Green Jelly and Hot Pink Chrome Stamping...

Hi guys, every time I post these days I feel like somewhere in the text is an apology!

I don't want to be one of those people who's full of false promises, or always saying I'm planning to do certain things by a certain time.  I'm doing my best. The truth is, my love for blogging and nail art just isn't the same.  Don't get me wrong, I still love sharing what I've done with my nails, and I've even bought some new stamping plates recently.  However, as life is a mushy haze of work, driving lessons, gym (no matter how short my visit :P) and people I love, the effort I put into my nails comes after that.

At the moment I'm actually letting my nails grow slightly, and they're oval/round rather than the mostly natural square they grow in.  I'm debating going for slightly more of an almond shape in a week or so too.

Anyhoo... onto the nails rather than the tiny rants.

Base Coat: CND - Stickey

Base Colour: Barry M - Watermelon#

Stamping Colour: NYC - Foil'er Up

Image Plate: Cheeky Jumbo Viva Mexico

Top Coat: Sally Hansen Advanced Hard As Nails

So this was a little bit of an odd combination, and I'm not 100% how it came about as this was about two months back now.  I think it may have came from not owning many stamping polishes other than chromes that can stamp over dark colours.   Now, Barry M - Watermelon is not the darkest, but it is a very strong bold colour.  I think NYC - Foil'er Up sort of works.  Sort of.

Here's a swatch shot of Watermelon in case I haven't shown one before.  Lovely Deep Green that's almost muted.

Hope you've all had a lovely weekend. Mine was another lazy one, snugged up in bed or the sofa watching TV. Bliss.

Pink Roses Over Gold

Hi all,

It's been a while, since I've posted and I'm still undecided about keeping up the blog, so here's some more nails from the vault.

Base Coat: CND - Stickey

Base Colour: Liz Earle - Golden Celebration

Stamping Colour: Konad Psyche Pink

Image Plate: Bundle Monster BMH16

Top Coat: Sally Hansen Advanced Hard As Nails

That's all from me for now.

Loop the Loop, Gold and Black Stamping

Hi all,

Sorry for being MIA so long, you know how it happens, life and all the fun stuff that prevents me sitting in front of a laptop. Also all the non-fun stuff like work, and gym!

Today I have one little piccah, from way back when (at least a few months) some really simple stamping, trying out a few new polishes.

Base Coat: CND - Stickey

Base Colours: Ciaté - Loop the Loop, & an unknown Nails Inc Gold

Stamping Colour: BYS - Black Satin

Image Plate: Bundle Monster BM406

Top Coat: Sally Hansen Advanced Hard As Nails

That's all for me, I'll try to post again next week :] Hope you're all keeping well!

Nouvella Nails Review

Hi all, Thursday yay! So close to the weekend!

Today I have some nail wraps to show you that I was sent back in June, but haven't gotten around to using until recently.

I was sent these wraps by Nouvella Nails, and they have a great selection of designs, so check them out.  I sadly didn't have too great of a time with these as I had to cut away quite a lot to get them down to my diddy nail size, I also had a bit of a rough time with the edges staying down, but for my first time using nail wraps - heated nail wraps at that I think these turned out pretty good.

Nouvella Nails - Flower Power

See what I mean about the problems I had with the tips lifting? I think maybe I fudged up the application process, maybe I didn't heat them up enough (I used a hairdryer). Still these had such a bold impact because of the high intensity shine that you didn't really notice the lifting at all.

Have you tried wraps that need to be heated for application? Any tips?

Models Own - Slate Green, Gold Foil & Blue Stamping

Hi hi all, happy Wednesday, I'm feeling slightly better today although my head is still massively fuzzy. But half day today, and I'm going for food. So should be good :]

Today I've got quite the simple combo, one that didn't quite work out, but I like how sheer the stamp is all the same.

