Let's Rave!

'Tis better to post a-brief, then not to post at all. Or so goes this attempt to reawaken my creative spirit :p Today I have Jindie Nails Rave to share with you. I have been wanting this for so long! I first saw it somewhere sometime - yep it's been that long that I can't actually remember. Whenever I looked though it was out of stock. That is until I was browsing Rainbow Connection... Lo and behold, it was in stock waiting for me! I ordered it and with the excellent service, it was in my hands within 2 days of clicking 'buy'.

OMG A UFO!!

Today is another day, and another China Glaze Hologlam: OMG A UFO. I love the name of this because it brings back memories of watching The X-Files. Oh, and Planet 51!! I loved Planet 51; if you haven't seen it you need to! Like all my other Hologlams this was sent to me from Susan at The Subtle Shimmer :)

When Stars Collide I Faint

Hello all! Today I have for you another of the China Glaze Hologlam collection; I'm on a roll here! When Stars Collide is a beautiful purple, and I can see the holo in it, so this is in the running to be my favourite Hologlam :) Thanks again to Susan at The Subtle Shimmer for getting this for me!

Infra Red - Not Related to Remote Controls

I'm sure it can't be just me who thinks of remote controls when hearing the term infra red... or is it?! Anyway, for the purposes of this post Infra Red is part of the China Glaze Hologlam collection, from Susan at The Subtle Shimmer. Again we have another colour out of my usual comfort zone, but believe me when I say I'm not an imposter!!

Not In This Galaxy...

I have a simple mani today, and it's one of the new Hologlams by China Glaze. As soon as these were announced last year, they went on so many wish lists, including mine! I'm super lucky to have some lovely friends, and Susan over at The Subtle Shimmer kindly got a few for me :) If you want to see which I got, alongside some other holographic goodies from A Lacquered Affair, check out my Instagram feed or my Facebook page.

A Tribute

This post is a tribute for Amanda's mother. Amanda from The Nail Polish Enthusiast asked people who own Lex Tuilleries to wear it and share a blog post on February 2 in memory of her mother. I know I'm late, but better late than never, right? I don't own Tuilleries, so I decided to share a pink mani in her honour. I just want to add that I'm sure that Amanda's mum would be very proud of the lovely, caring person she is today :)

A Froggy Circuit Board

Hi all! It's been a long time. Mainly because I had a slump but that's now over hopefully :) You can read more about that at the bottom of this post if you want to! Anyway, without further ado let me present my most recent mani!

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

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.

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.

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

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!

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