White with Tiny Beads

After my tiny nail bean beads arrived I had to decide what to do with them! I finally settled on painting my nails white with Barry M Matt White, and then putting 2 layers of Sally Hansen Hard As Nails Sheerly Opal over the top to tone down the white. I then added black diamonds and then tiny gold and metallic pink bean beads. 

I absolutely love this mani, I think it's one of my favourites so far and I got so many complements on it. They became a bit of a talking point when we went out in Manchester =) The bean beads are a little bit difficult to control so I ended up using a paintbrush to put them on one by one!

Cat xox

Barry M White Crackle over Bling Diamonds and Pearls

So, I'd had an argument with my boyfriend recently ='(, and when we decided to meet in town for a drink, he turned up with Barry M Crackle in pink and in white =). That cheered me up, and we're back together, not just because he bought me the nail polish but that was a nice gesture, he obviously knows me well! 

So when I got home I had to decide which one to try first, and eventually settled on the white over a silvery colour by Bling called Diamonds and Pearls. This is a picture of the bottle, but it looks like a pearly white colour in the bottle but applies silver, and the picture looks more silver than it looks in real life but I can't get a better one....

The Bling polish is the only one of the set that I have, it was a Christmas present from Mummy Dearest, and I didn't try it for ages because I much prefer flat colours to shimmers and shiny polishes because they always apply streaky. This one, Diamonds and Pearls, does apply streaky and I wouldn't apply it on its own but it's nice as a base for other colours. I think it actually looks really nice under the crackle and I think when I get round to testing the pink I'll try it over this polish again.

I do really like this manicure but I do feel it's a bit plain, I was going to add diamonds or pearls but it looked too busy with the crackle.... 

Cat xox 

Barry M Dusky Mauve

So I had to get rid of the mess that was the last manicure! I've been looking at Barry M Dusky Mauve for awhile now. I've seen it on other blogs and really wanted it, so today I went out and couldn't walk past without picking it up. Here it is;

It's such a lovely purpley, bluey, grey colour. I love it, especially when it catches the light!

It applied really well, like most of the Barry M colours, it did need 2/3 coats but it was definitely worth it. I did matching toes with a little blue flower in the corner of my big toe. But it didn't need the diamonds really it's pretty enough on its own!

(The gloss has smudged in the above picture, it wasn't the Barry M it was the topcoat)

Cat xox

Green and Pink with Pink Glitter gone wrong =(

This is my manicure that went horribly horribly wrong and came off almost straight away. Exams have been messing with my head and my sleep pattern and he's the result;

Yuck Yuck Yuck! I'm not going to talk about it much, I want this to be a tiny post! So the pink is Fuchsia Pink (23) from So Laque Bourjois, the greeny blue is Totally Teal from No7, and the glitter is Chelsea Square by Nails Inc. I used a dotting tool, shown here;

That's all you're getting, and let's never talk about this again! Cat xox

Pink Spots and Stripes with Glitter (U)

I really wanted to do something interesting, I've had a lot of time on my hands and I thought I may as well do something really fun! So this is what I came up with!

I'm not going to lie it did take a very long time!

Cat xox

Models Own Red Red Wine

So I've been busy revising for my exams and haven't really had time to do anything as exciting as the pink leopard print mani again, so I soaked off my acrylics on Saturday night and changed them for new ones and decided to paint them with a colour I got for my birthday last month. Red Red Wine from Models Own is a really deep red colour, so red it looks almost brown in the bottle so I wasn't very excited when I opened it on my birthday. I should really have taken pictures after each coat because it doesn't really start out looking like this. When you put the first coat on it looks like a really bright blood red colour which surprised me! However, it does take quite a few coats to get the colour to even out, 3 or 4 maybe, and then it gets a lot darker with every coat added. 

The first picture most accurately shows how dark it is when not under a light source, and the second shows how red it can look under bright light. The longer I wear this colour the more I like how much of a sexy dark red it is, and although it requires a lot of coats, it dries really quite fast. I didn't even bother putting my usual fast dry top coat on, it stays relatively shiny as well!

I really do like this colour and although the pictures aren't great I think it shows how different it can look under different lights. As I'm typing now it is almost as dark as my keyboard, but under bright lights or outside the red really shows. Can't say much more as I have an exam in just less than 8 hours that I need to get a bit more revision done for, and then I have another on Thursday morning so I'm not sure I'll have anything good for you until the end of the week but I'll try and squeeze something in as one of my friends has already said how plain this manicure is for me! Cat xox

Pink Leopard Print Mani

So today I've done a very over the top mani, it did start out as just plain old pink manicure and then got much more over the top! Th base coat is Nails Inc South Molton Street, then there is Nails Inc Floral Street on the top, with Bundlemonster plate BM-221 leopard print. I then used a dotting tool and Rimmel in Urban Princess to fill in some of the leopard prints, and then put Nails Inc Chelsea Square over the top because I thought it looked a lot brighter! I then put rhinestones on my ring finger and thumb, and finished it all off with Insta-Dri!

