UK Indies - Freckles Polish A Typical British Summer Swatches

*These products were provided at a discount in exchange for review*

Greetings All!

Freckles Polish has been very busy this Summer! In addition to the second part of the Happy Hour Holos collection and the Holiday Destination collection, the latest Summery set, A Typical British Summer, will be released on August 1st.

Today I have swatches of two of the polishes in this collection. Over the last few months I've been really impressed with the quality of Freckles Polish, from the stunning holos to the charming glitter combinations, so I was excited to see this latest collection!

First up is Sand In My Sandwich, a glitter topper, and a terrible experience I'm sure most of us has had! I hate getting sand in food. Fortunately this polish isn't the equivalent of sand in my food!

This is one coat over Models Own Hypergel in Cornflower Gleam.

My first thought when picking a base colour was pink, but I'm glad I chose this blue because it shows off all the colours in the glitter nicely. Lots of different yellow glitters, with a sprinkle of peach and red. It actually reminds me of ice cream, like a rich (yellow) ice cream sundae with sauce and fruit...whether ice cream or sand, it definitely very Summery! Also, one coat. Gotta love a one coat glitter!

Next up is Pitch A Tent. This is two coats solo.

This first coat was a little sheer, and I didn't have a base colour that quite matches this. Fortunately the second coat covered perfectly, leaving nothing but the faintest whisper of vnl behind this lovely jelly. What looks like a sprinkle of icing sugar is actually holo sparkle that my camera refused to acknowledge! But it's super pretty. As with just about all the Freckles I've seen, this has a lovely glitter combination. I especially like the purple and yellow together, and the little white rectangles.


This collection is released on August 1st. You can buy Freckles Polish on Etsy, and keep up to date with news and releases on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Picture Polish Jasmine

Greetings All!

Just a quick indie swatch to kick off the week. I've never really been a big fan of PP. I know they're extremely popular, and they are pretty, but they're quite expensive, and that always put me off a bit. Not to the point where I dislike them, just to the point where I've never really sought them out. However, I've had the chance to pick up a few at a reasonable price over the last couple of months, and although I'm still not convinced I would pay full price for them, I do have a few I quite like (it's worth mentioning that I also wouldn't pay full price for Butter London, and I love Butter London. I'm just cheap!).

This is Picture Polish Jasmine, two coats.

I couldn't resist the pretty glitter combination!

 I was very pleased with the application. I have a real 'thing' about glitters in a crelly base - I hate using more than two coats. Two coats is perfect - the glitter from the first coat peeks through, with a brighter layer over the top. Three coats and the first layer gets buried, layers of glitter get built up and look lumpy... I hate it. Either be perfect in two coats, or prepare to wear undies, polishes! This is perfect in two coats. So, one point to you, Picture Polish...


Are there any really poplar polishes that you just can't get excited over?

Imagine Dragon Scales

Greetings All!

So, Summer has definitely made it's presence felt here this week! Here in the South East it's 30C today (about 86F for all you internationals!), which is just about as hot as it gets in the UK. Cue people walking about nearly naked (when most of them are best kept covered), and society grinding to a halt because no one can cope with the heat. Next week they'll be complaining that the hot weather is gone, however!

I've been taking it easy - plenty of cold drinks, and a snooze in the afternoon whenever possible. That's the same thing I do all year round though!

Today's nails reflect this weather in no way. I just thought I'd acknowledge it so that later I can pinpoint when Summer was (that week in July).

Polish Addict Imagine Dragons is the base for this manicure - two coats over Sally Hansen Insta Dri in S-teal a Base. It's lovely, but a little sheer, hence the undies. I have this thing lately where my nails have to look like the polish in the bottle, and nothing else will do. I like to think I'm getting rather good at picking a base though, or rather my collection is so big now, I'm bound to have the right shade!

As my circle glitter fishing trip proved rather unsuccessful (I think I got two in total), I decided to go for a bit of stamping. I used Mentality Dapper and MoYou London Sailor XL 05 for the scales. Admittedly, they don't look super Dragon-y to me - the Dragons in my head are a darker green, or red or purple! Maybe more Mermaid scales...

British Nail Bloggers - Colour Me Crazy! Week 2 - Orange

Greetings All!

After last week's lack of inspiration, I feel like I'm being a little cheeky with this week's offering. I have an orange manicure sitting in the vault that I'm posting. I feel like I should have done a fresh new manicure, but that seems a little silly when this one is sitting here already. I'll probably do the same for next week (yellow), as again I have one just sitting there. I am however pledging to make an effort for green!

Lately I've been trying to use more of my MoYou stamps, instead of the two or three I love from each plate. I pick a design, then try to imagine what colours would look nice! Hopefully eventually I'll use all of them at least once.

For this...slightly 70's looking design, my base is Barry M Gelly in Satsuma. I stamped with Barry M Gelly in Plum and MoYou Pro XL 03. It's quite obvious with designs like these that I still can't manage to get my placement 100% perfect. I am improving though!

Now go check out some people who have actually put the effort in!

An InLinkz Link-up

Gold Leaf Tips

Greetings All!

I've had gold and silver leaf for nail art for ages, and in fact I've had this exact manicure in my head for a few months. I won't lie - I've been put off by how fiddly it is. At least, it sounded really fiddly whenever anyone else has used it. I thought that awareness might work in my favour.

It didn't! People, it's the most fiddly, frustrating stuff ever! It's weightless, and uncooperative, but at the same time it's strangely satisfying. Probably because it's been rattling round my head for ages. Would I use it again? Absolutely. Only on a day when I have a lot of patience though!

I've been picturing hot pink nails with shredded gold leaf tips. In my head they looked like flames (everything looks like flames in my head - what's up with that?!). Judge for yourself!

My thumb went a little bit wrong, and ended up mostly gold. Apart from that, I'm actually really pleased with how these turned out. They look quite close to how they did in my head, they're nice and 'shreddy' (it's a word!), and apart from the fiddliness, they weren't actually too difficult to do.

I started with two coats of Barielle Now That's Hot! I then prepped the gold leaf, shredding it with tweezers and scissors. You have to be careful with even your breathing near gold leaf, because any air seems to carry it off! I forgot that, and accidentally coughed...bye bye bits of gold!

I applied some slow drying clear polish to about two thirds of my nail. I started with the best, pointiest shreds to get my nails looking like gold flames, then added more to the tips to make it more solid. Little flecks of the leaf did get stuck to my fingers, but I managed to get a few of them on the nail nearer the top, and I like the effect! Two coats of SV got it smooth...enough.

Next time I'm going to attempt gold and silver together. Famous last words...

An InLinkz Link-up

British Nail Bloggers Colour Me Crazy! Challenge. Week 1 - Red

Greetings All!

Yes, it's true, I'm taking part in my first challenge of the year!! Not bad, considering we're over halfway through it already. I've been taking time off from challenges this year, so that I can just wear what I want to wear on my nails. I did so many challenges last year, it seemed like most of the time I just had 'random challenge nails' on, and no time for the nails I wanted! However I am becoming something of a recluse, so it's time to join in with something.

Thanks to Kerrie for putting this all together. 

This is the schedule - one manicure a week, for the next twelve weeks. Surely even I can manage that?!

I already have an orange and yellow manicure in the vault, so all I really had to worry about was a red manicure. As red is one of my favourite colours, this should have been easy. Could I find any inspiration anywhere? No. As the deadline approached, I started to feel pressured, because I couldn't think of anything to do, and I knew that if I missed this prompt, chances are I just wouldn't bother with the rest of the challenge. I'm an all or nothing kind of girl.

At times like these, I reach for my favourite stamping image and just use that. As it is my favourite, I always think every manicure using it looks awesome!

It's not super exciting, but I got it done, so I'm still taking that as a small victory!

For my base I dug out a lovely red I haven't used in ages, Collection Big Hair. I guess this is a coral red, but I always think of it as peppery, or paprika! Either way, it's a lovely shade, and a bit different from th Sally Hansen Right Said Red I always seem to wear! I then stamped with Konad Black and DRK-B.

Next week's Orange nails are sat ready and waiting, as are Yellow. So I have plenty of time to work on Green!

An InLinkz Link-up

Revlon Leather In Downtown (Plus Skulls!)

Greetings All!

I was perusing a Revlon stand recently, specifically the new Parfumerie range. I'm a sucker for a scented polish - I know it's a little gimmicky, but I really like them! I did end up getting Pink Pineapple, but they were on offer, 2 for £10. Of course that meant I had to buy two!

My mum pointed out the Leather polishes just underneath the scented ones. I couldn't believe I'd been so distracted, that I'd completely missed them! Leather polishes are way more exciting than boring old scented ones!

So this is Downtown, two coats.

This is maybe just a touch shinier than I would like, but otherwise it's pretty good! Some patches are a little grainier/smoother, I'm not sure if that's was my fault for polishing unevenly, but I think it actually adds to the leather effect. I really like the colour too - rich purple. I just wish they had a few more shades, as the other two don't really 'grab' me.

