Nail Polish

Being Human Inspired Nails + A Nail Art Tip.

March 14, 2011 2 Comments

Hello all!
In case you weren’t already aware (how could you not be), it was the Being Human Series 3 finale last night. Words cannot describe my love for Being Human. Anyway. In honour of the occasion I did a little bit of nail art with my new favourite blue, Nails Inc. Chandos Place. This polish was one of the ones I received in the lucky dip and I must say I was very lucky! This is a very close match for Barry M’s Navy, although perhaps a tad lighter. I will do a comparison soon.

Hehe… can you guess the relevance of each nail?
In daylight.
Nails Inc. Chandos Place in daylight, 2 coats.

My nail art tip. Now I’m sure that I am by no means the first person to come across this trick but so far I haven’t spotted it on any blogs, otherwise I would be giving credit. So apologies to anyone who may have come across this/invented it, I promise this was just a compromise of my own making! For the full moon you see on my ring finger I was totally stuck as to how to make a perfect circle on the nail, since I suffer from shakey hands. I was umm-ing and ahh-ing until I came up with my initial solution. Cotton buds! However I then remembered that cotton buds are lint-hoarders and I didn’t fancy furry nails. My Barry M 3-in-1 Base Coat, Top Coat and Nail Hardener has been on a hiatus as it became very gloopy with less than a quarter of it left in the bottle. I would suggest using an old base coat/top coat/clear polish as it will become lint-tastic after this trick. Also make sure it’s clear to avoid ruining the colour of your circle. here are your instructions!

1. Dip the cotton bud into the base coat/top coat/clear polish and immerse it in the polish.
2. Remove the cotton bud, trying not to keep too much polish on the cotton bud so as to minimise the dry time.
3. When the polish on the cotton bud becomes tacky, gently mould the end of the bud into a circle.
4. Let the bud dry fully.
5. Once the bud is dry, apply a small amount (a small blob!) of the polish colour you desire for the circle to a piece of paper, and dip the end of the bud into it.
6. Ensuring your base colour is totally dry, apply the coloured cotton bud-end to the nail, and do not squish it around or you will ruin the circle!
7. Likelihood is, you’ll get quite a weak colour with this first application. You have a choice – either fill in the centre using the circle as your margin, or apply repeatedly when the circle is dry to build up the colour.

Sorry for the obvious tip but if it helps just one person then I’m happy.

Nails Inc Chandos Place is a lovely lovely lovely colour. I’m guessing as it was in the lucky dip and is discontinued it’s old stock, which may explain its slightly thick consistency. However this dries beautifully and lasts forever, even without a top coat. I’ve already used up about a 5th of it I love it that much! I’m aware that Chandos Place is/has been recently available on eBay.

The piccies were drawn freehand using Rio Nail Art pens, which I love!

Sorry for the Being Human post but I am well and truly OBSESSED! with it. I mean really, really obsessed.

Anyways, hope you are all well 🙂
Emma xxx

Disclaimer: Everything mentioned in this blog post was either bought by myself with my own money, or given to me as a gift from friends/relatives. All opinions expressed here are my own.

Boots 17 Lasting Finish Toasted Almond x Accessorize Magical Mocha

March 13, 2011 Leave a comment

Left to Right: Accessorize Magical Mocha, 17 Toasted Teacake, Magical Mocha, Toasted Teacake. Both with two coats.
I often get to the point in an evening where I am so tired that all I want to do is crawl into bed and sleep. Usually very late at night, actually. And hence I am forever grateful for the lovely polishes that dry quickly enough to give you a beautiful finish and let you have max possible sleep!
Both these polishes dry very quickly. Magical Mocha is a wonderful brown shimmery-foily polish, with a hint of mauvey-purple. I love it! It’s one of those colours that looks subtle let sophisticated. Toasted Teacake is a beautiful browney-gold pearly polish, which is simply gorgeous. This too is subtle yet ever so glam 🙂 The formula of both of these polishes is fab, I would 100% recommend both of them.
I love the look of both of them on their own, but for a little interest I decided to go for a mixture of both, and it really turned out well! The best part is is that they are both subtle enough to go with most outfits.
The Boots 17 Lasting Finish retails at £2.99 usually, while the Accessorize polish can only be found in Superdrug (and possibly Accessorize itself – not sure on that one) at £4 a bottle.
I’m in love! I’ve dragged both out a couple of times when I’ve just been too tired to do anything that takes any large amount of drytime.
Really pleased that I had no sheetmarks whatsoever, despite applying the second coat about 15 mins before I was deep in the sleep! 🙂
On a sincere note I am devastated by the Japan disaster, I can’t stop thinking about it. I wish I had money to donate but I just don’t have anything 🙁 so so sad, my heart goes out to everyone affected by the incidents.

Emma xxx
Disclaimer: Everything mentioned in this blog post was either bought by myself with my own money, or given to me as a gift from friends/relatives. All opinions expressed here are my own.

Barry M Spring Green Nail Paint

March 10, 2011 4 Comments

Barry M Spring Green, 2 coats.
Shown against Mint Green, read on and you’ll find out why! 🙂
Again, comparison.
I bought this colour late December 2010, but it is still everywhere. I’d been coveting a rich green like this for a while, and just couldn’t find one anywhere. However when I saw All Lacquered Up’s review of Barry M Spring Green I knew it was the one for me!
After searching for it on Google though I noticed that many of the photos appeared to look identical to Barry M’s Mint Green, and even on the Barry M website it looks identical to Mint Green, hence the bottle comparison above. I have had a few problems with Barry M’s labelling and online colour swatches being totally different to what they should be, but I’ll forgive them just this once.
Onto the colour. I think the reason why so many pictures looked similar to Mint Green was because this polish is truly truly impossible to capture on camera. Unless it’s just my camera. But seriously. This is a gorgeous bright green, in just the right tone. It kind of reminds me of Lego green, maybe a little lighter. (Hey… does anyone remember Duplo? I was the only one who played with it when I was young 🙁 ) I love love love this colour, it’s just what I was looking for – not neon but nearly as bright. It’s very vivid. I love it!
Consistency was quite watery, and this one dried quite quickly… the reason you can see all those sheet marks is because I got way too sleepy and just went to bed before it fully dried.
This colour is lovely and eye-catching, I would recommend it to anyone! Works well with pale skin, but I think this would look gorgeous with a darker skin tone.
Hope you’re all having a lovely week, I got my results back today, mixed feelings about them.
Emma xxx
Disclaimer: Everything mentioned in this blog post was either bought by myself with my own money, or given to me as a gift from friends/relatives. All opinions expressed here are my own.

Nails Inc. Lucky Dip Haul!

March 5, 2011 4 Comments

I feel a bit bad posting this since the Lucky Dip offer is over, and these polishes seem to be mostly discontinued. However most of them are available on eBay, some of them cheaper than the RRP for Nails Inc. polishes.

Just over a week ago I was about to go out for dinner and spotted the Nails Inc. Twitter update about the Lucky Dip, which was essentially the A+E Treatment Base Coat plus four random polishes, for the grand total of just £10. And I mean, this is a huge saving, considering Nails Inc. polishes usually retail at £11 and the A+E basecoat is usually £12. All in all it was a saving of £46. Postage was nearly £4 but for once I won’t complain as this really was still a good deal.

My thinking was that even if I hated all 4 polishes, I would still have the basecoat (which is much needed) for less than the RRP.

So here is what I received!

If you can’t read these please click on the photo for a bigger image – sorry!
I have already worn all of them except Battersea Power Station which is a bit icky, but maybe it could work with some nail art? Lol… I can see why it was part of a lucky dip, they must have had a hard time shifting it!
Anyway, thank you Nails Inc. for this lovely lovely deal, I would never normally buy Nails Inc. as they are just too expensive for me, but as usual I always have my eye on certain ones 😉
I know they’ve done lucky dips before and several other unmissably good deals so keep a lookout! I’m looking forward to showing you all of these in due course 🙂
Sorry for this slightly non-useful post, but as I say they can be found on eBay!
Emma xxx
Disclaimer: Everything mentioned in this blog post was either bought by myself with my own money, or given to me as a gift from friends/relatives. All opinions expressed here are my own.

Essie Lapis of Luxury

March 3, 2011 4 Comments

Rumoured to be the cornflower polish seen in Rihanna’s “What’s My Name” music video, the moment I saw this I knew I HAD to have it. So eBay produced the goods 😀
Lapis of Luxury is part of the Resort Collection, released last summer, and all four polishes are still available on eBay. I (well, my Mum) paid £9 for this, all 15ml, with free postage, and she gave it to me for Christmas!
I am still consumed by a whirlwind love affair with this colour. I honestly haven’t seen anything quite like it. It has that perfect slightly-sheer finish, while the colour is still rich and eye-catching. It’s a blue with just a hint of lilac, not enough to really call it real ‘cornflower’ but in my eyes, prettier.
I only have two problems. The first is the dry time. After applying 2 coats overnight and a third the next day, 12hrs after my third application I went to sleep, thinking it was fully dry, and woke up with the most horrendous sheet marks! I mean really… as a ‘high end’ polish, you would think it’d be dry after 12hrs… My second issue is finding clothes to wear with it! I have now settled for a tasteful clash with this polish. I really don’t have anything that goes with this so I just hope that what I wear looks okay with it! Haha. I love the colour too much to not wear it.
I am now mourning the loss of what must be about 3ml, after just 3 wears. 1ml a wear?! Aargh. I think this I will save for long-term wears, i.e. more than 2 days, as the wear is quite good.
The gains outweigh the losses!
From the collection, I am desperate to get my hands on Turquoise & Caicos, but even more desperate to find a dupe that will hopefully be cheaper and faster-drying!
Hope you like the colour as much as I do 😀
Emma xxx

Disclaimer: Everything mentioned in this blog post was either bought by myself with my own money, or given to me as a gift from friends/relatives. All opinions expressed here are my own.