Kaviar Nails Again

Despite being totally impractical (I'm dropping beads everywhere) I've decided I quite like the effect and even the texture of these 'Caviar nails' (originally created by Dashing Diva). I had another go creating them but this time with a dark base using the same mix of beads I have. The wheel that separated the colours broke which is why they're mixed.

Color Club - Rebel Spirit

This manicure reminds me of those chocolate buttons with the hundreds and thousands on top.

Picture source: http://www.abbeytuckshop.co.uk

You can recreate this look easily using polish you already own and some micro beads like this

which you can buy on eBay for about £1 (search for beads nail art) or you could check out your local craft shop. All you need to do is use a polish of your choice as a base. Make sure you apply a thick layer of polish and then sprinkle these on top and then once the polish has started to dry tap the beads gently for a more secure fit. Easy!!

Kaviar Nails Yay or Nay?

Couldn't resist my own attempt! Not my best work but for something done in less than 10 mins it ain't half bad right? My PD hates it, I'm still undecided. What do you think?

Not sure if my beads are too big or my nails are too small!

China Glaze Agro

Love this polish (and the books!)

I Lily Love Dressing up!

The sun is out and it's about 18 degrees celsius here in London. Perfect because it's not too hot and not too cold. Sunny weather also means better pics. I like shooting using my daylight bulbs but sometimes it just highlights all the flaws lol! Yesterday you saw me wearing ChG Dress Me Up well I couldn't leave the mani alone and after a couple of hours had to apply OPI I Lily Love you.

I was surprised how well they went together.

What do you think?

NOTD - China Glaze Dress Me Up

For the last 2 days I've been holed up in A&E. Not as a patient obviously but doing my 12 hour shifts to get all my trauma stuff signed off! Don't get me wrong A&E is my favourite rotation as it requires me to think on my feet and react to ever changing situations but it was such a shock to the system especially since last week I was sat/stood watching doing sweet f-all in Neuroradiology, YAWN!
Thankfully today is my 'study day' and I'll be working on my dissertation but firstly I want to show you ChG Dress me Up which I painted on this morning!

2 Coats. No top coat.

Photos shot in daylight

I received this in a swap from Barb and it's part of The Hunger Games collection. It's a lovely dusty rose colour which I find suits my skin tone well. The formula was quite gloopy and looks uneven when you first apply it on to the nails but thankfully it does even itself out and dries to a lovely glossy finish. I was a little lazy with my photography today and used my point and shoot but if you like shots like this I'll try to do more.

Thanks for reading and have a good weekend. x

Guest Post: Amanda from Fashion Footing

Hi Ladies, Spring is definitely in the air now and today Amanada over at Fashion Footing is sharing a very season appropriate colour with you. I've never bought a Zoya polish before or have any in my collection so this is the first time a Zoya polish has ever been featured on my blog!

Thank you Amanda for the guest post. Enjoy

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Hey guys! Thanks to Anna for allowing me to do a guest post for her!

I decided to show you guys Zoya's Pippa. I love yellow and this is such a fantastic yellow to wear!

Zoya Pippa is a lovely vibrant creamy yellow. It's probably the best yellow I've ever worn. It wasn't streaky, covered nicely and is SO PRETTY!!

This is 3 coats, with a top coat.

This polish was released in the summer of 2009 in Zoya's La-Di-Da collection

Mmmm! Warm sunny yellow! I LOVE this color! Are you yellow people? So happy!



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This colour has has definitely brightened up my day :-)

Guest Post - Amanda from Amandalandish

Hey guys my dissertation deadline is fast approaching so I definitely won't be posting much. I'm also back on placement and have managed to break two nails so really not in the mood to do anything at the moment. Anyway today I bring you another brilliant guest post, this time by the lovely Amanda of Amandalandish. I'm really chuffed that Amanda offered to write a post because her blog is amazingly informative with tonnes swatches and comparisons. I hope you guys enjoy her post and check out her blog if you haven't done so already.
 Thanks Amanda

(I'm still accepting guests post so please contact me if you're interested)


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Hiya!

