Thursday 28 March 2013

Swatches! Models Own : Feeling Blue

Hello hello! Are you guys enjoying the snow in the UK?! Gadz, what's wrong with the weather these days?!

Today I've swatched models own feeling blue which is a lovely bright mid-blue colour, sort of almost a bright pastel? Some people are a bit scared of blue due to the "dead body" look but I love a bit of blue polish! It's different enough to make your nails stand out without having to go for a neon or an orange or something.

Feeling blue is opaque in two coats and dries fairly quickly too! Photos are with no topcoat (feeling lazy!)









Monday 25 March 2013

Easter aztec gradient

I'm not good with naming designs... My official title for this is pastel Easter egg ombre Aztec nails which makes no sense at all when you think about it lol.

But yeah, thought I'd do something with the Easter holidays (although mines shall be filled with exam revision. Boo.) and is it just me that thinks Easter egg patterns look like really simple Aztec patterns? I think I have Aztec on the brain, I'm quite a fan of the pattern hehe.

I used the models own scented collection for my various ombres, and then the models own/wah nails nail art pen to do the little patterns. My left hand is very skew whiff bit it adds...something?...

I used Seche Vite as a topcoat which smoothed out all the bumps of the sponging and polish so lovingly I wish I had gallons of the stuff.

P.s sorry for the whacked out placement of the watermark...









Tuesday 19 March 2013

Dreary March Ombré

This weather is awful. It's supposed to be spring soon, and we're having to deal with bitter winds, rain and SNOW. What is earth?! (Grav3yardgirl fan ;) ) I've decided that L.A shall be my country to emigrate too since it doesn't seem to get too cold in the winters over there, I don't mind rain too much but I can't stand actual coldness.

After the pastel bonanza of the models own scented collection, I decided to tone it down with a bit of grey and black. How "emo" HA. I used Barry m black and grey and revlons white on white and sponges it on as per with these kind of nails. So. Yeah that's it's really, it's nothing that interesting but thought I'd post it anyways.

I'll also add an Instagram effect overload photo just cos I can ;)





Monday 18 March 2013

Fruit Salad Nails - with Scented polish!

I finally got round to doing some fruit themed nail art after doing the models own scented polish swatches on Friday.

I didn't do anything too taxing, basically jut used various dotting tools as acrylic paints to do fruits that coordinated with the scent of the polish on that finger. Managed to do this in less than half an hour which shows that you don't need to spend many hours doing a design that looks ever so slightly swish ;)

I top coated with Seche Vite as always, so now the scent is a bit hard to detect :(





Friday 15 March 2013

Swatched! Models Own: Scented Collection

Remember those scented polishes when you were younger?! I distinctly remember having a cherry scented one from Claire's Accessories and I loved sniffing it whenever I could. So yeah I was the creepy kid in school LOL. Models own have released yet another cool collection of 5 scented pastel polishes and j of corse had to get them on pre-order ;)

They're 5 pastels, of which I do not need any more of but I couldn't pass up the scented novelty of them! However the pastels are suitable for the lead up to spring/summer. There is a pink (strawberry), lilac (grape), blue (blueberry muffin), green (apple) and yellow (banana). It took me a good 3 coats to get the colours opaque but some still had a bit of pull and patching on the 4th coat for the yellow and green at which point I have up and just left it lol. So it can be a bit annoying to apply these, but a coat if Seche Vite made it no bother to wait for them to dry/semi dry.

As regards for the scent, they smell like those smelly gel pens from when I was in secondary school which I'm sure are still available in whs smiths nowadays :p I'm planning on doing some fruit inspired nail art (predictable I know lol) but I'm awayb from my nail stuff this weekend so we shall see what the wear is like by Monday :)



one coat


two coats


three coats (opaque on the pink, lilac and blue, but patchy on the green and yellow)


four coats


Before top coat


With Seche Vite

Wednesday 13 March 2013

Swatches! Barry M: Grey and Black Multi Glitter

As you may be able to tell, I've been feeling ether uninspired lately. That, mixed with short nails (thanks to a random nail break) and a lack of nail art tools at Mr Lacquerised's flat means I just don't know what to do with myself and than random collection of polishes I've built up here. I was even a bit meh on what to swatch and even let Mr L choose some polishes. But I declined them all and ended up choosing these two which I feel conveys dreariness at life and uni and nails right now :p I think it's the looming exam period that is also putting me into a funk lol.

