The Ten Best Things About Being...............

Life isn't easy being a petite gal, but that doesn't mean to say that there aren't some added perks to being lacking in a few extra vertical inches, check out my list below of the ten best things about being petite:

1. You're the master of hide and seek, no space is too small for you to squeeze your tiny self into!

2. You have a legitimate excuse to wear fierce heels no matter what the occasion, for example, added heel height is a necessity when trying to reach the top shelf in a supermarket, and to quote Beverly Hills' finest real housewife, Adrienne Maloof (she's actually pretty deep, you guys!) - 'The higher the heels, the closer to God' - and you can't argue with that kind of logic.

3. It's rare that you'll ever have to worry about being taller than a guy.

4. You'll always look younger than your actual age, which may be annoying when you're in your twenties, but once you hit the big 3-0, you'll be grateful to that sales assistant who ID'd you for that bottle of Merlot (because that's what you drink when you're in your thirties).

5. You can buy oversized tops (or go a few sizes up in a top) and wear it as a dress.  It'd probably be a mini dress but that's cool, I'm totally on-board with that.

6. You'll never have to worry about your feet hanging out the end of the bed.  Nobody likes cold feet, in literal OR metaphorical terms.

7. Flying economy class on a plane is bearable due to your legs not taking up loads of room and thus giving you plenty of space to wriggle about for maximum comfort - and trust me, you'll be thankful for that on those pesky long-haul flights!

8. Being cramped up in a bath tub is something that you are unlikely to experience with the length of the bath ALWAYS being longer than the length of your body.

9. Petite fashion lines from the likes of Topshop, ASOS and Miss Selfridge are getting increasingly more exciting and often you'll find petite exclusives, meaning unless you're 5ft3 or under then you're not invited to this party - so keep on walking sister!

10. Sofas are the perfect length for you to take a nap on without being all scrunched up and contorted into weird and painful shapes.

I just want to point out that this list doesn't mean to say that there's anything wrong with being tall, I just think that you should love your height, no matter how tall, small or averagely proportioned you are - so at the end of the day, whether you're barely pushing 5ft or so past 6ft that it's nothing more than a distant memory, just OWN IT.  Also apologies for my terrible drawings - they're pretty bad but I sure do like to doodle!

Hooked on SensatioNail

It's happened.  It was just a matter of time but it's happened.  I finally gave in and now own a gel nails kit courtesy of SensatioNail, a generous brother and a Black Friday dream of a deal from Boots.  As a result, I am now hooked on SensatioNail.  Completely and utterly hooked. 

As a nail-obsessive, I'd been debating for a while whether to go down the road of owning my very own gel nail kit or to carry on persevering with my standard, run-of-the-mill-can't-make-it-24-hours-without-chipping nail polish but most times decided against buying gel kits due to the costs involved.  This year though I did the maths (and finally understood why I worked so hard to get that GCSE A-grade in Maths.  Maths is important so you can calculate the value of owning your own gel nails kit vs. trips to the nail bar.  Thank you school education, you have treated me well.).  The maths told me that buying a gel nails kit was actually a sound investment due to not having to paint my nails as often because of the long-lasting nature of a gel manicure as well as not having to pay £20-£40 at a nail bar having someone else do my gel nails for me.  After this quick mathematical equation which looked a bit like the below, I came to the conclusion that a gel nails kit was most definitely needed:

If x + y = z then that means I MUST BUY A GEL NAIL KIT (ok, so it wasn't my adeptness at equations that earned me that A-grade in maths!)

After the maths came the research which all led me to a well-known (particularly amongst beauty-lovers) company called SensatioNail.  It seemed that SensatioNail was the way to go - good reviews, it was sold in Boots as well as online and there was a great range of nail polish colours and products. 

Then came Black Friday and the offer of the SensatioNail Limited Edition Ultimate Gel Starter Kit for £35 on Boots online which had been reduced from £80.  This resulted in some minor heart palpitations, although I had just had an espresso so I think that the caffeine should take some credit for that, however once the palpitations had ceased, I immediately whasapped my brother and asked for (or demanded, I can't quite remember?) the kit for my birthday.  It was one of those moments where when you know you know, you know?  I just had to have the kit and thankfully my brother kindly (and quite possibly because he feared the repercussions if he didn't yield) got me it and gave it to me upon the day of my birth. 

The gel nail kit of dreams!

The kit came with SO much including (as listed on the Boots website):

SensatioNail Pro 1530 LED lamp with mains adaptor

2 colour polishes: Miss Behave & Going for the Rose Gold (3.69ml each)

Gel base/top coat (7.39ml), Gel Cleanser (27.2ml)

Gel Primer (3.54 ml), Polish to Gel (7.39ml)

mixing pot

removal tool

nail shields

manicure stick

buffer

lint free wipes.

Like I said, SO much! 

The next thing I did was watch some YouTube gel nail tutorials and decided that I wanted to try out the chrome nail trend that everyone is falling head over heels for.   I bought some chrome powders from eBay, a no-wipe gel top coat from Amazon (only no-wipe gel top coats work otherwise the powder wipes off or loses the chrome effect) and a SensationNail gel polish in the shade Midnight Rendezvous (which is a black shade) as I needed a dark colour to achieve the mirror-like finish from the chrome powders.  The whole kit worked like a dream, it was easy and simple to use and the manicure stayed chip-free for the 2 weeks I had it on.  Check it out below: 

Gel Chrome Nails

I also found that SensatioNail themselves had some great videos on their website offering guidance and tips on how to use the SensatioNail products which I would thoroughly recommend checking out.

I have since used my nail foils too which had been lying around in my nail art drawer for what had seemed like a lifetime and created an eye-catching gel nail design with them (click here to check out the tutorial video that I used for achieving a foil nail design for gel nails).

Gel Foil Nails

This gel nails starter kit is great for anyone who loves having stunning-looking and long-lasting painted nails and it has the added bonus of working out cheaper than regularly visiting a nail bar to get them done - plus, even if you were to pay the full £80, it still works out cheaper in the long-term (don't argue with me because, I don't know if I've mentioned this before, but one time I got an A-grade in maths.).  That being said, Boots currently have this kit back on offer at a reduced price of £40 so I would thoroughly recommend snapping this up before it sells out! 

Have you used any SenatioNail products before?  Drop me a comment to let me know you're thoughts!   I'm already brainstorming NYE gel nail ideas as we speak so if you have any tips or useful gel nails advice then that would be greatly appreciated!

What's Wrong With Being Nice?

Now it may be the copious cups of tea that I have consumed today or the soul-destroying train strike or even the horrendous cold/flu I'm currently battling with at the moment but I'm feeling pretty fed up.  Before I get to what it is that is causing this strife, let me explain that the catalyst that caused this blog post was binge-watching the last 5 episodes of The Apprentice or, to be more apt, Lord Sugar's attitude in these episodes.  Now, I love The Apprentice and I'm also well aware that it's reality TV so I know that the majority of it is scripted or, at the very least, heavily manipulated to create drama and storylines.  What I cannot stand (brace yourself, you're now about to find out what the cause of my strife is...) and what I realised I could not stand after the theme being repeated throughout the 5 episodes of The Apprentice is the attitude that being 'nice' is a bad thing.  Seriously, you could create a drinking game for how many times Lord Sugar uses the word 'nice' and practically scrunches his nose up in disgust at the mere thought.

What is so wrong with being 'nice' and also, since when did being 'too nice' become a negative thing?  Afterall, if I'm honest, I'd much rather work with or be friends with someone who is 'too nice' than someone who is 'too horrible'.  I find this whole anti-niceness mindset both confusing and really depressing - why should we assume that we must be mean and cut throat to succeed and why should those in influential positions be advocates of this?  It's ludicrous.  People too often consider 'niceness' as a weakness but the problem here is that the reason it's deemed a weakness is because the non-nice individuals (friends, colleagues or even strangers in the street) that exist out there choose to take advantage of this decent attribute seen in others and, guess what?  This doesn't make nice people weak, it just makes the advantage-takers lousy human beings.  I certainly don't want to be telling my future children that the only way they'll succeed in life is by being arrogant, nasty, cut-throat S.O.Bs but this seems to be the gist of what Lord Sugar imparts on the candidates and the viewing public in every goddamn episode and it's infuriating.

The other day, for example, someone mentioned to me that I was so nice that if I was in a horror film, I'd probably be the first one to get killed off - and I think that sums up exactly the mindset of people today.  Why does my being nice mean that nothing positive will come from it?  I'm not hugely religious but one of my favourite quotes comes from the Bible and this is 'Do unto others as you would have them do unto you' (Luke 6:31) and I thoroughly believe that there is nothing wrong with thinking that way.  If anything, it's common sense that I would treat someone how I would want to be treated, it's not rocket science!

Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not perfect and I'm sure there are times when I'm not nice as we all have our moments, but I will never stop wanting to be nice because that's a fundamental part of who I am and that sure as hell does not mean that I won't succeed in either my personal or working life.  So, before I tell you that 'I wish I could bake a cake filled with rainbows and smiles and we'd all eat and be happy'* and you yell back at me, 'She doesn't even go here!'*, all I ask is that we start viewing being 'nice' in a postive light and consider that maybe, just maybe, we can be both successful AND nice (*gasp*) because, if I'm honest, that'd be pretty ni.....great!

*If these two quotes mean nothing to you then I suggest you view the below video (skip to 1:02 for the good bit) pretty imminently or I may not be so nice in future**

**That was a lie, I'll still be nice because I'm awesome like that.  You're welcome.

The Nailbot - it will blow your mind

'Am I dreaming?  Is this real life?  What is this sorcery?' will be the interior monologue reverberating around your brains after reading this post because I just discovered something that will change all our lives forever.  'What could this be?' I overhear you whisper via your interior monologues (yes, I was eavesdropping), well, I give you, *drum roll, please*, the 'Nailbot' aka the Smartphone nail art printer.  Yes, that's right, a printing device that connects to your Smartphone and can print your photos/designs on to your nails.  Let me just give you a minute to process that information before I commence my next paragraph......have you processed yet?  Yes?  Great.

I stumbled upon this invention through my liking of HelloGiggles on Facebook where they had posted a video all about the Nailbot, showing how it worked and speaking to the genius creator, Pree Walia and which my Facebook kindly notified me about.  From the viewing of the video, I learnt that this invention prints custom nail art in 5 seconds which is faster than burning a piece of toast, just in case you needed some kind of time measuring example to put into context how fast this nail art printer actually is.  If you need proof that the Nailbot acutally exists and works faster than burning a piece of toast then I thoroughly recommend that you check out the video below.

Just imagine how great the Nailbot would be for a friend's wedding where the bridemaids could all print photos of the happy (hopefully) couple on their nails or for a friend's birthday where your gift to them could be decorating your nails with photos of their beautiful face!  Or, if you're just in a bit of a mood funk then what better way to cheer yourself up than by printing the poop emoji on all of your nails?  Mature?  No.  Hilarious?  Most definitely.  The options are endless and the best thing is that you don't have to be a skilled nail art technician to be rocking some skilled nail art designs.  This is the kind of invention that I have dreamt about without even really knowing it and, if I'm honest, my brain can barely believe that it's real and not just a figment of my imagination.

It's hardly surpising that the Nailbot has now raised way over its $75,000 goal on Kickstarter with $87,110 and it still has 40 hours left to go due to its innovation and easy-to-use style.  Sidenote, if you wanted be one of the first to get your sassy paws on a Nailbot then there is still time to pledge - I myself would love to pledge but, unfortunately, I still have 12 more days until payday and apparently paying your rent is more important than nail art (I don't know who came up with this rule but it is not one that I am a fan of) so I will have to be one of those poor suckers who waits for it to hit the shelves and buy it then (which I'm totally fine with and not bitter about at all).

I can't wait to spend hours on YouTube watching all the nail art tutorials that will come out of the Nailbot's presence and I think that we can all agree that this will most detinitely kick the chrome nail art trend's ass.

If you're feeling intrigued then check out the Nailbot's kickstarter page here where there is even more info and fun photos and videos showing exactly how the Nailbot works.

P.s. You are welcome*.

*because in my interior monologue you are all showering me with a million thank yous.  You're too kind, really.

 





 

The Pavan Henna Bar

So back around Christmas time, I was invited to the Pavan Henna Bar at Selfridges to have some henna done and check out some of their products.  Now, due to some unforeseen laptop issues (i.e. my laptop broke) I am now only just able to blog about it now with my fully (finally) working laptop.

I have had henna done at the Pavan Henna Bar at Selfridges before which was when I got henna done on both hands for my birthday (see pics below). 

Therefore, when I was invited to check out the Pavan Henna Bar back in December, I couldn't resist and made the trek, well one 20-minute bus journey ride after work, to Selfridges in Oxford Street. 

Once at Selfridges, it was somewhat of an intense navigation process to find the Pavan Henna Bar due to the hordes of overly excited Christmas tourists, I lost count of the number of MASSIVE Selfridges tote bags that people knocked into my poor little legs. 

Once I located the henna spot in the beauty hall, I met Pavan who did my henna for me and who also happens to be the lady behind the Pavan Henna Bar (I suppose the clue is in the title there) AND who also happens to be the official record holder of the World's Fastest Henna Artist' which is pretty impressive. 

Whilst having my henna done, Pavan told me about breaking the world record and being the Word's Fastest Henna Artist as well as having set ups in other locations including Manchester and even as far afield as Abu Dhabi.  Pavan also told me that they could do white henna as well as henna in glittery hues which looked so pretty.

I stuck to the traditional henna colour and decided to get the henna design done on my wrist/back of my lower arm mostly so I could keep it covered at work rather than for aesthetic reasons.  The design Pavan created looked gorgeous and I absolutely loved it plus she did it so speedily which was an added bonus.

Whilst waiting for the henna to dry, I was speaking to a couple of lovely ladies who also worked at the henna bar who were so kind and friendly and were telling me all about how they had done henna for Ellie Goulding as well as Perrie from Little Mix so I immediately felt a little bit cooler!

Now that we're coming up to summer (It's about bloomin' time!) I can't think of a better time to be heading back to the bar and I will soon be making my appointment to get had better book my appointments now before Perrie or Ellie beat me to it because that would not be ok!

Oh, I almost forgot to mention, Pavan also let me choose some henna-style temporary finger tattoos to take home with me and try out which are great.  I opted for silver ones and they are ideal for a special occasion or if you're going to a gig or festival plus they're so quick and easy to use which is always a good thing if you ask me!

 

Have you had henna done at the Pavan Henna Bar before?  Let me know what you think and drop a comment below!  

Another Day, Another Film Premiere

A bit late on this post so I do apologise most sincerely for my rude manors and beg you not to throw my apologetic self to the curb.  A couple of weeks ago, I managed to win some film premiere tickets to Ridley Scott's latest movie 'The Martian' thanks to Glamour (as in the magazine, just thought that I should make that clear in case you thought that I was claiming to having won the tickets due to being glamorous which would be a little bit obnoxious and, you know, also a lie).

Pretty Self-explanatory

 



My fate lied in the hands of the Glamour and Twitter gods as I simply and suavely (because I am both simple and suave) retweeted one of Glamour's tweets and calmly awaited the outcome of this simple and suave action which led to the below:

 

 

I should probably point out that I'm @amandalindseyb in the above list of winners (feel free to follow me on Twitter or Instagram if ya fancy it).  This outcome meant two delightful tickets to stare (in a completely non-creepy way) at Matt Damon's face both onscreen and in person.  Thank you Glamour and Twitter gods, I respect you both in equal measure and bow down to your supreme greatness.

 

 

Matt.  Damon.

