Neon pink leopard print - Heeeeells yeah!

Whoop whoop - spent the weekend with one of my fave girlies doing VERY girly things; specifically tiara shopping! Yes! I felt like a princess, so much glitter and sparkle. Sadly, the tiara was for my lovely friend, not me, but I still had lots of fun.

Knowing it was going to be an awesome weekend, I decided that I needed some awesome nails; what better than neon leopard print:)

Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep! 

I did a base layer of Barry M White before painting on the Models Own Ice Neon Bubblegum. Soooooooooooooo pink - these pictures just don't do it justice. Then I used Barry M Cyan Blue for the leopard dots and then added the details with my veeeeeeeeeeeeeeery ooooooooold nail art pen. Sunglasses at the ready!

On other exciting news, this weekend, I managed to make 50% of my meal noodle-based! Oh yeah:) 

Nail Pop Dazzle with Adora-bleu bow

Bonjour peeps:)

Hope you are all well? I've had a bit of time in the sunshine today so I'm feeling a bit happier after a looooooooooong week.....oh crap, not even a full week, a mere three day lol!

Anyhoo, I've been struggling a bit for inspiration recently, and on Sunday this reached a crisis point; nothing, I repeat NOTHING, I could think of worked, I must have tried 6 different manicures. So, I gave up and Googled 'nail art' - and found some great ideas, including this one at One Nail To Rule Them All - which I decided to recreate:)

Now, I'm being 100% honest here, this is  a direct copy. Although I've used different polishes, I've pretty much used the same colour scheme. I simply could not think of anything better, Alice at One Nail To Rule Them All is a total genius and trying to better her was not going to be possible!

Please excuse the lobster hands - the purple is a tough colour to get right! I used Accessorize Electric Purple as a base and then layered Nail Pop Dazzle over it, a great clear polish filled with pale blue and lilac glitter. I used Bourjois Adora-Bleu (still a flipping amazing name!) to draw the bow and then added white dots, and outlined using my new Barry M Black Nail Pen:)

Love this manicure - bravo to Alice at One Nail to Rule Them All! 

My first attempt at Galaxy nails:)

I have been putting off trying galaxy nails for so long; I don't know why, but it just didn't look like it could be as easy as every person kept claiming it was.

So first thing; the technique is pretty easy. So I really should have tried this earlier. I simply painted my nails a dark colour (Models Own, In the Navy) and the applied the other polishes over the top using bits of kitchen paper towel. 


What is difficult is selecting the colours. It took ages to decide upon the ones to use, but here they are:)

 Left to right; Barry M White, Barry M Bright Pink, Topshop Plume, GOSH Galaxy, Models Own Hayleys Comet, Models Own In the Navy, Barry M Iridescent Pink. 

And here are my first attempts at galaxy nails:)

I was super pleased by some of the apt names - I was tempted to try and use Topshop's Pluto to join Galaxy and Hayley's Comet simply because of the name, but it wouldn't fit in. Who new polish makers were such astronomy lovers though?

I'm not 100% pleased with my nails, but I am pleased that I've tried a new technique and that they are wearable. There are a few adjustments I'd make next time, my middle finger looks a but clunky, but overall - chuffed. And do give it a go yourself, I made a mountain out of a molehill on these, should have tried them earlier!

Barry M Confetti Liquorice swatch

I could not take the neon pink of that I posted about yesterday, but I wanted to change it up a bit.....hence the addition of another of my newbies, Liquorice, from the Barry M confetti collection:)

This applied beautifully, the above is one coat over the Special Edition Neon Pink, also by Barry M. Liquorice is a total winner for me, it would look gorgeous over almost anything, I can't wait to try a few other combinations!

Barry M Special Edition Neon Pink Swatch

Happy Sunday peeps:) Hope you've all been enjoying your weekend? I certainly have; I headed to Donnington Park yesterday for Download, and watched Motorhead and Iron Maiden. Tbf, they aren't usually my cuppa, but bf treated me and it was pretty awesome. Muchos beer was consumed, so today I've been lazing, nibbling and painting my nails. A real treat:)

I decided I wanted something nice and summery for my rock festival look, so used my new Barry M Special Edition polish in pink. Ooooooh it's lush! I painted it straight on my nails, but it was a bit rubbish tbh. Then I painted it over white...........................................eeeeep! Amazeballs!

I rarely love a polish enough to not want to cover it with nail art, but this was special. A real neon pink, luminous in it's brightness! 

