Nail Of The Day – Essence The Gel Nail Polish 33 Wild White Days & Barry M Christmas Tree

Hi there! If you read my blog regularly, you know I’m trying to complete the 31 Days Nail Art Challenge as a lifetime nail challenge.

However, I couldn’t find any christmassey challenges, so I’m putting the nail challenge on hold for a few weeks.

Now onto today’s mani! I painted my nails with Essence The Gel Polish 33 Wild White Days (one coat). I love this polish. And I hate it.

I love it because it’s opaque in one coat. But I hate it because the formula is a complete nightmare. It’s thick and goopy – and nail polish thinner doesn’t help. And it’s impossible to apply it without making a mess.

Anyway, I was going for a christmassey mani, so I applied one of my favourite christmas glitter toppers, Barry M Christmas Tree. This is a fantastic topper – it’s packed with glitter (I applied one coat of topper) and it dries reasonably quickly. I love it!

I’ve done the same mani last year but I’m OK with that because I love the white base and the christmassey glitter. I really love the look of this mani because it’s not the standard ‘Mrs Santa Red’. What do you think? Do you like this mani? Or is it too much glitter? Feel free to comment if you want to. And thanks for stopping by!

Mrs Strawberry Blonde

Nail Of The Day – Blood & Bats For Halloween – Featuring Essence, Revlon & Maybelline / Nail Art Challenge #23 Inspired By A Movie

Hi there! Today’s post is about my Halloween 2016 mani – blood & bats.

I had the idea to do this mani when I did my Halloween Nail Ideas post earlier this month. In that post I showed you photos of a bat mani and a blood spatter mani – and back then I knew that I wanted to combine the two.

So for this mani I painted my nails with Essence The Gel Polish 33 Wild White Days (1 coat). Then I applied a few blobs of red polish – Maybelline Colorshow 349 Power Red – with (a small piece of) a make-up sponge.

I used two no-name stamping plates – M94 (Konad dupe) and A13 – and my favourite black polish, Revlon Colorstay 270 Stiletto, to stamp on the bats.

I think this mani turned out nicer than expected. I wasn’t sure if a sponge would be the right tool to create a bloody background for the bats – but I think it looks quite authentic. So yes, I chose the right tool for this nail art job! 🙂

I’m also including this mani in my 31 Days Nail Art Challenge as #23 Inspired By A Movie. The movie would be ‘Bats’, a shockingly bad movie featuring bloodthirsty bats (and with plenty of shockingly bad acting).

If you’re still looking for last-minute Halloween nail art inspiration, please check out all the manis I’ve done this month – they’re all Halloween-themed! I hope everyone has a Happy Halloween tomorrow. And thanks for stopping by!

Mrs Strawberry Blonde

Nail Of The Day – Cat Nails Featuring Essence, Revlon & Bundle Monster / Nail Art Challenge #7 Black & White Nails

Hi there! Last month I told you I wanted to do the 31 Days Nail Art Challenge – but on my own terms. And I said I wanted to do a few Halloween-themed manis.

So today’s mani is my attempt at Black & White nails (Nail Art Challenge #7) with a touch of Halloween – black cats! 🙂

For this mani I painted my nails with Essence The Gel Nail Polish 33 Wild White Days (two coats).

The cat image is one of my favourites. It’s on Bundle Monster’s BM-S162 plate (which is part of the Fuzzy And Ferocious collection).

The black polish I used to stamp is Revlon Colorstay 270 Stiletto.

I think this mani is really cute. I love it. Seriously, how cute are these black cats? Please feel free to let me know what you think. And thanks for reading!

Mrs Strawberry Blonde

Nail Of The Day – Colourful Nails Featuring Essence, Rimmel, Bourjois, Manhattan & Maybelline (Nail Fail)

Hi there! Since it’s nail week, here’s another recent mani. When I started to paint my nails, I thought I was working on a masterpiece of a mani. 😀 However, it didn’t turn out to be great.

Let’s start from the beginning. I painted my nails with:
Essence The Gel Nail Polish 33 Wild White Days (pinky, middle finger),
Manhattan Quick Dry 81C (ring finger), and
Bourjois So Lacque 39 Jaune Trendy (index finger, thumb).

I thought it would be nice to stamp and to add some glitter. 🙂 The green glitter on my pinky is Maybelline Color Show 425 Lady Liberty, a low quality topper with nowhere near enough glitter in it.

Then I used my trusted white stamping polish (Essence!) to stamp images onto the thumb, ring and index fingers. Unfortunately the light green Manhattan polish was too light, so the white hardly showed. Then I tried to stamp a different image onto my middle finger. I used Rimmel 60 Seconds 846 Jungle Fever. This polish didn’t stamp very well. I made several attempts to make it work, but in the end I gave up and I settled for an incomplete image. All in all this mani was a fail.

So if you’ve just started stamping, and you think it’s not working for you, don’t be discouraged. I’ve stamped for years, and I’m usually happy with how my manis turn out. However, sometimes they’re just fails. It just happens every once in a while. 🙂

Mrs Strawberry Blonde

Empties – July 2016

Hi there! Since it’s the 1st of August, it’s time for my monthly empties post. I’ve emptied quite a lot this month (of course I’m proud of myself), so let’s take a look at my garbage. 😀

1 (no photo) – I’ve used a few different face masks (Boots, Superdrug and Montagne Jeunesse). As always, I didn’t keep the sachets.

2 (no photo – sorry) Yves Rocher Apple Star Anise Refreshing Shower Gel – a really nice shower gel. Unfortunately I can’t repurchase it because it was a limited edition.

3 Herbal Essences Silk N’ Shine Conditioner – my favourite conditioner. I’ve said it before and I say it again: THIS is the best conditioner I’ve ever used. Even if it were my mission in life to think up the perfect conditioner, I couldn’t even imagine anything that could be better. I’ve got quite an impressive stash of Herbal Essences Classics products (don’t ask…) but I’ll keep on buying more just in case Herbal Essences discontinues these beauties again.

4 Rightguard Shower + Lotion with Pomegranate – this is a lovely shower cream and I’d recommend it to everyone with dry skin. Repurchase? Yes.

5 Superdrug Kids Softmint Mouthwash – I haven’t used kids’ mouthwash since I was a kid – but a few weeks ago I picked up this cute mouthwash. It tastes absolutely yummy! 🙂 I’ve also been to different stores and noticed that the Sainsbury’s own-brand kids mouthwash is identical to Superdrug’s. And then I went to Home Bargains to find Wisdom kids’ mouthwash – which is the exact same thing. So now I know that Wisdom makes Superdrug’s and Sains’ own-brand dental care products!

In case you’re wondering, Superdrug’s mouthwash is £1.49, Sains’ mouthwash is 99p, and Wisdom’s mouthwash at Home Bargains is 89p. I’ll continue to buy the cheapest product 😉 and I’ve already stocked up. I know I won’t be going back to mouthwash for adults.

6 Rimmel Wear Max Nail Polish 421 Clearly Clear – one of my favourite clear polishes (thank you, Rimmel). I’ve got several back-up bottles and I’ll continue to purchase this clear polish.

7 NYC In A Minute Quick Dry Nail Polish 264 Lincoln Square Lavender – a very nice polish! Applies like a charm, dries quickly, looks good. I already have a back-up bottle. 🙂

8 Essence The Gel Nail Polish 33 Wild White Days – I think this is the best white polish under £2 – unfortunately this doesn’t mean a lot. This polish isn’t really great. It’s too thick, it goes on streaky (it might be different if you have short and small nails and if you can paint your entire nail with a single brush stroke), and it takes a long time to dry. But I’ve repurchased a bottle already because of all the cheap white polishes, this is the only one that comes close to being opaque in one coat.

9 Pantene Pro-V Colour Protect & Smooth Conditioner – a decent conditioner. Nothing special. I might buy it again, but I don’t really feel an urge to have it in my stash.

