Subtle Nude & Gold

Yesterday, I was sitting in front of my helmer and didn't know what colour to go for or what kind of nail art to do. Whenever this happens I usually opt for a nude polish.
I wore OPI Don't Pretzel My Buttons (Germany 2012 Collection) for a day on it's own and then decided to do some subtle stamping (using Barry M Gold Foil and Cheeky plate CH14). I love nude polish and am on a quest to own them all (haha!) but the stamping was a little too subtle for me, maybe next time I should keep to white or black stamping.

Don't Pretzel My Buttons on it's own, a very flattering nude on all skin tones I've seen. It's slightly cooler toned than in the pictures above but that's simply because it was taken on a different day with different lighting.

Pastel, Leopard, Crosses and Studs

I want the Winter and cold to go away so much that I've already started wearing pastels. Haha! Wishful thinking! This is Illamasqua Purity. A lovely peach creme that's super pigmented and opaque for a pastel. I had some trouble with the formula but it is a pastel after all!

I've also been wanting to mix patterns and ideas on my nails so I went for a mish-mash of leopard print and gold studded crosses. I used Nails Inc Big Ben for the leopard spots and the round gold studs are from the Born Pretty Store.

You can use discount code VA7J61 to get 10% off your Born Pretty Store purchases.

Thanks for reading and commenting :)

OPI - Live And Let Die (James Bond 007 Skyfall Collection 2012)

Today I have another one of my picks from the OPI Skyfall James Bond Collection to show you. This dark shade really captured my attention. It's a blackened green creme packed with gold flecks. It is very dark but the green tinges are still visible, even in dim lighting. A perfect winter colour in my opinion, I can see myself using this shade a lot in the coming months. I can't say a single bad thing about the formula either. It's buttery perfection in one coat.

I thought that adding a little extra gold wouldn't go amiss so inspired by one of my Instagram friends, Nic, I added chevrons to the accent nail and some loose gold glitter.

Autumnal Saran Wrap with Nail Girls

I was sent this Nail Girls polish sample a while back but was waiting for the weather to get slightly cooler and Autumnal to wear it.

This mini has no name or number and I can't find it on the Nail Girls website. I think it may be part of the London 2012 Medal Collection although the colour is much more copper than bronze. Two coats of this buttery metallic is all you need for full opacity. It applies very smoothly and leaves no brushmarks at all.

I tried the Saran Wrap (cling film) technique for the first time but as I used a foil and a metallic, it turned out slightly different than if I had used two creme polishes. A foil doesn't seem to spread as much when the cling film is dabbed onto it. Here's what the gold and copper look like together. I also stamped the accent nail with BM04 and added loose glitter pieces to the tip:

Nail Girls full sized polishes cost £10.50 and you can purchase an array of colors and finishes diretly from their website.
For UK girls, Nail Girls also have a salon located in Islington and have a service called "nails On The Go" where they will come to you (0ffice, home, etc) if you are pressed for time.

Some of the product(s) in this post were provided by the manufacturer or their PR for my honest review.

Mish-Mash of Vintage Flowers, Glitter and Rhinestones

Today I wanted to show you guys a design I did for a contest currently taking place on Instagram, hosted by the ever so talented Bedizzle. The rules were simple, just to copy a design that she had done in the past. I opted for a design that I could manage as every other mani she had done was way to complex for me to attempt!

So that it wasn't an exact copy, I changed up the colours a little and the placement of the flowers and glitter as well. So it turned out a bit of a mish-mash of vintage flowers and placed glitters:)

Polishes used - Essie Mint Candy Apple, Collection 2000 Fruit Loop and Ninja, Rimmel London Apricot Punch, Miss Sporty Gold Backstage and OPI Alpine Snow for the dots and stripes.

Remember the Mermaid Tail nails I did a while back, also for an Instagram competition? I won second place. I couldn't believe it, there were so many great entries!

My Guest Post Over at: Polish Chest

Check out my guest post for the wonderful Danny over at the Polish Chest.

I used one of my favourite summer polishes - Essie Tart Deco and created a white and gold chevron on the accent fingers.

Golden Leaf

I'm back to stamping! It seems like ages since I last stamped but in fact, it's only been a couple of weeks! That's the kind of relationship I have with stamping, I can do it for four manis in a row and then go months without touching my plates! You probably wouldn't believe if I told you that 60% of my plates still have the blue cover sticker on them :(

Anyway, last night I dusted them off and stamped with BM210 and Barry M Gold Foil over Color Club Alias which I received in a swap. I also added some thin french tips (and had a bit of an accident with my pointer).

I completely forgot to take pictures of Alias on it's own, I was watching Glee and got a bit distracted. Alias, from Color Club's Alter Ego collection, is an amazing multichrome but it's so hard to capture all the colour shifts on the nail. I want that bottle look on my nails!!!

Pastel Tie-dye Accent

Today I finally tried something I've been meaning to do for ages. My "to do" list just keeps getting bigger :)

Needle drag or needle marble manis as they are most often called, quite simply involve dragging a needle through still wet and goopy polish to create the blend of colours and the tie-dye effect. There are a few You Tube tutorials on this and I particularly like THIS one by Liquid Jelly, the pattern she created looks so amazing.

I generally like the way these look, they are easy to do and lets be honest, I completely suck at water marble manis so this is the closest I can get to it!

What do you guys think of needle marble manis?

Dragon & The Shield

This polish needs no introduction. Dragon from A England's The Legends collection is a stunning scattered holo masterpiece. If you love greens, you need to go and get yourself this polish! If you have tried A England polishes before, you'll know that they apply like butter and are mostly one coaters. The holo effect of this green is subtly packed with tones of gold! I love it!

I added a "shield" to the accent finger using Barry M Gold Foil. I would usually call this a "checkered mani" but it does remind me of a medieval shield and it fits the theme of the polish, so let's go with shield :)

 

I love all types of holo polishes, I know I'm not the only one! But the biggest pet peeve of mine is when I so badly want to wear a holo and there isn't a single ray of sunlight! However, I also took a picture of this polish indoors and I was surprised that some of the subtle holo effect was still there! It's amazing how it doesn't look completely flat like a lot of other holos.

Hunger Games Capitol Colors - Agro

The third polish I got from the China Glaze Hunger Games Capitol Colors collection is Agro.
The first ever swatch I saw of Agro was back on 1st February on Scrangie and All lacquered Up. Straight away, I knew this was a shade of green I wanted in my collection.

Agro corresponds to District 11 - Agriculture. It's a dark olive green metallic shimmer with gold undertones. The formula was excellent to work with, great opacity and no streaks whatsoever!

I added some thin gold French tips with Barry M Gold Foil and stamped the accent nails with BM04.

Hunger Games Capitol Colors - Fast Track

My second pick from the China Glaze Hunger Games Capitol Colors collection is Fast Track (which corresponds to District 6 Transportation)! I'm a sucker for nude and beige tones although I probably don't wear them as often as I would like. This one is packed with gold flecks which makes it different from all the other neutral tones I have. It doesn't go with my skin tone as much as I would like but I still think it's a very pretty and special polish.

The formula is a little sheer so I would probably wear 3 coats next time (pictures are 2 coats). And since it's quite sheer, I wonder how it would look layered over darker colours?! Maybe it will be similar to CND 24k sparkle!

I stamped with BM223 and Barry M Gold Foil for a subtle look.

Foil Leopard

Leopard time again!

This mani was done using two Barry M polishes - Instant Nail Effects Gold and Silver foil! It's inspired by a mani that Deniz posted on her "My365" calendar on 29th Jan! The contrast between the two foil colours isn't as obvious as a dark and light colour would create but it actually looks kind of "spacey" irl!

Topshop Hidden Treasure

I got this baby in the post today and had to swatch it immediately. Hidden Treasure by Topshop! This is also my first Topshop polish and I have to say I'm impressed!

I assume it's another attempt at recreating Channel Peridot and that's the reason I bought it after seeing a swatch at A Polish Addict. I don't own Peridot (mainly because of the price tag), so I'm really happy with Hidden Treasure (£6 for 8ml)!

The bottle shot is amazing! Depending on the angle, it reads a green/gold/teal/turquoise'ish mix with indigo towards the edges! Oh boy... I wish my nails looked like that but obviously the multichrome doesn't translate as strongly onto the nail!

