Off to the Trafford Centre with Em, she got a years worth of back pay yesterday - pay roll doing her saving for her! - so she is going to spend 10% and save the rest. She has promised me lunch, isn't she a huny!
Here is my wish list:
Barry M crackle polish
MAC Blushcreme in Uncommon (weird beige!)
La Roche Posay Rosaliac Fortifying anti-redness moisturiser (redness on cheeks is doing my head in so want to have a look at this range if its in Boots)
Black suede boots, have the calves of a full back and usually struggle so fingers crossed!
Oh and one last, rather weird thing! Have got a hankering for Estee Lauder White Linen perfume. For some reason the smell has been haunting me for the last 2 days, yesterday it was driving me mad, kept getting a whiff of it and although it triggered a feeling that the smell created a memory, are you still with me?, I couldn't put my finger on what the smell was or the associated memory. This morning it was happening again and then all of a sudden it came to me, the smell was White Linen. I am a little concerned that yearning for an Estee Lauder perfume is the clearest indication yet that I am officially old?? Anyway am going to have a squirt on Saturday and see what happens. Fran, I apologise in advance and promise not to wear this if I am with you as I know you HATE it!
Actually I'd be interested to hear about your "scent memories". As everyone knows fragrance is very evocative - for Em Thierry Mugler's Alien is instantly the Emerald Hotel, Perth WA as it is what I wore every day we were in Australia, she only has to walk past some one wearing it and she says "Emerald Hotel, Perth" which I think is lovely. Do you have a scent memory? If so what is the perfume or smell, if its not a perfume, that triggers it and where are you the instant you smell it? I think my most powerful is honeysuckle, I am instantly 6 in bed, in the bungalow in St Keverne and its a warm summers evening and still light (being little I was in bed early!), the honeysuckle ran up past my bedroom window and on a warm evening, with the window open my bedroom was full of the smell of it. If you have a scent memory please share as I'd love to hear about it.
After reading Leanne's post on the Body shop Monoi Miracle Body Oil I decided I needed to make a detour to check it out, in spite of seriously limited funds at the moment! The oil is lovely but I have a feeling that the one they had on display had been sat open for some time as it had a slightly unpleasant petrolly whiff to it which rather masked the "holiday" smell that Leanne was getting from hers. Did pick up a travel mini of the Aloe calming cleanser - my £10 bottle has run out and like I send being careful with the pennies so a travel size bottle for £3 was perfect not least because I am away for work next week.
Whilst I was in the The Body Shop I spotted a fantastic nail gizmo - am probably years behind everyone on this and you have all been using them for ages, but in case not this is a heads up! In their Almond hand care range they have a fab Almond nail and cuticle oil, it comes in a pen with a brush and you turn the base to load the brush and then run it round your cuticles and nails. Mum bought me something similar ages ago which I kept on my desk and used religiously, as she said something about using the brush to apply and then massage in the oil seemed to really help and of course its quick and non-messy. So all great so far but nothing outrageously fab, where this item got kudos from me is that instead of just having a cap on the brush it is fitted with a good sturdy plastic hoof, like those flimsy ones you get on the old traditional hoof stick which frankly never seemed to achieve much in my opinion, although to my shame I have been known to use some pretty dreadful things in an attempt to shift my cuticles including an old false nail and the edge of the nail cleaner on a pair of metal nail clippers, isn't that awful? I always use an orange stick because they work I have always felt the proper hoof stick rubber tip didn't quite do the trick but as I say the one on the Body Shop nail oil looks much sturdier. This costs £7 which seems like a bargain to me - she says moving her half litre of olive oil that cost £1.50 to one side!
I do have to confess to a couple of purchases today - a Rimmel nail varnish in a light teal/turquoise called Sky High, a real splurge on Paul Mitchell Relaxing hair balm my excuse being that I have bendy hair that drives me insane and only good styling products will do the trick!! and some Sally Hansen Acetone free nail polish remover, used up the last of the Co-Op cheapo stuff last week and am paying the price; the skin is quite literally peeling off of my hands, ouch.
