Glittery Nails for New Year's Eve

I hope you had a lovely Christmas!

Today I thought I would show you a quick & simple idea for a nail look I feel would be perfect for New Year's Eve.

Now I am the kind of girl who on the occasions when I make the effort to paint my nails, I make a couple of attempts to get my nails to the point where I just think, yep that's okay, it'll do.

I wait for a bit & then end up accidentally touching my nails on something... It is then that I realise they were not completely dry & after ruining a couple of nails, I usually end up taking all the nail varnish off & wearing my nails au naturale.

Therefore a quick & easy nail look such as this, is right up my street.

I would describe this nail look as glittery yet somewhat understated at the same time.

Intrigued?

The nail varnish I am referring to is this beautiful shade of Moonlight from the Barry M Christmas 2014 Limited Edition Collection which I found for £3.99 in Boots.

I mentioned this nail varnish in my Christmas Gift Ideas post, I thought it looked so lovely I just had make a cheeky little purchase for myself.

For Christmas Day I was originally planning on wearing a deep red nail varnish, Rapid Ruby from the Rimmel London 60 Seconds Collection, painting Moonlight over the top of my ring fingers as an accent nail on each hand.

Suddenly it seemed to be Christmas and I realised I wouldn't have much time to apply nail varnish so I picked up Moonlight and spontaneously decided to apply the glitter varnish alone to all my nails.

No base colour & with one coat of this, being extremely careful not to touch anything properly for what felt like ages to be sure they were 100% dry & I was good to go!

The beauty of this look is the different shapes and specks of glitter within the nail varnish. It is made up of mostly silver but also some red specks. Each nail will be different which keeps things interesting.

Shimmering beautifully when your nails catch the light, this look is simple but effective & pretty.

Not only that but it lasts such a long time! As this nail varnish doesn't give the nails a solid colour it won't be obvious if they start to chip, so you can wear your nails like this for even longer. Although beware that glitter nail varnish can be quite difficult to remove.

A perfect look for New Year's Eve taking you glittering into the New Year.

What do you think of this look?

How will you be spending New Year's Eve?

I hope you have an amazing start to 2015.

Kat x

Christmas Gift Ideas

Christmas is getting closer! This year I have found myself slightly less organised than I usually am when it comes to organising presents for my family and friends, probably due to the fact that I am now working full time as opposed to last year when I was still a student and had more free time to plan presents! I think I am pretty much sorted now but if you aren't ready don't panic! There is still time!

I have compiled a few categories of different gifts you could go for, hopefully this will help you come up with a great gift. Whilst these gift ideas are typically more suited to girls the headings can be applied to males too. :)

1. A Themed Gift

My best friend absolutely loves penguins so this year I decided to buy her a few gifts with the theme of penguins! Haha.

Penguin Cushion - £5 Asda
Chocolate Penguin containing Smarties- 50p Tescos
Cuddly Penguin- £9.50 Mayther

Penguin Statue (It lights up different colours) - £3.50 Marks and Spencer

2. A Beauty Gift

I feel a gift most girls would love is this cute glittery nail varnish from Barry M.

Now I am not a massive fan of glitter but this glittery nail varnish just caught my eye. I feel it is beautiful, festive and would be a great little Christmas gift. The nail varnish itself is red and silver with a few tiny silver stars in there too! I also love the packaging with the shiny red lid.

This is from the Barry M Christmas 2014 Limited Edition Collection, it is in the shade Moonlight and was only £3.99 from Boots.

I just think this is such a cute little gift. I had to get one for myself too. *Wanting one yourself is always the sign of a good present ;)* I must say I am very excited to try this :)

3. A Bath/Shower Gift.

- A classic gift at Christmas -

I personally think that you can’t go wrong with a bit of Soap and Glory, the products just smell so lovely! At Christmas they usually do such great variety boxes and this year is no different!

My favourite this year is the gift set named "Soap For The Best", which is £10 from Boots.

The set includes:

- The Righteous Body Butter 50ml

- Clean On Me Shower Gel 75ml

- Hand Food Hand Cream 50ml

- The Scrub of Your Life Body Scrub 50ml

- A Body Polisher

This set would be the perfect set for someone who has yet to try Soap and Glory or even for someone that already loves the brand and scent as these are some of their most popular products!

4. An Edible Gift-

If in doubt... buy them chocolate.

Carton of Dairy Milk Chocolates- £2 WHSmith

Santa - £2 WHSmith

Milk Chocolate Buttons- You can get these in most supermarkets but I picked these up in Boots for £1

Who doesn't love a bit of chocolate around Christmas? :)

5. A Cosy Gift

Be this a comfy jumper, a cosy throw or my personal favourites fluffy socks… this gift is something you can rely on. Who doesn’t like to be in their comfies around Christmas?

Red Throw - The Range £15 (This is so soft! Although they don't seem to have this one in stock anymore)

I bought these fluffy socks last year in Asda and I believe they cost £3.50 and were in a pack of two, they have some similar ones in there this year so have a little look.

If you are interested the duvet was actually given to me last year by my best friend but I know it was from Asda. I absolutely love this cover! Although I haven't seen the same one this year, there are some great Christmassy duvets out there this year, I saw a great one in Matalan for example, and you can always try Primark. :)

So there are a few ideas, I hope you liked them.

Merry Christmas :)

Kat x

Optimism

Is the glass half full or half empty? - One of the common expressions associated with perspective.

How do you look at situations? Do you usually look at things optimistically and positively i.e. half full? Or are you typically more pessimistic, seeing things from a more negative perspective i.e. half empty?

Personally I don't think we can be completely defined as either optimistic or pessimistic.
I feel it just depends on what we are faced with at any given time, how we feel and how we approach different situations.

I am quite a positive person but recently I have felt slightly more pessimistic which is why I decided to write this post. Approaching things pessimistically I find we tend to reflect more, drawing on things that we don't like and this tends to make us feel worse.

But ultimately we are all human, we have our ups and downs however, I have come up with

a few ways we can consciously try to approach things a little more optimistically:

1. Try not to dwell on things.
2. If a situation is making us feel unhappy then either do what we can to change things for the better or if nothing can be done, try to forget about things and move on.
3. Try not to worry about hypothetical situations- Worrying about things that might never happen is quite simply a waste of energy that could be put to better use.
4. Try to think more positively where possible. This may be easier said than done but actively try to focus on good things, the more positive aspects of situations/whatever you are feeling pessimistic towards.
5. Try to put things into perspective- Is what you are feeling so pessimistic about that big a deal?
   

To help illustrate a different perspective I thought I would end on a beautiful little quote:

"It doesn't matter if the glass is half empty or half full...

Be grateful that you have a glass and there is something in it."

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/100838479130846085/

Thank you for taking the time to read this post. I am off now to try and take my own advice and hopefully feel slightly more optimistic.

Feel free to share your thoughts below :)

Kat x

Review: Lush So White Bath Bomb

A beautiful white bath bomb, with a slight scent of apples...

Now I had never really shopped in Lush before. Experiencing so many scents simply walking past the shop I had figured it may not be for me.

However, about a year ago I came across a review online that was raving about the So White Bath Bomb. It just sounded amazing and since then, I had been keen to give it a go.

The So White Bath Bomb is released as part of Lush's Christmas Collection and is a very popular product, consequently last year I never actually managed to find it. :( However, this year I popped in quite soon after their Christmas products had been brought out and there it was in all it's snowy white glory.

Described by Lush as "The Fairest of Them All", it does look pretty beautiful :)

After giving it a little sniff to see if I liked it, I thought it smelled pretty good so I bought it straightaway.

The Bath Test:

Dropping it into the bath, it fizzled relatively quickly.

For some reason, when I saw it online I expected the bath to go a white or slightly greeny colour due to the scent of apples, but in fact it turned pink. The bath bomb also created a good amount of white frothy bubbles which was nice.

My bath was not left with pink residue from the bath bomb when I drained the water. I thought I would mention it as it may be a concern for some when considering buying bath bombs.

According to the description of the So White Bath Bomb on Lush's website, it includes ingredients such as rose absolute and bergamot oil, apparently such ingredients are supposed to help you to feel peaceful and calm. Just what you hope for with a bath really, I  did feel more relaxed afterwards.

I love the scent, it stayed fresh on my skin for a fair few hours. I was having a little search on the website and was pretty excited when I found that they also sell a shower gel of the same appley scent!

The So White Bath Bomb costs just £3.50 which I think is quite reasonable. It could be a great little Christmas present or even a cheeky little treat to yourself!

Do you like the sound of the So White Bath Bomb? 

Kat x

Fashion Finds: Autumn

Today's post as you can see from the title will be about a few purchases I have made this Autumn. I was originally planning on putting this post up in October but it seems to be November already! So here it is. :)

Firstly, let's talk crop tops. This year I have quite liked crop tops but I don't feel I wore them as much as I could have throughout the summer months and now that it's Autumn I am somewhat reluctant to let them go.  Even now that the weather is getting colder I feel crop tops could still be worn, underneath a cosy cardigan or as a nice base when it comes to layering up.

This stripy, turtle-neck crop top was purchased in New Look and cost £7.99. I feel this is very reasonable and it is a comfortable material too. :)

New Look, £7.99
http://www.newlook.com/shop/womens/jersey-tops/white-and-grey-stripe-high-neck-crop-top-_313682219?productFind=search

The next purchase I thought I would discuss is this mint green jumper, it has three-quarter length sleeves and is made of a thinly knitted material. As you can probably tell by the fact that it matches my phone cover, mint green is currently my favourite colour and has been for a while so I was immediately drawn in by the colour. It is a comfortable top but quite see-through so I would recommend wearing a vest top or something underneath. This top was £12.99.

New Look, £12.99
http://www.newlook.com/shop/womens/knitwear/mint-green-3-4-sleeve-pointelle-knit-top_312692033

The final clothing purchase of this post are these leggings. When it comes to dressing my legs, *strange phrase there* I am usually a jeans or black leggings girl, patterns/colours are usually reserved for my top half. However when I saw these I just couldn't resist. I tried them on in the changing room and they were just so comfortable! I really like the monochrome checked pattern, it is quite subtle but still different than what I would normally go for. I plan on wearing this with a long plain black top or maybe even a relatively long black blouse for a smarter look.

New Look, £12.99
http://www.newlook.com/shop/womens/leggings/monochrome-check-leggings-_322384604

After writing the clothing section of this post I now realise that all the pictured items are from New Look. What can I say? I really like New Look, it is one of my favourite shops particularly at the moment. :)

 

Finally I feel the need to mention these bad boys. Sunglasses purchased in October from the brand Jeepers Peepers which I found on ASOS. As a British person I have to say it felt rather strange to be buying sunglasses when it hasn't been particularly sunny and has been getting so cold here! However, I was lucky enough to have been on holiday recently so of course had to treat myself to a new pair of sunnies!



Jeepers Peepers from ASOS.com £18.00
http://www.asos.com/jeepers-peepers-vintage/jeepers-peepers-vintage-square-sunglasses/prod/pgeproduct.aspx?iid=4457476&SearchQuery=jeepers+peepers&pgesize=36&pge=1&totalstyles=97&gridsize=3&gridrow=10&gridcolumn=2

Personally with sunglasses my style is usually the bigger the better, so when I saw these on ASOS they seemed right up my street! They are described as vintage square sunglasses, I love the shape of them and the gold detailing at the sides. These cost £18.00. They are probably the most expensive pair of sunglasses I have ever had but I wanted to treat myself. I really like them and I feel they are a nice quality so hopefully they will last a long time. :)



I hope you enjoyed this post.

Which of these do you like best?

Have you purchased something this Autumn you particularly love?



Kat x

Film Favourites

After an unusually hot September here in the UK, it has been getting colder, darker much earlier and it's finally starting to feel like Autumn. At this time of year I find myself much more eager to have cosy nights in watching films, so today I thought I would write a post listing my top ten favourite films.

I found it really difficult to narrow down my favourites to ten but this is what I came up with. I have tried to put them into some kind of order, 1-10 most favourite to least although I love them all.

1. Mean Girls

Four for you Glen Coco. You go Glen Coco!

More than just another teen movie, Mean Girls has become an international phenomenon. Cady starts at a new school after living in Africa and being home-schooled. She learns about all the different groups within the social scene at the school including "the Plastics", the Mean Girls. It is an epic film, it has a great story and so many memorable lines. A chick flick, quite possibly the best ever. So if this appeals to you in the slightest... watch it! You will not be disappointed.

2. Harry Potter & The Philosopher's Stone

If you two don't mind, I'm going to bed before

either of you come up with another clever idea

to get us killed. Or worse, expelled.

She needs to sort out her priorities.

As a Harry Potter fan, of course it was going to make this list. As I have mentioned in a previous post, the first film is my absolute favourite. If you have never heard of Harry Potter, where have you been? In a nutshell, a young boy finds out he is a wizard and this film is him embarking on his first year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

3. The Hunger Games

May the odds be ever in your favour.

Okay now the idea of this film sounds pretty gory. To be honest I wonder what led the author of the book come up with this concept. Children competing against each other for survival in a competition called the Hunger Games. Of twelve districts, a boy and girl are chosen from each to compete, killing each other to be the one that survives. You get to know the characters, in particular a girl called Katniss Everdeen. So much more to the story than appears. Definitely worth a watch. Or a read :)

4. Frozen

Some people are worth melting for.

The story, the songs, the characters. Everything is amazing. A classic Disney film but modern at the same time. A great film for all the family.

5. Bridget Jones Diary

Perhaps this is the mysterious
Mr Right I have been
waiting my whole life to meet.
[Sees reindeer jumper]
Maybe not.

Now for a more grown up film. This film follows the character of Bridget Jones, an unconventionally average central character. She over 30, single and feels she has to change her life. She vows to lose weight, drink less and decides to document this and her thoughts in a diary. Suitable for a slightly older audience, this is a truly great story.

6. Bruce Almighty

Excuse me, I need a spooooooooooo..
(a spoon magically appears
sliding out of his mouth).
It's okay, I found one!

A classic comedy I love. This story follows a character called Bruce who feels life is treating him unfairly. He blames God for this, God responds and gives Bruce more responsibility along with his powers! There are a couple of scenes I would say are definitely not suitable for some young people although this film is rated as 12 in the UK. This is a hilarious comedy featuring Jim Carrey (Bruce), Jennifer Anniston (Grace) and Morgan Freeman (God). Need I say more?

7. Legally Blonde

I feel comfortable using
legal jargon in everyday life.
[Someone whistles at her].
I object!

When a blonde called Elle is dumped by her boyfriend, she follows him to Law School in an effort to win him back. While she is there she learns more than she could have imagined.

8. The Parent Trap

Oh my god.

What?

I have pierced ears

If you have seen the film you will

remember how tense that moment was.

Okay it's another Disney film, a classic. A story of twins Hallie and Annie who have grown up apart, never knowing of the other's existence. Fate brings them together at a summer camp and they decide to switch places to meet their parents. Another good-feeling film, as a 90s child I find this film very nostalgic. Love it.

9. 13 Going on 30

Arrivederci.

Au revoir.

A coming of age story of a girl who is struggling with being thirteen. She wants to be thirty, flirty and thriving and suddenly she is. The character of Jenna is endearing and Jennifer Garner acts amazingly in the role of the adult version of Jenna. A beautiful film.

10. Shrek

We can stay up late swapping manly
stories and in the morning, I'm making waffles.

A family friendly movie starring ogres, a dragon, a gingerbread man and an adorably annoying donkey amongst other characters. To regain his swamp an ogre sets out to rescue a princess. The perfect happy and uplifting film, suitable for all the family.

So have some snacks at the ready, grab your duvets and snuggle up for a cosy film night in.

Which of these films do you like best? Which are you keen to watch?

What are your favourite films?

Kat x

Review: Maybelline Baby Lips (Original)

Welcome to my first review post!

As you can probably tell from the title, today I will be reviewing the Original Maybelline Baby Lips Lip Balms, specifically looking at the tinted shades of Pink Punch, Peach Kiss and Cherry Me.

The Packaging:

Okay so you shouldn't judge a product by its packaging... even though the design and packaging of the baby lips is pretty cute.

The Shades:

Swatches

Firstly, here is a picture of my lips with no product on so you will be able to compare and see any difference in colour when I apply the lip balm.

Let's start with my absolute favourite of the three, Peach Kiss. As you will be able to see from the earlier swatches, this lip balm appears to be a nude slightly brown colour. On my lips however, it provides me with a very slight peachy hint of colour. For me, this is the perfect my-lips-but-ever-so-slightly-better shade and I find myself wearing this on an everyday basis.

Looking at the colour of Pink Punch, the pastel pink seems such a classic Barbie shade. I like this but to be honest I find it a much less wearable shade than Peach Kiss. Personally, I don't like to apply too much of this shade, keeping it slightly more sheer as you can see below but I feel the colour could be built up more if desired.

The final shade I will be discussing is the red/dark pink cherry shade, aptly named Cherry Me. Now this has appeared slightly lighter on camera than in real life however, this can definitely be built up to be more opaque.

I would say that when initially looking at this lip balm in the packaging I expected the shade to be slightly redder than it actually translated to be on the lips. However, I still feel it is a nice shade.

The Consistency:

These lip balms all have a similar consistency, it is not too thick or thin and glides on easily.
In terms of actually moisturising the lips, I would have to say that my lips tend to feel slightly dry after use which is a bit disappointing.

The Application:
I find applying these lip balms to be very easy. You don't necessarily need to use a mirror to apply these, particularly for Peach Kiss, as it give slightly less colour you don't need to be as accurate with your application.

The Finish:
All three give a similar gloss/shine, it is necessary to note that this is more than you can really tell from the pictures. I find that this isn't too shiny and like the glossy finish they give.

The Scents:

Possibly the thing that makes these lip balms slightly more unique than others are their scents. Pink Punch smells like pomegranate and fruit punch (*My absolute fave scent of them!*), Peach Kiss smells similar to Pink Punch but perhaps slightly more peachy and Cherry Me smells like cherries. *Who would have guessed it?*

The Cost:
£2.99 in both Superdrug and Boots.

The Verdict:

Tinted lip balms such as these are such a perfect way to add a little colour to your lips without wearing anything too opaque. I feel that there are similar products on the market but these balms have scents that are lovely whilst giving a beautiful sheer but buildable tint to the lips.

Although I have found my lips can feel slightly dry after using these lip balms, I still feel they are worth a purchase, especially for only £2.99.

Overall Verdict: Definitely worth a try!

What do you think of the Original Baby Lips?
Which do you like best? Or which are you most eager to try?

Kat x

Goodbye Student Discount

Something I have been dreading has finally happened.

My student discount card has officially expired.

Okay so perhaps that was a tad dramatic, but...

The student discount is without a doubt one of THE BEST perks of being a student. :)

In the United Kingdom, an NUS extra card is what you need to get the best student discounts. You can get this card from the National Union of Students for as little as £12.

Definitely worth it for what you can save using it!

My favourite discounts have included (*sad to be talking in the past tense now*) 10% off Superdrug (in store), New Look (in store and online) and on ASOS. Also, you can get a 5% reduction on lots of products on Amazon, great for all the books you are likely to need for your studies. However, there are so many more discounts available!

So if you are a student, I would recommend investing in an NUS extra card as early as you can to make the absolute most of it. Here is a helpful link to the NUS website for students that might be interested getting one. :)

I wonder how long it will take me to get over the fact that I will actually have to pay FULL PRICE for all these things from now on.

As they say, you never truly know what you have until it's gone.

Goodbye student discount, I will miss you.

Anyone else feeling slightly down about their student discount card expiring? Or perhaps you are a student currently loving using your student discount? Or even a new student excited at the prospect of getting student discounts in the future? If none of these apply to you, then thank you for randomly reading this post anyways. Let me know below :)

Kat x