Weekend Mani #24

Woah! That weekend passed mighty quickly, I hope you had a good one!

Following on from last weeks poundland bargains, I have another £1 polish on the blog for this weekend.

Meet Sally Hansen Sugar Coat in 'Bubble Plum'

So first off, the colour, although the name 'Bubble Plum' doesn't quite roll off the tongue, it describes this colour perfectly.  A gorgeous mix between bubblegum pink and a plummy purple, it has a not quite neon 'glow' about it.  I'm in love with this colour.

This is Sally Hansen's foray into textured polishes and there is actually a large shade range of these and they vary between one colour matte shades to others with glitter and sparkle and all sorts.  I now have six in my collection, two of which have that extra sparkle dimension.   

These are really textured, almost  too grainy like for my tastes but that may also be because there is just one dimension i.e. just one colour, to this polish.  a bit of sparkle and this could be quite similar to 'My Current Crush' by O.P.I , see here.

The bottle says to apply two thin coats and I readily agree with that, I don't think you would get away with just one as it is quite a thin polish and also has quite a thin brush.  It dries relatively quickly and has lasted 36 hours with only minimal tipwear.  This is designed to be worn without a topcoat, which I particularly love as I do love me a bit of matte.  This isn't completely matte however, it does have a bit of shine and without a layer of topcoat, it is much easier to remove - bonus!!

For £1 at poundland, I would definitely recommend this if you are a fan of textured polishes.  The colour is lovely, it is very textured and dries quickly.

Hugs,

Jodi

xxx

Weekend Mani #23

Although I am currently in the midst of some redecoration and have been for a few weeks now, hence the lack of posts, I decided that my nails still had to be done!  I may have had no make up on and my hair was in dire need of a wash but still, gotta be a little bit glam right?!

Meet 'Aquamarine' part of Revlon's Chroma Chameleon Collection.

First things first, this cost £1! One whole shiny pound, I urge you to go to poundland stat! I also got a few other Revlon polishes and a Sally Hansen Sugar coat which I will swatch over the next few weeks. 

This colour shifts from a beautiful sea greeny blue to a slight purple, this colour reminds me of 'The Little Mermaid', years and years ago, there was a nail polish and make up brand on the go called 'Spectacular' and I had about 300 of their polishes when I was a teen and my favourite one was called 'Ariel', this is the closest I have ever found to match that.

This is slightly thin, I used three thin coats for full opacity here, although I'm sure two would be fine if you took care to apply it neatly.  Colours like this with the duochrome effect can show up brushstrokes quite easily. 

The bottle is a good size and it's a nice shape for storing.  The brush is thin compared to the OPI Pro-wide that I'm used to but it was pretty standard and fit my tiny pinkies well! 

This has no topcoat on in any of these pictures.  It is very shiny and has an almost shimmery finish.

Such a vibrant colour.  The colour shift isn't too extreme but definitely enough to make it interesting. 

I was showing a bit of tipwear after sanding and doing other housey stuff so for 48 hours without topcoat, this lasted pretty good!

My mum has already hinted that she would quite like this for her upcoming holiday to Tunisia and I have to agree, this would look amazing on tanned tootsies!

I would like to try this over a purple base to try and capture more of the purple in it and would also quite like to add a few more of these to my stash. particularly 'Tanzanite' and 'Pink Quartz' 

Hope you have had a slightly more glamourous weekend!!

Hugs,

Jodi

xxx

So...about that 'no buy'...

I failed my self imposed 'no buy'.  Several times.  I went to TK Maxx and I failed.  I went to Boots and I failed.  I went to Semi-Chem, yup, I failed and then I had the audacity to buy a few bits on feelunique.com.  Ach well, as they say, you can't take it with you. 

TK Maxx had these two opi's including a limited edition liquid sand for £12.99.  I saved £12.99 on my winter boots from sports direct though so that balances out... Right? I'm going to give this to my mum to give to my brother to give me for Christmas.  Guilt appeased! 

In Boots, I bought a Max Factor foundation.  I have heard these are quite good for folk with pink skintones so I'm going to give it a whirl, the shade is the lightest one, 100 fair, so hopefully that will do the trick.  I haven't linked it as that particular shade isn't on the Boots.com website.  Also, because you were getting a free gift if you spent over £15, I also bought the wild shadow 2-in-1 gel shadow and liner pencil in the shade 05 which seems to be a nice bronzey brown and called 'Caramel Rage on Boots.com.  The free gift includes a full size lipfinity, a full size polish and a full size mascara which I shall review at a later date.

Now to Semi-Chem, I only went in for ibuprofen on the way over to my chums and came out with ibuprofen, oven cleaner (?!?!?) and a new nail polish, as you do. I got my first NYC polish for less than £2. That has been my mid week mani.

And Feelunique brought me the renowned Dr Bronner's magic soap in peppermint and Caudalie's beauty elixir in a limited edition L'Wren Scott designed bottle.  I had a £5 credit to use for referring a friend to Feelunique and it would have been rude not to use it! 

And I still haven't done my Christmas shopping! Yikes! 

Have you ever tried a 'no buy'?

How's your Chrsitmas shopping going?

Hugs,

Jodi

xxx

Weekend Mani #16

Yup, it's that time of week again! It's the weekend of indecisiveness for me I think, I have on this colour but as I am off work until Wednesday I may change it for something a bit more 'va-va-voom'! 

On my nails this weekend, I have 'meet me on the star ferry' by O.P.I.  This is from the Hong Kong Collection of 2010, of which I own a few others from that I didn't actually realise! 

This one is really difficult to describe, in the bottle it seems to be an almost mauve colour but with a touch of red and a silver shimmer running through it but on the nail it looks different in every light! It looks purpley, reddy, goldy, silvery, shimmery and frosty all at the same time!!

This shows it leaning towards purple.  The shine is amazing, I have no topcoat on in any of these pics. I don't know if the colour suits my skin-tone the best but that's a small niggle that most people probably won't pay any mind to.

Trying to capture the colour without the shimmer, turns out, it ain't that easy! Please excuse the peppy pig plaster, sliced my finger on a Gillette in the bathroom.  Strange I have peppa pig plasters and no kids...

In usual O.P.I. fashion, the formula was easy to work with and this was opaque in two coats.  I have three coats on my middle finger as I bumped it whilst the polish was still wet.

And there you have it, a polish captured in pretty much every light source I have at my disposal and still remains a bit of an enigma!! I like this polish and I wanted it for ages but I'm not as in love with it as I had hoped to be.  In fact, I'd quite like to put this on my gramma! (She's pretty cool though so...) 

Do you wear polish to suit your skin tone?

Are you a fan of shimmers? 

Hugs,

Jodi 

xxx

P.s. This is once again courtesy of my ipad.  Binx has chewed through my laptop cable and so I am awaiting delivery of (another) new one! Good job he's purdy!

Weekend Mani #5

This is a pretty picture heavy post for one mani but it was a fun one so I went for it!

Recently, I bought my first ever Models Own polishes, 'Absinthe' from the velvet goth collection and 'Snow Mix' which is one of their Artistix Duo polishes.  The Artistix are a great idea, they combine two of the brands bestselling shades for maximum effect! Each duo consists of a base colour and a special effect topcoat.

I couldn't decide if I wanted to use the white base coat on all my nails as I was really feeling a deep purple kinda place.  I mashed it up into a slightly odd but effective mani.  The O.P.I is Vant to bite my neck? from the Euro Centralé Collection which was brought out in springtime this year.

First up was the 'Snow White' base coat.  A good quality polish, this was opaque in two coats and didn't take too long to dry in between coats. I must say, I do like the brushes too, slightly thinner than the OPI brushes which I sometimes find too thick for my little nails.

And on with the glitter! This is Ibiza Mix from the Hed Kandi collection. I love the glitter, it is not as bright as shown on the web images but I actually like that the colours are almost subtle and grown up - very similar vibe as the L'oreal Sequin explosion, which I still have to get round to gushing about!

Here is a few more pics trying to show the glitter.  I loved the lilac and the turquoise and I'm glad the orange wasn't too bright as I don't really like orange glitters that much, I have no idea why.  The orange was actually more of a rosey, orangey goldy type colour, I really liked it. There was also gold glitter too.  

