Silk and Skyscrapers

New blog

2012-03-05T14:59:00.001+00:00

Okay, I know I haven't posted, and I'm very very sorry. But I'm now part of a new blog - and it's brilliant! SO much better than this one, trust me. If you could follow it I'd be so grateful! It consists of me and a group of other lovely ladies, and we post on a load of different topics: there's beauty stuff, fashion, yummy recipes, relationship advice, travel and more. If you want to know how to make this cake, you'll click on the link below and FOLLOW FOLLOW FOLLOW. :D

http://astoldbyeveryone.blogspot.com

Results day haul - Oh how I love girly crap.

2011-08-19T23:27:00.009+01:00

So to treat myself after my results, this is what I bought from Superdrug today!

I'll go through them (minus the shampoo, which FYI is John Freida's Tone Correcting shampoo for blondes: I want my hair blonde, not golden retriever yellow. As much as I love retrievers.) all in more detail below.

Nail Polishes

First off, this Miss Sporty one. Part of the Clubbing Colours collection (bit of alliteration for you there), it doesn't have an official colour name which is really stupid because that's one of the best bits about nail polish! Well maybe not, but OPI have some pretty fun names. From the bottle this one seems to be a very pretty light gold with a nice amount of shimmer in - not enough to make it overly metallic. This was £1.99 by itself, or £2.99 for two from the same collection. Which is an offer I took full advantage of.

This is another one in the Miss Sporty offer. This is completely different in real life - it's much darker and much greener, a very jade type of green. I got this because I thought it was quite unique, I've not really seen anything like it and also it'll look gorgeous with the gold! It's not a creme, it has a very, very slight shimmer to it although it was too small to capture on camera, I'll try when I wear it in the sunlight.

This one was only £1 - bargain! It's by Makeup Academy, not a brand I've come across before but I thought sod it, can't go wrong for a quid. I'm on the hunt for a Tiffany blue, and I really don't want to pay for China Glaze's For Audrey because I'm far too cheap, but this one's actually surprisingly close! It's a little too green in the sunlight, but in artificial light it's much closer.

I also got this one, which is one I've been after for a while. It's by Rimmel, is called Your Majesty and is basically a really metallic silver. I'm wearing it now, so I'll do a post on it tomorrow and give you a full review. It's gorgeous though, really chuffed I got it because normally I wouldn't have chosen it, but this blog post here (which incidentally made me buy Pulsating too) persuaded me. It was only £2.99, so you can't go wrong really.

Next there's this Barry M Red Glitter one - it's another one I've been after for a while. I've seen it on a few blogs and it looks amazing on - very Dorothy's slippers! Looking forward to trying it very much. Barry M are probably my favourite brand for nails, they always seem to have great formulas and are bang on trend with their colours (Dusky Mauve/Chanel Paradoxal anyone?), although I do with they'd experiment a little more with different finishes - they seem to do a lot of cremes which are boooooring!

Sleek Palette

Ah, the Sleek Palette. I admit it, I am a Sleek virgin. I've heard lots of great things about them but just have never got round to trying them, I'm more of a mascara/eyeliner kinda girl, I don't really wear eyeshadow. However, I have had my eye on the UD Naked Palette for a while, but thought I better try a cheaper, similar version before forking out £35-odd for a palette I may not even use. Rational thinking, how boring. So anyway, I thought I would listen to all the good advice from the ladies on Cosmopolitan.com and on Makeup Alley, and try the i-divine Storm palette, which is quite neutral and smoky (see photos below).

The first thing I was impressed with was the packaging. For £6.29 or however much I paid for it (so accurate, I know) it feels quite high quality - it comes on a little cardboard box to protect the case, and the case is also really good. It's very solid plastic with a decent - albeit slightly stiff - clasp on so you know it won't open in your bag. It has a matte finish with 'Sleek' on in glossy letters. I tried to get this in a photo, but it was quite hard! Inside is a big mirror so you can fix your make up on the go, and it comes with the obligatory but pretty rubbish eyeshadow applicator.

I've swatched the colours for you below - sorry they're not particularly good photos, my photography skills aren't up to much. My first impression of these shades was that there was a nice mix of light and dark - if I do wear eyeshadow I like it to be quite smoky so this provided me with more than enough different colours. I also like how there's a mixture of matt and shimmery shades, and the shimmery/glittery ones only have very fine glitter so rather than looking sparkly, it appears metallic and glossy. These colours are very pigmented, I was seriously impressed. You only need a tiny little bit of each to cover the whole eyelid, and it also spreads and blends well which is good for using more than one colour at a time (which you should be doing - blend, shade, highlight and contour those peepers, people!). They are very soft though, so put too much pressure on he palette or drop it and ka-boom. My favourite shades are probably the really pale gold (top row, second in) and the gunmetal just below it - they're both very metallic and from what I've seen in my short play-session, they go well together. I'd like to try the two pink/cranberry shades (top row, last two - how I WISH they'd give the colours names!) but don't know how well they'll go with my cool pink colouring. Cross your fingers for me!

Right I'm going to bed now because I'm shattered, I'll give you two NOTDs tomorrow cause I'm lovely to you people. I'll have a proper play with these eyeshadows later in the week, hope you enjoyed this post cause it took me forever to write!

University, here I come!

2011-08-19T23:06:00.002+01:00

Very very very trés sorry I didn't post yesterday, but I had good reason. I was out celebrating.

This time next month I will be starting freshers' week at the University of Huddersfield, ready for my degree in Fashion and Textile Buying - shopping for a living! Got my A-Level results which I was very happy with, A in textiles, A in business studies and B in ICT (booo). Then I went shopping to treat myself to a couple of bits and bobs, then town to get nice and drunk and thoroughly celebrate!

So anyway, now you're going to get a couple of posts as a nice little apology for neglecting you yesterday.

Also have a picture of my doggie, cause she's a cutiepie!

Now I have something to wear tomorrow night!

2011-08-17T22:13:00.006+01:00

Tomorrow night will be full of alcohol, dancing and celebrating (hopefully) as it is results day. Therefore, I was faced with the usual dilemma: what on earth do I wear?! So tonight, one of my fabulous fellow goldfishies gave me the idea to customise one of the dresses I have. Here's the before, not particularly flattering, though I loved the fabric:

(sorry it's so dark, there was no natural light by this point!)

I decided I was going to hack the sleeves off to make it a bit nicer - the sleeves were very baggy so even with a belt around the middle I felt a bit sack-like - not exactly great for confidence! Plus it made it too hot in dark, sweaty clubs (yum yum). I turned it inside out and cut the sleeves as close to the seams as I could all around and under the arms, leaving some extra at the top either as a fluffy-looking detail or to give me something more to attach embellishment to later on. Here's the after - sorry about the strong flash giving you all a view of my lovely nude bra, but it was really too dark to not use it by this point!

Now, I was left with a lot of fabric - those sleeves were big. So I figured why not go the whole hog, I was feeling creative! So I made a skirt too!

Now this was really easy, and even the most inexperienced seamstress-to-be could make it, honestly. Both the sleeves fit snugly around my hips, so that meant I could pull them up over them and wear it as a comfortable-fitting high waisted skirt. So I slipped them both on, then slid a cheap bodycon skirt underneath, positioning them so the chiffon was about an inch higher up than the skirt on my waist. Then I folded the edges of the sleeves over the skirt waistband and pinned them all into place. I slid it off over my head and tacked all around the waistband, as this would hold it into place better than just pins, and it needs to be reasonably secure. I set up my sewing machine and sewed about 2cm from the edge with a zig-zag stitch - they stretch a lot better than straight stitches and as I didn't put a zip in at all it needed a little bit of extra give. That was it! I think I'm going to fit a thick elastic waistband onto it though, because the current one's a bit thin and it wouldn't be very good for waist belts. I'll update if I decide to do that!

Have some photos:

I'm really pleased with the final result; my only problem now is that I can't decide which to wear tomorrow night!

Tattoos are NOT just for chavs and pirates!

2011-08-17T17:45:00.006+01:00

Tattoos still have a lot of prejudice, and I think it's absolutely mental. It's the 21st century for god's sake, people should be allowed to express themselves in whatever way they like, be that a hobby, the way they dress, their hair colour, their make up or through tattoos/piercings: any way they like.

I don't care that they might get wrinkly when I'm old - I'll have had years and years of them looking great. I'm not going to spend the next 60 years of my life worrying about the last 10. More people are getting tattoos than ever before so we'll soon be outnumbering people without them - you can't judge the majority - and it will therefore be extremely common to see old people with tattoos. I don't want to be the type of person who won't do something just because of the fact I might get old one day. Crazy trends are coming out all the time - septum stretching and tongue splitting anyone? Tattoos will be old news soon enough, they'll practically be boring compared to everything else out there.

I love mine.

And I fully intend on getting more.

NOTD - Pulsating and Peacock.

2011-08-16T17:16:00.008+01:00

Pink: Rimmel's 60 second polish in Pulsating (£3.69/12ml)

Blue: 17's Fast Finish in Peacock (£2.99/8ml)

I wish these colours showed up properly! They're amazing in real life and they just look a bit lifeless here. They're both really bright and really metallic, and the pink is lots darker and more purple that it looks here, with a slight blue tinge in the sun. I googled it but there aren't any accurate pictures!

Peacock is nice formula-wise, it's thick enough to get full opacity in one heavy coat but I usually do it in two thinner coats and this is thick enough. For a metallic polish it's good for not getting brush strokes in it, but I have found that it tends to form bubbles on the nail. You have to work fast too: they aren't kidding around when they say it's fast finish! It'll dry on the brush if you're not careful, and if you try to go over the first coat while it's only semi-dry you'll end up dragging it halfway across the nail. However despite this it's definitely worth it - it's one of my favourite colours when it's on! The wear isn't that great - it tends to peel - but this is remedied with a top coat.

Pulsating is the perfect formula, on the other hand! I might have to investigate Rimmel more, because it's seriously impressed me. The brush is perfect because it's so wide and flat it picks up the right amount of polish and you can paint the whole nail in one brush stroke. It takes 2-3 coats to get perfectly opaque, and it doesn't really dry in 60 seconds but you can apply the second and third coats over when it's semi-dry so it's still very fast application. And the colour is phenomenal - see the link below! It wears quite well and doesn't seem to chip as much as the average polish.

I did this using sellotape to get a nice crisp line - painted the pink on, then a coat of Seche Vite, then waited, then taped half off, blue, Seche Vite over the whole nail. That makes it sound really easy, but in reality it wasn't; I had to re-do my left index finger approximately 84584578 times because it was refusing point blank to go right. Then my little finger smudged. Then my perfect, perfect thumb smudged. So I thought 'sod it', and painted it on freehand instead. If you fancy struggling to have a go at this too, check out Chloe's Nails - she is the queen of tape manis, and although she's not posting at the minute (nobody knows where she's gone, it's like she's vanished!) she has hundreds of old posts you can nosey through - they are seriously impressive and I guarantee you will get in a sulk when you see her nail polish collection.

Thanks for reading, you lovely people, it's really quite pathetic how grateful I am!

Over and out.

Update: I've found a more accurate photo! It's still brighter than this but it shows a lot better what they look like, and incidentally, it's also a great blog too. Click here to see the shimmeriness!

Goodbye horrible hair, hello nice colour!

2011-08-16T16:38:00.008+01:00

Finally, my hair is a nice colour! Want to see the before and after?

Bad, isn't it? But I'm seriously so much happier with it now! I used Clairol Nice n Easy in shade 103B, Medium Champagne Blonde, bought in my haul here.
Here's the story behind my horrible hair. Once upon a time, I would dye my hair blonder because it's so much nicer than my natural mousy brown. Then one day I decided 'you know what? I'm going to start being nice to my hair again' so I picked up a box of dye that looked close to my natural colour, with the logic that dying it natural again would mean not getting roots. However, this hair dye came out very dark. Very, very dark. Nearly black. I was very upset and was all ready to fire off a very angry email to Clairol about 'misleading images' and 'duping customers'. But I relaxed a little after reading that brown hair dye usually starts off too dark and then fades very quickly. So, I settled into a routine of washing my hair in very hot water with head and shoulders to get rid of it as quick as possible.

Soon enough, the colour had faded quite considerably and I looked pretty much back to my old colour. Roots were growing through and they were barely noticeable: I was happy. However, the bits which has previously been bleached kept getting lighter, and I was eventually left with mousy roots and yellowy ends from the blonde mixed with remnants of the warm brown dye. Yummy. (However, it wasn't quite as bad as it looks in the first photo, that was unbrushed and unwashed hair, bear that in mind before you judge me!)

So now, a few months later, I have decided to dye it again. It's now a nice ashy dark blonde, and I am very happy with it.

And they all lived happily ever after.

Asda Haul

2011-08-16T15:16:00.008+01:00

So today I went to Asda on the way home from Adam's house. I have a weird fascination with supermarkets: as far as I'm concerned, anywhere you can buy magazines, clothes, make up, skincare products, homeware and a hell of a lot of food can only be good. And it's all so cheap! So I pottered around happily with my basket throwing various things into it, and now I will show all you lovelies what I bought, because I know how much you all care.

1 Tresemme Salon Finish hairspray

2 Colorsport 30 day mascara in Black

3 Nice n Easy hair dye in 103B

4 2 Rimmel 60 second nail polishes - Deliciously Dark and Pulsating

5 Nivea Soft moisturiser

6 Asda's Young Skin Matt Finish moisturiser

Now the pink polish looks amazing on, I'll show you in another post. The colours on the screen don't really show it right, it's darker and brighter andmore purple than it looks - it's like sex in the form of nail polish. The dark one is a very deep reddy-purple, very glossy and sultry. If you can even have sultry nail polish.

I got the hairspray because it was cheap, and in a little handbag sized bottle, to be honest. Tresemme clogs some people's hair up quite a bit apparently, but it's always seemed alright to be, plus I'm too cheap to buy Elnett which is about double the price. This one's loads better than the freeze spray one which is practically industrial strength and would seriously only be needed if you had a Marie Antoinette hairstyle going on in a hurricane.

30 day mascara - I don't really know why I bought it, I just want to try it. I wear mascara 24/7. I wear it in bed, because it's too much of a pain in the arse to try and remove 3 coats of it, then I melt it off with hot eyelash curlers in the morning before I put a fresh lot on. Sorry, eyelashes. But anyway, I thought this would be good for giving my eyelashes a break when I'm on holiday, but who am I kidding? I love my mascara too much. I'll make a before and after post when I use it though, don't fret little readers.

Hair dye - because my hair is horrible. It's blonde on the ends and mousy brown in the roots, because I'm being nice to it and giving it a break from dyeing, heat styling, etc. etc. But then I saw this was £4 and thought 'sod it, I want a nice hair colour again!'

Moisturisers - Nivea Soft for nighttime because it's quite thick and rich and smells yummyyyy. I also found this one by Asda as part of their 'young skin' range - mattifying moisturiser which is exactly what my oily skin needs. I've read some reviews and it seems pretty good - plus it was only 97p! Yes, under a pound! You have to buy it, it's law.

Oh I also bought this dress for 8 squiddlies, what do you think?

So anyway, there you go.

Prepare for more posts on my supermarket shopping coming up!

Pinterest, oh how I love you.

2011-08-16T00:54:00.005+01:00

I don't know where I found it and I don't know how I found it. But the day Pinterest stumbled into my life was a beautiful one.

I'm not going to try and explain what the website is for because whenever I try (despite my amazing way with words) I manage to make it sound mind-numbingly dull. So I'll let them explain themselves to you.

"Pinterest is a virtual pinboard. Pinterest allows you to organize and share all the beautiful things you find on the web. You can browse pinboards created by other people to discover new things and get inspiration from people who share your interests."

Nope, even they don't make it sound that fun. But it is! Stick your email address in the comments below and I'll send you an invitation - if you'd rather stay private (don't be paranoid) send me an email instead, my address is to the right, along with the link to my own Pinterest (yes, it's that important it deserves a place in the sidebar) if you want to have a snoop. Feel free!

Here's a list of things you can do on there:

Learn how to make moss graffiti. You paint the stuff on the wall, moss grows only there. It is amazing.
Create a pinboard showcasing your love of insects. But please don't do that, because that would be weird.
Cry over the gorgeous clothes you will never afford.
Discover amazing new things to cook - you will be totally inspired but never get round to doing any of it.
Learn how to make chalkboard paint out of any colour.
Obsess over how many followers you have, be ecstatic when you get your first, only to be really disappointed when you see how many some users have.
Find the recipe for these Pizza Muffins:

You can have pinboards on any topic you desire: I have 17, including Tattoos, Inspiring Nails, Interior Inspiration, The Art of Seduction and Face Paint.

Now sign up! It's so addictive, and so inspiring. You'll regret it if you don't.

I'll get you.

Bye, I'm going to go play on it now.

I am a bad person.

2011-08-15T19:42:00.005+01:00

A very bad person. If awards were given out for people who neglect their blogs (what a stupid idea that would be) I would win one. But in my defence, in my first post - and I quote myself - I specifically stated " I'm gonna try and update this as regularly as possible, but if I get bored and move on I will not be blamed. Short attention span" so that clearly excuses me ... I think. But I enjoyed doing this for the few short days (4) I did actually post stuff, so I'm doing it again - mainly because I have too many thoughts and too much of a girly fascination with nail polish and pretty clothes for my poor boyfriend to be able to cope. I'll end up turning him gay if I'm not careful.

So anyway, I've given this a revamp and I'm starting again.

I love you, please forgive me?

Shopping list

2010-10-22T20:50:00.008+01:00

Righty-o, I'm going to write myself a winter wishlist in an attempt to not let myself spend all my money on rubbish. If any of you have seen any of these in a shop that you can recommend, please let me know!

Suede leggings
Thick grey leggings
Cream cable knit tights
Pond's Cold Cream Cleanser
Ugg boots (my first pair!) in Sand
A thick snuggly snood
A leopard print cardigan
A silk shirt (to replace that Topshop one, sob)
Mushroom nail varnish
Grey nail varnish
A decent red lipstick
A new Betsey Johnson bag (see right, you will be mine!)
A thick cosy jumper
A leather skirt, or shorts
All the other lovely things I'm after and yet sadly cannot afford. Such as a car.

SO disappointed :(

2010-10-21T22:51:00.001+01:00

Went and tried on that Topshop shirt today. It was hideous in real life :( Looks a lovely shade of grey on the website, in real life it's more like a browny-grey, horrible. I was gutted, which was quite unnerving: being that emotional over a shirt! But on the plus side, they now have a sale on and I'll be getting money soon, so I'm quite sure I'll be able to cheer myself up ...

Review: Blinc Eyeliner

2010-10-20T16:05:00.005+01:00

Oh my gawwshhh, Holy Grail liquid eyeliner right here. It's uberly expensive (£18 for an eyeliner, sob) but so worth it. And I'm tight. It's this innovative formula which you can read all about on that link above - they undoubtedly explain it much better than I ever could. But in a nutshell, I'll give you some good and bad bits about it.

Good points. It's absolutely, 110% waterproof. If it gets splashed, if you cry, if your eyes water, or if you swim, it'll stay put which is perfect for my eyes which run because of everything. It's also rub-proof. You have to rub it extremely hard to get it to budge at all. It's easy to remove - it's the combination of these two things - you just remove it with water (not oil: it's oil-proof) and gentle pressure. It then comes off in a few large chunks, rather than smudging everywhere. It's also really black. Not a dark grey, but proper ebony. It's excellent for sensitive eyes, because it has fewer ingredients, and it lasts a long time without getting all thick and drying out. Oh, and it's free delivery from the website!

Bad points. Well obviously, the price. It's a lot of money, but if you buy the the £2.50 trial size you get a voucher for 20% off which is great. Also, the brush is quite thick apparently - I find it okay because I like a fairly thick line but some people trim some bristles off to get a thinner line. And finally, sometimes I forget I'm wearing it (it's very light you see, you can't feel it on your eyelids at all) so if my eyes water at the corners and I rub them, obviously the flick comes right off! That's about it to be honest. This stuff is really amazing, I can't praise it enough!

I have a job, finally!

2010-10-20T15:59:00.002+01:00

Hello, 12 hours minimum in the Womenswear dept. of Debenhams. Proud of myself :) It was obviously my lovely new Oasis dress (here) that impressed them - plus as an added bonus it gives you a knockout figure. It's not half bad pay either for someone my age. Induction's at the start of November and at the minute I'm excited - wait until it's a week in though and I'll be moaning, no doubt about it!

At least I'll have lots of money to spend on the new winter wardrobe I'm planning for myself! Can anyone recommend any brands similar to Topshop Boutique? I.e. simple, classic pieces, thanks if you can! Google was useless when I asked it ...

Review: Barry M Instant Nail Effects

2010-10-18T22:03:00.001+01:00

Sorry about the crappy photo. But seriously, this stuff is AMAZING. Not just capital A, capital every letter. For only £3.95 you can get effects like this, all day I've had people going 'Wow, how cool are your nails?! How long did they take you to do?'. I was initially kind of reluctant to give away my amazing secret (yeah right, it's sold out in just about every Boots/Superdrug I've been to, though you can get in online here) but I decided what the hell.

So anyway. Good points. Well obviously the price, it's less than 4 quid. It gives you these really amazing crackle effects and it's so easy - all you have to do is paint it on. It dries quickly, so no faffing around with your hands in the air waiting forever until you can do anything. It's matte, so you can have it like that or paint on a glossy top coat. And depending on how thin/thickly you paint it on, you can get lots of different effects.

Bad points. It took me a few goes to get the hang of. You have to paint it on quite thickly to get it to crackle right, or it just looks rubbish. You can't really see it against dark colours - I did a rainbow effect yesterday and my blue finger looked rubbish. Also, it's only available in black, although I think Barry M are waiting to judge the success of this one, then they're planning on releasing more. They're about the only bad point I can think of. Now what are you wasting your time reading this for? Go out. Buy it!

Buy me this shirt.

2010-10-18T21:47:00.001+01:00

You're beautiful, it's trueeeee. Topshop, 40 squids, you shall be mine. 100% silk, yay. But it's dry clean only, not so yay. Anyone know if there's any way of hand washing a dry clean only silk shirt? Ah, thought not. Never mind, I'll get it anyway.

It's my birthday soon yay!

2010-10-18T21:37:00.000+01:00

7 days and counting. 'Til I'm an actual, real life grown up. And until I can legally drink, even though I don't drink. And until I can get tattoos - already got my first one planned out (see right - that says 'create' if you can't already tell, stupid photoshop). Got a nice long list of all the lovely things I want, including a beautiful Citroen C1 - I've only had 5 driving lessons as of yet but I'm a quick learner, ish, sort of - which I have no chance in hell of getting because that + insurance = £858467546758658. Also after those suede leggings from Topshop as I love things that feel soft and pretty. I got the velvet ones last year, this year I'm looking to expand my collection of furry leggings. And speaking of fur, I got a chance to wear my fur gilet today. I got it for my 13th and loved it so kept it. I KNEW they'd come back into fashion!

First post woooo.

2010-10-18T21:28:00.000+01:00

Bonsoir! Okay I'm not really sure why I've made this. Just because I always look at other people's, and think 'oooh, pretty'. I'll probably stick in all sorts: reviews for all sorts of things (make up, hair products, films, books etc.); things from very expensive shops that I'm pining after; diary entries; general thoughts and musings and lots of nice pictures because everyone likes nice pictures.

Bit of background information - I'm 17 - but only for another week - currently in 6th form in the lovely, scenic town of Mansfield (cough), heading off to Uni next year. Don't think there's anything else you need to know. I'm gonna try and update this as regularly as possible, but if I get bored and move on I will not be blamed. Short attention span.

L8rzzzz xXx

I mean bye, sorry.