Nail Haulin'

Greetings All!

Last week I mentioned that I had been treating myself a little bit, quite a lot actually! Nearly every day last week I got some nail mail!

Personally I enjoy reading these sorts of posts. I'm a nosy bugger, so I like having a peek at what people buy! I also love getting nail mail! Posting about it is making me feel a little guilty though. Please remember, I didn't buy all of these at once. They were over, ahem, a few days. No, more like a week. Honest!

Sun-Tried-Day Sally Hansen Salon Manicure - The Greys

Greetings All!

I did warn you last week that there were more Sally Hansen swatches coming! I was doing really well with swatching them - until another eleven arrived this week! They're looking very nice on my display stand - I'll have a whole rainbow soon! I know I keep promising pictures of my stash, but once I've got the stand all filled up I will show you, honest! My OPI stand is filled, but I'm trying to arrange the polishes in a pleasing manner, rather than just random. It's harder than I thought!

Today I have four 'grey' polishes to show you. As usual, the formula was great, application was easy (and minimal cleanup!), quick drying time and a lovely glossy finish. And I didn't pay more than £2 for any of them!

Ion is a very pale grey, more of an off-white with a putty sort of tinge. This is 3 coats.

This is slightly too pale for me to wear plain, but with some nail art, or even glitter over it, yes yes yes! It's so...neutral. It's like a blank canvas, and much better than bright, stark white.


Dorien Grey (sic) is a few shades darker. This is 3 coats. It was quite sheer, almost jelly-like, so I was cheeky and polished straight over Ion.

It's a warm, dove grey, and I would wear this one plain! I do like a grey polish - not so much the thought of a grey polish, but I always love how it looks when I end up wearing it. I now have a few Sally Hansens I want to test the 'jellicity' of - that actually sounds like a fun day to me!

Greige Gardens is here because it is grey-ish, but I think I would personally class it as a purple. A grey purple, of course, but purple. 2 coats.

That's purple, right? In the second picture especially. OK, it's at least halfway between grey and purple. Or it could just be my eyes! (Also, I though greige was like a grey-beige. This is more like grurple!)

Gray By Gray again technically belongs in the greys, but I see it as a more petroly blue colour. 2 coats.

As you can tell by now, I'm not really an expert with colours! I mean, I do alright, I can point at something and say it's red, but what shade of red? I often use my own terms to describe things as well, and I know they aren't always correct. Anyway, this (to me) is a petrol blue grey, I don't have anything else like it, and I like it!

I buy the majority of my Sally Hansens from Fragrance Direct and Xtras Online, although I did also recently purchase some from eBay. More on that story next week lol.

Happy 4/20 Everyone!

Just saying.

Polishes used - OPI The Thrill of Brazil, The 'It' Colour and Jade Is The New Black, Konad Black, BM07

Girly Girl Nail Art Challenge Week 4: Inspired By The Runway

Greetings All!

It's double challenge Friday! Just a quick post this time. This was a difficult theme for me - I have zero clue (and zero interest!) in fashion. Apart from nails of course! I just wear the clothes I want to wear. I really like the stuff from Spiral Direct, I wear a lot of black, I don't really pay attention to fashion at all!

So I was leafing through this months Marie Claire (hypocritical? I got it for the free Ciate polish!) desperately looking for something to use as inspiration. I didn't have much luck! Eventually I settled on some nails inspired by some pretty, embroidered lace Chanel dresses by Karl Lagerfeld (does that count? I feel like that counts).

Yeah, so they're not exactly Chanel haute couture, but they'll do! I quite like them.

My base colour is Boots No7 So Simple. I used Konad Black, and CH11 and GA30 for the stamping

Relaxed 31DC Week 8: Metallic. And Giveaway News!

Greetings All!

So, the winner of my giveaway is Iris Roxanne, from My Random Stash! She has an amazing blog by the way, you should definitely check it out!

She chose a gift card from Amazon. I get most of my stamping plates from Amazon, so I think it's a pretty good choice!

I really enjoyed the giveaway - I was a little worried that things wouldn't go smoothly (because things never go smoothly!) but it felt really nice to have the opportunity to give back to everyone who has been so supportive and lovely these past three and a half months. I kind of want to do another one already! Maybe in the Summer? Or, maybe a nail art contest? That would be awesome (who am I kidding, I'd never be able to pick a winner!)

I've also been treating myself a bit this week - I'll show you a haul post hopefully this weekend (it's not even all that I've bought this month, and the month's not even over yet - I'm such an addict). I've been getting boxes all week! Boxes, not envelopes or packets!

Anyway, back to today's nails! A bit of a fail unfortunately. The theme for week 8 of the 31 day/week challenge (hosted by Rambles of a Polish Addict) is metallic. Metallic is a finish I like, but what to do for the nail art? I thought lightning bolts would be quite cool, and I have some lightning bolt nail guides somewhere. Somewhere being the operative word - I couldn't find them anywhere! (On a related note, I also can't find  Revlon Royal! What is happening?!) In the end I decided to go freehand, and I'm not really happy with the result.

In my head this was a red and gold lightning bolt Pow! kind of manicure, and I daresay it would have been better with my nail guides. They're all uneven and kind of look like a pink christmas tree to me! It's quite a poor translation of my idea, so that's why I consider it a fail!

The gold is OPI Glitzerland (gorgeous, by the way), and the reddish-in-the-bottle-but-pink-on-the-nail is Color Club, no label so I don't know the name (Hot Lava, maybe?)

Now go and look at some better nail art!

My Giveaway Ended!

Greetings All!

I've emailed the winner, so, erm, check your emails! And remember to check your spam folder (although how could I be spam lol). I will announce the winner once they have responded!

Thank you everyone for taking part, and for reading my blog! Hopefully you'll stick around!

Tri Polish Challenge April 2013: Manicure 2

Greetings All!

Today I have my second April Tri Polish Challenge manicure to show you. Surely you know the rules by now! Here is a reminder of the polishes I am using this month:

Sally Hansen Salon Manicure in Shrimply Divine, OPi Austin-tatious Turquoise and Miss Sporty...I'm just going to call it orange!

For most of these manicures I've been making the effort to only use the three polishes set, but for this one I used a bit of black and white (OK, technically a black with silver glitter, but black and a glitter topper would be fine, so I'm sure this is too! It's a timesaver!)

Galaxy nails! I used W7 Cosmic Black as my base, and I sponged on some OPI Alpine Snow. Then I sponged on the pink, the orange, and finally the turquoise, and did a few white 'stars'. I tried to make a couple of them shooting stars, but it didn't quite work! The turquoise is the real star in this one - the glitter and ethereal colouring definitely tied the whole thing together - the pink and orange alone was a bit of a fail. I must remember that this is a great polish for galaxy nails!

Remember to check out everyone else's beautiful manicures!

Accessorize Bumble Bee and Dragonfly

Greetings All!

Today I have 2 polishes from Accessorizes makeup range. I must admit, I'd  never paid their stuff much attention until I saw some polish swatches online. They have a really good range of glitters, duochromes and metallics, as well as a lovely 'sprinkle' range, one of which I have shown you already (HERE). I have another 2 from that range today!

First up is Bumble Bee, a pretty orange with matte black glitter. Of course if it has black glitter, I have to have it! This is 2 coats, with topcoat.

I was really happy with this polish - the coverage and glitter dispersal is very good, and it's a really nice shade of orange - not too bright, but with a good depth. As it has matte glitter, I couldn't resist a matte topcoat.

Love it. Very wearable - it doesn't shout 'look at me!', it just sits there all pretty and understated until you notice it.


Next is Dragonfly, which is blue glitter in a pale jade green base. Again, this is 2 coats with topcoat.

Now, this glitter isn't matte :( but that's all I have to say that's negative really! Again, good coverage. I like how you don't have to work with the glitter too much - minimal dabbing required! The colours are nice together, although they remind me more of a reptile than a dragonfly. However Bumble Bee makes me think of tiger print, and tigers don't even have spots, so ignore what I think lol. Oh yes, and I managed to pick up the one bottle without a label, and I was too embarrassed to ask to change it so I could take pictures of it!

With matte topcoat. I feel like I haven't been 'mattefying' much recently!

My local Accessorize doesn't stock their own range of makeup, I'm not sure about others because they sell them in Superdrug! So I didn't need to go out hunting for them. Anyway, they're 2 for £5 in Superdrug at the moment, or this range is £3.45 each.

Tri Polish Challenge April 2013: Manicure 1

Greetings All!

Is it time for the Tri Polish Challenge again?! Yes it is! For this challenge, we are given three colours. We have to choose one polish to represent each colour, then create 4 manicures using those colours. We have to use at least 2 of the colours for each manicure, and we have to use all three colours for at least one manicure. We also have free use of black, white, silver, gold, and glitter toppers.

This month the colours are pink, turquoise and orange. There has been a little bit of confusion as to what constitutes a turquoise polish. Personally I think of turquoise as sky blue, but then surely sky blue is blue? Does turquoise have to have green in it? You can see how it could get confusing. I decided to avoid that confusion, and go with a polish with turquoise right there in the name of it. So here are the three polishes I will be using for all my Tri Polish manicures this month:

Sally Hansen Salon Manicure in Shrimply Divine, OPI Ausin-tatious Turquoise, and Miss Sporty...orange? They don't have a name on the bottle, only on the shelf when you buy them. Grrr! But it's a medium, pumpkiny orange.

