Snowflake nails

Hi guys,

Today I have another nail art look for you today. Recently I have been feeling super festive so I thought I'd do some pretty snowflake nails. 

I know I've done a couple of nail tutorials now, next week I'll be doing my everyday winter make up. 

Let's get on with it then!

These are the polishes I used for this look. On the left is my trusty Barry M nail art pen, I honestly don't know what I did before it! The the art club top coat. I have  an O.P.I nail laquer in either 'my very first knockwurst' (I think) and Barry M nail paint 264 pink iridescent glitter. 

The first thing to do is paint your nails with your base colour, I chose the O.P.I shade but this would look nice with any nude or pale pink. I used two coats to get an opaque effect. I then used two coats of the glitter. Because I always think one is never enough. 

Then let them dry completely! If you don't then it will be extremely difficult to draw the snowflakes on.

•chuck a Disney film on or something!• 

Now care fully add your snow flakes.

This is the easiest way to draw snowflakes: 

1. Draw a cross +

2. Draw an x on top (you should have a basic star shape). 

3. Add v shapes around the outside. Two for each arm of the snowflake. <<

Easy right! 

Remember every snowflake is unique, so if they aren't all uniform it's fine. I like to add small stars without the Vs to fill the gaps and small dots for snow.

Leave to dry for for a few minutes so the white doesn't streak then add your top coat. 

You should now have beautiful, shiny winters nails to get you in the mood for the festive season. 

Have an ace week! 

Lucy x 

What's in my bag?

Soooo...

I havn't uploaded for a little bit, I've been away for a week and didn't take the lap top. 

♦Silly♦

I thought i'd share what's in my bag this month

First off my bag. I got this in primark last month, it was only like, £10 not bad.it's a satchel design and inside it has a zip pocket and a place for your phone which is cool as I'm always loosing mine in my bag. 

I also have my iphone on there with my purse which was from Claire's accessories aaaaages ago and my house keys.

I like to keep a tooth brush and toothpaste in my bag, at the moment I'm using the oral b 3D white luxe whitening toothpaste. The chewing gum in my bag is the wrigley's extra white sugar free gum.

I like to keep some paracetamol in there juuust in case. People always ask if I have any so I always tend to have some. 

Then I have two kinda opposite items in there. But they go hand in hand. Gloves (see what I did there?) and sunglasses. Gloves for hand warming- obvs and sunglasses because my eyes are super sensitive to brightness and windy ness.

•boo!•

Lastly a few beauty bits, a nail file a little mirror and some grips and a hair band. The lip balm I'm using at the moment is vasaline rosy lips. 

That's everything in my bag. 

Lucy x 

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Ghosty nails

Hi guys

I've decided to do another halloween look for you as I wanted to change up my nail art for halloween itself. 

I painted some really cool little ghosts on my nails.

Here's what you'll need:

Barry M nailpaint in the shade 'nightshade'

Barry M nail art pen in 'white'

Models own nail art pen 'black' and finally the Rimmel Lycra pro matte finish topcoat. 

But any other brands are fine. The night shade is an almost black purple, it's just a bit warmer than black. A shiny top coat would look really nice and slick too.

First step is to paint your nails in nightshade, I applyed two coats for maximum opacity.

Then very carefully use the white pen to map out your ghosts, this is a good way to find good positions and size. As with the skeleton nails you could practice this on paper first. I find that a tear drop with a bend in its tail is a super cute and easy shape to do. Then just fill the ghosts.

Using your black pen ad two short lines for eyes and and little dot for its mouth.

You're looking for a shocked little face. 

You could also use a cocktail stick with a little bit of black varnish if you don't have a pen.

Leave to dry for 5-10 minutes and finish with your chosen top coat.

Et voila! Spooky little ghost nails for a fun filled fright fest! 

Happy halloween! 

Lucy x 

Skeleton nails

It's nearly halloween! 

The time of year were all the ghouls and monsters come out (of the dark presumably, not the closet...). 

To celebrate this I decided to do some skeleton nail art that will only take half an hour or so and a steady hand. 

For this look I only used 3 nail products:

Maybelline colour show in 'downtown red'.

Barry M's white nail art pen.

Color club's art club top coat. 

You could use any nail varnishes as long as you have a dark bottom coat, I used red but blue or purple would look nice too. A white nail pen or striper brush. And a top coat. A matte top coat would also be really cool here.

First thing to do is to apply your background colour. I used 3 coats to make it super opaque. Wait for it to dry. The colour show dries pretty quickly actually which makes this even quicker. 

Second step is to start drawing your skeletons on. I really reconmend investing in a nail pen as it saves a lot of time and dries quicker than regular nail varnish. You could use a striper/thin brush for this too or even a cocktail stick dipped in white varnish. I also think it's a good idea to practise your design on paper first to get an idea of what you want it to look like. 

You might need some help doing it on your less dominant hand but with practise you'll be able to do it yourself in no time! This is supposed to look a little rough anyway so a couple of wobbly line will just add to the creepy.

Leave to dry and finish with a clear top coat. This is a super important step as the Barry M pen will wear of quickly otherwise. 

Now your all set to go with glamourous halloween nails. 

Good luck!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Lucy x 

It's a Lush Christmas. Pt 1.

Only 11 weeks until Christmas!

 

OK you got me, I love Christmas. It's one of my favourite times of year. I'm such an autumn/ winter person i love the crisp, bright coldness. The hot drinks, the snugly jumpers and the shorter days. 

♥Bliss♥

I think the atmosphere is amazing and in Southampton there is a Christmas market where you can get good food, beer and lots of mulled wine. Last year I only worked a few hours in the enter of town so this year I'm going to soak it all in.

Lush is one of my favourite companies and each year they bring out beautiful products that are just full of the Christmas spirit. This year they were launched on 3rd October and I went and saw all the amazing things.

So, lets make a start..

The first products I snapped were Gold fun and the Snowman kit, the gold fun has the same beautiful fragrance as the classic Honey I washed the kids soap, so really creamy and sweet smelling but the great twist is that its vegan! It doesn't actually have any honey in it unlike its soapy partner. This is a 4 in 1 product, bath bubbles, soap, shower gel and a play dough. Great for entertaining in the bath whilst leaving your skin super soft and smooth.

The Snowman kit is really cool, something completely new. It's the Fun product but with three colours, white black and orange so you can make your own bath time snowman! It has a refreshing uplifting scent that people will recognise as the carrot fragrance from Easter. Cue frozen- 'do you wanna build a snowmaaaan?'...

♦ Can anybody smell carrots?♦

Gold fun and snowman kit.

 Star light star bright the first star I see tonight..

A beautiful glittery bath melt, this melt has an uplifting and warming fragrance with lots of lime and ginger. I recommend putting this in a hot bath and watching as it melts into a glittering blue bath that looks like a winters sky. This would be an amazing bath to have before a Christmas party or maybe a cheeky boxing day bath if you've had a little but too much bucks fizz the night before.

Star light star bright.

 Cinders is one of the Lushes best sellers, it has a sweet cinnamon scent with lots of popping candy in to remind you of a warmin this bath crakling fire. when youre relaxing in this bath you can almost imagine being cosyed up in front of a fire watching chritmas film. basically eveything you expect froma chritmas bath bomb.

Father Christmas is also back but this time he has a nostalgic candy fluff fragrance. sweet and powdery. Not as bubblegummy as snow fairy.

Father Christmas and Cinders

 The melting snowman is back! This time with a new (or should I say retro?) smell. This creamy bath melt has the Hot toddy fragrance that Lush used to have. In fact hot toddy was a Cosmetics to Go fragrance, so not only does this predate lush as we know it but this proves that it is a timeless scent. 

On the left of the picture is he very lovely Snow angel. Another melt that releases a lovely gold glow. This melt has the snow cake fragrance to give you a ridiculously softening bath. It creates a snow like blanket of foam. The benzoin and cocoa butter in this will really lock in the moisture to your skin.

Snow angel and Melting Snowman

Oh hello there, Christmas soaps, this year there are some really doozies. lets start with a classic.

Snow cake- a soap almost as old as the tale of Christmas itself. A snowy white soft soap with a gold luster top. This smells of marzipan and gives such a thick satisfying lather that it can be used at the sink or in the shower. 

Next up some new arrivals. 

Anyone who's a fan of the comforter or sweetie pie shower jelly will love the reindeer rock soap. A beautiful berry soap with lingon berry infusion, an anti-oxididant, it will help protct you skin from the changing weather.

•mad radical•

Now for my absolute favorite soap of this Christmas

Yognog.

Oh my good gracious Lush what have you blessed us with. An amazing creamy soap tat smells like Starbucks eggnog latte with lashings of cinnamon. Fudgy and edible. Amazing in the shower, bath or by the sink. this will make you feel so festive you'll want to break out the tinsel and fairy lights.

Christmas soaps.

I hope you enjoyed reading this and look out for a part two coming soon. I didnt post last week as I haven't been very well. I'm back on top form now so expect more content- mwahaha. 

if you liked reading this please subscribed to this blog but adding it to you reading list.

Lucy x

Feeling sick and current beauty faves

Hello everyone,

So this is the first of the Sunday uploading now as Thursdays weren't working out and I was putting them up Sunday anyways. 

This week I have had a cold and it sucks, it started headachy and throaty and is now sneezy and wheezy.

•great•

Most nights I've been trying to get an early night and drink lots of water. This isn't always ideal though as I seem to have the tiniest bladder ever. I've now got two days off work and am spending my Sunday in bed with Netflix and a cuppa tea. Heaven.

 

On with the beauty bits. 

the first thing I've been enjoying is Lush's new moisturiser and it's caaalled..

Million Dollar Moisturiser.

'bionic facial moisturiser'

This is an incredibly lovely and hydrating product, it has an SPF of 30 which I love as I am very fair. its super smoothing and softening. I really like how lightweight it as i have combination skin and it doesn't sit heavily on my nose and chin. This is an illuminating cream. Lush has blended it with their Feeling Younger skin tint. This gives your skin a lovely healthy glow.

The next thing I want to talk about is brows. My brows mostly but feel free to wade in with yours in the comments. I'm kinda at an impasse in my brain as to what to do with them. I feel like I want them to be thick, I've had thinner eyebrows  before (when it was more fashionable) but never bad eyebrows. So I guess brows I'm loving at the moment are.

Cara Delevinge, Kelly Osbourne, Lana Del Rey.

 
For me I think Cara's brows are a bit too big but I admire the bold statement they bring to the table, I really like Kellys' and I like the sharpness of Lana's. I have Fair eyebrows so I will always need to fill as i cant get the fullness by going 'Au natural'. I prefer to Pluck mine as I love the idea of threading and have seen the results first hand. I like to control things tough and I don't trust someone else to get the shape perfect.

This I what I like to use to groom my brows. 

I'm going to do another blog post on how I achieve the shape i want and my technique to get the shape I want. I could just waffle on all day about this subject to be honest.

Lastly I want to talk about nails- woooo!

I've gone for something a little bit different this week with a nice rich blue. I used misguided nail polish in 'Splash' and did a top coat with Barry M nail paint in 'teal''. These colours together with a rich colour payoff. 

I likes it. 

That's it for this Sunday, thank you for taking the time to read this blog and if you liked it please add it to your reading list and look out next Sunday for another update.

Lucy.

 

Cupcakes

Hi guys,

So sorry I'm late again with this blog. I might have to change the day to Sunday as that's usually my day off and after a long day on Thursday I'm usually too tired to write the post.

Also I'm thinking I might change my blog caption to 'beauty•fashion•lifestyle' as I have written about things like work and, as you'll see, cupcakes.

So the other day I went to visit my sister, she dosnt live too far from me so there wasn't much travel.

We watched the Malefecent movie, my sister and her partner have a massive 3D tv so we watched it. I really liked it but I would have loved it a Teensy wincey bit more if it was darker. In my head I seem to have it that Disney needs to be growing up with me because it's always been such a massive part of my life. I find that people my age mostly feel like that to be honest. 

After much (much) badgering my sister said we could make cupcakes. 

As my sister doesn't eat dairy we used tho super cool recipe book that has lots of amah-zing cake ideas. We used the basic chocolate cupcake recipe. 

Above I've popped a few pictures of what we put in and it all mixed up. The batter tasted so good my sister had to ban us from eating it all. We used a really nice raw cacao powder and boosted it with a natural chocolate extract from Star Kay White. 

http://www.lakeland.co.uk/16321/Star-Kay-White-Chocolate-Extract

We put then in the oven for about 20-25 minutes and voila! Beautiful moist vegan cupcakes. My sister cut of the tops an added a chocolate frosting and put the lips back on like little hats. 

 

 They were so good and yummy. They also did not last very long.

I hope you liked reading this. If you would like to read more please add me to your reading list and I will try to be more punctual. 

Lucy 

Current favorites.

Sooo,

Sorry for not popping up a post last Thursday, this week has been super busy and I won't be naughty again

•slaps wrist•

Straight to it then, in this post I'm going to share some of my August favourites with you.

I have been loving Aussie hair care this month, especially ther colour mate range with peach. It leaves my hair super soft and shiny and smelling good. My must have of the range is the leave in spray conditioner as it's a nice alternative to using the argen hair oil if you're in a hurry. 

Next on my list is the Lush Dream Cream body lotion. The formula I'm loving is the new self-preserving formula. You can listen to Mark and Jack Constantine discuss the merits of self preserved vs preserved with Helen Ambrosen here http://youtu.be/CCDFGrIHRfQ these guys are the reason Lush has lots of amazing products. On my skin this goes on nice and smooth and for me I find my skin absorbs this version better and I like that it is less lavender-y than it's predecessor. Don't worry though they still sell the old one if that's your boo. 

Next some make-up! Yeah! So I have been using this gorgeous eye shadow by Barry M. It's part of their dazzle dust range in the colour 'tan'. I would describe this as a rose gold with a shimmer. It's nice as an accent or a highlighter but also as an all over shadow paired with a dark red lipstick. 

•lovely lovely lovely•

Lastly a nail varnish. Suprise, suprise! 

This one is by Miss Sporty and is part of their metal flip range. The one I have is called crazy plum and it has a beautiful green to purple colour change effect, with a metallic finish. There is also one in the colour Aurora borialis, which is bluey. This needs two coats but has a nice colour payoff and lasts a long time on the nails. 

I do have one more thing that isn't a make up fave. It's a bit random but is the San Pellegrino Lemonata lemonade. It has 16% lemon juice and is super sharp and refreshing. Nice with lots of ice. They also do an orange version. Also I don't like lemon so for me to recommend its gotta be good! 

Thank you for reading this blog! If you liked it please add it to your reading list and to can look out for a next post next Thursday. 

Lucy. 

Watermelon nails

Heya, 

So,straight to it! 

I love nail art, I like quirky things I like elegant things. I like transfers and stickers and falsies. I especially love painting them myself and having a bit of fun with it. 

When I was in my last job I wasn't allowed nail varnish. This made me sad and whenever I had a couple of days off together I'd pop on a bit, but never had time for fun. 

Now I can! 

I'm a bit out of practice but I decided to do some fun watermelon nails. Here is the result.

Not bad for a first attempt. I used to do nail art all the time here are some. 

I am super looking forward to getting back into it, let me know if you have any ideas.

Lucy. 

Work

In this blog post I would like to talk about the wonderful world of retail. 

In particular I would like to talk about my journey from school to the present.
When I left school I had no idea what I wanted for me and my life I saw a careers advisor and I found it super unhelpful. the advisor basically pushed me into going to a sixth form college with out asking me anything or letting me know about other pathways. the meeting was about 3 minutes long and I felt like I had signed the next few years without a clear vision in mind for the future.
At college I took, 3D design, photography, media and business studies. Really I only wanted to do graphics and fine art but as it was a sixth form college I was told I had to take 4 courses. After a while this completely overwhelmed me and I soon found myself concentrating on the social side of college rather than the academic.

After two years of college and failing my courses due to none attendance and lack of, y'know actually handing in the work, my college decided they'd rather not have me back. 

So back to talking about work. During college I had a job working at a paint your own crockery shop and later on at Debenhams. These were only part time jobs. After college I had been unemployed for about 6 months, when finally I got a job working for lush as a Christmas temp. 

After Christmas I got kept on and spent the next 5 years there. 

I loved my time at lush and made my way from a sales assistant to key holder. After a while I wanted more, I wanted to move up to a management role but unfortunately it wasn't an option in my store at the time. It was time to move on and I got a job as a counter manager at a make up concession. I'd wanted to do it for ages I thought it would my dream job. It was awful the company didn't care about me and I didn't feel I had any support from my area manager. The company was transitioning from being independent to being owned by an umbrella company. There was a lot of paper work involved and I had to hard sell everyday. It was harder than I ever thought. I just wanted to put make up on people. I left in August of 2013 and never looked back. 

After a couple of temp jobs I ended up at greggs. Not ideal. Actually, not a bad company to work for if you don't mind early starts, but not what I wanted to do. 

After a year and a half I'm going back to lush and I'm so happy. This past year has been a massive learning curve for me. I've learnt how other businesses work, about different customer bases and mostly I've learnt how I can adapt and how've I grown to accept different situations everyday. 

At some point I would love to go back to college and pursue what I love doing. There are so many amazing beauty and art courses where I live. 

I guess what I'm trying to say is that, there are other pathways in life and don't let the bastards grind you down. Enjoy yourself and do your best. Even if it hasn't gone exactly the way you thought.

If you liked this please pop it on your reading list. I normally post on Thursday evenings so look out for that! 

Lucy. 

At lush

As a beauty manager

Birds and Bakeoff

  Hi guys,

This week has been a nice lazy week as last week was horrible. I had a 7 day stint at work where 6 of those days I had to be up at 5am.

♦not cool man♦ 

So I have had some nice mornings of not doing very much apart from some housework (boring) and just doing bits and bobs that I've needed to sort out for a while.

Due to having this time to relax I have had some lovely garden time. At my old flat we didn't have a garden, just a balcony so apart from a plant or two there wasn't much greenery to enjoy. Just a lot of car park and bypass.

We have just moved back to my parents which means that they have a garden. Their garden is the sort of garden that has lots of trees and plants and little places to hide and be calm, you cant hear much traffic and it's nice just sitting still when so much is up in the air. 

When I was in the garden a little bird came down and was honestly about a meter away from me. I went and grabbed my camera and snapped him for you.I think it's a handsome little robin.I normally hate birds but this one was to cute to hate on.

So lets do a little bit of beauty, I hope to do a bit more beauty in the future but at the moment due to my working hours I cant do all my make up properly which makes me super sad. Also I'm not allowed to wear nail varnish to work.

•BOO!•

For now here is one of my all time favorite products by Barry M.

This product as I'm sure a lot of you already know is called touch of magic lip paint. Its such a fun product as it looks green but actually has a wonderful pink colour pay off, and it's a stain. the way it works is that the formula reacts to the alkaline in your lips and the colour ranges from a subtle pink to a super bright summery pink. As I said before, it's a stain so the colour lasts on your lips but because its so creamy and smooth it doesn't dry out your lips like for other stains. Barry M have recently changed the name and packaging to this product and it's now called genie. 

Finally I wanted to talk about the great British bake off. yes! GBBO is back BBC 1 have nicked it for themselves but it is still as good as ever! So far I think it's been quite good and I really enjoy how disapproving Mary is being so far. personally I think disappointing Mary is much worse than just Paul saying it bluntly. judge for yourself.

♥ Always make your own fondant.♥

I could honestly talk about bake off all day, but I'm going to leave it there for now. Sorry that this is going up on a Friday not Thursday but I fell asleep at my laptop last night. Super sleepy. If you liked reading this please look out for my next one next Thursday 

There are some exciting devolpments happening right now so I will let you know about thjose next week. YAY! 

Lucy

•x•

Things I have been enjoying..

so far this month.

You didn't think that intro was it did you? I just thought I'd pop up a few things that i have been loving this month so far.

First off, my make-up base for July/August has been these products.

 Rimmel stay blushed in the shade 001 pop of pink. This is a really nice cream blusher, when it comes out of the tube the consistency is very light weight. It looks super bright to start but mellows out into a lovely sheer pink. I normally stay away from cream blushers as I always find they interfere with my foundation but I have found this doesn't and it's build-able. 

Product number two I've been using is the Rimmel BB cream 9-in-1 skin perfecting super make-up in very light. This product has a very light coverage and that's why I chose it for summer. it has an SPF of 25 which is nice and high considering the hot summer we've been having. If you want more coverage I wouldn't recommend it but very good if you want a dewy effect. the only thing that could improve it is that although it mattifies it can slip of my nose so if you have very oily skin then it might not be the best for you.

Last but not least is the Rimmel wake me up foundation in ivory, this has a nice texture that goes on very smoothly and helps to make me look awake when I have an early start. It conceals spots but again this isn't a super heavy coverage product, just light and pretty for summer. 

Combined you get a lovely dewy look, that can be set with powder (I use Rimmel matte perfection) and/or with a bronzer, I've been using solar powder by soap and glory.

well that seems to be very Rimmel heavy.

These Earrings.

I have been wearing these so much. I love the nautical theme. They're almost like big studs which is great and I've been wearing these when my hair's in a bun or plaited around the back of my head. 

♦beautiful♦

 

next up...

Socks.

I got these from the sale section in urban outfitters and I just couldn't resist. black- check, ankle- check, glitter- double check. so pretty and when I popped them on extra surprise, bloody herringbone design. BOOM!

♥

 

Last on my list de amour today.

Chocolate. 

what else?

Hotel Chocolate are celebrating 10 years of being chocolaty geniuses. To celebrate this they have dizzy pralines on offer 2 selector packs for £6.50. These chocolates are so good. they come in dark, white or milk and inside have a beautifully smooth hazelnut praline. like Nutella enrobed in chocolate. we went for milk chocolate. 

•lovely•lovely•lovely•

Thank you for reading this -slightly rambley- blog. let me know what you've been loving, and if you loved this blog, you can find it updated weekly every Thursday. 

Lucy x

A little bit about me.

Heya,

I thought for a while as to how I should start this blog and I came to the conclusion that an introduction to me and what this blog is about was the best way.

So, my name is Lucy, I'm 24 and I live in Britain. I live with my fella, Chris, and our hamster (such grown-ups) Mordecai. 

I bet you're asking yourself right now 'what can I expect from this blog?' well, I'll tell you. Probably a lot of beauty and accessories. Food, little recipes I like or places I've been. If I go away I'll pop on little videos and bits and basically just stuff I like. 

soooo, hope you got as far as here without closing the tab or falling asleep, I'm going to upload every week and then maybe little bonus posts every so often. I'm nice like that.

If you liked this post please pop me on your reading lists for more fun stuff.

Lucy x