The days gone by| Instagram

 

Just a little update for you all. I have been quite busy recently, with work but also as my mother’s wedding is next weekend there has been a lot of preparation for that, so I actually feel like I don’t have a lot of free time; which is a lie, as I still get up to plenty. So I will run you through the above pictures, as I seem to be documenting my life through Instagram at the moment, but I suppose that’s an obsession all us bloggers have. As much as my family tire of me taking pictures of even the least significant parts of my day, they enjoy the finished product; the blog posts, so they can’t complain too much.

• Flowers For A Friend- My best friend is going through a messy divorce at the moment, but we celebrated her becoming a ‘Miss’ again the other day. It’s great for her to be back to the name that was of the girl that I befriended 20 years ago, the name of the independent, fun and flirty girl she used to, and will be again in time.
• Blogging Goodies- Monu contacted me a few weeks ago and offered me some goodies to try, I was completely over the moon with this opportunity, and am happily testing them at the moment, so a review will come in time.
• Glitter Galore- Being a desk working girl now, my obsession with nail art continues. This week was my first attempt at glitter dipper nails.
• Product Testing Central- This was me using the Soap and glory Detox mask for the first time, the review for which is below.
• Cake Pops- We have had a busy week in our house making 100 pop cakes. We are yet to ice and decorate them, but I can say that the inners are so yummy!
• Train Travels- I have been travelling around for the past few weeks, very often to Newcastle to see my boy, but other ‘exciting’ places including Carlisle and Lancaster, to visit friends and family.
• Newcastle City Games- I was lucky enough to be in Newcastle for the Great North Run weekend, which meant I got to watch the City Games on Quayside and saw legends like Mo Farrah and Greg Rutherford!
• The Great North Run- I spend an hour in the rain cheering on the 55,000 runners, in which were a few of my friends who all did fantastic! It has even inspired me, to perhaps enter next year… if I’m lucky enough to get a place.
• Pretty in Pink- Another Nail of the Day.
• Massive Milestone- I surpassed 400 followers on my blog this week! It really surprised me as I think I gained 15 followers in a day. But as always I want to thank you all; new and old for reading, commenting and sharing my blog. It is my passion and I enjoy it so much, but to know that others read and enjoy what I have to say makes it so much more fun.
• Fun with fruit- My boy gave me a choice of a sausage butty or a bowl of fruit for my breakfast last weekend, and low and behold I chose the fruit! I even shocked myself, I think my fitness kick is finally starting to change my attitude towards food, which is a great thing!
• Christmas comfies- Last night (and right now) I have been rocking my Christmas pyjama bottoms, because it is just so damn cold! What happened to out Indian summer!

What’s been going on in your life recently? Am I the only one rocking my Christmas Pyjamas far too early? Please say I’m not!

NOTD| How to remove glitter nail varnish

1- Pretty glittery nails

2- The struggle to remove the varnish as you would normally

3- Tools needed to remove glitter nail varnish with ease

4- Nails all wrapped up

5- The results

6- Tad-ah all gone!

As many of you will have seen I recently fell in love with a Nails Inc glitter nail polish. I did not waste any-time in applying many layers to all my nails and giving myself some super sparkly nails. However I felt they were a little too sparkly for a week full of meetings at work, so wanted to remove it. I started to remove it as I normally would, with a cotton pad and nail varnish remover, however found that this was not budging the glitter in the slightest, rather the cotton just stuck to the glitter. So after much difficulty I Googled a technique for easy removal and found an article which helped me, so I though I would share it to help you also.

For this you will need;

*Nail Varnish remover* *Tin foil* *Cotton balls/pads*

This technique saves you probably about 30 minutes, millions of cotton pads and gallons of polish remover; Just follow the simple steps below.

1. Firstly you soak the cotton pads/balls in nail varnish remover… and I mean soak! You then apply this to your nail.
2. Secondly rip the tinfoil into strips then wrap this tinfoil tightly around the nail with the cotton pad between the nail and the foil. Proceed to do all your fingers. Your hands should end up looking like a cross between Freddie Kruger and a robot.
3. Now sit back a grab a magazine, chill and let them soak for 10 minutes.
4. To remove, apply a little pressure to the nail and twist the cotton and foil from side to side, a couple of twists should do the trick. When you remove the foil, your glitter varnish should have vanished.
5. Make sure you give your hands some love and care after this, as the nail varnish remover can make them a little sensitive, after soaking them.

So there you have it a simple, stress free to remove you beautiful, if not persistent glitter nail varnish. I hope this helps you as it did me.

Have you tried this technique before? Or do you have another little trick?

P.S Don’t forget, if you enjoy my blog to vote me for Best Newcomer in Cosmo’s Blog Awards… it take two minute and means the world to me.. thanks! Vote Here

Dressed Up Nails| NOTD

Just a little quick post today to share some of my new nail polishes with you. As I mentioned earlier this month, as my new job is office based, as opposed to hospitality based, I now have the luxury of being bale to wear nail varnish! I know it’s only a small thing, but after working in hospitality for 7 years and only being able to paint my nails for nights out, to be able to take time and effort to create pretty nails is great.

Nail varnishes 3,4 and 5 are from a pack I bought this past weekend from TKMaxx. I’m not the biggest fan of this shop, as I don’t like the jumble sale atmosphere it has, however every now and again I take a look it to try and find some gems, and found a variety of 3 pack Nail Inc selections for only £11. Considering a single Nail Inc varnish can cost £11 I essentially got two free varnishes. Sometime soon I aim to buy some nail art pens and nails stamps so I can create more complex nail art looks. So keep your eyes pealed for more nail of the day posts.

Which on of my new polishes is your favourite? Do you have any recommendations for nail art pens and tools?

P.S Don’t forget to vote for me for the Best Newcomer at the Cosmo Blog Awards. Its would mean so much to me!

Just click the link and select my blog-Vote for Me :D

Fuchsia Flowers| Easy Nail Art| NOTD

So as you may know, seems I don’t actually stop going on about it… I have a new job! Yes I am one of the lucky graduates that has managed to swindle herself a job. With my new job being office based I now am able to give a crap about my appearance… previously working in hospitality hindered my addiction to beauty products, as I was unable to wear lots of makeup or god forbid have painted nails!

As there exists no limits to my beauty regime, I am now completely addicted to nail varnish again! I have even attempted nail art for the first time, just to celebrate my new pretty nails. the inspiration came from Googling nail art, and after browsing some pictures, I picked an idea that I reckoned I could attempt with my limited resources.

My limited resources consisted of multiple colours of nail varnishes and Kirby grips. I am yet to buy nail art pens, but had read on someone’s blog that a similar effect can be done by dipping Kirby grips into nail varnish; and that's what I did.

To achieve this look I chose OPI Tickle My France-y as the base colour and applied two coats of this. To created the flowers I picked OPI Strawberry Margarita and simply dotted this in a round shape 5 times, then used OPI Alpine Snow for the centre of the flower, which I dotted in once. I then reversed the bright pink and white shade to create other flowers.

The final result is not the cleanest, some flowers are better than others, but I think for a first attempt I did well. Especially considering this look was created by using only one Kirby grip.

Has anyone else tried this technique at nail art? What tools would you recommend for a beginner?

Lilac Shimmer| NOTD

Just a quick little post to show you my nails this week. I luckily got two days off in a row at work, so that means lovely nails! Anyone who works in hospitality knows one of the biggest pains is not begin able to have painted nails.

This is a shade I have probably posted about before as I do love it. I bought it in the Christmas sales at Topshop for £2; if I remember correctly. Its called Cyclone, and as it is quite a pale shade I painted a base of white nail varnish before applying this one; I think this gives the nail varnish more opportunity to show than if its painted straight onto the nail, it also cuts down on layers of nail varnish. So I achieved this look by painting a base of white, then two layers of the Topshop Cyclone shade. It comes out as a very pale cross between a grey and lilac, and has some shimmer in the sunlight.

What colour have you bee wearing on your nails this week?

Golden stripes| NOTD

Well I am a very busy little bunny at the moment, yet again I seem to have let my university deadlines creep around and smack me in the face, so I spend my days and nights reading and writing yet more reports and assignments. Although I may be looking like a bummy student at the moment, at least my nails have been glam this week. It always cheers me up when I’m typing up thousands of words to look down and see sparkly nails.

So this look is created using a 17 Golden glimmer shade, and a Topshop white/ivory shade. I painted my nails firstly with the white, as it allows the gold to show its colour more, as it has a base. The obviously added a coat of gold, then hand drew French tips on some my fingers, apart from the thumb and ring finger, whereby I drew vertical stripes… just to mix it up a bit .

This again like last week is adding a twist on the standard French tips, as this was the basis of the idea. Please do excuse the not so straight line, I simply drew them freely, so they aren’t great. I really want to invest in a nail varnish pen to help great designs such as this. If anyone could advice a range, that would be great.

I’m looking forward to the bank holiday weekend, as I am holiday from work next week, so am only working tomorrow, then I am off till next Sunday, plus there is a little occasion called my birthday on Tuesday, so I’m super excited! Oh and I finish university for good this next week!

I hope my lovely followers have had a lovely week, and have some super plans for the Bank Holiday weekend. Let me know what you are up to?

French with a twist| NOTD

Just a quick little post to show you my nails this past week. I used to always wear a French manicure day-to-day, but turned to colour a few months back, after becoming a bit bored, and receiving many pretty colours at Christmas. So this week I decided to bring it back, but thought it looked a little dull, and wanted to add something extra to it. I remembered I received some nail stickers in a 17 nail art kit at Christmas, and tried them out. I love the overall look, the nail varnish is just Rimmel London’s French manicure shades; that and the stickers lasted 4 days without chipping, so I was really impressed. This stickers themselves, were a little more difficult to remove, but I managed using nail varnish remover and a cotton pad, and just had to scratch at them. I think this is a great day-to-day look, as it is relatively simple, but still a little special.

April Showers Don’t get Me Down| NOTD

*OPI-Strawberry Margarita* *Topshop-White*

It may be windy. It may be cold. I may be wet and rainy, and it may be the start of hay-fever season, but it won’t get me down. Especially when I’m sporty happy spring time nails like these! How can anyone be blue when your nails are so bright and summery; reminding me of flowers.

Its simple pleasure such as this that make days a little bit more cheery. I even managed to impress all my friends and brighten up our study session in the library today.

What simple pleasure has made you smile today? I hope you have all had a lovely day also.

Topshop Cyclone| NOTD

Just a quick little post to share my lovely girly lilac nails with you.

I have worn this nail varnish a few times an it always gave a nice silver sheer. I decided this time to layer it on top of a white nail varnish shade so I could see more of the colour. I'm very happy with the results, it came out a lovely pale lilac shade. 

I do this technique with a lot of my paler shade nail varnishes, as it means I do not have to apply so many layers as the colour really shows when layered on top of a white base. 

NOTD| OPI Best of the Best

Last week I indulged in my OPI obsession and bought the Best of The Best collection on Ebay. It contains 10 of the best selling mini OPI shades. In my honest opinion I did it to save myself, as I think it is a bit of a bargain. I don't go through nail varnish very quickly so I would hate to spend £10 on a nail varnish that in a year of so won't be in perfect condition. I believe the mini OPI bottles are firstly very cute, but more importantly a perfect size. I got this collection for £23, so £2.30 a nail varnish is very reasonable!

The collection contains the shades; Alpine Snow, Bubble Bath, Tickle My France-y, Strawberry Margarita, Cajun Shrimp, Big Apple Red, I'm not Really a Waitress, You Don't Know Jacques!, Russian Navy, Lincoln Park After Dark. (N.B the shades Big Apple Red and I'm Not Really a Waitress are the wrong way round!)

I think my favourite shade at the moment is Tickle My France-Y. Which is your favourite shade, and what do you think of OPI nail varnish, worth the money?

Metallic Nails| NOTD

Another look at what my nails are dressed up like today. I think they look quite futuristic! I hope you like them.

Nails Inc Piccadilly| NOTD

Just a quick peek of my nails today. Moving away from the metallics (although I've got a little bit of sparkle.)

This is my first and only Nails Inc varnish, but I would definitely get another. I got this free with Cosmopolitan magazine or glamour magazine a few months ago, and I really like the shade.

OPI Glitter| NOTD

So another little peek of my nails and how they are dressed up today. Hope you girls like them. Still on the glitter, despite it not being the holidays anymore. I suppose I'm just bringing some cheer to a dull January!

The look was done by using the gold 17 nail varnish on all fingers bar the ring finger. On my ring finger a plain white nail varnish was used as a base, then topped with the OPI gold glitter nail varnish.

Topshop Nail Varnish| NOTD