Tweexy Nail Polish Holders

Tweexy Nail Polish Holders

nail polish nail polish holder Nails Neon orly Review sponsored post tweexy Yellow

Hey everyone! I'm glad to be able to sit down and concentrate, I've been doing a charity fast today for work and I've never been so hungry, and I've really struggled to concentrate today. I have so much more respect for those who do Ramadan now, I couldn't do it for a whole month, a day was hard enough! But I did it, I wasn't expecting to but I did and I'm pretty proud of myself, because all I do is eat usually. 

Today's post is about Tweexy* nail polish holders, designed to keep your polish bottle in place and make it easy to access whilst you paint your nails. Tweexy* is the original nail polish holder, and whilst there have been many copycats since, their design was perfected over two years to fit all bottles and fingers, and is guaranteed for 10 years. So whilst they may seem a little bit pricier than their copycats, it's because they're of a much higher quality. Full post after the jump

Tweexy* is designed to fit every nail bottle shape. I tried it with multiple different shapes and sizes and they all fit and stayed in place. You can also move your fingers without fear of the bottle falling out as the rubber grips the bottle.

I decided the best way to show you my thoughts would be do a pros and cons of Tweexy holders:

Pros:

- Stays steady whilst you paint your nails

- Doesn't pop out/stays very stable in the holder

- Ideal for people who paint their nails with their hand steady

- Adjusters on the side so you can simply lift away without smudging your nails

- Easy access to the nail polish

Cons:

- I felt like I was breathing in the polish a lot more because it was closer to my face (I get very close to my nails when I'm painting them)

- I usually hold my hand in ridiculous ways when I paint my nails so I found it hard to paint them neatly. However, this is just a matter of personal preference so for many people this wouldn't be a problem

Overall the only cons were really down to my own personal weird ways of painting my nails, rather than any issues with the product itself, so I was pretty impressed.

I decided to test it with Orly - Road Trippin* because I liked how the bright yellow contrasted with the turquoise, but also because Orly bottles are quite large and I wanted to test whether it held it, which it did.

I also created a boomerang video of me wearing my Tweexy which I'll be posting on my Instagram.

You can find Tweexy on Amazon for £14.95 + Free Postage

What do you think? Do you want to try out, or have you already tried out, Tweexy? Let me know in the comments!

Alice

*The products in this post were provided to me for review but all opinions are entirely my own and were not influenced in any way

A England Russian Soul Collection Review + Swatches

A England Russian Soul Collection Review + Swatches

a england Glitter Holographic lilac nail polish nail varnish Nails navy Purple Review russia Silver turquoise

Hey everyone! I hope you've all had a lovely weekend. This weekend was my younger sister's birthday and father's day so it's been quite a busy one for me, but it's been nice to spend some time with my family. Today I've got a review of the gorgeous new A-England Russian Soul collection*. The collection consists of 5 majestic holographic glitters ranging from silver to navy, which are described as being inspired by 'Russian music and dance', and all of which are absolutely stunning. I'm still quite new to A-England but the polishes absolutely blow me away every time. Full review after the jump 

Waltz Of The Flowers* is a lovely lilac holographic. This was 2 easy coats, shown without topcoat. The first coat was quite thin and I had expected to need 3, but it evened out with the second coat.

Natasha's Dance/ War And Peace* is a black/blue holographic full of silver glitter. This was just one easy coat, which I was very impressed with. It dried fast and shiny but this is shown with one coat of HK Girl topcoat to see if it gave it anything extra, which it did but I think it was still beautiful without

Katyusha* is a slightly turqoise silver shade. I found this one to have the most visible brush strokes of them all, but it's not too noticeable once the polish has settled on your nail. This was 2 easy coats, shown without topcoat as it dried fast and shiny without

Polovetsian Dances* is a deep purple holographic. This was 2 easy coats but I definitely could have got away with one, I just wanted to see if the second made any difference. This is without topcoat as it dried fast and shiny without

And last but not least is Kalinka*, which is gorgeous lilac-leaning silver. I found this and Katyusha* very similar, except Katyusha is more turquoise-leaning. This was 2 easy coats, shown with topcoat but it looked the same without and it dried fast + shiny. 

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

Alice

*Some of the products in this post were provided to me for review, but all opinions are entirely my own and were not influenced in any way

Essie Spring 2016 Collection Review + Swatches

Essie Spring 2016 Collection Review + Swatches

Coral Essie Green nail polish navy Peach Pink Purple Review spring

Hey everyone! Hope you're having a lovely weekend so far. The European Championships are on, which means I'm being roped into watching a lot of football with my boyfriend. Or alternatively, it means I have a lot more time to do nails because I don't want to sit and watch TV! I never watch football, but there's something about international football that's slightly more exciting, and I do end up getting sucked in even when I hate to. 

