Nail Art: I Been Drankin' Watermelon

With summer kind of being in Scotland, fruit patterns are all over the place - nails, fashion, homeware. Watermelon and pineapples are my personal favourites, and I currently have a watermelon clutch from new look (which a friend very nicely got me as part of a graduation present!) and a pineapple backpack from topshop. 

I was going to do watermelon nails a few weeks ago bit of course my nails broke and I had to but them down to nubs again :(

Nail Polishes used:

Barry M Gelly: Greenberry

Models Own Hypergel: Coral Glaze

Models Own nail art pens: black and white

Nail Art: Matching Pastel Aztec

It's graduation season and with that comes fancy dresses! My boyfriend's graduation is before mines and I've decided to wear a pale grey shift dress with a pastel aztec pattern from missguided. I don't often wear such bright colours but thought I'd make the effort for summer. 

I attempted to do matching nails, by picking out specific parts of the pattern. However they didn't come out as neat or as dainty as I'd hoped. But they could be worse haha! 

Colours used:

Models Own Hypergel: Cornflower Gleam

Models Own Scented: Banana Split

Barry M Gelly: Greenberry, Dragon fruit, Papaya 

Revlon: Hazy 

Nail Art: Drybrushed Ombre

Dry brushing is usually a painting technique where you have very little paint on the brush and your paint strokes become very streaky and light. 

I imagined a Drybrushed ombre would look quite cool so I have it a go and this is how it ended up: 

I quite liked how it ended up, I bit different from the standard sponged ombré. How I did this was wipe of the polish brush as much as I could and start doing light streaks from the tip of the nail towards the base, layering more towards the bottoms. Even though I wiped as much as I could off the brush, there was still too much polish to give the Drybrushed look so starting at the tip was a good way to build up the densest part of the ombre whilst also drying off the brush.  

Polishes used:

Models Own Hypergel: White Light

Barry M Gelly: Prickly Pear 

Nail Art: Messy Stripes

Having been out of the nail art game for quite a while, I thought I'd test what skills I have left (if any) and try some vertical stripes. 

Vertical stripes are easier than they look since a striper brush does a lot of the work, but there's still some patience and good polish placement skills needed. 

I think my nails ended up a bit meh, with clashing colours and some in inventive stripe placement but I was a bit stuck for ideas and wasn't sure what else I could do :p

The colours I used were:

Models Own Hypergel: White Light (white)

Models Own Hypergel: Cornflower Gleam (blue)

Barry M Gelly: Dragon Fruit (pink)

Barry M Gelly: Guava (turquoise) 

Barry M Gelly: Prickly Pear (lilac)

Barry M Gelly: Key Lime (green)

Nail Art: Hime Gyaru

Hime Gyaru nails are a trend in japan which consists of lots of 3D nail beads, pearls, bows, cartoon characters etc. I personally only do Gyaru nails with flat back pearls and ball bearings as anything more would just be a hassle to my daily life haha!

Gyaru nails always look more effort than they actually entail, it really does consist of splodging on clear topcoat and then whatever 3D nail bit you have and is a really easy way to impress everyone. 

I used a base of Models Own Hypergel: Lilac Sheen and Barry M Gelly: Dragon Fruit and a good layer of Seche Vite on top to secure everything 

Nail Art: Halloween Blood Drip & Pumpkins

This is so late I don't even know if it's worth posting. But I was looking through my blog posts and only notice today that this didn't publish properly when I posted it in the lead up to Halloween -_-

The colourings totally off in both of the photos (was a late night nail art session and I also only have Instagram versions of the photos left on my phone) but I used Barry m Gelly keylime green an maybelline extreme blackcurrant to do some blood drip nails and models own/hed kandi for the pumpkins

Swatched! Barry M Gelly: Blueberry

Barry M blueberry is a standard pastel blue polish, nothing too special in all honesty. Unlike the lilac version, this was opaque in two coats, however I still did my three coats for y peace of mind XD 

Having got quite a collection of Gellys now, I do recommend them for their range of colours as some aren't duped in the normal Barry m collection (keylime, for example. The normal Barry m lime colour is a sheer jelly) and they are pretty opaque in two coats.  However they aren't as shiny as they are with a coat of Seche Vite on too, but I think very few topcoats/gel polishes can compare to Seche Vite! 

Swatched! Barry M Gelly: Prickly Pear

I've been wanting to pick up Prickly Pear for a long time since lilac nails are my one true love, but given that fact, it also means I have a fair few lilacs already. But after a lot of um-ing and ah-ing, I gave in and picked it up. 

I think I put about four coats of this on my nails. The first coat is scarily sheer, however it does build up and I put a fourth coat on as, to be honest, I'd lost count and three coats is my mandatory number so I layered another one on to make sure my OCD was satisfied! 

This is quite a different lilac to say, Essie's lilacism. It has a almost pale blue tinge to it that you can see in certain lights. 

Swatched! Barry M Gelly: Blue Grape

Who doesn't like at least one colour from the Barry M Gelly line? So far I mostly have the more summery colours and two of the more darker colours (the purple and the dark green) so I purchased the Blue Grape one which is a lovely royal blue colour. 

I painted these last night so I didn't realise till now that you could still see the nail line :o however you can only see the nail line in certain lights i think 

anyways, this is two coats which is pretty good coverage as I usually use three coats. I really do adore this colour as it's such a bold royal blue and looks like I'd just grabbed a bic pen and inked my nails :) 

Swatched! Barry M Gellys

Hey guys, I have a swatches for you guys today after I discovered Superdrugs 3 for 2 sale and they are currently stocking the new confetti and nail art pens from Barry m (blog posts on them to come).  

This post shall be on some of the newer Gelly polishes, specifically Key Lime, Greenberry, Dragon Fruit and Guava, which are all opaque in 2 coats but I used 3 as always. 

Key Lime is a bright lime green creme that is a really unusual colour to find I think. I know Barry M has a similar colour in their normal collection which I also have but I found it to be far too sheer even for a normal jelly finish. This is a much better alternative! 

Greenberry is a very bright turquoisey colour with a hint of bright green to it. I love this colour and it's very summery. 

I picked up Dragon Fruit as I don't actually have many pinks in my collection. This has as light shimmer running through it however it's not too noticeable. 

Guava is a darker turquoise leaning towards blue which I think is nice for summer nights out. 

Impromptu Superdrug Haul

Yes, I'm normally a Boots girl but given they're currently stocking the new confetti collection and the nail art pens, AND it's 3 for 2, I could not help myself. 

They're also carrying the sequin collection but I decided to slip it as the polish is actually the concrete texture polishes with sequins rather than a creme finish, which doesn't sound appealing to me tbh... 

Anyways I bought all but one of the confetti polishes (they didn't have any of the green or blue one, Sour Apple and bubblegum I believe?), the black and white nail pens and some of the newer Gelly polishes. 

Swatches soon hopefully!