Current favourites: Autumn 2016

I've never done a favourites post before, but I love reading them, so I thought I'd join in the party. This time round is mostly beauty because I've just bought a tonne of new products, but there's a few fashion and lifestyle things thrown in too~

Colour Freedom Misty grey: review and before and after

I've had my hair whitish silver on and off for a few months now, and I love it, but I wanted to try a bit of a darker grey for winter.

I couldn't find that many reviews of grey dyes from brands I already know, so I decided to take the plunge and try out Colour freedom. It's quite a new brand, so there are only a few reviews of it around, but there were a couple of really good reviews for the silver blonde (which is a permanent toner), which gave me the confidence to take the plunge and buy Misty Grey. This one is semi permanent as I didn't want to stain my hair.

I've seen it on offer a few times recently, but in the end I bought it full price for £6.99 from Superdrug. In the box was the standard gloves, instructions and tube of colour. They boast of the product being "extra large" but it's 150ml- same as Bleach London (£7). You do get more product than crazy colour (100ml) and directions(88ml) though.

I started with a bleached silvery/white hair, which would supposedly be ideal. Application was simple enough- it's one tube of product so you don't have to mix anything, just squeeze the product out on to your hair and massage it through the roots (back of the head first) to the tips. It's supposed to be enough for a few applications but I used almost all of it and my hair isn't particularly long or thick.

I also hate the smell, but it's not chemical-y or anything, it just reminds me of baby wipes.

How does it look?
The colour in the tube was pretty purpley blue, which made me slightly worried it would stain my hair. I left it in for 25 minutes, which is more than the 15 recommended for 'subtle results' but less than the full 30 minute limit. My wet hair in the shower looked actually blue, and I was panicking so much when I was washing the dye out. When it was dry, however, it looked exactly the same whitish-silver to usual... only with a slight blueish tint in some lights. My hair feels quite soft after using it though, which is good.


So this is the result:

It's really pretty...but it also looks exactly the same as my colour before:

How well did it take to my hair: 
It might have taken to my hair, but I definitely didn't see much of a change. It definitely didn't do much to my blonde-ish roots or my ends, but considering my ends are so processed, I wasn't expecting much to happen there. Maybe you'd see more of a difference if you had platinum blonde hair, but considering it didn't really take to my blonder roots, I don't know.

Fade time: Sadly I can't really say about fade time because it didn't really look different to usual, but it's non permanent and supposed to last 6-10 washes. It's so light that I doubt it would last that long though.

Overall: I'm not really impressed, sorry ^^;  My hair looks a nice silvery grey, but it looks almost exactly the same as before I used this and nowhere near as dark as the swatches would lead you to believe.  One complaint I have is that on the website and on the box, the swatches were obviously computer generated- and this made me think the colour would come out darker than it did. The fake swatches make me feel a bit like I've been mis-sold. I think you'd be able to get a darker grey using one of their permanent colours, but I am not about to settle down to just one colour, so I'll give them a miss.

Would I repurchase? considering I could have the same result by just leaving my silver shampoo on a little longer than usual, I don't think I'd bother with this again. Next time I might try a real silver toner- I might use the permanent silver grey from Colour Freedom- as Emily from A Fickle Fox seemed to get on well with it, and apparently it does fade out. Or maybe I'll try a different brand like Wella or Schwarzkopf.. If I do, I'll be sure to blog about it :)

TL:DR If you've already got whitish silver hair, I don't think this product is worth getting.

Have you guys tried colour freedom? If so, what did you think? Do you have any recommendations for a semi permanent darker grey dye or toner?

-Amy xoxo

Manic Panic Virgin snow white toner review and before and after// DIY silver shampoo// Packing tips: what I packed for my year abroad in Japan// Kawaii Monster Café in Harajuku, Tokyo //Bleach London's Violet skies: mini review and hair update

Nakano Broadway, Tokyo: Otaku Paradise

After Gohtokuji, we headed off to another place I'd been dying to visit- Nakano Broadway. If you don't know, Akihabara, Ikebukuro's Otome Road and Nakano Broadway are all pretty good for otaku, but Akiba is a lot more guy-centric (I definitely felt a little out of place when I went there), Otome Road apparently has more girl-oriented stuff, and Nakano broadway is really good for collecting old toys, merchandise etc. I didn't get to Ikebukuro (cry) but I definitely preferred Nakano broadway to Akiba, although I do think you should pick Akiba if you only have time to visit one place. (Or head to Den Den Town in Osaka. #Osakaforever) I'm no hardcore otaku, and I think even people that don't like anime at all should go visit somewhere like this to get a glimpse into nerd culture in Japan. There's plenty to see!

Sparkly Jfashion haul: American Apparel, SPINNS and WEGO

This is the last 'Jfashion' haul you'll be seeing for a while, but oh gosh, I'm so in love with the things from this haul! Most of the items are from SPINNS and WEGO, two cheap (for Japan, anyway) and very stylish shops that I've raved about all year. I also picked up a gorgeous black pleated skirt from American Apparel and thought I should include it here as well~

Kitty heaven at Gohtokuji, Tokyo

Another Tokyo recap post today, and this time it's of somewhere I'd been dying to go to for ages- Gohtokuji.  Its supposedly where the manuki neko (lucky waving cat) originated from, and it has an area filled with tonnes of little cat statues! Pinterest perfect :) 

I actually found out about Gohtokuji from Pinterest, and I definitely wouldn't have found out about it otherwise as it was a little out of the way in Setagaya, so definitely do a quick search on instagram and pinterest when you're planning a trip. 

Asos haul: glittery dinosaurs and Grace Neutral

Recently I've dabbled in clothes shopping online, and I thought I'd show some of the pieces I bought from ASOS while I was in Japan. I'm always a tad wary of shopping online, but I really wanted some over the knee socks, and I wouldn't get anything that was long enough in Japan. So I bought the socks... along with a couple of other pieces too :)

Life update// Reverse Culture Shock

Reverse culture shock: when you return home from living abroad and find it difficult to readjust. I have definitely been suffering from reverse culture shock since I've come home from Japan. Of course, my year wasn't all sunshine and roses, but overall it was amazing. Since I returned, I've been feeling so down and I have no motivation to do anything- study, blog, even to cook food. Ugh. I miss Japan so much more than I was expecting to: I miss how exciting town was, I miss Japanese fashion and pop culture and big things like that, but I miss the little things like the conbini and traffic light noises. I really wanna keep blogging about Japan because I've got so many cool places and things left to share with you guys, but blogging about it makes me miss it even more!

Sushi, Odaiba and the Daikanransha

After we got back from Takao san, we decided to get food and then go out to Odaiba for a little bit of a date evening. Odaiba is fairly famous for being a dating spot and was full of couples when we went. I had a great date there- 100% would recommend.

Summer goals revisited// Autumn/winter goals

It's October now, so Autumn is well and truly underway. I'm totally guilty of being the blogger cliché- I loooove Autumn! So stoked for snuggly jumpers, hot chocolate and even the rain- it's really nice to be cozy inside while it's rainy outside. So a while back I wrote about my plans for the perfect English summer, and it was full of ambitious plans to go out around good ol' south east England, but I only had a couple of weeks' holiday, so I didn't get everything done. I did have a great summer though~

My Summer Goals:

1 Picnics// I did have lots of food outside, so I'm gonna tick this one. I had homemade lemonade (goal number 3 ticked off) and homemade cake outside <3

2 Barbecue// I didn't! I just didn't have time. Cry.

4 Have afternoon tea// Yes! My mum took me to Fortnum and Mason's, and I also had lots of cute teas out too. I'll make a proper blog post on this at one point but it was a/ lovely and b/ expensive as heck.

5// Go to the beach with my family! I made it to Broadstairs, it was gorgeous

6 Shopping// I went slightly mad in Boots and Lush, and even bought myself a MAC lipstick. I got a little splurge-y because although Japan is amazing for shopping, there were a few products I missed like crazy.

7 Go to London// I went there twice: Fortnum and Mason's and then to Stratford.

8 Go to a theme park// No! I was determined to go to Margate Dreamland but I didn't get round to it. 

9 Visit Bournemouth again// I will, eventually ^^; didn't get down to Brighton either. I still have time for some Yorkshire exploring though.

10 Visit Salisbury// yep <3

My Autumn goals:

I don't have anything crazy planned for autumn- I need to take it steady and Look after myself better: it's only like week 3 of uni, but somehow I've managed to completely run myself into the ground with anxiety, stress about work and reverse culture shock. Fun. I need to do some serious self care like making sure I eat enough and cutting back on caffeine. 

Bake more/ Make more cute and healthy food// I missed baking sooo much last year, but I've got out of the habit of doing it recently. I also need to be more healthy and that involves making lunch and taking it to uni instead of buying stuff (usually bread and chocolate, or just coffee) when I'm there.

Get a new sweater// My favourite grey jumper (featured in many an outfit post on here) has stretched out and looks like it's seen better days, so I wanna replace it with a new super snuggly one. 

Ace Japanese// This one pops up on every wish list I make, but I'm paying 9 grand a year to be in uni, so I wanna get a good grade, right?

Get out to Yorkshire// Yorkshire and the UK in general is way prettier than it gets credit for. I really wanna go for cute afternoon tea in York or Harrogate, but also visit some nearby cities like Manchester and Sheffield too.

Make my uni room cuter// I've got some nice things in my room like the rug I mentioned in my back to uni wishlist, but I still have a few more things I'd love like more fairy lights. And I need to put up some hooks to hang my hats on still.

Try a new colour in my hair// I love silver hair, but I've got the itch to colour it again. I'm thinking either peach, lavender or dark grey...

Thanks for reading! What are you guys' autumn/winter goals? And what colour do you think I should do my hair? (^O^)/
-Amy xoxo

Asakusa and Sensouji at night// Escaping Tokyo: A visit to Mount Takao// Bleach London's Violet Skies review and hair update

Escaping Tokyo- a visit to Mount Takao

Tokyo is such a huge city I think some of my friends there rarely got out into the countryside. I wasn't actually based in Tokyo so I didn't have this problem so much (#Osaka5evs), but one of the places that's easily accessible from Tokyo was Mount Takao. It's only about an hour by train on the Keio line, and it's such a pretty area, so I think Mount Takao is the perfect day trip from Tokyo. We went during Golden Week (we'd wanted to go to Nikko but didn't think to book train tickets, whoops) so I think it was a lot busier than it usually was, but it was still such a great day~ 

Asakusa and Sensouji at night

A really cool way to experience tourist destinations- and see them when they're a little quieter- is to go at night. I went to Fushimi Inari Taisha at night with my sister in April, and it was so surreal- so much quieter than in the day, very picturesque and a little creepy. It was awesome, so we decided to stop by Asakusa and see Sensou-ji at night on the way home from Tokyo Sky Tree. It wasn't as creepy as Fushimi Inari, but it was still so weird to see Sensou-ji at night without all the crowds of people that are usually there.