Tip Friday #2 ~ Nail Polish Mistakes

Welcome to the second Tip Friday, last week I talked about the different uses you could get out of your nail polishes. This week's tip again is going to be nail related (I'm sorry, don't shoot me yet!). Now I'm not too bad with painting my nails but I can often make mistakes, go over the line or when trying to paint with my left hand things can just go plain wrong! I've been doing this when I do my nails for months, but it's recently come out in Bella magazine so it must'nt be wrong. 


So when I'm painting my nails I always have a little cap full of nail polish remover on the table, this is for when I make the dreaded mistakes. Now I've tried taking it off with a cotton bud soaked in nail polish remover but the extra cottony bits seem to come off and stick to my nail polish, very annoying! Moving swiftly onto my point, when I was younger and first getting into make-up I was bought one of those cheap 32 piece brush sets from ebay, granted a couple of the synthetic brushes weren't half bad but I ended up with a couple of lip brushes and short little synthetic brushes, so I decided to use one to fix my nail polish mistakes!


For instance when I've made a mistake on my nails. I take one of my old nail brushes and dip it in some nail polish remover and the gently rub it over the smudged nail polish, and then I wipe the brush off onto a piece of tissue or kitchen roll. I found this has given my nail a more polished look and wiping it straight off onto the tissue prevents the brush going hard.


Note: I do use a synthetic brush for this otherwise I'd worry that the bristles of a normal make-up brush would just go hard and become useless!


Check out my last video here (link for lush favourites)

My Top 3 Skincare Favourites

I think this is the first skincare post I've done on my blog, I did do a skincare routine video on my channel but it is from ages ago and my routine has changed. Today however I'm not gonna talk about my routine, I'm going to talk about my favourites out of all the skincare products I've used. 

So it's probably should tell you about my skin now right?! My skin is overall very dry with it every-so slightly oily on my chin and around the sides of my nose. I am still a teenage so I still get the annoying spots like every teenager but I mainly get them on my chin which is pretty manageable! Now I will say some of these aren't perfect, for instance I'm still hunting for the perfect moisturiser to get right of my dry patches, but this is what works for the minute.

Now this is my favourite facial scrub that I use as kinda like a face wash and facial scrub. This is the St.Ives Fresh Skin Apricot Scrub, this is the invigorating one but I do believe they do them in all different types of same scrub but just ones for like more sensitive skin etc. This one does actually say that it is suitable for all skin types but I will mention that it is quite harsh, so if you find you have more sensitive skin then I'd try another one. The exfoliants in this scrub aren't like the little beads they are actually mini bits of walnut shell. St.Ives actually reccomend that you use it for 3 to 4 times a week but I do use it every other day and use my LUSH fresh pharmacy on the other days. I only got this a couple of weeks ago but it's already become a staple for me as it's helping to improve my overall skin tone. These facial scrubs have been very popular and you can get them from Superdrug, Boots, Tesco, Asda, even Home & Bargains (where I got mine), basically anywhere that sells skincare products. I definitely think it's worth a try at less once in your life!

You may or may not know but I don't use make-up remover wipes to take off my make-up, mainly cause I heard it was bad for your skin to use them on a regular basis. Granted I still do use them occasionally when I'm too lazy to take of my make-up properly and I just wanna get into bed and go to sleep. But most nights when I came be bothered to do it properly I use this, Garnier Soft Essentials Complete Cleansing Milk with rose extract. This is the one for dry and sensitive skin and they have different extracts for different skin types as well. Now this is sensitive for you to use on your face and your eyes and I have even in a clutzy, half-drunk moment got this in my eye and it literally does not even sting and I am not exaggerating at all! I just put this on a face cotton pad and dot some on my cheeks, forehead and chin and then I start to rub the cotton pad over my face and the make-up just comes right off. I find these less abrasive than the facial wipes and I find it actually takes WAY less time to take it off than with facial wipes!

This one I actually don't have a 'live' picture of it as it's actually a fresh face mask and I tend to get it every other month because you only get so many weeks to use it and then expires as it's made with completely natural ingredients. It's Cupcake Fresh Facemask by LUSH, now this is the one for supposed to be for younger skin and those who are new to the lush face masks. It contains cocoa powder, spearmint oil and vanilla absolute to help with spots. When I have this face mask I tend to use it 2 or 3 times a week to kinda use it up because a little really does go a long way and for £5.75 for a face mask that expires after just under 4 weeks, it is a little expensive but I find when I use it feels really moisturising and my skin feels really soft and smooth again so I definitely love it and it is one of my staples that I regularly buy and literally can't stop reccomending it to people! Just a little note: go with what you want with the fresh face masks or ask for a sample (my sample I got enough for two uses) because the one the lovely lady in my Liverpool LUSH reccomended to me I found didn't actually do that much for my skin or my spots but she gave me a sample of this at the same time and this worked wonders compared to that one (I think it was blueberry one!).

What are you top favourites for your skincare? What do you keep repurchasing?

Spring Nail Polishes

Now I don't stick to seasonal colours for my nails. For instance if I feel like wearing a light colour in the winter I will and if I feel like wearing a darker colour I will. Working in Monsoon we have stricter rules about nail colour and wear, we are for instance not supposed to have chipped nail polishes and we have to complimentary colours on both nails and toes to match our outfit. We are allowed to wear sandals and wedges in the summer do we do have to keep on top of the nail trends, the fun of working in a fashion shop eh?!

Now in no particular order ladies and gentleman, the nail polishes!


First is this lovely mint green colour by Barry M. These only cost £2.99 in Superdrug and almost always on 3 for 2, so what more of an excuse to do you need to go and try a couple of them! I got this last spring when it came out because I loved the colour and it was one of my go-to nail polishes for spring & summer and it's still one of my favourites this year! I've just started to wear it this last week for the first time this year and I am loving it. The polish itself is a lovely cream finish and is a more on the lighter end of mint green which is greater for you lighter skin tone guys like me but I think it'd look gorgeous on dark skin tones, so it'd make a great universal shade!

Now onto lasting power with all my nail polishes I use either my OPI top coat or my Rimmel 5-in-1 top coat and base coat. Now I am very hard on my nails in the manner that I use a touch-screen till at work so my index fingers are usually the first to show signs of chip, still on the hunt for a 'perfect' top coat, seche vite's topcoat is next on my list! I do find this nail polish lasts at least three days before chipping and that is three days of being banging on a screen and ripping open boxes, packages and wrapping, so it'll last much longer if your not as harsh on your nails as me!

Next is a shade I use on my toes more than my nails but come summer and the sunshine I wear it then. The shade itself is Sugar High by China Glaze. Not this is a great bright colour not to be mistaken for neon or highlighter pink. This is not neon it's simply a bright shade of pink! This again is a cream colour, don't know what it is with me and creams! But I think if this one was a shimmer or a glitter, I don't think I'd be keen on the colour as much. Now I don't know how much these retail for as I didn't personally buy this, I got this as part of a contest prize from Karen. I think China Glaze generally retails for around £12 but you can often find them cheaper at places like 8ty8 beauty and transdesign (note: I have never ordered from any of these sites so I'm unaware of any shipping or customs charges!)



I find when I apply these to my toes they last about 5/6 days with no top coat but I have been wearing boots and trainers a lot for running/workouts/gym and for work, so the staying power might change once I start wearing sandals and wedges.

This little beauty is actually an Accessorize metalized nail polish in the colour Gem. These little bottles only cost £4 which is a lot compared to brands like Barry M who only charge £2.99 for their polishes but I will admit and I am not ashamed to admit that I buy them from work cause I get them half price with staff discount, but honestly if I didn't work there I'd still purchase their 'effects' polishes just because I think they're worth it!


Now this is marketed on the bottle as being a one coat polish and I completely agree. In this swatch picture I have only applied one coat and you get a perfect opaque colour and they dry super fast compared to other polishes, faster than some of the marketed fast drying polishes! Perfect for those of you who don't have bags of time to do your nails.


The colour in the bottle is a gorgeous shimmery mash-up of pink and purple and on the nails the colour doesn't disappoint, you get exactly what you see in the bottle! Now for being one coat this last ages! I've worn it for a whole week without a top coat and only had a slight bit of chipping at the tips and I find it lasts even longer with a top coat. This a perfect nail polish for a day-to-night look because it instantly glams up any outfit and gives it that overall polished look without having a French manicure. Why not try something a little different and do a French manicure with a nice metallic colour like this on the tip?!

