galaxy/starry nails...

Step 1: select nail varnish. I chose Rimmel polish in Disco Ball & No7 polish in Betty Blues.

I used false nails for this look as I find it easier and less messy this way, plus they can dry without smudging. I used two nail varnishes for this look, although I've seen some more complex tutorials that involve sponges/cocktail sticks- basically I wanted to make mine less fiddly and quicker to do! I buy my false nails on ebay- European ones- and they work out at about £3.50 for 200 which is pretty good, they require some shaping but for that money you can't really go wrong.

Step 2: paint nails.

Paint your nails/false ones. I used two coats of the dark blue polish to get a good opaque covering- you could use black if you want a 'night sky look', but I prefer blue. When it's all dry, I applied 2-3 coats of glitter polish and let that dry too. Then apply a top coat of you want, I find that my false nails stay chip free, but it might be best to apply one to natural nails.

Step 3: apply nails if using false ones!

This is my new brush on nail glue from elegant touch- find it at Boots & Superdrug. Just a warning- when I removed my false nails, the leftover glue on my natural nails stank... I found washing my hands with really strong soap did the trick, but I'm not sure why it smells- something in the glue?! I do have clean hands normally...promise!

Step 4/5: enjoy!

There we go- 'galaxy' nails! Hope that was enjoyable/easy to do- it's just a quick alternative and I think it looks quite pretty, plus you can apply less or more glitter depending on how 'starry' you want them to be. :)

I was off from work today with a migraine that started last night- it was terrible, lights in front of my eyes, my head felt like it was pulsing. It's only just worn off, so hopefully I'll be back at work tomorrow to earn some more money. Time for some tea and pringles- we only have them at Christmas (soooo deprived) so I'm making the most of them haha.

X.

Glossybox: December 2011

How nice is the box?! Very festive. And a very good box it was too- I have used everything for once! On with the products...

Rituals foaming shower gel

Love this shower gel, it smells beautiful, quite musky and spicy. I like the fact it's an actual gel and you don't need a lot to get a good lather. I would buy this again, depending on how long a bottle can last.

blink+go hi-definition mascara

I've found myself reaching for this quite a bit since the box arrived, a nice glossy black mascara that does the job and doesn't smudge easily. Not sure I'd pay £15 for it though, I prefer testing out cheaper mascaras.

mememe seventh heaven face primer

Very heavily scented, so if you don't like smelling like strong lemon, avoid. Luckily I do, and I've used this quite a bit for when my double wear foundation needs a bit of slip on application. A nice little £5 discount voucher came with this too, but I'm not sure I love it enough to buy a full size bottle.

deborah lippmann nail varnish remover sachet

Ok, so I haven't used this yet, but I will be to get the glitter off my nails, and if this doesn't work then a chisel might be required... The packaging describes this as a 'mitt', but as nail varnish remover really dries my hands out, I have a feeling that some heavy duty hand cream might be required after using this.

razzle dazzle mini nail varnish

Love this! Needs a few coats to make a properly glitter encrusted nail and takes a bit of removing, but it's gorgeous! Dark vampy purple/red, looks surprisingly festive.

cargo cosmetics classic lip gloss

Not a big fan of wearing lip gloss but this isn't too bad and comes out as quite a nice colour on my lips, a little sticky, but I've never found a lip gloss that isn't. Not sure how much I'll use it, but I think it might look even better layered over shy girl.


Great box this month, apparently next month's is going to be pretty good, but we'll see, I'm going to save my glossydots for a free box then I might unsub from it all, £12 a month isn't too bad, but for someone saving to move out eventually, it does all add up. I put my new tripod up earlier and took some pics for a nail tutorial type thing. The light is terrible at the moment, so I've had to stand in front of my window- it might give the neighbours something to laugh about!

Hope everyone had a lovely Christmas, I'm definitely taking up jogging again in the new year...famous last words.

X.

boxing day trudge

 I seem to have developed an obsession with photographing fungi/mushrooms, they're fascinating.

 These pictures were taken on Christmas morning and on Boxing day- very gloomy weather.

 This heron didn't seem to mind us staring at him, or the two dogs chasing each other below his branch.

 Edge of Dartmoor.

 I would love to find out who these initials belong to and if they are still together.

 When it comes to macro, my camera does it well.

 

This is a little fairy door drawn onto a tree near our house, it's become a feature we always visit when walking in the woods, I really wanted to photograph this in the snow, maybe in the spring.

that time of year

Happy Christmas Eve and all that- eat lots tomorrow and be happy! I'm so looking forward to turkey, presents and going for a long family walk armed with my camera. Standard.

On an entirely different note (but I really need to mention this), if you suffer from bad skin, or just love a full coverage look, then this foundation might be 'the one' for you, it is for me. Covers everything, stays put but feels like nothing's on your skin. Perfect.

Festive nails in the form of Rimmel's Disco Ball, looks even better layered over black/midnight blue, looking forward to trying out 'galaxy' nails now :)

Merry Christmas everyone!
Thank you for the last comments and the birthday wishes- I had a lovely time!

