Seventeen Off The Wall Metal Nail Effects - Gold

Greetings All!

I was wandering around Boots a couple of weeks ago, doing my classic 'I'm not buying, I'm just browsing' bit that never works, when I spotted just one of the many types of polish I can never resist - black and white glitter. I've lost count of all the various versions I own, but this one is absolutely justified, because it also has gold shards. I had no chance!


So this is SOTWMNE (it's not the catchiest name) in Gold, two coats over Sally Hansen Insta Dri in S-teal a Base.

I was very impressed with this polish. I don't want to sound mean, but sometimes when high street brands attempt these more indie-looking polishes, they're a bit rubbish. This is lovely! It's got quite a nice mix of sizes, I got away with minimum dabbing, and I'm fairly sure that this is unique in my collection. It did need a couple of layers of topcoat, but that's shards!

You can buy this in Boots for £3.99. Well worth it, I think!

Does Not Compute

Greetings All!

I'm rather happy with today's nails. As soon as I saw this particular stamping plate, I pictured this exact manicure. It didn't take me long at all to get it on my nails once the plate arrived!

The plate is MoYou London Sci Fi 05, stamped with Barry M Silver Foil over Revlon Emerald.

One Heck Of A TarasTalons Swatch Post!

Greetings All!

Unless you're new around here (if you are, hello!), you'll know that occasionally TarasTalons has the odd polish I like. Hehe, that's a little bit of an understatement. I have more TarasTalons than any other brand of polish! Today I have an epic nine swatches to share with you. I did originally plan to space these out, but I already have more on the way, so swatch spam it is. Tara has a massively broad range of polishes, so none of these are even vaguely similar, and I think a big swatch post like this really shows off her variety!

That's not all though. I have a discount code, dear readers, so you can get 15% off on both Tara's website and Etsy store! Just use the code SpecialGirlNails. And don't say I never do anything for you!

I'd better launch straight into the pictures.

Glitter Gradient With Sally Hansen

Greetings All!

One of the things I like to do on a fairly regular basis is browse Fragrance Direct to look for new and cheap polishes. While I very much enjoy the bargain OPIs, Essies and others, my very favourite has to be the Sally Hansen Salon Manicure polishes, especially as they're only £1.49, instead of the £5.99/6.99 they are in shops. Who doesn't love a bargain?!

A couple of weeks ago I noticed they had new shades, so I bought them all! And I have used two for this manicure.

My base is New Wave Blue, which is actually  a teal colour. It's gone in my green drawer, despite being named blue! The glitter is Copper Penny. I was lazy and just used the brush instead of a sponge for my gradient. Copper Penny is really pretty - perfectly named, I'll hopefully get quite a bit of wear out of it in Autumn.

WAMM Spam

Greetings All!

As I mentioned yesterday, I've filed my nails and they're quite a bit shorter than they were. I don't like to mess around too much with the continuity of my nail length (it happens all by itself anyway, it doesn't need me interfering!) so I'm trying to pack as many manicures into this week as I can, then next week...short nails!

In that spirit I have not one, but four work appropriate manicures for you this Monday. One that I love, that I'm starting with, and three others that maybe wouldn't have made it onto the blog by themselves. because I wasn't completely happy with them. They've had a lucky reprieve!

Polish Me Silly - Minty Madness

Greetings All!

I had a bit of 'madness' myself yesterday. I filed my nails right down, not super short, but they do feel pretty short to me at the moment!

It's the first time this year I've taken off any great length. I do get the odd chip or crack (there's always at least one nail missing a corner!) but generally I just try to grow them out. For some reason, this time I decided to get a clean slate, although I do still have two nails that are still...a bit chipped. You'll see soon enough anyway.

For now, I'm trying to group as many manicures together as possible to get my 'old nails' out of the way, so there might be a few spam post coming up. Today though, just the one polish.

Three coats of Minty Madness by Polish Me Silly.

The transition is a little hard to see in these pictures - I think it's because most of the attention goes to the neon glitters, although this is a more subtle thermal than some I own. It's really pretty though - perfect for Spring!

Some Very Un-Summery Stamping

Greetings All!

I've had this manicure sitting in the vault for about six weeks now, because I felt it was just too Autumnal to share this time of year! Part of me probably thought I could leave it until Autumn, but I knew that really it would just end up getting lost in a folder somewhere!

I don't really subscribe to a seasonal colour palette - I'll wear whatever colour polish I feel like! However with the days getting longer and warmer, I'll admit I have been craving pastels and brights more than dark colours.

So here is my Autumn manicure in May!

My base is OPI Cuckoo For This Color. I wasn't 100% sure I would like the finish, but it's more sparkly than shimmery so I'm happy! I've got a real thing for dark greens at the moment, especially British racing green. I stamped with PUEEN55 and 2true Metallica in Aglaia. It's a very cold, frosty-looking manicure - now if only I could remember this in November!

Barry M Matte Nail Polish - Summer Collection Swatches

Greetings All!

Today I have a bit of an exciting post. As soon as I saw these polishes, I knew I had to have them! Bright Summer colours, and of course I can never resist a matte finish. I loved their first matte collection, so I ordered these from Boots (they aren't available in shops until next month).

I'll start with a bit of general waffle, to save repeating myself. These all had a very good formula - all but the first one were perfect in two coats. They don't dry quite as quickly as some suede./matte polishes, which is a good thing! Some matte polishes can end up very 'draggy' because they dry so fast, but these give you a chance to get a coat on. They do dry faster than other Barry M polishes though.

There has been a little bit of debate as to just how matte these polishes are (and just how many levels of matte there are!). I can confirm that these definitely do have a matte finish, not quite 'full on' matte, but nearly. To give you a better idea, I have done a comparison of each shade with both shiny and matte topcoat (Seche Vite and Models Own, respectively), so you can see exactly how matte they are.

 left-right: Waikiki, Miami, Malibu, Rhossili, Cancun, and Copa Cobana

This is a picture heavy post, so I'll get straight on with the swatches, and give my thought at the end.

Work Appropriate Manicure Monday

Greetings All!

So, yet another new week has begun. They just keep on coming, don't they? Today I have a type of polish that I definitely need more of - the work appropriate indie. When I buy indies, they're usually bright and colourful, but even at work I want some sort of version of that!

This is three coats of Polish Addict Nail Color Banana Colada.

It's a fun glitter combination, if a little random with the matte hexes and smaller sparkly bits. I love the base colour, even though I suspect this peachy pastel yellow would look pretty awful on it's own. It's subtle enough to wear to work, but colourful enough so I can look at my nails without feeling bored!

Getting Reddy With Orly

Greetings All!

Today I have a few swatches of some lovely Orly polishes I recently bought from Fragrance Direct. I do find myself forgetting what I've bought to a certain extent, as I tend to look at a lot of polish, and stuff goes in and out of my cart. When they arrived, I realised I must have had a bit of a red day! I think I chose well though.

First up is Red Flare, two coats and no topcoat.

A lovely deep red with a hint of berry about it. It is a touch darker than in these pictures, and I usually wear bright red, but this is very nice, and super shiny too!

Next, Ruby. Again, two coats and no topcoat.

A classic, vampy, dried blood kind of colour. Not unique, probably not even in my collection, but still gorgeous. Again, it's super shiny.

Finally, Star Spangled. This is also two coats, but I did use topcoat here.

A juicy red jelly with a fine red sparkle. It isn't full-on blingy glitter, it's sparkle is a bit more subtle, but it's pretty mesmerising. When you tilt your fingers, it looks like the glitter is moving inside liquid nails!

