January Haul Fun with Polished Claws Up!

Today's post is my 100th post, I can't believe I'd done that many already, I'm really enjoying blogging, so here's to another 100!

Last month after doing my December haul post, Dana (from Polished Claws Up) and I thought that it'd be fun to a monthly haul post together, we both love vintage polish and I think we're both pretty excited to see what we've both found this month. so after you've seen my haul make sure you check out Dana's haul too.

I really enjoyed getting all the polish together that I've bought this month even though it's a little bit crazy when you see how much you buy in a month, but it's a nice record for me to see what I got and when. I've also noticed that my haul posts are some of my most popular so at least I know that people want to see them.

This post is a bit embarrassing as I have got so much this month, and it's made this post a bit (to say the least) picture heavy, anyway, here's some photo spam. :-)
 

Revlon - Violet X-Treme, Berry Avenger, Lavender Smoke, Ultra Violet, Lavenlight Blueberry Twist

Revlon - Vixen, Sandalwood Beige, Regal Wine, Tangerine Twist, Coffee Bean

Duochrome Vintage Vault - Sally Hansen Bright Metal

Sally Hansen is the queen of duochromes, there is no doubting that, and when I have a full set of Prisms I'll be a very happy girl indeed. But Sally didn't save her duochrome pigment for just the Prisms, oh no, she went and created Star and Fire Opals, and the HD's and the LustreShines, so when it comes to duochrome goodness Sally's your girl.

Now with us polish girls loving our duochromes you would think every Sally Hansen duochrome would be on a blog some where, well I can't find today's polish mentioned anywhere, which is weird, because this polish is great and deserves to be oggled at by lusty nail polish addicts.  :-)

Let me introduce you to Bright Metal from the Hard As Nails with Nylon range, I have no idea when this polish was released, or where, but what I do know is that I paid £1 for it from the poundshop, which is a bargain and somewhat amazing.:-)

Right enough waffling, time for the polish to do the talking, but be warned there's loads of photos as I wanted to you show the many sides to this polish...

Duochrome Vintage Vault - L'oreal Jet-Set 026

I love duochromes, I really can't get enough of them, there's just something special about having a polish on my nails that is more than one colour, it's like magic on my nails.

Since I started collecting polish just over a year ago I've gained a lot of duochromes, there are so many out there that I'm still lusting after by either more expensive or non UK brands, but I don't mind not having them too much because I have some awesome ones that I've got dirt cheap through ebay, pound shops and my local market and are probably alot rarer.

This week I thought I'd show you polishes that I couldn't find any swatches or any mention of, and I hope you'll like what you see.

Today's polish is L'Oreal 026. I didn't know L'Oreal had done any duochromes in the old Jet-Set line, so I was happy to find this, the sellers photos were dreadful, so when it arrived I was waving it at my boyfriend saying "it's a duochrome!", needless to say he wasn't as impressed as me. :-)

Get ready for some photo spam...

Vintage Vault - Sally Hansen Prisms - White Turquoise

Today's post is one I've held of posting because I wasn't 100% sure what the name of the polish was, but after a bit of research I'm now happy to think I've got the name right.

Today's post features a sexy layering combo, now we all know and love Sally Hansen's Prisms, but there are a few that look boring in the bottle and on the nail are sheer and not so exciting, but thankfully layering them brings out all the lovely duochrome goodness that we know and love.

On the day I took these photos I'd tried an old Revlon called Drama, the post for it is here, it's a darkish purple. I thought I'd try layering something over it. I grabbed a un-named Prism and tried it, with one coat it was really nice, but with two it was just simply amazing. The polish looked alot like south sea pearl in the bottle so I thought that might be what it was, but I was wrong, this is much sheerer and I think it's actually called White Turquoise,  if anyone can confirm that'd be great.

So here's Revlon Drama layered with two coats of Sally Hansen White Turquoise, prepare to fall in love. :-)

Snap Crackle and Pop! Stefan Dennis - Don't It Make You Feel Good

Hey, I wanted to do something a little silly for today's post, so please bear with me, normal service will be resumed in the next post. :-)

I love seeing posts about peoples passions away from nail polish, and I thought I'd share one of my passions with you, although it could completely back fire on me and you'll never read my blog again!

So one of my passions is music, I have a huge vinyl record collection that covers everything from rock 'n' roll, disco, jazz, ska, punk, dance, indie, pop, and everything inbetween. I really love pop music the most, I am so uncool, but I don't care! I grew up listening to pop, my Dad always listened to the Beatles, the Beach Boys and Oliva Newton John amongst others, so it was in my blood. By the time I was 13 I was listening to dance and indie music and there was a period where pop didn't get a look in when I was a fully fledged indie kid, but as I've got older I've found that nothing makes me happier than a good dose of 100% pop.

Being a record collector from a young age I gathered some rather odd records, by some odd people, I love finding out what peoples guilty secrets are, and I thought it'd be a laugh to share one of mine. This song is a classic, you'll either thinks it's amazing or you'll say wtf is she thinking! 

Dupes? Rimmel - Gold Save The Queen Vs Miss Sporty - 010 Beetle Wings

Hi guys, well it's still snowing, I've lost count of how many days the snow's been here for now. I've had to reschedule my bus driving theory test, the test centre isn't near me, I have to go on the motorway and in this weather I believe that if you don't need to add to the traffic on the roads stay at home. I actually enjoy driving in these conditions, but I know it'd be just my luck to get stuck behind an accident or something. Hopefully next week will be better. Anyway, enough waffling about me, how about some polish talk instead?

Being a Rimmel collector I have been waiting years for them to bring out some duochromes again, Zeitgeist and Mania were among the first polishes I ever bought when I was younger and I've cherished them ever since (even though they've turned into a gloppy mess) so I was excited to see their Metal Rush range. But duochromes seem to be like buses you wait for one and then they all turn up, as along with Rimmel, Miss Sporty decided it was time for them to give us some duochromey goodness in the shape of their Metal Flip range.

Now anyone in the UK will no doubt have noticed that two polishes from both brands are very alike and I thought it might be useful to check for dupes as one brand is half the price of the other.

So without further ado, here is Rimmels Gold Save the Queen up against Miss Sporty 010 aka Beetle Wings.

Barry M - Magnetic Green Sparkle

Hey, I hope you had a good weekend, mine was good and I spent most of it watching the snow come down, we've had so much of it and I've loved watching the local kids having fun having snowball fights and making snowmen.

I've still got super short nubbins so I'm still using stashed swatch photos, but today piccy's are from christmas so not that long a go really. I thought I'd show you one of the Barry M magnetic polishes I got from  for xmas, I got all the glittery ones as I think they look nice both with and without the magnetic effect applied to them.

I'm going to show you Green Sparkle, it's a pretty awesome colour in the bottle, it's a slightly murky green with holo microglitter mixed in, and that's exactly what it's like on the nail if you don't use the magnet, I didn't get a swatch of it like that, but I'll edit this post if I do in the future.

Here are photos of Green Sparkle after using the magnet...

Cookery Corner - Caramel Squares

Hi guys,

The UK is still covered in snow, we had a few inches yesterday, and it's snowing again right now. I always find it funny that we get snow every year, and every year the press go crazy about the country coming to a stand still, mind up it kinda does, but we don't need a couple of documentaries made about it every year!

Anyway, today we have something a bit different from me, I love cooking, I'm not an amazing cook or anything, but I like throwing things together and seeing what sticks. For the last two years I've made something for my Dad for a christmas present to go with whatever else I get him, last year it was chocolate truffles flavored with liquers, this year it was caramel squares. This recipe is pretty easy to do so I thought I'd share it with you in case you fancied making it.

The original recipe came from Sainsbury's Magazine, but I've made a few changes, which make it easier, quicker and cheaper. The recipe makes 15-16 sqaures and will keep for up to a week in an airtight container, I keep mine in the fridge as as it keeps the caramel firmer. Each portion is around 450 cals, so this is a treat to make and share, or have a peice once a day as it's full of calories!

So first off, here's the ingredients list.

For the base
125g Margarine (make sure it's suitable for baking etc)
20g Cocoa Powder
250g Digestive Biscuits (crumbled like breadcrumbs)
25g Chocolate Spread
For the caramel
150g Margarine
150g Light Brown Soft Sugar
1 x 397g Tin Condensed Milk
For the topping
100g Chocolate Spread
75g Chocolate (roughly chopped)

You'll need a suitable container to make it in, I use a foil tray that's 15 x 22cm, and is 3cm deep, and you'll need to line it with nonstick baking paper otherwise your caramel will stick and it'll be hard to get out.

