Would you like to do a guest post?

It's already happening I'm not blogging as regularly as I would like to and I have a feeling this might continue until my dissertation is handed in at the end of April. Arghhhhh I really want this dissertation to GO AWAY!
Anyway I just wondered if anyone would like to write a guest post, obviously nail related. It would really help me out when my blogging is on the thin side and hopefully help you out if you are new to blogging and would like more exposure not that I have a huge following in comparison to other blogs out there! Email me and let me know if you're interested.

A xx

Barielle - Falling Star NOTD

Hey everyone hope you've all had a great week so far. Today I want to show you Barielle Falling Star from the All Laquered Up collection released A/W 2009. It's a really unique polish in my eyes in that I have not seen a dupe or anything similar from other brands. It's a really intense blue (reminds me of Boots No. 7 Poolside Blue) with coppery/orange glitter. Unsurprisingly the glitter works because it's the complementary colour of blue.

Love it

The formula dries pretty quickly though it is quite thick in my opinion so a drop or two of thinner would help with application. Here I have applied two coats and a generous coat of Seche Vite as the polish dries with a gritty finish.

Yesterday I went for a well deserved day at the Spa with my cousin. I can't begin to tell you how heavenly it was just to have a massage and sit in the steam room! Anyway I wore Falling Star as a full manicure and probably due to the combination of high heat, steam, humidity, Chlorine over several hours the nail polish was peeling off in chunks by home time. I know Seche Vite didn't help matters but I couldn't believe how easy it was to peel off. Yes on the way home I couldn't help but keep peeling...

So bad I know! 

Blue's like this tend to cause me to worry about potential staining but I am happy to report there was none on the nails I did remove with remover!

So who else has this polish? 

Do you guys peel polish off too? xx

Whooooppppwhoop

No nails today but wanted to say YAYYY I passed all my semester one exams!!! I'm really pleased with my results so want to treat myself to a polish but am not sure what to buy? Any suggestions?

Nail Pop Kimono vs. Chanel Peridot

Less words more Pics. Enjoy

Chanel Peridot - Index and Ring finger. Nail Pop Kimono - Middle and Little finger

All the above photos were shot in the usual manner, in my light box under a daylight bulb. The following photos were shot in natural and direct sunlight light

I don't think I need to tell you there is a difference between to the two because from the pictures it is fairly obvious. Hope this was helpful!

Springy Easter Mani

Hi ladies! I want to share with you a quick nail design that was inspired by a pair of shoes. When it comes to footwear I tend to steer towards more masculine designs like brogues or loafers. They're more comfortable and stay on my skinny feet unlike court shoes which I have real issues with. However today on ASOS a pair of very feminine flats that had 'Spring' written all over them caught my eye and I knew the pastel design would translate quite well onto nails.

Here is the shoe

Photo from ASOS.com

Here are the nails

I know the yellow looks odd but unfortunately I don't own a pale yellow polish so had to make do with the bright one I had. Something like ChG Lemon Fizz would be great.

Hello Spring!

China Glaze - Snow as the base, Barry M - Mint Green, Blue Moon, Strawberry Pink. Beauty UK Yellow for sections and Barry M - Silver Instant Effect for the stripes.

Hello Easter!

Do you like it?

No? May be you could try this colour combo instead?

Photo from ASOS.com

Dutch 'Ya Love OPI?

OPI UK have hiked their prices up to 11 POUNDS for one bottle! ONE BOTTLE! For my American readers that's 17 USD. *sigh* Anyway I said to myself I didn't need and wouldn't buy any of the new polishes from the Holland collection because I thought my stash contained many of the colours in one form or another. WRONG! After looking at swatches again there were three that called out to me: Dutch 'Ya Love OPI?, Vampsterdam and  Gouda Gouda Two Shoes.

Luckily the first in the list was given to me as a late V-day pressie (along with DL Glitter in the Air) so technically I haven't broken my OPI no buy just yet!

Dutch' Ya Love OPI? Well yes I do (not the prices though)!
Red-toned grape with subtle gold shimmer doesn't sound like my cup of tea on paper but on my nails I am absolutely loving it. I think it's actually one of those polishes that look better on the nails than in the bottle.

Perfect quick drying formula that is opaque in two coats. Not the most glossy finish so could do with a top coat (pics without) if you want that extra shine or you could try a holographic top coat like I did!

Lights on!

 One coat of Hits Hefesto

Lights off!

Have you guys picked up any of the polishes from the Holland collection? If so which ones? yay or nay to the holo top coat?

Splashing Around!

TGIF!!!
And yup I'm still wearing Hits Dreamer. It's been 3 days and I simply cannot get enough of it. There's also been minimal tip wear which is why I've been wearing it longer than usual and not felt the urge to remove it.

So today I want to show you what I noticed whilst washing my hands.

Droplets of water refracting the light and bringing out the different colours of the polish

So pretty!

Ok that is all for today! Thanks for reading.

Hits - Dreamer

This polish has well and truly quashed any yearning I had for the long discontinued SH Prism - Garnet Lapis. The multichromatic display on my nails has distracted me all day and even now as I type I'm not looking at the screen but at my nails! How on earth do they make polishes of such beauty and why the heck can't a UK brand make something like this? Yeah okay so Models Own released the Beetlejuice collection but it is nothing compared to the Hits Mari Moon line!

On to the swatches...

