The Best Festive Nail Varnishes

L-R: Barry M 'Starlight', Model's Own 'Jack Frost', China Glaze 'Cleopatra', Models Own 'Dancing Queen' and Nails Inc 'Alexa Sequin'

L-R: O.P.I 'Play the Peonies', Essie 'Carry On', Nails Inc 'Tate', Jessica 'Venus Was Her Name' and Nails Inc 'Motcomb Street'

Now the festive season is in full swing, it is a great excuse to crack out the glitter nail varnishes. I've picked 5 of my favourites perfect for Christmas parties and 5 bases that work really well layered with the glitters or by themselves for a glossy plain manicure. These polishes offer a multitude of combinations, a few of which I have suggested below.

'Tate' is a deep red by Nails Inc which is opaque with two coats and works really well with a new offering from Barry M called 'Starlight'. The packing is super cute but the formula is quite gloopy. However, the thicker nature of the polish is packed with glitter and means the particles stick to your nails more easily. I love the stars included in this polish but you need to make sure to seal them well with a top coat otherwise the points can sticks up and catch. I will definitely be sporting this on Christmas Day.

The next combination is different to the traditional dark shades of this time of year but I think is so pretty and reminds me of fresh snow. The base is 'Play the Peonies' by O.P.I which is a pearlescent white with the tiniest hint of a pink undertone. Applying two thin layers of Model's Own 'Jack Frost' on top, the combination gives a subtle iridescent glow. 'Jack Frost' is again packed with glitter but in comparison the particles are much smaller and have a bluey green tinge to them.

In terms of the darker hues 'Venus Was Her Name' by Jessica is a dark yet vibrant purple, Essie's 'Carry On' is similar but a much deeper rich burgundy and finally 'Motcomb Street' by Nails Inc is a wonderful inky blue. My top picks for glitters which look amazing on top of these include 'Cleopatra' by China Glaze - a thin formula filled with a majority of tiny particles of antique gold and a few flecks of iridescent glitter similar to those featured in 'Jack Frost', another varnish from Model's Own which this time is full of chunky, different shaped glitter with a range of green blue and gold hues running through it. And finally a relatively new release from a collaboration between Nails Inc and Alexa Chung packaged in the new bottles is 'Sequin'* polish - a black base filled with bright gold particles.

What are your favourite festive nail varnish picks? xxx

Lush: Secret Santa | Bath bomb |

Lush - Secret Santa - Bath Bomb - £5.75

So I know it is summer and this is technically a product from Christmas but it has been ages since I have used a bath bomb from Lush and as I've had this one since my birthday in January it was high time I used it. Is anyone else really reluctant to use their bath bombs too? I always feel like I have to save them for a special occasion and end up leaving them for ages. 

Anyway, look how huge it is!! Annoyingly I discovered afterwards you can split this for two baths by banging it really hard on a flat surface. Apparently the design of it is based on the first ever Lush store in Poole, Dorset and the scent is their new perfume '29 High Street', which you can only buy in their flagship store. Because of it's size it takes a while to dissolve but leaves a beautiful deep orange and silver flecked water behind with a lovely scent of jasmine, lime, tonka and sicilian lemon which lingers not only in your bathroom but on your skin for a long time. In fact when I wandered into different rooms in my house the scent went with me haha.

Like all the Lush bath bombs I've tried this was a really lovely treat and as  I still have a few other bombs to use up, hopefully I will get through them and pop up some new reviews for you soon. Hopefully they will bring this out again near Christmas time so you can try it out too!

What is your favourite Lush bath bomb? xxx

Christmas Gift Ideas From Paul Mitchell

The other evening I attended a Christmas gathering held by Paul Mitchell at the Sanderson Hotel. While enjoying some cocktails and mini bites to eat, I was educated on their abundance of gift sets and stocking fillers available for the festive season. Even though I went to the event I'm not obligated to write about them, but I think they are really good quality and there is literally something available for everyone - even your pets! I was gifted the Extra Body Gift Set* from the Christmas Trio range which I'm really excited to try out as the other ranges I have tried through out the years have always lived up to their claims and expectations.

There are three Luxury gift sets including 'It's A Blonde Moment' featuring my favourite range from Paul Mitchell at the moment (see my review here), the popular new curl range encapsulated in 'Stay Calm and Curl on' which I'm also a big fan of (the wave cream was featured in this monthly favourites post) and 'You Look Skinny Today' all at the price point of £35 and which come in super cute colourful and glittery resuable gift bags.

There are also three other Christmas trios also in similar reusable gift bags at £26 featuring a selection of full size best selling products and three sets of  boxed Christmas duos at £18 including shampoos and conditioners from the Moisture Daily and Colour Protect Daily ranges and a kids set for £16.

In regards to stocking fillers there are plenty of minis to choose from starting from £4.50 across the entire Paul Mitchell product family so would be suitable for women and men. They even have sets for pets suitable for horses, dogs and cats if you like to treat your fluffy friend at this time of year.

A couple more of my favourite gift ideas are the Vogetti styling sets which would be great for teenagers and include tutorials and all the equipment you need to create the perfect fish tail plait or up do for £8.50 - £12. They have also bought out a lemon and sage candle to pair with the Lemon Sage Thickening Shampoo and Conditioner and the Tea Tree gift sets have a biodegradable seeded paper wrap which when planted sprout daisies - how cute!!

The Vogetti Styling Kits

For more information on the gifts mentioned and even more gift ideas visit the Paul Mitchell website here. All products are only available in salons, with the exception of Look Fantastic. Let me know if you pick any of the sets up! xxx

Turning 21 | Part 1 |

Last Sunday it was my birthday and I turned 21!! Although it is quite scary to be properly in my 20s now, I'm also really excited to start the next chapter of my life. I had the most amazing of weekends which I will remember for ever, so thought I would share some snippets of what we did on LML as this is kind of like an online diary for me as well as a place to rave about beauty. I felt so lucky, loved and happy the whole weekend and it really made me cherish having such amazing friends and family. Part 1 will focus on what I did with my family.

We began the weekend by having cocktails at the American Bar in the Savoy hotel and then we met up with my sister, her boyfriend and Matt and had a pre-theatre dinner in the Riverside restaurant there. It was so sweet Matt met me with some pink Moet and flowers :) Needless to say, the food and service was impeccable and it was an amazing treat to begin my birthday. After dinner I got presented with a plate decorated with some handmade chocolates and lemon macaroons which said happy birthday that was a lovely touch! We then got taxis to the theatre where the show was, which was meant to be a surprise, but my Grandma let slip earlier in the day (doh!) that we were going to see Phantom of the Opera which was so exciting as I have always wanted to see it. The show was fabulous although I wasn't expecting it to be so scary (I screamed twice :|) My mum and dad even bought me a mug afterwards as I collect mugs from places I have been and being a massive tea drinker I find I can never have enough! 

On the Saturday I had all my family over for a pseudo-Christmas lunch as Matt couldn't be with us on Christmas day and I love everything to do with Christmas! It was amazing, we had turkey and beef with all the trimmings and we even had my Grandma's homemade Christmas pud for dessert. We watched some baby videos of when I was first born which was rather embarrassing and had tea, birthday cake and turkey sandwiches in the late afternoon. I also opened some early birthday presents from my grandparents and extended family and felt so lucky. I'm not going to list everything I got as personally I don't like to do that, but I have included a few pictures of some special gifts that you might be interested in (also see my instagram!) 

The next day was my birthday and I opened my first present in bed - a bag that Louise also has! I then went downstairs and opened the rest of my presents from Matt and my parents with some Bucks Fizz. Matt was so thoughtful and got me 21 gifts arranged into three boxes which were colour coded - pink, gold and blue - each which represented a different area of my personality. It was so thoughtful and lovely I felt so lucky! My favourite present was in a Tiffany box - he put a set of keys to his flat in there which was really romantic! He also got me something to keep for ever which was a Tiffany pearl bracelet that is so beautiful. In the evening we made our way back to Birmingham for the best concert of my life - to see Trey Songz!!! I've loved him for years and to see him so close (we were right by the barrier) made my life!! I didn't get too many good photos as I was too busy screaming haha.

Overall, it was such a memorable and perfect weekend!! Part 2 will be what I got up to with my friends :) xxx

Review: Lush Cinders Bath Bomb

Cinders Bath Ballastic

I received this bath ballistic as a gift from my sister for Christmas. It is limited edition to the festive period, but I am really hoping they will bring it back next year as it is so lovely! I'm a massive fan of Lush, with their bubble bars and bath bombs being my favourite products to use.

This particular ballistic smells heavily of cinnamon and Christmas spices, which is no surprise as the featured ingredient is cinnamon leaf oil. I absolutely love the smell of cinnamon and thought it was the perfect scent for a dark, cold night. Other ingredients include almond essential oil and and sweet orange oil that bring citrus notes too. The actual bomb is quite big so the product fills up your whole bath and the smell lingers in your bathroom. It also features red popping candy which crackles while the bomb dissolves, which like it claims on the website evokes sitting by a warm crackling fire. The only downsides are that it isn't the most moisturising of their products although it did make the water softer, and the water doesn't do anything too jazzy, instead turning a pale shade of yellow.

