I'm twisting fate to make believe

When I say I've spent all weekend painting my nails, I'm not exaggerating. I've been here on my own all weekend so yesterday was spent in front of television with my box of nail varnish. I decided I wanted to have a go at doing a traditional French Manicure, and since I bought some tip guides last week, I went ahead but it actually took me the best part of FIVE HOURS. Admittedly, I was reading Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (why does the film miss so much out?!) inbetween coats of nail varnish, but the pink colour I used was so thin it needed loads of layers which meant it wasn't dry when I thought it was, thus resulting in it being ruined when I peeled the tip guides off. ANNOYING TO SAY THE LEAST. I finally finished it, and it looked like this:

Not too bad, the white was done with my Models Own nail art pen because I don't have an actual French Manicure set thing. After it was done, I then proceeded to do the washing up (avec Marigold gloves) and THEY WERE RUINED. As if my Saturday hadn't already been wasted enough! Ha. Typical, but nevermind.

Anyway, so because I can't handle my nails not having anything on them, I decided to have a go at doing leopard tips. They turned out quite well actually:

I used Models Own polishes (for a change...) in Pink Pastel, Peach Puff and Fuzzy Peach, and obviously my black nail art pen. I like the combo!

Then this evening I have done my nails AGAIN, this time with inspiration from Sarah's latest post, except I don't have pure black nail varnish (must invest) so instead I went for a nautical theme and used Models Own In The Navy and Nails Inc Wilton Crescent:

I don't think I'm very keen, obviously they need tidying up though! I was going to add anchors but er, I can't draw very well so they'll just have to do for now.

Here are also two more leopard print nails I've sported in the week:

Models Own in Top Turquoise with Pastel Pink spots and Peach Puff with Fuzzy Peach spots. I think the latter is my favourite, the colours work well together! I also sported the infamous watermelon nails for a couple of days too!

I'm thinking of making these various painted nails posts a Sunday tradition because I always seem to have a few pictures built up and it'll give me an excuse to try and do different designs, thoughts?

MUA: Make Up Academy

Thank you for all your lovely comments on my last post, I'm glad you liked my nails as much as I did!

Whilst I was in town on Wednesday, as well as the Beauty UK nail varnishes and various items of clothing, I also picked up an eyeshadow from Superdrug's range of make-up, MUA. A few people have asked me if I'd tried it and I hadn't so I decided I should jump on the ol' bandwagon and see what all the fuss was about. I wasn't opposed to buying it though by the way, I'm all for cheap make-up as long as it's decent, but I do prefer to indulge and buy more expensive stuff if I can, moreso where foundation and mascara are concerned.

Anyway, so I settled on buying just a single eyeshadow. The main reason being that the stand was pretty scarce but I'll put that down to the fact it was half-term and all the kids had probably raided it earlier in the week. I bought Shade 11 - Pearl, and it looks like this:

It was between this colour and more of a nude shade. I was tempted to get both but I thought I'd see how I got on first, not that it would have made a difference because, really, what's £1 in the grand scheme of things? I chose this colour because earlier on in the week, while watching this Adele inspired make-up tutorial on YouTube, I decided I wanted an Urban Decay Naked Palette - if anyone sees them in stock anywhere, please let me know - and it half reminded me of a colour that was in there. Plus, I usually wear grey or black so I also thought browny shade will make a nice change!

I debuted the eyeshadow yesterday and I am literally so impressed with it, I used a bit of FY...Eye! to prime my eyelid beforehand, applied it with my E.L.F eyeshadow brush and then finished off with a thin line of gel eyeliner and it looked so good. The eyeshadow is so well pigmented that I didn't need to use a lot at all and it applied really easily. The colour lasted all day, didn't crease, and still looked as good after eight hours wear (apart from a little bit of smudging but that's to be expected with me - I'm always rubbing my eyes!) as when I first applied it.

I'll definitely be going back for more colours, anybody got any personal favourites I should get? Nothing too bright, I definitely prefer more neutral and darker shades on my eyes.

Have you used any other MUA stuff? How did you get on?

PS: the loveliest thing happened to me yesterday as I was walking home from uni - this girl stopped me in the street and said she thought I looked really nice! How kind of her. I was grinning from ear to ear all the way home, especially since I did quite enjoy the outfit I wore yesterday! It'll probably show up in an outfit post next week if anybody is curious as it what it was.

Beauty UK nail polish

Today I bought myself a couple of nail varnishes from the Beauty UK stand in Superdrug whilst out shopping. I'm not going to lie, but I didn't actually realise they were a proper brand, as in, actually sold stuff in the shops. Does that even make sense? I don't know whether I was just being naive or whether it's just because I haven't been into town for a while. I knew they had a website and Twitter account, so who knows what was going on in my head, I am usually quite slow on the old uptake though! There's quite a good selection of make-up available and none of it looks particularly bad or cheap looking, I don't know what it applies like or anything though, but it's not expensive so it's worth checking out!

I bought myself two polishes, Soft Green and Lilac Girl, for £1.99 each.

The flash on my camera makes these look completely different to what they look like in real life, but I'm sure you get the idea!

I was just going to use the green but then my housemate suggested the following and I think it could well be the best nail art in the world EVER:

WATERMELONS! Yes! I love them. Please excuse the one nail that hasn't been decorated yet, everytime I stuck a tip guide on it the polish wasn't dry so it just peeled off, annoying! I used Beauty UK Soft Green, my white and black Models Own nail art pens and then the pink is Models Own Pink Blush.

I also finally had success on the dress-for-the-wedding front and bought so much other stuff too. I have three wedding possibilities plus two new sheer tops and a pair of shoes. Successful day all round! Expect outfit posts next week, I can't do them any sooner because Amy doesn't have her big posh camera here at the minute, so blame her ;)

So long, so long

The two Tesco dresses that I mentioned in my last post arrived today but neither of them were any good. They were both too short - everywhere else was a perfect fit, but alas, the world doesn't want to see my bum! I would like to say however, that ordering from Tesco wasn't a bad experience at all. I placed my order on Sunday evening and they arrived this afternoon, I was able to track the order easily and it told me everything I could ever need to know about the whereabouts of my dresses; I don't even mind that I'll have to pay £2 to return them (there's no actual store by me to return them to unfortunately). I'll definitely be shopping there again, I do wish some of their stuff wasn't online exclusive though!

Instead, I've been scouring ASOS all afternoon trying to find something suitable so I could take advantage of their free next day delivery - I decided to give them a second chance after my rubbish experience last time. Apparently the offer is running between 9am & 5pm until next Tuesday. Anyway, I ordered the following dresses:

1/2/3

I have absolutely no idea what they'll be like or if they'll be any good but I've not lost anything by ordering them.

On a completely unrelated note, if you do already follow me on Twitter then I'm sorry for continual and repetitive tweets, but I began my dissertation research yesterday and I'd be so grateful if you could all take a few minutes to fill in my questionnaire on audience perceptions about ageism, I will definitely love you forever!

Today has been my most unproductive day of the last fortnight and I am so annoyed at myself yet can't seem to shake myself out of this rubbish mood. I've been sat surrounded by books all day but all I've done is refresh Twitter and listen to Celine Dion (and some Dashboard Confessional which I LOVED, hence the title) and play some more online bingo but I'm not doing very well today; what is my life? Can somebody please send some motivation my way?

We just wanna make the world dance

So, shopping in Nottingham with my mum today was fun, despite it turning out to be a pretty fruitless attempt in trying to find something to wear to my friend's wedding. I tried on so many dresses in so many shops, I swear to God I almost couldn't be bothered to get changed when I got home because I'd done it so many times earlier in the day. I tried on some beautiful dresses, but the most beautiful ones were always too short. I really hate being so tall sometimes. On people of a regular height, they'd be fantastic, but on me, they are indecent. And as per bloody usual, there was nothing in any of the Tall sections. Why don't shops just make the same selection of clothes available for us taller people? Honestly, it's so fustrating. I hear there's often the same problem in the Petite sections too?

I didn't come away competely empty handed (aside from the obligatory crinkle cut beetroot and breaded chicken from Marks & Spencer that I always get treated to) because Mum bought me a coat, it's double-breasted and a camel colour with black bits (great description, no?). It's from what was left in the River Island sale so we snapped it up because it was the only one. It's not mine 100% yet because I think I'll only be keeping it if I find a nice black dress to wear with it, afterall it is a March wedding so heading out in short sleeves, if any sleeves at all, probably isn't the wisest idea. I took a couple of photos but they're pretty bad, even by my usual standards, but here is one of them anyway, tilt your head...

