Kreativ Blogger Award

To accept this award do the following:
1. Thank the person who nominated you for this award.
2. Copy the logo and place it on your blog.
3. Link to the person who nominated you for this award.
4. Name 7 things about yourself that people might find interesting.
5. Nominate 7 Kreativ Bloggers.
6. Post links to the 7 blogs you nominate.
7. Leave a comment on each of the blogs letting them know they have been nominated.

Thank you to Caz for this award - Her blog is awesome and pretty :) Please go and check it out
Here are my 7 interesting facts:
1. I love Strictly Come Dancing - I wish I could dance like they do
2. I think Stacey should win X Factor
3. I love Grey's Anatomy, but mostly McArmy ;)
4. I have a major obsession with nail polish, hence my nails are always painted
5. I prefer Twitter to Facebook
6. I still get all excited and smiley like a kid when I go Xmas shopping
7. I'm going to see Billy Connoly in January - which is like my most wanted thing for such a long time!!

The 7 Kreative Bloggers im nominating are:
1. Tanya @ Tanya Talks - she has Xmas music on her blog which made me SMILE!!!
2. Leanne @ Do Not Refreeze
3. Victoria @ Lily Loves Lola
4. J @ J's Blog
5. Zoe @ Zoella
6. Laura @ My name is Laura, and I'm a makeupaholic!
7. Sadie @ Sadie's Wardrobe

xshakespeare.and.stilettosx giveaway!

Hello my lovelies,

I've just been told about another fab giveaway over at xshakespeare.and.stilettosx

The rules:
- Must be a follower of the blog
- Write 'enter me' in the comments for 1 entry
- Blog about it to gain 5 instant entries

Click here for the link to the giveaway!

Ends on 9th December and is open internationally :)

Until next time,
Dottie xx

I Heart Cosmetics Christmas Holidays Giveaway

Hello everyone,

I just wanted to alert you to a) a fab blog I've come across, and b) the Christmas Holidays Giveaway that's on it :)

Ok, so the details:

Sarah's blog - I Heart Cosmetics and there are 2 amazing prizes!

Rules for the contest:
- You must be a follower
- Post the link to the contest on your blog
- Post a comment including your blog link on the giveaway post and tell Sarah what your favourite holiday food or drink (for example eggnog or haggis!) It doesn't have to be Christmas, whichever holiday you celebrate at this time of the year.

Simples!

It's open internationally and the deadline is midnight December 3rd 2009

Click here for the giveaway post!

Enjoy!

Until next time,
Dottie xx

Award: I <3 Your Blog

Hello my lovelies!

The lovely Tanya over at Tanya Talks Makeup tagged me for this award. Thank you :)

I love her blog, it's uber pretty!!


Ok so all you've got to do is pass this on to 15 of your favourite bloggers and their amazing blogs :)

I'm not sure if you're supposed to tag the person who tagged you or not, but I shall do it anyway!

Alas, here they are:

Tanya @ Tanya Talks Makeup
Becky @ Sirvinya
Arlene @ Dressjunkie
Charlotte @ Lipglossiping
Emily @ Pyxie
Sinead @ *Dainty*Dollymix*
Zoe @ Zoella
Amy @ Amy Antoinette
Leanne @ Do Not Refreeze
Victoria @ Lily Loves Lola
Carlinn @ Superficial Girls
Laura @ A Daisy Chain Dream
J @ J's Blog
Sophie @ Me Love Makeup
Sofie @ Zoffe's Makeup

Until next time,
Dottie xx

Review: Elegant Touch French Nails

I've had a box of Elegant Touch French Nails sitting in my drawer for ages. Saturday finally gave me the chance to use them. Not that it had anything to do with me running exceptionally late for a family meal and had failed to leave any time to do my nails...

Anyway, out came the nails. On the box it said that these were 'Get Real Truly Natural American Pink'. These were American style - Square with a cuticle moon. Ok, so what do you get in the box I hear you ask? 24 nails (strange number, I know) with glue in 10 sizes. Obviously the nails are in 10 sizes, not the glue... methinks someone needs a lesson in the English language.

The nails have applicator tabs on which are useful. I started with clean, short nails and applied the glue. It's important that you put the glue on one nail, then apply the nail, then start the process again with the next nail or the glue will dry and you want to make sure you give the nail the best chance of adhering to your natural nail. I had mine done and dusted within about 10 minutes. Give a few minutes to set and make sure you wipe off any excess glue and for heaven's sake don't superglue your fingers together lol!

When you're sure the nails have adhered and set, gently break the tab off. I did this by bending upwards, then downwards, then back up and it snapped off. Once you've done that on all the nails, use the file supplied to gently file the top of the nail where the tab was. And ta-da, you're done!

As you can see, they do look natural :) I love them and have had lots of compliments on them. They feel a lot stronger than previous ones I've used. I applied these on Saturday and I've only had one ping off but that's because I don't think it adhered completely in the first place. I always carry the nail glue around with me just in case! Previous nails I've used have lasted for around 7-14 days which is pretty good :)

I'm not sure how much they are - usually around £6-7 per box in Boots and Superdrug I think. If you have a Bodycare store near you try there first as I can usually pick up a box for around £3. I was uber lucky and found that a trader at our Students' Union was selling a box on her cosmetics stall so I got them for £2.50! I hope I've convinced you to try them :)

Until next time,
Dottie xx

LOTD

Well, this is more of a look of the night as I'm going out for dinner with some friends tonight to celebrate my 21st. I watched a tutorial that Marlena over at MakeUpGeek did the other day - Bright Blues and Purple. It gave me some inspiration. I'm a huge fan of purple at the moment so this was right up my street. I modified the look to suit me and came up with this:

Close-up:

Products used:

* Max Factor Miracle Touch Foundation
* Victoria Jackson blusher
* Rimmel Exaggerate Eye Definer
* Gosh Eye Shadow Base
* 120 Pro Palette
* Clarins Wonder Perfect Mascara
* Palmer's Cocoa Butter Formula Lip Balm
* Rimmel Royal Gloss in 301 Moreish

Hi-de-hi

I just looked and found I have some new followers :) Hello!! Welcome along :) I hope you like my blog and enjoy browsing. Any questions or queries, please don't hesitate to drop me an email.


Until next time,
Dottie xx

Mini Haul

As I mentioned in my last post, I went home this weekend as I had a meal booked with family and my best friend to celebrate my 21st. On Friday and I headed into Lincoln to meet Ruth. As I had some time to kill, and money burning a hole in my pocket, I hit the high street for some beautiful bargains.

Here are my lovely bargains:


First stop, Primark:

As you can see, I bought everything in purple! I needed a new hair brush and didn't want black so I went for purple. Bargain at just £1! I realised when I got home that I'd bought the wrong style of tights. Fail. But I can stick them on eBay. I love these gloves though! Not sure if you can really see it here (maybe click to enlarge?) but they have little shaped cutouts on the back of the hand and you can see the pink lining. Lovely! And only £7! Bargain!

Second stop, The Body Shop:

After finally finding my Body Shop loyalty card, I figured as I was there I should claim my birthday gift. So I went and bought a shower gel. I used to LOVE their strawberry one, but this time decided to get the Wild Cherry one. £5.85 a bottle. That's for 250ml. I only got it as it was my birthday gift. But I had no change so I used my card and as the outstanding price was 85p I had to buy something else. So I (stupidly perhaps) picked up a Merry Cranberry lip balm from the box by the till. £4.85 =\ And it doesn't smell or taste like cranberries. And it's a bit bitty. Disappointed.

Next stop, Boots:
Finally got my hands on some Max Factor Miracle Touch Foundation (£11.70 gah!) And I used my Boots Advantage Card points to get my Rimmel Exaggerate Eye Definer. Told you I'd be stocking up again!

Final stop, Asda:

I love, love, love this shower gel!! It's a brand called N-spa. Usually I think it's on sale for something like £3 or £4 a bottle. And you get 500ml for that price. Asda had an offer on this range and it was down to £2 a bottle. As I'd not seen this version before, I decided to try it. Smells gorgeous!! I highly recommend the yellow one which is lemon scented, and this one which is Blueberry Cream Pie. Yummy! Was slightly disappointed to find that the Asda I went into didn't stock George nail polish. I was dying to get my hands on some after Charlotte's reviews. Then I found that the foundation I bought in Boots was almost £4 cheaper at £8! Gutted.

Until next time,
Dottie xx

Rawr

You know by now how much I'm loving leopard print at the mo. I was home at the weekend and had a flick through the current Avon brochure and look what I found:



I would definitely try this on a fancy dress outing! Have any of you dressed up as animals on nights out?

