This Weeks Nails: Essie Lilacism

So lately I have been painting my nails a lot more and I'm actually really enjoying it. Its almost therapeutic taking off the old nail polish, selecting a new shade to wear, prep'in the nails with a good old file the occasional buff and a few coats of base before the chosen shade gets brushed on. Love it.

As you may or may not know I have a huge amount of love for the Essie nail lacquer. They have every shade you could think of with some of the most quirkiest names. I just love standing at the Essie section in my local Boots trying to decide what shade of orange, red or blue I want, cause theres more than just the one of each shade. And it takes some serious thinking which shade is what your looking for. I only go to the Essie stand if I have a shade in mind.

This weeks shade is Lilacism!! I got this in a set that I actually think came out for mothers day. I just loved the 2 shades in the set it was this one and another called peach daiquiri I think its called. Anyway that shade is for another post. This post is all about the Lilacism! Starters I love Essie's packaging nice and simple with the white really makes the shade of nail lacquer pop out more. The name 'Lilacism' is cute and the shade itself is the perfect shade of lilac ever!!! If your looking for a lilac polish look no further, this is the one your needing. You only need about 2 coats of this to achieve the shade that you see in the bottle. Just look at those snaps ^ *looks at photos*^ isn't it just lovely? Will look really nice with a little tan in summer time too! Another thing, I love how long this stays on the nails, I have had mine painted since Sunday afternoon and I only have 1 chip (on the usual nail) which doesn't surprise me from the cleaning I have been doing this week, but I'm amazed at the rest lasting so long. I am really loving this weeks shade and I really recommend it, if your looking for a lilac shade this one is just so lovely.

Essie Nail Polish Lilacism £7.99
^Click the link so you can purchase this beautiful shade

Hope you guys have enjoyed this little post on my current nail polish, I might make this a weekly thing as I really enjoyed it. Share with you what one I'm wearing and what my thoughts are on it.

Is there any polishes you recommend?

Thank You

Lots of Lovies
SJ
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Essie Nail Polish Tart Deco

 

So Boots 3 for 2 offer is making quite the dent in a lot of bloggers bank account right now and I am loving seeing all the haul posts on what everyone has treated themselves too. I have been pretty good and only treated myself to a few new items to try. So instead of doing a haul on all the items I am going to test out the products first and then do a review on each item.

 

First up had to be a new Essie polish and I was torn between all their shades, now I am a sucker for a Coral shade and with the thought of Spring/Summer coming I had thought a lovely Coral shade would be perfect! Not only is it a lovely warm bright colourful shade it goes with most skin shades from rather fair skin to beautiful tanned skin (perfect for summer if we get the sun this year). I don't own an Essie polish in Coral so I had my mind set on what I wanted which cut my decision time in half, honestly guys I don't know about you but I am at the Essie stand for aaaaages trying to decide. Tart Deco is the one that stood out most for me as I was looking for one not too light I wanted one that packed a bit of a punch on the bright coral side and this does not let me down. In certain lights its a lovely light coral shade and then in others its this bright deep orange coral shade, its just so lovely!! I even managed to keep this on the nails for just about 4 days before noticing any massive chips which is pretty good for me. So this defiantly gets a thumbs up from me.

 

Essie Tart Deco £7.99

 

 

 

Have you guys been treating yourself to any new nail polishes? any new shades for Spring/Summer? Leave me a comment below I would love to see what you got

 

That's all from me I hope you are all well :)

 

Lots of Lovies

SparklySJ

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Avon SpeedDry Sparkle Nail Enamel

Hi Guys

Today I thought I would share with you these lovely new nail polishes coming out from Avon. They are from the Speed Dry Nail Enamel range which aims to dry in just 30 seconds. They will be releasing a range of 6 new aqua blue shades that contain small itty bitty flakes of sparkle (Yay Sparkle)

I went for 2 of the new shades, one in the shade Enchanted Siren which is a pale blue green shade almost like duck egg blue. The second one I purchased was Trance a lovely darker shade of turquoise. The both of them look lovely together I used Enchanted Siren on all my nails other than my ring finger where I used Trance, I done 2 coats of each and then a clear coat on top. It lasted about 4 days without chipping apart from a small chip I done when I first painted them. Oooops! But I am very impressed with them, I love the shades they are perfect for spring they work well together and I love the sparkle.
If any of you lovely lot are interested they will be released in the next few weeks I'm guessing from the 13th of March with campaign 7 and they will be on half price at £3 originally they cost £6 each.

That's all from me today hope you guys enjoyed this post.

Lots of Lovies
SparklySJ
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Check in Tuesdays #1

Hi Everyone

Now that Mondays past I find a lot of folk moaning about Tuesdays being a bit on the boring side, it's the day after Monday so we are getting closer to another weekend but its not the middle of the week and it feels like we have ages to go till the weekend! I however don't mind Tuesdays :) I always think when I finish work only one more day (Wednesday) then only 2 days to go and its the weekend again!

So I have decided that I'm going to post up a blog post every Tuesday to just "check in" with you all. Maybe mention a few things I'm loving at the moment or things that I'm not so loving. Maybe a few inspirational posts on things that I'm loving right now, basically a random post every Tuesday!!

• So like most girls I love flowers and ones I like especially are Sunflowers, Tulips and Daffodils so when I see a bunch of Tulips in Tesco the other day I had to get some. They are so pretty and colourful they remind me that Spring is coming.
• As some of you beautiful bunch may or may not know I am learning to drive and today I had my first morning driving lesson. With it being winter majority of my lessons have been in the evening as that's when I'm mostly free however it can be pretty quiet in the evenings which is fab to start you off but now I'm needing some traffic. So half 7 in the morning I hit the road with my instructor and drove about town in the morning rush. I rather enjoyed my mornings lesson and I felt pretty good being up super early and not rushing around for work.
• Ever since seeing them few weekends ago I havent stopped listening to City and Colour seriously guys they are so amazing you should check them out.
• I have recently noticed my nails have started to peel its with all the cleaning I do at my work, so I decided to cut them back short and let them grow lovely and healthy again so no nail polish for me for a few weeks.
• Another thing Im a bit excited about is kinda quite sad and its that I have ordered new glasses. I do wear contact lenses most of the time but I do like to wear my glasses from time to time.
• I have been on Instagram a lot lately I been trying to upload a photo every day or 2, I am rather addicted to it at the moment. I just love following other bloggers and seeing what they have been up to and what they been buying. I quite often find new blogs to read that way too.
• A food I have been loving recently is granola, there's this cereal you get in asda and its Hawaiian cereal crunch and its amazing! I have it with some peach and passion fruit yogurt and it is yummmmmy!

So there we have it my first random Tuesday Check In, hope you guys don't mind it. I am trying to be a little different and not just ramble on about beauty treats. Let me know if you liked it or not, any comments would be greatly appreciated you can let me know what you have been up too or what things your loving right now be it random or beauty related!

Here is a snap of Winston who decided to snuggle up into me and rest his head on my shoulder as I was typing this.

until next time

Lots of Lovies

SparklySJ

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Topshop Treats!!

Hello Lovelies

Now I am not one who loves to go rummaging around the shops in the sales I am more a sit at home in my pjs with my feet up having a cuppa tea (green with lemon) browsing the interweb sales seeing what bargains I can find.

Well I found a beaut of a jacket on Topshop reduced from £60 to £35, black denim with a sort of fleece material in the body part. I read the reviews on how its best to go up a size with this jacket in particular so you can layer up in these winter days so I did :) 

Here's some of the detailing from the jacket.

Whilst on the website I thought why not have a look at the beauty items they have, and boy am I glad I did! I found a Lip Bullet in the shade Bewitched which is a lovely deep plum colour, as I'm loving the dark lip look there was no question about it, it went straight into my basket. I fancied a new nail polish so headed over to the nail section, Oh my goodness so much lovely shades to choose from. I finally came to the decision to get Blue Jeans which is a beeeautiful mermaid blue yet in some lights green shade it is so so lovely and was only £6 little cheaper to my usual polish I get.

Topshop Lip Bullet £8.00

Topshop Lip Bullet in shade Bewitched

This is how dark the shade looks, its a lovely deep plum shade

On to the nail polish

Topshop Nail polish in shade Blue Jeans £6

Soooooo pretty!!!!

Mermaid Nails :) 

And that's my treats I got on Topshops sale. Did you guys get any bargains in the sales?

Lots of Lovies

SparklySJ

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Essie Winter Mini Kit

Hi guys and dolls :)

How are you all this fine day?

So I'm not sure if I have mentioned my love for Essie nail polishes?! I have mentioned them in a few previous blog posts so if your new and haven't read any of my posts I LOVE Essie!! Well at Christmas the boyfriend Gordee done gooood in getting me the Winter Mini Kit  as part of my Christmas presents.

And there it is!!! 3 lovely shades to choose from, of course I had to go for 4 in the same shade and the 1 different so the sparkly one stood out :) 

So we have (LtoR) Shearling Darling, a beautiful deep red plum shade I used this for the base of the sparkly one so you cant really tell how beautiful this shade really is. Secondly we have Parka Perfect, which is a lovely almost blue gray shade (I'm rubbish at describing colours sorry) you can see I have painted it on all the rest of my nails. This is a really nice sort of everyday shade its not boring and not bright but its very eye catching when its on. I did have quite a few people ask me what colour it was as it is a rather odd shade to see. And lastly we have the bit of Christmas Sparkle in the form of Toggle To The Top. Now I love a bit of sparkle on a nail and I love colour sparkles on a nail, this is THE perfect colour festive sparkle! The colour of the the little bits of glitter is a very similar shade to the Shearling Darling which looks great with it being the base colour, yet when the light hits its full on sparkly red! Just Beautiful!!

Here is another snap of the box with my nails trying to get the best light to show you guys how lovely it is.

This cute little set is still available at Boots stores just now at £12.99 you can check it out here. 

Hope you are all well and keeping up the positive vibes this month!

Lovies
SparklySJ
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My Favorites of 2013 Part 2!

 Hello, and Welcome to My Favorites of 2013 Part 2!

This post is going to be all about the make up and nails. I am rather dull and boring when it comes to make up however I am going to try and be a bit more adventurous on that side of things next year and not be afraid to try out new things. So lets get started on the make up items I have been loving this year.

Face

So its always good to start off with a good base. I'm talking Primers. I tried quite a few this year and I do like to use my Body Shop Vitamin C Skin Reviver for this, another close favorite has to be the Rimmel Fix and Perfect £6.99 I just find this stuff perfect for a make up base, it holds my foundation perfectly. I did also do a little blog post on this beauty which goes a little more in depth to check it out click here. Now for foundation I have 3 to pick from which was rather difficult so I thought sod it I will put them all in as I love all 3 for different reasons. Revlon ColorStay £12.49 this stuff appealed to me from the start being for oily to combination skin, being oil free it helps to control shine and aims to give you that flawless look. This was the first foundation I bought this year and it is probably going to be one that I will continue to use. I loved the coverage of it, I love that it lasted pretty much all day, the match to my skin tone was perfect, I just loved it. When my Revlon foundation was coming to an unfortunate end I thought I would be adventurous and try out a new one, for that I tried out the No7 Beautifully Matte Foundation £12.95 another oily to combination foundation created to balance oil production and help improve skin, I cannot fault this lovely item at all. It gives a medium to full coverage, it lasts a long time throughout the day. I used the match made service so the shade is perfect for my skin tone again its one I will probably repurchase. I done a post on this foundation and the matching concealer, if you would like to review my ramblings more into detail on this product click here. Lastly of the foundations is the much raved about Rimmel Wake Me Up Foundation £8.99 I purchased this foundation on a whim in the summer time as I had a slight tan and my everyday Revlon one was a tad to pale for me. Being at such a reasonable price I thought this will do me fine for the summer. I wasn't wrong. Designed to awaken the skin and give you a healthy radiant glow, it does not fault. It gives you  a nice light coverage, not too heavy which is perfect for that suns heat and contains an SPF 15 so it also protects your skin as well as given you a lovely natural glow. Recently I blogged about my skin not having a good time that I had to cut back on wearing my foundations due to an allergic reaction. I turned to a BB Cream to help put my skin back on track but give a bit of colour along the way. I turned to my Dr Jart Regenerating Beauty Balm £14.00 designed to help cover any blemishes and redness while letting the skin regenerate. This was just what I was looking for at the time. I forgot how much I loved this product, it really did help me feel less self conscious of the redness from the reaction and improved my skin within a week or so. If you want to read the post I done on this BB Cream click here. Once I done my foundation I like to add a subtle hint of colour to the cheeks and I use my Revlon Powder Blush £7.99 in shade Smoky Rose which is a lovely light pink, I just sweep it on the apples of my cheeks to make me feel more alive.

Eyes

I noticed this year a heavy trend going round in beauty and make up was brows!! Now I have a full fringe. So to say I neglected my brows is an understatement, however over the past few months I started to give bit more attention to them. I'm still not 100% confident on them but I am getting there. A few months back Latest in Beauty got together with Glamour magazines Beauty Editor and they created a box of wonderful treats. One of these treats was the HD Brows Eye and Brow Palette in Foxy. The whole box only cost £14.95 and I believe that this palette costs alone £19.95 so that's a bargain already! As a newbie to the whole brows look I have been giving this item a go over the past month and I am surprisingly enjoying it. My fringe is growing right now and kinda sweeps to the side, so I kind of need to make sure they look a little decent as you can see just the one, which sounds odd but it doesn't look it....I hope. I use the medium shade and slowly outline my eyebrow then fill it in. I don't want them to look too obvious and I like that it gives a nice natural look. If anyone is interested in the Beauty Box the link is here. Or if you would rather just check out the palette I found it on amazon here. Mascara will always be my Avon SuperShock I have been using this stuff for years, I do try others but none impress me as much as this one. I get asked if I'm wearing false eyelashes or if I have lash extensions whenever I wear this mascara its that good. As its from Avon the price can tend to change in each campaign with any offers so heres the link to their official shop site. I done a blog post on this mascara also so if you want to see what I'm talking about click here. Eyeliners, I have cut back using these in the past month just for a bit of a break to the eyes. That and I am just hopeless at it haha it takes me ages to get liner just right. However I do like the L'Oreal Super Liner with its sponge tip to do the top lash line bitty, I have still not mastered cat eye but I am getting there. This stuff does last all day or night if I'm wearing it to go out, it is a pain to remove so I would recommend an eye make up remover. I cant seem to find the one I bought on the boots site but here's the link to a very similar one in colours blue or purple which I am tempted to try out. Nice change from black. My favorite pencil eye liner that I use for my waterline has to be Benefit BADgal Waterproof Eyeliner £15.00  it lasts all day and hardly smudges. There is a smudger at the other end if you want to use this liner for the top lashes and smudge it out for a bit of a smokey look. I did mention that only use mine for my waterline, being a bit on the pricey side it does last a long time.

 One thing I have particularly enjoyed this year when it has come to make up is applying it using the right tools. I cannot recommend Real Techniques Brushes enough, there are just the best brushes I have ever used. I started off with the Core collection then added the stippling brush, powder brush and the blush brush. I do intend on getting more as I love them that much. They just give such a lovely flawless cover and they are so soft to the skin. I wash mine about once a week with johnstons baby shampoo to get all the used make up off so I start each week with lovely clean brushes. To check out the range of Real Technique brushes here's the link, Samantha Chapman who created these lovely brushes also has a fab YouTube Channel with her sister where they do fantastic make up looks you can check them out here.

 

I fell in love with the brand Essie in February when I discovered the most gorgeous pink shade of nail polish that I had ever seen, in the name Lovie Dovie it had to be bought. Since then I bought 2 more shades, I recently bought the base coat and at Christmas I got the Winter Collection which I will review about soon. Essie has such beautiful shades of polish I want them all!! I do like to paint my nails I just get rather frustrated when they don't last and a day or 2 later they are all chipped but when I use my Essie polish it can be known to last me a week without chipping! Happy Days!! I am planning on adding plenty more to my collection, I have already spied a few new future buys. Keep your eyes posted on future posts with which ones I get. If you want to check Essie out here's a link to their official website. For removing nail polish it has to be Bourjois Magic Nail Polish Remover £4.99 you just pop your finger into the sponge twist it in for a couple of seconds, remove finger and bosh! nail varnish gone just like magic.

And there you have it! That is all of my favorite beauty things for 2013, I do wonder what will be my faves for next year. I am planning on broadening my make up ways so here's looking forward to the future!!

Hope you all had a fabulous Hogmanay!!! HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! Lets see what 2014 has to throw at us. :)

Lovies

SparklySJ

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Nailed it!!

Aloha!!

So I know Christmas is over now (sad face), I hope you all had a fabulous day and were spoiled rotten with lovely and fantastic treats.

In my Christmas tag I mentioned how I had a nail look I wanted to try out and if it was successful I will share with you beautiful bunch.You be glad to know it wasn't too shabby at all! So here is my post on what I done to achieve my festive nails.

