ScareCON 2015

Why have I been away?! Well I've been to the carnage that is ScareCON of course and my god, it was  bloody amazing again. It was my second year and this time was held at Thorpe Park, and it was one of the biggest yet. I was really looking forward to this year as me and Alice knew a few more people this time and it wouldn't be so awkward as the first year!

Alice and Myself on 'Loggers Leap'

Alice and Me had the perfect weekend break sorted! Stay over for a catchup and Chinese takeout on Thursday, Friday morning leave for ScareCON, have lots of seminars and chats during the day, party during the evening and then on Saturday we had a lovely free day at Thorpe Park. Which, as we were hungover, we took Saturday slowly, and it was much more enjoyable chilling in the park and doing all the rides with time apart. Running around, waiting for rides all day is horrible compared to our Saturday, and we still managed to do all the big rollercoasters several times as well as flat rides. ENOUGH ABOUT ROLLERCOASTERS! LET'S TALK SCARY SHIT!

So for those of you that aren't involved in the scare entertainment industry, you'd probably hate the idea of ScareCON, because all we do all day is talk about scare mazes, horror makeup, blood, gore, sound, lighting, set design, scare acting, oh god it's brilliant! Seriously you've gotta be there.

The day will start with signing in and collecting your wristbands etc, this is where you tend to bump into everyone and begin chatting away, which yes, we did! Then we wandered through the trade stands, which looked visually stunning this year I must say, we had some great stands this year! And of course the seating area in which the seminars take place. Due to us being at Thorpe Park we also got the opportunity to visit the 'SAW Alive' maze three times in total, once for a Haunted Lantern Demo, a behind the scenes tour, and finally a very special performance complete with actors. Myself and Alice missed out on the Live version with actors as we had to go and get ready for the ScareBall and didn't want to turn up too late for that (last year we turned up late we missed out on food and half the awards ceremony).

(left to right) Mikey, Selma (Me), Alice, Andy, Cathy & Rosie
(Photo by Stephen Candy Photography)

The ScareBall was really a chance for me to test out Selma Reaper as a live character, she's had nothing but a good response online and so I was curious to see the reaction in person. Cathy was most excited to finally meet Selma, as seemed Rosie too, and they both loved her which gave me one tonne load of confidence once my voice started to ache and I lasted ages with the very full on voice because of the positive reactions I got all round. This gave me loads of confidence as the character which lead to plenty of fun and dancing, further on in the night discussions into what she'll be up to in October. I won't say anything yet, as nothing is official. We all had something to eat and enjoyed an amazing performance by the Circus of Horrors, and by the end of the night there were about ten of us sitting outside in the Shark Hotel's smoking area until 3am getting very drunk, and having a really good laugh! The fact everyones had a bit to drink in the evenings makes me kinda prefer the ScareBall, in both the years I've gone, I've spoken to the most new people at the ScareBall. But nevertheless, it's a fab event all day.

I woke up, feeling like crap after only a few hours sleep, but Alice and I got breakfast then went off into Thorpe Park for the day. As I said earlier we took it super easy though as I felt quite iffy, but it was probably one of my most enjoyable days I've had at the park, because I wasn't rushing around for ages.

You know, ScareCON may not be the biggest event in the UK, but it is currently the only one I'd go back to year after year, mainly down to the people! I've made some great friends at ScareCON and although they live all around the country and we only see each other at the event, we have brilliant fun! Thank you to Michael once again for arranging the event. I shall see you in November for ScareCON: The Aftermath! Really looking forward to it!

If your interested in learning more about the event then visit: scarecon.org

Stay Scary, Harley. 

Sebamed: Clear Face Range | Review

At The Bloggers Hub Twitter Party, I was lucky enough to get the opportunity to test out and review the Sebamed Clear Face Range - anyone that knows me, knows I suffer with acne and very oily skin which is a big self confidence downer, and after trying so many high-street products and nothing touched my skin, I was beginning to loose hope. I was so excited to try these products and see how they work for me. If you don't like seeing close up images of skin and acne, this won't be the post for you as there will be before/after pictures towards the end.

To see if skincare works for you, it really needs to be tested for 28 days, in order for your skin to get used to it. Sebamed sent me three sample sizes of three different products - The Cleansing Bar, The Deep Cleansing Facial Toner and The Care Gel. Let's see how I got on..

The Cleansing Bar

At first I was a little bit scared of the idea of this - it's in soap form, soap dries my skin out like I've covered my face with rubbing alcohol. But saying this I was given some hope when I found out that all of these products are the same pH as your skin, so it shouldn't make me oily OR dry. I used this with my flannel to begin with like a normal soap and after a week I began to notice a difference, it didn't dry me out OR make me oily and I didn't feel like I'd had an extreme amount of botox after using it, which pleasantly surprised me!

