Payday Needs..

So today is my favourite day of the month- PAYDAY, and I was looking forward to some retail therapy (even though I went shopping twice, yes TWICE last Thursday). However this has gone tits up (I love that phrase) as 3 weeks today I will be in Tenerife. Yes I am in the process of booking a last minute holiday, and as this year I am being a skinflint in attempting to save up for a house and refraining from buying any designer handbags I am going to be spontanious and have a holiday.

Now flying scares the living shit out of me, however I am thinking of the lovely duty free I can get...

Anyway these Topshop wants are actually Topshop wishes as I am going to try my hardest not to buy any clothes this month... I'm not holding my breath

Blossom Floral Print Dress £29, Coral Cape Cardi £38

Bright Stripe Vest £16, Camel Fold Over Hareems £38

Apricot Grandad Shirt (I have this however not 100% sure on it) £35, Blue Scallop Hem Shorts £34

Oval Ring £12.50, Floral Crochet Neck Sundress £32.

All Topshop

I now have less than 3 weeks to get a bikini body- arghhhhhhh

Whats Haute and Whats Not #5

Does this time actually exist on a Subday morning?? Seriously what is wrong with me and the early morning get up on a Sunday- its not right. Here's the first lot of WHAWN for 2011. Enjoy


Haute.

• February - being the shortest space between two paydays in the year therefore it's realistically the only month of the year you can actually save some money.
• Nearly FLIP FLOP time…
• Sickness bugs- 5lb weight loss, for 4 days of hell- every cloud has a silver lining.
• Planning summer jollidays.
• The LEDERHOSEN.
• Easter Bank Holiday is getting closer- which means Sunday drinking sessions.
• The thought of having an extra bank holiday (whoop whoop!).
• The Look Show.
• Cobalt blue - clothes, jewellery, shoes - it all works.
• Stripes - nautical but nice… if DVF is doing it, then so should we.
• Maternity leave!!  JEM finishing work in 9 weeks and she can't wait!!
• Harrison Ford.  He's nearly 70 and JEM still wouldn't kick him out on a cold night.
• Tangle teezer- where have you been all my life!!

Not.

• The weather… more freaking snow?? Enough already.
• Sickness bugs- I don’t want to befriend the bottom of the toilet bowl no more.
• Katie Price on Lets Dance for Comic Relief- was that excessive hair her own… spew.
• The earthquake in Christchurch, New Zealand :( awful.
• Attempting to plan an outfit - when you decide to wear a dress, it rains.  When you think you're going to wear trousers, it's red hot.  Best just wait til the day, then.
• Peter Andre- he breathes and he annoys the hell out of me. Stop pimping your children out in every magazine known to mankind.
• Sandra Bullock's full-on fringe - looks like she's trying to hide under a marsupial.
• Jason Manford- watching you is like pulling teeth. You’re not funny mate.
• Steve Jones- you were a welsh fittie, what has happened to you?? Have a shave and sort your hair out (and you're jokes aren't funny).
• Bruno Mars- I'd throw a bloody grenade off your head mate. Also who walks the streets pulling a piano?? Seriously rent a van- tight arse.

Think I might go back to bed for a bit xx



Blog Stalker #1

So I've decided that a bit like Twitter's "Follow Friday", I'm going to start posting what used to be known as Bloglovin' on a Friday as a perminant feature (and its getting renamed as Blog Stalker).

Now this weeks is a bit different as its just the one blog I want to check out by a good friend of mine- but its a blog I know you are all going to love (espically if you love cake- who doesn't).

http://sweethingscupcakes.blogspot.com/

Now you've seen on my Valentine's day post that I have mentioned the urban myth that is my office partner in crime aka Lauren's cupcakes, which are literally THE BEST CUPCAKES known to mankind. Myself and the rest of the office are the official taste testers of Lauren's creations.

Lauren and her sister Lydia have set up a cupcake making buisness set in the North-East, and to date they've made cupcakes for birthday, retirement parties, and Lauren's own wedding cake. Now I'm trying to persuade Lauren to sell these cupcakes online in the UK so fingers crossed she will. Our office is totally split as to what our favourite cakes are (mine is the chocolate chip banana), however they are all delicious.

Above is the infamous cake pops minus the sticks- one of these is never enough, I could eat them all day.

Lauren's wedding cake... lush!!!

If you are based in the North-East and want to purchase some of these cupcakes, please drop Lauren and Lydia an email (all information is on the blog). In the meantime, please follow Sweethings and show them some love (while drooling over the pictures of yummy cakes).

Upcoming Mac Collections...

I am finally feeling 100% again - thank you for your messages the other day, however the love affair between me and Buck is officially over. Now I was going to do a post today on my clip in hair extension disaster, however I have been majorly side tracked by Tao's makeup blog and her swatches of the upcoming Mac collections.


Now its one thing seeing the promo shots, which I sometimes don't think show a product to its full potential (a bit like the mac website), and I haven't been that fussed by the upcoming collections... however that opinion has changed. I thought I would share with you my favourites, for more swatches have a look on Tao's blog. I think I may be spending quite a bit of money on make up in the next few months...


Viva Glam Gaga 2.

Following the massive success of her first lippy the Queen herself is back with a light warm beige/nude (amplified creme) lipstick. Now the promo shots really don't do this product justice, however after seeing these swatches, I will definately be buying this. I'm not too keen on the lipglass personally, however I need this lippy in my life, and its for a fab cause (another reason to buy it). For some reason this colour reminds me of the Caramel Nails Inc (Diet Coke) nail polish- ooo I could get all matchy matchy.

Jeanius.

Lipsticks in Acid Washed (greyish beige with gold pearlized pigments) and Riveting Rose (Deep Burgundy with blue pearlized pigments). Personally I'm not keen on these lipsticks- I think you will have probably gathered that its all about the nude lippy for me. For some reason darker colours/reds don't suit me. Blushes in Pink Cult (mid tone neutral pink) and Overdyed (bright magenta)- I am loving pink cult and I definately will be picking one of these up out of this collection. Thinking Pink Cult will be my new workstaple, not so keen on Overdyed, however no doubt a little will go a long way.

Now to my personal favourites out of this collection...

...the eyeshadows.

Jeanius eyeshadows in (clockwise) Diva in Distress (mid-tone grey with silver pearl overspray), Stovepipe Black (Black with copper pearl overspray), Motorhead (mid-tone blue with copper pearl overspray), and White Jeanius (white with silver overspray). You know how much I love a smokey eye, and these shadows are right up my street!! I want them all!!

Quite Cute.

The promo shots for this definately caught my eye after seeing it on Steph's blog, and the collection definately lives up to my expectations.

Lipsticks in Saint Germain (Pastel Pink), Play Time (Intense Violet), Quite Cute (Whitened Lavender), and Candy Yum Yum (Neon Pink). Swatches- (l-r) Candy Yum Yum, Quite Cute, Play Time, and Saint Germain.There is also Playing Koi lippy (creamy white peach pink not pictured) in the collection. I think if you had to match lipstick colours to season, Mac have definately nailed this. I wish I had the balls to pull off Candy Yum Yum- this is definately a colour I know my bestie would be able to wear and get away with. I really like Play Time (and that makes me sound about 5), however I have my heart set on....

Plushglass in Bubble Tea, I <3 U, Girl <3 Boy, and Fashion Fanatic. Mineralized Blush (The heart goes all the way through) in Giggly, Sakura, and Miss Behave. I really want the lipglasses in Girl <3 Boy and Fashion Fantatic- for some reason FF reminds me of my all time favourite lipglass Florabundance.

Seriously how cute are these mineralized blushes?? I wouldn't want to use them, as they're too pretty. I want all three!!

How excited are you for these collections?? Do you buy into the hype or stick to the perimant lines?? I am going to be skint!!! xxx

*all images are from Tao's blog*

Meet the new man in my life...

His name is Buck, and he's constantly been by my side since Thursday night.

I think its love...

Still going strong

So some people have been asking about my fibreglass nail extensions, and I thought I would do a post to show you how fab they are. Now many moons ago, I used to have strong long nails (a bit like JEMs) which grew fast, however working part time in a supermarket totally wrecked my nails. My nails have never recovered- normally I keep my nails short as they split, and as soon as they get to a certain length they split.

I've seen many reviews on blogs about nailene nails and how realistic they look, so I tried some false nails from Boots (can't remember the name but they weren't nailene), and they totally wrecked my nails and looked a complete mess. Luckily my friend Jill is a trained nail technician and offered to put some fibreglass extensions on for me. Now the major advantage of fibreglass extensions is that they are built up via layers (fibreglass wrap is placed on nail bed, and an activating spray builds the layers up) and they don't damage your natural nail underneath.

To date, I've had one lot on infils since beginning of December, and I'm getting my second lot done tonight- purely because of Jill's work shifts, I could have gone another week or two. None of my nails have snapped off, bar my two index fingers which I have peeled off (purely because I had stained the back of my natural nails and they looked horrid), however there is no damage to my nails.

