Wednesday 31 October 2012

Lynnderella She Lived In A Swamp

Happy Halloween!!

Well I wore this mani when I got back from my honeymoon a few weeks ago, this Lynn had arrived in the post and I had to wear it straight away. I am wearing a nice halloween mani today but I didn't get a chance to take pictures so I'll show you another day. I thought this suited the occasion anyway!

For the base I used 2 coats of OPI Here Today Argon Tomorrow Suede and 2 coats of Lynnderella She Lived In A Swamp new version, topped off with 2 coats of topcoat. This really was a gorgeous combination, I did get a little curling of the glitter as you might be able to see but to be honest it really didn't bother me at all, it was a few of the bar glitters which stuck up the most and I just cut one or two of them. In real life this mani was even more sparkly than the photo's show and I got a spontaneous compliment from my new husband too - perfect!

Hope you guys got more treats than tricks today. I'm off to eat some candy......

Have fun!




Tuesday 30 October 2012

OPI Plum & Get It Halloween Mani

This is a quick but nice post.

As you all no doubt know by now, it's halloween tomorrow so I couldn't let that slip by without doing a little halloween mani......

For this absolutely awesome mani I used a stunning franken which my birthday girl Ashley made. I think this is the most beautiful halloween polish I have seen, and I have 2 others to try too! Ashley is totally awesome and I am really lucky to get hold of these.

For the base I used a QVC UK OPI exclusive. OPI Plum & Get It is a beautiful shade of purple with a hint of blue. I would describe this polish as one of those that are 'lit from within'. Really it is beautiful and I don't have anything the same in my stash.

I used 2 coats of Plum & Get It as the base and 2 coats of Ashley's Witches Brew on top. It was a little gritty so a couple of coats of topcoat sorted that out.

Simply stunning. I already have the next one of Ashley's to show you, I just need to take some good pictures tomorrow. In the meantime, enjoy!

Happy Halloween!!!!




Monday 29 October 2012

Inflammatory Breast Cancer - A Mani for Awareness

Finally, a post!

Well, life has been pretty hectic since I got back, why is there just always so much to do when I have so many things to show you??

Anyway, this mani is jumping ahead of the honeymoon mani's because I've almost missed the whole month of Breast Cancer Awareness. This is a topic dear to my heart because almost exactly 3 years ago I lost the biggest light in my life to this cruel disease, my Mum.

I don't want this post to be sad but I do actually have something to add to this subject becauase my Mum was unfortunate enough to suffer with a rare and aggressive form of breast cancer know as Inflammatory Breast Cancer.

Inflammatory Breast Cancer accounts for between 1 and 5% of breast cancers, it is a rapidly progressive cancer and is often diagnosed in younger women. This type of breast cancer doesn't necessarily present as a lump in the breast but symptoms may include:
  •  redness and/or swelling of the breast
  • pitting of the skin 
  • sudden increase in the size of the breast
  • a feeling of heaviness of the breast
  • burning or tenderness
  • an inverted nipple
Unfortunately this type of breast cancer is often misdiagnosed as mastitis or an insect bite and because it is so aggressive it can spread significantly before a diagnosis is made, thus affecting the prognosis and outcome.

I really just wanted to make anyone reading this aware that breast cancer does not always present as a lump, I had never heard of this before my family was affected by it. Hopefully you will never need to know and in the future we will find more hope and maybe even a cure.

You can find more information at the National Cancer Institute website

My mani for this cause is 3 coats of Girly Bits Promise Me with some stamping from the BM plate with the ribbons and some Swarovski crystals to add some bling. It isn't perfect and didn't turn out exactly how I wanted it but it's pretty nonetheless.

x




Monday 22 October 2012

British Bloggers Weekly Round Up

Well I'm back from Honeymoon and I've got some great mani's to show you. I took all my favourite polishes at the moment away so I'll start posting them up tomorrow to show you all.

In the meantime check out what the other British Bloggers have been up to in the last week!!

British Nail Bloggers


 
Emma has started a Quest for the Holy Grail in honour of the retirement of the a-england shade she has rarely used and is now trying to use it in a personal Holy Grail challenge at Emma's Little Corner

Mimi does freestyle Halloween nails funky halloween nails

Lyndsay at Pie's Eyes has taken a delivery of some new Christmas themed HB image plates for stamping with and has been trying them out to see how they perform

In need of distracting this week Enigmatic Rambles' spent waay to much time painting frog eyes on her nails for a Sat-ART-Day nail challenge.

Claire at nuthin' but a nail thing has been doing some checkerboard themed manicures. Pink, White and Black and a more spangly Blue, Black and White checkerboard mani, which do you prefer?

Sam at Polished Art has made her second and final attempt at water marbling for the 31 Day Challenge. Never again!

More Halloween spookiness over at Never Mind Suzi, Steph is playing with ZOMBIES    Jo at Northern Nails has been entering a few competitions this week, from skulls to coming up with Taglines!, She has also joined in with Pink October, with a lovely pink bead mani !

Polished Criminails has been busy showing us the OPI - Skyfall Collection this week in her Skyfall Swatch Series with an added insight to each of the corresponding James Bond films

Vic's been carrying on with the Halloween theme but has also managed to fit in some non-Halloween related nail art. Her Frogs mani fits somewhere in between. Check out the cute pic of her two year old who insisted on getting frogs on his nails too!

Jazz has been continuing with her love/hate affair with frankens and has also been divulging in a little bit of halloween nail art! Frankens! Glitter is appropriate no matter what the occasion!

Ruth finally posted up her first fishtail attempt this week!

Carlyn has fallen in love with OPI Diva of Geneva A gorgeous shimmering red then added a rose stamping design

Charlotte at Charlottes-nails has swatched a polish from Born Pretty Store for a review post this week.

Wendy from Wendy's Delights has been going round in circles with her new Circular Magnetic & Magnetic Polish and while your over at Wendy's Delights check out her Nail Foil for the Llama A-Z Challenge

Kerrie from PishPosh and Polish has been on holiday this week. She decided to try out some Sally Hansen Nail Effect Wraps to create Denim Nails and loves the result!

Mimi tries her hand at freestyle nails Halloween and thinks they are really cool!

Danielle gives her first tutorial on Black velvet manicure at Totally Nailed

This week, The Crumpet has done a series of posts for Depression Awareness. Feel free to join in and share your story, or do a green mani in support

Kerry at JustTalkNails has gone all out for Halloween with Daring Digits Trick or Treat a perfect Halloween glitter.

Here is a pastel green manicure with a glitzy difference for Abi's first post back at Volatile Varnish.

This week Sally of NailPron bared her soul with a green manicure and came out as an anxiety survivor, oh and she broke the news about the new Speciallita Hits Glitter World polishes

Until tomorrow.... I can't wait to get back to blogging!

Monday 15 October 2012

Blue I Do - A Special Franken

This is a short and scehduled post for while I'm away but I just had to show it to you before I went. This is my honeymoon mani. I received a gorgeous franken from Ashley at One Nail To Another, she's an awesome girl in my birthday group and I just had to wear it after my special day.

I used one coat over 2 coats of Max Factor Graffiti. Isn't it gorgeous - I can't wait to get it in the sunlight!! Thanks Ashley - I love it!

Enjoy until I get back and have a whole load more to show you. x




Monday 8 October 2012

My Wedding Mani

So, after all this work and preparation I got married last Friday, the 5th October 2012.

I can't tell you what a lovely day it was and we have been recovering ever since! It is such a special day to have all of your closest familily and friends in one room but wow, it is exhaustung.  I'm writing this post about 15 minutes before I leave for the airport to go to Mauritius this evening. Do you think 12 polishes is too many to take for a 10 days honeymoon????

Anyway, I wanted a wedding mani that would be subtle yet not boring and when I looked back on it I would remember my nail polish obsession at the time and the types of polishes that were available when I got married. I chose 2 coats of each of Sally Hansen Garter Toss, Girly Bits January Morning and Lynnderella Love, Lace and Lilacs. It was a perfect combination.

I absolutely loved wearing this on the day, it was exactly what I wanted.

I can't wait to see the pictures when I get back from honeymoon!





I don't have many pictures to show you until I get back but I just had to include a few. Here we are on our special day - the British weather even held out for us to have pictures taken outside. It was perfect!


Wednesday 3 October 2012

Girly Bits Howl At The Moon

I received an amazing package on Friday - an order all the way from Canada... yes it's my Girly Bits!!!!!

I love my Girly Bits packages, Pam wraps them beautifully and they feel like receiving a gift. One of the pretties I had inside was Howl At The Moon which is from Pam's new Calendar Girls collection.

Coincidentially it was my hen do on Saturday and I did have my mani all planned out but when I saw this I knew it would go with my dress and I had to wear it. Funnily enough when I arrived several of my friends said that they had painted their nails because they knew they were going to see me and everyone wanted to know what was on my nails!! They all loved this one but try explaining you can't
buy it in Sally's and yes the glitter is in the polish and not added after.....

Anyway, Girly Bits Howl At The Moon is a black jelly base with various sizes of gold hex glitters. I used it on it's own, it took 3 coats to get opacity, I used the Nails Inc Caviar topcoat and wore this mani for 3 days. It was perfect for my hen do, I loved it.

 







  
 
Here's all the girls I love!