What I'm Currently Loving

It's a bit of a mixed one this month. Two lovely smellng things, and one fairly potent smelling one.

This Bath and Bodyworks candle in Market peach has a very sweet, but still pleasant smell. I never really burn candles in my bedroom because I'm slightly paranoid about forgetting it's there and burning the house down, so instead it just sits on my bookcase and remember about it
from time to time and smell it.

This Jack Wills body spray, whch I got in a set of three for my birthday also has a nice scent- a fairly fake sweet floral one but pleasant nonetheless.

 I've also been using the avon nail corrector regularly recently. It has a small nib which is coated in nail polish remover, meaning you can remove any polish from around your nails easily. I'm very messy when I paint my nails, preferring the approach which involves putting the brush vaguely near my nails and hoping for the best. This comes in very handy.

 Helen x

The Season For Sparkle

When the decorations are unpacked and on the tree, the lights strung up and the tinsel on every surface, you know it’s time for some sparkle on your fingers.

A glitter polish is a really quick, easy way to get the festive spirit on your nails. These are my favourites this Christmas.

Barry M has a very good range of glitter nail polish which are easy to apply and last for around 5 days. Their only disadvantage is that they take a lot of effort and polish remover to get off (like most glitter polishes) but I reckon it’s worth it. Both of these work well layered up on their own, or as a top coat. The green is a recent buy in time for Christmas-it reminds me of a Christmas tree and has little silver stars in it-how could I resist?

The Barry M polish with the lovely glittery lid has recently vanished from my room (really need to have a tidy) but it too works very well on a bare nail as the glitter is pretty concentrated. 

I like to wear this OPI silver layered on top of a dark red or purple, or to add an accent nail.

Similarly, this Ciate silver is great for layering. The glitter in this one is more concentrated than the OPI so it could be worn on its own.

Hope you all have a wonderful Christmas

Helen x

Nail Polish Storage

I used to house my nail polish addiction in the top shelf of my bathroom cabinet but as I bought more and more, it stopped working as well. It became more difficult to see what colours I had, and therefore, where the gaps were. 

Initially, I only put one of these plastic nail polish stands in my basket, but quickly realised what good value they were, and just how much nail polish I have! These say they hold 30 bottles each on average, but I have 64 bottles and have only just run out of room, though obviously it depends on the size of the bottles.

                              

I've arranged mine in colour order, which not only looks pretty, but has the advantage of enabling me to see what colours and shades I'm lacking in (and so gives me an excuse to buy more!) When they're all laid out like this, I don't think it looks like I have that many and so I've carried on buying more polish with the result I've now run out of room. I think another Amazon order may need to be placed soon...

                                  

Does anyone else have a weakness for nail polish? 

Helen x 

Summer/Holiday Nail Polishes

The sun is shining (and we seem to have the back end of a hurricane here in the UK at the moment, but that doesn't sound as good) and it's the time of year when lots of people jet off on their holidays or wish they were!

These are my favourite nail polishes for summer (but I'll happily wear them all year round)

                                          

       Barry M 'Key Lime'              M&S 'Golden Glaze'

       OPI White                     Soap and Glory 'Pink Soda'

           Rimmel '503 Mind the gap, Victoria' (What a random name!)

                Barry M 'Bubblegum'

                    Sally Hansen '500 Razzle-Berry'

All of these polishes look great with a tan and are just really lovely colours. I think that  textured polishes, such as the Barry M confetti or sugar range are great for holidays, as they don't chip as quickly, so you can spend more time enjoying your holiday!

Helen x

NOTD: Pretty Pastels

                                

To cheer me up on a grey, rainy day I painted my nails this lovely pretty light blue by Barry M. It's one of the polishes in their gel range, so gives a glossier, plumper effect. I then used some silver 'gems' from the Topshop nail art set I picked up recently (it was only a £1-I couldn't resist) and placed these on my nails, just to make them look more interesting. I think the silver and blue look really good together, so I'll be using this combination again! I finished up with a coat of the Barry M top coat.

                               

                               

Helen x

NOTD:Quick and easy

I've been really enjoying bright, spring like colours on my nails at the moment. This week I'm wearing MUA's pretty baby pink (I don't know the actual shade name or number-sorry) To make it a bit different I used my nail art set to draw a pink line a third of the way into my nail. I then used my Barry M clear polish over the top. 

Helen x

Quick pretty nail colour

I painted my nails yesterday so I thought I'd do a quick post to show you them. 

I painted my nails with a clear base coat and then applied Make Up Academy's Plum Noir which is a lovely rich,as the name suggests, plum colour! I applied two coats of this to get a really intense even colour. I then applied a clear top coat and then used my O.P.I silver glitter polish on the ends of my thumb nails just to make it a bit more interesting. 

Hope you liked this post!

 Helen x

Illamasqua review

I purchased some Illamasqua makeup recently so I thought I'd do a short review on it.I'd never heard of Illamasqua until a couple of months ago so when I saw they had a sale on I thought it was a great way to try out some of their products. Whilst Illamasqua is a lot pricier than the makeup brands I usually buy from, I think you can definitely tell in the quality-the box they came in was really well presented!

I bought the cream foundation, in the shade 210.  I've never tried a cream foundation before and was worried it would be too heavy as I tend to just use a bb cream on a daily basis. I'd say this is a medium coverage foundation, but it definitely didn't feel heavy on my skin-in fact it felt just like my bb cream! 210 looks a little orange in swatch but it's actually the perfect match for me as my skin is quite yellow toned. The Illamasqua website is really helpful as they say what skin tone each foundation colour would suit which is good if you're ordering online to get a good match. I use my Rimmel Stay Matte powder over this foundation and don't have to re-apply it throughout the day which considering I have quite oily skin is really good!This was £5 in the sale and is normally £23.

I also bought a pure pigment in furore. I'm not sure if this is still available as I can't see it on the website. You only need a tiny amount as it's really pigmented. This is a lovely highlighter and I use it on my cheekbones when I feel I need a bit more colour. (i.e most days due to the rubbish English weather!) I can't remember how much this was in the sale but I think it was less than £5. I'm not sure that I would re-purchase this again as I think you could probably get a highlighter that does the same for a lot less. Does anyone have any good ones they'd recommend?

Overall, I would definitely recommend Illamasqua foundation, though I'm not completely sold on the highlighter.

On a separate note, I'm going to try to post on a more regular basis as I've been pretty disorganised recently!

Helen x

Paperchase Nail Art

For Christmas I received some Paperchase nail stickers. I'd never used nail stickers before, but they were surprisingly easy to apply. You get 24 stickers in a pack, so there are enough to do them twice. You paint your nails with a base coat, allow it to dry and then select the right size sticker. You have to place it quite carefully on the nail to avoid any wrinkles and then smooth it down. To help them adhere to my nails, I held a hairdryer over them for about 10 seconds. Then cut the sticker a bit shorter, fold the excess over your nail and gently file it off before applying a base coat. It took me quite a long time to apply them, but I am a bit of a perfectionist! They lasted for 5 days and were only slightly chipped when I took them off. They were £4.50, so considering you get two sets, I think they're really good value.

Helen x