Review of 'NYC Quick Dry Nail Polish' in 'Lexington Yellow'

Hi everyone! So I was watching Zoe's (also know as Zoella) June Favourites video (which if you haven't already watched you can watch it by clicking HERE) and she had this fun yellow nail varnish on which inspired me to have a dig through the abyss that is my nail varnish box and find a yellow to try out and show you!

Now she was wearing 'Fluro Yello' from 'Urban Outfitters' but I'm going to be using yet another one from the 'NYC' brand. As per usual, this is £1.79 but no doubt I bought this on a 3 for 2 deal!

Firstly, I started off by applying my base coat, but what's this?! Yes, that's right - I bought a new one. My nails have been braking so much recently I thought I would go out a try and find something to fix that. I came across this nail varnish which claims to be a top coat, a base coat & a nail hardener! And it was only £2.99!

I then applied the first coat of colour. Now I don't know it it's the heat (30° in the UK!!!!) or if I'm just applying it really badly or due to the colour being so light but the first coat was so streaky! I know the NYC nail varnishes never look good with only one coat but I felt this took it to a whole new level!

                                      

The second coat made it much more like the colour in the bottle but in my opinion it still could be better in some places?

Due to the fact it was still a bit opaque in places I decided to apply a 3rd coat!

I think the colour is much better now but it was a little frustrating having to wait for 3 coats to dry especially as it was hot so were taking longer than usual.

And all done! Annoyingly they seemed to have smudged and slightly bubbled whilst I slept (forgot to take a finished picture that night!) but I think that was more down to me & the weather, than the polish itself. I think the colour is a really nice yellow; it's not too bright but then again not to pale! In my opinion I think colours such as yellow work best on shorter nails for some reason?

I think the colour is so pretty but the fact that I had to apply 3 coats to get it was a bit annoying. For this reason I probably wouldn't reccomend this nail varnish as strongly as I have with the other colours from this brand however, it is a really nice colour so if you feel you can wait the extra drying time - go for it!! Thanks for reading (:

Review of 'Rimmel London - I Love Lasting Finish' in '700 Block Your Green'

Hi everyone! I've been looking for a nice green nail polish for absolutely ages now! I thought I hit the jackpot last summer when I bought 2 lovely shades of green, but both ended up staining my nails and they are still recovering!! So as I was in Superdrug I saw that this brand of Rimmel was on offer at £1.99 instead of £2.99 (which still is nice and cheap!) and I just had to get it! The picture doesn't really show its true colour. It is a richer green in real life!

This green in the bottle looks a really lovely and has a slight shimmer to it which at first I didn't notice but it really is very pretty. However, I do have to say it isn't particularly a summery colour, in my opinion it is more of a Christmasy colour so if you are looking for a summery green: this probably isn't the one for you!

So, first things first - my Collection 2000 base coat.

Then I applied the first coat of colour. It was pretty highly pigmented and had a lovely shimmer to it when it caught the light. In comparison to the NYC nail varnishes I definitely think you could get away with just applying one coat of this. I did find that although it went on very smoothly, on some nails it was a little thicker in places than others - but that's probably more down to me than the polish (a bad workman always blames her tools!)

I applied a second coat and it looks exactly like it does in the bottle!

Finally a top coat to give it a nice glossy finish. As per usual I'm just using a clear nail varnish from Boots Natural Collection (trust me it really isn't pink!)

And all done! I really liked this nail varnish as you can get such a strong colour with just one coat which is ideal if you are in a bit of a rush. But this really isn't a summer colour - it's a quite rich shade of green which to me strikes me as a Christmas colour. But overall I did really love this and will be going out to buy some different colours! Thanks for reading (:

Girl Guding INTOPS: EuroQuest 2013

Hi everyone! What's this?! This isn't a normal beauty post? I know, I know! I want to post about something a little different today but the beauty posts will be returning, so don't worry!

INTOPS stands for International Opportunities for Girl Guides and Scouts. There are various trips ranging from going to an international camp to meet people from all over the world to going out to Africa and doing community work. It gives young people a chance to travel abroad who otherwise might not normally be able to.

Now, I am very involved with Girl Guiding. 

I was a Brownie:

I was also a Guide:

I am a Ranger:

And I am also a Young Leader at a Rainbow and a Brownie unit:

As I do all these things with Girl Guiding last summer I selected to try out for a county trip which was going to an international camp. This was quite hard for me as at the time my grandmother had died and her funeral was being held the same weekend,as I then one I was supposed to be going on a selection weekend to try out for the trip. I was also doing my work experience that week.

This meant that my family all flew up to Scotland for the funeral and I stayed at home (I did sleepover at a friends so I wasn't alone in the house at night!!). So as you can imagine I was pretty stressed out. Anywho, I found out a few weeks later that I had been offered a place on the trip! I was so excited!!! But then I had even better news: 3 of us had been selected from that weekend to try out for a South West regional trip.

This included another selection process. 40 people were selected to try out for this from the whole of the South West of England which included the channel islands and I didn't know anyone! But I made friends there and it was such a great experience. Region were running 3 trips: 1 to a camp in Belguim, 1 back packing around Europe and 1 the following year to Mexico. I would have loved to go to Mexico but as it was in 2014 and I would be in the middle of my A Levels I decided to put my name down for the backpacking around Europe one. And guess what!? I GOT SELECTED! 

So that means that this summer I will be travelling around Zagreb, Hungary, Bratislava, Austria, Prague, Germany, Holland and London completing different challenges as we go (hence the name EuroQuest) with 9 other girls whom I have only met twice in some cases!

A lot of people think it is very religious based but to be perfectly honest it really doesn't matter what you believe; it is really all about meeting new people and trying new things! If you aren't already part of it have a look in your area to see if their are any Guide units (10-14) Rangers (14-25) or for anyone 18+ you can volunteer to help at a unit and even work towards your leadership qualification! And if you aren't a girl then you can join Scouting. I have to admit my knowledge of this is very little but you can find more about Scouting here. A lot of girls also join Scouting instead of Guiding but we do a lot with the Explores (One of the Scouting equivalents to Rangers) & we do a lot of the same sort of stuff!

Girl Guiding has done so much for me and I'm so grateful for all the opportunities I have been given through it! Thank you for reading!

Review of 'NYC Quick Dry Nail Polish' in 'Raindrop'

Hi everyone! So here is yet another review of a NYC nail polish! This time I opted for 'Raindrop' which is a pale pastel like blue (I think I might be right in saying powder blue?) as the sun is still shining, or at least trying to, and now we have had the longest day it is technically summer in England! So again this bottle is £1.79 on it's own or as I bought it on a 2 for £3 deal in Superdrug.

I assumed that all Superdrug stores stock this brand but when I went into Bath to do some shopping I popped into Superdrug and couldn't find it anywhere. I found this a little strange as this shop is much bigger than the small one in my town so I'm sorry if the Superdrug near you doesn't stock it but I guess you can always order online (:

Right on we go! Of course first I applied my trusty base coat but it really doesn't matter what base coat you use - this was just a cheap one that does the job from Collection.

Then on went the first coat. As I have found with pretty much all of the NYC Quick Dry nail polishes, you can't leave it with one coat. It's a little streaky and I found this one went on a little more unevenly than the others but that could be something to do with it being in my hot bag all day!

But of course with the second coat it looks great! It is now really opaque and is a gorgeous summery colour.

Finally I added the top coat and cleaned up any rogue polish from my skin and it's all done!

I love this colour and it's a steal for £1.79! My friend asked me where I got the polish from as she loved the colour and of course I was only too happy to let her know! Thank you for reading (:

Review of 'NYC Quick Dry Nail Polish' in 'Lincoln Square Lavender'

Hi everyone! So again another of my current favourite nail varnishes at the moment: NYC Quick Dry! If you haven't read my previous blog post you will not understand my obsession with this brand! They have recently been on offer in Superdrug: 2 for £3 which is an absolute bargain! And they are only £1.79 by themselves anyway!

So I chose this one as another summery pastel like colour. Although the name suggests lavender it is in no real way any sort of shade of purple - which is my understanding of the colour lavender! But the colour is such a nice dusty sort of pale pink colour and is something that you could easily wear without attracting too much attention  if that is what you are after.

So of course I applied my base coat first. I can't stress how important it is to wear a base coat. Not so much with this sort of shade of pink but last summer I made the fatal mistake of painting my nails a lovely grass green colour without a base coat!!! My nails were stained so bad and I had to keep painting them just to hide the fact that I was stupid enough not to use a base coat! Sorry, I went off on a bit of a tangent there! So yes, this is the base coat I always use from Collection for I believe £2.99.

I then applied the first coat of colour and as I've noticed with this range one coat just doesn't give me an opaque enough colour but it wasn't awful and I always apply a very thin coat as for some reason regardless of the varnish being quick dry or not it still takes a while to dry! (Personally I blame my poor circulation!) Again please ignore the mess of my painting - I will sort it out at the end!!!!

Still a little bit see through 

I then applied the second coat and immediately looked so much better and more like the colour in the bottle.

Much better!

Recently, I've been pretty obsessed with the fashion of having an accent nail. For anyone who doesn't know (sorry, but where have you been?!) it's where you paint one nail slightly different to the rest whether that be a contrasting colour, glitter or beaded!

