Lead by Topshop nails | Review

After having a few days off from blogging to move all my junk back home I now have 2 little reviews for you. The first on a gorgeous new Topshop nail varnish & the second on Sally Hansen's Insta Dry top coat (although it's getting late so I'll probably do the latter tomorrow :).

So first of all is this little treasure I found in Topshop whilst I was waiting in a queue at the tills. It's one of their nail varnishes in the shade 'Lead'. It stood out to me because of the colours it was giving off when the light hit the bottle. Its like a metallic black metal (lead springs to mind..) but with undertones of purple and green.

Some of the photos below are flash photography as these portrayed the green tones really well. But the purple is more visible in bright natural light (which was somewhat missing here today in glorious England!). Anyways, in these photos I applied a base coat (from a Boots own base and top coat set), 2 applications of lead (although one was sufficiently opaque) & a top coat of Sally Hansen's Insta Dry.

I hope you like this polish as much as I do! If so they're £6. I'm guessing it's stocked in most Topshop stores, but if not... click here :)

Jen xox

NOTD: Black & blue

This is just a quick post to show you my first attempt at this nail technique. I'm not really sure what it's called but I basically applied a base coat of one colour, placed strips of masking tape onto the nail, painted on top of the tape with a second colour & then removed the tape. I used Rimmel's black cab and blue eyed girl. I think it would look a lot nicer in girly colours but I used these two as it's my grad ball tomorrow & they are the colours I'm wearing :)

It is my first attempt so they don't look great, but practice makes perfect :) Below is a picture of the technique in more summery colours. 

Jen xox

Graduation accessories & make-up

As you've seen in one of my previous posts I recently bought a dress for my graduation ball on Saturday, THIS Saturday :)))))))! So, obviously, I needed to go out & buy some accessories to complement it nicely.

I don't have all of my belongings here in Nottingham (some are at home in Birmingham), so although I already own many clutch bags and heels typically the ones I need aren't here in Nottingham. & I don't have time to go back home & get them! Because of this I was on a mission yesterday to find some nice simple black stilletoes & a black clutch. It sounds quite boring but as my dress is a very bold blue colour & has a lot of detail, I didn't want to take anything away from it with accessories. Being the poor student I am, I was on a budget. Meaning, I couldn't get anything too fancy.

So, heels & clutch! Both of which I bought from New Look. The shoes were £24.99 I do believe. I loove stiletoes that have no seem between the platform and the shoe its self.. if you know what I mean? I think it gives the heels a very classic look. I wore them out to last night to break them in a little so they might not look great in the photos.

The clutch was £12, I think. It's not the best clutch I've ever seen but you wouldn't believe how hard it is to find a plain black clutch bag! It came with two detachable handles; one is seen in the picture & the other was quite ugly so I chucked it.

(It won't let me rotate the photo of the bag, sorry!)

On to the make-up I bought... so with black accessories & a vibrant blue dress I bought a nail varnish of each colour. I got both colours as I'm not sure what to do yet... gradient nails, stencils...? Both varnishes are from Rimmel; the black in called 'black cab' & the blue is 'blue eyed girl'. 

 As it's 3 for 2 in Superdrug at the moment I treated myself to a little extra item. I thought I'd go for a lipstick, as I never ever wear them & I thought it would be a nice difference for Saturday :) I bought shade 20 'Rosetto' from the Kate Moss selection for Rimmel.

 

 

The swatch was only a single stroke of the lipstick. As you can see its highly pigmented. I wore it out last night & I absolutely love it! It didn't dry my lips out at all, in fact it was quite moisturising. The colour lasted a long time too (even through all that drinking!). Here is a photo of me from last night, so you can see the lipstick :)

I also bought a pair or Eyelure Naturalites in 107. My trusted old favourites :)

Despite being blonde haired all of my life I have never owned blonde bobby pins. As I'm doing my hair in an up-do Saturday night (to show off the back of my dress :) I thought I'd buy some to try & make it look as neat as possible.

There we have it :) I am ever so nearly ready for my graduation ball. All I need now is a backless bra (?!). Hopefully this won't be too hard to find tomorrow.

I'm soooo excited :D

Jen xox

Lush fresh face mask review: Cupcake

I am a MASSIVE fan of face masks. After a long, hard day or in preparation for an event there is nothing better than relaxing with a face mask on infront of the TV. My all time favourite face masks are the fresh face masks made by Lush.

Lush fresh face masks are made using mainly natural ingredients. Because of this they need to be stored in your fridge after purchase and must be used within approximately 3 weeks. Not only are they fun, but they have many benefits to your skin. They combat many problem areas; such as dryness, breakouts and wrinkles.

Recently my house mates bought me the cupcake fresh face mask. It smells amaaaazing, like a big fat chocolate cake! I really have to stop myself from licking my fingers. My house mates bought it purely because of the smell & didn't actually look at its benefits, but it does have some.... Cupcake claims to soften and nourish the skin with linseed infusion, tone with fresh mint, moisturise with cocoa butter and absorb grease and deep cleanse with rhassoul mud. Added purely for fun are cocoa powder, vanilla absolute and spearmint oil.

So, the aim of the game is to apply this delicious face mask generously all over your face. Leave it to soak into the skin & do it's many jobs for 15-20 minutes, & wash it off!

My skin feels amaaaazing afterwards. It feels cleaner, toned & so so soft! A winner. Me & my friends are going to have a face mask night on Friday, in prep for grad ball :) This will definitely be my choice of mask!

What are your favourite face masks? Have you tried any of the other Lush fresh face masks? 

Jen xox

My graduation ball dress!

My uni graduation ball is NEXT Saturday! How scary is that?! I really can't believe uni is actually coming to an end :/

But on a more positive note... graduation ball = valid excuse for a new dress! :) So I'd looked in a few shops but hadn't really seen anything, until I'd stopped looking - today! I was after a maxi dress & one that didn't cling to the skin (due to the weight gain side effect of revision!).

The dress I bought fit my specificities perfectly :) Its the 'floral mesh back maxi dress' by Topshop. Lemme know what you think of it!

Front

Back

But now my issue lies with shoes, jewellery & clutch... I think as its quite a bold colour with detail on the back I can't really go over board on accessories.

I'd love it if you could help with any suggestions :)

Jen xox

Happy jubilee! :)

I hope you all have a lovely long weekend!

My weekend consists of celebrating my two friends joint birthday party, with the fancy dress theme 'Where's Wally', & then I'm going back to my hometown on Sunday. I'll be working at a bar Sunday evening & possible Monday evening for their jubilee parties. Followed by my Aunt's jubilee party :) In style of this I have attempted to paint Union Jack flags onto my nails :)

I'm not a pro at doing my nails but I do enjoy giving it a go!

I don't (yet!) have any nail art pens, so to do the Union Jacks I just some old make up brushes. I cleaned an old eyeliner brush and an old lip gloss brush.

Have you guys got any plans for the jubilee weekend?

Jen xox

Soap & Glory Girligo review

Girligo is a spray on moisturising mist I received in one of the many amazing Soap & Glory Christmas packages. I usually love all Soap & Glory products, however, I'm really unsure about this one.

As like all other S&G products the scent is amazing! & the product does what it says it will... moisturise & leave you with fragrant, softer skin. The issue I have is with the product design & its application. It is applied as a spray on, which is fine at first. However, once you have rubbed in the moisturiser on one area & try to spray it elsewhere it is almost impossible! The bottle is quiet slender, & with no grip, therefore with slippy moisturised hands this is a little bit of a challenge & the bottle usually ends up on the floor. Another issue I seemed to have with the spray on design was applying it to my legs. If the bottle isn't at an upright angle the spray doesn't work very well.

Another little disadvantage is the amount of mist required to moisturise. In order to cover an area, such as an arm or leg, I seem to need to spray quiet a lot before I have covered the area. So I feel like I'm using up loooads & the product isn't lasting very long. I'm not sure if this is just me though..? :S Below is a swatch of one spray.

Will I purchase this product again? I hate to say this about S&G, but probably not. I'd much prefer to buy another of their moisturising products; such as their Righteous Butter or Daily Smooth.

For more information on Girligo (& other S&G products) follow this link... http://www.soapandglory.com/products/bath-body/body-moisturizers-1/girligo

What moisturisers are you currently using?

Jen xox