How I do my nails ★ ☆

I quite often post pictures here of my nails with patterns/gems all over them, so I thought I'd show you guys how I do them myself (I've never had a manicure in my life).

I recommend No7 nail polishes from Boots if you can get hold of the £5 off No7 vouchers they are only £1.50 each, hence I have quite a lot as I keep being given vouchers by people who don't use them! Also of course Barry M for the sheer range of colour.

I also have a Konad starter set, I did a post on how to use Konad nail art nearly a year ago here. However it takes a lot of practise to get stamping the designs onto your nails right, and your creativity is limited to how many design plates you have, and the plates can be expensive to buy.

My nails using Konad stamps, looks a lot neater when done properly than drawing your designs on :3

The way I do my nails now is with these pen polishes I bought off Ebay here. They are such a good investment! They are £7.50 for 12 nail polishes, which double as a pen and a brush. The seller is in the UK but as far as I can tell the nail polishes are Korean from the characters on the bottom of each bottle. I was slightly wary they would dry up and the pen function wouldn't work due to the cheap price, but stuck to the bottom of each polish is a tiny sliver of metal which you can insert into the pen nib to unblock it if it ever does block. Then you can simply draw on any design you want!

I also use the white pen polish for instantly drawing on French manicure tips rather than having use guideline stickers from a set.

Other accessories I use are fimo clay canes and little diamantes which I also use for decoden:

Both are off Ebay here and here.

So in summary if you love doing your nails I really recommend buying some pen nail polishes ^ ^

xx

WAW : 4

I've finally broken up for half term! My brother who normally takes outfit photos for me is in Barcelona (lucky bastard) so unfortunately I only have one outfit photo I made him take before he left.


 

As we had a half day on Friday, I went shopping with friends and although I had promised myself I wouldn't spend anything and save for my gap year instead, I seem to have blown all my money today. First we went and bought delicieusement paninis..

(heart is due to nose spreadage caused by my evident excitement of it being lunch time)

Then to Paperchase, which is a killer because they have a new pattern in their stationery range which is so adorable, its a miracle I only spent a fiver in there! I bought some kawaii stickers and hair clips.

I also did some educational reading in Waterstones...

Then in HMV there was a huge Hello Kitty poster thingy for a tenner which couldn't just be left there all lonesome!! I got a ton of weird looks walking through town with it as they didn't have a bag big enough for it, so I had to endure peoples expressions of confusion on the bus with it propped up against me :P

Hello Kitty is everywhere though, next I went to Boots and there is a whole section of Hello Kitty hair clips and ties, if I am in horrible debt soon it will be because of Hello Kitty!

I also deco'd the backing of my friend's phone for her, which people in my form at school were saying 'how did you do that' and one of the students from Hong Kong said 'oh its sort of Japanese'. I was really suprised that someone else who hadn't been pleaded offered by me to deco something or theirs knew about decoden or at least the intricate art of sticking shiny things on to one's personal possessions originated in Japan, but I suppose Hong Kong gets a lot of Japanese pop culture exported there. Actually, to cut a ramble short I think I'm going to do a whole post on J-pop culture influence on England.

And talking of kitties, last week we had some new additions to the household:

The black kitten is called Noodle, and the Tabby one Zaza. I did argue for names like Momo, Mitsu, Fua, Momiji, Sushi, Ichigo..at least my suggestion of Noodle got through! Sorry I don't have better photos of them yet, Zaza blinks when the flash goes off an looks evil, and whenever I produce my camera they attack the wrist cord hanging off it ^ ^

Will be trying to do some posts which aren't week summaries now I have a week off! Thanks for the comments on the last post btw, some were very sweet :3

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xx

WAW : 3

I've decided to change my blog series from 'what I wore' to 'what a week'. I don't have a refined enough personal style to give you guys an interesting outfit every day, because most days I feel so blah I just throw on jeans and a hoodie so I'll just give you guys an outfit (or two) highlight and an update on my week!

I'm planning posts ahead now as I'm finding it quite depressing that my blog has been going for over a year and it isn't doing as well as people who have had their blogs up for a lot less time than mine. I'm going to work on quantity over quality, I want Sequins&Beads to become one of those blogs where you feel excited to read their latest post when you see they updated in your blog roll...well maybe its just me who gets excited when my fav bloggers post ^ ^

I really need to straighten my hair more often, look at how scraggly it looks above, and now look at the difference below! I think the flash helps but compared to the above my hair looks like something out of a pantene advert XD

It is now that time of year in England where one minute you are on the brink of frostbite and the next minute you could go out in a t-shirt (although that is rare). I wore my navy knee highs to school for only the second time ever and I don't mean to exaggerate but I nearly DIED my thighs were so cold!! And that was with flesh coloured tights, cycling shorts and knickers underneath! The pervy looks you get from builders are also a minus with knee highs but I still like 'em.

I found all these old scarves of my Granny's that I saved before she took them to a carboot and I hadn't found a use for them yet, so I tried wearing them in my hair a couple of times this week:

I also did a little deco on my glasses case and purse, inspired by Sailor Mercury's lacey glasses case in the live action version of Sailor Moon, and spent the whole of Thursday evening sticking posters/pictures all over my wall - its so nearly finished, then I will do a room tour on the blog!

