Geometric nails with nudey bits!

So yesterday was AWESOME! Got up as usual, cursing my alarm clock, got showered and dressed, staggered to work and then.................our heating had gone so we had to go home! Just like a dream:) 

So I headed home (devastated, of course, by the idea of being able to nap and eat cheese all day - heh heh heh) and decided to try something new with my nails. My recent history has mainly involved glitter/tape/glitter and tape so after a bit of Pinteresting (my new thing!) I found a colour combination I loved - coral, baby blue, white and gold and decided to have a go at something a bit geometric.

The original design I found was a bit more abstract than this, but regular followers will know that I struggle with abstract and like order!

I've always been shy of showing any of my naked nail, but after several attempts at this manicure with nude/pink colours at the base, and it looking a bit weird, it seemed I would have to bite the bullet. And surprisingly  it didn't make me want to cry. In fact, I kind of liked it!  

I used Matt White, Gold Foil Effect and Blueberry Ice Cream by Barry M, and Coraliscious by Accessorize. I used very skinny striping tape to outline the blue and coral areas, as I don't have proper brushes for that sort of thing. The gold, glitter and black stripes were free hand (and amazingly, both hands were okish, despite the freehanding!). I'm pretty chuffed with these and also pleased that my naked nail base didn't seem to scare anyone too much!

Hope you guys enjoy the rest of the week - make sure you wear sunnies next time you log on here, the Models Own glitters are being swatched as we speak, and boy do they shine! 

Kitty nails

Aaaaaaaaaaah - sweet Saturday relaxing:) I've had a chilled day (woke up at 11, rolled out of bed at 12, dressed at 1 - sweeeeeeeet) and so was keen to do something as chilled on my nails. Sitting on my sofa, dressing gown on, mug of coffee in hand, feet up, I looked around and realised that the only things more chilled than I were Boo and Monty. Given their life involves doing sod all, occasionally waking up to lick a paw/be fed/nip outside,  I thought they deserved a nail tribute to their amazing life. So here is it - kitty nails!

This is over one of my favourite colours, Barry M Pink Iridescent. I layered it over Nails Inc Elizabeth Street, my Glamour magazine freebie polish, to give it a more intense pink colour. The kitty and assorted kitty parts are various nail art pens. 

And talking of kitties - well Hello Kitty! The pictures below show Respect from the Hello Kitty collection (found in Superdrug). At £5 a bottle, and an unknown entity, I was a bit worried. However, my fears were unfounded - how flipping gorgeous is this colour?!!!!!! Simply amazeballs! It dried quickly, has a gorgeous sheen, glossy even without topcoat, good brush making application easy, and only needed 2 coats. I shall be buying more from this collection asap!

Cute, cute, cute! I would really have bought this for the bottle alone:) Enjoy the rest of your weekend peeps.

P.s. Models Own Wonderland Collection swatches coming soon.  

Lovely ladybirds:)

Ahhhh I've finally scratched that itch - the need to do something a bit different and mismatched, yet coordinated and fun:) So may I present....Ladybird nails!

I'm so pleased with how these turned out, I love the red and black combo, which is a first for me - I usually hate the two colours together. The red is a Maybelline one (the label came off, so no idea what it's actually called) but it has gorgeous application and is very glossy even without a topcoat.

The glitter on my little finger nail is of course Barry M Red Glitter (what else?!) and as always, is fab and brill and many other superlatives thrown in for good measure:)

Boo seemed to like these as well. Silly kitty:) 















Only two days til the weekend - can't wait!

Bits and bobs, and the worst polish EVER!

Urghhh, I'm hanging, went out last night and drank a little bit too much. Which would have been fine if I'd then been able to sleep, eat carbs and nap throughout the day whilst watching crappy TV, but sadly I was forced by bf to go to his niece's Christening, which was jam packed full of wailing babies and screeching toddlers. Urgh. It was a bucket of cold water over my ovaries, I can tell you!

Anyway, enough whining, looking through my photos I realised that I has several random swatches that I hadn't posted, so here's a few of those bad boys for your viewing pleasure.

This lovely duck egg blue is part of an Accessorize multi pack on sale in Superdrug. This was the one that convinced me to be honest, there were some nice pinks on the pack as well (9 polishes altogether) and some nice looking glitters, but this sold it to me. Considering the tiny size of the bottle, the brush was fine and the quality was the normal Accessorize quality. This is two coats, tbh it probably needed 3, but I really loved this colour. Think it will be more of a summer polish, but couldn't resist trying:) Boo seemed to like it too!

This was another polish from the multi pack. It is EVIL! It looked so promising, full of small and large pieces of green glitter. There I was thinking, brill, another Christmassy polish to keep December sparkly and shiny. So I popped it on for a sneak preview......argh! Good grief, it was dreadful. It clumped, the brush was dreadful and removing it..............................I'm still trying to removed green glitter from my cuticles:( Awful. 

Thankfully this is a very good polish. I'm actually in love with this polish. I only bought it as part of a 3 for 2 offer in Boots, it caught my eye and tbh I wasn't sure at first. I liked it, but I thought it might be a bit old ladyish, or one of those dreadful sheer things that need 453 coats just to get a bit of coverage. But once it was on my nails - love at first sight. This is only two coats, it's a really gorgeous colour and I feel it will be featuring regularly on my nails. It's my first Max Factor polish  but after this I'll be keeping an eye on their new colours. 

And this is just a flipping cute photo. Monty (left) and Boo (right) posing for a photo:)

 

Children in Need nails and kitty crimes!

Hi de hi peeps, hope you've had a good weekend and are looking forward to an awesome weekend?

My workplace get's very into Children in Need, so I spent today working in my pyjamas, laughing at my equally oddly clad collegues - it's very odd when you have to talk to someone about something serious, and they're wearing a onesy! 

Anyway, I thought my nails should look as ridiculous as the rest of me, so voila! Based on Pudsey's bandanna  I'm pretty pleased with them, I even managed to relax enough to do random dots, rather than strictly lined ones:) 

I finally found a use for a lovely creamy colour by Nails Inc, called Old Queen Street. It's got a lovely golden shimmer throughout it, but is a bit of a mare to wear - this is 4 coats to achieve opacity, it would probably work great as part of a traditional French manicure though, and does dry quickly.  The dots are various Barry M colours, applied with the end of a kirby grip (still not got around to buying a dotting tool!)

****************************************************************

You haven't had any gratuitous kitty photos for a while, so I thought I'd treat you with a shocking expose of Monty's secret guilty pleasure - stealing MY water!

Contemplating the crime....

Attempting the crime.....

Commiting the crime!

 Yuk!

Glitteeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeer Part 2!

Hi de ho peeps, hope you've all had a good weekend? 

I've basically been staring at my nails and grinning like a Cheshire Cat cos they is so darn sparkly:) The glitter below is part of the Wonderland collection from Models Own. I struggled to choose between the hot pink version (with yellow and orange sparkle in) or the purple version. As you can see, my love of purple got the better of me. This is one blooming amazing polish, I'm sure you can see that.

The polish is called Boogie Nights, and it does indeed make me want to dance. It's my first flakie (lol, sounds like one of those dolls that you can make 'eat', my first Shelly or whatever) and it's not going to be my last. It's a clear polish filled with small pink glitter, large pink hexagons, large blue hexagons and lilac flakes. 

I layered it over Blackberry, my Barry M Gelly, which worked well....however I'm keen to try it over something paler, I think it would make it 'pop' more.

I have to say, this is another top coat eater. The above is 4 layers (!) and the flakies did have a tendencies to be a bit sticky outy, so a thick top coat is essential. But that does not detract from its shiny awesomeness:) Have a good week peeps, 

ps - Christmas cake photos soon - OMG it's goooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooood! 

GLITTEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEER!

Arghhhhhhhh (running round screaming in excitement) my nails are soooooo sparkly! It's flipping brill:) Ok, so my first manicure with my newest glitters had to be Ruby Glitter by Barry M. It's an unusual polish really, it's a very faint grey jelly (kind of like smoke) with small and large hexaegonal matt glitter (surely an oxymoron?) and large ruby hexagonal glitter. As amazing as it is, the base is far too sheer to let it be worn on it's own, so I had to choose something to wear under it. I chose my Barry M grey, which I think may have made it a bit too dark and distracted from the amazing glitter. Sad face. 

I have to admit that this is 4 coats of the Ruby Glitter, it's a pain in the be-hind to apply, there is a clumping tendency and the rubies don't spread brilliantly (you'll be best off using the dabbing technique really). However I'm a bit in love with it, and after waiting and looking and wishing and preying (oooops, sorry, slipping into 60's ballads!) for 3 months for it, I'm chuffed. Toodle pips peeps, next glitter to be posted asap x

Cake, polish, sushi - epic weekend!

Hi de hi peeps, I hope you've had a lovely weekend, I certainly have:) I think this Saturday was one of the best I've had for ages. And it went a little something like this....

I spent yesterday mooching, something I rarely get to do. After a bit of Saturday Morning Kitchen and coffee (the reasons I wake up on a Saturday!) I decided to try out a manicure I've had at the back of my mind for ages. I've been wanting to use my Barry M Red Glitter again for ages (it's such a gorgeous polish, one of the first I bought when my obsession with polish started). However, I fancied something quite subtle. I ummed and ahhhed for ages, and then came up with this design. I love it! 

It took a while, simply because it took so long to place the striping tape, and it ate topcoat like you can't believe (you can see how it's still pretty bumpy if you look closely) but I really luuurve this manicure. If I'm honest, this was a prototype Christmas manicure, I'll definitely be rocking this again in December (I love Christmas, I'm already looking forward to it!). I love it so much I'm still wearing it, and will be for the next couple of days.

Anyway, after that, bf and I wandered into Birmingham City Centre. Which is where I accidently fell off the polish wagon......in a big way!

Hello Kitty Respect, MO Northern Lights, Southern Lights, Boogie Nights, Barry M Ruby Glitter.

N.b Please excuse the rubbish photo, there is now no natural light, so I'm trying to find places in my house that are light enough. I failed here, but had to give up as I had to nip out. then I gave up. So, actually short version - sorry the pics are rubbish, I'm lazy!

The Hello Kitty polish was in Superdrug. I only nipped in for shampoo, but when this caught my eye.....tbh, I'm proud that I only bought one HK polish, I love HK and could happily have bought the whole collection! I then nipped into Boots (honestly, I was just looking for conditioner) and found the MO and Barry M lovelies. I couldn't help it, they're glitter - I have no will power when it comes to glitter:(  

So after totally breaking my vow to not buy polishes, bf and I then headed to my favourite restaurant, a sushi bar with a conveyor belt. I love how the food slowly passes by you so that you can decide what you want at your own pace. Although I hate it when I miss out on something I want and have to sit there, waiting for it to come back around lol! Thankfully, my cat like reflexes (lol) worked and I gorged myself on delicious bits and bobs.

And after I'd eaten a belly full of sushi and waddled away from the conveyor belt, my day continued to be brilliant; when I nipped into the shops on the way back for yummy Saturday night wine, what did I find......why, Glamour magazine were giving away Nails Inc polishes! Amazeballs!

Today has been a little bit lazier, but still pretty lovely. Bf made banana loaf (the photo above shows what is left now, let's just say it was dam good!) It inspired me to get baking as well. Every year I make Christmas cake for my family, this year I'm making some for friends and bf's family too, so I decided to start early! Below is the beginning of 5 epic cakes - fruit and glace cherries soaking in orange juice and whisky....it's gonna be flipping brill!

Have a good week peeps! I'll be posting some very glittery swatches as soon as I can take off my red stripes:)