Hair - Schwarzkopf Colour XXL Dye

This post is sponsored by Schwarzkopf, but I have actually been a user of their Live Colour blends a lot on and off over the years. And I was recently checking out this new Colour XXL dye in Boots, thinking about using it to change my tips again. The colours are really vibrant, going from a pinkish red to a deep red so think it would look great on my blond tips. After checking out the videos below I just may have to try it out!

Has anyone else tried the Colour XXL range yet? Any opinions?

Daisy's Deals - 20% off Everything Online at Brantano!

I forgot to mention this feature in my last post but I will now be posting great deals, sales, bargains and vouchers when I find them (if I think they are worth it!) And this one is a super bargain deal as far as I am concerned. Brantano online is having a huge shoe sale with 20% off all their footwear, including their sale stock! But be quick as once the sale stock is gone they wont be having anymore. All you need to do is add "Treat20" at the checkout to receive 20% off anything you buy! Simple.

So here are my top picks to give you just a few ideas of what you could be buying:

Emilio Luca  X Tweed Brogues £28 (£22.40 with 20% off!)

Red Level Purple Ruffle Heels £26 (£20.80 with 20% off!)

Steve Madden New York Jazie Brogues £13 in sale ( £10.40 iwith 20% off!)

Red Level Toffee and Cream Brogues £18 in the sale (£14.40 with 20% off)

Hush Puppies Blue Singbacks (get your summer sandals now) £30 (£24 with 20% off)

Clarks Henderson Flats £50 (£40 with 20% off)

Clarks River Knee High Boots £90 (£72 with 20% off)

Caravelle Peep Toe Shoes £18 already in sale (£14.40 with 20% off)

Emilio Luca X Heeled Brogues £28 (£22.40 with 20% off)

Emilio Luca X Becky Lace Up Boots £48 (38.40 with 20% off)

It will be running from the today until the 3rd Feb so you don't have long to go snap up some bargain shoes!

So don't forget!

20% off everything online enter "TREAT20"

A New Look at my Blog

I thought as it was a new year (well nearly a month into the new year!) I would give the blog a bit of a shake up and possibly a bit more structure - nothing too strict though as life has a tendency to get in the way a bit sometimes, so I cant keep up with anything too much. I know most people do the reshuffle at the start of January, but I have simply been too busy so I didn't really have the time to sit down and think about it all properly. But now I have had some time (thanks to my week holiday in Scotland!) and have worked out a few things.  I have a few features that I will be running monthly (some more frequently) from February.

I moved the blog away from being entirely focused on fashion a few months ago now, now I want to broaden it up even more. I am no longer as obsessed with fashion as I was when I started this blog, way back in 2009, don't get me wrong I still love it, but at the moment I feel my fashion taste is starting to change and evolve again as I am getting older and settling into my life a bit better. Plus I want my blog to grow and evolve too. I'm so proud of how I have done so far, but I want it to become something even better. And with that I want to involve more bloggers on here and work with more companies too - that's why you will now see that I am accepting official sponsors. This isn't just about money though so don't worry, I never ever got into blogging for the money. Writing is a passion for me and I started the blog, just out of uni, when I was struggling to find any writing work at all and needed a creative outlet, and it really did save my sanity back then. I love my little space of the internet and wouldn't change it for anything. Plus in the next year I am expecting a few big changes in my work environment and my living arrangements. Jon is moving up the Pub Management ladder so it may mean us moving somewhere different and me having to leave my current day job. That is why I am now putting lots of effort into my writing, not just my blog, I freelance a fair bit as well these days, and am now writing a lot of online content and articles for revenue share sites and private clients. I need to find a second online income to help for if I have to go without a regular job for a while, or make the big leap and go freelance and self employed full time - that's a scary concept when I think I have been working in shops, cafes, pubs etc since I was 15!

Image Credit: mrpuen via Free Digital Photos.net

Anyway enough soppy ramblings, here are some of the new features I hope to start running from February, obviously I will still be doing my outfit posts, and my fashion finds like I always do.

Sponsor Spotlights: Due to the new sponsorship I have opened up on Daisy Dayz I will be running Sponsor Spotlight posts at the start and end of the month. To highlight my lovely sponsors companies, businesses, shops and blogs.

Mani of the Week: I won't manage one every week, but I do paint my nails quite often and usually remember to snap off a quick picture. I don't do much nail art, so mostly it will be trying new polishes or polish combinations.

Beauty Product Reviews: I am a complete novice when it comes to beauty products, it's just never been me, but I am going to start reviewing make-up items and beauty items when I try/find new ones I like (or don't like!) I need to work out this whole beauty thing, before I get too old, lol!

Story Time: Not many of you know (unless you follow my instagram, which you should!) I am a massive reader, when I have the time! So I usually manage at least 2-4 books a month, I will be posting a book/books of the month type post, reviewing books I have already finished that month or read the month before. If you want to know what I have read or am reading you can also check out my Goodreads Account. I read a huge variety of stuff, so you may be surprised by some of my picks!

Filmaholics Anonymous: Apart from my love of books I also have a slight (read huge) film addiction. Me and Jon have well over 700 DVD's! From all manner of genre and era's (as far back as 1920's I think) This means I often watch a lot of films in a month, old and new ones. I will be posting brief reviews of the films I watch each month for you all to see my weird taste! I use I Check Movies to keep track of all the films I watch, I'm sitting at just over 1,600 at the moment and that is just the ones I remember

Shop Local: Now this is my favourite and proudest addition! I will be doing weekly spotlight features on Welsh Businesses, crafts people and designers. I already have 15 weeks worth lined up and hope to be able to find enough people to keep this running all year. If you happen to run an etsy craft shop, be a clothing/fabric or other type of designer or run a local (Wales in general) shop/business please feel free to get in touch.

British Blogger Love: I will be interviewing other bloggers, british bloggers! - I know this one has been over done to death but I hope I will be able to find a few more unusual question to ask bloggers to find out about the real blogger behind the blog.

Guest Posting: I am hoping to have monthly guest post swaps with a few of my favourite british bloggers. So you never know where I might be posting next, and who will be popping up here instead of me!

Monthly Recipes: I am a big cook, and I work mostly with my crockpot developing new recipes which are suitable for the Freezer to Crockpot cooking method (I'll explain that at a later date!) SO I will be posting more of these here for you to see.

The Monthly Giveaway: I am planning to now host just 1 monthly giveaway, the item/items will either come from one of my sponsors or I will be buying it myself. I hope to be able to bring you a variety of fun items, not all fashion based!

Lastly I have been working on a new group project idea with Miki of MikiScrapbook - it isn't all sorted out yet, but I will be on the hunt for some other bloggers who want to get involved with a monthly version of 'Show and Tell'. If you think you might be interested and want to know more leave me a message or email/tweet me!

I'm also hoping to get over my aversion to the camera and actually record a few Vlogs, but we will see about that one!

So there you have it the Daisy Dayz evolution in a post. What do you think? DO you like some of my new additions or are there other things you might like me to include. Please let me know.

 

Daisy Dayz is now accepting sponsors!

I'm very happy and excited to say I am now accepting official sponsors!

So if you would like to discuss sponsoring Daisy Dayz Blog for February or the following months please check out my new Sponsorship Page! You can find it on the link or on the new button in my right hand side bar, which looks like this:

There are a number of different sponsorship options available, from side bar buttons to guest posts -  all at very reasonable prices! The sponsorship is open to blogs, shops and independent companies alike, as long as you fit with my blog. Please check it out if your interested in working with me and my little blog.

Sponsorship will start from the 1st February. Orders for February need to be made by the 28th January.

Celebrity Style - Taylor Swift Sunglasses

I must admit I'm a bit of a closet Taylor Swift fan. I love her music - especially 'We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together'! - but I also love her style, she has such a cute and unique look about her. She also loves her sunnies (I know, what celeb doesn't!) and she looks great in them, she really knows what suits her face shape and what goes with her style. She has such a love for Ray-Ban Sunglasses, specifically the 2140 Wayfarer sunglasses, that she has a pair in each colour, well not every colour as there are loads, but quite a few. So I thought I would try find some of the pairs she wears on Sunglasses Shop Online so I could share them with you.

