Mirror, Mirror, Mirrorball

Today's long overdue post is about the highly in demand Mirrorball collection from Models Own. I think a lot of people started lusting over these beauties as soon as the press shots were released. A photo of beautiful, shimmery glitters with matching lids... what's not to love?? I picked up my set at the Models Own Bottleshop over at Westfield London a couple of months back. If you haven't been there, you should go. All the ladies working there have been so helpful whenever I've gone. Anyways, to the point after dithering for a while - no surprise there - I decided to go with skittles :)

Check out this Stripper Pole...

How could l resist a play on the name of this gorgeous polish?? As soon as I saw this on the Darling Diva Polish Etsy store I knew that I just had to have it!

Polish Days: Sentimental

The theme of this month's Polish Days is sentimental. I can't even begin to say how difficult it was to chose what to do. My nail art skills are basic, so I wanted to go with a colour. But should I chose the first indie polish I owned, or the first high end? Should it be my first ever polish (no idea what that is though) or the one that started me down the slippery slope (no idea what that is either)? I've gone basic though. I've chosen my first custom polish.

Why did I have a custom polish made? Well, for my birthday I wanted to gift my sisters and nieces with something. My Mum too, but she's set in her polish ways lol! They are all amazing people, and my life without them really wouldn't be the same. I wanted to give them something individual that was a part of me, if that makes any sense. So this post may not be immediately apparent sentimental polish, but it's sentimental in that I dedicate it to my Mum, my two sisters and my two nieces. I'm pretty sure they all liked the polish, my eldest niece is already down to half-way!

This was made for me by the lovely Carrie at Darling Diva Polish. I'm slightly indecisive (no...really?!?) but I did have an idea of what I wanted. I've been taken to the dark, or rather light, side of polish: white polishes with you-name-it colour combinations of glitter.

These are the pictures I sent Carrie that were the inspiration for what I could see in my head:

One of my favourite earrings

A purple outfit

My coffee mug (of course)

One of my many scarves

Now at this point, I thought I'd made her regret agreeing to make a custom for me :p

But being wonderful, this is what she made:

Gorgeous, right?

I should have better placed that piece of glitter on my ring finger!!

 

I love the vivid colours!! It's exactly what I imagined!!

There are times when I argue with my sisters, but the truth of the matter is that I love them way more than I argue with them. This 'polish present' is something that I hope they & my nieces will look at in future, and remember with fondness. I think I will always associate it with the great party I had for my birthday, surrounded by friends and family :)

Thanks again to Carrie, and be sure to check out the Darling Diva Polish Etsy shop!!

What do you think of my custom polish? Do you think it was appropriate for Sentimental Polish Days? Have you tried any Darling Diva creations?
x

Polish Us Pink: Forbidden Fruit with a Pink Twist

I had a few issues deciding what to do for today's Polish Us Pink organised by the lovely Susan. In the end though, I decided to try a couple of my new receipts: Forbidden Fruit by Pretty Serious and a pink nail art pen from Models Own. I only heard of Pretty Serious Cosmetics fairly recently when I happened upon swatches of VT100. Forbidden Fruit is one of the Pretty Serious polishes I received in a swap with Margaret (thank you!).

A Little L'Oreal Magic Croisette

I first saw this beauty online, and it was love at first sight. As it always is for me according to my niece :p It's from the apparently Limited Edition L'Or Electric collection. I say apparently as I have seen this everytime I go in store. If you haven't though, there's currently one up for grabs in my giveaway.

Polish Us Pink: Jelly Bean

October is Breast Cancer Awareness month. To mark this and to increase awareness in a different way, a group of us are blogging 'Polish Us Pink' on Mondays in October.

So many lives are changed by breast cancer, directly and indirectly, and it's important to check your breasts regularly. Let me be honest here, I never thought I'd write that in a blog post!! However, being aware and checking means earlier detection of problems and hopefully a better chance of survival.

My (Delayed) Birthday Giveaway!!

Now as many of you know, it was my birthday in August, and I said back then that I would host a giveaway for it. I'm not an expert at nail art, so I'm making it easy for you guys by using Rafflecopter ;)
 
Now, I don't have the hugest number of blog followers, and I don't blog that often, but my blog helped give me a place to vent my love for polish :) I appreciate it every time someone reads one of my posts, or leaves a comment, or tweets me. And you get the idea!! I have made so many friends on Twitter and Instagram, and I feel honoured to know so many lovely people :)

IMPORTANT NOTES

• Prizes are to be determined and once arranged will be osted here. For those curious cats out there, you should be able to expect Barry M, Models Own & Kiko
• There will be three winners
• The giveaway will run until Saturday 20th October
• The giveaway is open internationally. However, no claims can be accepted for prizes 'lost in the post'. Please bear this in mind if this has a tendency to happen in your country of abode!! I will obtain a receipt as proof of posting as I always do
• Where I've asked for information in the comments, please only comment ONCE with ALL the required information
• UPDATE: For retweets to be valid as entry you must be following me on Twitter!!
• None of the entry methods are mandatory because I don't want to force anyone to use a media they don't already, and also GFC sometimes glitches so that is also not a compulsory entry method

p.s. It's my first giveaway, so if I've missed any important notes please let me know!

