Barry M Passion Fruit Swatch

Hey guys,

Just a swatch post this week of the other polish I bought recently. I have very important exams coming up soon and so I may be posting less and less in the near future (sorry!). After they are all over, I will be back with hopefully more than 1 post a week though!

I took a photo in direct sunlight as well as in the shade to show the difference, this is because I thought it looked like a pink in the bottle however unless in bright sunlight the colour looks red on the actual nail.

It also stained horribly despite putting a base coat on - such a shame! I now remember why I don't wear reds that much though.

See you next week!

Space Nails

Hey guys,

So this week to celebrate the end of Winter - then again I don't know about you, but we didn't have much of a Winter here, we didn't have a single drop of snow! For inspiration I used these two: Constellation Nails and Shooting Stars Nails

Here's all 5 nails, the thumb is constellation, the first a galaxy nail, lighting design, shooting star and finally a random star like nail.

Another photo, I forgot how much I love galaxy nails - it always looks so cool! As you can see, I finally used one of the Ted Baker polishes that I got in my set for Christmas. Other than the awkward top to hold, I was pretty impressed actually. The glitter is packed really dense into the polish and its so pretty and shines different colours.

See you next week!

I've hit 1,000 views / Crazy Chemistry Colours

Hey guys,

I know I only posted yesterday, but I was just checking the comments on my blog when I realised.. my view counter has finally hit 1,000 views!!

I know this isn't loads, but this is a big deal to me as its a big milestone in numbers, and I didn't start this straightaway when I created my blog so I have likely had more than this anyway.

Then again, the actual blogger view count says that I have had 2,204 pageviews, but according to others this isn't particularly accurate..

I also reached 20 followers on Bloglovin on March 11th which is quite exciting! I hadn't had a chance to share this yet but this post seems like the perfect time!




Anyway, to celebrate I thought I would share some photos I took in class the other day, they're not nail related at all, but I loved the pretty colours we made. Incase you don't know, i'm currently studying A2 chemistry as one of my options and although these were pretty all of them had toxic symbols on at the very least. Nasty.

All of the different ones we made in the actual experiment.

A close up of one of the Test tube racks - look at all the amazing layers! If you're wondering why some have bungs in the top and the others don't - the ones with bungs had an ammonia compound in - this stuff absolutely stinks and makes you cough like mad. I can't really describe it if you haven't encountered it before other than to say it feels like you have something blocking your nose when you breathe it in, its horrid!

 This one was most definitely my favourite though, I mixed number 6 and 10 in the photo above to make this.

If you're interested in knowing what the actual compounds were that I used to make these, simply just send a comment saying which ones and i'll find my chemistry notes and let you know! Sorry this is so random but I wanted something different to celebrate the milestone and I thought this was definitely something different - but then again who couldn't love all those crazy colours!

Northern Lights Nails

Hey guys,

Pretty nails this week, a gradient but a different way to normal and with a different colours, I based it on this tutorial.
I had a bit of trouble with my make-up sponge I used to put on the gradient, it broke apart onto my nail and when trying to pull it off I smudged them a bit as you can see. The blue also chipped quite badly compared to usual, i'm guessing its just a certain type. It also stunk extremely badly so i'm guessing it might have had some nasty chemicals in, I just found it in my mums collection.

 

I used 3 different polishes for this with a blue sparkly base which you can't really make out in the photos. The photos aren't anywhere near as good this week, I couldn't get the light right. 

I hope you like them, I definitely do!

Haul Post / Barry M Pearl Lady

Hey guys,

So today I have a minature Haul post for you along with some swatches of one of the polishes I picked up. I did this a couple weeks ago but haven't had time to post it until now sorry.

First of all though, when I went up to the Barry M stand in my boots I was met with a crazy sight. Swatch sticks of every colour but their new Silk paints - they were only officially released the day after I went (yeah.. I did go a long while ago now!)
However, this is such a genius idea, why can't all brands do this? They were all labelled with a handwritten piece of paper stuck on with tape so it seemed to be handmade rather than something Barry M had brought out themselves. Does anyone else have this or was this just a random thing my Boots store seems to have?

When I went in Boots had a 3 for 2 offer, but only on Barry M - annoyingly it was extended to the whole store only the day after - I went in again to pick up something and was quite annoyed. 

I picked up 2 nail varnishes after much deliberation and swatch stick comparisons, but the third item I really could not decide on. However in the end I went with a lipstick, but more on that later.

The two colours I picked out were Pearl Lady and Passion Fruit. 

This is what Pearl Lady looked like on me, however I don't think my photos really show how beautiful it is, the glitters in it make this a really nice textured polish. 

I do have a few complaints about this polish however.. for one, the polish wasn't opaque at all, I put three layers of the polish on (having to wait each time as I wanted the maximum amount of texture) but you could still see my tips quite clearly underneath. If I was to use this again I guess I would have to use a white undercoat but it was a bit disappointing. 

My other complaint is that I didn't actually find this to be that textured, I mean sure I could definitely feel the texture when I ran my finger over it, but compared to my other Barry M texture (Kingsland Road) it was nowhere near as textured. Shame really, but the polish is super pretty and the glitters really add to it.

Now for something completely different - lipstick. I have worn lipstick before, but only some I have "adopted" from my mums stash, and I have never bought a lipstick for myself before, neither had someone buy one for me. However as it was 3 for 2 anyway, I thought I may as well try one. 

I bought number 53 - their coral colour as it looked really pretty. I have to say I really like the polish packaging, I really like the mix of the matte black and the shiny black together. 

My lips.. yeah.. I thought I may as well do a lipstick swatch while i'm at it. The top one is my normal lip colour and the second is with the lipstick applied. I put on a base of Lip salve before I put the lipstick on as if not I have quite dry lips. 

Even with the base however I still found that the lipstick decided to clump together in the creases of my lips as you can see in the photo - this may be due to application, as i've stated I am not experienced at all with lipsticks so have no idea.

The colour is really pretty, just the summer coral I was looking for and although I dampen the colour down slightly to suit my skin tone, it is just what I was looking for so i'm really happy.

Hope you didn't mind such an obscure post! Should be back to normal with more Nail Art next week. 

Graffiti / Distressed Nails

Hey Guys,

So for my nails this week I decided to do nails using by Chalkboard Nails tutorial here. Although I don't think mine look anywhere near as cool, and didn't like them at all after I first did them, I think they've actually grown on me throughout the week.
I'm not sure which one of my hands looks better, on my right I put more of the black nail varnish over the top while over the left I didn't put so much.

Here's both hands, my right hand is a lot messier application as it is my dominant hand so I find it harder to paint it, but ignoring this, i'm not sure if it looks better with more black or less.

Another photo of my left hand. Let me know what you think!

Different hand poses for showing off Nail Art

Hey guys,

So to try and get a proper variety of different hand poses, I thought that instead of just looking at the blogs I follow, that I would just search for a specific nail varnish colour into Google and see what came up. In the end I decided on a Nail Varnish colour I really want at the moment - Zoya Chyna.
I had a bit of a problem trying to get the camera to focus, I decided to try and use the DSLR instead of my usual phone camera/point and shoot, and couldn't get it do do quite what I wanted it too, or even take the photo most of the time - slightly annoying!
All of the inspiration photos are not my own, so i've linked back to their original post if you click on their photo.

First of all the thumb on the bottle shot. I think this one looks pretty nice, but I think I would also have to take another one showing the thumb as often I also want to show this. 

One that wasn't meant to be round the bottle but I found it easier to line up my fingers like this, the original photo was actually landscape rather than portrait but I flipped it so that it would fit with mine better. I don't think I cropped mine very well, and also this position was actually quite awkward for me as on my left hand my little finger doesn't seem to like placing itself with the other fingers, therefore although I think it looks nice, I don't think I will use it. 

I know my version is out of focus, I mentioned I had camera problems earlier. I'm not sure about this shot, it was a little awkward once again and unless if I can sort out my camera being able to sort out this kind of shot. Its quite a nice shot though, other than my misbehaving little finger which I can never get to do what I want it too and always moves out of place.


So once again the inspiration shot is much cuter and better framed and lit and actually in focus. However I didn't actually mind this shot, other than my little finger looking odd and not fitting in with the others again. and once again you can't really see the thumb very well.

And finally, my classic 'claw' hand shape, but with the fingers closer together than I would usually have them. I have no idea why the colour looks so different in this one, I think the light must have just been odd or something. This is the only pose I found which shows the thumb, but I don't actually think it looks that professional but it is by far the quickest and easiest to do for me therefore you will probably still see it, but I hope to include some others when I do have time and am proud enough of a design to want to showcase it that bit more.

Two final notes, the first is this shot of a hand that I would literally describe as 'perfect' to me the black background shows the nails up perfectly, the light is completely perfect and I just love this. This is how I would love my photos to look.

I love how little silver glitters show up, and how only the front of the hand is in focus with the rest not. It might just be my personal opinion but I really do love this photo. I believe the photo actually comes from Zoya's own press release which explains why its so good, but I link back to the page I found it.

The final note is to myself mainly, but I really need to start naming my photos after what they are showing, as nearly all the ones I found had titles which related to what they were showing as shown in the photo below. This will help as it will probably help my photos to appear higher up in search engine listings which will hopefully get more hits on my blog. The only two that didn't have names relating were on Flickr and therefore had a title that related to what they were anyway, and I would assume Flickr has higher search engine listings anyway possibly.

Thanks for reading, maybe this helped you too, I will definitely try to put more of these poses into regular use hopefully!

Busy Girls Nails Challenge: Week 5 Valentine's Day

Hey Guys,

So its finally the end of the Nail Challenge, and I have to admit, even with these simple themes it was really quite hard to come up with anything and to stick to the themes given.
But anyway, todays theme was a tough one for me, not because I didn't have any ideas or inspiration but simply because I don't have a boyfriend and wasn't expecting any Valentines, therefore I didn't want people questionning me on why I had Valentine's Day theme nails. But anyhow, in the end I went with a mix of two different designs I found with the thumb being from this and the other nails being from here.

So there is mine. I also had the same on my other hand but didn't get a photo. You may notice something different this week in that my nails are on a black background instead of white, this was just me experimenting to see which looked better. I might look out for some inspirational poses / photograph set ups this week and make a post about it, mainly for my own benefit but also incase it also interests someone else.

Hope you like my Valentine's Day Nails and I will see you next week!

Busy Girls Nails Challenge: Week 4 Blue

Hey guys,

So this week was a blue theme, and I found what I thought was the perfect inspiration for this - mermaid scale nails! I originally got the idea from here  but I decided to do all my nails but the thumb like this as I thought it might look a little odd on me with only 2 nail designs as I have no studs to decorate the other nails nor a dotting tool big enough to do the big dots like on hers.

Here's my impression; I used quite a few different colours for this, and technically a silver glitter, purple, and a bit of teal to go with the main blue theme, but I really don't have enough blue's to be able to pull this off sadly. Plus I think it looks nicer with the other colours mixed in.









So I can't wait for the Valentines Day theme next week! Sadly no boyfriend to speak of, so it will just be me and the nails celebrating. Hopefully I won't leave it to the last minute again like this week though!

Busy Girls Nails Challenge: Week 2 White

Hey Guys,

I may not have stuck to the complete theme here but I really wanted to do something Sherlock related and in my defense it does include quite a lot of white, just a few other colours as well!
I used a number of inspiration photos for this, the smiley face nail I cannot sadly give an inspiration image for as it has simply been done so many times, some I also cannot find the original link for however I will give you the link of where I found them; sherlock face and building jump, stag night, and footprints

 

Sorry for them not being completely cleaned up in this photo, I managed to catch the 'Stag Night' nail later that night so that it then read 'stag nigh' so I decided not to take anymore.
Due to my trouble locating original sherlock nail designs I decided to make sure my images were clearly labelled with my blog name!

So, do you think these fit the theme enough? Seriously though, if you haven't seen Sherlock you should really start watching it - its an amazing show.