Choi's nails

For this manicure:

• Apply one coat of your preferred base coat (I used Essie's protein base coat.)
• Apply two coats of China Glaze's glittering garland as the base. This is a polish full of green and gold flecks in a dark green base.
• Using striping tape apply two vertically and three horizantally. You may want to adjust this step depending on how big you want the squares.
• With China glaze's Purr-fect plum and Swing baby - shimmery gold, paint in the squares and remove the striping tape. Make sure you speed up a little here, you don't want to remove the striping tape when the polish is too dry.
• Seal with one coat of your preferred top coat. (I used INM's Out the door top coat.)

I'm so over this so called summer we were having in the UK. Can't wait for winter to come around so I'll be sporting more of looks like these.

What do you think of this design?

Anyone saw that Boxing Day haul post that I published a while ago? Well there was two OPI’s that came in the order and right now I’ll be showing you one of them, OPI’s underneath the mistletoe.


OPI’s UTM is a deep red jelly filled with silver and raspberry glitter and flakies. Application was alright with the polish having normal to thick consistency and so it only took two coats to reach full opacity. Its old news about OPI and their big brushes but this one made it harder for me to cover the sides without having to specifically go over it again.


It’s a little fast drying so as I was painting it felt a little draggy but its gorgeous shimmer is worth the time and effort. Even during clean-up it didn’t leak to give the ‘sore cuticle’ look which some reds tend to do.


The colour is beautiful but it washes out my skin tone, my hand’s actually look paler in these pictures. UTM seems too good and too much for work so I think I’d be leaving this polish for day outs or special occasions.

Did you pick up this polish when it first came out? What other OPI polishes are on your favourites list?

All of these were between £2.99-3.99 bought on a 3 for 2 deal. It's the time where I usually shop for polishes because that and the discount I have makes a good price. I picked up these last year between November and December and these were pretty new at the time but you might have seen some reviews about them already.

Matte collection

Matte collection

The two sets I really wanted to get was the matte and glitter textured effect polishes. I've had one or two polishes received in a collection where I didn't realise they were matte until swatching them but for a whole collection it's a first. They're not outstanding colours but they're good basic ones.

Glitter textured nail effects

Whenever I used to read about textured effects I used to think they looked too 'textured' for me, whilst looking on the polish rack these stood out to me so much so of course they made their way nicely into my basket.

Glitter textured nail effects

Limited edition nail paints 2013

They had these two limited edition nail paints that I had to get especially the gold bar glitter polish on the left. I planned to use that for New years when I first brought it home but when it came nearer the time I totally forgot about this one. These two were exclusive to Superdrugs only. Boots also had another two limited ones which were different but I believe they're no longer on offer.

Limited edition nail paints 2013

Limited edition nail paints 2013

These were all the remaining ones I picked up to either make up for the 3 for 2 deal, as back ups or colours that I felt were essential to my collection like the nude. The crystal glaze polish wasn't needed but it looked good to have. It's a flaky top coat. FLAKY!



Have you ever tried Barry M? What's the polish you're looking forward to see me post about?

China Glaze's Ahoy is a bright fuchsia raspberry pink with some gold flakies/shimmer. It's more obvious in person and ahh doesn't this polish look like such a juicy pink!

CG Ahoy. Light box photo.

CG Ahoy light box photo.

As for the application, the first coat was sheer but smooth with a bit of VNL peeking through but it's nothing a second coat couldn't solve which is what you're seeing in the pictures. With a good and normal consistency this one was so easy to apply; very easy to clean up too with a decent drying time but it just made my hands look a little pale. Doesn't matter though, I will definitely be going back to this one some time maybe for some nail art? 

CG Ahoy. Window photo.

CG Ahoy. Outdoor photo.

CG Ahoy. Outdoor photo.

Do you own China Glaze's Ahoy? What nail art can you suggest for this polish? :)

Oopsie poopsie! I said to myself I should try and post at least once every two days if I can't do everyday but seems like I just missed the time again. Lucky there's still two hours before Sunday ends so I can still say Happy St. Patrick's day. I don't celebrate this event but it reminds me of a friend who currently studies in Ireland so I thought it'd be a good chance to do my first PADDY-cure :D 

• Thumb: China Glaze's Glittering garland  

• Index: Misa's Good to be green as base
  Saran wrapped with glittering garland
  Essie's Going incognito, Blanc and Barry M's Satsuma for the flag 

• Middle: Going incognito as base
  Clover image on plate BM03 stamped with Konad white and then traced with Essie's Blanc
  Layered with Zoya's Opal flakie after 

• Ring: Blanc as base
  Water marbled with Going incognito and Good to be green 

• Pinkie: Glittering garland sponged with Zoya's flare and China Glaze's Solar flare on tips

Not really happy with every part of this manicure but some did come out how I expected like the accent nail and pinkie. The stamping on the middle finger did turn out to be a fail though.

I had to crop and resize all the photos to remove all the weird bits and make my hand look normal. Panicked a bit since I felt my hand position looked weird which would be horrible since all the photos waiting for me to edit has the same hand pose.

This is a short post because I'm dying to go out and start nom-ing on a muffin with a cup of tea!

Did you do a St. Paddy's day manicure? What do you think of mine?

My indecisiveness really doesn’t help at times when I’m in a hurry to polish my nails before dark (I like to take my pictures in natural light than under a lamp). I was torn between different manicure ideas so I went with the one the easiest yet fastest option. I’m not quite feeling this first glitter sandwich manicure I just did but it’s good to try out some new ideas.

This is the third Zoya I tried, Bevin from their spring 2012 True collection. Zoya describes this colour as ‘a dusty, medium sage green with teal tones and a creamy opaque finish’. Pretty much sums it all up.
 

Photos 1, 2 & 3 taken indoors, natural light

Application was good just like the first two I’ve tried. Consistency was just right, not too runny or thick so it only took two coats to make it opaque. At first glance it reminded me of OPI’s mermaid’s tears from the Pirates of the Caribbean collection but I don’t think they’re actually similar. It is the first polish that comes to mind though.

Photos 4 & 5 taken outdoors, natural light

Like usual I couldn’t leave this as a plain manicure even though I wish I did. I topped every nail with Color club’s covered in diamonds which someone mentioned to me that it was a PITA (pain in the a**) to apply. No doubt it was. I’ve swatched it on one of my nails before but it wasn’t as troublesome to apply as it was this time.

Bevin & covered in diamonds. Indoors, natural light

Bevin & Covered in diamonds. Outdoors, natural light

Farah. Indoors, natural light

Farah. Taken outdoors, natural light

Indoors, natural light

Taken outdoors, natural light

Farah and Maisie. Taken outdoors, natural light

Cho

Farah

Bevin

Skylar

Tru

Opal

Maisie