Product of the week: Sally Hansen Nail Hardener

My nails are forever breaking and peeling, however since investing in Sally Hansen's Diamond Strength Nail Hardener, I have noticed a real difference. My nails feel instantly stronger and gradually my nails have stopped peeling completely! This nail care polish also doubles up as base or top coat, giving your nails a bit of TLC whilst helping prevent your polish from chipping when used as a top coat. As it seemed to be extensive use of nail polish that was weakening my nails before, I now feel way less guilty painting my nails 24/7! 

There is a seven day treatment guide that comes with the product which I strongly advise you use, as I didn't at first and noticed the polish started to peel off after a couple of days. The treatment is as follows:

Day 1: 

Apply 1-2 thin coats to dry, clean, bare nails, apply nail polish if desired. 

Day 3: 

Apply a further thin coat over the existing nail treatment/colour. 

Day 6:

Remove all products from nails (using Acetone free nail polish remover as this will dry out your nails the least) and leave bare for 24 hours. 

Day 7:

You may begin the treatment again. Repeat usage will give you the results you desire so make sure you stick at it.

This lovely little product is priced at around £8 and is available at most drug stores, or you can buy it online HERE.

Are there any nail care products that you would recommend?

Ellie

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Style icon: Beyonce Knowles

After returning from V festival, my love for Beyonce has grown even more. Seeing her live made me intrigued to discover more about her style off the stage as well on. There is no question as to what Beyonce would look good in because if you ask me she could probably look good in a bag. Because of this she has such a wide variety of styles, showing that she has fun with what she wears; sometime wearing garments you wouldn't expect but looks stunning in regardless. I find this something to look up to because I like the idea of being able to wear anything not focusing too much on following trends to a T, but being able to play around with fashion with a laid back approach. In terms of some of Beyonce's approaches to fashion, in particular  I really like her sophisticated, chic, more formal wear. This style emphasises her femininity and personally this would be a similar style i'd like to take when dressing formally.

In contrast, her everyday outfits are often casual, laid back, and spontaneous. Something that I admire her for. These appearances show she has natural fashion ability. Often outfits look like they've been put together quickly, without intense thought as they are just simple, everyday garments. This is something that's easy to do for us admirers on a lower budget than she.
So hands down to the woman as I have not yet come across an outfit that has not appealed to me in someway. Below are some ensembles that I was particularly inspired by. As there are so many, I formed a slideshow of the images to save you scrolling down for for miles!

I loved some of these looks so much that I researched online to put together some budget looks...

To view the looks bigger, just click on the image.

What are your favourite Beyonce Looks?

Who are your style icons?

Ellie

My Festival wardrobe

 This weekend I lost my festival virginity when I went to this years Virgin Media Festival at Weston Park. There was such a great line up this year and all the acts I saw were saw amazing, in particular the one and only Beyonce Knowles; there are no words good enough to describe her performance and my love for her! However, not only were the acts a delight to see but I really enjoyed seeing peoples festival wear. For some reason at festivals it seems that fashion is a bit more elaborate, people come out of their shell more and show individuality through clothing, as a fashion student I love that! So I thought I would give you my take on the festival look and what I wore.

For those of you are going to a festival in the next few weeks such as Leeds and Reading or Creamfields and have not been to camp before my biggest tip for you is that you pack light! I know what you are thinking, those two little words 'pack light' can be very daunting to us fashion bloggers but trust me you can still create a great, varied festival wardrobe with minimal items. For example take just one or two staple item such as denim shorts, or a parka coat and then pack a number of light tops that you can company with the staple item, however pack brightly coloured or printed tops as this will make your outfit look different each day.

Wellies. The one word that screams festival and that has to be your festival essential, weather muddy or not you can never go wrong with wellies at a festival! I took a pair of bright coral beauties for just £12 from Primark, I suggest these and one pair of either sandals or converse, weather dependent, and you will be all set!

Are there any other festivals that have you been to this year?

What items would you take to a festival?

Ellie

Product of the week: The lipstick that MATTErs

This weeks post is a little overdue but with my week quietening down a bit I have finally gotten round to completing it.
It is not very often that I wear a bold colour on my lips but when I do it always seems to be red. I have tried various lipsticks eg. Topshop, and lip-glosses but have found they wear off really easily. I began to think it was due to the fact that with red being such an outstanding colour that it would always be noticeable when it started to wear off. UNTIL, I took a look at Kate Moss' matte collection for Rimmel London. There is a lovely collection of shades available but I decided to risk it again with the red (shade 111 Kiss of Life) as I had not tried a matte one before. I put it to the test when I went to York races the other day and it did me proud, I only had to touch it up once after food, and even then the colour was still pretty bold. Before applying the colour I brushed on a tiny bit of foundation over my lips just using the excess on my foundation brush, this proved to be a good base to support the lipstick and also gives the closest match to the colour as when you test it on your hand in the shop. The matte effect has also become a lot more appealing to me in comparioson to lipsticks with a slight shine, not only does it stay on longer but seems to apply better and produce a solid colour.

