First Mac Purchase!

Hey.

Recently I found that I was running out of my Benefit Coralista . After reading so many rave reviews about Mac products I decided to take the leap. I've used Benefit makeup for years ! It was the first high brand makeup that I was interested in. Mainly as many of my friends were using it, I loved the packaging and I found it to be the least daunting experience to approach. Many of the other counters are quite intimidating when your younger. I love all their products and I still use many every day. But it's always good to have a change!

Off I went to my nearest Mac store. We're quite lucky in Dubai as they seem to be every where here. I knew that I wanted a pink colour as I was using a M&S coral blusher and needed a pink tone. ( I quite like the M&S make up range as it lasts, has a nice colour pay off and is very reasonable . I don't like wearing my more expensive make up to work.) I picked up Stay Pretty and oh my goodness! You really don't need much of this bad boy on your cheeks. At first I gave my blusher brush a swirl in this and swiped it on and soon was looking like a reject from Dynasty. You needed the smallest amount as the colour is so vibrant. For me this is a real plus as it means I use less and the colour stays all day. Even with the high heat and then the blowing cold AC. So far I have been quite impressed. I have used a Mac mascara once before but found that it was too wet. Oh er. I found it didn't dry and the mascara would be all over my eyelids and elsewhere.

I shall carry on with trying out different MAC products but I am trying to spend more money on my wardrobe as there is  a definate lack of new clothes going on!!

What else have people tried at MAC?

Avene skin recovery cream

Well before anyone says I am well aware that I haven't written a post in months! Variety of reasons including not feeling inspired, not having the time and general ahhhhhhhh should I or not?

Anyway, I felt the need to write today, regardless of how many people may read it or not.

So recently I've found that my skin has got really red and feels really uneven when I don't have any make up on. I am quite luckily in the fact that I rarely have many break outs and that my skin is pretty even but recently I feel it is rebelling. I'm not enjoying this current phase my skin has decided to go through. I hate having  red skin especially as I am so pale it does show up soooo much.

The other day I was getting my nails done and I thought I would pop into the nearest boots and have a wander around. In Dubai the Boots don't sell all the same products as the UK and sells mainly boots brands. Saying that I did find the Avene skin recovery cream. Now I was pretty sure that I had seen some good reviews on some of the products. http://www.aveneusa.com/


I have only used it for a few days but I am hoping that it will settle my skin down quickly. The products are made from simple ingredients and based on thermal spring water which is meant to be good for looking after skin. I'm still using Liz Earle cleanse and polish at night to take off my make up as I find it really is gentle on the skin and then using Bioderma to remove my eye make up. I did use to be a bit of a negative person about the bioderma but being stuck without it one day and not having any face wipes I realised just how good it is for my skin and I do find that it takes away any extra grime or make up. 


Has anyone else found a good product for sudden redness? Let me know if you have!!!

bye for now

Product review- Benefit they're real

So I have used most of the Benefit range and had decided to try out the new mascara, they're real. 
I had heard good reviews of this product so thought it would be worth a shot. So at first glance I had seen that it was meant to make your lashes look much longer. So I have a go and my first reaction is that I don't like the wand, the feel of it on my lashes and eyes is quite rough as it is just plastic. Also I have found that the mascara transfers quite a bit onto my upper eyelid in the humidity of Dubai.  On the positive side though it does definitely make your eyelashes although not always thicker. I will persevere further with this one as I hate only part using a product.

I'm also really keen to try the Caudalie products as I have heard such great reviews of all the different products so think that will be the next purchase for me

Oh no broken hair dryer!

So just before moving to Dubai I invested in a professional hair dryer which I got from a professional salon and beauty outlet in Essex as I had been getting fed up with cheaper hair dryers that just weren't cutting the mustard. So I bought this brilliant hair dryer that was bright pink and had lasted me quite well untill dum dum dum ... I dropped it on the floor for the 100th time and that was it , boom no more . I keep knocking it off my chest of drawers and catching the wires, you would have thought I'd learnt my lesson but no. Doh.

So I had to quickly go out and find a decent hair dryer as quick as poss. In Dubai the boots store which would have been my first port of call in England is crap to be honest. They have limited stock and its mainly Boots brand products so off I trotted to the supermarket where I was bombarded with sales women asking me if I need help. 'Yes, I need the most powerful hair dryer please', follwed by lots of umming and ahhing. As I have such long hair now I can't be dealing with a hairdryer that takes forever to dry, also I start work at 7 and I'm so unwilling to get up any earlier then necessary.

I've purchased a philips hair dryer that had lots of buttons.....oooh buttons!
Its 2300 watts which seems to be the most powerful I can get here....is there more powerful??? not sure. http://www.philips.co.uk/c/hair-dryer/21315/cat/#filterState0=HAIR_DRYERS_SU_GB_CONSUMER%3Dtrue


So far it does the job well and I like the fact it has the option of a cold dry as when I dry my fringe I find that it gets a bit too hot!
So I will carry on with trying out and see if its worth it. It cost 180dhs which is about £30 which I thought wasnt too bad. Sometimes I really miss living in England and just being able to shop in places you know you can find all the things in one place. How I miss a big boots store! Its always the first place I go into when I m home


Anyway , any other hair dryers that I worth a look??

Travelling cosmetics and beauty things

So recently I have been on my travels again! Back to England for an evening before jetting off to Paris for four days, lucky I know! So when I travel back to England I usually take big sizes of the things that I need as I go back for 2 weeks or more at a time and I try to keep a stash of things that I need there so I don't have to end up humping all my stuff round the world.

So I knew that I needed some more Liz Earle cleanse and polish as my first bottle that I purchased at Christmas was coming to an end so I tried to be all organised and ordered more from her website knowing it would be awaiting my arrival and I could take new clean muslin clothes with me to paris, but what did I forget when repacking my case, yep my face wash! I hadn't realised till I was in France and I was pretty annoyed at myself especially as I had two bottles I could have chosen from , but I thought I'd let myself off as I had only had half an hour to repack after getting home from the flight before I had to get to bed ready for my train the next day. But still no face wash for 3 more days :( bad times people. My friend who I was travelling with seemed to only have had facewipes with her which I also had but more for removing mascara . I felt lost without my usual face potions that I use and I hate just using face wipes as I feel that they don't really clean my face properly and I get a build up after a few days. I also only took face wipes on my other trips that I have been on over the last year but have certainly realised that for me its just not sufficient enough and I really need to scrub down deep into those pores.

So I have decided to be a bit more organised with my packing and to defo think I have got to the age where I can just get by for a few days with just face wipes as my skin is just not coping as well and also I want my skin to look at its best.

At the moment I am using a face scrub in the morning.This is my current face wash but I'm not its number one fan. I much prefer St Ives face wash as I feel it is much grittier and I feel it cleans my pores more. Then I follow with moisturiser and I have used the same one for quite a while now as it has SPF in it.   Occasionally if I have bags under my eyes I use a roll on eye cream aswell. I have seen lush has some good face scrubs that I'd like to try.

In the evenings I use my cleanse and polish from Liz Earle, which I forgot in Paris :( oh no! I've recently seen that they have really good travel accessories from Liz Earle which I think I will be purchasing to save me the hassle of worrying about what I have forgotten.For £28.50 I think this is quite good value!
So I don't have too many face wash products but these are my essentials for cleaning my face and I usually have something to help wipe away and excess mascara too. But still lots of things to remember and I need to get better and thinking what I really need!
God I wish for the days when I could travel lightly but I feel that these days have passed and I have now got to carry more beauty items. Oh well! All worth it for nicer skin though.

Bikram Yoga

I know, I know. I have been incredibly bad at writing blogs. Works been crazy busy for what seems like a month and also I haven't really purchased that much recently. What I have been going crazy for for the last 2 weeks is Bikram Yoga. I've wanted to try it for months but for one reason and another I just haven't had a chance to get round to it. So the other week I finally mustered up the courage to go find the local yoga studio and oh my god! I have never sweated so much in my life.

