Gunmetal Nails

Max Factor Max Effect Mini polish 'Silver'

'Tis the season to be shimmery, right? But wearing brightly coloured and glitzy nails just don't feel right for me in the depths of winter (I just reread that and yes, I am insane). So when I found this little beauty in my collection, completely unused I thought it ticked all the boxes.

In actual fact, It's better than I anticipated. After a rocky start (the first two coats look like actual nothing), about four coats in gave this beautiful dark grey with shimmery particles, silver in some lights and multicoloured in others.

Truly very very pretty and quite a winner in my book. Slight pain in that it took five coats to achieve the effect above, especially regarding the size of the bottle (a teeny 4.5ml). However it's as far away as you can get from the old faithful Lincoln Park After Dark winter nails, without venturing too far into glitziness.

What is your ideal winter nail colour?

xxxx

Adventures with Nail Art gems!

So if you have followed my nail polish escapades, you may know that I purchased 1800 nail gems for the princely sum of 99c (including postage!).

There are literally zillions in there in all different colours, two different blues, pinks, reds, silvers- you name it! Unfortunately on the evening that I played around with them a few gems got stuck in the twisting cover so I could only get a couple of colours out, that's why the colours are pretty basic.

This is what I came up with...

I like the nail on the far left, I think that would look nice with a plain manicure, as an accent nail. The middle one is supposed to be a lopsided heart shape and the right nail is a flower obvs. I didn't bother doing a close up of my baby finger as it didn't amount to much really, actually I am pretty sure I got bored by that stage.

Now for my piece de resistance (oh what larks!) on my thumb nail. Its a pretty flower with a stem and everything. Not going to lie, it took me bloody ages to do! 

For this I just wanted a plain base, so I used Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manucure in Pink Slipper.

Application-wise I just stuck the gems into the wet polish, they lasted for 2 days before I got bored with my one hand of tacky fabulous 'art' and pulled them all off.

What do you think of my experimentation with nail gems?

xxxx

The Princess Manicure

Just a little bit of nail art (if you can even call it that) that I created last night! I was inspired by this post on Natalie's Nails, and this is my take on it!

Basically I did a couple of coats of OPI's 'Pink-ing of you' with OPI 'Teenage Dream' on the tips! Pretty, right? :o)

Sorry it's just a quick post! I am off out tonight and I can't wait!

Giveaway update: My NARS giveaway has finished and the results will be up asap! Also, I haven't got responses from some people who won my Aussie giveaway. If I don't hear from you by tomorrow evening I will be choosing other people.

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

xxxx

The Cheats Guide To Nail Art, Part Deux: Ombre Nails

Yay! It's another blog post for the clumsy and wobbly handed people who just can't 'do' nail art- expecially not x10! You can find my first post about this here. Anyway, I saw this nail effect on LLYMLRS blog ages ago, and the other day I thought I'd give it a go myself!

Basically the idea is that you pick 5 polishes of the same colour, from light to dark to give that gradient effect. Yet again it is relatively simple and doesn't require a whole load of effort!

The only colour fields that I had enough block colours to do this with is pink and blue, here is what I came up with...

Pink!

Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure 'Pink Slipper' / OPI 'Pinking of You' / MUA #16 / Barry M 'Bright Pink' / Barry M 'Shocking Pink'

I really like the effect of this one, but when applied I thought the index finger and middle finger colours looked a little too alike- during the day I kept arguing with myself as I thought I had mixed them up. 

Blue!

Barry M 'Indigo' / OPI 'Blue My Mind' / Barry M 'Cyan Blue' / China Glaze 'Sea Spray' /Models Own 'Beths Blue' 

I had some difficulty finding the right colours for this one as I definitely don't own 5 block blues, for this reason I was quite skeptical in using CG 'Sea Spray' (2nd from left) as it isn't a completely flat colour. Also, as you can tell from the name, Barry M indigo which is on my thumb is a deep purple. I think it works though - kind of. Anyway I won't be losing sleep over it!

Have you tried ombre nails? Link me to your posts, I would love to see them :o)

xxxx

Illamasqua haul

When I saw that ASOS had added some bits from the Illamasqua Toxic Nature collection to it's sale, I just couldn't resist. These are the goodies that I picked up...

I've been dying to try an Illamasqua nail polish for some time, but the €17 price tag put me off. When I saw the full range for just over a tenner, I really couldn't resist! I eventually narrowed down my choices to...

gamma, purity

Gamma was always my favourite from this collection. I have wanted a bright orange for some time but nothing has given me that bright bright orange. Purity was what I thought to be a perfect nude. IRL it's more peach, definitely comparable to Barry M's Peach Melba which I already own- oops! Anyway, that's another blog post.

