Winter hates hands...

It's time to show your hands some love as we are thrown head first into the cold snap this winter. I have neglected my hands over the years and this winter they fought back with a vengeance. Dry, irritable with nails not even a dog would accept. My hands were looking horrific. So I started to give them the love they deserve. These are just a few of the products that got them up to scratch....

Nivea Creme

Now my mum uses this and her mum uses it and so on and who am I to mess with tradition? As soon as I picked this up my hands were in heaven. This has to be my fail safe product for dry skin but it never occurred to me to use it as a hand cream. It's super thick and gives your skin a much needed injection of moister from the very first application. Although I do warn you it takes a few minutes to soak in so I would suggest it as a night time regime. Maybe whilst your sat in-front of the T.V?

Hand food

What can I say this is a no brainer and every beauty guru's must have. Soup and Glory do an array of amazing products but this has to be one of the best, nourishing and with that classic Soap and Glory smell we all know and love there's nothing not to like. Plus it comes in a mini size so it's the perfect handbag staple.

O.P.I Nail Envy

Ranted and raved about this product is something I had always been curious to try but with a price tag of £18.00 I needed a little more convincing before I forked out the cash. So when I saw it in the clearance section at sally's for £8.09 I couldn't say no. And I can honestly admit that I should have payed the £18.00 for this years ago it does exactly what it says on the tin and is keeping my nails strong and long.

Sally Hansen Gel Cuticle Remover

I was a bit well, weirded out when I was introduced to this product. The idea of scraping skin off you nails is, lets be honest,  a little bit disgusting on all accounts. The first time It happened to me I hated it but I was amazed at how much prettier my hands looked. Neat nails are definitely the way forward. Now I just have to work out how make it less disgusting. 

Essie 'Wicked'

The finishing touch. It's all well and good having nice looking hands and nails but when you want to show them off you need a bit of colour. This Essie colour has to be my go to nail varnish for winter, dark and vampy with just a hint of red to spice things up a bit.

I'm loving...

I'm not a fan of pastel colours at all, being so pale they make me look even paler and in turn like I has some kind of illness but I cant help loving mint. Something about it just screams out to me and I have to grab it with both hands. God knows my collection of mint will be growing this summer and if I can find a thick jumper ill be taking mint into my winter wardrobe too!

Nail art.

Ok, I apologies for all the nail posts at the moment guys but I have had a bit of spare time recently between deadlines and to save me from boredom I have been painting my nails a lot! So today I woke up and thought I would create a little nail art of my own.

So this is the final result nothing astonishing just a half and half deign black, silver and matte. I'm incredibly impatient and I wanted a straight line between the two colours and tape is too sticky to put on a damp layer of polish so I had to find another option! It turns out the answer had been staring me in the face for weeks! Post-it notes, the adhesive part of them is soft enough not to ruin the base colour and sticky enough that it sticks to the nail. So it's a win win for me and worked brilliantly.

I used 4 polishes to complete this ...

The first was the Avon nutri-boost which is my go too base coat, its fast drying and is meant to be good for your nails so makes the perfect smooth base coat.

The next was the base colour, BarryM nail effect in silver which I love so much. I have the gold as well and just cant wait to wear it in summer. (£3.99 Boots)

Then I used a basic black from miss sporty cheap and cheerful at £1.99, and I really have never seen the point in an expensive black so this is perfect. It's actually surprisingly good varnish for the price!

And finally I used rimmel matte topcoat which I have been putting over everything recently. It makes every nail colour totally different and has stopped my buying a load of matte polishes! (£4.99 Boots)

I'm really happy with the final outcome and now I have found out how useful post-its are ill be doing some more nail art designs in the future.

Creating a nail varnish!

Ok so, I love customising whether it's my room or my wardrobe I just cant get enough and I sort of took that one step further! I like many other bloggers have been in love with Lily Melrose’s style and her blog www.llymlrs.com for ever. And the oter day I was looking back through her old outfit posts and remembered she often wore a nail varnish called “top turquoise” from models own (which I now own). I wondered if it was possible to make a colour like that on my own so I turned to my collection and found two colours I don’t really wear that often: “Spring Green” and “Cyan Blue” from BarryMthey looked like the perfect colours to mix and make a dupe of “top turquoise”. So I did a little test on a piece of paper noted down the ratios and found an empty bottle of clear polish to mix in and this is the outcome.

(above)The experiments I've been going for more turquoise colours and my notes on the mix.

(left) the final outcome, I’m happy with it but in real life its a little greener and brighter that it came up in pictures.(right) Cyan Blue, my turquoise and Spring Green .

I'm going to try my hand at making a few more colours soon I think.