Misa High Waist Hue + Nubar 2010

I love Misa and I love this particular nude.
My yukky cuticles I cannot love. Not even a mother could love my cuticles.
"Maybe I didn't love them quite as good as I should have....." (Pet Shop Boys version for me, please).

Nubar 2010 is just another of those GOSH Rainbow/Sally Hansen HT polishes that lengthen the lifespan of a mani when you don't have a lot of time. That would be me then...Ideal.

Cue the cute animal pic... Why? Why not?

Jenni


Elvis

• too cliched to be true
• great performer
• legend
• sad
• not my thaaaang

Jessica Skin Deep

Less than a fiver. I have seen this on no other blog. That is criminal. You may say it's boring (Vix certainly will) but it's breathtakingly beautiful. To me.


There is the best and finest gold shimmer in this that I have ever seen. 3 coats.

This beats my previous favourite nude (Eyeko) into a cocked hat.

Pretty bottle contents. Cast your peepers over this!

I know it does me no favours i.e. doesn't suit me.  I care naught for that. 

More cutesie-cutesie.

Apparently they are at least as afraid of the sheep as vice versa. This may change...

Jenni

OPI Barefoot in Barcelona

One of the polishes I got for £4 from the asos sale.
Yet another nude. But I love 'em. Who'd have thought?

2 coats. Easy as an easy-thing. (Did I say Katie Price? No, that's in YOUR head.)

Next, please.

Name that (those) polish(es).
I did actually pay pretty near RRP for these but I'm trying to call a halt to polish=purchasing. Hey, I gave up smoking and drinking. How hard can this be?
So, yeah, guess the names of the polishes.

The next trio is my penultimate score. I'm waiting for my Missguided haul and then that's it. Nada. Nothing. No. Put a lid on it. Enough already.

Purple Dream Illusion, Bronze Illusion and Pin-Up Rock Star.
I'm pretty sure the pink one didn't look like that on the website so let's hope it has hidden depths. Hmmm. And the Bronze looks a lot like Aztec and the PD looks remarkably like Ruby Sparkle. More hmmmmmmmmmmmm. Longer and louder and with great suspicion this time.

Jen

Misa High Waist Hue

Absolutely fuming! Ink on fingers. And they looked so neat!

Misa. Great brand.
HWH. Great colour.

DISASTER!

Gawd, this looked good.
Went to TJ Hughes and found some old Rimmel polishes at £1.99.
Dug hand in bag.
Came out covered in black ink.
Bl00dy school rubbishy bl00dy bleedin' pen had leaked in my bag.
Leaked? Flooded. Cascaded. Deluged (not a word).
My one and only bag. Luckily the stain didn't reach the exterior.
Assistant had to give me some wipes but I'd got it all over the place by then.
Ruined my thumb and index finger.

Too damned lazy to re-mani though. Grr.

Do you have any stain stories? Self-censor, if you please. ;o)

Jenni

Sally Hansen Pure Putty

It's not exciting but it is the sort of polish you wear when you need a rest from the blues and greens et al.

 After about a day at work.
2 coats in the sun. I love this.
Is it pink? It is on my summer hands. Is it nude? On some people, yes.
Anyway I like it.

 Indoors. And you can see the cool label so there you go.

I have just ordered 6 polishes from the US - much funkier colours.
I just want something different. Different brands. You can't really beat OPI and China Glaze for quality but they're just so ubiquitous. There are some new BB Couture I fancy so I may get those. The nailiverse needs new blood. I've been buying polish seriously now for a year so maybe I'm just jaded. Boo. New, innovative, different. C'mon, let's have some excitement. And I DO NOT mean Zoya bloomin' spoons.

What's the next new thing? A brand, a colour? A finish?

Jen

OPI Samoan Sand + ELF Desert Haze + the history bit..

I put the OPI on yesterday and noticed a chip this morning whilst at work. Horror of horrors.

The line along the ring nail is just an ineradicable ridge rather than polish streaks.
I like this combination. I said I'd be mostly wearing mud and I meant it.
I do have a jelly gradient planned though as I've seen a rather pretty effect on another blog. That may be my sole foray into colour for some time.

Why is my skin peeling off? Am I a reptile? Or just at the end of my tether?
Teachers grow notoriously irritable at the end of the year. I've got leavers stressed about leaving, colleagues stressed about changing roles and everyone hot and bothered. It is craaaaaaazy at my place. It's a challenge to get to Friday without committing manslaughter or becoming the victim of a violent crime. Grrrrrrr!

Breathe deeply. Smile. Breathe out. Drop the shoulders. Unclench the fist. Put the knife down. Put the knife DOWN!


Fashion history now from the BBC - my beloved BBC

A gold cape. Gold. Not gold thread.
Beaten gold and found in Mold. That's North Wales. Not far from my birthplace actually. From about 1700BC. Beaten and shaped from a single gold ingot about the size of a ping-pong ball. It's incredibly thin apparently. May have been made locally or brought to Wales as part of a trade. Grave goods. What incredible talents humans possess. (Not me obviously). So this was the epitome of high-end designer catwalk red-carpet what-have-you if you go back four millennia. Wow.

Jen
If I do get brought before the beak I'll need character witnesses to explain that my actions occurred as a result of heat exhaustion and provocation by colleagues. OK? Thanks.

Calvin Klein Barefoot + Illamasqua Prism

I know you are going to look at the pix and wonder what I'm making such a fuss about but these 2 polishes are quite simply - 2 of the best polishes ever to be mixed in a mixing-thing.