 



Being the great flatmate/best friend that I am, I very kindly decided not to give the other ticket to my flatmate/best friend.  *Dramatic pause*.  Just kidding.  Of course I invited my flat mate/best friend, I'm not a monster, I was more just throwing in a dramatic plot twist to keep your attention but I can see now that that was cruel and so yet again, here I am apologising to you, I do hope you can forgive me?

Sean Bean, Kate Mara and Jeff Daniel looking
pretty happy here.

Now, I'm no amateur when it comes to attending a film premiere, I've been to two before and consider myself somewhat of a pro (no one can refute that.  You have NO proof that I am not a film premiere-attending pro.  Also, feel free to check out my previous film premiere post for Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy by clicking here.) however, I still get quite intimidated and paranoid that I'm going to trip over when walking down the red carpet despite the fact that no one is even registering my existence as I traipse down these red pathways as I am neither Matt Damon nor Kristen Wiig.  How unfortunate.  You'll be relieved to know that I did not trip over, unless you're still harbouring a grudge against me for being late with this blog post and then in that case I should think that you're slightly displeased that there was no tripping over involved.

Kritsen Wiig's facial expression in this photo is
EVERYTHING.

Anyway, I digress (ALWAYS wanted to write that in a blog post.  Nailed it.), whilst strolling down the red carpet my friend and I bumped into someone that my friend knew who was working on the red carpet.  I won't lie to you, we felt pretty cool at this point until a rather intimidating security guard came along and told us that we couldn't stop on the red carpet to chat - apparently you can only do that if you're famous or something. 

These guys again.

Once seated inside the Odeon in Leicester Square we found our free 3D glassed (jackpot!) and our free popcorn which was the most disappointing-flavoured popcorn ever (sweet coconut and vanilla flavour?  Really?  REALLY?  In what world is that an acceptable flavour of popcorn?!).  After this slightly mundane discovery of an unpleasant popcorn flavour which was probably really interesting for you to read about, the cast came out on stage to introduce the movie and as we were seated in the second row, we had an amazing view of the entire film premiere-attending cast.

The whole, slightly blurry, gang.

I find it so bizarre that the genius that is Sir Ridley Scott was standing right infront of my face and, in all honesty, I was slightly disappointed that Sir Ridley didn't spot me in the audience and see some unearthed star potential in me and want to whisk me off to Hollywood to put me in movie that would go on to win me the Academy Award for the Best Supporting Actress (because I'm a beginner at this acting malarkey in this imaginary scenario, I would be part of an ensemble cast hence the award would be for Best Supporting Actress and not Best Actress).  Kristen Wiig, Jessica Chastain and Kate Mara all looked stunning and exuded glamour (this time I am not referring to the magazine but, in fact, Hollywood glamour.  Just thought that I should make that clear.).  Whilst Sean Bean, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Jeff Daniels and Matt Damon (I really hope that every time I mention Matt Damon that you flashback to 'Team America: World Police'.  You know what I'm talking about.) looked just as stunning their female co-stars but in a slightly more masculine manner.

Sir Ridley Scott wearing a pretty swish scarf
and failing to notice my star potential.

As for the film, it was brilliant - intense, fun, dramatic and so many other superlatives.  I would wholeheartedly recommend it, Ridley Scott has not let himself down with this movie.  Plus, for any 'Community' and/or Childish Gambino fans, Donald Glover is also in the film and nearly steals the show in my opinion even though he wasn't at the film premiere which broke my heart a little bit but it's fine.  Totally fine.  I'm over it.  Who even is Donald Glover?  Exactly.  Also, I wrote that this 'Donald Glover', whoever he is, 'nearly steals the show' because essentially Matt Damon is about 75% of the movie so I'm not sure that it's possible to steal a movie from someone who makes up three quarters of the actual film.

What's everyone looking at?  Probably Matt Damon.
 

I seriously suggest that you go check this movie out which you may have already done seeing as the film has been out for a couple of weeks so, I, er, guess this whole blog post is actually pretty redundant now, what a shame.  Oh well, if you have seen the movie then feel free to drop me a comment and let me know what you thought of it, you don't have to leave a comment though because you do have freewill and I respect that.     

White Henna Exists. For Real.

Can we all just take a moment and acknowledge the fact that white henna exists. 

Now that we've all taken a moment, I shall continue.......no wait, I'm going to need a little longer to fully take in this new nugget of information. 

First came the tan/brown henna then the evil/dangerous black henna and now the beautiful white henna.  Now, if you're thinking, 'white henna? Really?' with an edge of scepticism then feast your eyes on this stunning white henna (and nail art may I add!) courtesy of Reecey Roo's Instagram feed:

God Bless Reecey Roo's Nail Art Bar for this stunning white henna!
(Image via Reecey Roo's Instagram page)

Looks stunning, doesn't it?  Plus how perfect would this be for a wedding?  As someone who's fairly obsessed with henna (obsessed in a completely healthy way - see below pics for my henna love affair), white henna just seems to be the next step for me and I can't wait to try it out! 

This is a temporary henna tattoo transfer that I applied myself. 

I love my tiny henna temporary tattoo transfer which you can see on my
middle finger here.  Also, feel free to appreciate the nail art that I did which
featured real dried flowers!

Please ignore my slightly mannish hand and appreciate the  intricate henna design
here that I got from Pavan's henna bar in Selfridges last December.

Let me know what you think of white henna?  Have you tried it before?  Plus if anyone knows of anywhere that does great henna for a reasonable price (I've only ever had it done at Selfridges where it's quite pricey or used temporary tattoos) then please let me know?

Thanks!

The Tale of the Dreaded Spring-Clean

The incident happened last weekend, it was spur of the moment and as if I had been taken over by another being, a more tidy and house-proud being, a being who enjoyed the delights of BHS homeware and a humble teacup lamp.  This 'incident' was so shocking that should you continue to read on then feel free to gasp out loud in astonishment, I won't judge you, in fact, I implore you to gasp out loud as I recount to you......*pause for dramatic effect*.....'The Tale of the Dreaded Spring-Clean'.

Have I caught your attention?  Good.  Dramatic openings aside, spring-cleaning is no walk in the park and a nightmare for someone like me who has a tendency to be sentimental over the most pointless of items like the pair of flip flops I found hidden in my wardrobe and which hadn't been worn since summer 2007.  Simply put, the flip flops reminded me of an amazing holiday that I'd been on and despite the fact that they were slightly broken, I had held on to them all this time along with the memory.  The thing is, and this is what I discovered last weekend, my memory of that holiday can still exist without the flip flops sitting at the back of my closest, just like my memory of my best friend's eighteenth birthday party isn't dependent upon me keeping that one dress that I wore to it and haven't worn since.  I decided that I would much rather give the dress to a charity shop and know that it can help to create a new memory for someone else rather than hanging out in my closet and never getting to see the light of day!  The clearing out and fancying up of my room was a lengthy (and at times soul-destroying) process and I relied on A LOT of Taylor Swift's music to get me through it.  Probably too much.  I had 'Style' stuck in my head for five days straight after my spring-cleaning escapades, not that that's a bad thing.....although I'm not sure that it's a good thing either?  I don't know.

I can't deny the fact that I'm still a sentimental fiend and wasn't quite able to part with everything that probably could or should have been thrown out but I was probably the toughest I've ever been when spring-cleaning my room so yay me and fifty points to Gryffindor, or something like that anyway!

In truth, the best part of tidying out my room was being able to get some new bits for it and fix it up shabby chic-style, we're talking new bed sheets, a bed runner (didn't even know those were a thing until I bought a Kylie Minogue one in a sample sale for £2.50 reduced from £75. BARGAIN.), new cushions, candles, lights, lamps, photo frames, storage boxes and vases - there was no stopping me, I was a homeware buyng fiend and one that couldn't be stopped - feel free to check out the fiendish results in the photos below:

Glamour and Roald Dahl's 'The Twits' - best combo!

Note to self: do not try and drink tea out of these guys, could
be potentially catastrophic.

All my favourites.

 

No better storage box exists on this planet.

 

Tea cup lamp? Check.  Harry Potter storage box?  Check.  Clutter-free room?  CHECK.  Turns out spring-cleaning isn't so bad afterall, and as for the ending of 'The Tale of the Dreaded Spring Cleaning', well, let's just put it this way - I'm pretty sure that I'll be living clutter-free ever after.  The end.

 

 

Making Glitter Nail Polish on a Sunday Night

Sunday night blues are the worst, you know it, I know it and I'm pretty sure that that person sitting next you to on the train on your early Monday morning commute knows it.  So, seeing as I was suffering from those dreaded Sunday night blues earlier this evening (mostly due to the fact that I have to be up at 4:50am tomorrow morning for work), I decided to have some nail polish-related fun and create my own glitter nail polish. 

Back in the January sales, I purchased Ciaté's Nail Lab which was reduced from £80 to £25.  BARGAIN.  This nifty nail kit supplied me with paint pots, top coats, test tubes, a funnel, a scooper, 6 mini nail polishes, recipe cards, labels and LOTS of glitter. 

Ciaté's Nail Lab in all its glory!

Making up the nail polish was so easy and fun, I cranked up the music and felt like a mad scientist (of the nail polish-creating variety.  It's actually a very common type of mad scientist.) as I commenced upon my glitter nail varnish-making journey.  I decided that I wanted a super sparkly silver glitter with holographic confetti strands so I selected my glitters and added them to my test tube using the funnel and then gave it a good shake to mix up all the different glitters.  Once I was happy with my glitter mixture, I simply poured it via the funnel into one of the top coat nail varnishes, shook it up and it was good to go. 

If chemistry had been a bit more like this at school
then maybe I would have enjoyed it more!

I won't lie to you, by the time I was finished, it did look like there had been a fairy house party that had got out of control in my kitchen thanks to the amount of glitter that had spread all over the table and on the floor.  It's easy to clear up though with a wipe down of the table and a quick sweep of the floor so it's hardly a big deal. 



'Sunday Glitz'

One homemade glitter nail polish ready to go!

 What I love about this kit is that it includes labels for you to name and label up the nail polishes that you have created, I named mine 'Sunday Glitz' because, well, it was glitzy and it was Sunday.  I'm pretty deep.  I also used Ciaté's Paint Pot in the shade 'Looking Glass 131' as my base colour under my glitter to make my nails look even more sparkly and eye-catching.

Ciaté's Paint Pot in 'Looking Glass 131'

I have to say as great as Ciaté's Nail Lab is, I'm not sure that I would have paid top dollar for it as £80 seems quite excessive and I definitely would not have been impressed to have seen it go into the sale if I had paid so much for it in the first place.  However, £25 is a steal for such a great concept and piece of kit - not only did I feel mighty creative when making up my nail polishes but I also completely forgot that it was the end of the weekend because I was so caught up in my mad scientist ways (I genuinely should have been wearing a white lab coated, goggles and maniacally giggling away).

My finished nails with Ciaté's Paint Pot in 'Looking Glass 131' as it's base colour
paired with my homemade glitter nail polish top coat in 'Sunday Glitz'

I also purchased Ciaté's Flower Manicure kit in the same sale which I'm going to try out next weekend for Easter so I'll be sure to let you all know how I get on with that but I have a feeling that I'm going to love it just as much as their Nail Lab so you've been warned!

So proud of these beauts!

Growing Up and Becoming an Adult

Lately I've become increasingly aware of time slipping through my fingers with not just me, but everyone else around me, growing up and becoming an 'adult'. 

I'm not ashamed to admit that being referred to as an 'adult' has, at times, caused an odd and unexpected wave of panic to rush through my brain and forced me to acknowledge the fact that I am an actual, real-life, official grown up.  I think that a lot of that panic boils down to the fact that I spend more time watching Disney movies than watching documentaries, reading Roald Dahl books instead of listening to Radio 2 and wearing blouses that feature cat-face pockets instead of blouses without cat-face pockets.

 

Cat-face pockets - the pinnacle of my existence to date!

Essentially, it's like my whole being is rebelling against the prospect of admitting that I am, in fact, a grown up now and have been for the last however many years or so. 

Of course there are plenty of great things about being an adult such as not having to have a curfew (I still get a buzz out of staying up past 10 o'clock on a Sunday night.  I'm a rebel through and through.), being independent and, most importantly, having the space and freedom to define yourself and figure out exactly who you are.

The adult world is scary though, when things go wrong you can't blame them on anyone else but yourself and long gone are the days when your parents would write you notes to get you out of PE (or in my case, to tell my school that I was allergic to the mashed potato served in our school canteen*) or pick you up from school when you felt ill.  This being said, it also forces you to take ownership for yourself, when things go wrong you, and only you, can rectify the situation and vice versa, when things are going well, you know that you achieved that success all by yourself which can be a very powerful feeling. 

However, just because I, or anyone reading this post (all two of your probably!), may be considered part of the 'grown up community', it doesn't mean that we can't still acknowledge those things that brought us joy in our younger years - for example, have you tried reading 'Alice in Wonderland' through adult eyes?  It's like a whole new experience, a weird and slightly darker one, but a new experience nonetheless.

So, if you ask me, it's all about growing up in the least adult way possible by not cutting out what made you happy in days gone by, and so if that means that you'd rather listen to 'Now That's What I Call Disney' instead of Radio 2 then hats off to you, because you truly are the best kind of grown up!

*Disclaimer:  I wasn't actually allergic to mashed potato, I just did not appreciate the lumps in it, although I'm pretty sure that the dinner ladies were on to me about this as the replacement for the mashed potato was one huge, under boiled potato instead!  Those pesky school dinner ladies! 

Guess who's back, back again?

Guys, it's been a while, I'm not quite sure how it's been so long since my last post - it turns out that time goes pretty fast when you're not even paying attention to the whole 'time-thing' (raise your hand if any of that made even a modicum of sense to you?  Uh huh, I feel you, it barely made any sense to me so let's all take some small comfort in that.).

Anyway, time for a casual update on the exciting developments that have occurred in my life since my last post (when I say 'exciting', I mean my version of 'exciting' - so essentially you may want to lower your expectations a little!). 

So, let's see.....let's see......right, ok, it was my birthday in December (woo!  And no, it was not on the 25th December because I am not Jesus.  There.  I said it.  Now let's all move on.).  Seeing as it was my birthday, I decided to get my nails done all quirky and stuff, my hands done all henna and stuff and my hair dyed all green and stuff (isn't 'stuff' a great word?  It's definitely not vague at all!), check it out:

 

Since my last post, I have also seen Georgia King (fans of 'The New Normal' will know who she is) on the tube holding the world's cutest dog*, bought a light-up print of 'The Snowman and the Snowdog' from my local garden centre, stocked up on Lush essentials for the winter, hit up the Ciaté sale and got some treats which I will be sure to blog about, I have become incredibly addicted to 'Jerseylicious' (thank you ITVBe, I now have no space on my hard drive because it is full of episodes of this deliciously trashy reality show - I hope you're happy?!), ordered some divine Jeffrey Campbell boots which I got for under half price (yay to life!) and have recently taken up ballet classes because I had to let my inner Darcey Bussell free somehow (now all I have to do is meet some guy from the wrong side of the tracks who happens to be a great street dancer who will teach me his rebellious dancing ways and together we will combine our insane dance skills and I will win a place at Juilliard**).

I think that all sums up what's happened since I last wrote on here so I hope it was of some interest to you and if it wasn't then that's cool but you probably should have stopped reading about three paragraphs ago.

Make sure to keep an eye out for my next blog post next week - same time, same place?  Cooool.

*Disclaimer: This may or may not have been the world's cutest dog.  Cuteness is subjective.
**Disclaimer: This may or may not be the plot to 'Save the Last Dance'.

P.S If you rap/sang the title of this blog post in the style of Eminem then please come back again.