Veleza App Review

I discovered the Veleza app whilst scrolling through Instagram when lovingly admiring the #beauty hashtag content that social media has to offer. I cannot tell you how pleased I am to have found it.

Veleza is a free mobile app that provides the space for a community of beauty lovers to come together and exchange beauty tips and advice with fellow beauty fanatics, bloggers, beauticians, make up artists and skincare professionals from around the world. Think Instagram… just purely beauty-based.

I know right… AMAZING.

In a digital world full of paid-for reviews, beauty products can be a minefield; what happens when your current foundation (that you spent years finding) has been discontinued, or if you want to try a new face cream but are scared of a major breakout?

Veleza answers your prayers – all the users provide independent, unbiased and transparent reviews of products, so you get honesty about the coverage of a foundation, or the longwear of a lippy. The app initially asks you a set of questions about your beauty regime and skin type so it can factor this into the suggestions of who to follow, making the integration into the app quick and simple so you can just jump right into the beauty world.

What’s more is that when sharing your beauty experience, the app will tag your post with the products, so that everyone in the Veleza community can discover the product and see the ingredients. For anyone who is worried about finding products specific to intolerances or lifestyle choices, such as vegan friendly, cruelty free, paraben free, fragrance free or organic products, there is a specific filter to direct you to these individual selections.

Veleza also has the most comprehensive beauty product database to date, as well as displaying the best local deals for your most favourite products, including price comparisons from such retailers as Sephora, Amazon, eChemist or FeelUnique - fabulous for saving more money (to spend at a later date on more cosmetics...)

With its awareness of the issues within the beauty world, Veleza is a real gamechanger for me. The embracing community willing to exchange personal recommendations and discuss their fears and issues is genuine and encapsulates the power of sharing in a safe environment where they won't be judged – it feels more like a group of friends having a beauty sesh and sleepover rather than isolated strangers from around the world.

Give it a couple of years and this will be huge: Veleza app is definitely one to watch.

To become an active and engaged member of the Veleza beauty community, download the app here.

Rest your roots - 5 products for £5!

Your hair is weak, brittle and in need of some long-awaited TLC but payday is no closer than you are to being ‘Becky with the good hair’.

So how can you transform your dull, lacklustre locks to achieve strengthened, sumptuous and sleek tresses? (Especially when the likes of argan oil is so frickin’ expensive – 125ml of Moroccanoil Treatment is £31.50!)

Well my soon-to-be silky-haired friends, thanks to my nosiness which is nigh on impossible to curtail, I went into a Poundworld for some standard homeware bits and bobs, and emerged with an abundance of haircare products.

Say what you will, turn your nose up if you feel so compelled, but when I saw the sheer amount of argan oil products they supplied – all at the advertised price of a measly £1 – I knew I was onto something. Of the argan oil products, I only got the oil itself and heat protector spray suffused with oil, but there were about 8 other products all made with the pioneering heavenly oil-infused haircare tool  – if I used more than 2 oil-based products at once in my grease-prone hair, I’d look like a dripping buffoon, slimy and sopping.

My hair tends to have exceptionally dry ends, and it becomes greasy quite quickly, so for that reason I only use argan oil on the tips. On wet hair combed with a wide-toothed comb (helped by the divine-smelling Schwartzkopf Detangling Spray), I add a couple of drops of argan oil to my hands and rub my palms together to get an even coating. Then I bring all of my hair over both shoulders and run my fingers through it like a makeshift comb, focusing on the ends and applying the oil no higher than ear-height. If I have any excess oil left on my fingers, I massage it into my elbows, as it helps moisturise them and keep them soft and supple.

My top 5 Poundworld products that produced amazing results, for minimal money:

1. Argan Oil Hair Treatment
2. Schwartzkopf Detangling Spray (Strawberry scent)
3. Macadamia Oil Extract Hair Mask
4. Alberto Balsam Superfruits Shampoo & Conditioner (Mango and Passion Fruit)
5. Argan Oil Heat Defense Leave In Spray

To get more tips on growing your hair, click here

Chelsea Bridge Massage*

Thank you Chelsea Bridge Clinic for inviting me down for a full body massage; it was sheer bliss. I met with my therapist Bianca (a stunning green-eye beauty) who got me to fill in the standard forms about the problem areas on my body (eg. back pain, joint pain) and then I was lead through the quaint clinic to a treatment room. Although offered, I declined the temporary underwear which were horrific... some sort of  confused grandmother mullet pants - Bridget Jones in the front, and tooth floss in the back. Having said this, I am yet to find a spa that offers sexy temporary underwear - a girl can dream.

The massage began and as soon as her lotion-lathered fingers touched my skin, I turned to putty in her hands... I was so relaxed, all I could do was grunt my muffled replies to "is this pressure okay for you?" and "how is the room temperature for you?"
Although I am normally a back and scalp kind of girl, it was when she began working out the knots in my calves and giving my tootsies individual massages of their own, that I thought I would melt into the bed with pleasure. She went to town on my chest and neck, gently alleviating the stresses I'd evidently been holding there by the various clicks and crunches, and then she began a snake charmer-esque wiggle movement with my arms and fingers that, although at first I found peculiar, ended with my shoulders feeling looser and freer than they have in years.

Finally was her personalised advice for my lower back problems that often stiffen me up and result in looking like the Hunchback of Notre Dame - she showed me a variety of exercises that enabled my back to loosen and release the taut muscular issues that were posture-related. She helped me with these to get maximum effect whereby I laid flat whilst she twisted me, stretching my lower back and initiating a resounding clunk, which I'm sure echoed down the hallways, reverberating for minutes afterwards!
It was a great massage with new techniques I haven't experienced before, made all the more memorable by the assistance and advice given to help me in everyday life to ease my aching lower back. 
Kudos for maximising this clinic's potential through the alliance with Très Spa - I will definitely be returning.

Luscious Lips

March is here, and although we should be cracking out the pastel shades and floral prints, instead we have cracked lips because of this cold snap (some places in the UK have snow!)

So I have put together a little collection of lippies to help you re-moisturise and get your perfect pout back, ready for Spring.

We get dry lips because they don’t have any oil glands, unlike the rest of our skin. To tackle this, try a gentle lip balm to cool and moisturise;  my handbag essential is my Nivea Pearly Shine £2 lip balm. It lasts for hours and has a pearlescent sheen to it that can double as a lip colour, plus looks great with nude-style make up.

If you want a high pigmented, plump lip but you’re not a fan of the Kylie Jenner pout, courtesy of intricate lip liner and lashings of lipstick (plus a teensy bit of filler), then why not try Urban Decay products? Urban Decay’s Lip Junkie Gloss £13 uses Maxi-Lip, a bonus ingredient that claims to plump lips by up to 40% when used for a month that leaves lips creamy rather than sticky.

An alternative to precision lipwear that keeps a buttery-smooth finish is the wine-stained look. Use a dark pink/plum coloured lippy, such as Topshop’s Matte Lip Bullet in Get Me Bodied £8 and apply lightly before dabbing gently with your middle finger, until it looks slightly smudged and worn. For longer wear, easier application, and additional moisture apply a slick of lip balm before the lipstick.

If you suffer from the blighters that are coldsores (that come on as a result of being stressed, a change in the weather or just because they feel like you’ve not had one in a while, particularly hours before a party) then try Zovirax £4.85. The Acyclovir element will minimise the coldsore, targeting the virus and reducing the size and redness, just apply ever 3-4 hours. Alternatively is Blistex £2.69, which deals with coldsores but also relieves dry, chapped lips to leave them soft and smooth.

Let me know your favourite lip-plumping products or techniques for a chance to win a new lipstick in your choice of colour!

Yorkshire Beauty

Rolling hills as far as the eye can see, forested valleys, stretching moors and silvery vapours drifting over the landscape in the early morning sun; welcome to Yorkshire.

At this time of year, although bitingly cold, the Yorkshire moors are breathtakingly beautiful, showcasing the glory of nature and sheer magnificence akin to Peter Jackson’s portrayal of New Zealand in his Lord of the Rings productions.

Having visited for a funeral, spirits were duly low, but when I encountered the stunning landscapes, I could not help but feel a sort of living presence, pulsing in every aspect of the surroundings, breathing life and energy through me. The crisp air and dewy flowers were intoxicating, as was the river with its thousands of intricate reflections that you could stare into endlessly.

Bolton Abbey was by far the most captivating place I visited. In the heart of the Yorkshire Dales, the ruins of a 12^th century monastery exist in acres of woodland that are truly staggering and simply must be experienced. We walked for hours through the woods (muddy wellies accompanying) and skipped stones along the mirrored surface, topped off with a bowl (I mean it, it was a bowl) of hot chocolate plus whipped cream plus marshmallows plus sprinkles, and thankfully I didn’t have a coronary! If walking isn’t your thing (it wasn’t mine until I met my boyfriend’s mum!) then there are still places you can visit. There are about 9462 pubs in a 3-mile radius, all of which consist of roaring log fires, engulfing leather armchairs, a monstrously-sized roast dinner and as standard, an adorable pub dog. For afternoon tea, you simply must visit Betty’s Tea Rooms in Harrogate; nearly a century old, it boasts the most delectable cream cakes and extensive collection of tea and coffee (with over 300 breads, cakes and chocolates!). If you want to explore the town, there are hundreds of quaint little shops selling petite homeware bits that are perfect for gift-giving, or try the market in Skipton with thousands of books for sale as well as puzzles, fruit, vegetables and jewellery. There is a great buzz about Harrogate, and when we went we were lucky enough to catch the Pancake Day celebrations, with local radio stations and pancake-tossing competitions aplenty.

Don’t forget all the “Ye Olde Sweetshops” either – with pineapple cubes, rhubarb and custards, bonbons, humbugs, salted liquorice, jelly buttons (how much time have you got?) they have all the old sweets as well as some new!