NOTD - Molten Copper funky french

Hello :)

My (sometimes) lovely OH (sometimes) likes buying me little presents on his way home from work Quite often these are food-based as he works in Central London surrounded by lovely little delis and cake shops, but since I'm currently embarking on a weight loss program (don't like the 'd' word, too depressing - check out my weight loss blog link in the sidebar) he's trying to be more creative. He's not very good at it, bless him. Once, he bought me a lighter with a silly cat picture on it (I don't smoke, have an electric cooker and rarely use candles, and don't like silly cat pictures unless they're LOLcatz. LOLcatz don't count). Another time he bought me a pair of slippers, which he thought were monkeys (we have a monkey thing) - they were dogs, I don't wear slippers and they were £18 (most of my shoes don't cost £18) at Kings Cross station. Occasionally, he hits gold, but on this occasion, he hit copper...

Accessorize Molten Copper to be precise, which is an orange-gold glitter in a clear base. It has a consistency comparable to the Barry M glitters - opaque enough in a few coats but quite gritty when dry. And a pig to remove! For this reason I decided on an accent nail and funky french on the rest. The base colour I chose for the funky french fingers is Rimmel 60 Seconds 850 Hard Edged, which you can win a bottle of in my giveaway! It's a pretty maroon colour. I was hoping for duochrome but it's barely there on the nail. Still pretty though.

See, it teased me with duochrome...

...but didn't live up to it's promise. A few glitters escaped into the seche too.

I should wear more glitter. What's a shit-ton of polish remover, tin foil and cotton pads between friends?

Any other Accessorize polishes I should have? I only have two.

Hx

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NOTD - Lemon and Lime

Hi!

Today I have a Rimmel I <3 Lasting Finish Fruity scented polish to show you. The colour on this one is lovely, soft buttery yellow, a little streaky and uneven but three coats sorted it (come on, it is a yellow) and actually looked good against my skin. But oh my days the smell! DO NOT BUY this polish if you're only interested in the scented aspect. It smells less like lemons and more like rotten melon. Thankfully, it's a not a strong scent and with top coat I could only smell it if I really tried. I'm not sure how dupable it is (Barry M Lemon Ice Cream might be close) but it is unique in my stash otherwise the smell alone would make me get rid. And I never get rid of polish!

Anyway, this is three coats of Lemon Drop, plus some fimo slices and lots of Seche Vite.

I wore this for two days but by the middle of day two I was picking at the fimo. Think the other half got one in his dinner....

Anyway, what do you think of scented polish? Bit of fun or silly gimmick?

Hx

PS Click the link in the sidebar to enter my giveaway!

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Pink Wednesday - One time, she punched me in the face, it was awesome

I dont think I'll ever run out of Mean Girls quotes to use as Pink Wednesday post titles! Anyway, I have a confession to make, I'm not actually wearing pink today! Not on my nails anyway, I have a pinky top on and pink eye makeup, but my nails are yellow (I'll show you tomorrow!). For now, here's a mani I did a few weeks ago but couldn't post at the time - and because it was a few weeks ago I can't remember what polish I used. It's either 17 Pink Grapefuit or Beauty UK Pink Explosion. I then did the flowers using a dotting tool and Wet n Wild Black Creme, and the middle of the flowers with the same colour as the base.

That's it for today! Nothing really to say about this apart from I wasn't really keen on it so it didn't last long! Love the base colour...if only I could remember what it was...

I'll leave you with a pic of the mini Nail Envy I bought. I thought I'd try a mini before committing to a full size bottle and when I came in the post I literally went "aaaww" when I opened up the package! I'm a sad sap I know...

Hx

P.S Did you enter my giveaway yet?

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My 100 follower giveaway!

NOW CLOSED! WINNER ANNOUNCED SOON!

Wow! It absolutely blows my mind that 100 of you crazy people want to read my half-baked ramblings and look at my atrocious attempts at nail care! Don't any of you have a life? Haha, only joking love you all really! I absolutely have no life, so I don't know who I am to judge...

