Nails: Little Hearts

I've said it once and I'll say it again, I don't do nail art!! But my sister was visiting last week and asked me to do her nails, and I couldn't resist popping a little heart on her ring finger.

The main colour I used was In Style Coral from Nails Inc which I don't think is available anymore. The beige base colour on her ring finger was Essie's 'Sand Tropez'- one of my all time faves. With a bit of help of some cotton buds soaked in nail varnish remover and a steady hand I managed to whip out two little hearts pretty quickly. Perhaps not the neatest of jobs, but maybe not bad for a first timer ;-)

We used a Nails Inc basecoat and topped the final mani with my trusty Sally Hansen MegaShine. 

Thanks for reading,

E.

My Nail Varnish Storage

I have been meaning to blog about my nail varnish storage for moooonths. I recently realised that I manage to leave a trail of nail varnishes behind me. I knew I had a lot but it wasn't until I sat down and counted them all that I had the sickening realisation that I owned just a few short of 100 nail polishes. No girl, needs 100 nail polishes. Not even the nail bars I used to frequent had 100 nail polishes! Always keen for a mini spring clean (my makeup drawers are calling me- they're in one hell of a state) I thought I had better sort through my varnishes as there is no way that I wear all of them or will ever want to wear some of them again.

Above you can see the before, during, and after pictures. I streamlined my collection and put lots aside to go on to new homes, be put in the bin, or to be sent to Give and Makeup. These included the majority of my Barry M, all of my 17 (they chip too quickly), prehistoric MUA, gooey GOSH and Rimmel, plus excess coral varnishes from Nails Inc. (I had 6 corals. All the same. Girl got problems)

The storage:
The shelves are from the Ribba range that you can buy from Ikea for around the £5-£8 mark. I bought these shelves a year ago when I was shopping with my mum and instantly knew they were perfect for nail varnishes. 
I didn't put too much thought into how I would organise the ones that made the cut, I just sorted them by brand. Top shelf, front row I put my Illamasqua beauties, O.P.I, No.7, Nars, Dior, Rococo, Jessica, China Glaze and Orly. Behind the front row I put some odd glitter polishes and unbranded ones, and some nail wraps.
Second shelf I put my Essie's, Models Own, L'oreal Colour Riche, GOSH (including the original Holographic polish which I couldn't bring myself to get rid of), and all of the mini Ciate from my advent calendar. Behind these I popped any spare base and top coats and the one Barry M the made the final line up ('Mushroom' incase you were wondering.)

Already I feel a little more organised and have made it my aim to sort one section out each week. Now my nail stash is sorted I fear it may be time to move onto lip products..I dread to think how many of them I own! Would you be interested in seeing more spring clean/storage posts?

New In! Illamasqua 'Speckle' Nail Varnish

Illamasqua 'Speckled' Nail Varnish, £14.50 for 10ml. (Limited Edition)

Attention nail polish addicts! There are some new kids on the block, released today as part of Illamasqua's new spring collection named 'I'mperfection' these limited edition pastel shades seem to be a perfect ode to upcoming spring with their 'speckled egg' type finish. I think the finish of them is so unique in their matte glitter type effect and I am a sucker for lilac so had to have this one. The baby blue comes a close second though. I might have to buy it.

I found that one coat was very watery, with two coats it intensifies and the layers of speckles build up. Pictured above is three coats and a top coat to make them shiny. I think that the effect is pretty exciting as I haven't really seen anything like it before. I love that the finish is quite muted, it's a way of wearing decorative nails but with a more mature or sophisticated edge in comparison to outlandish glitter designs (though there ain't nowt wrong that either.) 

The speckled and irregular finish of these fit into the 'I'mperfection' campaign perfectly with Illamasqua encouraging us to embrace our perceived  flaws and make them a feature to be proud of, whether it be freckles or a birthmark. I've got a couple of other bits from this collection, would you be interested in seeing them?

Will you buy one of these polishes? Do you love the finish of them as much as I do?

P.S. Please excuse my horrible looking short nails. But I couldn't wait for them to grow back before I showed you!

Midweek Post: Crescent Moon Mani

I think it has been a little while since I posted my Midweek Post. I do try and post every Wednesday, but as you all know sometimes life just gets in the way! I am not one for nail art per se, but I love the crescent moon manicures that have been flying around since they were first spotted on the runways in 2011 sported by the models at Vena Cava. Since then we've seen it on celebs such as Dita Von Teese and as I had some free time this morning I thought I would give it a whirl. 

I knew I fancied a dark nail polish as I have been wearing Illamasqua's 'Whack' the last few days and while it's been a lovely bright contrast against the icy backdrop of the recent weather I felt the need to go back to near- black. I chose Essie's 'Stylenomics' which is a very, very deep green and was released in the autumn collection of the same title. 

After applying base coat and letting them dry I cut a semi circle shape out of a piece of sellotape and popped it on top, painting the rest of my nail with Stylenomics. I made sure to wait a little more time than I normally do to let these dry, I am a real impatient nail painter but knew I didn't want to mess this up by whipping the sellotape off too quickly and leaving uneven smudges behind. Two layers of top coat later et voila! All in all it took me about an hour but it wasn't as laborious as I had first expected it to be. Making do with sellotape I don't think I did too a bad job (all the online tutorials I read and watched were using stationary circular paper binders as their guide, but I didn't have any of those to hand.) I wanted to leave the cuticle end my natural nail but there is the option to have it coloured you would just need to alter the process slightly.

A nice twist on my normal painted nail. Have you ever done a crescent moon manicure?

Ciaté 'Cookies and Cream.'

It's been such a treat opening up each window on my Ciaté advent calendar. There's been a few questionable shade choices (there's a canary yellow that I know will go untouched) but overall they've been lovely picks. 
Opening up the window to 'Cookies and Cream' immediately prompted my nude obsession to come flooding back to me. I posted a while back about how much I was enjoying a nude nail- understated, feminine and so chic but with the onset of winter I felt compelled to wear deep reds, dark greens and greys. The nude polishes got brushed aside and ignored.
'Cookies and Cream' reminded me straight away of my beloved 'Sand Tropez' from Essie. They're very, very similar, a warm pastel beige that even flatters pale, pink hands like mine.
In terms of application this polish was opaque in two coats but I applied three to stengthen the finish (they seem to chip on me a bit too quickly with two coats, other than that I can't complain)

I'll do a post with the 'best of' the advent calendar after christmas with swatches of my favourites, I just thought that this one was worth a mention in the mean time. It's certainly up there in the favourites!

Do you like nude nail polishes? What nail polish are you loving at the moment?

Midweek Post: Essie 'Stylenomics'

Essie Nail Varnish in 'Stylenomics', £7.99 for 13.5ml.

Essie 'Stylenomics'- one coat. Sally Hansen Megashine topcoat- one coat.

Similarly to 'Head Mistress' which I reviewed here, 'Stylenomics' is part of the limited edition Autumn collection from Essie which is available in Boots stores in the UK. It's probably no secret by now how much I love Essie- the wide brush, quick drying formulas, amazing colour range and milky consistency. The only negative factor I can think of is that sometimes they chip too quickly. 'Stylenomics' is opaque in one coat, which cuts manicure time in half. This is the only Essie shade I own that is really dark, so I cannot comment for all of them, but the consistency of this felt thicker and more like a gel, which is probably the reason it only needed one coat instead of two or three.
I would describe the colour as a green infused black. In some lights, or to an untrained eye this varnish probably does look black, but it's certainly got a murky, moss green pigment that makes it so stunning and autumnal, and I hope that this comes across in the photos. I couldn't find any 'dupes' for it on any of the other makeup stands in Boots, so you'd probably have to go high end if you wanted a colour like this, which in turn completely takes the point out of a 'dupe' as they'll be no cheaper.

All in all, another Essie colour that I adore. I think this is my new favourite; it's mysterious, chic and powerful.

Summer cupcake NOTD!

Technic 'Carnival' available here for £2.05 for 12ml.

Illamasqua 'Loella' available here for £13.50 for 15ml.

Not one for nail art particularly but like a true magpie anything with glitter and I'm attracted to it! A few weeks ago when my bargainous Technic 'Carnival' glitter topcoat arrived through the post I rushed to my bedroom to pick out the perfect base colour. For the ultimate girly, party nail it had to be paired with Illamasqua's nail varnish in 'Loella'. It's a perfect candy pink with subtle pearl sheen, however the formula of this is gloopy, streaky and takes a long time to dry which is a shame, (however the colour is so gorgeous that I'm never really put off.)

The pictures show (base coat), two layers of 'Loella', two coats of 'Carnival' and a coat of Sally Hansen Mega Shine top coat.

NOTD: Essie 'Mint Candy Apple'

Essie Nail Varnish in 'Mint Candy Apple', £7.99 for 13.5ml.

Perfect for my current pastel- crave, 'Mint Candy Apple' fills one of the voids in my nail varnish collection, and I don't have many gaps or voids considering I own about 65 polishes. Excessive? Regular green nails don't do it for me but the injection of white into this colour to create pastel just does, slightly on the toothpaste-y side to look at but I like it, I like it a lot! Pictured above with two coats using Sally Hansen MegaShine topcoat.

2 China Glaze Polishes #NOTD

China Glaze '1007 Turned Up Turquoise (Neon)'

China Glaze '634 Frostbite'

For those of you who know about Sally's (I think it's just a UK chain?) well I popped in there a few days ago with the intention of buying a pink polish (I wanted a mega Barbie- pink that I seem to have bypassed in my current collection) but these two colours stood out to me while I was in there, they seemed unique, rich and gorgeous and weren't colours I've ever worn on my nails in the past. Plus it was buy one China Glaze get the other half price so it would have been rude not to buy two!!

Turned Up Turquoise; It took two coats of this to be properly opaque but due to it's extremely quick- drying formula it only took a few minutes to actually apply this. It dries to a semi- matte finish which is not particularly to my taste so the second photo below shows it with Sally Hansen's Mega Shine (from my March favourites post below) topcoat over the top to spruce it up a bit! It's a tropical green colour that is a bright jade shade, it's very bold but it is so pretty and exotic. Unfortunately it only lasted a day and a half before the edges had worn slightly and a couple of chips had occurred!

Dried, without topcoat.

With topcoat.

Frostbite; I don't know if it's just my bottle but this formula does smell quite grim! Similarly to Turned Up Turquoise it took two coats to reach an opaque finish. However, unlike Turned Up Turquoise this dries to a shiny finish but I would still advise a topcaot, of course! The formula is thicker, slightly gloopier and did take longer to dry. It is a gorgeous peacock blue colour, a sophisticated, electric finish that is so stunning and bold. Because of its thicker formula, it didn't chip as quickly as Turned Up Turquoise.

What China Glaze shades would you recommend to me?

 

NOTD- Adele inspired Louboutin nails

Right, don't go thinking now that this idea is by any means original, Adele sported this Louboutin style nail look at the Grammys and I saw it on Chantelle's blog where she did an amazing interpretation, much better than mine!!

Since I've had gel nails and extensions done by my friend the last few weeks, I've become bored of the underneath being white and so visible because it is obviously thicker than a natural nail.

It took me a while, and involved a lot of cotton buds soaked in nail varnish remover but I kind of got there in the end, and I'm looking forward to wearing these babies out tonight. 

This would be a lot easier done on fake stick on nails, before application or if you're choosing gel extensions, to use coloured extensions rather than clear or white french tips. You could use all manner of colours for all sorts of looks, and I might try it again (if I have the patience!)

I used Models Own 'Utopia' on my nail, and an unbranded red polish that I bought from Gran Canaria (I wish I had bought more of these, I love the solution and the padded quilt style bottle)

What do you think?