Nude comparisons!

It's finally here, the promised nude comparison post :P

When I first started getting into polish (all those years ago ;)) I couldn't understand the fascination with nude polishes, I was like why would I want to paint my nails in a flesh colour when there's the entire rainbow and more to use!! But now I see the attraction (this must be growing up ;P) they are good as palette cleansers in between more cray manis, they make your fingers look longer and make you look more put together and polished (sorry!).

I only used 4 polishes in this comparison as these are the 4 most similar - in terms of opacity and finish, I have Illamasqua Monogamous  and Barry M Nude too but they are too different to the others.

Lets get into it then! 

In the bottles they don't look that similar however when they are on the nail they look completely different to how they do in the bottle...

OPI - My Vampire is Buff: Two coats, my favourite as it feels cleaner than the others. £11.50
Essie - Sand Tropez: Two coats, looks more like a cement grey than a flesh tone however when worn alone it looks a lot more neutral. £7.99
Gosh - Highschool Flirt: Two coats, very similar to MVIB but slightly warmer. £3.99
Maybelline Forever Strong - Rose Poudre: Two coats, pink toned beige. £4.09

Like I said my favourite by far is MVIB with Highschool Flirt as a close second, it definitely is the closest to my skintone and looks flattering on everyone that I've seen wearing it! The only downside is the price that we pay for OPI in the UK in shops, I got mine from Sally's Salon Services, obviously you can get them cheaper online but you know I like instant gratification ;).
 
There are still some Essie nudes that I'm interested in and L'Oreal are bringing out their new nude collection with lipsticks and polishes so I'll probably get those too ;) If I was in the US I'd definitely check out RGB x HIPP nail foundations and tints because they look awesome!!

Hope you enjoyed this post :)

Essie Turquoise & Caicos swatches

Hi, I can't believe it's been this long! So much uni work is the cause...my project is due on monday which is probably why I'm finally posting; major procrastination ;). I actually took these photos 5 days ago, tut tut.

Anyway, the polish in question is the perfect turquoise; Essie Turquoise and Caicos. My experience was much the same as other reviews - thin, streaky formula but it's worth it, the colour is just so happy! I think I did 3 coats as I had quite a few bold patches after the second.
I decided to do an accent of Barry M Limited edition christmas gold thing, as I think turquoise and gold is the best combo yo.

A nice bit of handcream there on my pinky ;)

The ring on my index is from catbird nyc (they deliver internationally), I'm always getting asked where it's from, I neeeeeeeeeed another especially the opal drop! So cute!

In the bottle I don't think T&C looks like anything special but once it's on the nail it looks so good (IMO). I did do some nail art over the top but everyone seemed underwhelmed by it so I didn't bother taking pictures, I liked it, it was simple patterns but no one else felt the same so I just took it off. That's the problem I'm facing at the moment, people are expecting really complex/exciting nail art and when I don't do that they aren't bothered lol I'm taking about people who know me irl/facebook page. Ahh I hate to say it but it's a total firstworldproblem.......trivial.

I know I've been awful at posting since like october, ie since I started my second year, but I've also been slacking at reading and commenting on other blogs so I'm sorry, I'll try to catch up!
I suppose I should do some work now but I can't stop listening to Eminem, you can't work and listen to him, he deserves your full attention haha darn it I love him so much! Hehehe :) see you soon I hope!

New York "haul" and other stories (picture heavy)

Hey!
I got back on thursday morning (6am if you will!) and I was sooooo jet lagged hahah I was very grumpy all day :P. It's taken me this long to unpack, adjust to my old life ;) and to change my polish!
I'll show you what I bought and then if you wish you can stick around to look at more pictures, mainly of food, and hear about what I did :).

I know you'll be expecting a mahoosive haul, I was expecting to go cray but I got ill; I had a sore throat and couldn't talk and spent the two shopping days in bed!!! Can you believe it! I had to go to the doctors and I got these massive hideous anti-biotics to take :(. I managed about an hour of shopping before I had to go back to the hostel, I nearly didn't go in Sephora! I'd spent days before when we were being tourists saying "no no I'm going in Sephora when we have more time". I'm so glad they covinced me to go in, it did make me feel a little better ;).

Anyway I only got two lipsticks from MAC, one which is too pale for my coloured lips :( but I love the other! Then we went into Sephora and I got Illamasqua Poke and SpaRitual Dreamsicle (neon) and then from Rite-Aid I got Essie Turquoise and Caicos just cos it was soooo cheap!

