I'm Still Here...With a Bunch of Swatches!

Hi guys! Yep, so I'm checking in to let you know I'm still around. Sorry I've been MIA lately and haven't been updating my blog often. Sometimes life just happens, I've been extremely busy lately and probably won't be able to post as often as I'd like to.

Although I haven't had a lot of time or patience for nail art, I have been painting my nails regularly (can't stand the sight of my naked nails, lol!) and I've been posting all those pictures on Instagram. My IG name is '@nailstories', if you have an account you can follow me there too :)

Here are some of the polishes I've been wearing for the past few weeks. Apologies about the quality of the pictures, I don't use Photoshop or crop pictures before posting on Instagram.

Butter London - The Black Knight

Jade Holographic - Rosa (sent to me by Bia)

Nails Inc - Baker Street & Essence Prince Charming

OPI - It's My Year

Tip Top Nails - Fairy Dust & Nubar Violet Sparkle

Homemade gold leaf top coat (sent to me by @bedizzle)

The Hungry Asian - Strawberry (sent to me by @nic_tchelly)

Essie - Brooch The Subject

Essie - Splash of Grenadine & OPI Crown Me Already

Color Club - Glitter Wonderland

Thanks for visiting
xxx

butter LONDON - The Black Knight

From soft and girly colours, I went to the complete opposite side of the spectrum today.
I am off on holiday tomorrow and Butter London The Black Knight is what I chose as my vacation mani. Well, actually my husband chose it. I couldn't decide on a dark, wintry colour so I told him to go to my stash and pick out a polish for me to wear. I'd say he made a good choice!

The Black Knight is a black based polish completely packed with tons of pink, blue, red, purple, green, silver and gold glitters. I applied 2 coats over a coat of Barry M Black for complete coverage. I found the formula to be quite thick but still manageable to work with. It's quite gritty as well so you'll need a thick top coat to smooth everything out. It's like galaxy nails for lazy people, perfect for me then! I serious can't get over how much it sparkles in the sun!

Autumnal Gradient

I wore this two-tone red Autumnal gradient a couple of weeks ago. The weather had just started to change then, and the colours seemed season appropriate.
Since following Sammy's gradient tutorial, I find them a little easier to manage but I still get annoyed at the amount of polish I get around my finger and the clean up afterwards. I guess it's something I have to endure since I really love gradients!

For this gradient I used two shades of red. Butter London Come To Bed Red and Nails Inc Victoria. I have to say that CTBR is not my favourite of reds. It has a jelly-like finish and although I don't mind some vnl, I hate vnl with red polish. It needs 3 coats for full opacity.

I always feel the need to complete my gradients with a glitter or some sort of topper so I added CND 24K Sparkle Effect. I reminds me of fallen golden leaves and it also gives it a rustic looks. I'm not sure what version I prefer though! You?

All Hail The Queen's Golden Glitter Zebra

Today's mani was inspired by Ivana. She always has the most amazing zebra and leopard pattern combos in all different colours and glitters. So when I received Butter London All Hail The Queen in the post a while back, I knew it was the perfect base colour for this mani.

I sponged Orly Glitz & Glamour onto the tips and halfway up the nail, to add that extra bit of sparkle and topped it all off with one coat of Milani Gold Jewel FX, before stamping with BM223 and Konad Black Polish. I think my camera freaked out a little bit  and created so much glare because of all the sparkle, I couldn't get a decent picture of it.

And here is All Hail The Queen on it's own. It's such a pretty brownish nude packed with tiny scattered holographic glitter. I love nude polish so this is a nice addition to my stash.

 

butter LONDON - Henley Regatta

I've had this polish - butter LONDON Henley Regatta - sitting in my untrieds since before Christmas. The hubby got me this as a little surprise along with British Racing Green which I am also yet to try! Since my Leighton Denny Undercurrent mani was intact, no chips or tip wear, I thought it would be a good base for Henley Regatta.

HR is a blue and green micro glitter suspended in a clear base. It will only become opaque on it's own with 3 coats, the pictures below are 2 coats over LD Undercurrent. It's super-in-your-face-shine-and-sparkle :) However, I really like the subtle sparkle that one coat gives over both dark and light polishes!

Victoriana Teal Chevrons

I wasn't sure what to do with yesterday's mani. I fell in love with Victoriana so much that I didn't want to "ruin" it with nail art. Then again, I can't leave a mani alone, especially if I'm in the mood to do my nails again but don't yet want to remove my good polish! So I went for the safe option - tape! I was going to just go for french tips but instead decided on french tips with a twist!

Keeping with the blue, green, teal, silver micro-glitter, etc, theme; here are some Victorian(a) inspired teal chevrons. Additional polishes used were Zoya Trixie and Nails Inc In Style free polish in Teal.

butter LONDON - Victoriana

I'm so excited to be posting about this polish. It is my first Butter London ever and it didn't disappoint!

Victoriana is a faded blue with a hint of green and packed with silver micro-glitter. The colour is so vintage yet quirky! It's from the Fall 2010 collection, which was a tribute to fashion designer Alexander McQueen.

The formula is amazing to work with, it is thick but easily manageable. It is highly pigmented so the coverage is amazing from the word go. The pics below have 2 coats out of habit, no top coat: