BINTM Goodies!!!

So generally when you go to a modelling show you just assume there is gonna be no free food - like other shows my partner and I have been to, and that it would be full of beauty products.

Well there were a few surprises - firstly the food, due to the stereotype of models not eating! Then there was the fact that Amy Childs was there, surrounded by people - oh dear! I fell in love with lots of clothes there but sadly they stocked size 8's and up, too big for my petite frame :(

I did get to buy a few NYX goodies, I wanted to try a selection of products, as I'd heard that its a good quality cheapish brand from the US. I decided to pick up some stuff from the 3 for £5 baskets:

I was also tempted by the Nails Supreme nail art pens, these were similar to my Rio nail art pens that were bought more than 6 years ago! I felt it was time they were replaced, grabbing a bargain as usual I got 23 pens, a spare brush/pen & a top coat for £40!

And if you've seen my previous blog you'll also know that I got 2 new magnetism nail polishes which I am very happy with and can't wait to get the other 3 colours!!

What do you think of my purchases? :D

Newest Nail Trend - Magnetism!

At the weekend I attended BINTM (Britain & Ireland's Next Top Model). I purchased a few things, being that my birthday is coming up. However from now on I am on a "no-buy" from now on, I have to save every penny for the wedding!! If you live near me and want a manicure let me know and I can give you a special price. I'm a fully qualified Nail Techinician.

Anyway onto the subject of today's post; Magnetism Nail Polish! I got Ego Green & Notorious Silver from FashionistA - who worked with The Saturdays to create this nail polish range.

Purple (Molly), Green (Una), Blue (Vanessa), Silver (Frankie) & Red (Rochelle), they went on sale on 26th October in selected Superdrug stores! The Nail Lacquer is £6 and the Nail Magnet is £3. I managed to pick up 2 polishes and the magnet from the show for £10! I also just had an email from Superdrug about 3 for 2 so I  intend to purchase the other three colours for £12! Bargain.

I think it came out quite well for a first attempt; here are pictures of my manicure:

What do you think? Have you tried any other Magnetism Nail Polishes? I've seen Nails Inc & 17 also have them out in the UK! Thanks for reading!! xoxo

Brighten Up My Day - OOTD

Well as most of you would guess right, it is raining again in the UK, finally Winter is coming. It's then when I want to wear bright colours and tights most of all, we need to cheer ourselves up somehow lol. Although saying that I quite like Winter. Snow, getting to dress warm and snuggly. Wearing scarves (I bought a lovely new one today from Topshop!), gloves and hats! Yay.

Ok so here is today's look:

What do you think? Coral looks great with black in my opinion! I had to add more sparkle with the tigths, not sure if you can tell in this picture. My future hubby to be took it and it's not up to his usual standard lol. I have a few sparkles on my top so I thought the tights went well. xoxo

Pink NOTD - Inspired by...

...the girls doing a Nail Polish Blogger Challenge:
Deniz from Emerald Sparkled uses Flor Mar #29
Leslie from Polish Art Addiction uses China Glaze Laced Up
Inge from Polish Sis uses Hema nr 84
Rebecca from Rebecca Likes Nails uses Color Club Peppermint Twist
Ulmiel from Did someone say nail polish? uses Finger Paints Give Pink A Chance
Gejba from  parokeets uses essence Love This City
Sidrah from beauteous blog uses sally hansen pink blink
Sarah from Lucky Lacquers uses W7 Shocking Pink
Caroline from Good Lack, Nail uses OPI Do You Think I'm Tex-y?
Maestra from parokeets uses essie knockout pink

I'm really loving the intricate designs by Polish Art Addiction, you should really check them out, I also really liked today's layering combo by Good Lack, Nail

Here is my pink look for today, although I'm not sure I'll have time to change it up tomorrow like the other dedicated ladies. I've still got a bit of cleaning up to do around the nails but I'll cheat and do it in the hot water after I've washed up. I used Models Own - Pastel Pink, 2 coats were needed as it is quite a sheer polish. I also used a black rhinestone on each thumbnail to jazz it up a little bit.

Hope you like! :) It was my first time using my stamps again for a while, as you can probably tell, some are quite blurry/smudged. It took a bit of getting used to but I hope to be doing more shortly!! xoxo

Baby It's Cold Outside - OOTD

My cats recently managed to break the glass jug on our coffee machine so yesterday we ventured out to buy a new one. We ended up getting this bad boy. I was excited to make a cappuccino this morning using the Starbucks ground coffee we bought last week. Well that was 8am this morning and I'm not even sleepy yet! It was one goooooood coffee.

Anyway, now less of the rambling, time for the actual post you wanna read. Clothes, yay. Cold, yay! Some people love summer, personally I love winter. Apart from enjoying the snow, I love to layer in the cold weather and find people really get creative when they need to keep warm. I normally start off my outfit by picking out one key item. Yesterday I wanted to wear my acid wash ripped jeans from Republic (£10 in the sale). I've heard that when you go a bit edgy you want the rest of your outfit to be a bit girly. Therefore I went with a long sleeve pink top also from Republic (£5 in the sale). The top has a slight zebra effect so it's partly see through. I decided to keep the outfit casual and add a white vest top underneath from New Look (£6). To add a bit of depth to the outfit I wore my green/pink rope necklace from Next (£6 in the sale). I popped on a pink headband from H&M (£3). To keep me warm I grabbed my brown woolly coat and my owl hat both from Republic (£20 and £3 respectively, both in the sale). I seem to have so many pairs of shoes but found it difficult to choose what to finish my look and what would work with ripped skinnies...brogue ankle boots in a natural cream colour from Next (£15 in the sale).

 

Yes I love sales, they draw me in and make me spend lots of money, but hey, it's all worth it in the end! Overall this outfit totals up to £68, not bad in my opinion. A pair of shoes could easily cost more than that on their own!

What do you think? xoxo

Urban Decay - The Ultimate Make Up Temptation

* BEWARE - THIS IS A PICTURE HEAVY POST :)

Well, when I got back to reading everyone's blogs and catching up I realised that Urban Decay not only had a new Book of Shadows out, but a 15 Year Anniversary palette. I have all the other Book of Shadows palettes and I'm a sucker for "limited editions" so I just had to get both in the end. I'm glad I did as they feature less duplicates than their palettes normally do. Perhaps they've finally listed to their audience? I think the two palettes only share one or two eyeshadows that are the same, and the rest are brand new shades, which got me quite excited. Luckily Debenhams in the UK were offering free delivery when I purchased and they only took 2 days to arrive.

Urban Decay colours are always so bold and bright, or sparkly for the more neutral colours. They are so different, I haven't really found anything I love as much. I enjoy mixing the colours together as I find the textures make it incredibly easy to blend. I have done a few looks already, I'll feature one for you on my next post. I might also be looking at doing a 30 day Urban Decay challenge for the month of November. 30 eyeshadow looks using different colours everytime. With 6 palettes and 95 shades I think it is doable, but only if I plan well, based on using on average 3 shades for most looks.

Anyway, here are my pictures:

Beautiful colours

15 Year Palette, you can use the purple box to put other useful items in!

Pretty box, lots of funky stuff going on

Speaker, primer potion, mascara & eyeliner add to the usual 16 eyeshadows!

I love the fact that this palette came with a mascara & eyeliner as I'd not tried them before. Thats the bonus when you get these palettes, you get to try other products without having to purchase them separately!!

I love the liquid eyeliner already and I'd only used it once. But I'm not much of a pro at putting it on, but it was so easy!! I love the lasting power too, it definitely lasted the whole day, I could not see that it had budged at all.

I was so happy with my purchases I decided to give you an extra few shots of my pets today, my two cats who are 18months old. And my lil puppy who is only 5 months!

Guinness

Cosmo

Jake

Green NOTD

I have painted my nails properly for the first time in a while! These days I paint my left hand then get interrupted and do something else. Then I find myself not bothering to do the same with my right hand as I know it will take longer. My colleagues at work often pick up on this and think I'm mad. I used my normal No.7 base and top coat, Models Own - Green Grass and Rio Nail Art Yellow.

What do you think?

Have you created any Halloween looks; nails or FOTD? Doing anything special for the occasion? Let me know! xoxo

Make Up Brushes - Thank You Groupon

So I seem to have been very busy lately, I would like to blame the wedding planning, but I think I've also been fairly lazy and have been watching a lot of TV. From Downton Abbey to Gossip Girl, there's just too many good shows on right now!!

Anyway, today I am returning with details of my recently purchased professional make up brushes from Louise Walsh, view the website for more info. I managed to use a group code to get the £99 brush set for £19. Bargain.
I haven't used the brushes yet so will follow up with a review shortly. I need to wash my hair before using them for a FOTD for you :)

The set includes:
– POWDER BRUSH
– CHISEL POWDER BRUSH
– TAPERED BRUSH
– ANGLE BRUSH
– CHISEL BRUSH
– DELUXE OVAL SHADOW
– DELUXE SOFT FAN
– ANGLE LINER
– BROWN/LASH GROOMER
– OVAL SMUDGER
– FLOCKED SPONGE
– FOUNDATION BRUSH
– MEDIUM SHADOW BRUSH
– BLENDING BRUSH
– CONCEALER BRUSH
– POINTER MASCARA APPLICATOR

I am definitely looking forward to testing the quality of these brushes, this could be my greatest saving yet! I am also not so patiently waiting for my two new Urban Decay palettes to arrive; the 15 year anniversary palette and the Book of Shadows IV. Luckily my partner got to keep a little bit of money he owed a company that went into administration so we treated ourselves. He got a new mountain bike, I got some clothes from Jane Norman and some make up!! Sums us both up perfectly! xoxo

Nail Designs

Well since recently becoming a qualified Nail Technician I have been working on some bits and bobs to help clients choose the nail design they want, and which colours they would like. I have over 200 nail polishes and this also showed the other half just how different they all are!

Below is a picture of my first nail design wheel;

The colours I have used above are the Barry M, Saffron, 2Tru and Essence  polishes I own. I've painted 9 others in my nail polish colours using all other brands, such as No.7, Models Own, 17, Collection 2000 and more. Now I just need to add all the detail. It helps when you don't try and do all of them at once, otherwise I start feeling like I have no more ideas left. Just going back through my nail posts on my blog will likely give me inspiration!

What do you think? Have you ever done this, either for yourself or clients? I think it's also gonna help me choose what I want on my nails each week!!

Thanks for reading! xoxo

Hello folks!!

So as I have recently qualified as a Nail Technician I have tried to get a nail business up and running, first starting with prices, flyers and a website. Well, 1/3 ain't bad!

This weekend I have managed to try something new in the beauty world...rebel nails! They are very similar to the Minx trend that celebrities everywhere are wearing.

You use heat on the transfer and your nail, then smooth it out from cuticle to tip. If any bumps appear you just need to reheat and stick back down. Sounds simple right, well this made me skeptical.

I started off finding it a bit tricky knowing which sizes (out of 8) I needed for each nail. Once you've got that down the rest just comes with practice! I used an infrared heat lamp, but the instructions say you can just use a hairdryer. One hand probably took about half an hour so after a few more tried I could probably do both hands in half an hour. I'm not normally a fan of leopard print but I find this is quite unique and fun!

What do you think?
Have you tried Rebel, Trendy or Minx nails?
Until next time xoxo