Playing with Nail Art pens

Today I have an abstract mani to show you. Remember the Rio Beauty Nail Art pens I used for my Bad Little Kitty mani? Well, I was going through the booklet and leaflet included in the package and found an abstract design which I liked and seemed easy enough for me to attempt since my freehand skills are almost non existent!

I used the blue and green pens to draw the swerving lines and for the thin french tips! I then used a thin brush to fill in between the lines with silver glitter.

And here is the leaflet I used for inspiration:

Starry Starry Blue Sky Gradient

Check out the nubbins! I've had to file my nails right down after removing the glue-on nails. After a little buffering, they were as good as new!

I decided on a blue and glitter gradient today as I wasn't really inspired to stamp, scotch tape or do whatever kind of nail art. Sometimes a gradient is just as pretty!

Polishes used: Barry M Blueberry Ice Cream, Miss Sporty Blue Berry, China Glaze Blue Iguana, 17 Midnight Sapphire, Essence Blair, La Femme Purple Glitter.

Current "go to" polish for a quick holiday mani!!!

When you are trying to pack your suitcase and do a hundred things at once before running to catch a flight, what do you put on your nails?
Well, if you are more organised than me, you would have probably done all of that the night before and painted your nails in good time to ensure no dents, etc! Oh well! Lesson learned!

For when I'm in an absolute hurry, my current go to polishes are the magnetics (until I get bored of them). I could just slap any fast drying colour on my nails but magnetic polishes are interesting enough to not have to do any nail art.

Here is 1 coat of "17" Magnetized Blue over 1 coat of "17" Midnight Sapphire. The blue magnetic polish dries much more matte than it's green brother but a top coat soon makes it glossy and sparkly.

There is quite a bit of purple shimmer in this one but it's not really visible in the pictures. It still makes it very dynamic and multi-tonal.

I won't be able to post whilst I am on holiday but it's only a short break, I'll be back on Monday :)

17 Magnetized Green

Remember the post I did on the Nails Inc Magnetic Polish? Well, I was wondering when drugstore brands would embrace the trend and start creating some affordable magnetic polishes. I know a lot of people aren't into the magnetic trend but I have to say I'm really liking it right now! It's an extremely easy way to have something cool on your nails without spending too much time on them!

Boots have now launched the 17 Magnetized polishes. They come in 4 colours (Gun Metal, Lilac, Blue and Green) and retail for £5.99 (although they are £1.00 off at the moment). They are also exactly the same as the Nails Inc Magnetic polishes, from the bottle to the formula.

I wasn't expecting the quality of this polish to be as good as the Nails Inc ones but was I wrong! The formula is very pigmented so it will cover well in just one coat although I always apply a base polish so I don't use too much of the magnetic one. The effects it creates are almost like 3D which isn't the case with all magnetic polishes, it's got a lot of depth and dimension to it.

The magnet on the cap also has that little curved rest for fail proof application, what a genius idea! I'm so clumsy that if I had to hold a magnet as close as I could to wet polish, I would most definitely mess it up!

What do you guys think of the magnetic polish trend? Better or worse than shatter/ crackle?

First picture has a top coat, other 2 pics have no top coat:

Here is a pic of the bottle with the detachable cap:

17 Gold Glitter Crackle & Femme Noir

There has been a little bit of a hoo ha about this new 17 black/ gold/ glitter crackle, at least as far as I'm concerned because a) I've seen it being raved about in a couple of blogs, b) I heard 2 girls talking about it in Starbucks on Friday and c) my friend bought it and she hates crackles more than anything!

As you know, I'm not a big fan of crackles either. I just can't seem to make them work (unless I'm using it for some type of nail art only). I wanted to like them, I really did but deep down the love just wasn't there, Lol!

So, I don't know why I gave this one a go! I think it was partly because I told myself that it's not just a normal crackle, it has coarse glitter in it! It also reminds me of some sort of reptile skin. And... I can't believe I'm saying this but I quite like it! I won't be using it regularly but it's a good polish to have when you want to jazz up a chipped mani in a rush!

I was a bit lost as to what colour to use as a base so I decided to use a complementary colour instead of going for contrast - Miss Sporty Gold Backstage which is a very soft champagne kind of gold.

If the pics looks strange it's because this is my right hand. I never photograph my right hand but I messed up my left hand by layering on the crackle too thickly :(

17 are also running an offer at the moment. If you purchase any three 17 products, you get a free "Femme Noir" gift set which contains:

*17 Ultimate Volume LipGloss in Very Berry - This is one of those highly pigmented lip glosses. It has pretty good staying power, I wore it to dinner and when I got back home, there were still signs of it! However, I wanted the colour to be closer to the box image, I like that very dark stained berry colour, it looks so vampy!

*17 Glitter Eyeshadow in Night Sky - A charcoal eyeshadow with almost invisible duochrome glitter. I had to use a wet brush for the swatch below as the eyeshadow on it's own didn't impress much.

*17 Liquid Liner in Black - not much to say anout this one. Looks like a standard black liquid liner and I'm not sure about quality and durability yet because I haven't tried it.

Mini Haul & Some Pretties from Portugal

My mum has just come back from Portugal again (she goes there quite often, we have family there), and she brought me back a few pretties.

The colours she picked are quite bright and summery, maybe because it's still scorching hot over there, but I'm trying to embrace fall colours right now! Nonetheless, I really like what she picked and I'll be sure to use them, even before next summer :)

She brought back Andreia 5, 107 and 109. I've never used this brand, I'm not even sure if it's Portuguese or Brazilian but apparently it's meant to be really good. She also got me Risque Pop. This is a matte polish so I was really surprised she picked out a matte, I didn't think she knew the difference.

Here is a quick peek at what they look like! I'll swatch them properly later:

I've spent quite a bit on polish this month (I'll tell you about that later) so I was trying really hard not to give in but whilst on my lunch break yesterday, I went into Boots and Superdrug to get some toiletries and I just couldn't resist these:

They are a nice little addition to my autumn/ winter polishes and I'm getting ready for Xmas with that red glitter :)