Ray-Ban 2140 Wayfarer Sunglasses

This outfit is perfection! I adore the dress as well. I have found it online, it is called the Ipanema Dress and it's by Gorman. It was $169 it's currently on sale for just $80!!

Ray-Ban 2140 Wayfarer's in Red

I think these ones are my fav! They are just so chic, yet still fun in the bright red.

Ray-Ban 2140 Wayfarer's in Three Dimensional Block Brown & Blue

So if you fancy channel a bit of Taylor Swifts style why not invest in a pair of her favourite Ray-Ban Wayfarer Sunglasses, they are timeless and iconic. Sunglasses Shop Online is also having a 20% off sale on certain lines at the moment too. So if you want some Cheap Designer Sunglasses you should check them out.

Anyone else got a celeb style they like? Any one you want me to do a post on?

Today, hopefully, we are off to Edinburgh for the day. Hopefully it's not too cold!

Review - Miss Mandalay Knickers

I've bought a few Groupon Vouchers lately so thought I would review a few of the services I have received for you all.

The first voucher I found that I liked the look of was a voucher for Miss Mandalay underwear. I thought that I could treat myself to some nice new underwear. So when I spotted the beautiful sets in the pictures for the Groupon I thought I would check out their site to see what else they had to offer. I loved so many of the items they had in stock! So I went for it. The voucher was £20 for £70 to spend, which seemed decent. I had noticed how expensive the underwear was, and in all honest I would never have been able to afford such expensive underwear if it wasn't for the Groupon, so it was a nice treat. I figured I would be able to get 1 full set. Miss Mandala specialise in larger cup sizes so I was just on the bottom end of their range luckily!

When the voucher came through I went straight onto the site to place my order...and this is where I had a problem. Now I knew I liked pretty much everything on the site so I spent a while trying to work out  which set I would want. I chose 2 I liked to start with and then check to see the availability on them. They had neither in my size, actually of all the sizes they say they stocked they only had most sets in 3-4 sizes. They didn't have any sets in my size I found out. The voucher didn't have a long date on it and this was the first day it went live so I expected them to at least be well stocked and have a good range of items available. It almost looked like they were running down their stock, oh just using end of line.

I gave up on the idea of a set and decided just to get a few pairs of knickers instead, but even then when I selected both sizes M and L (12 & 14) out of all 50+ different ones they had on there, they only had 7 in total that would fit me. But ah well I finally made a choice, even with a £70 voucher I could still only afford 3 pairs, this is what I got:

Gigi Brief in Flame Red £24

Paris Ultraviolet Ruche Brief £23

Paige Ivory Skirted Brief £26

Processing the order was swift and easy, I had to pay £4.95 postage (this was stated in the Groupon), which was a bit pricy for 3 pairs of knickers which probably weighted nothing, but as I hadn't paid for the underwear I wasn't going to complain. 

Postage was pretty quick, they arrived in 4 days from when I placed the order and they were nicely packed. They were each in plastic packets in a large flatish box, so they couldn't be damaged.

Now I will say the quality on these knickers is beautiful! The silky fabric is lovely and soft on my skin, and the quality of the craftsmanship in the actual making of the knickers is really good. I would say though that the sizes are a little on the small side as the 12 was actually a bit tight, when all my regular underwear is a 12. But I am very happy with how they look, they really are quite sexy. I really don't think they are worth £25 though, after all they are just a pair of knickers. I wish I could have found a Bra in my size as well as I would like to have see the quality on them as well, so I could review the overall company a little better.

I have looked on the site again now and their availability is a little better but still not great on the bra's. They still don't have any in my size, actually they only have 30C, no other C sizes at all! And even for the 30C there is only 1 Bra available.

So there you have it, my in-depth review of Miss Mandalay Underwear and their service. 

Has anyone else tried any of the Miss Mandalay range? What are your opinions?

Is £25 too much for a pair of knickers?

