China Glaze - Blue Sparrow swatches

Hey, just a swatch for you today :)
I got this bottle from my favourite place to get discounted old china glaze, sally's salon services...you know I love blue and at £2.15 how could I resist?! Blue sparrow claims to be neon, however it doesn't look even remotely bright which is slightly confusing? It has lovely lighter blue glitter running through it which makes it look like velvet when it is left as a matte!

I found that I had to do three coats as it was very streaky and uneven, it didn't self-level at all :( however it is a gorgeous colour so I can forgive its misdemeanours :p


For some reason my nails look short here :O

 

 

So it's a very lovely colour but it's definitely not neon, I would try it over white but my bottle of Barry M white has turned into a gloopy mess despite being half full....I think it's time to invest in a more expensive white :(

 

Talking of expensive polish...have you seen YSL's plummy offering for a/w?! It's so beautiful, I think it may become my first YSL polish 😍 hehehe  

China Glaze - Turned Up Turquoise swatches and Hex Nail Jewelry

Hi, I'm back haha forever now :)

Whilst I'm waiting for my Flossgloss order to arrive (c'mon c'mooooooooon) I continued my neon phase with Turned up Turquoise, I wasn't sure initially whether it was a neon or not as it didn't say it was but it looked pretty bright so I googled it ;) turns out it is but I couldn't be bothered to put white on so I just went straight into the turquoise goodness.

If you follow me on instagram you'd have seen that I got my order from Hex nail jewelry a couple of weeks ago, they make super cute, re-useable, gold plated nail charms for $1.75 each which is good value seeing as you can keep reusing them until the gold wears off. I'll be placing another order with them again soon! You'll be seeing more charms in the next couple of posts :). I added their large bow charms to my middle fingers.

I had to colour adjust the photos as the colour was hard to capture, it's a lot brighter and more blue then these photos show, but the lovely velvety texture and glow is the same. I used four coats but only to fill my ridges but it didn't work :P.

Gorgeous colour, right? Love the charms too, so cute and sturdy lol!

I'm getting back into reading other people's blogs slowly but surely! I'm looking for new beauty blogs esp. British and nail art blogs to follow so if you know of any hit me up :)

Seeyou in a couple :)

Hattie Stewart inspired nails

I'm back! Hopefully :P I have been super busy and weighed down with uni work; making a website, printing portfolio, doing a boring blog (not this one heheheh) a research review and two photographic projects! Gah so I hope you'll still have me! ;). I have so little time that I literally painted my nails once since my last post!! I still haven't filed my nails since :0 and I still have this nail art on bearing in mind I did it 8 days ago! Wow I have been busy! Yeah next week is my last week of second year :( can't believe it's come round so fast! Okay so many exclamation marks, need to slow down bahahahaha.

Onto the nails...I recently discovered, via Company magazine, an amazing British illustrator Hattie Stewart, you need to check out her website www.hattiestewart.com :) I like to think of some of her work as slightly feminist which is NOT a bad thing!! Her illustrations are cute and creepy and just cooooool. So I took a look at most of her work and chose some bits to copy onto my nails but in neon, I'm on a total neon kick at the moment! Hah.
They took a couple of hours to do, I spread them out over two nights as I had other stuff to do, so I was rocking one hand done and the other was just white :P.

You can see the neon in the second photo, the middle and ring fingers are based off a drawing she posted on instagram @hattiestewart :) it's an orange hahahaa. I was happy to find that I could still use my left hand to draw/paint reasonably well.  
The orange - China Glaze Orange Knockout
The Green - China Glaze I'm with the Lifeguard (Thanks Lizzy! Still loving it as much as when you sent it me <3)
The Pink - Sparitual Dreamsicle

I got two more China Glaze's the other day from Sally Salon Services when I went home to shoot last weekend, Flying Dragon and Turned up Turquoise hehehehhehehe also I am trying very hard to resist the new Chanel's and Dior's Birds of Paradise! Argh

You know the other day I said I wanted some flossgloss? Weeeeeell I might have caved and bought 3 despite the $25 shipping! They're worth it (I hope) I can't wait for them to get here, I'll leave you in suspense as to which colours I got...

