Sinful Colors Sugar Sugar and Barry M Starlight

Ah post boxing day - a day of utter nothingness. Napping, eating odd combinations of left-overs, watching the dregs of TV....weird, given how packed my days usually are, but it has given me time to do a few things I love; namely, sit of the sofa, gaze at nail blogs, paint my own nails and drink gin and tonics. Slothing at its best!

As i has spare time, I decided to have a search through my polishes and dug out a few untrieds; today I've paired Sinful Colors Sugar Sugar with Barry M Starlight. 

Sugar Sugar is a rather lovely red; actually, my favourite red that I've bought so far, it just seems to work with my skin tone. It's also filled with microscopic little specks, giving it an 'inner light' so to speak. The application is better than other Sinful Colors I've tried as well, still a pretty appalling brush but a much better drying time.

The specks are lovely, they give it an unexpected shimmer. It's actually not quite as orang-y as the pictures above suggest, but I'm having major camera issues at the moment so these pictures are the best I can get for now:(  

As it's Christmas-time, I decided to go full out sparkle; well, that and the fact that I was undecided about this next polish and so I thought, as I'm not actually planning on leaving the house (still in Xmas pjs, whoop whoop!), I can try it out and no-one has to know if it's awful.

 Apart from you guys:)

So I popped Starlight by Barry M over the top - it's a slightly bonkers combination of large gold and holographic sparkles with specks of glitter and holographic stars. Errrrr...

Let's just say that it works in theory. I mean, yes it's kind of awesome.....but also, it does look like something an 11 year old girl about to go to the school disco at Xmas designed. I think, sadly, maybe I've outgrown this polish - it's just TOO glittery for me. I think gold and holo and stars were just too much....a sad day for me. 

Goodbye youth!

Merry Christmas!

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas? I'm sat in a post-Boxing day slump, having spent the day eating ham and cheese, drinking gin and watching The Muppet's Christmas Carol (the BEST Christmas movie EVER!).

My Christmas nails for this year were pretty low-key, based on the fact that we here hosting and so I spent the run-up tidying the house obsessively - not great for applying polish. However, I was really please with these as they made me think of Christmas tress (the dark green pines, the sparkling baubles) and so made me feel festive every time I look at them:) 

Very simple, obvs; 3 coats of 'Mermaid' by Posh Polish and a coat of the Barry M Special Edition (circa December 2012!) I love the depth of the glitter.....

Btw, please excuse the lobster hands (claws?) - my camera HATES green, so this was the best I could get:( 

This photo sums up the next few days for me; napping until New Year! Whoop whoop for 10 days off work!

Barry M Silk Collection - Forest

I hope you're all having  lovely Christmas Eve Eve? I'm sat with my lovely hubby, drinking wine and watching Christmas movies; Miracle on  34th Street (Emma believes!), The Grinch, Jingle All the Way...........bliss:)

Of course, as I'm watching, I'm painting my nails - today with Barry M Forest from their amazing Silk collection. I've said it before, but I really wasn't convinced with this collection to begin with. Now, I own almost the entire collection!

As you can see, it dries with a lovely matte effect; but that shimmer shows through....

My silly phone made it look blue, but it really is a stunning deep green. If you don't want the matte look you can cover it with a topcoat. But today, I fancied matte:) 

Still planning my Christmas nails, but might have to wait whilst I drink more wine!

Haul!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh dear, I've been a teeny bit naughty. Despite not having time to do my nails (due to making all the decorations for my wedding) I have found time to but lots of polish. This is my most recent haul;

Lot's of Barry M, he's been spoiling us with his amazing Gelly and Silk collections. From the pink - Blossom, Papaya, Huckleberry, Cappucino, Cancun, Almond, Coconut and Blueberry. The red, pink and white glitter mix is by Loreal, called Graffiti D'Amour - I haven't even swatched it and I'm in love with it:) Swatches soon peeps x

My so called life - weddings, houses and some nail polish! Pic heavy!

Oh wow - it's been so long since I've posted as my life has been chaos! 

As I mentioned in my last post, as well as house hunting and job hunting, I'm also planning a wedding - STRESS! Things are looking up though - we've found a house we love and have had our offer accepted; it's so exciting to think that we should soon have a house that we can start a family in. On this note, I've been banned from watching One Born Every Minute as fiance is a bit worried by my obsession with babies, birth, pregnancy, nurseries..........:)

Anyhoo, I've been making all the decorations for my wedding and I thought I'd share them with you (partly as proof that I'm not just a slacker lol) so here goes;

First off, I've made buttonhole for all of the groom's party, as well as one for my Dad and one for my gay best friend who'll be in my bridal party (bride-male instead of bridesmaid?) As I'm totally obsessed with buttons, I took the term buttonhole quite literally!

I then made 4 bouquets for my bridesmaids - keeping with the button theme. These seemed to take forever! But for the last few months I've been coming home to find packets of buttons and ribbons awaiting me - sheer joy:) They've been so much fun to make.

As well as these, I've been making metres and metres of bunting - 75 metres so far, only 25 metres to go. This has been less fun than the bouquets and buttonholes - I've had to cut out a billion triangles of fabric, tack them onto the bias binding, sew them on using my sewing machine and then unpick all the tacking. Sad face. 

The craft that has given me the most joy however has been making my bridal bouquet. I knew I wanted a button bouquet as soon as I saw them on Pinterest. As much as I love flowers, it makes me sad that once they're picked they die so quickly - also, the sheer expense of them put me off! I honestly couldn't find a bouquet I liked for less than £100, and button bouquets were even more expensive, so I decided to make my own. I used broaches and buttons from my grandmother's collection and topped it up with many, many purchases from ebay! It has taken months but I'm so proud of it! Here it is................

This hasn't left much time for my nails, but I have been buying and applying, just not posting. So here's a very brief update on my nails for the past few weeks;

The gorgeous Aquatic collection by Barry M - Mediterranean, a lovely pinky-gold...... 

......the even more stunning Pacific from the same collection........LOVE.......

 ......the adorable Barry M limited edition released for Superdrug's 50th birthday (purple, white, red and pink glitter in a hot pink glitter - er, amazeballs much?!) .......

.....and the lovely White Splatter by Maybelline - this goes with EVERYTHING! If you don't already, invite it into your life, it will make almost everything better:) 

Wow - that was a long post. I'll (hopefully) be back asap peeps, thanks for baring with me for so long:) Toodle pip! 

Barry M Silk collection

Oh. My. Flipping. Goodness! How amazing are these? I so wasn't keen when I saw them featured on other blogs - my first thought was '****, the 80's are back!'.

But then...............

This was like wearing a sugared almond on my nails and I LOVED it! LOVED IT!!!!!!!!!

  Would you just look at the shimmer? Oh dear lord, this made me drooooooooool. And (whisper it) this may be a contender for my wedding day - my something borrowed! Eeeep!

Haul!

Oh I've been sooooooooo bad recently! And yet, what with house-hunting, job hunting and wedding planning I've not been able to post:( In fact, I've barely found the time to paint my nails. Foolishly, I decided that I would make as many as the wedding decorations as possible and so have been spending my evenings sewing bunting, making place settings, pinteresting like a crazy lady..................my nails have barely had a look in. 

But somehow I've found time to buy polish.....

Starting at the top, going clockwise; Barry M Silk Mist, Barry M Silk Heather, Maybelline White Splatter, Sinful Colours Sugar Sugar, Barry M Aquatic Collection Pacific, Barry M Aquatic Collection Mediterranean, Rimmel Sherbert Sweetheart, Ciate Roller Coaster, Ciate Big Yellow Taxi, Ciate Megaphone. 

Swoooooooooon - these little babies are courtesy of one of my lovely work friends - we've been swapping:) 

Oh Barry M - you're so good to me:)

Barry M Sour Apple over Maybelline Blackout

Happy Wednesday peeps! Hope you're having a great week? Ok, so embarrassingly I'm still working on my untrieds, including using up some of those polishes that, as the time, I needed sooooooo urgently and then.....ahem.....lost in the pile of others. Shame faced. Barry M Sour Apple is one of those polishes; and yet it has remained unused.

Until now! I ummmed and arrrrrh about what to pair it with and decided that a dark background would help it pop and boy was I right. I love this combo; what do you think? 

Just lovely:) 

 

Barry M Red Black - a blast from the past...............

Ah, another untried down! This is Barry M Red Black, which is 18 months old! Good lord!

I wasn't expecting to like this polish - in the bottle it doesn't look anything special. But it struck me that it was ideal for a cold wintery day, so I sloshed it on and I'm BLOOMING pleased I did. I was overcome with the most amazing deja vu........

I really got into nail polish in the mid to late nineties, while I was in secondary school. Nail art was popular; I remember wearing chequerboard nails to school, buying nail stickers, using matt polish for the first time.........

It was also the time of Buffy the Vampire Slayer - I loved BTVS, and watched it every week, wishing my school life was as exciting, or that I has Sarah Michelle Geller's amazing highlights and wardrobe. It also featured a vampire called Drusilla, who, one week, wore what I considered to be the manicure to end all manicures; a reddish brown colour with white tips. I loved it and knew I must copy it, so rushed out to buy a reddy-brown nail polish.

Barry M Red Black is the EXACT same colour. The application is better, bear in mind I had a small budget (i.e. my pocket money) in the 90's, but it's the same colour. And blimey, am I gutted that I haven't been wearing it everyday since I bought it! Shame, shame on me!

I would say this is a jelly and you could make a very yummy sandwich with this! This is 3 coats, all of which went on beautifully. The coverage doesn't look perfect in the photos but IRL there's no problem. Finally, Drusilla nails will be mine after all these years............

Fluffy Prickly Pear Sandwich

Happy Friday peeps - it's the weekend whoop whoop! Hope you've got some fun plans? I'm off house-hunting - yep, fiancee and I are jamming all the possible stress inducing things we can think of into 2014; a wedding in August and now a house-move. Still, house-hunting is exciting, methinks. Although I'm worried I'll fall for lots of houses that I can't really afford and have a bit of a paddy!

To sooth my house-hunting nerves I shall be rocking my current favourite polish - it's busted its way into the top 10, dun dun dun. And it cost me £3. Bliss. The name of this new love - Fluffy, by Claire's. A white matt glitter polish in a clear base; large, meduim and small hexes with bars thrown in for good measure. 

I've used it here over Prickly Pear by Barry M - the stunning lilac with the white over the top creates a subtle yet pretty effect, well, I think so anyway.

 (ps - please excuse the dreadful pictures - I have a new camera and we're not getting on - it seems to want to take pictures that resemble those awful soft-focus 80's glamour shots, and I'm refusing to play game, but losing......:( There's no bottle shot of Fluffy as it was just too.....well, crap!)

I almost feel like there should be some naff jazz playing whilst you look at these blurred pictures....or maybe jazz flute......anyway, I'm sure you'll agree that Fluffy is awesome (and I'm so glad that Claire's have started naming their polishes properly). I loved it so much that after this I tried it with a different combo - this time in a jelly sandwich! This will make me smile all weekend, I'm never taking it off! 

Sadly, my camera decided that, no, it would NOT capture the stunning neon pink of the Barry M Summer Special Edition jelly, nor would it focus on anything I wanted. &*%$£"£U!!!

This is 2 layers of pink polish, with 1 of Fluffy, then pink again, then more Fluffy for luck:) So I shall enjoy my Fluffy sandwich this weekend, hope you have a great time too xxx