A England- The Mythicals Haul

I finally got around to getting myself some of the A England polishes. The 4 day sale at £5 each helped to make my mind up as well of course ;3 These colours are not only beautiful but the names and stories behind each are what really drew me in, I love all that stuff so I had to grab them. I didn't get all the Mythicals I wanted.. had to show some restraint didn't I? ;3 Poor Lancelot and Perceval will make it a long shortly. I can't wait to get some of the Legends in too.

So which who did I get? Lets start the pics and swatches to follow a long shortly, it's very hard deciding which to wear!

Galahad -The Pure Knight
(Son of Lancelot) the achiever of the holy grail. Renowed for his gallantry and purity is considered the most perfect knight in the world.

Galahad was one of my favourite A Englands, the reason I wanted to buy some in the first place. A beautiful turquoise blue, it just reminds me of blue waters and summer skies plus I just love blue polishes, can't have enough.

Guinevere- The Queen
The most beautiful and desirable lady in Britan. Spouse of King Arthur and involved in a passionate affair with young Lancelot which is one of the most celebrated legendary love triangle.

Guinevere is the most beautiful dusty mauve colour, I am interested to see how this compares to Barry M Berry Ice Cream. I will do a post on that soon as well.

Isuelt- The Fair Lady
The legendary beautiful princess forever linked to Tristam after they mistakenly drank a love potion that left them eternally in love with each other in a powerful romance and tragedy.

Iseult is a very pale pink but with a lovely shimmer running through. I don't own any really pale shades so i'm looking forward to trying this one out.

Tristam- The Courteous Knight
The symbol of the knightly virtue, and romantic love. When Tristam and Iseult accidentally consume a love potion, fall helplessly in love. Despite facing numerous trials to test their secret affair their love was never known to fade.

Tristam is a beautiful deep blue and it's holo!! I think I have quite a few blues by now ;3

Lady of the Lake - The Iconic Hand With Sword
(Foster mother of Lancelot) a woman of great magical power. She resided in the murky water of a lake, an otherworld. She presented the mythical sword Excalibur to King Arthur with her hand emerging from the water.

Lady of the Lake is a gorgeous purple and another of the Mythicals holo effects. I had a terrible time choosing between Lady of the Lake and Tristam to order, I went for Lady of the Lake... I ended up ordering Tristam before the sale ended anyway, a wise investment in my opinion!

Morgan Le Fay- The Enchantress

Half sister of Arthur, sorceresss and healer, she is one of the women who takes the injured Arthur in a barge to Avalon to be healed.

Morgan Le Fay will make a pretty layering polish, can't wait to test this over the likes of Galahad, Guinevere and Isuelt.

Enjoy! x

Max Factor- Fantasy Fire

Today I have one of my favourite layering polishes.. Max Factor Fantasy Fire. Depending what you layer it over it can have some great looks. I have tested it twice over purple so far, a dark and light respectively. I would love to test it over some more maybe a dark blue but I have a lot of untrieds yet to swatch ;3 You can get this at Superdrugs and Boots stores for £3.99, it is quite a small bottle though but as layering it should last a but still :3

My first test was over a dark purple by Technnic I found on a local make up stall for 99p. It makes the FF effect come out quite dark, alot of dark red, green and gold shifts depending on the light. I loved this and I will be wearing it again as it would be a great Autumn/Winter mani not so summery.

I will say this was a pain to get off, it took me ages which I didn't expect, I will test it with my Borjouis Magic Remover next time.

This was tested over the beautiful Nails Inc Ebury Bridge in my last post. You can see the effects are totally different. This was quite a magical effect all shimmery pink and gold.

I think this is a beautiful polish and a good one to test with various polishes.

Enjoy! x

Nails Inc- Ebury Bridge & Westferry Circus

I have two swatches that I specified in my rainbow mani post. These are two beautiful summery colours from Nails Inc- I Can Paint a Rainbow mini set below..

First up is Ebury Bridge a beautiful dusty lilac. I love this polish, it's perfect for summer. I applied 2 coats here, application was pretty smooth. I love purples and lilacs so this is a firm favourite of my stash.

Next up is Westferry Circus, this is definately my favourite from the 6. It is so bright and cheerful, it's definately not a pastel peach. I couldn't stop looking at my nails wearing this, it's so pretty. I wish it was in a full sized bottle. I looked but couldn't find it.

I'll have to wear the others out of the set, this set cost £25 but I was lucky to snag a brand new set for £11 on eBay, not bad ;3

Enjoy! x

Rainbow Sponge Art

My first attempt at a sponge mani using Nails Inc Westferry Circus a pretty peach on my tips, Ebury Bridge a beautiful powder lilac, Summer Place a summery lemon and Technic pastels mint green. A topcoat of La Femme glitter top coat blends in any sponge marks at the end. 

I used little pieces of sponge the size of my nail and painted each colour on in strips and sponged it on my nail, I did 3 thin coats. I used the glitter to blend the sponge marks in.

*This was not my idea, it's been circling the net so none of the credit is mine* :3

I really loved the effect of this although if I did it differently i'd choose more pastel shades and learn to blend it in more. The colours are beautiful, Westferry Circus and Ebury Bridge are 2 of the most beautiful polish colours I have. I have swatches of these I will post next time as there's not alot to see in the rainbow.

Technic Pastel Mint I have to say I didn't like, for this it was ok but as a complete colour it was sheer, streaky and even on the 4th coat was I still had streak marks, it was also very strong smelling. I ended up with quite the headache after trying to get it all even, that was one of the first and only polishes I tossed out, for 99p it was no big loss. I bought Barry M Mint to replace this and I like it much better.

Enjoy! x

China Glaze Stella + W7 Cosmic Purple

These 2 beauties were both from my recent swap and I wanted to team them up. I've been trying to try China Glaze Stella the most as it was so pretty in the bottle. It was such a lovely polish to apply, no issues it did take 3 coats for perfect oppaqueness though I think you'd get away with 2.

It was also really hard to photograph due to the lack of light I had. The first picture is indoors under artificial light. It's a bit lighter in real life, i'd say it leans to a magenta purple colour to me, super shiny. Very regal and elegant, i'm so glad I got this as i'd probably never have picked this one up myself and i'd miss out because I loved from the first coat.

My accent nail is W7 Cosmic Purple, lots of glitter!

I took this picture with the flash on, it gives a better perceptive of it's true colour, all I can say is this is a beautiful colour that shouldn't be passed up!

Enjoy! x

Water Marbling

Today i'm going to show my own attempts at water marbling. The idea for this is to have a bowl of room temperature water (I've heard filtered is better) and allow the polish to drip into the water, just a drop. This will spread and you can keep adding until your happy. Use a tooth pick to create your pattern and dip. Sellotape around the skin helps to minimise the mess.

My first attemp was a Barry M Indigo, Barry M Rasberry and NYC Pinstrip White marble effect, it came out in different patterns for each nail. I quite liked it.

The second time I tried this I used only 2 colours, Barry M Vivid Purple and Barry M Strawberry Ice Cream, I liked this pattern alot. Apologies this picture was taken using my phone.

I'll definately try out more colour combinations, a nice rainbow pattern would be nice =3

Enjoy! x

Catrice - Bruno Mars

This is the second of my Catrice polishes that I was lucky to be given in the swap. A brand not readily available to us in the UK but if you look hard enough, you can be lucky ;)

This shade is called Bruno Mars a lovely shimmer brown shade. I's say it quite a rustic bronze in colour.  Again like King of Greens it was easy to apply and quite opaque in one coat. This is shown with two.

I'm quite suprised at how lovely I find this colour, it quite reminds me of a delicious cappachino!

I'll be keeping an eye open as i'd love to grab some more of these shades.

Enjoy! x

Catrice - King of Greens

This is another of my swap polishes and the third i've worn. This is by Catrice and is called King of Greens. One of those brands that seems to be not readily available here in the UK and i'm lucky to have gotten two.

This is a beautiful emerald type green that just glides on easily with the new wide brush. No problem with the formula, it was perfect. It was practically opaque in one coat, this is two coats for the picture.