My second Voucher was for a hot stone massage that is booked for February so I'll tell you how that goes in a few weeks.

We are now safely in Scotland on our little holiday, so expect lots of highland photos from our trip next week.

Beauty - Mani of the week

Gosh Monday again! Time is flying by already and the year has only just begun! 

Just a quick post today. This is another mani from over the festive period.

My wonderful sis bought me this great Models Own Gold Finger Nail Polish from the Clothes Show Live for Christmas, and I put it over a cheap green polish I had. The glitter shined amazingly and lots of customers at work commented on how pretty it was.

My one warning is that it is god awful to get off!! I literally spent half an hour trying to get all the glitter off with this one! I had the same problem with another glitter last night actually, so in the end poured half my bottle of nail varnish remover into a plastic bowl and completely submerged my nails, I saw this trick on Pintrest, waited 5 minutes and rubbed with a cotton wool pad, amazing it came off, glitter and all! Still took a little work to get every last piece but so much quicker, then I just poured the polish back in the bottle, much easier!

Anyone else tried the Models Own Glitter Range? I also have the Disco Inferno Mirror Ball, which I'll blog pictures of next week.

Well we are actually off on holiday for a week tomorrow. Just to scotland to stay with my aunt, but it will be a nice break after working so hard over the xmas period. But don't worry I won't be leaving my blog all alone, I have scheduled a few fun posts for you all. 

Shop the Sales - Dorothy Perkins

I'm not so much of a post Christmas sales shopper in the stores, just cant deal with the crowds and the mess usually. I usually decide just to nose online instead. So even though its 2 weeks into January the online sales are still going strong. I always love stuff at Dorothy Perkins and their sales are always pretty food. So here are 10 items I have picked from the Dorothy Perkins Sale!

£45 Down to £15

£26 Down to £15

£35 Down to £20

£35 Down to £20

£79 Down to £50

£28 Down to £20

£12 Down to £7

£15 Down to £5

£29 Down to £20

£35 Down to £17

You may have guessed but I am still loving blouses this year, and the sales may just be the right time to score me a few cute ones!

Anyone else been fancying anything in the sales recently

Outfit Post - A meal in Miller & Carters

My sister started her first proper job last week - officially a physio at Brigend Hospital! Yay! So my parents decided we should all go for a celebratory meal, we decided on Miller & Carter as none of us had been there before and Jon get's 20% off as it is part of the Mitchell's and Butlers group, who he works for.

So this is what I wore - and you may notice my hair is different to how it was before Christmas. I decided I really didn't like the green after any more than 2 washes, as it faded to a horrible colour really quickly. So I gave up on the Green and let it all fade out completely, this is what I was left with and I really like it! 

 Top: Nygard Collection

Skirt: Vintage via eBay

Boots: Hushpuppies

Hat: H&M

Earrings: New Look

And here is what we ate!

 Jon's Buffalo Wings

My Duck Pate with bread and caramelised red onion chutney 

 My Fillet Wellington - as I had never tried it before

Jon's 15oz Sirloin Steak

All the food was amazing! If you live in Cardiff or have a Miller & Carters near you should definitely try it.

Has anyone else been anywhere nice this week?

Beauty - Mani of the Week

I've really been getting into my nail varnishes these last few months. I wanted something fun and festive for my girly night out before Christmas so I bought myself a few new polishes from Superdrug. This is my first play around with them. The red is a lot more sparkly in real life, it's just you can only see the silver glitter but it is actually covered in red glitter too.

 

The base red coat is Collection 2000 in Fire Engine

 The Red and Silver Glitter Coat is Rimmel London Precious Stones in Ruby Red

The Gold is an intense glitter colour from Collection 2000 Hot Looks in Shimmy Shake

It all looked amazing when it was done and the coverage of all of the varnishes was good. The red base only needed one coat as the colour was pretty intense, the gold needed 2 but looked really shiny afterwards. Sadly the red chipped within 2 days. I didn't add a top coat so it could be my fault, but the red base is meant to be long lasting for upto 10 days so I expected more really. But I got lots of comments about how lovely they were on my night out as the shimmered lots!