#adventcalendar days 16-24

Hi Guys!

With great sadness - here are my last batch of advent calendar goodies.

Day 16 was a olive oil hair pack and a gorgeous Barry M nail paint in raspberry.

Day 17 were some tooth sticking eclairs - an oldie but a goodie!

Day 18 - I don't know where V got this from but it's a genius make up pencil sharpener. I tried to capture it in the picture - one end is for a normal sized pencil, the other end is for those jumbo pencils, and it has a cover/lid so great for the handbag. (Barry M btw) 

Day 19 was some old school pick and mix. I was eating this at my desk - one moment there were a hundred jelly babies begging for mercy and 3 minutes later I'd eaten them all oops

Day 20 - two of my favourite things - face wipes and chocolate!

Day 21 - my first ever models own nail polish!!! 200% opaque in 2 coats. Even one good coat is good enough to go. This was a contender for Christmas day notd but ended up running late and sticking with a very chipped barry m raspberry (day 16). 

Day 22 - the yummiest biggest chocolate star ever. If I see these on sale I'm going to grab a million.

Day 23 - haven't had a chance to test it out but excited about my latest maybelline colorshow additionin 'power red'. 

My last special advent calendar present - Day 24 - traditional chocolate coins! Who remembers thinking this was real money? Was that just me?

A massive thank you to V for putting this all together. I've been so spoiled, and I'm so grateful. Not just for the actual gifts but also for the time, thought and effort - this has also been much appreciated. 

Fur and peaches

Hi Guys!

Sorry for the terrible terrible picture quality, posing in artificial light

Just 2 things really:

Peach Melba and black fur collar. Both are mine. Yaaaaaaay!!!!

After wanting wanting wanting Barry M's nail paint in Peach Melba for ages I finally got one (thanks mummy!) - erm, I'll be honest, it was not worth the wait. It's too pastel on me. Then again, it is December so I think I will put this away and give it another go come summer time.

After my love affair with the black racoon fur I purchased another fur collar in black. It turned up on my birthday eve. Love. Nuff said!

Bringing Penny back

Hi Guys,

It's Sunday so despite the sling situation I thought I would stick up a few 'normal' posts; I don't want to get out of the swing of things again.

My days have been pretty lame as you could imagine.

Something (that I find) exciting is that a few girls at work went out and brought the Barry M Instant Nail effect nail paint that I showcased the other day with my yellow base.

I changed to a grey (Barry M) base that was much nicer - AY did them for me, she also did her's grey and crackle and loves it :)




And then my friend R has a red base:



Another friend N had a hot pink base but no pic I'm afraid. I guess this 'look' is a marmite thing - either love it or hate it. I have a feeling a lot more people in my building will have this but I'm happy to share the love :)

Friday was a nice day. First day at work in the sling but I was just training so didn't need two arms! At lunchtime we had lunch with the trainee's and it was really nice. It's a long training period so the bonding is important I think.

I ate this:



I picked it off the menu simply because it was the only main meal I could eat with my hand. But my plan was foiled when they put a burger as big as my head in front of me. My manager had to end up cutting the burger into half for me :S It was very yummy though. And the 'fat chips' were amazing! Bloody expensive though.

Yesterday I went into work (Saturday job) - I didn't know my shift had changed so turned up for my 9:30am shift (to finish at 18:30) only to find out I was doing a 10:30-19:30, so I ended up doing a 9:30-19:30!!!

Very tiring- I didn't get home til 21:00 and that was me getting the tube (bus very jolty = painful for my arm). And because of my arm I was even more tired. It's very physically exhausting to have to hold your body a certain way. And the weight of my arm was giving me neck achne, shoulder ache and back ache :(

Luckily today is a day of nothingness. YAY PJ DAY! :) Happy Halloween - noone has rung my buzzer buts it's only 18:30 so I guess there is still time. The clocks also went back today. I woke up really early anyway so didn't make a difference to me.

Been watching a lot of tv no surprise. Caught up with last night's X Factor; loved Cher - I think I love her regardless; or more accurately, I hate her the least!!!. Not really supporting anyone but Cher is a much-watch for me. I take wee breaks during Mary and Trey-C's performances.

