Contests and that first, before I send you all to sleep!

Over at Moments like Diamonds, Sara is holding a spring themed nail art contest. Prizes include a seriously pretty Nicole by OPI polish. It looks like metal in the bottle - so cool.

Bundle Monster are currently holding a nail art competition on their Facebook page. There will be twenty five winners who will each recieve a set of their new stamping plates. To enter, you have to create a design using some Bundle Monster products, and then I think voting commences April the 13th? If any of you are entering, please leave your link so we can check it out! If we can vote multiple times I'll vote for blog readers that comment here.

I was planning on entering, but I'm not really sure of the design I'm planning to do...I did this, but now I want to go more of a gothic route (and take out the sweets, of course) perhaps utilise more black. So I'm not entirely certain. What do you guys think of this one? Would you vote for it? (You can only enter once, which is why I'm stuck as to which to choose)


BeautyUK are offering 20% off on their website when you use the code SUGAR2011  to celebrate the launch of their new range. I'm personally looking at the baked eyeshadows and blushers, maybe at the lipsticks if they have anything I could wear to school. You can use it as many times as you like (obviously, one per transaction!) and this promo lasts until 15th of June, so there isn't too much of a rush! Glad that they gave me time to get some cash together, I have lots of things that I want to purchase.

Sleek have finally made good on their promise (six months later) and have been distributing the 50% off codes. WOOT. I recieved mine a couple of days ago and decided that since they did eventually do what they said they would, I'd give the brand another chance. So I spent all the money I'd saved up for circle lenses...on Sleek products. *facepalm*. Oh, and then some. Total came to like £63, sans discount, and I didn't even get everything I wanted as I had to cut down somewhat and then the website didn't have some things in stock. Like the Perfect Plum Pout Polish. ARGH. I wanted that colour so badly. *sniff*. I neeeeed it.
That and concealer in my shade and some lipsticks I wanted. Not to mention the distinct lack of online/accurate swatches for many of the products that I wanted but couldn't buy in store. Urgh. Anyway, that's another post. If you tried to order in the sale, have you recieved your code yet? Let us know. Also, if Superdrug decide to do another 3 for 2 on cosmetics (or, you know, just Sleek) do give us a heads up because there is still loadssss I want to get now I've cooled down on my pissed off with the company period.

MUA (MakeUp Acadamey at Superdrug) have a Facebook! Weirdly, there's no sign of a Twitter yet, but they've been running promos and stuff on their Facebook page and seem to want to connect with the blogging community. Check them out, if you want. There are rumours of a new professional line floating about...

This isn't beauty related at all, but there are four or five really, really irriating Year Ten boys that shout "Hey honey!" or "Bye, baby!" at us whenever they see us. What should I do, aside from smacking one in the face?

NO SCHOOL FOR LIKE TWO WEEKS GET IN.

I went to an aftershow party on Saturday, and so I felt some stamping was in order to spice up my nails. I haven't played around with my stamps for a while, so it was a nice experience. I need to work on layering them, I've seen people do incredible things with three or four different designs on one nail.



I stamped a white Allura French Manicure polish (very nice and opaque, ideal for stamping) over Nails Inc Queensgate Mews. I love this colour - it's probably one of my favourite Nails Inc colours. This stamps surprisingly well also, although it does lean purple. I used a Bundle Monster plate for designs.

To jazz it up even further, I added some glitter:


It's a Funky Fingers polish that I won in a giveaway hosted by the lovely ChaosButterfly over at The Phalanges Files. I sort of sponged it over using an Allura nail buffer which I will rant about in another post. Such a joke. Urgh.

Did you guys have a good weekend?

I'd quickly like to thank everyone that commented on the sponsored post and also on the post before that in which I asked your opinions on the topic - your kind replies are much appreciated!

I do paint both hands but rarely show them both to you because invariable one hand looks fabulous (read, not so disgusting) and the other looks tragic.

I actually felt kind of good about these ones, though, so do have a look...

Left hand thumb.
 Left hand. I used Bundle Monster Plates for all the designs shown here save the ring finger (Hello Kitty), which was done using a Konad plate. Rhinestones purchased from eBay, glitter topcoats are generic and Boots Best Friends respectively.
 Claw hand strikes again! The leaves on the thumb and middle finger were made with a green nail art pen.
 This is my right hand. All were Bundle Monster this time. I think. The index finger /might/ be a Konad plate. Base colours are Barry M Nail Paint in Mint Green and the generic pink that came with the generic glitter.
 Dots were made with the dotting tool in the cheap brush set I ordered from eBay. I think I will have to investigate more on that front, I prefer my dots a little larger.
Right hand thumb; this is a Bundle Monster design surrounded by sequins that came in that one Poundland haul.

