Five Favourites: SEPTEMBER!

Hi Everyone,

This post is one day early, and that's because I won't be posting tomorrow! I've had a long week, a lot of late nights, and early mornings. To add to that, my son has been ill all week, and I've got a sore throat and a toothache that's giving me a migraine! I had my top wisdom teeth taken out two years ago but I've just randomly got another one over the last two weeks. Now it's come down far enough that I've got a swollen cheek from biting it all the time, I don't have enough room for it. So it's off to the dentist tomorrow evening and then I'll just be recovering, I hate the dentist!

So enough of that, this post is about things I do like! Onto my Five Favourites!

1. X Factor 

Photo taken from Wikipedia

I love it when X Factor comes back on! The auditions stage was terrible this year, they really need to show more talent and less rubbish, but this weekend will be better because it's judges houses. What has made this series even better is that I actually know one of the acts who made it through! They're a group called Duke and they do beatboxing. When I was at uni in Cheltenham (their home town) I used to go and see them every week! I'm not sure how far they'll get because they're so different to what is usually on the X Factor and they're not that versatile, but they're amazing and it's fun to watch them!

2. Vo5 Hot Oil Treatment

Photo from Google - Chemist Direct

I am in love with these little bottles of hot oil! I had a review of this all planned, photos etc but then I lost my camera! It still hasn't turned up but this is still worth a mention. I use this for 5-10 minutes once a week as a pre-shampoo treatment and let my hair air dry as usual and my hair feels like it's just been cut! This retails for £4.29 at Boots for a pack of four small treatments.

3. Eyeshadow

Two of my most recent eyeshadow looks - Photos from Instagram: @truly_polished

Recently I've been loving eyeshadow! I bought the MUA Heaven and Earth Palette and I'm waiting for the Undressed Palette (Naked dupe). I've decided that I'm going to put a bit more effort in with my eye makeup, a little effort goes a long way! 

4. My Anniversary

Photo from Instagram: @truly_polished

This month my boyfriend and I celebrated our anniversary! Well, I say celebrated... He is away working in Azerbaijan, so he sent me flowers, a balloon and wine and I cooked myself a nice meal!

5. And last but not least...!

Photo from Google - Countrywives.co.uk

I PASSED MY DRIVING TEST! This is a huge thing for me! I've been learning on and off (mostly off really) for the last four years! I had some lessons, got up to test standard, then stopped my lessons for a year. Started again, then I didn't make it to my last test which was nearly two years ago because I pretty much had a panic attack. So I stopped learning, then a year and a half later after a lot of coercion from my Mum and boyfriend, I started up lessons again, booked my test and passed first time with 7 minors! All that worrying and I passed my first ever test by just relaxing and not worrying about things! This will have such a bit impact on my life! Being able to go to the supermarket without needing a lift from my Mum when my boyfriend is away will be amazing!

So there we have it, my five favourite things about September, hope you enjoyed it!

Wish me luck at the dentist tomorrow, I'm really hoping they just make me an appointment at the hospital to have my tooth out (again) and hopefully that's it for the mysterious regenerative teeth because this is agony, I can't open my mouth to eat properly and that's a big problem in my life! All I can say is I feel sorry for my son, he's got 8 teeth so lots more to go and if it hurts like this for him, that's really bad!

Have a great weekend and see you on Monday!

Passion For Fashion Competition!

Hi Guys, 

Sorry I didn't post last night. I had planned to post my competition entry last night but it took me a lot longer than expected, we're talking over four hours probably, so I decided to prepare it over two nights and post it tonight. 

I was invited to enter this competition by MoneySupermarket, and it's probably the competition I've been most excited about! You can find out everything here but the basic premise is that you must put together five outfits: Party, Casual, Outdoor, First Date, and Office Wear. All outfits must be under £200, and you can mix and match brands and stores. This is so up my street! I got the email invite ages ago but I've been so busy, the competition ends tomorrow night (Wednesday) at midnight so this is very last minute!

Here are my outfits. I've tied in each theme with a trend for Autumn/Winter 2012 that I think goes well with it.

Each piece is numbered and you'll find corresponding links underneath to take you to each item!

1. Baroque Body - ASOS £22

2. Leather Skater Skirt - Hearts and Bows @ASOS £22.99

3. Taylor Statement Earrings - Whistles @ASOS £30

4. Clutch Bag with Chain - Miss Selfridge £29.99

5. Ring - Whistles £12

6. Letitia Heels - Topshop £65

Total: £181.98

1. Ombre Dye Jumper - Topshop £45

2. Jeans - Topshop £38

3. Bobble Hat - ASOS £10

4. Bag - Zara £59.99

5. Wedge Trainers - River Island £40

Total: £192.99

1. Jumper Dress - H&M £14.99

2. Tights - H&M £6.99

3. Earmuffs - Topshop £14

4. Snood - Topshop £18

5. Nail Polish: Elephant Walk - China Glaze @ NPD £5.45

6. Puffa Wellies - Juju @ New Look £24.99

7. Parka with Fur Lining - River Island £95

8. Bag - H&M £14.99

Total: £194.41

1. Jumpsuit: Miss Selfridge £45

2. Shakespeare Shoes - Topshop £65

3. Earrings - Topshop £12.50

4. Necklace - Orelia @ ASOS £12

5. Bunting Bracelet - ASOS £8

6. Peplum Jacket - ASOS £28

7. Envelope Clutch - ASOS £14

Total: £184.50

1. Top - Zara TRF £25.99

2. Trousers - Zara £39.99

3. Earrings - ASOS £6 for a pack of two pairs

4. Wraparound Watch - ASOS £20

5. Jacket - Urban Bliss @ New Look £29.99

6. Bag - Zara £29.99

7. Shoes - ASOS £28

Total: £149.97

I hope you liked my entry! Don't forget if you're a blogger and you want to enter, you have until Midnight on Wednesday 26th September! Very last minute but worth it. The overall winner will win £1000 and The New iPad (iPad 3) and there will also be one winner for each category who will win £200, the perfect amount to buy their winning outfit! 

I've enjoyed putting together these looks so much, so fingers crossed one of them is good enough! 

See you on Thursday!

W7 Mosaic

Hi Everyone, 

Sorry but this is going to be quite a brief post, I'm so tired. I had my nephew again this morning but he slept the whole time he was here, so that was lovely, no trouble at all. I need more sleep though, my sleeping pattern has been me going to bed ridiculously late, 2.30am at the absolute earliest, and then getting up at 8. Now this might not sound too bad, but I need 10 hours sleep to function usually! So I keep oversleeping, I think it's all catching up with me! It's not helpful because I have no time to get ready in the morning so I'm always stressed. So this has to change, next week I promise to be better!

Anyway, tonight I have the last of my W7 glitters to show you. It's been hard to pick a favourite but I think this one might be mine, for the summer at least, not sure how I'll feel when it gets colder, this won't be seasonally appropriate then.

Mosaic contains blurple and yellow-y gold glitter in a blue base. It's pretty much a dead on dupe of Nails Inc Pudding Lane as far as I can see, but I don't own the Nails Inc to do a comparison, sorry!

The formula on this was brilliant, I used two coats to achieve full opacity and one coat of Seche Vite was enough to even out the grittiness. Here it is:

I loved how this looked on me, I think the base colour was really flattering on my skin. Before I got into nail polish, this is pretty much the only colour nail polish I would wear, turquoise-y colours, or black, that was it! So it's nice to go back to my roots so to speak! 

One thing though... This is easy to remove but you will be covered in glitter! I had glitter all over my trousers, hands, face, carpet... Even my son had glitter on his face and in his hair! So be prepared, you might not want to rest your hand on your leg while taking this off!

I bought this from Nail Polish Direct, where it retailed for £1.95. However I can't find it on the site at the moment! I guess they must have sold out. This polish is available on other sites though for varying prices. I don't know if they'll get it back in stock at Nail Polish Direct or not, but it might be worth looking out for it, seeing as they offer free delivery!

