The Obligatory 'How I've Done My Nails For the Diamond Jubiliee' Post

I'm not going to even pretend that this is an original idea for a blog post, or nail art for that matter! However, I felt rather left out seeing everyone post their fabulous nail ideas for the Queen's Diamond Jubiliee, so I figured I'd spend the past half hour whipping up these beauties... 

As usual I've taken my pics on my Crap-berry so they're not the best quality... sue me. Anyway, let me tell you what I used...

*Sally Hansen French Tip Whitener, Nails Inc in The Hurlingham, No7 Stay Perfect in Betty Blues, Icing Glitter Polish in blue*

*No7's Stay Perfect in Hot to Trot, Barry M Nail Paint in Red Glitter, Icing Glitter Polish in Gold*

Basically, I used the No7 Betty Blues on my thumbs, coated over with the Icing Glitter in blue. Then I painted Nails Inc's The Hurlingham on my pointy finger with a layer of Barry M's Red Glitter over the top. For my pinkie finger I used No7's Hot to Trot with a thin coating of Icing's Glitter in Gold. 

My naughty middle finger was pretty simple too. I used Barry M's Nail Paint in Red Glitter across the whole nail. Then I painted Icing's Glitter in blue two thirds down the nail with their gold glitter one third of the way down. I did this quite roughly which was cool as it gave this starry effect.

My ring fingers took me about fifteen minutes to do, and I basically painted the white Sally Hansen colour across the whole surface, very carefully using The Hurlingham by Nails Inc and No7's Betty Blues on a cocktail stick to draw the Union Jack over my nail. This was really fiddly, and I'm surprised I managed to get both my left and right hand looking almost identical. Great success!

So there you have it, a nail design for the Diamond Jubilee. I know it could have been done much quicker, with a nail art pen or two, but I didn't have any to hand so this is the best I could do. Not bad eh? I'm pretty proud even if I say so myself!

What does your Jubilee nail art look like? I was thinking of doing these with pastel colours instead of conventional red-white-and-blue, maybe I'll try that tomorrow, what do you think? Have you seen any cool Diamond Jubilee makeup looks? I'm thinking of doing a huge Union Jack eye, but I think that maybe a taking things a tad too far... thoughts?

Love and snuggles
gabriellasofia
x

150 Follower Giveaway Winner is...

So I'm sure you've all been waiting on tenterhooks to see if you'll win my giveaway... NOT haha. However, I really wanted to run this giveaway so that I could pay all of my followers and subscribers back for all of the help and support you've offered me. Starting and running a blog takes up a lot of my time and my energy and yet every minute is worth it when I read a comment, or see a retweet, or gain a new follower or subscriber. Really it is :) So watch the video to find out who has won my selection of goodies plus some random surprises also. Thanks for everything

Please check out my other sites and let me know what you think in the comments box below:

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Please rate, like, follow, comment and subscribe and I promise there will be loads of beauty, fashion, lifestyle, culture and gossip material going up on here each week :)

Thanks for watching, guys and I'll see you soon!

Love

gabriellasofia x

The Versatile Blog Award...

Only bloggers truly understand how lovely it feels when another blogger recognizes your blog as one of their 'favorites', or when they compliment you on something you've posted... So imagine how great it feels when you're given a 'Blog Award' and are mentioned in someone's Top 7 blogs worthy of congratulations on their page.

The lovely Lucee from LuceeLovesBeautyBox has very kindly recognized HauteFuture as such and I literally can hardly contain my pride :) When you blog, along with putting in the time and energy with each post you publish, you also insert something very personal; you. This is why it makes me so happy to receive the Versatile Blog Award, it's very touching for me, and I just wanted to say a great big thank you to Lucee, all my readers and everyone who comments on my videos and posts. Its fantastic to be able to see how much support everyone's given me with my blog, and I think it's very important to say thank you when it's due. This is why I'm running my first ever Blog Giveaway in which I'm giving my readers the chance to win a collection of beauty goodies including products from the likes of Nails Inc, Models Own, Juicy Couture, 17, Nars, Dior and Barry M amongst others. Please head over to my Giveaway Page in order to be in with a chance of winning :) This is my thank you to you guys!

Anyway, without much further ado, the rules of the Versatile Blog Award require that the winner provides 7 secret facts about themselves, so here goes...

