My Top Pastel Nail Picks for Spring!

Nails inc - Notting Hill Carnival, Models Own - Cornflower Gleam, Essie - A Crewed Interest, Nails inc - Royal Botanical Gardens, Ciate - Sugar Plum

We've had approximately 5 hours of glorious sunshine and I am convinced that we're in the midst of spring but after a lot more rain than sun I'm starting to think that I've been a bit too enthusiastic. I might not be able to ditch the tights just yet but I can bring a bit of Spring into my life with sorbet nails. So I've had a good rummage through my stash and have found five pastels that will be getting a lot of air time!

Nails Inc Notting Hill Carnival

Notting Hill Carnival is a really nice soft yellow which is eye catching and bright enough without being a scary eye searingly neon shade. I always find yellows are hard to apply and you need quite a few coats to get it opaque but if you get it right it looks amazing. I can see this shade adding a bit of colour to a monochrome outfit or I always love how yellow looks against grey.

Models Own Cornflower Gleam

This is a shade from the HyperGel collection so it has a high shine finish which personally I really like. Everytime I've worn this shade someone has commented on it and it is a unique lavendery blue hybrid which looks really pretty on.

Essie A Crewed Interest

I am so in love with this shade! A Crewed Interest is definitely one of my most reached for nail varnishes, it's the most beautiful nudey peach and goes with anything. It's also a really nice base for glitter topcoats and if you need to look grown up and sophisticated for any reason this is the colour you need in your life!

Nails Inc Royal Botanical Gardens

You can't let spring pass you by without getting your mint green nails on! This shade is fresh, bright and perfect for those days when the sunshine comes out, even if you've still got your jeans on this really brightens things up.

Ciate Sugar Plum

I don't think I could have thought up a more fitting name for this shade! If you're not looking to make a massive impact with your nails and just want a pretty shade then Sugar Plum is your nail varnish, it's a gorgeous pale lilac that will look even better when I've got some colour to my pasty hands!

Follow me on Twitter | Bloglovin' | Like me on Facebook

March Glossybox 2014

Glossybox, £10 plus p&p

I can't believe how fast that these Glossyboxes are coming around and I do look forward to that glossy time of the month but this month I've been left disappointed and if it wasn't for the fact I've saved up enough Glossy dots for next months box to be free I think this would probably have been my last.

Mitchell and Peach Body Cream

Keeping with the 'Beauty Blossom' theme of this months box this body cream is meant to make you feel like you've taken a walk in the countryside and moisturizer always comes in handy especially when it's a nice travel friendly size but I've literally got a back log of creams that will last me until I'm 40.

Bellapierre Cosmetics Ltd Shimmer Powder in Whesek

Glossybox describe this as the ultimate multi use product which as well as being an eyeshadow you can mix into blusher, lip gloss or nail varnish. I can only see a couple of those working with the shade I got that is a dark metallic grey which I'm pretty sure I've had something similar in a Glossbox before and it's still unopened somewhere.

Dove Hair Therapy Intensive Repair 60 Second Treatment Shot

At first sight I thought this was the Tressemme shot that I absolutely love but I'm still excited to use this as these kind of things usually do wonders for my hair and I haven't tried any of the Dove hair range yet. This has Sunday pamper written all over it!

Juicy Couture Malibu Collection

These didn't get my usual reaction to a perfume sample (usually 'oh for gods sake, not another one!') because I've actually been dying to give these a sniff and they're both really nice and refreshing. I don't know why but I had in my head they'd be coconutty - probably because everything Malibu makes me think of my favourite summer tipple!

Sleep Makeup Pout Polish in Raspberry Rhapsody

I was so happy to see one of these in my box...until I saw the shade I'd received. Purple is not my colour at all and I've seen that some people got a gorgeous nude shade which is definitely more my cup of tea. Instead of wearing this I might just smell it because it has the most gorgeous vanilla scent that I wish I could bottle up as a perfume! It's a shame that the colour was so wrong or this would have been the savior of an otherwise rubbish box.

You've got a month to win my heart back Glossybox or we're through!!

Follow me on Twitter | Bloglovin' | Like me on Facebook

Sunday Pamper Session

Sundays are known as the day of rest and I don't know what's more restful than a long soak in the bath and a beautifying session?! I often get those feelings of Monday morning dread on a Sunday night but if I'm going to face a week of work I might as well do it smooth, preened and bronzed!

While the bath is running I get to work on getting rid of every scrap of make up that I can! I've only just recently started using The Body Shop Camomile Eye Makeup Remover instead of makeup wipes (I know, I know - please forgive me for I have sinned!) and this is definitely going to be something that I repurchase, it gets even the stubbornest of mascara off in one swipe and is so gentle around the eye area, there's no stinging or redness that I more often than not get when removing my eye make up, it's love! Once my eyes are bare then I remove what's left on my face with the holy grail that is Bioderma. I don't know about you other long haired lovelies but when I'm in pamper mode there's nothing nicer than scraping your hair off your face and tying it up so once my makeup is off the hair goes up! The final thing I do before jumping in the tub is cover my face in Clarins Pure Melt Cleansing Gel which is like a little magic trick, when you squeeze it out of the tube it's a gel, then it turns into an oil which I massage onto my face and leave on until I'm in the bath and then when I rinse it off it's a cleansing milk! As well as being magic it makes my skin so soft, bright and feeling like it's had a real deep clean.

