Cath Kidston Wild Flower Lip Balms

Cath Kidston is great. She creates beautifully designed accessories and home ware that we actually want to buy. And they're right on trend by being vintage-inspired.

I try not to gush, but I have a Cath Kidston shop quite nearby, and I truly want to go in there and buy pretty much everything in it. Thank God I don't even have enough of a budget to get myself there, let alone buy anything in it!

So anyway, recently my mum bought a triple pack of Cath Kidston wild flower lip balms; one for her, one for my sister, and one for me. I think I may have fallen in love with the one that was designated mine. The three flavours are honeysuckle, bluebell and wild rose; mine is the latter, the most potent-smelling of the lot.

The lip balms are wonderful. They smell good, they have a vintage-style packaging with pretty images of the flowers on them and they are wonderfully nourishing. Your lips will smell and feel great with just a slick of this product.

OK, so at £3 and £4 they're not the cheapest lip balms ever, but if you feel like pampering your lips, this is the one for you.

Cath Kidston Lip Balms are sold at John Lewis, Cath Kidston stores, and can also be found online at Asos and Amazon among other places.

Front Cover Nail Polish Review

I had a Front Cover nail polish set for Christmas (click here for more details), and I've only just got to trying out a couple of the colours. It is, quite frankly, unbelievable. But that's what the final year of Uni does to you I suppose.

The colours are stunning. I got the Finger Print metallic nail collection, which has the following colours in it: Gold glitter top coat, moonrock, sloe berry, palevioletred, cupric, beetroot and cadet blue. I tend to have favourites when it comes to collections of polishes, but here all the colours are so beautiful that I simply can't say which one is the best.

Anyway, the one I actually have on is Sloe Berry, and it is a royal purple colour with a slightly blue sheen. Unfortunately, the colour doesn't come up well on camera, hence the description. Strangely, it comes out much more blue than it really is, and I didn't even use the flash!

Here are a couple of examples of what it looks like:

The polishes are rather thin, so I needed 2 or 3 coats to get the colour up to the royal purple you see when you look at the bottle. They also chip easily, so I recommend a good top coat to keep it in check. Make sure to pull the top coat over the edge of the nail to seal, because it chips that easily. However, the colour is great. I've had a couple of comments from people saying they loved it. The only big problem is that the nail polish is very difficult to apply due to the packaging design; The lids are large and the brushes are small, meaning that you can see what you're doing... but only just.

The guide price is £14, which means that each polish is less than two pounds as there are also two file/buffers included. I think this is pretty reasonable given the quality of the product is not the best. However, many people have reviewed this item badly, so maybe it is a little overpriced.

I used a glittery top coat on my ring fingers and I have to say that it has lasted very well. And it looks really good. I think I will probably reapply to the chipped parts of my nails and then put the same glitter coat on all of them.
Here it is; just a simple £1.99 pot from Claire's Accessories:

Have you guys tried Front Cover polish? What do you think?

Nail Art - Getting Creative

As you all may have seen, recently I have been a little involved with the world of nails. I have been endlessly following blogs, looking for beautiful nail designs that don't look to difficult to do. In actuality, I have learnt that all it takes is a steady hand and a creative mind to make some really beautiful offerings to the nail art clan.

So without further ado, I want to show you all how my nail art is coming along, and what I hope to be achieving when I have more time on my hands. Any comments and feedback would be really appreciated, as I think I need all the help I can get!

This first one was simple because I've done manicures quite a few times. I also had the help of some very useful stick on guides. I was aiming for a simple and elegant look that was ideal for just about anything, so i went for a natural pink with a black tip. looks kind of classic, doesn't it? My friend liked this one so much that she got me to do it on her too!

For this next one, I wanted to create a look that went with my outfit. We weer dressing up as Moulin Rouge Ladies and my corset was a stunning red one, with an asymmetrical black bit and silver gems. Naturally I went for the asymmetrical part, but I wanted to fit all the colours in. The striper came to the rescue and gave me a clean(ish) line to separate the colours.

This one was a piece of pie, but I was so pleased with it, I took two photos! It was a simple pink coat with little star sequins stuck on. One word of warning, though; If the sequins are coloured don't try putting a top coat on or the colour will run off. The top coat stopped the stars from being pulled off my nails, though. Oh, and another word of warning; These are exceptionally difficult to get off. I advise lots of nail varnish remover, and possibly a crow bar.

So these are my attempts. And this is what I am aiming for:

I still think it's doable.. Do you?

Look on the Bright Side

In Company this month (that's March 2012), I was reading about a really awesome trend.

Rainbow brights.

And it got me thinking about all the different ways you can make bright colours work for you. I love creative eyeshadow looks, so brights were exactly the exciting trend I've been wanting to read about.

Here are some amazing creative ideas that I've found recently, for your perusing:

 

 

For some more awesome makeup ideas, why not look at these babies. Other animal prints are awesome, but what about THIS idea?

What do you guys think of the rainbow brights trend?

The Remains of the Tin

You have approximately a half centimetre left of your favourite lipstick, and it has run out of stock in your local. What do you do while you wait patiently for them to restock? You rummage through your drawers for that perfect nail varnish shade only to find it has clogged, dried and gloopified. Now what?

Thank god there are a few quick fixes that can help when you need them most.

So for that tiny bit of lipstick, a solution is to heat it and mix with some vaseline (or vaseline-like substance). That way, you get to keep your shade and you've made a bit more of it. An added bonus is that it will also moisturise your lips!

Your nail varnish problem can easily be solved by putting a tiny amount of nail polish remover in the bottle and giving it a good shake. Be careful not to put too much in though, or you'll end up with polish that spreads thinly and takes ages to dry. Alternatively, you can put it in a bowl of hot water for five minutes before you start polishing and the heat should thin it. You can also put them in the fridge if they're just gloopy, but remember to put them back in again afterwards! Or, if you are intent of spending money, go for a nail polish thinner, like in the next image.

You are in a rush to get ready and don't time for new polish, right? Wrong. Put some polish on just before you're due to do dinner and include your top coat. Don't worry about neatness at all, be as quick as you can instead. Between then and eating, your nails should dry, especially if you keep near that warm oven! Now wash up, and as you do that, the polish on the skin around your nails should soften and fall off. Some parts may need to be rubbed off.

There's nothing worse than getting ready to go out and putting a finger right through your tights. If the hole is high up enough for no-one to notice, there is a trick to keep it from laddering. Simply put some clear nail polish around the edges of the hole.

And by the by, this woman is a genius. For more tips and thrifty ideas, PLEASE  have a look at this fantastic blog : http://www.athriftymrs.com/