Anyway, as a way of saying thank you, I'd like to invite you all to enter this modest little giveaway :) It isn't much, but it was all paid for with my own money and I've chosen some things by brands I love, and I hope you will too! Here's what you can win.

The polishes are:

• Beauty UK Smoky Lilac, MUA Pro Nail Quake in Quiver, MUA Shade 5, Rimmel I <3 Lasting Finish Glitter Ball, W7 Earthquake Red (shatter), Rimmel 60 Seconds 850 Hard Edged

Plus:

• Floral nail art stickers, a pack of red fishnet design nail foils, a wheel containing coloured rhinestones, a set of glass nail files.

RULES:

• Giveaway is open until Midnight GMT on Tuesday 16th August 2011
• Open internationally
• You must be a public follower via Google Friend Connect to enter, new followers welcome!
• Please only fill in the form once! And be nice, I've heard about some very ungrateful and downright rude comments on other people's giveaways recently, and am shocked. Remember I'm doing this for you, not me, and any entries sounding remotely rude might just get "lost"...

You can also get additional entries in the usual ways:

• Blog about this giveaway (+1)
• Follow me on Twitter (@HellBellUK) and tweet about the giveaway mentioning my name and a link to this post(be warned, my tweets aren't always nail related and sometimes my language gets a little, er, fruity...) (+1)
• Add me to your blog roll and/or giveaway sidebar (+1 each)

That's it! Hope I've got everything right and that you like what I have to offer! You have three weeks to enter :) Oh, and if you have a blog you'd like me to check out, leave me a link in the comments section :)

Hx

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NOTD - Cherries!

Hi! Just a quick post to show you the nails I created today for the facebook group Polish-aholics Anonymous, which I joined ages ago but never plucked up the courage to post anything or join in the chat! I don't know why, I'm so lame when it comes to things like that. Anyway, every Monday the members have the opportunity to do a themed mani, and this weeks theme was fruit. I had the idea for this manicure in my head for a while, so I thought I'd grab the bull by the horns and give it a try. So glad I did! The colours I used were Barry M Berry Ice Cream as the base, 17 Fast Finish Ruby Dazzle for the cherries (with a dotting tool) and Barry M Spring Green for the stalks (with an old eyeliner brush). Topped with Seche.

Really simple and I love it. I posted it in the group and got some lovely comments too :) My two index fingers (which both have bad splits) chipped really badly throughout today, and usually I would take the whole mani off and do something different, but I just took the polish off the chipped fingers and redid them, that's how much I love it!

One last thing before I go to bed, I've made it to 100 followers! I am absolutely amazed that people want to look at my carcrash nails and read my unfunny ramblings, so thank you! I want to get a couple more polishes to add, and then hopefully my giveaway will be up tomorrow evening, or Wednesday morning. Thank you again! And if you follow me and I haven't followed you back (I do try to, but blogger doesn't co-operate most of the time sometimes) then please email or tweet me your links, the details are in the "Contact" tab above.


Night loves, today has been a  good day for me, I hope it has been kind to you too :)


Hx

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Last week's haul :)

It's been a while since I did a haul post, as I haven't had a big haul for a while now, I tend to just pick bits up here and there instead of a big splurge. But I unexpectedly had to go into town last Thursday so took advantage of it and picked up a few bits :)

Here's (almost) everything I got. I got a few hair things and didn't include those, or the boring essential things like cotton wool!

L-R: Glass nail files, W7 Red Shatter, Rimmel 60 Second 850 Hard Edged

MUA Nail Polish Shade 1, MUA Pro Crackle Jail Break, Barry M Spring Green, Barry M Blue Moon, Wet N Wild French White, Citu Chick Sparkly Nails in pink and black

Nailene Ultra Tabs, Nailene Nail Studio Classic Short, Acetone-free polish remover pads (to use with falsies), Funky Union Jack Falsies, Perfect 10 Nail Art stickers

MUA Pro Heaven and Earth Palette

City Chick Sparkly Nails in pink and black (Polish with little pots of glitter on top, GOSH have released nail glitter pots, so this must be the in thing)

W7 Earthquake Red (x2) Rimmel 60 Seconds 850 Hard Edged (x2)

