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.

25 DAYS OF BLOGGING CHRISTMAS- DAY 2 | DECEMBER 2ND- WINTERLISCIOUS TAG

I thought we'd start off the 25 Days of Blogging Christmas with a post to get us feeling all nice and Christmasy. I got the Winterliscious Tag from Sprinkle Of Glitter's Youtube from Christmas 2012 but I thought it was such a nice idea and the questions are fabby, so here we go:

1. Favourite winter nail polish?
Barry M Gelly Nail Paint in Plum- an absolutely gorgeous purple colour and, as I have stressed before, it doesn't chip! It comes out as a beautiful really dark purple with two coats and I can see myself wearing it through the majority of December. Highly recommend their whole gelly range but Mr Barry M please please please please bring out a black in this range please.

2. Favourite winter lip product?
This was featured in my autumn tag and will probably be in many more favourites but I am absolutely in love with the Accessorize lipstick in Infatuated and it is the best lipstick ever ever ever and I just love it so much. Sorry about that.

3. Most worn winter clothing piece?
It has to be my tartan coat from H&M last winter, it is beautiful and I probably would have frozen to death without it (this November has been ridiculously cold and I am living in fear over what the cold might become in December).

4. Most worn winter accessory?
Last year I got a chunky knit, blue bobble hat from Accessorize and I just love it so much that I want another one this year (possibly in moss green?) the only downside to this hat is I can't wear it to school as it gives you the worlds worst hat hair.

5. Favourite winter scent/ candle?
The Yankee candle Christmas collection all smells amazing and I will expand on this later in the month but you can also never go wrong with a vanilla candle in the winter.

6. Favourite winter beverage?
Anything from the Costa Christmas range (yes, I know I have a problem) or Wispa hot chocolate.

7. All time favourite Christmas/ holiday movie?
My favourite Christmas movie is probably Muppet's Christmas Carol because it has no faults and I recommend it highly to everyone as it is just so brilliant (I am getting all fuzzy just writing about it).

8. Favourite Christmas/ holiday song?
This was a near impossible question and I spent a long time consulting the Christmas CD before answering this but I'm going to have to go for Step Into Christmas by Elton John because it's such a feel good song and the Fairy Tale of New York by the Pouges because it is a classic and so unbelievably fun to sing/ yell along to at the top of your voice with friends and family (also it has some absolutely brilliant lyrics). You can also never go wrong with yelling along to Band Aid Do They Know It's Christmas or The Twelve Days of Christmas, I DON'T KNOW I LOVE THEM ALL. (I feel super bad for not choosing Slade or Wizzard or John and Yoko or Paul McCartney but I can't decide between them).

9. Favourite holiday food/ treat?
Soup. Ohmigod soup. Soup has got to be the greatest creation ever I could live off soup.

10. What is your favourite Christmas decoration this year?
Every year we get a new random Christmas tree decoration from somewhere we've been that year and this year's one is this lovely one from Disney Land in Florida (they have their own Christmas shop there and it is amazing). My all time favourite, though, has got to be William Shakespeare because it is just so weird.
My apologises I currently cannot find the new decoration to take a picture of.

11. What's at the top of your Christmas list?
Probably Finnick Odair (or the actor Sam Claflin, whichever one of them really) from the Hunger Games Catching Fire (which is absolutely amazing if you haven't seen it already and the books are even better). I would like him wrapped up in a box under my tree in a suit come the 25th please thank you Father Christmas that would be wonderful.

12. What are your plans for the holidays this year?
Thankfully this Christmas promises to be much calmer than last year when we tried to get the entire family together and everyone ended up bitching about each other in between watching Pokémon movies. This year will be back to normal with my Grandma coming over on Christmas eve, then seeing the family on the 27th for George's birthday (what an awkward date to have it) and then going up to see the rest of the family in the North. Simples. (Judged if you didn't read that in a meerkat voice).

*NOTE: Some of the things I've mention only briefly here because I will be talking about them more in later posts*

MAD ABOUT MATTE

*I am wearing the Burgundy Crush in these pictures*

I am a massive fan of matte nail varnishes- especially black, and up until now I have been having to put a matte top coat on my nails which just takes up so much time. The matte top coat I have been using is from H&M and cost only £2.99, no offence to H&M, but this product is awful, I know it's only cheap but Barry M do nail varnishes for the same price at a much higher quality. The matte looks lasts for about a day and only ever appears to work on my thumb, I love you H&M but you should really just stick to clothes.

