Recent nail varnish buys!

Hello lovelies!

I've not been picking up much in the way of beauty products recently, except for my recent MAC haul, but I have picked up a few new nail varnishes over the last few months which I thought I would share with you :)

Just a heads up, I'm fairly certain that I've remembered the Avon colours right, but because it doesn't say on the bottle I'm not 100%, especially as I didn't pick them out for myself!

left to right

Avon nailwear pro+ 'stary sky'

Models Own 'Party Pieces'

Rimmel professional finish 'Trend Spotting'

Avon nailwear pro+ 'lucky penny'

Essie 'Forever Yummy'

I've been really loving all of these colors and have been using them so much recently, and all of them have been lasting really well even without a top coat on. My nails still aren't in great condition, but they are so much better than they were a few months ago when I started a better nail care regime which I posted about in a guest post on Jessie's blog.

My favourite of these colours has to be the Essie forever yummy, which is what I've got on right now, just because it is such a perfect red for my skin tone. I picked it up without really thinking what exact shade of red I wanted, but I seem to have picked up the perfect shade! In general I'm really loving Essie at the moment, and I think quite a lot of my student loan may have been spent on building up my collection... oops?!

I'd love to know if you've got any of these colours and what you think of them, or also if you'd like me to do a full out review of any of these!

n xx

NOTD | Leopard nail wraps

Hello lovelies!

As much as I love nail art, I've really not been feeling like making much of an effort with it the last month or so. To take a break from plain nails, I rummaged out the last of my nail wraps, which I'm fairly sure were actually from the 2011 Clothes Show Live... I was saving them for something special maybe?!

I really love this pattern, and I think I'm going to be picking up some more nail wraps soon because I find them so much less hassle to use. I know some people don't like them because they can be quite a lot of faff to  put on.

The technique I use is to place the wrap onto my nail, hold it down for about 30 seconds then use nail scissors to trim off the excess ends. I finish them us by filing the ends down to my nail, which I sometimes do again a few hours later after the wraps have settled to the shape of my nail a little bit more.

I find that this particular brand lasts anywhere between 3-8 days depending on what I'm doing (or how bored I am, which leads to a tendency to pick them off. oops!). If you've not tried them yet I think they're really fun to test out, plus they look good without having to mess around with a lot of nail art!

Have you ever tried out nail wraps?

n xx

MUA starry night (obsession)

Hello you gorgeous bunch!

Recently I've been stuck in a bit of a make up rut, so I've had a couple 'shopping my stash' moments and I found this MUA eyeshadow palette buried in the depths of my make up draw. I bought it a few months ago but have barely used it until now, mostly because I thought the colours would be best for a smokey eye look and that's not a look I wear often.

 I fell in love with the heaven and earth palette and also have going for gold so I wasn't worried about the quality of these. They have pretty good staying power considering the palette is only £4, and tends to last well on my average 6-8 hours of being out of the flat.

I've been obsessed with it a little since I re-found it because the colours aren't all too dark and make it easy to create a light smokey eye for the day.

top row shades 1-6, bottom row shades 7-12 in palette order

They do all have a slight shimmer to them, some more than others, but on the whole I'm not as opposed to the shimmer as I thought I might be. I think my favourite shades in this palette has to be shades 3 and 9, a dark grey and silver, which are the two I use the most and use the other colour around. I've even grown strangely attached to shade 2, the pink, even though it's a colour that normally I really don't like!

I''m really happy that I picked this up because I wasn't very confident with creating a smokey eye look before now. If you feel like you're the same I really recommend you pick this up! I've found the colours are more of a mix than they look in the pressed palette form, so it's a really good starting point.

Have you tried this palette yet? :)

n xx

Pintrest outfit inspiration!

Hello lovelies!

I've been really busy the last few days because I came back to Derby yesterday, so I've put together another outfit inspiration post because I have so little time thanks to packing.

I'm really love Pintrest still, and all these are things that I've repinned onto my fashion board, which also keeps making my clothes wishlist growing!

I hope you liked this post, I really love putting them together and seeing other peoples :)

On a completely different note, I've just spent an hour or so with my flatmate learning the cup song (from this version on youtube). I've finally got it and I'm so proud, it's harder than you think!

I hope you're all having a good day, let me know what you've been up to?

n xx

Topshop Crescent moon review!

Hello lovelies,

I've got a Topshop highlighter review for you today! I've not bought many of the Topshop beauty products, as apart from this I only have a few nail varnishes and nail art pens, but I've been looking at trying out a few more so if you've got any recommendations I'd love to hear them :)

I'm not sure if maybe Crescent Moon is a newer highlighter shade because I haven't seen it before. But I chose this shade over Sunbeam because it has less of a gold shimmer to it, which I thought would suit my skin tone better. It retails for £10 and the size of it is very decent. I've been using it every day since I bought it back in late October and it still looks brand new.

As you can see from the swatch, it's a fairly pale colour and looks quite innocent, by which I mean that it looks like you could apply too much and no one would notice. Well I can tell you that is not the case with this highlighter! If you go too overboard you can look like you've dipped parts of your face into a pool of liquid shimmer. The effect when applied is so nice when in moderation however, as it has a pearly pink sheen to it that catches so nicely in the light. It reminds me quite a bit of Benefit's High Beam only in powder form.

I apply it most days using just my ring finger, just taking roughly the amount that I've swatched above and gently rubbing it onto the top of my cheekbone kind of area. I have been making more of an effort to use a make up brush to apply this though, and the one that I've been using is from the Louella "foundation" brush kit.

I've noticed that I can still see this on my cheeks slightly after wearing it all day, although the shimmer has faded a fair bit if it's a long day. For it's price, I've been pretty happy with this as a highlighter and I would happily repurchase (although I think that will be in the very distant future, judging by how I've barely broken the surface!)

If you've been looking at trying this out, I think it's really worth picking up!

Have you tried this already? What do you think of it?

n xx

MAC haul!

Hey lovelies,

I went shopping with my friend yesterday, and when I realised that my next student loan had come through, I went a little crazy in MAC. I've been wanting these things for a while, but my closest MAC to uni is in Nottingham, so this is my first ever high end make up splurge!

 I picked up a sample of the Studio Sculpt in the summer, and I have absolutely fallen in love with it this winter! I've found that a few of my other foundations are definitely too orange for the colder weather, but this isn't one of them. I knew I wanted to buy the full version at some point, so I grabbed the chance to pick it up! I've done a review here, and I think it's fast becoming my favourite foundation :) 

 The other bits that I picked up were all eyeshadows, because I've been really wanting some matte neutral shades to wear every day. I picked up the quad palette to put them in so that they're easier to travel with.

 The colours that I picked up were nothing too dark, but I'm so excited to start playing around with them! In the palette there is;

brule, omega

kid, espresso

brule, omega, kid, espresso

I might put up an eye look using these colours if you'd be interested, so let me know!

Sorry if this post hasn't been your cup of tea and a little bit photo heavy, but I was so excited for these bits that I just had to share them with you :)

Have you bought any exciting make up pieces recently?

n xx

Aussie Take the Heat: review!

Hello lovelies!

I've been using this Aussie Take the Heat product for a few months now, so I thought it was about time that I did a review of it for you :)

Before I used this, I was using a Aussie heat protect spray. I already love this brand so much so I was fairly certain that I would love this too. Aussie is, for me, one of the best brands for my hair because it always leaves it feeling softer and smoother, as well as taking away some of its frizz. I can't even complain that I don't like the smell, because that's actually the reason that I started using the brand a few years ago!

To use, you apply the slightly thick cream-like formula through your hair, and that's it. I tend to apply it after my hair has been wrapped in a towel for about 5 minutes, first brushing it out and then running my fingers through with this. Since I started using it, I've not noticed a huge difference that I can put down entirely to using this (moving has meant I now have soft water instead of hard), but I have noticed that my hair doesn't have as many split ends.

I only use heat on my hair every couple of days at most, as I tend to curl/ straighten it after it's dried naturally, then I mostly leave it until I next wash my hair. I've noticed that although the frizz in my hair isn't bad, using this has stopped it getting frizzy after I've first washed it.

Overall, I think that I'll definitely be repurchasing this when it does run out. I think I prefer this product to the spray, although the spray does win in terms of speed and convenience, but only just!

Have you ever used this? I really recommend that you give it a whirl if you're into using heat protection :)

n xx