Laura Paige Week - Day 5 - Limited edition No 35

Yay It's snowing! Everything's covered in white fluffy snow, I don't think I'll be going anywhere today as it's getting pretty deep, I might have to make a snowman later. :-)

This time next week I'll be taking my Theory test for driving buses and coaches, I applied to be a bus driver as it's hard to find jobs related to my degree so I thought I'd give bus driving a go, at least it's good pay, it's a job for life as long as I keep my nose clean, and best of all I'll be able to wear whatever crazy colours I like on my nails. :-) So this week I'm going to have my head in my books studying for the test, and I can't tell you how nervous I am about it, but I'm sure it'll be fine.

Enough waffling, today's Laura paige polish is another rubbishly named one, this one's called Limited Edition 35. In the bottle it's a metallic looking purple with a blue base and golden pigment mixed in, on the nail it all mixes together to create a metallic purple, that's more pink leaning than blue, it's such a lovely colour and well worth owning. I couldn't get the colour of this right at all with my camera, so I've tried to adjust it to show the right colour of the polish, but it still looks too brown, and of course I now look like I have lobster hands, I won't be getting a gold star for this swatch!

Laura Paige Week - Day 4 - Limited Edition No 25

When I saw this polish I have to admit I swooned a little, the colour just called to me and said take me home with you, so of course, that's exactly what I did!

Today's Laura Paige is just known as Limited Edition 25, why oh why didn't they give this a name, it should be law that all polishes have names, especially when they are as nice as this.

I did have my reservations about this polish, I thought that would be sheer as it seems to be just made up of blue shimmer, but I was impressed that after three coats it was opaque, no VNL to speak of. I think this might be one of my favorite blues in my collection, and it's certainly unique in my stash.

Laura Paige Week - Day 3 - Pouty Purple

Hello again, I'm back with another Laura Paige polish, isn't that a surprise! Today's polish is Pouty Purple.

Pouty Purple is a really nice purple shimmer, I'm really impressed with the colours produced by Laura Paige, they have the traditional pinks and reds, but also have some more interesting colours. I was doing a bit of research into Laura Paige earlier to see if there was a facebook page or something, but there wasn't. I did find their own site and it turns out they're not too far from me, and are probably my local cosmetics company. :-)

Laura Paige Week - Day 2 - Raspberry Chocolate

Today's Laura Paige polish is a lovely brown shimmer called Raspberry Chocolate. The name just makes me think of eating Thorntons chocolates, they do some lovely ones with a fruit filling in the middle, hmmm, I could eat some right now..

Anyway, Raspberry Chocolate is a red leaning shimmery brown that has some gold shimmer thrown in for good measure. It's a an elegant colour and it looks great on my nails. I think browns are one of those funny colours that I'd never think of wearing, but I'm slowly gaining more browns as I feel they really suit me.

This was two coats, it covered beautifully and was a great formula, I think the red tint in the base and the golden shimmer combine to make this a warm brown that can be worn in the summer and would be perfect in autumn. Just like yesterday I gave it one coat of Crystal daze, just to see what it would be like....

Laura Paige Week - Day 1 - Grape Vine

This week I thought I'd do a series of posts about Laura Paige or LP as it says on the front of the bottle, a brand of nail polish that I've only seen in a local chemist in my home town. So I apologise if you fancy any of these as I don't know where else you can get them, but if there is any you fancy get in touch and I can see if they have any left.

The first polish I'm going to share with you is the first Laura Paige polish I owned, my lovely boyfriend spotted the display of cosmetics when he was at the chemists and he picked this one out for me as a treat.

My furry friends - My pet Degus

I thought I'd have a non-polish post today, instead of polish photos I'm going to show you the latest furry additions to my family. :-)

I've got a cat already, he's the coolest and cleverest cat I've ever met, he came with me when I moved into my boyfriends house and they got on like a house on fire. My boyriends pets were two gerbils who were adorable, but they both died last year. We kept their cage, but we weren't in a rush to replace them as money's a bit tight, but one day all that changed...

We went to Nuneaton which is a town near us, we went to have a look round the charity shops, we found a few bits, but nothing exciting, so we popped into the petshop next to where we parked to get a treat for our cat. The shop is a big chain and aswell as selling their own pets they support a charity by using some of the cages to keep pets in that need adopting. We're suckers for cute furry animals, but usually we can resist, but we spotted a lone degu and we fell in love...

Vintage Vault - Revlon Diamonds Are Forever

Today's polish is from a James Bond collection, but it's not an OPI, it's a Revlon.

