My 21st birthday mani

Hi, so it was my birthday this time last week, I'm 21 now :O
It was hard to decide what to do on my nails, glitter? Cake? etc so I narrowed it down to my two favourite colours at the moment (Nails Inc Baker Street and Illamasqua Stance) and then I thought I'd bring out the stars, unicorn charm, gems and of course 21! I went for an old English font for the numbers as I think it looks cooool and tones down the girlyness of the other nails :P. I've just realised that last year I used illamasqua (see last years nails here - soooo short :O)
I've got to apologise for the photos though as a few are blurred and yes...I resorted to doing the claw!

I did my right hand in low light so I thought it looked ok until I took this photo hahaha

I have to say sorry for how messy they are! They looked ok in real life ;P

 



I got this bag as a present and noticed that my nails totally matched it! Ha (again sorry that the nails are out of focus...I swear I am a photography student :P)
I think the stars look ok, I had been trying to think of a good use for them up to now!

I know I have posted in a while, in fact my birthday was two weeks ago today! I've been all over the place as it's nearly time to go back to uni so I've been doing all those important things like sorting accommodation, student finance buying new stuff etc. And I went to Ipswich for the weekend after my birthday and had a really good time which just makes me want to go back to uni even more, I'm going a bit stir crazy being at home...and I think my nails are suffering, I feel like I've got nothing to inspire me at the moment which sucks but in good news I have just written two more posts up :O so I do have something to show you soon :p.

I really need to start reading and commenting on others' blogs more frequently!

Hope everyone's been well! See ya soon :)

Ice cream nail art! Summer's here (on my nails at least)!

Hi!
I have been actual planning my posts! So I am sorted for the next three weeks! So expect a post every 2/3 days from now on :), it's taken me a while to get to this point in my blogging life where I am organised enough to post on a regular basis, so hopefully no more sporadic posting :p!

Today's nails are something I'd been thinking about recently due to the fact that it is now summer and I have pointed nails...which made me think of ice cream cones! They were so cute in my head but it took me a few goes to get them right on my nails, you wouldn't think that they took so long and so much thought but they did...hahaha they just didn't look quite right, at first I the cone lines were too similar colour to the cone base and the ice cream wasn't drippy enough! But I worked on them and now I am happy with them :) although it's times like these that I wish I could use acrylic to do 3D nail art!

They're still not 100% perfect though, I think they are still missing something but they still look cute??
It sucks that I didn't have an actual ice cream to hold...so I went with the next best sweet thing, a homemade cupcake (made by my sis). I hope you know what I was going for :p.

These three are my favourites and the index of my right hand :)

 

I used a fair few colours for this as you can imagine, a lot were nails inc mixed with either a black or white polish. The base is Hampstead Gardens, which I have previously swatched, I still love that colour, it's a little bit poo, a little bit rust but a lot right ;).

 

This morning I caved and ordered a couple of summer polishes...can anyone guess which ones ;) they should be here this week, when they arrive I'll put you out of your misery and show you them :D.

 

Hope everyone has a good week! 







Nails Inc Fenchurch Street with a floral bouquet

Hey! Hope everyone's well :)
Today's post is another requested one, people wanted more swatches and more floral nail art so I have to obligue :).
I got Fenchurch Street in a three pack from TK Maxx a couple of weeks ago, I was drawn to it as it's such an unusual creamy colour. As per Nails Inc the formula was perfect, it was a one coater! But cos my canyons ain't goin' nowhere I did two coats. It dries real quick too, not matte/glitter quick but quicker than most cremes.
I've gone back to the old style of photos for this as I only had enough time to do the nail art on one hand! Sorrrry!

As you can see it's a gorgeous caramel colour, maybe a tad orangier than the photo shows, it's a tan colour like leather, either way it's yummy and very autumnal. Lavely.

The nail art was inspired by my pen lol! It looks like a bouquet to me, hence the title :P

 

I do like this but not enough to replicate it on my right hand, I think I need a new nail art pen as mine is very hard to get any polish out now :/. I don't think I should have done the big leaves in the darker green (China Glaze Westside Warrior) as it makes them look like acorn leaves :( boo.

 

OMG you guys!!! I caved and ordered from the AMAZING Illamasqua sale and got 6 polishes for under £40! Also one of them is actual Raindrops! They've re released it with the Broken Hearts collection! So excited to get it :D I won't tell you what else I get but you know I'll post pictures as soon as they arrive :D and you can tell me which you want to see :) weeehee.

It's my first crit of the year tomorrow, bit nervous, critques are always a bit scary hahah hopefully I get some good feedback :)

 

Until I see you again!

Nails Inc Baker Street swatches

Like I said on saturday I was going shopping and I did indeed acquire the much lusted after Baker street along with the amazing studded booties :D and I got sold Benefit's 'They're Real' mascara and let me tell you, it is soooo good!! I hardly wear any but it makes me lashes look long and curled :). Anyway enough babble onto the polish. I have wanted this one so bad for so long, I was hoping to get it for my birthday but obviously I didn't :( I got mine from a large Boots store, they now have a stand featuring mini Orlys, Nails Inc and Models Own Pro which is pretty cooool.

I put this on saturday night and I still have it on now Tuesday! I'm not getting bored with this colour at all, it's such a lovely colour, I won't go on as you've all seen it a million times before.

 The little hand is this really cool pair of earrings I found in Topshop, I had to get them!! They are so me hehehe

I might have something really cool to tell you soon but we'll see ;).

Seeyou sooooon

Nails Inc Chester Terrace swatches

Hi, it's pooey weather here which gave me an excuse to wear a darker colour namely one from my Lucky Dip, I figured that I should give them a chance ;). I chose Chester Terrace and as usual I found maybe one swatch! So it was a nice surprise when as soon as I put it on it started drying to a satin finish! I say satin as it's not completely matte it has a velvety glow to it rather than being flat. As I've come to expect with Nails Inc it was a pleasure to apply, a perfect formula! I used three coats although two was sufficient. I did three as my ridges were crazy visible! My base combo isn't working anymore so I think I may bite the bullet and try buffing :/ I'm scared to do it though as I've always had healthy nails and I don't want to ruin that y'know. 


The polish is a deep teal in the bottle and when it's on my nails it turns quite blue but never black, I meant to take a picture before it dried but I wasn't that quick ;). I'm hoping that the other colour I got in my lucky dip is from the same 'texture' collection, that'd be sweet!

See what I mean about ridges and tipwear? Natural light 2 coats

Just to show off my points ;) and because the polish looks smooth and unblemished here! Flash 3 coats

(Sorry about the photos apparently I had my eyes shut when I was taking all of my pictures...) 
It's really nice, my nails feel like they are wearing leather or something it's kinda hot ;). 
The only down side to this is that I've had major chippage and tip wear after a couple of hours :( boo. Do you like how my nails are getting pointier? Cos I really do, I want bad ass nails, nail swag cos I'm a nail junkie ;) No nails no life right!?! Hahahahhaha 


I've finally gotten round to buying a glass file and ooooffft I just love it! It really does finish off your edge perfectly and it take the chore out of filing which we all know can be a bore. With this nail shape I'll never have to use clippers again on filing so the thought of being able to use a nice glass file that should last years is a good one. Oh yeah and I love the little black velvet pouch, soooo good to feel ha!

Nails Inc Chelsea Swatches

I'm officially back from my mini staycation in Felixstowe :) it was really nice to get away for those couple of days. I cannot believe that it's July! It's my birthday next month :O it's come so quickly, I've been blogging since the end of january so that's nearly 6 months already!! Double :O. LOL. 


Chelsea is an extremely dark red/brown/maroon(?) it's so dark that it looks black at two coats so it doesn't really matter what colour it is as all you see is black ha. It's lovely and glossy though but I did have to do a bit of clean up which I never normally do as this polish was a wee bit prone to flooding :(. It went on nice and smooth though. 

Flash

Natural light

No topcoat here, all the shine is from the polish. This seems like a nice change from all the summery pastels and neons that are around at the moment and it's also more appropriate for our weather......rain and thunder! Pooey or what. My nails feel quite slinky in this colour, like a silky dress for ma nails ;) and they are getting longer each time I look at them! I love being able to keep them this long :D. 
Trying to remove skinny jeans with wet nails is extremely difficult!! why must I paint my nails before I go to bed? When will I learn...


