Hello, Summer!

  Before I start talking about the nails here, I would like to say that I am so glad to be posting today! It is indeed my first post of 2015 - only took about 7 months (oops!). I'd also like to say that even though I haven't been posting, I have been doing nail art as I find it therapeutic at times. I simply just didn't have the time to post anything due to my studies, and I had to spend so much time on computers writing essays and my dissertation that any free time was spent offline as I was getting frequent migraines (horrendous, might I add!).

The photo here was taken about a month ago, so you know... better late than never! Due to this, I cannot be certain what nail polishes I used but I believe the main colour is Barry M's Green Berry painted over Barry M's Matte White (which I use all the time to enhance bright colours). I like this kind of fairly simple nail art - all you need is a dotting tool (which I used on the thumb and pinky) and a little nail art brush for the petals (which I feel make it easier to paint). I also used the dotting tool to apply some yellow and orange for the disc of the daisy. Apply glossy topcoat and done!

I hope to post a few more of the designs I have done soon!

Last post of 2013!

Just like last year, the 'New Year Nails' post, which can be found here, it's just a very random design. I mean, I very literally just opened up polishes and tapes, making it up as I went along (which, trust me, I rarely do).

I mainly just wanted to do another post before the bells chime, and wish you all a lovely and happy new year! I will be watching the TV as usual, singing Auld Lang Syne and watching some fireworks, haha. No 'New Years Resolutions' for me this year, however I am hoping at least do a post every month (I hate not doing any posts for months on end!).
By the way, the pink used is Rimmel Cocktail Colour '140 Hawaiian Punch', with Barry M glitters 'Amethyst', 'Christmas Glitter 2012', 'Ruby Glitter' and limited edition 'Tinsel Town'... yeah, told you it was random!

I will have a new post tomorrow! :)

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Fun Dotty Tips!

 Fun, fun... FUN!

This design kind of reminds me of clowns or something actually, not that I particularly love clowns or anything!

The nails (bar the ring finger) were first painted with Essie 'Lovie Dovie' ...although I bought this from TK Maxx and when I googled it, the swatches were completely different, meaning the bottles were labelled wrong and so I have no solid idea of what is the actual colour name. Another blogger found the same thing here, so I'm glad I'm not the only one! If I was guessing though, I would say it is Essie 'Status Symbol' based on swatches from google images.

The ring finger, (and the tips of all the other nails) were painted with 2 coats of Avon 'Prompt and Pearly'. I then used the pink Essie polish and Barry M Blueberry to create some dots on the pearly parts, putting pink spots on some of the blue spots, but not all. I then added a sparkly edging along the tips with Nails Inc. 'Hatton Garden', and also used this to create some more dots on the ring finger which looks great when it catches the light, really brings it to life I feel!

Also, I'm excited because tomorrow is my 1 year blogiversary so I have some plans in store!

Angle Tip Nails

Well, there are only so many times I can call a post 'colourful' so 'angle tip' is all I have!

Just a nice quick post today, showing something I hadn't really done before.

I started by painting the base colours, and then painted a diagonal line of Nails Inc. 'Hatton Garden' from one side, and then painting an opposing line using the base colour from the next nail. So for example on the middle finger, I put purple as that was the base colour of the ring finger next to it.

The base colours (from thumb to pinky) are: Barry M Gelly Hi-Shine Blueberry, Barry M Gelly Hi-Shine Pomegranate, Barry M Gelly Hi-Shine Mango, GOSH 571 Wild Lilac & Barry M Gelly Hi-Shine Key Lime. (Don't ask, I just like highlighting these days!)

That's all for now!

Bright Summer Water Marbled Nails

 I think this is possibly the first time I'm actually posting my water marbling attempt.

Granted, I haven't even tried it since last year so that's one of the reasons I haven't shared it! The two main reasons I don't do this often are a) It's messy and b) it wastes a lot of nail polish. I did, however, deal with the latter by doing two nails at a time (which was sometimes successful and sometimes a complete fail). For those of you who may be reading this and have no idea what I am talking about, search 'nail water marbling' or something similar on YouTube and you'll catch the drift!

The colours used in this design are:
Barry M Gelly Hi-Shine Key Lime
Barry M Gelly Hi-Shine Blueberry
Barry M Gelly Hi-Shine Mango
Rimmel Lycra PRO 297 Show Off
and a touch of GOSH 571 Wild Lilac which is not seen in the images very much because their lines are so fine.

I then used a dotting tool to paint some dots along the curves (usually in threes, each one increasing slightly in size). I then painted over them all with 17 (now branded 'Seventeen') Nail Xtras Glitter Topcoat. I love this topcoat because it's fairly subtle and reflects the colours underneath, so it kind of makes your nails look shiny as the light catches them.

After that, I found some nail stickers I bought from Poundland which I put on my ring fingers, and silver dots on my thumbs, which coincidentally matched the dots I had drawn on earlier! Finished with a topcoat. :)

Well, I think that's all I can say about these nails! They weren't as nice as I would have liked, and were rather annoying to do, but overall they could have been worse!

Sally Hansen Fuzzy Coat vs. Barry M Confetti

This post is not going to be a comparison of the two in terms of quality and such, as I only have Barry M (and I don't have money to buy, in my eyes, identical polishes).

Instead, I just wanted to share with you something I realized in Boots the other day. I have had the Barry M Confetti Nail Effects since not long after they were released, and in general, they are okay, but they're not exactly my favourite polishes on the planet so I'm never going to be crazy about them or any similar type of polish.

What stood out at me was when I was having a look at Sally Hansen's polishes where these 4 were on top display - as far as I could make out, they are fairly new to the UK, but instantly I thought 'Barry M Confetti!' and upon closer inspection I feel even more strongly that these are virtually identical.

Now I'm a big fan of Sally Hansen, I use them a lot, and I'm sure these Fuzzy Coat polishes match the quality of the rest of their range which would justify their price. However, Barry M are, in my opinion, also great quality and if I was standing in Boots looking at these, I would rather pay Barry M's £3.99 than Sally Hansen's £6.99, but then again, I'm a student so it's unlikely that I am going to fork out a lot of money on one polish without some store offer or deal.

The main point here is that these are 2 different brands which I realized have the same range of polishes, so if you were looking to buy one, perhaps have a look at the others on the market.

Sally Hansen Fuzzy Coat 'All Yarned Up', 'Fuzz-sea', 'Wool Knot' and 'Tweedy'

Barry M Confetti Nail Effects 'Dolly Mixture', 'Sour Apple', 'Bubblegum' and 'Liquorice'

I also want to note that Sally Hansen has a pink 'Wool Lite' shade which matches Barry M's 'Marshmallow'.

Maybelline Color Show Polka Dots 'Chalk Dust'

A very quick post from me today!

I felt like trying out 'Chalk Dust' over different shades.

The colours, I think, because I did this 2 weeks ago are (from thumb to pinky) Essence 'Maybe I'm Amazed', Maybelline Color Show 'Electric Pink', Maybelline Color Show 'Orange Fix', Barry M 'Guava' and Barry M 'Key Lime'. All shades are over a white base coat (mainly because the Maybelline ones are Neons which work better over white).

New Year Nails!

Well, I hope you all had an amazing year! I personally don't care much for New Year - I stay up to watch the countdown on TV and then go to bed, haha. I did decide, however, to do some kind of nail polish with the inspiration of fireworks and lasers in the night...
Before I get into that, I hope you like the new design to the blog... it took me absolutely ages because certain things just wouldn't co-operate to begin with, and after about 3 hours, html becomes extremely irritating.

 Anyway! To the nails! I have 2 designs today, fairly similar really. The main reason is that the first one chipped within 24hrs of doing it, so I had to do something else. This is the first one! I used Barry M Navy and then used some Barry M Jewel Glitter Amethyst at the tips, blending it a bit with the brush so that it was kind of a gradient.

My Seche Vite topcoat didn't hold it though, which was a first. For me, anything that is sparkly on dark polish looks like sparklers or fireworks so BOOM! Glitter on dark blue it is!

 As I said though, the polish chipped fairly quickly so I decided to use some of my new tapes (which I learned- the hard way - loses it's colour if you apply it onto damp nail polish so must applied to completely dry polish). I have such tape on the index and ring finger. The thumb and ring finger have OPI Casino Royale as the base, and the others have the above mentioned Barry M Navy.

 The thumb has the same glitter (Barry M Jewel Glitter Amethyst) as above, covering the nail completely and only the tip of the pinky nail.
The middle finger has Models Own Mirrorball Freak Out! - I found that it matched really well with the tapes I was using.

I took quite a few pics, too many really! I found it difficult to choose because some are better for different reasons.

Anyway, this is lasting a lot longer, I've had it on for about 3 days now!


I hope you have a marvelous new year!

Barry M Ruby Glitter

Hey all! Well it has taken me over a month to post this, I've had so much work to do. I'm on 'revision week' for my upcoming exams so naturally I'm taking this chance to post some actual nail polish stuff.
My posts may not be as long as I would have liked, but I have so much to get through, and honestly, there isn't a lot to say about some of the polishes so I'm not going to go on for a paragraph about how shiny something is.
Before I start, I'm gonna say... I 'ombre/dip-dyed' my hair yesterday - it was a magical experience(!) Actually, I did it yesterday afternoon, and with it being winter the sun was down so in artificial light it looked fine but this morning I was like 'oopsies!' so I dyed over it with a lightish brown I had bought just in case of such a catastrophe... I'd like to think it doesn't look quite as frightening as it did this morning (at least it no longer looks like my hair is on fire). I'm not a massive fan of dying my hair every day or anything, so I'm at that point that I don't even care at the minute -- I'll maybe dye it again with more brown some other time and let my hair heal from the bleach... :P
Well anyway, now to move on to some actual nail polish. Here's some Barry M Ruby Glitter. Basically, it's a black and pink glitter, with teeny tiny specks of black throughout. The base is clear, and in these pictures, I painted it over No7 Thunderstorm. I want to try it over something lighter some other time as the contrast isn't that great on grey, but you get the gist. I hope.
Anyway, I like it.

BYE.

Barry M Gelly Hi-Shine Pomegranate Nail Polish

The first thing I'm going to say is 'Boooo' my nails are shorter! I broke 2 of them on my right hand while closing the boot of a car (and no, I didn't close them in it, I went to pull it down and my hand slipped so bye-bye nails! I decided to cut all of them the same while I was at it. It doesn't actually bother me to be honest because it's a bit easier to type, especially on a tablet which is what I'm writing on right now. I'm so dedicated to this blog I'm writing this on a 8.40am train *yawn*.

So to the actual polish... thumbs up, my friends! The pictures don't have any topcoat or anything. I painted the ring finger nail with Barry M Gold Foil and put 2 coats of Technic 'Carnival' that I bought in the weekend, I love this glitter! Partly because the glitter doesn't cause the nail to feel rough and the clear polish itself is really good at making the nail shine.

The Pomegranate shade is a really lovely and certainly quite a fun colour to use!

Barry M Gelly Hi-Shine Watermelon Nail Polish

I love Barry M, so when I found out they were going to be releasing the Gelly range I squealed like a little girl, or a little pig... take your pick! Anyway, I went to buy them the day they came out but they weren't yet at my local Superdrug so that was a bummer. I even went to check at Boots even though I knew they hadn't even acknowledged them on their website yet, but to no avail. So, a week later I managed to get them, yippee! I only bought watermelon and pomegranate as I am but a student and 2 cost me £8 as it was and I could hear my brain yelling 'Don't buy any more!'. I did get Barry M Croc Effects for free (when you buy any 2 polishes) so that was good. I was going for the Web Effect even though I know it isn't very good but they didn't have it at the time and probably the croc one is more versatile for my taste anyway. If I go buy 2 more, I will grab that one though, just because I'm hoping to do some Halloween nail art closer to the time woo!

So to the actual polish. Here is watermelon, this was the one I was wanting the most because it looked the most appealing to me... And I love it! The lovely shine is very similar to that of the gel polish variety. (Don't be confused with what they mean by 'gelly', they really do mean 'gelly', not the kind of sheer 'jelly' polishes. In fact, the polish applies pretty thick and opaque (although I did 2 coats anyway) and it really does feel glossy even without a topcoat!

I love this colour and the shine is awesome, you don't feel the need to put a topcoat on at all. Also, I decided to add a little bit of stamping to it as I was bored. I used BM-204 plate for this mani, of which the number I cannot remember. It kind of reminds me of old vintage curtains to be honest, but they actually looked pretty good in real life.

Soon, I'll be putting up my pomegranate post, once I write it!

Simple Matte Blue with Gold Tips

Artificial Light - flash

After buying the Rimmel Matte Finish top coat, I really wanted to try it out in a simple design.

I first used Barry M All-in-one as a base, painted 2 layers of Barry M Cobalt Blue and then used the matte topcoat. I really like it! I find it's more obvious that it's matte on non-metallic/plain nails sometimes, however I still painted the Barry M Gold Foil tips on after the matte topcoat to allow them to retain full glossiness.

The texture from the matte topcoat is awesome. It's so smooth for it not being glossy and it just adds a really nice effect if you want something different! I'm hoping to do some ideas where I cover only part of the nail matte, or incorporate it into some nail stamping. Shall see!

Natural Light - no flash

Pastel Zebra Nail Stamping

Been a little busy the last few days, but really wanted to share this nail art I did a couple of days ago. I actually did it twice, just changing the last colour in the list.

1st try - taken at night with flash

1st try - taken in daylight

 I started off with a base coat, then 2 coats of No7 Snowflake, I then blended on nail colours from thumb to pinky in the order of the list. I then used Barry M Silver Foil to stamp (using plate BM-223), used Essence: Love Top Coat Rose Shimmer and then Barry M All-in-One coat.

List of colours used (from thumb to pinky):

Fearne Cotton Lime Green
Barry M Mint Green
Barry M Blue Moon
No7 Lucky Lilac
Barry M Boots Limited Edition
Barry M Coral (1st try) MUA Shade 16 (2nd try)

2nd try, taken in daylight (changed pinky nail colour)

In other news, I got the Sally Hansen Black Out and White On polishes for stamping and they seem to be relatively good! Much better than the ones I had - will definitely show these in future. I also hope to show some other GOSH polishes I purchased a couple of days ago, but I think I will keep this nail art for a few days first!

Nail Stamping - First Effort

So yesterday I got my Bundle Monster plates and my Konad stamper & scraper. YAY!
I'm posting this today because after trying the system out, I got a massive headache and just couldn't be bothered to stay on the computer much!
I mucked about with it for a while, trying to figure out which polishes I could use - turns out, not many! I first tried out some of my No7 collection but even though they are 'pigment rich', they didn't show up at all. I then tried out Barry M, which generally worked better. The best ones were the silver and gold nail effects.
I have ordered Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear White On & Black Out, so hopefully they'll work better than my black and white!

This is my best effort from yesterday and it is pretty messy but I really wasn't bothered much about it because I was just trying out techniques.

This is what I used:
Base colour: Barry M Vivid Purple
Stamping colour: Barry M Instant Nail Effects Silver Foil
Stamping plate: BM-208 for both stampers.


The ring finger is done from the same plate as the others but is the inverted one.

It very much resembles crackle nail polish, but it's a lot neater and obviously isn't bumpy. I'm looking forward to trying out some of the other designs I have, and seeing if there are any other polishes i have that also work.

Barry M Magnetic Burgundy Nail Polish

 This is my first post about what probably is my favourite nail polish brand, Barry M. I have a box full of them so I will probably have quite a few posts about this brand in the future!

This is a gorgeous colour, even without using the magnet (by the way, the magnet forms the darker lines, the lighter lines are the original paint colour).

What you have to remember is that you only need to hold the magnet to the wet polish for about 2 seconds (I ignored the instructions on the bottle the first time I got it thinking 'surely it needs more than a couple of seconds!' but holding it longer actually makes the lines disappear as quick as they appear so be careful of that. Also, instead of just putting the magnet on it, I also roll it slightly from side to side so that the sides get a little bit of effect too because if you have quite curved nails like I do, only the middle bit gets the effect otherwise!

It can be a little tricky to use because you have to be pretty quick in using the magnet after applying the second coat, or else it won't work well. Also, while it says you need to be quite generous when applying the nail polish, you have to be careful not to apply too much or else it will form bubbles. Sometimes a bit of practice is key!