Large Collective Nail, Manicure And Pedicure Haul

Hey Guys x I hope you've all had a good day but if you haven't hopefully today's epic haul will cheer you up a bit. Shopping or even window shopping always lifts my spirits when I'm feeling down so hopefully my manicure and pedicure haul will do the same for you.

I'm going to start off with some nail art pieces that I picked up from Poundland. Every time I go into Poundland now I always have a little look through their nail bits and this I got some of their Disney Minnie Mouse Nail Stickers.

The packet contain around 120 little stickers ideal for creating an accent nail. As well as Minnie and Mickey heads, the packet also contains bows, flowers and little birds. I think these are great for both big kids like me and little people x

As well as the stickers I also had another look at Poundland's selection of Allura nail art wheels and I was pleased to find one that I didn't have.

This one contains a variety of silver and gold tone metal shapes and studs including teardrops, triangles, stars and hearts.

The kit also comes with a wooden hoof stick and a small nail file. I think these kits are great value for money and I really hope that they introduce a few more varieties.

Although my nails are pretty short at the moment I'm determined to get some length back in them so I can start to experiment with nail are again. I currently addicted to looking a nail art tutorials and something that you see popping up in a lot of videos and posts is peel off liquid tape or palisade. All you do is paint the liquid tape around your cuticles and your nails and when you paint your nails the excess polish sticks to the tape rather than your skin. You can do it with PVA glue but I thought I'd try the proper stuff first and so I got a bottle from ebay.

I paid £2.19 for this bottle from this seller and having received it I definitely think it is just PVA glue but I do love a bit of glue peeling and anything that can make my manicures a bit neater is worth trying.

Something else that I got from ebay is a nail and cuticle oil pen. I mentioned one of these in a recent empties post and I think for the price and the convenience they are well worth the money. Cuticle oil is my new best friend at the moment and I always like to have one in my handbag. I have a couple which I'm using at night but these pen applicators are great for travel and for during the day.

As I've said previously I don't think these are genuine OPI products but the product feels nice on your skin and it seems to be helping. This time I went for the lavender fragrance but to me it smells more like my Melissa shoes with a sort of floral, bubblegum scent. This was just 99p including postage from this seller.

Thanks to illness and medication my nails are notoriously rubbish so I really do need to take care of them, as well as using hand creams, cuticle products and strengtheners, I also need to be careful how I file my nails.

If I use anything that is too rough or aggressive my nails just split and peel but thankfully I have found a products I can use.

The Leighton Denny Expert Nails Crystal Nail File is one of my holy grail and go to products. I've written a full review here but it's a product that I now feel that I can't live without. The only trouble is they are a bit fragile so here's a tip- don't sit on it! I did and I ended up with a file of two halves, so I decided to treat myself to another one .

This is a limited edition version to celebrate Leighton's 10th anniversary on QVC and as well as coming in a protective case, it also comes with the number 10 on the end of the file, picked out in clear crystals. I know a lot of people don't like the idea of a crystal file but believe me once you've tried one you will never go back.

Despite the fact that we've had a nice day today, it definitely seems as though summer is on it's way out but I'm ever hopeful that we'll have a few nice days before the seasons change so I picked something up a few weeks ago to get my tootsies sandal ready just in case.

Source

Excuse the stock picture but this little pot just didn't want to be photographed! I used to buy these Pedi Peel Pads a long time ago but like so many thing from Avon they disappeared without a trace. A month or so ago though they reappeared and I decided to stock up whilst I had the chance. All you do is rub a couple of pads over clean dry feet and the glycolic acid helps to exfoliate the skin and leave you with softer, smoother feet. Thanks to a thyroid problem my feet get very so I'm hoping that these will do the business again in between proper pedicures. Avon Footworks Beautiful Pedi Peel Pads normally retail at £6 for 55 pads but it's worth waiting for an offer before you buy x The current offer I believe is two Footworks products including this one for £4 so it's well worth picking these up whilst you can.

I love a good Avon bargain, and in a recent sale brochure I picked up another one of the Stardust Nail Enamels, this time in Teal Glitter.Based on today's shopping trip there seems to be a lot teal around for Autumn so this polish will be right on trend.

I love sparkle and whilst having a little look at Littlewoods online recently I couldn't resist picking up a new Nails Inc Polish. I love their new bottle design and I love their new brushes so I ended up getting Nails Inc Special Effect in Exhibition Road.

Crammed full of sparkle this colour will make an ideal top coat for any colour. In a clear base it contains circular glitter particles in lilac and gold. Okay it wasn't something that I desperately needed but the offer that Littlewoods had on at the time was just too good to turn down.

All you had to do was buy any selected Nails Inc polish and you got a Nails Inc 4 Piece Mini Collection absolutely free. The collection includes 4 x 4ml polishes in some of Nails Inc's most popular and classic shades, Victoria, Basil Street, St James's and Uptown. I love mini polishes and this was a great way of adding some more little ones to my collection.

Next up a bit of an apology x This final 3 polishes that I'm going to show you, we're all magazine freebies. Unfortunately none of the magazines are on sale any more but I still thought I'd show you them anyway as they might pop up in some future nails of the days x First up this ultra, summer shade from Nails Inc.

The recent collaboration with InStyle lead to a a small range of cover mounted polishes all with names themed around 80's songs. This coral, orange,red is Love Will Tear Us Apart. I love a bit of Joy Division and this limited edition colour is perfect for those summer toes. Although this one will be very hard to get your hands on now Nails Inc do have a few similar colours in their line and similar shades are available in most other ranges.

Another polish that came free with a magazine is Jessica Custom Nail Colour in 787 Floating Beauty which came with a recent issue of Red.

I don't have any Jessica polishes in my collection so I thought that this was an ideal way to try a new brand. Floating Beauty is another shade that's perfect for summer it's one of those hot, hot fuchsia pinks that again looks amazing on tanned hands and feet. This polish is still in the Jessica main line and retails at £10.50 for 14.8ml, which made this a pretty decent freebie.

The final product that I'm going to show you was another magazine cover mount and this time it was from Marie Claire. Like a lot of bloggers I have a love / hate relationship with Ciate but they do seem to get an awful lot of magazine coverage, and recently Marie Claire came with both a mini 5ml Ciate polish and a mini 5ml speed dry top coat. I already have quite a few Ciate polishes in my collection so I just picked up a random copy with came with Strawberry Milkshake.

This pale pink shade will either be fabulous or awful. With pale cream polishes like this there is no in between so we'll see. I can't find this particular colour in Ciate's main line but it's an easily duped shade so you should be able to pick something similar up.

I'm on a bit of a video making roll at the moment so I've filmed a very long, and rambling video to accompany this post x So by all means make yourself a cuppa, settle down and have a watch x



If you're a fan of all things nails then make sure that you're subscribed and following my blog, I have quite a few nail related posts to come over the next few weeks including some reviews, some nails of the day posts and a giveaway or two x Thanks for reading and if you have any questions please leave me a comment x

Viva La Nails Stickers Demonstration and Review (Pic Heavy)

About a month ago I was sent a batch of nail art goodies from the lovely people at Viva La Nails. As I said at the time I am going to review each type of decoration individually so I am going to start with in my opinion the easiest embellishment - stickers :) I was kindly sent one packet of nail stickers in a cute, slightly 3D flower / daisy design

As I say I think stickers are one of the easiest places to start when it comes to nail art as you can see here

* First of all carefully peel the sticker from the sheet - I am using tweezers here but you could use an orange stick or cuticle tool

* Carefully place the sticker onto a dry nail - they are pretty sticky so make sure you get your positioning right

* Repeat process till you have finished all your nails or your design

* Paint a top coat over the design and your whole nail - to seal the sticker and to create a smoother surface (I used Jessica Brilliance -review to come)

* Voila my finished design on top of Milani 3D Holographic Nail Lacquer in Cyberspace

I have to say I really liked these the really give a bit of interest to just a normal manicure - You do have to be a bit careful when your peeling them off the sheet and when your placing them, and you have to keep applying top coat every couple of days but other than that they are really easy to use and I have had loads of nice comments whilst wearing them.
I had a little play trying them on different designs, placements and colours and as you can see you can create quite a subtle effect or something which will standout a bit more
Sorry toe shot and the bad paint job ;) this gives a tip effect to my tootsies on top of Nails Inc Instyle Beach


As an accent on my little fingers using Mavala Nicosia



Over Butter London Jelly in Twee as a thumb nail accent

and finally over a french shade Eyeko Petite Polish on all my nails


I've been pretty basic here but I hope you get the idea - I think these are a great idea for holidays, especially on the toes and for days when your polish just looks a bit boring. I will definitely be picking up some more of these - they come in loads of different designs including coloured stickers. Christmas, metallics and more. They are available from Viva La Nails for around £1.95 -My next Viva La Nails review will be water decals so keep checking back for that xx

(I was kindly sent this product for review purposes but that hasn't affected my review in anyway)

