What's In My Bag? Radley Grosvenor in Purple

Last year, I made my first big (for me) handbag purchase. I bought the Radley Grosvenor Medium Satchel bag in purple. It was love at first site. I've LOVED it and I've been so happy that I got it! It's a beautiful purple (which is my favorite color) and everyone has said it's a very ME color bag! Here's a picture of the bag when I got it last year:

Awwww, look at the puppies! I had to take the puppies off the bag because they kept falling off the leather straps and I didn't want to lose them. The bag has very little sign of wear in the year that I've had it. The stitching has come a little undone on the handle but nothing that would mean it'd come apart or anything like that. The picture above is probably more color accurate than the pictures I took today.

 

Yeah, it's pretty jam packed! I usually have my phone and tissues in the front pockets, just so I can have easy access to them (the tissues, especially, since it's allergy season for me!)

I usually have some lip products and perfume in my bag...

 Little compact mirror, mini manicure set (in white) and various hair clips...

My three year old Samsung Jet with scratches on screen protector...

 I usually have my camera with me...

Little Gorjuss bag...

Generic Zyrtec, mini glass file, nail clipper, pain meds for headaches,

mini lotion and mini L'Occitane Cherry Blossom solid perfume...

Animal sunglasses and Strawberry Tic Tacs...

Tissues, FAB lotion (fragrance free!) and my Fossil wallet....

Lots of places for cards! And that picture of Ethan has been in

my various wallets for 7 years!

Another reason I love this wallet is because there's lots of room

for coins, which is a must in the UK as there are no £1 notes/bills

and they (and £2) come in coins and build up really quickly...

Overall, I love the bag. However, I don't tend to carry it with me when I know I'll be out and walking around all day because it does tend to slip off my shoulder quite a lot (I'm guessing because it's an all leather strap?) and because there's not THAT much room in the bag. The only thing that's not in any of these pictures are my keys because I don't tend to have them in my bag unless I'm going out! 

What's in YOUR bag?

NOTD on Facebook.

On Sunday, I started a new feature over on my Facebook page with just a simple Nail of the Day post. My blog has 15 followers and I have 148 likes on my FB page. So, in order to reach more people, I thought that maybe a NOTD post would be easier for me to do than a full blog post a couple of times a week, which I wasn't really doing anyway.

This week, I've shared 6 manicures. They have been: Illamasqua Stance with Lynnderella Garden of Even, Illamasqua Omen and then Illamasqua Omen with Illamasqua Poke dots the following day, Cirque Alter Ego, NerdLacquer Event Horizon and today I posted Dior Diablotine.

I've also been showing pictures of my tortoise, Fluffy, trying out some new foods. Go check Fluffy out and let me know what you think of this new feature! Thanks!

Illamasqua Venous and NailVenturous Lacquer Rainbow Fish

Sorry for not posting a lot lately. I spent nearly 3 weeks cleaning my house before my BFF, Oriana, came over from NY for a visit. She was here for 10 days and we went to Wales. Here's some of my favorite pictures from there!

Sunset in Llandudno on May 22nd.

Street in Caernarfon 

Conwy Castle 

Church in Betws-y-Coed 

Sunset on Lake Bala on May 25th.

I took a LOT of pictures. It was really hard to pick out just a few to show here!

Anyway, on to the mani! This is Illamasqua Venous with NailVenturous Lacquer Rainbow Fish. Here's a sorta blurry picture of Venous with Flash. The following night I put on Rainbow Fish and I LOVE it!

with flash.

Illamasqua can be purchased at their site or at Sephora in the states. NVL can't be purchased any more except in some auctions and groups on Facebook.

Lupus Awareness Day - Illamasqua Seance

Today we're wearing purple for Lupus Awareness Day. Lupus is an auto-immune disease that affects 6 million people worldwide. 9/10 of of people affected are women. Here is a document with some facts that my friend, Michelle, wrote up. It's really informative and it's well worth a read!

I have my newest purple polish, Illamasqua Seance. It's a pretty berry type purple that has a silver shimmer. It actually glows under a UV light but I don't have a UV light, so I can't demonstrate that effect for you!

My friend, Laurie (who is obsessed with suede mattes!) from Dressed Up Digits, thought this would look really good as a matte. It's semi-matte without a top coat, so I just added a thin layer of Seance over my existing mani and also added a matte top coat over another nail.

in the sun.

No top coat on pointer.

Matte top coat on middle.

Regular top coat on ring.

with flash.

I really love this. I couldn't quite capture the color of this, it's more pink than this but I love it anyway. This can currently be purchased at the Illamasqua site and at a few other places in the UK. Hopefully it will be available soon at Sephora in the US.

Dandy Nails Perspective

Today I have a very special polish for you! This is a custom made polish for Sheila over at Pointless Cafe. It's made by the amazing Sandy over at Dandy Nails! Whenever I see a polish that's this berry color, I immediately think of Sheila. This one has the added bonus of blue shimmer and micro flecks! It's gorgeous!

How beautiful is this??? I couldn't stop staring at it!!! The wear was pretty good on it, I believe I had it on for 4 days. This is a LE polish and not available in the shop. Here is Sheila's post about this polish. Her swatches are 10 times better than mine, so definitely go check them out. Dandy Nails is available at her etsy shop. Here is her Facebook page! Go like it for updates and new releases! And here is Sheila's Facebook page!

Tiffany Blue Comparison

For a long time, I was obsessed for finding a dupe for Chanel Nouvelle Vague because I didn't think I'd ever get my hands on it since it sells for crazy prices on ebay. The closest dupe I have is Mavala Lagoon but the color is kinda murky and I wasn't too impressed by it but accepted it as I wasn't paying the price for NV. Then, as if by magic, I received NV in the mail as a birthday present from an amazing group of friends. I won't list them all but they know who they are! I was shocked and amazed and overwhelmed and I love it long time. I wore it as my birthday mani (March 15th) and I put it on my toes for a while and it was everything I wanted it to be. But I kept wanting to do a comparison. I got H&M Norwegian Sky from Ashley as Smashley Sparkles as a belated birthday present and my friend, Marissa, sent me Julie G Shark's Cove as well and I knew it was time for the comparison! Here are the polishes I used:

Illamasqua Nudge, Chanel Nouvelle Vague, Mavala Lagoon,

Julie G Shark's Cove and H&M Norwegian Sky

And here is the comparison (sorry for the sloppy swatches!):

Thumb - Illamasqua Nudge

Pointer - Chanel Nouvelle Vague

Middle - Mavala Lagoon

Ring - Julie G Shark's Cove

Pinky - H&M Norwegian Sky

In my Julie G Shark's Cove post from yesterday, I said

that it was comparable to NV. I think the color is comparable

but obviously the shimmer sets it apart from each other.

Nudge and Norwegian Sky are too pastel to be similar to NV.  Lagoon is probably the closest but it's just that tiny bit different but at £3.50 it's worth it if you want something to satisfy that NV itch and can't afford to pay £75 for it on ebay. Shark's Cove is just beautiful, so if you have any of the others, you still need it.

Julie G Shark's Cove

Today I have for you the amazing Julie G Shark's Cove. This is a beautiful Tiffany type blue with an amazing silvery shimmer. I put this on Saturday because I was in the middle of cleaning and needed something on to protect my nails and thought this would be good and it'd last for a day and I'd just change it on Monday. This picture was taken on WEDNESDAY! This is after 5 days of straightening up rooms, doing dishes, cooking food, sweeping and washing floors, vacuuming, dusting, rearranging... you get the idea. I did a lot of cleaning.  And the only thing in these pictures is a bit of tip wear and a mysterious scratch that appeared on Tuesday. On to the pictures!

See? Amazing! My friend, Marissa, sent me this as a surprise last month. I love it so much! I think it's pretty comparable to Chanel Nouvelle Vague, so I'm going to try to do a comparison to them (and a few others) sometime soon! I believe this is available at Rite Aid in the states, not sure if it's available anywhere else and I've never seen it in the UK.