NAILED IT

In my summer essentials post I mentioned I had too many nail varnishes that I wanted to talk about so I was making a separate post. And this is it. Enjoy.
In case any of you were wondering I am going to be wearing black nail varnish (Topshop's 'Cloak and Dagger') on my fingers for all my summer camping trips because (as gross as this sounds) camping is quite dirty and dark colours means you can't see the dirt under your nails. On holiday I will most likely be wearing Rimmel's Rita Ora collection in 'White Hot Love' as lighter nails in the summer make you look more tanned. And for the whole summer I will be wearing Topshop's 'Tidal' on my toes as it is one of those colours that looks good on both fingers and feet and that doesn't happen very often with nail varnish.

The Long-Term Favourites:
My long term favourites are Topshop's Parma Violet (I'm obsessed with the name of this one, I love it when nail varnishes have fun names) and Tidal. Parma Violet is the prettiest lilac colour ever and Tidal is a light grey/pale blue colour depending on the light and it is just beautiful.
Also, not a Topshop colour, is one of my most favouritest nail varnishes in the whole world which I must have been wearing for at least three years now, it's an Accessorize nail varnish in the colour Teal and it's the loveliest greeny-blue colour and it looks absolutely beautiful on its own or with a silver glitter pained over the top.
Barry M's 'Peach Melba' has been a long-term staple in my nail varnish collection and is a great summer colour; my favourite way to wear 'Peach Melba' is actually with a matte top coat on top and I personally think it looks better and so much prettier that way.

This is an old a well loved bottle so I apologise for the appearance; the most accurate view of the colour is the bottom half of the bottle

Sand and Sea:
This is my collection colours that kind of reminds me of being at the beach. My favourite colour in my 'beach' collection are Models Own Fruit Pastel range in 'Apple Pie'; I have spoken about this one a few times but it is the most perfect pastel mint colour and plus it actually smells like apples, which is weird. The 'sand' colour we have is Barry M gelly high shine in 'Lychee', I wear this nude to feel grown up but I also think it could look really pretty on holiday. I'm putting the Rimmel Rita Ora in 'White Hot Love' in the 'beach' colours because sometimes sand is white. And that is all I have to say on that one, except reiterating my stuck-record point of light colours making you look more tanned.
One colour I did want for summer but never got round to getting was a light blue (or maybe also a light yellow), the two best light blues I have found and will definetly be getting are Models Own Fruit Pastel in 'Blueberry Muffin' and Rimmel Rita Ora in 'Pillow Talk' (for light yellow your best bet would probably be Models Own Fruit Pastel in 'Banana Split').

HERE COMES THE SUMMER

The minute my Christmas tree was taken down and Christmas was officially over, my brain switched into 'yes summer now please', so here is my summer essentials:

1. Nails
I realised when writing this section that I ramble. A lot. So I am making a separate post which will probably be published on the same day. 
I am a big, big fan of coral, mint and pastel colours in general and summer is the perfect time to crack those babies out. Wearing light coloured nails such as white or pale pink is also key in the summer as they make you look more tanned.

2. Eyes
One thing I have come to really love in the summer is brown eyeliner as it looks softer and more natural on the eyes; my all-time favourite eyeliner that I use daily in black is the Body Shop Carbon Eye Definer, so I bought it in brown as well.
My eyeshadow colours are both Body Shop (there is a trend) Colour Crush colours in 'Pink Crush' and 'Mon Cherry' but I also think golds are beautiful around this time of year and it is high time I dug out my beautiful Sephora gold shadow.

3. Lips
For lip balm I'd have to go with the Body Shop lip butter in Shea- I did a post on this back in February and I just love it (I'd wanted to try one for SO LONG), it has a nutty scent (obviously) that is perfect for all year round as it smells like summer but at the same time smells like winter (if that makes any sense) and it is just a wonder product for smooth lips. Also this summer I have EOS pomegranate-raspberry (smells like summer heaven), and Body Shops' Vitamin E balm with SPF.

I don't wear lip gloss all that much as I prefer balms, but my long-term lip gloss favourite that I have rediscovered recently has got to be the Body Shop Coconut Lip Gloss as it is such a subtle pink shimmer but it is so beautiful on. The Body Shop born lippys are also perfect in the summer as they smell fruity and amazing, my favourite being guava which literally smells like heaven.

For lipsticks my two summer colours are both from Topshop- Rio Rio (a bright red matte) and Infrared (a bright, almost neon, orange matte); but also I couldn't resist throwing one of my dark colours in there, probably my absolute most favourite, Rimmel Kate Moss (matte) in 107. My new summer purchase as of today is the Rimmel London Lasting Finish Colour Rush (mouthful) in 'Not an Illusion' which is so beautiful and I am really excited to wear it (pictured above).

4. Face
I never wear all that much face makeup in the summer as it feels gross to have a full face of makeup when everything is all hot and sweaty. The one thing I would say though is make sure you bring not only your normal shade of face makeup (concealer in my case), but also the next shade up so you don't end up wearing makeup in the wrong shade if you tan.

(Collection Lasting Perfection concealer)

5. Hair
The best way to get a nice summery hair look is to go in the sea, but obviously that is not an option for everyone so there is the lovely alternative of sea salt spray. I have the Lush one and I think I'd actually have to say don't buy Lush, buy a different one. The Lush spray is made from sea salt, sea water and sea weed and so sniff it is a very strong salty scent, but is also quite nice. HOWEVER this nice version of the scent wears off and just becomes quite unbearable if you are walking around the whole day smelling it, also your head smells and that is quite antisocial.
TOP TIP FOR SUMMER: Firstly, wear your hair down as then the sun shines all over it and lightens your hair to pretty colours. ALSO when your hair is wet, put some lemon juice (just squeeze a lemon for it) on your hair and it lightens your hair and it works really well.

6. Bath
Not technically 'bath' items as such, but exfoliating gloves for super smoothy smooth legs (expect a post on this sometime soon) and Body Shop body butters- need I say any more on them?

7. Clothing
All I can say is pastels, florals, Aztec and loose, floating clothing. Lovely.
Also I feel that my all-time favourite shorts should get a mention here: Johnnie B (by Boden clothing) chino shorts. They are undoubtedly the comfiest shorts in the world.
One more shoutout here to Next and their padded, underwired bikinis which are super comfy and suporting and make your cleavage look great.

8. Accessorises
Satchels- good all year round (debating doing a 'what's in my bag' post soon). Also, more floral in the form of scarves and big sunhats are my fave. Plus, something I have been loving since summer 2013 but have only just got my hands on, Juju jelly shoes; I have the heeled ones in black but I am torn over getting some flat ones in a brighter colour as well.

IT'S KIND OF CRAZY

Whilst on my desperate search for an EOS stocker for the UK I stumbled across the cutECOsmetics website. This company is a Vegan makeup company but, when I browsing the lip balm section as I have been know to do occasionally (all the time), I fell in love with some of their brands; now, I am not a Vegan but I don't see why I can't enjoy Vegan lip balms all the same.

Firstly, obviously, I had a look at the EOS lip balms as there are no stockers in the UK, but as I now have one (read my review here) I decided that I didn't need a new one (also they cost over £5 each which is quite a lot and I'll probably stock up on cheaper ones next time I go to the US).

I found possibly one of the nicest sounding lip balm companies ever that goes by the name of Crazy Rumors (American brand, American spelling). They literally have every flavour you could chose from in an amazing range and it took me forever to settle on just one but I am thrilled with my choice. As I was browsing their range I came across one of my favourite things in the world- tea. I have never seen tea flavoured lip balm before but what an amazing idea to appeal to a tea addict like me! There are four amazing flavours to chose from: Orange Bergamot (a.k.a Earl Grey flavoured), Apple Spice (cider-tasting apparently), Spiced Chai and Peppermint Lemongrass. I was very tempted by many of the flavours but you really can't go wrong with tea flavoured if, like me, you basically live off of tea. Yes I have a lip balm problem I know, but so would you if you'd seen Crazy Rumors.

NOW, let me tell you a story. I discovered Crazy Rumors around autumn time but I kept putting off ordering until I eventually forgot about it. While browsing Bloglovin' I discovered a British blogger talking about Crazy Rumors being on sale in Holland&Barrett and I almost had to restrain myself from running down there ASAP to buy one. Looking at the Holland&Barrett website I couldn't find the one I wanted as they only had a limited selection, but when I went into the shop they had a different set a flavours, and lo and behold there was the one I wanted the most.

I decided to go for the Apple Spice flavour from the 'brew' range after much deliberation as it combines two of my favourite things, tea and anything apple flavoured, but it was an immensely hard choice.
The packaging for Crazy Rumors is a tube lipbalm in a very simple clear plastic packaging with a paper-feel label and the flavour on the front. It's simple but attractive, what more could you want (plus how super cut is the little teapot symbol)?

As Vegan products aren't allowed to contain bee's wax, Crazy Rumors contains the magic that is Shea butter, I use the Body Shop lip butter in Shea overnight as the think, white consistency of the butter is not a daytime product but it works miracles in giving you super smooth lips and I would go as far to say that it is one of my favourite ingredients(?) for products to contain.

Due to the Shea butter, the product slides on super smoothly and doesn't drag like some other products I can name (Burt's Bees I'm looking at you); however, due to the Shea butter, it leaves a whiteish film on your lips that means I only wear it at night to avoid embarrassing rabies-like situations in public. This is a really great product as it makes my lips feel super smooth and I can get away with only wearing lip balm and night and not having to top up throughout the day due to drying-out lips; it also smells absolutely amazing, though the scent is rather (very) strong.

As well as the Brew range (tea flavours) you can also get: A La Mode (ice cream), Hibiskiss (tinted), Candy Cane, Gumball (bubblegum to the UK), Fresh Squeezed (citrus/fruit), Perk (coffee), Soda Pop, and Sweetheart (cake). Each different range comes with four flavours but there are also some others that don't fit into a range.
Some of the other amazing flavours that I was loath to part with (as well as the rest of the tea range which I want all of) are Pear and Peppermint Candy Cane, Ginger Peach, Gingerbread, Orange Clove and Red Velvet Cake.

Another great thing about Crazy Rumors is they have a couple of charity lip balms where, stating the obvious here, a section of the proceeds goes to charity.
I will definitely be wanting to go back and get more Crazy Rumors soon as the flavour range is amazing but for now I am loving what I've got and I am a very happy bunny.

JULY PLAYLIST

This is another new idea that I saw on someone's blog that I liked the look of. I am unoriginal, I know. I'd like to add as an afterthought that writing this has inspired me and made me realise how much I love writing about music- expect more of these.

The Chain- Fleetwood Mac
I am a massive fan of 1960s-1980s music and right now my Father and I are really into 'The Very Best of Fleetwood Mac' album, most of which is fantastic. The Chain is a fantastic song with the most amazing bass line ever (seriously, it gives you chills) and it was virtually impossible to pick a favourite from the album.

Hate My Life- Theory of a Deadman
This is an old song (2008 to be exact), like all Theory of a Deadman songs the lyrics are witty and often very funny. This song has the skill of being very whiny while also being very catchy and having some beautiful melodies in it.

Don't Stop- 5 Seconds of Summer
I'd previously stayed away from 5 Seconds of Summer as they were on tour with One Direction so were automatically labled as a 'boy band'. In reality, while they have a mostly young-girl fan-base, they are more on the Busted/McFly level of playing their own instruments, and also being really catchy. I love it.

Through the Dark- KT Tunstall
As a child we listened to a fair amount of KT Tunstall (check out 'Suddenly I See') and as I've started listening to her again I've remembered how much I loved her and how much she inspired me (I wrote a cheesy song aged below 10 that I can still remember to this day thanks to her). Through the Dark is so beautiful I've fallen right back in love with KT.

Bones- Young Guns
Part of the reason I love this song so much is that it brings me back to last summer where I discovered Young Guns for the first time, Bones reminds me of summer in a happy and warm way (you know what I mean) and I am super excited to see YG at Reading Festival this year (eeeeeee!). Bones is an amazing song that makes me want to stand in the street or on something high and scream it at the top on my lungs; Bones does what every song should, it makes me feel.

Letterbomb- Green Day
American Idiot is full of the most incredible songs that the songs at the end of the album often get overlook in favour of the most famous ones. Coming before Wake Me Up When September Ends, I feel that Letterbomb is probably very often skipped over but it definitely shouldn't. This song is stunning and deserves to be right there at the top with the likes of Boulevard of Broken Dreams and Holiday. Coming from someone who subconsciously overlooked this song for years, I can tell you that you're missing out.

GETTING SKINNY WITH IT

I've had one of those 'ohmygod it's nearly summer I need to look nice all over' moments, and I am starting with my skin; I'm also branching out more into the world of makeup and experimenting more.

Body Shop Tea Tree Blemish Gel:
It is a known fact that my mother and I are *slighty* obsessed with the Body Shop and their tea tree collection is no exception. Tea tree is very, very good for teenage or combination (oily and dry) skin and it is a range I have been sticking to successfully for many, many years. I was more than slightly horrified at the price and size of this product, it costs £6 and is absolutely tiny but I have heard so many good things about this that I paid the ridiculous price regardless (if you can't tell I am not a fan of forking over massive amounts of money for any products in general); I have heard that this product not only gets rid of spots but also gets rid of the blemishes or scars from previous spots and I am willing to try anything that claims that.