This is going to be the base for some very colourful nail art that I am going to do tomorrow so keep those eyes peeled! 
I think the next time I take my polish off I will take a picture of my naked nails :O to show you the difference in length and state of them compared to how I used to have them. That should be interesting ;) Hope it doesn't scare y'all!! 


Oh yeah one last thing, does anyone know how pintrest works? I noticed a couple of my pictures are on it, I don't mind at all as there is a link to my blog and it's exposure but I was just wondering how they get there with the link? Lol I'm 19 and I don't understand a website what's wrong with me ;)

Nails Inc Sweets Way swatches

I GOT MY BABY BACK, BABY BACK, BABY BACK :D :D hehehehehe honestly I'm so happy, I really appreciate my camera now, the quality is a squillion times better than the loaner. So my pictures are back on form :) 

In celebration I have put my other sprinkle on, Sweets Way. I really love this polish on, it looks so much better on than in the bottle. It has a milky base with blue, white and pink circle glitter, it's so shiny and lovely. I am only wearing one coat on all my nails bar the pinky as I really like how delicate it looks at one coat. 

Look how lovely it looks!

All these were taken in natural light. It literally looks like I dipped my fingers in ice cream sprinkles! So delicate and pretty. Even with one coat you get a load of glitter and decent coverage, there is slight VNL but that's to be expected but it's barely visible. I just love this! It was so easy to apply, I didn't need to fish and place glitter which is always good. 

Like I said I prefer it with one coat but at two coats it's only a bit more intense as the base gets whiter which I personally don't like. 

Are you as happy as I am that I got my camera back ? :D I'll stop going on about it now I promise :P

Have a good day!

I've been haulin' haulin' haulin'

Hey, here is the promised haul post, it's not much but they are all goodies apart from the Nails Inc but we'll cross that bridge when we get there ;)


First Dior haulin' 

Dior vernis Saint Tropez and Riviera, Dior Addict Extreme Lipstick in Lucky 

Here is my new favourite lipstick with the matching nail polish, yes they do match!

Look how pretty they are, lucky and lucky :D

I can't wait to wear the two Luckys together and neither can I wait for sun to wear Saint Tropez and Riviera!

Then my first indiesssss! The Hungry Asian! Woo Kae is so sweet, I love the little note she included with my package. I love that she ships internationally I got my order a week after placing it and that's including the bank holiday!! And those little heart shaped bottles kill me :)

Eeee Sneeze Breeze, Sea Creature and Vote for Purple, I cannot wait to wear these!

And finally my Nails Inc Lucky Dip, I feel like I've been conned lol I know it is just me being silly butI thought that a lucky dip would actually be a lucky dip not get-rid-of-all-the-old-polishes-that-noone-wants.......I was expecting summery colours, neons maybe a nude but nope I got dark colours, I know they'll be good for winter but it is summer now and I'm impatient. Ha

Gold glitter crackle in Farringdon, Buckingham Street, Park Crescent, Chelsea, Hampton Court and Chester Terrace

I'm willing to give all of these the benefit of the doubt bar the crack and Chelsea as I hate crack and I already have one dark brown; I really don't need another! But hey for only £15 I can't really complain. 

So there you go what do you think of my hauling? 

Nails Inc Pudding Lane Swatches

Hi, I couldn't wait till tomorrow to show you this, it's too good! I'm so glad I put this on first......

Two coats, with no topcoat 

Two coats, no topcoat and flash 

Two coats, topcoat, natural light

Isn't it gorgeous! I love everything about it, the gold and navy glitter, the teal base, how easy the glitter disperses. Honestly I just love it! Such a good purchase :). It's so pretty and the name is cute, I know pudding lane is a real place but it's so fitting hehe. I can imagine wearing this a lot, I'm not even sure when I'll take it off! If you can get hold of these I urge you too. They are completely opaque after two coats and dry semi matte and obviously it eats topcoat but it's still pretty when semi matte.
Also I bought my first bottle of Seche Vite today and I am amazed, I now understand why everyone loves it, it dries so quickly lol :P 


What do you think? 

Nails Inc Sprinkles!

The postman brings the best things ;) I got my Sprinkles woo. I only ordered two as I don't need all four, that's called control people hehe :P. Anyway I got Sweets Way and Pudding Lane and I'm passing the choice of which to wear first to you, my lovely readers :). 

Sweets Way - milky base with blue, salmon and silver glitter 

Pudding Lane - teal base with navy and gold glitter. 

Which are you dying to see?! The one with the most comments is the one I shall put on tomorrow :) woo

Giveaway winner & Continued mani!

My giveaway has now ended and the winner is: 

Ariana Cheng! 

I have emailed her and she has 24 hours to reply otherwise a new winner will be announced

I layered Cinderella over Bluebell this morning and here are the results: 

Because Cinderella has a milky blue base it tainted Bluebell slightly but you could still see the original colour underneath. The shimmery flakies in Cinders looked really light and pretty over the top of Bluebell, definitely nice and springy. The only problem I had with it was the fact that it ended up looking really thick on my nails and I really can't stand that, you know what I mean when the gap between the polish and your cuticle isn't very big and it makes it look like you have a mountain of polish on, cos it's like shadowy in the gap....I know what I mean ;). 


Hopefully tomorrow I'll have a tasty haul post for y'all :D

Nails Inc Instyle Bluebell Swatches

Today I have a pretty mani for you, featuring the free nails inc polish Bluebell, I haven't seen too many swatches around so I figured I'd wear it now for people to see how nice it is ;). I did an accent finger with Sinful Colors Cinderella which I got in my swap with Katee, I think they go together real nice. I'm going to layer cinderella over the top of Bluebell tomorrow :) 

I think this photo above is colour accurate, it is a very purpley blue. 

This was amazing it was opaque in one coat! I did two to cover up my ridges, it was so smooth to apply and dried fairly quickly. I used three coats of Cinderella, it's so beautiful I know it's been featured on everyone's blog and I now why, I can't wait to wear it as a full mani. I can't decide whether Bluebell is blue or purple, it changes in different lights, now in my low light it looks very lilac but earlier in the day it looks very cornflower blue. Either way it's so nice and definitely worth £3.80 so if you have access to Instyle magazine I recommend you get it for this polish! 

I've trimmed my nails down again, even though you probably can't tell but they are at the perfect length for me I can't wait to wear Lucky and Waterlily when it gets here and my other swap package and my Kiko order lol a lot of things :P

How'd you like this? 

Free Nails Inc!

Hi, just a quick post to let all you UK girls know that the magazine 'instyle' is giving away a free Nails Inc polish! There are a choice of three colours, a lavender, a pink and a nude/beige to chose from, I have never even looked at this magazine before but as soon as I saw FREE I grabbed it :P I chose the purple/blue one :) 

Very pretty and spring/summer appropriate :) and only £3.80! Not bad

Nails Inc. Emerald Street Swatches

Hi, I have the final Nails Inc polish to show you today from the boxset that I got a couple of weeks ago, this is the polish that really sold me on the entire set as I thought it was lovely and unique in my stash at least. It went on in two easy, supa smooth coats and dried nice and quickly and shiny too :)

It is a gorgeous glowy colour but I'm just not loving it right now, it feels too christmassy I guess, I might mattify it see what that does but I like the shimmer and shine lol. It feels like the green sister of Barry M Navy and Vivid Purple, I love those two polishes but I'm not sure about this one.

One thing this has shown me however is that I really need to invest in some ridge filler! Jeez it's like I have canyons on my nails....

I am still waiting on three packages, I swear I am one of the most impatient people ever! Its just that normally they get to me within a week of ordering :(. I am trying to resist going shopping tomorrow but I think I will fail :P. 

I might feel better about this polish in the light of day (literally) we shall see. 

Hope you enjoyed!

Nails Inc Manchester with drippy design

Hey :)
Tonight I have the most gorgeous red for you lovely ladies, it's Manchester from Nails Inc and it a beauty. It's a nice deep cool red with that amazing gold/orange shimmer that does translate when it's on the nail (hallelujah!) 

What your seeing here is nearly two coats, could have been opaque after one thick coat but there were a few bold spots plus I knew I might need to add extra red on to touch up the design so it needed two coats. It went on as gloriously as it looks ;) so smooth and shiny, I am so happy with this red, when I bought it I honestly thought it would be the dud in the collection but not anymore! So lovely. 

I must be in a blingy mood lately as I wanted to do a design using OPI Take the Stage (it's one of my remaining few untrieds) so I chose the drippy design a la Wah Nails. I really like how it turned out, despite the fact that it is a sparkly orange polish it is quite subtle and I think it brings out the orangey shimmer in the red, bonus! 

