Holiday!

I fly out to Spain today to visit my parents for 10 days which means that I might not be able to blog every day as I have been doing.  I have a few posts scheduled and might even post while I am away if I have the time but there won't be a post every day as there has been.  I'd like to have had the time to schedule posts but unfortunately life got in the way a bit!

 

Hopefully while I am away I will pick up a few bits and peices to blog about, there will definitely be a wee trip to Kiko to complete my Sugar Mat collection and to check out the newest releases, like the Sun Pearl Nail Lacquer.

 

 

So look out for some quick updates while I am away and then some new goodies when I get back, hopefully the weather in the UK will be kind to you all while I'm off sunning myself. :)

 

Stamped When I Dance

I stamped over yesterday's manicure with some Kiko Mirror Nail Lacquer.

 

I'm pleased with how this turned out I think the flowers give it a pretty nail wrap look, if you ignore the fact I haven't cleaned up my stamping polish around the cuticles yet. ;)

Vivo - Nail Flare- When I Dance

I picked up this polish when i was in Tesco the other day, it's part of Vivo's Nail Flare line.  The polish is a black jelly base with lots of burgundy glitter through it.

 

 

These pictures are two coats over a base of Kiko black polish.

 

 

This polish reminds me a little of Deborah Lippmann Razzle Dazzle although the Vivo shade is a bit more purple coloured than the wine-y DL glitter.

 

The polish applied pretty nicely and looks good on the nail, there's enough glitter to get good coverage without having to do too much poking about with the brush.



My First Finished Blanket

Another crochet related post today, to show you the first official project that I have finished.  Despite it not being perfect I am pretty proud of this little blanket.

 

It gave me the chance to try blocking (which as I understand it makes your blanket a nice regular shape and not all wonky like they can be when you first finish them).

 

I pinned mine to the table in the kitchen using a bath sheet and some little berry pins, then gave a it a quick going over with a steam iron, not actually touching the blanket, just getting the steam into it.

 

Once it was dry it did seem to be a better shape and the edges were a good bit straighter, as usual it was impossible to get a picture without my helper being involved.  He seems to think everything I crochet is his and doesn't like to let any of it out of his sight for too long.  Unfortunately for him this blanket is destined for someone else, I may have to sneak it out of the house when he's not watching.

 

Now that one is done I can concentrate properly on my giant granny afghan, updates of my progress to follow...

Kiko 407 Starry Indigo

This polish is part of the Dashing Holiday s collection which was released around Christmas 2012.  I've posted about it before, when I received it, and also when I wore it as a Christmas day manicure.  Although it does have wintery connotations I decided to try it out in the spring (although the weather up here would suggest we're not far from winter) and I'm glad I did, this definitely isn't a polish to be ignored in the summer months.

 

 

These pictures are two coats and for a jelly type base with glitter I think it covers amazingly well. Generally sheer based glitters need at least 3 coats but Starry Indigo is opaque in just 2 and there's very little need to poke and prod the glitter about the get it into position.

 

The base is a deep, almost royal, blue shade packed with silver glitter.  Considering the amount of glitter crammed into the polish it applies surprisingly smoothly and with just one coat of top coat it's totally smooth.

 

 

 

 

Deborah Lippmann - Candy Shop

I have been coveting this polish for a while now but couldn't quite bring myself to pay Lippmann prices, I was hoping one of the new Barry M Sequin polishes (mentioned here) might be a cheaper dupe but unfortunately they have not gone down well at all (Claire's post here is a good example and another reason I was so keen on having Candy Shop). 

So I was extremely delighted when my mum in law brought me a bottle over from America the other day, here it is in all it's glory.

This is three coats on their own, I think next time I might do two over a pink base, probably Barry M Dragon Fruit.  Two coats would definitely be enough glitter but it left the pink base a little sheer a base coat would definitely help with that.

I love how this polish looks, it's packed full of multi-coloured, multi-sized glitter particles and it really does look like a party on your nails, it definitely doesn't disappoint!

Urban Decay 24/7 Glide on eyeliner in Hustle

I've posted about the new 24/7 Glide on Eyeliners a couple of times recently, most recently talking about Desperation.  Today I have another new colour to show you, this time Hustle which is described on Urban Decay's site as being a metallic brown shimmer.

 

 

Hustle is a fantastic shade, a rich deep brown colour with a lovely bronze shimmer through it.  It's a perfect every day colour without being too dull.  The metallic finish adds a lovely bit of depth and glamour to the brown colour, I can see me getting a lot of use out of this pencil.

 

 

Here are a couple of pictures of it on my eyes, it's showing slightly darker and cooler in the pictures but it gives you an idea of how it looks applied.

 

My New Project - Crochet!

This is slightly different from my usual beauty related posts but I thought I would add it in anyway since it's another of the things I like to do in my spare time and I'd like to try and keep track of my progress as the project goes on.

Recently I have started crocheting again, I've done a bit in the past but never really stuck with it or made anything proper, I just tended to crochet granny squares for the cat to sit on.  This time I was inspired by the gorgeous granny stripe afghan on Attic24's blog, you can see it here, and decided that I would have a go at doing a proper project.  Look how pretty it is!

I found an amazing step by step tutorial on East Crochet Pattern's blog and decided to follow that as it was a bit more step by step than the pattern given on Attic24's blog which is ideal for me as a relative beginner. 

First up I decided to try out a smaller test blanket to see how I got on with it, I used some super cheap acrylic yarn from Poundland (it works out at 3 balls for £2) and here's my progress so far.

Not too bad, if I do say so myself.  James seems to approve.  The colours aren't exactly the best but I didn't want to spend lots of yarn until I was sure I could follow the pattern and also complete something, hence the cheap stuff (which is actually not too bad to work with) and the slightly 'interesting' colour selection.

With my first mini blanket going well I decided to bite the bullet and order the yarn for my large granny afghan.  I checked out quite a few places online and discovered Wool Warehouse, they had the Stylecraft Special Dk yarn, which most people seemed to use for the project, at just £1.69 for 100g which I thought was a pretty good deal and there was the added bonus of free P&P if you spent over £25 which I would do by the time I got enough yarn.

After agonising for ages over what colours to pick I finally decided on my selection and put in my order, I had to phone Wool Warehouse with a query first and they were super helpful which was nice and made me feel more confident about ordering.  I put my order in yesterday afternoon and the yarn arrived this morning, I couldn't be more pleased; super fast service!  They also added in a little free gift of some knitters needles for getting rid of all the annoying ends on a project which I thought was a lovely touch.

I'm so pleased with the colours, they look lovely and bright together and I can't wait to get started on my blanket, I'm hoping to make it at least double bed sized so progress could be quite slow and ideally I'd like to finish the smaller one before I start on the new one.  Look out for future updates on how I get on...

Do any of you knit or crochet?  What are you working on?

Stockpiling

I have a bit of a bad habit, when I see something on special offer I tend to get the urge to buy it so that I can save some money and / or get a bargain, which a lot of the time works quite well, but sometimes leads to things like this happening...

 

That's 16 bottle of No7 Quick Dry top coat.  Even with it being one of my Top Coat Heroes 16 bottles seems a touch excessive.

 

Part of the problem is that when I get No7 vouchers I feel the need to make the most of them and so I do tend to stock up, this time around the vouchers combined with a Buy 1 Get 1 Half Price deal which meant that by using one coupon I could get 2 top coats for £6 (plus an additional 10% using my advantage card) so it seemed silly not to stock up.  £2.70 for a top coat which rivals ones 3 times the price, who could refuse?

 

This makes me feel a little better too...

 

Nine empty bottle of the same top coat, most are in the old style bottle but fear not the product is the same.  So at least I'm stockpiling something I will use, although it might take me some time to get through 16 bottles even at the rate I use it!

 

But it led me to thinking, is this something everyone does or am I alone in my obbsessive collecting of things when I see them on offer (sadly it's not just top coat I do this with), do you like to stock up when you see a good offer?

All Nude & Kiko 336 Stamping

I have more stamping to show you today, this is Kiko 336 over yesterday's All Nude, which as predicted is a fantastic base to stamp over.

 

 

It's definitely not my best stamping attempt ever, for some reason the top coat seems to have dragged and smudged the stamp pretty badly.  I'm not sure if that's because of the Kiko polish not being ideal for stamping or just bad luck.

 

 

I'm quite happy with how this turned out although I was hoping the blue would be much brighter, instead it's a pale sort of muted blue which reminds me a lot of china patterns.  Next time I might try and find a more china pattern-y sort of design as that could look really cute, tiny tea cup nails.

 

 

MUA All Nude

I am hunting high and low for a cream polish, which one would think would be relatively easy to find, but it seems not.  Today I have probably the closest contender to what I am looking for so far and for the bargain price of £1 from Superdrug's MUA range.

 

The bottles have been redesigned recently and look a bit like mini Essie bottles which is quite cute, and they're still just £1 each so very easy on the pocket.

 

Here's All Nude

 

As you can see it's an off white cream colour.  I really like the crisp bright look it gives and it looks like it will be an ideal base for stamping over, it's also lacking in the pink colour that seems to feature in most pale nude shades I've found, which is a good thing, in my view.

 

Unfortunately, it has one of the worse formulas I have used in some time, this is 4 coats, the first one split and streaked and barely covered at all, it was like I had oil on my nails!  After 4 coats it does even out and look pretty lovely but it's definitely not one for a quick manicure!

Models Own Hayley's Comet

I've posted about this polish before when I wore it over black polish but I wanted to try and get it to look more like it does in the bottle with a sort of browny tone to it, so this time I decided to apply it over Beanie by No7 which is a sort of browny taupe colour.

 

Initially, it looked great and definitely gave me the look I wanted however I painted my nails before going out to the cinema and didn't leave enough time for them to dry (mostly due to the fact Beanie has gone all vile and took 3 coats to become even so I was sporting 5 coats of polish in the end) and they got totally massacred. :(

 

I've decided to stick a quick picture up anyway to give you an idea of the colour but excuse the state of the chips and dents, I was tempted to re-do the manicure the next night but I didn't love it enough to do the exact same things again.

