NOTD: Prickly Pear, Florals and Polka Dots

'Another NOTD already?!' I know my last post was also a NOTD, but I change my nail polish fairly frequently and I am so in love with this colour and my little attempt at nail art, that I had to share it with you.

3 coats of Barry M Gelly Nail Paint in 'Prickly Pear'

Left: Berry Ice Cream, Right: Prickly Pear

I resisted buying Prickly Pear for as long as I could. When it was released, I knew it was one of those colours that I would love. It is a pretty light purple, which I would say is slightly darker than your typical pastel lilac. The colour is similar to Barry M 'Berry Ice Cream', which is another of my favourites, but comparing them side by side, you can see the difference in colour tone. The formula was easy to work with and needed 3 coats to become fully opaque. The colour is super glossy, even without a top coat. It has lasted well on my nails so far and there are no chips yet.

Nail art and I are not best friends. However I was inspired by Milly's pastel floral nails in her recent post, so I decided to give it a whirl. The technique she linked to was a tutorial by Corrie and it really was as simple as pi. I think the whole nail art process took less than 5 minutes. I didn't trust myself to decorate all my nails, but I threw in a little polka dot design and really like how it turned out. I didn't use any fancy dotting tools or stamps - I just did a few circular blobs of Essie 'Off The Shoulder' using the brush and then swirled in Sinful Colors 'Easy Going' with a cocktail stick, before dotting mini leaves and polka dots using the same cocktail stick and Barry M 'Greenberry' and finishing off with a top coat. Simples.

Have you tried any Barry M Gelly nail polishes? Do you like nail art?

Thank you for reading. xoxo, Joy

DIY Gift Bow

I actually saw this DIY on Pinterest and thought it was super cool and I'm all for upcycling. I recently had to wrap a friend's birthday present and decided to use a few pages from an issue of Stylist Magazine to wrap her present as I had no wrapping paper. I think it ended up looking pretty cool, so I thought I'd share it with you all.

I followed this tutorial on How About Orange, but I thought I'd include a quick picture summary of how to make the gift bows:

This is how the present ended up looking like. I used two MAC adverts.

What do you think of DIY gift wrapping?

xoxo, Joy

DIY Make Up Brush Guards

I don't own a brush roll so when I travel I put my brushes straight into my make up bag. It's not ideal, as I have found the bristles of the brushes sometimes get splayed, become temporarily weirdly shaped and sometimes get caught in the zip if I forget to put them at the bottom of my make up bag!

I saw a blog post a few months back about looking on eBay for 1m rolls of the brush guard material to DIY. If you search 'make up brush guards' in the search box, it comes up with premade ones and 1m rolls. I opted for a 1m roll as I love a bit of DIY and figured you would probably get more for your money.

In total, I paid 99p for the 1m roll (including postage and packaging - Bought from here) and made 16 brush guards from it! You can buy brush guards online for between £5-6 for 5 (extortionate?!).

They're super easy to make, as you literally just need to snip the material to the length you want. However I was procrastinating and decided to film a quick tutorial for them. You can find the tutorial on my Youtube Channel here.

How do you store your brushes when you travel?

Thank you for reading. xoxo, Joy

DIY Scrabble Ring

I spent ages looking for a 'J' scrabble ring last year, as they were always sold out. When I finally found one on eBay, I'm sure a 'HALLELUJAH!' rang from the heavens! During the summer, I went to a few car boot sales with my mum and at one of them, there was someone selling a scrabble board game for £2. I snapped it up and decided that I would try my hand at some DIY. I recently made some scrabble rings for my friends as stocking fillers and thought I'd share how I made them.

I apologise in advance for the cringey introduction!!


One of my new year's resolutions is to find a hobby and I've recently become interested in doing more craft. I recently came across this site - Cut Out + Keep - and omgosh! It's amazing. It's full of DIY tutorials, recipes, etc. and I'm currently compiling a list of things I want to make and things I need to buy, so I'm quite excited! Do you like making things? Do you have any tips for a beginner?

Thank you for watching. xoxo, Joy

DIY Toner

I've recently been breaking out more than usual and I don't know why... So I whipped up this DIY toner and thought I'd share a quick tutorial for a soothing, skin softening and acne treating toner, which has rapidly become one of my personal favourites :) It leaves your skin feeling soft and helps battle blemishes and acne. It issuper simple to make and can be made with things that are available easily and cheaply.

After filming and editing the video, I had a search on Youtube and saw that Secretlifeofabionerd already has a video about this (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpf4s0zS73w),which is a tiny bit different as she uses more aspirin. Seeing as I'd spent a good few hours editing the video, I still decided to upload it. I hope you like it!

More Background Info:

Salicylic acid is abeta-hydroxy acid derived from the bark of a willow tree. It is available forthe public in the form of aspirin and lots of products aimed at acne andskin clearing on the market contain salicylic acid. Salicylicacid works by causing the cells of the epidermis to shed properly. Thisprevents the pores from getting clogged up and being infected with bacteriathereby preventing blemishes from showing.

