Nail Art Supply Haul

Greetings All!

Slightly different kind of post today. A couple of weeks ago I had a late night eBay session, trawling through pages and pages (and pages...) of 99p nail art supplies. I was definitely on a mission! After wearing studs in this manicure, I kind of wanted to have all the studs. Now I almost do, and I also found all kinds of fun bits and pieces.

I thought I'd share some of the more exciting items I bought, and hopefully you will see at least some of them on my nails soon!

Firstly, these awesome Halloween nail stickers from this UK seller. They have tons of stickers and decals, and a bit of searching found me some bats and skulls!

Neon studs. I wanted squares and circles, so in the end I got both!

Some super cute, metal slice thingies. I just couldn't resist, especially those roses!

Some fun 3D embellishments I found. They're all slightly curved on the back, and they're very small, so I'm hoping I'll love these!

Some super fine chain, for chain nails.

Feathers! I've been wanting to try feather nails for ages. I also have beige ones on the way. Bonus - sneaky peek of my current manicure.

Dark red rhinestones. Should be fun with black.

These were advertised as red studs, but they're a rosy pink. However, I've already used some of these in a manicure I'm feeling pretty smug about!

Everything else is pretty standard - I'm collecting all the shapes of gold and silver studs, and I got a new set of brushes and some Korean polish (that'll be a separate haul post!). It took quite a lot of patience to go through what felt like millions of items, but as I said, I was on a mission! And I think I did pretty well.

(If you want to know any of the sellers, I can probably scrounge up that information. I'm just to lazy to list them all on a Sunday!)

NEW UK Indies - R & R Lacquers The New Black Collection Swatches

*These products were provided for review*

Greetings All!

This week has been a bit of a sad one, UK indie polish wise. Several makers (including two of my favourites!) have shut up shop, and while I wish them all the best with everything they do, and I'm very grateful for all the beautiful bottles they have made, there's still that little part of me mourning the loss of future beautiful polishes. I'm selfish, and I don't own enough polish, ok?!

Of course, new makers are popping up all the time too (thank goodness, right?). R & R Lacquers is run by Becca (of Kitty's Painted Claws), and Rachael (of Racho's Nail Love, although she'll always be Rachael the Lemming Slayer to me!), and they officially launched yesterday (yes, I'm slightly behind. Still.)

Their first collection, The New Black, are polishes designed to be worn over black/dark colours. I was fortunate enough to receive three to show you, and I must say, they're gorgeous! Being a fan of black polish and glitter, I might be a little bit biased of course, but I do think they're also quite versatile.

UK Indies - Indy's Indies Chinese New Year Polishes

Greetings All!

Happy Chinese New Year! To celebrate I have some festive polishes from Indy's Indies to share with you. That's another thing I love about indie polishes - you can get the perfect polish to go with any occasion or event, all year round.

Feeling Flameish

Greetings All!

Today I have some flame nails! Way back in August I did some flame nails inspired by a manicure over on Misch's Beauty Blog. I always used to paint my nails black, then paint the flames on. This way you make a gradient for the flame colours, then fill in with black. I much prefer the effect!

They still aren't the best flame shapes ever, but you can tell what they're meant to be! I couldn't decide whether to do blue/green flames or pink/purple ones - watch out for pink and purple soon!

I used Barry M Gellys in Key Lime, Guava and Blue Grape for the gradient, then drew flame shapes (kind of!) with W7 Black.

UK Indies - Magic Goose Polish Swatches

Greetings All!

I'm trying to get my posts a bit more regular, but obviously I'm struggling quite a bit! The blog will be taking a very slightly different direction this year, but one thing you can count on remaining the same is UK indie polish swatches!

Today I have two polishes from the Magic Goose Pure Inspiration Collection to share with you. First up is She Brewed Me A Potion, 2 coats solo.

I was very impressed with the dark, decadent purple base. Sometimes polishes like this have quite a sheer base, and you can't wear them without undies. This was perfect in 2 coats, and it's such a dark, rich purple colour, it's perfect! It still lets the glitter shine through though. That seems to me like a very difficult balance to strike, so kudos Emma!

I also wore it matte.

I think it really shows up the depth of glitter! And how dark that base is - in some places it looks almost black. SO my kind of polish!


Next up is Beautiful Blue Eyes, a holo. I feel I should have a disclaimer or something regarding my photography - I struggle with capturing the true essence of a holo in direct sunlight, let alone indoors in January! So no picture I take can show the true beauty of a holographic polish. I still have a go though! This is again 2 coats solo.

This is a beautiful dark blue with a bit of teal in there. The holo is described as 'scattered and subtle', but I have to disagree with that a little bit! Even lit by my bedside lamp on a January evening, this was throwing out plenty of rainbow!

