Bedazzled

Hey!

Way back in November I bought a 2-pack of Rimmel glitter polishes. Up until now I still haven't got around to trying them out, so this week I decided that whatever I did with my nails I had to use one of them! So that's what I did!

I'm really pleased with how these turned out actually. :)

I used Barry M Black as a base on my index and middle fingers, followed by two coats of Rimmel 'Bedazzle'. I really like the colours in this glitter! I tried to match the other polish as closely as I could to the pink glitter, so I ended up using a really old unnamed pink polish by the sports brand 'Animal'.

Lilac Chevrons

Sorry I haven't been around much since completing the 31 Day Challenge. After all that I needed a bit of a break! Plus I seem to have been really busy.
I have still been painting my nails regularly (though not every day!), just not blogging, so now I have a few posts to catch up on.

The first is this simple stamped chevron design.

I used Barry M Matte White as my base colour and stamped the chevrons with MUA Frozen Yoghurt and Born Pretty Store plate QA91.

Remember, you can get 10% of anything from Born Pretty Store using discount code: EHG10.

I was pleased with how clean the lines were from the stamping, as I was uncertain whether vinyls would have been a better purchase. Vinyls would have been much more fiddly so I am glad this plate stamps well!

31DC: Complement and Contrast

Day 25's prompt was complement and contrast.
I opted to use complementary colours from the colour wheel. Pink and purple paired with yellow and orange in a colour blocked design.

Sorry about the Instagram photo. I painted and photographed these before I killed my laptop, so the 'proper' photos are still on my old laptop, where I cannot access them. :(

I started with a base of Ciaté Amazing Gracie, then used Sinful Colours Cream Pink, Maybelline Fuchsia Fever , Missguided Missmatch and Ciaté Big Yellow Taxi with striping tape to create the squared pattern.

I really love these!

Check out the other ladies work:

An InLinkz Link-up

31DC: Tape Mani

The prompt for day 2 is 'tape mani'.
I do love tape nail art, but very rarely have success doing them myself. However, I think today's was one of my more successful attempts and I really like how it turned out. :)

I used two Colour Couture polishes, which I got as part of a Christmas present: Girls Just Want to Have Fun and Are You Afraid of the Dark?.

I love the black polish, it has the perfect hint of gold shimmer.

Firework Inspired Nails

Here is a very quick post to show you my nails for Bonfire Night.
I didn't have much time so it had to be something simple, so I opted for a bit of glitter to represent fireworks! :)

Excuse the poor quality picture from my Instagram (Follow me @nailsmustbepainted). I have been very busy!

The base colour is Nails Inc Wigmore Street, a very deep purple which was free with Glamour magazine. I then sponged On Rimmel Space Dust in Aurora, followed by Ciaté Party Shoes, for lots of glittery goodness! This looks much better than the picture!

Although this mani is super simple and took me about 5 minutes to do I really like it! The colours contrast nicely and the glitter creates a very firework-y feel.

Pretty Poppet: Review and Swatch

Last week I picked up the Ciaté Dolls House Collection in TKMaxx for the bargain price of £6.99.

I was super excited about these and wanted to try out these polishes straight away, so I started with a nice, simple mani using Poppet, a pastel lilac shape.

I love the colour of this polish. It is a pale lilac, so pastel it could almost be mistaken for white in certain lights. 

This polish is advertised as a 'porcelain finish'. Basically, it's matte. I love matte polishes, however this dries so fast that is makes application difficult as the polish has dried onto the brush before you manage to cover the whole nail. This means you have to use a really thick coat to ensure the polish doesn't dry too quickly, which then leads to a slightly streaky finish. Kind of a lose, lose situation!

I also found that this polish chipped so easily. On my left hand I wore the mani without topcoat and on my right hand I added my favourite super shiny Essence topcoat.

Considering my right hand generally gets used a lot more, after a day the right hand was still perfect, however the left hand had huge chunks of polish missing. The polish on my index finger literally peeled off in one big sheet, about 3/4 of the way down my nail.

For most polishes this would not be a big deal, as I would usually wear topcoat anyway. But what is the point in having that lovely Porcelain finish, if I then have to cover it in topcoat to make my mani last more than a few hours?!

Overall, I was not impressed with this polish at all. I love how it looks but the poor application and lasting power really let it down. I really hope the others in the collection are a bit better and this was just a bad bottle!

I was however really impressed with the studs I added. This were a bargain from Poundland. I used a blob of a cheap No.17 clear topcoat on the bottoms of them and stuck them in place with tweezers. I wore this mani for two days and managed not to lose a single stud, even on the hand without topcoat! :)

Guest Post

Go check out my guest post on Nail Parade today for more details on this distressed nail art look!

Kitsch Floral Nail Art

Tonight I have painted my mums nails rather than my own.
She wanted Cath Kidston style roses and dots, so that's what she got!

I very rarely paint anyone else's nails and it felt very strange, but we were both very happy with how they turned out. :)

The polishes I used were Ciate Ferris Wheel as the base colour. Sally Hansen Fuchsia Flare and Sally Hansen Wine Not for the pink roses. Sally Hansen Grape Race and Sally Hansen Plum Luck for the purple roses. I then added dots with Barry M Matte White and we finished with a clear UV gel polish to make it last as long as possible!

This is very similar to one of the first pieces of nail art I did, which you can see here and I have definitely improved!

Chinese Lilac Flower

A few days ago I did a mani for a challenge post, which has yet to be posted...
When I was taking it off, I loved my middle finger so much that I couldn't bring myself to get rid of it, so instead I incorporated it into a new mani, which is this one:

When I first painted this nail my boyfriend didn't believe I had painted it myself! He was convinced it was a decal and refused to believe me for ages!!

For my middle finger I used a base colour of Barry M Silk in Heather. I then painted the flowers using Barry M Matt White, Sally Hansen Grape Race, Missguided Missmatch and Sally Hansen Kiwi Bikini for the leaves.

On the rest of the fingers I sponged a purple-white gradient using Sally Hansen Grape Race, Barry M Silk Heather and Barry M Matt White.

I really really liked this mani and would quite happily have kept it on much longer than I did!!

Bunting Gradient

When I did these nails (Admittedly, a few days ago but I've been too busy to post!), I wanted something summery but a little bit different. Also, I seem to have had a bit of a pink phase recently, so I didn't want to use pink!

So I ended up with bunting painted on my accent nail over a gradient of lilac and grey. I really like these nails. They are subtle but still pretty!

(Sorry about the upside-down picture!!)

For the gradient I used Sally Hansen Grape Race and Sinful Colours Cool Gray.

For the bunting I used Barry M Blueberry Ice Cream and Sally Hansen Pinch of Punch then outlined the flags in Barry M Black.

 Here are my leftie and rightie pictures! I didn't even attempt the bunting on my right hand!

It is a long time since I have done a gradient but this one seems to very bubbly! I'm not sure if this was the polishes I used, the sponge I used or something else!? I still like the overall effect though!

OPI: Next Stop... The Bikini Zone

Today I have swatched another of the OPI Brazil Copaca Babies Collection.

This time I have used Next Stop... The Bikini Zone. This was incredibly hard to photograph, so apologies for the pictures, they are not the best! The first is in natural light, the second in my light box.
This is a lovely, shimmery, duo-chrome polish which changes between silver and purple, depending on the light.

My biggest issue with this polish is that it took 4 coats to get to this opacity. And I'm still not completely happy with it, but I got bored!! I think it is probably one I am more likely to use as a topcoat, to add a bit of a shimmer to another colour.

When this first arrived I thought it looked very similar to a Barry M polish I already had called Dusky Mauve. However, putting them side by side I can see that the OPI is much more silvery.

On the nails there is a clear difference! The OPI is much lighter and has more of a shimmer to it, whereas the Barry M is a thicker consistency (this was only 1 coat), which is more of a brown colour with only a slight hint of purple in comparison.

I have had the Barry M several years, and can't say it's had much use, so hopefully I will use the OPI a little more often! It is definitely a prettier colour, but the thinness will put me off using it, as I tend to go for thicker, 1 or 2 coat polishes which don't take long to apply!

OPI Copaca Babies Collection

Look what arrived yesterday! :)

My first ever OPI polishes: The Brazil Copaca Babies Collection.

I haven't had a chance to try them out yet. I have an interview today so didn't want to go for anything too bright on my nails!

First impressions, I like the colours and the bottle, it is a really nice shape to hold. Next Stop... The Bikini Zone (on the left) looks very much like a Barry M polish I have (Dusky Mauve), which I can't say I have used more than once or twice, so I'm not sure this one will get much use. But I love the colours of the other three.

Watch out for some swatches of these over the weekend!!

Fingerfood's Challenge: Something New

Today for my something new nails I have gone all out on the 'new'!
I have used 2 new polishes and 2 new techniques. :)

The first new polish is the 'Jess' Polish, in Madison, which I reviewed here yesterday. This is the base colour in these pictures, and is actually a deep purple. The second new polish I have used is a crackle polish. I have to admit to having never used a crackle polish before. The look just doesn't do anything for me. But I saw one yesterday and thought I'd give it a go so this is Sally Hansen, Star Burst, on my index fingers. The crackle effect actually looks better than I imagined  and it has glitter in, which creates quite a cute look, so maybe it will get a bit of use!

 I also tried out two new techniques today. First, I tried the Saran wrap method on my ring fingers. I love how this looks on other people's pictures, but mine doesn't seem to have had the same effect. I did think this might be because I used an insta-dry polish so it dried before I could get much off, but I'm not sure. The top polish I used was Sally Hansen, Grape Race.

