Back to blogging?

Hi everyone! Didn't realise but it's been 2 years since I posted anything on here! Time flies!
Quick update: I'm going into my third year studying Architecture at uni which has so far left me little time to blog! Whilst I love painting my nails they don't last long in the studio against glue guns and tapes which is annoying when you spend time doing them only for them to be ruined the next day!

Recently, whilst having the summer off I've gotten back into nail art, here's a couple of designs I've attempted! (I post a lot more on my Instagram than on here!)

Gradient triangles 

Ombre sunset

Triangle glitters

Water marbling 

Hopefully, I'm going to blog a little more now I've found some great new products I want to share and love having this as a record of different nail designs I've given a go!

Magnitone Lucid Facial Brush Review

DISCLAIMER: I've been sent this products by Magnitone for my honest review which is exactly what I've given you!

Hi everyone! I wanted to share with you my opinion of the Magnitone Lucid Faical Brush which I got in the colour Aqua Green! It retails at £69.99 but at the end I've got a special discount for you!

So a bit about the product; it is a face cleansing and exfoliating brush that claims to give you clearer and brighter skin in only 7 days! There are 4 summery shades of Sunshine Yellow, Aqua Green, Plush Pink and Dazzling Blue for you to choose from and two modes you can use, normal and sensitive depending on your skin type and I found that I needed a different mode depending on the day due to my combination skin sometimes being dry and others very oily!

To use you just press the button and off you go! It will beep every 20 seconds and then turn off after 1 minutes to ensure you aren't over using it. It recommends 20 for the forehead, 10 for each cheek and 20 for nose and chin but I did find it easier to stick with the 20 second beeps and use it for two minutes treating the forehead, left cheek, right cheek, nose and chin as separate parts.

What's included?

• Dual Mode Lucid Brush
• Active Clean brush head with SprayGuard™ bristles
• Magnetic travel charger (3-pin UK plug + 2-pin EU plug
• Instructions
• 12 month warranty card

What I love about it is how portable it is! I'm currently in Tenerife and it was so easy just to chuck in my suitcase and know I'd be keeping my skin clean without having huge amounts of cleansers and exfoliators which would've put me well over the 15kg luggage limit! The fact that it is water proof is great as I used it as part of my morning routine in the shower which was so easy to do! I did use it once out of the shower but found that due to the movement my mirror got splattered a fair amount! 

The moment of truth - did it really work? For me yes! 

I took a photo everyday for a week after using this and although my skin at the moment isn't that bad (probably due to the fact exams are over!) I think you can still see a difference and my skin certainly felt a lot softer even after the first use. I did have to switch to the sensitive mode part way through as my skin in some patches began to dry out a little but it didn't last long!

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

Day 4

Day 5 

Day 6

Day 7

I'd definitely recommend getting one if you've got problems with your skin or just want to brighten your face for the summer because it's just too hot to be applying a full face of foundation! What's even better is I can give you 20% off if you use the code: BLOVE20 here! 

Hope you found this informative! Let me know what similar products you've used and if you think you'll make the switch! Thanks for reading!

Red Nose Day 2015!!

Hi everyone! So today, as I'm sure you're aware if you live in the UK, is Red Nose Day which is basically a day where we raise money for charity and help to transform the lives of people in the UK and across Africa.

As with every year at school we have a mufti day where you bring in £1 to not wear school uniform for the day, but in sixth form we take it a step further and have a dress up day! This year the theme was TV and film characters so myself and my friend decided to go as Sam and Dean Winchester (Supernatural!) but there was a huge variety or group, couples and individual costumes ranging from the toy soldiers from Toy Story to the Powerpuff girls, the Tardis to Jesse Pinkman! It's all just a bit of fun! 

"Look at these male modelling sons of bitches - nice Blue Steel Sam!"

I also picked up some really cute nail wraps from Sainsburys for £2 and I only realised when I opened them that as well as getting 14 wraps you also got a collection of small red nose stickers which I didn't use this time but at least I'm prepared for next time! I might even be able to reuse the wraps because they're quite long so I can probably use the other half if my nails are short!

Hope you enjoyed reading how I've been doing my bit - So let me know what you've been up to to raise money for Comic Relief! 

My Favourite Nail Care Products

Hi everyone! Recently my nails have been breaking and splitting and my hands have been so dry partly because of the cold weather and partly because at work I'm washing my hands almost 15 times a shift with medical soap and no moisturiser! So I've taken a little break from painting my nails but I wanted to share with you what I've been doing instead to get my nails fiting fit again! 

