Jewels at your fingertips

Ever since receiving a Deborah Lippmann nail varnish in my latest December Glossybox, I felt really intrigued to see what other colours the DL range had to offer. I toddled into my local House Of Fraser and literally fell in love with the beautiful colour 'Across The Universe'. If you are unfamiliar with this colour, you should Google it, it's stunning. After looking at the extortionate price of £18 for just one bottle, my friend who was with me at the time pointed out that I could probably find a good dupe for merely half that price. I agreed, put the polish down and headed to Boots.

After much searching I picked up the latest Barry M nail varnish, Silver Glitter from the limited edition collection and teamed it with some other polishes I already owned.

I firstly coated my nails in Black, followed by the Silver Glitter and lastly Hologram. Here's the effect;

Ta-daaaa! Sparkly twinkly nails. I can't stop looking at them!

What is your favourite glitter nail combo?

Gosh Wild Lilac nail polish

Gosh Nail Polish - Wild Lilac

I actually forgot I had this nail polish until the other day when I was routing around my nail products draw and stumbled upon it's beautiful lilac self. Although after applying, I did get a huge hefty smudge on my index finger. Nail fail.

The reason I went digging for this nail varnish was, that I was re-watching a few episodes on Towie online and saw Lydia Bright sporting a gorgeous lilac nail polish. I was going to buy myself one, but then realised I already had one! Bonus.

It's a terrible photo of Lydia, but it's the only one I could find online of the said polish. I nabbed this one from Google Images.

I know it's a tad summery, but if you like something, why not wear it? Do you enjoy purple polishes as much as I do? What is your current fave polish for winter?



Peachy Keen Birthday Countdown

I've been such a slacker lately when it comes to blogging. To be honest, I've had so much going on over these past few weeks. Some things nice, other things not so nice. Hence why I haven't blogged as much.

Anyways, that aside, I just wanted to show you my current favourite nail varnish to date; 

Barry M - Peach Melba

It does take a couple of coats to get your nails looking completely opaque. I do often steer clear of nude colours as I find they don't apply well, take lots of coats to even look half decent and can quite often result in a streaky effect. But, I can safely say this 'Peach melba' has been a pleasant surprise. On the photos above are my nails after three coats.


In other news, it's my birthday in 5 days!!! (16th August to be precise) Eeeeeee Excitement! Although, I'm not overly excited by the fact that I'll be turning the ripe old age of 25.

To make me feel better about this 'getting old mlark' - If you would like to send cards/holiday vouchers/presents, then feel free to email me directly.
(Ha ha - only kidding)

;)

Project Nail Art: Crazy Eyes

As boredom strikes again, I find the time to whip out my nail art drawer, grab myself a cup of tea and get cracking at some nail decorating.

I'm constantly browsing Google images for inspiration, and stumbled across these adorable, yet cheeky nail designs. I can't decide whether they look more like M&Ms or PAC Man ghosts? I'll let you decide!

The colours I used were;

Brown = Barry M (cant remember the name)
Red = China Glaze High Maintenance
Orange = Sleek Florida
Blue = Barry M Cyan Blue
Green = Barry M Spring Green

In other news the Bank Holiday weekend is nearly upon us! I'm really going to miss these Bank Holidays - the next one isn't until the end of August. Is anybody up to anything nice? I have a few nice things planned...

On Saturday, myself and the girls are parading down to the travel agents and having a little nosey at some prices for Ibiza. We're going for Easter 2012 - it's 10months away, it isn't even booked and already I'm excited! Saturday night, the boyfriend and I are off to the cinema to divulge in yummy Ben & Jerry's whilst being entertained by 'The Hangover 2'. As soon as I saw the trailer for this movie I couldn't wait to see it. I love Alan - I wish I was part of his Wolf pack. On Sunday I'm spending the day with my boyfriend, before getting my glad rags on and hitting the town for cocktails with my two favourite girls. Monday should be somewhat of a hangover/feeling sorry for myself day. But, me and the boyfriend are heading out into the countryside to a lovely ice cream parlour. Mmmm. I'll hopefully put together some kind of weekend summary in photos for you all.

Have a lovely weekend!

Project Nail Art: Icecream Sprinkles

With the sunshine in the sky and the warm summer quickly approaching I figured the latest nail art post it very fitting. There's nothing I love more than an ice cream cone with lots of strawberry sauce and sprinkles on top in this gorgeous weather we've been having. So, I transferred the ice cream sprinkles on to my nails.

In other news, I hope you're all enjoying your extra long weekend: Round 2. I'd love to hear what you're all up to?

Updated Nail Varnish Storage

I did a little post a while ago about the way I stored my nail varnish collection. However, a girls nail varnish collection is always ever-growing, and sooner or later, I had run out of space in my hand-painted chest. It was quite a shame, as I really adore this little chest. I love the vintage shabby chic feel it has to it.

Here is the old way I stored my nail varnishes;

The top section was used for my actual polishes, and the lower drawer for items such as nail files, cutters, cuticle sticks and nail art transfers.


Having nearly accumulated double the amount of polishes I had before, it dawned on me that I needed a much larger storage area.
And, so alas! Here is my new Nail Varnish storage system in all it's glory;

My collection is now situated in my vanity table drawer. I came across these simple plastic drawer dividers in a local shop, and figured that they would be perfect for organising my nail varnishes by colour. I've also kept a side space for all of my nail items including; nail varnish remover, files, cutters, cuticle sticks, cotton wool pads, nail art and hand sanitiser.

It feels so much more organised now. I can see exactly what colours I have rather than having to dig and route around in a very un-organised pile.

I'd love to see how you girls store your nail polishes.

Project Nail Art: Fly like a Bee

After searching on Google Images for some nail art inspiration, I stumbled across some Bumble Bee nails. As soon as I laid my eyes on this cute little design, I decided to give it a try. Not only do you have a tiny little bee on your nails, but it gives the illusion that the bee is buzzing around on your hand. I love it!

After sitting at my vanity table with all my nail art equipment for a good 30mins, I finally produced the nail art I'd desired.

And voila...

I think this is my favourite nail art so far. Although because the bee took a lot of nail varnish to create, I had to wait ages for the little guy to dry. I jumped in the shower a little too soon and smudged him. Ooops. My boyfriend then asked where the bee had gone, whilst looking at my very smudged thumb nail from the shower. To which I responded "Hmm, he must have flown away?" :( Haha.


The base colour I used for this nail art was..

Barry M - Cyan Blue

Project Nail Art: Lauren Conrad Inspired Leopard Nails

I recently saw that the very beautiful Lauren Conrad had tweeted a photo of her amazing leopard print nails. Feeling rather inspired after seeing this photo - I decided to give it a go myself.

Topshop - Mannequin

Unfortunately, I wish I'd have taken a photo of my nails the day I actually painted them. Instead, I left them two days before taking a photo - which is why they're looking little a tatty. Bad times. But, you pretty much get the gist.

In other 'Project Nail Art' news - I've really gotten into the whole nail art thing. Regularly painting my nails in adventurous quirky ways. Strangers often comment on my nails as of late. I can't wait to show you the other masterpieces I've painted on my pretty pollys.

Project Nail Art: Marble Nails

I've decided to take up a new little past time hobby. I've always loved painted my nails all different lovely colours, but when it comes to nail art, I've pretty much steered clear. I've kind of been happy just browsing at other peoples art work, and left all the 'handy work' to the professionals. (Rubbish joke alert!)

However, the other weekend, I was exceptionally bored and decided to give nail marbling a go. I've seen it around the internet before, decided to look up a tutorial on YouTube and give it a go myself.

It's quite a messy job and it was only my first attempt. On the close up photos they do look rather shoddy around the edges - but, like I said, it was my first time. I'm now happy to say I've popped my nail art cherry and should hopefully be doing more designs soon.

The colours I decided to use were; Pink, Black and White.

Here's the end result.

And here are some pretty pictures of some colour experimenting I was doing.

If you fancy a go at nail marbling, the tutorial I used was this one. She is truly a very talented lady!

I'd love to see your designs!

Topshop Make-up Haul

OK, so I know I'm a little bit overdue with this post. I'd read so many blogs about Topshop's make-up range, and was very eager to try out a few products from their selection. Being a consistent Topshop customer, I've surprised myself that I haven't picked up any of their makeup sooner.

None the less, over the weekend, I toddled into my local Topshop hoping to try out a few pieces. After inspecting all of the items, I finally settled for the following;

Nail Varnish - Mannequin £5.00
Nail Varnish - Sketch £5.00
Lipstick - Brighton Rock £8.00

'Mannequin' is the beautiful delicate nude shade, perfect with one coat for a french manicure or two coats for a perfect peachy pastel finish. 'Sketch' is a real earthy, grungy dark grey. I love 'Sketch'. It's really classic and just about goes with everything!

I really rate these nail varnishes and would highly recommend them. I'm quite the critic when it comes to nail varnishes - I'm difficult to please. Not only are Topshop's polishes thick and luxurious, but they're also long lasting. Hurray for Topshop!

I also picked up 'Brighton Rock' from the lipstick range. I had my eye on 'Hazard' on their website, but this was much nicer in the flesh. It really reminds me of MAC's Impassioned (another favourite lipstick of mine), so I was really happy to pick this one up at £4.00 cheaper than the MAC one.

Their lipsticks aren't as drying as I was expecting and are long lasting too. I shall hopefully be picking some more up soon!

Has anyone tried out anything else from the Topshop make-up collection? I really want to give the Cream Blushes a try. I've never used a cream blush before though, I've always used powder blushes, so I'm not sure if I'd be any good at applying them. Let me know your musings..

Put a spring in your step

Just a pop of colour that I'm currently loving.

Barry M - Spring Green

A little bright and summery, but we can all wish for sunshine can't we?

My current nail varnish storage system is getting a little bit too full, does anybody know of any great ways of storing nail varnishes? (plus links) That would be greatly apprechiated. I have a ridiculous amount of nail polishes.

Grey skies turn to dusk

I'm currently in adoration of chunky knits, jacquard, fairisle, check and tartan prints. So, as you can imagine, when I stumbled across this lovely fairisle print cardigan, I instantly had to purchase it.

Also, whilst on the topic; I know they're getting really popular and a little over-done now, but I really want a hobo jumper - I just need to find the perfect one.

Fairisle cardigan - Primark

Snood - Primark

Grey long sleeved jumper - Topshop

Bodycon skirt - Topshop

Boots - Garage

Nails - Barry M

No7 Pink Grapefruit nail colour

No7 Nail colour - Pink Grapefruit


Just, wow. Pink Grapefruit by No7 is currently my favourite nail polish. I happened to stumble upon this colour by complete accident.

Are you sitting comfortably? Then I'll begin my Pink Grapefruit discovery story...

Whilst doing my monthly toiletries shop in my local Boots, I popped all my essentials into my basket, and toddled off to the checkout queue. As soon as I was greeted by the lovely checkout lady, I was instantly drawn in by her amazing nail colour - like a moth to a flame! Not wanting to miss out on the opportunity of knowing what this adorable colour was, I decided to ask her. To which she replied "You can get it here! It's by No7!"

As quick as a flash, I'd paid for my items, dashed off around the corner to find the said nail varnish and skipped back into the checkout queue. I left Boots feeling really happy and content with my new eye catching nail polish.

Do any of you own this polish? What do you think?