Tuesday 4 October 2011

More Dots!

I am a bit obsessed with drawing dots on my nails, I’m not really quite sure why! I wanted to try some contrasting colours, originally I was going to do red and black but then decided to go for red and white. I used Essie’s Silken Cord which is a vibrant red and a white polish from Natural Collection.

essie-redwhitespots

Some of the spots are a bit too splodgey on my index finger but I think it’s quite a fun look overall. I did a reverse pattern on my left ring and right index finger again. This seems to be becoming a new favourite of mine!

Let me know what you think!

emily

Friday 30 September 2011

Turkish Delight…with a bit of Blue…

I ended up getting Turkish Delight with my recent Models Own haul because the polish I had originally ordered (Pure Purple) was sold out. I am SO glad I got it! It is a gorgeous shade of purple/pink which is really deep and rich.

I decided to mix it up a bit and paint one nail on each hand True Blue. (Left hand: ring finger, right hand: index finger).

modelsown-turkishdelight-trueblue

I loved this combo together and both polishes lasted really well with little chipping.

What do you think of the random ‘one nail being a different colour’ idea? Let me know!

emily

Monday 26 September 2011

Haul and Smash Up Polish

My Models Own order finally arrived, woo!

mo-haul

(L-R: Turkish Delight, True Blue, Green Grass, Silver Smash Up & Purple Smash Up.)

I was really excited to try out the Smash Up polishes as I’ve only used the Barry M one’s before, so I put Purple Smash Up over GOSH’s Groovy Grey.

modelsown-smashup-purple

I think it gives a different effect to the Barry M crackle polishes, I’m not sure if it was the base colour but I wasn’t really feeling this combo that much. I will be trying it with a mixture of different colours though, I think it would look awesome with a bright pink underneath! I shall keep you updated!

Also, I nabbed a bargain from ASOS the other day – I got the Essie Resort collection for the amazing grand total of £1.50!

essie-resortcollection2

(L-R: Fair Game, Da Bush, Lion Around & Your Hut Or Mine)

I  am LOVING the look of Da Bush so far, so I think I’ll be trying this out very soon! Have you got any of the polishes from this collection? Let me know your thoughts!

emily

Saturday 10 September 2011

Sally Hansen–Salon Effects

I was in New York last week and picked these up in Walgreens. They were around $9 I think and I haven’t yet seen these on sale anywhere in the UK so thought I’d pick some up. They had some awesome designs but a lot were sold out so I ended up going with these.

I applied them before our flight home at JFK and found them VERY easy to apply and work with. (I did make one boo boo on my index finger as you can see below, but that was my error and I couldn’t be bothered to replace!)

saloneffects1

This picture was taken 4 days after I originally applied them with a top coat of Sally Hansen Double Duty top coat. They are without a doubt the best polish strips I have used (so far) and I am very impressed with their lasting power! I can see me ordering more of these! Does anyone know if they are available in the UK?

I also picked up a couple of boxes of these leopard print polish strips from Forever 21, so I will post these up when I’ve tried them out!

f21instantmanicure

I am also waiting for my delivery from the Models Own sale (one of my polishes was out of stock so it delayed my delivery) I have ordered a few coloured crackle polishes which I’m really excited about and some shades I’ve been eyeing up for a while. Haul post when they arrive Smile

emily

Saturday 3 September 2011

Elegant Touch–Nail Polish Strips

I saw these on offer in my local Savers store so thought I would give them a go! These were only £2.99 for 3 applications so were really good value. I found these much harder to work with than the Nailease ones I posted about last month and they didn’t seem to go on as easily. I had quite a few bumps and creases which I found hard to straighten out. I ended up peeling them off after a few hours so I couldn’t tell you how well they lasted but they did peel off very easily!
I will be giving them another go to see if it was just an application error on my part so will let you know if I have better luck next time!
eleganttouch-gold
They also had them in silver so I may give these ones a go. What’s your opinion on metallic nails!?
emily

Wednesday 31 August 2011

Essie Hot Coco

essie-hotchocolate
I bought this polish when I went to America last year and it was part of the Autumn/Winter collection 2010. Believe it or not this is the first time I have got around to wearing it!
It is a gorgeous chocolate brown shade (hence the name!) which is very wearable. I sometimes fine that Essie polishes are quite streaky and take a lot of building up but this went on nicely with 2 coats and I finished this off with a top coat of OPI Top Coat.
I do love a good brown polish, what about you?!
emily

Friday 26 August 2011

DIY Polka Dots

barry-m-polka-dots
I decided the other day to try and re-create the Nailease polka dot stickers I have on my own nails! I used Barry M 47 Black underneath with Natural Collection White to do the dots with the end of a Kirby grip ;) I decided to do random dots rather than in a line and I like the way it has ended up although could be a little neater I think it looks quite cute still! Think I will give this a go again with different colours too!
Have you done any DIY polka dots before? Any tips for me?!emily

Wednesday 24 August 2011

Models Own - 50% Sale!

The lovely people at Models Own have reached 50,000 Facebook friends and to celebrate are having a 50% sale - amazing! Pretty much everything on their website is half price, so head on over and get saving, you can pick up polishes from just £2.50 - bargain!

Naturally, I have ordered myself 4 polishes and 2 Smash Up polishes so far. I am very tempted to go back for more! Models Own are one of my favourite brands so I would recommend you give their polishes a go if you haven't already :)


Enter code FIFTYFIFTY at the checkout: https://www.modelsownit.com/

Happy Shopping!

Wednesday 27 July 2011

Crackle Me Up

I have been using the Barry M Crackle Polish a lot since I got it…I need to post more pics of this! One of my favourite polishes to mix it with is Models Own – Grace Green. It reminds me of an army kind of camouflage look mixed with a turtle shell!

cracklepolish-gracegreen

What’s your favourite polish to team with a black crackle polish?

emily

Wednesday 20 July 2011

Splash of colour

I decided to try something a bit different today, I was originally going to try and do a colourful cheetah print pattern but did a few spots and thought this looked pretty cool.
spotofcolourI used a base coat with Sally Hansen white polish as the bottom layer. Then I used GOSH Pink Rose 543, Barry M Mint Green 304 and 17 Sherbet Lemon to do the coloured spots and went around the edges with Barry M Black 47.

The little finger is a bit smudged but I thought this design was quite fun and got quite a lot of compliments while wearing it.

I may try this look again with some different colours and see how it looks. What do you think? Any colour combo suggestions?

I am going to attempt a zebra print mani next so look out for pics coming soon!

Monday 11 July 2011

Grey Zebra

Well here is my first attempt at zebra print!

greyzebra

I don’t think it has turned out TOO bad! I decided to go for a grey and black zebra theme to mix it up a bit. I applied a base coat, then applied 2 coats of H&M Miss Stone Heart and waited for it to dry.

When dry I used a cocktail stick & Barry M Black 47 to draw the zebra print pattern on. As you can see, some turned out better than others but they got better the more I did! It really helps to have a zebra print pattern in front of you when doing it.

When the black pattern was dry I applied a coat of Rimmel’s Matte Top Coat to finish it off.

What do you think of these? Do you have any zebra print tips? Let me know!

emily

Thursday 7 July 2011

Back to blog

I have been on a bit of a hiatus lately, due to a few reasons but now I am back and ready to blog!
We’ll start with my latest discovery: Nail polish stickers. I was never really interested in these until I saw the awesome designs that Nailease offer. I was suckered in a thought I’d give the Black & White Polka Dot stickers a go.
nailease-bwspots2

I cleaned and buffed my nails as directed and got going. They don’t lie when they call them easy to apply! Although I found my right hand a bit tricky to do (being right handed) I was very impressed with the end result.

Although I LOVED the overall look of these, I was a little disappointed about the amount of time before they started to chip. I had to take them off after 2 days as a few nails were starting to peel. As they are £5.99 per pack (of 20 strips) Inailease-bwspots1 would expect it to last at least 5 days as stated on the pack.I didn’t use a top coat as I wasn’t sure how the polish strips would react but maybe I would do this next time. I think in future I will use these on just one or two nails with a bright colour polish on the other nails as this would look pretty funky!

Saying this I am dying to get my hands on two of their new designs: snake print and floral. Apparently they will be available soon!

Also, one other thing is that I found them quite difficult to get off, they were very tough and sticky underneath.

Have you tried these? Let me know what you thought and which designs you chose! (And let me know there is still somebody out there somewhere reading my blog!)

Speak soon!

emily