Nail Polish Remover

Hi guys!

So a while ago I posted about my (failed) quest to get my hands on a push top nail polish remover bottle.

I shared my tale of woe (#firstworldproblems ?) with my friend and the next time I saw her she gifted me with 'this' [as pictured].

I think she picked it up at Aldi and it was cheap....maybe £2? 

Tbh I was not concerned about the nail polish remover itself and really just wanted it for the push down top action but actually the product really impressed me as well. 

I got a cotton pad, opened the lid and pressed down on the thingy 2-4 times and my cotton pad was nicely saturated. the nail polish remover easily removed my 2 coats of black nail polish, insta dri top coat and rimmel base coat. 

I would definitely recommend you pick this up if you see it. 

#adventcalendar days 16-24

Hi Guys!

With great sadness - here are my last batch of advent calendar goodies.

Day 16 was a olive oil hair pack and a gorgeous Barry M nail paint in raspberry.

Day 17 were some tooth sticking eclairs - an oldie but a goodie!

Day 18 - I don't know where V got this from but it's a genius make up pencil sharpener. I tried to capture it in the picture - one end is for a normal sized pencil, the other end is for those jumbo pencils, and it has a cover/lid so great for the handbag. (Barry M btw) 

Day 19 was some old school pick and mix. I was eating this at my desk - one moment there were a hundred jelly babies begging for mercy and 3 minutes later I'd eaten them all oops

Day 20 - two of my favourite things - face wipes and chocolate!

Day 21 - my first ever models own nail polish!!! 200% opaque in 2 coats. Even one good coat is good enough to go. This was a contender for Christmas day notd but ended up running late and sticking with a very chipped barry m raspberry (day 16). 

Day 22 - the yummiest biggest chocolate star ever. If I see these on sale I'm going to grab a million.

Day 23 - haven't had a chance to test it out but excited about my latest maybelline colorshow additionin 'power red'. 

My last special advent calendar present - Day 24 - traditional chocolate coins! Who remembers thinking this was real money? Was that just me?

A massive thank you to V for putting this all together. I've been so spoiled, and I'm so grateful. Not just for the actual gifts but also for the time, thought and effort - this has also been much appreciated. 

#adventcalendar days 1-8

Hi Guys

Just wanted to show you the joy and wonders that were in my birthday advent calendar. I have had so much fun unwrapping these and it's encouraged me to get out of bed on the cold dark mornings.

I've already showed the magnificent tangle teezer - day 1 was an extra special day as it's my birthday. I've been wanting this tangle teezer because apart from being leopard print, it's a smaller size and is great for the handbag, it comes with a back case to protect the bristles. 

Day 2 was chocolate so needless to say I spent the day making sure I ate all my giant buttons :)

Day 3 was nail polish - really loving the maybelline color show line - very impressed. 

Day 4 was shower gel! This present made me laugh. At first I was shocked at how V knew this was my favourite shower gel as it's not an obvious choice - but she was practically my house mate for nearly a week so that's that mystery solved.

Day 5 is argan hair oil- I can't wait to give this a go!

Day 6 - this present stressed me out because I couldn't figure out which was day 6 and day 9 - and I realise that V kindly did the line thing but I still couldn't figure it out - thank god for goggle innit!!! Anyways! Day 6 was more chocolate - which became my dinner mmmmmmmmm

Day 7 - love this - Vaseline paint the town red lip tint - limited edition. 

Day 8 - celebrations yaaaaaaaay my favouite are the malteaser ones mmmmmmmmmmmmm

My pile of presents is still massive but I'm sad that the month is coming an end. I wish I could have a year version of this....I guess I could wrap up my make up and bathroom stuff and kitchen utensils and every day I could unwrap something....yeah? I could wrap up all my coke cans and eggs lol

Halloween: Bloody eyeballs nail of the day

Hello Ghouls andGuys! Happy Halloween!

I wanted to do a spider bun to celebrate theghost and  ghoul season but due to hair cut and colour it just wasn't working out (it would have been a baby blonde spider). Instead  - I decided that some scary bloody eyeballs would satisfy my thirst for blood. Are you scared? If you want to have some scary nails keep on reading!

To get this gruesome look you need 4 colours: white, red, blue and black. And I also used a clear base and top coat. I used my dotting tools to help me out but nail art pens or a toothpick would also work. This is super easy and quick.

