Painting nails.

This summer has definitely seen the resurfacing of pastel colours for nails, and I have absolutely jumped on the band wagon with it. Here's a little insight into my nail varnish collection and the key colours I can't be without! 

1/ Maybelline Super Strong 'Mint for Life', £4.09 - this is one of the best nail polishes I have ever used. The brush is perfectly shaped and the colour is strong and bright, and mint is so on trend that this adds a little something to any outfit. The only thing is that it doesn't ACTUALLY last for 7 days. But I can live with that, 3 days of fabulous colour is enough for me. 

2/ Sally Hansen 'No Chip' top coat, £4.75 - I think I've finally found my perfect top coat! I have to be so careful of my nails chipping at work that this is acrylic top coat is just what I need, smooth and silky and hard as nails. The one downside, sometimes it creates these bizarre but tiny little air bubbles on my nail - a small price to pay for such a good product, but nonetheless annoying. 

3/ Barry M 'Blue Moon', £2.99 - Barry M has been my go to nail varnish since my teens, and this one doesn't disappoint either. I've always found the brush a rather annoying shape, but it's worth it because the colours are so brilliant. Add a top coat for super shine and you've got the perfect nails for day and night, plus it looks super chic. 

4/ Topshop 'Spilled Milk', £5 - Topshop have impressed me with their beauty range, their nail polishes more so than anything else. This white is beautiful, elegant and coats the nail just as you would want. I had tried so many varieties of white before finding this one, but it's definitely pipped the competition. My favourite colour of this summer!

5/ Essie 'Lilacism', £7.99 - Essie is fast becoming my go to brand for nail polish. I've always had a lovely lilac in my nail polish collection, it's an essential in my opinion. Good for work, feminine, but not your average colour and it certainly can't be pulled off by everyone (but that's just my opinion). Like the Barry M, it's super chic, not to mention Essie nail varnishes always seem to last longer than any others. The only downfall of course is the price, so this was a mid-summer treat for me. 

There it is then, a teeny tiny section of my nail polish collection. These have been my go to colours of the season, what were yours? Anybody found any of these brands tricky to use? I hope Pastels stay popular for a while, but I can already see the reds and dark blues sneaking in as Autumn hurries along. 

Au revoir. 

Fashion Diary

Pinafore meets Punk.

Do excuse the photography, the house is rather a labyrinth of dark corridors and old school bannisters. I think the distressed photos sort of suit the outfit though! What do you think?

fashio

Pinafore: New Look £19.99

Boots: New look (915) £24.99

Blouse: Topshop £28.00

Necklace: H&M £7.99

Autumn is fast approaching, and I'm loving the punk revival that seems to be taking hold of this season. Not only does it remind me of all the music I loved as a teenager, but it means I can break out the tartan and match it with some of my favourite items! I got this blouse from Topshop about a week ago - I usually really don't like paying their extortianate prices but the shape of this is perfect. I initially wore it in London with high waisted jeans, but I think it works just as well here! The colours are also great, I tend to stick with the staple black, white and denim in my day to day outfits so being able to inject a bit of red is a Godsend. 

I paired my cute pinafore that I've had for a while with a pair of biker boots and a punky blouse to make it a bit more edgy. I love that pinafore's are back in fashion now - I have about 3 in different colours and shapes and have to hold myself back from buying more on asos. 
This is such a comfy outfit, perfect for when I'm just popping out or meeting friends. The silhouette is also pretty lovely - chunky but the skater style of the pinafore makes it slimming. Also love the way it looks at the back! Excuse my hair, I tend to just tie it up when I can't be bothered with it - which is most days of the week actually. But I thought long loose hair would deflect from the neckline anyway. To finish, I added my habitual black bag and a little lion necklace that I picked up in H&M a few days ago. Et voila! Pinafore meets punk. I hope to make this a go to outfit of the autumn season! Finished with my black biker jacket when the weather starts to cool down. 

What Autumn trends are inspiring you this year? Are you loving these cut out biker boots as much as me?

Until next time.

Beauty on a Budget.

Item #2

cc cream

Brand: L'Oreal Paris

Product: Nude Magique Anti-Fatigue CC Cream

Price: £9.99

Rating: 4*

I am always on the look out for a good foundation or BB cream and for the past couple of months had been using the L'Oreal Nude Magique BB Cream. When I had to change my make-up after the eye incident though, I decided it was time for something new. 

