NOTD - Putty and glitter

Morning!

Excuse my erratic posting at the moment, I have a cold so my usual late night posts ahve been replaced with sleep, and it's my first born's 4th birthday on Monday and we have visitors etc over the weekend, so I'm not sure what I'll manage! I'll schedule a post this evening for sometime over the weekend to keep you amused!

Anyway, the untried challenge is still going strong. Today is the last day of September, and my god I'm going to splurge. But I've rehomed my untrieds into a much smaller box, and there are about half the polishes in there that were there at the start of the month. I'll do my last manicure of the challenge tonight and then have a week every month where I go through them. I'm glad it's over, and glad I did it but it was a pain when I wanted a particular colour but didn't have any! I stuck to it though and each manicure I've worn this month has had at least one polish from "the box".

The manicure I'm showing you today used two polishes, but only one I hadn't used previously. I bought a set of three icing polishes on ebay on a whim, a matte pink, a purple, and this one, a sort of pale grey colour. It reminds me of window putty (in the days before uPVC) so that's what I'm calling it. It was a pain to apply as although it was listed as new there was only about 2/3 of the bottle left and the brush didn't reach down far enough. Only needed 2 coats though. Then I topped with it ELF Golden Goddess which is gold micro glitter and gold holo hexes in a clear base.

It lasted really well, and instead of taking it off because it chipped like usual, I only took it off when I was bored of it. I should have mattefied it, but I forgot.

That's all for this morning loves, how are you all enjoying this crazy weather?! I hope it stays for Ollie's birthday on Monday!

Hx

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Boudoir Prive - a catalogue of errors with a happy ending - Zoya Neeka

Hello

I caved in and subscribed to Boudoir Prive, one of the three or so beauty boxes floating around at the moment. Basically, you pay £10 and get sent a box of 5 or 6 high end beauty, health and lifestyle samples every month. You know me, I'm a budget kinda girl and I'll never pay full price for something if I can help it, so I never get anything "high end". Anyway, I opted for Boudoir Prive over the others for no other reason than I had a code to get my first box for half price. I signed up on something like Augus 18th (so way before my no-buy started :p ) and they told me I'd be debited on September 5th for £5 and receive my box sometime mid-September. Fine. Except that a few days after I was meant to be billed I had an email saying my payment hadn't gone though but not to worry they'd try again in a few days. I knew I had enough money in my bank account to cover £5 (I'm broke but it's not that bad yet) so I went to their website to try and check the details they had for me. I couldn't check my card details through the account section on their website so I emailed their support team, and the FAQ's said I would have a reply in 48 hours. I didn't hear anything for about three days, then had an email saying my box had been despatched, so I assumed the payment had gone though. Then, I had another email confirming that it hadn't gone through, and I would need to purchase a one-off and continue my subscription next month. Wut? One person said the box had been despatched, one person said it hadn't. Of course, not wanting to miss out (as I had heard rumours of what was going to be inside) I emailed back asking for clarification, before I bought another box when one was already on the way. before I heard anything back, I came home Friday morning after the school run to find the box on my doorstep (gotta love Royal Mail) and an email later in the day saying my box was free of charge because of the confusion. Phew! I appreciate that the period around the despatch of the boxes is a busy time for the people at Boudoir Prive, and confusion is bound to come about, but they dealt with it well and I will continue my subscription - for another month at least.

Anyway, rant over, let's get to what you're really here for. I had heard on the downlow that there would be a nail polish in this months box, and oh boy what a nail polish! Zoya Neka from the new Smoke and Mirrors Collection! My very first Zoya. From what I've seen on other blogs different people got different colours, and I'm glad I got Neeka. Dusty purple with gold and pink micro glitter? Don't mind if I do. I love love love it, unfortunately, the shimmer doesn't show as well on the nails (2 coats) as it does in the bottle, but it's still yummy. I stamped over it with Miss Sporty Electric Beige.

I'm now pining over Jem and Yara from the same collection, thanks to getting some nail spoon things in the Boudoir box, but there's no way I'll ever be able to afford them, especially at over £9 a bottle. But Neeka I got for free (even if I had paid the £5, or heck even the £10 I would have loved it just as much), it's gorgeous and it's my first (and probably only ever) Zoya.

If you got a Boudoir Prive box, wha Zoya did you get? If you haven't signed up yet, and you want to give it a go you can use the code 1box12 until 29th Sept to get your first box half price. You can thank me with a "bisous" apparently.

Hx

PS Would you be interested in seeing my collection swatched on nail wheels?

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NOTD - Milkshake and leopard print

Hi guys,

I'm feeling pretty rough so this will be short and hopefully sweet, and then I am taking my flu-ridden arse to bed! I said the other day I had broken my no buy as the old man bought me two polishes for hitting a weight loss milestone, and one of them was Collection 2000 Hot Looks Milkshake. These polishes are only about £1.79 for an 8ml bottle but at the moment they are 2 for £1.99 in Superdrug (I have my eye on another couple...). Milkshake is a nice nude-pinky-brown that was opaque in 2 coats. I then added leopard print to ring finger and thumb using MUA Shade 4 and the other Hot Looks polish I got, All That Jazz. So, even though I added 2 polishes to my untrieds I used them straight away, and can cross MUA Shade 4 off the list too...

I love the look of this manicure, it looks clean and on trend - very yummy Mummy of me!

What do you do to jazz up plain manicures? Are you a fan of an accent nail?

Hx

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Pink Wednesday - I have really bad breath in the morning...

Hello and happy Pink Wednesday! Missed it last week, I did try a pink polish but my LO was poorly and I had to pick him up while the polish was still wet so I took it straight off and went for something different (and not pink!) This is  2 coats of Models Own Pink Blush with 2 coats of Revlon Galaxy on top. Pink Blush is the last of the Models Own polishes I got in the 50% off sale by Models Own, and much as I love Grace Green I think I saved the best to last. It's a Barbie pink creme that applied nicely, but dragged a little so make sure your base coat is completely dry and your brush is well loaded. I got revlon Galaxy as I was looking for a sparse black glitter in a clear base and this is as close as I could get. As well as the black glitter it has holo glitter and silver hexes. It's discontinued, but I got mine easily and cheaply on ebay, and I'm sure I've seen it on market stalls and discount stores like Savers too. It's not in the least bit gritty, so you could even get away with no top coat. A lazy girls glitter! Removal will be via foil mind you...

Then because glitter looks all pretty mattefied, I mattefied it.

Think I preferred it shiny, it looks a bit chalky with the matte top coat. But I still love it. Sometimes the simple ideas are the ones you like the most :)

Hx

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NOTD - MeMeMe Pin-Up + Elf Dark Navy Funky French

Another two polishes ticked off the list! I wore this one a few days ago. The MeMeMe polish is one of their old ones that I picked up in Savers a while ago - it's in the old style bottle but the brush was still good - not like their new mega-huge perfect-nail-in-one-swipe brushes, but still good. I don't wear red often but I have no idea why as I like it on my nails. 2 coats and it was super shiny so silly me didn't use topcoat (I'm dangerously low and don't want to buy any) and there was major tipwear at the end of day one, so I covered it with thin french tips in ELF Dark Navy and eeked it out for another day. Both polishes are definitely keepers.

ooh...shiny...

I don't know how many reds I have in my collection, but it's not as many as the pinks or purples. Are there any you'd recommend? I have been swatching on nail wheels and reds are next on my list to do, so I'll show you that soon.

In other news, I've broken my no-buy. Well sort of. My other half got a fantastic new job yesterday, and today I reached a milestone with my weight loss (I've now lost 10% of my starting weight!) so he treated me to two new polishes. Collection 2000 Hot Looks polishes are two for £1.99 in Superdrug at the moment and he treated me to Milkshake and All That Jazz. I've been craving a nude but don't have any in my untrieds so I'll wear Milkshake soon!

Hx

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NOTD - Playing with pigment again

This time not quite as successfully. I used W7 Graphite as the base and an emerald green Collection 2000 Dazzle Dust. I was seriously impressed with Graphite. A chrome-y silver that was perfectly opaque in one easy coat. Perhaps a teeny bit brush strokey, but I can deal with that. It might even be good for stamping, I'll test it out and let you know. It dried fast and because I wasn't expecting it to be a one coater I applied a second to stick the pigment to. This pigment didn't work as well as the Models Own one I used in my first pigment manicure, perhaps the texture is slightly oilier and therefore it's less "lose". It was certainly harder to cleanup. I like the look of the mani anyway, and it's still intact after a day of wear.

Sorry it's a bit messy still, I couldn't find my clean up brush and had t use cosmetic cotton buds, which are good but just not thin enough.

In  other news, I changed my blog layout (in case you didn't notice!). I couldn't figure out what the problem was with the old layout when viewed in Firefox so I started again. And then the header didn't match so I changed that too. It's not perfect, the header is a little blurry and I haven't got my columns right but I'll perfect it over time! Hopefully it's working now, but if you spot anything not quite right, or you don't like the dark background or have any suggestions, please please let me know!

Hope you all had a nice weekend :)

Hx

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I don't usually do this but...

...this is such an awesome prize I had to share it (and get myself an extra chance of winning teehee). Since Orly is so lame here and I don't even think they launched this collection in the UK, and OPI Merry Midnight is very hard to find, I'd not even given a second thought to getting my hands on them and just drooled at the various other bloggers sporting it instead. But now the gorgeous Colour Coated is giving two away to her lucky readers! You can win a set of the two (they're very very close dupes, as you can see by her post) or Fowl Play on it's own, so there are two chances to win! Just visit Jasmine's beautiful blog here or click the picture to enter!

Hx

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My favourite manicure so far!

Hello!

Since I got my new Bundle monster plates I had been wanting to play around with some of the feathery designs and create a peacock manicure. Usually, when I have an idea in my head it never turns out how I expected, but for once, this did! I LOVED it and kept it on for 4 days before it was too chipped to save and got so many comments on it, from people thinking I was wearing foils or asking how I did it. I have been working at a playgroup this week, and one woman who I'd never even met before kept coming over and holding my hands to look at my nails! I think she was hoping I'd offer to do hers...something I've never done - I think I'd be too scared! Anyway, onto the pictures, there are a few...

The polishes I used were Models Own Purple Mystique, 17 Fast Finish Peacock, 17 Lasting Fix Exquisite and Miss Sporty Electric Beige for the stamping. I created the gradient with 2 coats of Purple Mystique and then sponged on Peacock 2/3 of the way down the nail, and then Exquisite on the tips. I use an eyeshadow applicator for sponging because it's more precise, and who hasn't got a ton of them laying around? Here's a quick pic of the gradient pre-cleanup.

There are quite a few feathery patterns on my BM plaes, and I think I have an actual peacock on one of my Born Pretty plates, so I'm sure I'll do something similar again, when this untried challenge is over...it's driving me nuts. BUT I will stick to it, I promise!

What's your favourite manicure ever? Send me a link or a pic!

Hx

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Honey, I'm home!

You can all stop sobbing into your handkerchiefs, pulling your hair out and wondering what the hell you're going to do with your time, my computer, internet connection and therefore my long rambling blog posts are back! So get some supplies in, I have some epic manicures to show you and you can guarantee that I will go on and on and on and on about them...

But first, just a quick update to let you know I have added a page to the tabs along the top, so that you can keep an eye on my untried challenge. So far in September I have used 15 polishes I'd not tried before, which equals out to one a day! Not bad, but seeing as there are 55 polishes on the list (and I grouped a set of 5 together...) the challenge will be continuing for a wee while yet.

Also, a couple of people have told me that the layout of my blog is odd when viewed in Firefox. I'm trying to resolve it but as I know veeery little about HTML it's taking some time. Please be patient and don't desert me! The handy blogger stats thing tells me that something like 35% of my pageviews have been from people using Firefox (more than any other browser) so I am trying to sort it out. In the meantime, may I suggest Google Chrome...(sorry! That was cheeky of me...)

So, look out for my favourite manicure ever tomorrow, I can't wait to show you!

Hx

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Notd - purple + accent bling

Hi all, this is an old mani from a week our two ago as the design I'm wearing now deserves a proper post with lots of pics, so I'm saving it for when I have my laptop back (either tomorrow our the next day!). Anyway, the darker purple is by Miss Sporty and the accent with rhinestones is rimmel, purple passion or something like that (not by my stash right now lol sorry).

Any way, sorry for the quick post, I'm currently laying flat on my back as I've managed to trap a nerve and my right leg keeps giving way-attractive! Normal service will resume shortly!

Hx

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Notd-I've been matching my nails to my shoes again...

Well, sort of matching. This is 2 costs of No 7 Poolside Blue. Great formula, same silly brush. Then I added some star stickers to my ring fingers and thumbs and noticed they sort of matched my new shoes...

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Yesterdays Pink Wednesday - So Fetch!

Helloo! I've not done a pink Wednesday for a few weeks but since I have a fair few (8 ahem) untried pinks I thought I'd join in again. This is No7 Milan, a nice pink foil. 2 coats, then stamped with concentric circles from BM 206 with MissSporty New Black. Stamping went a bit blurry but considering I did it at 6.30 this morning it wasn't bad.

I do like these No7 polishes, with the Boots vouchers I now have 4 (and have my eyes on another) but one thing I'm not keen on is the brush. The brush itself is nice, one of the wider flat ones, but they feel like they're not attached to the lid of the bottle properly, so they bend a bit when you apply the polish. I thought I just got a bad bottle with my first one but they're all like it. Annoying.

Counting down the days until I get my computer back-should be no more than 7...

Hx

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Notd-Freehand (aka wobbly) grey stripes and stickers

Hi guys, still on my phone :( not being able to properly read and comment on your lovely blogs is depressing me no end.I have been in a general grotty mood for the last few days and I think blogging withdrawal is part of it.
Hopefully be back online in 7-10 days, so the misery will be short lived I hope, and I am still able to read your comments as they get emailed to me. Any way, with that in mind, there were two grey polishes in my untried box so I used them to create this. The polishes are Mavala The Elle Grey and Beauty UK Slate. 1 coat of Mavala, then freehand stripes with the darker slate, just with the brush that it comes with. Could have been neater so I slapped some stickers on. Strange hand pose is to cover up a gardening injury on my thumb...

See you soon, hopefully a bit more cheerful next time!
Hx

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Notd-Models Own Grace Green plus stamping

Howdy!
Today I I'm wearing one of 3 polishesI got in the Models Own sale, Grace Green.I wanted a sage green and wasn't disappointed with my choice! Grace green is a soft warm colour, not too olive or khaki (although I still want the new MUA khaki polish too). It was a one coater (yay) and applied nicely though I did get a few bubbles. Once it was dry (didn't take long) I stamped over it with Miss Sporty Electric Beige and BM 224. Simples.

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NOTD-Revlon Facets of Fuchsia

A recent addition to the untried box is Revlon Facets of Fuchsia, it seems everyone is on about it as a dupe for Deborah Lipmanns Bad Romance. I think it's pretty in it's own right, and unique to me. I dont usually bother with Revlon as they're more then I like to pay but this was on offer for £4• 50 ish in Boots. This was 2 thickish costs of awesomesauce.

My posts will be short and sweet for a while as my computer is down so I'm posting from my phone, I apologise for bluntness and autocorrect!

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No-spend September and untried challenge...

So, today is September 1st, the end of the summer and start of a new season. I can't believe the non-Summer we had, so blah. My tan is already fading and yesterday I wore a dress with thick tights and boots. How depressing.

Anyway, as you've probably guessed I am aiming for a no buy/no spend this month, for nails, hair, make-up and beauty. I have everything I need - I'm not about to run out of moisturiser or foundation, I have a couple of basecoats which are perfectly fine and the number of half-full bottles of shampoo I have in my bathroom is obscene. So, with a few exceptions, I am not going to buy anything - no polish, no make-up, no nothing. Bit scared. But it will do my bank balance good, as the old man is self employed and work has been thin on the ground lately and my part-time this and that isn't getting us anywhere...

As I said, there are a few exceptions-

• I will run out of polish remover and cotton pads at some point, so they will need to be replaced - maximum spend £2.50 possibly twice in the month.
• I will need hairspray as mine has rolled too far under the bed for me to get (at least I think that's where it is...)
• I may be organising a swap...but if I do will put it off until later in the month.
• Bargain of the century Holy Grail item that I can't pass up.
• I have a small paypal balance that isn't worth transferring to my bank burning a hole in my virtual pocket, I will hold onto it as long as possible though.

So, since I can't buy any new polish, I decided I should stop being such a spoilt brat and use the 'new' polish I have that I've not even worn yet. Yup, the untrieds. I dug out all the untried polishes from my stash, put them in a box and firmly closed my polish drawer.

Um, blogger, why you make picture upside-down?

I think I have a month's worth of manicures here... I'm going to use these and only these for the whole month of September. A few exceptions again, to keep it interesting-

• If there is a particular nail-art that I want to do, I will allow myself to use other polishes as long as the main polish is from the untried box.
• I have some polish winging it's way to me from the Models Own sale and blog sales which will be added to the box.
• To add interest and change it up a bit I will allow myself to use matte, glitter, shimmer and crackle top coats as long as the main colour is an untried. Where possible I will use a glitter or crackle from the untrieds if I can.

So, that's my September! I've already started by painting my nails with an untried polish :) To be fair it is one I only got at the weekend...but it's a start!

Anything that catches your eye from the (upside-down?) picture? Will you be joining me on no-spend September? Let me know!

Hx

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