Its all about the accessories darling....

Even though I am completely obsessed with fashion and beauty, I find that on here I very rarely mention items of jewellery which I constantly reach for. Yeah you might see them on the occasional outfit of the day post but I really never mention what items I've bought or seen in magazines which I want.

So in a more conscious effort to blog about accessories I thought that today I would share with you all my most reached for pieces of jewellery. Normally I buy my rings from Primark due to my HUGE man hands, and I can't recommend Asos high enough for their bracelets. On a side note if you are wanting stacking bracelets and little dinky bracelets ready for the summer you need to get on Asos now. Also another little tip is that if you want more bling/sparkly bracelets/necklaces/cocktail rings your best bet is to always stock up in Winter.

Onto my favourites-

Necklaces

Aqua Beaded Rope Necklace- Topshop

House of Harlow esq- Ebay (via VIPXO Ebay posts).

Multi Coloured beads- River Island via ebay (I snapped my first one and got a replacement from ebay).

Rings.

Panther, Aqua Cocktail Ring- both Primark.

Love and Bow rings- Dorothy Perkins.

Bracelets.

Love- Asos.

Skulls- Topshop.

Ghetto gold chunky cuff- Topshop.

Links of London bracelet.

Link me up to your accessories posts xx

Primark Spring Picks

Spring is most definately in the air today- how lush has the weather been?? 16 degrees here in sunny Durham- shame I've been stuck in the office all day :( Anyway following on from last weeks (or was it the week before) post on Primark's Spring 2012 campaign images, I thought I would share with you what items I am hopefully going to get my mits on.

All items should be in stock now unless noted.

Top- Chain chiffon bow sandal (£6), tan spotty dress (£13), coral colour block midi (£17).

Bottom- Orange jersey maxi, blue sleeveless dress with yellow belt (£13), tribal maxi dress (£13 end March), contrast orange blazer (£24)

Out of these I definately need the sandals, tan spotty dress and the tribal maxi dress in my wardrobe ready for holidays this year. Oh and the price of the blazer isn't a typo, its definately £24. You could get a cheaper blazer from Boohoo, H+M and Missguided.

Oooo I've just realised its Payday tomorrow... and I'm shopping on Saturday with Steph....my poor debit card ;)

The Bad Gels...

If you read my initial posts about gel nails* (here) you will recall me saying that I was going to be getting them done again ready for my birthday night out in Leeds at the back end of January (27th). Oh how disappointed with them I have been for the last few weeks. Due to the lack of colours in general which was available I decided on having black nails- what a mistake that was. I should have known that my nails were going to look a mess as when they’re were curing under the UV light you could see that they were opaque in places. Also this time the technician didn’t bother using a proper gel topcoat, she just used a normal nail polish.

27th January.

As you can see the nail polish is uneven and the polish hasn't gone down the the nail bed- really not a happy chappy at all. Also you can see how opaque some of the nails are.

3rd February- Left hand, Right hand.

One week on and there is no fading of the polish colour, or any tip wear. I did manage to chip my index finger of my right hand- however this was due to my natural nail below splitting. However as you can see on the (blurry) picture below it wasn't that noticeable. I didn't bother touching it up.

Note how uneven the polish is at the sides.

10th February.

As you can see there is no further chips on my nails- however the regrowth is starting to look terrible.

16th February.

Ignore the notepad in the background- I took these pictures as I was waiting for my computer to load up at work. As you can see my middle finger on my left hand the gel has peeled right off. Luckily there was no damage to my natural nail underneath, and the nail itself was very smooth- I’m thanking the Mavala Scientifique for that. By this time I was more than ready to get this colour off my nails. I think by not going to right to the cuticle when she's put the gel on it gives the illusion that my nails are longer than they actually are.

Compared to my last set of gels I have to admit I am impressed by the lack of chipping over the 2-3 weeks however the opaqueness/patchiness of the colour has really made me detest this colour on my nails. I’ve since gotten cnd shellac on my nails and oh my goodness- its fantastic- I’ve definitely converted to this.

Did you know that OPI have brought their own version of gel nail polish out in their most popular colours?

I’ve got blog button availability for March- if you want your blog button advertising (its free) either comment below or on the previous post- its first come first served.

*- I’ve marked this as I did receive some discount as its my cousins hair/beauty salon and I always get discount on my hair.

Blog Buttons- March

Just a quick post to say that there are spaces for March's blog buttons in the sidebar. As always it's free and if your interested leave me a comment below or tweet me (@RayWhoisShe). I'm definitely getting old- worlds worst hangover EVER

R-R-R-RayBox

Oh so its that time of the month when the Beauty Boxes are starting to do their rounds on the blogs… we both know there is one type of box which is highly superior to all beauty boxes…

RAYBOX

Yes I know I said last month that I doubted RayBox would be here this month, however after deciding not to buy Redhead MSF from the Naturally Collection I thought I would use my money more wisely and pick up some essentials which I desperately needed. Its all about saving some coin.

As a special one off treat for this month I decided to use the amount the MSF would cost as my budget £20.50. Should we see what treats the RayBox has magically picked out for me??

17 Wild Curls Mascara

17 Miracle Matte Foundation (Fair)

17 Photo Flawless Foundation (Fair)

Total- £13 approx (3 for 2 on offer in Boots).

You know how much I love this mascara, its been featured in my monthly favourites so many times, and the RayBox knew this and got me one. However as you may have clicked on (its not a typo) both shades of the foundation is “Fair” as you can see from the bottle are they heck both “fair”. I would say the Matte foundation is more suited to be without a tan so NW20, and the Photo Flawless looks like it would be my colouring with fake tan on NW25 (I’ll be testing this out tomorrow night).

Fake Tanning Mitt Superdrug £2.19 (on offer).

Self explanatory really- personally I prefer Boots Soltan tanning mitt, however this is my alternative to use. Quick tip for you- never use the £1 tanning mitt from Primark- it does the reverse- takes your tan off instead of putting it on. Horrible, like rubbing sandpaper on yourself.

Now in most beauty boxes you get samples of perfumes, which in all fairness you could ask at the counter for… RayBox goes that one step further and actually gives you a FULL SIZED BOTTLE of perfume.

£2.99 Home Bargains

Now in all fairness it does smell rather sweet, something which a charver would probably wear- however its cheap and cheerful, smells nice and its good enough for work. Plus for £2.99 you can’t be robbed.

Total- £18.18

Brilliant value you have to admit... full sized products all for less than £20.

Have you subscribed to the RayBox yet??

VB ID

Victoria Beckham for ID magazine.

Simply stunning.

(all images via google)

False Eyelash Collection and a Revelation

I’ve never really seen many posts on people’s blogs about false eyelashes, so I thought today I would share with you my false eyelash collection. I never thought I actually owned that many pairs of false eyelashes until I had a mini clear out recently. I think it’s probably due to the fact that every time I go to Boots or Superdrug and I see them on offer I normally pick up a pair and lo and behold they soon add up.

So my collection as it stands

Kiss Eyelashes x2 (currently 79p in Home Bargains), Eylure 115 (double pack).

Primark Very Fluttering, Eylure 107.

Ebay Lashes (no 28), Illamasqua (17 top, and 21 bottom)*

Eylure Girls Aloud Kimberly (top) and Sarah (below), Sally's Naturalash in 107 and Eylure 107.

Here's a tip Drew Ashlyn told me at the Illamasqua store opening- double up your lashes in the corners with what you have trimmed off for a dramatic effect on a night out (hence the loose pieces in the box).

Now onto the revelation..

I can't put false lashes on, no matter how hard I try/follow YT videos etc- they will not work. I never wear them for nights out, only once in a blue moon if Steph or JEM puts them on for me. Its basically a glorifed waste of my money.

If anyone has any tips or links to videos on youtube, please let me know.

* I recieved the Illamasqua 17 lashes in a goodybag at an event, and the number 21 lashes were bought with 15% discount at the same event.

Mac Eyeshadow Collection (Part 2)

*warning- picture heavy*

Today’s post is the second in my Mac eyeshadow collection- all my loose shadows (part 1 click here). I think when it comes to eyeshadows these two posts have made me looks like I’m a Mac snob but I do love how pigmented their shades are and how long lasting they are. However on the other hand I am obsessed with my Sleek Storm palette at the moment, and I’m currently eyeing up the MUA Heaven and Earth palette for when I’ve used my Sleek palette up.

Anyway the reason why I won’t depot these (except Blackberry and Shadow Lady) is purely due to the fact that these ones I would use on nights out for touch ups. Plus if I got another 15 pan palette to put these in, I’d end up buying more eyeshadows. If you are a regular reader of the blog, you will know that Typographic is my all time favourite eyeshadow, and All that Glitters and Haux are firm favourites too. Haux is one of those Mac colours which I feel are over looked, however I strongly urge you to swatch this next time your at a Mac counter or even better buy it.

Onto the shadows..

Left-Right- Print, Shadow Lady, Copperplate.

Swatches-

My favourites-

Left-Right- Haux, Typographic, All That Glitters.

Swatches-

The unloved ones-

Blackberry, Rare Find (Mineralize).

Swatches-

Hope these posts have been useful to you- I may be tempted to do my Mac lipsticks next?? Let me know what you think.

Urgh

Sometimes there’s nothing better on a weekend then throwing on a baggy tee and jeans and slobbing with Steph watching Take Me Out and putting the world to rights. I’m not going to beat around the bush here, but these pictures are the best of a bad bunch and the baggy clothes make me look a right chunky monkey, but do I care- no.

The lipstick I’m wearing in the picture is one of MUA new lipsticks- Nectar aka the Ever Hip/Cut a Caper/Barry M 147 £1 dupe. I have to admit I really prefer this colour to BM 147, and its very moisturising on the lips. Anyway I could chat all day about these lipsticks, but I’m going to save them for another post.

Back to the point of this post- I also got this House of Harlow esq necklace from ebay for an entire £2 (including p+p), thanks to Victoria’s fab ebay posts (definitely check these out every Sunday). The necklace took 3-4 weeks to arrive however this was right before Christmas so I doubt it would take as long. Its identical to the original version- really recommend this.

Jeans- Levis (mens)

Tee- Topshop (white version currently online)

Necklace- ebay

Lipstick- MUA Nectar

Glasses- RayBan

Better look at the lipstick and necklace.

As you can see the blog is in the middle of a bit of a revamp. Still not entirely convinced about the 3 columns, think it'll be going back to two whenever I can be bothered to get on the laptop. I should be in the gym when your reading this post- going 5 times this week, ready for the disco pants outing at the weekend (which I'm dreading).

Enrapture Encode Totem Styler Review

Many of you will be aware that Enrapture styling tools has established a bit of a cult following in particular their Hot Rollers and Totem Styler. Just before Christmas I was sent the Encode Totem Styler* to review and I've wanted to throughly test this out before providing any opinons. If you are a regular reader of the blog you will notice that for nights out 99% of the time my hair is curled- normally with either a Babyliss tong or my Babyliss hot rollers. I've decided that in this review I will be comparing this against my hot rollers/tongs.

First up the packaging- it screams high end.

It reminds me of how GHDs are packaged- you know that they're not going to get damaged when your not using them. Personally I keep my styling tools in their boxes, and this doesn't take up much space in my wardrobe.

What sets the totem styler apart from other curling wands/tongs is theirthree independent heat zones which can be set to different temperates (140-210 degrees- 1-3) depending on how tight you want your curls. Setting 1 is for loose curls, 2 for normal, and 3 for tight curls. Now a word of warning- setting 3 is VERY hot, and I haven't been using this setting on my hair. However I have been using this on my hair extensions and I've found that the only difference between setting 2 and 3 is the length of time taken to produce a curl (3 taking less time)- the tightness of the curl is exactly the same.

You can use any combination you want. Normally with my Babyliss products I have to leave them at least a good 10-15 mins to heat up to my desired temperature, however with this it took no more than 3 minutes. My babyliss tong weighs a ton in comparison to the totem styler- its really lightweight, and doesn't hurt your arm after so long if it takes you longer to curl your hair.

My friend Michelle has the type of hair which curls fall straight out of (thin and fine) and Holly's has exactly the same problem with her hair (but her's is thick), and I wanted to see how the styler worked on both of these types of hair. Unfortuately I haven't had a chance to see Holly properly for her to try this out, however I did try this on Michelle's hair before she went out on her works Christmas do.

I curled her hair at 10am using the setting 1-2-2 (1 being the top of her hair and 2 the bottom), with her hair extensions in and finished with some hairspray. I joined Michelle out on the night at 8.30pm and guess what the curls were still intact, even though they had dropped to a loose wave, she had curls in her hair. Michelle has since bought herself one as she is calling it her HG styling tool.

Since recieving this I have stopped using my hot rollers (bar my birthday night out) to curl my hair. I only use rollers on my crown for volume, the rest of my curls are thanks to the totem styler. Personally for me the combo 1-1-2 for the back of my hair, and 2-2-2 for the front of my hair (purely as I have shorter layers). Is what I have used to achieve the looks below.

The reason why I use 2-2-2 on the front of my hair is that is my problem area (ie the curls drop quicker), and by using this it drops to a fab loose wave. The first picture is how my hair normally drops to on a night, and the second picture is how it looks straight after its done. I'm sold by it!!

Enrapture Totem Styler is avaliable from Argos for £74.99.

Step into Spring with Primark

As I'm in the mood for a major Primark spending spree tomorrow with my Treacle Muccy (even though I'm skint). I thought I would share with you some of my favourite promo images for the current season. Fingers crossed Newcastle will already have most of these items in stock, as I am currently obsessing over the Miu Miu esq sheer shirts and bright colour pop dresses.

Left-Right.

Green Shirt Dress £17.

Contrast Tipped Sheer Blouse £10, Turqouise Belted Trouser £12, Bag £6 (in stores March). 

LE Maxi Dress £20, Wedges £16 (in store March).

Left-Right.

Bird Print Shift Dress £13.

Sheer Floral Blouse £10,  Coral Belted Trouser £12, Court Shoes £10.

Left-Right.

Floral Dress £17, Rope Belt £2, Bag £8.

Colour Block Shift £17. (Style is very similar to the colour block dresses Topshop brought out last year).

Lets just hope when you see the items in the flesh, they're actually decent quality. You know how hit and miss Primark's quality is. Also I can't get over how high the prices are getting- obviously trying to cash in on the popularity of Primark.

All images are via PR Shots.

Mac Eyeshadow Collection (Part 1)

*warning- photo heavy*

Thanks to JEM’s birthday present of Amber Lights- my Mac palette is finally full, so I thought I would do two separate posts on my Mac eyeshadows. First up is my palette and the second will be my loose eyeshadows, and the reasons why I have my shadows the way I do (aka method behind the madness).

I own both the 15 pan and quad palettes- the quad is for travelling, so I don’t have to take my 15 pan. Now most of my shadows I have depotted myself hence the cracks/chunks missing from some of the products.

Now onto the palette

Top- Shroom, Retrospek, Honey Lust, Vanilla, Arctic Grey.

Middle- All Races, Woodwinked, Mythology, Tissueweight, Knight Divine.

Bottom- Elecktra, Satin Taupe, Amber Lights, Brun, Carbon.

Bit of an odd combination there isn’t it.

However if you look down at the colours you get a quick and simple smoky eye. Arctic Grey, Knight Divine and Carbon- perfect grey combo.

Onto the swatches- I’ve tried to make the most of the natural light, however some of the lighter colours don’t show up that well.

Out of this palette my most used shades are- Shroom, Woodwinked, Satin Taupe, Elecktra, Knight Divine and I’m keep reaching for Amber Lights since I received it.

Have you done any posts on your Mac palettes? If so link me up below.

Giveaway Winner

Sorry for the delay in annoucing the winner- I've been really busy with work at the moment and its taken me ages to collate everyones enteries. For some reason I've been unable to get on random.org on my computer so I've had to use the net on my iPhone to select the winner. I'll be deleting the giveaway post with your email addresses on, as I don't want spammers to use them to send you rubbish.

Ready to know who the winner is??

Marilou

Thank you to everyone who entered, and I'll be posting a 1000 follower giveaway in the next month- thinking of a Mac giveaway??

Love....Clothing

I know from looking at Twitter and Facebook today Valentines day provides mixed opinions in people- you have those who are loved up and the singletons who are happy, and then those who are having bf's. I for one, couldn’t care less, and to be honest I’m using today as excuse to indulge in my one true love… FASHION.

Fitting in with the love theme I thought I would share some of my favourite items from Love clothing. You will all be familiar with Love as their items are always heavily featured in the weekly magazines, and in larger Topshops. Personally I love Love, I love how girly their dresses are, and how versatile they are. Any item you find on their site can be easily dressed up or down.

Another major selling point of Love is that their collection is a set number of styles, however the items come in a variety of colours, meaning that there will be something to suit everyone. A word of warning some of their dresses are bum skimming shall we say on me (I’m 5’10) so maybe a couple of extra inches on some of the dresses wouldn’t go a miss??

I’ve picked my favourites from the site… I'm going to be going on a marathon trying on session on Saturday in Topshop.

Brown tartan print city dress £34, Red pansy print shirt £34, Geranium chiffon one shoulder dress £34.

Beige sunset oversized jumper £38, Pastel swirl midi skirt £38, Cream multi collar blouse £28.

Long sleeved wrap dress in- shrimp, dark navy, coral £32

I really want the shrimp wrap dress and the midi skirt.

If you sign up to Love online you will recieve a £10 credit on your first order, and as its Valentines day they're also offering 20% off (code is on the homepage) too.

Treat yourself!!

Fuzzy Peach, I Am Sorry

I take it you enjoyed reading yesterdays double/triple denim post? I do know how to rock that trend don’t I haha. Anyway todays post I’d realised I’ve had wrote up in my drafts for month’s now, and I haven’t published it- until today. Just so you know that this post isn’t in the format of the new notd posts- there is no pictures of the polish after x amount of days.

If you recall I wrote a not so very nice post about Models Own Fuzzy Peach (here) on my fibreglass nail extensions. However my opinion on this has completely changed- I think the reason why the colour went so bad last time was purely due to the fibreglass extensions. As you can see in these pictures the colour is so much better.

I personally prefer this colour on shorter nails, and it can easily be worn on your toes. I’ve got two coats on in these pictures and that is more than enough. I love how thick models own polishes are, and the fact that with 99% of their shades you can get away with the one coat.

This polish has definitely done the rounds with me and JEM- I’d initially bought this polish, decided I hated it, so gave it to JEM, then she decided she didn’t want it and I wanted it back. Bizarre.

I suffered with some chips on this after 4 days, which if you consider that I work in an office I think is pretty good going. I definitely regret slating this in the first place as this colour is just fab!!



I Look Like A Plonker

Sometimes I wonder why people wear certain things just cause they're in fashion. I'm not going to lie to you all but I have a major pet peeve with one certain trend..

DOUBLE-FRICKING-DENIM

I hate it... HATE IT.

After a conversation with the lovely Charli on Twitter about how much we hate this particular trend which I am convinced is going to follow me to my grave, I decided to prove how stupid this trend is, I would do an OOTD featuring the offending items with the worst pair of jeans ever.

However you know me, I like to take things to another level, so I thought I would model TRIPLE denim- to prove how much of a bellend this trend is.

Without further ado.. oh the shame..

Obviously the key to successfully wearing double denim is to find two shades which are a similar colour to one another. As I am pretty cool I like to be a rebel and wear my collar sticking upwards. I am so thrilled to be wearing double denim, even though my face disagrees.

To be a complete rebel I also like to untuck my shirt and wear geek glasses. Also I love how this colour jeans make my thighs look huge. Always a fabulous look.

For a night out I love to go fully 80s and introduce some ghetto gold into the mix. Also a splash of red lipstick and some RayBans I'm definately good to go.

Obviously no double denim outfit is complete without a denim jacket, making the outfit triple denim.

I look fit as anything.

Let this be a lesson to you all- don't be tempted by the double denim!!!

Yes todays post is a blatent piss take