Hello! Today I have a pretty polish to show you from new UK Indie brand, Freckles Polish. When I first began to see pics of swatches of the polishes that were going to be released, I liked them immediately! I resisted getting any as I already have way too many polishes, but when I saw that Julieann (who runs Freckles Polish) was going to be selling mini bottles for £3.50, I convinced myself I needed to buy some!
I picked three, this one here which is called Just As You Are, and also a blue and a purple both with glitter. I'll be showing them off soon! Just As You are is a lovely grey base, with lots of different sized glitter and hearts in both pink and silver/grey. Such a pretty mixture!
I applied one coat of this over a base of grey polish in a similar colour (Dorien Grey by Sally Hansen). I'm not sure I needed the base shade as this is quite opaque, but I really hate being able to see my nails through any polish so went with the grey base just to be sure! I finished off with a topcoat of Gelous. Here's some pics!
I wore it like this last night and all today, but managed to scuff them at work, so I added a matte topcoat to smooth them out again but to add a different finish. I don't usually go for matte topcoat over glitter, but I think this actually looks really good!
The polish applied beautifully, and all of Julieann's polishes are stunning - really pretty, interesting colour/glitter combos. Check out her Etsy shop here!
Hello! Today's BFF Friday (that was supposed to be last week but I didn't have time - boo to me!) has a theme of Tribal/Easter Eggs. It was initially just tribal, but after Naileymabob told me that hers looked like Easter Eggs, I wanted mine to be similar! So the official title for today's theme is Tribal Print With An Easter Twist :-D
My manicure today was actually inspired by this manicure by Nails and Polkadots. I've only recently discovered this blog via instagram but she does some amazing designs - go and check out the blog!
For my manicure, I again used the Barry M pens and some of their Gelly shades. I love their colours, they seem so perfect for spring which is why I seem to be reaching for them all the time recently! I used Greenberry and Blueberry, as well as the pink and white pens.
To create the three tribal nails, I started off with a base of the blue, then freehanded horizontal stripes with the green, using the bottle from the brush. They weren't neat or perfect, but it didn't matter because for the next step I outlined the stripes (once fully dry) with the pink pen, to make the stripes seem more straight/uniform. I used the white to add similar detail to the manicure that inspired me, but tried to mix it up a bit too so it wasn't directly copied! I then topcoated these to seal in the pen.
For my two accent nails (little finger and thumb) I used two coats of Greenberry, and one coat of Beauxbatons Academy by Lac Attack. I thought the colours in this were really Easter-y and went well with the manicure. I finished these nails off with a pastel pink stud, stuck on while the polish underneath was still wet then sealed in with topcoat.
I was quite pleased with the results - the tribal/easter print isn't perfect and a bit wonky in places but if you don't look too closely, it's not too obvious and the overall effect is quite nice and colourful!
Check out Naileymabob's post and nails here - they're fab!
Hello!
My nails today were inspired by WAH nails, who have a salon in Oxford street Topshop and create some really funky, on-trend nails with a really unique look. They often feature bold, fun designs and I've seen this cute little flamingo feature in several manicures they've posted on social media. I've wanted to give this particular design a go for ages, and have finally got round to it. I reckon I've put it off so long because I knew it would take ages, and it kind of did but I'm so pleased with the end result!
Here's the link to WAH's Instagram - definitely follow them for lots of Nail Inspo, and to see the flamingos I modeled my nails on.
For this, I used Huckleberry and Rose Hip, two of my new favourite polishes from the Barry M new spring gelly collection. I also used all three Barry M nail art pens (my saviours! <3 ) for the details, and finished off with my usual topcoat; Sally Hansen Insta-Dri.
I started off with a plain blue nail, and then freehanded a pink semi-circle at the tip of each nail using the pale pink polish, and just using the brush from the bottle as it didn't have to be neat. Once dry, I outlined the pink semi-circle with the brighter pink nail-art pen, and drew on the shape of the neck using one of WAH's fab pics as a guide. I went over this twice as the pink pen is a bit see through! I added the eyes and beak with the black and white pens, then topcoated to seal in (as if you don't, the pens come off in water!).
The flash on the first few of these photos has made the pink a bit patchy, it doesn't look that noticeable in real life thankfully!
And a last pic with both my hands to show I did do both - doing my left hand (I'm left handed!) was very difficult!!
Hello!
For ages I've wanted to try 'negative space' nails - where a section stays unpainted. I decided to try doing half-moons with the half moon remaining 'polish-less' as I thought it'd be easiest. I used Huckleberry by Barry M; one of their new spring Gelly shades. I love it!
I started by using a base coat of nail envy. I then freehanded half-moons at the base of each nail with the white nail art pen. I painted the rest of my nails with the pale blue (two coats) and then once dry, I went over the white line again to make it clearer and neater. I finished off with a shiny topcoat of Sally Hansen Insta-Dri. I was going to add lace-style doodles in/around the half moon, but really liked the simplicity of these so left them as they are in these pics!
Hello!
Here are the nails I've had for the last couple of days. I decided to create a base for some nail art using a selection of pinks/nudes and arranged them in an ombre-type mani. I used two coats of each polish, plus topcoat. I loved how smooth and shiny these nails look so I left off the nail art and just wore them like this! They lasted a good couple of days and I really liked the simplicity of them.
I used:
Pink Veneer (Models Own) Rose Hip (Barry M) Utopia (Models Own) Naked Glow (Models Own) and Snow Me White (Sinful Colors). Sorry my polish bottles look so messy, I'm not a tidy person!!
After three days, I used some spare time to doodle over the top of these as they were past their best, before I removed them for a new manicure! I was inspired by this image which I came across when I was googling for inspiration. Sorry about the pics - they're from Instagram - I forgot to take some on my proper camera before I took them off!
Hello!
If you've got me on Instagram you may have already seen a sneak peek of these nails, as I actually did them last week for my trip to Wales. They didn't last long because when I got there, I wanted to use some of Naileymabob's polish stash, so changed them pretty quickly!
This was a base of Cerise Shine by Models Own. I used the Barry M black pen to doodle on the pattern, which took a while but I did it between other tasks so it wasn't that stressful! I topcoated once I was sure the pen was fully dry using Sally Hansen's Insta-Dri.
Hello!
Today I'm going to show off a polish I bought over the weekend. I knew that Claire's Accessories had some really good, on-trend polishes, including neons, unusual-shaped glitter, crackle, leather effect etc. But I'd not seen this one before. I loved how it looked quite 'indie like' - it's not often you find a polish on the high street that looks like this (except Barry M's sequin effect fails!) so I picked it up immediately. It cost £3.50 and is called Sprinkles. There was a similar one that was more of a peach shade, with a slightly different selection of glitters. I've just had a browse of their website, and apparently there's a third one, pale blue, that I didn't see in store. You can check out the listing on their website for the pink one here.
Sprinkles is a barbie-pink jelly base with big glitter hexes in blue, yellow and green and a scattering of green and pale (not sure if they're a colour!?) smaller glitter. It's so pretty, and so unusual!
I first tested it out on one nail, and found the pink base to be very jelly-like and see through. Despite this, you had to apply quite a thick coat for full coverage of the nail, so I didn't fancy applying 2-3 layers of this- I thought it might end up looking a bit gloopy. Instead, I decided to apply it over Kiss Chase, one of my Ciate Minis, which I thought was a similar shade. I applied two coats of Kiss Chase, and one coat of Sprinkles over the top, with a little bit of glitter placement needed to stop them bunching together. I finished off with a topcoat of Sally Hansen's Insta-Dri.
I'd like to try it over black or white, to try and bring out the smaller glitters - it's hard to see them against such a bright base. I do love how pink they look though - like bubblegum!
Sorry about these pics, they're not the best - my nails look a bit patchy in some due to the base colour being brighter/stronger than the gelly shade of the Claire's polish. It's not noticeable in real life though! They also look much brighter and neon in real life - these pics are a little washed out :-(
I really like this polish, it's a lovely bright shade for spring/summer and reminds me of holidays and festivals! I'm really impressed with Claire's for bringing out this kind of polish, and I'd be interested to try some more of their more 'on trend' ones, including the peach version of this one, the neon glitter and some of the paler, chunky glitters like this one - I will have to wait until there's a sale or a 3-for-2 offer or something!
Hello! Here are my nails today. Last week, I was lucky enough to win the full set of Speckled Egg polishes which are a new release from Models Own. As soon as I saw them I knew I'd have to treat myself to at least one to try, but I would never have bought all 5 as I couldn't justify the cost, so to win them all was amazing! <3 I won them through a twitter giveaway - they have lots there, and on Facebook and Instagram too so if you don't already follow them, you should!
As I mentioned, there are five shades in the collection which I reckon most of you have already seen! There's Goose (yellow) Dove (pink) and Swan (purple), as well as Duck (blue) and Magpie (green) that I have used today. They're so perfect for spring, and Easter!
For this manicure, I first painted my nails with the green shade, which took three coats to get fully opaque. It's good because the multiple coats build up the 'depth' of the polish - I love how some of the speckles are partially hidden beneath the top layer! I then took the blue shade and dabbed it onto the mids-to-tips of my nails. I added a second coat once this was dry to just my tips, to add to the gradient effect. I finished off with a topcoat of Gelous to smooth it all out.
I like how these have turned out - the gradient is quite subtle, but I like how the similarity of the two colours mean they blend really well! Love these polishes, and I'll definitely be using the other three soon :-)
Hello!
Apologies for the lack of posts over the last few days - I've spent the weekend with Naileymabob in Wales! We've known each other for years but don't often get the chance to meet up due to busy schedules and living so far apart. We had an awesome time gossiping, shopping, drinking coffee, eating... and doing nails. Here's some quick pics from our weekend - more manicure-specific posts will follow!!
Goodies when shopping - we did only buy 6 new polishes between us so we were quite good!
Bob's impressive Bazza M collection!
Our Saturday manicures, with frappucinos in the sun:
Bob checking out an awesome slinky we won in the arcades
Another manicure I did, borrowing a Tara's Talons polish from Bob's indie shelf
A big yummy burger
Work in progress in front of a film on Friday night!
My purchases!
Another shot of the mani I wore on saturday, borrowing Bob's new Hare polish (over new blue hypergel!)
Thanks for having me Bob, it was awesome!! Xx
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