A-Z challenge - H is for Essie Hip-anema

Today I have for you one of my favourite colour families. Red / orange. I have terribly shrimpy pink toned skin, so many colours just look terrible on my hands. But I do love orange leaning reds, orange and coral. 

I actually spotted this on 'the barrow' a little makeup/nails stand in the Metro Centre. They often have OPI, Essie, Sally Hansen and many other brands at reduced prices. They're generally older collections, but if I like a colour, I really don't mind how old or new it is. This only cost me £2.99.

This is Essie Hip-anema, which I pronounced 'Hip-anenema' to Becca who promptly laughed her head off. It's a beautiful red/orange jelly, with the perfect brightness for summer which had complete coverage at 2 coats. As you can see, there is a slight VNL, but thats not something that bothers me. I was also quite surprised as Essie do not usually wear well for me.. but this wore really well and lasted 4 days before I got any tip wear, and another day before I got the tiniest of chips. 

What colour could you just not live without?

Don't forget to check out everyone else's H Manis at the hub page!

Rach xxx

A-Z Weekly Challenge - B is for Revlon Parfumeries 'Bordeaux'

Good morning all!

Today I just have some plain swatches of Bordeaux for you. This is from Revlons new line of Parfumerie polishes, which are all scented! This one has a beautifully rich grapey smell which is just perfect for a polish named after a wine!

The colour itself is nothing incredibly unique, but I do like it all the same. I don't have any dupes, and even if I did, I would keep this for its lovely smell, which stuck around for the whole two days that I wore it. I did look rather strange smelling my own fingers mind you!

Revlon Parfumerie polishes retail at £6.49 and there are currently 20 different fragranced colours available. You can currently get them from Boots and they have a save £2 offer, so they are only £4.49 each. Go check them out!

Go check out everyone else's B manis at the hub page!

What do you think of the Revlon Parfumerie range? Do they appeal to you? Have you got any? Want any?

Rach xxx

Untried Friday #6 - OPI Animalistic

Hey all!

Got an OPI to share with you today. I was given this as a freebie by Becca from KPC as she wasn't a fan. Thanks Becca! It's from the Muppets Collection I believe.

It has the same qualities as another OPI I have - I'm All Ears from the Minnie Collection. I will have to do a comparison to show just how similar / different they are sometime.

What do you think? Do you have it in your collection? 

Rachael xxx

Swatched: Julep - Jodie

Hey all!

Couldnt resist picking this one up. My wonderful step sister is called Jodie, so when I caught this in a blog sale that could make it to the UK, I just had to have it. It has sat, well guarded but untried for around 6 months, but that has worked pretty well as its a beautiful autumn colour!

I also decided to pair this up with my new OPI Man with a Golden Gun, which I snagged from one of the nail sale groups on Facebook. What do you think?

Rachael xxx

August Tri-Polish #4

Hey all!

Last tri-polish of the month today. Here they are. I just had to do this because the colours scream drugs and rastafarianism to me. When I was a kid and drugs were cool, I used to wear loads of badges with these colours and the cannabis leaf on them. I had earrings to match. Now, I think drugs are stupid, but I have fond memories of my old clothing and accessory choices!

Also, my Ciaté Big Yellow Taxi finally gave up the good fight.. so I had to substitute for my new Bondi NY Brick Road. Its much more straw yellow than my Ciaté, but its the best option I had.

Rachael xxx

August Tri-Polish #3

Morning everyone!

Here's my third tri-polish effort. I quite like these, I got the stitching idea from a mani that Cazzy did over at SpecialGirl Nails.

What do you think?

Don't forget to go check out everyone else's Day 3 manis!

Rachael xxx

August Tri-Polish #2

Hey all!

Here's Day 2. Technically I should be onto Day 10 by the time this didnt go completely wrong!

Hope you like it!

Don't forget to check out everyone else's Day 2 Tri-Polish manis!

August Tri-Polish Mani #1

Hey all!

Trying something new today - my first attempt at the Tri-Polish challenge. This is the genius idea of Debbie over at The Crumpet, but if you feel like finding out more such as the 3 colour choices for each month, you want to head over and join the Facebook group.

This month's colours are red, green and yellow.

I've picked Sally Hansen - Insta-Dri Rapid Red, Ciaté - Big Yellow Taxi and Barry M - Spring Green.

So here's attempt one. I decided to go retro and crack open the black crackle. Gotta get my money's worth - this baby cost me a whole £1 from Poundland!

Don't forget to check out everyone else's Day 1s!

