Sunday Nail - Life Is A Roller Coaster

I am sat writing this in my bed resting my sore and blistered feet after a long, hard day of having fun. It is surprising how painful a good time can be. 

I found this out on Friday night when I refused to take off my shoes after 5 and a half hours of walking, dancing and posing, when I finally did my feet had been molded into the exact shape of my stiletto's and the thought of slipping my feet into anything but slippers, was just as painful as the past 5 and a half hours had been. 

Still I did not learn my lesson as now sleep deprived, sore and sun burnt I am going to try and convince you that I have done the best nail art you've ever seen (please prepare yourselves to be disappointed).

It looks slightly better in person as the contrast between the blue and the green is more prominent and the roller coaster carries onto my other hand. 

I can explain though: As always, my plan to use gold nail wraps for prom had failed and I ended up painting my nails with Barry M Lychee, no nail art or anything fancy. So as good old Ronan Keating says "Life is a roller coaster you just gotta' ride it", and I attempted something a lot more complicated to show you, dedicating it to my trip to Thorpe Park. 

Anyway who cares if you're not always perfect? Who is? Beyonce

Eleanor xx

What's On My Face - Prom Edition

I thought that today I'd do a short and sweet post telling you guys what makeup I'm going to be wearing to my prom tomorrow. I love 'What's On My Face' posts and the articles they do in Two magazine showing you what makeup artists keep in their kit, so this is going to be a cross between the two.

Just a quick note saying that, per usual, I am not bragging. I don't know why anyone would ever brag about what makeup they have or wear but I just thought I'd mention it, I'm doing this post because I enjoy reading them so I thought that other people might as well. Also there are three different eyeshadow palettes but I'm not using every single colour, just a couple from each palette. Imagine wearing every colour from every palette I'd look like a clown! 

1. Urban Decay Naked 2 Palette

2. Urban Decay All Nighter Setting Spray

3. MUA Heaven and Earth Palette

4. Urban Decay Naked Basics Palette

5. MUA Eyeliner in Rich Brown

6. Mac Lipstick in Please Me

7. Estée Lauder Double Wear Foundation 

8. Mini Benefit Porefessional 

9. Mini Clarins Beauty Flash Balm

10. Collection Lasting Perfection Concealer

11. MUA Clear Mascara

12. Urban Decay Primer Potion

13. Rimmel Stay Matte Powder

14. Clarins Blush (I think it's been discontinued)

15. Mini Benefit They're Real! Mascara

16. Sleek Face Contour Kit 

I'll try to get someone to take a photo of my makeup tomorrow and I'll either update this post or I'll add it to another post! 

Anyway I hope you guys have a nice weekend whether your at Glastonbury, shopping or just chillin' and I'd love to know what your doing! I'll be catching up on sleep on Saturday after prom and after party, preparing for Thorpe Park on Sunday. I wish my weekends were always this exciting!

Eleanor xx

Summer Haul

I love shopping and everything about it. I will put up with aching feet, rooting through mounds of messy clothes and queuing in hideously long lines that trail three times round the store, but one thing I cannot stand is rude staff. 

You know it really ruins my day when I am served by someone who is either: not paying you any attention, talking to other staff members when they're meant to be serving you, giving you the look or just being outright nasty when you ask them a simple question. Poor customer service puts me off shopping in shops, especially at makeup counters. 

But then again, not all shop assistants are horrible; I've been served by some really nice people in shops before. I love it when I go to pay at the till and the shop assistant is like "Oh! I love this top it's one of my favourites!" or when they go out of their way to help you, checking the stock room or ringing round other stores for that pair of shoes you need to have.

So this post is dedicated to YOU nice shop assistants who have made me buy more things with your charming smiles and your courteous compliments!

I've never really liked Republic that much because I never felt like their designs were original. I'd go in Republic and be browsing through rails and rails of clothes to find that it was exactly the same stock as what Topshop was selling last season, seriously Republic if I'd wanted that stuff I would have bought it from Topshop when they were selling it?! So I wasn't surprised when they went into administration.

But ever since they went into administration I've been looking in there more because they are often offering large discounts to try shift the stock they've already bought for summer, and to my surprise a lot of the stuff was actually very nice and on top of that quite cheap compared to other shops! 

Republic Shorts £24 (I think)

The first thing I bought from there were these slightly acid wash denim shorts. They are actually made by Glamorous, a brand that Republic have recently started selling but they really stood out to me because of the unusual wash and the leather detailing inside the front to pockets and one back pocket. These shorts are very different from any I own and I know that these will be a summer staple!

Republic Jumper originally £20 but  had 20% off making it £16.

The second thing I bought was this beautiful white cropped jumper. I've seen a lot of white mesh tops online but I don't think I would ever be confident enough to wear one of those, so this is a safer more wearable option. The holey (is holey even a word?) knit makes it a lightweight jumper that is perfect for the English summer or breezy evening on holiday abroad, but I can also see myself layering next year at sixth form during the winter.

New Look Cami's £9.99 each

The next place I went was New Look and as you can see I went cami crazy! The truth is that I am one of those people that when I find something I like I buy it in every colour. I picked up a neon yellow, neon orange and then a pink/nude. I love all three colours and they were only £9.99 and I cheekily used my sister's student discount so they were significantly cheaper than the ones Topshop are selling. Plus they are the perfect length, flowing over your stomach to hide the fact that you've eaten one too many ice creams!

Primark Shorts £5

When I saw these shorts in Primark I knew I'd hit the jackpot, especially when I saw they were only £5, yes £5! In the picture they do look quite short but I tried them on in the changing rooms and luckily there is no cheek exposure! Also if you're not really a fan of black, don't worry because Primark are selling these in every colour of the rainbow so no one has to miss out. But one thing I would say is that you need to try them on because I had to go a size down in these shorts and you don't want them falling.

Topshop Jacket reduced to £30 from £60 in the sale.

Finally is this Topshop jacket that I've wanted for months, every time I saw it in store I'd have to go over and stroke it like a cat, telling it that one day it would be mine and I'd look after it forever and ever, well when I got my hand on £60 that was... 

Anyway I went into Topshop last week when the sale had just started and while casually browsing through rails and rails of junk, I saw it. My baby. I quickly ran over and frantically started checking the labels looking for my size, and there it was: the last size 8. I looked at the label fearing it would have only been reduced to £59 or something ridiculous, but much to my surprise and delight it had 50% off and it was now £30! On top I got student discount so it was only £27 instead of the original £60 I was going to pay for it. Luck was really on my side that day as we just made the last bus, oh yeah!

A lot of people hate sales but I love them, I cannot tell you how many nice necklaces I've found in the Topshop sale for £2.50 instead of £22, all the rooting and annoying shop assistants is worth it for that moment when you find a bargain and I'd love to know what is the best bargain you've ever found in the sale is.

Eleanor xx

Sunday Nails - I Wandered Lonely As A Cloud

I've lost the blogging bug, I guiltily let it scuttle away to hide under a rock for this past week as I have only posted once and I've barely read any blog posts, which is highly unlike me. 

The truth is that since my exams ended I have become incredibly lazy and although I've had the time to blog, I've not had anything worth while to say. But that ends now. Yes, I've been organised and got a couple of posts planned for this week including a haul, but let's get to the nail art first.

Remember the cute daisy nail art I did for beginners? Well this is even easier! I just painted my nails in various pastel shades and then joined up a couple of dots with a white nail art pen and voila! Cute marshmallow Mario clouds that look good enough to eat.

Trust me you cannot go wrong with this nail art!

Speaking of Mario maybe in a couple of weeks I'll do a Super Mario themed nail art or pack-man or snake (ahhh I love those games)! I could potentially be going crazy trying to attempt something that could result in being very complicated, or in the case of pack-man, biting off more than I can chew, but first I need to get off my backside and start blogging.

Eleanor xx

Outfit Post - Out With The Girls

I've never written a lifestyle post before as I never believed that people would find my life interesting, but then I thought what if I incorporate it into an outfit of the day it wouldn't be so boring? So when I went out with my friends for a meal on Monday night to celebrate the end of exams I thought what better time to test it out! 

Leather Jacket Zara, Shirt H and M, Necklace Topshop, Skirt Zara,
Bag New Look and Heels Zara

Sorry my jacket kind of covers up my outfit but despite it being warm, I needed a jacket as it was really windy. I've seen so many of these wrap skirts on different blogs, they look so elegant yet they're really easy to dress up or down. I bought this one in Zara last week, it's off white and made out of this embossed floral material, making it different from a lot of skirts I've seen. 

I have to admit I was taking a huge risk wearing white out to dinner, especially in an Italian restaurant where I would be surrounded by tomato pasta sauces, but luckily I didn't spill anything!  

We went to Pizza Express because not only do they do some of the tastiest pizzas around but they also had a voucher which you could print off the website that meant with every full priced meal you could get another main meal for £2.50, so we ended up saving a lot of dough (get it?)!

Even though I love dough balls (they're so good!) we decided to skip starters and go straight in for our main meal. I had a margarita pizza, I did eat more than half I promise, and then for pudding I had a chocolate fudge cake, which was delicious.

Sorry they're a bit blurry, they were taken on my friends IPhone 
and had to be compressed so she could email them to me,
 but thanks Harriet for letting me use them!

I hope you're all having a great week, at the moment I'm enjoying my freedom and preparing for prom next Friday, I'M SO EXCITED! But in the meantime I'm watching re-runs of KUWTK and next week I'm planning on playing crazy golf, trust me when I say this is a recipe for disaster as I am the world's worst golfer. Wish me luck!

Eleanor xx

Sunday Nails - 100$ Bill

This week I've been at home a lot and in between revision I've been watching films: Baz Luhrmann films to be precise. So to pay tribute to this growing obsession of mine I planned on doing some sort of Romeo and Juliet themed nail art. 

After hours of scouring the internet for images related to the film that would look good on my nails I remembered the Topshop Deadly Lovers collection that had also been inspired by Baz Luhrmann's Romeo and Juliet. 

The collection features items such as shirts in loud, bright prints as inspired by those worn by the Montague boy's and some stain glass window leggings inspired by the church, but what really caught my eye were the clothes covered in the money print, and then the idea hit me; I could put money on my nails. Of course it wouldn't be real money, but there is no way I could get the detail of a dollar bill on my nails, so I decided to see if it was possible to stick paper on your nails. 

Instead of a one dollar bill I got a picture of a 100$ bill off the internet as it's the name of a Jay-Z song on The Great Gatsby Soundtrack, another one of Baz Luhrmann's films. I made the picture smaller so that I could get more detail on each nail, and then printed it out. I then drew shapes similar to that of each nail. This admittedly was the most difficult part as getting the shapes the right size is surprisingly difficult. I then painted my nail with a thick layer of a clear base coat, pressed the picture hard onto the nail, trimmed off any excess and then once dry I sealed each picture with a thick layer of top coat. 

This worked surprisingly well but I'm not sure how it will wear or how difficult it will be to get off, but if you want to do something a bit different for a special occasion then this would be perfect! 

Also Happy Fathers Day! I hope you have a lovely day whether it be with your dad or not. I'd love to know what your doing today to celebrate or maybe what you've got your dad for Fathers Day, to cheer me up through my revision for my last exam tomorrow.

Eleanor xx

Benefit They're Real Mascara - Is It Worth The Hype?

I'm not usually an ELLE reader as it's quite expensive and more adverts than articles in my opinion, but when I heard that ELLE were giving away a free sample of Benefit's They're Real! mascara with their magazine last month I searched all of the local Supermarkets for a copy. I'm not exaggerating when I say searched, the first shop that I went to, Asda, all of the magazines had been ripped open and all the mascaras had been opened or stolen, nice. But 2 or 3 shops later I found a pristine copy with mascara intact but was it all worth it?

What it says - They're Real! is the UK's No.1 best selling mascara! They're Real! Lengthens, curls, volumizes, lifts and separates. Our jet black, long wearing formula won't smudge or dry out. A specially designed brush reveals lashes you never knew you had! 

94% saw dramatic length and volume

90% saw base-to-tip curl

94% saw visible lift

100% saw long-wearing results

Benefit's They're Real! Mascara has a plastic brush tightly packed with short plastic bristles and ends with a small ball of plastic bristles. The brush is smaller than I would usually pick but the small wand means that is easily catches every eyelash creating long and voluminous lashes. 

The formula is wet and intensely black but on me I found that it smudges and drops. That being said most mascaras (even waterproof ones) smudge and drop below my watery eyes, so I'm sure that on most people it would be long wearing and wouldn't smudge!

I'm not sure if it actually curls your eyelashes but most of the other claims are true. They're Real! has quickly become one of my favourite mascaras even if it is twice the price I'd normally pay for a mascara. The only fault I can find with this mascara, apart from it's price, is that the packaging leaves a lot of product on the brush meaning that it can easily make your eyelashes look clumpy especially if you try to apply more than one coat. 

Since I started wearing this mascara I'm not the only person to notice the difference as my sister has even complimented me on how long and full my eyelashes have looked recently. Trust me the picture above really doesn't do the mascara justice!

Is it worth the hype? Yes. 

Would I repurchase it? Mmmmm for a special occasion.

I'd love to know if you've tried this mascara and what you think of it, if not, I'd love to hear your mascara recommendations!

Remember you've only got 3 weeks left to change from Google reader to Bloglovin!

Eleanor xx

Sunday Nails - Hollywood

This weeks inspiration for my nails came from Company magazine. I love Company, so when my monthly subscription came through my letter box a couple of weeks ago, I excitedly ripped it open like a kid on Christmas morning and read it from cover to cover. While browsing through the magazine I spotted this pretty Hollywood hills design.

