NOTD - Pastel Spotty Dotty!

Hello!

I showed you swatches of the Nails Inc freebies you can get with InStyle magazine this month here,  and I decided to do a manicure with them. All three of them! They go really nicely together, and I just did a simple spotty design. First, I painted all 9 of my nails alternately with the three shades, and then used the other two colours to make large dots with a dotting tool. Then with the base colour I put a smaller dot in the middle, so it (mostly) looks like circles.

The colours go really nicely together, so I'm glad I got all three...as if I needed an excuse... Now, what to do with three copies of the same magazine...

Hx

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Nail Inc Freebies - Swatches!

Hello!

Nails Inc are rather famous for their freebies! I think most of my 20-somethign Nails Inc collection have been freebies form one thing or another - magazines being the most popular. This month you can get a free Nails Inc polish in one of three shades with In Style magazine. A polish worth £11 for under 4 quid? Oh, go on then!

L-R Peach Sorbet, Power Pink, Bluebell

Peach Sorbet, Power Pink, Bluebell

Peach Sorbet was a 2 coater, but I did 3 in my swatch coz I got fluff on it... The other two however are shown here with 1 coat and no topcoat. Yummy, shiny, pastel goodness!

Will you be picking any up? Be quick if you do, they only came out on Thursday and I had trouble finding Bluebell...

Hx

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October Favourites

Evenin'

I gave my nails a break and kept on my blue mani for an extra day, so today I have my October favourites for you. I didn't buy an awful lot this month, due to being penniless! So there are just a few bits that I've picked up or rediscovered that I'm loving.

Polish first, of course!

2true Fast Dry Colour Quick Shade 10, 17 Magnetised Green, China Glaze Ruby Pumps, Accessorize Baby Blue

My favourite mani this month (although I didn't like the formula of the base colour)

17 Fast Dry Fury, Stamped with 2True Fast Dry Colour Quick Shade 8, Maybelline Orange Couture and  BM04. Full post here.

Brunette eyebrow pencil by Vital Radiance, Beauty UK Pearl Eyeliner in Eclipse, Garnier BB Cream in Light, Rose and Co Apothecary Rose Petal Salve

I always used to use a matte eyeshadow to fill my eyebrows when I needed it - which wasn't very often - but I saw this eyebrow pencil in Poundland and thought I'd try it. Now I know what a difference it can make to "do" your eyebrows. It makes my whole face look more defined and really frames my eyes.I don't do it everyday, but when I'm doing my "full face" or a strong eye it completes the look.

I now have 5 of Beauty UK's pearl eyeliners and can't recommend them enough. I got Eclipse as an "extra" from a blog sale and love it. It's a very dark slate grey and is great for lining a smokey eye.

I wasn't sure about buying a BB cream from Garnier - at £9.99 it's a lot more than I'd usually pay for foundation or tinted moisturiser, so I sent off for a sample to try it. The first time I used it I used way too much and ended up super shiny and felt like my make-up was sliding around my face all day. The next time I made sure I used it over primer and didn't use as much and it was much better. Somewhere in between a foundation and tinted moisturiser is perfect coverage for me as I have good skin and barely ever get spots, but have a few uneven patches of colouration and freckles. I'm still not sure if I would buy this for a tenner, but it's on offer in Tesco at the moment for £8, or I might try 17's one for £5.99 next time I'm in Boots.

I got the Rose and Co Apothecary Rose Petal Salve in my October Boudoir Prive box and it is fast replacing my Lemony Flutter as my favourite cuticle treatment. It doesn't have the grainy texture of lemony flutter and turns into more of an oil on the skin. I even use this on my lips (I do this with Lemony Flutter too). I wasn't sure if the scent would put me off but it just reminds me of Turkish Delight. I'm not a great fan of Turkish Delight, but it's bearable! And makes my lips feel great. I want to try their Cherry Salve too, but I will wait until I've finished this one and the Lemony Flutter (which I feel is never gonna happen since it's HUGE!)

L'Occitiane Shea Hand Cream Hibiscus Flower, Original Shea, Desert Rose, Kleenex Facial Cleansing Wipes

Last month in Marie Claire they were giving away a L'Occitiane Shea Hand Cream in four different "flavours" (am I the only one who calls scents and varieties of beauty products "flavours"? You wouldn't eat it...). I picked up the original shea butter first, and when I used it almost all up within 2 weeks I picked up two more! Yes, I bought 3 copies of the same magazine...and still haven't read it! I can honestly say that it's the best hand cream I've ever used and my hands and nails have felt so much better, especially now the weather is getting cold - which is tough on my hands. If I don't get a huge bucket of this stuff under the Chrimbo tree I will be buying one in the new year!

