NOTD: L'Oreal & GOSH

Happy Sunday!

I thought I'd quickly share with you my current favourite nail look. I picked up the L'Oreal Color Riche varnish in shade 104 Beige Countess just before Christmas with the idea of teaming it with a pretty glittery shade. I initially had my sights set on Essie's offering Set In Stone but I really wanted to try and find something a little more purse friendly. The other day, I finally came across what I was looking for in GOSH - Girls on Film, a gorgeous sequin and glitter polish in a rose gold tone for a bargainous £1.99 reduced in Superdrug.

I've been so impressed with the L'Oreal Color Riche varnish, it is opaque in 2 coats despite being a light shade and the wear time is probably the best I've ever had from a nail varnish. I've only had minor tip wear after about 4 days wear and that is really good going for me!

I've also never tried any polishes from GOSH before but Girls On Film has impressed me too. I initially thought it might be a little gloopy as quite a lot of glitter polishes tend to be but it applied smoothly and hasn't chipped or flaked after a couple of days wear.

I'm definitely going to be picking up more shades from both brands as for £4.99 for L'Oreal and £2.99 for GOSH I think they're both really affordable and long lasting.

Easy Halloween Nails

I'm by no means a master of nail art, I can barely even paint my nails without getting varnish all around the edges and then chipping them shortly after (damn you household chores). Nevertheless, I thought I'd like to have a go at creating some Halloween themed nails. I kept it simple with white, black and orange varnish and I don't own any nail art pens so I dug out a black eyeliner pen and hoped that it would do the trick.

I started off with a base coat of OPI's Nail Envy and then coated my thumb and ring finger in one coat of Rimmel's Orange Your Life and then one coat of Sinful Colors Cloud 9 to add some sparkle. I then used my Rimmel Nail Tip Whitener for the white nails and did two coats and two coats of Rimmel Pro Black Pearl for the black (some serious Rimmel lovin' going on here!)

I waited for them all to dry and then got out a standard black eyeliner and drew my little pictures on. I did a pumpkin on my thumb, a skull, plain black, a web and a spider. I then did a final coat of Nail Envy to seal it all in place, the eyeliner smudged a very small amount but nothing major!
Overall, I'm really pleased with how they turned out for a first attempt and I think I'll be investing in a nail art pen to make it easier with a clearer finish.

Monday Manicure

I usually tend to paint my nails on a Sunday night, it seems like a good way to start the week with a freshly painted set of nails. I've been going for corals and oranges for a few week now, so I decided to change it up and go for something a little different.
I grabbed Essie's "We're In It Together" (which shall be referred to as WIIT from now on as it's a faff to type out every time... lazy me) off Fragrance Direct a few months back but have only worn it a couple of times. It was calling out to me last night though and I opted for it over Essie's "Bikini So Teeny".

I applied Barry M as a basecoat and then went on to apply 3 coats of WIIT, finally popping the Barry M on again as a top coat. WIIT applied streak free from the first coat and was opaque in two but I popped on a third coat just to be safe. I really love how it's a pretty barbie pink without being too bright and it also has small flecks of iridescent shimmer in which you can mainly only see in direct sunlight which makes it stand out from other pink shades.  It takes around 5 minutes for each coat to dry and lasts for about 3/4 days on my nails before chipping.

I haven't seen it on Fragrance Direct again but you can pick it up on Amazon Beauty for only £3.99 if it tickles your fancy!

O.P.I Mediterranean Moonlight & Pros & Bronze

Just a quick little post today to show my appreciation of these O.P.I varnishes. I picked them up a few months back whilst I was browsing around TK Maxx. They had them in a double pack for £9.99 which I thought was bargainous as I'd wanted to try O.P.I for ages but could never really justify the price tag, so I snapped them up when I saw them. They usually have the odd one or two packs floating around my local TK Maxx but these are the only shades I've ever seen that have appealed to me.

Formula wise, these apply like a dream and I applied two coats of Mediterranean Moonlight for a fully opaque finish and then one light coat of Pros & Bronze on my ring finger just for a touch of sparkle. The glitter is smooth to the touch unlike some of the cheaper brands and the drying time is more than reasonable, I left them about 5 minutes whilst painting my other hand and moved on to the second coat almost immediately. I finished off with a top coat of Sally Hansens's Insta-Dri Anti-Chip and this usually ensures my nails are chip free for around about 5 days. Alone, the varnishes tend to last around about 4 days before I notice a chip, so not much difference!

You can find Mediterranean Moonlight for £4.95 and Pros & Bronze £8.99 on Amazon Beauty which are pretty reasonable prices! 

What do you think of these shades/combo? Do you have any O.P.I polishes or want to try them? 

Favourite Spring Polishes

Having had some free time recently, obviously some of it had to be spent wandering the aisles of Boots and Superdrug in search of, well... anything really.

This time however, it happened to be nail polishes that ended up catching my eye. I'm sure you're all aware of the Barry M Gelly Hi-Shine nail paints and I couldn't help but pick myself up the shades Lychee, Papaya and Greenberry as they're so bright and pretty. I loved pretty much all of the shades in the range but I have quite a few similar ones already so thought I'd go for some different ones.

