Crushed Grape, whatever the season. Free Leighton Denny Manicures

There are times when I spend ages trying to find that first sentence on how to start a blog post and others, like tonight where billions of way to start a blog post comes bustling in my head and I am overwhelmed. Please excuse me for I am very excited tonight. It's been a while since I've played with a Leighton Denny nail polish and I forgot how good it was.

When the gorgeous Nic, from Strawberry Blonde Beauty Blog told us informed us about the Magazine Freebies offers in March 2012, I got a bit hot under the collar: 3 shades of Leighton Denny nail polishes can be yours for free, if you purchase a copy of the March 2012 edition of Red Magazine (£3.80)





Nic warned us that the actual magazine with the free polishes would be hard to track down but being a massive fan of Leighton Denny, I was not going to give up so easily. I was lucky, they had some in my local Marks and Spencer and I managed to get my hands on 'Crushed Grape' a dark berry polish and a lilac polish annoyingly called 'Whatever'.





I can't explain in words the delight it was to experience 'Crushed Grape' and 'Whatever' on my nails: smooth, creamy, easy peasy to apply, opaque in one coat, dries fast, only £3.80. What more can a girl want? Well perhaps spending some time en-tête-à-tête with Leighton Denny himself.


I didn't do any clean up whatsoever on my manicures, (it probably shows but I would be quite happy to parade with my nails like that) I went really sloppy with it so much so that it felt like that the polish applied itself. I am in love, totally in love. As a consequence of my infatuation, I am going to leave you with an avalanche of photos.


Crushed Grape in all its glory, one coat only:







Now with slightly warmer lighting





and this is, ‘Whatever’. I am not going to lie. I feel the name doesn’t do justice to the beautiful shade and finish. Again, this is one coat. I know!!







Now with warmer lighting







If you have not yet tried a Leighton Denny polish and can hunt a Red Magazine with freebies in, you will not regret it. It will probably be the best £3.80 you've ever spent   








Needless to say, if the third free shade ‘Vamp’ had also been available at my local Marks and Spencer, I would have also bought it. Let me know if you managed to get your hands on it, I would love to see!  
      

 
Leighton Denny, will you marry me?      

 

What? Leighton Denny nail polishes in 'Crushed Grape' and 'Whatever
How much? Free on purchase of Red Magazine, March 2012 edition, £3.80
Where? I don't know. In some Marks and Spencers. xx

     

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The best things in life are free... My side project

Just a quick post to let you know (or remind you) about my second blog, a little project of mine which had been brewing for a quite a while. Those of you following on me twitter will maybe remember the now defunct clonky and impractical 'giveaway bonanza' tweetletter which got outdated the minute I tweeted it. I was also unhappy about the flood it created to my timeline everytime it was updated and although the intention behind was good, the tweetletter was rubbish all around.

Les Petits Cadeaux, or giveaway gazette is born from the ashes of this newsletter and I hope you like it. The concept is simple: The blog is updated every Monday morning, before breakfast time and gives you notification of lots of beauty blogs giveaways, well the ones I know of and comes across whilst reading my blog subscriptions. There is so much going on this week, click here if you want what great giveaways are waiting for you.


If you a beauty blogger and unsure whether I am following you, you can also submit your own giveaway there. Similarly, if you know I am following your blog and don't want your giveaway to be mentioned, that's fine by me too and I'll make a note of that. No problema :)


Have a lovely week xx

Liloo
@tsunimee on twitter

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Fashion Fawn Nails and Brown/Taupe Polishes comparison

I've been wondering whether I was a bit harsh with my review of Nails Inc Instyle Orange Candy yesterday. On Emma's positive experiences on Fashion Fawn and Electric Teal, the other 2 shades of nails inc polishes, also free on purchase of In Style magazine this month, I decided to buy 'Fashion Fawn'. Everything is all right with the world again.

Application was the usual easy and I couldn't fault the formula. I was able to be more in control the application again and no hint of gloopyness in sight. I had one hair on the brush right in the middle of the brush longer than the others but it was nothing that a quick snip with a pair of scissors couldn't fix. My photos show 2 coats of polish. Fashion Fawn gets my thumbs up!












I am not very good at describing shades, and comparing it with others. For me it's brown, a nice shade of brown. I am going to leave you all nail polish aficionados and taupe experts to appreciate the nuances in my little comparison swatch below. Thank you Emma for the comparison inspiration :) xx






I really enjoyed that exercise. I have found that:
- Barry M Mushroom was the easiest to apply (They have really nailed their formula!!)
- I still want to recycle / blog sale Accessorize Truffle: not too keen on the brush, it feels so short. I am not very comfortably applying it, the size of the cap of the truffle feels disproportionately too wide too big compared to the length of the brush. I can’t believe how grey and dark it looks here!
- My favourite brown from this little swatch is Jermyn Street and it made me appreciate it even more.
 

