Monthly Archives: July 2011

Marks & Spencer Quick Dry Coral

First of all I would like to wholeheartedly recommend this colour for unique summer nails :)

This is a beautiful salmony pink colour, perfect for the summer. It surprisingly goes with a lot of colours clothes-wise, so is quite versatile. It also brightens up a neutral outfit with an interesting look, not the classic red or pink.
In terms of application, this took 3 coats, but that was due to the hideous staining on my nails, it just shows through anything >:( so I reckon if you have perfect nails or a French mani or just short nails, this will take 2 coats. The polish glided on my nails smoothly and it was very pigmented, not streaky like a lot of the summery brights. Dried in no time at all, with a lovely glossy finish, and it levelled itself out. The brush is pretty average.
This will cost you £5 from the M&S; range, and is it worth it? YES! I’ve never seen a ‘drugstore’ brand come out with this colour, I’m sure that China Glaze or OPI have done one similar but this is readily available if you, like me, hate the wait for internet shopped goods! Also it’s a lot cheaper than most of the eBayed or Amazoned nail polishes.
Hope you’re all well, I’m preparing to go on holiday on Friday morning – to North Uist! This will be for 2 weeks so if you don’t hear from me in that time, that’s why :( I’m sad to be leaving my blog, please bear with me and don’t leave me haha!
Emma xxx
Disclaimer: Everything mentioned in this blog post was either bought by myself with my own money, or given to me as a gift from friends/relatives. All opinions expressed here are my own.

GOSH Miss Minty

I’ve never really ‘got’ the whole mint-green nails thing, I absolutely hated Barry M Mint Green on my nails (don’t hate me!), but I think I’m starting to understand it, Miss Minty is a much better tone for my hands and I may even go so far as to say that I really quite like it. I have to say, when I bought it, I only remembered AFTER that I really don’t like mint green on my nails. Moments of madness.

This is roughly 2-3 coats. The polish is VERY pigmented, opaque in 1 coat really but due to my impatience and a couple of smudges I ended up doing 2-3 coats (I think my index and middle were 3, ring and pinkie were 2).
Dry-time was fine, dried quickly and the polish evened itself out so if you think it’s uneven, don’t!! go over it again, just leave it and if necessary use a topcoat later, otherwise you will end up with it dragging and bubbling. It dried with a lovely glossy finish, so topcoat isn’t necessary.
The only danger with this shade, as you can probably tell from the pictures, is it can bring out the pink in your skin, making your hands look lobstery like mine! It’s not too bad, the pictures make it look worse than it was, but still. Haha.
I did a quick colour comparison with Barry M’s Mint Green:
Middle and Pinky: GOSH Miss Minty; Ring and Index: Barry M Mint Green
I know it’s not an amazing picture – my camera wouldn’t pick up the colour difference between these two, so you’ll just have to take my word for it. Both polishes are shown at 2 coats. Now hopefully you can see that the Barry M is much more sheer and streaky than the GOSH, which is totally opaque. Miss Minty also is a lot more blue-toned, and more of a true pastel, than the Barry M, which is a much truer green (not what I’d call mint green!)
If I were to describe Miss Minty to you without photos, I would say go and get a tub of Mint Choc Chip ice cream and take a good long stare at the ice cream part – that is the colour of Miss Minty. So if you’re one of the many who are wild about mint green, I’d grab Miss Minty over Mint Green!

I have an amazing colour on at the moment but trying to resist posting a 2nd blogpost today, so I’ll have to wait til tomorrow. Or maybe late tonight. All I can say is that it is PERFECT for summer!
Emma xxx

Disclaimer: Everything mentioned in this blog post was either bought by myself with my own money, or given to me as a gift from friends/relatives. All opinions expressed here are my own.

Ciaté – Kitten Heels

This came with my July GlossyBox, which, for those of you who don’t know, is a box containing 5 samples of ‘luxury’ products costing £10 (but £12.50 inc. P&P; from September) which comes around on a monthly basis. Once you have signed up, they will automatically take the money each month until you unsubscribe. Last month there was an uproar on Twitter because the box contained a small bottle of Batiste Dry Shampoo which isn’t ‘luxury’, although frankly compared with the price of the other products, I think it’s a bit greedy to expect all expensive items! I just think it’s a shame to see a brand new company get so much grief for one little mistake. Anyway, those who unsubscribed after that apparent outrage will probably be kicking themselves this month, as the July box was fab! Even better- it arrived on my birthday!
In my box I received a pack of Nouveau Lashes, Ciaté Nail Polish, Weleda Pomegranate Body Oil, Illamasqua Lipgloss in Explode, and the only sample sized product is the Xen-Tan lotion (in dark – I’m a bit scared to use it haha!)
So anyway, onto the nail polish. FYI, Ciaté is 3-Free (free from formaldehyde, dibutyl phthalate and toluene).

1 coat – hopefully you can see the very pink jellyish base! This s reminiscent of China Glaze Strawberry Fields, and I actually wore my nails all day in Oxford like this as I loved the bright pink!
Left: 1 coat. Right: 2 coats. Huge difference!!
The gorgeous yellow-orange shimmer in the bottle.
This is my first bottle of Ciaté, I’ve always admired their polishes online, but never got round to buying one as I never managed to decide which one first! I have to say, as a first taste of the brand, I am SUPER impressed. The polish has a pink jelly base, with tons of yellow-orange-red shimmer, which I assume accounts for the red effect as the layers build up! I ended up applying a third coat, but if you don’t have nasty stained nails like mine, you could easily get away with 2. coats.
This polish is easily mistaken for a classic red shimmer in dim light, but as soon as you get under a light or into natural daylight, or even better, sunlight, this polish lights up like a fire! The blend of orangey-reddy-yellow shimmer makes it look like glowing embers, and you occasionally catch a hint of the pink base. Can I emphasise how amazing this polish is any more?
Onto application. I’m in love. You know that myth that you’re supposed to do three strokes with nail polish, middle then 2 sides? I’ve never ever been able to do that until I used this polish. The brush is firm enough to control the polish, but soft enough to maneuver it neatly around the curves of the nails. I love it! The handle is long, allowing for good hand control, and the brush is the perfect width and density – not too thin and not too thick. According to the GlossyBox notecard, the brush has 250 bristles, though it doesn’t explain why haha.
Ciaté polishes retail for £9.00 from the Ciaté website, or from the Powder Rooms. I would seriously recommend this fiery red to any of you! Well worth the £9.00 for 13.5ml, if you compare with OPI’s average £10.50 for 15ml in the UK and China Glaze’s average £8.00 for 14ml, plus the application makes it all the more amazing.
Just wanted to say a quick thank you to all of you who said Happy Birthday in the comments on my last post, it made my day to a) know that you care and b) know that people actually bother to read my ramblings! I promise I will work on cutting down the waffle but thank you so much

Emma xxx
Disclaimer: Everything mentioned in this blog post was either bought by myself with my own money, or given to me as a gift from friends/relatives. All opinions expressed here are my own.

Sparkly City Nails!

I wore GOSH’s Midnight Blue (a slightly darker version of Nails Inc. Chandos Place) with my prom dressfor my cousin’s wedding party last weekend, which was absolutely lovely and so nice to have all my family together in one place after so long :) The next day, after 3 days of wear, Midnight Blue was starting to show some tipwear so I decided to brighten it up a bit with LOTS of glitter!

So basically I had 2 coats of Midnight Blue, then I added 1 coat of Petticoat Lane to give the pink glitter, and then 1 coat of Starry Silver Glitter to add the holographic glitter and blue and pink hexagonal glitter pieces :D
It’s so hard to capture the true glittery beauty of this, but the glitter really doesn’t look as stark as the photos make out. To me it reminded me of when you look out over London late at night, with all the beautiful multicoloured lights. Just missing the London Eye ;) they also reminded me of fireworks. I love love loved wearing this manicure :D
Hope you’re all doing well, it was my birthday yesterday so I’ll probably be having a birthday post coming up soon, I got some amazing gifts (not all nail polish! haha) and I had a lovely time today spending some of my birthday money. I also bought some fabulous makeup brushes, so look out for a review of them ;)
My GlossyBox arrived early yesterday morning, which was an amazing birthday treat, as I’m sure all of you will have heard by now, this month’s box was amazing! I personally have loved all of the boxes so far, but I know that a lot of people have unsubscribed after receiving a Batiste can, which frankly didn’t bother me because really, compared with the prices of the other things in the box, they really made up for it! But never mind. I just find it a shame to see all the bitching about such a young company on Twitter. It’s true social networking can really make or break a company :( Anyhoo, see you all soon my bloggy friends :)
Emma xxx
Disclaimer: Everything mentioned in this blog post was either bought by myself with my own money, or given to me as a gift from friends/relatives. All opinions expressed here are my own.

Oh My GOSH 022 Nude Champagne

I’m afraid I’m not 100% sure whether these polishes are limited edition or a permanent line. But these are 5ml bottles of nail polish in colours other than those already available (as far as I’m aware). Basically I saw them in the section of the GOSH counter in my local Superdrug which is normally used to showcase limited edition products so I can’t tell and can’t seem to find it anywhere. Anywho, these bottles cost £2.99, which isn’t bad when compared with the £4.99 for 8ml of the normal GOSH bottles. Sheer curiosity made me pick this one up, but I now have my eye on the green creme they have to offer! They have a broad colour range in this new line.



I found it so hard to get a proper colour-accurate shot of this polish! It looks a little less greyed-out than the pictures show. Not an amazing description I know but… It’s kind of in between the bottle colour and the colour on the nails. Anyways, it’s a lovely greyish-biscuity nude. It’s a bit warmer than putty colour, and a little more flattering. Argh, not doing well here! It’s just very pretty, very subtle and work appropriate without being mannequin-esque.
Application-wise, it dried in an average time, not super fast but not really slow either. Manageable. I needed 2-3 coats for full coverage because it seemed a little streaky over my stained nails and the polish dragged a little but it wasn’t anything too bad. It dried with a lovely shine too so I didn’t need a topcoat :)
My only real problem is that where I left a little gap between the polish and my cuticles, the colour of my nail underneath really didn’t look pretty so I’d recommend polishing all the way up the the edges of the nail for this one!
Hope you’re all doing well, my life is being pretty hectic at the mo, I’ve just been up to Yorkshire for my cousin’s wedding which was lovely! I haven’t got an amazing photo of my dress yet, so this one will have to suffice:

I know you can’t see it so well here, but basically it’s a halterneck. It’s a lovely green-grey cotton dress with cobalt blue roses and a black sash. The skirt ties back on itself to create the bunched up -ness (is there a word for it?!) at the bottom, or it can be worn loose (with the skirt lying flat, more like a maxi). You can also go half up, half down, which seems to be fashionable of late (although how would I know – queen of unfashionability!). It’s also very kind to a larger tummy, and helps to emphasise the breast area (which became a problem as my boobs have somewhat increased since my diet was abandoned!) and makes the waist appear smaller.. I found 2 links to photos of the dress on the Facebook page of the shop it’s from:
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=205436339485515&set;=pu.110156945680122&type;=1&theater;
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=199714216724394&set;=pu.110156945680122&type;=1&theater;
Basically it’s from a shop named ‘Fresh’, found in the Covered Market in Oxford. If you ever get the chance to go in, DO! It’s got some lovely people running the shop, and people who are normal in body shape and attitude if you know what I mean – they don’t bat an eyelid if you ask for a dress in size 14 or 16 and they are very welcoming, helpful and friendly. The shop itself is tiny, but absolutely filled with gems like this dress. The dress cost £75, which really isn’t bad considering how versatile it is.
Anyway that’s enough of my babbling on! Hope you’re all okay and all that.
Emma xxx
Disclaimer: Everything mentioned in this blog post was either bought by myself with my own money, or given to me as a gift from friends/relatives. All opinions expressed here are my own.
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