Vintage Orly Flowers

Hey everyone! Hope your Monday wasn't too bad, I've actually managed to be productive and relatively healthy today so it feels like a winner of a day (and there's only 20 minutes of it left UK time). I finally got around to doing some designs on Saturday and it was so nice to sit down and have the time to do a design I like once again. I decided to search for some inspiration on Pinterest and when I came across this design by La Paillette Frondeuse I knew instantly that I had to recreate it. I'm so pleased with how these turned out, I took them off pretty much instantly afterwards to do some other designs and I've been regretting it ever since. But as it's the first day of spring (even if the weather doesn't match) it seemed fitting to post some spring nails today.

It's Floral Time

Hey everyone! I'm currently burning myself on a sunbed so today's nails are some florals that I created ages ago, December last year to be precise. You will have actually seen a version of these as I went over them with Barry M - Nail Art Pens after this stage. Looking back I think I actually prefer them like this, but I chose to promote those and then I felt like I couldn't post these straight after, and they ended up forgotten in a folder. We might be approaching autumn but I'm still in Summer mode (what with being on a sunny holiday and all), so these are still in season in my head at least. Plus, you can't go wrong with some good old florals, and sometimes simple is best. 

Essie Spring 2016 Collection Review + Swatches

Hey everyone! Hope you're having a lovely weekend so far. The European Championships are on, which means I'm being roped into watching a lot of football with my boyfriend. Or alternatively, it means I have a lot more time to do nails because I don't want to sit and watch TV! I never watch football, but there's something about international football that's slightly more exciting, and I do end up getting sucked in even when I hate to. 

Today I'm reviewing the Essie Spring 2016 collection*, I wanted to include this with my post about the Rankin event but I thought it would make the post too long. I've already shown the collection in this nail art, but I wanted to show the colours individually too. This is the first full Essie collection I've reviewed, and I hope it's not the last, but I was very impressed. I don't own many Essie shades, I don't have the need to buy many new polishes (as you can imagine) so apart from my trusty bottle of Essie - Beyond Cozy which I bought ages ago, I only have one or two others. This collection consists of some 'typical' spring shades, but also some darker shades that make the collections lightly unusual. 

First Day of Spring, Negative Space Florals

It was the officially the first day of spring on sunday, and it's probably the first time it's been sunny and vaguely warm too, despite the fact that the first day of spring is normally always rainy and cold! So in celebration I decide to show you some spring nails, these aren't my first spring nails this year because I will put spring nail art on even when I'm eye deep in snow, but they can at least be my first official start of spring nails. For today's design I created a load of designs on a nail wheel, and I was playing around with negative space florals for this and I really liked the outcome, so I ended up recreating it on my nails. These were actually my moving day nails, and I wore them for almost two weeks (I was dying to change them by the end!) but they held up really well. 

Barry M Spring/Summer 2016 Gelly Collection Swatches and Review + Comparison

Hey everyone! I'm super proud of myself for how productive I was on Saturday (for those of you who don't know it's my only nail day), I got tonnes done. Mainly all in the last couple of hours of the day but still. I'm quite a slow swatcher, so the most I've ever done in one day is around 12 polishes I think, although that's largely because I do nail art in between. However, this week I managed 3 nail art looks and I swatched both new Barry M collections in the space of a few hours. I didn't want to end up like I have previously and just leave my review sitting in my 'to edit' folder for months, so I've forced myself to get them edited tonight, and get the post out. 

This year's Barry M Spring Gelly collection* made me think that they hadn't been particularly imaginative. Both the nude shades seemed very similar to previous shades such as Lychee and Coconut. However, I was still excited to give them a try as they never disappoint, and I was right. In fact, I think Cream Soda* is actually a really unique off-white shade. I've done a comparison of the four nude/off-white polishes at the bottom of this post for you to see that there is actually quite a lot of difference in the shades. I think the collection work really well together, and they also fit well with the spring speedy dry polishes too. I think you'll definitely be seeing these in some nail art soon.