This is Sky High - taken with flash because it's beyond dreary outside!
I tried to tweak the colour to show you that its much more of green turquoise than a blue one.
And just to prove that even though I have the Barry M turquoise, it leans blue and this leans green so I did NEED it!!
Although that photo would suggest otherwise!
And a quick update on Barry M blues - just for comparisons sake:
L-R: Pale Blue, Cyan Blue, Turquoise
A post without photo's is like, well loads of stuff really; toast without butter, Coke without ice, Bank holiday without sunshine, you know what I mean - I have worked all day, one of the joys of being freelance is that I can work today and then take a day off later in the week when the sun is shining.
So here it is, Barry M Cyan Blue, it's another keeper, although if I am honest it is giving me the boiled beef fingers of terror. But right now I love it enough that I am prepared to over look that! It is a really bright blue and the finish on this is one of the best I have had with a Barry M - opaque in 2 coats and very smooth. I did a 3rd hasty coat for the photos and the brush marks you can see are from rushing, no top coat.
As you can see I have had a bit of a "self destruct" moment - when I have more than 2 glasses of wine for some reason I go into self destruct mode and decide that biting my nails isn't a vile habit that makes me cry but actually a lovely way to spend an evening. Luckily I caught myself just in time and dashed off to grab my glass file and sort them out before I could make it any worse. Still woke up in a cold sweat the next morning to check the damage in the cold light of day. I am convinced that there are no ex-nail biters, we just aren't biting them at the moment.
Isn't it lovely - this is taken outside on the greyest of bank holidays.
My mum sent me a pressie this weekend, she and my sister have been using Sally Hanson natural shine which is chock full of vitamins and minerals. Mum has very similar nails to me, or actually I have very similar nails to her - its genetic and she had them first! They flake and peel and we both suffer from a complete inability to not make a flake worse, even though we know how awful we are going to feel when we have done it. She is taking Perfectil and reckons they have really helped her nails but also thinks using Natural Shine has done its bit in terms of keeping the nail itself nourished and thought I might like to try it, hugs mum! I put 2 coats of this on, under my base coat and as I said this is the best Barry M application I have had so maybe it helped? You are supposed to use the nail shine on clean nails without polish but I just cant do the no polish thing so hoping that sealing all those nourishing things on my nail with nail varnish will make it work even better!
I am still massaging in lashings of olive oil too to see if that helps, it seems to be helping my cuticles so lets hope that in 3 months I will have nice strong nails - what seems even more unfair is that I don't even want long nails, just nice non-flaking, all the same length short healthy nails - not too much to ask is it?
Idea for a future post from Fran, cheers hen!, what would be your "Desert Island essential". If you were going to be ship wrecked which one beauty product would you be glad you had stashed in your bikini? Email me your absolute, can't live without, must have essential!
Have SOOOO much that I need to post and have been working like a loon this week so no time to take photos or write interesting and witty things on my blog. Am planning a post on the Charles Worthington Dream Hair range - love and on my new hairbrush - bigger love and one of the Boots Expert serum that I mentioned in the News Flash email! So loads to do but as a brief respite from putting tractors on the tractorpool website thought I would take a quick pic of my latest purchase - Barry M Pale Blue. Am really after a very pale baby blue but am not prepared to fork out yet for an Essie one yet, always worried that these pale ones will give me hands that look like boiled beef!
This is the Pale Blue with flash - and without hand cream or cuticle oil. Yak. Sorry about that, was in the kitchen keeping the dog quiet whilst Steve checked in some guests and thought I should multi task and do the photo whilst I was there - of course all my nail stuff is on my desk and so you have knarly cuticles to enjoy! So yea pale blue with flash. Not quite the pale blue of my dreams but for £2.95 not bad!
Pale Blue sans flash. Also sans focus! But in lieu of cuticle oil had slapped on a tad of the Kelly Brook shimmering body lotion that I found in the cupboard - hence the weird sparkly bits and when I realised that looked pants dipped a tad of vege oil round them! The glamour round here is never ending don't you think!!