The damage on the top half of my nails were caused by the fake nails I bought from Boots, however as you can see there is no damage to the bottom of my nails.

Another major advantage of having extensions is the fact that my nail polish lasts way longer- this polish (OPI Lincoln Park After Dark- my new fav) has been on my nails for nearly too weeks. The only chips is on the polish on my natural nail as it grows, and this is purely due to the oil in my nails. There is some wear on the tip of my thumb nail purely as I use my thumbs to text on my blackberry.

Could I go back to au natural nails?? Nope I love my fake nails too much.

Party in the USA

I blame Laura for making me have bloody Miley Cirus song stuck in my head, as she has basically unearthed my singing career on youtube. Realised I haven't done an outfit out the day in ages, so I thought I would share this picture which Kayleigh took of me upstairs in Buddha on the "catwalk" as we call it (for some reason you can't help but strut down it to the loos) on the bloggers meet up.

Black Lace Insert Slip Dress- Topshop

Leather Jacket- New Look

Chanel XL Jumbo (hidden behind me)

Leopard Print Courts- New Look

Watch- Asos

You can see the colour of my hair, however I think I want it more red. I also really need to learn how to style my hair more on a night out, as all what I end up doing is curling it, for it to go gash as soon as I step foot into the first bar. Must watch some FoxyLocksExtension tutorials on Youtube when I get the chance.

Anyway onto my singing career- being bored on a night, I decided to record myself singing some songs, I'm wearing my glasses as I couldn't be bothered to put my contacts in. To get the full effect of my singing abilities crank up the speakers on your comp.

I'm going to audition for the X Factor xxx

Do you love me?? Do you love me??

URGH

Thats all what I have to say about Valentines haha. I don't see the point in having one day of the year to celebrate love- whoever/whatever you love, you should tell them on a daily basis, not one day of the year. However as it is a holiday... celebrating love (urgh, can you tell I'm single haha), why not treat the number one person in your life....

YOU

Thought I would go with a bit of a red theme- this is all the lovey doveyness you're getting out of me.

Dress £14.99 H+M, Cheery Cape Top £33 Topshop, Peter Pan Swing Collar Jumper £21 Asos, CL 100 Patent Leather Peep Toe Pumps £385 Net-a-porter.

Oversized striped top £14.99 New Look, Duffle Coat £25 Miss Selfridge, McQueen Cashmire Skull Scarf £215 Net-a-porter, Louise Grey T-Shirt Dress £45 Asos.

Red Button Circle Skirt £26.99 River Island, Red Heart Bodice Dress £28 Topshop, Skinny Jeans £25.99 New Look, Red Poppy Print Tunic £32 Dorothy Perkins.

Red Spot Shoes £35 Next, Vera Moda 50s Flare Dress £25 Asos, Vivienne Westwood Melissa Shoes £120 Asos, Valentines Rose Dress £45 Miss Selfridge.

Lauren baked malteaser cupcakes for us all- balls to the diet. Nom Nom Nom

Love xxx

Bloglovin'

Bonjour- quick post from me, I never knew 11.35 actually existed on a Sunday morning. Can't believe how fast this weekend has gone and its back to work tomorrow. Nothing much to report from me, apart from apologies for being a bad blogger and hardly posting lately- don't worry this will be changing. Had an epic shopping trip yesterday- Primark at the Metro was actually full of loads of decent stuff (one for the books), I'll share my purchases with yous later in the week.

Onto my current favourite blogs at the moment-

http://racheyem.blogspot.com

Firstly she shares the same name as me- extra cool points there. When I discovered Rachey's blog, one thing which stood out to me, is how she has taken the time in a series of posts to put Valentines looks together- but outfits for all types of scenaros, which I love. Loving her obsession with Primark too- you can never go wrong with a bit of Primark. And she is gorgeous too- so go get following her now!!!

www.bimbobeautiful.com

You may be aware of the stunning Nadine's blog and her bright red hair (so jealous). When I came accross her blog, I sat and read it all, love her random mix of posts. Also, this girl LOVES to party, love how she posts her drunken photos from all her nights out. What I love about her blog is the fact that she is proof that you can dress head to toe in Topshop, but make an outfit entirely her own and unique. Love love love her blog- get following!!!

http://my-favourite-fashion.blogspot.com

What can I say about Victoria's blog- the girl is a fashion genius!! I love how she mixes high street and vintage pieces. I'm jealous of her wardrobe too, however I do think her wardrobe is like Narnia... it may look small (from the pictures) however I definately think looks are decieveing. Love her "Inspiration of the week" features, I've found some fab blogs through this. Follow follow follow.