Barry M Spring 2014 Aquarium Collection: Review and Swatches

Hey everyone! Today I have another gorgeous Barry M collection to show you. This one has been out for a couple of weeks, but that of course does not make it any less gorgeous! The collection consists of four duo-chromes and two glitter toppers, which, as you'll see below, I chose to pair with Huckleberry and Rosehip from the latest Gelly Hi Shine collection, and you can see my swatches of that here. I own very few, if any, duochromes, so I'm no expert in their application, but my lovely friend Allie from Brit Nails suggested that I try applying them over black for maximum effect, so I've decided to show you both with and without black.

Nailvengers Assemble: Easter

Hey everyone! Today is the last day of the month, and that of course means a new Nailvengers Assemble post. If you're not sure what I'm talking about, you can see my original post here. Don't forget to keep up to date with what we're doing on our Facebook page. This month's theme is Easter, and whilst it's quite early, by the last day of April it will be too late so we decided it was better to do it now instead. Easter for me is all about cute little chicks and decorated easter eggs, so I decided to combine the two!

I used a base of Graffiti Nails - Ice White, with a coat of Graffiti Nails - Fairy Wing. Once that was dry I used a striping brush with W7 - Sheer Blue and Deborah Lippmann - Spring Buds on my ring and index finger. Then I used a nail art brush to draw a yellow circle using Graffiti Nails - Mellow, and to draw on the beak using Rimmel London - Oragasm, from the Rita Ora collection. Then I used a thinner brush to outline the bird using black acrylic paint, and to do the eye with white and black acrylic paint. Then I topped it off with a coat of Seche Vite to seal everything in.

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

Alice

An InLinkz Link-up

Spring Florals with Avon

Hey everyone! This week I've started a brand new collaboration with a brand you may have heard of: Avon. I'm going to be producing a couple of pieces of nail art and a couple of video tutorials per month for them, so stay tuned for that! My first design for them was this simple spring floral look, all I needed were a few Avon colours, a dotting tool, and some topcoat, and it was done!

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

Alice

Barry M Spring 2014 Gelly Hi Shine Collection Swatches and Review

Hey everyone! Today I have the gorgeous new Barry M spring Gelly Hi Shine collection to show you, these have been out for a few weeks but I finally got my hands on them and they're all gorgeous. You'll see some nail art in the next week or so using them because I just couldn't resist. There are 3 polishes in this collection so it's slightly smaller than their usual releases, but that just means that it's easier for you to afford the whole collection! You all know my love of pastels, especially blues, so it will be no surprise to you that I adore this collection, and you'll definitely be seeing these a lot more on my blog. More pictures and information after the jump!

Models Own Speckled Egg Collection Spring 2014 Swatches

Hey everyone! I'm so excited for today's post, because I was lucky enough to get my hands on the gorgeous new Speckled Egg collection from Models Own, created for spring 2014. These polishes are absolutely gorgeous, and remind me of my favourite chocolate in the world: mini eggs! Which I was lucky enough to receive a packet of with this collection, but you won't see them in the pictures because I ate them... Oops! These are definitely suited to Easter, and they're also all amazingly opaque, as you'll see below. 

Review Week, Day Four: Deborah Lippmann Polishes

Hey everyone! I'm so excited for today's post, because this is the first time you've seen Deborah Lippmann polishes on my blog, and these are gorgeous polishes to start off with. I have two polishes from the Spring 2014 collection to show you and a couple of polishes from upcoming collections!

Guest Post from Katt's Claws

Hey everyone! Today I've got a guest post for you from a lovely friend of mine: Katt, from Katt Claws. As I mentioned in my last post I've got a lot of stuff going on right now, including being away on holiday, so Katt kindly offered to post for me to take a bit of weight off my back. I have another couple of posts coming up for you whilst I'm away as well, which unfortunately doesnt include a 'then and now' post but that shall resume the following week I promise! Now I hope you enjoy these lovely nails from Katt, it's a very picture heavy post so I've posted the pictures off all the inspiration after the jump!

These nails were inspired by the Kate Spade NY Spring 2013 collection, as you shall see below, and they're all lovely. Thankyou so much to Katt for bringing such brilliant nails to my blog!