A Step Away From Pink for Ken

I come from quite a close family. I have a lovely Auntie, she is the most practical, down to earth caring person I know. As strong as an ox and as loyal as can be. She wasn't born into my family, but my Uncle was lucky enough to have her choose to be his wife.

Her Mum died earlier this year, and sadly she lost her Dad this month. As families do we support each other at times like these. Today was his funeral. I didn't know the man personally, so whilst it wasn't emotional for me, it was emotional to see people I care about going through the trauma.

My nails today couldn't be pink for obvious reasons, so I have chosen a deep grey. Catrice London's Weather Forecast. It seemed somehow appropriate for the tears that were going to be shed. I mattified it aswell as a funeral is no place for shiny sparkly nails in my eyes.

RIP Ken, you will be missed. 

Thank Barry M it's Friday!

It's been a long old week. But, I am chuffed as hell its Friday. Day 5 of my Breast Cancer Awareness manicure month.

Today is a wonderful mix of Catrice 'Raspberry Fields Forever' with a Barry M 'Pink Sapphire Glitter' topper.  Must admit I think it is really pretty. Love the Barry M. Really need to track down the rest of the jewels collection.

Hope you all have a wonderfully happy weekend

Love

Sal
x

Tuesday's Blue

Bit of a pun on the song from The Cure, but its a good one so why not. 

Got this new polish from W7, 'Multi Dazzle'. it is really lovely. This is one coat over Catrice, Blue Cara Ciao. It was a bit to bright for what has been a grey almost flooded day. But I think bringing a bit of brightness into the world is a good thing. 

Although this was tip wear after 12 hours with one coat of Seche Vite, so its pretty awful. I do spend most of the my day typing though, so that does give it a bit of an excuse. 

Inside I know I want to try Multi Dazzle over other polishes, maybe a bright orange like Rusty But Sexy. Oooh yeah!

 

Holidays are over :( here comes the hard work!

Cannot believe how long it has been since I last blogged. Feels like forever, although the nail painting hasn't had a break.

Holiday was wonderful, cannot believe how the English weather changed so suddenly to give us a wonderful summers week. Gave us the true break we needed to get away from all the stresses and strains of life and most importantly give us some quality time with our pup.

But onto the important business.

Throughout my time I did my nails a few times and unfortunately the best manicure I did I forgot to take pictures of! I know what an amateur. But, here are the few I did take pictures of...

Firstly Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Lively Lilac with a tip of Essence make Make it Golden

Then Models Own Aqua Violet which I loved, but it is really hard to photograph how pretty this is

Finally we have Catrice Absolute Chinchilly and Dior 886 New World Purple ( which is actually brown with a golden shimmer)

Also have a few newbies to announce aswell, and they are...

Three of the new Gelly collection from Barry M, they are Prickly Pear, Blood Orange and Blueberry.











Ruby Kisses Green Glitter and Fergie Wet and Wild Hollywood Walk of Fame in a swap with a lovely lady called Charlotte in America. ( the WnW is lots of little stars with hairy glitter)

Then we have three new Catrices, Iron Mermaiden which is a duochrome which turns from lilac to purple to golden green, Genius in a Bottle which is a golden green duochrome and Marilyn and me which is red with a sparkle, very similar to China Glaze Ruby Pumps, but not quite as deep red.

Then finally two Barry M crocs and a free white crackle from Superdrug. Although these never work from me after a talking to from Starrystarry on the forum I decided I should give it another go with some quality products.










Oh, and just to melt your hearts, here is the little chap we took on holiday... eating an ice cream ( please don't tell the vet)

31 Day Nail Art Challenge #26 Inspired by a Pattern

Oooh, I like patterns, mainly because this allows me to flex those stamping skills of mine - yay.

Again I used my DRK-A stamping plate because it is just sooo wonderful. The images are so sharp and they cover all your thumb which is a wonder in itself. As the pattern I chose was quite pretty and delicate, this called for a delicate polish. The one I chose was Catrice Khaki Perry. It is a beautiful green with a hint and tinge of silver. The only choice for the stamp was therefore Stargazer Chrome.