 

 

It's a lovely browny wine polish with turquoise shimmer through it, in a lot of lights it looks very blue toned but I've managed to get a couple of (chipped) pictures of the duochrome effect which give you an idea of how it looks on.

 

 

It reminds me a little of Urban Decay Bruise which is handy since it's discontinued and no longer available.  I'll definitely be using this polish again some time soon but I'll make sure I have a better base colour or longer to let it dry before I do!

 

Dainty Doll - Nicola Roberts - Blushers Part 2 - Powders

This is second part of a two part post on some Dainty Doll blushers I picked up from Fragrance Direct recently. The blushers were only £1.99 each which is a huge saving on the £13.50 RRP.

 

This post is about the cream blushes, of which there are 4.

 

 

The colours are Happy Shake (001), My Girl (002), Money Talks (003) and You Are My Sunshine (004).  I've cleverly managed to swap the last two in the first picture, just to confuse matters.

 

Happy Shake is a very pale pink, this one is definitely more of a highlight for me than a blush but it leave a lovely soft pink sheen on the skin. My Girl is a bright rose pink. 

 

Money Talks is more of a bronzer than a blusher, it's a soft taupe tan colour and I'm really looking forward to trying it out, I've always been a bit scared of bronzer but this one is nice and light so I'm hoping it will suit my colouring. 

 

You Are My Sunshine (004) is a peachy coral with a golden shimmer through it, again this one reminds me a bit of Nars Orgasm.

 

Here are some quick swatches:

 

Again they go on beautifully, really soft and easy to apply and the colours are perfectly suited to my, rather pale, skin.  At £1.99 you really can't go wrong with these if you're in the market for a new blusher.

Dainty Doll - Nicola Roberts - Blushers Part 1 - Creams

This is the first of a two part post on some Dainty Doll blushers I picked up from Fragrance Direct recently.  The blushers were only £1.99 each which is a huge saving on the £13.50 RRP.

 

Today I have the cream blushes to show you, there are three shades

 

 

Paper Roses (001), Orange County Girl (002) & Billion Dollar Babies (003)

 

Paper roses is a soft rose pink colour, Orange County Girl is a coral / peach shade with a subtle shimmer to it (to me it seems a bit like a cream version of Nars Orgasm, maybe a touch more peach) and Billion Dollar Babies is a light taupe sort of colour, this one is almost like a cream bronzer rather than a blush.  There are some rather poor swatches below:

 

The blushers apply beautifully, they are silky soft and so easy to blend.  They leave a lovely natural flush of colour on the cheeks and all three seem to suit my skin tone nicely.  Maybe there is something to be said for make up for paler skins after all!

 

At £1.99 these are an absolute steal, if you're in the market for a cream blusher, or if you've never tried one before and want to do so without splashing lots of cash then these are for you.

 

Fragrance Direct charge £1.99 for second class postage which is a pretty good deal and mine arrived within a couple of days, quicker than I expected.

China Glaze Galactic Grey & YCC 114

I decided to do a holographic manicure today with a holographic accent nail.  For the main manicure I used China Glaze Galactic Grey from the Hologlam collection and then I added an accent nail of YCC 114 on my ring finger.

The lovely Claire from Nuthin but a nail thing sent me my YCC polish but you can buy it at Millennium Nails should you wish to.

Look at the holographic glittery goodness!  This polish is so sparkly and holographic and it's packed with glitter.

The downside is that I really struggled to get this polish to dry, I did two coats and then top coat and they were not for drying at all, although the top layer set underneath the polish was still super squidgy and moving about. 

So I added a coat of Seche Vite and sat very still for about half an hour... still squidgy underneath but solid on top now, so I gave up and carried on with my day which could explain why the edges of the glitter accent nail looked a little bashed, or it could be the horrible shrinkage I always get with Seche Vite, who knows, either way it's not exactly perfect.

I love the effect this glitter gives but the drying time was awful, I'd love to use it for a full manicure but I'm not sure I have the patience to wait for it to dry!

Have you used any YCC polishes, how do you find them for drying time?

Kiko 339 & Maybelline Polka Dots in Chalk Dust

When I posted about the Polka Dot collection the other day I mentioned I wanted to try Chalk Dust over other colours, well, here's my first attempt!  This is over a base of Kiko 339 which is a gorgeous pale blue cream colour.  These pictures are 2 coats of Kiko and one of Chalk Dust.

 

 

I'm pleased with how this turned out although it wasn't exact what I was expecting, I thought it would look like Robin eggs but instead it looks more like a sort of paint splatter effect in real life.

 

I decided to try using a matte top coat to see if that made them more egg like.  It didn't! :)

 

I still love how it turned out though, for one coat of Chalk Dust you get an amazing amount of glitter on each nail and you don't even need to splodge it around like you do with some glitters it just applies beautifully, and evenly, right out of the bottle.

 

I'm really impressed with this polish and I can see it getting quite a bit of use.