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 :)

Recent nail looks

Hey remember me? :P
Life is just getting in the way of my nails at the moment but it's my 21st birthday next week :O so I need to think of some fitting nails!

Anyway I have amassed a small collection of photos of random nails that I've done but aren't worthy of a whole post dedicated to them so I thought I'd show you them now :)

A while ago when I had Chanel Bel - Argus on my nails I did a dry marble look with Azure and took photos but never got round to posting it!

See it's easier to see the difference when compared to Bel Argus on its own :P I thought it looked really pretty! It was super easy to do just blob both colours on and mix with a pointy stick/brush/toothpick whatever! I added some pearls and HEX charms to complete the look...

Iphone photo sorry! On my thumb I went for the water reflecting light...I'm not sure if it worked but I put a turtle swimming across it hahah

I recently acquired OPI- My vampire is Buff in the continued search for my perfect nude...

still not perfect but a really nice nude anyway! It gives that polished look that I sometimes enjoy to rock inbetween my more in your face manis :P (nude comparison post coming up!)

And I've had this very simple nail art on on for over a week now!! I cut my nails down seriously this week too, they were well over an inch long :O I'm not sure that you'll be able to tell that they have been shortened though as they are still very long :P

So I am loving the whole negative space thing that's happening at the moment! I put the polish a little beneath my natural tip as I didn't want to go for a French mani look :P

I think I am going to have a solid colour for a couple of days whilst I plan my birthday nails!!
Hope everyone is well! And thank you to those loyal readers/commenters you make this worthwhile and I love you! Especially you Lizzy!!! :)

Nail art with OPI Just Spotted the Lizard

Hi!

Today's post is something a bit different than my usual posts in the fact that it ties into an upcoming dvd release: The Amazing Spider-Man is out on Blu-ray and DVD on 26th November and for the occasion I have created Spiderman themed nail art using two colours from OPIs The Amazing Spiderman collection.I have used similar colours to Just spotted the Lizard but now I actually own it I thought I'd give that a try, I mattified it and it looks gorgeous! I mattified it as it's too sparkly and you can't see the black lines over the top. When I got the colour all I could think was I have to do a scaly design to represent the lizard character in the film. I did this by simply drawing random shapes and then colouring in the joins to represent shadows between his scales, I used my Models Own Nail art pen apu.

The ring finger is meant to be his claw but it didn't quite work out but I wanted to get Number One Nemesis into the design somehow, again I mattified it and it looks lovely like stone! The thumb is based off a picture of his scary face, I thought his eye on its own is pretty creepy, like him :P.

I have to apologise for the photos...I ran out of light to take photos with, so they were coming out blurry due to the long shutter speed so I'll take some better ones tomorrow morning and put those on either as well as these or in place of. 

I really like the way this design looks actually, when I was doing it I thought it might look a bit too halloweenish but I can see me rocking this ;).

Hopefully I'll seeyou soon!
Let me know how you like this design :)

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!

OPI Swimsuit...Nailed It! Swatches and Review

Hi, superrrrrrrr excited to talk about this one, this was my one real lemming and o-m-gee it does not disappoint! I am forever grateful to Bethany for getting this for me, I think it is my new favourite polish....I've never really had one favourite before but all shall now bow down to this! :P. Gah just look at the pictures! :). 

would you believe that this is one perfect coat? It went on so smoooooth, I'm so happy with this polish, it's so shiny and sparkly and blue! Lol that may sound silly but it is so blue it's gorgeous, I might not be showing any other swatches for a while as I totally love this! I don't really know what else to say about it apart from it's amazing! Also it isn't brush strokey at all it's my stupid canyon nails again *sigh*

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!

OPI I Have a Herring Problem Swatches and Review

Hey, yesterdays weather was sunny and it felt like spring to me (it was actually really cold) so I craved a lovely dusty happy colour, I picked IHAHP as it seemed to fit the bill. You might have noticed that my choices are nearly always dictated by the weather, I have to seize the sun and wear happy colours when I can :P. 
Anyway on with the OPI 

All pictures taken with flash and artificial light, at night as usual, maybe I should try taking them in the day with actual daylight ;).

I really love this colour, it reminds me of a pair of jeans, especially with the grainy texture. I also think it reminds me of Zoya Neeka and Yara again because of the speckled grainy shimmery texture. I love those two and I love this! 
From the first swatches I saw if the Holland Collection I originally wanted I Don't Give a Rotterdam but they didn't have it in the shop I was in so I got this one instead and I'm so glad I did, I still want Rotterdam as it will complete my mini collection of grainies ;). 
I used two coats here but I should of used three as it's still a bit bare in some places (SH ID helped with that though) it went on nice enough, I'm getting a bit more used to the brush now :P. 
What you can't see in the pictures is that when the light hits the apparently silver shimmery speckles they turn to gold, it's gorgeous, you get this gold flash as you move your hands around, I really really love this colour!! It's kind of a muted dusty blue but those speckles give it so much life and depth. I am in love with this colour, I'm taking it home with me today to try and put it on my mum's nails hahahah, I know my sister won't like it cos it's not pink....
My pictures show the silver side of the shimmer and how shimmery it is but the blue isn't as deep it's a lot lighter like I said. Gah it is lovely! 

OPI Diva of Geneva Swatches and Review

Hey, I know I haven't been posting as often as I usually do but that's because I have less time at the moment to do my nails and I've been liking my designs and leaving them on :P. I have two posts for you lovelies tonight, first the swatches and the second is exciting! 


As you all know my polish choices are, for the moment at least, being dictated by my untrieds list so tonight I have Diva of Geneva from OPIs Swiss collection from 2010 which I picked up at Harrods no less ;). It's a real pretty colour magenta-y pink with flashes of copper-y gold.

Can you see the copper?!

This is a nice colour, nice and sparkly a bit prone to brush strokes but otherwise okay, two coats to opacity, with SH ID as topcoat (my absolute fav!). It reminds me of one of my favourite Models Own polishes Magenta Pearl, I'll try and bring it back from home when I go on friday if I remember :P. I wish it looked more like these pictures, IRL it's more pink :(. It's a very pretty colour but I'm just not wowed by it, I think I must be distracted by the awesome things I got today (tell you later) and the promo shots for another 3 additions to the Models Own Beetlejuice Collection. 

I've realised what my one complaint with OPI is....the brushes are too wide for my little and ring finger nails, it makes applying polish neatly a real pain, but I can get over it for some cool colour payoffs :P. 

Talking of OPI I am assuming that everyone has seen the promos for the Amazing Spiderman collection.....bit late with the Chanel dupes, I don't know I just think the collection looks really boring although another dupe of Peridot is always welcome as I still haven't got it :( boo. 

Seeyou in a bit!

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

OPI Russian Navy Swatches and Review

Morning! 

I removed OotG this morning for the reasons that I mentioned yesterday, bubbles, scratches and gloomy weather which remains today :(. Because the weather is so miserable looking I didn't want to waste a gorgeous spring colour like I have a herring problem or Navigate Her, and the bright pink Snog would not feel right so I went with a vampy of course! From my untrieds, I chose Russian Navy as it is my kind of colour. 

As you can see it's a gorgeous deep, shiny blue however in the bottle it looks purple and even on the nail it looks a bit blurple, it's because it's made up of blue and red sparkles but it's super pretty whatever colour it is :P 

It looks really blue in the photo above this but here you can see the purple I was talking about. Because it looked so purple I got my favourite ever vampy purple out to compare the bottles 

This is Vivid Purple by Barry M, it's a polish I used to wear all the time along with it's blue sister :) but as you can see Barry M is a lot more purple and more vivid ;).

And here you can deffo see that Russian Navy has a little purple hint to her, she is actually blue. 

I had no problems with the application, after two coats it was opaque and rich in colour, I used a base coat first of course as these colours can stain and that was it, smooth as you like. I really love these types of colours and finishes, I think they suit everyone and they just look so elegant and super sexy. I especially like the way it looks with my cool skin tone and long nails, like I am a lady vampire ;). 

I managed to get a dint in my thumb :( boo, cos it took ages to dry for me so I used my miracle worker Sally Hansen Insta-Dri as a topcoat (after my nails were dry) and it bought the shimmer back to life and smoothed that dent right out. I can't stress how much I love this product, it is a life saver!! It just makes everything look perfect again and it feels so soft I love touching my nails when I have this on :P! 

I think if the weather is still crappy I might try my croc effect top coat as I'm going out for drinks with a good friend who I haven't seen in forever! I'm thinking either gold or pink or green or any other bright colour :D

Before I forget Models Own have just released a new collection of 5 shades for summer called the Kaleidoscope collection, I thought OMG they're doing Holos!! But no they're "pearlised distinctive shades, each to give a high-shine and gleaming colour" there's a blue, purple, raspberry, orange and yellow, they look a little boring from the promo shots, the orange might be interesting I would buy them but obv I'm on a no-buy :( *sigh* I could get them in secret? ;) jokes. I guess I'll just have to wait for someone to swatch them, I hope I'm wrong and that they are interesting! 

