NOTD - New Year's Eve Nails

Happy New Year's Eve Lovelies!!!

I can't believe it's the last day of 2011! This has been the greatest year of my life as I had my baby daughter in July and so it has been such a life changing year but definitely the best!!! So waving goodbye to the most memorable year!

Also 2011 was the year where my nail polish obsession was born so here's to a healthy and prosperous New Year to all and many more nail polish purchases, swatches and fun!!!

Today I am wearing Essie's "Turquoise & Caicos" an aqua blue creme nail polish. Sadly this took three coats to reach opacity. It is a beautiful Tiffany & Co colour so I decided to jazz it up with some silver bling using Essie's " A Cut Above" which is a clear based polish packed full of micro, medium and large silver hexagon glitter particles. I went for another glitter gradient effect for the tips and am happy with how this mani turned out!

What do you think? X

NOTD - Deborah Lippmann Candy Shop

Hello Lovelies!

Today I am wearing Deborah Lippmann's "Candy Shop" from the "Get This Party Started" trio collection of polishes including the infamous " Happy Birthday" and the beautiful "Forget You". This set was exclusive to Nordstrom and Barneys in USA but I happened to stumble across it on the House of Fraser website the other day and I ordered it to collect from store. It costs £28 which is steep but usually one polish costa around £16.

Candy Shop is basically the Happy Birthday glitter polish within a pink base. There are different coloured glitters including silver, blue, red, pink, orange, green and gold. There are medium and large hexagon glitter particles. The pink base is a sheer jelly. It took two coats to reach full opacity and no application issues! I really love this polish as it is easy party nails they really remind me of cupcakes and hundreds and thousands! An instant jelly sandwich!!!

What do you think?

PCF Christmas Challenge Day 25 - Christmas Day Mani

Merry Christmas Lovelies!

Sorry this post is a belated one but what with the festivities yesterday I simply didn't have time as was too busy enjoying my baby girl's first Christmas! I don't know about you, but I received some great polishes from family and friends which will take me a long way into the New Year! Hope you all were as spoilt as I was!

Well, I painted my nails on Christmas Eve ready for Christmas Day and for this mani I used OPI's "Speak For Your Elf" which is from the ULTA Exclusive Holiday Deck Your Nails Collection 2011. It is a red based glitter with lots of red micro glitter packed throughout. I knew this polish had to be used for my Christmas mani not just because of the name but how beautiful it looked in the bottle. I applied three coats to reach opacity as it is a sheer jelly. I had zero issues with application.

To spice this mani up a bit I decided to go for a gradient glitter effect again. For the glitter tips I used Color Club's "Gingerbread" from the Beyond The Mistletoe Collection 2011. This is a clear based polish with gold and holographic micro glitter - super sparkly! To create the gradient effect I brushed a thin coat from a third of the way down the nail. After that had dried I painted a thicker coat just a bit above and then after that coat dried I painted a thicker coat towards the tip end of the nail. To be honest I am not all that pleased as I think I could have done better as I was a bit too heavy handed especially when it came to painting my right hand! I do think this mani looks extremely festive though and I don't want to take it off it's too pretty!

What do you think? X

NOTD - On Wednesday's We Wear Pink - Essie A Cut Above

Good Day Lovelies!

Today I am wearing a beautiful mani (even if I do say so myself!) For this manicure I used 2 coats of China Glaze's "Liquid Leather" nail polish - a super glossy black creme (my go to black!) Once the base was dry I painted a thin coat of Essie's "A Cut Above" from the Luxeffects Collection 2011. A Cut Above is a stunning clear based polish packed full of vintage rose pink large, medium and micro hexagon glitter. I started the thin coat by striking the brush upwards from 1/3 of the way down the nail. The coverage was good and I was deliberately trying not to distribute too much glitter in an effort to create a gradient effect. To finish the gradient effect I applied a thicker coat more towards the tip end of my nail. To finish I used two coats of Seche Vite Top Coat to smooth it all out!

I absolutely adore this mani and it looks so pretty! It's very glam, girly and glitzy (my kinda manicure!)

So what do you think? X

NOTD - Barry M Blue Glitter

Hey lovelies!

Today I am wearing Barry M's "Blue Glitter 146" Nail Polish. This is a clear based polish with a hint of blue packed full of small blue glitter particles. To achieve full opacity it took just two coats which was impressive! However, the drying time took forever inbetween coats much to my annoyance as I bodged a few nails! As you will see from the photos below the glitter is very sparkly but even more so in real life! Also, the colour in the photos I don't feel truly represents the colour in real life as it is more of a beautiful cyan blue and soooooo pretty! This reminds me of OPI's "Absolutely Alice" which I think I might try and re-create by throwing a gold glitter on top later!

Super impressed with this as it is a cheaper polish RRP £2.95. I searched high and low locally and I actually only found it in Birmingham!

What do you think?

NOTD - OPI Excuse Moi

Hey lovelies!

Today I am posting a mani that I wore pre-Christmas party nails but didn't get round to posting.

I wore OPI's " Excuse Moi" from The Muppets Collection 2011. This is a pink based polish packed with Multi-colour glitter including pink, green, orange, silver and blue that I could see. This polish in my opinion is amazing as it took just two coats for full opacity and this is a glitter polish that doesn't need to be layered over a colour as it looks fab on it's own! This is so pretty to look at and I love it! I used one coat of topcoat and it was pretty smooth but I think with another would have been completely smoothed out!

What do you think?

NOTD - Office Christmas Party Nails

Good Morning Lovelies!

Tonight is the night of the office Christmas party and so it's a good opportunity to wear something eye-catching and festive and I have gone for a very bling look!

For this mani I used Barry M's "Gold Foil" nail polish for my base colour. True to it's name it is a lovely gold with a foil effect. This was a one coat wonder although there were a few areas which did need a small touch up. I have thrown some night light pics below of the foil on it's own. For the bling effect I used two coats of Milani Special FX "Gold" which is a clear base polish packed full of large metallic gold hexagon glitter. I used two thick coats which nearly achieved full opacity but where there is the odd bald area missing a glitter the base colour makes up for it so you can't really tell. The application of the Milani was a bit tricky but I got there in the end!

This is soooo bling! Really bright and in your face! I love it though as there is no better time to pull off nails like this! I took a lot of photos to try and capture this polish as good as it looks in real life but they still don't do it enough justice!

Hope you all like! What do you think? X

PCF - Christmas Challenge Day 15 - Snowman

Good Morning Lovelies!

So it's day 15 of the Purple Crumpet Fairy Christmas Challenge (10 days until Christmas ...Eeek!!!) today's challenge is "Snowman". For this challenge I decided to recycle my previous mani Revlon's "Blue Mosaic" and I chose to do my snowman as an accent. For my snowman I used OPI's "Alpine Snow" and with a large dotting tool placed three dots onto my nail. The dots weren't big enough so I just stretched them out with the dotting tool. Next I did the red scarf using OPI's "Colour So Hot It Berns". I used the pointed end of my thinnest dotting tool to create the lines. Next I used Andrea Fulerton's "Dot and Flick" pen for the hat, eyes, mouth and buttons. Unfortunately I did small dots for the mouth but they were too close together and so all merged into one line! I drew his arms with a brown OPI and thin dotting tool and used an orange by Barry M for the carrot nose. I then decided to add some snowfall in the background.

Overall I am pleased with my first attempt at "real" nail art and my cute snowman.

What do you think of this festive accent manicure?

My fave topcoat "Seche Vite"

Good afternoon lovelies!

Today I do not have a new mani to show you all but I just wanted to let everyone know a little bit about my favourite topcoat!

For those of you lacquer-heads that read/follow my blog you will no doubt already know all about the infamous "Seche Vite" but to all of those in the dark including some of my friends and family I thought I would let you in on my secret! I am forever asked "how do you manage to paint your nails so much with a 5 month old baby?". Well it's all down to good old "Seche Vite". I heard about Seche Vite being the world's best topcoat back in March of this year. I purchased my very first bottle from ASOS at £9.99 (I have now sourced it cheaper from Sally's and EBay at around £5-£6).

Now this topcoat is AMAZING as it offers everything I am looking for in a top coat. It dries super quick drying all layers of polish beneath it, it has a super glossy finish and I don't seem to get any chips with it!

Some flaws I might encounter from time to time is minor shrinkage and minor tip wear! I can honestly say I have never used a topcoat as good as this and I have raved about it so much to many of people that I think Seche Vite ought to put me on commission.

There is one major flaw as when you get half way down the bottle it becomes thick and gloopy and starts to drag your nail polish and I would normally just repurchase another bottle. I now have 4 half used bottles and so caved and bought a bottle of "Seche Restore".

Seche Restore is a lacquer thinner and is used by adding a few drops into your Seche Vite bottle then roll the bottle allowing it to replace lost chemicals and wow there you have it your gloopy Seche Vite is like new again! I picked up Seche Restore off EBay brand new for less than £6 Inc postage! Well worth it as it has revived four bottles and there is so much more left!

So basically the moral of this post is if you don't own this fabulous topcoat I think you need it!

Do you already own it? Let me know what you think of it?

PCF - Christmas Challenge Day 11 - Christmas Wrapping

Good morning lovelies!

Well today is day 11 of the Purple Crumpet Fairy group's Christmas Challenges. I am showcasing my current manicure for today's challenge albeit not being much of a challenge for me as I haven't really put too much effort into this one at all. Having said that, when I think of Christmas wrapping I think of glitter, holographic, pretty wrapping! This year I have wrapped presents with silver holographic paper and black holographic ribbon (perhaps I should have re-created that look onto my nails!) Oh well, guess I was too eager to try out one of my un-trieds and here I bring to you ... Revlon's "Blue Mosaic".

For this manicure firstly I painted my nails with a base colour using China Glaze's "Towel Boy Toy". It was my first time using this and I am disappointed with it. Basically, it's a neon blue that dries matte and is of a watery consistency making it streaky and bald in spots even with two coats. Anyway, I stopped at the two coats as I knew I would be layering. To layer on top I used Revlon "Blue Mosaic" which is a clear base polish with bright micro blue glitter particles and large blue, silver and green hexagon glitters packed in. I used two coats of this polish and encountered no problems with the application and was very happy with how opaque it applied covering the ugly base I had used.

Overall, I am pleased with the combo as I believe they work well and look good together. My nails feel very wintry looking and I feel like an ice queen. I think it looks so pretty and will definitely wear again. I'm not a huge lover of blue but I am loving this!

Not sure I have achieved the "wrapping" theme exactly but the moral is I like to give and receive pretty wrapped gifts and I liked this look a lot on it's own so was too scaredy cat to add some freehand nail art!

What do you think?

PCF - Christmas Challenge Day 10 - Most Festive Red

Hey lovelies!

Today's theme over at the Purple Crumpet Fairy group (Facebook) is "Most Festive Red".

For this manicure I decided to use one of my most recent purchases from OPI's new Muppets Collection "Getting' Miss Piggy With It". I used this polish for most festive red as it is a clear base packed full of red micro glitter and large red hexagon glitter and sporadic silver large hexagon glitter (very Christmassy!). Using this for my most festive red was a no brainer considering this just looks like Christmas packed into a bottle!

Ok so to achieve this look I first off used OPI's "Colour So Hot It Berns" as my base. This is a stunning shiny red creme with an opaque finish with two effortless coats. On top of this base I proceeded to layer OPI's "Getting' Miss Piggy With It" (I have to say I just love the name of this polish!) I used two layers of the glitter polish and it applied without any drama! Bonus!

Honestly, once I had finished I could not stop looking at my nails ... Oh the super shininess! Oh wow! Glitter heaven! Definitely my most festive red! So eye-catching! They looked metallic almost and reminded me of Minx nails .., I think I'm in love! Perfect Christmas colour! One of my favourites now! Love, love, love!!!!!

What do you think? Do you have a favourite festive red?