Late Pink Wednesday - Get in loser, we're going shopping.

Hello, sorry for the late pink Wednesday post again, technology is not on my side.

For Pink Wednesday this week I tried out 17 Lasting Fix Pink Grapefruit, which I got as a freebie :) It's a jelly-ish creme, with VNL at 3 coats. First I tried to stamp over it, which didn't work. So I added another coat and went for this uber tacky leopard print :) Can't get much more tack then hot pink and gold leopard print :) The gold is Miss Sporty Gold Backstage and the grey outlines are Miss Sporty New Black

Super easy to do - blob on some blobs with a dotting tool and then outline roughly with a smaller dotting tool. Simples.

I'll take it off tonight and think I'll go for a palette cleanser for a few days. This one gives me headaches just thinking about it.

My inspiration:

Classy.

And now for something cute. One of my boys was playing with a trai at the table where I'd left some polishes, and he made a "pretty finger train" as he called it. From the mouths of babes :)

Hx

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Bargain Haulage

Hello!

I'm sorry this post is later than I planned, for some reason the weekend went too fast and time was not on my side.

Anyway, I've been bargain/freebie hunting and this is what I've come up with!

First up, some freebies. In Boots at the moment when you buy two Dove Deodorants you get a free Nails Inc Nail Polish in either Copacabana (coral creme) or Havana (nude shimmer). I spent just under £8 on the deodorant (which is the brand I use anyway so they'll get used up) and got both polishes, worth £22 together. I have Copacabana on my toes at the moment, and it is more orange than it looks in the bottle.

Also in Boots, when you buy any two 17 products you get this mini nail bar in a bag free, containing two polishes, a nail file and some nail stickers. The polishes are Pink Grapefruit and Red something (which I already had but had gone rock solid!) I bought a polish in Peacock and a high shine lip gloss in Coral Queen to get this freebie, spending less than £7.50. I wanted a coral lipgloss anyway, but will have to keep looking as this one is just completely sheer :(

Now an ebay bargain, I was looking for a particular Collection 2000 colour tat is apparently good for stamping, but has been discontinued. I couldn't find the one I was looking for, but the orangey-coral polish in this set caught my eye. There was 30 minutes or so left in the auction, it had no bids with a start price of 99p + £2 postage so I bid £1.20 and won. The pink isn't really very me, but the other two are nice enough, and I wanted an orange shimmer as my few orange polishes are all cremes.

These 2 Barry M beauties are Peach Melba and Berry Ice Cream, which I got from the Barry M Website with a code for 15% off. With postage I paid a little more than you would in Boots or Superdrug, but I can never seem to find Peach Melba and there aren't any offers in either shop at the moment, so I went for it. After all, you can't beat a bit of Barry M :)

Hx

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NOTD - Coral Perfection

Don't you just love it when a mani goes perfectly? I can't fault this. I love the colour, it applied well, it's bang on trend, the bling looks good, I love my nail length and shape at the moment and it's shiny and pretty and really suits me. The colour is Rimmel I <3 Lasting Finish Fruties in Apricot Punch, a perfect coral colour, and a fruity smell, which isn't too strong but I can still smell after a day of wear and through Seche Vite. Incidentally I woke up with a banging headache this morning, and I hope it is just a coincidence because I love love love this colour. I would be perfect for toes as well. 3 coats. I'm a 2 coat kinda gal but I forgive you, Apricot Punch. I then added a coat of Natural Collection Crystal to the ring fingers to set my rhinestones in and then Seche'd the lot. I would have done a line of stones on all the fingers but I didn't think I'd have enough, so I left it at an accent finger.

I hope you like this as much as I do! This colour is going on my toes when my current polish comes off :)

Tomorrow I have a bit of a bargain haul to show you!

Hx

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NOTD - Red and White Polka Dots

As it says on the tin really...

2 coats of Miss Sporty Red Tango dotted with 17 Nail Xtras French Tip Whitener. On the accent index fingers (I meant to do the rings as usual but was merrily painting away and forgot...) I did 3 coats of Collection 2000 French White (because the brush on the 17 Nail Xtras is slanted for doing tips so no good for painting a whole nail, but is whiter so better for the dots) and then dotted with the Red Tango. A slightly smeary coat of Seche on top. Apologies for the rubbish clean up. Must try harder.

It didn't turn out exactly as I hoped (does it ever?) I think the dotting tool I used was slightly too large. Or I put the dots too close together.

