A Makeup & Beauty Blog – Lipglossiping

I don’t do nail art very often, or even… ever, you just need to look back through my ‘nail of the day’ archives to see that.  It’s not that I don’t appreciate it, I look longingly on tumblr at all the cool kids and their striping brushes but the problem is that I’ve got an essential familial tremor.  It’s genetic – you can hear my Dad carrying a tea tray from the other side of town.  Because I’m still (fairly) young, you’d be hard pushed to notice it in everyday tasks but when it comes to something that takes skill, precision and a delicate touch… I get the shakey jakes and the more I concentrate, the worse it gets.

Which is why, I’m pretty damn impressed with my attempt at some Valentine’s themed nail art.  It’s not massively complicated and thank God for being able to play dot-to-dot with a dotting tool BUT, it took me about 3 hours to finish (stop laughing), and I feel like ronseal-ing it to my nail beds to last for all eternity.

So why on Earth am I spending frankly ridiculous amounts of time drawing not very symmetrical hearts on my nails?  Well, because John Lewis sent an email out to some bloggers, challenging them to create some eye-catching nail art using a selection of shades that they would send out for this purpose.  Here are the shades they sent me:

YSL La Laque in Sparkling Garnet | Nails Inc. Magnetic Polish in Trafalgar Square | NARS Space Odyssey | YSL La Laque in Copyright Red

Dudes, I even tried to magnetize the hearts.  Dedication.  Not that it worked very well.

I’m not sure who else is taking part in the challenge (Sophy Robson’s blogging twin knowing my luck) but the participants stand a chance at winning a £150 John Lewis voucher so I am totally trying to bring my a-game!

Good luck to my fellow nail art(istes) taking part and cheers to John Lewis (and the makeup and beauty team) for the polishes and the opportunity to play along.

Do you ‘do’ nail art?  Who are your biggest sources of inspiration?

Have magnetic polishes become the new crackle top coats yet? Are we bored of them? Nails Inc. hope not because they’ve just released their newest shade: Whitehall.

Whitehall is a teal green/blue that offers complete coverage in a single coat. Not, almost complete – fully complete. This was one of the quickest manicures I’ve done in ages, quick drying too – it literally took me around 10 minutes tops from start to finish.

I’m not sure if you can make out from the above photo but this one dried to a fairly matte finish compared to some of the other magnetic polishes I’ve tried in the past.  It’s a striking combination on the nails and I didn’t encounter any magnet mishaps – the results were pretty consistent from nail to nail.

Ultimately, this is one of the better magnetic polishes I’ve tried – I’m not sure if this shade is available cheaper from the other brands (17, FashionistA etc) but I haven’t got any moans about the Nails Inc. version!

Nails Inc. Magnetic Polish in Whitehall is available to buy online from Nails Inc. priced at £13.00 (ouch).

* press sample

…for a potential best price of £7.00 inc. shipping.

It’s currently sitting at £10 with free shipping and needs a few more buyers to achieve its full potential.

I went to Boots yesterday to try and get hold of the 17 magnetic polishes but they had nothing out except all the posters promoting it, irritated much?

My links aren’t affiliated or sponsored but I am feeling a little pepped and hopeful that BuyaPowa have gotten something so ‘on trend’ and ‘current’ on site so soon after our feedback.  Keep it up guys!

I think I need me one of these (at £7 hopefully).  How about you?

Starting this Sunday, News of the World’s Fabulous magazine will be bringing a little sunshine to what is turning out to be a rained off Summer!

Cut out and keep three differently numbered tokens over the next four weeks starting this Sunday from inside your NOTW’s Fabulous Magazine to get your mitts on this vibrant duo from Nails Inc.

Atomic and OMP! (that’s Oh My Pink!) are a pair of vibrant Summer-loving shades, guaranteed to bring out the sunglasses!

Once you’ve collected your three tokens, simply take them along to any participating Tesco Extra or Tesco supermarket to claim your freebie nail polish duo anytime between July 3-11.

Will you be collecting your first coupon this Sunday?

… collect all the new Nails Inc./Diet Coke promo shades!

I’m actually off Diet Coke at the minute… not out of choice I hasten to add.  This is one of those dietary reasonings *rolls eyes*.

However, I’m not going to let a silly little thing like that stop me from getting my hands on all four of the limited and exclusive Nails Inc. shades!

Each bottle is full size (10ml) and to get your grubby hands on one you need to buy two 500ml bottles of Diet Coke from a participating Boots store (the polishes are usually located on display stands nearby).  The promo started on Wednesday but I haven’t noticed these in my local store yet which makes me think I may have to travel into town to take advantage.

They don’t call me Dora the Explorer for nothing!  Or… actually… at all.

Which one will you be going for first?

Available today while stocks last you can purchase 5 full size Nails Inc. products for only £10! (shipping £3.95)

Your Lucky Dip order will include:

~ 1 full size Chelsea Park Gardens polish (iridescent hot pink)
~ A top or base coat polish
~ 3 additional polish shades selected at random

Click the image below to go to the deal…

If you were to buy these items separately, they’d set you back £55 – quite a saving!  Also try promo code JAN20 for 20% off non-sale items.

But that’s not all… remember October’s 10 bottle mega deal?  Well… I’m spotting another one of those in the SALE section called The Red Carpet Colour Collection.  Different colours (bar one), same deal!  10 full-size bottles for a bargainous £25!

Shop, shop, shop, shop, shop…

This is an absolutely AMAZING Nails Inc. deal!

For TODAY ONLY, you can save £85 by purchasing a set of 10 Nails Inc. polishes for only £25.

I know they occasionally have some nice deals like this…. but usually with a few dubious shades that no-one wants thrown in… not this time!

Those are 10 flippin’ lovely shades and I don’t know about you but I’d be glad to wear each of them!

Also, look at the cute box they come in… what a great Christmas present they’d make for someone special… but I’m not sure I’d be able to keep my hands off them!

Shades include:

Berkeley Square – dark grey
Eagle Street – dusky nude
Duchess Street – vibrant purple
The Vale – deep plum
Eden Grove – vibrant real
Montrose Place – iridescent hot pink
Buckingham Street – hot pink glitter
Dean Street – pillar box red
Maple Street – metallic brown
Shelton Street – gold glitter

What do you think ladies?  Are you as tempted as I am?  I’m really cursing my little eBay polish haul from last night now… my fingers are hovering and I’m wavering… God knows, I don’t need more polishes in my life but I’m not sure I can resist!

Talk me down!

** You may also want to take a quick look here before ordering if you decide to go for it – it worked when I tested it late last night**

Don’t forget ladies, you only have until the 31st August to book in and receive your £11 Nails Inc mini manicure.

The catch?  You must get yourselves and your nails down to your local Nails Inc. before 11am!

Will you be indulging in an early morning file and polish?!

If you’re a Nails Inc. facebook fan you would have seen them post their sneak preview of the Autumn/Winter shades they have in store for us!

Hello wintery cool-toned beauties!

I do have one slight “issue”…

You know when a child is doing something they shouldn’t… but it’s kinda cute and you can’t help but smile.  Except, very small children have no concept of ‘pushing their luck’ and before you know it… something that was mildly amusing becomes a source of irritation.

Ladies… I present you with ‘Grilac’.

‘Greige’ I can cope with… it rolls off the tongue.  Grilac sounds like a BBQ cleaning fluid.

Just stop it.  It’s not big, it’s not clever and it stopped being cute last February.

Grilac or no Grilac, what say you?

You like?

I love.

That’s all.

Ok… you wish…  Not even close.

Is this pastelly?  I swore off pastels in January and now feel silly ‘cos I’ve been loving them ever since!  I don’t *really* wear neon summer shades, but adore Summer blues so this is right up my street!

I’m perhaps a little bored of that Stanhope Gardens type colour (though I appreciate many can’t get enough of those minty blue shades).

The Limited Edition Nails Inc. Sorbet Collection (cute name) is out now and priced at £25 for the set.

Free on the cover of next month’s copy of InStyle magazine (£3.60)…

Choose between three shades of this season’s must have polish colours created exclusively for InStyle by popular nail brand Nails Inc.  Worth £10.50 each!

And as if that weren’t enough of an incentive… readers will also be entitled to 20% off all Nails Inc. online purchases, plus 20% off manicures and pedicures.

The June issue of InStyle is on sale from today (28th April).

A word to the wise, these sell out pretty quickly!  No prizes for guessing which one I’m nabbing tomorrow!

Will you be picking one up?  Which shade will you be going for?

I know some of you don’t dig the grey/beige thing, but every greige polish I’ve picked up thus far has suited my complexion beautifully, so I’m hooked.

This is Nails Inc’s latest offering: Lennox Gardens (£15)… and I’m in lurrrrrve.  Well I would be… if they took the stupid ‘crystals’ off and lowered the price by a fiver.

Sludgey poo in a bottle or the epitome of understated elegance, what d’ya reckon?