Mani Refresh : The Living Daylights

Yesterdays manicure was still going strong, no chips! bravo Kiko. So instead of changing my colour I decided to do a little refresh, using a polish I bought before Christmas.

OPI The Living Daylights is from the 2012 Skyfall collection celebrating 50 years of James Bond films. It is a beautiful concoction of large hexagonal glitter pieces in silver, copper and teal. Completely unique and a great polish for paring with so many colours for autumn/winter.

Trick or Treat! Toasted Pumpkin Seeds

Trick or Treat!

Today's post  is a super quick and easy recipe for a delicious and tasty treat; Toasted pumpkin seeds I really am utilising every part of my pumpkins this year ;)

Here's what you will need,

A baking sheet,
Baking parchment,
Fresh pumpkin seeds,
Salt and pepper,
Olive oil,

There is only 3 steps to this recipe!

Pre-heat your oven to 180o

Lay out your pumpkin seeds on a baking sheet covered in parchment, drizzle with a little olive oil and season with salt and pepper to taste.

Bake in the oven  for 10 minutes or until they just start to turn in colour

and that's it! toasted pumpkin seeds!

You can even add a little chili powder for a

#OrangeOctober Flocking Orange

#OrangeOctober Day 30.

Welcome back for the penultimate #OrangeOctober blog post.

Flocking is the latest craze to come to nails since the caviar manicure, but how easy is it for an at home manicure?

I ordered my flocking powder from ebay and a couple of days later it arrived through my door. I can't say I was excited at the prospect of having furry nails, for some reason I imagined it would feel uncomfortable, like matte nails, but 100 times worse. I wasn't fond of the idea of mess or the removal process either. But me experience wasn't as bad as I had anticipated.

Here's what yo need for an at home flocked manicure...






Base coat,

Regular polish in a matching colour to your flocking powder,
Quick drying top coat,
Flocking powder,
A sieve,
Hoover to clean up ;)

Apply base coat, two coats of your base colour, I'm using a Kiko polish that I have somehow managed to leave out of #OrangeOctober *shock horror* This is Kiko

Apply your top coat, I am using Seche Vite, but any top coat will do the trick :)

Working quickly sieve your flocking powder onto your nails.

Gently press down on each nail to ensure the flocking has adhered to the nail.


Your all done!

Overall I actually like the effect, I couldn't wear it all day, or on a day to day basis, but it isn't uncomfortable at all on the nails.

It kinda reminds me of this guy...

Trick or Treat! Pumpkin Soup

So after making the delicious Pumpkin, Cheese and Chive muffins, I was still left with a lot of pumpkin that I didn't want to waste. So I decided to try making pumpkin soup :)

You will need ...

1 1/2 kg of Pumpkin, peeled and cubed (for a handy how to video click here)

1 Onion, sliced,

50g Butter, 

2 Garlic Cloves, peeled,

1 ltr Chicken stock,

1 ltr Water,

2tbsp Creme Fresh or double creme,

1 pinch or nutmeg,

1 pinch of cinnamon,

1tbsp Olive Oil,

2 tbsp Maple syrup,

Salt and Pepper.

I chose not to make the croutons, but if you want to you will need ...

2 Slices whole grain bread, cut into cubes,

1sp sugar

Heres the recipe I followed in the handy form of a video ...

roasted pumpkin soup

Delicious!

#OrangeOctober Extra-va-vaganza!

#OrangeOctober Day 29

Who doesn't love a glitter polish?!

Todays polish is the third that I have featured from OPI's Burlesque collection, wow! who would have thought Burlesque = Orange?!

Extra-va-vaganza! (like Va-Va-Voom) is from the glitter half of the collection. A beautiful orange glitter mixed with silver, and if I'm not mistaken, green? Its a gorgeous blend which works really well for this time of year :)

Take The Stage

Rising Star

#OrangeOctober Deutsch You Want Me Baby?

#OrangeOctober Day 28.

Whose getting excited for Halloween?

Today's polish is so incredible, its as if OPI have bottled up autumn and Halloween . It is so festive, a gorgeous, rich, rusty, burnt orange colour yet so vibrant with a velvet like finish. This polish is so festive and dark, it almost leans red and is oh so shimmery. I can't say enough good things about it, the photos simply don't do it justice.

This is Deutsch You Want Me Baby? from OPI's Autumn/Winter collection this year. It was a spur of the moment buy for me, I figured I would just sell it on ebay if I didn't like it, but I am so glad I picked it up! it was love at first application.

(oops I think I need to mow the lawn *embarrassing*)

The application wasn't what I come to expect from OPI, the formula was a little thin, but the colour was build able. This is three coats, but two would probably suffice.

I also have German-icure on order from the same collection. I hope it is just as beautiful as this one. You have big shoes to fill German-icure!

What colours did you buy from the German Collection? or which would you like to get in the future?
I still have a long list, but they will have to wait until after Christmas now, or maybe Santa will surprise me?!

xoxo

#OrangeOctober Anom

#OrangeOctober Day 21!

Todays polish anonymous, It's from Claires and thats all I know. A quick google search suggests it might be Julius, a neon orange with holographic glitter, it fits the description! (If you have any other suggestions on what this polish is, please leave it in the comments as I'd love to know).

To get this level of coverage I had to apply 4-5 coats to each nail, the polish is very sheer and jelly like and the glitter is super gritty. So gritty not even a generous coat of Seche Vite helped :(

Overall I think this polish is good for a bit of fun, a day off work, a weekend getaway that kind of thing. It doesn't have much staying power, this mani chipped within half a day! I'm glad I only paid £1.92 its not worth a lot more.

What Claires polishes would you recommend?

xoxo