Hope your having a fab Sunday peeps xxx

Is your name Richie Rich?? Blogger Meet Up

So the blogger meet up FINALLY took place last weekend, and what a fab weekend it was sampling the sights and sounds of Durham (aka Dirrrttttyyy Duzza). Myself, JEM (and bump), Ellie, Steph, Laura (and Julie) had a fab time eating too much, and drinking one too many cocktails, whilst hopefully the latter not getting scarred for life with some of the sights they faced on Saturday (and I'm not talking about me being drunk).

I didn't take any pictures of the meal in Tia's (lush mexican food) while JEM was there, however she does exist. The only pictures I do have is from nearly the end of the night in Loveshack where we were getting our groove on. What else happened?? Laura enjoys drinks down her front, Steph had common sense and wore comfy shoes all night, Me and Ellie spent 2 quid very wisely on a 30 second taxi ride, and we learned how to gamble hahaha.

Julie and Ellie. Is that Paul from S Club 7 next to Julie??

Julie, Laura, Steph

Ellie ane Me

Laura, Steph, Moi

Steph, Ellie, Me, Laura

Awww how cute, Laura and Julie

Steph, Laura, Julie, Moi

Fab night with the girlies, can't wait to see them again!!! xxx

NOTD/Giveaway Winner

I'm going to keep this post very brief considering you will have seen a 1001 swatches of this colour, Nails Inc Caramel (Diet Coke promo). Now after swatching this on Lauren in my office, I thought this was basically a dupe for Models Own Nude Beige. It got thrown to the back of my nail polish drawer, until the other week...

With having nail extensions and as I like to call them man hands, I feel that bright colours don't look right on my nails, so many of my favourite nail polishes have been neglected lately. I've been playing safe and sticking to either blacks/berry shades, with the occassional Nude Beige thrown in. So the other week I thought I would give this colour an outing, and after putting the usual two coats on- I hated it. However as I couldn't be bothered to remove it/get gassed from the stink of acetone free polish remover, I thought I would leave it on.

My nails look a bit blahhh, blame the BB flash. However I love this colour!!! Perfect colour for work, and I think the second picture shows the colour better.

Anyway onto the winner of the giveaway... sorry its taken so long for me to get sorted....

Steph from http://veryrandomrambles.blogspot.com/

Steph can you email me with your address please.

Oh who wants to see some drunken pictures from last weekend tomorrow?? xxx

January Favourites

Seriously where has January gone too?? I dont know if its my old age, but the weeks are starting to fly by- is this what being old does to you. I know this is a belated post- I'm still shattered from the weekend. Pictures to share and I'll tell you all about that in a seperate post sometime this week.

So what products have I been loving in my birthday month, as you can see there is very little...

Liz Earle Cleanse and Polish- omg where have you been all of my life. Seriously I know that the majority of beauty blogger rave about this product- believe the hype!!! This takes off your make up (including mascara), you can rub it over your eyes (doesn't sting or anything) and it makes your face feel lush. A little product goes a very long way. I'll do a proper review on this soon- but this is a product I'll deffo continue to buy.

Soap and Glory- Hand Food- I'm obsessed with applying this all day at work. I think this is helping to keep my nail extensions longers. Like all S+G products- I love the smell, just don't wear Viktor and Rolf Flowerbomb when using it, as the smell of the two combined gets a bit sickly.

St Tropez Body Polish- I bought this in a set from boots for £12 in the sales. Initally I bought this set to try the St Tropez Tanning Lotion, however this scrub is fabulous in prepping your skin to apply fake tan, and then to get rid of it. I've noticed from using it that my tan is fading more gradually and not going patchy at all. LOVE.

VO5 Curl Boost- this secret weapon is the key to keep my curls in place on a night out. I used this for my birthday night out and wow curls kept all night. Deffo a keeper for me.

Fructis Bamboo Hold Hairspray- you know how much I love this. I don't need to rave on about this product- its fab.

Gucci by Gucci- I've had this perfume for quite a while, I would say its more of an "evening" perfume as its quite strong, however I've been wearing it for work- scent lasts all day. Think its one of those perfumes which I like, however once its used up I doubt I will buy it again.

Mac goodies- Shy Girl Lippy, Retro-speck and Carbon eyeshadows. Shy girl is the lastest addition to my mac lippy collection- thanks to my cousin and pinching hers in Buddha on Christmas Eve, love how its a slight variation on my typical nude lippy (coral nude), yet its still a nude lippy. Plus I got it free with the back 2 mac offer- even better. I'll deffo be repurchasing this again.

