Orly Royal Velvet with LA Splash Glitter Nail Art Accent

I'm now making the habit of wearing two different colours at a time.  I'm just getting so bored with uniform manicures, and although this sounds really wacko, I am embracing the strangeness of it :) I don't match my shoes and bags, or my makeup to my outfit, so I decided that it's ok to wear two different colours at a time as long as they somehow work together.

Also, this way, I can show you all 2 different swatches as well.  I'm sure some of you are thinking that's crazy, but it's just as "crazy" as skittling. So let me know what you think of it. I'm a big girl :) tell me if you don't like it also.

So here's the right hand :)

Orly's Royal velvet, and then just to try some new things that I got, I dipped my finger into the onyx nail art glitter from LA splash.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

I think I realised why I don't like blurples. It reminds me of bruises. That's why I tend to shy away from these.  Formula was excellent, and opaque in 2 coats.  I don't know the science behind making duochrome polishes, but it's really fascinating for me. HA!

Going Out Of My Comfort Zone - Orly Cotton Candy

I joke with a few friends about how I like "ugly" polishes.  It's true. If it's delicate, pretty, and feminine, I will most likely shy away from it. I don't know why. This is very true for fashion and for polishes.  I definitely have made my stance against "girly" colours, especially Pink.  Well not all pink, I do love hot neon 80's pink, fuchsia, some forms of magenta, but baby pink...well let's just say that it has been years since I wore a form of baby pink (1998 to be exact lol).

Now this is knocking on those who love pink, this is just saying how I feel awkward in it.  Strange right? Well, so I decided to go out of my comfort zone and wear it. Why not? I mean it's just nail polish right? So I put on Orly's cotton candy.  3 coats of it, and my anxiety level sky rocketed even from the first swipe. What am I doing??? This is so not me. Well I finished the mani, and I kept staring at it. Sure it's delicate, it's pink...but what would others say? Well immediately, DH commented that he didn't like it LOL! and he asked me why I was wearing pink? He said "I thought you hated pink?". haha.  Does everyone know I hate pink? Do I make that big of a stink about pink polish?

Well I wore it for a night, and I woke up in the morning and thought my nails looked so clean and "pretty".  It was perfect for today's gorgeous morning outside.  Well folks.  It didn't even last 24 hours!  I had to take it off.   I think for me, baby pink is too closely associated with a certain look, that just isn't me.  I wear black clothes, love anything rock n roll influenced or anything flashy, neon and 80's inspired and baby pink nails just doesn't fit into any of that.

So here are my swatches.  Let me know what you think.  If you are a pink lover, speak up and tell me why you love pink so much :) I'd love to see what the other side has to say hahaha (kidding).

Oh and note to self: Never try this again :p

Here is Orly's Cotton Candy - 

So what colours wouldn't you wear?

What is outside your comfort zone?

Monday Morning Surprise

I'm a bit speechless. Yes, I know that doesn't help when I'm suppose to be writing, but this package has left me speechless, because it really was unexpected.  

What a wonderful Monday morning surprise it was indeed. So since I'm just in shock, I'm going to post pictures lol!

 

From Left to Right:

OPI - Black Cherry Chutney

Orly - Wandering Vine (my answer to not having Illamasqua's Rampage)

Zoya - Indigo

Butter London - Henley Regetta

   

Zoya Indigo swatch & the part of the Julep bottle that I actually like.

That's right, I said Julep!

My friend had mercy on the fact that I can't get Julep here in the UK, and was nice enough to send me a Julep Maven box!!

 

From Left to Right:

Julep Hand scrub

Olivia

Miranda

Nail Prep

SWATCHES

 

Thumb: OPI Black Cherry Chutney

Index: Orly Wandering Vine

Middle:  Julep Miranda

Ring:  Julep Olivia

Pinky: Henley Regetta

 

I actually tried this scrub as soon as I got it.  The apricot inside the scrub really helps with the exfoliating process.  It also left my hands feeling very smooth afterwards.  I think this is quite luxurious, but necessary.  I also tried the lotion sample, and unfortunately nothing stuck out to me, but it did keep my arms moisturized all day long (I used it both on my hands and arms). 

I'm a very scent oriented person, so I was disappointed that the scrub didn't have a scent to it, but that's a good thing for those who are sensitive to scents.  I wish it smelled like apricots, but it doesn't really matter, since the actual scrub is quite good!

 Now .....

You

Just

Won't

Believe

What

I

Got

Today! 

You READY?????

  

Stripping it off slowly....

 

Behold!!!

The Hayden Harnett Ramone Two Tone Bracelet!!!!!!!

AAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!

 Can you tell I'm excited?!?!?!

This is so on point with what I would buy for myself!

The construction is sturdy.  The whole entire bracelet is just fierce!

Absolutely adore this, and I adore my friend who sent this to me today !!

Huge Hugs Hun!!!

I will be posting up a review and swatches of Julep's Olivia shortly.

So watch this space!!

NOTD: No 7 Violetta

I've been eyeing this for quite some time, but have never taken the plunge.  When I saw it in the swap box that Ashley from button boxx gave me, I knew this was going to be my NOTD.  It's a beautiful blue purple.  It took one coat to be completely opaque and drying time wasn't bad at all.  I don't like these No 7 brushes, because they are too long and that makes it more difficult to control, but the colour is worth it.  It is slightly more blue than my favourite "blurple" Chanel's Vendetta, but it is quite edgy on it's own accord.

 The stripe in the middle is Orly's Cotton Candy (another polish in my swap box).  It is a sheer baby pink, but when I made the line it really created a beautiful moody lilac.  Fantastic. 

Hope you enjoyed this colour.  Remember boots does have a £5 voucher off any No 7 product, so make sure you use your vouchers and save that £5.  I believe these are £7.75 otherwise.

Well I know what I'll be doing tonight! Soaking and fixing my cuticles, damn! hahahaha

And while I do that, I hope you'll pop over to my blog giveaway xx

Until next time, take it ez! :) xx

NOTD: Orly - Space Cadet Nail Polish

I am convinced that my camera hates me and that the universe is telling me to get a new professional camera just for blogging, but with all the money I have, I end up spending it on beauty products instead of a camera.

So my apologies that my camera is not picking up all the multiple colours in this very unique duo-chrome (heck trio-chrome, yep I just made up that word) nail polish.

Presenting...

ORLY - SPACE CADET

Wait, it's green, nope it's purple, wait I see copper glitter, then all at once it has a pink overlay on top of it.  It's so many colours all at once.

You'd expect this polish to be gritty, but it is so smooth.

I never thought that green & purple would be my thing. Lots of ladies love Deborah Lippmann's Wicked Game or Hard Candy's Beetle and I just never drooled over it, but this has that 3rd dimension that just makes it perfect for a gal like me.

My pictures only show the polish changing in 2 different ways, but I guarantee you that there is a 3rd - and this sets this polish off into a legion above DL and Hard Candy's green & purple's duo-chrome polishes.

OPI Black Shatter vs. Barry M Black Magic

So after a stressful day, I needed some relaxation and I decided to compare my shatter/crackle polishes.
Barry M is a british brand and was out way before OPI Black Shatter. It took a while for it to get to me, but it's finally here. I always thought trends tend to take a bit of time to reach the states. Below is my review on the two. Enjoy! Oh ladies and if you don't have either of these, it's so much fun, get it definitely (although OPI black shatter is a little hard to get right now, it's not impossible).

The color I had underneath was Orly - Shine

Here is the first swatch: Barry M's Black Magic.
A thin coat is all you need and within seconds, the polish begins to crack into squarish "islands". This cracks differently than the OPI Shatter and you'll see why.
I like this one better, because it gives a spotted look, which I like a lot.

Now the OPI black Shatter is the big craze and I like it too, but sometimes it cracks into really thin linear lines and I sort of enjoy the thicker lines better. I also am having an issue with the polish drying up too fast in the bottle, but of course I was told a little thinner will always fix it. I hope so, especially since this polish has a different formula make up.

So overall, Barry M wins in my book, but I love them both.
I am very happy this came out. It's fun, it's funky, it's very 80's and quite urban chic in my book. It's all the craze right now and I can totally see why.

For those in the US, I got the Barry M polish off of ebay for $10.95 with shipping included from the U.K. Not too shabby, yeah? :)

See you guys soon for my next blog about Sally Hansen's Salon Effects strips.

Orly Haul - 10 polishes for $8.75 what?!?!?!?!?

Yep ladies, you read right. 10 polishes for $8.75. Ok ok, I cheated a bit, 5 full size and 5 minis, but I had to catch your interest right? :)
Ok, so the last few days, I have been dealing with a scammer on one of my forums, so it's taken a bit out of me. She basically lied about getting her house robbed and a lot of us felt very sorry for her so we gifted her with thousands of dollars of beauty products, only to find out that her house wasn't robbed and that she scammed people on 2 other forums as well. It gets worse, she has a criminal history too! Including shoplifting AND animal cruelty. I won't go any further, because it gets really dark, but it broke my heart because I thought she was cool at first, until I saw her violent history towards animal, so obviously I could no longer befriend her. So she is now banned from one of my favorite forums and out of my life. I gave her a chance actually to explain herself and she continued to lie. I'm sorry but you have to wake up a bit earlier than that to pull a fast on me! SO anyways, rant over lol ...onwards and upwards!!!!!!

Back to my haul.
I went to CVS to pick up a cheap body wash. Been on bit of a budget due to my move to England, so I was just going to pick up a body wash for 99 cents ($1.99 retail and I had a $1 coupon).
So on the way to pick that up and an Ajax dishwashing soap for 88 cents for my mom, I came across these........

I couldn't believe it, it was 1 full size & 1 mini Top 2 Bottom. Each were 75% off and after all was rang up, I paid $8.75. Bargain price!! I got all these for the price of 1 bottle.

The dark blue is called La Playa
The coral reddish orange is called Ole
and the last one is Ballamos

My friends will be getting these in their gift boxes shortly. I just thought it was an excellent deal and I'm actually excited to try the Top 2 bottom and see how that works.
I never thought CVS would have a deal this good, it's even better than any of the sales I've seen at Ulta. I really needed to get a cheap haul like this to forget the awful scammer.

So moral of today is, always go check out your CVS clearance racks AND always google people when you meet them or meet them online, because you never know what you might find on that person!

Be safe everyone! Bye!