Hi Goddesses
As you know, as a blogger, I often receive products to review. What I choose to review is usually about a third of what I am offered, because all I am interested in (and all I assume YOU are interested in) is nail art and nail polish.
For that reason, I turn down cosmetics, hair products, sunglasses, fashion, ipad covers, sunglasses again, nail wraps (cos I suck at those), sunglasses AGAIN ..... but JORD, well, they broke me.
So why am I reviewing a wooden watch? Well along with my obsession for polish, stationery and handbags, I am obsessed with watches. Large chunky ones. I can chart the phases of my life by the watches I wore. But the one I remember the most, and have the most nostalgia for, is a Tissot wood watch I owned about 20 years ago. It was soooo unique - until the strap fell off and couldn't be replaced - and I have never seen anything like it. Until now.
So, because I desperately wanted a wood watch again, I caved, and when they said I could also give one away to my readers, I figured that soothed my soul a little :) However, I don't think for a second that I expected to receive such a quality product.
I chose the Sully watch in Natural Green. It has the feel of a hand-crafted product, and it's beautiful. Most of the watches are unisex, and as I have ENORMOUS paws, that means this watch fits me - yay!
I most love the bracelet - the crafting here blows me away - and free product or no free product, I love it, have worn it with love and pride, and everyone who has seen it has been blown away too.
I thought I'd do some nail art to go with it, to justify it being on a nail art blog lol, and went for some wooden nails. I started with a yellowy base to reflect the warmth of my watch's dial, and then splodged various taupes and browns on top to get a more varied look.
I then stamped using MoYou Pro 05. It wasn't until I got it on my nails that it occurred to me that this is maybe a peacock pattern, not wood, but I think it still works. Yes?
Aftewards, it looked a bit too neat, so I distressed it a little with some acetone and a cotton bud - a tiny detail that made a lot of difference - and finally some matte top coat.
I'm quite pleased with the overall result, and the matte top coat really made them look like wooden nail wraps.
So, now your chance to win! You can check out the full range of Jord watches HERE and take a look at the gallery below -
Finally, here's the Giveaway - it will run until Sunday the 20th July when I will announce the winner. It's open internationally - good luck!
Hi Goddesses
So I haven't done GOT in the LONGEST time, but I am hoping to be able to fully participate for this next few months. I have far too many untrieds, and this is a great excuse to get through them and / or my unloveds!
Today I have dug out an Emily de Molly that I bought an AGE ago but have never worn. Majestic Flight is a fabulous turquoise, sprinkled with jewels of glitter.
I am always drawn to turquoise glitter polishes. I am not sure why, but there's something about that combination of turquoise and jewel tones that gets me every time.
For a glitter, this applied very smoothly and easily with no issues. Considering it's been sat on my shelf so long, it was in miraculous condition - no sinkers, no issues with fishing for glitter either.
The base is a tad more intense than my photos have captured - so turquoise it's starting to edge green. This is rich, vibrant and aquatic, all at once.
Hi Goddesses
So last week, I caused a bit of furore on the blog when I posted a swatch of Prana by Nire's Desires and declared it better than Indian Summer.
The lovelies in the Crows Toes Minions group disagreed with me - and that's fine, as each to her own opinion. Also, there is no denying Crows Toes polishes are the bomb. I've been a huge supporter of Lauri's polishes since the start, and indeed, many of her polishes have made it into my end of year Bests lists.
I'm not going to do the Prana / Indian Summer comparison today (today we're just going to linger over IS), but more than anything I want to stress that just as with people, you can love more than 1 polish at a time, and whilst you may love one polish more, that doesn't have to mean you love the other polish much less.
Let me confuse you more lol. I actually really like Indian Summer. These photos are some of the best I have ever taken, and it's much better than the similar ILNP version.
There is a lot of exquisite stuff going on - the shimmer, the shift and the varying hues of violet and purple. I mean, look at these photos, what's not to love?
Well in the end, I think it comes down to personal taste. Whilst I do have the utmost admiration for this polish, it doesn't speak to me the way Prana does. Personally - for me - this rests too much on it's violet laurels, and has a metallic brashness that didn't sit well on me. Don't get me wrong, in other lights it was absolutely perfect, but my personal issue with duochromes is that you're often stuck with them in a certain kind of shade-lock, and where this one stuck wasn't the shade I wanted it to settle on.
Very soon, I'll have the comparison post, and as requested, I'll also include a couple of other similar polishes. Is Indian Summer gorgeous? Absolutely. Am I glad I bought it? Yes. In fact, I'd give it a 9/10, and that's where I'm going to leave it before we do the comparisons.
Hi Goddesses
I'm often asked how I "stay inspired". There's a very long answer to that, and one day it WILL make it into a blog post, but today I have an example of how the weirdest things trigger my mani senses.
A couple of weeks ago, for her birthday, Beth and I went to the cinema. As we were parking the car and getting the ticket, a woman walked in front of me and my brain went "ooooh". She was wearing a grey skirt with large orange, black and white polka dots, and there was something about the colour scheme that just begged for a matching mani lol.
So now you stalk strangers for mani ideas? Nooooooo lol, but kinda :)
My dot spacing isn't as perfect as I'd like it to be, but overall I really like this. Monochrome with one splash of colour ain't a bad way to go at all :)
