Criss cross nail with Essie Cocktail Bling and Models Own

I only painted my nails a couple of days ago but never to be one to keep a nail colour for long I removed my new Disco Fever polish and went for a different colour entirely. It's the complete opposite almost, going from a bright magenta to a bluey-grey. I think the lovely British weather may have influenced me somewhat.

Essie's Cocktail Bling is one of my favourites and is one of my more subtle blue toned polishes. I usually love wearing it. It's one of Essies polishes that doesn't need to be coated over and over for a good finish (I'm looking at you Fiji!)

However, I painted my nails and immediately thought 'naa, not feeling it' but rather than removing it (waste not, want not) I dug out one of my trusty Nail Art Pens courtesy of Models Own and drew a criss-cross pattern on my ring finger.

Essie Cocktail Bling and Models own Pastel Blue Nail Art Pen

It was only while looking up the colour on the website when I came to write this review (I was too lazy to get up and get the pen -judge me if you will) and I discovered that the tip can be flipped over and has a thin brush...which would have made my criss cross much neater and easier. It's a tad on the wobbly side! Oh well lesson learnt for next time! Now I know this I might do the whole hand! 

Essie Cocktail Bling and Models Own Nail art pen in pastel blue.

I think I'll try shades of pink next time as we slowly approach the warmer months!

What do you think?

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My Love/Hate relationship with Sex & The City

Now, don't get me wrong. I love Sex and the City. I have watched the box sets over and over again. I have my  favourite girls (Samantha) and Guys (Aiden) and I've lusted over and laughed at many many of the outfits. I've wished I had Carries time to write and her shoe collection, and at times her hair was great... But that's about it, my love of her stops there.

You see, the trouble with one of my favourite TV series' is the main character, Carrie. Wardrobe aside, what is there to like about her? If she was your friend you'd tell her where to go... well I would! She's just so self centred and selfish and a right royal pain in the arse! 

What sparked this post is when I put on the first Sex and the city Movie while I got on with some cleaning. It worked out as a positive in the end really as I was getting worked up which meant there was some very thorough cleaning going on as I scrubbed through my anger!

Rather than going through points of all 6 series, I shall just point out what she does wrong in the first film alone.

I'm of course writing this assuming you've seen it, so I'm sorry if you don't know what I'm talking about. This film winds me up, but I love it, and I'll continue to watch it over and over. I'll always moan about Carrie's behaviour. It's like when I watch Big Brother/Towie/Don't tell the bride... there are a lot of people on TV that just grate on me and I moan about. I love TV that gets a reaction. It's the kind of tv watcher I am, I watch and I rant and that is what I love Twitter for, letting me bond with other people who do the same. It's all harmless and shouldn't be taken too seriously...

Anyway, I digress...

So the start of the film you get the feeling of excitement, the recap of the amazing tv series we all know and loved in the 90's. We See Carrie view an apartment with Big, the first point she annoys me is the line 'hello, I live here' -who does that?! ANNOYING. Then when she tells her friends about it she fobs off Miranda's attempt at giving some sensible advice and basically tells her to shut up and just 'be jealous'. nice.

"From now on you'll be my Man-Friend"

So they get engaged in their kitchen. She makes Samantha be maid of honour when she's expressed how she thinks it's "painful and unnecessary"  (Never has a truer word been spoken) but of course she doesn't care how her friends feel. She just wants everything her way. For someone who didn't seem too excited about marriage she surely gets the Bridezilla part right!

"I don't really believe in marriage, now Botox on the other hand, that works every time"

She plans to move in with her hubby-to-be. Her friends drop everything in their lives to help her pack all her stuff away while she prances around in old clothes doing a fashion show for them. ok I know this was for the audience's benefit but still, imagine for a second you were in that situation you'd be like 'ok quit fucking about now, I've got stuff to do, k?'

"The Bride wore a dress by no-one"

Steve has cheated on Miranda but Carrie has a wedding to plan! Friends and their problems do not matter right now! She has to finalise her seating plan and tie bows onto things or what ever it is people that plan weddings do.

