Monday, February 27, 2012

Bargain Nail Polish - Models Own Smash Up Silver

Hey,

I hope everyone had a good weekend, the weather was lovely here, and I certainly made the most of it, I managed to cut a load of Brambles out of my garden, if was hard work but worth it.

Yesterday I went into Boots for a window shopping session, and after looking at the Revlon nail polish range and thinking how dull it is compared to what other countries get (I would love to live in the U.S just so I could get all the lovely Revlons they have there), I had a look at the reduced section which usually has nothing much to excite anyone, but I saw a lovely bottle of Models Own Smash Up in Silver, and best of all it was £1.50! It was still sealed so the only reason I can think it was there was that that store didn't sell Models Own, so it must have been a return. I grabbed it and there was no way I was letting it go, it's my first Models Own polish so I'm excited to see how it compares to the Barry M crackles.

Models Own - Smash Up Silver
I also picked up two Maybelline eye shadows in the bargain bin, one was a duo and the other was a quad, I don't really wear much make up as I'm not very good at putting it on, but I'm looking forward to trying them out as I've not used their make up before and they look really pretty.
I'm really happy with my bargain buys, and I'm looking forward to testing them out. Have you found any bargains lately?

Cheerio for now.

Heather

Monday, February 20, 2012

Revlon Chrome Polishes

Hey, today I've got a picture heavy polish post for you.

I thought I'd swatch my Revlon Chrome polishes. Sorry that these are old polishes, but most of my polish is old and discontinued, but if you like what you see these do come up on ebay every now and then.

Oh, and please forgive the state of my nails, they're still recovering from when I helped my Dad move a ton of wood (it literally was a ton, he'd ordered a load of railway sleepers for his garden), my nails all got busted up and my cuticles are a mess, but I'm learning about how to make my nails look nicer, so hopefully they'll look all beautiful in the future.

Right, lets get to the polish. The bottle shots were done on a overcast day so the colour's a bit different to the swatches. All swatches are basecoat, two coats of colour and no topcoat. First up is Golden Chrome.

Revlon - Golden Chrome Bottle
Revlon - Golden Chrome

Golden Chrome is a pretty pale gold. The brush on my bottle is a mess so it wasn't easy to apply and it left a few brush marks, but the finished colour is worth the struggle with the brush. I found the polish levelled out well so it didn't look too bad in the end.

Saturday, February 18, 2012

Nail Polish Review - Maybelline Khaki Green layered with Sally Hansen Opal Truth

Hello again, today I've got another nail polish post for you, I'm quite excited about this one as it's my first post about layering.

The two polishes I've used are Maybelline's Khaki Green and Sally Hansen's Opal Truth, and I only came across this combination by accident.

Maybelline - Khaki Green & Sally Hansen - Opal Truth
Last weekend I painted my nails with Khaki Green, and it's lasting forever, it's on day 6 now and has only just started chipping, anyway, I went polish shopping yesterday and picked up the Sally Hansen from a pound shop, it was the kind of colour I wouldn't normally bother with but it had a nice red shimmer in it, so i naughtily tried a bit over my polish to see how sheer it was. It was sheer alright, but it made up for that by turning Khaki Green into something really special. Have a look below and see what you think.

Left - Khaki Green & Opal Truth Layered, Right - Khaki Green on it's own.
 It's created this beautiful colour that I'm finding hard to describe, I'll give it a go though, I guess I'd call it a greeny grey, with red shimmer, it's like no polish I own and I'm so happy with it. If you like it yourself it shouldn't be to hard to find the two polishes, the Maybelline is very easy to find in shops, the Sally Hansen might take you longer to find as I think it's probably discontinued, ebay's probably your best bet for it.

Right that's it for today, cheerio for now.

Heather.

Friday, February 17, 2012

Bargain Nail Polish Haul

I went shopping today and I got some nice cheap polish, so I thought I'd share my haul with you.

I always go into pound shops and forget to pick up a basket, it's a pain when you find they've got a lot of good stuff, I'm standing there with all these polishes in my hands and I get to the point where I need to decide which ones to get but I don't want to put them down in case someone else nabs them! Baskets are very handy as I found out today, only problem was that I ended up buying all of the polish in my basket, naughty me!

I got two Maybellines from the market, and from the pound shops I got some more Rimmels for my collection, a random brand I've never seen before, a really old 90's Boots 17, my first Astors, and best of all some Sally Hansen HD's.

I do love being able to get polish that was never released here, it always feels like I've found something special.

Here's a few photos of my bargains, let me know if there's any you'd like me to review.

L-R Sally Hansen - Opal Truth, Collection 2000 - Hot Purple, Boots 17 - Heavenly, Collection 2000 - Shameless, Maybelline - Icy Pink, Maybelline - Missing Label, Active Cosmetics - Pixie

Thursday, February 16, 2012

Green Fingers - Something a little bit prickly

I thought we'd have a change of scenery today, so no nail polish, but a bit of planty stuff instead.

I thought I'd show you my Cactus plants, you're probably not that interested, but I think they're really cool so I'm hoping there'll be someone else out there that like's these prickly plants. :-)

I grew up being really curious about Cacti because my Grandma had a greenhouse jam packed with them, they were in her house too, and I learnt early on not to touch them or I'd get prickled. I found them really beautiful, they had the most amazingly bright flowers that looked as if they had been stuck on. I guess the thing that I really loved was how many of them there were, it was a sea of cacti, and I've always been a collector so I guess it's no surprise I was drawn to them.