So, moving on, I'm pretty sure everyone has at least one grey in their collection, it just seems like a basic colour to have like black and/or red. Barry m's grey is a dark grey, more suited to autumn or winter But since the weathers been a tad bipolar lately (snow in march?!), it might as well be winter! Black Multi glitter is a nice take on the standard black, with tiny holographic glitter particles which would be SO good for galaxy nails (it's on my to do list, I just don't have any sponges at hand). However it's dries to a rather gritty and matte finish and a thick top coat is needed. I only used Sally hansens mega shine topcoat, but Seche Vite may be a better choice! Both are with 2 coats, which is a reason why I love Barry m so much, that and the great price tag!!

First pic is without flash and second is with, however neither show up the holo well :(




Monday 11 March 2013

(Mini) Boots Haul #6

So, I'm actually technically on a spending ban as I'm going away on holiday with my boyfriend and the in-laws in July and me and my boyfriend are going to move in together for 4th year (woo!), however I'd ran out of dry shampoo, left my favourite Boots Botanics cleanser in Edinburgh an my lips looked super dry and cracked. So desperate times, called for desperate measures :p

Since the Boots Botanics balm cleanser is like £9 (it is worth it if you're NOT buying it as an emergency though!) I decided to look for something cheaper to tide me over for the week. I've hear a fair amount about the Good Things range, and he cleanser isb paraben etc free (since the botanics cleanser is organic and i think thats the main reason why its kept my spots at bay) and given its fairly decent price of £5, I thought I'd give it a whizz. It's a clear gel formula that you massage for around a minute on to a damp face. It doesn't lather up but you can see it get cloudy from the make up coming off and you can also see the mucky evidence when you wipe it off with a flannel! It left my skin comfortable yet cleansed and it smell so fruity and fantastic!



I'm a bit of a lil balm hoarder and try and have at least one within grabbing distance at all times. I usually use Blistex or other kinds of medicated balms, but though I'd give a one dedicated to moisturising your lips a shot. Everyone's heard of the Palmers Cocoa Butter, so I thought this light be a good shout! There is also a dark choc flavour but I'm more of a milk cho kinda gal ;)





I'll be honest and say I'm not too find of batiste as it sat very grey/white on my black hair, so I went for the tresemme dry shampoo as it was almost clear. However now I'm kind of sort of brown, I decided to give the batiste for dark/brown hair another go. I've tried it once so far and it seems okay, however I only sprayed a small amount on my hair.






Saturday 9 March 2013

Swatched! Essie: Orange, It's Obvious

I'm using the (very basic) Blogger app for iPhone to post this so hopefully this post ends up okay. It'd be really helpful to have a decent iPhone app for blogger/blogspot!

Anyways, I've got an Essie polish today, in Orange, It's Obvious. As you may or may not know, I don't generally like a bright red polish, or bright red in general to be honest, but I am partial to a bright orange!
This goes for nails and lips as well. Not sure why, but orange doesn't seem as in your face than red to me, which is ironic since you'd expect orange to be the more offensive one lol.

Orange, It's Obvious is opaque in 2 coats but I used 3 as I could still see a wee bit if my nail line. I then used a coat of Seche Vite. It's quite a dark orange and leans towards the red side of things rather than yellow, which could be nice for those use to red but not orange. This one has Essie's new, wider brush which I'm still iffy about as its good for my larger nails but not so much for my ring an pinky nail, which require quite a bit of clean up afterwards.

The blogger app only lets you's post photos after text, an you can't integrate the 2 which I'm not sure if I like :(









Tuesday 5 March 2013

Swatched! Barry M Gelly Lychee & Models Own Southern Lights

As you can tell I'm getting the hang of this iphone/instagram/app malarky and I'm getting a bit swishy with the old effects #hipster ;)

This post is swatches of Barry M in Lychee from the Gelly collection and Models Own in SOuthern Lights form the Wonderland collection. I've tried to use a filter that didn't effect the colours of the polish too much.


Eeek need to clean up a bit better!

Lychee is a lovely nudey beigey creamy colour that's a bit more beige toned than Models Own Utopia. It's opaque in two coats, and could probably be opaque in one coat tbh. Over the ring finger I painted 2 coats of Southern Lights, which is a purple fine glitter polish with little bits of holo glitter that you can see being reflected. It's absolutely gorgeous and want to paint my room in it haha. Southern lights gives apretty decent coverage in 2 coats, although might need 3 or 4 to completely cover a bare nail if you want to wear it on its own.

Swatched! Barry M Textured Polishes

Hey guys! I have a swatch post today of the much tualked about textured polishes from Barry M. The photos are a bit off because I got an iphone recently and I've still to get used to how it focuses etc. But you can kind of still see how the texture is like concrete :) I also have instagram too if you fancy a look (gunthercentralperk).

Being a Barry M fan I obviously had to get my hands on these, although it is slightly disappointing that here is only pastel colours as I have a billion of them. But it is suitable for the upcoming spring :) All are 3 coats and no topcoat.

Atlantic Road (Blue) and Ridley Road (Green)

Kingsland Road (pink) and Station Road (yellow)
All but the yellow are pure creme colours, whereas I'm sure the yellow has some kind of shimmer to it, although it doens't show well in contrast with the texture. These wore pretty well, very little chipping despite me being at the computer a lot during the 2 days I wore these. Although I did notice they picked up dirt pretty easily due to the texture, I'm a bit of a face toucher when I'm bored in lectures, and I did notice a slight foundation-type tinge to them...ew lol.

These are a nice step forward into the textured polish trend and a lot less hassle than the caviar or fuzzy nail trend as there you're not physically making th epolihs 3D yourself, so they're good if you're lazy but want to dup your feet into the nail art trend :) They're fairly easy to remover, easier than an actual glitter polish, but a smidge mroe effort than a standard polish due to the gritty bits.

Friday 1 March 2013

Swatched! Models Own: Utopia & Nude Beige

Woo, finally done my first swatch post! :p I'll admit this is not a proper swatch as I dont have many photos in various lights and ive done two colours on my hand, but it's my first one!

Today I have Models Own Utopia (the lighter beigey colour) and Nude Beige (the darker of the two). I've been lusting after Utopia for a while, as it seems the loveliest pale lilacy, pinky beige. Nude Beige is a lot darker than you'd expect from the name, it seems almost like a light milk chocolate colour, and would make a good neutral for night time.




Both photos have 2 coats of each colour and a topcoat of Seche Vite.

For some reason I found Utopia a bit fussy to apply, but I think it was something to do with the brush as it seemed a bit too thin, and maybe thinner than other Models Own brushes?

Both colours are really nice variants on the nudey beigey colours and I think I;ll get a lot of use form both of them!

I'll hoefully have Barry M's new textured polishes for the next swatch post, they're currently sitting on my desk calling out to me! :)

50 Shades Of Beige

This design did not turn out what I wanted it to be. I wanted to do the triangle mani, with Models Own Utopia as the base, and Modles Own Nude Beige as the triangle and then do a dot of Barry M Lychee in the centre of the triangle. However, my taping skills were not up to scratch for some reason, and after the 3rd attempt to do the triangles, so I just did htis weird semi-skittle single dot thingy -_- I would've just kept it at the semi-skittle but I liekd the play of words for the title, soooo yeah :p


This is with 2 coats of Utopia and Nude Beige, one dot of Lychee and a topcoat of Seche Vite!