New Barry M Nail Paints - Nail Effects and pastels

I really liked my black crackled nail effect polish when I first got it. I soon got bored that I only had it in black however. It made it a bit limiting on which colour I could wear it with. I'm so glad Barry M have brought out new shades of the crackle effect nail paint and I took advantage of the 2 for £5 in Superdrug. I picked up a pink and a white although there was also a blue-ish lavendar colour available, very similar to GOSH Lavendar Love. I noticed some new pastel shades lurking about too which I wasn't expecting. There's Blue Moon, which reminds me of Button Moon by Collection 2000 except this is a better formulation and not as bright. Possibly my favourite polish of the bunch was Peach Melba on the left. Gorgeous shade that I have been after for the longest time. I wanted the peach colour by Model's Own after seeing it on a colleague but have not been able to find it annoyingly! Peach Melba is not as bright as I would like it to be, but as far as I'm concerned, this is the colour for summer.

The white crackle is my favourite of the two. I find it a bit less 80s throwback than the black, and love wearing it over darker shades that wouldn't look as good with the black crackle over. I have it on over Revlon's Tropical Temptation here, a combination I love and will go back to.

This is the pink crackle over GOSH Groovy Grey, which looked better in person. I think black might be the better option as a basecoat.

Will you be picking up any more crackle polishes or have you seen enough of this trend?!

Summer's Coming - New Clothes and Green Monsters!

The glorious weather we are having right now in the UK really makes it feel like Summer is well and truly on the way. It's hard to believe it's only April and we have temperatures in the mid 20s, love it! New weather usually means new clothing as my wardrobe needs a little bit of updating which includes selling some of the old on ebay. I really hate throwing clothes out, I'd rather wear something until it's falling to pieces or sell it on ebay or give to charity before it gets to that state. Top is from La Redoute, courtesy of my lovely Mum who bought one for herself and thought that I would like it too. It's available in pink, blue and grey and priced around the £10 mark.
Jeans are from Topshop and are the Kristen fit, they're highwaisted and have three buttons on the waist. I liked the black with the gold buttons best as I needed new black jeans and thought these looked a little different. They look good with tops tucked in but they are a skinny fit jean as well so you can wear them without tucking things in if you want them to look like your standard skinny black jean. They're priced at £40.Next are the top I found in New Look for (I think) the £20 mark. It's a very sheer material so you need very nude underwear, otherwise you can wear a vest top underneath. It's available in various different prints, I had a choice of three but this was my favourite. I've paired it with new jeans from Primark which I am amazed by! They are skinny fit and are soft, stretchy and very comfortable. I might say they are one of my favourite pairs of jeans as they fit so well and for £8 are an absolute bargain. I will be wearing these to death, and although I'm not expecting them to last as long as Topshop ones I've also been pleasantly surprised by how well these wash. Many things I've previously bought from Primark have fallen apart after a few washes which to me is a complete waste of money. I wear these so much though and have already washed them a number of times and they're showing no signs of wear yet so I may get more life out of them than I expected. I love the bow detail at the bottom of the New Look top, it's a pretty detail, as is the exposed zip on the top of the back of the top which is black.Another Primark find is this very loose cable knit jumper. I got this around early March time and it's great for Spring because it doesn't offer an awful lot of heat as you can imagine by the big holes in it. I haven't needed to wear a jumper at all these last few days, but no doubt the weather will turn soon and I'll dig this out for the evenings. It's nice and figure hugging, is available in stone, and navy and priced at £12.I found this blouse type top in Peacocks priced at £20 (roughy) which I hate to admit but I thought was a bit too much for Peacocks! it has quite an oriental feel to it and I like to wear it in the evenings, it goes nicely over a nice top and jeans, or a dress. I also wear it to smarten up a day time look. It is button-less but it reminds me of a blouse or makes a good substitute for a blazer. This lovely weather also inspires me to stay motivated in keeping healthy. I'm definitely a lot more active and optimistic lately, it's amazing what a positive effect the sunshine has on me. I first heard about The Green Monster Movement from Lily Loves Lola's blog so went over to Angela's site to find out how to make one. At first I was not convinced, spinach in a drink sounds really quite disgusting to me even if it is mixed with fruit and milk. I love spinach, I eat it raw in a salad, or cooked with a meal, on pizzas, you name it, it's a great food and helps that I know it's good for me, but drinking it is another thing. Anyway, I kept an open mind and made one of the most basic recipes for a Green Monster - Spinach, blueberries, soya milk and bananas. The verdict....

It tastes freakin good! The fruit completely overpowers the spinach, luckily you can't taste it too much, it doesn't overpower the other ingredients which is great because I don't think I would enjoy it if it were overly spinachy. I've since made one with oat milk aswell, just to try oatmilk really, and it tasted pretty much the same. I did feel very energised after drinking this for two days but I need to keep it up regularly to notice any difference to my skin and condition of my hair and nails. If you've not joined the Green Monster Movement yet, give it a go, it's tasty and very healthy!

Recent Beauty Buys: Lush, GOSH, Sleek Paraguaya Palette

Here's a few of my recent beauty buys. I wanted to try this bubble bar from Lush called Dorothy. It smelt rather lovely, and sent my bath water a rather rainbowy shade! I also got one of the mother's day flower bath ballistics which I sent to my Mum. I didn't realise it at the time but they are not a new scent, they have used 3 other bath ballistics ingredients, so this one was Space Girl. It came with some seeds that you can plant and grow your own wild flowers, quite a sweet little extra I thought. I got another pair of my favourite lashes which are by Eyelure, I always go for the lengthening ones as I think they make the most impact without looking obviously fake. These are number 050. I also wanted to try another Maybelline mascara as I got on really well with the Falsies mascara and this is equally as good. If I put this one over a coat of the Falsies it actually gives me a false lash effect! This is a really great mascara for thickening your lashes but separating them at the same time, hence the name One-by-one. The wand is very similar to Loreal's Million lashes mascara but this has a lot more impact, I would use the Loreal Million lashes for everyday use if you want a really low-key look. Also in the picture are the GOSH nail polishes I picked up on Superdrug's 3 for 2 offer, they are FABULOUS...more about those below.This palette is Sleek's latest offering, part of their avoir la peche collection which is limited edition. I thought it looked nice for Spring/Summer as they are quite cheery colours. It also has a few shades in there you can use to create a smokey peach eye. I think the peach/orangey pink shades are gorgeous colours in their own right and I won't neccessarily reserve them for eye shadows as I think some would make amazing blush shades, making this palette a perfect multi-use travel kit!Finally the nail polishes, LOVE these! I always tend to buy colours that look good together when I buy 3 for 2's which is silly on nail polishes as I won't wear them all at the same time! This one is called Groovy Grey which is a rather distinctive light beigey grey. I have a couple of grey colours, but they're both quite dark in comparison, it's nice to find a shade like this.Miss Sweety is a very gorgeous girly pink. It does in some lights appear to blend in with my skin so I would recommend it more for a paler skinned person or someone more tanned and olive than myself! It's still a gorgeous shade though and clashing doesn't put me off wearing something if I like it! I think this may be my go-to shade for work after Easter. Finally this is Lavendar Love, and I am pretty much IN love with this. It's a cool, blue based lavendar. It's bright enough for Spring and Summer without screaming neon at you. I can't compare it to any other shade I've seen it's just lush. The consistency of all these polishes is fantastic too, en par with Barry M for there chipping quality, you can get a good 3 days with these chip free, unless you're playing frisbee in the sun like I was when I wore Miss Sweety, dang my frisbee catching skills! They are all also very glossy, Miss Sweety has an incredible shine on it which I couldn't stop looking at in the sunlight, so glossy! This is my first experience of GOSH polishes and I will definetely be buying more of them, not sure why I always overlooked them because they have some quite impressive shades to choose from, they just never really grabbed me before, I don't think it helps that the stand often appears dirtied with makeup, Superdrug seem to be on top of this now so these are in my good books. Have you purchased any of the GOSH polishes? Let me know your faves!

Katie Piper

I don't know how many of you have been watching Katie Piper's My Beautiful Friends, but it is one of those shows that compels me to speak out about it. After watching a few of her shows now, including her original show that documented her post-attack, I've come to see how inspirational she is. Katie was attacked by having acid thrown in her face. I still can't get over the fact that another human being would do this to someone else, but I have since read about how common this is in other parts of the world as a revenge attack on ex partners. How Katie has dealt with it is remarkable and she is using her courage to influence other people who are going through similar situations. Aside from the obvious physical damage an attack like this has on a person, the psychological and emotional damage on a person, for me, is unimaginable. To be able to pick yourself up after this has happened and face the world again takes a huge amount of courage.

The show has completely put so much into perspective for me. I am here writing a beauty blog, and so obviously I like things that make us pretty. I don't obsess over the way I look but sometimes I have those off-days where I think I would like to make changes to my appearance. Things that drive this are the media which I think is the main culprit, aswell as negative comments I hear people say, whether or not they are even aimed at me doesn't make a difference, just hearing someone put someone else down for the way they look might be enough for me to scrutinise myself. I'm not talking about very often, but occasionally, I'm generally happy with the way I look. But this programme has brought back to the surface that adage we keep reminding ourselves every so often, that beauty is on the inside. It seems to get lost and forgotten about more and more these days. The way people have reacted to some of the people on this show quite frankly shocks and disgusts me and really they should be ashamed of themselves. Katie has set up her own foundation which will offer support for people in a similar situation to her as well as raise awareness for people who are unaware of the effects of being burnt. I commend Katie for dedicating herself to this and becoming a true role model that I think all young girls and grown adults alike can aspire to. I don't see a person that is disfigured when I look at her, but a beautiful, empowered woman who is making her mark on this shallow, fickle world we live in, redefining what beauty really is.

Please take the time to visit The Katie Piper Foundation

You can watch Katie Piper's My Beautiful Friends tonight at 9pm on Channel 4 or catch it later on Channel 4od.

(image courtesy of Google).