Gel Nails, CND Shellac Vs. O.P.I Gelcolor Vs. Gelish Review

O.P.I Gelcolor

O.P.I Gelcolor launched with 30 colours, this increased to 36 shortly after. I just checked their UK trade website for this post, and it appears they now have nearly 100 click here to view! Colours stocked will vary by salon, but you can always ask them to order in your favourite.

I had my O.P.I nails done at NUYU in Lichfield; they had a limited colour selection on O.P.I compared to Shellac. However I was drawn to O.P.I because of the glitter gels. O.P.I Gelcolor has glitter in the gel itself. I chose the colour ‘my favourite ornament’ and I was not disappointed. It was uber glittery and sparkly.

The girl who did my nails warned me, O.P.I isn’t as strong as Shellac (in her opinion). She suggested it might need to be taken off and reapplied before the three-week threshold. Personally I found that the polish stayed on perfectly for two weeks, but after that it began to lift at the edges.

O.P.I pro tips state that Gelcolor treatment will last two-plus weeks. Depending on say the condition of the client’s nails and how they use their hands. I found this to be entirely accurate.

CND Shellac

They have a wide range of colours; some of them are really funky. You can have glitter brushed on top to personalize the colours too! So far I have had Shellac done twice, the first time I had pink, then second time I had white, with an iridescent pink glitter brushed over the top.

According to their website, they have 83 shades. So O.P.I have actually overtaken them, but I really don’t think this translates to what you find in the salons. Not right now anyway.

Their website says their gels offer high shine for 14+ days. I definitely agree with the shine. They stayed shiny the entire time, but they looked messy before two weeks. However, they didn’t chip or peel. They just didn’t look as neat for as long as the O.P.I ones did. They did begin to peel at the edges as I approached the three-week mark.

I can’t say there is a huge difference between the two, personally O.P.I wins it for me, but I still love Shellac, and think both are well worth the money. If they have an O.P.I gel in the colour I want, I will go for that one, but I would go for shellac if I need it to last a little bit longer, or they have a colour that O.P.I don’t do.

Gelish

Some people are massive fans of Gelish, but me, not so much. The best thing about it was the price: £10 cheaper than CND Shellac & O.P.I Gelcolor, but of course this will vary by salon.

I found that the gel was very thick, and shiny, it almost looked like I had false nails, or very short acrylics. This made the regrowth very noticeable. After a week, I felt they looked like they needed redoing, even though they hadn’t chipped, lifted or peeled.

The positives are the durability- the gel is extremely hard, this is probably due to the thickness, and it didn’t peel or chip before 3 weeks. Secondly at £15 the price is affordable, especially as, you really wouldn’t need them doing until 3-4 weeks (if you can stand the regrowth). Which would save you some substantial dollar in the long run.

Chunky Vegetable Provençal Recipe

Going back many, many years, my Uncle sent me the recipe for his homemade ratatouille. Which he used to make when we went to visit. I have been making this dish ever since, but have made so many changes its now morphed into a new recipe, hence the name change.

I want to share this recipe with the world because it is super healthy, super versatile and super easy... Not to mention super delicious! It has been a staple of mine throughout university, and it is a speedy way to make sure you are well on your way to consuming 5 a day!

I'm not sure exactly how many of your 5 a day it gives you, but as an estimate - at least 2-3. This will vary depending on what vegetables you put in and how big your portion sizes are... and, most importantly what you serve with it! I personally think it goes great with pasta or rice with a sprinkle of cheese on top, but it's equally great on its own with some crusty bread for dipping. In the past I have even served it with sweet potato mash and a side salad. So don't be afraid to experiment!

Below I have listed the ingredients I typically use, however, you can use whichever vegetables you like, the more the merrier! The recipe will make a large amount, enough for 4, if its served on it own.
You can cut the recipe but I tend to always make more than I need, because the great thing about this dish is the flavours infuse, so it tastes even better the following day (or even the day after that!). You can also freeze it for future use, making it perfect for students.

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Ingredients
3 leeks
2 tins of chopped tomatoes
1 red pepper
1 yellow pepper
1 pack of chestnut mushrooms
A dozen vine ripened tomatoes (you can use cherry tomatoes)
1 tin of sweetcorn
2 red onions (you can use white)
Chilli flakes
Paprika
Salt + pepper to taste
Mixed herbs
A big squeeze of tomato puree
Olive oil (or whichever cooking oil you prefer)

*Note -  I normally use courgette as well, but it was out of stock at the shop.

Suggestions - Aubergine, Carrot, Kale, Pak Choi, Spinach, Green Beans, Mange Tout, Baby Sweetcorn, Lentils.

Method
1. Chop the leek, onion, mushrooms and courgette first, make them chunky, then throw them in a big pan with the oil over a medium heat, stir occasionally.
-      If your pan isn't big enough, soften the courgette first, then the leeks, then add the mushrooms       and onion.
Throw in a few shakes of chilli flakes to add some flavour whilst cooking.

2. While this is simmering, chop the pepper, and wash the tomatoes. You can soften the pepper in a separate pan before adding to the main pan with the other veg.

3. Add the peppers and vine/cherry tomatoes to the big pan, and leave to cook for another 5-10 mins.

4. Add the herbs, a dash of paprika, a few more shakes of chilli flakes (2/3), salt and pepper, and the chopped tomatoes - use some water to swill out the cans (about a 1/4 of a can), and add this to the pan. The chopped tomatoes and water should just cover the veg, add the puree and leave to simmer.
-       The longer the better! I leave mine for about 30-45 mins.

During this time, you can prepare what you want to serve it with e.g. pasta, rice, chicken etc...

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Tips

If you use more vegetables, then make sure you cook the ones that will take longest to soften first.

If you use extra, you may need extra chopped tomatoes. So bear this in mind when buying the ingredients.

Let me know what you think...

Please comment below

Thanks :)

P.S Here's a list of this months upcoming student recipes…. STAY TUNED!

Flattened breaded fillet of chicken, served with a rocket, vine tomato and parmesan salad, with a sweet chilli dressing

Tarragon chicken in white wine sauce

Low fat moussaka with greek yoghurt

Gel Nails – Which Brand is Best?

(gif sourced from: Fat Junkie Nail Art)

Doing my nails is a serious hassle, I like to have them looking nice, but I do not have the time or patience to sit, manicure, paint and watch them dry. The results are usually less than pleasing. I may have a perfectly painted left hand, but, I am certainly not ambidextrous, (hats off to those who have nailed this skill), so the outcome of my right hand is always pretty substandard.

But none of this really matters, because after about two minutes, I totally forget I’ve painted them and start dancing around the kitchen or doing the laundry…. The result is a smudgy catastrophe, which needs to be removed immediately.

This is why for as long as I can remember I have paid to have my nails done. I’ve had pretty much every kind of nail extension or polish on the market. When I was younger I had Calgel extensions, but found I could peel these off quite easily. So I switched from this to acrylics, which are typically harder and more robust, but I found that no matter how long, short, round, square or oval I had them they always looked fake. I had a break for a while (a long while), and chose to grow my own nails. This took longer than expected because years of fake nails had left them weak, so they tended to snap and so I’d bite the rest off.

To help with the growing and strengthening process I used O.P.I Nail Envy. The original. I would really recommend this to anyone reading this who has weak nails, or has suffered damaged from prolonged nail enhancements.

Nowadays there are many gel nail varnishes on the market. Shellac, O.P.I and Gelish are the ones I have tried. These are, generally speaking, the top three gel polish brands on the market. However, I believe Gelish is not as widely available in the UK, as the other two. They all offer pretty much the same thing, give or take: Durable long-lasting nail colour, that doesn’t chip.

So which brand is best? I will be reviewing them over the next few weeks. Starting with Gelish. Stay tuned! 

Cottage Pie with Red Wine Beef, and Winter-Spice Sweet Potato Mash

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I wanted to make a cottage pie, but something more spectacular than the usual. I looked at various recipes online and ended up taking elements from a few, and put my own spin on it, to make a cottage pie with a twist!


The result was a perfect winter warmer, the rich flavour and spiced mash gave my tummy a warm Christmassy hug (^__^)

I didn’t measure the ingredients, because I generally just wing it and go by consistency and taste. The ingredients below are the ones I used but you can use this as a guide. If you want to substitute or add more/less of anything then feel free to do so! I would say it serves around 4, it would be nice served with some greens on the side, maybe some green beans, peas and spinach or asparagus.

Don’t forget to let me know what you think about my recipe, please comment below and let me know of any changes you made, so I can try them out too!

Enjoy ☺


Ingredients

500g 5% fat, extra lean minced beef
1 extra large sweet potato (may need 3 small sized ones)
1 onion (I used white, but red would be good)
1 packet of chestnut mushrooms
12 Chantenay carrots
500g carton of passata
Small red wine bottle
1 rich beef Knorr stockpot
1 cup of boiling water
A big squeeze of tomato puree
1 shake of cinnamon
1 teaspoon of nutmeg
1 teaspoon of mixed herbs
Salt + pepper to taste
1 egg
A dash of milk
Olive oil
3 cloves of garlic
Grated cheese (optional)



Method 

1. To prepare chop the onion, and mushrooms into thick slices, and top and tail the carrots, and either finely chop or crush the garlic. Grate a handful of cheese and cover.

2. Place the carrots in a pan of boiling water and time this for 10 minutes. While this is boiling heat the oil and fry the mushrooms, garlic and the onion until soft, take this out of the pan and brown the beef, when the beef is browned off re-added the onion and mushroom mix.

3. Add the passata, rich beef pot, one cup of boiling water and half the red wine, one teaspoon of mixed herbs, and a bit of salt and pepper and leave this to simmer – drain and add the carrots once they have been boiling for ten minutes.

4. While this is simmering, peel and chop the sweet potato. Then place in a pan of boiling water. At this point switch the oven on to 180 degrees or around gas mark 7, so that it heats up in time. Add more red wine to the beef mixture if needed.

5. Simmer for 15 minutes or until the sweet potatoes can easily be pierced with a knife.or until soft. Then drain and mash, when roughly mashed add a dash of milk and 1 egg and continue to mash, add the cinnamon, nutmeg and a salt and pepper to taste, and mash through.

6. Place the beef mixture in an deep ovenproof dish, fill to around ¾ then top with the mash (I spooned the mixture on and roughly smoothed it). Then top with cheese (optional)

7. Place in the over for 20-25 minutes, or until the cheese is browned.

 8. Serve + Enjoy

Badlands

Badlands The next stop was the Badlands. This area used to be a shallow sea and that is what made all the beautiful rock formations that can be seen today. We arrived here in the middle of the day and it was super hot, the hottest it had been since we arrived. Catt dropped us off at the visitor centre and we all had a mooch around I bought some souvenirs and read about the history of the area. I also discovered it's inhabited by rattle snakes :0 Catt was picking us up a bit later on to hike through the formations. We all slapped on sun cream and filled our water bottles and waited for her to pick us up. We went and got out of the car and walked to a view point to take some pictures then headed out to the trail. Not going to lie Becky and I were quite scared but we powered on anyway. It was amazing! The Sioux tribe (Native Americans) used to live around the Badlands and they named it so as the weather is crazy hot one minute and thunderstorms the next, that is exactly what happened to us. We had to cut out trek short as it suddenly became very windy and a thunder storm was starting to make it's way to us. We got to the campsite and my dream of being a Native American was over. As I walked around the Badlands I was sort of imagining myself as a Native American! We quickly set up camp and Amy, Becky, Helen and I sat in our tent and had a beer while we waited for Bolognese to be cooked. The weather wasn't great and it soon began to rain :0 I ate my bolognese in the rain as quickly as possible because it was my groups turn to wash up and I wanted to get it done ASAP because there was no sink, this means we have to do it in boxes outside. We collected everyone's plates and began to wash up. I was washer, Zara was dryer and Becky and Nick dried and put away. We were washing up on the bench and it happened to be undercover so everyone joined us and we started signing lots of cheesy songs like JoJo, Leave get out! As we sung we watched the lightening it was really pretty in a strange way. In the end I went to bed early because my ribs were hurting. I think it was because of sitting in the van for so long :0 it was good job though because we were up at 5am the next day to watch the sun rise over the Badlands. We left the campsite at 5.20 an headed to the viewpoint from the previous day. Firstly I saw It was very cloudy so I wasn't too impressed with the actual sunrise itself but it looked so nice at dawn. I took lots of pictures. We zoomed back to camp and had breakfast, changed packed and headed onwards to Devils Tower.

Jackson, Minnesota

Jackson, Minnesota We got up early and left Chicago feeling happy and fulfilled as we had such an amazing time there. I felt slightly blue because I could really see myself living in Chicago and felt I could stay there for at least another week. 2 days simply wasn't enough! I love that city :) ... But there's so many more exciting things to see and do on this trip, so onwards we went. The next stop, Jackson in Minnesota. This stop was really a stop over between Chicago and the Badlands as there really isn't much in-between but we needed to stop because it's too much driving for one day! Catt told us in Chicago that she had too kooky stops planned on the way! Boy they were kooky. The first stop was in Wisconsin at a CHEESE HOUSE as Wisconsin is famous for cheese and beer (my two fave things, but definitely not a state I would visit again 😎) I didn't actually buy any cheese or beer because I'm bit funny about buying it from strange places! But I had a picture with the mouse and bought some postcards and a present for my bezzy Christine. The next stop was amazingly tacky Americana at it's finest.... The SPAM museum. Who knew there would be a museum dedicated to a canned ham? Not I! But it was great, I learned how spam was very helpful durning the war and that Hawaii is the top consumer Of spam in the world closely followed by South Korea. We learned a bit about what goes into spam, although it sounds pretty unappetising! They told us how it's cooked and enjoyed around the world! Including good old spam fritters from the UK. I got Rhian a present as spam is her nickname. Jackson KOA was a boring place in the middle of nowhere but there was a pool and Helen, Amy, Becky and I had a lovely swim in the pool after eating mac n cheese :) cooked by Amy, Helen and Tommy, THE A TEAM ;) next stop the Badlands

Chicago day two

Chicago day two Woke up with a hangover 🙈 worst feeling ever! I dashed some paracetamol and hoped for the best. Amy and I went down and grabbed some muffins and juice and went back to the room. We both got dressed and ready, but while waiting for the others we both fell asleep. Eventually we were all awake and ready by 10am. We headed out for an all day bus pass and some cooked breakfast! Firstly CVS had no bus passes left so we headed to the next one, they didn't sell them. So we headed to breakfast. I can't remember the name but it looked exactly like diners you see on american films with the tables on one with a mirror wall, all along one side with the bar parallel, totally exciting. I had breakfast twos, two eggs, two sausages, two bacon and two pancakes. She asked me how id like them and i said fried... She said easy over? I had no idea what this meant. I always thought the Americans said 'sunny side up?' Anyway I established I would have them over medium. There was free coffee refills and free iced water. You didn't even need to ask, they filled up your cup before you had even had the last swig. Our server had really cool green hair too and said she loved our outfits. She also said she loved English fashion especially ASOS, apparently the US version doesn't have as many cool clothes for purchase. Our food arrived, and I'm not joking when I say it was HUGE. The pancakes were bigger than my face. I definitely couldn't eat it all, despite it being amazing and all! We left the diner and were faced with rain but alas we were prepared with waterproofs. We put them on and headed to millennium park via american apparel. I bought a cheeky dress for only $30. We got to millennium park and no sooner had we got there and taken a few snaps a random man pounced on Helen and Amy after hearing there accents and asked them to be in a video for his son. He was very friendly (but old) we wanted to get away from him so Helen pulled her phone out to create an excuse to leave, which ended with her dropping it on the floor. There was the unmistakeable sound of a screen cracking as it fell face down. The man was nice enough to direct us to the apple shop. We spent the next hour and a half in there while Helen sorted her phone out. It was quite a good coincidence, as it gave us chance to speak to family and upload pictures which we can't do on the van wifi. After the phone was sorted we headed to Hancock tower. According to the guys from Bobbys bike tour this is better than the Willis Tower and FREE! We headed up to the 96th floor, and straight to the women's bathroom which has the best views of the city and Lake Michigan. The drinks were ridiculously priced so we had a Pepsi each (Helen had earl grey). Ben strolled in on his own so we invited him to join. After slowly drinking our drinks we headed back down to ground zero. I suddenly felt sick, we decided to get a taxi back to the hostel. Everyone wanted to go back to get ready for the baseball game and Amy and I wanted to chill before going out to watch the free film in millennium park. I had a sleep and woke up feeling much better. Only Amy, Tommy, Nick and I weren't going to the baseball. We hadn't been with them all day but arranged to meet them at 6.20pm to head out to the free film. On the way I grabbed a flat bread and we walked down to the park. The free film was American Graffiti. I have no clue why it was called that and I wouldn't watch it again. The rest of the free film summer programme looked awesome, even the wizard of oz was being played one week, oh well, it's pot luck I guess. After enduring the film till the end we walked to navy pier and had a walk around there which was really nice and gave me time to bond with Nick as he is South Korean he gets a bit lost in group conversations. After a long night I grabbed a McDonalds and we all headed back to the hostel for an early night for our early start the next day.