10 of my favourite things about blogging

Time for a bit of positivity in the blogosphere, I'm struggling to find my blogging mojo a little bit at the minute so I thought I'd round up some of my favourite things about blogging to inspire me to get back into it full throttle!

 

 10 of my favourite things about blogging

1.  It's made me much more adventurous with fashion and beauty which I think is a good thing - I used to be stuck in a rut wearing the same old "uniform" all the time.  Constantly seeing outfit posts and finding new shops I haven't heard from before from blog posts is great (not so great for my bank balance though).
2. It helped me to get a job in marketing - now I'm certainly not saying "hey, write a blog and you'll walk into marketing!" but I mentioned it on my application and the interviewers were really interested.  Blogging has also helped me pick up some handy skills along the way such as writing, basic HTML, dealing with press and PR agencies, Google Analytics and using social media.
3. It's an excuse to buy new things -  ok strictly speaking this probably isn't such a good thing but I'm classing it as such!
4. There's a good community to blogging - if you ever need help with anything or have any queries/requests, there's always someone helpful around.  I think sometimes people get the idea that it's all really horrible and bitchy but I genuinely haven't experienced that.
5. I've learned a lot of new and interesting things - and that can only be a good thing, right?
6. It's quite an interesting hobby to have - I blog for fun, it isn't a career or full time thing for me (unfortunately) but people are always interested in it when they find out that "I'm a blogger." There's always an opportunity on the forefront somewhere too, whether that's a competition, an event or working with a new brand, it's sometimes quite exciting!
7. I've learned what I like - despite getting more experimental with things, over the past few years I've certainly found what kinds of things I like.  Pink lipsticks, false lashes, pink blushes and matte nail varnishes are ALWAYS going to be onto a winner with me.
8. It's a creative outlet - I can't draw for toffee, I've got two left feet and the thought of acting/getting in front of a camera makes my blood run cold (hopefully no-one's waiting for me to hit YouTube) so having my little place where I can write whatever I like to my hearts content is lovely.
9. The events - I've only actually been to a handful events as a lot of them are in London and sometimes my schedule is a pest which is always a disappointment but the ones I've been to have all been great.  They're like a little party where everyone is as passionate about beauty stuff as you!  In 'real life' when I get obsessive about nails, people look at me like I'm mental...not at a blog event.
10. It's global - one of the great things about the internet is that it's pretty much everywhere.  But through blogging I can see images, things, people and products from around the world and interact with the writers.  It's bad when you're really coveting something on an overseas blog that just doesn't appear in the UK though!  Or when you see a product you've bought retails much cheaper overseas (but this is a positive thing I'm trying to do here so I won't get too bogged down in this part).

So, there you have it, my top 10 favourite things about blogging. What are your favourite things about blogging?  If you do a post like this, please feel free to link back to it in the comments!

 

Too Faced La Creme Lipstick in Juicy Melons

I was lucky enough to get this for my birthday after hankering for it for quite a while.  Here's how it's described:  "Indulge your lips with rich creamy color, drenched with luscious, hydrating moisturizers including white lotus flower and power peptides. Moisture has never been so pretty! Lotus Flower Extract: Hydrating, soothing and lip-conditioning with environmental protection provided by antioxidants. Power Peptides: Conditioning, smoothing and firming for the delicate lip area. Indulgent color: Pigment-saturated, one-swipe formulas drench lips with sexy, pure color. Vegan friendly. Paraben-free."

As you can see, the packaging is really pretty, both the box and the tube it comes in.  In terms of the product, this reminds me a little bit of YSL's Rouge Voluptes, which I'm a huge fan of, but slightly waxier, I don't find it slides across the lips as easily either.  It's also not quite as thick so it looks a bit dragged on and sheer unless your're careful, and it will highlight any dryness on your lips.  The colour is describe as a pink coral which is right, I'd say it veers more towards the coral than the pink.  It's definitely one for when you've got a tan and it is a bit similar to MAC Impassioned.  It also smells really nice, kind of like wine gums or something fruity like that.

 

This is a really nice lipstick on all counts and if you're looking for a cheaper version of a Rouge Volupte then you can't go wrong with this, at £18 it's by no means a bargain basement product and I have to admit I do think it's a little bit overpriced for what it is.  I think Too Faced are pitching themselves at the price point/branding of Benefit even though their ranges aren't as bigged up or on a beauty counter with staff.  I remember the first time I came across Too Faced, I saw their Pink Leopard Bronzer* online and fell in love even though I've never actually bought it - just looked at it again now and I still think it's really pretty!



GHD Air Hairdryer in Cherry Blossom - Review

I've wanted one of these since they first came out but couldn't quite justify the price tag. In saying that, I've been moaning about my old hairdryer for probably years now, it's pretty slow, regularly emits a mild burning smell and it cuts out quite frequently too, usually when I'm on my way to somewhere important like a job interview or a wedding. Argh!  But forget that one, it's gone to hairdryer heaven now and been replaced by the shiny new GHD Air in Cherry Blossom.  I chose the cherry blossom design basically because it's pretty and pink.  Plus a £10 donation goes to Breakthrough Breast Cancer which is always a good thing.

I was lucky enough to get this for my birthday from my lovely Mam and quite frankly I'm ecstatic about it, I can't rave enough!  It's a professional strength hairdryer which has a 2,100 watt AC motor at 240V (but that doesn't actually mean anything to me), it's certainly powerful though and I find that it dries my hair much much quicker than my previous hairdryer, it kind of feels a bit like you're holding a jet engine (in a good way, if that's possible).  This is a godsend as usually I try to get out of blow drying my hair as it takes so long which means my hair is fuzzy when I get up and I have to straighten it to death.  This hairdryer doesn't mean I can go without straighteners, which quite frankly would be a miracle.

In visual terms, I think this hairdryer looks fantastic, it really does look and feel like quality, which is what you want when you're spending money on a high end hairdryer.  I love the pink on it and I'm actually really glad I went for the cherry blossom design, you can also get it in just plain black though.

It has two heat settings, two speed settings as well as a cool shot button, comes with two concentrator nozzles and uses advanced ionic technology.  It also comes with a satin dust bag with a cherry blossom design on it which is cute but I probably won't end up using it!  It isn't ridiculously loud but it's a hairdryer, you know, it's going to make a bit of noise.  Another thing I like about this is that it has a long cable, 3 metres to be precise.  This sounds like a minor, unimportant detail but when you dry your hair in the most awkwardly laid out spare room ever created, it's important.  The plug sockets in that room are all in odd places so the long cable means I'm not contorting into weird positions away from the mirror to dry my hair.

In summary, I like this, it takes me less time to dry my hair, it's easier to dry my hair and it's the most powerful hairdryer I've ever used.  Plus it looks great.  If you're looking for a new hairdryer, I would thoroughly recommend this.  Ok, it is expensive but after many happy years with my GHD straighteners, I do think their products are worth it.  The GHD Air in Cherry Blossom is available from feelunique.com* priced at £99.  If you do buy it, remember to register it on the GHD website as it comes with a years manufacturers guarantee!

Louise Gray for Topshop Cheek Duo in Up in the Air

 

The Louise Gray for Topshop make up intrigues me.  I'm not keen on any of the nail colours, which is unusual for me, but I think the lipsticks and glitter pots look really pretty. I didn't buy any of that though, I bought the cheek duo in Up in the Air.  I don't normally do creamy blushers but this just totally caught my eye!  It's kind of a "I bought this for the packaging but luckily I quite like the product too" thing.

 

It looks kind of bright and a bit scary in the compact but I promise you it's silky texture actually makes it quite subtle and wearable.  It definitely feels more powdery and light than waxy.  In the picture below, you can see the pink but hardly the more orange colour - it is more noticeable when wearing though.

 



 

The wear on this is pretty good and I don't find I have to reapply throughout the day.  Yep, I'm still a fan of Topshop make up!  Louise Gray for Topshop make up is available in store or on the Topshop website.

 

Matching my nails to my phone cover

 

I threw together this quick nail art look after receiving a lot of spare gems with my new phone case from Etsy, which is fast becoming one of my favourite sites to browse and buy, I do find it quite tricky to .  I know the case and the nails won't be for everyone but I really like them, don't think I could function with nails this long though and I don't think the gems, especially the big one, would last more than 5 minutes with me.

I used some long false nails I bought from Ebay and painted them in Models Own Snow White (after applying them).  I then used Elegant Touch Brush On Nail Glue (a nail art saviour) to secure the various little gems that arrived with my phone cover.  I just did an accent on my ring finger but looking back at it I think I maybe should have done something on my thumb too? 

All in all, the actual nail art part of this took me less than 5 minutes and appling the falsies took about the same.    What do you think of it?  Would you wear nails this long?  Do you wear nails this long?  I kind of do like the look of these really long pointed nails but not sure if I'd actually wear them, on Ebay you can get all sorts of pre-coloured ones, I'm quite fancying lilac, red and black but don't know if the last two will look a bit too Halloween/Cruella De Ville.

 

Happy birthday to me!

It was my birthday last week which makes me the grand old age of 26...wow.  But I actually had a really nice birthday - as well as being treated to a gorgeous meal I got tickets to see the Lion King in Manchester later in the year, plenty of chocolates, pyjamas, some cute pug goodies (including this hoodie) and a lot of beauty stuff, I think people know what I like by now.  So here's a little round up of the beauty related things I got for my birthday, I'll be doing full reviews on most of this stuff as I go along.  I'm just so excited by it all I want to show off basically!

 

Yankee candles in Strawberry Buttercream and Pineapple Cilantro. Yankee tarts in Fruit Fusion, Carribean Kiss and Loves Me, Loves Me Not.

 

Valentino Valentina and Beyonce Pulse perfumes

 

Lots of Lush, Dirt and Glitter and other bath goodies!

 

A close up of the non-Lush stuff

Too Faced Lip Cream in Juicy Melons, Gatineau Lip Balm, No 7 Eye Make Up Remover and Body Shop manicure set

 

 

Philosophy Melon Daiquiri Shampoo, Shower Gel and Bubble Bath



Pug make up bag

And finally, the rather gorgeous GHD Air.

 

If there's anything here that you really want to see a review of, let me know and I'll review it.  Just thought I'd leave you with the very cute Russian doll bag that my pressies from my Mam came in, I love it!  It's from Paperchase.

Loreal Color Riche Nail Art...nearly here!

Image: DIARY daily

 

These gorgeous 2D and 3D nail wraps are due to launch any day now in Boots and Superdrug for £9.99 each.  I think these are absolutely beautiful and I'll certainly be picking up the black ones with gold edges (Poudre D'Or) and the full diamante ones (Diamant Eternal), basically the two on the end in the picture above.  These will apply in 3 steps, probably similar to normal nail wraps, and last up to 10 days.

 

More info and images available at British Beauty Blogger here and here.

September styling

I could quite literally spend, spend, spend at the moment so here's a round up of what I actually want to spend my money on this month:

Topshop Knitted Stud Rib Cardigan - £48

Topshop Aztec Joggers - £25

Topshop Dinosaur All in One - £34

Topshop Tall Galaxy Print One Piece -  £35

River Island Black Strappy Wedges - £50

River Island Cream Faux Fur Cossack Hat - £18

Oasis Mini Tote Bag - £30

ASOS Studded Leather Biker Jacket - £150

ASOS Skinny Jeans in Ripped Vintage Wash #4 - £30

 

Revlon Colorstay Longwear Nail Enamel in Passionate Pink - does it really last over a week?

I've tried Revlon Colorstay foundation so why not these new Colorstay polishes which claim to offer a "gel like shine and up to 11 days of shatterproof colour" - when used with the Colorstay base and top coat.  So, do they last this long?  Well, my answer is no.  If I'm totally honest I noticed tipwear after about a day and whilst they certainly didn't chip, the tipwear looked a bit scruffy.  It had caught a few chips by day 3 so I removed it.

Passionate Pink is a bright Barbie pink that borders on neon.   Application was ok, this isn't a quick-drying polish by any means so I wouldn't do this if I was going on a night out or something, it would be a mani I did when I had time to sit and wait for my nails to dry. The finish on this is very gel polish-like, it's got an almost rubber finish to it. I also think the range of colours is pretty good, I'd wear a lot of these:

These cost £7.99 each from Boots*, remember the base coat and the top coat which you're meant to use for optimum wear are also £7.99 each so you're looking at over £20 to shell out initially but obviously you can use the products again and the base/top coat with other colours.  The bottles are slightly smaller than a normal Revlon polish bottle.

I liked this polish and as I said, a lot of the colours hit the spot for me, but I don't think it lived up to anything like it's 11 day claim which is the main reason I bought this.  It has a nice finish and does last reasonably well but it wasn't the revolutionary product I expected.

Also here are some outtakes from when I photographed these, a nosy little pug tried to get involved!

 

Models Own will hold a 50% off sale if they get 100,000 likes on their Facebook page.  They did something similar last year and it was great, be warned polishes sell out quite quickly once the sales hit though!

So if you're not already a Facebook fan of Models Own, head on over to their page and give it a like to we can all benefit.

Estee Lauder Pure Colour Blush in Witty Peach

I fully admit that I bought this online without even trying it after seeing how gorgeous it looked on A Beauty Junkie in London.  It's ombre.  Or dip dyed.  Or whatever the kids are calling it now.  The packaging is really nice, sturdy and practical (finally, I have a mirror in my make up bag).

I much prefer the darker peach/pink side to the lighter, yellowy side - the light side doesn't really show up on my skin or do a lot really so I'll probably use that as an emergency face powder if I need to.  It's a little bit different to the standard pinks I normally wear, much more peach, but I'm actually really liking that and it's quite nice to have a change!  It's not too dark or orange either so is really wearable.

 

I bought mine from Boots.com* for £24.  I also like the Estée Lauder Signature 5-Tone Shimmer Powder for Eyes, Cheeks, Face* on there too, that looks very nice indeed!

Nazila Love Glamour - fantastic embellished false nails

Ok, these won't be to everyone's taste, but I LOVE them and can't understand how they've slipped under my radar til now!  Are they practical?  Probably not, but neither are high heels and I wear them all the time.  My favourite ones overall are the Barbie ones above (currently sold out which makes me sad) but here's the rest of my favourites:

The level of detail on these is amazing - especially considering the most expensive set is £29.99 - and they really remind me of Japanese Kawaii nail art, which I also love.  You get 24 in a pack and each set can be re-used up to four times. Apparently Amanda Holden wore these nails on Britain's Got Talent, someone in Made in Chelsea (I've never watched it so I'm a bit clueless) showed them off and Rihanna's a fan too.

These nails are currently available from Nazila Love Glamour, where they sell a lot of other nail art bits too, but are launching in selected Superdrug stores and online in October.  Watch this space, as I'll definitely be getting my hands (no pun intended) on at least one pair of these and showing them off!

What do you think of these nails, and this kind of nail art?  Too much and tacky or fantastic and frivolous?

Oh dear. 90% of my blog photos are gone - why you should be careful deleting images on your Android phone if you use Blogger.

Me and technology aren't doing very well lately.  About 6 weeks after my 3 month old Samsung Galaxy Note met the Mexican sea, I finally got a replacement phone back on my insurance (hurrah!) and set about adding my contacts, apps etc. and generally making it my phone again.  I downloaded the Blogger app as I find it easier to put together a skeleton of a post if I'm out and about.  I also logged into my Google account to keep everything updated.  While I was checking some photos I noticed that there were a number of folders in there already that contained some (not all) of my blog owners).  I assumed that these were just copies over when I downloaded the Blogger app and deleted them.  Um, I was wrong. 

Did you know that when you upload photos to Blogger, it doesn't save them into Blogger, it saves them into Picasa web albums?  I sort of did but didn't think anything of it.  Picasa web albums also automatically synchronises with your Android phone.  Note I said synchronise...not copy, so anything you do to these images on your Android copies over to your Picasa web album.  I didn't see a warning or a notification about this anywhere, and never for one minute did I think they would be interconnected so much.  Until I checked my blog the day after and noticed that I had a lot of black exclamation marks where most of my images should be.

Googling around finally informed me that this was the case and that it's  not reversible, as in these images (3 years worth) are gone forever from my blog.  I spent Sunday morning trying to recover lost photos from my Android, looking for cached pages to re-image from and generally just stabbing in the dark trying to sort it.  None of this worked so the way I see it I have a few options:

1. Delete the blog and either start again from scratch or stop blogging
2. Leave it as it is and update the images from this point forward
3. Go back and replace every photo that I have a copy of - my laptop died last year taking a few of them with it - and hope Google Images can sort the ones I haven't got.  Bear in mind my blog has been going for about 3 years and it's most of the images that have gone
4. Give up on this technology lark and start keeping a paper diary that I leave hanging around at bus stops and the like in the hope that someone might pick it up and have a read 

None of these options are ideal and I haven't decided what to do just yet - probably not number 4 though.  To say I'm annoyed would be a massive understatement.  But it's been my mistake and as much as I think it's rubbish that there was no warning that images were synched, that there's no way to get anything back and that this isn't something that people seem to know anything about until it's too late, it was my mistake.  But I'm absolutely not the only person that this has happened to.  I think in future I'll be a lot more careful about my images and not just assume someone else is looking after them too.

If anyone has any tips, ideas, experience or just general sympathy on this issue I'd really really appreciate it!

A product I didn't like...Lee Stafford Hair Growth Conditioner

After my good experience with Lee Stafford Treatment for Hair That Never Grows Past a Certain Length I thought I'd be onto a winner by using the Lee Stafford Hair Growth Conditioner as a lighter option to the treatment.  Plus I thought it would last a bit better as I was getting through a tub of the treatment every week or so.

In my opinion this doesn't really have any redeeming features, at least not for my hair. The bottle is quite small so it runs out quickly (which turns out to be a blessing) and it doesn't really seem to condition, after using this I struggle to get a brush or a comb afterwards and my hair gets so knotted - why bother?  It's never ever been as difficult to brush out before.  At £6.99 for 200ml it's quite expensive with little justification.  My advice is, really, don't bother.  Spend the extra pound and buy the treatment* rather than this, you won't regret it.  The treatment is actually part of the current Lee Stafford 3 products for £12 offer that's on at Boots at the moment, so why not buy three?  The treatment is usually £7.99 each so this is a pretty good deal (I'll be stocking up!)

This isn't the first time I've had a disappointing experience with a Lee Stafford product, their Hot Shots 4 Blondes Shampoo treatment turned my hair lilac.  Unintentionally.  Before pastel hair was back in fashion. But nevertheless I've used some great Lee Stafford products over the years so I keep going back!  There's another thing that bugs me about Lee Stafford - and this is obviously me being anal - the way the product names are WrItTeN LiKe ThIs.  There is no need.  But yeah, like I said, that's pretty inconsequential as I still like their hair growth treatment and think their stuff generally smells really nice.