1) I am half-Dominican, speak Spanish (my mom's first language) and cook a mean rice, beans and fried chicken... which I eat with a banana chopped up over the top, just as the Dominicans do. I do this with chilli con carne and chicken noodle soups too. If you never try it, you'll never live!
2) I'm not part of a group of friends. I have a handful of friends that I'd trust with my life, but we don't spend a lot of time together and we're not a group as most of them don't even know each other. I've always been somewhat of a lone ranger, despite not being a psychopath, nudist or total female dog. I feel like sometimes with friends, spending too much time together can be more of a hindrance than a help. To see who my friends are, Check This Out.
3) I'm a total television addict. Like, it's a serious problem. Programs I can't go without watching include: Casualty, Holby City, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, CSI NY, Grey's Anatomy, Pretty Little Liars, One Tree Hill, Gossip Girl, 90210 and Cold Case. And on top of that, I like watching: Toddlers in Tiaras, The Girls Next Door, Kendra, The Kardashians, Kourtney and Khloe Take Miami, Kourtney and Kim Take New York, Big Brother, The Steve Wilkos Show, The Jerry Springer Show, The Ellen Degeneres Show, My Super Sweet Sixteen, Teen Mom, 16 and Pregnant and WAY MORE. See what I mean when I say it's a real problem? Bar my blog, my television dominates my life.
4) When I was 19 I was invited to and attended an audition for The Apprentice. The grown up one. However, I wasn't successful but had a fab day!
5) I worked at Walt Disney World in Orlando last summer, making dreams come true for a living. No joke. If you want to hear more about my Disney Journey, head over to my other blog All We Need Is Faith, Trust and Pixie Dust, and my Disney College Program Youtube Channel TheGabriellaSofia.
6) I go on a diet every Monday. I give up every Tuesday.
7) I could gladly spend all day every day in bed. No, I wouldn't get bored, lonely or depressed. I'd read mags, watch telly and write blogs and I would be as happy as can be!

So that's it! All that's left for me to do now, is pass the award onto some bloggers who I think are worthy of The Versatile Blog Award... I think there is a certain number of bloggers I'm supposed to hand it over to, but I'm not sure what that number is, so I'll just give it to a handful of faves. *Drumroll please*...

Victoria's Vintage

Tokki and Oliver

Miss Holly

Yoyo and Bel

Pretty In Pink

Well done girlies! You're all fab, put in a lot of time, energy and YOU into your blogs and that's why I'm pretty addicted to them :) They help me to wake up in the morning and relax at the end of a long day. I love them, and I hope you'll all keep up the good work, I sure will! If you could, please do me a favour and put my sexy new button on your page... All you have to do is paste the code underneath my button on the top right hand side of this page into a HTML widget on Design and I'll love you event more! This is what my button looks like...




Even if I haven't given you a Versatile Award, please post me your links in the comments box beneath, and maybe even 7 facts about you. I always want to know my readers better and be more interactive with everyone, so please use the comments as I ALWAYS reply.

Love you all
gabriellasofia
x

Haute Future Haute Haul... Christmas Gifts!

I know this is late... I apologize but as I've said in my previous post, I've been laid up in bed with a horrible cold for the past few days (since the day before Christmas Eve in fact!) Poor me. But never fear, I am in relatively good health again, which means that the excitement of all the lovely goodies I've had has actually hit me! Here are my pressies before I opened them... I couldn't for the life of me work out what the big one was. My mom thought she was hilarious when she went, 'It's the doll you asked for!!!' My parents made me leave it until the end. What could it be? :)

Here are a couple of Christmas dinner pictures to keep you in suspense...

Mummy sets the table so pretty... 

Prawn Cocktail and Brown Bread to start!

TURKEY TIME!!!

And now, without much further ado... it's present time! Let's start with my stocking fillers. Since my sister found out 'The Truth' we have chosen items to put in each other's stockings. We buy the bits, wrap them up, then leave them in a bag. Then, overnight, Father Christmas puts them in our respective stockings and adds extra goodies :) The bits for my sister are in the festive pine-cone and snowed-on-leaves paper, I thought it was so cute!

Weeee presents for meeeeee!

Here is the mess I created after opening all of my goodies...

