A Low Maintenance Guide to Long Lasting Make-Up

I spend approximately seven minutes each morning on my make-up. I have a base of concealer and foundation, then mascara and maybe a lip colour. It is a basic routine, interspersed with evenings of painting my nails, that I know I can do without a mirror and just gives me a little more get-up-and-go for the day ahead. I also very rarely carry a make-up bag around with me predominantly because I'm not bothered but also I'm far too lazy to refresh my make-up throughout the day.

What I Wore for... New Year's Eve 2013

I'm not a huge fan of New Year's Eve. Too many people, overpriced drinks, the forced expectation to have the best night ever. Secretly I'd rather stay in with a takeaway and a Gossip Girl box set, but if the whole world is having a drink, I guess I should too!

This blouse from Mango has been on my Pinterest wish list since I first saw it on the WIWT Lust List. Thanks to the amazing Shopstyle app (a post on that to come soon!), I had a sale alert set up for it so when it went down to half price  to £20, I could buy it instantly. 

As it's a very fussy print I chose to keep it really simple and wear it with plain black jeans and chunky heeled black boots. I do love my accessories though so I still tucked a spiked necklace under the collar just to give it a bit of something extra.

I love these silver rings, especially with the amazing colour of this nail varnish I got for Christmas. It's Superpower Blue by Maybelline Color Show and is almost teal in tone. A new favourite I think!

Hope you all had a great New Year's Eve!

Beauty: Nail Art #2

I still haven't got around to buying any nail wraps to have some of the amazing nails I keep seeing on Pinterest and Instagram, but I'm getting OK at painting some simple designs by myself. This is my latest attempt and below is how to achieve the look yourself in a handy step-by-step guide. Let me know if you give it a go!

Pick your lightest colour as your base coat. Make sure this is fully dry before you continue.

Using your palest colour, paint one thin line about 3/4 of the length of the nail.

Paint a second line about 3/4 the length of the original line.

Paint a third line about 3/4 the length of the second line, leaving a bit of the original base colour showing next to it.

Using your darkest colour, repeat the process on top of the pale colour. Ta-dah!

I used Avon Nailwear Pro+ in Coral Reef, Topshop Nails in Jewel in the Crown, and Topshop Nails in Gone Fishing.

Beauty: Sally Hansen Nail Pens

My favourite thing to look at on Pinterest is the amazing pics of incredible nail art - a fashion that seems to be going from strength to strength on beauty blogs and on the red carpet.

Zooey Deschanel is celeb Queen of nail art - her tuxedo
nails at the Golden Globes were fabulous!

Find the sources of these pics and more photos of nail art on my
Pinterest board all about my favourite beauty looks.

There's so many different nail products you can buy now to jazz up your talons from transfers to magnetic polish, and I wanted to get ahead of the game and try some out as well. I bought these Sally Hansen Nail Pens on eBay in Hot Pink and White. 

I'm not particularly artistic and I struggle to paint with my left hand, but I managed to do this as my first attempt:

What do you think? If you have any tips for nail art I'd love to hear them!


All other photos property of Shopped and Dropped, do not re-use without permission.