Spun for you - my Halloween nails

If you were wondering why I never attempted a spider web nail design this is the reason!

How awesome are these?

They were a little fiddly as none of them fitted my nail shape exactly but they stretch and are easy to trim to the shape of your cuticle using the orange stick provided.

I even managed to use only one packet (which contains 8 strips) for both hands

I'm not sure if I would have preferred a more uniform design. What about you guys?

I added a coat of Seche Vite to prolong the wear and it shrank the strip a tiny bit.

Love them!
Wish they were readily available in the UK :-(

** HAPPY HALLOWEEN **

International Haul - Toronto

Ahh it feels like my Christmas has come early! This amazing package came all the way from Toronto from my VERY generous friend! I had specifically asked for a few things but the other bits were chosen for me!


After seeing the limited edition Halloween nail effects I knew I had to get my hands on some. My friend very patiently waited for their release and kindly picked two boxes up. The pens were half price and when asked if I wanted them I couldn't find 'no, thank you' in my vocab!

China Glaze IDK was an eBay purchase from a seller that didn't ship to the UK. I asked for Revlon Blue Mosaic because it's not available here and I needed to feed my glitter addiction. When my friend visited Buffalo they picked up three bottles of Sinful Colours for me which I have never tried. It's quite exciting trying new brands!

And finally Chanel Peridot!!!! late bday present that I have been patiently waiting for (who said I had no patience). My first every Chanel and I love it!!!! I want to thank my friend for their amazing generosity but also tell them off for being such an enabler and feeding my growing addiction!!!

Halloween - Funky French

Hey guys hope you're all having a fab Halloween weekend. I promised to try and do another nail design for you but I copped out ;-( I had lots of ideas floating around in my head but when it came to putting brush to nail I chose to regurgitate the B&W French mani I did a few posts ago but on orange. I know! Hey at least the orange makes it Halloween-y. I guess my justification for doing this is that it's a little more grown up looking (not that nail designs should be age specific!) and you could probably get away with wearing it for work?!?! So anyway I hope my photos make up for the lack of creativity on the nails.

I added a flakie over the orange but it's not really visible in the photos!
HAPPY HALLOWEEN

H&M Art Deco Bottles

This is a super quick post about how much I love the Art Deco inspired bottles H&M have produced for their A/W nail polish collection. I don't often go to H&M but today I decided to kill a bit of time before meeting my friend and came across the new bottles!
They are so classy, I hope they produce more colours with this bottle design and get rid of those flat square bottles!
'Plum' 99p from H&M
(If you're thinking the font on the bottle looks familiar it's because it's the same as Eccentric Std in Microsoft Word!)

Pink Wednesday - OPI Do you think I'm Tex-y and Excuse Moi

Today's Wednesday and that means wearing pink. I've never taken part before and as it's the last Wednesday of October which also happens to be Breast Cancer Awareness month I thought I'd indulge you all with a couple of pink shades. Firstly though I want to encourage all the ladies to Touch Look Check (TLC) as early detection really improves your outcome. I know you might think I'm just spouting off on one but I recently had a lecture on breast imaging and it really brought home the message of early detection. The acronym is from Breakthrough Breast Cancer a charity that is 'dedicated to saving lives by finding the causes of breast cancer, improving detection, diagnosis, treatment ans services' check out their website if you get a moment.

So on to the polishes...

OPI - Do you think I'm Tex-y over China Glaze White Cap (you can't see the gold that well in the pic but IRL you could see it underneath)

I actually wore this on Sunday because I really fancied something a bit more cheery and different from all the dark vampy polishes I've been sporting for Halloween. It's one of the polishes from the Texas collection with a 'sorbet' finish, is that what it's called? It required about 3 coats if I remember correctly and dried quite fast.

Next up is the polish that's currently on my nails. You've probably seen a million swatches of Excuse Moi but I make no apologises because it's a stunner. In the bottle the polish looks more of a red but on the nails it's a gorgeous pink. And let's not forget the multi-coloured glitter! My Bf said I had Barbie nails lol.

From The Muppets Collection

Here I've applied 2 coats and you can still see a little nail peaking through so a 3rd coat should sort that out. It's a hungry glitter and needs about 3 (even 4) coats of Seche Vite to get it smooth. Applies fantastically and dries super fast. LOVE IT.

I hope to do one more Halloween design for you guys but with the amount of work I have on at the moment I don't want to promise.

Also those who haven't done so already remember to enter my competition win a bottle of Beyu Shiraz aka unicorn pee!

Halloween - Centipede Nails

This morning I finally finished reading We Need to Talk About Kevin so I'm back to creating designs for you guys.
Today's design was a result of another design not quite going to plan. If creepy crawlies make you uneasy then please look away!

Centipedes

This design freaks me out a little!

I got lazy with clean up!

I'm trying really hard to be original with my designs however with so many amazing designs out there it's becoming quite a challenge! Have a good weekend!

