We're going to the zoo, zoo, zoo...

Hi!

On Friday last week, I spent a lovely day getting sunburnt seeing the animals at Whipsnade Zoo with my 6 year old's class. Their topic this term is Africa and so our agenda for the day was to see as many of the African animals that the zoo houses, and so I had to had nails to match! It was hard to resist putting penguins on my nails, as they're one of my favourites that the zoo has to offer but in the end I settled for a skittle comprised of cheetahs, tigers, giraffes, zebras and snakes! We had an amazing day, and I especially loved the giraffes - they're just beautiful, and they had babies! Adorable, and I'm totally jealous of their eyelashes! I wasn't allowed to take any pictures while we were there, but I'll try to get some of the animals from the school website when they go up. In the meantime, here are the nails! I'll list polishes below, because there were a few. Stamped with a mix of Cheeky and Bundle Monster plates.

So: cheetah was Barry M mocha stamped with Cheeky CH2 in Konad Black, tiger was Barry M Mango sponged with Crabtree and Evelyn Snowdrop and then stamped with Cheeky CH2 in Konad Black, giraffe was China Glaze Kalahari Kiss stamped with BM 313 in Barry M Mocha, zebra was Crabtree and Evelyn Snowdrop stamped with Cheeky CH2 in Konad Black and the snake was China Glaze Rare and Radiant stamped with BM 215 in Konad White. Lot of polish, but it was worth it!

I loved my zoo nails, and the kids got a kick out of them too! Talking of the kids, I better go and grab them from school!

Hx

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GOT Polish - Pastels!

Hi!

It's been a bit of a Barry M fest on the blog this week! I'm continuing the theme with today's Golden Oldie Thursday challenge which was pastels. I used Barry's first textured range (which I bought and loved but only used once...) in skittles and then stamped sweeties, ice cream and cake over the top. Perfect springy pastels! The colours pointer to pinkie are Ridley Road, Kingsland Road, Atlantic Road and Station Road. I love the textures on these, they're not too much that they're too rough but they're bumpy enough to notice. They remind me of the old woodchip wallpaper I had on my bedroom wall as a teenager!

I do love a bit of a skittle anyway, so it was no surprise that I loved this mani :) Next week's GOT theme is coral, and lord knows I have a lot of those!

Hx

An InLinkz Link-up

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OPI Brazil Beach Sandies - Sandy Skittles!

Hi!

I have a thing for OPI mini sets. I'm not a huge OPI fan *LeGasp* but the minis are just so bloody cute I usually can't help myself. And even if I don't end up using them (more often than not...) they're a collectors item, right? And if I do use them and end up loving them I can get them full size. Yes, that did actually happen with a couple of the Pirates of the Caribbean ones so there. Anyway, with their new Brazil collection, OPI released two sets of minis, one with mini versions of the regular range (the Copacababies), and a liquid sand/texture range, which is only available in minis, the Beach Sandies. I had to have the Beach Sandies and when they arrived I thought they'd be perfect for a skittle. Pinkie to index we have: You're So Flippy Floppy (yellow), Samba-dy Loves Purple (purple), What's a Little Rain Forest (blue) and I'm Brazil Nuts Over You (hot coral pink). They all have really pretty shimmer that makes them really special. What's disappointing is that they only come in minis. It made me not want to do a full manicure of each of them, because they'd run out far too quickly. If they were available full-size, I'd want Rain Forest and Brazil Nuts at least. I think they'd make perfect summer pedi colours too (says the girl still rocking her sparkly Christmas pedi...)! I used two coats, but still had VNL in some lights so you might need three (or nude undies) if that bothers you.

Aren't they just yummy? I love the jewel tones, they're so bright and clear and just perfect. Full size please OPI!!!

Hx

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33 Day Challenge Day 24 - most owned colour!

Hi again!

Today's prompt was to feature the colour you have the most of, and I think mine is either pink or purple. So I went for a compromise and settled for lilac (plus the two gorgeous base colours were sat in my untrieds, all lonely and unloved!) I used Face of Australia (a lovely gift) in Castle on a Cloud - a really pretty soft lilac with subtle shimmer and paired it with Emily de Molly Simplicity (perfection in a 12ml bottle). Then I added Color Club Diamond Drops to my pointer and some silver and white stripes with Barry M nail art pens to my pinky and middle fingers and tada! My topcoat bubbled a bit so don't look too close...

I do love a bit of a skittle!

Check out the other ladies taking part!

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I Want Candy!!

Hello!

If you're a facebook friend of The Nail Newbie (click it, go on...) you'll know I recently made my first UK indie polish purchase! There have been a few UK indies popping up recently, and this one in particular caught my eye. Pocket Money Polishes are created by the lovely Charlie, and when she restocked this week I just had to have one of her Glitter Babies - I Want Candy! When it arrived (super quickly too!) I was in love! It's so cute! A tiny bottle stuffed to the gills with multicoloured matte neon glitter in all different shapes and sizes. I had to wear it immediately and paired it with some squishy summer skittles in the colours of the glitter. Yum!

Thumb to pinky - Barry M Summer Ltd Edition 2013 Green, Astor Fuchsia Craze, Color Club Chelsea Girl, Barry M Matte White with two coats PMP I Want Candy, Nails Inc Notting Hill Carnival.

I just love this squishy, summer fun! I'm still wearing it and even after a days wear it's so shiny and squishy (especially the green and the blue) - I got asked if they were gels yesterday too :)

Have you ever bought any UK indies? What should I be keeping a look out for?

Pocket Money Polishes are available from http://www.pocketmoneypolishes.co.uk/ for just £4 each! A lot are sold out at the mo, but keep an eye on the Facebook page for restock announcements.

Hx

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Kiss Me I'm Irish!

I'm sure you've had your fill of St Patrick's day manicures, but I'll share mine with you anyway! I wasn't sure what I wanted to do, but it needed to include some stamping to fit with Adventures in Stamping's Sunday stamping prompt, so I went for some green and gold skittles. The main colour is Barry M Spring Green. Then I added OPI The Man With The Golden Gun to my little finger, stamped with Barry M Gold foil and Bndle Monster 303 on my ring and index. On my middle finger and thumb I did a reciprocal gradient (see Globe and Nail for the original tutorial) with Spring Green, Nails Inc Spring Mews and China Glaze Holly-Day. I did think of adding some gold, maybe a fine gold glitter, to tie it in with the rest of the nails, but I was so chuffed I'd managed to do it without effing up that I thought I'd better leave it. If it ain't broke and all that...

So that was my obligatory green mani for the year! I do actually have some Irish heritage, so you can kiss me if you like ;) 

Tomorrow, I'm starting on a new challenge, with Miss Crumpet's lovely nail tarts again. We're starting the Tri-Polish challenge- using the same 3 polishes for 4 different manicures in a month...this month's colours are coral, green and purple...wish me luck!

Hx

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New 31 day challenge day 18 - my oldest untried

I am ashamed to say that the polish I chose for today's mani has been in my stash since April 2007 and it has languished, sad and unused since then. The shame. And it really is super pretty! I used W7 Purple Paradise and blinged it up with some gold as you do. And tada. One less untried in the tin...

And here is the rest of my untrieds exploding out of a roses tin...not bad compared to some peoples apparently... ;)

One more post later today and I'll be caught up (again!)

Hx

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New 31 day challenge day 10 - Geometric

I'm so excited to share this mani with you today! I adored it, and the polishes I used were pretty special too!

Now, if you're sitting comfortable, I've got a story to tell! If you're a regular reader you might know that financially things haven't been great for my little family over the last 6 months or so. It has been a long time since I've had a polish 'haul' as such, and I've only been able to buy one or two bottles every now and then as a treat. New clothes have been a thing of the past too. Anyway, I got some money over Christmas (only about £70, not a massive amount) but I was going to spend it on ME. If you're a mum you understand that doesn't happen very often! Alas it was not to be, as the day before we were due to hit the sales Mr NN drove the car through a big puddle and flooded the engine. Cost of the repairs...you guessed it, £70. Bye bye new boots...

Anyway, I was pretty annoyed, so I had a little rant in my birthday group, they patted me on the back and commiserated and then it was forgotten. Until a little while later a USPS box arrived at my door. I had no clue who it was from or what was in it, and when that happens it's usually down to one of my birthday girls. I opened it up and out fell a full collection of the Color Club Halo Hues! They had all clubbed together and got them for me, because I had had to spend my Christmas money on the car, the sweethearts. I was literally stunned, and I'm afraid to say I had a little cry (happy tears!). I couldn't wish for a lovelier group of nail-friends, so this post serves as a very special thank you to them all. I love you ladies!

Anyway, onto the nails. I used 5 of the Halo Hues in this, and an older Color Club Holo - Revvvolution. I  used a striper brush to do a line down the middle of the nail with Revvvolution once the bases were dry. Then I drew the coloured in side of the heart and filled it in, then made the other side of the heart a tiny bit bigger and filled in the outside space. Does that make sense? I'm not good at tutorials!

I hope you liked them as much as I did!

Hx

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Purple Crumpet Spring Challenge - Day 14, Pastel Skittle

Bonjour!

You may recognise this as the base for my Cherry Blossom mani from day 6 or 7. It actually came about because I couldn't decide what base to use for the cherry blossoms, decided on a skittle then realised pastel skittle was a challenge later on. Two birds, one stone my friends. That's how I roll. These pics are without topcoat. Can you say shiny! Colour me impressed, especially with the lilac, which is 17 Lasting Fix Woo Me. For such a pale pale lilac it applied brilliantly, and it was less than 3 quid. bargain.

Lilac - 17 Lasting Fix Woo Me, Yellow - Rimmel I <3 Lasting Finish Fruities Lemon Drop, Blue, Peach and Green from Beauty UK Urban Girl set

Tomorrow's theme is Mr Blue Sky...stumped!

Hx

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Purple Crumpet Spring Challenge - Day 8, Cherry Blossoms

Yay! I've wanted to try this for so long! It's pretty easy, and although it didn't come out perfect I got lots of compliments. I did it over a skittle, which you'll see later in the challenge, so I wont bore you with the details here.

What do you think? If I were to do it again, what should I use for my base?

Hx

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