Seeyou soooooon

My stash (Picture heavy!)

Hello, by popular demand, I spent some time yesterday photographing my stash. Now this is only about half of it, the other half is at home so I'll have to photograph them when I get home in Easter!
As I don't have that many here with me I figured I would divide them into brands and do them like that. 

All names will go L-R and bold names are ones which I have swatched, they won't be linked but you can simply search the name in my blog to find it.

First up is my precious Dior rainbow :D

 

Forget me not, Riviera, Lucky, Bitter Orange, Gold Nugget, Waterlily, Saint Tropez, Nirvana and Amazonia

 

 Blue Boy and Graphite

 



Monogamous, Nomad and Stance I need more Illamasqua, I love all these!

Sweets Way,Pudding Lane, Baker Street, Chester Terrace, Park Crescent, Chelsea, Holland Park Avenue, Fenchurch Street and Hampstead Gardens which I intend to swatch tomorrow for you :)

Nude, Vivid Purple, Pink??, Black, Blueberry Ice cream, Blue?? and Blue Plum

Gold Foil, Boots Xmas LE (currently on my toes), Gold Glitter, Gold Mine, Yellow Topaz Glitter and Silver Diamonds

Riveting, I'm with the Lifeguard, Westside Warrior and Swimsuit....nailed it! 

Sand Tropez, Little Black Dress, Going Incognito, Gemma and Saint George

The Hungry Asian - Sea Creature, Funky Fingers - Tinsel Town and Sand and Stillettos, Androgynie, Fowl Play, Unknown (Urban Outfitters), Sneeze Breeze (Seriously need to wear this!!) and Vote for purple

Kiko 338, Kiko 332, Kiko 346, Holographic, Intense Plum and Fantasy Fire. 

Phew! Like I said this is only about half my collection, I could only bring as many could fit into my box so that's why the rest are being neglected at home :P. If you like to see a swatch of any of the colours please let me know!

And this is how I store them and my nail art stuff, not the usual way lol

I feel kind of bad for just shoving them all in there but I ain't got time to arrange them by brand and colour! Hahah. Ain't nobody got time for that ;)

So there you go my half stash! My uni stash haha, I have a hankering for Taylor by Shimmer as I saw A Polish Addict's swatch and just fell in love!

Like I said if you wish to see a colour swatched then comment :)

China Glaze Westside Warrior with half moons

Hi, I'm sorry I haven't blogged in like a week! I've only just repainted my nails! I've been so busy this week and unfortunately it isn't going to get any quieter, we are now getting a weekly project for which we have to research, get an idea, shoot, edit and then present all in one week plus a weekly brief from professional practice and the weekly reading and questions, plus making our own work for our portfolios and soon to be websites :( it's a big shock compared to last years work load. I'm sure I'll get into the swing of it soon but it'll take a lot of getting used too!

Anyway I've been stuck in a nail rut at the moment I can't decide what to do on my nails so I just went for something quick and easy. I freehanded Barry M Gold Foil over my natural moons then I painted round with Westside warrior. Easy. Looks good too ;) I really love WW, it's green without being in your face green, and it went on so smooth, only took one coat to opacity too!

 I got my Astrowifey teeshirt! I love it, it's so cute and it lets people know I'm a nail freak ;)

 Hope this one doesn't scare anyone! I just like how pointy my nails are and they look smoooth.
Okay I have never broke a nail in my whole life........what happened today.....I broke the tip off my right ring finger nail!!! I didn't even notice, I was just running my finger over my nails like I normally do and I felt that it was flat....omg I cannot believe how short it is :( here's what it looked like before I spent a good 15 minutes filing it into a point.

Here it is now :( all short and horrible, I'm not making my other nails short, I'm simply going to pimp that nail out tomorrow until it grows back hahahah it's going to over compensate for it's lack of height :P.

