The DIY French Manicure

 O.P.I Avoplex Cuticle Treatment   Sally Hansen Gel Cuticle Remover

O.P.I funny Bunny   O.P.I Barre My Soul    Seche Vite Top Coat

Recently all I have been wearing on my nails is a classic french manicure, nothing makes my nails look so neat and "done" without using colour.  First things fist, getting rid of overgrown cuticles. The first thing I do is apply a blob of Sally Hansen cuticle remover on each nail and leave for 3-4 minutes. This product helps to break down the dead skin of the cuticle for easy removal, I then use a cuticle remover to push them back once the cuticle remover has worked it's magic.  To keep my cuticles in good shape I use the O.P.I Avoplex Cuticle Treatment which contains avocado oil to keep cuticles hydrated and nourished. For the white tips I use O.P.I Funny Bunny, a muted soft white for a more natural looking tip with O.P.I's Barre My Soul (NYC Ballet Collection) all over the nail, again a very natural looking pink which makes the nails look lovely and healthy. To top it all off I always use my favourite top coat, Sech Vite, the only top coat which gives me chip free nails for 4-6 days. Sech Vite top coat will set you back around £11 but I think it's worth every penny. 

Getting older ( My Birthday)

 Dress: F+F at Tesco, Yes, Tesco! Jacket: Primark Earrings: Asda

How cheap, I mean Chic!

 Favourite shoes of the moment: Ballet pumps from H&M 

MY CAKE!

 So last friday I reached the grand old age of 22! I actually feel like a little bit more of an adult now (Even though our next door neighbour thought I was 16 the other day!)

I'm not much of a "birthday" person & don't really like making a fuss. So my plans consisted of going out for lunch & a sneaky bottle of prosecco on our lunch break with friends & going for a meal with my lovely family & Sam in the evening. Lucy & Mitch threw a bbq in their back garden on the Sunday which pretty much consisted of sitting in the lovely sunshine with all my besties, drinking gin, eating chicken and strawberry cake. It was the perfect round up to my birthday weekend. 

O.P.I & Essie Purchases

L-R Essie LadyLike, Essie Cute as a Button, Essie Topless & Barefoot

L-R O.P.I Barefoot in Barcelona, Lincoln Park after Dark, Funny Bunny, Barre my Soul

Yesterday was a long and tiring but hugely exciting day at Beauty UK 2012. Held at the NEC Birmingham its one of the biggest trade only exhibitions for Beauty Therapists in the UK. Being a Beauty student, (I'm doing a part-time course) I thought I would take full advantage of trade price nail polish! 

Shop mac, Cook mac, Innocence Beware! lipstick

MAC Innocence Beware! Lipstick £13.50

'cus I really needed another nude pink lipstick.

Innocence Beware! is a limited edition creamsheen formula lipstick that came out with the Shop MAC, Cook MAC collection around a month ago. why did I buy it? First of all I'm a sucker for pale pink/nudey lip colours, I love mac's creamsheen formula for my dry lips and quite frankly I liked the aesthetic of the whole collection. Theres not a huge amount I can say about this, its another pale pink lipstick. It's not hugely pigmented, more a sheer wash of colour which I was initially a little annoyed at, however the more I wear it, the more I like it. As it is a very milky nude colour, I think a highly pigmented formulation would make it a very harsh, washing face out kinda nude. I love wearing it on minimal make-up days like in the photo above, this one will definitely be sticking around for summer. 

Lush : Volcano Foot Mask

 Volcano Foot Mask £5.50

A little weekend treat for my feet on a dreary day. After soaking and scrubbing my feet I slapped a load of Lush Volcano foot mask to my soles and wrapped them in cling film. As I waited the 20 minutes recommended, I could feel the mask really cooling the skin and tingling my toes which felt lovely and soothing after a day of stomping around town. As I washed the mask off I massaged my feet to feel the bits of pumice in the mix smooth the skin. The only downsides to this product are that it doesn't smell great, but then neither do feet, and it is a little messy. But the pro's far outway the cons as afterwards my feet felt so "clean" (I do wash them in the shower but this was a whole new level of clean!!) They were left so refreshed, smooth & soft I can't wait to do it again next weekend!

