Super Sparkles

Hola!

This weekends mani was something super quick and simple because we left early Saturday morning for our trip to Carlisle for an away game to watch our beloved Sky Blues (Coventry City Football Club).

 This is Barry M Pink Sapphire Glitter over 2 coats of Sinful Colors Black on Black

Black on Black is a super glossy black jelly. As black's go this was fairly easy to apply, a little on the runny side, which is unusual as I usually find blacks to be gloopy.

Pink Sapphire is a clear base with fuchsia pink and silver medium sized hex glitter and silver bar glitter. It also has some really fine fuchsia glitter. This polish is SO pretty and sparkly. When the light catches the silver glitters they shine all sorts of fiery neon colours, which typically were super hard to catch on camera. I managed to snap the lime colour on my ring finger in the pic below!

As the football season has started here again in the UK I decided it would be fun to do Sky Blue themed nails each weekend so keep your eyes peeled for these in the coming weeks.

Hope everyone's having a great weekend, thanks for reading!

Seeing Stripes

Morning Everyone!

I'm so excited to share today's mani. I've been obsessing over this design after seeing it on the awe-inspiring @chorubim on Instagram. Her work is flawless and she is a huge source of inspiration to me, so go check her out.

So this is my recreation of her mani! I can't put my finger on why I love it so much but I do. I find it so chic and different and I can't stop staring at it lol.

So, I used Barry M Gelly Hi-Shine in Lychee for the base and the 2 nude nails. I then sponged on a gradient using Essie Turquoise & Caicos, Lychee and Watermelon from the same range. After letting that dry completely I applied striping tape on top of the gradient, increasing the space between each of the pieces of tape. I then painted 1 coat of OPI Matched Luggage over the tape. Matched Luggage is a gorgeous, off white jelly with the barest hint of pink to it. Then I removed the tape and applied top coat.

I hope you guys like this as much as I do!

Muted and Chic

Hi,

So after my last few colourful/in-your-face manis I was in the mood for something a little more muted. Maybe I'm gearing up for the arrival of Autumn or something.

Anyway, this is 2 coats of Barry M Nail Paint in Cappuccino, with a L'Oreal Confettis gradient feature nail. super shiny!!!!

My New Obsession - Textured Nails

Hi Everyone,

I guess I'm more than a little late to the textured nail polish craze, but better late than never I suppose.

Ridley Road is an eye-catching bright minty coloured polish. The formula was surprisingly smooth and easy to apply, although you do have to be a little careful when applying the 2nd coat because it tries to bleed around the textured edges of the first coat, but it's nothing that can't be corrected with a steady hand or a little clean up. The texture developed as the polish dried.

I have to say, whilst I was doing this mani I had the overwhelming urge to whip out the top coat and smooth this baby out lol. But once I got over my OCD of perfectly smooth polish and embraced all of this concretey wonderment I fell head over heels in love! So much so I've purchased the pinky/peach colour from the same range. I got so many comments and compliments on this mani!

I couldn't really capture the texture of this polish but this is 2 coats and a couple of embellishments to funk it up a bit. Enjoy ...

Barry M - Gelly Hi-Shine

Hola!

Last week I posted a pic of my latest little nail haul and I finally got around to swatching some of them.

I'm reviewing Guava and Watermelon from this range. Both are super pigmented and you could probably get away with 1 coat if you applied it carefully, although I did 2 as I get a little heavy handed and ended up with bald patches lol. The "Gelly" in the name refers more to the finish of the polish rather than the formula, as these polishes are more of a creme than a jelly. You definitely couldn't use them for layering or glitter sandwiches! They were super shiny even without top coat and dried really quickly.

This is 2 coats of Guava, with L'Oreal Confettis on top and 1 coat of Essie Good to Go top coat. It's a lovely aquamarine blue and I think it goes really well with the black and white polka dot effect of Confettis.

This is Watermelon from the range, it's a beautiful deep forest green and again went on really easily. I've wanted to do stone/marble nails for a while and thought this would be a great base. The finished design was maybe a little darker than I have hoped for but I'm in love with it! I used little balls of cling film (saran wrap) to apply the black and gold on top of 2 coats of watermelon. It was super hard to capture the colours of this mani.

As always, let me know what you think.

Coming up... Barry M ~Textured Nail Effect review.

Coming up...

I went on a bit of a shopping spree today and bought these little beauties home with me!

From left to right: Watermelon and Guava from the Gelly range, Confettis by L'Oreal and 2 more Barry M, limited edition Yellow and Ridley Road from the Textured Nail Effect range.

I love Barry M polish. It's affordable, good quality and they have some of the best colours ever.

Can't wait to try these out, keep your eyes peeled for the swatches and reviews coming shortly.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Happy International Nail Art Day! - Taped Mani

My Born Pretty Store haul arrived a couple of weeks ago and as you can see I ordered a few different coloured tapes, a nail art wheel, a new double ended dotting tool and some clear and black stones in different sizes.

I've been wanting to try out a taped mani and seeing as today is the first International Nail Art Day I thought I'd give it a try.

I started off with 2 coats of OPI Matched Luggage which is a a pretty off white jelly with the barest hint of pink. It's fairly sheer so when I wear this one alone I like to do 3 coats.

Then I placed my tape. This step took a little while. It was harder than I thought it would be and at 1 point I had bits of tape everywhere lol. But I'm sure it'll get easier with practice.

Once I was happy with the tape placement I put drops of polish on to my nails and then squished (technical term lol) all of the drops together using a piece of cling film (saran wrap) placed over the nail.

When I was happy with the effect I removed the cling film and then removed the bits of tape. And this was the result:

I'm really quite pleased with how this turned out. It feels summery and fresh and I got to try out a new technique!

The colours used were Essie Turquoise and Caicos (my current fave colour), OPI Steady As She Rose and 2 from the Maybelline Colour Show range, Coral Craze and Cool Blue.

Let me know what you think of it, thanks for reading.

My Essentials - Nail Care

I've just taken off my gradient mani ready for something new and I thought this would probably be a good time to tell you what my essentials nail products are when it comes to taking care of my nails.

Everyone's nails are different, so what works for me may not work for you. I learned this from my first nail blog obsession, Loodie Loodie Loodie. It was this lady that taught me the science side of nails and she has super informative posts on all sorts of subjects, from the importance of moisturising to the right and wrong ways to file your nails. She hasn't posted for a while now but some of her info is great.

It was also Loodie that lead me to the discovery of my most important nail essential, Pure Nail Oil, made by a lovely lady called Ana. But my love for that deserves its very own post so I'm only mentioning it in passing.

So my essentials are as follows:

Acetone - I find that using acetone actually dries my nails out LESS than standard polish remover. This may be because it is quicker at dissolving the polish and is therefore in contact with my nails for less time than standard remover. I pick mine up from my local Sally's and a 500ml bottle is usually around £3.50. I also massage olive oil into my cuticles before removing my polish which helps to minimise drying out, especially when swatching a lot in a small space of time.

Orange Sticks - After doing myself a mischief with a metal cuticle remover these little babies are now the only thing I use to remove my cuticles. They're also really useful for nail art. I just pop a little dab of clear nail varnish on the end and use them to pick up and place gems and studs on my nails.You can pick them up pretty much anywhere that sells beauty products.

Sally Hansen Instant Cuticle Remover - I find that this is the easiest to use, and most effective cuticle remover that I've tried. I use it once a week, apply around my cuticles, leave for 15-30 seconds and then gently push back my cuticles with my trusty orange stick and follow up with a swipe along the cuticle line with a cotton bud to remove the dissolved cuticle.

Nail Brush - Pretty self explanatory but I like to give my nails a good scrub after taking off polish.

Save The Nail in Bridge the Ridge - This is an awesome ridge filling base coat that has stopped my need for buffing the bejeezus out of my nails. If I'm wearing a mani that doesn't require undies then this is my go to base coat.

And finally...my crowning glory... Pure Nail Oil - I keep the bottle at home and take the little pen out and about with me. I use this nail oil 4 or so times a day; first thing in the morning and last thing at night, and then a couple of random applications throughout the day. This really is fantastic stuff.

So, they are my essentials. I hope you found this post helpful and if you have any questions, feel free to ask!