Pink Wednesday - Gothic Lolita Nails!

When I saw this picture on the Gothidge Angel Makeup blog, I fell in love straight away and had to recreate this mani! I thought it looked awesome!

I used a pound-store Barbie'ish pink polish (or should I say Euro-store as I bought it whilst on holiday in Portugal), it's by a Spanish brand called Lusty Cosmetics (I think) and it's #293 - no name! It's a pretty good polish considering how cheap it was. I also used BM11 to create the lace effect.

Pink Wednesday!!! - Barry M Pink Flamingo

Today I wanted to show you a pink I acquired earlier this summer but hadn't had a chance to swatch it and take pictures. I wore it both on my fingers and toes whilst on holiday in Portugal this August and got quite a few compliments.

It's a bright pink with cool undertones and a bit of coral mixed in, hence the name. However, in some lighting, it can just look flat out pink! I'm not quite sure why but Pink Flamingo is one of those strange colours that looks different all the time. I remember having Pink Flamingo circa 2008/2009 and it was much more of a coral than a pink! When I wore it whilst on holiday, it looked like a true neon pink. Today, in direct light it just looks bright pink!

As with my other Barry M's, this one is also creamy and evenly pigmented but it definitely needs 2 coats. It doesn't dry as fast as my other Barry M's, not sure why! I got quite a lot of wear out of it the last time I wore it (5 days) which I was surprised with seeing that I was at the beach everyday!

 

Pink Wednesday!!! - This way to my heart!

I did this mani a while ago when I first swatched OPI Panda-monium Pink but was keeping it for a pink Wednesday since I haven't been doing that many pink manicures lately!

I usually keep to horizontal or diagonal stripes because I think they look better on my nails but decided to give the vertical look a go too! I didn't really like the way each stripe sat next to each other so I separated them with some silver glitter! Oh, I also added the fimo heart because you all know how much I love perched fimo and how cute the dainty shapes look :)

Pink Wednesday!!! - OPI Panda-monium Pink

Panda-monium Pink is part of the OPI Hong Kong Collection Spring 2010 and is my second bottle from this collection. I also have Lucky Lucky Lavender which is in fact very similar to this pink because they both have a bit of lilac in them.

Panda-monium Pink is a light, pastel pink creme with cool undertones. I found the formula to be on the thin side, very sheer and needed 3 coats for even coverage. It also applied very streaky which granted, is the case with a lot of these milky based colours but even the 3rd coat didn't even out the streaks. Only a coat of SV helped smooth it out a little.

In spite of the consistency and application, I still love the colour. It reminds me of candy floss.

                           

Pink Wednesday - Nails Inc. OMP (Oh My Pink!)

A few weeks ago, Nails Inc had a collaboration with Fabulous Magazine here in the UK where they were giving away 2 bottles in exchange for collecting 3 tokens from the News of the World newspaper (now non-existent). The papers were about £1 each and 2 Nails Inc polishes are worth about £22, so a bargain really!
The two colours were Atomic (which I have included for you guys in my giveaway) and OMP (Oh My Pink!).

As is the case with all my Nails Inc polishes, OMP was an absolute wonder to work with! A raspberry creme shade with defined undertones of red makes it a rose-reddish colour, almost like amaranth. It's a highly pigmented one-coater (so no problems with opacity) although the pictures below are 2 coats for smoothness (and because I can't help it but always use 2 coats)!

Pink Wednesday!!! - Pinkyberry Franken

Hi Everyone. It's that time of the week again - Pink Wednesday! Today I want to show you my first franken. I know it may look slightly more of a light berry shade but the base polish I used for this was Mavala Daring Pink. I named it Pinkyberry!! Not very creative, I know *hangs head in shame*.

I have so many pink shades so I guess I just wanted something a little different. I like the way it turned out, it reminds me of old English roses.
In some of the pics below, you'll be able to see silver, blue and pink glitter...oopps! I got carried away with the glitter and I also tried to add some perly shimmer to it.
I'm taking a penchant to frankens. I'll definitely be experimenting some more.

Pink Wednesday!!! - Hello Kitty Nail Polish By H&M - Pink Summer

(This is a scheduled post, I am currently on holiday)
Happy Pink Wednesday everyone! Today I wanted to show you a polish which I've been meaning to try for a long time but never really got around to it, Hello Kitty Pink Summer by H&M. During my last H&M haul, I bought a few goodies but was particularly looking out for this one and the blue version of this polish as well (which I will hopefully show you soon). I have quite a large stash of pinks but I just wanted this one because of the cute bottle and because it's Hello Kitty :-)

I wasn't expecting the formula to be great but boy was I wrong! I love the consistency, it goes on as smooth as silk and it's so manageable (you wouldn't flood your cuticles even if you wanted to, Lol!!!). It's pigmented enough to be a one coater and the quick drying time also surprised me. Keeping in mind I only paid £2.99 for this (I think, it was over a months ago!), I'm very happy with this polish as a whole.

Pink Wednesday!!! - Hello Kitty

(This is a scheduled post, I am currently on holiday)
Although I do love Hello Kitty, and there are hundreds of different Hello Kitty nail art out there to inspire me, I've never actually the cute little kitten myself.

I'm not very good at drawing, when I was a kid I couldn't even colour inside the lines, Lol! So I wouldn't attempt anything too complicated, that's when I came across a design by Kayla Shevonne a couple of weeks ago and I thought it was really great. Click here to see her tutorial. I also originally saw a similar post by Rina which you can find here.

