Pinktober - Day 2

 

Must admit I bloomin love this mani. I have done it before with different colours, but decided this would have to be it today. I have gone for a bright sparkling pink with a really glittery finish. It is Kiko 277 - Blueberry Microglitter. On my ring finger I have gone an accent finger which is Hits Powder Puff Girls 'Doce De leite' with dots of the Kiko over it. 

Personally I think it looks scrummy and I don't want to take it off. But onwards and upwards, there are more pinks to come!

Stashing, Challenges and Nails to Match My Mood

I don't think my life ever stops being hectic. Work is still wild, I don't think it will ever change. My innermost thoughts are I am not able to perform to the best of my ability because of the pure volume I am having to deal with. But, I am doing my best and my motto for the week is that I am John Lewis not Lidl. Lets just hope it lasts!

In addition to this we went to Denmark on Monday. It was a day trip which in my mind initially was a fabby idea. We got an early flight to Billund and spent the day in Legoland as a bit of a pressie for my husbands birthday. It was a wonderful day, but sooo exhausting. It also gave me an excuse to visit Westfield in White City. The call of the Models Own shop was calling.

Well, I was super impressed with the offerings in Westfield, they have a Kiko, Models Own and a Beauty Bay. From this I ended up with oodles of polishes, 24 to be exact. Managed to get my Models Own Beetlejuice collection complete with Golden Green and Pinky Brown and got several Kiko's. Also my first few LA Girls. Woo Hoo. However, I think these final 24 have broken the camels back and I am now officially on a no buy until Christmas. I do have a few exceptions to this rule, the first being I can participate in the Models Own 50% off sale if it ever happens, secondly I can get Barry M Once Upon a Time if it is re-released as I have been told.

Couldn't resist using two of the new polishes for this mani. Its No7 Thunderstorm which is a wonderful grey/blue/purple, just like the sky before we have a storm and pink orchid from Kiko.

In addition to this I have decided to set up a new challenge for Christmas. Having to think about it now as we are renaming the 12 days of Christmas to become more nail centric. At the moment there are 17 of us taking part, but anyone is welcome, no matter what your experience/technique etc etc.

We have a thread about it in our lovely Forum or going to our Facebook group.

31 Day Nail Challenge #18 half moons

The most difficult thing about this manicure was getting hold of the ring binder reinforcements. They just don't seem to sell them anywhere anymore. I had to make do with french manicure guides, which I used upside down, but I think the overall effect is good and looked quite nice. It actually disappointed me when I had to take this off.

The polishes I have used are China Glaze Towel Toy Boy for the half moon, and Kiko 383 Ink Blue for the covering colour. I think the two go quite well together. I think I will call this one a success! (unsual for me)

Here are the other ladies taking part in the challenge.

BFF Challenge - Texture and awesome nail mail

Must admit the texture challenge had me stumped for days, i just didn't know what to do. I did dabble with a glitter gradient, but it just wasn't getting me. Then I was going to do a ciate style caviar manicure, but to be honest it looked pants and I hate the way there are gaps. So I used the balls to go on like studs in a leather jacket. But instead of a leather jacket I used my new Kiko Duochrome pinky/gold. Must admit I am completely in love with the results.

What do you think?

Here are the other lovely ladies taking part in this challenge

Thiamere of On Beauty Stuff & What Else's

Pram of My Nail Polish Addiction

Bec of Lacquer Dreams

Kerrie of PishPosh and Polish

Caitlin of Caitlin's Creative Corner

Emma of Manicurity

Alyssa of Fancy Phalanges

Sally Of Nail Pron

In addition to the lovely nails I have received some fabby nail mail. Last weekend I got a few Sally Hansen Insta-dri's from a £1 shop near me. They were such a joy to apply and to use I had a scout on the internet and found some more of the lovelies. Also, they are good to stamp with :) So, I got the following shades!

From left to right : Grape Going!, Lively Lilac, Presto Pink, Instant Iris, Flashy Fuchsia, Speedy Sunburst, Magenta Motion and Wined Up

From left to right : Petal Pusher, Slick Slate, Quick Sand, Essie Ridge Filling Basecoat, Silver Sweep, Golden Flash and Metallic Moment

 

Finally there was Whirlwind White, Blue Streak and Blue Brisk.

I paid £1.50 each for the Sally Hansen's and £2.50 for the base coat from http://www.fragrancedirect.co.uk and the postage was only £2.99 for first class and my order from Thursday night arrived this morning (Saturday). Would thoroughly recommend them for anyone interested. They have lots of discounted brands. ( even Butter London for £9.99)

31 Day Challenge #11 Spots

Oh I love spots, they are lovely and dotting is my first love. I liked dotting with pens, I love dotting with tools and I adore dotting with stamps. Instead of dreading it like the gradient, I was proper looking forward to this.

Had a bit of luck today and found 5 Sally Hansen Instadry polishes in our local poundland, so snaffled those. They were Uptempo Plum, Presto Pewter, Quick Brick, Bronze Ablaze and Emerald Express. Never owned one of this line of polishes before, but love the Sally Hansens I have so I thought I would give it a go. The colours were also really me. Adore the green, it is just yummy,

Onto the manicure. I have been desperate to use one of my new kiko polishes, therefore I based it around those. I picked a lovely brown/grey/purple ensemble 320 Beige Mauve. I coupled it with one of my new Sally Hansens, Uptempo Plum

Here are the results

Before I go I must admit this post comes courtesy of Westons Raspberry Twist cider. I don't usually drink, but it has gone down very nicely. Following this announcement are the other wonderful un drunk bloggers who are taking part in this challenge.

31 Day Challenge - Day 3 - Yellow ( and awesome nail mail)

So it is day 3 and we are already on Yellow. Now for people who have read parts of my blog before it isn't my favourite colour by a long shot, but hey. I thought I would once again do my own interpretation of it. So I have gone for Yellow Gold :) See what I did there.

So, I have used two coats of Miss Sporty Gold Backstage and slipped over the top of it a couple of coats of Color Club Gingerbread. I think it looks quite nice. Although I could have done better as I painted my friends nails and work and used a coat of Barry M Gold Foil nail paint, a konad stamp of leopard print and then picked uot some of the spots using Gingerbread. It looked amazing, I just didn't have the camera with me to take pictures!

But now shall we get onto the exciting stuff? Woot Woot

Firstly are my first tip toes back into the world of Nails Inc. Must admit I loved Nails Inc in the past when I was a slip of a lass. But I liked it for the name and the formula was actually not something that suited me. But, I saw these babies and couldn't resist. I only got the two colours incase in didn't suit me anymore but the Pink Diamond was only £6.50 and the Emerald £8.50 with free delivery from www.Asos.com.

Now onto the next pretties. I have heard loads of good things about Kiko polish, but the only way to purchase it was to have a delivery more than £25. It took a few days to get my head around this because it meant buying a shed loads of polish. But hey, I have the room to store them and they were a fantastic price, so let me introduce you to...

278 Violet  Orchid Micro Glitter
255 Violet Micro Glitter
263 Dark Violet
320 Beige Mauve
381 Purple Grey
397 Kiko Duochrome Aureus Pomegranete
228 Sparkle Transparent Microglitter
388 Carribean Green

 and....

260 Metallic Pink Microglitter
277 Blueberry Glitter
361 Raspberry Pink
383 Oil Blue
300 Pearly Malachite Green
339 Cornflower
267 Sky Blue

For anyone interested I ordered them from http://www.kikocosmetics.com.

Please take a look at the other people taking part in this challenge.