There are no words for my excitement when I was browsing the Superdrug website and stumbled across Barry M's new matte range, I'd seen matte nail varnishes briefly in Topshop but I wasn't really taken with the colours; the Barry M range, however, is amazing. There are five different colours, black, light brown, dark brown, nude and burgundy and I want all of them. For the moment though I have got black (as I absolutely love matte black nails) and burgundy because it is the best colour ever.

Starting off with Burgundy Crush, the matte is very obvious with only one, thin coat, the one coat looks like a pale wine colour. The matte is still there with two coats, but looks less matte than it does with only one coat. Two coats give a much, much darker and definitely burgundy colour, having one thicker coat gives the same effect as two coats.
The one I was most excited for was the Black Espresso as black matte is the nicest nail look in the world ever. I am partially to this product, I have been wearing only one coat for about five days and the matte still look good but I'm not sure how I feel about this product overall. The matte does last really well however and I does actually look matte compared to the H&M topcoat which lasts about a day.

One thing I have found with all matte nail varnishes is that they appear to dry much quicker than a normal nail varnish does.
Another thing I have noticed with this nail varnish is that it looks much better on the second day of wearing it, I don't know why this is but I am more pleased with the way they look that I was when I first painted them.
I look am I wanting to try out but I haven't decided yet if it is too weird is alternating burgundy and black which I personally think will look awesome.

The one thing I don't like about Barry M is I hate their brushes, they are too thin for my liking and you often end up with quite streaky nails.
I am not overly taken with this product, I was very excited for it and it's a bit of a let down. I will be on the hunt for a higher quality matte top coat and I have heard that OPI do a very good one.

AUTUMN TAG

I love autumn, not as much as winter, but autumn is still great and everything is pretty. I saw this Autumn Tag on someone's blog and thought it was such a great idea that I would copy it, basically... (I have edited some of the questions to make it easier for my English ways).

1. Favourite autumn lip product?
As everyone knows I am a self confessed lip balm addict and I get super dry lips all your round but especially in autumn/ winter time I obviously have a million lip balms on the go at one time but my favourite at the moment is obviously Burt's Bees because that is the best and it can be worn under lip gloss or lip stick to stop your lips drying out; dark coloured lip sticks are also perfect for this time of year, the one  I am currently using is the Intense Colour Lipstick in Infatuated (Shade 7) by Accessorize which I bought on a super-quick Superdrugs dash for Halloween but I have completely fallen in love with it as it is the nicest colour EVER and I want to wear it 24/7 (I will write a full review later at some point in the near distant future).

It looks more burgundy in the tube but actually comes out as quite a brightish purple colour

2. Favourite autumn nail polish?
Any dark red is a perfect autumn colour and this year I have gone for the Barry M Matte Nail Paint in Burgundy Crush; dark purples, dark reds and greys work well in autumn. I really like matte top coats all year round as well and they work with any colour.

3. Favourite autumn drink?
It has got to be either the cinnamon or gingerbread latte from Costa- very autumn/ wintery flavours (I like Costa A LOT I go there far to much and my Costa points card is not a valid excuse to go there so much).

4. Favourite autumn candle?
Yankee Candle Spiced Orange- I absolutely love this, the orange and clove scents are perfect together; I don't actually own this candle as the scent can get really strong after a while but it smells amazing in the jar.

5. Favourite autumn accessory?
My current favourite necklace is my Orange Calcite necklace which 'aids learning, study, memory and increases energy' as it goes with everything and I do believe that stones have powers; my father calls it the 'Stone of Education' because he thinks he is funny.

6. Favourite autumn clothing item?
This isn't really an autumn-specific clothing item but I am really loving my lace top from Topshop as it has the cutest little collar and looks amazing under any and every jumper.

7. Favourite seasonal movie?
I can't think of any autumn movies apart from Halloween ones but every year my friends and I have the Halloween sleepover where we basically just eat a lot and scare ourselves shite-less; it has become a tradition that we watch Trick 'r Treat every year even though it is awful but I will choose it anyway for my favourite movie purely due to tradition.

8. Favourite Halloween food?
At the moment I am completely in love with cinnamon whirls from Sainsburys they are the greatest food in the world and I would live off them if I could.

9. What is the strangest thing you have ever dressed up as for Halloween?
For Halloween I was a Sith Lord from Star Wars purely so I could walk about with my Lightsaber (yes I have a Lightsaber). This year I went as the three peas in a pod from Toy Story 3 with two of my friends, took a lot of effort explaining to everyone why we were dressed entirely in green. This year I also dressed up as a bearded lady as I had a dress I wanted to wear and I had a beard from when I was Joseph in the church Nativity.

10. What is your favourite thing about autumn?
Basically the fact that it is nearly Christmas and I enjoy being able to wear coats, hats, scarves, gloves and thick jumpers all the time.

HALLOWEEN NAILS

This Halloween was an interesting one, a bunch of us went to my best friend's house and about an hour in she sliced through her hand in the gap between her thumb and first finger when carving pumpkins- typical. I'm not exagerting when I say you could see the flesh inside her hand but she ended up having to go to hospital and sit in A&E for two hours. She ended up with three stitches and can never give a thumbs up properly again whilst we all had to hang out in her house without her. It was a surreal event but typical for her.

Last Halloween (2012- party on) was the first time I'd celebrated (is that the right word?) Halloween properly for quite a few years. Last year was the traditional all-black look but this year I decided to mix it up a bit more.

Part of my look this year was nails. Nails are fun, you can paint them different colours fitting for every season and I was sadly overly pleased with mine this year. I decided to go for the alternating colours which I haven't done in a very long time (alternating nails were the bomb in year 8).
My Halloween look was an obvious choice, a mix of my new Barry M black matte and an old one- from the Boots own brand range from last Christmas in Emerald green. The green comes out much lighter than in the bottle and is also very thin so you need a good few coats before it will work properly. Matte black and glittery green are perfect for mixing up your nails a bit and making them look a bit more interesting and unusual.
There's not much to say really apart from I painted them alternating and it was very Halloween-y but I'd only done one coat so it lasted about a day and they were not looking good five days later. Nails are a quick-ish (depending on if you don't smudge them or not) and easy look and you can always find something to go with every outfit.

SEPTEMBER FAVOURITES

Hello October!

I am so happy that October is finally here, I've been waiting for this all month (pun intended, I am so funny)! I love October, now we can finally stop saying 'oh well it's still sort of summer' and embrace the comforts of autumn and comfy clothes. It is my opinion that October is the official start of autumn, and summer will be sorely missed, but now the weather has an official reason to be crappy (and also it's nearly Christmas).
So, hello to October and the autumn months, and here is my official September favourites list:

1. Neutrogena moisturiser - September is the official start of my winter dry skin and, no matter how many different moisturisers I try, I will always come back again and again to Neutrogena and it is a permanent staple in my bathroom.

2. Barry M Gelly Hi-Shine in Lychee - This is the perfect nude colour that I have been loving this month, (sad to admit) I felt all grown up swanning into sixth form with my nude nails. I cannot rave enough about the Barry M Gelly line, I wore the nail varnish for nearly two weeks without having to repaint it because it doesn't chip! I am so excited about this and I can't wait for Barry M to bring out more colours (hint hint a black one please).

 

3. Soup - I feel like I don't need to explain this one, soup is amazing in every way.
4. New stationary - The highlight of the school year.
5. Thick jumpers - Praise the Lord, jumpers are officially back! Thick jumpers are the best item of clothing ever invented, apart from maybe onesies...
6. Maybelline  Baby Lips in Peach Kiss - Yes, I talk about these a lot, but I have fallen in love with Peach Kiss, it's simply the best (cue break into Tina Turner impression).

7. Twinning's Lemon and Ginger tea - Looks a bit like piss (to put it politely), tastes amazing.
8. Body Shop concealer - I have found the perfect concealer, it's my exact skin colour! Body Shop makeup is always brilliant and this is no exception.
9. THE NEW YOU ME AT SIX SONG IT IS AMAZING OMG NEW ALBUM IN JANUARY 2014 SOMEONE HOLD ME. Sorry.
10. Reese's Peanut Butter Cups - I have been hooked on these since I got back from  America and, much to my great joy, you can get them in England too!

This month I aim to take better care of my skin and use my Balmi more (and try unsuccessfully not to buy any more lip balms).

(Apologies for these next couple of posts being a lot later that I originally planned them to be).