Whats in my shower from actually in the shower!

I love a good nosey in other peoples showers. Yes I'm a bit weird, but I'm ok with that.

Thankfully there seems to be more than just me in the shower stalking boat so I thought it would be fun to share what I have in my shower.

Because I was over excited about my new phone being water resistant I decided to actually take it into the shower but the running water didn't translate so well in the actual photos so here's a slightly weird pic of me looking a bit too pleased with myself while in the shower....

Anyway if you made it past that here is a quick run through of what I keep in my shower.

Top Shelf:

L'oreal EverRiche Shampoo and Conditioner: To be honest i only bought this because Estee from essiebutton said it smelt amazing, and she was right, it does. Probably wont repurchase though as I have about 200 other shampoo/conditioner combos to use up.

In the back there you will see my favourite shower gel ever which is the Soap and Glory Sugar Crush, I did a blog post about this scent, you can read that HERE

Also on this shelf I have a can of Rituals Yogi Flow shower foam. I love this if I'm showering before bed, the scent is so soothing. Like a big hug.

On the lower shelf :

My Soap and Glory Breakfast Scrub body exfoliant which I'm trying to use up before breaking open my Sugar Crush variant. I did a mini review of the Breakfast Scrub HERE

Cetaphil Gentle Skin Cleanser, I actually really rate this stuff, it doesn't irritate my temperamental skin but still actually makes it feel clean and doesn't cost the earth. (I do have an Emma Hardie cleansing Balm that I use for removing makeup, but that's kept by the sink)

And finally my Clarisonic Mia, I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with this, I think its wonderful for my skin but I'm so lazy I can never remember to put the thing on charge so its alost constantly out of power! 

So that is what's in there. If you've done a post like this please feel free to leave a link below :-)

My perfect comfort food

I don't know about you but when the weather turns chilly its not only my wardrobe that changes but also what I put on my plate. I mean who really wants to munch an ice cold salad while shivering on a November evening?

My favourite weapon of choice in the winter months is my beloved perfect fish finger sandwich. I have spent years concocting the right mix of ingredients and its perfect every time.

So if you'd like to try this my way you will need:

Fish Fingers
White Toastie Bread
Tomato Ketchup
Lea and Perrins Worcestershire Sauce
Salt
and
Lurpak slightly salted butter

It might seem a lot but these components really work well together.

Putting the sandwich together is pretty simple.

Cook the fish fingers, I do this in the oven

Butter one side of the bread and lay your fish fingers on top.

Sprinkle salt over them

Splash the Lea and Perrons over that and finish with a healthy swirl of the ketchup.

Pop the other slice of bread on the top and cut in half.

Hey presto, you have the perfect Fish Finger sandwich. I tend to like to wash mine done with some orange juice. Yum. (this sandwich also has magical healing powers for when you've had a few too many G&Ts ;-))

What's your favourite comfort food for this time of year?

Tea Time Bliss

Since things have all been quite crazy lately I've been trying to make a bit of extra 'me time' when I can and there are 2 simple things that are always guaranteed to make me feel a little better...

A nice cup of tea and a couple of episodes of QI (or 1 big episode of QIXL, depends on what Dave is showing)

Every autumn I like to try out new teas until i find 'the one'. This year I did not have to search for long.

I'd heard a few people mention the peppermint and liquorice tea from Tea Pigs and thought it sounded a bit weird, but when my friend dragged me in to Holland and Barrett the other day I saw a box of the same flavour by the Pukka brand and thought, Acht I'll give it a go.

OMG I LOVE this stuff!!  Don't get me wrong it does taste a bit odd but odd good. When you first drink it tastes like regular peppermint tea, but then it gives an out of nowhere sweet liquorice after hit. Gorgeous.

Even if you don't like liquorice I still suggest you give this a whirl as its very much a liquorice bark taste rather than a Liquorice All Sorts kind of taste. And for those of you wondering what I'm on about here is a pic of a twig that you can chew on that tastes sweet, yes really.

source: www.4ayurveda.com

I'd still really like to try the Tea Pigs version but I've never seen it in the shops around here, so I'll keep an eye out as if I go on their website I can only imagine the damage that would be done to my bank account :-)

What's your favourite tea?

Riding the river of life....

Ever feel that everything always happens at once? and its all just a bit much?

Since coming back from my holiday i threw myself back into work and started to prepare myself for the onslaught of the Christmas rush. Then i was knocked sideways by a few unfortunate circumstances, we we're working short staffed at work, which these days is nothing new, during trying to hold everything together my boss trundled off on holiday leaving me to run the show, again not a problem in itself. Then my work threw a huge curve ball into the mix, right before Christmas they are going to be changing the commission structure for our monthly payments, essentially meaning if you miss even 1 target by 1% you get absolutely nothing, not a penny more than your basic wage. If this was to happen to me i would lose out to the tune of about 300 quid on any given month. My mortgage was worked out by my bank to include my commission as regular payment as, well, it's been a regular part of my income for the past 10 years!

Those Lazy Hazy Crazy Days.......

Have you ever sat down to write a post and suddenly thought that nobody else is probably going to be that interested in what your about to say, but your going to post it anyway?

This is one of those moments for me. The thing is I went on and on about going on holiday for so long, I'd feel a bit odd if I didn't actually share the story of what happened when I was away.

This is going to be long, and I took a huge amount of pictures so it might be worthwhile going to get a nice cup of tea (or a wee cocktail) and find somewhere comfy to sit.....

Fat Girl smoooooth!

Better late than never... its 4 weeks until i fly out to sunnier climbs!

So here is my update on my progress on project bikini.

