Hay fever survival MIRACLE products - for serious!!!

Heeey Eeveryone!!


Depending on where you are looking at this screen and reading this, you may or not be suffering from the dreaded ailment of the summer: HAYFEVER!!!!


For those of you who have it and are in the northern hemisphere, like me you will be having a hellish time in what should be a lovely happy season. In the UK it has come on strong this year. More and more people are having a frankly crappy quality of life as it really can make you quite miserable. To give you an idea: I went through a whole box of kleenex super balm tissues in 2 days with a super streamy nose, and was sneezing twice a minute at least!!


But now I feel SOOO much better thanks to 3 magical products. I will take you through them with the hope that it will help you (or anyone you know with hay fever) in this bittersweet season.


1. Neti pot

My neti pot. I bought mine here

I got this recommended by my uncle who uses a neti pot every day. I think it is used a lot by people who practice yoga and want to cleanse themselves, but it is increasingly being used for sinus problems and allergies. A neti pot is a little genie lamp style thing that washes out your sinuses. Brilliant for getting all the grime and muck out, and especially great for people with hay fever as it clears your sinuses of evil pollen and pollution.

The way you use it is you fill it with warm water and a teaspoon of sea salt (never iodised salt). You should always use pre boiled or distilled water (I have NO idea where to buy distilled water so I use boiled). You then put the end in one of your nostrils and let all the warm salty water pour out of the other one. 

This video below is really helpful and shows you how to use it. There are also instructions on the Amazon page on how to use this particular style of neti pot. I use mine every day and it has really made a difference! It can be a bit scary on the first try, but keep on at it and you will notice that you don't feel so bunged up! My nose isn't constantly streaming and I think it's a good idea to wash out your sinuses anyway. Especially if you live in a big city like me where the smog can get a bit yukky and you use the Tube a lot!

2. Pollenna tablets

These are homeopathic tablets that I bought from Holland and Barrett's (healthy food shop in the UK). I think they were around £5.00 for 72 tablets which is ok considering you take 3 a day after taking 6 on the first day. At this point I was so miserable that I was willing to spend a million pounds to feel better! After the initial dose I felt instantly more energised and clear headed. My nose wasn't itching and neither were my sinuses, and I wasn't feeling so drained and tired. As a child I had eczema on my hands which disappeared after homeopathic treatment, but whatever you may think of homeopathy, I do believe that in some cases in can work. Even if it's a psychosomatic thing, as long as it's actually working it can't hurt to try out right???

3. Hay Max balm

My Hay Max Aloe Vera balm.
I bought it here.

This last little gem is magic in a pot!!!!! I'm sure some of you may have read in various "How to cope with hay fever" articles that putting vaseline in your nose can help trap the pollen and other irritants before it gets inside your sinuses. I was a bit sceptical of that theory at first  so initially thought that Hay Max probably wouldn't work at all and it was all just a clever scam (I was especially sceptical after seeing the £7.25 price tag).

But!! As soon as I started using it, I stopped sneezing every 30 seconds (may I add that I would sometimes triple sneeze.... in danger of inhaling my hair as they were sometimes so violent!) and I felt more in control! I did start using it at the same time as the Pollenna tablets so it's hard to say which one is more effective, but all these 3 things as a combo are working a treat!!

I do have to add that I was already using conventional anti-histamines and a herbal tablet called Quercetin which were not having too much of an effect on me, but I have continued to use them with everything I mentioned above. I am not prepared to feel like crap again!! Maybe they're all working together against the evil pollen tirade on my body or maybe it's just one of them working super hard. Whatever it is they're all keeping me feeling tip top at the moment and I hope that this helps you or someone you know (pass it on to them.. they will be grateful trust me!!)

If you have any questions just e-mail me  at email.wigwam@gmail.com or leave a comment below.

Wig Wam xx

No 7 offers galore! Day, night and BB creams ahoy!

Heeeey Mateys!!


