Uni Bedroom

I've been naughty and haven't posted in here for a while. Not sure why, just went through a cba phase I guess. But I'm back and hopefully for good!

I started my second year at university in September and moved into my first student house! I got the short straw on choice of rooms (smallest room on the bottom floor) this is what I had to work with...

So I rolled up my sleeves and became a thrifty goddess.

This is what my room looks like now...

As you can see I like Victoria's secret! I'm also trying to lose weight so the dresses hung on my wall are for 'thinspiration'.

The theme of my bedroom is Shabby chic. I got my dressing table from Ebay for £60 and I covered the horrible blue wall with material from Ikea which was £6.99. The fairy lights are from a shop in the lanes in Brighton called Cable and Cotton (http://cableandcotton.co.uk/blog/) - You can choose your own colours and they're reasonably priced. I may do a separate blog post on them.

Fairy lights under material are from poundland.

Lamp is from Ikea.

Chandelier is from TK Maxx

Chalkboard heart from Hobbycraft, Fiat canvases from Primark.

 A job well done I think! I'm so happy with my room now. There's nothing like coming back to a nice cosy bedroom!

How have you decorated your room? What style do you like?

Rosie x

Primark has upped it's nail varnishes.

The title says it all here really.

Bearing in mind I have only tried one of their new 'angelica' range of nail varnish, but it really is wonderful.

I went into the London Westfields Primark while I was at the Olympics (Woohoo!) and found a whole little island full of these angelica nail varnishes. They're new to me - I have never seen nail varnish and Primark look like this. I was immediately drawn to this little beauty (pictures above and below) which is a gorgeous rainbow holographic glitter. Its called 'Brit Pop' and it number 92. 

The colour is gorgeous, of course, however knowing Primark's reputation I was a little wary. They're priced at £2.50 which is not exactly 'cheap' for Primark nail varnish so I thought it may be a little better than their previous range. 

INDEED THEY ARE!

I cheekily put a little bit on my thumbnail in the store and walked around for a bit looking at clothes. By the time I was ready to pay, it was completely dry and felt as solid as a rock!

After purchasing, coming home and covering all of my nails in it (on top of Topshop's milkshake) and letting them dry I am thoroughly impressed. It's been 4 days and not a chip in sight. I think I'm going to have difficulty getting it off in fact-which is a good sign when it comes to nail varnish in my opinion.

This is a long shot but it it's very similar to OPI's Extra-va-va-ganza which has been discontinued as far as I am aware. So this is a delicious alternative as it is literally 1/5 of the price and is very similar to OPI's so far...  especially the staying power as I have tried both brands. Not bad at all for Primark (as much as I love it). 

I've already had loads of compliments about this nail colour and I am definitely going to go back to purchase lots of more lovely colours.

Have you seen these nail varnishes? How do you like them?

Rosie 

x  

'Hanging around' getting crafty with DIY door hangers.

So as I'm moving into my new Uni house in September with 5 other girls, I thought it'd be nice to make them all a little 'welcome back', 'new house' present. I saw this idea on youtube and decided to have a go.

The finished look - 'H for my friend Harriet's door.

They are DIY door hangers. 

What you will need:

♥ Plywood letters (I got mine from eBay for 99p each)

♥ Black bootlace/string from hobbycraft at around £1.99

♥ Acrylic paints - hobbycraft £5.99 for a set of 16 colours

♥ Duct tape from any hardware store

♥ Unwanted jewellery/appliqué from craft stores to decorate

Lets get started!

1. Once your Plywood letters are delivered, you're ready to begin! Choose which colour you want each letter to be painted. E.g. My friend Charlie's favourite colour is yellow so that's what colour her letter is.

2. Start painting your letters! I put each one on kitchen roll before I started. You can also use newspaper. The paint does stick to the kitchen roll afterwards but its not hard to remove afterwards-just be careful not to ruin your paint work. I did two coats for each letter.

TIP: if you want the colours to be softer for example the blue, green and yellow were too harsh as I wanted them to be more pastelly colours-you can add in some white paint to that colour to soften it down. I also aded a small amount of brown to the white to create a cream for one of the 'R's.

Now that all of your letters are painted and dry, you can move onto step two.

2. Choose an old necklace or something similar to use for appliqué. I used an old Primark necklace with pastel flowers all over it. I removed the chain and sorted out which colours would suit each letter best. You can also purchase different craft appliqué from various craft stores or on eBay.

  

 3. Use a strong glue to apply your appliqué to the painted letters. I used nail glue which is the same stuff as superglue so that would also work. Just make sure its very strong. 

4. Apply a generous amount on the back of the appliqué  and firmly press it onto the letter for about 20 seconds on the part of the letter you have chosen to decorate.

4. Once you've applied all of your chosen decorations, its time to add the lace as a hanger. I used about a foot of bootlace for each letter. I then used a thin strip of duct tape to apply the bootlace to the back of the letter. Make sure the weight is even so the letter doesn't tilt when you hang it up. It was particularly tricky doing the 'L's.

And then you're done! Hope you liked it and I hope it inspires you to create your own. You can also do the letters without the string/lace and mount them on the wall.

Good luck!

Rosie 

x

eBay Lovin'

L-R old abercrombie jeans, new abercrombie jeans from ebay

So when it comes to jeans, I have a mental breakdown. Since I was about 11 I've had the worst luck finding the perfect pair of jeans. I remember one pair I had when I was 14-they were from H&M and they actually fit me pretty well! Then one day I just lost them. They vanished. I have no idea how or where but I never saw them again... 

The hunt started once more for a new pair. It was two years before I bought another pair (I know, that's how bad it is). It's not that I'm fussy when it comes to choosing a pair, it's that I simply cannot fit into any of the ones on sale! I've been into New Look, H&M, Topshop, River Island, Next and countless other stores and they were all either too short (which was often the case as I am 5ft 11) or too tight on the legs, too baggy round the waist or the other way around. Basically it was a nightmare.

Until one day 3 years ago in London on a shopping trip with my mum. My sixteen year old self was desperate to go into Abercrombie and Fitch to 'see what it was like' as there was some huge hype over how 'cool' the shop was. We ventured in and I hated it. It was pitch black, there was a vain model at the doorway having his photo with squealing customers, they'd hired models to dance on the balcony to the second floor and the music was so loud I couldn't hear myself think. 

I went to look at the jeans and saw a pair I liked. My hopes weren't too high as I knew they'd probably be too small/big/short but I tried them on anyway. LO AND BEHOLD THEY WERE PERFECT! The first pair after a long and gruelling 2 year trek to actually fit me right! They were pricey at £80 but I wore them 5 days a week for 3 years until they recently got a hole in the crotch area. :( - obviously I was devastated. I searched on the Abercrombie website, but as I expected they'd discontinued that line of jeans. 

I looked on eBay-typing in the exact name of the jeans and my size. There they were. I bid for them immediately and won them at just £10.50 - it cost me £13.50 alltogether including postage. 

When they arrived I was thrilled. They were exactly the same as my beloved jeans from before but in much better condition! As you can see from the photos. No holes, no wear and tear. They looked brand new! The seller sent me a lovely message telling me 'thanks' for buying them and when she would post them and they arrived in 2 days! 

I've never been happier with an ebay purchase in my life!

What's your favourite ebay purchase? Do you use it regularly?

Rosie

x

Hair therapy

It's common knowledge that if you bleach your hair, you're damaging it. Well I was lucky enough to feel the wrath of the dreaded bleach when I decided to dip-dye my hair at Christmas this year. 7 months later and indeedy, my hair is in the worst condition its ever been in. So when things get really really dry and split-end ridden I like to treat my locks to a bit of 'Hair therapy' as I now call it.

When I have a night where I'm planning on having a 'everything shower/bath' (everything shower/baths are when you have a shower/bath and do everything in them e.g. shaving, washing hair, exfoliating maybe even a face mask) - then I will often treat my hair to a hair mask.

I found the John Frieda Sheer Blonde highlight enhancing hair conditioner when I was in Sainsbury's one time. I'd just bleached my hair and it was looking a little coppery so I wanted to try and 'ash-it-up' a bit with various toner products. This was on offer for £1 I think so I had nothing to lose really when I bought it.

It's literally amazing. If you apply it once you've shampoo'ed and conditioned your hair as normal by smoothing it all over your hair (I concentrate on my ends because that's where I've bleached it) and tie it in a plait or bun, then go to bed with it still in your hair. Make sure you have an unrushed morning the next day to give you time to wash it out. You will immediately see the results. My hair is always beautifully soft and smooth after I've used this and it's a personal fave. Its priced at £1.99 in Superdrug so I always stock up when I'm in there. 

Have you tried this? What did you think?