This past week i was meant to be trying out Jillian Michaels 30 day shred and working through Paul McKennas' "i can make you thin"

I've had somewhat mixed success, I haven't really bothered much with I can make you thin. I just haven't had time. my plan had been to use it as bedtime reading and work in the hypnotherapy CD at that point as well. As with many best laid plans the real world got in the way. Work has been so stressful recently that i've been asleep the minute my head hits the pillow!

On the other hand i have managed to stick to the 30 day shred, which i am quite pleased about. I wish i had taken before pictures at the start as to my eye i can't see any difference, but i'm hoping its doing something. Its only been a week though so i'm hoping that it'll kick in soon. What i am finding difficult though is the fact that i don't seem to be getting any better at it, about half way through Jillian bangs on about how folk on day 5, 6, and 7 should be seeing a huge improvement from day one, i'm not one of those people, Level one is still killing me but i will persevere!

So my tasks for this week are less weight loss related and much more superficial (lol) If i cant be the most toned lean goddess on the beach i'm going to aim for the lovely curvy girl with skin as smooth as butter...

I'm putting myself on a strict programme of body brushing and moisturizing. Apparently the body brushing is going to be flushing toxins from my body to reduce the wibblyness of my cellulite (now there's an image for you!) and the moisturizing will give me a nice even glowing appearance to my, so pale i'm almost see through, skin.

You can follow my efforts on the 30 day shred on twitter (link in the side bar) and if you've got any words of encouragement/tips on staying motivated please leave a comment below or give me a wee tweet.

Fat Girl Slim: Keep Calm and Clutch at Straws

Its the final countdown ( Dana na naaa dana na na naaa!)

The fear has finally set in.

There is a sun lounger in Bulgaria shouting my name and its get louder by the day.

In a little over a month I will be sat on a plane winging my way towards my first beach (read: only) holiday in 5 years and like most women who are no longer 22 I am dreading that moment where I have reveal my not so bikini ready body to the world.

So in a last ditch attempt to not be too self-conscious while i'm there i'm going to reinstate my rather quickly abandoned Fat Girl series.

For the next few Fridays i am dutifully going to check in on the weird and wonderful things i'm doing that week in aid of being a bit more beach goddess and a bit less beached whale.

This week is all hands to the deck as I am going to embark on two rather different ideas. One being the rather self explanatory, well known as being a bit mental and almost guaranteed to do something as long as I actually DO it. The other is a bit more erm..... out there.... well whats the harm if it works, amazing, if it doesn't at least i'm going to see results from the other thing.

So this week it's:

Jillian Michaels: 30 day shred

and 

Paul Mckenna: I can make you thin

I have attempted the 30 day shred on a few occasions now, most recently i little over a month ago when I managed 8 days straight, and even felt ready to move on to level 2 of it, but i fell off the bandwagon when I had some friends stay for a few days, much eating out was had and much wine was drank...needless to say I haven't been back on it since. This will change today.

And as for the Paul Mckenna randomness, this is a book i bought a long time ago when i was on a bit of a 'hypnotherapy will cure the world!' kick. I'm somewhat skeptical about how listening to a CD will help but I've read the first few chapters of the book and there seems to be some simple ideas and tips on how to recognize if your actually hungry and how to recognize when your full. I have a really bad habit of shoving as much food as i can into my mouth as quickly as possible and then i'm stuffed for days, so the idea of putting my knife and fork down between mouthfuls so i can finish chewing what i'm eating is so far helping me realize when i'm full before i'm stuffed. We shall see how it goes.

If you've got any tips or ideas of things I can try (no crash diets though, thats never healthy!) please leave a comment below. And if you'd like to keep up to date with my spectacular achievement/failure in this task please have a click on one of the many ways to follow this blog in the side bar.

The long lost haul

There once was a time where I said I was going to post a small haul. Finally here it is!

Since I picked these things up a while ago I can give mini reviews along the way for some of it :)

Holiblogs

Things may have been quite on the old blog front recently but so much has been going on its all been a bit of a blur.

After the highs of the wedding came some real lows for a few of my friends, its so heartbreaking to see people you care about going through tough times :-( All you can do is be there for them when they need you. So that's where I've been. I'm on holiday from work just now which has come along at exactly the right time.

Part of my mission of bringing a little light back to the world came in the form of going shopping, who doesn't love shopping? After the usual toddle around Boots, Superdrug (yes there will be a haul!) and numerous clothes shops we headed to the Lego store. It may sound a bit of a random choice but its amazing how much being confronted with those little bits of plastic can transport a fully grown woman back to being an excitable 3 year old!

My main reason for going was that I'd heard that you can make a miniature you in Lego. Its awesome.

My friend and I made ourselves and one of our other friends who we meeting up with later that day. The girly face/clothes options weren't very good but we made the best of it, so mine looks slightly deranged but I suppose that maybe makes it more believable...

Now the above photo pretty much sums up what happened for the rest of that day, beers, best mates, mobile phones and a whole heap of silliness. It all sounded like such a good idea at the time... 

As I've been helping my friends out with there troubles recently they decided to pay back by 'helping' me out with a guy I like, facebook messenger is a dangerous place and I should know better than to leave my phone laying about unsupervised... Cant quite bring myself to read the entire conversation back but since it started with talk of a snorkel i don't think I can ever look this guy in the face again....but hey, at least he knows I like him! (I'll be expecting the restraining order any day now)

What have you guys been up to recently??

My Best Friends Wedding

About a year and a half ago, my mate and i were sat in the pub having a quick after work drink.

Because of that quick drink, yesterday my mate married the love of her life!

Now this isn't a 'there eyes met across a crowded bar' senario. Their eyes actually had met over a crowded bus years before....

What happened at that drink that night was far more mundane..we were chatting about christmas lists.

Ok so your now probably wondering how that culminated in a wedding....

Friday Favourite #8 : Soap and Glory Sugar Crush

Todays favourite was entirely caused buy my propensity to read blogs.

Numerous people had mentioned in passing that the scent of this line of products was incredible. I never really took any notice. Until one day when i was casually wandering through Boots (as you do) and spotted there was a 3 for 2 on just as i was looking for a new shower gel. 

I actually picked up the body buttercream first as I wanted to smell the stuff before i committed to anything. one lung full of the gorgeousness that was contained in the tub and i was hooked. I got the shower gel and 2 of the body buttercreams.

Out of the citrus family lime is definitely my favourite, and when it comes to comforting smells cake batter is one that makes me happy. Thankfully this smells EXACTLY like lime cake batter!! Honestly if they were to make this into a fragrance i'd spray it on everything I own. (Dear soap and glory, If your reading this please please please bring out at least a body mist in this!!!)

But the thing about this stuff is that it more than just a pretty scent. The body wash lathers nicely and isnt drying and the body butter is ridiculously moisturizing, come to think of it this might be the reason I felt slightly un-moisturized by the Nivea body conditioner.......

Anyhoo have you smelt the wondorousness that is the sugar crush line yet?

Let me know in the comments below,x

Nivea in shower skin conditioner (1st impression)

I'm blogging from my phone tonight so I hope this is going to work out ok!

Summer seems to have finally arrived in Glasgow and I'm hoping it'll stick around long enough for my day off tomorrow (*crosses all fingers and toes!*)

The only thing that bothers me about sunshine is that the excitement of digging out cute summer dresses turns to slight dispair at the thought of baring so much flesh to the outside world....

This year I've tried to be prepared by meticulously exfoliating and moisturizing and for the most part it's gone well. But standing around waiting for your moisturiser to sink in is dull to say the least!

Enter the new offering from Nivea......

The concept of moisturizing 'in shower' is nothing new, places like lush have been at this game for years but although the lush ones are great they can be expensive.

I got this GIANT bottle on offer at ASDA for the bargain price of £2.50. They also had a version for those with a drier skin but they only had that in the smaller bottle for the same price which seemed odd.

I've only used this once so far so this is by no means a comprehensive review but I shall continue using it and update if and when I create a fuller opinion.

So down to the nitty gritty.

Smell: it smells quite fresh,  if your familiar with Nivea moisturiser it's smells quite like that. I find it quite soothing.

Application: The idea is you step away from the shower, smooth it on, give it a minute and rinse it off. This turned out to be slightly easier said than done. As I mentioned the bottle is HUGE which is great because you get loads of product but also not so great when you realise that you only have small hands, that are all ready wet and now covered in moisturiser. I just couldn't get the thing to stop sliding out my hand and onto the floor! In hindsight the smaller bottle may have been easier to deal with. This isn't necessarily a problem for everyone but may be something to consider.

After effects: my skin is certainly softer than if I skipped moisturizing all together but I'm not sure I'm quite moisturised enough.  But I think oddly that might work out for what I'm planning (be sure to follow to find out what I mean)

Overall: I like the idea of this product and I think it could be great. I'll continue using this and see what the longer term effect is but I'm thinking I'll probably keep this at my folks for when I visit and I'll maybe get the smaller bottle for drier skin to see if that works out better.

Have you tried this yet?
Leave your thoughts in the comments below,x

Colours of The Rainbow Tag - Nail Polish Edition

Hppy June everybody!! Here's where summer finally kicks off......hopefully!!

I've seen The Rainbow Tag bobbing around You Tube for a while now and thought it'd be interesting to do a version mentioning my favourite polish in each category.

This is going to be quite picture heavy so sit back, relax, and wait for that page to load.....

DIY Gel Polish Haul and NOTD

For the back ground reading on why I ended up giving this a go see yesterdays post.

I did a bit of research and hit up Amazon!

The first thing i sourced was my UV lamp. After a bit of research I opted for the 36 watt with timer option, it was roughly about £17 + postage which i found to be reasonable enough.

It was the polishes I was worried about, Amazon does sell CND shellac polishes but at £15 quid a pop for something i might use once and then never again, I wasn't to sure....

While i was googling swatches of their colours though another brand kept popping up, Bluesky.

Now I'm a documented lover of a good dupe, and although i obviously bought a few, something makes me a little uneasy about these polishes. I mean its one thing to have similar colours to a high end brand but these have the same colours, the same bottles(different label) and even the same names for the colours. Its really pushing the line between 'dupe' and all out 'copy' but at around £6 a piece it's much more affordable for an at home enthusiast like myself. I'd be checking the bottles at any salons though.....

From Left to Right we have- Asphalt, Purple Purple, Hollywood, Tutti Frutti, Strawberry Smoothie, Moonlight and Roses, Silver VIP and the Base and Top coat. The colours of the bottles aren't really a good guide to the shades as, rather than the bottles being transparent, they have a similar colour overlay instead.

During my google swatch hunting travels i decided to try a nice layering effect I'd seen, Asphalt with a overcoat of Moonlight and Roses.

A quick YouTube tutorial watched, I was ready to get going.

1. I ran some Acetone over my bare nails to make sure my nails were perfectly clean.
2. 1 thin coat of basecoat cured under the lamp for 10 seconds.
3. 2 coats of asphalt, both cured under the lamp for 2 minutes each.
4. 1 coat of M&R again cured for 2 mins
5. A layer of top coat again cured for 2 minutes

Now i'm no expert so follow those instructions at your own risk but since doing this on Friday I've had people commenting on how nice my nails look, and I've not had any tip wear or even the slightest hint of a chip and my nails are horrific for chipping i can usually only manage about a day, if i'm not working, and sitting perfectly still!

The polishes are quite thick and can be a little troublesome but as long as your reasonably careful and do a clean up before you cure each layer it is fairly straight forward, if a little time consuming.

Have you ever given this a go? Any tips on technique or what colours to check out?

Leave a comment below or give me a tweet x

If you want a job done properly.....the story of a manicure.

Get a cup of tea apparently i'm penning a novel on this one!

This story starts in a sad place. Well really it starts with me having a few to many while out to see a crazy gig last Friday night....and yes it did end up a bit like the Katy Perry song...i think ;-)

Needless to say i wasn't exactly feeling tickety boo the next morning but these things happen and i had a nail appointment to get to!

Once i'd managed to scrub most of the random band autographs off of my booby area (don't judge!) I headed off to my favourite Beauty place in town armed with a carton of coconut water but no umbrella, which was a little foolish considering it was tipping it down.

I'm not going to name the salon in this post as this is where things get a little messy, I've been to the salon on numerous occasions and its been great, I've never been for a nail treatment there before, i'll not be back for one again.

It was so odd, i sat down, and the girl seemed nice enough. I was in for a shellac and the first thing she asked was what colour i'd like, i mentioned a classic french, she said no.... that should've been my first warning. She asked if i minded having my cuticles done, i said it was fine, then she went to town-ish. I obviously wasn't on top form but i didn't fully realise what she'd done until after i was home, raggedy doesn't cover it and 2 of them had evidently been bleeding :-(

When it came to the application of the polish we'd got round to chatting about polishes, I mentioned my collection and she seemed genuinely amazed that someone would be that into polish. I know, I know, i should've ran at that point.

But for some reason i stayed.

What came out her mouth next was so shocking i believe my jaw may have hit the floor. She actually told me to just buy a lamp and get some polish to give it a go myself at home, she even explained how to remove it and how to paint over with normal polish if i fancied a change. Now this is something i'd considered to do eventually anyway but to be sat in a salon being told by someone i was paying for a service that i could do it myself really easily was bizarre to say the least.

But then again the paint job she did on my nails was truly awful. I once let my friends kid paint my nails when we were playing salon and even she did a better job.

Some nails the polish was flooding the cuticle area some had the polish starting so far up it looked like i had regrowth, it was so uneven and it was all set in place for my long term pleasure!. Had i not been so ill i would've noticed at the time and refused to pay.

I was enraged, so as like any full grown woman would, i took it out on some internet shopping....

Hello Mr UV lamp...

Hello my cheap dupe UV polish friends......

and

Hello manicure i'm not ashamed of....

I'll be back tommorrow with more details of what i got/ what i used but i thought some background on how i came to this point would be useful.

Also if you've been to a great salon in the Glasgow area please let me know in the comments section, i'll be on the hunt for a pedicure next and need some recommendations!

Haulage of ridiculous amounts of polish...

This post was entirely brought about by the stars aligning.

For the past 2 weeks I've had access to a car to head to out of town shopping centers (well tha'ts more a happy by product of having the car) then  I won a gift voucher at work and Sallys had a VAT free day and obviously Boots is having its glorious 3 for 2.

Ramble: You don't ask, You don't get

Don't you just hate it when life goes haywire and you find yourself stuck between a rock and a hard place?

Yup that's me right now.

The trouble with being stuck between that rock and a hard place is that eventually there comes the point where you have to make a choice. Kind of like that guy that had that accident while climbing, you can sit there and die or you can take a chance, chop your own arm off and maybe, just maybe, you'll make it out ok.

Now obviously i'm not in any immediate mortal danger nor am i suggesting that i'll be chopping of any body parts anytime soon but more and more i'm being drawn to the old saying 'you don't ask, you don't get'

As I've got a bit older I've become more of a laid back, go with the flow, if it aint broke why fix it? type of person but sometimes that doesn't get me very far. Opportunities slip past and chances aren't taken and more and more life seems a bit like its just passing me by. And i don't like it.

The other day i decided to make some changes, I strolled into work asked for a meeting with my boss and asked for a promotion. I didn't get it but the point is i asked and now my boss is aware of my wish to progress and has paired me up with someone further on at the company to mentor me to be in a position to get the promotion when it  becomes available.

I asked and although i didn't get what i want immediately i am now in a much better position than just sitting hoping something would happen of its own accord.

Since this happened I've been seeing more and more opportunities popping up around me. Opportunities that have probably been there for a while but I've just not gone after. The most exciting thing about this is that i just pitched an idea that could give me the chance to do something I've wanted to do for a really really long time. If it works out it'll be incredible but if it doesn't work out? Well at least i tried.

As they say, You don't ask, you don't get!!!  ;-)

What are the words you live by?

A Sunday Stroll (well, ok, i went shopping!)

Some days you just need a simple trip up the shops with a good mate.

Today was that day.

If you follow me on TWITTER you'll know that i missed out on going to the opening of Farever 21 in Glasgow as my work decided to schedule a meeting for me on that day (which was also meant to be my day off!) So i had to bide my time until i could go.

If you follow me on INSTAGRAM you'll know today was that day.

Obviously I'm still on that whole not spending money unless its really really necessary kick. So i promise all these things were entirely necessary (cough cough)

My intention was to hit forever 21, renew my travel pass and go home , but my mate needed to find a dress and i felt the need to support her in this task, my debit card didn't thank me but i had a lovely day out.

Here are my purchases:

Rimmel Precious Stones Diamond Dust

Today i have a little polish review for you. First off i apologise for the gnarly looking lid on this polish, i had a bit of a hard time getting it open so i resorted to using my teeth, do not try that at home!

The Precious Stones collection has been out for a little while now but i'd kind of passed it over until i saw this polish on one of my friends. See the thing is i had been debating getting one of the OPI liquid sand collection but i wasn't overly enamored with any of the shades, i kind of liked the ones with the more noticeable glitter but nothing was pulling me in. Then, as i said, i saw this...

Diamond dust has a dark grey base, with a crap tonne of glitter of all sizes/colours packed into it and its all kinds of pretty.

 I applied 2 coats of this in a quick fashion, i recommend the speed as this is one of those polishes that tend to get a bit gloopy in the bottle while your painting. But the finish? Oh my, hello prettier cheaper liquid sand! without topcoat this has the same matte effect as the OPI incarnations but i'm a scaredy cat and had to apply a quick coat of Sally Hansen Insta-dry. Having said that this polish is a bit of a top coat eater and after 1 coat you can still definitely see texture on the nail.

At the end of the day i think this has satisfied my liquid sand urge and at a much more purse friendly cost of £3.29 on promotion (usually £3.99) HERE i think i may have to spash out on the red version as well ;-)

Have you found any great dupes for liquid sand, or anything else recently?
Let me know in the comments below, and if your feeling friendly please do give one of my follow links a click,x

The Worlds Latest Birchbox UK February Review

While many people are posting there 'what i got in my March birchbox overviews' I have finally got round to sampling all the products in my February one!

As i mentioned last month i'd rather do review than an overview on beauty boxes as personally i love to read about how people got on with actually using the products.

So here we go.

This is what the box looked like when i first pulled everything out.

The first thing that caught my eye was the Nick Chavez Plump 'N Thick

I'd received a hair volumiser in last months box which was quite nice and this one followed suit. I think the best thing about this is that it doesn't have a scent. I find a lot of hair products to be overly scented which gives me headache so it was nice change to have something scent free. And the product itself did the job, and didn't weigh down my fine hair.

Next up was the Gerda Spillmann Bio fond Foundation

i was excited to see a foundation sample in the box as i am constantly searching for the perfect base. I was a little troubled when i noticed on the side of the box it was shade 4 , i'm casper the ghost pale so im usually looking for the lowest number possible on these things. I'd filled in a beauty profile when i'd signed up for Birchbox so i was horrified to open it and see a dark tan colour! I thought i might attempt to make use of it as a bronzer but when i swiped across the product it seemed to lighten significantly. I'd still say its a few shades dark for me but if i pick up a bit of colour in the summer it might work out for me then,

Eboost Daily health boost

I'm not so much a fan of vitamin drinks, in my opinion they're pretty overpriced and don't do that much. As these sorts of drinks go it tasted ok, but i didn't suddenly have the urge to run a marathon or climb a mountain, so i wont be running out to buy more.

Korres Guava Shower Gel

I've tried a few Korres products before and found them a bit of a mixed bag. I do however like the shower Gels and this was no exception. To me it smells like holidays so after a quick test i've put it straight in my bag for my holiday later in the year. Its the perfect size for travel :-)

Vichy Eau Thermale

Again i only gave this a quick spray to try it as its now also popped in my bag for my holiday. What i like about this is that it has a nice fine  mist spray that has a wide enough spray angle(?) to cover my big round in one go. It'll be lovely for when i'm laying next to the pool.

As an added extra there was a set of eyelash curlers in this months box. As curlers go they were fine and i'll probably use them but they are nothing special.

So all in all i found this to be a another decent box, i am a bit concerned about what this month might bring, as from overviews i've seen so far there seems to be 2 very different boxes doing the rounds. Hopefully mine will be waiting for me at work on monday so we shall see.

If you'd like to give Birchbox whirl this link will take you over to sign up:

 http://birchbox.co.uk/?raf=9794

I am not associated with Birch box in any way other than when i hand over my pennies every month to get my box!

Friday Favourite #7 My bedroom (and a big old philosophical ramble)

I mentioned in yesterdays post that i'd done a little bit of re-jigging in my flat.

I really love it all, it feels very me but the bit i'm loving most is definitely my bedroom.

You see I have a thing about the colour white, and before anyone says i know white is not really a colour. My entire place is painted white, i like it like that A: because it goes with everything B: because it makes my small flat feel airy and C: because i hate painting, this way if i fancy a change i can just change a few soft furnishings to get a completely different look.

My bedroom has always been a bit of an after thought on my home decorating crusade as well, its not really a room a parade of people get to see. So it was plain as could be, white walls, cream carpet, white bedding and dark wood furniture......boring.

But i can feel spring in the air! (though in Scotland at the moment spring seems to consist of rain and snow!)

And i wanted a fresh start, After all 'a change is as good as a holiday' and all that.

In my search for inspiration i was browsing the H&M website when i came across the cute Pink Flamingo Bedsheets and i instantly knew they were for me. The flamingos are quite the departure from plain white, but i find them fun and quite girly. They look exactly like something you might find in a Miami motel so i feel almost liek im on a nice summer holiday whenever i look at them.

The canvases on the wall are also new, well the canvases aren't, but the wording is. They may not look perfect but that's because i'm no artist.

If your wondering what they are all about it let me explain.

In the book Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy 42 is put forward as the answer to THE question of life universe and everything, no one is terribly sure what THE question is but hey ho! Its a bit of an odd idea but a long time ago i became a bit obsessed with it, i love the idea of the randomness of it and i think that is the answer to THE question: randomness.

Life-Random. Universe-Random. Everything -Random.

And that's why i wanted a constant reminder of that on my bedroom wall.

Offt I've gone all philosophical there....... but if you still with me, don't you think the flamingos are cute?

Does the change in seasons spur you on for a change?

Let me know in the comments,x

Not lost at all.....

You may have been forgiven for thinking i'd disappeared from the face of the planet.

I didn't.

I've just had a very busy/frustrating couple of weeks.

This is what i did....(i'll leave out the frustrating bits)

Last week went by in a blur of fun-ness (yes that's a word!)

In between working like a maniac:

I took some time to reorganise my flat, there will be a little post on the best bit of this on Friday ;-) but i'm 1 picture frame away from feeling totally happy with the place. I've lived here 7 years so it's certainly been a long time coming!!

I went to a fashion show!

Glasgow School of Art has an amazing Fashion and Textile show every year that's run by the students to show off their wares. And this year I was an invited guest due to being involved with a charitable foundation that provides grants to some of the students. We got to sit in the front row which was a little cramped but the show itself was awesome, some very beautiful pieces were strutted down the catwalk along with some, er, more unusual designs. I really enjoyed being there. (Random Fact: When i started working i was firmly set on being in fashion in some way, i miss that now, follow your dreams kids!)


Also while i've been missing i had a couple of house guests, one of my dearest friends brought their boyfriend up to meet us Scottish lot for the first time. My friends can be a little much to take and i think we frightened him a bit but hopefully all will be forgiven by the time we go on holiday together in September...

We went to Khublai Khans which is legendary in Glasgow (and presumably Edinburgh as well). Its a Mongolian Barbecue restaurant and its one of those places where you can eat all sorts of unusual meat (not for the veggies really!) We had the feast option where you get a starter then you can go as many times as you want to the 'create your own' buffet and then a pudding. It was so much fun the boys all tried to out do each other with how much chilli they could down and everyone had a great time trying out all the different meats, my favourite is the springbok, but you can have just about anything, Kangaroo, Zebra, Ostrich etc and they had a big bowl of horse if anyone was missing having it in there frozen lasagne ;-)

Somehow we managed to spend 4 hours in there. I'm not sure how that happened but still we were well fed. then we headed out for a few drinks and a bit of dancing, one thing led to another and although many pictures were taken few are appropriate for public viewing....

Free lolly at the end of the night!

Me looking a hot mess, i presume this was an accidental selfie as i have no recollection of it being taken...

Needless to say it took a few days for me to recover.

Anyhoo, I'm back in action so hopefully i'll be able to get back to posting on a regular(ish) basis,x

And the winner is....

The winner of the Get your dupe on! Giveaway is..........


Courtney


If your Courtney, please check your email. If not don't worry I shall no doubt be having another giveaway in the future.xxxx

Friday Favourite #6 The Q&A 5 Year Journal

Early this year there was a little bit of a craze in the blog community around the Q&A journal.

But just in case you've been living under a rock i thought i'd through in my thoughts.

The basic concept of the journal is that every day of the year asks a question and under it there is space for 5 years worth of answers. Its a simple concept but also quite a clever one.

I reckon it'd be interesting to look back and have a snapshot of how life and probably more importantly my perspective on life has changed. Kind of like writing little notes for your future self.

Maybe it is the fact that i'm evidently trying to have a bit of a early mid-life crisis (see HERE and HERE) but i'm hoping that i can stick to keeping this diary as every time i pick it up it somehow gives me a bit of hope for change in the future (oh dear i've gone all deep again!) Seeing those blank spaces wondering what i might fill them with......

Are you doing a Q&A journal?

i got mine for £6.19 from Amazon HERE

Soap and Glory The Breakfast Scrub

A few weeks ago i was making myself some dinner while watching YouTube videos. It was just another regular Tuesday night. Then i smelt something burning and then there was smoke, and that's when it hit me, i'd managed to turn the wrong ring on on the cooker and my iPad was on fire!!!!!

That story is relevant to this body scrub, i'll get to it, I promise.

Get your dupe on!! (Giveaway closed)

Erm... following on from my frustrated post earlier, i decided on a bit of retail therapy on the way home... i know, i know, i suck!

But its lucky for you guys that i do because i picked up a few things for a little give away :-)

I took a browse around Superdrug yesterday (to supposedly avoid temptation lol!) and i noticed that the high street is dupe-tastic at the moment, with good old MUA leading the way! Also the new lip stains from l'oreal have started to appear in stores so i've decided  to run with that theme...

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.

So I chopped my nails off....

Yeah, so kind of what the title says.

You may have noticed that this 'life and nails blog' has been a little short on the nails front recently.

There is a reason for this, i'm still as obsessed as ever with my polish collection, but my poor nails have decided to give up on me altogether.

I don't know if its because of the cold and my seeming lack of ability in wearing gloves. Or whether the fact that where im working at the moment means i never receive any sort of daylight) but my previously slightly peeling but not that bad nails have flat lined.

Bending peeling and breaking, you name it im suffering for it. I've tried using a multitude of nail treatments and i really thought i was getting somewhere with the Sally Hansen Miracle Cure but eventually enough was enough so as you can see i've cut them back to nothing. Its not terribly practical for my work and i have to grab a hairbrush every time i get an itch but i know ultimately that if i keep them short, out of harms way and give them a bit of pampering all will be well with the world once more.

I am hoping to get a few more nail posts up in the next while but please bare with me during this difficult time...

Does anyone have any suggestions on good polish colours that look nice on short nails? 

Friday Favourite #5 Burt's Bees Beeswax and Banana Hand Creme

Todays favourite is back to being beauty related, Hurrah!

I picked up this jar of Burts Bees Beeswax and Banana Hand Creme back in a haul last October, put it in a drawer and promptly forgot all about it. Honestly this happens to me so often.

Anyhoo i dusted it off last weekend....

First off the scent this product has is quite strong, this doesn't bother me but if you've got a sensitive nose it could be a little much. The other thing about the scent is that its FULL ON foam Bananas. If your unsure what a foam banana is, its a kind of sweet shaped like a banana and it has the most synthetic banana sugary sweet chewy foam texture. They are awesome.

 

I love the scent, and i love this product i think it leaves my hands lovely and soft. It is really quite greasy so if your after a sinks in and your ready to go kind of product i'd maybe not suggest splurging on this as it is pricey for a hand cream, but if your after a good treatment for your hands or something to use with some cotton gloves this is definitely worth a look.

I keep it on my nightstand and apply it, liberally, before i go to bed, and in the morning i wake up to soft smooth hands.

Happy days :-)

Whats your favourite this week?

I got a little bored....

I am an intrinsically impulsive person.

I get an idea in my head then i set about doing it.

I woke yesterday morning and decided i wanted a haircut. Now while most people would call a hairdresser, make an appointment and so forth...... I decided i wanted it now. I probably could've got a standby appointment at a place in town but every penny i have at the moment is ear marked for feeding me until payday.

Now I happen to own a basic pair of hair scissors so well one thing led to another.....

And now i have a jaw length bob. Its by no means perfect, but i reckon it could pass for 'shaggy' and it'll certainly do just now. I decided to curl it, which maybe wasn't the best move, i think it'd look better wavy, but either way i think the messier i make  it the cuter it'll look :-)

Its actually a wee bit shorter than it looks in that photo. And don't i look grumpy, lol!

Have you ever had a go at cutting your own hair?

Friday Favourite #4 The Golden Girls

This week I rediscovered a classic.

The wonderful world of the Golden Girls.

If your unfamiliar with the concept it's a bunch of old ladies living together in Miami in the 80s. Not the most exciting of situations I hear you say but if you haven't watched before I urge you to give it a try.

As much as I live the likes of The Big Bang Theory and How I Met Your Mother I sometimes suffer from a bit of "beautiful people all complaining about how hard their awesome looking lives are" overload. There's something comforting about a funny sitcom that is basically about friendship and making the best of what you've got.  This is my TV equivalent of a giant cup of tea, plate of cake and a cozy blanket.

It's sweet, touching and marvellously retro even if you don't find it as funny as I do the outfits should keep you coming back for more, it's 80s shoulder pads and bright prints a go-go!

What's your go-to comfort TV?

Meanwhile in another world....

So my last post was perhaps slightly heavy in the self indulgent wittering front.......this is about to continue.

Since than I've become a little bit obsessed with the concept that the life i would love to live is not actually that far out of my grasp.

I took stock of my bank account, yes ladies  in the cold harsh light of day i took that big bull, grabbed it by the horns and stared it square in the eye (that's a saying right?)

Horrified doesn't cover it. 

I reckon on average I spend nearly £300 a month on unnecessary rubbish. Part of this spent on paying off previous 'buying stuff' misdemeanors (which obviously needs to be done) and part is caused by getting over excited when there's a deal on in Boots (which, not matter how i justify, does not need to be done).

Now some people will think oh that's not so bad, but others, like myself, will see that number and feel a little bit sick.

Imagine for a moment that money didn't wander off every month. 

I wonder what i could do....*if blogs went fuzzy and into dream mode that would happen here*

If i had £300:

I could get myself 'Trev', my beloved imaginary fiat 500- I could even afford the insurance and filling him with petrol and probably the odd day trip, maybe a jaunt to Ikea or visiting friends that i hardly ever see due to public transport being utter poop.

Mind you i'd also quite fancy a weekend in Rome

or

I could spend a week in Marrakech!

or if i could be bothered to hold off for a whole month £600 would get me

A weekend in NEW YORK!! I could be that annoying person that goes to New York all the time, oh how i want to be that person.

Once i get to 3 months worth (£900) things get crazy that would get me

8 nights in Sri Lanka - Random fact: my Grandmother lived in Sri Lanka when she was a child, i'd LOVE to visit there. 

And in 4 months i'd have enough for a ROUND THE WORLD plane ticket.

All this stuff is pretty travel orientated but there really is a whole world out there and i want to see it. I want to be the granny in the old peoples home with albums and albums full of photos bothering the nurses by retelling the anecdote about how i once stayed awake all night because i could've sworn i saw a scorpion in my tent, though that's already happened, but you get my drift.

What would you do if you had the money?

I promise i'll back to more of the lighter nail polish/beauty/tea posts soon but by golly imagine how cool it would be to incorporate some of the above on here????

The girl that has everything and nothing...

WARNING: Incoherant babbling is about to occur.

Have you ever had a moment in life where everything suddenly became as clear as day.

I've just had one.

A while ago i posted about the whole spending ban phenomenon that seemed to be sweeping the blog community and my slight confusion about the concept and whether or not it was a completely great idea or just a one way ticket to a boring existence.

I wrote my piece and then pay day hit and i went on a mass spending spree, i bought stuff, all very nice stuff that i am happy to have in my life but at the end of the day its just stuff. The money i spent on that stuff could have paid off that pesky credit card that although i never use but still takes up 30 quid of my money every month to chip slowly away at the balance on it which was caused by me buying........ something....i cant quite remember what.

