Saturday's Savings: Peachy Nails

Currently listening to: Without you by Glee

Good morning ladies,

Sometimes I'm hit by a great idea for a manicure during the day but when I come home from work I find that I can't be bothered to remove my current manicure, especially if it's a heavy duty glitter one.  When the Bourjois Magic Nail Polish Remover was released, I was very interested to try it but the price (£4.99) put me off.  Then I heard about a cheaper equivalent available for 89p in Home Bargains...

Since I haven't tried the Bourjois version I have no idea how it compares to the Easy Nails offering but I think this product is great.  To remove your polish all you do is put your finger into the pot and twist it around for a few seconds, slightly longer if you're wearing a dark colour or a shimmer/glitter polish.  

While this works well at removing a light sprinkling of glitter, or glitter tips, I've found that it's difficult to remove a heavy duty glitter manicure and doing so will leave glitter particles that will annoy you the next time you use this.  What it is good for, in terms of glitter, is loosening the particles so it is very easy to swipe your nails with nail polish remover and cotton wool to remove the glitter after.

 

The light coloured sponge does become discoloured with use and the sponge starts to disintegrate quickly so a pot of this will not last as long as a bottle of nail polish remover but for the price and convenience I think this product is a must-have.  I like it so much that I recently bought three, one for manicures featuring light colours, one for dark colours and one for glitter.

What do you think girls?  Is this a product you've tried?  Does the thought of removing your current manicure deter you from painting your nails?

Bye for now,

Laura

2012: New to my Nails

Currently watching: Mary's Bottom Line

 

Hello lovely ladies,

 

As the year draws to an end, I thought it would be fun to recap the new brands of polish I added to my collection in 2012.

 

First up: Color Combos

 

 

Ebay purchases: Saffron London

My one and only Revlon:

Max Factor with the polish that took the blogging world by storm, Fantasy Fire:

As much as I wanted Revlon Whimsical, it was never released in the UK.  Luckily for me I found a dupe courtesy of the Korean brand Tony Moly:

 



Courtesy of a friend, I tried Models Own and NYC.  I now have quite a collection of Models Own polishes :-)



 

Treating myself to purple holos from a-England and Catrice:







Marks & Spencer's nail polish range caught my eye:



 

And finally, courtesy of Santa, Butter London:

 

There you have it girls, those were all the brands that were new to my nails this year.  Did you try any of them for the first time too?  What brands did you add to your collection this year?

 

Bye for now,

Laura

Sunday's Shopping (and news for UK readers)

Currently watching: The Voice

Hi girls!

Happy Easter!

Just a short post from me today.

My uncle was recently on holiday in Spain and I felt like updating my nail polish collection so I asked him to bring me back some cheap nail polish from the Asian bazaars over there. Here's what he came back with:

I will show you these in greater detail when I swatch them but I think he chose well; I can see myself using all of these :-)

I also bought some new nail art supplies myself as when I was in the shop Bodycare I noticed these nail art stripers which I have never before seen in the UK:

Each set of three was £1.99 so I thought they were worth trying. Bodycare isn't a shop I often go in but I was really surprised by their range of nail art supplies. Not only did they have these, they also had stickers and nail foils. Plus...in the Technic range of nail polish I spotted a holographic silver nail polish for £1.99! I didn't buy it as I already have GOSH holographic but I thought any ladies in the UK who can't find GOSH holographic, or who don't want to pay £5, may want to investigate this Technic version. I didn't look at it closely so I din't know how good it will be but if you end up buying it do let me know what you think of it!

Bye for now,
Laura

Saturday's Success

Good morning girls!

Thank you for all your lovely comments on my last post, I will reply to them shortly :-) For now I just want to share some good news with you. Remember during the summer I took a break from blogging so I could concentrate on studying for my exams? Well I received my exam results yesterday and I am delighted to say that I passed my three exams! Hooray!

Have a fabulous day girls, the sun is shining on us all :-)

Bye for now,
Laura

The Weekend's Haul

Currently listening to: The Flood by Take That

Hello girls!

Have you all had a good weekend? I had the day off from work on Monday so my mum came down to Manchester for a visit. We walked around Manchester on Friday, spent the day in Liverpool yesterday and didn't have time for much this morning before she took the train back to Edinburgh. It was a great weekend though :-)

Of course on our travels we did do quite a lot of shopping. Here's my haul from the weekend:

What can you spot? A pair of work shoes from M&S (£25) and flipflops from Primark (£2.50)

A scarf from New Look (£3)

A belt from New Look (£3) which I intend to wear with my maxi dress when I get one and an umbrella from Dorothy Perkins (£5)

A tshirt from Primark (£8) although I haven't tried this on so I'm not yet sure if it's a keeper

A stripey blazer from H&M (£25)

Simple Hydrating Moisturiser, Eyeko Vintage nail polish (ASOS, £2.10), MUA nail polish (Superdrug, £1), Clinique moisturiser and lip gloss from Glamour magazine

A silver curb link chain, silver heart necklace, pearl ring (all from shops in Liverpool) and amazonite earrings from my mum (which I believe she bought from QVC) - what a great match for my new Eyeko polish

So as you can see I did spoil myself this weekend although all items (apart from the jewellery) were things I had on my spring/summer wishlist.

What did you do this weekend?

Bye for now,
Laura

Sunday's Stationery Bargains

Currently listening to: Only Girl in the World by Rihanna

Good morning girls!

What are you up to today? I'm heading out to have lunch with a friend and a little jaunt in town but before I go, I thought I'd show you the bargains I picked up yesterday.

I absolutely love stationery although I don't have much need for it these days unfortunately. Still, it's hard for me to resist a bargain. I bought these two notebooks in Tesco for £1.50 (A4) and £1 (A5).

The covers are really smooth and the paper inside is lined with a cherry motif in the bottom corner. Aw.

I also picked up an A6 notebook for £1 and four Uniball Fusion pens. These are from Ryman (formerly known as Stationery Box) and were on a 2 for 1 offer so I bought 4 for £1.98. I've had this brand of pens before and I love them; they're nice writers plus the design is pretty :-)

So what am I going to use my new stationery for? Language learning and accounting notes!

Do you like a good stationery bargain?

Bye for now,
Laura

Wednesday's Wishlist (from Dorothy Perkins)

Currently watching: Live at the Apollo

Hello folks,

How's your week going so far? Are you like me and already looking forward to the weekend? Silly question perhaps! Last weekend I had a little look around the shops and discovered there are quite a few things I'd like to purchase in the coming weeks and months. However, I'm on a budget so I've decided to be sensible and limit my buying to only a few key items such as a maxi dress (I've never had one, missed the trend last year, but now have an urge to own one), a short dress, a maxi skirt, denim jacket and a navy and white striped blazer. Apparently a boyfriend blazer will suit me best as I'm tall so that's what I'm keeping an eye out for.

Dorothy Perkins is a shop where a lot of items caught my eye. I feel their range has really improved lately although some of the prices are a bit steep for me.

These are the key items I'm thinking along the lines of:

All pictures taken from www.dorothyperkins.com

What would you like to add to your spring/summer wardrobe?

Bye for now,
Laura

Tuesday's Talons ft Leona Lewis

Currently listening to: What's My Name by Rihanna

Morning girls!

A quick post before I scoot off to work. I saw this picture in Reveal magazine at the weekend criticising the outfit Leona Lewis wore for the premiere of Justin Bieber's film. I'm definitely not a fan of her outfit but look at the nails! Mint green! I definitely need that colour for spring.

Are you ever inspired by celebrities choice of make up and clothes?

Bye for now,
Laura

That Was The Weekend When

On Friday
*I got home from work before 6pm, yay.
*I helped my boyfriend transcribe interviews he conducted for his dissertation.
*We relaxed and watched EastEnders. Can't wait for the baby-swap storyline to come to an end.

On Saturday
*I shopped
*Saw Black Swan at the cinema. Have you seen it? I really don't like thrillers so I had my eyes closed for at least a third of the film. It was well filmed though and I enjoyed the bits that I did manage to watch. Vincent Cassel is one of my favourite actors so it's always a treat seeing him, especially in an English language film.

On Sunday
*We did our food shopping at Tesco. No bargain flowers to be had this week unfortunately.

*I started watching Glee. I didn't see season one but I've caught up with season two. I really like Emma's wardrobe. Wish I had such pretty and well-coordinated outfits.

*I made a healthy, nutritious and declicious soup for tea. Ingredients: onion, potato, carrot, tomato, courgette, sausage and herbs. Plenty left over for tomorrow's tea too.

What did you get up to this weekend?

Bye for now,
Laura

That Was The Weekend When

On Friday
*I had a 9 week review at work last thing on Friday afternoon, which went very well. Looks like I might have a couple of work trips to look forward to in March and April but ssh, nothing's official yet so my lips are sealed.
*Relaxed with my boyfriend in the evening.

On Saturday
*We gave the supermarkets the cold shoulder and headed to the local market to do our food shopping.
*I met up with my French friend for a girly chat and a slice of cake. It was great.
*Then we met up with 8 other French people for an evening meal and a drink. I drowned in that sea of French conversations. It wasn't very fun to be honest and I was often put on the spot as the official Scottish spokesperson.

On Sunday
*I was invited to eat lunch with two of the French girls, at one of their houses. I ate very well and enjoyed myself much more than I did the previous evening.
*I spoke to my family on the phone, lounged about, read blogs and went to bed early.

Not a bad weekend but Saturday night was a bit depressing.

What did you get up to this weekend?

Bye for now,
Laura

Nail Polish Storage

Good morning girls!

Last night my boyfriend came home with these 3 pretty gift boxes for me.

They are gold and silver with a red and green design. The red bits are velvety and feel lovely :-)

My boyfriend suggested I use them to store my nail polish. Good suggestion as my previous nail polish box was overflowing and was very inconvenient to move around the flat. It also wasn't big enough to store my polishes upright- something which should be done in order to help keep polishes in good condition for longer.

I had a great time sorting through all my polishes. I have half my collection here and half at my parents' house. Here's how I've arranged my polishes here:

In the big box: pinks, purples, blues, reds, greens, browns

In the little box: silvers, greys, whites, topcoats, basecoats, nails tools, image plates

I'm very happy with my new storage system. It can neatly be stored away and looks classy :-)

How do you store your nail polish collection?

Bye for now,
Laura

That Was The Weekend When

On Friday
*Nothing much happened. I came home, watched Top Gear, and relaxed with my boyfriend.

On Saturday
*Temperatures dropped

*I met up with the French girl from last weekend plus two of her French friends. Some of the conversation escaped me but overall I had a good time with them.
*I put my Boots £5 voucher towards this No7 primer. The bottle's green, so is the product. Bit scared to try this!

*My boyfriend and I had tea at Waxy O'Connor's then went to the cinema to see Blue Valentine. I didn't like it at all. Ryan Gosling is an actor I really don't like and I found the film very boring. We saw The King's Speech during the week and although I wasn't at all keen on seeing it, it was a much more enjoyable and engrossing film. Nice to see Helena Bonham Carter playing a normal character instead of a crazy banshee.

On Sunday
*I went to Sally's and made a couple of purchases :-) I'll reveal what I bought during the week!
*I also went shopping in town and bought three Accessorize nail polishes (3 for 2 until 15 February), a dressing gown and a satchel from Matalan.

Do you like it? I'm not sure if I'll be keeping it as I'm beginning to think brown wasn't the best colour to choose. It will look fine with my red coat and various jumpers but what about when I wear my numerous black jackets? I'm not a fan of mixing black and brown.
*I opened a twitter account! My username is butterflyport so please follow me if you tweet too!

How was your weekend? I'd love to know what you got up to!

Bye for now,
Laura

That Was The Weekend When

On Friday

*I left work to find the most beautiful evening sky I have ever seen. Pink, orange, red, purple, blue, white. Swirls of colour and pretty patterns in all directions. Truly amazing. Possibly the first time I wished my phone had a camera.

On Saturday

*I met up with a French girl who moved to Manchester around the same time as me (August 2010) and is also looking for ways to meet people. We chatted for a few hours over a couple of chai lattes (yum) and both had a great time. Feels so good to meet other people socially after all these months of it just being my boyfriend and I or just me on my own now that most of his spare time is spent working on his dissertation.

*We went to Tesco for food shopping and I picked up a couple of bunches of tulips that had been reduced from £4 down to 30p! Some of the flowers aren't in a very good state but the rest are fine. I like having flowers to brighten the place up and look at while I sit at my computer. They may not last beyond a week but I've definitely had my money's worth from them already :-)

On Sunday
*I was supposed to meet up with another French girl but she cancelled so I ended up having a walk round a couple of local shops, making a couple of purchases which I'll tell you about during the week, reading magazines and reading your blogs. A nice relaxing Sunday :-)

What did you get up to this weekend? I hope you enjoyed yourselves whatever you did.

Bye for now,
Laura