Sorry for the phone image here!

If any of you have not yet tried a matte lippy, I really recommend you do so, it was certainly a £5.49 well spent!

You can purchase this lipstick and other shades HERE
Are there any matte lipstick brands you would recommend?

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Mini Barry M Spree

My collection of Barry M nail polish seems to be ever growing and this week my all time favoruite colour ran out! I immediately had to go out and buy a new one and I knew I would be kidding myself if I thought I would only come out of the shop with only one nail polish. So my collection continues as to it has been added these lovely colours...

The raspberry red was the colour I initially went to stock up on, this is the colour I seems to have on my nails the majority of the time because its such a impacting, lush colour that goes with a lot of things in my wardrobe. However I was also tempted by one of the new 'Gelly Hi-shine' polishes, I have always wanted a subtle, nude colour that is discreet but doesn't mean I have to have bare nails, so this polish was perfect. And finally, the pastel blue colour caught my eye and once I picked it up I had no intention to put it down again, I thought this polish was a lovely summery shade. A good trio if you ask me!

Obviously not all together unless you're feeling really wacky, but this is how the polishes looked on...

If you want to purchase any of these you can do so on the Barry M website along with many other gorgeous shades, just click HERE

What are your favorite nail colours?

Are there any other brands I should be aware of?

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Birthday Cocktails: How to

As part of celebrating my birthday I invited my best girly mates round and made them all cocktails before heading on a night out! I made some slight adjustments to some of my favorite cocktails, Peach Bellini and Blue lagoon..

My friends thought it would be funny to buy me willy straws!

For the Bellini's I used regular flute glasses, which I personalised with my friends names on them as a little extra touch. For this drink I would start by putting half of a peach slice in the bottom of the glass. Next I would add in half a shot of peach schnapps, I stared with a whole shot but this was a tad strong for my liking as I actually wanted to make it out hat night (unlike on my 18th birthday, but enough said there)...

Then top up the rest of the cocktail by pouring in the CAVA. For a final touch I always like to add a cheeky cocktail umbrella! Peach Bellini is a lovely, fruity and fizzy drink, perfect to sip on whilst chatting with friends. You can also try it with other fruits such as raspberry because Schnapps is also available in this flavour.

As for the blue lagoon, I used tumbler style glasses that I put cubes of ice in to start with, I found that the more, the better but it is totally up to you! Next pour in a shot of vodka and peach schnapps, you can do half shots if you don't want it to strong, but the lemonade seems to balance it out. Then fill the glass half full with WKD blue. Then fill to glass to the top with lemonade, and to finish, add a cocktail brolly and a straw. This drink is really sweet, sparkling and tasty, a delicious cocktail perfect for summer evenings.

As expected, these recipes went down very well with my friends so I will definitely have to organise another cocktail night soon!

Some of the girls x

What are your favourite cocktails to make?

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Birthday time: Smile for the camera!

So it was my 19th birthday last week and I was EXTREMELY lucky to receive off my lovely parents a new bridge camera that I have been wanting for months, the Fujifilm Finepix HS50EXR. So finally my pictures will be of a better quality for you, hoorah!
After taking just a few shots I can tell that this camera is going to be my new best friend! Prior to my birthday I was unsure whether I wanted a DSLR or a bridge camera and after many recommendations it seemed that the bridge camera was most suitable for my requirements. The main difference between a DSLR and a bridge is that you can change the lenses on a DSLR for various types of zooms etc. but I can imagine I would be clueless when it comes to the different kinds of lenses and are more suited to photography professionals! This is where the bridge camera is perfect for me because it has great zoom qualities all in one lens therefore I don't have to faff around with changing lenses in a hurry and it will save me some expenses as well. Furthermore, a really good aspect of this bridge camera that not every bridge camera has is that the lens zoom on the bridge camera works manually so you can twist it so that its at the exact zoom you want up to 42x.

The Fujifilm also has a wide variety of settings depending on what type of photo you want to take, for example, panoramic, advanced filter, portrait, landscape and manual. I mainly wanted the camera for uni work because with doing fashion design I always need to take photos of peices of work and street style imagery to use as inspiration,but its evident that this camera will be appropriae for many other types of photography! So be sure to see some more photography in my upcoming blog posts.

If you are interested you can see a video tour of the camera by clicking here

Just so you can get an idea of the photo and zoom quality here are a few pictures I took at Swinsty reservoir the other day... 

Capturing a sun ray 

Can't believe I managed to capture this!

My mum thought these mushrooms looked like storm troopers haha!

Picturesque reservoir water

Are any of you keen photographers as well?

Do you have any tips for me?

Ell