trailer). Even though Adam Levine seems to be the bad guy in this film, everyone loves a bit of eye candy right? The third and final film I’m looking forward to seeing is ‘What If' (film trailer). It’s got Daniel Radcliffe in it, so what’s not to love! Although, I always find it weird seeing him in films and not thinking of him as Harry Potter, and waiting for He Must Not Be Named to appear. But this film looks so good! It’s basically about the drama revolving around a boy-girl friendship. I’m sure most of us have been in a situation like this before! How annoying when people think you have a hidden agenda and just can’t be friends eh!? But anyway, this film looks so funny, and I’ll definitely be using my Orange Wednesday’s code for that lol.

Now, I look forward to these next two things every year. They’re literally my two favourite holidays. Halloween and Christmas of course!

I love love love Halloween. Dressing up is one of my favourite things. You can look like a complete idiot and no one will judge you! You don’t have the pressure of having perfect make up and wearing the latest trends, or wearing heels (the biggest perk I feel). I do put myself under pressure though, because I love it so much, I always think that I have to come up with a killer idea. I’ve already started thinking about my outfit for this year, and Halloween isn’t for another 118 days!

However, Christmas has to be my absolute favourite holiday of all! I just love everything about it! Going to the Christmas markets (the Edinburgh one is exceptional btw) is my favourite thing to do! I always end up going ice-skating on the outdoor rink as well, even though I’m the biggest scaredy-cat! I cannot skate to save myself! My 7 year old niece skates rings around me! I love getting to spend all that extra time with my family, and just not having a care in the world!

So what are you guys looking forward to this year? What’s your favourite holiday? I would love to know!

S x

June Favourites

Seeing as it’s the start of a new month and the start of my new blog, I thought I’d start with something pretty simple. My favourites for the month of June! When I say my favourites, I’m not going to do the typical beauty favourites, I’m just going to include all the things I've been loving in June!

The first thing that I cannot get enough of is Gossip Girl (I know I’m a bit late to this party, but better late than never eh?). I just finished the fifth season the other day, and cannot wait to get started on the sixth season, but I’m kind of reluctant to start it, because it’s the last season! My best friend Kirsty introduced me to the series because she watched it when it first came out, and she has me addicted (and I now understand her crazy obsession with Blake Lively!) Honestly guys, if you have never watched Gossip Girl before, I highly recommend that you do! I can’t wait to find out who Gossip Girl actually is!

Second in my favourites is my all-time favourite perfume! Daisy by Marc Jacobs! I first got this perfume from Duty Free when I went to Florida, a few years ago and I have loved it ever since! I rationed it so much though because it’s pretty expensive! However, it was my birthday this month, and my parents surprised me with another bottle! It’s literally the best smelling perfume and I get compliments on the smell of it all the time!

Another product I've been loving is a lip liner by Model Co, called the Illusion Nude Lip Liner. I actually got this free in a magazine a few months ago, but only recently tried it. The reason I love this product so much is because I have really thin lips and I long for bigger, plumper lips. Without getting surgery, or using irritating lip plumpers (which I hate the tingly feeling of) there was no other alternative until this bad boy came along.  This lip liner is used on the outside of your lips (you need to match the colour to your natural lip colour!) and it gives an illusion of bigger lips! I first heard of this trick because of Kylie Jenner, because it seems to have worked so well for her!

I am addicted to painting my nails, and I know it’s not good for your nails, but I change the colour of mine alllllll the time! But I have actually been good this month! I have always loved the Rimmel 60 Seconds collection of nail varnishes, but I especially love the range that Rita Ora has bought out! My favourite at the moment, is the colour called ‘Breakfast in Bed’, it’s like a pastel green colour, and it’s so so cute!

I am a MASSIVE fan of boy bands, as you will probably find out soon enough. But at the moment I am especially loving The Vamps. I saw them at Radio 1’s Big Weekend this year, and I haven’t stopped listening to them since! The atmosphere when I saw them was just incredible, they has so much stage presence, plus it helps that they are all so handsome! Their album ‘Meet the Vamps’ has literally been on repeat every single day! Go buy it!!!

So these have been my favourites for the month of June. I’ll hope to do something like this every month, with different things I've been loving and things I've discovered! Hope you liked this post! Feel free to share your favourites with me, or if you have any recommendations, I’d love to hear them!

S x

First blog post and this is all a little bit scary!

Hey everyone!

I've always been interested in blogs and the writing style, and just the idea of documenting important events in your life and being able to share those with other people! I've wanted to start a blog for a while now, but I've never gotten round to it, but

seeing as I've just finished my second year at university, and have the whole summer to do what I want, I thought what better time to start!

First of all, I guess I should introduce myself. I'm Sophie Clarkson, 20 years old and I live in Scotland. I'm currently at university studying law and really enjoying it.

The blog will mostly be lifestyle, but it'll probably incude a little bit of everything really, anything that I want to share with the world, or a few people, whoever comes across my blog and chooses to read it!

Hope you enjoy!

S x