My favourite nail, and the first one I did (left little finger). I wish they all came out like this.

Definitely much easier now I have the dotting tools. They were 99p from ebeast with free P & P even although they came all the way from Hong Kong, and they only took 8 days to arrive. Well worth it!

I just want to say hi to all my new followers! The number of you seems to have jumped up over the last few days and I'm now at 81! Can't quite believe that 81 people want to read me rattling on about my nails really, so thank you! I am going to organise a small giveaway if I reach 100 I think (depending on how many pennies are in my piggy bank) so I'll get my thinking cap on for what to include...

Hx

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Barry M 15% off

Just a quick post to let you know that you can get 15% of Barry M products at barrym.com if you enter the code BARRY - last time I looked you could get Lavender Hexograms on the website which you can't get in shops anymore (I know someone wanted it when I posted about it on Sunday). I'm off to get Berry Ice Cream and Peach Melba :)

Will be back with a NOTD later.

Hx

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Cold, shiny, hard plastic...

Happy Pink Wednesday everyone, I don't think Ill ever get bored of trawling through Mean Girls quotes to find titles for my Wednesday posts :)

Just a quick post today because I'm in a foul mood and I don't want to neg everyone out, so less talk more pictures.

I used 2 coats of Stargazer number 508 (I hate it when brands don't name their polishes) which was a pig to apply and after 2 coats I quite frankly had enough, even though it needed more. It's a pretty colour though, sort of a milky-cream-pale yellow with shimmer. Are all Stargazer polishes like this? I'm hoping not. Then I crackled it with MUA's Nail Quake in Shock Waves and topped with Seche.

Then this morning I added a coat of Collection 2000 Nail Care Shimmer Top Coat, which I'd hoped was a dupe for China Glaze White Cap. I think with maybe a few more coats it might be comparable, but I liked it at one coat so left it at that.



Hope you like it! I've made it through 2 days with very little chipping and a teeny bit of tip wear which is a miracle for me. Even so I'm in need of some nail therapy so will probably change my nails tonight. Hopefully I'll be in a better mood tomorrow too...

Hx

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MUA Nail Quake Swatch and Review! Keeping the crackle train rolling...

Are you bored of the shatter craze yet? I'm certainly not! Especially now that there are more and more colours available, at premium and drugstore prices! Last week I got my paws on MUA's new purple Nail Quake, Broken Arrow (you can see my gushy, loved up post on it here) and as soon as they were available on the Superdrug website I ordered the rest of them. I didn't get the black, as I already have the Barry M Nail Effects in black, but since the other colours in the MUA crackle range crackle differently to Barry M next time I'm in Superdrug I will pick it up :) At £2.99 I could hardly not really...

The colours available in the Nail Quake range are Jail Break, black; Quiver, royal blue; Shiver, a mid-pinky rose; Shock Waves, somewhere between a hot pink and a raspberry pink depending on what you layer it over, Broken Arrow, purple; and Shattered Ice, silver. The only other colour I could have wanted would be red. And does anyone know of a green crackle?

Here are my swatches. I applied most of the colours over my silver mani from the other day as I think silver is a great colour to showcase crackles (plus I was too eager to play with them and couldn't be bothered to take off the glitterbomb I'd created, because 3+ coats of glitter and seche vite isn't hard enough to take off without adding more polish to it, right?) On the thumbs I tried it over Models Own Garnet and Beauty UK Blue Shimmer, to apply Shattered Ice over. I didn't clean up, because I wanted to catch the sun, and well, because I'm lazy. Is there a lazy blogger award...

The formula was a lot thinner than I've come to expect from a shatter polish, which is good. Just get a good drop on your brush and you should be able to do a nail with one dip. You have about 5-10 seconds before the cracks start to appear with this one, so there is a little play time but it's really best not to go over the same area twice. I dinged the middle of the nail with the Garnet and Shattered Ice, so it looks messy in the pics, but it wasn't very noticeable in person.

I did two nails with each colour, one with topcoat and one without. The crackles dry matte, which I don't mind but as these have a lovely jelly-ish finish (apart from the silver, which is more of a cross between shimmer and a creme) they deserve to be shiny! If you did want them matte though I'd advise using a normal topcoat to seal the nail and make the polish last longer before using a matte top coat to give the whole nail a matte effect.

Aren't they lovely? My favourites are Quiver and Shock Waves (which you'll see tomorrow for pink Wednesday!) I love that the way they shatter is more linear than other crackle polishes I have and can't wait to try applying them in different ways. You can expect a lot of manicures from me using these polishes! Sorry if you're over the shatter trend, but the crackle train isn't letting me off yet!

Hx

These products were bought with my own money and written about purely for my own pleasure :)

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NOTD - Rimmel Your Majesty + Barry M Lavender Hexograms = Shiny Disco Balls!

Hello!

I went on a girly night out last night, which I don't do very often, in fact, the last time was before Christmas! I've only been out for the evening 4 times this YEAR! How sad! One was a date night with the OH, one was a dinner party (and a pretty yawntastic one at that), the third was the wedding I went to. So last night I was able to get my dancing shoes on and have a drink and a dance and let my hair down a bit...ok a lot...

The top I was wearing was grey with silver and pink holographic sequins on - so would have perfectly matched my Pink Wednesday post this week. But I decided against trying to stamp with the colours I used and instead went for GLITTAH!

I applied 2 coats of Rimmel I <3 Lasting Finish in Your Majesty (my favourite silver, you can also see it here) and added lots and lots of Barry M Lavender Hexograms - square lavender gliiter (not sure why it's called hexograms) and small silver glitter in a clear base. There is no way you would ever get this polish opaque, it is definitely a top coat. I used about 2 or 3 coats of it, and blobbed it on really, but it dried quickly and was quite forgiving. Topped with Seche to smooth it out, although it wasn't as gritty as a lot of glitter.

Sunlight

Shade

With the top I wore - didn't match exactly but it still looked good!

Now, I got my bottle of Lavender Hexograms on Ebay at the same time as I got Silver Cascade. This was a few months back, when I first started getting back into doing my nails, so I didn't take much notice then, but the bottle it came in is different to the rest of my Barry M polishes. You can see in the pic below the bottle is taller and thinner than the Barry M's you see in the shops now. Have Barry M changed their packaging and I just got an old bottle? Or could it be a fake? It's not HTF or anything, as far as I know. I'm not bothered either way really, just curious.

Anyway, on my night out, I got a little tipsy on yummy cocktails, danced to cheesy music and woke up this morning with a bruise on my knee that I don't remember getting...so a good night all in all! 

I got some dotting tools the other day, so look out for a dotty mani coming your way :)

Hx

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Saturday Randomness - What's in my bag...

Because I don't have a nail post for you today (still rocking the splatter for a few more hours until I change them for my night out) and I'm bored I decided to show you what's in my bag. I've seen a couple of these posts, in video and photo form, and the inner peeping tom in me loves it. Now, I know you're thinking, hang on, she's got kids isn't her bag going to be full of nappies, squashed bananas and crumbs? Well, yes, my big bag is. Nappies, wipes, bum cream, spare clothes, hand sanitiser, juice, biscuits, toys, 11tybillion spare dummies, several different fruits in various stages of 'squashed' you get the picture. But I have a separate bag for my everyday things - I don't need to take the big bag for the school run or nipping to the shops so I downsized recently and got my own handbag back! And it's not big enough for a banana, squashed or otherwise...

First the bag itself. I got it at Tesco fairly recently for £5. I'm on a bit of a floral kick at the moment, and have had a few compliments on it so it must be ok! The strap is pleather and adjustable but I have it as long as it will go so I can wear it across my body and be hands free.

Now for what's inside...

Purse, a Christmas gift a few years ago. I have a bag to match which is a lot bigger so I use it more for going out for the day. Keys. Actually, key and rather a lot of keyrings. Phone headphones (I have a Samsung Galaxy S and it is sexy. It's usually in here too but I couldn't take pictures of it because I was using the camera on it...) Chewing gum, spearmint only please. Tissues. Folding hairbrush. Lipstick and gloss. Mouth ulcer pastiles because for some reason my mouth is full of them at the moment.

Folding hairbrush with mirror, £1.49 from Superdrug. Deep pinky red lipstick from Bourgois. It also has a handy mirror on the cap. This is really sheer and more like a tinted balm, which is perfect for me. They call it a lipshine and the shade is 07 Rose Parero. Barry M clear sparkly lipgloss, which I got in a pack with an Impulse bodyspray. It doesn't have a name on the tube, but is just clear with sparkles. Great for layering over lipstick or on it's own if you need a bit of moisture. I switch the lippie and gloss with a few others quite regularly, but these are my faves at the moment

My purse...

Some photos I keep in my purse: 

L-R: My goddaughters when they were little. They're great big surly teenagers now, and taller than me (not hard, I'm only 5'2) Baby boy no 2, 6 days old. The OH when we met 9 years ago (now considerably less hair). Baby boy no 1, not even a day old. My niece and nephew.

Ha you can see my swimming pool loyalty card poking out the top! And my Superdrug beauty card :)

So that's it. Not a lot of stuff in there really, and I should really fling an emery board in to stop me having to frantically rub my nails against my flies every time I get a snag and looking like a pervert...

What's in your bag? Do share ;)

Hx

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NOTD - Splatter Nails!

I've seen a few other blogs featuring this style over the last week or so and thought I'd give it a try! It has to be the easiest nail art EVAH and I think it's seriously funky. All you need is a few different colours of polish (neons look good) and a straw and off you go! The polishes I used are Barry M Strawberry Ice Cream as the base (I've seen this done over white but I didn't want white nails so thought this pale pink would be perfect), then I splattered with Rimmel 60 Seconds in Sky High, Miss Sporty Taxi and Pop Fiction and Beauty UK Glam Nails Pink Explosion. Topped with Seche Vite to smooth it all out.

Left hand

Right hand

My favourite nails:

Right ring and little finger

Left thumb

The cleanup was pretty mega, and I missed some so sorry! It was really fun creating this manicure and as an 80's baby I love it :) I ended up slightly light headed from fumes and blowing down the straw lol

Will you be trying a splatter mani? 

Hx

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Questions...

These are some nail related queries I have so I thought I'd ask the wonderful blogging community for some help! Please bear in mind that I'm i the UK so don't have access to some polishes in the US or on the continent without having to sell my teeth to afford them! Nice nails but no teeth is not a good look...

1. I'm looking for a polish with small black glitter in a clear base. Something like Revlon Galaxy (which I have) but without the holo hexes. Any recomendations?

2. Cuticle remover, should I or shouldn't I? Any I should try?

3. Ridgefiller or buffing? Discuss. (I'm thinking more for my toes as they're very ridged. Canny be bothered to buff them really, so any good ridgefillers to be had?)

4. Any suggestions on how to deal with/prevent hangnails?

5. Why do men have nipples?

6. How do you take polish off your toes without ruining the polish on your fingers? And vice versa... Have tried holding the cotton pad with the middle of my fingers rather than the end but I can't scrub enough.


Think that's it for now, any advice gratefully received!

Hx

PS I actually know why men have nipples. I basically boils down to them being lazy buggers. They'd look odd without them though, wouldn't they...

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That's why her hair's so big, it's full of secrets!

Happy Pink Wednesday!

Sorry this post is a bit late, I hung on as long as I could to try and get a good sunlight picture of this mani, but everytime the sun poked it's head out for a nano second, despite me running into the garden like a nutter, I failed to capture it. Someone please remind he weather man that IT'S JUNE. Ahem...

So the reason I so badly wanted the sunlight for this mani is because it's a holo effort! I used Avon Nailwear Pro in Romance (2 coats) with Marks and Spencer Rainbow tips, and switched it around on the accent finger. I used Seche Vite before and after adding the tips. If you want a holo polish but can't afford ridiculous ebay prices for GOSH Holographic then Rainbow may be a good alternative. I don't know if its a dupe, I suspect the holo in the M&S polish is a little weaker, but it's easily available (I had no trouble finding it and you can order online) and although it's £7.50 that's a hell of a lot cheaper than the GOSH.

Sorry for the pictures :( I've worn it a day now and just have a little tipwear so if it's sunny in the morning I'll take some more.

Indoors, artificial light to try and get the holo...

You can see the rainbow peeking though...

Gah just give me the holo already!

Romance is a pink based lilac shade with silver shimmer. Very pretty and a unique shade in my collection. The formula was good and it could have been a one coater, but I found it a little tricky to apply as the brush was quite stiff. Other than that, no problems. It will probably be a good polish for stamping, so I'll try that soon. I'm going out Saturday night and this mani actually matches the colours of the top I'm wearing perfectly, so I may try something different using the same polishes.

So that's me all pinked out for another week. Check out the rest of the Pink Wednesday ladies :)

Hx

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NOTD - MUA Nail Quake Purple + Funky French Accent

Hi lovlies!

I finally got my paws on a purple crackle polish on Saturday and ever since I've been excited about it! I've been after a purple crackle since Models Own announced they'd be doing crackle polishes what seems like 11tybillion years ago. They have a great range of colours but the purple is the only one I wanted. Models Own FINALLY released the purple this week, for £6. Now, I'm not adverse to spending that much on a polish if it's something I really want, but crackles can be a temperamental beast and I didn't want to be disappointed. Thankfully MUA came to my rescue with the release of their Pro range! I've tried and loved some of the bargain £1 polishes and other products from their regular line, and at £2.99 for 10ml of their Nail Quake in gorgeous colours you cant go wrong!

Picture kindly reproduced from MUA's Facebook page, which you should go and like now because they have awesome giveaways!

The colours available are black, silver, baby pink, purple, royal blue and hot pink. I want them all! They should be available on superdrug.com later in the week, and selected stores now! I had a bit of a hunt to find them, so ask if you can't find them!

On to the manicure. I decided it would look great over gold (yes, I do know it's not Christmas, I promise I'll do something more summery next time!) so I first applied 2 coats of Miss Sporty Gold Backstage, a lovely gold foil and let it dry. If I were wearing this alone I would have added a third coat.

Then once it was dry I added a coat of Nail Quake to every nail except for my index. The polish applied like a dream, it's thin and easy to apply, with a thin brush so although it takes a few strokes to cover the nail you don't get overlap, which is essential for a crackle. It didn't get gloopy like some other crackles either.

Because I'm all about the accent nail at the moment, I only applied the Nail Quake to the tips of my index fingers for a Funky French effect (with the help of tip-guides). Anyway, enough jibber jabber: PICS!

I love the look! It looks so luxurious and chocolate box. I love how the cracks are quite linear and show the base colour just enough. I'd say this is a jelly finish, whereas all the other crackles I've tried are cremes. It doesn't dry completely matte but I added clear topcoat anyway. And I will definately be buying the rest of the colours on payday (it can't come quickly enough) as well as one (or two) of the new trio baked eyeshadows, maybe one of the palettes, perhaps a bronzer or two....better warn the bank manager...

Have you tried MUA yet? You wont be disappointed!

Hx

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NOTD - MUA Shade 13 + Barry M Silver Cascade

Hello!

Well, I haven't broken my hand (much to my OH's delight, he wont have to take over household stuff for much longer), I've bruised and stretched the ligaments, apparently. All I know is that it hurts. A lot. Seriously, don't have kids.

Anyway, I managed to paint my nails Friday night, and tried out MUA. MUA is a brand available exclusively at Superdrug and all of their main range products are £1. What do you get for a quid these days? Well, in this case you get a fab quality product. I have a couple of eyeshadows from the range and they are quickly becoming staples, and this polish is a thing of beauty. They also have a Pro-range slowly launching in Superdrug, including crackle polish, but more of that later ;)

For this mani I used 3 coats of MUA shade 13 and added an accent nail of 2 coats of Barry M Silver Cascade (which apparently is a very close sister to O.P.I Mad As A Hatter), I could have gotten away with 2 coats of the MUA but it was such a dream to apply I carried on and with my claw-hand I just wanted to make sure it was perfect. I honestly could not fault this polish! Brush: good. Formula: good. Colour: goooood! Topped with a quick coat of NYC, and Seche for the glitter because it's gritty and I was good to go.

Please excuse the swollen sausage fingers and claw hand. I can't hold a polish bottle well enough for pics, so here's a bottle shot first.

Small but perfectly formed...

Don't underestimate the claw...

How pretty is this colour?

Then since it survived my trip to A&E with no sign of chipping/tipwear I mattefied it and made it look all satiny. All together now - ooooh!

You know when they show repeats of the Christmas episodes of The Simpsons in June Yeah...

So what do you think? Have you tried MUA? Will you be hunting down their pro range? I went into Superdrug yesterday to look for it, but there wasn't a display anywhere and it was only when I was at the till that I spotted a teeny rack of MUA Pro nail polish. I asked the assistant if there was any more of the range anywhere and she said not yet. On closer inspection I realised the polishes were exactly what I was looking for - their crackles! I grabbed the purple, (trying not to dribble) and paid for it with glee! I was desperate for purple crackle ever sinve Models Own announced they were releasing one, but sorry Models Own, you just weren't quick (or cheap) enough! I did a quick tester and it's fab! Look out for a post on it coming soon, just have to decide what to layer it over. I'm thinking silver or gold...any suggestions?

Hx

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