April Empties

L-R Batiste Dry Shampoo Dark & deep Brown, Rimmel Glam eyes day2night Mascara, Redken Extreme Rescue Force, Joico K-Pak Intense Reconstructer, Xen Tan Dark Lotion Absolute Luxe, Lush Dreamwash

Over the month of April I have compiled this lovely bunch of packaging, not for any old reason, I have done so to show you what products I have used/loved/hated/repurchased/can't wait to throw away.

Starting with hair, Batiste Dry Shampoo in Dark & Deep Brown was probably purchased by me because it was on offer and I needed a dry shampoo. Im not hugely fussy with dry shampoo whichever is on offer suits me and this did the job. I would buy it again if it was on offer, if not I would probably use something else. 

This sample size Redken Extreme Rescue Force (now called "strength builder" (£17.25) was given to me by my ma, It's a protein treatment for damaged hair. I was expecting this to soften and smooth my hair, but what it actually does is much more useful. This made my hair feel "strong" again. using this as a weekly treatment I have found my hair less prone to splitting and snapping off, thanks to this I am looking into more Redken Extreme products to purchase full size, let me know if you have any recommendations on that front?

Joico K-Pak Intense Reconstructer (£13.95)  is a intense moisture treatment for dry hair, this did a good job of making my hair smooth and soft but I didn't feel it had any "reconstructing" properties like the Redken treatment did. It's ok, but it's nothing to write home about, I think there are better products on the market considering the price. 

Rimmel Glam Eyes Day2Night Mascara (£7.99) is another one of those "because it was on offer" purchases. I think I paid a fiver for it, I fiver well spent I say. I really do like this mascara, I love the way the small comb works to separate and lengthen, then if you want volume you can add it with the 2nd step, or not. It works both ways. again, I'm not hugely fussy about mascara and I like to try new ones all the time, so while I wont be purchasing this again straight away, I would consider it in the future. 

Xen-Tan Dark Lotion Absolute Luxe (£29.70) So the price makes me want to die a little but the truth is I cannot live without this product. You may have noticed in the photo that I even cut the bottle to scrape out the last little drops of this before my new one arrived. It's the best tan ever. Nuff said.  (full review here)

Lush Dreamwash (£9.25) I wash recommended this because of my dry eczema prone skin, It's supposed to soothe and calm irritated skin and hydrate without drying. I wasn't the biggest fan of this I have to say, while it was nice and soothing and non-drying, it was plain weird. I like a shower gel that lathers up nicely and feels like it's cleaning your skin, Dreamwash doesn't lather very well and I find myself using a lot of product per use (not great when your paying almost a tenner!) It also leaves an odd waterproof type effect to the skin which I don't like, lastly it sticks around the plughole in the shower as a milky gross froth which, quite honestly, freaks me out. On a better note, to replace this, I'm now using Lush's Honey I washed the Kids soap and It's Raining men shower gel which I both love!

A little Lush haul

 Volcano £5.50/125g

Honey I Washed the Kids solid soap £3.25/100g                              Lust solid soap £3.95/100g

Sorry I've been a little MIA on the blog lately, lack of funds has sadly meant that I'm simply not buying as many lovely thing to share with you guys and have been left feeling a bit uninspired. excuses, excuses.

I decided a cheap little treat was in order so got myself down to lush to pick up a few goodies. I mainly wanted a treat for my feet, as like many others probably do,  I tend to neglect them. I was advised that the Volcano foot mask was a staff favourite and would be just the ticket for my poor little trotters. Volcano is a 10 minute mask with clay, pumice and tomatoes to deodorise, cleanse and soften the skin on the feet. Smells awful, works a treat. review to come soon!

I love products with honey in them! Anything honey gets my vote, and since it helps with soothing my eczema prone skin I had to try the popular "Honey I Washed the Kids" soap. If you don't like the smell of sweet, toffee or caramel, then this isn't gong to be the soap for you I'm afraid. At the till I was kindly give a generous sample of  Lust soap, which shares the same scent as the Lust perfume funnily enough. This has a very strong scent of jasmine which I'm not overly keen on, maybe I'll leave it in the shower in hope Sam will use it instead!