Today I'm reviewing the Essie Spring 2016 collection*, I wanted to include this with my post about the Rankin event but I thought it would make the post too long. I've already shown the collection in this nail art, but I wanted to show the colours individually too. This is the first full Essie collection I've reviewed, and I hope it's not the last, but I was very impressed. I don't own many Essie shades, I don't have the need to buy many new polishes (as you can imagine) so apart from my trusty bottle of Essie - Beyond Cozy which I bought ages ago, I only have one or two others. This collection consists of some 'typical' spring shades, but also some darker shades that make the collections lightly unusual. 

Off Tropic* is a lovely dark green. I've used this quite a few times now for leaves in floral designs, you will have seen it in this design for example. This was 2 easy coats, shown without topcoat. I think this is on the more 'unusual' side of things for a spring collection but I really like it

High Class Affair* is a lovely peach shade, which I used as the base for these nails. This was 2 easy coats, shown without topcoat

Lounge Lover* is a great bright summery/spring pink. This was 2 easy coats, shown without topcoat

Shades On* is another darker shade in the collection, usually spring collections would contain a lilac so I love that this is slightly different. This was 2 easy coats, shown without topcoat

Sunshine State Of Mind* is a gorgeous bright orange/dark coral shade. This was 2 coats, which were slightly difficult to apply but evened out. Shown without topcoat

Pool Side Service* is another dark shade, but again I really like it. This was just 1 coat, it was very opaque! Dried incredibly fast too. Shown without topcoat

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

Alice

*some of the products in this post were provided to me for review, all opinions are entirely my own and were not influenced in any way

Essie Gel Couture #essiexrankin

Essie Gel Couture #essiexrankin

Essie essiexrankin event me nail polish portrait rankin Review

Hey everyone! This weekend in the UK was a bank holiday weekend, I know it was also Memorial Day weekend in the U.S. so I hope you all had a lovely weekend. Without sounding like I'm starting a pity party, I had the worst weekend. My car was smashed up with a hammer, I got food poisoning and my camera charger blew my electrics and set off my house alarm. They say bad things come in threes, that's a big enough three for me. Nevertheless, my nails have been a welcome distraction, and I've been writing up some blog posts to try and get ahead a bit.

Today's post is about my day at the #essiexrankin event a couple of weeks ago. I was kindly invited by Essie to join the event to promote their new Gel Couture range, and have my portrait done by the one and only Rankin. I'm still pinching myself that it actually happened, it was such an amazing opportunity, and one I definitely won't forget in a hurry. 

I was given the chance to pick out a shade from the Gel Couture range to highlight in my picture, this is the shade I chose, called Spiked With Style:

The event was held at the Ice Tank in covent garden, I've been before for previous events but it looked great decked out in flowers and nail varnish, lots and lots of nail varnish.

Photo credit: Essie

These were the shades I had to choose from for my manicure, it's not the full Gel Couture collection but just a quick selection (to make the process quicker I imagine). There are 30 shades in total, 25 of which will be available in the UK.

I then had my hair and make up done, which was an entirely new experience for me and it was great to be pampered and made to look glamourous. 

Rankin had lots of assistants wandering around helping him out, so I didn't get to see the man himself until I walked up to the camera. He was such a nice guy. I couldn't pose for the life of me and he made me feel comfortable, and took some extra photos so I could find one I liked. 

They had a big screen up showing the pictures that were being taken, so my friend managed to get the picture above whilst I was having my photos done. I also took a picture of the 6 pictures Rankin narrowed it down to for me to choose from. I couldn't choose which one to pick at all so I let him pick his favourite

In our goody bag we were also given a polish from the Gel Couture range and the topcoat. I received 'Sew Me' which is a peachy shade. Below is two coats with a coat of Gel Couture topcoat

It's claimed you don't need a basecoat as the polishes contain a basecoat themselves. I wore this colour for a week and I didn't get any staining, but it's a relatively neutral shade. I did find the formula slightly hard to work with, but that's only because it's quite thick due to it being a gel range. 

How amazing are the bottles though? Although I must admit they were a pain for holding properly for swatches, as you can see above and below! The life of a blogger ey?

The Gel Couture range launches on the 1st June, so not long to go. Keep an eye out on the Essie website for more information.

And this is the finished portrait that Rankin chose: 

I'm so happy with how it turned out, and I'm so glad I was given the opportunity to go to the event. This little blog has given me so many wonderful chances to do things I could only have dreamt have doing, but this comes pretty high up the list of 'cool things blogging has done for me'. I hope you like the finished result as much as me!

Alice

OPI New Orleans Collection Review + Swatches

OPI New Orleans Collection Review + Swatches

Blue Green nail polish new orleans OPI Pink Purple Review shimmer swatch

This post has been a very long time coming. I've had my swatches done for ages, but then I couldn't find the time to edit them, and when I'd edited them I couldn't find the time to write the post on them. So here I am, finally sitting down and writing a post on them. Let me start by saying that I love this collection, with the exception of a couple of polishes that I haven't actually featured here I love every single polish (so a whole 10 colours, although I could only fit nine in my collage image), and so it's definitely not a reflection on the polishes that it's taken me so long to write this. Just ... sometimes life gets in the way. And it especially gets in the way of a super long review (which in my book is anything more than 6 polishes). 

The OPI New Orleans Collection* was released for Spring 2016 (it's still spring so technically I'm not even late) and is typical of their yearly collections named after a place, or even sometimes twice yearly (correct me if I'm wrong?). I know very little about New Orleans, but I do know I like these polishes, there are so many fun shades in here. Whilst they're not all 100% unique, they're great for summer and great for nail art. I have actually been using these in nail art for months so you will have seen them popping up here and there. 

See what I mean about big collection? They wouldn't even fit in one image, such a hardship haha. Those of you who know the collection well will I'm sure be able to see what's missing, but for those of you who don't know, I haven't featured Take A Right On Bourbon*, and Humidi-Tea* because they really weren't my kind of shade and they just didn't go with my skin tone at all. That is of course completely down to personal preference and I'm sure many of you love those shades. 

First up is Rich Girls and Po-Boys* is described as a 'china blue creme' but I actually think it's a lot brighter than that. I was expecting more of a demure shade but I love this brighter shade of blue and it's perfect for summer. This was 2 easy coats, shown without topcoat as it dried fast and shiny. 

Got Myself Into a Jambala* is a bright peach shade. This is great for summer, especially for your toes on the beach. This was 3 coats, but I could probably have got away with two. Shown without topcoat as it dried shiny enough

Weirdly, I'm Sooo Swamped* was actually the shade I was looking forward to the most out of this collection. I need a new green for leaves in nail art as I've used my usual favourite, OPI - Don't Mess With OPI, to death. DMWO will still be a favourite of mine, but I'm Sooo Swamped* is my new leaf go-to. This was 2 very easy coats, shown without topcoat as it dried fast and shiny

Let Me Bayou A Drink* is a really pretty 'blush pink' as OPI describe it. It has a nice shimmer to it, which usually I wouldn't be a fan of, and I wasn't expecting to like this, but it works really well in this and makes a great shade for bridal nails or a subtle design. This was 3 thin coats, shown without topcoat

Show Us Your Tips* stands out a lot from the rest of the collection due to its glittery shimmer. It's a lovely periwinkle shade and again it's nice and subtle. This was 3 thin coats, shown without topcoat but I think if you wanted to get the full effect of this colour then a topcoat would probably bring it out more.

Crawfishin' For A Compliment* is a perfect creamy orange. This was 2 easy coats, shown without topcoat as it dried fast and shiny. 

I actually found this very similar to Got Myself Into A Jambala* in person (or in low light at least), so much so that I accidentally painted my thumb nail with GMIAJ and the rest of my nails with this when doing some nail art. It was much more obvious the next day, and on camera, so I had to redo them! 

Suzi Nails New Orleans* is a bright pink which again would be perfect for summer, especially with a tan. This was 3 coats. I was hoping for two but I found application slightly patchy so for comfort I went with three. Shown without topcoat as it dried fast and shiny without

Spare Me A French Quarter* is described as a 'raspberry creme' but I would probably call it more of a berry wine shade. I love colours like this, I find they look super elegant and are great for a party/event. This was 2 coats, although I probably could have got away with 1, but there was a slightly VNL. Shown without topcoat as it dried fast and shiny

I Manicure For Beads* is a purple creme. I'm really intrigued by the name of this one but couldn't find any information on it, does anyone know what it's referring to? This was 2 easy coats but I could easily have got away with one. Shown without topcoat as it dried fast and shiny.

Last but not least is She's A Bad Muffuletta*, a bright red creme. This is definitely another shade that's perfect for summer, and for nail art. This was 2 easy coats, shown without topcoat as it dried fast and shiny without. 

What do you think? Have you picked up any of the collection yet? Let me know in the comments!

Alice

*some of the products in this post were provided to me for review, any opinions are entirely my own and were not influenced in any way