If all you wanted was polish, now would be the time to go, I have created a grungey nail look using the neon which I'll show in a couple of days so come back for that!

I had to photograph my beasty tablets!

I like the fact that I got the classic pill bottle though ;).

Some food pictures? These are off my phone so excuse the quality

Our first meal was free massive pizza, the hostel did a pizza night :) a slize was as big as my head I promise!

Had to get my nails in there ;) see how big it is? It was real yummy too, they bought about 7 of these and then when we were leaving they bought even more in!
The next day we went to the ICP and then we got tickets to be in the audience of the David Letterman Late Show which was really cool, the guests were a comedian (Jerry someone?? I don't know but he was funny) and Dave Grohl!!! Soo cooool. Whilst we were waiting though we went to get lunch in Steak 'n' Shake which is next door to the theatre. I had fries as I don't like beef...I asked for large fries....

Is it bad that I ate all those??

 

Next day we were at MoMA all day so we just went to MacDonalds and got hassled by a guy wanting 2 dollars for his train home cos he'd just lost his wallet....we just ignored him lol! I did take a photo of the ketchup though, Fancy Ketchup is just too funny!

 

One evening we went to Dunkin' Donuts....why not :P I had the Brownie Batter Donut....it was quite yummy ;) I'm still waiting on photos from Emmmmmma!!

One of my favourite things that we did was the Highline! The views were lovely and we just had a really fun time up there, plus we got off in downtown and went to this market that had really cool photography inside :D





On our last night we went to this diner and I was still feeling ill but I wanted food but not a lot (hard to find such a thing in America ;)) anyway I ordered Chicken Fingers off the snack menu and this came....

They ain't fingers....they were like 4 chicken breasts! Needless to say I couldn't eat all that!
The final morning we went to a different diner for brunch and most of us had pancakes, especially chocolate chip.....again huuuuuuge

My nails looked real bad at this point, my topcoat (seche Vite) had started to just fall off?? I think it might have been cos we kept going from literally freezing to hot but still it was so strange!

This next photo is something that you Americans might not find so amazing but for me it was like waaaaaah

!! The soup can is real! LOL I had to buy it hahahah. I won the best photo from the hostel with this ;).

Last photo is of me! :O It's a few of us in Hill Country Chicken with our lecturers having dinnnner, I'm the one goofing in the left with short ginger hair ;)  don't know where I'm looking lol!

There you go a very quick overview of my amazing trip! I HAVE to go back now, there's just so much I didn't do (shopping!!) or see or eat ;).

When I got back my nails were in such bad shape literally! I nearly took a photo but I didn't want to put y'all through that ;).

Hope you've enjoyed!

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 :)

Girly camo nail art

Hi! 
Firstly how amazing was our opening ceremony ;)? I couldn't stay up to watch all the athletes entering the stadium (I went to bed before Team GB!) but I really loved every second of it :D I can't wait for gymnastics and swimming as Rebecca Adlington comes from my home town!! Woo :D. 
Anyway I wanted to do camo nails so bad ever since I saw Madeline Poole's nails that she did a while ago, they just look fun in my opinion. I know though that this won't be everyone's cup of tea and that's fine as I like them hehehe. 
They are really easy to do but like I discovered they can look really stupid if you do it wrong lol I know that's a kind of contradiction but when I first tried on paper I had no idea what I was doing, so I gave it a few practise runs then dived in and they look like camouflage so that's all good. 

 I don't know why my index nail looks so bulbous :( it's not really like that, it's slim I swear!

Sorry about the shadows! It's just too sunny here ;)

I started with OPI Stranger Tides as it's a nearly khaki shade :P plus it's nice and light and so can take other colours easily. I used the smallest and pointy dotting tools and just dipped and dragged ;) and dotted the shapes on, starting with the lime green which is Gosh Early Green, then the pink which is an unamed Barry M and finally the brown which is Essie Little Brown Dress. I had to take photos in amongst the trees as that was where the sun was annnnd it's camo y'know ;). This design looks better in real life, it's fun! 


I'm posting this early as I have my first ever paid photography job later! I'm really nervous even though it's a family friend as I'm more used to shooting fashion/fine art not weddingy stuff. I'm photographing the bride getting ready and I'm stressing about the lighting, hopefully she'll be by a big window that would be ideal otherwise the indoor lighting will just cast a horrid yellow cast on her :(. Gah stop freaking maaaan lol. Then I'm off to her wedding reception which should be fun :). 


Have a great weekend everyone!

The illustrated nail inspired lace nail art

Mouthful or what :P 
I LOVE Sophie Harris-Greenslade aka The Illustrated Nail, she does some cray nail art, she's one of the best in the biz and I took the time earlier to properly look through her work and decide what I thought I could achieve. I orignally wanted to do tattoo style writing on my nails but then I found her lace designs and I loved them so cute. I used her designs and then made one of my own using hers as a template as I don't like to just copy, you have to add something that's your own. But my point is she's amazing! 

I love the thumb the most, it's so cute like a little doily :P my ring finger didn't turn out as well as I'd hoped, I didn't do the flowers large enough but oh well it's still nice :) I like this look but I prefer  Sophie's version :). This was really quick to do on top of Essie so that's always nice and it doesn't really matter if you go a bit wrong as it isn't that noticeable :P.
I'm still away but I'll be back soon and I know exactly what is going on my nails ;) hehehe 
Seeyou later! 

Essie Sand Tropez Swatches

Hey, this is my first scheduled post woo ;) I have gone back to Ipswich till friday to see the boyfs art as it's in an exhibition and Ips is too far to travel just for the day, so we are making a mini break from it :). 


So I bought Sand Tropez as I thought (stupidly) that it would be a good match for my skintone as it turns out it's really not :P on me it's just a neutral colour kind of stone grey ie grey with brown undertones. 

It only took two coats to opacity and it was so smooth, the brush was really good as it covered my nail in one swoop ;). I still like it but it just wasn't what I was expecting. My nails have grown so much but you can't really tell, my thumb nail measures 2cm from base to tip! Lol that's quite long but I still want them a bit longer so I can shape them properly. I love my oval/points now I can't see me ever going back to square! 


Just a quick post today! Hope everyone's having a good week

Red comparison post

Hey, today I decided to something I've never done; a comparison post (obviously....) I chose reds as in the bottle they can look quite similar and to try and help people who are on their search for their perfect red! 


I only have a few reds in my collection so I chose a variety dark to light 

All five in natural light, I thought it'd be nice for you to see how they look against my skin tone 

Funnily enough I didn't realise I had achieved a perfect ombre mani ;) 

Kiko Dark Crimson, Barry M Raspberry, Essie Limited Addiction, Orly Ma Cherie and Barry M Bright Red.  

The first two (Kiko and Barry M) are cremes whilst the other three are more sheer and jelly ish.

All 5 only took 2 coats to opacity and all were lovely to apply, my first Orly was a dream, my bf liked that one the best he said it was the most sluttiest....LOL but by that he means it's a classic red that is unfortunately associated with naughty ladies ;) but that means it's sexy! Waaa ha :). Anywaaaay, I did like all of them and I always find it interesting how polishes change colour when next to other colours, I always thought that Limited Addiction was a bright red until I put Orly next to it. 

I tried to mix polishes that are easy to acquire in both continents, I think that Bright Red and Ma Cherie are pretty close, I prefer the Orly though. 

I hope you found this helpful and if not then I'm sorry ;)

Which is your favourite? A classic red or a deeper classy red? 

Owly Manicure

Good Evening Girls :)

I've had some bad news today so in order to cheer myself up, I did what any polish addict would do ...no I didn't buy any new polish (I wish) I did the famously cute owl mani. It was really easy and fun to do and it looks so cute, so yeah that made me happy! Here they are 

I didn't have any other bright colours ie orange, yellow so I had to use brown but I think he's my favourite, I like how he tones down the rest of the colours :) also I like their sparkly noses hehee! 

Here are the colours I used starting with the base on the thumb:

Little Brown Dress - Essie, Mushroom - Barry M, Unknown blue - Barry M, Blueberry Ice cream - Barry M, Polish me Happy - H&M, Spring Green - Barry M, Purple Poppy - Models Own, Ultra Violet - Rimmel Pro, Limited Addiction - Essie and Vintage Pink - Models Own. 

For the eyes I used Sunshine Sparkle - Revlon and the beaks are Rising Star - OPI. 

I freehanded the base and belly using just the polish brush and then my new favourite dotting tools helped with the rest.

Lots of other bloggers have done this design for good reason, it's so frikin' cute! I'm not sure who did the original I found the other versions from google and Chalkboard nails and a girl and her polish, you should check them out :)

I hope you enjoyed! 

Seeyou soon

Essie Going Incognito Swatches and Review

Evenin' :) 
Sooo tonight I am reviewing another old Essie Going Incognito from Winter 2010 which I recently acquired as you may know. I'm a sucker for green, like my boyfriend said Green is obviously my colour lol, I don't know why I just love greeen, it's never dull and always happy. 

