Bargain Of The Week #2

Cat Top: £8, George @ Asda

For this weeks botw I originally planned to show you guys something completely different, but I spotted this top in Asda and fell in l-o-v-e. I am a total sucker for anything cat related and have so many tops/jumpers/bags etc, etc, adorned with various cat designs/paw prints (you get the idea :') ). At the start of the year I made a vow to myself that I would actually wear clothes that reflect my age, which sadly eliminates half of my cat themed stash. This top however, fits perfectly into my slightly more 'mature' wardrobe, whilst still being fun and a bit different! The first thing I thought of when I saw the top, was this dress designed and worn by Victoria Beckham.

HERE

I love, love, LOVE the design and print of this dress but certainly can't afford the hefty price tag, this top is a lovely cheap alternative and has definitely helped curb my craving for all things cat. 

Trousers: Topshop (old)

Shoes: £32 Barrats 

Bracelet & Ring: Topshop (old)

Nail Varnish: £1.79 Collection, in Hula Hoop

 This top is great as it can be dressed up or down and due to it's simple and flattering shape can be paired with most other items in my wardrobe! I sense this top will be making many appearances throughout the summer months and for only £8 I'll be getting my money's worth for sure!

While taking these photos, this adorable, (very pregnant) little madam would not leave us alone. She lives next door to me and is always hanging around wanting fuss :') One time climbing through my kitchen window and coming face to face with a very surprised Murphy. I thought I had to include her considering the theme of this post, and yes, that is a tattoo of a cat on my ankle ..... ;)

Has anyone else bought this top from Asda? What do you think? Would you buy it? 

Hope everyone's having a fun filled weekend so far! :)

Katt xo

Bargain Of The Week #1

Skirt: £8 Primark 

I've been thinking a lot recently about what kinds of features I want to include on The Katt's Pyjamas. I can sit for hours reading other peoples blogs and I love how everyone puts their own twists on their own regular features like nails of the week, outfit posts, click lists, weekly portraits etc etc.. 

So today my first weekly post is born! 

Maybe a year or so ago, I could go into a shop and spend a ridiculous amount of money on one item of clothing and not even really think about it. Most of these items getting worn once or twice and then being designated to the back of my wardrobe, never again to see the light of day. More and more recently I've found I've become so picky when it comes to clothes shopping, I'm forever questioning my potential purchases as I'm so conscious the item has to be worth every penny, actually go together with other items I already own and not be destined to remain unworn with all my other 'on a whim' items from past shopping trips. 

Due to this constant scrutinising I have discovered something that I had never before really experienced... The thrill of finding a complete bargain. It sounds so cheesy but I truly love it, coming across something great for next to nothing. It makes shopping so much more fun and even better - guilt free. Every Saturday I plan to share my little bargain or bargains ;) of the week with you guys. Guilt free purchases that are actually worth it!

Long Sleeved Top: Topshop (old)

Black Vest Top (not seen): £2.50 Tesco

Rings: Topshop

Tights: £3.50 Asda

Shoes: £32 Barrats

So my first bargain of the week is this skirt from Primark, it's a jersey material with a fairly thin elastic waistband and it has a wonderful drop hem at the back, which I think is really cute and quirky and looks different from all different angles, which I love! The skirt is only £8 which I think is amazing as it's so versatile! I wore this outfit to a friends baby-shower and dressed it up slightly with black wedges, but it could also be worn more casual with flip-flops and a vest. They also do a version in black that I was so tempted to buy as well, but in the end I went for grey to mix up with pastel shades in the summer :)

Candles: £1 Each Primark

I can't get enough of scented candles at the moment, but they can be SO expensive. I'm currently trying to ration the usage of my favourite Yankee Candle, and eagerly waiting for the Glade candles to drop back down to £2 in Asda and Tesco ;) So as you can imagine I was delighted to find these adorable mini scented candles in Primark, for only £1 each! My favourite of the two is the Strawberry Milkshake scent, which smells delicious, but the Jury's still out on the Vanilla Frosting scent. It smells nice, yet, it doesn't. Strange. Still for a squid each who am I to complain?

Imperial Leather, Raspberry and Lime Blossom body wash: £1 Asda

I didn't originally plan on sharing this purchase, as the body washes I typically buy are usually whatever's on offer that week ;) But I bought this for a pound yesterday whilst food shopping and I love it! It's from Imperial Leathers skinkind range and says it is both moisturising and hypoallergenic. I use my exfoliating gloves every other day and with this bodywash a little goes a long way, using the smallest squirt and the gloves, it foams up quickly and smells soft, sweet and summery. 

So there we have it, first 'of the week' post :) Any feedback would be much appreciated! Has anyone bought the Primark skirt? How would you wear it! Hope everyones having a lovely weekend so far!

Katt xo

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

Cream Puff by Collection 2000 - Review!

Cream Puff Lip Creams - £2.99 Each, Collection 2000

I picked these up the other day after seeing a few bloggers using and reviewing them. At £2.99 you can't really go wrong! They come in four shades I think, and I decided to go for the brighter/pinker shades (surprise, surprise ;)) though I am considering the 'Powder Puff' shade as well now! 

Below on the left is the 'Fairy Cake' shade and on the right is 'Cotton Candy'.

The texture of the cream wasn't like I expected at all, for some reason I imagined it to be runnier? But it applies really well and you can build up layers of colour for more vibrancy. The finished effect is matte which looks lovely - soft and kissable! :')

'Fairy Cake' 

This is my favourite of the two shades. The colour really does 'pop'! an orangey/coral shade that is a little different from the norm. 

'Cotton Candy'

This shade is definitely more subtle than the previous, I would wear this as an everyday shade as it would pretty much compliment any outfit. 

These lip creams are moisturising and full of vitamins (which my lips clearly need judging by the above pictures!) but they do have amazing staying power. Mine stood up to walking the dogs, eating a sausage roll, amongst other things :') and the colour didn't fade at all. I wouldn't usually expect such good quality for such a low price, and they smell DEE-licious. I just wish they came in more colours!

Here is a picture of me wearing 'Fairy Cake', I asked my boyfriend to take some photos for my first outfit post, but I must admit I wasn't too keen... This is the only one deemed suitable for the internet, so instead of showing my outfit, I thought I'd use it as an example for this post instead!

What does everyone think of the Collection 2000 cream puff glosses? and tips for outfit posts? Do you take the photos yourselves? Or does someone else help!? Happy weekend <3

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

Tweezer Review

Tweezers: £22.50 Tweezerman / Boots

Just thought I'd do a little review on these tweezers I bought the other day. My eyebrows are a nightmare, and I find myself plucking them every other day at least! So having a decent pair is fairly important. I've had a pair of Ruby and Millie, plain grey tweezers for around 3/4 years (!) and to be fair they were amazing! and lasted for so long. However they were starting to finally loose their gripping power which meant it was about time to find a new pair. 

Honestly £22.50 is a HUGE amount to spend on something so tiny, but in this instance I would say it's more than justified ;) The design is so cute (much more attractive than my previous boring grey pair) and you get a little pouch to keep them in, to prevent knocks and misaligning the tips. Tweezerman also offer free sharpening if you send your tweezers off to them, so with these tweezers you pretty much have a pair to last a lifetime.

Not only do they look great, they also have grip, and I mean serious grip. Using these you never miss a single hair and you can remove even the smaller, finer strands quickly and efficiently. They are also very sharp, which again, helps with the removal of the more stubborn hair, as they are extremely precise. Although I did manage to gauge a small hole in my face during the first use - must have got a bit too pluck happy :') Other than that they are PERFECT! and I would definitely recommend these tweezers to anyone looking to invest in a new pair! 

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