Christmas Penguin Nails

Hi everyone! Christmas is quickly approaching so I thought I'd do a quick post to show you my Christmas themed nails and how I did them!

Step 1: Paint your nails all black.

Step 2: Draw a white oval leaving some black visible either side

Step 3: Use a dotting tool to make the white of the eyes and a slightly smaller one for the blacks

Step 4: Use a dotting tool to do the orange of the penguins feet then either using a dotting tool making three small dots in a triangle to make the beak or use a brush!

Hope you liked this Christmas themed post! Let me know what Christmassy designs you've got on your nails this year and if you haven't yet maybe this will give you some inspiration!

Review of 'Instant Nail Effects Crackle' in 'Black Magic'

Hi everyone! So I thought I would try a new thing out on my nails! I got this crackle effect last Chirstmas but I always thought it looked a bit tacky (I still do if you match it with the wrong colour) so I haven't actually tried it until now. I think you can buy it for £3.99 which is the average price for any effect nail varnish Barry M has.

I have been loving the rockish look lately of mixing black with gold and I really wanted to see if I could apply this to my nails. First I painted my nails gold (which I wrote about HERE) which acted as my base colour. On it's own, I'm not too sure about having full gold nails so I probably wouldn't use it without placing some sort of effect over the top.

I then applied the first coat of the crackle effect whilst the gold was still drying (I'd left it about 5-10 minutes but it was still a little tacky). I wasn't quite sure if I should be applying it with a thin coat or a thick. The first nail I did, I painted a very thin coat on, but then found I needed more polish to cover the whole nail. However, by the time I had got some more on the brush the thin strip had already began to crack. So, my advice would be to make sure you have plenty of varnish on your brush and just paint a slightly thick coat over the top of your chosen base colour.

The cracking started almost instantly and it only took about 1 minute for the whole thing to be done. I continued painting all my nails until my whole hand was done.

I like that the crackle is random so every nail is different, but I found, especially with my pinky, that the crackle had basically split into 4 sections. Personally, I think this works best when there are lots of thin cracks all over the nail.

I then added a top coat to give it a lovely shine as the crackle is kind of matt. I LOVE how my nails look as I think it is quite edgy and something different than just a plain colour. I've received quite a few compliments on my nails this week because of it (including a couple from some guys!). I think it works really well with the gold as a base colour, but you definitely have to be careful what you use as a base colour because obviously some will look great and some will just look plain tacky.

I would recommend this product as I think it livens up your nails and although I haven't tried the other colours (I think I'm right in saying you can also get it in purple, pink, blue, white and gold?) I think that black is probably the best colour to get, as in theory it will go with a wider variety of base colours!

Let me know what you think of the crackle effect! Thank you for reading! (:

Review of 'L'Oreal Paris Color Riche Nail Polish' in '701 Midnight Mistress'

Hi everyone! To start with I'm really sorry that this isn't particularly a nail varnish for you if you are on a budget, but in my defense I did get it on the ferry back from Holland and it was around €3 so to me that seemed like a good deal!

It is a very deep blue almost black colour which is not the sort of colour I often wear but it was because of that reason I chose it, as I knew I had nothing already like it in my collection at home. It is also a lot smaller than the ones I usually buy. It is only a 5ml bottle so I'm not sure how long it will last? I also wasn't too impressed with the quality of the lid because as I peeled the plastic cover off it pulled off some of the gold which now I think makes it look a bit tacky!

Anywho, I applied my base coat which I think is really important especially when applying a dark colour like this one as you don't want it to stain your nails! I used my usual base coat from Barry M and as usual - it's nothing spectacular but it does the job!

I then applied the first coat of colour. At first I thought it was because I apply thin coats but then after reading other peoples reviews I was assured the first coat was very streaky for everyone! This surprised me because I sort of assumed that as it was such a small bottle and was made by a world famous brand that one coat would be enough but clearly I was wrong.

After applying the second coat a little thicker than usual just to make sure my nails had full coverage of polish it looks so much better! It did shock me a little how black it was as when it was just one coat the blue was quite strong although it was still a little opaque in some places. But it is incredibly glossy which is nice and is something I highly rate in nail varnishes.

I still applied a top coat just to give it a little more protection to chipping rather than to increase the shine. And here they are all done!

I have to admit I wouldn't really recommend this product as there are plenty of nail varnishes out there that are much cheaper and at the same time give you a much better coverage. I do like the colour but I have to be honest, I think it will be one I save for Halloween which is a bit of a shame as I had such high hopes considering the brand name. I would be quite disappointed if I had payed full price for this.

