Dazzle Dry - Nail Stories "Blue Fantasy" Collaboration Shade and Mystery Winter 2013 Collection

Hi everyone! Today's post is really special to me as I've had to keep it a secret since early summer. But it's finally being launched today and time to share with you that I've been chosen as one of the bloggers for Dazzle Dry's Winter 2013 Collaboration project. I also have swatches of the other polishes in the collection and which blogger created which shade.

About the polish:
When I was first approached by Dazzle Dry, I was really flattered to be chosen as one of the 5 bloggers to create a shade. It didn't take me long to decide on an electric blue as it's obviously one of my favourite colours.
However, I wanted to add a little extra something to it and it wasn't until my husband showed me some galaxy pictures which he obsesses over in his free time that I saw some amazing colour combos and it struck me! I wanted a vivid blue with small particles of pink shimmer swirling across the entire nail.

Without further ado, here are the beautiful shades the other ladies created:

Artic Sunset by Anutka from wackylaki. A striking white with silver/gold shifting shimmer.

Tiger Lily - a hot pink packed with iridescent shimmer that shifts beautifully. By Jen from The Nail Polish Project.

Moxie - a deep purple based multichrome. It shifts from copper to fuchsia to gold depending on the lighting. By Robin Moses

Feisty - a deep burgundy with pink and silver shimmer. By Rina from Simply Rins.

Dragonfly - a dark forest green shimmer/ foil polish. The duochrome in this one is gorgeous as well, it shifts from teal to gold.

The majority of these polish dry slightly matte because of Dazzle's Dry's super quick dry and Vegan formulas but the colours really come alive with a topcoat!

Availability:
The Dazzle Dry Winter 2013 Collection will be available to purchase from their website www.dazzledry.com or www.dazzledry.co.uk for UK buyers.

*The products featured in this post were sent to me for review.

Crisp White Sparkle

You know those days when you just want a really clean mani but you don't just want to throw on a nude polish? Today is one of those days for me and the colour I always go to for a clean and crisp mani is of course white!

I rarely wear white polish on it's own anymore because for some reason, I always end up using it as a base for nail art or stamping but I do love the look of a good opaque and streak free white.

This is 2 coats of Sally Hansen White On topped with a coat of China Glaze Fairy Dust for some pretty and understated sparkle. I wish I could sprinkle Fairy Dust over everything!

A close up of the sparkle which is quite visible in person as well:

piCture pOlish - White Wedding

Hi guys. Today I have a piCture pOlish beauty to show you - White Wedding! This is part of the Collaboration Collection which piCture pOlish did with bloggers and etailers. White Wedding was created by Leah Ann from Llarowe.

I love white and off shite shades of polish so when this one showed up on my doorstep, I was over the moon and it was the first one I picked to try out.

This is 3 coats of White Wedding. A gorgeous milky white base, kind of jelly like, packed with the most subtle shimmer. I wore this on it's own although I did layer one coat over black on a nail wheel and it looked amazing too. You can definitely see all the multi colour flecks sparkling over the darker colour.

This is such a soft and elegant white. I can never get tired of shades like this. I would have definitely worn this for my wedding if I had it at the time I got married.

piCture pOlish can be purchased directly from their website - picturepolish.com.au. They do international shipping. You can also purchase it at various etailers throughout the world. Check out their Network page for more info. You can keep updated on any piCture pOlish news via their Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

*The product featured  in this post was sent to me for review.

Misa Indescribable & Reverse Silver Glitter Gradient

Christmas is almost upon us and although I haven't particularly worn any Christmas manis this year, I have been wearing plenty of glitters, greens, reds and colours that generally remind me of the holiday season.

For the last couple of days I have been wearing a mani that reminds me of ice/ snow, although it hasn't even snowed in London as of yet!

This is 3 coats of Misa Indescribable. It's an off white with hints of pink and sometimes even has a grey tinge too, depending on lighting. I'm really loving soft colours like this at the moment but this polish was somewhat of a pain to apply. It's very streaky and doesn't even out. Drying time was tedious too, I had to redo two nails because I kept nicking them expecting them to have dried to the touch.

I then added a reverse gradient of silver glitter with New York Summer Las Vegas. It wasn't exactly what I had in mind but the whole look does remind me somewhat of snow and glittery white garland.

It's not even that cold in the UK at the moment but I still can't leave the house with my trusty gloves. I love fingerless gloves. My husband thinks they are ridiculous but they show my mani whilst keeping the rest of my hand warm! Win-win! Lol!

Thanks for reading :)

My Las Vegas Nails - What would you wear?

Earlier this year, I spent a week in Las Vegas. It wasn't at all what I was expecting, it was way better! It's one of those places that you need a holiday after holidaying there! There's always something super exciting to do and see and the days are just exciting as the nights!

Whilst we were there, we went to shows and events every night and I wanted to show you what I wore on a night out in Vegas. As you guys know, I'm more partial to simpler designs and nothing too cheesy so I stayed away from drawing the Ace of Spades or Casino chips on my nails and opted for something that would fit in with the glamour of Vegas and still matched all my evening dresses.

I wore Leighton Denny Sensual Glam with a rhinestone encrusted accent nail! Sensual Glam is an off white packed with silver glass flecks which gives it that extra sparkle. My bottle is already half empty, I love this shade so much.

 I used nail glue to stick down the rhinestones otherwise they would fall off all the time. A couple still fell off throughout the week but I took the little tube of glue and a few spare rhinestones with me so I replaced them straight away. I was surprised the whole look actually stayed put for about 6 days.

What do you guys think? What would be your nail polish/ nail art of choice for a night out in Vegas?

Nautical Love

I've finally managed to cross the "Nautical" themed mani off my to do list! The Beauty Department's Nautical mani is very popular all over Pinterest, Tumblr and Instagram so I've always wanted to recreate the look, and it was very fitting for the weekend I had :)

I didn't use the same method as they did on The Beauty Department, instead I used striping tape to create the thin lines! The whole thing wasn't at all difficult to do but as you know striping tape can get quite fiddly and annoying!

The white base is OPI Alpine Snow and the navy blue is CND Midnight Sapphire (I will be wearing this polish quite a lot this winter). I even used a prop for the picture!

Icebreaker - Polished By KPT

Hi guys!

Today I have a great indie polish from Polished By KPT to share with you! Indie polishes have been everywhere for the last few months and each one is more beautiful and unique than the last!

KP Tran is the mastermind behind Polished By KPT and she was so sweet to send me some of her creations to try out. She sent me Icebreaker, which I will be showing you today and two mini bottles of her own Spectraflair topcoat and Midnight Kiss, a purple based multi glitter.

Without further ado, here is Icebreaker:

I pretty much did the happy dance for half an hour when I opened her package and Icebreaker was in there! It's a white creamy base packed with large purple and blue hex glitters as well as smaller green, blue and holo pieces of glitter and silver micro glitter! Whoa!! White based glitters are my absolute favourite!

You can buy Polished By KPT directly via her site on Big Cartel - here! All her polishes retail at $9.50 apart from the Spectraflair top coat. You can also check out her Facebook page and her Instagram user name is @kptran.

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

An Almost Rainbow of Butterflies

Today's mani which I did about a week ago, started out as an experiment. I had never stamped with more than one colour before and I wanted to find out how easy or difficult it is because I like the final results so much. It turns out, it's quite simple and not very messy as long as you work fast (if you are using regular polish).

The 3 colours I used are very cheap polishes (I don't like to waste my good polish on stamping) and I think it came out really well. The colours are vivid and show enough for my liking. I got quite a few compliments on this mani. A few people asked me if I was wearing stickers or press-ons, so I guess that's a compliment. At one point I just said yes after I tried to explain to the first girl that it's all polish and stamped with 3 different colours. She looked confused and sceptical!

Violet Pink Gradient Dots

I really enjoyed doing this gradient dot mani inspired by Sarah at Chalkboard nails. It's been on my "to do" list ever since I saw it last year but as usual, I've only just got around to it! It's such a simple mani but I really like the way the dots start fading from the violet into the white.

I used a violet pink Forever 21 polish (no name) which I got as part of a set of five polishes for $3. I had never used Forever 21 polishes before but for this price I couldn't help myself, plus all five colours were really pretty. The white is OPI Alpine Snow.

Lava Flow - New W7 Glitters

When I was browsing through nailpolishdirect.co.uk last week, I came across some new W7 polishes. I used to see W7 as one of those very cheap and random brands which had inconsistent formulas and which I would only use for white and black cremes. Then I tried one of their "Dazzle" glitters and a couple of their "Planets" polishes and became quite obsessed with this £1.95 brand!

They have impressed me lately and I couldn't believe my eyes when I spotted these three glitters! They reminded me of Indie polishes so much. I hadn't seen any swatches at all or even heard about them but since they were so cheap I decided to get them anyway! I'm so glad I did! L to R: Mosaic, Salt N Pepper, Lava Flow.

One of my followers on Instagram has just told me that Mosaic is a dupe for Nails Inc Sprinkles Pudding Lane, with the same gold and dark blue glitters. I wish they would bring out more with different base colours!

Here is two coats Lava Flow which consists of black and red glitter suspended in a white milky base! Although I have one coat of OPI Alpine Snow on, I was quite surprised at how opaque Lava Flow actually is!

Pastel Watercolour Zebra

Today's design has been on my "to do" list for such a long time. I've always wanted to try a pastel watercolour technique but I don't really like it when all the colours look too messy on the nail. So I only let the four colours I used for this design overlap slightly.

I started with a white base (OPI Alpine Snow) and also used the following polishes to create the watercolour effect - Yes Love 243 (yellow), Yes Love Y17 (pink), Barry M Blueberry Ice Cream and Rimmel London Misty Jade. All of these pastels together remind me of soft scoop ice cream :)

I finally stamped with BM223 (probably my most used BM plate) for a subtle zebra effect.

Antique Blue & White China

The ladies from Born Pretty were so kind to send me a few more of their products to try out so today I have a stamping polish review for you guys.

I tried to recreate a blue porcelain pattern. I've seen something similar to this on Pinterest in the past and Fingers also did an awesome one which she has on her header. This is also my mum's favourite pattern. Most of her plates and tea cups are blue and white porcelain and just last week when we went to Ikea, she even bought bed covers with this theme. It's also a very popular pattern in Portugal and people often line the outer walls of their house with blue and white tiles.

The base colour is OPI Alpine Snow, stamped with Born Pretty Blue Stamping Polish and BM221. Also added blue striping tape to the tips.

I was quite surprised at how small the Born Pretty Stamping polish was (see pic below, it's tiny in my hand). I'm not sure why but I was expecting it to be at least 10ml.
Although in the bottle it's a dark blue, it stamps much lighter as you can see. It's perfectly thick and goopy for stamping which I thought was great and although the consistency is not quite like the Konad stamping polishes, I didn't really have any problems with transference. I messed up my pinky a little but that's because I didn't wipe my stamper properly after doing my ring finger.

If you want to purchase Born Pretty Stamping Polishes or any other nail art supplies, you can have 7% off by using my discount code -  VA7J61.

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?

Can I Call This A Gradient?

Gradients are everywhere at the moment! I can't open my blog feed, my IG or my Pinterest without stumbling upon a gradient or ombre as it's often called, and I'm loving it! I've always loved gradients so I'm really glad they're everywhere!

In the past couple of weeks, I've seem some of the most beautiful gradients from Jeanette at The-swatchaholic,  from Carolina at Colores de Carol and of course Sammy's brilliant tutorial.

I had to try a gradient myself but it didn't quite turn out how I had planed! I was hoping for that smooth transition from one colour to the next, like that blended eyeshadow effect as I like to call it, without any of the grittiness but I had no such luck :( Maybe I should have used more complementing colours instead of contrasting.

I still like the way it turned out but I wasn't trying to go for the obviously clear graduation look. It's definitely something I'll try again soon, after I practice a little more.

I added a layer of Accessorize Crystal Shimmer to add a little bit of sparkle and at a last attempt of smoothing everything out.

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!

Sweet Cherries of Mine

Time for a little bit of nail art! I've got so much stuff to post for you guys and I wish I could post everyday but I'm so busy at the moment :( Good thing I have quite a few swatches and manis which I did over a weekend a couple of weeks ago, so I'll keep posting some of these until I run out!

I had been wanting to do a cherry manicure for ages as they are incredibly cute. However, my first attempt was so disastrous and disappointing that I had to remove it straight away! I drew cherries on all the nails and I just didn't like the look! It was a bit of an overload especially as I am really into more toned down and discreet (not too discreet) looks now!

That's when I came across a picture on Tumblr by a girl called Victoria. She did a cherry mani but only on her accent finger! I can work with that! I spent about an hour looking at all her designs! She is so talented and her stuff is seriously amazing, check out her page!

So, this is the second attempt. I like it much more! I'm even impressed that those cherries came out quite "cherry looking"! I'm so bad at freehand that I was half expecting them to come out looking like plums!

The red is Boots 17 Knockout Red and the white is OPI Alpine Snow!

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: