My Best Dressed List from the Oscars

The Oscars were on Sunday night, and I must say, there were some gorgeous gowns gracing the red carpet and various Oscar parties! I just wanted to take a moment to appreciate some of my favourites.

I adored Emma Watson's dress by Vera Wang. It's very flattering to her shape, as well as being very classical and modest - just like herself (I also really enjoyed the selfie she took with Joseph Gordon-Levitt, but I digress).

Jessica Biel looked stunning in this gown by Dior, so sparkly and elegant but not too overstated. Simply gorgeous!

What's this? Lady Gaga looking… normal?! I really liked this dress by Versace, the colours are so nice and I even like that cape/scarf thing she has going on. Quite toned down for her style (it's no meat dress) but still quirky enough to be Gaga. She looks stunning!

Putting a twist on the LBD (Long Black Dress, in this case), Taylor Swift rocked up to the awards looking like a sexy disco ball. I love the sheer detailing on the sleeves.

Kerry Washington (Jason Wu) and Oliva Wilde (Valentino) both proved that you can be pregnant AND look hot in a couture gown, both these ladies are looking smoking' hot.

Zooey Deschanel got a lot of stick for her dress, some saying it was too busy, too all over the place, too 'kooky'. But she is kooky, and I personally loved it. I thought this dress was very her: girly and eccentric.

Make way for the ladies in red, both Jennifer Lawrence (Dior) and Sienna Miller (Alexander McQueen) looked absolutely stunning in these striking red numbers. I especially loved Sienna's belt that cinched her in nicely at the waist (though I'm not too sure about her three arm band things…)

Last but not least, my award for Best Dressed of the night goes to...

Lupita Nyong'o and her gorgeous powder blue Prada dress. She looked positively UH-MAZING, you cannot fault this dress. the colour, the plunging neckline, the floaty-ness. All flawless. She looked so regal, like a real life Disney princes. I adored it, I adore her. Let's put them both in the museum of awe-inspiring beauty.

LUSH Henna Hair Dye: Caca Brun

I know what you're thinking: "Hey Ella, what are you doing dying your hair again? And also, why on Earth are you dying it brown, of all things? Your hair is already brown!" (I acknowledge the fact that you probably thought none of this, haha) Buuut, as some of you may know, I recently dyed my hair back to brown after briefly having it a very vibrant bluey-purple at the end of last year. However, after a month or so of my new (old) brunette life, I realised that there was a slight tinge of green in my hair colour, presumably a chemical reaction because I put brown dye on on top of bleach, pretty much.

Though it was only slight, it annoyed me, and in certain light, it was kind of noticeable. I didn't want to go straight in with a box dye and end up damaging it even more, so I explored my options. Which lead me looking into LUSH's hennas. I was lucky enough to be given a small sample block (above - it's real size is about eight times bigger) to try for the first time. Henna is completely natural and really good for your hair, so I thought I'd try it out and take you on my journey!

Some things you will need for this process: rubber gloves (the lovely people at LUSH will provide you with some if you don't have any), a heat-proof bowl, a saucepan, grips/clips to section your hair, lots and LOTS of newspaper/magazines/anything to cover your floor, clothes you don't mind getting messy and a towel. A lot of people also recommend vaseline to rub around your hairline and ears to prevent staining on your skin, but I used none and haven't noticed any staining, so it's your call!

Melting the henna

The first thing you need to do is chop up the henna, from tutorials I've seen online, some people use a cheese grater - I just cut mine with a knife because I found that was easier to make the product finer. Be patient, this will take a while! Boil some water, and then pour it over the crumbled bits of henna in your heat-proof bowl. I poured the water in little bits at a time - I didn't want to pour in loadsand end up with it being too watery. Place the bowl in a saucepan with boiling water and let it heat up for a few minutes. The leaflet the henna comes with suggests that the mixture should end up as a 'thick hot chocolate'.

Cover in food wrap and leave to set for a few minutes

Once you take the bowl out of the saucepan, cover it with food wrap/cling film (whatever you want to call it!) and leave it to set for a few minutes more. This is when you want to get ready and set up your workstation. Hennaing is very, very messy, so I highly suggest laying down newspaper, or whatever you can use to cover up your floor. This is especially crucial if you live in rented accommodation or with your parents (I can't imagine they'd be very happy with a bunch of brown splotches all over the floor!) Also - get in some clothes you don't mind getting mucky.

Now comes the fun part - putting it on your hair! Whack the gloves on, section off your hair, and start applying it on strands of your hair. It's not the easiest or cleanest method in the world, it does drip everywhere, but just persevere and you'll be fine. Once you've covered your whole head, wrap it in the cling film and leave for 1 to 4 hours - the longer you leave it in, the better the colour turnout. I've also heard that the wrap is to keep the heat in, which means you'll end up with redder tones, whereas if you leave it unwrapped and let the henna oxidise, you'll get browner/blacker tones. So it's up to you whether you decide to wrap it or not, but with the way it drips down the back of your neck, I'd recommend keeping it wrapped.

Hair wrap - leave in for a few hours for the best results!

