Gold Gift Nails!

Hi again Guys!

So I said I was going to paint my nails and perhaps put a post up on it, so here it is.

I decided to use my new gold nail varnish from Models Own which I got from the Clothes Show Live, and painted two coats of that onto my nails. I was very pleased with the colour - it was exactly as it looked in the bottle and is gorgeous! It has all the good quality of Models Own Nail Varnishes; it lasts a long time, only needs thin coats to create full coverage, and is a great colour! The only thing which I can fault it on is that, although the nail varnish feels like it dries quickly, it actually takes a long time to dry fully, so you just have to be a bit careful for a while after they feel dry.

I really liked just the gold nails by themselves, but I really wanted to add a bit more to them, and my friend (who has just set up a blog called Time of My Life if you want to check it out) sent me a link to a YouTube video the other day showing some ‘gift’ nails, so I decided to try them out. I don’t remember what the YouTube video was called or whose it was, but I think if you search something like ‘Christmas Gift Nails’ it might come up? :L Anyways, this is my attempt at it!

 To get started, you just need to paint a base coat on your nails; a nice Christmassy colour would work best, such as gold. Then you need to pick a colour you want to use for the ‘bow’ part. I chose black as I didn’t want to overload with glittery or metallic colours, plus, black and gold go so well together!

Unfortunately for this design, you can’t really use cocktail sticks as you need smooth lines. So, instead what you can do, is to take a brush from an old nail varnish, or perhaps an old make up brush, and cut it to create a thin brush. Or, and I just thought of this and am wondering why I haven’t before, but you could use the brush from a liquid eyeliner – that would work perfectly! Or alternatively, of course, you could buy a nail pen, which is more convenient, but is also more expensive.

Then, simply dip the thin brush you have created, or bought, into the nail polish in the colour you have chosen, wipe of the excess and paint a vertical line going down the middle of your nail.

Next, paint a horizontal line across the middle of your nail. These two lines should cross in the middle of your nail.

You could leave your nails like this; however, adding bows really completes the nail.

To add the bows, take your brush and create two loops in the top two quarters of your nails. Then paint two little lines going out from the middle in the bottom two quarters. This creates a little bow!

Repeat, on all your nails, or as many as you like, then you have completed your ‘gift’ nails!

Or, if you like a bit more ‘bling’, you could add little gems to your nails in the centre of the bow. I decided to just add gems to my two thumbnails as gems tend to fall off quite easily, so if they’re only on two nails, it means there are less to stick back on!

Hope you like the design, and sorry I can’t remember the YouTube video I saw it on!

Thanks for reading guys, and don’t forget to subscribe if you like my blog!

 x x x

The Body Shop Bargains!

Hi again guys!!

First of all, I just wanted to say a quick thank you to any of you who viewed my last blog post about the Clothes Show Live, I got well over 150 pageviews which is just amazing! So thank you!

It's been a very busy week - it's been my first week of mock exams, and although I'm not really that bothered or stressed by them, they're still really draining, so I'm glad that it's finally the weekend! So, I thought I'd do a little blog post on one of my recent purchases, and I think I'm going to paint my nails later too, which I will try and put up on here as well.

So, the other day, The Body Shop, had a 50% sale on practically everything on their website! Of course, I couldn't resist such a good deal and decided to pick up some goodies, which arrived today!

I got: 3 Born Lippy Lip Balms (£1 each, in Raspberry, Passionberry and Mango & Peach - I did want Watermelon as well because then I would have all of the flavours but unfortunately it wasn't in stock :L); a Vitamin E facial cleansing bar (only £1.50 - I've never used Body Shop Facial wash before so I thought I'd try it out seeing as it was so cheap!); Seaweed Ionic Clay Mask (£6, which my lovely mum bought for me, as I've used this before and it is actually amazing and lasts for ages too - my last one lasted for about a year even though I used it once every 1 - 2 weeks!); and finally, my mum bought a Lip Care Stick balm in Cocoa Butter (£2).

These all arrived today and I was very pleased when I got home and found the box waiting for me! All the products were absolute bargains, and delivery was only £2.99, which isn't too bad, although I do hate it when companies charge for postage and packaging - they make so much money from the products  that they really don't need it- but I didn't really mind it so much for this order because all the items were half price so you were saving so much anyways. So, I'm very happy, and I will hopefully put full reviews of the products up in the near future! Oh, and if you check out the Body Shop website at the moment, they've got lots of other offers on, like 50% off winter items etc. so if you're a fan of the Body Shop, go check it out!

Hope you have all had good weeks, and for those of you looking forward to Christmas (yay!), watch out because I think I might be able to do some festive posts/reviews soon! :)

Thanks for reading, and please subscribe!

x x x

Clothes Show Live: Birmingham!

Hi guys! 

So, yesterday I went to Clothes Show Live in Birmingham NEC, and I had an amazing day and got loads of 'stuff', so today, I thought I'd blog about it for you all! I think what I might do though is to blog about the day, which goody bags I got, and a list of what was in them today, then talk more about what was in them and what they're like in upcoming blogs. Just because there is so much to talk about! Also, that means I have more time to try the stuff out too so that I can review it a bit.

For anyone who doesn't know what Clothes Show Live is, it’s basically a massive fashion and beauty event which happens every December at the Birmingham NEC. It always has a massive range of companies there, from brand new designers to well established make up brands; lots of bargains and freebies; and every year, it always has an amazing show in the Fashion Theatre. I have been for the past two years so this was my third year running, and it's definitely still as amazing as the first. I have been to Clothes Show with a few different people, but always with family and their friends, so this year; I went with one of my friends.

So, we arrived just after 9.00, and I have never been Clothes Show that early before (it opens at 9.00), and was amazed at how few people there were there. I mean it was still very, very busy, but nothing compared to how it gets during the rest of the day. So, we took advantage of this and went round to the main companies who I knew tended to do good deals, and came across a few more on our way - in fact, I think we did about 3/4 of our shopping in that first 45 mins because there were just so few people and we could just go to the stand and be served really quickly with minimal queuing!

I'm going to get onto what I bought in a bit, but first I want to talk about the rest of the day. After the first 45 mins, we had to go queue up at the Fashion Theatre for the Fashion Show, because ours was at 10.00. The first year I went Clothes Show, I really didn't know what to expect from the Fashion Show, I thought it would just be stick thin models walking up and down the stage in various combinations of weird 'fashionable' clothes. I was so wrong, I mean there was, and still are stick thin models walking up and down the catwalk in weird clothes. But that's only a tiny part of the show - each year the show has a theme; the first year I went it was a Winter Wonderland; last year, a Night at the Movies, and this year, A Night at the Department Store, and each year they put on an incredible show, with dancing and music. For instance, last year, they did like sections out of movies, so a bit of Dirty Dancing and a typical spy movie style scene, where the model did all these cartwheels and slides dodging lasers to get to a jewel on a plinth. For the last two years, the Shows have been amazing, and this year, they didn't disappoint either.

This year, they did all the different 'levels' of the Department store, such as sportswear, underwear and even wedding clothes, and they use music to suit each 'level' too, such as Bruno Mars I think I wanna Marry you for the wedding level. Again, it was amazing, the dancing and staging was awesome and it really is a 'show'. How on earth those models manage to do them again and again all day I don't know because it looks exhausting! But, anyways, if you do ever get the chance to watch the show, I wouldn't turn it down because it really is something!

The show lasts about an hour, so once we came out of the show we went round shopping again, but as I said, I'm going to leave that till the end of this blog, so instead I'm going to skip to later in the day to the mini style stages. So, amongst all the stalls at Clothes Show, there are also various stages. So there's a dance stage, a mini fashion stage, a beauty stage and some others too such as a 'stop and chop' stage where you can get your hair cut by a professional in front of a crowd, and it’s basically to advertise products. But anyways, these mini stages have 'shows' going on throughout the day, from fashion shows to competitions, to demonstrations. If you have time, or happen to be wondering past these stages it’s definitely worth a look, and most of the time they give out free goodie bags too (if you get to the front and scream very loudly. (Not something I've ever done but I've seen it work for others!) So those are a really good part of the show too, and most of the time they are celebs who host these mini shows, so you never know, you could get lucky and see someone you never thought you would!

And now (drum roll please) the amazing bargains that I picked up at the Clothes Show!

Okay, so for now I'm just going to put some pictures up and do a list because this post is already very long, but as I said, I'll definitely be doing some more detailed posts soon!

So first of all, here are all my bags, then carry on reading to see what was in them all!

Rimmel Goody Bag: £10. You get a choice of two - Baby Doll or Urban Chic (I got Baby Doll). Includes: Sexy Curves Mascara, Extra Super Lash Building Mascara, Vinyl Lip Gloss, and three Nail Varnishes.

Barry M Goody Bag: £10. Includes: Two dazzle dusts, two lip glosses, two liquid eyeliners, three nail varnishes, two pencil eyeliners and an eye crayon.

 

Models Own: Buy three products for £10 and get free Goody Bag (absolute Bargain!). Includes: three products you buy ( I bought three nail varnishes), three eyeliners, two duo eye shadows, nail file/buffer, three lip glosses, two loose eye shadows (like dazzle dusts) and a waterproof mascara.

 

Jelly Pong Pong: £5. Includes: Cheek Tint, Lip Gloss, Bronzer, Wide Awake Palette and a box that you can 'build' for it all.

 

 Company/Cosmopolitan Magazines and Goody Bag: £3. Varies, but mine included: Lip Gloss, Body Shop Card with value from £3 - £100, Tissues, L'Oreal sample and 'mood enhancing' Drink (which was quite nice actually).

 Benefit: Free with my tickets to Clothes Show (if you booked them at a certain time you got vouchers). Free Creaseless Cream Eye shadow in Slippin and Dippin. Also offering free makeovers (I just couldn't be bothered to take all mine off just to have it redone again).

Lipcote: Free to have your lips painted and sealed with Lipcote. I then bought one for £2 (got £1 off).

Books and The City: Free - just sign up. Includes: Nail file and book.

Mizz: £2. Includes: magazine, poster, sweets (which were veggie - yay!), samples and either MUA loose eye shadow, or jelly Watch. (I got MUA).

 

Clothes Show Live Bag: Free. Includes: toothpaste, sudocrem, Nivea samples, Dove Conditioner Sample, vouchers and Fenjal Vitality Sample.

Diet Coke: Free mini cans by the Diet Coke fashion stage.

Haagen Dazs: Free mini tub of ice cream (I got chocolate and thought it was gorgeous!)

Samples/Vouchers/Promotions: Free. Loads of people are standing around just waiting to give you stuff - let them! (And if you like what they're giving you, go round again and again - I got eight free Nivea samples yesterday!)

 

Deals I didn't get but might be of interest: Wow London Goody Bag £10; MeMeMe Goody Bag £10; Glossy Box buy one get one free £10; Orly 3 mini nail varnishes for £5 or three large nail varnishes for £10; various fragrance stalls selling 5(ish) perfumes for £20. I'm sure there were plenty of others I missed or have forgotten but as you can see, there are loads of really good deals!

Overall, I LOVE Clothes Show Live! Providing I have enough money I will definitely be going again next year, although this year I did only spend just under £50 and got a hell of a lot for my money so I actually did very well! It’s an amazing day, your shoulders, back and feet will be killing by the end of it under all the great bargains and freebies you've got, but it's all definitely, definitely worth it! Most amazing of it all though is the show, so if you do ever get the chance to go to Clothes Show - grab it!

Sorry this was so long guys- there's just so much to say!

Hope you like, and as always feel free to comment or ask questions!

Thanks for reading!

x x x

Lip Balm Love: Vaseline

Hi Guys!

So, today I thought I'd do a blog on one of my favourite things... lip balm!

Now, anyone who knows me would tell you that I am literally a lip balm addict and very, very rarely go anywhere without at least one of my many lipbalms handy! So, naturally I have a good collection, from chocolate, to satsuma, to good old vanilla, however, today I thought I'd concentrate on what is perhaps one of the most popular lip balms, Vaseline.

I own the Pink Vaseline, or the 'Rose and Almond Oil' Vaseline called Rosy Lips. The only reason I own this one and not the green or the blue or one of the others is because I like the colour, not because I think its any better than the others or anything.

So first of all, the packaging. I actually quite like the packaging of Vaseline, I think they are cute and simple, and also are quite a good size. The tin is not too big but isn't too small that it gets easily lost either, plus it contains a lot of product so lasts a good long while too. I also like how all the different types have the different colours, it makes each one easily identifiable, plus, I like the pretty colours! The only issue with the packaging is that some people do struggle to open it, and sometimes the lids do get a bit stiff and sort of stuck. I don't really have this problem anymore because I use Vaseline all the time and have done for ages, but I know some people do struggle so that would be the only fault there.

Then, the product itself. I really do like this product. I think it does make your lips feel moisturised and soft, although I do have to say, I don't think it absorbs as well as some other products or has as long lasting effects. I do find that when I use Vaseline, in comparison to some of my other lip balms, I do have to reapply much more often, and I do think this is perhaps because it doesn't absorb into your lips as well, however I do still think its very good. It does moisturise your lips and does do its job, just maybe not as well as some of the more expensive brands. The other thing I really like about the pink Vaseline, is, as I said, the colour. I really like how it gives your lips a glossy, rosy tint because it saves me from having to bother with lip gloss or whatever. Its like 2 in 1, and saves me from carrying around extra tins or bottles which I dont need.

The other thing I love about Vaseline is that its multi purpose, you don't just have to use it on your lips, you can use it for dry skin on your body too, so if you have dry hands for example, but don't have any hand cream to hand, then you can just use a little Vaseline! Although I have to say, the pink one may leave your skin with a faint pinkish tinge!

And finally, the last thing I love about Vaseline is the price and value for money! I think a tin costs you around £1.20 depending on where you buy it, and one tin, lasts for absolutely ages! I've had my tin since the start of the year, and use it practically every day, and still haven't used it all up, so as far as I'm concerned its an absolute bargain!

So, overall, I do love Vaseline as a good everyday lip balm, however if you do need that bit more moisture, perhaps look elsewhere.

Hope you like the review and as always, feel free to leave a comment!

x x x

n-spa Fruit Apple-Mint Crunch Body Scrub Review

Hiya, so I know its been a while... Sorry!
I've had a really busy week but the important thing is I'm back now!

Right, so today I thought I'd do a review of n-spa Fruit Body Scrub.
Basically I needed a new body scrub and asked my mum just to pick me up a cheap one whilst she went and did the weekly shopping, and so she came home with this Apple-Mint Crunch n-spa fruit body scrub from asda for like a couple of quid. I wasn't expecting much but I thought it would do.

I've had it for a while now, and whilst using it the other day, just randomly thought I should probably do a review on it, because really, it isn't up to much.

I'll start with the smell, which is actually fairly pleasant! It definitely isn't a 'nom' smell, but it is quite a nice, fresh, minty smell which definitely wakes you up a bit. So, not amazing, but not bad either.
The colour is a bit peculiar, its a mint green, which is quite weird for a body scrub because they usually tend to be more cream based colours, but I guess it goes with the smell. It's not a off-putting colour, its just a bit weird that's all!
The packaging is nothing much either, it's pretty simple really. The only part that really grabs your attention is the colour, because the packaging is clear so the green of the product can be seen. So again, nothing amazing.

Then, the actual product itself. Again, it's just a bit 'iffy'. It's not terrible, but it isn't good either. The exfoliating granules are really small and tough and just don't really work to exfoliate your skin, they're just like little bits which are quite uncomfortable and nasty really, and also don't work properly! Also, there is such a small concentration of 'bits' in comparison to the lotion which means you have to use quite a bit to actually get any exfoliating bits anyway!
The lotion itself is actually okay. If you forget about the exfoliating bits, the lotion actually feels quite nice on your skin, and rubs in well.

Really, though, there isn't much to say, it's just not very good! It's okay for just using every now and again, if you've not got anything else to hand, or to take on holiday with you etc. but it's definitely not something I'll be buying again.

So, the other day, I bought myself a new scrub... Soap and Glory's Flake Away!
Basically, I was on Asos, sometime last week because they had a sale on and an extra 10% discount too, and I found the Breakfast Scrub and Flake Away both for like £5 and I knew I could get another 10% off which would make it £4.50. So I didn't really know which one to get, because I know the Breakfast Scrub is extremely popular, but my sister has Flake Away and that seemed really good too. But, in the end I din't end up getting either because I went away for the weekend before managing to get a bit of time to actually order one. So, then when I got back, and had 5 mis to spare, I went back onto Asos to see whether they were still discounted, and unfortunately The Breakfast Scrub had sold out, and Flake Away had gone back to full price of £6.50 or something like it. But, Asos were running a 25% off student discount so I finally managed to order it for like £5! And Asos have free p&p too so that was all good! I had a look on Boots and it is £6.64 on there for the 300ml tub, so I feel like I've got a good deal! Now I just have to wait for it to arrive, and hope it doesn't disappoint, and I really love Soap and Glory so I have my fingers crossed that it doesn't!
So I'll write a review on that sometime in the future too!

Hope you like the review guys!
Feel free to comment as always!
x x x