Today's nails: Color Club Chelsea Girl and Warhol

Today I have two more colours from the Color Club Poptastic Collection for you. First up Chelsea Girl:

Brighter and darker than this photo shows (ain't that always the way), this is a vibrant jellyish royal blue. The formula on this was thinner than the others from this collection that I've tried so far and had a tendency to either pool at the sides or go on quite sheer. By the second coat, however, coverage was good and the thinness of the formula didn't make application particularly difficult. (I wore this a few days ago now, and I can't for the life of me remember whether it was two or three coats in the end - I think it was only two though.) This was another colour that I got heaps of compliments on.

Warhol:

Now I make no secret of my dislike for pink nail polishes, but dammit if I don't love this one. Warhol is a bright, hot pink that has an amazing orange glow to it which is not evident in the photo. A true neon (blindingly so), application on this was absolutely lovely.

Both colours are shown with top coat, without they again have the satiny finish of neons.  To give you a bit more of an idea of how it looks on, and also so you can fall about laughing, here I am rocking Warhol on my nails dressed as Madonna circa Desperately Seeking Susan for 15 Year Old Daughter's birthday party in the weekend:

The theme of the party was 'Backstage Pass' and 15 Year Old Daughter insisted that I had to dress up too. I suspect she ended up regretting that. 11 Year Old Son's reaction was to yell "NOOOOOOOOOOOO" and run away. But the highlight of the evening was forgetting I was in costume when I opened the door to the pizza man. To say he looked startled would be the understatement of the year!

Your daily dose of pretty: Winnie the Pooh blotting papers

I love oil blotting papers - they're a staple in my handbag for a quick fix when I don't want to have to re-apply makeup. And life is always so much better when the stuff you carry around in your handbag is this cute:

Winnie the Pooh oil blotting papers. In a choice of pink or blue. Beyond awesome! Because there is absolutely nothing weird about wiping your greasy face on a beloved children's book character. Nope, nothing weird at all.

Winnie the Pooh blotting papers are HK$19.00 (which is NZ$3.36, US$2.45 or GBP1.59 apparently) from adambeauty.com.

Your daily dose of pretty: Velvet Bow Court from New Look

I loved the shoes at New Look when we were in England. Fortuitously they were kind enough to time their sale to coincide with our trip (now that's what I call service) so 15 Year Old Daughter and I bought a couple of pairs. And by a couple of pairs I mean The Whole Shop!

Now New Look are tempting me with even more gorgeous shoes on sale. Look:

A gorgeous shoe with a vertiginously high heel, and in such a beautiful colour. Pale pink is not a colour you see very often in shoes.  However if you don't like the pink they're also available in purple.

Which is equally gorgeous. I'm pretty sure I have to have both of these. I mean there's simply no way I could choose between the two colours. Eccentric English Boyfriend will understand. Probably.

The Velvet Bow Court is on sale for £15.00 at New Look. Oh and it comes in black too. But it's ok, I don't have to have the black. I mean I'd like it, but I don't have to have it.

Your daily dose of pretty: Bunny Trail Necklace by Alice Wears Gold

BUNNIES!!!!!

That is all.

Well not quite all. The Bunny Trail necklace by Alice Wears Gold is available on Australian website Frock You (who ship internationally) for AU$34.00, although it is currently sold out. Other stockists can be found on the Alice Wears Gold website.

Hippity-hop, hippity hop ...

Today's nails: Color Club Pucci-licious and Twiggie

Color Club's Poptastic range was released into New Zealand stores at the start of September, and Color Club New Zealand very kindly sent me out a seven piece pack for review.

Left to right: Almost Famous, Wham! Pow!, Poptastic, Warhol, Pucci-licious, Twiggie and Chelsea Girl.

The Poptastic Collection replaces the Flower Power Neon range and contains 20 shades in all. Some favourite shades from the Neons have been kept and renamed, and several new shades have been introduced.

The first two shades I swatched were Pucci-licious and Twiggie and both colours surprised me with their fabulous application - I generally expect neons to be trouble to apply but not these two. Both are highly pigmented and the formula on Pucci-licious was lovely and smooth, going on evenly and only requiring two coats. In fact I suspect if I applied it again I could make it a one coat application. Twiggie was a little thicker in consistency so required slightly more careful application but went on in one coat, something I've never had before with a neon.

First up Pucci-licious, which being a purple was beyond impossible to capture, photographing more dusky and with more blue than it has in real life.

This picture was taken before I applied top coat, and you can see the semi-matte satin finish common to many neons.

