favourite bloggers of 2012!

This was so hard to narrow down to just a few, but in no particular order- these are my favourite blogs that I have read pretty much every post from since I started following them! The girls behind the blogs are are lovely too so go and check them out and tell them I said hi! Some of these blogs I've been reading for a year and some are just a couple of months but they're all great! So in no particular order, here we go...

Helen from beautifully superflous-
Helen is such a lovely girl and her blog is lovely too! She mostly posts reviews of products she's tried but also there's lots of hauls, makeup looks and also some lifestyle posts thrown in too! Oh and Helen makes YouTube videos too which are informative and funny too! Helen is they type of girl that once you start talking to her you don't stop, there always seems to be more to talk about!

Ellie from Ellie's favourite things-
Ellie and I have been talking on twitter and stuff for literally a year now I think- she's like one of the coolest people ever and I wish she went to my school instead of living in Nottingham (200 miles away from me)! Ellie posts lots of outfits, arty things and she always goes to these cool vintagey fair things which she posts photos about and does hauls from! If you like cool people- go and check out her blog!h

Laura from style and sushi
Laura lives in the Netherlands which I think it really cool! Most of her posts are outfit ones (can I have all your clothes please Laura?) but she also does the occasional other post such as wishlists and instagram posts too! Oh and Laura is a really lovely girl and it sucks that she doesn't live in England so I can't pop round for a cuppa or a shopping trip! Move to England Laura pleeeease!

Ellie from style and starbucks
Ellie mostly does outfit posts but mixes it up with some of her (really cool) photography and even some baking posts! Ellie is really funny and a lovely girl along with having a great blog! Ellie why do you have to live like 100 miles away because I would totally spend my whole life round your house eating brownies and painting your nails if you lived near me.

Caroline from Burkatron
I can't put into words how much I love Caroline's blog! If you like my nail posts you'll LOVE hers- they're amaaazing! She is also very stylish and posts quite a few outfits too which I'm jealous of!

Megs from Wonderful You
I'll start this by saying, Meg can I just have your hair- PLEASE? Her blog and youtube is amazing too and I have major wardrobe envy from you guuuurl! Meg's photos are incredible too and she is so sweet!

Lauren from Laurenella
I've been following Lauren's blog for what seems like forever, she's hilarious and mainly posts outfits along with quite a few different posts such as wish lists to mix it up! Oh and she makes youtube videos too- yay! (Lauren I'm 100% meeting you next year too!)

Becky from blue belle lovely
I talk to Becky quite a bit on twitter, she's a lovely girl and deserves more followers on her blog! Becky posts quite a few hauls (yaay) and lots of other things such as empties and 'pinterest picks' which is cool!

Rebecca-louise from autumn leaves
If I remember rightly, Rebecca was one of the first blogs I found through taking part in the #bbloggers twitter chat and I have read her blog ever since! She's currently doing a 'favourites of 2012' mini series with her top products from different categories such as lipsticks/eyeshadows which is a really good idea and interesting to read!

Lizzie from cupcakes and cosmetics
First off I love Lizzie's blog name! If I could start mine again and if the name wasn't already taken I would totally want that as my blog name, it's so cute! Lizzie is such a lovely girl and is another fellow nail art junkie like me and we often end up with matching nails which is funny! She mainly does beauty posts but switches it up with instagram post and even updates of her dog Ben who is so cute- can I have my own Ben dog pleaseeee! Her blog layout is so cute too with there being lots of pink and floral (two of my favourite things ever) on it!


I have so many favourite blogs and I wish I could of included more in this post! There's a few more linked in my sidebar which you may want to take a look at if you're looking for more great blogs to follow! I wish I didn't live 100s of miles away from all these lovely ladies and I would love to meet them all in real life! Speaking of meet ups, have you seen the London bloggers meet up that Helen is arranging for summer 2013 yet? I'm definitely going and you should too!

