I've heard a lot about Aussie shampoos but until recently had never actually tried them myself. I've always thought they were quite expensive, considering you can buy other high quality shampoos (in much larger bottles) for a cheaper price. This particular one though, was on offer. I think I picked the bottle up for around £2 in Asda one evening and thought I would give it a try.

I don't generally have 'frizzy' hair; it's pretty much straight with a few waves here and there, but it can often get quite static-y and splay out in different directions, so I picked it up anyway.

The smell is uh-ma-zing! It's a really fresh scent that's actually quite calming, however I found that the colour of the shampoo itself, despite foaming up into a white fluffy bubbly mass, left my plug holes blue! 

The shampoo foams up really easily - not like some others I've tried - and the formula is really rich and moisturising. When I was drying my hair, it did feel a bit sticky in places, which I assume is the moisturising 'coating' that is left on the hair, but with some blow drying, the sticky-ness went away. 

True to it's word, despite my naturally straight hair, this shampoo really did make a noticeable difference and I found that my hair looked a lot smoother and sleeker than usual. There were no wirey bits of hair straying from my parting and the colours and tones of my hair were really deep - which looked great in the sun!

The fantastic thing about this shampoo is that the ingredients list includes natural extracts, such as 'Australian blue gum leaves' and there are no parabens!

I definitely would buy this shampoo again as I feel it really worked well with my hair. Of course, everyone is different so it may not necessarily work for everybody - for example, my hair is really thick so I have to use products such as Head & Shoulders, TreSemme, Pantenne etc to get a really thorough clean. This one definitely matches their standards! Products such as Herbal Essences and Garnier just don't work well for me! 

Is it worth the money? Yes I think it is, but if I can get a larger bottle of TreSemme for a cheaper price, I would probably opt for that to be honest, and save Aussie for my 'treat' if it is on offer.

I was uber excited that Mac were releasing the Wash & Dry collection. Having purchased both lipsticks in the Cinderella range, I couldn't wait to see what else they had up their sleeves for us. 

Mac released four shades of lipstick: Creme D'Nude, Tumble Dry, Morange and Steam Heat. I opted for Tumble Dry as I wanted a natural sheen effect. 

Mac surprised us all by releasing their range earlier than advertised and sadly all of the colours had completely sold out on their website. I was pretty miffed, but heard through the grapevine (and a LOT of internet googling) that it would be released a week later in stores. The only problem though? I had to work. Given that the Cinderella range sold out within the hour, I pretty much had no chance, but then I had the brainwave that department stores such as John Lewis, Debenhams and House of Fraser ALSO stock Mac products on their website. So, at 7.30am before I left for work I shot onto the John Lewis website and to my immense joy, there were online and there were 5 left in stock! Phew! I ordered myself one and had it delivered to the store free of charge, ready for collection the following day.

A few weeks ago I found out that my great-granddad's medals are on display in the Tower of London, so naturally I wanted to see them! It coincidentally happened that Kate Middleton gave birth to a baby girl, Princess Charlotte, so we thought why not go to London and make a day of it? 

There were SO many people outside Buckingham Palace, and I mean thousands of people, and we go there just in time to watch the band marching through the street!

The traditional easel  was on display outside the Palace and I had to squeeze through a crowd of people to see it and get a photo. (I suffer from panic attacks so I had to remind myself to keep looking upwards towards the sky in order to avoid bringing on another one!) I don't have a selfie stick (yet) but I could have done with one! 

We walked up the Bloody Tower, saw Henry VIII's (many) suits of armor, went in the torture chamber and saw Traitor's Gate, but be warned, the corridors and stairways are very old, very dark and very narrow!

If you ever go to the Tower of London, you HAVE to stop off at the cafe and buy yourself a slice of their gorgeous chocolate cake. Oh my goodness, it was seriously the best chocolate cake I have ever had - now that's saying something!

I took these snaps from the train on the journey home and thought they were pretty :)

My BFF is COMPLETELY obsessed devoted to Harry Potter (much to her husband's disapproval) and, as it was her Birthday, we celebrated with a meal at one of the greatest places on Earth - Nando's! Along with a few other gifts, like nail varnishes, a scarf (which she pointed out on one of our epic shopping trips) and a Harry Potter 'Always' necklace that I'd found online (complete with the Deathly Hallows logo forming the letter 'A') I decided to make her a novelty Harry Potter chalkboard for her kitchen. As I teach Design and Technology in a secondary school, I was able to use the space and a lot of the machines there.

Last summer I blogged about my visit to Danson House in South-East London and by visiting their website a couple of months ago I discovered that they were hosting a Vivienne Westwood exhibition.

Now, let me just put it out there... I LOVE Vivienne Westwood! Ever since a school trip to the V&A Museum when I was in year 8, I have just been besotted by her unique style and those legendary blue shoes!! (I bought my very own Vivienne Westwood necklace a couple of months ago!) 

The exhibition wasn't huge; there were probably about 20 pieces all in all, but regardless, it was a really lovely way to spend the afternoon 

The "punk style‟ gained notoriety when clothes designed and made by Westwood were worn by groups such the Sex Pistols and the New York Dolls

(This is actually a wedding corset that was made in 1995 from cotton and bone!)

Westwood is renowned for her corset designs, which Karl Lagerfeld described as one of the most important fashion ideas of the 20th century

This dress was so difficult to photograph well as it was the only piece that was behind glass and the lighting didn't help!! It was once worn by the model Linda Evangelista and was based on 18th Century French gowns. Interestingly, the dress is designed in two halves... the right side is 'historically accurate', whereas in true Westwood style, the left half is sleeveless and has a more modern corset look.