Chromatic Neon Dots

Today I have something a little more colourful and lively to show you. Not that the weather calls for it but I've had it on my list of manis "to do" for a while so why not do it on a super dreary, rainy day?

I first saw this mani on Mad Manis and Deniz also did an amazing version. The silver makes the look quite robotic and futuristic but the neon polka dots add a little fun to it. I had a little trouble keeping all my dots in line as I miscalculated the space still left on the nail. Random dots are so much easier to do!

I used 2 coats of Stargazer chrome silver #232 and various neon/ bright coloured polishes for the dots.

Lebowski hasn't made an appearance on here in quite some time, here is a recent photo of him playing with his snake (wow...that actually sounds quite dirty!)



Wintry Terracotta

It seems that terracotta colour I put on yesterday was a hit after all, 2 of my friends commented on it today and they were actually positive comments!

I was racking my brain trying to think of what to add to this mani. I was going to stamp with a sort of abstract bundle monster stamp but that quickly went horribly wrong. Good thing I did my right hand first!
After all that, I just added some navy blue french tips and a double line of gold striping tape to compliment the blue. I quite like how this unusual mix of colours turned out, it looks like a "wintry" mani.

One of my friends also posted something on her facebook page today which I thought was very funny. I think you would have probably read it before, it's been making the rounds on FB and Twitter:

"There's a rumor going around that says boys are stronger then girls! Oh! Please, can you carry a 7 lb baby in your stomach for 9 months? Can you cook, clean and talk on the phone @ the same time? Can you burn your forehead with a curling iron and not complain? Can you walk all day in 5" heels? Can you cry all night then wake up the next morning like everything is okay? Remember guys, women are only helpless until their nail polish dries :)"

Looks Great On You - H&M

This was one of my first ever H&M Nail polishes. I bought it back in June but never got around to wearing it. It's one of those strange colours most people would probably consider fugly, a muted orange, sort of rusty colour! My friend who was with me at the time said it looked like the terracotta tiles in her garden. I suppose that's one way to look at it, but that is why it caught my eye, it's unusual! As is the name - "Looks Great on You!"

I was impressed with the formula. I love it when formulas are opaque, I'm not into sheer much unless I specifically pick a sheer polish.

I don't mind the shape of the bottle but I don't like the square lid, it makes application slightly more difficult because you have to hold it in a certain way.

True Love Toughens Up

As usual, I added a few bits and bobs to my existing mani by stamping with BM222 which looks a little like barb wire, and used Konad Special polish in Silver.
The reason the stamping is quite subtle is because I had trouble with the Konad Silver, I expected it to be much more opaque and thick than it is! Anyone else had trouble with Konad Silver?

I also added a coat of CND Effects Violet Shimmer. These effects polishes really transform a colour. This mani went from a purple maroon fusion to an electric purple shimmer in a heartbeat!

True Love - Essence Vampire's Love TE

Here is another polish from the Essence Vampire's Love Trend Edition. This one is called True Love and it's a lovely dark purple, like a maroon purple and packed full of shimmer.
It's a gorgeous shade of purple but I can see how it could easily be overlooked in favour of more "exciting" purple shades.

As soon as I heard about this collection, I anticipated a colour like this as it's...well... "vampy" and something a vampire would wear! Would a vampire wear this?! Hmm...

As with the other Vampire's Love polish I've tried (The Dawn is Broken), the quality is amazing. They are extremely opaque (with good application you can get away with 1 coat) and apply easily and smoothly. I can't fault the formula at all.

Polka Dots & Pearls

I didn't leave this lovely soft baby pink alone! Oh no! I had to go play around with other colours and bits & bobs!

Is this too girly? Baby pink, baby blue, and assorted pastel dots covered with pearls? Maybe it is but I love swaying from one extreme (very dark vampy hardcore colours) to another (pink, pastels, rhinestones and pearls), depending on my mood :-)

It's not the most "wearable" mani but I just added the pearls for the photo. It would still look really pretty with just the pastel polka dots.

Glossybox - November

It's that time of the month again! Glossybox time!

I'm not jumping for joy with this month's box but I really like 3 of the products. I have to say, perfume samples irritate me but the Illamasqua Freak is £59.00 for 75ml so it's obvious we wouldn't get anything bigger than a sample.
I really wanted to get another nail polish but we got one last month, at least we got nail wraps this month! I'm also a tad disappointed that we didn't get any make-up products.


1 - Arbonne FC5 Cooling Foot Creme - Moisturising, non greasy foot creme hydrates rough, dry skin and soothes, cools and comforts tired feet. Although I own countless hand creams, I only have one foot cream so this pepper-minty (is that a word?) cream will come in handy.

2 - Dead Sea Spa Magik Gentle Facial Wash - This cleansing wash is a special blend of natural ingredients that gently cleanses the skin and fights bacteria for a deep, invigorating clean. I am always looking for ways to better my skin/ skincare routine but cannot invest money in expensive products that may not work with my skin. This is one of the reasons glossybox is really good, I get to test expensive products before actually buying full size.

3 - Illamasqua Freak Eau De Parfum - I don't like perfume samples (I can get these over the counter at Boots for free). I can't use them, I hate the little lid so they always end up going in the bin. At least this one has a little spray pump so it will be good to use for a couple of days. Judging from the description and the amazing and unusual bottle, this perfume seems to be really dark, mysterious and strong (like Opium mixed with a hint of Alien and Angel all rolled into one) but after smelling it, this "Freak" isn't that freaky! It's quite light and floral (for a winter perfume). I like it though as I'm into light fragrances.

4 - Nail Rock Designer Nail Wraps - The new Nail Rock designer nail wrap range is designed to last up to 7 days on nails and 8 weeks on the toes. They won't chip or stain the nail, require no drying time and deliver on trend style in just 15 minutes. I will most definitely do a separate post on these. I love nail wraps for all the above mentioned reasons but have never tried the Nail Rock ones so I can't wait to test them and see of they actually do last 7 days. I would have prefered a different design as the one they sent me I can quite easily achieve with striping tape. Oh well!

5 - Philip Kingsley Elasticizer - Intensive, super-moisturising pre shampoo treatment for all hair types. Adds elasticity, manageability, bounce and shine. This is the only item I'm not sure about as I'm really particular about my hair because it's short, so other than regular shampoo and Shu Uemura Defining Flexible Cream to style, I don't use anything else on it. However, I'll try this out and see what the "elasticity" bit is all about.

Babydoll - Leighton Denny

Here is a nice soft pink for a change. I hadn't worn pink in quite a while. In fact, I thought it would be best to remove the "pink Wednesday" icon from my blog as I don't always wear pink on Wednesday's, Lol!!!

This is also my first Leighton Denny nail polish and it came in the October Glossy box . This brand never really appealed to me, I'm not sure why because they have quite a good range of colours (I love Jailbird from the Criminal Collection). However, the main reason would most definitely be the price at £11 per bottle. Usually, if I ever pay that much for a nail polish, I will go for something I know and have used many times before, like OPI or Essie.

This soft baby pink creme is called Babydoll. I think it's been discontinued because I can't find it anywhere. This shade would probably wash out pale skin tones but I like the way it looks on my skin tone. I had no problems with the formula, the first coat applies streaky but with a second coat, it's perfectly opaque. I can't tell you about longevity yet as I've just applied it today. For the price, I hope to get quite some wear out of it.

Jewellery Storage Solutions

Today I have a non-nail related post to share with you - jewellery storage ideas.

I'm always looking for ways to organise things at home. We have so much stuff that things can quickly become cluttered. I don't mind organised clutter, although I need to have everything in it's correct place. I don't like things to be stuffed away in boxes where I will totally forget about them. Things don't need to be put away, they can be out, as long as they are nicely stashed and organised! I know, I'm a freak!
I currently have a little wooden box in my wardrobe, but most of the time I don't even bother to rummage through it. It makes it hard to pick what to wear in the morning when I'm half asleep and in a hurry!

I went to Primark yesterday to browse the accessories section and came across this hanging jewellery organiser:

Jewellery boxes are pretty but the large one I like is really expensive! So this cheap plastic hanger made sense! It's double sided so you can fit lots of jewellery into either side and the see-through pockets let you look at everything you have in one go and quickly decide on what to wear with the day's outfit! It's also foldable in case you want to stash it somewhere out of sight and roll it out when needed. I know it's not very pretty to look at compared to a jewellery box but it does the job pretty well.

I'm still having a little problem with my long necklaces though because I like to see them hanging! I was browsing the Internet for DIY/ cheap necklace storage solutions and came across these. What do you think? How cute is this painted tree branch!? I need to go outside and see if I can find myself a nicely shaped branch!

source: jewelryclassroom.com

source: apartmenttherapy.com

source: ths.gardenweb.com

source: http://thesweetestdigs.com/2010/09/16/project-files-jewellery-frame/

source: http://makeupandbeauty.com/jewellery-storage-ideas/

The Dawn is Broken - Essence Vampire's Love TE

Can I just start by saying: Wow!! This is my first ever Essence nail polish and... Wow!! I'm speechless!! Are all Essence polishes this good? I know Essence isn't a big deal for most bloggers but it's not available at all in the UK and I had always heard amazing things about the formulas and the polishes overall, especially considering it's such a low cost brand. You always want what you can't have huhh?!

I recently went on holiday to Switzerland and had to grab as many Essence polishes as I could. I first saw the Vampire's Collection in one of Nihrida's posts and couldn't help but feel a little sad that I would never get my hands on it... and then by chance, after I had scoured many stores in Bern and Zurich, I walked into a tiny store in Interlaken and saw the entire collection just sitting there on the shelf! I'm sure the locals thought I was nuts!

Onto the pics, here is 2 coats of The Dawn Is Broken. A light gray with silver shimmer and what looks like black micro glitter to me . This is probably the least expected colour of the collection as the other deep red, dark blue and black are pretty standard in a "vampire" theme. Application was a dream, so much so that I didn't even do any clean up. It needs 2 coats for good measure but I was surprised at how pigmented it is with just 1 generous coat. The finish is quite gritty which is actually one of  the things I love about this polish.

I can't wait to try the other colours in this collection.

Pastel Tips - Take your pick

I've been wanting to do this mani for a while, since I saw a girl on the train wearing something similar. She had some sort of nude polish and yellow tips! At the time I remember thinking how cool and fashion forward of her, she even had stiletto shaped nails! It's not something I see everyday at my local train station. She could have been a nail blogger?!

I couldn't decide on which colour I wanted for the tips as nude goes well with pretty much anything, so I used a different pastel for each finger. I can't pick my favourite although my least favourite combo is the pinky.

Which combo do you think is nicest?

Thanks for reading :)

Desert Haze

This is my first ever bottle of Elf Nail polish. I use some of their cosmetics and eyeshadow brushes but for some reason their polishes never grabbed my attention. So the last time I placed an order, I thought it was about time to try one. I went for a nude colour as none of the other colours were jumping out at me.

This is 2 coats of Desert Haze, a smokey kind of nude, a little gray, a little taupe?! Dunno!

Elf have said that their new polishes have an improved formula, which they may well do over the old version (which I never tried) but I still had a little trouble with the formula on this one as you can see around the cuticle area. It's a bit of a strange one, it was runny when applying which made me think it would be sheer but it was actually opaque in 2 coats! It only cost £1.50 so I suppose it was quite good for the price.

Black & Gold Egyptian Pyramids

Today's mani was inspired by Jane's Pyramid manis. I spent the best part of an hour trying to figure out how she created a 3 tier pyramid without having to use 4 strips of tape simultaneously, but in the end I gave up! All I could come up with was a 2 tier pyramid!

Polishes used were Barry M Black and Miss Sporty Gold Backstage. I really like the contrast between Black & Gold and I love doing tape manis but I need a little bit more practice to get my angles right!

Beautiful dark cherry red - Nails Inc Tate

Hi everyone. It's been a while! I'm back now! I missed blogging a lot and have been trying to catch up for the past couple of days.
The 17 magnetized polish I wore for my holiday was completely chipped so although I'm very tired today, I had to remove it!

Today I have a Nails Inc polish called Tate to show you. This is a beautiful dark cherry red creme, great formula as expected of Nails Inc and fully opaque in 2 coats. If you live in the UK, grab the latest edition of Glamour magazine NOW!! They are giving away 4 different Nails Inc polishes for £2.00 each which is a bargain as they retail for about £11.00! (Tate, Piccadilly Circus, Victoria and Basil Street).

Switzerland was so breathtakingly beautiful! The nature there is just indescribable and the infrastructure and architecture can almost be called cute, so I have to share a few pics with you. If you are thinking of visiting, I recommend Interlaken and Lauterbrunnen.

Current "go to" polish for a quick holiday mani!!!

When you are trying to pack your suitcase and do a hundred things at once before running to catch a flight, what do you put on your nails?
Well, if you are more organised than me, you would have probably done all of that the night before and painted your nails in good time to ensure no dents, etc! Oh well! Lesson learned!

For when I'm in an absolute hurry, my current go to polishes are the magnetics (until I get bored of them). I could just slap any fast drying colour on my nails but magnetic polishes are interesting enough to not have to do any nail art.

Here is 1 coat of "17" Magnetized Blue over 1 coat of "17" Midnight Sapphire. The blue magnetic polish dries much more matte than it's green brother but a top coat soon makes it glossy and sparkly.

There is quite a bit of purple shimmer in this one but it's not really visible in the pictures. It still makes it very dynamic and multi-tonal.

I won't be able to post whilst I am on holiday but it's only a short break, I'll be back on Monday :)