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Kamis, 14 April 2016

A England - To Emily Bronte Collection Swatches + Review

 Hey everyone! I feel so frustrated with myself, I had intended to post every day this week to catch up on reviews but I've come down with an infection and I just feel awful. It's also making me really emotional for some reason, like I've cried at my own nails at least twice, so I decided to have a few days break. I'm still not feeling great but I can't deal with the not-posting guilt so I wanted to post this gorgeous A-England collection.

A England is a brand that I've wanted to try for a very very long time, their polishes are always awe-inspiring and unique, and the collections always intrigue me. I was lucky enough to be approached by Adina to review for A-England recently, and I absolutely jumped at the chance. I was sent this collection, (the To Emily Bronte Collection*), and a duo that I'll be showing you in the next few days. All of the polishes are gorgeous, but I feel a special affinity to this collection because they're all inspired by Wuthering Heights which is such a brilliant book. I used to be such a bookworm before uni and work took over my life and Wuthering Heights was definitely one of my favourites. 

I felt a lot of pressure to get my review of these perfect, not just because I want to impress Adina and my readers, but also because I want to do these beautiful polishes justice. I decided to use my new camera for my 'other' shots and my usual lightbox camera for my five finger shots. Unfortunately I wasn't very happy with the five finger shots, I didn't think they did the polishes justice, but I don't have it in me to break tradition and not have five finger shots. And anyway, it gives a perception of what the polishes look like inside and outside, but it also definitely highlights how much I need to get a lightbox set up for my new camera because the quality is 100x better!



Wuthering Heights* is the polish of it's namesake and it definitely suits the dark stone of the house. It's granite-like but with a holographic glitter to it. This was 2 easy coats, I could probably have got away with one but the first was slightly patchy. This is with topcoat to bring out the shine





Spirit Of The Moors* is a deep sparkly blue holographic glitter. This was 2 easy coats, the first was patchy but it evened out with the second. Shown with topcoat to bring out the depth of the glitter



The polish reminded me a lot of OPI - Give Me Space so I decided to do a comparison between the two. Shown below is Give Me Space in the middle and Spirit of the Moors* on the other two. As you can see GMS it slightly darker and more space like (as the name would suggest) and I think Spirit of The Moors* has more depth.




Let Me In* is a lovely burgundy berry holographic glitter. This was just 1 very easy coat, just one! Shown with topcoat 





Heathcliff* is a dark dense glitter. The glitter pieces are a bigger than in the rest of the collection, I guess because Heathcliff was the black sheep, the polish suits him. This was 2 coats, the first coat was very patchy but it all evened out with the second. Shown with topcoat as it dried matte and textured-ish





Finally is Cathy*, this is a lovely pale lilac. It does contain holographic glitter but it's a lot more subtle than the other colours, and my cameras both really struggled to pick it up, although it's a lot more noticeable in person. This was 2 easy coats, shown with topcoat. 





Overall I'm very impressed with these, in fact as first impressions go I don't think they could be any better. These retail at £9 each on the A-England website. You can also find a list of other stockists here.

What do you think?  Do you own any of these? Let me know in the comments!
Alice

*These polishes were provided to me for review, all opinions are my own and were not influenced in any way 

Selasa, 19 Januari 2016

Barry M Autumn/Winter 2015 Speedy Quick Dry Swatches and Review

Hey everyone! Day two of my week of reviews, so far so good with posting but we'll see how it continues. Today is the Autumn/Winter Barry M Speedy Dry Collection*. Just like with yesterday's post I've actually had these sitting on my laptop since October but I've just had writers block when it comes to typing up the post. I've struggled to even start writing it tonight but I'm forcing myself. I think I just need to get over the hump I've created in my head for reviews and then I'll be fine. 

These four polishes were added to the Speedy Quick Dry collection, whilst they are indeed autumnal, I can see them being used into summer. Especially the red, Dead Heat*. They, like the rest of the collection, use a wider brush than Barry M's original designs did, which makes for easy application. As they do indeed dry quickly, this wide brush helps to prevent smears. I've been really impressed with the Speedy polishes so far and these are no exception. 




Dead Heat* is a bright red shade. This was two very easy coats, but I could probably have got away with one. This dried incredibly quickly, I caught it on the table a couple of minutes later and it didn't smudge. Shown without topcoat. I used these in my matte christmas trees design.



Dragster* is a dark grey, with slightly dark green undertones. I struggled with the application of this one, it dried whilst I was applying it and began to bubble. With topcoat it would have looked fine but I wanted to give a true representation of the polish. Aside from the bubbles it dried very shiny and fast. 



Slipstream* is a lovely dusky purple shade. I used two coats here but I could perhaps have got away with one. Shown without topcoat as it dried fast and shiny. I used these in my Halloween witch nails (which shows how long they've been on my computer for!)



Sprint Finish* is a gorgeous burgundy. This was two coats, the application was relatively easy but you do have to be quick in applying as they dry so fast. This was two coats without topcoat


These retail at £3.99 and can be found in Superdrug or Boots stores, or on the Barry M website.

What do you think? Do you own any of these polishes? Let me know in the comments!
Alice

Jumat, 20 November 2015

Stone Marble Nail Art for Avon

It's no secret that I hate watermarbling. Every time I've tried it over the years it's just made me angry and never come out successfully. So I was well aware during the stone marble nails trend a year or so ago that they would make me angry and incapable just as much, and so I never attempted them. So when Avon asked to create some for them this month, I went into a bit of panic, but I decided to give them a go nonetheless. These took 2 and a half hours to get anything vaguely resembling stone marble, and I'm still not entirely convinced. BUT they're not that bad considering how they could have looked if I'd just kept each fail rather than repainting my nails time and time again, so I guess they're not too bad. I added studs as I felt it made them a bit more interesting, and if I hadn't need to paint other things I would have probably worn these for a few days in the end!


I used Avon - Matte White as my base, and then I used a mixture of black and white for the middle layer, and then I used a dark grey Avon polish - which doesn't have a name on the bottle. Then I used  studs from Born Pretty Store. And finished with a coat of Seche Vite


What do you think? Let me know in the comments!
Alice

Minggu, 04 Oktober 2015

Grey Half Spots

Hey everyone! I've been debating whether or not to post these nails, as they didn't really turn out how I envisaged. I'm not really sure what I wanted them to look like, but I definitely wanted the accent nail to be a bit more bright and bold. I thought the yellow would work a lot better than it did, it just doesn't stand out enough, especially not for photography's sake. However, this is a diary of my designs, good and bad, so here you go. It's simplistic but there's something about it I really like (except the accent nail).

The base of these is OPI - I Cannoli Wear OPI, and then I used Barry M - Miami and Barry M - On Your Marks for the dots with a dotting tool. And then I used Barry M - Matte Topcoat to finish off the design (after a coat of Seche Vite to smooth things out)


What do you think? Let me know in the comments!
Alice

Minggu, 30 Agustus 2015

OPI Autumn/Winter 2015 Venice Collection Review and Swatches

Hey everyone! It's been absolutely ages since I posted a full review, so long that I'm actually a bit ashamed! It's just much more fun and less time consuming (believe it or not) to create nail art with collections instead of reviewing them individually. I only paint my nails on a Saturday at the moment so I need to prioritise any nail art commitments first. However, the OPI - Venice Collection* deserves to be showcased, and whilst it may have taken me three saturdays to complete the review, here it is. You've seen a few nail art designs using the colours already (like this, this, and this one) but they're just as beautiful as individual colours. I've also got a couple more nail designs coming up with them too. This is probably my favourite collection from OPI this year (as you can probably tell), and they've released quite a few. We all know I love a good pastel, but they manage to be both autumnal and pastel at the same time. 




A Great Opera-tunity* is a beautiful orange terracotta colour. I wore the gradient design I created with this for a week and it got a lot of compliments, which I don't normally find with an orange. This was 2 easy coats without topcoat, and it dried fast and shiny



Be There In A Prosecco* is a light nude/off white to rival My Vampire Is Buff, which is one of my OPI favourites. This was 3 thin coats without topcoat, and again it dried fast and shiny.