Bikram yoga is 26 poses in a 45 degree heated room. Which basically means a sweat fest! The idea is that the heat allows you to be more supple and also burn more calories. I have been really enjoying it although I am finding it incredibly hard to make sure that I am drinking enough water to make sure I don't suffer from headaches and water retention. I think it takes your body a little while to adjust to the temperature and the stretches. I am determined to keep it up as I would love to lose the 10lbs that have gradually crept up in the past year or so. I know its not the cheapest form of exercise at around £10 per session but I think most studios do offer deals to make it more affordable. The place I have been going to offers 10 days of as many sessions as you wish for £20 and tomorrow will be my 5th session so I have definitely got my moneys worth. Once I return from England in April I think I will pay for unlimited classes as I do like to try and go as much as possible. It is actually quite relaxing ....after a while!

 

Bioderma Purchase

Whilst wondering around one of the malls out here with a friend who was searching for some cream for post tattoo soreness I spotted a sign sporting Bioderma. I have seen a few reviews raving about how amazing the products are.So I picked up this make-up remover. 
So far....not sure. It was 68dhs for a 500ml bottle as it was half price. It has one of those push down applicator things on the top (hightech chat there!)

It does take make-up off well. I like using babywipes and then wash my face after to make sure everything has gone. Ive been using Liz Earle cleanse and polish since Christmas (which Im also undecided on). But I did want something for my mascara as panda look really doesnt suit me. So last night I tried it to take off my mascara, got up and didnt look like a panda but post shower....OMG Panda had reappeared. Im not sure if its because I hadnt taken it off properly but I think this will take time for me to judge, especially for the money. Was a big bottle mind and I know its quite expensive to try and get in the uk. I will jog on with this new product. I do like trying new bottles and especially after suggestions as its nice to try things that you might not have automatically tried.

Im also a MASSIVE fan of facial scrubs. I use one everyday and I find when I dont use it I really notice how my skin feels .......unclean! I liked St Ives and think I have repurchased this a few times, but recently I ran out and my local supermarket didnt have any so Im trying . So far Im not enjoying this as much. Its really running so when you squeeze the tube loads come out and also I dont find the beads are big enough to do the job so I think I might go back to the St Ives if I cant find another product to try. I find that the only problem with using scrubs so much is that they make my pores feel bigger and more visible.

Onwards with the hunt for perfect skin

Eyebrow disaster :(

Like most women I like my eyebrows to be neat and more importantly MATCHING! I've been getting my eyebrows shaped for years and more importantly tinted. As a red head my eyebrows are naturally extremely fair and without make up my face looks empty! So tinting is usually great every time I go to the salon here and after a few bad experiences where my eyebrows haven't come out matching I decided to only get them shaped every other month, even longer as I found it so annoying and quite honestly horrifying to go through the experience of a bad beauty therapist destroying them. So yesterday I went off to the salon where I have been going for nearly two years, tinting was great and then the dreaded shape. In the USE threading is extremely popular. Basically they use some strange technique with cotton to tidy your brows. At the time they looked ok but after closer inspection she has completely butchered them! I like my brows slightly fuller , one looks like that and the other is a skinny mini. Oh the despair. Its such a horrible feelin as there isnt much I can do to hide this awfulness. Eyebrow pencil is something I always do but I am struggling to make them match again. I have only found one place where I have always left with matching brows and that it the Benefit beauty bar in my local town in England. Benefit has a beauty range as most of you know but also has many salons where they will now wax and tint eyebrows. Whenever I went thee they always looked great and I think its down to the fact that I am sitting up when they do it and they check between each wax strip that they still match. After this recent horror on my face I  have decided to give up on getting them down professionally here for a while and just wait till I go back to England to get them shaped every few months. I know the hair of course will grow back but its not a quick process, especially to get them to the right shape, again!! Why didn't I learn the last time :(

Someone once told me that you should treat your eyebrows as sisters and not twins, well mine don't even look related right now. Im sure most wouldn't massively notice but I do!!!

oh well. On with the pencil!

Have you had any salon disasters?

These are good eyebrows!

Soap and Glory goodies

In December I had treated myself to Snow fairy from Lush but sadly snow fairy has ran out! So I wanted to treat myself to some other lovely goodies so when I went into Boots and saw they had 3 for 2 on their Soap and Glory range I was so excited. Soap and glory isn't the cheapest but they have so much in them that it is well worth it. I treated myself to 3 lovely things and was dead pleased when obviously one of them was free!

