Philosophy for christmas

I always read about the delicious sounding philosophy gift sets. Especially the Christmas ones! I've not yet had the chance to try some, but as soon as I can get my grabby hands on some I'll be reviewing them. Gingerbread man sounds scrummy. I adore ginger. nomnomnom.

Oh Origins, how I miss you

I remember when Origins use to sell their full makeup range in this country (UK) and I LOVED it. Three of my favourite make up products ever are from Origins.

Unfortunately only one is available in this country now. The FANTASTIC "Pinch your cheeks" is a beautiful sheer buildable blush stain. Just beautiful. Please. Please don't discontinue this one Origins!!!

Another favourite was their powder foundation. Best part for me was that they actually stocked shades that those of us with milky skin could actually wear without looking like we'd been tangoed.

The third, and now sadly, discontinued product. Was "Bite your lips" a sheer flush stain in a sleek metal tube. My favourite shade was "raspberry". Clinique "Black Honey" almost lipstick is the closest I've found to it, but nothing can replace this for me. Please bring it back!

Teaching

1. You can hear 25 voices behind you and know exactly which one belongs to the child out of line.
2. You get a secret thrill out of laminating something.
3. You walk into a store and hear the words "It's Ms/Mr.> _________" and know you have been spotted.
4. You have 25 people that accidentally call you Mom/Dad at one time or another.
5. You can eat a multi-course meal in under twenty minutes.
6. You've trained yourself to go to the bathroom at two distinct times of the day: lunch and planning period.
7. You start saving other people's trash, because most likely, you can use that toilet paper tube or plastic butter tub for something in the classroom.
8. You believe the teachers' lounge should be equipped with a margarita machine.
9. You want to slap the next person who says "Must be nice to work 8 to 3 and have summers off."
10. You believe chocolate is a food group.
11. You can tell if it's a full moon without ever looking outside.
12. You believe that unspeakable evils will befall you if anyone says "Boy, the kids sure are mellow today."
13. You feel the urge to talk to strange children and correct their behavior when you are out in public.
14. You believe in aerial spraying of Ritalin.
15. You think caffeine should be available in intravenous form.
16. You spend more money on school stuff than you do on your own needs.
17. You can't pass the school supply aisle without getting at least five items!
18. You ask your friends if the left hand turn he just made was a "good choice or a bad choice."
19. You find true beauty in a can full of perfectly sharpened pencils
20. You are secretly addicted to hand sanitizer and finally,
21. You understand instantaneously why a child behaves a certain way after meeting his or her parents.

Illamasqua Prism review compared to China Glaze Rainbow

Prism and China Glaze Rainbow

I finally got my hands on Illamasqua prism several weeks ago now, but the demands of my PGCE (that is getting up at 5.30 and home at 8pm) mean that I get about an hour awake in my own house every day and that's if I'm lucky. That hour is spent showering, eating dinner and packing things for the next day.

Now that i've managed to grab a moment to upload one of the many reviews i've got stacked up in my folder I'm pleased to show you PRISM.

The application is smooth. One coat is shown below with no cleanup. Where possible I like to use one coat, it dries fast and gives a natural polished look. I do this with all polishes. With Prism I can do it without streaks at all.  I did eventually layer three coats to see what it looked like, it was stunning. Unfortunately then I did the washing up and it started to peel off at the corners. Not quite sure why that happened, I think it's my nails rather than the polish.

Prism is very blue toned, whereas China Glaze Rainbow is very very pink. Both colours other than that have a very similar effect to them, but Prism dries quickly and to a glossier finish. Rainbow is a lovely pretty colour but takes an age to dry and I smudged it into my duvet last night so no photo. On a similar note, does anyone else find that some polishes seem to take forever to dry, but the minute you smudge it into something and spoil the finish it sets INSTANTANEOUSLY in the new horrible smudgyness giving you no hope of smoothing it out. >:[

In short, Prism is stunning. The colour is beautiful, drying time is fast, application smooth. The only thing I can fault is the brush because I love the new style wide ones SOSO much. Buy prism. And Rainbow. They're both fabulous. Great wedding colours too.

I mean to layer prism over a white polish to see if I can get a nice snowy effect so look out for that soon!

Stubbystubbystubby nails. They're back to normal length now.

Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells!

Christmas is coming! Hoorah!

If you're anything like me, you'll already know at least 15 things that you want for Christmas, heehee! I've done most of my Christmas shopping already and I feel super organised this year! I figured if I start early it will be less of a financial burden come December. Fingers crossed anyway. I always end up feeling like I haven't bought people enough when I buy the gifts early and probably spend twice as much. Duh!

Browsing my favourite beauty blog lipglossiping.com I came across this little box of goodness. Link to Lipglossiping where I found it.

Yes, your eyes aren't lying to you, that is indeed an advent calender filled with beauty goodies. I was actually expecting it to cost a lot more than £60 so I'm quite pleasantly surprised. Of course, I still can't afford it, but that's life!

If you fancy investing in this treat Selfridges is the place to go.

New do & Soap and Glory love.

Last weekend I finally got a hair cut, after months of agonising over it and wondering what to get, Sammi convinced me to go for a Christina Hendricks - esque (though obviously I don't look anywhere near as GODDESS like as her) style and I was absolutely thrilled with the result.

Fringe ^_^

Whaddaya think? I love it, it is a big difference from my usual, straight and boring style and I haven't had any sort of a fringe for absolutely donkey's years! (... Not that I know how long a donkey's year would be...)

Of course, after having this overhaul of my hair, I decided to treat it to something new and as luck would have it, Soap and Glory had *just* released their new Shampoo and Conditioner, clearly a sign from the beauty gods that I should offer these up as a tribute to my gorgeous new do.

And boy what a tribute! As expected they smell fabulous and compliment each other very nicely, the shampoo lathers up wonderfully and rinses clean, the conditioner requires a bit of working through from the roots to tips (as recommended on the bottle) and it is well worth it to really get to full benefit. This was my hair after blowdrying;

*poseposepose*

See how bouncey ^^ I was very impressed with the volume and shine;

Check out that shine

Please excuse the emo looking pose, but check out all that shine! Wowza! And just for a finishing touch, this is how it looked after being straightened;


Check that out, frsrs, LOOKIT! I am going to give Soap and Glory, Shampoo and Conditioner full marks! If you want to try these out I'd rush to boots RIGHT NOW as they're having a 3 for 2 on all Soap and Glory products and these hair products are going fast. (for the third product I would recommend their hair mask, i will be reviewing it next as I am even more impressed with it)

Til next time!

Ciate Mistress, Silhouette and White Chocolate Scented Polish Remover

Hello all!

Apologies for my lack of posting for a while, being back at work has thrown me off a bit! But I am here again with a brand, spanking new review! Huzzah!

I recently gave in to temptation and bought two gorgeous red shades from Ciate; Mistress and Sihouette. I also treated myself to their white chocolate scented polish remover, in the hopes of repairing and treating mine and Sammi's poor dried out nails to something a bit fancier. And boy, did this remover deliver!

Not only did our nails feel genuinely nourished, clean and smooth after removing our polish but after it dried our hands smelt good enough to eat! At £14 for the 250ml bottle I would say it is a fair price. It has helped my nails no end!

Now, onto the polishes!

Silhouette, a pearly red with gold shimmer

Isn't it gorgeous? Silhouette is a wonderful colour and has fantastic staying power, lasted 3 days with no chipping and minimal tip wear, smashing.

Mistress, I'll admit it, the name swayed me to get this particular red

I haven't worn this beauty as of yet, however one of my friends was taken with the shade and she wore it, it lasted through 4 days, 2 of which were waitressing days! She also said it went on easy, no streaks and only required one coat for an opaque colour.

So all in all Ciate has proved themselves as premium as they claim! However at £9 a pot I will be selecting my purchases rather carefully! Still I highly recommend Ciate, if you want to treat yourself or have enough dollah :)