O.P.I Swatch - In True Stefani Fashion

GLITTER! 

Swoon.

What else is there to say; holographic square glitter interspersed with solver specs - bliss!

Clearing out the untrieds; Revlon!

Hey hey guys, hope you're all well and still enjoying a bit of time off work?

I went for my first post-Christmas run today....well, running might be stretching it, it was more like falling forward quickly! But I do feel a bit better for getting up and about, I was beginning to feel (and look) like a Christmas pudding! 

After a bit of house sorting (we hosted Christmas and the house looked like a bomb went off!) I decided to do a wee bit of swatching as my untrieds have again been piling up. I noticed I had several Revlon polishes in the untried box; I rarely buy from Revlon, but these were pressies from various people. 

So first up, Extravagant - a warm pink polish with a silver shimmer running through it. Not much else to say really; good application, nice colour.

Next, Posh - a stunning green creme - I really loved this, it's SO green and fresh. It went on easily and dried quickly and I really want to use this for some summery nail art in 2015:)

Lastly, my favourite of the bunch; Radiant, a lovely mix of fine blue glitter with silver, green and blue hexes in a clear polish (I've layered it here over In the Navy by Orly). My husband bought this for me and I was so pleased; a polish I wish I'd discovered for myself! 

I'm so pleased I've cleared a few untrieds! Only 30 more to go lol:) But for now, I have other things to do; I'm trying to sort out my NYE nails now - I have a few ideas but this may need a little bit of research..........

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!

Urban Outfitters Allsorts

Howdy peeps, hope you're having a great day? I've spent this evening sweating it at the gym - got to get into my dress lol:)

So, today I have a real treat - Allsorts, a pinky/clear polish with neon pink, orange, white and purple glitter jammed packed into it - I've never had so many compliments as I have when wearing this. In fairness, you can't really miss this polish!

Bottle shop - ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooh, soooooo shiny:) 

This wasn't the easiest to apply - it needed some dabbing which did result in some bubbles, but I'm complaining because I love this polish so much. Swoon. If I wasn't marrying my lovely fiance I'd marry this polish!

O.P.I Muppets World Tour

Eeeeeeeep - I've finally decided on my wedding nails:)

I've ummed and ahhhhhed for ages over what to do. I knew a 'classic' French manicure was out and that any complex nail art would be a no-no (not because of any artistic objections, but I'll have minimal time the night before). I've purchased various blues (as my something blue) but then decided it stood out too much. I did the same with pinks, but still..........nothing was really grabbing me.

But the blogging world was round the corner, ready to inspire me; after weeks of checking various swatches, I decided to order the two following polishes from Beauty Bay, Muppets World Tour and Step Right Up, both by O.P.I.

Now, these are not the best piccies - I was in a rush, trying to snap them before I got glue all over them (my crafting currently involved gallons of glue:) but I hope you like;

Step Right Up is a gorgeous pink, very sheer, this is 4 coats. It makes my nails look lovely and healthy (instead of wretched and yellow like they are IRL).

Muppets World Tour is a clear base packed with minute pieces of silver glitter, alongside larger gold and blue hexes. It's ideal - mainly silver (to go with my accessories), has blue in it (my something blue) and is subtle enough to not take centre stage but awesome enough to make my nails feel 'me' on the day.

That's another thing of the wedding planning list:)

Nicole O.P.I - Be Awesome

Never has a polish's name been so apt - behold, awesomeness in a bottle..............

You might be able to see the bubbles on my pinkie - for that one I tried simply painting this polish on, which quite frankly just didn't work. So in the end I used a cocktail stick to place these on individually (I had work to do, it was the perfect procrastination device!) It took a while but it was worth it!

I'll definitely be trying this over some other colours - this is over Grey Matter by Rimmel - I think black or white would look stunning with this. 

Hen do nails!

Ok, a tiny post today guys, but I really wanted to show you the photos of my hen do nails. The theme of my hen do was neon (inspired by a visit to a very club-tastic club I went to with one of my besties years ago in Prague) and so clearly, I needed neon nails:) I think I nailed it (ahem, scuse the dreadful punning).

These are all from the Models Own Neon Ice collection, painted over a white base to make them NEON! I thought they were a bit tame on their own though, so added glittery leopard print. I think they are the tackiest/most amazing nails I have ever had lol. 

Eeeeeep, only 9 weeks now til the wedding, so excited:)

Claire's Accessories Jazz

Before I start this post, I'd like to make a quick statement - I do NOT shop in Claire's Accessories on a regular basis. Two reasons really, one is that I'm not really their target market (I'm over 12) and secondly because I'm fairly sure I'd get sequin and neon induced blindness if I went in there too much. 

However.......if they continue to put out polishes like this I'm going to be nipping in weekly, because WOW! This is Jazz, a lilac base filled with the most amazing glitter, including massive blue circle glitter, yellow and pink neon hexes and specks of blue and purple. Words fail me:) Well played Claire's, well played.

 Nommy!

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!