NOTD: Blinging Mint

As you know, I very recently did a nail of the day post but a mix of bordum and a touch of heavy lifting left my changing up my blinging french manicure for something less sophisicated but still as bling worthy. Im still loving 'Razzmatazz', a nail polish from TopShop so I wanted to encorporate it into another post.

This time I decided on a solid colour base and of course my eyes were drawn to 'Jade Stone' by Model's Own. It is a gorgeous mint green colour and a nice dupe for Essie's Mint Candy Apple in my opinion. I then topped this with a coat of Razzmatazz. 

'Jade Stone' with 'Razzmatazz on top

What I love about Razzmatazz is how densely packed the glitter is. Too often I find a gorgeous glitter polish to apply it and you are left with a barely noticeable coat of glitter. This polish is jam packed with lots of blue and silver tints to it. Unfortunately when you picture this look the camera picks up the blue in the glitter meaning the base doesn't look as green as it should be but I assure you it is a gorgeous minty green.

As you can also see my nails got a good chop this week. I love my nails long but as I have short nail beds my long nails curl in slightly when they are getting very long. Its nice to have them short for a change, but you do miss the length when you have an itch :)

What is your go to summer colour?

ELF 50% Sale is back!

ELF,  or eyes lips face as it is also known, sells good quality but affordable make-up and it is having a massive 50% off sale for the next 3 days so make your order fast! I will point out that a lot of stuff is out of stock which is a common problem with ELF UK but can you really complain with a massive 50% off?

Use the code: INDEMAND50

I have ordered from ELF before and have been extremely impressed with the quality and price - I think a big order is on the cards!

This eyebrow kit in ash is the first on my list...

Eyebrow Kit in Ash

What will you be hauling today?

NOTD: French Manicure Razzmatazzed...

There is nothing more sophisticated than a nice French manicure but lets face it - it is a bit boring?

I recently purchased the TopShop Nail polish Razzmatazz and it is the perfect shade to add a bit of bling to your manicure.

TopShop Razzmatazz on ring finger tip.

Firstly apologies for the slightly dodge nail lines, the new guides i bought of eBay rip the base coat off even if it has had overnight to dry! Also my camera's picture quality at the moment is playing up. I may work in IT but cameras are not my strong point haha! I contemplated putting Razzmatazz on all the tips but I think just adding it to the ring finger adds a suttle bling! And I love my bling!

My base coat at the moment is OPI Nail Envy as my nails are getting quite long and I'm trying to strengthen them as much as possible. I then use Model's Own 'Snow White' for the tips and then one of the mini's I got from the OPI NYC Ballet Mini Collection called 'Care to Danse' for the base. Its a really sheer pale pink colour and is perfect for a mani. In hindsight I probably should have put two coats of it on as it is very sheer and the pink is hard to pick up.

What is your favourite way to Jazz up a simple French Manicure?

Steph
xox

TopShop Make-up Haul!

I'm very late jumping on the TopShop make up bandwagon I know! I always thought the packaging was adorable but for some reason it never screamed 'Buy Me!' but on a quick sale rail browse today I passed the make-up and I really could not resist...

First I bought one of their cream blushes in Flush. Its a beautiful pinky coral colour and will be perfect for summer. The colour looks seriously scary in the pan, but it goes on fairly sheer (providing you have a steady hand!) and it is definitely build-able.

TopShop Blush in Flush.

The next thing i bought was a lipstick in Secret Admirer. Its a beautiful pinky nude, and perfect for those who want a lipstick that prefers an understated look.

TopShop Lipstick in Secret Admirer

Swatches L-R: Blush in Flush, Lipstick in Secret Admirer.

Mummy's Know Best!

Mummy's are the Greatest! Not only do they make you smile, teach you everything you know and comfort you when you are sad, they also pass down make-up tips and tools when you need them most!

I have terrible dark circles which have the tendency to get me down so I have tried all the concealers I can get my hands on. I love love love benefits erase paste, but it is seriously creamy and i find it slips throughout the day so after a good whine to my mother she went to her room and brought me down this little beauty... Estee Lauder Double Wear Concealer!

