Review of 'Holographic Nails Topshop' in 'Wistful'

Hi everyone! I have never actually tried any of the range of cosmetics that Topshop has to offer and thinking about it I don't think I have ever bought any clothes from there either?! But I was given a gift card from the family I  babysat for almost every day after school for nearly a year, as they are moving away and this was sort of a thank you present!

So I went into the Topshop in Bath and had a little look at the clothe,s but the store isn't really that big and nothing exactly caught my eye until I went over to the nail varnishes. A few of my friends and lots of other peoples blogs I read love the nail varnishes from Topshop and I have to say there is a huge selection! Instead of getting a plain colour (although there were some gorgeous colours) I thought I would be a little adventurous and I got this holographic one!

It is £6 and it is really different to other nail varnishes I have seen in Boots and Superdrug and I have never tried anything like it before! They also had a bluey one and a sliver one but as I wear a lot of flowery clothes I thought I would get the pink!

So I applied my base coat from Barry M. Please excuse the state of my nails but they got completely ruined whilst I was travelling around Europe as I didn't really take time to take care of them as I was just having so much fun!

I then applied the first coat of colour. I needed to apply it quite thickly in comparison to what I normally do as it dried quite quickly so when I went I tried to spread out the nail varnish across my nail it just sort of made it really uneven and gloopy if that makes any sense! But once I got that sorted it was all good!

I felt it needed a second coat as in some places it seemed sort of opaque. But the effect was there are after one coat and I actually was surprised how much I liked it! It is very shimmery and does look like those hologram stickers that I always seemed to have when I was younger. I did think it felt slightly odd when I ran my finger over the nail as it wasn't smooth like my other nail varnishes.

I then put a top coat over the top and I was worried that it would ruin the effect but it didn't do anything like that - it just gave it a nice gloss over the top and it made it feel a lot better when I felt it! I also cleaned up an bits of rogue nail varnishes that had crept onto my skin and all done!

I actually really like this nail varnish because the effect it one I haven't seen before and it looks really nice! I don't know if it is the same with all the nail varnishes but I found it dried really quickly which is a huge plus to any nail varnish for me!

Let me know if you've tried any of the other colours from Topshop and if you like the hologram effect? Thanks for reading!

My Hair History

Hi everyone! So if you read my last post you will know I have dip dyed my hair pink and this made me want to show you my hair throughout the last 16 years of my life. Please be warned: there are some shocking pictures and I don't just mean the quality of the photos (although that is pretty awful too) but more some of my hair cuts!!

So this is a picture taken of me at Nursery School around the age of 2/3? This is probably the lightest my hair has been. However - I'm not sure what my Mum was thinking letting me out with a very lopsided fringe!

Age 2/3

So my hair seems to have grown and my fringe seems to be a lot better!! Can't say I know what was going on with the face paint but at least from the hair side it's looking up!

Age 5

Clearly I spoke too soon! Age 7 now & my fringe is super short but at least it isn't lopsided! Personally I blame the mess of a pony tail is due to me having 2 crowns which makes it very hard for me to tie up my hair without it bumping up!

Age 7

Well the quality of this photo is awful but at least my hair is getting better! I'm 8 years old now but I still have that awful block fringe!

Age 8

Oh wow! Age 9 and I decided to grow out my fringe and this is the terrible stage of it being too long to wear as a block fringe so I chose to pin it back which was clearly a big mistake!!! And I also seem to have cut it short again.

Age 9

Now at age 10 I have opted for a side parting and a long fringe. Not my worst cut I have to say! Although definitely not my best!

Age 10

Skip forward 2 years and my hair is looking so much better!!!!!! I think I had my hair highlighted for the first time here as my hair is looking slightly red? The first time I had my hair proffesionally highlighted I wanted to keep it natural so she put in a very faint red and a couple of shades of redish browns.

Age 12

Forward one more year and I think this was when I got dark brown highlights put it. I also had red ones in but they faded within a week. Cut wise my hair pretty much stays them same now but it does get longer. It's mainly the colour of my hair that is now changing.

Age 13

Here at 14 years old is the first example of me using a home kit to dye my hair instead of going to the Salon to get it highlighted. I really wanted hair like Emma Stone when it is red (I still do!) but as you can see it went more gingery than red. But the style is the same.

Age 14

Now here was where I got a little more adventurous. Age 15 I bought what was supposed to be a mahogany hair dye however it ended up turning my hair purple for a little while!

Age 15

I wasn't happy with it being purple so I bought a brighter red to try and balance it out. Still age 15 and I ended up having bright red hair! This made me look even paler!

Age 15

Which brings me up to now - age 16. A few months ago my hair you can see my hair is various browns thanks to all these dyes (even though apart from the highlights they were all semi permanent). My ends are really light and it sort of looks slightly like I've got ombre hair? I've still got the same style

Age 16

And this is me now! My hair is basically the same but instead of having slightly blonde looking tips they are now pink!!! You can still pretty much see where my hair has been dyed previous to the pink as it is a lot lighter than my roots.

Age 16

Age 16

I really would like to cut my hair differently or get a fringe but I have no idea what to do so if you have any suggestions let me know!! Until then I would really like it all to grow out but as that could take ages but I don't particularly want to dye it again because I hate re doing the roots - maybe I will highlight it? (I've been considering electric blue streaks as my next hair adventure!?)

I hope you enjoyed laughing at my awful haircuts over the years and I would really love to see how your hair has changed since you were born! Thank you for reading (:

Home Sweet Home!

Hi everyone! I am now home from Europe! In case you didn't know, for the past two weeks I have been travelling around Europe on a Girl Guiding South West trip and it was amazing! It was such as great experience and it has made me realise I want to go travelling and try lots of new things!

Over the next few months I will be posting day by day accounts of the trip - sort of like diary entries along with videos & photos! Of course I will be posting beauty ones as per usual in between but I can't guarantee the regularity of my posts for the next month or so as I am going away on a family holiday next week; I will be getting my GCSE results & I have lots of work to do in preparation for starting sixth form! But I will of course try and post as often as I can!

Pink Ombre Hair!?

Hi everyone! So guess what! I now have pink hair - not my whole head though, just ombre/dip dye (I'm not entieryly sure what the different between the 2 are except I think dip dye is a clean cut line whereas ombre fades) and I love it!

My sister did her hair last summer and I came across the dye in the cupboard and though why not use it on my hair? I'd recently read Louise's (Sprinkle of Glitter) blog post on her hair - which you can read HERE - and she has just had her hair dip dyed pink professionally so I thought why not give it a go! So my sister very kindly gave me the rest of the tube and did it for me as I can't reach around the back myself!

So before my hair was a variety of browns due to the sun and various dying attempts that never fully washed out which you can read about in my next blog post - so stay tuned for that!!

I used Smart Beauty hair colour which is a semi-permanent hair colour. It comes in a tube and in the packet there is also a handy little brush. It takes 40 minutes to develop which in comparison to other hair dyes I have used seems quite long.

I asked my sister to take a before, during and after shot so you could see the difference a little more clearly!

Before

During

After

I've got to be honest, I'm not sure how long it will last as I didn't bleach my hair before I used it so I'm trying to minimise the amount of times I wash my hair by using dry shampoo and not washing it if I'm not going out but I'm loving it at the moment and it has given me more confidence and I can't wait to experiment more with my hair in the future!!!

I hope you enjoyed reading this - let me know your thoughts! What would you love to do with your hair?

Review of 'Barry M Glitter Nail Paint' in '349 Rose Quartz Glitter'

Hi everyone! If you haven't already read my previous review of the Barry M Gelly Hi-Shine Nail Paint then I suggest you go take a look at that as this is carrying on but I'm sure it will still make sense if you haven't read it!

I have several glitter nail varnishes in my collection but this is my favourite by far! I love Barry M so much as they are affordable and are pretty good quality too! I actually got this bottle as a present but assuming it is the same price as most Barry M nail varnishes I think you can get it for £2.99.

So I've already applied my base colour which was also from Barry M in the colour Pomegranate from the Gelly Hi-Shine range. The photo shows it as a red colour, when in fact it is actually more of a deep pink exactly like the colour in the bottle!

Then on goes the glitter! I really like that there are various sizes of the glitter pieces as it makes for a more interesting nail. It spreads on quite nicely and although the larger pieces are randomly distributed in comparison to other glitter nail varnishes it seems to look good as there is plenty of small fragments of glitter to fill in the gaps.

I tend to only put on one coat of glitter as I think it is sparkly enough but if you are looking for a more full on glitter approach I guess you can just keep adding layers until you are happy with the effect.

I then seal the whole thing off with my Barry M top coat (which I previously used as a base coat) to make sure all the pieces of glitter stay in place and don't chip off pulling up the base varnish with it! And they are all done!!!

