NOTD: With Envy...

I've not painted my nails in so long!  They were really nice but then they all split and broke and became a mess!  Never mind, they will grow back.  They're still not very good and I've been quite lazy with them but I decided to paint them anyway.  I was so lucky and won Rebekah at It's A Kind Of Lovely's giveaway and got Topshop Hidden Treasure nail varnish, then I used Hat Trick as an accent.  In real life Hat Trick does not look that bright the flash seems to have really brought it out!  It shows up much more of a similar colour to Hidden Treasure and just gives it a bit of sparkle.

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Neve Cosmetics: French Royalty Collection Swatches

Neve Cosmetics are an Italian, cruelty free brand.  All the products are vegetarian and the majority are vegan.  They have a really nice collection of loose and pressed mineral eyeshadows and blushers which can be used wet and dry.

Their most recent collection is called French Royalty and is inspired by the ostentatious pomp of the French courts of the 1700s with a realm of precious stones and metals.  All of the products in this collection are vegan and it is made up of 4 eyeshadows, 2 blushers and 2 eye pencils.

You can buy Neve Cosmetics from cutECOsmetics and they have very kindly sent me the eyeshadows and blushers to try out and share with you!

Before we go onto the swatches I just feel I need to warn you about my gross, veiny hands hahah so enjoy that...

Mineral Blush

Noblesse is "pink brick with lilac satin".  I really love this one and have been wearing it quite a lot recently!

Boudoir is a "light peach pink with delicate mauve satin".  I haven't tried this one on my face yet as I tend to avoid pinks for some reason but I think the blue/purple duo chrome gives it a really unusual edge.

These are safe for use on lips and the full size (4g) costs £10.50.  [link]

Chateau Mineral Eyeshadow

Chateau is a "duo chrome brown with hints of mauve and pistachio green".  Swatched, this one looks quite similar to Mac Club or Urban Decay Lounge - see here.

Sang Bleu Mineral Eyeshadow

Sang Bleu is a "duo chrome with purple and blue highlights".  This is a really pretty colour both wet and dry, but wet it is so bold!

Versailles Mineral Eyeshadow

Versailles is a "bright and shiny gold with amber undertones".  This one applied like a dream!  There is not much difference between wet and dry except I think that the wet brings out the yellow/gold colours more.

Collier Mineral Eyeshadow

Collier is "silver with a light grey base, with slight blue satin sheet and glitter".  This one really comes alive when wet, all the colours are hugely magnified!

The full size pot (2g) costs £6.50. [link]

I will do a couple of eye makeup looks using these shadows later on, so look out for those :)

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Louise Loves #6

This week has been rather stressful as my first two portfolios were to be handed in on Tuesday!  We had a bit of a panic as the printer broke, and then ran out of ink the night before it was due and I hadn't printed it out yet... yes very disorganised, I know haha!

Pritt Stick Glue in Pink

This was the only one they had, I swear!!  I've not used glue since about 5th year when I did Higher Art!  This thing has been very handy especially on Tuesday morning when I was cutting and gluing about 45 minutes before I needed to leave for college!  I also used this to cover my eyebrows when I did a Hallowe'en makeup practice, but I didn't bother doing it on the actual night.

Rory the Kitten!

A week ago this little bundle of fluff (and claws and teeth!) moved in with us.  Although he is very bitey and scratchy, and isn't quite litter trained yet, there is nothing cuter than a tiny little kitten cuddling up to you and purring away!

Gym Class Membership

Last week my friend and I decided to join our local gym as they do unlimited classes for £25/month and it covers 3 of the leisure centres in our area.  So far we have been to Hips, Bums & Tums, Boxercise and Kettlercise!  My favourite was definitely Boxercise, it was so fun!  I also want to go to yoga as I've not done it since the 8 week block I did a while ago.  Ideally I'd like to go to three classes a week, one being yoga, but life gets in the way!  This week we only managed one, never mind!

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Introducing My Cats: Rory

This is Rory, our newest addition to the family!  If you follow me on twitter you will know that sadly Hugo went missing a few months ago so we were back to 3 cats.  So we decided now would be a good time to get a kitten.

