It's all the glory that I bare

Sooo my nail art kick is back with full force after I fiiiinally received my package of nail art bits and bobs off eBay (thanks Canada Post, luv ya too!). I bought some teeny tiny beads and some half pearls, but most imporantly a pack of 500 fake nails for like 5 bucks including shipping! They're blank because I like to create my own designs, and with 500 nails who knows what kind of crazy shiz I'll come up with. They came in 10 different sizes all labelled by numbers. I found which sizes fit best for each finger and marked the little baggies so I know my size for all the future nail designs to come (seriously guys, I'm so pumped the ideas are makin my head spin)!!
I knew before I bought these that I'd have to find a way to keep them in place while I paint them and stuff, so I brainstormed and ended up using double sided tape on a box... primative, yet very functional (doubles as a nail art supplies box too)!

I'm starting out with a simple 2D design, but don't worry the crazy will come! Started with a grey base...
Then did nude coloured half moons. I cut and filed them in a claw shape before painting the tips black, and that's it!

Part of me wants to start bookmarking some nail art tumblrs, but really I always prefer to think up ideas for myself overwise I just feel like I'm copying... yet on the other hand, I'm also really lazy so any extra effort can and will be avoided.
Anyways, do you guys wanna see my new shoes (wow, smooth transition)?? I bought them from the small town thift store I mentioned a few posts back, and HOLY CRAP my heart stopped when I saw them. They are basically me, in shoe form:

Crushed velvet, clunky heel, black, stretchy ankle boot. They are the new centerpeice for my chunky black boot shrine (not literally, I don't have one... or do I? ...No I don't. Guys, I'm really tired).

Ohhhhh and one more thing: I'M A BLONDE

Hahaha look at me all decieving, making you think this post was about nails and shoes. No way dudes, it's about something waaaay more deep and thought-provoking. I mean, look at my hair!!1~*$*(!@~

Lol, look at me I'm awesome at posing. So yeah, I got this done as a dontputitoffanylongerjustdoitalready Birthday gift to myself (mine was on the 14th, I'm 22 now babes). Not much else to say but I love it I love it I was born to be blonde, and I love it.

Like I said, I'm tired, so I'm going to bed now. Goodnight.

Harvest of sorrow

So exams/paper/assignment season is here, so I'm feeling really out of it and just can't wait to be done and enjoy spring! I mean, the sun is actually finally OUT, and I've got new sunnies in the mail, life is good. Here are a few outfits from the past week. I wore this one to go out with a few friends, although I admit I chickened out last minute and ditched the 6inch boots... I do want to try to wear them more often though (as in, more than just to Lady Gaga concerts). The lipstick is the Topshop one I talked about before, and I ended up using black eyeliner for lipliner... it's that dark! I really liked wearing it though. Shirt is army deadstock from a secondhand store in the U.S (channeling Simon from Misfits, hell yeah!), Topshop black jeans, Sam Edelman boots, thrifted leather blazer. This is what I wore the other day, just to school, etc. These boots are newly thrifted and AMAZING, couldn't beleive it when I saw them! They obviously belonged to some thin-legged goth, the ankle is tiny on these things! Whatever, suffer for fashion. Plus, I'm always up for adding new members to my clucky black boots collection. DIY spiked and studded vest (haven't seen it around here in a while, huh), thrifted sweatshirt and boots. And what's that peeking out from under the sweatshirt? Oh yeah, just my BOY LONDON body con mini!! This is one of the things I bought at Sick in London, I mean... I couldn't resist. It's so tight and so short but WHATEVER I'll make it work. Close up of the print, the BOY logo So that's it for now, I'll be all wrapped up with school by this Tuesday, and a few weeks later I'll most likely be starting summer courses (just one or two classes to make the school year course load a little lighter). Talk to you soon when I'm FREEEEE

I'm gunna drink my tears tonight

I haven't done any kind of sponsered product review in a long time, so I was really excited when I got an email from a online hair tools retailer called Misikko, asking me to review one of their top selling flat irons! Misikko carries all kinds of different kinds of hair tools with a range of prices and model types, so you can bet they have what you're looking for. Hair irons, blow dryers, and even top of the line proffesional tools. I have naturally straight hair, but I like to use a flat iron once and a while to get that extra smooth and straight look. My old flat iron was pretty good, but I've had it for years and has seen better days. Misikko sent me the Hana proffesional flat iron... in pink! How fun! Not many people would guess this, but pink is actually my favourite colour. I normally wouldn't mention the packaging, but just look how nice the package was that I got my straightener in! How sweet, I felt so spoiled. The iron itself is really nice, and I love that it has a rounded shape which comes in handy if you use your flat iron to curl your hair as well (more on that in a bit). You can adjust the heat on this flat iron, and the instruction booklet shows just what temperature to set it at depending on your hair type (I never knew what to set it on with my old one!). I timed how long it took to warm up, and it took just under a minute, I was shocked! Plus there's a little light that flashes when the iron is ready, which really comes in handy.