This might just have been my skin at that moment in time, but when I first tried this product I felt that it almost made the under-skin-lurking-spots seem more prominent and actually made them come up on the surface. And, to be honest with you, I'm pretty sure that it does make the tiny unnoticeable blemishes seem like more prominent spots (no one else notices it on my skin, though, it's just me).

While this is a good product, it is more or less the same as Boot's Tea Tree Blemish Stick and I would recommend getting the Boots one as it is larger, cheaper and you get more for your money.

Collection Lasting Perfection Concealer:
I have been using a Body Shop concealer in stick form for years and years and, while it does it's job, it's not brilliant and you can still see where the spots are. My best friend gave me the most amazing set of Cath Kidston makeup brushes for my birthday (confessional time: I have no idea what most of the brushes are meant for) and that has motivated me to experiment more with makeup. My first step has been buying a liquid concealer and using a brush to blend it in (another confessional time: sometimes I still just rub it in with my hands); the concealer I chose is the Collection Lasting Perfection as I am unoriginal and jumping on the bandwagon/ I have heard a lot of good things about this. I was surprised at how cheap this was- £4.19 is a price I like.

I bought this concealer in Shade 2 Cool Medium as in Superdrug it looked the right shade and Shade 1 looked too light; however, a couple of days later I was happily blending it in with my brush when I looked in the mirror and realised I was orange. But not just orange, orange and splotchy as I hadn't covered my whole face and only a few areas, attractive that. I did go back and buy the concealer in Shade 1 Fair as in the UK you can't return makeup, I am not broken hearted about this as the product was quite cheap, but damn you super bright Superdrug lights. Since having written that last bit, it has been very sunny and I'm actually quite tanned on my face now; in hindsight it is actually a good thing that I have both Shades 1 and 2 in my collection as Shade 1 is the right shade of me in the winter/spring/colder months, but in the summer I am more suited to Shade 2. Happy is me

If you browse the Cath Kidston website and find their 'Button Rose Makeup Brush Set', I use the third largest brush to blend my concealer, and then the Body Shop 'Face and Body Brush' to just make sure it's all blended in properly and spread (is that the right word) it around my face so everything is even. Occasionally (a lot) I have been known the use my fingers to rub it in thought I don't think it does such a good job as brushes. (I also use the Body Shop 'Face and Body Brush' for powder).

This concealer had been raved about by everyone and their mum so I had high expectations for it, I am not disappointed, I would highly recommend this product.

NURSING IN NOTTINGHAM

So I mentioned in my 'July Goals' that I'd like to jazz up my blog content a bit and post more photo-based posts of my days out or weekends and trips etc, so I thought I'd start with the few photos I took on my two day (Sunday and Monday) trip to Nottingham University for a nursing degree taster course/workshop.

This is the university accommodation where I was staying- Sherwood Hall- it was very pretty though the colour scheme makes it look very dark from the outside.

I was expecting the stereotypical university cupboard bedroom but the room I was in was actually really big with a double bed and a massive desk and lots of floor space.

We did mostly lectures but also a few practical sessions. Here is my first attempt of suturing (basically stitching) on a piece of foam; we were also given stethoscopes which was exciting.

JULY GOALS

I did my first 'monthly goals' post last month and I really liked the idea of it as it's a great way to keep on top of everything. I have achieved most of the things on my list (I'm glad to say that I am no longer unhealthily pale and I'm quite proud of my tan as I am not normally someone who tans), all except the creative writing goal which slipped my mind when I went back to school and I sadly have writers block right now.

1. My first goal is to use makeup items that I bought and never used as I found my Balmi recently which I want to get more use out of so I thought I could do the same with some other products I have lying around (I have already started this goal by experimenting with eyeshadow and mascara more again).
2. Change my blog content somewhat (but not drastically). In January I added an occasional book review section to my blog and I thought it would be nice to add some other new sections such as photo-diaries of my days out and maybe some outfit-of-the-day-type posts along with others.
3. All the time I'm like 'yeah I'm going to write in my diary more, I'm going to be one of those people that keeps a diary, it's going to be so cool' but then I realise that my life is fairy boring and I have nothing to write about. My aim in July is to write in my diary more regularly and actually stick to it so I will be one of those people who keeps a diary and it will be fun.

My books to read this month are:
-Bedsit Disco Queen by Tracey Thorn
-The Time Traveller's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
-Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
-Emma by Jane Austen
-Longbourne by Jo Baker