Revlon launched the 007 Color Collection in Autumn 2002, so they were a whole decade ahead of OPI when it comes to James Bond tie-in's. The Revlon collection was launched at the same time as the Die Another Day film and there were two polishes inspired by the two main female characters Jinx (Berry Avenger) and Miranda (Mission Mauve), as well as four named after previous Bond films which were Goldeneye, The Spy Who Loved Me, From Russia With Love, and Diamonds Are Forever.

I've got Diamonds Are Forever and Berry Avenger, and Dana from Polished Claws Up has got a bottle of Goldeneye waiting for me, but I really want to get the rest of the collection even though I've no idea what they look like. :-)

So are you ready to see Diamonds Are Forever, it's quite pretty you know...

OPI - Spark De Triomphe

I have a confession to make, I broke my index nail on my swatching hand, and it was really bad, so I'm rocking super short nubbins right now, every time I look at my hands my it's so weird, but I'm lucky that my nails grow real quick so I'll be back to swatching in no time. 

So while my nails grow I'm gonna dig out swatches I did before the break, some aren't from too long ago, but there's a few from a few months ago, so you'll have to put up with not so good cuticles for a bit. :-)

Right, back to business, today's polish is OPI's Spark De Triomphe from the Serena Williams Glam Slam France Collection from 2011. I got this in a pack of three OPI's for £14.99 from TK Maxx, which I thought was a bit of a bargain, especially as I loved all three colours. Spark De Triomphe is a beautiful full coverage glitter, it's a mix of micro glitter and small round glitter which gives it a bit of depth. It's a mix of silver and pale gold, to my eyes it's mostly silver, but I do catch it looking champagne gold, you can see the colours better in the photos.

Blue Cross Meteorites - Young Star

Last year I got a load of Meteorite bar glitter polishes from ebay, but I've never got round to wearing them. I love bar glitters in the bottle and love having them in my collection, but I'm not alway keen on how they look on my nails, so I decided I'd get one out and see how it turned out, I was hoping I'd love it as much as I love this bar glitter.

The one I went for is Young Star, I hoped it would go well with the orange Rimmel that I wanted to try. It's a clear base full of red, gold, and silver, and a smattering of holo bar glitter.

Vintage Vault - Sally Hansen - Emerald City

As promised we're back to the vintage polish, and it's a polish I'm sure you'll love.

Sally Hansen's Emerald City is pretty old, but don't ask me how old as I haven't got a clue, but I do love old Sally's and this one has a matching handle which makes it even more special. I've got a few of these Hard As Nails Glitters, and I just can't get enough of them!

There's not much to say about this apart from it's a beautiful green glitter in a clear base. I don't have anything that's this shade of green, it's a blue leaning green which seems pretty unusal for a glitter as all the others I have are more yellow.

Photos below are with three thick coats  and a top coat.

Revlon Peachy and Sally Hansen Hidden Treasure

Today I ignored all the shimmery polishes that were calling to me and I picked out a creme as I fanced something different. The creme I picked was Peachy, a Revlon Top Speed polish, it's a pale pinky orange or orangey pink lol, it's like they took a pastel colour and added more pigment to make it a bit brighter.

My poor camera couldn't cope with the colour so I've had to adjust the photos, I really wish my camera would behave itself!

Technic - Carnival

Before we start, I have to apologise for the dreadful photos, no direct light coming into my house and the dreadful weather have reduced me to photographing swatches using artifical light and I'm not very good at doing that yet.

I love a bargain, I hate having to pay more than £4 for a polish, I've been spoiled by pound shops offering Revlon and Sally Hansens to me for a quid, I adore the polishes I find and weirdly I love them more because they were a bargain.

So with my love of a bargain I couldn't say no to buying a bottle of Technic's Carnival for a £1, I mean how could I say no to a bottle of multicoloured glitter that's a little bit like a few famous polishes with the same type of glitter? I know with more expensive brands you get a better base coat that dries quicker etc, but I can forgive a long drying time in exchange for a beautiful cheap polish, and that's exactly what Technic Carnival is, it's just beautiful.

Here's some not very good photos of it over white.

