Chippedy chip

It has been three and a half days on the 'quest for the best:nail hardener - Barry M basecoat, topcoat and nail hardener' and the chips have started to appear!






Three days to some people may not seem like a decent length of time for nail polish to stay intact but for me this actually a record!
The polish has only started to chip on two of my nails and the rest are still quite neat looking.
Barry M is a definite contender for my 'best nail hardener award' but is there anything that can beat it? Make sure you come back to find out......

Oh dear, more shopping!!

Just a few things I bought in the sales....






Rimmel kiss me 140 (£6.29 I wouldn't normally spend that much on lipstick but I really liked the colour!) and collection 2000 sweet tart 8 (£2.99)


Topshop slip (The lady behind the counter told me to wear it as a dress - don't think the boyfriend would be too impressed!) £12


Topshop dress £25







Love the colours in this, it was one of those gift sets from Boots and in the sale was £6!

I will do more on the individual things - swatches etc when I get a chance!
Spending stupendously.... Sam xx

Quest for the Best: Nail Hardener

Some people are blessed with nails like steel - strong, long and hassle free. I am not one of these people.
My nails are weak, they peel and I can put the slightest bit of pressure on them and they bend — no good for trying to keep nail polish intact for more than a day or so.
This is my dilemma. Because my nails bend, it loosens the nail polish and causes it to chip VERY easily.
My quest for a nail hardener that actually works has been a long one, and I thought I would share my ongoing search with you guys!
First up is Barry M Basecoat, Topcoat & Nail Hardener (I'm actually quite impressed with this already!)
I painted it under and over two coats of colour..... now lets see how long it takes for a chip to emerge.....

 (Sorry about the poor picture quality, my camera is RUBBISH!)

This photo was taken yesterday, after wearing it for a night and a day because I didn't get a chance to take a photo straight after painting them - usually by this time I would already have chips so it is doing well so far.

I will let you know when the cracks start appearing!

In the mean time, can anyone recommend a nail hardener that works? Or is there one you would like me to try out?

Cheery and chip-free 

Sam xx

Hair envy

                        (Image from Google)

Jealous. That is all.

x

Christmas? It's in the bag!

Yes for once in my life I have actually been organised, and (I think) I might just be prepared for Christmas!!!
Our tree is up and decorated and looks like this...

Anyone who knows me knows that I love hearts (I even have two tattooed to my bum). I don't know if you can see but the tree is covered in little heart baubles!! I love them!

And yes there are some presents under the tree - most of them are for other people though unfortunately!! (If you look very carefully out the window you might just be able to see the down pour of snow that happened last night!)
So for the next week I can relax in the run up to Christmas (well I've got to work all week - right up until Christmas Eve but won't have to worry about whether I've got everything sorted!)

I am now going to venture outside, braving the snow and ice to see these two lovely ladies for coffee!!

XxXx

Just a quickie....

Flash sale at ASOS today girlies

50% off party shoes and dresses*

Shop between 12pm and 2pm today (December 15) and have your last-minute party look delivered tomorrow, for less!!

So click here to buy your party outfits pronto!!

Pretty party dresses xxx

Skincare? It's Simple!

For me it is definitely Simple! The Simple products make up a major part of my daily skincare routine!
I have quite clear skin anyway apart from the odd spot now and then, but not that long ago I had a weird rash on my face and NOTHING would get rid of it - I had it for months and even went to the doctors but nothing would get rid of it.
I started using Simple products because they are unperfumed and gentle on the skin and (this sounds unreal but honestly true) I woke up one day and it was gone! I have never looked back!
I have quite sensitive skin and even other (apparently) sensitive skin products like Johnsons- eeurgh - sting my face so I am now officially a Simple convert!
I usually use the makeup wipes (when I remember to take my make-up off at night- tut tut!), I use the refreshing facial wash religiously every morning, the brightening eye cream and the brightening daily moisturiser - none of which make my skin feel greasy (if you've read my previous posts you will know I HATE when moisturiser makes my skin feel greasy!)
Simple is a definite must-have for my fellow followers with sensitive skin!

Aside from my Simple ramble, now I am nearly 24 (shhh - don't tell anyone) I have realised that it is better to start looking after my skin sooner rather than later in preparation for the dreaded WRINKLES!
I recently noticed wrinkles under my eyes from where I smile too much - god damn my happy personality! So I decided it was time to invest in some Anti-wrinkle cream.
After trying a few of my mums creams (I'm convinced she has every anti-wrinkle cream under the sun, she's a sucker for advertising - as am I) I found one which makes my skin feel amazing and it smells AMAZING! (seriously - I could sit and smell my skin all day)
It is Olay Anti-wrinkle Firming Day Cream

I literally slather this stuff on everyday and it sinks in quickly making my skin fell plumpy (in a good way). I know I won't see any effects straight away but the longer the wrinkles hold off- the better!
I bought mine from Superdrug for £9 but they had a deal on at the time where it was buy one get one free! Bargain!

Here's me giving mine some love (because I love it)

 (Sorry about the crappy camera work-again)

What are your skincare must-haves?

Smiley happy faces! xxxxx

Pixie Hott!

( Image from Google - my camera was crap!)

The modern day pop princess Pixie Lott (or Pixie Hott as the boyfriend calls her), was amazing at the gig I went to see on Friday night!
A lot of singers are so worked on in the studio that when you see them singing live it's hard to believe how they manage to make it in the music industry but Pixie actually sounded exactly as she does on the radio — I was impressed!
She started her set in bed in red silk pyjamas with Mamma Do and went on to sing a few songs off her new album. She had quite a few costume changes throughout the night ranging from a sparkly corset, silver playsuit with AMAZING over the knee boots, a tutu and finishing in a catsuit complete with tail!
She also did a few covers including Plan B - She Said, Cee-Lo Green - Forget You and a few Motown songs - Set me Free, Ain't No Mountain and a few others.
She also showed off her other talents by putting down the microphone a few times to bust out some dance moves — a little ballet, tap and tango-esque dancing.
Overall I thought she was amazing and I have to agree with the boyfriend that she is definitely HOTT!
xxx
 Ps It pleases me that even the famous can have their bad days.......

ah the beauty of make-up!
much love xxxx

When boredom strikes....

..... clean your desk!
I've had absolutely nothing to do at work today — I'm literally counting down the minutes until I can go home .... 1 hour and 37 minutes left!! With boredom setting in I decided to clean my desk because it usually looks like this...

Yes I am a messy person, and as a reporter I have a lot of things to remember hence all the sticky notes on my computer! This isn't what it looks like now, it's now lovely and tidy and biscuit-crumb free!

I may complain about being bored but there is a perk to my job — free press tickets to my my nearby music venue Plymouth Pavillions and tonight I am going to see Pixie Lott!! I will be singing along  aLOTT! (bad joke).
I've managed to persuade the boyfriend to drive me in so I can have a drink (or two).
xxx

Christmas is coming, pearly white teeth ahoy...

Did everyone open their advent calendars today??
I've moved back to my mums for a week while the family have gone on holiday (apparently I'm too old for family holidays now!) So I look after the pets instead, but my mum left me and the boyfriend a chocolate advent calendar on our pillows before she went! Bless her.
I may be 23 but you are never too old for an advent calendar - it definitely gets me in the mood for Christmas!!
With Christmas comes a lot of smiling and photo-taking (although I am usually the one behind the camera). I envy those celebrities with perfectly shining Hollywood grins so in preparation for being papped I took Kandee Johnson's advice on getting 'Super white teeth for cheap' — watch it here
You can't get the Plus White 5 minute speed whitening gel in the UK so I have ordered it off Amazon for £8

So now I have to sit and wait for it to turn up!! 

My dilemma at the moment (as it is the first year I have had my own flat) is when is the right time to put up a Christmas tree? I really want to do it as soon as possible (because I'm excited) but because I want a real tree I don't want it to malt and die before Christmas actually arrives!! 

Any suggestions on a good date to start decorating??

xx

Saturday night antics...

It was my friend Joanne's birthday celebration on Saturday, the perfect excuse to dress up!
Shopping during the day and partying all night - what better way to spend a weekend!
Here are a few snaps from the night...

Joanne and I before we went out

me (in the front) and the girls drinking killer terminators!!

And this one is just for fun.....

my usually shy and relatively quiet boyfriend (in the blue) and Joanne's boyfriend up on stage at a club dancing around a pole - comical!!

He may be comical, but the boyfriend can also be quite sweet!I got home from work today and because I always have cold feet (especially in the cold weather at the moment) he had bought me some lovely fluffy slippers from Fat Face! what a sweety!

Warm winter wishes xxxx

Wash away the winter blues...

Skin looks amazing in the summer - soft, smooth and glowing, but as soon as the cold weather sets in, out come the tights and long sleeves and it's bye bye bare skin!
But just because your skin will be covered up for the next few months doesn't mean you have to completely forget about it — believe it or not now is the time to start getting your skin prepared for summer! (yes I know Christmas hasn't been and gone yet so why am I thinking about the summer already?)
Think about it, if you look after your skin throughout the winter, then when the summer does come along all the hard work has already been done — no last minute frantic scrubbing to get rid of all that dull dry skin!
My skin is not naturally soft like some lucky people have — I tend to have tiny little bumps all over my arms and legs which, if left unattended, make my skin feel like sand paper! yuk. So for me there are only two rules for soft winter skin — 1. exfoliate 2. moisturise. That's it.