 A few months back I noticed these Nail Art stickers in the Avon book for about £3 and I thought why the heck not try them. I'm not the best at doing my nails but I figured I would try my best.

I noticed when I peeled the sticker off that there was clear sections in between the red stripes, as I was looking for the candy cane look I rummaged around my nail polishes I found a white polish that would be perfect.

 I started by using my Rimmel 5 in 1 as a base coat then once that was all dried I put 2 coats of the Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Xtreme Wear in white.

Once the white was all dried I carefully peeled off a sticker then cut it down to size, placed it over the nail smoothing it out. Then filed it down.

Resulting in looking like this!! For my first time I thought i done not a bad job at all. I really enjoyed doing it as well, makes me want to try out some other ranges of Nail Art stickers.














And there you have it my festive nails!! They did only last 2 days but that's all I needed as I got more nail polish for Christmas that I was desperate to try.

Hope you guys enjoyed this post, let me know if you had any fancy nail art I would love to have a nosey.

Lovies
SparklySJ
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Avon Nailwear Pro+ Diamond Nail Enamel

Now I don't know about you but I do appreciate a good nail polish and I personally feel that Avon never seem to disappoint me. So when I seen Nailwear Pro+ Diamond Nail Enamel "ultra glossy nail polish containing diamond dust" I was a sucker for its sparklyness in the booky. I went for the shade Night Violet and I am just in love with it. Its a lovely berry shade which is perfect for this time of year with its little shimmers from the diamond dust. Its nice that its not full on sparkle and it is just a lovely subtle one that you could possibly wear during the day as well as night time.

                                                  I love the shape of the bottle.

                                                  Its a lovely deep purple shade.

   Here's a photo with the flash on so you can see the lovely sparklyness this nail polish has.

The polish comes in 6 shades including my lovely purple one, I am toying with the idea on getting another one in another colour as I do love it that much. At the moment you can find this in Avon books or on their website which you can shop on although you do have to sign up first. Just now these nail polishes are only £4 (bargain!) in brochure 18 but normally will cost £6 which I still think is not a bad price for nail polish these days.

If there's any nail polishes that you like and what shades you leave please feel free to comment below I do love any suggestions on some new ones.

Lots of Lovies
SparklySJ
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Happy Halloween

Hi Guys Hope everyone is having a fab Halloween, I am unfortunately getting ready to go to work and I cant dress up for it either :( So I thought I would paint my nails black using my Essie nail polish in Licorice bringing a little Halloween to my nails haha. Then I thought why not to a quick blog post on the items I use when I'm doing my nails.

                                                Before I start here's a little snap of Winston

So to start off I take off my nail polish I already had on using Bourjois Magic Nail Polish Remover £4.99 this stuff really is magic and saves so much time than a bottle of nail polish remover and cotton pads. You just dip your finger into the sponge that is soaked in the remover, I twist my finger a couple of times for a few seconds take it out and poof! Your nail varnish is gone, just like magic! And a bonus after using this your nails don't smell of strong smelling nail polish removers they smell rather fruity!

Bourjois Magic Nail Polish Remover £4.99

 

Magic!!!

 





After removing all the previous nail polish I apply a base coat. I use Rimmel London 5 in 1 Nail Treat its a base and top coat. I have had this stuff for years, I had a look on boots website to see if it still exists and unfortunately I couldn't see it but instead I found a very similar one by Rimmel London called Nail Nurse £4.49 which is also a 5 in 1 and does base and top coat. To be honest I think its the same stuff they have just updated the packaging and added the words Nail Nurse in it. I mainly use it just as a base coat to protect my nails before I put on any colour nail polish.                                                     

                                                             All clear and protected

Once the base coat is all dry I used Essie nail polish in Licorice £7.99 this is the perfect shade of black and it only needs one coat which I'm very happy about. It lasts along time on my nails and doesn't chip which I'm extremely happy about :D to finish it off a slick of the Rimmel 5 in 1 as the top coat and I'm done.

                                                               Essie Licorice £7.99

                                                  All Black ready to go with added cat ring

And that's my nails all dry. Its now time for me to do my face and hair, grab something to eat then head off to work. Hope you enjoyed this quick post and hope you all have a Spooky Halloween!!!

Lots of Love and Kisses
SparklySJ
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