And here is my first manicure.

I started off with a pink and orange gradient, and yes, I had to take a picture of it lol. In the light I was working in, there wasn't a huge amount of difference between the pink and orange, so I wanted to check that there really was a difference!

I then freehanded some zebra/tiger stripes with the turquoise. I have a confession - I actually prepped all this months challenge manicures about 2 weeks ago so I knew they were done and 'out of the way'. I had forgotten how much I loved these nails! They're so bright and summery - they have a very tropical feel to them. I must remember these if we ever get a summer! This was my first go at freehanding stripes in about 8 months - I always use a stamp because it's much easier and much prettier! These aren't too bad though - it's not really a difficult thing to do. I'm just lazy!


Make sure to check out everyone else's manicures, and I'll have another manicure using the same colours for you on Thursday!

Revlon Girly

Greetings All!

My Giveaway finally ends on Thursday! It feels like it's been running forever! If for some reason you haven't entered yet, you can do so HERE.

Today I have a swatch for you, of a shade I've been tempted by for a while. Revlon Girly is one of the recent forays by big brands to create polishes that look more 'indie'. We are living in very fortunate polishing times - we are literally spoiled for choice for brands, styles, finishes, even things like the shape of glitter in our polishes. I remember liking glitter polish as a child - I never would have dreamed that one day I could have hearts, stars, even flowers in my polish!

Anyway, the big brands have noticed how crazy we go for indie polishes, and they have started bringing out more exciting and original polishes (L'Oreal Confetti is another good example). Maybe they're jumping on the bandwagon a bit, but personally I love the fact that I can get unusual polishes on the High Street. Granted it's not really necessary - we're living in one big global polish market! - but it's still nice to have them there.

On to Girly. I've seen her a few times, but £6.49 is more than I like to pay for any polish lol. Luckily Boots have a 3 for 2 on at the moment, so the saving meant I could justify it. She's a mix of light pink, magenta and indigo hexes, with small pink, purple, orange and holographic glitter in a very sheer pale pink base. This is 3 coats on it's own (I considered undies, but I wanted to see if I could get full coverage).

I was hoping this would be slightly more opaque, and give it that jelly sandwich look. You don't get much depth of glitter as the base is very sheer. It is very pretty though. And textured - you'll need a thick top coat for a smooth finish. Don't get me wrong - I do like this polish! It's just...I was hoping for something slightly different. I also decided to try a coat of OPI Funny Bunny over the top (because I'm loving it at the moment!).

Aaand I just realised I didn't bother cleaning up! Apologies. This is basically what I expected though - a more opaque base, so you get bits of glitter peeking through. I think if I had another coat of Girly over the top, it would be exactly what I wanted! These two definitely belong as a pair!

What do you think of this indie style polish trend on the high street? Are they just stealing indie polish makers ideas, or giving us more choice?

Sun-Tried-Day: Sally Hansen Swatch Spam - Red to Yellow

Greetings All!

Are you sick of Sally Hansen yet? I have to warn you, I'm not! I figured the easiest way to share these beauties with you was to try a few on during the week, then show them to you today (be prepared: this will probably happen next week too!).

At the moment I'm trying to group them into colours a little bit, then once they are tried on I am organising them, by colour, on one of my display stands. Hopefully when I've finished I'll have a sort of rainbow effect display! I find that exciting - sad I know!

On to the swatches! I must say, I don't think I've found a bad polish in the bunch yet. Some do require 4 coats, but they are worth it!

Right Said Red is a gorgeous bright tomato red, perfect in 2 coats.

Don't worry, I wasn't recently dredged from a river! I tried to play with the colour a bit - my camera has a serious orange fetish, it turns all reds a bit orange! This is pretty colour accurate though. I do love a good red! Minimal staining too - usually red clings to my skin for days.


Temptation is a pink with a touch of coral. Again, 2 coats.

This is one of those colours that for anything but polish, I would hate! Weirdly I like this though! It's very summery without being too vivid.

Fired Up is a very bright medium orange. I think this might have been 3 coats.

This is a really lovely shade of orange. It's bright and juicy without being too garish. Perfect for summer. Perfect for Halloween! It's one of those polishes that somehow looks lickable (like it would taste of orange ice lollies!).

Buttercup is a pretty pale yellow, a few shades brighter than Yellow Kitty. Unfortunately I needed 4 coats here, but then it is a yellow!

It's soft and springy and it looks like butter! I think it would be lovely under some floral nail art!

I bought these polishes from Fragrance Direct, and Xtras Online. Most of these shades are also available in Boots and Superdrug (albeit for more than three times the price!)