Until next time,
Dottie xx

Review: Rimmel Exaggerate Eye Definer

I was just taking my makeup off and marvelled at the staying power of my eyeliner. I've been using Rimmel's Exaggerate Eye Definer in black for quite a while now. I usually use it to line my top lash line and waterline. Usually, how many times do you have to reapply eye liner to your waterline in a day? Countless sometimes, I know. Now today, as soon as I stepped out into the blustery morning, my eyes started watering at the sheer force of the wind. I never even thought about it until a few minutes ago, but I realised that I haven't once reapplied my eyeliner today.

It had only worn off ever so slightly at the outer corners. I was actually surprised. And its damned hard to get off with makeup wipes too! Tough staying power from an eyeliner is what every girl needs :) And at approximately £4, it's a brilliant bargain.

The miracle product:

It's a lovely creamy formula so it applies relatively easily, and I've found it smudges quite well using your finger or a cotton bud. I have no idea what the funny rubber foamy thing on the other end is all about. I thought it was for smudging your eyeliner, but I've only ever succeeded in making a mess. And hurting my eye area. Obviously I'm doing it wrong, but I think I'll stick with a cotton bud in the future. Regardless, this is the second one I've bought, and will definitely be restocking soon.

Available at Boots and Superdrug.

Until next time,
Dottie xx

Leopard Print Nails Take Three

Last week, Charlotte over at Lipglossiping (go follow her!) had a blog sale, and being a bargain hunter, I couldn't resist. One of the items I picked up was a Gosh Nail Lacquer. I'd never used their polishes before as my local store doesn't stock them. I bought 'Cappucino' shade #081. I'd describe it as a warm tone, a light brown with a golden pink shimmer to it. I used it on my nails, and well, wasn't overly impressed by the colour. It's nice but too, erm, dull for my liking I guess. However, I was at home and had the liberty of rifling through my Mum's polishes. I found a bronze colour from Avon which complimented the Gosh shade. So I was bored last Friday and I came up with this:



I posted this especially for Charlotte because she wanted to see what I'd done with the colour. I hope you like it :)

For my next nail design, I promise to do something different. I was checking out The Daily Nail yesterday, and fell in love with the poker nails. However, I feel I should learn to walk before I can run haha!

Until next time,
Dottie xx

LOTD

It's been a while since I've done one of these, so here we are:





Products used:
Moisturizer
Max Factor Miracle Touch Liquid Illusion Foundation in Golden
L'Oreal Touche Magique Concealer
Gosh Eye Shadow Base
Gosh Glamorous Eye Shadow in Beige #13
Maybelline Dream Mousse Eyecolour in Plum Temptation #06
Rimmel Exaggerate Waterproof Eye Definer in Noir #261
Victoria Jackson blush (a peachy-ish shade)
Max Factor False Lash Effect Mascara in Black
Palmer's Cocoa Butter Formula Moisturizing Lip Balm
Avon Pro To Go Lipstick in Frozen Rose

Until next time,
Dottie xx

Blog Alert!!!

I just had to let you know about an amazing blog I found!! I'm a huge nail polish junkie (as if you hadn't already noticed), and when I stumbled across this blog, I just had to share it with the rest of you.

I introduce The Daily Nail, a fab blog that aims to show you 365 different nail designs - one for every day. There are some truly amazing ones on there, certainly given me some inspiration!!

Check out today's entry (Nov 16th) - truly amazing!!!

Until next time,
Dottie xx

Dainty*Dollymix Giveaway!

Hello lovelies,

Sinead over at Dainty Dolly Mix is having a giveaway for celebrating having 50 followers :) Congrats Sinead!

The lucky winner will get:



* Barry M Nail paint in 'cyan blue 294'

* Revlon Fantasy lengths self adhesive eyelashes

* Rimmel colour palette with 6 eyeshadows, 1 powder blusher & 4 lipglosses

If you're not following her already - go and take a look at her fab blog: http://daintydollymix.blogspot.com/

Rules are on Sinead's blog, giveaway ends November 21st :)

That's all for now!

Until next time,
Dottie xx

Review: Max Factor Miracle Touch Liquid Illusion Foundation

I came home from uni this week, sans foundation. Idiot. I had a dig through my makeup collection and found a Max Factor sample that I'd received some time ago. It was the Miracle Touch Liquid Illusion Foundation.



When I opened it, I realised why it had been sat there for all this time. The two sample shades were not my usual shade, hence why they'd been filed in to my basket of makeup product misfits. I've always picked the lightest shades of foundation possible in order to avoid looking like I'd been tangoed. The lightest shade that Max Factor do is 'Creamy Ivory' #40. In the sample there were two shades, 'Natural' #70 and 'Golden' #75. At first glance, both looked too dark for me.

To give both you and I a comparison, the sample came with a handy colour palette as a shade guide:



I thought 'what the hell?' and decided to try the first one, 'Natural'. Hmm, didn't sound too bad. As I said before, I usually go for Max Factor's 'Creamy Ivory' shade as I am quite pale. But I've found that 'Creamy Ivory' always makes me look orange, regardless. So I figured I couldn't look any worse with 'Natural'.

I applied some moisturizer and then went about applying the foundation. At first, I was a little alarmed at the colour, it seemed too dark for my skin. However I blended it out and I have to say I didn't look orange. I looked completely, well, erm natural :) Yay! Now, for a tiny little sample, there is absolutely loads. I'm currently on my third day of using it and there's still quite a lot left. It blends effortlessly well into the skin and feels really lovely. I don't know whether that's because I used moisturizer first or whether the foundation really is that good. If you use moisturizer first, a little of this foundation goes a looong way :) My skin isn't at all oily, however, I think I'll order some High Definition Powder from ELF to help set the foundation, as I don't like too much of an all over dewy glow, if that makes sense :) As I don't own any of that yet, I added a little powder, and still finished up with a really natural looking, healthy glow to my skin. A HUGE thumbs up from me. I'm definitely adding this to my shopping list.

Until next time,
Dottie xx

EDIT: I have since tried using this foundation without moisturizing. It doesn't blend as well, I've found. How ever without moisturizer, the foundation doesn't seem to be overly dewy and I didn't need to use powder. Well, I suppose its personal preference as to which you prefer :)

Overhaul

Ah hello all!

As you may have noticed, I have completely overhauled my blog. New template, new design, etc etc.

I was bored with the old look and wanted something a little more 'me' :)

I've decided not to blog about law anymore. Not that I did a lot in the first place, yes I know. Feel free to flock to pastures new if thats the sole reason you were following me. Until I feel less disillusioned with my degree/career/future etc, I shall be blogging about anything else that I wish.

I do have 3 or 4 draft posts to complete. I say complete, they need photos, and as I am at home and have left my USB cable at uni, they're going to have to wait until next week. Blame my ever increasingly forgetful mind...

Until next time,
Dottie xx

FOTD

Just a quick post to show you a random neutral FOTD from a couple of days ago

Products used:
Loreal True Match Touche Magique Concealer
Max Factor Natural Minerals Foundation
Victoria Jackson blush
Gosh Eye Shadow Base
Avon Sueded Nudes Eye Shadow quad
Avon In A Blink Eye Shadow and Liner in Espresso
Max Factor False Lash Effect Mascara
Avon Glazewear Sparkle lipgloss in Pink A Glow (discontinued :[ managed to snap this up on eBay - recommended for cheap Avon bargains!)

This is a quick look I do when I don't have the time or inclination to do anything else :) Like in this instance when I had about an hour to get ready for a seminar. Oh the glamour...

Until next time,
Dottie xx

Glamour Magazine Nails Inc Promo

If you like Nails Inc nail polish, shimmy on down to your local supermarket/newsagent and grab yourself a copy of Glamour's December issue. For £2 you get the magazine and a FULL SIZE Nails Inc polish! They have 4 shades available. If you really wanted them all, buy 4 issues and you've got 4 polishes for £8 rather than £10.50 each.



They have Elizabeth Street, which is a gorgeous pale pink, and incidentally the one I picked up, Victoria which is a lush red colour, and then two other shades, one hot pink and one sort of dark red-brown, neither of which I know the names of. They claim to be the best selling colours so I'd hot foot it down to your nearest store asap.