I got this cuticle oil for Christmas and have been applying it 3 times a day (ideally I would be applying it more often but I can hardly take it to school with me) and I think it's actually been helping! 

Then I use this No 7 cuticle cream which I rub into my nails and around them after the oil has soaked in a bit. It was actually pretty affordable seeing as Boots are always giving discount vouchers off No 7 all the time! 

I use Hand Food by Soap and Glory during the day because it's light and absorbs fast which is great because I hate having oilly hands when I'm trying to write at school! The scent is quite strong and lasts quite a while which I like - I'm don't really know how to explain the smell but it's quite sweet? 

At night I alternate between Palmer's Cocoa Butter Formula concentrated cream and The Body Shop's Hemp Hand Protector.

The Body Shop hand cream is really moisturising and my hands feel so soft in the morning but it is very heavy and takes quite a while to absorb which is why I only use it at night. The smell isn't anything amazing just kind of planty! 

The Palmers one is a high concentrated cream so you don't need a huge amount because a little goes a long way! It also smells really good and chocolatey which is always good! It's not as heavy as The Body Shop one so if my hands are really dry I can get away with wearing it during the day and no worrying about greasy hands! 

Hope you liked this slightly different blog post! How do you keep your nails in good condition with the strains of everyday life? Thanks for reading! 

Born Pretty Store Glitter Nail Wraps

DISCLAIMER: I've been sent this product by Born Pretty Store for my honest review which is exactly what I've given you!

Hi everyone! So a few weeks back Allison from Born Pretty Store contacted me asking if I would like to review some of their products on here which was very exciting for me as I've had this blog for just over a year now and this is the first set of products that have been sent to me! I've read a couple of other reviews and have looked at the site before and what was such a pleasant surprise to me was the price - everything is so reasonably priced! From placing my order to receiving it took just under a month but their delivery times vary based on your location!

So as well as choosing 3 stamping plates (which you can read about here!) they also kindly let me choose 2 other items and this is the first one I'd like to share with you. Now I've only really used nail wraps once before and it was a bit for a disaster to be honest; they didn't fit my nails properly and I didn't put them on very well so there were creases everywhere but I thought it was time to give nail wraps another go! So I chose these Glitter Gradient Wraps which are only £1.84!!! With this design there are 13 different colours to choose from and I chose #5 which is a a warm brown shade as I thought it was something different to what I usually wear on my nails!

In the pack you get 12 wraps of varying sizes and although they probably won't be exactly the perfect size for you nails you can get pretty close and there some handy instructions on the back if you've never used wraps before. 

So you peel off the protective cover and then very carefully you can peel off each individual nail wrap and then place it onto your own. 

Once it's on it's quite hard to readjust so my advice would be to just hover it over your nail when you are trying to position it. Place it onto you nail and then smooth it down starting from the middle to ensure there are no creases. This was all a lot easier than I remember it being and I had no creases at all! All you've then got to do is cut off the excess and file it to neaten the edges. You don't have to but I put a top coat on just to make sure they stayed on.

I was so impressed with these wraps! They look so pretty and I like the gradient effect they have and I got a surprising number of people ask me how I managed to do it! They're great if nail painting isn't your strength or a major selling point for me is how quickly you can put them on and don't have to wait for them to dry! They last remarkably well without chipping too! I had them on a whole week and the only damage to them was me getting some glue on them in DT and it accidentally taking some of the wrap with it when I peeled it off!

With free shipping and them being so cheap anyway I will be ordering some other colours to try out! If you like any of the plates I chose or there's something else that takes you fancy you can use my 10% off code on your next order!

Hope you enjoyed this review - let me know what you think! Do you use nail wraps or do you prefer painting them? Thanks for reading! 

Christmas Penguin Nails

Hi everyone! Christmas is quickly approaching so I thought I'd do a quick post to show you my Christmas themed nails and how I did them!

Step 1: Paint your nails all black.

Step 2: Draw a white oval leaving some black visible either side

Step 3: Use a dotting tool to make the white of the eyes and a slightly smaller one for the blacks

Step 4: Use a dotting tool to do the orange of the penguins feet then either using a dotting tool making three small dots in a triangle to make the beak or use a brush!

Hope you liked this Christmas themed post! Let me know what Christmassy designs you've got on your nails this year and if you haven't yet maybe this will give you some inspiration!