I decided to use another one from the NYC collection! I was debating whether to do this as a separate review like last time but as I only did only 2 nails I thought I'd just make 1 extra long review.

So this is the 'NYC Expert Last Nail Polish' in 'Gramercy Glitz' and it's a gorgeous really pale pink in the bottle but could easily go on any nail varnish colour as it isn't hugely pink on the nail. Again I got it in a 2 for £3 deal and on it's own it's £2.49.

I went on really easily and smoothly and there was a fair amount of glitter on the first coat but as I was using it on only one nail I really wanted it to stand out so I ended up putting on a further coat to make it really noticeable.

One coat of glitter on my ring finger

Two coats of glitter - much more sparkly! 

I then finished it all off with my make shift top coat - a clear nail varnish from 'The Natural Collection' at Boots.

It's not actually pink! 

Et Voila! All cleaned up and looking lovely! I think it looks so cute and girly as it's not in you face like brighter shades are but that's the joy of pastel colours!

I would really recommend both the base colour and the glitter nail varnish as they are just so pretty and you really can't go wrong for £3! Thank you for reading (:

Review of 'Blaze Solar Active Nail Varnish: Pearl to Blackberry'

So I bought this polish over a year ago in an attempt to get around the school rules of no obvious nail varnish as inside it is a pearly colour but then as the sun hits it it turns into a deep purple. I'm not sure how much I paid for it but I think it was around the £6 mark from Amazon.

As this was over I year ago I do believe that the brand has changed name to 'Ruby and Wing' and from doing a bit of searching are now sold in bigger bottles for just under £10 with a lot more colours available than when I bought mine.

Inside colour in the bottle

I was so excited to test it out when it came but the problem with living in England is there are very few days of bright sunshine in a row. You do need bright sunshine to experience the full effect as I found out when I went out when there was only a little bit of sun it didn't change fully and transformed into a horrible grey colour.

So this is what it looked like on in bright sunshine:

Inside and outside on the nail and with the bottle

I found that the pearly was very streaky even after a couple of coats but this was unnoticeable outside. I also found it annoying that you can't apply a top coat otherwise it blocks the UV rays from changing the colour of the polish. This meant that my nails chipped even quicker than usual.

As much as I loved the concept of it I needed about 5 coats to get a super noticeable colour change. Personally I wouldn't recommend this colour in particular - I only chose it to fit with school rules as the only other option was clear to black which isn't really my style! But I love the idea and I'm considering buying a different colour from the new range to see if the formula has changed with the brand. However I would definitely check other peoples reviews before buying as £10 is quite a bit if it turns out to be rubbish!! Thank you for reading (:

Review of 'NYC Expert Last Nail Polish' in 'Lights-Camera-Glitter'

I started with a base colour which if you haven't already you can check it out HERE as I'm not too keen on putting glitter on without a base colour as I just don't think it looks as good unless you wear about 5 coats to get it strong. This doesn't apply to all glitter nail polishes - I do have some that cover the whole nail in a coat so it would be pointless applying a base colour first as you just wouldn't be able to see it!

So I bought this polish in a 2 for £3 deal on all NYC nail varnishes in Superdrug but the nail varnish is only £2.49 on it's own so a great bargain!

I put on a first coat and to be honest I wasn't too impressed! As you can see there are tiny glittery bits and the slightly larger pieces of blue and silver glitter. These larger pieces didn't seem to distribute too well on my nails. Some only had 1 or two pieces whereas others had 5 or 6! It's not a major thing but I felt it could have had a higher consistency of the large pieces in comparison to the smaller ones. It did however slide on smoothy and the brush was pretty good at doing the whole nail in 2 streaks.

I waited only 10 minutes and it was completely dry - which was a bonus as it wasn't advertised as a quick drying nail polish!

I then applied another coat only to try and even out the spread of the larger pieces of glitter and it didn't look so bad.

 To finish off I applied a coat coat which was actually just a clear nail varnish from The Natural Collection at Boots. I believe I'm right in saying on its own it's £1.99 but often there is an offer where you can get 3 for £5! It has gone slightly pinky as I put it on top of a red that hadn't fully dried but this is only noticeable in the bottle - it looks crystal clear on the nail!

I then cleaned up all the mess on the skin with a couple of cotton buds dipped in nail varnish remover and voila! There you have it!

To be perfectly honest I wasn't overly impressed with this glitter nail polish as even though it's cheap; in comparison to some of my other glitter varnishes from Barry M it just isn't up to scratch and they were only £2.99 so not that much difference! There a probably quite a few better ones on the market for only a slight bit more as I felt this one just didn't look as good as I hoped it would! There is nothing wrong with the varnish itself so if you like the effect then go for it! For me though it just wasn't what I was looking for. Thank you for reading (: