cottonbuddle

Shhhhh!!!! Don't tell the Bank Manager....Haul

2014-01-11T23:19:00.000Z

Last year I made a bit of a commitment to myself: Spend less on random rubbish and have money to indulge myself once in a while.

I did reasonably well.

I still have a long way to go but I felt I had been good enough to warrant a little treat.....I think things may have got out of hand......

Here is my haul, it's definitely a case of quality over quantity but I really truly love everything I got so I don't feel too guilty....just please don't tell my bank manager ;-)

All of these products are loosely related to things I've seen around the blogosphere at sometime or another but I've found blogs are a really good way of really seeing what a product is all about before buying it. To be quite honest if it wasn't for blogs I'd be aimlessly stabbing in the dark when buying high end products, and at these prices you really don't want to get it wrong!

First up is Nars Sheer Glow Foundation in Light 2 Mont Blanc (£30.50)

I had popped into Frasers on Buchanan Street and a lovely lady called Zoe helped to colour match me. This shade is PERFECT for my skin. I have to say I was pretty amazed that there is still a shade lighter than me. If you are particularly ghostly get yourself down to a Nars counter pronto!!

To go with my swanky new base obviously I had to get a swanky new finishing powder (totally justifiable.... right?)

Step up, the eye wateringly expensive, Hourglass Ambient Lighting Powder in Dim Light (£38)

I stood for aaaaaggggggeeeees in SpaceNK and hummed and hawed over which shade to get in this and eventually just bit the bullet and went for what appeared to be the most popular and got Dim light. Oh my, this stuff is beautiful. I can't quite explain it as, to be honest, its not a visible product. All I know is it adds a layer of perfection to my face. I'm actually itching to buy more of them.

Once I'd sorted my face it was time to move on to scent. I am a huge fan of my Armani Si' perfume that I picked up at duty free back when I went to Bulgaria but I was in the market to find a something a little more unique.

I had a 30ml bottle of the cult fragrance Escentric Molecules Molecule 01 (£65.50) a few years ago and I love the weirdness of it. To me it smells a bit like tobacco and leather which sounds quite random. The thing is it is different to everyone. I know alot of bloggers and YouTubers are huge fans of this as a standalone scent but I really find that this particular fragrance plays well with others. Armani Si + Molecule01 = Heaven for my nose. Totally my own signature scent :-)

And the last thing I picked up I'm sure needs very little introduction....

Yes that would be a Rebecca Minkoff Mini Mac (£125). I've wanted one for quite a while and I was in the mood to treat myself. In the UK these bags are not terribly easy to come by. I got mine from The Little Black Book of Style website. Its in the shade Black Cherry which on ALL the pictures I found online looked a lot darker than it actually is. Online it looks Black/Red but in real life its more a red purple as seen in the picture above. Having said that I'm still not disappointed in the slightest. Its such good quality and depending on the light it really does pick up as different colours. The interior is so cute its the same teal leopard print as the dustbag which came with it which gives the classic style of the bag a bit of a hidden specialness. And I'd like to say the Little black book of style site was lovely to order from, I paid for express delivery and despite it being the festive period it was with me the next day. It was beautifully packaged and really securely wrapped, and it was a nice touch to get a little handwritten message from Melissa that runs the site. Things like that really make a difference in a world where online ordering has got so automated and clinical.

So thats what I got. Its a lot of money, I know, but its my money. I worked dang hard for it, so I get to spend it how I like. Stay in school kids!

In all seriousness though. Although I've had a little bit of a spree buying a few choice items felt far more satisfying that 10 trips to Primark. And ultimately it has spurred me on to save even more.... you never know maybe my next Rebecca Minkoff will be picked up in New York!!

What would you splurge on if you had a little money to burn?

Adventures in Green....

2014-01-10T13:24:00.002Z

One of the things I think most people want to do in the new year is eat a little better. I, for one, am very much part of the band wagon on that.

It dawned on me some time ago that I don't really eat much in the way of fruit and vegetables. So i've been trying to think of ways to work a few things in. It started with me grabbing the odd banana and maybe an apple for breakfast, but it was all quite boring and I still wasn't getting much in the way of vegetables.

I signed up for the free emails that Karena and Katrina are doing on the Tone It Up website. And as part of that there were a few recipes in the welcome dowload. One of which was for a smoothie and I thought I would give it a whirl!

My version is slightly amended from there version but basically i threw a peeled orange, a peeled banana, a handfull of spinach and a handfull of kale into my blender with some almond milk and let it blend until it was smooth.

The actual recipe also suggests adding some of the Perfect Fit protein that the girls developed but since I'm in the UK thats not very easy to get ahold of (unless one of you can tell me where?)

The result was a thick and creamy bright green drink......

I had to say when I sat down I wasn't exactly relishing the idea of drinking it but OH MY DAYS it was tasty!!! I couldn't taste the green stuff and it was nice and fruity.

I think next time I might try freezing the banana as it wasn't as cool as i'd like and maybe adding slightly more greens and almond milk but i'm totally sold on the idea of getting a fruit and veg hit like this!

I really wish I could afford to join the full Tone It Up programme and get all their recipes!

While i'm saving for that does anyone have any suggesting on what else goes well in a green smoothie?

That New Year post.....

2014-01-05T21:12:00.000Z

So here we are staring down the barrell of yet another new year.

Well if you cant wear Top Hat at new year when can you!

It seems appropriate that since I have been somewhat slacking on the blog front I should do a post to make all my best intentions clear on what the new year will hold.

2013 for a variety of reasons is not going to be remembered as a great year. Family drama, work stress, and a series of rather unfortunate events meant that there was little to smile about for most of the time. However thats where New Years comes along to reboot everything back to zero :-)

My year really kicked off on a positive note when myself and some of my favourite folk headed to Club Noir for the bells. It was nice to make an effort to get glammed up a little and spend the night sipping cocktails with a bit of class (says me that wore possibly the most low cut dress ever!) If you're not from round these parts Club noir is a Burlesque club night thats held sporadically throughout the year in Glasgow. Theres a few entertainment acts but its fun because everyone that goes really gets into the spirit of it. New Year had a glamourous theme so it was a little gatsby/moulin rouge/ 50s-ish. The whole event made a pleasant change from the usual sticking to the dancefloor trying to dodge random drunks kind of place I usually end up at for New Years.

So in that respect 2014 is already kicking 2013 in the ass.

As for resolutions, I could earnestly sit here and proclaim i'm going to go to the gym and blog every day while eating nothing but quinoa and kale. But lets be a little bit more realistic shall we....

My main thing this year is i'd like to plan more. It seems a simple enough step. Taking some time every week to plan out what's happening when. I've purchased a new planner for the job (any excuse to hit the stationary section!) and i've set a reminder in my phone to go off on a sunday night to remind my to fill the thing in.

I'm going to try and meal plan. This is huge for me as in the past while I seem end up spending every night after work strolling the aisles of ASDA aimlessly while blindly filling my basket with cake. These trips are not only a waste of my time, but inevitably I end up spending money on rubbish I don't need and well the cakes are hardly great on the old weight front. So saving money and eating better are covered in one fowl swoop there :-)

As for the saving money...I had been doing so well but it all went to pot over the festive period. Obviously the whole christmas present buying thing was very much an expected expense, but the amount of money I managed to spend on myself over November/December period has essentially wiped any progress I had made. Having said that i am very happy with my new things. I shall do a haul soon, but it was definitely a case of quality over quantity which i have to say was a bit of a nicer feeling than the quick hit of a Boots run.

Do you have any new year resolutions? or more importantly any tips for sticking to them?

Whats in my shower from actually in the shower!

2013-11-09T14:30:00.000Z

I love a good nosey in other peoples showers. Yes I'm a bit weird, but I'm ok with that.

Thankfully there seems to be more than just me in the shower stalking boat so I thought it would be fun to share what I have in my shower.

Because I was over excited about my new phone being water resistant I decided to actually take it into the shower but the running water didn't translate so well in the actual photos so here's a slightly weird pic of me looking a bit too pleased with myself while in the shower....

Anyway if you made it past that here is a quick run through of what I keep in my shower.

Top Shelf:

L'oreal EverRiche Shampoo and Conditioner: To be honest i only bought this because Estee from essiebutton said it smelt amazing, and she was right, it does. Probably wont repurchase though as I have about 200 other shampoo/conditioner combos to use up.

In the back there you will see my favourite shower gel ever which is the Soap and Glory Sugar Crush, I did a blog post about this scent, you can read that HERE

Also on this shelf I have a can of Rituals Yogi Flow shower foam. I love this if I'm showering before bed, the scent is so soothing. Like a big hug.

On the lower shelf :

My Soap and Glory Breakfast Scrub body exfoliant which I'm trying to use up before breaking open my Sugar Crush variant. I did a mini review of the Breakfast Scrub HERE

Cetaphil Gentle Skin Cleanser, I actually really rate this stuff, it doesn't irritate my temperamental skin but still actually makes it feel clean and doesn't cost the earth. (I do have an Emma Hardie cleansing Balm that I use for removing makeup, but that's kept by the sink)

And finally my Clarisonic Mia, I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with this, I think its wonderful for my skin but I'm so lazy I can never remember to put the thing on charge so its alost constantly out of power!

So that is what's in there. If you've done a post like this please feel free to leave a link below :-)

My perfect comfort food

2013-11-08T13:19:00.000Z

I don't know about you but when the weather turns chilly its not only my wardrobe that changes but also what I put on my plate. I mean who really wants to munch an ice cold salad while shivering on a November evening?

My favourite weapon of choice in the winter months is my beloved perfect fish finger sandwich. I have spent years concocting the right mix of ingredients and its perfect every time.

So if you'd like to try this my way you will need:

Fish Fingers
White Toastie Bread
Tomato Ketchup
Lea and Perrins Worcestershire Sauce
Salt
and
Lurpak slightly salted butter

It might seem a lot but these components really work well together.

Putting the sandwich together is pretty simple.

Cook the fish fingers, I do this in the oven

Butter one side of the bread and lay your fish fingers on top.

Sprinkle salt over them

Splash the Lea and Perrons over that and finish with a healthy swirl of the ketchup.

Pop the other slice of bread on the top and cut in half.

Hey presto, you have the perfect Fish Finger sandwich. I tend to like to wash mine done with some orange juice. Yum. (this sandwich also has magical healing powers for when you've had a few too many G&Ts ;-))

What's your favourite comfort food for this time of year?

Tea Time Bliss

2013-10-17T10:42:00.000+01:00

Since things have all been quite crazy lately I've been trying to make a bit of extra 'me time' when I can and there are 2 simple things that are always guaranteed to make me feel a little better...

A nice cup of tea and a couple of episodes of QI (or 1 big episode of QIXL, depends on what Dave is showing)

Every autumn I like to try out new teas until i find 'the one'. This year I did not have to search for long.

I'd heard a few people mention the peppermint and liquorice tea from Tea Pigs and thought it sounded a bit weird, but when my friend dragged me in to Holland and Barrett the other day I saw a box of the same flavour by the Pukka brand and thought, Acht I'll give it a go.

OMG I LOVE this stuff!! Don't get me wrong it does taste a bit odd but odd good. When you first drink it tastes like regular peppermint tea, but then it gives an out of nowhere sweet liquorice after hit. Gorgeous.

Even if you don't like liquorice I still suggest you give this a whirl as its very much a liquorice bark taste rather than a Liquorice All Sorts kind of taste. And for those of you wondering what I'm on about here is a pic of a twig that you can chew on that tastes sweet, yes really.

source: www.4ayurveda.com

I'd still really like to try the Tea Pigs version but I've never seen it in the shops around here, so I'll keep an eye out as if I go on their website I can only imagine the damage that would be done to my bank account :-)

What's your favourite tea?

Riding the river of life....

2013-10-15T12:19:00.000+01:00

Ever feel that everything always happens at once? and its all just a bit much?

Since coming back from my holiday i threw myself back into work and started to prepare myself for the onslaught of the Christmas rush. Then i was knocked sideways by a few unfortunate circumstances, we we're working short staffed at work, which these days is nothing new, during trying to hold everything together my boss trundled off on holiday leaving me to run the show, again not a problem in itself. Then my work threw a huge curve ball into the mix, right before Christmas they are going to be changing the commission structure for our monthly payments, essentially meaning if you miss even 1 target by 1% you get absolutely nothing, not a penny more than your basic wage. If this was to happen to me i would lose out to the tune of about 300 quid on any given month. My mortgage was worked out by my bank to include my commission as regular payment as, well, it's been a regular part of my income for the past 10 years!

Then in addition to work/money strife a close family friend died after being ill for some time. She was a fair age, and wasn't going to get better but these things are always come as shock. This lady was a big part of our life as i grew up, she was a good friend of my grandparents and latterly of my parents, she didnt have a family of her own so she would always come to us for big occasions like Christmas. I was upset when my Dad told me of her passing but i don't think it actually hit me what had happened until thenday of the funeral, I remember looking at a sign on the wall with a list of names for that days services at the cremitorium, her name looked so out of place, it was like it was one of the hideous dreams that i seem to keep having recently, but i couldn't wake up. The full impact of the culmination of all my troubles hit me that day. And I've been reeling since.

I went to work the day after the funeral, and it didn't go well, things that i usually find easy, or at worst 'enjoyably challenging' well just overwhelming to me, i even burst into tears in while on the sales floor, which was not very professional. I went home and tried to calm down, it didn't work. I went to work the next day and struggled my way through, but how i was feeling was clearly having an impact on my productivity. since my work is entirely sales based me not being able to concentrate properly could have catastrophic consequences, performing poorly, leads to performance management, if you don't show improvement, they can end up letting you go. 10 years of work down the drain.

The thought of this made me panic, and my mind went into overdrive, by the end of it i had myself living in a box under a bridge!. I know that's not really going to happen but i still am completely panicked especially about how i'll pay my bills if the worst happened. I let my boss know that i needed a little time off to get my mind sorted, and organised folk to cover my shifts, but work hasn't been very helpful, i never received a response from my boss about having this time off so now i'm worried that i'll be put down as absent without leave, even though i have a copy of the message i sent him.

The long and short of this post is that i can't seem to stop stressing. Its like my entire life is standing on a tightrope and i don't know if i'll make it to the other side.

All i know is that everything is going to change, i just don't know whether that change will be the most aweful or the best thing that ever happened to me. I'm hoping for the latter. Either way i wish things would hurry up so i can get on with my new life ASAP.

have any of you ever gone through a bit of a rough patch? how did things work out? Any tips for me?

Those Lazy Hazy Crazy Days.......

2013-09-28T21:35:00.001+01:00

Have you ever sat down to write a post and suddenly thought that nobody else is probably going to be that interested in what your about to say, but your going to post it anyway?

This is one of those moments for me. The thing is I went on and on about going on holiday for so long, I'd feel a bit odd if I didn't actually share the story of what happened when I was away.

This is going to be long, and I took a huge amount of pictures so it might be worthwhile going to get a nice cup of tea (or a wee cocktail) and find somewhere comfy to sit.....
It was Friday the 13th, it was 6.30am, and I was standing outside my house in the freezing cold but I was the happiest girl in the entire world. I was on my way to the first actual 'holiday' holiday in 5 years.

I'd endured my bikini wax, I'd managed to squeeze almost all the clothes in the world into my suitcase and I'd even managed to not sleep in for the taxi picking me up.

Its really was a case of planes, trains and automobiles that day, 4 hours on the train to Manchester, 3 and a bit hours on the plane to eastern Europe and another half hour on a bus to the hotel.

We went to the Hotel Helena Park in a place called Sunny Beach (yes really) in Bulgaria. We arrived after 11 at night but the hotel had left the dinner buffet open for us, with a champagne reception, as they realised we'd all been travelling for quite some time. But in true Scottish folk abroad style the minute they had secured our All Inclusive wristbands we headed straight for the bar, I mean it was only half an hour until last orders! We we're shocked at how crazy the bar was people really going for it on the dancefloor and free pouring of free drinks. We'd found Nirvana :-)

The grand plan for this trip had been decided months ago, lay next to the pool drinking cocktails all day and have a bit of a giggle at night but nothing too crazy, this was supposed to be a proper forget the world getaway.

The first full day there was all about finding out the lay of the land, or in our case the lay of the sun loungers and to work out which were the best cocktails for poolside sipping. It didn't quite got to plan. The pool at Helena Park is beautiful. Not huge but a big enough and surrounded by plenty of loungers. Being the newbies we thought we'd hit the jackpot by getting the ones closest to the pool bar. We were wrong. As the name of the hotel suggests there is some park features i.e BIG trees, we ended up in the shade for most of the day. As for the grand cocktail sipping plans...well lets just say sugary drinks are like crack to wasps. We soon learnt that snoozing next to the Jacuzzi bit of the pool and bottles of water would be the order for the rest of the week.

I'll not go to much blow by blow of the next couple of days because they mainly consisted of this.....

I took hundreds of pics that look exactly like this

Which was absolutely lovely.

Then it was my birthday.

I have said before that this blog is like a little diary for me so what happened this day wasn't exactly picture perfect but I'll talk about it anyway, my friends headed done early to get the good sun loungers sorted, i donned my most flattering bikini and filled up on pancakes from the breakfast buffet. But someone had forgot to inform mother nature of my plans, and it was cloudy ALL day :-( But not to be defeated I went for an afternoon nap and got geared up for my special birthday night out, the friends i was with had used some of their valuable baggage allowance to bring me a couple of presents to open. But i particularly loved the card and badge I got from one of them:

Star Trek and Gin. Whats not to love?

As we were making a night of it we asked the hotel if we could move to the earlier sitting for dinner, which was no problem. But then we arrived at our table and were a little confused that it'd been set up with flowers and a bottle of champagne. My friends new nothing so we went to check but it was definitely for us. the hotel wanted to give me a treat on my birthday, so sweet. And if that wasn't enough, after we'd munched our way through the dinner buffet the waiter brought out a little cake and, despite evidently not knowing much English he even attempted to sing me Happy Birthday, adorable.

After our lovely dinner, things went a little bit south. I was ready for a night out. my friends not so much. Now it could've been the 8 vodkas i'd had but I just walked off and had a bit of a sob next to the pool. Perhaps a little melodramatic, I know, but it was my birthday and I'd blooming well cry if i want to! Seems a bit silly looking back on it now.

Here is a lovely pic of the pool from that night:

But still you win some you lose some. I was determined not to let me get it me down, so the next night me and one of my friends went for a few drinks down at the beach bar, this wasn't included in the All Inclusiveness of the hotel but the drinks we're massive and during the (suspiciously long) happy 'hour' if you ordered 1 drink they automatically brought you 2. It was lovely.

On the way back to the hotel we also so a spectacular sight in the pool of the sister hotel (Helena Sands). the pool includes a large, dome structure at one end. Little did we know that for a short time every night it became a giant water feature:

One of the biggest things to to in sunny beach is to go for an evening out at Khans tent, a cabaret show in a big tent shaped building up on a hill above the resort. The show is really good and there is plenty of wine to make it that extra bit exciting ;-)

Here is a random selfie from the evening with the view from the hill. I have no idea why i'm green.

On the way home that night after a drunken stumble along the strip to get a cheeseburger we started chatting to a group of guys that were sat next to the pool. It was all a bit bizarre, they were mostly Ukrainian some were on holiday and some worked at the hotel. Its always fun chatting to people from other countries. They were a nice enough bunch, but sadly the hot guy from the animation team decided to disappear after a while but we kept the entertainment going for a while with me throwing my phone in the pool for the boys to go and fish out.

Speaking of my phone, it really was the ideal holiday companion, kept me connected to the interwebs through the hotel WIFI and completely safe to immerse in water, handy for really unflattering shots like this...

If your wondering its a Sony Xperia Z I use it to take all my pics. Best camera I've ever had.

Despite the sounds of it we did attempt sightseeing one day. We went to the local fishing village (read: tourist trap) Nessebar you could see it was a charming place with fishing boats, old church ruins and cobbled streets (and an amazing array of shops selling loads of holiday tat Ooo... I love holiday tat!)

Yes those are boob mugs and there
is holes so you can drink from the nipples
Classy!

As for the rest of the holiday it was all fairly tame. I got a hopeless holiday crush on one of the entertainers, my friends and I ate ridiculous amounts of food, drank a fair amount of gin, we snoozed a lot more in the sun, and I spent literally hours and hours trawling the Sunny Beach strip for the perfect Louis Vuitton Neverfull 'inspired' handbag that was never found (sigh!)

Overall despite some ups and downs I had a lovely week in the sun, I loved the Helena Park Hotel the rooms, the staff, the surroundings and the comfy sun loungers were all amazing. The Sunny Beach strip though struck me as a place that could be hideous in the middle of high season with its vast array of cheap drinks, loud bars, fish spas (random but they had LOADS) and slightly more seedy bars. Don't get me wrong if its an out all night sleep all day kind of thing your after I'm sure its just the thing, But we were there for relaxing and since it was the end of the season things were closing down so it worked for us.

I'd go back in a heart beat, speaking of which, if anyone happens to know Stefan please do pass on my number ;-)

Removal of the all inclusiveness, sad days :-(

If you've got to this point I commend your stamina. You are my new favourite, xxxxxxxxxxxx

Fat Girl smoooooth!

2013-08-17T00:09:00.000+01:00

Better late than never... its 4 weeks until i fly out to sunnier climbs!

So here is my update on my progress on project bikini.

This past week i was meant to be trying out Jillian Michaels 30 day shred and working through Paul McKennas' "i can make you thin"

I've had somewhat mixed success, I haven't really bothered much with I can make you thin. I just haven't had time. my plan had been to use it as bedtime reading and work in the hypnotherapy CD at that point as well. As with many best laid plans the real world got in the way. Work has been so stressful recently that i've been asleep the minute my head hits the pillow!

On the other hand i have managed to stick to the 30 day shred, which i am quite pleased about. I wish i had taken before pictures at the start as to my eye i can't see any difference, but i'm hoping its doing something. Its only been a week though so i'm hoping that it'll kick in soon. What i am finding difficult though is the fact that i don't seem to be getting any better at it, about half way through Jillian bangs on about how folk on day 5, 6, and 7 should be seeing a huge improvement from day one, i'm not one of those people, Level one is still killing me but i will persevere!

So my tasks for this week are less weight loss related and much more superficial (lol) If i cant be the most toned lean goddess on the beach i'm going to aim for the lovely curvy girl with skin as smooth as butter...

I'm putting myself on a strict programme of body brushing and moisturizing. Apparently the body brushing is going to be flushing toxins from my body to reduce the wibblyness of my cellulite (now there's an image for you!) and the moisturizing will give me a nice even glowing appearance to my, so pale i'm almost see through, skin.

You can follow my efforts on the 30 day shred on twitter (link in the side bar) and if you've got any words of encouragement/tips on staying motivated please leave a comment below or give me a wee tweet.

Fat Girl Slim: Keep Calm and Clutch at Straws

2013-08-09T14:23:00.001+01:00

Its the final countdown ( Dana na naaa dana na na naaa!)

The fear has finally set in.

There is a sun lounger in Bulgaria shouting my name and its get louder by the day.

In a little over a month I will be sat on a plane winging my way towards my first beach (read: only) holiday in 5 years and like most women who are no longer 22 I am dreading that moment where I have reveal my not so bikini ready body to the world.

So in a last ditch attempt to not be too self-conscious while i'm there i'm going to reinstate my rather quickly abandoned Fat Girl series.

For the next few Fridays i am dutifully going to check in on the weird and wonderful things i'm doing that week in aid of being a bit more beach goddess and a bit less beached whale.

This week is all hands to the deck as I am going to embark on two rather different ideas. One being the rather self explanatory, well known as being a bit mental and almost guaranteed to do something as long as I actually DO it. The other is a bit more erm..... out there.... well whats the harm if it works, amazing, if it doesn't at least i'm going to see results from the other thing.

So this week it's:

Jillian Michaels: 30 day shred

and

Paul Mckenna: I can make you thin

I have attempted the 30 day shred on a few occasions now, most recently i little over a month ago when I managed 8 days straight, and even felt ready to move on to level 2 of it, but i fell off the bandwagon when I had some friends stay for a few days, much eating out was had and much wine was drank...needless to say I haven't been back on it since. This will change today.

And as for the Paul Mckenna randomness, this is a book i bought a long time ago when i was on a bit of a 'hypnotherapy will cure the world!' kick. I'm somewhat skeptical about how listening to a CD will help but I've read the first few chapters of the book and there seems to be some simple ideas and tips on how to recognize if your actually hungry and how to recognize when your full. I have a really bad habit of shoving as much food as i can into my mouth as quickly as possible and then i'm stuffed for days, so the idea of putting my knife and fork down between mouthfuls so i can finish chewing what i'm eating is so far helping me realize when i'm full before i'm stuffed. We shall see how it goes.

If you've got any tips or ideas of things I can try (no crash diets though, thats never healthy!) please leave a comment below. And if you'd like to keep up to date with my spectacular achievement/failure in this task please have a click on one of the many ways to follow this blog in the side bar.

The long lost haul

2013-07-21T19:16:00.001+01:00

There once was a time where I said I was going to post a small haul. Finally here it is!

Since I picked these things up a while ago I can give mini reviews along the way for some of it :)

First off the boxes at the back.... ever since superdrug stopped making my beloved Deep Damson hair colour I've been on a search for a new one and playing with ombre randomly in between. I picked up Pure Plum and another of the L'oreal wild ombre kits that I have used before, you can read my thoughts on this HERE.

Incase I fancied making my ombre a little more colourful I picked up a couple of the Directions La Riche conditioning hair colours, one in Dark Tulip (random fact: this used to be my all over hair colour) and one in Violet at the moment I've just kept the ombre plain but you can see my Dark Tulip version HERE

It probably wouldn't be a haul to me with out some nails polish. I got one of the new Rimmel Kate nail polish line in Brit Blue which I only noticed when I got home is a 'tip colour' but I'm still just going to use it as an all over colour, I haven't tried it yet but in the bottle its a really pretty royal blue. I also picked up the 3 other Models own Iced Neon shades that i didn't have so now i have the complete set, yay! And with the gorgeous weather here in Glasgow recently they have been perfect.

Another thing that I've been getting into recently is statement lipstick so I picked up the classic Revlon 'Cherries in the snow' which is a lovely reddish pink along with the Rimmel Kate matte '111 Kiss of life' (since when have these had names?) Matte red lips are my new favourite thing ever.

So that was my little Superdrug haul from last month, I hope you enjoyed it. I always love seeing what other people are picking up.

Be sure to subscribe (its free!) to my posts through one of the links in the side bar.

I'm off to grab some of the last traces of sunshine, happy Sunday folks,x

Holiblogs

2013-06-28T14:12:00.003+01:00

Things may have been quite on the old blog front recently but so much has been going on its all been a bit of a blur.

After the highs of the wedding came some real lows for a few of my friends, its so heartbreaking to see people you care about going through tough times :-( All you can do is be there for them when they need you. So that's where I've been. I'm on holiday from work just now which has come along at exactly the right time.

Part of my mission of bringing a little light back to the world came in the form of going shopping, who doesn't love shopping? After the usual toddle around Boots, Superdrug (yes there will be a haul!) and numerous clothes shops we headed to the Lego store. It may sound a bit of a random choice but its amazing how much being confronted with those little bits of plastic can transport a fully grown woman back to being an excitable 3 year old!

My main reason for going was that I'd heard that you can make a miniature you in Lego. Its awesome.

My friend and I made ourselves and one of our other friends who we meeting up with later that day. The girly face/clothes options weren't very good but we made the best of it, so mine looks slightly deranged but I suppose that maybe makes it more believable...

Now the above photo pretty much sums up what happened for the rest of that day, beers, best mates, mobile phones and a whole heap of silliness. It all sounded like such a good idea at the time...

As I've been helping my friends out with there troubles recently they decided to pay back by 'helping' me out with a guy I like, facebook messenger is a dangerous place and I should know better than to leave my phone laying about unsupervised... Cant quite bring myself to read the entire conversation back but since it started with talk of a snorkel i don't think I can ever look this guy in the face again....but hey, at least he knows I like him! (I'll be expecting the restraining order any day now)

What have you guys been up to recently??

My Best Friends Wedding

2013-06-16T21:58:00.000+01:00

About a year and a half ago, my mate and i were sat in the pub having a quick after work drink.

Because of that quick drink, yesterday my mate married the love of her life!

Now this isn't a 'there eyes met across a crowded bar' senario. Their eyes actually had met over a crowded bus years before....

What happened at that drink that night was far more mundane..we were chatting about christmas lists.

Ok so your now probably wondering how that culminated in a wedding....

Every year my family and I write crazy lists for Santa with the understanding we wont get everything on the list but we will all end up with something we want but it'll still be a surprise to see whats actually there on Christmas morning. The idea is you put EVERYTHING you want on the list (you never know if you might be a Christmas lotto winner!) So we list houses, cars, holidays, and the more normal things like jigsaw puzzles, socks, novelty jumpers and everything else in between. It really works well.

My mate let on that her man had asked for a list of things she wanted for Christmas so i told her what we do, and after a bit of persuasion she decided to do it, with a big diamond ring right at the top. She also asked for a puppy, a house with a garden, and a nice giant hamper of Elemis stuff. She was nervous about giving him it.

She need not have worried.....he got her the skin care.

But, little known to me it had started a little thought floating around her head....

<<Fast forward a couple of months>>

Again me and my mate were sitting in the same bar having a quick after work drink when she suddenly worked out it was a leap year and so the beginnings of a plan were put in place. It was all a bit of a lovely half joke at first with her adamant that she would chicken out, but we began randomly googling wedding venues. A pocket watch was bought as 'the engagement ring' for the proposal but still it was touch and go. Even the night before, when i was painting her nails (while we were googling possible rings for her) she was still worried that he'd be horrified or she wouldn't find the words.

Needless to say she did, and he even immediately dropped to the floor and proposed back at her the instant he realized what was happening. Not bad for the non-marrying kind of chap he was.

There's something so special about seeing your best mates face light up as she walks down the aisle.

I was privileged to be a bridesmaid for her yesterday.

It was a beautiful day (even if it rained constantly) and they made a gorgeous couple.

I even got the blame of causing the whole day to happen from the Groom in his speech as apparently my dear friend had told him the whole Christmas list idea that had started her thinking.

If you have read some of my previous posts your probably familiar with my love for the whole 'you don't ask, you don't get' ethos. I can think of no better example of how simply asking for what you want (or encouraging someone to do so) can make dreams come true.

So, my dears, what are you putting of asking for?
How many dreams are you letting pass you by?
Let get asking today so we can live our dreams tomorrow,x

Friday Favourite #8 : Soap and Glory Sugar Crush

2013-06-07T21:04:00.000+01:00

Todays favourite was entirely caused buy my propensity to read blogs.

Numerous people had mentioned in passing that the scent of this line of products was incredible. I never really took any notice. Until one day when i was casually wandering through Boots (as you do) and spotted there was a 3 for 2 on just as i was looking for a new shower gel.

I actually picked up the body buttercream first as I wanted to smell the stuff before i committed to anything. one lung full of the gorgeousness that was contained in the tub and i was hooked. I got the shower gel and 2 of the body buttercreams.

Out of the citrus family lime is definitely my favourite, and when it comes to comforting smells cake batter is one that makes me happy. Thankfully this smells EXACTLY like lime cake batter!! Honestly if they were to make this into a fragrance i'd spray it on everything I own. (Dear soap and glory, If your reading this please please please bring out at least a body mist in this!!!)

But the thing about this stuff is that it more than just a pretty scent. The body wash lathers nicely and isnt drying and the body butter is ridiculously moisturizing, come to think of it this might be the reason I felt slightly un-moisturized by the Nivea body conditioner.......

Anyhoo have you smelt the wondorousness that is the sugar crush line yet?

Let me know in the comments below,x

Nivea in shower skin conditioner (1st impression)

2013-06-04T22:02:00.001+01:00

I'm blogging from my phone tonight so I hope this is going to work out ok!

Summer seems to have finally arrived in Glasgow and I'm hoping it'll stick around long enough for my day off tomorrow (*crosses all fingers and toes!*)

The only thing that bothers me about sunshine is that the excitement of digging out cute summer dresses turns to slight dispair at the thought of baring so much flesh to the outside world....

This year I've tried to be prepared by meticulously exfoliating and moisturizing and for the most part it's gone well. But standing around waiting for your moisturiser to sink in is dull to say the least!

Enter the new offering from Nivea......

The concept of moisturizing 'in shower' is nothing new, places like lush have been at this game for years but although the lush ones are great they can be expensive.

I got this GIANT bottle on offer at ASDA for the bargain price of £2.50. They also had a version for those with a drier skin but they only had that in the smaller bottle for the same price which seemed odd.

I've only used this once so far so this is by no means a comprehensive review but I shall continue using it and update if and when I create a fuller opinion.

So down to the nitty gritty.

Smell: it smells quite fresh, if your familiar with Nivea moisturiser it's smells quite like that. I find it quite soothing.

Application: The idea is you step away from the shower, smooth it on, give it a minute and rinse it off. This turned out to be slightly easier said than done. As I mentioned the bottle is HUGE which is great because you get loads of product but also not so great when you realise that you only have small hands, that are all ready wet and now covered in moisturiser. I just couldn't get the thing to stop sliding out my hand and onto the floor! In hindsight the smaller bottle may have been easier to deal with. This isn't necessarily a problem for everyone but may be something to consider.

After effects: my skin is certainly softer than if I skipped moisturizing all together but I'm not sure I'm quite moisturised enough. But I think oddly that might work out for what I'm planning (be sure to follow to find out what I mean)

Overall: I like the idea of this product and I think it could be great. I'll continue using this and see what the longer term effect is but I'm thinking I'll probably keep this at my folks for when I visit and I'll maybe get the smaller bottle for drier skin to see if that works out better.

Have you tried this yet?
Leave your thoughts in the comments below,x

Colours of The Rainbow Tag - Nail Polish Edition

2013-06-01T09:00:00.000+01:00

Hppy June everybody!! Here's where summer finally kicks off......hopefully!!

I've seen The Rainbow Tag bobbing around You Tube for a while now and thought it'd be interesting to do a version mentioning my favourite polish in each category.

This is going to be quite picture heavy so sit back, relax, and wait for that page to load.....

First up is RED:

My all time, cant beat it, actually almost cried when i realised it had fell over and leaked on my desk my desk as it was limited edition, shade of this particular colour is China Glaze Ruby Deer.

It is the colour of fresh blood (i'm not a vampire honest!) and it walks that fine line of being a creme-ish jelly consistency that is bright enough for people to comment on the colour but not so in your face that you look like an 80s receptionist. I LOVE it.

Next we have YELLOW:

The thing i have about yellow is that they look great in the bottle but just not so great with my pale pale skin. I only have a couple of yellows because of this but out of them i'd say my favourite is Rimmel Lemon Drop.

Its a lovely baby yellow, and it would look adorable on the right person but essentially i bought it because it scented. And I'm a sucker for a gimmick ;-)

Sticking on the brighter side of the rainbow we have ORANGE:

Step forward Models Own Beach Party. So bright i think it made my camera cry a little...

Its a GORGEOUS neon orange, guaranteed to brighten anyones day and it instantly makes me want to go on holiday. Yes really!

On to GREEN:

I've never been much of a lover of the colour green, but lately I've found that changing and i think it all started when i bought a bottle of Essie Mint Candy Apple.

The perennial beauty blogger favourite. Its pastel enough to make the green not scary to me, and its been a bit of a gateway 'green' i now have a bit of an obsession with the colour mint and it was only the other day i was sat on a lime green sofa wondering if i could make it work with the colour scheme in my living room....

