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 :)

My Urban Outfitters style aztec nails

Finallllly. I've been trying to write this post since 3pm but blogger was being soooo bad and not letting me type :(. I'm excited about this post as I really like the photos I took, and I really like this nail art. My boyfriend has this tee shirt from Urban Outfitters with this aztec-y style print, I'd been staring at it for ages thinking hmmmm that would make good nail art, like you do ;) here's the shirt

The colours are too garish for autumn nails so I chose three deeper colours; Max Factor Intense Plum, Kiko 332 and Kiko 346 Olive Drab. I loooove Intense Plum, it's a real sexy colour, especially after I'd just filed my nails into lovely points ;) I couldn't take a picture as it was nighttime as I was doing these nails. I simply painted on a triangle of each using a small nail art brush then using a nail art pen I drew the rest on. Simpleeee! I changed the design slightly so that it would work as nail art. I hope you all like thee pictures, they are very different from my usual ones.....

Right hand, not quite as neat as my left but passable ;) 

Left hand - I really like this look, it's a bit different from the usual aztec nail and more colourful too :).

I'm being a bit self indulgent with this last photo, I took it as a tester and I loved it! Lol it's as close to a self portrait as you'll ever get from me, my hair looks alright at this level hahaha I like the way my nails look too, again gives you a better impression of how they look in real life :)

What do you think to the photos, like or dislike? Would you like to see more like this in future......? 

African print inspired nail art

I know that I am the worst blogger at the moment, and I'm going to blame that on my boyfriend, we only have one broadband cable in the flat and he's on it all day playing online games :( also my iphone is refusing to charge up so it's kind of dead :(.
But I'm here now! I might do a few swatches today so I have stuff to post whilst I'm wearing nail art. Which is what I have to show you today, I should have posted the other day but I wasn't happy with the photos I took, I'm still not but hey ho.

I was inspired by african prints on clothing and fabric as they are such gorgeous patterns and make perfect nail art. I started with a base of Sinful Colors Unicorn which is a soft yellow which took FOREVER to dry and made my nail art life hell :P. Then with a black striper I made crossing lines then I made semi circles with two kikos using a small nail art brush. once it had all dried I did the black detailing with a nail art pen.

 Right hand - index and ring are my favourites

Left hand- I'm not sure about any of these

Woah look at that thumb nail! Lethal lol. I like the original pattern waaaay better than my interpretation of it, I did the crossing lines too close so the semi circles were too close and look like snakes or something instead of the fan like shapes that they are meant to look like. I guess they're okay no one else knows what they're meant to look like :P. I wanted to try making a different shape other than square with the brush, it went okay I think. Everyone at uni liked them so I guess that's good but I just can't like them, saying that I've had them since tuesday maybe! Wow that's a long time :O.

 

I don't know what to change them to........any ideas? Something cool obvs ;)

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. 

Summer leopard print gradient

Wow 99 followers! Yay hello everyone :) 
I was going to post this last night after my sister's fashion show (which was really good, I'm very proud) but mum wanted me to do her olympic nails as I won't be able to do them tonight and she is seeing the torch on thursday hence why she wanted the nails. I might put a picture up but I'm not sure cos I'm not happy with them, they're not very good :(. 
Anyway I did this design after I did it o a set of falsies and loved it :P I started with Barry M Matte White, one coat! then I sponged Models Own Coral Reef and Kiko 358 and Matte White, it only took two sponged coats as I used the white as a base, clean up was horrible though as I didn't put vaseline around my cuticles and fingers so the red got everywhere and I couldn't get it all off without removing too much of the sponging so excuse the mess!

Yeah I don't like this gradient by itself but it only stayed like that for a few minutes whilst it dried. Onto the leopard print!

But this, I love! It looks like a iced summery drink :D again I'm just willing summer to arrive! This is a very easy and quick thing to do but it looks impressive, which is my kind of thing ;). I don't really have much else to say about it other than I neeeeed a new black nail art pen, gah you don't know how hard I had to squeeze to get a thin stream! My thumbs were killing after this haha. 

I'll be doing my BFFFFFFF's nails tonight, she's the reason I created my pandas, so can you guess what she wants ;) 

Have a good day everyone :)

Graphic Lines nail art

Hi, I feel like I haven't blogged in ages and that's because I, like many others around the world have been making the most of this glorious weather! But I promise I am back now, I have a couple more posts lined up after this so that should tide me over until I change my nails :). 

You know how the best designs are the ones you didn't want to create initially? Well that is what happened today. I set myself an ambitious 5 different pattern design but it went completely wrong and then I got a new idea from the wreckage and I love it! I love instagram as there are so great nail artists showcased on there and my absolute favourite is astrowifey (type that into instagram to find her) she does amazing work and I urge you to check her out if you want to see some serious mini artworks! Anyway this mani is inspired by her :)

As usual I freehanded the lines with my nail art pen (you can probably tell on my pinkie!). The pink is one of the unknown color clubs, green is Kiko 345 Jade Green and yellow is Unicorn by Sinful Colors (from the wonderful Katee) I really like this yellow it's nice and soft and only takes two coats to reach opacity :). All three colours took two coats for opacity. 

Like I said earlier I really like these designs, they're quite simple and it's something different for me too and I think they look good ;). My favourites are the middle and index fingers. 

I should be getting some nail mail tomorrow :D only small but good! 

Seeyou all tomorrow! 

Kiko 332 Dark Violet

Another day, another Kiko polish, this time it's a cadbury purple that makes me hungry ha! Again another glowing review for this brand, another two coater that was as smooth as butttta :) now because it's purple, I obviously couldn't photograph it properly so I gave up and just did the nail art on top and then managed to take a colour accurate photograph ha typical. 

This is too blue, stupid purple! But you get an idea :) I did diamonds and daisies as I think they are a good combination ;). Like edge and softness haha, I really like the diamonds I want to do a full diamond mani it'd look sick! 

I'm moving out of the flat tomorrow and moving back home for the summer! I can't believe my first year of uni is over already, I've had such a good time and made really good friends, I'm looking forward to seeing my parents and sisss again but I'm definitely going to miss my little flat and just Ipswich in general, I guess it's only 3 months till I'll be back again :). So I won't be posting again until monday I imagine as I'll have lots of unpacking to do but I'll be reading and commenting on everyone's blogs still :).

Hope everyone has a good weekend! 

Gradient with Kiko

I've sooo jumped on the awesome gradient bandwagon! How could I not, they just look so cool! I chose a pastel-ish gradient, originally I was just going to have one colour nails but then I got bored , how often does that happen eh? :P. First I had Kiko 345 Jade Green on, which applied so smooth and was opaque in two coats, such good quality for the price! 

Gorgeous colour right? 

I sponged Kiko 338 Light Lavender using the polish on the sponge method that we all know and love thanks to this tutorial :) it was super easy to do and looks really good IRL however it doesn't really translate to film, I'm not sure why but here are the pictures

I used a makeup sponge so the transition was very smooth however I think I overdid it with the sponge as I kept pulling polish up to form little horrible lumps :( lol I'm surprised I didn't remove it as it's so lumpy at the tips. So next time I will slow down with the sponging, I think it's cos I didn't have enough polish on the sponge so I will definitely try again :). 

What do you think to my gradient? 

Going Bananas with Kiko!

Hey, I removed my paisley yesterday as I had a bit of growth at the base and that was it, no tipwear and no chips! Awesome lol. My bf has been asking me to do banana nails for a few weeks now so I obliged last night.I should know by now that painting nails at night is not a good idea, it always goes wrong! And it certainly did :( painting was fine, here's Kiko Canary Yellow, 2 coats.

 It's rather bright, not a neon but certainly bright! I liked it so then the bad stuff happened....I originally did bananas from the base of my nail but then I tried with some on the tip and prefered it that way so cos it was late and I was feeling lazy I just removed the black and then did a quick coat of yellow over the half removed bananas, so basically my nails felt lumpy and you could see some black still under the yellow :( well here are the finished nanaaarrrs ;) 

Not that bad I guess but not what I hoped for either, bananas are weirdly difficult to draw lol. 


Ooh I got a bargain today, everytime I go into Debenhams (which is a lot) I always pick up the same things and put them down again, and one of those was Dosh from Butter London, I was drawn to the green despite my bad previous experience with the brand but I could never justify the £12 price. Today I went in and Dosh was half price! It was the only one that had money off!! Can you believe it? :D what luck hehe


I hope you enjoyed my bananas :)

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? 

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?