2 coats of Barefoot.
You see ! I KNEW you'd be thinking I need my bumps feeling.
The quality of this beauty defies belief.
The bottle is itself a desirable object.

Then add Prism.

Same as above but an added coat of Prism.
And everybody says this - so tedious but true for all that - but you cannot capture the ever-changing beauty of this polish in a photograph.

My work here is at an end for the day.
FINIS.

Jenni

Nail Glam O'Boy + a bit of Ciate + animal testing

In this weather this polish passes for mannequin hands as my skin takes on the colour of a Dickensian street-urchin after a hard day rifling through the city's effluent

I'm very fond of Pop Beauty products
Just scored a Glow & Highlight by them which I'll show you tomorrow

C0cked-up and had to do what I do - add a coat of China Glaze Fairy Dust
See how I much of this I use. This is with added Seche Restore. You may deduce something about the level of c0ck-uppery that occurs in my nailiverse from the declining bottle-contents.

Oh, a postscript on Ciate Sienna
Had more chips after 24 hours than you'd expect to see on a Friday night down Harry Ramsden's.
Not just that!
Bigger chips than they put in a pack of McCain Frozen Rustic Giganto-chips for Registered Fatties.

Tomorrow?
POP Beauty 2 products
Illamasqua 2 products
Calvin Klein 1
Lancome 1

Not all nail stuff

See ya
Jen

Bourjois Effet Faux Ongles - Beige Sophistique AND Pop Beauty Nail Glam Twinkle

Phew! That's a lot of writing for the names of 2 polishes!

The Bourjois is new. As in new on the market. I saw this on Just Nice Things on Helen's super-long nails and just had to have it. It looks better on her but that doesn't mean I can't wear it.

It's some amazing, revolutionary, innovative, life-enhancing,  revelatory ....stuff.
It does apply beautifully, I must admit.
Whipped cream. 2 coats.
Look, if you want all the technical hype I'm not up to that.
It's from asos. The colour range is bor-ING! But I wanted a boring colour so that's OK. I got a bright red too and that looks as if it will be hot!
And asos is free P&P. More companies are going this way. I likey likey.

And I got 3 Pop Beauty Nail Glam. OMG, I am going to get more. I registered with them or something and got a discount. Even at £6 full price these are superlative. 2 coats. Not very gritty. They don't have a huge variety but I'm having them. Having them all, do you hear!!! Seem to be getting a bit crazed..

And in sunlight.

3 questions. 1 is not nail-related. You have to guess which one.
1 Your fave nude? If you have such a thing. The concept of nude polishes was anathema to me but a few weeks ago.
2 Best glitter?
3 Should that Green fellow be sacked as England goalie? How shocked were you by that error? I'm saying 100% appalled. I could have saved that with my bloomers round my ankles whilst whipping up a souffle and taking a 'phone call from my Mum.

Jenni-fur

A fail - Barielle - and a pass - Jessica

Context is all.

Yesterday I did the bling-thing on the LH so the RH had the much-anticipated Barielle Belly Dance. It was lovely - now my official fave taupe - but I couldn't see the pink iridescence as promised so I was frankly "meh" about it and (highly unusual for me because I hate waste) changed it after a couple of hours.

To this..

Jessica Violet Tint

I got 6 of these for £6.50 all inclusive. 

This is probably 4 coats but it goes on without any effort so who cares? I actually enjoy ladling it on with a trowel. 

These are true jellies. If you hate VNL then you'll loathe these.
I have always loved this kind of translucent finish so I am in 7th heaven with these.
I have emerald, aqua, pink, red and coral to try.
Because it isn't opaque it doesn't verge on that tedious "looks-like-black-all-the-bleedin'-time" territory. Looks black in the bottle to be sure but not on the nail.
Hurrah, say I. And at that price I've ordered another 6 as back-up. Now that is a rarity!

And here's the Belly Dance with Mavala Pink Diamond attempting to distract the eye from a c0ck-up. It's a lovely taupe but it simply didn't suit my mood.

"What larks, Pip!"
(In honour of elder daughter's 22nd birthday today - not that she reads this)

Happy Friday
Jenni

Essie - a bunch of cream cremes - soft/feminine

More for £3.50 per bottle
Just goes to show you can't judge a polish by its container...
Oh, and this is after a hard day's wear at work btw

Little: Body Language (greyish)
Ring: Pound Cake
Middle: T-Bills Putty
Index: Be Right Bag

Still streaky after 2/3 coats but the surprise was Be Right Bag which I only added as an afterthought.
It is a beautiful polish. 2 coats opacity with a pinky/blue iridescence

BRB is the one on the left (confusingly for which I apologise) and you can see what appears to be a reflection on the bottle but that's the shimmer

I felt unusually sophisticated wearing these. I am (other than in my dreams) a slobby, dumpy, short creature who walks like a duck (I was told this about 40 years ago by some boys on the bus and I have to concede they were probably right, unkind but accurate). So sophistication and I are generally strangers!

AND I GOT MY GIVEAWAY FROM SIMONE OF GIVETHEJEWGIRLTOYS!!!
THANK YOU, SIMONE!

At which point my camera battery died......So more news of that tomorrow.
My first giveaway and, given my luck, probably my last!
But curiously I am poised at 50 followers. I have polishes ready for a giveaway but I have to reach 51. This is because I was mucking about and managed to add myself as a follower of my own blog.

Be honest - am I really only the person to do it? It was accidental and I have confessed. I am 2% of my own readership.

So the giveaway will involve comments and maybe completing a questionnaire. You know the kind of thing - what is your fave purple polish - nothing heavy!

Hot here.
Jenni