Watched the movie 4.3.2.1. Sexy! Bit depressing more than exciting (which I assume was the desired effect.) Recommended to lesbians/closet lesbians. Too girly for guys to find sexy. (But you can always fast forward to the naked bits...)

Also simultaneously wathcing two Selena Gomez 'movies' at the moment - "Princess Protection Program" and "Ramona and Beezus". Opinions to come later.

I hope you have all had a lovely weekend. A big big happy birthday to AY <3

Barry M - Black Magic Instant Nail Effect

[crap close up]

YAY!!!

I am very happy, I have managed to get my hands on Barry M's 'Black Magic, an instant nail effect paint.

I wrote about it on a previous post not long ago and I'm happy I got it so quickly. And the better news is that I got it for a bargain price. I heart bargains :)

RRP is £3.95 but I got it when a 2 for £5 offer was on at Superdrugs (bless you Stratford. So I got 2 black magic's for a fiver instead of £7.90, but not because of my usual bulk-buy tendacies, but for my mate R who wanted one too.

Anyway, lets get to the fun bit, photo time!!!

[naked nails]

[chosen base colour was Barry M's Lemon ice cream]

[YAAAAY!!!]

Pro's

Super duper cool!
Does what it says on the bottle, no hassle instant effect.
Very fast - the black magic dries in like, 10 seconds!
Bargain price, even at normal RRP
You can change the effect (big/small cracks) by how thick you paint your nails

Con's

Tooo fast!!! - Because my nails are long, I could barely paint my nail before it dried and started cracking, and overlap of black magic is a no-no, but I think it's still great.

Conclusion?

I love it!!! It's really fun and watching it dry is fascinating lol I can't wait to try it over different colour bases and see the different effects.

If you like what you see in the pictures then I would recommend you to purchase it to. Obviously it's not everyone's cup of tea.

One concern I have, and this is a personal concern, is can I rock this nail look at work!? It's a bit OTT and flashy....and not very 'professional' (unless I was a trendy hooker lol). But I am going to wear it tomorrow and hopefully I won't get any frowns of disapproval.

What do you think? Be honest!

xoxo

[EDIT!! FYI: Really important to let the base colour dry. And also, once my base colour and black magic were on and dried, I slicked on a coat of clear polish. ]

Nail Paint Stalking Session

Hi Guys,

OMG OMG OMG!

It's been a while, but I have fallen in love and am on a major huntage for a nail polish. Barry M's Black Magic to be precise.

It's not a normal nail paint, it's a 'nail effect'. Basically you paint your nail in whatever colour you want, wait for it to completely dry, then you paint the 'black magic' on top and you end up with a crackle effect, with the base colour showing through the black 'cracks'.

AMAZING!!!!

Searched my local superdrugs with no luck :( but i will not give up ...(i ain't desperate enough - yet - no pay for postage and package!)

This crackle effect polish is not a new invention, a few brands did it a while ago but i guess since we (I) are more nail obsessed these days and barry m is so accessible in the UK it has a whole new lease of life.

Fingers crossed I get my hands on this, can't wait to show you!

********************

The image below [thanks google images!] shows an example of the crackle effect using 'mia secrets' in blue...barry m only has black at the moment.

So the person painted their nails in...I don't knowm nude or a grey? and then painted a layer of blue crackle on top. As the blue dries, it cracks. The lighter you paint the smaller the cracks, the thicker you paint the bigger the cracks. COOL!

:)

Nude nails: Review of Mushroom and Beige Style

As we all know, I've been obsessed with nude, taupe etc tone nail polishes recently. My regular readers will know how nuts I was abo9ut getting my hands on Boots No7 Beanie (which i still don't bloody have!!!!) but I've done my best in trying to fulfill that need.

[Pictured below we have: (L-R) Barry M's Mushroom (rrp £2.95), Rimmel's Beige style (rrp....under a fiver) and Nail Inc's London (rrp freebie with 2 bottles of diet coke). Please see older post for review on Nail Inc's London. ]

(EDIT: In the phto Beige style and London look the same but they are not. London has a slight lilac tinge to it once on, esp with just one or two coats, Beige style is pretty much beige)

Barry M's Mushroom: Generally speaking I am a fan of Barry M's nail paints. A good price for the colour range available and in the past I've found the quality pretty good. I say 'in the past' because my latest nail paint purchases (mushroom and f*cking lemon icecream) were a let down. I've already ranted about lemon ice cream (and I went easy, I could easily have put in about a million curse words!) and now it's the turn of mushroom...not really, it's not that bad!

Basically I went in Superdrugs and it was the last day of the Barry M nail paint 2 for £5 promotion and amazingly they had mushroom in stock which I've been wanting for ages, and so I picked up lemon ice cream (which i was also mini lusting over for a short while) - never turn down a bargain! Got home very excited and put on lemon ice cream first, and we all know how i felt about that. Then I put on mushroom on my toes......

....what do i think? Well....I haven't tried it on my finger nails yet and I find that what works (or doesn't work) on toes might not work on fingers and vice versa but at the moment I'm so-so. Colour wise its much darker on application than in the bottle and it's a very 'on trend' colour and personally it goes with my skin tone well. I was a bit disappointed in the consistency of the nail paint because it seemed a bit watery but I can't really pass judgement until I put it on my hands. I don't regret picking up mushroom but I am not over the moon about it either. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone, only the crazy nail polish people like myself.

Rimmel's Beige Style: I LOVE IT!!! It is not the colour I thought it would be but it's a colour that I have always wanted in the back of my mind. This is a true true nude, absolutely gorgeous. HOWEVER, this enthusiasm comes from a nail polish junkie. For some it may clash with their skintone and for others I fear it may be a bit too bland and blaaah. But for me I think it's beautiful and consistency wise it's worth the money (not absolutely fantastic but its under a fiver so *shrugs*).

I think the fact it comes with Rimmel's new maxi brush really helps the application too. With one coat you have a nice clean look. Two coats you have a nice nude, everyday sort of colour and with 3 coats you have a on trend sexy nude. Below I've taken a picture of the regular Barry M brush (on the left) and the Rimmel maxi brush (on the right).

I am trying to ease off the nude/taupes colours now because I think at the moment I have enough. For me red's have really fallen off the radar but I'm thinking red toes and nude nails are the way to go, or today I've got mushroom on my toes and urban princess (pink) on my finger nails and people are making nice comments.

I think that because I am such a plain jane when it comes to colour in my wardrobe having a pop of colour is important and shows that I've made a thought...or maybe I'm thinking about this too much! lol

For me, buying and wearing a pretty nail colour is a easy and relatively cheap way to brighten my mood. People ask me why I am so smiley: well, you can't be miserable if you have nails the colour of cupcake icing!!!

Nail Polish: Rant and Rave

I didn't intend it this way but this blog is a rant and rave on some bright arse nail polishes!!! (Beige style and mushroom review to follow in another post).

So the first two pics (below) are just pictures of colours I've reviewd before, namely....erm i can't remember the names!! (Barry M mint patty dupe, sorry! and Collection 2000 BMX Bandit?! Brain has gone blank...too lazy to go and check)


Above we have Barry M's Lemon Ice cream. I HATE IT I HATE IT I HATE IT!!! I've blogged about what a let down this is a few posts ago so please go and read up. Do not waste your money on this. The colour would be beautiful but in the pic I've got 5 yes FIVE coats on and you can still see my nails!!!!! :(

Above we have Rimmel's Urban Princess. I didn't think it would be that great but actually I love it and this is what I wore on my nails to work today. It's cute, fun, flirty and pretty. This would be a perfect toenail colour. I can't wait to try it!!! I did two coats today which in person is fine; this is one of the colours with the new 'maxi brush' and can i just say, i LOVE the maxi brush!!!!!
This also promises up to 10 days wear....but I don't wear one colour that long anyway, so not bothered about that.
Lastly and randomly I want to rave about my new favourite handcream. Below is the amazingness that is Wilkinson's own brand Skin Therapy Ultra Intensive Hand and Nail Cream. This product is a) under 60p!!!!!! and b) when you use it, even after you wash your hands your hands still feel moisturised!!!! What else is this good and is under 60p!? If you live near a wilkinsons I really recommend you get hold of this. I suffer from contact dermetitis and this is a life saver!