Hope you enjoy these.

Here are the others taking part in this challenge


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31 Day Challenge, #14 Flowers

Part of me thinks that this should stand as my delicate entry, as I am finding it really had to do something delicate when this is just so damn pretty.

For flowers I have stamped. I have used Catrice - Dirty Berry as my base and the stamping polish is Barry M Lilac foil. I really like the effect and that it is something more suble than I would usually wear. However, I do like garish so will be happy to pop back to that after tomorrows delicate challenge. The stamping plate I used was DRK-A which I must admit I am completely in love with. I am hoping to get DRK-B very soon. It is just so much easier when the stamp covers your whole thumb/finger with ease.

Here are the other people taking place in the challenge

31 Day Challenge #8 Metallic

Can't beleive it is already day 8 of the challenge! Where has all that time gone?

Because I have done so much stamping recently I decided to ban myself from it today and make myself create something different. Quite a shame really because one polish I had decided on using Stargazer Chrome is absolutely perfect for stamping.

So, I dug out my french nail tips and decided to make a bit of a pretty pattern with them. Decided to team Chrome with Catrice 'Hip Queens Wear Blue Jeans' simply because I thought they were a good match, and I wasn't disappointed.

Here are the pics.

Here are some links to the other ladies completing the challenge

MSE Challenge Week 6 & 31 Day Challenge Day 6 - Black and White

Yesterday was a lucky day. Firstly my friend came back to work. This was an advantage in so many ways. Firstly, she does the same job as me so my workload got a little easier, Secondly she brought my nail mail home with her. Woo Woo! Thirdly, I don't like talking to people about 'stuff' and will tend to just keep it inside, so with everything that has been happening at the moment it is great being able to talk to someone who understands and trusts.

But no one wants to hear about that, so lets hit the nails. I am a lucky lass that these two collided as I was knackered yesterday. I was so knackered that I didn't realise they collided until I came to take the first one off to prepare to do black and white again. What a tard!

Anyway, I went for a bit of a retro pattern from a BBM stamp, and used

Color Club - French Tip White
Konad - Special Polish - Black

I really really loved this, although it doesn't come out as good in the pictures as it looked in real life.

The other people taking part in this challenge can be found at the following web address for the MSE'ers

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=3779621

and are the following people for the 31 day challenge.




Now onto the exciting stuff.

Nail mail, woo hoo. I am lucky enough that my friend's parents live in Torremelinos, so I could have some Essence and Catrice delivered to them which where stupid expensive to post to me in the UK. I am forever grateful to them for accepting the parcels ( Although I have heard they were bemused about the whole thing)

So here are the pics, and the names of the polishes

Essence Twins
Romeo and Julia
Bella and Edward
Chuck and Blair
Gabriella and Troy

Catrice
Absolutely Chinchilly
Greys Kelly
Londons Weather Forecast
Aretha's R-E-S-Pink
Raspberry Fields Forever
Sold Out Forever
Khaki Perry

Catrice

Rusty But Sexy

Salmon and Garfunkel

Essence Color and Go

Time for Romance

Make it Golden

Essence Snow White

Evil Queen

Prince Charming ( I think this is a dupe for a NYC polish)

The Huntsman

Catrice Million Styles

Million Dollar Baby

If anyone has any more of the twins they don't want, please let me know as I would love the full set!

31 Day Challenge #6 - Violet

Before I got to this post I had the normal worries about what violet actually is. Then I stopped worrying and just dipped my fingers in my purple drawer!

I love purple and have loads of shades, but after the brightness and the grah of the last few posts I wanted something different, So I chose 5 muted shades and to make it even softer I decided to splash on the Leighton Denny Mattifier.

I think it looks really beautiful, and completely different to the last few manicures.

The polishes I have used are

Pinkie - Catrice - Sing : Hey, Dirty-Lilah!
Ring - Sally Hansen - Delphinium
Middle - Catrice - Put Lavender On Agenda
Index - Dior - 694 Forget Me Not
Thumb - Catrice - From Dusk to Dawn

Here are the other people taking part in the challenge.