Wordless Wednesday

Weekend Beauty Haul

I got home from my holiday in Spain last week (sob) and was absolutely shocked by just how cold it's now turned in the UK! My poor skin didn't know what had hit it, so on the weekend I knew a beauty trip was in order.

As per usual, pretty much the whole of Boots was on a 3 for 2 offer. Such a pain because sometimes I only need 1 thing but I think to myself, well if I just buy one more thing I can have something else for free! Sigh, that's marketing for you.

Anyway, that's what I picked up. I don't suffer from dry lips too often but as I've started to wear more lipsticks, it's important to me to keep my lips nice and soft, so I picked up this fruity smelling Blistex lipbalm. It works a treat and I can feel it tingling when I put it on, so that must be a good sign!

The handwash at work is particularly brutal and so I always keep a hand cream at my desk, but I've been having problems with my nails recently so when I saw this Vaseline hand cream was good for nails too, I knew I had to get it. I honestly can't describe in words to you just how amazing this cream smells. I find myself putting some on even when I don't need to, just so I can smell it!

Obviously, once I had 2 things in my basket I just had to find my freebie, and you can never have too many face wipes around. I find these great for when I'm really tired on an evening and can't be bothered with filling the sink and having a proper wash. That makes me sound like a right tramp, hah!

What have you bought from Boots recently?

NOTD: Sally Hansen Salon Effect Nail Wraps

Today I have something a little different for you. I love to paint my nails, but I love a bargain just as much, and that's what I want to show you.

Looks pretty cool huh? Okay, confession. I didn't paint these. Heck, I can't draw a straight line with a pencil, let alone a nail brush! No, these are actually Sally Hansen Salon Effect Nail Wraps.

I saw on a few British blogs I follow that you can sometimes find some great things in Poundland, and that's where I got these from! Just £1 they cost me, and I can't wait to go back to get some more. Unfortunately these were the only patterned ones I could find in Birmingham, the others were plain.

Here's a close up for you. Ignore any wearing or chips, I've had these on for 3 days now. If you've never used nail wraps before, you really should, they are so much easier to use than you think. These came in a box of 16, which is an odd number, but they all vary in size. I found the biggest size to be too big for my thumb, and the smallest to be just a tad too small for my pinkie.

Basically, all you need to do is select the right size for your nail, peel off the protective plastic backing, then peel the actual wrap off. It's super thin and sticky so be careful with this part. Then, you stick it down onto your nail, smooth it all out and fold it over the edge of your nail, then use the special file that comes with it to remove the excess. That's it! No topcoat needed, and to remove them you just use normal nail polish remover.

Sadly, I can't find the box that mine were in but I did a quick Google search and here's what they look like. It's just a small little box that fits in the palm of your hand.

So, what do you think? Is this something you'd like to try? Or have you used these before? I'd love to hear from you or see pictures of your nails with these wraps on them.

Until next time!

Glamour Magazine December 2012

Long time no see girlies! I'm not feeling very well today so I'm having a 'stay in bed feeling sorry for myself' kind of day. I've already sat through 3 hours worth of Gossip Girl and so I thought I'd make use of the time and do something more productive, like blogging! I got Glamour magazine on my way home from work yesterday and I just can't keep quiet about it...

So, I don't normally buy magazines, I follow a fair few blogs now which keep me up to date on the latest beauty products I need, and I get newsletters from all the shops I can afford to buy from love so I'm in the know on that too.

However, I am but a girl and the offer of a free, full size, Nails Inc varnish is just too great for me to say no too. Plus, Glamour is so much cheaper than other similar magazines at a bargain £2, how can you really turn it down?!

When I opened it up, the first thing I noticed was a few bulky pages as I flicked through. I came across these 3 samples stuck to some of the pages! These are Nivea Express Hydration Primer, Rimmel BB Cream and Max Factor Face Finity Foundation.

I only have 1 primer in my collection at the moment which really doesn't agree with my skin, and to this date I still haven't really found a foundation that I really love, so I can't wait to try all three of these out. I'm fairly sure the primer and foundation are on offer in Superdrug at the moment so that'll be handy if I decide to buy one.

Um, I have a confession to make. I couldn't make my mind up which of the 4 colours I liked best, so I bought two magazines so I could have both of my favourites! The pink one on the left is called Elizabeth Street and the red on the right is St James.

I don't wear a lot of pinks so I'm really looking forward to trying out Elizabeth Street and maybe creating some super girly nail art with it.Will you be picking up Glamour magazine this month? Or have you done so already? Which polish(es) did you pick? I'd love to hear from you!
Until next time!

