Screaming Teal

A very quick and bright mani today with two polishes from my untrieds stash. This is 2 coats of Pure Ice Scream with Milani Teal on the accent nail (also 2 coats layered over a coat of a random teal polish I had laying around).
This is my first time trying Pure Ice and I loved the formula. It's very buttery and opaque in two easy coats. I'm a massive fan of the Milani chunky glitters, if you like your blues and greens, you will love this chunky glitter too. It reminds me of mermaids.

Born Pretty Store $20 Voucher Giveaway

Today I'm bringing you a giveaway sponsored by the Born Pretty store. You have the chance to win a $20 voucher to spend on any products or supplies from the Born Pretty website. This giveaway is open internationally!

The rules are quite simple:
- Must be publicly following me via GFC
- Must be following The Born Pretty Store Blog publicly via GFC and like them on Facebook.
 
This bit is optional but to gain more entries, you can also:
- Follow the Born Pretty Store on Twitter
- Follow me on Twitter
- Follow me on Facebook

This giveaway will end on 13th March.

Good luck :)
a Rafflecopter giveaway

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.

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.

Fuchsia Garden - Terrestrial Nails

Today I have a somewhat bright mani to show you, featuring an indie polish from Terrestrial Nails called Fuchsia Garden. It was sent to me by a wonderful lady on Instagram (@nic_tchelly) and you can also find the creator of Terrestrial Nails on Instagram (@newieee), on Etsy and on Facebook.

Fuchsia Garden is a medium green base with mircro and medium hex fuchsia glitter. You need 3 coats for full opacity but you can also layer it over any green or teal polish to achieve instant opacity. One thing I like about this polish is definitely the colour combo, it's different and original as I haven't seen a lot of green bases with fuchsia glitter. I just wish there were a bit more of the larger hex glitter swimming around in it.

I used a bright neon purple polish to complement the glitters in this polish and to also break up the green a little bit. It's by Justy Cosmetics No.422. This polish was only €1 and I absolutely love the colour and the formula. I'll have to do a full mani with it soon.

Holo Day: Speciallita HITS Dionisio

Today I have swatches of the lovely Dionisio from the Speciallita Hits No Olimpo collection. It's a gorgeous grape purple linear holo. Although I don't find the holo effect of these No Olimpo polishes as evident and strong as the newer Jade Holographics, the holo effect is still very good considering both these pictures are indoors and not in direct sunlight!
The formula is really good as well although since this collection was launched, various companies have ensured that their holo formulas have become better and better. Too bad these polishes have every chemical known in the book and aren't 3-free.

 These Speciallita Hits polishes are available through Llarowe for $8 I believe but I got this one in a swap.

My Dark Valentine

Today I have a Valentines Day mani to show you. It's a little bit on the dark side but I wasn't in the mood for pink. I wear pink quite often but for some reason, never feel like wearing it around Valentines!

I've always wanted to see what NYX Dorothy looks like matte so this was the perfect occasion to do so. I love this polish, a black jelly base packed with large hex and small red glitter. I'll definitely wear it again on it's own very soon! The thumb and pointer are just a regular black creme mattified with Essie Matte About You.

I stamped the ring finger with the Born Pretty lovely heart m59 stamping plate which at the time seemed like a good idea but I'm not really a fan of how it turned out. The bubbling hearts are too sweet for the look I was going for but then again, it's the only detail that keeps it withing the Valentine these! I also added some loose hex glitter pieces to the ring finger for a slight french tip.

March Sweet Candy Lacquer & Moustaches: Born Pretty Store

Moustaches in February? Yes! That's what today's post is featuring! Little moustaches are so cute and have been so fashionable for the last few months that we've see them printed everywhere and made into jewellery.

Here is a little moustache ring from the Born Pretty Store. The polish I'm wearing is also from Born Pretty and is part of their newest range of polishes, March. The collection consists of 12 "sweet candy" colours and this rose blush with hints of pastel coral is #9. I drew the moustache on my middle finger with some black acrylic paint. As I'm not very good at freehand, acrylic paint gave me better control compared to black polish.

