Pink Glitter Roses

Hey everyone! Happy Monday. I'm starting the countdown again for trip away this weekend, which, as I mentioned in my last post, I spent last week counting down for as I thought it was last weekend... oops! At least I know it's definitely this weekend now. Anyway, on to the nails. I find that despite the fact that I have hundreds and hundreds of nail varnishes, I tend to only use the same colours or ones that I have to review, and as a result so many of my polishes don't get used and get forgotten about. It helps now that I have changed from a Helmer to Alex drawers from IKEA, because the drawers are much easier to use and don't feel like they are about to collapse as soon as you open them. Now I don't just keep a collection of polishes on my desk, and I try to use different colours in my drawers now and again, even though my priorities are products I have to review. Recently I saw on Pinterest that an old Barry M review of mine was quite popular, which included the shade Princess, and I remembered that I owned such a gorgeous shade, and I've been wanting to use it ever since. Then I stumbled upon this design on Pinterest and I knew it would be the perfect design to use the polish in. Unfortunately it's no longer available to buy, you could probably find it on eBay but for some reason they chose to stop making it, even though it's stunning! 

Burgundy Geometric Stripes Nail Art

Hey everyone! Whilst you're reading this I'm hopefully sunning myself or in a pool right now, so I'm sure you can understand why I'm not quite willing to accept that Summer is pretty much over and it's almost Autumn. So when I received the new OPI - Washington DC Collection for Autumn I couldn't face doing a full review just yet, not until after my holiday at least. Instead, I compromised and decided to create some nail art using the collection. I was inspired by these nails on Pinterest. I'm super into Pinterest at the moment, only about 3 years too late. I never really got into the initial hype, but recently I've been using it a lot for work and decided to give it a try again for my blog, and I've ended up finding loads of inspiration. If you want to check out my pins you can see them here.

Models Own Dare To Bare Collection Skittle Nail Art

Hey everyone! Hope you're all having a lovely week so far, I'm in countdown mode for my holiday now so I can't wait for the week to finish. Although I go away on Sunday, I've not yet sorted anything, which is making me feel slightly stressed! It'll be so nice to get away and to not have to think about anything for a while, I haven't had more than a 4 day weekend since last June so I desperately need this time off, and apparently it's 32 degrees in Majorca at the moment so let's hope it stays that way. 

Anyway, today's nails are a skittle of the 5 new Models Own Hypergels from the Dare to Bare collection* . I thought that it was very handy (see what I did there, ba dum tss) that there were 5, as it meant that I could show you them all in one go. These are actually my first Hypergels from Models Own and I was definitely impressed with them as a first time user. I can really tell the difference between the regular polishes and these, largely due to the application as it's much easier. I always love a good nude design or shade, so 5 in one collection is the dream and they all work really well together, perfect for a skittle mani. Full details after the jump.

Barry M Summer 2016 Superdrug Limited Edition Polishes Review + Swatches

Hey everyone! Last week Barry M announced a number of new polishes, including the Lolly Gloss polishes I showed you here. The new polishes also include two limited edition Superdrug polishes and two limited edition Boots polishes. Today I'll be showing you the Superdrug polishes. This duo consists of a nude with a slight shimmer, and a pink with a gold shimmer, which makes them both unique to the Barry M collection. Both have great consistency, and I was really impressed with their shine. They are definitely worth picking up whilst you can. Full review after the jump

Barry M - Coconut Infusion Full Collection review + swatches

Hey everyone! Today I have the brand new Barry M - Coconut Infusion Collection* to show you. These have just been released, and contain a completely new formula to regular Barry M nail polish. As described by Barry M their 'unique blend of coconut water and coconut oil gently hydrates and nourishes nails while delivering a beautifully smooth, gel-like glossy manicure'. How many times have we heard these claims? I certainly thought these would just be another 'fad' nail polish. I really couldn't have been more wrong. I'm not exaggerating when I say these are the best formula of nail polish I've ever experienced. Barry M have completely outdone themselves, baring in mind that their gelly polishes were already some of my favourites, if not my favourite. The application of all of these polishes was silky smooth, two coats for every polish and they dry really fast. As in, faster than the speedy dry polishes. I would describe these as a combination of the gelly polishes and the speedy polishes with all the best qualities. I can't attest for the hydrating qualities, I'm not really sure how you'd test that, but they definitely deliver a 'smooth, gel-like glossy manicure'. 

One thing I did notice about the collection is that quite a few of the polishes are largely similar to other Barry M polishes, I imagine this was so that favourite colours could be reinvented with this new formula, but I wanted to compare and contrast them with their similar counterparts so you can see what to expect. So with each colour is an individual comparison of similar shades. As a warning this will be a super long post, but it's definitely worth the read as this collection should be top of your wishlist.

