Customising your iPhone!!

Hi!!

I found this amazing app that allows you to customise your iPhone icons and I couldn't wait to talk about it!! This is what I've done with mine....

It's pretty easy to do once you know how but unfortunately I'm no expert and am still learning, but I shall talk you through how I got to where I am now in 9 easy steps.

Step 1. Firstly you'll need an app called 'Cocoppa' it's free so just go to your app store and install it.

Once it's installed you can click into it and this is what you should get.... this is the homepage for Cocoppa, as you can see at the top there are icons, wallpapers and stamps.... (I've changed my icons and wallpaper but I'll be honest I don't even know what a stamp is yet!)

I'm going to show you can you can change the icon for Facebook and once you've done this you can then do the same process for the rest of your icons...

Step 2. Scroll to the bottom of the Cocoppa homepage and you will see a box under where it says 'search icons'. Enter the name of the app you want to change into this box. Facebook.

Step 3. A huge list of Facebook icons will appear and you can scroll down to view them all, then click through to the next page and so on. For facebook and other popular apps there are hundreds of icons to choose from but for less popular apps there may only be a couple or even none as I have discovered! Once you've found the icon you like, click it and you will be given the option to like or comment on it or 'set up link'. Click 'Set up link'.

Step 4. You will then come to choose what type of link. For facebook, click 'app search'.

I have had a little play around with the other types of links but am still unsure if I would personally make much use of these. The phone call link will create an icon on your screen that will automatically call someone in your phone book, for example if you make a lot of calls to your boyfriend you would link his number to the icon to create a short cut to calling him.

There are also email and message links which work in a similar way but will send an email or message to someone. Does that make sense?!

Below this however there is a URL option which I have used but am still getting to grips with. As far as I can tell you can set up an icon to direct you straight to a website (similar to how the Google app takes you straight to www.google.co.uk) This would be useful if you have a favourite website that does not have an app.

But anyway I seem to have come off track a little...lets get back to our facebook icon.

Step 5. Once you've clicked 'app search' you are then given a box to type in the app you are looking for. As Facebook is popular it is all ready given to us (along with other popular apps such as Twitter, YouTube and Instagram) just below the search box so you can just click on that. If however the app is not given to you in this list you should type the name of the app into the 'app name' search box and a list of options will appear.

Step 6. Once you've clicked Facebook, you will now be on the confirmation page.

Before I continue I should probably explain what is written in the red, bold font. Basically this is a message warning you not to delete the original app as the new icon is not replacing the app it's just creating a short cut. All the original apps I have put into a folder on the very last page called 'originals', these must be kept in order for the new app icons to work, if at any time you decided to get rid of your icon it can easily be deleted and the original app icon can be taken out of the folder and placed back where you want it. To go through to the next step....Click 'OK'.

Step 7. Click 'Yes'

Step 8. Having clicked 'Yes' on the previous page a page in Safari will now open. This page will look like this (minus the red circle I've drawn to show you what button should be clicked next!) This bits pretty self explanatory though...Once this button is clicked you then need to click 'add to home screen'.

 

 

Step 9. You will now be on the 'Add to home' Page. You have the option to edit what the icon is called, this is what will be written under the icon on your home screen. Then click 'Add'.

 

 

 



And VIOLA! Your beautiful new icons :)

I hope you've found this easy enough to follow, if you have any questions I will do my best to answer them!

Just to finish off I will say I did encounter a few difficulties while doing this and have not yet figured out why?! Firstly as you can see on the above picture I have changed my icon for Messages, this unfortunately doesn't take me directly to my messages inbox it brings up a box for me to start typing a new message, by clicking cancel I am then in my inbox but that's far too annoying for me to do every time I get a text so I'm going to see where i went wrong with this... another annoying thing is that when i get a text the number 1 in a red box appears over the icon, well this does not happen with the new icon :/ very annoying but I will work out where i went wrong and will let you know as soon as!

Also I have changed the icons for Safari and Mail...unfortunately these don't work either!! Or maybe they do but they just take so long to load I get bored of waiting a click out of it...either way I will find out where I went wrong with these and get back to you!!

Anyway... Happy Customising!!!

Michelle xxxx

 

Giving up chocolate!

Hey !

 

So if you've read my last post you will know that I have written a bucket list and I did say that I want to start ticking things off it... Due to the fact I can't magic up hundreds of pounds to take myself away on Safari and I definitely can't become a size 8 over night I have decided to set my sights on a slightly more achievable thing on my list! It came down to either giving up chocolate for a month or become a vegetarian for a month. With all this 'horse meat posing as beef' in our ready meals and burgers I was definitely preferring to give up meat, but I wanted to make it fair and a bit more interesting so I flipped a coin. Heads; give up chocolate, Tails; give up meat...

 

Heads! Damn it!

 

As of tomorrow, 11th Feb I will be on a chocolate ban until (at least) 11th March! For anyone who knows me you will know just how difficult this will be for me. Not a day goes by I don't eat chocolate (disgusting I know) but I really do get cravings for the stuff! Today for instance I have eaten a handful of cadbury chocolate buttons left over from a bag opened yesterday and a chocolate pudding I had for dessert this evening!

