Elegant floral mani - NC-03

A bit of a palate cleanser today to see in the new year. For the base I used Models Own Peach Puff which I think clashes slightly with my skin tone! Then using Models Own Gold Digger I stamped the very pretty floral design from NailZ Craze Plate NC-03.

The overall mani is subtle yet chic :-)

Yay or Nay? Let me know what you think.

Have a great New Year everyone! XXX

Blingy snowflake nails using Shimmer Jennifer

The lovely Cindy from Shimmer Polish very kindly sent me some more of her gorgeous creations to share with you guys and today I want to show you Jennifer. Jennifer is what I would call a cool glitter with it's light blue, silver and rose gold. There also a sprinkling of black glitter which cuts though the paler colours to add that little extra dimension. Here I layered 2 coats over a pale blue creme (CC Take me to your Chateau).

Stunning isn't it? I think it just works so well with the blue creme. And to make it even more festive I added some snowflakes from BM-319 and BM-323

If you want to buy this lovely Shimmer Polish then check out Cindy's etsy store. That's it from me for now, I'm working over Christmas so won't be able to post much but I want to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year xxx

Santa Nails

Hope you like them xx

NailzCraze NC 03 - Fair Isle Nails

Oops! I didn't mean to leave such a huge gap between posts but I've had a pretty busy month. As well as working I've been galavanting around the UK ticking off cities on my to visit list and I'm sure those who follow me on Instagram are probably a bit bored of me spamming their feed with pictures of cathedrals and cakes :-) Another reason why I've neglected my blog is because 6 out of 10 nails have splits/breaks which has meant my time has been spent patching up the damn things rather than actually painting them and creating Xmas designs as I had hoped. I'm tempted to chop them all off and start again but I can't bring myself to do it yet. We'll see how I feel in the New Year.

Putting that aside a couple of days ago a lovely plate I ordered from Nailz Craze finally arrived and it gave me a good reason and a kick up the butt to create a simple Xmas Mani using the Fair Isle design.

The plate is gorgeous and the designs are huge. If you have big nails this is ideal for you. Anyway I hope you like my very simple Xmas mani as much as I do.

You can buy this plate from NailzCraze.etsy.com which is where I got mine. Thanks for staying with me xx

Two manis using BM - 225

I've fallen in love with a flower design from BM-225 and so have two manis for you today! Hope you like them.
Base: Models Own - Raspberry Crush
Stamping Polish: essence - black (matte)

Base: Risque - Preto Fosco
Stamping polish: Rimmel - Green with Envy

Penélope Luz - Pandora and a tape mani

Just a quickie post.
Here is a swatch of a jelly glitter by a Brazilian indie brand Penélope Luz. Pandora is a mouth-watering burgundy with magenta glitter. It's very similar to Deborah Lippmann's Razzle Dazzle which I have and on comparison I can say hands-down Pandora is way better. Razzle Dazzle seems to lack the depth Pandora seems to achieve effortlessly. I'm informed Penélope Luz is a very popular indie brand in Brazil and if this is anything to go by I can understand why! I'm not sure where you can get this from as this was generously given to be by my friend Barb over at Barbvanth.

Two coats of Pandora and 3 layers of TC, it is a little glitter hungry! And because I can't leave a mani alone for long I decided to try a tape mani using a black matte polish that was also given to be by Barb.

Thanks Barb for my recent nail goodies ;) and thank you ladies for reading, hope you liked it.

China Glaze Holiday Joy 2012 - Winter Holly

Hey Ladies

Apologies for my sporadic posts, my working hours have become really random and unfortunately this is something that will not change anytime soon so I'm having to fit blogging in when I can. I also caught a nasty tummy bug over the weekend, one of the many occupational hazards I face on a daily basis, and was completely wiped out on Monday! Luckily it's only a short-lived virus so will be back to work tomorrow after my 48hrs quarantine lol!

Anyway today I would like to share with you Winter Holly from China Glaze's Christmas collection, Holiday Joy. This polish is a bit like marmite, you'll either love it or hate it. Consisting mainly of very fine dark green forest glitter with a helping of fine gold and holo glitter this polish dries to almost a matte gritty finish, which will not be to everyone's liking. The matte finish in my opinion takes away the sparkle which you see in the bottle and leaves a mani that in certain lighting looks dark and murky. The formula is good though and the densely packed glitter means you only need about 2 generous coats for complete coverage.

Ok so in the images above the polish doesn't look too bad and I guess it does kind of grow on you but I definitely prefer Winter Holly with two generous layers of topcoat. Do you agree?

Out of focus shot so you can see the sparkle

Bonus Pic!

Have you got this polish? What are your thoughts?

Quick 'Peeling Nails' Tutorial

This manicure originally appeared on my blog over a year ago. Since then it has generated quite a number of pins and repins on Pinterest as well as requests for a tutorial. Not to keep you waiting any longer here it is my quick pic tutorial.

OPI Planks A Lot and Steady As She Rose.

The main thing is to pick two colours that belong to the same family one light and one dark. I've tried it with two completely different colours and the peeling effect doesn't work so well and the mani ends up looking abstract. If you have a go at this or have any questions let me know. Anna x

Accessorize Ladybird and Dragonfly

Hi ladies!

In today's post I want to show you a couple of polishes from Accessorize's Speckle collection. I couldn't find any PR info on this collection so I'm guessing it came out in the last month or so. It's funny how I know when all the big brands like China Glaze or OPI release new collections but brands that are closer to home I don't have a clue about. Perhaps it's down to marketing budget or I'm just looking in the wrong places. Either way I'm glad I was made aware of this by one of the girls I follow on Instagram who took a snap of the display.

There are 7 polishes in this collection all named after winged insects and some of which look very familiar.

Damselfly - dupe of Nails Inc Pudding Lane and W7 Mosaic

Leopard Moth - dupe of W7 Salt 'n' Pepper

Firefly - dupe of Barry M Gold Mine

Butterfly - dupe of W7 Lava Flow

As you can guess I gave the above a miss, there's no room for dupes in my Helmer!

Now onto the more unique polishes from the range. Bumblebee - is a pumpkin orange creme with black glitter and would have been ideal for Halloween. It looked a little manky in real life so I put it back on the shelf.

(Image source: www.superdrug.com)

Ladybird which caught my eye first is a raspberry jelly with black glitter. Two coats is enough to give great coverage although some care is required to place the black glitter. I do look like I've got ladybird-esque nails albeit Harlequin ones.

Dragonfly is a spring green laced with blue glitter. Again this only required 2 coats. I don't think I would wear this during the colder months but once Spring arrives I'll be pulling this out again.

Overall I'm quite happy with the two polishes I picked from this range and they'll definitely be a welcomed addition to my stash. At £3.45 they're reasonably priced but not exactly cheap for a drugstore brand. If you're thinking about picking these up my advice would be to pick up the W7 (£1.99) and Barry M (£2.99) versions as they're cheaper. Despite the dupes this collection injects a much needed variety into the UK polish stands.

Gradient Zebra Print

Who wants bright colourful nails? I do! The weather is a bit poo and I need something that reminds me of summer!

Do you like it? I'm really pleased with the way it turned out and I don't even mind that the gradient isn't seamless! To create this mani I used a white polish (OPI Alpine Snow) as the base then used Barry M - Shocking Pink, Blueberry Ice Cream and Mint Green for the gradient. I then stamped the zebra print from BM-223

Color Club In True Fashion - Port-Folio

Color Club Port-Folio from the In True Fashion collection is an awesome duochrome that shifts from violet to green. At first I wasn't convinced I needed this in my collection as I have a number of purple-green duochromes, GOSH Purple Heart for example but the shimmer in the this polish sits in a jelly-esque grape purple base which sets it apart from PH. The formula was very typical of Color Club, it appears quite sheer on the first coat but opacity builds up in two coats.

Have you guys tried this? Do you love it as much as me?

Halloween Spotty Mani - BM-224

Please forgive me as I've gone for another simple Halloween mani. I've been far too lazy to do anything intricate or freehand, actually I believe I've lost my freehand skills so I'm going to stick with stamping for now until I get them back! To create the following look I used Barry M Coral, a jelly perfect for sandwiches and Nubar Black Polka Dots. This is the first time I've tried this polish and I'm a little bit disappointed with it as it took some effort to pick up the bigger hex pieces of glitter.

Barry M - Coral and Nubar - Black Polka Dots

OPI On Her Majesty's Secret Service

Hi ladies! My friend at work (hello Marie) told me I needed to put up a post asap so here I am with another polish from OPI's Skyfall collection, On Her Majesty's Secret Service. I overlooked this polish when I was at Olympia Beauty (stupid me) so had to pay full whack at Sally's. Sharp eyes will see this polish is made up of pink, blue, green, gold/bronze particles in a greyish base. There is a hint of duochrome to the particles which is very obvious in low lit conditions. The formula for me was quite good. It was buttery smooth and only required two coats. Several bloggers have mentioned the smell of this polish being a bit like cheapy polish. I didn't really smell anything awful but then I do have a cold right now! Was it worth the full whack? For me yes as I don't have anything in my collection like this!

Have you ladies picked this up recently? Thanks for reading xx

Spooky Eyes Halloween Mani

Here's a quick fun mani for you lovely readers that I've been wanting to create since last Halloween and yes it's not the most original but it's a really good way to use glow in the dark polish. Enjoy

And here's a crappy image of it glowing!

Thanks for reading. xx

Barielle Shannon's Attitude

Today's polish was part of a little haul my friend brought back for me from a recent trip to NY. She did well with her choices and this one I'm particular happy to add to my collection. Barielle Shannon's Attitude is a purple jelly with fine holographic glitter as well as holographic bar glitter. It took about 3/4 coats to build the colour but in my opinion completely worth it. I hadn't seen this polish before, have you?