I'm Amanda from Amandalandish and I'm beyond thrilled to have the opportunity to guest post on Anna's fabulous blog.  Thank you, Anna!

It seems that a lot of new collections are showcasing jelly pastels this spring.  One getting a lot of blogger buzz is Electric Beat, from the China Glaze ElectroPop Collection.  A sky blue crelly (a really silly name for a jelly with creme qualities), I found myself thinking that Electric Beat looked like something else.  I went scrounging around in my stash and pulled out Essie Lapis of Luxury, one of my favorite blues ever from the Essie Resort Collection 2010.

When I was speaking to Anna about possibly doing a comparison post of these colors, she asked if there was a cheaper drugstore brand that might also serve as a dupe.  I thought that was an excellent idea (especially considering that many people do not have Essie and China Glaze as readily available) and went on the hunt for a more accessible match.  I instantly found myself gravitating towards Revlon Dreamer, a similar crelly from Revlon's latest collection.

Here are the results.

2 coats Essie Lapis of Luxury (index)
2 coats of China Glaze Electric Beat (middle and pinky)
3 coats of Revlon Dreamer (ring)

While all three are definitely part of the same family, the only two that I personally think are comparable are China Glaze Electric Beat and Revlon Dreamer.  

The way I'd break these down:

Essie Lapis of Luxury is the most jelly formula of the three.  Lapis of Luxury is a dusty cornflower blue that would need three thin coats or two thicker coats for opacity.

China Glaze Electric Beat is a true crelly and is more sky blue than cornflower blue.  The formula is on the thicker side, so two coats are all that is needed to get a really shiny, luscious finish.

Revlon Dreamer is the creamiest of the three.  This applies very thinly and requires at least three coats for color saturation.  As a creme, this has a white base and is the perfect pastel blue, although unlike a lot of other pastels, does not have the problem of streakiness.

I'm a fan of all three of these colors and really can't choose a favorite from them, although the Essie is clearly the most different.  All retail for about $5-$8 USD so none will break the bank.

Thank you again to Anna for allowing me the opportunity to share this comparison with you ladies today.  Please feel free to stop by Amandalandish and say hi! 

Nail Mail - making my no buy easier!

10 days into my no buy and I'm still clean.

I will admit there have been several occasions where I've found myself wandering towards the till with a polish in hand only to be stopped from making the purchase by thoughts of being branded a failure...

 ...Only another 21 days to go.

Today urges to buy (geez I sound like a complete addict) were tamed after I received some amazing nail mail which before you guys say anything were organised/purchased last month.

First up are polishes from Barb over at Bonjour Beauty. We agreed to do a little swap at the beginning of the year but due to life and uni getting in the way we only managed to do the swap recently. I really wanted Revlon Whimsical as a sub for DL Glitter in the Air which was sold out in the UK for the longest time (I recently got GITA as a gift so can do a comparison) and SH Rock Star Pink to make a possible Butter London Black Night franken. Barb also kindly included a couple of the new Hunger Games polishes from ChG which were on my wishlist! Thank you Barb.

 China Glaze - Agro, Dress Me Up, Sally Hansen - Rock Star Pink, Revlon - Whimsical

When I saw ABOP's dotting frenzy post I knew I wanted to get my hands on the Mia Secret polish tints. Not knowing where these were sold I contacted the company to ask if I could purchase some directly from them. After a promising reply to my initial enquiry my hopes of getting them were dashed when they didn't bother to reply to my subsequent emails. Thanks, no really you'll understand why in a sec. 

After a bit of searching I managed to find City Nail Supplies who sold them for $2.50 a bottle and shipped internationally.

 Mia Secret Nail Tint - Red, Blue, Dark Blue, Purple, Yellow

As well as ordering the nail tints I also picked up Electra Magneta, 2NITE and FYI.

LOL and Optical Illusion were included as extras because my order was a little delayed :-)

China Glaze - FYI, LOL, 2NITE, Electra Magneta, Optical illusion

Are you still paying attention? 

Yes? 

