My Picks | Halloween

Happy Halloween!

I'm never really do anything special for Halloween but I do like to enjoy a few of the goodies released :) The shops seem to be full of themed bits and bobs, and while some of them are pretty cool, most of them are just for fun. Here are a few things I picked out:

Nails:

Okay so none of these were released this season but they seemed particularly festive.

NYC Rock Muse Smokey Top Coat - Green Day: A beautiful blackened jelly with different sizes of green glitter suspended in it

China Glaze Howl You Doin': A purple based polish packed full of violet and orange glitters

Maybelline Color Show Street Artist Urban Vibe: Actually a topcoat, with various shapes and sizes of black and orange matte glitter

Bath:

LUSH Sparkly Pumpkin bubble bar: Halloween wouldn't be complete without a pumpkin! And this cute offering from Lush is just perfect for cosy night in. The glitter covered pumpkin turns the bath water a bright sparkly orange and full of bubbles when crumbled under running water. It smells absolutely divine!

Home:

And there has to be candles!

Yankee Candle Wax Tart - Candy Corn, Witches' Brew, Ghostly Treats: These were the three scents released for Halloween this year. Candy Corn smells like vanilla based sweets, Witches Brew is more spicy and sort of like liquorice and Ghostly Treats just reminds me of marshmallows!

Waitrose Ghost Candle: This was just too cute to pass up!

Yankee Candle Halloween Votive Holder: I spotted this reduced in Debenhams to £1.80 so I thought why not? Haha ;)

I've already had a lovely soak in the bath, lit the candles and now I'm just waiting for the trick or treater's :P

What are you doing for Halloween? 

Deborah Lippmann - Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree

I know it's a bit late but this is the polish I wore for Christmas. 

This is Deborah Lippmann - Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree. Quite an appropriate name too!
It is a gorgeous mix of small and large metallic green and red hex glitters suspended in a black jelly base.

This is three coat with a thick coat of Seche Vite. The black jelly base was opaque after only two coats! The only reason I added one more was to make it even more glittery!
There was no glitter placement required either, bonus!

Apologies for the state of my nails. I have to keep them short to stop them continuously breaking at work, but my job totally dries my hands out too! :(
Anyways, I'm sure you'll agree that this is a totally gorgeous polish!

Stay Strong Sweetheart

Hey everyone, you may have noticed that I've been a bit M.I.A recently.

There's two reasons for that, the first is that I've just finished the main part of The Challenge (which I would seriously recommend to anyone if they ever get the chance to do it!) last week, and the second is that my  health isn't getting any better and I'm in quite a lot of pain right now. But that doesn't matter...

I really feel like I'm neglecting the blog, so here's a mani I did today, which has a bit of a story behind it...

The story relates back to both of the reasons why I've been a bit M.I.A.

While on The Challenge, I met some amazing people, people who I will stay friends with for a long time. And one of those people has now become one of my new best friends. And that really is something because "best friend" isn't a title I give out very easily. But the the thing is, she really is the first person I've ever met that I can relate to SO much! She's also probably the only person ever to find out so much about me in such a short space of time. And like I already said, I'm in a lot of pain right now, and for someone who one month ago didn't even know I existed, she has been so incredibly supportive, both then and now. I feel so lucky to have met her, and I doubt most people will understand why but I really do feel privileged.

You might be wondering how this remotely relates to butterfly nail art, well basically they were the reason I first really opened up to her and vice versa. So if you're reading this: Stay Strong Sweetheart <3

Oh and if you were wondering, the base polish is Claire's Speckled Nail Polish and I stamped the butterflies with Layla Ceramic Effect 30.

Glitter Gradienting

Hey everyone, sorry I've not posted since Wednesday. I'm doing The Challenge and was in the middle of the countryside until this morning. I wont really be home for the next three weeks so if anyone would like to do a guest post for me, feel free to type it up and send the HTML to ddshah96@googlemail.com. :)

Anyways, back to the mani:

This is a mani I did a while ago but never got round to posting, so here it is. Glitter gradients are one of my favourite nail art techniques because they are just so easy to do once you get the hang of them and the colour combinations and possibilities are quite literally endless!