Base Coat: CND - Stickey

Base Colours: Models Own - Slate Green & Barry M - Gold Foil

Stamping Colour: W7 - Blue Lagoon

Image Plate: Konad M64

Top Coat: Sally Hansen Advanced Hard As Nails

And here's the base of Models Own - Slate Green & Barry M - Gold Foil I painted on Gold Foil to a scrunched up ball of cling film (plastic wrap/saran wrap) and dabbed it over Slate Green.

Hope you're all having a good week so far :]

Light Stamp Over A Dark Base - We Stamp On Sundays

Hi all, happy Sunday!

So the challenge for this week over at Adventures In Stamping is to stamp with a light colour over a dark base. I voted all excited for this, as I was expecting my new polishes to arrive (totally ran out of white so I bought 3 new colours as well) but they're lost in the post, so these pink and silver nails will have to do! The pink is darker than the silver so that still counts right?

Base Coat: CND - Stickey

Base Colour: W7 - Unnamed Pink

Stamping Colour: Barry M - Silver Foil

Image Plate: Cheeky CH51

Top Coat: Sally Hansen Advanced Hard As Nails

As these were the nails I was wearing all week I've not quite had the chance to take a photo of the plate I used, or the polishes like I would normally.

The W7 polish is a really surprising pink because I really love it on myself, which pretty much never happens with pink! It came in a pack I received for Christmas off my Nan/Aunt/Uncle, which had two polishes, a lip gloss and a mascara. This however means it has no name. *frustration*

Hope you're all having a good Sunday. I've had a pretty chilled one, pretty much ignoring most of the stuff I need to do in favour of cups of tea, and TV. Oh well!

2true Crystal Nail Polish Review

Hi all! Happy Saturday!

At the start of December I was approached with the opportunity to review some nail polishes for a company called 2true. 2true is a UK brand and you can find out more about them and their products here. You can buy their products in any Superdrug store and online.

I was sent 6 polishes to review, and today I have the first three for you. which are all Crystal nail polishes. These dried in a good time, and have an incredible shine to them. The formula is foil, lovely multicoloured sizes of foil flecks, that give the finished look a little hint of duochrome without a wild shift in colour.

First up is Miami (Shade 7)

 This is two coats, no top coat. Look how glossy this is in the shade! 2true Crystal nail Polish Shade 7 is a bronze based foil that looks very warm in sunlight, and gives off a lovely cool rose gold flash in the shade.

Next up we have Rio (Shade 9)

 
Above is two coats, first pic in the sunlight, second in the shade. This is definitely the warmest toned polish of the bunch I got sent to try. Shade 9 is a lovely warm brown bronze, with a gold shift.

Next up is probably my favourite from these three polishes.

This is St.Tropez (Shade 10) a really gorgeous cool grey-brown base with blue, bronze, and gold flecks. This is my favourite out of the bunch because of the mix of colours, I love the fact that from afar you can still see that they're not all similar fleck colours. The polish flashes blue quite a bit when the light hits, and it sometimes looks a purple too. Unfortunately I didn't get the chance to get any sun shots of this one.

Shade 7- Miami, Shade 9 - Rio, Shade 10 - St.Tropez

Taken with a flash. And for funsies I swatched them side by side, and with OPI - Warm & Fozzie as a comparison.

L-R: Miami, Rio, St. Tropez, OPI - Warm & Fozzie (in the shade)

In the sunlight

 Hope you're all having a good Saturday! I shall be back tomorrow with the first Adventures In Stamping challenge in 2013!

**These products were sent to me for consideration of review**

Using Gold - We Stamp On Sundays

Hey all! I hope everyone's had a good weekend :] Mine seems to have gone far, far too quickly.

This week's challenge over at Adventures In Stamping was to use gold, either as a base colour, or as a stamp. I wore these nails on Monday  and knew I wouldn't have much time to do my nails today, so I decided to use them for the challenge.