X.

tea for two

all images via my pentax film camera. More on my flickr.

I love film. Over 10 of these didn't develop properly today due to light leaks, so I'm hoping it's an error on my part and that my camera isn't on its last legs. Hoping the next roll of film is more successful, although some of the light leaked pics turned out pretty cool (personally I think it's down to my high level of skill HA. Not). The last picture is of the vicarage near my house, I'd buy it like a shot if I had the cash- it oozes gothic charm and has grave stones in the garden lawn (built on an old part of the churchyard), suitably creepy, imagine the halloween parties you could host...

My last day of being 21 tomorrow. I hate getting old, love the presents though!

X.

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new beginnings

all pictures via my Instagram

01. Some of you might notice that my blog looks a little different- I've been playing around with backgrounds and html all morning and this is the result, a bit more 'me' than previously and I'm happy with it- also finally figured out how to make some pretty nifty headers via Picnik, and it's free, so even better!

02. Spent today trying to come up with some new blog content too, I might get into the habit of posting a 'picture of the week' or something creative like that, or a weekly portrait, or even a wardrobe raid- this might help me work out what lurks in my wardrobe and it also might be a good way to force me to wear some stuff more often. Anyway, I'm sure I'll figure something out!

03. A new year (almost), a new look for my blog- I'm quite excited, and it's made me look forward to blogging and showing my photography again- just finished my Pentax film up so I'll get that developed in the week. I'm also going to be getting back into drawing/creating stuff again, so that can also appear on here too :) 

04. Pictures of food: I've been seeing these all over Tumblr, and I love them- I took one of my lunch today (curried carrot & lentil soup with homemade cheese scones if you were curious) and I've taken some too on my film cameras- might make a project of this, we'll see.

05. Now I've throughly covered my new blog look I'll leave you to have a browse. Thanks for looking :)

X. 

onwards & upwards

cat-sitting, stuffed squash, Picframe app results, emo-ing it up via Photobooth, film beauties.

After catching up on some blogs today (I would rather have snow in December than disgusting drizzle thank you very much), I started thinking about my own blog and how for a while, I haven't been entirely happy with it. It's not the whole concept of blogging which is making me unhappy, it's more that I feel that my own blog doesn't really reflect 'who I am' and I want to change this. So... I will be giving this little site a complete revamp, name and all. I have a few ideas and I'm excited to try these out and see where they take me, even if not a lot of people read or visit- for me that's not what blogging is about, I'm not obsessed with gathering a huge following and a million comments, (of course it's nice to know and see that people do look at/read what I ramble on about), but I started blogging as a platform to show the world what I like and what interests me.
 Recently I feel that my blog has gone away from this, I want to show more of my photography attempts and my arty/creative side, maybe some more 'fashion' posts might appear, but we shall see. You might be thinking 'isn't that on here already?', well, maybe some of that is, but it's more of a personal opinion and feeling of mine, and I'll feel better making a new page layout/header and giving my blog an update a massive overhaul. If you do read it/have a peek once in a while (thank you!), stay tuned- I will return soon!
I feel a lot better after typing all that and I hope it makes sense and that I covered everything :)
Now, to google the mysterious workings of html!

X.

Skyrim

 Aloha.

Got really bored and mucked around with Photobooth this evening, loving my Topshop spiked metal necklace haha ;)

This time next week I'll be 22, hopefully will have gotten my macbook mended by the apple 'doctors', and will have finally gone to Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstalls's cafe- really hoping he'll be there!

Got some Sleek stuff to review as well in the near future, as well as some hair products.

Oh, the post title refers to a new game that I really want to get my hands on, sadly I'm gonna need an Xbox or PS3...sigh. 

Anyway....laters :)

  X.

Relics to Ruins

L-R: Shroom, Espresso, Beauty Marked, All That Glitters

Melba

This awaited my arrive home from work yesterday, made my day. I'm aiming to build up a 15 palette, but a quad will do for now- LOVE all the colours. Don't let Beauty Marked fool you- it's actually more of a charcoal on the skin with hardly any shimmer, but still beautiful- much easier to wear than an all over black lid. Zoom Lash is something I want to own in full size- separates my lashes perfectly and doesn't end up down my lower lid at the end of the day- totally recommend! Melba is for me, a less coral version of Benefit's Coralista, it stays amazingly well on my skin and doesn't wear off easily, something that I found Coralista does.
Went Christmas shopping on Monday- spent an obscene amount of cash and only bought two presents- the rest for myself...OOPS. Will show everything I got on here soon I expect. I didn't buy anything at Urban Outfitters, wayyyyy too pricey although I could have happily bought the whole shop- might have to beg for a few things for Xmas, including the Diana Lomography camera- amazing.

It's my brother's birthday tonight, so I've been making one of my infamous chocolate cakes, complete with wonky smartie writing haha! Time to get fat!

X.