A Punki Pink Mysyical Dragon

I hadn't used any dotting tools in a while, but now my nails are starting to get a bit more length I whipped one out and did a quick and simple diagonal design.

I used two coats of Mystical Dragon by FashionistA, this is the only polish I have from this brand and I bought it from Superdrug months and months ago. I do love this polish, it applies so smoothly and dries fast. 

Then using my trusty dotting tool I dotted in Punki Pink by Nina Ultra Pro, a wonderful neon pink. I got this from Sally's a while ago and it is one of the brightest pinks I own, it is stunning! Such a great summer shade.

Playing around with Matte

Up until now I hadn't tried a matte top coat and was curious to give it a try, so I picked up Rimmel London Lycra Pro Matte Finish. I applied two coats of Rimmel London's Aqua Cool, a gorgeous lilac blue shade followed by a coat of Wet n Wild Party Of Five Glitters and I finished with the matte top coat. This is what I was left with.

I have found a new love, this Rimmel Aqua Cool, such a gorgeous blue...

Then with Party Of Five Glitters and matte top coat

Have you used many matte topcoats? What do you reckon?

Bath and Body Shop UK

Bicky from Tastes Like Glitter let me know about Bath and Body Shop - an online shop selling some American bath and beauty products, brands include Bath and Body Works, Slatkin and Co and Lip Smacker as well as some UK brands. I ordered some antibacterial hand gels (Pocketbac), a candle and some soap. 

The order arrived quickly and came in cute wrapping:

I had used soaps from Bomb Cosmetics before and loved them so I ordered some more, Sweet Surrender, Foaming Fudge and Mellow Marshmallow. (The soaps were £2.49 per slice)

I then ordered a mini Slatkin and Co candle in Twisted Peppermint (£2.99) and some Pocketbac hand gels in Caramel Apple, Blueberry Cake Donut and Chocolate Creme Donut.

I did have an issue with my order though, two items were missing, so I emailed the company that evening, not expecting a response till the morning. Ten mins later I receive an apologetic email but also one item which was missing they had run out of, so I had to choose another. The two missing items were delivered within days, I was impressed. Even though there was an issue with my order the problem was resolved quickly. 

I would def say check this out if you are in the UK and want to try out some American brands as well as some well know British brands at a slightly cheaper price. The Pocketbacs are amazing, I have become hooked on them ever since Nicole at Noir Lacquer started sending me some in our swaps and Christmas presents (this site has a small selection but they are good to try)

http://www.bathandbodyshop.co.uk/

An Evergreen Plum

I was browsing the local pannier market and came across a lady selling makeup and lots of nail polish. She had lots of brands, some well known and others I hadn't heard of before. I picked up a Revlon (I will do another post on that) and a plum crackle polish by Saffron London. 

Here is the plum crackle polish over Models Own in Evergreen:

I am a big fan of Models Own nail polishes and Evergreen is one of my fav greens in my polish collection, it applies so well and is eye catching and bright.

I had said before that I probably wouldn't buy crackle polishes in different colours but this plum colour just grabbed my attention on the market stall and I hadn't heard of the brand before so thought I would give it a try. I actually quite like the plum and green combination.

Saffron London crackle polish does shatter really well, the breaks show off the base colour just enough.

MaxFactor - Fantasy Fire

I stumbled across MaxFactor Fantasy Fire whilst flicking through some blogs, the name stood out to me before the pictures did. I then read that some people are comparing it to the rare and expensive Clarins 230 polish. Then I went into town and picked up a bottle Fantasy Fire (£3.99)

Hope you are ready for lots of pictures! 

This is a sheer polish, I started painted a nail and knew straight away it would take multiple coats to reach a solid colour so I layered it over China Glaze Coconut Kiss.

Two coats of Coconut Kiss and two coats of Fantasy Fire:

Fantasy Fire is a shimmering duochrome polish, mostly purple and blue tones, but in other lights it has golden, green and amber lacing through it. Stunning. I would definitely say layering this over a blue or purple is the way to go, it would take several layers if used by itself, the bottle is tiny so you would use it up very fast.

17-Magnetized polish in Lilac

I am still working my way through the four shades of 17 Magnetic polish and today I have the shade Lilac to show.

I do like this but not as much as the teal shade. Some of the girls at work noticed the patterns and were intrigued as to what polish I was wearing. I did notice this one started to chip after a day of wear which is annoying (even with a top coat) and I have read from other blogs they noticed tip wear after a day or so too. 

I hate it when you spend time with a process like this for the polish to chip after a day.

Tisty Tosty and Northern Lights

Mum popped a couple of Lush products in my stocking for Christmas, I love it when other people pick out soap and bath treats because it means I try products I may not have picked out myself. The first item is Tisty Tosty, a heart shaped bath bomb.

I broke this in half (like I do with most Lush bubble bars/bombs etc to make them last longer) and popped into the bath. It fizzed around whist making the water turn cloudy and milky and the dried rose heads floated around on the surface. The smell wasn't that strong for me, it was a subtle rose scent. I don't really find bath bombs do much for me in the way of moisturizing properties, I prefer bubble bars or bath melts. 

As always with so many items from Lush, you spend time relaxing in the bath, then once the water has drained you then have to spend time fishing all the bits from the bottom. So if you don't mind picking soggy bits of rose petals from the plughole this is a good product if you like to have subtle scented bath water.

The next item is a generous sized chunk of Northern Lights soap. I tried this a month or so ago when I got a sample of it when I was buying Snow Fairy and my fresh face masks.

I loved the sample of this soap, the smell for me is very fresh and sharp, think citrus almost. I will definitely be cutting this bar up into chunks to leave in the bathroom. I tend to alternate my soaps and I don't want to go through this big piece all in one go, I want to get a few different bars out of it. For this chunk the main colours are yellow and orange, but I have seen other people post about their NL soap and theirs has neon green too. Such a pretty looking soap whist having a wonderful fresh scent. Happy bunny.