9 Days of Shimmer - Day 2, Liana & Stars

9 Days of Shimmer - Day 2!

Today I'm sharing Liana, a dark blue glitter (which really reminds of me of denim!) There's so much going on here- the tiny iridescent glitters have a holographic quality to them that really makes this polish pop. There's gold, purple, blue, red- I find a new glitter every time I look at it. 

I used Calvin Klein Electric Blue as underwear, but the same as yesterday's polish, the glitter applies so opaque that you can't even see it. There's also two coats of Poshe to make it extra shiny. 

 

I thought that a bit of stamping would look amazing over the blue, so I used Sally Hansen Silver Sweep and the star plate CH5 from Cheeky. And WOW, I am so in love with the end result, the silver brings out the tiny shimmers really well.

Thanks for reading!

Stay tuned for tomorrow's post....something very glitzy and gold!

Visit Shimmer' website here
Visit Shimmer's Etsy store here

This polish was sent for review

9 Days of Shimmer - Day 1, Jasmine & Mermaid Scales

9 Days of Shimmer - Day 1!

Greetings all!

I recently got my grubby little mitts on a selection of ridiculously beautiful indie polishes by Shimmer. Seeing as we all love a bit of indie eye candy, I thought I'd do a themed post selection and share each and every polish with you! They really are so gorgeous they deserve individual attention. Each post will have swatches, and a bit of nail art too cause I get itchy nails!

First up: Jasmine. Beware- this is a pic heavy post!

I actually squealed when I saw this polish. It's a clear glitter base with a mixture of tiny hexes of green, gold, red, dark blue and light blue mixed with even teenier iridescent colours scattered throughout. The artistry involved in this polish (and all the Shimmer polishes) has blown me away, there's so many facets! I layered it over OPI Catch Me In Your Net, but two coats applies so opaque that you can't even see the base coat. Two top coats of Poshe for a really shiny finish. Also, lovely application, which surprised me for such a thick polish.

You can see the different colours of glitter better in the slightly blurred picture below:

I instantly thought 'mermaid' when I saw this polish- which coincides perfectly with this week's Crumpet's Nail Tarts Mermaid themed challenge - so I thought I'd add a bit of a fish scale effect with Sally Hansen Silver Sweep and my Bundle Monster plate BM-209

Isn't it amazing?! I'm in love!

Tomorrow: Liana!

Visit Shimmer' website here
Visit Shimmer's Etsy store here

 This polish was sent for review

Ice Cream Sprinkles

I've been loving the sharp look of a tape mani lately- there's something soothing about having really neat lines on your nails! (which probably makes me sound like an OCD weirdo). 

I wanted my nails to look like ice cream, and they kind of do...the multicoloured glitters remind me of hundreds and thousands! This mani is Amy's Nail Boutique- Woodsie's Wish with NARS Kutki applied over striping tape.

This white polish I'm wearing is from Amy's Nail Boutique  - I love how she's always got polish stocked in her Etsy store! I got a few polishes from her and I was really impressed with how quickly they came all the way to the UK.


As a cheeky little bonus shot, here's Woodsie's Wish before the topcoat (sorry for crap phone pic). Application was a liiiittle bit goopy, but I LOVE the way the glitter buries itself in the polish.

 I've really gotten into my indie polish lately. Got quite a decent collection going on now- I'll think I'll do a stash post of them if you guys would be interested in seeing it?! 

Alice

xXx

It was Acceptable in the 80s

Hello my sweetlets,
I am so excited about my post today. It was a long, messy road but j'adore the final result. I went to an 80s themed party on the weekend (I know, I know, lycra spandex of doom, WHY DO PEOPLE DO IT TO ME) and in between crimping my hair and cracking out the tacky fluorescent bling I whipped up these babies.



please excuse my oily cuticles...I look like I'm about to enter my nails into a bodybuilding competition!

splaticures are a messy, messy bizniss

These are super, super neon, but neons are a total bitch to photograph so they look quite muted.

I used: (deep breath)
Revlon White
China Glaze Yellow Polka Dot Bikini
Color Club Koo-Koo Ka Choo
Color Club Jackie Oh!
Color Club Twiggie
No. 7 Stand Back
Seche Vite
Thin straw
Newspaper (a must!)
Sellotape (also essential)

I painted two coats of white on my nails, taped off my fingers as close to the nails as I could, mixed a little nail polish in my palette, dipped the end of my straw in, and blew it all over my nails. I thought that I was going to pass out at one point!
N.B. I found that short, sharp, powerful puffs worked the best by far.
Also, it's probably worth repulsing you all by telling you that I managed to get spit all over my nails doing this. Classy.

