Playing with my nail wheel...

Seriously such a fun purchase!  I am completely abusing them, layer over layer of nail varnish!  But hey, that's what they're for isn't it?!  Be warned: this is going to be very photo heavy...

It all began after wearing Not Like The Movies, I wondered what it would look like over black.  I will just say this now, please excuse the macro cat hairs in some of these photos, it's so gross!!! But that's what happens when you have cats - hairs everywhere!

This is one coat of Not Like The Movies over one coat of black:

I think it's rather nice!  It gives it a totally different look, much more edgy.

Then, I was wearing Luxe Lavender (Avon - not CF), and wondered what it would look like with Last Friday Night over the top, but I didn't want to put it over my newly done nails in case it was ugly!  I added LL to my nail wheel and applied Last Friday Night on top.  It was beside two other blue colours so I decided to give them a wee go too!  Here are how they turned out:

On the left is O.P.I. Russian Navy - I love this combination! - then the middle one is Barry M Navy (they may look familiar from my 8 favourite nail varnish swatches post!).

Also I wondered what Last Friday Night would look like by itself - meh!  It doesn't actually look too bad there, I think that is 3 coats, but I don't think it would look good on a bare nail.

While I was at it, I put one coat of Teenage Dream over Barry M Raspberry, it's quite pretty! Again using the colours from the previous post!

I am so proud of this one!  How lovely does it look!?  I used the majority of my cream finishes, by various different companies, and made a little colour chart thing!  If you want to know the names of any of these ones just let me know and I can find out for you.

There are a few other colour combinations I want to try out, especially after my wee haul, but I will leave it here for now and do another one later on!  Hope you've enjoyed looking at the pretty pictures/HD cat hairs...

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NOTD: My Favourite Colour

I've mentioned this before but I love orange! I think my obsession started almost a year ago and just seems to stayed with me. I was planning for my next nail colour to be orange - the Barry M one - but I went shopping yesterday and couldn't resist this neon polish! This is Orange Knockout by China Glaze.

Okay, I have NO idea why this was so difficult to photograph, oh my god! It kept showing up a completely different colour from what it is in 'real life'. It's still not perfect, but my camera is not of the best quality so I'm afraid this will have to do for now!

The yellow tone which is showing up is not visible in person, I think it must be flash reflecting back, but I need to use the flash or it goes blurry (don't even go there, either it's me or the camera which is shit, I have no idea!). Anyway, I don't love how the colour is quite translucent - you can see my nail tips through it - so I might try it using a while base and see if that makes it any better. The formula is quite thin and I thought I would need to use more than 2 coats (this is 2 coats) to avoid streaks but it was actually fine. Enough complaining, the colour, I love!

I also painted my toes with Scarlet Sparkle, it's so pretty! The glitter is suspended in a red base colour so it gives the impression of it being opaque in one coat. I used two coats to make sure I got lots of the glitter!  But I'm not going to show you a photo of my feet...

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Why Did I Buy 8 Nail Varnishes?!

I went shopping today and got rather carried away buying nail varnishes...  I think I need some sort of rehab!

From left to right: Tropical Sun, Emerald City, Scarlet Sparkle, Bluebelle, Punki Pink, Orange Knockout, Turned Up Turquoise, Nail Art Pen in Black.

The neon polishes have a sort of soft matte finish which does look nice on my nail wheel but I prefer a really shiny finish on my nails!  Here they are with a coat of Seche Vite on top:

I haven't tried out the nail art pen yet, quite scared, I have such shaky hands!

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Knackered Vs. Not Like The Movies

I said in a recent NOTD that I thought that Not Like The Movies seems quite similar to Butter London's Knackered, which I don't own.  My friend Gillian owns it and she kindly took a photo of it on her nails for me!  It is quite hard to tell as they are both under different conditions but I would say that they have a similar tone - the green/purple duochrome - although Gillian's photo shows it distinctly more purple!  Also the glitter in Knackered is much more visible and very sparkly, it's very subtle in the O.P.I. one.  They are definitely not interchangeable but do have similarities.  I kind of want it now... oops!  Maybe Gillian will let me paint my nails with it, hint hint!!