Base Coat: CND - Stickey

Base Colour: FCUK - Bronze

Stamp Colour: Barry M - Gold Foil

Image Plate: Bundle Monster BM223

Top Coat: Sally Hansen Advanced Hard As Nails 

Short but sweet from me today, I want to get my nails shortened and painted for the week ahead :]

Beauty UK - Jelly Bean & Gold Paisley Using Bundle Monster 315

Ahhh! Happy Friday my lovelies!

I am feeling a little better recently, I'm not going through a mass of tissue blowing my nose every 10 minutes, so things are looking up :] I also have such an amazing  polish to show you today, and I may need to buy a backup bottle because I love it that much hahaha.

For those of you who have been reading my blog for a while now; you may have heard me talk about "Saints Row purple" and how I've been on a hunt for the perfect bright purple polish that's not too pale and doesn't lean too plummy. After buying a watch that I thought was the perfect purple (it looked it online) about a year ago and it was too warm, I'd almost given up hope.

That's when the new Beauty UK candy collection comes in. Jelly Bean, oh Jelly Bean, where have you been all my life! Pretty fitting as I some times get called Jelly Bean or Jenni Bean hehe.

This is the best polish formula wise that I've ever came across from Beauty UK. It's opaque in one, more vibrant in two, and dries really quick too. It dries the typical neon matte ( I have no photos sorry) but looks pretty with top coat too.

Base Coat: La Femme

Base Colour: Beauty UK - Jelly Bean

Stamp Colour: Barry M - Gold Foil

Image plate: Bundle Monster BM 315

Top Coat: Rimmel 60 seconds - Clear

  

Here's some swatch shots to show it in a different light.

So yeah, look at that beauty! Ignore the little glittery specks, I must have had something on my top coat brush :(

Hope you're all having a good Friday :]

Models Own - Slate Green, OPI - Warm & Fozzie & Black Dashica Stamping

Ahhhh today we have some nails I seriously loved wearing. I only wore them matte for one day, and I can't decide what I prefer, Scott prefers them glossy but I really like Warm & Fozzie matte!

First up the stamped nails, and then I'll show some swatch shots of the surprisingly squishy Models Own - Slate Green.

Base Coat: La Femme

Base Colour: Models Own - Slate Green

Sponged Colour: OPI - Warm & Fozzie

Stamp Colour: BYS - Black Satin

Image Plate: Dashica Big SpD-A

Top Coat: Rimmel 60 Seconds - Clear

With Rimmel - Matte Finish

Close up of OPI - Warm & Fozzie I love the warm rose toned specks of foil!

Here's some swatch shots of Models Own - Slate green. When I started applying this I was surprised by the formula. I was expecting the usual creme, but it turned out to be a bit more of a squishy almost jelly like creme. I think I actually prefer this formula though. I can't remember if this is two or three coats, but I believe it's two coats.

So which do you prefer, matte or gloss?

Hope everyone's having a good Tuesday!

Using Silver, Bronze Or Gold - We Stamp On Sundays

Hi all!
Bit of a delay in the post today, but I shall tell you about that later. This week's challenge for Adventures In Stamping sort of snuck up on me (only doing the nails today on sunday) so I had to quickly decide on what to do. And when I really thought about it I realised I knew exactly what I wanted to do, and what with :]

Base Coat: La Femme
Base Colour: Miss Sporty - Unkown, I thought It was Fatal Black..
Stamping Colours: Miss Sporty - Electric Beige
Barry M - Gold Foil
China Glaze - Millennium
Image Plate: Bundle Monster BM315
Top Coat: Sally Hansen - Advanced Hard As Nails

In real life the colour difference is more noticeable, and maybe i'll have a look through other photos and add a better one in at some point. For a swatch (although old and bad:P) go here.

Here's what I used:

So I was all ready to write this post up about 2 hours ago, but then the weather went wild. At first I was happy as I like storms, especially when I'm in the house, I was just about to make a hot chocolate (sad I know) and then It went downhill.

