Pretty Pastels

I have a ridiculous amount of work and other things I should be doing at the moment but instead of doing it I am spending hours and hours sitting around the house paralyzed by the giant amount of things I should be doing. Anyone else do that?

Last week I was sent an MUA Palette along with the Lip Booms to review so I thought I’d give it a go.

I noticed that I don’t have many pastel colours in my wardrobe. This is because they make me feel like a fraud. I’ll explain, I’m the sort of girl that rips tights, spills drinks and falls in heels so pastels, pencil skirts and girlie floral designs feel too elegant and sophisticated for me. I feel like I’m trying to be something I’m not and that makes me really awkward.

I tried to peice together an outfit out of a few vaguely pastel-ish pieces I have in my wardrobe.

Shirt - Vintage / Shoes - Topshop/ Cat necklace - Made by me/ Peace beads - Miss Selfridge

Do you like the pastel trend? Are there any styles that you dont wear because of the way they make you feel?

Nail stamping

Recently a few people have asked me to do a post on nail stamping so I thought I would. However I have done a post on it before but I thought I’d do another up to date post with more information.

 For nail stamping you need:
Stamping polish
A scraper
A rubber stamp
Image plates


Stamping polish
Konad is the most well known brand of stamping polish available and comes in a variety of colours however there are lots of other alternatives. I have always bought stamping polish from ebay. I have only tried Konad polish personally but lots of people get great results from cheaper versions some people even claim that some brands of regular polish work just as well however I’ve not found this to be true.
Stamping polish is different from regular polish because it is much thicker and very gloopy.

Scraper
I have an official Konad scrapper which I bought as part of a set with the stamper. Although they do the job well and don’t cost much there has been times when I’ve misplaced mine so I’ve used and old store card instead!

Rubber stamp
I mine is a Konad stamper but I’m sure non-brand cheaper versions work just as well.

Image plates
Konad : Konad have a great selection of beautiful designs which give a brilliant effect on the nails. These are in my opinion the best plates but they cost the most.
Bundle Monster: Sold on Amazon you can but 30+ image plates for the price of two/three Konad plates. Some of the designs are of questionable taste and the plates seem to be a little harder to work with but with a bit of practice the results are just as good as Konad at a fraction of the price.
Other: There are lots of ebay users selling unbranded image plats of which I have bought two. One was poor quality and the images where not very sharp but the 2^nd one is my favourite plate ever! So it’s a bit hit and miss!
There are lots of brands that I haven’t tried so let me know if you find any great suppliers.



HOW IT WORKS

Paint you nail in you desired colour.
Apply stamping polish to the stamping plate covering the design you want.
Scrape the polish off using the scrapper.
Pick the design up using the rubber stamp in a rolling motion across your nail.
Using a similar motion, quickly apply the design to the nail.

When I first started  nail stamping I found youtube a great help, so I've my description wasn't good enough head over to you tube!

Some of my nail art using stamping:
LACE
HELLO KITTY
LIPS AND BOWS

Have you or would you give nail stamping a go?

Bleaching/dip dye shirt

I was inspiered to give this a go after realing Neenys post on bleaching/dip dye last week.

I started off with an old Primark shirt that hadn’t had much wear I put half of it in a plastic bag and used elastic band to secure it. I added a few more bands in the hope that it might create some sort of fancy effect.

I then added it to a bucket of bleach and water using a peg to keep it in place then I waited. Neen said that she left her shirt in bleach for about 10 min so after 10min I checked..nothing. Honestly Morrisons 29p bleach must be so blumming weak it took about 5 hours.

However after 5 hours a rinsed it throughly and gave it a spin in the washing machine and I was left with this.

I'm pretty happy with it. What do you think?

MUA Boom / FOTD

Last week I was lucky enough to be sent  Lip Boom by MUA to try out before their release date on the 9t^h of may.

Lip Boom – “With a lipstick on one end and a highlighting gloss on the other, they create the look of fuller, curvaceous lips. Use alone or all together for a striking, gorgeous look!”

Personally in the day time I would chose to wear the lipsticks without the gloss. I really like the matte texture. I found it relatively long lasting and not particularly drying, which is often a problem with matte lipsticks. I was sent (L-R) It's a situation, Cheeky, LMK.

The gloss is packed full of chunky glitter. It feels a bit grainy on the lips but nothing too bed. I really like the smell of the lips gloss however some people might not - it is very sweet.

Out of the 3 I received I have a definite favourite which is LKM. Whilst most people tent to go for a natural or pink lip I am a huge lover of a dark lip. The darker the better and LMK is striking.

I  paired my gothic lips with a dress but it was chilly at Uni and I put my old Gap shirt on top of it! I'm not too sure about the dress I really like it but I can't help but feel it is made for a girl a few inchs tallerthan myself. The skirt sits at a funny length OR it may be because I usually wear short skirts!

Classy photo taken in my university toilets because they have amazing well lit full length mirrors and my train gets me in a full 50 minutes early!

I applied lipboom at about 11am, touched up in the toilets at about 5pm and it was still going strong when I got home at 10pm - not bad eh?

The cost £3 and are avaliable online and in Superdrug. I fancy trying Ok.com for a bit of a change which is a nude, will you be trying Lip Boom? Is the skirt a funny length? What sort of lip do you go for?

PS. You may have notice that there was no 100daychallenge:week10. Thats because theres nothing to report!

Lush fighting animal testing

On Tuesday I attened a demonstartion for the Fighting Animal Testing press day my local Lush shop.

Three of the shops staff were gagged outside the shop whilst they had make up tested on them by a Rabbit.
Other members of staff chatted to people outside the shop and answered there questions on animal testing. You could sign a petition as well as signing your name on the window to show your support.
You can also do this online HERE
There are loads of reasons why testing on animals is wrong many of these reasons are widely aknowledged. I'm pretty sure that I dont know anyone who would sat that they dont support the fight against animal testing but so many people are not willing to do anything about it which is a real shame.

Animals are subjected to considerable pain and distress during toxicity tests; even pregnant animals are used and their unborn babies chemically poisoned. Animal toxicity tests are also scientifically unreliable for assuring human safety because animals and humans can respond very differently to the same chemicals.

Cosmetics can easily be produced without animal testing by using the thousands of existing ingredients for which safety data is already available and advanced non-animal testing methods such as 3D human skin models, test-tube cell tests and computer models.

If you are near lush pop in and see what’s happening at your local shop. All the staff are really knowledgeable on all things about their campaign and about there products.  Whilst I was there I took back five empty black pots to be recycled. (Another lovely thing that lush does.) for every 5 pots you bring back you get a free pot of facemask.
Have you signed the petition yet?

Lace Look Nail Art

It was suggested that I have a go at a ‘lace style’ nail art so I thought I’d give it a go. I first intended to use real lace but turns out I don’t have scraps of lace in my house and I know 100% that If I was to varnish lace to my fingers I would peel it off within a few hours. So I decide do try a lace inspired look with my Konad nail plates.

The base coat was South Molton Street by Nails Inc and I used Konda stamping polish and plate M71.
Very pretty isn't it? Have you tried nail stamping?

OOTD: Jeremy kyle

YES JEREMY KYLE. You may or may not know that my MA is in creative writing. I really love writing fiction and I enjoy a cheeky bit of poetry on the side. I happen to attend a local poetry group that often has teamed/ fancy dress events. This month’s theme happened to be Jeremy Kyle. Assuming you know what Jeremy Kyle is you will understand that the Jeremy Kyle strange is light-years away from a cat walk.
I decided to go for the “I’m in to sportswear and I’m harder than you” look.

Which coincidently doubles up as my ‘what I wear to the gym’ look and my ‘what I wear on lazy days’ look.

I kid you not - comfyest night out ever!
Polo - FredPerry
Trackies- Nike
Trainner- The amazing Reeboks with a pump on the tounge
Hoodie - RiverIsland

I added some outfit appropriate nail art and a bit of bling.

Its not an outfit I would normal wear out or consider blog worthy but I do love a good polo. 

What do you think? What would you have worn?

Never again : products I wouldn't re-buy

Hello and welcome to a super negative blog post. I tend to only write about things that I think they are good and I don’t review things that often because I know that my taste isn’t to everyone else’s taste but so many products are hyped up on the internet I think it’s time for a bit of negativity.

These are products that annoy me or make me sad for some reason. Like I said what suits one persons taste many not suit everyone so this really is only my opinion!

Cutex Acetone Free Nail Polish Remover.
You have to use so much of this per nail because it’s so gentle to your nails it hardly removes anything. I must have used it about 4 times and it’s nearly empty. You might think that being acetone free it might smell a little better than normal nail polish but sadly it still stinks. I bought it because I could use it on my acrylic nails but as a regular nail varnish remover its poor at best.

Mac moisture cover
Most people seem to love Mac and to a point I do too. I have a few lipsticks and a bronzer which are great but I bought this after being accosted by one of the girls on the make up counter. She promised it was the perfect match for my skin which it isn’t and she promised me that it was super blendable and long lasting. LIES. On my skin it is drying, the wrong shade and vanishes after a few hours. It cost me about £13 and isn’t anywhere near as good as my good old trusty Collection 2000 concealer.

