Daisy Dukes and Dope Accessories

Hey anyone left reading :-) sorry for the rather extended hiatus, I'm doing a bit of blogging on the side more for work purposes and when I get home all I wanna do is snuggle up with my bubba's! The benefits of having a job that involves perusing the internet all day means I get to look at loads of shamaze fashion but the downsides are that I now have lists upon lists of things I wish, want and need in my life...damn you Polyvore! Gotta admit I've become a bit of a polyvore junkie, I love it and I'm so envious of some of the amazing fashion sets people put together on there. Well, if you can't beat them, join them I say and the creation of this little outfit came together, hope you like.

Meanwhile, I have now created a Tumblr blog in the midst of my absence from Blogger....no idea why I didn't do it sooner as it is such a great source of inspiration, dreamy pictures, arty celeb pictures and wise words. I have a little button to the right of the page where you can click through to my Tumblr blog or click the link above. In other news, it's my daughter's 2nd birthday next week *cry* I know it's a big cliche to say, but it goes way too fast...and I'm a little overwhelmed, she's a really funny, little human being and I love her cheery self so much!

I'd love it if you dropped me a comment, should I do more style posts?

Let me know what you think, 

Avon Anew Vitale Skincare Review

I bought a few bits from Avon quite a while ago now so it's only right that I finally do a little review on the skincare I purchased from the Anew Vitale range. The Vitale collection contains similar products to Avon's other age specific skincare but it's targeted at women aged 25+. As you may already know, I'm quite a fan of the much raved about duo eye cream they sell (you can see my review here) so I had pretty high hopes.

I purchased three products from the range, there's also a BB cream and a cleanser. I don't think the BB cream had even been launched when I picked my little haul up otherwise I would of loved to try that out.

Anew Vitale Day Cream SPF 25

First off, the smell of both creams is amazing although if your not into heavily scented products you may not particularly like that. Scent aside, I'd say it comes fairly close to living up to it's claims of helping fight the first signs of stress and fatigue. My skin definitely feels plumper and appears dewier when I've applied this however  it's a little too rich for days when I'm wearing make-up underneath. The fact it contains a good amount of SPF is obviously great as it's so important to protect your skin from the sun but again, I feel like this kind of adds to the greasy feel I often get from using products containing SPF. Despite this not being entirely suitable for my skin type, it definitely serves a purpose as nice, nourishing skin treat for days when I'm not wearing make-up.

 

Anew Vitale Night Cream

This smells just as lovely as the day cream but it's not as rich and creamy, something I wasn't expecting to be honest as I usually find that night creams are generally heavier on the skin. I've took a little picture of some swatches below so you can see the difference in texture. Having said that, I love this cream and feel like I'm giving my skin a really nice treat at bedtime. The texture is very different from the day cream as it's more of a gel texture which I think helps it to sink in a lot easier. In terms of the benefits it provides for your skin, it is pretty consistent with the day cream as it makes my skin feel dewy and nourished. The night cream is apparently supposed to help fight the first visible signs of ageing and fine wrinkles, and whilst I can't comment on it's wrinkle fighting abilities as I don't have any yet, I don't feel as though it tightens my skin like other anti-ageing products I've tried.

Anew Vitale Eye Gel Cream

All I can really say is that this is just a nice eye cream, there's definitely better ones out there in terms of making the skin around your eyes brighter and more radiant, I'd personally recommend Clinique All About the Eyes for brighter peepers. It also takes far too long for my liking to sink in, maybe I'm being impatient but in comparison to the Anew Clinical Eye Lift, it takes an age to sink in and it's just generally not that great in my personal opinion.

In a nutshell, I would definitely consider repurchasing the night cream once I run out because it smells be-a-u-diful and it makes my skin feel lovely. As for the day cream, it's just not great for my skin type and the eye cream is nothing special, so I don't think I'd be grabbing these again unless they were on a seriously bargainous offer. If you have normal to dry skin, definitely try the range out otherwise I'd stick to trying to get hold of some samples before you splurge on the full size shabang.

I have a burning request for someone to please recommend some creams that contain SPF that are non greasy. As much as I'd love to protect my skin, I just can't face wearing cream with SPF as most I've tried make my skin stupidly greasy! Any recommendations, would be much appreciated.

Have a lovely rest of the week!

Products available from: Avon Anew Vitale Day Cream SPF 25 £19.50, currently on offer for £13.00, Anew Vitale Night Cream £19.50, currently on offer for £13.00 and Anew Vitale Eye Cream £16.00, currently on offer for £11.00.

NOTD: Pastel Paws

Hey everyone, hope you've all had a lovely weekend and are enjoying the niceish weather? It's not exactly heatwave temperatures in Manchester where I live but even this teeniest amount of sun has put me in such a better mood! Meanwhile, I've been having a bit of a moment with the old Konad stamping kit which has led to the other half getting quite hacked off at me doing my nails every three days or so, can't see the problem myself...if I could, I would probably do my nails every day!

Honestly, I'm not a big fan of leopard print on the nails but I actually love pastel colours mixed with the leopard print. I think it looks really nice and girly, and not at all Bet Lynch-esque!

What nail art are you loving at the moment? I'm in need of some inspiration, I have hundreds of stamping designs to try but I'm already getting a bit bored at how long winded it can be to stamp my nails.

If you have anything you'd like to share nail art wise, go for it and post me a comment in the box below!

NOTD: Tribalesque Nails

 

My beloved little Stargazer polish really doesn't get enough use considering how amazing it is for stamping but then again, I have fallen a bit out of love with stamping as it can be sooooo time consuming for me, depending on what base colour I'm using. Anyways, down to the nitty gritty....I used one of my fauxnad stamping plates and one of my all time favourite nail polishes, Models Own Beth's Blue as a base and Stargazer Chrome Nail polish in no.232. The stamp I used is the bottom one on the plate and not something I would usually opt for; I prefer girlier stamps such as lace and floral designs but I'm going through a trying new things phase.

I haven't been feeling particularly inspired nail art wise recently but as always, the Pinterest community have been throwing out some gorgeous nail art designs. One can only wish I could create some of the beautiful nails on there so in the meantime I'll just carry on pinning a ridiculous amount of nail photos :-)

Shellac Manicures....Worth the Hype?

So, I've had two shellac manicures to date but for some odd reason I have never blogged about either. Shellac manicures specifically are widely raved about, especially with regards to the longevity of the polish. I personally found varying results between my two manicures and I had both done by the same lovely lady. The abuse my nails receive is pretty average I'd say? I don't exactly do any extreme things that would cause damage to my nails or hands, occasionally I'll be really rebellious and wash up without gloves.

 

So the picture above is around 3 days after I'd been shellaced. As you can see my nails look really nice and glossy and this is probably my favourite aspect of shellac. Standard nail polish is pretty dull in comparison, especially towards the time it starts to chip etc unless you have Seche Vite applied as a top coat, in which case you will have fabulously glossy nails that will probably peel off in a couple of days; just my experience with Seche Vite or does this annoy anyone else as well? Anywho, back to my lovely shellaced nails...around a week after this photo so almost 2 weeks after I'd had them done, a little chip surfaced which you can see below.

Aside from the chip, these frenchies ended up lasting 3-4 weeks so essentially that lives up to the claim that shellac lasts 3 weeks. When I had just one colour shellac, these also lasted around 3 weeks but they also chipped and some started to peel after just a week. 

Overall, if your careful with your nails I'm pretty sure you will get 3 weeks out of them but judging from my experience, you will also possibly experience some slight chipping before the 3 weeks is up. The glossy finish doesn't fade which I think is one great thing about shellac and my nails still looked freshly manicured (chips & regrowth aside) after 3 weeks. Also shellac is supposedly better for your nails than the likes of acrylic? I personally found that my nails were very weak after I'd had the shellac removed and every single one of my nails eventually broke because they'd become so weak.

To sum up in case you couldn't be bothered with me blabbering on ;)

Pros

Glossy Nails

Nail Polish Lasts Up to 3 Weeks

Your nails will grow considerably whilst you have the shellac polish as it kind of reinforces your nail

Cons

Weak nails after removal

May experience chipping or peeling before 3 weeks.

I really hope this has helped anyone considering having shellac done, I would recommend it to most people. If you already have weak or peeling nails, I'd suggest waiting until your nails are a bit stronger. In hindsight, I think I should maybe have looked after my nails more afterwards i.e. used some sort of nail oil? If you've any suggestions on how to care for your nails after shellac please feel free to post me a little tip below.

Letting the Creative Juices Loose....

I self taught myself to crochet when I was pregnant as I simply could not get to grips with knitting and found crochet much easier to learn. Honestly, it is something that comes and goes in my life; I'll have a fortnight of crochet madness, making everything from pretty headbands to funky cushion covers which then leads to a hiatus resulting in hoards of half finished projects . I'm not the quickest crocheter ever and my technique is far from amazing but I thought I'd share some of my recent crochet goings on, hopefully if it will encourage me to finish this blanket I've been making for bubba.

The pattern for these Popcorn Flower Granny Squares can be found here at Millie Makes' blog, I'm also reeeally tempted to try out her daisy granny square pattern which would look beautiful draped on the nursing chair in Elyse's room. Although, I promise to contain myself until the current blanket is done and dusted.

If your new to crochet and want to learn, Youtube is a fantastic learning tool as there are lots of good tutorial videos and free patterns. Likewise, Pinterest is a great source of inspiration for a huge variety of crochet projects, not to mention Etsy; home to masses of creatively minded people selling the most pretty patterns, catering for a range of skill levels. I also  recently picked up the Erika Knight Crochet Workshop book which you can purchase from Amazon for around £10, I won mine bidding on eBay for around £6 so if your a bargain hunter like moi try there. This is a brilliant book to learn from plus the photography is effortlessly gorgeous.

One thing I noticed when I was teaching myself was that crochet terms differ between the UK and USA. I don't want to start trying to explain the difference as I'm probably the least competent person to do so but if you are unsure, click here for a great explanation on the differences.

I really hope this post has been helpful to anyone interested in crochet and if you would like to see some more pretty crochet pictures, please look in my right sidebar where you will find a little Pinterest widget featuring my most recent pins. I'm still a newbie to the whole thing so if you have any interesting crochet related links/blogs/websites etc please do post me a comment in the box below!

NOTD: Nudey's with Gold Accents

My nail routine has been pretty low maintenence as of late so it was nice to change it up and get back that happy little feeling everytime I peer at my freshly polished fingers. My nails have seen better days thanks to my over enthusiasm at peeling numerous shellac manicures off, something I wouldn't recommend you try! 

 

For my "nudey" nails I used Basil Street by Nails Inc, which is seemingly taking over Models Own Nude Beige as my favourite nude polish. Although my inner lazy self despises the three coat application it requires. On my accent nails I used Look Nail Pop in Mink as a base coat and Models Own Champagne for the dotted accents. There isn't really any genius to the dots, I just concentrated on creating detail on the corners of my nail tips and alternated the size of the dots by using both ends of my dotting tool which is pictured below.

Dotting tools are really inexpensive if you purchase them from somewhere like eBay or alternatively you can use the end of a hairpin. I'm pretty much a novice with the old dotting tool but it's so inspiring to see such amazing nail art created by these little bargain beauty tools. If you want to share your dotty nail art feel free to post your link below, I'd love to have a nosey.