August Haul Post - oops!

So I decided to start keeping a track of what is coming into my polish stash on a monthly basis. There are lots of reasons for this but the main one is that I love seeing other people's hauls and it usually makes me feel better about my own! ha ha.

So from now on I will be doing monthly haul posts. I have got myself a bag which all my polishes from the first of the month will go into and then at the end of the month I'll take my pictures and do the post. Organisation and a system, I like it!

So first off I did a little blog sale which actually paid for quite a few of these pretties so a lot of these don't count right??!!

I'll go left to right:



Nerdlacquer Nebula: I am so greedy. I acutally have a part used bottle of this which one of my amazing polish friends gave me but can't bring myself to use it because I don't want to use it up so when the chance came up to buy another one I took it!

Candy Lacquer Candies and Sprinkles: I got this as an extra with the Crows Toes, it was a lovely surprise and very pretty.

Crows Toes Cheshire: I saw someone post a picture of this and I fell in love, it took a bit of searching but now it's all mine. 

 

 

Smitten Polishes: my first ones!

KIKO Holographics: 401, 400, 402, 399

OPI Germany collection: Initially I didn't want any of these, then I saw Scrangies swatches!

Suzi and the 7 Düsseldorfs, Deutsche You Want Me Baby, Unfor-Greta-bly Blue, Don't Talk Bach To Me

My Very First Knockwurst, Berlin There, Done That, Don't Pretzel My Buttons

Every Month is Oktoberfest , German-icure by OPI

Nein! Nein! Nein!, Schnapps Out Of It!

OPI Born Red-y and OPI Plum and Get It - from a QVC UK Exclusive set

OPI Las Cabos Coral , Color Club Wish Upon a Rock-Star - I got these in a grab box and really pleased with them

Chanel Peridot - finally!, Essie Penny Talk and nothing Else Metals - both of these from an awesome swap with an awesome lady!

Thanks Ash for sending these to me!

My second Nerd and a truly beautiful Candeo!

Humble Bee

My lovely polishes from my awesome birthday girl Ashley - she made us all a colour each and one for the whole group - keep watching for my post on these, I got Sally Hansen Multi-faceted from her blog sale too!



Now, on to my second swap with a wonderful Brazilian polish friend - look at these!

Ludurana Aurora Boreal Admiravel, Ludurana Aurora Boreal Superior, Ludurana, Ludurana Aurora Boreal Notavel, Ludurana Aurora Boreal Esplendido

HITS Phenomena Air Glow, HITS Phenomena Moonbow, HITS Phenomena Borealis, HITS Phenomena Afterglow

Jade Fascinio Violeta, Jade Deja Vu, Jade Energy, Jade Mystic Gold,

Jade Magia Negra, Jade Seducao Rosa, Jade Hypnose, Ludurana Aurora Boreal Reluz

HITS MTV Golden Disco, Pink Pop, Blue Jazz and Synth Pop

Up Colors Multi Magenta and Chuva de Prata

These ones are really cool - I think they'll be great for stamping!

I haven't heard of the DNA brand but these are also super pretty


And look at these beautiful frankens! Gorgeous aren't they!

And look! Isn't he cute! He was hiding in my package.

As was he:

And this little guy too - what a wonderful and thoughful package - thank you so much Tami.

This is a beautiful lipstick, there was a lipgloss too but it's in one of my handbags already!



Then because my nails are so curvy I thought an XL Stamper would help - I'll let you know if it makes a difference. This came from Llarowe

And some stamping plates - the new Bundle Monster set - I love all of these!

A couple more from Llarowes new range

I am so excited by this - finally something to store my plates in - I will do a seperate post about this - it's so cool!

So, all in all a great polish month. It'll be quieter next month but there's already a few things to add to the post so let's see what I get.

A Mani for my Mum: OPI All Roads Lead to Rome and Nothin' Mousie 'Bout It

I'm going to share something special and from the heart with you today. It's my Mum's birthday today, 2nd September. I can't celebrate with her because she passed away almost 3 years ago, she would have been 61 today. I miss her everyday.

