This Month I'm Loving... Two and a half weeks!

Okay, weird title I know!

This month I have been so occupied by exams and revision that I haven't really had much time to be doing any of the things I love, so instead of choosing a physical thing that I love, I've picked a virtual thing! (By virtual I mean time)

And by two and a half weeks I mean, I have just TWO AND A HALF WEEKS LEFT OF SCHOOL! We have no official leaving date, just the date of our last exam, so in less than 20 days I will have finished my secondary education forever!!

I have so much planned for my nice long summer and at the same time I just want some time to relax and not care about anything for a while so I'm just going to enjoy it while I can.

Basically it is the thought that I only have two and a half weeks left that is driving me through these exams and the last few days of school.

Anyway, before that day comes along I have seven more exams to get through and then I am freeeeee :P

Shopping that was supposed to be revision...

So today we were supposed to be doing revision then going out for lunch/dinner, but that plan flopped so me and one of my best friends went shopping instead!

I wasn't looking for anything in particular (except using up a Soap & Glory voucher) but I did come home with quite a few bits! (No surprise there, haha)

New Barry M Gelly polishes - 3 for 2 in Superdrug (got the Sleek thing with these 5) and on sale before the official release? Of course I was going to snap them ALL up! (r.r.p. £3.99 each):

New Models Own Splash polishes. 3 for 2 in Boots so I took full advantage! I really wanted Pink Paradise but it was sold out :( But I WILL find it!! (r.r.p. £5 each):

Seventeen Off The Wall Graffiti Nail Effect. A black and white glitter? Yes please! (r.r.p. £3.99 each):

Sleek MakeUP Face Form - Medium. I've wanted to tyr out contouring for a while now so this seemed like a pretty good kit to start out with so I thought I'll try it out. Plus i got it as part of the 3 for 2 in Superdrug that I mentioned above :) (r.r.p. £9.99):

Soap & Glory make up - Cheekmate, Glow All Out and Arch De Triumph. Basically in the Boots magazine that is out in stores at the moment (free if you have an advantage card or £1, I highly recommend picking it up just for this offer!) there is voucher at the back for a free full sized Soap & Glory Cheekmate if you purchase any other two Soap & Glory cosmetics. Thats a good offer on its own BUT, ALL Soap & Glory products are on 3 for 2 at the moment, so combined with that voucher you could potentially get 3 Soap & Glory products for the price of ONE!!!!!! (The best way to guarantee it will work is to choose something equal to or more than £8 and something less that £7.99) If you are wanting any Soap & Glory cosmetics then this is the PERFECT chance to get yourself some for a really low price! (r.r.p. £8, £12, £8):

H&M denim shirt. We were wondering around H&M because Aisha had a gift card to use up and I wasn't looking at anything for myself. That was until I saw this shirt! And I tried it on and it looked even better so of course I was going to buy it! (r.r.p. £14.99):

Primark satin clutches. Again, I wasn't looking for anything for myself but we walked past a pillar full of these and for £5 how could I resist? Aha :

So due to the lack of revision today, ALL of the rest of the week will be hardcore cramming! Wish me luck!

OOTD - 26/05/13

Covent Gardens Shopping

Guess where I've been today?? Covent Gardens again!

Haha, I seem to go there quite often don't I!?

Well this time me and one of my best friends took our mums out and I must say it was actually a very good day out indeed! The weather was beautiful; warm and sunny, and we had some good food and did some good browsing/shopping!

Anyway, I'm knackered so this is going to be quick. Here's what I bought:

Kurt Geiger, Black Cos Pouch - FREE! I had a free £20 gift card from ELLE magazine a few months back so I didn't pay a penny! (r.r.p. £20) :

Sass & Belle large mirror - £19.99. I needed a mirror for my new vanity table and this one was beautiful and just the perfect size! (r.r.p. £29.99) :

The Body Shop Coconut Milk Body Lotion - FREE! We were walking back to the station when a lady from The Body Shop was giving out free £3 vouchers with no minimum spend so we all picked up something for free/reduced! (r.r.p. £3) :

MUJI 2 Drawer Wide Acrylic Box and PET Spray Bottles - £10.95 and £2.25 each. I've heard so many bloggers rave about the MUJI Acrylic storage boxes so of course I had to get one for myself! :

Bronze Hand Carved 'D' Stamp - £6. To be honest I just liked it so I bought it... :

De Santis Jewellery Swarovski Crystal Heart Pendants - £5 each. There were a couple of stalls selling these but this was the cheapest. I love these necklaces and I just wish they had more colours! :

So thats all, goodnight! x

O.P.I OPI Ink

Where have I been? Well.... On Tuesday I was about to leave for school when I fell down the stairs and landed on my back on a hard-wood floor! That was the LAST thing I needed especially since this week has been so busy in terms of exams. Anyway I'm okay (ish.. I'm in a lot of pain but it doesn't matter)

So back to the polish. First of all can I say, this is such a difficult polish to photograph!!! But it is so beautiful at the same time!

Here is O.P.I - OPI Ink, a polish that I've wanted ever since I first saw swatches of it!

It is a gorgeous blurple that looks magical in the bottle! The base is right between blue and purple and it is loaded with small glass flecks that shift from blue and purple right through to pink and even gold (although the gold is pretty hard to see on the nail). On the nail it settles as a duochrome deep violet shade in most lights and a deep navy occasionally.

Application was quite good. The first coat was pretty sheer and patchy and a second coat evened out the patchiness but a third coat made it totally opaque. At three coats it has this very luxe look to it.

It really does look like ink, albeit a colour-shifting shimmering ink.

The formula was easy to work with and I experienced no dragging but I was working quite quickly and my nails are quite short at the moment anyway. Dry time is normal but with three coats it did dry faster than I expected.

Under artificial light above, and under sunlight below:

The duochrome can really be seen under artificial light:

Under flash the metallic element really shows through, as does the bluer side of this polish.

So basically what I'm saying is that this is one heck of an awesome polish! It exudes gothic glamour and looks very luxe on.

31 Days of Nail Art Challenge - Day 28 - Inspired by a Flag

Flags.

Well not much to say really...

Anyway, I decided to recreate the two flags that represent my background:

India because that is my heritage and UK because this is where I was born and have lived my whole life.

I painted other two fingers black to represent my future... I mean, who knows where I'll end up??

Liebster Award!

Wow, so this is the third, fourth, fifth and SIXTH nomination! sorry I'm posting so late after I was nominated :/

I was kindly nominated by Kerry of JustTalkNails, Cris of Naily Perfect, Beccy of Two Days Slow AND by Accent Girl 100!!!

WOW, SIX AWARDS!!! That is something I NEVER expected!

*WARNING: LONG POST ALERT*

Well, here are the rules again:
Post 11 random things about yourself.
Answer the questions that the nominator set for you.
Create 11 questions for the people you nominate.
Choose 11 blogs you love (with less than 200 followers)


Since I've already nominated and told you some facts here, I won't do it again but I'll still answer all the questions :)

These were the questions that Kerry set:

1. How many nail polish do you buy a month?

• I don't go out and purposely reach a number of polish purchases each month but I generally end up buying 10-25+

2. How big is your collection?

• As of April 1st 2013, I had 487 but its grown quite a bit more since!

3. Do you collect anything?

• Yeah I'm a bit of a hoarder :S I guess its not really collecting, more accumulating but hey ho... But, I do collect magnets of all the places I visit and then I also "collect" clothes, make up, nail polish, magazines... I could go on and on.

4. What movie are you looking forward to for 2013?

• I reaaaaally wanted to see Les Mis so I may go and buy the DVD and I might go and see a few of the many sequals/next-in-series films coming out too... I also want to go and see The Great Gatsby.

5. Any New Years resolutions?

• Normally I set at least 10 resolutions but this year I only set three. But, I NEVER tell what they are so sorry but I can't tell you ;)

6. Favourite meal?

• Hmm this is hard because I love food, but I'll say my mums homemade pasta/noodles.

7. What nail polish is next on your buy list?

• The rest of the Color Club Halo Hues collection, more O.P.I. DS polishes and the 5 new Barry M Gellys.

8. What is your favourite finish?

• Hands down HOLOGRAPHIC!

9. What is your favourite polish colour?

• Hmm, my favourite colour is purple and so I guess my favourite polish colour is purple too...

10. What's your favourite TV programme?

• I don't really watch much TV anymore but I like Holby City and This Morning (I know, I sound like a middle-aged woman !)

