NOTD: Muted Polka Dots

Just thought I'd share another little quick and easy nail art design I'm currently rockin...so easy that I was able to do the right hand fairly quickly with my unloved left hand and no mistakes!

I know the dots aren't exactly uniform but I didn't want them to be if I'm honest, I'm more of a go with the flow kinda girl. I used a really old but surprisingly good, Collection 2000 nail polish in black and one of my fave nail polishes ever, Models Own Nude Beige.

This is pretty much all I used minus clear base and top coats, the dotting tool came in a pack of 5 from an eBay seller in China and they cost me about £2.50...you could just use the end of a hair pin but for that price I thought I may as well buy specific nail tools and you can obviously create many more designs other than simple polka dots (plus I tend to lose hair pins all the time so I don't fancy wasting them on my nails!).

 Hope you've enjoyed this post anyways, have a great week :-)

Easy Peasy Fruity Frenchies

I'm not a big nail art person but with so much time on my hands at the moment I've quickly become obsessed with googling all sorts of nail art designs, anyways I thought I'd have a dabble myself and share my first attempt with you :-) 

 I've seen tons of gorgeous designs using these fimo fruit pieces but as I've literally never experimented with nail art I decided to take rather small babysteps and start off with something quite basic and easy to acheive. It's not exactly a work of art what I created but I was relatively pleased considering my inexperience! If you want to know how I did this, read on :-)

Step-by-Step

1. Make sure nails are clean and filed to your desired shape, you could use nail tips if your nails are quite short or you wanted something more dramatic.

2. Paint your nails with a clear base coat.

3.Once the base coat has dried, paint the tips (white bits) of your nails with a bright, fruity colour e.g. oranges, corals and yellows would work well.

4. Once the tips have dried, put a few blobs of nail glue on the corner tip of the nail and a few blobs down the side to create almost triangular section of glue (you only want this to take up a small section of the nail..say less than a ¼ of the entire nail).

5.Using a pair of tweezers, stick on the fruit slices and hold in place for a few seconds until they feel secure.

That's it :-) You should now have a fabulously fruity french manicure! 

Here's what I used:

1. Maybelline Salon Manicure Calcium Strengthener 

Available from most drugstores but I purchased two for 99p + 80p Postage from this eBay seller - Lippy Lounge

2. ELF Nail Polish in Mango Madness 

Available from: ELF Cosmetics 

3. Elegant Touch Brush On Nail Glue 

Available from: http://www.boots.com

4. Old Pair of Eyebrow Tweezers

5. Fimo Fruit Slices 

Available from various eBay sellers for under £2.00

In hindsight, I think I would either paint the whole nail one colour or use false tips as the effect is a teeny bit lost on the length of my nails...suppose that's the nature of
learning though! 

Hope you've enjoyed this anyways :-)

Clinique Haul/Review + Freebies :-)

Hey dolls, hope your all doing good? Just thought I'd share a quick review of some more Clinique products I purchased a few weeks ago as I think I've had more than enough time now to try and test etc! After trying a sample of the anti-blemish clarifying lotion I was pretty keen on trying out the formula for oilier skin as it hadn't really done much for me in that department, I also ordered the dramatically different moisturizing gel as I'd rediscovered a sample I had from years ago which I ended up finishing and loving finally!

Clarifying Lotion 4

I've been using this for a few weeks now and I have to say I'm not overly impressed by it taking into consideration the price of it. I use it after cleansing with a facial wash and whilst it does make my skin feel clean and smooth, I don't think it "sweeps away oil" as Clinique claim it does. 
 










As you can hopefully see...there isn't a huge difference in the amount of oil before and after using which is really disappointing considering this lotion is supposedly for very oily skin types. At £15.00 for a 200ml bottle, I think there are definitely better alternatives available for much less.

