A brief pause.......

Hi guys, 

I hope you've all had a lovely weekend, I know I have. I spent yesterday with my amazing friends who are letting finacee and I use their farm for our wedding; it is so perfect, exactly what we wanted; a great space for our family and friends to spend our big day. 

Today was spent in Topshop, spending big bucks (not) on an outfit for next weekend, fiancee's birthday - yummy Thai food, then beer-cocktails ahoy!

Anyhoo, as you may have noticed, the title of this post is nothing to do with nails. That's because I'm taking a small pause (2-3 weeks) away from this blog; I'm pretty overwhelmed with wedding planning, work and some family stuff at the moment. I love blogging, and I love nails, and I don't want this to feel like a burden, or something I *should* do. Tbh, I'm also struggling with my creative drive at the moment, and so don't have much to post anyway.

So, I WILL BE BACK, but I'm taking a brief blogging break - thanks so much to those of you who make me smile by sharing your thoughts on my posts and by generally being lovely, I look forward to being back soon. Lots of love,

Em x x x

Pink and gold glitter leopard print

ROAR.............or maybe miow is more appropriate?

This is the lovely Models Own Utopia maxed up with some leopard print; I used Models Own Bora Bora for the gold glitter and my fave nail art black pen to create the brackets and c shapes. Easy peasy. Perfect nail art for a week day night:)

Pretty. Hmmmmmmmmm, I wonder if leopard print could work for wedding nails...........I'll get back to you:) 

Mr Frosty!

Monday - bluergh........or so I thought. 

But instead, it became an amazing day, because my amazing friends at work clubbed together and bought me this........................

It's a Mr Frosty Crunchy Ice Maker! OMFlippingG! 

Maybe I should explain, as many of you may be wondering why someone old enough to be getting married is so excited over a Mr Frosty!

It started when I was 6 or 7; I was busy flicking through the bible of child-friendly commercialism, AKA The Argos Catalogue, when I came across the jolly looking Mr Frosty. I read the description - the cheerful soul, Mr Frosty, would make ice, in his tummy, in a few simple steps. MAKE ICE!? In a snowman's tummy??? That's practically performing magic when you're a kid. I had to have it. 

It carefully wrote out the name, description, sorting code, catalogue number.....you get the idea, onto my Christmas list. At the top. Then Santa would HAVE to get it.

He didn't.

I tried again next birthday. Then next Christmas. When I eventually realised that it wasn't Santa letting me down each present getting time, I started a Mr Frosty campaign (which is to say, I whined and pleased and begged and cried at my parents). 

My parents did not get it.

EVER!

Clearly, they found this smiling chap who would happily convert those yummy looking e-numbers into ice cold e-numbers somewhat disconcerting. Or maybe they were worried by the hold he had over me? Whatev. Many years of disappointment followed.........

UNTIL TODAY!

So excuse the lack of nails - I'm off to make some ice:)

Models Own Utopia swatch

Ok, so this polish was picked as a possible contender for Wedding Polish (a coveted position currently being vied for by the neutral and pink polishes in my collection) but probably won't be shortlisted - it'll just have to fake smile and pretend to be really happy for the polish that does win, who will get to wear a crown and cry tears of happiness.........oh wait, sorry, that's Miss America. 

Anyhoo, this is a lovely polish; it goes on easily, dries quickly, and as ever with Models Own, has a good brush - recent purchases have made me realise the value of this. It's a great work day polish, you can't get in trouble with this lovely on your nails:) But a wedding day polish.....sadly, no

Posh Polish Pinkabloo swatch

Gaaaaaaaaaaah Tuesday, how the blooming heck did you creep up on me?!

Anyway, to bring a bit of sparkle to a dreary day, here's Pinkabloo, a glitter topper by Posh Polish, a brand that's been catching my eye a lot recently. Here I've painted one coat over Models Own In the Navy, a perennial favourite, due to it's easy application and stunning colour. 

     

Pinkabloo went on very easily for a glitter topper, I only had to dab in a couple of bits of glitter here and there, but on most nails it went on well and spread out perfectly. It's made up of pink, purple and teal hex glitter, with a bit of teal specks running through it. I'm not sure this base shows it to it's best advantage, but tbh, these photos don't help - it looks amazing in sunlight, but it wasn't forthcoming:( 

I'm definitely going to try this with other bases, I think it's really stunning, what do you think? Have you tried many Posh Polish polishes? 

Mini haul - and it was free!

Ahhhhhhhhhh, Superdrug's loyalty cards - how would I survive without it? This haul comes courtesy of loyalty points, friends and toothpaste.......I'll explain:)

So, my amazing friends somehow worked out that nail polish was my thang, and bought me OPI I Juggle Men and Topshop Adrenaline. Both a gorgeous, and both are NOT dupes of anything I own, which is, at this point in my collection, BLOOMING AMAZING. But the, I do have amazing friends:)

Models Own Utopia, Posh Polish Pinkabloo and Barry M Blood Orange were paid for with Superdrug points - so they were FREE (although it does beg the questions, "I've spent HOW much to accumulate those points??!"

And lastly, most flippingly fun of all, I wandered into a branch of Boots to be confronted with the sign 'Free Polish' - yes, I'd read correctly, FREE Nails Inc polish with Colgate toothpaste. WTF???? Well, my teeth do need to be kept clean.........:) 

China Glaze Red Essence swatch + furry invasion!

Happy Thursday peeps; it's sooooooooooooooo almost the weekend:) My wine is cooling in the fridge............

I hope you've had a great week, I've been wedding dress shopping so I'm afraid I'm a bit behind on posting, apologies. Anyhoo, I have for you today the perfect Christmas polish, Red Essence by China Glaze, a red shimmery polish with orange-y undertones. 

 This polish went on beautifully, dried quickly and is such a gorgeous colour........but it really is a Christmassy colour, so it's going in the box until December, when it will be cracked open and worn frequently:)

Whilst this polish went on smoothly, photographing this it was much harder than usual due to my little furry friend. 

Subtle.

 Scoping the situ.

 Finding that sweet spot........

 Success!

Naughty fur baby!

China Glaze Secrets

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm - I'm still not sure about this polish, what do you guys reckon? I was so excited when I bought it, then I took it outside and ........... meh. I'm just not convinced. 

It goes on well, dries quickly but.......I don't know, maybe the shimmer makes me thinks it's just a bit old fashioned? Still, it's an autumn colour, so maybe I'll think differently in a few weeks when the nights are longer and the leaves start falling - ooooooh I love autumn:)

OPI Mod About You Swatch

Oooooooooooh my first OPI swatch - I picked this beautiful polish up form the airport on the way back from my holiday and it *almost* made up for the fact that I was leaving my amazing holiday to go back to home. 

It goes on like butter, dries quickly and builds up to a wonderful colour that makes my nails look like sugared almonds - SWEEEEEET! 

Have a great Saturday guys, I'm off wedding dress shopping, so excited! 

Revlon Hearts of Gold over China Glaze Innocence

So, China Glaze Innocence, is, as proven in my last post, gorgeous. Certainly suitable for a French manicure. Or....

GLITTER! Gold glitter with holographic hearts! Woohooooooo!

It's a bit of a pain to get the hearts on, you'll need to fish, but it's worth it. So cute. Wedding toenail maybe? 

China Glaze Innocence Swatch

Eeeeeeep, so excited about this polish as it was bought for a VERY important purpose.....my wedding! Although I usually love bright, shiny and glittery polishes, on my wedding day I want something clean, simple and elegant that will just accentuate my beautiful ring:)

So here's China Glaze Innocence, a stunning pink, perfect for a French manicure (if that's your cuppa). 

It goes on like butter, dries reasonably quickly (although, note the small smudge on my pinkie, not as quick as I'd have liked!) and is gorgeous. I LOVE it:)

Btw, I went wedding dress shopping yesterday and may have found the one! Dun dun dun.....