After saying in a roundabout way 'this closet is too small, I hate it here!' Mr. Big kindly builds her a bigger shoe closet, the moment the whole cinema gasped when we all saw it. Suddenly it's quadrupled in size. From a little cupboard you can now walk around in it. What is that closet, Narnia? This isn't so much her fault, I realise, it's just a part in the film that baffles me, any expert DIYers please let me know if this is at all possible, if so I would like one!

The night before the wedding she gets a call from the man she is marrying in a few hours, he's clearly upset, concerned and wanting to talk, but she doesn't want to hear it, she makes some joke about how she is a great writer and fobs him off. Selfish Carrie strikes again. Not only a bitch to her friends, but to her men too.

On her wedding day she has the worst roots I've ever seen on a woman, I mean, all that planning and no time to fit in a trip to the hairdressers?! 

There's no surprise Mr. Big doesn't turn up, I'd be having second thoughts too! When she hears the news she orders (not asks) someone to give her a phone, then when he says he's turned around she shouts 'get me out of here' GET YOURSELF OUT OF THERE! How did you get there? were you lifted up the stairs?! You have legs! Have these poor girls not done enough?!...etc

The car passes him in the street and she attacks him with her bouquet shouting 'I'm humiliated'. Yes love, you are making a scene in the street with a bird on your head! Of course you are humiliated. If she stopped being BAT SHIT CRAZY for a moment she'd hear him say 'I'm ready' but no, she's on a roll now, petals everywhere! The carnage.

Again the girls all rally round, They try and get her out of her honeymoon by suggesting there had been a death. 
She says 'wasn't' there..?'
 ...NOPE, no there wasn't actually. 
They cancel their plans and fly to Mexico to join her on her would-be honeymoon. That's some pretty amazing friends if you ask me. She spends the whole time moping and letting her friends do everything for her, including feed her! I mean, come on woman! Does she ever show her appreciation? Of course not.

"I need to get out of my Mexi-coma"

When back in New York she dyes her hair brown (probably easier, considering the roots) and hires an assistant as she probably realises she can't keep getting her friends to sort her life out for her, she might as well pay someone to do it. Because she's so busy with... what? Ignoring Mirandas real problem? Which ok, I sliiightly blame Miranda for, if you are going to stop making the effort and stop trimming then you can't be surprised when your man strays, she needed to take a bit of the responsibility. Relationships need work from both sides -I think I heard Dr Phil say that somewhere. But this post isn't about Miranda, Carrie should still be there for her friend, whether or not she's in the wrong. And if she is in the wrong she should tell her, not sit there going 'yea... what a bastard' 

"Jesus Honey, Wax Much?"

The only nice thing Carrie does for her friend is look after Lily while Charlotte is at the doctors, and even then she tells her fairytales aren't real, shattering the poor girls dreams. Hey Carrie why not tell her Santa doesn't exist while you're at it?!

I could go into how I think the kid used to play lily was a terrible choice as she can't act for toffee but that might just be too mean... 

She has a Valentine's meal with Miranda and finally takes some responsibility and admits she made the wedding all about her, while of course not being able to resist adding in an awful pun 'I let it get bigger than Big' but suddenly she takes it all back  when Miranda admits that she said 'I don't know why you're getting married' ... cos apparently  that's enough to blame the WHOLE thing on her. But that's so much easier, shift the responsibility on to someone else Carrie, you're good at that. Never mind all of Miranda's other problems! Add this one too it, your day is clear now, take the day off, Louise from St Louis can take it from here!

After having their big fall out over nothing a really awful version of auld lang syne is played that is so annoying that I mute the tv.  They make up, with Miranda making the first move even though she's done nothing wrong. And basically they all live happily ever after. Kind of.

All this drama for what is essentially momentary cold feet which would have been prevented if little Lily hadn't touched Carries phone. Keep your kid away from other peoples stuff Charlotte! 

Anyway.

I'm hoping it wont put you off watching it though, it's a great film, really it is.

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Rimmel Salon Pro, Kate Moss Range | Disco Fever

Just a quick review on a colour by Rimmel that I am loving right now and I wanted to share it with you. I picked this up when I had a little haul in Boots. I'd had my eye on it for a while so I thought it was time to treat myself. I saw I could get  2 for £6 so I just couldn't say no!

Disco Fever is the colour I wish Essie's Bahama Mama was. I was so underwhelmed by that nail polish. It's a really nice colour with one coat, but it needs 2 to be opaque and it is then too dark and just not the same. So I was pleased when I swatched Disco Fever and saw it was just the colour I was after. It's perfect for the transition between Winter and Spring, moving on from the berry shades and into the brighter pinks.

I love the look of the Salon Pro polishes and the Kate Moss range have some great shades too. I love the thick consistency and they look a lot more expensive than they actually are. Soul Session is another favourite of mine.

Have you tried anything from this range?

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My Beauty Compare Review

 I was recently approached by MyBeautyCompare.com which is a comparison website but for beauty products. It sounded very interesting so I was really excited to give them a try and share my thoughts with you.

They claim to be the world's first beauty price comparison site giving us the opportunity to find the best deal on over 1500 brands of beauty products whilst making sure they are the right ones to suit you.  

After filling out a quick form about yourself such as your skin type, skin concerns, eye colour, hair type/colour, your water intake, alcohol consumption, how much sleep you get, and diet you are recommended products based on the details you have given them. The form is a very simple multiple choice and only takes a couple of minutes to fill in.

I think this is great. It's especially good for skincare as you are matched with products that will work for you and help improve your skin.  No matter how many reviews you read, you can never be 100% sure that the product will be right for you, as something that is good for one persons skin isn't always the case for your own. I think my beloved Liz Earle Cleanse and Polish is amazing but I know people who break out when they use it. I’m forever reading ingredients on bottles trying to see if it would suit my skin type and this site does that all for you.

The only thing I didn’t like was the in the tanning section it matched me to much paler tans than I would like, based on my ‘fair’ skin tone. Even though I am technically fair I like my tan to be dark so I tend to opt for the medium to dark end of the spectrum when it comes to tanning. But obviously you can go against your recommendations and read reviews of the products you like the sound of. It was nice to look into brands I wouldn't normally consider.

I must be doing something right, they matched me with a couple of my favourite concealers! I'm now tempted to go straight to my Clinique counter to try the other one!

We all like to save a bit of cash,  I don’t know about you but when ordering online I like to see which sites have the best deal and I rarely order from the same place over and over again, so Beauty compare also shows you how much the product is on different web sites. I think it would be nicer if there was also the option to compare to a few more high street stores too but I suppose that could come in time.

Overall I think this is a great idea and I can see it becoming very popular incredibly quickly!

*Although I was contacted by this site my thoughts are 100% my own

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Moments that Mattered

I've been meaning to write this post for a while, but I've been putting it off. I felt I needed to do it for closure and to help me forget, but I also knew that writing it down would get it all out again. 

When I saw She Might be Loved was running a competition with Lloyds Bank to win an iPad mini I figured this was a perfect excuse. If not a sign to just 'get on with it'. The title for the post had to be 'Moments that Mattered' and whilst this usually makes you think of a positive event like a graduation or your sons first steps (which is almost what I decided to make this post about) I thought that some moments that really matter aren't always positive, or at least they don't seem that way at the time.

You see last year was a very hard one for me. I was going through a lot. I had moved back with my parents due to our flat being covered in mould that our landlady didn't want to take responsibility for. With a 3 month old with tiny lungs I was worried for my families health. We moved into my parents, my brother kindly gave us his room for the 3 of us to live in, while our furniture took over every crevice of their house. 