My camera couldn't cope, so this isn't the best representation of it, but it does give you some idea of how bright it is. It definitely needs the white underneath, but it dries quickly and is super stunning. Another winner from Barry:) 

Gold glitter and blue tape mani

I have no idea how else to describe this other than 'gold glitter and blue tape mani' lol. This was inspired heavily by Whitney at Dressedupnails, as she often layers opaque polishes over glitters. I've been wanting to have a go for a while, so here's my first attempt.

I painted a few layers of Models Own Disco Mix (a fine gold glitter speckled with blue-green glitter) and then palced striping tape over the top when it had dried thoroughly. Then I painted a thick layer of Adora-bleu by Bourjois over the top. A slick of topcoat and it was ready:) On my ring finger, I painted a couple of coats of Barry M Yellow Topaz Glitter over the Ibiza Mix; I have to say I'd underrated Yellow Topaz Glitter, but it's stunning; large and small gold and holographic glitter, wow!

I'm chuffed with this, and have been experimenting.....more soon:) 

Barry M Blue Grape Swatch

Happy Tuesday peeps!

A quick one today, as I've got to tidy my house...it's a state! So, here's one of the most perfect blue polishes I have in my (vast) collection; Blue Grape by Barry M, from his wonderful Gelly collection. 

It applies like butter, dries quickly and is so glossy you can see your face in it! This is three coats as I found this a bit too sheer for just two, but I'm happy to wait those extra few minutes for this colour. Amazing:)

Barry M Confetti Special Effects - Sour Apple swatch

HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUL!

Ooooh I was sooooooo naughty today; I was feeling a bit delicate after the lethal combination of late night wine consumption + early morning rising to look after small children. Gaaaah! and they're not even MY children lol. Cute enough though. But still..........crying at 7.15 is painful. So when I walked past Superdrug, well, I headed on in........................et voila!

 And the best part? It was buy 2, get a Limited Edition polish for free! Which of course meant it was ok to buy four Barry M Confetti polishes:) 

The Confetti polishes are just gorgeous. I've seen various swatches form various bloggers and was beginning to get a tad stressed that I did not have them myself. There are 5 in all, but the Marshmallow (pink and white glitter) just didn't do anything for me, so I went with four. Very virtuous:) The Limited Edition polishes are also great, jelly like and very sheer, perfect for jelly sanwiches.............more of them to come later I feel.

Annnnnnnyhoooooo, onto my first foray into the world of Confetti! I went for Sour Apple,  a combination of blue and yellow bars of glitter. I decided to layer them over Barry M Berry Ice-Cream, a stunning lilac polish (so stunning, I've almost finished it!).

Sour Apple applies easily, this is one thick coat, but from what I've seen you could layer it up to be pretty much opaque. However, although I'd intended to do that, when I saw this I couldn't bear to change it; it looked like a Zap ice-cream/lolly (anyone else know what I mean?). I love, love, love this range, I'm so excited about the rest of my haul:) 

Rimmel Precious Stone Collection - Diamond Dust Swatch

I totally ignored this polish, until I saw the most gorgeous swatch by Alexis at Glittertips. She really brought it to life, so it founds its way until my collection, and I'm happy it did!

Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep it's so pretty! This is three coats over a coat of unnamed grey (just to avoid VPL). It's a silver grey glitter, filled with larger pieces of holographic glitter. It has a very textured feel and doesn't really *pop* until you add topcaot. And then.......oooh it's magpie-tastic! Thank you Alexis, without your gorgeous blog I wouldn't have this sparklyness in my life.

Claire's Accessories Dove Grey/Pink speckled polish - swatch

I indulged in a very guilty pleasure this weekend....oi, minds out of the gutter! I meant shopping in Claire's Accessories, the home of glitter and tat and all things synthetic and One Direction related! The reason; why polish hunting of course! And it paid off this weekend. 

Oh boy, how it paid off! Feast your eyes on this beauty!

It's a dove pink/grey colour; so beautiful, yet so subtle. It's full of black and silver specks of small glitter, and layers easily to produce this stunning speckled egg effect. Gorgeous!

It goes on easily, although you need to apply carefully; this is three coats with a small amount of judicious application to ensure the glitter went everywhere I wanted. It dried quickly and smoothly. I'm so happy with this little polish. 

As previously discussed, Claire's put the name of the polish on their receipt rather than the bottle (???!!) and stupidly I forgot to chekc it out! Gah! But this polish was only £2.50! So I can't complain:)