I hope you like it as much as I do, it is very girly but I really like it! Cat xox

Internet Haul, BundleMonster Plates and Konad Stamper

So I woke up this morning to something that made me very happy! I ordered both the BundleMonster plates and the Konad stamper and scraper. I was surprised when they arrived how small they were, I don't know how big I imagined they'd be but they were so tiny and cute. I already had a matt blue mani on that was a bit old so I decided to test it over that. They are all so gorgeous and shiny! Sorry the picture's not very good =/

Ok so my first attempts didn't go so well, I didnt realise how fast you had to be! Once I'd got the hang of how fast you had to work I had a few more goes and found that it's very difficult to get the full image to transfer. I had more luck with the smaller images but the patterns I couldnt get to transfer fully =(. More practise needed I think. However I'd read somewhere that if you had a topcoat on you could sometimes get the konad off and leave the polish in tact if you were gentle. this was by far the most useful tip i've read. ill have to try and work out where I read it. The colour I used for this was Barry M Matt White, over the navy manicure I showed in the last post. That's about it for today, I definitely am going to practise a lot more! Cat xox

Navy Matt Nails

So this is my manicure of the day, the colour's Nails Inc Denim with GOSH matt effect top coat. I really quite liked how subtle this manicure is. I also love the feel of the matt top coat its so silky! I put a coat of Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in between the matt coat and the blue because I think it evens out the surface so the matt looks better. 

On the matching pedi ive done the same but added glitter, Models Own Juicy Jules, on my big toes for a little extra sparkle! Cat xox

Kiss Custom Fit Medium Length Nails

These are Kiss 'Custom-fit Nails' for flat nails in medium length, I've used these nails before and think that if you need a quick fix for your nails before going out like I did before an engagement party this week, then this is the perfect solution. Here you can see I've added some white rhinestones to them for a bit of extra sparkle. I've used these nails before and unfortunately they react badly to anything being put on them or being painted. They seem to crackle at the first sign of topcoat, polish or nail polish remover. I think they could probably withstand some light konading, but, would not cope with a topcoat being put on the top, over time after they've come into contact with anything mentioned before they slowly crackle worse and worse. With the kit you get 36 nails in 20 sizes, I can't seem to work out how they manage the ratio of normal nails and flat nails and in what sizes, but I manage to get about two pairs out of this kit, with the second pair not being quite as good as the first. You also get glue with them which I've never had a problem with, I've always liked the glue you get with kiss nails, it's strong enough to hold the nails on but I've never had a problem removing them, most of them have lifted quite a lot by the time I come to removing them which means they take a lot less time when de-solving them.

I also really like the way they look, they're not anywhere near sculpted acrylic tips appearance in my opionion, they are alot flatter, obviously it says this in the name as they are the custom fit ones. But they're also not as thick and satisfying, however because you don't wear them for anywhere near as long, they don't get any of the usually wear and tear problems, there is still lifting obviously, but the lifting on these is not half as obvious as it is on acrylics. They also don't seem to attract as much general muck as acrylics do. They do however have a much more unified appearance and obviously hand sculpted acrylics are never 100% perfect as they are hand made. They also soak off in acetone ridiculously fast, gone are the days of spending stupid amounts of time with your hand in a bowl soaking off sculpted acrylics, these are gone in 15/20 minutes with next to no residue. They cost about £8, which also considering acrylics used to cost me about £30, if definitely worth it. The only hint I'd give you is to make sure you've got them on straight and then hold them down AS HARD AS YOU POSSIBLY CAN, to get rid of all the air bubbles and don't get glue on the top of the nails, fast but careful work and they're perfect =)
So, in conclusion, good for a fast, very fast manicure, glue's good, although you don't get much but enough for two sets and any fixes you need. Cheap enough that I've returned to them again and again, all in all a good buy in my opinion! I've always bought them from either Boots or Superdrug, but I imagine they're sold in lots of places.
(picture of packaging to follow)

NOTD blue daisys

My dotting tools finally came! =) No sign just yet of my little nail beans, but they're estimated between now and the 10th so hopefully they'll be early! Here are my dotting tools;

Sorry it's not a very good picture, but I was away all weekend and so didn't manage to take decent pictures. I think they cost about £3.50 including delivery from Ebay. So not too bad, and it's much better than using the end of a paintbrush! I decided to do something different than just dots, but I only had two shades of blue and a topcoat with me over the weekend, and my wheel of rhinestones. This is what I came up with...

I used Barry M in Blueberry Ice Cream which is a gorgeous colour, and Nails Inc polish from the Diet Coke promotion in Delicious Denim. Then I put yellowy/orangey rhinestones in the middles of the daisies and sealed it all with Insta-Dry. I actually really liked the design, I only intended to do one or two flowers but then I liked it so much I ended up doing daisies on all of them. 

Cat xox