I am a facial wipe fan, and these ones from Kleenex are really good. Apparently Kleenex as a company started as a way for women to remove make-up, so their new range is going back to their roots. These wipes are soft and quilted, so they're strong and don't make my skin feel dry and I don't feel like I have to scrub at my eyes to get my mascara off!

So, there are my faves of the month. I am on a self imposed spending ban so Novembers favourites will be things I'm rediscovering and digging out from the stash! The spending ban wont be too hard I think, there are only 2 polishes that I think I want (Barry M's Croc Effect crackle and the green/gold one from the Models Own Beetlejuice collection) but I can hold off on those since I don't have a place for them in my 31 day challenge! And then December will be all about Christmas, so maybe my faves for that month will come from Mr Claus!

What have you been loving this month? I tell you I'm not loving this cold weather! Am avoiding putting the heating on for as long as possible...it's chilly in here I tell you!

Hx

PS This post meant to go up last night, but it seems I neglected to hit "publish". Ooopsie! The 31 day challenge will resume this evening!

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NOTD - Missguided MissTique Nail Splash

Hi :)

I got the polish I'm wearing today as a magazine freebie last month. I want to say it was from cosmo but I can't remember...anyway, you can't get the magazine anymore but you can get this polish on the Missguided website for £5. MissTique is a lovely teal creme, unique in my collection and applied perfectly in 2 thin coats. I didn't want to leave it plain, so I tried to stamp over it. I say tried because I went through at least 10 stamp/polish combinations before I got one that worked. Sort of. In the end I (wonkily) stamped this swirly pattern in Miss Sporty Electric Beige.

The next picture isn't pretty. This polish stained my nails an skin like a mo'fo' when I removed it. Look away if you're of a sensitive nature...

Ew!

Anyway, that's me for today. Have you picked up any magazine freebies lately? There are loads around!

Hx

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Bargain Haulage

Hello!

I'm sorry this post is later than I planned, for some reason the weekend went too fast and time was not on my side.

Anyway, I've been bargain/freebie hunting and this is what I've come up with!

First up, some freebies. In Boots at the moment when you buy two Dove Deodorants you get a free Nails Inc Nail Polish in either Copacabana (coral creme) or Havana (nude shimmer). I spent just under £8 on the deodorant (which is the brand I use anyway so they'll get used up) and got both polishes, worth £22 together. I have Copacabana on my toes at the moment, and it is more orange than it looks in the bottle.

Also in Boots, when you buy any two 17 products you get this mini nail bar in a bag free, containing two polishes, a nail file and some nail stickers. The polishes are Pink Grapefruit and Red something (which I already had but had gone rock solid!) I bought a polish in Peacock and a high shine lip gloss in Coral Queen to get this freebie, spending less than £7.50. I wanted a coral lipgloss anyway, but will have to keep looking as this one is just completely sheer :(

Now an ebay bargain, I was looking for a particular Collection 2000 colour tat is apparently good for stamping, but has been discontinued. I couldn't find the one I was looking for, but the orangey-coral polish in this set caught my eye. There was 30 minutes or so left in the auction, it had no bids with a start price of 99p + £2 postage so I bid £1.20 and won. The pink isn't really very me, but the other two are nice enough, and I wanted an orange shimmer as my few orange polishes are all cremes.

These 2 Barry M beauties are Peach Melba and Berry Ice Cream, which I got from the Barry M Website with a code for 15% off. With postage I paid a little more than you would in Boots or Superdrug, but I can never seem to find Peach Melba and there aren't any offers in either shop at the moment, so I went for it. After all, you can't beat a bit of Barry M :)

Hx

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I'll do anything to get out of the washing up...

Just call me Calamity Jane. My adorable 3 year old son, who 99% of the time is as hyper as Tigger drinking redbull, jumped on me, landed with his knee on my hand and has done some damage. What damage I'm not sure. If it's still as bad as it is now in the morning I'm somehow going to get to A&E. Moral of the story: don't have kids.

I do have a quick NOTD for you, pic taken yesterday before "the incident". I've been craving a red for a while, and have quite a few in my collection but Harpers Bazarre are giving away a free Leighton Denny polish with their July issue, one of them being this brick red creme. I wasn't going to get any, as the mag itself is £4.20 and I wasn't wowed by any of the colours, but then I saw Liloo's swatches and review and I couldn't resist. The pic below is 2 coats od Viva la Diva, no topcoat after about half a day of wear.

I had a similar experience to Liloo as the inner cap came out of the outer one on my bottle, but no biggie. I just pushed it back on and it didn't cause me any problems. But unfortunately that's where the similarities end. I struggled a bit with application. First couple of nails were fine, then it started getting gloopy. I wasn't taking my time, just being average I guess. Anyway, I managed my two coats, cleaned up and went to get my Seche, but I couldn't find it. Not bothered, I waited for it to dry some before before I could add my second favourite top coat, NYC. 10 minutes, not dry enough, 20 minutes, still mess-up-able, 45 minutes and I would have still been in for wrinkles had I needed a wee. An hour later, I gave up waiting and went to bed, ready for the sheet marks in the morning.

Fortunately the sheet marks were restricted to my right hand, but I didn't bother top coating, thinking I'd take it off that evening. Liloo's swatches show glossy, high shine nails without top coat, but if I wanted that finish TC was essential. Then the boyface jumped on me and the last thing I wanted to do was change my manicure.

So altogether yesterday was a pretty miserable day :( Now I'm going to attempt to paint my nails... I don't know if I'm lucky the bad hand is my non dominant left, so at least my nails will be nice on that hand. Every cloud and all that...

Hx

PS I can't see my followers - is blogger playing silly bugger again?

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NOTD - Freebie Friday, InStyle Nails Inc Electric Teal

As promised, I've swatched one of the InStyle Nails Inc polishes, Electric Teal. As I said yesterday, I've always found Nails Inc a bit of a PITA to apply, and this was no exception. Although at £11 a pop I've only ever tried the freebies, so maybe their regular range is better, I don't know. This was two gloopy coats, I wasn't going to go for three in case I ruined it. The first coat looked like I'd been using tippex but the second more or less evened it out. The brush is rubbish and I don't know if it's because of the wide cap but when you shake the bottle (which you need to often because of the gloopyness) the cap fills up with polish and flood everywhere. ARGH. And the name annoys me, it's more of a racing green than teal, they clearly only called it that so they could play on words with electric teal/eel. /endrant.

I was quite pleased with the result though, it's a colour I've got nothing similar to and because it's thicker it might be good for stamping? I'm having trouble finding polishes that work for stamping without drying too quickly...but that can wait for another day...

Here are the pics, 2 coats plus Seche Vite (incidently the drying time wasn't too bad for such a gloopy polish)

The gold flakie bits on the ring finger are the remains of a decal that fell apart when I put the top coat on... but it did inspire me to add some gold glitter in the form of W7 Gold Dazzle this morning.

What do you think, better with or without the glitter? I'm undecided...

So, should you buy this month's InStyle to get this polish? Well, if you don't mind paying £3.70 for a polish that's a bit rubbish, then yes. The colour is pretty unique, I think, but there are plenty of better, and cheaper, polishes to spend your money on.

Hx

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NOTD - Beauty UK Soft Grey gorgeousness and other yummy things...

Helloooo! Today I have an absolutely edible polish to show you that I have fallen in love with. Whenever I go to Superdrug the Beauty UK stand is always the first one I go to, and last time I did I picked up this beauty and I'm so glad I did. Soft Grey is exactly that, a beautiful soft dove grey that pulls a little blue in some lights. Pictures below are direct sunlight, 3 (totally worth it) coats.

I'd say the first pic is more colour accurate, but I used the second so you can see the hint of blue. This is definitely going to be one I reach for over and over.

I had planned to do some stamping over this polish, but then I put it on and I didn't want to disrupt the yum so I wore it plain. I also bought the Collection 2000 sparkle top coat as an alternative to China Glaze White Cap which I have the hugest lemming for. I'm in no way saying this is a dupe, but I think it will give a similar effect and will do for me! But again, I left the soft grey alone, sparkle top coat will have to wait!

Now, onto a favourite subject of mine, freebies! Yesterday I bought June's issue of Marie Claire which has a free Body Shop Body Butter, and I got the mango one (there was also shea butter and a lavender one). And today the new InStyle mag is out, and I picked up two copies because they have their free Nails Inc polishes again.

I picked up Electric Teal and Candy Orange. There is also a nude shade available, but I'll leave that for now as I already have Nails Inc Jermyn Street (another freebie) which is a pinky nude. I might change my mind and get it later in the month, but I would have looked like a prat buying three copies of the same magazine in one go.

I'll be using one of these tonight, probably the teal... I have found in the past that the Nails Inc polishes apply like tippex - maybe it's just the freebies I don't know, so I will let you know how I get on!

Will be visiting Superdrug at the weekend and will be sure to stalk the Beauty UK stand! They recently bought out a new collection and I NEED the pearly white polish, Frozen Kingdom, but every time I look the stand has been ravaged by a caveman and there's none left, so wish me luck!

Hx

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