I'll probably post on tuesday? If not then wednesday!
Stick with me people :)

China Glaze Riveting swatches

I have a old swatch for you today as I've been at uni longer than I anticipated and haven't had time to finish doing my nails, I've just had to run to tesco with half painted nails, streaky and patchy! :O lol ahhhh anyway I'm not sure why it's taken me this long to bring out Riveting but I think it totally works for autumn as it's all glowy and orange :P. I know you've all seen it loads of times, a long time ago now though hahha so just bear with me ;).

 I think this would make a good pumpkin colour right? ;) spoilers?? hahaha it's a really lovely colour, it's my only true orange would you believe! I decided to do a red gradient over the top,  it was quite nice as the red was a jelly so the glass flecks from riveting showed through, so it was a subtle gradient to me it looked like lucazade hahah.

/My nails are looking a bit scary here, the shape is all wrong but nothing I can do about it now :P. I'll be back on friday with some nail art, that's something to look forward to right ;)?

Have a good tomorrow :)

China Glaze Orange Knockout Swatches

Hey, today's the last of my scheduled posts, how'd you all like Lizzy's post? So cute :). Today I have my second Neon polish that I got the other day. I tried out the ridge filler too and oooh I was so surprised when it dried matte! It did fill out my ridges really well actually! I used two coats to make sure they were banished ha ;). I used one coat of Barry M Matte White (Matte matte matte ;)) to ensure that the colour popped, not that it needed it :P. 
I ended up using three coats of Orange Knockout and it nearly knocked me out with how insanely bright!! 

 Hehehehe surprise again! This is me and my sister's hand, look at the skin tone difference :P she's wearing China Glaze High Voltage Pink which doesn't look neon but it is! She didn't put white underneath which is probably why it looks kind of dull and the fact that the orange is literally INSANE!! 

Yeah I am in love with this!! It's my holiday mani, I intend to wear this for the whole week! I'm also hoping that it will bring sunshine and banish the rain, hahahah. Look how smooth my nails are :D it's making me happy. Oh yeah I put a topcoat on as my sis was complaining that hers had chipped off within two hours as she didn't put a topcoat on. I prefer it slightly when it's matte but I need it to last so you know. 
If you have this colour then you know that this polish is a million times brighter and waaaaay more orange, it's so obnoxious that it has to be cool ;). I love the way it looks with my rings :P. 


See you when I get back! With a fresh mani :) Hope everyone's had a great week. 

Mini China Glaze Haul

Hey everyone! This is the first of three scheduled posts this week whilst I'm away hopefully sunning myself in the beautiful cornwall :). 


The other day I finally got to go Sally's Salon Services ;) it was mainly full of hair products buuuut they had a decent selection of China Glaze and OPI which made me very happy as it's the only place round my end where they are available in shops and at a good price. My sister was after a pink neon which is why we went there as I know that no one does neons like CG ;). I got her the last one and myself an orange and a ridge filling base coat. Then when I got to the till I noticed that they had two shades reduced and you know what one was...Westside warrior!! Wooohoo you don't even know how long I've wanted that one! Even better it was reduced from £6.59 to £2.15!! Bargain :D

Orange Knockout, Ridge Filler Base Coat, Westside Warrior and High Voltage Pink which is also a neon but it's dimmed by Orange Knockout! 

Already I can tell that this is going to be impossible to photograph haha. 

Okay just one last thing, my blogger is also impossible to work with, when I'm writing a post I keep getting a message popping up that says 'you have been logged out from another location, do you want to log in again?'  it is the most frustrating thing ever! Also whenever I open up blogger I have to sign in everytime even though the keep me signed in box is ticked. :( booooo. And I can't delete any posts gahhhhh. 