Okay, now to test it out! This is what my hair looks like when I let it air dry and don't brush it either. On the description for this iron, it says you can use it on damp hair, so to test out this claim I started straightening before my hair was completely dry. Half way done! See how frizzy my hair looks when I brush it out (the right side)? Done! After using my old iron for years, I really forgot what it was like to get hair like this. It was PIN STRAIGHT... a bit too straight tbh, so after wards I backcombed the roots a bit and used a bit of hairspray to give it a bit of texture. I've never been able to do it successfully, but I really wanted to test out how well this iron would be when I tried curling my hair with it. You can find tutorials on Youtube of how to curl your hair with a flat iron, but I think it's key to experiment a lot in order to get it right. But I'm happy to say I finally got it! Before: washed the day before, no product, and air dried. I got some really nice, smooth curls with this thing! Some of them looked better than others, so I brushed out the curls to get a nice wavy look instead. I think it looks pretty good, especially considering it took less than 10 minutes total! I know I'm not a beauty or hair expert, but speaking as an average consumer I really liked this flat iron and couldn't really point out any major flaws. I'm excited to keep experimenting with it, and try out a few more curling techniques. Thanks again to Misikko! Just so there's a bit of clothes in this post, here's what I wore out the night I used the iron to straighten my hair.

My favourite leopard print tights somehow got a hole in them, then when I pulled them on the hole got HUGE. I decided to just wear them like that anyways, haha!

I looooove this amazing cropped sweater I thrifted a while ago (it had a feather trim neckline, but I cut it off). Long, slight bell sleeve shape, and the fabric is just too weird and too good. Part Alexander Wang, part Liv Tyler in Empire Records. LOVE

Not everybody getting money spending money

I just realized I've got a few outfit shots stashed away, so I'll quickly share before I dash off to go babysit (yes, on a Friday. Why do I agree to these things?? Oh yeah, cos I'm desperate for money...p.s.- I ordered a pair of shoes online today...p.p.s.- they weren't cheap...p.p.p.s- oops)

This is an outfit I threw on going back to class the day after I got back from London. Sometimes the simplist, most slapdash outfits really are the best.

(what is that face... lets call it "the silent nun")
Boy London moto jacket, H&M black maxi dress, snood was a Christmas gift, leopard tights off eBay, thrifted faux Doc Martens

Then I wore this last week to reconnect with my blogging bestie Andrew of Pull Teeth (did everyone see his sexy new Boy London tee??). Although this outfit is essentially just black jeans and a white button up, I just really love it. It's all about this necklace/bodychain I got from Monki in Sweden. I think/hope its a body chain... I don't actually know for sure, but that's how I've been wearing it!



Also this leather blazer! I don't think I've shown it off here before? Most amazing cut, couldn't beleive my eyes when I saw it at Value Village. And it was $20, which for a thrift is pretty steep, but I mean, the thing is just too good to be true!

Thrifted leather blazer, thrifted white shirt, Monki body chain, black skinny jeans from Topshop, Jeffrey Campbell "mummy" wedges

ALSO! You may or may have not noticed, but I reached 500 blog followers! How amazing is that, thank you guys so much! Seriously I cannot even comprehend how many people really read my blog when in my head I think there's only a handful of you (I'm talkin about you commenters, you all get gold stars). But thanks to everyone who reads, comments, follows, tweets, you all are soooooo amazing. And to celebrate, why not buy something from my shop? Bahaha, jk guys... actually no, please buy something. It's so dead over there.

I do my own thing when the phone rings

I didn't buy too much in England, but I did have a few makeup things on my list that I knew I had to get. At the top of my list was LASHES! I only started getting into false eyelashes about two months ago, because I've tried them out a few times in the past but just couldn't get them on right for the life of me! Following the instructions to a t, they still ended up looking wonky or falling off in two seconds. Finally I found a way of putting them on that works for me, in this Youtube video (this girl is amazing, btw). I also found that cutting the lashes to fit my tiny shrimp eyes is VERY IMPORTANT. When in doubt, cut more. And also, I found that waiting 30 seconds for the glue to get sticky was just too long with the lash glue I was using... it dried up really fast, so putting the lashes on when the glue was still a bit wet helped.
I don't know why I'm trying to give you guys beauty tips right now, all I wanted to do was just show you what I bought!

So every girl in England is in love with the Girls Aloud lashes by Eylure, so I knew that with this newfound lashlove I had to stock up on a few pairs to bring home with me. I bought the Nadine and Cheryl ones at Superdrug, which I don't think are the newest style but I just really liked them anyway. When I met up with my friend later that day, he had bought me the Nicola lashes as Nicola is my fav out of the girls... how nice!

I'm also big into lipsticks right now. I knew I wanted to check out the Barry M colours, as I knew that they carry a lot of really pigmented and unusual shades. Now, I know a lot of people think it's horrible, but I love a good orange lip. Not Halloween orange, but I love corals and anything with an orangey hue. I had heard good things about Barry M's orange lipstick so I'm going to give it a go, even just to wear mixed with other colours. It's a bit on the dry side, but I prefer a lipstick to be a bit drier rather than ultra moisturizing. I find really "wet" lipsticks to just slide all over, and sometimes highlights the cracks in your lips, whereas a drier colour kind of "sticks" and goes on more evenly.

The same goes for the Topshop lipstick I bought: a bit on the dry side, but still really good. I wanted to buy this shade, called "vamp", as soon as the Topshop makeup line launched last summer but for some reason I just kept humming and hawing and never ended up buying it before I left England last September. It's similar to the Revlon shade I bought not too long ago, but the Revlon one I think is too slippery, which is especially problematic with a dark shade.
The super cool packaging is a major plus for the Topshop lipstick as well, AND it smells just like berries! The colour itself it a purpley, berry-stained colour, but has a red tinge to it so it kind of reminds me of dried blood when it's on... which sounds horrible, but I love it, haha!

When I got home I also bought the new Lady Gaga Viva Glam lipstick, which is a taupe kind of colour. I haven't gotten to test this one out yet properly, but like first Gaga MAC lipstick it goes on really smooth and smells heavenly.


In other costmetics-related news, I got gel nails last week! I wanted to get them as round as possible, which apparently is a pretty difficult request. It was pretty hilarious actually, I told the woman who did my nails beforehand that I wanted super round gels, then when she got to the shaping stage I kept telling her "rounder... more round... like an oval!". She eventually gave up and handed me off to another girl to finish them off, haha! Here's what they looked like right after I got them done, but the au natural look didn't last long as I was dying to mess them up and stick stuff on them! I started out with matte black all over, with gems only on the thumbs. I've had these for a few days now, and I'm ready to get a bit crazier!

Rub that glitter and grease around

Leather leather everywhere, but not a drop to drink... wait, that's not the saying. STILL guys, I just noticed that I've aquired a crap-load of leather lately. All secondhand mind you, I've really try not to buy any new leather products since going veggie over two years ago... shoe shopping is NOT EASY, people. But, on the other hand, it prevents me from spending every penny I earn on leather boots (truth: I would).
Number one! A teeny leather backpack, thrifted last week. I'm all about mini backpacks lately, trying to squeeze every last moment out of this 90's trend. It's simple, it's cute, it was 5 dollars.



Second! Bought this white leather dress months ago at a half off Value Village sale. I think it was half off $8, so 4 bucks! I love it but don't really know how to wear it or what to do with it... to shorten, or not to shorten? Customize? Stud? Paint? Ideas would be helpful!!


Thirdly, (saving the best for last) this vintage Boy London jacket I just bought on eBay! Urrgh, I can't beleive how lucky I was to snag this one. It was only me and one other person bidding, but I was still in full-on panic mode as the last seconds ticked past. I got it for a decent price too!
Dedicated to Andrew of Pull Teeth... eat your heart out!!



For those of you who have never heard of Boy London, it's a brand from the 80's that was really big with pop and rock stars (Boy George wore their clothes, for example). And since recently re-releasing a few t-shirt styles, they've been quite a hot commodity... anything Boy London can get quite pricey on eBay. Like I said, this was such a lucky find, and I can't wait to actually wear it IN London next week! I'm leaving on the 16th, so incase I don't post untill then I'll talk to you all from the other side of the pond!