I did end up using this with my Magnitone (CLICK HERE for my thoughts on that) by putting the product on my face first, then going over with the Magnitone, and I can honestly say, I think this is what gave the product a little more cleansing power and this is when I really noticed to see a difference.

Deep Cleansing Facial Toner

I've never really used toners before so I was curious to try this. At first I really liked it and it make me feel a little extra fresh after using it, but it does contain alcohol and after about two weeks of using this, I could really start to notice the alcohol and it did irritate my skin slightly, not so much to dry me out, but it did 'inflame' my breakouts and make them a little more red and visible, but I think if it was used every now and again, it wouldn't be so bad.

I did try using this with my Magnitone too on the sensitive setting, but this made my skin way too dry, and I wouldn't recommend it at all. This product wasn't my favourite and didn't really work for my, but if your considering the product, still give it a go, everyone's skin reacts to products differently.

Care Gel

Before using this, I was using a different gel from another brand and I really prefer gels to full on thick moisturisers at the moment as they tend to be lighter, and don't make me so oily. This did just the same, it gave me just the right amount of moisture. It did what it said on the tin basically, although I did notice, it did give a really good barrier between my skin and makeup, and I didn't once breakout through wearing makeup when using this product.

Before & After

Before: As you can see -  I've got some pretty angry breakouts, lots of redness and blackheads on my nose and plenty of acne scarring. Let's see how Sebamed changed this..

After: What a difference! As you can see in the picture on the left, I've lost almost all the acne scarring and any breakouts I do have aren't as angry. On the right pictures, the acne scarring has also been reduced. The skin tone looks one hell of a lot healthier and more even too.

Final Verdict

Seriously, give this stuff a go, it's so inexpensive (cheaper than most high street brands)  and after trying so many products before, this really gave me hope that my skin can get over this and I will be able to walk around without knowing I've got a warhead starring at people in the street. Would I buy these products again? Yes! I'd repurchase the Care Gel and maybe try the Cleansing Foam instead of the Bar, mainly for ease of use. I wouldn't repurchase the Toner as I did have a little reaction from it, but nothing extreme. For now, my old skincare routine has been working for me now Sebamed have helped calm my skin down, but if you, or I ever have a huge reaction to something or have a really stressful month and it ends up covering you in breakouts - give this stuff a go, I was seriously going to give up hope! I cannot thank The Bloggers Hub enough for connecting us and thank you to Sebamed for clearing my face. 

If you'd be interested in researching a little more about Sebamed and their products then you can find them at: http://www.sebamed.com 

Until next time, take care! Harley, X

Bits4Hair.com | First Impressions

I can't remember how I first stumbled upon this company now. But that doesn't matter, what does matter, is that I did discover them! If your a professional hairstylist, or someone that uses Salon Quality products you'll know how high the price of colour tubes and developers are and working professionally, this can add up one hell of a lot! As I'm writing this I've got silvery/grey hair, and my roots were in dire need of colouring correctly. But I didn't want to damage my hair further with bleach, so I went for the black regrowth look and just tinted my roots. So I decided to finally give bits4hair.com a try. I'll talk about their products in a future post, once I've had a chance to test out lots of different colours - I'm mainly going to be focused on the customer service experience here. 

I won't lie, at first look I thought £1.99 for a 100ml tube of colour, they can't be great quality and they are going to ruin my hair, but my hair was already ruined, so I purchased two tubes of colour and two bottles of developer, just to clarify, the products did not ruin my hair at all, but more on that in the future. - Delivery was the most expensive thing I paid for - but it was 48 Hour Signed For. So I can't complain, if I owned a salon, this postage option would come in great handy!

I placed my order and paid via PayPal which messed up (on my part) and sent as an e-cheque which would take 5-7 days to clear, I tweeted about it, then placed a second order and paid with my card as I needed the products by that weekend. Immediately after I placed the second order I saw that bits4hair had tweeted me via DM. I explained what had happened and that I was happy for both orders to be processed and dispatched when payment cleared. That was all sorted out between me and whomever I was speaking to (if your reading this hey! you told me you were a hairdresser 25 years ago, would love to be on first name terms!) and may I just add, their customer service is SPOT ON! The situation was sorted professionally and quickly. 

I cannot thank the team at bits4hair enough! I've found a new company that I enjoy, with phenomenal customer service, and I can assure you that I'll be back for more soon! If you'd like to check out bits4hair then their website is: bits4hair.com - Before ordering please bear in mind the site is Trade Only and the products shouldn't be used by someone that doesn't know how to use them correctly (you should all know how I feel about things like that.. I've spoke about it on YouTube!) 

If you are a professional hairstylist and cannot work their site, get in contact with them, the service is fantastic and they will give you a helping hand I'm sure. 

Thanks for all the continued support from everyone, I'm trying to blog as much as possible but it's proving difficult! Mega love, Harley. X