Let me know your thoughts on dark nail varnishes - do you love them or hate them? Thanks for reading!

Review of 'Holographic Nails Topshop' in 'Wistful'

Hi everyone! I have never actually tried any of the range of cosmetics that Topshop has to offer and thinking about it I don't think I have ever bought any clothes from there either?! But I was given a gift card from the family I  babysat for almost every day after school for nearly a year, as they are moving away and this was sort of a thank you present!

So I went into the Topshop in Bath and had a little look at the clothe,s but the store isn't really that big and nothing exactly caught my eye until I went over to the nail varnishes. A few of my friends and lots of other peoples blogs I read love the nail varnishes from Topshop and I have to say there is a huge selection! Instead of getting a plain colour (although there were some gorgeous colours) I thought I would be a little adventurous and I got this holographic one!

It is £6 and it is really different to other nail varnishes I have seen in Boots and Superdrug and I have never tried anything like it before! They also had a bluey one and a sliver one but as I wear a lot of flowery clothes I thought I would get the pink!

So I applied my base coat from Barry M. Please excuse the state of my nails but they got completely ruined whilst I was travelling around Europe as I didn't really take time to take care of them as I was just having so much fun!

I then applied the first coat of colour. I needed to apply it quite thickly in comparison to what I normally do as it dried quite quickly so when I went I tried to spread out the nail varnish across my nail it just sort of made it really uneven and gloopy if that makes any sense! But once I got that sorted it was all good!

I felt it needed a second coat as in some places it seemed sort of opaque. But the effect was there are after one coat and I actually was surprised how much I liked it! It is very shimmery and does look like those hologram stickers that I always seemed to have when I was younger. I did think it felt slightly odd when I ran my finger over the nail as it wasn't smooth like my other nail varnishes.

I then put a top coat over the top and I was worried that it would ruin the effect but it didn't do anything like that - it just gave it a nice gloss over the top and it made it feel a lot better when I felt it! I also cleaned up an bits of rogue nail varnishes that had crept onto my skin and all done!

I actually really like this nail varnish because the effect it one I haven't seen before and it looks really nice! I don't know if it is the same with all the nail varnishes but I found it dried really quickly which is a huge plus to any nail varnish for me!

Let me know if you've tried any of the other colours from Topshop and if you like the hologram effect? Thanks for reading!

Review of 'Gelly Hi-Shine Nail Paint by Barry M' in 'Pomegranate'

Hi everyone! There is so much hype surrounding the Gelly Hi-Shine range that Barry M brought out sometime last year from so many different people about how you only need one coat; how glossy it looks etc and to be honest I was a little bit skeptical because I apply quite thin coats, as you may know, so I thought I would give it a whirl and see if it's all it's cracked up to be!

I picked it up for £3.99 from Superdrug (although I think you can get it for around £2.49 from Amazon) in the colour Pomegranate because I really like dark pinky colours and it looked really nice and rich!

Please excuse the shortness of my nails but at the time of painting them I was a day away from embarking on my backpacking trip around Europe so I wanted to make sure they didn't break whilst I was away hence the shortness. I think when this is published I will be in Germany/Holland which is a little strange to think about!

Firstly, I applied my new favourite base coat, also from Barry M! It was £2.99 and I have been finding since switching to this my nail varnish has taken longer to chip and my nails haven't been breaking as much so thank you Barry M!

I then applied the first coat of colour and WOW! It glides onto the nail so nicely and it has really good coverage even with the first stroke. As it is a gelly nail varnish it is quite a bit thicker than normal nail varnishes which is probably why it gives such an even appearance on the first stroke. I honestly don't think I need another coat or even a top coat! It is super glossy and looks like I've already done two coats! The pictures seem to show it as a red colour when in fact it is exactly like the pink bottle so don't be fooled!

Well that was short and sweet! I would really recommend the Gelly Hi-Shine range as it is such great value for money and looks so professional! I will definitely be going out and buying more colours so you can look forward to seeing a few more reviews of this brand cropping up in the near future!

As it looked so great after the first coat I didn't feel the need to apply another coat which meant this review was very short! So I thought I would spice things up a little and add a sprinkle of glitter over the top and review that nail varnish at the same time! It's like killing 2 birds with 1 stone! So if you want to find out how this ended the continuing review will be up tomorrow! Thank you for reading (: