The Homemade Manicure

So last week I was feeling a little bored, a little down and thought I'd give myself a little pick me up by giving myself a mini manicure. Now I'm no professional at all, and it's not even really a proper manicure, but I always find it thoroughly relaxing and there's something about doing my nails that always makes me feel good.

Here's everything I used (excluding the sink!). 

1. First take off any remaining polish from your nails with any old nail polish. I like to use the cleansing ones as my nails can be a bit dry sometimes. Then go fill up the sink with warm water and soap and just soak your hands for a few minutes. I've heard not to clip your nails before, and just file them down but this always seems to make my nails break off so I clip a bit then file them so they're more rounded. It's much easier to do this after you've soaked your nails as they're softer :)

2. Paint them! Start with a base coat, I use Collection 2000's 2 in 1 nail strengthener (I find it stops chipping a lot better than normal base coats!). I wasn't originally a fan of the Elegance touch rapid dry spray, but it's done me well to just dry them off so I don't have to wait ages in between coats. Just a quick spray then you're onto the colour. I used Barry M 279 bright pink, trying to stop just going for reds over and over! I always use two coats of colour. 

3. Wait for them to dry, or use the spray, then use a top coat. Again I use the Collection 2000 one, it's just always done me well! Did my nails at the weekend and not a single chip yet!

4. If you're like me, and have tiny nails then inevitably, you're going to get some on your fingers. This is where the eyeliner brush comes in. Of course make sure it's not the same one you use for your eyes that could be pretty painful! Just dip it into the remover and brush it over the sides and anywhere you've accidentally painted. 

Then voila! You're all done.

As I said, I'm definitely not a professional and I know I haven't used any of the tools really used in any normal manicure. But if you're feeling down and want a little pampering but don't have the money to go out, give this a try and have a little 'me time'.

Have a great day!

xo

Just can't live without

L'oréal velvety-soft toner £3.99// Barry M eyeshadow brush £2.99// Garnier 2-in-1 make up remover £3.25// Rimmel Stay Matte Powder £3.99// Nivea in shower body moisturiser £2.37

These are 5 items I've been buying as soon as they run out, some even before they've ran out! The toner is my second bottle of it and it still makes my skin feel amazing. The barry m brush is either the second or third one I've had, although the cheaper brushes are usually quite crappy and the bristles all fall out, these ones are great and stay soft for ages! The garnier make up remover is a bit of a love and hate item as it depends on my skin. Sometimes it can make it feel really greasy and sometimes I love it. I've been buying this repeatedly since the middle of last year mind you, so I think it's here to stay. Ah I'm so happy I found the Rimmel Stay matte collection! This is my second of the pressed powders and it's nearly out again! Although I put on quite a generous amount throughout the day they last me quite a while. The in-shower moisturiser is my second bottle and this one must be different to my last as it's a lot less thick and actually does wash off really easily. Either way, I love it.

What items can you not live without?

xo

The NAKED copycats

Ah the coveted NAKED palettes from Urban Decay. I have wanted one of these for so so long and they're either sold out when I have the money to splurge or I cannot justify to myself that spending £37 on one eyeshadow palette is a good idea. They are one of the most blogged about items out there and are many a beauty blogger's favourite palette. I'm not really a fan of nude eyeshadows normally, I'm more of a pinks and purples kind of girl but the more time I spend lusting over the NAKED and NAKED 2 palettes the more I think 'hmm I'd definitely use that a lot'. 

For those of you who may have been living under a rock for the last couple years, the NAKED palettes are a palette of 12 highly pigmented natural coloured eyeshadows that will work for anyone on any occasion. They are highly coveted amongst beauty lovers and this particular eyeshadow obsessed girl has no idea why she doesn't have one yet!

Here's a look at the NAKED palette;

(Swatch courtesy of Cute and mundane)

and now NAKED 2;

(Swatch courtesy of Nidas Beauty Bag)

Both of these can be found at Look Fantastic for £37 each. But they are rapidly running out of stock!

Like me, many of you might not be able to afford £37 on one palette of eyeshadow, no matter how beautiful it is, so I've scoured the net and found these cheaper alternatives, or 'NAKED copycats'.

