My first attempts using Seche Vite

Today has been a day full of FAIL.

First of all my dad had to cancel his visit today due to a serious month-to-money discrepancy, my beloved Christmas meal with all the gang went tits up, and once again I came on, meaning there's another month of ovulation testing and frantic fertile-time shagging in an attempt to procreate before my eggs turn to dust. TMI, sorry.

Making myself pretty always makes me feel better, so I thought I'd do my nails and try out my Seche Vite drying magic top coat, oft-championed by the lovely Charlotte from Lipglossiping who writes a simply fab beauty blog with amazing photos of products. My hero-worship over, on with the post.

Of course I forgot to take a photo of the Seche Vite *hastily takes photo to insert*. Ta-da! 

I'm not sure where high street stockists of Seche Vite are, but I got mine from eBay for £6.50 including p&p. I used Barry M's feted Dusky Mauve shade, who everybody seems to love, and I can see why. It really needs a daylight shot to show off the alchemic 'Is it purple, is it grey?' tones, but be assured it's a winner.

Basically Seche Vite goes on the wet nail (I did mine after a base coat and 2 coats of polish). You must always use a base coat when you use Seche Vite, as it bonds the nail colour right down to the base coat, making one solid layer. You have to make sure there is plenty of product on the brush as you go to apply (more than you think should be enough - practice makes perfect - I used too too much the first time) and as long as you aren't sticking your hands in things 2 minutes after you apply it, you should have an un-besmirched set of nails. Of course, soon after these pics were taken I managed to ruin 2 nails, but I'm an Aries and I was on another continent when patience was being dished out by 'im upstairs.

Seche Vite should prolong the life of a manicure significantly, so I'll let you know how it goes. Usually I can barely go a day without some kind of chipping, so I look forward to a manicure that lasts.

Would I recommend Seche Vite so far? Yes. My nails feel stronger and the top coat is lovely and glossy. I just need to learn to twiddle my thumbs (literally) while I let polish dry!

I'm a long way from a perfect manicure. I'm still trying (and failing) to perfect using a brush to wipe off the excess polish. I can just about not get polish everywhere (my illness makes me shake like a crack ho) but I'm sure I'll get there eventually! I love the way my nails coordinate with my jumper. Yes, I *am* that sad!

Have you ever used Seche Vite?

What's your must-have nail polish?

Thanks for reading. 

Introducing Crafty JuJu Designs

Hiya!

As you may have realised by now, I'm a little obsessed by pretty things, so you can imagine how excited I was by the gorgeous bag charms and other goodies offered by Julie from Crafty JuJu Designs when I found her fan page on Facebook.

She was a pleasure to deal with from start to finish, and finding a special Betty Boop image for me was no problem. 

I ordered 3 bag charms - one for me and two for Christmas presents. This lovely little parcel arrived. 

I was so excited to open this I still had wet hands from washing up when postie called.

This one is mine - obviously!

Gorgeous, aren't they?! Luckily the people these two are for don't know my blog exists, so there's no chance of being found out!

Here are Julie's details so you can check her out for yourself:

(All pics are clickable for larger images, as ever.)

Thanks for looking.

Sleek Storm palette, Barry M Metal Madness & bargain makeup

Hiya!

My Sleek Makeup Storm Palette and creme-to-powder foundation testers came today, as did a few items I'd bought from a friend on Facebook.

I already have the Bad Girl palette and was blown away by the quality & pigmentation from a £5.99 palette.

Pics and swatches of Storm without further ado!

 

Shell is my colour it seems, I'm such a pale bugger

Add caption

I don't know why they were sweating like that. There was also a bit of damage to the case of the foundation testers, and there was a little loose powder inside the palette, but no actual pan breakage, thankfully.

No names on this palette so I'll call top row L-R 1-6 and bottom row L-R 7-12

Top row 1-3. Bottom row 7-9

Top row L-R 4-6. Bottom row L-R 10-12

I thought this was a cool shot ;)

My favourites are 6-10. 6 is a gorgeous reddish gold, 7 is a metallic bronze, 8 a blue tinged gun metal, 9 is a to die for greeny black, and 10 is an inky blue purple.

Swatches:

1-6

1-6

7-12

8-10. Look at those bad boys! Perfect party colours.

Another swatch of #2 as the first one was disappointing

I also bought some lippies from a friend on Facebook as she was looking to unload some unused makeup to pay for Xmas goodies. 

L-R Prescriptives, Paul & Joe, Miners & Kiko

L-R Prescriptions Impress 15, Paul & Joe 09, Miners Pink Grapefruit & Kiko Lipstick Creamy 390

 Please excuse the state of my face in these lip close ups. I woke up with no less than FIVE spots on my chin the other day. Mother nature is kicking the shit out of me recently.

The Miners gives a lovely sheer gloss

Paul & Joe

The Kiko is so moisturising.

Prescriptions

I started on my new e.l.f. nail polishes the other day. This is Metal Madness. Thanks for reading!

Some Sleek, Barry M, elf and Very purchases

It feels like it's been an age since I last blogged and it probably has. So what's new with me?! I've had some makeup and nail goodies from

• Sleek Makeup
• Barry M 
• e.l.f.

...and some new clothes from Very.

I've been following my ovulation, trying to get pregnant and crying a lot. I don't like to dwell on the negatives, so onwards with the pictures! Most are clickable for larger images.

L-R Royal Purple, Metal Madness, Party Purple, Twinkle

I also got this Mist & Set to keep my pencilled-in eyebrows on. It works!

I bought the Sleek Makeup Bad Girl makeup palette and took some abysmal photos with flash as there was no sunlight whatsoever in which to take a photo (seems I need to get used to it, it's been grim almost constantly!) but in my indecent haste to use the palette, I forgot to attempt daylight pics the next day before using it. D'oh!

Anyway, the verdict is it's fantastic value for money. £5.99 for almost Urban Decay quality pigmentation? You'd be mad not to. It's a highly pigmented palette with pearlescent and matte applications in absolutely gorgeous colours.

Innocence is a gorgeous pearly white

Gullible is a fabulous champagne, very reminiscent of UD's Virgin from the Naked palette

Blade is a lovely light grey

Gun Metal is a darker grey, almost identical to UD's shade of the same name, just without the glitter

Underground is grey/black

Noir is a matt black

Intoxicated is the shade of green I've been waiting for all my life. It's that shape shifting crow's wing/peacock feather greeny-something-else which is just stunning.

Envy I can't put my finger on - it's an almost black

Obnoxious looks purple in the pan but is actually an inky blue, or at least it is on me

Abyss is a slightly darker blue, even more inky, if at all possible

Twilight is a lovely shimmery purply blue

Rebel is an almost aubergine hued purple

Again, excuse the crappy swatches, I had every intention of doing them the next day in daylight AND not using my fingers! I still could! Ah-ha! The penny finally drops ;) 

Some UD vs Sleek shots now

Very similar, don't you think?

I might actually prefer the Sleek shadow

Very similar, but I think the shimmer in UD's Gunmetal wins out

This is me wearing Blade and Gun Metal, and also Sleek's Dip It liquid eyeliner, which is A-MAZING! So black, so easy to use (hence any wobbly lines are ALL my own) and so, so cheap! (£3.49!)

Here I am the following day wearing Underground and Noir.

I do have a bottom half of a face, honest! I'm just trying to show off the makeup, not my gurning for the camera (and believe me, there are PLENTY of those shots, too!)

Here I am wearing my favourite Intoxicated

Isn't it pretty? Excuse my manky eyebrows, I'm trying to grow back a little bit of eyebrow hair at the inner corners. Here are a couple of pics of me gurning with my uber-long Chrissie Hynde style fringe.

 Barry M were having 30% for a day so I indulged in a few new nail polishes. I know, I know. I didn't need them. It's a disease!

L-R Indigo, Dusky Mauve, Grey, Red Black

Try as I might, I could NOT get Indigo to photograph true to colour. It's a gorgeous purple, but photographs as more like blue. Grr.

I have yet to do my nails with ANY of the 8 shades I've bought recently, as I've been really down in the dumps.

I had a £20 off voucher for Very if I spent £50 or more, so I went for it (of bloody course!) and got a pair of studded leggings, 2 pairs of plain black leggings, a black and grey tie dyed top and a jersey dress with sheer panels allll for £38!!

The sheer bit of the dress is a bit too low for my liking!

Studded leggings and tie dye top

It's rather voluminous!

More coming soon, some nail shots I think! 

Thanks for reading.