Favourite Pieces of Jewellry: Rings

Similarly to my nail polish collection series, I have decided to do an overview of my favourite pieces of jewellry. Now most of these items won't be available anymore but oh well.

First I decided to go show my favourite rings. I never used to be the hugest ring wearer purely because I had really chubby fingers, but after losing weight I've noticed they've got a lot skinnier (i.e. from being able to just about wear large rings on my smallest (ring) finger to being able to wear medium rings on half and large on the other half of my fingers) and so have bought a lot more.

First is this turquoise ring I purchased from Dorothy Perkins last summer. I got it in large and now the only fingers I can wear it on are my middle fingers and thumbs. I asbolutely adore turquoise so this ring jumped out at me. Only issue is and this can be said for all cheap gold coloured jewellery is that the gold colour rubs of and turns copper coloured, leaving my finger stained blue-green.

 Second is this one my friend got me for christmas 2 years ago from topshop (I think). And she being my friend, is aware that I used to have massive fingers so got this in large, it fits the same as the turquoise one. I love the design on this and the way its quite eyecatching without being too bling or in your face. Sadly, about 4 of the 'pearls' have fallen off but I can live with it.

Thirdly is a pretty new purchase, this mood ring from urban outfitters. I love this ring because its adjustable so I can wear it on all fingers and the colours that show up are so pretty, ranging from browny-green to purple.  

Saving the best till last, this is a ring my late grandmother gave me. It is a black onyx stone set in silver. What I love most about this ring is the colour of the stone, its this incredibly dark green with a few sparse red flecks. Its a little small and just about fits on my ring finger on my left hand, but it has got stuck before so I'm going to have to take it to a jewellers to get it resized.

Review: Burt's Bees Beeswax Lip Balm

I will be the first to admit that I am a die hard carmex fan, if I'm honest its the only thing that has ever really helped improve the texture of my lips and instantly made them not flaky (sorry Vaseline, Nivea and Softlips, I persevered, promise). Until I discovered this product. Honestly this is uh-mazing.

Its Burt's Bees Lip Balm. I bought this when I popped into Waitrose and as usual got sidetracked from buying milk. I saw this next to the carmex in the skincare section and got suckered in by the cute packaging.

Aside from the packaging, this is actually a really good product. It is a pretty solid white balm and takes a while to melt. When I first tried to use it I was dissapointed because it was so hard and was difficult to get any product on my lips but fortunatley the balm warmed up and went on pretty easily. What I particularly like about this, aside from it being very moisturising, is that it leaves a matte effect on the lips which is the only downfall (in my opinion) of Carmex. It does cost slightly more, for 8.5g it cost £3 compared to 10g for £2.50 for Carmex but the matte effect it leaves tilts it to me. Also worth mentioning is that it has a slight minty taste and smell which leaves your lips tingling slightly and I've noticed a slight plumping effect.

Overall, I honestly absolutley 100% recommend this product.

Nail Polish Collection: Pinks and Purples

Now is time for another post on my nail polish collection. Now is time for my pink and purples. One thing that quickly came apparent to me is that with so many nail polishes in my possession, I own no mid-toned purple ones so that might have to be next on my list (not that I need any more polishes but.. ya know).

First is Barry M's Strawberry Icecream, OPI's Privacy Please, Nails Inc's Elizabeth Street and Revlon's Lilac Pastelle. Favourite of these is probably Lilac Pastelle because it is the only one that is opaque in two coats. Nails Inc was recieved as a freebie from Glamour magazine I believe. OPI has the worst coverage of the bunch, about 4 coats and it will be opaque which takes AGES, but is worth it once all the layers have dried (can also be used as one coat if your nails are yellow to make then look more normal and healthy). The wear is best on the Revlon and Barry M.

On the left is Barry M's Peach Melba and I LOVE this. It has such a good formulation that it is almost (almost!) full coverage in one coat and lasts days without chipping. It is a really pretty peach colour and is one of my favourite colours to wear in spring/summer. On the right is 17's Pink Lemonade which is a peachy pink and the formula is good enough to be a 2 coater.

Ok, obviously I am drawn to all the Barry M pastel shades, this one is Berry Icecream and on the right is Avon's Luxe Lavender. Both are lilac colours but the berry icecream is more vivid, and slightly more pink in tone. Both are 2 coaters and the wear is really good.

Now, the Avon Viva Pink and the Models Own Pink Blush polishes are pretty much exact dupes of each other (although Viva Pink looks a bit darker in the photo, in real life they are identical). Revlon's Plum Seduction is a slightly plummy pink. All the polishes last pretty well, maybe the Avon one lasts a day longer (I've gotten 4 days wear out of it which might not sound much but it is really impressive for me).

