Wednesday 31 October 2012

Halloween: Pumpkins

Happy Halloween!

I may be several days behind with the 31 Day challenge still, but I do have some Halloween nails for you today :)

I've planned on doing these for ages, and they took me a good hour to do.  And I hate them.  They look like they were done by a child.  Or, like, someone who doesn't do nail art.  I'm very disappointed in myself.  Anyhoo, they are at least fun I suppose!  Here you go:


I used Max Factor Bright Orange, and added the details using Barry M Black and Max Factor Cactus Green.  I was going to make them glow in the dark as well, but then I had to go to bed...  I do need my beauty sleep.

I'm loving seeing everyone's Halloween manicures!  What are you wearing on your nails today?

Monday 29 October 2012

Barry M Silvery Lilac vs OPI Not Like The Movies

A little while ago I bought Barry M Silvery Lilac in one of my...er...nail polish shopping sprees.  A few days later I saw OPI Not Like The Movies on someone's blog and went 'Oh...I've got that...and it's really similar to Silvery Lilac...Oops'.  So I decided to do a little comparison!


From the bottle shot you may wonder why I even thought they were similar.  The huge difference in the bottle is just down to the different shapes though, trust me!

Both polishes have a silver base, with silver sparkle dispersed through it.  They also both have a duochrome shift from green to purple.

In the photos below I used three coats of each.  My index and ring fingers show Barry M Silvery Lilac, and my middle and little fingers show OPI Not Like The Movies.


Here you can see the purple shift.  The Barry M has a slightly cooler-toned purple than the OPI.  The shimmery particles are of a similar size and density in both polishes.


The colour of the green shift is also a little different in the two polishes.  The Barry M leans to more of a jade/khaki tone (if such a colour exists...) whereas the OPI is more of an olive shade.


In terms of application, both polishes were pretty similar.  For me, you'll never beat an OPI brush - they give you such a clean cuticle line and even coverage.  Barry M brushes tend to hold a little too much polish for my liking, so sometimes I end up painting it on too thick.  It hasn't stopped me buying more or less every colour in the collection though...


So, although the colours in these polishes are slightly different, they're not different enough for you to need both.  Unless you're that way inclined.  So if you find yourself in Superdrug about to buy Barry M Silvery Lilac, take a second to stop and think about whether you've already got OPI Not Like The Movies sitting in your collection at home.

Not Like The Movies was a limited edition polish from the Katy Perry collection, so the good news is that if you like the look of it and you missed out on it you can pop out to Boots or Superdrug and pick up Silvery Lilac instead!

This is the first comparison post I've done, so any feedback would be much appreciated.  Would you like to see more of these sort of posts, or should I stick to the nail art?

PS.  Hopefully I'll be back on track with the 31 Day Challenge by the end of the week!  Honestly, I'm useless...

Sunday 28 October 2012

Halloween Party Nails

Hello again :)

So last night I went to a Halloween party.  When I was in Canterbury a few weeks ago with my boyfriend and his parents, I spotted a red velvet dress in a second hand shop that I thought would be a perfect vampiress dress, so that's what I decided to dress up as this year.  I struggled a bit with ideas for a manicure to wear with this costume, but in the end this is what I came up with.


They're a little bit messy - I started painting them on the train.  And it wasn't just any old train, it was indeed the bumpiest train in the world.  I think I got more polish on the fingers of my right hand than I did on the nails...

Anyhoo, I used all Barry Ms for this - Black, Matt White, Bright Red and Red Glitter.

My costume had gloves like...but you still need to have painted nails (for when you take your gloves off to facilitate stuffing your face with crisps and sausage rolls).

And here is the face that went with the nails.


Since I've never posted any other pictures of myself, feel free to assume I look like this all the time.  Maybe with less blood dribbling down my chin...

Best of British

British Nail Bloggers

Happy Sunday everyone!  I've just got back from my weekend in Liverpool with the boyfriend's family.  I had a lovely time - so good to see everyone again!  Anyhoo, since it's Sunday, it is of course time for a Best of British round up!

Emma's Quest for the Holy Grail continues with some unusually successful water-marbling and other foes to face including this triple colour striping mani at Emma's Little Corner.

Claire at nuthin' but a nail thing is getting Halloween started early with a SPOOKY MANICURE! Aroooooooooooooooo!

Jazz at Glitter Infatuation has been having fun with the new W7 Glitters, Mosaic, Glitter Dazzle and Salt and Pepper! Glitter is appropriate no matter what the occasion.

Over at Pie's Eyes Lyndsay shows off her Good Food Show Theme Manicure which she wore last weekend.

Jo at Northern Nails is going to a Halloween party tonight and will be wearing this mani!

This week The Teenage Shopaholic has been... scaring herself silly! She was wearing China Glaze Midtown Magic to a horror movie marathon sleepover!

Sam at Polished Art is 'feeling the love tonight' with her Lion King inspired manicure for the 31 Day Challenge (yep, that's still going!).

Wendy at Wendy's Delights shows us her Green Glitter Nails for Llama Nails A-Z challenge.

PishPosh and Polish's Kerrie has been having fun with her new Brazilian polishes this week. Also she has been swatching Pretty and Polished Candy Corn. Is it orange? Is It Yellow? This mood changing polish is both!

Danielle has had a busy week this week so drafted in some help from Rachel at Phoenix Nails who created an awesome Halloween Mani for her Guest Post at Totally Nailed.

Enigmatic Rambles has been getting her freehand on this week with MEG and MOG do you remember them?

Kerry at JustTalkNails has done a manicure of Ghoulish Ghosts with a host of Barry M nail paints.

Laura at She Who Does Nails had a go at freehanding a pattern she found on Pinterest this week.

Carlyn has spent the week decorating so not many posts but friday she went nail polish crazy Nail Polish Haul Going to have fun swatching all these.

Vic's been playing with some of the Orly Fired Up collection for Fall and creating some Autumn Jewels.

Abi at Volatile Varnish experiemented with silver stamping over Gosh Holographic Hero and got some really cool results.

Rachel at Phoenix Nails wore it pink for Breast Cancer Campaign's Wear it Pink Day with a pretty Monarch Butterfly mani.

I shall have another Halloween manicure for you soon!  I just need to edit the photos!

Friday 26 October 2012

Pink Fridays #4

Happy Friday lovely people!  Yay for the weekend :)

Today is my final Pink Fridays post.  If you haven't seen any of the previous posts, Pink Fridays is an event run by Breast Cancer Care to raise awareness about breast cancer (as October is Breast Cancer Awareness  Month!).  Please take a few moments to visit the website and make sure you're up to speed on how to spot the signs of breast cancer :)

So now for the manicure.  I had a little rummage through my bag of untrieds (yes, I have a bag now...) and I was going to go for Orly Robo Romance, but then I spotted Kleancolor Pinky Moon, and I neeeeeeded to use that.  So it's a very simple manicure again this week, no nail art I'm afraid as I was in quite a hurry!


This is Barry M Bright Pink and Matt White, with 2 coats of Kleancolor Pinky Moon.  Now...Pinky Moon...  I fished and I fished, and I fished a little more, and after a bit more fishing I managed to get two moons on the brush.  It ended up very thick on my nail.  But I can forgive it.  I don't think it's totally clear from the picture, but Pinky Moon contains silver holographic glitter as well as moons and bars, all in a very slightly pink base.  It is a pain to use, like a lot of the Kleancolor glitters, but since they're so unusual I'll let them off.  And they're so cheap that I wouldn't mind having to pour a bit of polish out to fish out some pretty shapes.  By the way, if you're looking for somewhere to buy Kleancolor polishes, I got mine on Amazon from BeautyJointEU (have a look here).

Ooh, can I just draw your attention to the top left of the page - I've got a code you can use for 10% discount at Born Pretty Store.  Cheaper nail stuff - yay!

I probably won't get a chance to post again until Monday, as I'll be up in Liverpool drinking lots of wine.  So I hope you all have a lovely weekend!

Thursday 25 October 2012

31 Day Challenge - Day 23: Inspired by a Film

It's the ciiiircle of liiiife!

The Lion King is my favourite film ever.  I don't care if it's aimed at 6 year olds rather than 23 year olds, I love it. It has the perfect combination of cheesy songs and cute talking animals.  What more could you want from a film?