There were also varying shapes and sizes of glitter too which added to the party effect, there were hexagonal macro glitters and circular micro glitters. 

I then decided I wanted dark purple nails so I kept the thumbs Artistix'd and went for O.P.I on the rest of my fingers.  I thought the lilac and turquoise of the glitter tied in with the deep purple.  The O.P.I itself was just a lovely deep, creme purple, it kinda made me think of an aubergine when I was using it.  Gah, it's just lovely, simple, elegant and lovely and a breeze to apply!

On the sunday, before I took this off for work, I wanted to try the glitter over the purple. It looks really nice and would be great for autumn/winter to add a bit of sparkle to an otherwise sultry manicure.

F.y.i., it is so hard to try and capture glitters on an iPhone!

Models Own Artistix Duo polishes are on offer on ASOS.com at the moment, link here, and they also have Vant to Bite My Neck? reduced to £7 here.  This is actually a great price as ASOS offer free standard delivery, you can also get cashback from topcashback.co.uk.  I should also say that ASOS have pretty great customer service too, should you have any problems.

Are you stocking up on the glitters in time for christmas?

Are you looking forward to the deep purple and berry shades of winter?

Hugs,

Jodi 

Impromptu presents - the best kind!

My mama was away for a wee city break to lovely Edinburgh two weeks ago and she came back with pressies for me - so cute and so unexpected!

She bought me a top from next which is charcoal with a slightly dipped hem and some sparkly bits on the shoulder area, it's really cute and comes in a huge six different colours, here, I really like the prune one which is about the only ever time I will say anything nice about prunes! Bleugh! Anyhoo, I digress...

She also got me a supercute packet of Cath Kidston tissues (available in stores for about 85p), I will never ever use these, I think I have a pack of pink poodle tissues in my drawer from about 7 years ago, some things are just too cute to use! If I'm being honest, I don't find novelty tissues particularly absorbent, no use if your nose is beating Hussein Bolt's personal best!

She also bought me L'oreal Colour Riche Nail Polish in Sequin Explosion - it is rather beautiful!

My mama is a cheeky monkey though as I had swatched this in Boots a few days before and she really liked it, I think this might make up part of her holiday nails mani! 

This polish is not available anywhere online at the moment but you should be able to pick some up in the stores. 

I think this is one of those polishes that deserve a separate review over a few different colours, I love it though, the colours are just gorgeous, almost jewel-like.

All in all, turns out being 29 still doesn't mean you're too old for presents!

How do you feel about the L'oreal confettin range of topcoats?

Hugs,

Jodi

xxx

Mesmerising Flakies!

At Christmas last year, I noticed this Andrea Fulerton Gemstone Overcoat in Superdrug and I hummed and hay-ed about it, when I eventually went back to buy it, it wasn't there!! Sad times! Luckily enough, good ol' Amazon saw me right.

This is OPI Fly with the Gemstone Overcoat as an accent nail.

The Gemstone Overcoat  is so versatile and looks nice over a range of different colours and it can be quite mesmerising, it can go from yellows and blues to oranges and reds.

I love the way it shimmers!!

The polish is known as a 'flakie' as the particles are flake-like rather than small glitters.

How do you feel about glitters?

Have you tried 'flakies'?

Hugs,

Jodi

xxx

I'm an Addict!

Howdy!  So for my first post, I thought it would be good for me to make a confession...

Here it is...

I am addicted to O.P.I nail polish!!

There, I said it, phew!

This is one picture I took of my babies pretties a few months ago

The picture below was taken last Friday but I have since added 6 more beauties to the collection - Yay!

Please bear in mind that this is only O.P.I, I do also have some Nails Inc., Essie, Leighton Denny etc.

Now, the problem with this addiction is that due to where I work, I can only have my nails painted Friday to Sunday - This makes me sad, however, it makes that Friday feeling even better!!

At the moment I prefer purples, blues and turquoise on my nails.  Colours like these really suit my skintone as I am really pale but with rosy undertones.

I hope you like my collection, I am planning on swatching each and every one of them but I really need a better camera than my Iphone!

Hugs,

Jodi 

xxx