NOTD - *~* Stars and Meteors *~*

Hello everyone!

Today's NOTD (that's Nails Of The Day) post is inspired by space. Retro cartoons of space, with all the little stars and planets whizzing around, have always been something I like. They're charming in that they show a futuristic landscape in an old-fashioned style!

Today, I started off with 2 coats of Sinful Colors' 'Rich In Heart'. In the bottle this is a blackened red metallic colour, but once on the nail it appears to be a deep chocolate brown. It's not what I was expecting it to be, which is unfortunate, but I can still find good uses for it despite the red shimmer only showing up in very bright sunlight. I like to think this colour lends a warmth to my fingers - black can sometimes look quite harsh unless I jazz it up once it's on my fingers.

On top of this is one coat of 'Golden Enchantment' by China Glaze and one coat of 'When Monkeys Fly!' by OPI. GE is a lovely micro glitter which contains both gold and holo particles. It works best as a  subtle shimmer over the top of dark colours. Here I've used it to create the effect of stars. WMF! is a mix of big gold hex glitter, medium round holo glitter and small round holo glitter. It's a huge favourite of mine already! The holo glitter looks like twinkly stars and planets, and the gold hex glitter looks like little shiny meteors. It's a very sparkly but interesting combination - not just your average glitter! Now that I think about it, this combination kind of reminds me of Easter eggs, what with the whole brown and gold combo....

Let's have a look at some crappy iPhone pictures:

RE the 'taco glitter' qualities of WMF! : I've heard tell all across the blogosphere that the gold hex glitter in WMF! is of the taco variety - as in it curls in on itself to the point that you can't get it to sit properly on your nail bed and it sticks up and snags on things. It basically looks like tacos on the nails.

BUT! There is a way of getting past this taco-y disaster! If you're willing to take a few extra seconds on each nail, what you can do is apply the gold glitter manually with the polish brush. The steps are as follows:

1. Fish out a gold hex glitter - I find that plenty of glitters are loaded onto the brush with each dip in the bottle. Lay it onto the rim of the bottle.
2. Make sure that your glitter is sitting so that it curves in a way that makes it look like an upside-down U shape. This way it'll curve to the shape of your nail instead of snagging on things!
3. Pick it up using the end of your brush and place it down onto the wet nail polish. 
4. Wait about 30 seconds, then take the end of a cuticle pusher/orange stick and gently press down any curved edges of the glitter to ensure that it sticks to the nail.
5. Finish off with topcoat!

This way I can easily get the gold glitter to sit flat against my nail and I have no snagging problems! It's really easy once you get the hang of it. This is how I deal with that other tricky OPI glitter of mine, 'Nothin' Mousie 'Bout It'.

Anyway, I hope you've enjoyed this and that your Easter's been a good one!

Amber ◕‿‿◕

Early December Nail Roundup : 3 new nail looks

Hi everyone!

Today I have a couple of new nail looks to show you. I hope that you like them!

 Please excuse my cuticles in advance, I'm afraid the cold weather is not kind to my fingers!

First up is a glitter gradient. The purple is Fantasy Fire by Maxfactor, and the blue glitter is Aquatic Glitz by POP Beauty (more on this one later!).

I applied 3 thin coats of FF (which is very much a sheer jelly, very pretty and versatile with a cool multichrome shimmer) to begin with. Then, I dabbed AG along the tips of my nails. As you can see, I've managed to tear my ring fingernail, which is sad for me as it was getting quite long too! :(

Then, I just dabbed some more FF over the seam between the two colours to blend it all out.

Next is a lovely shimmery metallic by Models Own called 'Champagne'. It's literally a champagne-coloured metallic polish, which is completely opaque in 2 coats but looks nice with just 1, too. I love this colour but it doesn't last long in my experience, I only wore this for one day until I had major peeling and chipping! I did make a mistake in my basecoat-

topcoat routine though, so I think this might be why.

Finally, what I'm wearing today is 2 coats of POP Aquatic Glitz, as mentioned earlier. It's a beautiful mix of fine pale aqua blue, darker blue-green and silver holographic glitter. It twinkles beautifully in the light, and I chose it for today because it looks rather like all the frost and ice outside!

Thanks for reading, bye for now!

OPI Goldeneye Review and Swatches!

Hello! :)

Today my bottle of OPI's Goldeneye got here in the post from beautycow.com! (Great website by the way - it has loads of OPI stuff for cheap, this polish came to about £10.50 with shipping which is 50p cheaper than an OPI polish from the shops, not including petrol!) I was super happy because the shipping was only 2 days, very good!

So this polish is from OPI's new Skyfall collection. It's just so gorgeous!

The polish is comprised of a clear base packed full of micro flakes of gold! The gold itself is very warm, which I personally prefer...but if you're a person for cooler toned golds then this is perhaps not for you.

Either way, it looks like someone's put gold leaf on my nails! It's a stunning colour and looks beautiful in any light - artificial, natural or even in the shade.

I can't express how shiny it is in person, even more so than these photos! The second photo in the shade is a truer representation of the shine of this polish. I could rant forever about how shiny this polish is, the flakes add to this by diffracting light all over the place and making an amazing effect of complete shimmer!

Application wise, in these photos I'm wearing a good three coats (only thin ones, mind you). Each coat was extremely quick to dry, only taking about 5 minutes. It applied very smoothly and the finished product after 3 coats isn't bumpy at all. A lick of topcoat adds a bit of extra shine and longevity. 

At RRP £11.00 it's not cheap, but totally worth the money in my opinion. It's everything I've ever wanted in a gold polish - true warmth, golden-orange tones and seriously amazing sparkle! 

Like I said, beautycow.com have this for about £7.50 not including postage. They seem to have all of the Skyfall collection on there too. I know where I'll be making my OPI purchases from now on! 

Thanks for reading, let me know what you think!
Amber ◕ ◡ ◕

Product Roundup: Superdrug 2 in 1 Nail & Hand Cream, Models Own 'Peacock Green' Nail polish

Hello again!

It's been a while since I posted...life has been getting in the way as usual...
Over the past half a month or so I've gotten a few new bits and pieces on my travels around the shops.
I thought it might be a good idea to update with a roundup of some of what I've managed to find!

1)  Superdrug 2 in 1 Hand & Nail Cream

You may have seen me mention before that one of my very good friends works in Superdrug, so quite often we'll go there after college and she'll tell me about the new nail stuff / cosmetics that are in store. The other day we went in so that I could find something to help strengthen my paper-thin, bendy nails. Unfortunately for my nails, I paint them so much that they're bearing the brunt of damage from regular acetone use. Luckily I've switched over to an acetone free remover (also from Superdrug!) that's gentler and also smells weirdly nice for a solvent....mysterious.

Anyway, I asked her to help me find something that would help restore my nails to a stronger state without costing me too much. Lately I seem to run out of money quickly (probably due to too much time spent in places like Superdrug!) so this is really important. She ran off and found me a bottle of this  amazing stuff:

(I thought I'd include ingredients just in case.)

The cream is nice and moisturising and not too greasy at all. It smells floral but not overtly so, and best of all is only 99p! It's great if you have dry hands/cuticles, which is an especial problem in Autumn/Winter. I find it really useful if I have a cracked cuticle to use some of this to ease the damage.

The best thing about this cream is that it actually does what it says on the tin - it does help strengthen my nails immensely! As I said, my nails are very weak at the moment, and after a week of regular use (by that I mean massaging the cream into bare nails once / twice a day) my nails are holding up much better. They're peeling less and feel much much stronger and less dry! My right hand nails especially are extremely strong compared to how they were, which is rare for me as my nails have always been weak.

Overall, I love love love this cream, it smells lovely and does a great job of sorting dry cuticles, weak nails and dry hands. A great product for the colder months!

...................................................................................................................................................................

2)  Models Own nail polish in Peacock Green:

1 coat

2 moderate coats

2 coats PG, 1 coat American Apparel Meteor Shower

Again, 2 coats PG, 1 coat AA Meteor Shower

Peacock Green is a lovely, subtly shimmery green duochrome. Its main base colour is a lovely conifer green, kind of bottle green if you look at it in certain lights. In other lights, however, you can identify hints of teal and blue. This gives it the aforementioned duochrome effect.

It has a nice green shimmer going through it and applies smoothly. Drying time is pretty average. It's opaque for me in 2 moderate coats. I can't say much about chipping yet, but it appears to be holding up well!

I tried a coat of American Apparel's Meteor Shower nail polish on top, and the results were great! MS is a clear base with shards of gold foil in it. It's on the thick side but applies nicely and dries quite quickly. I have a weakness for cool topcoats as you can mix and match them with pretty much any colour, and as a big fan of all things gold this polish is a sure fire winner for me.

As always, I used my Sally Hansen Hard as Wraps as a base coat and Revlon Liquid Quick Dry to speed up drying time (this stuff is great, it smells of lychees and does the job really well!).

