Beauty Besties: Nail Focus

Happy Saturday everyone, and welcome back to Beauty Besties, where every week I link up with my lovely blog friend Kerrie from Pish, Posh and Polish, don't forget to check out her post here! This week the theme is close to both of our hearts, it's Nail Art. Kerrie and I actually met through our mutual love of Nail Polish, back in the days when I started blogging, I was writing a Nail Blog, just as Kerrie still does today. Although she writes about a lot more than just nail polish. When it came to thinking about what I was going to do for this theme I had to look no further than my new obsession, False Nails! Please check out the video below, or continue to the bottom of the post where I explain my steps...

I have always wanted longer nails! I'm one of those people that have annoying nails that will only grow to a certain length (no matter what I do), before they start breaking and peeling. Unfortunately that length is never as long as I want them to be. I have thought about having Acrylic nails, but can't justify spending that amount of money on my nails at the moment, especially as I have at least 200 nail polishes sitting in a box in the dark! So I thought a good inbetween would be stick on nails, although in the past I have found they don't seem to last long on me, though at long last I seem to have cracked it! 

These are stress free and no mess, because I actually paint them before I even think about sticking them on my nails, this means I can give them a proper drying time, and ultimately the finish is better and lasts longer. So here's how I do it:

1. Lay out all the nails I will be using in two lines, one for each hand.
2. Using sellotape I carefully stick the back of each nail onto a cotton bud, making them easier to paint.
3. I paint the nails giving them drying time in between each coat before allowing them to dry properly for 24 hours.
4. I stick the nail on.
5. I cut it to my desired length with false nail cutters.
6. Then I carefully begin shaping it with normal nail trimmers.
7. Finally I file the edges until I am happy with the shape.

That's all there is to it! My last set of falsies lasted a full week, and probably would have gone longer had I not taken them off for this post... I did have a mishap where the thumbnail fell off of my right hand, but I attribute that to the fact my right thumb is probably my most used appendage!

Let me know in the comments: What do you think of false nails?

Try a Tutorial Tuesday: Cling Film Nail Art

For this week's TT I decided to do something that I haven't really done since I used to write my Nail Blog... and that is a little bit of Nail Art. Back before I started this blog in January 2013, I wrote a Nail Blog, and became obsessed with Polish. I still am, I guess just not as much as I used to be!

I was browsing through Pinterest trying to decide what type of nail art to do, as there are SO many different tips and techniques nowadays, when I came across some beautiful pictures of 'Saran Wrap Nails' or as it's known in the UK cling film, and the technique looked pretty simple, so I thought I would give it a try!

Here's how they turned out! Excuse the poor photos, I took these with my iPhone because my camera lens is SHOCKING at close up photos. As you can see I opted for a beautiful gold and teal look as I think it looks a bit like a gemstone, plus we all know I love teal/blue. On my nails is NYC: Full Metal Jacket (my absolute favourite Gold polish ever), and on the tope is Sinful Colours in Savage.

These nails are actually really easy to recreate, all you need is two polish colours, some cling film, and a topcoat. First you paint your nails with your base colour, and then leave them to dry completely. This is probably the hardest part as I know when I'm painting my nails I just want to rush ahead, but it's important! Then you paint your next colour on, but before it can dry, dab it with some scrunched up cling film until you are happy with the effect (it does get quite messy). Then wait for that to dry before you seal it in with a top coat.

If you want to see how it is done, I used the below Youtube video for reference.

 

If you would like to suggest a tutorial for me to try out then please comment below or tweet me with the link!

Life Lately...

So I know that recently I have been absolutely pants at keeping up with my online life. To be honest it's not that I've been too busy, or that I have been lacking motivation, I have just had a terrible case of writers block. Every time I sit down to write a blog post, I start, maybe get a paragraph into it, and then give up. However I have promised myself that I am going to start getting back into this now! I was only supposed to be taking a short break whilst I moved home and settled into a new life with my boyfriend. Enough is Enough!

So I thought I'd start off with something simple and share all my instagram photos with you from the time that I have been absent on here! I am also STILL taking part in the #100HappyDays photo challenge, but it's just taking me longer than most to complete...