Keeping with the pink theme I seem to be on is this little polish from Barry M (I'm starting to see a trend here!). This is bright pink (279) which only costs £2.99 which is great little bargain buy or even just something to spend your pocket money or that spare bit of change on! Now this is not as bright as China Glaze's ' sugar high' and is just a lovely bright pink, perfect for those of you that are of paler skin tone like me (I swear you could mistake me for a milk bottle!) I must definitely be having a creme trend for nail polishes this spring bar the Accessorize one! Now this I love wearing it on its own or with my crackle polish over the top when I'm feeling that bit more adventurous. The colour itself is a blue toned pink which applies opaque in two coats and dries fairly fast compared to other polishes. Now this lasts me 4-5 days with slight chippage and that's 4 days of it being banged against the tills in work, being under water in the shower or when I wash my face morning and night and also from being in the swimming pool almost daily. So it staying power is quite impressive!

Next is this beautiful coral colour again by Barry M which is simply just called coral. Now I will say its a bit more red-orangey in person but it for some reason photographed differently! I blame it on the lack of flash on my iPod :) This like the other Barry M nail polishes lasts around 4-5 days. I will say thought that I haven't used this one a whole lot mainly because I've forgotten about it! But now the sun's coming out more I'm definitely starting to reach for it, to me it's just the perfect coral colour with it having needing only two thin coats to reach the opaqueness in the picture and it lasts for days.

Next I've been loving this concrete grey colour by collection 2000 called wham (number 27) and it is just a mid toned grey creme polish, these hot look nail polishes have probably been out roughly a year and I love them. I have a couple of colours from the line and you only need two coats to get the opaqueness in the picture! Price wise I don't actually think they cost a whole lot, roughly £1.99 or £2.99. I find its a great unique colour for spring if you want something a little different, I often add glitter or effects on top to change it up. The staying of these little bad boys is around 4-5 days depending on how heavy handed you are. Definitely worth a shot though!

Next is my perfect everyday no fuss colour, this by the brand 17 (you can buy it in boots) in the shade Forever. I think these little pots retail for around £1.99/£2.99 and it only takes two coats to get the desired look in the picture. This is a lovely pinky nude colour, perfect flesh tone colour! This'll be great for a range of people cause this doesn't actually wash me out, which is great. I often use this as an underneath colour for a French manicure and it worked out perfectly (I did a blog post on it). This polish is one of those shades that I'll always have in my collection as the colour doesn't clash with anything so I don't have to worry about repainting my nails!


Now with two coats and a topcoat, I found that it lasted at least a week before I started to get some chips, at that point I got bored and wanted to change my nail colour so it could of lasted longer because it was only slight wear and tear at the tips! Would definitely recommend for you all to have a nail polish this colour in you collection at all times and for pennies, this is probably one of the cheapest of the best!

This is probably one of the cheapest of the whole bunch, this is just a kind of all year favourite but I wanted to include it in this. This is by E.L.F and it's one of they're glitter polishes with the clear base whereas they have some that have actual colour nail polish bases. You can get these at E.L.F for £1.50 and that's ANY of their nail polishes for £1.50.


I use this one as a little added effect on my nails, I'll either put it on my ring finger of both hands or put it on the tips or just all over the nail (I've actually got an idea for an effect with this nail polish if it works!). I've actually found that the nails that I put it on they are often the last fingers to chip and they generally last about 5-7 days depending on what your like with your nails, I generally get 6 days out of it! For £1.50 it's always worth a try and if you don't like you haven't wasted a whole lot of money because some of the glitter polishes can be quite expensive (you could even possibly make your own! Possible future blog post there!)


So there's my favourite nail polishes this spring, I would love to get a nice yellow colour and a lilac and pastel pink (probably don't need that many pinks tho!)


What are your spring favourites?

Tip Friday #1 Different ways to use nail polish

Today is going to be the start of a new series on my blog. I may possibly take them onto my youtube depending on how it goes. So every friday I will be posting a blog post with a tip in; it may be beauty, hair, skincare, health, fitness, fashion or home decor related! As you can probably grasp these are only gonna be short and sweet blog posts, so let's get on to the first Tip Friday!


Now if your like me and try and get more for your money from the products you'll find this post interesting as it includes all the different ways you can use nail polish besides painting your nails!


One of my favourites ways to use it unconventionally is to change up your shoes. Your probably thinking what?! But if your like me and lust after Christian Louboutin's but can't afford to part with that much cash for them, buy a opaque creme red nail polish and use that. For this you will need masking tape and put it around where the sole meets the shoe (to prevent any shakey hand mistakes). Paint one cost and let it dry then paint a second for a more opaque finish and the best part is because it's nail varnish and not paint you can take it off with nail varnish remover! Note: This works best if you don't paint the bit you walk on, then it's less likely to chip!


