Return of the Aquarium Collection: Barry M's Persian.

Sadly, it has to be admitted that this little beauty has been in the stash a while yet not appeared on the blog. It's been on Instagram here. Maybe it's just been forgotten under it's sheer brilliance, well here it is now and hopefully it will impress you all. It's Barry M's newest Aquarium Collection release called Persian, the colour is a mix of a deep purple and a bronze/gold when it catches the corner of the eye. This happens a lot, have a sneak through for some more photographs.

Deep and Bright Purple: Essence's Break Through

Ever wanted a polish, then decided you don't need to buy it, realise you want it and it's sold out? Well this is what happened when buying this polish called Break Through. It was seen whilst having a casual stroll in Wilkinson's and then I convinced myself that it wasn't needed. Every time that I returned to actually pick it up, it was sold out! Luckily it's now firmly in the stash, here's the results. 

Last Minute Adjustment: Purple Reflects! and Snow Globe

This polish looks very much like a going out on the town combination, but reassurances it's not. When painting Purple Reflects! on to the nails it just didn't seem quite right like there was something missing, in the end it was decided the manicure needed glitter. Snow Globe was chosen as there was a need to test this one out as the other Sally Hansen glitters had been so successful. It wasn't sticking to the polishes list that had been created, the deviation was worth it!

Weekly Update No.4

It's that time of the week again, for the nail polish updates! This week hasn't been toned down for you guys, it's got some bright neon polishes as well as pastel and bold pink polishes which is also texturized. (A very popular effect at the moment, currently converting my sister to this one.) Onto the polishes and their names then..

Weekly Update No.3

Another week has passed, another weekly update of nail polishes being used is due for you guys. This week it's been toned down a little so that some darker colours are getting some usage as well as to make the brighter colours stand out. Oh and a heads up, that these weekly updates will be ending in the near future as the weekly schedule will be changing. (Sorry! It's got to happen.) Shall we skip onto the polishes then?

NOTD combination again: Midnight Rendezvous and Fa-la-la-lavender.

These Nail Of The Day posts are becoming ever more popular to do seeing as it's showing the everyday look of the nails. Because really nail art is a once every one to two weeks appearance as they are a lot of work and time. What do you guys think of these posts? Yay or nay? As your comments always lead the way. Shall we lead the way to some more photos...

Venture into OPI...

OPI as a brand of nail polishes has always been the dream seeing as they are always raved about by many nail polish bloggers and normal bloggers alike. However the price tag as well as the availability has always put me off seeing as it doesn't really seem worth it despite many lovely blog photographs and posts disagreeing. But recently some OPI's have been picked up locally at a fraction of the retail price therefore they are going to be tried... 

Easy nail art: Three Waves.

It's no secret that nail art makes rare appearances on this little blog but today is an exception. This is a simple nail art combination which has been used by many nail bloggers so I can't sadly pinpoint where this design came from - it certainly wasn't me! Spring has come to a close soon however my colour choice radar hasn't realised this yet, they are still a great love so they are going to appear today:

Aren't they a cute combination!? Well they are all pastels so they were all going to match anyway. They are 702 Marshmallow Heaven - Rimmel, 100 Pink Blink - Sally Hansen Insta-Dry and Huckleberry - Barry M Gelly Hi-Shine.  So onto the base coat and then the design!

Purple has taken over.

GOT Challenge: Texture.

Now it's been quite a while since a GOT challenge has been participated in, probably due to the other posts which have been created and then just HAVE to be put up because they need to be seen straight away. (Not really that's just me being silly.) Anyway onto the actual posts, it's going to be a flying visit with a textured polish:

It doesn't come as a great surprise that it's a Sally Hansen Sugar Coat polish as these were very heavily featured a while back in a series of blog posts. (They can be found here, here, here and finally here!) Sugar Coat polishes went down really well as the effect came out much better than anticipated, so much so I'd go and check for them in the pound shops. Bubble Plum was purchased and never used so it's from the great pile of unused polishes.

Nail Salon Open: Bright Purple by Barry M and 381 Jade Green by Rimmel

Good morning! It's back to the normal week now seeing as the Easter weekend is over - sad face being pulled. Meaning back to work etc. additionally my older sister is returning to her university which is far far away today. But just before she ups and leaves, there's a nail polish installation!

