Howdy people! 

I hope you have all been well and made the most of your summer?? Here's a quick recap of mine: end of year uni exams (including copious amounts of blood, sweat and tears) - results (more tears but mostly of joy and relief) - graduation - vacation - crazy family madness - catching up on Breaking Bad (someone hug me and tell me I will survive when it ends) - vacation again - crazy family craziness again (yeah, they'r a wacky lot) - beginning a new course. :)

Phew.

Yup, all that and more was the story of my life this summer. I can't believe how quickly it went though, I was on an adrenaline rush every single day! My results were such a shocker - I got a First! Woop! - and now after all the madness has passed I am about to start a new course by the Princes Trust which should be really amazing and a lot of hard work too. Its exciting and scary at the same time but i'm really looking forward to it! :) 

So right now i'm taking a bit of a breather just before my course starts. Aaaaah, that feeling of relaxation...

I can't wait to hear all about how your holidays went! Let me know what you got up to :)

For today I bring you a super funky nail art kit by Nails Inc - Skulls and Leather Bling It On! This sort of stuff is exactly what I live for. Its shiny, its pretty, its daring, its blingy, its different! I completely love it.

The set comes with a Nails Inc Leather Effect polish in Tan, 4 skull embellishments, a nail glue and an orange stick.

Here's how I used the kit:

The nail polish was effortless to apply and glided on like butter. It went on smooth then dried down fairly quickly into this gritty, leather effect. I didn't use any topcoat as I wanted to keep the textured effect. 

To apply the skull I simply dotted on a blob of glue on my nail and a blob on the back of the skull, waited a couple of seconds and then stuck the two together. Just as a warning, don't do what I did and use fingers to apply the skull... please don't do it! Use tweezers as the instructions say! The glue is extremely strong, like superglue, and I almost got my thumb and index finger stuck together permanently because I wasn't careful! =/ Ouch!

To remove the skull you simply dip the nail in acetone and that will melt the glue away so you can reuse it anytime again. Yay!

Overall I adore this kit as its a super simple and easy way to create a really bold and edgy look. The skull stayed put exactly where I applied it for the entire time I had this polish on, which was about 3 days. I did have to be a little more careful than usual to make sure it didn't get caught on anything and snag off, but once its on you get used to it being there.

This neat little kit can be bought here and here.

I look forward to catching up with everyone and chatting to you all on here soon too!

*hugs*

*Product was sent for review, however I was not paid to publish this post. As always, my opinion is honest and unbiased. For more information, please refer to my disclosure.*

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Hello beautiful people!

So sorry again for vanishing - May is just ridiculously crazy for me! 
This is the time of year when everything becomes completely insane and I end up losing more than a brain cell or two. Birthdays and exams and assignments and final year dissertations all rolled up into one month! MADNESS!

Anyway, since its my Birthday today (i'm 21! yay!) I thought i'd take a little bit of a break and catch up with you lot again. =)

Here's my nails as they were painted a while ago... my birthday notd doesn't really exist as my nails are naked at the minute! I honestly haven't had any time recently to do them up properly. After my exams however, I plan on dolling them up with cupcakes, sprinkles, you name it, so i'l show you guys what I come up with soon. 

For now though, please enjoy this random and crazy design which I shall name "the fake birthday notd" =)

Yeah I was feeling a little funky the day I did these =P 

These pictures do no justice to this amazing polish by China Glaze however, as anyone who owns this beauty will realise! Flip Flop Fantasy, in real life, is incredibly neon and eye watering-ly bright. Also its more orange than my pictures depict. Gosh its such an incredible polish and I think everyone should try it out at least once in their lives! You certainly won't regret it! (Quick shout out to the fab Eileen of Lac Lac who got me this beauty!)

It makes my hands look so blooming tan! 

Er yeah, so for the design, I used an ebay striper pen in black and silver to get the leopard design, and then used triangle rhinestones, also from ebay, to fill in the empty nails. To finish off I placed black dots using the striper pen around the rhinestones. And et voila, super easy and eye catching! 

Let me know what you think of my pretend-birthday-nails and what you think of Flip Flop Fantasy. Love or loathe?

I'm off to stuff my face in cake (again) and make the most of today :) Also, just thought i'd let you know, I won't be back on here again until the end of the month as I want to concentrate as best as I possibly can on preparing for my exams. So I guess i'l chat to you all then!

Take care everyone, much love!!

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Hey everyone!

Apologies for the disappearing act - I've been pretty stressed recently with my Uni workload. Its assignment after assignment and then suddenly the exams are going to start.  So yeah, welcome to the ridiculously intense world of a final year student. Thank God its going to be over soon!

Anyway, I thought today i'd show you all these pretty little matte lip creams from Collection 2000; which me and the rest of the beauty blogging world it seems, are rather fond of.