Anyway look out for my next post as it'll be quite a surprise ;) 

Cray cray Leopard print Rainbow gradient

Sorry Lizzy it's not Zuza just yet :P 


I saw a design on Wahnails instagram of these rainbow leopard print nails and I thought they were so awesome so I had to recreate, mine are a bit different and very bright! I started with a white base to make all the colours pop and to save time ;) so I used Barry M Matte white, which is an okay white, I only used two coats as I didn't need full coverage. Here are all the polishes I used 

Barry M Matte White, Kiko 358 Peach Rose, Dior Riviera, Barry M Cyan Blue, Kiko 355 Canary Yellow and China Glaze I'm with the Lifeguard 

Kind of a teaser for what's to come in like 5 seconds hahahhaha 

I used the on the sponge method, I love how the colours blended together to make new colours :) I am in LOVE with Lifeguard, it's so neon hahaha. In real life this is very bright and vibrant. Next is the leopard print on top of this cray cray gradient. 

Left hand in natural light 

Right hand in natural light 

I love the way the gradient on my right hand turned out the best, it's so pretty! I wish you could see how bright this is and how fun it looks. All we need now is sunnnnnnnnnn stupid England, I swear we are never going to get summer here :(. I freehanded the leopard print using my new and improved Wah nail art pen in black, I have a much better experience with that pen now that it's changed haha.
The gradient looks so much nicer in real life not as sludgy as it looks on the first picture. I'm happy happy happy with this and my photos too. I think I'll start doing photos of both my hands when I do nail art from now on so you can see that I do it on both nails ;). 


You like how I've decided to get all fancy with my photos? I want my blog to look good and I should put my degree to use ;). I got my results and feedback through the post today and I'm very pleased with myself, I got a 2.1= overall which is good to say I never studied photography in college, it goes to show that you can do anything you want! I love this course so much, I can't wait to start my second year in september!! Wooooo. 

Nail mail time :)

Lizzy and I did a swap just last week and I got mine yesterday! I couldn't believe it arrived before hers has :( We arranged for her to send me 3 polishes but she sneaked in a forth :P 

Hello Kitty from Texas :) hehehe

China Glaze Cha cha cha and I'm with the lifeguard, Zoya Myrta and Zuza. Myrta was the surprise as she knew how much I loved it when I saw her swatch it :) she's a sweetie! 
I cannot wait to swatch them, I just know that I'll be taking Zuza and Dior Saint-Tropez on holiday with me, they are perfect pool colours :).


So look out for any of these over the next few days, thanks again Lizzy, you da best :D hope yu get yours soon!

China Glaze Fast Track & Nail art

The other day I wanted a cleanser so I chose Fast track which Katee sent me :) I know everyone has seen this before so I'll keep this bit short and sweet, promise ;). On me it was very browny beige because I am so pale, it took me about a day to like it :P I loved the shimmer though, so nice 

It was opaque in two smooth coats and it dried fairly quickly, this is with a topcoat and natural light. 
Cos it is a nice neutral I wanted to embelish it slightly so I chose the only thing anyone would ever choose....moustichios of course! 

I like them, they're cute and everyone at uni loves them ha! They make my fingers feel clever ;) and they were so easy to do, just two dotting tools, you make four dots and two connecting lines and you're away! My favourite kind of nail art is the simple kind, you want to enjoy doing your nails not get stressed out and these were perfectly relaxing :). 

At the moment I'm trying to capture the beauty of Dior Lucky but I'm failing hopefully I'll have a decent photo for tomorrow. I sent Candy shop to my sister yesterday and she text me today saying her trademark phrase of 'I love it' so she's happy with it, she sent me a picture of her nails, she used it on her artificial tips but I think it would look really cute on her full natural nails as she has shorties. 

Hope you enjoyed! 

Nail Mail x3!

Hey today was my final critque of this year and it went really well :) my tutors really liked my photographs so I'm happy and to top it all off I had 3 packages waiting for me when I got back to halls wooo! 


First up is my precious Dior Waterlily from ebay....it didn't come in its box though :( that made me really sad lol 

Second is my swap with the lovely Anna! Look how amazingly she wrapped everything! Gah so much effort :) 

 Love this paper so much! 

Back row, L-R: Sinful Colors Hazard, China Glaze Riveting, Zoya Gemma & Danii, Claire's Candy Shop
Front Row, L-R: Orly Oui, Ma Cherie, Androgynie
I can't believe I got Gemma! It's like she read my mind :D and Danni looks amaze too, I just love Zoya! 


Finally I received my order from Kiko cosmetics 

Back Row L-R: 254 Wine Red Microglitter, 364 Dark Crimson, 358 Peach Rose, 356 Melon, 355 Canary Yellow.

Front Row, L-R: 345 Jade Green, 346 Olive Drab, 338 Light Lavander, 332 Dark Violet, 202 Violet Transparent 

These were £2.50 each and you have to spend £25 minimum to order so these were bargains! I have quickly dabbed these onto paper and they all appear to be heavily pigmented and have a big brush which I was not expecting for the price! I can't wait to swatch them and then wear them as full manis, I have a few ideas in mind :) I think Melon looks great for summer! 

all of the above = awesome Nail Mail!! 

Thanks again Anna your package was soooo good! I can't wait to swap with you again :D I have saved that lovely paper, it's currently on my inspiration board :) 


What do you guys think to these polishes? Which are you looking forward to seeing? 

Nail mail!!

Today has been a very good day! 1. Handed in my final project so I can relax for a bit now (without feeling guilty :P) 2. I got two packages 3. I got two Dior polishes :D. 


One package was my Paul and Joe polish, soo pretty! The other was one of my swap packages :D it was from Katee off of A girl and her polish and she totally surprised me with a bunch of 'non- nail related goodies' as she said :), it felt like my birthday when I opened it, sooo much stuff! 

Sorry about all the mess, I was too excited to arrange it nicely lol but yes you are seeing 10 polishes, two lip glosses, one body wash, one body lotion, one card and one bag of sweetiess!

Orly - Fowl Play and Androgynie 

Funky fingers - Power Chord, Tinsel Town and Sand and Stilettos. 

Sinful Colors - Cinderella, Unicorn, Amethyst and Rise and Shine

China Glaze - Fast Track

How awesome! I can't wait to wear the Orlys, I might wait for autumn though, they are so perfect for that season. Fast track looks so coool and cinderella is so cute! Basically this is a lovely package from a lovely lady! I am sure all of you follow her anyway but if you don't you should! 

I had £15 on my Debenhams beauty card somehow (I'm not complaining though!) so I got one of the Dior polishes Lucky :D I am seriously considering going back and getting the matching lipstick, I really like the thought of matching lips and nails. So Lucky cost me £3 wooo, a couple of months ago I would never have bought this shade but now I can realise how unique and pretty it is. Here it is with the Paul and Joe 

Love the bottle! So cute 

Alsoooooooooo I have finally won Dior Waterlily!!! After weeks of bidding I finally won one for £14 so not exactly a bargain but I don't care, all I knew is that Forget me not needed the partner! Ha  

So I have had an awesome day! I got a really nice jumper from H&M too but that's a whole other story ;)

Nail mail!

Hiya 

Yesterday was the longest day of my life. Ever. It was my photography assessment so everyone in my group had an hour to hang their work in the studio then we were meant to split into two groups and have separate critques but no we stayed together and I ended up standing up for approx 8 hours :| my back was killling :(. But when I got back I had a parcel waiting for me :D and it was my 6 polishes from Lithuania!! Yay. 

I haven't tried any yet (I know, I know!) but I took a picture of them looking all pretty and sparkly :) and hopefully I will get chance to try one on tonight, I'm thinking Zoya Neeka. It will be my first Zoya polish everrrr, so I'm looking forward to wearing it heheh. 

So this is just a quick post to let you know what's happening in ma crazy life, some of my photography is going to be exhibited in a gallery next week until March so I need to mount it etc today so that is why I might not have time to do my nails :( plus the laundry needs doing :( :(.  Buuuut this week is going to be exciting for me wooo! 

Here are my pretties 

China Glaze 108 degrees, OPI Take the stage, Zoya Neeka and Yara, Essie Going Incognito and OPI Stranger Tides

Sorry if I have gone on a bit too much about me and not enough about nail varnish but I'm sure you want to know why I no post pictures ;). 

Seeyou later hopefully with new nail varnish on :)