Estee Lauder Double Wear Concealer Deep 04

.

The shade is a tad too dark for me, but it works great under my foundation for added coverage.

Its even too dark on my tanned hands haha!


I usually apply this with the elf concealer blush and blend lightly with my fingers and then add my foundation. Over than I then put a touch of the L'oreal Touche Magique (Which is a great dupe for YSL's touche eclait!) to brighten the under eye area.

Touche Magique Shade Ivory Beige

With both of these products I find my concealer stays put and my dark circles are no more!
You have to love a Mummy hand me down!

Steph

The leopard Manicure...

Ages ago I attempted leopard print on my nails. Surprisingly, it is very easy to do and using regular leopard colours I made a pretty good attempt...

Leopard Nails

Excuse the picture! The picture was taken when it was very dark around. For the base i used Model's Own - Gold Rush and then for the 'spots' I used a taupe colour (I cannot for the life of me find the actual colour but any taupe brown colour will work!). I then used the Model's own nail art pen to do emphasise the spots. This may seem complicated, but basically all you have to do is draw round the brown splodges you make. I tend to completely outline some, outline part of the spot and then add a few all black spots in large gaps. It is also good to add some different thickness's. This was honestly my first try and believe me it is fairly fool proof and looks really different and interesting. Plus it also makes you look like you are a near professional (at least on your non-writing hand anyway :) )

Today i decided to try the leopard nails again when it dawned on me that I read a blog post a while ago ( I cannot for the life of me remember who's blog it was on, so if you read this comment below and I will link to your post) using a multicoloured leopard effect so I decided to give it a try...

MultiColoured Leopard Nails

I did these in a semi rush so apologies about the neatness but i totally love the effect. Obviously it will look better with a tan (white nails always do) but I have already had a bunch of compliments on them already so girls/guys get painting! I used Model's Own - Snow White as the base and did various spots using Barry M - Coral, China Glaze - Gothic Lolita, Model's Own - Jade Stone, Model's Own - Feeling blue and China Glaze - Fushia Fanatic. I also used the Models own nails art pen in black for the outline. There are many different types of nail art pen and frankly I have only used very few so cannot tell you that the model's own version is better but it is a good pen and i got both my white and black pens whilst on promotion where you buy 2 polishes and get the pen free (I think this is on in boots at the moment so hurry down)! I cannot vouch for the pen but Model's Own nail polishes are great quality and the formula and brushes are as good as my OPI. They have an amazing colour range and are slowly becoming my favourite brand of nail polish! The price of £5 may help too!

Hope yous are having a wonderful week!

Steph

xxx

Sunny Days & Polka Dot Nails...

Isn't the sun wonderful? It puts everyone in a better mood and the sunglasses and bright clothing comes out!

As usual, I have picked up a few new products over the last week while some which I need to show you!

Firstly, anyone that reads blogs knows about those products that take over blogosphere and everyone and their mother blogs about them. Whilst in boots over the weekend I intended to do just this and Pick up Essie - Mint Candy Apple from the new diffusion line. As I was heading for the till I noticed that models own were offering a free nail art pen with every two purchases. Immediately I grabbed one of those other cult products - Indian Ocean and then I spotted a gorgeous mint green. I love Model's Own formula, they’re cheaper and I actually prefer the slightly deeper colour.

L-R: Jade Stone, White Nail Art Pen, Indian Ocean

And of course the nail art pen has come in handy...

Using Model's Own Nail Art Pen & Rimmel Lycra Pro Urban Princess 

The next thing I shamelessly picked up was the Revlon lip butters. I’m not the biggest lipstick fan so really I have no idea what drew me to these but I am glad I picked them up. I mainly wear a bit of Carmex and a lip gloss when I’m out but these are worth all the hype. They come in gorgeous shades, are shamelessly creamy and at £7.99 they aren't the most expensive lip product.

Top - Strawberry Shortcake, Bottom - Cupcake

L-R - Strawberry Shortcake, Cupcake

The next thing I picked up was a new moisturiser that I had read about on another blog. The Good Things Miracle Mattifer is a moisturiser made of entirely natural products and helps keep the skin matte throughout the day. The moisturiser was £7.99 and for that price I wasn’t expecting miracles, but it truly is such a good makeup base and I do feel that my makeup lasts a lot longer whilst wearing this! It is defiantly worth the hype!

Good Things Miracle Mattifer - Boots £7.99

Finally I picked up a baby Sudocrem for on the go! Sudocrem should be a staple in every girls make up routine. I have tried countless spot treatments and I don’t think anything works as well as Sudocrem. It dries the spot out without making it look really flaky so I love it plus look how cute the baby tube is!

Baby Sudocrem!

That's all my lovelies! Enjoy the Sunshine :)

Steph

xxx

Swatchy Swatchy...

Hello Beautifuls!

As promised here are a few swatches of all the lovely nail polishes I have purchased over the last wee while. I'm really pleased with them all apart from golden peach. With a tan it is beautiful but against my paler skin it gives me a sort-of sickly glow but it is still a beautiful colour. I will just have to tan more often - Hello St. Moriz!

China Glaze Gothic Lolita

Model's Own Golden Peach

China Glaze Electric Beat

Model's Own Aqua Violet

Apologises for the dodgy painting, especially on electric beat. Most of the painting was done on the go!

Which one is you favourite?

Love
Steph
xxx

Buy Now Syndrome...

Buy now syndrome is a serious condition and whilst I have been neglecting my blog I have been seriously sick with a bit of buy now syndrome. Now this is not a post to brag in anyway. I bought all this stuff with my own money and over a period of around a month so there was no one big splurge. This was also helped by my handy student card and a salon services discount card! So i hope you enjoy this sort of post. If not you know where the comments go... :)

Nailpolish is a guilty pleasure of mine. I see a pretty colour and I have to buy it - Im a magpie in human form! Over the last month I have bought a shameful amount of nail polishes but I have no regretted a single one! I will post swatches in a later post, so you will just have to cope with the bottles for now...

L-R: Bleu Violet, Bleu Asphalte

L-R: Fuchsia Fanatic, Electric Beat, Gothic Lolita

L-R: Rimmel Nail Rescue, Sally Hansen Insta-Dri

L-R: OPI Russian Navy, Barry M 311

Model's Own Golden Peach

Models Own Aqua Violet

Sorry about the rubbish pictures. My Camera died so I am stuck with my silly iPhone Camera.

Anyways after the nail polish i turned my attention to shoes. I have wanted a pair of Toms for a while. I have heard how amazing comfy they are and I like the idea that if you buy a pair a pair of shoes will be sent to a child in Africa who needs new shoes. At £35 they are quite expensive for what they are but out of all the pairs I have tried there is no comparison to the Toms, so I finally caved and bought a pair. After purchasing I found a lovely similar pair in New look which at £7.99 were a total bargain and although they are not as comfy, they are just as nice!

L-R: Navy Toms £35, New Look £7.99

I also went into lush to pick up a bubblegum lip scrub. I heard a lot about this in the blogging world and you truly do need to smell it to believe how good it smells. The scrub leaves you lips so smooth and there is not a bit of dry skin to be seen. My boyfriend even used it (Not that he will ever admit it!) after he worked with cement all day and was left with terribly dry lips. After using this it does leave you with soft lips but I like to use some Carmex over the top to give them a nice shine.

Finally I have an update on the bobbi brown foundation I raved about. After a while the foundation really lost its wow factor. I still like the consistency and the dewy glow it gave me but the coverage isn't the best, so I decided to look for a new foundation and ended up picking two! I'm suffering with bad breakouts at the moment due to an intense amount of stress! So I decided to try Clinque's Anti-blemish solutions liquid make up. It has medium coverage but it is defiantly buildable and really has helped with my breakouts. I wear shade 02. To Counteract this I ended up caving and buying Estee Lauder's Double Wear light. I also loved double wear but I hated the heavy feeling it left me with. The light version gave me the same amount of coverage but didn't seem to feel as 'cakey' on my skin. My only issue with this foundation is the shade range is appalling. I ended up with Shade 02 but realistically I needed a shade 2 and a half. It has a tendency to wash me out, so I have to mix it with a darker foundation which really defeats the purpose. I would recommend both foundations. I don't know if any of them will be repurchased but If you can get double wear light to match your skin then it is defiantly one to buy!

Double Wear Light £26.50

Clinique Anti Blemish Solutions £22

Well I hope you enjoyed this post! I'm feeling incredibly guilty for spending so much but awk well you only live once!

Stay tuned for some swatches of all the nail polish purchases!

Steph

xxx

The Lust List...

I have been a terrible blogger! I mean truly terrible! I don’t think I have posted in almost a month! I would bore you with all the reasons why but I'll save you a few hours. In a nutshell I have been swamped with work, moved house and frankly I also found out that you can watch Jeremy Kyle on iplayer and this consumed my life for a considerable period of time. It really was a curse as opposed to a blessing as I assumed that having something to watch whilst I packed would make the whole process a hell of a lot easier but frankly I ended up drinking too much tea and getting sucked into the complex lives of these people. How one family can scream so loud baffles me every time! So essentially it took me twice as long to pack, I neglected my blog and probably killed a few brain cells – I am yet to decide if it was truly worth it.

Anyways onto this post…

Everyone should have a wish list. It is truly the best thing I ever did. Amazons universal wish list gives me an outlet to store everything I want in the world without me actually clicking the buy button. So here are a few things I defiantly want yet have zero money to purchase them (such is life eh!)

1)      The new iPad

This is serious lust! I have the first iPad and I am not lying when I say I love it to depth. It stays with me at all times and I do everything on it but then I experienced the new iPad! My brother, mother and I purchased one of these bad boys for my dad. To cut a long story short he didn't want it so my boyfriend bought it and I am literally the green eyed monster. I only want it for 2 specific features. 1) The camera – I want to face time too! And 2) The speed – I’m not going to bore you all with the techy side but mine is slow! It can’t play anything in HD and I frequently get a warning telling me that ‘This iPad cannot play this video, try anyway?’ It is infuriating! I will buy one when I stop spending all my money on nail polish and food but that isn't likely to happen in the near future – Sigh!

At £399 for the standard model it isn't cheap – I may resign from buying nail polish for at least 2 years!

   

2) Tweezerman Tweezers

These beauties have been on my wish list for ages! These I can afford but        every time I go to buy them I shudder at the price! I have heard amazing reports but frankly my 50p tweezers do the same thing but just take a longer time. £22 for tweezers is scary but look how pretty they are!

I seriously cannot resist an animal print.

3) Shamballa style Bracelet

I am a creature of habit. I wear the same jewellery every single day! The only time I don’t is when I’m out clubbing and that is of genuine fear that I will lose them and then break down in snotty drunken tears in the middle of a nightclub. So I stick to my staples; my zebra print toy watch (serious loveee!), my Pandora and my Thomas sabo. I think this bracelet will be a perfect addition to my already crowded wrists. Don’t get me wrong I don’t want a real one but there is this gorgeous one from Argento for a steal at £50!

 4) Books

As it is an Amazon wish list there are about 30 books I want to read on there. This is where a wish list really comes in handy. No one wants to buy a million books at once, so a wish list is a great place to store all your great finds until you are finished with the books you have. As I read electronically, I really do not need to stock up on books so this is where I store all the good ones I see. It is also useful for when you don’t want to preorder a book (you always run the risk of you forgetting about it and the money trying to come out when there is just no money there!) but you want to store it somewhere to remind you to get it when it's out.

      5) Iphone Case

I love quirky iphone cases. Currently mine is just a boring pink glitter one but I want something that stands out a bit more then I stumbled across this adorable case. At £17.82 it is on my wish list cause that price for a cover that does not protect the phone in any way is a bit steep, but its prettiness leaves me dangerously close to clicking the ‘buy now’ button

Hope you enjoyed this post. What would be on your wish list?

Stay tuned for a haul of all the various things I have actually clicked ‘buy now’ on in the past month!

Love

Steph

xxx

Wednesday Loves <3...

I hope everyone had a lovely Easter Break!

Back to some beauty blogging..

I have two new loves this week, Strawberry scents and blue nails!

