Pick and Mix - Week 4

Week 4 time! I really struggled with inspiration for this one.

The choices were 70's or Grey and Colour. I really wanted to try 70's, but I found it really hard to come up with any ideas.

So here is my mani!

I used OPI French Quarter for Your Thoughts - a warm nude leaning grey, Sinful Colors - Snow Me White and China Glaze - Yellow Polka Dot Bikini for the accents. I had seen something like this somewhere recently, but after an extensive search of Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest I just can't find it. I really wanted to credit my original inspiration aswell. Nevermind.

What do you think?

Rachael xxx

An InLinkz Link-up

BNB Colour Me Crazy - Blue

Hey!

Here are my blue nails to bring me up to date. These are inspired by @sr_nails from instagram.

I had decided ages ago that I wanted to use my new OPI Blue Chips for this mani. I just didn't know what exactly I wanted to do with it. OPI Blue Chips is a renamed version of The Flowers are Blue-ming from the Katy Perry collection. Whatever the name, its really pretty and worth the £3.99 price tag I paid for it.

My thumb, pinky and pointer are 3 coats of OPI Blue Chips. My ring and middle fingers are two coats of Models Own Hypergel White Light, striped with Kate Spade for Nails Inc - New York Noir and the flowers are freehanded with the above black, white, blue and an added lighter shade of MoYou holographic blue polish. I didn't realise how hard zebra stripes are!

What do you think?

Rachael xxx

Don't forget to check out everyone's blue nails!

An InLinkz Link-up

Mani Swap with Pocket Money Polishes

Hey all!

I am away all this week in the beautiful Glencoe in Scotland. But even though I am pretty much signal-less and internet-less, I have managed to get on at least this once to share my nails with you.

So we decided to pick one mani that we liked and recreate. Both of us prefer to be a little creative, so we decided to produce a mani that was loosely based on the others original.

I know that the lovely lady at PMP loves OPI, so I decided to create my own version of this mani below, using a new OPI I had just bought.

I didn't have an exact colour match, so I used the opportunity to use OPI Stir-fried Eggplant that I had just bought. This is one of the re-named NOPI colours I believe, but either way, its pretty beautiful especially for purple. It's less eggplanty on the nail to the bottle I think, but it has beautiful flecks that shine gold and pink in the light.

I also couldn't find a gold to match - I'm sure I own a gold glitter polish somewhere?? But my eyes fell on a Revlon Moon Candy Nail Art duo in one of my drawers. The brown it is paired with isnt anything amazing by itself, but the shard/flakie end is lovely, shining blue to green to gold. Its very thick though, so I just dabbed it onto my nails.

What do you think of the end result? I really like it, considering its purple.

Have you ever done any mani swaps before? Would you like to do one? I've really enjoyed this one so if you fancy doing one with me, let me know!

Check out what Charlie chose to recreate here!

Rachael xxx

Untried Friday #6 - OPI Animalistic

Hey all!

Got an OPI to share with you today. I was given this as a freebie by Becca from KPC as she wasn't a fan. Thanks Becca! It's from the Muppets Collection I believe.

It has the same qualities as another OPI I have - I'm All Ears from the Minnie Collection. I will have to do a comparison to show just how similar / different they are sometime.

What do you think? Do you have it in your collection? 

Rachael xxx

Inspired by.. I dream of lacquer

Hey all!

I follow most people on Instagram - when I'm in a rush, it's so much easier to have a quick flick through my instafeed than to scroll through Bloglovin and read everything.

One person I follow on Instagram is @Idreamoflacquer. Around two weeks ago, she posted this mani. I instantly fell in love with it and knew I wanted to recreate it.

Try as I might, I just can't get chevrons. They're on my to practice list. So my final mani is a bit different as it has a different pointer design and a different colour to the neon green, but the inspiration still shows pretty clearly I think.

I've also lost my DSLR battery charger, so I apologise but my photos for today are from my iPhone!

Polishes used:

Barry M Gelly Hi Shine - Guava

Kate Spade by Nails Inc - New York Noir

OPI - My Favourite Ornament

The leopard print is freehand, the pointer finger beads are a stamp from Pueen - Love Elements with OPI My Favourite Ornament dotted over.

Please let me know what you think - these sorts of mix and match skittles are by far my personal favourite!

Rachael xxx

Swatched: Julep - Jodie

Hey all!

Couldnt resist picking this one up. My wonderful step sister is called Jodie, so when I caught this in a blog sale that could make it to the UK, I just had to have it. It has sat, well guarded but untried for around 6 months, but that has worked pretty well as its a beautiful autumn colour!

I also decided to pair this up with my new OPI Man with a Golden Gun, which I snagged from one of the nail sale groups on Facebook. What do you think?

Rachael xxx

Swatched - OPI Thanks a Wind-Million

Good morning all!

Just a swatch post here. I had to share this beauty that I picked up recently in the UK OPI sale. Someone (whoever you are, my addiction thanks you.. my bank balance does NOT!) posted in one of my nail groups that there was an OPI sale.. I picked up two beauties. This and Jade is the new Black. I went halfers on an order with Becca from Kittys Painted Claws and after swatching, she was sooooooo generous to give me OPI Animalistic as well. I have yet to swatch the other two, but anyway.. I digress.

I swatch a lot of colours, mainly to do nail art on top of and I rarely decide to share on their own. OPI is probably the main brand that I end up having to share swatches of, because they are just so lovely!

So here is Thanks a Wind-Million. For a creme polish this is SO easy to work with, I just love it. A one coater! It is very thin for a creme polish, but pigmented enough for full coverage. I did have to do 2 on my middle nail which is a fraction longer, but definitely just one coat needed if you have short nails. All photos have no topcoat on and its beautifully glossy. Definite keeper!

What do you think? Do you have this colour, would you wear it?

Rachael xxx

August Tri-Polish Mani #1

Hey all!

Trying something new today - my first attempt at the Tri-Polish challenge. This is the genius idea of Debbie over at The Crumpet, but if you feel like finding out more such as the 3 colour choices for each month, you want to head over and join the Facebook group.

This month's colours are red, green and yellow.

I've picked Sally Hansen - Insta-Dri Rapid Red, Ciaté - Big Yellow Taxi and Barry M - Spring Green.

So here's attempt one. I decided to go retro and crack open the black crackle. Gotta get my money's worth - this baby cost me a whole £1 from Poundland!

Don't forget to check out everyone else's Day 1s!

Rachael xxx

Swatched - OPI The Colour of Minnie

Hi all!

Today is just a swatch post of a polish I picked up recently (by recently, I mean in the last 2-3 months haha.. so slow at getting round to trying polishes!)

The barrow in the Metro Centre is one of my favourite places to shop - they recently acquired some of last years OPI collections - I picked up two polishes both from the Minnie collection 2012 - The Colour of Minnie, and I'm All Ears for only £3.99 each. Definitely money well spent!

I don't own many OPI polishes, but what I can say is both have fantastic formula (and should, for their suggested retail price here!). I'm only showing you the one today so I'll just talk about that one. I used two coats here over a base of Rimmel Stronger. The formula like I said is fantastic - its one of those polishes you just cant fail to get even - its beautifully smooth and has an almost jellylike texture. It dries glossy and has a faint pinky silver shimmer that is more noticeable in the bottle than on the nail.

This is probably close to perfect in shade for me. I do tend to go more for orange leaning reds for my skin tone, but I really love this pinky toned one and surprisingly I think it looks quite good! So did Chester obviously, as he decided to try photobombing me for attention, so I took a proper picture and he was happy :)

What do you think? Do you have this shade? Love it / don't love it? 

Rachael xxx

Small Blog Sale now up!

Feel free to check out my little blog sale - time to let some of my pretties go to new homes! UK Only

Blog Sale

See anything you like - email me at rachosnl@gmail.com

Rachael

xxx

Nail Polish Fixes Everything!

