problem?

Today, while adding my newest purchase to the nail polish box, I decided it would be fun examine its contents and to count all my polishes.

My first reaction was wondering if maybe I had a problem. I decided that I did. But the definition of this problem evolved from

I have far too many nail polishes

to

They're all the same colour! I have two true reds, two dark reds, two pastel purples, two greys and two hot pinks. Why?

to

Most of them are probably/maybe dried out anyway

to

I don't have any deep pinks, or light blues, or dark greens, or polish with a crackle effect. I need to buy more nail polish.

Yeah, I think we need to go back to problem number one.

EDIT: so after I posted this photo, I realised there were two more polishes that weren't in the nail polish box but the make-up box. THERE MAY BE MORE.

EDIT EDIT: weird that it happens to be a blog post about nail polish that has inspired so much thought, anyway, I decided to take a trip down memory lane and came across this post from 2008. Back in the day when I thought I had an impressive collection. Oh, the innocence.

MOAARR

New nail polish. Crazy green. I had to apply two coats and a top shiny coat to make it look good because it was shitty £2.50, but, seriously, I think I have found my anti-depressant. I just look at it and I smile.

Made up

Today I was in Selfridges and about to walk out when a lady approached me from a make-up counter and offered to do my face. I looked like shit today and so I was not surprised. I accepted the offer, and it was only afterwards that I realised I was in the Topshop section and the make-up was Topshop. I asked the lady since when Topshop has been doing make-up and she said it was only launched this month, so I guess that's why I had never noticed it before.

She was piling it on, or at least that's how it felt to me. I am terrible with make-up; can't apply it, can't be bothered to learn. And it's not even like I have the excuse of naturally glowing skin - my 'excuse' is that starting to apply foundation might actually make my spots worse.

But when I looked in the mirror, it really didn't look like I was wearing very much at all. I just looked like I actually got some sleep last night, and like I actually have eyelashes, which I think are both very positive things.

They don't actually sell foundation, which is probably a good thing as none of my past forays into foundation have exactly been successful. I have to admit I sort of lost focus when she explained everything she applied, but looking on the Topshop website, I have a feeling it was every single skin product they have available: Skin Glow, Skin Tint (both in Light), Brighten in Moonlight (concealer) AND Blush (in Flush). Hmm.

Everything's so cheap, which means that for a total make-up failure like me, you don't feel so bad buying it for the sake of experimentation.

I ended up actually buying one of them, the skin tint, because it's really a moisturiser and I can deal with moisturiser. Still, I have no idea how I will apply it. I might engage in some male-up experiments with my new skin tint and some decaying blusher and congealed concealer I'm sure I have knocking about somewhere in my ever-so dusty make-up box.

I am determined to make this work, because who doesn't love looking like they had a full night's sleep?

keen christmas

Normally, the wait for Christmas seems to drag on forever. This year, on the other hand, Christmas seems to have snuck up on me from behind and pounced, nine days too early.

Today really did feel like Christmas.

The only sufficient way to describe the level of cold today (degrees celsius not being of any consequence here, of course) to any girl interested in fashion is the fact that I wore a fleece. Yes, you read right, my deeply unstylish normally relegated the confines of house or tent, navy blue Berghaus fleece. That's how cold it was.

Oh, and also, it snowed. White Christmas!

I had Christmas dinner, complete with little green balls I didn't recognise. Part of my brain wondered 'what's this?', the mouth part me of popped one in before promptly spitting it out. Normally I wouldn't be so unladylike, but I feel that maybe this one occasion is acceptable seeing as it was after all my Formal Introduction to Brussel Sprouts.

According to the townsfolk of Who-ville (whom I watched today), Christmas isn't about the presents. Still, it did feel like the only thing lacking from today was presents. I was surprised and overly squeely when presented with this gift bag:


Super posh bath salts. I am not really into luxurious bathing, but I found that Christmas springing itself upon me so unexpectedly had taken a lot out of me, my hair still smelt over-whelmingly of product from yesterday's haircut and the added stress of a family member's accident and waiting for news all induced me to try out my new present.