I wanted to do something today to celebrate and to cheer myself up because I know she would have wanted it so I have been saving a special polish to use which reminds me of her. A few Christmases ago I received OPI All Rose Leads to Rome in my stocking (I know, I think I was actually 29 then and was still spoilt and got a stocking!). I remember how my mum had told me she bought us both one from eBay and they were more expensive because they were old discontinued OPI's. Well, I wasn't quite so much into polish then and had now idea about the demand for discontinued polishes but I did recognise this one as one pretty polish.

It's been sitting in my drawer waiting to be used for something special and so today is the day. OPI All Roads Lead to Rome is a black label OPI and has a slightly thinner consistency to most OPI's. I used 3 coats for this mani (pics on it's own below) and then topped it off with some hearts using OPI Nothin' Mousie 'Bout It from the Minnie Mouse collection.

See how cute it is:

The hearts in this polish are not easy to fish out and it took my quite a while to get 3 or 4 on each nail but the actual polish has a really pretty sheen to it and I like it so it was worth the effort.

 

 

 Here is 3 coats of OPI All Roads Lead to Rome, it's beautiful and one of those polishes I would describe as 'lit from within'.

 

 My mum hated having her photo taken so she'd probably kill me for posting this, and granted it's not the best photo of either of us but I treasure it. I was blessed to have her in my life for so long. Happy birthday mum! xxx



British Bloggers Weekly Round Up...

It's been another busy week for the British bloggers, here's what they've been up to:


It's been another busy week for the British bloggers, here's what they have been up to:

Lucy from Lucy's Stash shows how to do a perfect Fishtail Braid manicure

The Nail Newbie tries a braided manicure too, but it is a peachy plait or a fishtail fail?

Emma's been feeling arty this week at Imagination In Colour, starting with a Purple Dotted Manicure and later a first attempt at 'brush marbling'!

Nada has been busy swatching the Orly Mineral FX Collection Fall 2011 sadly shes missing one of the polishes from the collection to make it complete!

Claire at nuthin' but a nail thing has been rainbow gradienting it up!

Things have been looking a bit patchy over at Never Mind Suzi as Steph tries out some MUA polishes

Wendy from Wendy's Delights has found W7 Magnetic Nail Polish at New Look in store & on line!

A simple nail tutorial for seaside nails perfect for the last weeks of summer 2012 over at Enigmatic Rambles.

Abi falls in love with A-England's Perceval and doesn't seem to realise its not autumn yet.

While reviewing some of her recent nail buys, Ruth also created a simple blue matte finish with some striking gold tips this week!

Lyndsay from Pie's Eyes discovers some great stamping polishes from the UK High Street and shows off her latest ColorClub purchases

Jo at Northern nails has been Paralympic nail art.

PrettyKittyClaws went to the Paralympic Opening Ceremony and celebrated with a Saran Wrap Mani featuring the new OPI Germany collection.

Rachel-Karina over at Polished Criminails gets ready to undergo the grueling 31 day challenge with a twist! Are you ready for the challenge?

Kerrie at Pishposh and Polish is hosting a giveaway featuring some holographic and great British Polishes giveaway featuring some holographic and great British Polishes!

Laura at She Who Does Nails has been trying out her new stamping plates and rhinestones with a Tiffany-esque floral manicure.

Charlotte at Charlottes-nails broke her laptop charger this week so has only posted one challenge post for the lazy days of summer challenge

Sarah Louise plays with Laquistry's Placid on Acid over Nails Inc's Great Dover Street to create Sparkly Leaves! , she also thought it would be a good thing to reorganise her polish stash....Bad idea.

The Crumpet has been celebrating her birthday this week. You can see this purple ruffle mani as well as some of her favourite purples.

Alexis at Glitter Tips takes a step towards becoming the craziest cat lady by painting her cats portraits on her nails!

Vic at Glowstars.net has probably pushed her nail art obsession to the limit with her Carnival mani.

It has been loads of nailart week for Dimpal at Crazy Polishes with Sea Life and Flowery Water Decals mani.

Paralympic Saran Wrap Mani

OK, first off I know this isn't really a Paralympic mani but I was just really feeling these colours that day and I just got my OPI Germany collection so I wanted to use it, this is also my first ever saran wrap mani, which I guess should be called a cling film mani as that's what we call it in the UK!

I wore this mani to the Paralympic opening ceremony and for a day out shopping in Westfield  Stratford with my soon to be step-daughter. We had a lot of fun and I picked up my Kiko holo's which are just beautiful and I will show you later. We also saw a lot of the athletes shopping which was exciting too!

For this mani I started off with 2 base coats of OPI's Don't Talk Bach to Me from the Germany collection. To be honest I wouldn't have usually picked up this colour, it reminds me of pea soup, but I actually don't have anything in my collection which is close so why not? This colour really grew on me. As always the formulation with OPI is good and it was opaque in 2 coats.

Then I thought I'd try a saran wrap mani. Initially I tried a coat of OPI Just Spotted the Lizard from the Spiderman collection but it was just too light so I went with OPI Number One Nemesis instead.

If you haven't done a saran wrap mani before they are really easy and I found a great tutorial on Nailed It which you can find here. To be honest I think a plastic bag or a bit of screwed up paper would have probably done the same job.

Number One Nemesis has a really pretty shimmer to it which I really liked, unfotunately it was a really grey day when I took these photo's so it doesn't show up as much as I would have liked.

 

 

Now, I know this has nothing to do with mani's but it was so special I wanted to share it with you. In case you are interested or didn't see it the Paralympic opening ceremony  it was amazing, the theme was Enlightenment and it was opened by Professor Stephen Hawking who is perhaps the world's most brilliant physicist. He is an absolutely amazing man and I am in even more awe of him after reading this. The things that people can achieve are just incredible!

 

 

 

After the opening of the ceremony there was a video clip played about 4 individuals who had or were competing in the games. The talked about their hopes, how they became disabled and what they had done to overcome their difficulties. They each had a role to play in the opening ceremony and we didn't have to wait long to find out what one of them was - a flypast in a plane lit up with blue lights and trailing fireworks. This flypast was by aerobility, a British charity that helps to train disabled people to become pilots. It was so touching and beautiful, I had a tear in my eye. I took a photo of the big monitor so you can see what the stadium looked like too!

This was the moment the British athletes came out - it went wild and there was glitter everywhere!

In the final moments of the ceremony  there was a huge firework display and you can see a large scale reproduction of a famous and controversial sculpture by Marc Quin entitled 'Alison Lapper pregnant', which has famously been displayed in Trafalgar Square.

 

So I hope you enjoyed those pictures as well as the mani - good luck to all the paralympians!!

Nails Inc Borough Road

Do you ever buy a polish and love it in the bottle but feel so disappointed once you get it on the nail? Well my dears, for me that is Nails Inc Borough Road.

I bought a Nails Inc Todays Special Value from QVC about 9 months ago and they had 2 auto-delivery shipments and Borough Road was included in the third. I can't even tell you what the rest of the polishes were, they were so boring I could barely be bothered to look!

Borough Road is a dark blue glass flecked polish with a pink micro glitter which is really pretty in the bottle, unfortunately it just does not show up much on the nail. Don't you hate that!

I tried to find swatches online but didn't come up with anything so here is my offering. I don't know if this is from a yet to be released autumn or winter collection but I guess we'll see.

This polish was really hard to photograph but you can see here that I did capture some of the pink shimmer, this was about as good as it got.

I did manage to capute it in some sunlight, where is all that pretty pink shimmer that we can see in the bottle??

This polish just isn't me. I've already take it off and am going to use one of the new OPI Germany's which I picked up today - I'm excited!!