Haul time

Bonjour my lovlies

Today I have a haul post for you. I haven't done one for about three weeks, so these are from several shopping trips combined, although I've separated the things I got today :)

Top L-R: Barry M Blueberry Ice Cream, Strawberry Ice Cream, Cobalt, Collection 2000 5 day Wear French White and Sparkle Top Coat, Nails Inc Electric Teal and Candy Orange, George at Asda Pink Glitz and Dazzle

Bottom: Sally Hansen Maximum Growth, Barry M Nail Effects 315 and 314, W7 Earthquake White (Crackle) and Gold Dazzle, O.P.I Wing It! and Parlez-Vous O.P.I?, China Glaze Peace on Earth, G at Matalan Purple Plum, and some decals from Ebeast underneath.

Today's haul: Pink slim baskets from Poundland 3 for 99p or something, Acrylic paints for when I eventually get around to trying freehand painting also Poundland, Accessorize Pink Spice (wearing now, amazeballs) £4 Superdrug, 2true Fast Dry Colour Quick shade 4 and 9, Revlon Gold Get 'Em £2 odd in Savers, Beauty UK Frozen Kingdom (at last, hurrah!) £1.99 Superdrug, 2true Glossywear Shade 45, the 3 2true ones are usually £1.99 but 3 for £5 in Superdrug.

And some non-nail related gumf if you're interested...

Hair things: Slide £1, Flower £2, Band £2.50 all Primarni, Bows (on little kirby grips) £1.50 Superdrug, Bracelets £2.50 Primarni.

Eyelashes £1.99 Savers, Natural Collection Eye pallets Mink/Sable and Blackcurrent/Violet £1.99 Boots, Collection 2000 Crystal Gloss Lipstick Latte Crystal £2.49 Boots*, Collection 2000 Extreme 24 Hour Felt-Tip Eye Liner Black £2.99 (I think) Superdrug, Maybelline Great Lash Mascara £2-odd Savers

*Boots have a 3 for 2 offer across all their make-up, so effectively one of the eye pallets was free.

So yeah, I spent waaaay too much money today. Ooops.

I don't usually buy the hair pretties and things, but I'm going to a very important wedding in a few weeks time and I have no idea what to do with my hair, so I got a few things that match my outfit so I can have a play around. And the bows I just liked and they were half price...

But, now I really need to go on a no-spend, at least until the end of the month. We're travelling away to the wedding and we need to save money for that, plus I've already filled up two of the little pink baskets with polishes I've not even worn yet, so along with swatching and a possible spreadsheet (can I? Does it make me a nerd? I do love a good spreadsheet) that should keep me busy. I started this with 27(?) polishes less than 2 months ago, and now I have at least 85, probably closer to 100... So unless I stumble upon one of my major lemmings (basically anything holo lol) my purse is staying shut... Wish me luck...

Hx

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Anyone know if this works...?

...or do I really have to buy Konad polishes?

Hx

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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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Josie's Nails GIVEAWAY

Another lovely giveaway for you. Josie's Nails is celebrating 300 followers. Head over there and you could win this little lot!

Good luck!

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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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"Shut up!"..."I didn't say anything..."

You know what day it is...Pink Wednesday!

Today I decided to try something fun. I alternated white and pink polish on my nails, then alternated pink and white crackle polishes. I used Collection 2000 Manicure 5 day wear in French white with Barry M Nail Effects 111 (their pink crackle) on my little finger, middle finger and thumb on my left hand, and Barbara Daly Think Pink with W7 Earthquake White on the ring and index fingers. I reversed the order on my right hand.

My application was sloppy, I know (and by the time I took the pictures about 12 hours after I painted them it had already chipped). I didn't let the colours underneath dry completely so when I applied the crackle it "pulled" the base with it, making the previously opaque base colour sheer and patchy. The white crackle also made the colour underneath more blue, but I'm not sure if it was the polish or the fact that it wasn't completely dry (also the Barbara Daly polish is really chalky, and the crackle on top made that worse - it was a pretty good colour match to the Barry M crackle in my test).

I'm going to try this again with the black and white crackles, and maybe black and silver and blue and white - if I can find a good colour match to the Barry M blue crackle and W7 silver crackle. It was fun giving this a go - from a distance you can't really tell the difference, but up close you can, which I like. I don't know, simple things please simple minds, and all that...

Hx

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NOTD - O.P.I Wing It! plus first attempt at stamping!

Hello!
Today I am going to show you my first attempt at stamping using mu Born Pretty Hello Kitty plate. This mani didn't turn out how I wanted it, but I guess it wasn't a complete fail. It was more the polish I wasn't happy with rather than the stamping. I used O.P.I Wing It! for the base, and I knew as soon as I saw it it would be sheer, but I didn't know how sheer. I'd read other bloggers saying it was 3 or 4 coats. Nope. I did 8. 8 effing coats and there's still VNL. Also the colour wasn't exactly great on me. It's a corally pink jelly with pink and blue microglitter and is really very pretty, but on me it looks boring, you don't get the shimmer and since I was gardening and getting dirty it looked quite disgusting, even though it didn't chip. I stamped the flutterbys with China Glaze Peace On Earth, a golden metalic olivey-green, and I don't think the contrast was enough either. Perhaps I should have used a solid colour, a purple or white or something. *LeSigh* You live and learn!

 Excuse my disgusting skin and cuticles...

 I matched my jewellery to my nails for the day :)

I added a teeny flower to the thumb :)

Anyway, I wore the mani for 2 days of gardening and it didn't chip. I've replaced it with something else now (another semi-fail *sob*), but only because I started picking at it lol

I need to update my april wishlist and sort out one for may, and also my round up :) so I may post those when I get 5 minutes tomorrow. Get in touch if you'd like to be included in the round up, I've got a few people/manicures I want to include but there's always room for more! I have bought so many polishes this month, I'll post a proper stash update and then I really need to go on a no-buy. We're going away for the weekend to a friends wedding at the end of the month and I need a new outfit and to SAVE for it so it doesn't completely bankrupt us, so no more polishes. Shouldn't be too hard since I was struggling to find a polish to buy in Boots yesterday (3 for 2 on all make-up, I picked up the two polishes I wanted then couldn't find a third so ended up with a lipgloss). Although I have recently had a make-up cull and got rid of everything from my make-up stash that was past it's best so that needs replensihing :D Maybe I'll do a make-up post one day this week.... On that note, can anyone recommend a good (and cheap) eye-shadow primer?

Hope everyone has had  a nice weekend x

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