The Nails Have It :: New Wave Colour

My job is a demanding job, and due to health and safety I’m unable to treat my nails to any kind of tlc – well that was until I discovered Collection 2000 2 in 1 Strengthener and Hardener with Calcium. I’m very picky about what nail polishes I go for, as I’ve spent a fair amount of money on polishes that peel off like plastic sheeting. I love the colours from the Hot Looks range from Collection 2000, and their nail care range. At the moment I’ve been slightly fanatic about Ciate because of their hand care ranges and their lucious collection of quick drying pots of colour for nails.

This picture is a perfect example! Yokelia's Blog (click the pic)

I love to be different, and back in my younger days I used to wear colours that didn’t always match. I wore colours that I would signify my emotions in some way, like yellow for good days, florescent orange for crazy creative days and black for ‘leave me alone to listen to my rock musique’ days. Other times, I would wear multiple colours on one hand, just to look cute.

Collection 2000 Hot Looks :: 35 Dynasty & 27 Wham

Collection 200 Hot Looks :: colour as above

[hehe, aww my little brother is fast asleep!]

My new colours are from Ciate, and if you live in the UK you can get 1 of 2 colours from this months Marie Claire.

Cute little bows from Ciate

What are your favourite brands and colours?

My New Bag & Lippy :: The Body Shop (mini haul)

Well, I went shopping and went a little crazy. I bought new comics, in order to keep up to date, and ended up spending a ton of money of a new bag and some beauty products that were well needed. Enjoy the pics:

Colourglide™ Lip Colour in 71 Dawn Fizz

This tone is simple, and great for everyday use. It has a tiny amount of glimmer and sparkle, so even if your doing a menial task you’ll have that little it of glamour. The ingredients are natural too, so it’s great for your skin.

Colourglide™ Lip Colour in 14 Pink Ginger

Hi-Shine Lip Treatment in 04 Red Gleam

This has kept my lips moist and it smells lovely too! Like berries!

My new bag!

Satchel from Accessorize

The keychain is from Accessorize too.

=]

My Body Rules 2011

Une – Hands

I use the Vitamin E hand and nail cream and the Hemp Hand Protector from The Body Shop and I swear by them! I work in health care and I’m always washing and drying my hands, and we aren’t allowed to wear nail varnish. Our make-up kits consist of latex gloves and alcohol gel – can you see the sexyness in that? I love my hands! They do everything for me! Shopping…. talking with me…. selecting bags…. packing bags…. hehe!

 

Deux – Be Leggy!

Peppermint! I swear by this magical herb! I do a super easy foot soak with peppermint and lavender, by adding ½ cup to a bowl of hot water. I leave it to steep for a while, until it’s warm enough to put my feet in. After a good soak, I moisturise with Lush Cosmetic’s Fair Trade Foot Lotion, which also has peppermint in it. I swear by shaving. I’ve done shave cream and it’s great, but I love Gillette Venus Spa Breeze as it’s quick to use, and you don’t need the shave gel. After a shave, I use the Veet Hair Minimising Cream, to keep hair at bay. I’ve only been using the Veet cream for a little while, and to be honest I was sceptic at first, but it really does what it says on the bottle. I usually de-hair my legs every 2-3 days as I can’t stand hair that’s more than ½ a millimetre long, but after using the Veet cream, I can shave 1 day less. Fab! I’ve made a promise to myself to wear dresses and skirts more as I’m just beginning to see my beauty for the first time.

Another recipe =]

 

Trois – Face

I’ve just adopted the day and night cream plan. The creams I use are from The Body Shop, in the Vitamin E range. If you go into your local store and ask for skin advice from one of the assistants, you’ll know what products to get. Another tip with looking at The Body Shop products, get on their website, and follow the quiz on the ‘lounge’ page to get an idea of the products you should get.

As for splashing money on my face, I live by Estee Lauder, Mac, Revlon and L’Oreal make-up. I like to keep things neutral looking with mascara, colour around the eyes and some lip tint every so often. I have my eyebrows threaded at least once every 1-3 months, and I may be getting them tinted as I’m dying my hair soon.

 

Quatre – Fruity Booty

Probably the best part of my regime. I love making my own body scrubs, like the ones found in the Neal’s Yard Remedy Book and the recipes found in James Wong’s Grow Your Own Drugs books. All I need is a stock of Epsom salts, sea salts, essential oils and herbs to make my skin shiny and even toned. I have quite a stock of body scrubs, soaps, shower gels and bath bombs from Lush Cosmetics and The Body Shop, but they are all and stored in a box near my windowsill; my Fruity Booty!

 

Cinq – Colour Loves

I love to paint my nails! I look after my nails, but at work I can only wear nail varnish on my toes. But I have a little secret… Collection 2000 Nail Hardener with Calcium and Ridge filler works magick for my hands. I like neat nails too, so in conjunction with the nail varnish I have a nail kit to cut, trim and shape my nails in my bag at all times. I can’t live without it! The tiniest nick and I feel doomed!

As for clothing, I love colour. I have a ton of colourful accessories, like my bags and necklaces, but I like to wear clothing of colours that suit my skin tone. I wear blues, like baby blue, cobalt and cerulean, and red’s like ruby, blood red and burgundy.  I can’t wear yellow, though I do look okay in it, but I like canary yellow and no other. The last time I wore a bright yellow in the summer, I ended up with tiny black dots all over it… bloody flies! Green is a tough colour for me, unless it’s that summer leafy green, otherwise I end up looking 50…. I’ll go into colour and the right colours for you some other time.

 

Six – Yoga Rules!

Yoga, as most folks don’t know, it part of an ancient system. The stretched you do at your local gym or in front of the TV are merely the warm up stretched Guru’s did before conducting meditation’s that took hours and even all day. Apart from that, it was used to keep your body healthy on its many etheric levels. If your foot was hurting, or if a chakra was blocked, that indicated something is wrong physically or emotionally.

I love yoga, and have been doing it on an intermediate level for the past 3 or 4 years and I highly recommend it. It’s great for toning, weight loss, strength and core work, as well as for the spiritual aspect which I adore. I love Face Yoga too!

 

Sept – Sexy Vegetarian

I love vegetarian food! It’s the same as everyone else’s, except without meat and far sexier if you know how to cook it properly, or know the finest cafes to dine in. My favourite Veggie cafes’ are Red Veg in Brighton and InSpiralled in Camden, you can’t get anymore Green and Sexy than those places! On top of that, I love herbs. Herbal medicine, James Wong, herbal magick, you name it, it’s its herbs but not drugs, I’m A-O-K! I’m all about being grounded. I may not look like your average eco warrior or eco princess, but I do my bit.

 

Huit –Hair

I have natural hair, though I curly perm it every 3-4 months. I use Sof n’ Free hair moisturiser, and use hair oil for my scalp. I love to soak my hair in olive oil, vitamin E oil and hair conditioners. I mix up all three in a medium sized tub and just paste it into my hair. Cover it up with a plastic hair cover for 45-60 minutes, or 30 min under a hairdryer, then rinse off. My hair comes out looking and feeling sexy. I apply hair moisturiser as soon as it dries, to stop it from going wrong! I hope to dye my hair within the next few weeks, to a super dark burgundy or cherry mahogany, wish me luck!

 

Neuf – Bread is My Limit

I have a thing about bread. I love bread and bananas. The thing I have comes down to my thighs and the annoying ‘bad-time-to-be-here’ bulge that appears after I’ve eaten too many bananas and way too much bread. With my exercise regime, I have noticed that I love to keep my legs toned, and eating bread just attacks them. I am quite strict with my intake, not so much in quantity but rather in what wheat foods I’ll eat in a day and stick to them. For example, Monday I’ll have bread, but I won’t have pastries etc. I love bread… I can’t help it.

 

Dix – Clear Mind

Auuuum.

I’m a big fan of Buddhist philosophy so keeping a clear mind helps me keep positive but honest to myself. I am a typical person who looks in the mirror sometimes and hates parts of my body, but I get over these complaints by admitting that I’m complaining about silly things. I have learnt, through compassion and meditation that my body is not only beautiful, but it’s unique and I’m the only one with legs like mine, skin like mine and best of all, eyes like mine. So I do what I can to live outside the box of conformity and live within my own world of The Comfy.

My Facial Care Regime!

I would show you a picture of my face with no make up or skin creams but this blog is not here to blind you. Here’s some of the products I use, mostly from The Body Shop:

Morning:

Wash face with warm water and the Vitamin E Gentle Facial Wash.

Apply Cucumber Water facial toner to brighten skin.

Apply Aloe Eye Defence around my eyes to make them less puffy and tired.

Lastly apply Vitamin E Moisture Cream which locks in my natural moisture that I loose as soon as I go outside. This helps with reducing blemishes too, giving me that fresh glowing look.

Sometimes, but not all the time I apply make-up on top, but my essential kit and it’s contents will be available in tomorrow’s post.

Night:

Wash face with Tea Tree Skin Clearing Facial Wash.

Apply Vitamin E Eye Cream around my eyes, to make my skin calm after a long day. I get super itchy eyes if I wear particular mascara so this helps soothe it too.

Sometime’s I’ll tone my face with the Vitamin E Hydrating Toner, but if I’m too tired, I’ll leave it until the morning.

Lastly I apply the Vitamin E Nourishing Night Cream.

Ahh bliss x

Foot Soak the Natural Way

I love to have a good soak when I can. I work on my feet all day looking after patients’ and running up and down like I have energy (which I don’t…), but to keep myself pampered in a super fun and timeless way comes down to what nature has to offer me. My feet are the biggest problem, and keeping them cool is the hardest. I’m a serial high-heel-sister and I have been since I was 4! I love heels, my wardrobe, and the boxes under my bed and the cupboard under my aunt’s stairs is where I keep my guilty pleasures looking new.

My very first pair of ‘high-heels’ came when I was a little child, at a doctor’s request. I was, and still am, one stubborn Leo, and ever since I could walk I never let my heels touch the ground. I used to strut around sockless with my hands on my waist pretending to be Grace Jones or Naomi Campbell. I was determined to be a model because of them… never turned out. The doctor we went to was a family friend, so it wasn’t a consultation or anything, but he knew me and my attitude and told my aunt to stuff tissue in the heels of my shoes. That didn’t work, I want real shoes. I don’t remember the brand but all I remember is black patent shoes that were 1 inch high. I was fascinated with being tall.

To this day, I wear heels when I can at home. Hanging out the washing, mopping the floor, going out or just popping to the Post Office, as I’m ‘free’ only for a short time. I spend all of my youthful days at work in flat pumps that kill my feet after walking around for 14 hours. Once a week I soak my feet for a little while and either read a book, meditate or update my blogs or website. One foot soak I love is an all natural concoction of herbs and my own special touch of magick. (Just in case you folks didn’t know… as fashionable as I am, I’m a witch too.)

Here’s a recipe I found a few months back, which is stuck permanently in my travel journal of magick, aka Book of Shadows).

Body-Balancing Foot Soak

You will need:

2 bowls for your feet

2 tablespoons of dried lemon zest

2 teaspoons of dried peppermint leaves

3 teaspoons of dried lavender

2 teaspoons of dried rosemary leaves

2 teaspoons of dried sage leaves

Handful of Epsom or Dead Sea salts

Optional* Handful of oatmeal

                                                                                                    Aromatherapy Foot Oil

Method

Fill one bowl with hot water, add the lemon zest and the dried herbs, and leave to infuse for 20 minutes. Next, add the handful of Epsom salts or the Dead Sea salts, or the oatmeal if you want to soften your skin. Add more hot water if need be, but make sure you don’t scald yourself. When the temperature is just right, pop your feet in and soak for 10 minutes or more. With the next bowl, have cold water in it, so when you finish you can soak your feet for a few seconds then towel dry your feet by patting them. Massage the aromatherapy oil on your feet to keep them moist and supple. Et Voila!

Sometimes I use the Dead Sea salts or the Epsom, but so far I haven’t tried the oatmeal… I have a fear of oatmeal on my skin… ugh =[

Enjoy!

Glued: Eco-Friendly Jewellery and Skin Care Sites

For the fashion savvy lady in you, look to these websites for inspiration. Whether it’s an expensive gift for a friend or a treat for yourself you’ll yourself watering at the mouth. I am lucky enough to have a few little gifts from these WebPages and stores and I thought I’d share my Natural and Eco Friendly jewellery and skin care wear =]

Jewellery

http://satyajewelry.co.uk/ - lush pieces inspired by yoga and balance. Kristen Bell also fashions some of their pieces.

http://www.made.uk.com/ - This company/charity is amazing. I’ve been following their progress on their blog and features in top fashion and women’s magazines. They give jobs to 3^rd world communities and make sure they are paid for their work. They don’t give a tiny 5% they give a whole lot more. Check them out.

Skin Care

http://www.naturalelements.co.uk/ - All I can say is wow! My aunt loves them. I bought a few of the anti-ageing moisturisers and she can’t stop using them.

http://www.renskincare.com/ - The Body Washes folks! The body washes!! They are so soothing and sensual. I bought the Bergamot wash and I felt I was in a Parisian hotel room having a hot bath with a half naked man waiting in the bedroom (o.O) – If it made me imagine this, it must be good right? Each bottle can be a little pricey, but like I said, it’s a treat! Indulge yourself =]

http://www.sukiskincare.com/v6/ - This is the American site. There are two great things about this site, you can get exclusive discounts and offers when you ‘like’ their facebook page and you can get a skincare prescription by completing a simple quiz. Below is a website that has everything UK wise!

http://www.beautyok.co.uk/ - Haha! You can get other brands too!!!

http://www.lush.co.uk/ - What can I say? Lush is Lush!

http://www.balmbalm.com/ - If I haven’t got a Lush balm or made my own, I always have the lippy from this site. They are fruity and cute! 100% organic and cruelty free. =]

Have fun for now!! Tomorrow will be a list on Eco Fashion and personal things you guys may like.

Mmm… Ayurvedic Pura Tea…