GOSH Holographic

Yes I have finally got around to posting this. I've been so busy lately I hardly even have time to paint my nails anymore, never mind blog about them!  But I got my hands on GOSH's Holographic Hero so I had to share!

On a trip into town a few weeks ago I was having a wee look around the make up displays in Superdrug when I came across this in the GOSH section. I had no idea they had even released their holographic again! So as soon as I saw it I HAD to have a bottle!

I applied  Barbara Daly base coat and two coats of Holographic Hero. I didn't apply a top coat as I know that top coats seem to spoil the holographic effect. 

I know that it is now labeled as a 24 hour polish due to how bad it is for chipping but mine lasted for two days with no chips and I'm sure it could have lasted longer if I had left it.  So I was very pleased with that result! A friend who also has this polish didn't wear a base coat and hers chipped within 24 hours so I think a base coat gives it a little extra something to grip onto.

The holographic effect is AMAZING! I was so excited by it, and it looks gorgeous in direct sunlight. Due to how busy I've been I never managed to get a picture in proper sunlight but it looks amazing!

Thanks for reading!

Endless Possibilities // Ruby Ribbon

This post is packed with two lovely Revlon polishes and two nail art designs! I realised I haven't really been doing any actual nail art (apart from stamping) recently, so I decided to have a little play about with two of my new Revlon polishes.

For this design I applied Barbara Daly base coat and two coats of Endless Possibilities (a nude creme with a slight gold shimmer). I then applied a coat of Ruby Ribbon (a lovely wine red metallic with a 'matte suede' finish) on the top diagonal half of my nail. I then used Techic's gold striper to draw a line along where the two polishes meet. I finished off with a coat of NYC top coat.

I really loved this design and I received a lot of compliments for it, I think people at uni are starting to think of me as the 'Nail Girl'!

This design was something I played about with before I tried the design above. I again applied Barbara Daly base, two coats of Endless Possibilities and a coat of Ruby Ribbon along the top diagonal half. I then used a striping brush to paint little loops coming off of the Ruby Red section to create a kind of lace pattern. I then used dotting tools to make dots in Ruby Ribbon and Endless Possibilities on top of the opposite polish colour.

I decided not to do this design on all of my nails because I was in a bit of a rush and the loops were a little tricky (I hate to think how they would have looked on my right hand!).

Thanks for reading!

101 Violet Dalmatians

I have a little bit of stamping to show you today (messy stamping mind you!). I was in a bit of a rush when I did this manicure so please excuse the sloppy stamping, I had no time to go back and sort it, but que sera sera!

I first applied Barbara Daly base coat, two coats of Nails Inc's Bluebell and one coat of Avon's Very Violet (which is a beautiful lavender/pinky purple duochrome, sadly it was covered up by the stamping although it was more visible in real life than in the pictures). I then applied NYC top coat, stamped with Bundle Monster plate BM-211 in Pink Tease's Black and topped that off with Rimmel top coat.

You can see a little bit of the lovely duochrome hiding in the picture above but I'll definitely have to swatch it on it's own to show you properly at some point!

Quite a few people likened these nails to dalmatians (hence the name of this post) and some others seemed to think they looked like dinosaur eggs...

Thanks for reading!

First Franken!

I've finally attempted my first franken! I was so excited about this! For a long time I've wanted to try this as I have seen a lot of other bloggers making wonderful polishes and I thought it sounded like fun! So I finally decided to give it a go!

I created the polish with small blue and green hex glitters and a clear jelly base.

I applied Sally Hansen Maximum Growth base coat, two coats of Tiger's Shade 35, two coats of my glitter franken and NYC top coat. I really loved the look of my simple franken and I got a few compliments on it too. I think its alright for a first try really?! I can't wait to have a go and making other polishes now, I think I've caught the frankening bug!

Thanks for reading!

Dancing Queen//Mirrorball

I have my second Models Own Mirrorball polish to show you today! This time I'll be showing you Dancing Queen, a gorgeous green-y glitter.

I first applied Models Own 3 in 1 base coat, two coats of Cecile's Shade 88 a lovely dark green metallic. I then added two coats (probably would have been fine with one, I feel like I went a little overkill...) of Dancing Queen and Models Own 3 in 1 top coat.

Dancing Queen consists of small gold hex glitter, slightly larger gold hex glitter, blue hex glitter, larger green hex glitter, silver (holo) diamond glitter and random shapes/sizes of light blue holo glitter in a clear jelly base.

I really loved how this looked in direct sunlight but I really feel like I went too far with the glitter... and I never think there is too much glitter!

Thanks for reading!

Fuschia Nets

I have a polish from Avon's new Color Trend collection and a spot of stamping today.

Avon's Fuschia is a matte finish metallic purple/pink full of silver flecks. On it's own with no top coat/stamping it looks amazing, I really wish I had taken a photo for you guys! I guess I'll just have to swatch it properly some time.

I applied Barbara Daly base coat, two coats of Fuschia and NYC Grand Central Station top coat. I then stamped with Pink Tease's Black with Bundle Monster plate BM-223 and finished off with Rimmel top coat.

I really like this fish net/damask design as it's one step prettier than your standard fish net look. It's a little fancier!

Thanks for reading!

Liebster Award No. 2!

A few weeks ago Ashley over at Life Of A Polish Addict nominated me for another Liebster Award! So thank you Ashley! Everyone go check out her blog,  it's fab.

Because I already received a Liebster award I didn't think there would be much point going through the whole process again (and to be honest I don't have enough time with uni!) so I'll just answer Ashley's questions and you can check out my other post for the rest here.

1. How may nail polishes do you own?

Well over 300... Not a lot compared to some bloggers but they definitely take up a lot of room!

2.What is your favorite nail polish of all time?

Ooooh... This is hard! Probably Models Own's Scarlet Sparkle

3.What is your favorite season?

Winter! Looooove it!

4. How much $$$$ would you spend on your favorite nail polish?

 On my favourite... Probably about £10ish if I really loved it.

5. How do you store your polish?

 I have a nail polish rack but that doesn't hold all of them, I also have a box and two smaller racks full.

6. How often do you paint your nails?

 Twice a week, always! I'm kinda OCD about it haha.

7. Do you ever pick off your polish?

 Nope, only if my nail is flaking at the tip... but I guess that's peeling the nail not the polish.

8. How did you get started with nail blogging? 

 I really enjoyed reading other nail blogs and decided that it would be fun and a good way to justify the amount I spend on nail polish!

9. What is your favorite fall nail polish?

 Fall... I really like Avon's Lucky Penny. It's a burnt orange and looks like those really beautiful orange leaves you always see in Autumn.

10. What do you think is going to be the biggest fall nail trend this year?

 I have no idea... I don't really keep up with nail trends, I just do my own thing.

11. What is your cutest nail design?

Hmmm cutest... Maybe my Ikat/Aztec nails.

Disco Inferno//Mirrorball

Wow it's been a while! But I got the new Models Own Mirrorball Collection! I'm so excited about these polishes! Absolutely wonderful, they are.

I decided to try the gold one, Disco Inferno, first. This glitter polish consists of bronze microglitter, slightly bigger round green glitter, bigger bronze hexagon glitter, small silver (holographic) square glitter and large gold (also holographic) shards of glitter in random shapes and sizes in a clear jelly base.

I applied Barbara Daly base coat, two coats of Golden Rose's Shade 41 ( gold metallic polish with tiny gold microglitter in it), one coat of Disco Inferno and NYC Grand Central Station top coat.

I love this polish, it looks amazing under spotlights! I can just imagine how beautiful this would look over a red at Christmas time... I can't wait to try out the others!

Black Holo

I have another Kleancolor Chunky Holo today! This time it's Chunky Holo Black.

I applied Barbara Daly base, two coats of Golden Rose's shade 53 (which is a lovely metallic royal blue), one coat of Chunky Holo Black and NYC's Grand Central Station top coat.

Chunky Holo Black is packed full of different sized opal holographic glitters in a black/orangey jelly base (sounds horrific but it is actually lovely). Due to the base colour it changed my royal blue into a blue/purple duochrome which was AWESOME! I didn't expect it to do that! And the opal glitters changed from pink to green to mauve depending on the light.

I can't wait to try this polish over black, I did a quick swatch and there was lots of orange holo-y goodness going on there, perfect for autumn/Halloween!

Thanks for reading!

Teal Holo

Wow I've been busy lately! I've been at uni this week, it's been pretty hectic and it doesn't look like it'll be slowing down anytime soon... Hopefully I'll be able to keep up with blogging on top of uni and driving lessons!

Today I have another Kleancolor beauty to show you, Chunky Holo Teal. This is just as gorgeous as the others, and it's my second time wearing it in a month. (It is seriously rare that I wear a polish twice in one month so that just shows how much I love it.)

I applied Barbara Daly base, two coats of Tiger's Shade 15 which is a pretty turquoise creme, two coats of Chunky Holo Teal and 2true top coat.

Chunky Holo Teal consists of small round holographic glitters in a pale blue jelly base that shift colour. I've seen orange, green, gold, blue, peach, pink and purple colours and there are probably many more!

Kleancolor has definitely become a favourite brand of mine, I've been very impressed with their polishes so far, and I still have three more to try!

Thanks for reading!

Deep Blue Dotticure

I decided to play around with my dotting tools this week and came up with this lovely ocean themed manicure.

I first applied Barbara Daly base coat. I then used two coats of Cecile's shade 92 which is the dark metallic blue and two coats of Sally Hansen's Silver Chrome Color Quick pen on my accent nails. I added dots using the second smallest dotting tool halfway up all of my nails. The colours I used for this were; Essie's Dive Bar (the darkest black/blue dots), Models Own's Peacock Green (the dark green dots), Models Own's Dusty Mauve (the grey dots) and Cecile's shade 90 (the light green dots). I then finished off with 2true top coat.

I really loved this manicure! I like how on the accent nail the dots ended up looking quite peacock-ish while the rest of my nails looked more mermaid-y. I'm pretty sure my dotting tools are going to be used a lot more from now on, they are so simple and easy, but look quite complicated and different!

Thanks for reading!

Misslead Salsa

I have a super pretty polish to show you today! Shade 5 from 2true's Crystal collection. It is absolutely stunning!

Shade 5 (on all fingers apart from accent) is a beautiful orange, pink, gold and silver microglitter bombshell which is primarily orange glitter. It is a dream to apply and isn't even that difficult to remove, perfect. The colour really gets me too, I love oranges and this one has a little kick to it. It reminds me of salsa dancing (I have no idea why) and that makes me happy!

The yellow polish is Misslead by Missguided which came free in a magazine, I'm pretty sure it was Glamour but I could be wrong. This is a warm yellow with a prominent silver microglitter/shimmer. This is a really pretty polish but I'm not too sure I liked it as part of this manicure...

I used Barbara Daly base, two coats of the Natural Collection's Antique Coral on all but my accent nails, two coats of Shade 5 and 2true top coat. On the accent nails I applied two coats of Barry M's Lemon Ice Cream, two coats of Misslead and 2true top coat.

Overall I would have preferred Shade 5 without an accent nail. I'll remember that next time.

Thanks for reading!

Amethyst Feathers

Purple is definitely my favourite nail polish shade to wear and this polish definitely didn't disappoint me. Sadly I don't have a picture of this glorious colour on it's own as I was originally planning only to stamp on my accent nail but I got a bit carried away with the stamping and covered all of my nails...

On to the design!

I applied Barbara Daly base coat, two coats of Amethyst from Body Collection and 2true top coat. I then stamped with half of the feather design on Bundle Monster plate BM214 with Technic's gold striper polish (their metallic stripers are great for stamping). I finished off with Rimmel top coat.

Amethyst is a lovely dark aubergine metallic purple polish that I loved on it's own. To be honest I probably preferred it without the stamping but I still like the feather detail. A nice autumnal design I think!

Thanks for reading!

Mermaids in a Starry Sky

Let me just start by telling you that I have never seen such a shiny silver polish in my life, it is truly amazing! It's the closest to a mirror I've ever seen in a polish, the pictures definitely don't do this polish justice!

 This is Barbara Daly base and two coats of Starry Sky by Avon. This polish dries really quick and has a lovely shiny finish. Application was good, the polish is thin but has great coverage.

I then applied Technic's Mermaid at the bases of my nails. Mermaid is a pretty blue glitter in a clear jelly base with large hexagon and small circle glitters. I love this polish, it really suits it's name, it looks like little fish scales on your nails! The only issue with this was drying time, it took ages to dry, probably because I was impatient and kept blobbing it on without waiting for the other coat to dry, but still, it was frustrating. I then applied NYC Grand Central Station top coat.

I love this mani, it looks kinda futuristic but at the same time pretty and ethereal. And I love the contrast of the names, Mermaid and Starry Sky, from totally opposite parts of the world!

Thanks for reading!

Pink Mirror

I have the beautiful sister of Blue Mirror to show you today, with a little added stamping.

This foil polish is just as lovely on it's own as the blue version is, just slightly less metallic. Still very eye catching  though! Sadly I was so excited about stamping that I forgot to take any pictures of it on its own. Never mind.

I applied Barbara Daly base and one coat of W7's Pink Mirror (yes it's a one coater, how perfect is that?!).  I then used MUA black and Bundle Monster plate BM208 with the two different smashed/scattered looking patterns. I used the partial coverage design on all but my accent nails and the fuller design on my accents. I then used Rimmel top coat.

I really like this design, the partial coverage design reminds me a little of the sections on a butterfly/dragonfly wing, I might have to incorporate that into a design someday!

Thanks for reading!

Award No. 2 ~ The Liebster Award

I received my second award this week! The lovely Caroline over at Caroline's Nails tagged me, so thank you very much Caroline! Caroline blogs nails and other beauty things, so go ahead and follow her, her blog is great!