Butter London Knackered

O.P.I. Not Like The Movies

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Easy Cheesy Pasta!

I was feeling like some pasta yesterday afternoon but we didn't have any sauce so I made a cheese sauce from scratch!  I wasn't very sure how this would turn out but it was actually really good so I thought I'd share it with you - also so I can make it again!  This recipe serves one.

Uhh, looks really appetising doesn't it, haha!

Ingredients:

• 20g of margarine/butter
• 20g plain flour
• 175-200mls milk
• 1 tsp of English Mustard (adjust to taste)
• salt & pepper
• 2-3 tbsp of any kind of cheese
• 1 mug of macaroni

Method:
Melt the marg on a low heat and then take off the heat and sieve in the flour until it is a paste.

Put it back on the heat for 2 minutes - this takes the floury taste away!

Boil a kettle and put your pasta on at some point and leave to cook while you finish the sauce!  I add a drop of sunflower oil to stop the pasta sticking to each other. 

Gradually add in the milk to the flour mixture, stirring to avoid lumps.  I only used 150mls of milk but my sauce was a lot thicker than I would have liked!

Once all the milk has been added (the more you add, the thinner it will be) bring to the boil and keep stirring.

Simmer until it is all thickened up nicely!

Take off the heat and add in your mustard (if you want), cheese (I used Parmesan and Gruyere) and seasoning.  Then give it a taste and see if you need to add any more of anything.

Drain the pasta and stir it in with the sauce, voila!

I was going to add some wee tomatoes but I totally forgot...

Anyway, I thought this was rather tasty!  Let me know if you have a go at it, or if you have any other good easy veggy recipes on your blog!

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NOTD: Getting Into Pastels!

I thought I should try out some pastel colours as we're getting into Spring now!  This is two coats of Avon's Luxe Lavender (no longer CF...) which is almost an exact dupe for O.P.I. Rumple's Wiggan from the Shrek collection (also not CF), I don't have a CF alternative but I would assume that good ol' Barry M will have a pastel lilac!

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New Year's Resolutions Update!

My New Year’s Resolutions and how I am progressing with them!:

• Get back into reading, been slacking so bad recently!  My new Kindle will help though I think :D

I am on 12th book so far this year, my Kindle definitely makes a difference!  I am aiming to read 40 but I am sure I could do a lot more than that especially in the summer.

• Get to bed before midnight on uni nights.

Uhh... This one hasn't really worked out very well for me!!  Some days I start uni at 12 and I get a lie so no point in being in bed before 12...  Still working on it!

• Try to be more motivated for uni and read my notes etc. at the time…

Oh god, well I do think I am a lot better than previous semesters!

• Be able to give blood, uch, I will at least try!

I'm only now just able to do it as you need to wait a year after piercing, but not sure how much I weigh at the moment so that could still be a problem.

• Get back to callanetics and pole dancing and go to at least one kettle bells class!

I have been going to callanetics almost every week!  Also doing pole dancing, yoga and zumba, so I am doing well with this resolution!  Sadly I've not been to kettle bells class because my friends have stopped going now!

• Be better at saving again even if only putting a little bit away every month.

I've been good with this one.  Because I halved my hours I can only put £25 away instead of the £50 I was doing previously.  But it's better than nothing!

• Continue to cut down meat consumption.

I am only eating fish now!

• Ironically - spend less time on social networking sites….

Ahem... well this one hasn't really worked!  I've stopped using Facebook and Tumblr as much I as I did previously, Twitter as much as ever and of course I've recently started my blog so I've spending a lot of time on here!  However my blog can be counted as a hobby I think so I don't feel guilty about it, it's worthwhile!

Which is 4 out of 8, not too bad for a quarter of the way though this year!



How are you getting on with yours?

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NOTD: Not Like The Movies

This is 3 coats of Not Like The Movies from the Katy Perry collection, a silvery colour with a green and purple duochrome and small silver glitter.  I did start off with 2 coats but when I photographed it, look how it shows up:

It looks so sheer!  It really doesn't look as bad as this in 'real life' I think it was just the flash that affected it!

I noticed that this seems to look quite similar to Knackered by Butter London, I don't own this but my friend does and I am hoping she will paint her nails and take a photo for me so I can compare them!

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