Stargazer Shake and Bling Challenge

Hi all :)

You may have seen this challenge on a few other blogs lately. Stargazer are running a competition (closing date is tomorrow). They sent us four products with which we had to come up with a nail art design. The products included were a nail varnish, a nail art pen, a glitter shaker and some nail diamonds. We selected the colours that we wanted.

I selected the nail art pen in gold, the holo glitter shaker in Onix and the nail polish in shade 105.

I had originally decided to do a 'starry night' theme, it didn't quite go as planned but I'm still very pleased with the result!

I started with with two coats of shade 105.

and then went crazy!

I painted the ends of most nails with a top coat and then dipped them into the glitter shaker. I used the nail art pen to draw the 'moon' on the bottom of my ring finger and to draw the 'stars' in the black glitter. I then added some bling followed by a top coat and sprinkled a little more glitter over all the nails.

My vision for this was the blue being the sky, going up to the black where its getting darker in the night, then the gold & smaller diamanté were stars and the big diamond is the bright North star that you see wherever you go!

What do you think of my attempt? I'm quite pleased with it. Unfortunately I found out about the competition quite late on so haven't had time to try out loads of different looks.

Did you enter this challenge? If so I would love to see what you came up with!

Massive thanks for Dee at Touch Media for allowing me to take part in the challenge.

A Day in Weight Watchers & Weekly Progress #02

Weigh day, eek!! This week has not been good, I've totally gone off the rails with food and alcohol this past week!

This week I weighed in at 12 st 2 lb which is a total weight loss of 6 & 1/2 lbs. I'm super impressed that I've managed to lose weight despite the awful food/alcohol that I've consumed! I had a limited edition triple chocolate Mars bar to celebrate, that is how good I am at dieting haha! It was amazing though!

I did have a good day on Monday (possibly the only good day in the whole week!) Here is what I ate:

 7.50 am Weight Watchers Yoghurt 2 Pro Points

Banana 0 Pro Points

 9.45am Tesco Light Choices Apple & Raisin Slices 3 Pro Points

10.50 am banana 0 Pro Points

 1.15 pm Tesco Light Choice Minced Beef & Potatoes meal 5 Pro Points

 1.35 pm Weight Watchers Chocolate Biscuit bar 2 Pro Points

4 pm another of the above! 2 Pro Points

7 pm Cod, cheese & chive fishcake 9 Pro Points

Two portions of Weight Watchers Spring Onion mash 4 Pro Points

Runner Beans 0 Pro Points

I also had one cup of coffee using the Nescafe 3 in 1 sachets - 2 Pro Points

Total points : 29/29

Ethical Fashion - ATRium DIY Fashion Show (Photo heavy!!)

Last week I attended a DIY fashion show in Cardiff's ATRium.

Design and Promotion students joined together to raise awareness of economical fashion. The students were asked to create a garment using only recycled and used materials, which were then showcased on the runway.

The outfits that they created were absolutely amazing, it was hard to believe that they had been created using all recycled materials, I was super shocked at how creative they were!

Here are my photos from the day...

We also received a goodie bag packed full of discounts and samples :) Here is what I had in mine...

Thank you so much to Lauren for inviting us (read allowing us to tag along) and putting us in the VIP seats! It really was a lovely day and I do love the outfit that Lauren created (they dress with the tyres).

Well done to all the students on the amazing outfits and the organisation, the day ran without a hitch.

You can read Lauren's post about the day and view some professional photos here.

Which of these outfits is your fave? I actually decided that the tyre one was my fave before I even knew Lauren had designed it, she was quite impressed that I picked it!

Review : VIVO Costmetics Eyeshadow Trio & Concealer

As I'm sure most of you are already aware VIVO cosmetics have recently launched in Tesco stores. VIVO cosmetics are very reasonably priced high quality make-up, with prices starting from just £1.50 they are certainly worth a try!

They describe their products as being 'alive with colour' and have been called 'the MAC of supermarket make-up brands'.

The lovely Kerry at VIVO agreed to send me some products to review. I received the Trio Eyeshadow Palette in Sugar Plum, the Undereye Roll on Concealer in Light (Shade 1) and a set of false eyelashes in Full On.

Today I am going to be showing you the Undereye Roll on Concealer and the Trio Eyeshadow Palette. I'm not very good when it comes to applying false lashes so have asked my sister to trial these for me...separate review to follow!

Undereye Roll on Concealer in Light £3.59

VIVO say : Hide tired eyes with the latest roller-ball technology. Swipe this roll-on concealer under eyes for instant coverage.

Available in: Light and Medium.

My thoughts : I was pleased when I saw this as the roller ball is the same as my current favourite under eye concealer, the Garnier Caffeine Roll-on, the difference being that the Garnier one costs £10!
The flaw with the roller ball is that the concealer does seem to jam at times, this is nothing that a little shake doesn't resolve.
The big plus of the roller ball is that application feels lovely as the ball is really cold.
This isn't the most pigmented concealer that I have tried but it does brighten the under eye area and the roller ball refreshes the area.
I wouldn't recommend this for someone who has very bad under eye circles, but, if like me you're just looking for a little something to brighten up the eye area I highly recommend this product.

Trio Eyeshadow Palette in Sugar Plum £2.50

natural light

indoors with light on

VIVO say : A collection of 5 stunning eyeshadows to blend for the perfect smoky eye.

Available in: Sugar Plum, Graphite Glamour, Green with Envy, Be-Dazzled and Innocence.

My thoughts : As you can see from the swatches these eyeshadows are very pigmented.
There is no fall out at all.
I love that there is a tutorial on the packaging and I like that you can see the colour of the shadows without opening it up.
These eyeshadows really are lovely to work with and glide on with a buttery texture.
I used this palette on Saturday night, I applied at approximately 6pm and got home at around 2am and it was still going strong!

Below are some looks that I created with the palette...

VIVO also sell individual pearl and matte eyeshadows for £1.50 each, baked shimmer palettes for £6, volume mascara for £2.59, lengthening mascara for £1.50, curve effect mascara for £3, kohl eyeliner pencils for £1.50, liquid liner for £2, eyebrow pencils for £1.50, ultimate brow and eye kit for £5, lipstick for £1.99, diamond sparkle lip gloss for £1.50, shimmer and shine lip gloss for £1.99, brush and highligher duo for £2.39, pressed powder compact for £2.39, mattifying loose powder for £3, radiant boost highlighter for £3.59, highlighter for £5, primer for £6, concealer kit for £5, matte foundation for £2.59, bronzer for £4, baked blush for £4, baked bronzer for £5 - so yeah quite a lot of products for not a lot of dosh!

For me the only downside to VIVO is the fact that they aren't widely available. At the moment their products are only available in selected Tesco stores (full list available on their facebook page). I have enquired and they are currently in talks about selling the products on-line - so fingers crossed!

Disclosure - I was sent these products to review but my opinions are 100% honest.