Essie Flower Crowns

Hey everyone! Just a quick post as these are my follow up nails to my Nails on Holiday: Edinburgh Weekend post. I didn't want to include the full design in the post as it was already long enough. I was recently sent the Essie Spring 2016 collection*, and it's just the perfect collection for florals, so I couldn't help but create some with them all. The only polish I didn't use from the collection was Lounge Lover because I already had a red and I thought the pink would clash. I really liked how these turned out, and they reminded me a lot of flower crowns, so I decided to stick with that idea and name them as such.

Nails On Holiday: Edinburgh Weekend Away

Hey everyone! Can you believe it's already the end of April? I know it's such a typical thing to say but this month really has flown by. I'm trying to have a nice relaxing bank holiday weekend this week because last weekend was so full of activities in Edinburgh that I'm still slightly knackered. Me and my boyfriend went for an extended weekend (Saturday-Monday) as a late birthday present to me. It was really nice to get away for a bit, especially as we've been really stressed over moving. As I mentioned before I went, I decided to do another Nails on Holiday post while I was away. For those of you who are unaware, this is basically just where I document my holiday by putting my nails in front of things, you can see my previous two trips here. Previously I've not taken that many photos, the first time in Italy because my camera wouldn't focus, and last year in Cyprus because I kept forgetting. This time around I seem to have done the complete opposite and taken tonnes, so I apologise for the picture-heavy post. Because there are so many pictures of the holiday I'm going to include a full picture of the nails in a separate post tomorrow so I can say more about them. 

Flamingo Nail Art Tutorial for Divine Caroline

Hey everyone! I hope you all had a lovely weekend, I got back from Edinburgh late last night after walking miles and miles all weekend so I'm exhausted, but I had a really great time. I'll be showing you my 'nails on holiday' in my usual format soon once I've decided which photos to use because I ended up taking loads! 

Today I have a brand new tutorial over on Divine Caroline for you, showing you how to create these cute floral flamingo nails. I was originally inspired by this nail art by Tipped Off Nails, but I wanted to show you how to create something similar at home. I was searching for some floral flamingo inspiration when I stumbled across her manicure and knew I had to create it. If you want to learn how to create these you can see the full tutorial here. 

What do you think? Let me know in the comments! And don't forget to check out the tutorial.

Alice

Gelish - Last Call Nail Art + Review

Hey everyone! It's Friday, I definitely have that Friday feeling because I'm going away for a long weekend to Edinburgh tomorrow morning with my boyfriend. It's my birthday present, although it's long since been my birthday (it's in January) because we had to postpone, but I'm really excited. I'm going to be doing a 'nails on holiday' post again (check out my previous posts here and here) because I really love doing them and they're fun to look back on. 

Anyway, today's post is one that I've been gathering photos for a few weeks for because I truly wanted to show how gorgeous this polish is. I've wanted to get my hands on a rose gold polish for ages and when I noticed that the recent Gelish - After Hours collection contained one with Last Call*, I couldn't help but want/need it. After Gelish kindly sent it to me, I've used it a considerable amount, mainly on my friends because everyone wants this shade, but also on myself. My friends didn't even want nail art (how boring) because it's perfect by itself. 

I must admit, I was worried I'd be disappointed when it got here and it wouldn't be like the pictures,and it would be rose gold enough (does that make sense?). But it's the perfect rose gold, and because it's a gel it lasts forever (or thereabouts) so you can stare at it endlessly. I've created some nail art with it, which was completely influenced by Nancy Loves Nails. I've also done some nail art on my friend, and a review of the polish itself. Read on after the jump for the full post. 

A England - Whispering Waves and Sparks Divine Duo Review + Swatches

Hey everyone! Today I have the last couple of A-England polishes I mentioned in my last review to show you. I've got tonnes of great stuff to show you at the moment, both nail art and reviews, that it's hard to find the time to put it all out there and as a result I just panic and it gets delayed even more. I always have a tendency to get less done when I have more to do, does that make sense to anyone else? Anyway, these two gorgeous polishes are the latest additions to A-England's Heavenly Quotes collection. You will have seen Sparks Divine in my last post, and so I'm sure you've already seen what a stunning shade it is. As these, and the previous polishes I showed you, are my first A-England polishes, I don't own any of the other polishes in this collection so I cannot attest for their quality. However, these are definitely worth picking up, and if these are anything to go by I'm sure the rest of the collection are great too! Read on after the jump for my full review. As with my last A-England posts, I've done 'inside' shots with my lightbox as the full five-finger shots, and natural daylight shots for the other pictures to show the differences. 

A-England Stamping

Hey everyone! Although I've got tonnes of reviews to show you at the moment, I'm really missing posting nail art, so I thought I'd take a break from the reviews for tonight and post a design instead. I've been experimenting with stamping a lot recently, it's always been one of those things that I really couldn't master, and whilst I still wouldn't class myself as 'good' at stamping, I'm definitely starting to see improvements. I still make mistakes, and I'm sure I will for a long time, but it's great to see where I've been going wrong and try to improve on that. Whilst swatching some A-England polishes recently I decided to try stamping with them, and I think the final look really suits the 'rustic'/historic theme of A-England polishes. 

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.