Lol. Everything that I'd ordered off the internet was just chucked in here into one huge long nail art spam. I did this for a not so special occasion. Those of us participating in the West Side Story musical at school (which includes moi, being in the orchestra) were ordered back to school on a Sunday, of all days, to go and rehearse. Yes, a Sunday. I kid you not. This is a Catholic school, and the beautiful irony is that the Church that they are affliated with does it's most popular mass during the times that we were meant to be at school. So I couldn't go to Church. I'm pretty lazy anyway so this wasn't a big deal for me but it's the principle, no?

I decided to be all rebellious and flout the "no long/remotely long/things on your nails/no fun nails" violin law and the "no nail polish at school" rule in one fell swoop.
Not that anyone noticed. But our music teacher is a legend - he totally ordered us pizza. So it wasn't all bad. Six extra hours of school = pizza and brownies.

 I'm sure most of you are thinking , "Who on earth are the Brown Eyed Girls" right now, lol. Basically, they're a K-pop girl group that can actually sing very well, with a kickass rapper (Miryo). They're seriously quirky and talented, and are known for being older than the average kpop idols (They have an average age of like thirty or something).
Anyway, this is a manicure that was loosely inspired by the video.
 I chose a sort of metallic purpley/grey thing (Speed Dry, 17 from Boots) because that's the sort of colour the film gave me (even though it's in black and white. It was the first colour that jumped to my mind when I thought about this movie. It seems to suit the Brown Eyed Girls, in my opinion). The thumb sort of looks like the logo, and the silver reminds me of the member Narsha - showy, but not trashy. <3
 The design on the middle finger didn't show up that well, sorry :P These are all from the Bundle Monster plates, by the way.

The nice, traditional version.

 I used the Avon Blue and Pearl polishes, and stamped over with ASOS Alexa and the white I got in the manicure set from Poundland. I was surprised at how opaque it stamped! A total beast, that polish is.
 I don't actually like this light blue. Have no idea why I decided to wear it. :/

 This is part two because linked to this is part one.
Anyway. This first picture is a load of belated birthday/christmas presents from my friends (I had my party two weeks after my actual birthday, lol...) and apparantly they ordered the rest off the interwebs so they'll be coming soon. O_o

 I just thought this was really cool! If any of you remember my blue/orange leopard print manicure, when I went to take it off this happened with the remover...it amused me enough to take a picture of it.
 This product is a nice little bunch of nasty.
 I accidentally left this out of the "Products I've Disliked Using" callout. It's a very oily lipbalm. Too much and it makes you look as if your lips have been lacquered...I put this on without a mirror in an orchestra rehearsal and my music teacher full on stared at my lips for like a minute. Most uncomfortable rehearsal ever. *shudders*
This dries my lips out more than it moisturises and took forever to finish. But I've finished it now, so yey!
 But the rollerball thing is all kinds of cool. Perhaps another brand can put this innovation to good use? This was from Blistex, by the way.
 So futuristic. Pity the product doesn't actually deliver.
 Finished. 'Twas satisfactory. I still prefer spray deodorants, though.
 They see me Fauxnadin', they hatin'.
 This design is from the Bundle Monster Plates. This is ASOS Megan as the base colour, with Boots "Berrylicious" as the design colour.
 Same design, different colours. Miss Sporty Clubbing Colours in I don't know what, the silver one that I've reviewed here once before (Chrome? Liquid Metal? Plain old Silver? Did this even come with a name?) and the design is in ASOS Alexa.

And the rest was me pic whoring.

OK, vault cleared satisfactorily.

I don't even know what to think.

Can you see that cut on the second joint of the finger? (Sorry, it was really weird to photograph) That's from just holding it in my hand. Seriously. I'd known the edges of the plates were sharp, from word around the blogosphere (love that word) but I'd thought I was being oh so clever by being all stealthy and everything, holding it in the palm of my hand when I wanted to use/look at one. Naturally, I realised that I hadn't been that clever that when I went to chop tomatoes later that night. It was stinging like nobody's business and I was like "What is this?" On closer examination, I had a multitude of tiny cuts all over my hand! Good times.
To reduce the damage-doing potential to these plates, I took some of my cheap nail files to the sides of the plates. All twenty one of them. The casualties of this were two nail files and like an hour of my time. Plus the metal dust got everywhere. Gross. Still, it turned them from nunchucks to mildly harmless nail stamping instruments so I guess it's all good. In case you were wondering why I had pictures of nail files up on here, it's to show you the damage that about five plates will do to them. So if you were thinking of using your nice, brand new crystal file, please don't. Please.

