Nail art obsessed

Hey guys

As you're probably aware, I've been slacking recently when it comes to blogging as I've just finished my first year at university and found all my exams very stressful so I've been taking the past couple of weeks as a well needed break!

Due to this I haven't taken any blog photo's yet so thought I'd show you some of the nail art designs I have created recently. I'm in love with nail art at the moment and absolutely hate only having my nails one colour as I now find it too boring. 

Sorry for the rubbish photo's but they were taken from my instagram. If you would like to follow me on instagram for more nail art photos and other random photos you can find my account here.

Are you interested in nail art? What designs do you love?

Thanks for reading!

Blog's 1st Birthday!

   

(source)

Hello everyone!

A year ago today, I decided to take the plunge and create my own blog! It is actually crazy how time flies and I cannot believe I've been blogging for a year now. I just wanted to use the first birthday of my blog to take the opportunity to tell you all how thankful I am for the loyal readers and for all your support. When starting my blog I was really unsure if anyone would be interested in reading what I have to say and to see that over 170 of you follow my blog is so exciting and overwhelming so thank you so much! I'm honestly so thankful to every single one of you and although I've been slacking with my posts recently due to university exams etc, I'll really hope that you continue to support me in the future!

As well as my blog you can also follow me on BlogLovin, Twitter - (personal twitter) and (blog twitter) and Instagram.

Thanks for reading!

NOTD: feeling blue

Hey guys!

Just a quick NOTD post for you today. Recently I've been obsessed with having dots on my nails and love the fact they're so versatile as you can do them with any colour and have any size dots! To create this look I used a dotting tool that I bought from eBay for around £1 and the colours used are 'Blueberry' by Barry M and 'Cloud' by Revlon.

What's your favourite nail design at the moment?

Thanks for reading!

First MAC lipstick - Creme Cup

Hey guys!

Today I have an exciting post for you! Well probably more of an exciting post for me but hopefully you'll enjoy it too!

After entering and winning a giveaway here to win a MAC lipstick, I was able to try my first ever MAC lipstick and my first ever MAC product. 

Since I've never been to a MAC counter I was unsure about what colour I wanted or what colour would suit me so after doing a bit of research and reading other bloggers reviews I settled on a cremesheen lipstick in the shade 'Creme Cup'. I chose this lipstick as it is a gorgeous colour but isn't too bold so is perfect for an everyday lipstick shade.

 

After trying this lipstick it's definitely my new favourite! I love the finish as it's moisturising but still pigmented. The colour is a gorgeous pink shade and would probably compliment most skin tones in my opinion.

I definitely love this lipstick and have been reaching for it often and I would like to think that I will buy some more MAC lipsticks in the future since I have been impressed with this one. The one thing I will say is that it doesn't last as long as I would like on my lips probably due to the finish and the light colouring but I don't mind reapplying lipstick so I don't see that as an issue.

I'd like to say a massive thank you to Laura who ran the giveaway! You can buy Creme Cup here or Debenhams for £14.

What is your favourite MAC lipstick?

Thanks for reading!

Review: Elemis 'Dreamy Sleep Night Time Moisturiser'

Hello!

Today I have a review of a night moisturiser by Elemis. I was kindly contacted by Elemis and was asked if I wanted to try some of their products and as I'm trying to get more into skin care I of course said yes!

The dreamy sleep night-time moisturiser is part of the freshskin range which is specifically for 'teens to twenties' and states that skin will appear brighter and more radiant.

What they say: 'The intensely hydrating Overnight Replenishing Cream combines blackcurrant Seed oil and barley extract help to refine skin texture and increase skin smoothness, whilst a powerful complex of lipsomes will brighten and even the appearance of the skin tone'.

I've been using this moisturiser on and off for around two months now so I feel as if I am able to give you an honest and fair review.

I have tried a few different night moisturisers now and this definitely isn't one of my favourites I'm afraid to say. The first thing that I noticed when originally trying this moisturiser was the smell. I know that if the product is brilliant the smell shouldn't matter but for me I struggle to use a product on my face when I hate the smell and I definitely did not enjoy this smell. However, I still went ahead and tried the products as I definitely had high hopes for it.

As for the actual product, I really didn't like it as my skin just didn't absorb it. I'm not sure whether I just have strange skin but this moisturiser just wouldn't sink into my skin which left my face feeling sticky and wet for ages. After waking up in the morning my skin didn't feel any different which probably is due to the fact the moisturiser just sat on my skin and didn't sink in. In my opinion: what is the point of using a moisturiser if it doesn't moisturise? 

Overall I'm definitely not impressed which is a shame as I was expecting better things since I always hear brilliant things about the brand. I definitely don't think it is worth the £21.99 price tag!

The Dreamy Sleep Night Time Moisturiser can be purchased from here.

Have you tried any products from Elemis? Would you recommend them?

Thanks for reading!

NOTD: spring dots

Hey guys,

Today's post is a NOTD that in my opinion, is perfect for spring time. I've tried to do dots many time but they've never looked great but this time I was rather impressed if I do say so myself. The colours used are 'smarty pants' by George (can be bought from ASDA) and all nude by MUA which can be bought here. To actually create the dots I used a dotting tool which I bought from ebay ages ago for around £1.50.

What are you favourite nail designs for spring?

Thanks for reading!

xxx

New year, new me.

Hello guys,

I know that we're in April now (it's my birthday this Sunday, yay!) and most people try to lose weight at the beginning of the year but it's better late than never right?

For years now I have wanted to lose weight but to be honest, my will power is almost none existent as is my motivation and I just love food so I've always struggled sticking to any sort of diet. However, someone told me about the 'MyFitnessPal' app for iPhone which is basically an app which allows you to log your food intake, your exercise and helps you to work towards a goal that you set. Since nothing else has worked for me I thought I'd give this a go and it has definitely worked!

Since using this app I have realised that my biggest problem was just overeating, whether this was portion sizes that are too big or just eating when I'm not actually hungry whereas now I eat better sizes and a reasonable amount of food.

Along with losing weight I have also decided that I also want to be healthier so have joined a gym and started going running but have also bought some little weights, a yoga mat and a yoga ball to do in my house. As for motivation, I've found that exercising at the gym or going running with a friend really helps me to push on and get a good workout done. Music is also my friend when working out as it keeps me upbeat and in the mood.

Food wise, I have been eating healthier but I've still been eating everything I enjoy just in moderation, this means that I've still had takeaways and chocolate but just not as often as I used to. One of my favourite healthier things to eat are lettuce wraps. I use a lettuce leaf, fill it with tuna, a bit of chopped up onion and some cheese and then wrap the lettuce leaf up. They are extremely delicious and an alternative opinion to having a tortilla wrap for lunch.

When I'm not going to the gym or going running then I do exercise at home either on an exercise bike or using my weights/yoga ball. I often follow workouts posted on the ToneItUp youtube channel that you can find here.

Below are some of the pictures that I have posted on my instagram in relation to me going running/working out and a picture of the lettuce wraps that I mentioned above. You can find my instagram here and I would love for you to follow me :).

Since starting this journey in January I have lost 15 pounds and I'm extremely proud of myself for finally having the motivation to stick to something!

I hope that this post has either giving you some motivation or that you have at least found it interesting!

Thanks for reading.

xxx

NOTD: Essie 'Cascade Cool'

Hey guys

So although my nails haven't been this plain in a while, they are currently plain as I absolutely love this colour which is cascade cool by Essie. I think this is such a gorgeous pink colour and I will definitely be getting a lot of wear out of it throughout spring and summer. I've also started to develop an essie collection and I'm really starting to love the formula. I find it's very long lasting although some essie polishes have better formula than others. I used three coats in the picture below although I could have got away with only two.

I bought cascade cool from here for only £1.99 and they also sell different essie shades for the same price (such a bargain!)

What's your favourite Essie shade?

Thanks for reading 

xx

My top 5 favourite lip products

Hey guys, hope you're all well. 

Today I thought I would share with you my top 5 favourite lip products as I actually have quite a few now (I'm blaming blogging!) and thought this post might interest some of you. I mostly wear lipsticks and Revlon lip butters nowadays so it's not surprising that my top 5 consist of those. 

[Left to right: Revlon lip butter in 'Cotton Candy', Revlon lip butter in 'Berry Smoothie', MUA lipstick in 'Shade 15 Juicy', MUA lipstick in 'Shade 9' and Revlon matte lipstick in 'Mauve It Over'].

I adore Revlon lip butters and have posted a review about some of the ones I own here. I love the fact they are so easy to wear and if I don't feel like wearing lipstick I always grab one of these. The two I wear most are cotton candy and berry smoothie and I absolutely love them. You can buy the lip butters here for £7.99.

Like the Revlon lip butters, I also love the lipsticks from the brand MUA. At only £1 each they are extremely cheap and I find that they are very good quality. I have posted a review on some of the colours I own here. My two most reached for MUA lipsticks are shade 15 'juicy' and shade 9 as I find they're extremely easy to wear everyday and aren't too over the top for uni. Out of the two shade 9 is definitely my favourite but I love them both. You can buy the lipsticks here.

Lastly in my top 5 favourite lip products is a Revlon matte lipstick in 'mauve it over'. This is the only Revlon lipstick I own so far and I adore it. I think the colour is perfect and really like the fact it is a matte that doesn't dry out my lips. I wrote a review about it here. You can buy this lipstick here for £7.49.

What are your most worn lip products?

Thanks for reading

xx

Two attempts at nail art

I don't know about you guys but recently I've become extremely interested in nail art and now rarely find myself with my nails painted with just one colour. I thought I would do this post to show to two designs that I have tried recently and loved!

This is the first design I did. To get the three different colours I painted my nails white and then painted  a yellow, pink and blue line onto a sponge and then printed it onto my white nails. I love the fact this doesn't have to look neat but still looks rather effective anyway. To create the leopard print on my ring finger I used a dotting tool and a cocktail stick and followed a tutorial similar to the one here. Once dry I then sealed with a clear top coat.

The second design is probably my favourite one out of the two as it was the easiest but looks like I spent a lot of time and effort doing it (which I didn't to be honest). The tutorial I used to create this design was this one but I chose not to add more dots. 

Overall I loved both of these designs and will definitely be trying them again. I also got a lot of compliments whilst wearing these including a sales assistant and a woman who works at my university who both asked me if I did them myself/how.

What do you think of these designs?

Thanks for reading!

xx

Nail polish swatch sticks

Hello everyone

If you're like me and have many different nail varnishes then it makes choosing a colour often a task. To make this an easier task, whilst browsing Ebay one day I came across a nail art stick fan which I thought would be perfect to swatch all of my nail varnishes so that I can instantly see which nail varnish I want.

As you can see from the picture above, I've painted the nail end of the sticks and then using cut up labels, I've written the nail varnish brand and shade so I know exactly what colour I'm looking for.

The fan comes with 50 individual sticks and a large screw and bolt to hold the fan together. As I have more than 50 nail varnishes I have bought a second fan and I'm just waiting to get around to swatching the remainder of my nail varnish colours. 

I absolutely love this idea and it has honestly made it so much easier for me to choose a colour to paint my nails and also to see what nail colours work well together.

Do you think this is a good idea?

You can buy the fans here in white like I have or clear for 99p and 73p postage.

Thanks for reading

xx

How can you follow me?

Hello guys,

As many of you will know, Google Reader is going so many people are finding alternative options for their readers to continue to read their blog posts and I'm one of them people!

I really appreciate every single one of you who read my blog and would love it if you would continue to follow my blog once Google Reader has gone.

Other ways in which you can follow me:

Bloglovin

Instagram

Blog Twitter

Personal Twitter

Thanks for reading

 xx

Review: Passion Peel Off Face Mask

Hey guys!

I apologise as this post is quite overdue since I received this face mask from Montagne Jeunesse at the beginning of February (oops!). As a major lover of Montagne Jeunesse face masks I was only too happy to try this product and thought I would share my thoughts on it with you. 

What they say: "Gently peel away dead skin with our amazing Passion Peel Off deep cleansing masque. Our Pomegranate and Passion Flower formula cleans, purifies and protects leaving your skin feeling fresh and radiant".

These masks are also suitable for vegetarians and Montagne Jeunesse always try to use natural ingredients where possible. 

What I thought: Generally when it comes to masks I prefer the clay or mud masks as I find they do more for my skin than peel off masks. However, I was pleasantly surprised by this mask and will definitely be seeing what other peel off masks are available! 

After cleansing my face I put the mask on and waited for it to dry. One thing I'm always impressed about when using Montagne Jeunesse products is the amount of product you get in one sachet, it's always very generous! 

The smell wasn't my favourite as I'm not a lover of pomegranate which was the only down side for me but it wasn't horrible enough for me to remove it from my face so I wasn't too bothered by it.

Once the mask was dry, I peeled it from my face (there is definitely something appealing about peeling it off or is it just the child in me?) and noticed how soft and clear my face felt.

Overall I'm very impressed with this product and would definitely purchase it in the future but maybe a different scent. For more information about this product click here.

The passion peel off face mask is available in ASDA and other leading retailers or online here.

Have you tried this?

Thanks for reading!

NOTD: black leopard print

Hello guys,

I know my last post was a NOTD as well but I promise I have some different posts coming for you shortly!

Recently I've been trying out different nail designs and after seeing a tutorial on instagram of how to do a leopard print design I thought I would give it a go and I'm extremely impressed with how it turned out.

Sorry about the picture, my nails look a bit untidy and I currently have some dry skin on my fingers (ew!).

To create this design I used a dotting tool to create the spots and then using a cocktail stick I drew black lines surrounding the spots and random dots and lines around the spots. I actually found this really easy to do and I'll hopefully get better with practice! I think painted the rest of my nails black and finished with a top coat when all my nails were dry. The nail polishes used were: Essence - black is back, MUA - all nude, MUA - shade 16 and Beauty UK - burgundy.