Now I really have to go; late-night present wrapping for Secret Santa tomorrow calls. Doesn't feel much like Christmas anymore.

(SHORT)

I'll keep this short.

(Very short)

Today I played a fun game over lunch!

Tea, tomato soup and tequila is a combination I have never tried before, but it's surprisingly nice.

(Fortunately) I had to leave pretty early as I had a haircut booked. I ran for the bus. Left my pashmina on the bus. Got there on time. Requested haircut.

I probably drank my drinks in a slightly more alcoholic ratio than I had originally thought. I now have short hair.

(Very short).

I love it!

(Also loving the tag for this post - 'beauty potions')

perfect day?

Today everything has been perfect for me really. A super quick commute; no traffic. My working day finished 2 1/2 hours after it started. I took out two good DVDs from the library, finished a great play and bought a trashy magazine which came with a great gift. I chatted to some fabulous friends, both in person and on the phone. I got home and there was a parcel awaiting me.

All through that, I felt too drained to actually revel in the fact that this Friday the 13th was actually a bit of a perfect day, but not tired enough to go to sleep. So now I feel like a bit of an idiot having not gone for a run when I had the chance and not going out tonight.

I almost don't deserve my good chance.

On the penultimate day of this blogging challenge I set myself on Saturday, I show you this:


Both are hotter pink in the flesh. You know how I feel about pink if you have read even a third of the posts on this blog, and in fact, since my search function doesn't work, I am going go create a special tag for all posts which reference the power of pink!

What you see, in flashed-out pink, are my Etre gloves from LibertyLondonGirl's giveaway! Thank you to both Etre and LLG! I am très excited about this! And I love them a lot a lot a lot! As you can probably tell from multiple exclamation marks!

And matching them serendipitously perfectly is my new nail polish which 'tho not as free as the gloves, came free with a £2 magazine that I would otherwise no way have purchased. Still, nail polish for £2 instead of £10.50 and a fun hour's read. In fact, I am sort of tempted to buy the magazine three more times for the other colours. Anybody fancy a free copy of Glamour, without the nail polish?

Hmm, this week's posts have been much longer than the snapshots and witty one-liners (which I am still deluded that I can produce, even though people keep telling me otherwise...) I was intending. Maybe that's why I have been so unproductive this week.

bits and bobs

I've had an idea which might help to make my blogging a little bit more consistant.

Every day this week, I am going to try to post. But there is no use planning one of my normal half hour plus writing sessions for a single post, because, as if I haven't said it enough already, There. Are. Not. Enough. Half hours. In. The. Day.

Instead, I am finally beginning to utilise my summer birthday present of a digital camera. Because, yet again, There Are Not Enough Hours of Light to use my DSLR. Then I can post whatever interesting picture I have taken from that day, with maybe one or two lines, which should hopefuly be insightful and wonderfully witty.

Happily, I already have a couple such photos stored on the camera. Let's start with this one:

Three, or maybe four days after, I am still in awe over the intactness of my self-manicure. I have had this dark purple by MAC for a long, long time now. At first, I hated it; it's so thin and takes about three layers to look consistent, which with my span of patience means that I could never get it right. But I haven't bought any new polishes for so long now that the rest of my collection has descended into shitness, so I thought I would try this out again. Who'd have thought that some polishes actually improve with age??? (although admittedly this is a shot of my lefthand which looks much better than my right hand).

Tomorrow: I am not sure yet, although I do have a spectactularly focused shot of the tip of one of my hairs split in 12 different places. But is that a bit gross for the internet?

rose tinted

Today has been sort of depressing. I was looking forward to some serious shopping with the 20% off at certain shops in Covent Garden and a 30% discount voucher at GAP that was being offered this weekend (details at the end of the post), to shake off my mood.

As you can only imagine, unsuccessful shopping when you are already in a bad mood is not the best.

I tried on several jackets/jumpers in GAP, but concluded that none of them were quite right. Then I walked out of the shop, with one jumper still draped over my arm. No alarms went off and I was already a few metres out of the shop before I noticed. It was pretty embarrassing dashing back in and throwing the jumper onto the desk before scarpering off, sharpish.

I suppose by now I should have realised I was way too tired for this shopping lark.

Huge disappointment to find that Urban Outfitters have got rid of their permanent sale section! I loved a couple of things in there, but I am loath to pay full price for anything in there because the sales are normally so ridiculous. And Firetrap, please, I am not going to pay prices which round up to £100 to the nearest 50 for 100% acrylic.

By this point I was practically walking with my eyes closed, so didn't even bother visiting All Saints (the dark ambience would have surely sent me off to sleep) or any of the shoe shops, even though we all know that Covent Garden is shoe mecca and I am in urgent need of shoes.

At the last minute, I noticed that Benefit was included in the 20% discount deal so I set off in search of some lip gloss. The glosses all smelt nauseatingly of watermelon, but I did find a nice tint and gloss, which will be perfect for me as my lips have an unfortunate tendency of simulating pallor mortis.

Annoyingly, the discount turned out to be only 10% off but by this point I wanted to go home and not empty handed.

So I still don't have a jacket, cardigan in forest green, shoes, sports bra or scarf (all on my shopping list), but I do have some new lip gloss (also, shock horror, on my shopping list!). And about that I am happy.

****

If you fancy your chances with a more successful shopping trip than me, get the 20% off in selected shops in Covent Garden here.

new year's

People often like to think of the New Year as an opportunity to change, to turn over a new leaf. I have never particularly subscribed to the gym, WeightWatchers and smoking support group subscribing masses come January, but that does not mean that I am not up for a change.

For me, it seems to have been a new year for myself, as my birthday approaches at the end of this month, that heralds change. A couple of these changes are quite big: I am giving up a lazy summer for a new job come Monday, I have sort of maybe decided that I will be starting a new school in September.

Some of these changes are more gradual. Since I have started this blog I have slowly watched myself become less interested in certain things, more interested in others (although my love for bags remains immovable). Shopping has taken a back seat; running, which I started for the first time many months ago, is finally, finally coming to the fore. In the past 6 days I have run on three separate occasions. That is a landmark, a first time. I am proud.

Of course, there are changes which I am less proud of, born, I believe, of these accepted changes I just mentioned. Sewing, style is currently not a top priority and exercise is. This morning, I travelled a bus journey at 8AM in tracksuit bottoms. My mother, when she saw me later, was shocked; 'you would want to kill me when I wore those to pick you up a couple of years ago!'.

After proclaiming only recently that I am uninterested in make-up, I have noticed myself buying an awful lot of it. Today's acquisition: shimmery silver eyeshadow. I won't pretend I don't love it. But I also can't pretend that it's particularly practical, office appropriate, and that I'll be wearing it too often.


Thus, as I have said, not everything changes. Even as a young teen, I have always had an obsession with avoiding pleather (synthetic leather); whilst all my friends paraded their cute H&M bags, I stuck to canvas... and then, blew all my cash on leather. Yesterday, I bought a cute pair of pumps only to realise that they are synthetic. They are going back ASAP. Plus, the fact that shopping even occurred, albeit with purchases which will be returned, shows that shopping is only riding in the back seat very temporarily.

Do you consciously make resolutions to change certain things about your lifestyle, or personal style? Do you do this in January or at other, more personal, times of the year? Or do you just find yourself evolving, and embrace it/devolving, and disguise it? Do you find that certain things will never change?

permascara

In the normal way, as soon as I have had plenty to write about, the time to sit and write began to slip away. Still, there's one thing I want to share with you which shouldn't take too long: my new mascara.

As you will see if you explore my posts with the tag 'beauty potions', they are far and few between. I simply don't wear very much make-up. Recently, I've got into lipstick which I should have started so much earlier, considering the naturally blue state of my lips. But even now I often can't be bothered with checking the mirror every time I eat or drink, and reapplying in public.

Eye make-up's even worse. The glasses which I bought last year sit close to the face and I find mascara transfers onto them. As the frames are clear, I try to keep the glasses as clean as possible. On top of that, I find that the effect of eyeliner is sort of lost under a glasses frame, and creates a scary bug-eyed look with contacts.

As a result of my disregard for make-up, you will be unsurprised to know that I hardly ever replace it. But last week, exasperated with my much-more-than-six-months-old clumps of mascara, I went to my local Boots to stock up on liquid eyeliner, mascara and make-up remover. About an hour later, I finally found everything I needed (it's a small shop, by the way) having compared features and prices and special offers and brands and in the end given up and taken what was in my hands at that moment to the till.

Even so, I did make sure that my Nivea gentle facial cleansing wipes 'removes waterproof mascara'.

A day after applying my big yellow Maybelline mascara, I still don't need to top-up. Ah, I have much to learn in the arena of make-up application and removal.

priorities

There are such long lists
of things I must do.
Work, and more work
a bit more work too.
Tidying my stuff which
currently looks like a zoo
Might help me to find
Some of mes objets perdus
And I need my night's sleep
To stave off cold or flu.
Still dear nail polish
I'll always have time for you.

Decisions, decisions. Another chapter of Chemistry revision? That's not the big question. What I really need to decide is:



OR

scent of spring and summer

As you already know all too well, I have a tendency to say something which could be said in one sentence in five paragraphs. I was going to do that with the fruits of yesterday's shopping trips.

But then I was taking some photos of my new perfume for this post and I found I had created a spring-like reimagining of the photo I had taken in the snow of my old, heavier scent. I realised that this new photo, alongside the old photo, can tell you as much about why I chose this perfume and why I am so delighted with it, as 1000 words could.

Here is the post with the perfume I used before, before it started suffocating me and I experimented with a frightful array of testers before finally finding the perfect scent yesterday.

Excuses and more excuses

The dog chewed off my keyboard.

No, a pidgeon flew through the window and stole the PC away.

Actually, I was held at gunpoint and told that if I wrote a post on my blog, they'd shoot.

I thought I'd posted this yesterday but blogger had actually only saved a half-written version as a draft
(no, that one's true).

Recently I just haven't been doing the post a day thing. And there isn't one good reason why; there are lots of bad reasons. But I simply cannot stoop to no posts for three days for a few bad reasons, so instead today I thought I'd share one of those reasons with you.

Yes, I'll agree that it doesn't look too shabby here. In fact, I quite like it. But bear in mind that the stage you see my hair in here is a result of an hour's worth of washing and combing. Everytime I want to wash my hair, I have to give an hour over of my life. Valuable time to chat on the phone, go on Facebook, watch TV... or read, write, work and blog.

About six months ago, I wanted to cut it all off. Immediately I was confronted by a crowd of angry people who threatened to sever our friendship if I took such a step.

So I thought I'd take the opportunity to present you with one of my more time-consuming excuses. Well, it's better than Facebooking and watching TV.

Your scent

Do you have a signature scent? Or do you like to have a selection? Do you mix different perfumes or stick to one? Fruity or floral?

My current perfume is this Chanel, although at times it feels a little too grown-up. So I'm going to buy a new one, but have no idea where to start...

Tried and tested

I have always had very diva-esque skin. Pale and fragile, it easily scars and I still have the marks of a nasty case of chickenpox over 10 years ago. I don't tend to use make-up very much to disguise my skin's faults; I feel odd in foundation, blusher or bronzer. Even so, I have bought and tried plenty of products to pamper my skin. They either irritate it further, just don't work or maybe I'm not using them right. So on the whole, I suffer through always dry, sometimes spotty, sometimes flaky, sometimes itchy and always diva-esque skin.

At least most areas of our skin have hair, sweat glands and sebaceous glands to try to protect and serve some. Our lips, on the other hand, do not and thus need extra attention. For as long as I can remember, I have had chapped lips and for almost as long, a super-sized tub of Vaseline has been a permament fixture at my bed-side (as well as a pocket version to keep handy). However I find Vaseline to be ineffective and started to use other products, such as Carmex or any other salve available. Even so, this winter my lips were constantly in pain and these supposed remedies were not helping, although I had now become addicted. I perpetually reeked of cherry Carmex but my lips were still sore.

Perhaps there is an element of immunity to these chemical-filled lip balms, because they worked at first but then the magic seemed to wear off. If any of you readers are scientists, please enlighten me. Anyway, a couple of weeks ago, fed up of the overly saccharine smell of the Carmex, smily texture of the Vaseline and the constant pain I bought this organic Neal's Yard Lip Formula. It was a little pricier than my usual stuff but definitely the cheapest in the high-class pharmacy I visited.

And let me tell you, this stuff is heaven. It smells delightfully yet subtley of shea nut and rosehip (I didn't know what that smelt like 'til now, either) and definitely relieves the pain. The best part, however, is that I don't seem to be addicted. I can go for several hours longer without it than any of the other products I have used, and I am happy to report that I have gone the longest without Vaseline for several years. Maybe I'm just being cynical, but doesn't it seem like most non-medicinal 'healers' are more concerned with getting you hooked and selling more than actually fixing your problem?

Precious Metals

I've always wondered how people manage to mix two nail varnish colours to achieve their own; do they pre-mix them in a new pot, or just apply both onto the nail whilst still wet, thus 'mixing' them?

Yesterday I decided to apply a gold colour which I've had for a long time, but don't really use any more because it just makes my nails look old and nicotine-stained. Only remembering this once I'd already applied the varnish, I wondered what it would look like if I added a coat of silver. I bought the silver a couple of years ago for about £1 and I've never worn it. It's very thin, but this happened to be perfect for the effect I had in mind.

I love my new silvery-gold/goldy-silver nails which are a different colour depending on the angle the light catches them. They're the perfect combination of two colours which don't work too well alone, and mean that I can mix gold and silver jewellery without looking slapdash. I think I'm going to have to try mixing more colours now, although using my current technique I am limited to combinations using my thinner colours of silver and purple. If you have dabbled in some colour mixing, how did you do it?

Oooh, by the way, notice the superior quality of these images! My camera has returned to me and so now I can actually take focused pictures without all the 'noise' which plagued my previous efforts!

So Fierce

I'd venture to assume that we all know that feeling, when life is acting like a stroppy toddler throwing an irritating temper tentrum, and you know that really it's just a phase. Really it's just an innocent little wide-eyed angel, most of the time. Even so, you can't help but feel that urge to hurt something. Hit something. Do something.

At times like these, the best thing to do is to keep your feelings under control, because even though I don't condone bottling your emotions up, acting on them can create a lot more unnecessary mess than just hurting people in your head.

One thing which always calms me down is some pretty colourful nail polish adorning my nails. Yesterday none of my own selection was really calling me, so I pilfered a lovely deep pink from my mother's nail kit (don't worry, she uses mine all the time...). It's called big spender by essie, which never fails to come up with the most brilliantly amusing names: after sex, bikini with a martini, jumpin junkanoo, steel-ing the scene...

And you know what, every time I felt like I was on the brink of my own temper-tamtrum today, I just gazed down at my divinely lush red-violet nails and imagined myself somewhere abundantly luxurious, throwing cash in the air and schmoozing with all the other big spenders. I, temporarily at least, lost the angry urge. This nail polish is fierce.

Beauty Rookie

I do love the glamour of make-up (continuing the Dita von Teese theme, just look at these photos of her working out fully made-up) but in all honesty, I'm a bit of a rookie when it comes to it all.

I have plenty of nail varnish, which I apply plentifully and I am getting better at doing it evenly and neatly. But look closely and it's a non-top coated, natural-cuticles, unbuffed mess. I'm a sucker for any well-marketed skin lotion; I have a MAC cleanser which pulled me in with its 'shot of caffeine' but I didn't realise it's for removing make-up and I just don't do foundation. There are plenty of varying moisturisers which I apply on occasion. I threw out my four-year old mascara and now I apply black liquid eyeliner and mascara, when I remember. I wear contacts, but sporadically.

When I got my red lipstick on Christmas I was delighted and wore it every day that I actually went out and didn't stay at home in my pyjamas all day. It looked great at first, but as the day would wear on I'd peak at a mirror and spy an embarrassed mouth, red around the edges and all dry and flaky. So much for long-wearing and moisturing, I thought. But now I'm starting to think that maybe I'm just not using the right products in addition to the lipstick, or I'm applying it wrong, or making some other blindingly obvious rookie mistake. 'Duh, you should have bought the super-strength-glosstastic-money-money-sealing-coat-arama obviously', I hear you say in reply to my stupidity.

Or maybe something along that lines. Help me out?

Joli Rouge Christmas

Christmas holds no religious significance to me, but I still love it as a celebration (any chance for one of those right?) when you can spend time with family and generally have a relaxing time. So I don't hesitate in saying

Merry Christmas

to everyone!

I am taking the opportunity of this lovely lazy day to catch up on some revision which seems to have fallen by the wayside. But in keeping with the glamour of celebration, I'm going to accompany it with a lashing of my brand-new red lipstick - Joli Rouge by Clarins. I absolutely adore it - it's red, long-lasting and moisturising - almost as much as the fabulous person who gifted it to me.
So here's hoping that this next year (I know it's not New Year quite yet, but we're practically there...) will be as glamorous as my new red lipstick, as well organised as my new Moleskine diary and generally wonderful for everyone.

UPDATE: yeah, so my lippy ain't looking so pretty any more, I sort of forgot to wind it down all the way before closing it... it's still perfectly useable but I no longer have any qualms about um, marring its perfection. So I went all out on the red factor!



Kisses xxx

Nail Rainbow

I rarely wear any make-up - you can probably tell that from the sparsity of my 'beauty potions' posts. I like to think I'm simply stunning enough to go au naturelle but in all honesty I'm just very lazy when it comes to that. But I do have a bit of a thing for nail polish; my nails are rarely naked, if not colourful then at least covered with a transparent coat or some subtle pink. When I was younger, I amassed quite a rainbow collection of green, purple, blue, pink and red but I lost that and the rest of my make-up box (quite literally, a huge wooden box) somewhere along the way.

Then a few years ago, the collection started up again. Most recently, I decided a deep gothic sort of purple would be a nice colour to have, cue my latest acquisition: M.A.C's Dark Angel Nail Lacquer. Sounds wonderfully gothic, no? As I got out my nail varnish box (this time, a more modest mobile phone package cardboard box) and lined up all my colours, I realised that I already own a purple polish - several years old from Boots and now so dried up that I had no option but to throw it away. So my new nail lacquer was no waste but I still found myself shocked by quite how many rainbow colours I'd forgotten I had.

The complete collection.

As you can see, I don't discriminate by brand. I did, however, get rid of several bottles and they were mostly a cheap brand you can buy in a Turkish market for approximately £1. I didn't chuck the silver or gold colours, but I was left wondering when I will ever feel the need to wear silver or gold nails. Right now I mostly wear my Chanel navy and Barry M hot pink or red. Maybe next time I should go for a rainbow...