OPI Holiday 2017 - Nails Of The Day - Feel The Chemis-tree

Well I hope you're all warm and cosy on this December evening, unlike a lot of the UK we haven't got any snow but it's been stuck in the minuses all day and it's freezing! I don't know whether it's down the plummeting temperatures, the fact that the central heating is ramped up to the max or my own failing body but my nails are (to put it mildly!) crap at the moment! They are so dry and brittle and they're refusing to grow - grrr!

Never mind, some nail polishes do actually look better on a shorter nail, or at least that's what I'm trying to convince myself anyways. No but seriously, darker shades can look very sophisticated on  shorter nail, and a case in point is this shade from OPI's 2017 Holiday Collection - XOXO.

Excuse the not so good paint job and the short not so chic, chubby nails and try to imagine what this beautiful shade looks like on nicer nails.

Feel The Chemis-tree is a gorgeous metallic plum, purple that is shot through with gold or is copper? shimmer. It's not quite as bright as it looks here, it's a lot more plummy in the flesh, and although the shimmer is visible in certain lights, it isn't that noticeable in the majority of my pictures or in real life.

As I say this isn't the neatest manicure that I've ever done, and that's not only down to my short, chubby nails tips. For some reason I really struggled to paint this polish neatly, it was quite gloopy but at the same time it was quite runny! It took two coats to achieve this level of colour and shine. It did take a little while to dry as well which in my experience is quite unusual for an OPI lacquer.

Something else that was unusual was the relatively short wear time, I got my first chip within 24 hours :( The one plus with that is that it was pretty easy to remove. Since the shimmer element is so fine you don't ending fighting with a ton of glitter on your nails

I know my pictures don't do this polish any justice at all but I can assure you that it is beautiful in the flesh, even more so when you catch it in the right light and see the shimmer. The colour is beautiful but for me and unusually for OPI the formula just didn't cut it. I'm really hoping that my experience is just a one off and more down to my own shoddy nails and painting skills, than the polish itself. If you've tried this colour I'd love to know your thoughts, so let me know your experiences in the comments. OPI Feel The Chemis-tree is a limited edition polish and retails at around £12.95 for a 15ml bottle. To be honest though I very rarely pay full price for my OPI colours so I would definitely advise that you shop around a bit as you can usually save a little bit on the RRP if your prepared to hunt around x

Learning Spanish With Three Mobile*

It might sound strange to some of my younger readers but believe it or not there once was a time before mobile phones were commonplace. At the risk of sounding ancient I got my first mobile phone in 1996  when I was 18 and I felt like the bees knees. I was one of the first of my friends to own one and I didn't care that it just made phone calls and sent text messages with just words in them, I felt tres sophisticated and way cool.

Although you can still buy extremely basic phones, the majority of phones nowadays do way more than just make phone calls and send text messages. I'm an iPhone user and whilst I do use it occasionally for texting and calling there is so much more that you can do with it. You can surf the internet, take photographs, listen to music, and of course you can play games. I'm guilty of the gaming thing and I spend way too much time playing games on both my phone and on my iPad. That isn't a bad thing though a lot of games these days make you think and make your brain work and I'm a firm believer that you need to keep your mind as active as you can. As well as gaming and communication though, they can be used as a fun way to learn a new skill or even a new language

A few weeks ago now I was contacted on behalf of Three Mobile to celebrate the inclusion of Spain in their Feel at Home mobile roaming network plan, and to celebrate I was given the opportunity to bring out my Mediterranean side and to a learn a bit of Spanish.

Like most Brits my first proper holiday was to Spain, and over the years I've been to most of the Costas, a few islands, and I've been lucky enough to spend some time in both Valencia, and Barcelona, which is easily one of my favourite cities in the world. When it comes to language though I'm a bit lacking. My comprehensive school only offered French and German as a foreign language so I never really got the chance to learn Spanish, and I've only managed to pick up the odd word or phrase over the years mainly "Dos vinos blancos por favor" and "las rebajas". The first one if pretty self explanatory 2 white wines pleases but the second one not so much, it basically means the sales- I once hit El Cortes Ingles at sale time and I quickly realised what the huge signs meant :)

There are so many different language apps available on the Apple App Store that it's hard to know where to start but the lovely people on behalf of Three Mobile provided me with a little bit of guidance and an iTunes voucher to get me started. I downloaded the apps that they recommended which gave me some good grounding because they are all so different.

