Christmas Tag!

Holly Jolly Christmas Tag

Pre-note: Sorry I've not been blogging as often as I'd said, my laptop is fixed but I started a Hairdressing course in October! So I've been so so tired and not wanting to be on my laptop too long and not wanting to blog about recent happenings!

1. Favourite Christmas Movie?

     I have a few that I really enjoy, it has got to be The Grinch, or the Home Alone movies. They just put me in the festive mood!

2. Are you on the Naughty list or the Nice list?

   I'd probably say I'm on the nice list! I've been nice to people, helping my momma out when I can with like tidying and stuff (she appreciates help with tidying because she's always at work and she works nights). I've also been sorting myself out like I'm hoping to move out soon and I've been looking for jobs too! So I've not been slacking or anything, I've been helping my sister with babysitting too.

3. Show us one embarrassing Christmas card photo!

    To be honest, I've only ever received 1 Christmas card with a photo on it, and that's from this year! VistaPrint had some sort of offer on and my Uncle's kids recently had a photoshoot...so we got a card from them, but I've never ever had a 'Christmas card' photo with my family, I think it's usually an American sort of tradition? I'm hoping to get all the family in a photo this year though, maybe a new tradition!

4. Have you ever had a White Christmas?

    I do remember one time when I was around 9 years old, going outside with my light hopper (cool kid) and all my friends were out sledding on bits of cardboard and it was quite white, but since then I don't believe I've had a White Christmas! I'm not really a snow person anyway, so I'm not too bothered about having a White Christmas.

5. Where do you usually spend your holiday?

   I used to always spend Christmas time at home, but for the past 2-3 years we've been going to my sisters house because she's got a table and there's more room in her house! Last year I spent Christmas Day at my sisters, then went to my best friend's house for the evening and boxing day. This year I'm at my sisters again and I'll probably stay there all day and it'll be cute!

6. What's your favourite Christmas Song?

     I'm never really into Christmas songs around Christmas time, I start getting into them around September time, and my favourite is probably either Band Aid: Feed the World, or I wish it could be Christmas every day by Wizzard.

7. Do you open any presents on Christmas Eve?

    I used to open 1 present on Christmas Eve, either from my nan or my dad's cousin, but the past few years my mum's banned this and made my brother and I wait until midnight and it's usually all the presents from my Uncle, Nan, Cousin etc...then siblings I have to wait until I see them, and parents I have to wait until food has all been eaten! 

8. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer?

    Off the top of my head...  Dasher, Doner, Blitzen, Cupid, Dancer, Rudolph and that's all I can think of!

9. What holiday tradition are you most looking forward to this year?

     We have a new tradition of eating at my sisters, and I really enjoy it because instead of having a meal set out, she puts all the plates out empty and you can choose which meat and vegetables you want :-)

10. Is your Christmas tree real or fake?

     I've always had an artificial tree, I don't really care about having a new tree every year, we have a tiny fibre-optic one that we've used every year since I was born and we also have the same decorations on it every year. I recently got my own tiny tiny tree for my bedroom with decorations already on it :) It's cheaper than having to get a new tree every year or ruining your carpet with the bristles!

11. What is your all-time favourite holiday food and sweet treat?

      We usually get these German biscuits called Lebkuchen and they're like Cinnamony puffy biscuits, delicious! We also usually get a German Stollen which is a fruity cake topped with icing sugar, but I'm not much of a cake person so I usually don't have any! I do love turkey thoug, mmmm.

12. Be honest: Do you like giving or receiving gifts better? 

   I'm not going to lie, I think I love them both equally! It's cool to have a day where you're just showered in gifts and food, but I love also picking out a gift for someone, wrapping it up, waiting and seeing their reaction! 

13. Show us your tackiest Christmas attire (eg. sweater)

     I honestly don't have any tacky Christmas clothes! I'd love to get a particular jumper from etsy, it's done in the traditional 'Ugly Sweater' style but it has a home alone theme to it! It says 'Merry Christmas You Filthy Animal' on it and I'll post a link here.
    http://tinyurl.com/c5pcqg3

14. What would be your dream place to visit during the holiday season?

        New York! I'd stay there from Christmas until New Year, I've seen videos and pictures from New York festivities and I have to say it's probably the cutest thing I've seen!

15. Does your family have a special holiday recipe that you like to help make?

     We don't have our own made-up recipe but my momma used to always make mince pies that I'd help her to make.

16. Are you pro-present wrapper, or do you fail miserably?

    I'm actually quite good at wrapping presents, I started learning early though. In nursery I'd always sit with my mom as she did the wrapping, then as I gradually grew my way up into 'big school' I'd put the cellotape on, and towards the end of primary school, I was able to wrap presents all by myself :-)

17. Most memorable holiday moment?

    Maybe my nephews first Christmas! Babies and Christmas together are always cute.

18. What made you realize the truth about Santa?

     What truth? ;] I'm kidding. Well, I believed until I was around 7 or 8, until my brother went upstairs to see my mother putting Santa sacks in our bedrooms, and he ran downstairs to tell me about it, haha!

19. Do you make New Years resolutions? Do you stick to them?

   I always make a New Years resolution, but only stick to them for about 3 weeks.

20. What makes holidays special for you?

   I think this one's the same for everyone-being with family! It's always nice to see all the family and friends at the end of the year, and to spend time with the closest family.

Ciao!!

CRISIS!!

Hi there guys!

I thought I'd do a quick update since my last post was 2 MONTHS ago!!

Basically, my laptop charger has stopped working so I can't use my laptop until I get a new one. They're really cheap but I have other things to buy such as clothes etc.

 I've recently been trying to sort out college, get a job and make plans for this year and next.

 With college, I was going to start hairdressing this year but I've had no response from my college about starting etc, and my mother saw an advertisement in a cafe window about a catering apprenticeship, and since I need the money and don't mind doing a bit of random training this year, I've applied for that. I'll find out next week if I get in or not. If not, I'll either continue looking for a job or re-apply for hairdressing and hopefully have something to do!

 Last month, my sister got married and it was a beautiful ceremony, it was in a hotel just in the outskirts of the town I live in, and there was a lovely atmosphere, plenty of friends and family attended-I also got invited to my Aunt's wedding next year, who's getting married to her lovely girlfriend who she's been with for most of the past decade. I'm definitely looking forward to this, I love weddings and parties and dressing up all classy!

 Last weekend I travelled over 130 miles to London, where I saw Lady Gaga's Born this Way Ball at Twickenham Stadium! This was the absolute highlight of my life and I'd love to go several times over and I definitely would-if only I had the funding to! I wore a simple outfit-I gold and black vest layered with a sheer black shirt, burgundy leggings, black high heels and simple jewellery-triangle earrings, a gold bird ring and a pearl necklace. I got a few good pictures but didn't bother taking too many as I was busy dancing. The only downside was having seated tickets, I was sat with loads of older people who didn't fancy much dancing and from what I heard, didn't seem to understand Lady Gaga at all!

Planning a new tattoo!! I'm thinking of one for the top of my foot but I'm not going to do a big reveal until around January/February time when it's actually done, I'm very excited for it.


There probably won't be much activity on this blog for another couple of months, sadly. I'm trying as fast as I can to get enough money to get a new charger for my laptop, but until then I may be able to do more posts on my mother's laptop as I am now!

I do use twitter on my mobile, though...so if you'd like to follow me, my main Twitter is @mrphineprincess :-)

Love, Nikki Marie. xox

Review! - Collection 2000 Glam Crystals

 (Please excuse the awful picture quality, my brother broke my camera!)

Hello again, guys! I'm here with a mini review of the 'Glam Crystals' you may or may not have already heard of, by Collection 2000 (Or rather, just 'Collection' now)! 

These are lovely sparkly gel eyeliners, perfect for special occasions, nights out, or even just day-to-day use if you're a little more daring like me! 

