Pick and Mix - Week 3 Texture

Hi again! We're on week 3 already!

This week is Matte / Texture or 60's. I'm not really a massive fan of either, but I do like the odd texture so will give it a go!

So I raided Becca's (Kitty's Painted Claws) polishes for this - I (We) chose a base of Sally Hansen - Bewitched and Barry M - Duchess for the texture. I own Duchess myself, but it has sat untried for around a year.. poor polish!

I applied one coat of Barry M - Duchess to my thumb, pointer and pinky, and 1 thick coat of Bewitched to the other nails. 



I then wanted to try the 'quilted' sort of look, so I taped some criss cross diagonals and painted over with some Duchess and then removed the tape. 





I then added a second coat of Duchess to my other nails as it didnt look even. You can see the shift between purple to goldy-brown quite well on the above picture.

What do you think? Are you a texture fan? Have you done quilted nails before? Would love to know your thoughts!

Rachael xxx

An InLinkz Link-up

A-Z Challenge - F is for China Glaze For Audrey and PMP Fairest of All

Good morning!

I have two F polishes to show you today! The base is China Glaze For Audrey, and the beautiful silver and holographic shards are a topper by Pocket Money Polishes called Fairest of All.

I am lucky enough to get to paint my nails often at Becca's (Kittys Painted Claws) house, which means she gives me full choice from her helmer. She is very organised and has every single polish cataloged in a spreadsheet. I started to follow her example, but I gave up when  I expanded to a 2nd helmer,  I couldn't be bothered after around 20 polishes into the 1st helmer. 

So she looked up all her F polishes for me and as soon as I saw For Audrey I had to try it.. it's such a beautiful mint shade. But then I saw PMP.. I have so few PMP polishes (I came into the game late!) that I had to try one that was new to me. Most of my PMP polishes are part of the colabs that Charlie did with Tara from Taras Talons. Oh how I miss the colabs! 

Anyway, I digress... here is my mani!

Sparkly! <3

What do you think?

Check out the other F manis over at the hub page!

Rach xxx

What's on my nails?

Just a quick post today - to show you whats been on my nails recently. Two unnamed prototypes for R&R Lacquers, a new UK indie brand opening in 2014!

#1

#2

What do you think?

Rachael xxx

Can't beat a bit of blue when you're blue!

Just a cheeky little easy, cheer you up mani today!

Here's my new favourite blue - Essie Butler Please, with a coat of Sinful Colors Hottie.

I haven't had much time for painting nails recently, what with being on holiday and then having the mother of crap weeks back at work.. so I've really tried to catch up with myself and get back to posting. I love painting my nails, I love sharing them, I love finding out what you think. I really don't want my main hobby to be pushed aside because I am always so busy at work. I need some me time, I just need to find room for it!

What do you think? Would you wear it? Do you own either colour?

Rachael xxx

Taras Talons - All Work and No Polish! Swatch

Hey all!

Another Taras Talons polish here - got a few more in my untried pile, but I'll break them up so I don't spoil you all at once haha!

This is a single mini (5ml) that caught my eye a few weeks back. I'm normally a bar glitter hater but its very sparse in this polish so I thought I'd give it a try. All work and no polish is a sheer grey base with a mix of black, white and pink glitters in a variety of hexes and bar glitters in black and white only. It can be built into an opaque look on its own, but I decided to layer it over Sally Hansen - Ion for quickness. 

I decided to wear it as an accent as you know how much I like non-matchy nails. So I went for 2 coats of Sally Hansen - Ion on my pinky and pointer, 2 coats of Catrice - Raspberry Fields Forever on my middle finger and 1 coat of AWANP over 2 coats of Ion on my ring finger and thumb (not shown).

I really like how it looks, I love glitters, and these matte glitters are great for an every day look. I love the variety of colours and glitters in this and surprisingly like the addition of the bars. It was a beautiful formula and had a nice variety of glitters that went easily onto the nail. I did fish for the bars though as they are quite sparse, but thats how I want the polish anyway so its not an issue!

Small thank you to Becca from KPC too as these are all her polishes (bar All Work and No Polish) as I was having a polish afternoon at her house! It was her birthday last week, so I took over her presents and we had a swatch fest! Happy birthday Becca, love ya lots! 

Anyway, back to the polish - what do you think?

Rachael xxx

Back to School NAC Day 4 - Sports

Good evening all!

Bit late with Day 4 of the challenge - I'm a terrible host! Sorry!

When I was at school, I hated PE. I was terrible at most of it, and if you were terrible, teachers told you you were terrible, and other kids never wanted you on the team. Luckily for me, the school had a pool. While swimming was not cool, I was pretty good at it. So I had the pool to myself for two hours a week. 

I still love swimming now and regularly do swimming events such as the Swimathon (yearly 2.5k / 5k fundraiser for Sport Relief / Marie Curie Cancer Care) and the Aspire swim the channel challenge.

So here are my nails :)

Hope you like them! Don't forget if you want to join in, its open to anyone! And please remember to check out all the other wonderful manis!

Rachael xxx

Taras Talons & Pocket Money Polishes Collaborations - Swatches and Review

Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeey all!

Excited to show you todays polishes - some collaboration duos from Taras Talons and Pocket Money Polishes, two UK indie makers.

I was lucky enough to snag one Cinderella duo and one Beauty and the Beast duo for myself.

The first I have to show you is the Beauty and the Beast Duo - Mrs Potts by Taras Talons and Enchanted Rose by PMP. 

Here is Mrs Potts by itself. I can't decide if this is lilac or pink. I'm thinking a lilac leaning pink. Its really pretty and has a beautiful formula. This is 2 coats, with a base of Rimmel Stronger basecoat and 1 coat of Seche Vite. I would happily wear this on its own, its a rare pink that suits my skintone but I love this soft blush look.

And here it is topped with 1 dabbed coat of Enchanted Rose. These two polishes compliment each other perfectly - the various sizes of rose pink hex and a spattering of holographic hexes really make this look magical. As I said, I dabbed this on for even coverage, but thats just the regular for any glitter toppers if you want an even covering. 

What do you think overall? I think its super pretty as a duo, but Mrs Potts is great for a less sparkly occasion too! 

So here is the Cinderella duo. I found out about these really late, but was over the moon to find my favourites of the collection were the last ones available! These are Bibbity Bobbity Boo by Taras Talons and Magic Pumpkin by PMP.

You might think these are an odd match together, but I love them combined. Here is BBB (nobodys got time to type that over and over haha.. plus I can't spell it!) on its own. Its a beautiful turquoise shade. My favourite!

Application was perfect, lovely pigmented formula which self levelled perfectly. I only used 1 coat here with my Rimmel Stronger base and Seche Vite topcoat. Yay for short nails!

Aand here it is topped topped with Magic Pumpkin. The only slight thing I would mention is the base discolours turquoise. If any of you use Seche Vite, you will find it yellows certain colours and alters their true colour - mint green, turquoise etc are the most noticeable. Unfortunately this is the case for a lot of indie glitters too as they have the same ingredient in the base. Practically all my glitter toppers do this. A shame for the base colour, but it still looks good with the glitter shades Charlie has used. One thing I will say is that it doesnt yellow it as much as Seche Vite does though. This again has that magical sparkly holographic glitter element. Beautiful! This is one dabbed coat.

Do you have any PMP / Taras Talons polishes? Which is your favourite? 

You can find Taras Talons here:

Website

Etsy Shop

and Pocket Money Polishes here:

Website

Rachael xxx

ER31DC - Day 17 Glitter

Good morning!

Its yet ANOTHER 31DC mani today. Glitter! YAY for glitter!

I have pulled out one of my favourites for today - Ellagee - Beyond The Sea.

Laura originally sent me this for review, but I loved it so much I had to buy a large bottle of it. I have it here over Butter London Slapper.

What do you think? Do you like it? Would you wear it? Do you have either of these polishes? Want them?

Don't forget to check out everyone else's glitterbomb manis!

Other posts you might like:

Pokémon Nail Art Challenge - Week 12 Ice - Dewgong

Hi all!

Cheating slightly here and 'upcycling' my last mani. I'm quite pleased with the end result, even though Dewgong looks a bit squonky!

You can really see the shine in this one! Love this little glitter polish!

Polishes used:

Color Club - 3 minis from an unnamed blue set, but I believe the blue dots are Hydrangea Kiss. Unsure on the blue base and the sparkly top coat.

Sinful Colors - Snow Me White

Sinful Colors - Black to Black

Simplez :)

Hope you like it! Don't forget to check out everyone else's manis for Ice week! xxx

Ellagee Polish Part 2

Please note: these three polishes in today's post were sent to me for review purposes. All other Ellagee polishes I have posted about are polishes that I have bought myself.

This post is also EXTREMELY pic heavy!

The three polishes that Laura kindly agreed to send me are from her new 'You're the Top' collection. They are Beyond the Sea, I've Got a Crush on You and Crazy He Calls Me and are all glitter toppers (glitters in a clear base). All of the polish names in the collection are inspired by the great music from the 1930's and 40's.

I wanted to save my favourite of the 3 until last, but I honestly couldn't. I really didn't think I would be a fan of this, but I sneakily tried it out for an earlier mani last week and loved it that much I wore it for 4 days before I reluctantly took it off. This is I've Got a Crush on You.

'I've Got A Crush On You is a clear base with shades of pink, white, and silver glitter. Other colors in the photos are reflections from the holographic glitters.'

I also wanted to show you how versatile this topper is - its pale, feminine attributes mean it works well with a variety of colours. I chose one of my favourite neutral shades - L'Oréal - Soft Chinchilla to show you how soft and elegant this can look! This is 2 coats of Soft Chinchilla with 1 coat of I've Got a Crush on You and 1 coat of Seche Vite.

What do you think? I love the colours together - it's glittery, but not in your face glittery. Its demure, understated and very classy looking. It also doesn't HAVE to look barbie, ditzy blonde pink, which is why I love it so much!

The formula was wonderful. Not too runny or thick, very easy to work with. I did dab a little more than I usually would but only because its hard to brush properly when you're only doing a small section of your nail!

The above photos are all in artificial light.

The above 4 photos are taken in natural light - here you can clearly see how light and delicate the glitter is. Really beautiful! 

The second polish I have for you is Crazy He Calls Me. A beautiful rainbow of colours, which I chose to layer over black. Here I have 2 coats of Sinful Colors Black to Black, 1 coat of Crazy He Calls Me and 1 coat of Seche Vite.

I didn't realise just how many photos I took of this - I was quite taken by it!

This is what Laura has to say about it: 'Crazy He Calls Me is a clear base with shades of red, orange, gold, yellow, green, turquoise, blue, and purple hexagon glitter.'

I really like this against the black. I think because of the variety of colours, that it would probably look best over Black or White, but you could pick whichever colour you like - depending on the effect you want. This polish is heavily glitter packed, so you could achieve full coverage of glitter in 3 coats. All the above photos are in artificial light.

It reminds me of a party in a bottle, it brings a smile to my face when I look at it on my nails! I forget how much I love my black nails - I think this may make me wear them more often!

Absolutely lovely - love how all the different colours catch the light! Would you wear it?

And here is the final topper - this is Beyond the Sea. 

'Beyond The Sea is a clear base with shades of teal, turquoise  magenta, and gold hexagon and square glitter. Other colors in the photos are reflections from the holographic glitters.'

I chose to layer this over Barry M Gelly Hi-Shine Blackberry. I think it really showcases the beautiful teal / turquoise glitters. As you can see, there is a fine sprinkling of gold and magenta which is well balanced.

 The above photos are in artificial light.

 The above are in natural (fading - sorry!) light. 

What do you think of the three? You already know my favourite - which is yours?

Just a reminder - you can find these at Laura's Etsy store here.

Also, check out her Facebook page, Instagram and Twitter. She often posts details of discounted products and offers, as well as teasers for her new upcoming collections!

Please feel free to let me know what you think - I love hearing your thoughts and comments!

Rachael xxx