And then there was INDIGO:

There really could only be one choice for me when it came to this colour, Barry M Indigo.

For some reason my camera had a bit of a freak out when it came to picturing this own but it really is the epitome of Indigo. I haven't worn this in the longest time and i'm so glad that this tag has reminded me of its existence <3

We're over half way now stick with me!

VIOLET:

This is where i put my had up and say I'm confused about the colour violet, is it just purple?....

Any who after a good long think i settled on OPI A Grape Fit.

The perfect purple creme. It really is what i like to call a 'Proper' nail polish colour. Goes with just about any skin tone, is easy to apply and is universally pleasant to look at. Whats not to love?

Next is BLUE:

I had initially wanted to pick some kind of bright blue for this, but when i saw this i knew it needed a mention. Angelica Skylar.

I know, I know, again with the pastel shade but look how pretty it is!! It was a total bargain from a stnad in primark and i didn't give it much hope but it applied perfectly and looked lovely and the blue isn't cornflowery like a lot of pale blues seem to be.

Back to something bright with PINK:

Barry M Shocking Pink.

Shocking by name. Shocking by nature. I wouldn't go as far to say it was neon by goodness it is bright. Its not the sort of colou i would once have ever dreamed of owning never mind actually liking but it has a cheery quality that i like, another of those colours that makes me want to board a plane to somewhere sunny!

And last but not least MULTICOLOURED

When it comes to my best multi coloured effort nothing can really beat Gosh Holographic Hero.

It just catches the light and makes rainbows all of its own. So pretty, I really must look out for some more Holo shades.

If yuo've got this far do leave a comment below letting me know what colours you'd pick for your rainbow and while your here why not join in the cottonbuddle madness, there loads of ways to over there in the side bar ---->

DIY Gel Polish Haul and NOTD

2013-05-28T18:00:00.000+01:00

For the back ground reading on why I ended up giving this a go see yesterdays post.

I did a bit of research and hit up Amazon!

The first thing i sourced was my UV lamp. After a bit of research I opted for the 36 watt with timer option, it was roughly about £17 + postage which i found to be reasonable enough.

It was the polishes I was worried about, Amazon does sell CND shellac polishes but at £15 quid a pop for something i might use once and then never again, I wasn't to sure....

While i was googling swatches of their colours though another brand kept popping up, Bluesky.

Now I'm a documented lover of a good dupe, and although i obviously bought a few, something makes me a little uneasy about these polishes. I mean its one thing to have similar colours to a high end brand but these have the same colours, the same bottles(different label) and even the same names for the colours. Its really pushing the line between 'dupe' and all out 'copy' but at around £6 a piece it's much more affordable for an at home enthusiast like myself. I'd be checking the bottles at any salons though.....

From Left to Right we have- Asphalt, Purple Purple, Hollywood, Tutti Frutti, Strawberry Smoothie, Moonlight and Roses, Silver VIP and the Base and Top coat. The colours of the bottles aren't really a good guide to the shades as, rather than the bottles being transparent, they have a similar colour overlay instead.

During my google swatch hunting travels i decided to try a nice layering effect I'd seen, Asphalt with a overcoat of Moonlight and Roses.

A quick YouTube tutorial watched, I was ready to get going.

1. I ran some Acetone over my bare nails to make sure my nails were perfectly clean.
2. 1 thin coat of basecoat cured under the lamp for 10 seconds.
3. 2 coats of asphalt, both cured under the lamp for 2 minutes each.
4. 1 coat of M&R again cured for 2 mins
5. A layer of top coat again cured for 2 minutes

Now i'm no expert so follow those instructions at your own risk but since doing this on Friday I've had people commenting on how nice my nails look, and I've not had any tip wear or even the slightest hint of a chip and my nails are horrific for chipping i can usually only manage about a day, if i'm not working, and sitting perfectly still!

The polishes are quite thick and can be a little troublesome but as long as your reasonably careful and do a clean up before you cure each layer it is fairly straight forward, if a little time consuming.

Have you ever given this a go? Any tips on technique or what colours to check out?

Leave a comment below or give me a tweet x

If you want a job done properly.....the story of a manicure.

2013-05-27T21:47:00.000+01:00

Get a cup of tea apparently i'm penning a novel on this one!

This story starts in a sad place. Well really it starts with me having a few to many while out to see a crazy gig last Friday night....and yes it did end up a bit like the Katy Perry song...i think ;-)

Needless to say i wasn't exactly feeling tickety boo the next morning but these things happen and i had a nail appointment to get to!

Once i'd managed to scrub most of the random band autographs off of my booby area (don't judge!) I headed off to my favourite Beauty place in town armed with a carton of coconut water but no umbrella, which was a little foolish considering it was tipping it down.

I'm not going to name the salon in this post as this is where things get a little messy, I've been to the salon on numerous occasions and its been great, I've never been for a nail treatment there before, i'll not be back for one again.

It was so odd, i sat down, and the girl seemed nice enough. I was in for a shellac and the first thing she asked was what colour i'd like, i mentioned a classic french, she said no.... that should've been my first warning. She asked if i minded having my cuticles done, i said it was fine, then she went to town-ish. I obviously wasn't on top form but i didn't fully realise what she'd done until after i was home, raggedy doesn't cover it and 2 of them had evidently been bleeding :-(

When it came to the application of the polish we'd got round to chatting about polishes, I mentioned my collection and she seemed genuinely amazed that someone would be that into polish. I know, I know, i should've ran at that point.

But for some reason i stayed.

What came out her mouth next was so shocking i believe my jaw may have hit the floor. She actually told me to just buy a lamp and get some polish to give it a go myself at home, she even explained how to remove it and how to paint over with normal polish if i fancied a change. Now this is something i'd considered to do eventually anyway but to be sat in a salon being told by someone i was paying for a service that i could do it myself really easily was bizarre to say the least.

But then again the paint job she did on my nails was truly awful. I once let my friends kid paint my nails when we were playing salon and even she did a better job.

Some nails the polish was flooding the cuticle area some had the polish starting so far up it looked like i had regrowth, it was so uneven and it was all set in place for my long term pleasure!. Had i not been so ill i would've noticed at the time and refused to pay.

I was enraged, so as like any full grown woman would, i took it out on some internet shopping....

Hello Mr UV lamp...

Hello my cheap dupe UV polish friends......

and

Hello manicure i'm not ashamed of....

I'll be back tommorrow with more details of what i got/ what i used but i thought some background on how i came to this point would be useful.

Also if you've been to a great salon in the Glasgow area please let me know in the comments section, i'll be on the hunt for a pedicure next and need some recommendations!

Haulage of ridiculous amounts of polish...

2013-04-18T18:53:00.001+01:00

This post was entirely brought about by the stars aligning.

For the past 2 weeks I've had access to a car to head to out of town shopping centers (well tha'ts more a happy by product of having the car) then I won a gift voucher at work and Sallys had a VAT free day and obviously Boots is having its glorious 3 for 2.

At this stage i would like to say that I realize I have issues, how many regular people NEED to by that my polishes in the space of 2 weeks? But hey-ho it happens!

On to what I got :-)

We'll start with the Polishes. Now I didn't get these all on one outing ( I don't know why people say that. It doesn't matter if it was the same day or not it doesn't really justify it, you still bought a crap tonne of stuff!) but there is a few to get through.

