Disney Life Lessons: What Walt Taught Us

Image source: sporcle

Back when I was little, rewinding my tapes in my VHS player to watch my favourite Disney films, I had two role models: my mother and Snow White. Looking back now, there were a lot of life lessons going on on that grainy little screen of mine, and I don't mean how to make a stranger fall in love with you in three days or how to avoid selling your soul to a sea witch. There are plenty of not-so-good pointers that Walt threw our way - we'll skip the parts where we're being told never to talk to strangers unless they're hot (ahem, Aurora), the submissive women and the unrealistic hair expectations (ahem, Jasmine) - but I also think there a lot of sweet moral messages that we can pick up on from Disney, so let's talk about those shall we?

• Your prince isn't going to be perfect - we've all said it at some point: "Disney has given me unrealistic expectations of men and relationships" - but I'm not so sure about this one anymore. Admitted, Eric has flawlessly sculpted Mark Francis-esque hair standards, but in reality the Disney princes weren't all that perfect. Aladdin the compulsive liar; Beast the short tempered uh, beast with a slight body hair issue; Peter with a side-fairy; Prince Charming who says you are the love of his life and then forgets what you look like and has to put your shoe on every girl in the kingdom because he probably drank too much Vodka and Red Bull at the ball. I think what Disney was trying to get across here is that whoever you fall in love with might not be flawless, but sometimes we have to accept and love people for what and who they are (sniff)

• We're sorry, we get it, you don't need a man these days, am I right ladies? - I'm still a bit miffed about the submissive princesses and their ridiculous damsel in distress moments back in old school Disney films, but I've noticed that the new-age films seem to be fighting against this a little more. Rapunzel saved Flynn; Brave centred around the quest of a princess and her love for her family; Frozen focused on the love of two sisters and the more realistic fact that your first love might let you down; Maleficent looked at the love of herself and Aurora, empowering each other in the face of a really mardy man. I love the way they're developing and the messages this will give to young girls and boys growing up with them now.

• Don't be afraid to meet new people, try new things or go new places.

• Love comes in all forms.

• What you wish for might turn up when you least expect it.

• Always be yourself.

• Become somebody that you are proud to be.

• And stand up for what you believe in.

 Love From Storm x

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Made in Chelsea NYC Life Lessons

For those lucky enough to not be crying into a wad of Vogue magazines this week, (repeat mantra: I will become Mark Francis) this season's Made in Chelsea NYC came to a dramatic close last weekend, and after all those love hexagons and commentary tweets, I am exhausted. Now I usually can't stand reality shows - I will never be able to see the allure with MIC's slightly chavvier cousin The Only Way is Essex - but Made in Chelsea lifts the lid on the poshest fish in the ever-growing reality show pool and for some strange reason I can't keep my eyes off their awkward confrontations. I'm not sure if these people ever do anything except meet in bars to argue and occasionally go clay pigeon shooting, but this addiction is going nowhere. 
Among obligatory awkward pauses and bed-hopping to rival the efforts of Olympians, the MIC cast has put out some important life lessons this season; more educational than psychology and sociology combined, probably, and the most important of all comes in the form of Mark Francis (who should probably set up his own religion, or at least write poetry.)

• Life Lesson #1: Mark Francis is the biggest aspiration in TV history (bare with me here). His accompanying tweets every episode - "Don't even think about standing there in your Topman judging my Balmain" - are more entertaining than the show itself. I don't know how I will cope without the commentary until next series. 
• Life Lesson #2: If you're going to make an entrance, you may as well do it the Chelsea way. Is a series even a series without the Jamie Laing balcony entrance scene?
• Life Lesson #3: Never date a Stevie. Somehow, the biggest player this series was (don't laugh) not Spencer, but Stevie. Nice guy who plays it sweet whilst telling another girl he doesn't like you? Next!
• Life Lesson #4: Never date an Alex, either. I may as well finish the list. Never date a Jamie, never date a Sam and absolutely never date a Spencer. You can Google the cast if you want an extended list of who to not date.
• Life Lesson #5: Rosie Fortescue your way out of every uncomfortable situation by comparing them to board games. 

Side note: Made in Chelsea is not as good without Andy Jordan's gorgeous face and gorgeous accent and general yumminess. Excuse me whilst I go perfect my elongated vowel sounds and fan myself with £10 notes whilst quoting Oscar Wilde until the next series rolls around to show me how to be a real Brit. 