I haven't used Orly much, but after these three I'm hooked! I was impressed with the formula, the dry time, and how shiny the cremes were. I also like the massive 18ml bottle size, and the rubbery grip! I'm pretty clumsy, and I have been known to resort to opening polish bottles with my teeth if they get stuck, so it's nice that I shouldn't have to do that with these! Did I mention that Fragrance Direct have them for the bargain price of £2.99? I might have to invest in a few more...

Liquid Sky Lacquer - French Quarter (thermal)

Greetings All!

Another thermal polish swatch. It seems that as long as they keep making them, I'm happy to keep buying them! French Quarter is a lovely rich purple when cold, and a sheer blue when warm, with a gold shimmer. I was worried that my camera would pick it up as blue, as it does that with purples and this one does have a bluish tinge, but it looks fairly purple to me here. This is two coats.

It is very sheer when warm, but I don't really mind a bit of vnl. The gold sparkle is beautiful, and it has a lovely transition. I bought this and 24 Karat Rose, which I thought I would prefer, but of the two I think this one is far nicer!

I bought this polish at Rainbow Connection.

Is There Anything I Won't Stamp This Image Over?!

Greetings All!

I hope you aren't getting sick of the sight of this stamp. Clearly I'm not, as I use it all the time! It's one of my very favourite images, and it seems to work over all kinds of colours. It's also a lovely extra large sized image, so I don't have to be too precise when stamping, and I can get slightly different bits of the image on each nail.

The image is of course from DRK-B (I never did buy any others. I really should!), stamped with Barry M Gold Foil over Models Own Turquoise Gloss, from their Hypergel range. I'll admit that this stamp does look best over dark colours, especially in gold, but I really like how it looks here!

Theme My Talons With TarasTalons - Dexter

Greetings All!

It seems TarasTalons has so many ways of bringing you polish lately! As well as collections being released regularly, you can subscribe to various monthly polish treats, such as glitter toppers, holo polishes (guilty!), Tara's Treasure Troves and the excellent idea I'm showing you today, Theme My Talons. This is available as a subscription or a one off treat, with polish and nail art items all based around a theme, in this case the TV show Dexter. I was kind of a fan of the show - Dexter himself really annoyed me, with his pretentious monologues and the fact that's he's just a terrible person (and I'm not even talking about the serial killing!), but I did like some of the other characters, and the show was quite well written (until the ending). I used to watch it each week, so I must have enjoyed it on some level.

It's the polishes themselves that really grabbed me. Three out of the four were 'must haves', and Tara has a great knack for choosing all the nail art items that come with it. It's a lovely little set. I haven't got round to swatching them yet, but I thought I would show you all my cool goodies! There are swatches of the polishes on the Etsy listing, and I will have swatches soon!

I'll start with the polishes

The two full size polishes, Miami Beach (which is seriously gorgeous, blue with gold glitters) and Splatter (red jelly, not orange as it looks here, with red glitters). I really wish I could resist the urge to say that it should be 'spatter' if it's blood, but my brain will not let me.

Trophy Case (nude with red and silver glitter, and going on my nails tonight!) and The Code Of Harry (a soft, subtle grey holo). Trophy Case especially was just irresistible to me.

Here is my lovely box of nail art goodies. WARNING: nail nudity!

Various tag lines from the show - a lovely touch!

Knife and blood transfers. I'm going to try and save these for October!

Little test tubes (again, such a nice touch!) with red glitter and red diamantes, for those blinged up bloody nails!

Fake blood capsules!

These are some little extra bits, they aren't part of the theme, but they're brilliant. Silver striping tape (which I actually needed! I only have silver holo), some AB diamantes (which I've always avoided, but look so pretty), and a bag of assorted fimo slices (I rarely wear these, but I buy them all the time because I cannot resist the cuteness of them!). Also not pictured - cuticle remover and hand cream!

I think these themed boxes are a brilliant idea, and I especially love that you can just opt in for the ones you want. You can buy this box on Etsy or on Tara's website, where you can also subscribe to this and other boxes. I'm already excited to see what the next theme will be!