Pick A Polish: OPI - Sparrow Me The Drama

Hi loves. How are we all? I can't believe it is New Years Eve tomorrow already, it's crept up so fast.

It's time for this week's Pick A Polish manicure. The polish for this week is OPI - Sparrow Me The Drama. Doing these posts every week has made me realise how many pink polishes I own, nearly every week has been a pink polish so far lol. I promise I do own other colours too!

I got this polish a while ago on ebay.. I am not 100% sure if it is real because the bottle feels very slightly different from the rest of my OPI's, but it still does the job and I got it cheap so I am not going to complain.

Sparrow Me The Drama is a rosy pink cream. This photo shows 3 coats without topcoat. It was fairly opaque and was almost okay in two coats, however there were a few slight bald spots so I added a third to even it out completely. I had no issues with the application.

Click below to see the nail art I created..

Copycat Saturday - Tartan Nails

Hi everyone. How are you all? I am enjoying my time off work while it lasts :).

I have the start of another new series to show you today, as you can tell by the title I have called this Copycat Saturday. I find myself more often than not stealing other peoples ideas when it comes to nail art, there are so many cool designs out there to try! But I do feel I should probably try and come up with my own ideas more often. So I have decided to do a copycat manicure once a week, then the rest of the time I shall be forced to think of an idea myself. 

For my first design I decided to go for this pretty, which was a twin manicure by amkuch15 and majikbeenz on instagram. I thought this was seriously cool and on trend.

For full details on this manicure click below.

What I Wore On My Nails - Christmas Work Do.

Hello everyone. I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas. I had a lovely relaxing day and don't have to go back to work until Monday, yay!

Today I am going to show you some nails I wore a few weeks ago to my Christmas work do. I bought myself a sparkly, new dress and needed some nails to match. 

Click below for full details.

Pick A Polish: Essie - Like To Be Bad

Hello loves. I'm feeling a lot better today, I have just finished my shift and now I have the rest of the week off for Christmas, yay! I hope you all have wonderful plans for Christmas :).

 I'm here a day late with this week's Pick A Polish due to the 12 Days Of Christmas Challenge yesterday. But now that is over I shall be getting back into my normal blogging schedule. This week I picked Essie - Like To Be Bad.

I haven't used this polish a huge amount before, but have somehow splattered it all over the bottle. I have no idea how that happened.

Like To Be Bad is a soft pink cream. In the bottle it does have a slight shimmer but it doesn't  translate onto the nail. This photo shows 3/4 coats, it is quite opaque but streaks a bit which is why I needed the extra coats on some nails. It's not the easiest polish to apply. 

Click below to see the nail art I created..

12 Days Of Christmas Challenge: Day 12 - Freestyle Christmas Mani

Hello my loves. I hope everyone is okay. I'm not very well at all today, I have had to take the day off work. I hope I shake this off before Christmas! I'm glad I had this post written up in advance because I think I need to go back to bed now lol.

It's the final day of the challenge, as I have said previously I shall definitely miss doing this. I'm not sure I'll know what to blog about now I won't have a theme to use lol. Maybe I need to find another challenge to join :).

Today's theme is a freestyle Christmas mani, so I took that as anything Christmassy. I wanted to do something a bit different and when I came across this design by Nails by Kayla Shevonne I decided that I needed to try it. I was going to try and think up a design myself and be original, but her mani was way cooler than anything I was thinking anyway lol.

Click below for more.

12 Days Of Christmas Challenge: Day 11 - Christmas Trees

Hi everybody. I hope everyone has exciting weekends ahead of them. I am feeling rather under the weather so I think I shall spend mine resting.

Its day 11 of the challenge, just one more prompt after this :(. Today the theme is Christmas Trees. 

I was experimenting with my Color Club topcoat to see what its like with nail art, and it smudged my baubles :(. So apologies for that, CC topcoat is good but not quite as good as Seche Vite in my opinion.

Click below for more.

12 Days Of Christmas Challenge: Day 10 - Santa

Hello my loves. How are we all? One more day til the weekend!

It's day 10 of the challenge, we are so close to the end now. I will miss this challenge once it is over, I have really enjoyed participating. Today the theme is Santa.

Obviously I painted the man himself.

Click below for more..

12 Days Of Christmas Challenge: Day 9 - Snowmen

Hi everyone. How are you all? I am needing the weekend already!

It's day 9 of the challenge, today's prompt is snowmen. I was really looking forward to today's theme, I have seen so many cute snowmen nails and I couldn't wait to do some of my own.

I came across this design and fell in love so this is what I went with. Plus its based on The Snowman which I used to watch over and over again as a child.

Read on after the jump.

Pick A Polish: Rimmel - Show Off

Hi everyone. I hope you are all well.

It's Monday so that means its time for Pick A Polish. This week it is the turn of Rimmel - Show Off.

Read on after the jump.

12 Days Of Christmas Challenge: Day 8 - Holly.

Hello lovelies. Happy Sunday. I have a roast dinner in the oven which I am very much looking forward to.

Its day 8 of the 12 Days Of Christmas Challenge, just a few themes left to go. I will be sad when it is over. Today's theme is holly.

I decided to keep it simple for this manicure.

My base colour is China Glaze - Dandy Lyin' Around.

I then freehanded the holly. The red is China Glaze - Hey Sailor and the green is Barry M - Spring Green.

Finally I outlined it all with Rimmel - Black Cab and added some highlights on the berries with a white cream.

I really loved how these came out, I'm glad I left it as it was and didn't go over the top with detail. 

Let me know what you think in the comments.

Thanks for looking.

Belle Glamour Swatches and Review

Hi everyone. I hope everyone has had a good weekend so far. I have just got home from work for a well needed rest.

Today I have some swatches of a new indie brand to show you. I was contacted recently by Catriona of Belle Glamour to see if I would like to purchase some polishes to review. Now I don't need an excuse to buy more polish, so of course I said yes (although these are the only 3 polishes I have bought since I last got paid, I have been very well behaved this month). I picked out 3 to show you today.

They come in nice square bottles, the ones I got were 10ml. The brushes are good quality and easy to use. One thing that I would like is for the names of the polish to be on the bottles, if I wasn't so pedantic to have a spreadsheet listing all my polishes I would completely forget the names.

Onto the swatches..

Up first we have Belle Glamour - Purely Pumpkin.

Purely Pumpkin is a lovely shade of orange, its not too in your face which I find oranges can often be. This one was the most difficult to work with, you have to let it dry for quite a while between coats or the polish will drag. It was also quite thick, but still manageable. This needs to be applied with care as it does show up brush strokes a bit. Opacity was good, this photo shows 2 coats. Despite all this, I think the extra effort in application is worth the final outcome as this is a very pretty colour and quite a unique orange in my collection.

Up next we have Belle Glamour - Passionately Purple.

Passionately Purple is a beautiful, deep purple shade with a jelly formula. I really didn't this expect this to be a jelly looking at the bottle, it took me by surprise! It was very sheer on the first coat, but it was build-able and this photo shows 3 coats. The formula on this was nice and smooth, very easy to apply. 

Finally we have Belle Glamour - The Grass Is Always Greener.

The Grass Is Always Greener is a gorgeous spring green with a subtle shimmer. This one was by far my favourite, I love it so much! The formula was similar to Purely Pumpkin, but much better (if that makes sense). You still have to make sure each coat is dry before applying the next or it drags a bit, but much less than Purely Pumpkin. This photo shows 2 coats, although it was almost opaque in 1. 

So overall I would definitely recommend you give this brand a go. I think they are good quality and on the whole the formulas were good, Purely Pumpkin wasn't perfect but you just need to be careful with application. I was also very impressed with the customer service I received, my queries were answered within minutes which is pretty amazing.

Belle Glamour will be launching on 24th January and will be available from her website here.

Will you be trying anything from Belle Glamour? Let me know your thoughts below.

Thanks for looking.

12 Days Of Christmas Challenge: Day 7 - Christmas Animals

Hi lovelies. I hope you're all well. I have had a super stressful day and need a break but I still have to work tomorrow, waah!

It's day 7 of the 12 Days Of Christmas Challenge and today's prompt is Christmas animals. I thought long and hard about what animals to do, I was planning on trying to do something different. But in the end I just went with very unoriginal Rudolph nails.

You can't really go wrong with Rudolph though can you.

My base colour is OPI - Don't Burst My Bubble.

The reindeer's heads are OPI - A Taupe The Space Needle and the antlers are OPI - Warm Me Up. Although these two colours don't actually look as different as I was expecting them to.

I added the eyes with a dotting tool using Color Club - White and Rimmel - Black Cab. For the noses I used a coat of China Glaze - Hey Sailor and then a coat of OPI - Underneath The Mistletoe. I wish I had used a more bright, glittery red.

I'm not in love with these, but they are definitely not my worst effort. I probably could have made them better but I was a bit rushed whilst doing these.

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

Thanks for looking.

12 Days Of Christmas Challenge: Day 6 - Christmas Decorations

Hi everyone. Happy hump day! Although I have the day off and am working on Saturday, so its not really hump day for me.

We're at the half way point of the 12 Days of Christmas Challenge, today's theme is Christmas Decorations. 

Since this is the first Christmas I have been moved out of my parents house I had a lot of fun choosing all my own Christmas decorations for my flat. I decided to do my nails based on the decorations I have on my tree because I like them so much.

I started with a base of Color Club - White on my index, middle finger and pinky. For my thumb and ring finger I used OPI - Can't Find My Czechbook.

On my thumb I did some tinsel. I used a detail brush and Color Club - White, La Femme - Disco and Barry M - Boots C (what a creative name).

For my baubles I used OPI - Dining Al Frisco on my index finger and OPI - Tiffany Case on my middle finger. The silver is Avon - Mercury Metal and the black string is Rimmel - Black Cab.

On my ring finger I freehanded the snowflake using Avon - Mercury Metal and added a bit of Barry M - Boots C over the top for some added sparkle! On my little finger I did the star using OPI - Tiffany Case. All the round glittery bits are individually placed pieces of glitter from OPI - I Snow You Love Me.

Here's a close up shot my boyfriend took of our Christmas tree to give you an idea of what I was working from. We also have white tinsel with little iridescent sparkly bits, shiny blue baubles and glittery blue stars (in a similar style to that tree).

I really liked these, they have kind of an icy feeling which is what my tree is like also. I'm gonna be sad when I have to take my tree down this year!

Let me know what you think in the comments.

Thanks for looking. 

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.

12 Days Of Christmas Challenge: Day 5 - Bells.

Hi lovelies. How are we all? I have just got home and I am about ready to go to sleep already lol.

Today is day 5 of the 12 Days of Christmas Challenge, its almost half way done. I will be sad when its over, I have been liking Christmas nails a bit too much. Today's theme was bells. I was  a bit stumped with what to do for this one, so I took to google and came across these nails. As soon as I saw them I knew I needed to steal the idea and copy them immediately, and I must say, I loved how they came out!

Here is my version..

My base colour is Essie - Like To Be Bad.

I freehanded the whole design with a detail brush. For the holly I used Barry M - Spring Green, China Glaze - Hey Sailor and Rimmel - Black Cab.

For the bells I used an Unnamed W7 Gold. The white on the ribbons is Color Club - White.

I was super proud of these, I think this is the best freehand design I have done. I spent my day at work sticking my fingers in people's faces to show them off. I didn't want to take them off for my next mani.

What are your thoughts? 

Don't forget to check what the other participants have done for their designs.

12 Days Of Christmas Challenge: Day 4 - Festive Colours/Glitters

Hello everyone. I hope we all have some good plans for the weekend. I have my Christmas work do tonight, its been ages since I have had a proper night out so I am looking forward to it.

Its day 4 of the 12 Days of Christmas Challenge and today's theme is festive colours/glitters. I have been trying to cut down on my spending lately as I am a bit skint lol, so I haven't bought too many Christmas themed polishes this year (well, not many for me anyway). However I did pick up this little baby from Nail Lacquer UK and after receiving it I realised it did look rather festive, so this is what I will be showing you today.

The polish in question is Nail Lacquer UK - Blinded By The Bling.

I decided to do a glitter gradient because I haven't done one in ages and I don't think I have ever posted one on my blog.

My base colour is China Glaze - Hey Sailor, which I seem to be using loads lately. I think it is a very good red for Christmas.

I dabbed on Blinded By The Bling using a make up sponge.

I am rubbish at describing glitters, so I will just let you look at how pretty it is in the pictures.

Isn't it a beauty! I love glitter gradients, they are so quick and easy but still look really good :) I got a lot of compliments when I was wearing this.

What's your favourite festive polish?

Thanks for looking.

My Birthday Cocktail Nails

Hello everyone. How is everyone? I have finally finished work, a late shift on a Friday is not my favourite thing.

Today I am going to show you the nails I wore for my birthday celebrations last weekend. I had a few friends over to my flat and attempted to make some cocktails. Naturally I needed to have my nails matching the occasion so I created some cocktail nails :).

I started with a black base using Rimmel - Black Cab.

I then freehanded the shapes of my cocktails using a white cream so the colours would show up against the black.

I used about a million colours for these nails so here goes... 

Thumb - an unnamed Color Club orange, NOPI - Hit The Lights, China Glaze - Hey Sailor and Barry M - Spring Green.

Index finger - Barry M - Blue Moon, Barielle - Surfs Up and Revlon - Violet.

Middle finger - Sally Hansen - Green Tea, Barry M - Key Lime and Barry M - Ltd Edition Pink.

Ring finger - Revlon - Violet, Barry M - Berry Ice Cream, Models Own - Peach Sherbet and Essie - Fear or Desire.

Pinky - Barry M - Ltd Edition Pink and Barielle - Surf's Up.

I outlined the glasses with OPI - This Gown Needs A Crown.

I was pretty happy with these, definitely fitting with the occasion. My thumb has to be my favourite. 

Which one is your favourite?

Thanks for looking.