Just previewed this - that photo is pants, sorry about that. Oh and must mention have taken nails right back as flaking was out. of. control. so they look rather more nubby than I like!
Ok further post edit update - had to re-do those photos and still not happy, couldn't handle hideous cuticles on first and am still freaked by out of focus 2nd. I instantly switch off from nail blogs with crap photos, whats the point? So please bear with me and in future I wont bother with the multi tasking thing, this is clearly not something to be done in a hurry!
Now off to nurse my poor shoulder - fantastic camera but it has a focal length of about 2 inches longer than my arm actually is so I have to wedge camera into face and twist to the right whilst pushing my left arm as far forward as is humanly possible and then hold this whilst the camera focuses! The agonies I go through for my blog!
Watch this space loads more to come.
Finally last night got round to sorting out my poor nails. Have a very serious casualty on my right hand having done a bit of hand to headboard combat changing the bed in Room 7 on Friday, its fair to describe it as a stub. So no choice had to be pale nail varnish, cant have vampy dark nails that are stubs unless you are actually a goth.
Actually am seriously into the very on trend pastel nail varnishes at the moment which is new for me, normally much prefer a darker polish.
This is a No. 17 nail varnish from their new Candy Collection, this one is Parma Violet and I love it!
Have gone over to the cheaper polishes recently after some real disappointments with more expensive stuff. Bought a gorgeous Bloom purple shimmer which applied like a dog - streaky, sloppy, just vile and it cost £8. Managed to get a reasonable coat on once and someone saw it and comment on how nice it was and then said "is it a Barry M?"!! Imagine my horror, Barry M - make-up for 12 year olds, I don't think so love. Then I got over being a complete nail varnish snob and had a look at the Barry M nail paints and was amazed - bought Racing Green - deep, sparkly Emerald, sparkling purple (much better than the Bloom equivalent) and one other that I cant remember and was instantly a convert - 3 polishes for £9! Went home and chucked the Bloom in the bin! Have since bought Barry M Raspberry, Mint Green, Turquoise and Cobalt Blue and love them all. Em is currently sporting a fab manicure of alternate nails done in Mint Green, Turquoise and the Parma Voilet as above, seriously on trend for Spring - will try and add a photo later!
Notice Em's hands not quite feeling the love. Those poor poor cuticles!
Decided to pull out all the stops and do a full manicure last night. So first cuticle removal, use Boots Expert cuticle removing cream, its nice and gritty and you can give your nails a good buff with it too before gently pushing back your cuticles with an orange stick. Good wash to get that off and then a slide round with a glass nail file, always glass never those nasty gritty disposable ones which just shred your nails - have a Ruby and Millie one and its the one nail product I think is worth paying for, flipping expensive at £13 but they last ages (provided lumox of a husband doesn't stand on the damn thing) and can be washed to keep them nice and hygienic! Such a fine finish they actually leave a gloss on your nail tips so you know it is helping to seal the layers, v important if like me your nails flake. I used a Nail Dr's base coat that acts as a ridge filler to hide the worst of the damage where my nails have flaked. The nail varnish is well pigmented so its opaque in two coats, but needs both to even out its slight streakiness. Then topped the whole lot off with a coat of Boots Expert Strengthener and ran a bit of Boots Expert nail and cuticle oil around the cuticles. All done!
I am a huge fan of the Boots Expert range, all the nail products I have used have been fab and are generally considerably cheaper than other similar products. I also keep a tube of the lip balm in my skin care bag and religiously apply a slap of that after toner and before serum and moisturiser - I give my lips a bit of a massage with it each morning, gets the blood flowing and seems to help plump them up a bit, never a bad thing!
And to finish a nail varnish top tip - if you do your mani in the evening and wake up to sheet prints on your nails dont panic! Whack on a quick coat of clear polish and wola glossy, smooth nails with no sheet marks!
Any nail top tips you want to share - god mad, knock yourselves out, its good to share!