Rosie

x

Dermologica Clean start

So I recently found out I'm anaemic and had a blood transfusion to get my blood nice and fresh :) - While I was going through this hellish ordeal my lovely next door neighbour (who works in beauty and sells Dermologica products) gave me a Get Well Soon card and present. Aside from a big bar of Toblerone, shortcake biscuits and a few other bits and bobs, she very kindly gave me this Dermologica Clean Start 'Get Glowing' kit for young adult skin.

It comes with: 'Ready, set, scrub!' - an exfoliating cleansing scrub.

'Brighten up' - a tinted moisturiser with SPF  15 and...

'smart lips' lip shine.

'Ready set scrub' exfoliating scrub.

I've been using this for a few days now and I love it. It's one of those facial products where once you use it, your face feels cool and fresh and you get that nice icy feel to your skin, know what I mean? I haven't broken out in spots or anything so that's a good sign. It's also not overly rough as the exfoliating particles are super small so you hardly notice them, but in my opinion they work just as well as any others I've used.

'Brighten up' tinted moisturiser

I can honestly say that I'm a tinted moisturiser virgin. Well I was until this morning. I applied this after the scrub and I also love this product. It's not too heavy and is extremely moisturising so you really don't feel like you're wearing any make-up which is nice on those days when you simply cannot be arsed. I didn't need concealer once I put this on which is normally a complete no no for me! The only bad thing about this product (and the scrub too) is that they're un-fragranced and so do not smell so nice. This may be a good thing for those who like their products free of nice smelling chemicals, but personally I prefer to apply something that smells fruity-especially in the morning.

Smart Lips lip shine

I still haven't quite made my mind up about this lip shine. It's very very heavy and sticky which I'm not a massive fan of. There's nothing I hate more than a hair-stuck-on-lipgloss scenario. I tend to stick to Vasaline,   it never lets me down and isn't too sticky. The lip shine smells kind of like cocoa butter but it doesn't mention that on the ingredients or anything so I think that must have been an accident, but oh well it's nicer than smelling of nothing. I haven't seen a massive difference on my lips, I probably need to wear it a bit more but it's just too sticky.

After doing some research I found out that the Get Glowing kit is priced at £12 for 2x 15ml (scrub and tinted moisturiser) and 1x 3ml (lip shine). You can also buy them separately in bigger tubes.

I am impressed with this kit and may have to re-purchase the scrub and moisturiser once I've ran out. 

Have you tried it? What do you think?

Rosie

x

On a nail varnish mad one.

Mother goose and I went shopping today and I was on a mission to buy some new nail varnish as I'd seen a couple of photos on pinterest which sent my imagination keeling over. (Just go onto pinterest and type 'nails' in the search bar and you'll see what I mean). I knew I wanted pastel colours so when browsing in Topshop I picked up the colour 'Milkshake' which is a pale pastel pink and its lovely: you know when your eyes are immediately drawn to a colour-well that happened, we had chemistry! 

With my student discount and the clothes my mum bought it equalled out to cost me £2.20 which is a bargain as they're normally pretty pricey little things at £5 - £6 depending if you buy one with glitter/metallic vibes or not. You can however buy 3 in a little plastic zip bag for £13 which saves you about £3 or £4.

I already own two other Topshop nail varnishes (pictured above) and they're both amazing, they last for a good few days with no chips then for a few weeks with a chip or two. The glitter lasts forever though! I had it on my toes for about 2 months and never had to re-apply once!

L-R: Milkshake, Ice Crush, Parma Violet

Then we went into superdrug and I went a bit cray cray. I managed to buy 6 different nail varnishes. 5x Barry M and 1x NYC. I'll try and blog about a few nail designs once I start using them. I love Barry M. They're only £2.99 each and at the moment Superdrug have an offer where if you buy two you save £1 (so it was basically 2 for £5. I paid £12.99 for 5 but if I'd have bought 6 it would have been £13.99 which looking back would have been a better idea, but hey ho!

L-R: Lemon ice cream, matt white, berry ice cream, Peach melba, blue moon.

And finally I bought a mint green from NYC called 'Mint Macaroon'. I haven't yet tried it but the Barry M green wasn't 'pastelly' enough so I had to go out of my comfort zone and try something new. I'll blog about it once I've tried it. It was £2.50 so I was willing to give it a chance seeing as it was so cheap.

Right-O I think that's all there's to be said on the nail varnish front. I'm excited to try a few cheeky designs and if they're worthy I'll post a few photos of the experience.

Until later lovelies

Rosie

x