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!

Summer NOTD: Bright Green Neon Nails With A Bit Of Glitter

Today I'm wearing China Glaze I'm With The Lifeguard, a neon green polish from their Summer Neons collection from 2012, with China Glaze Sour Apple, a bright green glitter topper (I don't know which collection it is from).  

I'm With The Lifeguard is a very bright neon green, less yellow than my pictures show, with green and yellow sheen in the sun. It's very glowy and cheerful. The formula wasn't perfect, it's quite runny, so had to be careful with it, but after 2 coats it looked perfect. Sour Apple has fine glitter in it and it also took 2 coats to look even. The two polishes go together really well.

I took another picture to show you what it looks like in shade, and was also hoping to capture its real colour, but even this is too yellow. Anyway, I'm loving this combo.

Do you own any neon polishes? Which are your favourites?

See another picture after the jump!

My Picks From KBShimmer's Summer Collections and a Lipstick Too!

My order from Harlow & Co came the other day, so I thought I'd show you which polishes I chose from the two KBShimmer summer collections (there was an early summer collection and a late summer collection - although I'm still considering this time of year to be early summer, but anyway). I only chose three polishes, not becasue I didn't like the rest, but because I now have over 2000 polishes and have completely run out of space to store them in. So I try to look for polishes that are a bit unusual or colours that I don't own yet.

I picked up Red, White & Blue-tiful from the late summer collection, a glitter topper with lots of red, blue and silver stars as well as red, blue and silver glitter and holographic micro glitter. Obviously it is for 4th July, the American Independence Day, but since the UK flag has the same colours, I thought it would be a very apt polish for the summer. Or just any time really.

From the early summer collection I got Run! It's The Coppers!, a copper holographic polish, and Let's Not Coral, a coral pink creme polish. Both are gorgeous and not similar to anything I own. (Which makes you wonder, how can someone have over 2000 polishes and still not own every colour possible?!)

I also ordered a lipstick which is a very rare occurrence for me nowadays (you might remember I went on a lip product no-buy when I was still blogging last year) as I now have so many lipsticks and lipglosses. I only buy some very special colours nowadays (mostly just Guerlain Rouge G's and Mac lipsticks), but I saw a swatch of Lime Crime Geradium Opaque Lipstick and just had to have it. I will review the lipstick in the coming days, but for now, here's a sneak peek.

Come back soon for a full review of this gorgeousness!

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!

My Current Favourites - Part 2: Nails

I have already shown you my current favourite make up products and today I'd like to show you what I've been using most when it comes to my nails.

First up is Sally Hansen Maximum Growth Cuticle Pen. I use this every time I change my mani, and brush the oil all over my nails as well as my cuticles. It helps make my cuticles soft and also conditions my nails which are quite fragile and peel easily. Since I started using this product many month ago, my nails have been in a much better state, the peeling has slowed down and my nails have become stronger.

See what other products I've been enjoying using after the jump!

NOTD: Minty Green and Icy Silver

Today's mani is featuring a lovely nail polish from last year's Dior summer collection (no. 402 from the Samba mini polish duo) as well as GOSH Holographic Hero and Black Cat Lacquer Cancer, a glitter topper with matte white and grey glitter as well as small holographic glitter.

All 3 polishes were easy to apply, although the GOSH one you have to be careful with as it can pull a bit, but with 3 coats, everything was even. I used 2 coats of the glitter topper for added sparkle. The mani lasted well for 2 days, I removed it at the end of the second day. Removal was okay, I always use the foil method if I wear glitter.

See more pictures after the jump!

NOTD: Polish Me Silly Mind Blowing over China Glaze Want My Bawdy

I have another mani to show you (I told you I'm really into nail polish) and this time it's another fabulous indie polish called Mind Blowing by Polish Me Silly. I used China Glaze Want Me Bawdy, a dark blue and purple duochrome polish as the base and added Mind Blowing on top which is a multichrome topper with glitter. It goes from purple to blue as well, so a good match to Want Me Bawdy. It lightens the base colour and creates a galaxy like effect. Very pretty. It's really sparkly in direct sunlight, unfortunately the day I took the photos was a cloudy day. 

The formula of both polishes was great, Mind Blowing in particular and wore well for 2 days (which is my average and the frequency I change my nail polish usually).

