Review of 'Rimmel London I Love Lasting Finish Fruities' in 'Strawberry Fizz'

Hi everyone! I was scanning through my nail varnish collection and this caught my eye as I don't think I've worn it before. It's not really a colour I wear so I was surprised I had bought it but then after reading the back I realised it was a scented one! (Which is what I imagine compelled me to buy it). You can pick them up pretty much anywhere as they've been around for a while now for £2.99.

It's a very Barbie Pink kind of colour so I'm not really sure why it is named ' Strawberry Fizz' as I don't think I've ever seen a strawberry that colour!

I used my Barry M base coat as usual, to make sure my nails were protected.

Then, I applied the first coat of colour. I have to say I didn't really notice the scent at first but after it had been drying for a little bit it was quite noticeable. However, I would not have said it smelled very life like, it was a very sweet sickly strawberry scent sort of similar to those scented fruit balls you can get. It did go on very smoothly though just like the other Rimmel nail varnishes I own which was a great plus although it was a little streaky.

After applying a second coat the smell got a little bit stronger but you did have to sniff the nails quite hard to get a whiff. 

I only applied a top coat onto one of my hands as an experiment to see if it masked the smell. By the next morning the scent had definitely faded more on the nails with a top coat which wasn't really a surprise! However, by the day after your could no longer smell anything from nails without the top coat on either! They did manage not to chip a huge amount though which I was pretty impressed by as I've been doing my DT coursework all week which has included gluing and sanding of wood and plastic and by the end of the week they still looked somewhat acceptable!

I wouldn't really recommend you buy it if it's the scent you are after because it doesn't stay around long and is very artificial - although I did read that some of the others in the range have a longer lasting scent. Personally, I don't really like this colour as Barbie pink doesn't really suit me, but the fact that they stayed on so well was a huge bonus! Let me know if you've tried scented nail varnish before and how it turned out for you! Thanks for reading!

Review & Swatches of 'Maybelline Color Show Street Artist' in '04 Alley Attitude'

Hi everyone! So I was in town just planning to pick up some paper for school but of course I had to pop into Superdrug as I was walking past. I had a quick scan of the make up sections and I came across the Maybelline counter where they were promoting a nail varnish which looked really interesting so of course I had to pick one up. There were 4 colours but I thought I would just try one so I picked up the blue one for £3.99!

So I wasn't exactly sure what colour to use as my base colour as this nail varnish is a top coat, so I had a little look on some other peoples blogs and popular opinion was to use grey. However, despite having nearly 100 nail varnishes I don't actually have a grey so I did some swatches on some different colours!

So this is what it looks like on a plain nail without a base coat. Obviously I wouldn't wear it out like this but it shows you what the nail varnish looks like.

Firstly, I tried it with a black base colour which I think makes the the blue really stand out but you loose the effect of the black parts in the polish which I guess kind of defeats the point of the nail polish being two toned.

I then gave it a go on a light blue, similar to the colour of the blue parts in the polish, but again this had the same effect as using black as my base colour.

I thought a darker blue might work, but again it didn't look great as the effect kind of blended in which in my opinion is not the point of this nail varnish.

Similarly, using a pale purple just didn't make the effect stand out and the blue and purple just didn't compliment each other well.

Finally I tried white, as this was the closest colour to grey I had, and I think it looked amazing!

From a distance it looks like you've manually splattered nail polish on your nails (which is something I have tried but the effect never seems to turn out the way I want it to!) So many people asked me at school how I did it and were shocked to find out it was quite literally a top coat!

In the collection there is also a red, green and a sort of whitey purpley coloured one in addition to the blue one I bought. I would definitely recommend you get one and try it out for yourself! They look so fun and require minimal effort which is always a plus when you don't have a great deal of time to spare!

Although it in principal is the same as any confetti or glitter top coat I think it looks so much better and I really like that there are a variety of sized pieces making it look like more realistic paint splatters!

Let me know if what you think of this new look and if you have tried it out! Thanks for reading!

EuroQuest: Day 7 - Vienna

Hi everyone! So I was the first one up as I wanted to have a shower in the morning and I stumbled out of essentially the draw with a mattress and in into the bathroom. As I was getting undressed I caught sight of this little brown mark on the side of my rib. My first thought was 'Oh great - a tic!' so I had a quick look but it was kind of hard to see. It didn't really look like a tic (from the pictures I'd seen) and none of us had got one yet. It was still there after my shower so I showed it to the people in my room but none of us thought it was a tic but we called Sheila round to double check! I'm sure you've guessed now that it was in fact a tic and oh my god it didn't want to come out! Sheila had this card which safely pulls tics out but it took a fair few tries before it was out!

After I was rid of my little visitor we headed outside to go and find a tram to take us to the Haus der Musik or the House of Music in English! Vici went up to this really fancy tram to ask where we could get a normal one to take us but the 2 men that had hired this tram to take them around the city offered us a lift there! Perks of being Girl Guides I guess! The journey there was so funny! The drivers assistant was supposed to be giving commentary as we drove around but he handed the microphone to Fran who gave a wonderful if slightly inaccurate commentary which had us all in stitches!

The tram

The House of Music was so gorgeous just on the outside and as we walked in we could hear this wonderful piano music drifting through the hallway. We assumed it was speakers with pre-recorded music on but as he entered the main hall we saw it was another tourist playing this amazing grand piano! It turned out anyone cold have a go playing it if they wanted too!

House of Music

Piano music

There were so many strange interactive things to do once we were inside including a very odd room where weird music was playing and you had to dance around to make images appear on the screen. The best thing though was in one room you could virtually conduct the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra by standing in front of a screen and sort of like a Wii you moved your baton to conduct them! If you are ever in Vienna this is definitely a place you have to go to!

Having a go conducting

Some sculptures near the enterance

A giant drum

After that we caught another tram to Prater Park which is a sort of theme park but more with rides you would see at fairs or carnivals just on a much bigger scale! We were all given a couple of tokens to go on some rides and off we went! One ride that caught my eye looked very similar to 'Air' at Alton Towers which I had ridden a couple of years ago and loved! However when we got on I noticed it was very different to Air! Instead of being strapped in you had to step into what basically was a cage without a back and we were there like okay they'll put a back on in a minute because some of it involves us going with out backs to the floor so we might fall out. But did they... oh no! The only thing stopping you from falling was your ability to hold on! We were kind of relieved we survived when it finally came to an end!

Prater Park

House of Horrors 

The terrifying ride!

Off we go!

We went for dinner in one of the restaurants on site and I think it was Sara and Evie ordered this drink which they had no idea what it was but when it came out it was in such giant glasses everyone was a bit taken back! After trying a little bit it turned out to be this really nice fruit flavoured drink that if my memory serves me correctly was kind of sparkling, Emii and I got one each! I really wish I could remember what it was called because it's something I would love to have again!

Yum!

If you want to see more I filmed a bit of what we were doing so you can check that out below. The video is a montage of several clips and pictures throughout the time we spent in Vienna as apposed to these blog posts which a split by day.

VIENNA VIDEO: COMING SOON

I hope you enjoyed reading this and feel free to leave any comments!

Hope you all had a Merry Christmas!

Hi everyone! I hope you all had a great Christmas (or if you don't celebrate it a great holiday!). I just wanted to write a quick post on a couple of things I got for Christmas but I'm not including everything so if someone I know in 'real life' is reading this and you gave me something that doesn't appear in this post please don't be offended!

Firstly I got a new bottle of Ghost perfume! I wear this perfume pretty much everyday and I love it's scent! I got the bigger sized bottle so hopefully it will last me a lot longer than the last one!

I also got a new hair curler! As you may know I find my hair quite boring and dull sometimes so I thought curling it would spice things up a little! I did have a curler but it was really old and something I got way back in primary school so it was starting to not work as well as it used to.

I received a couple of nail varnishes too to add to my collection (which is all laid out nicely in colour order like a rainbow along my desk now!) including the Revlon Moon Candy one which I can't wait to try out properly and tell you about it!

I found two of these hot chocolates on a spoon things in my stocking! I think I've had one like it before but these ones are different flavours! One is a marshmallow one and the other is a fudge one so I can't wait to give those a try!

Finally, this was something my Dad bought my Mum but I thought I would throw it in here anyway! It's a canvas of a photo from when we visited America at Easter at Yosemite falls and guess who took the picture... yeah that's right me!!!

So again, I hope you all had amazing an Christmas and let me know what your favourite thing you gave or received was! Thanks for reading!

New Year Resolutions!

Hi everyone! It's that time again where we pick out all the bad things with out lives and make a statement to try and change them. I've not had a great track record with my resolutions, I usually break them after a month or so. But this year will be different! I thought if I wrote a post about it it would motivate me more to keep to them so we'll see!

1. Be healthier - I joined a gym last year and was going like 3 times a week but once I got a job I found I didn't really have the time to go anymore so this year I want to make time to go to the gym and actually work out there because before I would go on the cross trainer but slow down at the first drop of sweat or when I could feel a burn! Also I want to eat healthier too like not just eat because I'm bored!

2. Pay more attention to this blog - I said in a post that I've put this down as my skill for DofE but I don't want to feel like this is a chore or like something I 'have' to do, I actually want to put more into this blog and enjoy it at the same time!

3. Read more - I used to read so many books but when I started my GCSEs I just didn't enjoy it because I felt like there was other stuff I should be doing. I just need to spend less time on Tumblr and more time reading again!

4. Don't get too stressed out about school - I know A Levels are a big thing and by this time next year I will have applied to university and may have heard back from a few which is really scary but I don't want to get too bogged down in it if I'm struggling or don't know what to do with my life!

5. Look after my skin - I really need to start to moisturise properly because my skin gets so fragile at times and I got plenty of body butters for Christmas so I really have no excuse!

What are your resolutions for the new year? Let me know! I hope you have a great 2014 and thanks for reading!

Christmas Gift Ideas - Mistle Toes

Hi everyone! So it's nearly Christmas now which is super exciting so I've decided to write another gift idea post. Again I saw this on Pinterest (and this blog) and though it looked so nice and I'm always one for little pun!

It's so simple to make all you need is:

• A nail varnish of your choice
• Foot cream (although I used hand cream because I couldn't find any foot cream when I went out shopping)
• Cellophane (or a square bag if you know where to get them!) 
• Stapler 

The first thing you need to do is make your bag (obviously skip this step if you already have a bag). Simply cut out a rectangle from your cellophane and staple the edges together leaving enough at the bottom to make a base otherwise you won't be able to fit your stuff inside!

Then simply put your nail varnish and foot cream in your bag and you're pretty much done! If you want to go that little bit further (I didn't!) you could find some fake snow or glitter and put it in the bottom of the bag to add to that Christmassy feel!

Now you have two options here! You can either make your own Christmas mistle toes banner to go around the top (which is what I did) or you can save re-size to your needs and print the picture below which is the one I made!

Once you've got your banner all you have to do is staple it in place and your done! 

Hope you are enjoying these slightly different kind of blog posts & let me know if you make one and how it turned out for you! Thank you for reading! 

Christmas Gift Ideas - Reindeer Hot Chocolate Cones

Hi everyone! Now I know they say you should never start something with an apology but that is exactly what I'm going to do. I am really sorry that the pictures aren't great quality because they were taken with my phone rather than with my proper camera but I do have a reason for this!!! I've downloaded the blogger app on my phone so I can now write my posts on the go which is a real life saver! I'm currently writing this sat in Nero drinking a nice hot chocolate if you wanted to know! Which leads me onto what this post is all about....

I saw a picture on Pinterest (which was linked to this blog post here so you should check that out!) of these Reindeer hot chocolate cones and thought it was such a cute idea and looked so easy to make I just had to give it a go. It's basically a reindeer made from hot chocolate powder and some other things but it makes such a nice little present and I mean - who doesn't like hot chocolate!!

So there are a couple of things you will need to make this:

• Cellophane (Or a coned clear bag - which if you know where to get these from please please let me know because making the cone is honestly the hardest part!)
• Plate or something round
• Sharpie/pen
• Scissors
• Sellotape
• Hot chocolate powder
• Mini marshmallows
• Googly eyes
• A pompom
• A pipe cleaner/printed out/hand drawn antlers
• Elastic band or some way of fastening it
• Superglue

Okay so the first thing you need to do is make the cone (if you already have cone bags you can skip this step!). Place your plate near a corner of the cellophane and draw around the top arch and then cut this out.

Now try and roll this sort of triangleish shape you have just cut out into a cone. This might take a while (it took me ages!) but the important part is to make sure there isn't a gap at the end of the cone because you don't want your hot chocolate powder all falling out! Once you've made this conical shape put tape along all the edges and the point to make sure everything stays in place.

This can get a bit messy! You have to pour in your hot chocolate powder into your cone and depending on how big the cone you made was will depend on how much powder needs to go in. The first one I made was way too big and needed 4 servings of powder in there but these ones I have photos of only needed one!

Then pour your marshmallows on top. Again just put as many in until it looks right!

Now secure the top of the cone with an elastic band and make sure it's tight because you don't want your powder spilling out the top either!

Okay so now we are at the fun part! Stick on your googly eyes just at the top of the powder part. Even if you have ones with peel off backs that self stick you may still want a little bit of superglue on there especially if they have to go in a bag to be transported!

Then stick on your pompom nose! Ideally this should be red but we didn't have any in the house and I didn't have time to go out and buy any so I just used orange which doesn't look too bad?!

The picture I saw had antlers made out of twisting a brown pipe cleaner around the elastic band but I didn't have any so I improvised! I simply googled 'simple outline of antlers' and clicked the first result and printed that out. I then attached these again with superglue!

And voila! That's your reindeer hot chocolate done! I hope you thing they look as cool as I thought they did and enjoy making them! I hope you enjoyed this slightly different kind of post and let me know if you try it out and how it went! Thanks for reading!