During this I was suffering with depression, I was put on medication to help and advised to talk to someone about it. It took a lot but I eventually e-mailed my best friend. I hated admitting there was a problem as I always felt like I could put on a brave face so well. She replied a general 'sorry to hear that' and that's the last I heard. She had a wedding to plan so I didn't want to bother her with how I was feeling, she now lived so far from me it was hard to talk when I needed to and with such little space in the house I couldn't exactly call her in tears pouring my heart out. I just got on with it. I had another close friend who had a child herself, whether it was the depression talking or not, she made me feel like the worlds worst mother. She brought her child up so differently from how I was bringing up mine and she would judge me and make comments at every given opportunity. She would ask me to come to coffee shops with her and the kids, something I have always expressed that I hated doing. It's so out of my comfort zone and I'm constantly worried that others are judging me or my child for disturbing them. I knew it did me good to get out of the house so I would go along and often come back more deflated than I felt before I went out. With her comments and her child being allowed to shout in my sleeping baby's face I was constantly on edge. I never got to talk to her about how I was feeling due to the kids being there so I never gained anything positive from it. My family and close friends could tell when I'd seen her as I was so down and withdrawn afterwards. Eventually my doctor advised that I distance myself from who ever was making my condition worse. I confided in my best friend and along with telling me how awful this girl was and complaining about her, she said I was doing the right thing. Of course I probably should have  explained all of this to my friend but the stress of telling her everything made me extremely anxious. I was a complete coward. It's hard to tell someone something like that but it really was best for my health, at least for the time being.

Along with this there were 2 weddings which we were all bridesmaids for. Again I was feeling terrified, I was now extremely uncomfortable around anyone who wasn't my immediate family, even my partners family who are lovely to me. I couldn't let my friends down and I refused to let this illness control me. I attended hen parties, make-up and hair trials and stayed all day and night away from my child with a brave face which is the hardest thing I have ever done. I felt like I looked horrible in the dresses I wore, I felt huge but I had actually lost 2 stone in weight. I didn't want to say anything as everyone else loved how they looked and I was scared of letting it all out and admitting I had a problem. We had to do our own make-up which scared me as the stress had now badly effected my skin, I hated the thought of people looking at me or taking my picture. I just didn't want to ruin anything. To be honest the way I was feeling, nothing would have been right, I just wanted to be at home in my comfort zone of my 4 walls. 

I was now so uncomfortable around everyone. I didn't want to drink as I felt it made me gain weight, plus with how ill I was getting my body couldn't handle it.
I ended up in hospital. I was very very ill. I don't want to go into too much but it was a really scary time for me. I was let out just before my best mates hen party and I made sure I went along to it. I was in a huge amount of pain and tried my hardest to put on a brave face. I could tell they were all fed up of me and thought I was putting it on. I made the effort to include myself and dance with them all, while inside I was screaming in pain. My friends barely spoke to me on the way home and when I got in the door I was doubled over in pain and in hysterical tears. I spoke to my best friend the next day and told her how I was feeling, again she blamed the friend of mine with the child and couldn't believe how she had made me feel. 

The day of wedding no2 came, by this point I had barely seen anyone in weeks. I spent 2 long days away from my family in a dress I felt huge in. We all had to match our friend who was now pregnant so it was practically a maternity dress and extremely unflattering on me. I'd made gift bags for all the bridesmaids and brought photos of us all to look at together while we all got ready. I was slightly better at this wedding as my parents were invited. Something that they were shocked at as they had never got on with my friend or her partner. They assumed it was to make up the numbers. I was just happy they were there.

I smiled through it all  and was extremely happy for the weddings to now be over. I could finally start talking about how I was feeling without adding to the stress of anyones big day.

Then it happened.
 A baby shower was being planned for the friend I was no longer talking to. I told the girls I wasn't going to be two-faced and go, they respected my decision and they went anyway. They told me they were fine with it. Especially my best mate as she understood how I felt about her making my health worse. 
This is why I was shocked a few days later when a very nasty email ended up in my inbox. It was a group e-mail between all of them, started by my best friend and it had clearly being going on a long while. It was about how much they hated me, saying she'd now had enough and wanted to be rid of me and was urging the others to feel the same. She even had the cheek to say she thought I was lying about being ill. I was devastated! Luckily my son was napping as I broke down in tears. I couldn't breathe. 