Operation Nail Growth - One Month Results - Mavala

Well it's that time again -time to show you the results of another months worth of nail products. As you know this month I have been using two Mavala treatments, Scientifique and Nail Shield. I am going to do a separate post describing my routine and reviewing the products but I thought I'd show you my results first :) Well I have to say I'm impressed my nails have definitely grown (when compared to 2 weeks ago, and compared to last month) and they certainly feel stronger



I have had a little bit of snapping on my little finger and my ring finger but at least there were nails to snap lol.
I haven't showed you any pics of my right hand before now but I thought it was important to show you how good the growth has been without any snapping

Overall I have been impressed with the regime but as you'll see in my review later I have found it to be a little drying so I have been supplementing these products with some cuticle and hand care items from Jessica - full reviews to come soon. Of all the items I've used so far I've probably seen the best results with these ones. I will definitely continue using them until the bottom of the bottles at least and of course I'll be giving you regular updates via my NOTD posts x

Operation Nail Growth 2 Week Review - Mavala

Sorry this is a little late I have had one of those days :( I took a few pics this morning of my nails 2 weeks into using some Mavala products. The pics aren't that conclusive but I have noticed a real difference (you can compare them to two weeks ago by clicking here )I've had a couple of breaks on my thumb and ring finger but otherwise there is definitely an improvement





My cuticles still aren't great but I have been trialling a few Jessica products and I'll be bringing in a bit of OPI too to see if that helps. I'll post some more pics in a fortnight to see if there is any difference and I'll do a full review of the Mavala products I've been using then and maybe a few Jessica reviews too xx

Operation Nail Growth 2 Week Update

OK so I promised you an update on operation nail growth after 2 weeks - this month I am trialling the Pro Strong nail system and I have to say so far so good.
My nails have definitely grown as you can see specifically by my left thumbnail
Two weeks ago

Today

Here are some more pics I took today if you check back at my post at the start of the pro strong trial there is a bit of a difference so far (click here to see it)


My cuticles still aren't great so I am going to go back to the Jessica nail oil which I will be using alongside the Pro Strong cuticle products. All in all so far so good - my hands have been in and out of water and I've been doing a lot more housework so they've taken a bit of a battering and I've still seen results - I'll update you in two weeks with more details on the range and my one month results :)

Operation Nail Growth One Month On

Well if you look at these pictures compared to the ones I did a month ago (click here)you can clearly see that nothing has really changed and if anything my nails look slight worse -especially my thumb nail which now has a chunk missing :(
I am not writing the months trial off entirely because after two weeks my nails did look remarkably better - they just seem to have gone downhill since then. Despite more applications of nail oil, cuticle butter and hand cream - my hands and cuticles are insanely dry and I think that's what has lead to the breakages - OPI Nail Envy certainly helps but maybe it's time for something new. Last month during my spending diet disaster I picked up a Pro Strong Nail Kit from QVC (and the OPI Alice Minis but that's another story ;)) I must admit I have used Pro Strong before with pretty decent results - the only reasons I stopped were that I find it a hard system when your wear nail polish and I felt I used the product up too quickly but never mind I am going to persevere with it for this months nail growth challenge.


I'll explain about the system in more detail in a future post but this is the basic kit I got with the fluoride and calcium treatments, two cuticle products and a hand cream - I also have a few other Pro Strong products at home including a top and base coat, some colours, and some BioFusion serum. So this is what I am going to be using in March I might use some Jessica nail oil and some other hand creams alongside it but this is going to be my basic nail care regime for the next month. Instead of doing a monthly round up I think I might do one in two weeks time particularly comparing my worst nail - my left thumb just to see if there is any change even in that short time - get on :) x If that treatment regime fails after a month my next stop is Mavala (some of which I bought and some of which I was sent), and then something I saw in a recent All That Glitters21 February Favourites video - there are so many nail care products out there it's a bit confusing. So wish me luck - it's going to be a tough month for my little fingers in and out of water but we'll see how I get on :) x

Operation Nail Growth

As you can see this month I have bought some fabby nail varnish but as yet you've seen no nails of the day posts, well at the moment my nails aren't worth painting. Illness, medication, and the cold weather has all meant my nails are awful, super dooper short, with dry cuticles and hangnails (the pics actually make them look better than they are)


So for the next month I have decided to try a little experiment - operation nail growth - I am going to have a good go at getting a proper nail routine together with proper nail and cuticle moisturising, and some nail strengthening products, using items by OPI, Jessica, Leighton Denny, Nails Inc, Lush and so on which I already own (see not buying anything new ;) )

So have a good luck at my before nails and hopefully in a months time I can show you something a bit nicer - wish me luck and if you have any nail, hand and cuticle care hints and recommendations let me know x