I would really recommend this glitter coat as I think it looks really pretty and creates a nice overall effect and with all of the Barry M nail paints it is great value for money. The main thing I love about applying a glitter coat on the top is that if your nails do get slightly bed printed or smudged the glitter masks it! Thanks for reading (:

Review of 'Gelly Hi-Shine Nail Paint by Barry M' in 'Pomegranate'

Hi everyone! There is so much hype surrounding the Gelly Hi-Shine range that Barry M brought out sometime last year from so many different people about how you only need one coat; how glossy it looks etc and to be honest I was a little bit skeptical because I apply quite thin coats, as you may know, so I thought I would give it a whirl and see if it's all it's cracked up to be!

I picked it up for £3.99 from Superdrug (although I think you can get it for around £2.49 from Amazon) in the colour Pomegranate because I really like dark pinky colours and it looked really nice and rich!

Please excuse the shortness of my nails but at the time of painting them I was a day away from embarking on my backpacking trip around Europe so I wanted to make sure they didn't break whilst I was away hence the shortness. I think when this is published I will be in Germany/Holland which is a little strange to think about!

Firstly, I applied my new favourite base coat, also from Barry M! It was £2.99 and I have been finding since switching to this my nail varnish has taken longer to chip and my nails haven't been breaking as much so thank you Barry M!

I then applied the first coat of colour and WOW! It glides onto the nail so nicely and it has really good coverage even with the first stroke. As it is a gelly nail varnish it is quite a bit thicker than normal nail varnishes which is probably why it gives such an even appearance on the first stroke. I honestly don't think I need another coat or even a top coat! It is super glossy and looks like I've already done two coats! The pictures seem to show it as a red colour when in fact it is exactly like the pink bottle so don't be fooled!

Well that was short and sweet! I would really recommend the Gelly Hi-Shine range as it is such great value for money and looks so professional! I will definitely be going out and buying more colours so you can look forward to seeing a few more reviews of this brand cropping up in the near future!

As it looked so great after the first coat I didn't feel the need to apply another coat which meant this review was very short! So I thought I would spice things up a little and add a sprinkle of glitter over the top and review that nail varnish at the same time! It's like killing 2 birds with 1 stone! So if you want to find out how this ended the continuing review will be up tomorrow! Thank you for reading (:

My Night Time Skin Care Routine

Hi everyone! Now the humid weather has kicked in I have decided I really need to be taking better care of my skin. I know I should be doing so already, but I've never had too much of a problem with my skin thus I never really bothered to look after (that's really bad - I know) but for any number of reasons my skin has started to annoy me.

I think I have combination skin - it's mainly oily but sometimes it gets dry so this might not be relevant to you but you can enjoy reading what I do to my face!

Firstly I take off my make up. I normally/used to use Simple Cleansing Facial Wipes but I have read on so many blogs & in video blogs that it is really bad to use wipes.

So I had a voucher for £5 off any No7 skin care product to use in Boots so I bought some cleansing lotion. Normally it is £8 but of course with my voucher I got it for £3! I'm still getting used to using this instead of the wipes so I can't give my opinion on it yet.

After taking all my make up and any grime from the day off I wash my face with my Tea Tree Foaming Cleanser which I got from the Body Shop a little while ago for £5.

I then like to put a face mask on. I tend to buy them from Superdrug as they are 99p and are on a 3 for the price of 4 deal. I don't know if I have a small face or something but I find one face mask will last me 2-3 uses which makes them even better value for money! I like to have a variety of different masks my recurring favourites being: Tropical Smoothie Self Heating Mask; Dead Sea Purifying Clay Mask; Apricot Exfoliating Mask and Fruit Sorbet Peel Off Mask (which isn't pictured as I already used it!)

After leaving it on for a little bit I wash it off with cold water as I find it more refreshing & I think I read somewhere about it closing up the pores?

I then use my Cucumber Freshening Water which is sort of like a toner with a few extra bits also from The Body Shop and again I bought it a while ago so I don't remember the price.

Any spots I have I put a dab of this blemish stick from Witch.

Next and arguably most importantly I moisturise my skin with Simple Hydrating Moisturiser. This bottle is nearly all used up so please excuse it's worn looking exterior!

I then use a bit more of my Witch blemish stick and put a little bit of Savlon (which is just a brand antiseptic cream) on any spots that are particularly bad!

Last but not least, I think it is just as important to moisturise your lips as well as your skin. Loads of people find it strange that I have a tube of Vaseline instead of a pot but I find it much better as I hate using the pots as it gets under my nails and makes my finger feel sticky and odd - but that's just me!

And that's me done! Let me know how you look after your skin & if I have missed any products I should be using! Thank you for reading! (: