Rose and Gold Touches

Today I'm wearing a soft pink shade. Babydoll by Leighton Denny. It's one of my favourite pinks along with Jessica Samba Parade, although I say that about a lot of shades! The application on this one was quite streaky and it needed three coats to even everything out but nothing too bad for a pastel.

My latest attempts at nail art have been feeble to say the least so I kept it quite simple with a mish-mash of glitter and stamping.
The two gold glitters used on the accent finger are W7 Gold Dazzle and a coat of a Brazilian brand called Dote Preciosos - Cristais Dourados, sent to me by Bia. I stamped using BM14 and Barry M Golf and Silver Foil.

Born Pretty Ylin Colour Changing Polish and Travel Brush Review

Today I have two products from the Born Pretty Store to show you. A colour changing/ mood polish and a travel make up brush.

I had never tried a colour changing polish before simply because if I put a certain colour on my nails, I want that colour to stay on until I get fed up of that mani, but I thought I'd give it a try.
The consistency of this polish (brand name Ylin, shade 07) was really strange. It looked a lot like water paint and although the application was OK, the formula was terrible.

As you can see, it goes on purple and dries matte. As soon as I dipped my hands in warm water, it changed to a bright sky blue. However, it also started bubbling and lifting if I dipped my hand in the water more than once. When you let your hand cool down again, it goes back to purple. I'm not sure if I didn't use it properly or if I got a bad bottle but the polish lifted so much that chunks of it came right off even after an hour of drying time.

The second item I got was a travel brush. I love the gold casing and leopard print. The brush is an ideal medium size as I've got a couple of other travel brushes that are too small. The bristles are soft and so far durable.
I took it with me on holiday last week and it applies blush really well. I also managed to apply bronzer and pressed powder with it so it's definitely a good travel brush.

If you want to know more about these or any other Born Pretty Store products, check out their page HERE. Use discount code VA7J61 to get 10% off.

The Pinky And The Brain

I've been wearing such dark colours lately and the weather is so dreary at the moment that I just had to opt for something really bright and fun. This is Catrice The Pinky And The Brain, a hot, deep raspberry pink, with Milani Jewel FX in Silver. The Catrice photographed quite reddish on me for some reason but it's much more pink and bright irl.

I loved the formula (opaque in 2 even coats) but it was the first time I've used the new Catrice wide brush and I hated it. From what I gathered they were meant to introduce a new wide and flat brush but instead it's uneven and bushy.

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!

Popular and Belle Kind Of Week

This week I've been in the mood for really soft, girly colours so here are a couple of polishes I wore.

Revlon Popular (a.k.a Starry Pink). Two coats over a coat of a baby pink creme polish as I didn't want any vnl. The silver micro and hex glitters add such a nice touch to the rose tinted milky base.

For the last couple of days, I've been wearing Belle by The Hungry Asian. Belle is a white jelly based polish with pink micro glitter and brown hex glitter. I thought the brown glitters were so different and unique. This is 3 coats over a coat of Nails Inc Elizabeth Street. I also placed some extra loose brown glitters to the accent.  You can find The Hungry Asian polishes on Etsy.

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?

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?

My Fall Polishes: A-England St.George

My autumn/ winter polish picks wouldn't be complete without an A-England beauty. This is St. George, my favourite from "The Legend" collection which has often been called "teal perfection"! The smallest scattered holographic particles are mesmerising and it's smooth, buttery formula make this polish a dream to work with.

The consistency is so perfect, I didn't even have to do any clean-up. It's pretty much a one-coater if applied carefully and thickly enough. I can easily run out of positive adjectives to describe this polish, those of you who have tried Adina's holos know what I'm talking about.

Once Upon A Time...

Today I thought I'd dig out an indie polish and voila...Once Upon A Time by Lush Lacquer. A light pink base with lots of different sized pink, purple and silver glitters.

I used one coat of Jessica Samba Parade as a base and two coats of Once Upon A Time. I loved this polish much more in the bottle than I did on my nails, so I decided to only use it on accent nails and mix it up with black. You can't really go wrong with black polish!

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.