What have you been wearing on your nails recently?

Thanks for reading!

NOTD: Blue Ombre

Hello guys,

Due to being so busy with university recently I haven't had any time to post so I thought I'd show you a nail design that I did last week. 

For a while now I've wanted to try the 'ombre' nail design but always thought it looked far too difficult. After looking at a tutorial online I realised it wasn't actually too hard and was extremely pleased with the outcome.

I'd like to apologise for the messy picture, it was taken from my instagram.

I'm really happy with how it turned out and it definitely spiced up two normal nail colours. If you would like to recreate this look, the tutorial I used can be found here. 

I used the colours No7 stay perfect nail colour (shade unknown) and Essie (bikini so teeny).

Thanks for reading

MUA 3 in 1 Extreme Contour Eye Pen

Hello everyone

If you've been reading my blog for a while then you'll probably be aware of the fact that I love makeup from the brand MUA (Makeup Academy). Not only do they offer extremely affordable prices, generally their products are very good quality. 

Today I have a 3-1 extreme contour eye pen in 'black' to show you that only costs a mere £1.50. 

Personally I'm a girl who loves eye liners and use pencil/pen liners with every makeup look I create. I think that eye liner always adds something extra and therefore I'm always interested in trying new products.  

The idea of the 3 in 1 extreme contour eye pen is that it can be used in different ways due to the size of the end. You can use it to create thick or thinner lines as I have demonstrated in the picture below. 

Now for the actual product. I was actually surprised with how much of the actual products there is as I know that quite often with twist eye liners there isn't much product in them at all. The 3 in 1 contour pen is a dream to apply as it is extremely soft and transfers well. However, due to it being so soft it smudges very easily and I found that without using an eye primer it looked a bit of a mess (for £1.50, I don't really see this as a problem though). Due to it smudging easily it does however mean that it is very easy to work with especially when trying to create a smoky eye look.

As you can see from the swatches below, this definitely isn't a true black colour and as I'm a person who likes my eye liner to be very black I do find this an issue. However, this does layer very well which means it's not too much of an issue.

Overall this product is okay.  I wouldn't say I love it and it's definitely not the best MUA product I have tried. However, for the price its okay and I will use it and might try another colour to see if I like that any better.

You can buy the 3 in 1 extreme contour eye pen in Superdrug or online here.

Thanks for reading

Book Review: Easy by Tammara Webber

Hello!

You might not know this about me but there's nothing I enjoy more than losing myself in an amazing book and this book was definitely one of them.

This is one of those books that I can't really go into much detail about whilst reviewing as it will definitely spoil the book for you. Easy is basically a book about a college girl called Jacqueline as she struggles with different aspects of her life.

I absolutely adored the characters in this book which definitely made it more of an enjoyable read. Personally I feel as if Jacqueline is a character that many girls including myself can relate to and this definitely made it an easy read for me. 

Jacqueline's love interest is Lucas and he comes across as a very appealing boy (if you're like me, you'll love the fact that he's tattooed!) and I liked the fact that as a reader you're not really told much about him but you find out more as you go along. Easy is a story based upon romance, hurt, pain and betrayal and I absolutely adored it! I honestly couldn't recommend it enough.

Have you read this book? What is your favourite book?

MUA intense kisses lip gloss in 'Stolen Kisses'

Hey guys!

If you have read my post before last then you will know that I recently bought some MUA products and today's post I've decided to review one of them for you. The product I am going to be reviewing is an intense kisses lip gloss in 'stolen kisses'. 

When I was younger I used to wear lip glosses quite a lot but I actually hated them. I used to find that they were extremely sticky and too shiny and if there was even a bit of wind my hair was stuck to my lip and then covered in lip gloss (not my favourite look let me tell you). This meant that nowadays I steer clear of lip glosses and would much rather wear a lipstick. However, after seeing a great review on the intense kisses lip gloss in 'stolen kisses' I decided to give it a go as it looked truly beautiful and it only costs a mere £2.

As you can probably tell by the picture above, this lip gloss is extremely pigmented. Whilst on the lips it doesn't feel at all sticky and applies very evenly which I definitely think is brilliant. As for the packaging, because it only costs £2 I expected it to look rather cheap but in my opinion it actually looks quite nice. It has a wear time of around 3 hours which I think it good for a lip gloss, especially considering the price!

Overall I'm very impressed with this lip gloss and it has completely changed my opinion on lip glosses; I will definitely be on the look out for some of the other colours!

Have you tried this lip gloss?

Thanks for reading.