Retro-speck and Carbon eyeshadow- JEM bought me these for my birthday bless her, I'd asked her for the empty pans so I could pop them straight in my pallette however she wanted to buy them with the case so I could depot and get another lippy. Loving these two eyeshadows along with Satin Taupe for a twist on my typical grey smoky eye. Also the retro-speck I think I will be using for when I'm bridesmaid for me marra Holly in August (if your reading this- remind me to bring it next time I see you haha).

So thats January's favourites over and done with, can't believe that its well into Feb xxx

Bloglovin'

I stink...

...of soap and glory. I think I've gone a bit ott with my hand cream, mixed in with some Viktor and Rolf Flowerbomb, ooo I smell like a fairy haha. I see quite a lot of you learned a lot from the dieting tips we posted earlier this week... see urban myths are accurate haha. Erm nothing else really to report from the land of Ray atm, just patiently waiting for THE BLOGGER MEET UP tomorrow!! Excited- erm just a little bit haha.


Some blogs for you to check out and follow this week...

http://www.klghairadvice.com/

Kelly is a LEGEND- a legend of the highest order. I credit my birthday night out hair (pictures to come) to her, she put up with my 1001 emails asking how to do my hair, and now I can have curly hair...ALL NIGHT. Kelly is a magnet for attracting vert fit men... no names mentioned erm Lee Stafford and an Aussie hunk... jealous doesn't even come into it. Love how Kelly shows her readers fab examples of her work, and then simple step by step instructions on how to recreate the look yourself.

http://lilylipstick.blogspot.com/

Everyone knows the lovely Lily, love Lily's blog as she has a mix of everything on there- fashion, make up, day to day goings on- everything!!! I don't think I need to go into any more detail... you all know the score :)

http://belles-boutique.blogspot.com/

Laura-Leigh's blog is a new blog which I have only recently started to follow thanks to Holly on Twitter. What do I like about Laura-Leigh's apart from the fact she owns a pair of the LEDERHOSEN see here could she get any cooler- nope. I'm jealous of her xen tan, even more after me recent mishap, love her style, oh and she pouts like a good un too (just like me). Fabulous!!!

Have a fab weekend peeps xxx

The tan which is invisable to the human eye....

I think you will probably have gathered from reading the blog that I am partial to a bit of fake tan when I’m on a night out. My hg of all tanning products is St Tropez Mousse- I can’t get enough of the stuff. However my only gripe with this product, is the fact that for a night out- I normally have 3 coats on my legs and 2 on my upper body so I appear to have a tan. Now after reading so many positive reviews in both magazines and on your blogs, I decided to try Xen Tan- I think it was the fact that the darker colour it claims to produce would drastically cut my tanning time.

Before coming into the “blogging community” I would buy products just for the sake of buying, spending far too much money on stuff. However now I do my research, ask for opinions on twitter and then buy the product. I’d done my research on xen tan and opted for a bottle of the deep bronze luxe tan.

What Xen Tan say about this-

"Offering outstanding results, it contains more DHA than our best-selling Deep Bronze product, so offers a deeper colour after just one application. Plus the larger pack means you'll enjoy even more tans from each purchase. It also contains additional vitamin E, Green Tea and skin-loving anti-oxidants that soothe, smooth and nourish skin while providing an instant and natural colour you'll love"

Excited much?? Oh yes, now as soon as I received this product through the post I had to use it. I double checked that the product didn’t look off (it was fine), and the smell- wow no digestive biscuit smelling for me.

However these feelings soon started to disappear, after applying the tan to my legs alarm bells started ringing when there was no colour in the product after putting it on my legs- nothing at all. I had no guidance as to whether my legs were covered or not, as you can tell from the pictures- there is no guidance. Now as I haven’t read on anyone’s blogs about this, I thought it must be normal. But considering St Tropez lotion leaves colour guidance, I was a bit disappointed with there being none. While waiting for the colour to develop I started to doubt whether my product was “off” as there was no change at all in my leg colour- no tan developing nothing.   

Can you see where I have rubbed the product in?? No colour guidance at all.

Next morning, after 12 hours of it being on my legs I wake up to find that my legs have got a slight orange tinge to it, and after rinsing in the shower, my legs were left looking whiter than white- no golden tan, nothing. Disappointment- oh yes.

Overall thoughts on this- I love the smell of the product and thats about it. Considering it didn’t work at all- what a waste of money, I’ll be sticking to the St Tropez Mousse in future.