Swatched! Barry M Limited Edition Green

Barry m have decided to promo some limited edition colours for summer, and I picked up the super bright lime green colour. 

I was super excited to pick this up as I thought it would be like the Gelly keylime polish and be opaque in two or three coats. However this ended up being more of a jelly (in the traditional sense) and I ended up outrun on 5 or 6 coats to get it opaque :o however a topcoat of Seche Vite has helped things dry a bit quicker so hopefully I shan't be walking Around daintily for the next few hours. 

As for the colour, it's a super neon green colour that is great for summer and the extra coats can be easily dealt with if you have a good fast drying topcoat. 

Swatched! Sinful Colours: Be Happy

Hey guys! Exams are finally over and although they went pretty poopy, I'm just glad they're done! 

Today I've got a sinful colours swatch for you. I've went a bit crazy over these as for £2 you get really decent polishes! 

Be Happy is a really nice almost dusty turquoise/mint green colour, a bit darker than Mint Candy Apple. It's a nice interesting colour and is a bit different to the average mint nail polish. 

I got this opaque in three coats but two coats could easily be done. 

I really like this colour as it's different to your average mint, almost a Cath Kidston kind of colour, vintage and retro :) 

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.

Starbucks Nails!

It's that time of year again when the Starbucks red cups are out, the grass is crunchy in the morning and Primark has cosy tights out...I hate this time of year tbh. I'm just not made for cold climates, and Christmas was never a big deal to me. But I do like christmas patterned clothes and the odd christmas film :p

I've always favoured Starbucks over Costa, think they have a better variety...and I'm not 

 a huge fan of the colour red either :p

So thought I'd give Starbucks nails a go, after having a...craving?...to use Barry M's Spring Green. It's just so vibrant and bright without being too neon, and aaaaalmost the right shade for Starbucks :p

I'd like to apologise for various things. Such as the scary demonic face of the logo, the streakiness and the overall blurriness :(

None of my tools were small enough to do the face, so I resorted to a sharpie, which was also slighty clunky, but I got sick of trying to do the face so I left it. The streakiness is due to me using a new fast dry topcoat (Maybelline) and it just being overall crap - no speed drying, and lots of streaks. BOO. And the blurriness is due to me still sucking at taking photos and not using a stand.tripod type device :P

In all honesty, I have no idea what the friiiiick was going on with this hand. Being left handed, I was aiming to do something easy, but it kind of ended up being a garbled mess :p The middle finger's supposed to be the little brown slips they put round the takeaway cups and the pinky/thumb ended up being a disjointed version of the bottom of the starbucks logo :/

I much prefer my right hand as that had the better designs, so i may have to keep my left hand in hiding for the rest of the week :p

I've been pondering to do an extra theme to my blog. Being an avid fan of Boots, I'm thinking ofpost ng Boots haul posts along with my usual nail art posts. Just because I'll probably not be doing many designs on the run up to exams (ERMYGADZ EXAMS), and I do have quite a spending issue when it comes to Boots :p Anyways, I'll see how the Boots haul posts do, and see if I'll continue it on or not :) I'm not intending for this to become a beauty blog (I'd be the worst beauty blogger ever haha), but just a few comments on anything I bought, plus I usually always buy a nail polish whenever I go to Boots :p

When Uni Gets In The Way :(

Aloha lovely people, it's been a long while :(

I've been kept busy with uni related things, so I haven't done many designs, and if I have, it's been easy peasy (i.e. pointless) designs. But I've missed writing (albeit bad) posts, so I've compiled my lame attempts in one post so as not to pain your eyes hehe.

To be truthful, my timetable is fairly empty compared to other subjects, although I'm usually always in at 9, I'm rarely in past 12, never mind till 5 (which I thought would happen like every day lol). But I usually spend the rest of my day re-writing my lecture notes and googling extra notes. And I also have to start doing research for an extended essay/mini dissertation I have to do next term. So by the time I've finished doing ntoes, it's time for dinner, and then I'm usually too tired to do anything super intensive. Feels odd being so busy :p

So, with all this time spent writing notes of some form, I've been mostly sporting plain colours, and have only really done 2 designs since my last proper design post :(

I did however, purchase some of the Barry M Gelly range, since I had some extra money in my account, and I got a 20% discount email from Barry M, so I thought why not?! :P I only purchased a few, most of which I can't remember the name of...but I purchased the orange, purple, teal and the dark blue. I've tried the purple and the dark blue, and they are pretty shiney, I didn't even bother with topcoat! So if you've a lazy kinda gal/guy (you never know! :p ), then the Gelly's can be opaque in 1 to 2 coats, and don't necessarily need top coat either, perfect :)

Anyways, one of the designs I did, was an anorexic drip design (I have a habit of making my drips rather bootilicious XD)

I used the dark blue Barry M Gelly, with the Models Own white nail art pen, which helped achieve the skinnier drips as I usually use a brush to do them. I quitw like the effect actually, should've used a pen in the first place hehe!

The next design that I'm also currently sporting is a half assed Halloween-esque design, with glow in the dark polish over Barry M Spring Green, and suing white and black polish to make random googly eyes :)

I'm not sure if this even looks remotely Halloween appropriate, but I think it's the shade of green (and the fact it's October) that makes me think of Halloween? I'm hoping I should have enough time to do some Halloween themed nails like last year, since I ditched out on the Olympics thing, but we shall see what uni has in store :P

Hopefully I'll get back to posting better designs soon, I miss doing my nails :(

Wedding Nails!

Hello people!

Been a little while since I posted, just been doing a teeeeny bit of revision for going back to uni (3rd year - YIKES!) and just enjoying what I have left of the summer! I havn't done much nail art, just had some plain jane nails with Barry M's Spring Green and Red Black (maaay have spent a little money onlikne ¬_¬ )

Anyways, I have a wedding to attend to tomorrow, and these are the nails I decided to do...I'm not actually sure if they're even wedding appropriate, or that they even match my outfit properly. They're the same colour scheme, but my dress is long and chiffon-y with a black beaded shawl...So not triangular in any way XD

Not sure what made me think of this design, other than I like triangles and I like the contrast of the dots and colours.

MINT GREEN: Barry M - Mint Green
BLACK: Barry  M - Black 

My love affair with Barry M has increased so much with the purchase of Spring Green, Mint Green and Red Black... *sighs* I have Berry Ice Cream to try out as well, but it looks like a lovely colour and no doubt I'll love it since purple is my favourite colour!

Flower Fail

Aloha!

Sorry I've been AWOL, but exam season is fast approaching, so just been gearing up for that *sobs*

Which means there'll be even fewer posts than there has been lately (had some tests and labs and stuff for uni - booo!)  I also apologise for the  mediocre phone cam pic, but camera needed charged and I couldn't be bothered waiting for it to charge hehe ^_^

Anyhows, I noticed that people tend to do florals/dotty flowers as their first tries at nail art, and they usually end up with lovely designs that make me ooh and aah in jealousy. Jealousy because I can't do florals, as you can seem from the attempt below -__-

Dunno, they just dont seem to look like flowers, maybe because grey wasn't the best flower colour to use, but the shape doesn't scream floral to me :( But I guess from far away they look like flowers, most likely because of the green blobs Im calling leaves :p

Hmm, think I'm placing florals on my list of things I ain't good at/never going to try cos I'll fail along with water marbling (dry marbling/dragging seems much easier and tidier) and one stroke flowers -_- *sighs*

Also in other news, I'm considering selling some fake nail sets with some of my designs on folksy (UK version of etsy), which will be something to keep me occupied over summer and maybe bring in some money, if people buy them :p Might jsut start out with a small bundle of 10 or 20, and advertise on my personal FB as some friends have said they really like my designs...or they were just being nice, I don't know lol. I've bookmarked some things from ebay like false nail sets, glue, and jiffy bags etc, and it wont come to too much, so should make a profit hopefully :)

Oh and I'd like to also thank the followers that have started...well, following...me, it's nice to see that people like you enough to follow you, even if it's just a small number, really appreciate it guys :D

Enough rambling now, better get back to the notes D':