Step 1: Paint all your nails in an opaque white.
(I actually used a cream colour with a white on top to get a nice even colour.) 

Step 2: Make blue dots in the middle of each nail
(Of course you could have a different coloured eye - but I'd recommend blue or green for more of a visual impact)

Step 3: Make black dots in the centre of the blue dots

Step 4: Make messy red lines from the outside in. These are the bloody veins.
(I found this really hard but I think the overall look works ok?)

Step 5: Make small white dots off of the black dots

And that's it! Easy peasy!

Do you do anything halloween? Some scary nails? Full out fancy dress?
Happy Halloween ghouls and guys xoxo

new clothes, new nails and new hair

Hi Guys!

So I think that the (London) sun has definitely gone away for the rest of the year. And I am loving it. Autumn is my favourite fashion season. I love the outwear, footwear, colours, layers and just over autumnal feel.

To give autumn a big hello I (messily) painted my nails in Leighton Denny's Saturn Seduction which I thought was a deep plum wine red but on closer inspection was a gorgeous chocolate colour, but still red and not brown. I don't know - but I loved it. I love my bright nails but nothing like a deep sexy colour to make me feel all grown up and powerful.
Am I being weird?

Even though the sun is pretty much gone it isn't actually what I would consider cold. I work indoors and my journey to work is 10 minutes so apart from shoving an umbrella in my handbag I don't feel the need to start wrapping up yet. Dress down is over at work - I've been wearing my favourite dorothy perkins cut out booties to work but once there I have 5 pairs of heels to choose from to office-fy my outfits - 3 black, 1 nude and 1 tan. {Above pic] I'm wearing my new shirt (chiffon blouse?) from old faithful Primark (£12). This isn't a very flattering photo but I wanted to capture the dip hem. 

[Above and below pic - same outfit but with and without the 'jacket']

This outfit consists of my usual skinny Next trousers, velvet peplum New look top and then I popped on my new Primark jacket/cardi thing - a faux tweed with faux leather trimming - a bit Chanel but for around £15 (that's a total guess, it was between £10-£20 - sorry!)

I titled the post 'new hair' and frankly, I lied. This isn't new because you would have already read my previous hair post (if you haven't - go read it :)) However, it's the first pic of my hair 'done'. For the first 5 days after bleaching my hair I had it up - because I wanted to give it a rest from heat and also because honestly I was a bit scared of what I would see when I brushed and straightened my hair. In those 5 days I've been researching long bobs non stop and contemplating making an appointment with my hairdresser but....but now I feel much better about my hair. I'm use to the colour (even though it seems to look a different colour every day) and the texture isn't too awful all things considered. I'll probably have to get it cut sooner rather than later but for now I'll enjoy keeping my longer hair.

How are you guys doing? Have you had to shift your wardrobe around for the weather or are you still holding onto your sandals?

Mini Boots Haul

Hi Guys :)

I had a quick dash through Boots the other day and here is my little haul.

Sally Hansen - I picked up Insta Dri (rrp £5.99) and Double Duty (rrp £5.29). I've made a conscious decision to be a bit kinder to my nails and also to my nail polish. I've always been a paint and go kind of girl and view top and base coats as a waste of time and money. But I figured that since my nails are my favourite asset I should shell out a few pound on them. I did have my eye on the infamous Seche Vitte but then Sally Hansen was buy one get one half price at Boots  (so I got both for £7.61)and they had decent enough reviews.. Really looking forward to doing my nails on Sunday.

Nivea Pure and Natural Day Cream - I've just realised that the Nivea Pure range is silicone free and am so excited to try this out. This was rrp 5.35 but I got it on promotion for £3.56, only to find out that in Wilkinsons it's £2.49 full price!! If this is good I know where I'll be stocking up from! I'm currently using Nivea Soft (white squeezy tube) and I've not had any problems so hopefully the Pure will be even better.

Garnier 2 in 1 make up and eye remover - I love this. I think this is my 4th or 5th bottle!!! It's amazing.

Boots are having a buy one get one half price on their make up so I picked up Bourjois volume clubbing mascara (rrp £7.99) and Maybelline 24 hour colour tattoo in timeless black (rrp £4.99) - reviews of both to come.