That's me done rambling for the minute, thanks for reading!  ♫  

Pink Crystal Nails Tutorial / Barry M Jewel nail paint Review

Hello! ♫ ~ (◕‿◕✿)

One of my best friends works in Superdrug, and so I usually get to know when they have new things coming in as far as nail polish is concerned - this is really great as you can imagine because I can look forward to getting all the latest stuff!
So I was delighted to hear that Barry M have a couple new bits and pieces out. These include a Jewel nail paint range and a Gelly Hi-Shine range. The Jewel range is a gorgeous, very inventive selection of glitter polishes - the diversity of colours and textures is just amazing, and at £2.99 a bottle I was so so excited to get down to Superdrug and buy them! I have to say, the combinations of glitter are perfection in my opinion, and for such a cheap price it seems like Barry M are way ahead of the rest of the drugstore polish brands in my town. ♫ 
The Gelly Hi-Shine range is really cool too, there's about 9 shades if I remember correctly, and all the polishes dry to an extremely glossy, shiny finish, just like a gel manicure (hence the name!). These Gelly polishes are £3.99.

Anyway, today I'm going to be showing you 2 of the Jewel polishes - I've used them to create a pink crystal-themed look. (I also bought a gorgeous bright red-toned pink from the Gelly range, but I'll be reviewing that when I next do my nails!)

Firstly, here are the two polishes that I picked up:

This one is called Pink Sapphire Glitter. It's a clear base chock full of hexagonal pink glitter, super small round pink glitter, bar-shaped holo and hexagonal holo glitter. It goes on very easily, is quick drying and has a great fomula - not at all gloopy, which is surprising considering the amount of glitter in it! The bar glitter is especially beautiful in the light.

This is called Rose Quartz Glitter. It's a mix of tiny round holo and hexagonal rose pink glitter in a clear base. Again, formula and drying time are excellent and the fine holo glitter gives a lovely sheen to the nail.

Here we have photos of the finished look and what I used to achieve it:

L-R: OPI Rosy Future, Barry M Rose Quartz Glitter, Barry M Pink Sapphire Glitter, Paul and Joe Sprite

The method is very simple.

1) Put on 2 coats of Sprite. Sprite is a pale apple green and rosy pink duochrome. It's one of my most treasured polishes for a few reasons - the bottle, the very unusual colour and the price (£10.50, ouch!). In one light it appears to be an apple green pearl on the nail, in another it's a rosy glowing pink.

2) Next, apply 1 coat of Rosy Future. This is a pale, milky purple-pink duochrome, it's more sheer than Sprite and is more purple tinted. I just used this to make the colour underneath lean more towards pink in general than green to match the glitters.

3) Put on a coat of Pink Sapphire Glitter. Make sure you spread the pink hex glitter around evenly!

4) Apply a coat of Rose Quartz Glitter on top. Again, try and keep application even to get a good texture.

5) Finish off with topcoat. I personally use 17 Lasting Fix nail polish in clear - it's honestly the best I've ever used, it dries so quickly, isn't gloopy and is very very shiny. It's also £2.99!

I hope you liked this tutorial, it's very easy to do but is so lovely on any length of nail from short to long due to the gentle prettiness of the pinks used. The glitter also makes nails look a bit longer too! ♫ 

(P.S. - Just for your information, I've got a couple of photos of Sprite and Rosy Future with just Pink Sapphire on top for you to see - it's a less blingy but still very very pretty combination!)

Nail Art: Art Deco Stripes

Hello again! ☺

Today's post is a nail art post! Since the weather's getting chillier in England, I felt like some colder colours needed to make an appearance on my fingertips. I've used a variety of polishes this time around to create a really pretty, defined design. It's quite simple to do, I'll be including diagrams of my method as we go along!

What I used:

 Here we have all 6 of the polishes I used. From left to right, we have:

▲ OPI 'Just Spotted The Lizard'

▲ Barry M 'Navy'

▲ Rimmel 'French Rose'

▲ Rimmel 'Disco Ball'

▲ 17 'Fury'

▲ Deborah Lippmann 'Across The Universe'

This here is my nail striper from Andrea Fulerton. The other side has a dotting tool! It's about £4 from Superdrug.

Nail Art Photos:

Method:

That's it! Just finish off with topcoat of choice and you're done.
It's a good, versatile design that can be used with many different colours. Next I'm going to try pastels!

Thanks for reading! 

（*´▽｀*）