 Although I don't adore my other Illamasqua gloss, I couldn't resist one more! This is in the shade 'Torture' (cute name huh? :/) and is a bright bright orange. From previous experience, these do run quite sheer so hopefully it will give me the coral pop I am looking for!

This afternoon I couldn't resist painting my nails with Gamma, I am so impressed by this polish, it's absolutely gorgeous!

It's coming off kind of yellow here, however it is orange. Think highlighter orange! It dries to kind of a matte finish- not matte entirely but not sheeny shiny. I heart it!

On a completely different note, my little ipod arrived today! Got it from ebay for €60 as I no longer have an iPhone to play in my car. Or maybe I just wanted to show off this nail polish some more :o)

*swoons*

xxxx

A Cheats Guide to Nail Art!

To put things simply, I am a complete klutz. I trip over stuff, spill drinks down myself on an almost daily basis (white tops are a no-no) and still still, after years of trying cannot draw a straight liquid eyeliner-line. So I have had a little sad face when seeing all of the fantastic nail art around the bbloggersphere (Gem Fatale's leopard print nails, I am talking to you!). Even water marbling was a bit of a disaster...

So, how did I create this, you may ask...

srsly, who am I to lecture on nail art?! I can't even paint my nails correctly!

The answer? Stickers!

I got these from ebay a few weeks ago with the literal pennies I had left in my paypal. I believe they were about 80c each (50p?!) including postage from Hong Kong or somewhere. 

Basically I painted my nails (MUA #16, if you were wondering), peeled off the stickers, placed them and then went over it all with my regular topcoat.

Not bad for a first attempt! *smug look*

Also, I was more than a bit touched by the little note and gift enclosed from the ebay seller...

little packet of blotting papers, 'a special gift' awww :o)

If that didn't make me so touched by that, the little note enclosed sure did:

Check the last line, the lovely chap went to the trouble of Google translating "Go raibh maith agat" which is Irish for 'Thank you' (so I am told) which was just so cute. Let's remind ourselves of the fact that I paid under a euro for this, including postage!

I hope you enjoyed my cheats guide to nail art, I plan to do many more stickery designs without the stress!

Click here for the ebay sellers shop, he has a Gandhi quote as his picture- I now like him even more.

xxxx

Marble Manicure

If you follow me on twitter you will be bored by know about my fun yesterday marbling my nails! I'm not gonna tell you how to do it because it can't be explained any better than Andrea's Choice 's video, so check that out.

Here are my marbelised creations...

OPI 'Koala Bear-y' & 'Lincoln Park After Dark' 

MUA Shade 16 & 4

OPI 'Blue My Mind' & 'Green-witch Village'

OPI 'Pink-ing of you' & 'Koala Bear-y'

Models Own 'Gold Rush' & 'Pink Fever'

So, what do you think? :o)

I also thought I would add some lessons I learnt about marbeling, from my own experience:

For God's sake, use tape!

Every tutorial will tell you to use tape around your finger to prevent a hot mess that looks like this:

yeah yeah, it looks nice. But it's a bitch to remove from the skin. So don't!

Prepare to make a mess!

This is the mess I made in my kitchen. Prepare to dig out every polish you own, destroy tupperware, go through a zillion cotton wool pads and stain your mums tea towels!

Not all nail polishes will work...

OPI's were my overall winners with this, however there was a noted exception ('You Don't Know Jacques', I am looking at you!).

Barry M was a total fail, they do not work! Such a shame as I have zillions of Barry M polishes :o(

Models Own were hit and miss, the last nail (above) is models own, however the glitter mostly ran. Instead I tried 'Beths Blue' and 'Cement Mixer', but they just sat on top of the water and wouldn't do anything! (see little floater below! Also, you can see a little failblob on the bottom, courtesy of Barry M!) 

You will be left with pretty cotton wool pads!

When you go to 'grab' the remaining polishes, you will be left with these! I love them :o) They are now in the bin, though.

I am going to do a full marble nail today! Any ideas of what colour combo I should go with?

xxxx

Nails of the Past Week-ish

I haven't posted a NOTD in quite a while, but here is two for you! One polish that I am not sure about, another that I luuurve!

Numero Uno is the polish I am still unsure about, Mod Hatter - Garden Party collection.

I was really excited to try this. I even thought of the name of the NOTD post I was going to make on it ('coffee nails' if you were wondering). However this polish is sheer, really really sheer. The above pics are of four yes four! coats. And as you can see, it still isn't opaque! This would be great as part of a french mani, but not so much on its own. This makes me sad, as in the bottle it has the loveliest lilac iridescence, but on the nail? nada. I am still looking for a great nude polish, but all of the ones I have come across have been of this consistency. Any reccs?

This next polish is one that I adore. I would go so far as to say that If I were a nail polish, this would be me...

Princesses Rule - Princess Charming collection

I do really like polishes that are flat colour, as I went through a phase of thinking that anything with shimmer was old-fashioned. This has well and truly swayed my opinion! It is the softest, prettiest pink with silver iridescence. Also, in stark contrast to 'Pink-ing of You', this pale pink is a dream to apply, and completely opaque (well, opaque enough) in 3 coats. Plus, its lastability is amazing. And it makes me happy when I look at it on my nails, yes a polish has that power!

I don't know what is happening, but I am kind of done with OPI's for the moment. I have quite a collection of them (for me, anyway) and I am not feeling so inspired with the shades I am finding lately. I am thinking about maybe focusing my attention on China Glaze or Essie for the next little while (Nails Inc. just doesn't do it for me, unfortunately!).

Have you guys tried Essie or CG? Any reccomendations to get me started?

Love, H xoxo

Two New OPI's

So I picked up a couple of new OPI polishes to add to my collection :o)

This is 'La Paz-itively Hot', a HOT pink fuchsia. Honestly I took quite a few pics of this, but I just couldn't capture the blue/violet shimmer through it. In all, I am pretty sure this is my favourite polish EVER (please do not quote me on this, it is 100% subject to change :o) ). It is a perfect barbie pink and rest assured it will be featuring on my fingernails A LOT this summer! 

The second is a red polish and I had to get one by OPI for my collection. I don't particularly love red nails but I think it is perfect on toenails as it complements pretty much any neutral sandal. So, here is OPI's 'The Thrill of Brazil' as modeled with my lovely New Look sandals (flats, for when my favourite wedges in the whole wide world need a break).

So, there you go! Another couple to add to my growing collection...

If you like these, you could win them (or in fact any OPI you may fancy) in my 200 Follower OPI Giveaway!

Be sure to enter, you will not regret it :o)

Love H xoxo

NOTD- OPI 'Do You Think I'm Tex-y?'

Everywhere I look in the beauty blogesphere, people are fully embracing the pastel nail trend for Spring. Unfortunately, I go into the salon supplies shop and am instantly attracted to the brights. I can't help myself! This was an impulse purchase as I was intending to attempt a nail polish buying hiatus. Oh well! Anyway they had just got the Texas collection in stock so I got one only one! Self control, right!!

Do You Think I'm Tex-y?

Texas Collection

I would describe this as a raspberry fuchsia colour. It has a really glassy finish to it which after a little research I found out was a new jelly finish. I really like it!

Natural daylight, no flash...

And with flash... 

This was kind of a daft purchase really, as I do have two OPI's on their way from eBay, one being a fuschia pink.. oops! Oh well, no more OPI. Until next week anyway...

H xoxo

NOTD- OPI 'You Don't Know Jacques!'

In quite a swift change from my slightly tacky yet beautiful previous NOTD, I bring you something much more sophisticated! This colour was the 'in' thing over A/W10 and yet again I was slow to catch the trend, however I am glad I did because I love this.

You Don't Know Jacques!

Collection de France

I would describe the shade as a browny taupe. It is a cream formula and is totally opaque (and gorgeous) in two coats.

The name of this polish is genius! There is something about the way that OPI names their shades, it's so endearing or something. :o)

 I applied this on Saturday and I am happy to report that we have minimal chipping, just the tip had worn off nothing that an extra coat couldn't fix!

The funny thing is, if you had told me a few years ago that I would be sporting a brown nail polish and with pride I would have never believed you. However I can't help feeling all sophisticated wearing this before the good weather finally arrives and I am launched into wearing pastels and brights until next autumn!

What do you think? Does this tickle your (french) fancy?

Or are my jokes just L A M E?

:o)

Let me know, Love H xoxo

NOTD- OPI Katy Perry 'Teenage Dream'

Teenage Dream

Katy Perry Collection

Doesn't that picture just say it all? If not, I will spell it out I am in LOVE!

I don't usually choose glitter nail polishes pain to remove, kind of tacky etc... But this one is just ah-mazing as you can see!

This truly is no ordinary glitter polish, it is not just a base colour with flecks of sparkle, I believe this polish is made up of teeeny pink sparkles and larger silver glitter suspended in a pink-tinted solution. The effect in three coats is multi-dimensional nail colour. Gorgeous!

 Taken with flash, you can see the reflection of the silver here especially.

 L-R Direct sunlight, slightly away from the sunlight.

Now, the only problem is, how on earth do I remove three layers of glitter?

....eventually... this baby is going nowhere at least for a little while!

Is this too tacky? or is it love?

H xoxo