Ocean Glitter - NOTD

Hello everyone! I hope that you had a great holiday season this December and a happy new year too! 

Sorry I haven't posted in a while, January A2 exams are getting in the way of pretty much everything at the moment.

Today I'm sharing with you a lovely, frosty manicure. It's inspired by the sea!

I really like it when holo glitter polishes are left rough on the nail, so that they sparkle more and look like mermaid scales or ice. It's an interesting, eye catching look that also seems to not be as prone to chipping depending on the polishes that you use.

This manicure works around that idea of rough glitter finishes!

I apologise in advance for photo quality, I don't have a proper camera so I have to resort to using my iPhone instead...

Here's the finished product:

And here is what I used to achieve these effects:

From L-R: Sweet Kisses by 17, Aquatic Glitz by POP, Mermaid's Dream by Deborah Lippmann

Basically, what I did on my index to little fingers was 2 coats of Sweet Kisses, followed by 1 coat of Aquatic Glitz. The pinky - nude colour of SK gives the AG a slightly more cornflower blue appearance and gives a nice subtle colour base for the glitter. Sweet Kisses applies well but takes a little while to dry, which isn't so great for someone like me who can be very clumsy with their hands! No matter, as the glitter covers any bumps and imperfections. I've reviewed Aquatic Glitz before, which you can read about in my Early December Nail post. ♫

On my thumbs are simply 2 coats of Mermaid's Dream, which is a real favourite of mine - it's like nothing I've seen before. It gives an almost sandy effect, like a mermaid tail's scales. Small blue hex glitter mixes in with gold and silver micro glitter in a frosty, pearly, slightly duochrome aqua-gold base. It applies really easily and lasts for a long time!

Over Christmas I both bought and received some really great new polishes, which I hope to show you soon! These include the Sprinkles collection by Nails Inc, OPI Nail Envy, some holographic polishes from The Makeup Store and some other ones too!

If you have any questions about anything I used in this manicure, or any other posts I've done, please feel free to ask away!

Thank you for reading!

Amber ♫

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! 

（*´▽｀*）

Deborah Lippmann - Across The Universe - Review and Swatches

Hello! ☺


Today I have a review for you of 'Across The Universe' by Deborah Lippmann. This was my first Lippmann polish that I've bought, a bit of a stretch of an impoverished student's budget at £16 but very definitely worth it! Take a look below for swatches - the colour, glitter sizing and placement, overall finish and application were fantastic! ❤



Look how shiny and pretty it is! Reminds me of mermaids or fish scales...


You'll have to excuse my cuticles, this was taken a little while ago when I just started growing my nails properly! （　´_ゝ`）


Anyways, the basic lowdown on this polish is as follows: the polish is basically a dark navy blue, translucent jelly base with a mixture of fine navy glitter, larger hexagonal blue glitter and green glitter, and some silver bits too. It's not too thin and not too thick- perfect for building up those coats to get it truly opaque!
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I usually go for 2 thick or 3 thin coats of this, and I use the brush to place glitter evenly so I don't waste polish. It's not actually too tricky to do this since the polish is such a nice consistency. You just need to make sure to spread the navy blue base fairly evenly so things don't get patchy, but the glitter covers any minor patches anyway.
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I personally LOVE this polish - everytime I wear it as a super-special cheer-myself-up manicure, it sparkles all day long and I always get lots and lots of compliments! （　'  u  '  )
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It lasts a long time on me if I use a regular coat of Sally Hansen Mega Shine with Revlon Liquid Quick Dry on top of it - at least 5-7 days. However, it could probably last longer if I didn't change my nail polish so often!
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 It's a bit of a pain to remove because of the glitter, but not impossible.
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I especially like to use this on the tips of gold / duochrome polishes such as OPI's Just Spotted The Lizard (another favourite of mine) to give a pretty, mermaid-y gradient effect. This way I get the sparkle but don't waste this beautiful but pricey polish!


That's all from me for this review! Thank you for reading and please do tell me if it was useful! ♡