I really adore this green, I couldn't stop looking at and i'll be keeping a look at for any Catrice for sale =]

Enjoy! x

Barry M Mushroom

This beautiful milky coffee brown is Barry M's Mushroom. I never thought i'd be interested in any brown/neuteral colours but this looked nice so I bought it. For £2.99 even if you don't like it, hey it's not as bad as a higher priced bottle. I suprised myself by liking this colour alot more on my nails than in the bottle and has become a favourite shade of mine.

Application wise it went on smooth like most Barry M, i've never had a problem with their cremes, they apply like butter. It was opaque in one coat.

I added this little flower stickers to give it something more.

I really do adore Mushroom and should have had this one sooner than I did.

Enjoy! x

Cute Fimo Dragon Flies.

I was searching through youtube when I came across a video about cute dragon fly fimo art, I had to try this out right away it was so cute!

I used Barry M Blueberry Ice Cream as my base, I love this blue it's so calm and refreshing, it's just so happy. On the tips I layered some Barry M Pink Iridescent.

I cut my fimo cane, one for each nail (which taught me a valuble lesson! Always cute the fimo first, I smudged some nails terribly as I forgot and had to do it later. )

After applying a dot of base coat and popping my dragon flies on I used Barry M Strawberry Ice Cream and a dotting tool for the trail behind.

Top coat and done!

Enjoy! x

Daisy manicure.

 

I wanted to try out a cute little flower manicure which took me quite a while to choose the colours to use in it. For the base I chose my NO 7 Milan that I got in my swap. Thanks buddy!! Isn't it beautiful? This was so easy to apply, went on like butter and was practically opaque in one coat but this is two as I always prefer two. It is quite a nice dusky rose shimmer and there's silver that runs through it, you can really see it in the bottle but it's not so noticable in this picture. It also has one of those new thicker brushes which covered alot of my nail in one sweep. Brilliant!!

A perfect base so onto the daisy design. Here is what my daisies look like and below i'll list everything used and the steps I did to create it. This is the first flower design I tried and I do love how it turned out.

To create this look I used the following:

Barry M Matte White- Petals

Barry M Lemon Ice Cream- Centre dots

Catrice King of Greens- Leaves

Barry M Mint- Leaf shading

Barry M Blueberry Ice Cream- Petal shading

Barry M Pink Iredescent- Centre dot

Step 1- Apply base coat and wait to dry.

Step 2- Apply coat of chosen base colour, reapply when dry if needed.

Step 3- When base is dry take medium dotter tool and make dots using a white nail polish in circles and half circles at the bottom of each nail for half flowers. Clean dotter reguarly inbetween to prevent the polish getting tacky on your tool.

Step 4- Clean white off your dotter and using the same size dotter, dot in the middle of each flower with a yellow nail polish. I had to do this twice on each dot as the yellow was sheer.

Step 5- Using the finest tip dotter tool, create leaves around the flowers using little flicking motions with the tool.

Step 6- Add in litter areas of shading with a lighter green colour with the same fine tip dotter. (Optional)

Step 7- Add little areas of shading with a pale blue colour on your daisy petals with the fine tip dotter. (Optional)

Step 8- Dot some glitter polish over your centre circles using the medium dotter.

Step 9- Add your desired top coat when dry.

Your done!

Hope you like my first flowers, I was nervous to try using brushes so I used my dotters and it was pretty easy. I'd like to try some acrylic paints sometime as well with brushes as you can always wipe your mistake away with those!

Enjoy! x

Bourjois Magic Nail Polish Remover

I've just recently bought a bottle of Bourjois Magic nail polish remover. I've had my bottle maybe 2 1/2 weeks and honastly i'll never go back to regular polish and cotten. It retails for £4.99 in Boots and Superdrugs. I heard this was a hard to find item, all sold out. So armed with cash and time I went hunting for my bottle. Luckily we have quite a few Boots around the local area, even better it was in the first Boots I went into. So it was an easier task than thought lol

Enough of the tale though, how does this beauty work? Well basically inside you'll find a sponge soaked in non acetone remover, with a hole in the middle. Basically you put your nail in the hole, wait, twist and it's gone. Does it take 1 second, no i've found it hasn't. Does this deter me from this product again? Again no, it still makes removal less of a chore and more easy. Better yet when making a mistake or smudging your fresh manicure, happens to me all the time you can easily remove and start that nail again without ruining your other nails and ending up with cotten stuck to the still tacky polish. Face it who hasn't been there? ;)

This is what the bottle looks like. I've used it with cremes over the last 2 weeks, easily removed in less than 5 minutes, no stains on my skin. Perfect!! But what about glitters? Read below to find out!

So this is the first major glitter mani i've done while owning this polish remover and wanted to see if it was easier and quicker using this. Normally it'd be the foil removal method, that never worked for me, the foil was fiddly and annoying or using an acetone remover to scrub my nails that would take well over 45 minutes! Not practical.

So here is my mani. Butter Londons The Black Knight, lots of pink and blue glitter.

Beautiful yes? There's also an extra layer of Barry M Pink Iredescent on my accent, more glitter!!

I started using it on one finger to show you guys how this worked with all this glitter. I just popped the nail right in and counted up to 30, I knew it wouldn't work anything less and I was right. Here's what happened after twisting and removing.

You can see the glitter hasn't been removed completely but it sure got through quite abit. So I redid my nail counting to 30 again, twist and out.

All gone! And in less than 10 minutes we had..

Nails ready for painting. Over all this took me 20 minutes altogether and I was taking photos in between. Took off over 30 minutes I would normally spend on glitter.

I LOVE glitter I just hate removing it but with this, I didn't mind it and I will definately get myself another bottle of this :)

Enjoy! x

Strawberries

It seems there are alot of strawberry manicures going around for the summer. Yum my favourite fruit so I had to try this sweet pattern out. I followed a tutorial on youtube by CutePolish!

My base colour is OPI Off With Her Red! I layered one coat of Off With Her Red on my nails, a lovely one coater. I used a white 2 way art pen to draw the leaves at the top of my nails and after drying used my green pen to go over. The seeds were drawn using the fine tip of a yellow pen.

It was such a cute mani that got a lot of compliments and as one of my first art mani's I was quite impressed with myself.

Enjoy! x

Butter London - The Black Knight

I couldn't wait to try out one of my haul polishes and besides being ill today, I still managed to change my nails once the world stop spinning ;) I chose The Black Knight by Butter London, how could I not just look at that in the bottle *drool*

I found it pretty easy to apply, this is 2 even coats that went on pretty smooth.

I added an extra layer of Barry M Pink Iredescent over my ring finger to give it an extra sparkly accent though it didn't come through well on camera. I found this polish so hard to photograph but I got a reasonable shot in the end!

This is just all beautiful glitter, I hope it's easier to remove with my Bourjois Magic Nail polish remover, we'll see and i'll update on that when I take this off as we all know glitters look pretty but the removal strikes fear into all our hearts lol

Over all I love polish, getting this from my buddy really made my day. I might have sqeaked out loud when I unwrapped this one hehe

What do you think of this gorgeous polish? I apologise the picture is not great, glitters are so hard to photograph.

Enjoy! x

New Polish Haul!

I got these new polishes in a swap and I love each one so much. They are polishes i'd probably not pick out for myself when shopping so i'm so glad to have these to try out. There all so pretty <3 There's only one problem I can see..... where do I start? LOL

So first up we have Revlon Pink Chiffon, how pretty and delicate this looks.

W7 Cosmic Purple, look at that glitter fest!

No 7 Milan- a lovely dusky rose shimmer

Catrice Browno Mars- my first Catrice looking forward to using these!

Catrice King of Greens- I really love this one, it's beautiful!

China Glaze Stella- how have I let this one pass me buy, it's lovely!

Essence Evil Queen- these are not available here so I was so excited to see this one!

Essence Glamourous Life

Essence Time for Romance

and the one I can't stop looking at! Butter London The Black Knight-look at all that gorgeous glitterness. Another first for me :)

I will be swatching them over the coming weeks when I decide which one to use first ;) What alot of pretty colours to come!

Barry M Chameleon Collection

I bought the Chameleon Collection the day it came out but have only just got around to wearing all 3 of them. So I thought i'd so a post since I have swatches of all 3 polishes.

First up was Chameleon Pink, a very lovely metallic pink that changes to a purple when a clear coat is added. Sadly this chipped the next day due to no protective top coat being able to be applied without the whole colour changing. I found the Pink to be a little thick and it took me a few coats to get it even but it is such a pretty colour it's worth it.
I did a basic half and half mani and really liked the outcome. This was the best in terms of the colour changing to me. Here is what I did:

I used Chameleon Lilac next and did a more complicated pattern for myself, it didn't exactly work but the lilac and the pretty violet purple colour it changed to were really nice. This took 2 coats I didn't find it to be as thick as the pink. I had bubbling on a couple nails, I really should wait longer for them to dry properly. My patience is nil!

Lastly I used Chameleon Blue and I have to say from the start I am dissapointed with this one. The base colour is lovely, i'd say quite a grey blue and it's quite matte i'd say when dried. You can't add a top coat so it won't have a super shiny, glossy finish but I love it as it is. What I was dissapointed in was how it changed. Now I don't know if that was just me or the clear coat (NYC) I used but it just didn't work out for me as you'll see below..

It was a bit like syrup to me, maybe i'm doing something wrong? or it's the brush. The Pink worked out best for me as I just painted half down my nail but I also didn't think this colour complimented the base as well as the other 2 did. The thing that saved this polish from being a waste of money was that I love the base coat on it's own and this is how i've decided to wear it, look at this pretty colour base (excuse the smudge on my little finger).

All in all they are a pretty neat idea, what are you opinions on these chameleon polishes?

Enjoy x

Monarch Butterfly Wings

I loved the look of all the monarch buterfly mani's but they looked pretty difficult for my newbiness.. but I tried anyway and this was the end result. All in all I was pretty happy with my result.

For this mani I used Barry M retro pink from the limited edition line I got this free when spending £6 on Barry M last month. I plan on swatching the retro polishes alone soon, they are gorgeous colours worn alone.

I used an NYC black polish for the pattern although I found this difficult, the black is quite thin and takes some work to use, it's also not a very good black for stamping.  I've used NYC white for the dots as well.

I started with drawing the curved line in the corner and using that to guide around the edges of the nail using one of my nail art painting brushes. If I did this again I would use a different brush as that one created too thick lines.

I painted in a thick diagonal shape in the bottom corners and filled that in, then I was ready to paint in 3 lines and curve them around at the bottom.

When the black pattern was all dry I went back and used a dotting tool to create a mixture of large and smaller white dots at the bottom.

I would like to try this again in a different colour with a better idea to get the best out of my nails. I will also do a tutorial to go with it! :)

Enjoy! x

My first Cult Nails- Seduction!

My first Cult Nails I have gotten was their Limited polish- Seduction. A great layering flakie. It cost roughly £11 for the polish and shipping to the UK, so not bad to me it costs that for one O.P.I! It won't be my last Cult Nails, I loved using Seduction and it lasted many days until I changed my polish. I was already wearing Nails Inc Victoria- a deep burgundy colour. So I added a coat of Seduction right on top as soon as I got the package open and here are the results. Excuse my bad nails I had some terrible breaks here and they were so short. Look at all those pretty flakies! I look forward to my next order from Cult Nails soon.

Enjoy! x

Fizzy Cherries

This manicure reminds me of one of my favourite sweets- fizzy cherries! For this I used NYC white although personally I find it chips pretty fast. I used Barry M retro red for the cherries a limited edition nail polish you can still get on their site while stocks last. It is a beautiful vibrant red, i'll swatch that soon. I used my largest dotting tool and dotted sets of 2 dots around my nails, once dry I used a green 2 way nail art pen and drew the stalks in different directions using the fine tip end. I used my white 2 way pen to dot little circles in each cherry and layered a coat of Barry M Pink Iredescent glitter over the top to give them a sugary look. Yum Yum!

It's a cute and summer look, not perfect I was just getting around to using my pens but I like how it turned out. :)

Enjoy! x

Leopard Print Nails

So i'd thought i'd show one of the favourite mani's i've done, currently wearing this one now. Leopard print nails. I wanted to go for an authentic leopard look but i'd love to try out some other awesome combination another time. For this I used Barry M Lemon Ice Cream 3 coats and Barry M Mushroom for the spots. I used a large sized dotting tool and tried making them a little uneven and different sizes like a leopards spots. I used the fine tip of a 2 way black nail art pen to draw half circles around each spot then just dotted tiny dots with the pen inbetween to fill it in a little. I use Sally Hansen Maximum Growth as both a bottom and top coat.

Enjoy! x

Orange fimo

I thought i'd start of my first picture post with one of my favourite and most fun mani's I did recently as soon as my fimo canes came. They took about a week and a half from Hong Kong and I was pretty happy to see I had an orange one as I had the perfect polish to pair with it that I hadn't tried yet. Barry M's Tangerine. Barry M is one of our UK brands, they have a tonne of super colours and they wear really well. You can buy them in Superdrugs, Boots and BarryM.com.

I found the fimo's really easy to cut and I didn't expect that, I thought i'd find it a little difficult. I used Barry M tangerine which is abit sheer on the first coat, this is 3 coats and it has quite a pretty shimmer. I dotted some rhinestones around for something extra. Sadly I have these no longer, they ended up everywhere on the floor but not a great loss at 99p and I have plenty more and styles on the way.

I don't use any nail glue to stick down my pieces and if I have it'll be stated. For these I just wait for my polish to dry and add a clear coat where I want them to go, press down firmly, I used my dotting tool to press them into the clear coat then apply a top coat all over to seal them in. They last quite a few days until I decide to change my nails so no glue really necassery.

Enjoy! x

Nail supplies everywhere!

I have had some questions of where did you buy these, what did you use there etc so for those people and anyone else interested i've wrote down the items and sellers i've bought from in the past. I've had no problems with deliveries some take a little longer but from Hong Kong etc that's to be expected. My nail art collection to date is pretty minimal, I will link back to the items I bought if you want to purchase them. Most items were from Hong Kong and I have plenty more on the way!

10 Striping tape 99p. I originally bought mine here http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/220871763855?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2649 but since the price went up to £1.95
Salon express stamping kit, I bought mine from this seller £3.50 http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/290708716243?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2649 since gone uptp £3.65
12 tubs of fine glitter £2.25 from this seller http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/300719119900?var=600046161954&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2649 appears everything went out of stock! To bad I liked choosing my own colours.
I have 7 packets of random flower design stickers which I won for £1.04 from this seller http://stores.ebay.co.uk/wholesalermultifunction?_trksid=p4340.l2563 they often have more packs plus plenty other supplies.
5 2 way dotting tools 99p from this seller http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/180706495784?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2649 since gone up to £1.67
15 nail art brushes I bought from this seller http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/280857737208?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2649 £1.99
24 2 way dotting pens from this seller http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/130599119967?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2649 £8.71
I managed to find the Red Angel stamping plates sold on ebay from this seller http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/380444768345?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2649 I paid £26.44 which is still pretty cheap for the amount of plates plus shipping inc in that price. I'll do more posts on the stamping plates soon.
I also got 100 animal and 25 fruit fimo cane sticks, these are amazing. I love using them, I got mine all from the same seller here http://stores.ebay.co.uk/gcishoponline/Nail-Art-DIY-Other-/_i.html?rt=nc&_fsub=2909507016&_sid=807923556&_trksid=p4634.c0.m14.l1581&_pgn=1 various prices for size packs.

I have some other items coming now mainly rhinestones and such which I will do when they come as this post is long enough, I don't want to bore anyone to tears. I've also tried out a new website I found, they have a pretty good selection i'll post when they arrive with the items, quality and postage time frame.  http://www.maytheps-au.com/

Also for UK girls with local pound stores, they are stocking these neat packs of 3 tubs in one pack! The large tub is big enough to keep your sets of 24 2 way pens in, the mini ones are good for fimo canes, tubs and stickers etc plus you can choose your handle colour if your not a pink girl ;)

Enjoy! x