Holiday haul!

As promised guys, here's my South American haul - I was bad, very bad:) 

Holiday + birthday + engagement = muchas polish. 

 China Glaze for £8 a bottle - got to love that exchange rate:) L to R: Red Essence, Innocence, Secrets, Water You Waiting For.

 OPI polishes for about £9.50 - God bless duty free shopping in airports! 

Mod About You and Gold Shatter.

 Random Argentinian drugstore - unnamed, yummy glitters! Nommy nommy:) 

Another random Argentinian drugstore - oh well, if you will sell polish for £1.50, I will buy it! 

Revlon polish for £4? Okay! Whimsical and Hearts of Gold FX

Ooooops, nipped into another drugstore.........these worked out about £1 each - the fact that I only bought 2 was a miracle. And also enforced by my bf, who eventually manhandled me out the shop lol! 

And then...........it was my birthday, and my bf's lovely sister bought me these goodies - unbelievable:) 

A Konad stamping kit - flipping AMAZEBALLS! 

A small round up

I've died and gone to heaven:)

I'm home! I'm engaged! I'm loaded with South American polishes.............................

Hey guys,

Just a quickie to let you know that I am home after my epic holiday - the bags have been unpacked, the pile mountain of dirty clothes have been placed near the washing machine, the cats have been snuggled and my new polishes have been unwrapped:)

But most importantly, I am now engaged to my lovely boyfriend, now fiancée! In a cunningly orchestrated operation, he managed to totally surprise me by proposing when we were approaching Machu Picchu after a 4 day trek.

Of course I said yes:)

So now, I have a beautiful ring on my finger, a grin on my face and a spring in my step! 

I'll be back with details of my EPIC haul soon, but now I need to shower and sleep - it's been 28 hours since I woke up and headed to the airport, and I'm feeling grubby.........ewwwww. x x x

Accessorize Coraliscious with gold glitter Accent nail

Ahhhhhhhh, an oldie but a goody; strong colour with a glittery accent nail:)

IRL the Coraliscious is much more eye-catching - almost neon! The accent nail was a couple of coats of Models Own Ibiza Mix, a mix of blue/green and gold glitter, topped with Barry M Yellow Topaz Glitter, my newest rediscovery:)

P.s - still on my hols peeps, this is scheduled x

Barry M Yellow Topaz Glitter over Elizabeth Street

Hola - hope you guys are all doing well and enjoying some summer:)

So this combo was inspired by one of my lovely friends Jen. She has lovely nails, probably because she lets them go au natural most of the time. Anyhoo, at the her hen do the other day she asked me to paint a layer of Barry M Yellow Topaz Glitter over her bare nails. It looked stunning, and reminded me why I love this polish.

Now, there's no way I'd reveal my real nails, so I went with a base coat of Nails Inc Elizabeth Street, a very soft pink that goes on smoothly.

My goodness, how did I forget about this baby? Gold and holographic glitters in a variety of different sizes, amazing:) Soooooooo cute!

ps - this is a scheduled post, so please don't be offended if I don't reply to any comments.

From Warsaw with Love

(Scheduled) greetings from Peru, hope you're all well peeps:)

I have lined up today the lovely From Warsaw with Love by H&M - a lush purple with blue and red shimmer.

The photos don't do this justice - they also emphasise the slight bald patch at the bases that I missed (doh!) - but I really like this polish. It takes a while to dry but the shimmer (blue in some lights, red in others) is more visible IRL. Besides, who doesn't love a good purple? x

Did I Tell You - there's going to be Sunshine!

Hey guys, this is another glitter-tastic baby from my recent haul. 

This is the lovely Did I Tell You by H&M - my goodness, they're selling some stunners at the moment. I painted it (easily, no placing, good smooth application) over one of my older polishes, Sunshine by Rimmel.

 Ps - this is a scheduled post, so please don't be offended if I don't reply to any comments.

Models Own Hed Kandi Sunset Chillout swatch

There's a party on my nails, and everyone's invited!!!!

O.M.Flipping.G - this is, to paraphrase the Fresh Prince, DA BOMB!

 

BTW, if you're thinking, "gosh, Emma's never done a close up shot of a glitter polish before", that's because I haven't. I ONLY JUST realised my camera could do this. So yes, I am a total muppet:) Anyhoo, look at the baby; large blue hexes, orange, green and gold medium hexes, small purple squares, small pink, blue and green hexes, holographic bars............my god, it's stunning.

Because there are soooooooo many different glitters in here, it was tricky to match it, the best results I found were over In The Navy, another Models Own classic. Honestly, I love this glitter so much it's smashed it's way into my top 10! Happyness is glittery nails:)

Ps - this is a scheduled post, I'm on my hols, so please don't be offended if I don't reply to comments:) x

Models Own Bora Bora swatch

Hi guys, this is a scheduled post whilst I'm on my holidays, hope you enjoy:)

Ahhhhhh, this polish is summer partying squished into a bottle:) It's from the Hed Kandi range by Models Own, which I've loved, as they're such stunning and 'out there' shades and glitters. Bora Bora is no exception, it's jaw-droppingly lush:)

Now, I loved this polish......but my bf? Well, he described it as 'glittery snot', not because it looked like that but because he watched me applying it, and it is pretty.....glooopy. Or snot like. LOL. Whatever, I love this polish, it's a super fine gold glitter, and builds up quickly - this is 3 coats. It's an odd one; you could party with this or wear it as a low key day time shade - insane that it's both.

Makes me want to walk along barefoot in the hot sand of a tropical island, cocktail with umbrella in one hand:) Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. 

Unhappy nails

Hi guys,

Before you start reading this, be warned; this is a rant post; I am NOT a happy bunny.

As you may know, I'm off on an adventure packed holiday soon, and so I decided to treat myself to a gel manicure for several reasons; it would last the duration of the holiday, it would mean I wouldn't have to lug my nail stuff round with me and I wouldn't be worrying about chipping. Sooooooooooooooo, with high hopes and an excited, pre-holiday spring in my step, I headed round to my local salon for a manicure. So far so good.

The excited feeling began to fade when the woman dealing with me wanted to cut my cuticles - er, hello, NO! This really should have been the point when I left, but no, I'm British and I stayed.

She painted and painted, and the nail blogger/lover in me kept thinking, "I'm sure she'll tidy that smudge up, I'm sure she'll clean my cuticles up". But no. And so after 30 minutes, I left the salon, in tears, with the worst manicure EVER! The colour was patchy, the polish was bubbling, and the cuticles.............eurgh! Unbelievable. 

I know what you're thinking - pictures please. But no, there are no pictures, it was just too horrible, and also I didn't have my camera on me.

I was so angry, partly at myself for staying, I circled the block a few times, wiped the tears away and headed back. I informed the woman that I wasn't happy and  wanted her to remove it (and was incredibly polite, considering how furious I was) - she told me that if she'd been able to cut my cuticles it would have been ok. BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH

Long story short; my cuticles are (please look away if you don't like swearing, because the only word appropriate to use here is) F*CKED and I know have dry, sad looking, naked nails. 

Rant over. 

Haul! Whoop whoop!

Oooooooh I was naughty yesterday; whilst buying up what felt like EVERYTHING in the Bullring ready for my trip on Saturday, I *accidently* found a few polishes:)

Boots were spoiling me with their amazing 3 for 2 offer, so I HAD to buy some Models Own babies. I've been looking for Pink Punch (below, middle) to complete my neon ice collection, so had to get that, and then I saw Sunset Chillout (right) and Bora Bora (left) - swatches soon:) 

Honestly, Bora Bora makes me think of a gorgeous sandy beach after a few cocktails lol:)

Then, whilst trying to resist t-shirts with pugs on in H&M (quite difficult given my pug love, but deemed non-essential for mountain climbing) I found these bad boys. 

The stunning purple is called From Warsaw with Love, the glitter-bomb baby is called Did I Tell You? I love how H&M use such cute names, and I have to say it took all my will power to only buy these two, they're really upping the polish standards:) 

Swatches soon peeps, am applying between typing lol:)