Christmas Photos

Just wanted to share a few photos that sum up my Christmas 2012. It's been a busy December so was so happy to have some days off to spend with friends and family. Hope everyone had a great Christmas!

This was my Christmas nail art - was so sad that my top coat made everything bubbly :( but it looked good if you weren't scrutinizing up close. The pink and mint polishes are from Rimmel. The sparkly ones are Indian Ocean and Blizzard, both from Model's Own. Obsessed with Blizzard!! And the nail art is from Npw and Claire's.

Christmas silliness in Liberty of London!

 South Bank Christmas market = magic. Best caramel hot chocolate.

Christmas tree brownie (extra chocolatey) and peanut butter / choc chip cookies. All gluten free goodies!

Christmas nail art haul

Christmas time, nail polish and wine! I am so full of festive cheer this weekend, having my lone day off in the midst of lots of days helping people finish their Christmas shopping. Working on a high street again, I just can't help myself from popping to the shops in my lunch break. Last week I picked up a few nail related items that I love. 

1. Hello Kitty Nail Polish Trio £3.66 Sainsbury's Local This comes in the shades of Pinkalicious, Glitter Ball and Ballet Dancer. I love Hello Kitty, and I love Nail polish, so couldn't resist this bargain!
2. Barry M polish £2.99 / £3.99 Superdrug in 354 Amethyst Glitter and SLE 2012 (think this is a special edition for Christmas!)
3. Christmas nail art wheel £3.00 Claire's I love this to pieces! Going to share a mani I did with this wheel. It's so festive and cute :)

Here is a close up of all the nail art pieces from the Claire's. How cute is Santa!

Snowflake 300

This week I have been super sick. Some kind of flu situation, where I have been at home feeling rotten and having to miss a lot of work, even my family Christmas party which made me really sad! A lot of sick time meant lots of time to paint my nails, so here is what I currently am sporting. An old lady complimented me on them at work today so they must be good!! (Sorry for the shocking quality of this photo!)

I am wearing two coats of Kiko Milano 300 (an extremely shimmery blue polish with hues ranging from dark to bright lagoon type blue) with a topcoat of Model's Own Snowflakes (clear polish with ripped metallic glitter, in some lights it looks white, then silver or gold! So pretty!)

Polish Swap - The Reveal!

I am so excited to post photos from my very first swap! I was lucky enough to join in this swap hosted by four lovely ladies: Katyln, Jessica, Kristen and Melissa. After reading about it on Cindii's blog I knew I needed to get involved - I am turning into a bit of a nail polish addict!

I got paired with the sweetie that is Helen, and I have been following her blog at Eat.Enjoy.Live since we got linked up for this swap. She packaged my polish in a pretty gift box, and I have to say I am addicted to the ice cream nail file! Been using this non-stop since I got my package :) It is so cute! As is the butterfly buffer. I was also really excited that Helen included a card, as I love giving / receiving post!

I LOVE this card! So pretty - it suits me down to a T! And the polishes are lovely, I got a red O.P.I. number, and a shimmery pink (not sure the brand, but I am wearing it right now and it applied really nicely and dried super quick!).

A close up of the polishes. How shimmery is the pink! Lovely :)

It was so exciting to be part of this swap, keeping my eye out for more to join in on. I think it's a great way to open my eyes to blogs I might not have otherwise come across.

NOTD - Purple glitter

My latest manicure is a mix of beautiful purples, and lots of glitter! Sorry for the bad quality of this pic! Took it on my phone once the sun had gone down.

1. A layer of Save the Nail's Toughen Up Basecoat - I love this basecoat. It is quite pricey at £7.50, but really is worth it. My nails feel so much happier with this on than cheaper basecoats I have used in the past. And luckily I had enough Boots points to snap this up :)

2. A layer of Ciate Wait Until Dark - I got this for free with a magazine. I like it, but when I put it on I always forget how dark it is, much darker than I would normally wear. So this is why I rarely use this polish alone, but it is great for dimension under more sheer polishes!

3. A layer of O.P.I. It's My Year from the Miss Universe Collection - This polish is gorgeous. Part of the reason I layered this over the Ciate polish is because I love this so much, and have the tendancy to put on so many layers because it is so pretty! But it cost me quite a lot, more than I would normally allow myself to spend on polish, so I want to make it last a long time!

4. A layer of Bourjois 1 second gel polish in purple glitter - the holographic glitter in different sizes makes this a showstopper of a polish. The gel texture really does dry quick and it helped my polish from chipping, lasting around 5 days, and it only chipped on one nail as I was opening a lot of deliveries at work. I love this polish!!

5. A final topcoat of Model's Own to seal the deal.

25 (and a day)

Yesterday was my birthday!! Officially 25, and not feeling my age at all. When I was younger I thought people in their twenties were really quite mature and I had so many ideas about what my life would be like once I was in my mid-twenties. But now I am here, I really don't think I've changed much since I hit my twenties, to be honest I still feel like a teenager inside.

I don't know about anyone else, but it always feels a bit weird the day after my birthday, like so much excitement and expectation, and then you wake up the next morning and realise that actually, not much has changed. Saying that, I had a great time being with my family, and got some lovely gifts. The most exciting one was the Cinderella A Brush with Fate nail polish set from Sephora! My parents just got back from California, so I asked them to pick it up for me as you just can't get it in the UK. It's so pretty! Am wearing So Totally Enchanted (the icy/silvery blue) with Step Off, Sister! (blue and silver glitter) on my ring fingers as an accent. Really love the packaging, colours and quality, but the bottles are teeny weeny which makes me a bit sad! I hope I don't run them down really quick!