I've just won a race against time today!! I found an amazing internship opportunity at a social policy research company and started preparing my application before quickly realising that OH NO! The due date was in 3 hours. Man I haven't written that fast since my final exams at uni. I am on edge and even typing a bit toooo fast right now (I had a full sugar coke and a bana muffin and a banana and a pitta bread and a nettle tea) phew! Anyways I managed to get it in with 3 minutes to spare! So I am winding down by writing this post.


Yesterday I went out on a little shopping/walking trip around London with my good friend Budge who I hadn't seen in months!! We are great shopping buddies as she is good at opinions on clothes and especially make-up. She also has such lovely nice perfect cuticuled nails and I'm always trying to get her to be in this blog but her nails are shy.


Anyways, we wandered into Boots ahem....er... 3 times (yes it was all in search for a well-stocked Essie counter for the elusive Turks and Caicos) and ended up cashing in on the 3 for 2 offer across all their No 7 products. The best thing is that you can use that £5 voucher you receive when you spend over £5 instore. So let me show you what I bought!

In le box

Now, there are 2 reasons why I'm not giving you before and after shots:


1. You can't really photograph what happens with creams very well. It's all about the feeeel baby!
2. I am terrified of having my WHOLE face plastered over the internet. EEK!


So you will have to make do with my descriptions!!


Day cream: Lovely fresh flowery smell and super moisturising. Felt very luxurious compared to my usual non-oil Simple moisturiser.

Night cream: Smooooth on the skin and in the morning I looked refreshed and my skin was so soft! Slightly different smell which is kinda strong I suppose. I liked it but Budge wasn't fussed either way.


BB cream: Normally I use Bare Minerals foundations but I'm getting a bit sick of the same look, and sometimes you just want to look a bit more flawless than the powders allow. This BB cream goes on really well and blended better than expected in all the blemishy bits of my face. It didn't cling to any dry parts either, really moisturised my skin and it doesn't feel like I'm wearing make-up at all. Which I guess is the point! Also cos it has a built in concealer, you don't need concealer under your eyes unless you've really had a rough night the night before hehehe!

Out le box

And all for £20!!! They are all lovely products so I would defs recommend them. Another good thing is that No 7 has quite a good range of BB creams depending on your skin needs: oily/dry/combination etc.

I hope someone out there has found this useful, even without photos!! If you have any questions then e-mail moi or leave a comment below.

Wig Wam xx

Review: Nailease instant manicure

Helloo everyone!

I've never felt compelled to write a review before but after trying Nailease instant manicures I just thought I would have to share my experience with you guys.

Many of my lunch breaks at work involve me going the Boots (a UK pharmacist) next door. This usually means that I trawl through all the nail/eyelash/makeup related items. Mostly nail stuff in case it would benefit you lot for recommendations.

The other day I came across these manicure strips. Usually I'm pretty sceptical of these things because I like making little arty things of my own on my talons but at £3.00 I couldn't say no.

They're advertised as being manis for 'girls on the go' which would make you think it would be super quick to apply. No no dear friends this takes a little bit of time!! I got through a whole episode of UK Masterchef before I had finished mine.

 Every sticker is made of a solid adhesive/nail varnish layer which you place upon a naked nail. You can stretch them horizontally or vertically to make them wrinkle free but trust me this is super hard when you only have one hand to do it with.

Straight after application

What I found most challenging when applying these was filing off the ends. After you put the sticker on you are supposed to fold it over your nail and simply file of the end with the frankly terrible nail file you're supplied with. I'm sorry but how can you cleanly fold over a sticker that is essentially sitting on a curved surface and therefore will wrinkle regardless? This is the bit that I found most difficult in the apparently super quick manicure. When it came to filing down the ends sometimes big chunks came off, leaving the ends very uneven.

The next day I went to the gym (second time in about a year) and when I washed my hair lo and behold the stickers started unsticking and got stuck to my hair!!!! After two days (and one Sally Hansen InstaDri coat on initial application later) they pretty much look awful... nice comments from the boss as always (she despairs if I ever have a nail design on for more than 2 days) but even she agreed they looked a bit ropey.

This is what they look like after 3 days. SHOCKING!!

What do you think nail buds? Have any of you ever tried them? Maybe there is a better recommendation?

Wig Wam xx