The A-Z of Me

Afternoon lovely people!

I know the image has absolutely nothing to do with the post but being that the post is about me and I'm British AND jubilee weekend is coming up, I felt it apt! What a loose connection I've made there haha!

I saw this tag on Louise's amazing blog and thought it looked like fun and a nice way of you getting to know me a little more! If you have done or do this tag in the future be sure to link it in the comments so I can have a read!

Age: The ripe-old age of 21!

Bed size: Double - I could not stand to have a single although I only sleep on one side even when I'm on my own!

Chore you hate: Most, I'm pretty lazy! But I think my worst has to be emptying the dishwasher!

Dogs: Well I've got a gorgeous tan lab/retriever so I'd have to say he's my fave!

Essential start of your day: I can't function without a shower to wake me up!

Favourite colour: I love them all and it really depends on my mood! I'm loving mint green at the moment but I'm a girly girl at heart so probably pink!

Gold or silver: Gold for costume jewellery and silver for the real stuff! (ie wedding rings etc)

Height: 5ft4"

Instruments I play: I used to play the flute (badly!), and piano but no more :(

Job Title: Student

Kids: Not yet but I'd love three!

Live: Buckinghamshire

Mum's Name: Susan <3

Nickname: Abs

Pet peeve: ignorance, fakeness, lying

Quote from a movie: "SO CAN WE GO TO IBIZAAA???", "I think I've answered that question Kevin, nooo!" Kevin and Perry Go Large!

Right or left handed: Right

Siblings: Big brother, 25. Big sister, 28. Brother-in-law (married to my sis), 28. 

Time you wake up: At the moment it's whenever I please (don't hate ;) cos I've just finished uni for the year and am not working at the moment. (Working in South Africa for the summer - more about that later)

Underwear: I like lace and bright colours!

Vegetables you dislike: None really!

What makes you run late: Bad hair day/nothing to wear/make up going wrong!

X-rays you've had done: Only teeth for braces when I was younger (I was a geeky kid!)

Yummy food you make: I love making (and eating) a good cupcake or 12!

Zoo animal: I love monkeys, I want one for a pet! 

Thanks for reading beauties!

Image courtesy of http://www.weheartit.com

Just Another Manic(ure) Monday!

Hey ladies! Enjoying the glorious weather?!
























                                                                                                                                                                 

                                                                                                                                                                  

Here are my current nails! The amazing sunshine and temperatures we are experiencing in England at the moment inspired me to do something bright and fun! I used Barry M's Flamingo Pink as my base colour (a gorgeous luminous pink) and Molten Copper from Accessorize (but purchased from Boots) for the glitter accent, a beautiful rose gold glitter. 

I have a couple of other glitter polishes for the Accessorize range as well and I'm really impressed with them! This look was achieved with only two thin coats and you can barely see the colour underneath!

How are you making the most of the weather?! I've been spending lots of time with friends outside, barbecuing and just chilling out! 

Thank you for reading! xxx

Just Another Manic(ure) Monday!

Happy Monday lovelies! Do you like the post title? Haha, I think I'll try and make these a regular thing so I can show you my nails of the week in a more structured way! Anyway, this week it's polka dots! What do ya think?

The base colour is the gorgeous Tropical Temptation from Revlon. A lovely coral shade, which is perfect for the summer months! I call this my 'sophisticated coral' as I feel like it's a more grown up shade than some other corals I have in my collection such as Barry M's Coral or Essie's Tart Deco.

The polka dots were achieved using my Model's Own nail art pen in white. As the below pictures show, the product comes with a striper and a 'dotter?' (the bottom pic) which I used to achieve this look. Now, as I've previously stated, I don't have the steadiest of hands so I've never really been one for very detailed nail art. I know this isn't detailed and is extremely basic but I think it's so cute and summery! And the nail art pen made it really easy to achieve! It also comes in pink, yellow and blue and I picked mine up in Boots for £6. However, similar ones are available on eBay in a wider range of colours.    

Do you like it as much as I do? What are you sporting on your nails at the moment? Thanks for reading! xx

Current Favourite: Lipstick

Hey lovelies! Hope you are all doing well! As I'm a student and unfortunately don't have a huge disposable income every month (boohoo) I don't get to try enough new products to warrant monthly favourite posts. So I thought I would just do 'Current Favourite' posts as and when something really stands out to me. For the last couple of months it has been this beaut of a lipstick!