These are the bits my sister chose for me... I have some chocolate lady-bugs in a ice-cream cup, four (already burned one) Yankee Candle tarts in yummy winter scents like cinnamon and apple cider, some dill sauce (random, but nom nonetheless), a hot chocolate stick, a Hershey's Cookies and Cream bar, a mixer for making raspberry mojitos, some Twizzlers (my favorite US candy), two pairs of earrings and a silver ring. Thanks Meewps :)

These are the bits which Santa Claus added for me... I also had a couple of sachets of delicious popping candy but they're long gone now. In my belly. Thanks Santa :)

As if that's not enough sweets and chocolate, these are some more that I found all wrapped up downstairs too! I'm going to be FAT in the New Year. And I don't even care. That is of course until the New Year...

Now, let's get onto the best bits... The Beauty Pieces! First up, I got the Trevor Sorbie Beautiful Volume collection. I love this brand since I received it last Christmas. It makes my hair look so healthy and their leave-in conditioner is the best detangler I've found so far.

This one has been a long time coming, but I am finally the proud owner of an Urban Decay NAKED palette! Rejoice! I can't wait to practice some awesome new eye looks... the possibilities are endless with this collection and I simply cannot wait :)

These are the five little pieces which I've wanted for ages... Two beauty-product celebrities, NARS blush in Orgasm and my first ever MAC brush, the 219 (this seems to have been cut from the top of the picture somehow, no fair.) I've also got some great benefit bits which I've had my eye on since the summer. The mango-tinted stain ChaChaTint, Moon Beam and the 2011 miracle mascara, They're Real!

As requested, I received a gift box of Soap N Glory goodies. They include Clean on Me, Flake Away, Glad Hair Day, Hand Food, Girligio, The Righteous Butter, a loofah and this nice big toiletry bag. I prefer showers when I'm sick, so I can't wait to have a nice long pampering soak in the bath now I'm better...

These two items are total luxuries! The In Crowd Nails INC collection contains 15 of the companies best selling polishes, and the benefit Crescent Row perfume collection carries four of the most beautiful scents I've known so far. I'm already a massive fan of So Hooked on Carmella by benefit, so I'm sure I'll get on with these perfumes like a house on fire!

I've also been gifted these two little toiletry boxes. My next door neighbors gave me the Champneys box which contains a couple of rich body creams, a loofah, a body wash and a bubble bath. My cousin Ruby treated me to this Natural Moods set which contains a soap and a body wash also... Thanks guys! 

My best pal Vikki so kindly bought me ALL THESE BITS!!! A super-cute little brown satchel from Primarni, a pair of adorable socks from New Look, the Terry's Chocolate Orange (featured in my chocolate and sweets pic), an electric blue nail art pen by Flirt which I can't wait to experiment with, an eyeliner from Soap N Glory's new cosmetics range and finally, one of my all-time favorite perfumes, Ghost in Ghost. What did I do to deserve all these presents Vik??? Hardly complaining though! Thanks a dozen baby. 

 

Look at all of the jewelry my mom got for me... They all suit me so well. I've already worn one pair of the H&M earrings as you can tell from their absence on the card... 

My mom also bought me a lovely pajama set from Topshop... She also got me a lovely purple stripy dressing-gown from Topshop too, but it's not been off my back since I got it during opening my presents, and since I'm ill I've hardly had any photographs taken since then. You'll just have to trust me when I say it's really, really nice.

And the super-cool hot pink 80's jumper I sported on Christmas day. Jazzy, huh? I love it! 

I got two books about the Harry Potter series and films which will be perfect as I can use them in my dissertation of Children's Literature in the 20th Century. My grandma and grandad got me a cheese-board (I'M OBSESSED WITH CHEESE) and also a copy of Uncle Tom's Cabin which apparently revolutionized American Literature, so I'm excited to read it. My parents got me a subscription to one of my favorite magazines, Company, plus two books about Retail Business. My dad took it upon himself to surprise me with  a book about how to recreate vintage-inspired make-up looks! So sweet!

And also... I GOT A KINDLE!!!!!!!! YES YES AND YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!

We're now coming to the end of my haul. This next piece was a total suprise. Now, everyone who's anyone (even haters apparently...) know that I live in the box room as my parents moved my sister into my old room when I left for uni, and now I've returned home for my final year to save some money, it's only fair that I take her old room so she doesn't have to move all her things again. This is totally fine. However, this means I can hardly fit a wardrobe in my bedroom, so we've had to be creative with clothes storage ideas... My parents found this clothes hanger from a chic furniture store in Chester. It's absolutely perfect and I can't wait to put it up in the corner of my room and hang my prettiest dresses from it for the world to see :)

Finally, this is the big one. The one I never expected to get but have been quietly pining over since my interest in beauty began. My parents, crazy-beautiful people, have treated me to a big pink make-up train storage case!!! This is absolutely perfect, I can't believe they even got the one I've been fantasizing over!

This means my make-up won't be spread across my dresser anymore in a disorganized mess. There is a section for everything! I may even have space to store my hair-dryer and curlers in the bottom. My God, I can't thank them enough!

Isn't it beautiful?

I've really been terribly lucky this year. I also got a super pretty Kindle and laptop case and three pairs of socks which didn't get separately photographed... On top of all that, I also received about £65 worth of store vouchers. I can't wait to get spending in the sales... Boots, Topshop and River Island, here I come, and I'm taking no prisoners. Check out the bits I'm on the lookout for here.

So that's that! All of my presents are still stacked up in the living room so I could gaze longingly at them when I was sick...

I couldn't wait to start practicing with the make-up and sporting the gorgeous jewelry, but when you're sick as a dog, you don't even feel like getting dressed in the morning never mind painting my face or hanging my accessories. I couldn't even enjoy the chocolates as I couldn't swallow :(

SO glad I'm back on form and can eat myself into oblivion. After all, that's what Christmas is all about!

Thank you to everyone who bought me a gift this year! I hope that everyone I've bought for has enjoyed their presents as much as I am now enjoying mine :) Thanks to this haul, you can expect a ton of beauty reviews on the way pretty soon, so keep an eye out!

What have you had for Christmas? Do you know what you're spending your vouchers on? Did any of you get a Kindle too? I love mine already and I can't wait to work out some more of the features!

Thanks guys, and I wish you a (slightly) belated, Merry Christmas :)

Love

gabriellasofia

Selfridges Christmas Beauty Event...

I've been crazy busy so far with so many things to do in time for Christmas, not to mention my looming deadlines for January... don't remind me about them!

I was wandering through the Bullring the other day, and a handsome man in a rather sharp suit accosted me outside Selfridges, telling me all about this Christmas Beauty event which had been organised for two days later (the 1st December). I was told that tickets cost just £10, which was redeemable against purchase on the day of the event. In exchange for my £10, I would get a beauty goodie bag, a glass or two of champagne, a yummy mince pie and a handful of make-up application master classes from some of the major brands in Selfridges. I took a leaflet and walked on, dreaming about all of the beauty goodies I'm craving for Christmas and thought I wouldn't think of it again!

However, that day my dad expressed an interest in a Bullring shopping trip (this means he was desperately lacking in Christmas shopping) so before I knew it, I was stood outside Selfridges with my little sister in tow and a belly full of Jamie's Kitchen!

A couple of hours earlier I'd headed into Selfridges and purchased two tickets and signed myself up for an Estee Lauder foundation lesson, an eyeshadow masterclass at Bobbi Brown and a blush-match with Clinique. However, by the time I'd finished my dinner with my parents, I'd missed the final two so headed straight to Estee Lauder where the lovely Jay removed my 'face' and reapplied a more flawless version of it! Of course, he used the esteemed Double Wear Foundation and the Double Wear Stay-in-Place concealer amongst other great products and my

skin looked and felt so smooth whilst also feeling so lightweight!

There was a 'performance' by some creepy clown-looking version of Santa Claus (and we all know how I feel about clowns...) and some gospel-choir style band of about three women and two men who seemed to be shouting the lyrics at us. This is no exaggeration. I remember the rendition of Mariah Carey's All I Want for Christmas is You to be particularly cutting complete with screeching and the 'I've-got-attitude-so-I'm-going-to-wiggle-my-head-from-side-to-side-and-do-twinkle-fingers-up-and-down-by-the-side-of-my-face-as-I-can't-hold-a-note-and-it-makes-it-look-like-I've-done-it-deliberately' dance moves. Fantastic. The music was actually so loud, that Jay and I were having to shout into each others' ears which although he seemed very nice, I have to admit it is a bit too close for comfort with a strange man with a foundation brush for my liking... Nonetheless, he is a wizard with that brush and I felt so much more beautiful than I usually do, haha.

As I previously mentioned, my dad needed to get some Christmas shopping done, namely for me, so I figured that would be how I could get my £10 redeemed as there were numerous beauty goodies I was dying for for Christmas, from benefit, Urban Decay and Nails INC. Of course, I'm a complete idiot and didn't realize that Selfridges no longer have a benefit counter and seems never to have had Urban Decay or Nails INC. I was temporarily gutted, until I remembered that Selfridges DOES HAVE a MAC counter and also NARS. Plus, Debenhams have the three that I was looking for with a fantastic 10% off offer on the same day, so the disaster was generally averted! Thank goodness for that...

I had the best beauty day ever really! I'm not going to reveal the bits and bobs I chose from the various make-up counters as honestly I'm trying to forget so I'm surprised on Christmas morning... According to my dad, they've all been sent off to Santa Claus now and are ready in the sleigh. Eeeep!

And now for the bit which you all want to know about; the goodie bag. I was going to record a goodie bag haul for the event but the items are all so small that I figured a picture would be best. I got a Balenciaga Paris 10. Avenue George V mini fragrance, and also an Acqua di Parma one too. I got this really cute hot pink cosmetics bag from Juicy Couture with a delux sample size of Viva la Body Lotion by them too. I got a little tube of Dior's Creme Reparation Rides (also known as Wrinkle Correction Eye Cream), Alien by Thierry Mugler Body Lotion and also a sample of Fekkai's Shea Butter which is lush! The best bits in the goodie bag though were, by far, the little sample tube of NARS's Firming Foundation, Super Orgasm skin Illuminator highlighter and Clinique's exfoliating Clarifying Lotion 2. Honestly, the goodie bag wasn't amazing, but considering the whole event was essentially free once I'd redeemed each of my two £10 tickets on a couple of Christmas purchases courtesy of the Bank of Daddy I really can't complain. Furthermore, I got two of everything as my sister is nowhere near as much of a beauty fanatic as I am so she gave me her bag and the entire contents! Great success :)

So in all Selfridges Christmas Beauty Event was an evening well spent. I know that a few different department stores run this kind of event around Christmas time, and it seeks that House of Fraser were giving an even better goodie bag. However, I much prefer Selfridges at the moment as I find it to be a much friendlier environment, so I'm quite content with what I got. I would definitely recommend this kind of event to anyone who loves beauty. Get some girls together and head on a night out afterwards when your make-up has been done by some of the best brands in the industry... not many people will be looking as good as you one the likes of Estee Lauder's Jay has had anything to do with it.

Have you been to this kind of event before? What was in your goodie bag? Was anyone in Selfridges that night?

Let me know

Love

gabriellasofia

x

Nail Tutorial: Halloween Bloody Nails!

I know it's late and I apologize... but it's the thought that counts! Hope you like this Bloody Nails Tutorial inspired by one of my favourite online beauty gurus andreaschoice. Each and every product I used was paid for with my own hard-earned cash and I wasn't paid to use these products... they are as follows;

Sally Hansen Hard as Nails in Natural - £4.75 at www.boots.com

Topshop NAILS in Cloak and Dagger - £5.00 at www.topshop.com

Rimmel London's Pro Matte Finish - £4.59 at www.boots.com

Nails Inc in Victoria and Albert - £11 at www.nailsinc.com

Sewing needle - free out of my mom's sewing cupboard!

Anyways, I hope you enjoyed it despite it being a tad too late for Halloween... I still have one more beauty look to come so that's DEFINITELY going to be late haha. I will still upload it though. Might come in handy for someone, who knows :)

If you are interested, please follow me on Twitter at: www.twitter.com/hautefuture

Keep track of my YouTube Channel where I post tons of hauls, reviews, tutorials and more! Here's the link:http://www.youtube.com/HauteFutureAlso check out my facebook page at:http://www.facebook.com/pages/HauteFuture/149057205180776

Please rate, comment and subscribe and I promise there will be loads of beauty, fashion, lifestyle, culture and gossip material going up on here each week :)

Thanks for watching, beauties.

Love

gabriellasofia x