Learn Spanish By Mindsnacks

This one is my favourite, no question - why? because it makes learning a language fun. The lessons are split into nice manageable chunks and it's all about (at least in the early stages) learning basic vocabulary, starting off with your basic numbers, days, months, weather, seasons and colours.

You learn by reading, looking at the accompanying picture to trigger your memory and by listening to the pronunciation. That doesn't sound that much fun so far but then you get to test your knowledge and your skills by playing games. As your progress through, and master different lessons and perfect your skills you earn XP which unlocks more games. The games in the earliest stages, are Swell where you chose the correct word to stop the water draining from the fish bowl, and Belly which you can see above where you feed the frog by matching both the written and spoken word to the pictures.

There is also Word Birds which gives you a word in English and you then need to spell the word in Spanish from the given letters and there is also Bloon which is my favourite game so far. It's a bit like Bubble Bobble or any of those bubble bursting games, you need to clear as many of the bubbles as possible by matching up both the English and Spanish words.

If you have no knowledge of Spanish whatsoever than this is probably the app for you, it's strange how games really help you to absorb some of the information. The spelling game Word Birds is particular tough and it really gets your brain working. My one complaint with this one is that so far there is no option to test your own pronunciation but I have a long way to go so maybe that might come in later.

Learn Spanish

This is another app that I would recommend for beginners, again it guides you through all your basic vocabulary. Again pictures are used as a memory aid and as well as reading the word you can also hear how the word it pronounced. Unlike the previous app though this one give you the opportunity to record your own pronunciation and listen to it back - eek!

Once your familiar with the vocabulary you can play games and carry out exercises such as memory games, flash cards, listening exercises, spelling tests and quizzes to help you test your knowledge. It isn't done in quite as fun away as the Mindsnacks but it's easy to use and I like the option to record your own voice.

Duolingo

Despite the fact that you can pick how experienced you are for me, this app assumes that you have a little bit of prior knowledge. Unlike the other two apps this one doesn't focus on vocabulary instead it focuses on the basics of the Spanish language, and how you use the words that your learning.

Each lesson goes through a variety of tasks from identifying the correct word and picture, to translating a sentence, typing what you hear, selecting the missing word, and repeating the phrase.

Unlike the other two apps that are more about vocabulary this one is actually teaching you words, verbs, and how to use both the masculine and feminine form of words, it's basically teaching you how to speak, spell and construct sentences. It's take me a little while to get to grips with it but after setting my reminders every day to practise I'm starting to feel a bit more confident with it.

Okay after a couple of weeks I'm far from fluent and my spelling and pronunciation still leaves a lot to be desired but by spending 10 minutes or so a day playing with the apps, playing games and practising my vocabulary I can definitely say that I know a bit more of the Spanish language than I did three or so weeks ago. All of the screen shots are taken from my iPad for clarity but I've got all of these apps on my iPhone too so I can practise on the go, be it in a hospital waiting room, on even a bus or a train.

As well as the means to learn Spanish, and the fab Spanish flag that you can see next to Mummy Lou's paella in some of the pictures above, the fab people at Three also sent me a copy of The Rough Guide To Spain. It's currently on my bedside table and it's making me desperate to return to the country and its islands, and in particular Barcelona, to try out my new found language skills - ha ha, maybe next year when I'm a bit more fluent :)

I love trying new things and learning, and I've really enjoyed this experience, and who knows where it will lead to. It just shows you that mobile phones, and especially smart phones and the iPhone are no longer just for making phone calls, they really can open the door to new skills and new experiences whether we're at home, out and about or even abroad. Have you ever learnt a skill via your iPhone, or smart phone? Let me know below x 

*iTunes Voucher, Spanish Flag, And The Rough Guide To Spain Were All Provided On Behalf Of Three Mobile

