China Glaze & Water Decals!

I finally got myself some China Glaze! Theyre just the go to polish for so many people but i never come across them here. The colours I picked up were part of the Xmas Collection - I got the Meet me under the Mistletoe collection which includes Glittering Garland, Ring in the Red and Velvet Bow.

I am a massive fan of both reds and greens but i have never found any that I really fell in love with until I saw these.

So the first I have tried is Glittering Garland. It is a gorgeous shimmery, glittery green. It is lovely and smooth with easy application - i have two coats in all these photos. I must apologise for my terribly shaped nails however but i cant bring myself to cut them right down to straighten them out just yet!

I also got some nail mail around the same time from a new company I found called Sparkly Nails. They have some beautiful water decals and I just had to buy some. I ended up getting 3 packs, the ones I have photographed today are called 'Arabian Swirl'. I also got some Xmas themed ones and some snowflakes which I will be testing soon :) they were only £1.55, which i thought was really good value. They came in a cute little packet which you can see below.

No buy....

I am officially on a no buy until pay day :(

The lucky thing is, I am expecting some nail mail soon and I also have my Ciate nail polish calendar to enjoy beginning December 1st!

No buys are so painful.. and it's been less than 24 hours! To be fair, most that I have bought have been for presents, so does that count? I suppose only if I end up keeping them for myself rather than giving them away.. which unfortunately is more often than I would care to admit, haha! :/ I think no buys are especially painful on black friday - cyber monday weekend! Torture!

My Utopia's Polish arrived today. I don't have a great deal of colours to go with it, so I will keep them to swatch after pay day. I have my eye on some nice undies ;)

Seen as I am without new colours, I thought I would give my nails a rest - they have been breaking and snapping a lot the last few weeks - I think with my overuse of indie polishes and use of acetone to remove them, that they need a break. Again, no guarantees on how long this will last! Probably around 24 hours.. (already choosing nail colours in my head!) but I think its probably better than nothing :)

Only a week to go until payday.. December will be a tight month with Xmas coming, so I only have 1 thing in my mind to buy for myself.. the rest will be for other people! Can't wait :)

Giveaway at Glitter Obsession

There is a BEAUTIFUL swatch post over at Glitter Obsession.

Not only are there many many many beautiful swatch photos, but there is also a giveaway!

Make sure you check it out, and check out all those beautiful holo swatches!



and here is my favourite of the lot - just incase you were thinking about NOT having a look!



(Image Source: Glitter Obsession.com)

This is Color Club Angel Kiss - I'm not usually a fan of holos but I seriously love this! Such a cheery shade to put a smile on your face on all these cold dark days where you wake up and its dark, and finish work and its dark! Put a bit of shine into your life! :)

Different Dimension - My Bear

My Different Dimension order came today! I ordered 3 of Missi's beautiful polishes - Doppelganger, Honesty Feels A Lot Like Mean and My Bear.

I've got My Bear to show you now. A gorgeous chocolate brown shimmer mixed with a fine medium pink glitter.

My Bear is the first indie polish to catch my eye that isn't jam packed with all shapes and sizes of glitter. I wanted something simple, elegant but still glittery that I could wear for work. My Bear fits all the above, and its near enough neutral so I can wear with most of my clothes. I am so pleased with it, I really can't find the words!

Application was brilliant. Small round brush, nice consistency of the polish meant that i only needed two coats for full coverage. Pictures show two coats and 1 layer of top coat.

Hope you love it as much as me!

Glitzology Beauty - Guardian Angel

Here is the next colour from my new list of polishes - Guardian Angel.

Have you ever bought something just because of the name? This is my choice - the week before i bought this i visited a psychic for a reading. I've never done anything like it before - i'm pretty cynical about these things - but the man hit onto loads of things, including describing my grandma to a T. He said she was watching over me and very proud that I had continued teaching regardless of the fact that i'd hit a rough patch and contemplated leaving the profession.

So as soon as i saw this polish i just had to buy it. It is beautiful just like my grandma and makes me so happy to look at it on my nails - it just reminds me of all the things i loved about my gran. She was so wonderful and I miss her every day.

Guardian angel is a sheer, pale pink with pale and dark pink hexes, a spattering of dark pink glitter, translucent white hexes and pink/pale gold holo squares as well as white and pale pink hearts.

Here i have 3 coats of Guardian Angel, except for my ring finger which is 3 coats of Essie - Muchi Muchi and 1 coat of Guardian Angel. Both have a top coat.

I like the clean lines that layering achieves, but I love Guardian Angel by itself - it has a more golden glow about it. I am not usually a fan of pink but this has such a beautiful feminine look to it, without being in your face PINK.

Hope you love it as much as me!

Glitzology Beauty Part 1

I am so excited - my package from Glitzology Beauty arrived today!

Stacy had a sale on when i first visited, so I went all out. The shades i bought were:

- Diet Cokehead
- Cotton Candy
- Snow Day
- Bun in the Oven
- Guardian Angel
- Teal-icious
- Pixie Dust
- Skeleton Key
- Diamonds and Pearls



The last two were intended for Xmas presents.. But they are so beautiful that I am thinking about possibly making the present one polish short - but I am having a hard time picking!

Anyway, i have so many polishes to try out that i decided to split this into a few posts. The two polishes I have pictures of today are Snow Day and Diet Cokehead.



Snow Day is the first polish that instantly grabbed me when i looked at what was on offer - being in the UK, anything ordered takes awhile to get here and this was way before anyone else's xmas collections came out.

 

It has a sheer, shimmery white base filled with holo glitter, small matte white squares, large matte white hexes and matte white bars. Above is two coats, no top coat or undies. This would look beautiful layered over blues, greens or pastels I think, but with the shimmery base, i really like it by itself!

Application was okay - the consistency was quite thick and a little dabbing was required to spread the glitter evenly but drying time was quick and the end result was quite smooth. Here it is again just with a top coat - it really makes all the difference and I think it looks stunning <3



The second polish is Diet Cokehead. I must apologise for the photos - I ran out of natural light before I could get it on.



Diet Cokehead is a stunning gunmetal grey base with silver glitter, black matte bars and various sized and shaped red glitters.





The consistency of this is much smoother and went on more like a regular polish, however I did dab slightly to even out the glitter. This was two coats. Some of the bar glitters stick out a little but a couple of top coats have sorted that out :)

You can find Stacey's creations in her Etsy shop. She is also on Facebook.

Be sure to check her out -she currently has a 25% off offer on.

Giveaway at The Nail Junkie

During my daily strolls through my favourite blogs, I saw that Aleta at The Nail Junkie is having a giveaway.

Aleta has some of the most gorgeous polishes (none of which I own.. just yet..) but is due to release her new Cafe Collection for sale in the next few days.



(Image Source - The Nail Junkie )

As you can see there are three beautiful shades - from left to right, I believe its Coffee, Tea and Cocoa. I like all three, but I love Tea the most - it reminds me of having afternoon tea - fresh baked sweet scones, raspberry jam, clotted cream.. and a big cup of tea. Makes me feel warm inside just thinking about it!All three are beautiful shimmer polishes - Coffee has a beautiful blue/green tint to it that you can see in the above photo. I think all three are gorgeous autumn shades and will look lovely across the Xmas period! :)




 (Image Source - The Nail Junkie)

As you can see, they come in the cutest, most uniquely labelled bottles. Really excited to get my hands on one soon!

They will be available in Aleta's Etsy store and you will also be able to get them here also from Friday 16th November <3

The giveaway you can find here:Giveaway

Ciaté Mini Mani Month

So excited, my Ciaté xmas calendar has arrived! Its in such a beautiful package and when i took it out of the packet a few doors were slightly open so i had a peek.. So very excited!! :)

Door bell isn't working, so it was delivered to a neighbour - so by time i realised, they'd gone out and i've had to wait until almost 7pm to get them, so as per - the photos are poor quality!

Don't you just hate it when...

You miss the postman! Got a parcel waiting for me at the post office and i cant pick it up until tomorrow AARGH!

Got three orders coming - Utopia's Polish, DIFFERENT Dimension and Glitzology Beauty.. Can't wait!!

Harmony Gelish - Taupe Model

I have quite a collection of Gelish but due to my indie addiction, ive not worn any for ages! Since my mani finally chipped (and massively, early this morning where i was caught bottleless to repair it!) i decided that as im busy at work this week that i would invest my time in a mani that will last a bir longer.

I got 4 colours through the post yesterday - Up in the Blue, My Favourite Accessory (both blue shades) , Taupe Model (taupe - slightly paler than their espresso polish) and the dark grey from the fall collection ehose name evades me! 3 are xmas presents so I am not allowed to open them just yet :(

I chose Taupe Model because its neutral and doesnt look daft regardless of what I'm wearing. Its a gorgeous creme polish, with an unexpected shimmer - i thought it would have that more rubbery appearance. It looks really nice i have to admit - i think it would look nicer on longer nails though but it cant be helped as i damaged a couple at work and had to file them all down short as they broke really close to the nail bed.

I tried to get the shimmer in, need to get out in some natural light but its dificult when you leave for work on the dark and also leave from work in the dark!!

Still amazed!

Just a quickie - i've still got my Cagedbird Deep Sea Girl mani on. 5 days now and only minor wear - it's possibly the most sturdy mani i've ever sported. I've been busy too - lots of cooking, cleaning, typing and planning for school and unless you look closely you would think i'd just done it! And with no top coat! Phenomenal!

Had so many comments on it too - dead pleased with it :)

Why do we love indies?

Well, I can tell you that! Personalised customer service - thats what!

I'll not lie - I've not had a fantastic experience with all indie sellers - I'll not name names, but i contacted a popular indie brand via Facebook last week to ask if they would send to the UK. Now I know a good few sellers don't, but it wasn't clear on their page whether they did or didn't. I explained that there were a few (ahem.. 9) polishes I'd like - all full size, full price and would like to know if they would consider sending to UK for me. I would've been disappointed if they said no, but i was more annoyed that they've completely ignored my message and have still been posting regularly with updates.

So my faith in indies had diminished a little bit until this weekend. I've been umming and ahhing over Utopia's Polishes for a week or so now. Then this weekend she announces a 40% off sale - i couldn't get on straight Etsy as i was out and about and the iPhone app is a bit hit and miss, so i waited until i got home and almost cried to see that almost every polish had sold out! So another girl had commented on Facebook to say she'd missed Ice Princess, so i said underneath that i had missed Jokers, but i would wait hopefully until it was restocked. Imagine my amazement that i log on later and she's restocked those colours just for us! So i was a bit cheeky and stuck an Ice Princess in my bag as well - what can I say - it just flew into my cart!

So, faith totally restored - what a lovely lady! Totally excited to try these two little beauties out :)


(Image Source: Sassy Shelly)

Here is a beautiful swatch of Jokers - so excited to try it. I originally saw it on a giveaway on Sassy Shelly.com and fell in love with the lilac element there. I think it looks beautiful over both shades of blue - excited to test it out on myself - I have a slightly darker skin tone and different nail shape so looking forward to seeing how it turns out :)





(Image Source: Sassy Shelly)

This was my impulse buy - as it had also been restocked, it just flew into my basket! Again, I love how it looks over both undie colours.. but I can definitely foresee a winter mani in the pale blue!

You can find Utopia's Polish on Facebook and also her shop on Etsy.

My first post!

Well, ive bitten the bullet and gotten myself a blogger account :)

Mainly to help stalk all my favourite polish blogs etc - nothing productive, serious or helpful to my bank balance!

While i'm here, i might as well mention my current nail polish - Deep Sea Girl by Cagedbird Nail Lacquer. Wearing 3 coats, but its surprisingly smooth and was easy to apply, so i've actually forgone a top coat :o



Deep Sea Girl is a beautiful almost royal blue jelly with light blue micro glitters and light holo teal and dark blue small hex glitters. Its surprisingly sturdy as well - i'm now onto Day 4 with no chips and only minor tip wear. As you can see, it also comes in the cutest little bottle, with a cute little bow and dainty printed label. Love it!

Only problem is, i made the 'sensible decision' to buy a mini. More like totally stupid! She's on vacation now, so my bank balance is safe until her return when i will be purchasing the full sized versions!



I also got Faerie Carnival at the same time - also in mini. This is more of a top coat layer choice than a solo polish - i layered it over 3 coats of Essie - Navigate Her and finished with Sally Hansen No Chip Acrylic Top Coat. Its a beautiful polish - clear and filled with medium pastel hex glitters in lavender and apple green. It looks gorgeous over pale colours and i've seen it layered over darks (mainly black) which have looked gorgeous too.

You can find Cagedbird Nail Lacquer on Facebook and also her Etsy shop :)