Thanks Sarah.

Hiii everyone, I'm so excited to be back and ready to blog again. I've finally got settled back into my Mum's after nearly 4 years away and have set up my own office space in my bedroom which I LOVE :) It's going to be so much easier to regularly post as I won't have to use my dying laptop anymore! Hurrah! 


This is just a quick post to say thank you to Sarah who ran a competition on her blog, 'Beauty Geek' a while ago which I entered, completely forgot about and won! I don't think I've won a competition before in my life (apart from winning a personal cassette player from puppy in my pocket magazine, about 15 years ago ;)) I'd been having the worst week in the world when she emailed me and needless to say, it definitely put a smile back on my face!

The prizes I received are absolutely amazing! They are all products that I would purchase myself and nearly did.. I had been planning to buy the Real Techniques brushes literally the next day so I was so, so pleased to receive them as a prize :) 

Real Techniques Core Collection

L to R: Contour Brush, Pointed Foundation Brush, Detailer Brush, Buffing Brush

After only owning one makeup brush for the past goodness knows how many years, it's been so nice to get to grips with these brushes and to use different brushes for applying different products. My favourite of the four is of course, the bloggers favourite - the Buffing brush. I use this for both my liquid foundation and powder. I've been applying my foundation with my fingers as usual, but then finishing off by using the buffing brush to buff it all into my skin nice and evenly. I've also been using the Contour brush regularly to apply blusher and it blends powder really well giving a seamless look. I'm actually so surprised how much of a difference it makes using brushes and I won't be going back to using my fingers anytime soon! I'd really recommend this set to anyone unsure of which brushes to buy, the set is worth it for the buffing brush alone!

Tangle Teezer 

  

My hairdresser has been using one of these bad boys on my hair for years and I had always been meaning to invest but never seemed to get round to it. My hair is bleached blond and relatively fine, so after washing it can be a total nightmare to try and brush (anyone else with bleached hair will feel my pain I'm sure!) I'd got to the point where I didn't even bother attempting to brush it damp and just blasted it with the hairdryer and hoped for the best. This little plastic brush has changed all that! I really don't have any idea how it works, but it does, in a big way. Brushing my hair out now takes about 2 minutes which makes it so much easier to style. Total god send, plus it's pink and anyone that knows me knows I'm a sucker for anything pink :')

OPI Minis

L to R: Play The Peonies, I Lily Love You, Be A Dahlia Won't You and Come To Poppy.

Last but by no means least, I also received this gorgeous set of OPI minis. The colours are so cute and are all shades I'd pick out myself - my friend even bought me the full size 'Lily I Love You' for my birthday. I've saved and put aside the mini version to include in my own giveaway I'm looking forward to hosting soon, as I thought it was only fair to share! Don't want to be known as the "I Lily Love You' hoarder now do I ! :')  

^ Two coats of Play The Peonies and one coat of I Lily Love You.

Well this post came out a lot longer and more ramble filled than I first planned but hey-ho! I think I'm just glad to be back. Thanks so much again to Sarah. I really appreciate all my goodies.

Has anyone else tried any of these products? What do you all think? Is there anything I've featured on the blog in the past you'd want me to include as a prize? I'm thinking of getting a couple of packs of nail wraps as they seemed pretty popular!

Hope everyone is having a lovely day so far :)

Katt xo  

Nail Wraps - Review

Nail Wraps: £4.50 Asda

So last night.. I lost my nail wrap virginity! I'd been wanting to try out some of these for a good while after seeing various bloggers raving about them, but just wasn't sure if I'd be even be able to get them on my own fingers! I'd seen a lot of amazing designs on Asos, but for almost £7 a set, I just couldn't do it knowing that there was a high chance of them going hideously wrong. I spotted this set, and a few others hidden amongst the clothes section in Asda and thought I'd give them a go, at the slightly cheaper price point of £4.50. They had about 6 designs in store, some of which you can see in this blog post I found on google. The watermelon style wraps are so cute as well, as are the pink flowery ones! Though I'm confused as to why all but the ones I purchased, are only £4? Maybe the people at Asda have cottoned on to the fact that these are the most desirable of the selection and can get away with that cheeky extra 50p... I can't really complain too much though, I am so happy with the results and would say they are definitely worth the price. 