Holiday Haulage - You've Guessed It Picture Heavy

OK Guys
It's the holiday post you've all been waiting for, the haul :) -I have to say I was a lot more restrained than I'd planned to be - I looked, sniffed and swatched but I only ended up getting a few things in duty free and on the plane - first up I got a  perfume on my flight, and one from my wish list - Marc Jacobs - Daisy Eau So Fresh

After having a few samples of this I've wanted this since it came out - a twist on the originally Daisy, Eau So Fresh has less of the violet notes and is a lot fruitier, and the bottle is gorgeous

Right on to duty free make up, first up something I had wanted the Chanel Illusion D'Ombre Eyeshadows, I had a few colours on my wishlist but they only had two left Fantasme and Emerveille, I wasn't keen on Fantasme, so Emerveille it was

The texture of these is gorgeous quite similar to the L'Oreal Color Infaillable shadows but a little bit more creamy Emerveille is a gorgeous champagne / peach colour love it :)

I love these shadows and Epatant and Illusoire are definitely on my list - can anyone confirm that these are going to be permanent?
I also picked up a few bits from Newcastle Airports Accessorize, including this sterling silver and freshwater pearl bracelet which was just £3.00 in the sale

and I also got one of the baked eyeshadows from my wishlist which were just £4.00 :) The one I got was Moon Dust

As well as the perfume I also bought a Tangle Teezer on my Thomas Cook flight

So far so good with this one it was great for getting the salty tangles out of my hair whilst I was away

I only bought a couple of bits in Larnaca duty free -if I'm being honest it wasn't that cheap most things were about the same price if not a tiny bit dearer in the case of the Chanel :( I did pick up a cream shadow though from Bobbi Brown

I went for the Metallic Long-wear Cream Eye Shadow in 12 Black Pearl

For the first time ever I found I could actually play on a Bobbi Brown counter without interruption these are a really nice cream eyeshadow and they last Black Pearl as you would imagine is very dark grey / black with lots of metallic silver shimmer in it very pretty

I definitely want at least one more of these Moonstone looked especially gorgeous.

Finally in Larnaca duty free I picked up an eyeshadow I'd wanted for ages, in face I was actually super surprised I didn't already have it - the shadow in question MAC Satin Taupe

It's a really pretty and useful shade and I honestly don't know why I've never bought it before, so I am really happy to have it now x
So that was my duty free and in flight hauling what about in resort? well unsurprisingly the prices had rocketed you went to the till in any shop with a couple of things and before you know it you'd spent 12 Euros still I bought a few things and as per usual it was mainly jewellery - first up bracelets and bangles

These gummy bracelets are so cute you can't see it too well here but they have little bead charms, and silver tone sentiments like love, wish and dream

Next up earrings :)

A ring

and finally a necklace

I only got a few beauty things in resort including these two items from a brand called Ludanmei. they are labelled as eyeshadows but they are huge, and I really think they will be great multi use products as blushers and highlighters

I also got a little pack of nail stickers in pretty daisy designs

If you like nail stickers keep checking back I will be devoting a whole post in my Changing Your Nail Polish series to using nail stickers x
Finally I picked up my usual Cyprus purchase a bar of the locally made Olive Oil and Jasmine soap which I absolutely love :)

So they were all my holiday purchases but I did come home to a few parcels 2 of which were expected and 1 which was a nice surprise. First up an ickle bitty MAC order from the new collections - I ordered a grand total of 1 item - can you guess what it was?

Yes it was Lightscapade - I really love this MSF it's such a great highlight shade for the winter months for me
and since it's been so long since it was first released I knew I needed a back up

So that was the MAC but I also got another parcel from US ebay - the beautiful Zoya nail polish in Yara

Such an amazing green / gold I am super happy with this :) Finally I received this little box in the post which was a total surprise

Before I went away I entered a competition on the Garnier site to win a full sized BB Cream and I was one of the 1000 lucky winners - I'm super excited to try this I got the light which is a bit too pale at the moment but once the tan goes I'll be giving it a go.
So that was my holiday haulage - if you have any questions or you would like to see any reviews on any of the cosmetics items please let me know xx