Tis the season to get married...

So I don't know about you lot, but this seems to be the time of year (and the year for that matter) to get married! I've been to three weddings so far this year and off to my fourth within the next couple of weeks. Now obviously we all love a good wedding, but I'm struggling to find another dress to wear! I know that probably seems selfish as it's all about the bride etc etc, but all my workmates will be there and I want to look nice. So i'm enlisting your help, I have some dresses and want your opinion!

First up this cute little number from River Island, the cheapest of the bunch. I love the silhoutte, this shape really suits me and ends up being the style I buy a lot of my dresses in:

I love the lace detail and the colour is very this season. Teamed with nude high heels and a tan I think it would be really pretty?

In the same vein, there is this little pretty from Little Mistress:

More lace, similar silhoutte, but can you wear ivory/cream to a wedding? I don't think I could. But I love this, it has a summer tea party feel to it and I love the antique lace!

Next up, a floral number with a cut out back from Oasis. You can't beat flowers for girly chic,eh?

I love the print as it's not too fussy, but does the belt make it look a bit too informal? I'm not sure!!! Also the most expensive of the bunch. Hmm.

Last but not least, the brave option. Figure hugging and fashionable as opposed to girly and sweet.
This is from Oasis and takes no prisoners:

I really like the panelling, but it's my most scary option. I'm not sure if I want to brave the sexy option!!

So ladies, I NEED your help!!! What do you think? xxx

Moonwalk 2012!

Hi girls, as some of you are not from the UK, you might not know about the Moonwalk. Every year in several cities including Edinburgh, thousands of women walk a marathon at midnight in their decorated bras to raise money for Breast Cancer charities. Myself and my friend Denise participated last year and it was amazing, very emotional and inspiring, especially as many women (and men) were there in memory of those lost to the disease. This year we are joined by some more of our friends and are decorating our bras in a tropical theme! Have a look at my bra!! I don't think I've ever typed that before haha!

I went for a little island scene on the right (when it's on) with a hula girl, then exotic fruit on the left. One of the benefits of having a larger than average chest is having more cup space to work with lol! I went to Hobbycraft which is like my paradise, and stocked up on felt, fabric pens and *glow in the dark* fabric pens. Yeah you read that right- this bra GLOWS IN THE DARK.

This side is my favourite, do you like my happy starfish? I've clearly missed my calling as a nursery school teacher. The cloud, fish etc are done in the glow in the dark glue.

I was going to just have a pair of pineapples on my bra but then I thought I was asking for some fruity comments on the way through town! Last year there were some drunk guys about but you're totally safe as there's thousands of volunteers looking after you. But for the most part, people in their flats or on the streets are so lovely, they literally stay up for hours cheering you on, waving out their window and shouting for you. Which is nice as you're cold and tired, makes you smile!

I'll post a pic of me finishing with my medal after Saturday, I finished at 4am last year and I'm working at 11am so might be a bit dead! If you want to sponsor me I would be delighted but don't feel pressured, I hate forcing people to sponsor you for things! The link is here, and you just choose me (Emma Todd) to donate to.

Wish me luck!! xx

Gradient nails, first attempt!

Hey dollfaces, as you might have gathered, I love my nail varnish and tend to redo my nails as soon as they start to chip, I hate looking scruffy! Well I had on the horrendous Nfu Oh! nail varnish as reviewed here, so had to get rid of it sharpish and didn't want to just stick on a boring normal shafe (yawn). I love the gradient trend recently and bought some cosmetic sponges from Home Bargains so it seemed like a perfect time to give it a try!

I couldn't decide on which shade to go for, then though a lilac to purple gradient would go well. This is the rather inaccurately named Power Pink Nails Inc for InStyle, and ELF Purple Pleaser, which are very far enough in shade to work for a gradient.

I found this technique MUCH easier and quicker to complete than the nail marbling I tried here, which took forever! I painted a base coat of Power Pink then found an old glossy mag and dropped a bit of each nail varnish next to each other on it. You mix them slightly where they overlap using an orange stick, then take your cosmetic sponge, and make sure you get both colours on it. Start with the darker colour at the tip of your nail and dab gently, moving up and down the nail ever so slightly to make sure it's blending well.

All you need really!

Finish off with a top coat and your nails should look like this:

Super quick and easy, and quite an effective result! The ELF nail varnishes are £2.50, the Nails Inc came free with InStyle, £3.70 I think? You don't need to use much of either to achieve this effect either. I will definitely be trying this again with other colours, and want to try it with three colours. One step at a time, eh? 

Have you ever tried gradient nails? Any other effects I should try? xx

Apothecary Essentials Kit

I know that palettes and gift sets aren't the most portable things, but there's something really nice about a gleaming, beautifully packaged box of pretty colours and multiple products. I was in House of Fraser the other day, and I had heard of their Apothecary range, and they had this set reduced to £10.40 from£26.00!

It's like an old-fashioned book, complete with a massive mirror, and there are pages inside with makeup related history snippets. This one made me laugh:

If you can't read it properly it says "In 1770, England's parliament passed a law against lipstick, stating that women who seduced men into mariage by means of make up could be tried as witches". Brilliant! Better get on my broomstick then...So I love this set already, the packaging is amazing! Cute, quirky and well made, and then look what you get inside!

12 individual eyeshadows, great neutral shades and some darker shades for smokey eyes, fake eyelashes, eyeliner, highlighter. And that's just the top level, you get a lipgloss and liquid lipstick underneath!

These shades are so versatile, as you can see I have tried a couple of the shades when creating a day to day neutral eye look, the shades are highly pigmented, there is more fall-out than you would like but for the price you can't complain. The highlighter is really nice, and you know how I love false lashes!

All in all I'm delighted with this, they have a couple of other sets in the sale which I'm pretty tempted by. I just think it's so cute, and as a book geek the look of this totally appealed to me. I also like the portable size of the highlighter, eyeliner and lip products for nights out. Will save my losing any more MAC lipsticks drunkenly (yes this has happened several times, boo). Nice little sale bargain :)

Nfu Oh! Nail Varnish

Before I go on to rant about how much I hate this product, I must share the beauty of its packaging. Once again I have been ensnared by beautiful bottling and design for a mediocre product. I had seen another Nfu Oh! polish on an American blog somewhere and fell in love  with the corset design of the bottle, so was determined when I got paid I would treat myself to one. I got this one in the sale for £7.77, they are normally £12-£15, and it's £2.50 for delivery so this was not an impulse buy.

Visually stunning, and I thought a pretty pastel yellow would be great for spring time, the shade looks so creamy and smooth. I thought if they put so much effort into the bottle surely the varnish itself will be good quality too? WRONG, this polish is the DEVIL. This is one coat without flash:

Yuck. A big smeary mess. No matter how I tried, the first coat on all my nails looked like this. I had to put on three coats to get it looking like this:

Still looking a bit lumpy but at least it's opaque. So the polish was looking quite nice and creamy at this point. But it would not dry! I waited over an hour before going to bed and it was still not remotely dry, it had gone that thick sludgy way where if you bump into anything massive dents appear. you could actually move the polish around on the nail by squishing it with your finger. It kept shifting so I kept smudging it back into place. Weird, right?
Even worse, when I woke up, this is what all my nails looked like:

What an absolute state. I wouldn't expect this from a Collection 2000 nail varnish. I could have just been unlucky with this shade (154) but it seems unlikely. This will be kept for nail marbling and nail art. Whatever you do, do not buy from Nfu Oh! I really hate being rude about a brand but this is a complete waste of money. Sad times :(

0/10, harsh but fair

No 7 Beautiful Skin BB Cream

Hey lovely ladies! The sun has reappeared in Scotland so I'm in a wonderful mood today :) Hope it's shining down on you too wherever you are. On my spending rampage shopping spree the other day I ended up in Boots, as always, and they had their deal on where if you spend over £5 you get a voucher which gives you £5 off No7 and £5 off perfume. I managed to resist buying perfume, but this is a great deal on No7 products as most of them are between £7 and £15 pounds. This is what I got!

Normally £12.95, getting this for £7.95 was pretty good, you get 30ml for this and it has an SPF of 15 which will come in handy over the summer. I like the fact that there are three different skin types available: Normal/Oily, Normal/Dry, and Dry/Very Dry. They both come in two shades, fair and medium which made me worry that the fair would be too light for me but when I swatched it in store it was fine! This is what it says on the pack:

I can't say that I'm in love with the packaging. Now I LOVE shiny things, but when it impairs reading the text on the box it's more of a pain than anything else. I had to retake these pics at least 5 times each to show the text as well as that. Bit annoying to be honest, I know this doesn't affect the product's performance but it's not user-friendly at all. This is what the tube itself looks like:

It's fine, well made, sturdy but not particularly nice, and the colour looks kind of medicinal. I think they could have done a lot more with the packaging, but it's easy to use and that's all that matters. Onto the product itself:

This is a thick, creamy substance, slightly glossy when it comes out like there could be gel part to it. It blends very well, doesn't go on streaky or leave lines. There is no scent or if there is I can't smell it! You don't need too much to cover your face and it thankfully doesn't turn orange as the day goes on. I wore this to the gym and remained shine free. The only tiny criticism is if you have any dry or flaky bits, it does make these more obvious so I would recommend exfoliating before use. Now for some before and after pics:

Before, warts and all in the name of science (well sortof lol).

After, not retouched in any way.

I really like this coverage, as you can see I have some discolouration, redness and freckles which come through. This has smoothed out my pores and totally evened out my skin tone without making it look like I have foundation on. I can still see enough of my freckles for it to look like my natural skin, just better.

I am so glad I picked this up and would urge others to do the same. Be warned, it will not cover large blemishes so don't get disappointed if you are expecting full coverage. This is the perfect product for summer on days where your skin is fairly clear but you want some cover and SPF.

10/10 for the product, 5/10 for the packaging, but I still would highly recommend. 

SheSaid Beauty Box June 2012

It's Beauty Box time again! My friend Claire at work, who sometimes reads this so hi Claire if you're reading, alerted me to the fact that this was due to arrive today, and we both got rather excited about the contents. I quite like the fact that SheSaid give you the chance to have a sneak peek at what you're getting before it arrives, if anything it makes the anticipation greater. So my lovely box arrived today:

I'm really happy with its contents, I've read loads of blogs bitching moaning about the fact that there have been lashes in quite a few of the SheSaid boxes but I love lashes so this makes me happy, I have a nice little collection which I intend to grow! Plus they're usually at least £6 for each set to buy so it makes the box worthwhile.

These are Let's Go Lashes in "Tease" which to be honest might not have been my first choice of  the lashes which were available, but this is a good thing as a lot of my lashes look similar. I'm really looking forward to trying these out. These are £8.95 normally.

Next up is an Elemis Spa@Home Bath Elixir. I love Elemis, I use their lip balm so was glad to see this. Tranquil Touch is a very warming scent, almost spicy and comforting. I can imagine soaking into this with aching muscles to relax. We got 50ml and it is £19.00 for 300ml.

Now isn't this a sight for sore eyes (and pasty skin)? This is the ideal time of year for us to get a tanning product, it was either this or the Perfect Legs spray which I believe washes off so for me this was preferable. I've thought about buying the full size product before, but for £14.30 I've always ended up getting full fake tan or another cheaper gradual tanner so this is great to be able to give it a try.

We then got a couple of smaller samples, Yardley seems a bit of an old-lady brand to me but this is a special perfume for the Jubilee, and I actually really like the smell, it's floral without smelling like a granny, and quite zesty too. Also, it's ony  £9.99 for100ml which is a massive bargain. Then a sample of Ginvera Green Tea BB Cream. From what I can find online, Ginvera is a company founded in Singapore, which will make this the first authentic eastern BB cream I will have used which is very exciting. Look at the cute packaging and instructions inside! Tap tap tap! (if you can't see it that's the writing around the girl's face)

I'll let you know how I get on with this! Last but not least Balance Me Super Moisturising Hand Cream, which is worth £6.00 for this size. I don't like this at all, despite it being a multi-award winning product. It works fairly well as a hand cream, is very thick and does what it says on the tin. But my hands don't feel very soothed. My main problem, though, is that I DETEST the smell. It's a bit like the Neals Yard products, most of which I also hate, as they smell too strongly of essential oils. This has Lavender in, which I really like but the patchouli comes through far too strongly and it reeks!! I will be donating this to my mother.

Generally speaking, this was a really good box, even the hand cream works well just smells horrid! My 3 month subscription just ran out, and I think I will re-subscribe!

What did you get in your box and were you happy with it? xxx