As the current nail polish collection isn't too large, it's still portable and that means they are brought out to paint family and friend's nails which gives a reasoning to the title today as it's a joke that the Nail Salon is now open for business when brought out of my room! These polishes are Barry M and 381 Jade Green by Rimmel Pro, here's the base colour in all it's beauty:

Spring Colour Recommendations - Guest Post

It's spring finally so I've done a little post on colour choices for your nails this time of year, instead of the usual GOT challenge. Hopefully it'll brighten up your day as they are very sweet colours and there in skittle manicure formation!

Now today's full post requires a little bit of work on your half, as it's a guest post on Em's Little Corner in this lovely little post Guest Post by Grace from Addicted To Nails... so why don't you head on over?

GOT Challenge: Purple

It's another Golden Oldie challenge, which was really easy to decide this week seeing as this particular polish has been chosen out of the collection for quite some time. Not only was it the first purple polish I bought, it's probably one of the first that I purchased for myself. Meaning it's been around a while!

This lovely little polish is by Barry M and called 161 Vivid Purple which is a brilliant name for the polish as it describes it perfectly. However the name isn't all that exciting. It's a dark purple with a metallic shimmer effect to it which isn't too over powering. Brilliant for an evening out with friends or family!

High expectations for Sally Hansen Salon Manicure...

If you've been following my posts for a short while, you'll know I am a little fan of Sally Hansen as a brand seeing as every time I've used the polishes purchased from a pound shop they've been nothing but a dream. So when I bought a Sally Hansen Salon Manicure polish from the same place, there was going to be high expectations as in the UK you can buy this collection in the high street. That meant if it went well I'd be able to buy them more regularly...

The colour that was chosen (seeing as there were no other colours...) was Good To Grape which is a light purple, not too bright but still is quite pigmented with the colour. When buying the product I was pleasantly surprised at how much solution was in the bottle, I can't remember the exact amount but it was more than the usual bottle meaning one more pro for actually buying the product on the  high street. So here's the first coating.

 

GOT Challenge: Skittle

Now I've probably mentioned before that I have a current love of the sweets Skittles in any of their flavours, which made me very excited for this week's GOT challenge seeing as I am basing it on the sweets! It's only going to be a flying post but a very colourful one.

Each colour nail polish has been matched to a flavour, however the flavours cannot be named as these are the Confused? Skittles. The names and how old they are: 460 Orange Couture - Maybelline Forever Strong Pro (Unused), 325 Hot Gossip -Rimmel Lycra Pro (Kind of Golden Oldie), 303 Bright Purple - Barry M (Golden Oldie!), 50 In Record Lime - Sally Hansen Insta-Dry (Kind of Golden Oldie) and Unnamed Yellow - Miss Sporty (Golden Oldie!) So here's the end result:

February's Polish Party: Chevrons

Today is another little challenge from the Polish Party, which as you can probably tell from the title is Chevrons. I had a little bit of a moment when this was chosen seeing as I had to Google search it just to see what it is! I think it was just mind block... The nail polishes where chosen seeing as they had been teased about on instagram a while a go, so I thought I'd let you out of the misery!

It's Maybelline Colour Show, in the colours 215 Iced Queen and 214 Green With Envy which are pretty cool names for these colours. In my personal estimation this is a lovely collection and has brilliant bright colours in it - always good in my books. The reason being for purchasing these polish is due to other bloggers raving about reduced GOSH polishes in their local store, therefore I just HAD to pop into mine. There was no GOSH products reduced but there were some Maybelline Colour Show! Anyway onto the actual nails...

Another metallic purple nail polish....

Any colour that is a deep purple or dark and metallic I am a sucker for! It's probably due to the fact that there are phases of my favourite colour and any nail polish that falls within the favourite colour of the moment must be purchase immediately. This means that this nail polish had to be accumulated once seen in addition to the fact that it was found at the back of the nail polish stand in another £1 shop. It just can't be helped...