As yet I haven't tried them but I am pretty excited for my shower this morning. Like I said they are big bottles too so defo worth the money. Another thing I am trying to do is use up things that I already have. I've seen this on a few blogs and I actually find it quite reassuring and exciting when I have used something up as it means I can go try something else! I've got really good at not buying things I don't need now as I just can't afford it really so its always a positive thing in my house when things are used up. As yet there's nothing overly exciting that I have finished so I'm waiting a bit longer.

Ma Salama

Bobbi Brown Purchase

Today I built up enough confidence to go into Bobbi Brown ( I always find it a little daunting going into expensive shops, eventhough I am 27!).

I had seen lots of reviews of concealers from them so in I strolled and asked to have a look at their concealers when the assistant said I don't need it. Tsk look at my puffy eyes! She then informed me that I should try an eye brightener instead, and tomo I might have a look at some moisturisers for said puffing eyes, I find its usually from over tiredness. So instead I purchased the Tinted Eye Brightener in light bisque. It was pretty pricey so I will see what I think and whether its worth the pennies. http://www.bobbibrown.co.uk/product/2335/7876/Makeup/Face/Correctors-Concealers/Tinted-Eye-Brightener/Award-Winner/index.tmpl

I shall have to try it out for a while as I'm not sure how great this can be for the money to be honest and its quite small too . I had something similar from benefit and it did last me a long time.


Have to say the shop was lovely and the bag is gorge!!!! All those little things matter to me esp when you spending so much, It cost more then it would have in the UK or USA which is a bugger. I was looking for make-up brushes too but they cost so much here for various reasons and think it might be better to purchase them while home in the UK to get more brush for my money. That is a downer of living in the UAE when things are more money then they deserve to be.

What have you recently bought?

A new pet

On Saturday evening I get a rather random message from a friend informing me that they have something for me but not sure if I want it and look after it. Straight away my brain thinks, 'it's alive!'. Bugger me what the hell is it.
Long story short its a small white mouse which was unwanted and was heading for a gloomy ending. The mouse was brought to me in a pink gift bag with a crisp and a dairylea triangle for it to eat. Lessons on animal care are far and few between in the UAE.


Anyway, I have now adopted, and slightly fallen in love with , a small white mouse. First panic was 'it needs a home!' as it couldnt stay in a paper bag for much longer as it had already chewed its way out. So a plastic bucket made a make-shift home for the night with food , water and some bedding I rustled up. Now he is more than adequately housed in a house with a wheel and plenty of space for a small rodent. In England I had a gorgeous hamster named Graham who I absolutely adored but left him  with my Mum when I relocated as he was quite old, please don't think I abandoned him! He lasted about 2 and a half months after I left but was spoilt up to the day he died.

It feels nice to have a pet again as I was really missing having another living thing in the flat. Mouse still needs a proper name, I'm tempted to keep it at mouse but quite fancy Morris as a name.

I now have the issue though of finding someone who is willing to look after mouse while I travel and someone who won't feed it crisps!!

As I'm writing this he's just filled his tiny mouse tummy with yummy food and gone back to his snug bed, what a life eh!

My 2012 Wish list

I know that everyone has a secret wish list of things that they would like to have and buy, some more decadent then others and I decided that I would like to write my own. I'm quite fortunate as I do a little bit of extra work alongside my main job and I use this money to buy myself some nice things every month. Like so many of us my wages straight go to pay any bills, grocery shop and then weekly life so if any money is spare I send to my savings account...very boring and grown up I know. So this money is my treat money.

So far I've treated myself to the most gorgeous Marc by Marc Jacobs purse! Literally in love with this bad boy.

I LOVE IT! It did cost a pretty penny but hoping that it will obviously last for quite some time. I made the mistake though of putting it in a bag with a biro :( bad times all round that day! But it has eventually worn off.

The other item that I have bought was a lush pair of wedges from Dune..( not great pic I'm afraid and I can't find them on the website but wanted to share the beautifulness.


Have to say I am trying to get my moneys worth out of these! For the past 18 months I've had to be really tight with my money due to having a year where I wasn't that careful and ended up with lots of bills to pay :(

Anyway, moving on to happier times.
I've also tried to make the most of the opportunity that I have living in the middle east and travelling as much as possible. I've been to Sri Lanka, Bangkok and in November I went to Nepal for 5 days. I'm hoping to go away again in my next holidays but who knows.


So my wish list
1. A new watch, Im currently sporting a storm watch with broken glass (not a good look I know) So I have my eye on a Michael Kors watch :) website I know that these watches are very popular among bloggers and  
Youtubers alike.
I'm really liking this one at the moment, I know its not to everyones taste but hey its nice to be different. This one is equally pretty ( there is a theme to my choices)

2. Benefit primer A slightly cheaper item on my wish list ( well thats why some are just a wish). I've seen lots of raves about this product from lots of bloggers.

3. Sigma brushes. No explanation needed for that

4. need a new mascara, so far ive repurchased Make-up forever smoky lash mascara, which now comes in 5different colours!!

5. foundation. So far ive been using a tinted moisturiser from Benefit for the past 2 years due to the weather and the fact that nothing lasts great in 40degree heat! but I feel that sometimes I need a bit more coverage. This goes hand in hand with number 6 which is a new concealer.

7. a new notebook. I have a lovely pink spotty notebook for school but need a new one for the rest of my life! I love paperchase as they have such lovely stationary.  This one is quite cute and only £3!

Think thats it so far for my wish list, I'm sure it will get longer tho!

What's on your wishlist?

Moroccan Bath

Yesterday I went for my first ever Moroccan bath! I had been checking out the voucher websites, Groupon and Cobone when I saw a voucher for a Moroccan Bath at a good price in a lush salon. I love these voucher sites as they always have brilliant offers and you can save the vouchers for when your a bit skint, thats me right now! (even having to start using a bit of money from my British account, always a sign of a tight month) So I had purchased this voucher and off I went yesterday. And I found myself at a Salon based in a Villa down in the posh part of Dubai which was completely pink inside!

 Loved the salon straight away and will defo be going back. I'd never had a moroccan bath before but my moroccan boy had always sang loudly about how amazing they were. First thing I had to do was put on a very embarassingly small pair of disposable knickers, which were fine at the front but hid nothing at the back and a disposable bikini top. Later I found that there was really no need for these as the therapist soon whipped them off!

Next thing was to have a shower and clean off any deodrant etc. Then I was a little surprised to see the therapist in her bikini standing in the room ( Im sure this is normal for this treatment but surprised I was nonetheless!)
Next she rubbed me with Moroccan soap and left me to steam for a while. This is the type of room I was in with loads of steam.
Once I had steamed clean for a while next thing was to have a shower, so off I went down the steps and she washed me clean. Oh she did put a treatment in my hair aswell which has made it silky soft. Your in your own room the whole time that has the steam part and the shower, I was really quite impressed by the whole thing and the cleanliness. Once I had the soap washed off next thing was the scrubbing. I had to lay down and basically she scrubbed every part of my body! and I mean every where and the amount of skin that came off was quite a surprise. This is definitely not for someone who doesn't like being touched as they move you around alot and like I said by this point I did wonder what the point was of the disposable underwear as she had moved most of it by now. To be fair I kept thinking to myself how she must do this all the time and see more wobbly bits then  my own. She was slightly fascinated by my tattoos tho!
After copious amounts of exfoliating I was done and I am so pleased with the result. My skin is super soft!! I will definitely be returning to the salon and will definitely be getting another one of these.

I have another voucher for a spa in a hotel which includes a massage, Moroccan bath and oil treatment....think it may even have a few extras added on so I will be looking forward to trying all that out next month.

Hope your all treating yourself this weekend :)

POST!

Yesterday at work I was sitting with my class when someone came in with this small little envelope and straight away a huge smile went across my face. For anyone who lives away from family and friends you'll know how lovely it is to receive something that makes you know someone is thinking of you. For Christmas I got my mum and Auntie a letter from Santa and I didnt admit that it was me who had arranged it till late Christmas day. They were so pleased with it and it had kept them entertained for ages. 

