Finishing University and Starting Life as a Proper Grown Up!

Hey guys! I've FINALLY finished university, almost two months after the rest of my course, and am feeling so freeeeee!

Don't get me wrong I'm already missing uni so much, I actually cried when it came to moving out of my lovely little flat in halls and saying goodbye to all my amazing friends, but I'm certainly not going to miss the constant pressure and stress of work and deadlines, I'm amazed I've come out of my final year without having a complete mental breakdown!

Standard Dissertation Selfie!

It has now been two weeks since I handed my last pieces of work in (my dissertation and portfolio, the two most stressful things ever!) and I've already had my results back. I ended up finishing with a 2:1, which is great! If I'm honest I was really really hoping for a First, but considering I missed the last part of the second year coping with my beloved grandmother being diagnosed with terminal cancer and the breakdown of a long term relationship, and then also missed the first half of my final year when my poor Grandma eventually lost her battle after a really horrible fight, I'd say I've done pretty well, since a year ago I was seriously considering not returning to uni and giving it up altogether!

So the last couple of weeks have been a whirlwind of deciding what to do with myself. I've had so many ideas for things I've wanted to do after uni and things I haven't let myself do because I knew it would distract me from work, that I have just sort of thrown myself into doing all these things.
Aside from copious trips to the beach with the dogs, and shopping days in Newcastle with my mum, I started off by sticking my long dead kindle on charge and getting stuck into a good old book, something I've really missed being able to do, as I know once I get into a story I won't put it down! I've been reading 'The Help' by Kathryn Stockett, as I loved the film back in 2011 and wanted to see if there were any parts that had been missed out! I then realised that there was going to be a new book out by Harper Lee, author of the classic 'To Kill a Mockingbird', so got stuck into that in preparation for the sequel, which I now have and am waiting to read. As well as these two, I've also spent most of today reading Louise Pentland, or as she is better known Sprinkle of Glitter's new book, 'Life with a  Sprinkle of Glitter', which I absolutely LOVE. I'll do a few book review posts once I've finished them all too!

This actually brings me on to the next project I have thrown self into, which is my bedroom! Back in March me, my mum and our two cats moved out of our cosy little home down in Lechlade, in the Cotswolds and lugged all our stuff up to Morpeth in Northumberland (not far from Newcastle) to move in with her partner, his two sons and three dogs - it's quite manic to say the least! But we love it. So I now have a lovely blank canvas of a bedroom to work with which is perfect for my new life as a post-graduate-proper-grown-up-adult type! I've already had my mum's poor partner putting up a new light, shelves and a mirror for me, as well as helping me move furniture around many times until I was happy with it! I also spent last week tidying and sorting, since moving up the country and out of uni at the same time left me with a LOT of stuff that didn't have a place, safe to say it was a mess haha! One wall has now been painted and decorated and I'm trying to decide what to do with the rest of them, a new duvet cover and cushions have been bought for my bed, as well as a load of trinkets and picture frames that I'm going to paint various different colours and put photos of my favourite people in. I also have some artwork by the amazing Babe and Butter that I need to frame and get put up, as well as put together a few cute ideas that I picked up from Louise's book that I mentioned earlier, it's all very exciting! I'll put up a blog post and possibly a room tour if I'm brave enough to video myself when it's all finished!

Another thing I have loved since finishing uni is having nails again! For those of you who have been following my blog since the start you may remember I used to post a lot of nail related stuff, and was constantly obsessing over new nail polishes etc...
When I started university I annoyingly started participating in the habit of biting my nails - gross I know! I don't know how this started, I've never bit my nails in my life, not even as a kid, but for some reason the stress of having work made me do it, so there was no point posting pictures of my disgusting nails and to be honest I stopped buying nail polish because it ended up chipped and looking awful.
Well, in the last two weeks they've come back! I'm so happy, it's amazing how quickly they grow when you aren't constantly attacking them! So watch this space for some nail related posts very soon!
My make up is another thing that's suffered over the last three years, I used to take some much time and effort over doing my make up every day, but that sort of stopped when I went to uni. Don't get me wrong I couldn't leave the house without some make up on, no one at uni has seen me bare faced I can safely say that! But I certainly didn't bother with anything fancy, just a bit of foundation, eyeliner and mascara, shudder. So I'm back to my old ways of watching youtube tutorials and experimenting with this wonderful stuff again!

As much as this is all very exciting and sounds fairly productive, I should probably mention that I have also delved right back into the wonderful world that is netflix, and haven't even started job-hunting, naughty Rachael! (monkey covering his eyes emoji!) so I'm hoping to do that this week, and I've got so many exciting ideas for this blog now that I have time to do it again, so please keep checking back, hopefully it won't be too long! I'm hoping to get a few more written this week.
Please let me know if there is anything you'd like me to write about, maybe you need advice because you're just starting uni yourself, or you're also undertaking an interiors project and can offer me some advice! Anything at all, get in touch, I don't bite!

Thanks for reading! xxx

Brand Alley

A few years ago I signed up for a website called Secret Sales, the way they work is that if you sign up to their website, you become part of their 'exclusive club' which means you have access to their designer sales which only last for a certain number of days. They are completely genuine and registration is free so I would definitely recommend everyone signing up, you have nothing to lose!

The purpose of this blog is actually to tell you about the website Brand Alley, it's the exact same concept, designer sales that last a few days but the great thing about Brand Alley is that they keep holding OPI Sales! They actually have one on now lasting until Sunday so anyone who fancies getting some OPI polishes for a discount go have a look! They've got a few mini collections and some full size collections aswell for up to 50% off so they're a really good deal. Do you really need anymore excuses to go buy nail polish? :)

Thanks for reading! xxx

March Haul

I've been trying not to spend too much this month, so apart from essentials all I really got was a bag, a photo frame and a new nail polish. Quite boring I'm sorry guys! Anyway, there's still quite a lot of it so instead of doing one very long, tedious post I'll spin it out and do a few products a day, that's a bit easier to handle I think :)

Products:
Boots expert cuticle and nail moisturiser: £4.09
Boots expert nail strength solution: £4.09
Garnier comforting cleansing milk (make up remover): £2
L'Oreal infallible foundation: £9.99
Maybelline dream LUMItouch highlighting concealer: £6.99
Neutrogena oil-free moisturiser: £4.07
Revlon Sunshine Sparkle nail polish: £6.49

Hessian bag £28 GLAM Originals
LOVE frame £8 GLAM Originals

My mum does a Jamie at Home party plan business and has a friend who does a similar thing but with GLAM Originals, basically, they host parties at peoples houses and show them their products, usually with a few discounts or freebies thrown in, they're fab! The two of them hold parties for each other and my mum recently had one, I love their stuff, their stock has expanded so much since the last time they had one, it used to be just jewellery and shoes but now they've got clothes, accessories, home stuff and all sorts. I am an absolute freak when it comes to photo frames and got ridiculously excited when I saw she had some I couldn't choose! My mum split her commission with me and these are the two products I bought:

The picture frame is so cute, it's on my windowsill now and I love the way our heads in the picture each go into the bumps of the heart, well planned ;). The bag is lovely, I'm not entirely sure what it's made of, I think it's hessian but it smells like horse hair! Yeugh. It looks good though, and is pretty big so it's practical, whoop! It does up with a toggle which I think is cute aswell.
I'd definitey urge you to check out the GLAM website, as far as I know I think they only ship to the UK but I could be mistaken, they've got all sorts of lovely products!

Thanks for reading! xxx

OPI San-Tan-Tonio

I know, I know, not exactly a brand new shade but believe it or not, I am not a huge OPI fan. They're great but just far too pricey in my opinion :/. Anyway, I recieved this yesterday when I got home and was very excited to put it on! It's from their Texas collection and is actually only my second ever OPI, and since my other one is very glittery (Shimmer and Simmer), this is the first actual colour I own by them!

I love this colour! I suppose it's a tan colour, hence the name, but really it makes me think of like coffee or mocha or something. The pictures aren't really that accurate :( they sort of make it look a bit yellowy.

I really like the OPI brushes, they're sort of flat which I find easier to work with and the lids make them easy to hold. This was two coats but could probably do with three if you're fussy. It's started to chip, but that doesn't really bother me as I like to change my nail colour quite often.

I think this has converted me, I'd definitely consider getting more OPIs, only off ebay though! 

Thanks for reading! xxx

Nina Ultra Pro - Purple-Xing

Purple-Xing is literally AMAZING. I love this polish, it's definitely my favourite. I cannot get over how much of a stunner it is! I've posted so many pics because there's just so much to it that it can't be captured very easily, the very last close up picture is a good one but there's just so many sparkles in it all different colours, it's gorgeous! I'm babbling though, sorry.
On my index and middle finger I put on some top coat, just to see the difference it would make since it seems quite matte, although i'm not sure if that's just because there's so much glitter, I think I prefer it with the SV.
The polish is quite thick but still needs a couple of coats just to even out the coverage, it's really not difficult to apply though, I literally cannot think of a bad word to say about this polish, it's fab!!

 

So did you guys get anyone with an April Fools? A few of my friends told their parents they were pregnant as a joke! I have to say I did consider doing the same but I didn't want to be the cause of my mothers death, or mine depending on how she took it... Haha :)

Thanks for reading! xxx

Nina Ultra Pro - Caramel Cream

Sorry for the lack of posts the past couple of days, i'm back on track now!
Today's Nina is a reddy/brown sort of colour, burgundy I suppose with a nice, gold shimmer - they sure do love their shimmer's, especially gold!
Unfortunately, from wearing this polish the last three days I have come to the conclusion that the gold shimmer likes to hide. I have not once been able to see any of it whilst outside, sunny or not. When I'm inside, you can see it a little bit but only if you're really looking for it, my camera actually picked it up a lot better than my eyes!
That said, I do really like the actual colour of the nail polish so it's not that much of a bummer although it would be nice to see the shimmer, it wouldn't stop me from wearing it. You can sort of see the shimmer if you look at the bottle in the pictures below.

Application was good, it needed two coats and doesn't take very long to dry, I love this brand! What do you guys think of the colour?

Thanks for reading! xxx

Nina Ultra Pro - Last Call

Last Call is another great colour from Nina. It's a lovely deep purple with some complimenting gold shimmer appearing when the light falls on it. The name struck me as quite odd as all the other names from this brand seem to be reference to the colour and this one is completely random, strange!
This wasn't as much of a pain to apply as the last two though, I (gasp!) didn't wear a basecoat and put two coats of this colour on, looking at them now I think they could probably have done with another coat though, just to really beef them up :)
Once again I apologise for the messy clean up, I swear my camera captures more than my eye, grr! If you look at the bottle in the pictures you can see the lovely gold shimmer, the bottom picture is a close up that I probably should have taken in sunlight although it does show you what it looks like indoors :)

Thanks for reading! xxx

Nina Ultra Pro - Purple Pizzaz

Purple Pizzaz is another lovely colour from Nina. I don't really know how to describe the type of purple it is because it's just... well, purple really, the pictures are accurate though so you can see for yourself. I tried to take the pictures in the sun in an attempt to capture the lovely shimmers in this polish, it didn't really work though :( but take my word for it there's some lovely pink shimmers in this polish when the light catches it and if you look really hard you should also see some incredibly subtle gold shimmer in there too, it's probably quite hard to imagination that combination but it does look really pretty!
Unfortunately this polish again isn't quite as much of a dream to apply as the Rasberri Sparkle from the other day, it's not as opaque and takes about 2 coats to look decent but that's not really a problem anyway :)
Please excuse my nasty short middle finger! I'm ashamed to say I succumbed to biting my nails yesterday so this one and two on my right hand were the poor victims, booo! :(

Thanks for reading! xxx

Nina Ultra Pro - Royal Purple

Today's Nina is called Royal Purple. From looking at the bottles next to each other I assumed it was the purple version of yesterday's Rasberri Sparkle, I was wrong though, in the bottle they look very similar but on the nail they are completely different. For a start, the formula is completely different; applying this I started to hate it, it was quite difficult to apply evenly and is nowhere near as opaque as the Rasberri Sparkle, in the pictures below I'm wearing 3 coats of it!

The shimmer in it is similar to Rasberri sparkle and it's got the mixture of dark and light shades but that's where the similarities end. I'm really not keen on this polish at all to be honest! What do you guys think?

Thanks for reading! xxx

Nina Ultra Pro - Rasberri Sparkle

I only just recently discovered this brand when I spotted a few bottles in the bargain bucket at Sally's, this was one of them but I've recently been back and bought more at full price since I really like them and now have 7. I'd like to do a swatch of each of them so for the next 6 days that's what you'll be getting!
This particular one is called Rasberri Sparkle and is a lovely deep pink with a very subtle shimmer that looks fabulous in the sun!

I love the application of this, it's lovely and smooth and is so opaque it only needs one coat so it dries fairly quickly too. The close up picture sort of gives you an idea of the shimmer in it, it's got some light shimmery pinks that really show in the sun and some lovely dark pinks also. I thought I'd show you one of my cushions that reminds me of it, the polish is actually a little darker but the light shimmers in it are a very similar colour.

And this, so far is my collection of Nina Ultra Pro polishes, hopefully will be growing soon! L-R: Luminous Lavender* (you can hardly see this one), Purple-Xing, Royal Purple, Purple Pizzaz, Last Call, Rasberri Sparkle* and Caramel Cream*.

*I think these may be discontinued as they were the ones I found in the bargain bucket, they haven't gone off so that's the only other reason I can think that they may have wanted to get rid of them.

Thanks for reading! xxx