This next option I use quite regularly when I wear my little ballet flats. Now I can often scruff the toe section of my shoes, so what I've started doing is having a colour of polish the same shade as my shoes so that I can just paint over the scuffs, this is especially useful when they are brightly coloured as you often don't get bright shoe polishes. Plus it's probably cheaper!


Now if you buy fashion jewellery, basically anything that is like a painted metal, you'll notice after a few wears the colour'll start to change because the metal is oxidising with the air so to prevent this you can take any topcoat (I just picked up a really cheap one that I use especially for this) and before you start wearing it, paint metal bit and the clear top coat will lock out the air. This will keep it looking like you've just bought it and not had it for donkeys years! This works especially well on large fashion rings and it's what all the girls in my work do when they buy their rings.


Another use for a clear top coat was something my grandmother always told me. It was to ALWAYS keep a bottle of clear top coat in your purse, just because you can use it for so many things. One of the reasons I personally like is using it if you've got a ladder in your tights, granted this won't work if the ladder is the size of your blackberry (the phone not the fruit) but if you've just got a little pull, put a little bit of the clear topcoat over the pull and around the outside edges especially and the edges will harden and prevent the pull getting bigger!


Hope you like the first edition of Tip Friday, I apologize for the latest I will more than likely be posting very late thursday evenings verging on friday mornings, so it's here for you guys to read!

Organize It! How I organize my jewellery

You may not know that I am a bit of an OCD freak, in the fact that I have to have everything organized and in its place and I HATE when my jewellery gets lost or I go to put on a pair of earrings to find I've lost them weeks earlier! It frustrates me being disorganized which I know isn't a bad thing sometimes, but it means I end up staying up till 1/2am doing things like ironing, laundry, tidying, organizing and cleaning!


I have been searching for must be months for a way to organise my jewellery. I've been looking for something that would keep it all nice and organised while keeping dust free and easy for me to view and pick jewellery out without having to take everything out and move things around. For this I use two different things.

The first is this which is a tackle box/organizer which I actually use to organize all of my earrings! I got this little box from home bargains ( it's a store in the UK which sells things at a discounted price, for those who don't know) I believe it only cost either £1.99 or £2.99. The make of the box is Stanley, the general/marketed uses for this was shown as like a drawer organizer for all your little bits and bobs. The box has moveable dividers in it if you wanted to hold other items in it or put bigger items in it, at most it has 32 sections in it. The top of the organizer also have strong clips that hold the lid on so if for instance you dropped it like I tend to do or accidentally knock it off wherever your storing it's not going to fall and earrings end up everywhere!

As you can see I don't really have any majorly big or dangly earrings which makes this perfect storage for me. I split my earrings up in this storage, for instance I keep all my pearl earrings together, I keep all my work earrings together, I keep small dangly earrings together, pink tones stud earrings are kept together etc. I find this the perfect storage for cheap and because it's flat you can store things on top of it or store it on top of things while keeping your earrings safe and dust-free and your less likely to loose one out of the pair!

Now this is where I store everything else. This little beauty only costs £3! Yes you read that correctly! I got this from Primark when I'd popped in there one day with my mother, I totally didn't expect to see this there in the home section. I know some primark's put it with the jewellery and some with the home, you just need to have a little hunt for it! Now these come with 16 small pockets on the top of both sides and then 8 bigger sections on the bottom of each section. Each of the pockets are wipe-clean plastic so you can also use this to put your jewellery in when travelling and just roll it up. This also comes with a hook like on hangers so you can hang it on the back of the door or hang it in your wardrobe (which I do). This is great if you don't have a whole lot of room for storage! I believe it also comes in several different colours.


Now I have been searching for one of these organisers for literally months but every one I found was priced in excess of £20 at least whereas £3 is much more cost effective and if your not that keen you haven't wasted whole lot of money. Now I will double things up like bangles or little bracelets or little necklaces (don't worry they don't get tangled!) so that I use the space more wisely. I do find if you use this kind of method or something similar you can store loads you could even use it for earrings if you want cause I know the long feather earrings fit in there and the feathers don't get smushed! (Little tip if you want to store large feather earrings put the little bit you put in your ear in first. Kind of like a weight, get it?) I personally love these types of organizers as I don't want to spend ages shifting through my jewellery and picking things up and having to untangle something for it to be tangled the next morning and having to do that EVERY morning! I'm definitely going back to get two more. One for all my work jewellery cause I'm mounting up quite a bit an one for when I'm travelling.