BarryM lip stick 52
So I dont hate this product and I nearly didn’t mention it at all. I love the colour and its goes on well. It’s quite dry but I can live with that. I have used it a lot and it is super long lasting and that is the problem. When I wear this lipstick I look like a clown the next day. It stains and seems to spread. No make up remover helps and it takes a full day to fade. Maybe it is just me and my funny lips?!

Topshop Liner
Maybe this is because I bought it in the sale, maybe I’m just unlucky but it’s so dry.  I have to dig with my brush to get anything out and the colour pay off isn’t great. I love everything else I’ve ever tried from Topshop so I expected much better!

Marc Jacobs Lola
I will never buy another solid perfume. I wanted this for ages I lusted after it and it’s pretty packaging and I was intreuged by the whole solid perfume aspect. Turns out solid perfume isn’t that great. For a start you are talking £20+ pounds for 0.75g of product and I swear it doesn’t last as long and it can only be smelt in the exact area that you put it. The smell doesn’t linger at all and although the packaging is beautiful I feel foolish for spending so much money on it.

Have you tried any of these products? Do you have any products you want to warn me off?

Review: Browzings

A little while ago I went to the Benefit Brow Bar event in Preston and had my brows done by the Benefit girls and since then my love forthe brow has developed in to a huge addiction.

I use browzings in Dark. I like a high defined arch and the girls at Benefit taught me a bout brow mapping but after some hunting on the website itve found out the info HERE.
I've used browzings every day since I got it which was about 3 weeks ago now and I can see this products lasting me months maybe years becasue you only need to use a tiny bit. My mum has even started calling me SCOUSE BROW but you know what? I don't even care.
I love it.


Brow - Browzings (given to me at the event.)
Eyes - MUA H&E pallette, Benefit high brow
Lashes - Kiss false lashes
Skin - Collection 2000 foundation, Benefit Coralista, Primark unnamed bronzer

Browzings is £22.50 which is a huge amount of moeny for me to spend on one product but now i've tried it I can say 100% I will re buy. Having tried quite a few other brow products on the market thisis by far the best in my opinion. The powder lasts all day and it doesn't fade at all. It only looks ting and you might think that you are hardly getting any product but trust me I pile the stuff on and I haven't even made a dent in the powder or wax yet.

Have you tried browzings or have you found a products recently that has really impressed you?

100 Day Challenge week 9

I cannot wait for this to be over.

This week hasn’t even been that hard. I have a lot of uni work to do and normally I would treat myself whilst work but that’s out of the question. Late at night when I should be asleep I get the urge to order 99p treats from eBay and THESE amazing nail wraps that Gem blogged about are really making me want to give in but I promise I won’t.

I have had a big clear out of my wardrobe I took some stuff in to work and passed some other clothes on and in turn discovered lots of things I’ve not worn since last summer. Every time I got on holiday I buy a few new items of clothing wear them on holiday and then put them away for my next holiday a year later.  Anyway I know there won’t be a holiday this year so I’ve got all my holiday clothes out and I will be wearing them ( with tights, jackets, cardis ) this summer regardless. Who says you need a holiday to wear holiday clothes.

Yesterday was spent doing work and worrying about doing work however I did fit in a cheeky face mask at lunch.

How are you doing with the challenge?

How do you think I should celebrate the end of the challenge? I owuld love to hear you ideas, my orginal plans included a bit of a spree but that spree isn't going to be possible and I dont want to ruin my hard work so i'm thinking maybe 1 or 2 items or a charity shop spree?!

Montagne Jeunesse face masks: girly night in.

A little while ago I got an email from Montagne Jeunesse telling me about their new range of facemasks and offering me some to try. Now Mama Blackpool and I love Montagne Jeunesse face masks so much and have a huge collection in our bathroom because she pops a few  in to her trolley on almost every shopping trip. 

                Side note: When I was little every Friday my mum and I would have a “sleep over night” we would watch TV together in our PJs, eat chocolate and do facemasks. Then read magazines and fall to sleep in her bed.

Anyway Montagne Jeunesse sent me five of their new products to try out. The new range of skincare products is called Skin Heros and consists of facemasks to fight all the main skin problems such as oily, dry, spot prone skin. I invited my friend Jo around to test out the facemasks. Jo arrived fresh faced from the shower where as I had just got in from work and had to take all mine off. Then we jumped in to are comfy clothes (PJ’s and a onsies) and chose are masks. I chose the t zone peel off and Jo chose the mask for dry skin.