This design was hard to photograph as the flash made everything too reflective and blended together and I couldn't be bothered to get my tripod out to take a photo without flash so you'll have to make do with these I'm afraid :P. I like Take the Stage but maybe not on it's own I think as a full mani it would be too much but I think it makes a good accent for designs :). It was really easy to create these drips too I just painted a quick french tip then with my largest dotting tool drew a splodgey line to connect with the tip and that was it, easy peasy!

I am happy with my nails right now :)...on another note removal of my triple purple glitter mani was not painful at all! I just used loads of cotton buds haha. 

I hope you enjoy this fun mani as much as I do!

Triple purple glitter mani!

Hey, it's a beautiful morning here in Suffolk, I hope it's as lovely where you are :) today I have a polish feast for your eyes! I mean feast, there are going to be lots of pictures...
First I used two coats of the lovely shimmering purple goodness that is Regents Palace from Nails Inc. 

It is gorgeous, nothing new or ground breaking but I love it nonetheless I'm a sucker for these rich jewel tones. It went on really smooth and dried nice and quick. I wish I had kept this on for longer than half an hour :P. 

Next I layered one coat of Bow Street again Nails Inc as I thought the colours matched pretty perfectly so I would only need one coat, I was right but the base of Bow street is quite dark.

It dried semi matte so I had a hard time trying to capture the shine and colour, it would have looked lovely if I had put a topcoat on but I knew I still wanted one more layer so I didn't bother. The final layer is Facets of Fuchsia by Revlon, again I thought that Bow street and FoF looked to have the same colour glitter and base colour, perfect match right? 

So when I put Revlon on I thought I would have an awesome glitter party on my nails but I didn't realise that the base of Facets of Fuchsia was so dark and nearly opaque :(. It totally drowned out the other glitter even when I used the thinnest coat possible but I don't mind anymore as FoF is totally pretty :)

I only used one coat of this however I like it, on some nails (can't see it in the picture) you can definitely see the other glitters influence on the overall colour and shine, if that makes any sense?? It's like the other glitter is refusing to be dulled by the dark base of Revlon and it is shining through when the light hits it....okay lol

I topped this off with one thick coat of SH ID but some nails are still gritty but I don't mind as I know I am going to take it off soon as I have tipwear already, I only put this on 24hrs ago :(. 

I haven't worn glitter nails since christmas and just thinking of the removal is making me sad...

On another note, does anyone know if it is possible that a room diffuser that is meant to be cut grass, can set off Hayfever? This morning I woke up sneezing, itchy nose, puffy eyes and generally feeling like someone has sprayed pollen in my face :( hhaha! But seriously can they? 

Nails Inc bargain

Happy Mother's Day everyone! 
Yesterday I went to TK Maxx and was hunting for any polish and I found the "beauty" section, it was a complete mess like everything else in that shop ha! But my sister found this lovely 4 pack of Nails Inc polishes for £14.99!!! RRP £44....Bargain :D. These are my first Nails Inc polishes so I'm looking forward to wearing them :). 

L-R Bow Street, Manchester, Regents Palace and Emerald Street.

Originally I thought the red was an out of place cream but then I saw the gold/orange shimmer, purdy :). I was drawn to it by the green, I have nothing like that, all my green shimmers are darkened so this is a lovely new addition to my collection :). Also I'm thinking that the purple shimmer would be the perfect base for the glitter, and the glitter looks to have similar colours to Revlon Facets of Fuchsia so maybe a layering op there ;). 

My mum let me and my sister put one layer of each polish on 4 fingers so I thought I would show you a sneak peak of Manchester and Emerald Street hahha 

My mother has amazing cuticles, they are perfect and she does nothing to them all she does is use her hand cream everyday, look at them! Her nails are prone to cracking and breaking and she likes to pick nail varnish off *gasp* she never paints her nails for those reasons, I want to change that hehehe. I am pleased that the shimmer in Manchester is coming across even after one coat! I think it looks gorgeous on her but she won't wear it :(. I want to wear it now! 

That's it for today as I'm going back to uni later, got to catch 2 trains and 1 coach but I don't mind it's time for me to read :), I'm currently dying my hair ginge again, it was in dire need of re colouring! One day I might post a picture :P. 

Have a good day!