10 Vaseline Intensive Care Cocoa Radiant Non-Greasy Lotion – one of my favourite body lotions. I’ve already repuchased it.

11 Superdrug Soothing Aloe Vera Body Lotion – this is a reasonable body lotion. It’s not the richest lotion but it’s OK for ‘maintenance’. I like the fragrance a lot and I might repurchase it.

12 Olay 2 In 1 Hydration + SPF 15 Lightweight Lotion – a wonderful day moisturiser! At the moment I’ve got quite an impressive number of face creams and lotions in my stash so I’m trying not to stock up. But I’ll definitely buy this one again in the future.

13 Miss Sporty Dr Balm Gossip Kiss SOS – a decent lip balm. I got this lip balm (yes, unused) from a friend, but I bought a few more a couple of weeks later when Poundland sold packs of three Miss Sporty items for £1. I’m working on finishing another Miss Sporty lip balm – I hope it’ll be in next month’s empties. 🙂

14 I Love… Cherry Almond Sparkle Nourishing Body Butter – at first I really liked this body butter but the christmassey fragrance started to annoy me big time halfway through the tub. Since I’m trying my best not to be wasteful, I’ve used this body butter as a foot butter (with great results)!

15 Olay Anti-Wrinkle Sensitive Skin Day Lotion – a nice fragrance-free moisturiser. I did enjoy using this product but I prefer scented products (the scent of a product is actually quite important to me), so I think I won’t buy this one again.

16 Original Source Cherry & Nettle Shower Gel – a really nice, refreshing shower gel. I’ve already repurchased it.

17 I Love… Tangerine Dream Shower Gel – a wonderful shower gel that made my skin feel refreshed and clean even on the hottest days this July. I’d like to repurchase it, but unfortunately it has been discontinued. 😦

18 Original Source Raspberry And Cocoa Shower Gel – not a favourite. It sounded promising, but it smelled weird. I wouldn’t repurchase it.

So this is what I’ve used up in July. I’m glad I finished (!) a few skin care products and nail polishes. In case you’re wondering, I won’t include mouthwash in future posts (unless I discover something new and better) – I just wanted to let you know that I’ve switched to kids’ mouthwash. 🙂

Have you tried any of these products? Feel free to let me know in the comments. And thanks for reading! I hope you have a great week.

Mrs Strawberry Blonde

Nail Of The Day – Essence The Gel Nail Polish 33 Wild White Days, B. Complete 154 Brit, Rimmel 60 Seconds 503 Mind The Gap, Victoria & Stamping With MoYou London Doodles 07

Hi there! This is another mani I did recently. I painted my nails with Essence The Gel Nail Polish 33 Wild White Days (pinky), Rimmel 60 Seconds 503 Mind The Gap, Victoria (ring and middle fingers), and B. Complete 154 Brit (index finger, thumb).

I didn’t know what to do with the white & blue mani – I didn’t feel inspired at all. So in the end I opted for an underwater mani.

I used Essence Nail Art Stampy Polish in White (ring and index finger, thumb) and Filthy Gorgeous Midnight (pinky, middle finger) to stamp on images from Moyou London’s Doodles 07 plate.

Unfortunately I smudged the image on my pinky. Not sure how it happened. But all in all I like this mani. In regards to the polishes I used, I found the Rimmel polish to be amazing. The formula was perfect and it applied like a charm. Brilliant!

The B. polish wasn’t great. It took ages to dry and I had to apply three coats. The B. polish was also prone to chipping, so within 24 hours I had to ‘fix’ all the nails I painted with this polish. Not great. However, I was pleasantly surprised that the B. polish didn’t stain at all when I removed it. The white Essence polish is alright. It really is opaque in two coats. But it takes a while to dry and the formula is on the goopy side.

Feel free to comment if you wish. And thanks for reading!

If you’d like to order from MoYou, you can get 10% off if you order through this link. In case you’re wondering… yes, I did purchase this stamping plate myself!

Mrs Strawberry Blonde