Tuesday 27 December 2011

China Glaze Sexagon

Hi all, I hope everyone has had a good Christmas, or fantastic holidays whatever your religious persuasion is.  Its the reason for these festivities why I haven't posted in a while oops!  You know how it is, too much to do, then too much to drink, ah yeah, good times!  I was going to do an awesome mani for Christmas day with snowmen and santa's, reindeer and snow, the whole business but alas I just didn't have the time or the inclination to be honest so I just went for good old silver capped bling!  I recently purchased this polish from my friend Chelsea who is a master of hunting down hard to find polishes, and her blog and sales pages can be found here.  It is from the China Glaze Kaleidoscope collection of scattered holo polishes, and this beauty is called Sexagon.  It is a sexy little silver holographic bottle of polish and unlike the linear holo's of the OMG collection (which I also love by the way!) this one still sparkles away with all the rainbow colours you could want without strong light or sunlight.  Awesome, I live in England and its December, days are approximately 3 minutes long and sunshine is something I reminisce about, so this one fit the bill perfectly.

Sorry about the slightly dodgy pics and cleanup, but its the best light I could find to capture the loveliness of this polish. Taken under my halogen stairs lights with no flash, and don't they sparkle!  I hope you like it.

Monday 19 December 2011

Color Club Lumin-Icent and ManGlaze Matte is Murder nail art

I had seen a design on another blog I would recommend checking out here, and it was so simple but looked really stunning, so I wanted to try it too.  I used Color Club's Lumin-Icent which is a very pale ice blue foil, and Manglaze's Matte is Murder for mine, as I wanted to do something a little different.  It was really simple to do, I used a base of Lumin-Icent and then when that was fully dry, I used low tack tape, to create a diagonal across the nail and added the ManGlaze polish.  Then all I did was fill in the lines and dots using a striping brush and dotting tool, and that was it!  I finished off with a top coat to seal it all, and then added a Matte top coat, because I think it looks more striking with a matte finish than its does glossy.  I am really happy with how this turned out, I will probably do this type of design again using different swirls and colours.  I like it, and I hope you like it too :)



Friday 16 December 2011

UK News - China Glaze Electro Pop - New collection spotted on sale now!

*UPDATED*
Since posting this I have decided to remove the link to this shop, as although I have had excellent service from them in the past, they seem to be experiencing difficulties recently.  I have emailed them many times and had no response, and if you check their facebook page, many are having the same problems.  Order from them if you wish of course (I have just placed an order myself yesterday, we will see how that goes!) just wanted to give anyone reading a heads up really, and obviously I don't want to link to a site where any of my readers wouldn't get the service I would expect for myself.

Well I just have to share this one, I am not affiliated with this shop in any way but I was kind of excited when I saw the new collection on sale.  We don't usually get these new collections in the UK until way after the US so I had a little *squeeeee* moment.  Its just a shame I am on a total buying ban at the moment.  (Switches to whiney voice) but I neeeeeeeeeeeed them!  Ahem, okay well, I can't buy them yet but someone else might want to, so I couldn't keep it to myself.  You can buy the entire collection from Nail Polish Direct (link removed by me) with free delivery.  Let me know if you bought any, and what you think :) and I would love to see some swatches of these!



Tuesday 13 December 2011

OPI - Excuse Moi!

Here we have another from the magnificent 'Muppets Collection' from OPI, in the sparkling form of Excuse Moi!  Unlike the other glitters in this collection this one has a coloured base and it makes it oh so pretty.  It consists of a darker toned warm pink base with multicoloured pieces of medium sized round glitter and tiny micro glitter too, so much glitter and all just lovely!  The fine glitter appears to be pink and silver, and in the larger pieces I can see green, pink, silver, red, blue and orange.  The application was easy and had great coverage, with these pics being just 2 coats over a clear base coat, and the sparkle, oh wow!  I LOVE this one, it reminds me of all the coloured wrappers which are a feast for the eyes when you open a box of Quality Street or Cadbury's Roses (which we only ever buy at Christmas time!) so for me its perfect for it to be in a holiday collection.


Here are the pics, which are as always click-able.  I hope you like it, maybe you can wish for it be in your Christmas stocking from Santa?

Weak Sunlight

Natural Daylight

Friday 9 December 2011

Snowflake Nail Art Design

It is freezing here, with high winds, sleet, snow and ice so I thought I would do a manicure to match the seasonal weather.  I wasn't entirely sure what I wanted to do until I saw this post here, on Copy That, Copy Cat.  If you aren't already a follower of her blog you are missing out, she does some fab designs, go check her out and show her blog some love!  It was her manicure that made me go oooooh I want to do THAT one, so I take no credit for the design, but I am happy with the results.

I started with Color Clubs Cold Metal from their foiled collection (I won the entire foiled collection from one of Traci's giveaways at The Trace Face Philes, so had to try this one, thanks Traci!) then I added some sparkle by doing some graduated tips using China Glaze Sexagon.  Finally I added a very thin touch of Funky Fingers Baby Baby Baby (love the polish, want to vomit at the name urgh!)

That was the base sorted and I very nearly just left it as it was, it looked pretty and I have been suffering from the flu and a face full of goo.  But onwards I went wielding my nail art brush with grim determination.  I used one of those cheapie nail art 2 in 1 polish jobbies to do the snowflakes and it definitely needs a touch of thinner, but I think it did the job quite well.

So here is my version of a snowflake manicure, and I got a compliment on it twice today and I was only out of the house for a couple of hours so that was good!  I am quite pleased with it, apart from macro shots being so unforgiving I promise it does look lovely when not in mega 'I can see every wobble your hand made there' mode.  I hope you like it too :)

Friday 2 December 2011

Essence Nail Art Twins - Gabriella and Troy

Here we have the lovely Essence Nail Art Twins, in the set 'Gabriella & Troy'.  These are gorgeous sets of polish and I will be posting pics of the others I have when I try them too!  I was still in a purple mood so I thought these would fit the bill nicely.  Gabriella is a lovely pink toned purple creme with a blue flash that isn't as visible on the nail as it is in the bottle, but it is still a lovely colour in its own right.  I will be wearing this one in future without her respective twin, Gabriella is a pretty girl all on her own.  The formula was great and went on without any issues and dried super shiny.  Once Gabriella was on and dry, of course I had to add her other half Troy to complete the look.  Troy has blue and purple small glitter particles suspended in a clear base, and compliments Gabriella perfectly.  Again it went on without any issues, and the overall finished effect is a blue and purple glittery prettiness that makes my eyes glad to look at.

So, as always, enough of the waffle, its the pic you want to see right!  I hope you like it :)