Witch hazel is producedfrom the leaves and bark of the North American Witch Hazel shrub. It is a natural astringent, which reduces inflammation, sanitizes the skin and helps with hydration of the skin. Many people use it topically as a toner, as it is gentle and non drying to the skin.

Thank you for watching. xoxo, Joy

Glitter Shoes

Photo: Hazel Jane (Here)

When I first saw the picture above on Flickr, I squeed a little at how gorgeous the shoes are. Since then I've wanted a pair of glittery shoes to channel my inner Dorothy (from the Wizard of Oz). I knew that Christian Louboutin make a gorgeous pair, but unfortunately they're way beyond my reach. I recently bought a pair of gorgeous purple peeptoes in the Next sale for £12. Despite the lovely colour, I decided that glitter was the way forward. This resulted in me taking a trip to Wilkinson and buying a vat of glitter.

I saw a tutorial online about covering the whole shoe in glue and then sprinkling the glitter onto the shoe, however I decided that that would be WAY too messy! So I decided to do it a little differently.

What you'll need:

• A pair of shoes
• Loose glitter
• PVA glue
  
• A sponge brush or paintbrush
  
• Masking tape (If required)

1. Cover areas of your shoe that you don't want the glitter to be on. I used masking tape and covered the heel and inside with a plastic bag.
2. Mix the glitter and glue. There aren't any actual defined quantities to use, but I just mixed a load of coloured glitter until I got the colour I wanted and gradually mixed in the glue. The consistency should be pretty runny. If you have too much glitter in the mixture (like on the first coat I did), it will be chunky and hard to spread.
3. Paint the glitter/glue mixture onto your shoe in a thin layer. Allow this to dry completely (It takes approximately an hour) and apply another coat, specifically concentrating on areas that look sparse. I did 3 layers in total to get an opaque, glittery finish.
4. Once the shoe is dry, remove the masking tape carefully. Paint a thin layer of varnish over the top of the shoe to make sure the glitter doesn't fall off when you wear them. And finito, you're done! :) I don't think the last picture shows how pretty and glittery the shoes are. I decided to leave the heel purple so it's a little bit different. I might add more glitter to the heel sometime down the line if I feel like it or want a change.

What do you think of glittery shoes?

Hope you enjoyed the post. Thank you for reading. xoxo, Joy

Usamimi Headbands

Usamimi headbands are quite big in Asia at the moment, and I've noticed a few places in the UK selling them now too. I saw this gorgeous white lace one in Urban Outfitters before Christmas, but decided against buying it because I thought that £10 was extortionate for something that is basically material around wire. This led me to embrace my creative streak and try to make one myself.

I was surprised at how simple they are to make. It took me approximately an hour and a bit to make/hand sew the one above. Considering I'm awful at sewing, I'm pretty impressed with how the headband turned out. *Pats myself on the back* The headbands are extremely versatile and can be worn in a number of different ways.


For tutorials on how to make these headbands, you could type "How to make usamimi headbands" into Google. This will bring up a tonne of sites showing you a couple of different methods of making these. The site I used for guidance was Yes Stylist. The tutorial on there is amazing, there are step by step instructions and pictures, making it so much easier to understand.

I did things a little differently to the tutorial linked above, but I thought I'd summarise it here:

What you'll need:

• Material (Any material should be fine apart from silk/satin, because that will probably just slip off your head)
• Scissors
• Thin, bendy wire (I used 24 gauge)
• Needle and thread
• Tape measure
• Pins (Not entirely necessary, but do come in handy)

1. Decide how long and wide you want your headband to be. Mine was 30" long, 2.2" wide. Cut out the material you need. This can be done by either doubling the length (to fold and sew it lengthways) and or doubling the width (to fold and sew it widthways). I doubled the width, so I cut a strip of material 30" long and 4.5" wide.
2. Turn the material inside out. If you have a design on the material, it should be facing away from you. Sew along the lengths of material to end up with a tube. Don't sew the ends up at this point!
3. Turn the material back inside out - The design on the material should now be facing you. (This was probably one of the most time consuming steps!) I found that using a pair of tweezers to help pull the fabric back through was easier than using my hands.
4. Measure the wire to be approximately 2 inches longer than the material tube.
5. Loop the end to avoid having sharp ends and snagging of the material, thread it through the material and secure with a few stitches.
6. Sew the ends together. I decided to sew them into a triangular tip by folding over the excess material into a triangle and sewing around the edge.
7. Put it on your head and you're good to go!

I bought 1m of material, which was WAY too much! I managed to make 2 headbands, a 16x16" cushion cover and still have a tonne left over!

What do you think of these headbands? Will you be attempting to DIY one? I've already bought some lace to try and recreate the one from Urban Outfitters.

Thank you for reading. xoxo, Joy