A Woman Is Helpless Only When Her Nail Polish Is Drying

That Time I Did My Own Gel Nails (And They Were FABULOUS)

As you may well know, dear readers, I was an avid nail biter from the age I discovered that I could nibble on those little suckers right up until approximately September 2014.

I had always hated the look of my chewed and damaged finger nails but I was never able to break the habit entirely.  There would always be some stressful exam or I would just be bored and pop! Off they would all come.

During those awkward teenage years I even tried to stop myself from biting by constantly gluing false nails onto the end of my fingertips.  This often ended in disaster (/hilarity) when the glue would inevitably get everywhere and I ended up gluing my knees together and my mouth shut.

Potentially the one time in history I was able to stay quiet for longer than five minutes.

Deadpool is my spirit animal.

In any event, I was able to kick the habit in 2014 and I haven't looked back since.

(For all those interested in stopping biting their nails, my trick was to apply Nu Nail Creme every time I even thought about putting my hands near my mouth.  Apply the cream and also grab a glass of water.  You'll soon forget all about the nails. If you are interested, the cream is very cheap and you can buy it from Boots in the UK.  The packaging looks like this:)

My hero <3>

Since having nails I have decided to treat myself to the odd manicure (which I have previously discussed in this blog post) and for Christmas my lovely Mother and Sister bought me a kit to do my own gel nails at home.

Proxima Direct UV lamp

I will admit that, at first, I was somewhat undecided about the gift for several reasons:-

1) I like going to a salon and having my nails done.  It takes the stress out of it and is a real treat to myself (even if it does cost an absolute bomb);

2) My right hand is never going to look as good as my left hand. Fact; and

3) I needed to buy more products before I could even give it a go.  This is not a gift; it's an obligation. 

But, I am nothing if not a positive person so I got straight on Amazon and bought all the necessary items to do my own gel nails at home. 

My Sister had already purchased a top coat, colour and base coat so all that remained was the acetone, alcohol wipes, cuticle oil and a primer. 

This is the brand I used as my sister had bought some bottles already. (This blog post is not sponsored by BlueSky.)

I decided to do one hand at a time because I just knew it was going to be harder than it looked so here are the steps:-

1. Wipe nails with cotton wool ball dipped in acetone to ensure nails are clean. (I had clear nail varnish on up to this point)

2. File nails into desired shape.

3. Apply Primer. This is a very thin layer which will help the gel polish 'stick' to the nail. Apparently.

4. Apply Base Coat. 

5. Cure for 2 minutes.  The Proxima Direct lamp which I have has a timer button and will switch off after 2 minutes so this is very handy!

6. Apply thin layer of colour.  I used Bluesky colour chameleon (no. 24) gel polish.  This polish changes colours at different temperatures! It's so cool. 

Sparkles and colour changing!? Yes please! (But, seriously, not sponsored by BlueSky)

7. Cure for 2 minutes.

8. Apply second thin layer of colour.

9. Cure for 2 minutes.

10. Apply Top Coat.

11. Cure for 2 minutes.

12. Wipe nails with alcohol wipes or UV cleanser to remove any sticky residue. 

13. Apply cuticle oil.

14. Repeat steps for other hand. 

Et voila!

Amazing gel nails at home!

And they change colour!!

So despite my initial reluctance to try out the present, it has turned out amazingly and I can tell I will be totally addicted. I have two other colours to try so hopefully I will use those soon.

In the meantime, I am going to see how long the gel polish lasts without chipping and how easy it is to remove (eek!). 

If any of you are thinking about doing gel nails at home, dear readers, I can definitely, definitely recommend it!

&&Fin.

Everything Has Beauty But Not Everyone Sees It

That Time We Tried To Do A Beauty Blog Post

(Just as a really quick note - I have now signed up to Blog Lovin' and a big shout out to anyone that has stumbled across this blog from that site.)

Apologies, dear readers, that I have once again missed out on a What The Buzz Monday blog post.

There are no excuses (except that there are) but I have been incredibly busy this week - with Law School exams, a huge merger at work with a national law firm and trying to squeeze in all my family and friend obligations too (obligations sounds like it's a chore and, let me assure you, it really, really isn't).

But, alas, being busy is no excuse for laziness so my sincere apologies for missing out another scheduled post.

To make it up to you, I thought I would post something of a beauty recommendation post.  Something I have yet to do on this Blog or, indeed, at all.

As this is my first time, I ask only that you please be gentle.

So here are my top 5 beauty recommendations for December:

1. Tangle Teezer

When I bought this product, the shop assistant at Boots told me that it 'would change my life'. I laughed at her at the time.

But, oh, how right she was. 

