DIY: Soap : I made my own soap! Easy tutorial in 8 steps.

I recently blogged about how to make your own soap and showed you some soapmaking kits I had come accross. well, I finally got around to actually using my kits. I made enough to fill all 3 soap moulds once. I took a few photos to show how I did it. For most of it, I used only the ingredients that came with each kit to give an idea of what results you can expect if you use the same kits. Here, I used the House of Crafts Handmade Soap Kit.

Step 1. Cut the soap into small cubes. It doesn't have to be exact, it just helps the soap to melt a bit faster. Estimate how much you will need to fill each mould and then add a tiny bit more (I ended up using roughly a quarter of the soap that came with the kit.)

Step 2. If you are going to heat it in a microwave, put it in a microwavable container. I used an Asda Smart Price jug, which only cost 35p! If you are using a saucepan, follow the instruction sheet for that method.

Step 3. Melt it! I put my soap in the microwave for 30 secs, gave it a gentle stir, then again for bursts of 15 seconds stirring inbetween each burst. You shouldn't heat it for more than 15 seconds at a time as you risk overheating your soap. Carry on until it is completely liquid.

Step 4. Use the pipette to get put some fragrance oil in your soap. I used about 14 small drops. If you use a different oil, please check that it is suitable for use on the body. Fragrance oils that you use in oil burners and candles are NOT suitable for use in soap.

Step 5. If you are adding any petals, seeds, colour or glitter (cosmetic grade) this is the time to do it. Mix it in gently. If you want each soap to look different, you can add petals or seeds to the mould and mix it after filling the mould.

If the soap sets before you have time to pour it, pop it back in the microwave for 15 seconds at a time until it is melted again. This is the beauty of working with melt and pour soap.

Step 6: Pour the soap into the mould. Cover it and leave on a flat surface until completely set. I left mine overnight before unmoulding. Notice how my soap has air bubbles? One way to get rid of this is to spray with rubbing alcohol. Unfortunately, this is not easy to get hold of in the UK. I think it adds character to the soap anyway but that is down to personal preference.

Step 7. When your soap is set, gently push it out of the mould. If it doesn't want to come out, pop it in the fridge for half an hour and try again. You should wrap the soap in cellophane or clingfilm as soon as possible.

Step 8. Run yourself a bath and enjoy your handmade soap!

Easy huh? Here are the all the soaps I made from the 3 kits I had:

I am really pleased with my results, especially for my first try. It was a lots of fun to do and I love how you can control everything that goes into them. Will you be trying this?

Adele Inspired Nails!

Well hello there! A couple of days ago I did a post on Adele's Grammy Awards style and those awesome nails she had. Well... now I have created my own version of them! I noticed a lot of people commenting on Adele's manicure elsewhere on the net, and they were saying how it must be so difficult to get the brush behind the nail to paint it.

The answer is simple. You don't have to! Well if you have short natural nails anyway that is. If you use fake nails, you can paint the back of the nail before you glue it on.
I used short, European, full coverage nails in a natural finish. Here is the finished look:

Please excuse the ill-fitting nails, and the fact that you can see my natural nails at the back. I glued them on with PVA glue just to take the photo then peeled them straight off. If I was actually going to wear these nails for longer than 5 mins, I would trim my natural nails back, file the false nails to a better shape and use proper nail glue!

This was quite simple to make.

1.  I used Catherine Arley Holographic Nail Polish in shade 667, I used 2 coats.
2. Then, I painted the back of the nail from the tip to just under halfway down in MUA shade 15 (the one from my secret valentine) I would advise using some of those white guide stickers if you have some. I couldn't find mine as you can see by the messy painting but you get the idea.  
3. Then, I added some holographic glitter from my nail art pen haul  to the front of the nail where the pink was showing through. 
4. Finally, I added some MUA clear polish (shade 17) on top of the glitter to make it extra sparkly. I didn't apply this to the whole nail as holographic polish is best left as it is. 

In this case, I wanted the pink to show through slightly at the front but if you didn't want this to happen, you would either use a completely opaque colour or paint the front of the nail white as a base. If you do acrylic or gel nails, you could just use coloured tips and then completely paint the front of the nail for the same effect.

. It is very difficult to photograph holo polishes / glitters so in real life this looks absolutely stunning and so sparkly, much better than in the photos. I hope you enjoyed this post, here is another photo to finish off with that really shows off the holographic polish as much as I could get it to:

When I come to actually wear these, I will probably do a follow-up.

DISCLAIMER: All products used here were bought by me :-) 

Technic Crackle Polish & my neon rainbow crackle nails!

So, today I bought a bottle of Technic Crackle Effect Top Coat in 21106 Black. It only cost £1.99 and I have never used crackle polish before, so I thought I'd give it a go.

First of all, I painted my nails the colour I wanted to show through the crackle polish. I only did one coat so if you wanted a more vibrant finish you could do more or use a white undercoat first. In this case, I chose a different colour for each nail using these polishes from my collection:

Once that had dried, it was time for the star of the show to make an appearance.

I applied one coat of Technic Crackle Polish onto my freshly painted nails, being careful to paint each area just once, no overlapping or this will ruin the effect! Then, the magic happened before my eyes as the black started to crack in a random pattern and reveal the colours underneath.
Once this had dried I noticed the black was looking a bit dull, and almost chalky but once I applied a thin layer or two of clear top coat (which you need to do anyway to keep the colour on your nails), it had a nice shiny wet look to it once again. This is what it looked like:

It was so quick and easy to apply and I am not skilled at all when it comes to nail art, plus my nails are really short so it proves that you can still have pretty nails whether they are long or short.

The only really tiny issue I can find is not in the product itself but in the instructions that come attached to the bottle. It doesn't mention that you should apply a top coat to finish your design. someone who didn't know you had to do this would be a bit disappointed and not understand why the colour did not look its best. any tutorial online (and there are loads!) will tell you that you need to do this.

I absolutely love this product, I think it does it's job as well as more expensive products out there and I will DEFINITELY be buying more of these in as many colours as I can find!

Hope you enjoyed reading!

DISCLAIMER: All products used here were bought by myself. Woohoo!