11. What are you reading currently?

• Revision guides :( I have fifty-million exams going on (they started yesterday...)

These were the questions that Cris set:

1.Where in the world would you most like to visit?

• Oooh, anywhere and everywhere! I can't really travel abroad at the moment because of my illness and thats made things difficult but hopefully I'm going to America next year!

2. Marmite: love or hate?

• Hate!

3. How many polishes do you own?

• Again, as of January 1st 2013 I had 487 but its grown quite a bit more since!

4. Do you any pets?

• Nope :( But I do want some.

5. What's your favourite book?

• I don't really have a favourite book at the moment but I just read An Inspector Calls an it was really good! Definitely recommend it!

6. What house would you want to be in if you were a student at Hogwarts?

• Urmm Harry's one? I'm sorry I'm not a huge Harry Potter superfan :/ (sorry Aisha!) But I do want to Harry Potter World!

7. What's your favourite fruit?

• Mango and cherries!

8. Who was your first celebrity crush?

• Hmm, my first was probably Zac Effron because of High School Musical, haha. 

9. What are you most afraid of?

• So this is a question where I could lie and say something like spiders, but I may as well just be truthful... So the thing I'm most afraid of is myself. I say that because of my illness. It means that I constantly have to be aware of myself, where I am and whats around me. And once it hits, anything could happen to me, and thats what I'm most afraid of.

10. Are you a cat person or dog person?

• Hmm... I don't really know. I've never had a pet but a lot of my neighbours have dogs/puppies so I'll say dogs simply because I know how to handle them more than I do cats...

11. What was your most hated subject at school?

• I still am at school haha! But I HATED P.E until my head of year said I didn't have to do it anymore because it was making my illness worse...

These were the questions that Beccy set:

1. Do you take as much care over your non-photo hand nails?

• Generally yes, I have a bit of an ocd about symmetry and both sides being treated the same. But if I'm doing nail art then not so much.

2. Favourite website?

• Ooh, I don't know! I'll say Blogger because it's the one I go on the most ;) 

3. If you could be any movie character who would you be?

• Hmm, I genuinely don't know!

4. Favourite animal?

• Horses or dolphins. 

5. Favourite word?

• Haha, I like the word 'glossy' and 'sequin' and 'serendipity'

6. If animals became zombies, what animal would be the scariest?

• Oh gosh, i do not want to think about that! Hmm, but I'll say hyenas because they creep me out already! 

7. Favourite tv show as kid?

• Ooh I had loads! But probably SMart (LOVED that show! It was basically my childhood) and Raven (I wanted to be on that show so badly!)

8. Do you do anything else creative?

• Yes! Quite a lot actually. I take Textiles for GCSE and have just bought some patterns because I'm going to be making some dresses over summer! (Keep an eye out for those posts!) Also, I paint and draw and I like to bake too. I used to do more when I was younger but things changed and thats no longer the case...

9. Sweet or savoury?

• Both! Well in terms of actual meals I'd say savoury. But I do have a small addiction to chocolate, aha.

10. How often do you paint your nails?

• Everyday if I'm not at school, otherwise only on weekends.

11. Favourite thing about blogging?

• Getting to share my passion/addiction and being able to talk to fellow like minded people!

These were the questions that Accent Girl set:

1. If you could only have one social site out of facebook, twitter, youtube, blogger, instagram etc, which one would you pick?!

• Blogger obviously! Haha but Facebook is the only contact I have with some of my family, so that too. But I do like Instagram too! Oooh I don't know! But I can like without Twitter, thats for sure.

2. Given the choice, would you rather buy cheaper things and have more, or buy more expensive things and have less?! For example, would you rather go into Primark and buy 5 vest tops for £10, or would you rather go into Topshop and buy 1 vest top for £10?!

• Do you mean £100 for the Topshop one? Otherwise Topshop it is! But generally I prefer cheaper things unless it is something I know and love, in which case I'll happy pay the higher price. Basically if I've never used it before/don't 110% love it I'd rather pay less because I don't want to waste money on something I'm not sure about. 

3. What is your 'song on repeat' right now?

• I haven't really listened to music properly for a while now, because I've so busy! But I am liking 'Feel This Moment' by Pitbull ft Christina Aguilera and 'Just Give Me a Reason' by P!nk ft Nate Ruess

4. What is one of your pet hates?

• People who pretend to like/know you because they want to appear like they care in front of others. I experience that a lot...

