Perfect Plum

This is Rimmel London Perfect Plum. I have had this polish for a very long time and have used it in a few manis as a secondary colour but had never properly swatched it! I remember falling in love with the colour a couple of years ago when I first saw it in Boots, it was like a little gem on the shelf.

Perfect Plum is a medium purple packed with blue shimmer (see last pic).  The blue shimmer was quite unexpected as when I first grabbed the bottle, it just looked like a standard purple creme. I like this shade, it's an all year round shade for me.

The formula is a bit on the thin side but nice. Opaque in 2 coats and easy to manage. Rimmel London polishes are consistent in quality (at least the ones I have) and the price isn't too bad (between £2.49 and £4.59 I think)!

Croc effect polish??

Ok, so I know I'm a little behind here but to be completely honest, I hadn't seen or heard of this until today!!! - Croc effect polish! As in, instead of shatter effect, you get croc effect?!

I know a lot of people love shatter/ crackle polishes but they started irritating me pretty much as soon as they came out. I use them very rarely and for nail art only. Therefore I don't know if I'll be getting this Croc effect. Having said that, I'm also easily persuaded when it comes to polish :)

Apparently it cracks much smaller and thinner than it's crackle/ shatter cousins and seems to be less bumpy. Then again, I don't know if the effect will look as good as it does in the promo pic. If any of you try it, let me know, I would love to see how you get on.

Weekly Synopsis - Chapter 8

I haven't been up to much this week. I've also been working overtime (and will be until the end of February), so haven't been bothered to do much more.

We went to Bushy Park and Hampton Court Palace yesterday. In 1529, King Henry VIII established these as his deer-hunting ground. We went there to see the deer as well as do some fishing, horse ride, and plant some trees but an hour in and we were starting to get really cold. Instead we headed over the Hampton Court's world famous trapezoidal Maze.d Henry Wise for William III of Orange at Hampton Court Palace. Here courtiers

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This week I've also finished reading "Are You There, Vodka? It's me, Chelsea". I watch her TV show sometimes, she is so quick witted and her self-deprecating humour is somewhat inappropriate but has me rolling on the floor! The stories in this book are quite unusual and wild, I'm not sure if they are entirely true but even if elaborated and exaggerated a bit, they are totally hilarious nevertheless. It makes for a light read!

I think the book has been turned into a TV sitcom so I'm definitely going to have to watch that!

source

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 My favourite posts of the week:

* Rina shows us how to do a simple but really cute Valentines Day mani with little cluttered hearts.

* This black and gold Chanel  mani from Gems in a Bottle is so classy and clever. I would have never thought about leaving an unpainted strip of nail!

* Anutka from Wacky Laki does an amazing mani inspired by Angelina Jolie's dress for the Golden Globes

* If you haven't yet checked out Nail Nerd's blog, do so right now! She is so creative and has the most innovative manis I've seen! Her drawing/ artistic skills are amazing!

* I LOVE this feather playsuit British Fashion blogger Lily Melrose posted about yesterday! I want!

Thanks for reading :)

Dark Amethyst & Gold Flakies

As I didn't have time to swatch the second colour of the CND The Look for Fall/ Winter 2011 yesterday, as promissed, here it is:

 

Dark Amethyst is a deep purple creme. Very close to plum shade. I like the fact that it's very deep purple but doesn't look nearly black like my OPI Lincoln Park After Dark often does. Formula is perfect as with Midnight Sapphire yesterday.

 

And here it is with one coat of Sheer 24k Sparkle:

Thanks for stopping by :)

Midnight Sapphire & Gold Flakies!

A couple of months ago I went over to the UK distributor for CND and when I saw this little trio on the shelf, I couldn't help myself. This is was the "Look" for Fall/ Winter 2011 (I know I'm a little late...sorry) and it consists of 2 cremes and a new effect:

Today I'll be showing you Midnight Sapphire. It's been a busy day so I haven't had time to swatch both :(

Midnight Sapphire is a deeply pigmented sapphire blue creme. It goes much darker on the nail compared to the bottle colour. Although it's not the first time we see a blue like this, it is still a very pretty shade! You can't go wrong with a deep inky blue. The formula is absolutely amazing but then again I have never had a problem with CND formulas - always opaque in just one coat and very easy and smooth to work with.

 

Once you apply the 24k Sparkle Effect, a gold flakie, it transforms the base colour and gives it that extra sparkle. I really like CND Effects. They can be worn over so many polishes to spruce them up:

 

I couldn't help but mattify it as well. I love my flakies matte:

Thanks for reading and commenting :)

French Twist

This morning on the train, I saw a girl wearing gold nails with black tips. I see her every now and then on my way to work and she always has impeccable nails. I wonder if she is a blogger or something?! I'm too shy to ask! Lol!

