Look of the Week: Hayden Panettiere

Awards Season is a perfect time to restart the LOTW feature, not only do we have a plethora of actresses to choose from but we can compare her outfits throughout the rest of the upcoming ceremonies. Marvellous!

This week I've chosen actress Hayden Panettiere as my best looks and for - bizarrely - a reason different to her wearing the best outfit of the week (I was in love with Ms Watsons dress an trousers combo). No, the reason I have chosen Hayden is for her sheer determination to wear a designer she loved, even when pretty much told she couldn't - something us mere mortals will sympathise with. 

Now we all know that designers are quite specific when it comes to loaning their dresses and Tom Ford is one such designer, he'll loan only one dress per red carpet. This year the honor fell to Naomi Watts and Hayden was told to look for another designer for her strut down the red carpet. 

It's common knowledge of course that designers will loan dresses - what kind of actress wants to pay tens of thousands for a dress they can only wear on one occasion - but the young starlet, upon being told no can do by the house of Ford did something they didn't expect of her and actually went out a bought (yes as in spent her own money) a $10,000 dress just so she could walk down that carpet and announce his name as who she was wearing. Fabulous. 

Beauty Review: Cleansing Oil

You may remember at the end of last year I listed a number of things I had resolved to learn this year, top of my list was skincare.  Luckily I had told my sister this was my plan in the build up to Christmas and, being the amazing sister she is she went out and purchased me my first essential skincare item- a cleansing oil. As part of my resolution I've taken to searching blogs for the best products out there, as we all know magazines and editors are paid for their opinion where as bloggers write what the really feel, hence my decision to write my finds on here. 

I've always been relatively good with my night routine - remove make up, cleanse, tone, moisturise and exfoliate twice a week. Now that I've written that down I can see that that is a lot of effort to go to, especially now I'm aware of the wonder that is a Cleansing Oil. 

So why is this product much better than other skin care products you ask? Allow me to explain. Cleansing oils naturally balance skins natural oils with natural botanicals healing, protecting and nourishing the skin. Ever heard of the saying 'like for like'? Well it applies here. The oils you are using dissolve existing oils in your skin that have hardened with impurities and have got stuck in your pores and the water you use to rinse wash that away. Non oily cleansers, on the other hand, contain detergent like chemicals that essentially remove the necessary oils from your skin which will leave you with that tight feelin that has you reaching for the moisturiser. 

Personally I have dry, sensitive skin and the best thing I find about the Shu Umera Ultim8 cleansing oil is that I'm not left with that tight feeling and don't even feel like I need to moisturise at night after use.   The product might seem expensive - retailing at £36 for 150ml or £72 for 450ml (the product has an expiration date of 6 months so I would highly recommend the 150ml bottle) but, as with most things, you get what you pay for. Whilst the Ultim8 option is basically the jack of all trades, Shu Umera offer other type of oils, from anti aging to combination skin. Whatever you want 

- they've got. 

2014 Golden Globes

It's that time of year again, Christmas has barely passed us by before awards season is upon us. Having said that, there is probably nothing better than seeing a host of celebrities in my favourite designers to inspire me to work harder and get that beach bod.

Whilst the Golden Globes are primarily known for being an indication as to what films will perform well at The Oscars, as well as being great opportunity for us to review some gorgeous celebrities in gorgeous outfits (see our gallery of Hits and Misses here: http://goo.gl/RfgK64), this year offered us some great moments to remember exactly why we love some of our favourite celebrities. 

First up - Leonardo Dicaprio. Oh Leo, how we love thee, even more so now that he left his stunning 21 year old, Victoria's Secret model girlfriend at home in favour of walking down the red carpet with his Mum, what's a cutie! Leo was up for his 9th Golden Globe nomination an whilst he should have won each of those awards he yesterday won his second for Best Actor - Musical or Comedy for his performance in The Wolf of Wall Street. Let's hope he finally gets his much deserved first Oscar!

JLaw being JLaw - by any account she is by far one of the most down to earth celebrities around and last night just reaffirmed our love for her even more. First there was the Taylor Swift photobomb after which the actress told the pop star she wanted to push her down the stairs. Next she was seen at her table, well just being the JLaw that we know and love, goofing around and giving beau Nicholas Hoult a big kiss after winning her category, finally confirming that they are indeed back together. Finally, whilst she has been panned for her choice of outfit, it has spawned a whole host of Internet memes and it wouldn't surprise is if she had chosen the dress having for seen this.

Emma Thompson and her shoes. Not only did that star arrive to present an award with her Louboutins in one hand and a martini in the other but she then proceeded to throw the shoes over her shoulder - queue a round applause from women everywhere who now breath a sigh if relief to know it's ok that they feel pain after walking in the for more than an hour. 

Tina Fey and Amy Poehler. What a duo, their agents are surely very busy people right now. Whilst Gervais was known for his steely and awkward jokes at the expense of his audience these two however, poked fun at their guests without ever being inappropriate. Some of the best jokes included 'Gravity shows us that George Clooney would rather float in space and die than spend one more minute with a woman his age' and 'Like a supermodels vagina, let's all give a  warm welcome to Leonardo DiCaprio'. Pure Comedic Gold.

H&M returns to Fashion Week

Despite being missing from October's SS14 fashion week, fast fashion retailer have announced that they are set to return to the Parisian runaway on February 26th, showcasing another exclusive Autumn Winter collection - newly dubbed H&M studio. The collection will be live streamed on the brands website and will be available from September alongside the brands RTW collections. 

New Year, New Me?

Making New Years resolutions is a tedious business with most of us using the same resolutions we have said for the past decade or so, namely - go to the gym more, give up smoking, stop biting my nails and so on and so forth. I prefer to be a bit more productive with mine. Yes the whole 'New Year, New Me' cliche is exactly that - a cliche, something about a New Year does make me feel excited and refreshed for the year ahead and therefore I can't help but resolve to make certain changes.

Whilst I try to avoid the aforementioned regular lines, I am only human and a desire to work out more and eat healthily are of course top of my list. With regards to the rest however, I've chosen to make changes that I will actually stick to an does that are both easy and fun. 

1) Look after my skin more. As I've got older I've realised that you can't trust the cosmetics industry at all.  I mean yes Creme De La Mere is better than Nivea but when it really comes down to it how many of us really know what we are putting on our skin. If you go to any company they are going to tell you why their product is better than their competitors because that is what they are paid to do. Going to a dermalogatist will be more beneficial in the long run as you can not only determine what products you should be using but also what kind of treatments you should be getting. 

2) Learn how to do make up. An extension of number 1 sure but not many of us realise that the make up we are using is totally wrong for us. I've always thought my make up bag was a pretty good mix, it's only now however that I realise that each counter I have visited are completely bias and, when all is said and done, the staff are only there to sell me a product. I also tend to go for products that beauty  editors have recommended, despite the fact that my entire dissertation was on the fact that these reviews are paid for.  Instead I vow to stick to beauty blogs and personal recommendations as that's the only way we, as consumers, will get an honest product review.

3) Live Healthily. If I'm honest I have always been prone to fad dieting - The Maple Syrup Cleanse, 5:2, No Carbs, if it's a fad then I have tried it. This past year , however, has seen me introduced to different superfoods and I've realised that instead of dieting it honestly just is better to change a lifestyle and eat a balanced diet (I sound like an oldie don't I).

So there we have it. My intentions for the upcoming year, I'd like to say I'll regularly update with my progress but we all know that I can get easily sidetracked and distracted with my work and probably only post sporadically....hmm maybe there is another resolution in that...