NOTD - Matte Nails

Helllo blogettes!

Have to share this massive excitement i seem to have over my new nail varnish!

I recently decided to try matte coloured nail varnish and i absolutely love it! Now keep in mind i get excited over things people discovered ages ago, I'm slightly behind, but i don't care :)

It's gonna be so good to use for designs because with the matte against a shine it will really stand out. Now i know you can get matte colours in alot of brands but I'm a big fan of Barry M and really wish they'd do a matte edition. So i checked out my local Avon, which I'm a rep for anyways, and found that they are doing a matte collection!

I know they seem like the most boring colours to get but with something simple like a grey or black they can be used against any over colours. The colours are called, Grey Cement + Black as Night. I haven't used the Black as Night yet though! They are 12ml and have quite a love brush which is nice, and they were £2.10 because i get my discount but in the 2nd to next brochure they are £3.00, which I'm not complaining by because they are a different collection compared to normal colours so it's worth it. So these should be available around the 23rd of December.

I know it sounds stupid because there is no gloss in the paint to take long to dry but i am AMAZED of how quickly it takes to dry :0 Literally in a matter of 10 seconds!

This is a really poor example of a design you could do and how much a normal paint shows against a matte.

How you go any matte colours, if so what local brands do nice shades?

My Purple Locks

I tend to get pulled up on my hair alot since I've been dying it. I'm naturally blonde and i was really scared to change my hair colour dramatically! So i have a really long think about what colour would suit me, went through thousands of celeb photos, as you do, lol and then decided on purple. My hairdresser wasn't overally convinced as she has cut my hair since my first cut, but we came to an agreement of using a really dark blackish purple so that i could see whether i liked it with a hint of black. Turns out i wanted it alot brighter. So i really went for it and my hair dresser advised me to use the Schwarzkopf colour as they seemed to be the only brand who did the really bright colours. It seemed a pretty good bargin, getting my hair done by a hairdresser every 6 weeks for £40 or doing it myself for £4 something :)

I do really advice people do to their own hair if you have the colour you want it's so convenient, cheap and you can do it whenever your ready. I tend to let my roots come through quite a bit because i don't like the idea of dying at the first signs of my roots.

The obvious things your gonna need if you are dying your own hair are:

- Old comb, I tend to find this an easier way to get the dye from the roots, straight through to the ends.

- Your own towel, make sure you use it every wash because the dye does tend to still come out after alot of washes.

- Keep a big clip handy for when you've put all the dye through so u can just clip it all up and wait.

- An old t shirt, specially for hair dying to save ruining your tops on a regular basis.

- And if you find it pretty tricky like i do, a helping hand! e.g mummy :) When i say to her I'm going to go dye my hair, what i really mean is, we are going to go dye my hair!

This how my hair comes out and looks in the sun, it looks pretty dark when you first dye it but when the light shines on it it's really bright. I don't know why but i also noticed that the colour looks much better when you curl your hair.

Lush - The Boogg

This is another product of the Christmas limited edition. If it wasn't already obvious it's a ballistic but it's pretty small compared to some of the others. It was £2.25. I think most people who love lush, know about the Swedish tradition of this product, and to put the story short, the people of Sweden put fireworks into a snowman and light them so that it blows the snowman up, which is kind of what they are going for with all the bright colours in the back of the head of the Boogg.

I recently read a post from Christina Maries blog, as she was lucky enough to be featured in the lush times, they sent her a gift box, which included the Boogg, she recommended it to be relaxing and smelling herbally so i thought i'd give it a try :) Check out her blog, http://xxcmgxx.blogspot.com

It was a really herbally kinda of smell which was nice and relaxing, and the smell stayed around on my body a good while after the bath. The only thing i was disappointed with was the bubbles! Considering it was a ballistic, the bubbles had all disappeared in the matter of about 5 minutes of being in there. But it did give some really pretty colours so overall it was worth a try.

( Ignore my cat being overall loud with her meowing!)

Lush - Sex Bomb

Once again, a really girly product! Gotta love the sweet smells and the pinky and purpley colours. I thought this was really pretty to try in the bath and i know it's been out a good while now and i've heard some good things about it. It costs £2.95. Sex Bomb gets it's name from the ingredients that are used, as there is a sent of Jasmine oil in it, it does tend to relax you and your body but Jasmine is also seen as an aphrodisiac hense where the idea of sex bomb comes in :)

This has got to be my FAVE bath bomb so far! I absolutely loved it! It was really relaxing, it smelt gorgeous and the colour was just WOW! It made my bath look a mix of pink and coral and red all mixed together it was such a pretty colour. The smell after the bath stayed around for ages. Made my whole body smell really sweet and fresh. This is something i would really recommend to anyone who hasn't yet tried it!!

Whats your favourite bath bomb?

Lush - Candy Cane

I thought whilst the christmas limited edition bits were out i'd give some a try. This was the first christmas product i've tried so far. It smells sweet and girly and if your anything like me and enjoy anything pink and girly, it's right up your street. If i had to compare it to anything i'd say it really smells like bubble gum, like the hubabubba gum that was really sweet!