Of course, trusty ol' Rimmel didn't disappoint and I found Coral Romance too good to resist.

Coral Romance - Rimmel - This is from the Lycra Pro range and I think is the most pricey of the Rimmel polishes at £4.59. This shade is my favourite of the four and is so vibrant without washing me out. It claims up to 10 days chip free and whilst I didn't wear it on my nails for quite that long, I did get a good 6 days of it with no chips which really impressed me. It only requires one coat to become opaque but I put on two just for extra strength.

Lychee - Barry M - I don't actually own any nude colours at all for my nails but I'd seen a lot of swatches of this and thought it looked worth a try. Formula wise, it certainly doesn't disappoint and applied beautifully and fully opaque in two coats but I'm still not sure that nudes really suit me all that well... I'll give it another couple of tries on me though as I do like the colour.

Papaya - Barry M - This shade is lovely, again it's coral toned but it's a rare thing that I can actually wear a bright colour, so I'm going to obsess over it! I did find it slightly irritating to apply; it streaked quite a lot and the brush seemed to be bare on some nails and then put giant globs onto other ones making it tough to judge drying times. This one for me definitely needed two coats and could probably have benefited from a third but it was worth it in the end as it dried with a glossy streak free finish.

Greenberry - Barry M - I really love this colour, it's so bright and fresh looking. I'm currently wearing a combo of Lychee and Greenberry so I'm going to try painting them all one shade to get the full effect of each shade, but this looks really great for spring and brightens up any basic outfits nicely - a definite bonus when I have about 3 different sets to wear at this stage! This one applied nicely and again, opaque in two coats. 

What are your favourite shades for Spring? Do you have any of the above?

Five Minute French Manicure

Hey everyone!

Hope you've had a bearable Monday, at least that's one day down! Last night it was time to repaint my chipped nails and I was searching through my collection of nail polishes for a suitable colour when I spotted my French Manicure polishes. I hadn't painted my nails like that in ages, usually because it's so time consuming and I have to spend what feels like years trying to get the perfect white crescent on my nail. Now, I don't know about you, but I really don't have a steady hand, especially when it comes to doing my left hand with my extra unskilled right hand! The handful of times that I've gone for a professional manicure, I've always had it done French style as I think it's so classy and timeless going with any outfit that you want to wear.

Both the polishes I decided to use are by Rimmel, I absolutely love Rimmel polishes and most of my collection consists of them. This is mainly because they're cheap and usually on offer in either Boots or Superdrug plus they have a great selection of colours, they're reasonably priced and finally I find that they last really well on my nails.
As you can see above, the brushes for each polish are really quite different to each other and this is what makes the application so quick and easy. The large, flat brush on the Rimmel Lycra Pro in French Rose makes it speedy to coat your nails in a couple of swipes and the Nail Tip Whitener is just a little bit of genius in a bottle. All you have to do is run it across the tip of your nail following it's natural shape (or the shape you want to paint your nail ) and voila, perfectly french tipped nails.  Neither polish takes ages to dry and they didn't smudge after application either.

French Rose is a barely there shade for me and pretty much just adds a slight hint of pink and a glossy shine to my nails and the Nail Tip Whitener took literally about 2 seconds to run the brush across the tip of my nail and I only had to go over it once. It's a lovely crisp, bright white and hasn't turned an odd yellowish shade as I've found some white polishes can do. I didn't bother with a top coat because I was feeling lazy and I was happy with the finish that I have as I tend to repaint my nails 2-3 times a week. If you wanted it to last longer though, I'm sure a top coat would be beneficial!

I probably could have lined the tip slightly lower down my nail as you can see a bit of the natural tip showing through but that's what happens when you're painting them in semi-darkness whilst trying to watch the Top Gear special...

Both polishes are available at Superdrug (I can't find French Rose on the Boots site) and cost £4.59 each or are currently on offer for 2 for £5.99.

Do you like the French Manicure or do you prefer bolder shades?

Review - Topshop Milkshake

I was tempted to title this post "My milkshake brings all the boys to the yard..." but decided against it for obvious reasons.

Anyway, this is my first bloggy review that takes it's form by way of a nail polish analysis.

I was feeling a bit blue due to it being January, all the Christmas cheer has gone from the air and we're just left with short days, long nights and cold weather. I decided that I was in need of a pick me up, so decided to pick myself up a treat. I'd been looking for the perfect bubblegum pink for a while now but refused to purchase O.P.I's Pink Friday as Nicki Minaj endorsed it and I truly despise her.

So, I set about a search to find a Nicki-free and hopefully cheaper alternative. I came across Topshop's Milkshake and decided that it looked perfect for my nail varnishy needs.

This was my first foray into any of Topshop's makeup range and I have to say I was quite impressed. The varnish applied streak free and smoothly and was decently opaque in one coat but definitely benefit from two.

So without further a-do, I hereby give you Topshop's Milkshake gracing my fingertips:

It lasted me a good 5 days chip free, apart from the minor chip that you can see on my index finger. It was pretty quick at drying and had a lovely glossy finish. My only small issue is that because it's such a bright colour, it can look a little messy around the edges, but that could be neatened up easily or just applied better than I did it.

Milkshake can be found at any Topshop that sells makeup or purchased online here for £5.