The second technique I tried was making my own decals. These are on my thumb nails and I kept it nice and simple with just a star on each hand. I used the sandwich bag and clear polish method of doing this and was surprised how easy it is and that you can't see or feel any edges at all of the clear polish once on the nail. Although, peeling the polish from the bag was extremely difficult and I ended up breaking one star in half, then having to line it back up on my nail!! I will definitely be doing this again, as it is so much easier than trying to paint designs straight onto the nail.

I then finished the whole mani off with a matte topcoat. :)

 Does anybody else's Blogger keep turning their photo's around? At least 3 of these photo's started off the other way around! It's very frustrating!

Jess Polish Review

Today I bought new nail polish!! Standard Saturday!
I'm just going to tell you about one of them at the moment, which I tried out this afternoon.

This Poundland 'Jess' polish. I was just looking at what colours they had and I fell in love with a purple polish called Madison. I'm not usually a big purple lover, therefore don't have many purple polishes, so I thought 'why not!'. My biggest issue with this polish was it's inability to appear the right colour in photo's!

This first photo I edited, to try and make the nails look the colour they actually are!! My skin is not actually this yellow, it's a side-effect of the editing!

They definitely are not this blue at all, I tried several camera's and several different intensities of light to take the photo's too, but no luck... just imagine they are the same colour as above!!

I absolutely loved this polish! One thick-ish coat was enough to fully cover my nails. I began adding a second coat to some nails, out of habit, but realised I could tell no difference whatsoever, so I stopped again! As you can see, the colour is really intense, even in just one coat. It went on so easily and smoothly too! I can't stop stroking my nails, as they have not been so smooth in such a long time! 

 I love how super shiny the finish is too! These pictures are without topcoat and they look so good. This polish also dried really fast. By the time I had finished one coat, they were dry enough to add a second coat straight away, so this mani literally took me 5 mins! Although, I do think this dried so fast, it might cause problems if you like to take your time painting your nails and it would not be very good for stamping.

All in all, I would definitely recommend this polish. Well done Poundland! I think I might be going back tomorrow to pick up a few more, as it is much better than some of the big brand polishes I have, and all for £1!

Fingerfood Theme Buffet & Africa Inspired: Fishtail Braids.

So this week I entered the Fingerfood Theme Buffet, for the first time ever, although I was a little late! The theme was fishtail, which was apt considering this was one of the techniques I wanted to include in my Africa Inspired Mani's, so it works as both!

I wanted this included as an Africa inspired mani as all the girls in the school who actually had any hair, had their hair braided. Apparently, this is a bit of a status symbol. Many of the children had their hair shaved, including girls, for ease. Those who had their hair braided are the ones who have a little bit more money. The girls in the school also began to braid my hair whilst I was there, although they didn't get very far, as I have so much more hair than them!

I've never tried a fishtail technique before and found it to be very time consuming, despite two of the polishes I used being Insta-dry! Hence why I only did the technique on one finger, rather than the full hand. I just wish I had got the sizes of the stripes a little more accurate, as some are much smaller than others.

The colours I used are MUA Plum Noir, Sally Hansen Grape Race and Sally Hansen Fuchsia Flare.
I also wanted to give a quick review of the MUA polish in this post. I had heard good things about them, so invested in two, Plum Noir and Frozen Yoghurt. I used Plum Noir in this mani, (the main base colour) and have to admit I was not very impressed. The polish was difficult to apply evenly and left lines on my nails from the brush which you may be able to see in some of the pictures. This was two coats, but really it needed at least another one, if not more.

Feather Effect Pretty Polish

A few weeks ago I reviewed this glitter 'pretty' polish from Poundland. I was surprisingly impressed with the results and wanted to try more of their polishes.

So I bought two more:

• The first is a purple feather effect polish, with long pieces of purple, white and silver glitter.
• The second is a scatter effect polish. A white base with blue, pink and red pieces of glitter in.

First, I tried the feather effect polish. I used a Barry M Matt White base coat on the thumb, middle and little fingers. On the ring and index fingers I used Sally Hansen Grape Race. I then painted the feather effect onto just two of my nails. 

The first picture is the most true to colour. This mani was incredibly hard to photograph to get the full effect of the polish. Again, I was impressed with this polish, considering what it costs. It was easy to apply, with a nice even spread of the feather pieces. The different coloured pieces within it created a pretty effect, which seemed less flat, as they were not all the same. I used two coats to get a nice, thick coverage of the feathers, but I think this would look even better with more coats. The only downside of this polish was drying time. It took an awfully long time to dry compared with most polishes. Even once it was touch dry, it was still extremely easy to smudge for a long time afterwards. I ended up making a complete mess of my left hand!

Overall, I am again impressed with the 'pretty' polishes and will definitely consider buying more.

Keeping it Simple

Today I have a very quick, simple post of my very quick, simple nails!

This is two coats of Rimmel Urban Purple, followed by a coat of Step 1 from the Kiss Graduating Polishes (Set EL1228), which is a mix of tiny pieces of pink and silver glitters.
I love this as a topcoat, its so sparkly! And the way this has been captured in this picture is amazing (and it's not edited to be like this!).