Soft and Full of Sparkle

It's just one of those days! I changed my polish three times today and just wasn't happy with anything I put on! So when I got home from running some errands, I decided on a very soft colour with a glitter gradient after seeing so many beautiful ones on Instagram.

I used 2 coats of Kiko 209 as a base colour and then painted some New York Summer Vegas Silver which is silver micro glitter and holo bar glitter, onto half the nails. I wanted some larger pieces of glitter in there too so I added a few strokes of Essence Blair. I really like how soft and sparkly it looks. I may do quite a few glitter gradients like this in the near future.

Hunt Me If You Can...Stud

When I removed my nail polish today, ready for another mani, I really felt like wearing something edgy and dark. Luckily enough I had recently received some studs from the Born Pretty Store which were perfect for what I had in mind.

I used Essence Hunt Me If You Can from the Vampire's Love Collection and matted it with Essie Matte About You. I was really hoping the silver flecks in it would show up a lot more when matte but they didn't. I really like this polish, it's a chic black (all the more so because of the silver flecks) and I can see myself wearing it often. I added square silver and round gold studs to the accent nail, both these are from the Born Pretty Store and cost around $5 depending on what shape and size you want.

This mani made a perfect pairing with today's outfit of black leather skirt and biker boots. I also received these spike metal chain earrings in the post which I think completed the whole edgy look:

On a different note, have any of you tried travel nail polish remover pads? I had never used them before because I always thought they wouldn't actually remove the polish in it's entirety but a friend of mine swears by them. I wouldn't use them regularly because they aren't great for removing glitter polish or to clean up of course, but they are certainly a good choice to take with you on holiday. Compact and lightweight. These strawberry ones from Born Pretty Store smell divine.

If you want to purchase any of these or other items from the Born Pretty Store, you can use code VA7J61 for 10% discount.

  
*The product(s) in this post was provided for review purposes

Erre Due - Neon Fluo 01 & Blair

Today I have another Erre Due polish to show you. It's a neon so I'm trying to wear them the most I can before summer is officially over but to be honest, I am over them a little. I have already shown you a couple of their neons here which I was generally happy with and this vivid orange with red undertones doesn't disappoint either.

It looked quite watery as soon as I opened the bottle but it's opaque and even in two coats. So far I've been really impressed with Erre Due's latest collections.

I'm planning to wear this mani for at least a couple of days (planning being the key word) so I layered 1 coat of Essence Blair over it. I was going for a jelly sandwich but didn't want to mute out the "neonness".

About the company:

Erre Due are part of Aromca Cosmetics and were one of the brands first launched under the group is 1984. Erre Due products are available in Greece and Cyprus.. They have an extensive range of make up and nail polish, you can check out their colour charts here. Their Facebook page features up to date information on their latest products.

*Part of these products were sent to me for review by the company.

Essence Snow White - Sneezy & The Huntsman

I've been seeing fall colours everywhere recently and whilst going through my untrieds to sort by colour, I came across these two polishes recently sent to me by a friend on Instagram.

Essence Sneezy and The Huntsman, both from the Snow White LE collection. Sneezy is a medium chocolate brown packed with silver micro glitter. I don't own very many browns so this is a nice addition to my stash!
The Huntsman is a gold glitter topper with extra pieces of gold hex glitter and some shredded glitter too. I really like shredded glitter but the pieces in this polish just seem strange and out of place to me. I love it nevertheless! I'm sure it would look really good over nude or a black base too.

Can't wait to try some of the other Snow White polishes!

Two Long Lost Manis

I was clearing out my external drive yesterday and came across a whole bunch of manis which for some reason I never posted. I was wondering where some of those had gotten to?! There were seriously at least ten different manis in there so here are a couple.

First up is a bright and fun mani I did using Essence Wake Up! and sponged NYX Carnival onto the top half of the nail. My nails were so ridiculously long here that I remember a few people asking me if they were fake.

I really love this glitter. It's a dupe for Deborah Lippmann Happy Birthday, Milani Gems, Wet N' Wild Party of Five Glitters, OPI Rainbow Connection, NOPI Rainbow in The S-Kylie and all those other hex multi-coloured glitters, so we have quite a few options there. It only cost $2.25 from Beauty Joint.

Secondly is a glitter v-gap mani I did using Impala Lover sent to me by Bia! This is such a gorgeous foil type pink packed with gold and silver shimmer. This is just one coat so I thought it covered quite well. I used loose pieces of holographic hex glitter to fill the nude v-gaps.

Citrus Stripes

Today, I've put my scotch tape roll to good use again and have some "nudies" and some diagonal citrusy stripes for you.
Very rarely will you see a glimpse of my natural nails! Too much polish all the time means they are usually very stained and I don't often bother to scrub the staining away when I'm just going to be using more polish that stains the next day! However, I've been trying some very light and soft colours lately so I grabbed some lemon juice and baking soda and got scrubbing and buffing.

The base colour is in fact no colour at all, it's just base coat and for the stripes I used Barry M Lemon Ice Cream and Essence Wake Up, sent to me by the lovely Nihrida.

Polkadots & Bows

This week I tried acrylic paint for the first time. Well, I did try it once before a few months ago but it turned out to be such a disaster that I immediately removed that mani! I know a lot of girls find acrylic paint easy to work with and can do amazing things with them but I did have trouble with them to start with! After a few attempts on a nail wheel, I managed to draw these little bows and I am happy with how they turned out.

The dove grey polish on the accent nail is Essence Got A Secret and the other nails are OPI Lucky Lucky Lavender, a light violet pink from the Hong Kong Collection Spring 2010.

Mermaid Tail

If you have an Instagram account and follow a lot of the nail accounts, you'll know that there is always a contest going on. Recently, there have been so many that I've lost count and completely missed some of the closing dates. Today's mani - Mermaid inspired - is an entry for my girl Nicole's contest. She is celebrating 10,000 followers and picked this theme because as a child she was obsessed with The Little Mermaid and loves all things Ocean related.

As I'm very freehand challenged, there is no way I could ever draw a mermaid like some of the other entrants did! So I left it to the pros and went for an abstract approach using colours that reminded me of a mermaid's tail.

Other than Essence Choose Me and China Glaze Luxe and Lush, I also used Stargazer 303 for the deeper blue towards the tips and "Lost In Deep Waters" which is a teal franken I made absolutely ages ago. I stamped with BM209 and a very light silver glitter from the 99p store, to create the fish scale look.

Here is my actual entry picture:

I had a little trouble taking pictures of this mani under my lamp! The glare just wouldn't go away and let me show the detailing! My iPhone pictures came out much better in this instance and it's one of those mani's that looks so much better in natural lighting and irl!

Bella's Minty Leopard

Hi everyone! I've been away for a few days and feel like I've missed so much. I've had a quick glance at my blog roll and you girls have posted up so many great things, I'll need to catch up on everything this week.

Since I haven't even had time to do my nails since I got back, here is a leopard mani I did a few days before I went on holiday.

I used OPI Alpine Snow as a base, stamped with BM221 and used scotch tape to add Essence Bella to half the nail. I really like how it turned out but I must say that waiting for all the layers to dry before applying the tape was a pain!

Pour Me Something Tall and Strong Jelly Sandwich

I don't usually do many jelly sandwiches, mainly because I wasn't a massive fan of jelly polishes. However, that has recently changed and I'm totally hooked on these. I like the look of suspended glitter and of the depth these create as it makes a change from just having glitter sitting on top of the nail!

I did this blue jelly sandwich a couple of weeks ago when my nails were much shorter. This is Misa Pour Me Something Tall And Strong (3 coats)! I have to be honest here, I only bought this polish because of the name! I think it's so cool :) The glitter is Essence Blair (2 coats).

Pink & Blair

I have another Essence polish on my nails today! Sorry to all the girls who can easily purchase these at their local drugstores. To me they are special because if I run out, I can't get anymore :(

This is the Blair part of the Nail Art Twins set. I've also got Chuck which Nihrida kindly sent me a few months ago and will be trying that very soon!

I layered a coat of Blair over an unamed polish by La Femme which is of a pinkish/ purple tone. My cousin wanted to throw this bottle away but I couldn't bear seeing her do that so I had to give it a good home! Now it's in a happy place, on my shelf!

I then mattified the glitter just to see what it looked like. I always have this urge to mattify glitter and flakies!

And here is that pinkish/ purple La Femme on it's own! It's a very pretty colour and actually applied really well! It makes my hands look a bit red and lobster-like but oh well! What was my cousin thinking throwing this baby away?!

All Essence Zebra

I thought Essence's Got A Secret would be a great base colour for a mani I've had in mind to do for quite some time - Zebra!!! A dove gray and black zebra is every bit as cool as black and white :) This mani was inspired by Sammy at The Nailasaurus. She did a really cool nude and black version a while ago.

I used Essence Vampire's Love TE - Hunt Me If You Can to stamp with and for the vertical lines on the left of the nails. So, this is an all Essence mani!

I really like how they turned out! You like? :)

Got A Secret?

I really like Essence. I think it's such a great brand. They always have a really good choice of polishes and make-up at very affordable prices! I like it even more so because we can't get it in the UK!!! So I can only get them when I go across the channel or through a swap!

This is Got A Secret from Essence's Colour & Go line.  It's a very soft and pretty dove grey creme. The formula is excellent and fully opaque in 2 coats!

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.

True Love Toughens Up

As usual, I added a few bits and bobs to my existing mani by stamping with BM222 which looks a little like barb wire, and used Konad Special polish in Silver.
The reason the stamping is quite subtle is because I had trouble with the Konad Silver, I expected it to be much more opaque and thick than it is! Anyone else had trouble with Konad Silver?

I also added a coat of CND Effects Violet Shimmer. These effects polishes really transform a colour. This mani went from a purple maroon fusion to an electric purple shimmer in a heartbeat!

True Love - Essence Vampire's Love TE

Here is another polish from the Essence Vampire's Love Trend Edition. This one is called True Love and it's a lovely dark purple, like a maroon purple and packed full of shimmer.
It's a gorgeous shade of purple but I can see how it could easily be overlooked in favour of more "exciting" purple shades.

As soon as I heard about this collection, I anticipated a colour like this as it's...well... "vampy" and something a vampire would wear! Would a vampire wear this?! Hmm...

As with the other Vampire's Love polish I've tried (The Dawn is Broken), the quality is amazing. They are extremely opaque (with good application you can get away with 1 coat) and apply easily and smoothly. I can't fault the formula at all.

The Dawn is Broken - Essence Vampire's Love TE

Can I just start by saying: Wow!! This is my first ever Essence nail polish and... Wow!! I'm speechless!! Are all Essence polishes this good? I know Essence isn't a big deal for most bloggers but it's not available at all in the UK and I had always heard amazing things about the formulas and the polishes overall, especially considering it's such a low cost brand. You always want what you can't have huhh?!

I recently went on holiday to Switzerland and had to grab as many Essence polishes as I could. I first saw the Vampire's Collection in one of Nihrida's posts and couldn't help but feel a little sad that I would never get my hands on it... and then by chance, after I had scoured many stores in Bern and Zurich, I walked into a tiny store in Interlaken and saw the entire collection just sitting there on the shelf! I'm sure the locals thought I was nuts!

Onto the pics, here is 2 coats of The Dawn Is Broken. A light gray with silver shimmer and what looks like black micro glitter to me . This is probably the least expected colour of the collection as the other deep red, dark blue and black are pretty standard in a "vampire" theme. Application was a dream, so much so that I didn't even do any clean up. It needs 2 coats for good measure but I was surprised at how pigmented it is with just 1 generous coat. The finish is quite gritty which is actually one of  the things I love about this polish.

I can't wait to try the other colours in this collection.