Anyway, back to my point. I'd forgotten how much I actually like french tips of various colours. It makes for a simple yet fun mani.

I used Barry M Silver as a base colour. This isn't the best silver I've tried. In fact, it's below average. On the brush, the micro glitter is plenty and quite densely packed but it doesn't translate to the nail (not the same calibre as Zoya Trixie which is my favourite silver). I used 3 coats and there was still some sheer patches.

Drying time was horrible, even with a fast dry top coat (or maybe I'm just too impatient). Because of this, I dented my ring finger and had to try and cover it up with another coat. My other Barry M polishes are much better than this so I guess it's just this particular one that's problematic. The black tips are Barry M Black.

Do you guys like french manicures of various colours as well or are you a traditional french manicure kind of person? I like both to be perfectly honest but traditional french is so unadventurous! I haven't done one in years so I might actually do one sometime soon :)

Starry Starry Blue Sky Gradient

Check out the nubbins! I've had to file my nails right down after removing the glue-on nails. After a little buffering, they were as good as new!

I decided on a blue and glitter gradient today as I wasn't really inspired to stamp, scotch tape or do whatever kind of nail art. Sometimes a gradient is just as pretty!

Polishes used: Barry M Blueberry Ice Cream, Miss Sporty Blue Berry, China Glaze Blue Iguana, 17 Midnight Sapphire, Essence Blair, La Femme Purple Glitter.

Weekly Synopsis - Chapter 7

This week I wanted to share with you a well known beauty tip which I've lived by for the last 3 months! Olive Oil as an eye make-up remover! It's well documented that it does wonders for the skin and although I wouldn't actually put on my face as a whole (I have oily skin as it is), it does wonders as an eye make-up remover!

When I first started to do some research on it, I wasn't sure if it would actually remove make-up as well as regular removers but it's proven me wrong! It removes my waterproof eyeliner, so already it's a winner in my books!

I wear eye make-up everyday. Even if I'm not wearing eyeshadow, I will always wear eyeliner and mascara. Regular eye make-up removers were starting to take it's toll on the skin around my eyes, even the ones labelled for "sensitive skin". The fact that it's a very cheap solution is a plus and it can't hurt to have extreme moisture around your eye area!

source: http://skincareskinproducts.com/

I have read on a few review websites that for some people it causes eye irritation, actual burning sensation and rashes but I haven't yet experienced any of that.

I use standard supermarket Extra Virgin Olive oil. I put it into a little pump container and mix equal parts of olive oil and water. Even when I over saturate the cotton ball and a tiny amount leaks into my eye, I've had no stinging or burning. The most that happens to me is vision becomes a little blurry when I open my eye.

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This week a dear reader asked me how I removed these glue-on nails.  I'm no expert on removing glue-on nails and there's no "special" way of removing them either. This is what works for me:

* Soak one hand at a time in a bowl of cheap supermarket acetone with conditioners. I don't use pure acetone as although this would lift the nails much quicker, soaking your hand in there for so long can damage your skin and natural nails.

* Once they have been in the bowl for 10-15 minutes, I slowly try to move them to see of they budge. A lot of them fall straight off, the ones that don't go back in the bowl.

* Some nails have more glue than others so they won't come off as easily, these need a little pressure to remove.

* Never rip or pull one off. This will bring a bit of your natural nail along with it and it will hurt like hell.

* When they are all off, I usually file my nails right down to give them a better chance of growing back healthy. I also buffer them a little to remove stubborn bits of glue and unevenness.

If you want more info/ a demonstration, have a look on You Tube. There are several videos on there that provide really good info on how to remove glue-ons.

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Posts I'm been loving this week:

- Check out Spektor's tiger mani. Perfect gradient and stamping!

- Jane shows us how to create a grey cloud. Who would have thought grey clouds could be cute, right?

- If you want a sneak peak at Chine Glaze's ElectroPop Spring 2012 collection, head over to Scrangie for perfect swatches.

- Traci from The TraceFace Philes shows us the amazing ManGlaze Lesbihonest polish. Oh boy, I love those super matte polishes!

- Deborah from Love. Varnish, chocolate and more, shows us a cool and busy layering mani. All those pretties work really well together.

- Check out Robyn's Project 10 Pan. Project 10 Pan is where you’re banned from buying any more beauty products (apart from essentials) until you’ve used up 10 products. I think it's a really good idea as I'm always buying unnecessary products when I haven't even used up the old ones. It takes a toll on my wallet and you should see my messy Beauty cupboard!

Update & Conclusion on "A little experiment"

As some of you may know, I started my glue-on nails experiment on 12th January. It's now been 7 days and although the nail stickers have fallen off and I added a coat of Color Club Covered in Diamonds and a coat La Femme Purple Glitter to spruce them up a bit, they are still intact. 
No sign of budging, no lifting and the gap between the nail and the cuticle isn't that noticeable (other than on my pinky which is my fault as I didn't shape the nail properly in the first place).

So far they are living up to the reputation my friend has given them and I'm quite impressed with the durability even after a week! They are showing no signs of budging so I will be removing them in the next couple of days as I have so many new polishes which I want to try out!

My pros:
- Very cheap alternative to Salon nails if Acrylics are your thing
- Very durable for such cheap glue-ons. If they lasted a week on me, that is saying something as I don't use gloves for anything and am not careful with zips, buttons, etc
- Your nail art will look as good on your non-dominant hand if you prepare the nails before you put them on
- Good for people who have "bad" nails or who can't grow them at all but still like the look of long nails
- Literally chip-proof. Polish doesn't chip on plastic as it does on natural nails. They will start to fall off even before your polish starts to chip
- You can do other things whilst the nails are drying, without having to worry about smudging or denting

My cons:
-  I like to change my manis all the time so durability on these is more of a hindrance to me
-  Damage to the natural nail

Although I have more pros than cons, glue-on nails are not for me as I have quite strong natural nails which I can grow to my desired length. The only way I would wear them again would be if I didn't have a nail blog and stopped changing my manis 3 times a week (which isn't happening anytime soon). If like my friend, you are the type of person I mention in my "pros", then you would most certainly be very happy with these glue-ons.

Softly Pink

It's been a while since I've posted a pink Wednesday mani, or anything pink for that matter. So here is something I put together last week before I started my glue-on nails experiment (which I will update you on soon).

For this mani I used Leighton Denny Babydoll which is currently my favourite"baby pink" and 17 Pink Grapefruit for the gradient. Stamp is BM221 and Konad White Polish.

If you like Chanel Les Jeans you'll love Erre Due Blue Jeans

When I first spotted this polish whilst out shopping in Greece, I immediately thought of the Chanel Les Jeans collection but as we all know, they come with a price tag that I just can't justify. So, instead I got the next best thing - Erre Due Blue Jeans in Blue Black.

Erre Due is a Greek cosmetics brand that offers a large variety of make up and nail polishes but this polish is the first product I've tried from the brand. It cost me €7 which I suppose is still pricey but a bargain compared to Les Jeans. Their Blue Jeans line consists of 2 polishes - "Blue Black" and "Used" which is a lighter "stone-washed" blue. I never went back to get "Used" and I regret it so much now :-(

This is 2 coats of Blue Black and I can't even begin to explain how wonderful the formula is! Is is so opaque that you could get away with 1 coat, yet it glides on as smooth as butter. The consistency of the polish is so easy to manage that I didn't have to do any clean up at all. It's not very often I find a polish I could give a 10/10 to.

Blue Black is a true "jeans" blue, in fact, I have a pair of jeans exactly the same shade. It is packed with silver micro glitter which is clearly visible in the bottle and when on the nail, it adds to the "jeans" effect (not that my jeans are shimmery in any way, but you know what I mean!)

It dries slightly matte so you will need to apply a top coat if you like your polish shiny (I prefer the mattified version). Here it is with 1 coat of CND Speedy:

Weekly Synopsis - Chapter 6

I didn't get the chance to do much January sales shopping, my bank account took quite a hit over Christmas! But I did manage to get a few things that were reduced right down.

Here is a shirt I bought for work! We are allowed to dress casual at work but when there are client visits, we need to look that extra bit more formal. I thought this shirt was interesting because of the shoulder pads! This is from River Island and is was reduced to £11 from £28:

I also bought this long blue-stoned necklace. I don't wear necklaces in the winter as they will only get covered up by my chunky scarves but it's perfect to wear with lighter clothes in the summer. The Turquoise stone is also perfect as a summer colour. I bought this in the clothing section at Sainsbury's and it was reduced to £3 from £8.

Finally, I had to post this video!! It's been doing the rounds on FB this week and I thought it was totally awesome. Well done Jesse Rosten. A brilliant parody!!!

I love how they "advertise" the Photoshop tools: Liquify, Hue/Saturation and (Healing) Brush as if they are new and revolutionary creams/ cosmetics that will alter your looks, and how they pronounce really long words and scientific jargon really quickly so it sounds clever!!

Have a look at how Britney Spears, Faith Hill, Keira Knightley and Beyonce were altered for magazine covers. We already know photoshop is widely used in the beauty industry but it's still interesting to see the before and after:

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Posts I've been loving this week:

* Ivana shows us her favourite manicures of 2011. They are all so awesome, I must try to re-create some of them.

* Chelsea @ The Nail Network shows us Girly Bits Street Magic, an amazing shifter polish.

*Jenni from Gold Speck nails reminds us how beautiful and delicate Models Own Utopia is!

A little experiment...

I'm not a false nail kind of person, I'm not into the acrylic look and to be honest I don't even know how I let my friend talk me into trying these out. Although they are much thinner than salon acrylics, they are still...plastic!

She uses these glue on nails which you can buy on Ebay in bulk, for an average of 3 to 4 weeks before they start to fall off (not a major concern for me as I change my mani way too often). They come in sets of 12 nails. I filed around them a little but could have done a better job with my pinky finger as the back of the nail didn't fit my cuticle properly.

I decided to polish over them before I glued them on. I used 2 coats of an nameless La Femme Polish. It's a dark mauve-purple polish packed with gold micro-shimmer.

If indeed these glue-ons have such staying power, I suppose they are good for people who like extensions and the acrylic look but don't want to pay £30 for a full salon set. A pack of 300 sets of these on Ebay cost me £3.80.

I'll let you know how I get on with these, I'll post about my progress and verdict soon. In the meantime, I'll be posting manis and swatches I've done previously.

Korres - Grey Brown #95

Today I wanted to show you a polish by Korres. This was given to me by a friend in Greece as a Christmas present.

Korres is a Greek brand focusing on homeopathic remedies and natural/ organic skincare and make-up products. Their polishes are "silicone, acetone, phthalate, formaldehyde, camphor, toluene and xylene free" and the bottle says it contains Myrrh extract, Oligoelements and Pro Vitamin B5. I can't really say that's made a difference to my nails after only 1 use but I suppose it's good to know?!

In terms of colour, I know what you're thinking. OPI You Don't Know Jaques right? I did compare them and in my swatches, Korres Grey-Brown is a touch darker!

Maybe due to the "lack of  chemicals", I didn't expect this polish to be very long lasting. And it wasn't! It started chipping after 3 days. The formula was relatively good, quite thin but opaque, 2 thin coats is all you need. However, as expected, drying time was slower than average.

I'm not sure how much these retail for but I think it's about €6.

Weekly Synopsis - Chapter 5

This week I came back from holiday and back to work! I have no New Year's resolutions (or at least none that I would keep) so I feel pretty useless. I've clearly got a case of the January blues.

On the other hand, I'm chuffed about the New Look geek messenger bag a friend got me for Christmas. I've been wearing it everyday since then. I'm really into messenger bags at the moment:

I fell in love with these Alibi Ankle boots from Topshop when I was doing some pre-Christmas shopping with my mum, so the next day she went back and got them for me.

I love heels although I'm terrible at walking in them, but these boots are surprisingly easy to walk in as they are platform (and kind of remind me of the 60's) and go with everything in my wardrobe!

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This week I've been delving into some of my favourite songs from a few years back. Running Up That Hill by Placebo was released in 2003. I couldn't get enough of it then and it brings back so many memories :-) I love this live version they did in Reading in 2006:

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Posts I'm loving this week:

* Mariannan looks back at her outfits of 2011. I really can't pick my favourite. They are all amazing.

* Cristina from Opinionated Little Finger shows us how much of a beautiful holo green Nubar Reclaim is. I can't believe I've had it in my untrieds stash for over 3 months!!

* Only Sammy would come up with such a great idea of recreating guitar hero on her nails! Amazing!

* Jamie from The Fancy Teacup shows us how to rock the cutest ever polka dot outfit.

* Robin Moses turns a face into a puzzle with her nail art. Great idea and sense of humour :-)

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Cute time

It's been a few days since I posted anything nail related. I got back from holiday a couple of days ago and don't feel all that great. I've literally just been moping around, doing nothing!

Today's mani is similar to something I saw in a Kawaii nail art website and thought it would be a great idea to try and recreate it. I sort of regretted it half way through. It was way too fiddly and a PITA to do in a short space of time when the 2 coats of OPI Alpine Snow were still wet. But alas... this is how it turned out. I suppose it caught my eye because it's cute but I wouldn't know exactly how to describe it!

Weekly Synopsis - Chapter 4

Happy New Year everyone!!! The holidays are nearly over :-(... lets hope this year is better than the last.

This week has been a very, very, very lazy week. I'm not used to just sitting around, not actually having anything to do. When I'm at home I always have something to do, even if I'm not working!

There was lots of sitting around the fireplace and reading. Sef loves to sit right in front of the fireplace:

Going down to the stables...This is Socks, my mother in law's horse. He is 6 years old:

Drinking copious amounts of coffee and baking chocolate chip cookies:

Visiting mythological sites and local churches:

And playing with Lilly.... She is an adorable white ragamuffin (we think) that my mother-in-law found near the stables. She was being tormented by a group of young kids and we think she may be pregnant. We took her in a few days ago but she's still very weary of the other cats and dogs. She is so sweet, I wish I could take her home with me. Eggbert and Lebowski would love her!