Fab, Friendly Fridays

This afternoon I am introducing Fab, Friendly Fridays.

Every Friday I am going to mention five posts by five bloggers which have caught my eye and have enjoyed reading over the past week. 

For my first Fab, Friendly Friday I would like to give a shout out to these five bloggers:

Meredith from Polish and Charms did a great post called Milani Gems over black, looking at all the glitter made me really want to crack open a glitter polish myself. Milani Gems looks amazing over a dark base, the glitter particles really stand out.

Next up is Nail Crazy whose title for a nail polish post made me laugh, Poop on my nails....according to my son. The polish in question was a mustard-ish shade from Catherine Arley and it is a holographic polish. She took lots of great pictures which showed off the glistening holo effect. Gorgeous.

Nicole from Noir Lacquer is not only a fellow blogger, but ever since our first swap a while back I regard her as a friend. We stay in touch via e-mail and it is such a great thing to have met someone who I get on so well with. This one of the reasons why I love blogging, the people you meet and friends you make. Nicole is currently doing the 31 day nail challenge, I love her post called Brown & Blue Polka Dots.  The two shades just work so well together and this was the first time she had used a dotting tool, the whole mani just looks amazing.

Allie from Lush Lacquer did a post called Revlon - Facets of Fushia I have never come across this Revlon shade before, but it is a great purple glittery polish. Different sizes of purple glittery particles suspended in a dark base. Allie then applied a matt top coat which made the manicure look even better. I am now on the hunt for this polish!

Bicky from Tastes Like Glitter was one of the very first bloggers I looked up to, she inspired me  to set up my own blog. She was my first follower too. I love Bicky's blog posts, she does amazing make up and nail posts, but recently she has been posting about her cats and life in general which is great. I loved the post she did called Holo Tips. She painted her nails with China Glaze IDK and then did French tips with China Glaze LOL. Drool! I love those holographic polishes. 

And this is what Fab, Friendly Fridays is all about!

I have just realized that all my choices this week are nail posts! That wasn't intentional!

What do you think of my idea for my weekly post?

First freehand leopard

I love love love the leopard design Konad has, I have used it countless times, but I wanted to see how I would cope with attempting to do a freehand leopard print manicure. This is how it came out, this is my first time trying to do a freehand leopard print...

My other half tells me it doesn't look like leopard print, but the coloured dots look like bugs and the black looks like bug wings! So he says my manicure looks like I have butterflies on them. Not quite the look I was going for. I think the black leopard spots are a bit too thick around the coloured dots, but I wasn't too upset with my first efforts.


I started off painting my nails with two coats of Barry M Mint Green.

Next up using a dotting tool, I painted odd sizes of pink (Nina Ultra Pro in Punki Pink) green (Barry M in Spring Green) and orange (Barry M in Block Orange) I find it easier to pour a bit of polish from each bottle out, rather than trying to get a glob from each colour and dotting using the brush.

Then (again, using a dotting tool) I tried to draw the leopard print spots around the coloured dots.

To finish I  applied China Glaze fast forward top coat.

Hopefully leopard print is one of those nail art techniques which I can get better at with a few more practices! 

Models Own, Beetlejuice

I came across an exciting piece of news and just had to share this right now!

Models Own are launching a new nail polish collection called Beetlejuice which consists of 5 new duochromes/multi tonal polishes. Look at these amazing specimens. Drool!

This is how Models Own sum up what the new colours in this range are:

''GOLDEN GREEN, a fresh energetic acid; PINKY BROWN, a warm rusty pink; PURPLE BLUE, a vibrant punch of fuchsia indigo; AQUA VIOLET, a true sky shimmer; and EMERALD BLACK, a bold-blackened midnight peacock''.

These will be available early November and will cost £5, which is what all their polishes cost (apart from the Pro range which are around £8) and according to Models Own's facebook wall will be available exclusively from their website.

I can't wait to try these out, I love the look of Nubar's duochrome polishes but they are more expensive, £5 seems such a bargain for a 'drugstore' brand.

Picture: From Models Own Facebook wall

Dot and Flick

Another item was sent to try out by the Andrea Fulerton nail art line was the Dot and Flick nail art double ended pen. Pull the lid off and there is a very fine nib which would be used to create dots and other patterns. Unscrew the other section and there is a very long, very fine striper brush.

This is the manicure I came out with:

The base is Cyan Blue by Barry B, a gorgeous shade, love it! Now on to the Andrea Fulerton nail art pen.

See how fine both the brush is and the dotting tool nib? I found to use the striper brush a little tricky, but maybe that is because I have never used one before, or done any freehand nail art. The width of the brush was perfect in order to create thin, precise lines, but because it was so long I found it hard to control. 

For my first attempt at freehand nail art I wanted to keep things simple, so I just painted four lines starting from the corner of each nail. I think my accuracy is much to be desired but it is my first try. From far away I think it looks acceptable, I definitely need more practice using this art pen. The black polish which came out of the tool was a good consistency, just the right amount of product came out too.

To finish off I used some Juicy Jules by Models Own in the corner where the four black lines meet. The dot and flick art tool costs £4.99 and you can get it from Superdrug.

Red block orange crackle

I wanted to use my new Barry M polish Block Orange in a manicure, it is very bright which I love. A bright creme which applied smoothly and was good to go in two coats. I alternated this with a red Wet'n'Wild polish and then put a single coat of Barry M crackle over the top.

I love the way these two colours compliment each other, bright and summery. I was in a bit of a rush and didn't have time to Konad so I grabbed a black crackle and popped this over the top.

Beatrice Butterflies

I hadn't used any Konad bits for a while, I didn't fancy a full nail design so I opted for butterflies....

I used two coats of Beatrice by Andrea Fulerton and stamped using Konad special polish in white. The plate is from Art Deco and is A95. After I had stamped the butterfly design I applied China Glaze fast forward top coat, which I think I like more than Seche Vite. My bottle of Seche Vite has gone very gloopy and stringy, there isn't much left, I probably will buy a new bottle at some point but for now I am happy with CG fast forward as it doesn't give that annoying shrinkage at the tips.

Shopping and food, great combination

Over the weekend I went to Birmingham with the other half and a friend, the main reason for the trip was to go to Gamefest 2011 at the NEC. Gamefest is a convention/exhibition showcasing all the new game releases, xbox, Playstation, Wii and other companies were there and you could play demos of games due to be released in 2012. I have to admit, this was not my suggestion to go, but it was fun seeing something different.

Seeing as we were so close to the Bullring, we couldn't not go shopping! I only bought a couple of bits:

Barry M nail polishes in Block Orange and Cyan Blue and Famous by Sue Moxley in Dark Chocolate and17 Eye Dazzle in Over The Rainbow. I also bought some more polishes but these are for an up and coming swap with Nicole at Noir Lacquer, some of which she doesn't know I have bought, so I won't put pictures up as I don't want to ruin the surprise. I also got an eye shadow brush as it was so cheap, 75p infact!

I also bought a couple of tops from Forever 21 but they are in the wash at the moment. I was impressed by Forever 21, it was three levels and the amount of choice was insane and the price range was very affordable. I could easily have spent all day in there.

We had lunch at Nandos which was fab!

Also the other half wanted donuts so we indulged in Krispy Creme goodies, I don't normally like donuts but the chocolate one was more like a cake, so I enjoyed that. It was expensive though!

Andrea Fulerton - Beatrice

I hope you have all had a good weekend? I went up to Birmingham, Saturday was spent shopping, Sunday was spent at a video games convention/ exhibition. I will do another post on that soon though.

I recently received some Andrea Fulerton nail polishes to try out, I was eager to try out Beatrice  the most. This colour really stood out to me because it is primarily a deep purple but then in the right light it had glimmers of red with blue lurking round the the edges of the bottle.

Painted on the nail it is a rich burgundy shade in most lights, but other times it does lean more towards purple, unfortunately the flashes of other colours didn't show on the nail. 

See how it now looks more purple here than the picture above?

I really like this polish, it is a great autumn/winter shade and I don't think I own anything else like it. The polish itself applied well, I found the first coat was quite streaky but a second coat smoothed everything out. The brush is thin which I prefer as I find it easier to apply the varnish, thicker brushes such as Nicole by OPI I find tricky to work with.

These pictures are taken without a topcoat, for me the shine of the finish of the polish is fantastic, especially in the final picture.

These bottles of polish are around £4.99 and Superdrug stock the range. Have you tried any of the polishes from Andrea Fulerton? I have a couple more bits to try out so some more reviews are on their way.

Quick and easy office make up

Recently for work I have been playing around with using different colours over a liquid black eye liner. This time I have been opting for Barry M dazzle dust in lilac. 

After applying my usual base of Maxfactor Smokey eye effects in white I applied Sin by Urban Decay all over by lid. 

Then lined my upper lash line using a Smashbox black liquid eyeliner and waited for it to dry, next I apply the dazzle dust over the top on a damp angled brush.

I like the way having a different shadow over of the black liquid liner can be a quick and simple yet colourful way of jazzing up office (or everyday) makeup. Having a splash of colour makes a refreshing change to having it all over the lid.

A bargain! - Jewellery sales

I hope everyone is having a good week? I am enjoying a few days off, although I had a water bill come through today for £270 for the quarter! I am currently conducting a leak test seeing as all our other bills up until now have been over £100 cheaper, so something isn't right!

The other day whilst shopping in town I picked up some great jewellery bargains, some bits for me, others I have stocked up on for Christmas presents for friends. 

I don't own a long necklace! So I snapped this one up from BHS, £2 reduced from £10! I really like this one, it is quite simple with a few amber beads and silver rosettes dotted around.

Another great bargain from BHS was this stretch flower ring, again I don't own a cocktail statement ring, I usually wear delicate pieces but felt like something a little different. This one was £2 reduced from £10. 

Then some dangly earrings from Accessorize, these were reduced to £1.30 (from I think £6, the shop assistant tore the original price sticker off) I got a few more pairs of these for Christmas presents for friends. I asked the shop assistant for some extra pink tissue to do my own wrapping.

Have you picked up any great jewellery bargains lately?