CC Creams are quite literally 'colour correctors'. Like a BB cream, they attempt to keep you looking natural, but unlike the BB cream, they add a little bit of brightness to your complexion instead of simply evening out your skin tone. 

Glamour Magazine did a beauty edition in association with L'Oreal, just my luck! Their recommendation was the CC Cream over the BB. Why? Apparently it's got amazing skincare benefits and generally keeps you looking flawless and radiant.

L'Oreal has a few varieties, but I chose the 'Anti-Fatigue' one over 'Anti-Dullness' and 'Anti-Redness' - because if there's one thing that affects my skin, it's the tiredness that plagues me after a weekend of work. 

Well so far, I have not been disappointed. I am so in love with this! It goes on easily, although very bright orange until you've rubbed it in which made me nervous. It looks lovely once thoroughly brushed on though, and gives me a really even skin tone. It doesn't stain my brush either which is miraculous.

Overall I would definitely suggest getting this if you like the natural look. It doesn't give me any extra colour, so if you're like me and are fairly pale, it might not be for you. I've embraced my ivory skin now though, so it doesn't bother me too much. Blushers and bronzers are to add colour in my opinion. It does, however, make me glow. That could be an exaggeration, but it definitely has that little something that makes me feel and look brighter in the mornings.  

Let me know what you think! Has anyone else used any good CC creams?

Merci :) speak again soon!

Back to reality.

First off, I apologise for being rather MIA for the past couple of weeks. Remember that lovely eye infection? Well, it turned out to be an allergy that I haven't quite got to the bottom of yet and is making my life a bit of a disaster. Anyway, I'm going to catch you up as quickly and painlessly as I can.

1/ I finally got a hair cut. I'm absolutely loving my new crop - I feel like a cross between Alexa Chung and Audrey Hepburn (but nowhere near as stylish or beautiful..)

2/ My baby brother has turned 17! This makes me feel very old; I bought him his tongue piercing (much to my mother's annoyance) and we went out for an Indian at this place just down the road from us; a very happy time was had by all. 

3/ I had a lovely day catching up with my friend Tian in London last weekend. Unfortunately I don't have many pictures of the occasion thanks to the torrential rain - I didn't want to get my phone all wet, plus we both looked like we'd been swimming in the Thames...such a good day though! 

4/ Lady Gaga has bought out her newest single, 'Applause', early due to it's being leaked.This new song has just reminded me of how great I think she is; completely mad & unneccessarily outrageous, but genius nonetheless (maybe not in that meat dress though).

5/ This one doesn't have a picture but I thought it was worth mentioning. I've officially written a business plan and even managed to scrape together a financial forecast. Both will probably become useless fairly soon, but it's good to seem organised! More to come on that later, just getting the ball rolling and all will be revealed.

There we have it. A few key things that have happened to me. Expect more posts soon though, I have lots of lovely beauty buys to share with you soon and a few essential items from the new Autumn collections that are coming out. 

What have you all been up to? It'd be great to hear from you. 

Until next time. 

Life.

Dog walking & Churches

I am a very very lucky lady to say that I live in the lovely Leicestershire village of Frolesworth. Don't get me wrong, it doesn't have very much in the way of shops (it has none) or pubs (again, zero) but it is lovely and quiet and has beautiful views. I'm still recovering from my eye infection, which is causing me the most awful discomfort and meaning I can't wear make-up, and so going out isn't really on my list of priorities. However, I did make some time to take our lovely Springer Spaniel, Elly, for a walk with my little sister this afternoon. 

Frolesworth is only about 2 miles wide, but it has a fabulous lake at one end with a paddock full of horses, and in the centre is this Church and a very old graveyard. Charlie (my little sister) and I decided to head to the Church. I admittedly convinced her into it because I love looking at the old graves - not so sure my sister was impressed, particularly as she had to try and rollerskate over grass, but there's something rather interesting and a bit eerie about them, reminding me of Gothic victorian novels; Pip meeting Magwitch in Great Expectations, and Heathcliff digging up Cathy's grave in Wuthering Heights. I love to write too, I can imagine a story to go with every dear departed we encounter (because I'm a bit strange like that). Either way, it was time well spent in my opinion. 

Here's a few pictures from our walk anyway. The photography is fairly atrocious as I was having to negotiate my shiny new IPhone and a very lively (and strong!) puppy. 

Me and Elly. 

This building is the Old Post Office, and has been transformed into such a nice little house. I'd love to live somewhere like that one day. It reminds me of Jane Austen. A lot of the houses in the village are Georgian - ours dates from about that time too. 

But anyway, regardless of Elly's liveliness and my inability to keep her at a normal pace, we had a refreshing little wander and it was nice to get out in the village. I don't do it often enough. To be honest, it's easy to forget that I live in such a nice area. We really are in the middle of nowhere! I don't know if I could live here forever, but for the time being I am definitely at peace with this place.

Anyway, that's probably enough information about my rather modest afternoon. I also managed to get into Leicester town centre this morning to purchase a couple of other new bits of make-up, a pair of fab jeans and a satchel - but more on that later! Unfortunately I've been at work all weekend so other than that, I haven't got much else exciting to tell you all. 

Au revoir fellow bloggers

Fashion Diary.

The vintage dress.

Ciao!

There's nothing better than a great vintage dress. I have a real weak spot for them. This little piece makes me feel like I'm sight seeing in Italy with it's traditional feel and fit. It was a risky £22 from a place in Leicester called Pink Pigeon - these vintage places can be a bit pricy but it is worth it when you find something as wearable and as cute as this. I must admit, I'm really only posting this outfit because I like the look as a whole and I think it's important for me to document when I wear bright coloured clothes. I tend to stick to classic monochrome and your lighter, pastel colours. Red isn't really my usual choice!

I dressed this with a thin black belt (forever 21) and these beautiful grungey sandals from Topshop. Also threw on my favourite chunky gold H&M necklace, I can't go anywhere without it these days! The black tote is from New Look and has a great set of matte black studs down the front, must photograph that soon! Overall this probably cost me about £65. But all of the accessories are such staple things that I do get my money's worth.

I love this. I wish I wore it more. The pattern is so cute, little flowers that look like hot air balloons! And easily dressed up or down. I would always encourage people to go vintage, so that when people says 'Oh my, where did you get that?!' - you can say 1952! 

Another thing, I like buying stuff too big or too long because it often means you save money by buying the things the boutiques couldn't shift. Altering stuff is easy peasey, I re-hemmed this as it was originally much longer (under the guidance of my sister, who's a textiles graduate, and google of course) 

Lastly, my hair is ridiculous in this picture. It's getting so long, and my fringe has grown out. What is everybody doing to their hair these days? I was thinking a longish bob with a full fringe. Any ideas? 

Oh, and the title of this piece is 'OOTW' or 'Outfit of the week' - expect more similar posts soon :)

Fino alla prossima volta!

Beauty on a budget.

Item #1

 Primer.

Loath as I am to admit it, I had a terrible eye infection this week that resulted in some rather painful drops. It did give me a good excuse to restock my make-up bag though, something I love doing but feel quite guilty after spending too much on it. After a stupidly long time was spent in Boots picking up every item, putting it back down, picking it up again, and going back to my original choices, I finally settled on the things I needed. It occurred to me though, it's so difficult to find pieces that aren't too expensive, but worth the effort of buying in the first place! This whole experience gave me an idea for themed blog posts, 'beauty on a budget' - when I find those key items for perfect prices, I'm going to share them with you too!

So, I begin with this, the first step to a fabulous face - a brilliant, budget friendly primer. 

Now that I have this, I cannot live without it.

Brand: L'Oreal Paris

Product: Lumi Magique Primer

Price: £9.99

Rating (based on price and performance): 4*

Primer is one of those awkward beauty products I think. I've always been reluctant to skimp out on such a helpful item, but feel ridiculous spending £20+ on it. 

This lovely little thing though, seems to be the answer to my troubles. It comes in a 20ml bottle, and nothing more than a healthy sized blob on your finger is enough to cover your face. It's thin, light, unnoticeable, illuminating, genius. I use a BB cream (which I'm sure will feature in these posts soon enough), and it brushes on top of this absolutely perfectly and makes my skin look and feel genuinely bright and soft. Not a smudge or line or dry patch in sight either! I know lots of people think L'Oreal is a bit 'past it' now, but so many of their products are timeless essentials. This one amongst them!

Not to mention, it's an absolute steal at £9.99! I can't believe my luck. I am officially converted, and will never look back to my pre-primer days. 

Let me know what primers you all use, or even if you think it's a complete waste of time! Oh, and any feedback about this new theme would be welcome. Until we meet again lovely darlings...

Merci :)

What I did.

Ikea.

Today I went to Ikea. There was no reason behind it, there was nothing in particular I needed. My brother is currently enjoying 2 months off from ballet school, and we were so bloody bored earlier that we were determined to find something fun to do. It did mean I got to drive on the motorway for the first time (I haven't been driving long). I also got some more much needed coat hangers too, a scented candle, a new washing bin and a lovely picture of a vintage car. I think perhaps I'm a spendaholic, in fact, I know that I am. Better to admit to the problem I suppose. And anyway, who can deny that Ikea isn't brilliant? I'm sure it's capitalism at it's best, and almost 100% of the time it convinces me I need things I don't really, but I dare anyone to enter that place and tell me they didn't find it fun!
I think I was really very good today though. There was a whole bunch of items that I put in the bag and then took back out at the end - including some wonderfully floral bedding, a rug and a lamp. Must save money for my business venture (more on that later) !!
Here's a few pictures from the day anyway. 

Going from left to right, top to bottom. 

1/Car snacks! 2/Meatballs and new potatoes, they ran out of mash :( 3/Bradley with his dins 4/Queuing with our bag and washing basket 5/Earl Grey 6/The most lovely little kitchen showroom.

Now this all may seem fabulous, but there's something better to come. This evening, I managed to hang the lovely picture and frame I purchased for my bedroom. Judge me if you will, I will freely admit at the grand old age of 22 I had never before now hung something on the wall in my life. Bradley mocked me - joking that it couldn't be possible I had ever lived on my own. I quickly reminded him that in student rental properties if you so much as change your bed sheets they'll find you out, let alone hammer holes in the wall.

Me and my hammer...

 The finished piece!

I adore this so much. I love anything in black and white, with a bit of a rustic feel. My entire room is full of weird old pictures like this, maybe I'll show you all soon. 

Another frivolous little update for you. Just getting used to blogging again, it's been a while since I've done it! Let me know what you think to my new found skills. 

Breakfast at The Brambles.

Pancakes.

I work in a very busy restaurant, and after working for five solid days it's nice to start my time off with a little treat. I'm not exactly known for my culinary skills, but with a little help from my brother and my dad's ridiculously simple pancake recipe we managed to cook up a mini feast this morning. 

Recipe...

1 cup Plain Flour 

1 cup Milk (plus an extra slosh if it's a bit thick)

1 Egg 

This is for 4-5 pancakes, but you can adjust the amounts accordingly. We've always done this recipe with a handy little cup measurer we have, but you can find plently of pancake recipes in grams and milliliters online.  

 We whisk everything together in a jug, which makes it easier to pour. You can always do it in a bowl and ladel it into the pan though. Also, a handheld electric blender/whisk can be helpful - ours has broken which is why we're dragged back into the dark ages and are doing it all by hand. Try and get your batter as thin in the pan as possible, and keep turning your pan to get a nice round shape. We've often ended up with squiggly looking pancakes or really thick ones - surprisingly these ones went fairly well, but I suppose practice makes perfect!
Cook for a couple of minutes on each side - ideally until the pancake is light brown. I'm sure you all know that anyway :)

Et voila!
I like mine best with sugar and the squeeze of a fresh lemon, or failing that, a bit of Waitrose essentials lemon juice. But they're just as good with chocolate chips, blueberries or syrup.

I hope you enjoy this simple breakfast as much as me. I'm thinking about trying american pancakes next, does anyone know any good recipes? Are they as difficult as people say?

Merci :)
Until next time!

Introductions.

meet little me

So here's a few things to show you who I am. Hopefully we'll get to know each other better over time, but for now I'll let the pictures do the talking. A wonderful collection of books and clothes and tattoos! Not to mention Audrey Hepburn and Twiggy. 

In the next few days I'll be finding my feet on here, so comments and tips are welcome! Until we meet again...