Love From Storm x

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The Everyday Social Acceptance of Sexual Abuse

Image source: Tumblr

As the media goes, social issues are always cropping up on our TV and computer screens; social injustices usually marking a few of those stories. Lately, I've noticed a lot of these issues have been based around a topic that effects most, if not all, of us at some point or another and is deeply embedded into our culture as an acceptable norm - the sexual degradation of women. 

It caught my attention initially with the leak of celebrity nude photographs early this month and I was appalled at the reaction I witnessed from a lot of people online - the most predictable came in the form of "if you don't want people to see you naked, don't take photos of yourself naked." So, with this rationale in mind, I suppose we should all give up all of our possessions because we don't want to be robbed. Don't want to be killed? Well, it's your own problem for being alive in the first place. 

The most rare of these comments expressed a genuine concern for the fact that people are having their private photographs illegally stolen, shared and publicised despite the fact that they are human beings who have every right to their own sexual autonomy and the ability to share their bodies with whoever they choose. It is not our responsibility to take that right away from them, and if Playboy can recognise this - "Jennifer Lawrence does not exist to fulfill my masturbatory fantasies. Jennifer Lawrence is not a thing to be passed around like a joint at a party. Jennifer Lawrence is a human being. And she’s not my property, and she’s not your property, and we all need to back off." - then so can we. Jennifer Lawrence - and all other celebrities victim to this leak - was a victim to sexual abuse, laid down bare and held still for the world to point and laugh, stand and discuss, pick out flaws and scoff in disgust at her behavior whilst they congratulated or actively ignored the ones holding her down. We are reveling in this fact; men hiding in their bedroom with her against her will, people huddling in groups and sharing the image of her with anybody who, God forbid, hasn't seen it yet. This is an invasion of privacy on a whole other level - her body belongs to her, and she can position it and photograph it and share with it whoever and however she pleases, and for that she owes us nothing. 

In a general sense, the everyday social acceptance of sexual abuse is so embedded into our culture that sometimes it's hard to recognise. More than likely, we've all witnessed rape or female rights being turned into a joke, no matter how small we may regard that - how many times do we hear a joke made out of dropping the soap? Frankly, I'm tired of hearing my friends come to meet me telling me about the man who decided to take it upon himself to touch her when she walked past, calling her a "slut" or a "bitch" if she doesn't wallow in gratitude for having the gift of his unwanted paw on her body. I'm tired of having to analyse the male gaze theory because it's still so visibly existent. One more thing I'm tired of: women being raped and downtrodden for not keeping her mouth shut about it.

Columbia university student Emma Sulkowicz is in the public eye at the moment for her visual arts project: she's carrying around the mattress that her alleged rapist raped her on in her dorm room. She has said that she will be continuing this thesis until he leaves the university, either by will or university action. This project blends activism with personal expression and through exposure, has quickly become a political statement. With politics, comes criticism. The word "alleged" screams out at you. "Alleged rapist" is focused on a lot. Two other students claim to have been raped by the same student but all accounts have been denied and he continues to attend Columbia. Let's re-visit the definition of the word "alleged": "unproven". A lot of people have decided to take this as a reason to decide that Sulkowicz is a "liar" - the fact of it is, alleged rapes occur. Not every alleged rape is a lie. The statistics for rape are way out of proportion to what they should be if all rapes were reported, if all rapes were easy to prove, if people weren't put off by the invasive procedures, if they weren't manipulated by their rapist (around 90% of victims are raped by somebody they know) - and central to this issue, if women weren't demonized for speaking out about their rape.

• "I was raped in my dorm room. No you weren't, bitch.  Everyone should take a good and long look at this video. This creature, annoying as she is, does not seem exactly like a monster. But she has the power to ruin your life forever by deciding that you "raped" her... This stupid whore in all her infinite emptiness and banality has been given the power to ruin your life."

• "I think she is using rape hysteria to stalk this guy."

• "I wouldn't even hate fuck this bitch. She disgusts me. She deserves to be punished."

• "Haha unbelievable. If I was the accused 'rapist', every time I saw her I would ask if she wanted to bang for the 'thesis' that I'm writing"

• "Attention-whore"

Emma's work speaks out to victims of rape; it is a symbolic and powerful piece that represents the emotional and psychological impact caused by carrying around the weight of experiencing rape. It draws attention to the issue, and for this she has received comments that have not only been derogatory towards her, but towards women in general, and the issue of rape itself. If you ask me, it's about time we stop teaching women that they have something to be ashamed of just by existing. It's about time we stop teaching that a woman's form is something to be begged for and thrown aside when received. It's about time that we accept that it's okay to be a woman - you don't owe your body to anybody, and you certainly don't owe an explanation for being proud and knowing that it belongs to you, and only you.

Love From Storm x

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Confessions of a Perfectionist

Alternative title: "Four Hours is Definitely Enough Sleep" And Other Lies I Tell Myself. My perfectionist streak is becoming a problem; a problem which leads me to irritate myself more than I could ever irritate anybody else (unless you're my mum, and have to hear my choruses of "I have to do [insert laborious task at ungodly hour] but I'm so tired. but I must.") 

I'm mainly noticing the issue due to the four months of free time that have landed in my lap between college and university in October. I am not the kind of person who can take their free time and let it be free time, to the point where I make lists upon lists of things that I have to achieve before I get to uni. In fact, I have my list right here with me now. Example A: finish my novel. Example B: memorise Lord Byron's She Walks in Beauty. (But why?)

Here are a few lies I tell myself to convince myself that this is totally rational behaviour: 

Lie #1 If I don't do it now it will never get done. And I mean right now even if it's 4AM.

Lie #2 I cannot ask for help unless I'm in a fundamental crisis. The student in me raises her hand: Guilty as charged. I'm not sure what it is, but I'm the type of person who doesn't stop until I'm laying on the floor weeping from exhaustion. Coursework due in a month? Why, I'll do it all tonight, of course. 

Lie #3 I need to control this situation. This is more of an educational issue than a personal one. This is why I can't work in  groups; I will not sacrifice that pen unless you threaten me with violence. The only reason I can think of for this is that part of me dies when the handwriting is all different on the page... Cue deep sigh. 

Lie #4 If I eat unhealthy meals for a day my whole body will collapse into a pile of calories. I'm not in any way obsessed with my weight or the meals I eat, but since I've started eating and living healthier I feel guilty for at least five minutes after eating a pizza.

Lie #5 If I ignore the problem, it will go away. I'm either sitting on one side of the scales or another: if a problem arises, I'll run at it face first before it can blossom into something bigger, or I'll hide away from it until it goes away. This tends to apply to littler things, such as me avoiding editing the first half of my book for a month because I didn't want to look at it in case it was so bad that it broke my will to ever write again. On the other end of the spectrum, I'll get a headache and Google my symptoms until I'm absolutely certain I have ten different fatal diseases.

Noted: possible hypochondria, possible OCD and possible overuse of hyperbole and melodrama. Swinging back to my January post when I swore that my New Years Resolution would spring up when I found something more important than thou shalt not shop so much; I'm making it a goal to not be so hard on myself. It's only a pizza, after all.

Love From Storm x

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Skincare Routine | Organic Surge

One of the things I've struggled the most with over the years is how to handle my sensitive skin, which is prone to breaking out in every rash/red blotchy nightmare known to man whenever it's approached by a product it doesn't like very much. BUT since finding Organic Surge a few months back, I haven't had a problem with finding anything that suits my skin nicely. You may have already seen me raving about this brand in the past, since I'm obsessively loyal to it these days, but I haven't yet made a complete skincare routine post! Organic Surge is (hence the name) totally organic and great for all skin types, and I can't see myself using anything else any time in the near future! At the moment I'm using Organic Surge Gentle Cleansing Lotion, Daily Care Face Wash, First Class Face Mask once a week, Skin Perfecting Face Polish once a week, Eye Gel, Blissful Daily Moisturiser, and Night Time Sensation Cream. All have contributed  towards clearing my skin up loads and I have nowhere near the amount of break outs as I used to. They're all really gentle, make skin baby smooth and are rich without being too thick. Plus the eye gel has done wonders for toning down panda eyes! Love, love, love. 

Love From Storm x

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How To: D.I.Y Shabby Chic Frames

A small fact: Ikea can do dangerous things to me. 
In this incidence, these dangerous things come in the form of two photo frames; two pieces of paper and three lipsticks. Sounds bizarre, but all will be revealed. 
I've recently acquired a love for shabby chic and developed an impulsive urge to keep my bedroom looking as pink as possible, but I have tried very hard to keep the costs down to a minimum to keep room for my lipstick hoarding habit! 

 What you will need: 
- a piece of plain A4 card
- 2+ lipsticks in similar shades
- a white vintage-looking frame

It may feel a little odd as you're swiping a million layers of lipstick over your chops and then snogging a piece of paper, but it looks pretty and saves money! I bought my frames from Ikea for £5 each and used MAC Pink Nouveau, MAC Creme Cup and Kate Moss Shade 101 and kept the snogging to a minimum to avoid it looking messy.
Happy D.I.Y-ing! 

Love From Storm x

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What Makes us Mad About The Band?

The 2nd of March was a Sunday and a rainy one at that. The BBC's weather prediction had it spot on: heavy showers, dark clouds and a shield of umbrellas arching over a three-street long queue. Outside Birmingham's HMV Institute, hysteria was already on the verge of breaking out as every few steps towards the entrance transformed into a oestrogen motivated race. No lights, crumbling concrete and a ribbon of litter stretching down the street, but nobody was deterred, despite the overarching health and safety issues cropping up here and there - at one point, I was sure I walked through somebody's bedroom set up right there on the street. Regular enthusiastic repetitious chants of 5 Seconds of Summer's songs erupted throughout the  long and gloomy wait in the miserable rain and having arrived an accidental three hours early, I wondered what it was that gave these girls an unwavering loyalty to their vocal chords.

Weekly Wishlist | Boudoir

1. IKEA Audrey Hepburn Canvas

2. Summer Scoop Yankee Candle

3. Shabby Chic Pink Owl

4. IKEA Emelina Knopp Bedding

5. IKEA Faux Sheepskin Rug

6. IKEA Skurar Plant Pot

7. IKEA Skurar Candle Dish

Love From Storm x

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Bath Time Favourites

 

The common cold strikes again, which leaves me with little joy this week aside from a daily soak in the bath. That might sound a little tragic in writing, but who can blame a girl when she has had seven days accustomed to a routine of waking up, self pitying, drinking copious amounts of Lemsip and repeating? With that in mind, I stashed together my favourite bath time products! These are, in my opinion, the be all and end all of bath time.

• Somehow along the way I acquired an uncontrollable obsession with Lush bath bombs. After trying a few out and Instagram-ing my life away with each, I found my favourite in the form of Sex Bomb which turns the water pink and leaves petals in it. Who needs Valentines day? 

•  Soap and Glory's Breakfast Scrub has been a long favourite of mine and I've had to keep re-buying and re-buying just in case (God forbid) there happens to be some sort of exfoliation drought in the United Kingdom.

Beauty is Barmy

Image Credit: Natalya Lobanova

"Beauty: slightly mutilating the natural state of your body in order to be deemed socially acceptable."
After a long and aimless scroll down my Tumblr dashboard of designer dreams and cheekbones of steel, I came across this quote. At first, I didn't think a lot of it and put it down as another in-depth outlook on the alternative view of life that most Tumblrians are avid to put forward, but then it got me thinking about the methods we take to, as the saying goes, be "socially acceptable" where our looks are concerned. 
I got talking to a few of my friends about the crazy things we've done over the years to fit in with what we think we ought to look like. In my case, discovering the joys of rock culture at the tender age of fourteen and hiding in the bathroom whilst I cut choppy layers into my long, blonde hair to apparently reach the trend of the mullet, styled by a rabid animal. Things have moved on since the Year of the Punk for me, and along with this process has come a few more confusing and well, bizarre habits. 
A few of my friends (who I will spare the mortification of naming) have revealed an ardent habit for shaving their fingers and toes, whilst others settle for a hair mask of mayonnaise. I remember back in school, a girl in my class boasted of her toothpaste face masks, and apparently not much has changed since I know plenty of us who sleep with a Sudocrem smeared face. It all seems normal to us until we take a step back and wonder why we really put all of the effort into these barmy DIY efforts to transform overnight into a glowing goddess worthy of envy from the likes of the Victoria's Secret Angels. In-flight routines; baking in the sun and damaging our skin cells in the name of beauty and a "healthy" glow; coating our lashes in Vaseline in the hopes of waking up with eyelashes three miles long. 
All of the beauty golden rules we abide by over the years have settled down into a select few life-savers which we know works for us probably a lot better than Colgate skin to warn off the acne (and possibly all other forms of life). Since I've put behind me the days of deciding that I'm a professional hair stylist (my experience is limited to a traumatic Barbie doll experience), I have also given up along the way on the one of the holy grail of beauty techniques: I will never be able to drink eight glasses of water a day to keep my skin glowing in exchange for 65 trips to the loo per hour. On top of that, Lauren Conrad's Beauty book informs me that I should never, ever under any circumstances pop a zit, but trust me, if I was coming face-to-face with Harry Styles, there is no chance I would be doing so with a pulsating spot in the centre of my face. And ten hours sleep? Sometimes that isn't even an option.
Whilst it is important that we keep our health in check and look after ourselves, why do we put so much pressure on ourselves to be perfect and improve the way we look? Rather than preaching the new ways to transform into Miranda Kerr, I think it's about time the media tells us how much we should learn to love ourselves and embrace what is already perfect about us: individuality. Don't worry if you forgot to pluck your eyebrows for one day; don't stress about forgetting to apply your eyeliner. Amongst every girl's unconditional love for lipstick, don't forget to find unconditional love for the most important thing first: yourself.

