Hi Goddesses
And Happy New Year! I wish you all the very best for this year - I hope that whatever it is that you're seeking, you find the opportunity, the will, the luck or the sheer courage to go for it. Go on, you deserve it!
We start this year with possibly the most elegant mani I have ever done, and I know Denise from Adventures In Stamping has been waiting for this for a looooooong time :)
The base is the epic and legendary OPI Parlez Vous OPI, a perfect smokey dark lilac that just always looks perfect. It works really well with my skin tone too.
I then stamped using Too Fancy Lacquer Champagne Cocktail and MoYou Artist Collection 09. The overall effect is exquisite.
One of the things I particularly love about this mani, is how the pattern is *just* thick enough to really capture the holo of Champagne Cocktail. THEN CC soaks up a little bit of its base, and translates it into pinky gold in some lights - it's just utterly divine.
I absolutely love this mani. The benchmark has been set. Do NOT fall below this Crumpet, do NOT. And if I do? Call me on it!
Hi Goddesses
Ok, are you ready? This is a WHOPPER! This is HALF The Community Collection - the reds, oranges, pinks, lilacs etc. There will be a separate post for the blues and the green.
As I think you know, these polishes were sent to me for my honest review.
If you want to see My Red Hair - click HERE for a separate post.
If you want to see 84 Charing Cross Road - click HERE for a separate post.
Let's start with Phenomenal Woman, which is one of my favourites from the Collection. This was designed with Jen from Musings of the Wife of a Jedi.
This is just gorgeous. It's a browny, burgundy holo, really warm and autumnal, but not so autumnal that it would restrict when you can wear it.
I really love this one - great job!
Next we have Thermo-Dynamics, designed with Sparkly Vernis, and I firmly expected this to be my very favourite - but it wasn't.
This is described as pink-red jelly with blue glass fleck and it IS gorgeous - but it's also really transparent. I have used 4 coats here and it's still not as opaque as I would like it.
Another reviewer described this as similar to Disco Biscuit by Butter London, and it's a really good comparison. That too isn't opaque, and has to be layered over another polish, so I think I will be revisiting this one soon over a variety of bases. If you own Disco Biscuit, you *can* justify both - this one to me has more coral tones.
Then we have As The Waltz Was Ending, designed with Lacey from My Boyfriend Hates Make Up. I firmly expected to dislike this one, but again I was wrong!
If you watched my original YouTube video on this collection, you may remember me being worried about this particular shade of lilac - it's blue toned - which never looks good on my skin.
The great news is that the beautiful holo takes those fears away. This really is fluffy and pretty.
Part 2 will follow shortly. Amy has just passed 4,000 likes on Facebook and is holding a big sale to celebrate - you do NOT want to miss out!!!
Hi Goddesses
Are you ready for a new challenge? Even better, it's got a retro vibe :)
As I was writing my end of year posts, we were laughing at me, weren't we, and how I hadn't worn hardly ANY of last year's favourite polishes. This got me sad. Yesterday's amazeballs polish is tomorrow's brand new untried - I know I certainly forsake reusing gorgeous polishes to keep getting that new-new-new fix.
And so, an idea was born and GOT Polish is where we've ended up. GOT stands for Golden Oldie Thursdays, and it's just an excuse to wear your older polishes and show them some love. It's being run through Crumpet's Nail Tarts, so we'll be doing art with them, but if you're nervous of trying art, there are some themes that are just colour based.
Let's show you what the first 12 or so weeks look like, then I'll explain the VERY simple rules -
THE RULES
* the polish you use should be at least one year old
* if you haven't been a polishaholic that long, you can use the oldest polishes you have
* the polish should be previously used, but if you're stuck, you could free a yearling from Mount Untried (seriously, some of mine are reaching puberty out there)
* you can use more than 1 polish as long as it fits the theme and the rules
Simples. If you want to join, come and join us HERE. We'll also be running the Tri Polish Challenge throughout 2014 too, and again, you can find out more by joining the group.
Have YOU GOT Polish? xx
Hi Goddesses
I'm a big believer of letting the universe know what you want so that things can align for you, and since I started doing The Bucket List 2 years ago, lots of you have joined in and found out how it can work for you too. You don't have to be a blogger - you can create a Bucket List for your professional or personal life. Just do it - it works!
So, here are my goals for 2014.
Instagram! I've dabbled, but I want to get more engaged with it, and use it for sneak peeks, fun, mistakes - behind the scenes type of stuff.
I'm setting my goal to finish on 5k followers (I'm on 1035 or something now).
Facebook - I think this is the platform that will continue to be most follower's choice, as it redirects you to the blog, and it's also a great way to link to brands. I am currently on 4231 followers, and I'd like to believe I could get to 10k in 2014 .... yes! We can do that!
Golden Oldies. It's always about the new, so I am determined in 2014 to find a way to use my older polishes that I love, but never use! This is going to be by way of a weekly challenge in Crumpet's Nail Tarts called GOT Polish (Golden Oldie Thursdays). (I'll explain the rules shortly in a separate post).
image sourced from http://dailysomething.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/041812-nonkonad.jpg
Find non-stamping polishes that stamp awesomely. I hate always feeling I have to stamp in black or white, or silver and gold lol, even though I own a whole Konad rainbow. I am sure I must own 100 polishes that stamp - surely?
The Digit-al Dozen blog - for those of you who don't know, the DD now has its own website - HERE. We have a lot of plans for it in 2014 (which I won't go into here) and I am absolutely committed to making those happen.
Content I Love. This is a big one for me. I've been in a semi-slump recently, and partly it's been because I feel I've been posting stuff I've "had to", and which has left me feeling uninspired. So, this may mean fewer posts. It may mean fewer challenges, or just being less uptight about doing every day of every challenge. It may mean being more selective about what products I choose to review. To be honest, it's probably ALL those things lol. But I know when I'm writing a post, that if I don't love it, there's less chance you will, and that's not good.
Behind The Scenes - something I've been meaning to do for ages, but I'd like to show you all the other things that go into being a blogger. It's not all about swatches and nail art, and I think we can have a lot of fun together if I show you how I go about deciding on content, piecing it together, my frustrations. And yes, tutorials. Undoubtedly this will involve YouTube.
More Bluebelle and Baby Crumpet - lol. Sometimes, it's the little things that make a difference. I've already spoken to Beth about her future role and she is very excited. Bluebelle, not so much.
And finally ... how I present my swatches. I hate just churning out plain photos of a polish, so I want to find a way to bring those more to life. NO IDEA how I'm going to do that yet, but hey, I've got a whole year to figure it out, right?
And .. yes, the finally wasn't finally haha. My good friend Sheila of Pointless Cafe has just hit 2million blog views. What is interesting is that she hit 1million just back in April, so she has achieved her 2nd million in 9 months - an amazing achievement.
So ... my blog is due to hit the magic million in February, so I am setting the BHAG (Big Hairy Audacious Goal) of 2million page views before the end of 2014. I am not honestly sure it's doable, but I am intrigued to see how far I can get :)
And now that's all :)
Lots of love xx
