Who's been a bad blogger? I've been a bad blogger!

I'll try and spare you all the excuses but the truth is, life just got in the way of blogging for a few months there! But I've now finished uni completely and have moved in with my boyfriend so I'm pretty free. I have a job starting at the end of July but before then it's the wedding and a few other wonderful events that I will blog about later on - so it's still pretty busy here!

So what have I been up to? Here's a load of pictures to (hopefully) explain my absence!

During my last term at uni I spent a lot of time doing a bit of this:

  

And a decent amount of time doing this:

And just before my birthday I went to see this man play in concert and met him in the bar after the show:

And after a long few months of planning, I've just got back from a weekend doing this:

Me, my sister (it was her hen do) and my mum :)

Nail wise, I've done this:

My nails are looking a lot better than they were the last time I blogged, they're stronger and they're growing really nicely again so I shall be able to do some more nail posts in the future! Yay!

Bargain beauty buy - Primark Neon Polishes

Primark is revered in many ways for their cheap clothing and accessories - unfortunately most of it is made in sweat shops in India by small children. Despite this they've rapidly become a high street staple and in the economic down turn we've been experiencing are a god send for those of us on a budget.

As a general rule, I don't like Primark nail polishes - but this little set of four caught my eye immediately on a recent shopping trip. Neons are definitely in this summer and as per usual all the big brands are releasing their own versions; from Models Own to Essie. Primark like to try and keep up with the trends whilst being affordable so it's no surprise that you can buy four mini neon polishes from them for just £2!

So what do they apply like? Well, unfortunately the tiny bottle and brush makes them quite hard to handle and apply neatly - but the actual nail lacquer inside is gorgeous. I tried out the shell pink one for the purposes of this blog post and here is how it looked after one coat!

There's hardly any visible nail line, the colour is strong and vivid and it dried really nicely. I went back and put another coat on and to be honest, whilst it made the colour even more vivid, it was very hard to do as the bottom layer seemed to go sticky even though it was bone dry before hand; as this colour at least is very pigmented I would say that actually, you can get away with just the one.

I normally hate pinks or oranges but this is lovely and I'm so glad I picked this set up - I can see myself using it a whole lot this summer! The different colours in the range look equally exciting. The yellow definitely has a goldy shimmer to it and the pink is so bright I think I would feel like Barbie wearing it!

The best thing about this set though is the price. I broke my no-buy for this pack but as it was just £2 I don't really consider it a fail. I was in Boots yesterday browsing the stands as you do and I totally bypassed the Models Own new Ice Neon collection because quite frankly, I don't need it any more, I have this!

Thoroughly recommended.

Nail varnish organisation

When you have a problem with nail varnish collecting, you may also find you have a problem with duplicates and storing all your pretties. However I truly believe I have devised the perfect system for it...

It's a two pronged system really. Firstly, I've got some nail wheels and I've been painting them with the nail varnishes I have here at uni. These nail wheels will stay here and with this collection. Eventually when I have time and am back home for a decent amount of time I will do the same with my 'home' collection - however I will take them with me back to uni, to avoid buying any duplicates.

Secondly, I have a pocket Domino filofax that I bought in a charity shop (see this post here) and in it I have a sheet of paper for every brand I own - this has the name of the bottle on it, and a small swatch of the colour. It also has a number down one side; this is the number of the nail wheel I've swatched it onto. For example:

Now when I go into town with the idea of buying a new nail varnish, I can take my Domino with me and I'll have absolute certainty that I'm not buying a dupe or something that's too similar to one I already have!

Nail of the Week - Matte top coat

I never really wear reds on my nails, they're rarely the right tone for my pale skin and they remind me of a desperate 45 year old secretary trying to get into her bosses pants... Yeah. However I knew that the new Matte top coat by Rimmel I'd bought would need a really high gloss finish varnish to show of the effect to the max so I reached for my Nails Inc 'Milan' bottle and voila!

My idea was simple; mattify the middle finger half the index/ring fingers and leave the rest glossy (which later turned into put matte dots on the thumb and pinkies - failed quite considerably). As you can see, Milan is really glossy which is great when you want to make a feature with matte effect top coats!

I really like the matte top coat, it's so easy to use and makes a massive change if you use it on the right nail varnish. It doesn't work very well on muted colours or metallics but on really glossy colours it's great. I definitely prefer it used in conjunction with the normal colour as well - I've had my eye on some lovely reverse manicures done with matte top coats recently, can't wait to try that!

As a tag onto this post, I've set up a lookbook account! You can access it here or from the tab in the sidebar. I'd love to know if you have one - share me your link!

Nail of the Week - Glitter gradient

I love this look, it's so simple and easy that anyone can do it. All you need is your nail varnishes! I used a base coat/top coat from Barry M, No. 17 Fast Finish in 'Moonstruck' and Models Own Glitter in 'Juicy Jules' (now possible one of my favourite nail varnishes out of my collection!). 'Moonstruck' is a lovely chrome silver and 'Juicy Jules' is a small glittery holochromatic white/iridescent polish.

The inspiration for this look came from various places; I've seen it done a lot recently on blogs and since my first attempt many months ago was so terrible I wanted to see if I could do it better. Secondly, I was in town today looking specifically for a silver chrome nail varnish and when I saw the new Models Own stand in my local Boots had buy one get one half price on nail varnishes, I couldn't resist 'Juicy Jules' to go with it. For my second nail varnish I picked up one that's been on my lust list since I found out about it and I can't wait to play with it - Yep, the Models Own Hed Kandi 'Ibiza Mix'. Eee! I'll do a post with that soon, trust me!

Anyway, on with the pictures. I'm afraid they really don't do the finished nails any justice, I was hoping for sun so I could get some sparkly pictures but alas it's been rainy and overcast all day. If it's nicer tomorrow I'll take some better pictures and update this post. Better pictures at the bottom which actually show you the glittery gradient!

It's so easy to do. All I did was a base coat in 'Moonstruck', then I painted a (thick with polish) line across the top of my nail in 'Juicy Jules' and wipe the excess polish off onto the inside of the bottle. Then I dragged the line down a bit so that it faded out and there was more polish at the top than the bottom. Wait for it to dry and whack a top coat on to smooth it out and voila! Beautiful, shimmery nails.

'Juicy Jules' would look fantastic over pretty much any colour, and I can't wait til Christmas turns up so I can layer it over icy blues and reds and greens! I think 'Moonstruck' would work really well for water marbling, which is something else I plan to try. What do you think?

Updated pictures:

These photos show rather better the act of gradienting the glitter and how it's done. They also show the massive amount of tip wear and chipping on my thumb and index finger - I'm fairly disappointed with that but it's so easy to fix that if I can be bothered I can restore my nails in no time!

Mauve and gold; an insight into an addiction!

First post, lets jump right in!

There's been a lot of buzz around the beauty blog/nail blog community at the moment about the free gift on this months edition of Marie Claire - a full sized bottle of Ciate nail polish in a choice of three shades (Bon Bon, a browny mauve colour, Purple Sherbert, a lilacy colour and Jelly Bean, a shocking pink).

There were no copies with Jelly Bean avaliable in my local newsagent, with just Bon Bon and Purple Sherbert on sale. Personally, I've never been a massive fan of purpley shades of nail varnish despite purple being my favourite colour, especially not pastel ones. £3.70 later and Bon Bon was mine! I'm still picking my way through the magazine, which is not one I'd normally bother even looking at on the shelf but it'd be nice to read in the bath I guess.

Whilst out on my expedition to town, I also bought poppy seeds (an amazing, miraculous discovery, which I shall cover in a later post), a lemon, some vegetables and three more bottles of nail varnish. Oops. That makes my (combined from buying, getting as freebies and receiving for my birthday) haul of nail varnish from the 26th of May to today a grand total of... 10 bottles? Eek. I think I have a problem. In my defence, the three bottles were on reduced price.. so today, I added a lovely brown, a metallic gold, a white and a beautiful deep blue to my collection.

Here's what I did with my free Ciate colour and the bottle of Accessorize metallic gold (picked up for half price in my Superdrug store, not sure if this is a nationwide offer or not though).

Despite the white balance issues, this is pretty true to life colourwise.

I'm really sorry for the quite frankly appalling photo and nails, my nice camera needs a) a new battery charger and b) a new memory card reader so until I get a job it's a tiny little point and shoot that has colour balance problems! My little finger got the brunt of the damage when I was rooting through a box to try and find cotton buds - as you can see, my nails hadn't quite set at that point. Bad me.

As you can see, I accented my ring finger with Accessorize polish in Jewel and I must say, I am really taken by it. It sits really nicely against Bon Bon and was so easy to apply - it says one coat polish on the bottle and by gum, it's true! The Ciate, unfortunately, I am not so massively impressed with. It was fairly easy to apply but even after half an hour hadn't hardened fully so my little finger and now my thumb finger have dented quite considerably. I'll keep it on for a few days to see how it wears and chips because I like the way it's turned out but if I didn't I'd probably lose it quite quickly (I'm fickle like that). Another complaint is that even though I applied two coats, it is still quite translucent on some of my fingers, which for a top end nail varnish is something that would bother me if I'd paid for it. I'm unsure whether I'll use the 25% off voucher in Marie Claire to get myself another colour of it as yet. I'll probably use it again though I really do adore this look!

My right hand. Not being a fan of symmetry, I decided to accent my index finger this time - and I love it!

I can't help but think that Bon Bon would be the perfect colour for day to day work, it is a lovely subtle colour and one that despite the issues I've noticed I can't help but like.

Did you buy Marie Claire just for the free gift? If so, how did you find it? Which colour did you go for (or could you not decide and buy all three?!)? Comment and let me know!

In my next few posts I'll reveal why the poppy seeds were so important, the other colours I bought today and what this blog is all about!