Nail colour of the week

We continue to enjoy the Christmas nail varnish gift bonanza with this perfect red. My sister bought me this and it's a total winner.

It is the red to end all reds. I have tried so many red nail colours and find myself sick of them after a day or two. But this is perfection. I find myself yearning for it when I have another colour on my nails. It's a perfect, shiny red. As always with YSL, it's a doddle to put on. If you only have one red nail varnish, then make it this one.

Let's talk about feet

As I explained yesterday, I visited Sephora on my New York trip. Not doing so is unthinkable. However, I am on a skincare ban. I had to be creative to not break it.

I suffer greatly from very dry feet. I have pedicures throughout winter because I can't bear for my feet to get flaky. Also, why not have pedicures in winter? It's grim enough without having pretty feet to look at in the bath.

As I browsed Sephora, I stumbled across these sock masks. Ooooh. $6 each ($5 on the site - shows how expensive NYC is!) and you pop them on your feet and relax for 20 mins. These are amazing, my feet were baby smooth afterwards. I immediately rushed back and bought five more of them. I used the almond one but I bought the lavender one as well.

I also bought this foot file. I have a big foot file but it's a pain to take when I travel. This is dinky sized, a bargain at $12 and it buffs beautifully. I used this before applying my sock masks.

I highly recommend the sock masks. I lay in my hotel room with these babies on my feet and it was deeply relaxing. You could go wild and put a sheet mask on at the same time and hope nobody walks in!

Beauty chores

I've just returned from NYC which was not the best visit to the US I've had. The shadow of Trump looms large and it rained solidly for two days. The pound is so weak that everything costs a fortune. I did visit trusty Sephora though and I didn't break my resolution because I purchased some tools which is allowed.

I bought this silicone brush cleanser. I've just cleaned my brushes and I have to tell you, this is brilliant. You add liquid soap and water and squish the brush on the pad and all the yuckiness comes out effortlessly. Squeaky clean! Love it. I use lots of make-up brushes and wash them weekly so this is a very handy gadget. There are plenty of similar products on Amazon. I highly recommend.

Caudalie Overnight Detox Oil

I am holding fast to my new year skincare resolution. That is, I am not buying any until I've finished two products. Last night I finished my Sarah Chapman Overnight Facial oil which is the elixir of youth.  It was with sadness I put the empty in the bin. I have two other face oils in my arsenal and so we move on to this Caudalie one.

I bought it a while ago and didn't reach for it much because the smell is an acquired taste. Normally I am a big fan of all Caudalie products and the scent but this is not a smell I can get on board with and when it's all over your face, you become very aware of it. No matter. This is why I made this resolution, to plough through the backlog.

I just had a long bath and have put this on. It has the same texture of my beloved Clarins oil and I am determined to use it. It works and it cost me £29. It must be used! I will use this up and then I have half a bottle of the Clarins oil and then I can buy a new oil. And I will buy Clarins which is my desert island night oil. OK, now I sound like a nutter. Who has a desert island night oil?! I do!

I love the Sarah Chapman one but it's much more expensive. Clarins is 30ml for £33 and Sarah Chapman is 15ml for £46! I have had two bottles of the Sarah Chapman and both were presents. I can't justify that cost.

I am also near the end of my L'Oreal Extraordinary Oil Cream and that means two empties! Hooray. I will buy more of this and the good news is it costs £9.99. I absolutely love it and have raced through my jar so I have no guilt about buying more of it. It's rare to find a face cream I like so much for under a tenner. I am over the moon.

Nail colour of the week

One of my Christmas presents - OPI, 'Liv' in the Gray from the Kerry Washington collection. I love grey in all aspects of my life. My husband despairs that our house is going to become grey, grey and more grey and I try to convince him that various Farrow & Ball colours aren't grey really but I know I am kidding myself. It's such a good neutral, goes with everything and it's classy.

I have several grey nail varnishes in my collection but somehow there is always room for one more. I love this, it is a steely mid-grey that reminds me of prisons. I know how to sell a colour, don't I? It's chic and easy to wear.

Nail colour of the week

Happy new year! May 2017 be less devastating than 2016 for us all. Say safe celebrities (well, some of you, I'm not concerned about the Kardashians to be honest).

I've started the year having a clear out and that included revisiting my nail varnish collection. I received five nail varnishes for Christmas. Yes, FIVE! Four were Opi and one was my beloved YSL (thanks sis). More on them all over the coming weeks but today I am sporting one of them, Opi Black Cherry Chutney. It is beautiful, a very deep, blackish purple with loads of shine. I adore it.

Anyway, after almost 20 years of having my nail varnish in a beaten up old toolbox (that sounds cooler than it is, it's plastic and a bit nasty), I have moved them all to a bigger box and well, I have a lot. I have the sort of collection you might see in a professional nail salon. I have more than 20. I have more than 30. I haven't actually counted them but I have at least 30 by Opi alone. Let's not put a number on how many I have, we're all friends here. How did this happen? I'll tell you how. It happened by a mixture of obsession (I cannot sleep until I have Madam President), a love of pretty nails and the belief that a tenner on a bottle of nail varnish is a cheap pick-me-up.

I am not ashamed. There are worst obsessions out there and it's harmless but I have made a pledge to stop for a while and to use what I have. If I can't find the colour I want from my collection then I have a serious issue.

In a similar vein I have also decided to not buy any more skincare or make-up for a while. For at least January and February. I have a lot of make-up for someone who doesn't actually wear a lot of it. I bought a little bit before Christmas (ahem - Bobbi Brown called to me and online shopping is SO EASY!) I have plenty. No more for now. Skincare - no more is to be purchased until I have finished at least two full-size pots/tubes of something. No more shower gel until I am down to my last bottle in my stash (this may take a while). I am going to sell/give away/throw away what I don't use and use up my endless little bottles and sachets of samples. No more perfume until the summer. I actually finished three bottles of perfume in the last six weeks but I will not be buying more for a while. We're not even going to discuss how many bottles of perfume I have.

No more scented candles. I have an embarrassing stash of Diptique candles but I can never resist a bargain (the Christmas ones were in the SpaceNK sale but you had to move fast and I did) and if I get a £5 code off SpaceNK, I always buy a candle. No more until I am burning my last ones.

It's time to relieve my shelves from the weight of my stash, use and enjoy what I have and save some money for the new bathroom. Oh my god, when I get a new bathroom, I am hitting SpaceNK in a big way.

I shall still be blogging of course. I need to tell you all about my Bobbi purchases, my four other new nail varnishes and how I get on with all the stuff in my stash that I've not told you about yet. Fear not, I shall be here so please keep the comments coming. Don't be shy!