These pictures are colour accurate and I'm so happy about that, look at how lovely she is :). Going Incognito is a forest green which almost looks ever so slightly teal at times, I'm not complaining it's a beautiful colour and I think it really suits my skin tone. The application was opaque on two and a half coats for me cos I had tiny bald spots on a few nails, it took ages to dry though even with SH Insta-dri eventually it got there. 

Despite how lovely she is on her own I just couldn't help but to mess and put a design on top, it looks good on my left hand but it is horrendous on my right hand and I have no excuses, I haven't done any designs on my nails in a while so that could be why. Anyway onto the pictures

I do like it but I think I should have left my nails plain especially since I ruined the other hand -_-* oh well at least it's quite a dark design ;). 

On another note I am spending more and more money to fuel my once-was-normal-now-is-insane addiction to nail polish (see I even call it polish now not varnish! What's happening to me??) so as I am at uni and should be spending my money on laundry or drinking or something I have pledged not to buy anymore polishes until I have used all my untrieds! For a lot of the blogs I read this would mean they would never buy polish again :P but luckily I only have 20 left to go including the two Butter Londons and an effect topcoat I bought off ebay (for a stupid price :(). It was that that made me realise I need to stop but then we went to Colchester and they sold OPI LIKE EVERYWHERE! And I couldn't buy a single one not even Swimsuit nailed it! :'( *cry cry* 

My heart skipped a beat

Valentines mani, Essie Limited Addiction, I said I was going to wear it on Vday and I was right! 

It was lovely to apply, a jelly(??) after two coats there was still a VNL but I didn't mind too much, it took ages to dry though, so SH inst-dri was definitely a big help most of the time I use it to smooth out mistakes and to add amazing shine :). These pictures are colour accurate, Limited Addiction is my new favourite red although I only have two real reds :O.

After it dried I did this design which is inspired by a Vday card I saw in a shop with the tag "my heart skipped a beat" I thought it was totally cute and not over the top. I messed up the index finger so I tried to distract from it by using Accessorize in Crystal Shimmer but it doesn't really work in all lighting 

Flash

Just artificial lighting to show the colours

It's a bitty polish, would be fun with more layers over a paler colour like Essie Navigate Her I think, I'll try it one day nearer Spring. 

I hope you enjoyed this Valentines day mani, sorry it's a bit rushed I'm waiting to watch Lost S3 for the fourth time, yes I love it that much ;). Have a great day tomorrow!

Good afternoon, I'm back (obviously) I had a great time in London, hope everyone had a good weekend too. I got 5 polishes from London and 6 before I went so I'm going to show you what they are, I'll do the 6 pre trip first...

L-R: Essie Limited addiction and Little Brown dress, A-England Order of the Garter and St. George, Accessorize Crystal Shimmer and Sapphire. 

Cannot wait to try out my A-Englands but the weather here is so bland, it would be a waste, these babies need sunshine and lots of it! These are my first Accessorize polishes I have high hopes that sapphire is going to be really nice it claims to be a one coater, but we'll see ;). 

When I went to London I hoped that the flagship store of Topshop would sell OPI so I looked everywhere but they didn't yet they sold Barry M which can be found in every Superdrug and Boots! Anyway we went to Harrods on the last day and they had a small selection of OPI and Essie yay, I was disappointed that the latest collection they had was Touring America so as I thought I wasn't going to find my beloved OPIs anywhere else I bought Russian Navy and Diva of Geneva (it looked pretty). They did have Essies Spring 2012 collection though so I got Navigate her :) the women who worked there were so snobby haha. After Harrods we went on to Europes largest Westfield which was where I discovered THE MOST AMAZING SHOP....why was it so amazing....because it had every single OPI nail varnish! Even the NOPIs!! If you're reading this in the US I'm sure this is no big deal for you but for us Brits who have no access to real life OPIs it was awesome! I was so excited I could have bought all of them but I was on a very tight budget so I got two, I have a Herring problem (!!!!) and Royal Rajah Ruby. 

L-R OPI Diva of Geneva, Russian Navy, Royal Rajah Ruby and I have a Herring Problem and Essie Navigate Her. 

I'm going to swatch Royal Rajah Ruby later and if it lives up to its reputation and bottle *fingers crossed* I might wear it for Valentines Day tomorrow instead of my planned nail art. 

Seeyou soon sweets!