Barry's Blues

Hi!

In the UK, we can always rely on good old Barry M to provide excitement with their seasonal releases. This time around, we were lucky enough to get 3 new polishes in the Hi-Shine Gelly range, and an Aquarium collection consisting of 4 duochromes and 2 shred glitter toppers. So far I've picked up Huckleberry Gelly, the palest baby blue, and Pacific, a teal/blue/aqua/turquoise duochrome (I'm not very good at distinguishing between blues, but I think it's safe to say this polish contains them all!). I have to say the formula in both of these were a little tricky to work with: Huckleberry, being so pale, was a bit thick and chalky and Pacific was a little patchy and I got a few bubbles. Both levelled out with two coats and a good topcoat though, so I shouldn't complain. I combined them in a simple dotticure, using bigger dots than I would usually, making my nails look unintentionally Easter eggy!

Have you picked up any of Barry M's recent releases? I will definitely be going back for more! In fact, there's a couple in my Superdrug shopping basket waiting to be checked out as we speak...

Hx

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Adventures in Stamping - Grey-diant and roses

Hi!

I love grey and pink together, and I've had this gradient swimming around in the "mani's I need to do" file in my brain for a while so as this week's Sunday Stamping theme was to combine stamping with another technique, I went for it. The grey to pink gradient consists of Sally Hansen Eel Skin and OPI Pink Friday and If You Moust You Moust. I topped my ring finger and thumb with OPI Pure (silver and white gold leaf topcoat) and stamped roses from MoYou Pro XL 10 in Barry M Silver Foil.

I feel like I've dine a lot of gradients lately, so many that I had to buy new make-up sponges! But it's such an effective technique, I can't stop!

Hx

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GOT Polish? Yellow!

Hi!

This week's Golden Oldie Thursday is bought to you by the colour yellow! Yellow is probably the colour I own the least of, so none of them are particularly neglected, so I just chose a favourite. This is Models Own Lemon Meringue, which is just a great all round pastel yellow. It's opaque in two coats, good as a base for nail art, it watermarbles perfectly and look how tanned it makes my fingers look! Every little helps ;) I stamped a floral pattern from Pueen 72 in Barry M Gold Foil for a springtime look!

I then added some caviar pearls to the centre of the flowers, and I really like it! They've stayed on really well, through dishes and showering, and I can't stop rubbing them! Does that sound a little bit wrong? Ok, moving on...

I'm not usually a yellow fan, but these I loved. I thought they wouldn't last the day but I kind of don't want to take them off!

Hx

An InLinkz Link-up

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Stardust, swirls and shimmer!

Hi!

Sometimes it's good to just wear what you like on your nails. As a blogger I sometimes get buried in challenges, reviews and themes and don't actually get to just dig into the stash and grab what I want! Now I'm up to date with challenges, reviews etcetera for a week or so, so I'm going to get some "me" manis under my belt! Starting with this one! I bought three polishes from Nails Inc's Stardust collection, and I combined this pretty Paulton's Square with Barry M Prickly Pear. Paulton's Square contains blue metallic glitter in a shimmery pink and blue duochrome base. It is fairly sheer, but Prickly Pear is a perfect match and I bet it would look great over a dark base too. There's the perfect balance of glitter and shimmer, I used two coats and the bigger pieces of glitter don't get buried by the shimmer, and it isn't bumpy on the nail. I left it plain for a while, but the morning after I did it, my Pueen buffet set arrived and so I had to have a play! I stamped a simply swirly pattern in Color Club Cold Metal.

I'm really happy with how well these matched! I have two more of the Stardust collection and I think I might use them the same way! I have lots of new stamping plates to play with after all ;)

Hx

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Off-topic Tuesday - L'Oreal Skin Perfection 15 Second Miracle Cleansing Oil review

Hi!

I think it's safe to say I'm a mascara addict, and I'm always looking for the blackest of black, thick, lashes. Recently I'm finding my eyes are quite sensitive though, and scrubbing at them to get my make-up off at the end of the day isn't doing me any favours, especially when I'm still waking up with panda eyes in the morning! So I've been looking for a product to gently remove my eye makeup without irritating my eyes - and get it all off! Enter L'Oreal Skin Perfection 15 Second Miracle Cleansing Oil, which claims to remove even waterproof mascara in just 15 seconds. It comes with a pump dispenser, which is so much better than just pouring it, and just two or three pumps gets all my makeup off. I just rub it into my skin and eye lashes with my fingers and you can feel the mascara melting away. Then wipe off with a warm flannel or muslin cloth and tada! No scrubbing and no panda eyes in the morning. It doesn't irritate my eyes (I can even open them while it's on, which is something I'd never do with any other cleanser) and being an oil it doesn't strip my skin of moisture either.

Before...

During...

After!

The during photo is a bit scary but it just goes to show that it really is gentle enough to open your eyes and take a selfie while you're using it! I purchased this at Superdrug, where they currently have 1/3 off so at just over £5 I'm going to stock up!

Hx

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Tri Polish challenge blue, green and purple #4 - Flossing...

Hi!

For the last TPC of the month of March I decided to try something a little bit silly! I started off with an off-white base - Sally Hansen Lavender Cloud, and then used a little dental flosser to make the lines across the nail using all Barry M polishes - Key Lime, Cobalt Blue, and Plum. I topped it with a sparse gold glitter, Nails Inc Glamour Glitter, and overall it looked quite abstract and interesting.

I felt like it was missing something so I added a couple of stamped accents using MoYou Pro XL 6.

Next month's TPC colours are pink, yellow and blue - will you be joining in?

Hx

An InLinkz Link-up

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Enchanted Polish February 2014

Hi!

I'm excited about today's post! I have never understood the whole Enchanted Polish hype to be honest (I'm the same with Lynderella or anything limited edition, slap a limited label on anything and it somehow makes it less desirable to me...maybe I'm odd), yes they're pretty but are they really that special? I have always been curious, and since EP release a "monthly" polish I decided I would treat myself to February's for my birthday. Now this was a risk for two reasons - the most obvious being that recently EP has been releasing the monthly polishes as 'surprises', meaning you don't actually get to see the polish you're buying until you have it in your hands (or the first person who gets theirs puts it on Instagram). So it's a big risk, but I knew that if I didn't like it I would be able to sell it on quite easily, as this time there was only a half an hour "window" in which to order so people were bound to miss out. The second risk is one I used to take all the time, but not so much recently. It was an expensive polish (probably the most I have ever spent on one polish) and it is obviously sent from the states, which to my mind brings up all sorts of images of customs fees, damaged packages and Royal Mail hiring a bomb squad to destroy the little bottle of pretty...

Anyway, it arrived, I love it and all is well! February 2014 is a pink toned dusty purple holo that is just about as me as you can get. A lot of the earlier swatches I saw showed it as more pink, but to my mind it is definitely a dusty purple leaning to pink. I'm on the fence about the formula - it is very thick, forming strings and blobs almost imediately, and application was tricky as it dragged a little bit. If you were careful you could get away with one coat, but I stuck to my usual two here. I stamped a little leafy pattern from the new Pueen buffet plate set as an accent, and left it topcoatless, worried about affecting the fiery holo.

The sun even came out for it's debut! I am happy with my purchase, for the most part and I'm sure the formula can be fixed with a bit of thinner (when I eventually get around to buying some...) and I'm sure it will stamp well. The pre-order for March and April 2014 is this evening I believe, but I wont be ordering. I don't think I like buying polish before I know what it looks like, it's scary! I got lucky this time, but usually Lady Luck is not my friend!

Did you go for February 2014? What do you think about the whole blind buying thing?

Hx

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GOT polish? Ruffles!

Hi!