May I just say that even though this design looks pretty, it was one of the most difficult nail art designs I have ever done, especially the wording on my right hand! Sometimes I just wish that I could write and draw with both hands, it would just make life so much easier. Like that time when I broke my right hand and my teachers expected me to write with my left hand, if I could write with my left hand, my book wouldn't have looked like a 2 year old had scribbled in it. 

To create the different tones in the hills I used acrylic paint. Using acrylic paints and a small paint brush meant I could be more precise and achieve a variety of different tones by mixing the paints, which would've been difficult to achieve using nail varnishes.

On another note when I checked into blogger today I noticed that my blog had reached 400 followers on GFC! AHH! To make it even better I then looked at bloglovin and saw that I had 199 followers, that's 1 away from 200?! Together that's nearly 600 followers! That is just crazy, I can't believe it! I just wanted say thank you so much to everyone who reads my blog or comments on my posts as your support means the world to me.

Thank you,

Eleanor xx

June Wishlist

Today I had planned to do an outfit post but obviously that plan failed miserably. I got dressed, I did my hair, I did my makeup, I set up my tripod and I set up my camera but it just didn't work out. You know when you just can't get the angle right and you end up either looking like a giant or a dwarf? Not to mention the extreme sunlight. So instead I present to you my June Wishlist!

Next month me and my friends will be spending a week in Cornwall, we are staying in one my friend's holiday house that is separated from the beach only by a small road, so I thought it was only right that I include some items that are suited to the beach as that's where we will be spending the majority of our time.

Missguided Jelly Sandals - £14.99
Ah jelly shoes, how they fondly remind me of my childhood...anyway enough reminiscing as these Missguided jelly sandals will definitely be coming with me on holiday. Yes you heard right jelly sandals: the new cooler, studded, lovechild of the jelly shoe and the sandal, and they even come in more than one colour including nude, pink and black.  

Primark T-shirt - £6
On Monday it was announced that Asos will now be selling Primark clothes on their website, I'm not quite sure how I feel about it yet as on one hand it's so much easier than having to rummage through piles and clothes just to then fight with another customer over the last size 8, but then it draws people away from going into towns and shops. But while I make up my mind, I will be drooling over this football jersey style t-shirt. The t-shirt is made out of mesh so I'm planning to get this in a larger size (so it's oversized) and wear it on top of my bikini on the beach.

St Tropez Gradual Tan - £14.39
I am pale. Very pale. Don't get my wrong there are times when I love having pale skin but the truth is that I don't tan. I could spend a month lying in the sun and all that would happen is that I would either burn or get lots and lots of freckles, and when your surrounded by gorgeously bronzed women sunbathing on the beach you can't help but get a tiny bit jealous. I've heard a lot of great things about the St Tropez gradual tan and St Tropez as a brand in general, and hopefully by using a gradual tan I can eliminate the risk of looking orange but build it up as much as I want.

Nasty Gal Clear Tote - £37.36
I love these kind of clear bags, I just think they look so classy haha! This clear tote from Nasty Gal would be great on the beach as it's big enough to fit in your beach towel yet and the insides won't get sandy or wet unlike straw or fabric bags. Also you don't have to worry about people being able to see your valuables as it comes with a cute little black zip bag to put them in.

Cosmopolitan Sponge - £4.99
The famous beauty blender dupe by Cosmopolitan is a great handy item to take with you on holiday. Small, light and compact this will not take up a lot of space in your suitcase unlike brushes, yet it works just as well as a brush if not even better.

I'd love to know if you've tried any of these products especially the fake tan, I'm also intrigued to find out what's on your summer wishlist.

Eleanor xx

Sunday Nails - Look At The Mess You've Made

It's June. The sun is shining, the birds are singing and i'm stuck inside revising, Yay. Least I have the satisfaction of knowing it will all be over in 15 days but in the mean time I need to get my head down and stop procrastinating. 

I will use anything to avoid revising, even things that I normally hate doing. Even cleaning seems pleasurable compared to revising. So while taking one of my hard earned 10 minute 1 hour breaks from revising I decided to experiment with my nails. 

I love the look of splatted paint of a pristine coat of white nail polish but never did I imagine how messy it would get. To create the splattered paint you need to dip a straw in some nail polish and then blow through the straw over your nails, splattering nail varnish all over them and annoyingly, everything around it. Luckily I had put some newspaper on my white desk minimizing some of the damage but it still left my hands and fingers covered in nail varnish.

But overall it was worth it as the effect you get is crazy! 

Anyway if you are reading this as a form of procrastination, GET BACK TO WORK! If not I'd love it if you left a comment down below.

Eleanor xx