Tuesday, 2 October 2012

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!)


Thursday, 27 September 2012

Ruby Slippers Jelly Nails

Hello!
Today I have another nail tutorial for you. This time it's a kind of jelly sandwich, it's pretty simple to do.
I used Louise Gray for Topshop's 'Pinch Punch', Barry M's 'Red Wine', a glitter topcoat from Rimmel and a clear polish to finish from 17's Lasting Fix range. The steps are as follows:
1. Apply base coat as usual.
2. Apply an even coat of 'Pinch Punch'- I usually dab it on to spread the silver glitter evenly.
3. Now put a good coat of the glitter topcoat on top. This way you get to see both types of glitter at once!
3. Next apply a thin coat of 'Red Wine' on top of this- this is great because it tints the glitter underneath red, but still lets it sparkle in the light. You don't need much at all to cover your nail and it's a lovely, semi-sheer jelly red.

Below you can find a step by step photo guide to this process and some pictures of the polishes too.










Rimmel's Glitter Topcoat in 'Disco Gold', it's about £4-5 if I remember correctly.
'Red Wine' by Barry M, this was £2.99 from Superdrug.
'Pinch Punch' by Louise Gray for Topshop, this was about £5 or £6 I think.

Monday, 17 September 2012

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! 





▽`*


Friday, 14 September 2012

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! ( ´_`


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! ♡





Hi! 

I'm Amber, nice to meet you! ▽`*
I made this blog in the hope of sharing my various nail art attempts, polish collection, reviews and other beauty-related posts, as well as other general things.
I love digital art, nail polish, food from all around the world and hamsters 

Bye bye!