So, I'm officially jealous of all the babies who will be born in 2012 - they will get to say they were born in the Year of the Dragon. I was born in 1991, the year of the bloody goat. That's not exciting!
You know I don't like getting soppy, but I just wanted to say a colossal THANK YOU to each and every one of you for supporting me and my blog throughout 2011 (and 2010 and 2009, to those who've been here a long time!). As much as I enjoy blogging, I have to say if it wasn't for all you lot I wouldn't still be doing it. I know everyone says they blog for themselves and no one else, but I've got to be honest and say I wouldn't bother blogging if no one was going to see it, you know? I like sharing my photos, thoughts and opinions with you lot. It's like having 1900 very like-minded friends!
So again, thank you all very much and I hope you continue to stick with me through the Year of the Dragon. I hope you all have a fantastic time tonight celebrating the New Year!
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^ What we're all going to be doing tomorrow!
Merry Christmas!
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I just wanted to schedule a quick post to send you all my warmest wishes for a happy holiday :) I hope you all get spoiled rotten and eat so much you have to change into tracksuit bottoms! Hahaha.
On a side note, I'm not sure why I always use pictures of kittens in posts like this. I love kittens, but I'm definitely a dog person!
I hope you all have a lovely time!
I would have loved to do another series of festive nail tutorials this month like I did last year, but lack of time coupled with lack of inspiration meant it just didn't happen. I did recreate one of my designs from last year though - snowflakes! You can see last year's post here :)
I did this aaalmost exactly the same as I did last year, same polishes and everything - except this time I added some Essence Hello Holo to the tips for extra sparkly goodness.
Oh, and here's some guest fingers! My bestie Coral loved my snowflake nails and asked if she could have some too. For hers, I used Illamasqua Baptiste as the base colour, Nubar Violet Sparkle for glitter, and silver snowflakes instead of white.
So, in other news, I'm spending my first ever Christmas away from home this year. This will be the fourth Christmas that Colin and I have been together, so we figured it was about time that we actually spent it together! I'm off tonight, and won't be coming home until the 3rd of January. I'm afraid I haven't got any posts scheduled for the time I'm away, but I'm sure we're all going to be busy over the next week or so!
If I don't get round to writing any posts between now and the 3rd, then I'd like to wish each and every one of you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
This was one of the hardest NOTDs to photograph, EVER! You'll just have to trust me when I say it looked SO much better in real life.
I bought Kiko's nail polish in shade 336 a good couple of months ago now, it took me a while to wear it and I wish I had sooner. It's a one-coat electric blue creme, and it's gorgeous. I fancied a bit of flakies, though, so I topped it with Inglot 203, a green flaky topcoat. It was SO LOVELY!
When I showed it to Colin, I said 'doesn't it look awesome, like a mermaid?'. His reply? 'Yeah, well more like fish scales than a mermaid..'
He may be right, but what's life if you can't have a bit of poetic license?
Aside from my huge gripe with the magnetic nail polishes from FashionistA bearing uncanny similarities to the 17 ones, the rest of the brand is actually pretty cool! I was gifted quite a few items from the range by my good friend Zoe, so here's a little rundown.
They have quite a nice range of other, non-magnetic nail polishes which I have a few of (I have previously posted about Hidden Treasure here, and I have every intention of swatching and posting about those in the New Year. For now, though, I have a few eyeshadows, blushes and gel liners to show you!
These are the Fashion Secret Gel Liners. They are nicely pigmented and pretty long lasting, but I have to say I'm not loving the packaging. I like the idea of having a little mini brush inside the cap, but the brush just really isn't adequate for achieving a nice line and you're much better off using a separate brush. Also, the name labels on these are stuck right over the lid of the product and are very difficult to peel off so you can actually open the things. Also because the adhesive on the labels is so strong it leaves sticky crap all over the outside. *Sigh* Aside from that, though, I like them! Here's the swatches:
Top row: Dress Up Chic, Dress Down Cool, Under The Radar
Bottom row: Shortlist, Exhibition, Cute Route
Unfortunately I don't know how much they cost as they're not on the Superdrug website and I've not seen FashionistA in any stores near me as of yet. I'd guess somewhere around a fiver though!
Now, I definitely really like the Custom Palette system FashionistA have got going on here - it's nice to see something like this brought to the High Street! You can buy the empty 4-pan palettes for £5 each (in a choice of black or red), and the eyeshadows and blushes you can buy to go in them are just £4 each. In my red palette here I have three blushes and one baked eyeshadow - I was given 3 blushes and 5 shadows, which left me a little miffed but after swatching them I thought that the baked shadow would work nicely as a cheekbone highlight so stuck that in the blush palette - problem solved! Here's swatches of the blushes:
L-R: Butterscotch, Juicy Apricot, Blushing
Definitely nothing to complain about here - all nicely pigmented and soft to apply, no chalkiness in sight!
Here's my eyeshadow palette - Zoe definitely picked out my kind of eye shades, I'm really pleased with this selection and have used them quite frequently! These are exceptionally well pigmented for high street shadows, very impressed with them.
Top row: Golden Glow, Auburn Glow, Berry Brown
Bottom row: Brunette Bombshell, Bella (baked eyeshadow from the blush palette)
In conclusion, if you're a fan of gel liners you might want to give the Fashion Secret ones a try (if you can get past the less than likeable packaging), but the Custom Palette system definitely comes highly recommended from me!
Have you tried anything from FashionistA yet?
If there's one thing I will never master, it's water marbling. I just cannot do it for the life of me. It's something that frustrates me so much every time that I very rarely have the inclination to practice it. I was looking back through some very old blog posts a while ago, and saw that it had been over a year since the last time I tried water marbling. There's also a couple of posts with my very first attempts from 2009, but I'm not down with posting the links because they are embarrassing. Haha, if you're that determined to have a laugh at my fail, the posts are still up if you fancy browsing for them yourself!
Anyway, being the glutton for punishment that I am, I decided to give it another shot. NOPE, still crap at it! It's silly really, I know it's one of those techniques that will come with practice but I just seem to think that I'll try it one day and it'll just be perfect. No such luck, of course!
This is the first time I'd tried it over a white base - I thought that might make it easier, but in fact I think it was even trickier than I remembered it. The white base is very unforgiving! I tried several different colour combinations to see what worked, and surprisingly the first finger I did (the index finger) came out the best. I actually think that one looks pretty good, but the others are shoddy.
I just can't figure out how to make a good pattern, and I always get smooshy patches and stringy bits and air bubbles in it and all sorts. It makes me so MAD! The middle finger was especially crappy, I mean what the hell is that?
So, I need the help of those geniuses who've mastered the technique. The biggest problem I had this time was the polishes not spreading right in the water. I'd apply the first drop to the water and it would spread just fine, but then by the second or third drop it just wasn't spreading at all, it would just stay as a tiny little bead in the middle of the polish rings. Is that something to do with the temperature of the water, do you think? I was using water at room temperature, but does it work better with warm water, or cold water?
Please, if you have any tips that might help me get even just a fraction better at this, don't hesitate to comment below! I will be forever grateful. I would just about kill to be able to marble like Colette of My Simple Little Pleasures. Just frigging look at these will you! *Sigh*
Om. Nom. Frigging NOM. Let me just clarify one thing first of all - I actually cannot bear curry, I'm really not a spicy food person at all - so if you're the same, please don't be frightened to try this recipe, the little bit of curry powder just serves to add a bit of something to warm you from the inside out!
I adapted this recipe from the way we make it at work - we make a lot of different soups, but I think this is definitely the best winter warmer. It genuinely heats you right from within your core, and it's bloody delicious to boot. Give it a go!
Roasted Curried Parsnip Soup
Serves 4-6 depending on your portion size!
Ingredients
:: 1 kg parsnips (approx 4 large ones)
:: 3 tbsp olive oil
:: 2-4 cloves of fresh garlic
:: 2-4 tsp dried thyme (you can of course use fresh if you have it)
:: 2-3 tbsp honey
:: 1-4 tsp hot curry powder
:: Salt and pepper
:: 750ml vegetable or chicken stock
:: 300ml double cream
:: Splash of milk
Note that you can vary the amount of the seasoning ingredients according to your taste. If you're really afraid of curry powder, just go for a teaspoon. If you like it hawt, go mad with it. Just do what you feel! For reference, I used 4 garlic cloves, 3 tsp thyme, 2 tbsp honey and 2 tsp curry powder.
Method
Peel the parsnips, top 'n tail them, and cut them into relatively chunky batons (about two inches long and half an inch thick). You don't want them too skinny else they'll burn when you roast them, and equally you don't want them huge else they'll take a million years to roast. Use your common sense.
Toss them in a roasting tin with the olive oil, garlic, honey, thyme, curry powder, and a good twist from your salt and pepper mills. Roast at 200 degrees (reduce to 180 for fan ovens) for about 30-40 minutes, until the parsnips are softened and browned.
Once the parsnips are out, mash them up a little bit to make blending easier. Use a regular potato masher just to break them up a bit, right there in the roasting tin. You don't need to be thorough in the slightest, it's just to make your life a bit easier.
Meanwhile, bring 500ml or so of your stock to the boil in a large pan then take off the heat. Carefully add the squished parsnips and double cream, and gently mix together. Pour the rest of the stock into the roasting tin to remove the bits and pieces from the tin - extra flavour! Pour this in to the big pan, too.
The next part is blending - you can use an electric hand blender if you have one. Mine literally died on me whilst I was making the soup so I chucked it into a proper blender instead which works just as well if not better (it just creates more washing up ;P). I split this quantity of soup into two batches for blending to leave some room in the blender.
Just use your judgement as far as consistency goes. I think I did it for about 2 minutes on a medium speed until it was smooth. Once it's all blended nicely, return it to the large pan and pop it back on the heat to simmer for a while. Taste it, test the consistency - if it's a bit thick, add milk just a splash at a time until it's how you like it. Add a little more salt and pepper if you like.
Now eat loads of it with a hot crusty roll. Mmmmm. This is very rich, though; you will need less than you think.
This will keep for up to a week in the fridge, but it can of course be frozen too. Just make sure you do not refreeze once thawed ;D see what I did there?!
Who doesn't love a good gift set from The Body Shop at this time of year? I for one always buy at least one as a gift for someone and and least one for myself, every year. What can I say.. I'm a Body Butter hoarder. This year, rather than buying one for myself, I've been kindly treated to one courtesy of VoucherCodes.co.uk's lifestyle e-zine, Most Wanted. Naturally, I chose my favourite TBS scent which is Coconut.
These gift boxes come in most of The Body Shop's most loved varieties, including Shea, Cocoa Butter, Moringa, Strawberry, Lemon, Satsuma... The list goes on. And at £25, they're undeniably good value and are beautifully presented in sturdy boxes with a pretty bow. Personally I think that the packaging alone contributes to the set having a more luxury feel, but disregarding the packaging, how much are you saving with the gift box?
This particular gift box contains Coconut Body Butter 200ml (£12.50), Coconut Body Scrub 200ml (£12.50), Coconut Shower Cream 250ml (£4.00), Coconut Soap 100g (£2.00) and an Ultra Fine Bath Lily (£1.50). That's a total value of £32.50, so that's a saving of £7.50. Or, to put it another way, it's like buying the Body Butter and Body Scrub and getting all the other bits for free in a beautiful gift box!
I am a self confessed exfoliation junkie. I love exfoliators and scrubs in all shapes and sizes, and The Body Shop make one of my favourites. There's no better way to make yourself feel as squeaky clean as humanly possible than having a good slough in the shower, and I reckon TBS Body Scrubs are one of the best products for the job. The exfoliating particles are hardy enough to effectively buff away any dead skin cells, but gentle enough to not feel scratchy (if there's one thing I can't bear, it's a scratchy scrub). The perfect balance, really.
Ahh, the cult classic. More or less every woman I know has at least one TBS Body Butter (and I know several who have a damn sight more than one, myself included). They are cult classics for a reason! Rich, beautifully scented (of course) and incredibly moisturising, but not at the expensive of being greasy. Far from it! They absorb quickly into the skin, leaving behind no oily residue or sticky feeling. TBS Body Butters work wonders on dry patches, too - if you suffer from flaky bits on your knees, elbows, wherever, slather a bit of Body Butter on them after a shower and you'll be feathery soft in no time.
Shower gel is one of my favourite things ever. So is coconut, so this is the no-brainer winner for me. As much as I love the indulgent feeling of scrubbing and slathering with Scrubs and Butters, I simply can't be bothered to do it every night, you know? But shower gel is a necessity every shower, and my word I love this one. Creamy and moisturising with a nice lather, going over my skin with this on a TBS Bath Lily makes a good lazy substitute for proper exfoliation! The smell lingers on the skin for hours, too.
I'm not one for using soap in the shower, but am an advocate for using solid soaps at the sink rather than liquid ones. A pet hate of mine when it comes to solid soaps is lack of foam, and residue. This plain, unassuming little bar boasts a surprisingly rich lather and a good clean feeling. Not to mention it leaves you sniffing your hands for ages afterwards (try not to lick them).
In conclusion, a gift set from The Body Shop is a great choice for Christmas this year. It is every year, actually. You can buy the Coconut gift box, and others like it, on The Body Shop's website (or in store, of course).
If ordering online, don't forget to check VoucherCodes.co.uk's TBS Discounts page to get a cheeky little bit off!
Let's not bullshit here. It's nothing short of blatantly frigging obvious that both 17's and FashionistA's magnetic nail polishes are from the same manufacturer. It completely baffles me that neither 17 or FashionistA seem to care how obvious it is. I guess maybe that's because 17 is exclusive to Boots, and FashionistA is exclusive to Superdrug, but would it really have killed either party to make a bit of effort for originality?
The only real difference is how you buy them - the 17 ones all come with the detachable magnetic lid, whereas the FashionistA ones are sold without the magnet and you buy that separately. The magnets are identical, by the way. Surely this whole business would be more forgivable if they at least had some variation in their colours, right? Well, 3 of them are exactly the same. Look at my little scientific table here:
17 Green = FashionistA Ego Green
17 Purple = FashionistA Purple Me Up
17 Blue = FashionistA Forever Is Blue
And I don't have the FashionistA one to compare, but I would take a wild stab in the dark and bet money that...
17 Grey = FashionistA Notorious Silver
How about some photographic evidence?
Index and ring - 17 Green
Middle and pinky - FashionistA Ego Green
Index and ring - 17 Purple
Middle and pinky - FashionistA Purple Me Up
Index and ring - 17 Blue
Middle and pinky - FashionistA Forever Is Blue
THEY ARE THE SAME BLOODY PRODUCTS. This doesn't seem to phase most people, but it just absolutely baffles me! I don't understand why either party is happy about it... am I just being dense and missing something here?
The real question is, which ones should you buy if they're both the same? I guess it's down to price. 17 ones cost £5.99 each (magnet included) and the FashionistA ones are £6.00 each with the magnet sold separately at £3.00. Clearly, then, the 17 ones win. Having said that, FashionistA do have the added bonus of a fifth colour, All Fired Up Red (which is actually lovely).
Don't get me wrong, I love the magnetic polish trend. I just don't get this whole identical business! The magnets are quite fun to experiment with. Have you tried turning the magnet sideways to create vertical waves on the nail instead of horizontal ones? They also work brilliantly with a matte topcoat, somehow the matte finish seems to make it look even more 3D.
What's your opinion on the fact that the offerings from 17 and FashionistA are exactly the same products? I mean, I realise that different brands release products that are basically the same as each other ALL the time, but they just couldn't have made this one any more obvious if they'd tried.
I just want to point out, I bought the 17 polishes myself and was sent the FashionistA ones for review some weeks later. I would be furious if I'd bought both sets, although frankly if I had have been stupid enough to do that without realising then I would have deserved to waste my money! Haha