Aftermath: my workstation and very messy sweatpants

I did a strand test before doing my whole head earlier last week, because I wanted to see how the henna would react to chemically treated hair, and the piece of hair I tested came out quite a vibrant red-brown. So I was quite surprised when my whole head didn't turn out as red. However, that doesn't matter, because my hair no longer has that green tinge to it, which I'm more than happy about! And though, unfortunately, you can't see the red tones in this picture, it does come up slightly in the sun and harsh bathroom lighting. Plus, my hair feels so thick and lovely.

Would I use henna again? It's a lot of work, what with the prep, application, and leaving it in for so long. I wasn't so keen on the smell either - for some reason it really reminded me of marzipan? (I really don't like marzipan, haha) But I did like it, and some of my friends have tried the Caca Rouge before, and it's turned their hair into gorgeous reds, so it's a great product. I think I will use it again, for when I think my hair needs a bit of revitalising, and when I have a lot of extra time!

The colour keeps developing for a few days after application, so I will check in mid-week to report the progress. Until then, it's ciao from me!

why? says the junk in the yard

SHIRT - BERSHKA | JUMPER - PRIMARK

NECKLACE - TOPSHOP | SALE CAPRIS - HOME-MADE

Welcome to the first Fashion Friday - the day dedicated to my favourite OOTD of the last week. I don't have nearly enough outfit combinations to do this daily, so I thought I'd just do a weekly highlight instead.

This week's favourite outfit is actually one I wore today, and is a jumble of bargains. Both the jumper and shirt were a tenner a piece, the necklace around £3/£4 for a TopShop sale a few months back, and the gorgeous tartan capris were a gift - made by my mother! The shoes I wore (not pictured) were some brown brogues from Primark, costing me no more than £9, I believe. Just proves that a little can go a long way!

What's in store for next week?

 (PS. I recently created a Flickr account for my photography should you want to take a gander. Don't forget to follow me on other social media platforms such as Twitter and Instagram!)

Holy Grail Beauty Products #1

After sixteen months, my Benefit Hello Flawless foundation is almost coming to an end (what a long-lasting product!), so it's been about time that I go on the hunt for a new foundation. I thought about sticking with Benefit because I love them so much, I was even slightly swayed when I received some free samples of Urban Decay's Naked Skin foundation. But I decided that I wanted to go cheaper this time, and braved the drugstore counters!

Now, this may sound slightly ridiculous, but I've always been too scared to try drugstore foundations. Because I didn't brave foundation until I was 19, and I've always gotten matched at 'high end' make up counters, I just didn't trust myself to pick a shade that matched my skin tone. I know, silly, isn't it? However, on Friday I decided to woman-up, and I frog-marched myself, bare faced, into Boots, ready to test out the many foundations they had in stock.

I did my research beforehand. It's no secret that I love a good beauty guru on YouTube - they probably take up over a third of my subscriptions. So I looked up some videos about the best drugstore foundations and let the makeup whizzes do the talking. Once I was aware of what foundations worked best with sensitive and dry skin, I hovered over to the brands that catered to that, namely Bourjois and Rimmel.

I settled on the Bourjois Healthy Mix Serum (not to be confused with the Healthy Mix Foundation) and I've got to say, I love it! After a bit of testing on my jawline, I settled on colour no. 53 - Light Beige, and it is a perfect match for my skin tone (ten points to Gryffindor)! This gel foundation claims to boost radiance and give you an even, revived complexion, and they're not wrong! It's pretty light coverage, which is perfect for me, since when I'm wearing foundation it's not really to cover up, it's more to even out my skin tone. But you could build it up to a medium coverage and it would look just as nice. It is also vitamin rich, containing fruits such as lychee, goji berries and pomegranate, which explains its gorgeous smell. Priced at £10.99, and overall, get's a big thumbs up from me!

12 hours after application… No cakey-ness!

I still love Benefit, of course, but I've found that during the course of the day, the foundation tends to gather and cake up on particularly dry patches of skin, which is not a great look! (I also had the same result with UD's Naked Foundation) So Bourjois' Healthy Mix Serum takes the cake, but don't worry Benefit, there are still many other products of yours that I can't live without!

Next holy grail item was an impulse buy - Rimmel's Wake Me Up Concealer. I already have a concealer, Collection 2000's Lasting Perfection concealer, which I bought some time ago when all the beauty gurus raved about it. And they were right to, it's a brilliant product, really good pigment. However, for me, I just find the formula a bit too thick, and out of the (small) selection of shades they have, not one of them matches my skin colour completely, so I had to settle for a slightly lighter one. Also, with my particularly dry skin, I also find that it emphasises that dryness, which again, not a great look.

So when I was taking a look at Rimmel's Wake Me Up Foundation (nice product, but a little too sparkly for my liking), my eyes hovered over to the concealer and I fell in love. Not only did I find a shade almost exactly my skin colour (030 - Classic Beige) but the formula is simply gorgeous. It glides on so smoothly, is buildable to the coverage you're after, brighten's up dark under-eye areas, and - this is the big one - doesn't emphasise my dry patches. Jackpot!

And that is part one of my Holy Grail makeup products! Hope you enjoyed reading, I have a few more to come.

Which brings me onto a small announcement - I will be setting up a regular schedule on this blog, finally! Monday will be beauty posts, Fridays will be fashion related posts, and if I have time midweek or at the weekend, I'll throw in a miscellaneous post in the mix, like a music review or a lifestyle post. I'm excited!

Ciao,