Is Helen Really Just Nice?

I have a lot of time for Helen from Just Nice Things. Although she's most well known as a nail blogger, she's my go to person for all things NARS. If you haven't already seen her amazing NARS eyeshadow duo post then I can highly recommend that you take a look. That's all the good stuff of course and I know that's not what you're here for. I know you're just after the dirt! So, let's find out what secrets Helen has been guarding....

Confession is good for the soul, go ahead and unburden yourself! I promise I won’t judge.

I’m a nail blogger, right? And I am proud of my natural nails. However, wind the clock back a few (ahem) years to when I was a student. I went through a stage of wearing the full press-on nail kits that you could purchase from Boots for under £10. I can’t remember the name of the brand but they had an oh-so-glam photo of a hand clutching a tennis ball of all things on the box. Sporty Square?!

Anyway. I wasn’t even deterred from wearing these monstrosities when I reached into a bag of frozen food one day (mini kievs I believe….hey, I was a student and it was back in the days before calorie counting or Bernard Matthews was proclaimed as the anti-christ) and found an old fake nail adhered to some breaded chicken. Ewwww.

.....you ate mini kievs?

No, what really put me off was that after a year or so of constant wear, my nails went green. Not a nice shade of green either but a dark, mouldy green. So off came the fake nails, and on with some very dark nail polish. For about six months, til it grew out. Grim.

A very different kind of green finger!

There, don’t you feel better now?

Aunty Brown has a few more questions though; it’s true that I’m the nosy type.

When was the last time you visited the hairdresser?

Nearly two years ago. Shameful, isn’t it? I used to spend an utter fortune on hair extensions (the Racoon ones), Japanese straightening treatments at £400 a pop and all kinds of frivolous behaviour. Then, one day I woke up and suddenly decided that I wanted to see what my natural hair was like, so I’ve spent the past two years growing out all the chemical straightening and returning to my natural state. I am now seriously contemplating having another straightening treatment. After all that agony!

Which bit of beauty trickery couldn’t you live without?

Fake tan during the wedding season. Aside from blogging and working in a very time consuming job, I also have a part-time job that involves attending several weddings and hen parties a year. If I’ve got to get my legs out in a chilly church during April, or to attend another flipping pole dancing lesson, then I don’t want them looking any more like a pre-cooked plucked chicken than strictly necessary.

You’ve overslept and have 5 minutes to get out of the house. Are you going out with dirty hair or no makeup?

Dirty hair. No brainer. I can tie it up and try really hard not to spend all day scratching my poor grubby scalp.

Which trend still makes you cringe?

Concealer lips. They make me shudder. All that GOSH Darling business. It looks hideous and I really wish people would stop it. Bleached eyebrows also perplex me a little bit. And it’s not a trend (well, if it is then I am resolutely unfashionable) but please, please if you are wearing a red or fuchsia lipstick, then do try not to apply to to your teeth.

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I loved mini kievs! I was a student in Norwich so we had the pleasure of swimming in the 'Bernard Matthews' pool. I rather expected to go in and find it filled with frozen turkeys! Thank you so much for sharing your confessions Helen. The green nails sounded like a particularly bad episode!

If you would like to take a turn and unburden yourself in the Friday Confessional you can email me at modestybrown@googlemail.com. It's open to everyone: if you have something to confess, I'm happy to hear it!


Image credit: Giorgio Bagnarelli on Flickr