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! 

I own Fantasy Fire....Finally!!

Yes, it's true I broke my no-buy. I literally had to. I was going to town to look in Debenhams as they are meant to be having 10% off all beauty, I think it might be online only :( anyhoo, I called in Boots just incase they had replenished the stocks of Max Factor and they had! I had to grab two bottles of FF and I saw another polish that really caught my eye as well Dazzling Blue, more on that in a minute, then I figured if I was breaking my no-buy I might as well look around the other brands, Revlon had some new shades finally but they had sold out off the DL dupe but they had one bottle of Facets of Fuchsia so I got that too and went to the till. The lady told me that if I bought one more Max Factor polish I could get a free gift so obviously I went back and got the last bottle of Prussian Blue. 


I'll show you pictures in a minute first though, I'm soooo annoyed :(. Dior Les Violets Hypnotiques were "released" in the UK yesterday....supposedly. I have been stalking Harrods website which is where they're meant to be, no sign. I asked the Dior lady in Debenhams who showed me the book for March and there were no polishes in there, she hadn't even heard of them!! It's always embarrassing when you know more than the person who works there :P. She showed me a promo picture for a polish to be released in May which looks to be in the same family as Nirvana but more blue. I went on Debenhams website, google shopping search NADA! I neeeeeed Shadow but I can't find it anywhere :(. 


And that is part of the reason why I broke my no-buy because that collection was meant to be my exception to the rule :( yes, I'm sulking now. I guess getting FF kind of makes up for it but I'm not allowed to wear any of the polishes that I bought today until I finish my untrieds grrrrr. 

Revlon Facets of Fuchsia, Max Factor Dazzling Blue, Fantasy Fire x2, Prussian Blue, Mini mascara, mini kohl eyeliner, Disco Pink and Intense Plum. From the mascara to Intense Plum were what I received in the nice bag as the free gift :)!

Total drool!!! 

I think this polish has been overshadowed by FF but look at it! It's completely gorgeous too. It looks similar to Indian Ocean (one of the new Models Own Beetlejuice Collection) it has such a pretty colour change, blue and green to purple at the edges, totally in love with it! Can't wait to wear it :) :). 

Part of me loves how cute and little they are but then at the same time it means less of the precious! ;). 

If you are interested in getting the free Max Factor gift from Boots only you have to spend over £15 in Max Factor, perfect excuse to stock up on FF :P. 

So I cannot wait to wear these beauties, however my sister shall be receiving the Disco Pink as it's really not my kind of colour, it's so much more hers as she is obsessed with pink nails forever *sigh* I hope she'll learn of the other beautiful colours that are out there :P. One day! 

I hope you have enjoyed my mini haul (you get it?? ;)) I know I'll be changing my nails tomorrow so I'll seeyou then!

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!

Leopard halves mani

Mornin' 

I know I haven't posted for a few days for a couple of reasons the main being I didn't want to take my owls off :P and I've been super busy with uni, one day we were in from 9-5 with no break cos we  had a lecture and then straight into trying to recreate the lighting in other peoples photographs....man it took forever! Also we have this awful fire alarm here in halls and last night someone broke it so it went on from 2.40AM - 3.40AM!!! I was so frikin' tired this morning, couldn't get up but we had to cos the bf's parents are here for the weekend with the dogs yaya :). 

Okay, now what we are all here for, I had to use one of my untrieds and it's a small selection now only 8, I decided to get one of the pinks out of the way in a design that I had painted some fake nails with and sent to my sister (because I am the best sis eva ;)). 

I started with the white base using the only white I own a Sally Hansen french manicure (for tips only) kind of white, there's no denying it, it was awful, I used three coats and it was still patchy but I knew I was going to be filling in bits and leoparding the rest it didn't matter. The pink is Cabana by Sinful Colors, which is a nice thick formula and was nearly opaque in one swoop but I did two as it wasn't fully :P. The gold splodges are 25 Carat Gold by Models Own and I freehanded the lines with my models own nail art pen. I got the idea for this design from Wah nails, I really like it, it's a twist on a classic leopard manicure :) here are the fake nails I painted for my darling sibling  ;) 

She loved them :P I hope you enjoyed them too! 

EDIT: I am entering this design in Rebecca likes Nails nail art contest yay :)

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 :)

a-england Order of the Garter Swatches and Review

Hiya, 
Last night I recieved two comments from two lovelies saying that they would like to see OotG today and I have obliged, I'm so glad you wanted to see this because ooo it's gorgeous!
I honestly think this is my favourite out of my two a-englands :O! It's super shiny, sparkly, blue and for me the colour is something I genuinely would associate with England, it's like a dusty royal blue, the Queen would totally wear an outfit this colour ;). 
Again this is going to be pretty picture heavy 
You have to enlarge these!! Click away!

I don't know if you can tell but I love this colour! Like I said it's like a dusty royal blue with brighter blue sparkles that just make an amazing polish, when the light hits it it's mesmerizing. Really cannot stop looking at my nails they look so beautiful, this polish has made them a bit wider than they actually are, which for me is a good thing oh I don't don't know but I think my nails look perfect in this colour!! Haha. 
One thing that was less enjoyable was the brush, the bottom has been cut on a slant (on the wonk) so it looks normal from front but you can see the slant from the side, this just made applying it a bit awkward but it must have just been a mistake as my other brush was fine. I'm just being pernickety :P. The formula was great though, smooth as you like. It took a while to dry though. 


Stupidly I put my Models Own topcoat over it, for innocent reasons y'know I wanted it to stay shiny but when I woke up this morning, I had my first ever incident of bubbling! It's horrid, looks like my nails have a disease :( yuk. On top of that on my right hand I have these weird dents that look like tiny teeth marks :S BUT all of this is down to the topcoat not the a-england polish.


The weather man lied, as per, so there is no sign of sun today, it's super gloomy so again my a-england polish isn't getting the sun it deserves, this combined with bubbles and teeth marks means I shall (unfortunately) be removing her :(. I just can't wait for summer, then they will get the attention they deserve! :)


Phew, it's been a long one, I hope you made it till the end :) again I can't get enough of this brand, I seriously want Avalon from the Mythicals!! Another high recommendation :) :) Hope you enjoyed girls!