Rimmel - London Clouds

Years before I ever bought my first nail polish I remember being bored at school and painting my nails with anything I could get my hands on, hi-lighters (I've always had a thing for neon), graphite pencils, water colours and of course every teenage girls favorite, Tipp-ex (I think some countries have Wite Out instead). Tipp-ex as a polish was actually pretty bad, it stunk, it chipped real easy, and it always showed brush marks, but it was ahead of it's time by having a matt finish. ;-)

I thought Rimmel's London Clouds (from their Lasting Finish line) would look just like Tipp-ex on my nails, I actually never considered using it on it's own, I got two bottles cheap, one for frankening with and the other to use under glitters. I finally got it out to use as a layering polish during Christmas, and decided that it actually deserved a post of it's own.

 

December's Nail Polish Haul Part 3 - OPI & Barry M etc

It's part 3 of my December haul post, and I still can't believe how much polish I ended up getting, I'm so happy that my lovely fella got me polish for xmas and I also got a massive surprise when my Dad's girlfriend gave me some OPI minis. 

After christmas I popped into Sally's where I normally just lust after OPI's and then walk out with nothing, but this time they had a sale on and there was no way I could resist a bargain and I came out with a polish I never thought would sit alongside my pound shop polishes. :-)

So this post contains the most expensive polishes I got in december, but in true Heather style I didn't pay full price for any except one, and that was only £2.99!

I hope you're ready for yet more polish porn, because here it comes.....

Barry M - Ruby Glitter, Diamond Glitter, Yellow Topaz Glitter, SLE 2012 A, SLE 2012 B

Barry M Magnetics - Red Sparkle, Green Sparkle, Sparkle Gold, Multi Sparkle, Sparkle Blue, Violet

December's Nail Polish Haul Part 2 - Revlon etc

It's time for part 2 of my December polish haul, I got some great polishes, and I hope next christmas will be as good for polish as this one has been.

Today I thought I'd show you the Revlons and Rimmels I got, included are four polishes that the Revlon fairy sent me for christmas, I wanted Ruby Ribbons so bad and the lovely peeps at Revlon took pity on me and sent me some goodies, I already loved Revlon, but I love them even more now knowing that they'll do things like that for their fans.

I got all the Rimmels from pound shops, some are US ones as they're in the bigger bottles than we get in the UK, and at the bottom of the post is some polishes I've only seen in pound shops, maybe they're made especially for that market, they might be cheap, but they're like nothing I can buy in my high street and they're pretty cool.

Here's comes the bottle spam.....

Revlon - Sparkling, Blossom Chrome, Petal Chrome, Budding Chrome

Revlon - White On White, Aloof, Smoky Canvas, Hazy

December's Nail Polish Haul Part 1 - Sally Hansen

At the beginning of December I posted about all the polish I'd got in November, it was a lot, and I was pleased with the fact that everything was a bargain. Well I thought I'd do another post about what I'd collected in December, thing is I hadn't realised just how much polish I got last month, so I'm going to do it over three posts otherwise it'd be the longest post ever!

Last month I got polish from a few different sources and most was either given as a present or I used money I'd been given for xmas. Today I'm going to show you all the Sally Hansens I got. These were all £1, or 50p in a couple of cases from pound shops, and the only odd ones out were the Fire / Star Opals where I paid up to £3 via ebay, I only need one more and I think I'll have the whole set. The other polish I got that is helping to complete a collection was DVD from the HD line, I just need two more from that collection as well.

Right, let's get to it, here comes the polish porn.....

New Lengths - Gotholi, Yoyogi Park, Harajuku Station, Cosplay (Passport to Harajuku collection)

New Lengths - Fiery Red, Unlabeled, Chocolate Candy Brown, Chestnut

Revlon - Ruby Ribbon

Happy New Year!

I'm really looking forward to this year, it feels like really good things are gonna happen and i'm excited to see what adventures lie ahead.

I decided that the first polish on my nails in 2013 would be a very special one, and that special polish is Revlon's Ruby Ribbon, a little Revlon fairy sent me a parcel full of Revlon goodies and it was the best early christmas present I could have wished for as I was lusting after Ruby Ribbon like you wouldn't believe.

Ruby Ribbon is a limited edition, in the UK the only way to get one was through an offer at Superdrug, but it is available to buy in stores in the US. It's a stunning mix of red glitter, fuchsia mini bar glitter and holographic bar glitter.

I love this polish, I'm so happy I have it in my collection, it's so cool, and I still can't believe the Revlon fairy sent it to me. :-)

Please be warned that before you look at the swatches, I had a really bad break on my index nail, it snapped nearly all the way across, but I was determined to swatch Ruby Ribbon on longer nails so I did a superglue and teabag fix on it, but it's made my cuticles look nasty, sorry about that. :-)