I think this came to £21 in total, including postage (not entirely sure how much the exact amount was as this was a birthday present). Now, ordinary - legit - Konad stamping plates cost about £5 or £6 on eBay and the like, and this was the price paid for twenty one plates which is basically £1 a plate. In my opinion, that's a very good deal. Especially as the designs aren't just variations of flowers - not that I have anything against flowers, but some retailers need to switch it up a bit. Some of my favourites from this set include the pair of kissy lips, the big L.O.V.E stencil (which I'm going to do a K-pop inspired design with at some point, hopefully) the woodgrain pattern (which I've seen Ange from Scandalously Polished use to create what is probably one of my favourite nail designs of all time - oh, and it's not particularly safe for work, you have been warned) and the halloween/goth plates. There are more, those are just a few. I can see myself getting quite a bit of use out of these.

Well I would, if I could use them.

Perhaps this is just my set? Can you see the lack of definition in these two plates, BM04 and BM19? (these are the worst, individual designs are affected on some other plates) I haven't tried stamping with most of these yet but I can't see them picking up much colour at all. If it is just my set, the manufacturers have a quality control issue. It's a shame, because these plates have some really interesting designs on them, but they're pretty much unusuable.


I think it's clearest in these two photos.
Phail.
My final gripe with these is that once you have used them, there is always some leftover polish remaining. This is not a problem I've had with any of my other (Konad or fauxnad) plates. I use a decent polish remover that has a high acetone content and it doesn't come off on these plates unless I take a cotton bud to it and really scrub away at the design. I suppose this shouldn't be an issue - my plates aren't decorations - but it does make me worry that after I've used say, a hot pink, the next time I use the design with a navy blue, that the pink may transfer onto my blue design and ruin it.

And the filing (which should be done at the manufacturers, really) does leave slight scratches on the end of the plates, which may bother some people who dislike scratches on their plates. To prevent damage to the undersides and faces of the plates after filing (pieces of dust and grit were all over the plates and weren't brushed away effectively) I "washed" mine with damp cotton wool and water, and then dried them carefully because I don't know whether these will rust if exposed to water. All but two of my plates still had the protective plastic sheet on, however. Just something to bear in mind if you're planning on doing the same thing - file and wash/dry before peeling off the coating. You might want to wear gloves as well.

Overall? If Bundle Monster were to release a new set of twenty one plates with brand new designs at the same price, I would probably purchase, but only armed with this knowlege. I'd also need to know just how many of the plates are duds like the two I showed you above - it's not so cheap when you can't use the product!

Have any of you guys bought these? How were your experiences?

Has anyone else had the same experience?

Er. That's sounds slightly wrong.

Anyway a few days ago it was my birthday! I'm officially sixteen and can do all those things that I've been doing since I was thirteen!

Moving on...I got some nice makeup-related items to celebrate.

 Nails Inc Colour Collection from my lovely brother and sister! I was so excited to see this, let me tell you. It's got four lush Autumn/Winter colours - a red, a grey, a blue and a taupe...
 It comes with ribbon, too!I also got some Bundle Monster plates from my parents! I've been wanting these for a while. I'm going to do a fuller, indepth review/tutorial later on, but I thought I'd quickly cover my feelings here. You do get an awful lot of designs for the price, which is great. But the edges /will/ cut your hands to shreds and I find on at least two of the plates the designs are too shallow as to show up effectively, which kind of negates the point. Plus they're incredibly difficult to clean effectively. While I'm not putting my plates up for display, I'm always worried that say, some of the pink nail polish I used previously will ruin the design of the next thing I am planning to stamp...

Oh, and perhaps this is the polish I use, but I haven't had this problem with any other brand of plate - the design often doesn't transfer correctly to the nail and pulls, stretches, or comes off altogether, which is obviously a huge pain in the bum. I'm trying to work out how to rectify this problem - and yes, I've removed the plastic!
 Can't wait to try this mascara out, but it'll probably be a looong time because I've got two others to get through before I tackle this one. Mini rant - why are drugstore mascaras so expensive these days? There's usually only a couple of pounds in it between those and the high end ones...