MUA Shade 1 (Navy glitter in a black base), MUA Pro Crackle Jail Break, Barry M Spring Green, Barry M Blue Moon, Wet n Wild French White (going to try stamping with this)

Nailene Ultra Tabs and Nail Studio Classic Short nails

MUA Pro Heaven and Earth Palette

There are two of the W7, Rimmel and Glass Nail Files because the spares will go into my giveaway :)

Has anyone tried the Nailene tabs yet? I am intrigued by them because they promise guaranteed 5 day wear without damaging your natural nails. I like wearing falsies sometimes, for a special occasion or a night out, but I hate the thought of damaging my natural nail with glue, so if these work they'll be perfect. I'm thinking of giving my nails a break from polish to see if this helps my peeling problem, so I'll try them then. Would you be interested in a review?

That's all for now, I'm going shopping tomorrow (payday whoop) so will pick up a few more bits for the giveaway then I'm sure. I'm excited! It wont be huge but I hope you'll like it.

Lots of posts planned for the next few days, at least 2 manicures to show you, plus a review of my current polish remover which, if you pardon my crudeness, is the mutt's nuts.

Which polish from the haul would you like to see?

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TOTD - Toes to match my shoes!

Warning, this post contains feet!

I don't know what the big deal about being squeamish with feet is. I mean, we all have them, right? Anyway, I bought some cute faux-Birkenstocks in Primarni (in their sale for £2 may I add!) and thought I'd match my pedicure to them, just for fun! You can tell how exciting my life is, right?

Base colour is Barry M Blueberry Icecream and the colours I used for the pattern are Rimmel I <3 Lasting Finish Fruities Cranberry Zest (dark pink), Barbara Daly Think Pink (mid-pink), Barry M Strawberry Icecream (pale pink), Barry M Spring Green and Wet n Wild French White. Just blobbed some blobs of the pink polish onto some foil with a blob of white and swirled them around a bit with a dotting tool, before blobbing them on in random flower like blobs. Did the same with green and white for leaves. Simples.

My feet aren't that bad, are they? Just don't get it...

I'm not used to wearing such a bright colour on my toes, I usually stick to more traditional toe colours. Before I added the flowers I was worried, but I think they tone it down nicely.

So now to avoid looking like a pleb I have to wear these shoes with every single outfit. Actually they're a bit narrow for my flipper feet and are a teeny bit uncomfy. Fail much?!

Hx

PS Want to watch me shrink? Have a look at my new weight loss blog!

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NOTD - Beauty UK Soft Grey + W7 Earthquake Red

Woohoo red shatter! Ok, so it's not OPI, but I don't care, I wanted red for a while but no-one seemed to be doing one. Then I came across this by accident really on my favourite cheapie polish site Faith Cosmetics and ordered it instantly. In fact I ordered two, more on that later...

Now the formula on this is odd. If you look in the bottle you can see lumps, like lumpy custard. Ew. But give it a good shake and it's fine...for about 30 seconds before the lumps are back. But being a textured finish it doesn't matter if you get a small lump on the nail, which I did, and in fact you couldn't see it at all when all was said and done. So here it is! I layered it over beauty UK soft grey, which is still gorgeous, applies like buttah and is just lovely. (Check here for a swatch by yours truly).

I did a fairly thin coat of crackle on most nails for thin cracks, but experimented with thicker ones on the thumb and little finger.

Trying to show my right hand more as my nails are better at the moment on my right hand! And I love my enormous amber ring :)

W7 have now got about 10 crackle polishes in their Earthquake range. I also have their white crackle (and I did have the silver, but it met my kitchen floor and had an unfortunate end) and have found them all good. They're priced at £2.99ish on Faith Cosmetics with free shipping, and about the same on Amazon, or you can get packs of them which works out a little cheaper. Or if you're lucky you might win one in my 100 follower giveaway! Only 4 followers until I get there :)

I think next time I use this polish I'll go for a white base, maybe Beauty UK Frozen Kingdom. What would you layer it over? If only someone would do a green shatter I think my collection would be complete...Models Own?

In other news, my toe nails are blue and floral at the moment...very unusual for me...stay tuned for that!

Hx

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NOTD - Nautical Nails!

Hello everyone!

Today I have more stamping to show you :) Don't worry, tomorrows post wont be another Bundle Monster manicure I promise! For this manicure I used Barry M Blueberry Icecream for the base, Miss Sporty Electric Beige for the stamping on thumb and ringfingers and sponged W7 Gold Dazzle and ELF Golden Goddess on the base of the accent nails and tips of the rest. Topped with Seche, that's a lot of polish! The image plates I used were BM08 for the anchor and BM 12 for the chain.

Left thumb

Left hand

Right thumb

Right hand

It's not perfect - I would have been better to use gold for the stamping, I made a mess of my cuticles (sorry Grace!) and there's glittah everywhere but I love it all the same. I wanted a paler background and bought Barry M Blue Moon today, so maybe I'll try it again someday :) It lasted 2 days with only minor tip wear, but I've changed it tonight none the less. S there'll be a new mani tomorrow mall haul post coming up over the weekend hopefully. 

Hx

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NOTD - Natural Collection Topaz + Stamping

Well, this mani turned out as a semi fail, and I lay the blame completely on the Natural Collection polish. I'm so disappointed, I had high hopes for this polish (even though it's lain untried for months...) The bottle shows a gorgeous pearly blue but on the nail the blue disappears and you're left with a bubbly, brush-strokey mess. Boo. I have another Natural Collection polish, Raspberry (which I blogged about when I was starting out but the pics are too awful to link to, you can look back if you want a laugh) and I loved it. I would say you can't win them all and these polishes are less than £2, but so are Beauty UK and MUA polishes...

Anyway, once this hot mess was dry I stamped stars over it using Miss Sporty Hypnotic Turquoise and two of the first Bundle Monster plates, BM05 and BM20. It's a subtle look, over powered by the mega-pearly Natural Collection I think, but I'll try it again, with a different base colour.

So pretty in the bottle. On the nail, ew. Look at the mess that's the middle finger!

What do you think? Are you a pearl finish lover or hater? Any polishes, cheap or otherwise, that have let you down this badly? So sad it's not prettier :(

Hx

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Pink Wednesday - Strawberry nails!

Hello!
I am a bit sad because last week I missed pink Wednesday for the first time since I started blogging! I still wore pink last Wednesday but because of my puter issues I didn't get to post it. I'll save it to show you another time maybe...I didn't like it much anyway...

This week I LOVE my pink Wednesday manicure! Maybe it's because it'snot actually all that pink...but the accent nail is so it still counts. I hope you're ready for a LOT of stamping posts from me - I finally got the first set of Bundle Monster plates! I love them so much and I already want the second set :) The first mani I did was with some of the star patterns (which I'll show you tomorrow) but then as soon as I took that off I went for the strawberries! The beautiful Grace from Oooooh Pretty inspired me with her version, but I kept it to just an accent nail and did a few things differently.

The red I used for the stamping and the majority of nails is Miss Sporty Red Tango, which is quite a vampy red that stamps really well and is opaque in 2 coats. On the ring finger and thumb I used 3ish coats of Essie Luscious Lips (are all Essie brushes really stiff and thin? And are all the polishes rather runny? I know I'm cack handed but even with thin coats it pooled terribly) and stamped the strawberry from BM05 randomly.

Rare sighting of the right hand...

Loving this :) Super cute and super easy. I'm finding these BM plates a lot easier to use than my fauxnads. Thinking of treating myself to a Konad special white polish...and maybe the new plates...

While I think of it, my base coat is running out and I'm on the hunt for a new one. I'd like one to help with my terrible peeling nails if anyone has and recomendations? I'm currently using Sally Hansen Maximum Growth Daily Nail Program, and it has made my nails grow better, but they still peel quite badly. I'm also considering a gripper base coat, like Orly Bonder or CND Stickey - anyone given them a go? Also, would I be able to use the anti-peeling base under the grippy one, or would that defeat the object? So many questions!