What do you guys think about the splaticure look? I love it, but it is a LOT of effort, and clean up is a pain in the arse. Major dry cuticles from the excessive acetone! Also, mine peeled off in sheets two days later as it was so thick from all the polish.
As a bonus picture, here is my hand in all its 80s glory. All I can say is, thank god I was a teenager in he nineties. I love me some neon, but my lord, this is the decade that fashion forgot!

Alice

xXx

this hand was born in the 80s!

Coffee Neons

Aloha!

Continuing my neon frenzy, I've got a very bright french manicure to show you today! I've just cut all my nails down as I had a few peelies (after a week of not bothering with maintenance) so am currently looking at my lovely long talons in these pics and quietly weeping over my nubbins!

What I used:

base - Sally Hansen Iced Coffee
thumb - H&M
index- Color Club Jackie Oh!
middle - China Glaze Kiwi Cool-Ada
ring - China Glaze Yellow Polka Dot Bikini
pinky -  Barry M Blue



artifical light

I love the combination of the simple nude polish and the bright tips- Jackie Oh! proved to be an absolute bitch to photograph though, neons can be so temperamental. It looks quite red but in reality it was hardcore pink.

with flash

artifical light

I briefly did a similar manicure with pastel tips, but it only lasted a few hours as I did someone else's nails and they got wrecked. Once I grow out my nubbins it's first on my list!

Love,

Alice

xXx 

Snow days and Snowflakes

**APOLOGIES IN ADVANCE FOR CRAPPY IPHONE PICS!**

It's been snooooowing! Words cannot express how thrilled I was on the weekend when I poked my sleepy little head out of the curtains and saw snow everywhere! I was especially excited because Lola has never seen snow before and I knew she would love it. For the uninitiated, Lola is my incredibly mischievous little Shih Tzu. She’s a fluffy little teddy bear and I adore her, but she is also the bane of my polish fanatic existence. She strongly believes that I leave polishes around purely for her chewing past time, as the lids are just so damn tasty, and that swatch wheels and my £8 Konad stamp are her personal chew toys (FURY doesn’t even begin to express the sheer rage that happened when I found it!)

Anyway I digress- a snowy day needs a snowy mani! I sponged on different blue for gradients, then used my Konad white polish to stamp on various snowflakes, before topping it with a later of glitter polish to make it extra sparkly.

Like I said in the disclaimer, sorry for the bad iphone pics! They don't pic up the sparkly glitter very much which saddens me :(



What I used:

China Glaze First Mate

No. 7 Stand Back

Barry M Blue Moon

Miss Sporty glitter top coat

Bundle Monster plate BM14

Fauxnad plate M59



And just for shits and giggless here's me and Lola enjoying the snow!

snow day!

Hope everyone had a good weekend, even if there was no snow involved!

Tomorrow I've got something cute, yellow and very busy to tempt you with.....see you then hopefully!

Alice (and Lola)

xXx

MAC Pink Freeze, tips included!

Good afternoon my fellow polish mites!

More guest nails today (you've probably forgotten what mine look like!)

I really wanted to practise doing nail tip stamps on someone else other than myself, as it's really tricky. I've just about nailed it on my own nails, but trying to do it on someone else's is a right pain in the arse! It ends up sloping up towards the nail bed, I had to be really vigilant about keeping the stamper level.

The pink is MAC Pink Freeze, a really lovely frosted shade. Three coats for full opacity, then some Seche over for it to dry. I used Konad Special Polish in Blue to stamp, and then my Bundle Monster plate BM17. 

I'm pretty chuffties with the end result! I like the contrast of the colours and the vintage-esque pink. And seeing as I did her nail tips, my friend tipped me right back with some Konad stamping polish in black as a thankyou! So pleased, I can finally chuck that crappy Born Pretty smudgy black of doom!

Love to all,

Alice

xXx

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pretentious arty shot for luck



Girly Bows

Just downloaded the Blogger App and I've got a feeling it's going to make my life a LOT easier! I'm so useless with updating my blog as my computer at home is sooooo slooooow and it's a massive amount of effort to do anything on it! Hopefully I'll be able to update more frequently now I've got a quick and simple way of doing it.

Just a quickie today- here's some cute little bows I did last week. I did the exact same manicure on my friend Carys a while ago and decided I needed them on my nails too!

I used China Glaze Something Sweet and stamped with my fauxnad plate M56 using Konad Blue Special Polish. They're so disgustingly girly I can't help but love them!

Til next time,

Alice

xXx