I only used half my bar and the smell really hit you when you walked into the room. So im assuming that with a whole bar it would be twice as good. I don't know whether the smell will stay on my body with a whole bar but with just half the smell seemed to have faded once i got out the bath :(

Overall it was a great product, it was really relaxing to just lay back and feel like a princess in my pink bath.

I have heard and seen on youtube that the best way to use a bubble bar was to crumble it either under a running tap or before you put in the water and it seemed to really work.
I done a quick video of when it started but the water does goes slightly pinker then what it shows.

Lush - Haul & Review

So recently i took a trip to lush with the boyfriend + picked up a couple of bits just to start me off :) I had been a total Lush virgin until now, due to the fact that although Lush products are gorgeous, as you walk past the smell kinda gives me a headache and puts me off. But i did realise the smell isn't as bad once your actually in the shop lol If your never sure on a product just go on the website and have a nose around, they even have youtube links of them using the product!

TWILIGHT
So i read some reviews on peoples blogs + youtubes and decided that TWILIGHT was the one for me. I'm super super fussy with smells, i really don't like blackcurrant, cherry, almonds and Cinnamon so i go for more of the girly, lavender smells which twilight was ideal for. Although when i finally used it i was slightly disappointed. I don't know whether it was that my bath was too big for the colours to spend or whether the blue clashed too much with the pink i don't know but my bath turnt out to be like a gray colour :( Was looking forward to this midnight pink but there was none. It looked like i had been rolling in the dirt and jumped in the bath! BUT the smell was really nice, was still as relaxing as i had hoped and left me smelling of lavender well after my bath. So for the smell it was really worth it.

HONEY I WASHED THE KIDS

Considering how popular this is i didn't actually buy this soap, it was a free sample i got to try and it was really nice. The smell is like a fudge and honey combined and there is even wax on the ends which really smells, so overall it did smell really yummy! This is something i would advise other people to try if they haven't yet. And i'm defiantly going to get some more on my next trip.

COLOUR SUPPLEMENT

I regularly read the 'MORE' magazine and there was an offer to all readers that they were given vouchers for these products. So i thought for a free product was worth trying. The girl in the lush helped me pick out the correct colour to match my skin tone and explained how i use it. Basically it's like a foundation, you can use it as just a base coat on it's own or mix it with your daily moisturiser. I got it in shade 'Dark Yellow'. I did try using it on it's own but it was just too thick to use. So with a moisturiser, just smooths it out alot easier, giving you a nice glowing base coat. It's pretty ironic seen as i've recently been struggling with a foundation because i'm naturally really pale so if i apply too much it just looks silly, but at the same time without it i look like Casper, so i needed something that wasn't too thick but gave me some colour, so this was an ideal product.

Max Factor Flash Lash Effect

Bonjour Blogettes,

I've recently bought this mascara due to the peer pressure from many blogs & YouTube reviews! I had to try it for myself as i was after some decent length in my lashes! This was on an offer in boots and was reduced from £10.99 to £7.99. & if your as cool as myself that's extra boots points on your card :)

As alot of people have said when they first got it they hated it, BUT it's one of those mascaras you kinda have to get used to after a few tries. If im honest i did wonder why it was so highly rated when i got it. The advantage is that it does give that serious length but i find that it tends to clog your lashes slightly so I've been spending more time then usual spitting them apart. It might be that there is too much on the brush, i'm not sure as I'm still playing around with it. But if i'm getting the length i wanted then i spose it's worth it. I mean, you can't have everything in one mascara, so if i wanted to just unclog i can use a more defining mascara or separate them myself :) Overall it is worth the perseverance because it is worth it.

♥ Packaging - 5/5 ( i love a chunky mascara!)

♥ Volume - 3/5

♥ Length - 5/5

♥ Defining - 3/5

These boots were made for walking!

I absolutely love love love autumn & winter times :) Looking forward to Christmas already! So i though in preparation i needed some snug winter boots!

I did fancy a heeled pair of ankle boots but once i saw these i decided against it!

I searched loads of different shoe websites which i'll list but i went on to boohoo.com and they have some really nice shoes for cheap :) My kinda website!

They took 2 days to arrive and i got my email to let me know when they have shipped it which was good. The delivery coats 3.99 and it was the standard delivery which is expected to be delivered within 3 - 4 days but from my previous experience with boohoo the delivery is really quick!

The packaging was great, as you can see i took pictures because i don't like my posts to be too wordy lol But it came with a little book of the latest looks for this season which was a bonus! ( Please ignore the leopard print pjs :) lol )

I'm a size 5 but on odd occasions i can be a 4 but i ordered a 5 and these fit perfect! So if you do get boots from here it's more than likely it will fit. Over all i really recommend these boots for winter they are SO comfy & for £35 it's ideal!

Heres just a few online shops for shoes websites i've come across::

♥ http://www.milanoshoes.co.uk/

♥ http://www.chockersshoes.co.uk/

♥ http://www.soyoushoes.co.uk/

Cookies!

Thanks to yet another typical English rainy day i decided to try my luck with some baking!

My mum recently got me this cookery book for cakes + cookies, a long story short, my family abanded me for 2 weeks to go to turkey last month and i was left to fend for myself :( Turns out i actually enjoyed abit of cooking so she got me this cupcake book!

I thought the cover looks so pretty it just makes you wanna make something!

Although there was some quite strange ideas i found, like vodka cookies + cheese & bacon cupcakes! Slightly odd but i don't think i'll be trying those in a hurry! Although i think i might have to try the baileys one ;) Gotta love abit of baileys!

This was the recipe which i followed + decided to change the chocolate chips to fudgey bits instead :) Also bare in mind some of the ingredients are different as it is a slimming recipe appropriate for people on diets if not then just change the sweetener to normal sugar ect.

Makes 18, Ready in about 25 Mins

♥ 6oz/170 Self raising flour
♥ 3oz/85g Low fat spread suitable for baking (Flora light)
♥ 12 TBSP Artificial sweetener
♥ 2 ½ oz / 71g Chocolate chips
♥ 3 TBSP fat free fromage frais
♥ 1 Egg yolk

1) Pre heat oven to 180C / 350F/GAS 4 and line a baking sheet with baking paper. Sift the flour into a bowl, add the spread and rub into the flour, using your fingertips, until it resembles breadcrumbs. Sprinkle over sweetener and mix.

2) Add the chocolate chips, fromage frais and egg yolk, stir then knead with your hands to form a soft dough. Divide into 18 portions and roll each one into a ball. Place the dough balls on the baking sheet and using the back of a damp fork, lightly press down to form cookie shapes.

3) Bake in the oven for 12 - 15 minutes or until golden. Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool before serving.

MUA REVIEW

So as everyone knows the MUA products are all a pound and are only found in the superdrug store. So for a pound i thought it's worth a try. I only brought 2 products from the MUA makeup line as i just wanted to try it out. And because i'm having to convince myself to save money lately, saying to myself, 'Do i really need this?' So far it's working! But i did NEED a new powder & a matt black eyeshadow.

MUA EYESHADOW - { SHADE 20, MATT }

I do have a great black eye shadow but it's part of a palette so it's pretty impossible to redo my makeup during a night out. This is so ideal and handy! For a £1 eyeshadow the packaging of it is great. It is well pigmented and also comes in a more shimmery shade as well as the matt.

MUA PRESSED POWDER - { SHADE 4 }

Now i was in desperate need of a powder as i currently use the Loreal True Match powder and it had ran out. So i thought for a pound it was worth a try. The disadvantage of it is that it is pretty messy to use, the powder does get everywhere so you have to be careful that it doesn't get on your clothes. BUT when looking at the colour i didn't think it looked very dark, once i had applied it i realised i then looked slightly tangoed!! Shade 4 is the darkest shade so try to use as less as possible. But overall i found with other powders that it tends to come off by the end of the night but my powder still looked the same at the end of the night so that was great, and i totally recommend trying it!

G - G - Giraffe!

This is something i tried out using *Barry M, Mushroom 310* i'm not totally sure whether it's a Giraffe pattern or a turtle looking pattern, ha! Who knows! Anyways, this is how i did it:

- File + shape, then apply a base coat
- Apply a creamy shade of brown OR because i didn’t have that i just used a polish i got with a French manicure set, so give it a couple of coats of that to get the colour.
- Then, using a tooth pick, form small square shape around the nail, kind of like a tribal look.

Zebra Print!

This is something which i even quite nailed! Takes SO much practice! I Didn't use any particular nail varnish for this one, you just need a good black and white! Anyways this is how i did it:

- File + Shape and apply a base coat.
- On top of the base coat paint a coat of white. ( Might need 2 coats!)

- Using a tooth pick, dip into black paint and drag across the nail. Starting quite thick, leaving a trail as you go across the nail.

- Then apply your top coat, and your done!

Lady Bug Lady Bug!

This one doesn't look so great, as it was my first try! So it's allowed to look as though it could be done better :) So this was pretty simple really:

- File + shape your nails, then apply a base coat

- Then coat your nails with red paint

- Then draw a line down the middle of each nail with black nail vanish, using a tooth pick

- Then with the tooth pick create dots on either side

- Finally apply a top coat and your done!

Pink Leopard Print

This is my attempt of the leopard print, i just followed any basic print that i could find and changed the colours from the original browns to pinks!

Not actually realising that once i had finished this and put my PJ's on that it matched quite well ha! :) Anyways this is how i did it:

- File + Shape, and apply a base coat.

- Apply a baby pink coat

- Then using a tooth pick, dip it into the black paint and form broken small circles

- Then used the tooth pick again, dip into bright pink paint and fill in the circles!

- Apply a top coat and your done!

England Flag

As today is the offical start of the World Cup 2010 I thought I'd kick off with my home flag of course! :) Anyways it's dead easy so this is how i did it:

- File + shape and apply a base coat.

- Paint a coat of white

- Cut celotape into stripes to create defined red lines

- Paint area in with red paint

- Then peal off the celotape!

- Apply a top coat and your done!