Green Nails: Barry M - Kiwi

Hey there guys!! I have an awesome polish to show you today. I knew from the moment I saw the press samples that this polish would have to be mine. I love green polish!! And this shade is so great. And I love the Gelly range. Just a note on my swatches is that they are very dark today, I tried to colour correct cause my camera seriously hates green (which is such a shame :() so I tried my best, but I still think the polish is still a hint darker and blue toned in real life. Anyway it's beautiful!!

Apologies for the bubbles

Kiwi is a shade of green that is very unique to my stash, it's darker than a medium green but can't be categorised as a dark green. I can't wait to use this more for nail art (and I've used it a bunch for nail art already) and just enjoying that gorgeous shade of green.

Part of this year's Summer Gelly line, the colours were nice, too neutral personally but Kiwi was my standout. Every single Gelly I've owned has ended up in my favourites (and don't expect that to change any time soon), and I know if I bought a colour that I didn't love that wouldn't be the case, but the thing is of all the ones I've bought from the massive selection I've loved so much. And the chances of that in any line is rare, so basically the Gellies are special.

I know the picture is red, but I tried so hard to get it close to colour accurate :(

The formula was brill, 2 coats and I bet short nails could do 1 coat. It's so opaque, and yeah about the bubbles, it's probably my fault. Probably my coats were too thick and I didn't let them dry properly due to my excitement about the polish. But yes flawless formula, wouldn't expect anything less of the Barry M Gellies.

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

Blue Nails: Essie - Bikini So Teeny

Hi guys, I hope you had a nice Easter if you celebrated :) I'd love to sit and complain about all the work I have but instead I should be hoping that I can get it all done and become an intelligent person, I have a month to get smart!! Nail polish might be the only thing keeping me sane. This is a pretty one here, one of my favourites actually. I included this in my 2012 favourites and yet I still haven't written a post about it crazily enough. I've fixed that though, I seriously love this polish I need to write about it more. But I'm not proud of my swatch, my cuticles are just not in good shape and I apologise.

Bikini So Teeny is such a gorgeous cornflower blue with a subtle silver shimmer which sometimes flashes green and purple. I have mad love for this polish, I've definitely used it a lot here. It leans more purple toned than most cornflower blues and it's so beautiful, it's not just me and blue polish.

This was from Essie's 2012 Summer collection, full of bright cremes which I'm always onboard with. I also have Fear Or Desire from that collection which I really like too. I got them from TK Maxx for obviously a great price, I think I was close to not buying but I had to and it was a great decision I made :P

 2 coats is sufficient, perhaps 3 if you're doing thin coats, but the formula is very good. And as I've mentioned before the Essie brush is very nice for my nails.

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

Seashell and Starfish Nail Art

Hello there!! How you doing? Haha hopefully well, I have a summer design today as the summer is still here (though September and school is fast approaching *ultimate sad face*). I used a cutepolish tutorial, well I just used the picture cause it's super cute and super cute is my favourite adjective. I changed it up quite a lot and the result is...different (in a kind of good way). Her's are WAY cuter, just saying.

I like it but my seashells are so messed up. I couldn't find a way for them to look ok so I let them look weird and wrong. I like the starfish though especially the metallic pink dots, I'm glad that polish worked way better than I expected it to.

The difference being the colour scheme and I jelly sandwiched for the base. It gives a kind of sea feeling, but pink sandwiched in green worked better in my head than in real life.

Green: Barry M - Greenberry and Topshop - Green Room (jelly)
Both polishes are virtually the same colour (I'm almost 100% certain they are the same colour), I compared them on a sheet. I would never do a nail comparison with them as the difference would be so clear. Greenberry is a careful 1 coater, Green Room is minimum 5 coats and it's not even opaque (I was very disappointed the 1st time I tried it). Green Room will forever be my green jelly.
Glitter: OPI - Minnie Style 
The white square is peaking out on my ring finger and I like that.
Dark Pink: Barry M - Fuchsia
Metallic Pink: Barry M - Boots Xmas LE 2012 B (really opaque :))
Purple: Illamasqua - Jo'Mina
Dark Purple: OPI - Plum And Get It

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

Watermelon + Palm Tree Nail Art

Oh hello there!! Ok I made a mistake (be careful when changing your blog name, if you're thinking about it I recommend reading this post, super helpful) and now people can't get my posts, it can most likely be fixed. But after a lot of thought (I meant a LOT) I've decided that it's probably not all bad. I have an extremely busy year ahead of me and the posts will definitely be dropping. Also I found the "pressure" of the blog makes me enjoy painting a little less, I still love blogging but I've decided to blog for myself (literally haha). I'm really sorry but messing up but this has always been a small blog and I can't imagine anyone missing me too much haha. But if you ever happen to stumble here, hey I hope you like the nail art etc. I'm still gonna be here talking to myself though, I'm gonna have to get used to it but it's for the best. That's what I love, just painting and writing about nail art and polish, that's why I'm here :)
But enough of that, today's nail art was inspired by Ashley Tisdale (I didn't know that :P). My friend sent a picture to me. It's super cute and I made a few changes, it's a super suitable summer mani.

It just screams summer, and it's pretty cute. I busted out the neons and a new matte glitter polish(!!! Post on that soon). So it's double accented, surprise surprise cause I never use the thumb and ring finger for accent ;) Never. And I know the watermelon slice on my pinky turned out incorrectly :/

I've done the palm tree silhouette on a gradient before but it looks so awesome, and the glitter weirdly worked. I mattified the whole look and oh man I love matte nails. I want to do more silhouette manicures cause they are so pretty.

Green/Blue: Barry M - Greenberry
Greenberry is amazing, there's a reason this used to be my perfect colour, I love it!! And 1 coat, amazing is the word.
Neon Green: China Glaze - I'm With The Lifeguard
Neon Pink: Nails Inc - Notting Hill Gate
Pink: Barry M - Fuchsia
Orange: Essie - Fear Or Desire
Purple: OPI - Plum And Get It
Matte Glitter(!!!): The Face Shop - CMX321 (comeon, no cute name?)
Black: Lovely Me:Ex - Black

Hey thanks for reading and still have a lovely day!! :)

Purple Drips + Black and White Glitter Gradient

Oh hello there!! Today I have a simple nail art look that consists of bright colours (all my designs have bright colours, I realise this isn't really a shocker). But it probably would be fun for summer that anyone can do.

Does what it says on the tin, drips and glitter gradient. The drips look less messy in real life. Black and white glitter over a gradient always looks nice. It's not the best gradient but I don't think it's half bad. I just sponged the colours on. Except it's a bit OD on my middle finger (or maybe the other 2 fingers are UD).

Pink: Orly - Basket Case
Purple: Illamasqua - Jo'Mina
Green: Barry M - Greenberry
Black and white glitter: L'Oreal Color Riche - Confetti
Holographic glitter: Nails Inc - Abbey Road
Abbey Road really added a lot, the drips weren't looking so good then a stripe of Abbey Road gave some kind of dimension.

Short and sweet today (haha that never happens :P), thank you for reading and I hope you have a fabulous day!! :)

Neon Pink Love Tribal

Hello there you fabulous folk!! Sorry for all the gaps between posts, I mentioned my summer was going to be crazy and it is. I was on some exciting trips so maybe I'll have some nail art and writing about them. Today's nail art consists of a gorgeous neon pink and some tribal inspired by Chalkboard Nails...again. I saw the design on her Instagram (as always) and I once again loved it. She hadn't put the design up on her blog when I'd painted it so the actual design is very different (and of course great). Even so I put more variation into my tribal, bringing forth the "love tribal".

I added little hearts and they're really cute. Little hearts are always cute. I painted nothing on the index, middle and pinky nails because I wanted them plain for the awesome neon pink to shine through. I have already raved many a time about this polish and I've only owned it for a small amount of time but it's fantastic so it deserves it.
Neon pink is always a tricksy thing to capture but my camera wasn't half bad. It's pretty accurate but the colour "changes" in different lighting, sometimes it's more pink than coral/peach.
This baby is NEON oh man it's wonderful. Some people don't like neons (which I don't understand) but they're bright therefore they get my love. 

Neon Pink: Barry M - Superdrug Summer LE 2013 A
It's already a favourite, the colour is just so beautiful. I used 2 coats over white (Barry M - Matt White) which really makes the neon stand out.  It's a jelly so it's a shiny neon. Jellies and I don't really get along, I'm too impatient for the coats to dry and I get bubbles. My topcoat being the bomb smoothed them out though ^_^
Blue/Green: Barry M - Greenberry
Purple: Barry M - Prickly Pear
Black: Lovely Me:Ex - Black
I really think the strip on my thumb looks like a ruler, it wasn't intended but my maths obsessed mind can't help but think that.

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

Pre-Summer Haul!!

Hello there your fantabulous people!! Last day of June :'( Everything is going so fast. I hope that at least some of you are on holiday or are just relaxing. Though it is already summer, since I had school I couldn't call it summer. Once my exams were over I went out and bought some polish (cause there's no better way to celebrate!!), I have not bought a lot of polish this year in general due to my no/low buy. Proud my myself ^_^ But exams were over and I went out and fulfilled some items on my wishlist. Yaaaaaaaayyyyyyy!!!

So this is my cumulative haul, personally I still think I was very controlled. I've already mentioned that I got Clowning Around separately. Otherwise I dove in, in one go. It feels brilliant ;) I do these haul posts because they're so much fun!! I really plan for these post exam trips cause this is where I can go cray.

Ok starting with the Barry M's:
Pink: Superdrug Summer Limited Edition 2013 A
Boots and Superdrug have limited edition summer polishes and I cannot resist the Barry M limited editions!! As proven by the winter limited editions I always have to buy. There was also a deal in Superdrug, spend more than £6 and get one of the limited editions for free, it had to happen. I knew I would be getting the pink one, it's a lovely corally pink shade. ALSO I CAN'T GET OVER HOW CUTE THE LID IS!! Hopefully I will be doing separate posts for all these polishes, I have tried them all and you will know the ones I love. Boots also has a deal going on, buy 1 get one half price but Superdrug is where it's at (it gave me a better excuse to spend more). The other one from Superdrug was a bright green (with a tribal lid!) and in Boots the limited editions are yellow and a darker fuchsia pink.
Green: Greenberry
A great jade turquoise green from the Gelly range (which is very shiny). I love these kinds of colours, I used to consider this colour my perfect colour (as opposed to Robin's egg blue).
Glitter: Ruby
Black and ruby glitter with small black glitter, I thought the concept was awesome. Really liking the black glitter.
White: Matt White
I was hoping to get the Sinful Colors white (cause Boots sell Sinful Colors now!!) cause it's cheap, but it wasn't in stock :/ I am not willing to spend a lot of money on a white and my current white polish is dead. I don't like when my plans fall though so I had to formulate a new plan therefore I got the Barry M white, which I'm liking currently (before it turns into a gloopy mess). By the way it's not matte.
Oh man Barry knows how to sell his M's (ok that didn't make sense), every UK gal must own a million Barry M's because they are SO amazing and well-priced. I um...own 20 (*shuuusssssssssh*), it is my most owned brand.

I have already raved and then raved more about Lush Lacquer - Clowning Around, a multi-coloured neon hex polish which is so beautiful that I lose the ability to even. I'm being serious when I say I screamed when the parcel came. 

Finally we have Illamasqua - Jo'Mina on my wishlist forever as I've been looking for the perfect medium purple creme for the longest time. It's not even looking for it, it was actually getting it. I have previously mentioned that I think Illamasqua is worth the money because of the gorgeous colours and the wonderful formulas. But I will not be another Illamasqua polish for a long time (let's hope), but Jo'Mina is so lovely. I really love colours like that.

I hope you enjoyed this haul post, thanks for reading!!! Have a wonderful day!! :D 

Summer Flowers + Pink Gradient

Hello you lovely people!! MY EXAMS ARE OVER!!! Doing nothing has never felt SO GOOD, they finished a couple of days ago but I've been a bit busy and taking a break is ok. I feel FREE!! Haha. Posts will hopefully getting more frequent again (tres excitement) and improvements are to be made. Also I got some EXTREMELY EXCITING MAIL that I screamed over and such, so post on that soon. I love floral nails so it made sense to do some, I felt there a definite summer vibe to the look.

Taking the plunge and going for the big pictures, I've hesitated for a long time about this because come on THE PICTURES ARE ENORMOUS!! I wish there was a happy medium picture size but that doesn't exist so big pictures are happening. Hopefully we will all get used to it and I'll eventually change all my pictures to be big. Cause once you go big, there's no going back.
The glitter saved my gradient, it wasn't bad but it wasn't that good either. My favourite flower is the one on my thumb, it's proportioned which is everything I could ever ask for ;)

Peach/Orange: Essie - Tart Deco

Light Pink: Per Una - Pink (no name)

The 2 bases before any nail art looked SO nice, it had happy vibes coming off and I would've been happy just wearing them by themselves. Tart Deco is also one of my favourite ever nail polishes, the colour is just the best. In 2 easy coats, short nails could easily get away with one. Even I could've got away with one if my coats were thicker. The Per Una polish didn't have a great formula (3 coats and still a little streaky) but it's my only light/middle pink and it's a nice colour. 

Blue: Barry M - Blueberry Ice Cream

Turquoise: The Face Shop - GR501

Green: Illamasqua - Nomad

On the blue flowers I dabbed some Barry M - Blue Moon, Models Own - Indian Ocean and OPI - Last Friday Night. For the turquoise flowers I added some Barry M - Aqua Glitter which aren't that prominent but are nice touches. Of course I did details with Lovely Me:Ex - Black. 

Middle Pink: Orly - Basket Case

Dark Pink: Per Una - Fuchsia (no name) and Color Club - Wing Fling

Glitter: OPI - I Lily Love You

I Lily Love You looks so great here, I used 2 coats over the gradient. It looks a bit thick and that wasn't helped with the subservient topcoat I used on top. 

In general I think it's pretty fun. I love me some flowers, these are the kind I draw all over the place. Summer is the best season colour-wise as I wear brights all year, during the summer it's the most accepted.

Hey thank you for reading, It feels good to be back with some freedom :P I hope you have a great weekend!!! :D

Whimsical Summer Scene (Flowers and Birds)

Oh hey there you wonderful person!! Hope this Monday has treated you well :) I've been meaning to get this post up earlier, but revision and the piano have been getting in the way. Speaking of the piano, I have been rocking the "shorties" as of late, and it's not because I want to (I love my long nails) but because I have to sacrifice my nails to the piano (as I have a piano exam), not literally, it's not like my piano eats my nails or anything :P Today I have some fun floral nails, I was inspired by this picture of cute flowers and birds. It really is a fun picture.

Oh man, the little birds are my favourite, they're so cute!! The little dots also add a lot too. This design was really enjoyable to paint as I started with the outline and it was kind of like colouring in a picture. What can I say I'm a child at heart (probably also literally)!

I started the outline in Lovely Me:Ex - Black (surprise surprise), my base was The Face Shop - GR501 and coloured in!!
Pink: Barry M - Fuchsia
Blue: Color Club - Sky High
Purple: OPI - Plum And Get It
Peach: w7 - Linen
White: Lovely Me:Ex - White
I did the dots with a bobby pin, and I freehanded everything else (freehanding's literally all I can do). I finished with the Color Club topcoat to smooth everything out.

This design really is my depiction of fun (which I am all about), oo I really like the speckles on the birds too. I can imagine frolicking around fields of flowers with birds twittering around me... Kind of. I should have a nice post up on Thursday after some exams, should be good. Thank you very much for reading and I hope you have an absolutely fantanbulous day!!! :)

Pink Summer Fishtails

Oh hey there guys!!! I hope you are all feeling fine, it's been a while. It's all revision for me right now, I hate the feeling that NOTHING IS GOING IN -_- But today's nails are nice and happy, unlike revision. I did fishtails (or chevrons) once before and liked it way more than I thought I would. My segments were a bit wonky last time, so I made it my aim this time to fix that. I was so excited to do these nails (since I have to spend less time on nail business) that I told a ton of people I was going to and no one knew what the fishtail manicure was (nail people issues). It got to the point that I drew a diagram (that's how cool I am).

I found a technique to do the tails, first I drew a "v" then went from the side into the middle. I think it worked, and it's quite cute and funky. I did a triple accent, I love accents they add interest to a manicure. I think the colours look nicer in real life, my camera has some issues with pink.
I love pink and I especially love the pinks I chose. For my thumb I used Barry M - Fuchsia (virtually 1 coat) as a base and continued with Illamasqua - Nomad then China Glaze - Re-Fresh Mint.
Index and middle fingers the base is Color Club - Wing Fling, the blue is OPI - Sea You In Hollywood (in hindsight I should have used a brighter blue) and the pink at the tips is Barry M - Pink Foil (Xmas LE 2012 B).
And pinky and ring fingers have Orly - Basket Case, followed by the pretty purple Barry M - Berry Ice Cream and The Face Shop - GR501.

My lighting was too bright for the first time and wasn't helping me

I have rekindled my love for Basket Case, there's me saying I'd like a polish that shade of pink then I realise I have Basket Case (and 3 other pretty much identical pinks). A bright bubblegum pink? It's great, 2 coats and sorted. I had major issues with thick layers of polish not drying (:/) and therefore having to push it off and do it again -_- It all worked out in the end, and I sealed it off with a matte topcoat (because matte is the way forward).

Thank you for reading and I hope you have a wonderful day (without revision)!!! :)