Children In Need Nails

On Friday there was lots of activities going on at work to raise money for Children In Need. Some of these included wearing spots, guessing the bears name and bringing in your own bear.

This was my contribution to Show your spots and let's raise lots. I thought trying to paint Pudsey was going to be too difficult so this is my attempt. Inspired by this post on Pinterest by Lick My Lacquer. 

I was going to take my paints and polish in to work and offer to do peoples nails for donations, however this manicure took ages. The Barry M polish in Yellow took three coats to get it to this consistency and application was awful.

However worth the time and lots of people complimented me on my nails, will do charity ones in future and look for quick drying quick application polishes.

My first Orly

Went to visit friends down South last weekend and had to go and visit a store called Bond Link. My friend had been telling me about this place for a while, that it was like Sally's and sold OPI and other nail varnish, along with all sorts of other beauty gubbins.

So I asked if we could go and visit and aswell as OPI they had a rack full of Orly. I don't own any Orly polishes but many Bloggers rave about the make and aside the price of OPI it's much cheaper at £6.95. There were a couple of colours I fancied but I opted for this one, it's called 'Oui' and I think it's holographic.

In some lights it looks a lovely purple and as you can see in this picture it has a lovely gold dimension to it. In other lights it looks brown or burgandy. Formula is great, went on lovely and opaque in two coats. I've been wearing for three days now with no chips and only minimal tip wear. I'm going to seek out more of this brand, very, very happy with my new polish and perfect for Christmas.

Halloween Shatter

Most pound shops are selling OPI Shatter Nail Varnishes at a fantastic 99p at the moment, and I'm taking full advantage of this. Especially as it creates such a creepy affect for Halloween.

This Black Shatter is layered over Color Club's 'Orange Attack' and topped off with Seche Vite. I have yet to try the rest for the Shatter's I purchased but you need to go and grab yourself some as most as a lot of people are selling them on eBay at the moment.

Colours you can pick up are Black, Shatter the Scales (A deep green shimmer), Super Bass (Purple), Navy, Silver, Gold, Pink and Red. I have seen some people selling a light blue shimmer shatter too, but I've not seen it in the shops. Last week I went to the Potteries shopping center in Hanley and the Pound Store there, also had a few Sinful Colors and Maybelline polishes too, so keep your eye out. 

Shatter the Scales

Another purchase from Poundland, this time a green glittery Shatter polish by OPI in the colour 'Shatter the Scales'. 

I noticed that eBay now has a flood of these Shatter Glitters from OPI being sold, so it looks like stocks may be low in any stores now.

Any-hoo I layered this lovely Green Shatter over Sally Hansens complete manicure polish called 'Dorien Grey' and overall very happy with the results. Think for Christmas this would be very festive layered over a red polish.

OPI Shatter Polishes at £1

So then, good news my nail polish lovers! I heard on the inter-tubes a rumour that PoundLand shops were selling OPI polishes. Note to self don't ask the shop assistant how much anything is...

Anyway, I checked out my local Poundland, or maybe it was PoundStretcher and no joy, but yesterday when shopping for halloween type cake decoration in the next town I popped in to the Poundland there and I FOUND some. I picked up a Black Shatter (pictured above) and a Green glitter shatter called "Shatter the Scales". They had a silver, gold and a brown/purple one too. But as I'm supposed to be on a 'NO BUY' I contented myself with just the two and picked up a couple more for chrimbo presents. But if you want to try a Shatter and you love OPI get yourself down Poundland, just don't ask how much!

OPI Berlin There Done That

So since picking up my first OPI at Duty Free on the way back from Budapest, I always make sure I have a peak in duty free when ever coming back from hol's. My recent travels have taken me to Berlin where I went to run the marathon, and on the way back I was sure to take a look at the OPI stand.

There are three or four OPI polishes I'd really like to pick up and they had a few of these at the Berlin Airport, OPI 'Ink', 'My Private Jet' and most of the new San Francisco range. However I resisted the temptation, not only as they were $12 each but I'd ordered a few more OPI polishes from the Euro Central range before I went away.

But one remaining polish I was after is 'You don't know Jacques'. So whilst looking around the Internet to pick it up at a good price, I came across OPI's Germany collection. Amongst this collection stood out the above polish called 'Berlin There Done That' which I thought very similar in shade and colour (On reflection You don't know Jacques is much darker). So I had to grab it at a very reasonable price of £7.95 with free P&P from diamondskh on eBay. 

Great polish as always from OPI and a great colour for autumn and for work. I finished the manicure off with GOSH's 'Galaxy' polish on the accent nail for a bit of sparkle. 

China Glaze Fairy Dust

After covering myself with China Glaze's 'Howl you doin' the other week I fancied a bit of sparkle. So I thought I'd try out my newly purchased 'Fairy Dust' by China Glaze. 

I thought this was a discontinued polish, but I think it is still available in the brands main range. It's a great micro-glitter polish that can add a dash of sparkle to any manicure.

Here I've used it as a topcoat over Sally Hansen's 'Thinking of Blue'. I really like the complete salon range from Sally Hansen and have bought 7 of these polishes now from eBay. Along with the above I've also bought 'Midnight an NY' which is a gorgeous black creme with tiny micro multicolored sparkles. I've not tried this polish on yet and not sure of the sparkle is going to translate on the nail, but we'll see.

The 'Fairy Dust' however does deliver! You can layer this up for more sparkle, but I think one coat is enough especially as you want to see the base colour show through. Looks great and the sparkles catch the light whether inside or out, almost giving a galaxy effect. Perfect to brighten up any manicure.