I've been very impressed with the Magic Goose brand. There's plenty of variety, and so far everything I've tried has been a perfect 2 coater (gotta love that convenience!).

You can buy Magic Goose polish here.

Funky Tiger

Greetings All!

I have a quick stamped manicure to share with you today. I recently got the new larger sized version of the first Bundle Monster stamps, and I thought it might be fun to use the smaller and larger images together (or maybe to justify to myself that yes, I need both versions!). At the moment, the smaller images fit comfortably on my index and little fingers, and I used the larger image for the other nails.

The stamps are BM16 and BM022, stamped with Barry M Plum over Beauty UK White sponged with Essie Lights.

As well as being larger, the newer versions seem to be more deeply etched, and gave a crisper, darker image. I'll still keep both sets though!

NEW UK Indies - Belle Glamour Thermal Polishes

Greetings All!

This evening I have swatches from a brand new indie polish maker. Belle Glamour launched just this month,  and I bought two thermal polishes, because who can resist thermal polish?! I certainly can't, even in January when my hands are cold all the time!

Dark Forresst is a dark olive green when dark, and a pale gold when warm. It has a lot of gold shimmer and it dries to a lovely suede finish. I used three coats here.

I kind of love this as it is, without even taking into account the thermal effect! The combination of the colour, the shimmer and the finish just look so good! The first coat was a little sheer, but it built up really nicely.

Now for some thermal transition pics!

Getting these photos can be really tricky (again, Winter. Cold), but I weirdly enjoy doing them!

I really like the colour change through green to gold. It's a lovely polish!

Finally, with topcoat.

(I prefer it matte)


Lagoon is a perfectly named blue thermal, with a pretty sparkle. It goes from medium blue to a very pale blue. Again, the first coat was quite sheer, but it built up well in 3 coats.

This polish also dries to a suede finish, but in this case I preferred it with topcoat, to bring out the sparkle.

I didn't manage to get much of a gradient effect this time, but I'm going to blame the cold again for that! Lagoon is quite sheer when warm, but it's gorgeous when cold, and if I'd managed to get the gradient I'm sure it would have been stunning. Next time!

You can buy Belle Glamour polish here. The thermals are currently available, but they are limited edition!

UK Indies - Pocket Money Polishes January Collection

*These products were provided for review*

Greetings All!

Today I have swatches of the latest collection from Pocket Money Polishes. It seems like forever since the December Collection - almost two months, which isn't long at all really. I'm just always impatient to see what Charlie comes up with next! This month's collection is slightly smaller, with three polishes, but one especially is super fabulous!

Ready? Let's dive in!

Pretty Poundland Polishes

Greetings All!

Today I have some polishes that are, I suppose, doubly pretty. Firstly they are from a brand called Pretty. Secondly, they're pretty! I see this brand a lot in Pound shops, but I haven't been able to find much about them online (because if you search for 'pretty nail polish' you get...polishes that are pretty!).

I've had these for a couple of months - I did the classic 'grab it because it's only a Pound', but I kind of assumed they might be a bit rubbish. They aren't. I finally got round to swatching them over Christmas, and I'm very impressed with them!

Firstly my favourite, a turquoisey shade from their Leather effect range (they don't seem to have names).

First thing to get out of the way - I would not describe this as a leather polish. It is however a beautiful suede effect polish. I love the shade, and although you can see the silver glitter up this close, at normal distance it's gorgeous. It reminds me of  suede version of OPI Austin-tacious Turquoise, if such a thing existed! I also tried it with topcoat.

Super sparkly!

Next up is one a little similar, a sky blue/turquoise from their Concrete Effect range. Spoiler alert - this is not a textured polish, as you (or I) may expect.

Again it's a suede polish, but this time a delicate blue with larger glitter. It reminds me a bit of warm, tropical water. Not exactly 'concrete', but still very lovely!

Lovelier with topcoat.

It's made the blue go all...jelly and delicious! 2 coats for both these suedes.

Lastly, a final unnamed polish, from their Scatter Effect range. Glitters in a pale base. It's like...they knew what I wanted!

The base is quite sheer - I used 3 coats here over Essie Waltz. It has a really nice distribution of glitter, which is something you don't always find with cheaper polishes. It isn't unique (I have at least 2 very similar!), but that doesn't stop it being a nice polish!

I was also fairly impressed with application, dry time etc. Being 'cheap' polishes, I was prepared for them to apply horribly, and take forever to dry, but they were quite...normal!


I've seen these polishes in both Poundland and Poundworld, and they have a wide range of styles. I've also tried the Polka Dot Effect (hex glitter in a clear base), Glow In The Dark (nothing that special, but I have been spoiled for glow in the dark polishes!), and I also have a flocking set, and some matte polishes that I haven't tried yet. I would definitely say that they are worth £1!