Guest Post | Christmas Tree Nail Art

My next guest post is a Christmas nail art tutorial from the gorgeous Sabina from Fashernably Late!

I've seen a lot of nail designs recently that have incorporated sellotape strips to block out parts of the nail, which are then peeled off to reveal the colour underneath to create a really cute design. Using this technique, I thought it was appropriate to create a design that was fun & festive, and what better way to decorate your nails with this easy nail design?

So, here's how its done:

1. To protect your nails from the polish, use a basecoat. This will help prevent breakage and discolouring of your nails.

2. Chose a base colour of your choice and apply two coats.

3. Wait until your base colour has completely dried. If you're impatient like me, stick your hands in the freezer for a minute or two, or run your fingertips under running cold water!

4. Take two pieces of sellotape and stick them down in a triangle shape, with the point of the Christmas tree being at the base of your nail.

5. Using some scissors, cut three (or more) thin strips and stick them at a slant down the nail.

6. Using a dark green (red also looks really good) paint over your nail, ensuring that all areas of the exposed nail are covered. You may want to use two coats depending on the polish you're using.

7. Wait for the polish to dry completely (the freezer technique could come in handy again here) before peeling off the sellotape.

8. Using a dotting tool, or a toothpick, add little gold dots to create 'baubles' on the tree.

9. Finish by adding a top coat to protect your design & to add a beautiful shine!

I hope you have lots of fun using this design, & an even better Christmas!
Love Sabina x

Thanks again for this Sabina, I absolutely love this design! It looks so simple yet really effective, I'll definitely be giving it a go before the big day (granted it won't look remotely like Sabina's).

Make sure you check out her lovely blog, Fashernably Late!

Jo xx

Guest Post | Christmas Stocking Fillers Under a Fiver!

My next guest post is a festive gift guide from the lovely Georgia from Georgiabeee!

Hello all of Jo's lovely readers!

I'm Georgia from Georgiabeee and I'll be posting about my Christmas stocking filler ideas!

It's getting to that time where the shops are full of panicky people running around trying to find anything they can to wrap up and give people! I went to Westfield the other day at 7 in the evening because I thought it would have calmed down by then and it was still mad! So if you prefer staying away from the crowds and online shopping, you can find the links to all these bits below :)

1. Hot water Bottle

It's SO cold in England at the moment (-4 the other day!) so anything snuggly and warm will go down a treat for christmas!

2. Harmonica

I love silly little presents like this, whoever recieves this will be annoying everyone all christmas day!

3. Keyboard stickers

These are such a cute idea, to jazz up your keyboard with some silly little pictures! Perfect for anyone who works in an office or is just surgically attached to their laptop!

4. Passcase

This Pass case is a really cute little stocking filler, the print is lovely and it's perfect for anyone who needs somewhere to put their oyster card/ gym pass/ work, uni/ college or school pass.. ect

5. Lipbalm duo

Everyone needs lipbalm, (even boys, though my boyfriend will deny that he has his own coacoa butter one) and this set is really nicely packaged, the perfect little stocking filler :)

6. Where's Wally chocolate

Chocolate is a necessity at Christmas (so you can gorge yourself on it and then set lots of unrealistic weight loss goals for your new years resolution!) and these are a bit different and fun and also inexpensive!

So that's all my stocking filler ideas! Hope you enjoyed, if you want to see my Gift Guide for Girlie friends click here or you can find my Gift Guide for Boy pals here!

Thanks to Jo for letting me post on her lovely blog :)

Happy Christmas!

Georgia x

 

And there we have it, my first Christmas-related blog post so thank you very much for writing this for me Georgia! I really love the random gift ideas like the keyboard stickers, I think they're a great idea for people who are really hard to buy for (I'm talking to you, Dad!).

Make sure you check out Georgia's blog and all her other gift ideas over on Georgiabeee

Jo xx

Guest Post | Lee Stafford Products

Today I have another guest post for you from the gorgeous Becky over at The Wonders of Wardrobes, enjoy!

There are two things that really, really get me down about my hair. 1) It's nowhere near as thick as I would like it to be and 2) even though I have fine hair, it takes me ages to dry in the morning!

So when Lee Stafford products were on the amazing deal of 3 for £12 at Boots, I got the ‘miracle growth hair treatment’ and ‘blow dry your hair faster spray’. The third one was a present for someone. Overall I saved £10.99 which is a right bargain!

Although my hair grows super quickly, meaning I have loads of baby hair - it lacks the volume that I want. After using the miracle growth, my hair felt amazingly soft and already thicker. That was only after two uses, so I can only imagine that after time my hair will reach the thickness that I want to achieve.

I'm not sure what it's like for everyone else but my hair takes an ungodly amount of time to dry! It takes up so much of my time in the morning that I find myself running for the bus so I'm not late for work! This blow dry spray didn't quite live up to my expectations. I don't think it took any time off my hair drying and it just made my hair smell like chemicals all day. This made me super sad. Here I thought I had found the answer to my problems and unfortunately I hadn't. It may work better for others but personally, my hair didn't take to it!

Keep your eye out on the offers in Boots! Sometimes you can save yourself a lot of money which equals very happy bloggers.

Becky x

Thank you so much again Becky for guest posting for me! Personally I've never tried Lee Stafford products but would definitely be willing to try them next time they are on 3 for 2!

Don't forget to check out The Wonders of Wardrobes!

Jo xx

Everything 5 Pounds Heels

Just a quickie today as a little break from my blogging absence (excluding my fab guest posts, obv!), I wanted to show you my bargain heels from everything5pounds!

Now as the title suggest, everything on this website is a fiver (duh) so I can't really say I had high hopes for these shoes.

But I ordered them anyway, seeing I was desperate to replace my other very painful black heels over the Christmas period.

So here they are, and boy am I pleasantly surprised!

Yes they're pretty plain but hey, they were a fiver...I think I can be let off for that one! They are a really snug fit, and came really well packaged in little individual shoe socks, n'aww!

These wedges can be bought here for a mere fiver, and they also come in red, brown, blue, green and beige. Phew!

I'd definitely recommend picking some up for the party season!

Jo xx

Guest Post | Barry M 'Black Multi Glitter'

So today we have my second guest post from the lovely Ellie over on ellie etc, enjoy!

Hiya lovelies! My name is Ellie from ellie etc, and I’m here to do a guest post for the gorgeous Jo!

Recently (on my lunch break to be precise) I nipped into Boots in need of some new nail varnish - this is where I found this beauty!

Such an original name, haha! But I love love love this Barry M concoction, glitter is always a winner for me. This shade is a bit more seasonally appropriate than my last nail colour, plus it looks like little stars in the night sky, which is so preeeeeettyy. The cover and quality is the standard from Barry M, but the glitter makes it a bit stronger so (hopefully) more chip resistant. On the downside, glitter nail varnish is a pain to get off, so I’m not looking forward to that! Anyway, available it Boots, Superdrug etc etc. under £3 too.

love ellie x

p.s. very sorry for my awful nail painting skills, not a great first impression I know! Also these pictures don't really do the glitter justice - my camera didn't pick it up very well!


Thank you so much again Ellie, absolutely in love with this shade it's gorgeous!
Happy belated blog birthday too, make sure you head over and check out Ellie etc!

Thanks for reading,
Jo xx

Guest Post | Favourite Fragrances

So today I am delighted to be showing you the first of a few guest posts I have lined up for you lovely lot over the Christmas period whilst I work away (way too hard) to meet my uni deadlines!

This first post is from the lovely Kirsty over on Pretty Little Fashionista

Hey I'm Kirsty and I blog over at Prettylittlefashionista I'm very happy that Jo let me write a guest post for her. Today I'm going to be sharing my favourite fragrances with you.

Lancôme La Vie Est Belle

Although this is only a sample it is one of my favourite perfumes ever. I have nearly finished it and I would be really disappointed but I know my parents have bought me a full size one for Christmas. This perfume contains jasmin, orange blossom and patchouli essence. The perfume isn't overpowering but it does last on the skin all day. I have had many complements when I've worn this perfume. A full sized bottle costs about £39 which is quite a good price considering it is a Lancôme perfume.

Natural collection vanilla body spray

I know this isn't a perfume but I thought I'd include it because I love the smell of it. I love the smell of vanilla any vanilla scented product I have to have so when I saw this in Boots for only £2 I knew I had to get it. As you expect it smells of vanilla it is a really sweet scent that last all day. This is more of a summer scent but I still wear it now even though it is winter.

Body shop cassis rose

I was so disappointed when I came to write this post because I found out that this and one of my other favourites have been discontinued. I don't usually like rose scents as they are usually really overpowering so when I was given this a few years ago I didn't really use it. Early this year I was sorting through my things and found it and I fell in love with the scent. It isn't overpowering and it is just the right amount of rose in it. It isn't too sweet which I find is common with rose scents.

Body shop love etc.

This perfume contains jasmine, vanilla and sandalwood notes however this perfume isn't too floral. This is a perfect everyday perfume the scent lasts but it isn't too overpowering. I think a bottle of this costs £14 which is a really good price for a perfume. I also have the shower gel of this and I love it.

Avon in the clouds

This has also been discontinued which is really disappointing as it is one of my all-time favourite scents. I have had this the longest and I'm really worried about using it up. This is quite a floral scent which lasts all day. I don't know what it contains because I could find very little information on the Internet. I don't know why Avon discontinued it because it is one of my favourite products from them.

Thanks again Kirsty for doing this post for me, it's nice to finally have a fragrance post up on my blog! Make sure you head over and check out Pretty Little Fashionista

So there we have it, hope you all enjoyed my first guest post!

Thanks for reading,

Jo xx

Blog Competition Wins

I have been a very lucky lady recently and on top of the Kiko nail varnish I won from Mollie's blog Mollie Muses (review here), I have also managed to blag these other goodies from a few of my favourite blogs!

Topshop star necklace | won from Chloe's blog | Chloe's Way

Makeup | won from Amy's blog | Beauty Boutique

Including:

Models Own nail varnish

Technic nail varnish

Revlon Just Bitten Kissable Balm Stain

Sue Moxley Famous lipgloss

 Glamorous dress | won from Frances' blog | Frances Cassandra

Couple of reviews and outfit posts coming up involving these absolute gems when I finally get the time!
Thanks again girls for my amazing goodies, I have been so lucky recently!

Happy December everyone! I am literally in total disbelief as to how quickly this year has gone, it's frightening!

I am also very sad to announce that I have woken up this morning, the 1st of December, to realise that I have completely forgotten to get myself an advent calendar. D'oh. So I hope you all had a lovely chocolate this morning whilst I enjoyed my very healthy cereal bar.

Thanks for reading,
Jo xx



Guest Post Request!

Okay, so life is definitely getting in the way of blogging at the minute.

I obviously haven't reached the drastic stage yet, but as I have exams, deadlines and an increasing amount of hours at the hospital to juggle (as well as the inevitable Christmas preparations) I am predicting a serious case of blog neglect on the horizon.

Damn you third year!

Source

So I was wondering if any of you lovely lot could help me to keep my blog as active as possible by doing me the honours of guest posting on Painted Glitter!

If I have any volunteers for this, my plan is to schedule as many guest posts as possible roughly between now and the end of January.

As I don't expect a huge amount of offers (sad face) I will obviously also be posting myself as much as I can manage.

All I ask is that you use clear images on your posts. I don't have any specific requests on the content, just whatever you fancy (obviously as long as it fits in with the theme of my blog). Beauty, fashion, life, health... anything along those lines!

If you are interested in helping me out, I'd love you to pop me an email at jotwentytwelve@hotmail.co.uk with a rough idea of what you would like to write about.

Thanks for reading!

Jo xx

Avon True Colour 6 in 1 Eye Pallette | Glamour Eyes

I'm not sure if it's just me, but Avon is a brand that confuses me a little.

It's so hugely famous yet I never seem to hear much about them at all, if that makes any sense?

Let's take the blogging world for example.

Maybe I'm just not following enough blogs (I'll take that as a good enough excuse to follow even more), or maybe I'm just plain stupid and have completely overlooked/ignored all of their Avon reviews (definitely the more likely option), but I've barely heard a peep about Avon in the year or so I have been reading beauty blogs.

However, after trying out this eye pallette, it baffles me a little as to why this is!

First off, the packaging is nice and sturdy (you can see from the picture above it has survived a bit of battering already!) with a really generously sized mirror.

I must admit, when I first opened it up I found the shades a little uninspiring.

I'm not sure why this is, because they actually come across really nicely in the picture, I think it's just that I don't usually wear purple shades on my eyes so I wasn't really sure how/when I was going to use them.

(If you're asking yourself why I got it, it was given to me by my Auntie amongst a selection of other goodies as seen in my previous haul post here).

However, once I had done a few swatches and had a bit of a play about with the colours I was actually really pleasantly surprised. Each shade has great pigmentation and a really lovely subtle shimmer, particularly the lighter colours which I think are my favourite.

The darker shades are a great tool for smoky eyes as they are really easy to blend out. Each colour compliments the other beautifully and they all have really great lasting power without creasing, the only downside being a little bit of fall out during application.

Overall I was really pleasantly surprised by this little pallette...I kind of feel a bit bad for ignoring all of Avon's products for so long!

The Avon True Colour 6 in 1 eye pallette can be purchased here for £7 reduced from £11

Have you tried many Avon products?

Thanks for reading,

Jo xx



Firmoo Glasses

So a couple of weeks ago whilst flicking through my emails I came across one from a company called Firmoo explaining that they were looking for some bloggers to review some of their glasses*.

Firmoo pride themselves in providing the highest quality glasses at extremely low prices, and offer a wide range of prescription and non prescription glasses and sunglasses (including designer!).

Having been hunting on and off in Primark for the perfect pair of non-prescription glasses (I've been wishing I needed glasses for so long now, but you can guarantee that when I actually do need them I'll be wanting to throw them off a bridge!), I thought this was a good opportunity to finally find a nice pair.

And here they are!

The pair I chose were model number #SD2243 which can be found on the website here.

They arrived from China super quickly (i.e. in a week) but I must admit that when I first put them on they were a bit of a shock, simply because the frames are so thick and I'm not used to having anything like that on my face. It felt plain weird!

But after a short amount of time they really grew on me; and now I love them!

They actually make me feel intelligent (I'm wearing them to write this blog post just to make me feel clever, sad I know), and my mum said I actually look like I have brains. Thanks mum.

You can tell that they are really good quality glasses; the plastic is really tough and sturdy (not those flimsy little things you can break by dropping), and they came really safely packaged along with a cleaning rag, glasses pouch, very sturdy glasses case and even spare screws and a teeny tiny screwdriver in case you do have any mishaps! 

The best bit?

Firmoo are offering new customers worldwide their first pair of glasses absolutely free! All you have to pay is postage! Plus you can return them if you're not happy!

I really am delighted with the communication, customer service and product I received from Firmoo.

They have a great team behind them who are more than willing to help you with any little query you may have.

So what do you think of these glasses?

Will you be ordering yourself a pair using the first pair free offer?

I really could not fault my experience with Firmoo, many thanks to them for giving me the opportunity to try out their product.

Thanks for reading,

Jo xx

P.S. Yes, I was sent these glasses for review purposes but all opinions are 100% my own.