My first scented candle!

I have spent the last few days on a search for my first proper scented candle. I have had candles before but have never really brought them purely for the scent which is quite surprising, given my love for perfumes.

Now, since I'm on the self-imposed perfume purchase ban, it seemed the perfect time to investigate scented candles further. I love scents and potentially scented candles could be the perfect aid to winding down in the evening if they smell right! Hmm, I have a feeling that scented candles are either gonna be something I hate (I'm not a fan of incense, I'm hoping that candles are a lot more subtle) or love (which could quickly result in a vast collection).

Now I chose my first scented delight very carefully. I have spent hours trawling stores and sniffing every candle to catch my eye over the last week or so.

Ideally I was hoping to find a candle remniscent of Christmas, we all know by now how I like everything to compliment the season we are in. However, it seems the scents of Christmas really do not do anything for me. I found some of them too fruity and I actually recoiled at the whiff of cranberry. Others were just slightly too heavy and incense-like. I guess, they just smelt a little bit musty and old. Now I noticed, despite the large number of candles out there to try, that each candle seemed to fall in to one of three boxes. You guessed it, the fruity (eliminated), the musty (eliminated) and finally, the box which held the ones that seemed to draw me in, the gorgeous vanilla based scents.

Yes in Homesense, I found several vanilla candles I liked and I'm sure the security cameras were whizzing around as I ran back and forth between the contenders. The only distingishing factor (aside from price!) really was just how vanilla, each candle was and this was the decider for me. I decided that the heavier vanilla candles, although not as nauseating as the fruity scents, were again just a touch too much and I decided to opt for one of the more perfumed vanilla candles in Homesense.

This is my chosen one, Vanilla Amber from No. 008 the apothecary. I can not find anything on the internet about this one or the brand. I will let you know how I find the scent as it burns down but for the moment, I would say there is a hint of vanilla but this seems to be enveloped in more fragrant notes (do candles have notes?!) that remind me a little of talc and quite a masculine talc, at that. Vanilla Amber smells really clean, cosy, comforting and most importantly, it is not in the slightest, fruity or musty.

Oh and with reference to the perfume ban . . .
Truly, this stupid "bright idea" of mine is a bloody nightmare. I'm still pathetically lusting after VIP 212, Shalimer and thanks to all of the raves infiltrating Blogland, I am also very curious about the Estee Lauder Sensuous Nude but alas, they will still be on the shelf when I've shopped the collection that I already have. Oh, they'd better be, I hope so!

Do you like scented candles? What type of scents do you like? Hmm, if this is going to be my new fad, I am going to need some recommendations! What are your favourites? Have you heard of/ rate the apothecary No. 008?

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Taped hair revamp!

It seems that Truth of The World, Numero uno states that growing hair can take a long, long time!
Truth of The World, Number two states that it can be so frigging boring!!

This is where we're currently at with the hair growth marathon. Sigh!!!

Over the last couple of weeks, I've lost my motivation to grow my hair a little. I want long hair but I don't want to sit around with conditioners on my head and I certainly don't want to wait another eighteen months.
I'm in danger of letting all the hard work fall to the hairdressers floor, snip snip style.

Noooo, that can't happen.

So last weekend, I set about finding my hair mojo again by mixing the extensions up a bit. About this time last year, I stopped having my extensions sewn in. Instead, I have being alternating between clip ins and taped extensions. Swapping it up between the two is what I have being doing instead of the regular hair trim (yes, naughty to skip, I know . . .).

On Saturday, I swapped back from clips to tape. You can buy pretaped extensions (and I have) but I seem to find it as easy to make my own.
I took a weft of hair and some tape.

I cut the weft up in to pieces, attached the tape  to the weft.

Then, I heated the tape a little to warm up the adhesive before attaching the extension to my head.

Five days later and I have not lost any extensions. I used the whole weft and have 10-12 pieces in my hair.

Some of the pre-taped extensions are skin wefts and the edge of the weft is more  or less invisible unlike mine.

A lot of people use smaller pieces of weft and more of them (Given: this is probably kinder to the natural hair as the weight pulling on the hair would be more dispersed). I have done this but for three reasons, I'm not quite so keen. . .
1/ I'm lazy and this method means that more taping and active action is required. It can get quite time consuming and again, I'm lazy.
2/ I'm used to wearing larger extension pieces. Most of the clips in and sewns in I have used before have fitted almost around the head.
3/ I feel more secure with the larger pieces. It seems to me that as they are attached to so much of your head, they are less likely to fall out.
I would say that maybe smaller pieces can be blended better to give you a very natural, individual style. Larger pieces probably do give a more obvious fake look but a good hairdresser should be able to cut in to these and make them more natural. It's all a matter of personal choice.

At the moment, I keep swishing my hair. It feels very light after a couple of months wearing clip ins especially since with those last clips in, I had doubled, tripled some of the pieces up to give me voluminous rows. It all got quite thick and heavy.

I haven't done that this time. Instead, I've gone for a slightly sleeker look (although I have taped the bottom two or three rows quite close together to try and avoid wispy extension ends). Like my previous extensions, these extensions are 18 inches but I think because I've done less multiplying up with the wefts, the length may show itself off more.

Colour-wise, I'm trying not to colour my hair again at the moment as lately it has appeared so dark and also feels  a bit dry. Normally I would colour my extensions and hair before applying taped extensions or making clip ins but as I don't want to colour my hair at the moment, I've try to use extensions of my natural colour so that they will blend better in a few weeks time. I feel my natural hair colour is going to get lighter with the dye fade and the increasing number of lighter roots starting to grow through but until all this comes together a bit more, I suspect my hair will look a bit Ombre in some lights. I'm interested to see how I will take to this.

This is the great thing about extensions, you can make a real difference to the look of your hair with just a weft or two and yes, extensions do cause damage but nearly everything you put on your hair can damage it. At the end of the day, extensions mean long hair now rather then in x amount of long time!

Anyway, I'm not sure how long they are going to last (In the past, I have stuck liquid gold on to the ends of the hair pieces for added security but it can all get a bit sticky and messy so I'm trying to avoid doing that for now.) but small changes like this make such a big difference to hair mojo when you're in the midst of hair growth monotony. So maybe I'll start eating the green beans again and finishing off my Phyto tablets. . .!

Extra hair information

- My new hair is by a brand I've never used before so I will see how it lasts before recommending them to you. However, my last lot of Beauty Works hair (worn more or less 24 hours a day every single day for about five months) lasted really well and I was very impressed with the quality but then I should have been. It is the most expensive hair I've ever brought and even today when I found the link, I felt a bit guilty about the price but I guess, it was less then 75p a day. The only other downer was that I remember, waiting a while for the delivery. Hence, why they weren't invited to the hair revamp this time.
- I get my hair tape from here.

Extra, extra

In other news, I need to backtrack. I have spent the best part of two years rolling my eyes when I catch sight of the gold bottle that still needs to be used up but this last week (see this review, I take it back), I have actually really enjoyed dowsing myself in Something About Sofia (Benefit). It no longer seems to smell as busy or as deep as it used to. I'm not sure if it is the scent that has changed or me but I do think that by Christmas, the bottle will be almost empty.

Also, I am still so in love with the table I brought in Homesense earlier in the year. It is gorgeous. The gold, the decoration . , I love everything about it. Oh and I guess, it fits in with the metallic trend. Talking of which I'm currently lusting after this Top Shop number.

Do you like it? Have you brought any metallics lately? Do you ever wear extensions? Do you have to make an effort to grow your hair? Any tips or perfume recommendations?

Have a good week!

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