Years ago we had a ginger cat called Oscar who was a stray that had been caught in some sort of trap; we managed to lure him in and got him to the vet to get him all fixed up.  He was in such a bad way, missing toes and he had somehow lost the ability to purr which was really sad!  However he soon healed up and was such a lovely cat.  He happily spent the rest of his life with us!

Oscar!

Ever since my mum has really wanted a ginger cat.  We needed to get a kitten as an adult cat would be too difficult to integrate with the other 3 cats (like the troubles we had with Hugo!).  Last week my dad saw an advert in our local pet shop for a woman selling kittens - one of which was ginger!  That night we went up to see them, and then the following night we took him home!

Currently he is about 8 and a half weeks old, awwww!  Although we have had lots of kittens in the past, you forget what they are like.  We are all covered in bites and scratches; and he wasn't litter trained - so that caused some messes!  He sleeps in bed with us otherwise he gets lonely and cries, so we alternate, one night with me, then the next with my parents haha!

If you would be interested I could do a post on him every month or so to show him growing up :)

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My Hair Since 2010!

Warning: A lot of these photos will have been captured 'under the influence' :P

As my auntie is a hair stylist she had always done my hair since I was little!  However she decided to stop doing friends and family as it was getting too much for her out with her full time job as a lecturer!  I felt a new sense of freedom and went a bit crazy with it...  My hair was blonde as a child but it got darker and darker so now it is just a very boring light brown colour!

Here is a photo of me with my natural hair colour (I think!)!  Taken in London shortly after I got chickenpox - hence the marks on my face!  And no, that is not a real tattoo!

So at the end of 2010 I went to a hairdressers and got my hair dyed auburn.  I was a bit nervous about it so I went for a very natural colour to begin with.

I think this is the only photo I have (other than a few more from the wedding) of my hair this colour.  This was taken at my cousin's wedding, and I am with my other cousin Neil, his wife Melanie and their son Ethan!

The next photos I have are from a night out in March 2011, where my hair seems to be a sort of brown colour, not sure if I did this or it had just faded from the hairdressers!

Then I dyed it to this more of a dark red colour which I really liked!

Which faded to this...

So far so good!  Until for some reason around June 2011 I decided that I wanted to go blonde.... red + bleach = orange!  It doesn't actually look as bad in photos I have to say...

Because my roots were fresh undyed hair, they took on the blonde and bleached it but it took two packs of dye to get the ends lighter - they were still a lot darker than the top.  I liked to call it reverse ombré.

In the end I decided I'd need to go to a hairdressers to try and get it fixed!  I hadn't had it cut since the previous November.  She chopped probably about half of it off and tried to get the colour a bit more even...

At the time I did like it, and it did feel a lot healthier however as soon as roots started to show I hated it.  It was too much up keep and I didn't like how short it was!  I went back to that hairdresser to get my roots redone but after that I gave up.

I went back to my auntie in desperation!  I don't think I actually have any photos of it sadly.  She made it a light brown with lots of different highlights in it and it was really nice, lot more natural!  The only photo I do have is of it up at my friend's wedding in February 2012, but the roots have come through quite a lot!

I let it grow out a little bit more then dyed it with a semi-permanent colour which was pretty much my natural colour.

Don't even ask!

I was happy with this so when it faded I was going to do it again but I saw a slightly darker one and went for that - however it made my hair purple!  I don't have a decent picture of this but you can kind of see it in this one!  Bad times...

Again, it faded and that brings us up to date!  My hair is now almost back to normal except the ends are lighter and there's still traces of red and purple throughout!  Here is a recent photo from my trip to Harry Potter Studios last month:

My plan is to try and get it back to its natural colour and start with a clean slate!  I think I'd like to go slightly lighter, a sort of caramel-y colour but no doubt I'll change my mind!

What do you think, have you got any hair disaster stories?
What colour do you think I suit best??

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Denman Tangle Tamer

I had been wanting to buy a Tangle Teezer for a while now as my hair is getting ridiculously tangly, especially at the back at my neck.  Literally, if I don't brush it for about 12 hours it starts turning itself into a dreadlock - nightmare!  However, I read Leanne Marie's review of the Tangle Tamer comparing it to the Tangle Teezer, and as it was cheaper I decided to go out and get it!  As I've never tried the Teezer this will simply be my thoughts on the Tamer with no comparison.