I personally only have 3 that I received as a gift from my lovely mother a while ago, but I would definitely like to try out more in the near future. The colours I currently have are: 

(from L-R)

•  #8 Dancing Queen
• #11 Shake It Up
• #5 Le Freak 

My favourite out of the three that I own, you may be able to see from the partial emptiness of the tube, is #5 - Le Freak. It's a lovely shade of blue, and it's nice and sweet-nothing too dramatic. It's the colour I most get compliments on and it's just generally a cute colour.

  The next colour I'm able to get away with wearing on its own is #8-Dancing Queen. It looks fantastic with only a couple of coats of mascara, then you're done!

  #11-Shake It Up is a lovely purple colour which looks good on its own or to dramatise an evening look, swipe it over some black kohl or liquid eyeliner to give you that edge.

These liners are amazing quality and for only £2.99 each, why shouldn't you pick one up for yourself? I don't mean to slate other brands but urban decay have their own line of glitter liners, called 'Heavy Metal Liners' and to put it to you straight, they don't come close to these at all. UD charge £13, they may have a lot to choose from, but from the swatches I've seen, you don't get a lot of glitter on each swipe at all. With Collection 2000, there's so much colour even after some of the glitter has fallen off (which takes its time, trust me) and even in the hot summer, I've still had this on my eyes at the end of my day.

Don't forget to follow me on Twitter! 

                     <3 Nikki 

TAG: 7 Deadly sins of Beauty

1. GREED - What is your most inexpensive beauty item? What is your most expensive?

I actually don't have much of an extensive collection, as I've only been building up my materials for about a year and a half now, but I'd say that the most expensive beauty item I have would be Rimmel's Lasting Finish 25 hour foundation. 

I love this foundation so much, but if I'm completely honest, I didn't buy it myself! My friend got it for his 'pale' days but it actually makes his skin look a little on the grey side, but we tried it on me and it seems to be a good match, so he gave it to me. I like how easy it is to use, with a pump nozzle and it's a good consistancy, not too cakey but gives a brilliant coverage at the same time. I was applying it with a foundation brush at first but I found that I can actually apply it a lot faster with my hands and it just glides on and blends in perfectly. My skin is so difficult to find foundation for and I was crying out for a new one after using 'Miracle Matte' Foundation by '17' for £5.99 but my skin has been far too dry, but then I do have my oily tendencies! This product is around £6.99 but he got it in Superdrug with a 3-for-1 deal on some other bits.

The next item I actually did buy myself, is the Maybelline Eye Studio Gel Liner, in black.

You can get this from most places such as Boots, Superdrug etc but I got mine from ASDA at a trial price of around £5, I think it now retails at around £7.99 in Superdrug. It's a brilliant eyeliner and I'd definitely recommend it to anyone looking for something easy to work with! You get a free brush with it, but I bought a separate angled brush from AVON, for £2.

Least expensive - I actually always buy the cheapest eyeliners, I got a black pencil eyeliner from w7 for around £2, but I've gone off kohl eyeliner a little bit, I definitely prefer gel or liquid, it's easier to work with and easy to remove if you go wrong!

2. WRATH - What beauty products do you have a love/hate relationship with? 

I think for this one it's got to be the I love... sugar scrub I have! It's nothing to do with the quality of the product or anything, it's brilliant to use as a body exfoliator, it's just the smell...I got given the 'Chocolate and Orange' I think it was called, it's a white product and I'm not entirely sure they sell it anymore, I got  given it as a present quite a while ago from the mother of one of my friends, and I never opened it until recently. I love it because it keeps my skin feeling nice and soft, but hate the smell of that particular one but that's just me! I'd like to try out another of their products to see what I'd like more, because I'm sure I'd love them and do more reviews! 


3. GLUTTONY - What are your most delicious beauty products?
Define delicious! I wouldn't say any of my products taste good, but I do collect hair conditioner for the scent! I'm currently in love with the smell of Herbal Essences 'Beautiful Ends split end protection intensive mask - red raspberry & silk extracts', it's so fruity and my absolute favourite conditioning product as of now, and has been for a little while!


4. SLOTH - What beauty product do you neglect, due to laziness?
I think this one's definitely going to have to be, moisturiser. I used to moisturise alllll the time up until a few months ago, I couldn't handle the pain of using a moisturiser as soon as I got out of the bath/shower after shaving my legs! They say it's the best time to moisturise because it'll lock in more moisture than if you use it on your dry skin, but having just-shaved skin and putting products on it does not match! So I've really cut down, and I only moisturise my face in the evening when cleansing my face, I don't moisturise as much before putting on make-up because it's just another step in my morning routine! I'm going to try a different moisturiser, though because the one I have is starting to burn my face a little bit so maybe I'm having a reaction-but my mum likes it so it won't go to waste! 



5. PRIDE - What beauty product gives you the most self confidence?
For this I was going to put foundation, but if I were to go out in just 1 product, it would have to be mascara. If I'm not wearing mascara I look equivalent to a troll! The tips of my eyelashes are blonde so they look really short if I don't wear mascara/tint my eyelashes so I'd say it definitely boosts my confidence when I'm wearing mascara, I think it gives me more of an open-eyed look.

                                                 



6. LUST - What attributes do you find most attractive in the opposite sex?

I like tall people, but who doesn't! Also, unusual features attracts me to a person. If they have big eyes, big teeth, messy hair or a unique style, I'll be drawn to them instantly. Also, it is very important that they're open minded. I don't tolerate hate of any kind, whether it be homophobia, racism sexism etc. It really makes a person seem unintelligent and puts me off the person straight away.
7. ENVY - What items would you most like to receive as a gift?
I don't have any LUSH in my collection yet! I really want to try some of their products, especially the shampoo bars I've heard so much about, and 'Snow Fairy' sounds really sweet but that's a limited edition product they only sell around Christmas time so I'll have to keep my eyes peeled!! 

Tattoo Tag!

The Tattoo Tag!

1. How many tattoos do you have?

  I have two tattoos, both on my left wrist. Some people have said I may as well call them 'one' tattoo because they're so close together and have a similar meaning, but I got them done on two separate occasions so I refer to them as separate tattoos!

2. What's your favourite tattoo you have?

  I couldn't say that I have a favourite, they both have their meanings and are special to me in their own way, but probably the 'born this way' one as the peace sign was a little bit of a last minute thing, I didn't think too much about it, but I still love it!

3. How old were you when you got your first tattoo?

  I was sixteen. That's quite young but I thought about it for ages and I really think I was ready.

4. What do your parents think about your tattoo?

   My mother was with me when I got the first one done and she seemed to like it at the time, but then when I got it re-done and the second one added, she started pulling her face at it, but she knows she won't stop me once I have my mind set on something! She has a few tattoos herself so she's not old fashioned about them like some parents are. My dad didn't give me any opinions about them, he just asked if it hurt because he doesn't have any himself.

5. Did you always have a love for tattoos and what was your inspiration?

  I have definitely always loved tattoos, I've grown up around people with tattoos so it's given me an open mind about them. I've always been thinking about what tattoo I'd want and I'm always trying to think of new designs. My inspiration is everything. Movies, music, people. I believe that it's an art form and a story of your life.

7. Do you plan on getting more tattoos in the future?

  Absolutely. I'm always trying to think up new designs and placements etc. I think they're lovely and don't see myself stopping at 2.

8. Do you regret any of your tattoos and why?

  I don't regret any of my tattoos at all! 

9. What was your least painful tattoo?

  Probably the peace sign. It's on a bit more of a fleshy part of my wrist so there's more cushion instead of bones and stuff. The pain isn't unbearable though.

10. Who would you like to tag?

   I would like to tag anybody who reads this! :-)

Dreams and Fortunes

Just a quick one!

I've been having lots of dreams lately and one I'd like to share is from last night. Basically I was in some sort of car park for like an old ladies bingo club thing at night and I saw Lady Gaga..with no security or anything, so I was like "Gaga! Hi please give me a hug" and then we hugged and it was lovely and I went to my car to get my phone and I was like "Lady Gaga! I'm so sorry but can I have a picture?" And she copied me in a fake English accent and was like "I'm so sorry" and we were laughing but she got her phone out (which was a white iPhone) and we had a picture together and I got all excited because I was thinking about how she would put it on Twitter!

