My winter essentials

barry m
A few months ago I did a ‘my summer essentials’ post - which can be seen here - and so I thought I’d follow up with a post of my essentials for the colder months since we have now been swept into the depths of winter here in England - I'm already bored of the cold and can't wait for summer to return.


I love candles all year round but particularly in winter they are a must for me. There’s nothing better than cosy-ing up after a cold day with a blanket, a mug of tea - how very British of me - and a good movie with a candle burning in the background. This one from the white company is one of my favourites and I buy one every year. The candles from the white company in general are amazing but for me the scent ‘winter’ - which is only released during winter, obviously - is my all time favourite. It’s the perfect blend of cinnamon, clove and orange that isn’t too overpowering like some spicy scents can be. The best thing about the candles from the white company is that even when they aren’t burning you can smell them and you only need to burn them for an hour or so at time so you definitely get your moneys worth. They’re also made from organic material so they don’t smoke and leave black soot on your wall like silicon based candles do - e.g. Yankee candles.

How to | Splatter nail art

avon
This post is a quick how to on splatter nails. It’s a super easy process and perfect for summer.

What you will need:
~ Base/Top coat ~
~ Four nail varnishes of varying colours ~
~ Cello-tape (optional) ~
~ Nail varnish remover ~
~ Cotton wool buds ~
~ Straws ~


Step one: Apply a base coat to protect the nails from any staining and apply a base colour. We chose to use a bright yellow (Avon nailwear pro+ in ‘Lemon Sugar’) but you can use any colour really, though if you’re going to use darker colours to splatter with we’d suggest you use a lighter base colour.

Step two: Next you want to cover the space around your nails with cello-tape - one strip above the cuticle and then a piece either side should suffice. This just makes the cleaning up process a bit easier however it is optional. 


Step three: Next you want to chose the colours you want to splatter across your nails - we used various colours from the Barry M gelly line. Three colours works best however you can chose as many you want to. To splatter them across the nails you need to dip your straw into the nail varnish - using a different straw for each colour -  and then blow across the nail (be sure not to blow too hard or you’ll cover the whole nail or get large blobs of nail varnish which will take a while to dry..we found this out the hard way..). As you can see from the picture above this process can get quite messy so make sure you cover your work surface.

Step four: Leave your nails to dry completely (this may take some time depending on how many colours you used and how big the ‘splats’ were). 


Step five: Remove the tape from around your nails - if you used any - and clean up around the edges by dipping a cotton wool bud into nail varnish remover.

Current favourites | #1

barry m





Recently it’s been freezing cold still in England however its been sunny at the same time so my raybans have come in handy as well as my new favourite lip butter. I’ve re-discovered my ‘omega’ eyeshadow, I used to use it for my brows all the time and slowly drifted away from it but picked it up again a few weeks back. My love affair with the Revlon lip stains and the Barry M gelly nail varnishes are still ongoing and I’ve picked up another shade of the lip stain in ‘lovesick’ and three other nail varnishes in ‘greenberry’, ‘papaya’ and ‘pink’. For Christmas I received the Gucci Guilty perfume and I’ve been loving it. I’m not a fan of sweet perfumes and prefer muskier scents which can be hard to get away with in the day but this one is the perfect in between scent. I’ve been trying out a new foundation recently and I love it, I picked it up the day it was released in the UK and haven’t stopped wearing it. I’ve also become obsessed with the real techniques makeup brushes. I own the core collection as well as the blush brush, they’re affordable and insanely good. Lastly I received the Daniel Wellington York ladies watch for me birthday early last month and I’ve been wearing it everyday since. This classic and simple design makes it easy to wear as it matches everything.

What are your current favourites?

~ Jade xx

Barry M Gelly Hi Shine Nail Varnish | Review

barry m


Whilst I was wondering through superdrug the other day I picked up one of Barry M’s gelly hi-shine nail varnishes. I’m a massive fan of Berry M polishes as they are affordable and great quality so I was excited to try their new range.


I picked up the shade ‘blueberry’ which is a beautiful powder blue colour (the perfect spring/summer shade - even though it’s winter). These polishes are great. They dry quickly (which I love as I get very impatient waiting for my nails to dry), the pigmentation is great for a drugstore brand and they definitely are a lot shinier than regular nail polishes. They also seem to not chip as easily as my other polishes which is lovely as I’m always too lazy to put a top coat on. I will definitely be picking up more colours as they’re a small price of £3.99.


What’s your current favourite nail varnish?
~ Jade xx

Photography information

Canon 600D with 18-55mm lens, Canon 24mm lens or Sigma 70-300mm lens. Canon EOS M with 18-55mm lens or Canon 24mm lens. Any edited photos are edited using Photoshop CS6. Picture source is given for any photo used that is not directly ours.