I'll just take this opportunity to say a MASSIVE thank you to each and every one of you for taking the time to read and comment on my posts and watch my youtube videos- I never thought my blog would make it to how it is now and I only have all of you to thank for that! I hope everyone has an amazing new year and a great 2013, I've had such a good year this year and I hope that 2013 is just as good or even better than all the fun I've had in 2012!

I love discovering new blogs to read, which ones are your favourite reads?

leopard print nails

It's nice to have something on my nails as opposed to all of my Christmas designs! I thought I would mix it up a bit from the normal gold and brown that you normally see in leopard print nails and I went for pink and blue instead! The black is the Rio nail art pen (of course) and both the pink and blue are from essie but I don't know the shade names! The base and top coat which I used were the Nails inc. caviar ones (BEST THING TO COME INTO MY LIFE EVER- I took these photos on the third day of wearing them and I'd been at work one of those days too, wow!)

christmas 2012 haul!

Because I've seen a few posts which have been taken badly- I'm just putting a quick disclaimer in to say I'm not bragging about what I've received at all, and I am extremely grateful for everything I received!

iPad mini: My main present from my parents was an iPad mini- I hadn't really asked for anything in particular from my parents as I didn't know what I want I wanted but I was saving up for one and they surprised me by buying it for me! Dad also got my little sister and my mum one too and none of us were expecting it at all! My dad gave mum her's to open first and I saw her open it and I was just like "WHAT, HOW IS THIS FAIR, I'VE WANTED ONE FOR AGES" (I think I actually shouted that out...) and then they gave my sister and I ours to open and I was just like "AHHH YAAAY!" anyway I love it so much, it's great for browsing the internet and I love how it's so portable because I can just be sat in my room or in the kitchen or whatever which is what I wanted it for! It's great for watching youtube videos and BBC iplayer on too because the screen is so much bigger than the one on my iPhone!
Hairdryer: From my auntie (dad's sister) I got a new hairdryer which I had asked for because my other one broke and I'd been sharing with my sister for a couple of months which had been annoying! I love this one and it dries my hair in (no joke) 45-60 seconds, wow! I have the curlers to match too which I think I got last year or the year before I think!
Onesie: From my other auntie (mum's sister) I got a onesie (which I'm wearing right now) and I think it's from M&S- who knew they would sell them! I like the cute polka dots on it and the me to you bear on it is cute too! Oh and it's super duper comfortable!
Money, nail file, tights and nickers: From one set of grandparents (mum's mum and dad) I got some money which I have put towards buying a new pair of boots (post soon if you want), a Leighton Denny crystal nail file which I had been eyeing up since using my Grannie's in the summer-it's great and I love the Leighton Denny nail polishes too, and the tights and the penguin nickers were from them too. The nickers are so cute hahaa
Money: From my grandpa (dad's dad) I got £50 which I'm going to buy an external hard drive for my laptop with (exciting I know) and then from my grandma (dad's mum) I received some really soft pyjamas which I forgot to photograph!
Hollister voucher: From my uncle (dad's brother) I got a £25 Hollister voucher, so I will have to take a trip to Southampton or Brighton soon to spend it- I might get some new trackies as I already have a navy pair which are great for wearing around the house because they're all fluffy on the inside!
H&M voucher: From Lee (my auntie who gave me the hairdryer's partner) I got a H&M gift voucher which I'm so excited to spend! I had a quick look through their sale the other day but nothing caught my eye but I've seen a pair of full price simple black skinny trousers which I may get!
Necklace and earrings: My lovely blog friend Helen gave me the really cool spikey necklace and the pearl earrings from New Look- she knows me well as spikes and pearls are my two favourite things when it comes to jewelry so thank you Helen!
Yankee candle and sleek eye shadow palette: From another of my lovely blog friends- Ellie, I got a mini yankee candle in christmas cookie which smells absolutely amazing and this really nice Sleek eye shadow palette which has loads of glittery colours in which I can't wait to play with!
Sock monkey and tights: My sister gave me a pair of tights and the monkey toy which she made from a pair of socks- I seem to be accumulating quite a collection of little toys she's made!
Bracelets: From the secret santa we did at work I got this lovely set of rose gold bracelets which match my watch perfectly.They have loads of cute charms on including a tiny pink wooden elephant which is my favourite and some chocolate which obviously was eaten long ago! (thank you Ellie)
Hand cream: And last but not least, I got a Leighton Denny hand cream from the secret santa we do within our family which I organise and we do after we've eaten the christmas dinner and before the pudding every year! It's actually really good and I have my suspicions as to who it was from... You can't actually really see it in the photos though because of the reflection on the box- grr!

I also got a boots voucher and a cute heart keyring from my mum's aunties but I forgot to include them in the photo, boo!

I love reading these posts so if you've done one please link it below, and if you don't have a blog then please leave a comment telling me what you got!

2012 christmas nails roundup!

I thought I would do a quick post to show you all of the christmas nails I have done this year- I've been doing a mini series and posting all of my christmassy nails so I thought I would just do a post at the end to put all the photos in in case you missed any! For the ones that I have done a post on I have linked it because quite a few of them have extra photos on! Sorry a couple of them are just photos from my iPhone because I didn't get round to taking a proper photo on my actual camera but my phone camera is still alright!
Christmas trees
Fairisle
Reindeer
Snowmen, penguins and robins
Snowflakes
Santa and candycanes
Snowmen and snowflakes and glitter (on my friend Ellie)

I'm soooo annoyed that I didn't take a single photo of the nails I had for christmas day but each finger was different (snowman, robin, holly, christmas pudding, falling snow, snowflakes, candycane etc etc.) otherwise I would of included them too! I'm kind of at a loss of what to paint my nails now- any suggestions?

I hope you've all had a lovely Christmas and you have a really good new year- and my 'what I got for christmas' post will be up in the next couple of days! Leave a comment telling me what you got for Christmas- I'd love to know!

rouldoph nails

haha I love these- I think they're one of my favourites of my Christmas nails so far! I was inspired to do these by the lovely Caroline- read her post on her ones here and I've received so many compliments on them (even my male 60 year old geography teacher said he liked them...) As always, if you want to know any of the specific colours I used just leave a comment below with your twitter/email so I can reply!

MOO business cards!

I've wanted my own business cards for my blog for a while now but because of the ridiculous price tags that some of them have (yes my mum almost spent over £100 on some for her website) I put off buying any. Anyway when I saw a special offer from MOO being advertised on twitter the other day I knew now was the perfect time to order some! The offer was 50 free business cards (+ around £4 in postage costs) so I thought I would get designing!
I ordered them on he 6th, they dispatched on the 11th and arrived on the 14th- pretty fast if you ask me considering they have to get printed and they were being sent just before Christmas! I was in no rush for them to be done anyway so it didn't really matter how long they took!
These are great for any blog events/meetups (check out this one which my lovely friend Helen is organising for next summer and I'm definitely going to go to so you should too!)

If you wanted to order some- here is the link to the special offer, I'd love to see how they turn out if you create any!

duck egg

This is just a really simple NOTD that I did when I didn't have time to do an actual design! I like the colours though!

Can I just say HOW COMPLETELY IN AWE OF THIS NAILS INC. TOP COAT I AM. Seriously, I put this nail polish on at Thursday lunchtime, went paintballing and crawling around in mud for five hours on Friday, worked eight hours on Saturday and then too these photos on Sunday- as you can see they are completely chip free, HOW AMAZING IS THAT?!
A massive thank you to my lovely lovely friend Helen for the Collection nail polish and the Nails Inc. one too- I'm going to have to buy the full size nails inc. one if I can track it down! Helen also gave me quite a few more nail polishes too so I can't wait to post about them too!

The colours I used were:
♥ nails inc. 'kensington caviar base and top coat'
♥ essie 'mint candy apple'
♥ collection 'razzle dazzle'

all I want for Christmas is you

ATTENTION. IF YOU WERE LIVING UNDER A ROCK FOR YOUR WHOLE LIFE- CHRISTMAS IS ONLY A WEEK AWAY- AHH.
Anyway, I thought I'd get myself a Christmas jumper to celebrate- I've wanted one for years, yes they're hideous and super duper tacky but I don't care! We have to wear a christmas jumper to sixth form tomorrow for charity which should be good! Oh and what do you think of my nails? I've been loving having Christmas nails and I'll be sad when I have to go back to doing boring normal nail art opposed to Christmassy ones!

jumper: some random shop near me
jeans: American Apparel easy jeans

christmas nails!

I've been loving doing Christmassy nails- these are my latest design! I used the Rio nail art pens for the detailing and the background is a Barry M polish! I've just realised one of the snowmen doesn't have arms- sorry Mr Snowman!

proactiv 3-step system

I have been using the Proactiv 3-step system* for around 6 weeks or so now. You may of seen adverts for it  on the TV or in magazines before, it is endorsed by Gabriela from one of my favourite TV shows Made in Chelsea which I think is cool!
What they say: "Help your skin start a fresh with this blemish banishing medicated skincare system. Acne-prone skin can be gently cleansed, smoothed and smoothed in 3 simple steps, with results seen within weeks. Perfect for acne-prone skin" Sounds like a miracle product, yes? Well it is.
I've heard mixed things on Proactiv- some people seem to swear by it and say it woks miracles for them but others don't seem to notice much of a difference!

The set consists of three steps:
Step 1: Renewing Cleanser
Step 2: Revitalising Toner
Step 3: Repairing Treatment

As I said above, the first step is the renewing cleanser. This is an exfoliating facial wash which has tiny beads in to get rid of dead skin cells and helps remove any traces of makeup. Before using this I use the Liz Earle cleanse and polish or Herbalism from LUSH to remove my makeup as I don't feel that this works as a makeup remover.
It contains salysilic acid which is well known to help with acne. It is mild though and thankfully isn't irritating which I'm grateful of as my skin can be sensitive!
I just use this in the evenings as I don't like to exfoliate too often and it leaves my skin feeling really soft and smooth without that tight feeling that you can sometimes get with some stronger acne treatments. It doesn't strip the oil from my face either which is good because when the oil is stripped it causes your skin to produce more oil, meaning your skin will be just as oily and as my skin can be oily I'm thankful of this!

Step two is the revitalising toner which I use morning and night straight after the first step after I have dried my face. This has a cooling and soothing effect as it is very mild and it has a fresh scent to it. I simply put a few drops onto a cotton pad and sweep it all over my face and neck. It has botanical extracts in which helps soften the skin and I would completely agree with this claim! It makes my skin really soft and smooth to the touch which it definitely didn't used to be like before starting using this!

The final step is the repairing treatment. I apply this mainly to my jaw, chin and forehead just in the evening. I apply it after my moisturiser which is the Nivea oil free moisturiser and leave it to sink in. It isn't greasy or drying which I thought it could be, and it has a nice consistency to it as it is quite thick but without it being too heavy on the skin.

What I thought...
Overall I have found Proactiv to be a great trio of products which work very well for my skin type. I wish I had taken a before photo but I forgot, boo! My skin was so much worse than it is now before and I'm so glad I have finally found a skincare routine which works for me!

Once again, you can buy Proactiv here

Have you tried Proactiv before? Did it work for you?

fairisle nails

these are my favourite of my Christmas nails so far! I got my inspiration from this photo which I found on pinterest- they're not exactly the same and the one I got the inspiration from is obviously better but I don't think they are bad for a first attempt! I've had these planned since like September or something but I made myself wait for December to actually do them! Reindeer nails like these ones by Caroline are next on my Christmas nail art to do list! I really need to get myself some more nail wheels so I can practice on them!
The polishes I used were:
♥ Barry M 'raspberry'
♥ white Rio nail art pen
♥ Nails inc. 'caviar top coat'