Hey all,

Sorry I've been so quiet-  work has been mental busy. I also got some bad news yesterday - the confirmation of the end of my contract. I have been working my arse off trying to get them to see that they should keep me, but yeah, they haven't.

So of course this morning my resolve to work as hard has waned a little. So to cheer myself up, I painted my nails with a new Nails Inc that I got - Roland Gardens. Really pleased with the colour - it tips just enough orange that I can pull it off - its seriously beautiful and has really lifted my spirits anyway!

I also snapped a nail on the way to work and do not have a file.. so I will apologise now for my odd ring finger nail and the shape!

As I have just done these quickly at work, I was also mega pleased with myself to find a topcoat in my bag :) so also testing my new OPI Top Coat. I have never tried it before, so I am interested to see how it works.

What do you think? I'm pretty pleased with it (bar my  odd nail which I will fix when I am home!) I dont wear red enough - definitely think I need to crack out the reds a bit more often! :)

Different Shades of Blue - Autism Awareness - Ribbons

Hi all,

Been so so busy this last week, really trying to get back into regular posting!

I really want to finish this challenge - I may not make it within April, but they will appear eventually :)

Here are my awareness ribbons. I was really quite pleased with the finished result.

The polishes I used are:

Sinful Colors - Snow Me White

Essie - Bikini So Teeny

Utopia's Polish - Ice Princess

OPI - Absolutely Alice

What do you think? x

Everyone else's are already waaaaaaaaay finished, but you can check them out here:

Alicia from Makeup and Nails, Not War

Carmina from Cubbiful

ChiChi from I’m Just Me... ChiChi

Cordia from Seriously Swatched

Dionne from Glittery Fingers & Sparkling Toes

Erin from Paint Those Piggies!

Jessica from Nail Polish Anonymous

Jillian from Jilltastic Nail Design

Kelly from Peace Love Lacquer

Laura from Little Laura Loves

Nicole from Dipped in Lacquer

Paulina from Paulina’s Passions

Rachael from Rachos Nail Love

Roxana from Beautylicious

Tammy from Lacquer and Leather

Tes from Tes Did It Nails

Tina from Light of the Moon Nails

Flip / Flop February Challenge - Day 12 - Drips / Matte

I went for an easy Matte today.

Not done much with my matte top coat yet, but I like these for simpleness :)

hope you like them!

I used 2 coats of OPI - Pedal Faster Suzi, 1 coat of KBShimmer Berry Patch and a top coat of Butter London Matte Topcoat.

This is how they looked pre-top coat. I like both ways.

Check out everyone else's efforts!

DatYorkLoves - Valentines Nail Art Challenge - Day 1 - Red or Pink

I know I'm already in a challenge, but I REEEEEEEALLY want to try this one too! It's only two weeks and I might not get them all in on the correct days but they'll be in the right order and they'll be done by the 14th :)

 

First of all, I want to thank Dahlia at DatYorkLoves for hosting the nail art competition. I'm sure my nails would not be as colourful without her inspiration!So I went for pink.. Pink and Red are both the thinnest colour collections I have - I really do not have  very many colours at all - the ones I do have are only ever visited for Nail Art and I rarely love them enough to keep them on for long. Let's see how these ones go :)

I used Sally Hansen - Lavender Cloud and OPI Pedal Faster Suzi.

Don't forget to check out everyone else's beautiful efforts!

General Nail Care

I've wanted to post a little something about this since I started. I was a nail biter for 21 years, so i have only ever had real nails for around 3-4 years with the odd 'stress nibble' in the first couple of years of non-biting. For the first few years my nails were incredibly soft, bendy and weak. I used lots of products such as Sally Hansen Hard As Nails but as soon as I stopped using them, my nails would revert to their weak selves. The opposite was that while using the Sally Hansen, they became very rigid, but I still struggled with regular breaks - always clean off and always very close to the nail bed.