First of all is the Eden palette from BeautyUK coming in at £5.99. There are two less colours than the NAKED palettes but at over 5 times less expensive it's a bargain! The colours all look really natural and highly pigmented so they'd last all day. 

(Swatch courtesy of Midnight-violets)

Next is the VIVO Dreamy 12 colour block palette coming in at only £3.99! I've been addicted to my little VIVO palette I picked up at Tesco's last month and this collection looks pretty similar and well worth the money! The only thing about VIVO, is that my Tesco (I know, I'm about to complain about my Tesco's beloved make up department, hold onto your hats) has stopped selling it! I went in there yesterday and one of the staff told me they'd received an email telling them it was getting pulled! As this has become my favourite brand of the moment I was quite upset seeing as they were exclusively available at Tescos. You can still purchase online, but it's just not the same! 

(Swatch courtesy of A pretty obsession)

A particularly smaller palette compared to the NAKED, but I did see this while out shopping yesterday and pondered on buying it for about ten minutes (only to decide I needed other things more.. sigh, when will I win the lottery?) This palette from Barry M is priced as £6.49 and is one of three in a new collection of mini palettes. From the swatches it looks mostly brown shades which would suit my green eyes and pale complexion, but for some might be a bit of a turn off. On the plus side it does come with a blusher! 

(swatch courtesy of Ashly London)

Ahhhh Mua, my old friend. I actually went out yesterday in the hopes of finding this in store but their Undress me too palette has become almost as hard to find as the NAKED itself! Mua is a favourite among the drugstore queens like myself and at £4 you can see why! I love the gold and silver shades, something which has seen it's way creeping into my daily make up more and more recently. There are a few browns and one more purpley looking one so, to me this is the most similar to the official NAKED palette that I've seen. There are two of these 'undress me' palettes, just like there are two of the NAKED palettes, coincidence? MUA know when they're onto a good thing! As soon as I see one in stores it'll be snapped up no thought about it.

(swatch courtesy of MUA cosmetics)

Last but not least is this palette I found this morning from Look fantastic. It's the CID cosmetic's 'Natural wardrobe' collection and the most like the NAKED, packaging wise. Because this product is fairly new, I couldn't actually find a swatch for it but, going by the colours in the pack, it does look like it could overtake MUA's Undress Me for the top copycat out there! It's the most expensive of the dupes coming in at £24, but even still, that's £12 less than NAKED.

There you have it, the top five NAKED copycats at the moment. If you can't afford or find the actual Urban Decay palette, I'm sure one of these lovely palettes will help tie you over until you can get your hands on it.

Credit given to all beauty bloggers whose swatches I found whilst scouring the net and their blogs can be found via the links under the descriptions.

Have a great day! 

xo.

DIY Geometric

So I finally decided to take off my three week old black nail polish and have a stab at something new. I found this post online about doing nail art with cello tape! I thought hmm, surely not even I can mess that one up! I did try this the other night, but it didn't go all too well as you can see here;

It's not too bad, just thought that the black line would be a good idea, when apparently it wasn't.. Anyway, I went to Tesco yesterday and of course I wandered over to the make up department (it shouldn't be so big and lit up, I get lured over) and as I said before I've been looking for a great pillarbox red nail polish for quite some time and as Barry M had a 3 for £6 offer I thought it was too good to pass up!

I got np29 bright pink, 

np262 red 

and np66 which is the white

As well as the red, I've been seeing white nails absolutely everywhere, so I had to take the plunge and give that a go too. First of all I painted my nails with a clear base coat, then over with the white and one red nail on each hand;

I must say, I don't entirely know how I feel about the white. I think I just painted my nails with tipex a little too often when I was in school.. I do love the red though! Now on the site I found, there was a really easy way of doing geometric patterns on your nails with just putting a line of tape over one half and painting the top, then removing the tape when your second coat is still wet. 

This is from when I did the first pattern, as I forgot to take a picture when I was doing the white last night. It's pretty easy to do actually, but you need to make sure your base coat is completely dry as otherwise the polish will peel off with the tape and you'll end up starting all over again, which trust me, gets really annoying.

Still a little messy, (I am learning!) but I do love the simplicity of this idea. I think with the pink tips the white does look okay! Not so bright and in your face. What do you guys think? Is white nail polish your thing? Or are you a bit skeptical like me?

Have a great weekend everyone! xo