My Auntie wrote a thank you card for that and her Christmas gifts. I'm still quite old fashioned with sending thank you notes and trying to take a gift to a friends when visiting. Even today while walking around Dubai Mall, trying to not spend money, I found a few little things that I can send home to my mum and a friend to show that I am thinking of them. I also got a big enveloped from my mum but it just had boring white enveloped letters about car insurance and my bank! but post is post I guess. 

I hope that everyone receives something nice in the post this week

Ma salama again xxx

Perfumes I'm loving!

Before Christmas on a gift giving day at work I got loads of perfume, 9 bottles to be exact! Some of them I took home with me at Christmas to give to my Mum as there was no way I was going to get through that many bottles!
Some of them I didn't know the brands particularly well but was really surprised by some favourites. One of which is Always Shine by Entity.
Its got a lovely sweet smell and I spray it every time I walk past my dressing table. The smell doesn't last long which is bit of a bummer but I'm quite happy to keep reapplying :) I have different perfumes that I use for work and the evenings, especially as some of the more designer scents can rock up to £60!!! But this perfume has been swaying between work and evening.

Another little perfume that I was given the year before was Flowerparty by Yves Rocher, another brand that I wasn't familiar with but again really like! I have the small bottle so it is perfect for handbags. This one I do use for work but think I would happily use this in the evenings aswell.Another very floral perfume and the scent lasts a bit longer on this one.



I do also have some more of the higher end perfumes including an YSL that was I am now onto my second bottle which was also kindly a gift ( maybe I should start to worry about all these perfumes....maybe people are hinting.....jokes!) I love perfumes as gifts as it is quite often the item that we prefer to have as gifts especially if you have a partner with a sensitive nose to some smells. And I'm also slowly working my way through quite a large bottle of Hugo Boss (can't remember the name of that one.) I do find it quite rewarding when you have got to the bottom of a bottle of perfume and I like moving onto a new perfume. Very rarely do I go back to the same bottle again.
I do remember Sarah Jessica Parkers perfumes always being nice and thinking to myself that I should repurchase a bottle but there are just too many to choose from!
Hope that you all have lots of lovely bottles of perfumes adorning your dressing tables.

Ma Salama

Everything Pink

I am a massive fan of everything PINK! Even now sitting next to me is a bright pink notebook with white spots that I use for work and my Blackberry cover at the moment is even a bright pink. I don't personally like wearing pink as I feel it doesn't go with my red hair, although, I say that, in Confessions of a Shopaholic Rebecca wears pink quite a lot!

My hairdryer and curling irons are pink as well. What made me think of writing this blog was my new pink Cath Kidston shopper which I used for work on Thursday as I had loads to carry with me. Its so pretty and girlie and just makes me feel happier when I'm using it. I couldn't find the exact pic of my bag as its actually a copy that a purchased from an area in Dubai that sells all copies ( if you ever visit here you must go there). So this is the closest I could find 
Mine has more of a pale pink background but similar enough!

When I'm having to carry lots or bring work home with me its always nicer and cheers me up more when I'm carrying it in a nice bag . (Maybe thats just me)

When I was about 16 my cousin who is 14years older than me had her Aura read and her future. At the time my cousin was going through a bad part of her life and the woman said that her aura was very orange and needed more pink to equal it out and make her happier in her life. My cousin was not a fan of pink at all but thought it would be worth a shot. After that day pink has totally engulfed her life and definitely made a difference to how she was feeling. And I've just spotted that I even have pink stripy bed socks on as my feet were getting cold. For me it does make me feel happier and just more content. I know lots of people would disagree that a colour can help change how your feeling, but I appreciate that not everyone is going to agree with me.

Hope that whatever your favourite colour is or whatever you use to cheer yourself up with that your happy and content with it.

Ma salama from the UAE

Loving Bath and Body works

I haven't written a post for a while and mainly due to the fact I haven't done a shop, other than to my locals spinneys (food shop). But since being in the UAE I have fallen in love with bath and body works. They have such amazing products and always have great deals on. After Christmas most of their stock was half price which is soooo tempting!