NYC Fashion Ave Fuchsia - Plus Cakes!

I popped into Superdrug the other day just to pick up some essentials, and couldn't resist having a look at the NYC stand. I can't believe how decently priced all of their products are! I picked up 3 new nail polishes as they were only £1.79 each, and because I spent over £5 I got some false eye lashes for free. Great deal, right?

On the shelf this one looked like a bottle of red wine, it had a really autumnly feel. (Is autumnly a word??) Anyway, summer here in the UK is almost officially over so I need to stock up on some more colours :)

This is NYC Fashion Ave Fuchsia and it's a lovely colour. I'd say it's more pink than it looks in the bottle but it's a really bright colour and was so easy to use. These 'In a minute' NYC polishes have quite wide brushes and they really do dry fast, so they're great if you don't have much time to do your nails before going out or something.

I added a little Converse trainer to my ring finger, an idea I got from the hours of reading through tons of nail art blogs, which didn't turn out too badly. It's so hard to draw on your own nails! I guess it's something I'll get used to eventually but my lines are really wobbly at the moment. If you've got any tips or tricks, I'd love to hear them!

Also, if you were interested, I did bake those cakes! Me and the boyfriend had a great time baking them, and even more fun eating them!

Here's the end result! Doesn't really look much like the picture from the cookbook, but we don't have an electric whisk yet, and it REALLY didn't help when I mis-read the ingredients and added far too much butter to the sponge mix - whoops!

The recipe asked for cola syrup which I don't have so we used real cola instead, which probably helped to lighten up the batter after all that butter I accidently added.

They're really tasty though, must be around 900 calories a piece but they sure are worth it!

I'm going away for a couple of days for a work event tomorrow and won't be back till Thursday night, so sorry you won't hear from me till later this week.

Bye for now! :)

Weekend Baking

So I ordered at the start of this week a set of Bundle Monster stamping plates, the Konad stamping tool, and special black polish. My plates are here, but I'm still waiting on the actual stamp and polish! I know that if I just take off my bumble bee nails and do something different, the postman will knock on the door the minute after, so I'm trying to be patient.

It was my birthday last week and one of the girls at work gave me this cookbook, which is amazing. It's filled with so many different goodies that I spent the whole morning just planning what to bake first.

As I write this now there's some kind of baking show on the TV so I absolutely can't wait to get stuck in! We have a new girl starting at the office on Monday morning so today I'm going to pick up some ingredients and do some baking on Sunday morning.

I've spent the whole morning so far with the boyfriend trying to decide which to bake, I think he wanted me to bake the whole book! I told him that whatever I choose, he has to help with the whisking, because I'm really rubbish at that, and he agreed as long as I saved him some cakes!

And this is what I've chosen to bake...cola cupcakes! I'm not the greatest cook in the world so thankfully these don't look too hard to make. The recipe does ask for cola syrup though, and as far as I'm aware that's the stuff you put in a soda stream machine, right?

Well I'm not buying a 1ltr bottle just for a few cakes! I plan to be creative and put actual cola in the mixture instead, I've seen other recipes where you do this so it can't be that much of a disaster...right?

I'm sorry this isn't really nails or beauty themed, but once I;ve got my stamping kit I'll show you my first attempts, I'm very excited!

Wish me luck that these cakes will turn out to actually be edible when I make them tomorrow?

Bumble Bee Nails

Okay, so here goes nothing, my first proper blog post. I can't claim this as my own idea because I saw these nails on another blog a week or so ago, and I can't for the life of me remember where I saw it. If I find it, I'll give you the link, I promise!

Summer is well on it's way out over in the UK, even though I haven't been on my holiday yet! So I thought last night that it was now or never to do these nails, as I think they're really summery. These are the polishes I used:

2True Strengthener & Hardener (I use this as a base coat and a top coat too if I'm feeling lazy)

NYC Quick Dry Polish - 296 Water Street Blue

Missguided - Misslead (Free in a magazine a month or so ago)

Models Own Wah Nail Art Pen

Nailene French Tip Pen



I got the nail art pens last week for my birthday and they're great, so easy to use. I'm a complete newbie to this though, so my first attempt was a little shaky at best. The NYC polish really impressed me though, it was a bargain from Superdrug at £1.79 a bottle and so I picked up a couple of other colours whilst I was at it, I couldn't resist!

And here is the end result! The little black 'whoosh' lines didn't come out brilliantly, in fact on my middle nail they're more like polka dots, but I think I didn't do too badly for a first attempt!

My Mum loves these and I've promised her that the next evening she's off work, I'll give these another try on her nails.

What do you think? Do these nail art pens get easier to use with a bit of practise?