Leibster award!

Well hello my lovelies, we are now more than half way through the week and my mid week excitement is..............that the lovely Alexandria at A girl and her chicken named Betty has nominated me for the Leibster award. As I was fortunate enough to be nominated a short while ago, and nominated my excellent eleven here, I hope people won't mind is I don't repeat myself.

However, I will answer Alexandria's questions, and urge you to visit her blog - A girl and her chicken named Betty, go now, NOW I tell you, the mix of lovely nails, whimsical musings and chickens will make your day!

So here goes; 

If you could spend a day with any fictional character, who would it be?

Hmmmmm, I think I'd go Cher from Clueless - because isn't it most girls dream to have that wardrobe?

What is your favourite type of polish (creme, crackle, magnetic, holo, etc.)?

I have to say, I'm a sucker for a good, traditional creme. 

What is your favourite planet of star (I consider Pluto a planet)?

Saturn - gorgeous colour, and so majestic.

If you could go anywhere for a day where would you go?

Hogwarts - come on, who wouldn't want to meet Prof. McGonagell and study Defence against the Dark Arts?!

Pie or cake?

Caaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaake! 

Where is your favourite place to relax?

In my bed, with a good book:) 

If you could be any animal what would you be?

Cat. I need to sleep. All cats do is sleep. Ergo, I would be a cat. 

If you had a million dollars pop into your life what would you buy first? (we're being greedy here, so something for you).

Go travelling - Japan, Canada, Antarctica, in that order. 

What is your favourite movie?

Clueless - see answer to first question.

Donald Duck or Daffy Duck?

Er - I'm not sure I'm fussed with either of them, can I go for rubber duck?

What inspired you to start your blog?

I started painting my nails and wanted a way to record what I'd done.

So, that's a little bit about me:) I hope you all enjoy the rest of your week peeps:) As this was rather text heavy, I'll leave you with a gratuitous kitty shot! 

Boo, having a think. Probably about food!

Swatch - Topshop Pluto

Hola - a very joyous Tuesday to you all:) 

So, my aforementioned shopping trip to Topshop also resulted in this bad boy - Pluto, a glorious glitter topper. It's a clear base filled with large lilac hexes - gorgeous! I decided to put it over my trustworthy Black by Barry M, a glossy two coater:) As you can see, this polish is seriously shiny, so shiny my camera struggled to cope lol! 

I love this polish, in fact I actually dreamt about this polish - I've already got three other colours lined up that I want to combine this with, it's just so pretty. The application is pretty good, you get a lot of glitter with each swipe! You'll definitely need to place the glitter, but that's hardly a hardship for such a lovely polish is it? :)

Swatch - Topshop Plume

Ahhhh Monday - the world would be infinitely better without you! 

Only a recent shopping trip I decided to try out Topshop's new range of polishes. They have some pretty awesome colours that I was keen to try, including Plume, a blurple that I'd been lusting after since seeing it on Polly Polish. Blurples make my heart beat faster, so I was so keen to try this colour.

As you can see, the colour is lovely - sadly, my camera struggled to capture this:(

The colour was everything I'd hoped for - a glorious blurple duochrome foil with a rainbow-ish tinge in some lights. But the formula? Rubbish! It took forever to dry, needed 4 coats to reach a coverage I was happy with and almost refused to become glossy, no matter how many layers of topcoat I applied. Poor show Topshop. Poor show:( 

Ah well, for this colour I'd forgive almost anything:)

My 100th post - this calls for a glittery mash up!

Howdy peeps! I hope you're all having a nice, chilled Sunday? I'm a tiddly bit hungover after going out for a very fancy meal, complete with posh cocktails, with bf:) It was awesome - I had a cocktail called a Monkey Nut, banana liquer, rum and peanut butter - bliss!

Anyhoo - the big news is that this is my 100th post! I can't believe it, it seems like only yesterday I started obsessively following nail blogs, buying absurd amounts of polish and painting my nails like a crazy woman:) Thank you to all of you lovely followers who have looked, liked and inspired me with your own amazing work - it's made this so much fun.

As a celebration I decided that I need to use some of my favourite designs, in my favourite colours, with some of my favourite polishes. So here we are; a black and gold mash up, with extra glitter!

Barry M Black and Gold Glitter - both brilliant after two coats (The glitter is over a coat of gold polish)

Barry M Gold Mine. Where is this in the mani you ask? Well, it's on my thumb, but could not get a good enough photo of it, so it didn't make the cut:) 

                                       

Models Own Gold Rush and Barry M Yellow Topaz Glitter - two of my favourite polishes ever:) 

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh, it's so sparkly:) I managed to include a glitter gradient, tape mani, half moons, and even more glitter - so pleased:) Hope you all have a good week ahead peeps, toodle pip! 

Nail Pop Glam Rock topped with gold studs

Whoop whoop - Friday - I'm doing my little happy dance:)

Anyway, onto less disturbing images lol. This is my first attempt with embellishments such as studs. These were from a pack I bought in Urban Outfitters, and I'm pretty chuffed with them. 

I stuck them on with an old, gloppy topcoat polish, and then topped them with two coats of Sally Hansen No Chip topcoat. They stayed on nicely for a couple of days, and I didn't really notice them (I'd been a bit concerned they'd get in my way).

But what's the colour under? you're wondering. Well, this gorgeous shade is Nail Pop Glam Rock, a raspberry jelly filled with purply-pink glitter:) It goes on beautifully, this is 3 coats with a 2 layers of topcoat. It's such a stunning colour, I already can't wait to wear it again - it's just so deep and lush looking. 

Have a great weekend peeps, it's time to relax - I'm off for a glass of Pinot! 

Swatch - Accessorize Speckle Jupiter/Ladybird

It's Thursday baby - the weekend is nigh!

Righty, have another Accessorize polish with a muddled named for you! Shocking after the Pink Spice confusion. The polish I'm going to show you is called Jupiter on the bottle. However, looking through various swatches at other blogs such as Brit Nails and Never mind Suzi , it seems to also be called Ladybird. Baffled! Totally baffled! And actually really annoying. My camera is totally unable to focus closely enough on the bottle to show you the name, so hopefully you'll trust me when I say that my bottle says Jupiter.

Anyway, enough whining, onto lovely swatches:) These are 1 coat of Jupiter/Ladybird over a coat of Maybelline Deep Red.

Can you believe that when I first tried this polish I almost binned it? I didn't put a base colour on and tried to build the colour up with multiple layers instead. As the red base is so sheer, it took 3 coats; the black glitter almost covered the colour totally and made it look muddy and just horrid. 

It was only after seeing some swatches on Brit Nails (links above peeps, I urge you to check her out, she crazy talented) that I thought about layered. Face palm!

Swatch - Accessorize 3D Glitter Magic

Whoop whoop - half way through the week my lovelies:)

Another swatch from my haul at the weekend - Accessorize Magic, a 3D glitter. This polish caught my eye, but for a while I ignored this polish, because I already own another 3D glitter by Accessorize, Dream, and I wasn't that bothered about it:( However, as I coulnd't get it out of my head, I bought it......and I'm actually pretty impressed:)

It's a clear polish jammed packed to the rafters with small specks of purple glitter and small pink glitter hexes. I put this over my trusty Barry M Blackberry (Gelly) as I don't think it will build up to full coverage on its own.

I'm actually really pleased with this. Unlike Dream, the contrasting, larger glitters stand out in this polish. It gives a lovely depth to what might otherwise be just a standard purple glitter. 

Oddly, from afar, this polish has a similar sheen to Max Factor Fantasy Fire! This polish has restored my faith in Accessorize glitters:) Phew!