Roses, Butterflies and KILLER SHOES

It's the year of 21st Birthdays for me. All of my best friends are reaching that milestone (before me may I add- I'm a summer baby!), and you know what that means - plenty of fabulous parties to attend! This weekend was the turn of a close family friend, she had a great gathering at this kitsch little pub on the river, and my parents and brother came as well, which is always hilarious, as none of them can dance, but in their own unique, arm-flailing way!

One thing you should know about me is that I CANNOT cope in heeled shoes. This is not a choice. I would love nothing more than to be able to wear to-die-for heels - I'm a great admirer - but I just can't do it. I don't know if I have weak ankles or bad posture, but I look like Bambi on the ice rink! I can't walk, and I've lost count of the times I've left the house for a night out and returned twenty seconds later to change into flats because I can't even get down my road to the bus stop. 

For this reason, I bought my flat black pumps back from Uni with me to wear to the party, and my mother was utterly disgusted. She refused to let me "not make an effort" for one of our closest friend's birthday, and I had to explain that I would love to make the effort, but that I just can't find a pair of heels that I can walk ten metres in!! Being the brilliant woman that my Mum is, she forcibly dragged me to the shops and I tried on every pair of heels I could find until I found a shoe I could wear! I decided on a wedge strategy - more support for my stupid feet - and this way I could add them to my (very girly) dress with black tights and my leather jacket to make it more edgy.

I have to say it was a success, I lasted all night on the dancefloor until I had to walk half a mile back to the car - I made my brother piggyback me!! and I'm HEAVY - bless him! Here they are:-

eeeeee shoes I can walk in! From New Look :D

On to the Butterflies and Roses. I wanted a manicure to match my dress:

Dress from Miss Selfridge

I used the image on the left for inspiration, and, using my newly acquired BundleMonster plates BM06 and BM14, came up with this:-

I only had time for one quick picture before the party - I'm rubbish at getting ready on time!

As you can see, it's pretty shoddily stamped, as I was in a hurry, but I think you get the idea of what i was trying to do! I think considering it was my first times stamping, I did alright ha!

The polishes I used are:-

• Barry M basecoat and topcoat
• Bloom Flamingo Sands
• Stamped white roses with Rimmel French Manicure White
• Stamped dark coral roses in Barry M Coral
• Stamped purple roses in MUA 04
• Stamped butterfly in Barry M 293, Charcoal Grey.

I'll have to swatch Flamingo Sands by herself for you soon, its a gorgeous polish, but so hard to photograph as it can look completely different colours depending on the light!

Gleek and Gypsy Nights.

 So my housemate is fantastic. As you know, I went home for the weekend and returned this evening to 2 lovely presents from Sophie, one of my favourite people with giant hair. One was a “glee” Easter egg, complete with Mug – which I’m thrilled about, one of our favourite things to do together is drink copious amounts of tea, eat copious amounts of chocolate, and spend a copious amount of time talking about Everything and Nothing. The other present was a “knit your own boyfriend” kit....which I'm not as thrilled about....hahaha!

Rubbish phone pic...but look at the size of that mug! Cheers, Sofa!!!

 On to the Manicure!! I recently acquired an interesting polish from Topshop called “Gypsy Nights” which is quite a sheer black with holographic glitter and flakies! I snapped it up; you don’t see flakies very often over here in the polish middle ages (UK!). I applied two coats of it over two coats of Claire’s Black polish, and then added a silver stripe at the very tip of my tips with Claire’s Silver Nail Art Pen. Topped it off with Barry M topcoat, and here are the results, as best as I could capture the glitter effects! 

Shiny shinnnnyyy

 You can't see the holo glitter tooo much here, but if you look at the pinkie, you can see the iridescence of the flakies in it.

I've seen some exciting effects created with flakies by adding a matte topcoat, so i decided to matte it up with Claire's Matt topcoat (which should be spelled "matte" - really bugs me haahah - I'm a fiendish English student/grammar Nazi!). Here we are:

With Claire's matte topcoat.

I liked the effect of the matte topcoat, it did, however, dull the holographic glitter, but I like that it's a bit different. i decided to keep it like this for a couple of days before I was boooorrreeeddd!!! I went to a 21st birthday party over the weekend for one of my best friends, I've known her since she was a tiny babba, and it was lovely to see in this milestone together - love you Rachie poops. I'll post my party manicure tomorrow!

Another exciting installment - my bundlemonster plates arrived! WOO HOOOOO now I can start this Konading business properly!! Look out!!!

A Super Generous Giveaway!

First of all, sorry for the lack of post these last few days , I am currently back at home in Nottingham and away from my Laptop and Camera! I do have some lovely things in store for you, so stay tuuuuned!
One of my lovely new Followers Hayley has a FABULOUS giveaway over at her totally inspiring blog:-
http://xminidivax-minidiva.blogspot.com/2011/02/my-first-blog-giveaway.html
She also must be telepathic, because its all my favies! HELLO SOAP&GLORY!!!!
Get over and check it out, she's also super lovely and been very supportive of me and my new baby blog on the comments!

peace out bros, more manis and ramblings from me after le weekend!
<3

FOTD cinema night!