The bottle is really dainty and the little bow makes it even more cute. These polishes cost $7.29 each but the formula was good and applied smoothly in three coats. You can use my 10% discount code VA7J61 for any Born Pretty Store purchases and they also offer free shipping worldwide.

The ladies at Born Pretty also sent me a new clean up brush as my current one is quite old and tattered. However, as soon as I saw it, I knew it wouldn't work for clean up as it's way too bushy and uneven. I may be able to use it as a lip brush or an angled eyeshadow brush after a little trim.

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

Nothing Kim-pares To Blue - Nicole by OPI

Time for another blue beauty which has been sitting in my stash for almost a year - Nothing Kim-pares To Blue from Nicole by OPI. It's a beautiful and creamy sky blue shimmer packed with silver glass flecks.
I've been wearing it for the past couple of days and love it. In fact, I love every single colour from the Wel-Kim To My World collection but they are really hard to get hold of over here so I have to content myself with just the one!

Nothing Kim-pares To Blue is slightly sheer so I did have to do three coats for full opacity but that wasn't really a problem because the formula was go good to work with and made application a breeze. I really like the wider brush in this bottle as some of my older NOPI's have the really thin "barely there" round brush.

I know a lot of people aren't fan of the Kardashians at all, especially Kim, but I can't lie, I really like watching Keeping Up With The Kardashians. Not only does it have really good cringe worthy moments, I am also a reality TV junkie! Yep...my guilty pleasure!

What do you think of this shimmery cornflower blue?

The Ultimate Fix - Fast Drying Nail Polish Spray

Today I have something slightly different to show you. It's not a new nail polish, nail plate or nail art supplies as such. It's a nail polish drying spray.  The Ultimate Fix by the Beauty Narcotix is described as a "non-oily drying spray" that "dries and protects nail polish in minutes". Other than drying your polish extremely fast, their website also says:

"With the Ultimate Fix you can achieve the beautiful, long lasting, high shine results that gels give without the potential hassle of gel nail."

I really wanted to test this out, so here is what I did. I purposely used a polish in my stash which I knew takes forever and a day to dry. Yes Love is a pound store polish which I buy every time I go on holiday to Portugal. Their formulas are horrible (at least all the ones I've tried) but they do the best neons and brights and because they are only €1 each, I always grab a few for nail art or to stamp over.

Before I tell you more about the Ultimate Fix, here is how your nails would look after 60 seconds of applying your last coat. This is Yes Love K017, 3 coats:

So, here are my views on this fast drying nail spray:

- It does indeed dry polish really fast. You are supposed to apply spray between each layer of polish and it dries that layer to the touch literally within seconds.

- You do need to give it about 10 minutes to completely dry all the layers. I pressed a key into my pointer about 2 minutes after applying the last layer and that was too soon as it did dent slightly (can you see?). However, I was only testing the speed and wouldn't normally do that of course! This spray is fast drying but I wouldn't go rummaging through the bottom of my bag as soon as I've finished doing the last layer!

- I love that it's non oily as all other nail sprays I've tried are quite oily which is good for your cuticles but makes it hard to photograph your nails unless you wash your hands. This spray is however, quite sticky to the touch but that doesn't really bother me.

- The spray also claims to maintain your nails chip proof and lasting longer. I was able to wear it for 3 days and it was chip free during that time. It may have lasted longer but longevity isn't at the top of my list as I change my polish way too often.

- The only downside for me (which might be a positive for some people) is the smell. It doesn't stink, in fact, it has a very strong perfumed fragrance to it which I couldn't quite put my finger on but my husband tells me it smells like Joop Joop Homme! The fragrance lingered well after I washed my hands a few times.

Other than the very strong smell, I really like this spray and will most definitely be using it when I need to do a quick mani before dashing out or even for tape manis where I can't be bothered to wait for my polish to dry.

You can find out more and purchase The Ultimate Fix directly from the Beauty Narcotix website.

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