Sunday Nails - Black Lace

I love lace, in fact it is probably one of my favourite materials. I'm gradually building up a nice collection of black lace pieces in my wardrobe and last night I wore a black lace bralet and matching skirt to a party, so I decided to paint my nails to match! 

Lace is quite a difficult pattern to replicate without a stamp as it is often very complex but I managed to create this nail art using just a black nail art pen. While it looks complicated it is basically just a bunch of circles, lines and dots layered together to create the look of lace.

What is your favourite fabric?

Eleanor xx

Review - Charlotte Tilbury Luxury Palette The Uptown Girl

One of my favourite birthday presents was this beautiful Charlotte Tilbury eyeshadow palette from my sister, before I received this I'd never owned or tried any of Charlotte Tilbury's makeup so to say I was excited is a bit of an understatement! 

Luxury Palette The Uptown Girl - £38

Charlotte Tilbury's makeup range is organised by looks, with each look including a lipstick, an eyeshadow quad, a lipgloss, a lipliner, a mascara, a eyeliner and a blusher. My eyeshadow palette is part of The Uptown Girl look which is described as "Olivia Palermo's glossiness and Naomi Campbell's polish mixed with Grace Kelly's sense of style" to create "the perfect look for the perfect life", while I cannot claim to have the perfect life this quad will definitely allow anyone to create that perfect polished look. 

While the eyeshadows are not quite as pigmented as the swatched on the website they are still highly pigmented, creamy and look lovely on the eyes. The shades are sorted in four category's Prime, Pop, Enhance and Smoke to help you know where to put the shades to create Charlotte's favourite looks. The prime shade is applied all over the lid, the enhance shade is designed to be applied in the crease and outer corner, the smoke shade is used to enhance the outer corner or lash line and the pop shade is patted onto the middle of the eye to enhance the overall look and make it 'pop'. Of course you can use the shadows wherever you like but this system makes it a lot easier if you're stuck on what look to create.

My favourite shade is probably the 'pop' shade which is pink and glittery, to get the full impact of the pop shade I'd recommend using your finger and patting it on rather than using a brush. All of the eyeshadows are very beautiful and wearable whether you chose to wear them casually or create a dramatic smokey eye, and I'd really recommend this palette if you want to treat yourself or someone who is really into makeup.

Have you tried any of Charlotte Tilbury's makeup range?

Eleanor xx 

Sunday Nails - Mix and Match

Normally my nail art has some sort of theme or inspiration behind it but this week was honestly a bit random. I was sat with my box of nail varnish and accessories in front of me and decided to experiment with my favourite techniques and colours and this was the result! I was obviously feeling quite girly when I was doing my nails as it's quite Tiffany's with the light blue, pearls and lace.

For an experiment I'm pretty pleased with how this turned out! Do you ever experiment when it comes to nail art?

Eleanor xx

Sunday Nails - Simple Stripes

One of the presents that I got for my birthday was a set of striping tape from my friend Mae. She knows how much I love nail art so it was the perfect gift especially since I have never ever used it before. I love striping tape and I've seen so much beautiful nail art that's been created using it but I've never got round to having a go at using it myself so I was very excited to give it a go!

Something I quickly found out using striping tape is that it is very fiddly and almost impossible to use if you don't have a pair of tweezers on hand to help you out. Another pain is cutting the stripes to the right size or trimming them while they're on your nail, but with a pair of nail scissors it isn't too difficult. Overall compared to using sellotape striping tape is a lot easier, prettier and a lot more versatile.

Eleanor xx

Sunday Nails - Tribal Whites

Tumblr is a great place for nail art inspiration and it's where I found my inspiration for this weeks nail art. When I saw this design as I was scrolling through my feed it immediately caught my eye and I knew I had to try it out, it reminds of a tribal print but more modern rather than ethnic if you know what I mean!

To create this nail art I simply used a white nail art pen, nothing too complicated but you will nail a steady hand. Where do you get your inspiration from?

Eleanor xx

What I Got For My Birthday 2014

A week today I turned 17 after months of patiently waiting and feeling like a baby compared to my friends whose birthdays are all before mine.But it was worth the wait and I had a lovely day in Birmingham with my family, visiting my sisters new house and doing a bit of shopping, I was also very lucky to receive some beautiful gifts from my family and friends which I'm going to share with you today. 

Disclaimer - I am extremely grateful for everything I received for my birthday and in no way am I 'showing off' (who would even do that?). I personally enjoy reading these posts so I thought you might be too!

My friends and family know I am obsessed with makeup and beauty products so it was no surprise that a lot of the gifts I received were items of makeup! First my sister bought me a Charlotte Tilbury eye shadow quad that is so beautiful that I nearly screamed with joy when I unwrapped it, she also bought me a pug makeup bag which is absolutely adorable but I stupidly forgot to photograph it! My friend Harriet went on holiday to Italy over the summer and while she was there she picked up me some lovely bits from Kiko's new collection including a gorgeous eye shadow palette and a Kiss Balm, I love Kiko but its quite difficult to get hold of in the UK so I'm very exited to try these products! My friend Hannah bought me a Mac Lip Liner in Spice because she knew how much I wanted it so that I could line my lips like Kylie Jenner. Then my other friend Louise bought me a lovely little Benefit gift set so I can try some more of their products, Benefit gift sets are great products and I've bought this for friends in the past so I was so happy to finally receive it myself!

I then got a cute little candle and incense set from my friend Helena and then my friend Ellie got me a new phone case from Converse because mine was getting very battered and tatty, as well as also getting me some lucky charms from America.

My favourite ever Disney film ever is The Little Mermaid so of course my friend Steph got me the best pajamas ever: LITTLE MERMAID PAJAMAS!

As well as a makeup bag and an eye shadow palette my sister also bought me this beautiful black lace skirt from Topshop that I've wanted for ages and there is no doubt that this skirt will feature in a future outfit post.

And my final present to show you is my present from my parents: a new bike! I've needed a new bike for years as I grew out of my old one when I started secondary school and as my friends and I have started to go on more bike rides it finally seemed worth me getting a new one. My new bike is the Pendleton Somerby Limited Edition Hybrid Bike from Halfords and I am in love with it, it is very comfortable and perfect for what I use it for!

Thank you so much to everyone who wished me Happy Birthday on twitter, I had a lovely day and I'm hoping that my future birthday's will be as good if not better than this one!

Eleanor xx