Hidden Gems

Hi guys :) So, in the midst of this crazy British heatwave recently I haven't really been posting at all. My poor little blog has been seriously neglected and so has my make-up bag. I can't be the only one who cringes at the thought of a full face of make-up in such heat, can I? 

My mum and I had a wander around our local Asda on Monday and I picked up a couple of bargains that I thought I'd share...

I love having a mooch about the jewellery and cosmetics sections of supermarkets. I often find a nice necklace in Asda and it's not a secret that I'm a fan of their £1.75 own brand nail polishes.

This trio of ethnic-themed adjustable (so suitable for all finger sizes, hurrah!) cost either £4 or £5. I love finding rings like these to add to my collection and throw on with a simple outfit. Rings are definitely my jewellery weakness. I spotted these and just had to have them. £5 (maximum) for three rings is a decent price and I'm looking forward to wearing these.

I've been hunting for a necklace like this for SO long but nowhere seems to sell them. I spotted this and picked it up straight away. I love everything about it, but mainly I love the fact that it looks a bit like bunting. I have issues, OK? ;) This necklace set me back £5 and made my inner material girl very happy indeed.

Finally, I picked up two polishes. The first, a golden, metallic toned colour is called 'Beach Bum' and could be described as 'metallic sand'. I've already worn this and while the colour is gorgeous, the fact that it's metallic leaves it rather prone to streaking. I also picked up another Matt Finisher, which is just a plain matte topcoat. I very rarely do matte nails, so for only £1.75 it makes sense to pick up a cheaper polish than a more expensive one. If you're a student or just on a budget, I definitely recommend you check out the George range of polishes (but NOT other cosmetics).

Have you found any hidden gems recently? Feel free to share below in the comments :)

Thanks for reading,

Rachel xo

Twitter: rachelizabethxo

Personal blog: a single doubt

Instagram: iRachey

Email: rachel.soshedances@gmail.com
Tumblr: lookintothestorm.tumblr.com
YouTube: soshedancesxo

Bring Out the Bunting Nail Tutorial

So, dear readers, Christmas is over and we're now officially in January 2013. This means that I'm already looking forward to spring and cute pastel designs being everywhere again. In anticipation of this, I have another nail tutorial for you all today :)

Who doesn't love a good bit of bunting? I know I do, so I thought I'd experiment a little with bunting and nail art, and since the results pleased me I thought I'd share. 

To create this 'look', you will need:

• 1x base coat
• 1x plain white nail polish
• 1x matte top coat (I used the George at Asda one)
• 1x plain black nail polish OR nail art pen (I used my black Rio nail art pen) 
• As many pastel nail polishes or nail art pens as you like... I think I ended up using 8 different colours (I'll be doing a post talking about the lilac, blue and green soon)
• If you're using polishes and not pens, you might want to get hold of a dotting tool or something similar (I used a dotting tool similar to these, which were a fabulous and much appreciated Christmas present from my lovely friend Sophie)

Step 1:

Start off, as always, by applying your base coat. This will protect the nails from being stained by the nail polish, and since you'll be using a white polish (which can have a tendency to leave yellowing on the nail) it's extra important to make sure you don't skip this step.

Step 2:

Apply as many coats of your white polish as you need for it to become opaque but make sure you allow them all to dry before applying the next coat. If you don't, the still-tacky polish will drag and you'll have to start over. 

Step 3:

Take your black polish/nail pen and draw on lines like you can see in my photo. These are effectively the strings that hold the bunting up. I think my lines are perhaps slightly too thick, so try going for thinner lines if you like :)

Step 4:

When your black lines have tried, take your dotting tool/nail art pen and draw on your tiny little triangles, as also seen in the above photo. You could just use two colours and alternate them, or like me you could use lots and use them in a random order. Don't worry about accidentally going onto the black line a little, we'll clear that up in a minute.

Step 5:

Allow your triangles to dry then if you have any overlapping onto the black lines, take your black polish/pen and just go over the lines once more. This is also the stage where you can tidy up any triangles that are slightly misshapen or not fully opaque.

Step 6:

Leave your nails to dry. I'd recommend at least half an hour because in my experience, applying a top coat too soon after doing detailed nail art just means that the pattern gets dragged in the direction you're applying the top coat. So, make sure you're confident your pattern won't be ruined, and apply your matte top coat. You could just apply a regular, shiny top coat, but I found that the shine on the nails somehow distracted from the pattern. This is less so with them being matte :)

Et voila! Pretty, spring-ready bunting nails. This is something that you could do with any colour, too, so it's very versatile and could probably carry through all of the seasons. Let me know in the comments if you've ever tried bunting nails or if you think you'll try them out now :)

Thanks for reading,

Rachel x

Twitter: rachelizabethxo

Personal blog: estoy mejor sin ti

Instagram: iRachey

Email: rachelelizabeth.xo@googlemail.com