grazing like a cow

Hello,

Still long time no speak! I am beyond excited about my new discovery (for me at least) Graze.com

It is a yummy and pretty website that sends you an amazing box of goodies each week. The box contains healthy and delicious mixes of nuts and fruit and things to snack on and to lure you away from that 5th big mac and 100th bowl of pasta.

The normal weekly rate is £3.50 which includes postage, I probably wouldn't mind paying this after receiving my first box (free with promo code) I was very impressed with its contents so I feel I could definitely get used to this!

What I really like is the range of seasonal and world food inspired names and themes they give things. For instance in my box I received a black and white chocolate fruit and Nut mix called 'Ying Yang', a thai inspired cracker mix called 'Tom Yum' a 'Hickory smoked' spice mix and Indian style black pepper crackers with mango dip.

(excuse camera phone pic)

I have only dipped into the Ying Yang one so far but it is all really fresh and yummy tasting. 

I think this idea is really great, probably won't make me any thinner as I am currently still eating everything that passes within a foot from my mouth but I hope it might make me feel a bit brighter and healthier with all the good antioxidants and vitamins etc. If you are interested in the Healthy side of things they also have nutritionally balanced healthy boxes that have less chocolate and more seeds. You also get a nifty personalised leaflet with every box that lets you know exactly how much of exactly what is in the food. 

As a bit of a foodie I love this concept and If you think you would too I have a couple of promo codes for a free first box like I had, message me If you want one (first come first served)

xxH

Nail polish Lust List for Autumn

Sorry to have been MIA recently! I have been stuck in a bedroom floor renovation project from hell (more on this later once the sodding thing is actually sanded!)

Thought I would just do a little run down of my top polish wishlist that I can't afford! any of. Maybe having them on my blog will be 100th as good as actually having them!

 NUMBER 1

Revlon Facets of Fuschia... this one has been getting alot of blog posts recently and I'm sure you can see why. Perfect for Autumn Winter time and reasonably priced... not much more to ask for in a polish. Very vampy, I hope I get this one in time for halloween!

Beautifully photographed by Makeup Savvy A brilliant blog you are crazy if this isn't in your reader.

NUMBER 2

I was again put on to this by makeup savvy Its models own pro matte. I want it because I don't want to pay for 'Essie matte about you' and I don't have a matte topcoat! I know... Your shouting "call yourself a nail blogger!?!" well I'm new at this and I don't have a nail polish trust fund so I will buy this if and when I can. Though admittedly it's likely to be sooner rather than later because I need to mattify some glitter this instant!

NUMBER 3

All of the new Nails Inc. magnetic shades! I have been waiting for a nail brand I like to adopt the magnetic trend and now they finally have, and I do love my Nails Inc. I lust the gold one especially! it really reminds me of the Tiger's eye gemstones that I collected from museum gift shops etc when I was about 10 and in my gemstone phase. These polishes and others like them are such a good idea I think. Now that nails are such a huge thing... It is a great way for the uninitiated to achieve a chic nail art look without much practice or skill!
have a look here

NUMBER 4

Another Nails Inc. shade I'm afraid! This holo topcoat looks totes amazeballs and I would love to see it over Black or Navy for winter or dare I say (in September) (I'll Wisper it) shhh 'new years eve nails?' It will probably take me that long to get it in fact so I anticipate a happy xmas spent with this on my nails.

Thats all I can think of actually! 4 polishes... I'm sure I can stretch to that!

What are you lusting this Autumn? Nail polish or no eh? ;-)

don't be shy

xxH

On Wednesdays we wear pink (on Thursday)

Yeah yeah yeah, So being rubbish, I haven't been wearing pink on Wednesdays! So today i've got a 2 in 1 pink look to make up for it (on Thursday) 

I bought a new polish in jack wills the other day. The 'Ravensthorpe' nail varnishes are actually quite good and at £6 are quite bargainous. They have a nice range of colours and what I liked about the shade I bought (blush) is that it dried really hard and shiny. I was worried with such a pastel shade and it is a nightmare to apply, but with 3 coats it doesn't get thick and sticky like some.

First I did a truly girly and glitzy pink look with various different glitters layered up on the tip using a sponge

Here it is:

The glitters I used were a pink nails inc. and the Andrea Fulerton gemstone topcoat (which is friggin amazing) but as per usual my camera doesn't show half the pretty that this created on my nails.

Secondly for you today I have the same Jack wills Blush varnish but this time with a kind of snow leopard effect with dark grey (nails inc.) leopard print and silver glitter accent.

Here that one is:

Love it!

Great colour and I've been wearing it lots recently, get down to jack wills then!

xxH

Reading Reading Reading

 I am on such a reading bender recently and I've got to say it feels good. I always have been quite a big fan of books but something in the past few years has been stopping me. Can't be anything to do with time because unfortunately I have all the time in the world! being gainfully unemployed means that I have to fill my days with whatever I can get basically and now... its books. Love reading. And looking over this post, it seems I love a trilogy or saga too!

I read somewhere recently that "reading is dreaming with your eyes open" (or some similar guff) and I have always been a day dreamer, so without further ado:

A few of my recent faves I thought I would share:

1) The CJ Sansom Shardlake novels... Where can I begin? probably favesies or very nearly favesies. This is escapism at its very best, though you might want to give these a miss if you aren't a history boff as they are quite involved with the nitty gritty of life under Henry VIII -not literally! unlike the Other Boleyn Girl, they are much less about the rumpy pumpy Tudors and much more about intrigue and grimy slimy murders.

(picture credit)

2) The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins... Teenage dross or insanely addictive? you decide. I loved these and read them after hearing about next year's release of the movie on the VMAs. I literally devoured these books without coming up for air. They are a little bit young for me probably but I live Harry Potter and Twilight with pride so this is my newest fantasy saga and I am loving it. Family and friends are getting bored with how much I've been going on about these books. 

(picture credit)

3) Following on from last week and the dystopia presented in the hunger games world I was really feeling a re-read of one of my faves that I haven't read since its 2003 release. So I am now engrossed in Margaret Atwood's incredible 'Oryx and Crake'. It is every bit as good as I remember; scandalous, dark, engrossing... I am thrilled to be cuddled up with this one again in this rainy weather. I am also looking forward to starting the new one set in the same time with some of the same characters 'Year of the Flood'. I haven't started this yet... anyone had a go?

(picture via)

Still on my reading list is 'Anno Dracula' by Kim Newman... anyone read it? I have had a little flick through but I am going to finish my Margaret Atwood groove first. I am definitely excited though, It has Victorian London, Jack the Ripper and Count Dracula et al. What more could a girl ask for?

Any recommendations? opinions? favesies? worsties? anyone out there?

xxH

Nailside, I salute you!

As anyone who does stumble across this blog will quickly realise... Its very new. I have been blogging for about 2 weeks now, though of course reading nail blogs for a little while longer.

This little post is a totally unashamed tribute to one of my fave nail blogs... Nailside. The girl who does this (Jane) does things with selotape that the rest of us mortals just cannot understand. She also has amazing nails and lovely swatches. Ok, enough brown nosing I hear you scream!

Last week I replicated one of her tutorials and these were the results. I got the idea from her explosion tutorial here which is perfect and amazing. I found my nails were too narrow and small to make 2 colours achievable which sucked but with practice who knows. Another thing I found quite difficult was to arrange the tape triangle so they make an even proportion explosion shape. Mine are very uneven but it still looked amazing and I got lots of praise for a nail art look that didn't require much of a stable hand.

The colours I used were 'LA colors spiced cider' and for the tip Urban Outfitters 'chrome green' Again apologies for the wonky pictures my camera is prehistoric and I am no photographer.

Thanks Jane for inspiring us all and befuddling us with just how you get your tape manis so neat!

xxH

There's no Place Like Home

Hello!
Its been a while yeah? Urghhh that's all I'm going to say...I've had the Mother of all coldy fluey things this week that just won't go and I've only now started to function, and blog, again.

