Soph Lou's: summer

BORN PRETTY FUNKY SUMMER NAIL WRAPS

Monday, August 10, 2015

FAVOURITE SUMMER NAIL POLISHES COLLAB WITH ELLIE

Sunday, July 26, 2015

Its festival season again here in the UK and although I am unfortunately not going to any festivals this year, I am enjoying watching them all on the TV and catching up on the BBC coverage. Radio 1's Big Weekend was a few weeks back with Glastonbury just last weekend so we really are in the middle of festival season. With Reading and Leeds right around the corner, I cannot wait to see all my favs bands perform!

So what essentials would I be sure to take to a festival for a weekend away? I haven't included the obvious things like a tent, money, clothes, food and a significant other or friends, but I have included my fav beauty, fashion and convenience things...

First things first, I would not be outside all day enjoying my favourite artists without a sunscreen on, this as boring as an essential is so important as the sun can be so dangerous and you can burn so easily. Its so easy to forget to protect your skin but you'll regret it when your lobster colour and in pain from sunburn afterwards. I'd go for a dry mist SPF 30.

Next I could not live without my Wetbrush so that would for sure be in my handbag! Festival hair can get a little Cray so the wetbrush is ideal for getting rid of knots and tangles easily, AND it can be used on wet hair so perfect for when it chucks it down with rain and your soaked! And of course there are no hairdryers at a festival so you'll need some dry shampoo to freshen up your hair, these handbag size So...? Dry Shampoo are amazing and smell really lovely!

A matte lipstick or liquid lipstick is essential as you don't want to be topping up all day and re applying your fav lipstick! I love Makeup Revolutions Velvet Matte Lip Lacquers, their colour range is amazing! Wet wipes are also a MUST as you need to stay germ free all weekend and they are great for removing makeup, food spillages, cleaning your hands after using the portaloos, everything really, they are so convenient.

BB creams are my fav for when I want/need some coverage but I don't want to be caked in makeup especially if its hot weather. This Garnier BB cream has an spf of 30 also so will protect your face from the sun and premature ageing.

And the last two things on my festival essentials list are Wellies. Obviously as you can't festival without them, and these starry wellies from The Welly Shop are perfect! And a Disposable Camera, As much as I'd love to take a good camera to a festival it would be rather silly as its not totally safe and with everyone dancing around it could get broken, so a cheap disposable camera is the best way to capture your fav moments from your festival weekend without worrying too much about it getting damaged. And who doesn't love looking though old photos on actual photo paper not just on Facebook or Instagram.

I hope this post has helped anyone packing for a weekend away and let me know in the comments if you've been to a festival this year or are going to one soon!

diy

DIY PATIO SET RESPRAY | HAMMERITE DIRECT TO RUST REVIEW

Friday, June 26, 2015

I've wanted to get a new garden patio set for a while now as we have had ours for almost 7 years! It had rusted loads as we've never covered it in the garden and it was starting to look really scruffy. Patio sets can vary in price from few hundred pounds down to around £60 for a cheaper set or you can think about respraying your old set. Our seats hadn't worn at all,so we decided to try and respray the rusty metal frame as we love a good DIY, especially garden DIY when the weathers nice!

WARNING!! This post is extremely picture heavy ...

As you can see from the pictures above, our garden set was so rusty and in need of some TLC. We started this DIY project by taking all the chairs and table apart so that we could work with the metal frame without the seat material getting ruined.

Once the set was all in pieces, we then took a pack of sandpaper ,some protective gloves and our dust masks and started to sand the rust down on the metals frame. We didn't have to do this step necessarily but there where a few rough and bubbly patches of rust which we didn't want to show through the spray paint.

Hammerite where very kind and sent us a voucher for 4 cans of their smooth Direct To Rust Metal Spray Paint* in which ever colour we wanted. Their range has a total of 8 shades, Black, White, Green, Blue, Red, Yellow, Gold and silver. Which each come in either hammered or smooth finish. We chose the smooth finish and in the silver shade as we thought that would look best with the black seat material.

These photos where taken after one coat on each side of the patio set. The coverage of the Hammerite spray is fantastic and we where shocked at how well it covered the rust in only one coat. The cans say to apply 3-4 coats for best coverage but we only did 2 coats on each side to complete the whole process.

As you can see the rust has been completely covered and as Hammerite is Primer, colour and top coat all in the one can, there's no need to buy anymore primers etc. I'm so pleased with how the Hammerite has re finished out patio set and I couldn't be more shocked at only using 2 coats each side!!

We put the chairs and table back together and put the black seat material back onto the chairs also and we couldn't get over how amazing the set looks! After months of complaining about it looking rubbish in the garden all rusty and having to crop it out of my Instagram photos, I can now finally sit proud on my patio set thanks to Hammerites Direct to Rust Spray!

Then finished results of the Hammerite Direct to rust spray* is so amazing and the patio set looks brand new! Everyone who has seen it so far is shocked at the finish and I can't recommend Hammerite enough! The can vary in price, ours where from B&Q which I think cost around £12 a can but you can find them much cheaper in Wilkos and Halfords.

Again, I am so happy with the finished resprayed patio set and recommend it to anyone who would like to spruce up any old metal items in the garden! Its so easy to use and dries so quickly! All we have left to finish on the set is the screws as they are still a tad rusty from where they were removed to take the set apart, so we will touch those up with the spray soon.

Our next DIY project is a Garden Pallet Corner Sofa! I've seen these all over Pinterest and need to make our own ASAP! Let the hunt for pallets commence :)

What do you think if our new refinished garden patio set? Let me know if you have any garden DIY projects planned for this summer, I'd love to hear about them in the comments?

Thanks for reading!

*This post contains products sent for review. All opinions are my own and 100% honest.