NOTD - Art of Darkness mani!

My asos delivery arrived this morning. £11.50 with free next day delivery for Scarab (Red) and Viridian (Green).  These are two luscious nail varnishes that are going to get some serious wear and for some reason they cry out to be used in a slightly off the wall kind of a way, hence the little green nail on the end - doing them all in Scarab seemed a bit of a waste!  Am now considering Viridian nail with Scarab tip.

Maybe asos had run out of really big boxes?!

Am going to take some pics with my proper camera this eve but wanted to get these up asap.

Both with top coat

 With regard to application, smooth and opaque in 2 thin coats.  Scarab brush is fantastic; narrow, straight, firm but flexible.  Viridian's is a bit crap tbh it is really really long - will try and get pic of how much longer and as a result errs on the side of moppy, would not have been impressed had I paid £13 for Viridian and got this brush, as I paid less than I would have for a Revlon polish and the colour is so stunning I am going to overlook it!  These dry to a lovely satin finish but its not til you add a top coat that they really come to life.  These feel like they are going to wear really well, I think thats down to being able to apply 2 thin coats, much less chippy than great wodges of polish.
Today is a happy nail day!

Skin care quicky

You may have read about my "travelling nose boil" every bit as attractive as it sounds!  For over a week have had an incredibly sore nose, a lump appears that is hot, hard and red and agony.  Then it moves to a different part of my nose, sometimes there was more than one, nose has been swollen and bruised looking - apparently I looked like a whisky drinker according to Steve, charming!  It does now finally seem to have subsided and I think it may be hormonal as I am at that age. oh. the. joy.  

Anyway whilst all this has been going on the roseacea has been having a bit of a field day too so I decided mid last week to kick everything into touch and only use my Avene products; Gentle cleaners, Thermal water spray, Rich recovery cream and rich anti-redness cream with a dash of Organic Surge night cream (completely love this stuff and recommend without reservation) and have not gone near my Elemis stuff.  Today as well as nose having deflated the roseacea is at the best level mine gets, I have some pink tint to my skin but no obvious red, pimply, sore skin.

   

I suspect the Elemis Pro-Collagen isn't doing me any favours, I know Welsh Beauty had a really bad reaction to it and I did wonder if I would get away with it, seems not.  But think I might conduct a scientific test, if I can be brave enough and just try the pro-collagen day and night cream on one specific area just to see what happens. 

Through all this my other wonder product has been the Clarins Gentle Peeling cream, as the skin on my nose has been stretched and swollen it has dried and peeled, this has been gentle enough to use daily just to take off the flakes so my foundation can actually help rather than draw attention to the problem, so this is something else I can recommend if you have dry, sensitive, skin and don't like a gritty facial scrub.
Right, on with the dross!

Anti redness skincare

Have decided I need to be a bit more proactive in my skincare to try and mitigate the redness that I have on my cheeks, nose and chin. As usual I have spent 40 hours googling what would work best. I am interested in the clinique stuff and the plan today was to buy an eyebrow pencil that I need and request a sample of the moisturiser just to check it would be rich enough for my very parched skin. That all went tits up as I had to take husband shopping. Need an outfit for a wedding on 29th December and every thing I showed him was either "too old" "too short" or just "too ugly". What he seems to have missed is that his old, short, ugly wife is also rather fat and so if you are having to buy a size 20 choice is limited and sometimes you have to go with if it fits buy the bloody thing and get the hell home. You have seen married couples shopping like we were today, hands in pockets, heads down, not speaking. He suggested I look in Evans. I just could not be arsed to explain that A) all Evans clothes are tat and B) for some inexplicable reason Evans make dresses up to a size 60 without freaking sleeves. Nearly everyone that I know that is either past 42 or over a size 16, or god forbid both, seriously needs to cover their arms up so why in gods name Evans make sleevless dresses is quite beyond me and it never fails to pee me off. So in complete bitch fit mode I walked into Evans with him trailing in my wake, stomped up the left side of the shop, crossed over at the top, stomped down the right side and straight back out the door without picking up or looking at a single thing. And do you know what? I think he got the message! So by the time I got to Boots I was so underwhelmed I forgot all about the eye brow pencil and the clinique sponger tactic. I grabbed a facial wax, so that even if I am fat, old and short with a red face it wont have hair on it. I also nabbed an Avene Rich anti-redness moisturiser and a small can of the Avene thermal spa water spray in lieu of toner.

I am going to Halifax for a facial with a friend on Friday and intend to do the brow pencil/sample scam and maybe pick up the Avene extra gentle cleanser too. Cant wait for Friday, Saks in Halifax is 6 years old and they are doing a terrific offer to celebrate, hot stones back of body massage, which I have been dying to try since forever - I have rheumatoid arthritis and warmth on my aged aching bones is just bliss! And then after your hot stones massage you get a mini Elemis facial, had an Elemis facial a couple of years ago with my sister and it was heavenly so this will be a real treat. £55 the lot and you get a gift bag with £40 of Elemis products to take away, far too good an offer to not indulge. So lunch in Halifax, a spot of light retail therapy, massage, facial and home for the Festival of Light in Huddersfield that evening with husband and the kids, the perfect antidote to all the stress of selling the business and moving into our new home and our new life and trying to organise Christmas when you have no idea where you are going to be living!