The photos of this look aren't fantastic (the sun wasn't cooperating that day) but this manicure was captivating and I couldn't stop staring at the shimmery blood red of it. It reminded me so forcibly of the ruby slippers that I had to include it in this post. I wonder whether if i click these magical nails together 3 times they will take me home so I don't have to get the train?

This look was created by layering a sheer red transparent jelly polish over a bold gold glitter. The only thing I wasn't keen on was the texture as the glitter obviously made it bumpy. After these photos I added about 100 coats of topcoat!

Its maddening that the camera makes these look like simple red glitter! in reality The jelly over the glitter gives much more depth and a subtle shimmer but with plenty of colour punch that you rarely get from one polish with glitter suspended. Ah well you will have to try for yourselves and see. xx H

The polishes were nails inc. Victoria (which is a really shiny blood red jelly and is lovely on its own) and Shelton street (a very opaque brassy gold glitter)

Fade to Twilight

So we all love a bit of Twilight right?

I have another cheap nail polish look to thrill you with. After noticing that one of my Bargain Hunter new swanky and insanely cheap polishes was called 'Twilight' the little cogs started whirring in the empty and dusty space called my brain and I came up with a moody fadey look with the denim blue of Twilight and a green/ silver chrome from urban outfitters. Its raining here at the moment... In August...In the South. I don't know how that's allowed but the weather in England does what it bloody well wants and the weather the past few days has been just like forks. I haven't seen any handsome vamps lurking in my garden though... just some pigeons and the sweaty builders next door. Anyway, I digress, the weather suits these nails:

They are a deliberately paint splatty ombre, fade look using LA colors 'Twilight' as a base (2 coats). I then used a cut off corner of dry kitchen sponge (I'm all about the glamour) to sponge on splotchy tips of urban outfitters 'Chrome Green' although it is really a silvery duck egg blue colour. The sponging was done lightly from about halway up the nail getting heavier toward the tip so the tip is really silver. I waited until the silver had dried to top-coat it in order to maintain the splatty texture. If you wanted to blend the two colours together more you could topcoat when still tacky to blend the silver in. Get it?

fangtastic?

xx Hannah

Hedgerow Cupcakes

So,

Something a little different this evening... We spent a very grown-up Sunday hedge trimming the front drive, It looked like the end scene from disney sleeping beauty with the thorns and the sword and the dragon. Except it was just me, the Mr and a petrol hedge trimmer. By the end of a very stressful day I was in as bad a mood as the dragon.

With all the blackberries falling in the carnage I felt inspired to make something with the ripe ones. Blackberry cupcakes.

The recipe was a basic cupcake mixture googled and found on good to know here. My idea was to make a slightly funkier purple icing and I did this by making a syrup in a pan of water and sugar. I then simmered a handful of Blackberries in the mixture and passed the lot through a sieve. This intensely purple liquid then formed the base of my icing with icing sugar.

 They were pretty wonky and blobby to be honest but they were really tasty and seasonal and very cheap!

Happy blackberry season!

xx H

Results were as follows!

Recycled mani, Rock the Kasbah!

Hi again!
So I just couldn't leave it alone could I. I had a beautiful moss green on from my previous 'Bargain Hunter' Post and I just couldn't Leave it alone. The duo chrome of the polish was winking at me all day so I decided to add some Moroccan looking nail stamping in gold to enhance the green-gold with some more texture.

I used Bundle Monster plate201 for a kind of Fretwork pattern and Essence magnetics polish in 'Pixie Dust' to stamp the design. I love how it turned out, quite sophisticated and would look great with neutrals.

I quickly snapped some shots and here it is: a two for one blog post today!

It gives a really interesting lace effect especially when seen from further away, close up it reminds me of Moroccan lamps and bowls etc hence the awful name.

See yaz lataz
xH

Bargain Hunter

I went to Westfield shopping centre on Saturday in Shepherds Bush (my first time since I live in Surrey). It was an amazing place to wander about and seemed to have quite different shops than my trusted Bluewater.

They have a shop there called 'Beauty Base' that I have never seen before on the high street and walking past I noticed they had a huge sign "nail polishes 99p!" I had to have a look didn't I? stepping inside, I'm not kidding you, I found the biggest selection of cheap nail polish I've ever seen in my Life by a range called 'LA Colors'. I bought 8 bottles including a nail hardener and quick dry top coat. I must say I'm really pleased with them. I chose autumny colours to match the jewel slightly 70s vibe in the shops and this is what they look like: L-R: 'Twilight', 'Spiced Cider', 'Moroccan', 'Merlot', 'Force' and 'Cactus' as well as their rapid dry top coat.

My favourite and what I'm wearing today is the really cool green called 'Cactus' The photo doesn't show it but it is a lovely mossy green with a gold and blue two tone. Since the end of the month is looming and I can't afford my lusted after Chanel Peridot I thought This is a good imitation! slightly darker but the same golden chrome in the light.

What Bargain nail polishes do you like?

xx Hannah

Its Ombre Hombre!

No I haven't gone insane... This is a nail look that in the good old USA is called 'ombre' I believe it is a word to describe anything (nails, hair, paint? cake even) that graduates from colour to colour or shade to shade. In England I don't know this word I would call the effect' Dip Dye' like 90s hair? I love the look of ombre nails and knew I has to try it myself.

You can change the look so much by the colour you choose but basically you just need a range of shades of one colour that are close in shade. Graduating from light to dark or vice versa.  If it's good enough for LC it's good enough for me (photo from mtv.com)

The colours I used for my version are as follows :

Revlon Scented nail polish in 'Peach Smoothie' (Don't buy it, It frigging stinks and everything you touch stinks when you wear it)

La Colours In 'Apricot' (really cheap 99p in fact from a shop called Beauty Base in Westfield)

Barry M in 'Block Orange'

Nails Inc 'st James's'

Nails Inc 'Picadilly Circus'

I will definitely be doing this look again, especially if i can get enough nude/ taupe colours together.

xxx H

Fairy Zebra?

I know it sounds like I have a serious animal problem here but this is just what popped to mind. After the awesome Khaki leopard nails (with added moose) I was feeling something a little less fierce. I decided on a base of my fave beigey pink freebie with Instyle magazine a million years ago: Nails inc's creatively named "instyle mink" I added white essence stampy polish again with my Bundle Monster Plates in a zebra pattern. I hear you asking "why the fairy bit?" well that's down to a top coat of grown up glitter. Alessandro's 'pro white glitter' again its a German brand that I got on holiday. The glitter is very small transparent particles and it is not irridescent, just a simple clear-silver shimmer and its perfect and not too tarty with the zebra. There you have it... a fairy zebra of course.

Khaki Leopard... Grrr

Grace Woodward started this one off, so blame her. One week, I don't know which because maddeningly I can't find a picture of this online, on BINTM Grace woodward wore a khaki green dress with neon Orange eye-shadow. I'm not gonna lie, It made a deep impression on me. So weeks later and I received my new Bundle Monster nail stamping plates I ended up making this look inspired by Grace's popping neon orange and khaki combo.

Incidentally if anyone does know which look i'm talking about I would love to see it again. If only to make sure I didn't dream it.

The Colours I used for the look were: Khaki from urban outfitters ( the bottle doesn't have any other brand name on it) I got this colour and a few others at the weekend and I really like it. The formula is nice and thin and silky to apply, goes opaque in 2 coats and was on buy one get one free at Urban outfitters. They've run out of colours online but they look like this. For the leopard print I used Bundle Monster plate 221 and Nails Inc "Maple Street". I then applied the gold accent spots free hand using a kirbie grip and "pixie dust" by German nail brand Essence.

For the random Orange thumb I used Barry M "Block Orange" 027 and stamped the very Abercrombie looking stag in black with BM plate 214.

Hope you like!

xxx H