1 down, 7 to go!

I've just come home from my first exam of the year which went quite well so I decided to do a quick blog post! 

- I hit 200 bloglovin' followers the other day which I'm so happy about, such a nice thing to have happen - I love that people are still reading my blog! 

- I've been quite ill for the last three days, pyjamas and flat lemonade have been my best friends.

- The only thought that has been getting me through revision is my plan to go to London the day after my exams finish...hurry up 18th June! 

- I bought a ticket to my secondary school's year 13 prom that I get to go to with my old friends and I'm so excited! My dress is so pretty and in the post! I should be getting it in the next couple of weeks so look out for that!

- I will be posting all of my 2014 Blogger Challenge posts that I've missed after exams, I'm going to try and make them extra special instead of rushing them and not really doing anything for them! 

- I haven't painted my nails for ages and it feels so weird. I just don't have the time to paint them at the moment sadly! 

Hope you guys enjoyed this little post, I hope to do a couple more as the month goes by - only 1 month and 2 days left until my exams are finished! 

Jess xx

My Nail Polish collection!

For this month's 2014 Blogger Challenge post, we have to write about something to do with nails and as I wrote a review of my favourite polish yesterday (well done Jess...very clever planning there...), I've decided to show you the rest of my collection!

Apart from lipsticks, nail polishes are my weakness and I own too many in my mum's eyes. As far as I'm concerned, they're all gorgeous and wearable colours that I will use over and over again when the occasion arises and they're all as necessary as each other!

From the top pink going clockwise: The Girls are Out, Naughty Nautical, Bahama Mama, Chinchilly,
Orange, It's Obvious, Tea and Crumpets, Mademoiselle, Ballet Slippers, To Buy or Not to Buy,
Mojito Madness, Muchi Muchi, Tart Deco, Turquoise et Caicos, Aruba Blue.

My most collected brand of  polish is Essie, of which I own 14. I got 6 from Fragrance Direct for Christmas at £1.99 each and the rest have been bought at Boots over the last year or so. The 3 for 2 offer they have has saved me a pretty penny in that time! The colour range available is gorgeous and I always get so confused when trying to cut down the colours I want to buy to three because I love nearly all of them! The quality of these polishes is second to none and they're easily my favourite in all areas. The consistency is amazing, colours great, application brilliant and it always looks professional as the colours are strong as opaque. Add a base/top coat and you have a long lasting set of gorgeous nails! 

The rest of my collection!
See below pictures for names.

Left to right: Prickly Pear, Blue Moon, Mint Green, Berry Ice Cream, Pomegranate.

I also have 5 Barry M colours, 2 of which are part of the Gelly range. Even though a lot of people swear by these, I don't like them as much. They have a really good colour range and the polishes are pretty, but I find that they chip really easily and the Gelly colours aren't actually that shiny once dry. I don't dislike them and if I looked I would still probably find a pretty colour and want to buy it, but compared to Essie, they just don't hold up to the same standard. 

Left to right: Double Decker Red, Tangy Tangerine, Diamond Dust,
Block Your Green, Marshmallow Heaven.

I also own 5 Rimmel polishes - 4 from the I heart lasting finish range and 1 from the precious stones range. I've only used one of these and I really liked it. Again, they chipped quite easily but I have a feeling that as I haven't used base or top coats with any but Essie, I'll need to test this theory again sometime soon and then see how they last! I've also used the precious stones polish as an accent nail and I thought it was really good! 

Left to right: Cosmic Crush, Black Cherry, Red Robin, Topaz.

As they are only £1.99 each, I bought 4 Natural Collection polishes which, for their price, aren't too bad! There is a limited range of colours but the two I have are pretty and chip in the same amount of time as the Barry M or Rimmel even though they are about double the price of the Natural Collection polishes!

Left: Miami.
Right: Peacock.

I also own two 17 polishes but I don't remember the last time I wore either of them! I really love the green colour, I actually accidentally bought it for a second time once because I didn't remember owning it! Luckily Boots gave me my money back!

Left to right: Vivid Violet, Pink Grapefruit, Elixir, Tangy.

In a box on my set of drawers, I found 4 No7 polishes, all of which apart from the orange one I don't remember buying as they're quite old! I think the burgundy shade was a present from someone but again, I'm not really sure.

Marilyn.

My only Jessica nail polish was a present from my parents for Christmas a few years back (as a joke because of the name I think!) and I only opened it a few months ago! It's really high quality and would have lasted longer with a base/top coat but the colour is gorgeous and it applied nicely - I definitely want to find more colours! It also has such a pretty name!

No name.

I bought this NYC polish years and years ago for a party and I haven't used it for about 4 years...I should probably throw this one out! I think I ended up just using it as a polish to do polka dots with when I was in year 9 or so as it was difficult to remove so I didn't coat my whole nail in it. I remember that it was also quite gloopy when I used it so it really should head to the bin...

Big Apple Red.

I got this free with Glamour magazine a while back and I love it. It's a Nails Inc/Kate Spade collab and you all know my obsession with Kate Spade so I had to pick one up! I'm quite sad that I didn't also get the silver one too because it was really pretty and they're also really good quality! Very shiny and bright! I might have to see if all Nails Inc polishes are the same!

All in One

Since I bought it a little while back, this All in One base/top coat has been my holy grail. It goes on smoothly and thinly, dries in an instant and produces the most amazing shine when used as a top coat. It also doubles up as a nail strengthener so it's pretty good! Last time I used it, I managed to peel my nail polish off instead of having to use nail polish remover which is also great because the chemicals in the remover didn't get to undo all of the good work the base had done! My current nails have been going almost a week with this on and they still haven't chipped so I think it speaks for itself!

I have no idea how many of these are actually still being sold because as I've said, some are quite old and I don't even remember where I got them from!
Hope you guys enjoyed this, it made me realise how many polishes I have!
Jess xx

Challenge post four.
Challenge post three. (with links to two and one!)

Instagram snapshots #1.

I don't use instagram as much as most people and only really put one or two pictures up a week, if that. As I've been doing stuff though, I've actually been using it quite a bit over the last week or so as it's been close to Christmas so I thought I would share some of my photos that haven't already featured here!

Essie's Muchi Muchi

Off to college!

Homemade meringue!
(Shaped this one myself, I was so proud!)

Chocolate mousse and salted caramel bauble!

Passed my theory! 1 step closer to driving!

I found vintage Ferragamo shoes in an antiques shop for £8.50! So sad that they were too thin for my feet :(

I hope you guys enjoyed this, I might keep doing these when I've posted more on instagram! 

You can follow me here. 

Jess xx

Adventure day with Imie!

Today, after absolutely ages of not seeing each other, I met up with my friend Imie and went for a shopping trip in Reading! She's currently at Uni so it's obviously been very difficult to meet up so this was a great time to catch up as we were both free for once!

We started off by having lunch at my favourite restaurant (if you can call it that...), Handmade Burger Co. where we proceeded to chat about life and take sneaky photos of each other, ending with each of us having a photo where we look pretty bored/unimpressed while we were caught off guard! 

I was looking at my phone...not asleep!

Imie concentrating on her drink...and still looking crazily pretty, it's just not fair!

I love the restaurant because it's like a fancy Nandos - quieter, better quality food and an insane selection of different toppings and types of burger! It only ended up being £10 each as well which was great, student cards are the best thing to happen to this world!

We then ended up going to House of Fraser and Imie ended up getting her first MAC lipstick and lipliner which brings my tally of people I've persuaded to buy one in the last month to three - I'm quite impressed with myself. After a look in Waterstones, New Look and Zara, we stopped off at Superdrug where I bought a base coat nail polish and Imie got some more make up - see her review post here. 

After a final stop off at Boots and a trip to Starbucks, we headed home. 

I had a great day and I can't wait to meet up with her again - I love seeing old friends that I'm still close with even after ages! 

Jess xx

P.S. Some of my older readers (pre-2014 Challenge) will recognise the dress - I featured it in my Things I've had my eye on recently post back in October! I bought it before I went to see Catching Fire the other day and I'm so so happy with it, it fits perfectly and it's a perfect dress for the colder months as it isn't too short and the sleeves and high neckline give an extra covering most dresses don't! It's from H! by Henry Holland at Debenhams for £38. I'll do a full-body shot when I have the time!