What also didn't help was that this particular colour was on the list of nail polishes from Sinful Colors I would like from the help of YouTube when this lovely brand was discovered therefore there was no logical reason not to purchase it when seen at a reduced price. They say admitting your problem is the first step, I am a £1 shop nail polish bargain hunter. This lovely shade of purple is Fig by Sinful Colors and it goes on the first layer like a dream:

GOT Challenge: Dots

Here I am again with a new week's GOT challenge under the title of dots which was pretty hard to put together seeing as it's the use of old nail polishes and the idea was to create a rainbow of dots. However my collection doesn't hold many old bold colours, therefore I'll show you the oldies first and then the addition back up colours. Is that okay? Hopefully not breaking the rules as I've never been a 'rulebreaker' to be truthful.

Square photographs didn't really seem right and this is the best editing I can do to get close to circles so they are in their own little bubbles. Base colour was Cloudy Grey by Maybelline, the golden oldie polishes are Hibiscus by Natural Collection which is really old and a cheaper polish seeing as that's what pocket money would stretch to and an unknown named polish by Miss Sporty which doesn't have a tag as it was purchased at a car boot sale (Really really old!). Finally the additional colours are Bright Purple by Barry M, Orange Attack by Maybelline Colour Show and 296 Water Street Blue by NYC. Right let's get started with the base coat.

I am starting to like the bubbles of photographs, I promise I wont get too attached to them.  Oh! Before I forget the reason the base colour isn't white is due to the fact that my collection currently doesn't hold a white nail polish.There is a lot going on in this post today, edited photographs and a little movie. Don't get your hopes up too much though. Next stage then is adding the different dots therefore here's the film premiere...

Pinch of Purink (Purple and Pink!)

Here's another instalment of the £1 shop haul (which wasn't meant to of happened - oops) which features the last nail polish! There are some other little bits to the haul that are nail related so no need to be disappointed. Today's nail polish is another one from the brilliant Sally Hansen which at the moment I think is the best but can't get many of them as they are American brand (any Americans want to do swapsises?) Insta-Dri and Xtreme wear collections aren't readily available here, the only ones that are is the salon collection - I forget the name of it seeing as I don't buy it.

Sweet and cute colour! It's called a Pinch of Punch which is a mix between pink and light purple (lilac) which is admittedly quite a summer related colour, I think I am a little summer hopeful at the moment as the weather isn't all that great at the moment and a little too cold for my liking. It needs to warm up slightly. Applying the nail varnish was really easy as the solution is really smooth not gloopy in places. Additionally the brush is much much better than the brush in Sally Hansen Insta-Dry which is harder to paint the nails with.

Good so far but definitely needs another layer as it's partially see through to the eye and would get better coverage. Here goes the application of the second coat of this lovely nail polish.

Once the second layer is on the nail polish is at it's best, a very good colour overall but a little girly for my liking as I am more of a navy girl. Another successful nail polish from Sally Hansen seeing as it applies so well, appears so well and stays on so well without chipping or falling off!



Trio of spots!

A simple design of dots to create a great set of nails. I had realised this evening that I hadn't used the spotting tools since the first try out so they came out of their lovely new packet and I thought through some simple ideas then thought of the simplest of them all: a trio. Then the next hard-ish decision was the colours as there are now too many to choose from, if only I could use every colour I own...

Seeing as the amount of nails I have to paint isn't endless, a theme was decided and then a few select colours were chosen. Pastel which includes 270 Lacey Lilac - Sally Hansen, Turquoise Lagoon - Maybelline, 505 Mind The Gap, Victoria - Rimmel and Rose Porcelaine - Maybelline seeing as these colours complemented each other perfectly. This is the first coat:

 

Fitting the pastel theme so far, maybe the blue needs to be a little lighter but that's probably the picky-ness coming through a little too much. This isn't being picky but at this point all of the nail polishes needs another layer seeing as none of them are really opaque enough yet to get the best of the polishes overall...

That's much better for my liking which is probably a little bit picky which is becoming apparent through this little blog... Now as mentioned earlier the design is going to be a trio of dots and relatively simple seeing as it's got to look good on both hands. Not brilliant on one and terrible on the other. Additionally a large dotting tool was chosen so that it would fill the nail polish 'frame' as it were and much easier to get three in a straight line. Hopefully like this:

Making sure all the colours were included in the simple art, the accent dot colour was changed every time so that it was the colour of the nail to the left of it (does that make sense? I am not sure...) Simplicity seems to be the best policy seeing as these came out so well aside from the fact that the lines aren't all straight or perfect, this can only really be seen when looking closely! Who'd be doing that except me!?