What's in my May GlossyBox? 2nd Birthday Edition.

My GlossyBox was a little late this month because of an issue with my Paypal payments and because of this, I broke my own cardinal rule when it comes to GlossyBoxes, don't find out what other people get before you have received your box. My friend who lives round the corner is a subscriber too, and normally, she isn't allowed to tell me what she got until I have had mine, but this month I asked her, and oh I wish I hadn't, her box was amazing, the products were so good and she got full sizes that were quite high priced. So I got excited. Then my box turned up and I got disappointed. Not because my box was rubbish, my box was actually pretty good but because I was expecting something different. I have got over it now but I recommend not breaking this rule, EVER.

So, this months box is to celebrate the 2nd birthday of GlossyBox UK. They have done really well since starting up and I'm really glad that I joined them, yes, we do get disappointing months but its personal preference and lets face it, you can't keep everyone happy, and I would never have got to try some of the amazing products I have if I never signed up.

Because of the significance of this month, I was really hoping that we would have another limited design box but they stayed with the normal baby pink box and instead changed the ribbon and tissue paper. I love the colour of the ribbon, its a bright neon pink, which hasn't really come through quite as bright on camera.

The tissue paper is a cute 'treat' theme.

The info sheet is the same as usual as well. See that little blue box on the right? That box is to tell us that if you had been subscribed for over a year, you were getting and extra treat in your box, why didn't I hear about GlossyBox earlier than I did. :( I'd be interested to find out what long time subscribers got as this extra treat.

Click after the jump and we'll get onto the items I did get.

Polish Days- The number 5

This Polish Days seems to have come round really quickly, and tbh, Hannah (from Polly Polish, that runs Polish Days) seems to have a knack for picking themes that proper stump me. This months theme of The Number 5 is no exception.

Unfortunately, the number 5 has no significance to me at all, which I found quite strange. Apart from a few 5's in my phone numbers, that's it. So, thinking of a mani for it was quite difficult. Yes, there are loads of things out there in the big bad world that have relevance but I couldn't think of anything to do with them.

Apart from one thing that kept sticking in my head, 5 Gold Rings. Yes, it's a little bit out of season but don't worry, I didn't go for a Christmas theme. I kind of loosely used it, so the mani I came up with ended up a bit of a mish of 2 things.

Before we get to the pictures, I'll explain how I decided on this particular mani. So, 5 gold rings, gold rings, one gold ring, one ring, one ring to rule them all, I have 5 fingers, so, 5 gold rings to rule them all.

And this is it.

Direct Sunlight

I had recently bought some cute decals which had the text from the ring in LOTR, or so I assume, it could say anything for all I know. I used a base of Barry M Gold Foil (the only non-glitter gold polish I own), topped with 3 coats of Barry M Gold Glitter, added the decals and topped with Seche Vite, which took 2 coats because of the glitter and decals.

I love the effect of old, dirty gold it gives in direct sunlight.

Natural light-shade

This is the mani in natural shaded light, you can see a few crinkles in the decals but it doesn't ruin it. 

I'm very interested to see what everyone else has done for this month, I love that everyone else's interpretation will be different.

So don't forget to check out all the other lovelies taking part to see what they have done, they are listed below. And if you want to take part in next months Polish Days, you can get all the details here.

:)x

May the fun be with you!

As it is Star Wars day I wanted to post one of my favourite videos to give you a smile. I know this is technically 2 posts in one day but don't get used to it, you know how bad I am with it.

Anyway, enjoy! :)x

               

May the 4th be with you!

Yes, today is Star Wars day, so I decided to do these cute Stormtrooper nails that have been floating around for a while. This was my first ever attempt at them, and i made the mistake of going in thinking these would be easy as pie and quick, I was wrong. Mainly because I had hand tremors at the time so it was impossible to freehand anything neatly, but the outcome was cute as hell and they got the approval of my 6 year old, so job done.

I used Barry M Matt White and Barry M Black Nail Art Pen for the details topped with a coat of Seche Vite.

We like Star Wars in this house and have crap loads of Star Wars memorabilia. I did try to take some pictures of some of it for you but my camera ran out of battery and I have no more in the house (you wouldn't want me going out in the rain would you?) Maybe that can be a post for another day.

We have 2 FX lightsabers, some mini collectable lightsaber hilts, film cells, old collectable figures, newer figures, original soundtrack LP's, clothes, jewellery, teddies. The list could go on and on, we even have inflatable lightsabers and the Star Wars posters that we had on the walls of our first flat together.

Sadly, in our town, there isn't a lotta love for Star Wars and so there are no celebrations going on anywhere near us so we are gonna chill out with a Star Wars movie marathon.

Did you know that today is also Free Comic Book Day? You can have a look at the website here to find out more about it and see if you have a store near you that is participating. Again, we miss out because our little town sucks and is nowhere near anyone who is participating. Let me know if you do anything fun for either Star Wars Day or Free Comic Book Day.

Now go and relax you will.

 (yeah, I know, that was lame, don't be judgey)

:)x

Barry M Nail Art Pens

I've been umming and aaahing about getting some nail art pens for ages, mainly because when it comes to certain things, my intensely unsteady hands can't quite manage it with a brush.

So when I found out that Barry M were releasing their own nail art pens, it made sense for me to get some.

For my birthday, I was let loose in Superdrug and luckily, these had been released a few days before, plus they were on a 3 for 2 deal (Still 3 for 2 across all Barry M nail @Superdrug) and I love bargains even when I'm not the one paying, so I grabbed the white, black and silver ones.

The pens are quite chunky, especially when compared to a nail art brush, and the shape and size made them really easy to grip. They have a solid plastic 'nib' which you have to pump on a hard surface on your first use (sheet of paper or paper towel highly recommended to cover hard surface). Don't make the mistake I did and pump it on every use, you tend to get splodging.

The polish, isn't quite the same formula of nail polish, it's sort of runnier, so it comes out easily and evenly and spreads thinly. For instance, when doing a french tip with normal polish and a brush, have you ever noticed how the polish builds up into a ridge type bump? With these nail art pens, you can go over the area several times and the polish still looks and feels flat and even. Because of this, it makes it so easy to do straight lines and other annoyingly and deceivingly difficult details. Although the Silver pen seems to have a closer consistency to that of Barry M Silver Foil.

So the reason I wanted pens, was to be able to do controlled straight lines. And I wanted to do controlled straight lines so I could do border nails. And these are the nails I wanted to do.

Nails Inc St. James Road (Red Polish) Details done using pens

It's not an amazing example of the use of the pens but I originally saw these nails done on Nancy Mc Nails and mine aren't quite as stunning but I love them and I will perfect them.

One tip for these, is to wait until your nails are completely dry before using the pen, otherwise the pen polish cracks when applied onto wet polish.

To see some more detailed and gorgeous designs using the Barry M Nail Art Pens, have a look at Hannah's design @Polly Polish and Allie's designs @Brit Nails.

The pens are available in Black, White, Silver and Pink and are available from Barry M, Boots and Superdrug and are priced at £4.99 each, however they are available on the Superdrug 3for2 on Barry M Nails.

:)x