This is one of these times when I would have loved to be a freak, to have 4 more fingers on the same hand and compare more shades at once. Now if you want to compare nails inc london, fashion fawn, eyeko posh and no.7 'the brown one' I'd love you for ever :)

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Freebie Fursday {notd}

I am not liking my nails at the moment. They are too short, the nail shape of my index is doing its own thing again but today was a special occasion. Today was Freebie (Th)Fursdaaaay :) The orange fanatic in me found it hard to resist buying a copy in Instyle Magazine this month. Instyle did again one of their popular collaboration with nails inc and promised their readers 3 shades of polishes this month. 5pm couldn't come soon enough for me to get my hands on candy orange.


At the same time, I've been reflecting on my recent purchases of nail polishes and realised that the most I'd been spending lately on nail polishes had been £2.99 (Instyle Magazine costing £3.70!) So I really wanted to have a good look at the bottle and make a final decision then. The polish was much brighter than I expected but since I only had one orange polish in my collection (Gosh Orange Drops) I decided to give it a whirl.



 


Well maybe I shouldn't have bought it after all. I have found candy orange not very easy to apply. I found the formula to be quite thick, verging on gloopy. It has a nice glossy finish but it's one of these polishes that until it's a bit dry, it looks a bit messy to be honest. But if the colour and the result is nice, it's all that matters right?




Well, I do love orange but this is bit too on the neon side for my liking. Photos show 2 coats but ideally this manicure needs 3 coats. Overall, I am not very impressed by this shade and it will no doubt come up in some sort of blog sale. What a shame, I had great hopes for this little orange number. Maybe my expectations were too high. I should have bought the brown instead *sigh*






Candy Orange? I would prefer to call this more Fanta Orange, as it also comes free with plenty of bubbles unfortunately.

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Inglot Candy Nails

I was not planning to wear nail polish for a while. I was planning even less to post any pictures of my nails!  I had to cut them right down to the base (very bad tear) and I much prefer doing nail posts when my nails are a little bit longer. I feel that they showcase a nail polish better but hey ho, short nails deserve to be loved too right?





Today, I am wearing a little freebie from a magazine. It's an oldie but a goodie: It was given away in 'In Style' Magazine and it's called 'Candy'. Candy a lovely shade of lilac pink. It's very girly, very pink but the lilac tones prevents it from being too 'barbie' girl and too cutesy. Application was easy, although I find this polish a little bit on the thick side. If you're a rush, you could get away with one coat as the coverage is pretty impressive but 2 coats will give you immaculate and even coverage. 


And now for the obligatory photo with flash (I much prefer taking my nail photos with flash!)




And now powered with natural sunlight :)





I am not into 'creme' finishes really. I find 'creme' finishes to be a little flat, unless they are nude mannequin shades or greige. But this one I like. And I like it better because it came free with a magazine!


 


In the occasions, when I miss my shimmer drama, I like to pair Instyle candy with the most gorgeous top coat ever: Inglot 017, one of my very few purchases from Imats (January 2011)


 


This very sheer polish will just 'prettify' any polish you have and will add some kind of duochrome pink/bluey glow to your nails. If you wear it on its own (about 4 coats though) it will just make your nails so pretty and elegant.





I've worn on its own a few times (very hard to photograph) and they look like very clean, fresh rosy glow nails and I always get compliments. It would be the kind of shade Men scared of nail polishes would like, something pretty safe you would want to wear when you meet his parents too ;)





Talking of freebies, and if you're in the UK, keep your eyes opened for some other magazines offers: Fee from Makeup Savvy and Grace from London Makeup Girl  have found some offers for us, starting in just a few days time. Weee! :) Ooo I like a magazine freebie! Which one is the best one you’ve collected so far?

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Free ‘Splash’ Nail Polishes

Online Affordable Fashion Range Missguided.co.uk is now doing beauty stuff and they're launching today 'Splash': a brand new polish collection.





No need to splash out though, because you can get 3 shades (collection has 6 polishes in total) for FREE in the November Issue of Cosmopolitan. The Missguided Splash polishes usually retail at £5.00.




MissFit: Black with a sparkly gold shimmer
MissCellaneous: Nude
MissBehave: Lilac or Pink?

Will you be getting any this week end ;) ? 
I am tempted to … misbehave myself and get my copy of  Scherzinger Cosmopolitan ;)

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