5. Who are your top three youtubers?

• I don't really watch Youtube religiously so I don't have a top three, sorry!

6. What one make up item could you not live without?

• Oooh tough one! It'd have to be... eyeliner! Mainly because I wear it every day without fail! But I can't imagine not having my moisturiser and primer because even when I'm wearing 'no makeup' I still have those two on.

7. Do you prefer your hair straight, waved or curled?

• Well my hair is naturally curlyish (basically wavy at the top and curly at the mid-to-bottom) and for about two years I straightened it every other day so now I'm just trying to embrace it! So yeah, curly when it looks half decent otherwise I can't help but make it straight.

8. If you were to go on 'Come Dine With Me' what would your 3 course menu be?!

• Hmm... I have no clue! 

9. What are your guilty pleasures?

• Shopping! Obviously!

10. What is the best holiday you have ever been on?

• Well like I've said already I can't really travel abroad at the moment because of my illness and thats made things difficult so I only really go on holiday in the UK but the best one was probably the one to Portsmouth/Southampton/Devon last summer. I did A LOT of shopping, swam in the sea, visited some beautiful places, painted on the beach, ate good food and just RELAXED for once!

11. Which day of the week is your favourite?!

• Hmmm, a good day? Haha, to be honest I don't have a favourite day, I just like any day where I'm happy and not in pain....

So now you probably know my whole life story now, whoops!

OOTD - 12/05/13

31 Days of Nail Art Challenge - Day 27 - Inspired by Artwork

Artwork.

I like art and some may even say I'm good at it.

But I chose not to persue it any further than secondary school KS3 (year 9) and I admit I have looked back and wondered what if...

But anyway for this theme I chose to take inspiration from Mondrian, a Dutch painter.

I freehanded this all because I was being lazy and it seemed quicker than using striping tape. It came out better than I though it would!

To make it more like a 'painting' I mattified it:

This is the image I used as inspiration (called Composition II in Red, Blue, and Yellow):

Source Wikipedia

B. Complete Brighton Rock

First of all I want to apologise for not posting since Monday! Yesterday was pretty horrible in terms of my life and the rest of the week was just so busy! Anyway onto today's post...

You may have heard of the brand B. that launched in Superdrug a few months back, well along with skincare they have a pretty good cosmetics line and one of the things that caught my eye was this pink polish:

Now, let me tell you, I am not a pink polish girl. They rarely look right against my skintone so I just tend to avoid them mostly. Well this one is different! Let me introduce B. Complete in shade Brighton Rock, AKA the first ever pink to suit me!!

It is a warm sort of corally pink creme polish and I think it will suit almost all skin tones.

Another thing I love about this polish is that it has an awesome wide, and thick, brush meaning it picks up a good amount of polish and only needs 2/3 swipes to cover the whole nail! Believe me, it makes painting your nails neatly so much easier. Application is very easy as the formula is smooth and buttery and just glides onto the nail.

It is opaque in one coat, but I've done 2 just to cover any visible nail line. It also dries very quickly and dries to a lovely glossy finish, I haven't used topcoat in any of these pictures.

In bright sunlight it borders on neon but still looks nice against my skin! Bonus!

This is definitely my favourite pink polish!

So, what I'm saying is that if you, like me, are weary of pink polish because you think it will look odd on you - Go and try this one!

Bank Holiday Hauling

So instead of revising all day I ended up going shopping. Oops :/ But looking back I am glad I went, and if you read on you'll find out why!

So what did I get?

Debenhams:

Escada - Cherry In The Air perfume, £35.00 and Escada bag, FREE (gift with purchase). I've wanted a new summer fragrance for a while now and this was just perfect for me! The bag was just a bonus, haha.

Urban Decay - Naked 2 pallete, £36.00. I FINALLY OWN IT!!!! I only went in to buy the perfume and amazingly saw this on the counter! (My local Debenhams doesn't stock Urban Decay, the nearest counter is on Oxford St, hence the shock) The lady at the till said somebody had returned it after accidently buying it online only 10 minutes earlier! I was so shocked and excited I started laughing hysterically :S But seriously, I AM SO HAPPY!

