Sinful Colors Sugar Sugar and Barry M Starlight

Ah post boxing day - a day of utter nothingness. Napping, eating odd combinations of left-overs, watching the dregs of TV....weird, given how packed my days usually are, but it has given me time to do a few things I love; namely, sit of the sofa, gaze at nail blogs, paint my own nails and drink gin and tonics. Slothing at its best!

As i has spare time, I decided to have a search through my polishes and dug out a few untrieds; today I've paired Sinful Colors Sugar Sugar with Barry M Starlight. 

Sugar Sugar is a rather lovely red; actually, my favourite red that I've bought so far, it just seems to work with my skin tone. It's also filled with microscopic little specks, giving it an 'inner light' so to speak. The application is better than other Sinful Colors I've tried as well, still a pretty appalling brush but a much better drying time.

The specks are lovely, they give it an unexpected shimmer. It's actually not quite as orang-y as the pictures above suggest, but I'm having major camera issues at the moment so these pictures are the best I can get for now:(  

As it's Christmas-time, I decided to go full out sparkle; well, that and the fact that I was undecided about this next polish and so I thought, as I'm not actually planning on leaving the house (still in Xmas pjs, whoop whoop!), I can try it out and no-one has to know if it's awful.

 Apart from you guys:)

So I popped Starlight by Barry M over the top - it's a slightly bonkers combination of large gold and holographic sparkles with specks of glitter and holographic stars. Errrrr...

Let's just say that it works in theory. I mean, yes it's kind of awesome.....but also, it does look like something an 11 year old girl about to go to the school disco at Xmas designed. I think, sadly, maybe I've outgrown this polish - it's just TOO glittery for me. I think gold and holo and stars were just too much....a sad day for me. 

Goodbye youth!

Barry M Red Black - a blast from the past...............

Ah, another untried down! This is Barry M Red Black, which is 18 months old! Good lord!

I wasn't expecting to like this polish - in the bottle it doesn't look anything special. But it struck me that it was ideal for a cold wintery day, so I sloshed it on and I'm BLOOMING pleased I did. I was overcome with the most amazing deja vu........

I really got into nail polish in the mid to late nineties, while I was in secondary school. Nail art was popular; I remember wearing chequerboard nails to school, buying nail stickers, using matt polish for the first time.........

It was also the time of Buffy the Vampire Slayer - I loved BTVS, and watched it every week, wishing my school life was as exciting, or that I has Sarah Michelle Geller's amazing highlights and wardrobe. It also featured a vampire called Drusilla, who, one week, wore what I considered to be the manicure to end all manicures; a reddish brown colour with white tips. I loved it and knew I must copy it, so rushed out to buy a reddy-brown nail polish.

Barry M Red Black is the EXACT same colour. The application is better, bear in mind I had a small budget (i.e. my pocket money) in the 90's, but it's the same colour. And blimey, am I gutted that I haven't been wearing it everyday since I bought it! Shame, shame on me!

I would say this is a jelly and you could make a very yummy sandwich with this! This is 3 coats, all of which went on beautifully. The coverage doesn't look perfect in the photos but IRL there's no problem. Finally, Drusilla nails will be mine after all these years............

My Christmas mani - a sparkly skittle!

Merry Christmas Eve peeps - are you all prepared for tomorrow? I'm wrapped, packed and full of chocolate roses, so as ready as I can be:)

I've ummed and ahhhhed over my Christmas manicure for a while now. I'm off visiting family for 5 days, so it had to be something that would last and that would fit in with most of my outfits. It had to include glitter (because duh, it's Christmas!). And it has to be nail art, because I need to practice.

Tadah!

These were heavily inspired by the amazing work of the The Nailasaurus, so I can't claim originality, but I'm pleased with how my skittle turned out. I also love the Skandi colours, so very fashionable right now (because, I'm like, all about fashion lol - as I type this, I'm in my pjs with walking socks on to keep my tootsies warm and a scarf wrapped around me). 

I think my favourite is the heart; I have to confess, after messing it up several times, eventually I painted the heart of to a plastic poly-pocket and then peeled it off and stuck it on my nail.

 Legen- OMG my nails look hot - dary! 

These are the polishes that contributed to this mani; from the top, clockwise- Claire's unnamed glitter, Gold Giles Green, Models Own Nail art Pen in White, Barry M Matt White, Barry M Blood Orange, Sinful Colours Rich in Heart, Barry M Red Glitter. 

Have an amazing Christmas peeps - I hope you have a wonderful time with your friends and family and that Santa brings you all the nail polish you could ever wish for. x x x x x

Barry M Red Glitter - aka Christmas in a bottle!

Arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh I LOVE LOVE LOVE this polish. It's a permanent feature in my top 5 (not even just top 10, top 5 y'all!) for 3 main reasons;

a) The blooming decent price - it's a standard Barry M £2.99 jobby.

b) It applies like a dream, 2 easy coats that dry quickly.

c) It's stunning, just stunning. I always get compliment when I wear it and can never stop staring at my nails when it's on.

So here it is, the most Christmassy of Christmassy polishes. If only my camera would do it justice. 

SWOON!  

Barry M Boots Special Edition polish - bar glitter

Oh wow - this polish is a party in a bottle...a stunning combination of bar glitter in what I consider to be some pretty dam Christmassy colours, red, green and purple (ok, purple isn't traditional, but for me it's the colour of Quality Street wrappers, and they ARE Christmassy:)

I layered this lovely over GOSH Deep Purple. Et volia!

My camera made the purple look a bit blue, apologies:)

Anyhoo, the best of parties are often followed by hangover. And so it is with this polish. The bar glitter is a pain in the ahem! It sticks out over the nail, sticks up in the air, I actually had to pick out pieces using tweezers. However, I got so many compliments about these, it was almost worth it (almost - I almost sliced my corneas off when doing my contact lenses!)

Would I wear it again? Er, probably. But on a day I was wearing my specs:)

Let it Snow! Part 2:)

I loved the glitter I showed you earlier this week so much that I had to try it again - this time over the perfect Christmas red, China Glaze Red Essence.......

The perfect Christmas red; somehow it needs a particular shade, and this is IT!

That's all from me folks; I have to entertain some friends with mince-pies and brandy:) 

Snow....I wish.

Ahhhh, a snowday - wouldn't that be ideal? I'd pop on my warmest socks, keep my pjs on, eat buttered toast and drink hot choccie and sit on the sofa watching Home Alone, Muppets Christmas Carol, any classic Chrimbo movie................bliss.

But - not yet. So I'll settle for snowy nails. This white glitter polish is one of the many I picked up in Argentina. It cost less than 75p and has no name, simply an unintelligible amount of beautiful Chinese characters. I'm sure you can imagine the quality.............

I so love the glitter mix; red, white, gold and blue glitter, happiness. I really like the mix of matt white and shiny colours. Sweet:)

I LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE this combo - but the glitter top coat is a killer - it just doesn't dry. At all! I waited for soooooo long, and then painted a topcoat over the top simply so I could go to bed. As you can see, this didn't work well; instead it just bubbled like a b^&%$. 

Ahhhhh, but it looks like snow, so it's ok:)

We all like a Christmas pudding

Wayhay - my first Christmas manicure of 2013.....I bring to you..................

CHRISTMAS PUDDINGS!

I'm so pleased with these; I couldn't stop staring at them:)

I used Barry M Lychee for a neutral base, then painted semi circles on using Barry M Mushroom. I 'iced' my puddings with my Models Own nail art pen, then added a cheery with the ever wonderful Barry M Red Glitter. A randon nail art pen in green was used to add the holly and Sinful Colours Rich in Heart was dotted on for the currents:)

Tra-lah-lah-lah-laahhh, la-la-la-laaaaaaaaaaaaaaah:)

Barry M Raspberry with glitter

A quick mid week mani for you.....Barry M Raspberry topped with an unnamed glitter by Claire's Accessories. Sparkly:) 

I find this mani oddly patriotic, maybe it's the red and blue?:) 

Have a great Friday guys x x x

Red glitter gradient

So, I seem to be a bit fixed on red at the moment; this has been my weekend manicure, and I've LOVED it! I've been trying to use an unused glitter from Claire's for ages but just couldn't think what to do with it......then inspirations struck!

I don't know the name of the Claire's glitter, but it's  red glitter hexes in a clear polish.

 I layered Barry M Red Glitter over Models Own In the Navy, then added the large red glitter.

Love this....I really must do more glitter gradients!

Red Chevrons - Barry M Blood Orange and Nails Inc Luminous Red

Searching through my nail pictures last night, while fiancee watched a truly dreadful movie, I came across this; some chevron nail art that I remember loving, yet somehow totally forgot to post. Doh!

So, here we are; red chevron nail art in red. 

I used the Nails Inc polish that I got as part of my free haul a while ago; as you can see from the pictures, it's called Luminous Red. I can't say it's my favourite colour; to be honest, it looks like tomato soup. It's far too orangey-red for my liking.

So, to improve it, I painted a layer of Barry M Blood Orange over, marking out the triangle using some striping tape. To finish it off, I added a triangle of the awesome Red Glitter by Barry M. 

Triangle-tastic!

I think next time I try something like this, I'll start with the Blood Orange - it's such a stunning colour.