The wraps come sandwiched between sealed plastic wrapping and are easy to peel off ready for application. You literally just stick them over your nails like you would a sticker, I never used to understand how this would possibly work, but trust me, it really does! The wraps sticky adhesive side hardens after a few hours and fuses the wrap to the nail. It says on the back to use as soon as the packet is opened to prevent the wraps drying out, but it took me about 2+ hours to get them all stuck on and they all worked fine :) 

I think the key to getting good results with wraps like these is patience. They are fiddly and it can take a good few attempts to get the wrap to sit in the right position on the nail, but once you nail that part (budumdum tshhh) it's pretty much plain sailing. You just fold the excess wrap over the end of the nail, pull it tight and file it off. Though again, patience is key, I got slightly file happy and ripped off half of one wrap accidentally and had to cut the larger spare wrap to fit a smaller finger, but it worked ;) 

  

So far the wraps have lasted a day with no chips or tears and I was pretty sure they weren't going to last the night. The adhesive really does harden well and I'm no longer worried about them peeling off while I'm in the bath or asleep! :') I don't think they'll have the staying power of my usual nail routine, but I'm hoping they'll last a few more days at least! 

These wraps have definitely inspired me to try out different brands of nail wraps and I'm thinking of repurchasing these same ones for my birthday weekend in a few weeks time. I really do love them!

Has anyone else tried these wraps from Asda? What did you think? I'll keep you updated on how long they last!

Katt xo

[EDIT: They lasted around a week which I was very impressed with, not in perfect condition, but the pattern of the wrap disguises any imperfections really well!]

Collection Nail Art Competition Entry - Hot Looks

Last week the brand Collection, (formally Collection 2000!) sent out a tweet asking for nail beauty bloggers to get in touch for a special project. Although TKP is a fairly new blog, I love anything to do with nails/nail art and I was really curious as to what this 'special project' might be! I received an email back saying that Collection were asking bloggers to produce nail art inspired by Easter Eggs. Nails and chocolate.. two of my favourite things ;) To be eligible to submit, your design had to include at least one Collection nail polish shade. 

Nail Varnish: £1.79 Each, Collection

As I didn't actually own any Collection nail varnishes, I had the tricky decision of picking which colours, out of the 20+ 'Hot Looks' on offer to use in my design! I decided to go for the shades, 35 - Dynasty, 34 - Hoola Hoop and 33 - Button Moon (how much do I love the names of the colours!) and at only £1.79 each, I thought that this was very reasonable!

I also went for shades that I would wear anyway and all three of these pastel shades are adorable, I'll definitely be using these on their own as well.

Yellow Nail Varnish in Bee's Knee's: £5, Topshop

Base and Topcoat: £2.99, Barry M

Tip Whitener: £1, Asda

As well as the Collection polishes I also used an old Topshop yellow nail varnish from about 2 years ago (?!), that they apparently still sell ;), a cheap Asda tip whitener and my trusty base and topcoat. 

                                                              

My nail art was inspired by one of my favourite Easter time treats... Mini Eggs! I thought the pastels would be appropriate due to this years spring/summer trends, and also.. I may just have a slight love for pastels anyway <3

To create my design I applied my base coat and applied the individual dots with the tip of a cotton bud. I wanted it to resemble a small pile of little eggs, so to get the layered effect I wanted, I painstakingly added layers of dots each colour at a time, over lapping each other, making sure each colour was completely dry before applying another. I won't lie and tell you the process wasn't time consuming, but other than that the design was relatively easy to apply, I thought I'd be smudging it everywhere but you just have to be very delicate and take it sloooow! 

The Collection polishes actually applied the best when creating this design, they dried quickly, whereas the Topshop yellow did go a bit lumpy in places. All in all I'm pretty pleased with the end result :)

Did any one else enter the competition? I'd love to see everyone else's designs!

Katt xo

Mermaid Nails!

I went shopping with my Papa the other day and he bought me these cute rings from Topshop, I'd been eying them up in store for a while ;) So I thought I'd share them, and a couple of new Miss Sporty shades I also picked up on the same day!

Rings: £12.50 Freedom @ Topshop

I must say I really am a fan of the new freedom @ Topshop brown packaging that's started filtering into stores. I much prefer it to their usual plain black packaging, which I suppose is slightly dated now. 

I like that there's a variety of gold and silver in the pack and I think my favourite of them all is the one with the large pink stone. I've been trying to collect a few more bits of costume jewellery recently and I think these are perfect additions to said collection :) I'm just hoping that none of them fall apart or loose any stones, as is fairly common with cheaper jewellery! I'll keep you all updated!

I did this mani last night so apologies for the stray polish that is yet to fall off the sides :') It ended up turning out quite differently than I first planned, but I love it. The green and glitter combo really reminds me of shiny mermaids tails!

Nail Varnishes: £1.99 each Miss Sporty

The original plan was to have all green nails with one random really glittery nail, but I was disappointed at first with the glitter content of the 'disco ball' shade. I would have had to do waaay too many coats to get the kind of coverage I wanted. So plan B it was.

Glitter Nail Varnish: Pink Iridescent - £2.99 Barry M

Grey Nail Varnish: Free Mavala sample from Elle Magazine

I decided to use the grey as a base for the glitter nail and did 3 layers of pink glitter over the top. I then did 2 layers of the glitter Miss Sporty over the green Miss Sporty and I was pleasantly surprised at the effect it gave! Although I'm pretty sure I've already used almost half of the pot, as you really do have to use a lot to get a decent coverage of Glitter. Everything was sealed off with Barry M base and topcoat seen in THIS post. 

I'm on a mission to find the perfect glitter nail varnish! I've been lusting over the Opi - Rainbow Connection glitter for SO long, but due to it being almost £15 on ebay... it will have to sadly wait. 

What are everyone's go-to glitter nail varnishes?

xo

Monday Blues...

Hope everyone has had a lovely weekend! Although the title of this post may suggest otherwise, I've had a lovely chilled out day :) 

I went into town last week with the intention of buying a new pastel nail varnish and ended up buying a dark blue jumper and nail varnish instead :')

Jumper: £12 Primark

I adore this! I'm not usually a huge fan of wearing so much blue, but I can definitely make an exception for this jumper. It also comes in an alternative colour scheme - reds and oranges I think! For only £12 you can't go wrong really!

Nail Varnish: £1.99 Miss Sporty

When I bought this colour I really wasn't sure how keen on it I actually was, I didn't particularly have high hopes for it, due to the price. Oh how I was wrong! I don't think these polishes come in a huge range of colours, but I will definitely be investing in any more colours that catch my eye.

Nail Varnish: £2.99 Barry M - Pink Iridescent

This is my my favourite nail varnish at the moment. I've been wearing it over the top of every shade I've worn for the last few months. Needless to say it's almost run out and I was gutted they no longer had it in stock on the Barry M website! Though I've just checked and it's listed again! Doesn't everything look better with a splash of glitter...

Nail Varnish: £2.99 Barry M - All In One Basecoat, Topcoat and Hardener

Nail Varnish: around £4.10 Maybelline - Protecting Top Coat

I never used to bother painting my nails often, as it seemed they would ALWAYS chip after a few days. I most certainly underestimated the power of the base and topcoat. Above are the two polishes I currently own. The Maybelline polish I was not impressed with. It was expensive and the brush doesn't go to the bottom of the bottle, so it is impossible to get the last bit out. The Barry M topcoat is so much better and has a runnier consistency, making it easier to apply and I expect it to last so much longer!

I now do my nails once a week and it isn't a quick job - usually taking over 2 hours from start to finish (!) As I rarely experiment in the makeup department I use my nails to try out different shades and patterns.

My Tips For A Lasting Manicure

- Good base and top coat.

- Always apply a thin, even layer of polish first before applying the second coat.

- Make sure each layer is properly dry before painting over.

-To finish I always apply the topcoat and put a small line horizontally across the end of the nail to seal it completely.

My nails usually last around 7 days, and I've had this Miss Sporty on for a week and a half now and it's still going strong!! 

What are everyone else's tips for long lasting nails!?

xo