Born Pretty contest

Just a quick post, Born Pretty Store are giving away 3 sets of 10 of their new cracking nail polish in great colours! I'm a big fan of crackles, and (if I don't win lol) I'm sure to pick up a few from here since the colours are so varied. The details on how to enter the contest are here. Good luck!

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NOTD - nice day for a Royal Wedding

...Actually it's not all that nice. I live about an hour from London and it's grey and cold, it's rained overnight and there are thunderstorms forecast for later...apparently it's good luck if it rains on your wedding day, or so I'm told...

I had this manicure planned for a week or so now, and I'm pleased with how it came out! I had visions of a horrible mess but although it's a bit untidy, considering it's the first time I've freehanded any nail art I think it turned out pretty good!

I can't claim credit for the design, Jane at Nailside does it much much better! You should check her blog out, she does some awesome tape mani designs.

So without further ado, here is my very patriotic Royal Wedding manicure!

 Apologies for the disgusting cuticles...

 My podgy hand...and my own engagement ring! Although we've been engaged for 6 years so I doubt my big day is coming any time soon...

Colours used: Barry M Colbalt Blue, 17 Nail Xtras Nail Tip Whitener, Barry M Bright Red, Seche Vite

I started with 2 coats of base coat, then painted my ring finger white and the rest blue (2 coats of each). Then  freehanded the blue and red detail on the white nail with an old liquid eye liner brush! Not ideal but it worked for me, and I'm glad I thought of it because I went through my make-up yesterday and had a clear out, then rescued the eyeliner brush from the bin!

I only did the left hand because I knew I'd make a mess of the right haha! I painted them all blue and was going to try a red white and blue water marble on the ring finger but I decided against it. I've only ever done one successful water marble (on a falsie), I wasn't sure how Barry M's were for it and I didn't want to mess it up. Plus I like the smooth shiny blue, I can't stop looking at it! 

Now I have the National Anthem stuck in my head! And just because it's cute and I want to show him off, my 9 month old Jake proudly waving his Union Jack! (He looks a bit dopey because, well he is lol, and he'd just woken up!)

Are you watching the wedding? are your nails celebrating too?

As for William and Kate, I sincerely hope they have a long and happy life together. And I hope that their children look like their mother...

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I mean, that's just, like, the rules of feminism...

Pink Wednesday! I went for something a bit more muted than usual as the past two weeks have been eye-meltingly bright. This is 4 coats of Essie Luscious Lips, with some small pinky half pearls from my Poundland nail art kit, topped with SV. Apologies for bad clean-up and the state of my skin, it's gotten really dry again so rather than anger it with too much polish remover today I just did a quick clean up. Because the polish was so sheer (and I still didn't get it opaque with 4 coats) I completely messed it up and flooded the cuticles. Completely my fault, but I am getting better!

And then my free Hello Kitty stamping plate arrived today from Born Pretty so I had to play with it! I stamped a (wobbly) flower using O.P.I Flower to Flower - not bad for my first attempt? I can't wait for my other plates to arrive so I can play some more :)

And another giveaway for you :) Visit http://sara-loves-pretty-little-things.blogspot.com for a chance to win all this!

I'll win one of these one day...

Hx

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Guess who bought pinking scissors...

Me! Hah! Well, I played with them and some tape and matte topcoat to change up the bargain purple mani, which I'll take off completely tonight ready for Pink Wednesday tomorrow :)

The result:

Shows much better IRL, and I bet some sunshine would help too...but you get the idea! was just a quick experiment, I didn't have anything important on today so it didn't matter about the tipwear and shrinkage! Just a bit of fun :) And I have lots more planned for the pinking scissors...

And, I wanted to share this AH-MAY-ZIN giveaway. I've held off blogging about giveaways before but I had to this time. Check out Frazzle and Aniploish's one year blogiversary giveaway. Many happy returns!

Hx

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Comments...

Hi everyone, just a quick apology post.

I love the comments I get on my posts, they really make me smile! But for some reason Blogger wont let me reply to them :/ I type in the comment box, and the first line of text doesn't show up, but the second line onwards does. So I just hit return and type from line 2. But then I click "comment" and nothing happens. I keep trying and trying thinking it's a glitch and it'll resolve itself, but it doesn't. So, I just wanted to say, I'm not ignoring you! I am trying to reply to your lovely comments and I appreciate every single one, so please keep them coming!

Anyone know what I'm doing wrong?

Hx

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NOTD - gotta love a bargain...

I bet you can't guess how much I paid for this polish... 38p! 38 British pennies and it was worth every one and not a penny more lol, but I do love a bargain and actually it wasn't too bad - and such a pretty colour. I popped into Matalan since summer has hit for some reason (global warming I suspect, or we're heading towards a heatwave that will destroy the world in 2012...anything to stop the olympics...) I needed to pick up some shorts for my boys and right in the entrance they had a stand with £1 make-up on it. So of course I had to look! All the other colours were pretty standard, but this one caught my eye. And it had a sticker that said .38 on it over the £1 sticker. I thought it must be a mistake as it was the only colour that was marked down, but when I got to the till sure enough it was 38p :) Bargain!

Took me ages to decide what my Easter Sunday mani would be, and this is the perfect Cadbury purple so since I'd already done a pastel mani I went for chocolate-wrapper nails! (Ok, so it is a bit of a tedious link...)

Colour is G at Matalan Purple Plum, accent nail Nubar 2010 + Seche Vite. 4 (count 'em, 4) coats.

Looks like tipwear but it's shrinkage :( It is very thin and sheer, but wasn't a complete PITA to apply. First couple of coats dried quickly, next couple not so much, hence duvet marks. And actually it hasn't chipped even though I've had a hard day sitting in a beer garden *cough*... But I have bathed and washed my hair, and bathed the kids and that sometimes is enough to scare nail polish off my nails, so it's holding up pretty well.

As an aside, I'm trying a new base coat, Sally Hansen Maximum Growth Daily Nail Growth Program, and I need your opinions. The directions say to apply colour, then apply the Maximum Growth as topcoat every day for 5 days, before removing the colour and starting again - doesn't say to use it as a base. Then, to maintain your nails use as base and add a coat of the product every 2 days. So why don't you add the base coat when you're in "Phase one"? Will it even work over colour, especially with several coats and SV? I'm trying this as a last resort, then I might go for some short falsies.... What do you think?

Hx

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NOTD - Easter Egg nails!

Hello, seeing as it's Good Friday I thought I'd have some fun with Easter egg nails, and it was fun! Sadly I don't think the mani will last until Sunday as it's already chipped and I have gardening planned for tomorrow, but I'll think of something else to wear for Sunday and Monday!

 Colours used from index to pinky: Barry M Yellow, Rimmel Fruities I Love lasting Finish Apricot, China Glaze Agent Lavender, Collection 2000 Hot Looks Mint Mojo. White dots and stripes in 17 Nail Xtras French Tip Whitener. The embellishments are from a nail art kit I bought in Poundland (and are very tempting to pick off...)

On the thumbs I used Barry M Blueberry Ice Cream plus their pink crackle (which apparently is going to become very hard to find - and I haven't seen the blue one in three different Boots now). I thought it might be interesting to see how to get different effects, so on the left thumb I did a thin coat, and on the right a much thicker one. You can see how the thin coat gives a finer shatter effect, while the thicker one gives big chunks and looks, to me anyway, like a pink and blue giraffe (no, I haven't been drinking...)

Anyway, that's me for now! I hope wherever you are you have a nice Easter and the sun comes out for you. We've had glorious weather here and I hope it lasts - I can take better pictures in the sunlight!

Hx

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Don't have sex, because you will get pregnant and die! Don't have sex in the missionary position, don't have sex standing up, just don't do it, OK, promise? OK, now everybody take some rubbers.

Pink Wednesday's here :)

Tis 2 coats of O.P.I Flower to Flower (could have done with another) + Nubar 2010. Then I added some stars to my thumb and ring fingers as an accent and a couple of coats of Seche Vite.

Finally got some half decent pics and it made me realise just how dry my skin and  cuticles are - need to do something about that...

Flower to flower is a bubblegum pink with silvery shimmer and the 2010 makes it look almost corally. I couldn't get the flakies very well, but they really are pretty. So much so that I stopped to look at them when I was halfway up the stairs last night and nearly fell backwards...but that may be just me... I do keep staring at my nails though maybe that's just because I'm not used to such a bright colour.

And man, Seche Vite is hard! Tried to pick off some overspill and needed a chisel...ok slight exaggeration!

Anyway, I'm loving pink Wednesdays so far :) And looking through all the Mean Girls quotes makes me lol so I'm happy :)

Hx

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All shopped out, so... HAUL! + my growing stash!

Shopping with a three year old and 9 month old is exhausting (especially when you have to get the train and lug a buggy up and down the stairs - thank you to everyone who helped me!) but the first thing I did when I got home was photograph my new polishes and put them away :) I didn't get exactly what I wanted, but I did get some pretties...

Three of the polishes in the first pic I got last weekend but haven't posted yet - although I have worn 2 of them as NOTDs

Top L-R Miss Sporty 251, Miss Sporty Clubbing Colours 326, 320 and 205, Beauty UK Soft Grey

Bottom L-R Barry M Yellow, Barry M Bright Red, Rimmel Lasting Finish Fruties Apricot Punch, Collection 2000 Hot Looks Mint Mojo, Unbranded pretty blue from Wilkinson

 Cuticle Sticks from Superdrug, Nail Decorations from Poundland (can't wait to play with these)

 Not polish related but - Dirty Tooth Tabs from Lush (you chew them up then brush with the foam in your mouth!) and Natural Collection Bronzing Pearls in Sahara Sun

Now onto the nail mail I've had in the past two days. Seriously LOVE my postman this week, I nearly hugged him this morning!

 Nubar 2010, Seche Vite

Essie Luscious Lips, O.P.I Flower to Flower, China Glaze Agent Lavender

The Nubar and Seche I bought on Ebay from an American seller - cheaper than any UK ones! And I ordered them only last week and was preparing to wait for ages but they came this morning! And the Essie, O.P.I and China Glaze I got from a blog sale. Thanks again Jenni! I think between the O.P.I and Nubar, and pretty Poundland decorations my Pink Wednesday is sorted!

And this is my growing stash! It's graduated from an ice-cream tub to a drawer in the under-stairs unit until I can find somewhere proper for them - and the bonus is when I buy stuff I shouldn't I can hide it from my hubby teehee!

You can just about see the numbers-
1 - Clear top coats and base coats, with french tip guides underneath
2- Glitter/effect top goats
3 - Remover, water marble cup, cotton buds, cuticle sticks, buffer, tape, sponge, correction pen, and yes that is a sample pot, it hasn't been used for that, it has some cotton buds soaked in olive oil in, and the decs I just bought
4 - All the colours!

I really have to stop spending money now! Unless I get the chance of a bargain bottle of something I really want, I'm going to lay off for a while. I have spent way too much money! And there are tons of polishes I haven't even used yet. I'm also going to swatch everything to see what gaps there are in my colour collection and figure out where to go from there, once I've decided how I want to do it.

So, what do you think of the polishes I got? I've heard the Miss Sporty ones are good for stamping with, so hurry up Born Pretty order! Anyway, this little lot will keep me going for a while!

Hx

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NOTD - Metallic Lilac + Earthquake Silver

As promised I slapped a coat of W7 Earthquake Silver over the metallic lilac from yesterday. These pictures don't show how pretty it is, the lilac just shows through and it looks frosty and gorgeous. But still, I want MOAR crackles! The Barry M black crackle gives such a big shatter effect but this one is more subtle. Maybe I'll treat myself to the white Barry M one today when I go SHOPPING! Look out Superdrug Luton!

Pink Wednesday tomorrow :) And I got some pretties in the post from a blog sale which I'll post later (as I'm bound to have a haul) :)

Have a great day everyone x

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NOTD Metalic Lilac

Hulloooo

Sunday night, and here's my NOTD - I didn't do one yesterday as I wore the black with gold crackle for two days without messing with it! It lasted pretty well (although I have been lazy and done little housework this weekend) and only started chipping and peeling when I took the boys swimming this afternoon. I was going to mattefy it, but I did one nail and although I liked the luxe look of the gold crackle mattefied, I preferred it shiny.

Anyway here's tonights mani, ready for tomorrow. It's Miss Sporty Clubbing Colours no 205, a stunning metalic lavendery-silvery-lilac. Very pretty! Opaque in one coat but I did two to get it even. Application wasn't great, a few lumpy bumpy bits which I had to wipe off the brush meant it was a little streaky but I don't care, I love the colour that much! If I can (ie there aren't too many chips lol) I'm going to put silver crackle over the top tomorrow :)

Again, pics are rubbish, sorry. Posting late at night does not produce much sunlight... I even went into the bathroom where the light it brightest to try and get it properly.

Index and middle fingers on pic below are most accurate.

Really is a pretty colour. I was going to wear it last Wednesday, because on Wednesdays we wear pink, but it's too lilac.

No haul post this week, I've physically bought 5 polishes since the last haul, and I'm waiting for 5 online purchases to arrive (including my Seche Vite! but that's coming from the USA so it might be a while :( ), so I'll wait until either they arrive or I go shopping for those :)

Hope you all had a nice weekend, boo for Mondays!

Hx

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I done a nawtee and NOTD - Reversy Percy

I promised myself after I managed to snag a free Hello Kitty stamping plate from Born Pretty I wouldn't buy any more until I'd received the free one and tried it out to see if I was any good at it. But I saw on their facebook page today that they have a sale on...$1.55 per plate with free shipping and I couldn't pass it up. I ordered 6 plates...let's hope I can actually work them and don't end up with a horrible mess...

On to my NOTD. I took off the pink and went for something completely different, inspired by Jenni, and a new variety of my favourite sweets Percy Pigs. Percy pigs are strawberry flavoured gummi sweets from Marks and Spencer and they are pure awesome. The BF came home from work yesterday with a new bag for me, Reversy Percy - so the ear colour is where the face colour usually is and vice versa. Here's a pic to make it clearer:

Anyway, when I saw Jenni's latest manicure I loved it and thought it would be simple enough for me to try, but my single gold-y coloured polish is more bronze (will have to rectify that!). So I switched it round and used a black base with a gold crackle top coat.

This is base coat, 2 coats of Wet 'n' Wild Black Creme, 17 Crackle Top Coat painted in stripes down the sides of the nail and TC to make it shiny. I like it, but I like Jenni's better :p And I wish I'd used tape to tape off a stripe down the middle to make them more even, but we live and learn...

I have toothache (too many sweeties...) so it's ibuprofen and bed for me now, night all.

Hx

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NOTD - Boo you whore v2.0

For today I just patched up yesterdays mani (slight tipwear and a few chips) then slapped on a coat of w7 Earthquake Silver over the top. I like the effect but it's given me lobster hands for some reason. And I could not get a good picture so this will have to do and I'll try and get a better one in the morning if we get some sunlight.

Bought two polishes today...and three from a blog sale from here (my first 'posh' polishes - exciting!) That's about it :) See you tomorrow x

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NOTD - Boo You Whore!

Yay my first pink Wednesday! The Mint Mojo was still going strong from Monday but I had to take it off and I jumped straight in and went for the brightest pink I own!

 3 coats of All About Face Vibrant Pink, two coats of W7 Pink Dazzle on ring finger for an accent and a coat of topcoat to make it all shiny.

Not a colour I'd ever usually go near, but I actually like it. And for a cheap polish the All About Face isn't bad. Ok, so it's thin and watery, but three coats and it's almost opaque and streaks were evened out. And yes, I know the glitter is more purple than pink (actually it's more pink irl - these pictures have made it purpler) but it says pink on the label so neener neener lol

Do you wear pink on Wednesdays? And as for the weather...
There's a 30% chance that it's already raining!

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NOTD - Collection 2000 Hot Looks Mint Mojo

My first mani with a creme in a long time, and I'm pleased to say it looks like the formulation has improved since last time I tried! I was worried about cremes because my application isn't the best but although this polish stank to high heaven it applied well (three coats evened it out) and was nice and shiny, although I still added my top coat.

It's a lovely spearmint green, nice and summery and I desperately want to do some nail art over it! I don't know, spots or stripes or an accent nail or something! Hurry up stamping plate! And it makes me want to buy more creme polishes...

Hx

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NOTD - 17 Supreme Shine in Bared

So, this is what I replaced my awesome blue glitter funky french with, and after such epicness I was a little disappointed lol.  I still have lots of dark and funky colours to try, and glitters and crackles...the list goes on! But the weather is so nice here at the moment, it's like summer has come early, so I went for something pretty and summery. The colour is 17 Supreme Shine in Bared, a pretty peachy nude with tons and tons of shimmer. These pics are two coats and it's still a little sheer. One more coat would have made it opaque I think, although I don't mind VNL with this kind of colour.

You can see the shimmer in the bottle but not on the nail, I just couldn't get it :( I still need to play around with my camera more to get the right settings, but my pictures are usually taken in the spare 2 seconds I get during the day and I can catch the sunlight!

While I like the colour I don't think it really suits me. It just looks a bit nothingy on my hands. It claims up to 10 day wear on the bottle...but we've heard that before! It wasn't two bad after 2 days though, just a little tip wear, so I slapped my new 17 Nail Xtras crackle top coat on, which I was also a bit disappointed with. It crackles, just not enough, so not enough of the base comes through. I guess I'll have to play around with thickness of application and things. A friend said it goes on differently over different polishes too - and then she uncovered even more levels of awesome and layered it on top of a hot pink, then added Barry M nail effects in black over the 17 one. Swoon. I'll ask her if I can steal her pic to show you, but for now, here's mine.

One more thing about the Bared, it has a new "Maxi Brush", apparently for "mistake free application". While I like a wider brush, this one is wider and thicker, so although I could cover the nail in one or two strokes I found it harder to control where the polish was going and ended up with thicker coats than I would usually apply.

So, that's quite enough of that boring mani! I'm wearing a lovely mint green in preparation for tomorrow's NOTD :) Hoping for some sunshine... And then it's Wednesday and on Wednesdays we wear pink! So excited to be taking part in this, although I don't have many pink polishes (good excuse to buy more IMO teehee), I just love Mean Girls and this seems fun :) Will you be wearing pink on your nails on Wednesday?

Oh, and one more thing. Born Pretty hosted another giveaway. If you missed it sorry I didn't blog about it sooner but as soon as I realised it was happening it was over :( Anyway, I managed to snag a free Hello Kitty stamping plate! Yay! Cannot wait for it to arrive, and I get to test if I'm any good at stamping without spending any money lol

So, it's bedtime for me once this polish is properly dry, I'll see you in the morning x

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This week's haul

Oops, I've bought 15 nail polishes this week.... [Edit - actually 18 now, oh dear! Will save the rest for next weeks haul...)

 Top row L-R: New York Color Expert Last Nail Polish in Long Time Lavender, New York Color In A New York Minute in Grand Central Station, 17 Supreme Shine in Bared, 17 Nail Xtras Strengthening Base Coat, 17 Nail Xtras Crackle Top Coat.

Bottom row L-R: Beauty UK Glam Nails in Blue Shimmer, Barry M Nail Paint in Blue Glitter, Natural Collection in Topaz, MUA (Make Up Academy) in Shade 13, All About Face in Vibrant Pink

A couple of things about a few of the polishes :) LOVE the glod crackle 17 have bought out, hope they do more colours. The MUA polish is from Superdrug - I've never noticed it in there before but everything is just £1! Eyeshadow, lipstick, polish etc. And they have lots of funky colours. I've not tried the nail polish yet so I don't know what it's going to be like, and in my experience cheap eyeshadows tend not to be pigmented enough and look wish washy but for £1 they're worth a try! And the All About Face, this one was something like £1.47 in Tesco. I can tell the quality isn't great and when I tried it on a falsie it was very watery and needed three coats to be even and not streaky, but it was a pretty colour and a welcome addition to the collection :)

Now, nail mail! I was lusting after a silver crackle polish, and found one by W7. Then I found a website that sells W7 crackle polishes for £2.99 and normal W7 polishes for £1.47 with free shipping and I couldn't resist...

L-R: Purple Paradise, Pink Dazzle, Earthquake Silver, Graphite, Pewter.

I have the Purple Paradise on my toes at the moment and it's really pretty, covered in two coats and I'm impressed with the quality. I love the bottles too, they look so high-end, no-one would know they were less than £1.50! The only gripe I have is that the brush in the Pewter has a kink in it - so who knows what state my nails are going to be when I try and paint them with it! I think the brush is hitting the bottom of the bottle or something. But mustn't grumble!

I played around with some of these on some cheapo falsies and this is what I came up with:

(Sorry the pic isn't great)

L-R: W7 Pewter + Earthquake Silver, All About Face Vibrant Pink + W7 Pink Dazzle tip, W7 Graphite + Barry M Hologram Hexograms and W7 Purple Paradise + 17 Nail Xtras Crackle Top Coat

Can't wait to try some of these on my nails :)

Hx

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I'm back!

Yay! I haz interwebz :) I needed a new router after everything, so now it's fixed I can show you the great mani I wore for 3 whole days last week! Yes, three whole days of housework, childcare, cooking and even digging around in the garden and I managed to make it last. A definite (and very welcome) first for me.

On Monday I went into town and got to mooch around Boots and Superdrug for a bit, so I have a haul to post in a minute. I used two of the polishes in this mani and loved it. Beauty UK is a brand of make-up carried in Superdrug and I already had one of their polishes in a lovely lilac colour (the one I used for my last NOTD) and for £1.99 I couldn't resist this lovely blue. I wanted a mid blue colour as I only had a navy and a pale shimmery one, but I wanted a flat one - shiny but no shimmer. This one has shimmer but I love it, it turns into this amazing electric blue on the nail and is super shiny. I added Barry M blue glitter tips (using tip guides applied a little wonky!) and a coat of my new top coat New York Color In A New York Minute Grand Central Station. LOVE! Whether the staying power was due to the the new top coat, new base coat (17 Nail Xtras Strengthening Base Coat) or the colours themselves I don't know. The topcoat is great, it dries super fast and adds a real wet look shine. Anyway, here are the pics.

I took that off on Friday and replaced it with a plain colour for a little change. I'm about to add a crackle top coat to make it last another day and I'll post it as a NOTD tomorrow.

Keep reading for this weeks haul... ;)

Hx

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Mothers day Mani +

Hi! Sorry I've been AWOL for a few days but my internet connection has been very temperamental. I was too busy over the weekend to sort it and calling my ISP provider today they told me it wont be sorted until the end of the week at the earliest :( I can't tell you how odd it feels not to have the wonders of t'internet at my becond call! I'm constantly thinking "I'll google that" and then realise that I can't! It feels like my left arm has been cut off!

Anyway, it's Monday night and I've got a few things I need to do online tomorrow at the library so I thought I'd write this now and post it in the morning!

Firstly, what I did to the raspberry and glitter mani to make it last another day. I took inspiration from some of the tape manis I've seen around the blogosphere, so I taped off half of my nail on a diagonal and tried out my matte top coat to add a contrast. However, there wasn't as big a difference as I'd hoped. Maybe it was the glitter, but the matte didn't really show. You can just about see it in the picture. One to try another day I think.

In the UK on Sunday was mothers day :) So I got spoilt by my three kids (well two and the hubby lol) and got to have a lay-in, then a nice walk and dinner cooked for me. It was lovely and I even got to do my nails. I'm desperate to try out my darker colours, but for this occasion I tried something more befitting for a mother! Firstly I painted my nails with two coats of Beauty Uk Lilac Girl and let them dry. Then I cut a wedge of sponge from an old baby sponge I had laying around and sponged on Barry M Indigo about a third of the way down the nail. I guess if my nails were longer I'd just be sponging the tips. There are tutorials for this method on My Simple Little Pleasures, I can't take credit for it, although I loved the way it turned out! All you do is brush a little of the colour onto the sponge and then dab it onto your nails, giving a feathery effect. I think this has to be my favourite manicure ever!

And then yesterday (Monday), after touching up the chips that I seem to get as soon as I finish a manicure, I added the matte top coat (17 Nail Xtras) again and this time loved it.

So, that's me up to date! I don't know when I'll next be able to get online, but I have a haul to post and another manicure soon too, I'm sure!

Hx

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March Round-up

I decided to do a round-up of other blogs I follow (in a desperate attempt to get a few more followers!). There are such great high-quality bloggers that I've discovered, so going to try and add a little bit of everything :)

Firstly, an awesome giveaway from Chloe's Nails as my polish stash is so teeny compared with some others, and I'll never be able to afford some of the amazing polishes you can get elsewhere in the world I've entered a few giveaways! Fingers crossed!

Now to my first follower, Rosey at roseylicious thanks for not making me feel like I'm talking to myself!

And the blog that first got me hooked. The incredible water marbling by Colette at My Simple Little Pleasures had me completely dazzled! I've yet to master the technique and doubt I'll ever get a full water marbled mani, but maybe I'll manage an accent nail one day!

Another British blogger here, Emily's Nail Files' Nuclear Waste mani had me smiling! I never thought I'd say a three eyed fish could be considered cute...

Jane at Nailside has inspired me with some cute tape manis, including this Union Jack design. Using tape seems to be an easy way to get great nail art...let's see if I can do it as well as she does!

Now a couple of bloggers who've got me lusting after some konad action! Also two more UK bloggers. First,  the Nailasaurus who turned 20 this week so Happy Birthday! I especially loved the Blue Diamond mani. And another stamping queen, Sarah Louise at Spellbinding Nails. How awesome is this holo mani? Truly holo-tastic!

So many manicures, so little time!

Hx

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NOTD - Natural Collection Raspberry + 17 Glitter Topcoat

So yesterdays nails survived well enough to add a topcoat and keep for another day with just a little tip wear so I topped it with 17's Nail Xtras Glitter Topcoat. I really like the formula of this, it was quite thick but not gloopy and dried really fast so I was able to add a couple of coats quickly. The glitter is small and sort of iridescent, showing blues and orangey golds in the sunlight (which we don't have much of today). The glitter is sparse but as it dries quickly there's no problem building up a couple of layers until you get the look you want. I did two layers on most nails, and an extra one on the middle left finger as for some reason on that nail it was very sparse! The brush is also good - long and flexible, so I could cover most nails in one or two strokes.

Altogether I love this topcoat, and it will become a fave of mine I'm sure. Boots has a 3 for 2 offer on some 17 products at the moment, and I also bought a tip whitener and matte topcoat, which I'll be trying later :)

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