I Won! Contest Prize!

Does anyone remember me entering That's So Fresh's Spring Manicure contest? Well....I won! Wooo hooooooo! I found out a while back, but wanted to have received my prize before letting you all know!

I entered with this freehand Manicure, created before I got any tools, so the whole thing is done with a toothpick and nail art pens: -

 

You can see the whole post on this, HERE.

So I won! How exciting! I was absolutely over the moon when I heard, that was the end of Uni work for the day! 

The prize was a $50 coupon for www.wowsocool.com, a great online supplier of Konad and Nail Art products.Unfortunately, because I live over here in the UK, I had to pay $10 shipping - which I used part of my coupon for, as I'm not exactly minted right now! If you're in the USA or Canada it is free shipping over $20, however. I didn't mind, as it still left me $40 to spend on some stamping stuff :D Here is what I received, it took about 2 weeks to arrive, and was well packaged - no spillages!

Read about these nails tomorrow :D

I picked a selection of Konad Special Polishes for stamping, a yellow because it's difficult to get a regular yellow polish that's opaque enough for stamping, a black because it's an essential, and green and red because they're primary colours and bound to come in handy! I didn't go for any pastels because I can mix them myself (see how HERE).
I also selected M57, beacause I'm curious to test out stamping leopard prints vs. freehanding them. I know you will get a fishnet design on the new set of Bundle Monster plates due to be released, but I wanted it :D and the little flowers are sweet. I bought M29 because, let's face it, who DOESN'T want a pineapple on their nails? Exactly.
All in all, I'm thrilled to have won, because it's given me the opportunity to own some proper stamping equipment, instead of making do with what cheapo stuff I can find in the shops (God, Cinderella much?). Very excited to be trying it all out soon - a MASSIVE thank you to April at That So Fresh! Check out her blog if you havent already, her nails are amaaaziingngng.

xxx

Nails Inc Lucky Dip Haul

Evening All! Sorry for the lack of post yesterday, I moved back to Nottingham from my my Uni house in Birmingham. Our postman in Birmingham must be some kind of crazy person, shoving all kinds of mail into our letterbox, just for funsies, as we very rarely receive the mail we are after in Brum. Because of this, I always get internet shopping sent to my Nottingham home - this means that I had a pretty good stash built up for me to open today! Yay! It was like my freaking birthday! Plus, you always get loads of bubble-wrap, which is half the reason I was excited - pop, pop, popppopopppp
My Nails Inc Lucky Dip Package was one of them, here are the polishes I received:-

From left to right we have:

• UV Topcoat and Basecoat - This was the only 'guaranteed' polish you received in the offer, and claims to lighten and brighten the nails, and protect from staining - can't wait to try out and review this one, as it's a bold claim!
• "Shoreditch High Street" - This is a deep raspberry colour, and I'm actually curious to see how it compares, colour-wise, with Barry M Raspberry, as they look very similar in the bottle.
• "Augustus Street" - This is a medium grey with a lovely, pearly silver shimmer and really shocked me when I tried it and it was Suede!  I don't mind the matte finish, but I wasn't expecting it. It was the first one I tried, and although a fan of matte polishes, I added a topcoat to restore the shimmer.
• "Upper Street" - a muted Turquoise cream, excited to try this one, especially as a base for some nail art - under the sea, anyone?!
• "Hans Road" - I really can't decide if its Red, Orange or Pink. It's got a fierce shimmer to it - not really my favourite type of polish, but it's definitely the most interesting one I received.
• I also had an eBay-purchased bottle of Seche Vite waiting for me - there really isn't enough good things to be said about the Holy Grail of all topcoats, it's haaamazing. SV dries so incredibly fast, protects against chipping like an absolute trooper, and has the most perfect glass-like, high-shine finish. GET YOURSELF ONE (if you don't already!)
• Sally Hansen "No More Breaks" - in an attempt to strengthen my weak, peely nails :( Anyone tried this? Is it any good?
• Came across a cheap Konad Special Polish on eBay and, as it's a staple polish for anyone into stamping, snapped it up - I've been struggling to find a regular high street white polish that is opaque enough to stamp with, for my liking.

