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  

Another gorgeous Illamasqua swatch - Caress

Hi! Another day another Illamasqua beauty! They really are my favourites :) Caress is a pale blue that is by no means a boring snoozy baby blue, it is soft but bright which makes for a very flattering combination. No lobster hands here. This is the perfect Cinderella blue, the colour of her ball gown is this colour in my head :D.

 

Warning: Mahoosive ridges ahead....I had no time to smooth them with topcoat! Sorrrrry.

 



 

Two smooth coats. Dries lovely and glossy on its own. Quick dry time. Perfection in a bottle!!! If you've never tried an Illamasqua polish I implore you to get at least one! I haven't heard much about Caress as it's quite an old polish but for me it deserves more attention!

 

Check back soon for some tasty nail art ;) oooh spoilers ;P

 

Have a good week! 

Blue swirly galaxy nail art tutorial

Hello :)
Here is the tutorial that a few of you said you'd like to see, I have made a video as it was quite hard to try to explain with just photos so it'll go photo, explaination, photo etc then a video then photos again. Quite weird but it might work ;) I didn't even realise my camera even had video capabilities! Hahah.

For my galaxy I only needed four colours; black, white, dark blue and light blue but you can use more colours if you like.

Nails Inc Chelsea, 17 Mini Skirt, Nails Inc Baker Street, Barry M Blueberry Icecream and Sally Hansen Double Duty and medium length nail art brush/paint brush a dotting tool will be needed too.  

 For each step you'll need a blob of the colour and topcoat (not fast drying!)

Step One - Paint your nails black or a suitably dark colour.

 

Step Two - Using the paint brush blob the darker colour onto your nail and spread it out using long brush strokes, don't be neat. Whilst it's still wet with the same brush dip into the topcoat and smudge the edges out.

In the video I show you the smudging method for the lighter colour which goes on top of the darker colour whilst it's still wet.

 

Step Three - blob on the lighter colour (in this case in the middle of the darker but it can be towards one side) and immediately dip into the topcoat and push the polish outwards in wispy strokes to blend into the darker colour. If you need to add some more dark and blend into the lighter colour.

Step Four - Repeat the above step with the white polish, the star is going to go over the smudged white circle.

Step Five - Add a white circle for a star once the other colours have dried.

Step Six - Finally add more smaller stars and then a top coat!

 

So that's it! I hope you enjoyed this tutorial and I hope it was clear and usefull, don't laugh at the video too much :P. Let me know if you try this out :D

 

 

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

Paul & Joe nail enamel 015 Venus Swatches

Boy do I lurve ebay! This is another ebay find of mine, now this wasn't a bargain as I ended up paying what you'd pay for retail however this had to be mine as it belongs to the same collection as my beloved 016 Mediterranean (swatches can be found here ). It took me all night when I was bidding on this to find out what it was called because the seller had it in the wrong box and therefore had it listed as the wrong number *sigh* but my polish detective skills worked out that it just HAD to be 015 Venus as it had a blue lid like Mediterranean and the other polishes don't have blue lids. LOL anyway I found out that these two both came from Paul & Joe's summer 2011 limited edition collection called L'Horizon Bleu hence the blue lids! Phew. 


Anyway I finally received it this week and I have literally just put it on and I am in love! Basically it is a light blue base with fine square silver glitter and fine square gold glitter with larger square glitter that changes from blue to green to purple. How perfect. 

Indirect sunlight 

Direct sunlight

I could have gotten away with one thick coat as it is a lot more opaque than you would think to look at it :). It was a perfect formula and so it glided onto my nail and the best part is how smooth it dried! And shiny, I only put a topcoat on to ensure that it lasts my trip to the seaside with my dad! This is a really unique polish in my eyes and better still is the fact that it's part of a limited edition collection. I have no idea why the person was selling this beauty, the same seller was selling Mediterranean as well! They must be mad :). 
Final thing is the fact that this smells floral once dry....I love Paul & Joe. 


Okay actual final thing, which size photo do you prefer? The smaller or larger? Because I realise that especially with this polish you can't really see what's going on in the smaller photo but it's up to you guys, if you prefer the larger I'll post all my pictures that size from now on :) 

Chanel Blue Boy Swatches

Good evening, tonight I have my very first Chanel awwwwww given to me by my lovely boyf! I've been wanting Blue Boy for such a long time and it does not disappoint! It has the perfect formula; not too thick and very moveable and it dries so glossy on its own. Now I think I have found the perfect base coat combination, I've tried this three times and I've had no canyons! First I used Save the Nail Bridge the Ridge, let that dry and then I put Seche Vite over that. I believe it works as the Save the Nail creates a cushion that Seche Vite sits on top and fills in the ridges. Get me being all sciencey ;). On to the smooth pictures...

Natural Light

Natural Light

With flash

I'd say that the first two photos are pretty colour accurate, it's a gorgeous dusty medium blue and is perfectly creamy. It's a really sophisticated colour IMO it feels grown up despite being blue, I think this would be office appropriate too as it's a muted beautiful colour, funnily enough it does match the jeans I am wearing today so it really is like having jeans for your nails :P. The only downside to this polish is that it has given me a taste for Chanel ;) and I really don't need that as well as my addiction to Dior! 

I'm not happy with the quality of these pictures but what can you do? My camera should take 7-10 days to be fixed! It can't come soon enough, I miss it so much lol! 

What do you think to this? Worth the money? 

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? 

Barry M Denim Swatches and Review

I have been in a nail rut today, nothing was going right :( I took off disappointing Teal and put on one of the unnamed Color Clubs buuuuut it refused to dry! So I took it off and put on Denim instead, hoping to love it but no.....it was a horrid experience. It was runny and thick and kept pooling at my cuticles and dripping down the sides of my nails after I'd applied it! It was so frustrating D: it genuinely looked like a 5 year old had done my nails.....

On top of that I had major tipwear after a few hours! All I had done was boil some eggs, go to the post office and I was in the darkroom for 3 hours printing so not exactly strenuous on my nails, I know it's a matte but that is ridiculous! 

It's a real shame cos it has potential to be amazing! It really does look like a pair of jeans, the silver flecks throughout are the same as the ones in OPIs I have a Herring Problem, it's a lovely deep blue but the formula and wear completely ruined this for me :( so disappointed. 

Zoya Phoebe Swatches

Good afternoon :) Yesterday I put Zoya Phoebe on in order to cheer me up and to distract from the constant rain that most of England is suffering with, April showers and all that *sigh*. Anyway this is one of the polishes that Bethany sent me and I couldn't wait to wear it, it's so pretty! 

This is two coats over two coats of base coat (to try and smooth out my ridges ;)) It went on so smoothly and obviously dried super quick! I didn't find any problems with the application, it was perfect :). I really like it, it's so bright but not garish and it is a perfect summer colour, it also is working on making this weather feel less miserable especially when paired with my equally bright pink jumper :D

So summery! I think they match pretty well :P. I have decided to challenge myself to wear this polish for as long as I can, I guess it's kind of a wear test as obviously I can't put a topcoat on to protect it but the main reason for doing this is because I used to wear the same polish until it was completely chipped! But now I change like everyday two days, so I want to slow down, I'm not sure I can though so this will be a good test. I plan to put Nubar Polka Dots on top later in the week for a refresh, I'll keep you updated on wear and my will to go on ;)

Also I'm kind of fooling myself thinking that I might like the pink from this mini collection as the matte makes it okay but I know I would hate it...I just want to like pink nails!  LOL

Hope you all enjoyed! Seeyou soon 

a-england Galahad

This evening I have another a-england polish for you, it's Galahad which is from the first collection, the Mythicals, I bought Avalon as well but that's for another day. I am struggling with 
how to describe this colour so I'll just show you.

It's quite the chameleon so I'm not sure whether this photo is colour accurate, I think it is a greeny blue, it's a very nice colour looking at it on my nails now it looks deeper and less bright than it is in this photo. I wanted it to be more dusty like the colour in the bottle, but it's still nice. I got bored pretty quickly as is the norm nowadays so I did a little wahnails inspired design on top. As a little treat you are going to see my left and right hand! As I did the design a bit too big on my left hand so I wanted to show you my favoured hand :P

 Left hand

Right hand 

It didn't quite turn out the way I wanted but I still like it :) something different I guess, I freehanded the design with my extremely blobby nail art pen. Also I just realised I inadvertently stole Sarah from Chalkboard nails hand pose! Oops it's a nice elegant pose hehe imitation is the biggest form of flattery :D. 