Boots:

Lady Gaga - Fame perfume, £36.66 (r.r.p £55.00). Now, I'm not one to buy into celebrity fragrances, but I particularly liked this one when I received a sample of it that I knew I needed to buy a full sized bottle. I was going to wait a while but when I saw it was almost £20 off, I snapped it up instantly!

Bourjois Healthy Mix Serum - Shade 58 Hale Fonce, £10.99. I needed a new foundation but didn't want to splash out on one yet (thinking about getting the Nars one...) and I've heard a lot of good things about this range so thought I would try one out. Thankfully they had a shade that was almost perfect against my skin tone!

Bourjois So Laque - Rose Lounge, £5.99. I've been looking for a sheer but not too sheer natural pink polish and I've finally found it! It also just so happened that buying this with the foundation meant I would get a free blusher!

Bourjois Blush - Cendre de Rose Brun FREE (r.r.p £7.49).

Poundland:

Sally Hansen- Ion and Gilty Pleasure, £1.00 (r.r.p £6.99) and Revlon Top Speed - Ignite, £1.00 (r.r.p £6.49). If it isn't obvious, I only bought these because of the price!

Waitrose:

ELLE, £4.00 - FREE Benefit They're Real Mascara (r.r.p £9.50) and InStyle, £3.90 - FREE Nails Inc. Polish (r.r.p £11.00). I only bought these for the free gifts, aha.

WHSmiths:

Nail it!, £4.00. I've heard about this magazine but never knew it was available in the UK until today! £4.00 is a bit steep for what it actually is but since it only comes out bi-monthly it's not too bad...

So, I don't even want to add that all up. But I'm happy with regardless.

A Little New Blog...

Hey everyone, just a quick post for you today.

I hope you're all enjoying the 3-day Bank Holiday Weekend if your in the UK or just having a good weekend if you are elsewhere.

Well if you fancy some light reading, may I suggest that you check out Beauty Spot, a beauty blog written by an up-and-coming new blogger, Sonali Shah. She also just so happens to be one of my friends! You may also recognize her from this post here. I can tell she's destined for big things, haha ;)

Go have a look, you might just find you like it!

31 Days of Nail Art Challenge - Day 26 - Inspired by A Pattern

Patterns.

Not much to say about them.. I like pretty/vintage/whimsical/girly/delicate kinds of patterns.

The only problem was that this week has been so crazy busy for me that I didn't have time to do the nail art I was planning on doing, so I've posted an old photo of my first attempt at water decals that I did about 6 months ago. You can clearly see how bad they look :/ They are wrinkled and jagged.

I wish I'd had the time to do something better but oh well, life goes on...

Barry M Sequin Nail Effect - White

I have a new product for you all!

You may have seen or heard about all the new Barry M releases coming out over the next few months (more Gelly polishes, new Sequin Effects and new Confetti Effects). Well I have one of the New Sequin Nail Effects Nail Paints to show you!

This is Sequin Nail Paint in White. (There is also a pink one with the same formula and a black and gold one too).

That is two coats of the polish over a white creme.

It is basically a sheer white base with small hex glitter suspended in it. The colours of the glitters are red, blue, green, gold and silver. I think there is also some sort of texture element to it because when the first coat dried there was visible opaque residue in the polish. Either that or I have a dodgy bottle.

The formula was easy to work with and applied smoothly, but the glitter did like to hide away on the first coat. On the second however, they spread out nicely and a good amount transfered onto the nail.

Okay, here's the truth. It is very sheer. As in so sheer it will NEED a base colour, otherwise it will take about 6/7 coats to get it remotely opaque. And if you actually do that many coat, the glitter will probably just fill your nails.

I decided to mattify it to see what it looks like and well... there wasn't much difference. The whole thing just went a bit cloudier and the base and glitter got duller, but apart from that nothing much else changed.

Removal was the same as any other chunky glitter. Thankfully no vicious scrubbing was required and eventually the glitter did slide off which is a major bonus!

So overall what do I think? Well it reminds me of sprinkles and I can see myself using this a lot for nail art, but I doubt I would wear it as a full mani very often. It was a tad bit 'primary school' if that makes sense to you and the formula was a bit annoying but I think it will quite popular since it's quite different.

You can purchase it from the majority of Superdrug and Boots stores and the Barry M website soon.