So there we go! I have only tried Augustus Street and Seche Vite so far, but I'll be swatching them for you over the course of the week. All in all, I was pleased with the polishes I got in the lucky dip, would've been nice to see some paler colours, nudes or pastels, but I suppose that's why they call it a Lucky Dip! You can't choose! For the bargain that they were (£10 for the lot), I am not turning my nose up at them.
I also got a pack of 15 Nail Art brushes from eBay, they look great, ranging from fan brushes right down to the tiniest paintbrush and dotting tool you've ever seen! So long, toothpick, I'm a profesh now!

 As I previously mentioned, I tried Augustus street - sorry I didn't swatch it while it was still suede, I was too eager to get stamping and try out Seche Vite!

Sorry for the rubbish photography, I've not worked out the best place, with the light, is in my Notts house!

I stamped from BM21 using Claire's Black Nail Art Pen (Striper) and free-handed in the black tips with the same. Topped off with Seche Vite, the effect is smooth, hard and SO shiny! Love!

I got some Fimo Canes too, I'm a bit skeptical, but will definitely give them a try: -

Just a selection of the 100 I ordered - like the look of the fruities!

Which of the Nails Inc would you like to see next? Will you be partaking in the Lucky Dip offer next time it rolls around? 

Hologram Hexogram - chunky chunky glitter!

Hola everyone! As I mentioned yesterday, I used a different topcoat over the Barry M Boots Ltd Edition on my right hand. This is two (thickish) coats of Barry M hologram Hexograms, with a bit of shuffling around to get the glitter evenly spaced:-

This glitter is amaaazing, it shines beautifully in the light - I chose to show you photos with the flash on though because its a more accurate portrayal of the base colour - it's a really lovely purple. I really wanted to keep this on a bit longer, I loved the sparkle! Despite having to use quite thick layers of this topcoat, it still dried pretty quickly.
Here's a blurry pic so you can better see the holographic hexs!

These polishes from the last couple of days have been from a few new ones I got on Friday - they have some great offers on in Boots at the moment, I rarely buy any new polishes unless they're on a special. Here is what I picked up:-

You can see the Hexogram, 17 crackle and Barry M purple that I've already shown you, but I also picked up another Rimmel Fruity, this time in Apricot Punch, a Lime Green Collection 2000 polish (I'm going to experiment with a shimmery topcoat to see if I can create my very own Illamasqua Radium haha) which I got free with the lighter foundation that I needed to match my Pasty Jane face. I also got a 17 polish in Orange Soda - I'm really drawn to the corals at the moment, it looks like! I can't wait to do some swatches and Nail Art with them for you!

I hope you all had wonderful weekends xxxxxxxxx

Matte Gun-metal and mini-haul

As I promised you yesterday, here is what I picked up on my trip to town :

The offer in Claire's is 4 polishes for £7.50, and I just can't resist EVERY TIME! The challenge isn't staying away, its deciding which four to buy! Claire's polishes also don't have names so I'll describe them for your viewing pleasure.  From top left to bottom right, these are:

• MUA B6
• MUA 43
• Miss Sporty "Taxi!" - bright neon yellow with veeeery subtle shimmer
• Claire's Jade Green
• Claire's shimmery topcoat, very fine silver shimmer
• Claire's, this is a matte Bronze
• Claire's Matte Gun-metal Silver.
• The fabric it's sitting on is my new dress from forever 21! I'm wearing it out tonight, its very colourful :D

Here are some swatches of the Matte Silver. It actually looks gorgeous as it goes on, it's got a lovely shimmer to it, which seems a waste in a matte polish. Because of this its more of a suede finish, but I think I might try and play around with this one, see if I can put that shimmer back in!

I broke the corner of my index fingernail yesterday, and it's really bugging me! It's not that noticeable, but it keeps happening! If I remedy-file them anymore, I'll end up with an oval shape haha!
Stay tuned for more swatches of this haul, what do you think to this matte silver?