The mask that Jo is wearing smelt lovely and felt a bit like yoghurt, my mask tingled the face but not uncomfortably so. Anyone who has tried a peel off mask before will know the urge to peel is irresistible and you can see from the unattractive photo where it has started to peel off around my mouth.

When we peeled and washed are masks off we were both pleased with the results. When I pulled my mask off (this sounds vile but..) you could see so much make up and dirt that had been trapped in my pores even though I thought my face was clean! Jo, who has pretty enviable skin anyway had the softest skin ever, her forehead felt like a baby’s bum, honestly it was silky. Unlike the normal sachets these face masks come with a cream to use afterward that compliments the mask, which I think is a grat idea.

Then we decided to apply a ton of makeup purely for the fun of it. Jo noticed that her skin felt smoother and her makeup applied a lot more evenly than usual so we are both pretty chuffed with the results from the face masks.

Jo went for the sexy pin up look which I think she pulls off beautifully. I on the other hand went for the bright lips look with enough bronzer to glam up the population of the UK which was applied in very poor lighting, which I feel is in alarming contrast to my onsie!

I even walked Jo the bus stop in my onesie, what a good friend! I had a great night and I really enjoyed using the facemasks although I expected I would having enjoyed using them in the past. I will be trying the remaining 2 and the nose strips during the week.

Skin Heros are now available at ASDA as well as on the website. The masks are suitable for vegetarians and Montagne Jeunesse always look to use natural ingredients.

Do you use facemasks? A lover of the onesie? What do you do on a girly night in?

Favourite Nails

Just a tiny post to share with you my favourite nails of the moment.
Be A Dahlia Wont You/I Lily Love You.

I am planning to some lace inspired nails soon as suggested last week. However this friday I have a fancy dress event to go to and the theme is Jeremy Kyle! What style of nail art do you think of when I say Jeremy Kyle? Burberry maybe?

Suggestions welcome.

OOTD: Natural look

Natural look meaning no false eyelashes, fake tan and my hair is up. I still have a full face of make up.

Skirt-Select / Jacket- River Island / Shirt – NewLook / Belt – Primark / Necklace – Gift from Zoe / Bag - Ebay,

I dont tend to wear my hair up much these days (becasue you can see my messy over grown undercut!) even though it disguises my ugly roots. I thought I'd leave you all with a very cute picture of my cat.

Hope you are having a lovely weekend.

Cosmic nail art

This started out as a vague attempt at cosmic nail art and ended up a rather messy yet pretty creation. I used various Models Own polishes and some cheapo glitter polishes. I finished with a coat of OPI Last FridayNight.

Have you got any nail art ideas you would like to see me try? Have you got any tips for the perfect cosmic nail ?

100 Day Challenge week 8 / Spoilt rotten?

I’m now over half way through!

This week has been fine, really fine in fact. I’ve had so many nice things sent/given/happen to me I haven’t needed to shop at all.

My week has been full of nice postal surprises I received my giveaway prize of the MUA heaven and Earth palette and a collection 2000 cream puff from Amy. I had been wanting to buy both products for ages and after having a few days to play with them I love both products and I’ve added the other 3 colours of cream puff to my wishlist – oh I do love a matte lip. I also received a huge surprise package from the lovely zoe who sent me lots of gorgeous make up samples, some nail varnish and a few other surprise which I love to bits.

On Easter Sunday My mum gave me a Starbucks gift card insted of and egg and my OH got my a "vintage" scarf and bowtie! - They know me so well.

Then I ended up going on an impromptu shopping trip with my mum. She said That she would treat me to one item as long as she got to choose. It was amazing to be back in the shops but I stuck to looking at things with my mum in mind rather than myself. That is until we hit River Island. I love River Island. Unlike Topshop/ Miss selfridge/ H&M I find there sizing to be pretty consistent and I fit in the jeans unlike Topshop in which I have vivid memories of crying in the changing rooms because I couldn’t get their jeans past my knees! So yes I love RiverIsland.

I tried on 10 items (everything in the sale nothing over £15) and countless pairs of shoes. My Mum told me to leave the shop and she would choose one item for me! So I went outside and waited and she came out with 4!

Told you it’s been a good week!

I'm feeling pretty chipper about the challenge now, I still wish I could buy things as soon as I want them, I still have no money but at least i'm not making my problem worse and at least I’m not burying my head in the sand. I’m opening bills instead of chucking them away and my loose change jar has some money in it. Hurrah.