My polish:



Nails Inc 'Elizabeth Street'

I was going to show you a swatch but it wouldn't show up on camera. On their website, Nails Inc claim that it is a 'pale smooth cream nail polish'. It is literally 'my nail colour but better'. Basically its your natural nail colour with a bit of a shine to it. Well with one coat anyway. Personally, I don't like it, but I'll keep it and use it for the rare occasion when I do a French manicure. At least it only cost me £2 :)

Until next time,
Dottie xx

Review: Clarins Wonder Perfect Mascara

Thanks to the lovely Charlotte (@Lipglossiping) on Twitter, I was alerted to the Clarins Facebook giveaway. The first 100 people to email them would get a sample of their Wonder Perfect Mascara. So I gave it a try. I emailed them last Thursday (29th October), I received confirmation of dispatch on Monday (2nd November) and my sample was here by Wednesday (4th November)! Impressed!

Ok so here it is:



Clarins Wonder Perfect Mascara in Wonder Black 01

The wand:

Took me a while to adjust to the size of the wand, but obviously being a sample size, it was going to be small, bearing in mind I've become accustomed to using Max Factor's False Lash Effect Mascara which is huge!

Here's me with no mascara:

And with mascara:

(Sorry for the blurry photos :S I think Blogger did that, they were fine before!)

This is what Clarins claim:

Lashes are coated in an ultra-flexible film which thickens them from root to tip. They are visibly longer and curled while remaining light and supple. A high concentration of pigments creates an intense colour effect, from the base of lashes, to give a beautiful eyeliner effect. For a flawless make-up result from morning to night.

As you can see from the photos, there isn't a massive difference really. Or maybe that's just my lame photography skills lol.

Ok, so did it stand up to Clarins' claims?

- I loved the texture of the mascara, it really is an ultra flexible film.
- My lashes did seem thickened, and slightly longer without feeling heavy, like they do with some other mascaras.
- Also, I found that it really separated the lashes on my lower lash line
- There is a great colour payoff in my opinion and it does give an eyeliner effect, which for me, was a first from a mascara.
- And finally, yes it did last from morning to night.

The only cons I found were:

- I found I had to wipe the end of the wand off every time I took it out of the bottle because otherwise there'd be a huge clump on the end. Not good.

- It didn't clump my lashes together as such, but I found that I had to take blobs of mascara off the end of some of them or they'd look uneven, but hey that's probably just me being special!

Overall, as nice as it is, there's nothing overly special about Wonder Perfect and I don't think I'll be rushing out to buy a full size one anytime soon, at least not on my budget. Although a full size one is only £17, which is cheaper than I expected and to be honest, not much more expensive than some of the mascaras that can be found on the high street - £15 for Maybelline's new vibrating mascara anyone?

However, as my birthday is coming up soon, I well may go and treat myself to one when I next come across a Clarins counter :)

Until next time,
Dottie xx

EOTD

I just wanted to post a look I created using the 120 Pro Palette. I saw Marlena had posted a weekly challenge on Makeupgeek.com with the theme of Pink (Breast Cancer Awareness) and I came up with this:



Please excuse the fact that my hair is in a towel lol!

When I got round to finished getting ready, this was the finished look:



However, I didn't get round to submitting it. Silly me. Then again, I've only just gotten around to uploading it.

Anywho, best be off, tonnes of stuff to do!

Until next time,
Dottie xx

Catch up

Hey, hope everyone is well :)

Things have been manic lately, barely stopped working. But I suppose this is what I signed up for, right? =\

Not had the best last couple of weeks if I'm honest. But I won't rant on about that, or we could be here for a while!

Ok, so what I wanted to post was this pic of a mani I did last week. Again, a leopard theme, just different colours:



I love the base colour I used (the bottle in the pic). It looks just like pink silk, feels amazing and looks absolutely gorgeous! Pretty good staying power too. Good for Rimmel!

The second thing was more of a question to the beauty bloggers - the new Sleek palette (the graphite LE one) - is it worth getting? I know it's less than a fiver, why on earth not, but I'd have to make a special trip to Birmingham. Yay or nay?

I had a few FOTDs planned but I haven't gotten round to uploading them yet. Lazy bean! In need of some new nail design ideas. Methinks time to trawl through YouTube next week. A week off, yay! I mean, erm, reading week, when of course, I'll be doing lots of work, reading and revision, naturally.

That reminds me, any law students going to the City Law School Open Day on November 7th? And has anyone been to the College of Law in York? If so, what did you think of it? I should get on with my LPC application but I have no idea where I really want to go, somewhere preferably in commuting distance from my home in Lincolnshire. I actually think I'm going to choose Nottingham, despite no guaranteed place =\ It all comes down to that illusive stuff known as money. And my severe lack of...

Until next time,
an increasingly frazzled Dottie xx