Because that picture is so completely inaccurate in representing the colour, check it out y'all - my mad Paint skills:

Makes me look like I have the world's worst fake tan! Still not particularly representive, you'll just have to trust me that Pucci-licious is a gorgeous bright grape purple which I got heaps of compliments on.

Twiggie is bright, summery green somewhere between mint green and pea green.

A real stand-out colour that you can't help noticing - love it.

Your daily dose of pretty: Life's a Beach heels from Hannahs

If somebody tried to describe these shoes to me, my immediate reaction would be "bleuch":

A high heeled canvas shoe in red, pink, green, orange and purple stripes? It sounds like something vomitted up by a deck chair.

But actually, I love this shoe. I even went into Hannahs yesterday to fondle it in person, and confirmed its gorgeousness. I didn't try it on though, because you know what happens once I try it on don't you? Yup, the credit card comes out and Eccentric English Boyfriend gets to repeat what seems to be his favourite phrase: "how many pairs of shoes do you actually need?". I may well get that printed on a tshirt for him. In fact I could probably do a whole collection of EEB tshirts, with phrases like "you bought more nail polish - what a surprise"; "I don't have any cash on me, you took it all"; and the perennial favourite "yes, dear".

The Life's A Beach shoe is available in Hannahs stores New Zealand-wide for NZ$69.95.

Your daily dose of pretty: Dream dress in purple by Bettie Page Clothing

I may be carrying a few more kilos than I'm happy with, and parts of me may wobble more than I'd like, but one thing I do like about myself is that I have curves. Womanly, albeit wobbly, curves. And I'd quite like to squeeze my curves into this dress:

Such a gorgeous, classic shape, and the fan detail at the neckline and waist takes this into Killer Curves territory. Do want!

The Dream dress in Purple is US$114.00 from Bettie Page Clothing.

Today's nail: a polish from England - Barry M Grey

I already had several Barry M polishes in my stash prior to our trip to England, and of course I added to their number. Barry M almost never disappoint me with their application, and the creatively named 'Grey' is no exception.

(I've a feeling they don't pay their polish naming person enough!)

Grey leans slightly warmer in real life than the pictures show, and to my eye would be wearable on most skin tones. I'm a huge fan of grey nail polish and this one makes my heart go pitter patter.

Application-wise the only way this polish could have been more perfect was if it went on in one coat. This is two coats of smooth, buttery, creme goodness. Barry M have yet again knocked it out of the park for me.

Your daily dose of pretty: Solid perfumes by Crazylibellule and the Poppies

When the only break in a 24 hour flight from London to Auckland is two hours in Hong Kong airport, you know there's only one thing to do right? Yup - duty free shopping.

Actually, according to 11 Year Old Son the only thing to do during a two hour stopover in Hong Kong airport is to find the nearest McDonalds, despite the fact that during our two day stay in Hong Kong on the way out to England he was mortified - mortified I tell you - to discover that you can't get Sweet & Sour sauce with your McNuggets in Hong Kong. I think that was the moment when he truly realised he was in a foreign country!

Anyway, while I was standing at the counter in one of the cosmetics outlets waiting to pay for my Lancome Hypnose mascara (half the price I would pay for it in NZ - did I mention how much I love duty free?) I found myself browsing the counter displays. Cute little displays at the cosmetics counter have an effect on me similar to that of candy displays beside the supermarket checkout on small children. Except I have a credit card and nobody to say no (Eccentric English Boyfriend had taken 11YO Son for his McDonalds top-up!).

I spotted the Crazylibellule and the Poppies Les Garconnes solid perfume sticks and fell in love with the beautiful packaging:

Aren't they gorgeous? I bought Rose a Saigon (third from the right), which is quite delightful. Don't ask me to describe its scent for you though; much like wine-tasting, perfume descriptions are way beyond my ability so the best answer you're likely to get is "well, it smells, ummm, nice".

I can't find much information about Crazylibellule and the Poppies - their website is currently closed for maintenance - but their products seem to be available at many online cosmetics retailers. Does anybody else have one of these in their stash? What do you think of them?

Your daily dose of pretty: Two Tone Rose Alice Band from Beadesaurus

I just love these Alice bands:

I love the bold contrast of colours and the geometric structure of the rose. I really want to buy one, but I can't wear Alice bands because they make my head hurt. I think they must squeeze my brain or something.

The Two Tone Rose Alice Band is £10.00 from Beadesaurus (who ship internationally).