Love From Storm x

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Weekly Wishlist | Prima Ballerina

 1. M.A.C Studio Sculpt Foundation - Everybody knows that one girl with the most flawless skin in any weather condition and any time of morning. For me, that girl is in my sociology class at college, and after violently demanding to know (overstatement; asking was the preferred option) which foundation she used a few months back, she revealed to me that it was Mac's Studio Sculpt. Needless to say, I haven't forgotten since. £25

2.  M.A.C nail varnish in Snob £11

3. M.A.C Lipstick in Snob £15

4.  Eyelure Girls Aloud Nicola Lashes £5.11

5. Tchaikovsky Swan Lake Royal Swedish Ballet £8 - I just die whenever I watch Swan Lake. It's beautiful.

6. Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov £5

New Years Resolutions? Nah | Month in Pictures December 2013

"How fast has this year gone?"

"January already?"

"This year is going to be my year." 

The first day of 2014, and all of us have heard these questions possibly over ten times in the past twenty-four hours. Myself, I'm undecided about whether time is going faster or whether I'm just oversleeping too often. Whilst I try to figure out what kind of message the universe is trying to send me, it has come to my attention that this year is going to be pretty huge. I'm turning eighteen, starting university and growing into my big girl shoes. All of this reflecting and setting new years resolutions has gotten me into the thinking game, and I've decided that for once I'm not going to set myself a resolution, because with such a busy year ahead of me I wouldn't know where to start. It got me thinking, do we ever follow these rules that we set ourselves on the 1st January every year? If I decide I want to become prima ballerina in August, that will be my goal; if I dedicate myself to finding my Buddhist pathway by April or become a body-builder in September, I won't be thinking too hard about the 'stop eating chocolate' rule that I almost applied this month. Are our vows to get toned abs, stop swearing and become fluent in eight new languages all just excuses to compensate for what we've been lacking in the past twelve months? For me, the answer is yes, which is why my only resolution this year is to be the best 2014 version of myself that I can be, because well, there are only so many years of 'thou shalt not over-spend' that I can take. 

Hope you had a wonderful New Year,

Love From Storm x

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Blogmas: Lush | Snow Fairy and Santa's Lip Scrub

Once upon a time, the brains behind Lush took a trip to the North Pole, their heads bloated with visions of winter-worthy products enough to strike envy in the heart of Mrs Claus herself. Around Miss Lush, the North Pole was alight with the glow of Christmas lights in red, green and gold, flickering through the misty haze of winter's white sky where Santa's four-legged friends glimmered in a cosmic dance amongst the stars of Christmas Eve night. 
Dithering, Miss Lush shrugged her faux fur closer around her icy frame and allowed her gaze to drift to the towering, ice sculpture which glistened in the night. The Claus Castle.
Lush gasped. She had heard all about the castle, of course, but only in fairytales, books and films had she ever been graced with the sight of the silver building which reflected the light of the moon. Leaving a trail of footsteps in the snow, she found herself at the doorstep of the castle, knocking once. The door opened of its own will, revealing a vast space filled with presents wrapped in gold, silvers and reds. Elves danced around a sleigh, sprinkling their magic in streams of gold and dispersing with crimson cheeks at the sight of Lush's black cape blowing in the wind. Walking closer, she found herself amongst the creations of the elves, helplessly searching through the parcels until she found a special box, wrapped in sparkling pink and dazzling red. Upon the parcel, sat a note, in cursive letters which caused Lush to gasp in delight:
Dear Lush,
For Christmas you deserve Snow Fairy Shower Gel to leave you smelling of candyfloss and pear drops and Santa's Lip Scrub to soften and exfoliate your lips (he won't notice it's missing.)  
Merry Christmas,
Love Mrs Claus.

Love From Storm x

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theBalm 'Hot Mama' Blush: Swatch and Review

I've been on the hunt for a good blush for what seems an eternity, without burning a huge MAC shaped hole in my pocket in the process. Being the peachy blush enthusiast that I am, I was particularly drawn to Nars 'Orgasm' and MAC 'Peachykeen', and after endlessly strolling through blog reviews I found that theBalm 'Hot Mama' blush/eyeshadow was considered a close dupe, with quite a few people stating they prefer it quite considerably. At £12.50, this product was already less guilt inducing to treat myself to in comparison to Nars and MAC's hefty price tags, so I couldn't help but try it out. There's only so many times you can read the words 'holy grail' and not find yourself hitting the 'add to basket' button...

Our Moment | One Direction's Fragrance

And they're back again! With a never-ending range of products to rival the likes of your local IKEA, One Direction have officially launched their debut fragrance 'Our Moment', to add to their already overflowing sales CV including makeup; stationary; uh, cardboard cutouts and in true pop-star spirit, collection dolls.  

Being the 1D enthusiast that I am, I (shamelessly) jumped onto this band-wagon before I'd even checked what it smelled like. Having gotten a bit carried away by their pretty little faces on the box, I'm relived that it actually smells nice! 

You know the drill, a celebrity will release a perfume under their name and it doesn't really matter if it smells any good, because they will sell millions of bottles anyway (I'm looking at you, Justin Bieber.)

Eye Spy | Holiday Edition

It's that time of year again. You've planned it for months in advance; perfected the sit-and-zip suitcase method; matched all of your bikinis with a pair of sandals and wailed Cliff Richard's 'Summer Holiday' the entire way to the airport. We've all been there, every year is the same old malarky which leads up to the week of sizzling in the sun to cure all of our jet-lag related worries. I've recently just returned from a week in Portugal, and I met a (slightly sunburned) Irish lady who nailed it in a sentence: "It's like being a celebrity for a week or two." Or twelve, if you consider her marvelous tan. 

But despite our love for travel and treats, take away the burning ball of fire, the crushed up rock and the slurring accents which make you weak at the knees and we're left with an awfully familiar game of Where's Wally. There's always that one person who turns up on your every holiday. They may have changed their name, hairstyle and nationality but they're there. Sometimes there's even multiple of them. And they're in an airport near you. 

The Thompson Airways Glamour Girl - As the saying goes, the holiday starts in the airport. We all know her; strutting her stuff (with a slight limp) down the runway/toilet queues with the highest heels known to mankind. We couldn't wear them on a night out, but that girl owns them even on the go. A face full of makeup and the occasional trip over her own suitcase, and the package is complete. For me, I think flats are my go-to companion, but you have to admire her almighty balance skills.

Week in Pictures | Come Fly With Me...

I'm back.
The mere two words send me into suppressing many heavy sighs. I'm back. Back in England. Better yet*, back in the rain.
*It's absolutely not better at all.
After a sunny week in the city of Albufeira, Portugal, I'm left feeling pretty defeated (and pale).  There's just something about coming back to reality which isn't nearly as elating as waking up to the view of the crystal blue ocean and bright red men in Speedo's sunning themselves beside the pool - really, you learn to appreciate it given the circumstances. 

Taming the Talons | Shellac Manicure

Give a girl a good manicure and she can rule the world. That's the saying, right? 

I've heard really good things about Shellac manicures since they cropped up in salons everywhere, but I'd never got around to trying one out myself until today when my lovely jubbly step-mom (I promise she didn't pay me to say that) paid for myself and my step sisters to have one done. I don't have amazing nails, and I always have trouble growing them due to my awful biting habit, but £15 later and voila! Pretty pink nails. Shellac truly is the Superwoman of all polishes.

If you fancy a Shellac manicure, you can get one done at most salons. They promise two weeks of wear without a chip or a scratch, and your nails will stay beautifully shiny every single day! Not to mention the fact that they dry immediately. No sitting for half an hour blowing on your finger tips, just instant prettiness! What's not to love?

 

The application is so easy - it starts with a Shellac Base Coat, providing the foundation for the Shellac Colour Coat, followed by the Shellac Top Coat which seals the deal with the silky smooth mirror-like effect which lasts forever. Or near enough that length of time. A UV lamp is used to dry and set the layers of polish and to create the chip-resistant, smudge-free finish. You can choose from a wide range of colours, and all of them look as lovely. 

The application time is only 30 minutes, and the drying time is zero! Whoever invented this needs a huge cuddle. You can either get your polish filed off at a salon, or you can remove it yourself by soaking them in acetone and wrapping them in foil.

If you don't want to take a trip to the salon, you can buy the set yourself online or even on Ebay.

So far, I really love the results of Shellac. It is so shiny and pretty, and feels really smooth too. I'd definitely recommend it, now just to see how it lasts on my sunny week abroad! Hope you're all enjoying your week,

Let me know  what you think of Shellac below!
Storm x
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Liebster Award | I have been nominated!

Hello my lovelies! Hope you're enjoying your weekends so far.

Earlier on today, I was having a little catch up with all of my recent comments until I came across one from the lovely Becci at Princesses and Pink Champagne. I was delighted to see that Becci decided to choose me as one of the bloggers to nominate for the Liebster Award, as it's always a treat to see that somebody pays attention to and enjoys your posts. It put a big grin on my face! After five months of blogging, it's lovely to get some feedback from somebody in such a sweet way.

The Liebster Award is an award for bloggers with under 200 followers, allowing new and undiscovered blogs to get a little bit of limelight and a chance to meet new readers and other bloggers from around and about. Whoever came up with this idea needs a Nobel Prize Award or something along those lines.
So, here's the first set of rules you'll ever abide by:

• If nominated, you must answer 11 questions, set by the blogger who nominated you. 
• In turn, you must provide 11 new questions for your nominees to answer.
• You must link back to the person who nominated you.
• You must answer all 11 questions set by whoever nominated you.
• You must choose 11 bloggers to nominate, all with fewer than 200 followers.
• You must go to your nominee's blogs and notify them that you have nominated them

That being done on my part, I'll show you the questions Becci gave me, shall I?

Made in Chelsea: Life Lessons

Made in Chelsea continues to teach me valuable life lessons this series - lessons which should probably be placed onto the National Curriculum... Probably.
As the series draws to a close, my little heart breaks and I am left in a tears of sadness, joy and downright exhaustion. Now to either catch up on previous episodes or find things to do with my life other than lying in bed swooning over Proudlock... The ultimate dilemma. 
I have put together a little check list of five things that series 5 of MIC has taught me below. It was a serious decision making process.

5) The producers are still trying oh so hard to make Fran and Olivia happen 
Every time they come on the screen I do a little snore, and in collaboration with Pheobe they actually create Chelsea's answer to Mean Girls... Wait, which one's which again?  

4) They all have ridiculous nicknames, don't they really?
Binky was a cute nickname, let's face it. But I draw the line at Spenny. There is no way that I'm jumping on the Jamie Laing bangwagon of calling Proudlock 'Pruders'. NEXT. 

3) Ollie Locke is still a comedy genius
No awkward situation is an awkward situation without Ollie Locke and his awkward faces. That is all.

2) Louise is a bit of a tit
She seems to have evolved from "pushover Louise making feminists everywhere roll over in their grave" to "Louise who cheats on Andy Nostrils Jordan with NIALL FROM 1D" I can't entirely blame her since Niall just so happens to be fancied by the entire female (and probably male) population, but... Is she just permanently stupid? 

1) Producers have given up pretending every scene isn't a set up 
A lot has happened since the days of being convinced by the whole 'oh we just so happen to be in the same place at the same time, how funny' illusion. Those days are history.
Nowadays Ashley whines"He told me he was straight" after organising Ollie's DVD collection in alphabetical order (who does that?!) and finding gay porn. Which of course was BAFFLING for her.
Apparently Ashley doesn't have a TV since he came out bisexual on NATIONAL TELEVISION last year.
But then again, the couple must have been having a technological crisis together. In the wise words of Harry Styles, "Who still keeps that sort of thing on DVD?!" 
Thanks for the conclusion Harry, you pervy little tech savvy.

Now crack open the champers, practice your best Chelsea accent ("yah yah" is a personal favourite) and book yourself an overpriced hotel or something because the After Party is on tonight at 10pm on E4!

 Am I a TV presenter yet?

What did MIC teach you this series?

Storm x

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