Flowery Nail Art With Butter London Disco Biscuit

I don't do a lot of nail art mostly because I'm not very good at it and because I haven't got much time, but a little while ago I did this cute mani using Butter London Disco Biscuit. I stamped it with white Konad polish using Pueen 59 stamping plate and applied glitters from OPI I Snow You Love Me to the center of the flowers. Ta-dah!

It was really quick and easy, even for a beginner like me, but I got lots of compliments on it.

Do you do nail art? Do you stamp or do it freehand?

See more pictures after the jump!

Tropical Punch NOTD with Seventeen and OPI and a Few Haul Pictures

And now it's time for something summery. This is Seventeen (17) Tropical Punch over OPI Mediterranean Moonlight. The glitters in the Seventeen polish are matte, so they give a great contrast to the base coat. The OPI polish is quite dull on its own, but the topcoat really cheered it up.

I also have a few pictures of a recent haul featuring drugstore polishes, including Seventeen and some TKMaxx finds. I love TKMaxx, but the only thing I hate is how they plaster the products with the price stickers, I mean look at that poor Nails Inc polish!

See more pictures of my TKMaxx finds after the jump!

I'm back and NOTD with OPI You're So Flippy Floppy!

Hello! It's been a VERY long time since I last wrote a post, mostly due to personal reasons, but also I've found that my interest had shifted from make up to nail polish. I still use make up all the time, but I'm buying a LOT less, however, I'm now so into nail polish, I have built up a massive collection. So from now on I think I'll be sharing my nail polish purchases and manis with you with the odd make up post in between. Hope you'll like it.

First up is OPI You're So Flippy Floppy topped with Chaos & Crocodiles Paint The Sky, a very neon glitter topper with lots of different shapes and colours. OPI You're So Flippy Floppy is one of the Beach Sandies mini polishes from their summer collection. Chaos & Crocodiles is an indie polish brand, they have lots of fun glitter toppers. You can purchase them from Mei Mei's Signatures.

I wore this for 2 days, but by the end of the second day it had chipped. I don't know if it's to do with the glitter or just the formula of this particular polish, but the other OPI sand polishes from the same pack lasted on me for 2 days without chipping.

What do you think? Do you like sand polishes? What about indie polishes? Glitters? Let me know in the comments!

NOTD: Nails Inc Park Lane and OPI Purple With A Purpose

There are two things I love very much are combined in this mani: purple and glitter. I wore Nails Inc Park Lande over OPI Purple With A Purpose. I did 2 coats of the OPI polish and then one coat of the Nails Inc glitter polish on top.

To be honest, you probably can't even see the OPI polish because Nails Inc Park Lane has a fantastic coverage in just one coat! Although in the pictures it looks like the base polish is peeping through, but it's not really, just how the light falls on my nails.

Both formulas were lovely and I had very minimal chipping in the first 48 hours. The glitter polish was surprisingly easy to remove, so that was a bonus.

Both of these polishes are permanent, I believe, so you should be able to find them quite easily. I think they both cost £11 each, the Nails Inc being 10 ml and the OPI 15 ml.

The colours in the pictures are not at all accurate, so I included some I took with my phone camera, which are worse quality, but the colours are much truer to life.

See lots of pictures after the jump!

Do You Want A Dupe (Or Two) For OPI Polka.com Nail Polish?

With my China Glaze Hologlam order I also got OPI Polka.com, the only polish I was interested in from the Euro Centrale collection (which is quite unexpected since I'm from Hungary and there are a few references to Hungary/Budapest, but none of the colours called out to me). Of course me being me, I managed to accidentally pick up a couple of dupes before I even received Polka.com. I thought I'd show you what they are, so if you'd like the OPI polish but it's a bit too pricey for you at £12.

The polishes you see in the picture are (left to right) Beauty UK Posh Polish in Pinkabloo, OPI Polka.com and Topshop Hope Floats. There are very slight differences, but the over all look is pretty much the same. While OPI has blue and pink micro glitter (as well as the larger blue, turquoise and bright pink hex glitter they all have), the Beauty UK polish only has blue micro glitter and the Topshop polish has turquoise micro glitter. However, as you can see in the swatch pictures, the difference is very hard to see. The hex glitter is pretty much the same in all 3. Consistency wise they seemed pretty similar, while OPI had the best brush, it's nice and wide, and Beauty UK had the worst, thin little brush.

Pricewise the Beauty UK one is the cheapest at £3.49 for 9 ml, then it's the Topshop one at £6 for 8 ml and then the OPI one at £12 for 15 ml (I bought mine for £7.15 from Nail Polish Direct by the way). Technically the OPI is cheaper than the Topshop one gram per gram, but question is, do you actually NEED 15 ml of glitter polish?

See swatch pictures after the jump!

2012 Favourites - Part 4: Nails

2012 was definitely the year of the nail polish for me. I bought over 550 nail polishes (I know, crazy!) and discovered some amazing brands. (Check out my stash video and pictures here.) Until 2 years ago I'd hardy heard of any nail polish brands that couldn't be bought in Boots or Superdrug (and back then there weren't a lot of glittery, shimmery, duochrome polish around, or at least I didn't notice them). As well as continuing to buy from mainstream brands like China Glaze, OPI, Orly and the likes, I discovered some very unique and interesting brands and nail polishes. My favourite polishes are holos and duochromes, or preferably both together in one product, and I'm also rather partial to glitter.

The picture above shows a few of my recent purchases including the new Color Club holographic polishes that I regret to say I haven't tried yet as well as Topshop glitter polishes and Enchanted Polish duo(multi)chrome polishes.

My favourite newly discovered brands in 2012 were Topshop, Enchanted Polish, Layla and Glitter Gal. Out of the four I'd say Enchanted Polish is my definite favourite, the only thing I don't like is how difficult it is to come by as the polishes are only made in very small quantities and the shades are limited edition. Nevertheless I have managed to get my hands on a few of them and here are some:

These are from the Beatles collection (I Am The Walrus and Magical Mystery Tour) and from the Falloween collection (Witchful Thinking). The new holiday collection came in a new style, fancier, more professional looking bottle:

Green Peace on Earth, Dance Of The Sugar Plum, Bruised Nutcracker, Olive The Other Reindeer

Enchanted Polish nail polishes are absolutely gorgeous, duo- or rather multichrome with scattered holo, straight forward holographic or glittery. I have showed you Across The Universe here if you want to take a peek.

Find out what other nail polishes and nail care products I loved in 2012 after the jump!

Festive Nails Part 2 - Red With Golden Glitter

When it comes to Christmas, nothing beats a lovely red nail polish. I have OPI The Spy Who Loved Me with China Glaze Golden Enchantement on top for extra sparkle. Lovely!

Taken without flash in direct sunlight

I did 2 coats of each nail polish and sealed it with Seche Vite. The result: shiny, shimmery gorgeousness. It lasted pretty well on me with no chipping on the first day and only minimal chipping on day 2.

The Spy Who Loved Me was part of a set, it's a mini size 3.75 ml, but it's also available in full size. I think OPI polishes are now around £11, but I never pay full price, always buy on eBay from the US usually. Golden Enchantement is a permanent shade, it's also a dupe for Angel Wings from the new Holiday Joy collection. China Glaze polishes cost around £6.95, but again I tend to buy them on eBay for a lot less.

See more pictures after the jump!

My Nail Polish Stash and Storage Video (and Lots of Pictures!)

I've spent a couple of days re-organising my nail polish storage and creating a spreadsheet, so I know exactly where every single one of them are, so I though I would show you the fruit of my hard work. Also I enjoy looking at other people's stashes, so hope you enjoy it too.



I have also taken pictures of the contents of each box and separate packs, so if you're interested, have a look! No individual pictures, but I did do a rather extensive series on my nail polish stash last November, so click here if you'd like to check it out.

See lots more pictures after the jump!

This Month I...

Rather than just doing a post about products I've finished this month, I've decided to do more of a summary of the last month and all beauty related happenings. So here we go.