So that was my dream and it probably seems a bit sad to some of you but I woke up feeling happy and it was nice, sad that it was a dream though but maybe it will come true one day, who knows!! 

This is a slip I got in a fortune cookie a little while ago but I keep my fortunes, and this one says 'You have an ambitious nature and may make a name for yourself' Which I think is quite cute! I have about three of these little slips stuffed in my phone, between the case and the battery and they always make me smile a bit because you can usually always find a link between your life and the saying so you really think it's 'fate' or whatever to have gotten the cookie that you did. 

This is me today, I kind of like the way my hair is, all wavy and cute. The condition is getting better s-l-o-w-l-y and I'm usually someone who thinks if something doesn't happen straight away that it's probably never going to happen, that's why I've got so many different brands of products because I'm always trying out new stuff that works really fast!! I love the repairing hair mask that I have from Herbal Essences which is this one:

It works so well and smells absolutely amazing. My sister has the purple one which is called 'Tousle Me Softly' Because her hair is stick straight and it basically makes your hair dry wavy, which mine tends to do naturally but I sometimes do use that when I'm at her house ;-)

Today I woke up at half past 9 and got ready to go and see my tutor at college about getting onto my course in September but apparently I've already had my interview (which is basically what I wanted to talk about sorting out) so I just had to do an entry exam, which I'm going to re-take next month because I didn't have chance to revise as I didn't know about it...so I'll be revising for that! Then I went for a quick walk through town to see if anybody I know was in but I only saw 1 person I knew...who didn't recognise me :-( Oh well!

I don't have anything more to talk about other than I may be getting another tattoo soon! But I'm not spilling any plans because that's not too much like me when it comes to tattoos :-)

                                          Au revoirrr!! 

                                            -Nikki x x

Updates!

Hello, lovelies!! 

I'm really working my way around this blog, usually I take so long to take to things but recently I've been able to pick things up quite fast, which is good as I'm a little on the impatient side!! 

I've been so busy lately, finishing up with college and everything, trying to sort out next years course! 

I finished my tanning qualification which if I'm honest, I didn't expect to be able to do at all because I missed a week and it was only a 5-week course so I had to do all my catch up and it was stressful, then last week I was sat sorting out my folder work to find out I still had to do 2 tans that day to complete! But I got it done AND got a tan myself, which turned out a lot better than it usually does on my skin! 

So there's a picture of me and my friend Leanne, our chests are looking quite dark but pale faces because we didn't have any darker foundation, bearing in mind this picture was taken with flash so it definitely didn't look as noticeable in real life.

Another thing I've been doing is damaging my hair! It sounds bad but it was completely an accident. I bleached my hair thinking it would go a lovely foxy orange colour (Lady Gaga was my inspiration for this)    

So this is the beautiful colour I expected to go first time (high hopes, I know) but I left the bleach on for waaaaay too long, so it went a really weird yellow colour, with some WHITE roots and I thought, 'There is no way I'm going white blonde again' and my hair was ABSOLUTELY frazzled and stringy, so I didn't want to put a blonde dye on, but also I didn't want to put brown back on-I'd just have been wasting money! So I slept with conditioner and a shower cap on, and nipped into town the next day and got a nice purple colour by Directions. It's called 'Violet' and it looks like this;

I get a lot of compliments on it and I like being purple, I've had it a few times before but only with blonde or brown with it, this is the first time on its own and I got a comic award in college, 'Most Outrageous Hair Colour' because I change my hair a lot and try to go 'out there' a bit :-)

Well, that's a couple of updates from recently so I may do another post some time this week if I get any time! If not, I'll update Sunday/Monday hopefully with some more pictures as I'm going to my first hen party on Saturday! For my sister, we're just going to go out and have a few drinks, fun fun fun! 

Follow me on Twitter: @mrphineprincess

Thanks for reading! -Nikki x x