XMAS WITH BOOHOO

Hey guys, I hope your all well! So today I'm back with a Christmas post with not one, not two but 3 nail designs for you!

So I have teamed up with Boohoo to bring you some Christmas nails! 

They did send me some bangles and rings so be sure to check out their jewellery too. They do have some lovely pieces which will work perfectly for this party season and will even compliment these nails! 

Click read more to see how I got these designs lots more pictures !

Tweet Pin It

SPICE NAILS WITH BARRY M GELLY

Hola guys! So uni is now finished for Christmas and I had the loveliest day yesterday, I went to the Christmas markets, had crepes, went ice skating for the first time (I was awful, I fell 5 times) and ended it all with a lovely dinner. It's been really busy these past 2-3 weeks so I'm really happy to have nothing to do today :) 

 Today I have some nails which were completely inspired by the collection they came out with. I am talking about the Barry M Winter Gelly collection, I picked up the shades Mustard, Chilli, Paprika, Cardamom and Chai (which I didn't use in this design) I love the spice names and so decided to use all 4 of the polishes and then frame each nail with silver Art Deco acrylic paint* to look like a spice box! I'm not sure it fully worked but it still looks good right?

Tweet Pin It

TEAL ILLAMASQUA COMPARISON GRADIENT & BLIZZARD & PAISLEY NAIL ART

Hey everyone, this week has been so busy! It's my besties wedding this weekend which means I won't have time to do any university work and next week is the deadline for my essay and oral presentation, which is why I was awake until 5am last night working! Anywho I have some more gradient nails to share with you today. I did these a while ago but I will be doing them again this weekend for the wedding as my outfit is teal and these will just look amazing!

I ordered Illamasqua Venous from their latest sale and when I got it I thought it may be a dupe for Illamasqua Muse and I thought some other poeple may have had the same thought. So when I held them next to each other I was happy to see they weren't a dupe but they were rather similar so I thought I'd do a little comparison of the two but in a gradient this time! 

I used Venous closest to the cuticle and Muse at the tips. I then used Illamasqua Blizzard, which was another purchase from the same sale, on the pinky and pointed finger. On the middle two fingers I used the silver* Art Deco acrylic paint, which I've already raved about, to paint on the paisley design. 

Tweet Pin It

ILLAMASQUA RUTHLESS SWIRLS

Hey peeps, I'm so sorry for not posting in a week but university is just so busy at the moment! But to redeem myself today I have an amazing acrylic paint review to share with you! 

You can read this post to find out more about the paints I received any my overall thoughts. 

Today I'm going to give you more details about the silver shade I got. I hadn't seen metallic acrylic paints around before and ended up getting some from the Pound Shop however the opacity was dreadful and so I won't be able to use it, this left me intrigued about the silver acrylic paint I received. I wasn't sure what to expect but I was blown away! This paint is amazing, opaque with just one coat and just the perfect formula which is why I can do the following design with it! This is in the shade Silver Morning  and you get this from Art Discount here for only £1.30 and let me tell you, it's worth every penny!

To do the nails I started off with 2 coats of Illamasqua Ruthless and then painted on the swirly design which I think I saw on Nail Lacquer UK instagram. To tie the design in with the rest of nails I used China Glaze Fairy Dust on the rest of the nails. 

Tweet Pin It

HALLOWEEN SPIDER WEB NAIL VINYLS

Hi guys, more halloween nail art today! 

These nails were really simple and easy to do, all I did was paint on two coats of OPI Push and Shove and once that was dry I used the spiderweb nail vinyls from She Sells Seashells and painted over the top using Angelica black nail polish* and peeled off the vinyl and ta da! I love spiderweb design but very rarely do them because they're time consuming and fiddly but these vinyls make it so easy and quick! 

Tweet Pin It

ILNP SIRENE & LACE NAIL ART

Hey guys, how are you all doing? 

So I absolutely love lace nail art, I think it just looks so so beautiful on the nails. Unfortunately I don't own any lace stamping nails or decals so I have to be old fashioned and paint them on! I got this design from instagram I think or actually I'm not sure my memory is so bad!

I started off with one coat of ILNP Sirene over a black base and then I used a silver gel pen which you can get from anywhere, I think I got mine from Asda. I waited about 5 minutes so I didn't smudge it and then applied topcoat . 

Please excuse the tip wear, I added the lace on the 2nd day of wear, and my skin is a funky colour here too but please try to ignore that and look at the pretty nails :) 

Ok, so does anyone want to see a tutorial for the lace ? I have a few more lace designs I want to try out and I shall share those when I get round to them! 

Tweet Pin It

WIP BANDEAU & OPI PURE

Hi my beautiful friends, how was your weekend? It went so fast for me, well I guess my weekend started today but still it's gone too fast! Anywho I dyed my hair red today and I love it! It's not a fire engine red it's  just lovely, it is a bit patchy and I have a random pink bit but it still looks good, well at least I think so, haha!

So today I shall be showing you some simple nails. I received this beautiful purple polish by WIP (which is sold in Urban Outfitters) from Sarah, actually both of the polishes I used for these nails were sent to me by Sarah. I decided to add one coat of OPI Pure which is an 18K White Gold and Silver Leaf Top Coat. 

I love this combination, do you own OPI Pure?

Tweet Pin It

OPI KISS ME AT MIDNIGHT

Hey guys, I'm so happy it's Friday :) My brain is feeling a little cluttered right now which I think may be something to do with the fact that my room and wardrobe and shoe closet is a mess, some major organising is required me thinks!

So when the OPI Christmas 2013 collection came out I was really excited when I saw swatches of Kiss Me At Midnight and the numerous descriptions which likened the colour to Nails Inc Bakers Street. When I went to pick this up in store it didn't look promising but I thought it would dry brighter and bluer and well it didn't and so this did let me down :( I'd describe this as more of a periwinkle blue colour. 

However this is still a lovely polish, you guys know I don't like texture so when I wear this it'll be drowned in at least 3 layers of topcoat!

Here I've applied 1 coat of Gelous and 1 coat of Essence Better Than Gel Sealer. 

So that's the end of todays post, I will hopefully see you tomorrow with a clutter free mind and room ;) Enjoy your Friday night guys 

Tweet Pin It

OPI IN MY SANTA SUIT & SNOWFLAKES IN THE AIR

Hey guys, happy Wednesday :) How has your week been so far? I had a day off today and so mum and I went shopping and I didn't buy a single nail polish : o That is self control ladies, right there!

Lol, anyway on one of my many trips to Sallys I picked up the Top This topcoat set by OPI which contains this glitter topper. I don't believe this is available on it's own. It's a mix of silver holographic hex glitter 

So I applied one coat over OPI In My Santa Suit (which is gorgeous!) and then applied one coat of topcoat. 

I then applied one coat of OPI Matte top coat 

Tweet Pin It

WHICH BASECOAT TO USE WITH OPI PUSH & SHOVE?

Hi everyone, how are you all today? Looking forward to tomorrow? Yeah didn't think so, hehe !

So earlier this week I picked up OPI Push and Shove, this was pretty much the only polish I wanted from the Gwen Stefani collection. 

When I got it I was curious to find out the best basecoat to use with this and so I decided to do a little experiment and share it with you guys as well. 

The polish comes with a special base coat called Lay Down That Base which is the recommended base coat for this polish. 

I used 3 different base coats.

On my pinky I used Essie Ridge Filler Base Coat

On my ring finger I used OPI Lay Down That Base

On my middle finger I used the Nfu Oh Aqua Base equivalent by Jessica

On my pointer I didn't use any base coat. 

Chrome polishes such as this one tend to highlight every single imperfection on the nail and their worst enemy is ridges, so it's recommended that you buff your nails prior to using this to get a lovely even finish. 

I didn't buff any of my nails and I've included a picture of my naked nails to try and show my natural ridges (please excuse the staining) 

My accent nail has the worst ridges and my pinky also has some noticeable ridges but my middle and pointer nail are pretty smooth and don't really have any ridges. 

Ok, so here is one coat of Push and Shove on all the nails. 

As you can see on my pinky the polish does not work with regular base coat. 

It does have the potential to be a one coater but the application is a bit tricky so I prefer to use a second coat to smooth it out. 

This is two coats of Push and Shove, I waited 10 minutes after applying the first coat before painting on the second coat.

As you can see a second coat has made all the nails look better, the pinky looks a bit lumpy.

The middle finger is the brightest of them all and also the smoothest looking, Aqua Base does tend to brighten holographic and chrome polishes though so that's not too surprising. 

You can still see some ridges on the ring finger but I do think Lay Down That Base has smoothed out the ridges a tiny bit.

You can see every imperfection on the pointy finger so base coat is a must unless you are blessed with perfect ridge free nails!

So in conclusion, don't use a regular base coat but do definitely use one and make it either the Lay Down That Base or Nfu Oh Aqua Base or one it's several dupes.

 I personally think the Aqua Base is the best base because it also brightens the nail polish on the nail for an even more of a mirror like finish. 

As a bonus I've included a little wear time test too. The following pictures are after 24 hours of wear in which I washed a few dishes and tapped at the keyboard for a few hours. 

You can start to see the tip wear now, it's worse on the pointer finger where I haven't used a base coat. There is also quite a bit of wear on the middle finger and minimal tip wear on the other two fingers, so whilst Lay Down That Base doesn't brighten the polish or smooth the ridges it does increase the longevity of the polish. 

I'm still wearing this as I'm typing this and more tip wear has shown and it's worse on the right hand compared to the left. 

Ok so here are some regular swatches :)

This was really long wordy post, hope you made it to the end! I hope you found this useful :)

Tweet Pin It