I present to you Rimmel's Moisture Renew Lipstick in shade 180 Vintage Pink. It's a gorgeous plum shade which I feel suits my skin tone well (Mac NC20-25). Recently I have become really lazy with my make-up routine so have just been ditching the eyeshadow and liner and just applying tons of mascara and this gorge lip colour and away I go! (Of course foundation, bronzer, eyebrows etc could never be ditched!)

As far as the 'Moisture Renew' claim goes - it definitely isn't a drying lippie but I don't think it's particularly moisturising either. It leaves a nice glossy finish on the lips so I don't usually apply a gloss over the top but staying power isn't amazing, probably due to the glossy factor! I'd say it lasts about an hour on my lips tops (and that's without eating or drinking etc). However, I am on the lookout for a plum lip liner to wear underneath to prolong the staying power!

What do you think? It's pretty isn't it! Although it's not a particularly summery shade I have never been into lighter lip colours and could never pull off a nude lip so this is right up my street! It's available here and in most drugstores and it's only £6.29!!

Overall, I would highly recommend not just this shade but the Rimmel Moisture Renew Lippies in general as they have a wide range of shades (another fave of mine is Soft Coral) and are really good quality for such a bargainous prize!

Thank you so much for reading and commenting! It truely does make my day! xxx

Rimmel Wake Me Up vs Bourjois 123 Perfect Foundation

Hey girlies! Hope you're all doing well! Today I bring you my thoughts on two of the newest drugstore foundations on the market. There's been a lot of hype surrounding both of these products online so you may well have already read several reviews on each but as we are all different and different things work for all of us I thought I'd give you my input. :)

How they are marketed: Wake Me Up is advertised as an having an 'anti-fatigue effect and radiant glow' - two claims that I would definitely say are true. 123 Perfect is said to contain 3 colour correcting pigments - yellow to hide dark circles, purple to correct a dull complexion and green to conceal redness.

Coverage: I would say both of these are medium coverage but can be built up to medium-full.

Finish: 123 Perfect has a matte finish whereas Wake Me Up is much more dewy. Wake Me Up definitely needed to be set with a powder on my skin whereas 123 Perfect didn't. I preferred the finish that Wake Me Up gives as I have never really liked the matte finish and I felt like Wake Me Up made me look fresher and more (excuse the pun) 'awake' than 123 Perfect did. It definitely does what it says on the tin!!

Application: I applied both of these with the amazing Real Techniques Buffing Brush which everyone is raving about at the moment. Seriously, if you haven't got this already I would HIGHLY recommend it!! However, 123 Perfect has a more watery consistency than Wake Me Up so was a little harder to apply with this brush and needed more product.

Price: Wake Me Up on the Boots website: £8.99 for 30ml. 123 Perfect on Boots website: £10.99 for 30ml although it's on introductory offer at the mo for £6.99!

Staying Power: Both have quite average staying power. Nothing compared to Revlon Colourstay or Rimmel Lasting Finish 25hr - two of my faves, but still relatively good. I'd say they both lasted about 10-12 hours but Wake Me Up stayed looker fresher for longer.

Overall: Without a doubt my favourite out of the two is the Rimmel Wake Me Up. Not only does it cost less, it leaves a much nice finish on my skin, is easier to apply and stays looking nicer for longer. However, take note that I have normal/dry skin. I do think that Wake Me Up wouldn't work on oily skin because it does have such a dewy finish. For that reason I think 123 Perfect would be better for people with oily skin but not great on people with dry skin because it's so matte! One negative of the Wake Me Up I would say though is that it did give me bad flashback in pictures because it has SPF15, a problem I didn't experience with 123 Perfect.

Wake Me Up available here. 123 Perfect available here.

I hope this was helpful to some of you! What are your favourite foundations at the moment?
xxx

Lush: No Drought Dry Shampoo

Hello again girlies!
So this post is a bit more positive than my last! I think I've found a new holy grail product! I have been an avid dry shampoo user for a good few years now. Because my hair is dry and damaged I like to wash it as infrequently as I can get away with (usually every 2-3 days) to try and keep the damage at bay so since discovering dry shampoo it has been my bestie mate as I'm not a fan of the slick and greasy look!

I've tried a few of the dry shampoos on the market - Batiste, Superdrug, Boots but hands down this one is the winner. None of the others I have tried even come close.