Barry M Spring/Summer 2016 Speedy Quick Dry Collection Review and Swatches

Hey everyone! Today I've got a long-overdue review of the Barry M - Speedy Quick Dry collection* for Spring/Summer 2016. I actually swatched these within the first few days of their release but with the move I just haven't had a chance to sit down and edit the pictures, so today I made sure to make some time to edit, and these were first on my list. Pastels are always my favourite, so this collection of four light pastel shades was always going to have my heart, and they've got the usual great formula of Barry M polishes to match. Read more after the jump to see my full thoughts

Nail Art Threesome: Polly Polish

Hey all! I'm back with the second and final part of my "nail art threesome" with Hannah (Polly Polish) and Allie (Brit Nails). Having done Allie's design on Thursday, today I'm doing one of Hannah's designs. I think out of the three of us I probably do the most nail art so I think Allie and Hannah might have struggled more than I did to choose. I've gone with a Valentine's theme on both the designs I did because of the time of year but also because that's when Allie and Hannah seem to do most nail art! Today's design by Hannah is this cute arrow hearts design, I love the pop of the colourful heart accent nail against the nude and black and I just couldn't resist recreating it. You can see Hannah's original post here but I've also included an image for comparison after the jump.

Hannah's original nail art

I used Barry M - Winning Streak* for my base, it's one of the new shades so it's a bit lighter than what hannah used but I liked it. Then I used Barry M - Miami for the heart, and MASH - Black for the arrows. Finished off with a coat of Seche Vite and a coat of Barry M - Matte Topcoat

Make sure to check out Hannah's post of Allie's nails, and Allie's post of my nails.

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

Alice

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.

Nude Dotticure

Hey everyone! I decided to take a bit of a break having posted every day last week (especially because I'd just started a new job), but I have so many nail designs to share with you that I just couldn't resist posting today. This is a very simplistic design that I did after seeing this design by Just1Nail on Instagram. I think I probably made my polka dots a little too small to call it an exact replica of her design, but I like how they look anyway.

Negative Space Saran Wrap

Hey everyone! I hope you're all managing to stick to your new years resolutions so far now that the first week of January is officially over. I haven't actually started my 'get fit' resolution as my birthday is next week so I want to be able to eat as much cake as possible. However, second on my list of resolutions is to try more indies, and this is exactly what I've done for this design. I've been trying out some Ard As Nails polishes, and for this design I used Olly* and Sharona*, but you'll see the rest soon too. 

For these nails I was completely inspired by this design by Chelsea Queen from ages ago (took me forever to find that link!), but rather than doing watercolour nails I wanted to do saran wrap. I also tried to make it my own a little bit so of course it's nowhere near as gorgeous as the original, but I'm still pretty happy with how they turned out.

This is my first manicure using Kiesque's Liquid Pallisade*, and it has absolutely revolutionised doing nails for me. I know it's been around for a while but I've not really dipped my toe (or should I say finger) in at all and I can tell I've definitely been missing out. I've already done 4-5 designs using it and I'm sure there will be more, but this is the first to be posted. No more faffing around with tape (although I'm sure it will still get use somewhere). I'll be doing a full review on it soon but I think it's clear that I love it. 

Christmas Wreaths for Divine Caroline

Today it's time for my first christmas design of 2015, I've posted a couple of wintery looks up to now but these are my first full christmas nails this year. I've had a couple of comments asking when Christmas nails would start. I usually don't start posting them until much later in December, but I've done so many looks this year that I don't know if I'll have time to post them without starting now! I seem to have gone christmas mad a bit this year with my nails. Last year I really struggled with design ideas and this year I've already done at least seven and I'm sure there are more to come. These wreaths were created as a tutorial for Divine Caroline, so if you want to learn how to create them click here. They're much easier than they look I promise. I've never actually done wreaths as a design before but I really loved the end look, and I wore these for a week (despite the fact it was November and I got a lot of comments asking me why I was so eager!).

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

Don't forget to check out the tutorial for these nails here.

Alice

Nude Glitter Gradient for Avon

There's something so elegant about a simple glitter gradient, especially with a nude base. They require minimal effort but they always get a lot of attention. They're the perfect design if you're in a rush but still want a bit of nail art. This design for Avon was the only design I had time to create this Saturday as I was, in fact, in a rush. Whilst I love to wear complex nail designs for the week, I've quite enjoyed having a more simplistic look this week. Although, as ever, now we're towards the end of the week I can't wait to change them, but they were nice for a while!

Glitter Striped Stars for Divine Caroline

Hey everyone! I've been debating whether or not to post these nails for a few weeks. These were one of those designs that just didn't turn out as I'd imagined. I love a combination of nude polish and glitter, and you all know I love pastels, but I'm not sure if the decision to combine all of them worked. Nevertheless, it's quite a fun design and with a different colour scheme it could work for christmas too, so if you want to create them yourself you can follow the tutorial here on Divine Caroline.

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

Alice

Negative Space All The Nails!

Hey everyone! Today's post is another monthly link-up from a Facebook group I'm part of called Paint All The Nails. Each month we do a non-compulsory monthly link-up with a theme we've all voted on. This month's theme is 'negative space', and I'm sure you all know that this was definitely my vote. There's so many designs you can do with negative space and I always love how they look. Funnily enough, I must admit that I completely forgot about this month's link up being today, and on Saturday (which is the only day I paint nails at the moment) it didn't even cross my mind. But, it happened to be that my subconscious clearly remembered, because I had an urge to do negative space nails, and I did. So rather than panic when I remembered I'd forgotten, I had a design waiting for me, and it's actually one of my favourite designs I've done. These nails were based off this post by Sakura Nail&Beauty on Instagram. The design instantly stood out to me, but I must admit I thought it might look better on shorter nails, so I gave it a go and I ended up loving the finished result. If you want to see what the other girls created this month then check out the InLinks below!

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. 

Glitter Stud Stamping

Hey everyone! Since trying stamping with July's Nailbox I've been wanting to try stamping again as it seemed a lot easier than I remembered. My friend Emily of Very Emily showed me a picture of a design she created on her toes recently and I knew I wanted to recreate them as soon as I saw the design. However, the stamping just didn't work for me as it did with the Nailbox. I'm not sure what I was doing differently, although this time I was using a Bundle Monster Plate rather than a Mo You plate so that might be the defining difference. Either way, I liked how these turned out and I wore these all of last week. I even managed to keep the studs on for a whole 5 days (although I was starting to get very annoyed with them) until one fell off and then I picked the rest off.

Gradient Stripe Nail Art

Hey everyone! I've had this design sitting in my files for so long and I just haven't got around to posting it. Mainly because I'm not sure whether I like it or not. But tonight I decided to take the plunge and just post it anyway. This blog is supposed to document all the designs I do, good or bad, so it's time it saw daylight. I think the main reason I don't like it is because the gradient isn't smooth. When I created this I'd run out of triangular makeup sponges and I only had a small circular one and it just didn't work the same unfortunately. I added the stripe to draw attention away from that but I'm not sure if it did enough. I'll let you make up your mind! Let's just pretend they're meant to be striped not gradiented and it will all be fine. For these I used the Barry M - Sunset Daylight Curing collection, which you can see my review of here. I did these mid-review so you can see how long ago it was that I actually did them!

Swirled Glitter Sandwich

Hey everyone! Today's design had no prior inspiration, it was one of those designs where I just decided to see where my brain took me. I wanted to try out some of my new OPI polishes, a lot of which are nude jellies, so I thought I would create a glitter 'sandwich' also using a new glitter polish I got from my friend Hannah, of Polly Polish. I wasn't sure whether the two would work together, and I decided to add some swirls using OPI - Alpine Snow to neutralise the design a bit. I really liked how they turned out, I hope you do too!

Nailbox - June: Review + Nail Art

Hey everyone! Today I have another Nailbox review for you. I showed you May's Nailbox here, and this is June's box. Each month subscribers are sent 5 nail products, usually 4 nail polishes and a nail tool. All products are from high end brands and you definitely get your money's worth. When I opened this month's box I was in shock because there was a full sized bottle of Seche Vite, and we all know how expensive it is! I really do believe that you get brilliant value for money with these boxes and if you like a surprise it's definitely worth signing up. You can do so here. If you want to just sign up for a one-off box it's £15, which is a great deal. And it's slightly cheaper if you sign up on a monthly pre-pay basis.  I decided to once again create some nail art with the polishes I received as I thought they worked really well together. 

Side Florals for Divine Caroline

Hey everyone! I'm absolutely exhausted, I have been all day but for some reason I'm still awake past midnight as always. It's so easy to get distracted and recently I've started to watch Spooks from the very beginning and I'm completely hooked (and distracted), which isn't good in the middle of exams! I'm trying to push myself away from it until my last exam is over but I also wanted a day off today so I'm re-hooked. Anyway, onto the nails. These are some cute spring florals I created for Divine Caroline, I also did a tutorial for them if you want to check that out. I love how these look, I think they're effective but simple and I think I'll probably try them with different colours some other time. The flowers themselves are quite similar to my french florals from the other day, I seem to be following a theme with my flowers recently!

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

Alice