In my last post I said I would review the two hand creams I showed from The Body Shop, and the first one I shall be talking about is the Hemp Hand Protector for very dry skin.

During the winter I get extremely dry skin on my hands, from all the cold wind outside and radiator heating inside. I used to use thick body butters and creams on my hands to heal them, but they'v always been on the gloopy side and are extremely greasy. Not good for when I need to do things like type on my laptop, prepare food for cooking or other jobs which require "clean" hands that aren't slathered in thick lotions and potions!

Ever since getting myself this hemp hand protector, I can easily do all the things I need to without my hands feeling like they'r coated in anything greasy and heavy. This absorbs quickly and the best part is that even though it completely soaks into the skin, it doesn't feel like it hasn't healed my skin. My skin feels smooth, soft, and completely refined without a sticky feeling.

The effects of this cream last a good while too, even after washing my hands. The hand cream is water resistant so will continue protecting my hands for hours after application.

Its quite a thick lotion but it spreads easily and absorbs like a dream. It's a very pale green shade which seems fitting with the tube packaging!

So I absolutely love this cream, however it does have a few things I dislike about it.

Firstly, the packaging. This cream is not travel safe at all! I wouldn't even dare put this in my bag - the way my poor bag gets battered throughout the day, this would not last safely even five minutes! The foil tube is prone to getting pierced easily and even bending so out of proportion that it could tear. Not good at all i'm afraid.

Secondly is the smell of this cream. Its not that bad, but its a smell I'm not particularly fond of. Its just, meh. =P It does seem to last which is bothersome but as I use this cream at night mostly, it doesn't affect me too much. 

Have you ever tried this cream out? There are some rave reviews on it out there, which is what prompted me to buy it in the first place =] Luckily it does live up to the high claims!

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Holla peeps

Here's my favourite hand creams of the moment.... they'r both pretty to look at and so blooming amazing!

The Body Shop's Hemp and Wild Rose hand creams. 

The hemp one is my night time go-to and the rose, since it has spf is my daytime wonder.

Both were half price (non-sale price is £10) when I bought them, so I essentially got two for the price of one =]

Reviews on each coming soon!

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Super quick post tonight, I got back from London just a short while ago and can't believe how tired I am! All I did was visit my cousin and eat way too much... must be getting old and lazy lol =P

Anyway here's a picture of me wearing Milani's Hi-Res, one of the prettiest lilac holographic polishes ever, stamped with MUA's black. I can't even remember when I did this design... must have been earlier this year!

I'v only got one picture... a not so pretty picture either since there's a lot of tip wear as i'd been sporting the mani for a good few days. 

My camera decided to eat all the other pictures I had and this is the only one which survived. Oh well...

What do you think of this stamping design? Have any of you got Milani's holo polishes??

Thanks for reading, talk soon =)

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*As you can probably tell, i'v changed my blog template and the name too. Everything is still in working progress though so some things might look a little odd. I'm getting down to sorting it all out asap. Hope you like it so far!! =]*

Today i'm going to show you a swap I did with the lovely Theodora from Red Hair and Black Nail Polish all the way back in March!!

Go and check out her blog asap if you haven't already because she's one awesome girl and does incredible manis. An entire series of nail art inspired by The Hunger Games?? Yep that's right, she's done it! Need I say more??

If you'd like to see what I sent her, have a look Here to go straight to her page and check it out =)

Alright, onto the goodies I received =)

Aren't they all so gorgeous?!

Lets have a look at some close-ups =)

A lovely card, some delicious chocolates (which lasted less than 10 seconds after this pic was taken), an essence stampy plate and a gorgeous essence hot pink dragonfruit lip balm!

All the pretty pretty polishes =] Essence White Stampy, Essence Make it Golden, Essence Time for Romance, Essence Blue Addicted, Essence Circus Confetti, Essence Magnetics Magic Wand, Essence Magnetics Steel Me, Essence Just Can't Get Enough top coat, Essence Feels So Good top coat, Catrice Marilyn and Me and P2 Artful.

Essence White Stampy, Essence Make it Golden, Essence Time for Romance and Essence Blue Addicted.

Essence Circus Confetti, Essence Just Can't Get Enough top coat and Essence Feels So Good top coat.

Essence Magnetics Magic Wand and Essence Magnetics Steel Me.

Catrice Marilyn and Me and P2 Artful.

I was super happy with all these polishes, each and every one is gorgeous! Thank you so much Theodora for helping eliminate a good few of my lemmings and treating me to some stunning extras too! I love them all =)

Thanks for reading guys, hope you'r all having a wonderful weekend!

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Well I completely suck.

Seriously though.

First of all, how is everyone??? I just logged on and saw the whole layout of blogger is completely different to how I remember it! Did this change happen just recently or has it been this way for a while?

Gosh I’ve missed doing this so much.

Not a day went by this past year (yes, it really has been literally that long!) that I’ve not thought about starting to blog again. But every time I thought “right, today’s the day!” something would happen and stop me right in my tracks. 

An absolute ton-load has happened, and without delving into super personal stuff and boring you all to death, let’s just say this year has been one hell of an emotional rollercoaster for me. From doing my university exams to dealing with my father having a heart attack, to passing my driving test a day before my theory expired to finding out someone very close to me has cancer. Yupp, all of that in that exact order, plus much more happening in between.

Everything added up into me becoming a complete mess. I neglected my nails for months and would have them painted in just a coat of sheer pink or leave them as be. All my nail art kits were forgotten about and every other blogger I looked to for inspiration became a distant memory. 
Ok so that does sound super melodramatic but it’s the truth. Because I just didn’t care for my polishes anymore I felt like I had no reason to blog. I didn’t care because I was going through so much, had zero time for anything, was stressed about a lot and just needed some space where I was only surrounded by my family and close friends. 

Which is exactly what I did. And now that things are settling and I’m getting the hang of feeling happiness again, I’m ready to bring it. *jazz hands* =P

I named this post rebirth because for me it feels like I’m starting all over again, from the very beginning. Also I want my blog not to be about just nail polish; it wasn’t ever meant to be about just polish but somehow that’s the direction it took. I named it Pretty Little Things because I wanted to share with everyone every pretty little thing I came across! Somehow that didn’t happen but it definitely will now. 
I’m planning on vamping up my entire blog, reincarnating it =P Some of the things seem so childish and immature now, like that silly little list on the side =P I’m going to need a little help with it all though, so if anyone could give me suggestions on how to make my page look better, please do! =]

Right then, so yes I’m officially back and hopefully with this new direction I want to take with my blog, I can post a lot more often and not have to wait until the next time I paint my nails =P 

Thank you to everyone who kept in touch with me and to everyone who messaged me asking about me, I love you all and your kind words mean the entire world to me. Thank you again, and I hope you’ll enjoy reading posts from the “new me”. 

Talking of which, today is a pretty damn special day – 12/12/12. We’re never going to experience a day like this again and I hope it’s filled with good luck and blessings for everyone =] It certainly is getting off to a wonderful start for me! ;)

Oh and yes, lol that is me in the picture above =P

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