OPI Pure 18k White Gold and Silver Topcoat

Hi!

As it was my birthday over the weekend I treated myself to a couple of special polishes (wouldn't be a birthday if I didn't, right?) and this was one of them. I popped my Sally's cherry and dished out £8.70 on it from the clearance section! It would be stupid not to, right? I wanted it since it came out, but the full price of £30ish is crazy money for one polish to me (I could feed the 4 of use for a week on that if I had to!) but 8 quid is more justifiable. I got the gold version for Christmas last year, and I actually think this is better. The formula isn't as thick and there seems to be more flakes in this one. Anyway, here it is over two coats of NYC Purple Pizzazz. Yum!

I haven't stopped looking at my nails all day! Well, more so than usual. I do tend to look at them quite a lot anyway...

Hx

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33 Day Challenge day 3 - tape manicure!

Hi!

Let it be known that I suck at tape manicures. They are not my bag. For some people it's watermarbling, others can't stamp. I can't get to grips with tape. I just don't have the patience or the co-ordination - something which you need for tape to work! So I went for something simple and fairly difficult to mess up and it came out ok (this was my second attempt mind...)

I went for a black base, lay down some tape in stripes and painted over them with matte topcoat, pulled off the tape and voila! Two stripy accent nails and shiny dots on matte on the rest and I called it a day before I messed something up!

I love the contrast between the shiny and matte, and I think this would make a great subtle Halloween mani. But who needs subtle at Halloween!

Hx

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NOTD - In a New York Minute...

Hello!

Today I have a manicure from the pre-nub days for you. NYC isn't one of my favourite polish brands, but I do love their fast dry clear polish as a day 2 mani shine giver. They're usually on offer in Superdrug at £1.99 each or two for £3, but this time it was 2 for £2.49 and since they only had one bottle of the topcoat, I picked up Times Square from their New York Minute range. Times Square is a hot hot raspberry creme that is super pretty. I probably have a million "similar" polishes in my stash, but who cares when it effectively cost 50p?

On top of 2 coats of Times Square I added glitter tips in Barry M Blue Glitter just by using the brush that comes in the bottle fairly dry and building up to opacity towards the tips. I love the bright combination!

Times Square alone

Now for the reasons NYC isn't one of my favourite polish brands. Yes, they're cheap, but the colour selection is really limited. And, forgive me if I'm wrong but they never seem to bring out anything new. Am I wrong? Whenever I look at the stand it's always the same old polishes. Secondly, and probably more importantly, they chip. Badly. On me at least. I rarely get a mani to last more than a day or two at a push, but I do like my polish to last at least until late afternoon/early evening. I polish in the evening and it it's ruined by the next evening, fine. But his manicure lasted me a few hours at most. By lunchtime most of the glitter part was gone. And because I can't polish during the day when the kids are around (asking for trouble) I had to go through the day sporting the skank look. I get enough of that with my useless hair... Tipwear, a few chips, I can accept. But seriously? Half the polish? And it wasn't just this colour either, other NYC's I've had are the same. Maybe the range is called In a New York Minute because that's how long it lasts...

Never mind, it was pretty while it lasted!

Do you have any NYC favourites?

Hx

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NOTD - Multi-tasking pigments

Hi!

If you're anything like me you have a ton of eyeshadows you'll never use up, especially loose pigments and powders. I came across this post by Beauty's Bad Habit and I knew I had to try it. I love it when I find an alternative use for a product. I have an entire crapload of loose shadows that are super old (I'm talking 10 years plus, Edit - actually closer to 15 fuuuuuu... from my first ever job as a Saturday girl in a pharmacy, the only make-up they carried was Miners and every Saurday I used to buy something with some of my wages, I can't bring myself to get rid of these!) so expect to see these on my nails a lot. For this mani I actually used a Models Own loose eyeshadow in Gold, over Essie Wicked (an ebay bargain).

It's a really simple and really effective mani, Beauty's Bad Habit has a picture tutorial, but here's a quick Helly-explanation for you. 1. Base coat. 2. 1st coat of your chosen polish. 2. Add the second (or third if it needs it) coat of your colour. As you do each nail (so it doesn't have a chance to dry) place a bit of your loose pigment at the base of your nail, I used an orange stick for this. 3. Tilt your nail downwards over something that wont get ruined (I used a plastic bag) and blow the powder across your nail. Repeat 2 and 3 on all nails. Once colour is dry blow again to remove any excess, then add top coat. Once all that is dry wash any left overs off your hands, or like me leave it to the morning and wake up with a sparkly face :) Done!

My favourite nail.

 And bonus pic, Ollie saw me taking pictured of my hands and wanted one of his taken too. Excuse the dirty nails, he's a boy, he attracts dirt like I attract the loonies on the bus (seriously, why do they always think it's ok to talk to me?), what can I say.

Will you be trying this? Even though I have at least 6 loose pigments I'm going to order a black one from Models Own (50% off on their website with the code FIFTYFIFTY. Good luck getting it to work though) so I can do red with black. Don't think I'll ever get bored of this :)

Hx

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NOTD - Half mooning with the kool kidz

Happy Sunday everyone! I always have mixed emotions about Sundays. On one hand it's usually a chilled out, relaxed day full of food, nice walks and playing with the kids, but then again, it's Monday tomorrow. Meh.

Anyway, I decided to create a half moon manicure because it seems to be the thing to do at the moment. And it looks good so why not? I wanted to wear purple on my nails so I applied 3 coats of Accessorize Pin Up (acquired from Jen's blog sale), which as it turns out isn't as purple on the nail as it is in the bottle. It's purpley-red glitter in a sheer burgundy base (along a similar line to Aztec which I showed you last week) and is very pretty when it catches the light. It is a tricky one, again a bit draggy and patchy until you hit the magic thee coats, but it looks fine after that. BUT it took an AGE to dry and when I removed the french tip guides after adding my half moons (in Rimmel I <3 Lasting Finish Your Majesty - perfect opaque silver, if only I could get it to stamp...) I removed the polish underneath more than once. I patched it up, slapped on a thick coat of NYC and you can't notice the bumpy bits - it's a bumpy polish anyway.

Apologies for the pics-taken-in-the-car. I noticed a bit of wear so quickly snapped these while waiting for the OH to put his face on and wax his bikini line or something...

Sorry if this post seems a bit angry. I am in a foul mood thanks to broken promises and lack of sleep. Normal service will resume tomorrow, hopefully.

In other news, my giveaway ends at midnight on Tuesday - have you entered yet?

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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NOTD - My first franken!

Hi guys,

Today I have to show you my first attempt at frankening! I'm pretty pleased with how it came out, although it's not perfect I love it all the same!

The base polish is NYC Starry Silver Glitter, silver glitter and larger blue and pink hex glitter in a clear base. Then I added a good blob of Barry M Indigo and Collection 2000 French White to make it a lilac colour. Then to make it more 'jelly' I added some clear polish by Natural Collection and then because you can never have too much glitter I added a splash of Barry M Hologram Hexograms, large silver holo hex glitter pieces in a clear base. I don't know exact quantites as I just added randomly until I was happy with the result, and here it is!

 Artificial light, miserable day here. Horrible yellow hands but most colour accurate for the polish. 3 coats plus top coat of NYC Grand Central Station.

Natural (rainy) light. The polish is not as blue irl.

Barry M Hologram Hexograms, Barry M Indigo, NYC Starry Silver Glitter, Collection 2000 French White, Natural Collection Crystal

What do you think? I really like it, think I will buy more SSG and make different colours :) Think a mint green would be awesome :)

Any ideas on what I should name it?

Special thanks to KarenD at Frazzle and Aniploish whom I bombarded with questions about how to go about cleaning the bottle out, and she was very helpful, so thanks Karen! I ended up not washing the bottle out, just pouring the gloopy contents (an old base coat) into an old envelope so I could throw it away, and then getting started! Actually much less messy than I thought it would be!

Hx

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NOTD - Barry M Nail Effects Blue

What with O.P.I bringing out their silver shatter and red and white ones with their Glam Slam (I think that's what it's called) collections, and 3 different blue shatters, they are everywhere at the moment. All the kewl kidz are doing it, so I thought I'd join them. Seeing as my (W7) silver shatter met my slate kitchen floor and it's untimely demise I went for Barry M Nail Effects in blue (they also do black, pink and white) over Rimmel I <3 lasting finish in Your Majesty. It took me an age to decide what to layer this over and swatched a couple of options on paper, only to find it looked disgusting over purple, not great over red and the contrast when it was over blue (Barry M cobalt) wasn't enough for me, so I went for silver. The shatter dries darker than it looks in the bottle, so as it's a mid-blue you either need a really dark blue or a really light one if you wanted an all-blue mani. this is base coat, 2 coats of silver, a coat of crackle and 2 of topcoat (NYC as Seche is giving me major headaches, and as the crackle dries quickly you don't need a quick dry TC, just a thick one to even it out a bit).

Broke my index and middle finger nails...well actually I hacked them with a potato peeler...

 The blue crackle has stained my cuticle a bit by the looks of it...

The formula on the Barry M is a little thinner than their black crackle, which is a good thing. It's easier to control and you get a little 'play time' before it dries completely so if you mess up you can (very quickly) go over it again with the brush while it's still wet. I thought I'd messed up my right index finger but I salvaged it. It dries matte, which I don't mind, but for lasting power I added TC, and so far today it's lasting well. I got some compliments on it at playgroup this morning too :) I really like this combo and hope it lasts a few days. It's a fairly quick mani to do, especially if you use a fast dry base colour, so after spending hours playing with stamping the last few days it was refreshing to just relax and still have a stunning mani.

I have another blog award to post about, and there's and ABC thing doing the rounds which looks like fun, so  see you soon!

Hx

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