Nails: Butterfly

My attempt at the lovely creative Orlica over at Confessions of a Polish-a-holic's buttery fly wing wail art

However I am not really sure that this looks anything like a butterfly wing, havent seen one for a few years now actually

Hair: Throughout the YEARS!

This is a bit of a hair time line for you all, as you soon will be able to tell my hair is usually long and dark. Oh and ignore the splodges, I am sure you all have embarrassing photos of yourself as kids you don't like!

8yrs pretty much the same length from 7-10, quite odd to see my natural hair colour again!

Then when I was 10 I decided to chop it all off

Skip a few years, I had grown it long again and kept it that way. Started dyeing it mahogany when I was 14, the next photo shows the colour I had by the time I was 16

And the length it had grown to, hope you can tell

Then I went dark brown

Letting it grow a bit longer

Dyed it black / blue and cut a few layers to frame the face a bit

By the time I was 19 I'd gotten some of the length cut off and then went all the way dyeing it full on black, nice and shiny too!

Tried dyeing my hair a purple / black washed out so quickly! Looks like it had grown as well and by this point I had discovered hair straighteners. Oh and this was 'devils day' (6.6.06) lol!

My sister got all creative a month later...

Another one from 2006, I wasnt impressed by my hair colour fading and so just before I redyed it black I tried out some bleach on the underneath layer. Was not a good colour! But it was only light for about 30mins before I did it black again.

So by the time I was 22 I clearly was getting bored of the hair, well if the previous year was anything to go by. This is the longest my hair has been.

And so I decided 10years after my last big chop to go for it again, and dyeing it brown / black

Quite liked it short, although for some reason it seemed to get greasy quicker. Took the same amount of time to style as the longer hair did but the drying time was a lot less! Dyed it black again

Later on that year I got it cut again, really didnt like this on me though

Once it had grown a bit I added some purple

After that I got sick of going to the hairdressers for them to end up doing something I didnt like and just let it grow

Let it grow some more then attempted curling it with straighteners, really need to do that again it looked good!

Kept it growing

Carried on letting it grow but tried dyeing it purple / black again see if the formulation had changed since 2006 when I last tried it, but no it still washed out quickly

And that brings us up to now! I've long black hair now, almost at its longest ever length. Its looks quite messy but I was a little tipsy at the time and had been 'whipping' my hair Willow Smith style... lol

28 inches from hairline to ends

Curly hair attempt #2, hadn't tried since 2009 in the above photo!

Quite a lot more pictures than I thought there would be actually! Have you had many styles? I dont seem to have had all that many, much more of a repeat offender I think!

Swatch: Barry M Nail Effects - White Frost

So these polishes were announced about two weeks ago and were out at the beginning of last week. I went in to both Superdrugs and Boots but while there were 30+ bottles of the black there were no of the new colours. I ended up finding them in Fenwicks though.

This is the white one which is named White Frost which made me imagine it would be a frosty, shimmery finish rather than the more matte one of the black however that isn't the case.

It applies in quite a thick coat which cracks within about 20 seconds if that, it happens right in front of your eyes which is quite mesmerizing.

If you ignore the messy patch on my finger! You can see its a matte finish which does unfortunately remind me of tippex. Over all I like the product just not the colour, or indeed the baby pink or baby blue ones which also came out at the same time. I do however really like the black one, I recommend this crackle polish to you if you like the colours. Nice and cheap as well!

£3.99 - 10ml

Barry M

Shopping Trip - March 2011

So another month another shopping trip. Not overly sure why I seem to only shop once a month but never mind! I got some pills for my nails because I have been having a lot of problems with them. My nails are exceptionally bendy at the moment although I have been having some health issues so could be related. I got some sea kelp and some 'skin, hair, nails' from Holland and Barrett. Anyone know if either of these might help? The sales person in there recommended them to me.