This brush/comb is incredible. The soft bristles untangle your hair with minimal pain and reduce the amount of broken hair you may get by running an ordinary brush through.  I have reasonably long hair and it is always ridiculously knotty.  I can untangle all the knots and within 5 minutes, I am tangled up again.

It's honestly a nightmare. 

So this brush/comb was something of a last resort and friends of mine had been praising it.  I hadn't pinned too much hope on it to be honest but holy moly, it was like my knots were being untangled by cherubs breathing their angel breath on me. 

A serious must have for anyone who dreads dragging their brush through their hair after a windy, wintry day out and about. 

2. Forever Living - Fleur de Jouvence

I am completely addicted to the Forever Living range at the moment.

It is a bit of a fad that seems to have taken off in a huge way - aloe vera solves everything.  Apparently. 

But, actually, it does!

I have been drinking the berry nectar gel, using the products in the picture above and have also been using the shampoo and conditioner so it has been aloe vera overkill in my house at the moment. 

Having used the products for a few months, I have really noticed the difference in the condition of my hair and especially in my skin.  I suffer from fairly regular breakouts of mild-moderate acne and, whilst it is never awful, it is not the greatest thing in the world and, as any acne sufferer will know, it can leave you feeling really self-conscious. 

Since using the aloe vera products I have noticed a huge improvement and very rarely have an outbreak at all and the odd occasion that I do, it is very small and not painful. 

Which, let me assure you, is nothing short of a miracle.

The night creme is especially good and all the products smell incredible.  I should give out a quick warning for the face mask though.  It is really good but be prepared for your entire face to freeze! The mask dries so solidly that you will not be able to move a muscle.  But your face feels so baby smooth once you wash it all off.

This.  But hopefully less bald.

Cannot. Recommend. Enough.

3. Dr.Ceuticals Super Repair Hand Cream

I used to be an avid nail biter and I would nibble away at my nails and fingers until they were tiny little stubs that were bleeding and just horrible.

It was a real problem.

Every year would come and go and my New Year's Resolution would not change: do not bite my nails.

I was able to finally break the habit late in 2014 and have never looked back.

One of the things that really helped was applying loads of hand cream. Constantly. 

So, whenever I come up to stressful periods of my life, I try and invest in a new tube of hand cream to apply it as liberally as possible and avoid returning to bad habits, 

Luckily, I have the loveliest friends and got sent Dr.Ceuticals hand cream in the post as a gift from the beautiful and generous Stephanie.  This hand cream is Awesome.  Capital A.

The consistency is pretty thick but it absorbs so quickly and is also non-greasy.  The smell is really subtle and you don't need much at all. 

The above photo also leads me nicely into the next product...

4. Gel nails

...it's an addiction.

But I love it!

Like I said above, not biting my nails was a major thing for me so when I finally did, I treated myself to a few professional manicures and I now love having all sorts of crazy designs applied to my nails.

I like to go for gel polish as it doesn't chip and lasts for 2-3 weeks on me before it starts to look ridiculous with the nail growing out.  Plus it is super shiny!

I am lucky ion that the polish doesn't seem to damage my nails but I do tend to leave the nails for a few weeks bare in between applications to give them a chance to breathe. 

Looking forward to getting more crazy designs in the new year as I currently have red sparkly on (as per section 3 photo) for Christmas and it's a bit more muted than I normally go. 

Will keep you updated with my latest crazy designs! :)

5. Max Factor Skin Luminizer

This stuff is seriously amazing. 

I am super pale with loads of freckles so it is normally a nightmare to try and match a foundation or concealer to my skin without looking like I have caked myself in some form of blancmange and/or polyfiller. 

But this blends into your natural skin tone and gives you a real soft, dewy look without that heavy, made up feeling.  Plus, because it is a good product, you only need a tiny bit to cover the whole face. 

Which is perfect for me because I am a total cheapskate and hate wasting money on products to use the whole thing in a couple of weeks.

Really love this at the moment as I can throw it on in the mornings and trust that it will do the job. 

So those are my 5 top beauty picks for December which was actually a lot harder than I thought so props to the beauty bloggers that do this all the time. 

If any of you dear readers have any winter beauty tips that warm the cockles of your hearts, leave a comment and let me know. 

For now though, remember that if it makes you feel good - go for it! Beauty is only skin deep after all.

&& Fin.

If Music Be The Food Of Love, Play On

That Time We Listened to Some Tunes

What The Buzz: #MusicMonday

Music to me is a big deal.

It forms a large part of my day - from listening to music whilst I get dressed, singing on my commute in to work, humming at the office and then doing the reverse at the other end of the day.

I, for one, am all for having a soundtrack to a life.

So the twitter trend #MusicMonday was an obvious choice for this blogpost.

Silent Discos are ftw tbh, lol. (#relivingstudentdays)

I think music is a very powerful thing as it can make you feel a whole range of emotions in about 3 minutes, recall a memory from years ago or change the atmosphere of a room almost instantly.  There are songs that can almost immediately bring me to tears and there are others that can bring a smile to my face just as quickly.

I'm also one for new music.  I love hearing a song for the first time and becoming completely addicted to it.  And that's not just 'current' music.  My Dad used to do this weekly thing when I was at Uni which we labelled my 'music education' in which he would send me two or three songs I hadn't heard before but that were relatively old.  Plus I got to go to Reading Festival this year and listened to so many new artists that I had never heard of before.  The atmosphere definitely made it but the music was all incredible.

See you there, readers?

So I thought I would take this opportunity to post some of my new favourite songs that I can't help but love.  

(Plus it got to like 9.45 on Monday evening and I realised I hadn't done my What The Buzz post yet.  ...total professional over here, guys.)

Here we go, in no particular order (just keep Olly Murs away from this):

1. Pvris - Holy

This is a band that I didn't get the chance to see live at Reading but one of the girls I went with (hello Sophie!) said I should check them out when I got home.  I didn't think too much of it at the time and ended up listening to a Reading Festival playlist on the drive home (unwilling to end the weekend!) and heard this song.

When I looked up who it was, my suspicions were confirmed: Sophie was indeed a music maestro and should be trusted from here on out with all musical recommendations.

I think part of my love for this track may come from the Disney references but it is very catchy and the lyrics are at odds with the upbeat tempo which I really like.

Definitely one for belting out in the car.


2. The Other Tribe - Skirts



I heard this way back in 2012 when I was working at Sweaty Betty and my assistant manager's boyfriend had produced (? or something...I forget what it was in the end) this song.  When I first heard the song I thought it was the perfect summer tune and it takes me back to my uni days when things were easy and the only planning we did was whether we would be going out on Wednesday and Friday or save our pennies and just go super hard on Saturday.

When this song comes on I think of dancing around my tiny room with a glass of the cheapest rose wine I could find in Tesco, trying desperately to draw a straight(ish) cat eye with my liquid liner.

Ah, good times.

3. Sarah McLachlan - River



Okay, so this is a lot more mellow than the other entries so far.

But I love this song.

Seriously.

I don't know what it is.  I kind of like melancholy songs anyway and the lyrics came at a really poignant time for me.  Plus I have a thing for Christmas music so this is just ticking all the boxes.

The piano in this song is so elegant and the song doesn't rely on much more than the melody and the lovely tone of McLachlan's voice.

If you ever need a Christmas cry, this is the song for you.


4. Conchita Wurst - Rise Like A Phoenix



THIS. SONG.

If this comes on in the car, I almost lose my voice because I am singing with such gusto.

This feels like a James Bond theme with a sassy edge which I love.  This is a song with attitude and I Love it.  Capital 'L'.

For a Eurovision song entry I really think this was underrated in the charts.  I was so glad when the song won because I felt that it really did deserve more recognition.  (Also see The Common Linnets - Calm After The Storm.  Another epic Eurovision entry from 2014.)

Seriously, if you are not singing/shouting this by the end of the last verse and if you are not slightly out of breath then you have listened to it wrong.

Try again.

5. Uh Huh Her - Dreamer



This song played on an episode of Smallville (8x15 - Infamous for those that are interested).  It was a pretty sad scene in which we thought Lois and Clark were finally going to do something about all those feelings they were not-so-secretly harbouring for one another but then the writers (darn you, PTB!) let us down at the last minute.

It is one of those songs that was so perfect for the scene that it has stuck in my head ever since.

In other circumstances, I am not sure that I would have been so obsessed with it but at the time it was so wrapped up in the emotion of that particular scene and it felt so powerful.

I am a super fan of soundtracks/scores that are done well.

And so this song makes the list.


The above are just a few of the more random songs that have been stuck in my head either very recently or for quite some time.  There are, obviously, hundreds of others but most of those are Disney and people tend to glaze over when I start discussing Disney.

One of these faces or a combination of all three normally.

But hopefully you have been introduced to a couple of new artists or songs and if you like them then that is fantastic.  If not; no worries - everyone is different! (But you are wrong about Conchita Wurst. Seriously.)

Leave a comment with a song stuck in your head at the moment or any comments on the songs in this list.

For now, that is #MusicMonday and now, I'm off to listen to some more of my Reading Festival playlist.

Really though...2016? Yeah?

&&Fin.