Splurge or Squirrel

Hold that hope...spring is nearly upon us and that means sprucing up oneself. The easiest way to inject a bit of what is to come now is with nail varnish.

It seems the colour of the season is upon us and it is a splurge-tastic Chanel number called Fracas.

At £18 it is a total splurge. But if you'd rather save the pennies then coming in at a marvellous £3.50 is M&S's Limited Collection Polish in Carnation. Three coats of this polish will give you the same deep coral pink glow of Fracas at a fraction of the price. Carnation seems only to be in store at the moment and not online and it may well be that the colour is not part of the new season ones so hurry and get it now before it goes.

UPDATE: I made a mistake the Limited Collection Polish colour is PLASTIC PINK 

3 little pots of joy

Why Chanel nail varnish completes me is an answer I will never fathom. Believe me I've tried to love the others. I can recommend Essie, Opi and a few others. I was supplied with a lovely selection of Essie by their nice PR company when I was using clothes from one of their other clients for a shoot. Essie applies and stays on well and I can't fault it. But Chanel nail varnish is my weakness. I love the box, the pot and the colours. I was bereft when they stopped Paparazzi and wish they would bring it back.

I buy all my toiletries and useful things in Boots to get the points on their reward card which helps my nail varnish fix. At £16.50 Chanel's little pots of colour aren't cheap but they dress up a look in an easy way. Oh and I love the names, well nearly all of them.

This week saw the introduction of three new summer colours, Mistral, Riviera and Nouvelle Vague. I would have bought all three if I hadn't got Orange Fizz earlier in the week, plus I have my eye on Dragon and Intermezzo - is there a Chanel nail varnish self help group?

Two euros is all you need

I made two purchases in Paris totalling 2 euros. One on a copy of Grazia and the other on 3 Eiffel Towers - a bargain at 3 for one euro. The Eiffel Towers were to decorate my item that blew my budget a gorgeous bag which is a collaboration between Ally Capellino and Toast the Nairobi shopper
I love the simplicity of the design and the fact it is a fair trade item. I think it makes a change from the lure of the designer worship. I also love my little towers n'est pas.


My other big spend was on a copy of French Grazia, I was slightly amused by their love of Lily Allen, seriously the feature on her was a different angle to our media. In fact the many choices of photos of different celebrities only proves that we are only informed by the images and stories chosen.


The preview of LFW was of interest too. The pictorial choice - will we always be defined by the Union Jack? The rest of the article choose Henry Holland ( Le plus decomplexe - the most uninhibited), Marios Schwab ( Le plus glam - obvious), Christopher Kane ( Le plus actuel - the most current) and Luella (Le plus aristo - obv again) as the best of LFW designers to look out for. Interesting!
However my treat of the week was a super size Sunday Times Style magazine. Not only was Shane Watson occupying her usual position but it included Julie Burchill too. Now next week it will return to its usual insipid ordinariness but I have to say when will publishers get that the texture and size of their offerings are worth it. I love a decent magazine and this edition and the Harper's Bazaar edition in March was wonderful. I always wish someone would be brave enough to do the same all the time.


I will be fighting for a Jade nail varnish, I'm a serial collector of Chanel nail varnish so watch out!