Left to Right (in all pics)

Models Own: Pink Punch and Toxic Apple- Neons just scream summer, I miss summer. I want them all from this collection!

and

Blueberry Muffin - supposed to be scented like muffins, Im not so sure, but definitely don't let people catch you sniffing your fingers, thats just odd!

China Glaze: Dandy Lyin' Around and Fancy Pants

These two are from the new Avant Garden Collection. so new that the girl was just putting the display out when i swooped both of these have a subtle shimmer. Pretty Pretty spring colours.

Sinful Colors: Kissy, Cinderella, and Pinky Glitter these are new in at Boots and a bargain at £1.99 each I've only ever tried 1 Sinful polish before but i was impressed.

Sally Hansen: Mermaids Tale - I've wanted this since one of the American YouTubers mentioned it (I think it was thebublegumprincess) and it is SO SO beautiful. Also it's apparently a dupe for Deborah Lippmans Across the Universe

Barry M: Lychee- This one was random, its been out of stock in every store i've been in so i picked it up because it must be something special, right?

Now we've made it through that little lot I also picked up...

One of the new shades in the Revlon Lip Butter Range, Juicy Watermelon. Another item that makes me want it to be summer right now! I've also spied Red Velvet in one of the branches near me, me wants!

And Last but certainly not least...

This cross body bag, i love it so much i want it in black as well its from Primark, its small but has plenty of room for all i carry and it cost only £2!!!!!

I may have to do an updated whats in my bag (be sure to subscribe!)

I'm so glad i won that voucher from work :-)

Have you hit the Boots 3 for 2?

Ramble: You don't ask, You don't get

2013-04-05T17:00:00.000+01:00

Don't you just hate it when life goes haywire and you find yourself stuck between a rock and a hard place?

Yup that's me right now.

The trouble with being stuck between that rock and a hard place is that eventually there comes the point where you have to make a choice. Kind of like that guy that had that accident while climbing, you can sit there and die or you can take a chance, chop your own arm off and maybe, just maybe, you'll make it out ok.

Now obviously i'm not in any immediate mortal danger nor am i suggesting that i'll be chopping of any body parts anytime soon but more and more i'm being drawn to the old saying 'you don't ask, you don't get'

As I've got a bit older I've become more of a laid back, go with the flow, if it aint broke why fix it? type of person but sometimes that doesn't get me very far. Opportunities slip past and chances aren't taken and more and more life seems a bit like its just passing me by. And i don't like it.

The other day i decided to make some changes, I strolled into work asked for a meeting with my boss and asked for a promotion. I didn't get it but the point is i asked and now my boss is aware of my wish to progress and has paired me up with someone further on at the company to mentor me to be in a position to get the promotion when it becomes available.

I asked and although i didn't get what i want immediately i am now in a much better position than just sitting hoping something would happen of its own accord.

Since this happened I've been seeing more and more opportunities popping up around me. Opportunities that have probably been there for a while but I've just not gone after. The most exciting thing about this is that i just pitched an idea that could give me the chance to do something I've wanted to do for a really really long time. If it works out it'll be incredible but if it doesn't work out? Well at least i tried.

As they say, You don't ask, you don't get!!! ;-)

What are the words you live by?

A Sunday Stroll (well, ok, i went shopping!)

2013-03-24T21:19:00.001Z

Some days you just need a simple trip up the shops with a good mate.

Today was that day.

If you follow me on TWITTER you'll know that i missed out on going to the opening of Farever 21 in Glasgow as my work decided to schedule a meeting for me on that day (which was also meant to be my day off!) So i had to bide my time until i could go.

If you follow me on INSTAGRAM you'll know today was that day.

Obviously I'm still on that whole not spending money unless its really really necessary kick. So i promise all these things were entirely necessary (cough cough)

My intention was to hit forever 21, renew my travel pass and go home , but my mate needed to find a dress and i felt the need to support her in this task, my debit card didn't thank me but i had a lovely day out.

Here are my purchases:

Forever 21:

First off i want to say i didn't expect this store to be quite as huge as it was! 3 floors of lovelyness, I'm a happy girl. I did my usual tactic of shopping somewhere new, grab a basket and pick up everything i like, then see what i really want at the end. Considering the amount of stuff i had in my basket this little lot is surprisingly restrained....

The shirt (£8.90) is from the lingerie section but i'd quite happily wear it out as a top with some leggings. We decided i had to have this because at any given moment of the day or night I'm always likely to randomly state that I need coffee. I picked up the Makeup bag (£5.65) in the queue at the till. I have a lot of small makeup bags but i need a big one for toiletries for my holiday and its cute and polka dot what more could a a girl ask for?

The accessory section, now i had trouble in here, so many cute things and what seemed like a totally random pricing system made choosing stuff quite difficult. I thought i'd stick to a couple of basics to test out the quality.

Both the bracelet and the ring set were £4.90 a piece, which was not bad in terms of high street jewelry but some things were a fair bit more, as i say we'll see how these go before i up my budget.

After we left there i should've gone home. These next items I take no responsibility for buying ;-)

Paperchase: This is located right next door to Forever21 and i LOVE random cute stuff. I debated not going in. I knew deep down what would happen, I went anyway.

They had loads of cute postcards. my lovely friends forced me to put all but one back (i'm eternally grateful for this) and there were so many other things that i wanted, the cuddly cloud toy, the strawberry shaped tupperware, the cardboard box rocket ship playhouse (yes really!) but again i was good....

I got this GIGANTIC cute mug, for the drinking of the coffee :-)

And my one postcard was this one, Zebra with an ice cream cone, awesome.

As i don't go that far up town often i wandered into Urban outfitters, and was quite merrily trying on all the hipster sunglasses when i heard my name called from the other side of the store. Apparently my face when i turned around was priceless....

A jumper with a dinosaur on the front (£22), its incredibly soft, not at all itchy and I do love a good dinosaur. I know it may sound slightly weird but as far as i'm concerned you can keep your mustaches, dinosaurs are the most amazing things ever and should immediately be printed on everything!

On that note i shall toddle off, as after the shopping we went to the pub and had some wine, so i'm off to pretend i'm a dinosaur and Raaaaarrrr loudly at my goldfish,x

Rimmel Precious Stones Diamond Dust

2013-03-17T16:53:00.000Z

Today i have a little polish review for you. First off i apologise for the gnarly looking lid on this polish, i had a bit of a hard time getting it open so i resorted to using my teeth, do not try that at home!

The Precious Stones collection has been out for a little while now but i'd kind of passed it over until i saw this polish on one of my friends. See the thing is i had been debating getting one of the OPI liquid sand collection but i wasn't overly enamored with any of the shades, i kind of liked the ones with the more noticeable glitter but nothing was pulling me in. Then, as i said, i saw this...

Diamond dust has a dark grey base, with a crap tonne of glitter of all sizes/colours packed into it and its all kinds of pretty.

I applied 2 coats of this in a quick fashion, i recommend the speed as this is one of those polishes that tend to get a bit gloopy in the bottle while your painting. But the finish? Oh my, hello prettier cheaper liquid sand! without topcoat this has the same matte effect as the OPI incarnations but i'm a scaredy cat and had to apply a quick coat of Sally Hansen Insta-dry. Having said that this polish is a bit of a top coat eater and after 1 coat you can still definitely see texture on the nail.

At the end of the day i think this has satisfied my liquid sand urge and at a much more purse friendly cost of £3.29 on promotion (usually £3.99) HERE i think i may have to spash out on the red version as well ;-)

Have you found any great dupes for liquid sand, or anything else recently?
Let me know in the comments below, and if your feeling friendly please do give one of my follow links a click,x

The Worlds Latest Birchbox UK February Review

2013-03-15T15:08:00.000Z

While many people are posting there 'what i got in my March birchbox overviews' I have finally got round to sampling all the products in my February one!

As i mentioned last month i'd rather do review than an overview on beauty boxes as personally i love to read about how people got on with actually using the products.

So here we go.

This is what the box looked like when i first pulled everything out.

The first thing that caught my eye was the Nick Chavez Plump 'N Thick

I'd received a hair volumiser in last months box which was quite nice and this one followed suit. I think the best thing about this is that it doesn't have a scent. I find a lot of hair products to be overly scented which gives me headache so it was nice change to have something scent free. And the product itself did the job, and didn't weigh down my fine hair.

Next up was the Gerda Spillmann Bio fond Foundation

i was excited to see a foundation sample in the box as i am constantly searching for the perfect base. I was a little troubled when i noticed on the side of the box it was shade 4 , i'm casper the ghost pale so im usually looking for the lowest number possible on these things. I'd filled in a beauty profile when i'd signed up for Birchbox so i was horrified to open it and see a dark tan colour! I thought i might attempt to make use of it as a bronzer but when i swiped across the product it seemed to lighten significantly. I'd still say its a few shades dark for me but if i pick up a bit of colour in the summer it might work out for me then,

Eboost Daily health boost

I'm not so much a fan of vitamin drinks, in my opinion they're pretty overpriced and don't do that much. As these sorts of drinks go it tasted ok, but i didn't suddenly have the urge to run a marathon or climb a mountain, so i wont be running out to buy more.

Korres Guava Shower Gel

I've tried a few Korres products before and found them a bit of a mixed bag. I do however like the shower Gels and this was no exception. To me it smells like holidays so after a quick test i've put it straight in my bag for my holiday later in the year. Its the perfect size for travel :-)

Vichy Eau Thermale

Again i only gave this a quick spray to try it as its now also popped in my bag for my holiday. What i like about this is that it has a nice fine mist spray that has a wide enough spray angle(?) to cover my big round in one go. It'll be lovely for when i'm laying next to the pool.

As an added extra there was a set of eyelash curlers in this months box. As curlers go they were fine and i'll probably use them but they are nothing special.

So all in all i found this to be a another decent box, i am a bit concerned about what this month might bring, as from overviews i've seen so far there seems to be 2 very different boxes doing the rounds. Hopefully mine will be waiting for me at work on monday so we shall see.

If you'd like to give Birchbox whirl this link will take you over to sign up:

http://birchbox.co.uk/?raf=9794

I am not associated with Birch box in any way other than when i hand over my pennies every month to get my box!

Friday Favourite #7 My bedroom (and a big old philosophical ramble)

2013-03-15T12:39:00.003Z

I mentioned in yesterdays post that i'd done a little bit of re-jigging in my flat.

I really love it all, it feels very me but the bit i'm loving most is definitely my bedroom.

You see I have a thing about the colour white, and before anyone says i know white is not really a colour. My entire place is painted white, i like it like that A: because it goes with everything B: because it makes my small flat feel airy and C: because i hate painting, this way if i fancy a change i can just change a few soft furnishings to get a completely different look.

My bedroom has always been a bit of an after thought on my home decorating crusade as well, its not really a room a parade of people get to see. So it was plain as could be, white walls, cream carpet, white bedding and dark wood furniture......boring.

But i can feel spring in the air! (though in Scotland at the moment spring seems to consist of rain and snow!)

And i wanted a fresh start, After all 'a change is as good as a holiday' and all that.

In my search for inspiration i was browsing the H&M website when i came across the cute Pink Flamingo Bedsheets and i instantly knew they were for me. The flamingos are quite the departure from plain white, but i find them fun and quite girly. They look exactly like something you might find in a Miami motel so i feel almost liek im on a nice summer holiday whenever i look at them.

The canvases on the wall are also new, well the canvases aren't, but the wording is. They may not look perfect but that's because i'm no artist.

If your wondering what they are all about it let me explain.

In the book Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy 42 is put forward as the answer to THE question of life universe and everything, no one is terribly sure what THE question is but hey ho! Its a bit of an odd idea but a long time ago i became a bit obsessed with it, i love the idea of the randomness of it and i think that is the answer to THE question: randomness.

Life-Random. Universe-Random. Everything -Random.

And that's why i wanted a constant reminder of that on my bedroom wall.

Offt I've gone all philosophical there....... but if you still with me, don't you think the flamingos are cute?

Does the change in seasons spur you on for a change?

Let me know in the comments,x

Not lost at all.....

2013-03-14T16:01:00.002Z

You may have been forgiven for thinking i'd disappeared from the face of the planet.

I didn't.

I've just had a very busy/frustrating couple of weeks.

This is what i did....(i'll leave out the frustrating bits)

Last week went by in a blur of fun-ness (yes that's a word!)

In between working like a maniac:

I took some time to reorganise my flat, there will be a little post on the best bit of this on Friday ;-) but i'm 1 picture frame away from feeling totally happy with the place. I've lived here 7 years so it's certainly been a long time coming!!

I went to a fashion show!

Glasgow School of Art has an amazing Fashion and Textile show every year that's run by the students to show off their wares. And this year I was an invited guest due to being involved with a charitable foundation that provides grants to some of the students. We got to sit in the front row which was a little cramped but the show itself was awesome, some very beautiful pieces were strutted down the catwalk along with some, er, more unusual designs. I really enjoyed being there. (Random Fact: When i started working i was firmly set on being in fashion in some way, i miss that now, follow your dreams kids!)

Also while i've been missing i had a couple of house guests, one of my dearest friends brought their boyfriend up to meet us Scottish lot for the first time. My friends can be a little much to take and i think we frightened him a bit but hopefully all will be forgiven by the time we go on holiday together in September...

We went to Khublai Khans which is legendary in Glasgow (and presumably Edinburgh as well). Its a Mongolian Barbecue restaurant and its one of those places where you can eat all sorts of unusual meat (not for the veggies really!) We had the feast option where you get a starter then you can go as many times as you want to the 'create your own' buffet and then a pudding. It was so much fun the boys all tried to out do each other with how much chilli they could down and everyone had a great time trying out all the different meats, my favourite is the springbok, but you can have just about anything, Kangaroo, Zebra, Ostrich etc and they had a big bowl of horse if anyone was missing having it in there frozen lasagne ;-)

Somehow we managed to spend 4 hours in there. I'm not sure how that happened but still we were well fed. then we headed out for a few drinks and a bit of dancing, one thing led to another and although many pictures were taken few are appropriate for public viewing....

Free lolly at the end of the night!

Me looking a hot mess, i presume this was an accidental selfie as i have no recollection of it being taken...

Needless to say it took a few days for me to recover.

Anyhoo, I'm back in action so hopefully i'll be able to get back to posting on a regular(ish) basis,x