O.P.I swatches

Ahhh O.P.I - how I love thee! I'd buy these for the bottles alone....there's something so lovely and curvy about the bottles! 

Anyway, recently one of my sister-in-laws has taken to buying me O.P.I polishes for pressies:) This Christmas I was thoroughly spoilt; I Pulled A Plum and What Wizardry Is This were wrapped up, just for me, under the tree!

Stunning - it's already a winter favourite. IRL, there's a deeper purply colour that occasionally flashes into view, but my camera refused to capture that! It applies flawlessly, dries quickly and is just LUSH! 

She also gave me my very first Liquid Sands polish - What Wizardry is This (the name alone makes me happy, as I'm a huge Wicked fan!). I must admit this polish confused me; I couldn't decide if I loved it ir hated it - the Marmite of the polish world. I'll let you decide; the first 2 pictures are without top coat, the last 2 are with three coats of gloss:)

Hmmmm - I just don't know! Anyway, let's end with a picture of something I know I love; Smokey (posing as usual!). 

 Have a great week guys x x x

Clearing out the untrieds; Revlon!

Hey hey guys, hope you're all well and still enjoying a bit of time off work?

I went for my first post-Christmas run today....well, running might be stretching it, it was more like falling forward quickly! But I do feel a bit better for getting up and about, I was beginning to feel (and look) like a Christmas pudding! 

After a bit of house sorting (we hosted Christmas and the house looked like a bomb went off!) I decided to do a wee bit of swatching as my untrieds have again been piling up. I noticed I had several Revlon polishes in the untried box; I rarely buy from Revlon, but these were pressies from various people. 

So first up, Extravagant - a warm pink polish with a silver shimmer running through it. Not much else to say really; good application, nice colour.

Next, Posh - a stunning green creme - I really loved this, it's SO green and fresh. It went on easily and dried quickly and I really want to use this for some summery nail art in 2015:)

Lastly, my favourite of the bunch; Radiant, a lovely mix of fine blue glitter with silver, green and blue hexes in a clear polish (I've layered it here over In the Navy by Orly). My husband bought this for me and I was so pleased; a polish I wish I'd discovered for myself! 

I'm so pleased I've cleared a few untrieds! Only 30 more to go lol:) But for now, I have other things to do; I'm trying to sort out my NYE nails now - I have a few ideas but this may need a little bit of research..........

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 Silk Collection - Forest

I hope you're all having  lovely Christmas Eve Eve? I'm sat with my lovely hubby, drinking wine and watching Christmas movies; Miracle on  34th Street (Emma believes!), The Grinch, Jingle All the Way...........bliss:)

Of course, as I'm watching, I'm painting my nails - today with Barry M Forest from their amazing Silk collection. I've said it before, but I really wasn't convinced with this collection to begin with. Now, I own almost the entire collection!

As you can see, it dries with a lovely matte effect; but that shimmer shows through....

My silly phone made it look blue, but it really is a stunning deep green. If you don't want the matte look you can cover it with a topcoat. But today, I fancied matte:) 

Still planning my Christmas nails, but might have to wait whilst I drink more wine!

O.P.I Muppets World Tour

Eeeeeeeep - I've finally decided on my wedding nails:)

I've ummed and ahhhhhed for ages over what to do. I knew a 'classic' French manicure was out and that any complex nail art would be a no-no (not because of any artistic objections, but I'll have minimal time the night before). I've purchased various blues (as my something blue) but then decided it stood out too much. I did the same with pinks, but still..........nothing was really grabbing me.

But the blogging world was round the corner, ready to inspire me; after weeks of checking various swatches, I decided to order the two following polishes from Beauty Bay, Muppets World Tour and Step Right Up, both by O.P.I.

Now, these are not the best piccies - I was in a rush, trying to snap them before I got glue all over them (my crafting currently involved gallons of glue:) but I hope you like;

Step Right Up is a gorgeous pink, very sheer, this is 4 coats. It makes my nails look lovely and healthy (instead of wretched and yellow like they are IRL).

Muppets World Tour is a clear base packed with minute pieces of silver glitter, alongside larger gold and blue hexes. It's ideal - mainly silver (to go with my accessories), has blue in it (my something blue) and is subtle enough to not take centre stage but awesome enough to make my nails feel 'me' on the day.

That's another thing of the wedding planning list:)

Models Own Purple Ash swatch

Another untried for you today. Now this is embarrassing to admit, but I've had this polish for 4 years! 4 YEARS! I had this even before I started blogging and for some reason I've never shared it, even though it's so lovely. So finally, here it is.....Models Own Purple Ash.

What can I say; this is a great winter weather polish, it applies like a dream and always get me a compliment when I slosh it on:) 

Over and out peeps:)

Models Own Purple Haze swatch

Sparkle alert! Sparkle alert! Sparkle alert! 

OMG, it's like having a Quality Street wrapper decorating my nails! Amazing:)

This is three coats over Imperial Purple, another Models Own lovely. I'm not sure it would become opaque on its own, I'm wondering what it might look like over some other colours, pink or orange maybe? 

Now, as much as I love this colour, there is one massive downfall. The removal is the BIGGEST pain in the bottom ever! This made me really wish I'd tried the glue method. Oh, how I wish I used the glue method.....

Claires Holographic over my first franken-polish:)

To make you forget the horror of my previous post, here is a real stunner:)

Now, I know there are lots of talented people out there making very unique nail polishes. And there are those who have the ability to make some amazing frankens. And then...........there is me! 

Behold.............grey!

Lol. A bit too much of a build up? Yes, but I do love this grey. I've found that Barry M Matt White goes gloopy faster than most of my other polishes and so, rather than chuck it again, I mixed a

bit of some random black polish with it and made my first franken. Not exactly hard, but somewhat satisfying to be able to make exactly the shade you need (I needed a particular shade as part of an ombre mani) or want. 

Anyway, I knew this would be the perfect base coat for a newbie of mine, Claire's Silver holographic. It's soooooooooooooooo pretty, I couldn't stop looking at my nails when this was on, it's just lush. Just look at it! 

Droooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooool. 

In bright light the holographic doesn't seem that amazing, but in daylight.....wow! 

The great thing about this polish is that you could wear it over most colours - this is three coats and you can still the base coat. The possibilities with this holo are endless:) 

Ciate Pocket Money swatch

Good God, have you ever tried a polish and been unable to find ANYTHING nice about it? If not, you've clearly never tried Caite Pocket Money, or as like to call it, Ciate Vomit. I tried this as part of my clearing the untrieds and just hated it. 

Where to start with this review? The vomit like colour? The terrible application that meant it dried in a sticky, bumpy mess? The brush which was poorly shaped and moulted hairs over my nails? Eurgh, disgusting. The only good thing about this is  that it was free with a magazine. But I have to be honest, if this is what other Ciate polishes are like, count me out! Why would you send out a free copy of something so bad? 

The only way I could wear this was as a base for a nice colour, Nail Pop Bling. But even then I knew it was underneath, lurking.......shudder. 

So, I think Ciate Pocket Money is heading to the bin.................:( 

Betty Jackson Aubergine (using up the untrieds!)

So, last week I re-sorted and re-organised my stash. I found nmuerous more untrieds (how? Where do they hide???) including this little baby. I've had this for almost two years, it must have been deliberately hiding from me!

So, this was part of a pack by Betty Jackson; this one is Aubergine, a very deep purple, perfect for this winter weather. It's very vampy (especially on the long nails I was rocking), so I decided to pretty it up with glitter! 

Hmmmm, well it applies well, dries nicely, looks good, but I can see why it had managed to hide at the back so successfully; it's meh. Not bad, not good, just meh. Even when covered with the awesomeness that it Revlon Hearts of Gold (btw, how cute it Hearts of Gold? So adorable!).