UPDATE: Prizes!! So the winners will be able to pick one from each group/brand. Whoever responds first gets first pick and so on.

 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

The Magic of Layering

So my title is a bit obscure, but the reason is pretty simple: I used four polishes for this mani!! If I'm honest, I have been delaying trying these, but decided to bite the bullet and just go for it. I don't mind layering polishes, but time always seems to be running away from me, and I wanted to give these beauties the attention I knew that they deserved. It's a picture heavy post this time round, you have been warned!

Polish Days: Geometry!

This is going to be the shortest post I'm afraid! I have been so short of time recently, but I knew I just had to take part in this Polish Days when I saw the theme.

Kingfisher by Marks and Spencer

I really have been missing a lot recently, I am sorry for that! I had a lovely trip to Abu Dhabi though, and had the post-holiday blues lasted all the way until my birthday last Friday!!

Let it Rain Autograph's Purple Rain

I was very surprised to see Marks and Spencer updated nail polish ranges, but in a good way. The packaging is attractive and there's a large colour selection. There are lots of colours I like, and quite a few that I love. But rare is the colour that I find mind-blowing. But this is one of those colours. As soon as it was on my fingertips I knew it was the one for me, the one I would have to convince myself not to wear 24 hours a day for a fortnight.

Order of the Garter

I have a soft spot for blue nails, and also for A-England polishes. Luckily for me (and you), when you combine the two, you come up with Order of the Garter. This beautiful shade of blue from The Legends collection has a blue shimmer that translates beautifully on the nail.

A Good Kind of Black Ice

Firstly, I am sorry as I am so behind with the blog! I've been a bit of a whirlwind recently; however I'm going to try and get back on track!

Today I have a nail polish from one of my favourite brands, which isn't as well known as it should be in my opinion. I stumbled across MyFace Cosmetics when I bought one of their 'Blingtones', and I haven't looked back since :) I will hopefully get round to doing a post on the Blingtones as I have a little collection of them, but I also really rate their MyMix foundation and concealer.

Three Views On Red

Hey all! This is first for me; a post about red polish! Now I know that there are people who love red in various forms, but I'm not one of them! I guess I just find red too strong a colour! For this reason, I was set a challenge; to wear red! I surprisingly own more than one red polish - given my reluctance to wear this bold colour - so I thought if I'm going to wear red, I may as well do it properly! My fellow red-wearers today are Marisa and Crystal.

I chose Bourjois 10 Day Nail Polish in shade 11 (there's no name for it on the bottle I'm afraid). I bought this polish in a fit of courage last year when I was away on holiday ;)

Jawbreaker - The Polish; Not The Sweet!

Pretty & Polished Jawbreaker is one of the gorgeous polishes sent to me in a swap by the lovely Bridget over at Polish, and Make-Up, and Cars, Oh My! This is a franken polish by Chels over at Pretty & Polished on Etsy.

One Lovely Blog Award!

I was given this award by Marisa over at Polish Obsession, who is a must follow (if you don't already)!

My First Nerd... Lacquer: Hyperspace Bypass

The heart wants what the heart wants. There's no denying that. I've been wanting to try Nerd Lacquers since I first saw swatches of 'I Think You Call Me... Sexy' (recently swatched by the lovely Marisa). I fell in love with all that glitter! The ditherer (is that even a word?!) in me slowed me down, so I managed to only get my hands on two Nerds: Hyperspace Bypass and The Selfish Green. I'm happy with any though!

Hyperspace Bypass is from The Hitchhiker's Guide to The Galaxy series and is described as "a massively glittering big yellow something that hovers on your fingertips in exactly the way that bricks don’t. Packed with pale gold glitter, medium and large golden hex glitter, and small and medium black glitter, plus a sprinkling of holographic hex sparkles, it’ll disintegrate every other polish in your collection." Believe me when I say it does exactly that!

By the way, I used a Canon DSLR for these photographs, rather than my regular mobile camera on my Galaxy S2, so I got a bit click happy! I love the hex glitters in this polish. I did find though that there was more of the tiny black glitter than I was expecting. The formula was good, it's probably my first full on glitter polish, and my first franken, so I'm comparing it to normal polish! Though I did find myself worrying about getting it all over my cuticles and then trying to clean up the glitter!