24th May 2014: My cousin came down to visit for her little boys birthday and we all went to Monkey World. He loves taking selfies, so I always make sure I snap a few with him. In this one he was a little distracted by the TV!

25th May 2014: Treating myself to a mini mint magnum! My first Magnum in a long time I believe!

26th May 2014: After seeing all the lovely nails that my colleagues at work have. They all get theirs done professionally once a month. I decided that it was about time that I gave myself a mani! Of course it had to be blue...

30th May 2014: We had Tim's friend, Keith over for dinner, and he bought me a bunch of flowers! He is such a sweetheart!

1st of June: Tim and I treated ourselves to a Costa, and I tried their iced mocha mint drink. It was scrummy, but so filling, I couldn't finish it!

1st of June: Tim and I had a curry, this was the night before I started the 5:2 diet and is the last takeaway I actually had!

5th of June: My second after fast day on the 5:2 diet. We had these lovely Turkey burgers for dinner, they were seriously tasty, and only had 300 calories per serving!

8th of June: I finally got around to wearing my Lion king t-shirt that I got at Primark!

8th of June: I took my nan up to Costco, and we always have a slice pizza from their 'food court', I can't believe this massive slice only cost £1.50...

11th June: I made this SUPER tasty Cowboy Chicken Stew from the Easy Cook Magazine that Tim and I have recently subscribed to. The chicken literally fell apart, it was so tender!

16th June: Tim and I got sick of ordinary pizza, so we made puff pastry pizza! this one had ricotta and caramelised onions!

20th June: My workplace had a 6th birthday BBQ and we managed to get our own personal ice cream man!

20th June: This is the ice cream that I had (courtesy of the company I work for), it's a bubblegum knickerbocker glory! I really struggled to finish it...

21st June: I posted a picture of the dinner that I had last night! Salmon, with rice stuffed tomatoes! This was my first time eating salmon in three years, and I really enjoyed it...

So there you have it, that's what I have been getting up to whilst I've been away! I'm going to try and be better with posting, but I honestly can't promise anything at the moment... I guess we'll see...

Polish Days: Quirk Novels and Nails #1

As you may or may not know, I actually began my blog life writing a Nail Polish blog called 'Rose Tint My Nails'. In the space of two months my nail polish collection grew from a humble 15, to 150... I try to limit myself a lot more nowadays, and I haven't blogged about nail polish for a long time, until now.

My lovely blog friend Kerrie, who writes Pish Posh and Polish, has recently started her own indie brand of nail polish called Quirk. All her polishes are rigorously tested, and are beautiful. She decided that she wanted to bring out a monthly subscription box for her polish, but one with a difference, and so she came up with Novels and Nails. Here is what she says about it on her website: Novels and Nails is a mystery package based on a different book each month. This includes a brand new paperback, two limited edition polishes and a range of extras. Each package costs £20 and is sold on a pre-order basis and will be shipped on the 15th of each month. Each package should be a real experience when opening it!

Obviously when I heard that she was making this I couldn't pass up the opportunity to snap one up. I received my package ages ago, but have only just managed to open it tonight! As soon as I saw my goodies, I knew I just had to blog about it immediately, so without further ado... I present, Novels and Nails!

This is what greeted me when I opened my big brown envelope, a lovely bright green paper bag, holding all of the goodies inside...

I was shocked at the sheer amount of stuff that Kerrie managed to pack into this package. As promised there was a paperback copy of the book which the polishes are based on, but there were also three separate little bags.

Bag 1 + 2 contained the limited edition polishes and some lovely quotes...

These quotes were such a nice touch, and made me smile the entire time that I was opening my package, even my boyfriend came over and had a nosey at what I had got!

The first polish I opened was Little White Bird which has a cream coloured based, with golden glitters in it. This is the only one of the polishes that I have actually managed to use so far, and as I was applying it, I literally felt like I was painting pixie dust onto my nails.

It's such a beautiful polish, the perfect one to get me back into painting my nails! It was very fast drying too, which is always a plus for me when I am painting my nails.

The second polish is The Secret of Happiness, and it's a really pretty blue base with lilac glitters in it. I really wanted to use this one first, but as I wear SO MUCH blue, I thought I would give the other polish a go first. As soon as I paint my nails again, this will be going on them!

As well as the two polishes and the book, Kerrie actually included some cute extras, like these Tinkerbell Nail Decals, and some 'Pixie Dust' a.k.a glitter. Oh and love hearts... one of my favourite sweets (I promise they aren't gone already).

All in all I was seriously impressed with this little package, it was such a bargain, and I will definitely be purchasing one again! I have never actually read the book of Peter Pan, so as soon as I have finished my current reads, then I will be getting on it. I recommend these polishes very highly, yes Kerrie is my friend, but that aside, she really puts a lot of love and care into the polishes she makes, and it really shines through. If you would like to check out Kerrie's Polishes then please go to her website here.

Try a Tutorial Tuesday: Nautical Nails!

You may or may not have seen me announcing that I was going to stop writing my Nail Blog! However I still love nail polish, and own over 100, (I know it's insane)! Today I bring you my first nail post on this blog, the first of many (I hope). So I bought this book a while ago, it featured in another post on my other blog, the tutorials in this book are really easy to follow. Instead of looking through the book and choosing which tutorial to do, I just opened it on a random page and this is what I came up with.

As you can see, there are plenty of photos detailing each and every step, along with text explaining each step thoroughly! This book is so good for beginners like me, I recommend that you go out and get it if you are interested in Nail Art. You can check it out on Amazon here.

These are the polishes I used: Saffron #11, Saffron #21, Sally Hansen Navy Baby.

Here is the final Manicure! I wish that I had better brush painting skills. It might be something to do with the fact my brush was very stiff. I'm ashamed of how my other hand turned out but this one wasn't too bad. In the original tutorial one of the nails had a golden anchor on it, but I got a little excited with the white polish and forgot to leave a nail free! I'm pretty happy with how these turned out to be honest.

Let me know what you think! If you want to see more Nail posts then please let me know!

Wishlist Wednesday #2 and An Announcement!

So I want to kick off this weeks Wednesday Wishlist post with a bit of a sad announcement. After a lot of careful thought and consideration, I have decided to stop writing my Nail Blog: Rose Tint My Nails. Unfortunately I just have the time to write both my Nail Blog and my personal blog, so I had to make a tough decision. I just think that writing my personal blog gives me a lot more scope to talk about ALL the things I like, rather than being specified to one.

This in no way means that I am going to give up my obsession with Nail polish, and I wont stop painting my nails, and creating nail art, and I certainly won't stop buying polish, but I will just be posting it on this blog instead, and it won't be as often. I started Rose Tint My Nails back in November when I discovered my passion for nail polish and nail art, it grew to have 75 GFC followers, which was something I was very proud of. This was the first blog that I ever gained followers on and it was nice to know that there were people reading and appreciating my writing for the first time! I also met some wonderful people through various groups on Facebook, including the lovely Kerrie of Pish, Posh and Polish who has become one of my best blogging buddies! So although I won't be posting on Rose Tint My Nails anymore, I will still be posting my Nail Art here! So watch this space for a regular polish feature coming soon!

Now that's out of the way, on with the Wish List! Seeing as I had a job interview at an office this week, which I am going in for a trial on Friday! I have been looking into smart and fashionable blouses/shirts.

1/2/3/4/5/6/7/8

The top four blouses are all from New Look, and the bottom four are all from Matalan! I didn't mean to pick everything from just those two stores, oh well. Out of all the picks, the New Look ones are definitely my favourite of them all. One of the biggest problems I face when buying shirts and blouses is that it's hard to find one that fits me right. The main reason is that I have very thick arms, but a small waist, and big hips. So my strange shape and size doesn't fit the cut of shirts or the material that they are made from means that I have to buy them extra big and wear them baggy! Hopefully when I tone up a bit I wont have to worry about that anymore! Some of these may make there way into my wardrobe if I decide to take the office job I have been offered, if not, I won't have to worry about office clothing!

I'm so glad to be back and blogging, I've had a very busy few weeks, and I'm going through a massive change in my life right now, I expect it to be very difficult, and I'm sure my blog will suffer my busy schedule, but I'm hoping I'll come out of the other side of it!

This post is sponsored by Strutt and Parker, check out estate agents uk here.