flutter and sparkle

NOTD - China Glaze Eye Candy - Some like it haute black grey glitter

2012-02-09T16:00:00.005Z

So after I put up this post showing the polishes I got from the China Glaze eye candy collection, lots of people asked me to show the black polish next (Some like it haute). I like to keep you lot happy, so here it is =)

I got three polishes from the eye candy collection. Left to right they are 'Marry a millionaire', 'Material Girl' and 'Some like it haute'. I've reviewed Material girl already and Marry a millionaire is still to come.

So onto some like it haute - it's a glitter in a semi opaque grey polish, so you could wear it alone, but it would take three thick coats to get a proper opaque finish. I tried this, but what with it being a glitter polish, three coats left my nails feeling really thick with polish and as if I could easily take a chunk of with any little knocks or scrapes. So, I enlisted the help of my only black polish - Barry M 47

Some like it haute applied perfectly over the black base and in two thin coats, looked about the same as it had on its own with three thick ones, but this time it didn't feel super chunky, just normal. I love it when a plan comes together!

Now I'm sorry these pictures aren't the best - I've been going on about having a new camera, but these were actually taken before that with my iphone. What you can see if you kind of squint is that the polish has lots of fine silver glitter and then large pieces of holographic glitter, so they reflects lots of different colours in the light.

I actually wish I had time to go and swatch this again and take more photos! Really I think you need loads of daylight to capture this polish properly. To see some much clearer swatches have a look at this post by vampy varnish.

I bought these China Glaze polishes from this ebay seller and they were quite cheap - the shipping is also really reasonable if you're doing a little haul and I've ordered from them a few times. It generally works out at about £4 per polish which I think is really good, plus I find it difficult to find places to buy China Glaze in the UK. They sell Seche and OPI too so happy hauling!

My first January empties!

2012-02-07T16:00:00.000Z

My first 'empties' post as I actually remembered not to throw the bottles away! I'm terrible for failing to use products up fully. I get distracted by a new shiny product and start using it when I'm still half way through the one before. I decided in January to make a real effort to use things up, so I've accumulated quite a few empties...

Lee Stafford dry shampoo
I've not yet found a dry shampoo I like (that includes Batiste, which most bloggers swear by). None of the ones I've tried - including this one by Lee Stafford - leave my hair feeling anything like the same texture or look as when it's just washed.

Some make the hair look dull or grey and feel horribly thick with the product, this one just leaves my hair still looking greasy. Even spraying on about half a can and I still felt like my hair had that tell tale oily shine and stringiness. In some ways it's better than Batise as it doesn't give my hair a nasty texture and there is no colour, but I don't like to go around looking even remotely greasy, so I won't buy this again.

I'm an everyday hair washer (not by choice!) but there are days when I just don't have the time and need a good dry shampoo - I haven't found one that suits me yet, so please let me know of any you recommend.

Soap & Glory peaches and clean cleanser
This was quite a nice cleanser, but nothing special so I wouldn't rush out to buy it again. I would probably have liked it more if I hadn't started converting to Liz Earle at around the same time as getting this. It was nice and gentle whilst still getting my make-up off although it did struggle with eye liner sometimes. It has a peach fragrance which I found a little fake smelling and a bit off-putting sometimes.

Liz Earle cleanse and polish
Holy grail product right there. As soon as this ran out I cracked open the 200ml tube I had ready and waiting! (I reviewed this previously here.)

Aussie take the heat 3 minute miracle conditioner
This is a great conditioner and I have to confess to using it every day rather than just as a treatment, but I can't say I always left it on for the full 3 minutes. I'd buy this again, the only thing I don't like is the top down squeezy bottle as I find it hard to get the product out when it's coming towards the end.

Dove volume boost shampoo
I used Dove shampoos for most of last year and probably tried all of the different ones in their range! I was happy enough with this shampoo - I didn't notice it doing any volume boosting, but I didn't really expect it to as I have the flattest hair in the whole wide world. The shampoo didn't make my hair any greasier than normal, so I was pleased about that.

Dove nourishing oil care treatment conditioner
These have become my favourite conditioners and I've got through several tubes since discovering them last year. The squeezy tube is easy to use and I'm a sucker for the pretty two tone product that squidges out. My hair genuinely feels sleeker after using this conditioner, and even I have the patient to wait a minute, which is luckily all this conditioner needs. I'll be buying this again for sure. (you can read my review here)

Johnson's daily essentials eye make-up remover pads
I always buy these as they're what I like to use to take my eye make-up off. They're gentle and don't drag the skin, plus each pad is really 'juicy' - I hate it when you get remover pads that are too dry. The fact that these come in a tub with a screw top lid means they don't dry out over time either. I stock up on these when they're 3 for 2 in Boots. (This got a mention in my daily skincare favourites post.)

Olay regenerist 3 point super serum
I always find it had to pass comment on wrinkle treatment as I feel that nothing out there is going to make fine lines disappear, but hopefully there are products which reduce the speed at which new lines form. I've been happy with this serum as it's lasted me a really long time (several months using two pumps per day in the morning) and it doesn't cause me problems with applying moisturiser and make-up on top. Some other anti-ageing products I've tried clearly weren't designed for people who use foundation as when the products meet on the skin they curdle, but luckily this is not one of those. I wouldn't deliberately not buy this again, but as I have some Soap & Glory anti-ageing creams to try, and because Olay have brought out a newer 'best' serum, I won't need to get another bottle of this. (This was also in my daily skincare favourites post.)

Olay total effects touch of foundation moisturiser in medium
This has been my favourite moisturiser for at least a couple of years now. The best thing about this is how well it works as a base for make-up. As I mentioned above, I've encountered plenty of products which curdle on my face when I start to apply foundation, and I think the fact that this doesn't is the reason I keep re-buying it. This ran out at the beginning of January and I literally couldn;t afford to buy any more so I've been making do with some other random moisturisers I had lying around and I've really missed the Olay product, so I will re-buy it as soon as I can. (Guess what? This was also in my daily skincare favourites post!)

Garnier miracle skin perfector BB cream in medium
I didn't initially think much of this BB cream when I first got it last summer. BB creams in general are over-rated in my opinion and I don't have good enough skin to be skipping about without foundation on. However, I've recently been using this as a base / primer for make-up (so applying between moisturiser and foundation) and it's absolutely perfect for me. I think I really started reaching for this when the total effects product I mentioned above ran out - it's a totally different product, but works for me in the same way. I'll buy another one of these next time it's on offer. (Not actually review, but mentioned and swatched in this post)

So those were my January empties. No make-up products in there really - I am trying really hard to use up things I own rather than buying new, so maybe there will be some in my February empties (hopefully I'll remember to keep the packaging again!).

Guest post: How to wear the hottest colour of 2012

2012-02-06T09:00:00.000Z

Today I have a guest post for you from Saisha Potts who writes on behalf of www.cafelamoda.co.uk, the social fashion site. Visit Cafe La Moda to find all of 2012's beauty trends in one place.

How to wear 2012's hottest colour
There’s no compromise with 2012’s official hottest colour – and it is hot! Since colour specialists Pantone named Tangerine Tango the colour to watch for 2012, you’ve probably been wondering how to make the “spirited reddish orange” part of your look for this year. And since it’s been seen everywhere from the catwalks to the high street and the makeup aisle, you should have no trouble working a bit of zingy orange into your life.

Little Orange dress
Forget the LBD if you’re out on the town this spring – go for a little orange dress instead and be so on-trend it hurts. It’s a bold statement, but the great thing is that orange flatters almost any skin tone, so wear it with bags of confidence, and you can’t go wrong. With the colour nothing short of eye-catching, the lines of the dress can be really simple, or just a bit more cute – New Look have a fab lace detail cut-out back dress with a contrast detail belt (New Look, £29.99).

Accessories
If you’re not ready to go all-out with the orange vibe, why not start small with accessories? Whether it’s hats and gloves for out in the cold, a clutch bag for a night out, or even orange Oakleys, you can casually acknowledge the tango trend without going the whole nine yards. Better still, accessorise a whole outfit, starting with orange snake wedge courts (DorothyPerkins, £45) or, if you’re feeling a little more flush, Tory Burch flats RevaPatent orange leather ballet pumps (£82.50). Add the ASOSacross-the-body leather bag in two-tone orange (ASOS, £35), and a Betty Jackson orange ombre scarf (£14 at Debenhams)… and voila: tangerine dream!

Eyeshadow

Where’d you get those peepers? If you’ve got baby blues, then your eyes really are the place to make Tangerine Tango work for you – orange eyeshadow looks amazing with blue eyes! If you don’t believe me, try it for yourself. If you have blue eyes make them stand out with a dramatic, bright orange - NYX do an incredible bold single eyeshadow called hot orange – or for the brown-eyed girls out there, blend with coppers and browns for a softer, smokier look.

Lipstick
Yes, we used to think orange lippie looked tacky, but you’ve only got to look at the catwalk shows for spring 2012 to see that that’s just not true – so it’s time to pucker up and try it for yourself. The trick with orange is – the lighter your skin tone, the darker the shade you should go for. Don’t overdo it with the rest of your face if you’re going with tango-toned lips, though – just some cat-eye eyeliner should do it, or for a more out-doorsy look, team the orange lips with some layers of tone-matched blush, shaping the cheeks.

Nails
Of course, the easiest way to try out whether orange works for you is on your nails. Fun and flirty, you can’t go wrong with orange nails, so if you’re not ready to go all out orange, dip your toes (or fingers) in the trend with something like China Glaze’s Orange Marmalade – with a gold fleck shimmer for extra sparkle.

*sponsored post

Little updates

2012-02-05T10:18:00.000Z

How are we all on this cold and snowy morning? Is there a place in the UK that doesn't have snow? We only have a couple of inches here and hopefully it'll be gone before I have to get to work tomorrow. It's funny how much you can love snow as a kid and then hate it as an adult!

Here's a couple of pictures of the thin layer of snow in my garden and my little garden critters peeking out.

My teddy bear phone cover I got for Christmas got a bit old and tattered, so my phone is wearing the pink bunny ears again. I want to get some new fun covers - anyone got any suggestions or links?

The yummy cheesecake desserts I made when I had some friends over. You may have already seen these as I shared the recipe in this post.

Along with the rest of the world, I bought Elle magazine purely to get the free Soap & Glory mascara. I hated the magazine though, not my kind of thing at all :(

A knickerblockerglory my bf had when we went out for dinner with my brother and his girlfriend

I just wanted ice cream with chocolate sauce, but ended up with this millionaire's shortbread dessert which was really nice if not stuffed full of calories!

I got a surprise January Glossybox and then went on to swap some of the contents on facebook to get what I really wanted (such a fab idea!). Check that post out here.

I've been packing in the vitamins to keep colds away- I truly believe this works by the way! I take echinacea and vitamin C every day, but when I recently re-bought some vitamin C from Boots they seem to have changed the size of the tablets and now they're really big and hard to swallow. As I'm clearly a baby who can't handle the adult sized tablets, I bought these chewy ones instead and they are lush!

First Lindor (mini) bunny of Easter 2012

Have you tried the Malteser mini bunnies yet? Very dangerous, I could just sit and eat the whole bag by myself.

On a recent trip to Primark my friend and I discovered not only do they sell hair extensions, they now have wigs too! She was rather too willing to pose in this pink wig... I guess she forgot I'm a blogger haha!

A little sneak preview of my Primark haul which will be coming up this week. I bought far too many shoes - there was actually another pair missing from this picture as I'd already worn them!

I've been trying to learn how to work my new camera properly (rather than being lazy and using the auto settings). I also want to buy a pretty case for it to keep it from getting scratched. Anyone got any suggestions or links?

This week I've started using all of the products in this kit by Soap & Glory, so I'll get reviewing soon. It also means I finished up my old face products and a few other bits too, and as I remembered to save the packaging I can do my first 'empties' post.

Just to keep you in touch, I'm still rubbish at temple run.

The bf is bad news for my diet. He announced he had a £5 voucher for pizza hut (where you get a pizza and the salad bar for just £5) so off we went. I had one of their 'posh' pizzas called King of the Coast which had prawns, vegetables and Bechamel sauce. It was really nice but I did feel rather guilty after scoffing it.

I went on a little road trip this week with my two besties, to our nearest Tesco with a Vivo counter. Annoyingly I live on the doorstep of a massive-super-Tesco-whatever-they're-called-store but it doesn't stock Vivo - booo.