Last year I started learning about gardening and plants after gaining a massive garden to play in, after growing a few plants and gaining a bit of confidence I thought I'd try something a bit more exotic, my lovely boyfriend treated me to some cacti, and I gave them a home on one of our window sills where they've been happily sunning themselves ever since.

So here's my cute little cacti family.

Here's Bob & Billy, not really, I haven't actually named them.

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Nail Mail & Market Finds

Happy Valentines, I hope you're all having a lovely day, and if you don't have someone special in your life, that you're treating yourself anyway.

I got some lovely goodies in the mail today and thought I'd share.

Maybelline Colorama Topcoats including two flakies

Look at the flakie goodness!!!
I love flakies, my first flakie polish was Gosh's Rainbow, and I think these are going to look the same over dark colours, but I don't mind, I'm just happy to have some flakies in reserve for when I can't get any in the future. The only problem I have is that I don't want to open the packet!

Sunday, February 12, 2012

Nail Polish Review - Maybelline's Khaki Green

Hey, I hope everyone's having a lovely day. I'm pretty happy, I've been watching the Sparrows hopping around my garden eating the food I've put out for them, they're so cute and they always make me smile.

Anyway, today I'm going to tell you about my experience with Maybelline's Khaki Green. It's one of those 40 second ones, and it's the first time I've used one.

Maybelline - Khaki Green
I got this colour as there was an offer to buy three for two. I got this one because it's not the type of colour I'd normally try, but I'm really glad I gave it a go as I think the colour is really nice and not how I thought it would look at all.

Saturday, February 11, 2012

My Nail Polish Collection


Today I thought I'd post a few photos of my nail polish collection, so this will be a bit of a photo spammy post. Amazingly before Christmas I only had half the amount I have now, but my Dad gave me money for Christmas and I spent it all on nail polish, he thought I was mad, but it's one of the best presents I've ever had, and I had so much fun hunting on ebay for polishes I wanted. My amazing boyfriend also treated me to a few really special polishes, he got me my first O.P.I (Rainbow Connection) and my first Nfu-Oh (#39) I love them both so much and they will always have a special place in my heart.

I kinda split my collection into Revlon, Sally Hansen, Rimmel and odds and sods, so I'll show you my collection like that.

Here are all my Revlons, would you believe that before June last year I only had two Revlons, now I'm obsessed with them and want to try to hunt all the old ones down. I'm also one of the few people that love the bottle shape, I really hope they don't ever change it.

Old Style Revlons including Chromes and Zings

Friday, February 10, 2012

Baby, it's cold outside.....

As it's been snowing here in the UK I thought I take a few photos of my lovely snowy garden to show you.

I love the snow, it always makes me happy and I turn into a little kid, although I didn't make it outside to make a snowman, I still loved going into town as I got to walk through the snow.

The snowy view from my back window.

Tuesday, February 07, 2012

Hello, is there anybody out there?

Well, this is my first post so I'd guess there isn't right now! So, maybe I should introduce myself to whoever finds this blog.
I'm Heather, I'm a slightly loopy girl who is a bit of an artist and I have a thing for collecting stuff. Through the years I've collected all kinds of things, I've got a pretty big record collection, vintage clothing, books, and I really love Formula 1 so I've got a collection of F1 stuff too. One of my collections that I want to share here is my nail polish collection, years ago when I was younger I went through a faze of painting my nails, I was never very good at it so after a while I stopped bothering, but I did keep all my old polish. Last year was when I started painting my nails again, I'm still not very good at it, but I found that having beautiful colours on my nails really cheered me up, so I stuck with it and now I'm getting a little bit better at painting my nails instead of my fingers!

I'd been using some of my old polishes, and I started looking online for info about them as a few were a bit gloopy and too thick to use so I wanted to see if I could get replacements, that led me to discover all these amazing blogs that are out there, and damn those blogs, I ended up lusting after all these incredible polishes that are out my price range. Luckily I found a market stall by me that had a little basket full of really old polishes so I started buying a few to satisfy my yearning for new polish. The first polish I got was an old Revlon, it was Seashell Chrome, I'd never had a chrome polish before and it got me hunting for more, before I knew it I was collecting all sorts of old Revlons along with Sally Hansens and Rimmels.

I'd like to document my collection of nail polish both new and old through this blog. I'm not good at photographing my nails yet, but I'll keep practising so that I can share swatches with everyone, after all it's one of the things I value most about other blogs so I think it's only right that I give something back too. :-) So, I won't have great swatches just yet, but I'll be posting photos of the bottles I've got and I'll tell you what I think of them, and if possible I'll include any info about when they were made and what collection they were from etc..

As well as nail polish I hope to share my gardening adventures with you, I started getting green fingers last year so I'm still learning, but it's really rewarding although it's not great for my nails lol! I'll probably be sharing some cookery ideas, and maybe talk about F1 a little bit too. :-)

Anyway I'll leave it at that, I hope someone will find my blog useful and I hope I'll get to know a few other nail polish addicts and gardeners through this blog as I'd love to chat to someone else other than my poor boyfriend about polish and plants. :-)

Cheerio for now. :-)

Heather.