Hope yous have a lovely spring day! :)

Mono ABCs and Minty Spots

Hello again, I've been posting fairly frequently for some reason... I'm going through some family troubles atm and I'm guessing I'm doing my nails to take my mind off stuff :)

The first mani is a monochrome letter design...but it looks like a pile of poop cos I didn't have any of my nail brushes with me (I use nail art brushes to clean up round the edges) and I had a black polish pen/striper, but I felt like I could've done better if I used my brushes :/ I dont think the letters are spaced out well and the letters are rather messy, so it didn't turn out as well as I'd hoped, but it might be one I'll try again :)

White: Ultra Pro, French White
Black: Models Own, nail art pen

The next mani is SO much neater because I managed to go home and pick up my nail art brushes and dotting tools :D (and some gems hehe) Sorry about my cuticles, I know it's a nail blogger taboo to have manky cuticles, but I sometimes forget to put cream on before I take a photo. I'm not bff with my cuticles...they're all weirdly shaped compared to other bloggers' that I've seen. Some of mine are square shaped, some oval and some or just wonky, so i need to sit and clean up my polish so it kind of gives the illusion that all my cuticles are the same shape or even. Plus, I seem to have all this extra cuticles skin compared to other's...I'm debating whether to just clip them off (even though you're not supposed to). I usually use Sally Hansen's Cuticle Remover, but it doesn't seem to remove enough of my skin :( If anybody has some cuticle fixing methods they'd like to share then feel free to comment! :)

Light Green: Models Own, Jade Stone
Dark Green: Models Own, Top Turqoise
White: Ultra Pro, French White
Matte Topcoat: GOSH, Matt Effect Top Coat

I hadn't used the turqoise Models Own for yonks, and I'e now rediscovered my love for it! it's such a lovely blueish green! Models Own has such a good range of colours for a drugstore brand :) I like this mani cos I like the contrast of the light and dark greens, and the plain and dotty patterns. I also adore the matte look, wish it caught on a bit more :( The bow on my ring finger (and my thumb which isn't pictured) is just a dot gem with two heart gems on either side, nifty isn't it? I'm not a fan of hearts so I wasn't sure if i'd ever get round to using heart gems...A design for Valentines Day might be a bit tricky though hehe...

Until next time! :)

Itsy Bitsy Polka Dot Bikini

It's been a while since I've updated this, this post has been in my drafts whenever my last post was, but I've been kinda busy with uni and Mr Fizzy Vimto Nails and his friends decided to do a 24 hour gaming session for charidee so my blog has been kinda neglected for a little while :(

Anyways, I bought 2 reduced China Glazes when I passed by Sally's Beauty supply. I hadn't actually got round to do something simple like polka dots so I thought this would've been a good opportunity to try some. As always, I like to add an accent nail and to make the design a bit more interesting, so I used gems and the opposite colour on my ring finger :)

Looking back, I should've done the spots a bit smaller, and made a neater pattern.

Matte neon half moon manicure

Must admit that I'm a bit of a stalker in my local Sally's. I mainly buy drugstore brands like Model's Own, Barry M, Collection 200 etc, so Sally's is my haven with OPI and Chine Glaze, polishes I deemd too expensive. Until one day when I'd just got paid and decided to buy some. It was buy one get one half price on OPI, and I also found some decent reduced OPIs as well. And because I'd got some OPI's, I felt obliged to get some China Glaze too :p

I'd seen people doing half moon manicures so I thought I'd dabble in a bit myself, as I liked the simple idea of contrasting 2 colours with a simple design.

I done this design by using hole reinforcers from WHS Smith and placing them at the bottom of my nail (on top of my base colour) to achieve the half moon affect, and paining another colour on top.

The 2 colours I'd used were actually already matte, so I decided to not use a topcoat to keep the effect.

One of your five a day.

Oh  my days, looking back on this fills me with the OCD twitchiness of being neat and cleaning up o_O

Anyways, these are supposed to look like strawberries ¬_¬ I only got the nail striper/pens through at this point, so I didn't have any brushes to do better detailing on the leaves and seeds.