I got a nice black and silver scarf and a little Beret type hat from Peacocks both £3

Scotch tape for some nail art from Rymans for £1.99 for two

Lee Stafford's Hair Treatment for hair that doesn't grow past a certain length - Boots £7

Lee Stafford's Hot Shots hair oil treatment - Boots £7

Sally Hansen's Hard as Nails in White - £1.99

Four Yankee Candles wax tarts - £3.57

Review: ELF - Cream Eyeliner Purple

They say ~ Creates smooth lines that are defined and precise. Smudge-proof, budge-proof and water-resistant coverage for all day wear to combat against, sweat, tears and rain.

I say ~ I have a couple of these eyeliners and I really like them. This one is in Plum Purple. It claims to be all kinds of durable and for me it is, stays put all day and night. I seem to have a problem though with it transferring up on to my eyelid from my lash line. Although if it is set in place with some eyeshadow that solves that issue. The plum has a matte finish.

With this particular colour I have found that you will need to do two coats to get a even line but using the brush included it is really easy. Something else I like about this eyeliner is the brush it is a mini version of the studio angled eyeliner brush.

9/10

£3.50 - ELF

Nails: Blue Glitter

This one was inspired by a tutorial I found on YouTube.

I thought that the base colour (Models Own - True Blue) was a little over powering on its own on my nails which is why I decided to do something with it. I need to work on my glitter application, its too thick!

Review: ELF - Small Smudge Brush

They say ~ This new anti bacterial, synthetic haired Taklon brush is softer and more absorbent and can be used with wet or dry products.

-Creates detailed pin-pointed color application

-Great for blending in eyeliner and shadow to create a smokey eye look or to fill in brows

-Use to apply powder to line eyes or create concentrated color definition

I say ~ I like this brush, it has stiff but soft fibres. Its flat as well rather than rounded which is why I have take two pictures. Its really good for, as the name suggests, smudging! I like to use it for smudging out the black kohl eyeliner from under my lower lashes. Small enough to get in under the little lashes which is good!

10/10

£3.50 - ELF

Attempting Creativity - Nail Polish Storage

After seeing this YouTube video it totally inspire me to have my polishes displayed, means I can see exactly what I have so none go misused. Now how to make one for free?

Felt a bit of a  Blue Peter moment when making this! I ended up using two cereal boxes, glue gun, staples and duck tape.

Making sure all my polishes fitted on the box

Used more of the old black jeans to cover it

And finally putting my polishes on in some kind of order

What do you think? Creative or childish?

Tutorial: How to Fix a Broken Nail with a Teabag

This is a way of fixing a broken nail. I have been doing this on and off for about ten years now, I have since seen it on a couple of blogs but seeing as my sister requested a 'how to' I thought I may as well share it here!

You will need:

- Teabag
- Nail Glue
- Scissors
- Maybe an orange stick

So you were opening the draw to find a t-shirt and lo and behold this happens...

And of course its waay to far down to just snip it off, its not even merely a vanity thing. Its painful!

So you want to get that nail glue and put a drop on the nail where the split is, making sure it glues back together the split

Cut up the tea bag, taking off the seams and binning the tea. Cut it in to tiny nail sized bits.

Once the glue has dried you want to stick on a little square of teabag with the nail glue, at first it wont feel like it has stuck down but hold it down with an orange stick for a couple of seconds and then it will. Once thats dried you repeat that step.



Buff the nail glue layer so it feels nice and smooth, paint on a base coat and then your nail polish as usual

I stuck on a nail sticker but you don't have too that was just me trying them out! It works great and the only issue is you have to wear nail polish on top of the fix. It lasts a good couple of changes of polish too. Its really good at making your nails strong, more durable and helps that tear to grow out a bit so you can avoid the pain of it tearing too far down the nail bed.

Hope this made some sense!

*EDIT* Since doing this tutorial I have discovered that if you tear the teabag in to small pieces they blend and hold the nail better than if you cut the teabag with scissors. Also I have done a tutorial on how to fix a broken nail with fibreglass as well.

Nails: St Patrick's Day #2

Completly forgot to post this last week! But these were the actual nails I went for on St. Patricks Day. Although they are supposed to be shammrocks, and since I have learnt they only have three leaves!