Essie Winter 2017 Collection review + swatches

I feel like an idiot, this post has been sat fully written in my drafts for more than two months, and I was under the impression that I'd posted it! It's a bit delayed, but it's such a beautiful collection I wanted to post it anyway. So here's my review of the Essie Winter 2017 Collection*. 

Barry M - Candy Culture Collection Review + Swatches

It feels like forever since I last did a full review. I find that more and more I prefer using polishes in nail art and reviewing them that way, but now and again I can't resist an old-fashioned swatch post. And the latest Barry M Candy Culture Collection* was just too cute to be able to resist reviewing. It's been so cold and miserable lately that it's nice to have some lovely spring polishes to brighten things up a bit.  These gorgeous pastel shades are from the first ever Barry M scented range. I found that they all smelt strong enough that you knew they were scented, but not strong enough that it was overpowering. Barry M claim that these shades only require two coats and dry with a soft matte finish, read on to find out what I thought...

Rose Gold Snowflakes

It's been a busy ol' week this week, which concluded with me smashing my car into a bollard.. so not the best. But as with all bad weeks, I've turned to blogging to take my mind off it. I have to keep telling myself it's Christmas soon to distract myself, and what better to remind myself than with Christmas nails! I have so much inspiration this year but just not enough time to do everything I want to do. I'm hoping to be able to do a couple more designs this weekend before it's too late. I did however manage to squeeze in these nails a couple of weekends ago. 

I was recently sent a wonderful Christmas package from Sally Hansen, and I knew as soon as I saw these polishes inside that I had to do some nail art with them, they just looked like they would work so well together... and they do! 

A Winning Combination

Hey everyone! Happy Monday. It's taking me forever to write this post tonight because I'm catching up on Doctor Who, so forgive me if there are any random words in here that are definitely because I'm distracted! I've been loving playing around with the OPI Fiji Collection* recently, I think it's my favourite OPI collection for a long time, there are so many potentials for designs because there are so many great colours. I've done a couple of designs with them already, but this one is by far my favourite. I feel like grey and yellow is always a winning combination, it's the theme of my living room, and I'd have it as the theme of my entire house if my boyfriend would allow it. But for now I'll just have to settle for grey sofas and yellow cushions ... and grey and yellow nails of course!

Barry M Frosted Cupcakes Collection - Review and Swatches

Hey everyone! It's been a while since I did a review of a full collection but I loved the Barry M Frosted Cupcakes Collection* so much that I felt they deserved their own review. I'm a bit slow on getting it uploaded, but I still wanted to show you these gorgeous polishes. There are 4 in the collection, one of which you will have already seen on my blog with these nails, but I think they'd all make gorgeous bases for nail art. They're lovely subtle colours but the specks really work with the colours to create a lovely collection. I also love the names of the polishes, they feel very English and cutesy and they fit the collection too. It's nice to find some names that actually slightly make sense because I do feel that brands get carried away sometimes when naming polishes!

Earl Grey* is a lovely muted grey, this was 2 easy coats without topcoat and as you can see they're smooth and shiny without topcoat, not textured at all. 

Strawberries and Cream* is a gorgeous baby pink. This is the shade I used for my frosted daisy nails, and I absolutely love this colour. This was 2 easy coats without topcoat and it dried fast and shiny. 

Marshmallow* is a slightly off-white colour. This was 3 easy coats without topcoat, again it dried fast and shiny, and wasn't textured at all. 

Blue Velvet* is a beautiful baby blue. This was 3 thin coats. I have used this in some nail art but I'm not 100% sure I like the design so whether or not it will see the light of day still remains to be seen. Shown without topcoat but it dried fast and shiny. 

What do you think? Have you tried any of the collection? Let me know in the comments!

Alice

*Some of the products in this post were provided to me for review but all opinions are entirely my own and were not influenced in any way

A England - To Emily Bronte Collection Swatches + Review

 Hey everyone! I feel so frustrated with myself, I had intended to post every day this week to catch up on reviews but I've come down with an infection and I just feel awful. It's also making me really emotional for some reason, like I've cried at my own nails at least twice, so I decided to have a few days break. I'm still not feeling great but I can't deal with the not-posting guilt so I wanted to post this gorgeous A-England collection.

A England is a brand that I've wanted to try for a very very long time, their polishes are always awe-inspiring and unique, and the collections always intrigue me. I was lucky enough to be approached by Adina to review for A-England recently, and I absolutely jumped at the chance. I was sent this collection, (the To Emily Bronte Collection*), and a duo that I'll be showing you in the next few days. All of the polishes are gorgeous, but I feel a special affinity to this collection because they're all inspired by Wuthering Heights which is such a brilliant book. I used to be such a bookworm before uni and work took over my life and Wuthering Heights was definitely one of my favourites. 

I felt a lot of pressure to get my review of these perfect, not just because I want to impress Adina and my readers, but also because I want to do these beautiful polishes justice. I decided to use my new camera for my 'other' shots and my usual lightbox camera for my five finger shots. Unfortunately I wasn't very happy with the five finger shots, I didn't think they did the polishes justice, but I don't have it in me to break tradition and not have five finger shots. And anyway, it gives a perception of what the polishes look like inside and outside, but it also definitely highlights how much I need to get a lightbox set up for my new camera because the quality is 100x better!

