Ciate Paint Pots

Left to Right: Knickerbocker Glory, Boudoir, Skinny Jeans, Power Dressing, Dangerous Affair, Cookies and Cream


I adore Ciate paint pots. It's not the fact that the colors just happen to be to my taste, it's actually relatively simple things which won my heart.


1. The Applicator Brush. It's just perfect, it curves in just the right way, it distributes the polish evenly and doesn't leave brush marks in your top coat. It's perfect.


2. The Pot. They have bows on. How cute is that? Ever single one of them looks beautiful and are a real pleasure to use. It's part of the whole finishing touch of a product don't you think?


3. The Scent. I find some nail polishes really quite offensive, and I feel as though I need a face mask to apply it safely. But you know how Cutex nail polish remover has quite a cheerful fragrance compared to say Tesco Value? Well the same certainly applies here. 


It may have something to do with the fact their formula doesn't contain: 


Formaldehyde
The toxic nasty smelling gas, 


Dibutyl Phthalate (DBP)
Harmful to us and bad for the environment. It's banned in the EU.


 Toluene
A solvent that makes things smell like paint thinner. It can cause neurological problems.


It's also never tested on animals! 


It was also featured by Marie Claire as a Buy of the Day.

Wise Words No.18

More Wise Words...

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The Weekly Musing - FebWeekThree

Did you all have a good week?

I spied this gorgeous Magnet Board DIY @ Sincerely, Kinsey. It's now on my list of projects to complete at some point.

It's time to reconnect with your true self. This wonderful article which I discovered as a guest post by Gabrielle Aitken on Connie's blog ' A Life of Perfect Days' is the ultimate guide to regaining a sense of self. 


The artist vandalizing billboards with poetry. Now would we really call it vandalizing? 


Giveaway Winner!

In true blogger giveaway fashion, I used Random.org to select a winner, and all those goodies will soon be on their way to Claire!

Beautiful Blogs// Afeitar

Beautiful Blogs is a series where I shout about my favourite spots on the internet. You can read about the other blogs I love here!

Meet Helen, she's an MA graduate Librarian who lives in Liverpool in a darling house with her fiance. She blogs about her amazing baking skills, outfits she wears, home decor and running.

What I love about Helen, is that while she can certainly be classed as a fashion blogger from her many many outfit posts, she's one of the most honest I've ever come across. All her outfits, are stylish, colourful, modest, and practical. Her sense of style is fun but beautifully classic and elegant at the same time. This girl is never going to look back and think "What was I wearing?!"

As I mentioned, she's a pretty incredible baker, and every other week she's posting about some new delicious looking creation and ruins my diet. Some of my favorites are below. ! Her recommendations made me go out and buy the Hummingbird Bakery Book which is full of stunning recipes to fuel my Helen-inspired obsession. 

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake

Chocolate Hazelnut Cupcakes

Vanilla Shortbread

Another thing which I personally love about Afeitar, are all the posts about her adventures in Liverpool! My boyfriend's family are all from Liverpool, however being from down South myself, I always had the hereditary prejudice of anywhere 'up North' being really awful and 'scatty'. Helen certainly proves me otherwise though with her lovely photography and stories of all the fun she has living there.

For example: The Liverpool Food and Drink Festival//Halloween at Sefton Park//Days Out in Sefton Park//Cuthbert's Bakehouse

Please, go and check out her blog, and browse her brilliant recipes, enjoy her outfit posts and check out her home tour! Bedroom//Living Room//Kitchen//Dining Room

Wise Words No.17

The Weekly Musing - FebWeekThree

I went to Aberystwyth t'other week to pick up a visiting friend from the train station, and took a few photos whilst trying to work out how to use my camera. I'm photographically challenged in that I have almost zero photographer skills, and really need a tutor. Any offers?

I found these gorgeous colour schemes over at Belle Maison this week. I'm in love with the bookshelves in the first one.

I was inspired by Claire's guest post at Charade: Ten Survival Tips for Changing Your Life

Here's Helen of Afeitar's post on her home makeover. Go check out what she's done with her Dining Room. I love her print from Tugboat Printshop. I fancy one myself now...

All That Glitters News...

Have you entered the 100th Post Giveaway yet? No?! Well, you have a little while yet so get on over there and comment to enter! Click these links to follow on Bloglovin' or like on Facebook to get these goodies.

Shoutout! - Anyone a literary bod? Have any advice on writing/blogging that you'd like to share for a little series I'm planning? Are you currently writing a novel/poetry collection? Drop me a line at amberrosethomas@rocketmail.com

Page views for All That Glitters have more than doubles this month! A little statistic which makes me squeal with delight! So, if you're reading this - have a hug. Really, on the house! Thank you for reading my useless scribbles. It makes my day.

Beauty Lust List

Clarasonic Mia

The reviews for this thing look incredible! No matter how much cleanser and scrub I use on my skin, I still always seem to have little spots lurking underneath the surface so I'm really eager to see if it works. Apparently it cleanses six times better than cleanser on it's own. But it's basically a pretty beauty gadget to which I'm addicted.

Philosophy: The Present

I tried Girl Meets Pearl by Benefit, but found it made my skin too shiny and didn't really do the job. After having read up on Caroline's adventures trying to track down the perfect Primer, I've decided I really really want to give this baby a go. 

Gel Eyeliner

I have been really curious about trying out gel eyeliner ever since seeing a video by Michelle Phan, and she looked amazing wearing it. I also have a hell of a job getting khol to look right without dragging along my lid and have a feeling that I'll get a much smoother line out of gel than I do liquid. 

So, to Lancome, or to Smashbox? 

Any other recommendations for things I haven't discovered yet? 


Also, remember to enter my 100th Post celebratory giveaway!

One Hundred Posts | Giveaway

Welcome to my 100th Blog Post!

I am thrilled that I've made it this far. The idea of having written a hundred posts is pretty amazing to me, so thank you guys! Everyone who's ever commented, clicked, critiqued or mentioned me, honestly I so appreciate it. Here's to the next hundred! Which will hopefully be a hundred times better!

On the the more fun bit, which involves free stuff! Giveaway time! To make up for the face none of you are getting any of my awesome 100 posts cake which I am going to bake today, (photos tomorrow), I'm offering...

Two sets of mini Moleskine Journals. There's one purple and one lilac in the first set, and one hot pink and one pastel pink in the second. I have some myself and they are oh so useful. 

Meet Me at the Cupcake Cafe. This is a really charming book by Jenny Colgan. It has wonderful reviews everywhere, you can read some here on Amazon. It's a great escapist novel for a long deary day of English weather, best served with a cup of Earl Grey and a cupcake of course! It also includes some pretty epic recipes along the way that you can try at home!

Cream Embossed River Island Purse. I love this darling thing. I really do. It's such an elegant shade of cream and so shiny! Check it out on the River Island website for a close-up!

Gold Tone Heart Earrings. Another River Island swipe! I own these myself and they go with everything. They are my go to pair of earrings and the 'check' the discreet and stylish requirements for my work uniform. You can have a closer look here again if you wish. 

Pastel Shades Sharpies. Now Sharpie's sell themselves. I need say no more. And they are in lovely colours to go with your new Moleskines for example! Sorted. 

How to Enter. Please be a wonderful person and either follow me via Bloglovin or Google connect, and check out All That Glitter's facebook page and click 'like'! 

Leave a comment once you have done this with your email address or a link to your own blog, so that I have a way of contacting you. 

All entries must be home by midnight on the 23rd. Good luck Cinderellas! 
**Closed***

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Wise Words No.16 & News of the Exciting and Awesome Kind

We'd do well to remember it. Also cool typography right? 


Okay, and now I'm getting to the Exciting and Awesome news! All That Glitters is nearing it's 100th Blog Post! Waheey! Can you guess how close!


Keep an eye out this week for the Hundredth Post Giveaway I'm having to celebrate!

It's Never Too Late | Part Two

So what DO you want to do with your life? 
Who's life do you look at and think, "Wow, I so want all of that to be mine"?

Choose your dream life.
So first of all, let's ask ourselves, what's the main difference between my life and theirs? Where am I lacking? Do you hate your job, have an unsatisfying relationship, feel as though your life is too 'routine', that you haven't traveled enough? Write it down. 
Having it there in front of you, can be really empowering. It's no longer an idea, a dream; it exists. It's there in front of you in black and white. 

Don't be afraid to jump in.
If you are substituting your current situation in the motive of putting yourself on the road for a happier and more fulfilled life, it is never going to be the wrong decision to jack it all in and start anew. 

Pick one thing.
It's the same with New Year's Resolutions (hands up who's quit already?) if you swamp yourself with a huge long list, you'll stress yourself out and never manage to successfully juggle it all. Choose one big thing you want to change, and devote your full attention to it.
Make your choices chronologically, according to logically in which order you'll be able to achieve them. Make your millions or get the well paid job before going travelling or buying a house for an example. 

New Career.
I know a girl named Sophie, who I waitressed with for about six months, how adored make-up. She spend all her wages on M.A.C and Lush and Seishedo, and always had the most amazing manicured nails, and do wonderous things with eyeliner. Pure magic. However, she had no idea what to do with it. People had always advised her to go get a 'proper job' or to go to the local college to do 'health and beauty'. 

Now, Sophie may be into her cosmetics, but she just didn't want to go to a college and tolerate the dreaded perma-tanned shallow bunch of girls she was sure she'd run in to. Dead end right? Wrong...

She could
... Apply for jobs working on a cosmetics counter in a department store such as Debenhams. You'll be surprised how many jobs that you'd think require experience actually just need someone enthusiastic and talented. 

... Ask beauty salons for unpaid work experience, contact beauticians and offer to do friend's make up to photograph so she has a portfolio of her work. Then start working as a freelance make-up artist for weddings and events.

Having a 'if I find a closed door, I'll pick the lock' attitude to your dream is the one sure thing that will make it happen. Many people never reach where they'd like to be because they give up. Do not let that be you.

The educational route
If you want to do it, there's a course somewhere that caters for it. Whilst a University education IS expensive, I believe that nothing is more worthwhile. I am biased towards having a University education to the point where I am bemused when people have no interest in going to University if they aren't already on the career ladder - but that's just me.
While you may come out with a bit of student debt, hopefully the qualification, industry contacts, and knowledge of how to get to where you want to be will be far more valuable to you in the long run. Meeting people that may one day be your peers, future colleagues or employers is so so important! Networking will get you everywhere. Whoever coined the phrase that 'it's not what you know, it's who you know' - sure knew what they were talking about. 

Search for a University course using UCAS.

And check out wikihow on Career advice for whatever you want to do. They have an advice article for nearly everything.

Avoid the route of Higher Education with notgoingtouni.co.uk

Or, were you more interested in travelling the world?
I think we can all agree here that the biggest hurdle is money. Traveling the globe is expensive, but doing it on a shoestring is really very doable. 

Check out my post on budgeting, and Sarah Von's article on how to save for big items such a plane tickets.

Don't ever let anyone tell you that you're too old, or too committed to go have an adventure. There's no such thing as travelling not suiting or fitting in to your life, it's your life that isn't letting you go and do it. Boxing ourselves in to out own expectations is the subtlest of crimes, that I'm pretty sure we're all guilty of committing again and again. The trick is just not to make a habit of it.

Fancy volunteering overseas? Check out Original Volunteers. They have the most reasonable prices for organised volunteer programmes I know. 

I personally am looking into doing a Project Trust volunteer programme - but the fundraising target is pretty high which is intimidating me at the moment!

For an epicly awesome guide on how to turn these trips into easier to chew steps, please oh please read Megan from Charade's guide to making your dreams come true.  I couldn't have written it better and so I must direct you to her expertise. 

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The Weekly Musing Feb:Week Two

  

My Week

During January, it was more cost effective for me to move back in with my Mum for the next few months while I prepare for University, which has been great! Home cooking, a washing machine which actually works... this list goes on.

The main drawback however is that 5.30am start in the morning twice a week as I start work at 7am. Last Friday, whilst doing this morning commute to work, I crashed my car on some black ice. It was terrifying...

That being said, it was a very mild crash, my car has been given some lemsip and a plaster and is all better. I however, have managed to tear a few muscles in my back and have out put on NHS physiotherapy. Fun times.


I hope you guys have had a better week than I have health-wise, but the extra time off has allowed me fo find some of these internet beauties! Enjoy! xox

Please go and read this is you have three minutes to spare (you do) - especially if you're a blogger yourself. It is so heartfelt and honest.

I so adore vintage maps. I think they are truly beautiful and such a piece of art in themselves. Design*Sponge have done a post of their favourite maps displayed as art in real homes

I am after these gorgeous cushions on Etsy at the moment. But I just can't decide which one!

1. London Map // 2. London Thames Map // 3. Globe Print // 4. Japan Map // 5. Asia Map // 6. Arctic Circle Map

It's very cold in Europe at the moment, have you seen the picture of a frozen Venice?

I hope he remembered to put anti-freeze in his Gondola... Ho hum.

Also, who's on Facebook? Hands up. Yes, I knew you were. 
Please make my day and 'like' All That Glitters new Facebook page.
If you really don't have Facebook, there's always bloglovin'!

It's Never Too Late | Part One

"For what it's worth: it's never too late or, in my case, too early to be whoever you want to be. There's no time limit, stop whenever you want. You can change or stay the same, there are no rules to this thing. We can make the best or the worst of it. I hope you make the best of it. And I hope you see things that startle you. I hope you feel things you never felt before. I hope you meet people with a different point of view. I hope you live a life you're proud of. If you find that you're not, I hope you have the strength to start all over again." 

Benjamin Button 

The above quote, is the most inspirational thing I've heard in a film to date. The film 'The Bucket List' as a whole may do a better job of getting the point across. But those words up above there, to me they really hit home. They summed it all up. The reason I think it resonated so strongly with me, is that I'm very scared of failure. Hands up! It's my biggest fear. However it covers a whole range of other fears.

I'm scared of making the wrong decisions.

I'm scared of wasting opportunities.

I'm scared of loving the wrong person.

I'm scaring of losing people's good opinion.

I'm scared of what I do being sub-standard.

I'm scared that I'm not good enough.

But I do know one thing. I'm not alone. And if you read the above and thought, "Hell, I feel like that sometimes too!" - then that means you're not alone either.

I've met quite a few people through my travels that have given up on what they really want to do, because they feel they've left it too long, have failed where they should have succeeded in the past or just don't know what to do. Fear no longer.

So what if we pick the wrong career path? If we realise it halfway through our degree all the better! I know 40 year olds who have whole careers who suddenly realise that they loathe their job. And you guys? Life is way do short to be miserable and too short to be doing nothing with it. 

Pick something! Anything! What do you fancy doing? Go through career sites. Look at degree prospectus' til your eyes are sore for inspiration. And once you do, work your way backwards til you know what you should be doing right now to make that dream happen!

For Example. What I would really like to be the Editor of Vogue Magazine. As would a thousand other Undergraduates... So my path involves writing lots, getting unpaid work as an intern for experience, studying an English/Publishing degree and working my way up the career ladder. But that's just my choice...

Just always remember...

image credit to livinganlie

The biggest mistake I think so many of us make, myself included is to think dreams are exactly that - not real, unobtainable. Well make a list and we'll just see about that shall we?

So before Part Two comes around, make a quick list on a post-it note of things you'd like to do with your life. Career ideas, general ones, life goals... anything!

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