My dressing table or 'vanity' area

When I bought my first home, I started my decorating spree with my bedroom. Previously I had lived in rented accommodation, so had never bothered to buy decent furniture or been allowed to do any decorating.

I'm not going to lie, it was hard work! I remember ringing my Dad on one occasion, crying down the phone that it would never be finished (drama queen!). The previous owner had just painted over this horrible textured wallpaper on the ceilings as well as the walls, so it took weeks to remove. But, a couple of months of hard work and toil and finally my bedroom was complete.

The first piece of new furniture I bought myself was my dressing table. I actually spotted this in Homebase before I even moved, and knew I wanted it. It is a penny shy of £200, but as luck would have it, Homebase were having a 20% off furniture sale so I managed to get it for around £160.

On my dressing table I've got my makeup and perfume. There is some fairy lights hanging round the mirror, a couple of sparkly coasters on the top, a sparkly picture frame from Junction 18 and my "little brown bag" makeup bag from Bloomingdales. In the draws I've got some of my main "go-to" hair bits and bobs (clips etc) and a smaller mirror I used to check the back of my hair.

The majority of my makeup is stored in my acrylic Muji storage, which you can read about in more detail here.   

I am so proud of the work I did on my room, and love sitting at my dressing table and experimenting with my makeup. When we move, I'm going to try and convince my boyfriend that I need one of the bedrooms as a dressing room as I get up much earlier than him for work. Wonder what my chances are?! ;)

The Fringe Roller by Sleep-In Rollers

The fringe roller: ★★★★★

A-MA-ZING!

I love it!

I first saw the fringe roller by Sleep-in Rollers on a Holly Wakeham video and had to try it. Sleep-in Rollers grew massively in 2012 expanding their range from the velcro sleep rollers to all sorts of other hair accessories including the fringe roller.

You may be wondering how it is different from any other standard roller you can buy in the shops? Well, for a start this is much bigger. It's long enough to get your whole fringe around this one roller, so you don't end up with an uneven gap in the middle like if you used two normal rollers. It's also wider than your average roller, to give you more of a wave, rather than a curl on your fringe. Finally, it has a special inner layer that retains heat, which helps give you that amazing curl, just by blasting a bit of hot hair on it, then waiting for it to cool.

You can get your fringe rollers here. I would definitely recommend if you want a big bouncy fringe on the side or in full!

Babyliss Curling Wand

Babyliss Curling Wand: ★★★★


I've wanted one of these for a while. I do love my GHDs for curls, but I wanted to try something that can give a looser curl. I know this can be done with the GHDs but I never manage to get the balance right.

So my lovely sister bought the curling wand for my birthday. It takes a couple of go's to get the hang of these, but I do love the result. I got a much more natural look than I get with my GHDs. (Please excuse my pink dressing gown!)

The wand heats up really quickly and there are 5 heat settings. I tend to use it on the hottest as I have quite thick hair, but if you have fine hair I'm sure one of the lower heats would be great. Also if you want more of a wave than a curl then maybe a lower heat would do that well.

They are tricky to get the hang of, especially when doing on your own hair. You have to let gravity help you as the hair will slip down to the end of the wand whilst you are wrapping it round, making it difficult to get an even curl.

I did my sister's hair with the wand on Christmas eve - they were much easier to use on someone else. I went all the way up to the root on her hair, so it looks very 'Carrie Bradshaw-esk'!