This is me floating a new idea for the blog; Ever since I experienced the joys of a Saturday job (and consequently, disposable income for what feels like the first time in my life) many of the posts on here have been leaning towards hauls rather than the (questionable) nail art and looks this blog used to feature more heavily. The long and short of it is that I feel I should give products that I currently own some more love, as well as rushing to invest in the latest and greatest.

Combining this love (beauty/cosmetic blogging) with just one of my other great loves (science) led me to this, The Cosmetic Table of the Elements. At least wait for me to explain before you click that big red X button!
'Elements' refers to the individual items of makeup that I would wear to give a certain 'look', and the whole name is a play on the Periodic Table, obviously. Call it a Lenten challenge, but if it takes off and I collect enough of these 'sets' I would organise them into some sort of table so that if I were ever stuck for inspiration, I could go and have a look.

It'd run like so: I'd pick a theme, say, 'peachy keen sixth former', and come up with this:


 

This would include a short description of how they were applied, what inspired me to group that particular collection of products together etc.

At the end of the day, if I wanted a blog with no readers I'd be keeping a diary, which is why I'm asking you guys what you think? Good idea? Leave it? If you would prefer to comment anonymously, feel free! As ever, I don't mind :)

Do you see what I did there with the title? DO YOU SEE WHAT I DID THERE?

If not, you need to follow me on Twitter. @SeptemberLena

So today is (just about) the first of September, 2011. All through the summer, even though I've had awesome nail polishes to wear, my peeling, soft, and weak nails are continually spoiling the fun. I refuse to take any more of this.

Behold:



For the month of September (all 30 days of it) I will religiously apply these two products. Every. single. day. The short, slightly ominious looking blue one says to only apply two/three times a week, but I'm living on the edge. Every day. Under polish, most likely. Lol. Old habits die hard etc etc.

It'll be my first experience with Mavala...aside from a nail varnish drying spray and a set of nail files, I haven't really experimented much with them, and especially not with their new, revamped image. I'm hoping this nail serum and hardener set will help my nails. That and obviously eating healthier but that's so much effort, yano?

Also, seeing as it's the whole 'going back to school' period of time, I was floating the idea of starting a fashion/outfit blog, to blog the outfits I wear to sixth form (no more uniform. SCORE.) Would that be something anyone is interested in? *is nervous*

Anyone else making 'resolutions' this September? I have an excuse, you see. It's the start of the school year!

Finally going to post about my mahoosive haul, lol. Kick starting off my "Week of Sleek" (or "Sleek Week", that works as well) with something I've been wanting for a long time - the Contour Kit.

 

So the contour kit comes in three colours - light, medium, and dark. I got the dark one and I feel like it's a pretty decent contour for my skin. What I like about the kit is that it comes with instructions on the box and a diagram in the form of a leaflet inside, which is great for clueless people such as myself who are desperate for some semblance of cheekbones from a box (too lazy to work out and obtain them for real, lol) but don't know where to begin.


I think you can also use this to slim down your nose and other things, but I don't need to do that so just applied some contour powder just under where I'd usually put my blush, and blended upwards slightly. Then I applied my blush, and finally the highlighter. I was pretty pleased with the result! I think I may need to play around with my positioning a bit more but for a first attempt, it was alright. You could probably wear this as a straight bronzer too, instead of blush - something I'm going to try. Incidentally, I have a bit of a bronzer horror story for you. Last day of term at school, we're hanging around in the canteen waiting for the bus when one of my friends says, "Did you see Beth in Year Ten today?" I was like, "No. Why?"
"She had two massive smears of ultra shimmery bronzer on her cheeks and she's not even tanned yet so it was just this ridiculous contrast and she looked dumb as hell."
Haha. Year Tens are snotty little poos. Worst year group. No fashion sense and they all have the same hair (backcombed to death, naturally) and the same colour, which changes every season (or according to the colour Rihanna has gone for that month) right now it's that really unoriginal red colour, which is totally wrong on 90% of them.

Wow, that was a tangent and a half. Anyway, I quite like this product :P

Yes, you heard me. A post. About feet. Feet haters, kindly look away now :P

So my feet have been increasingly neglected since...well. Last summer? Not a pretty sight.

Just to reiterate:

Yeah. Gross. Feel free to "ew". I "ew"ed. Multiple times.

Anyway, so I was sitting there doing French revision, and I thought, "Why not spice this up a bit? Have some fun while you're trying to remember how to conjugate verbs ending in 'er'" So I went to the bathroom and got myself a bucket, and basically did a makeshift pedicure. All sorts of nastiness went down (consider, this is after I've done D of E, as well. You can imagine) but yeah, I had a nice soak while I was doing my French. And the result?

BOOM. Ready for the summer. Or for Holy Thursday/Good Friday (wow, I'm a bad Catholic. Can't actually remember which day it is that the Priest washes the feet of selected parishoners.) foot washing. My Mum volunteered last year and she has lovely feet, and had her toes painted with a blue Nails Inc polish, I think. (Again: I can remember what polish my Mum had on, but not a vital part of Catholic doctrine? Niiice.)

I don't actually own any shoes which show off my toes, but we do go barefoot for Karate, so at least I'll be able to see them, newly preened and polished, once a week. Woo.

If you've made it to the end of this post, I'm guessing you don't mind/aren't icked out by the average foot. Know anyone that is? I know plenty, lol...

EDIT: If you made it this far, would you mind popping over here and helping me out? Thanks :)

My vaguely metal inspired attempt at layering stamps manicure, for your viewing horror pleasure:

I do think it looked more passable in real life. Macro exposes the hideous uneveness of the white "cog" stamps. They're jumping around all over my nails!

The title has a little double meaning, actually. Why didn't any of you nice, grown up bloggers tell me that GCSEs were so heniously coursework filled? It's so haaaard. *selfish whine*
Any fellow Year Eleven students out there care to comiserate?



 I'm also saddened to hear that some of my favourite bloggers are having troubles, as well. I've posted before about The Gloss Goss and also Scandalously Polished is going on hiatus, which is a big shame. I can totally understand why Ange is doing it, I just feel bad that some people have pushed her to that. Which reminds me, I still haven't announced the winner of my Bella Sugar giveaway. I'll get on it, promise.

What's up with this world lately? Those two aren't the only ones, I'm thinking of more who have been recieving nasty commnents, abuse and the like and who have gone on hiatus because of it but they're less beauty and more alternative Japanese fashions so I thought there was no point mentioning them :/ I'm glad I have a lovely group of followers who comment on my mindless keymash. <3 Thanks guys!