Tonight, me and my lover-ly housemates went to the cinema. In Birmingham, where we all live during term-time, there is the kitschest little cinema at the back of New Street Station called The Electric Cinema, which was the first screen in Britain! It still has alot of the original fixtures, and you can opt to sit on huuuge comfy sofas at the back (for an extra fee....some day on a special occasion maybe haha!). You can also take drinks in from the full bar, which, being students, we naturally took advantage of (red wine daaahlings, I'm not that much of a hooligan).
We had some 2-4-1 vouchers, so it only cost us a couple of quid each to see True Grit, which, I have GOT to say was absolutely fantastic - what a stunning motion picture, and such dry humour! I really cannot praise it enough, and it may end up one of my favie films of all time alongside Monsters Inc, Back to the Future and Uncle Buck hahaaa! No wonder its nominated for so many oscars!
SO! On to my FOTD. I'd just been shuffling round the flat all day doing bits of work here and there, so i started my makeup from scratch. Obviously we were only going to the cinema, so I wanted a casual look, but suitable for the night-time as we planned to visit a couple of bars after the (FANTASTIC) movie. I left my hair naturally dried an unstraightened.

In case you were curious as to the products i used, and a bit of techy talk, I started with a base of Rimmel "Stay Matte" Foundation in Ivory (100), sweeping over it lightly with Rimmel Clear Complexion Translucent powder. I then highlighted my cheekbones with Benefit's Blusher in Coralista (actually one of my prize possessions!)
For my eyes I used Benefit's Erase Paste in Medium to hide those nasty black circles, then used a No.7 eye palette on my lids. I got this for Christmas and the outer packaging has the colour info on it - i dont know the shades as of yet, but I will get my Sherlock Holmes Google Skillz out and find out for you should you like to know! :D I used the light, shimmery cream colour on my inner lid, graduating to the chocolatey shimmer, sweeping it outwards, and under the eye to create a soft smokey effect. I then used Rimmels Liquid Eyeliner in Black to line the upper lid from halfway along,  and made a small flick. I added some of Max Factor's False Lash Effect in Brown/Black and some of Topshop's Lip Polish in Iced Coffee and then I was ready to go and sit in the dark for 2 hours....lol.
Here is that troublesome No.7 palette and the eyes on their own:-

Here's a close, side-view of the smokey eye, you can see the liquid liner detail more clearly:-

 ...and here's the finished product! I look really stroppy and unimpressed - there were better photos of me, but none that quite showed the colours as accurately, especially of the lovely, corally blusher. Oh the sacrifices I will make for accurate swatches!

Just...want...to.....poke...through...laptop screen and move that strand! flkhjlhjtlkt!!!!

I know my hair is in the way of my right eye...you know when you really wish you were Mary Poppins so you could reach into the photo and just sweep that annoying bit of hair out of the way?!?!?! oOoO so frustrating!

well, Goodnight happy Bloggers, I realise this is a long'un and I appreciate you reading, I really do. I would love to hear some comments from you lovely lot, hit me up yo!

<3

RAAWWRRRRR!

There really is no better way to start the day than a hot cross bun and a good strong cuppa!

From my reading of other blogs I am completely aware that this is unoriginal and overdone, but to start off the Mani element of this blog, I'm opening with.....leopard print nails. This is one of my favourite designs as it's so attention grabbing! I get way more compliments on this Mani than any others, possibly because its quite rare over here in the English Kingdom to see outrageous nails!!

The polishes I used for this look are:

• Barry M all-in-one base coat, topcoat and hardener
• Bloom polish in Goldie
• Barry M Mushroom
• Claire's black nail art pen
• Claire's Matte topcoat

L-R = basecoat, Bloom Goldie, Barry M Mushroom, Claires black pen, Claires matte topcoat.

FIERCE! (please forgive me for the state of my cuticles and shoddy clean up - I'm still learning! :D)

I love this look because it looks impressive, yet its so simple to create. Although the leopard full nail  image on Konad M57 is great, I really don't think it's compulsory in creating this effect!

I painted my nails with one coat of base coat, followed by two coats of Bloom's Goldie (which is one of my favourite brands btw, the formula's great - chip resistant, fast drying, and nearly always opaque in two coats), I then added random "spots" of Mushroom. After it was dry, I outlined my leopard spots using semi circles and "C" shapes, adding dots and flicks here and there to fill in the gaps. I topped it all off with a matte topcoat. As I said, people are always fascinated by this design, and can't believe I do it myself when its so easy and really takes no time at all.

Although Konad is more accurate and neater in it's finish, i like the freehand effect - its not uniform! what leopard has perfectly symmetrical spots eh?!

What do you think, is my freehand attempt a fair compromise for the professional finish of the Konad design?

<3

Let's get blogging!

My name is Emily; I live in Nottingham, England, except for when I’m studying Literature at Birmingham University. I take pleasure in the little things in life, which I think is important! It may not mean much to a lot of people, but the small things that make you smile, can make a huge difference. I have an addictive personality and although I’ve always liked (and hoarded) polish, makeup and other girly necessities, I’ve recently got into the former in a big way - throwing myself in at the deep end well and truly! reading other (utterly fantastic) blogs inspired me to make my own, with my silly little thoughts and my silly little nails and silly little details of my silly little life :D I suddenly thought "I can do this! What’s stopping me?!" and the therapeutic element of expressing myself is certainly attractive! I hope to also write about some of the things I bake seen as I love to cook - and my only lasting love affair is with chocolate. As well as any other entertaining things I stumble across during the day, or concoctions of my idle mind.

So the only thing I can ask really....is that you enjoy my blog, leave me comments/advice, and hope to God that my words are not turds.

(I also promise not to convolute my future posts with all these wordy wordies! I bet your eyes are tired!)

To get us all started, a picture of the fruits of my VERY productive day (nooooot!)

extra gooey choccy brownies - sorry for the blurry photo! hit me up if you want the recipe! theyre so goood!

Ineed to get better at this photography malarky! Expect good things from my Oh Glorious Blogging Community, watch this space for some manicures and jibberish ramblings from me in the days to come!