Sadly we were very disappointed as when we got to the Vivo stand, the cupboards were bare, literally. And what was there was mostly used (the non-testers) or broken. I spoke to someone in the store about it and asked if they had more stock out the back as we'd made a special trip, but I was met with a rather crappy response of "nah we haven't been getting any in".

I emailed Vivo to let them know as I think it's showing their brand in a really bad light - it's one thing Tesco running out of some stock, I understand that, but the stand was hardly worth having with the stock that was there and they weren't even keeping it clean and tidy and removing damaged stock. Hopefully Vivo will kick their asses so that I can go back and actually buy something!

Just for the record, I didn't visit the stand in the middle of Saturday afternoon mayhem or anything like that, it was a quiet Tuesday evening!

And finally, I braved it and lit one of my large Yankees. I'm such a terrible hoarder, I must have at least 10 of the large jars and tumblers around my house, but it's like I'm saving them for best or something, and when is 'best' anyway?!

Have a lovely week everyone. As usual, I'll leave you with some links. This week, it's my favourite blogs of the moment. Feel free to tell me yours, I love discovering new blogs and always like to have lots to gorge on in my google reader!

http://www.thesundaygirl.com/

http://www.lydiaelisemillen.com/

http://glimmerandglow.blogspot.com/

http://belles-boutique.blogspot.com/

Valentine's inspired pieces

2012-02-04T15:50:00.000Z

I'm not a huge sucker for Valentine's day. I do celebrate it with my boyfriend, but we certainly don't waste silly amounts of money booking trips to Paris, sending each other a dozen roses, or eating off a limited and clichéd set-menu in a packed out restaurant.

Hmmm, I sound like a bit of a Valentine's humbug don't I? I'm not really, and one of my favourite things about Valentine's day is all the romance inspired pieces in the shops. I don't just mean things covered in heart print, but generally you can find a lot of really girlie pieces in all shades right through from powder pink to deep scarlet.

I've had a little browse around some of my favourite online shopping haunts to see what clothes and accessories they're offering up for the day of lurrrrve....

1 Ballet Dress £42 2 Nail rock black and gold heart print nail wraps £6.50 3 Pink bow wedges £55

4 Rose playsuit £37 5 Pink peplum dress £42

1 Pink glitter peep toe heels £55 2 Love bracelet £4 3 Pink laser cut clutch £28 4 Pack of 9 stud earrings £10 5 Pink lips purse £8 6 Coral bow peep toe heels £85

1 Poppet platforms £55 2 Bird cross body bag £20 3 Shimmer twins red cluster lashes £15 4 Ted Baker heart cosmetics bag £22 5 Squiggle heart earrings £5 6 Angora heart jumper £35

1 Coral dress £28 2 Floral corsage £5 3 Coral wedges £40 4 Heart skinny belt £6

5 Heart print dressing gown £15

I hope you've seen something you like :)

This Valentine's day the bf has offered to cook me a romantic meal at home.... bless him, this could be interesting!

Have you got a hot date planned for Valentine's day?

How to get what you want in your monthly beauty box - January Glossybox review

2012-02-03T16:00:00.007Z

Last week, the postie knocked at my door with a lovely surprise - a hot pink Glossybox! I used to subscribe to Glossybox, but cancelled as the price went up and I wasn't really using the products I was getting. The novelty generally just wore off for me, and I didn't take up a subscription with any other beauty boxes.

Things have moved on since I cancelled my subscription with Glossybox - the biggest change probably being the introduction of themed boxes. I think this is a really good idea and makes the whole experience of getting a surprise box a bit more exciting again.

In my opinion, January's box is pretty good. There's a nice variety of products and nothing here that I absolutely would not or could not use. Not bad considering glossybox didn't have a list of my preferences to check against, what with this being a gifted box.

Lots of people got Clarins day and night creams in their box, and yes I would have liked to get those. I think if I was a current subscriber, based on my preferences I would have found those in my box - I would have put a big tick next to anti-ageing problems as I have a serious fear of wrinkles and truly believe that prevention is key in that area!

So my thoughts on the contents

Orly mini nail polish in Ruby
Who couldn't like this? Everyone needs a red polish and Orly's a brand that I know about but don't have much experience with.

Eyeko skinny eyeliner in plum
This is a full size product, so certain gives value for money where the price of the box is concerned. Unfortunately though it's one of those products that creates a divide when people receive different colours. I got plum, which in my opinion is the worst shade possible. I'd have been happier with the green I saw other had, even more satisfied with blank and delighted with the pale pink one for the waterline. I'm not sure why Glossybox don't play it safer and stick with colours that the majority of people would prefer - I guess some of this however is down to what the brand chooses to supply to them.

First Aid Beauty gentle body wash
Nothing wrong with this, and it'll get used up eventually, but I can't get excited about it. The product doesn't even have a colour or fragrance! Obviously someone with sensitive skin who might be allergic to fancier products would like this, but I'd take a guess that they wouldn't sign up to a beauty box as they'd risk getting products they couldn't use.

Murad skin perfecting primer
I was really pleased to see this in the box. I'm always on the look out for better bases for my foundation, so I'll enjoy trying this out. It is the dewy finish version, which wouldn't be the first choice for my skin type, but Glossybox didn't know that. I think some people had a matte finish version in their boxes, but I'm not 100% sure.

Weleda cleanser
Everyone uses cleanser, or a similar product to remove their make-up, so I think this is quite a sensible choice for the box. It's not a brand I know well or a cleanser I would ever have tried otherwise, and that's the point of beauty boxes really - discovering new things. One thing I did notice about this though, is that it's not the first time Weleda has appeared in Glossybox - I think it was my second Glossybox (June maybe?) that previously included a Weleda body oil. Perhaps this is a sign of things to come and we'll see other brands repeated in the boxes (or maybe his has already happened and I didn't notice?).

Anyway, it's time for me to address the title of this post - how to get what you want in your monthly beauty box.... Filling in the survey is one thing, but no beauty box company is ever going to be able to provide you with a 100% bespoke service to ensure every product in the box completely suits you. My best suggestion is if you don't get what you want in your box, swap it! I mentioned earlier that I would have preferred to get the Clarins moisturisers in my Glossybox - well now I have as I did a swap over on the facebook beauty box swaps page. I think it's a brilliant idea and it only took me a few minutes to find someone to swap with, so I'm a happy bunny.

I'm also interested in swapping my plum Eyeko liner for the pale pink one, but I think that one might be a bit harder as I'm trying to swap the worst colour choice for the best one. A bit like asking someone to give you a twenty quid for a ten pound note I guess, but it'll be fun trying anyway. I may even dig out some of my previous beauty box items that I've not gotten around to using yet and see what I can swap them for!

Have you swapped anything from your box?

NOTD - China Glaze Eye Candy - Material Girl pink glitter

2012-01-31T16:00:00.000Z

Today's NOTD is the first of my purchases from the China Glaze Eye Candy collection which was released before Christmas.

It's a chunky glitter in a beautiful rosy pink shade. The glitter is really packed in and in varying sizes, so you can get a full on blinged up look.

Here I've used two coats over a pale base colour polish, but I didn't really need the base colour at all. This is a full coverage glitter which actually doesn't really work as a top coat. I had tried to use it that way, but couldn't get a sparse enough coat of glitter!

I bought three of the six polishes in the eye candy collection and will be showing the other two soon. I bought these from this US ebay seller if you're interested, her shipping to the UK is very reasonable if you've buying several polishes at once - it works at at about £4 - £5 per polish. They also sell OPI and Seche Vite, as you can imagine, I've ordered from them several times already!

I love China Glaze polishes, I just wish they were easier to get hold of over here!

It's finally here! Samsung Mv800 multiview camera

2012-01-30T16:00:00.005Z

Just a quick post to show you a first look at my new camera! I'm so excited to start using this, no more crappy pictures on my blog! I shall put up another post with some more information and a review once I've been using the camera for a little while, but for now I just wanted to show you how pretty it is and share my excitement :)

The RRP for this camera is £249.99 - you can get it in black on Amazon for £169.70 but the white version is £204.49! I didn't want to spend that much extra for a colour difference, but I did really really love the white version. Luckily my boyfriend found an amazing deal where the white was being sold for £155.95 with free delivery, so I snapped it up fast! If you're interested in that deal, check it out here

Look forward to much better pics coming very soon!

Nom: simple cheesecake style dessert treats

2012-01-29T18:06:00.000Z

I made these easy but insanely yummy desserts when I had a couple of friends coming over in the week.

To make these faux strawberry cheesecakes you will need jam, greek yogurt, Philadelphia style soft cheese, ginger biscuits and strawberries.

First, crush your ginger biscuits. You'll need 2 or 3 per person. It doesn't all need to be crushed to dust, leave some chunks for texture.

Fill the bottom of dessert bowls or glasses like these with the crushed biscuits.

Next mix together around 250g greek yogurt (half the large tub) with half a tub of Philadelphia (125g) - this is enough to make 4 of the desserts. Add a little sweetener if you like.

Blob half of the mixture between the four glasses.

Then put 4 tablespoons of jam into a bowl and mix it around until it becomes runny.

Spoon half of the jam into each of the four glasses.

Then repeat with the remaining yogurt and cheese mixture and then finish with a layer of the leftover jam.

Finally, hull and quarter a small punnet of strawberries and share them between the glasses. Done!

So incredibly easy to make and they taste delicious. You can eat these immediately after making, but I think they taste best if you leave them for half an hour or so as the flavours blend and the biscuits soften slightly.

If you're interested, I also roughly worked out that these are around 8 weight watchers propoints. Quite a lot, but they do taste amazingly good :)

Boots NO7 Stay Perfect eye mousse review

2012-01-28T11:00:00.001Z

Blog posts have been a bit limited lately as January has been one long spending ban following the huge expenses of Christmas (although pay day is now here woo!). But, as I got one of the £5 off NO7 vouchers in Boots when buying some essentials, I decided I could afford a few quid to get a nice new bargain product.

I decided on these Stay Perfect eye colour mousses and ended up getting two as I got a second £5 off voucher. These are usually £9 so I was able to snap them up for £4 each! The tubes are only little and contain 5g of product, but you don't need to use a lot so they will probably last a long time.

I'm noticing a very obvious trend with the colours I always seem to be drawn to these days - nude and taupe colours. A little boring maybe but they're my faves and I know they suit me as I have brown hair and eyes. The colours I picked up are called Pewter and Vanilla.

I have to point out that these come with a little seal. I always like it when you can tell the product you've picked up is brand new and hasn't been molested in the shop!

So here we have some swatches.... in daylight! Vanilla on the left and Pewter on the right.

Here's vanilla again. It's a lovely pale pinky cream colour, a perfect eye colour for a quick and simple all over wash of colour and also as a base for building upon. The only thing I didn't like so much about this was the texture. I found it a bit powdery / lumpy whereas the Pewter colour is much smoother. It means this isn't as easy to apply as I was expecting - I needed to really blend the product on my hand and then apply with a brush.

I thought this colour would double-up as a hi-lighter but I think that's out of the question because of the slightly strange texture.

And here's Pewter. I've been wearing this one a lot already. As I mentioned, it's got a different texture from the Vanilla colour and goes on really smoothly. It's also a colour that's easy to build so it's quite versatile depending on whether you want a subtle or bolder colour effect.

I'd never tried these eye mousses before, so I'm really pleased that I picked them up on this deal. I would probably try another colour if it had the smooth texture of the pewter one rather than the slightly strange texture of Vanilla.

These colours are ones I'll get loads of use out of, and I'll remember I have them in my collection as the packaging matches the colour of the product which is a nice touch!

Did you buy something with the £5 off vouchers?

China Glaze Heli-yum and OPI Planks a lot NOTD

2012-01-25T19:30:00.000Z

I bought a lot of nail polishes towards the end of last year, and got a lot for Christmas too, so there's still lots I've not yet tried out. To catch up, I employed the ever popular accent nail technique to allow me to try out two polishes at once.

Here we have OPI Planks a lot from last year's Pirates of the Caribbean collection accented with China Glaze Heli-yum from Up up and away. I think they're rather beaut together.

China Glaze and OPI are my favourite brands right now, I love the new colours they keep bringing out in their collections and am even going back and scouting out the best of collections I missed in the past.

Planks a lot is a murky grey purple and I'm really pleased I bought this after umming and errring for ages about getting something from the Pirates collection. Helli-yum is a lovely deep and bright raspberry shade which I'm also pleased to have bought. I actually love the whole of the Up up and away collection and may make it a mission to slowly acquire the lot :)

These are both lovely creme formulas so they go on really nicely and it's easy to achieve opaque coverage - the best kind of polish in my opinion. Jelly type formulas are not my friend as I hate it when you can see the nail line through the polish.

I took these photos a day or so after painting my nails so that's why you can see some tip wear. It's no reflection on the quality of the polishes though I use base and top coat and still with any polish brand I have wear or chips on the second day. I think it's because I do so much furious typing!

Do you still crave polishes from old collections you missed?

Little updates

2012-01-21T11:58:00.000Z

So first things first, yes this is still flutter and sparkle, but the purple glitter is gone! *sob* I know I said many times that I would never have a 'white background' blog, and I did like the unique look of my old design (below) but as I've shared my blog with more of my real life friends and have seen it on their laptops, I came to realise that it wasn't displaying correctly in some browsers. My friend who has a brand new laptop with all the up to date software and everything, was seeing the background of my posts as a medium grey instead of transparent white with the purple glitter behind it :(

So, it inspired me to go for something completely different. It's taking me a lot of getting used to, but I think it's quite fresh and pretty and hopefully it's going to display nicely for everyone. Please let me know in the comments if it doesn't look like the picture below in your browser!

If your blog is wearing my blog's badge (let me know by the way and I can wear yours too if you have one) I'd love it if you updated to the new one matching the redesign when you have time. It's in the left sidebar.

My lovely blogging friend Charli (check out her fabulous blog here) helped me out in the middle of the night when I just couldn't get the little social media icons to display correctly, so huge thanks to her for saving my sanity!

Onto a round up of my week - I've finally seen Clueless! Can you believe I made in this far through life without seeing it? It was made in 1995 but was still so funny and enjoyable to watch and Paul Rudd was soooo cute! Rolling with the homies...!

The cake we ate whilst watching Clueless - all made in an hour after I got home from work - rather impressed with myself :)

Another amazing film I saw this week is Bridesmaids. I'd been wanting to see it for ages. It was a bit of a slow starter, but once you get into it it's absolutely hilarious, laugh out loud funny stuff. All of the characters are brilliant and I loved the little love story featuring the guy from IT crowd, so sweet!

We were supposed to be watching Clueless that night and doing nail art, but we ended up chatting, watching Bridesmaids and ordering some yummy Domino's pizza online. We had the bbq one and the Spanish sizzler (I think that's what it's called) and both were nomilicious.

Not forgetting the amazing Marks and Spencers Kir Royale to wash it down - I love that stuff so much. Oh and Shloer for the reproducer.

Me and the bestie met up with a friend we'd not seen since before Christmas and exchanged presents. Obviously these glasses are still totes appropes in January.

And we had indoor sparklers. Love them despite yelping every time a spark landed on my skin.

Pub lunch with the bf in O'Neills. It looks like I just had a bowl of melted cheese! It was actually a really nice chicken and mushroom hot pot type thing with mash, but it was covered in a lot of cheese, yum!

And finally more food - clearly that's all I've been instagramming this week - my fave ever curry, lamb rogan josh. I made this the day before starting weight watchers again as a farewell to the good times :(

Oooh I mustn't forget to tell you of my GHD trauma! On Tuesday, my GHDs broke. I switched them on and they just made a constant beeping noise and wouldn't heat up. I went to work with naff hair scruffed up in a ponytail and moaned all day about having to fork out for a new pair. I was given various tips such as phoning GHD to see if they were under warranty or to ask if I could pay to have them fixed, and someone also suggested I try changing the plug.

When I got home, I demanded that the boyfriend should know how to change a plug, being a boy and all, and got him to take a look. I also knew that there's a European two pronged plug inside the regular UK plug on GHDs, so I also thought about plugging that into my travel adaptor to see what happened. The bf was worried about fiddling with the GHDs and making the sitch worse (I was already majorly stressing at the thought of needing to find £100 for a new pair of GHDs - it's January you know!) so he asked me to see if I had the box and instructions, which I did.

I opened up the little leaflet, and my exact problem was described on the page as a "warbling sound" and the straighteners not heating up. So does this mean my GHDs have died? Errr, no, it means that the temperature is below their minimum operating requirement of 8 degrees. Yep that's right, my house was too cold to use hair straighteners! Madness! We warmed the GHDs up with the hair dryer for a bit as a test, turned them on and hey presto, good as new. The following day my bedroom wasn't resembling the inside of my fridge quite so much, and straight hair was within reach once again :) I thought I'd share in case anyone else has the same issue and runs out to buy new straighteners unnecessarily.

So that was my week. I've been very bad with posting this past week, I've been out a few nights and spent a while on the blog redesign. Also I'm putting off a few beauty related posts as I know my new camera is on the way and I'll be able to take much better photos, woohoooo!

I shall leave you all to enjoy your Saturdays with a few fabulous blogs to check out. I found all of these via the #bbloggers hash tag on twitter last Sunday, and I really recommend you peek at them all, they're true beauts waiting to be discovered <3

I can't wait to haul the Primark Spring 2012 collection!

2012-01-17T16:00:00.008Z

You all know I love a Primark haul, but right now I'm still on the long road to January pay day (I've only stumbled once or twice along the way, honest!) so no hauling for me :( To be honest though, now I've seen the beauties that are due to drop soon from their Spring collection, I'd rather wait than spend my money on the Winter dregs.

I've just browsed 150 odd pages of the new collection, and these are the pieces that stood out for me. I honestly wouldn't have guessed some of these were Primark if I hadn't known, so that tells you I'm impressed!

I'm undecided on a few of the pairs of shoes as to where they fall between cute and tacky. Need to see them in person I think. I'm hoping the gold and leopard wedges will live up to my expectation when I track them down in store as I'm a little bit in love with them already.

The dotty and colour block dresses are also my faves and shapes that I can see working on me. Oh and not forgetting the navy and camel jacket - that's my actual favourite, perfect shape and colours for me. I hope it's not made of a really cheap looking / feeling material. I also really like the belted peter pan collar top. I don't usually get on very well with high necks as I can look a bit 'one-boob' but I think the belted waist will balance this out.... we shall find out in the changing rooms.

Have you seen any of this stock arriving in your local Primark yet? I shall be out stalking it from pay day onwards :)

Quick, Bobbi Brown pot rouge is on buyapowa for £13!

2012-01-16T18:04:00.002Z

The title says it all really! I'm one of the people who requested for this product to be on Buyapowa and I did so after falling in love with it because of a review on www.thesundaygirl.com - the actual post is here.

Anyway back to the offer - Bobbi Brown pot rouge is a dual use lip and cheek product and the colour powder pink looks right up my street.

If you haven't used buyapowa before it's really easy and you don't even need to sign up - you can log in with facebook if you like. Hop on over to buyapowa to check out the deal and snap up a product worth £18 for just £13.

I've got mine - even though I'm not supposed to be spending in January I couldn't miss out on this!

This is my first time posting from my phone so fingers crossed it works!

Why I got naked... again...

2012-01-13T20:06:00.001Z

Loving the post title for the lols (or rolf-lols as I like to call them)

I got sucked in by the hype and found myself ordering a Naked 2 palette. Nothing unusual there, lots of people did it.... BUT - I didn't like Naked 1! I couldn't get on with it, and I ended up selling it on a blog sale. So, I had to ask myself, what made me think I should spend £36 on Naked 2? I really wasn't sure, it just looked nicer and I wanted it.

When the palette arrived this week and I saw the colours in person I was pretty pleased with the first impressions. The colours looked good in real life and seemed much more 'me' than the original Naked palette.

I've worn colours from the Naked 2 palette for the last two days and have already found firm favourites (Foxy, Bootycall, Tease, Verve) and great combinations. I tried to find the same with the Naked original palette numerous times (I really wanted to like it!) but it just wasn't me. Most of the colours were just too heavy or glitzy for me (I think I'm a bit of an eye shadow bore!).

In trying to understand how one version of the palette could be so wrong for me, but the new version, looking as similar as it does, could be so much better, I read Adrienne's comparison post where she talks about the differences between the two palettes. If you own or have owned the original Naked palette and are unsure about whether or not you should indulge in Naked 2, I highly recommend you read Adrienne's review, because when I did, all became clear to me about why I like one but not the other...

As Adrienne explains, the new palette has generally cooler shades whereas the original is warm. I'm not very good and spotting the subtlety of warm and cool when looking at make up, I tend to buy what I like the look of, or I know what won't suit me without knowing the reason why! There's probably a youtube video somewhere I can watch to teach me about this and other things I'm fairly ignorant to, like shade undertones!

Also, as Adrienne points out, the new palette is less pigmented (usually not a good thing!) and has more subtle shades including more matte shades and ones with less glitz. Again, these suit the eye shadow bore much better than the full on shades of Naked 1 such as Buck, Smog, Darkhorse, Toasted, Hustle, Creep, Gunmetal.... you can tell I only got on with about three shades in the original palette!

So it all depends on what colours and finishes you like and what suits you. I think the palettes are actually very very different, despite a lot of people saying they're too similar. Clearly I'm all mabout the more subtle and cooler colours. I'm not particularly brave when it comes to eye shadow, and I'm not very confident applying dark and bold shades (which the original palette is full of) so I now understand why I didn't get on with it (and can get on with the rest of my life!).

I'm not reviewing the palette or swatching it as about 5,986,871* bloggers have already done that (*possibly not a true story). I just really wanted to draw your attention to Adrienne's post as I think it's fab and it set some demons to rest in my mind - ie the one who was telling me I should never have sold my original Naked palette and needed to buy it again....

So tell me, did you get Naked?! ;)

Estée Lauder Double Wear foundation review

2012-01-12T16:00:00.003Z

Estée Lauder Double Wear has been on my wish list for just about as long as I've had a wish list. I was always on a mission to find a lasting foundation. Recently, I've had better luck as I think my skin is changing and I've found some brands / formulations that suit me well, but Double Wear still left me curious.

I finally decided to take the plunge when I saw Double Wear discounted at an outlet shopping centre. It usually costs around £26, but I was able to get it for £18.

As it was an outlet shop, they didn't have the full range of colours, but I was able to find one which seemed like a good match. I think I'm pretty good at matching myself for foundation, although those orange girls never seem to realise they're orange, so maybe I'm in denial?!

I bought shade 4C1 outdoor beige. It's not a discontinued colour (just seen it's available on Debenhams here) so I'm not sure why it was discounted.

It seems quite dark in the bottle, but disappears nicely on my skin. I have got skin that borders on being slightly olive, so I always go for the medium beige type shades in foundation. I've never been matched by MAC so I can't tell you what I am in their shade range.

So what do I think of the foundation I've been wanting for so long? They say never meet your heroes, so I was prepared for possible disappointment. Luckily there was no need, I think it completely lives up to the hype. It truly does last all day and I think it makes my skin look great.

The formula is really runny, and it's just in a pour top bottle, so it has taken me a while to get the hang of getting the right amount of product out without wasting any. I've applied it with a flat top kabuki and just my fingers and it applied well both ways.

The only slight downside I noticed was that it can be a little drying. For me this is only in small areas as I have combination skin, so if I moisturise a little extra I'm fine, but for those with really dry skins this could be a problem.

Here's a rubbish snap of me wearing the foundation. Really can't wait to get my new camera and for there to be daylight!

I'd heard some people say that this foundation is too heavy, especially for younger skins (ie under 40 I guess) but it wasn't anywhere near as heavy as I was expecting. I was worried it would be like wearing a mask! To me, it's like a normal full coverage foundation that applies easily and lasts exceptionally well.

I'm really glad I bought this and I'm pretty sure I'll re-buy when it runs out. Although, this Double Wear Maximum has now caught my greedy little shopping eye too... decisions decisions!

Do you crave a long lasting foundation or have you already found what works for you?

My wants from the H&M Spring catalogue

2012-01-10T16:00:00.000Z

I'm on a pretty much 100% shopping ban between now and pay day, as I managed to spend all of January's money on Christmas presents, Christmas nights out and the Sales (although I honestly got hardly anything in the sales!) so for now, I window shop.

H&M's Spring catalogue popped through the door last week, and there were quite a few things that caught my eye. I was really impressed with some of the stuff, although not all of it would suit my figure. This is the list of things I will consider buying once the bank balance is back in the black :)

Ballet flats £14.99

A-line dress £14.99

Wrap dress £14.99

Fitted pencil dress £24.99

Blue casual blazer £34.99

Peplum top £12.99

Colour pop shoes £24.99

Sunglasses £4.99

I probably wouldn't actually buy the bright blue shoes, but they're cheering me up on this grey January day! I'm all over anything with a peplum for it's tum-skimming magic and I absolutely love the green pencil dress. The sunglasses look very similar to some ones which I bought in H&M last year and wore to death. Unfortunately they met a sad end when they got into a fight with my keys and came away with severe battle scars on the lenses, so I'm happy I can get some more, I love the shape.

Seen anything you like? I'm now off to window shop the new Next catalogue!

There's no such thing as a bad Christmas gift - DIY earring holder

2012-01-09T16:00:00.000Z

At Christmas, you're always likely to get a gift that you might not instantly like. I like to show gratitude for all of the presents I'm given as someone has put thought and effort into it and they've spent their money on me, even if the present is something I never would have picked out for myself.

I think it's a real waste if a present just gets shoved to the back of a junk drawer or slung in a boot fair sack, but usually it's not appropriate to tell someone you don't like their present or to ask for the receipt! Even if you know them really well, they're likely to be upset that you didn't like the present. My Mum has a habit of asking to exchange presents I get for her, and I do find it really insulting!

So where possible, I try to think of a way to make the present work for me or get some use out of it rather than leaving it unloved and gathering dust. This year, one of the presents I got which I probably wouldn't use as intended, was this pink butterfly shaped chocolate mould. At first I thought it was an ice cube tray, but the holes are smaller than you would normally have for ice cubes. I'm unlikely to get around to making butterfly shaped chocolate, but I could see much more potential...

The size and shape of the tray and the holes makes it perfect as an earring holder and organiser! I often don't wear earrings every day because I have trouble finding the pair I'm looking for or two earrings that match, so this gave me motivation to sort most of my earrings out too. I was able to get more than one pair of earrings in each butterfly hole for smaller earrings, and some of the larger ones took up a whole space.

I'm so happy with how this turned out, I'd be interested in getting another one. It's actually a really great Christmas present!

Did you get any odd Christmas presents that you didn't really like and have you found any alternative uses for them?

Little updates - the end of 2011

2012-01-08T10:30:00.000Z

As I'm now addicted to Instagram my little updates posts are easy as I always have photos of everything to hand. This is a collection of Christmas and New Year goings on.

Christmas fancy dress fun with a sparkly snowflake, rudeboy Santa, light up Christmas tree and a pregnant elf!

Standard Christmas / drunken shenanigans including twiglet teeth, a 'snow' machine, and harassing Santa

Festive nails and leggings, a new puppy (not mine!), and me in my Christmas pjs

Christmas prep

The food marathon on the big day and a few presents

Fun times with my school friends - top left is goat feeding apparently

Continuing the food marathon at New Year, tidying to incorporate some of my presents and wearing the coat I bought in the sales

Christmas and New Year seems like ages ago now that I've been back at work for four days. I don't think I've got the January blues though (despite pay day being a glimmer in the far distance), I'm excited for things that are happening this year and having a little fresh start of sorts.

I haven't really made any new year's resolutions because I usually forget what they are pretty quickly and never achieve them! Saying that though, I will be going back to Weight Watchers (after a little 7 week holiday!) on Monday...

Leave me a comment if you're also on instagram so I can follow you. I check it far too may times a day and always need new pictures in my timeline :)

Jack Wills lipstick and nail polish review

2012-01-07T10:30:00.001Z

Okay I'll admit it now, I bought these because of the brand name / packaging. It wouldn't be the first time I've been sucked in by hype and pretty things, but, I've actually been pleasantly surprised by the products behind the logo.

I saw these products when I had a look around the Jack Wills store in Bath. I was immediately drawn the lipsticks because of the lovely iconic stripes. The colour range wasn't huge, but a bright pink caught my eye and as I haven't got a really bright pink in my collection I persuaded myself that a purchase was needed. When I got to the counter I spotted there were also nail polishes, so naturally I had to snap one of those up too.

This is the lipstick in the shade 'hot pink'. The lipstick is really great quality. It's not an overly creamy lipstick, but it applies smoothly, the colour is strong and it lasts well. These are £9.50 each. I also quite licked the coral shade, but I couldn't really justify yet another coral lip product!

The nail polish I picked up is a really pale and cool hued nude shade and I chose it because it's not like anything else in my collection. The colour is called 'Blush' and this was £6. For such a pale coloured polish I was really impressed with the opacity - I was expecting to need three coats and to still be able to see my nail line, but I only needed two. This is a great polish for layering under glitters, which I've done a few times already as well as wearing it on its own. On the right of the picture below it's paired with OPI rainbow connection.

I can't say this is a make-up brand I'll keep going back to and buying from, unless they really extend their colour range. But, I am really happy with these two purchases. Although I was hooked by the brand and the packaging, I've ended up with two good quality products in fab colours which I will definitely use.

As far as I know you can get the make-up range in all Jack Wills stores or online (link).

Paul & Joe eyebrow pencil review

2012-01-06T11:00:00.003Z

When I went to the Paul & Joe event before Christmas to see their new make-up collections, I also had the pleasure of being shown how to fill my brows properly.

The lovely make-up artist for Paul & Joe (Craig) showed Natalie from Blush Blend Beauty some tips for filling brows and he used my hairy little caterpillars as his canvas. I'd never rally looked into getting an eyebrow pencil before - I'd only used brow gel type products and occasionally a brow powder from a kit I have, but I really liked the result Craig achieved on my brows, so another item was added to the wish list!

I actually think in my blind haste I've bought a different Paul & Joe pencil from the one Craig used on me, as I'm sure the one he used was double-ended, but this was the one I could find online at the time (link) or (link). Having looked again now I've found the double-ended one (link), duh on me.

Despite probably having bought the wrong pencil from the one I was looking for, I'm really pleased with this product. It's really easy to use and you don't get a harsh dark line that's going to make your eyebrows look really fake and drawn on. It just fills in the little gaps that nature's left me, and that's what I wanted it to do.

I got shade 02 which Craig said suits most people and it's a really good match for my brows.

On the left is the brows Craig did for me and on the right are my attempts with my new purchase. Sorry for the terrible phone quality / no daylight pics as usual. I've decided on the new camera I want to buy and it's only (ha!) 21 more days until January pay day!

I'm really happy with this product and actually I'm not too annoyed that I didn't buy the double-ended pencil as that would have needed sharpening - the twist up version suits my lazy tendencies much better :) This was £14.