 I've been watching a ton of Merlin recently, the acting and the jokes and the cgi is bad but some reason I find it hilarious, especially the episode where a goblin gives everyone at court flatulence. Plus it helps that the guy who plays Arthur takes his top off every episode.

I'm really stressed about applying to university, etc. I thought I was going to apply on my gap year but now uni fees are going to be double I feel like maybe I should apply now. Plus people in my year at sixth form are starting to get their first offers - eeek!

     I am becoming fast obssessed with Sailor Moon, where was I when this was on TV in the 90s? I remember Pokemon, Digimon and a little Yu-gi-oh but never any Sailor Moon. The live action version is brilliant, bad acting and terrible Monsters like old Doctor Who, except Dr Who has less short skirts. Unless there was an episode with David Tennant in a kilt which I hope I haven't missed.

     I went to choose two rescue kittens with my family today, we chose a tabby and a black kitten with a white face and paws. They're 3 months old  and at that adorable playful stage, expect cute photos!

  Lastly, look at this clip of Jeremy Kyle being hit in the head with an envelope by someone on his show...the person who threw it deserves a medal for serious frisbee skills and for just hitting Jeremy Kyle in general!

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xx

WIW: Week 2

Second week, of what I wore - I'm on a roll! Well technically I should have posted on Friday but I had friends over and I forgot to take photos of what I wore every day so I've just had to recreate each outfit and take photos again...

Monday

Tank ♥ Topshop ♥ Cardi ♥ ? ♥ Jeans ♥ Gap ♥ Boots ♥ Ebay

Tuesday

Jumper ♥ Zara ♥ Skirt ♥ American Apparel ♥ Tights ♥ Primark

I disliked this outfit by the time I got to school, I thought the tights were more of a teal colour but they're just a bright blue. I have to get up at 6am every day so the early hour is my excuse for crazy dressing

Wednesday

Tank ♥ Topshop ♥ Heart Locket ♥ Ebay ♥ Hair Bow ♥ Peacocks

Thursday

Dress ♥ Mum's 80s sundress with the hem taken up ♥ Cardi ♥ Topshop ♥ Flats ♥ New Look ♥ Belt ♥ New Look

Friday

Minidress ♥ Ebay ♥ Bandage skirt ♥ Topshop ♥ Lace cycling shorts ♥ Ebay ♥ Pink hair streak ♥ Ebay

I saw lace cycling shorts recommended on iheartvintagex and Flying Saucer so I bought some off Ebay, and they are so useful! Now I don't have to worry whether people can see my undercrackers when I walk up the stairs on the bus or bend over!

Some bonus pictures of my week:

Haha me shouting at my friend when I made her take outfit photos for me 'NO louise turn the camera to portrait!!!', I blacked out my friends face with the retouch tool on Picasa and now it looks creepy like that Doctor Who episode when people lose their faces..*shudder*

Also these were my nails on Friday but the pieces had all fallen off by the end of the day so I had to redo them and take a photo, they are tiny slices of polymer fruit canes I got off Ebay.

I'm writing up another scheduled post now - there WILL be one on Tuesday!

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xx

What I wore (WIW): Week 1

I finally got my act together to start doing this 'blog series'! I took a photo of my outfit every day after school this week and this is the result. I'm going to post this every Friday and then do another scheduled post for Tuesday to try and get a bit of regularity to my posting. My brother has now become my blog photographer (so much easier than using the self timer) and has taken up his new role with much gusto, including shouting at me 'strike a pose!' 'express yourself!', 'I love the artistic simplicity of this shot', 'no you did that pose last time!'; hence some of these pictures are a bit more *ahem* quirky?! With any luck all this photo taking will eventually turn my brother into the next Mario Testino.

Monday - Getsuyobi

T-shirt ♥ New Look ♥ Cardigan ♥ New Look ♥ Jeans ♥ Gap ♥ Brogues ♥ Miss Selfridge ♥ Hair Bow ♥ Peacocks

Tuesday - Kayobi

Tank ♥ Topshop ♥ Cardigan ♥ Zara ♥ Scarf ♥ Topshop ♥ Hair Bow ♥ Peacocks

Wednesday - Suiyobi

Top ♥ Ebay ♥ Cardigan ♥ Ebay ♥ Skirt ♥ Ebay ♥ Boots ♥ New Look

Thursday - Mokuyobi

Jumper ♥ New Look ♥ Boots ♥ New Look

Friday - Kinyobi

T-shirt ♥ Gift from some tourist place in NY ♥ Shirt ♥ Primark ♥ Skirt ♥ American Apparel ♥ Tights ♥ New Look

By the way its not blood on my wrist in the above photo, I had a slight red highlighter explosion in my Ancient History lesson today.

My nails were more simple this week, I just french manicure'd them and added some pastel rhinestones to snazz them up a bit.

I've just learnt how to say the days of the week in Japanese so I decided to test myself by writing them both in English and Japanese :3 Seeing what I've been wearing all week is inspiring as it makes me want to try and plan better outfits each day, and helps me define my personal style. I hope you all liked this post!

xx