Last month I...

• finished 3 products. It's been a slow month, what can I say? At least it's more than nothing, eh? One of the products finished was Maybelline Lash Stiletto mascara which I really enjoyed using and would definitely consider repurchasing if I didn't already own 20+ mascaras. It also lasted for ages, I don't even remember when I first started using it, it didn't go bad or dry out, just simply ran out eventually. 
• have overspent by about £250 again. I think I should just up my budget, because it's clearly too low. Or maybe buy less make up and spend less money. (Crazy talk, I know.)
• have bought another lorry load of nail polishes. I know I'm crazy, I have been buying nail polish all the time, but there are so many pretty colours! I have also discovered a couple of brands (namely Glitter Gal and A-England) I'd not heard about before and they both happened to be holographic nail polishes which is my weakness. 

Here are some pictures of the pretty polishes I bought in April (some reviews will follow eventually, let me know in the comments which ones you're interested in the most). First up, A-England holo polishes:

Princess Tears, Lady Of The Lake, Ascalon, Tristram, Princess Sabra

See lots more pictures after the jump!

NOTD: OPI Save Me

Just a quick NOTD post today I'm afraid as I've been very busy lately and as a result, used up all my interesting scheduled posts. I should be back to normal in a few days, I have some lovely things to share with you, so keep checking in!

This beauty is OPI's Save Me from the Nicki Minaj collection. Hope it's still available because it's absolutely stunning if you like glitter. More of a topcoat really, but here I used it as a normal polish, and it took 3 coats to cover my nails properly. It is extremely rough though even after 2 coats of Seche Vite topcoat and the bar glitter tends to stick out all over the place, so it's really quite annoying. But it would look lovely as a top coat and probably more comfortable to wear, but it will still need a top coat to smooth it out.

As usual, you get 15 ml and in the UK OPI polishes cost £10.50. Quite a rip off, so I try to buy mine from eBay, usually for a good few pounds more. Otherwise, you can buy yours from John Lewis, Beauty Bay, Sally's, etc.

See another picture after the jump!

2011's Favourite Products: Part 3 - Lip and Nails

2011 was definitely the year of the lipstick for me. I purchased over 100 new lipsticks, spent a whole month wearing a different lipstick every day and really got into wearing bold, bright shades that I used to shy away from. So let's have a quick rundown of this year's favourite lipstick - in no particular order.

Guerlain Rouge G lipsticks have become one of my favourite lipsticks and this year out of them all Garconne and Girly, the two bright autumn shades were my absolutely favourites. Garconne is the most perfect red lipstick for me, and Girly is a fun bright pink shade.

Guerlain Rouge G in Girly (left) and Garconne (right)

Keep reading to see which other lipsticks made it into my favourites!

My Ever Growing Nail Polish Collection Part 1 - OPI, China Glaze, Orly, Mavala

I had some requests to show off my nail polish collection, so here it is. I'm going to do it in 3 parts because I have a lot of nail polishes, so make sure you check out part 2 and part 3 as well!

Some of my nail polish stash

Would you believe it that just a couple of years ago all the nail polish I owned fitted into this box?

Wanna see what's inside? A bit boring really, but here you go:

A bit samey, all pastels and hardly any colour. I just wasn't into nail polish, mainly because my nails are really thin and bendy, so nail polish chips off within a matter of days, and I couldn't be bothered to repaint them all the time, so I just used barely there shades. What's changed? I realised that there were some really gorgeous nail polishes out there from brands I'd never heard of! I also realised that nail polishes come in seasonal collections like make up, which of course made me buy even more so I don't miss out. And suddenly I don't mind painting my nails every 2-3 days. At the last count I had 130 nail polishes, which is really crazy, especially as some (most of them are large 15 ml sizes). I will now have to stop buying them and be sure to use them all, although that will certainly take a while. I'd say about 75% of the nail polish I own has not been used yet, so I'd better get cracking!

Without further ado, here are the detailed pictures. I haven't put the shade names down simply because it would take too long, but if you have any questions, just ask in the comments! Enjoy!