Pick A Polish - An Unnamed Color Club!

Hello my loves. I hope you are all well. I have a day off work tomorrow, so I am looking forward to having a day to catch up on bloggy stuff. These challenge posts keep creeping up on me too quickly!

Today I have this week's Pick A Polish post to show you, a day late since I was posting for the Christmas challenge yesterday. This week was number 157 in my stash, an unnamed Color Club. I hate having unnamed polishes, but I got this in a set from TK Maxx and I find whenever I get a set of Color Club polishes from there they never have names on.

This a a light pink jelly polish, my swatch shows 3 coats. It was very sheer on the first coat but was quite build-able. There was still a fair bit of visible nail line, more so in real life than in the photo. The formula was good and self levelled nicely. This would definitely be an appropriate polish for a french manicure, so that is what I did a twist on for my nail art...

Over my base I freehanded some french tips using a white cream (another unnamed Color Club). I haven't done proper french tips since my nails were a lot shorter, I think I definitely prefer them on shorter nails.

I freehanded the swirls using a detail brush and Rimmel - Black Cab. My thumb was my favourite.

I added some accents and dots using OPI - This Gown Needs A Crown.

I definitely pushed my freehanding skills with this mani, I'm not 100% happy with the outcome but it is always good to try something different. 

What's you opinion on french manicures? Let me know in the comments.

Thanks for looking.

Pick A Polish: W7 - Green Dazzle

Hi everyone. I have just got home and am about ready to pass out, is it the weekend yet? lol.

It's Monday so that means it's Pick A Polish time, this week W7 - Green Dazzle was picked from my stash. I picked this up last Christmas time, thinking it would be a good Christmas glitter but I never got round to using it. So this is the first time it has been used, I have so many untried polishes, its unreal!

Green Dazzle is a green leaning teal glitter in a clear base. The photo above shows 4 coats with no undies, I think you could just about get away with wearing it like this but you can still see a bit of nail. I did find that the base is slightly tinted so it did makes my nails look very yellow in the gaps. It was also getting quite thick at this point and was quite slow drying.

For these reasons, I much prefer this layered over another colour. This photo shows one coat over China Glaze - Keep Calm, Paint On. Glitter pay off is good and I found it applied very evenly and smoothly.

Onto the nail art...

The base colour again is China Glaze - Keep Calm, Paint On.

I added the animal stripes on using a striping brush and W7 - Green Dazzle.

I really liked how this nail art came out, sometimes keeping it simple can be more effective. I am also glad I finally tried this glitter out as I do love it layered.

What do you guys think? Let me know in the comments.

Thanks for looking.

Pick A Polish: Loreal - Opulent Pink

Hi everyone. How are you all? I am super tired after work today.

Tonight I have this weeks Pick A Polish manicure to show you, this week Loreal - Opulent Pink was pulled out of the hat. I have had this polish for ages, my mum gave it to me a few years ago, but for some reason I have never used it. 

The colour is quite similar to last week's polish, but a bit darker.

Opulent Pink is a deep pink cream. It was sooo nearly a one coater, but I used two just to even it out completely. This photo is without topcoat, as you can see it is very shiny. 

I was feeling lazy with my nail art so wanted something quick and easy. I decided to go with the technique I used for the background on my #BritishBloggerSelection nails I did last week as it is so easy, but still looks interesting.

I got the idea from Chalkboard Nails. To do this I wiped most of the polish off the brush on the neck of the bottle and swiped the mostly dry brush over my nail. Which created this patchy effect.

The lighter colour is Miners - Marshmallow. I added a matte topcoat as I think it adds to the distressed look.

So overall I really loved this polish (I don't know why I haven't used it before) and I am pleased with the outcome of my nail art. This is definitely going to be something I do when I am short on time.

What are your thoughts? Let me know in the comments below.

Thanks for looking.

Pick A Polish: Leighton Denny - Plush Pink

Hello lovelies. I've got that Monday feeling today, is it the weekend yet?!

I am back with this weeks instalment of Pick A Polish, today it is the turn of Leighton Denny - Plush Pink. 

I don't own many polishes by Leighton Denny, but in my experience they are good quality and I like them.

Here is a quick swatch for you. This is two coats with topcoat, although it was shiny anyway so the topcoat didn't add to it in that way. This could possibly be a one coater if you applied a thick coat, but I applied two thinner coats. The formula was good, very easy to apply.

Onto the nail art...

For this design I was inspired by a packet of sanitary towels... yes you did read that correctly. I currently have a pink pack of sanitary towels in my bathroom that have a cute little skyline and buildings etc. around the bottom. I really liked how it looked so I decided to recreate it. This is probably my weirdest source of inspiration yet.

The base colour I used was Leighton Denny - Plush Pink.

I freehanded the skyline, the darker pink is OPI - Embarca-Dare Ya and the white is my usual Color Club.

I was happy with how these nails turned out, I think the tiny buildings are rather cute. I don't feel my photos quite do it justice however, the darker pink stood out more in real life.

Have you tried anything from Leighton Denny? What did you think of them?

Thanks for stopping by.

Pick A Polish: Avon - Rose Quartz

Hello lovelies. 

Today I have this weeks instalment of Pick A Polish, this week was the turn of Avon - Rose Quartz. This is a pretty old polish in my collection and I haven't used it for ages. To be honest I don't love it, which is probably why I haven't used it in so long.

I think the reason I have used a fair bit out of the bottle is because it needs so many coats!

I used 4 coats for this swatch, it was very sheer. In real life I still had some visible nail line, but you can't really see this in the photos. It is a pretty colour however, and has a nice shimmer when the light hits it. 

Onto the nail art...

I used Rose Quartz as my base... obviously.

I then freehanded the pattern with a detail brush and W7 - Black.

I am not 100% sure what the pattern is meant to be inside the hearts, I just kinda painted it. It sort of reminds me of roses, in an abstract kind of way.

I was fairly pleased with these. They aren't the best thing I have ever done, but I don't think they are bad. As you can probably tell I am still a bit undecided about this one!

What do you guys think? Let me know in the comments.

Thanks for looking.

Pick A Polish: Barry M - Lady

Hello everyone. How are we all today?

Today I have the start of a new series to show you. As you may have gathered by the title I have called this Pick A Polish. Like many other nail polish addicts I have an ever growing stash, but a lot of my polishes tend to get neglected and sit untried for prolonged periods of time whilst I keep going back to the same few bottles. So I have decided to pick a polish at random from my stash (using an excel spreadsheet and a random number generator so I can't cheat) once a week. I then have to create some nail art with said polish and I shall be posting the results.

Today was the turn of number 312... Barry M - Lady. I lucked out with this one as I only got this recently and was planning on playing with it soon anyway.

I decided to do something simple, I settled on a dotticure as I haven't done one for ages and I do really love them.

I started with a base of Models Own - Nude Beige.

I then added the dots with Barry M - Lady and a few different sized dotting tools.

I didn't add a topcoat as Lady is a textured polish

Here is a swatch of Lady on its own. I used two coats for this photo, the formula was good and easy to apply. There is still a bit of visible nail line but this didn't bother me. I think with three coats it would be opaque. It dried fairly fast which is important as if you want to keep the texture you can't slather it with a fast dry topcoat. So it gets a thumbs up from me!

Have you tried this polish? What do you think? Let me know in the comments.

Thanks for looking.