Blue/purple dominant colour

I resorted to using my really old half broken compact camera for the next lot of pics because for some reason it's much better at capturing multichrome polishes. Unfortunately it's also great at making my cuticles look ugly!

Bit too much cuticle oil.

Shifts from blue-purple-maroon-orange and a whole lot more in between!

The thick formula and fat brush with its wild bristles (might just be this bottle) meant I had a little trouble getting it to spread evenly which consequently meant I had to apply two generous coat. Because this polish contains the nasty chemicals it dries pretty fast and to a very high shine.

I want to thank Barbara over at http://www.flickr.com/photos/barbkitty/ for sending this to me! Look what you've started! I now want them all!

which is which?

Does anyone know which is the top coat and which is the base coat?

I'm guessing the blue-tinged is the TC but I'm not convinced as there is nothing on the bottles to indicate this!

Appreciation!

These ladies were kind enough to nominate me for some blog awards that have been going round. I'm a little bogged down with my dissertation to forward them on but please check out their blogs and the blogs on my blog roll. Follow, subscribe and generally show some love. After all it is Valentine's day!

Laura at Clothes, Cosmetics and Chat

Ladyboss at My Vanity Case 

Nail Loopy at Nail Loopy

Happy Valentine's Day

This design had been floating around in my head all day and as soon as I got home from work at 21.30 I set about painting it on my nails. I'm pretty happy with the design overall and surprisingly the heart was pretty easy to do. If I were to do it again I would try to make the LOVE ECG a bit neater.

Apologises for the images, my camera was refusing to play ball tonight and with my lack of patience this evening this was the best I could muster up.

Hope you like it and Happy Valentine's Day.

International Nail Mail - Brazil

Barbara over at http://www.flickr.com/photos/barbkitty/ contacted me a few weeks ago about doing a 3 polish swap. She wanted a polish I had access to, you can probably guess which one, and offered to send over some Brazilian polishes of my choosing in exchange. With Hits being the only brand I was familar with I asked for a few of their polishes that I had overlooked when I made an order from Llarowe at the end of last year.

Yesterday they came!

Impala - Blue Flakie, Risque - Red glitter in black, Hits - Hefesto, Unconventional and Dreamer

She very generously included a couple of other brands which is why you can see 5 polishes...a flakie and a red glitter in a black base, Barbara you really shouldn't have!

I can't wait to swatch these for you guys!

Thank you SO much Barbara, you've spoilt me.

"MMMMM" Mani

I picked up some Art Club Stripers a couple of weeks back to replace my LA Color ones and only today was I able to give them (well at least the white one) a quick whirl. I'm really into stripes at the moment so please forgive me as I bring you yet another stripey mani!

I decided to adds some silver bullions to my thumb to see what it would look like. What do you think? 

Yes or No? 

Going to give these a go?

(Quick tip if you are going to try this design is to use the corner of some tape (make sure the corner is 90 degrees) to mask off the triangle bits before you paint the stripes)

OPI Who The Shrek Are You?

Well hello there and hello to my new readers! You're probably thinking why on Earth I'm showing you a polish from a collection that came out Spring 2010, well because I'm a cheap skate! This colour was in the sale on Lena White (UK OPI distributor) and from a far it looks pretty similar to Did it on 'em (Nicki Minaj Collection Spring 2012) which I really wanted because it's like nothing in my collection and I wanted a loud colour. On my current budget I couldn't really stump up the £11 ($17 USD) they were asking so thought this was a great alternative.

It's not a colour for everyone but I really love it and as soon as the weather warms up and my hands are less red (it clashes) I'll be sporting this on all 8 fingers and 2 thumbs.

It's a mustard yellow/green, exactly like the colour of Shrek!

Bye for now!

Nail Pop - Kimono (Peridot-esque)

Brrrr it's so cold here in the UK I can barely feel my fingers as I type so this is going to be short and sweet! Today I want to share with you Nail Pop Kimono which I picked up with Pearl Effect ( blue flakie) a couple of weeks ago. It is said to be a great high street alternative to Chanel Peridot but with a much stronger green tone. The formula is spot on requiring only two coats and with hardly noticeable brush marks. Wear wise this is fantastic. I expected it to chip quite easily but I was impressed that even after washing dishes with no Marigolds there was hardly any wear!

Now on to the pics...

(Available from Selected Superdrug Stores - £5)

Divine! 

Peridot was generously given to me for my birthday so I can do a comparison if anyone wants one. 

Bye for now.

Hold the shrimp!

Despite the random title this post has nothing to do with shrimp though you may argue there is a tenuous link because this is a pink manicure?! It's just a line that my bf said whilst ordering take-out that for some reason I find hilarious.

Anyway I haven't worn a full pink manicure in a while because I don't think pink really suits my skin tone but as it's nearing Valentine's Day I wanted to create a manicure that's a bit girly and errr pink for you ladies to try. 

For this manicure I painted all my nails with OPI Sparrow Me The Drama. I wanted really neat lines so used striping tape I got from eBay to mask off the lines then painted using a pink holographic (Sally Hansen Magical Ruby Slipper) and OPI Steady As She Rose and then removed the tape. If you have no patience I would recommend just freehanding the stripes as the tape can be a little fiddly!

And just to show all you doubters I have more than four fingers...say hello to my right hand.
I'll be wearing this mani until Monday evening

What do you think? 

Have a good weekend!