Showing posts with label summer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label summer. Show all posts

Friday, 14 June 2013

Back for Good! and a nail polish review by Clinique!

With that title, I feel like I'm going to break out into singing Take That! Anyway, university is over for the first year and I am back and raring to go! I have so many posts lined up for you all :)

Firstly, if you don't know.. google reader is disappearing very soon, so would be great if you could follow my blog via bloglovin'...either by following this link or the button on the right hand side of my blog >>>> Thanks!

Secondly, I don't know if you remember me telling you, but a few weeks ago when I popped into my local Clinique in Boots to get some new foundation, they asked if I'd like to try their new nail varnish range next time I was in. I have always been a big fan of Clinique since I went the very first time to try on some makeup with my mum. So when I heard this, I had to take a step back in case I'd misheard... Clinique and Nail Varnish?! What could be better?

Their press material states that 'people touch their eyes on average 200 times a day, and that sensitive skin and eyes can react to the chemicals in polish. Cliniques response to this is the result of three years of research and three of product development resulting in the ‘Different Nail Enamel for Sensitive Skin’ range.'

When I first got to Clinique, I was asked to choose which colour I wanted painting onto my nails. Admittedly, they don't have as many colours as other brands but I was certainly not disappointed with the range! I thought being a premium brand, they would have more of the reds, deep purples, more office colours but was pleasantly surprised to see that there were a range of colours for all generations.


Volume 9ml
Cost £12.00
Availability Exclusively online at www.clinique.co.uk from April 25th, nationwide at Clinique counters as of May 31st


I went with 'Juiced Up' as I wanted something summery as this was when we were having the warm weather! The assistant popped on a base coat, and once the colour I had chosen was dry, also a top coat to prolong the wear of the polish.

Design wise, I love the bottles. They are cute and the right size to fit into your handbag in a nice little box, BUT, and a big but for me, being a student they are very small for the price of £12 in my opinion. I am pleased with the range of colours, although on the website, it states that the colours in the second photo are a limited edition 2013 collection, so perhaps they may bring out new seasonal products.

As for the actual polish, colour and durability, I was really pleased how nicely it looked even just with one coat. The lady did advise that some polishes need two coats which I have also heard. 


Day One (No idea why the photos have stretched...sorry about that - I dont actually have fat fingers!!!)

Day Two (or skinny fingers like that!)
Unfortunately, as I was tidying up the house to leave uni, the polish seemed to chip very quickly..which I was disappointed with and after three days and some washing up done, I had to take it off as it looked a state. Perhaps next time I can see what it'd be like on a non-housework week!

Overall, I am pleased with this range and feel they are largely work appropriate, but as I don't have sensitive skin, I think I'll be sticking with my cheaper budget polish. For a premium brand however, and it being a help for sensitive skin, I can understand why people would pay it.. perhaps I'll save up my Boots points!

Have you tried any of them? What did you think?

Thursday, 30 August 2012

What I've bought - Summer Clothing Haul ❤

I've been meaning to post a couple times about clothes I've bought over summer. Instead of doing it over a few, I am going to combine everything into one!

On the shopping trip with Rachel and Charlotte, I wanted to get a few new summery clothes. We had a big shop in Primark in which we had 2 huge baskets between the 3 of us and still managed to fill them up.. oopsie!

I picked up this gorgeous yellow coloured see-through shirt as I hardly have anything this colour. I have already worn it a couple of times with a white vest top underneath and with white trousers but also with jeans on another occasion.
If we actually had any sun, I can imagine wearing it with a cute pair of denim shorts too. I love it as it is dressy enough to wear in the evening with some nice pieces of jewellery, jeans and heels but also as something casual in the daytime.

Yellow chiffon shirt - £5, Primark

Close up of the 3/4 length sleeves with buttons that can also be made into a full length sleeve

Most of my purchases were made in Primark as I had not been in a long while and hadn't actually bought much all summer so thought I deserved to spoil myself without breaking the bank.

I love the style of these tops out at the moment with the cute collars and again this can be dressed up or down. It has been worn out for a meal in the evening but also to the cinema in the daytime. The tie bits can be made into a bow or hung loose as shown in the photo.(Sorry about all the creases!)

£7 Primark
As summer is drawing to a close, I thought I'd better purchase a new pair of PJ bottoms. I practically live in mine in the evenings with a comfy hoody when it gets darker much earlier (sad face). I needed a new pair too as my last pair were shrunk in the wash.

£5 - Primark
Whilst wandering around, I spotted this cute jewellery organiser. I really wish I had bought more..maybe on my day off on Friday I may pop to my local Primark and see if they have any left. It was just £1 in the sale and can be hung on the inside of the wardrobe door - perfect for keeping your room clutter free, especially in the house in Manchester where I am sharing with Liam.

£1 - Primark

I spotted these bracelets for just £1. I love Primark's jewellery range as everything is great value. You don't expect it to be of a high standard as if it breaks or something happens to it, it doesn't exactly break the bank to buy the item again. However, I have bought bracelets from there in the past and they have lasted me well!

£1 - Primark
For any of you who know me at all, you will know that I am pretty obsessed with anything that has a heart on it. Obviously, once I saw this skinny heart belt I could not resist..especially in the sale! It has now become a staple item of mine.

£1 - Primark
I have borrowed the next photo from Charlotte. (Hope you don't mind!!) She picked up this gorgeous lace back vest top from Primark whilst we were all together. I fell in love with it and regretted not having picked up one for myself. However, I went back to my local Primark and purchased one in a deep maroon colour which I wore out recently for my mum's birthday. She kept commenting on about how much the colour suited me so am really glad I did! It is similar to my yellow shirt in that it is quite see through, so you could either be daring or wear it with a strappy top underneath. It is also long enough to wear with leggings, but short enough at the front to wear with shorts so it is perfect!
 

£7 - Primark

 Whilst waiting for Liam to finish work one day, I thought I'd pop in and take a look at the sales in Outfit. Outfit is a place that has all of the Arcadia group within it (Dorothy Perkins, Burton, Topshop, Topman, etc)..so not great for the bank balance. I held back though knowing I didn't need much. However I spotted this cute pair of pumps reduced down from £14.99
I actually wanted some different to the white I own and these are great as I can slip them on and off and don't have to tie them up.

£5 - Dorothy Perkins Sale

Towards the beginning of summer I went on a little shopping trip with my best friend Tasha. She was looking for a couple dresses to wear and I wanted some lazing about summery things. There wasn't much in the sales back then but I did spot this cute pair of shorts. They are perfect for sunbathing / lazing about in and are so soft, like the other Superdry trousers / joggers. At a bargain price, I didn't think I could go wrong!

£5 - Bank Sale
I also spotted this cute dress perfect for summer or an event such as a wedding. It was from TKMaxx but is a Paprika Fashion dress. I was surprised and pleased that the only size left was a size 10 (my size) and it had greatly been reduced down to £5! Obviously, it was fate and I had to have it! ;)

£5 - TKMaxx (Paprika)

Lastly, on the way back from Manchester on Tuesday, I very sweetly asked Liam if we could pop in to Cheshire Oaks as we were passing. I needed some new foundation and in the makeup store they often do my discontinued Clinique foundation at a bargain price. (They had got it, big smiles! but that will be in another post.) I didn't want to spend too much, but you can't go somewhere like that with that many shops and not buy a thing. We both wandered into the Superdry store and for once, both of us picked up a couple tops we liked. Although pretty plain, both mine and Liam's tops will be great just with jeans for the colder months. I wouldn't ever spend the full price on these tops..I may be a bit stingey but would rather spend it on makeup ha.

Superdry RRP £22.99 - Discounted to £13.79

Although this does look like a lot of clothes, I have been selling ones at the same time and this is for the whole of summer so I don't think a total of about £60 on clothes in just over 3 months is bad at all! 
Let's not go in to the amount spent on beauty products.......that's for another time!

Have you got any good clothes in the sale recently?

Gina xoxo

Tuesday, 24 July 2012

Weekly Ins and Outs...

Hi everyone, hope you've all had a good week.. (sorry for the late post, have been at Liam's and didn't take my laptop!)

This week has been a pretty good week for me..although have been working lots again, they haven't been late shifts so have had lots of time to see people and go out! 

  • On Wednesday Liam and I went to the cinema to see 'The Amazing Spiderman.' And yes, it was pretty damn amazing! I cried quite a lot too as I'm a big softie! I just loved it as there were comical bits like when he had been bitten but didn't realise how strong he actually was, a love story attached (as in the old ones) and sad bits too. It was just a great film, so if you haven't..go see it! You can also look geeky like I'm sure we did in 3D glasses!!


  • Thursday night after work I went round to my friends house to get ready to go out. Kay, Laura and I had a great time catching up and getting ready together whilst the boys all played fifa and drunk downstairs! I still need to put photos up on the old faceyb but here are a few snapshots :)
Laura, me and Kay-standard toilet photo!

Me just before we left with the boys playing fifa in the background!

 (I will soon do an OOTD post with this dress that I got from my lovely boyfriend for my birthday!)
  • Sunday I went round to my best friend Tasha's house..she has just moved house so I was helping to decide on colours for her room and think we have finally settled on two colours! We also went shopping in town (post to come!) and for a lunch date to Pizza Express..yum! We paid for one main meal and got another pizza for £2.50 which was pretty good. You can find other deals for Pizza Express here :)

  • Sunday evening Tasha came with me to watch Liam play football. - My Sunday evenings have ended up me standing at the side of the pitch watching him...but I'm not complaining as it's nice to see everyone especially when the girls watch too! Plus, the weather was gorgeous so I was stood in a dress and flipflops in the sun, which I didn't mind one bit!
  • I've been trying to be good and once again have a few things up on ebay! I will be having a blog sale soon enough, but for now please take a look at my ebay tab on the blog! Thank youu! 

Outs: I can't really say there have been any outs for last week, this week however.......grrrr, you'll find that out in a later post!
 

Hope you've all had a good week!

Gina xoxo

Thursday, 12 January 2012

New Year, New Blog Layout!

So I thought my blog needed a new look and with the help of Rachel over at Life of a Sweetaholic, she pointed me in the right direction of where to design a new header :)

I tried to use everything that interests me...hearts, love, summer, my camera and then add flowers to the background to make it a bit more girly..

Let me know what you think, and hello to my new followers! 

Lots of love,

Gina xoxo