Dramatically Different Moisturizing Gel As I'd mentioned earlier, I had a sample of this with about half left over and I have to admit that it had just been chucked into the bottom of a drawer and forgotten about for years. Anyways in an attempt to get rid of my hoards of samples, I used the rest of this up and discovered that it was actually a really good product.  I thought this would clog up my skin and make it feel oily and horrible like most "oil-free" moisturisers tend to do but I was pleasantly surprised. As it's a gel based formula it feels really lightweight but moisturises just enough.    Considering I normally pay around £6 for a moisturiser, this is way expensive at £28.50 for the 125ml size but I honestly think its kind of worth it and I'm the biggest cheapskate ever just for the record! A little definitely goes a long way and I think I may of even used a bit too much when I took the picture on the right.  Freebies!!!  If you've bought Clinique before you may be aware that they are quite generous with giving out free samples and when I ordered there was a bank holiday promo to receive 3 sample sized treats plus 2 extra samples with online orders...PLUS they also threw in an extra sachet sample.       I have to admit, I haven't actually tested out all the samples they sent as I haven't quite found a use for everything yet for example the Repairwear Laser Focus serum. From what they sent I've started using the All About Eyes Cream which I love :-) and the mini lipgloss which is surprisingly lovely - not too sticky and a really wearable colour considering it looks quite a deep shade of pink in the tube. I've also tried the High Impact Mascara which is anything but IMO...nothing comes close to Maybelline Colossal for me at the moment!  All products reviewed available from:  http://www.clinique.co.uk/   I think this will be my last haul for a short while as I am now only 2 weeks away from meeting my precious bubba and spending £50+ on skincare just isn't going to be an option from now on, not when I have nappies etc to buy!! So what have you lovelies been hauling recently and are you constantly searching for holygrail skincare products like me?!?

NOTD: Models Own Beth's Blue

I'm a big fan of Models Own nail polishes so I was obviously quite excited when I finally received my order from the 50% sale they held a few days ago, unfortunately two of the polishes I ordered will be going back...one of the bottles had cracked and broke and this one I'm wearing is basically faulty. So now I'm guess your thinking why is this nail of the day if it's faulty weirdo?! Basically I think I got a dodgy bottle as the formula was really gloopy and applied horrible but on the other hand I absolutely LOVE this colour, I think I've finally found a blue polish that suits me!! I'd say it is more of a purpley blue tone which is probably why its not as unflattering as other blues I've tried.

Was anyone else tempted by the 50% sale and if so let me know what gems you bought! As always I appreciate any comments so feel free to drop me a comment :-)

MAC Lipstick Cherry Popped!!

Just thought I would do a quick review of these MAC Cremesheen lipsticks I purchased a few weeks ago. If you've read my blog before you may be aware that I have only just started to dabble with lipstick hence why these are in fact my first ever MAC lipsticks :-) After googling tons of lipstick swatches, I plumped for a blueish pink shade called Creme Cup and a rosier, yellow toned pink called Fanfare.

Left-Right: Creme Cup and Fanfare.

L-R: Creme Cup and Fanfare swatches in daylight

L-R: Creme Cup and Fanfare swatches with flash.

 As you've probably gathered from the swatches and the name of the finish these are really creamy textured and leave a nice sheen on the lips which is great for people who are stuck on lipglosses like me.

Creme Cup in daylight.

Creme Cup with flash.

I love this shade purely because I'd been looking for a subtle blue toned pink but everything I'd tried seemed to be overly blue toned which doesn't look great against my skin tone. It's really buildable aswell so you can wear it as bold or subtle as you want.

Fanfare in daylight.

Fanfare with flash.

 One application of this is fairly close to my natural lip colour but again, it is very buildable. I do like this colour but I haven't quite got used to wearing it in the daytime yet...I just feel like my lips are standing out too much which I guess is to be expected when I normally only wear lipbalm or gloss!

Hope you've enjoyed this post, feel free to comment :-) I'd love to know what everyones favourite MAC lipstick or other branded lipstick is seeing as I'm such a lippie virgin!

Clinique Anti-Blemish Solutions Review

My mum often used to palm off her unwanted Clinique samples onto me years ago when I was still in school and I never really thought much of what they had to offer to be honest probably because I was using sample products that were meant for my mums normal-dry skin rather than my oily, blemished teenage skin. Having said that, I know a lot of people credit Cliniques 3-Step regime with improving their skin and clearing it up if they've experienced breakouts so I decided to give some of their Anti-Blemish Solutions products a go as my skin is a bit of a nightmare at the moment with pregnancy hormones and what not.

Anyways, I ventured into Debenhams to have a skin consultation but unfortunately the Clinique peeps had gone home sooo my indecisive self had the hard task of selecting the correct products for my skin type...fortunately they had a really good offer on at the time, which included 3 sample sized 3-step regime products in a handy little washbag with any 2 skincare purchases, so I got to test out several products from the Anti-Blemish range without paying a hefty sum of money :-)

Left-Right: Anti-Blemish Solutions Cleansing Bar, Anti Blemish Solutions Cleansing Foam, Anti-Blemish Solutions Clarifying Lotion, Anti-Blemish Solutions Clearing Moisturizer and Anti-Blemish Solutions Clear Blemish Gel.

Just to clarify..I haven't reviewed the cleansing bar as it's still wrapped up, ready to go in my hospital bag with my other travel sized toiletries :-)

Cleansing Foam

  I absolutely love this, it makes my skin feel squeaky clean and eliminates any traces of oil, 2 pumps is more than enough for my whole face aswell. The only negative thing I'd say is the packaging makes it a bit bloody hard to tell when your about to run out! Overall 4/5.

Clarifying Lotion  

This again is fab, although probably not great for sensitive skin types as it can sting quite a bit. It exfoliates dead skin away easily and gets rid of any remaining traces of make-up with ease, however I don't think it works wonders for getting rid of oil. Overall 3½/5.

Clearing Moisturizer  

I'm not a big fan of this to be completely honest, I don't think it's helped clear up my skin and my face seems to get oily quite quick when I have this on whether I'm wearing make-up or not. I actually came across an old sample of the Dramatically Different Moisturizing Gel the other day and I think this works much better for controlling oil. Overall 2/5

Clear Blemish Gel  

This is okay, I think some of my spots are slowly starting to fade and it does seem to prevent exisiting spots from getting worse but I haven't experienced a dramatic reduction in spot size. Again, it can sting so I wouldn't recommend if you have sensitive skin. Overall 3/5.

All in all, I do like these products even if my review doesn't really reflect that! Considering I only actually paid for the cleansing foam and blemish gel, I'm relatively happy with the results. For some reason I kinda like the clinical smell of the products but this might not be to everyones taste and I probably wouldn't recommend any of this stuff for sensitive skin types.


Is there anything you've tried by Clinique that you've loved or loathed?

Autumn High Street Picks

Over the years I've found that I much prefer Autumn Winter fashion over Summer clothing mainly because it's wayyy more interesting putting outfits together by layering up and I love the more muted, earthy colour pallette we've generally seen over the past few years. For the past few weeks now, I've slowly been resigning myself to the fact that it's not getting any warmer and September is only round the corner...so I compiled a little wish list of stuff that I shall hopefully own once my fashion fairy godmother sees it :-)

1. Long Flare Jumpsuit by Rare @ Topshop - £39.00 - I know 70s fashion is a big deal at the moment but I don't know how far I'm willing to go in terms of wearing bellbottoms and wide flares so I guess you could say this is my safe attempt at pulling off that trend! I think this jumpsuit would look lovely on a night out with a pair of chunky wedges or platforms.

2. Black Leather Jacket @ Miss Selfridge - £49.00 - I know I've been moaning about the cold but its not really cold enough for a coat yet hence why I need this jacket in my life!

3. Alexa Chunky Lace Up Leather Ankle Boot @ ASOS - £60.00 - I know these are probably not to everyones taste but for some reason I really like them?! As much as I love Doc Martins on other people, I don't think I would ever suit them so these are a good alternative.

4. Denim Skinny Jeans @ H&M - £29.99 - I'm never disappointed with jeans from H&M and I'm hoping I'll be able to get my big pregnant bottom into these once bubbas born :-)

5. Animal Print Gloves @ H&M - £12.99 - I do love a bit of animal print so I'm pretty sure these will find their way into my wardrobe at some point over the next month!

6. Tobacco Skinny Trousers @ River Island - £30.00 - There's a few pairs of coloured jeans that I've got my eye on from River Island but the colour of these means there versatile enough to wear all year round.

7. Buckle Platform Sandals @ River Island - £59.99 - I think I was experiencing a bit of shoe buckle fever when I was browsing the net, hence why these beauts are on here!

8. Suede Boots @ H&M - £39.99 - Buckle fetish again :-) So I couldn't wait much longer to get these so imagine my surprise when I was about to pay online and it said they had been reduced to £29.99 = mega happy me! I'm not quite sure why they were reduced though as the website still lists them at full price?

9. Bow Tie Trousers @ H&M - £34.99 - I love the draping and detail on the waistband of these, I think they'd look great with a loose jersey top and some gladiator sandals.

10. Aztec Print Cardigan @ Miss Selfridge - £45.00 - I love love love oversized cardigans and jumpers, there just so snuggly and warm, they look great with a belt around the waist but I especially love the aztec print on this, it's on trend and will see you through to winter in style.

What's on your wish list for Autumn/Winter?

'