This award has rules, just like all the others, so here they are:

1. Each person tagged must post 11 things about themselves.
2. They must also answer the 11 questions the 'tagger' has set for them.
3. They must create 11 more questions to ask bloggers they have decided to tag.
4. They must then choose 11 bloggers with less than 200 followers and tag them in their post.
5. These lucky bloggers must then be told.
6. There's no tag backs.                                       

 

The Leibster Award is awarded to blogs with under 200 followers to help them gain followers and exposure to other blogs. Sounds like a great idea to me!

11 Things About Me

1. I am starting university in 3 weeks to study Psychology and Biology.
2. I am a big fan of baking.
3. I like to read a lot.
4. I spend a ridiculous amount of my life watching boxsets of TV shows.
5. I am a massive Audrey Hepburn fan.
6. My favourite colour is winey purple/red.
7. My favourite animals are foxes and whales.
8. I really want to visit Alaska (to see Chris McCandless' bus) and Iceland (to see the Aurora Borealis).
9.  I love gangster movies and war movies.
10. I have a list of places to visit before I die, it takes up two pages!
11. And finally, I love Christmas time, best time of the year!

11 Questions from Caroline

1. Why did you start your blog? I really love nail art and I had been reading a variety of nail blogs for about a year when I decided I wanted to have one too.
2. Do you ever feel like you won't get more followers? Do you ever loose hope and think that blogging was a bad idea? Why? I didn't really make my blog with the aim of getting followers. It's more a blog for me to put my pictures somewhere and I can look back on them, having followers and people interested in my nails is just a bonus!
3. What keeps you motivated to keep blogging? It kinda justifies the crazy amounts of nail polish I buy!
4. What is your favorite brand of polish? Ooooh, I would saaaaay... Models Own.
5. What is your favorite nail art trend? Probably gradients or stamping (does that count as a trend?)
6. How do you wear your nails most of the time? Long, short, medium? Plain color? Crazy art? Stamping? I want to know! Normally medium length with an accent nail or stamping.
7. What is your favorite manicure that you've ever done? Post a picture or link! My favourite would probably be my peacock nails. (Picture at the bottom of these questions)
8. With nails, beauty, and blogging out of the way, what are your other hobbies or pastimes? I read and bake a lot. I also watch a lot of TV and I'm really into music.
9. What is your favorite song? Ride by Cary Brothers, its been my favourite song since I was 16.
10. Who is your favorite band/artist? This is hard!! Uhm... At the moment Ben Howard but I go through phases.
11. What are your top 5 favorite blogs? Polished Pinay,
    Clothes, Cosmetics and Chat, Man Polish, Varnished Valkyrie and The PolishAholic

 
My 11 questions for the people I've tagged

1. How long have you been blogging?
2. What motivated you to start your blog?
3. What is your favourite thing about blogging?
4. Does your nail art get noticed by strangers in real life? Do you like this?
5. How many nail polishes do you own?
6. What is your favourite nail colour for the 4 different seasons? (One per season)
7. Have you ever considered taking your hobby further? (i.e. nail/make up courses, working in a nail salon)
8. Do you research swatches/reviews before you buy a polish or are you an impulse buyer?
9.  Are their polishes you can't get in your country that you really want?
10. What is the most amount of money you would spend on a polish and why?
11. Would you even consider making YouTube tutorials of your nail art? Why/why not?

Now for the 11 people I've tagged (this just reminded me that I never got around to tagging for my first award!)

1. Polished Pinay 
2. AbbieNail
3. Figgy Lane
4. Maggie's Nails
5. Nail Narcotics!
6. OMFGyournails 
7. Polish Crazed
8. Sunshine Rose 
9. Wendy's Delights 
10. the2BEAUTYBLOGGERS 
11. Lacquer Enhanced 

Thank you again to Caroline for tagging me!

Holo Chrome

I saw this polish on one of the blogs I follow a few months ago and I was completely taken with it. I HAD to have a bottle. This polish was the whole reason I ordered my Kleancolors polishes and it definitely didn't disappoint.

I applied Barbara Daly Goodbye Yellow base, one coat of Essence's Chuck ( a lovely blue creme), two coats of Holo Chrome and 2true top coat.  Holo Chrome is a little gritty so the top coat is definitely needed to even that out but after that it's perfect.

Holo Chrome sits in a purple jelly base with tiny holographic glitters and slightly bigger (but still tiny) blue glitters. The blue glitters keep the polish looking primarily purple despite the holographic rainbows it throws off in the light.

This picture is super blurry but it shows off the rainbows a bit better than I was able to clearly photograph. (It still looks way better in real life). And my grandad's a fan, you can't really go wrong with that!

Click to enlarge the pictures, they look so much better blown up!

Thanks for reading!