On the subject of Paul & Joe, I've noticed some of their Meow collection for Spring starting to appear on asos (link)... more products to add to the wish list!

NOTD - Nails Inc Arlington Street and The Vaudeville

2012-01-04T18:00:00.000Z

Here I'm using two of the polishes I got in my 'Nail the day' kit (see post here)

Arlington Street and The Vaudeville

I really didn't fancy wearing Arlington Street - I just wasn't in the mood for a dark colour, but I wanted to try out all my new polishes, so I thought I'd combine it with the Vaudeville over the top on an accent nail.

In the bottle I wasn't sure what Arlington Street was all about - it kept changing in different lights, sort of like a duo chrome. Applied it's a deep purple with interesting dimension of lighter purple shades and fine subtle glitter.

The Vaudeville is one of Nails Inc's new special effect overglaze type polishes. It's iridescent chunky glitter in a clear polish. I think this will work well over lots of different shades. To me it looks very similar to the overglaze available with one of the Gossip Girl collections.

I think these polishes were exclusive to the set I bought from QVC, but usually they are very close dupes of others from the Nails Inc collection, just with different names. There are lots of other nice Nails Inc sets on QVC which are quite good value - usually 3 polishes for about £20 or 4 for £25.

Nails Inc currently have an up to 70% off sale which is worth a browse - click here to have a peek

Do you like seeing NOTDs or have I done too many recently?

Sure giveaway

2012-01-02T18:35:00.000Z

Sure have kindly sent me some of their new deodorants to try out and another set to give away =)

These are from Sure's new 'fragrance' collection which includes bright (the pink ones) which smell of flowers and apricot, and radiant (purple) which is peach and wild raspberry. I love it that they're jazzing up such an everyday essential product.

I've got a set of these to keep me smelling sweet in 2012 and you can win the other (all four deodorants pictured above). Just make sure you're following with GFC ad leave a comment below to enter.

This giveaway will end in two week's time on Sunday 15 January - good luck!

NOTD OPI Last Friday Night meets China Glaze Icicle

2012-01-01T17:10:00.000Z

For my New Year's nails I decided to try out another polish I got for Christmas - OPI Katy Perry Last Friday Night.

It's a glitter in a sheer blue polish, so even after three coats you can still see my nail line underneath. I like my polishes really opaque and can't really handle it when my natural nail shows through, so this wasn't going to stay on for long!

Another polish I got for Christmas is this on by a brand I've never heard of - Nabi. It's multi coloured chunky star glitter in clear polish. I fished out some stars with the brush and popped them on my ring finger for a blingy accent nail.

I liked this effect but I still couldn't deal with my natural nail peeping through! The polish started to peel off when I was in the bath the next day, so it gave me a reason to give it another try.

This time I started with a base coat of China Glaze Icicle.

This is another polish I got for Christmas and it's from the China Glaze holiday 2011 Let it Snow collection.

It's an amazing foil effect polish and it's opaque in one coat, result!

This time Last Friday night was used as a topcoat over Icicle

Ta-dah!

It's really hard to capture the glitter but these two polishes go so well together. Last Friday night is a more subtle glitter (if there is such a thing!) so it works with the foil polish. Something like Rainbow Connection over Icicle may have been too much (although I know I'll probably try it anyway!).

Happy new year everyone!

2011 favourites

2011-12-31T17:15:00.001Z

I've never done monthly favourites, but maybe I'll start in 2012 as gathering products together for this favourites of the year post has reminded me that there are so many products I've really loved using but haven't blogged about yet, ooops.

So here are my favourite products.... some of them are late-comers in the second half of the year, but I decided I do love them enough for them to make the cut. I've used a nice spangly backdrop as it's NYE =)

Dove intensive repair range

I'd never used Dove before the first TOWIB event, but since then I've been loving their shampoos and have been using them all year. The Intensive repair range is my favourite and I should really do a proper review on the mask and overnight product soon.

elf eyebrow treat and tame

I've been using this solidly since I bought it earlier in the year and it's almost run out. I've recently bought a proper eyebrow pencil from Paul & Joe, so I probably won't re-purchase the elf product as I want something which will give more definition, but the elf treat and tame was really easy to use for a quick effect.

Hair products: John Frieda secret agent and thermal protector serum and Lee Stafford blow dry faster spray

These are the three products I use on my hair every day and have re-purchased lots of times throughout the year. The blow dry faster spray in particular is a fave and I don't know another product like it. It really does cut down the time it takes to get my hair dry, which is always a bonus in the mornings as I wash my hair every day.

Kiss false lashes

After an awful experience trying to apply some lashes in the Summer causing me to ruin my make-up and be late for a night out, I tried these Kiss lashes when my Mum got them for me in the US. These lashes are the easiest to apply I've ever had, even without the strings on.

Make up forever smoky lash mascara

This is my go to every day mascara. It doesn't flake or clump and it looks good with just two coats. I need to get a review of this done as I have lots more to say about this product.

Marc Jacobs Daisy perfume

My favourite perfume, already on my third big bottle

Top coat and case coat

Nothing can tear me away from Seche Vite top coat, it dries really quickly and it's super shiny. For the majority of the year I've been using Nails Inc Kensington Caviar base coat, although about a month ago when I started to run out, I ordered some Seche base products which I'm currently road testing.

Sleek Oh so special palette

Mainly the colours on the left, but this is definitely my most used palette of 2011.

Sleek pout paints

I've noticed a lot of people seem to have gone off these, but I still love them. I've got lots of little pots with colours I've made which I apply with a lip brush and I also mix the colours with vaseline in the lid of vaseline lip tins for a deeply tinted balm. They're my most used lip product of 2011 and they've got me into wearing bolder colours on my lips too.

Vivo baked bronzer and Sleek pan tao blush

My favourite bronzer and blusher of the year, it much more I need to say about that!

YSL rouge volupte

Undoubtedly my favourite beauty purchase of 2011 - I'm so glad I finally own one of these and I've been using it loads. I've also got a new one in another colour for Christmas which I shall be blogging soon :)

So those are my favourites of 2011. I'm sure as soon as I hit publish I'll think of something I've missed!

ETA: I knew this would happen.... how could I have forgotten Liz Earle Cleanse and Polish and my Illamasqua precision ink liquid eye liner?!

Were any of these products your favourites too?