I've always been a fan of strawberry scents, but sometimes they can be completely over-powering. Nothing beats the smell of Yankee Candle's - Strawberry butter cream but I have found the most beautiful smelling body butter ever! Its Body Shops Strawberry Body Butter and right now on-line there is 50% off all 200ml Body butters making it a steal at £6.25! Girls it is defiantly time to stock up while they are that price, i seen them in stores at the weekend for £18 so that truly is a bargain. 

Next is blue nails. I've always been a fan of navy on my nails and it always seems to be my go to colour, and recently I picked up a few model's own polishes and picked up a new navy (NP012 - In the Navy) when a lovely bright blue called 'Feeling Blue' caught my eye.

The colour is so bright and vibrant and my boyfriend referred to it as very 'Smurf' like - which is surprisingly accurate considering how little he notices usually haha. See the resemblence? 

To spice it up a bit on my ring finger I painted the nail then added electric blue glitter and sealed it with a top coat. I like adding something extra to my nails to make them stand out a bit more and usually it is a disaster, but surprisingly this one turned out well! I picked up 24 small pots of different coloured glitter on ebay for like £5 or alternatively you can get fine glitter in good crafts shops if you don't want to wait on long postage!

Finally one final bit of cuteness! I helped look after my boyfriends dog this weekend and she seriously is the cutest thing in the world, so I shall leave you to gaze at her loveliness.

Kisses

Steph

xxx

The Easter Blues...

I'm Stephanie and I have the Easter blues - they do say admitting it isthe first step to recovery right? I have a paid day off work and I feel pretty damn rubbish, which is odd becauseusually I’d be glad for a nice day off work. There are several reasons for thisof course, most of them just bad luck. First of all I went to the dentist todiscuss the extremely painful wisdom tooth that is currently tearing itselfthrough my poor gum. Now if your friend tells you they have a broken leg do youthen proceed to kick the leg to make sure it actually hurts? No, I’m sure younice people reading this would never do that! Yet my dentist still felt theneed to continuously poke it until I actually cried to which he responded"Flip it must hurt!" Luckily for him I’m polite and a bit of a scaredycat but it did take a lot of strength to hold myself back from screaming"No s*@t Sherlock!" FYI my tooth still hurts from the prodding!

Secondly a free day off is utterly fantastic but not so fantastic whenyour wonderful father's birthday falls on Easter Sunday and you have to ventureinto town to get the last bits of his present. This wouldn’t have been too badif the rest of the city hadn’t been off and also decided to venture into town -I have little patience and not one for shopping in crowds. Of course this was self-inflicted;clearly I was just kidding myself when I thought I could get in and out in ajiffy.

Now from the outset you really wouldn’t think I had the Easter blues as Iprobably laughed more today than I have in ages. That’s the joy of friends!After a horrid morning and an extremely busy city centre Alex came to the rescueand we were on a mission! She has a wedding to go to - but only the eveningbit. This always proves a dilemma as you need to dress more casual but howcasual can you go? Alex and I go out regularly and we have more dresses betweenus that we care to admit and we were embarrassed to see that actually none ofthe dresses we own have the correct wedding length! But then we wondered howshort can you actually go? You spend £30+ on a new dress for a wedding and ifyou wardrobe consists of dresses a hell of a lot shorter you probably won’twear it again, so we set off to find the impossible.

First we hit new look. I actually love this place. Cheap, stylish andStudent discount - what more could you want right? Yet after trying on a good20 dresses, some which were so laugh worthy it was unbelievable, we left emptyhanded! Similar situation in River Island and Jane Norman. We nearly found adress in Oasis but turns out some things defiantly look better on the hanger!So with aching feet and a rumbling tummy I was running out of patience withdress shopping, so I shipped her into Lipsy against her will. I get why shewanted to avoid the place, its crazy expensive but I was desperate! So aftertrailing the sail rails we found it!Tah Dah!