Gelato On My Mind* is an absolutely perfect light blue, which is my favourite nail polish shade as I'm sure you all know by now! I used it for these rose nails. This was the polish that stood out most to me originally in the collection alongside Be There In A Prosecco* and it didn't disappoint. This was two easy coats without topcoat.



I Cannoli Wear OPI* is a lovely light grey. It's really hard to find the perfect light grey, as I always think they're just a bit too dark, but I think this might be it. This was 3 coats but I could have probably got away with two if I wasn't so fussy. Shown without topcoat. 



Purple Palazzo Pants*  is a dark lilac, I say dark because it is definitely darker than most lilacs I own but I do love it. You'll see this in some upcoming nail art and I wore these for a week too without chipping so I'm very impressed with this colour. This was 2 easy coats without topcoat.



And finally, Tiramasu For Two* is a darker nude than Be There In A Prosecco*. It actually looks quite light in these pictures but this nail art shows how it's actually darker. I wasn't expecting to like this colour but I really did, and it's another than I wore for a week. This was 2 easy coats without topcoat. Apologies for the blurred photo below, I didn't realise until it was too late that the photos with the bottle were all out of focus.


What do you think? Do you have a favourite shade from the collection?
 Let me know in the comments!
Alice

Minggu, 01 Februari 2015

A2Z Series - L Is For 'Lines'



Hi NaiLovelies!

We are hurtling along at a right pace and have already reached week 12 of this A2Z Challenge.   This week the letter is 'L' and the prompt word is LINES.  Yaaaay, NOT!!



I'm not going to lie, I have been totally dreading doing this manicure - my nemesis is the aforementioned straight lines!  When I was younger I always struggled writing in a straight line and sometimes I think I can't even walk in a straight line!  Also, ever since I started stamping my nails over two years ago, I have never ever been able to stamp straight lines - lining up images continues to be a challenge for me so I guess you can see why I was less than ecstatic about this weeks challenge...

However, a challenge is supposed be exactly that so I rolled up my sleeves and I still gave it a good old try - I like the end result but there is definitely room for improvement though....




For this manicure I used my existing gel polish manicure, OPI Gelcolor Peace&Love&OPI a gorgeous multi-chrome gel which beautifully shifts from green to grey and purple.  It is such a lovely polish - I have it in both regular polish and Gelcolor formula.  The finish is slightly different as the Gelcolor is more shimmery but both are totally stunning.

To stamp the lines I used the deliciously opaque Dark Grey Mundo de Unas stamping polish and LeaLac A plate.  I have both plates A & B and I must say, they are among my favorite plates.  The images are so large and they work incredibly well with the Creative Stamper (you can click here to check out my video to see how well they work together).  The LeaLac plates are one of the few plates that have images large enough to fit my nails, even when the are at their longest.  I am and have always been incredibly impressed with the quality and size of these and I am so glad I had sense to pick them both up a couple of years ago.

I had planned to use my new Uber Chic plates for this manicure but sadly they've not arrived yet.





When I stamped this manicure I used my new Creative Stamper and I must say it totally did my head in - slipping out of my hands is definitely not what you need when you are trying to stamp straight lines!  So approximately 5 minutes after my topcoat dried, this happened.....  I knew those crappy rhinestones gifted from MoYou would come in useful one day as they won't be used for nail art ever...!


Hopefully adding these rhinestones to the slippery Creative Stamper holder will give me more grip next time I use it.  If this doesn't work, I will paint it with a textured polish like OPI Liquid Sand (but a cheaper alternative).

Before I sign off, here is a shot of the duochrome shift of OPI|Gelcolor Peace & Love & OPI without the stamping!




Don't forget to check out the fab manicures created by the other bloggers participating in this challenge by clicking on the Inlinkz below and by visiting the hub to see all the manicures created in this challenge series.

Ciao 4 Now

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