However, I think this is a really lovely addition to any winter bath time routine and I really hope this bomb comes out again next year! 

What are your favourite bath products from Lush? xxx

*** Merry Christmas!! ***

Many of you probably won't read this until boxing day or a few days after as you will all be eating copious amounts, unwrapping presents and generally having a lovely time with your family and friends. However, I wanted to wish you all a very merry Christmas and hope you all have a wonderful time with your loved ones. I hope you have all been sprinkled with festive magic are all well and truly into the Christmas spirit!

My favourite things about Christmas are the songs we play every year while opening presents, ridiculous amounts of food, family time, the smell of the Christmas tree, twinkly lights and cold winter nights snuggled up watching a Christmas film. What are your traditions at this time of year?

Raise your glasses of champers/bucks fizz/mulled wine/hot chocolate - heres to Christmas 2012! xxx

Lifestyle: German Christmas Markets in Birmingham

ITS CHRISTMAAASSS!!! Ok well not yet, but December is here and I can officially not feel guilty for getting well and truly into the Christmas spirit. For me, this involves blasting Christmas songs morning, noon and night, eating copious amounts of naughty food, catching up with friends and family over mulled wine and minced pies, decorating the house in sparkly attire and lots of festive baking. I'm hoping to make some quite crafty home made gifts this year so I'm sure that will take up lots of time too! (Still have my dissertation to write though... sigh.) Anyway, with December comes the arrival of the German Christmas markets, which are the best things ever! I don't have anything like this at home but I think they arrive in most of the big cities. If you aren't really in the festive spirit yet I would recommend having a look round in the evenings as they really do feel magical.

The market I went to was in Birmingham's city centre and it is huge! We went on a night where it rained the whole time but even though we were wet and cold we had a really great time. The best part about these markets are the food! We ate SO much and bought some for later too; giant hotdogs, pretzels, doughnuts, chocolate covered strawberries, handmade chocolates, pancakes, frosted nuts, mulled wine, gingerbread, hot Pimms... the list goes on. There are also lots of stalls which sell cute and quirky hand made gifts which are great to peruse. By the large fountain there was a band playing jazzy Christmas songs and this combined with the Christmas lights and hustle and bustle of the crowds made the atmosphere so Christmassy and magical it was really lovely.

To end the night we decided to go on the Ferris wheel at the very end (or beginning if you went the other way) of the market. I'd never been on one before and immediately regretted it when we ended up stationary right at the top, swinging in the wind (see bottom picture). However, once we started moving properly it was actually quite romantic seeing over the top of Birmingham and all the twinkly lights and was a lovely way to top off the evening. 

Have you been to the Christmas markets yet? xxx

October Favourites

Once again the lighting is horrendous and I'm struggling to take any decent photos for upcoming posts! On the plus side the festive season is creeping up on us and I bloody love it! I love everything about Autumn and Winter and am so excited to get ready for Christmas. The only downside is the ridiculous amount of work and deadlines I have for Uni around this time of year :( Now lets get on with this month's favourites...

Rimmel Scandal Eyes Kohl in 'Nude': A budget dupe for Mac's Chromographic pencil, this perks up my eyes when applied to the waterline. I've used it nearly every single day and it helps to make me look more awake on cold mornings.

L'Oreal Volume Million Lashes in 'Extra Black': This makes my lashes look so nice with just one coat and gives a really natural looking definition and volume. I like to use it by itself when I'm having a 'no makeup' makeup day.

Lip butter in 'Raspberry Pie' and Topshop's 'Brighton Rock': Both these colours have been on my lips pretty much all month as I love bright lips at the moment and think that 'Raspberry pie' especially is a lovely colour for Autumn. You can see reviews for both here and here.

Christmas candles: I have quite a few more than the one pictured to represent them all. I love the smell of Autumn/Christmas candles and they have really got me into the festive spirit :)

Aussie Dual Personality Curl and Shine mousse: This is a new purchase of mine and I love it. My hair has a natural wave and this mousse boosts and holds this wave for longer. Unlike other curling mousses it doesn't leave your hair crunchy but instead leaves it lovely and soft. Expect a full review of this soon.

St Moriz Fake Tan Mousse: A different type of mousse now, this time for my body! I don't tend to fake tan on a daily basis but this is great for nights out. I prefer this type of formulation as it is easy to blend and the product leaves a lovely natural tan - I've never looked streaky or orange when I've used this.

Glitter nail varnishes: This is just a few from my collection that I've been wearing recently and loving. I like to layer them on top of other base colours to inject some sparkle into the darker days. Plus I just love glitter!

What do you think of my favourites? What are your favourites this month? xxx