My Recent Make-Up buys

I don't have a lot of time to write out loads of reviews so I thought that I would do one mini review of each product and a swatch if I can (it's obviously quit difficult to do 2 nail polishes at once!) in one longer post!

Over the last couple of months, I've bought a fair bit of make up due to freebies in magazines, sales or just an impulse buy! 

My most recent pieces! 
From left clockwise: Body Collection maxi lipstick in Vixen, Rimmel Apocalips lip laquer in Nova,
Nails Inc/Kate Spade nail polish in Big Apple Red, Essie nail polish in Bahama Mama, Miners Matte Factor lip paint in Deep Read, Technic whipped foundation mousse in Natural, Benefit Coralista lip gloss, Soap and Glory Sexy Mother Pucker gloss stick in Raplumzel and Eyeko Skinny Mini liquid eyeliner in Black.

Body Collection maxi lipstick - Vixen

I bought this during my half term holiday in Norfolk at a Department store. I found some clearance bins and decided to have a rummage to see what I could find and picked up this! I'd never heard of the brand before but it was only £2 or something so it was worth the risk! It smells really plastic-y and I'm still not 100% sure on the colour, I think it's the wrong shade of red for me but who knows, I might grow to love it eventually! It isn't drying on the lips though and seems to last a decent amount of time.

Rimmel Apocalips lip laquer - Nova

I was so happy to find this in the same bargain bin for only £2.99 as opposed to the usual £6.49! The colour is quite nice but tends to cling to the dry patches on my lips which is annoying, I love the applicator though!

It's brighter in person!

Nails Inc/Kate Spade nail polish - Big Apple Red

This was a freebie with last month's issue of Glamour magazine and it's a gorgeous bright, festive red! I wore it a few weeks ago and it was so nice! The applicator isn't as nice as Essie's but it did the job with minimal skin painting! It lasted quite a long time before chipping which is always nice and I'm really happy I got this colour, it's completely perfect for this time of the year! I just wish I could go back and buy the silver one too, they would look so good together! Sadly they were only available with the magazine so too late now. I don't have a swatch because I didn't think to take a picture while I was wearing it (oops)!

Essie - Bahama Mama

I bought this specifically as a more muted colour to wear at my interview at Reading on wednesday and I'm completely in love! Essie never fail to disappoint! It's such a gorgeous plum colour that goes with everything - it's also great for this time of year as it adds a bit of colour but isn't too bright - almost like a neutral!

Miners Matte Factor lip paint - Deep Red

Another Norfolk buy, only £3.99 and usually only available online so I got really excited when I found this! This has been my go to lip product for the last few weeks or so! I absolutely love it and it reminds me of the Collection lip creams a lot - they even have the gorgeous vanilla cream scent! It goes on really smoothly and lasts for a good few hours! I love the colour too, it's darker than in the picture but is such a wearable colour! My favourite red lip product by quite a way I think! It will be great for this festive season, it matches my Crew fair isle jumper really well!

It's more red - this makes it look quite pink!

Technic whipped foundation mousse - Natural

I bought this in Norfolk for £3.99 as a stand in for my Max Factor whipped creme foundation sample that I was using (finally bought the full version and it's incredible!) and it was good for the price! Now I have my proper foundation, I don't know how much use it will get as it's more drying and clings to my dry patches more but it was good as a filler and matched my skin tone really well!

The colour of my face and hand differ quite a bit so while it looks orange here, it's actually the right colour for my face! (This swatch isn't blended in, it's easier to see the colour like this.)

Benefit lip gloss - Coralista
I got this as a freebie in the last issue of Elle magazine which was rather exciting, getting mini versions of more expensive brand products is always a good, it gives you the chance to see if the full price is worth it or not! Personally, I would never pay £14.50 for a lip gloss anyway but I don't really like this product as much as I thought I would. It is such a pretty colour and has a really lovely smell but the colour just disappeared when it was put on my lips. It makes my lips feel quite soft and it's not sticky but it's also quite drying and I catch myself rubbing my lips together more often than I would like. I'm not a huge fan of lip glosses anyway and this one hasn't changed my mind very much - give me a lipstick any day! It's a nice freebie but if I had the chance, I wouldn't buy it because it's vastly overpriced for something with the same quality I would expect from something half or a third of the price. This is definitely a case of paying for the name rather than the quality.