For this mani I used China Glaze Traffic Jam, a gorgeous raspberry pink, as my base. I then used Color Club Jingle Jange, a mix of blue, purple and holographic glitters, for the gradient. I topped it all off with a thin coat of W.I.P Midnight, a clear polish with large purple glitter and smaller blue and purple glitter, to tie it all together.

I really like this combo of the icy glitter against summery pink!

Anyway, thanks for reading! x

Angelica Brit Pop

I think I may just have found the ultimate budget glitter topper!

Glitter? Check. Multi Coloured? Check. Multi Sized? Check. Densely Packed? Check. Less than £3? Check. Easily Available? Check!

I think we've got ourselves a real gem on our hands!

So what is this gem I'm talking about? Well if you haven't read the title yet, this is Angelica Brit Pop.

And where did I get hold of such an awesome polish from? Primark! Yes, that high-street clothing store that has popped up everywhere! And they have a whole range of polishes available from neons right through to duochromes. And every single one is only £2.50 in store! (You can also purchase them directly via the Angelica website here for £2.75 each)

Anyway back to the polish:

Brit Pop is a mix of large and small hex glitter in a whole array of colours: Red, Gold, Green, Blue, Purple, Pink and Silver suspended in a clear base. Basically a rainbow party in a bottle!

But the thing that really won me over was that it was SO densely packed! A chunky glitter at that sort of price point is usually really sparse but this one definitely was not! And what you see in all of these pictures is ONE COAT!

I started with a base of Bourjois Rose Lounge, which is a neutral jelly/sheer polish. I did about 4 coats to achieve the opacity you see here. I then added one coat of Brit Pop. I didn't use any topcoat at any stage.

And since you probably all know that I love a matte glitter, I obviously had to try it out!

And I love it! Especially since the base was such a neutral colour, it made it look like it wasn't a polish at all. Instead, it looked like all that glitter was carefully placed on, or as if I had confetti on my nails!

Best of all was that the actual glitter didn't go matte, it still shone through and looked really cool against the neutral matte background.

JELLY SANDWICH TIME!! Haha, bit over-exited? Me? Never! ;)

I thought, since I had this polish on anyway, and the fact that the base colour was a jelly, I may as well try out a jelly sandwich! And it totally worked! I used two more coats of Bourjois Rose Lounge on top of the glitter and this is what I got:

(It looked good with just one extra coat but from a distance still didn't look like a proper jelly sandwich so that's why I used two)

So basically, for £2.50 this is one freaking awesome polish!

Barry M Amethyst Glitter - Glitter Gradient

An old mani for you all today, but one I still love!

Back in September/October last year Barry m released a 'Jewel' collections, full of gorgeous glitter polishes. I didn't wait long before grabbing myself a couple and one of my favourites it Amethyst Glitter:

Instead of wearing it on its own, I tried it as a glitter gradient and I really do love it!

Amethyst Glitter is a beautiful mix of small and micro hex glitters in an array of jewel tones. There is a mix of turquoise, pink, gold, purple, black and red hex glitters and only turquoise micro glitter. It is so densely packed that one coat is almost opaque! 2-3 make it totally opaque and add lots of depth.

The formula was pretty good, slightly thick due to the amount of glitter but fast drying and smooth. It did dry to a slightly bumpy finish but a good thick layer of topcoat sorts that out nicely.

For this gradient I've layered it over Barry M Greenberry, a lovely turquoise one coater. The density of this polish made the whole process so much easier because there wasn't much base in ratio to the glitter so fading the glitter out was delightfully easy.

What do you think? Have you tried any of the Barry M Jewel collection?

31 Days of Nail Art Challenge - Day 31 - Re-Create Your Favourite Challenge

Okay, so I'm not actually doing my favourite day, but one that I wanted to have another go at.

Truthfully there was about 6 days I wish I could have done again, but I picked Day 10 - Gradient Nails because at the time I wasn't confident about my gradient skills so did a glitter gradient instead. I liked what I created the first time found but felt like I wanted to do a "proper" gradient, so here it is:

I used two of the new Barry M Gelly Nail Paints in Key Lime (green) and Guava (blue). They made the whole process so much easier because the formula was brilliant! I then added a layer of sparse iridescent glitter and then mattified it.

Here's what it looked like before the glitter:

 I really really like these! And I feel like my gradient skills have improved vastly!

Look forward to seeing more gradients from me, I just love the look of them!

Barry M Sequin Nail Effect - White

I have a new product for you all!

You may have seen or heard about all the new Barry M releases coming out over the next few months (more Gelly polishes, new Sequin Effects and new Confetti Effects). Well I have one of the New Sequin Nail Effects Nail Paints to show you!

This is Sequin Nail Paint in White. (There is also a pink one with the same formula and a black and gold one too).

That is two coats of the polish over a white creme.

It is basically a sheer white base with small hex glitter suspended in it. The colours of the glitters are red, blue, green, gold and silver. I think there is also some sort of texture element to it because when the first coat dried there was visible opaque residue in the polish. Either that or I have a dodgy bottle.

The formula was easy to work with and applied smoothly, but the glitter did like to hide away on the first coat. On the second however, they spread out nicely and a good amount transfered onto the nail.

Okay, here's the truth. It is very sheer. As in so sheer it will NEED a base colour, otherwise it will take about 6/7 coats to get it remotely opaque. And if you actually do that many coat, the glitter will probably just fill your nails.

I decided to mattify it to see what it looks like and well... there wasn't much difference. The whole thing just went a bit cloudier and the base and glitter got duller, but apart from that nothing much else changed.

Removal was the same as any other chunky glitter. Thankfully no vicious scrubbing was required and eventually the glitter did slide off which is a major bonus!

So overall what do I think? Well it reminds me of sprinkles and I can see myself using this a lot for nail art, but I doubt I would wear it as a full mani very often. It was a tad bit 'primary school' if that makes sense to you and the formula was a bit annoying but I think it will quite popular since it's quite different.

You can purchase it from the majority of Superdrug and Boots stores and the Barry M website soon.

31 Days of Nail Art Challenge - Day 23 - Inspired by a Movie

Movies.

I love watching films but I can never find the time to watch them anymore :(

So for this theme I decided to base it on a film character from my childhood.

And that is... Minnie Mouse!

Instead of actually drawing her, I used bits of her 'look' (basically her dress and hairbow) to recreate.

For the base I started with Revlon Mon Cherry, which is one of their scented polishes. It smells pretty nice, but not of cherry unfortunately. Then I added the white dots using Models Own Snow White and a dotting tool. For the bow I added a coat of China Glaze Ruby Pumps before adding the dots, and then drew on the bow.

I love how it is such and iconic look that even people on the bus commented saying it looked like Minnie Mouse nails!

Sinful Colours Nail Junkie

So Sinful Colours has recently landed in the UK in most larger Boots stores and if you read this post, you'll know that I grabbed myself a few!

One of those was Nail Junkie, which was the first one I was drawn to and doesn't it just describe me perfectly! Haha ;)

I looooove this polish!

Its a gorgeous teal coloured jelly base packed with iridescent, teal and blue micro and hex glitter .

The first coat was quite sheer and patchy and I thought it would take something like 5 coats to make it opaque but after applying a thick-ish second coat it was actually fine and I just added a final thin third coat to add depth.

Due to the jelly base it will never be totally opaque but I like the finish, it makes it look lovely and squishy.

It dries to a ever so slightly textured finish, partly because of the amount of glitter and it looks good left like that but I added a thick layer of topcoat.

no topcoat

with topcoat

Does anyone else think this looks like an awesome indie?

Revlon Girly

It seems like the mainstream beauty brands have noticed the popularity of indie brands and so are following suit. Enter Revlon Girly.

Now this is a polish that you will either love or hate.

Its a sheer pale milky pink base full of purple, blue and rose gold coloured hex glitter and lilac and peach micro almost-holographic glitter.

The glitter is pretty dense so I found that one coat was sufficient and I didn't need to really place the glitter either which was good.

This is one coat (two on my ring finger) of Revlon Girly over Color Club Blushing Rose, which was the colour closest to the actual base of Girly.

Its a total Barbie-esqe polish and one that will probably look pretty tacky to most people.

I don't really like it much truthfully BUT after putting a matte top-coat over I think it looks sooo much better!

 So much so that I might even consider wearing it as a full mani!

I guess you could layer this up to opaque but it would probably take like 5/6 coats to do so.

I tried it out with one coat on naked nails and I did actually like it, but it showed some very obvious nail line so I don't think I would leave it at that.

What do you think? Would you wear it or is it just a bit too childish?