Pink Nails: Barry M - Strawberry Ice Cream

Hi there!! #swatchmarathon and we are here again, I really stalled on swatching this one cause my bottle is so ridiculously low and the formula is mad mad gloopy because of that. But I persevered and got it done. Not gonna lie it wasn't easy, it was thick and there were topcoat complications but I'm happy with the swatch I got at the end haha.

Strawberry Ice Cream is a pale pink cream and while that's really all there is to it it's a shade pale enough that it's unique to my collection and it is nice.

This was from the Ice Cream pastel collection thing ages ago now, and it was one of my first ever polishes. I used this so much which is why the bottle is so low now. I liked the colour even though it really doesn't suit me haha.

This was 3 coats and it was streaky but it wasn't obvious. That's the tip of the iceberg, I'm going to write about the formula as if the bottle wasn't really old. It's pretty thick and gloopy from the get-go but not that bad, it's definitely a polish that builds. The 1st coat is not opaque at all, there are worse formulas but this one still isn't the best. When I had to apply this I had to keep the bottle on its side and go wild with the brush. Getting a full coat was difficult.

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

Orange Nails: Chilli Pepper - Orange (no name)

Hello there chums!! We're back to swatching the random polishes, I find myself getting pleasantly surprised by these random polishes and this is one of them!! I love orange and this is such a solid polish like you don't even know :P

Apologies for cuticles and messy fingers, this is a swatch marathon man!!

Again I don't like that these polishes don't have names but yeah this is an orange creme with a subtle gold shimmer and it's really nice. Orange is a great colour, it just is.

I don't know much about Chilli Pepper, I think they do makeup too? I got this in a cute little set from one of my friends around 3 years ago, like before blog. The colours were really sweet but this one is definitely the sweetest, again orange is great.

The formula is fantastic, 2 coats that go on so easily and you're sorted. None of this gloopy nonsense either, it just applies really well.

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

The iPhone (Nail) Series: Cut The Rope

Hey you cool dude, I have another design based on a game. These are harder for me now cause even though I love how cute some games are I never play any!! I'm a busy gal (how many times have I said this -_-) and I don't have much time for mindless applications (but I definitely have time for mindless 3DS games haha, but not really, I'm not kidding when I say I don't have much time). But today we have a Cut The Rope design, I thought it was time cause I really wanted to do this one and I really like it.

Omnom is actually the cutest character (and name) and so he's my favourite. He's so cute!! I have normal (cute) him and (cute) eating him trying to eat the falling sweet. I just added glitter cause I didn't know what to do and I'm a big believer in glitter. I still thought it needed something else so I drew on the scissors and the cutting line.

For this design I used a white base for nearly everything and painted on top accordingly, first the colour with toothpicks and then the black outline. The teeth were difficult cause they were so small but just about managed to do them haha.
Honestly I never got into Cut the Rope even though the game is so me, Omnom alone justifies the whole game but I suppose I never really got how it worked (I only played it once, so that could've been the reason). My friends all really liked it, I'm pretty sure they did a sequel as well. Well you never know I totally could get into Cut the Rope, it does look pretty sweet.

Base: Chilli Pepper - Orange (no name), Rimmel - It's a Scorcher! (I was meant to do a gradient but the colours were so similar that I just painted over) and Essie - Shine of the Times
Green: Illamasqua - Nomad (I didn't have the colour shade but Nomad was a good shout)
White: Lovely Me:Ex - White and No.7 - Snowflake (the Barry M is not doing well)
Black: Lovely Me:Ex - Black
Red: M&S - Poppy
Beige (it's subtle): Nails Inc - Sao Paulo Streets
Brown: Paris Collection - Mauve Melody and w7 - Brownie
Glitter: Barry M - Superdrug Xmas LE 2012 B

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

Brown Nails: Paris Collection - Copper Topper

Hello fine folks!! So I started school a week later cause I was work shadowing at a TV studio and I wanted to be professional so I wore this colour even though this is not my kind of colour at all. But yes it was really cool, I got to watch a live recording of the news and sit in the studio and find out about all the departments with the media, there are a ton. It was really back but back to reality. And swatching, the to swatch list is depleting and it makes me happier than I should feel.

Copper Topper is a copper (explanatory) kind of metallic polish. Yep this is my best description. It's somewhat glowy. I think it's alright as a colour, very solid but you know me and neutrals, we don't really get along. Also having this the majority of the week made me bored of it, obviously I had to add some kind of glitter on top, but it didn't work. Trust me.

Every time I write about Paris Collection I know nothing about it, I never see it in shops in the UK. It was available in Canada at one point or another. I think they're polishes are good from what I've used, but I'm unlikely to come across another one.

The formula is very smooth and is on the watery side but nothing unmanageable. It's got a good opacity as well, I used 2 coats and everything was covered. It was very easy to apply and you can't ask for much more when it comes to formula.

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

Pink Nails: Per Una - Fuchsia (no name)

Hi guys!! This is part of the swatch marathon, what comes with the swatch marathon are really old polishes that are nearly running out (see what I did there what the marathon analogy??) so I avoid swatching them cause of the trouble of gloopy, polish at the bottom of the bottle polishes. However this wasn't too bad even though it's a really really old polish.

Yeah these polishes are also the kind that come with no name but this one is a nice dark (you know what I mean?) fuchsia creme with a subtle blue shimmer. I'm always a sucker for pink so I like this, it's not love but it's nice.

When I say this is old I mean it, it's like over 7 years old. The fact that it still functions is very impressive. Per Una was (is?) a brand linked to Marks & Spencers and I'm pretty sure it mostly did clothes. I think my neighbours gave this to me and they would not remember doing so cause it was quite a while ago and I wasn't that big into polish at the time (oh how time would change that).

This was crazily opaque for what it is, I used 2 coats for these pictures but so opaque and not very gloopy at all. If anything the only reason is was slightly difficult to apply is because there's so little left (I didn't have much nail polish as a child hahaha) so I had to swirl the brush all crazily, but otherwise the formula is really good!!

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

Valentine dripping chevron nails

Hello there guys!! I hope you are doing well, unfortunately for me I'm back to school tomorrow which is a sad time not gonna lie. I would've been back earlier but I'll explain why in another post. School is always full steam ahead and I have so many things I have to do -_- As I always say, after a while you might not see me much haha. I know it's much too early for Valentine's things but this colour scheme evokes those thoughts.

I was so taken with dripping chevrons the last time I did them that I had to do them again but with a different colour scheme and chunkier chevrons. I'm not impressed, I really need to revise that colour scheme cause it doesn't work and the thinner chevrons look much slicker and better. Overall I'm still pretty happy with this design cause the concept is cool but nothing special.

I did the chevrons randomly with toothpicks in a zig-zag fashion. I added the drips after finishing all the chevrons. I made the mistakes of putting colours too close to each other beside each other so I had to add sparkles in some form. This is matte again, I've seriously matted everything now that I have a proper matte topcoat and everything looks so much sweeter when it's matte.

White: Barry M - Matt White
Blue/pink glitter: Nails Inc - Sweets Way
Black/red glitter: w7 - Lava Flow
Gold: w7 - Golden Sands
Red: OPI - Dutch Tulips
Light Pink: Barry M - Strawberry Ice Cream
Dark Pink: OPI - Charged Up Cherry and Color Club - Wing Fling
Orange: Etude House - No. 60
Pink: Orly - Basket Case and Models Own - Radiant Pink
Light Red: Barry M - Carousel and OPI - Jinx

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

Brown Nails: M&S - Champagne

Hey there guys!! I'll be having a lot of swatches for the next while cause I am unbelievably close to having swatched every single polish in my collection. If that's not exciting then I don't know what is. Then everything will be nail art and new polish, I can think of no better things hahaha. Last last Christmas (I gave you my heart <3) my friends gave me this set from M&S and I'm still yet to swatch them all, I've swatched all the colours I like which leaves the browns and the yellow but they're coming up and I have a brown today and it's quite nice :)

This would be good for a party or some kind of event, it's funky. Champagne is a foil-y light taupe shimmery polish. This is my attempt to describe brown polish. But honestly it's nice.

It's another solid polish by M&S and yes I keep saying I'll into more into their polish and it seems I haven't. However I have been and it's just the polish isn't insane so I convince myself that I don't need it considering I already have like 3 (or more) of the same colour. Moderation guys, I am queen. Though I think it's solid stuff and you're getting good quality for a good price.

Naturally the formula is pretty sheer, I used pretty thick coats which led to bubbles (I can't escape). I used 3 coats (pretty sure), perhaps 4 cause of streakiness but I've seen much worse formula cause it went on very easily so yeah it's not bad. Overall I'm just not the most fond cause it's not my kind of colour, you can expect quite a few neutral swatches cause I don't really them as bases.

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

Red Nails: Body Collection - Red (no name)

Hey guys!! You know I'm here to swatch all the polish, even those random no name ones that you'd get in a random set. That's what this polish is today, but it's better than I thought it was going to be, not gonna lie. You know not all polish is branded and I'm here to represent them :P

This red polish is darker than what the photos make it out to be, with more orange tones but there's definitely a red shimmer running throughout. It's a pretty shade of red, I've been rocking red this year and this one is so nice!! 

Yeah this came in a little set (I'm yet to swatch the others in the set), it has no name and I don't feel like I have the right to give it one. My friends gave it to me for Christmas last year, and it only took me a year to get round to swatching it. My friends know I'm a nail polish fiend haha.

The cut is real, I'm so sorry, I was bored during english and my cuticle paid for it :/

The formula wasn't too bad, I thought it was going to take like 7 coats but I only needed 3 and while there seems to be a hint of visible nail line that only comes through in the pictures. The formula was very smooth too and I had no issues with it. I think it may take a bit longer to dry cause it's a bit runny but that's the extent of the issues and that isn't that bad.

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

Top 14 nail polishes of 2014!

Hello there guys and welcome to this favourite nail polish round up post, I love doing these and coincidentally I have got 14 polishes for 2014. I encountered some really really nice polish last year and some colours narrowly missed out and I'm still debating if they should be in here but not really haha.
The thing about preferences is that they change over time, like my favourites 3 years ago, I bet I would order them differently now, not only because of preference but of how amazing they are. I'm sure colours I would've overlooked could become my favourites. This is maturing folks ;)
Anyway last year had some fab fab fab (I would never describe as something "fab fab fab" :/) polishes and I have managed to haphazardly order them, there may be some surprises...or maybe not :P Be excited!!

14. Glam Polish - Mars Attacks! - My friend got me this early last year and the combination of all the matte neon glitter and jade-y mint was obviously going to be a winner for me. I love neon glitter, I think we learnt this from last year.

13. Barry M - Kiwi - I love green polish, I think nail polish is what made me love the colour green, I don't know what it is but green is wonderful. I haven't used this polish as much as I should have (it's why it's further down in the list) but Kiwi is just a fantastic shade of green, right in the middle of the green spectrum and that's a great colour. You know I love the Gellies too.

12. Spa Ritual - Wilderness - This polish is a pretty late entry but that coral though. That golden shimmer though, it's like a coral Jinx! I'm still onboard with textured polishes and Wilderness is such a pretty one!!

11. Essie - Lots of Lux - Hello another texture. I prefer this one though, the richness of the blue captures me and the green/yellow crazy shimmer is a winner too. While this is nice textured, when you add topcoat it's glorious.

10. Hare Polish - Neon Palm - This is just a super interesting polish, grey can really work as a base. Who ever thought I'd have a grey polish in my favourites? The combination of copper and neon pink is great. Especially the neon pink. The copper sparks are a great addition to this polish too. I'm excited to wear this more.

9. Nails Inc - Regents Park - 2014 was the year of red for me, I love red now!! It's obviously not the shade of red with this polish, look at the black glitter combined with the red. It's so perfect, I always say how I love edginess and come on this polish is perfect for that. I feel like I can do something tough and thug with this polish hahahaha.

8. The Face Shop - Strawberry Milk - Yes I may only have worn this once (common theme of the year, not wearing polish enough cause I'm busy) but I knew from the first coat this was special. Just from the amazing teal and purple glitter I was convinced, but when you combine it all like this with the super cute light pink and the insane density of the glitter, you get a pretty sweet polish.

7. Barry M - Superdrug 50th Birthday - Barry M has captured my heart with their limited editions, it's a shame that they are limited. I'm glad I persisted in trying to get this polish by insisting on looking cause it's gorgeous. I was wearing this again recently and it glows from within, I don't know if it's a shimmer that makes it do so but glow-y polishes are so beautiful. Plus it's pink with glitter. I think bases with glitter are a common theme here, but when they're done so well who can blame me? I hope this will be a recurring theme next year :)

6. Barry M - Carousel - As usual Barry is a big hitter. You know I'm a red girl now and this is just such a super perfect gorgeous shade of red. It's the tiniest bit orange-y but in the light red it's SO nice. I don't even care that you can't see the shimmer cause it's such a gorgeous colour and I can't really pinpoint why. Oops another limited edition, I think Barry's best polishes are the limited edition ones :P

5. Models Own - Radiant Pink - The Diamond Luxe collection was such a beast of a collection. I've only wore this one once too but it was so incredible that it's in the top 5. Really can't wait to wear it more cause of the neon pink (always a winner with me) and the gorgeous mini silver flakes.

4. Claire's - Hundred and Thousands - This is me in a polish. Neon coral with red, yellow and blue glitter and bonus white glitter. My favourite colour scheme and then some white glitter. It's ticking all the boxes. So yeah it's basically perfect.

3. Barry M - Fashion Icon - Look it's the reappearance from my old favourite, Barry M. Don't worry this one isn't a limited edition. I cannot convey the sparkliness in pictures, or how amazing the shade of purple is. But I really tried to convey the duochrome shimmer which brings this polish to another level. Another polish that has to get on mah nails right now. When I had this on I could not stop staring, that's a sign of a good polish, a really good polish.

2. Models Own - Asscher Blue - When Models Own do it right, they tend to end up in my top 5. Blue is my favourite colour and I was looking for a nice sky blue and I found it in the Diamond Luxe collection. It's a gorgeous shade of blue, if you didn't know by now I am all about shades. The green/teal shimmer makes this polish incredible. It's not the most pizazz-y polish but it's a beautiful blue and sometimes that's all a girl is asking for.

1. Illamasqua - Melange - It had to be didn't it? Look at that fantastical beast. That shade of green is lovely. But we all know that's not what it's all about, it's the gold and red mini flakes. They're AMAZING. This is a polish to make you feel mythical or part of a fairytale (like the promo pictures portrayed, well done promo pictures) and ready to frolic through a forest. Polish shouldn't give these kind of illusions and Melange is something else. This is why Illamasqua is the only high end brand I think is worth splurging on, for polishes like Melange. More like this please.

Well thank you for reading my gushy favourites, hopefully you think they're a good bunch ;) The colour range was very broad, there's 3 greens, 2 blues, 1 purple, 2 corals, 2 pinks, 2 reds and a grey.
Barry M obviously ruled the roost (and long may he reign) but not as much as previous years with 4, 1 for Illamasqua (like 3 years ago), 2 Models Own, 1 Claire's, 1 The Face Shop, 1 Nails Inc, 1 Essie, 1 Spa Ritual, 1 Hare Polish and 1 Glam Polish. You gotta love range.
These are definitely polishes that I'm going to reach for, for a full manicure when I inevitably won't have time to do nail art. Trust me I'm excited to rock these. I'm always for a year of new polish, I'm never sure if I'll find enough polishes I love, but I always do (maybe that isn't such a good thing :P). I hope you have a fantastic day!! :)

Party Polar Bear Nails

Hey there guys!! This is what I had on for New Year's, I don't really do anything special but I attempted to do something a bit more appropriate. Like last year I spent New Year's chilling at home and like the cool dude I am I practised the piano as the clock hit midnight hahaha. I reckon we're still in winter so polar bears are still a thing.

I love bears. Ok real life bears aren't as cute (or probably friendly because real bears have to defend things in the wild but whatever) but cartoon bears are my fave. While I like the polar bears I painted I feel like they could be cuter. But I like the colourful eyes and ears. To make a party you overload everything with glitter, it's a rule. A real one.

I did a gradient that you can't see at all but it was actually a pretty good one. I drew the base of the polar bear with a white pen then filled in all the details. Positioning was harder than I anticipated, I wanted the eyes and nose balanced and the white shine to not be overbearing (see what I did there). Added all the glitter around the bears and you can guess that that leads to a thick manicure. My bezzie gave me a matte topcoat for my birthday and I had to rock it, and it's so much better than my other matte topcoat, everything is going to be matted.

Base: M&S - Champagne
Black: Rimmel - Black Pearl and Topshop - Gypsy Night
Flakies: Essie - Shine Of The Times and M&S - Light Mix (which looked so sweet)
Glitter: Claire's - Fluffy and Barry M - Amethyst
White: Lovely Me:Ex - White and Barry M - Matt White
Black details: Lovely Me:Ex - Black
Blue: Essie - Bikini So Teeny
Teal: Barry M - Guava
Purple: The Body Shop - A Grape Affair
Pink: Barry M - Superdrug Summer LE 2013 A

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

Pinky Purple Nails: Barry M - Socialite

Hello!! How are you? I have another Glitterati polish to show you cause they're fabulous. And you know me I love my glitter, Socialite appealed to me cause I love the shade of it and you know me I'm so social...hahahahaha.

Socialite is a pinky purple glitter with bonus holographic glitter sprinkled within. It has an element of duochrome shimmer but it's not obvious because of how light the base is. I thought I was going to totally love this cause the colour is so nice but I find the colour doesn't suit me very well and I wasn't in love. Fashion Icon is so much better, I didn't expect to love it more but I so do, the shimmer and how deep the purple is so just fantastic. But Socialite of course is still a pretty one, Barry can do no wrong.

The formula is good, not perfect but so easily forgivable. It's not the most opaque on the 1st coat but it builds really well, the formula is a bit gloopy and smells weird but still very manageable. I found this randomly chipping on me but that was probably my fault haha. I was going to have 3 pictures as usual but my 3rd picture was too crap to post hahaha.

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

Who's that Pokémon? Jirachi and Fletchling in a pear tree!

Hey guys!! Happy new year!! I'm cautiously hopeful about this year, I'm determined to make it a good one on attitude alone (this is like motivational talk here). I had a really nice 2014 and that year was crazy :P I'll be doing my favourite polishes of last year soon, I love nail polish haha. I'm a busy gal on blogging will almost definitely be taking the backseat, I've been obsessed with the holidays though, doing fun things and being generally refreshed ;) Anyway I see no better way to start the year than with Pokemon nail art, this is one thing to expect more of, I adore Pokemon. This design is somewhat Christmas theme but I think it works for new year too!! :)

What I was going for was a Christmas tree kind of idea, you know from the 12 Days of Christmas so that's the whole Fletchling in a pear tree thing and the green and glitter for the tree. But the tree is so bling which is so NYE (not even my new year's manicure :/). I didn't really do much Christmas nail art so making up haha.
So there's Jirachi who's a legendary and while I didn't paint it so accurately I think it's pretty cute!! And the lil bird is Fletchling who's the standard bird pokemon from the 6th generation (Pokemon X and Y looks incredible). So cute, Fletchling is adorable and while the combination of Jirachi and Fletchling is really random, Christmas ties them together. Oh yeah cause Jirachi is a star.

I began with a white base for both pokemon and did the colours with a toothpick and brushes and then did the black outlining. Eyes are hard to position and scale haha. Jirachi's crazy head thing was also hard to proportion. I love the glitter in this design, I wasn't sure if it would work over the green but it was perfect for channelling tree ornaments and that glitter is just fabulous.

Base: Illamasqua - Melange
Glitter: Barry M - Starlight
White: Lovely Me:Ex - White and Barry M - Matt White
Yellow: Ciate - Loop the Loop
Jade: Max Factor - Cool Jade and Essie - Naughty Nautical (but I painted over that)
Black: Lovely Me:Ex - Black
Red: OPI - Jinx and OPI - Dutch Tulips (I picked the wrong shade of red but it's really not a big deal :P)
Grey: Barry M - Chai

Thank you very much for reading and I hope you have a great beginning to the year!! :)