  Now this model must be scary tall cause it came just above the knee onAlex and was perfect - almost! Just when we thought we had the perfect dress wehad the size dilemma! The 10 was just not zipping up. I was physically sweatingtrying to do this and it was impossible - she blames her mother as like hermother she was blessed in the breast department! So I went hunting for a 12 butwould they have one? Of course not, they did have a 14 though which of coursezipped up like a dream but was a teeny tiny bit too big. It took me a good 20 minutesand a lot of begging but she finally bought it - I may have to learn how to sewand take it in for her mind you!

Then life looked up - a heavenly light some may say. I found a newfoundation! I have a day foundation and a night foundation which may seem a bitodd but when you work in an office full of 40 year old men who will neverappreciate a nice dewy finish you stick with a nice cheap foundation. This oneof course is rather pricy but will be perfect as my night foundation. It leavesan amazing dewy finish, has good coverage, the colour is perfect and is yellowbased!It’s Bobbi Browns Moisture Rich Foundation

So all in all it was shaping up to be a good day, I was on my way homewith my new perfect foundation, a bottle of wine and all the motivation Ineeded to write a blog post until I came home and realised I had run out ofoil. So I am writing this huddled under the duvet with a cup of peppermint teatrying to warm up.

Don't let the Easter blues happen to you! It’s pretty rubbish. But itmight shape up to be a good night. My amazing boyfriend has kindly agreed tolet me stay at his lovely warm house with movies, a takeaway and lots ofsweeties! At 20 you are allowed to eat your Easter eggs before Easter right?

Have a very blue free Easter!

Steph

xxx

So i&apos;m writing a blog...

I'm Steph & Welcome to my Blog! 

I contemplated writing this blog for a while now, actually I mainly contemplated whether to publish it or not.  It’s not that I don’t enjoy writing. I suppose I have been writing a blog to myself for a long time now, it just strikes me about being so open on public domain is a bit scary.  

The next challenge I faced was the topic the blog was going to follow. I personally don’t feel the world wants to know about how I lost a whole pound by running for a bus or when I feel like crying for no reason yet I am struggling to find what else to talk about. I then had a sort of epiphany and wondered if I actually needed a topic? I could easily just include all the things I love in the world without homing in on anything too particular. So it has been decided, this is going to be a blog about well... everything. Everything is a pretty broad word I suppose so I shall narrow it down a bit:

1.       Books – I love to read, and I do have a rather odd taste in books at times. Chick lit, vampires and a touch of science fiction is mainly where I will be focusing, but as it is summer it will be mainly chick lit I am afraid. I will give you a quick review and I will try not to leak any spoilers and promise to tell you when a book is not worth reading but I will try to give you good detail in the review to ensure you understand what it included in case we have very different tastes.

2.       Beauty – Don’t think that this means I am going to try and fob myself of as a new beauty guru, believe me I know very little about beauty and could not tell you how to create the perfect Smokey eye without looking like you fell asleep. The area I plan to dabble in is more what I use on a daily basis to look at least a bit better that I did when I woke up. Don’t fear though, I will not be using widely expensive products; most of them are just as good as what you can pick up in boots anyway. I do however promise to give you my whole hearted opinion on everything that I do encounter and never plan to be endorsed so do not worry.

3.       Food – Occasionally I find a good recipe that I will share with you all, sometimes I will want a good recipe from you all but the bottom line is... I love food. I will probably give you a few reviews about restaurants in my home town, so they may not be of interest to many of you, but if I have had a good meal I will definably tell you about it, even if it is a quick trip to McDonalds.

4.       Film/TV – I am a cinema buff (I do occasionally just go to get some cheesy nachos but shhh it’s a secret) so I will tell you what I like about all the films I see and the points I would prefer to get. I do not get a lot of time to watch TV unfortunately but when I have a series I want to see I will make sure I watch it at least in the week it aired (I love you sky +), so I will tell you about all the new series I have discovered and hope that some of them appeal to you all.

5.       Life – I will of course tell you about my life a bit, it is a blog after all but I promise to try and make you laugh as opposed to cry, smile as opposed to making you frown and not brag about anything good that’s happened to me. I have encountered many blogs which have done all 3 of these points and I will not be venturing back. Below if a few pictures of some of the people i love most. 

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Onwards and upwards as they say?

Steph

xxx