The colour on the left is buzz by Barry M and this was a give away in a newspaper which my grandma kindly gave to me. This polish is a miss for me though, the formula is horrible but the worst thing is the smell. This smells so strong, and a bit like fish, which is really not nice, its annoying though because I don't own any raspberry colours. However, Revlon's Cherries In The Snow is one of my all time favourite polishes. It is a scarlet/pink colour and there was a time when this was the only colour I would wear on my toes. It wears pretty well, about 3 days before chips start to appear.

These two colours have pretty much the same end result - they are so dark they look black with only the tiniest hint of being a very very dark purple. They are Avons Plum Night and GOSH's Deep Purple. The Avon is only very slightly darker.

And thats it for the second installment of my nail polish collection. More posts soon.

Review: Dr Lewinns Renunail

So I have been trying this product out for a month now and have seen massive improvement in my nails. In the past they have been incredibly brittle and peeled really easily. It meant my nails were always short and no amount of base coat would disguise the ridges.

I found this product when I was browsing the House of Fraser website for a Deborah Lippmann polish for my friend Rosie's birthday. When this showed up in my recommended products, while intruiged, the £21 price tag put me off a little. But I decided it was worth a go and am SO glad I did, (also considering you get 30ml it works out as being reasonably priced).

The idea is that you apply 2 coats one day, then for the rest of the week you apply another coat. I find that it takes a pretty long time to dry so I apply this when watching a movie. Unfortunately I forgot to take before pictures (woops) so an after picture seems redundant. But my nails are SO much longer and stronger and for the first time in months, my nails aren't peeling like crazy. I highly, highly, HIGHLY recommend this product.

Pastel Nails

This was inspired by Marc Jacobs spring/summer collection for Louis Vuitton. I absolutley adored all the pastel colours, the carousel used in the runway show and the ads featuring two models in an ice cream store.
So when it came time for me to paint my nails (a full 48 hours since painting my nails previously) I took inspiration from his collection and painted my nails a variety of pastel shades.
I used mainly Barry M colours, but on my thumbs layered Mint Green under Rimmel's Peppermint to make the colour lighter. It does look quite similar to the pastel blue on my middle finer but its more distinguishable in real life.

(sorry the picture quality isnt that great - the pictures were taken at night and the lighting made the colours appear brighter than they actually are) (I used 2 coats of each colour over Essies First Base base coat) (also sorry for the fact that I havent tidied round the cuticle. I stupidly took pictures before doing that)

Colours from L-R: Barry M Mint Green, Rimmel Peppermint, (the rest are all Barry M) Berry Ice Cream, Blue Moon, Strawberry Ice Cream and Lemon Ice Cream

Nail Polish Collection: Nudes and Neutrals

I have decided to do a little series cataloguing all my different nail polishes. I own roughly over 100 polishes and thought I would share my collection. I categorised my polishes by colour, glitter and matte effects and the smallest group was the neutral colours.

I tried to pair colours that are similar to each other. First off are OPI's Malaysian Mist and Maybelline's Ivory Rose. They are almost exact dupes, both slightly peachy/pink toned neutrals. I prefer the Maybelline over the OPI as it needs 2 coats instead of 3. Other than that they are very similar products, both have a nice thick brush which makes application super easy.

These 3 colours are slightly darker more neutral/browny toned nudes. The colours are OPI's Tickle My France-y (mentioned in a recent blog post if you want to see how it looks on), Nails Inc's Basil Street and No7's Oyster. Basil Street is the darkest and I feel if you mixed it with Oyster you would get Tickle My France-y.

Next is two polishes by BarryM. I included 'Grey' in here because I didn't know else where to put it so I bunched it in here. On the left is 'Mushroom' which is a dark taupey/brown colour. I love BarryM nail polishes because they wear very well and both colours are 2 coaters.

Expect more polish collection posts soon

Random: Sweets from Chinatown

So just a quick post showing some sugary snacks I bought on a recent trip to chinatown with my mum and my brother. A few years ago mum came back from working in london and gave me a pack of 'Pepero'. They are shown in the picture below and are basically biscuit sticks dipped in chocolate. And they tasted so good that ever since then I have forced mum to buy me more and different types.

This time, I got my usual Pepero (although I prefer Pocky but they weren't in stock), hello panda, Caplico Stick, Winnie the Pooh shaped Hello Panda things and YanYan. Hello panda is basically chocolate or vanilla filled biscuits. the Caplico sticks I have only ever had once before and is like... fake ice cream cones? Ha that sounds bizarre but its just a really solid sugary foam. Now for the Yanyan... I've never had this before but from what I can tell its similar to pepero in that its biscuit sticks but they are not coated and instead you dip them into a vanilla/milk dip.. I am definitely interested to try these haha.

Have you ever tried any of these? Did you like them?

x

OPI's Tickle My France-y

This is my all time favourite nude polish. Its perfect, not too pink, too orange or too brown. And what I really like about this polish is that in different lights it looks slightly different. In direct sunlight it looks more nude, and in shade it looks more pink/purple. I tried my best to capture this in photos but its more obvious in real life.

 Camera with flash.

No flash. Shade.

No flash. Semi-shade.



 No flash. Direct sunlight.

Urban Outfitters Haul

So recently the sales were on, but I hardly got anything due to lack of money, hatred of shopping in crowded stores (the stress gets to me) and nothing really catching my eye or being a must have.

The only way I buy anything in the January/post-christmas sales is online as I find it to be far less hectic. So while I was casually looking through all the online sales I came across a few things on the Urban Outfitters website. I have never bought any clothing from their store before as the clothes are really expensive, although that said, I have been very very tempted before. But anyway, I got a few really non expensive things, just some jewellery and home decor items.

First was this photoframe. I got this because I do not currently own a frame and seeing as my room is going to get redecorated, I figured whats wrong with a little preparation (even though my room wont be finished for a month or so.) I got the Dear Prudence Wild Rose Frame in Peach for £5 (reduced from £8 i believe but I'm not 100% sure). I really love it and cant wait to put a picture of me and my friends in there.

This might be a very strange thing to get to some people, but I LOVE wrapping presents and plan on using this 'Black With Love' ribbon to wrap peoples birthday presents. This was reduced to £3.

It might come as a shock that for a girl who owns over 100 nail polishes, I dont own a single nail glitter. So when I saw this on sale for only £2, I had to get it. I plan on using this silver nail glitter on the tips of my nails paired with black or blue polish.

Now onto the jewellery. First off was a mood ring. I was obsessed with these as a child and owned a tonne of these. Now although the ring might not change colour with your mood they aren't any less awesome. I got the silver one, although I was torn between it and the black oval one which I might have to buy, both retailing for £5 in the sale. Only problem is, they dont have a sheet telling you which colour corresponds to which mood, but this really isnt necessary. I got it for the colour change. haa. What I really love about this ring is the fact that it is adjustable so fits all finger sizes.

Secondly was a pair of triangle chain drop earrings. I own very little silver jewellery and these are the first pair of silver dangly earrings I have bought. I like the tough aesthetic of these and plan on wearing paired with a leather jacket and black skinny jeans.

Lastly, and possibly my favourite, are these pair of long aztec feather earrings. I own a pair of long black feather chain earrings from topshop, and I love them, so when i saw these on the website I couldn't resist buying them.

Did you get anything in the sales?

x

Christmas Nails

 Just a quick post showing what I had on my nails for christmas. I layered Ciate's Dangerous Affair, a bright red-wine colour, underneath Deborah Lippmann's Boom Boom Pow, a gold glittery polish.

Unfortunately my camera wasnt doing the best job of picking up the gold in these pictures. And sorry about the crappy application.

For new years I layered Boom Boom Pow over Avon's Matte Black polish. I have also layered it over Charge it! from Sephora by OPI which added sparkle to an otherwise simple gold polish.

New Year Resolutions

So its that time of year when we decide the ways we want to better ourselves by either learning something new or improving at what we are already good at.
Personally I rarely manage to stick to the resolutions I make. Actually, I'm pretty sure I've only ever managed to stick to one, to stop biting my nails and I only achieved that this year.

But, this year, I am determined to for once, stick to my resolutions.

1. Get to university. Well, more specifically get AAB in my a-levels to get to the university I REALLY want to go to. This is definitley the most important one for me.

2. Learn how to drive. I turned 17 a year and a half ago, and I STILL haven't learnt yet. But this year. I will. And I mean it.

3. Rearrange and keep my room tidy. I have made this resolution for as long as I can remember, but STILL, 9/10 times it is a mess.  My main christmas present from my mum was that I would get to redo my room and hopefully this will be a good incentive to keep it tidy?

4. Last but not least, I want to get back into blogging. And frequently. Unfortunately this might not be possible until after my exams in January.. but after those I will try wholeheartedly. (and my friend Rosie at budgetingbeautiful.blogspot.com will help me stick to this.)

So, fingers crossed that this time next year, I will be able to look back at this list and say that I have managed to stick to them. :)