Care Bear Nails!

Introducing my new tiny nails:( Practical yes, pretty no. Ah well, they'll grow. These were a bit of a last minute panic and a desperate need to use my new polish from Barry M, Pink Iridescent. These remind me so much of Care Bears, I truly am a child of the 80's!

Curse you Superdrug!

Arghhhhhhhhhhh! This month I need to save my pennies. It's bf's birthday, will be half term soon, and I need money for these things. With this in mind I decided that I had to limit my polish purchasing this month. I slipped a bit by accidently ordering 10 nail polishes from Models Own (what, they were on half price, I couldn't help it!). So, I told myself, no more this month.

Then I went to Superdrug. I honestly tried to get past the Barry M section without looking, but the new glittery polishes were glinting so much that I couldn't help but visit the stand.....and there were more glitter  more effects and their Jellys! Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo.

Long story short, see my purchases below (in my defence, it was buy 2 get 1 free).

I blame Superdug. 

Swatch Accessorize Dream

Hi guys, hope you've been having a good week, almost Friday!!!

Thankfully my back has improved significantly, and I've was able to move enough to paint my nails (I was honestly having withdrawal symptoms!). However a terrible tragedy occurred this afternoon - nail break! Gutted, I'd just got them the length and shape I wanted them:( Ah well , back to shorties. Thankfully, before this terrible incident happened, I used a polish from one of my latest hauls, Dream from Accessorize.

It's a 3D polish, and has minuscule blue glitter combined with larger purple glitter. The base is almost clear, with maybe a blue hint, so I knew I was going to have to layer it to hide my hideous natural nails totally. I used one of my favourite ever polishes, Indigo by Barry M. It's such an amazing polish, great in two coats, no bald spots, amazing colour and shine. 

I layered 2 coats of Dream over this. It goes on quite well, the purple glitter does tend to clump a little, but not badly, and it's quite grainy. However, my biggest problem was that the purple just didn't stand out. It might have been my choice of base colour, but still. Meh. See below to see what I mean. Gutted. 

Ah well, c'est la vie! Btw, random question, but do you guys tend to match your polish to your outfit? I've been noticing that my nails often clash, and whilst it doesn't bother me, does it bother you ? (if you do it, not if I do it, that would be weird!) Have a great Fridaaaaaaaaaaaaaay! x

Accessorize Aztec Swatch

I'm feeling very sorry for myself at the moment. On top of a nasty cold, I managed to put my back out this weekend. Cue lots of lying around on the floor, moaning like an old lady when trying to stand, and no longer being allowed to bend/lift/drive! Worst thing about this; not even a cool, hilarious story to explain how it happened. No, "oh yeah, so I was skiing down this mountain and I took a tumble", no "well, I was practising my Olympic gymnastic routine and hurt myself" line. Just this; at some point on Saturday I stood up and realised that doing so was blooming agony! I feel as if I have aged 60 years in a weekend. Thank goodness for my wonderful bf, who has cooked for me, topped up Bertie (my hot water bottle) and generally just been awesome. 

As bending over to do my nails is very painful, it may be a few days until there are more nail posts. Thankfully, I'd done these nails before the incident occurred, so I at least have something to show you. On a recent Superdrug haul I'd picked up a couple of NYC polishes. I used the purple to begin with, and although I kind of liked the colour (very Quality Street-esque) it went on badly. It took a long time to dry, especially considering it's supposed to dry in a minute, and bubbled badly. But then I realised it would be an ideal undercolour for Accessorize Aztec, a petrol-ly sorta colour. 

I love this, and I'm pleased the photos showed the greeny-purply-bluey-goldy glitterly colour. Aztec isn't great on it's own, so I'm pleased that it can be saved with a base colour. I'm also pleased it looks good, s it's going to be on my nails until I can retrieve my polish remover from the floor. Have a good weekend peeps. 

50/50 mani

Hope you're all enjoying your weekend. Thank you so much for your kind words after my sad post last week, you guys are amazing.

To cheer myself up I've turned to shopping in a big way, but thankfully only on Ebay/in TK Maxx (otherwise would have melted my poor credit card!). In the last week I've bought black winter boots, a pair of pink shoes, a pair of nude shoes, a gorgeous plum jumper and a blue dress - naughty! Nail wise, I decided to use two of my favourite polishes, Magenta Pearl and Prey from Models Own (btw, anyone else been desperately hoping to win their comp on FB?) and tried a new look.

I have no idea what to call this, so 50/50 will have to suffice for now:) Enjoy the rest of your weekend possums. 

Sad news

This isn't a nail post, but a sad post. You may have noticed that I'm a cat lover. I've always had cats, and grew up with three of the best; Rufus, Molly and Boots. All daft as a brush, all greedy as pigs, all guaranteed to make you laugh at the end of a long day. Molly and Rufus passed away several years ago, but until recently Boots, the youngest, was going strong. Living with my parents back home she was thoroughly spoilt for cuddles and milk.

Sadly, my poor little Boots had to be put to sleep today. It's a very odd feeling, knowing that it was the right decision, because despite that it is a horrible one.

So, if you have a glass (wine, ribena, water), then raise it to Boots. Never again will she trip me over when I stagger back home, trying to pretend to my parents that I'm not drunk, and raise the alarm by meowing so loudly that people assume a foghorn has been sounded. I will miss her x

Dots and stripes!

Greetings peeps. Hope you've had a good Monday (if such things exist!). I had a manic, but fun, day, especially after getting several compliments for my new nails. I got inspiration for this from Prima Creative, which features some amazing designs. After a breif fling with various other nail polishes, I have returned to my favoured Barry M cherubs for this design. I have to admit that I'm not a huge fan of the base coat (a bit salmony looking and too chalky) but with these colours it stands out:)

Presenting tape and dots mani - the first of many I think:)

Shiny glitter gradient!

Howdy peeps. Hope you're all having a lovely weekend. I had a lovely family daytrip to Bath yesterday, and spent a very long time in fancy shops that made me wish I could quickly flog a kidney and afford some nice things! Anyway, I did go to Waterstones and bought far too many books and also an insane amount of stickers from the world's greatest shop, Paperchase. I love somewhere where I can buy pointless but cute stickers, adorable pencils etc. I don't think I'll ever get over my love of stationary! Anyway, back to nails....

I've been rocking this manicure for several days now, and I love it! I knew that Coralicious and Molten Copper (from my Accessorize haul)  were born to be together. I haven't tried a glitter gradient before, so I decided this was it. And....I kind of love it. It certainly wasn't perfect, as it was done late at night, but I feel it worked. It sort of reminds me of fire, which then got me thinking about Game of Thrones and missing it.....but that's my other geekiness coming through. Anyway, what d'ya reckon? 

Liebster award

Ooooooooooh, this is ker-Azy exciting, the lovely Katy at http://platypusnails.blogspot.co.uk/ has nominated for a Liebster AwardJ Whoop whoop! If you don’t know who Katy is, you are mad, go follow her NOW – she has a mascot for goddness sake, it’s beyond awesome. And of course she’s incredibly talented, check out her flamingo nailsJ

 

Anyway, I’m very excited that anyone reads this, so being nominated is beyond thrilling. The rules demand the following;

1. Each person tagged must post 11 things about themselves.
2. They must answer the 11 questions the 'tagger' has set for them.
3. They must create 11 more questions to ask bloggers they have decided to tag.
4. They must then chose 11 bloggers with less than 200 followers and tag them in their post.
5. These lucky bloggers must then be told.
6. There's no tag backs!

So without further ado;

1. I started doing my nails years ago at Secondary School. I wasn’t allowed to wear make-up (strict parents) but polish was ok, so it became a big form of self-expression for me.  I had loads of polishes, and really got into (fairly basic) nail art. Then GCSE, A Levels, Uni, etc came along and for a while it fell by the wayside. Then last year I started noticing nail art everywhere, and as I do a job where I have to dress quite conservatively I decided it was time to start up again. 

2. I have two pet cats and I adore them. I rescued them both from the RSPCA a few years ago and I’m amazed by how different they are now. In particular, when I recued Boo she was terrified of people; because of this she’d spent 3 months at the centre being overlooked for friendlier cats. I fell in love with her when I saw her and knew she’d be coming home with me. For those of you who’ve seen my ‘Gratuitous Kitty Pictures’, you’ll notice that she is no longer scared of people and is now addicted to cuddles and playtime. Monty is also amazing, and stupidly elegant. He looks like he should wear a monocle!

3.  I love reading; I’m a total geek and list all the books I’ve read. The list goes back a good few years now.

4.  I have a job that demands a huge amount of my time, and painting my nails is a great way of distressing after work. But I also try running whenever I can, even though I think I may look like Phoebe from Friends when I do.

5. Talking of Friends, I love the series, and quite regret the fact that they are no longer played constantly on E4 lol.

6. I love fashion, but always get it wrong. I’m not really the shape for fashion (gangly legs, plenty of curves, not all in the right places, massive feet). So I stick to nail art.

7. My musical taste is eclectic, but my favourite albums are the ones I grew up with when tiny when my parents would play them.  Kate Bush, Elton John, The Beatles, Elvis and Paul Simon are amazing, and make me smile when I hear them. 

8. I would literally kill for dim sum. I’m lucky enough to live reasonably near a China Town, and suspect that one day I’ll be found there, face down on the pavement, having OD-ed on Chow Sui pork buns.