Soap and Glory Sexy Mother Pucker gloss stick - Raplumzel 

Now for the other side of the lip gloss spectrum. After picking up a gloss stick in Nudist with the Girl O Whirl gift set a few weeks back, I've been hooked on these crayon shaped beauties. I knew I had to buy more colours so I opted for Raplumzel, a deep plum colour. (It was also probably also influenced by the fact that there were only 4 left across the range and it was the only one not tampered with, but luckily that was the colour I wanted the most!) I LOVE this product. It goes on so smoothly, it's pretty much just colouring in your lips which is so satisfying! I love how it's in stick form because it makes application so much simpler and not feel like an actual lip gloss. The colour is great and it's so softening and moisturising, it also lasts quite a long time for a 'gloss', if you can call it that! This is definitely worth the money at £8.00 from Boots but probably the most I'll pay for a lip gloss. 

The colour is brighter and darker in person! 

 Eyeko Skinny Mini liquid eyeliner - Black

I am horrendous at doing liquid eyeliner so I always opt for pen versions as they are easier to use! I love this one from Eyeko as the pen is really thin so if you have a really steady hand and quite a bit of time to make sure it's perfect, you can do a subtle thin line that looks amazing! I wear this quite a bit and it doesn't budge throughout the day which is quite impressive because my eyes tend to water a lot in the cold weather. I got this as a freebie from Glamour magazine 2 issues ago and I will definitely be buying it again - a full sized version is £10 and comes in black, brown, purple and blue!

I apologise for the bad line as I find it quite difficult to do sometimes! The mascara I'm wearing is BadGal Lash from Benefit, a firm favourite of mine!

This post was significantly longer than I expected it to be but it was so much easier creating one post with little reviews as opposed to lots of smaller posts trying to come up with a decent length post about a product that I haven't got a lot to say about! I think if I recommended any of the products, they would be the Essie nail polish, Miners lip paint, Soap and glory gloss stick and eyeko eyeliner.

Let me know if you prefer this or individual posts! 

Jess xx

My favourite things - comforts.

I love writing lists of things, whether it's about books or songs I want to remember, or a list of things I want to buy. 

There are loads of little things in life that I love!

 1. Movie days
 2. Spending all day in my pjs
3. Good books that make me feel anything
4. Long train journeys
5. Big jumpers/cardigans
6. Spending time with my older (secondary school) friends
7. People saying they still read my blog after telling them about it ages ago
8. Watching Disney films wrapped up in my duvet
9. Reading magazines before going to bed
10. Getting into my lounge trousers after a day at college
11. Writing blog posts that I'm completely happy with
12. Listening to Ingrid Michaelson and Lisa Hannigan
13. Chocolate chip cookies
14. Shopping without looking for something specific
15. Watching my favourite TV shows
16. Scarves
17. Getting my nails painted
18. New stationery
19. Learning new things
20. Finding a new singer/songwriter who is really talented
21. Mint choc chip and cookie dough ice cream

Hope you guys enjoy! I might have to do some more lists because I liked writing this!
Jess xx

Birthday birthday birthday!!! Yay!

So it was my birthday on Wednesday and it was just perfect! I got some really lovely presents which were fabulous (pictures to come further down!) and I went out a couple of times!
I went to lunch at Maison Blanc, and it is literally my favourite restaurant/cafe ever. It's a tad expensive but SO worth it. Their cheese and ham crossaint is to die for. I also took away the cutest little Easter bunny cupcake, it was pink and strawberry flavoured and the icing sparkled! It tasted so good!

How adorable is that?! Shame that one of the feet broke in the box!

I also went out to tea with my family at a local (ish) restaurant and that was also fantastic! We go there on special occasions and I decided to have something different from the ribs this time (mainly because it wasn't on the menu), but I had belly pork instead which was divine, and it had some of the best crackling on it that I've had in a long time! 
Even though I knew about quite a few of my presents this year due to me picking out quite a few of them (Crew warehouse sales always have the nicest clothes but you always need to try them on just in case!), they were amazing! The presents I didn't know about were also great, my family and friends know just what to get me!

