OPI and China Glaze

Currently listening to: Melanie by Diams

Greetings girls!

Today was my first day at my new job so I wore one of my lovely suits, took my beautiful bag and briefcase with me and started at the bottom of the accounting career ladder. This week is an induction week, which means lots of information is being thrown at me (and the other new trainees) but most of it won't make any sense until we start working properly. Tomorrow we're being introduced to the firm's auditing software. I think it will be an intense day. Anyway, I heard a lot of worrying and scary stuff during the course of the day but one piece of good news I did pick up on is that, starting from next Monday, I will be in college for two weeks. Why is that good? Because college = casual clothes = nail polish! Yay :-)

This leads us nicely on to the title of today's post, OPI and China Glaze. When I was in London at the weekend I noticed a hairdressing salon with nail polish on display in the windows. On closer inspection, I saw this:

This was very exciting for me because it was the first time I'd ever seen OPI and China Glaze nail polish for sale. Of course I've read about them and seen swatches on your blog but I'd never seen the bottles in real life.

What about the prices? OPI bottles were priced at £10 and China Glaze at £5. Is this normal? I knew OPI was around the £10 mark but I had no idea what price China Glaze retailed at. For me £5 is a bit expensive, although I did spend that on my GOSH Holographic polish, but if I really wanted a certain colour I would consider spending that. I didn't buy any (due to a lack of spending money and short, short nails) but oh I did enjoy looking.

How much are you willing to spend on a bottle of nail polish and what are your favourite brands?

Bye for now,

Laura

Beautiful new bag

Currently watching: The X Factor

Hello girls,

I hope you all had a lovely weekend. I went to London and had a fantastic time there :-) This was the bag I took with me:

Oh how I love this bag. I'd been wanting a quilted Chanel-type model for a while. Originally I thought I'd like the style which goes across your body but then I realised I hate wearing bags across my body and I don't particularly enjoy carrying my bag either so the best buy would be one which had two straps to go over my shoulder.

This one fits the bill perfectly. It has a nice pounch at the front for easy access to my umbrella/sunglasses, a large zipped compartment inside and a smaller zipped compartment inside for my purse and keys. It's the first white bag I've ever had. I thought it would get dirty very quickly but I've had it for almost two weeks now and I don't see any marks on it.

Are you a fan of the quilted bag?

Bye for now,

Laura

Nail Growth Update

Currently watching: Grey's Anatomy season 6
(the more I watch this, this more Meredith resembles Renee Zellweger)

Hi ladies,

Last week I wrote a post about my horribly short nails and the nail care regime I planned to adopt in order to have healthier and longer nails. You can see the post here.

A week has passed and I have faithfully been using Vaseline Healthy Hand & Nail lotion three times a day. I also soaked my nails in olive oil once during the week. So what do my nails look like now?

There has been some definite growth but I can't say my nails are any healthier. The tips are growing as weak and transparent as they used to and I can see at least eight peels just waiting to happen. I guess it will take time for my nails to become stronger though so I shouldn't expect great results immediately. I'll keep this nail care regime going and give you another update next week.

Bye for now,

Laura

Giveaway

Hi girls,

There are lots of generous bloggers out there who are hosting giveaways to celebrate their blogging anniversaries, reward loyal followers or celebrate reaching a certain number of followers. Whatever the reason for a giveaway may be, I'm always happy to enter and I'm sure you are two :-) Here are the giveaways I currently have my eyes on:

Oooh, Shinies! is celebrating having lots of followers by offering the winner of her giveaway the prizes pictures below:

Her wonderful giveaway is open internationally until 27th August so make sure you enter here before it's too late!

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A Day in the Life of Dollface... has reached 500 followers and is celebrating by offering you the chance to win a $40 gift card for Sally's Beauty Supply or the entire China Glaze "Vintage Vixen" collection!

This fantastic giveaway closes on 30th August so to be in with a chance of winning click here

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Alice in Polishland wants to thank her followers for being so supportive and welcoming her to the blogging community. She's hosting a back-to-school mini giveaway with the following prizes up for grabs:

You have until 15th September to enter this amazing giveaway here

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*Olivia Writes...* has reached 300 followers and wants to celebrate by giving one of her followers the prizes pictures below:

Her fabulous giveaway closes on 1st September so enter here before you miss out!

Good luck ladies!

Glamour

Hi folks,

I recently purchased the September issue of Glamour, which has been done on a regional basis therefore I got the Scotland issue.