Smell: 
No Drought has a beautiful citrus-y, fresh, clean fragrance that reminds me of sipping on cloudy lemonade in the summer, described by Lush as 'grapefruit and lime scented'. When I first watched/read reviews on this and heard that was the smell I was expecting toilet cleaner but defo not! It also doesn't have the artificially sweet smell of Batiste or the metallic smell of Superdrug's.

White residue:
This was another thing I was a little apprehensive about before I tried this. Since dying my hair dark I have used the dry shampoo specifically formulated for dark hair but as Lush doesn't make one of those I was a little worried this one would give me white roots. It really doesn't though! I tip a small amount into my hand, rub them together, tip my head upside down and apply all over, ensuring I've rubbed it in thoroughly. I then brush my hair through to make sure I've removed any excess and this method has never given me a white root problem!

Price:
At £6.50 it is a little more expensive than the others I have tried which range from about £2-£4. Having said that, this bottle will last ages because you only need the tiniest amount, a little goes a long way and because it isn't an aerosol it is easier to measure how much you are using.

So does it work?
Yes yes yes! I can confidently say it is the best dry shampoo I have used. It keeps my hair not only looking and smelling fresh between washes but it also feels fresh which I often find others don't do. I hate the sticky residue-y feeling the other ones I previously mentioned leave in my hair!

I picked mine up in my local Lush store but it is also available here.

What is your fave dry shampoo? Hope you're all having lovely days! Thanks for reading! xx

NAIL FAIL!

Evening ladies!
So I've been really interested in trying nail foils for a while now - ever since they became popular and I saw them popping up in lots of shops, YT videos and blogposts. You all know how much I enjoy beautifying my nails, but I don't have the steadiest of hands or the most creative flare so nail art has never really been my strong point. So the idea of having a pretty, intricate, perfect little design on each of my fingers with little to no fiddling around and zero drying time massively appealed to me! However, the £5-£7 price tag most certainly did not. It just seems a little steep to me for only one or two uses. So imagine my joy when I saw these little beauties in Primark for only £1! Yep, that's right a quid! Bargain! I only saw this design and one other which was equally as attractive to me but I thought I'd just pick up this one in case I didn't get on with them or they weren't very good quality. I'm glad I refrained from buying two!

 The packet contains 10 foils shaped for fingers and 10 for toes.

 NOT A GREAT LOOK! As you can see the foils didn't really work for me! I found that they ripped very easily even though I was sure to take care whilst applying. They were very fragile which could be an indication of the quality but as I have not tried any other nail foils from more expensive brands I can't be sure whether this is just the way they are and I need some more practice! Regardless, they were not easy to work with and I am still finding little sticky gold and black bits everywhere as they seemed to stick everywhere except my nails! When it came to removing them (which I promptly did as soon as taking these pictures!), that was a bit of a nightmare as well! Nail polish remover doesn't work with these so I had to scrape them off each nail which was tedious and a bit gross!

 Overall, I wouldn't recommend these as I think the quality is poor and they definitely didn't have the desired effect. I think I would have had less trouble trying to create this design myself with polish and nail art pens even with my unsteady hand! However, maybe it is just my poor nail foiling skills and I need a bit more practice! Have you tried these or any other nail foils? Did you experience the same problems as me? Let me know! xx                                                                                                                                                               

Back with a NOTD!

Hey girlies! I hope you are all doing well. I am soo sorry for my lack of posts over the last month or so! I've had lots of deadlines at uni so have been a bit of a busy bee but I have a bit more time now so am hoping to post more frequently!

Today I bring you possibly my favourite nail look I have ever had! I think the look is so unique and looks like a party's going on on my nails!

The base colour is the perfect nude shade. It's by Nails Inc but I received it free in an issue of In Style magazine a few years ago now. However, there are soo many dupes out there for this. The beautiful sparkles over the top are courtesy of H&M's Confetti polish. It is the most unique bottle of gorgeousness! The glitters are more like different sized bits of coloured foil than actual glitter and the below effect is the result of two coats. Although I am partial to disco ball nails from time to time, I really enjoy the sparse effect this gives! (By the way, although I tried my hardest to capture the beauty of this polish, lighting and camera quality were against me so you'll have to check it out yourself to witness it's true loveliness!)

Unfortunately, I was unable to find the link on the H&M website for this polish :( but I picked mine up in store for £2.99. I have talked about my love of H&M polishes before and Confetti has definitely heightened that love!
What are you all sporting on your nails currently?
Thank you for reading! xxx