£6.20 from Boots

I still use the same technique as I do with my normal brush - yes I have a technique hahah.  So I split my hair in two (like bunchies), then taking one at a time I hold it at the bottom and brush, and repeat moving my hand up slightly until I get to my head, then just brush for my parting down.  I know this sounds really weird and complicated but as my hair is long, thick and gets very tuggy, this reduces pain and breakage :)

When using this method with a normal brush although it is less painful than normal brushing it can still hurt, but with the Tangle Tamer it is much less sore.  There was only once when I felt like it nipped a bit but this was when I first got it and I think I was being a bit rough!  So I will say it's not impossible for it to hurt!  Since then the worst I've felt is just pressure around where the tugs are.

I have found that it does work to de-tangle well but sometimes I feel like because the bristles are so soft it misses some bits underneath so I need to really push it in hard or tip my head upside down.  Another negative is that it can make my hair a bit static but it doesn't last too long.

It also works well on wet hair, I roughly blow-dried my hair using this brush and I found that it gave me a really nice smooth finish!

I would still like to try a Tangle Teezer just out of curiosity but I feel like it would go flying as it doesn't have a handle!

Has anyone tried both?  Do you have a preference?

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Hallowe'en 2012: 20s Flapper Girl

This is a very late Hallowe'en post just to show you what I wore!  I went out on the actual day which was last Wednesday, and we went to a club in Glasgow city centre.

I already had the costume as I wore it the last time I went out, which was 3 years ago when I was in 1st year at uni!  Unfortunately that time apparently I swapped my head band for a red indian one (no idea...) so I was going to make one but I just ran out of time!

I was also late as usual so I don't have any full length photos sadly but here is one of my make up and a couple from in the club!

I was going to try and finger wave my hair but there were so many things which could go wrong as I hadn't tried it!  However Rebekah (The Black Swan above!) very kindly offered to let me borrow her waving tongs which give the same sort of effect but with minimal effort!

I wore Illamasqua Skin Base Foundation in Shade 2 then on my eyes an old ELF brown cream eyeliner (which I binned after as it was soo dried out!) and a matte black shadow on the top and blended out.  I tried to make my eyebrows thinner as 20s girls tended to have quite thin, curved brows.  On my lips I wore Avon Ultra Colour Rich 24k Gold in Golden Wine (not CF) but only applied to the centre of the lips to make them look very round.  I also used Laguna to add some colour to the back of the cheeks.

This make up is not particularly flattering as you can see in the photos but I think (hope) it reflects the 20s era quite accurately :)

What did you dress up as?

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Louise Loves #5

I totally forgot to do this last week, OOPS!  I knew that would happen haha, never mind.  Anywayy here are some favourite bits from this week :)

Phone Cover

I got this phone cover from eBay, it's so cute!  It also comes a few different pastel colours too but I went for the mint green one.  I don't think it will last very long though as the lace is real and will probably fray and get dirty.  I've already had to cut some bits off and seal the edges with clear nail polish!  The wee flower is also from eBay if you just search for 'dust plug', I think it cost £1.29.
[£2.99 from this seller]

Pretty Little Liars Book Series

I love the TV series and I was quite curious about the books as some of my friends have read them.  Instead of buying them I've been getting them from my local library as they are £4.99 each and there's about 11 of them!  I have just finished book 7 and it is starting to get really interesting - yes it took 6 books haha.  It is different from the TV series which can get very confusing if I watch an episode one day then I'm reading the book later!  They have actually killed off or cut out half the current TV cast!

Kit Bag

The bag I was using was getting too small so I bought a bucket bag which is a cheap alternative to the professional Charles Fox or Wigs Up North bags.  It came to just under £20 including P&P.  It's really nice and spacious and has little pockets all the round the outside - which does make me slightly paranoid about people stealing stuff from it!

Inside I have two clear bags, one for skincare, one for my palettes; another bag for tools such as sponges, spatulas, spoolies (lots of ssssss!!); my brush belt and then a few loose items which don't fit in the pockets.  The only thing is that the strap is squint... like it's been stitched on the wrong way??  I'm not sure if there's anything I can do about it, might try email the seller and see what they say.
[£16.80 from this seller]

~

If anyone is interested I could do a post on what I have in my kit at the moment but unfortunately as the college basically forced us into buying Bobbi Brown the majority of it isn't cruelty free, however I have added in a few bits of my own.

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