Color Club With Abandon

Hey guys hope you're all having a good week so far. I've been a bit bad and have neglected my blog a little! It's not all my fault though. My friend wants to see 'We Need to Talk About Kevin' when it comes out this week but I don't want to see it until I've read the book so I've been trying to cram it in and those of you who have read it know it's not the easiest of reads. I'm only half way through which I think isn't to bad considering I have hardly any time to read and I started just over a week ago! Everyone I know who has read it says there's a real 'oh my God' bit in it which has led some to cry... DON'T tell me what it is OK?!!

So anyway in my previous post I showed you my skull mani for Halloween and I hope some of you have tried it. The polish I used as my base was Color Club's With Abandon which came out in 2009 as part of the Wild At Heart collection and I think the name is odd and I don't get it - may be there's a story behind the name or may be I'm just a bit stupid haha! either way there is no denying this is one gorgeous polish. With gold/brown flecks of shimmer in a black base it's ideal for when black on its own is too black. Do you get those days?


One last thing, with or without a top coat I find Color Club polishes do not wear that well. Whether I move a few books or just do a bit of typing I find the tips worn and chipped. Do you guys have that problem?

OK back to reading!

Halloween - Cute Skull Nail Design

Hey guys just wanted to share with you a cute nail design I did today. I swatched Color Club's With Abandon last night and by this morning I was bored of it (plus is had receded under the Seche Vite Top coat) so wanted to jazz it up a bit. Don't get me wrong the polish is gorgeous but I just wasn't in the mood for it. The design I opted for was something I had doodled in an ethics lecture earlier this week, the lecture was so boring I wanted to stab myself but I thought creating a nail design was less painful haha. I think they turned out quite well considering it's all free hand. Anyway hope you like them!

Right have to remove them now as I have work tomorrow! :-( Have a good weekend!

NYX Girls Hauling

**Warning** VERY Picture Heavy Post!

My NYX girls haul from Cherry Culture finally arrived 16 days after I placed my order. Despite the slight delay (it took 8 days last time) I was happy to receive my parcel with everything in tact and without a nasty customs charge. I've complained about their shipping costs before so won't bore you but if they were more reasonable I would have ordered a lot more and more frequently instead of waiting for a promotion.

So without further ado here is my very modest NYX girls haul...

Left to right: Robotic, Deep Space, Royal Purple, Sea of Cortez, Fizz Spots and Carnival

Aren't they just pretty! I know some people hate the plain square bottles but I love them because they're so much easier to store. First up is...

...Robotic

Flecks of midnight blue/teal metallic glitter suspended in a black jelly. Delicious vampy polish what require 2/3 coats.

I'm going to say it now but I found most of the black jelly based polishes very slow drying and quite sheer. It may be better to layer it over a black but I think you lose depth and dimension.

Deep Space

This is the same as Robotic but with dark purple bits of glitter. It reminds me a lot of Revlon's Facets of Fuschia/DL's Bad Romance but without the large chunks of hexagonal glitter. Required 3 coats.In the photo below the camera picked up hints of blue but I couldn't really see this on the nails.

Royal PurpleThis was the hardest to photograph. I ended up having to swatch it again after the images I uploaded after my mammoth sess just looked naff. Anyway Royal Purple is a purple, just like the name suggests, with blue shimmer. It's a very pretty colour but not unique. Require 3 coats.

Now onto the more brighter colours I picked up...

...Sea of Cortez

Stunning!

Aqua blue jelly with Gold glitter.

If you don't mind VNL I'd snap this one up to add to your collection.

Emerald ForestSimilar to Sea of Cortez but green. Another beauty worth picking up.

Fizz Spots

A very sheer black jelly with large and small holographic hexagonal glitter.

Black jelly this sheer does nothing for me. In the future it will have to be layered so my nails don't look dirty.

Still a very pretty polish.

Carnival

I'm going to admit I've been totally swept up in the glitter craze. They're just so damn pretty on the nails and I cannot resist having a bit of sparkly that gets me compliments from complete strangers! LOL. Anyway Carnival is a multi-coloured glitter in a clear base. There's gold, blue, silver, pink, green, red probably a few more in different sizes. Glitters like this require a dabbing motion to position the bits of glitter otherwise you'll end up bare areas. Here I've swatched it over naked nails!

Phew that was quite long! No doubt these have been swatched before but I hope I didn't bore everyone! Overall I am pleased with my haul and the colour payoff. They were only $1.99 so I can forgive them being a bit slow to dry and sheer.

Have you got any NYX girls polishes? Are there others I should check out?

Have a nice day!

L.A. Colors Color Craze Nail Polish - Twilight

Today I want to show you L.A. Colors - Twilight.

It's a gorgeous dark blue shimmer that only requires 2 coats, applies wonderfully and dries well.
Do you think it looks like a 99p polish?

I love L.A. Colors, I think of them as the nail addicts go to brand for a cheap fix when the purse strings are tight!

Have a good day!

Halloween - Mrs Röntgen's Nails!

Hey guys and hello to my new readers. Today I want to share with you a manicure that has been inspired by what I do for at least 8 hours each day! My bf says they look like keyholes (and something rude) but I'm sure you guys have way more imagination... Hope you like them and give them a go for Halloween!

***may not be anatomically accurate!

Definitely dashed my dreams of being a hand model... LOL

Just in case you are completely lost, they're supposed to be the distal phalanges aka bones in the fingertips!!