Also today my Nubar Polka Dots arrived and Indigo Illusion! I'm so excited to wear both Polka Dots, I've tried them over Zoya Pheobe which Bethany sent me so I expect I shall wear the zoya on its own for a day and then go Polka Dot cray cray ;)

Hope you enjoyed! 

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!

Models Own Indian Ocean Swatches and Review

Hiya, today I have Indian Ocean from the new Beetlejuice collection, it is a lot more pleasing than the previous polishes from the collection, it feels so fresh :). 
I know it is a very sheer polish but I didn't have a suitable pale blue with me so I chose to wear it on its own, this is 5 layers and there is still VNL but it's pretty.

I'm not particularly pleased with these photographs but I have no choice! I do really like this polish, it's so pretty and delicate and it has a really strong duochrome, changing from blue with pink to golden yellow flash. It's really sparkly too and shiny without topcoat :) I think it should be called spring evening sky or something lame like that as the colours are exactly what the sky looks like blue and pink with the sun like this...

Lol. 

I like it alot, it dried quickly and went on nice and smooth, £5 well spent :) I kind of want to try out the other two now haha they see nice and summery as is this one but I think it could work in the colder months too as it is kind of icy looking. Go get it!

My first ever Franken!

Good evening, so I have my first ever franken to show to you all tonight, I know you're excited *not* but I had fun making and wearing it so that's all that matters *hehehe*. I don't have a name for it cos I want to avoid the obvious (bird egg, speckled shell) so if you have any ideas be sure to share with me :). I created a light dusty cornflower blue shimmer with sparse very dark blue fine glitter lol mouthful :P. I wanted a light base to make the dark glitter stand out and I think I achieved it but the only problem I'm having is that the glitter keeps settling so I have to keep shaking it ha.
I think you should enlarge these to see the specks :)

With flash

 Indirect sunlight

 Direct sunlight 

 Direct sunlight to show the shimmer

Direct sunlight to show shimmer

I used 6 blue polishes to make this, mainly Revlon Blue Lagoon and I do really like it, it's cute and summery but I just wish I was able to get more speckles on each nail. I think these pictures are quite accurate in terms of colour too. These pictures are all two coats and one of SH ID, I was super surprised at how quickly the polish dried on its own! I would like to make a green version :) I think that would work really well, hehe I'm all excited.

Hope you enjoyed! 

Max Factor Dazzling Blue Swatches and Review

Good evening! I am very excitable tonight as I have something super fun and well exciting happening sooon :). Tonight I have the most amazingly gorgeous polish eva...Max Factor Dazzling Blue, I guarantee that you will want it, it's beautiful *picture heavy post ahead*
First though the boring bit ;) it needs to be layered so I chose Blueberry Ice Cream by Barry M as the base colours seem pretty similar. It is a nice creme that is quite vibrant, I think mine has gone a bit gloopy as I have mistakenly left my polishes in their plastic box next to the window and I think the heat has made them a bit cray (new favourite word, thanks Kanye) so I have moved them and I hope they all go back to normal, if that is possible? Anywayyyyy I only used one coat as it would soon be covered. 

It looks bumpy cos it was, I was in a rush to get out in the sun and admire my nails lol. 

Now the exciting bit, Dazzling Blue is amazeballs, yep I said it, I also think that it deserves to be sold out all the time like it's sister Fantasy Fire, it's honestly that good!! 

This is what it looks like most of the time, blue with that amazing lime green shimmer and also a lemon yellow shimmer that comes from the top, this picture doesn't do it justice at all...it's so intense IRL. 

Blurry again but it shows the duochrome goodness! Purple, green and blue.

Blurry but in the shade you can see the purple that comes out to play.

Tomorrow I will try and take pictures that show it off even better as this polish deserves better. I sound a bit obsessed but that is because I am!! When I look at my nails it reminds me of butterflies, mermaids and the ocean, it's honestly so gorgeous. I can't stop looking at my nails, even more than when I was wearing Saint George! It's so fiery and intense, the green and the sparkle are unlike anything I've seen before. If you are in the UK you must get this! It makes me happy looking at it. 

I am wearing two coats with one coat of SH ID, it can be quite brush stroke prone at one coat but the second thick coat sorts it out as long as you are careful, yes there are still brush strokes but all I can see is the sparkle and shimmer of green! I am in love! Again :P. 

Underrated star, most definitely, I have only seen this polish on 1 blog, I can't believe it, it's so beautiful!

I hope you have enjoyed this polish as much as I have!