Branching out - June/July favourites - part 1

I've got a very different sort of post to my usual today! I've decided to branch out from sticking to nail looks (though those will remain the main feature) and I'm thinking about making this a monthly feature. It will include my favourite things from the month be it nail polish, books, beauty items, films, perfume etc! I may also from time to time post reviews of products that fall outside nail polish reviews such as make up items. Let me know if you would like this to be a regular feature or not!

I've decided to split this first post in two due to the sheer amount of things I've included! Without further ado, here are the first half of my favourites for the last month or so!

1. The first item on the favourites list is Cutex's Nourishing Nail Polish Remover! Sticking to the nail side of things to start with, this polish remover is one of my all time greats. It leaves your nails looking nice and moisturised unlike some which can cause horrible peeling if they include a strong concentration of acetone. Furthermore, the smell that this leaves on your fingers is very different to the normal acidic smell you tend to get from removers and has a slightly chocolatey smell to it!





















2. The second item is ORLY's Rich Renewal hand creme in Peace. This hand cream smells absolutely divine and the scent lingers for a long time which I really like! It came in a kit I got when I did a manicure course earlier in July and I've used it when I've done manicures on my mum and she also agrees that it smells amazing! The only down side is that it is quite oily and doesn't soak into the skin for a while but the smell alone is good enough for me to look past that! The smell is spiced vanilla and white tea - I seriously wish that smellivision was a thing so you could have a whiff of this!

3. The next favourite is an item that I've been using daily for several months now! I'm on my third pack of Witch's cleansing and toning facial wipes and have loved using them! They leave yur face feeling fresh and remove any traces of make up - including mascara - easily and quickly. They also aren't too heavily scented which means you're not constantly smelling a strong cleanser smell.

4. Number four on the list is a body lotion - E45's endless moisture body lotion to be exact! This lotion works great on my skin as I've got very dry skin on my legs. This makes them feel moisturised and soft for a few days and is a product I used quite often. It's very runny which also makes it very easy to spread and it is "lightly fragranced" so it's not an offensive product to use. 

5. Coming in at number five (not that these are in any order really) is another nail related product - Streaker Beauty's 100/180 grit nail file. I bought these a few weeks ago to replace some old nail files and wow, I'm glad I got them! I only need the 100 grit side on my nails as they're natural and it's super quick. It means that if I've got a break (god forbid) or I just want to keep them nice and even it takes me a few swipes and it's sorted. These are super cheap too which is also a plus!

6. Makeup now - and my favourite product has been NYC's Applelicious Glossy Lip Balm in Applelicious Pink! I know this is supposed to be "glossy" but on me for some reason there is next to no gloss.. you would think that this would put me off it rather than make me love it but alas, no! I love this lip balm as it gives a perfect amount of colour which isn't too bold and isn't too bland. The cute as heck apple shape through the middle is adorable too!

7. Number seven is completely different to everything so far - it's a book! The Hunt by Andrew Fukuda is a book that I purchased a while ago but never got around to reading until about a week ago and as soon as I started, I whizzed through it in a few hours! The story is really gripping and I liked the plot - twists that I really didn't expect caught me out but I really loved it! 

8. The penultimate item is yet another random one! I've been trying to drink a lot more fluids as I really wasn't drinking enough before but I've always disliked the taste of plain water (and yes - it so does have a taste!) and so picked up a bunch of flavoured water from ASDA. The Cherry and Plum still water has been my favourite of these so far!

9. The last thing on part one of my June/July favourites is not an item that I own, per se, but it's film that I saw last week - Man of Steel! Wow it was fantastic! I really really really enjoyed this film and cannot praise it highly enough. The casting was spot on (totally wasn't fangirling over how attractive Henry Cavill is) and I generally couldn't fault it! I recommend you check it out!

 That's it for part one - part two will be up sometime soon!                         

31 day challenge - Day 31 - Recreate your favourite challenge!

The day has come! The very last challenge is here and I kind of bent the rules a little.. Rather than recreating my favourite look I instead chose a prompt and re-did the whole thing completely differently and the one I chose was inspired by a movie! I wanted to go out with something that I love and I do love films (if you know me, you know just how obsessed I am!), especially Marvel films! This look is therefore dedicated to Spider-Man!

I just wanted to say a quick thank you to anyone who has read my posts and supported me along the way! I've also added a collage of all the looks I've created (apart from this one!) which is at the end of the post!

31 day challenge - Day 30 - Inspired by a Tutorial

Wow, I can't believe I've nearly reached the end of this challenge! Despite it taking me much longer than 31 days (whoops!) I've had so much fun doing it! Today's challenge is to be inspired by a tutorial and as soon as I saw Jenfabulous's tutorial on YouTube I knew I had to attempt this look! The link to the original will be posted at the end.

 (The look is the last of the three!)

31 day challenge - Day 29 - Inspired by the Supernatural

So I completely suck at sticking to anything it seems and apparently this challenge is no different.. Many apologies for the lack of posts but I couldn't find it in me to be enthusiastic about the next few challenges for some reason but today I felt better and cracked on! Today's challenge is inspired by the supernatural and I couldn't think of much that wouldn't be too ridiculously difficult to do so settled on some spider-web nails which I think turned out pretty well!

31 day challenge - Day 28 - Inspired by a Flag (or several!)

I know, I know - I missed the post again yesterday! But back today with inspired by a flag and I decided that doing just one flag was boring so I did several!

31 day challenge - Day 27 - Inspired by Artwork

This challenge was another difficult one to think of inspiration for due to the vastness of options available (and my ability to pull any of them off..).  Because I tried (and ultimately failed) to recreate a couple of designs I'll put both of the looks I tried here!

Here's the first piece I liked!

Here's the second!

Yeah - nothing particularly good today but.. Well I actually have no excuse for that!

31 day challenge - Day 26 - Inspired by a Pattern

Inspired by a pattern was always going to be difficult as I'm not the best at difficult freehand stuff... I'm kinda happy with the way this turned out all things considered, though it isn't likely that I'll try it again any time soon!

Here's the pattern that inspired me!