HT needed 3 coats to be fully opaque but the formula is really smooth, applies a dream and there is no streakiness whatsoever. On the nail, the colour resembles that of Peridot - a greenish gold! In some pictures, the gold is more apparent but in others, you can see the green creeping in and getting slightly darker at the edges! Obviously, irl, if you move your hand around, it is much more noticeable as the light hits it at different angles.

I took a pic in direct sunlight which I don't think makes much of a difference to this polish as both the green and gold are still visible under my lamp. I also took one in a bowl of water as it was the only way I could get the slightest bit of indigo to show!

Golden Eye Lagoon

I'm overdoing it with these spring/ summer pastel and milky colours aren't I? It's just that I made a point to at least use some of my lighter colours that have been sitting on the shelf for what seems like forever. So, I have a few swatches and manis in mind to show you.

This is Mavala Lagoon stamped with Barry M Gold Foil and BM212. Although a lot of people use this stamp for their "peacock" nails, it also reminds me of some of the patterns in Indian lace. Oh, and eyes as well! Lol!

Lagoon is a light blue/ green creme with the smallest hint of shimmer. In some light it looks like a pale turquoise but in others it resembles a sort of minty green (see pics below - I painted my nails this morning but only stamped this evening and couldn't capture the same shade!).
It's quite similar to Chanel Nouvelle Vague. From swatches I've seen, Lagoon has a tiny bit more of a green tinge to it but they're close enough for me.

It's a pretty colour, applies well and needs 2 coats for full opacity! The brushes in Mavala are actually quite good for a small bottle. I would say I love this colour, but hey!!! There are very few polish colours I dislike, it just depends on my mood!

It's Black, It's Gold, It's Matte!

I'm obsessed with matte again! I was really into it at one point but then sort of forgot about it, now I feel like I have to mattify everything, well... nearly everything!

After I laid the gold stamp over the black base, it just didn't look right being glossy! I had also been looking at some of Amy Grace's past matte manis and who doesn't totally fall in love with Amy Grace's manis?! I also took a page out of Finger's and Erika's book and added some french tips for good measure!

So here it is, 2 coats of Barry M Black, stamped with Barry M Gold Foil and BM201. I smudged the image a little and not all of it transferred as I had hoped but I'm getting better at stamping.  Hope you like it :)

Dark Amethyst & Gold Flakies

As I didn't have time to swatch the second colour of the CND The Look for Fall/ Winter 2011 yesterday, as promissed, here it is:

 

Dark Amethyst is a deep purple creme. Very close to plum shade. I like the fact that it's very deep purple but doesn't look nearly black like my OPI Lincoln Park After Dark often does. Formula is perfect as with Midnight Sapphire yesterday.

 

And here it is with one coat of Sheer 24k Sparkle:

Thanks for stopping by :)

Midnight Sapphire & Gold Flakies!

A couple of months ago I went over to the UK distributor for CND and when I saw this little trio on the shelf, I couldn't help myself. This is was the "Look" for Fall/ Winter 2011 (I know I'm a little late...sorry) and it consists of 2 cremes and a new effect:

Today I'll be showing you Midnight Sapphire. It's been a busy day so I haven't had time to swatch both :(

Midnight Sapphire is a deeply pigmented sapphire blue creme. It goes much darker on the nail compared to the bottle colour. Although it's not the first time we see a blue like this, it is still a very pretty shade! You can't go wrong with a deep inky blue. The formula is absolutely amazing but then again I have never had a problem with CND formulas - always opaque in just one coat and very easy and smooth to work with.

 

Once you apply the 24k Sparkle Effect, a gold flakie, it transforms the base colour and gives it that extra sparkle. I really like CND Effects. They can be worn over so many polishes to spruce them up:

 

I couldn't help but mattify it as well. I love my flakies matte:

Thanks for reading and commenting :)

Red & Gold

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!
I should have probably posted this mani before Christmas because of the colour scheme but better late than never!
I haven't done a half moon mani in a while and since I'm not very good at nail art, I really like these because they look good and are easy to do! I'm not sure about this colour combo for everyday use but around the holidays everything goes!

I used Nails Inc Magnetic Big Ben for this many because it was the closest to the shade of gold that I wanted. It also has a sort of matte finish which I thought was interesting for the half moon: