Saturday, 25 February 2012

A-England Saint George with gradient glitter




Please excuse my very dry and ancient looking mitts!

Another polish from the A-England legends collection, this time the beautiful velvety deep green of Saint George. The holo in this is quite scattered but very fine and 3D-ish,  it's even more beautiful in person and my favourite so far, with the same outstanding quality as Ascalon.
I also fancied some glitter the day I did this, so I went for green and gold gradient using w7 gold dazzle and cosmic green, I think it turned out pretty well, very luxurious and gem like. Also, amazingly, no staining, which tends to come hand in hand with greens for me!

Tuesday, 21 February 2012

A- England Ascalon; A Holographic silver





Finally I made the plunge and ordered some polishes from the new A-England Legends collection. I could have had them all but I stuck to Ascalon, St'George and Dragon (for now!). I'm really impressed, both by this collection and the pure quality of the polish it's self, at £9 a bottle these are a bargain for what you're getting; non-staining, no streaks, highly pigmented, glass-like shine, quick drying. There's really very little else you could ask from these polishes to improve them. If you want a quality lacquer for goodness sake get these!

As for Ascalon on it's lonesome, it grew on me. As with most holos, in the daylight they are a little dull, (though in the bland light of day this is still a beautiful gunmetal with hints of lavender) but with artificial light (and indeed sunshine, I came to find) they come alive glinting spectraflair and morphing with movement. As I've said before, when it comes to nail polishes I'm a small child- I get impatient and bored quickly. This polish kept me entertained, and that is what I need; entertaining polish.

Saturday, 18 February 2012

I haven't got things right, yet the sun came out this morning and filled my room with light


Half parka- H&M
Hoody- Gildan
Long purple top (under hoody)- H&M
Jeans- Internatcionale
Boots- Shoe Zone


Outfit post for you, long time no see... you see.... me...ah whatever.
I'm not in a girly mood at the moment, I want to wear sturdy boots, parkas, and grungy unisex knits and shirts. When I feel like this I have two style icons;


Marketa Irglova (of The Swell Season)
She's just so naturally beautiful and I love her style, she wears a lot of roll-up shirts with oversized knit waistcoats and slim chinos with leather Docs. It's very thrown on and casual; dressing practically that just turned out awesome.



Bella (do I need to say what she's in!?)
I would like to marry KS's stylist in the first two films, there is an array of lustable outfits in both. Dirty, earthy colours, layering of simple plains, plenty of skinnies and oversized shirts. My favourites have been in New moon; right at the end she's wearing an amazing dark green shirt, and earlier on she has this oversized brushed cotton plaid jacket with a sheepskin lining (cue months of searching for something similar). Simply put she's my imaginary grunge icon, there isn't an outfit in those movies I don't want.

I find that some days, I want to wear high heels, a dress and make-up, and others I just want to forget all slap, let my hair roam free and dress like Bella. Is that just me? Or do you find your own personal style to be so changeable? Having said that though, I feel most drawn to this style over a more girly one.

Whilst I'm here, have this...

Tuesday, 7 February 2012

Mittens of the month!




These are my new favourites! (aren't they all?)
Seems they are needed more than ever with all this snow we've been having too.

This is what I woke to...



I do love the snow.

Sunday, 29 January 2012

What's in my bag?...

I've spotted these all over the bloggersphere at the mo, 
so I thought I'd tag on the band wagon!



So, this is what we finally find when we empty out my "sack 'o' junk", other wise known as my handbag, and organise it into a sort of badly placed square-ish shape...

Extra firm hold hair spray
Does this really need any explanation or come as a surprise!? when I am rich I shall use Elnett and Elnett alone, but for now it's bargain bucket Boots.

Rainbow umbrella
What girl doesn't have an umbrella some where in their bag all year round? This is England, here, rain knows no seasonal limits.

factor 50+ sun cream
Even in the winter I put a little on my face, tis' the nature of being a paley. I burn like a very easily burnt thing in the summer, it's sheer hell to keep on top of!

ID card
It's my most despised handbag item, still I'm forced to keep it on my person. Though I must add that, in a revenge attack against said card, it became a temporary spoon the other day in the absence of an actual spoon. Take that.

Tatty thermal gloves
Poor, poor dying gloves, held together only by lint and hope.

Rose Vaseline
Smells soo good, also good for dry hands, and a little bit of colour never goes amiss! Heavily abused as you can see from the denting, in fact it had been punched by a male. Why? I know not, but I believe it to have been some freak, teen-addled, testosterone fuelled reaction to the colour pink.

Novelty tissues
I get them every year, so they find there way in! it does make sneezing more fun.

Fakeberry phone
Yeah, it's all in the name really isn't it. Thank you Alcatel and t-mobile for coming up with a cheap skate version, much appreciated, now give me some free interwebs.

Owl purse
This is both torturous and joyful to use; torturous because it's so darned small and incredibly hard to yank cards out of, joyful because it is shaped like an owl and that, as you well know, makes up for any and all faults.

Broken hand mirror
It has just struck me that I may be carrying 7 years bad luck around with be, then again since it's been in my bag since the dawn of time, those seven years may well be up. Oh, actually, I think I broke it again.

Parma violets
Retro sweeties! Some people have mints I have Parma Violets, like some Victorian lady of the manor, I scent my breath with sweet florals. Or something like that. Also, as you'll see from the packet they are stated to be 'giant', well I have only ever come across these, and the very mini sized, where are the regular or medium ones? other wise why the distinction, because of all the things in the world I would describe to be 'giant' these are not that.

Paracetamol
Uum, surely another essential!? friends, family, periods and headaches, they all need pain relief on a moments notice, not to forget the occasional cases of 'man flu'.

Pencil case
Yes, I do still have a pencil case in keeping with a 10-year-old, it's shamefully true. Thought, to call it's contents 'Pencils' is to do the concept a disservice. It's more a mash of shavings and inky pen carcasses.

Owly Note pad
I've usually got my big notepad with me, but this better for when you don't want to look like a total A4 toting, preppy student, noob. It's more subtle.


Well, I've talked in far too fine a detail about some inanimate objects, so all is as usual,
t'ta for now.

Wednesday, 25 January 2012

Carrot cake cupcakes




Made these with the Betty Crocker carrot cake mix and new piping nozzles I got as Christmas pressies. As you can see, I really could have done with taking some more time and attention on the icing, but I had a hungry family vying for my ankles the moment they hatched out the hot box, so I hardly had time! It was all they could do to let me put on a little cinnamon and silver sugar!

Now, I do love carrot cake I do, and a good'un at that, nice and moist and dense it should be, should be being the operative term here. Personally, I'm not super impressed with this mix, it was a bit dry and a flavourless to my tongue. Still, I can put the onus on me, if I was going to bake these again I'd add far more water, and probably some sultanas and a good glogg of milk to wet it up a bit (v technical term). For all my complaining though, the fam fam still hoovered them up in light speed!




Monday, 23 January 2012

Outfit post - an afternoon's happy snapping

Hello again. 
Today I have mostly been wearing...


Hoody- Republic
Shirt- Thrifted
Vest- New Look
Jeans- Internacionale
Booties- God-knows-so-very-old

Got on Lush's snow fairy lip tint here, just thought I'd throw that in there instead of leaving y'all with a big fat unannounced pic of my  face.

I heart moss green check. It's brushed cotton too; mmmm textury!
and only a fiver  from a charadee shop , win!

Mood bear, had him all my life, love him lots.

As promised a *slightly* better  'swatch' of OPI rainbow connection, in an updated review,
this is the most chippy polish I have ever encountered. Still awesome though.


My philosophy & ethics exam is this Wednesday, so I'm spending my time revising and bricking it in equal measure, it could be the make or break as to whether I can actually continue with my course so yes, pressure, hello.

Other than this, life passes me by as usual, though I do have a birthday trip to Peterborough planned early next month, so that is a thing for looking forward to, which always helps!

Wednesday, 18 January 2012

Mittens of the month! yeti fluff...

Hey all! I'm not dead just busy!

It's mitten time peeps, like hammer time but less 90's.



These are my yeti mits, but don't worry they're not real yeti fur!
I have been pondering today (amongst other things, but mittens are on my mind a lot) how long should I continue to do mittens 'o' teh month? March? April? or shall i continue on thought the whole year? or perhaps till the mittens run out? (ha)

Monday, 2 January 2012

OPI Muppets collection - Rainbow Connection swatch

Soo way back in October I posted this about the the OPI muppets collection well I only just got rainbow connection for Xmas so here is a very quick and not particularly good quality swatch post, which doesn't really do it justice, so you'll have to take my word for it- It. Is. STUNNING.




I will just have to do this as a full mani and take some more pics because this swatch is god awful! gaps and fluff and bits all over the place! Oh well gives you an idea!

Unicorn sick anyone?
This does take three to four coats to get complete cover to the extent that I like (ie. no gaps!) but it dry's quickly and solidly, plus I used three coats of sally Hansen insta-dry to get a smooth finish because it's very lumpy bumpy as you would imagine, and highly pickable if you can feel an edge poking up!

But, it's amazing on, and I'd go as far as to say this is my favourite polish ever, only problem is, now I want the rest of them! *RIP- my savings*