Cute Buy of the Month: £2 Cat Watch

I've wanted to re-establish this feature that I tried out on my old blog (you can see my old 'cute buy of the month' posts here) but I've not got round to it before now. However I thought this cute watch would be perfect to kick start it again. Therefore April's cute, and very purse-friendly, buy of the month is this £2 cat watch! I actually paid £1.92 for mine with free shipping but from a quick search on eBay I've seen that these are now going for as low as £1.62!

I think this watch would make the puuurfect (I'm not even sorry) budget present for a cat-obsessed friend or a nice little treat for yourself without breaking the bank. Just be warned though that if you do buy it as a present it may take a while to arrive as most of them come from Asia - mine took over a month to come but at less than £2 with free shipping, I'm not complaining!

You should be able to find a few in this eBay search (ranked from lowest to highest price).

Easter Nail Ideas: Mini Eggs-Inspired Nails with L'Oreal Confetti Top Coat

L'Oreal Color Riche Nail Top Coat Confetti

With Easter coming up in just over a month away (insert sentence here about how quickly this year has gone?!) and Model's Own relasing their answer to Illamasqua's speckled polishes I thought I'd post the budget way to achieve Mini Eggs-inspired nails. While Model's Own's new range of Speckled Egg polishes are much cheaper than Illamasqua's range, (£5 compared to £14) to get the look of the different colours of Mini Eggs you'd have to invest in at least a couple of them which still works out quite pricey. 

However L'Oreal's Confetti top coat, which usually costs less than £5, can be used for just the same effect! Being a top coat you can paint it over any colour you want so for the image above I just painted it over some Mini Egg-like colours I already owned. I wore this manicure last weekend and got lots of compliments on it so I'll definitely have to repeat it for the Easter weekend!

Leicester Clothing & Beauty Haul [picture heavy post!]

Being on a student budget means I don't really have the money like I used to have to do haul posts very much anymore but when I visited my flatmate's house in Leicester this weekend we ended up doing a fair bit of spontaneous shopping so I thought I'd share my purchases. I wasn't really meant to do any shopping at all as I'm supposed to be saving but luckily this lot ended up costing me less than £20 so I don't feel too guilty!

Clothing & Accessories

New Look Cat Earring - 50p

New Look Knit Scarf - £1

F&F at Tesco Crochet Shoulder Jumper - £8

Primark Daisy Tiered Necklace - £1.50

Accessorize Bow Ring - £5 (£4.50 with student discount)

I found some incredible bargains in New Look - a cat earring for 50p and a scarf for just £1! The cat earring was missing his friend so they let me have him for 50p and the scarf was £1 down from £9.99 in the sale. I thought they'd got the price wrong when I first found it!

There was also a sale on at Tesco so I bought this pretty jumper which was £8 down from £16. Not that I really need *another* jumper but it goes so well with the daisy necklace I'd bought from Primark the previous day so obviously I just *had* to buy it... The bow ring from Accessorize was also another naughty purchase. Accessorize do the prettiest rings and this one is no exception - it is so cute and dainty. My flatmate even bought the same one for herself as well. We are terrible influences on each other for shopping.

Beauty

Primark Nail Art Pen Trio - £2

Barry M Nail Paint in Grey - £2.99

Pound Shop Perfume - £1

Beauty-wise I also found a few bargains. From Primark's new P.S. Love beauty range I found this set of nail art pens for £2. I've wanted to try some nail art pens for a while and I thought for just £2 for three you can't really go wrong. Of course, being a a nail polish addict I couldn't just stop there so I also spent my Boots points on this Barry M nail polish which I had spotted one of my flatmate's friends wearing over the weekend.

I also bought this perfume from a pound shop (I can't remember which one exactly sorry). I thought it'd be a good daily fragrance but I have to admit that now I'm home I'm not really sure about the scent! I think the bottle looks similar to Jean Paul Gaultier Classique so either way it'll look pretty on my shelf, even if it never ends up moving from there!

What have you been buying recently? Have you tried perfume from a pound shop?

Little Spring/Summer Wishlist

1. Motel Topi Tea Dress in Morris Flower - £40

2. Accessorize Pink Shell Bag - £35
3. New Look Pink Carved Rose Hair Swirls - £3.99

4. New Look Rose Gold Sports Watch - £19.99

5. H&M Bikini Top & Bikini Bottoms - £12.99 & £6.99

I'm a bit strapped for cash at the moment as every spare penny I have has been going towards my Harry Potter Studio Tour/London fund for March so I've been mostly avoiding online shopping but somehow these things have caught my eye! This dress from Motel would be perfect for summer. The print is so gorgeous, I think it'd look great dressed down with just bare legs and sandals. Here's hoping we get another heatwave this summer! I have also been crushing on this amazing bikini from H&M. It reminds me of Triangl swimwear but thankfully it is a fraction of the price.

In the accessories department, I've been lusting over these pink pretties. This shell bag from Accessorize would be such a cute alternative to the standard clutch bag when going out, however I'm not sure I can justify paying £35 so I'll have to keep an eye on it to see if the price goes down in the next sale. I also think these two pretties from New Look would be great for spring. I'd love to use the rose hair swirls in a plait to change it up a bit and I cannot get over the price of that watch! I can definitely see a cheeky trip to New Look coming on when I've got some spending money!

NOTD | Valentine's Nails: Heart Tips

Heart tips:

No7 Stay Perfect Nail Colour in Devil's Delight

Base colour:

Essie Nail Lacquer in Neo Whimsical

I've seen this nail design around for a while but I had never attempted it before so I thought Valentine's Day would be the perfect time to try it out! I was a little nervous about getting the heart design right but I found these were actually pretty simple to do. I'll definitely need a bit more practice doing my right hand though... Damn my non-ambidextrous hands!

For the base colour I used Essie Neo Whimsical which is a very pretty pale purple-pink colour and for the tips I dug out No7 Devil's Delight which I had in a Christmas gift pack a couple of years ago. I'm not usually a fan of bright reds all over my nails which is why I had never actually tried this polish before now but I was pleasantly surprised with it. The brush is thick and flat which makes doing this design much easier and the consistency is brilliant. It only took one stoke for each curve of the heart which was great because I think if I had to go over them, these wouldn't look half as neat!

If you'd like to try these out for yourself, you can find the tutorial I used here. Hope you had a lovely, relaxing Valentine's day whatever you did!

My Valentine's Day Fragrance Picks - From Only £12!

From L to R

Top row:

Guerlain Insolence

Vera Wang Lovestruck Eau De Parfum - £29.78 for 100ml

Next Just Pink Eau De Parfum - £12 for 75ml

Bottom row:

Miss Dior

DKNY Be Delicious Fresh Blossom

Guerlain La Petite Robe Noire

Marc Jacobs Oh Lola!

With Valentine's Day coming up in less than two weeks time (where did January go?!) I thought I'd share a few of my favourite fragrances and the ones at the top of my wishlist in case anyone needs inspiration of what to hint to their partner for. I'll admit now that I'm terrible at describing scents but I'd say these all fall under the 'floral', 'fruity' or 'sweet' categories.

My two all-time favourites have to be Miss Dior and Insolence by Guerlain. Both smell so lovely and have the best lasting power - I can still smell both of them on my clothes weeks after I put them on! However these are definitely on the pricey side so if you're looking for something a bit more reasonable then I'd recommend Vera Wang Lovestruck or Next Just Pink. You can get 100ml of Lovestruck on Amazon for just £29.78 (compare that to 100ml of Miss Dior which is around £90!). The floral bottle would make a perfect Valentine's present and even though it is inexpensive, the scent is by no means cheap.

Next Just Pink is also a great alternative if you're on a budget. At only £12 for a 75ml bottle it is a great perfume for everyday use. It has a very pretty scent and I think the bottle is also really good considering the price - I love the little bow on the top!

 Hope this helps!

NOTD | Essie Neo Whimsical & Barry M Rose Quartz

Essie Nail Lacquer in Neo Whimsical

Barry M Glitter Nail Paint in Rose Quartz

Bowknot Midi Ring from eBay

Sorry for the double nail-related posts but as I've been on a bit of a spending ban I've recently been concentrating on playing around with my existing nail polish collection. I've always loved glitter tips but I'd not tried them before as I was worried I wouldn't be able to do them very well but I think these have turned out quite well for a first attempt! Now that I've finally mastered getting rid of glitter nails (guide here) I'll definitely have to try these out more.