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 ♫

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!)