And so it begins...

Today is a little bit of a difficult day for me.

Its Payday.

Its pathetic I know. Having a payday should be a reason for joy, laughter, merriment.

But this month, which i think is the first month ever, i'm filled with fear.

Last months musings about the state of my finances made me wonder about what im missing out on in life. Don't get me wrong i'm still definitely wanting to achieve those things but this fear im feeling is to do with the fear of not being able to not just run out and buy everything in sight.

The theory of not buying random stuff when you have no money is very easy to deal with, the reality of having money in the bank and trying to persuade yourself you still don't need those things is very different.

I knew this would be hard so I've assigned myself a small budget (£40) for buying a couple of new things so i  thought it'd be easy to start and make a change but there's a whole world of pretty things swirling around and my inner teenager is throwing a proper strop about not being let loose in Primark.

L'oreal Preference Wild Ombré

Finally a beauty post, hurrah!

At the weekend I had a day off (shock horror) so I went for a little wander around boots.

Like everyone else I've seen a million adverts for this new kit from l'oreal. And I've heard quite a lot of varying reports about how well it works and whether it's worth the money. And if it wasn't for the fact I had some points to spend I probably would've left it on the shelf.....

I'm glad I didn't.

I will say I don't think this kit is for everyone, the brush can be fiddley and you really need to set aside a good chunk of time and think be quite patient. Maybe not best for novice hair colour users. Also the colour your going to get will vary A LOT depending on what your working over.

My hair was already covered with dark brown dye, but I'd previously bleached it in September (so I could have my hair purple for my birthday) so I wasn't dealing with too much dye build up but I still expected a ginger hue rather than golden blonde.

Some people have reported the smell of this stuff to be hideous, and while I won't say it's nice it just smells like hair dye to me..

I fully expected this stuff to not do all that much, and for the first ten minutes it didn't. I was a bit disappointed but I persevered. Now in the application instructions it does say to start at the tips and work up thought the lengths. In a few reviews I've read I've seen pics of folk left with a harsh line between their base colour and the lightened ends. This is my advice,

WORK SLOWLY and if you think your going slow GO SLOWER!!!

I put the stuff on the very ends of my hair maybe an inch at the most. And left it a good ten minutes before coming back to do the next inch, and I repeated this until I got to my desired level and I left last 'layer' on for only about 5 mins before I washed it out.

Here is my after, please excuse the no makeup and horrible artificial lighting but the sun doesn't shine at 3am...

I'm actually really quite pleased with how it came out, it's slightly less ginger in real life but I think the gradual-ness of the colour change worked out pretty well. Well, as well as a non professional using an 'at home' box kit can expect.

I would've taken a daytime shot but lets just say I didn't stop here ;-)

Do follow (links in the sidebar) to see what happened next!

If you have any questions please do feel free to ask either on here or twitter.

Have you tried this product? What did you think?

Or is the ombré hair thing just a bit too cliche? :-)

 

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The apt polish (OPI Not like the movies) NOTD

Hey, long time no see!

Feels like forever since I've blogged.

But life just got a bit in the way.

Today's post is inspired by the random way my brain works.

It was Sunday afternoon that I realised I'm prone to a bit of apt polishing. What I mean is if I have a polish that somehow fits my mood I'll tend to reach for that one.

Like using my private jet before boarding a plane, or breaking out beach party for a trip to the beach, or last years favourite for me which was the minute it snows covering any and all manicures with a layer of snow globe.

This time it is Not like the movies from OPIs Katy Perry collection. This is by far and away my favourite polish ever in the world. All the pretty shades of purple silver and green and shimmer. There is really nothing to not like about it.

 

However......

 

This found its way onto my digits as recently as sadly I'm currently more than a little disillusioned on the old romance front. There's a guy, I like him, he's very sweet to me. I can't decide whether I'm coming or going. Guys can be so dumb sometimes........le sigh.


 

Do you ever apt-polish? If so what are you wearing now?

 

 

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In with the new....

So i started a new job yesterday and, much like Saturdays post, it seemed only fit to do a manicure for the occasion.

As i mentioned i haven't left the company but its certainly time for a colour change....

Enter the era of pink (or as my work would call it 'Magenta')

The main colour is Barry M Shocking Pink and the accent nail is W7 cerise Pink

I've found the whole change exciting and terrifying all at once.

And i didn't help when my alarm didn't go off on my first day, I woke up 10 minutes before my shift start on the other side of town. It was horrific. Then my new boss decided, after an hour, that he was taking the rest of the day off and left me in charge......

I'd been at my old work for a very long time so I'm very much a fish out of water at the moment. I'm hoping it'll get easier soon, but there is some big changes still to come....

So I've gone from Orange to Pink I wonder what next week will hold ;-)

To keep up to date please remember to click one of the follow links on the sidebar,x

Fat Girl Slim Week 2 Update

Another week has gone by and its that scary stand on the scales time again.

I would like to point out that my scales are currently running out of battery (they're digital) so I'm not overly sure how accurate they are just now.

The week started well.

I did the 30 day shred (aka being curled up in the foetal position gasping for breath)

For a few days.

I couldn't move after a few days in, my thighs wouldn't co-operate with the command to move my legs in a walking motion.

So i switched to a bit of yoga (Penny Smith Power Yoga) to try and stretch out a bit.

The warm up almost killed me. I used to do the entirety of this DVD everyday (i was bendy like Geri) so this was really disappointed in this.

I'll confess, i ate A LOT of cake and pizza at the end of the week (while sat on the couch with a hot water bottle). But as a woman, I'm sure you'll understand, sometimes we NEED this.

Despite this the scales were kind and I stayed the same as last week.

So I'm still 2 pounds down 22 to go!

The next couple of weeks are going to be quite stressful for me. I started my new job today and I'm now be getting a bus to work rather than walking so I'm not overly hopeful on the weight loss front.

Lunch is about to get a whole lot healthier!

But i do have better options for things to have for lunch and I'll be powering up my My Fitness Pal App again so hopefully I'll work it out.

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Essie: Bikini so Teeny

So we've all seen this one a thousand times 'Bikini so Teeny'

Now I'll be honest i think i may have become a victim of hype on this one. I was in Boots, they only had 1 left, EVERYBODY and their granny loves it so obviously i had to buy it!

I'll not bore you with yet another same old in depth description..........

Its cornflower blue with sparkles

Now don't get me wrong here i think this colour is as pretty as everyone says it it is but my gripe with it is that as soon as you go near it with top coat it changes shade!



Without topcoat                                                                                           With topcoat            

    

 I don't know if its just me this is happened to because i haven't seen anyone else mention it but it does slightly ruin the polish for me. There's nothing wrong with the colour it goes with top coat but its just not quite as pretty as the one without. It also gives a kind of weird soft focus colour blurring effect to the nails. (As you can see on the tip of the ring finger below)

 Now i originally tried it with Seche Vite so i thought it was maybe the topcoat at fault.
So I tried it with Sally Hansen Insta-Dry, same issue.

I then had the bright idea that maybe it had something to do with the fast drying aspect of these so i broke out my OPI regular old Top Coat and it STILL changed colour.

Now I know what your thinking, go without topcoat! I tried that, i have a very hands on job (ooo-err!) and it just didn't last 5 mins without chipping.


Can anyone give me some suggestions on how to overcome this?
Have i maybe got some kind of weird duff bottle?
Or has everyone else found it does this and just not mentioned?

In other news:

I'm back at work after a couple of weeks off. It's so confusing, almost feel like the new girl again.
Also it means I've been having to get up at what i would call the middle of the night. Thank the big man for coffee and Red bull!