As a little extra - My friend N (nail polish fairy?) gifted me with this bad boy - nails inc's graffiti. I was so excited I quickly chucked it on over my NOTD (pink bubbles) and they were a perfect pairing. I can't wait to give this a proper try out. Thank you Unnie x

May and June - Nail of the Day

Holy crabsticks!!!!

Ahoy there blog readers!

Woah it's been a long time - how is everyone doing? Apologies apologies - I've lost my blogging mojo. I haven't really found it but I'm suppose to be doing something and so I've decided to procrastinate and blog. Makes sense to me!

Let's just keep it simple and talk nail polish. I love nail polish. I remember being in primary school and Mrs Flowers' saying to my mum that I had prostitute nails (my fav at the time were baby blue with rainbow glitter and a neon orange). Anyways, just wanted to share my nail of the days for May and June.

[Above - Claire's polishes]

I was walking past Claire's (formally Claire's Accessories) and there was a massive poster in the window proclaiming that the nail polishes were all £1. I felt very awkward (OLD) when I walked into the crapped and messy store but nothing will keep me away from £1 polishes!!! I've not tried Claire's polishes before but I am not fussy so was happy to pick up a few. Aren't I exciting and brave?! These polishes didn't have an official name or product number (that I can see) so I'm just going to call it as I see it... and please forgive my nasty naked nails; I was really excited to swatch (two coats).

[Above - nasty swatches ;)]

 First up we have a leather look polish in black (RRP £4). As you can see from the horrendous swatch, ,it's grainy. That's the best word I can think of. I don't know what sort of leather they were aiming for - a cow's bumhole?! Definitely not Chanel lambskin. It's black and matt and grainy. You wouldn't think it was an in-your-face nail look but a lot of people stopped and asked about my nasty nails. It probably didn't help that I was sporting talons when I decided to wear this look. It's very cool and I swayed back and forth between love and hate. At times I hated the texture; the graininess made me want to puke and sent shivers up my spine, but the 'on trend' look had me waking up at 2am googling for more leather look polishes. Overall? For £1 I am happy enough and glad I got to try it out.

Next we have blue (RRP £2.25). Blue isn't really a colour I like to incorporate into my clothes or nail wardrobe - but I am on a hunt for a dupe of Nails Inc's Baker Street. I've gotten to the point where I've purchased so much crap that I should have splashed out the £11 but that's easy to say in retrospect isn't it. I haven't worn this properly but the swatch impressed me. The first coat was horribly watery and sheer but as you can see the second coat made it beautifully deep and glossy, and true to the bottle colour. As a nail polish it's good - not great but not at all bad - but probably not something I needed for my collection at all.

Lastly we have...a nude with bits in it. I can't describe it but I love it. I wore this to a wedding and it was a perfect mix of lady like with an edge. The 'bits' are not glittery at all which for someone my age (OMG have I reached that age where I can say that?!) is great. RRP is only £2.50 and after using it I would be happy to pay the full price. This polish was definitely the bet out of the bunch and worth the trip into Claire's.

[Above - Leighton Denny in Just Perfect]

[Above - Leighton Denny in Zero Gravity]

The above two Leighton Denny polishes were gifted to me by my lovely buddy N (same N who gave me a shit load of BB creams which I posted about maybe 1-2 years ago!)). I got loads more of Leighton Denny goodies from her but there's only so many hours in a day to paint my nails lol

As I've said earlier, I am not fussy about nail polish - as long as I like the colour I'm happy - but OMG I have to say that Leighton Denny's polishes are on point. Colour-wise, love the two colours above but that's not what I am head over heels about. I am in love with the formula. I think these retail around the £11 price point which is the same as Nails Inc and Ciate but that's where the similarities end. Nails Inc chips like a bitch and Ciate is not as opaque after 2 coats that I would expect for the price. But LD? Wow wow wow. As soon as I painted my first nail my heart was doing back flips. It's thick but not gloopy. It's smooth and opaque. And it dries super duper fast. This is a lady's polish - all glossy and grown up. Just Perfect (a gorgeous pinky peachy apricot?) got me so many compliments. I wore it for about 2 weeks (I did have to touch up but 2 weeks?!) because I didn't want to take it off. I am in a horrible dilemma now (hash tag firstworldproblems) - the bottle of Just Perfect is a tiny 4.6ml (the full size zero gravity is 12ml) - do I seriously purchase a full sized? How could I not?

