Wario Nails (for Movember)

Hi there guys, I hope you're having a great weekend. Exam freedom is one of the most beautiful things of life, so I'll be living my next week in peace (well hopefully) and I have something very exciting for the blog coming up in the next week so yay!! :D I left my Movember (moustache growing worldwide for prostate cancer) nails quite late this year, but I finally had time to go to them and they're pretty funky.

Sorry about the cut that I edited out, winter (well autumn, almost winter) is unkind to my cuticles, very very unkind

So I present Wario, one of the more distasteful Nintendo characters, so basically he's not cute but he's got quite the moustache. Last year I did Mario nails for Movember and loved them, the concept of this manicure is very similar. Also I really like this mani, when painting I was not sure if he was going to turn out right but I think we can all agree he looks very maniacal (sorry for the nightmares) but I like how terrifying he is, I do not know why but I like the way he looks here!! I was going to add garlic and money to the other nails but new polish changed my mind.

Eeeeeeeeeeee the purple is a new!! And a Liquid Sand!! Well I visited my love TK Maxx yesterday and there were OPI sets (the selection of nail polish brands was great) and this called my name. Ok OPI DS Lapis was there but the price point made my decision also the fact that the set I got was limited edition and came with a base coat.
I legit haven't owned a base coat for over a year, and yes I have used a "base coat" but it's a french manicure pink (which was actually a great base coat) but it's nice to have a real base coat for once. But when I applied it I wasn't used to having my nails clear and not a shimmery blue in pink. I've been using the french manicure pink since I started this blog (fun fact: majority of manicures on this blog use that Sally Hansen french manicure pink as the base coat).
Also totally coincidental that it works with this look, I was going to be doing my Movember nails no matter what but I was going to use a different purple as yellow and purple are Wario's colours. Also I haven't seen many (or any) swatches of this so I was curious. I love the Liquid Sands cause they're SO sparkly O.o

Purple: OPI - My Current Crush
Now this isn't mega sparkly like I love it (can't wait to topcoat it when I "swatch" it). I've mentioned I HATE the colour plum but this is just about not plum for me and I really like it. I do love a purple polish and it does have a nice sparkle. The name is also adorable.
Peach: w7 - Linen
Black: Lovely Me:Ex - Black
White: Barry M - Matt White and Lovely Me:Ex - White
Pink: Per Una - Pink (no name)
Yellow: Rimmel - Sunshine
Dark Blue: Barry M - Indigo
Light Blue: The Face Shop - GR501
I really wanted to add the light blue to the sides of this eyes so it was the most accurate it could possibly be.
Brown: w7 - Brownie

Thank you for reading, I hope you had a great Movember and only have a better December (or Decembeard)!!! :)

Ombre Ikat Hearts + Green Jelly Sandwich

Hi there guys!! My exams are nearly over and this makes me a very happy bunny, but arguably my worse exam is tomorrow so I'm hoping I can keep my cool and do my best.
I did this jelly sandwich and I liked the way it looked but I didn't want to leave it plain and it took me ages to decide what to paint on top. But I eventually decided on ikat hearts cause I really liked the way they looked the last time I did them.

I know I could've painted this much better, the ikat just isn't very spiky and I wanted more colour. But it was at a point where there was too much colour and I had to go over with the white again. But then there was too much white and I didn't want to keep going in circles. Though it would've looked better with more colour. I like the heart on my thumb but this mani is just missing something... :/ But hearts are always sweet and the jelly sandwich looks pretty cool with it. 

I started with white polish, dabbed the colour on and then did the black spiky parts (excluding the whole adding more white polish step). They're more gradient hearts cause for an ombre it's only meant to have one colour but ombre sounds nicer, sorry if it bothers you cause it would bother someone like me :P

Jelly Sandwich Base: Barry M - Guava, Orly - Ridiculously Regal, Barry M - Ruby and Topshop - Green Room
Black: Lovely Me:Ex - Black
White: Barry M - Matt White
Red: M&S - Poppy
Coral: OPI - Jinx
Orange: Essie - Fear Or Desire
Light Orange: Models Own - Beach Party
Yellow: Barry M - Lemon Ice Cream

Thank you for reading and I hope you have a fantastic day!! :)

Yellow Nails: Ciate - Loop The Loop

Hello there lovely one, hope you are well. This is my first ever yellow nails post, I guess yellow just isn't my colour (also it really doesn't suit me). This was a gift from my bezzie (very many thanks to her) with some caviar beads and who knows when those will see the light of day. I know I said I'd be posting less due to exams but I'm actually posting a decent amount, I guess I've got a little bit of myself together (let's not mention the state of revision).

Loop The Loop is just a very nice pale (but not too pale) yellow. I wasn't sure if I'd be a fan (didn't look all that special in the bottle) but surprisingly I am!! It's a very pretty shade I found myself looking and thinking it was lovely which is pretty rare for me and yellows. It's somewhat clean if you get me.
It might become my go-to yellow (which isn't all that prestigious to be honest), as my Barry M (Lemon Ice Cream) is gloopy as anything, w7 (Sheer Lemon) is too pale and requires too many coats and the Rimmel (Sunshine) stains. Also helpful that this Ciate is very aesthetically pleasing.
And just saying that I'm very pleased with my swatch, it looks legit.

I'm not sure how I feel about the brand Ciate, I will very graciously accept the gift and free gifts from magazines but I'm not sure if I'd ever buy any with my own money. None of them really get my attention as personally I don't think they're particularly magical. Also I don't like them taking others ideas then putting an extortionate price on it. But I really like this polish and Ciate's "ethics" don't really bother me all that much.

The formula wasn't perfect (which was a reason I thought it wasn't going to be all that great), the coats are a combination of quite opaque and streaky. Some patches covered and others just not. 3 coats was definitely required, but I don't think anymore would be needed. I used 2 thick coats and 1 thin. The brush of the polish was a bit messed up for me (one of the bristles was sticking out) but it didn't affect anything.
I was totally cynical when applying but honestly for a yellow it's pretty good and I'm just glad it's not gloop city for once and actually applied smoothly.

Thank you for reading and I hope you have a great day!! :)

Blue + Teal Leopard + Rainbow Cookie Spots

Hello there guys!! Happy weekend, good to see you here. I've finally done another leopard, 30th of June was my last leopard :O I had a pact to make sure I only did maximum 2 leopards a month. Now it's been nearly 5 months since the last leopard :O Well I'm glad I branched out into different things but it's now is the time for a leopard print.

I also wanted to use all the colours quite clearly. You know I love me a leopard, I only do the crazy colour ones (well there was one exception), it is the best way to get ALL THE COLOURS into a mani.

I also wanted a gradient, at first I regretted the rainbow cookie spots and thought I should've done a gradient leopard but in the end I really liked the rainbow. I love all things rainbow.

Blue gradient base: M&S - Ultraviolet (similar to Essie Bikini So Teeny, soooooooo up my street), Rimmel - Azure and Rimmel - Disco Ball (I love the holographic glitter in this)
Teal gradient base: Barry M - Guava (I love this, post on this soon), M&S - Peacock and Barry M - Sour Apple
Black: M&S - Petrol
When my friend kindly gave me the box for the Marks & Spencers polishes the back said "textured" and I was like "Marks & Spencers is doing textured???" like the fact they were doing nail polish was baffling and textured polish was just mind blowing. I began to try to guess which one was the textured one and I did guess Petrol due to the glitter. It looks beautiful, especially that green glitter/shimmer, I can't wait to try it on it's own!!
Pinky Red: OPI - Charged Up Cherry
Peachy Orange: Essie - Tart Deco
Green: Illamasqua - Nomad
Purple: Illamasqua - Jo'Mina
Pink: No.7 - Me! Me! Me!
Orange: Bourjois - Tangerine Fatal
Yellow: Ciate - Loop The Loop
Light Purple: Barry M - Prickly Pear
Yes all the colours, some regulars in there as well as some new ones. I hope to post swatches of everything eventually, just cause I want to!! :P

Thank you for reading and I hope you have a great day!! :)

Retro Flowers + Saran Wrap

Hello there you very fine folks!! Hope you are well, today I have a nice little look with flowers and my first ever saran wrap!! Or just cling film to me but saran wrap sounds fancier. I thought my first time doing a saran wrap mani would have more of a fanfare but I just grabbed some cling film and went. Also I will be saran wrapping all the time now just it's SO easy and looks really pretty. And yeah I love me some flowers so that had to happen.

It was another not particularly keen on this but then the next day I really really liked it. I love the combo of the flowers and saran wrap and I'm just please with this look, I think it looks sophisticated and delicate. Another criteria was to use new polish and this design and my next design I'm posting fulfils that, I want to swatch everything, but patience me, you don't have the time now. I'm just mega happy with how this turned out!! :)

The saran wrap really is just, painting your base (waiting for it to dry), painting a layer of polish and dabbing it off with cling film and repeat if you please, the results are awesome. I want to use darker colours so that it stands out more. I don't want to clash yet in case the colours blend then make a gross brown, I don't want that.
I tried to make my flower segments as equal as possible cause when they're not I get tres annoyed. I started with the pink, then red, then darker red blobbed on the pink. Did some leaves and outlined, that's about it.

Yes, I added a flakie-shard glitter on top, probably didn't see that til now, I have to put this glitter over a darker colour cause I know it'll look amazing

Saran wrapped base: Barry M - Blue Moon, Illamasqua - Jo'Mina and Barry M - Berry Ice Cream (in that order)
Flakie shard glitter: M&S - Light Mix
Pink: M&S - Peony
Red: M&S - Poppy
Dark Red: Barry M - Raspberry
Green: Rimmel - Block Your Green (love the subtle subtle shimmer in this)
Black: Lovely Me:Ex - Black
I never knew Marks & Spencers really did nail polish (Marks & Spencers is a supermarket to me) but I'm very impressed so expect to see more cause I'm a fan of the colours and the formulas.

Thank you very much for reading and I hope you have a lovely day!!! :)

Pick 'N' Mix: Glitter Tribal

Hi there guys!! Going with my last glitter skittles I couldn't leave them plain, I needed some nail art. But I didn't want it to take a long time so I was going to go against it but then I grabbed and painted anyway. And in 10-20 minutes I had finished my tribal and loved it. Yay for when things like that happen!! :)

Normally I suck with coming up with tribal designs but I went pretty classic and got a design I'm proud of. Honestly I really like all the patterns, it's great when that happens. Also the fact that the glitter is peaking out is one of my favourite things here, easy and funky. But in general I love tribal designs, they generally look really cool and edgy.

I just freehanded the design over the glitter, keeping steady and making sure I actually was steady cause this was a non-dominant hand design. Of course some my lines aren't perfectly straight but that doesn't bother me at all as I feel like it doesn't affect the design at all in my opinion.

White: Lovely Me:Ex - White
Black: Lovely Me:Ex - Black
And all other colours are mentioned in glitter skittles post linked at the top.

Thank you for reading and I hope you have a great day!! :)

The Versatile Blogger Award!

Hi there guys!! I was nominated by the lovely Lucy of The Nail Snail, go to her blog guys, she does really cute looks!! These awards are lovely and just thank you Lucy!! I feel like I'm doing something right haha.

The rules:
1. Thank the person who nominated you (um easy!! :P)
2. Include a link to their blog
3. Select 15 new blogs you recently discovered or follow regularly
4. Nominate them and let them know
5. Tell 7 facts about yourself

Oh dear... the nominating I'm so sorry I suck like no one's business at this. There are so many fabulous nail blogs and I haven't had the time to research (I am so so sorry, I will get to it one day). There's not going to be 15, cause I fail :( Whether they want to go for this is up to them, unless they've done it before... Ya'know what I'm gonna tag some very deserving people and then just list some blogs I love so you can enjoy!! :D

The lovely Lacqueerisa 

My girl Batmomo at Pokenailart (whom I like to tag :))

Ida Nails It

Brit Nails

Did My Nails

LAC LAC (even though she discontinued her blog :()

Manicurator

Samarium's Swatches

Very Emily

xoxo, Jen

7 facts about me

1. Ever since I was young, whenever I eat (and actually when I do quite a lot of things) I always have to save the best for last, I just like having my favourite food at the end or like the biggest crisp.

2. I've been playing the piano since I was 5 (and it's a wonderful instrument).

3. The first Nintendo game I ever experienced was Super Smash Bros Melee on the Gamecube (I was too scared to play haha cause I was a crazy kid) and from there I delved into the world of Nintendo and no regrets.

4. Linking with the last fact I used to absolutely terrified (not any time recently) of computers, properly paralysed with fear. In my old school we either had to go on the computer or draw a monster. I would rebel and go out of the rota just so I wouldn't have to have anything to do with the computer. Let's just say I drew a lot of monsters. 

5. Josh Hutcherson is my fave ^_^

6. I like doodling on everything, especially my maths books and homework diaries. 

7. I'm occasionally a very emotional person, all I have to do is look at a cute baby and start crying haha. Or watch a wedding proposal, or a Pixar film, or just get generally emotional over random things (be it music, or a picture or anything). Like there was an episode of Modern Family where Phil is saying even though he may have been disappointed in Haley she was still his daughter and had to protect her and I just started crying...just as the plane had taken off... People hadn't even started watching stuff yet so it probably seemed a bit random, and if they knew what I was crying at they would probably question me even more. Even thinking about it makes me totes emosh :'( :P

Haha thanks for reading my rambly facts, I seem really weird now but that's ok. I hope you have a great day!! :)

Gimme Glitter: Birthday Skittles

Hi there, I mentioned end of last post that I got quite a few polishes to play with recently so I have some of them here today. I want to mention now that I'm very busy right now so posting will not be as frequent 'til hopefully the beginning of December (which I cannot wait for for!!). Also for the next while I'm going to be playing with my new polishes so you'll be seeing a lot of them.

It's no secret I love glitter (I have posts dedicated to glitter, hint number 1 ;)) and having some glitter skittles only made sense (and I have more glitter to play with hehehehehehehehehehe glitter ^_^). I am so thankful for my lovely friends for being so thoughtful and kind to get me these polishes ^_^ 

I have to say Prickly Pear and The Teen Queen together are my favourite combo with The Teen Queen it's beyond sweet and pretty. It was one of the layering possibilities for me and I LOVE it. 

I know bar glitter is a controversial thing, but honestly from my limited experience (this is my first bar glitter polishes) I think they're quite good. I guess I don't mind the hairy look. It seems to me that everyone hates bar glitter but I really hope there's someone out there loving bar glitter and all the bar polishes being put out in all it's variations.

Base and glitter
I used 1-2 coats for each glitter, all were pretty packed but required a little bit of gap filling.
Thumb: Models Own - Beach Party and Barry M - Sour Apple
Index: Nails Inc - Baker Street and Barry M - Boots LE D (I think the other name for this could be Mardi Gras but until I'm sure I'm using the other name edit: the name is actually Tinsel Town).
I love the Barry M limited editions, I've been checking Superdrug but they haven't got theirs yet. But trust me once they have them I will be pouncing.
Middle: Barry M - Prickly Pear and Hare Polish - The Teen Queen
Ring: Barry M - Matt White and The Face Shop - Vanilla Sugar Yogurt
Pinky: Color Club - Wing Fling and Orly - Ridiculously Regal
I may have mentioned in the past that I hate plum (the colour), but when it comes to glitter, EVERYTHING IS ACCEPTABLE.

Thank you for reading and I hope you have a great day!! :)

Rilakkuma and friends in paradise

Hello there!! Hope you're having a great Sunday evening before the long week begins. This here was my birthday manicure (it was a couple of days ago) as I love Rilakkuma and I like doing something a lil' special for my birthday nails. In March I did a Rilakkuma manicure which ended up being one of my favourites of the year. Since then I've been a bit obsessed, I was fortunate enough to go to Japan this summer and there was a Rilakkuma store... You can imagine I went a bit wild. This design was inspired by a Rilakkuma top I now own.

So Rilakkuma is here with his buds Korilakkuma (basically meaning child relax bear, I had to look it up) and Kiiroitori (yellow bird) in a Hawaiian situation. I do really like this design though I was disappointed as I think I could've painted this WAY cuter but I also think pictures made this mani look better than it is. This obviously calls for me to do another Rilakkuma design (and show my Rilakkuma haul haha :P). I really like Kiiroitori here, the little flower and the grass skirt :')

I kind of did a "syrup gradient"(?) with Go Deeper than got a white base and painted the details on colour by colour. I like the flowers in this design, they highlight the Hawaiian theme and show the "gradient".

Light blue: The Face Shop - GR501
Darker glittery blue: Orly - Go Deeper
Brown: Paris Collection - Mauve Melody
Light Yellow: w7 - Sheer Lemon
Yellow: Rimmel - Sunshine
Black: Lovely Me:Ex - Black
White: Lovely Me:Ex - White
Pink: Barry M - Superdrug Summer LE 2013 A
Mustard Yellow: Topshop - Naked 
Green: OPI - Jade Is The New Back
Orange: Essie - Fear Or Desire

My inspiration!! Yes this t-shirt is one of my favourites

Thank you very much for reading and I hope you have a great week!! :3 I got quite a few polishes for my birthday, you can count on seeing them for the next while!! ;)

Gimme Glitter: Hare Polish - The Teen Queen

Hello there you fine folks!! Happy Friday, I'm looking forward to sorting out my work and have my organisation not resemble a shambles :P This is my 2nd ever indie polish and I was totes excite. I'm very picky about my indies but this was sooooooooooooo pretty I had to. Also I really like Hare Polish as a brand, the combos are usually very unusual but simultaneously so beautiful. I got this exactly 10 working days after I ordered, and for an international order I think that's pretty great.

The Teen Queen is very small, small and medium blue matte hexes, medium and largeish baby pink hexes, baby pink squares and a blue shimmer that flashes green sometimes. From The Last Queen of France collection. The mix of glitter is just so pretty and feminine, I'm in love with the bright blue glitter. And the underlying shimmer is gorgeous. I just love matte glitter and this is abundant with it and it has such a sweet feeling to it.

I AM SO IN LOVE WITH THE BOTTLE!!!

I was trying to get this polish around September time but I was there at the restock 2 hours after and thought "I'll buy it tomorrow". As you can guess it was out of stock tomorrow. 

But October's restock I was there, a couple hours before I had the Hare Polish's etsy up on my screen and the minute the restock happened I was there and 3 minutes later my order was placed. Of course when I checked the next day this was still in stock, but it's better to be safe than having to wait another month. 

My excuse for buying this was doing well in exams and winning a prize at my school's prize day, but really. Did I need an excuse? :P I know some ladies have ninja polish buying skills and I want to become one of these ladies so I don't miss a beautiful polish. 

Formula was fabulous, it was very glitter packed and looky here. No bubbles!!! Who knew the day would ever come. I was debating about which polish to use it over, as I knew light blue would be a lovely base but I also wanted to a try a darker blue so the shimmer would come out. Then ping! I use a gradient (it's really not that complicated myself -_-). I also have this shown over green. 

I used 2 glitter packed coats (cause glitter packed is my style) over (lightest to darkest) The Face Shop - BL601, Revlon - Dreamer and Barry M - Indigo. Obviously my gradient wasn't so hot, but the focus was the glitter and yes I was very much focused on it. 

Finally a matte picture, doesn't look that different in photos but the shimmer looked even nicer and the glitter looked more prominent (sad that my matte topcoat cracked the mani if you know what I'm talking about -_-). I very much loved having this manicure on, The Teen Queen is one beautiful glitter. 

Thank you very much for reading this post about glitter (a special one at that though) and I hope you have a lovely day!! :)

Pick 'N Mix: Liquorice Allsorts Ikat

Hello there you fine folks!! I haven't done a pick n' mix in a while so now is the time to amend that. I wanted to be all clever and make pick 'n mix work in the sense of nail skittles and for sweets you can get at a pick 'n mix.
Is pick 'n mix a worldwide thing? Where you get a little bag and pick the various different kinds of sweets you want and pay by the weight. I'm game for anything food related. Though I was not inspired by the patterns on the sweets so I decided to put the colours into an ikat design. But you can still see the liquorice resemblance!!

I like the ikat design because it is edgy, here are the actual sweets so you can see where I'm coming from with this design. I also like those colours together. On my accent nail I used the colours of the blue and pink sweets (the ones with the little balls covering it?) to give a little variation.

From talking to people I found that people don't like liquorice, I am not in that party. I will be that person who eats all the liquorice cause no one else likes it. I much prefer liquorice allsorts to dolly mixture, it just tastes better and more punchy. Also the colours in liquorice allsorts are brighter, I'm just attracted to bright colours. That said I haven't eaten liquorice in AGES, that should be amended soon.

Pink: Orly - Basket Case
Yellow: Rimmel - Sunshine
Orange: Essie - Fear Or Desire
White: Barry M - Matt White
Black: Lovely Me:Ex - Black
Green: Barry M - Mint Green
Blue: Color Club - Sky High
Sometimes it shifted to purple under the black and pink and it looked fab.
Pink and Black glitter: Barry M - Ruby

Thank you for reading and I hope you have a great day!!! :)

Who's that Pokemon? Buneary!

Hello there guys, I hope you guys are enjoying your weekend and not trying to tie up the loose ends of schoolwork like me!! :P I don't know if I've inadvertently started a new series but probs not, I don't know enough about pokemon unfortunately. But Buneary is adorable!!

Buneary is an adorable normal type pokemon and yeah she (or he)'s adorable so I had to do nail art. And I'm pleased with this one, I love cute bunnies and I think I painted them cute (I fail at saying intellectual things).
I have never played with Buneary (I don't even know what gen she is, fail -_-) so I don't know if she's good or not but thing is I would just pick all the cute pokemon, cause do I care if they're good? You need to know little about me to know that cuteness is everything.

I was trying to do a green ombre base kind of thing but I failed as I should've put Cool Jade before Greenberry (-_-) thankfully in the end I didn't care as it was covered up. So it's more a green skittle than ombre. Painting wise I can't really say anything other than I painted some bunnies, I did a white base and then went colour by colour. Those yellow eyebrows were difficult to position as were those eyes, much fixing had to happen.
OO THE GLITTER. Whilst I was painting I didn't know what to do with the 2 bunny free nails, and then what happens? The mail comes in with my first Hare Polish, clearly it was meant to be. Buneary, Hare, see the theme? It was meant to be. You better believe there's going to be a post dedicated to this glitter, and I have much to say.

Greens (thumb to pinky): OPI - Jade Is The New Black, Barry M - Greenberry, Max Factor - Cool Jade, Illamasqua - Nomad and China Glaze - Re-Fresh Mint
Brown: Paris Collection - Mauve Melody
Yellow: w7 - Sheer Lemon
Pink: Per Una - Pink (no name)
Black: Lovely Me:Ex - Black
White: Barry M - Matt White
Normally I use my white pen for these kind of things but it just wouldn't work. But this was great as no smudging!!
Glitter: Hare Polish - The Teen Queen

Oo bonus picture!! I have a Buneary plushie!! I got it quite a few years ago when I went to Japan, I know the Japanese name phonetically is Mimirouru, I had to do a whole search on google to find out the english name so I could do this design. I wasn't sure if I was going to include my plushie but I decided if you have a cute bunny plushie (oh my goodness plushie is such a cute word) you pose and take a picture with it!! Yes I sound crazy, and yes I don't care :P

Thank you very much for reading and I hope you have a fantastic day!! :D

Woodland Nails

Hi there guys!! Happy November!! Hope you all had a nice Halloween, I did some revision :/ I have a lot of work I have to get done and I still do but I'm procrastinating as always lol. Though I did give some sweets to the trick or treaters and wrapped a birthday present for my friend (this is how I procrastinate when working haha).
This is the base for my recent iPhone Nail Series for Sprin, I thought this base deserved it's own post for the effort I put in and it looks pretty cute. I mentioned in the post I don't normally put this much effort into the backgrounds. But when it's worth it, I write extra posts :O

Look at that effort, the vines and the random tree details. Those apples are collectable, I really liked the look of this woodland's are cute? Sometimes, maybe. The animals I painted covered up this woodland scene but I'm glad I took pictures before even though I hadn't cleaned up yet.

Dusty Jade: Max Factor - Cool Jade
Green: China Glaze - I'm With The Lifeguard
I wasn't going to add this green but I wanted the trees to be defined which I'm glad I did.
Brown: Paris Collection - Mauve Melody
Red: Essie - E-Nuff Is E-Nuff
White: Lovely Me:Ex - White
Black: Lovely Me:Ex - Black

A short post for once, thank you for reading and I hope you have a great day!! :)