Franken Umero 2

We all have polishes that are hanging around in the make up bag (or bags in my case) that we aren't entirely sure why we bought them in the first place. In this case I'm talking about 17's Real Romantic. I'm pretty sure I bought this to go with a particular outfit, but for the life of me, I cannot remember what... That's because this colour goes with nothing in my wardrode! I cannot think what outfit would have required a pinky-peach, metallic colour with a coppery gold shimmer in it! This is by no means an awful colour but I feel that it could definately contribute to something altogether more spectacular! Here is a before shot.


I quite like the shimmer in this and think that if this were darkened uo we'd have a very interesting polish. SO! I'm going to attempt frankenpolish number two. To the 17 bottle I'm going to add some black. I got the black nail polish in Penneys to toughen up a very girlie outfit and it lasted all of five minutes before chipping, and that was with a coat of Seche... My poor housemate who borrowed it the same night almost had chips appearing as she was painting! So after I had mixed in a generous amount of the black, here is what I got...


This turned out better than expected, this was a colour unlike anything in my stash and is something I know I will get alot more use out of than its parent polishes! And in fact, this reminded me slightly of a very on trend polish indeed! Chanel Paradoxal, or to be more precise, its dupe Models Own Purple Grey, that kind of mauvey, greyed out purple with slight shimmer, I think this is fairly similar. Im glad to report too that adding the chip prone black to the normally fantastic wearing 17 polish did not affect its longevity, Huzzah!

Pink No. 3

A bit of a blogging break there to celebrate the Cork Guinness Jazz Festival. More about that later... But before that happened, I had painted my nails this shade of pink to continue my theme for the month of October.

This is 17's Fairy Cake, a pastel cream that they released this summer and that I instantly fell in love with! Application on this isn't great, this is three coats and there was some serious dragging on the first two coats. The third was a nbit better, but I still felt that I had to be super careful not to ruin the first two. There is some patchiness as you can see... And don't even get me started on the weird lump thing that is on my ring finger! But I like this colour, its very pretty and it wears well.

The Girls got Round

Originally meant to be a Pot Luck Dinner party, my Get the Girls Round event turned into a pink themed tea party. Work commitments (new Christmas temp contract in Irelands favourite budget fashion store!) meant that plans had to be altered... Bye bye homemade spaghetti carbonara and hello pink iced donuts! And did you know that Tesco sell tubes of Smarties that are entirely pink! Colour me delighted...

Everyone was instructed to bring something pink and something grape! As you can see by the picture, some of the bottles of grape didn't last very long...


This was a great night, it was really nice to just sit around with the girls chatting and reminiscing. we raised a good bit of money and with donations being promised from a few more people we hope to raise a bit more. There is still time to host your party or get together and raise some money for a fantastic cause! Check out the Facebook page for more details on organising yours...

Granny Polish alert!

So we move on to pink polish number 3 and this is one of the ones I got in my haul the other day, 17's Pinking Sheer. I had earmarked this as an 'interview polish'. One that I might lash on for a job interview when I didn't have time for the classic French Manicure. In the bottle it looked shimmery and there appeared to be a couple of different things going on, a bit of blue and pink shimmer in the mix.

But on the nails... Oh dear. I knew after one coat I was going to hate this! But I applied the second and hoped that a miracle would appear and transform this... Nope! This was a sheer, frosty pinky, white. The name of the polish is very very apt to be fair, its pink and its sheer. It is completely not me! It reminded me of old lady polish... Its slightly more pink than it appears here.


You can see the colour better in the fuzzy picture and the brushstrokey, frosty finish (and the lovely sunny day in Cork!) in the second clearer picture.
Application was good on this, no major problems... For a polish I did not like this lasted for ages! I was too tired from work to muster the energy to take this off, and it was 3 days and not a chip in sight, that was not having used any topcoat (I know, slap on the wrist!). So at least it has that going for it, even if the colour is horrific!

Pink No. 2

So pink number 2 for Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Its Barry M, Pink Flamingo and in truth this is not a really pink pink, there is most definately a touch of coral in here but its lovely and the name means it totally fits in with the theme for the month!


