American Flag V's Union Jack

Keeping in line with my patriotic nail post I thought I'd do a versus post on the American Flag and Union Jack trend that is dominating our high streets at the moment.

The American flag has slowly dominated our high streets from things like the very famous Topshop denim shorts to tee shirts and even Jeff Campbell Lita boots. Being from across the pond I have slowly embraced this trend in the form of vintage looking tee shirts but haven't been brave enough to venture into anything more out there.

With us Brit's not liking to be kept in the shadows the Union Jack started to appear slowly on our high streets, on items like shorts, tee's and even a pair of Lita's. Now I can honestly say I dont own anything with the Union Jack on (or at least I cant think of anything) but after scouting online I have found a 101 things that I need in my life, starting off with the denim shorts with the union jack on the pockets sneaking out of the hem of the shorts.

This trend is around to stay, especially as demand is bigger than ever as everyone wants to show there support to Team GB in the Olympics and what better way to do it that a Union Jack Tee shirt?? 

 So the question I'm dying to ask ... 

 Which do you prefer, Union Jack or American Flag??

Cuticle Saviour . . .

 China Glaze Holiday Berry Cuticle Oil

For as long as I can remember I've always had atrocious cuticles. I was forever getting hangnails and lots of dry skin around my nails. It didn't matter how much moisturiser or hand cream I used nothing would shift my dry hideous cuticles. Now I've tried all the usual cuticles creams and oils but nothing seemed to work. When I thought all hope was lost I was sorting out my nail polish collection (something I need to do more often) I found this stuck at the bottom hidden by polishes I never wear.

 Now like all other cuticle creams/oils I've tried I smothered it around each nail and then gently rubbed in it to the stubborn hangnails. I suspected that with it being an oil it would be very greasy but I was quickly mistaken. It penetrates deeply and quickly and softened my cuticles almost instantly. I was impressed. China Glaze also states that it can help increase flexibility and strength in natural nails. I'll report back if I see my nails getting stronger. It contains a blend of five nourishing oils and has a berry, cinnamon and woodsy type of scent, it actually reminds me of Christmas, perfect considering it was part of the holiday collection 2011.

I think I may have found my HG cuticle product, shame it was limited edition but once its coming to the end of its life I'll have to start looking at other China Glaze Cuticle oils!

Does anyone else have any trouble with their cuticles? Whats your HG cuticle product?

The Smell of Summer

Hollister Body Mist £12 each or 3 for £24

Laguna Beach
Conditions and cools with aloe vera. Peach, freesia and coconut milk combine to create a bright refreshing scent.
Crescent Bay

Conditions and cools with aloe vera. Juicy Watermelon and California poppy come together to create a brilliant, playful scent.
Crystal Cove

Conditions and cools with aloe vera. Kiwi and wild strawberry combine to create a soft, sunny scent.

Well to me these are the typical smell of summer. There both girlie and sweet smelling. A few spritz and your ready to go. These are perfect for summer when sometimes a perfume can be that little bit to heavy. There not the longest lasting body spray but easily last 3/4 hours before you feel the need to spritz again. The packaging is like any other body mist out there but the labels feel alot more expensive than your average body spray, there textured in a way. I also like that each flower on the bottles matches the colour of the spray itself.

Looking on the Hollister website and Crystal Cove doesn't seem to be on there any more. There is however 3 more scents available, Malibu Beach, Solana Beach and Silver Strand Beach, I'll be making sure I have a good nosy of these next time I'm in the Hollister shop and maybe sneakily add them to my basket.

Whats your favourite Body Mist? Any other brands worth checking out?

Under Construction ...

I've got over 12 posts all ready and sat in drafts waiting to be posted but I want to update my blog first, everything from the header, side headers and colours!! The thing is I haven't a clue what I want, do I want 2 or 3 columns, headers over each section to match the header, the only thing I know is that I want it simple, clean and girlie!

At the moment two blogs I think have perfect layouts are vipxo and belles-boutique ... I think vipxo's layout is really unique and it's rememberable whilst belles-boutique is clean, simple and girlie! 

At the moment I've got custom fonts on my post headers all with little icons at the end like hearts, flowers and stars etc, these are done using different punctuation marks (# $ =) what I'm thinking is if I remove the custom font html headers alot of my titles will be like this 'Patriotic Nails =' but that will only be older posts ... See my dilemma???

The boy has offered to help with my icons etc on paint shop pro but it's hard to tell him what I want when I really don't know myself!!!!

So basically I'm just doing a quick update post to let you know I'm still about but looking to post when all my update has been finished which I'm aiming to do by weekend!!! 

Patriotic Nails

China Glaze Poinsettia

OPI Alpine Snow

Barry M Cyan

Nail ease wraps Union Jack*

It seems like the whole country is going Olympic crazy and I am proud to say Im not different to everyone else! When watching the women's swimming I had some serious nail envy as as you've all probably noticed they all had nail art matching there countries colours! Of course I had to jump on this bandwagon.

I've decided on red white & blue alternating and then the nailease wrap on my ring finger. I've used nail wraps before but not in a long time and you had to heat them up with the hair dryer, these one's are the easiest one's I've used, you literally peel stick file and boom they look perfect!!  I've only had these wraps on for just over a day and they are starting to get slight tip wear but I think that may be because I haven't filed them so they meet my actual nail, I was scared of filing my actual nails any shorter. I've had two showers and washed the dishes and they haven't started coming away which I did expect, but overall Im pleased.

How have you shown your support for team GB during the Olympics? Painted nails? Flags? Or lots of supportive tweets?