So, naturally, there was no other sensible choice for today's challenge manicure - inspired by a film.  Although when I googled the picture I wanted to recreate for my manicure, I almost changed my mind to something easier lol.  But since I'd already posted yesterday that I was thinking about doing The Lion King (fool) I figured I should probably give it a go.


Since I'm aware it's not entirely (ahem) obvious who everyone  is, I shall interpret for you.  On the left we have Simba and Nala, on the middle finger is Rafiki and a little Zazu, and then on my ring finger is Scar.  Timon and Pumbaa should've been on my little finger, but I wasn't convinced you'd be able to tell the difference between my lions and warthogs, so I surrendered at that point.  I quite like the overall look though, even if my animal painting abilities are shocking.

I used Barry M Bright Red for the sky, and then painted on the sun with Barry M Lemon Ice Cream while the red was still wet, so that I got some orangey bits.  Then I used Barry M Black for the tips and the detail. Yet another Barry M fest.

Have a look at all the other film-inspired manicures:


Diana at Nails By Diana
Meredith at Perfectly Polished
Nicole at The Color Republic
Nicole at Nicole Gets Nailed
Shelby at Shelby's Swatches
Stephanie Louise at All Things Beautiful 
Liz and Lisa at Lozlosa 
Mari at Nailista 
Miss L at Beauty by Miss L 
Gini at Sassy Paints 
Pam at Nail-E-Glance

Wednesday 24 October 2012

Halloween: Witch

Most imaginative post name ever, I know.  Nothing else was coming to me.  And anyhoo, it is a witch, so it says all it needs to say lol.

I plan to have a few Halloween posts for you over the next few days, in the run up to Halloween. Tonight I have my first one for you :)


This was taken with the flash (my trees didn't show up in the pictures otherwise), so apologies for the yucky shadows.

Right, I used quite a few polishes here, and lots of bits of sponge.  The sky is OPI Roadhouse Blues, Barry M Black and 17 Seabreeze.  The moon is Barry M Matt White, and there's also a little Barry M Lemon Ice Cream in there, and all the detail is done with Barry M Black.

I'm travelling up to Liverpool this weekend for a Halloween party with the boyfriend's family :)  What are your plans?

31 Day Challenge - Day 22: Inspired by a Song

Right, I shall make my excuses first, and then I shall show you my nails.  This was supposed to be posted on Monday, and I actually did them on Saturday so that I was all ready and prepared to post on time for a change.  Monday I ended up going into London to meet some friends and family, so I didn't get a chance to post, and subsequently yesterday I was too hung over too function, and looking at a computer screen for long enough to write a post was well beyond my capabilities.  I hate alcohol.

But anyway, today I am hangover free and feeling good about the world again, so here are my day 22 nails!

The song I chose as my inspiration was The Girl by City and Colour (I'll post the video at the bottom of this post).


For the sky I used 2True No. 49 with a little bit of Barry M Berry Ice Cream sponged on just above the horizon.  The sea was made up of 17 Seabreeze sponged with OPI Mermaid's Tears, and the ship was painted using Barry M Grey.  Then I added some gems and pearls to represent the diamond rings and delicate strings of pearls he sings about.

Here's the video for those of you who aren't familiar with the song (I hope this is the video anyway, I can't actually watch it because I'm still using the dongle...so apologies if it's something else entirely!).


Next up in the challenge, which I will hopefully post tomorrow, is inspired by a film.  I'm thinking Lion King...

Have a look at how everyone else is getting on with the challenge:


Diana at Nails By Diana
Meredith at Perfectly Polished

Nicole at Nicole Gets Nailed
Shelby at Shelby's Swatches
Stephanie Louise at All Things Beautiful 
Liz and Lisa at Lozlosa 
Mari at Nailista 
Miss L at Beauty by Miss L 
Gini at Sassy Paints 

Sunday 21 October 2012

Best of British

Happy Sunday everyone!  The more observant of you will notice that I haven't made a British Nail Bloggers round up post for...er...a few weeks.  But I'm back to being organised this week!  So here's what all the lovely ladies have been up to this week.

British Nail Bloggers

Emma has started a Quest for the Holy Grail in honour of the retirement of the A-England shade she has rarely used and is now trying to use it in a personal Holy Grail challenge at Emma's Little Corner.

Mimi does freestyle funky halloween nails.

Lyndsay at Pie's Eyes has taken a delivery of some new Christmas themed HB image plates for stamping with and has been trying them out to see how they perform.

In need of distracting this week, Enigmatic Rambles' spent way too much time painting frog eyes on her nails for a Sat-ART-Day nail challenge.

Claire at nuthin' but a nail thing has been doing some checkerboard themed manicures.  Pink, White and Black and a more spangly Blue, Black and White checkerboard mani.  Which do you prefer?

More Halloween spookiness over at Never Mind Suzi, Steph is playing with ZOMBIES.

Jo at Northern Nails has been entering a few competitions this week, from skulls to coming up with Taglines! She has also joined in with Pink October, with a lovely pink bead mani!

Polished Criminails has been busy showing us the OPI - Skyfall Collection this week in her Skyfall Swatch Series with an added insight to each of the corresponding James Bond films.

Vic's been carrying on with the Halloween theme but has also managed to fit in some non-Halloween related nail art. Her Frogs mani fits somewhere in between. Check out the cute pic of her two year old who insisted on getting frogs on his nails too!

Jazz has been continuing with her love/hate affair with frankens and has also been divulging in a little bit of halloween nail art! Frankens! Glitter is appropriate no matter what the occasion!

Ruth finally posted up her first fishtail attempt this week!

Carlyn has fallen in love with OPI Diva of Geneva, a gorgeous shimmering red, then added a rose stamping design.

Charlotte at Charlottes-nails has swatched a polish from Born Pretty Store for a review post this week.

Wendy from Wendy's Delights has been going round in circles with her new Circular Magnetic & Magnetic Polish and while your over at Wendy's Delights check out her Nail Foil for the Llama A-Z Challenge.

Kerrie from PishPosh and Polish has been on holiday this week. She decided to try out some Sally Hansen Nail Effect Wraps to create Denim Nails and loves the result!

Mimi tries her hand at freestyle nails Halloween and thinks they are really cool!

Danielle gives her first tutorial on Black velvet manicure at Totally Nailed.

This week, The Crumpet has done a series of posts for Depression Awareness.  Feel free to join in and share your story, or do a green mani in support.

Kerry at JustTalkNails has gone all out for Halloween with Daring Digits Trick or Treat a perfect Halloween glitter.

Here is a pastel green manicure with a glitzy difference for Abi's first post back at Volatile Varnish.

This week Sally of NailPron bared her soul with a green manicure and came out as an anxiety survivor, oh and she broke the news about the new Speciallita Hits Glitter World polishes.

Friday 19 October 2012

31 Day Challenge and Pink Friday Mash Up

Now don't be alarmed...but yes, this is a 31 day challenge manicure being posted on the right day.  I know.

Conveniently, on the only day that the 31DC coincides with Pink Fridays, the challenge prompt is 'Insired by a Colour'.  Convenient.  So obviously I chose pink!

October is Breast Cancer Awareness month.  I'm sure if you follow nail blogs, you'll have seen that loads and loads of bloggers have gotten involved in a challenge of some sort or have been posting pink manicures. I've chosen to participate in Pink Fridays, an event organised by Breast Cancer Care.  Breast Cancer Care is a charity that provides support to people diagnosed with breast cancer, as well as lots of information about checking your breasts, diagnosis and treatment.  You can find out more on their website here, where you can also find information about hosting a Pink Fridays fundraising event.

So here's my pink manicure for this week!  I decided to go for something simple but pretty :)


I used Barry M Bright Pink and Matt White, then added a coat of OPI I Juggle...Men, which you can just about make out on my index and middle fingers (bad lighting, sorry!).

Have a ganders at what colours inspired all the other participants today:

Thursday 18 October 2012

31 Day Challenge - Day 20: Water Marble

The dreaded water marble.

I've tried water marbling before (you can see my attempt here, although I must warn you, it is not for the faint of heart).  After that attempt, I had no desire to try it again.  Ever.

So I was going to cheat for this challenge, and go with a dry marbling technique instead, like a needle-draggy sort of thing.  Then this morning I thought 'What the heck!  Let's just do it! I won't be defeated by water-marbling!'.  I was.

My logic behind giving it another go was that the water in Liverpool was soft, and the water down here is hard, so maybe this would make a difference.  I think it did, because this certainly seemed even worse than last time.

But I got there in the end.  It took me three attempts to even get the polish to spread in the water.  THREE.  And then I messed that one up whilst dragging it about to make the pattern.  So here is my FOURTH attempt - it wasn't quite how I would've liked it, but by that point the word's "f*** it" came to mind.


So there you have it.  Not awful (compared to my previous attempt, not compared to other people's...).  If it wasn't bubbly, I think it could actually have looked good.

I used Barry M Black and Matt White (honestly, they must be my two most used polishes).

Since it caused me so much physical and mental suffering, I thought I may as well get another photo out of it. So here's a nice close up for you.


Bubbalicious.

Please consider this as my official resignation from water marbling.

Hopefully some of the other ladies had more luck!  Take a look:


Diana at Nails By Diana
Meredith at Perfectly Polished
Nicole at The Color Republic
Nicole at Nicole Gets Nailed
Shelby at Shelby's Swatches
Stephanie Louise at All Things Beautiful 
Liz and Lisa at Lozlosa 
Mari at Nailista 
Miss L at Beauty by Miss L 
Gini at Sassy Paints 

Wednesday 17 October 2012

31 Day Challenge - Day 19: Galaxies

So I'm just working on my own schedule now.  I hope we're all down with that...  My boyfriend's going away to work on Monday, so I'll get back on track then as I'll have nothing else to do in the evenings than paint my nails (especially since I still don't have TV or proper internet...sob).  So anyhoo, here are my galaxy nails for day 19 of the challenge.


This was my first attempt at galaxy nails, and I LOVE THEM.  I can't take my eyes off them, and I'm totally baffled as to why not every single person I've encountered since I did them has told me how fabulous they are.  There are some very strange people out there.

Sadly, I don't think the picture does them any justice.  But they are beautiful, trust me lol.

I used Barry M Black Multi Glitter for the background, then went to town on the sponging with Barry M Matt White and Mint Green, a Special FX pink, Jessica Ruffled Bottoms and China Glaze Man Hunt.  I topped it off with a coat of Saffron 07 and Seche Vite (at this point I had to rush to get ready to leave the flat, but I only damaged one nail going to the toilet and putting my shoes on...not too bad...).

Take a look at all the other participants in the challenge (I think they're past day 20 now...I don't really know anymore):


Diana at Nails By Diana
Meredith at Perfectly Polished
Nicole at The Color Republic
Nicole at Nicole Gets Nailed
Shelby at Shelby's Swatches
Stephanie Louise at All Things Beautiful 
Liz and Lisa at Lozlosa 
Mari at Nailista 
Miss L at Beauty by Miss L 
Gini at Sassy Paints 

Tuesday 16 October 2012

On Stranger Clouds

Happy Tuesday!

Today I have for you my first attempt at a cloud manicure.  This also falls into the category of sensible work manicures (er...sort of).


I used a base of OPI Planks A Lot, then drew on the clouds using Barry M Gold Foil and OPI Stranger Tides (gotta love those Pirates of the Caribbean polishes).  I added a little sparkle using Saffron 01 and BeautyUK Gold Digger.

I have to say, from all the cloud manicures I've seen on other people's blogs, I thought it would be easier.  It was flipping difficult.  The brush on the OPI mini was perfect for this though, and I have a much easier time with that than the full size Barry M brush.

I was very pleased with the end result anyway :)  What do you think?  Have you tried a cloud manicure?

Friday 12 October 2012

Pink Fridays #2

Happy Friday!  Woo!

October is breast cancer awareness month, and so I've decided to make my Friday's pink!  You can find out more about breast cancer and Pink Fridays at Breast Cancer Care.

This week for my pink manicure I decided to have a go at a pink sponged manicure, like the one I did inspired by my doggy for the My Favourite Things challenge (which you can see here).  But in pink, obviously.


I used a base of Barry M Matt White and then sponged with Max Factor Disco Pink, Barry M Bright Pink and a Special FX polish (they don't have names, poor things).

In keeping with sponged manicure tradition, here's a picture of Bailey playing with her bear and looking very pleased with herself :)


I'd love to see how you're making your Fridays pink!  Post your pictures on my Facebook page! You should actually be able to now as well, I didn't realise it was set so that people couldn't before, sorry!

