Nails || Models Own Hyper Gel Polish in Lilac Sheen

 

Lately I have heard tons about Models Own Hyper Gel Nail Varnish and have been very tempted by them so when they recently have a 50% off sale on their website I just HAD to make a purchase! Er ok that’s not strictly true... I bought a one hyper gel set as well as a couple of sets and numerous brushes! Whooops!

Today’s nails are Models Own Hyper Gel Nail Varnish in Lilac Sheen. I am in LOVE with this colour!! It’s just too gorgeous! This is one of the best gel polishes I have ever used, I’ve been wearing it for over a week now and it still in one piece, no chips, still shiny! I keep getting asked where I got my nails done, the ultimate compliment!

Have you tried any of the Hyper Gel shades?

Thailand || New Years Eve in Bangkok

 

 

New Years Eve in Bangkok – what an experience! When we originally decided we would be spending it here. I was a little apprehensive but due to arriving in Thailand on the 30^th, it seemed the easiest option. I kept having flashes of ‘The Hangover 2’ movie pop up in my head, so I’m pleased to say no one’s face (or anywhere else) got tattooed and I think it was one of the best New Years Eves I’ve ever had! It was just SO much fun!

We began our evening by going for dinner at a lovely outdoor restaurant round the corner from our hotel. I had a Pad Thai and it was mouth wateringly good! We followed this with a few cocktails at a street bar.

We then headed back to our hotel, The Dang Dern hotel, as it had a rooftop pool and bar and we were told at midnight The Grand Palace were having a fire work display and thought this would be a great spot for a fantastic view. We weren’t wrong! The fireworks were incredible and they were followed by hundreds of lanterns being let up into the air, it was such a beautiful sight and a magical way to welcome in 2014.

The party didn’t stop there! We befriended some crazy Canadians and as I said in my last post Koh San Road was party central and that night it hosted a giant street party, so guess where we headed?! There were hundreds of people there and the atmosphere was just electric! The rest of the night involved joining in with a break dancing display, trying scorpions (very crunchy and not that nice!) and tons of dancing and mojitos!

This was definitely one New Years I won’t forget!

p.s Apologies for the dodgy pics, turns out me plus alcohol plus a camera equals not great results!

 

Are you a secret blogger?

I have a confession to make. Only a few people in my ‘real life’ know I blog, when I say a few I mean my mum and two friends. All of whom don’t really know anything about blogging so aren’t interested and don’t bat an eye lid. The more I think about it, the odder I find it. I feel like I spend a large part of my spare time blogging or thinking about it. I have lots of amazing, supportive friends and family, so why haven’t I shared my hobby with them?

I’m not sure I actually have a definitive answer to that question. Am I embarrassed of my little space on the blogosphere? Well no, I’m actually really proud – not in a big headed way, promise! I have just put a lot of time into it and achieved things I would have never guessed possible or that I would have had the skills to do. I think it’s the ‘my little space’ that may be a preventative to sharing. I originally started blogging as a personal project to improve my writing skills and as an outlet to vent what’s on my mind. I never expected anyone to read it. I didn’t even realise that there was a concept of ‘followers’ or that there was even such an amazing and supportive blogging community out there. It’s something that still amazes me!

Blogging has been such a positive experience for me and I guess maybe sharing what I do opens it up for criticism, which I’m not sure I’m ready for. I’m also not sure my friends would understand it, none of them do anything like this (that I know of!). What if they don’t get it? What if they make fun of it? Urgh, I HATE ‘what ifs…..’! but it then leads to the questions, do and should I care what people think? Do their opinions matter and why?

I guess the purpose of this post was to get my thoughts out there in black and white. It’s been playing on my mind since a #bbloggers chat before Christmas, where a few lovely bloggers mentioned no one close to them knows they blog. I can hear you thinking – am I going to out myself as a blogger? The answer is probably not just yet! Maybe someday but right now I quite like having a naughty little secret!

Are you a secret blogger? Do your friends know about your blog? How do they react to it?

Empties #1

 

Welcome to my first ever Empties post! This year I am trying to be a bit more restrained when it comes to spending money, especially when it comes to beauty bits! I have so many bits and pieces in drawers that I’ve only ever used once or even not at all! I hang my head in shame! So I have decided this year instead of buying all the latest products I am going to use up my beauty stash first and so far I’m doing ok! So you expect a few more of these posts coming up.

So here are all the items I’ve finished up this past month or so...

1.       Clinique Moisture Surge Tinted Moisturizer – I have been using this for a couple of years now. If I had to chose been a foundation and a Tinted moisturizer, the moisturizer wins every time! I just find it a lot lighter on my skin and this one is just such a perfect shade. However saying that since this ran I’ve been using my foundation instead of re-purchasing! Get me being restrained!

2.       Benefit They’re Real Mascara – Check out my review here! I have tried many, many different Mascaras but have yet to find one that beat this! It is my ‘can't live without product’! It lengthens, adds volume and thickens... LOVE!

3.       The Body Shop’s Indian Night Jasmine Eau De Toilette – this was such a gorgeous scent! I love to wear perfume most days, it’s an expensive habit so the gorgeous scents The Body Shop do at a reasonable price make it a little easier on my purse!

4.       Benefits The Porefessional primer – I received this in my last Birchbox so it’s a small tester size. It’s such a great primer! I really noticed the effects when I used it and it’s definitely going on the wish list!

5.       Rimmels Stay Matte Foundation – another tester product id received and it was what I turned to when I ran out of the Clinique Moisture Surge Tinted Moisturizer! I was really impressed, instead of being all liquid it came out like a mouse and applied really easily. I also found the shade was a great match to my skin.

6.       Benefits Fake Up – an under eye concealer. I was a bit gutted when this ran out, it worked wonders on my bags and was also really moisturising. I may have to be naughty and treat myself to another.

7.       Liz Earles Energising Body Wash – I was sent a few Liz Earle products recently, I always thought they were for the more mature lady but have been pleasantly surprised by all of them! This shower gel was gorgeous, it smelt woodlandy and you could pick out the essential oils. A really lovely product.

Have you tried any of these products? What did you think?

Nails // Company Polish

Waaay back before Christmas I received a couple of nail polishes free with my Company magazine. I had completely forgotten about them until I was having a clear out last weekend and found them again! I really like the colours, ones a vampy red/purple colour and the other was a mint green. I thought they really complemented each other so decided to play around with them and here is the results!

I love a good freebie! Whets the best thing you’ve got free with a magazine?

Motivational Monday #2 || 28 Random Acts of Kindness

 

Today’s Motivational Monday is going to be slightly different! This whole idea of these posts which I have been doing for way over a year now was to give me a kick up the bum and get me to be a more positive and happy person. I think it’s working, since I started this blog nearly two years ago I am so much more confident in myself, I worry less about what others think and I am just so much more happier in general!

However, sometimes this just isn’t enough. I feel in a bit of a rut at the mo and feel like I need to put in some work to switch up the cosmic universe and get some good Karma! I am a huge believer in karma, what you give out you get back. If you send out positive vibes, positive things will happen. So going along these lines, for the whole of February I am going to do a good deed or Random Act of Kindness each and every day. That’s 28 days so 28 acts of kindness! Kid of fitting seeing as I just turned 28!!

I’m a bit excited about this! I am stepping out of the box and making an effort to put a smile on others faces! Its day three and so far I’ve taken my friends daughter who has difficult behaviour, for a day out to give my friend some rest bite, I then bagged up some clothes for the charity shop and today I’m taking a cream egg in for everyone at work, just cos! I have a few exciting plans for doing this, including some big ones but I’m a little nervous I may run out of ideas! I’m hoping things will just happen, so I can be spontaneous! Saying that, if you have any ideas feel free to let me know!

Being kind is such a simple act but it can really make someone’s day, it doesn’t have to cost anything at all!

Thailand || Bangkok

If you are a regular visitor to ‘Lipsticks and Lashes’ or follow me on Twitter or Instagram, you may have seen that I have just returned from three incredible weeks in Thailand with my friend Kate! I feel very blessed that over the years I have done quite a lot of travelling. I really do believe that getting out there and seeing what the world has to offer is truly one of the best things you can do!

 

I was originally going to do one big post, however on started to put said post together it would have been HUGE! So I’ve decided to break it down into places we visited, and do a few posts over the next couple of weeks. I hope you enjoy them!

 

 

 

So first up is Bangkok! After an 8 hour flight to India, an 8 hour stop in the airport (which isn’t the pleasantest place in the world) followed by a short 4 hour flight, we finally arrived in Thailand! After a bit of deliberation we decided to pre-book our accommodation in Bangkok and stay for 3 nights. I am so glad we did after that long journey, as I’m not sure I would have had the brain power to sort that out on landing! It also meant we would be spending NYE in Bangkok – I will be doing a whole separate post on this experience alone so won’t say much about that now!

We stayed on Koh San Road in the Dang Dern Hotel. This road is party central, mainly filled with travellers but there are quite a few locals too. Therefore if your want sleep or are travelling with a young family, I wouldn’t recommend staying here unless you have an amazing pair of ear plugs. For our needs though it worked well, as it was where we wanted to be for New Years Eve and central to all the places we wanted to visit and explore.

 

We arrived late on the 30^th December so didn’t do much that evening. The next day we got up early and headed via Tuk Tuk – SO much Fun! – to the ‘Travel Authority of Thailand’ who were ridiculously helpful and sorted out our accommodation, domestic flights and transfers for the next three weeks. I can’t fault this service, our advisor really got it right for us, especially as we wanted to see as much as we could in a short space of time. It definitely took the pressure off us and gave us more time to enjoy the experience. We paid just over £400 for it all and I think this was pretty reasonable when you look at everything we got for it. However, if you are going to Thailand for a longer period of time I would recommend doing it yourself as you go along as everything is so inexpensive you could definitely do it for a lot cheaper than we did!

After getting organised, we then wandered back towards Koh San Road hitting the Temple of the Tall Buddha on our way. This is where we saw a cat in a dress, I repeat A CAT IN A ADRESS!! Still speechless in regards to this! Whilst in Bangkok we also visited the Grand Palace which was just so beautiful, the detail of these temples is just so incredible.

We then followed this with a visit to the Horizontal Buddha, this was the only temple we had to pay to visit (all the others were just accepting donations). This one was pretty much what it said on the tin, a huge laying down Buddha, also known to us as the lazy one.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Shopping in Bangkok was pretty interesting. Koh San Road is filled with market stalls and everything is crazy cheap. We found that clothes, gifts etc were cheaper here than anywhere else we visited which is worth keeping in mind if you’re planning a trip! Mixed in between the clothes stands were tons of street food vendors. The food here was just incredible, so yummy and fresh!!

 

 

Bangkok really exceeded my expectations! Before arriving I thought it would be my least favourite place, as I’m not a huge city fan, however it was just awesome! Busy not unmanageable, fun and vibrant. I felt so safe here too, not like other big cities I’ve previously visited. I really hope I can visit there again soon!

Keep your eye out for more Thailand posts coming up soon!