That's it from me tonight, it's been a long week! We've had two days of cold weather and my hands are red and itchy already, so I'm going to slap on some moisturiser and relax!

Have a lovely weekend and see you on Monday!

My Monthly Column! Top Picks!

Hi Guys,

I'm absolutely exhausted this evening. I was looking after my nephew this morning, he's a month older than my son so it was pretty hectic with both of them. Their personalities are very different, my son is crazy, loud, boisterous and just loves making as much noise as possible, whereas my nephew is a lot more subdued and definitely wasn't a fan of his cousin's shouting! I felt a bit bad because I had to tell my son off a lot, so much so that he was sulking in the corner playing with a book after a while! I have them both together again tomorrow morning so I need to make sure I get plenty of sleep!

Tonight I thought I'd let you know about something I haven't mentioned too much about really. Over the summer, a lovely blogger called Rachael went on holiday, so she was looking for guest posters. Of course I couldn't wait to apply, her blog, Island Girl Insights, is one of my favourites so I really wanted to write for her. I came up with the idea of "Purse Friendly 'Tips'" where I would showcase a classic with a twist mani and a simple nail art design using tools and polishes which came to no more than £5. Rachael loved the idea and so my little column started.

This started as a fortnightly thing, every other Sunday my posts went up and I loved being able to show my designs to a wider audience! I knew this was only going to be a short time thing and it would stop when Rachael got home from her holiday, but then.......

She offered me a permanent monthly column on her blog! I'm so excited about this, my column forces me to break out of my comfort zone and try things I have never tried before, so here are my top picks from my previous posts. 

Click on the column number to go to the whole post, where you'll see both manicures and tutorials.

Column #1

Galaxy Nails

Column #2

Aztec Nail Art

Column #3

Gradient Sunset Nails With Birds

Column #4

Dots and Lines Nail Art

Column #5

Microbead Stripes

Column #6

Cloud Nails

Don't forget to check out the posts featuring these looks. You can click on the post number and it'll take you straight over to Island Girl Insights. Rachael's blog is heading for a complete overhaul and a custom domain soon, I can't wait to see it all! 

If you're not following this blog already you should be!

Click here to go to Island Girl Insights.

H&M Blue Bliss Continued!

Hi Everyone,

Just a quick post from me tonight, I have a really busy few days coming up so I could do with having a decent sleep... I keep saying that and still not going to bed early, but I want to be in bed by 11 tonight!

Tonight I have the second part of my H&M Blue Bliss Post (you can see the first part here). I said I would show you it layered over back so here it is!

I used one coat of Cult Nails Nevermore and one coat of Blue Bliss for the photos below.

Natural light

Sunlight

I love how this looks, although I don't think my camera was a fan! I couldn't get it to focus in natural light and then in the sunlight I got too many sparkles in the photo. Not that I'm complaining, they look like Christmas tree lights. I know, the dreaded C-word... Usually I hate seeing anything Christmassy before my brother's birthday (26th October) but I saw decorations in a shop today and now I'm all excited! I need to get my son's birthday out of the way first though before I dare to think about all that!

If you would like to buy Blue Bliss, it's available at H&M for £2.99. It's definitely something that's worth buying. I don't own anything like it. I know OPI Last Friday Night is similar-ish, but with the price of OPI in the UK I won't be buying that in a hurry!

Candeo Colors Sprouse

Hi Guys,

I hope you all had a lovely weekend! Mine was not relaxing at all. I've had massive sleeping issues the last three nights. I need to start going to bed earlier instead of staying up watching TV! Friday night I decided to start watching The Hunger Games at midnight, and obviously that film is crazy long... On Saturday night I watched all 9 episodes of Awkward season 2 that have been shown in America. I started watching them at around midnight, so I was literally up for hours watching them! By the time I got to sleep it was 6am, what a terrible idea! So last night I promised myself I'd have an early night but rolled into bed at 2.30am. I've got a busy week ahead so I need to stop being so stupid and get some sleep!

The polish I have to show you today is an indie that I had my eye on for ages before I bought it. It's by Candeo Colors and it's called Sprouse. It is a mix of matte black, silver and white large and small hex glitter, black and white bar glitter, blue medium bar glitter, and holo microglitter, all suspended in a clear base. This is so beautiful, so I didn't want to overpower it. I wanted a subtle base colour, so I chose 17 Simply Pink, a sheer pink creme.  

The photos below show 3 coats of Simply pink with one coat of Sprouse. I had no application issues whatsoever, there was good glitter distribution and I didn't have to fish out the blue glitter (I was happy with my couple of pieces per nail) or dab anything on.

Here it is:

Natural light

Sunlight

Macro shot from the bottle

I love this mix of glitter so much. A lot of people say they're sick and tired of black and white matte Connect the Dots style polishes but I think there's no such thing as too much black and white! I love it! I can't wait to layer this over more colours. 

I bought this directly from Candeo Colors, where it retails for $9. You can browse their site here. It's also available from Llarowe here for $12.

NOTD: Orly Le Chateau and China Glaze I'm Not Lion

Hi Everyone,

This is actually my earliest post in a while! It's really surprising actually, I didn't really start doing anything until about 4pm today so I thought it would be a late one, especially because I got up a couple of hours earlier than normal... 

I had to go and feed my Mum's dogs because she was away dropping my brother off to start uni, that took ages, and the 15 minute walk home took ages because I stopped to get sausage and chips (so much for healthy eating). Then I had to put my son to bed and eat my dinner! It was nice not to have to cook, and I have nothing in the house so I don't know what I would have made anyway!

I have a NOTD post to show you today, and I have a confession to make: I have no camera. When I was away a couple of weeks ago I seemed to misplace it. I don't know if I left it at the hotel (I called both hotels with no luck) or at my boyfriend's parents' house, or in our car which is currently being fixed. So hopefully it'll turn up. So these photos were taken with my iPad. I know phone pics etc are a real blogging no-no, but I had no other choice and I really wanted to show off these nails!

I wanted something autumnal as the weather is getting colder, but I also wanted glitter. So I chose Orly Le Chateau, which I picked up a while ago in a set from TKMaxx and China Glaze I'm Not Lion. I'm loving that polish, I've only had it a month and this is my third time wearing it, that says a lot for me! 

Le Chateau is from the Holiday Soiree Collection for Winter 2011. I got this, Ma Cherie (from the same collection) and Lucky Duck (from the fall 2011 Birds of a Feather collection). It's a very blackened teal, near black and it's so glossy! This is what the creme from the Nails Inc Blair Duo should have been, in my opinion, because it was a disaster. This was beautiful, one coat was nearly opaque but I used two coats for the photos. 

I used three coats of I'm Not Lion, and one coat of Seche Vite on all nails.

Natural Light

Sunlight

Sorry about the photos! I need to see if I can borrow a camera from my Mum or something for future posts until mine turns up/I get something else sorted. I do have another camera but no memory card or cable... Luckily the camera on my iPad isn't too bad. I have some posts ready to go as well with the photos done so I should be okay for a little while anyway.

See you back here on Monday, have a lovely weekend!

Barry M Magnetic Green Sparkle aka Cosmic Glow

Hi Guys,

Tonight I have another Barry M polish to show you. I'm loving Barry M at the moment, every five minutes it seems like they have another collection coming out! In fact, they revealed a new collection of glitter polishes that are coming soon...

Anyway tonight's post is one of the new magnetics, and it's called Cosmic Glow. My bottle says Magnetic Green Sparkle though, it's the same situation as when I swatched Barry M Neptune Sea.

Cosmic Glow is a forest-y green polish that develops a dark green pattern with the magnet. It also contains holographic glitter which gives it a special extra something.

The formula on this was pretty good, smooth and went on easily. I used two coats and then a third with the magnet. The magnetic effect was really good too. 