Now you will see that my nail beds are still quite short - I have worked to lengthen these through extremely careful cleaning of my nails (to try and reduce the natural white tip) and regular pushing back of my cuticles. However i don't think my nails will ever be as long as some of the beautiful ones I see. All the same, I am really happy with my nails except for one exception. My middle nails both grow at an angle. If i bend my fingers, you dont really notice it, but if my fingers are out straight, you can see a clear slant to one side. I have tried filing my nails in all shapes, sizes etc and cant seem to make them appear straighter.

Bent position (relatively straight I feel!)

Bloody cock eyed! Definite, noticeable curve to the left. My fourth nail looks like it curves to the left but thats infact my bent finger :)
This is a source of great annoyance to me as I have finally found OPI Nail Envy which has enriched my nails massively - they are so strong now that for the first time ever I have been able to square off my nails and maintain around 1/2cm of length from the end of my finger. My nails look so much more feminine, I've been able to practice more nail art techniques (with varying success i may add!) and they just look so much better and healthier.

OPI Nail Envy is great in that I can wear it alone, or I can use it with nail polish over. I use it as my basecoat - its incredibly fast drying and easy to apply. I havent tested it with darker colours though such as red and blue which are more likely to stain, so I will have to get back to you on that!

(Just thought I would include my left hand as really pleased with my nail length on this hand too!)

Here it looks like I have filed the left side of my nail but it actually just curves inwards to appear diagonal - height of annoyance!

You can find OPI Nail Envy at all good cosmetic retailers - I got mine from Sally Express for £18.99. You can find it cheaper online, such as at Amazon for £8.75 (never buying my Nail Envy from Sally Express again!)

Does you use Nail Envy by OPI? What nail care products can you not live without? And.... Does anyone know how to fix my cock eyed nails?! Haha! Xx



One Man's Trash.. Is My Treasure!! :)

A friend of mine texted me the other day as she was having a polish clear out, offering me first refusal on them - so of course I said yes!

And she wouldnt take anything for them - I was gobsmacked with how generous she was!

So here are my 'winnings' :D I'm so excited to share them all with you!

She put it all in this lovely little box for me (you can see some of my own polishes around the outside :) )

It's like finding gold! :)

So there were LOTS of OPI's :) Left to Right - Yoga-Ta Get This Blue, Absolutely Alice, Silver Shatter, 2 minis which don't have names but I think they might be from the Ger-Mini collection?

Left to Right - Lincoln Park After Dark, Music Hall Curtain Call, Off With Her Red, Schnapps Out of It!, Monsooner or Later

At first I thought I had gotten two bottles the same, but on the right is William Tell Me About OPI - I've put it next to Lincoln Park After Dark so you can see the comparison.

3 Nicole by OPI shades - Fell From the Tree (Green! <3) , Loyalty to the Royal, Jade in the Shade (as you can see, this looks blue in the photo, but if you look at the bottle in the shade, it does look jade green!)

4 Nails Inc Shades, plus another mini OPI that escaped my other OPI photos! - Left to right: Spitalfields (Magnetic Fishnet Effect), Portobello, Notting Hill Gate Mini, Chesham Street.

And lots of other brands - Ciaté - Jelly Bean, No 7 Stay Perfect - Milan 110, No 7 Stay Perfect - Glitterball Mini, Barry M - Bright Pink, No 7 Stay Perfect - Spice.

2 x Floozie Frost French polishes, Avon Nailwear Pro - Pastel Pink, Fearne - Lemon Drizzle. (Poor picture - I'm sorry!)

I honestly can't believe how generous she was to give me all of these for free - I am seriously looking forward to testing all of these out and I already have some nail art ideas in my head!

Thank you so much Angela if you are reading this! xxx

Do you have any of these shades / want any of these shades? What do you think of them? I'm most excited to try the Nails Inc Fishnet Polish (never tried magnetic polish before!) and the Nicole by OPI shades <3