I also got a lovely gift from the postman (well, a gift to myself!) of these gorgeous heeled brogues from Clarks. I already have the plain brogue version which I have been wearing to absolute death - I love them and they go with everything! I wondered if I really needed the heeled version, but the ones I already have are a bit scuffed now and when Clarks had £10 off last week I decided to just go for it. They are so pretty! Going to wear them tonight with a pretty Mossimo dress (another birthday gift!) to meet one of my best friends for a birthday dinner :)

Also going to pick up some nail polishes for a swap I have joined here, thanks to Cindii from Purrincup for blogging about this, would never have found out about it otherwise! This is my first swap so I am going to try and get really nice nail polishes from Westfield today, and package them up prettily to send to my swap partner! Having fun things like this to do really can brighten the day. I love giving and receiving post!

Outfit: A Stroll In The Cold

A Stroll In The Cold by jennycuteblog featuring pol

This is my planned outfit for tomorrow! Excited to be getting all my winter clothes out again and layer dresses and knits. But I refuse to give up pastels - they are just too pretty! I am wearing this nail polish from Marks and Spencers, it is really pretty but mine is a smaller version with the most pathetic brush! The colour itself is gorgeous though and perfect for colder days.

Ciate Mini Mani Month

I've never been huge on advent calendars (shocking I know but I am not that bothered about chocolate!!!), but after seeing this beauty from Ciate I might have been swayed! I have only ever tried Ciate from a few samples with magazines and they have always been good quality - the only thing that makes me ponder this calendar is how many of the caviar polishes are included. 

While it looks fun, I'm just too practical and I think I would find them too annoying to actually bother to wear! 

But a fantastic idea - much more appealing than cheap tasting chocolate :)

Mini Mani Month from Ciate £38 available here

Disney Villains Nail Polish

I admit it. I am a Disney addict! I always have and always will love Disney movies, and I often visit the Disney store even though I am nearly twenty five years old! I really appreciate the ever growing range of products geared at adults, and whilst I wouldn't consider any of the Disney villains as one of my favourite characters, I find the Disney villains collection of products slightly irresistible.

Available online for £20 from the Disney Store here

On a recent solo shopping trip I splurged on the nail polish set, which at £20 isn't a huge price tag for five polishes, but it is as an impulse buy when I am trying to be on a budget! That being said, I really like the faceted glass bottles and long, tapered lids. They just feel a bit more elegant. And I slightly justify the buy to myself because the colours aren't ones I would naturally go for, they are dark and glamorous where I would usually be going for bright and fun.

Ursula

First I tried Ursula, as the Little Mermaid is my favourite Disney film. The colour is a shimmery pale purple, application was easy and it dried SUPER fast (I wish my other nail polishes dried this quick!). The major problem was that it dried really bumpy. I think it is to do with the fine glitter, as I applied thin coats. Up close it made me sad but from a distance it still looked really pretty. My accent nail was clear nail polish with glitter flakes I use for paper crafting (yay for multitasking!).

Queen of Hearts

A basic glitter gold, pretty and once again dried very quickly, but the colour was not really suited to me. 

Mother Gothel / Evil Queen

These are my absolute favourites of the collection so far! I felt so chic when wearing this colour combination. Mother Gothel is a deep, rich burgundy colour, whilst Evil queen is a syrupy black with bright red glitter which is so fine it feels like you have a glittering night sky on your nails! As with the other polishes in the collection, these dried fast and applied cleanly. I was most impressed with evil queen, because it applied so smooth. I was worried after Ursula that it would be bumpy, but it came out beautifully. And I wouldn't normally go for shades this dark so I am really pleased they are in my collection!

Still left to try : Cruella De Vil and Maleficent.

Verdict: I love the smoothness of application and how quick these polishes dry, but disappointed with some of the finishes coming up a bit bumpy. Would be interesting to know if anyone else has had this problem? Hopefully Disney will continue this line of products and maybe include the Disney Princesses :)

Accidental Manicure

I painted my nails in a gorgeous shade of polish from Kiko Milano (Nude 372) and as always with Kiko, I  was very happy with it. But when I was painting jar lids for a storage project, I accidentally improved it!

I think it looks kind of cool! Shame it was already chipping so it didn't last long. But I wouldn't be opposed to pairing my nail varnish to my art project in the future :)

Nails of the day - Lilac #G0 Marks and Spencers

I tried this new nail varnish from Marks and Spencers limited collection.

Now I have never tried Marks and Spencers beauty products before, and wasn't sure how good the quality would be for a £3.50 price tag. But it was actually really nice polish to use! Really easy application, it only took 2 coats for full opacity, and was quick drying. Nice finish, not gloopy at all. The colour is lilac with fine gold glitter which reflects the light beautifully.

The next time I need some nail varnish I will definitely check this range!

xoxo

Westfield

So this weekend I was feeling pretty ill, and I knew some retail therapy was the only way to get me back to myself.
I perused the sales at Westfield White City, and good god there is a lot on sale! Here is a sneak peek at some purchases.

 Marks and Spencers beauty range : Dreamy Days Eau de Toilette 10ml £3.50 / 25ml £6 / Lip balm £2 / Lilac #G0 nail varnish £3.50 / Hello Kitty nail kit £6 / Hello Kitty fragrance £3.50

Nail varnish from Kiko Milano: #249 £1.50 / #257 Silver Glitter Wisteria £1.50 / #398 Infinite Indigo £3.40

Teal jeans £9.99 from Pull and Bear / Pink jeans £10 from Republic.

Urban Outfitters : Whale oven glove £6 / Black skirt £14

Nothing like some bargains to cheer a girl up :)

xoxo