I bought a large 3wick Frosted cupcake candle, which no longer seems to be on their website, but is so sickly sweet but I love it. The larger candle seems to be lasting quite well, so far. Also I bought this Twilight woods candle. It's quite an understated smell but lush all the same. 
They have this scent in lots of products including body lotions, shower gels, scents and wall flowers.
Wallflowers are a new contraption that I've only been using the last year. They are basically a wall plug in and you can change the scents. 
This is the wall plug in and you just screw in your desired scent underneath, They come in lots of different designs and colours.


I like this one, quite funky and reminds me of a Marc Jacobs bottle.

I went a little crazy in this store at Christmas as they had such amazing deals, including buying these shea butter lounge socks for both my mum and auntie. They have shea butter infused into the socks which can be washed up to 40 times before they lose their sheaness.


These are now in the sale and are half price.

Here is the link to their great sale page Amazing Sale page!!!

Sorry if this post is a bit disjointed. Its basically a ramble about the greatness of bath and body!
I'd love to have a yankee candle but they are very hard to find over here, not sure why! We're quite lucky as we have a great mixture of American and British brands.

If I could get my little hands on a Yankee candle it would definitely be the vanilla cupcake ! I know at Christmas they did Christmas cookie and Christmas cupcake which are deadly sweet and beautiful but I didn't really want to bring a christmas candle back with me. Whilst seeing a friend over Christmas I saw that they had 2 of these beauts burning in their house. Now this friend is the cause for my desire to have vanilla scented candles around me as it reminds me of this particular person and I always thought how nice it was to have the same scent burning throughout the house.


Oh yes, I want this bad boy in my appartment! The bath and body works candle is definitely a similar smell but there is something special about Yankee candles.
They have lots of new fresh scents being released and they do seem to be moving away from the sickly sweet scents. Here's their British website if anyone fancies perusing,
http://www.yankeecandle.co.uk/default.asp

I find it so annoying that smells are so strongly connected to memories and thoughts for me, gets bloody hard when you need to cut a smell out of your life. Oh well........

Take care and Ma salama for now

LUSH !!!

Today after work I thought I'd treat myself to a visit to lush. Now over here in the U.A.E Lush costs double and a bit more than it did in the UK :( sad times. I treated myself to 3bath bombs which cost 85dhs altogether , which at the current exchange rate works out at over £14!!!! thats like £4.50 per bath bomb. Definitely an extravagance when you live on a budget. But hey, I felt like I deserved to have these little treasures hidden away for when I was having a bad day and needed some loveliness in my life.

I treated myself to a dragon egg 


and a space girl 


and a swirly little number that I can't seem to find a pic of. All of them smell lush ( hee hee) and I am thoroughly looking forward to breaking them out of their packages. It was after reading a Sprinkle of Glitters recent blog (http://sprinkleofglitter.blogspot.com/) about how lovely Space girl is that I thought I would try it out. Normally in the UK space girl would cost a mere £1.45 ish price bracket which is a bit of a bargain for some indulgent bath time.

The dragon egg apparently has something inside so that when you put it in the bath all the loveliness will come out....on the gumph on the website it says that of hoard of treasures will be waiting when you open this den. Oh Er missus!!! sounds exciting stuff.

Last week after my hectic return I tried out the butterball bomb after FashionFilth Lexi said about how amazing it was, and it was pretty lovely. This is a sudden return to Lush after a long, long break, which Im not sure why ......Probably moved onto other treats.

I use to have lots of baths when I had my flat in England as it gave me lots of thinking time and i use to take my laptop in and carefully manoeuvre it so that I could multi-task., chatting to friends or just finding simply researching different things. Nothing better than chatting in the bath, although I find boys are not fans of glittery smelly things!!!! Hee hee

Anyway, this is a time when I feel I need to look after me and a simple pleasure of a smelly bath bomb is currently quite sufficient! oh that and candles!

So I will be away now to go have a lovely bath with one of my newly acquired bath bombs.

Ma Salama from the U.A,E

Gel nails- which ones are best

Hey everyone

Hope everyone has had a great start to 2012. I've been thrown straight back into work after flying back to the U.A.E and now enjoying my weekend, which is Friday and Saturdays in the Middle East as Friday is the Holy day here.

Anyway, so, other than spending most of my day asleep and catching up on many a lost hour of sleep due to the time difference and getting back into work I spent the afternoon getting my gel nail polish re done on some of my fingers as it had started to chip and I had only had it done on Monday. Most salons say that gel nails should be chip free for 10 days so off I trotted to Nail Moda which is my nail salon of choice here to get them redone. It only cost 20dhs which is £3 to have them re-done and If I had really pushed the point I probably could have got it for free but I wasn't too worried.

I've currently got shellac gel polish on in a muted pinky colour. I do love gel polish as it last for a good 2weeks and quite often I have stretched to 3 weeks but I find my nails grow quickly so I do have a gap at the base of my nails where the new polish grows through. I don't mind this too much.

There are lots of different brands of gel polish available and I've tried four different brands so far and I do have a slight preference. Gel nail polish is basically normal polish but its set under a UV light. I'm sure scientifically there are many differences but for most of us who aren't worried about the science that is the main difference, oh and it lasts a hell of a lot longer than normal polish!! I'm not one of these fortunate people who have the amazing skill of painting there own nails at the standard that a salon can and tbh I really enjoy going to get my nails done as it gives me an opportunity to pamper myself, relax, sit in a lush vibrating, massaging chair and watch a film. I go so often now the girls in the salon all come and say hi and see what polish I'm having done so its a nice chance to chat with different people too.

The four different types that I have tried are Gelish , Shellac, Jessica gel range and Bio sculpture gel.





So far my favourite has to be gelish as I find that it chips less on my hands. I have been told that I have soft nails and that this may be the cause of Shellac chipping on me more. But Shellac doesn't have a coating that is put on first which makes the rest of the coats to stick more as in Gelish. ( being all scientific again there hee hee)
The Jessica polish was also good aswell, but I've only had it the once so would need to try it more to give a fairer review really. Different salons hold different gel polishes and all have their own preferences. Bio sculpture gel was nice and felt differently on my nails but took a lot longer to remove.

Removing the gel needs to be done by the salon really as even though they do suggest that you can do it yourself , I find that they know what they are doing and removal is usually included in the price of having gel reapplied. They have to sometimes buff the polish, which I find a slightly weird sensation and I'm not a fan of this part of the process, then your nails have bits of cotton wool applied with nail polish remover which has acetone( think thats right) in it and then your fingers are snuggly wrapped in tin foil!!!!



Usually your left in these sexy little foils for 5-10 mins which allows the polish to weaken and once your time is up the foil is removed and then the polish is gently removed with a cuticle stick. ( scrapped off basically) I know lots of people worry about the nail being damaged but I've happily been getting gel polish for 7 months and my nails are happy little campers. I have to admit that as with any polish nails do need 'breathing' time so I do give them a break every now and then. Even with my toes, which I feel suffer more when constantly polished, have a break every now and again. Even if it's just a few days. I also use solar oil on my nails every day on both hands and toes as this adds extra conditioner to your nails.


This shape pot is about 100 dhs so £18 . Not cheap but the pot will last a year at least. I had a smaller pot that cost £3 from my friends salon ( BeautyBoutique in Chelmsford) and that lasted 3months!!! Even the girls that do my nails said that they can see when I have been using it as there is varying degrees of condition on my nails.


So to sum up my rant on nails, which is a popular topic with me and my friends, nails and waxing commonly is discussed at brunches, Gel nails are brilliant. Lasts SOOO much longer than normal polish and well worth the money!!!

Hope this helps anyone whose not sure whether to try them or not and let me know if there are any other nail products to try.

Oh, that reminds me, I have also tried Minx nails



These are basically stickers. On toes they can last 4-6 weeks but on hands only a few days as the glue can become less sticky quite quickly. I haven't had these bad boys on my toes as quite frankly my toes are too small to host such spectacular beauties as these and just wouldn't be worth the pennies.

Anyway

Im off to finish my tea and christmas cake that my mum smuggled into my suitcase

Ma salama for now