I also recently got some new MoYou London plates, and what could be better than leather and skulls?!

M new favourite all over skull stamp! I actually have a lot of skull stamps now (yay!), but most would work better as accent nails, and I desperately needed one for 'all over' designs. This is from Biker XL 10, stamped with Barry M Silver Foil. I love it!

UK Indies - Indy's Indies Elements Polishes

Greetings All!

A little while ago I entered a giveaway over at A Shi...pload Of Polish. There were a lot of UK indie polish prizes, so how could I resist?! Imagine my excitement when I won not only a prize, but the one I wanted most! These four super cute polishes from Indy's Indies (aka A Shi...pload Of Polish!).

I'm going to jump straight onto Fire, because not only is it my favourite of the four, it's instantly become one of my favourite glitter toppers. I've used about 1 1/2 coats here - one coat plus a couple of touchups. Definitely less than two coats, over black.

Polish Like An Egyptian

Greetings All!

I've been trying to 'force' myself to use the MoYou London large image plates more. Don't get me wrong, I think they look absolutely beautiful, and in the right hands the possibilities with them would be endless. I just struggle a bit with deciding how to use them.

One of my favourites is Artist 07, I love all the Egyptian images. This manicure is inspired by a couple I did late last year using this plate. They never got posted because after Christmas my nails were considerably shorter, and all my long nails pictures depressed me! I'll be brave, and share a couple of pictures.

My base is Color Club Williamsburg. I was a little surprised by how much I liked this polish - it's very dark, and very sparkly at the same time. I stamped with Barry M Gold Foil and MoYou London Artist 07.

And here are the two manicures that inspired it.

Look at my nails - they are disgustingly long. And by disgustingly, I mean that I hate that they don't look like that now! I don't have the lifestyle for long nails, and I'm still amazed they ever got to this length, but I loved having big long talons and I still miss them!

The top one is the same polish combo, and the bottom one is Color Club Pearl District. Both the Color Clubs are from the Girl About Town collection. I planned a whole big swatch post with nail art, that never got posted, along with dozens of other talony picctures! Daft, I know. Maybe I'll do a few more 'recreations'!

Dolphins?!

Greetings All!

So, I don't want to upset anyone, because I know they're popular, but I'm not a fan of dolphins. I think they're pretty weird-looking, and I've never really got the appeal of them. They definitely aren't something I would choose to wear on my nails.


So then why do I have dolphins on my nails? It's an excellent question. About a month ago I was stamping with the Barry M Summer Matte polishes (here), and I thought the dolphin stamp from CH38 would look cute in Malibu, over pink. Not for me, but just as a general manicure concept, or for someone who does like dolphins.

Annoyingly, every time I tried to think of ideas for my nails, this dolphin idea would pop up! So I kind of had to do it, as it seemed like the only way to get it out of my head.

I've used my very favourite pink, OPI If You Moust, You Moust as a base, stamped with CH38 and Barry M Matte in Malibu.

It's just occurred to me that it would have seemed less weird if I just pretended I like dolphins!

Happy 4th Of July!

Greetings All!

Happy Independence day to those who are celebrating it. I know a lot of you lovely readers are American, so here is something specifically aimed at you! I hope you all have a great long weekend - it's very hot and Summery here at the moment, so I hope it is there too!

I also didn't want to be the only one not taking part - I've seen so many gorgeous American-themed manicures this week!

So here is my contribution.

I did toy with putting some white stripes over Orly Star Spangled, but a) I probably would have messed it up, and b) Star Spangled is my favourite red, and fittingly named. Why cover it up?! My accent nails are Barry M Blue Grape stamped with Konad White and CH4. It's a rare outing for one of my Cheeky plates, so that was nice.

It's Meant To Be Fire!

Greetings All!

I've been trying to be a little bit more creative with my nail art, as I've been stamping a lot lately, and not doing much else! So far my efforts have been...mixed.

I wanted to do some sort of fiery nails, but to be honest I was feeling too lazy to do proper flame nails. That involves gradients, and freehand, and effort. I thought I would just do something in fiery colours, and it was bound to look a bit like fire.

Or, you know, nothing like fire!

I started with a base of Sally Hansen Insta Dri in Butter-fly Stroke, then dabbed on Sally Hansen Salon Manicure in Evening Glow, OPI The Thrill Of Brazil, and W7 Black with some cling film. I normally love cling film nails, but I wasn't overly impressed with these. In a foolhardy attempt to jazz it up a bit I then added a coat of Black Cat Lacquer Fire Woman. On the perfect background for it to camouflage itself!

I'm starting to think I should just stick with stamping!