October Rate Or Hate

Wow it seems like absolutely ages since my last rate or hate! I literally cannot remember the last month when I posted a rate or hate it was that long ago, what can I say apart from there hasn't been anything in particular that I've been rating and hating *slaps self on the hand for being a naughty blogger*. But this month is different as there are two products that have stood out for me this month for both good and bad reasons so here are this months Rate or Hate...

Kiko Kiss Balm in 06 Blackberry and Benefit Bad Gal Lash

Rate -

Kiko is constantly making it way up in my list of favourite makeup brands, as with every product I try I am more and more impressed. The Kiko Kiss Balm is the perfect compromise between a lipstick and a lip balm as it moisturizes your lips and give just enough colour payoff to perfect the appearance of your lips. I always get compliments when I wear this and the best thing of all it's reasonably priced.

Hate - 

Benefits They're Real is my all time favourite mascara and for this reason I had high expectations for Benefit's Bad Gal Lash Mascara, sadly they were not met. In all honesty I was extremely disappointed with this mascara; the wand isn't particularly special, it made my lashes look clumpy and by the end of the day the mascara had transferred onto my eyelid and smudged beneath my eye, these are not things I'd expect from any mascara let alone one that costs £17.50.

What have you been rating or hating this month?

Eleanor xx

Sunday Nails - My Top 5 Autumn/Winter Nail Polishes

While I love hot summer weather nothing compares to Autumn/Winter: my favourite seasons. One of my favourite things about Autumn/Winter (apart from Halloween, Christmas and Bonfire night) are the festive colours. Yes as soon as we hit October I dig out my dark lipsticks, nail polishes and clothes, and embrace the goth in me. So I thought that today I'd show you my favourite Autumn/Winter nail polishes.

From L to R Barry M Coconut, Barry M Lychee, Essie Parka Perfect, Essie Shearling Darling and Essie Toggle To The Top

Despite my love for typical Autumn/Winter nail polishes like dark burgundy's I still love to wear neutrals throughout the colder weather. Two of my all time favourites which have featured countless times on my blog are Barry M Coconut and Lychee. Both colours are in Barry M's gel finish so they are very shiny, the only difference between the two is the difference in colour as Coconut is an off white colour where as Lychee is a beige/nude. 

All three of these Essie polishes actually came in a set as part of their 2013 Winter Collection, which in my opinion is honestly one of the best sets they've ever done. I'd religiously wear all three colours during Autumn/Winter which is vary rare to find in a gift set as normally there's always at least one bum colour. Parka Perfect is a beautiful off blue/grey colour, Shearling Darling is the perfect burgundy and Toggle To The Top is a beautiful topcoat with pink glitter running through it that looks gorgeous when layered on top of Shearling Darling. I have a feeling you can still buy all three of these colours on Essie's website which is very lucky for me because mine are starting to run out! 

What is your favourite Autumn/Winter nail polish?

Eleanor xx

DIY Polaroid Wall Decoration

I love DIY's and some of my favourite blogs, like A Beautiful Mess, often post DIY's. I do like to have a go at some of them myself but I always forget to take photo's or I think that they're so obvious that I don't bother blogging about them. But today is a bit different because I've decided to share with you a little DIY I did earlier this week: a Polaroid wall decoration for my room.

You will need:
- Some string

- Paper clips

- Polaroid pictures 

- Blue tac 
- Scissors

If you don't have a polaroid camera like myself there are hundreds of websites that will print off your Instagram pictures into a polaroid. I chose to use the printic app because not only can you use pictures directly from your Instagram account but also your camera roll. After using a promo code I found online my order of 15 prints came to £1.35 including delivery which is unbelievably cheap and the best thing is that while they are cheap the prints are very high quality. Mine took 5 working days to be delivered which is a reasonably quick considering they come from France and they arrived in an adorable orange envelope. If you use the code B01EFE you can get £4 off your first order.

The next thing I did when I got my prints was to arrange them in the order I wanted to hang them up in. You can do this however you like, randomly, colour co ordinated or even in chronological order it's totally up to you to decide what look best for your photos. I then measured how long I wanted the piece of string to be to hang on my wall, making sure it was the length of the wall plus a bit extra and cut it with the scissors. I then simply paper clipped the photos along the string leaving equal gaps between each photo. 

The last step is to hang your photo garland along the wall, you can do this in a variety of ways including a staple gun or hooks but I just hung mine on a picture hook already in the middle of my wall and then blue tacked the ends to the wall so the wall wasn't damaged if I decided to take it down. 

This is a very cheap, easy and personal decoration for your room that can be altered to fit your style. Want something a bit more fancy? You could easily use indoor fairy lights (make sure that they are the type that don't heat up and can be used near paper) instead of string or colourful little pegs instead of paper clips.

Do you often do DIY's? 

Eleanor xx

Sunday Nails - Is a Manicure Worth Paying For?

I have never had my nails done professionally before, well that was until yesterday when I went and got a gel manicure done with my sister. But is it really worth the money paying someone else to do your nails for you? I thought I'd write a post on the pros and cons of getting your nails done professionally based on my first experience yesterday to answer that question.

Pros

Not very good at painting your nails? The easiest way to get great looking nails sometimes is to just give in and get someone else to do them for you, it is their job and highly unlikely that they will make a mess.

Gel nail polish is dried in the salon using a UV or LED light and the process is very quick. This means that you leave the salon with completely dry nails and don't have to wait around for hours for your nails to dry constantly in fear that you may smudge them.

A gel manicure lasts on average 2-3 weeks without chipping, peeling or cracking, so if you find painting your nails a chore it can save you a lot of time because you are getting them done less frequently.

In my opinion they always look a lot better because of the glossy finish they lasts until you have the polish removed.

Cons 

Getting a gel manicure can be expensive with prices starting from around £20 if your getting it done every 3 weeks it equates to nearly £350 a year compared to a bottle of Barry M nail polish which cost £3.99 each or a home gel kit that can cost around £100 and can be used over and over again.

If you love to change your nail colour frequently getting a gel manicure may not be for you because if you're getting them done every 2-3 weeks that's how often you will be changing the colour.

Taking off the nail polish can be a nightmare as you have to soak them in pure acetone which you can either do at home or pay for the salon to do that for you.

They can damage your nails if you have them frequently over a long period of time because the acetone used to remove them is a strong chemical. There is also the argument that the UV light can cause UV damage which may lead to cancer so you need to find a salon that uses an LED light to set the polish.

Overall I think that whether you get a manicure done at a salon is down to personal preference, there isn't a right or wrong answer as there are both pros and cons to paying for a professional to do your nails. Personally I do like getting my nails done but I also like doing my own nails so I'd only ever go to the salon for a special occasion.

Do you pay to get your nails done at a salon?

Eleanor xx 

Quick OOTD

While I love my DSLR sometimes it can be a bit of a hassle to get it out and set up my tripod to take some photos of my outfit. These days I'm also short on time but I hate it when I don't do a midweek post, so I've decided that instead of posting nothing at all I'd do a quick OOTD. 

Today I wore my brand new Missguided coat, a white H and M t-shirt, Pull and Bear ripped jeans, my T K Maxx bag and my trusty Dune boots. I cannot put into words how much I love my new coat which I will feature in a haul very soon so that I can show you in a bit more detail.

I hope you don't mind the poor quality picture but doing these quick OOTD's using my phone means that I can show you what I wear more frequently. Don't worry though I won't stop doing my usual outfit posts and hopefully I'll find someone to take my photos for me so those posts will improve in quality. 

Eleanor xx

Sunday Nails - Jack O Lantern

I love Halloween, while lots of people hate Halloween and think that Trick or Treating is rude or don't believe in it for various reasons I think that it is a fun holiday to participate in. I love dressing up, decorating my house and most of all carving pumpkins. I don't care if people think that Halloween is for children because every year me and my mum will be a pumpkin, carve it together and then make pumpkin soup with the leftover pumpkin. To me nothing screams Halloween like a spooky Jack O Lantern but if you don't fancy carving a pumpkin you can still get in the holiday spirit with my Jack O Lantern nail art!

To create the glowing effect of the Jack O Lantern simply use three different colours layered on top of each other. First use a red nail varnish or acrylic paint to draw your faces, then use the orange on top leaving a bit of red showing around the edge and then use a little bit of yellow in the middle.

Do you still carve pumpkins at Halloween?

Eleanor xx

Outfit Post - I Said She Looked Overdressed

I am almost always overdressed. It doesn't matter what the dress code or occasion is, it is guaranteed I will always be a bit more dressed up than everyone else. Honestly I just can't help it, I love to get glammed up and don't see what's wrong with making an effort with your appearance even if I'm just going into Sixth Form or popping out to the shops! 

Mango Coat, Ben Sherman Shirt, Missguided Bralet, Topshop Jeans and Missguided Shoes

Of course it probably doesn't help that my wardrobe consists of a lot of shirts, tailored jackets and heels but I do try to make these items a bit more casual by rolling up the sleeves of my shirt, unbuttoning it a little and pairing them with more causal items like ripped skinny jeans as you can see in the pictures above.

So are you like me always overdressed? Or are you working the effortlessly chic vibe?

Eleanor xx

Sunday Nails - I've Been Drinkin' Watermelon

If there was a list of cool fruits watermelon would be there right at the top, I mean Beyonce's been drinking it, the Shaytards love eating eat and the best thing of all is that it's good for you! Yep I love watermelon and it's so pretty that I thought that I'd do a watermelon themed nail art this week!

What is your favourite fruit?

Eleanor xx

October Wishlist

September was a busy month for me and my personal life began to get in the way of blogging resulting in it being pushed to the side. But it is the first of October, the start of a new month and I intend to start as I mean to go on. I'm going to get back into my blogging routine of posting at least twice a week and to start off I thought I'd show you what I'm going to be lusting after this month!

WAH London Nail Polish in Im Real - £9

The queens of nail art over at WAH have finally released a line of nail art products to Boots and it was worth waiting for. The line consists of nail art pens, stick on nails and a gorgeous range of nail polish which includes the perfect nude nail polish: Im Real. 

Topshop Striped Pyjamas - £28
I am in love with these striped pyjamas despite the fact they resemble those worn by the little boy in the tear jerker that is The Boy In Striped Pyjamas. In fact I already own a pink and white striped Victoria's Secret Pyjama shirt but you can honestly never have too many pyjamas and these are too cute to resist!   

River Island Black Floral Skort - £28
Florals are not just for Spring and in the past few years dark Winter florals have become increasingly more popular on the highstreet as shown in this beautiful black floral skort from River Island. I'm not much for bright pretty florals but this skort has the right mix of neutrals and colour and the modern tailored skort makes it feel more grown up; perfect.

Catfish And The Bottlemen The Balcony - £9.41
While music is a huge part of my life I don't often talk about it a lot on my blog but I       had to feature this album on my wishlist. Earlier this month Catfish And The Bottlemen, a small Welsh indie/rock band, dropped their debut album and I have been listening to it on Spotify ever since. If you haven't heard of them I'd really recommend that you check them out!

Missguided Camel Coat - £59.99
I have explained multiple times before about my love for camel coats but I've stupidly never bought one. This autumn/winter will be different, I will buy a camel coat and I think this Missguided beauty may be the one.

What's on your wishlist this month?

Eleanor xx