Today the Golden Oldie challenge prompt was ruffles. I didn't fancy a traditional ruffle mani, (where you use a dotting tool to create the ruffles, like I've done here) so instead I went for a lacy, ruffly stamping plate by Pueen. The base colour is Maybelline Color Show Red Grained, a matte finish polish with flakes of glitter which you can hardly see. I stamped with Konad white and left it without topcoat so to keep the matte effect.

The stamping's a bit messy, but I have the new Pueen Stamping Buffet plates to play with now (and a few new MoYous), so I hope to get my stamping mojo back!

Hx

An InLinkz Link-up

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Drool Britannia!

Hi!

I was feeling uninspired the other day looking through my untrieds (I really should destash...) and this pretty glitter jumped out at me. Lilypad Lacquer Drool Britannia was a limited edition polish made for British nail bloggers, organised by the lovely Sally from Sally Magpies. It was a while ago that we designed and got them, but I've never been sure on a base colour and so it's sat in the drawer waiting for it's day. I decided to pair it with a nice bright pink, Miami from the Boots Seventeen Supreme Shine range. The two went nicely together, the pink base meaning that none of the red, white and blue (and holo!) glitter got lost. I did actually stamp over this too, but it was quite late at night and I was a little bit tipsy... I finished my stamping and decided that before I would topcoat I wanted a sandwich (as you do when you're drunk), and once I had finished my sandwich I looked down and the stamping was more or less gone! It had just flaked off! That's never happened to me before, I quite often wait a while between stamp and topcoat. I swear I wasn't that drunk that I thought I stamped and didn't...

At least I got pictures before the mystery disappearing stamping because it pretty much ruined it! In future, I will either have my drunken midnight snack before I start or topcoat straight away!

Hx

An InLinkz Link-up

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Off-topic Tuesday - Canvasdesign.co.uk Review and GIVEAWAY!

Hi!

Just before Christmas, a photographer came to the playgroup that I occasionally work at, and we had some professional family pictures taken for the first time ever! When the proofs came through, the pictures were gorgeous...and expensive. So we opted to buy all the prints on a CD so we could get them printed and framed at a more affordable cost at a later date. Forward 4 months and the pics are still sitting on the cd in my disk drive...isn't that always the way! So when I was offered the chance to review a canvas from canvasdesign.co.uk I grabbed it with both hands and this is the result! The process is so easy, you just upload a picture to the website, chose what size you want and they'll send it to you! The only difficult part was choosing which pic I wanted, but of course it had to be my beautiful boys! Best of all UK postage and packing is free and prices start at just £5.99. The size I have is 40x40 inches, which costs £59.99. The canvas really is fantastic quality, the photo quality hasn't been compromised at all (you can even see the dirt under number 1 son's nails! Love boys...) and it's something I'm going to cherish for years to come. It came with a free hanging kit and arrived really quickly - the website promises free delivery within 48 hours and I even had text messages telling me what day and time it would be delivered, and then one that told me they'd left it with my neighbour. The packaging was superb and there was absolutely no chance it would have gotten damaged in transit. Awesome service!

I was so impressed with the service I received from Canvas Design, the website is easy to use and the people I spoke to have been nothing but friendly and helpful. And at the end of it I'm left with a beautiful canvas that I will treasure forever.

Canvas Design have offered me the opportunity to give away a canvas of your choosing to one of my readers too! It can be any size from 6x6 to 40x40 inches, and any picture you like! You must be in the UK to enter and be prepared to send me your choice of picture, name, address and mobile telephone number if you're the winner. All you have to do is fill in the Rafflecopter form below for your chance to win, and I will draw the winner on the 31st of this month. But if you just can't wait, you can get 15% off your order at canvasdesign.co.uk with the code BLOG15!

As for the stars of the picture, they were more impressed with the den they made from the packaging! Isn't it always the way!

Hx


a Rafflecopter giveaway

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