Application isn't fantastic on this, three coats are definately needed and this is quite streaky on application. However, after the third coat you are left with this... This first picture is at night, indoors with aflash and shows the high shine, the picture to the right is closer to the colour.

This is very pretty, a lovely colour and very very shiny and it lasted very well. A bit too well! I get bored with polish very quickly... So I road tested my new Matte topcoat! This totally transformed this polish. It really enhanced the pink tones and created a lovely soft finish to my nails. I really liked it.

If you intended on wearing your nails matte for a couple of days I imagine you'd have to reapply this. I could definately see the affect lessening after the first day and while my nails were in no way shiny, they were not AS matte... Minor complaint though!

New Restaurant and Polish Haul

Quick post... After a couple of hectic weeks my better half and I finally got to spend a weekend together (despite living very close to each other!). So after a lovely Saturday night spent watching the X Factor, we decided to get out and about on Sunday.

Sunday Lunch was in order, so we decided to try out a burger bar that has recently opened in Cork city. Ketchup, great name, has only been opened for about a month but judging by the food and the great location it will stay open for a lot longer. A great location, at the end of French Church Street and walking distance from the shops, so very handy indeed! Food is simple, burgers, lamb, chicken and beef and there are also vegetarian offerings, fish and sausages from the English Market's O'Flynn's. Even though its simple, the food is fabulous! I ordered the Haloumi Burger, yummy and himself got a Classic Burger. This was so good, the meat was of fantastic quality and everything was so fresh. And the chips.... Wow!

After we'd stuffed ourselves silly we decided to have a stroll around as the day was so nice. Really ,mild and fresh, a perfect autumn day. Perfect for shopping! Boots on Opera Lane was my destination of choice after two hours searching for the perfect pair of runners for himself... Honestly, two hours! And I'm accused of being the shopper... Hmmmmm.



And here's what I got... It was buy 2 get the 3rd free on all 17 items so having lusted after the new matte topcoat for a while I went for it. I also picked up this really cute Pinking Shear, looking forward to trying this out. For my freebie I choose, Miami! Not for me though, its going into the bag of birthday bits I'm putting together for my good friend. The matte topcoat though is the next thing on my list of untrieds. So watch this space for that and the next pink for October.

Pink - One month, One colour

I have decided that the only colour of nail polish I will be wearing this month is pink. As I'm sure we all know, October is Breast Cancer Awareness month and the colour that symbolises this is pink. So because I love pink and because I want to make a statement for this month I will be working my way through my stash of nail polish and showing you all of the pink offerings that this growing collection has to offer. As this isn't a huge number of polishes ( I somehow always tend to be swayed by other colours, so have surprisingly few pinks!), there may just be a Franken or two included!

First up is one of my go to polishes for a night out, 17 Miami. This is the most delicious shade of pink. Really bright and summery. This looks amazing both on hands and feet and applies like a dream. Two coats and you're good to go. Drying time is good too and as cheaper brands go, it actually lasts quite well. You'll definately get two days chip free out of this and more with top coat.

Have a look see at Pink No. 1! (Please ignore my sorry state of a pinkie, only noticed this up close.)



And will you look at the shine on it too... Definately one of my favourite polishes ever, I may even finish out a full bottle, an almost unheard of feat for me!

Get the Girls Round for Breast Cancer Awareness Month

Quick post, search for getthegirlsround on Facebook and get organising your party ladies! This is fantastic cause, so many of us have been or will be affected by this terrible disease in some way or another. 2,500 people will be diagnosed with the disease in a year here in Ireland and will touch upon the lives of so many of us at some stage.

The idea is simple, register your party and you will receive a party pack including a collection box and invites. All you have to do is pick a theme and Get the Girls Round! The idea is that you try to donate what you would normally spend on a night out to the cause. You could ask for a cover charge, hold fundraising activities throughout the night, but raise as much as you can for this cause.

I will be getting my girlies (and some honorary girlies too!) around for a Pot Luck Dinner party and some cocktails. One of the excellent suggestions on the facebook site is to collect all the various recipies and make them into a keepsake recipe book for all the guests, then charge a couple of euro for this! But whatever your idea and your theme, Get the Girls Round, get the word out and lets tackle this problem the best way we ladies can. With a smile on our face, a cocktail in hand and with our friends at our side!

Update!