[Above - LA Colors in Pink Bubbles]

[Above - LA Colors in Summertime]

Back to Earth now. My Cinderella moment has come to an end and the coach is now a pumpkin again. Went out with Cee and ended up in Beauty Base (despite me begging her not to let me go inside). I said I was there to repurchase my fav shade Moody Red but I ended up with 4 polishes (at 99p each dude come on!!!). 

First one I tried out last week was Pink Bubbles and I love it. The picture does it absolutely no justice at all - this is a young and bright pink, almost neon, but not as neon as Lightning (Cee finds it funny that I know the names of polishes but these are my babies and parents remember their babies names). Pink bubbles got a lot of attention and compliments from random strangers but I think the fact that my nails were in a really good shape contributed to that. This is definitely one of my favs. 

The polish I am wearing right now was chosen by Cee and it's Summertime (bit of a slap in the face considering it's raining as I type) - its a pretty bubble gum pink; very similar to Rimmel's Urban Princess and ELF's bubble gum. I'm really glad with this purchase because the two aforementioned polishes are getting dry and gloopy so I found this at just the right time. My nails were getting so long that I couldn't do stuff (put in my contact lenses, type, open bottles or jars) so I had to cut them. Even though I like my nails long, shorter nails allow me to wear brighter colours and one of the other colours waiting to be tested out is a neon green so I look forward to sharing that with you all soon. 

Wishing everyone a great week xoxox

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter everyone!

Hope you are surrounded by chocolate eggs and people you love.

I'm surrounded by nail polish so I'm happy :)

Couldn't be bothered with painting on cute bunnies and chicks so I've just gone for pastels this Easter.

I used:

No 7 - 60's mini skirt (all fingers as a base) It's a creamy bone colour. Used as an actual colour I would need about 4-5 coats for an opaque finish so I just use. It as a base for light colours to 'pop'.

Ciate - purple sherbet - free with a magazine. Love the colour but it's very sheer. I would be crying if I had paid the full rrp. But for the price of a mag, 3 coats over a block base is gorgeous.

Barry M - lemon ice cream and peach melba - beautiful pale yellow and peach. Pastels are always hard to work with so for the price I can't complain too much. 2-3 coats over a block base and you're good to go.

Miss Sporty - no name - a bright light blue, absolutely gorgeous and opaque in one coat. And it was £1.99. Bloody amazing.

Rimmel - peppermint - a lovely fresh minty green. Opaque in 1-2 coats. Looming forward to wearing this to death come the sunshine :)

NOTD: Pink ombré nails

February Loves

Hey Guys!

[ABOVE: Me in the snow with my fur and earmuffs - and totally bewildered obviously lol]


Can you believe it's nearly March?!

Hope February has been a good month - and a belated Happy Valentine's Day to you all <3

I love Valentine's Day - it's a pink and happy day.
Next exciting day is St Paddy's day and I can't wait :)

I just wanted to do a update - I've not blogged as much as I want/usually do. Weekend's have been busy; I haven't even been doing my nails properly!

iPenny had a recent trip to the Genius Bar; I've never been before and I had a really good experience. The Apple guy I saw was just excellent. But anyway, iPenny died and now I've got iPenny 2 (who shall just be called iPenny to avoid getting too complicated!)

And here are a few bits into my life this Feb 2012:

[ABOVE:]

Forgive the terrible terrible paint job!!! But AY gave me a nail polish and I wanted to try it out. Similar to peach melba, a pastel peach but applies much better.

[ABOVE]

MY fav Kit KAt Chunky - peanut butter. I love this so much. I'm not even a big fan of peanut butter - that texture just me me *gag* but peanut butter and chocolate is a winner for me.

[ABOVE]

My current face wash - it's the tea tree foaming face wash from Superdrugs.
I really like their tea tree range; I use their normal face wash and scrub but this is the first time I've tried this and....I like it. Make's me clean, hasn't broken me out, easy to use.

The only thing I find weird is the instant foam thing - am I so lazy that I can't be bothered to lather up my own face wash? I dunno, I just find that weird. And I'm also interested to know how cost effective this product is and how long it will last. Will keep you updated.

[ABOVE]

Last random thing; Sky Flakes!! I got this in the Chinese cash and carry - is this just an oriental thing? Basically crackers. Light and yummy.

What have you been loving this month? How was your Valentine's Day?