Do you have any exciting plans for this weekend?  My boyfriend's parents are currently on the M25 somewhere en route to coming to visit us for the weekend. I haven't seen them since August, so it should be good! (The wine's in the fridge...).

Thursday 11 October 2012

31 Day Challenge - Day 18: Half Moon

Good morning lovely people :)  Sorry this post is late (again).  We moved into our new flat this week, and I've had my first piece of coursework for my masters, and various other excuses...  I actually did this manicure on Sunday, I just didn't get round to taking a photo until yesterday.

So anyhoo, day 18 of the 31 day challenge is to create a half moon manicure.  I gave it a good go, but as you'll be aware if you've followed my blog for any length of time, I am rubbish at anything resembling a tape manicure.  I did consider freehanding the half moons on, but I thought I should at least have a go at using stickers.

My colour choice was basically inspired by what polish I had that's a really good one coater.  And in my hungover state I decided orange and silver would be a perfect combination.  So here you have it, my retro-futuristic half moon manicure:


I used Max Factor Bright Orange, Stargazer 232 and then added some little dots on with OPI Roadhouse Blues.

I don't particularly like it to be honest, but I've had looaads of comments about them.  Funny how you can do a manicure you adore and no one notices, and then when you don't like one everyone's saying how much they like it!

Have a look at all the other (probably better executed) half moon manicures produced by the ladies yesterday:


Diana at Nails By Diana
Meredith at Perfectly Polished
Nicole at The Color Republic
Nicole at Nicole Gets Nailed
Shelby at Shelby's Swatches
Stephanie Louise at All Things Beautiful 
Liz and Lisa at Lozlosa 
Mari at Nailista 
Miss L at Beauty by Miss L 
Gini at Sassy Paints 

Monday 8 October 2012

Thanksgiving!

Today is Canadian thanksgiving.  My Dad lived in Canada for a few years back in the day, so he's taken to celebrating it in recent years.  As I said in yesterday's post, we had a big meal with loads of people round (I'm still not sure how we fit that many people around the table...).  I think we've all just about recovered now - today was the first morning for a few days that my boyfriend didn't throw up from drinking too much the night before; my parents are a terrible influence.

So anyhoo, here are the nails I did for Saturday night.


I had a bit of a Barry M fest here; I used Bright Red, Matt White and Red Glitter.  The glitter isn't quite what I wanted - I thought a chunky red glitter would've looked nice but I don't have one (clearly a sign that I need to buy more polishes).  I was pretty pleased with how my maple leaf turned out though :)  Certainly better than my sister's attempts at drawing one on the front door lol.

So anyhoo, happy thanksgiving to any Canadian readers (and any with a Dad who likes to think he's a little bit Canadian) - I hope you're all stuffing your face with turkey.  I certainly did.

Sunday 7 October 2012

31 Day Challenge - Day 17: Glitter

Happy Sunday lovely people!

We're all feeling a little delicate today...  Last night we had a meal for Canadian Thanksgiving, and much wine was consumed.  Much much wine in the case of my boyfriend.  Bless him, it's been a hard day...  However, despite my hands being occupied stuffing a constant stream of carby foods into my mouth today, I managed to do my nails.  The uni work wasn't quite so successful.

So here are my glitter nails for day 17 of the 31 day challenge (14 to go!).


This is four coats of Revlon Radiant (I think this is also called Mosaic?), with a few stickers stuck on.  A proper lazy day mani lol.  Radiant is made up of blue glitter, with some larger green and silver hexes.  Very pretty.  Next time I wear this I'll use a colour underneath; I just wanted to see if I could get it opaque.

Next up in the challenge is a half-moon manicure.  I haven't tried this technique before, but I've successfully nicked some stickers off my sister for it.

Since you can never have too much glitter, take a little looksy at all the other manicures today:


Diana at Nails By Diana
Meredith at Perfectly Polished
Nicole at The Color Republic
Nicole at Nicole Gets Nailed
Shelby at Shelby's Swatches
Stephanie Louise at All Things Beautiful 
Liz and Lisa at Lozlosa 
Mari at Nailista 
Miss L at Beauty by Miss L 
Gini at Sassy Paints