Roses, Just For A Change

Greetings All!

I'm almost getting to the point where I'm getting sick and tired of roses. Almost. This was one of those classic 'I can't decide between...' manicures, in this case roses and glitter. So why not have both!

The roses are BM323 and Konad Black over Sally Hansen Right Said Red. The glitter is Iconic Effect Unicorn Blood over W7 Black.

I'm being a bit more self-indulgent at the moment with my nails. I'm not participating in any challenges for a while, and instead I'm just polishing whatever I feel like. So, probably more roses, and more black and red to come!

WAMM!

Greetings All!

Welcome now the now regular feature of Work Appropriate Manicure Mondays! I have so many nude polishes, and it's nice to get to use them. They are among my most used polishes anyway, but I tend to go through a phase of using the same one over and over, and this way I'm making the effort to mix it up!

One of the easiest ways to jazz up some plain polish is a bit of glitter, and as a proud glitterbunny I have plenty of it around! However, glitter and sparkle isn't always work appropriate. If you can wear any polish you want to work, well, I envy you greatly! But the rest of us have to find ways round it.

This is the pretty, sugary-sweet I Have A Dream by Pocket Money Polishes, over OPI Bare It In Trafalgar Square (a black label I treated myself to because...I wanted it!). The combination of a pale nude with pastel glitter does give quite a subtle result, but that's exactly what I'm looking for! I know it's there, and I get to have a sneaky look at my nails and get cheered up by glitter, without drawing attention to the fact I'm wearing polish. This is a perfect glitter for that. Matte topcoat is also a must, I feel!

My Latest Korean Nail Haul!

Greetings All!

Last month when I was buying every kind of nail art supply under the sun (or so it seemed!), I couldn't resist picking up a few Korean polishes. They're always so cute, with pretty colours and a nice mix of glitter. A lot more exciting that the majority of British brands (indie makers aside, of couse!). Plus they cost around £3-4 each, and shipping is often free! I got this latest haul from a couple of sellers on eBay.

The UK Indie Valentine's Polish Swatch Extravaganza!

Greetings All!

Happy Valentine's Day! I've decided to cram all the Valentine themed polish I bought into one large picture heavy post. There was plenty of variety this year on the UK indie scene, and as a fan of red and pink polish I was a little spoiled for choice! I decided to limit myself on the heart theme though, as I have plenty of heart shaped glitter, and as shapes go it isn't my favourite. I'm a star and moon girl!

Galaxy Nails!

Greetings All!

I can't believe how long it's been since I've done some galaxy nails. I make it...June last year! That's a long time!

I love galaxy nails, because they are nearly impossible to get wrong. Nearly every time I do them, I think they look awful right up until the point they are finished. I've even been tempted to start again a couple of times, but I know now to persevere, because they always turn out fine in the end! They're also very versatile - you can use any colours you want, and as few or as many as you want.

In an unusual turn, my left hand came out better than my right hand!

Quite a few polishes used here...W7 Black, Beauty UK White, Barry M Gellys in Mango, Grapefruit and Plum, OPI Austin-tacious Turquoise (which gives a brilliant, ethereal shimmer to galaxy nails), and my favourite Butter London Frilly Knickers for some extra sparkle! Note to self - do not leave it 8 months before the next one!!

Work Appropriate Manicure Monday - The Stampwich

Greetings All!

Yay! More than one post means that, to me at least, this is officially a series! WAMM is go!

I find it really difficult to wear plain polish these days - it always needs some glitter, or stamping, or some nail art. Something. I just can't leave plain nails alone. They look...unfinished. I don't think it's a bad thing, it just means that I end up spending a lot of time on my nails!

One of my favourite things, ever, is the stampwich, or stamp sandwich. I used to love a glitter sandwich, but stamping is just that much better! I also think it's the perfect nail art for work when worn with a neutral jelly, as it makes the stamping soft and subtle and lovely.