In the section focused on my region, I've been given the following 15 reasons "why Scotland rocks":

1. The deep-friend Mars bar. If consumed after midnight has no calories, honest.
2. Without Scotland, there would be no Christopher Kane. Or his Topshop collection.
3. It's the home of golf- that great sport that means we get a man-free afternoon to ourselves.
4. Cock-a-leekie - the best name for leek and chicken soup we've ever heard.
5. The handsome, rugged and just plain hot Gerard Butler. Yum.
6. You wouldn't have survived festival season without the waterproof raincoat- invented here.
7. Thank you, Scotland, for the hottest James Bond, ever. (Sean Connery, in case you need to ask.)
8. Uber-cool rocksters Franz Ferdinand, The View and KT Tunstall all hail from Scotland.
9. Apparently, seven out of every 10 Scots have blue eyes. Nice.
10. The Loch Ness monster. We don't know if it's real or not but we kinda want it to be.
11. Men in skirts? Thank God for those tartan kilts.
12. Digestive biscuits, shortbread and Tunnock's Teacakes. Anyone for elevenses?
13. Hot toddies. We'd happily suffer the flue for this wonder 'medicine'.
14. Irn-Bru. Orange it may be, but it's a great cure for hangovers.
15. The legendary Annie Lennox.

Is it just me or does this list have a scraping-the-bottom-of-the-barrel feel to it? I complained about it to my boyfriend but he said it's what he'd expect from that kind of magazine.

What do you think? And if you have other versions of this magazine and would like to give me something to compare my list with, please give me the reasons why Glamour thinks your region rocks :-)

Bye for now,

Laura

Oh My GOSH (My First Holographic)

Ladies, I am so excited to show you pictures of my first holographic manicure!

Wow :-) Hard to capture on camera but I hope those photos gave you an idea of what you can expect from GOSH 549 Holographic.

This is my first holographic polish so I have nothing to compare it with. I'm sure I read on other blogs that it's difficult to apply holographic polish over a normal base coat, and true enough there's a sticker on the bottle saying "for optimal wear use 565 Fix Base Coat" but as I don't have that particular base coat, I didn't apply any. I experienced a few problems with bald spots but I think (I hope) they're only visible to me and they're certainly not severe enough to upset me.

I used two coats of this and it dried really quickly.

I can't wait to add more holographic polish to my collection. Do you have any recommendations? This was £5 for 8ml, which normally I would consider quite expensive but I doubt I can find cheaper as holographic polish seems quite rare.

Are you fans of holographic polish?

Bye for now,
Laura

25 Questions

Hi girls,

This tag has been doing the rounds recently so I thought I'd join in and post my answers.


1. Do you have any pets?

No. I don't like animals.


2. Name three things that are physically close to you

Box of nail polish, nail cream and an amethyst gem tree.


3. What's the weather like right now?

Wet but I don't really mind as I'm in for the rest of the day.


4. Do you drive? If so, have you crashed?

I do drive and fortunately haven't crashed.


5. What time did you wake up this morning?

7am


6. When was the last time you showered?

Yesterday.


7. What was the last movie you saw?

The last movie I saw at the cinema was Eclipse, which I was disappointed by.


8. What does your last text message say?

It's a message from my boyfriend telling me he's on a break at work and his job is boring.


9. What's your ringtone?

"DewsSwing"


10. Have you ever been to a different country?

Yes, I'm lucky enough to have been to many different countries: Scotland, England, Ireland, France, Belgium, Spain, Italy, Germany, Sweden, Poland, Czech Republic, Austria, Hungary, Slovenia and Slovakia.


11. Do you like sushi?

I've only tried sushi a few times but I've liked what I've tried.


12. Where do you buy your groceries?

If it was up to me, I'd mainly shop in Asda and have regular trips to Lidl but due to where I live, Tesco is now my main supermarket.


13. Have you ever taken medication to help you fall asleep faster?

Nope.


14. How many siblings do you have?

One younger brother.


15. Do you have a desktop computer or a laptop?

A laptop.


16. How old will you be turning on your next birthday?

I'll be 25 next May.


17. Do you wear contacts or glasses?

Both.


18. Do you colour your hair?

No.


19. Tell me something you are planning to do today.

Bake an apple and chocolate crumble.


20. When was the last time you cried?

Very recently.


21. What is your perfect pizza topping?

Ooh, chicken and sweetcorn or chicken and roasted vegetables or chicken and bacon with a carbonara sauce... I love chicken on pizza.


22. Which do you prefer- hamburgers or cheeseburgers?

I love cheeseburgers. I don't eat them often but when I do, I like to get them from Burger King.


23. Have you ever had an all-nighter?

Many and they've always been great fun as they've involved getting to know people or becoming closer to friends. I've never pulled an all-nighter due to an exam or coursework though.


24. What is your eye colour?

Brown.


25. Can you taste the difference between Pepsi and Coke?

Yep. I much prefer Pepsi but because Coke is more widely available, I tend to drink that even though neither are particularly nice.

Hope you found that interesting and I look forward to reading your answers if you feel like doing this tag too :-)

Bye for now,

Laura

Award

Recently Olivia over at *Olivia Writes... * gave me this award :-) Thank you!

The rules of the award:

1) Post who gave you this award
2) State 10 things you like
3) Give this award to 10 other bloggers and notify them with a comment

10 things I like:

1) Travelling

2) France and all things French

3) Reading

4) Butterflies

5) Fountains

6) Nail art

7) Singing

8) Pretty skies

9) Photography

10) Autumn leaves

I would now like to pass this award to:

Amy

Carrie

Kim
Marie
Mimi
Nicola

Nihrida

and anyone else that would like to do this tag :-)

Bye for now,

Laura

New

New car, new city, new country, new flat, new hair style, new job, new layout. I like the hair, most of the time, but it's a nightmare in the wind.

I think new hairspray will soon be added to the above list.

Bye for now,
Laura

MUA shade 12

Currently watching: Grey's Anatomy season 6

Hi girls,

Currently covering my poor little nails is my second purchase from Superdrug's MUA range, shade 12.

Application was good, I really like the brushes in these small bottles.

I've been wearing this for two days now without a top coat and tip wear and chipping is extremely minimal.

The true colour didn't photograph well. I would say it has more raspberry pink and less pastel in it than what you see in the pictures. It looks much less purple in real life. I'm not very good at describing colours so that's the best I can do but if your local Superdrug stocks MUA then this is definitely one worth checking out.

Bye for now,

Laura

Cover Your Eyes

My short, bare nails are out and about! I've never had the nicest nails but I was happy enough covering them with nail polish. However, recently I became fed up with all the peeling, chipping and breaking so I decided to file them down as low as I dared and tried to get rid of all the imperfections.




Now I'm starting a proper nail care routine. I'm soaking my nails in olive oil once a week, applying Vaseline Hand & Nail lotion three times a day and using Essence Ultra Strong Nail Repair as a base coat.

Hopefully this new routine will help me to have stronger and healthier nails.

Is there anything else I could try?

Bye for now,

Laura

Moving Day

Has been and gone :-) My boyfriend and I moved to Stockport on Saturday and I must say it all went quite smoothly. The drive from Edinburgh to Stockport took four and half hours. I drove for the first two and a half hours and I thought I did really well on the motorway, successfully joining and exiting and also overtaking lots of slow-moving vehicles. However, I was told that actually English motorways are nothing like Scottish motorways, there is far more traffic in England and navigating where you want to go is much more complex therefore it would have been better practice for me to drive during the second half of the journey. Now that we've been here for four days, I'm beginning to realise what an absolute nightmare the roads are here. Motorways that join other motorways. Roundabouts with more than four exits (I haven't been taught how to deal with that and have no idea which lane to go in when my TomTom tells me to take the fifth exit). No clear road markings. Congestion at all hours of the day. It really is a new driver's worst case scenario.

But let's move on. The past four days have been spent buying furniture, cleaning, unpacking and exploring Stockport. It's actually bigger than I expected. We've also registered with our local GP, joined the library and had a phone line and Broadband installed. Today we plan to spend the day in Manchester city centre (I don't know if Stockport is classed as Manchester or not, it seems that some people call it South Manchester and some people call it Greater Manchester), which is about half an hour away by bus.

It was only last night that everything was really unpacked. Here's what the lounge looked like when I came to view the flat:

Here's what it looks like this morning:

Pretty good I think although over time I will buy cushions and flowers etc to brighten the room up a bit more.

Not only is it nice being able to find things without having to rummage around in suitcases and boxes, I've also enjoyed rediscovering dishes which I hadn't seen since December:

Do you think nice dishes improve the taste of food and drink? I do!

Bye for now,

Laura

Coming to a screen near you soon

Currently listening to: Just Say Yes by Snow Patrol

Hello girls!

Just wanted you to know that I'm still here. It's been a miserable, stressful and hectic time for me recently but I'm moving on Saturday so once I get settled in my new flat and have Broadband installed I will be back up and blogging again. Posts on the way include my very first holographic nail polish, my first matte top coat, another MUA shade, Boots 17 products and my first ELF order. Ooh, bet you can't wait. Stay with me :-)

Bye for now,
Laura