Rachael xxx

Swatched - OPI The Colour of Minnie

Hi all!

Today is just a swatch post of a polish I picked up recently (by recently, I mean in the last 2-3 months haha.. so slow at getting round to trying polishes!)

The barrow in the Metro Centre is one of my favourite places to shop - they recently acquired some of last years OPI collections - I picked up two polishes both from the Minnie collection 2012 - The Colour of Minnie, and I'm All Ears for only £3.99 each. Definitely money well spent!

I don't own many OPI polishes, but what I can say is both have fantastic formula (and should, for their suggested retail price here!). I'm only showing you the one today so I'll just talk about that one. I used two coats here over a base of Rimmel Stronger. The formula like I said is fantastic - its one of those polishes you just cant fail to get even - its beautifully smooth and has an almost jellylike texture. It dries glossy and has a faint pinky silver shimmer that is more noticeable in the bottle than on the nail.

This is probably close to perfect in shade for me. I do tend to go more for orange leaning reds for my skin tone, but I really love this pinky toned one and surprisingly I think it looks quite good! So did Chester obviously, as he decided to try photobombing me for attention, so I took a proper picture and he was happy :)

What do you think? Do you have this shade? Love it / don't love it? 

Rachael xxx

Nail Polish Fixes Everything!

Hey all,

Sorry I've been so quiet-  work has been mental busy. I also got some bad news yesterday - the confirmation of the end of my contract. I have been working my arse off trying to get them to see that they should keep me, but yeah, they haven't.

So of course this morning my resolve to work as hard has waned a little. So to cheer myself up, I painted my nails with a new Nails Inc that I got - Roland Gardens. Really pleased with the colour - it tips just enough orange that I can pull it off - its seriously beautiful and has really lifted my spirits anyway!

I also snapped a nail on the way to work and do not have a file.. so I will apologise now for my odd ring finger nail and the shape!

As I have just done these quickly at work, I was also mega pleased with myself to find a topcoat in my bag :) so also testing my new OPI Top Coat. I have never tried it before, so I am interested to see how it works.

What do you think? I'm pretty pleased with it (bar my  odd nail which I will fix when I am home!) I dont wear red enough - definitely think I need to crack out the reds a bit more often! :)

Red Nose Day Nails!

Yay! Tomorrow is Red Nose Day - non-uniform at work, and the theme is 'wear something red' duh.

So seen as I wore my only red clothes today (good planning Rach!) I painted my nails :)

I realise now that my last minute decision to silver my smile lines with a striper has made them look very christmassy.. but what the heck, I still like them :)

As I came on, I saw some other Red Nose Day Manis in my reading list.. all of which are better than mine! But still happy with my first attempt.

My ring finger is the Red Nose that we've been selling at school. I didnt realise but there are actually three versions of Di-Nose-Saurs. We obviously got the cuter one! My attempt is the one on the left :)

Polishes used: KBShimmer - Berry Xmas, Zoya Purity and Raven for detail and Sparkly Nails nail art striper in silver.

 

Whatever you're doing tomorrow, I hope you have a great day and remember how fortunate we all are! xx

Extra Relaxed 31DC - Day 1 - Red Nails

Hello!

So I joined a new challenge! :)

Yes, I do still have two posts outstanding from the last one which are coming, I promise! I couldn't miss out on this one though. I've recently joined The Crumpet's Nail Tarts - a facebook group for all people who love painting nails :)

They have various challenges going on, such as the Tri-Polish contest, MSMDM (Monkey See Monkey Do Mondays) and various different 31 Day challenges. After last month's 28 day challenge, I don't have the energy for an every day thing, so this is perfect for me! 31 Days, but stretched out even further than the laid back version, so there is only one post a week. Post day is supposed to be friday, but I doubt I will always have mine on time for fridays as its not a great day for me!



Today I went for a very VERY relaxed start. I am first of all, in love with this new polish. It is one of my very first NYC polishes, which Becca from Kitty's Painted Claws gave me for free (thanks Becca, love thee :D ). It's called Penn Station, and because it is borderline red / pink, I can actually pull it off :) The formula for this was great - ALMOST a one coater - but I did two just to be sure.

I also used some of Born Pretty Store's studs. I love these and don't get to use them often as they come off easily when I'm at work, but someone else said they always use superglue to keep them on, and it doesnt affect their nails, so I thought I would I would give them a try!

Already had compliments on them from the OH (massive surprise actually!) and also from his dad.. don't know what that means but i'll take all the compliments I can get haha :)

Don't forget to check everyone else's red nails! x