And that's when it hit me. I LOVE STUFF but in a very short space of time i'll forget all about it. A new lip gloss is not going to change my life, I hardly ever wear the stuff but I have 8 of them and really that's not ok.

I'm very lucky to have all the stuff i have. I work hard enough for it, I own my own home, I have more clothes in my wardrobe that i could find occasions to wear, i have more makeup than i could get through in a year, but most months by the time it gets to the 15th i'm working out how to make the £10 quid i have left in the bank feed and entertain me until the 25th (payday). And as much as i like beans with toast (yes 'with') its hardly an inspiring way to live.

I think what i'm finally realising is that when I'm old and grey i wont remember the 10,000 tops i got in Primark but i will remember nights out with my friends, the random weekends in foreign lands and the opportunities that i can jump at because i don't have to worry about stretching my pennies to breaking point.

Now i'm not planning on rushing out to sell all my possessions but i think i might not be adding to them for a good while. If i paid off all the things i have already it would afford my life so much more possibility than i feel i have at the moment and right about now sat in the flat on a cold Sunday night the concept of having 'possibilities' is far far more attractive to me than anything else in the entire world.

So, back to the spending ban idea, i think I've come to the conclusion that, for me, not buying some stuff now would not lead to a boring existence but randomly i think not buying 'stuff' could lead me to a whole new more exciting existence. I don't like the term 'ban' so i think i'll go on a splurge on payday, i'll work out exactly what i want to buy tot up the value........... and promptly pay that amount to my credit card bill.

The practice of this might be more difficult than me sitting here pondering about it, but right now, at this current moment, i really do feel like the girl that has everything and nothing at the same time.

Friday Favourite #3 Candy Crush

This weeks favourite is more of an obsession, Candy Crush.

 

I'm sure you are all aware of this time swallowing craze. The tasks vary depending on the level but the premise is simple, match the coloured candies in groups of 3 or more to achieve a goal.

 

I'm currently stuck on level 32, but I only downloaded it a couple of days ago. The thing that gets me is that when your out of lives you have to wait sooooo long (30mins) to get a new one. You can link it to facebook so you can beg your friends to give you a life (oh the irony!) but I haven't let myself do that yet. For now I'm finding things to keep me occupied, so my flat is shiny and clean and I even went for a run at one point!

 

What your favourite app at the moment? Have you been sucked into the Candy Crushing craze?

P.S the face of the yeti shop is soooo cute!

 

Posted with Blogsy

Fat Girl Run??

As you will know if your a regular reader last year i had a series called  Fat Girl Slim. It was short lived to say the least, i mean Christmas just isn't the same if you don't keep your sugar levels sky high with a constant intake of Quality Street.

But now we're at the start of February and my habit of having cake for dinner really must end. There's a bridesmaids dress to fit into and even more scarily there's a bikini to be donned on my beach holiday. The good thing about these 2 events is that i only need to lose a bit for the wedding (June) and once i get to that its only a bit more and a case of extra toning for the holiday (September) so i have a decent run at this timeline (see what i did there....)

My problem is that when it comes to exercise i have the attention span of a 3 year old. I've lost count of the amount of workout DVDs that I've used once and lost interest in. They get wheeled out from time to time but not with enough regularity to actually achieve anything.

So onto my next fad, running. I've never seen the point, you'd never even catch me running for a bus but i have friends that run and live quite close to a jolly big park so it seems logical that i give it a go.

Now obviously this requited me to go and buy some running shoes (any excuse to shop!)

They're so pretty! The recommendation is that you should go to a specialist store and be 'fitted' for running shoes so you don't do yourself an injury. I haven't done that  but since i'll probably run to the end of the street and pass out before shoving them in the bottom of my wardrobe i didn't want to spend to much. If this works out i'll go and get a special pair.

So here i am ready to go, i should probably stop procrastinating by babbling on here :-)

Are you a runner? how do you stay motivated?
And can anyone recommend a good android running app?

Seche Magnifique

I have a confession to make. I haven't been into Sallys for MONTHS. Most of the time i can recite the approximate stock of each nail range in each branch of my city but with moving my work to an out of town location i no longer just have a wander down on my lunch break :-( 

But i went into Oswald Street the other day I've just been paid and it was VAT free day, that's a combination i couldn't ignore. I also couldn't ignore the big Seche colour stand that they had right next to the checkout. I've no idea whether these were new in or had been there for a while but i was curious so i had to pick one up. There wasn't anything that was out of the ordinary in the colour range that i could see, which was a bit disappointing but i've been looking for more summery colours so Magnifique seemed to fit the bill.

I've been a fan of the Seche Vite fast dry top coat for a while so i was looking forward to see i got on with this. The formula was nothing special it was easy enough to work with, the brush was very similar to the one with the top coat (but that's hardly surprising) I could possibly have got away with 2 coats but i did 3.

 Its more a deep magenta than the pink that it photgraphs but the pictures do show the really pretty blue shimmer that made me pick up the polish in the first place, i think it gives an unusal edge to the colour, and will look even nicer when i get a bit of colour (as much as i get colour!) in the summer. What i've found with a lot of polish with shimmer is that the prettiness doesnt show up on the nails, not with this! It inst quite as bright but its definitely still there.....

Is it just me or does it look like Simon Cowell reflecting in old pointy??

The picture above shows the pink more true to colour. I really like this colour, and i probably would by more from this brand but the colour range seems a little 'meh' at the moment but i will be watching to see if more are released over time.

Have you tried anything from the Seche range? What did you think?