Polish Me Silly polishes are available from their Etsy shop and from Rainbow Connection in the UK (although currently these multichrome toppers aren't in stock). If you buy from their Etsy shop, you can choose whether you want full size (15 ml) or mini size (9 ml) bottles and you can also purchase all 6 multichrome toppers available from the brand.

See more pictures 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: Models Own Blooming Pink with Barry M Pink Sapphire Glitter

I have a nice cheerful mani to share with you, this is Models Own Blooming Pink topped with Barry M Pink Sapphire Glitter polish.

I applied two coats of Models Own Blooming Pink which had a very nice, easy to apply formula. Then followed by two coats of Barry M Pink Sapphire Glitter which was a little hard to get to apply evenly. Two coats did the trick and the result was this shimmery, glittery pretty pink mani.

Both polishes are permanent, so easy to find and are both very cheap, Models Own polishes cost £5 each and Barry M glitter polishes cost £2.99 each, but there's usually some sort of an offer on these either at Boots or Superdrug.

See more pictures after the jump!

Urban Decay Moondust Eyeshadows Review and Swatches

When I heard about Urban Decay releasing some new, very sparkly eyeshadows, I of course had to check them out. They came out in 7 shades and I picked up 4 (for now?). I got Glitter Rock, Intergalactic, Stargazer and Zodiac.

This is the description on the Debenhams website: "Urban Decay launches Moondust Eyeshadow, a dazzling innovation in eyeshadow with a super-refined and incredibly sophisticated feel. Forget EVERYTHING you know about glitter eyeshadow. Moondust is like NO OTHER shadow. There's not a speck of chunky "teen glitter" be found in these babies. Microfine bits of iridescent sparkle collide with intense, dreamy hues and lush 3-D metallics - for an effect that's out of this world. And while some traditional sparkly shadows tend to look cheap, Moondust has a really luxe, upscale vibe and a gorgeous, diamond-like effect." These are definitely very sparkly. They are also pretty pigmented, so you actually get a lot of colour as well as a lot of sparkle. Initially they reminded me of the Stardust eyeshadows, but these are a lot more intense, both in colour and also in sparkle.

These eyeshadows are not only very sparkly, but they're also duochrome, some more than others, in particular Stargazer which has a gorgeous green duochrome to it. Zodiac is my favourite of the 4, it is amazingly intense and is full of green, blue and gold sparkles. I found Glitter Rock and Intergalactic quite similar on the eyes, although they swatched more differently, but Stargazer and Zodiac gave a great contrasting look.

Urban Decay recommends you apply these using your fingers, I swatched them with my fingers, but I prefer applying eyeshadows on my eyes with brushes for precision. These eyeshadows can be used dry or wet for more intensity. I haven't tried them wet yet. As for glitter fallout, there was surprisingly little, I mostly only had some during application and blending. Once I cleaned it up, I didn't notice much glitter fallout. I would say that if you didn't like glitter, you'd probably wouldn't want to go anywhere near these anyway since they are so sparkly. But they definitely didn't spread all over my face. I didn't notice any creasing either (I used them over Too Faced Shadows Insurance) and they looked vibrant all through the day. 

These eyeshadows come in the usual round Urban Decay eyeshadow compacts and by the looks of them can probably be depotted and put into their new palettes (which I don't like one bit, but anyway). You get 1.5 g of product for £14. Urban Decay is stocked in Debenhams and House of Fraser, and they are currently on sale at BeautyBay (£12.46 each), although Zodiac isn't in stock.


See more pictures including swatches and a look I did using Stargazer and Zodiac after the jump!

NOTD: Nails Inc Shepherds Market

I believe this was a limited edition colour, I bought it as part of a set in TKMaxx, so not sure, but it's not on the Nails Inc website. Shepherds Market is a silver glitter polish with lots of multicoloured glitter. The glitter in it is very fine, and the coverage is very good, the pictures show two coats.

The formula was nice and easy to apply. It did show up the imperfections on my nails and sadly chipped within the first 24 hours, so I wasn't pleased with that. It was fairly easy to remove at least.

Nails Inc polishes cost £11 and you get 10 ml for your money. I find the quality variable, some are nice, some aren't that nice. To be honest, I don't think they're worth £11, so I try to buy them in sets in TKMaxx instead. They do have some lovely colours though.

See more pictures after the jump!

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!