I bought them a good while ago, right in the middle of all the hype surrounding them. And I have to say, they really are worth the praise.

 Top - Fairy Cake, Bottom - Angel Delight

Fairy Cake is a beautiful coral shade which is super wearable and not too harsh looking. 

Angel Delight is a muted pinky brown shade which again, is very wearable and is a must have for natural looks.

I love the texture of these as they'r matte creams which smooth on easily and are very silicone based so feel like a primer. Soft and velvety. 

I like wearing them over a bit of balm or gloss as alone the colour is heavier and I prefer a slightly glossy look. But whichever way you wear them, they look gorgeous. 

The only thing I personally don't like about these is the smell. Its a toffee/fudge/caramel scent which is not my kind of thing at all! But luckily it doesn't linger, so that's alright I guess =)

I wish they came out with more colours as there are only 4 available at the moment and two of them weren't to my tastes. Its very difficult to find a decent matte lip cream at such a brilliant price (only £2.99 I believe) so a more varied shade range would be very much appreciated.

Have you tried any of these out? Which shades top your list or are they a miss?

Have a wonderful week you lot and I'l catch up with everyone soon! =D

♥♥♥

Hey all! Hope you'r doing well? :)

Recently i'v been extremely busy with catching up with friends and family and also trying to shift my pile of Uni work down so I can get it over and done with and then concentrate on revision for my upcoming exams.
Eeek, time just seems to be zooming past! In just over a month, i'l be finished with Uni altogether! Gosh.

After getting a presentation done and dusted, I decided to reward my hard work with a bit of me-time, and of course, that meant pampering my nails! =D

Here's what I came up with after a bit of umm-ing and aah-ing over what design to do and what colours to use.

Nice and simple, black zebra stripes always win ;) 

I painted my nails in Color Club's Where's the Soiree and then stamped over it in Barry M's Gold Foil. Finally I mattified the whole look using Rimmels Matte Topcoat.

This zebra pattern has got to be my all time favorite stamping design ever! Everywhere I went with this mani, someone stopped me and asked to get a closer look! :)

What are some of your favorite, go-to colours and designs when it comes to nails? 

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I adore Topshop's cream blush. Its one of the most effortless types of blusher out there - easy to apply, foolproof, looks perfect and lasts all day long. 

There was a time when I used to hate anything cream based, due to the fact I have combo/oily skin which makes anything creamy melt right off my face. =/ Eew.
So when I choose cream products, I make sure they are the kind which dry down to a powder finish, don't look dewy on my skin and are packed with pigment.
Most cream blushers, although pretty and so easy to use, are a no-go for me as they lack the qualities which I need for them to last on my skin.

Topshop however, have perfected their cream blush formula down to a tee, making it ideal for any skin type, but especially oily skin which is usually frightened of creams!

I own 4 altogether and love every single one equally... seriously don't make me choose just one! 
I've owned each one for over a year now, so excuse the grubbiness =) 
Oh and yeah, I lost the box for one of them... *sighs*. Am I the only person who keeps the boxes products come in?! I can't help it... I need to have them!

The ones I have are Head Over Heels (perfect pale peach), Nutmeg (pink toned nude), Pinch (blue toned hot pink) and Neon Rose (gorgeous orange toned pink/coral).

The reason I love these cream blushers over the others I've tried, is because they have a cream-to-powder finish, so they dry down perfectly matte and don't budge throughout the day. The colours are also mega pigmented, so only a tiny bit is needed which blends out like a dream. I use a stippling brush or my fingers to apply, usually depending on how much of a rush i'm in!

Head over Heels 

Nutmeg 

Pinch 

Neon Rose

The way I apply with a brush is to dab the bristles in the product and then dab onto my cheeks, not swipe. Keep dabbing to build up the colour and then finish by gently sweeping the brush back towards the outer edges of your face.

With fingers, just load a bit onto finger tips and pat onto cheeks. Keep doing this until you get the intensity of blush you like, and then blend outwards by swiping your finger through the colour you've dabbed on.

Swatches: Head over Heels, Nutmeg, Pinch and Neon Rose.

As you can probably tell from this megaton of a post, I seriously love these blushers! Have you ever tried out Topshop makeup? What do you think of it? Do you own any of these shades or did you pick up another one? 

Spill please! =)

♥♥♥

Firstly, Happy Easter to all who are celebrating! =] 

So I feel a little silly posting this today, but what could I do... I only got my mitts on it yesterday!
Apologies though to those of you who might have missed out, as you can't get hold of the magazine anymore since March is practically over now.

Er ok... so um what exactly am I going on about?!

This!

Glamour mag freebies!

I bought 2 magazines to get each product - Percy & Reed hair Volumising No Oil Oil and Finishing Polish.

You get 30ml of product in the No Oil Oil and 100ml in the Finishing Polish, which is decent for only £2 each. 
The full size Finishing Polish retails at £10 for 125ml and the full size Oil retails at £14 for 60ml.