 

I will of course let you know how I get on, wish me luck!

 

Michelle x

My 'Bucket List'

Heyyy

 

Tonight I was looking through files on my computer, having a bit of a clear out as you do and I found a file I named 'michelle'. I had absolutely no recollection of what this could be and my face lit up when I opened the file...it was my bucket list!! I first typed up the list about 2-3 years ago and having a quick look through it, it didn't take me long to find no.47 Pass my driving test ( which I passed 3 days ago!) :)

 

As much as writing a bucket list is amazing and I think everyone should have one I'm not naive and I understand that I'm being very optimistic in many of the things I have on my list but at the same time I have many things on there I think are very achievable and i WILL do!!

 

I've amended it a little and crossed out those I've done....but this is my list :)

 

If you have one I'd love to see!

 

P.s Apologies for the poor quality of the list...hope you can still read it though!

 

 

 

Michelle x

Panda nail art 🐼

I've been meaning to try out this panda nail art design for a while! It's so cute and quirky!! Here's how I created this look step by step. Give it a try :)

You will need a base and top coat, white nail varnish (I use Rimmel tip whitener as the brush is thinner), a black nail varnish and a dotting tool (found in craft or beauty stores). Also to tidy up any nail varnish from the skin you will need a cotton pad, an orange wood stick and nail varnish remover.

 

 

 

Step 1.

Apply the base coat to the nails.

Step 2.
Use the white to paint half the nail.

Step 3.
Use the dotting tool to create the panda's ears, eyes and nose. I use the larger tip for the ears and the smaller tip to create the eyes and nose.

Step 4.
Use the small tip of the dotting tool to dot a small white dot on the panda's eyes.

Step 5.
Apply a top coat.

Step 6.
Use the cotton from inside a cotton pad on the end of an orange wood stick dipped into nail polish remover and rub away any nail varnish on the skin (if you've been a bit messy like me!)

 

 



So there you have it! Hope you found this helpful if you were thinking of trying this for yourself!

Michelle x

 

Have you seen enough of the Ombre trend?

So we’ve seen a lot of the ombre trend and it hasn’t just stopped at hair. We’ve seen makeup, nails and clothing too, but is it on the way out? I think not! The dip-dye hair trend has been rocked by loads of celebs and I just wanted to share with you a couple of my favourite looks!

Drew Barrymore ombre hair

 

Alexa Chung ombre hair

 

Jessie J ombre hair

 

Of course we can't forget everything else ombre!!

 

 



  



 

Here's how NOT to do the ombre trend... #neapolitanicecream

 

 

Michelle x



My favourite iPhone apps

I love installing new apps onto my iphone and I'm interested to see what apps you lot love too!

My favourite apps at the moment (other than Twitter! - follow me MichelleLou_mua) are We Heart It and Beautylish.

I've heard a lot about Pinterest but I've not used it myself, as I found an app called 'we heart it' which I suspect is quite similar? It's fab! I can spend hours scrolling through inspiring pictures of hair, makeup, fashion and everything in between... Once you've signed up you have the option to save your 'hearted' images to a gallery. I have several different galleries (for fashion, hairstyles, home, quotes) and by saving these images to separate galleries makes it so much easier when you want to look back through them.

If you are looking for something in particular then there is a search bar and the option to sort the results by 'recently added', 'most popular' or 'best match' first.

There is also a cool tool where you can heart images that you have found from other websites, all you have to do is select 'add image' and visit the website through the we heart it app and you can heart anything from the website so all your pictures can be saved in one place :)

There is also the option to follow friends and those with similar interests as you but as I don't know anyone signed up to We Heart It I have yet to try this!

If it's something you think you might be interested in then install it on your iPhone it's free :) and let me know what you think!

I've also recently installed the Beautylish app. It's similar to We Heart It because I can scroll through inspiring images but these images are purely related to beauty (hence the name!) so it's great for finding hairstyles, makeup, nail designs.

What I love about this app is that it doesn't stop at images, there are also 'how to' videos to watch, articles to read, a forum for beauty chat and (my fave!) a list of products with reviews to read. When reading a review on a product, (for example the Urban Decay Naked2 palette) it then gives you the option to see images and videos tagged with this product! It's pretty amazing and I love it!

Let me know what you think of these apps if you have them too and if you have any suggestions of other apps you think I might be interested in I would love to hear from you.

Michelle x

First EVER blog post!

Ok so here it goes, my first ever blog post!

I’ll start by introducing myself... I’m Michelle, 23, a mum of one and a recently qualified beauty therapist and makeup artist.

The idea for this blog came from other blogs I’ve read and the fact that just about anybody can start blogging! I love being nosey and having an insight into someone else’s world so I hope that you will enjoy reading about mine.

I’m not entirely sure what I shall blog about... I’m thinking beauty, fashion, makeup, crafts, baking and music! It just depends what I’m thinking about that particular day :)

Feel free to give me any suggestions and ask questions!

Thanks!!

Michelle x