NOTD: Color Club Hot Couture over Oh My Gosh Electric Pink

Today's manicure is a lovely springtime one (although I actually did it back in November), it's very appropriate for Easter, even though the weather in the UK resembles more Christmas than anything else. It was 2.8 degrees at 9 am this morning. Brr!

I used Oh My GOSH Electric Pink polish as a base and then applied Color Club Hot Couture glitter top coat on top. The result: bright pink sparkly nails! Lovely.

Both polishes has a good formula, not too thick, not too runny. Hot Couture has a very good glitter coverage, you don't need to fish around for glitter. I only had a couple of tiny chips after the first day, but after 2 days I had loads of chipping and peeling. Still, it was very pretty while it lasted.

I bought Hot Couture as part of a set from TKMaxx and Electric Pink from Superdrug.

See more pictures after the jump!

NOTD: Mavala Sparkling Violet

Mavala Sparkling Violet is a gorgeous multicoloured (magenta, teal, gold) glitter top coat. It has I thought it might be opaque enough to wear on its own, but after 5 coats (which is what you see in the pictures) I gave up. It should definitely be worn as a top coat!

It is very pretty though, as well as quick drying and long lasting. It lasted on me for 3 days with minimal chipping (no chipping at all in the first 24 hours) which is pretty much my record.

Mavala polishes cost £4 for 5 ml, so they are very affordable and as the bottles are so small, you actually have a chance of finishing them. The 5 coats I used for this pretty much got through a third of the bottle! I got mine from BeautyBay.

See more 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!

NOTD: Team GB / Jubilee Nails

Yes, I know, I'm a few months behind, but this mani reminded me of last summer with the Queen's Golden Jubilee and the London Olympics. I used Barry M Jewel Britannia glitter nail polish on top of Max Factor Odyssey Blue nail polish.

Taken without flash in direct sunlight

I used 3 coats of Odyssey Blue and then topped it with one coat of Jewel Britannia. Both polishes for great, Odyssey Blue was smooth and quick drying and Jewel Britannia had a very good glitter coverage in just one coat. It has small holo glitter as well as medium size red, blue and silver round glitter. Very British looking indeed. The mani lasted for 3 days with very minimal chipping and it was so pretty, very sparkly and unique.

Max Factor Odyssey Blue is a mini size and costs £3.99, Barry M Jewel Britannia was a limited edition shade and I can't find it on any website anymore. For reference though, Barry M glitter polishes cost £2.99.

See another picture after the jump!

Mac Pro Longwear Paint Pots Review and Swatches

Mac has released 8 "new" Pro Longwear Paint Pots this month, although only 2 of them are actually new shades, the other 6 are repromoted or even from the permanent line. I only bought the two new shades: Frozen Violet and Antique Diamond, because I already owned the other 6. Although mine are the original, "just" Paint Pots, I believe the formula hasn't been changed, they've just been renamed to Pro Longwear Paint Pots.

So I thought I might as well do a quick post on them and show you all the swatches. For once, these are actually NOT limited edition, so you can take your time to purchase the ones you like. Yay!

We have here Let's Skate from Glitter & Ice (2011), Chilled On Ice, Vintage Selection, Let Me Pop and Dangerous Cuvee from Cham-Pale (2010), Frozen Violet and Antique Diamond (new) and Blackground (permanent). All of them are glittery and/or frosty to some extent, some more than others. They are quite sheer, perfect for a quick wash of colour. I often use paint pots when I don't have time to do a complex eye look, just swipe one colour on my lids and maybe another one to highlight and that's it. These paint pots are brilliantly long lasting and they don't crease all day long (not even without primer underneath). Once they dry, they're not going anywhere. They are also very good as eyeshadow bases.

As you can see, most of the old paint pots are still in good condition, but my Let Me Pop has shrivelled up somewhat. I don't know why, I stored it just like I store the others (upside down with the lid tightly closed) and it's the same age as the other 3 Cham-Pale ones. It still works, it's not too dry, but I suspect it may not have too much life in it left. Oh well, at least I can repurchase it now it's permanent. Actually Let Me Pop isn't one of my favourites, it's a bit chunky and hard to get even. My favourites are definitely Vintage Selection and Dangerous Cuvee, but I also really like Antique Diamond.

Mac Pro Longwear Paint Pots cost £14.50 and you get 5 g of product for your money. It's nice to have some new shades added to the permanent line, but I would still like to see some bright colours like purple, blue, teal and green.

See more pictures including swatches and a look I did with Antique Diamond after the jump!

Mac Pressed Pigments Review and Swatches

In January Mac also released a collection of pressed pigments, but as they are actually permanent additions to their make up line, I thought I'd take my time before reviewing them. Even after this long I still haven't got around to wearing all shades, but I have a good idea about them now, so it's time for the review.

Mac says the collection contains 12 shades, but for some reason there are only 11 on the Mac UK website (it doesn't include Light Touch). 3 of the 12 shades are actually repromoted from the previous release and I have found these on the House of Fraser website (they are Light Touch, Deeply Dashing and Day Gleam), but for some reason not all of them are up on the Mac website. Anyway...

I got 7 of the new shades this time around (I also got Warming Heart with the first release if you want to check out my thoughts on that one), and they are Sweet Acting, Flicker, Blonde Streak, Smoky, Amethyst, Jet Couture and Blue Willow. Sweet Acting is described by Mac as "midtone pink", Flicker is "pastel yellow", Blonde Streek is "light cream", Smoky is "deep silver blue", Amethyst is "purple with silver undertone", Jet Couture is "charcoal black" and Blue Willow is "light icy blue".

Generally speaking these pressed pigments are very shimmery, glittery. They actually remind me very much of the Laura Mercier Sequin and Bobbi Brown Sparkle eyeshadows. If you don't like shimmer and glitter, then stay clear of them. I have to say, I don't find them at all gritty or chunky, I found application to be smooth. There is some fallout during application, but I didn't notice it after I'd cleaned up and applied my foundation. Most of these shades are pretty light and not very pigmented, except for Smoky and Jet Couture. Jet Couture in particular is an amazing shade, it's charcoal black with multicolour shimmer. It's really stunning.

All in all, I don't think these are must haves, but if you like different effects and a bit of shimmer when it comes to eyeshadows, then check them out. They cost £16.50 each and you get 3 g.

See more pictures after the jump!

Topshop Nail Polish Swatches

In my 2012 Favourites post I showed you some of my Topshop nail polishes, a brand I discovered and grown to love in the last year and I thought I might as well show you what they looked like swatched. Since I never have time to do proper nail swatches, I have finally acquired some nail wheels and put them to good use.

Front row: Mercury Rising, Plume, Ashes & Fire, Hope Floats, Sleepwalker, Bowl Me Over
Back row: Rising Star, Neptune, Dark Knight, Brazil, Jem, 3D

These are just some of my Topshop polishes, I actually own 35 of them, these are just my most recent purchases. I cannot go into Topshop and not buy their nail polishes, they always have so many lovely colours, glitters, duochromes, the lot.

The swatches below were done with two coats. I have already shown you Rising Star (click here to see details), so I decided not to scoop out any of the stars for the swatches because there aren't that many of them in the bottle. As you can see, some of the glitter polishes would work best on top of a darker colour, also Plume would probably look more amazing on top of a black polish to bring out its duochrome quality best. Some of them though are nicely opaque in just two coats.

See lost more pictures after the jump!

My Actual (Almost) Christmas NOTD: Color Club Gingerbread

I'm sorry, I know I said I was going to continue with my 2012 Favourites posts today, but after a whole day of putting away Christmas decorations and sorting things out for children starting school tomorrow, I just didn't have time for it. You'd be surprised if you knew how long those posts take. I promise I will continue with my 2012 Favourites post tomorrow.

Instead here's the manicure I did for Christmas. Or rather Christmas Eve as unfortunately it had chipped by the end of Christmas Eve and I had to change it, but never had time to take pictures of the actual Christmas Day manicure (it was Color Club Art of Seduction - a gorgeous red glitter).

This is Color Club Gingerbread, a gold glitter polish full of holographic glitter that sparkles in the colours of the rainbow. It was part of the Under The Mistletoe holiday collection (2010). It has a nice formula, and only took 2 coats for pretty full coverage. Unfortunately it chipped on me very quickly, so I had to remove it after just 2 days.It was very pretty while it lasted though.

Color Club polishes are available from TK Maxx, or I have bought many on eBay too. I don't actually know anywhere else in the UK that stocks them.They only cost a couple of quid on eBay, so even with postage you can get them pretty cheap. Beautyzone2007 is my favourite Color Club seller on eBay.

See more pictures after the jump!