Now I have noticed Primark have started doing a whole lot of organizing bits for home and yourself, so I definitely be checking them out and reporting them back to you guys! Last time I had a quick look when I popped in there, they had what looked like a scarf organizer, so come pay day I will be checking that out! 


How do you guys store your jewellery? Have you thought of a new way to using something differently to the manufactures 'advertised' use?

Fitness Update #1

So a few weeks ago I wrote a post about fitness, healthy eating and training to run a 10k. So now I'm gonna write my first update, at first I was gonna do weekly updates but it takes a few weeks for my body to get used to a certain type of exercise well the more physical side of exercise cause I mainly am and always have been a dancer therefore I am rubbish at running (good for someone running a 10k in like a month and a half!)


So far I've been running mostly every other evening, I say mostly cause I personally prefer to run at about 5pm and as I sometimes work evenings this makes it harder but I still to make sure I run even if I don't feel like it. I still do bits of exercise on my 'off days' but not as often as I would like but starting Monday I will be strictly enforcing this!

I used to be a big soda drinker, diet coke was my weakness, partly because in my old job we sold it and also I was paid in cash and got tips so I was left with loads of change which didn't help but now I work in Liverpool I found myself drinking less. I drink probably average it to be 1 can every 2 weeks if that but the only soda I'll drink is 7up free which is a little bit better cause it doesn't have preservatives and things in it. I have found myself not craving crisps and chocolate but actually starting to crave fruit and salads, which is brand new to me cause I used to be more of a fruit person than a veg person. If I do feel like something salty I will eat a handful of sea salted pretzels which I can eat the same as a bag of crisps for like half the calories etc and I generally only eat maybe half a portion because I find them very filling.


I did start this at 65kg and currently weight 60kg so I have lost some lbs so I'm going to start focusing on toning now from monday so that I can start to see a change in inches cause they always say measure by inches not lbs cause muscle weights more than fat. I have had to get my body used to eating regular meals as I didn't use to I used to eat maybe 2 meals a day cause of scheduling so I'm making that one of my proirties with the toning.


I will not be posting before pictures just yet cause I'm really not comfortable with them myself! So been patience when I'm a bit more happy with my body I might do it for you guys.


My running training is getting there but I've had to sit it out this week because I had a muscular complaint with my Achilles heel first then I started to get pain in my left calf and couldn't walk up stairs without it hurting, the pain has since disappeared so from Sunday I will be starting up my running. I'm not sure if the problems in the bottom of my leg were just a fluke accident or to do with my knee condition but don't worry I run with my knees properly strapped up as to not risk anything! I am though going to up my training and start running everyday as much as I can. I am also going to be starting a gym I'm just looking at prices etc atm. I'm kind of swaying towards total fitness atm, partly cause my mum gets a discount but I might check out the gym I get discount on with work cause I get perks like with my job I also get BUPA discount if I wanted to join them. I found out the other day my 10k race will be timed with a chip in the back of my race number, so I might just post my finished race time, it might be a very embarrassing but oh well! :)


What's your usual workout at the gym? Have you ever tried total fitness?

25 Questions Tag!

So I was getting bored the other day and decided that I was gonna film a tag video instead of tidying my room, naughty I know! But my room is clean....now :) All I ended up doing for this was just basically putting 'tag' into the youtube search bar and picked the first one that took my fancy. The first one that came up for me that I watched was by Blair 'Juicystar07' but it seems like a very popular tag on youtube anyway with hundreds of people doing it, and its a great way for you guys to get to know a bit more about me! So here we are~

And here are the questions for all you lovely guys and gals:

1-Do you have any pets?

2-Name 3 things that are physically close to you.

3-What's the weather like right now?

4-Do you drive? If so have you crashed?

5-What time did you wake up this morning?

6-When was the last time you showered?

7-What was the last movie you saw?

8-What does your last text message say?

9-What's your ringtone?

10-Have you ever been to a different country?

11-Do you like sushi?

12-Where do you buy your groceries?

13-Have you ever taken medication to help you fall asleep faster?

14-How many siblings do you have?

15-Do you have a desktop computer or a laptop?

16-How old will you be turning on your next birthday?

17-Do you wear contacts or glasses?

18-Do you colour your hair?

19-Tell me something you are planning to do today?

20-When was the last time you cried?

21-What is your perfect pizza topping?

22-Which do you prefer hamburgers or cheeseburgers?

23-Have you ever had an all-nighter?

24-What is your eye colour?

25-Can you taste the difference between pepsi and coke?

Feel free to film your own version and either leave it on here or video response me on my actual video for me to see.

Stay beautiful guys!