Navy & white cardigan from le parents, Crew warehouse sale.
Teal cardigan from my grandma, White Stuff.
Fan photo album and white pen from Lauren, Paperchase.
Navy star scarf from parents, Crew warehouse sale.
Fox scarf with button details from grandma, White Stuff.
Navy patterned scarf from Zoe and Cecilie, not sure where from!
Aren't they all gorgeous?!

I love that I got 3 new scarves, even more to add to my rapidly growing collection which makes me rather happy!
My auntie got me this Radley purse and I love it so much, it's unreal! it's made to look like a letter!

Absolutely love the address and the Radley dog on the stamp, so cute!

The stitching on the back is even done to make it look like a letter!

I went out driving at Mercedes Benz world yesterday and it actually went so well, I'm super happy! My provisional still hasn't shown up yet which is annoying but I'm quite glad that I still get to drive around on their road track instead of being on the road with proper drivers; I'd be too scared!
I did my extended project presentation on my birthday too which was so scary...I hate talking in front of people like that, I always mess up or sound really shaky! My teacher said I did pretty well though which is always good!
I got an email this morning (well, Thursday, but I only saw it today!) from the ceramics teacher at college that my pot has been fired! I get to collect it on Tuesday which is awesome!
On Friday, I went to Café Nero with my friend Katie and this guy I've seen around (new friendship acquired!) and she showed me a game called Happy Jump. It's honestly more addicting than Malteasers. It's like Doodle Jump but much more awesome because you're a JELLY. You collect coins to buy items for the jelly, you can even change to cupcakes or ice cream! There's even a Zombie jelly which is just awesome! It's just adorable. You have to avoid flies but the only way to kill them is to eat an apple and zoom through them with your added speed! It's probably going to turn in to my app that I turn to when I get bored! The best part is that it's free!

One of the most addictive games in existence...

Today is one of the few days that I've half taken off as a relaxation day. I did some work this morning when I actually got up...(accidentally missed breakfast because of this...oops!) and now I've had a long shower, taken my nail polish off, eaten some birthday chocolate from my grandma, browsed Pinterest and written a long overdue blog post! I'm going to paint my nails light blue in a bit too, it's either a cute Spring colour or a cold Winter colour so it fits with the stupid English weather at the moment which seems to be fluctuating between the two!

Best chocolate ever - thank you Grandma!

I'm going to a UCAS convention at Reading University with college which will be great fun! I get to sit through a talk about English at Uni (no intentions whatsoever of doing that but college forced me to go to one...so I picked the most interesting sounding one) and then one about Oxbridge which should be fun...kind of! I really want to go and talk to the reps of the Unis and get prospectuses though, that will be interesting!

I'm beyond happy that it's the Easter holidays on Friday, it'll be nice not having to wake up super early every day and then revising with a hot chocolate whilst sitting on my bed!
Jess xx

Mickey and Minnie

I did my classics timed exam practice homework today and afterwards when my hand was hurting, I decided to paint my nails because it gave my hands a rest!
I realised I had red and black so I decided to do Disney style nails and put the Mickey Mouse symbol on some of my nails! For the first time doing a design on my nails for a looooong time, I think they turned out pretty damn good!



I'm pretty proud of these!
Taken on Instagram

Next time I have a decent amount of money, I think I'm going to take a trip to boots and buy some White, Yellow, Grey and probably some more Black nail polish. (my black is enamel and its quite gloopy, not very good for anything apart from dots...shame because it's a good nail polish!)
If I get these colours I'm going to do this design again (It'll be ruined in the next few days because I'm rubbish at making nail polish stay on...) and on the currently plain nails, I'm going to do a yellow bow in the middle and then little white spots on them! Mickey and Minnie nails! I love painting my nails but I haven't really done designs...plus I only have bobby pins and cocktail sticks so I can't do any amazing designs...I can improve with practice though!

It's my brother's birthday tomorrow so that will be fun! We're going out for a meal so I'm excited!
Jess xx