The products themselves are incredible and will last me a very long time as so little is needed each time. They both smell lovely and refreshing and are light products which don't weigh my hair down at all. 
The Finishing Polish is great at smoothing down a finished style and keeping any fly aways at bay, and the No Oil Oil is wonderful before drying as it keeps hair soft and shiny. Both also offer heat protection which is always a plus!
A full demo of each product in use can be found Here and Here.

Did you manage to pick any of these up with the magazines? Or did some other freebie catch your eyes instead?

♥♥♥

Thank God the Easter holidays are finally here! Last week was absolute madness with 2 assignments due in on the same day plus another presentation to prep for, but now that its all over and done with, I can finally begin to relax a little.

For today I thought i'd share with you all the much anticipated MUA Undress Me Too shadow palette, a supposed dupe for the Naked 2 palette.

Whether a dupe or not, its a beautiful palette consisting of cool neutrals in matte and shimmer textures.

This time, MUA have actually named their shadows, which is a nice touch and personally I prefer colours to have names as it makes them seem almost better than if they weren't named!

Top 3: Naked, Devotion, Shy. Bottom 3: Tranquil, Exposed, Reveal.

Top 3: Fiery, Lavish, Dreamy. Bottom 3: Wink, Obsessed, Corrupt.

The swatches were done without any primer underneath and the shimmer shades were easier to apply than the mattes, which were slightly chalky and took a couple of layers to stand out. However, since there's only 3 mattes in the whole palette, you're not losing too much!
The black, while a little difficult to get opaque, is surprisingly long wearing. After swatching, I took a shower and even after a whole lot of scrubbing the black still remained on my arm after every other colour had washed off! Not sure whether that's a good or bad thing...
The shimmer shades though, are packed full of pigment and glide on like butter. They blend easily and look gorgeous.

Overall this palette is absolutely stunning and its neutral shades with cool undertones make them perfect for easy, everyday wear. I can create endless looks with this palette and its quickly become one of my everyday essentials. 
If you aren't sure about splashing out on the Naked 2 as your not sure if you'l even like the colours much, try this one out first. Maybe even get this as a travel substitute for the Naked 2, as its lightweight, compact and perfect for carrying around.

Have you tried this palette out yet? What do you think of it?

♥♥♥

As promised, here are the under water photos of that gorgeous polish I showed you all last time - Max Factor's Fantasy Fire. Also called Dragon Pee, by yours truly. 

Onto the snaps!

The first 3 were taken with flash and the last one without. Look at the colours in that last shot!! Like holy moly wow or what?!

I did take completely submerged under water pictures too, but they didn't turn out too nicely so I took these ones instead where I just had my nails under a running tap. Where the water hits the polish, it creates an amazing glow that is just mesmerizing to see in real life! 
I suggest everyone who is currently wearing a duochrome to run to your nearest taps and be amazed! =P

Let me know your thoughts! *hugs*

♥♥♥

Holla peeps!

I'm so excited to be writing this post right now that I might just pee my pants! Talking of which (lol sorry) feast your eyes on this stunning beauty by Max Factor - yepp, the one and only, Fantasy Fire!

I think there's going to be a LOT of exclamation marks today... I feel the need to over-use them just to express my happiness! - (btw, remember that dreaded presentation I had last week?? Well I scored an A for it! Whoop whoop!) =D
Anyway, onto the pictures!

Every nail addict has heard of the much coveted Unicorn Pee, aka Clarins 230, right?? (If not, get your butt onto Google right this minute and educate yourself!)
Well this particular Max Factor polish caused quite a stir in the bloggosphere when it was released, as its a pretty much spot on dupe for the mega lusted after Clarins!

Safe to say that when I first heard of this I ran out to the shops to grab myself a bottle or twenty, but alas, they were sold out for weeks on end and my dreams of owning this beauty were crushed. Lol, over dramatic much? Anyway, a good while went by and I had almost forgotten all about this magnificent magic potion in a bottle, until I went randomly strolling into Superdrug one day and caught sight of a couple sitting all by themselves on a stand! I snatched them up instantly, screamed a little, happy danced, jazz handed and then walked out with the smuggest grin plastered to my face.

Yepp. I am one happy bunny.

I mean, just look at it!!

I took about a zillion photos of this, and had a great time snapping away too as I discovered an awesome way to photograph this polish and capture all its crazy, colourful awesomeness. Two words - Under. Water.

Those awesome shots I shall show you all next time. Otherwise this post would be way too picture heavy. Also, i'm just evil like that. ;)

Do any of you own the original Unicorn Pee (if so, I promise I won't hate you forever... maybe... =P) or has this one quenched your lustings? If you haven't managed to nab this one, is it on your wishlist? Do you think its special or just hyped up? Let me know!! I love a good ranting! =D

♥♥♥