Sparkly Angel Wings :)

Another picture from a while ago. So, I went to Poundland with Katy who told me it was worth looking at the nail polishes there, and got loads of great new polishes! One of them was Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Angel Wings, which I bought for the pretty colour (sparkly white with a hint of pink) and the lovely name :) So, here is a manicure using it:

It's a lovely colour, and I'm loving the Complete Salon Manicure range (many of which you can find in poundland!) They're supposedly a base coat, colour and top coat in one, although I confess to putting on a and and top coat too (although I didn't when I was on holiday and was still happy with it!) I really love the big brush, and it goes on so easily and looks so shiny!) Here I've used Barry M clear base/top coat. On my ring finger is this lovely Sally Hansen purple (coincidentally the same colour as my wedding theme!) with a glitter from a pack of Color Club glitter nail polishes I got from TK MAXX (sorry, none of them had names!) This one looks really thick and 3D but feels surprisingly smooth and not thick at all. This is two layers of glitter as I like a thick coverage. I love how it looks on this purple!

 So, if I were you I'd start looking at the poundland nail polishes! Several more manicures with poundland polishes coming up :) That's all for now!

Dalmatian Nails and an apology!

I'll start with the apology - sorry for not posting in so long (not sure if anyone reads this but if they do, I'm sorry!) I've been crazy busy finishing my degree, going on holiday to Germany, seeing my new baby nephew and wedding planning! I have load of nail art pictures to share, so I'll probably be doing lots of posts in the next few days - I've caught a cold so I'm sat around feeling sorry for myself with not a lot to do!

So, on to the nails. After the candy stripe nails of my last post, I decided I needed a white polish, rather than the one I though was white and turned out to be more silvery. So I went for a basic white with black dots, and was really pleased with the result:

The polishes are:

Barry M Basecoat/Topcoat

Barry M 69 Matt White

Andrea Fulerton Dot and Flick, Black


Simple, but I liked it :) I love the Dot and Flick, my only issue with it is that even if you leave it to dry overnight it still seems to smudge when you apply a topcoat, which is a shame and really noticeable on top of white!

That's all for now, will update more soon :)

Candy Stripe Nails

Only a quick post as I am in the middle of my dissertation and don't have much time! Thought I'd post this in five minutes of procrastination time.

So, after my summer-y nails I decided to keep in the summer-y mood by using two colours that remind me of ice cream :) In these candy-striped nails I thought the base colour would turn out white, but it's more of a silvery colour. (I went out and bought white the next day, which then inspired a new design which I'll put on here soon!)

I was really pleased with how these turned out - they were simple, lasted a while and got lots of comments :)

Colours used are:

Barry M Basecoat/Topcoat

Embellish 3D Manicure Polish (from Primark!)

Nails Inc Royal Botanical Gardens

Nails Inc Campden Hill Road

These were done free-hand so apologies for wonky lines!

Until next time :)

Spring Nails

Well, after my last post we had one day of sunshine, so I did feel a bit stupid having done Spring/Summer nails - but then the sun did reappear before I took it off! I'm showing my left hand in these pictures because my right hand is awful (I'm useless at using my right hand to do nail art!)

I'm still trying to figure out how to get my fingers in a good position for taking photos! There's a bee on my thumb and a flower on my little finger :) The colours are:

• Nails Inc Sumner Place
• Andrea Fulerton Dot and Flick, Black
• Barry M Nail Art Pen, Silver
• Barry M Basecoat, Topcoat and Nail Hardener

I loved the colour of this yellow (Sumner Place) - I got it in a set of mini Nails Inc polishes I bought in TK Maxx. I love the colour but unfortunately it took a lot of coats to get it opaque and non-streaky. This was three coats and I was doing it very thickly by the third coat so it could easily take four - a lot of polish out of a mini bottle! But I was pleased with the effect and it made me feel very summer-y :)

I've already redone them so will post again as soon as possible! :)

Coca Cola/Diet Coke Nails and The Foil Method

Hi! So, I decided to try doing some coca-cola and diet coke themed nails, after seeing some fast-food ones online. Now, they're not brilliant, because a) I'm a beginner and b) I didn't have a red nail pen, so the red is done with a cotton bud - not easy! But I thought I'd share them anyway, and will definitely be trying them again once I've got a red nail pen (I'm slightly addicted to diet coke!) The gold ones are caffeine-free diet coke since I now have to drink that!

Colours used:

• Barry M Red Glitter
• Nails Inc Wembley
• Nails Inc Greenwich Park
• Andrea Fulerton Dot and Flick, Black
• Barry M Nail Art Pen, Silver
• Barry M Basecoat, Topcoat and Nail Hardener

The photo's not great, and I didn't do close ups as it looked better further away!

I would take more, but this was a few days ago so I've taken it off. Which leads me to another photo... I've been struggling for a while with getting glittery polishes off, and today a friend of mine (Katy from platypus nails) told me about the foil method. First you soak quarters of cotton wool pads in nail polish remover, then put them on your fingers and wrap them tightly in foil for a few minutes. 

quarters of cotton wool

Foil wrapped fingers

The final result

It worked really well! There was a bit left down the sides but I think that was mainly due to the thin cotton wool I used. It was far easier and less messy than my previous attempts! My only tip would be to rip the foil before you start - it's not easy once you have a hand full of foil fingers!

Off to redo my nails in a summery theme since the weather's so nice today, so more pictures soon!

Polish Addict

I've lately become addicted to nail polishes and nail art, and my nail polish collection is growing at an alarming rate. I'm new to this so I'm not promising anything amazing, but I thought I'd follow in my friend Katy's footsteps and start a blog of my nails - it seems such a shame to do them and take it all off again a couple of days later! To see some far better nail art, you can head over to http://platypusnails.blogspot.co.uk/ :)

Nothing too exciting for my first post I'm afraid: I have an interview on Wednesday and so I have to have muted nails. This is Essie's 'Ballet Slippers' which, according to my mum - who bought it for me and who knows far more about what's fashionable than I do - is the best selling pale pink. I really like this one, and the big brush means it's really nice and quick to put on. This is two coats, with Barry M's basecoat and topcoat.