A DISAPPOINTING REALISATION

This will only be a very quick post, but something I have come to realise recently is just how bad Barry M is for your nails. I have been using the Barry M clear nail varnish/bottom coat for quite a while now and I have come to realise that it is more or less ruining my nails.
I have found that the top layer of my nails (NOT the nail varnish bit- the actual nail) always peels away really easily and it is doing it a lot more recently, and I have blamed the Barry M bottom coat for the problem.

In order to combat this problem I have thrown away my clear Barry M nail varnish for good and have resorted to investing in some more expensive nail care products. I was very impressed with Essie's 'After School Boy Blazer' so I decided to go for one of their bases- the 'Grow Stronger' base coat. According to the reviews this prevented peoples nails from peeling and splitting, and was a great streak-free base for their nail varnish. I have also notice that it goes on very thick which is a good thing in my books; it also looks pink in the bottle but goes on quite clear and is basically a 'you nails but better' natural look.

I will report back on how well this works as I first have to grow out the tops of my nails that are splitting but I will hopefully be able to go back to wearing a normal base coat (not Barry M though) sooner rather than later. So far, though, it appears to be working quite well as it has not chipped off AT ALL and there is no new peeling bits on my nails. I am hoping to still be able to wear Barry M colours as I feel they should be okay as long as there is a stronger base coat underneath.

Essie 'Grow Stronger'- £8.99 in Boots.

SKIN THE COLOUR OF MOCHA

Since my school erected (hurhurhur) a coffee bar in the sixth form common room, I have unfortunately become a bit of an addict. My current coffee love is mochas (not to mention how amazing hot chocolate that comes out of a machine is- why is it better than the normal ones?). My love of coffee has led me to experiment at home and I believe I have come up with a sufficient mocha substitute for the time being...

You Will Need:-A mug (duh)
-A teaspoon (double duh)
-Milk (I use semi-skimmed)
-Coffee
-Hot chocolate power stuff
-A Microwave

To Make:
-Fill up your mug with milk
-Microwave it for however long is needed for it to be hot enough to your taste (I do mine for 2mins10secs as my microwave is quite hot and I like my drinks to be burn-your-mouth-boiling hot when I drink them).
-Depending on how chocolatey or coffee-y you want your drink to be, put in the hot chocolate and coffee (coffee is an acquired taste and I prefer my drinks to be slightly more chocolatey so I used one teaspoon of coffee and two teaspoons of hot chocolate).
-Stir and then drink.
-Thank me.

APOLOGIES TO MY PURSE

Just to say I am very sorry I have been neglecting my blog somewhat but I have my AS exams coming up soon plus coursework and other work so I have been really busy recently.

 

 

 

 

This post is the lovechild of two-three months of Boots, Superdrug, Body Shop and many other shopping trips. I had fun. Too much fun.

 

1. I genuinely have a severe problem when it comes to lip balm and the Body Shop. After my *slight* obsession with the Born Lippy stick in plum I couldn't resist getting another. In my defense at the time Body Shop has a buy-one-get-one-half-price offer on all their mini lip balms, soaps, etc. and I couldn't pass by on that one. I decided to opt for the pomegranate one as it gives a nice orangey/redy/corally tint and I don't have one like that.
Born Lippy sticks- £3 in Body Shop

2. I saw this nail Barry M nail varnish in Berry Cosmo on someone's Instagram and I couldn't not get it after that. It is the most beautiful dark purple/maroon colour that is probably more better suited to autumn/winter but I absolutely love it and it looks amazing with two/three coats.
Normal Barry M nail varnish- £2.99 in Superdrug

3. I couldn't find the Essie nail varnish in After School Boy Blazer in any of my local shops so I ordered it online and then prayed for it to arrive before my holiday (which it did but my brother didn't answer the door so I didn't get it until after my holiday). Sad? I know.
Essie nail varnish- £7.99 in Superdrug

 

4. This was actually a present from my friend's mum as she knows my love of lip balm, this Vaseline 'Paint the Town' is a limited edition one (missed out on getting the pink bubble one- boo :( ) and it just gives a really lovely, subtle redish-pink tint to your lips and basically enhances your natural colour (I mentioned in my October/November Favourites that I had got back into the Vaseline Rosy Lips and I am loving Paint the Town.
Vaseline Limited Edition 'Paint the Town'- £3.49 in Boots

5. These Topshop leggings were one of those 'omg I NEED these' buys and I absolutely love them. I'd been wanting tartan trousers for ages and these are perfect, they are much thicker than normal leggings and are basically perfect in every way (apart from the small hole going up the inside seam that I didn't see until I'd cut the label off but was easily sown back up).
Leggings- £25 in Topshop

 

The colours are much darker than this but the sun was very bright when I took the picture

 

6. This Rimmel Kate Moss matte lipstick was another kind of impulse buy but I love it all the same. Wine 107 is a dark colour (I love my darks) and is a dark red with pink undertones (I am yet to branch out into bright red colours for my lips).
Rimmel Kate Moss lipsticks (matte)- £5.49 in Superdrug

7. As many may already know You Me At Six is one of my most favourite bands ever and their new album Cavalier Youth is amazing and perfect and ARGH. I love it, I have it on repeat currently, I want to get it tattooed to my face. (I don't know what it is but something about this album cover gives me this weird extreme nostalgia and makes me want to cry).
Cavalier Youth CD and DVD combo- £12 on Amazon

8. After wanting to try one for AGES I finally picked up a Body Shop lip butter in Shea. I'd always been put off these before as £4 is quite a lot for such a small tub and the Born Lippy pots are only £2 each, however I have found myself using this religiously every night and it has worked wonders on my lips- it also smells really great. I also picked up another one in the Limited Edition blueberry range as, as I said, it's limited edition and I got one for my mum for mother's day and it smelt amazing.
Lip butter- £4 each in Body Shop

