Stars NOTD

Currently watching: Strictly Come Dancing

Good afternoon!

I passed the two exams I sat on Monday so once again thank you for your messages wishing me good luck :-) Now I'm back in college for a week to prepare for my final two exams before Christmas and while I'm not particularly excited by the prospect of being back in the classroom, I am excited by the prospect of wearing casual clothes this week as that means no more neutral, work-appropriate nails :-)

For today's manicure, I asked my boyfriend to choose my colours. He selected a grey background and blue for stamping.

I thought any of these blues would work on top of grey but the Asos Paint by Ciate (shade: Lauren) was chosen for me and I think it turned out nicely:

It's not a combination I would have selected myself but as I'm happy with the results I'm pleased that I tried someone else's idea.

Do you like it?

Bye for now,
Laura

Surprising Wishlist Item

Currently watching: What's Eating Gilbert Grape?

Hello dear readers,

I've been taking the train to work lately and one of the perks is that sometimes people leave their magazines when they get off the train ;-)

Last week I was lucky enough to pick up an abandoned copy of Heat and on the back cover I noticed this advert for a new Nina Ricci perfume. Now it's not the perfume I'm interested in. Oh no. What my eyes were immediately drawn to were the pink tights. Lovely!

I think they look amazing with this outfit and granted, they won't look the same on me and I have nothing suitable to wear them with but still...

Where can I get these tights? Any ideas???

Bye for now,

Laura

Autograph NOTD

Currently watching: Strictly Come Dancing

Hello :-)

Thanks for your wishes of good luck for today's exams. Unfortunately, they did not go well at all.
Moving on..... I present to you my NOTD:

This was done using Goldrush from Marks & Spencer's Autograph range of nail polish. I think these retail at £5 but I bought mine a couple of years ago in a sale when it was reduced to £1. It's the kind of polish that shows up every single one of my nails' imperfections so I *rescued* this manicure with a coat of Essence Glitter Topper which is ideal for saving any manicure or simply for adding some glitz to your nails.

This Glitter Topper is packed full of squares and circles of holographic silver glitter which reflect the light in a rainbow of colours. Of course it's hard to capture exactly how glittery and colourful this is but it does look amazing in real life :-)

Bye for now,
Laura

Update

Hi folks!

I know it's been a while since my last post but I have two exams tomorrow so most of my free time has been spent studying. Despite that, I'm still nowhere near ready for tomorrow.

Apart from studying, lately I've been:

-obsessed by Strictly Come Dancing (I don't have a favourite, I love all the celebrities and the standard is really high right now. Can't wait to catch up with yesterday's Blackpool episode tomorrow evening)

-let down by X Factor (is it just me or has it all become a bit bland?)

-thoroughly enjoying The Apprentice (and wondering if Liz's hairstyle and eye make-up would work on me)

-painting my nails in neutral pinks for work

-reading all your blogs :-)

-looking forward to posting again! NOTD's, reviews, wishlists and general chitchat on their way from tomorrow!

Bye for now,
Laura

Warwick Avenue NOTD

Currently watching: Strictly- It Takes Two

Good morning ladies,

On Monday evening I removed Saville Row (a nightmare to remove, as expected with such a dark colour) and replaced it with Warwick Avenue.

I'm quite impressed with the staying power of these polishes. Two to three days with only minimal tip wear. That's very good for me. The drying time isn't great though ie if you paint your nails at 6.30pm and go to bed at 10.30pm, expect to wake up with duvet lines.

As for the colour, in some lights it is very peachy and slightly too orange for me but in other lights it's a very pretty pink, almost pastel. I like it very much :-)

Bye for now,
Laura

Make Your House A Home

Currently listening to: Just Say Yes by Snow Patrol

Hello dear readers,

A random post today about turning our impersonal flat into our home.

As some of you may know, my boyfriend and I moved into our flat just under three months ago. It's not the nicest place and unfortunately there really aren't many places for me to display my candles, ornaments and photos but I'm trying to make the most of what we have.

With that in mind, I decided to buy some flowers when we were at Tesco two weeks ago. I used to buy flowers quite regularly when we lived in Poland as there was a flower stall at the bottom of our appartment block and the prices were very reasonable (eg five tulips for under £1) but I've never bought flowers in the UK, until now.

First up, I bought these rainbow chrysanthemums. I love the colours although unfortunately the colours aren't genuine, the flowers have been dyed, and you can see the pink dye has transferred onto some of the leaves and it's also turned the water pink.

I also bought two bunches of flowers which were on sale. I can't remember the names of these, I'm afraid. Anyway, one of these bunches was reduced to 89p, and the other was down to 50p. Both have lasted incredibly well considering they were reduced to clear two weeks ago.

Do you like adding little touches like these to your home?

Bye for now,
Laura

Make-up Additions

Currently listening to: Without You by Busted

Hi girls,

Here's a post which has been a long time coming. Way back in September, I mentioned that I bought some new make-up and would be writing about it shortly. Hmm, well about six weeks later, here is that post, finally.

In September I was using L'Oreal Matte Morphose foundation and, although I really liked it, I sometimes felt I could do with more coverage. I was also worried that it was a shade too dark for me.

After browsing in Boots, I came out with Rimmel Clear Complexion Clarifying Powder (£3.99), Rimmel Stay Matte Mousse Foundation (£6.99), Revlon Photo Ready Foundation (£12.99), 17 Even Tone Corrector Stick (£3.49) and Rimmel Match Perfection Skine Tone Adapting Concealer (£5.99). Yes, that was an expensive browse.

So now that I've had these products for over a month, what do I think of them?

I already reviewed 17 Even Tone Corrector Stick, and my review at the time wasn't that favourable, but I actually like this product a lot more now than I did originally.

As for Rimmel's Match Perfection Skin Tone Adapting Concealer, I think this is a pretty good product although it is more for banishing signs of fatigue and illuminating the eye area rather than a general concealer. Removing the lid reveals a brush and you simply squeeze the tube to get the product on the brush. I think this makes using the product slightly more fun, but it does mean it can be difficult to get the right amount of product on the brush. Overall, a nice product which does what it's supposed to and isn't prone to caking.

Rimmel's Clear Complexion Clarifying Powder, on the other hand, is not really something I would recommend. Claiming to give a pure and shine free finish for up to 5 hours, clarify and mattify skin and control shine, the results this product gives are nothing special.

On to the foundations now, here's what I had been using:

And here's a comparison of it (on the left) and Rimmel Stay Matte Mousse Foundation (on the right):

L'Oreal

Rimmel

The texture and consistency of these two products differs greatly. I'm not sure if you can see clearly, but the Rimmel version is much more watery. It also smells awful. To be honest, I've used the Rimmel one only once or twice. I'm going to give it another go this week and will come back with a fuller review later on, if you're interested. I don't have high hopes for it though.

The same applies to Revlon Photo Ready Foundation. I do believe this is the most expensive make-up product I've ever purchased and it hurts that I don't love it. Revlon claim this gives perfected, airbrushed skin in any light but I'm certainly not photo ready when I wear it. I've worn this more than the Rimmel foundation but I still don't feel I can say anything concrete about it, except for the fact it has a lot of shimmer in it. I'll come back a fuller review on this product later.

Have you tried any of these items? If so, what do you think about them? I'd love to know.

Bye for now,
Laura

Warwick Avenue, couldn't resist

Currently watching: Strictly Come Dancing

Hi ladies,

I don't like falling into Glamour's trap of buying numerous copies of the same magazine just to collect all the varieties of the free gift but...I did go back for another copy in order to get Warwick Avenue.

I think it will be a great shade for work and happily it doesn't seem to be a shade that I already have in my collection:

This seems to be where it slots into my collection and, as you can see, it isn't a duplicate. I'm sure this will be featured in a NOTD tomorrow or Tuesday so look out for that :-)

Bye for now,
Laura

Saville Row NOTD

Currently watching: The Apprentice (this week's episode was filmed in The Trafford Centre in Manchester, I've been there!)

Hello :-)

I don't think anyone will be surprised to hear that my Natural Collection matte manicure didn't make it through the day yesterday so I didn't get the chance to add some Konad designs. Shame, shame, shame. I feel I haven't used my stamping set for ages.

Onwards and upwards though, let's look for the positive: I've been able to try my new Nails Inc polish today.

The girl I work with has gel nails, or rather, nail polish is applied to her natural nails and put under, um, something special (a UV lamp I'm tempted to say), to make it last for weeks rather than days so I've been looking at her nails for the last two weeks now, loving how long the polish has lasted for and loving the colour in general. She's been wearing a very dark brown shade, one which I don't have in my collection. Knowing this month's Glamour magazine had a free Nails Inc polish with it, I looked at the four colour options which were going to be available (light pink, wine, dark brown, light brown), and decided I wanted Saville Row, which looked like a very dark glossy brown, similar to the shade my colleague had been wearing.

This morning I headed out to my local shops in search of Glamour. The first shop had three of the four colour options available, a light pink, a light brown, and a dark purple. None of them looked like my Saville Row (the name of the polish can't be seen until you buy it) so off I went to the next shop. Same thing. And on to the next shop where I saw a light pink, a light brown, a dark purple and a red. Red! Hmm. At that point I decided the photo of the polishes shown in the previous issue of Glamour wasn't a true representation so I bought the issue with the dark purple polish, which of course did turn out to be the one I had wanted, Saville Row.

Here's how it looked when I applied two coats of it, under natural light:
(apologies for the messy application on my index finger)

And here's what it looked like when I took a photo under lighting:

As you can see, it's a cheeky polish! Sometimes it's black, sometimes it's dark purple and other times it's brown. I like it when it's at its darkest. I'm not sure it's appropriate for me to wear to work (I know I said my colleague has been wearing a similar shade but she's a senior, I'm a junior) but if it lasts until tomorrow evening (doubtful), then I will end up doing so. I'm curious to see what the lasting power is like actually as I'm quite tempted to get the light pink (Warwick Avenue) polish too.

What do you think of this colour? If you bought Glamour this month, which shade(s) did you get?

Bye for now,
Laura

NOTD - Mattified Natural Collection (Raspberry)

Currently listening to: Ocean Drive by Lighthouse Family

Good evening :-)

Today I have a colour from Natural Collection (Raspberry) to show you:

My camera battery was running low when I took these pictures, which is why they're rather grainy, but I think the colour is clear enough.

Following the success of my mattified Essence Aloha Sun manicure, I decided to mattify this one too. Using Rimmel's matte top coat, here are the results:

Love it :-) Can't wait to add some pink Konad designs tomorrow evening!

Bye for now,
Laura