Seeyou soon :)

Daisy Daisy give me your answer do

Hello again :)
I originally saw this design on Oooh Shinies' blog here and it is sooo cute! How could I not have a go myself, especially now I have dotting tools woo (best purchase ever!) here is my version :)

I used OPI Stranger Tides as the base and I dotted a white from a Sally H manicure set, I didn't know whether to leave it like that or not, I thought they looked like little flower beads that I used to buy as a kid to make bracelets from :P but I decided to make them into daises in the same way that Oooh Shinies did so here is the final mani

Man I love this so much :) The yellow I used was Revlon Sunshine Sparkle, these pictures are with a topcoat as well. 

I'm so glad I found this design, it was really easy to do and looks so cute! It reminds me of a daisy chain (again making them when I was a kid :P) it is so perfect for spring especially over my new favourite green :). Even my bf said he thought my nails looked pretty, which he has never said! It's a nice change as the designs I normally do aren't delicate and feminine like this one. 

You should really check out the original and her blog if you haven't already :). 

I hope you like it and that it brightens your day like it has mine! If you have dotting tools you have to try this :) 

See how many smiles I'm using heheh I'm just happy today. 

OPI Stranger Tides Swatches and Review

Hiya!
As promised, a little bit later than planned but w.e. I have OPI Stranger Tides for you today. Gah, I realllly really love this, it's such a perfect and wearable green especially if you aren't keen on greens, it's so sweet :).

The application was good but it was a bit hairy on the first coat as it was steaky and bald but the second coat sorted that out, I probably should have used a third coat but I had a design that I really wanted to do over this colour so I couldn't be bothered to wait haha. The thing I must say is that if you have really ridged nails, like I do, this polish is not forgiving it clings to them but that might be because it needed a third coat to be honest, I don't know! It dried in an okay time, I'm just getting to be more impatient :P. 

I'm really glad I bought this colour, I know that I will be wearing it again and again over spring and summer, the sun is kind of out today here and my nails feel happy like the weather :).

I think it really suits my pale and cool skin as it becomes really green but I have seen on others that is pulls more pale grey green, it all depends on your skin tone I guess, either way it's a really pretty colour IMO :)

So if you are a green lover I think you should own this one :) 

I'm doing a triple post today, I have a design to show you next and a list of my untrieds that I have to get through just for the fun of showing you :P

Seeyou soon!

Vday is over! Accessorize Sapphire Swatches and Review

Good evening, I don't know about you but I'm over Vday, probably because I live with my boyfriend every day and we go to the same uni so I see him everyday and he treats me everyday so Valentines isn't really that special for us. So I got bored of my mani and replaced it with a polish I was quite skeptical to try Accessorize Sapphire, I've never paid attention to these polishes, the colours were too bland I guess but when I saw this I knew I had to have it. 


All of these are taken with artificial lighting and NO topcoat..

These pictures are colour (and shine) accurate! Sapphire is a grey-blue (?) with amazing silver-blue shimmery particles. 

Gah! Isn't it soooo gorgeous! So sparkly and glowy I am genuinely in lurrrrve. This is one perfect polish. 1. Application is AMAZING, so smooth,no clean up required. 2. This is a one coater just as it claims to be! 3. It dried within a couple of minutes, fully dried no smudging or anything within 3 minutes! 4. The colour! The shine! 5. The price £4....Bargain! Ugh I'm just overwhelmed by it all. This would be great if you were in a rush, seriously you need this in your life hahahah.

I'm sure they have more colours and I believe they have a hot pink metalized one as well which would be amazing. 

I cannot recommend this enough, please go out and get it, you will not regret it :). I'm going to hunt for the others now :P.

Also today I bought 3 Sinful colors and 2 Butter Londons with free delivery for the UK! I got them from www.naturisimo.com for £9.60 each so that's 40p less than Boots website plus free delivery. I must have been living under a rock to not know that Boots.com sells Butter London polishes at £10 each but they only have a limited range as do naturisimo but limited is better than international shipping costs ;). 

If you too were living under a rock like I was till my London trip you can buy OPIs from Colourcopia in Westfield Stratford and Selfrigdes and the website www.lenawhite.co.uk sells them for £11 which makes no sense to me but you get what you're given and all that. 

Seeyou all soon!

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!