After a minor lull in proceedings while my supervisor read over my work, I am stuck, nose pushed firmly to the grindstone in the library making changes and corrections.

Ah the joys! However, in little less than two weeks time I will have a couple of extra letters after my name, a lot more free time and the opportunity to blog blog blog! Upcoming will be posts on My First Franken, the search for the perfect foundation, some lovely days out post thesis and some random ramblings. And who doesn't love a good ramble!

My First Frankenpolish

Ok, so I wasn't overly enthused with my Claire's Accessories green nail varnish. But I though it would be a bit of a waste to leave it languish in my box of polishes, whats a girl to do? I have recently become very taken with a number of nail blogs, one of which is Dr Frankenpolish. So I took inspiration from that creative blogger and decided to Franken my Claire!

I used to do this quite a bit when I was younger, adding crushed eyeshadow and glitter and I ruined many a nail varnish in the process! I knew what I wanted to achieve, make this a deeper, maybe a tealy green. I decided that if I added a deep blue it might turn out they way I wanted... It didn't! But, what I got was much nicer and very unexpected, making it possibly even better.



I added this E.L.F. polish in Dark Navy to the Claire's to get the colour I was hoping to achieve... But here's what i actually ended up with!





This was the most unusual colour, a kind of inky, creamy, greyed out blue-green with a tiny hint of shimmer. (How many more adjectives can I use to describe it I wonder!)This picture doesn't actually do this colour justice... In different lights this flashed green, slate, even grey at some points. Success, albeit unexpected!

Dupe for Audrey??

Having been doing little else other than staring at my nails as I was typing up my Masters Thesis over the past few months, recently I have become a huge fan of all things nail related! So I thought what better way to re-introduce myself to the world of blogging than to pop up a post on my latest aquisition. A potential dupe of China Glaze For Audrey. The original is a gorgeous Tiffany Blue duck egg colour and was inspired by the iconic store and named after the gorgeous Audrey Hepburn. Its not the exact colour of those famous blue boxes, but it is quite close. (Image from China Glaze website.)

I was searching for a suitable dupe and today I cam across something which just might work. Claire's Accessories nameless duck egg green is a very pretty colour. Its not blue enough at all to be a perfect match for the China Glaze offering, but its not a million miles away. In its own right this is a very sweet colour. It's a shimmer-less cream, and there's a hint of matte in this. The colour is nice and summery and would look gorgeous with a tan, unfortunately this did not quite work on my very pale skin... Bit of a lobster hands situation, oh well!



Second pic is best representation of the colour.

Application was pretty good, nice consistency, and a decent brush. No real problems there then. Three coats were needed to achieve bottle colour but this dried in no time.

Being very lazy, I trialed this without base or top coat and it actually stayed chip free for 2 days. There was minimal and entirely unnoticeable tip wear after the second day, but only extreme inspection would show this to the naked eye. Since I generally get sick of a nail polish after 2 days anyway, I wasn't bothered. On to the next one please!

Dolmio?? Nah.... I'll make my own thanks!

Well, this is turning into a bit of a food blog!! I do have other interests other than my stomach I swear!!
So, STILL having some tomatoes in the fridge I wondered what to do with them, a bit of a creative streak came over me. Pasta sauce!


Again with the simple (and affordable) ingredients!
And this recipe, which I'm proud to say is 50% me, (the other 50% consists of tips from The Afternoon Show), is very simple!

1. I added, olive oil, salt, pepper, chilli flakes and three cloves of garlic (I like the garlic, I do!) to a pan.
2. Next I added in the chopped shallots.
3. I left all of that until the shallots were lovely and opaque, then I added the tomatoes.
4. Now, this is where I went mad! After adding a good handful of chopped parsley, I added in a good handful of chopped smoked sun-dried tomatoes.
5. Add a good glass of white wine and leave to simmer for half an hour.


So after it had been simmering, I added three generous spoons of Philadelphia to the mix and blended! And here is what it looked like...

I have been using this as pasta sauce and also it tastes lovely on grilled bread with veg and cheese as a very posh grilled open sandwich...

The addition of the sun-dried tomatoes really added a wonderful flavour to this. As they were smoked rather than regular sun-dried tomatoes, there was a gorgeous depth to the sauce, a really unmistakable but not overpowering woodiness. You could also achieve this with Hickory Smoked Bacon if you couldn't get the sun-dried tomatoes. I think that this would be a lovely simple, but very impressive sauce to serve with anything.

One for the bag of tricks!

Yesterday's dinner, today's lunch??

So after the roaring success of the Jamie experiment I still had a bit of a tomato craving. Which was quite handy really as I had some salad leftover... What to do with it however, that was the million dollar question!

Having forsaken the library for a day of watching Project Runway, I decided to make Bruschetta!



Here's what it looked like before...

1. So, firstly I sliced up some of that a-maze-ing bread and pop it under the grill.
2. Drizzle some olive oil over it and rub some garlic into it.
3. Heap onto the bread, pop on some brie and place under the grill again.
4. Eat!



Have to say, some of the nicest leftovers I have had in a long time!!

Jamie Oliver-esque Moment

Inspired by Jamie Does ... Andalucia today, I decided to take a trip through Cork's very lovely English Market and purchase some chorizo and vine tomatoes to attempt to make his Tomato and Chorizo salad. Did I succeed? Will the kitchen survive my attempts at cooking, albeit salad making!

Here's the before shot:


As you can see, the ingredients are fairly basic and came in quite affordably too.

1. Heat up some olive oil and add in the chorizo.
2. Chop the tomatoes, nice and rough, nothing too neat.
3. To the chopped tomatoes (in a bowl preferably!) add chopped shallot, chopped flat leaf parsley or basil, salt and pepper. Leave to rest.
4. To the now nicley charred chorizo, add some chopped garlic. I added chilli too, but the chorizo is nice and spicy too so depends if you like heat or not. I do!
5. Add the chorizo, garlic, chilli and oil to the tomatoes.
6. Serve!

I served mine with a gorgeous 7 Grain Bread, (Oh how I wish this had been made by me, but no, English Market to the rescue here) and some brie or goats cheese.

Here's the finished product!



I am pleased to say the kitchen though now covered in dishes, smells delicious and is still in one piece!

Adventures in dying

I hate white clothes... In theory they are great, lash on some of the fake stuff, cute white summer dress, suitably summery wedges et voilá! You have the perfect summer outfit, in theory...

In practice oh how different it is! You arrive at your delightful Garden Party (for isn't that where we all wear our perfect white gúna's to??) and the first thing you do is spill Pimms on yourself. Then you notice that your carefully applied fake tan is beginning to turn the pristine white neckline, armline, waistline, everyline of your dress a charming shade of grunge... What to do? Having spent hard earned cash on said dress, it would be quite the pity to banish it to the clothes cemetary. So here are some easy steps to save that stylish dress from becoming a cushion!



1. Remove that tired dress from where it languishes in your armoire.
2. Take a trip to your local fabric store and purchase some Dylon washing machine dye.
3. Continue en-route to a supermarket to purchase some table salt.
4. Commandere the washng machine in your rented student house for the better part of eight hours and follow instructions.
5. Wear your brand new dress with pride and without fear of unsightly tan marks!

And there you have it, 5 steps, 10euro and you have a new outfit in the season's hottest colour whatever that may be!

Flamingo Pink was my colour of choice, whats yours?

Nervous Hello!

First blog post! Eeek...

Well, just a little snippet about me and what I hope to do on this blog first, then I'll start writing some worthwhile stuff!! (hopefully!) My name is Julie and I'm (currently) a student, just finishing up a masters in history which I promise I won't bore you with!! I love all things fashion and beauty related and could happily spend all my time experimenting with make-up and online window shopping.

So taking inspiration from some of my favourite blogs, I'm going to write about what I love, make-up, beauty, fashion and lots more. Mostly a bit of fun, but I might throw in the odd serious topic to keep you lot on your toes! So expect frivolity mixed with informal info, a dash of style and hopefully a bit of interesting conversation!

I hope to have a weekly review feature of one of my favourite products or shops so keep an eye out for that, and I'll be getting busy with the digital camera too, so there will be lots of pretty pictures.

Hope you enjoy the features and let me know what you think too, I'd love to get a bit of conversation going on here!

Ta Ta for now,

Jewels,x