Beauty | Nails | Barry M - Arabian

For those of you who follow me on Instagram (@passion0527) then you may have seen that I made a few purchases last Friday after work. 

I had seen that Barry M had launched new limited edition colours, 2 for boots and 2 for super drug and I was intreaged.. Then I found out that boots were giving away one of their limited edition colours if you spend £6 or more on any Barry M products! 

Being a recovering member of acrylic nails anonymous (1 year clean) I have got really into Barry M nail paints. I love the price firstly at just £2.99 for such a wide selection of colours. But I also love how easy it is to apply and what how good quality they are. 

Up until recently the only, 'special effects' I'm going to call them, I had used was the crackle effect which I had loved at the time. Then when browsing for a colour to match a dress I discovered the gelly colours, then the matte and then low and behold the aquarium collection. You could say that I'm now a huge fan if the effects ranges. 

I have been a great lover of mermaids for as long as I can remember and more than most other things in the world I really wish mermaids were real. *Sobs at the fact I'll never be a mermaid* when I spotted this colour my first thought was omg mermaid nails I have to have it! 

Anyway back to the point.. I had been lusting over this and dying for a matte top coat for so long and when I saw the great deal with the free limited edition colour I new it was time to pop in store and throw my money at the sales assistant and give these beauties a loving new home. 

I was waiting for my nails to chip, for the first time ever I think, so that I could re-paint them in this colour.. so finally I got to do it. The colour went on effortlessly and with 2 thin layers looked amazing! In some lights it's very blue, others green, and it has lots of gold undertones! 

I finished it off with a clear top coat and it lasted on my nails around 3/4 days without any chips! Overall a great product which I would highly recommend to fellow mermaid lovers. 

Work Life | Mid week mini series | The work saga: part 1 (4)

I cannot believe we are on the final week of part 1 already! It feels like time has flown by since my first post. I found this so much harder than I thought I would and realised just how much I love buns and braids and just how hard it is to style such long hair in a smart updo for work.

So here goes the last 2 looks. 

Style 1: 

If you follow my blog you will probably remember me already featuring a braided bun previously, however this one is a little different. It's loads easier to do and stays put a lot better and is done using smaller braids. 

Hello grumpy. 

I always feel like I have princess hair when it involves being up AND being braided! 

Style 2: 

Sometimes you just need to let your hair down!

My hair is super long so i tend to wear it up for work 99% of the time as it is so annoying to have it dangling in front of your face whilst your trying to work! 

I also think because I am quite young, and I do have long red hair.. It can look so much more professional having it up.

Well that's it girls, we have come to the end of part 1 of this mini series. I hope I have managed to inspire some of you into mixing things up a bit with your hair for work. I have certainly helped to inspire myself! 

Please do let me know if you want any tutorials! 

Next week.. SHOES!! 💕💁

Make sure you subscribe so not to miss out. 

Beauty | How I clean, condition & disinfect my make up brushes

This is something I think very few of us enjoy doing and I for one don't clean my brushes as often as I know I should. When I think about all the germs that I must 'reapply' to my face on a daily basis it makes me feel a little sick. 

We all have our own methods so I thought I would share with you all mine. The brushes I am using at the moment and have been using for quite a while now are the real technique brushes. They are amazing quality and at such a good price you can't go wrong. 

To clean my brushes, I mix together standard hand soap with anti-bacterial gel and then mix that with the oil (this is what conditions the brushes as soap can dry them out). Kitchen roll or throw away cloths are great to rest the brushes on or to dry them on. If you are using anti-bacterial hand soap there is no need to add the anti-bacterial hand gel. 

I mix the solution together with a dirty brush in circle motions on the plate or whatever surface you are using, I then repeat the circle motions with the brush on to my hand. 

As you can see it can be quite messy and sometimes it shocks me the amount of product that the brushes can store, especially a foundation brush! 

Repeat these steps with all your brushes and rest them on the kitchen roll until you have finished this step with all of the brushes you will be cleaning, sometimes you may have to mix up more soap/oil solution if you find your brushes are soaking a lot up. 

One this is done I like to run the tap until I have a nice lukewarm temperature then run the brushes under facing downwards so not to get water into the inside of the brush where the glue is!

Again do the circle motion on the palm of your hand untill the water runs clear and then squeeze the excess water out. 

Place them all onto a clean piece of kitchen roll and try to press the brush back into its original shape so that it does not dry misshaped. 

Leave your brushes to dry and woahla.. they are good as new, I love when you can see the white tips again and they are no longer discoloured! 

What method do you use to clean your brushes? Do you do them regularly or like me, try to put it off? 

I am super excited to have clean brushes to use tomorrow now! 

I'm not sure if you are all aware aswell that I am now on twitter @passion0527 as well as Instagram passion0527 so would be great if you wanted to follow me. 

Lots of Love 

Work life | Mid week mini series | The work saga: part 1 (3)

This is so much harder than I thought! I still wake up every morning (especially Mondays) and pine over my 30 second go to messy bun.. But so far I have stuck to my hair motivation and we are on to week 3!

Style 1: 

Anything bun/braid related gets a thumbs up from me! This style probably take 2-3 minutes and just dresses up a standard messy bun slightly and means it's so much easier to readjust during the day unlike the lopsided falling apart bun I'm sure we have all experienced to our horror, at some point. 

This was by the end of the day, still in tact but I do have very frizzy prone hair! 

Style 2:

This is a quick and easy pony tail with the hair wrapped around so to cover the hair band. 

I don't really like my hair in a ponytail and it's a style I only tend to use whilst wearing shameful men's Tshirts and not a scratch of make up, so it makes a nice change to have it done a bit nicer for work.  

What's your go to hair style in the morning? 

There's only one week left of work hair now so be sure to subscribe! 

Fashion | Outfit post featuring the must have coral primark skort

Let me start by saying, this skort is both outrageous and tacky and I probably looked at it 50 times before I decided that I just had to have it!! 

The skort is from primark and I believe it was around £12, it's completely sold out in my local stores now but it may be in one close to you! There was also a matching blazer going around but I never spotted that in store..

I am not usually one who would opt for pink. Leopard print, yes! Pink, no. But there was something summery about the colours and I just knew that I had to have it! 

I chose to pair it with this must have leotard from asos, it's completely backless but looks so nice when on and I think the black makes the skirt pop just that bit more. I say skirt, it is in fact a skort and that's very apparent from behind but the front looks just like a skirt. It's very similar to the white zara skort.

Check out the ducky trying to cover my phone in my badly shot camera phone pics! Must get myself a new camera.. It's been over a year since mine got run over and I still hasn't got round to replacing it!

You can find the Asos backless leotard here for £15 http://tinyurl.com/nc2ogt8

Work Life | Mid week mini series | The work saga: part 1 (2)

If you've just landed here on my blog we are now on week 2 of my mid week mini series. 

The first theme I'm doing is all about hair for work so here goes week 2, enjoy!

Style 1:

It's an easy 2 minute hairstyle to dress up a dressed down outfit. I love this style when i want a comfy day and work but still want to look professional!  My manager actually told me I looked like a princess! 💁👑

As you can see the bun doesn't look it's best, I find this style would work better with shorter hair, mine is ridiculously long and gets in the way with some styles! If I was going all out I'd do this with a side donut bun. 

Style 2: 

This is a basic fish tail plait from behind with a middle parting. My layers like to poke out at every opportunity and it's a bit time consuming but if I've got an extra bit of time in the morning it's a style I like to do for a change. 

Are you spotting a trend here? 

That's right I love a braid!! Once again, if you are interested in tutorials for any of the styles I have featured in this mini series please let me know. 

Make sure you subscribe so not to miss next weeks styles! 

Happy Hump Day 💕

Lifestyle | Primark haul

For those of you who follow me on twitter or Instagram (@passion0527) you may have seen that I had an issue with a primark bag this week. Torrential rain + paper bag = disaster! 

I popped in store after work with the intention of having a small browse of the work section but £27 later I left rather happy.. Untill I saw the rain that is! 

Here's what I bought:

Grey fitted blazer great for work and a bargain at only £12 make sure you subscribe so not to miss this featured in my work saga mini series!

Next up were these gorgeous shoes! They had plenty of plain black and plain cream ones but they didn't really jump out at me.. But then amongst them all I spotted these! They were the only pair left and they were my size, it was meant to be! These cost just £6.

Very random purchase in these 2tail combs.. I've been without a tail comb for so long and I don't know how I have survived, yet I always forget to pick one up! I saw this pack of 2 for £1 and they went straight into the basket!

The sweets always get me in the que, I'd been in town shopping for Father's Day presents and saw these and thought they'd go nicely with his present, he loves sweets! These were £1. 

As some of you may already be aware, I have a small tattoo on my right hand ring finger, I absolutely love it but I know it's not the most professional for work so I tend to always cover it with a costume ring. Primark is great for these as they are so cheap! I picked up these 2 for a combined price of £2.50 which I was happy with. 

How do I rotate this please? Nightmare! I have had the bigger notebook since Christmas and I just love the pink glitter, I use this one for work. Then I spotted this little one and thought it would be perfect for blog post ideas! It was just £1.50 which was great! 

I also brought a 3 pack of tights for £3 but I appear to have forgotten to photograph those!

I am very pleased with my shop and think I got a few bargains in there! Has anyone else been to primark lately? 

Work Life | Mid week mini series | The work saga: Part 1 (1)

Some of you may have seen in my previous post that I have decided on doing a new mini series here on passion 0527 revolving around work.

Part one is all about work hair! Say goodbye to your dull everyday style and take some inspiration from my ideas! Part one will run for 4 weeks and there will be a post up every Wednesday. 

Style one: 

Excusing the mirror selfie and the 'I want to kill you' look on my face this is my go to style. And yes, it is dull but could make a nice change if it's not something you usually do. 

I have quite long hair so it can be difficult to get into a bun using a donut as there is just too much hair but I do manage to achieve this messy style with a more structured shape. 

It's great because you cannot see any hair bands and takes about 2 minutes to put together. 

Style two: 

Slight inspiration from frozen here *covers face* this is one of my absolute favourite styles for work and so much easier than it looks! 

If you can do a very basic French plait then you will have no problem. Looks like you have made an effort and requires very little input and lasts fine all day. 

This style manages to keep your hair out of your face and looks professional without looking like you have tried to hard. 

If you like either styles please like this post! If your interested in tutorials for any of the styles I feature feel free to comment and let me know. 

Be sure to follow to find out next weeks styles!