Now onto the photos:

Natural light

Sunlight

Isn't this gorgeous?! I love green nail polish and really don't own enough of it, but I was really taken with this, I had to buy it as soon as I saw the holo glitter and I have no regrets, I love it!

You can buy this in all the usual places: Superdrug, Boots, ASOS, the Barry M website. Barry M is so easy to get hold of and that's why it's such a favourite with a lot of people.

This polish retails for £4.99, but I got it in a 2 for £8 deal in Superdrug. It's definitely worth getting, I haven't seen a colour like it in any of the magnetic ranges!

Barry M Denim

Hello!

I am about to collapse from tiredness! I can't believe it's nearly 11 o'clock already! I only ate about half an hour ago! If you follow me on Instagram (@truly_polished)  you'll notice I've been posting more food pics recently than normal... Since my boyfriend has been away I've been doing some serious cooking. More time in the kitchen means less time sat on my own watching pointless TV! But it also means I decide at 9pm to start making pasta sauce! So I'm really tired now and ready for bed...

Anyway, tonight I have a polish that I bought ages ago and totally forgot about! It was one of the new Barry M polishes and I had to get it. It's called Denim and it's a perfect denim blue with shimmer. The formula was amazing, one coat was fully opaque, but I used two for the photos below. This dries with a satin look, the first photo shows no topcoat and the others show one coat of Seche Vite.

No topcoat

Topcoat - Natural light

Topcoat - Sunlight

I think this colour is perfect for the weather right now. Sometimes it wants to be summer, sometimes autumn, sometimes winter... I wake up in the morning not knowing what to put on, but with these nails, you'll always have a seasonally appropriate mani! 

I really have no complaints at all about this polish, it ticks all of the boxes: great formula, fast drying, flattering, and most of all... AFFORDABLE! I bought this for £2.99 at Boots. You can also get it at Superdrug, ASOS, Nail Polish Direct and all the other usual outlets for Barry M!

W7 Salt n Pepper

Hi Guys,

I'm sorry I didn't post on Friday, I had a really stressful day and evening getting ready for my boyfriend going away to work, he left on Saturday so I've been on my own looking after my son since then! 

Today I have another of my new W7 glitter polishes to show you. There's not too much to say about this really! It's black matte glitter in a white base but it's so gorgeous! It went on effortlessly and in two coats it was totally opaque.

Here it is! This is two coats with one layer of topcoat, I used Sally Hansen Hard as Nails...

Sunlight 

Shade

Isn't this just beautiful? I can definitely see myself reaching for this during the winter! It reminds me of snow mixed with gravel, in a good way!

I bought this from Nail Polish Direct here for £1.95, what a bargain! 

China Glaze - I'm Not Lion

Hi Everyone!

What a busy day I've had today! I had my buggy blast exercise class today and I'm aching so much! We did a lot of boxing, and even though I had to leave slightly early today, I can really feel it in my arms and stomach. I think when we have a bigger house I'm going to get a treadmill and a punchbag and have a little gym room. I love running but I'm always worried about my arms and stomach, so I think getting into casual boxing a bit would really help that...

Today I have a polish that I bought as a little birthday treat for myself. I'm not lion is from the China Glaze On Safari Fall 2012 Collection and it's a gold glitter. But it's not just any gold glitter, this could be my favourite ever. I don't actually think swatches online did it justice!

It's really hard to see the different colour glitters in here, there are gold, holographic and beige glitters, but I'm sure I could see green too! The best chance you'll have of picking out the colours is in the shade, because in the sun this is so sparkly. My camera had a couple of bright spots because it couldn't deal with that much sparkle!

The photos below show three coats, but two were fine for full opacity. 

Natural light

Sunlight

And here's a little video, my camera would NOT focus, it was too sparkly...

I hope you enjoyed the video! The music is Arctic Monkeys Fake Tales of San Francisco... It's one of my favourites!

I bought this from Nail Polish Direct here where it retails for £5.45. I think I might have to pick up a couple more from this collection, I'm a big fan of it! 

Do you have any favourites from this collection? Let me know!