Good because you can pick up FYI, LOL, 2NITE, DV8 for $9.99 (approx £6.40) per bottle. They were only $5 when I ordered (smug) but $9.99 is still better than eBay prices.

I know there's the urge to buy them all up and sell them on eBay to make a profit but I really hope people don't do that. It just means poor people like me who can't afford eBay prices have the opportunity to add some HTFs to their collection at a sensible price.

Thanks for reading and let me know if you make a purchase. 

x

Guest Post - Frances shows us China Glaze Tinsel Town

Hey Everyone!

Today I want to introduce Frances who has very kindly written a guest post for you guys. Frances is a fellow nail blogger who shares her gorgeous NOTDs and Swatches over at Polka Polish. If you haven't checked out her blog please take a moment to do so after reading this post :-)

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Anna put up a post last week asking for guest posts to help her keep the blog running while she finishes her dissertation, so I contacted her (with some trepidation, since her nails are so long and fabulous and mine are a bit nubbin-esque) and offered to pitch in, since I absolutely adore her blog. Anna asked me to share the nails I'll be wearing for my Senior Recital (an event something like a combination of defending your thesis and prom, with an audience).

Of course, my Senior Recital hasn't happened yet, and I didn't want to keep Anna waiting forever, so here's one of my top contenders: China Glaze Tinsel Town. I like Tinsel Town because it's a perfect match for my shoes and jewelry, it's three easy coats (I could've gotten away with two, but cameras are finicky), and it's fabulously glittery. The downsides of Tinsel Town are... um... it eats top coat a little (pictured with 2 coats of NYC Grand Central Station) it matches my shoes and jewelry perfectly, and it might be too much. I took all of these pictures in my homemade "light box" made of two compact fluorescent lamps, the corner of my bedroom, and a small table.

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Thank you Frances your lovely pictures have definitely made me add Tinsel Town to my wishlist.
I was a bit late posting this but Frances had her recital yesterday (I hope it went well). Keep your eye out on her blog to see what she decided to wear in the end.

NYX Girls - Wild and a few dots

Last week whilst mooching around East London I found a really random beauty suppliers selling loads of discontinued polishes from brands such as Rimmel, Maybelline, CK, Revlon as well as super cheap brands such as La Femme. I had a good rummage through hoping to hit a HTF jackpot and make my millions on eBay lol but there was nadda! Two polishes did catch my eye and ended up coming home with me. Today I want to show you one of them.

Here is NYX Girls - Wild.

Dark Blue Jelly with gold shimmer, perfect in two coats and unlike the newer NYX Girls polishes I have tried this dried really quickly! This is my kind of polish and for £1.99 I don't think I could ask for anything better.

I really like the old NYX Girls Bottles beats a plain square bottle any day but a pain to store!
I'm not sure if this is available in the new packaging, do any of you know? Is it similar to Forever 21's Love & Beauty Sunlit Waves which I think is no longer available on their website (US)?

After a day of wear I decided to get my dotting tools out and add some dots...

(Yup I cut (filed) my nails down in prep for my clinical placement. Don't want to be injuring patients now do I!)

Thanks for reading.

CG Nail Slicks - Mystic Peacock

I often browse eBay for cheap polishes when I can't sleep. I'm not sure why but it seems as soon as I buy something I doze off quite easily! lol. A polish I recently picked up is Cover Girl's Mystic Peacock a stunning teal shimmer. I don't know what year this polish came out or when it was discontinued but the bottle I received applied perfectly in 2 coats and dried to a smooth glossy finish. It reminds me of OPI's Cuckoo For this Color but with much more depth.

I highly recommend picking this polish up if you haven't got it already as you will not be disappointed! You can get it for £2 or less on eBay!

No Buy March!

Yes this month I plan on buying no nail polish! It's going to be a real test of will-power but I am determine to succeed! Not only am I hoping to save a few bob but also appreciate the polishes that I already have and start pulling out untrieds. I guess my only worry is that come April I will splurge and make up for March lol.

Have any of you decided to cut back? Should this self-imposed ban include polishes bought for others as swaps? Can I ask someone else to buy a polish on my behalf!!?