9.  I make the best Christmas cake. Fact.

10.  I’ve recently discovered The Great British Bake Off, and now my Tuesday nights involve pjs, tea and watching baking disasters and triumphs.

11. I love Lil Bub. If you don’t know what he is, you need to head to YouTube and check him out. Then go awwwwwwwwwwwwww

Monty is pleased you have made it so far. Well done.
Please keep reading to see who I've nominated:) 

Ok, now onto the questions I have to answer, set by the lovely KatyJ

1.     If you were put under a curse and turned into a nail polish, what kind of polish do you think you would be?

I’d love to think I’d be some classy Dior or Chanel number, but the chances are I’d be a sparkly Barry M colour, cheap and cheerful.

2. What's the strangest thing that's ever happened to you?

Meeting my bf. But strange in a good way.

3. What's on your Christmas list this year?

Nail varnish, anything with cool owls on, books, anything from Paperchase.

4. Which books have you read recently, and were they any good?

I read Angry Housewives eating bon-bons recently, loved it as it looks at how life has changed for women in America since the 60’s, but in a fictitious,  warm and enjoyable way. 

5. What's your preferred method of creating nail art (stamping, tape, dotting tools, etc)?

Love tape manis, for me it feels retro as it’s what I did when I was younger, but also appeals to the side of me that likes straight lines and order.

6. What was your worst subject at school?

PE. Because I was really short sighted, so I just kept getting hit on the head with whatever ball was in play.

7. If you were given an all-expenses paid holiday to your dream destination, where would you go?

Antarctica. I find it fascinating, Frozen Planet with David Attenborough (all hail!) only fanned the flames further.

 
8. Do you play any musical instruments?

I used to play the clarinet. I miss it. But no, I no longer play anything.

9. What colour do you have most of in your nail polish collection?

Blue. Which is odd, as I’m not sure it suits me that much.

10. Who you do look up to/admire?

I really admire people who anyone who is happy to be themselves and ignores the generic crap that our media seems to dictate as being acceptable.

11. What's your number one pet peeve?

People who can't make their point without swearing. Buy a thesaurus! 

You may well be sleepy like Boo now. But please keep going to find out
which wonderful people I've been following and loving. 

My goodness, I haven’t typed this much in a long time. Ok, so my questions for the bloggers I nominate.

1.     If you go back in time, where would you go and why?

2.     Can you speak another language other than your mother tongue?

3.     What type of biscuit is your favourite?

4.     Do you have a pet?

5.     What has been the best present you’ve ever received?

6.     How did you get into nail art?

7.     If you won £100 what would you spend it on?

8.     What is your favourite American sitcom?

9.     Where would you most like to travel to?

10.  Tiny dogs; good or bad?

11.  Do you have a nickname?

And here are those amazing blogs. These are the ones I love browsing when I need some inspiration, giggles or just that warm fuzzy feeling that you get when you realise that there are great people in the world who have a passion and desire to share their ideas, skills and sense of humour!

Alice at One Nail To Rule Them All

Candice at Mr Candiipants

Whitney at Dressed Up Nails

Kitties and Polish

Glitz and Glammer

Natalsie at Cats N Nails

Simple Joy of Polish

Arielle at Klutzy Hands

Lucky Love Nails

Joanna at Sweet Polish of Mine

Lou Moss at Tips and Topcoat

Good luck to them all, and go check them out, you'll love them like I do. 

Geometric nails

Ok, this is weird; because I am so crazy busy, I know that I won't have time to post the nails I've just done soon, so I've scheduled this post; so it feels kind of like I'm talking to the future as I type this. Hello future mes and future yous! Lol:) Anyway, first things first, new polishes. I went to Superdrug yesterday and noticed that they stock the Accessorize nail polishes and that they were 2 for £5! Good work Superdrug. I've only bought one Accessorize in the past and loved the colour and application, so I was very excited. As I was with my bf I was very restrained and only bought 4. Bf thought 4 was too much, I thought I'd been very good. Anyway, behold! 

L to R; Molten Copper, Dream, Aztec, Coralicious

I'm very excited about using these. I'm dying to use Dream, it's got a really dense small blue glitter with larger pieces of purple glitter in as well:) Glitter heaven! Anyway, I was already wearing my new fave polish (Pray by Models Own) so  decided to incorporate the Coralicious into a geometric design. I love tape manis, I always find they work really well for me:) And the straight organised lines work well for my OCDness. 

Ha ha - hand butterfly:)

My lovely bf helped me by taking the photos, hence both my hands are featured! I really love this colour combo, unusual for me as I usually prefer softer pastel shades. Maybe I'm changing like the seasons.....but that's a deep question and I need to go to bed. Let's hope this scheduling malarky works:) Toodle pip! 

Leopard Print - roar!!!

Oh my goodness, I'm so tired! This week has been crazy, it's Sunday night and even though I didn't wake up til 11am today, I'm still shattered. Oh how I wish I was on holiday next week. The hecticness (new word!) has meant that I've had to neglect my nails, which I'm sure you can see from my sad and unhappy cuticles. However.................. I am in love! Unexpectedly, I've fallen for a brown nail varnish! Never thought I'd see the day. It was from my haul last week. Introducing my newest love, Pray by Models Own. It's gorgeous, easy to apply and glossy, glossy, glossy. I've used it as the base for a nice and simple leopard print:) 

Hope you're enjoying the last of the summer sunshine!

Swatch - Nails Inc Clifford Street

Good grief; this was almost impossible to photograph! I took over 30 photos, in such an odd variety of poses I looked like a snap happy crazed yoga fanatic flailing madly around the room. Good job bf was in the other room. He doesn't need to see that.

Anyway, to the actual polish. Is it totally wrong that I'm totally meh (technical term) about this polish? I've been trying to find a good purple for ages and when I saw this I thought, wow, deep purple with gold flecks - what's not to love? But now it's actually on my nails it looks very flat. The purple looks almost grey and the gold flecks are somehow lost. I have to say, had I paid full price for this polish I'd have been very disappointed. On the plus side, the application was very good; two coats, full coverage, fairly fast drying. Just not the colour for me:( 

Ps - anyone else been watching Great British Bake Off? Now that it's back to school September, I feel it's practically winter already, so I'm looking forward to some baking this weekend, especially after my wonderful friend K bought me a new baking book. My first challenge; Cheshire Cat Cupcakes - then maybe Cheshire Cat nails? 

Swatch - Model's Own Magenta Pearl

Dearest bf; when we went to TK Maxx today I totally did not wait for you to disappear so I could go and ogle all the polishes, and then I so didn't quickly get all excited and squeaky and make my friends make sure the coast was clear so I could go and buy polish and you would never know, and I certainly did NOT practically swoon over this colour.

Some of you may have guess I'm lying, But (in high, squeaky voice) look at this colour, it's flipping AMAZING! It's hard to capture the slight bluey tone it has that makes it truly gorgeous, especially in the sunshine. But trust me, it wonderful. 

My collection!

Oooops....so, somehow, I have more nail polishes! I have NO idea how this happened:) This is the July/August haul. I feel that by sharing my polish purchasing weakness on my blog it makes it somehow an investment rather than a luxury lol. 

L to R; Maybelline Khaki Green, Barry M Block Orange, Stillday No.50, Tweety  Disco Pink.

L to R; Betty Jackson Teal, Pewter Black, Claret, Aubergine.

L to R; Model's Own Magenta Pearl, Copper Pot, Pray.

Nails Inc.; Clifford Street, Old Queen Street, Edinburgh Gate.

Now I just have to get round to wearing them all; I already have big plans for my newest glitter! 

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

As a (relatively) new nail obsessive, my collection is still small compared to many. However, I'm going to list  my collection, as it appeals to the OCD side of me! I just have to hope that my bf doesn't visit this page as he's still under the impression I have "just a few". Oooops. Oh well, here goes.... 

Left to right; Barry M Blueberry Ice Cream, Cyan Blue, Cobalt Blue, Indigo, Shade 292. 

Left to right; Barry M Silvery Lilac, Hologram, Copper, Aqua Glitter, Magenta Glitter.

Left to right; Barry M Bright Pink, Shocking Pink, Bright Purple, Dusky Mauve.

Left to right; Barry M Spring Green, Emerald Green, Racing Green, Teal.

Left to right; Barry M Coral, Bright Red, Red Glitter, Raspberry, Red Black.  

Left to right; Barry M Berry Ice Cream, Mint Green, Peach Melba, Lemon Ice Cream.

Left to right; Barry M Grey, Matt White, Mushroom, Gold.

Left to right; Barry M Croc Effects, Gold Crackle, Black Crackle.

Left to right; Barry M Gold, Silver.

Left to right; Rimmel Black Cherries, Sunshine, Tangy Tangerine, Funtime Fuchsia.

Left to right; Maybelline Onyx Black, Porcelain, Rose Poudre.

Left to right; Me Me Me Jessica, Jordan.

Left to right; Bourjois 23, 28, 27.

Left to right; No. 7 Totally Teal, ArtDeco 275, NYC Fashion Ave. Fuchsia.

Left to right; Accessorize Sapphire, Models Own Purple Ash. 

Nail Art - various.

Gosh Nail Glitter
Top row left to right; Blue Sapphire, Silver, Amethyst Purple
Bottom row left to right; Gold, Rose Quartz, Turquoise.