These looked amazing but still easy enough for me to give it a go. Kitty's eyes weren't dry enough when I applied a top coat of SV so it looks like she is crying a little..Lol

I used Ciate Cupcake Queen for the base colour and Jessica Samba Parade for the dots.

Pink Wednesday!!! - Cliche Soft Pink & Pink French Tips

Hi Everyone. For today's pink Wednesday I wanted to show you a soft pretty pink from a Portuguese brand called Cliche. My mum was on holiday in Portugal a couple of weeks ago and brought me this one as well a couple of Brazilian brands. I've tried the Brazilian brands before and they are really good however, it's my first time trying Cliche. This polish is named "Atracao" which means attraction.
I'll be looking into this brand a little more when I go to Portugal next week, if I find nice colours, I'll bring some back for my first giveaway which will be happening soon :)

I love the colour, it's a really soft cherry blossom pink full of soft pearly shimmer. The formula is thin and applies very sheer so I used a white base colour (visible in the pics below) under the 2 coats of Cliche.

I then added some darker pink tips with Color Club In Bloom. I love french tips, it sort of seals and finishes off a mani :)

Pink Wednesday!!! - L.A Colors Paradise Pink... What a bargain!

I decided to use an L.A Colors polish for this week's Pink Wednesday - Paradise Pink.

I know that in the US, these polishes are readily available at many stores and for a very low price but that's not the case here is the UK. Here you can find the odd colour here and there if you buy online in places like Amazon and none of our drug stores sell it (none that I could find anyway).

I wanted to try L.A Colors so I had been been looking for them for quite a while (I know they existed here somewhere), until my husband found some in a little beauty store near his office. I don't even know how he spotted those... he bought me 4 bottles! Here they still cost £1.50 which is about $2.30 I think.

As these are found at the dollar store in the US, I wasn't expecting a lot from them, maybe that's why I'm quite impressed. I've only tried 1 bottle but based on this one, I can say that the formula is better than a lot of more expensive polishes I have tried like Maybelline (sorry I'm not a fan of their polishes), Bourjois (not a massive fan either) and a couple more UK brands which retail at about £1.99 per bottle.

Paradise Pink is a vibrant reddish rose colour (maybe a cross between crimson and rose) with lots of pearl shimmer. It was opaque in 2 coats although you could still see VNL outdoors.

Definitely the thumbs up for this bargain polish!

Pink Wednesday!!! - Polka Dots with a Kick & Color Club In Bloom!

For today's Pink Wednesday I am actually going to show you a mani I did a couple of weeks ago. My nails were still a little long back then and I had them filed in an oval shape - won't be doing that again anytime soon!!! I don't think it suits me at all, I'm more of a square gal! Lol!!

Anyway, onto the mani... I used Color Club In Bloom as the base colour, a true creme Barbie pink with the tiniest amount of shimmer, almost undetectable. Visible in the bottle and on the brush but doesn't translate to the nail!
I then taped off diagonal and "V" shaped sections of the nails and used Rimmel London 60 Seconds Black Out before using a dotting tool to create white larger dots and pink smaller dots. I got the inspiration for this mani from Love4Nails YouTube tutorial. Check it out, this lady is extremely talented and her nails are beautifully long. I wish I could keep mine like that but they would snap in a blink of an eye!

And here is how In Bloom looks like on its own:

Pink Wednesday: China Glaze Sugar High & CND Violet Shimmer Effect

Happy Wednesday everyone. For today's mani I have a swatch of China Glaze's Sugar High I got in one of my hauls sometime ago but hadn't yet had the chance to try it.

Sugar High is a medium creme pink from the Up & Away Collection. The name suits the polish really well because it does make me think of candy every time I look at it.
I had seen this polish on other people's nails and read a few reviews before buying it, and it looked much more of a bright hot pink than it does on my nails! When I first opened the bottle I could almost see the hint of neon everybody talks about but on my nails I could detect a hint of coral instead.
This polish is loaded with pigmentation and was fully opaque in 2 coats, no problems with streaks either.

I had a bottle of CND Effects Violet Shimmer on my shelf that I've never used and just wanted to experiment a little so I layered it over Sugar High. I think it would be much more evident and looks better over dark colours where the shimmer really has a chance to pop, however I also think it looks good over Sugar High. It turned it into a very shiny neon and although I had trouble getting this on picture, it was very evident outdoors in direct sunlight.

Pink Wednesday!!! - Medieval Shields (Checkered Mani)

For this week's Pink Wednesday I wanted to show you a checkered mani I did some time ago which was inspired by Erica of course. Her tutorials are detailed and so easy to follow and I love, love, love tape manis because of how easy they are and what you can achieve with them!!!

I was browsing through Jane's blog some time ago and she also mentioned that these look like Shields! They really do actually - Medieval Shields, but maybe not in pink and silver. I doubt ancient worriers would be very fond of these!

For the base colour I used Zoya Trixie. This is a light silver with a sparkling metallic foil finish. It's probably the closest you can get to the Minx or some sort of nail foil look, with a polish! Application was so easy with this one and there was no clean up whatsoever!! One coat of this would probably be sufficient but I applied 2 and removal is nowhere near as arduous as glittery polishes. In fact, it came off like regular polish.
As my CND Raspberry Parfait is a perfect 1 coater, I used it to create the checkered pattern :-)

xoxo