A bath isn't complete without something from Lush in there with you and I'm usually pretty stocked up with bath bombs and bubble bars so every bath time is a Lush bath time! Once I've been in the bath for a few minutes and my face is steamed and pores are open I apply the Origins Clear Improvement mask (I've done a full review on this here) and leave it to do it's thing while I do the oh so glamorous chore of defuzzing (unless we're in the dead of Winter and I'm growing my winter coat to keep me warm) and exfoliating to get rid of unwanted bits of tan that won't budge and smooth down those areas that need a bit of extra help, at the moment I'm using Soap and Glory The Scrub of Your Life.

When I'm out of the bath and squeaky clean It's time to get my moisturize on, this is definitely one of my least favourite things to do but it's all in the name of silky soft skin! I'm using The Body Shop Coconut Body Milk at the minute and I love it for many, many reasons, the top two being that it's a spray which I find a lot quicker and easier to apply and it has the most gorgeous coconutty smell that I go wild for! Your hands and feet also need some serious TLC and I use this little double act which is Soap and Glory Hand Food and Heel Genius and once I'm smothered I spray myself with Victoria's Secret Coconut passion (Full review here) which is possibly my favourite smell in the world. Ever.

While my moisturizer is sinking in I move onto my face and start with Clarins Gentle Exfoliator Brightening Toner which I haven't been using for too long but the results are amazing, it really brightens your complexion and if you thought you'd already cleansed your skin within an inch of its life there will still be some dirt on the cotton pad, it really does get rid of anything that might dull your skin. An oil is another new addition to my regime and I'm currently using The Body Shop Vitamin E Facial Oil which I started using to try and fade some marks that were left by a couple of breakouts that I'd had and it's really helped with that. Drink Up Intensive (full review here) is my favourite Origins mask and I love putting it on and leaving it to work overnight, it feels so thick and luxurious and leaves your skin hydrated and glowing, I cannot say enough good things about this! They're often forgotten but I try to keep my lips in tip top condition with a Lush Lip Scrub to get rid of any flakey bits and then I slather them in lip balm to keep them smooth and lipstick ready.

 And then there are a few optional steps depending on whether I need it or not. I usually paint my nails a couple of times a week and Sunday has ended up a designated nail painting day but sometimes you're just not ready to let go of a colour or you've been impatient with a new shade and couldn't wait any longer (which happened to me this weekend, something that pretty can't wait!) Another thing is eyebrow maintenance - I try not to touch them too much in between getting them done but having inherited the werewolf gene from my dad they inevitably need a bit of a tidy up so when the strays are getting too much the tweezers come out! My very, very last step before putting my onesie on is tanning which I do a lot more when the sun comes out, if I know I'm going to tan I try to avoid shaving and exfoliating the same day and do it in the shower the day before to avoid the dreaded polka dot skin look.

And that's me ready and raring to go for the week ahead! What are your pampering essentials?

Follow me on Twitter | Bloglovin' | Like me on Facebook

Midweek Wish List #21

1-2-3-4

1. I am extremely late to the party with this one but now I've looked into these powders a bit more I have decided that I need one on my face! I want to look like I'm being followed around by the perfect lighting but I think this will fit in my bag better.

2. I thought that I'd exhausted all of the permanent MAC lipstick shades that I couldn't live without until I stumbled across a swatch of Please Me which looks like a lovely matte pink shade.

3. The sun has starting showing it's face again and I'm leaning more towards pastels and brights on my nails! I absolutely love Greenberry and have looked at it so many times, god only knows why I haven't bought it yet but I'm guessing it's only a matter of time.

4. Another consequence of the sun being out is the need for dewy, glowing skin so my powder blushers will take a back seat for a few months at least and this Bobbi Brown pot Rouge in Fresh Melon looks like the perfect spring shade and it can even be used on your lips!

Follow me on Twitter | Bloglovin' | Like me on Facebook

Leighton Denny Nail Polish in Maneater

Leighton Denny, Maneater £11

(I got this with my February Birchbox)

I don't think I've worn black nail varnish since my emo days in college and when I saw this in my Birchbox last month I was very wary of such a dark colour but I may have underestimated how classic a black nail can look!

I usually find that with nail varnish the darker the colour the harder the application and it can go on quite streaky but this has pleasantly suprised me, the formula is thick and applies glossy and opaque in a couple of coats. I 'm in a habit of wearing a topcoat because I think the glossier the better and also anything to keep those pesky chips away for a couple more days but if you need to skip a step then this is definitely glossy enough without one which I haven't found in a nail varnish in a long time. Another thing that I was really impressed with was the staying power, it just seemed to last and last with no chipping at all! When my nails start chipping then it's time for a new colour but this one just kept on going and in the end I got bored of waiting for it to chip so I could wear something different - this wasn't even difficult to remove like I thought it would be either, no stained fingers or left over bits! I know that this is a bit on the pricey side of nail varnishes and I would never have thought of buying one myself until I got this in my Birchbox but if Leighton Denny can make me fall in love with a black nail varnish then I am definitely up for trying a few more shades!

Follow me on Twitter | Bloglovin' | Like me on Facebook

Lush Haul | Easter & Mothers Day 2014

I love nothing more than being in a bath full of anything Lush, their bath bombs and bubble bars are definitely my favourite bath time companions so when I saw that the new Easter and Mothers Day collections had been released I had to buy a few bit as well as a couple of things from the permanent range that I hadn't tried before! 

All of these are from the Easter collection apart from the Mumkin bubble bar which as the name suggests is for Mothers Day, this is my least favourite smelling thing out of everything I got, it's meant to smell like raspberries but wasn't what I expected, it's quite strong and sharp for a girl who like everything to be sweet! You only have to look at the Golden Egg to be covered in glitter, this stuff gets everywhere! It's meant to smell the same as 'Honey I Washed The Kids' which I've never used before but has a syrupy smell that makes me hungry for a sticky toffee pudding. The last two are my favourite kind of sweet candy shop smells that Lush seem to do so well, if you're having Snow Fairy withdrawal symptoms then you need Fluffy Egg in your life because they smell the same and you'll have a pretty pink bath! Let's just take a second to appreciate how cute this little Bunny bubble bar is, almost too cute to use if it didn't smell like my favourite bubble bar of all time Creamy Candy. He's also all pink underneath and is full of blue cornflowers to make your bath a bit more interesting! 

Here is the little fella in all his glory - too cute! 

And these are the oldies but goodies that I've never got around to trying before. I think I've found my new favourite smell and it's the Yuzu and Cocoa Bubbleroon it just reminds me of the summer and drinking Malibu mixed with pineapple juice (so nice, you need to try it!) in the garden with the sun shining. I did think that the Think Pink bath bomb would smell more like vanilla but it's very floral based, I let them off though when this was fizzing around the bath and tiny little pink hearts started floating around, such a nice touch - until it comes to having to clean the bath because they're all stuck on the bottom! I like a night time bath the best, it's my favourite way of winding down so I'm saving this massive Twilight bath bomb for a night when I need a little help switching off because it's full of lavender and is meant to make you sleepy as well as clearing your mind - the perfect Friday night bath bomb. The Butterball isn't one of Lush's most exciting bath bombs but what it lacks in looks it makes up for in smell which is really creamy and vanilla like and also packed full of cocoa butter which makes your skin so soft.

Are you a lover of a Lush bath as well and made a beeline for the new collections?!

Follow me on Twitter | Bloglovin' | Like me on Facebook

Origins Masks | Clear Improvement, Drink Up & Drink Up Intensive

Three guesses what gift set I got for Christmas?! These are Origins self proclaimed 'Mask Marvels' which I think is a well deserved title as there isn't a month that goes by that I don't spot one of these in bloggers favourites and they've definitely made their way into my top skincare picks. I've been using these regularly for a good couple of months now and my skin is definitely thanking me!

Origins Clear Improvement Charcoal Mask, £22.00

The Clear Improvement mask is charcoal based and made to declog your pores by sucking out all those day to day nasties that love to get under your skin! I use this once or twice a week and usually when I'm in the bath so my pores can be opened up bit first and you can't beat lying in the bath with a face mask getting to work! This is quite messy, it's a thick black consistency - so basically a white sinks nightmare but you leave it on for 10-15 minutes and in that time it hardens (say goodbye to any movement in your face!) and then it's time to wash it off and reap the rewards. My face is always left feeling squeaky clean after I've used this and my skin tone always looks a lot more balanced and even.

Origins Drink Up Intensive Mask, £22

This mask is just like a big drink of water for dry, dehydrated skin. Like the name suggests it's meant to be the last step of your skin care routine before you go to bed or I also use it if I know that I'm going to have a no make up day and it'll have all day to work it's magic. This is a clear gel so it's not going to stain your pillow case and a little bit is enough and goes further than you'd think it would. Once applied it kind of feels like this sits on top of your skin and doesn't sink in very quickly but that doesn't really bother me when I'm sleeping! As soon as I put this on my skin is glowing and definitely looks a lot pinker and healthier (I really, really love this stuff!!) and then when you wake up it only gets better because your skin is softer and plumper as well as hydrated.

Origins Drink Up 10 Minute Mask, £22

Out of the three this is the one that I've used the least because if my skin is feeling dried out I tend to reach for Drink Up Intensive but this is perfect for a quick blast of moisture if you haven't got all night! The cream is really thick and luxurious feeling and also smells amazing, all peachy and fruity. Once I've got this on my skin just laps it up and really does reduce any dry patches or flaky bits that seem to come hand in hand with this time of year and having the heating on.

Follow me on Twitter | Bloglovin' | Like me on Facebook