OPI Barre My Soul is by far my favourite nude jelly. I'm wearing three coats here in total, and you still get a little hint of vnl, which I quite like. I stamped with Konad White and BM016 (from the new larger set) over 1 coat of BMS, then added 2 more on top. I can't get enough of this look, especially for work - I get to have my nail art, no one notices I'm even wearing polish, everybody wins!


Stay tuned next week, because I am now so determined to make this a regular thing!

Purple Star Princess

Greetings All!

I hope you're all having a good weekend. Today I have a quick little stamped manicure. I've been using Barry M Plum quite a bit lately, for stamping and nail art, but I haven't used it as a base colour for a while, so I thought I should!

Barry M Gelly in Plum for the base, stamped with 2true Metallica in Artemis, and MoYou XL Princess Plate 13.

Studded Roses

Greetings All!

I mentioned in my recent nail art haul post that I had already used some studs in a manicure, one I was rather pleased with! I also probably gave the game away by describing them as 'rosy'. I mean, what else am I going to do with that?! I do have a bit of an obsession.

So, predictably, here is yet another rose manicure!

I love these. I'm not super-duper happy with the leaves, but apart form that this looks exactly like it did in my head. My ultimate 'nail success' is when I can make my nails look like the image in my head. I don't know if this happens to everyone, but I nearly always have a very specific image of what I want a manicure to be. Most of the time, they don't turn out quite right. But these did!

I used Sally Hansen Salon Manicure in Terracotta as a gorgeous tan base. The roses are an unnamed Sally Hansen Insta Dri (well, the name fell off, and I can't remember it!) and Boots No7 Rose Truffle for the detail. The slightly iffy leaves are SH Insta Dri in Jade Jump, with Essie Pretty Edgy for the detail. The pink studs are from eBay. They were advertised as red, but I can't really be annoyed at that because I still managed to use them almost straight away!

UK Indies - TarasTalons Disneyland And Fairy Brains

Greetings All!

Happy Hump Day! Today I have two random swatches from TarasTalons, or rather I should say The Tara Emporium! There are changes afoot, and Tara is expanding her empire! Exciting.

First up is Disneyland. Tara had a bottle shot of this polish on her Facebook page before it was released, and it feels like it was taunting me for ages! This is 2 coats over Butter London Billy No Mates.

Wowzer. It's like there's a party on my nails, and everyone is invited! Such a lovely rainbow explosion. I've had trouble in the past with the larger sized mouse heads, but these ones are much smaller and barely stick out at all. This is a really fun, cheerful glitter.

Next is Fairy Brains, which is a fantastic name. 2 coats over Sally Hansen Insta Dri in Jade Jump.

This glitter is so cute and pretty. I especially like the white flowers, and there are circles, so you can't go wrong really!

Both of these polishes are still available, along with many others, here.

Work Appropriate Manicure Monday!

Greetings All!

This is the first post of hopefully many! Last year I briefly attempted to do a series of work appropriate nail art, but it never really went anywhere and I wasn't wearing much polish at work.

I'm not really supposed to wear polish at work, as I work in a bakery and I do handle food, but a) I'm very rarely handling it with my nails, because I'm a person and not a bird of prey, and b) I make an effort to use my best quality polishes, and I always use a good base and top coat, so my polish never chips. I'll rock a cheeky work manicure maybe once or twice a week, but I'll only wear nude or neutral shades.

So this is hopefully going to be a regular(ish) series of work appropriate nail art, which basically means subtle nail art on nude! I've decided I'll be referring to it as WAMM. Here's this weeks example (if you read my post yesterday, you will have seen a sneak peek!):

The base is OPI Don't Pretzel My Buttons, which is definitely my favourite opaque nude at the moment. It's a great shade, and it gives good coverage too - I find it just slightly too streaky for one coat, but two coats are perfect! I stamped with PUEEN22 and Konad Light Bronze, which is a gorgeous polish, but very glittery and therefore a complete PITA to clean up!

Someone noticed this at work, and I believe they referred to it as 'like wallpaper for nails'. They had a hard time believing I'd done it myself *sigh*. I guess I should take that as flattering, but it's not. It's annoying! How dare they doubt my artistic prowess!


What sort of polish do you wear for work?

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.