There are loads of body scrubs and exfoliating products on the shelves at the moment depending on your skin type — mine needs quite a bit of scrubbing so I opt for scrubs quite densely packed with beads or 'gritty bits'. The best one I have found so far is super on the skin and perfect on the pocket — Superdrug's own Vitamin E Exfoliating Body Scrub which at the moment is on sale for just £1! www.superdrug.com (I love the Vitamin E range it smells like summer, all the  products are under a fiver and they do make your skin feel soft!!)

The only downside to this is that because it is so packed with 'gritty bits' that it leaves quite a mess in the shower and especially in the bath!!
At the moment I'm addicted to these exfoliating body gloves....

Ok so they're not too glamorous but who's going to see you in the shower?! From Superdrug again, these are just under £2 but you just use them with your normal shower gel and they last for ages! (You can put them in the washing machine to clean them too)
Personally I think these are AMAZING! (They also exfoliate your hands while your at it!) No mess and no fuss!

When it comes to moisturising I must be the fussiest person on the planet! I want a moisturiser to make my skin soft, but can't stand when you feel sticky or greasy for hours after you apply it! (I usually moisturise before I go to bed and the boyfriend hates cuddling me in bed when I'm sticky or greasy!)
I have a whole box full of moisturisers that I have used and not liked but the one I seem to keep going back to is Vaseline's Aloe Fresh Hydrating Body Lotion

It's thick enough to make your skin feel soft but sinks in after a couple of minutes leaving your skin dry to touch but fresh and moisturised.
I tend to exfoliate and lather myself in moisturiser two or three times a week — any more than that and your skin will be over scrubbed and feel more delicate.
If you start now and make it part of your weekly routine, by the time the summer comes your skin will be soft, glowing and ready to soak up the sun!
Happy scrubbing! xxx

SSshhhh, let me tell you a little secret....

Ok, not really a secret but if any of you fancy a bit of a shopping spree from the warmth of your own home, you can get 20% off purchases at ASOS.com until November 30 by entering the code ASOS20 at the checkout!
Happy shopping xx

All I want for Christmas is....

you? Maybe not, but a couple of things I would quite like to see in my stocking this year are....

Yves Saint Laurent's Touche Eclat — anyone who knows me, knows that I am obsessed with trying to cover up the dark circles under my eyes but sadly to no avail as yet! (I have a makeup bag full of various concealers that are no good) but this is the best I have found so far. Because it is a highlighter as well as a concealer, it reflects light off the skin making dark rings not so obvious!
Unfortunately, at around £20 each, my pay packet does not stretch far enough for me to buy a new one as soon as the old one has run out (I would probably get through two a month but as I said - I'm obsessive).
So I'm hoping someone (namely my mum) will buy me one from the duty free when she goes on holiday next week!

As a compulsive shoe/boot buyer, I also really want these boots from Next...

(They're lighter than this in real life and really comfy - I have been in and tried them on), unfortunately again they are quite expensive — £80 to be exact. Not bad for real leather boots but I can't justify buying them myself seeing as I just spent almost that much on a pair of these RocketDog boots which I am living in at the moment!

Other than that I can't really think of anything else I want for Christmas except lots of champagne and lots of FOOD!

If you are stuck for ideas on what to get people for Christmas this year, my friend Joanne is a brilliant artist and will paint black and white portraits from photographs (She is currently doing a painting of my brother and his girlfriend for me that I will give them as an xmas pressie!)
She painted one of me and the boyfriend as our moving in present, take a look....

I think this looks scarily like me (except as you can probably tell I was dressed as Marilyn Monroe at the time)
To see more examples of her work or to get in touch with her visit her website www.joharrisportraits.co.uk
Lots of love xx

Techno savvy..

Just a quick update because I have changed the name of my blog - although I liked the previous name, it really had nothing to do with what I was blogging about!
Sooo, I now have an alter ego — Sam AKA the barefaced beauty fool!
I also got a bit 'techno savvy' with my blog and made it look a bit more professional (it took me a while to figure out how to change everything, computers are not my strong point!)
So I hope you like the new look!
Adios! xx

My first follower and the dreaded MAN FLU!

For all you hardened bloggers out there, this probably isn't a big deal but today I got my FIRST FOLLOWER!! Someone is actually interested enough to read about beauty-related opinions and my day to day happenings, so thankyou very much to ♥ Stacey ♥ for making my day (you can read her blog at thehqofbeauty.blogspot.com).
I am dealing with the dreaded man flu at the moment - not me (obviously) but the boyfriend who's cold seems to effect every other part of his body (mainly his legs). If anyone saw him they may be forgiven for thinking his cold is terminal!
As the loving girlfriend I am, after making him dinner his laziness kicked in and somehow he convinced me to go outside into the freezing cold to buy him ice-cream?! I need to learn how to say no!
He wouldn't let me take a photo of him looking ill either- miserable git!
Let's hope it doesn't last too long!

Sweet Lips!

So this is the first of my reviews and it has come after I decided I wanted to start wearing more lipstick to jazz my face up a bit.
My mum wears a lot of lipstick and she bought a new one from Superdrug the other day which I tried and really liked.
It's Maybelline 18 hour wear Superstay lip colour in 130 Dawn Pink Rose Seduction. (It got a bit bashed in the bag on my way home).
It is a double-ended stick - one end has a lip gloss type applicator for the colour, which you put on first, and the other end is a conditioning balm, which goes on second.
After you've applied the colour, you have to wait for it to dry (you MUST do this otherwise the colour goes bit smeary). Once the colour has dried, you put the conditioning balm over the top which moisturises the lips and gives it a shine.
The colour I chose is quite subtle because I wanted something I could wear during the day and to work.
It is about 5.30 in the evening so the light in my flat is not very good which means the photo of the colour on my lips is not great but just gives you an idea...

(I'm sorry that you can see up my nose!!)
I'm not the most photogenic person in the world hence the half face shot!
Anyway I really like this lip colour it really does stay on for AGES but does come off when you wash it off (unlike a lip stain) you do have to keep applying the balm though, otherwise the colour looks a bit dry. I'm used to putting on lip balm every 5 minutes so thats not a problem for me!
Let me know what you think!
Pretty pink kisses! xxx

London/Paramore pics (finally)

In Oxford Street shopping...

I thought it was supposed to be the boys hanging around outside while the girls were busy shopping, but the boys were a bit too exited about the life-size figures of Wayne Rooney and Christiano Ronaldo in the Adidas shop!
The 02 arena in London (where we went to see Paramore) was huge! we stopped to have dinner - I had mac 'n' cheese (very American)! Showing a bit of love while having dinner.....

 (Joanne and me)

This pictures a bit dark but it is Joanne singing a long to Paramore!! Unfortunately I didn't get any photos of the actual band because we were too far away and my camera wouldn't zoom in that far!
After the concert at the 02, we waited in the LONGEST queue for a taxi back to our hotel and the guys got a bit fed up...

But after a wonderful weekend away and a lot of walking and travelling we were glad to be going home...

Have a wonderful weekend!! xxx

London Baby!!

Back to work this week, after a very hectic trip to London over the weekend! It seemed like we did nothing but travel, walk, travel, walk, travel, walk! It was worth it though.
The whole point of the trip was to see Paramore at the 02 arena and they were AMAZING!! (Even though we were sat right at the top of the arena and the sound was crappy —I'm feeling a complaint email coming on in the hope that I may score some free tickets!) But it was still amazing and I almost lost my voice from singing along!! I was disappointed they didn't sing my favourite song "All I wanted was YoooouuUUuu"
Pictures to come, I'm at work at the moment so can't put them up right now!
Over and out! x

Spring cleaning (in November)!

Today was the first day of my much needed week off from work and my flat was an ABSOLUTE tip so I decided to do some spring cleaning (and also if the boyfriend came home from work to see that I have sat on my bum all day doing nothing he wouldn't be very happy!!)
Our spare room needed the most work as it looked like this....

We only have a small flat so the spare room is our wardrobe/washing/drying room! haha. But after some banging tunes and a lot of dust up my nose it ended up lookin like this...

Now I'm pooped! but after all my hard work, I treated myself by painting my nails! I'm such a girl!!

Have a beautiful day! xxx

Hangover TV

I didn't really want to start my blog with a hangover but as I'm sitting watching Beetlejuice on crappy Saturday TV, I thought this was as good a time as any!
I should probably introduce myself a little bit - my name is Sam but my friends call me manths (as in Samantha) or panth (don't ask me why).
I live in a small town in Devon and work on the local newspaper as a journalist. Working on such a small newspaper I spend a lot of time talking to old people and people who have nothing better to do then moan, but I do love getting to meet lots of people and the people I work with are lovely.

I have a very close knit group of friends (we are a bit like the programme Friends). There's my wonderful bestest mate Joanne - she's my rock and I love her, and then theres Mike (my boyfriend), scottie, bruv, pete, zig, doyler  and Joe- i love these guys, they make me laugh everyday - you will probably here a lot about them on this blog! They look a little bit like this....

So back to my hangover - it wasn't intentional (but when is it ever?) Joanne and I have a tradition of going to our local pub "the nish" after work on a Friday to celebrate the end of the week (even tho Joanne doesn't have a job at the moment) but last night she flaked out on me so I managed to convince the boys to come out.

One drink led to two, three and four and before I knew it, it was 10pm and the boyfriend decided it was time I went home! So off I was dragged, and having missed dinner, it was no surprise that I felt pretty awful when I woke up ths morning!
Anyway, back to nursing my hangover.
Peace out.