Barry M Autumn/Winter 2015 Speedy Quick Dry Swatches and Review

Hey everyone! Day two of my week of reviews, so far so good with posting but we'll see how it continues. Today is the Autumn/Winter Barry M Speedy Dry Collection*. Just like with yesterday's post I've actually had these sitting on my laptop since October but I've just had writers block when it comes to typing up the post. I've struggled to even start writing it tonight but I'm forcing myself. I think I just need to get over the hump I've created in my head for reviews and then I'll be fine. 

These four polishes were added to the Speedy Quick Dry collection, whilst they are indeed autumnal, I can see them being used into summer. Especially the red, Dead Heat*. They, like the rest of the collection, use a wider brush than Barry M's original designs did, which makes for easy application. As they do indeed dry quickly, this wide brush helps to prevent smears. I've been really impressed with the Speedy polishes so far and these are no exception. 

Stone Marble Nail Art for Avon

It's no secret that I hate watermarbling. Every time I've tried it over the years it's just made me angry and never come out successfully. So I was well aware during the stone marble nails trend a year or so ago that they would make me angry and incapable just as much, and so I never attempted them. So when Avon asked to create some for them this month, I went into a bit of panic, but I decided to give them a go nonetheless. These took 2 and a half hours to get anything vaguely resembling stone marble, and I'm still not entirely convinced. BUT they're not that bad considering how they could have looked if I'd just kept each fail rather than repainting my nails time and time again, so I guess they're not too bad. I added studs as I felt it made them a bit more interesting, and if I hadn't need to paint other things I would have probably worn these for a few days in the end!

Grey Half Spots

Hey everyone! I've been debating whether or not to post these nails, as they didn't really turn out how I envisaged. I'm not really sure what I wanted them to look like, but I definitely wanted the accent nail to be a bit more bright and bold. I thought the yellow would work a lot better than it did, it just doesn't stand out enough, especially not for photography's sake. However, this is a diary of my designs, good and bad, so here you go. It's simplistic but there's something about it I really like (except the accent nail).

OPI Autumn/Winter 2015 Venice Collection Review and Swatches

Hey everyone! It's been absolutely ages since I posted a full review, so long that I'm actually a bit ashamed! It's just much more fun and less time consuming (believe it or not) to create nail art with collections instead of reviewing them individually. I only paint my nails on a Saturday at the moment so I need to prioritise any nail art commitments first. However, the OPI - Venice Collection* deserves to be showcased, and whilst it may have taken me three saturdays to complete the review, here it is. You've seen a few nail art designs using the colours already (like this, this, and this one) but they're just as beautiful as individual colours. I've also got a couple more nail designs coming up with them too. This is probably my favourite collection from OPI this year (as you can probably tell), and they've released quite a few. We all know I love a good pastel, but they manage to be both autumnal and pastel at the same time. 

Grey Hearts

Hey everyone! This is my second attempt at writing and posting this. Yesterday I wrote it all out and then my internet went down for 45 minutes and I was too tired and angry to rewrite it once it came back on. Hopefully this time will be a bit better! I'll be sad to leave my uni flat because of my friends but I definitely will not miss the terrible wifi, it drives me mad. Today's nails are some nails I created a really long time ago, over 6 months ago in fact. I'd completely forgotten I did them and when browsing my nail art folder on my laptop I came across the photos and decided it was finally time for them to see the light of day (or night, as it's currently 1am). I've spent today doing lots of nail art and reviews so I have a lot more to show you soon than I have been doing recently.

Tutorial: Floral Leaves for Barry M

Hey everyone! I'm so excited for the weekend, even though I'm working both days I'm just glad this week (and therefore my essay) is over. Anyway, it's been a couple of weeks since I posted a tutorial so I thought it was about time. This is another of the tutorials I created for Barry M a few weeks ago, I'm in the process of creating some more at the moment, I should actually be doing that right now really! This one is meant to be a floral design but I just winged it and I'm not really sure where it ended up, but I do quite like it. The steps on how to create these are after the jump 

Review Week, Day 3: Sleek Nail Polish + Summer Releases

Hey everyone! I'm back, as promised, with the rest of review week. I'm going to make it a 7-day feature instead of my usual 5, to make up for the 2 days last week, so it will finish at the end of this week. I know reviews aren't what all of you come here for, but hopefully you still enjoy looking at a few new products! 

First up in this week's take on review week is a few of Sleek's new releases, including their brand new gel nail polishes! I wasn't even aware that Sleek did nail polish until I got an email about it, so I was excited to try them out and see what they're like. I also wanted to see if they lived up to Sleek's eyeshadows, and they definitely do! There are 8 shades available in the gel range, and I have 3 of them to show you today: Trance*, Viper* and Sugar Coat Me*. They also have a range of 12 regular nail polishes.

Slenderman

Happy Halloween everyone! I'm so excited to show you my final Halloween design: Slenderman nails! I know all my other designs have been quite cute this year but I wanted to try something a little different. For those of you who don't know what Slenderman is, he's the character of the game Slender, which is basically just an incredibly creepy game. I'm too much of a wuss to have played it personally, having got scared enough just watching someone else play! If you want to read more about it, the wiki page for the game is here. Hopefully though, most of you know what the game is, and therefore can understand the meaning behind each of these nails.

On my thumb I have the Slender writing (albeit a bit thicker than the actual text), on my ring and pointer finger I have the trees and moon which represent the creepy setting of the game, on my middle finger I have slenderman himself, and then on my pinky I have one of the eight pages you have to find throughout the game. 

The base for these nails was Alessandro - Midnight Black, then I sponged on No. 7 Grey Skies, the white and black is all done with acrylic paint, I then used a coat of Seche Vite before finishing with a coat of Butter London Matte Finish 

What do you think? Let me know in the comments!

Alice

Digital Dozen Does Fashion: Day 2 (and GIVEAWAY)

Hey everyone! I'm not going to write much today because I have to be up in 6 hours for work. I'm beginning to regret this week's digital dozen, I've only just started a full time job and I'm struggling to find the time to post twice a week, let alone once a day for 5 days! But I shall soldier on ;) 

Today's nails are based on this* jumper from Romwe, who have kindly offered to sponsor a giveaway for my blog. More information on that at the end of the post, first up: the nails!

The jumper design is a simple gradient, and as I was in a rush I felt it best not to over-complicate that. However, I do quite like the look of the gradient alone, even if it seems a bit boring for my taste. 

The colours are Butter LONDON - Cuppa and Essence - Stuck on You, topped off with a coat of Seche Vite. 

As I only received this top yesterday, I didn't have time to take a picture of me wearing it or of it in full, so for a full picture see the website here. I promise you it's worth the look! I absolutely love this jumper and I will certainly be wearing it a lot, especially as the British summer seems to have ended already

Now for the giveaway! Romwe.com have kindly offered to give away this dress and this dress to one lucky reader. All you have to do is enter using the Rafflecopter widget below. It is open internationally

a Rafflecopter giveaway

For those of you who cannot wait, or don't wear dresses, Romwe currently have a sale on back to school clothes here, or you can visit their website here

What do you think? Let me know in the comments!

Alice

Additionally, if you have time, I would super appreciate it if you could vote for me for 'Best New Beauty Blog' in the Cosmopolitan Blog Awards 2013 here

*Some of the products in this post were provided to me for review but all opinions are entirely my own and were not influenced in any way 

Then and Now: Week 15

Hey everyone! It's been a while since my last 'Then and Now' post. I think until the end of may (when my exams finish) I probably wont be doing it every week, but I shall try my best! This week's post I wasn't actually going to do, because I really hated the original nails and I remember taking them off after about 10 minutes, but I decided it would be a good test of how far my skills have come if I could make the same design look good, and I think it worked because I really like how they came out, I think they ended up looking a lot like buttons actually. As always the 'then' post will be after the jump 

Spotty bow 'rhinestones' review

Hey everyone, today I've got some really lovely bows to show you. I know I promised a really exciting post yesterday but I didn't have time to edit them so these shall have to do. I received these from KKcentreHK to review and I absolutely love them. However, I was really struggling to think of any ideas for what to do with them, even though I've wanted bows for ages, so I just decided to do a simple design with a dotting tool, but I actually really like how this turned out. I'm sure you'll be seeing plenty more designs with these bows as they're definitely reusable. 

There's not really much to say about these as they're pretty self explanatory. I started with a base of Collection 2000 - Angel Wings, and then used China Glaze - Liquid Leather for the black dots, which I did with a dotting tool. Then I put a coat of Seche Vite on, and then a coat of Essie - Matte about You. Then I used nail glue to add the bows.

You can get these bows here for $4, and you get 2 in a pack. At first I did think that was a little bit pricey, but considering the amount of times you will be able to reuse them I think it's definitely worth it. You can also use my code 'ONTRTA' for 10% off :)

What do you think? Let me know in the comments!

Alice

Then and Now: Week 2

Hey everyone! Today I have the second week of my Then and Now 'challenge' to show you. I wish I had left this one out to be honest, I don't know how I managed it before because it was incredibly difficult to put green over red and make it opaque, these nails were way way too thick and if it hadn't been for Seche Vite they'd have been off in seconds. Anyway, again this was done about a year or two ago, I can't be sure of exact dates but I really liked these when I did them first time around.

The first time I used all dotting tools but this time I used brushes and dotting rools, and I wish I'd stuck to my original method because it would have probably been a lot easier.

Take a look after the jump to see the original picture and polishes used!

Gravestones Tutorial

Hey everyone, today I have another tutorial that I was asked to create for DIYfashion.com but today I'm also going to share it on my blog! Hope you like it, more pictures after the jump :)

What's that? A proper post?

Hello everyone! I'm sorry for being so absent recently, until I build a lightbox I can only take pictures when I'm at home which sucks so posts aren't going to be too regular until then. Probably every 3 days or so, hope that's okay. I should have a lightbox soon though!

So here are some simple nails I put together, hope you like them :)

My computer deleted my third picture :( sorry guys!

Alice