Hx

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NOTD - Sinful Colors Hazard + Beauty UK GOLD shatter

GOLD shatter. GOLD. Not wishy, washy, pale sort-gold that only cracks when it wants to (I'm looking at you Boots 17). Beauty UK have made a gold shatter to go with their black, pink and silver and it is good. The colour is spot on, the cracks are the linear kind that I love and the price is just £2.99. Thank you, Beauty UK! This polish has bought my shatter count to 11 (soon to be 12...) and since I posted my stash pics I have obtained 7 more polishes. One is for my giveaway though...unless I change my mind and keep it...

Anyway, pics! The base is Sinful Colors Hazard, which I got from Tara's giveaway (she's holding another right now so check it out!) Here is a (bad) pic of it on it's own. Can't remember if it was 2 or three coats but either way I had no problems with it :)

I used a thick layer of gold to get this effect. Subtle and summery, I love it!

Are you over shatter/crackle now? I don't think I am yet!

Hx

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NOTD - The prettiest polish I own :)

I have the fabulous Tara from Tough as nails, and twice as pretty to thank for this gorgeous polish :D It's Color Club Ulterior Motive and it is soooo pretty. Lovely red based purple with pink and violet microglitter that I completely failed to capture in the pictures. 3 coats plus Seche. Then I added some glitter, from the 99p set I showed you in my stash post. It's a pretty glitter, but it stank to high heaven and took an age to dry (which is why I used the Seche). I had to kind of dab the glitter on as there was no way I could have applied it like regular glitter to get it to stick, but I like the result. This is the manicure I wore for my son's birthday :)

Pics are after a day of wear, so they're not as "fresh" looking as they were on the first day.

And then yesterday morning I mattefied it and I love it even more :) If that was even possible!

And here are the rest of the polishes I won in Tara's giveaway :) I've also worn the Sinful one, and loved that too. It's the exact colour I've been loving lately. If you're not already a follower of Tara's awesome blog, go and take a look now!

I can't wait to try the Funky Fingers Sand and Stilletos - holo glitter? Thank you very much, don't mind if I do!

Hx

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NOTD - Beauty UK Smoky Lilac + floral nail art

Sorrysorrysorry! I know I promised I'd post more this week, but I'd totally forgotten that my Mum was coming to stay, so I had to get the house ship shape, and yesterday was my baby's first birthday! We had a barbeque and little party planned for today, and of course it's monsoon weather. So instead of making hand-made burgers I thought I'd show you this mani, although I wore it last weekend.

This is Beauty UK Smoky Lilac, a dusty purple that is so delicate and gorgeous, and went so well with the floral accent nails. I used three coats of Smoky Lilac on all nails apart from ring and thumb, which I used 3 coats of Collection 2000 French White. I did the flowers by swirling OPI Parlez Vous OPI? with some more white and using a dotting tool, then added the leaves with 2True Fast Dry shade 4.

It really was a soft and pretty manicure :)

I have lots and lots of things to play with and show you over the next few days! I won two giveaways so have pretty polishes and some fimo canes to play with, and I treated myself to the old set of Bundle Monster stamping plates. Can't wait!

I'm also just 7 followers from 100, and have started collecting things for a leetle giveaway! How exciting!

Hx

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My sash and how I store it!

Hulloo!

I bought some rubber matting to put in the bottom of the drawer I store my polish in to stop it sliding around, so I took the opportunity to count and reorganise my polishes. Eeeek, I kinda wish I hadn't! When I started this blog in March I had a modest 23 polishes. I now have 139. 139! I dread to think how much I've spent, even though I don't often buy polish costing more than 3 or 4 pounds it still adds up to a lot of polish... Not as much as some people, I know, but still more polish than I'll ever need!

Anyway, here are some gratuitous stash pics...

Here are all of the polishes laid out mostly by brand, though the furthest group on the right are all singles. The ones in the basket are base and top coats, and there are some nail art bits and bobs there too.

And tucked away neatly in their drawer. Colours are organised by brand to the left of the basket, in the basket are base and top coats and nail art supplies, and to the right of the basket are glitter and crackle top coats. The drawer is now full...better stop buying really.... The drawer is part of a cabinet under my stairs, which I didn't think to take a pic of, sorry! I may have to clear out another drawer... I've already commandeered 2 smaller ones for my beauty products and make-up (which I haven't forgotten about showing you, in case you were wondering!)

Some little stash facts for you - 

• The brand I have most of is Barry M with 18. Miss Sporty and Collection 2000 come second with 13 each.
• I have 10 crackle top coats and 20 glitters.
• There are 15 brands of polish that I only have one of.
• I only have one black polish, but every other colour I have at least 3 of.
• I spend way too much money on nail polish...

I also just wanted to show you these polishes I picked up in the 99p store. They come in packs of three with a pretty useless mini nailfile. I haven't tried the polish yet, so I can't tell you how rubbish (come on, 99p for three?) it is but they looked like pretty, chunky glitters in a clear base. If nothing else they'll be good for frankening. Just a heads up if you want to check it out.

Sorry for the rubbish pic, you can click to enlarge it if you want to see more detail. I think what convinced me to buy these is that the bottles they're in an exact copy of an OPI bottle. So even if I chuck the polish away I have pretty bottles to franken in :)

Anyway, polish, how do you store yours?

Hx

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Helly the lemming slayer...

See what I did there? Ok, thats enough trying to think of clever post titles, let's get straight to the polish (for once, I do ramble a bit...)

This is China Glaze Lubu Heels. Teeny red glitter in a black base. Gorgeous. As I said yesterday, not exactly appropriate for the season, but who wants to wear pastels all summer? I'd wear this on my toes except I'm trying to only wear lighter colours to get rid of mega staining so I can, uh, wear pastel pedicures...

The formula on this one is very thin and watery. I'm guessing it has to be because if it was thicker the red glitter wouldn't show? Anyway, the first very thin coat was a disaster, I applied the second a bit thicker, and seemed to sort it, but then the next morning I added a third because it looked a little patchy, and it took ages to dry and I had sheet marks. Also you will need top coat. It's not as gritty as a lot of glitter polish but you will need it for the shine.

Is it normal for my little finger to be that short? I guess it's called a little finger for a reason...

As usual I couldn't capture the awesomeness of this polish. In the right light it goes all glowy and lit-from-within looking. I couldn't love it more.

And here is a frog I found in my veg patch just after taking the photos. We filled in an old stagnant pond to make the veg patch, so I hope it wasn't a pregnant lady-frog looking for her pond to lay her eggs in, apparently they come back to the same pond they were hatched in to lay their eggs. I'm sure it's too late in the year for frogspawn though, and I've never seen any in the pond before we filled it in so it must have just been a bit lost.

So now I'm moving onto my next lemming, Ahoy, another China Glaze. I only paid just over £6 for Lubu Heels, but it's still a lot on one polish for me. Sooo worth it though, and I don't do it often, I treated myself after losing 5lbs at fat club this week. Seeing as I can't see that happening again any time soon Ahoy will have to wait a wee while.

Have you slayed any lemmings lately?

Hx

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Pink...Friday?

Ah I miss blogging so much! We have 3 laptops between the two of us, but none of them work properly. Mine has a broken screen, and the monitor I was using with it died, the spare one I'm using has no working USB ports or hubs, and no bluetooth so I can't upload  pics to it and the OH's is a teeny netbook and is very slow and freezes up all the time, although I can use it for uploading pics he needs it for work so the time I get with it is limited. So this weekend I have a couple of posts I'll schedule hopefully! I have a great polish for you tomorrow :) So excited!

So, anyway, this is the mani I wore on Wednesday this week. The base was Barry M Peach Melba, which I wore on it's own for a day before sponging on the Rimmel fruity I showed you a while ago 2/3 of the way down and then a bright pink MUA shade on the tips to create a gradient effect. I then topped it with Collection 2000 Sparkle Top Coat and I was done :)

I'm loving these peachy-coral shades at the moment. I would never have thought they suited me so well.

Summer seems to have deserted us though so tomorrow I'll post a polish thats less season appropriate and perfect for a rainy day. I love it soooo much!

Hx

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