First I went running around the garden to see if my cat Cheese had been locked in the greenhouse, as she wasn't in the house. She wasn't in there but there were a couple leaks that were pouring, so I stuck out some empty tubs. By the time I ran back to the house with a huge umbrella I was soaking wet, but Cheese was in the house now all safe and sound, so it was all gravy. That is, until I went into my room, and saw the window leaking water everywhere! So yeah I sorted all that out, and moved all electrical bits and bobs away from the splash zone. Now the rain wouldn't hurt you with its sheer force if you went outside, and the water level isn't almost up to the top step of the front door anymore, so there's not so much panic in the house.

So, now I'm back to writing this post, but in the kitchen instead. Fingers crossed it won't rain heavier ;( This is also why there's only one picture of my mani, and lack of time to edit, but also because for the worst part of the down pour, it looked like it was night time outside lol.

I hope you lot are having a nice Sunday to make up for mine! :]

Models Own - Pinky Brown & OPI Designer... De Better & Konad M85

This is a slight fail on my part, don't get me wrong, I like the colour combo, but the stamping combo is just a fail in my eyes. I hate stamping over dark fleck duo chromes like this as I think it generally kills off the beauty of the polish somewhat. But after painting on Pinky brown (which I love) I really had the urge to try and stamp, so I just went for it. I think it was a bad move to stamp in another foil. I chose to stamp with OPI - Designer...De Better, which is another polish I love, as I have nothing else like it, and probably never will. The copper flecks in this polish bring me joy!

That being said I still liked the outcome, not a bold or crazy design, but it made Pinky Brown extra sparkly, and I still got the full shift effect of it.

Base Coat: La Femme - Base Coat
Base Colour: Models Own - Pinky Brown
Stamp Colour: OPI - Designer...De Better
Image Plate: Konad M85
Top Coat: Models Own - 3 In 1

Apologies for how grainy these look in the photos, I think all the sparkly goodness made my camera a little loopy =P

So, how do you stamp over a duo chrome foil fleck polish like this?

OPI Muppets Tape Mani

Just a quick post tonight. I've been up since six this morning, with not much sleep during the night, and I've spent probably 6 hours travelling. So I'm super pooped. But tomorrow after I fill in an application for an interview on Friday I'm gonna catch up on my reading list again and sort another post :]

I've never done a tape mani like this before, and it was quite fun, I enjoyed it for a day, but I think any longer and I would feel like I would get bored of it, maybe just because of this colour combination, but who knows!

Base Coat: Nail RX - Stuck On You
Base Colours: OPI - Designer... De Better
OPI - Wocka Wocka!
OPI - Excuse Moi!
Top Coat: China Ghip Top Coat

And because Designer... De Better is so damn hard to capture here's three pictures. It's such a gorgeous polish! I love the bronze flecks in this foil. Nommm! The bronze may be seen better in the bottle.

Night night!!

Models Own - Purple Blue Swatch

Just some swatch photos for you guys today and then Stamping Sunday tomorrow, and the theme is stars! Not overly sure if I'm happy with what I've got ready for it, so I might do a different design later :P

Onto the swatches :]

Shade

I really love this bad boy, like really really love it, I love the base colour when you can't see the shift too; which is just a plus. Yeah, this flashes purple and blue hence the name, and slightly pink and there's some teal that pops out too. It's awesome :D

Hope everyone is having a grand Saturday :]]

Models Own - Pinky Brown & OPI - Excuse Moi - Pic Heavy!

I took, so, so many photos of this, but I was apparently having one of those days where nothing I get is sharp enough ¬_¬ Anyhoo... Models Own - Pinky Brown is so stunning, It's one of my favourites from the Beetlejuice collection. I have no idea how to describe the formula though, foil flecks? I'm not sure if anyone knows please tell me!

The swatches are all three thin coats, and the gradient glitter was just brushed on :]

Base Coat: Nail RX - Stuck On You
Base Colour: Models Own - Pinky Brown
Glitter: OPI - Excuse Moi
Top Coat: Models Own - 3 in 1

With Flash

I think this is the picture that best shows the colour shift, and how damn shiny smooth this polish is!