Spring Tag!

Image taken from weheartit.com

I love spring, it means the weather is beginning to get warmer and lighter nights are just around the corner. Since getting back from my holiday I’ve been lusting after warmer weather and not needing to layer up and wear my parka. I just want to wear my pleather jacket again, as well as my dresses and playsuits.

It’s officially spring today! So what better way to start off spring 2015 on my blog, than a spring tag!

1. Favorite spring nail polish?
I like my cream and pastel shades for spring, and I’ll definitely be wearing my Models Own Speckled polishes (post about them here). They remind me of Mini Eggs, which I love. As well as that I’ll probably be wearing my Illamasqua Raindrops (review here) polish as I love that shade for spring too.

2. What is your must-have lip color this spring?
I’m swaying towards pinks this spring, mostly nude pinks as I’ve recently got into wearing this shade and I really like it. As well as that I always like to rock a hot pink shade too. You can’t go wrong with pink! One I’ll probably wear a lot is Miley Cyrus’ Viva Glam lipstick (review here).

3. Show us your favorite spring dress!
I have so many favourites! I love my Dr. Martens dress (lookbook here), as well as my Miss Selfridge playsuit which I wore on holiday and will continue to wear in the spring and summer in the UK. Here are some pictures of both dresses…

4. What’s your favorite flower?
I don’t reallllly like flowers to be honest and I put this down to having hayfever… But if I had to choose one it would probably be sunflowers and lilies.

5. Favorite spring scarf/accessory?
Favourite spring scarf is definitely my white skull one that I bought three years ago (wow time flies!). It’s light and perfect to wear with dresses in the spring and summer.

6. What spring trend(s) are you most excited about this year? (Makeup, fashion or both!)
I am really liking the look of the 70’s trend, as I find the style that was out then was pretty nice and looked lovely. When it comes to make up and hair, I don’t really bother with those trends as I just wear my hair how I want to, and same with my lipstick too. Clothes wise, I am in desperate need of a make over! So I may go down the 70’s route!

Image taken from weheartit.com

7. Favorite spring candle?
I’ll burn anything throughout the year, but I think out of all my Yankee Candles the candles I’ll be burning most throughout spring will be Sweet Strawberry and Sweet Apple (post about them both here). They’re perfect for spring and smell delicious too. They’re simple too which is great for spring.

8. Favorite body spray/perfume for spring?
Ooo this is a tough one as I have so many I like to wear throughout the year. I think a few that I really like are Paul Smith Rose, DKNY MYNY, Marc Jacobs Oh Lola, Gucci Envy Me, and Lancome Miracle. They’re all light and floral and citrus scents which work lovely for spring.

9. What is spring like where you live?
Erm… It depends I suppose but usually wet! It rains a lot in the UK as it is, but it seems to rain more during spring than any other month. The thing I like about spring in the UK is how great it is to go into the countryside and awe over all the baby animals, as well as take in the sights. I especially love seeing cherry blossom trees.

Image taken from weheartit.com

10. What’s your favorite thing about spring?
Baby animals and cherry blossom trees for sure! They just both make me happy, especially when it comes to photography too. I also like how lighter nights come around and you can go out in the evenings with friends, family, partner, etc and just enjoy yourselves for longer. It’s also nice how it gets a little warmer out too.

11. Are you a spring cleaner?
Sometimes, not like hardcore but I would like to do a lot of spring cleaning this year. I’ve done a little already with my clothes, but I need to do some more. There’s probably loads of junk I could chuck away out of my room!

12. Any plans for spring break or an upcoming vacation?
We don’t have spring break in the UK, but we do get Easter break. I’m not at uni during this time for two weeks and throughout that time I’ll be working, as well as doing my uni work. I may also use it to do my spring cleaning and have a bit of me and blog time. I won’t have any holiday’s coming up, but I would love to go out for a day somewhere nice for my boyfriends birthday, which is just after the Easter holiday’s.

Image taken from weheartit.com

So that was the Spring Tag! I really enjoyed doing it, and I hope my readers have enjoyed reading it.

Who do I tag? EVERYONE! If you take part in this tag, please link me back to said post via a comment so I can come and read it.

Until next time, take care all and I hope you all have a good weekend.

Illamasqua Raindrops nail varnish review

I read about Raindrops towards the end of 2011 on Temptalia’s website but as I continued to read I felt rather disappointed to find out that it wasn’t being made another and had sadly discontinued. I accepted I’d been a little too late to get my hands on this polish and said to myself I would look for something similar.

However luck came my way a year later (end of 2012) when I found out that Illamasqua were due to re-release Raindrops as part of their Broken Heart collection so as soon as I had the chance to try it on, I did!

After having a look at the new Archie’s Girls Collection for MAC I wandered over to Illamasqua to try on a few coats of this and I fell in love with it, but I knew I wanted to have a think about it before I decided to buy. At the end of the day I’m not allowed to wear polish to work, so I wanted to see if this was as sheer as I’d been hearing from reviews online.

I went back on Saturday gone with my friend Poppy and after much thought I decided to purchase. it’s light enough that I can get away with it at work and it’ll be perfect throughout all the seasons. I’ve never owned a grey polish before, so this is something that had to be in my collection!

Illamasqua describe Raindrops as a sheer light grey nail polish with a jelly finish. The packaging for Illamasqua has always been simple and I rather like that. The polish is definitely sheer and even with two coats doesn’t show up as much as I’d like it to, however this is a good thing for me due to work but I’m super excited to wear plenty of coats of this when I’m on my next holiday from work, excited!

I tried my best to get a good picture of what the glitter throughout the polish looks like, as personally I’ve never seen anything like this. The glitter isn’t chunky or huge, but rather delicate and of a silver colour to go hand in hand with the grey. Usually with glitter polishes they’re either full of glitter, which is usually rather chunky or they hardly have any glitter and you need to ensure you get at least one nail covered in glitter. This polish is very different as whilst most glitter sits on the top of the polish, this sits underneath the polish, which is great and looks beautiful.

As well as that, it makes removing this polish a doddle! No more sitting there scrubbing away with the remover soaked cotton  pads, or your fingers wrapped in tin foil! Perfect!

Of course for me whilst it doesn’t matter as much as it might for others, I do keep my eye out on how well it wears and things like that. This doesn’t chip very easily at all and after a busy couple of days at work this lasted really well and I didn’t feel the  need to remove and re apply, even though I have since writing this post as I’m a fussy bugger and have to paint my nails on a Sunday, remove Wednesday to re apply and then remove Sunday to start all over again. Weird yes, but that’s just how I am.

The sad news is that this has sold out online, however I picked this up in Selfridges when I went shopping with Poppy so if you check your local Illamasqua counter, you may be able to pick up a bottle! As this polish is so popular right now, I’m sure Illamasqua won’t be out of stock too much longer. These do retail for £13.50, which I think is a great price!

Some fun and exciting news to do with Raindrops is that Illamasqua are holding a fun event over on their Facebook than when they reach 100,000 likes on their page that they’ll be making a pink version of Raindrops. They’ve even released photos of what it’ll look like!

Doesn’t it look gorgeous?! The page is currently at 97,824 (21/2/13) so I hope those numbers hurry up and grow as I want to hurry up and get my paws on this polish! I wonder if it’ll get a new name, or just something simple like ‘Raindrops Limited Edition Pink Version’?

Who knows eh? I hope you enjoyed this review. Do you own Raindrops? If so do you like it? If you don’t own it, do you want it? Let me know in the comments below!

P.S. Sorry I haven’t posted any swatches of this on my nails, but my nails aren’t exactly the best at the moment but I’m going to be posting swatches in future!