I think Mum is coming through to Leicester next Monday if I've still not found anything to wear, but I ordered the following two dresses from Tesco last night (first seen on Sarah, her dress collection is soon going to be MINE!).

I'm also planning to look for a dress Sarah and Gem have both got from Peacocks in the week too, so keep your fingers crossed for me! I will find something!

Oh, I almost forgot but I hit 300 followers last night (after shameful pleas on Twitter), but honestly, thank you all so much! I am so amazed at myself and everyone who follows/reads. I might be a little fish in this huuuge blogging pond (ahaha, so cheesy) but it really does mean a lot. There is also a potential giveaway coming soon too, so keep your eyes peeled! :)

Two fat ladies, eighty eight

In between entertaining my dearest big sister this weekend* I have been playing online Bingo, it was Emma and her lovely money-making blog that inspired me to do so. So far I have deposited a tenner of my own money on two different websites and have so far 'won' close to £60, and I'm planning to keep going until 10pm tonight so will report back with my total! It's such easy money and it's all automated so all you have to do is purchase the tickets every 15 minutes! It's quite time consuming because you have to hover around the ol' laptop for the majority of the day, but hey, I'm a student, that's what I do best! Head over to this post to find out more.

*by entertaining, I mean watching television, going to see Gnomeo & Juliet, which was so good, perhaps only made good by the absolutely amazing and faultless soundtrack (I might be bias because I am so in love with Elton John it's sickening) but still, definitely worth seeing - it has it's funny moments! We also made a pretty successful Chinese, which included battered sweet and sour chicken, beef chow mein, egg fried rice and prawn crackers, and it definitely worked out so much cheaper than an actual takeaway even if it did take twice as long to make! Granted me made enough to feed a small country but that's irrelevant, who doesn't love leftovers the day after?!

On Friday, me, Amy and Emma managed to bag ourselves some tickets to see Adele in September in Wolverhampton. Excited is not the word!

Tomorrow I'm heading to Nottingham to meet my mum to do some shopping. My friend is getting married on March 5th and I still have nothing to wear. They have a Joy there though and since reading Sarah's post on their wonderful dresses, I'm hoping they have something in there. Although that said, I'm loving some of the Tesco web-exclusives at the minute too, again that I've only seen because of Sarah! Does anybody know of anywhere that would be good to look for wedding appropriate clothing? Such a stressful occasion!

What have you lovely lot been up to this weekend?

If you ask me, I'm ready

Today I got home from another long, productive day at uni to find a PINK PARCEL from the lovely Sarah sat outside my bedroom door. It was so beautifully wrapped in bright coloured packaging and it made me so happy! Inside there was a gorgeous selection of no less than fifteen handmade necklaces that I won in her ever-so-lovely giveaway:

I stole these images off Sarah!

If you don't already follow Sarah, please go and follow her now because her blog is lovely, it's full of pretty dresses and amazing looking cakes - you won't regret it, promise! I love each necklace so much, I swear I'll never have to buy another necklace again. There is a selection of different chain lengths and they're so well made, definite instant love going on here!

Talking of instant love, today we (me, Amy and Emma) befriended a little kitten, she came in our house, made us late for uni and everything. We called her Tigerlily, she started off as a he called Tiger and then we found out she was a she, so promptly added the Lily! She was playing in the garden with sticks and pebbles and being all cute, but then she climbed the fence and disappeared. She didn't have a collar on so we hoped she wasn't lost or a stray but we've never seen any sort of cat around here before so who knows where she came from.

PS - how the hell am I so close to 300 followers? Thank you all so, so much ♥

I know I said I loved you but I'm thinking I was wrong

I'm sorry for a lack of blogs with any sort of substance this lately, I've been in uni all day everyday this week. I have three massive projects to be getting on with so I haven't had time to do much else, it's quite fun though. I have so far discovered that I love fonts more than anyone probably should and that I love designing things again. I might not be the best but I am reliving my teenage self and it's so much fun despite the fact my eyes and head always hurt after hours of staring at a computer screen.

This is my poor attempt at being funny; I added in the 'spit' ;)

Last night, as a house, we decided to try and have a British night in celebration of The BRIT Awards. It was relatively successful, we had a roast dinner (chicken, an actual mountain of stuffing AND Yorkshire puddings - winner!) followed by Terry's Chocolate Orange, brownies and these caramel shortcake things.

The BRIT Awards is one of the highlights of my year, every year. I love it so much, I was literally so excited for it! What did everyone think to James Corden? I personally loved him presenting it, although I wasn't so keen on him being in difference places all over the 02 arena after each ad-break, I wish he'd have just stayed on the stage.

Adele was incredible as always, she looked as stunning as her performance sounded. Along with her, Plan B and Rihanna's legs were my highlights of this year. I don't quite understand why Robbie Williams kept saying 'shabba' when Take That went to collect their award though? And why didn't they give a better speech? THEY HAVE A LOT TO THANK US FANS FOR! I'm so glad Laura Marling finally got the recognition she deserves, I've loved her for so long and I'm glad she finally won award for her amazing talent. Oh, and maybe the day Justin Bieber understands British humour will be the day that Mark Ronson gets his pretentious head out his arse? Who knows, only time will tell.

I really need to go to bed now, another long day awaits tomorrow. What have you all been up to this week? Any plans for the weekend? My big sister is coming to stay on Saturday, I'm not sure what we'll be doing though, I might drag her to see Gnomeo & Juliet if she'll allow it!

Happy er... Monday!

This is me, myself and I this Valentine's day and this is the most pointless blog there has ever been.

Sittin' on the dock of the bay, wasting time

This weekend I am home alone in Leicester, I don't mind really but the evenings get a bit lonely sometimes, but tonight I have a bunch of shit telly to watch, Harry Potter to read, lots of reblogging on Tumblr to do and in the background I have my Strawberry Buttercream Yankee Candle burning and the fairy lights switched on. I've done quite a bit of work today too so I'm pleased with that, I've also got motivation to do some more work on my dissertation tomorrow. I love productivity!

I've got a whole bunch of photos of my nails that I've taken over the past few weeks. I'm good at doing this, I spend ages doing my nails, take pictures and then never get around to posting them on here so I end up having a backlog of images that I don't want to go to waste. Although, I'm still stuck on the leopard print bandwagon because I can't seem to do anything else! I should probably practice other stuff but I can never get my right hand very good and it stresses me out :(

All the colours I used are by Models Own, I swear some of us bloggers should be ambassadors for them!

This is Gold Rush and the black nail art pen. I was suitably unimpressed with Gold Rush, I'd been wanting to get my grubby mits on it for so long after I accidentally bought Gold Digger but didn't like it because it was more yellow than gold, and this is the same only with a little bit of added sparkle. It looks so much better on other blogs where I've seen it!

This is Grey Day (bought on the recommendation of Rani) and I used Barry M Nail Effects (sorry, I lied when I said everything was Models Own). I really liked it at first but then when I kept seeing it, it looked really dull and I didn't like it anymore. I love Grey Day on its own though.

This is Disco Mix and is AMAZING IN EVERY SINGLE WAY, I love it so so much but it's really difficult to apply - I got glitter EVERYWHERE and it needed about three coats - and then I stopped loving it so much when it took me about three hours to try and get it off today, even the foil trick didn't work properly.

This is Pastel Pink, such a nice shade, and the stupid dots are done with the white nail art pen. If you follow me on Twitter, you'll recognise these because they're the ones I referred to as bacteria nails. Don't you think they look a bit like bacteria?!

So, to get rid of the rubbishy bacteria resemblance, I changed two of my fingers to leopard print. I quite like this, they were really bright and summery and made me happy. It's still Pastel Pink with the white nail art pen and the green is Jade Stone (which I have about 48 bottles (read: 2 bottles) of because I keep buying and forgetting I have it, I'm such an idiot)

Annnnd finally, my nails now look like this. This is Mushroom and I really love this colour, it's definitely one of my favourites!

I miss your ginger hair and the way you like to dress

I don't really want to apologise in advance, but I will anyway. This is going to be an INSPIRATIONAL image post. I have a ridiculous obsession with ginger hair (I really fancy Max Branning and I'm not even ashamed) and I am forever lusting over having the perfect shade to dye mine, so I thought I'd share a few pictures with you all!

All these images are from We Heart It (forgive me, for I have SINNED!) except the first one, which I found on Lookbook.

Have any of you lot dyed your hair (successfully) ginger? I have absolutely no idea how I'd even go about achieving the perfect ginger locks though, would it even would suit me?! I mean, I've had red, blonde, unintentional yellow, purple, brown & black(ish) hair so surely it won't look entirely hideous...

Oh, and just for good measure, here is the ultimate ginger of all gingers, the most beautiful man to ever walk this earth, my most favourite ginger person:

Givenchy Phenomen'Eyes mascara

For Christmas, my darling big sister bought me various make-up items from her trip to New York. Among them was this Givenchy Phenomen'Eyes mascara, you know the one with the sphere shaped applicator? That one.

I'll be honest here, I haven't really used it that much since I got it because I kind of got into a routine with using Diorshow Extreme on my lashes, topped off with a layer of Clinique's High Impact mascara and I'm always a bit wary about trying new products because when I get settled into a routine, I don't like to deviate. I'm a bit weird like that, anyone else the same?

Anyway, over the last few days I've been using this Givenchy creation and so far I am impressed with it, I kind of wish I'd started using it sooner. It's a bit of a bitch to apply at first though, it's one of those things you have to get used to. Instead of applying it from root to tip of the lash, you sort of 'colour' in the lashes. It's quite a weird concept, but I think it makes sense.

The applicator is also quite difficult to get out of the tube but apparently that's so you get just enough product on the wand that you need, theremore no more unnecessary mascara smudges. I guess that's why the tube is a bit shorter than most mascaras? I might have just completely made that bit up however!

My only sort of issue with it is that it doesn't feel as though it dries properly and I've recently got into the habit of putting mascara on before any other make-up, letting it dry and then doing the rest of my face, purely because I make a mess everywhere with mascara and I don't want to risk ruining any eyeshadow or liner because I need to clean up said mess. I'll probably just have to be more careful in future.

Here's a few creepy eye pictures (the only downside to doing mascara reviews!) so look away now if you don't fancy seeing close-ups, although I did make them greyscale to try and make them less-creepy! The first picture is my normal lashes, the second is with one coat and the third is with two coats, although to be fair there isn't that much of difference between the two.

I think Phenomen'Eyes retails at about £20 and is, I'm guessing, available at most Givenchy make-up counters in department stores.

Have you used it before, what do you think? Or are you tempted to try it at all?

Suggestions on a postcard please!

Hello! Hope you've all had a lovely weekend - what have you all done? I've been to Milton Keynes for the weekend and, as a result, today has been yet another write off. I need to stop doing this! I wasn't even remotely hungover, just a bit tired, but any excuse to watch Harry Potter (number 5 this time) followed by Sex and The City whilst consuming too much chocolate and Ben & Jerry's ice cream!

I've literally got so much work to be cracking on with, I've kind of been putting it all off in hope it'll go away but this weekend I've come to terms with the fact that, no matter how hard I wish, it's not going anywhere unless I get my arse into gear and get on with it. I am quite looking forward to getting started on writing various beauty articles, painting my nails and practising different make-up looks all in the name of journalism, as well as redesigning a magazine and, I hate to say it, but writing up my dissertation. It's just the getting started and the motivational front that I severely lack in - any tips on gaining motivation from somewhere... anywhere...?

ANYWAY, less about me. The point of this post is because I'm on the hunt for new blogs to read and get inspiration from, I need to involve myself more in the blogging community (okay, I admit, I'm a rubbish commenter - that doesn't mean I don't read posts though, because I do) and I feel like I'm kind of stuck in a rut with regards to reading the same blogs. I mean, obviously I love the ones I keep going back to day in and day out, but a bit of variety is always good to spice things up, right?! So yeah, leave me comments and point me in the direction of your favourite bloggers or blogs you've recently discovered. I'm open to all suggestions - lifestyle, beauty, fashion, interior, crafty., or just link me to your blog if I don't already follow you! I'll probably do a post on the best ones I come across!

Oh, and those reviews I raved about last week? I promise they're coming SOON!

In the name of Journalism

Last night me, Emma, Amy and another girl off our course went along to Revolution for a Cocktail Masterclass. As part of a final year major project, we were put in groups and we have to design and create a magazine. As part of that we decided to make this cocktail making evening a major feature within it. I can't say much more about it other than that we had the best night in such a long time, it was so much fun, so instead I'll share a few pictures.