 

9. Yet another nail varnish, but I was NEEDING a pastel mint colour to add to my collection and I stumbled across this Model's Own one in Apple Pie in a Model's Own pop-up shop in my local shopping centre. This nail varnish claims to be scented like apples and has a little scratch-and-sniff stick on the top- the whole Model's Own Fruit Pastels range is absolutely beautiful and I want all of them.
Model's Own Fruit Pastel range in Apple Pie- £5 in Boots

 

10. Lush is always an iffy brand for me as some of their products smell amazing whilst others I would not want to touch with a barge pole. I was in Lush recently shopping for my friend and choosing her a bath bomb when I came across the Butterball. The problem I have with most Lush bath bombs is that they are far too big for just one bath and I hate that. The Butterball, however, is one of their smaller ones and with a scent of 'cocoa butter, light vanilla and musk' it is the perfect one for me (it also doesn't come with loads of small bits inside that float around your bath and you have to spend hours picking out afterwards urgh).
Butterball bath bomb- £2.50 in Lush

THE ALIEN EXPERIMENT

When I was in my local large shopping centre in February half term I came across a Model's Own makeup pop-up store. After I purchased a beautiful pastel mint nail varnish called 'Apple Pie' (£5 in Boots or Superdrug) I was also given a free eyeliner. Now I'm not normally one for using free eyeliners etc. as I have very sensitive eyes but I couldn't resist this one...

I guarantee at some stage in everybody's life they have owned some form of blue eye makeup to heighten the idea that they are 'cool' and 'so very very random'. For me, it was the year 9 (age 13-14) cheap blue mascara that clumped your eyelashes together and made me the butt of my Uncle's jokes when I wore it to Pizza Express (but it was okay because I was confident in my 'randomness' and I also only wore it about twice because it was horrible). BUT NOW it is time to go back to my blue eyeshadow roots (who didn't own blue eyeshadow that they slapped thickly across their eyelids like a hooker when they were younger?) but this time trade it in for a metallic blue eyeliner. Bye bye black, it is time for blue (please, black, no, obviously I will still be wearing you most of the time).

Basically my experiment here is will I look like an alien/twat when I wear blue metallic eyeliner or will I actually be able to pull it off? Watch this space*.

Comes with a smudger thingy and the lid has a sharpener

*I can confirm that, while I haven't worn it out to see if I look like a twat, the eyeliner is actually not that noticeable from a far distance and it looks like I'm not wearing any unless you go up close.

Models Own Shimmer Eyeliner Pencil in Azure Blue- £4 in Boots

THE ONLY ONE YOU'LL EVER NEED

I am the ultimate connoisseur of lip balm (in mine own eyes) and time and time again I find myself coming back to the same lip balm in my hour of need. This post will not be a long one as all I have to say is that the Nivea Hydro Care stick is one of the best lip balms I have ever used and it is definitely my go-to when it comes to chapped lips as it is super moisturising and the stick-form means it can be applied quickly and easily on the go. Buy it and thank me later.

Nivea Hydro Care- £1.50 in Tesco

EXPANSION ON THE INTERWEBS

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This is a boring adminy post that I have to do in order to claim my blog on Bloglovin', sorry all.

CH-CH--CH-CH-CHANGES

I am immensely technologically challenged which is why I will, sadly, never get my blog to look as pretty as I want it to as I simply do not know how (if anyone does know how to change a blog layout and make it pretty it would be extremely useful if someone told me how).

I have actually recently changed the way my blog looks because I wasn't a fan of the pink stripes (I do actually miss it however, it's weird seeing my blog without it). I like the sophistication of the white background but I also really love the colour of the spots; I haven't finished playing around with it yet as I still want to fix up the side bar a bit as it's a bit (*lot) boring- as long as I work out how to input my Bloglovin' thingy in (I have Bloglovin' now follow me)- and I also want to make a banner/header for myself somehow.

Another slight change I have made to my blog is a page entitled 'Syndicat D'initiative' which lives on my homepage and is an 'about me' page which also contains other links of where to find me on the interwebs (big step that). But overall I am pretty happy with how my blog is looking at the moment.

Anyway, the main point of this post and the biggest change (apart from the new blog look) is to let y'all know that I have decided to change my blog URL. I HATED 'roseteabags' because it sounds exactly like a 14 year olds pastel and Starbucks themed Instagram account which is not what I had wanted. Originally I had wanted 'Vagablonde' (which is why it is the name of my blog) or 'teabags' but both of those had been taken by people who haven't blogged since 2009 (grrrr). The reason I chose 'roseteabags' originally was so I could have 'teabags' but it also linked to my name (Rosie- you should know that). People who have not blogged in years should not be allowed to keep all the good URLs, they should have them taken away as a punishment for hogging them.

After deciding that I wanted my URL to be a single word, I spent many months choosing what I wanted it to be. I prefer single word blog URLS as they are so much simpler and I believe they look nicer. Anyhoo, I have decided to go for 'Rozoid' - Rozoid is the nickname given to me years ago by my father's best friend and it's one that I really, really love and is also simple and easy- plus my blog will still be linked to my name.

I will always have some sentimental attachment to 'roseteabags' but it just sounds too childish and I have grown to resent my blog being called that over the past few months. The only thing left to do now is work out how to actually change my URL...

So that is about it, PLEASE NOTE after today this blog will no longer be roseteabags.blogspot.com but you can find me at rozoid.blogspot.com which will be exactly the same blog just with a different URL.