I tried calling my best mate but she wouldn't answer. Eventually she agreed to talk to me that evening. I tried my best to explain so much stuff in such a short amount of time but I just didn't know where to start. She was nice as pie and said we should meet up for dinner to talk.
It should have been just me and her but she insisted she brought along her little sidekick. This girl was a great friend of mine, the one I could totally confide in. She moved abroad during my depression so I couldn't tell her how I was feeling. Looking back it should have been her I told about the depression, not my best friend. My best friend was always nasty about her, saying she was easy to manipulate as she was so young. I admired how headstrong she was for such a young age. We had so much in common, both were the same size, loved high heels and bad reality TV. I suppose my best friend hated the natural bond we had. And she had now been turned against me like the rest. I can only assume she was laying the bait while she was abroad and with me already pretty much out of the picture (through me distancing myself) it was easy. My mum and (all of) my ex boyfriends had always said my best mate always wanted to control me, I suppose now the fact she couldn't is why she got so nasty. 

Hindsight is an amazing thing, I just couldn't see it at the time!

She had ruined my relationships with each partner I had, moving me on to someone who was better for me, then when I was fond of them she'd do the same again. She was even trying to ruin my relationship with my partners family by stirring up things that had said on faceboook or bitching about how nasty they were, this is still a problem to this day but I plan to fix it as I am certainly sticking around! 
Anyway at this meal they basically ganged up on me, said  I was a liar, they were 'done with me' and that this couldn't be fixed. I was unsure why I was even brought there, the had clearly made up their minds long before I'd even walked in. She knew about my depression, she could see how I was, (and I have since been told even my mum had messaged her asking her to help) but she used this to her advantage. She knew I was down and wanted to kick me down even further. She said she just 'thought I was over it'...
I went home afterwards after them begrudgingly saying we'd meet again in a few weeks and see how things were. I assumed it was to exclude me from the party they had not-so-secretly been planning. I wouldn't have gone anyway, they should have known that. They knew this week would be the week of my birthday. I didn't need that. So I cried half the way home, and the other half I came to my senses. I walked in the door and explained to my partner what happened, and I told him I was going to sleep on it but I was pretty sure I now had to cut all ties. My doctor had told me to distance myself from what ever was making me worse. I thought this was one person, my best friend had now made it a nice rounded group of 4. 

Now I'm not saying I'm over it. I wouldn't need to write this post if I was, I still have bitter moments when I get angry at her for treating me this way. When the people that you thought would always be there for you let you down it's a hard thing to come to terms with. But it was a moment that mattered, it changed my life for the better. I saw who these people really were and moved on, it was hard and still is. I live in the same town as them and I know I'll bump into them at some point. But I am better off without them. I have some amazingly lovely friends around me and since that day my health has got better and better. I've realised who really matter, the people who help when they see a person crumbling. I'm now around such lovely positive people that I am so thankful for. 

Last year wasn't the best but I'm going to make DAMN SURE 2014 makes up for it!

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Pastel Polka Dot Nails

Not that it's mid January I can start convincing myself that Winter is slowly but surely leaving us. I wish I could say I liked snuggling up in warm jumpers but I just don't. I'm a Summer girl and I'm counting down to Spring!

And I'm way ahead of myself, especially on the nail front. It seemed like the best place to start seeing as it's too cold to get out the floaty skirts just yet. 

Out with the Berry Reds and Taupes I wore so much over the Christmas Season and in with the Pastels! Pastel nails are probably my favourite look if I'm honest. I just love the girlyness of them without being too pink and pretty.

So for this I used a mixture of polishes from my collection along with my new Barry M Nail art pen that I picked up in a recent Boots Haul.

The colours I used are Revlon 'Blue Lagoon', Models Own 'Grape Juice', Maybelline 'Mint for Life'  and Nails inc 'You're a Peach'

I very simply dotted randomly with the black nail pen and that was that. Very simple indeed. I love the nail art pen, I find Berry M ones much easier to use than other brands as they feel sort of like a felt tip and are much easier to manage.

Polka dots are the easiest to do and they can transform a very simple look into something a bit more interesting.

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