Derp Bubble Bath

Like most girls, I do like a good bubble bath. I find it relaxing, makes my skin feel amazing after, help prep for a full body exfoliation, and an endless list of pros and cons.

Over the recent holidays I received sooooo many bath soaks, bubble bars, bath melts, etc. My mother and boyfriend know me too well.

One of my gifts was a christmas trio from Boots from their Champneys Spa Indulgence line which included 3 pots of the following scents: Distant Shores, Mediterranean Bliss & my favourite Oriental Opulence.

The one I chose for today was Oriental Opulence. Champneys is a bit on the pricey side, yes, but OMG it smells delicious! The product itself is very thick, rich & cream, you just have to be very careful when pouring into the tube, the packaging is a tube, not a squeeze bottle so you can very easily get carried away.

As part of my "Indulgence Routine" I also slap on a face mask while I'm in the tub. I do own a few of these but my current favourite is Lush's Mask of Magnaminty (click link to purchase), it's refreshing like no other and clears up my face when I have crazy spots coming out. I normally apply this mask after washing my face with Lush's Coalface also for troubled skin. I would recommend Coalface for daily use unless you have super oily skin because it does tend to dry you out quite a bit.




Last but not least, light a couple of scented candles and kick back, read a book, listen to some music or just play around with the delicious bubbles :)

All work and no play makes me a dull girl

(All links take you to where you can purchase the products mentioned on this blog, I'm not being paid to advertise any of the mentioned products)

Half Moon Manicure

A friend of mine booked me to do her Shellacs after work today and she bought these 2 very pretty Bluesky in CS60 and Mocha VIP which look very cute together. As I was doing her nails she had to remind me several times to take pictures for me to document it yet I failed to do so on occasions.

So this mani was a last minute improvisation because we weren't sure what design we wanted on the nails, but it turned out very lovely in the end. Inspired by the 30's era I went for the Half Moon Manicure with a couple of rhinestones here and there.

Step 1
Start with clean dry nails and apply your base coat and cure each hand in a UV lamp for 2 mins (30 seconds if it's an LED lamp), in today's case I'm using all Gel Polishes and so far my favorite base and top coat are Harmony's Gelish Soak Off. In the UK you can purchase on Amazon here for about £20 and in the US here for $22 including shipping.

Step 2
My friend wanted her thumb and ring finger in the nude pink tone with the rhinestones and the rest in the Mocha VIP. Again cure each hand for 2 mins under the UV lamp and proceed to apply a second coat if necessary (depends on the opacity of the polish).
Cure once more.

Step 3
It's time to do the half moon. Normally this is where you get some reinforcement stickers and put them at the top of your nail to create the perfect crescent shape but I like to keep things interesting and forget to bring handy things like that (perfect cover up LOL) so I had to free handed it. I put a generous drop on the opposite colour at the base of the nail bed and moved it around with my dotting tool until I created the shape I wanted and cured once more for a minute or so.

Step 4 
Glitz and Glam it up! This is where you add the rhinestones and top coat these babies :)

Tada! Sorry about the bad pics, I've been using my phone

Not sure if this was helpful at all LOL (baby steps). Let me know any feedback, email me, what would YOU my lovelies like to read about on this beauty blog?

I'm open for suggestions :)

The Ruffian Manicure

I have recently taken a liking for this particular manicure, it looks very chic, sophisticated, and so incredibly versatile. It can be done with an incredible array of colours and can be personalized to suit you and your style; whether it be girly chic or sassy vamp the look you're going for.

The first time I heard the proper name of this manicure was thanks to YouTube Manicure Guru MissJenFABULOUS (her YouTube channel) and have been hooked ever since.

I began to search online where I could get the Ruffian stencils and the only places I could find them were in the US, and there are 2 things I can't purchase on that side of the world: Perfumes & Nail Polish, sadly companies (B&BW, Birchbox, Sephora, etc) cannot ship these 2 products to my APO address and shipping them to my European address would eat away at my income like I eat away at cookies. So what can a girl do? Improvise.

This is when I searched YouTube on how to do it and MissJen was amazing at explaining step by step how to do this on video. So I shall try my best to do so with pictures and a simple explanation.

Step 1
Start off with a clean buffed nail, soak your fingers in warm soapy water to loosen your cuticle and easily push it back, alternatively Sally Hansen's Cuticle Remover works in a jiffy. Girls in the UK can buy it here at Boots, in the States you can go to your local Walmart, most of them have this product. After your nails are nice and dry apply your favorite Top Coat.

Step 2
Choose your colours and design. I'm going with gold and black, only doing my ring finger in black because I'm going over it with Bourjois Vampire Vanity which has lovely gold flakes in it, sadly it was a buy 3 get the polish free edition, I haven't found anywhere other than France to buy it online. And I just went on a tangent, sorry! Ok, the black I'm using is by China Glaze, the gold is Revlon's Gold Coin, start to paint your nail a little higher than normal (closer to the cuticle than you normally would). Don't forget to let dry between coats.

Step 3
You're ready for the fun part. Now that your base colour is completely dry you can go is with your second colour. Place a drop of your 2nd colour a little bit lower then where you want the Ruffian to start and with the brush gently push it up to the point where you are wanting it to begin, without lifting the brush slowly move the brush as if you were painting a circle and than pull downwards on one side and then repeat on the other side, all you have to do after that is fill in the space and use your favorite top coat to top it off.




Be warned, you need a steady hand and patience (I know it's easier said than done but practice makes perfect as cliche as that sounds). It's easier to do on someone else than on yourself, I practiced on my mom before Christmas and she loved it.

The Products I Used

Happy New Year!

So it's the start of a new year (I know I'm a few days late) and as I promised a very special lady in my life (Momma) I have finally decided to start my own beauty blog.

I currently live in the UK after 17 years of living in Mexico City with my tiny family of 3; my mom and my pup. Momma Norrigan just left today after a 6 week long visit and as always, I find it very difficult to part from her side. She's been my best friend since I was a teen, my mentor and the best mom/dad I could ever wish for.

I remember when I was about 6 looking into her makeup drawer and being amazed by the amount of eye shadows she had and how pretty she made her eyes and hair look.

Around the time I turned into a teen (shortly after my brother moved out) my mom stopped using makeup, doing her hair, dressing up. Now, 15 years later, she's starting to get back into dolling up, going shopping and getting that sass on!

So my mission is to help her out from this side of the pond with tips, tutorials, reviews and much more. Wish me luck!

Side note: I know my grammar sucks pretty hardcore but please remember that English is my second language, however, I do promise to improve with time :)

(Bought this lovely notebook at Paperchase before I got on the train back home

 after dropping off my mom and began to take down notes for the blog)

           

Mom, if you're reading this:

Miss you & love you!
And call you this weekend :)

Pantie talk

Today I decided to purchase some new lingerie, just for the heck of it, I wanted to splurge maybe, or maybe I just grew tired of the current models in my chest of drawers.

I do have to plead guilty when accused of having a bit of a fixation on lingerie, no amount is ever too much if it looks and feels good, I like to blame this on my mother… I recall seeing her walk around the house in the middle of the summer in satin or silk chemises and gowns, can't say I blame her the California heat can affect terribly a single MILF in her late 20's, sadly age has finally caught up with her 20 plus years later.

Soooooo anywho, I went online to a certain famous website for having pretty sexy "angels" for those who don't know what I'm on about *cough Victoria's Secret cough*.

Browsing for page to page, unceasingly clicking links and viewing garment after garment I was depressed and not because I had browsed through a hundred pictures of lingerie models and blah blah boobs blah body blah blah, I like my body as imperfect as it is and I have to admit I like girls too so I quite enjoyed viewing the photographs, I was sad because of the actual designs of the lingerie and even the colours were awful… when did neon green zebra become sexy? 

Call me old fashion, call me close minded, call me a bitch if you like but I'm sorry for that price you have to be fucking joking! 

Ages ago I refused to go to Fredrick's of Hollywood because I erroneously thought their lingerie was more skanky, (probably because I heard their dresses were ridiculously short), I opted for going to their website and check out some of their lingerie… pleasantly surprised by very sexy, classy, lace, satin, silky looking panties! And even better price! I continued to browse away for about an hour making my mind up "Oh no, what do I chose? Satin and lace or lace and rhinestones?"

The bras are equally gorgeous sadly the sizing is not in my favour.

I still don't understand where VS went so crazy over neon animal prints clashing with neon lace, not only in their "collage girl" section, but animal print is even invading granny panties. And please don't get me wrong, I still shop for bras and night gowns there, I'm a big fan of their bras (very comfy when not ridiculously over padded) and their baby dolls and slips are deliciously comfy but… VS what the heck is up with your panties?!?!?!

Cookies! Nom nom nom

It's one of those things that makes you smile in silence, it can be a joke, a sweet memory, something platonic, something eternal or ephemeral, perfectly flawed, intangible and yet so real you can taste it... cookie.