I know the last photo is dark, I just really liked the way the little light there glints off the edges! I used Nails Inc Caviar Base Coat, two coats of Hyperspace Bypass and Nails Inc Caviar Top Coat. After a couple of days I did find one of the hexes at the edge was 'popping up', so I slicked on another layer of top coat on that nail.

I was extremely happy when stock was finally available - and with shipping to the UK - from the awesome Ninja Polish and Harlow & Co. You can also buy them direct from Amanda's Etsy shop. These babies sell out fast, so if you see them in stock, and want them, click 'buy' as fast as you can!

Overall, I'm glad I bought this, and I'm really looking forward to trying The Selfish Green!

What do you think of the yellow/gold colour? Have you tried Nerd Lacquer polishes? And last but not least, do you prefer the photos taken with the DSLR?

x

Galahad Polka Dots

Today I have a post on one of my favourite brands, A-England. Galahad was actually the first polish I tried from this range, and it's one I love. This turquoise-blue creme shade is heavenly. It is part of The Mythicals collection.

Watermelon Rind

One of my more recent purchases is China Glaze's Watermelon Rind. I'm feeling green at the moment, so when I saw this on the shelf, I knew it had to be mine! After my impulse buy, I was a little worried about how it would look on the nail, and if it would just be overly glittery. I needn't have worried!

Tangy Tangerine

I fell a little in love with Mavala polishes after I tried Electric Green. After spending a long time dithering on Beauty Bay, I decided to go bright, and chose Tangerine! I wear bright colours, but usually not oranges/pinks/reds etc.

Amazing Ascalon

One of the brands that I've been introduced to recently, is now one of my favourites: A-England by the creative Adina. There are two collections available at present, and Ascalon is from The Legends. This collection is based on the legend of St George. Ascalon was the name of the sword of St George.

Sexy in the City

The next to be tried from my recent China Glaze Haul is Sexy in the City. Can I just say, I'm in love (with this colour)! It is divine. You may have deduced I have a thing for Blue/Turquoise/Purple :p

Turned Up Turquoise

This is my first China Glaze swatching! I was pretty excited when I found out that there was a Sally's in the UK, and I could buy from them so easily as there's a store not far from me - yay! You can also buy online, but I do like being able to select my colours in person :) I purchased Turned Up Turquoise, Sexy in the City and Skyscraper. I also got a top coat free with the purchase of two polishes, so I chose the No Chip Top Coat. I was so excited I didn't know which to swatch first! So by random selection, here we have Turned Up Turquoise:

Fulham Palace Road

This is just a fleeting post about Nails Inc Fulham Palace Road. I didn't actually realise I owned this colour until I went through my collection (again). Aha! A quick Google search has shown that it was part of the Limited Edition Cashmere Collection, which I never actually bought! So this belongs to my sister :p

Dream of Dreamers Island

This is my first Nubar nail polish, so exciting stuff! I had heard of Nubar, but didn't know where to find it in the UK (I'm not an ebayer I have to admit). After a few online searches, I decided to try Beauty Bay, and then spent hours finalising my first order (including Orly's Rococo-A-Go-Go and Rock The World). In the end I settled on Dreamers Island.

A Barry M Navy Night with Orly Snowflakes

It's snowing outside, so when better to share a little bit of seasonal nail art? In these short days, to me this colour is an almost-perfect representation of the winter night sky.

A Purple Gradient

This is a quick post to show off my niece's Christmas present to me :) I initially set out to simply paint my nails with the Barry M Limited Edition Lilac Foil. This is a wonderful colour, with a frosty finish.

I Can Rock The World!

That may be a slight exaggeration. I obviously cannot rock the world. In fact, since my regular guitar playing days when I was ten, I've only picked up a guitar a handful of times. It's wearing Orly Rock The World, that makes me feel I can.

Going Rococo A Go Go

Orly's Rococo-A-Go-Go is from the Mineral FX range. Of all the polishes from the sales haul, this was the colour I was most eager to try. I have seen this swatched and heard of celebrities wearing it. But for me, it was the look of the colour.

Post Christmas Sales Haul (Part 2)

I was slightly delayed with this follow up due to my memory failing me and not grouping my two Lush transactions together to begin with. I am a bubble bar fanatic, I love them. If you've never tried a Lush bubble bar, you haven't lived!! They are quite simply that good. My favourite has got to be The Comforter, it smells like Ribena to me and I love that as it's definitely got good associations with my childhood!

My Post-Christmas Sales Haul (Part 1)

I set out for the post-Christmas sales with only two purchases in mind: Benefit's Glossytown lipgloss set and a Paco Rabanne Lady Million gift set. From the title of the post, you may be able to tell that I purchased a little more than planned....