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!

My First Ever Attempt At Nail Art ...Well, Sort Of

Let me get this straight I'm not good at nail art. I have now got to the point when I can just about paint my nails without too much mess, but nail art I could never be any good at. My right hand I could maybe do something arty with, but my left hand is absolutely useless, I can't write or draw with it. That is why I always photograph my left hand as the nails always look much better on it. Plus I can't even hold the camera properly with my left hand. So when I say I attempted nail art, I mean this:

Yep, this is it. I painted my nails with one nail polish (namely Urban Decay's Magic Bus) and then applied a glitter polish (Mavala Gold Diamond) on top in a sort of messy gradient style. It looked pretty nice as it was very sparkly and I did get some compliments, so I guess it's not too bad for a first attemp. It also lasted on me for 3 days which was pretty good. What do you think?

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!

My Recent London Make Up Haul Video

Just a quick video to show you what I bought in London yesterday.

NOTD: Mavala 213 Pure Diamond - A Shimmering Rainbow On Your Fingertips

I missed out on GOSH holographic nail polish which now retails for about £20 on eBay, and was looking out for possible dupes when I realised that this little beauty was hiding in my drawer. I purchased it as part of a set that included 7 Mavala glitter nail polishes sometime around Christmas for something like £8 and promptly forgot about it. I decided to try it out and now I'm in love. It's a clear nail polish with multicolour very fine glitter in it, that look mostly silver in natural light, but once bright light hits my nails, it shimmers in every colour of the rainbow. I couldn't stop looking at my hands for the first day or so. Despite it being clear, it is nearly opaque in 3 coats and it feels very smooth as the glitter is very fine. Removing it was a bit more difficult than normal nail polish, but wasn't the worst of the glitter nail polishes I own.

All in all, an absolutely lovely glitter nail polish that looks like those holographic wrapping papers. Love it! Available from BeautyBay for £2.99 (5 ml).

I took lots of pictures, but it was very hard to capture its true beauty, so make sure you scroll right down to the bottom to see a short video I recorded that might give you a better idea on how it looks in real life.

NOTD: Rainbow Nails - Just For Fun

I decided to do something different last night and painted my nails in rainbow colours. I was going to add black crackle polish on top, but the colours were so pretty I decided to leave them as they are. What do you think?

With flash

I used the following nail polishes:
Thumb - Zoya Reva
Index finger - Zoya Tanzy
Middle finger - Mavala Gold Diamond
Ring finger - Zoya Apple
Little finger - China Glaze Blue Iguana

It would've been better if I had used a gold/yellow polish that didn't have glitter, but I don't own one, except a creme one, so I went for the Mavala one. Also Blue Iguana has a slightly different finish too, no flecks of shimmer in it like the Zoya polishes. Still, it's only for fun.

See more pictures after the jump!