Neon Stars featuring The Nail Arcade!

Hi!

Today I have some cute neon star studs from The Nail Arcade to share with you! I love anything neon on my nails, but haven't ventured into the world of neon studs yet, so these star shaped ones really appealed to me! I used a mix of the stars to accent some neon star stamping using Pueen 44 and my new Mundo de Unas stamping polishes (which I will do a separate post on soon). They were easy to apply (just popped them onto some wet topcoat, and then added another layer of topcoat to seal them in) and they've so far lasted three days with none pinging off or losing their colour! I think these are a great way to take your neon into Autumn/Winter if you want to be seasonally appropriate, and don't break the bank at just 95p for a wee bag of 50 studs. What's more, they are a UK based store, so you don't have to wait weeks for them to arrive, and you're supporting local business. Win win!

The lovely Rachel at The Nail Arcade sent me a sweet little package of goodies to try out, so you can expect more posts from me singing their praises! And in the meantime check them out on Etsy, Twitter and Facebook!

Hx

Some products in this post were provided free of charge for review purposes. As always all opinions are 100% my own. All other products were purchased myself.

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Deja vu...but not in blue

Hi!

I loved my blinged up turquoise nails for last week's GOT polish challenge so much that when it came to chosing my nails for a night out last weekend I decided to recreate them - in a neon hue! The stamping-glitter-stud combo is cure to become a favourite this summer I think! This time I used Models Own beach bag from their polish for tans collection and while I love the colour the formula left a bit to be desired. This is three coats, which I don't mind in itself, but it was so thick I had to add thinner halfway through the second. I must admit I did my toes with it too, but I wouldn't expect a polish to go as gloopy as it did after only two uses, especially as I expect people buy these as their "summer" manicure colour (that is afterall what they're marketed as, no?) I often find this with Models Own, their colours totally knock my socks off, but the formula sometimes doesn't live up to that. I'll move on...! I used Models Own Bora Bora as the accent nail, and added studs from Born Pretty Store and stamping from the Pueen Buffet set with Barry M Gold Foil. Teamed with an LBD and my dancing shoes, and I was in cheesy disco heaven!

My camera freaked out a little bit at the colour, it really is that bright! I absolutely love it, no doubt about that, I just wish the formula was better. Have you picked up any MO polish for tans? I do think it's made my pasty sausage fingers look a bit more tanned!

Hx

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Lacey nudes...

...and if that title doesn't attract the spam bots I don't know what will. Anyway...

Hi!

I've decided a good way to embrace my nubs is to get out all of the stamping plates that I might have dismissed lately because the images were too small, or not suited to an almond shape, and make use of them! While I could make the images from the Pueen Love Elements set fit, I think this design (from Pueen 29) used in this way is more suited to a square shape. I only used half of the image, and placed it down the side of my nail, accenting with some rhinestones (which I couldn't have applied any wonkier if I tried). The base is Nails Inc Sao paulo Streets, which was a freebie from the month's InStyle mag and a lovely cool toned nude.

Did you pick up any of the InStyle freebies this time around? This is the only one which called to me and it is nice and the formula was good too.

Hx

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GOT polish? Hot pink!

Hi!

Today's Golden Oldie Thursday is feeling hot hot hot! Actually, we have had some sunshine lately, so hot pink was appropriate. After bashing the Revlon polish I used for last week's golden oldie, I actually reached for Revlon again, this time it was a shimmery fuchsia by the name of Strawberry Electric. The last time I blogged about this polish in the good old days of a pink Wednesday I might have mentioned once or twice how much the name annoyed me. Strawberry Electric? It should be Electric Strawberry surely...? Anyway, name aside this polish was actually much better than last week's coral. I used two coats and then stamped with Pueen 68 and konad black. My stamping isn't the best, so I added some black rhinestones as a distraction. Shiny...

Hot hot hot indeed! Not my favourite polish, but a great golden oldie :)

Hx

An InLinkz Link-up

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Green meadow flowers

Hi!

This week over at Adventures in Stamping the challenge was to stamp over green. It just so happens that I had Barry M Meadow from the Silk collection sitting in my untried drawer, and so that was the base I decided on! A super pale pearl green with a semi-matte finish, Meadow is a lovely spring colour that took 2 coats to be opaque. Not my favourite from this collection, but greens never are. I stamped over it with Pueen 39, isolating the butterfly from the larger image for the accent nail. I used Konad black pearl to stamp with and then filled the wings and hollow petals with Sinful Colors Out of this World to give them a bit of shimmery iridescence.

I am desperately low on my favourite topcoat (Poshe, in case you were wondering), and what I do have is thick and bubbly, so please excuse the messy edges. I got a little over zealous with the cleanup brush around the cuticles too... More topcoat has been ordered so normal service will be resumed shortly!

Hx

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Tri Polish Challenge April #2 - Barmy Blue and Neon too

Hi!

This week's TPC couldn't be more different to last weeks - in contrast to soft, pastel and girly I have gone for neon, sharp edges and eyesearing! I started with a base of white and then sponged a gradient with Rimmel Barmy Blue and Models Own Bubblegum. Because they're both quite deep colours I had to sponge on a few more layers than usual and so mu sponge started sticking to my nails. So I decided to cover it up with a good old bit of stamping, with Pueen 52 and Konad White.

I think I should have added a navy blue at the cuticle end of my nail, as I wanted the base a bit darker, but overall I was pleased with these :) I think I was all pastelled out after last week! And I must just put a good word in for these new Pueen plates, so far they are flawless. Good stuff.

Hx

An InLinkz Link-up

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Holo haze

Hi!

A-England recently had a sale, where all of their polishes were £6 instead of £9, so of course I had to indulge! While I was checking my stash to see what I already had I stumbled upon this neglected beauty and had to wear it immediately! A England Tristam is a deep dusty midnight blue with holo. Need I say more? The formula is perfect, it could be a one coater if you're not a clumsy oaf like me and it stamps well too. The holo particles are smooth and not rough at all and it removes super easily and without staining - which for a blue this deep and pigmented is a rarity. Best blue ever? It's definitely a contender. I decided to stamp some leafy goodness from the Pueen buffet set and Color Club Blue Heaven.

Now of course, I wear a holo, the sun gets hidden by a thick layer of sahara desert haze. I'm not even kidding, most of the country has been covered in a cloud of Victorian-esque smog and where I live has been quite badly affected (not as bad as Paris though...) So I had to enlist good old Mr Flash to show the beauty.

In essence, this was a fairly simple mani, but I sometimes just need something simple. I went for eyesearing next though, which you can see on Tuesday!

Hx

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GOT Polish? Yellow!

Hi!

This week's Golden Oldie Thursday is bought to you by the colour yellow! Yellow is probably the colour I own the least of, so none of them are particularly neglected, so I just chose a favourite. This is Models Own Lemon Meringue, which is just a great all round pastel yellow. It's opaque in two coats, good as a base for nail art, it watermarbles perfectly and look how tanned it makes my fingers look! Every little helps ;) I stamped a floral pattern from Pueen 72 in Barry M Gold Foil for a springtime look!

I then added some caviar pearls to the centre of the flowers, and I really like it! They've stayed on really well, through dishes and showering, and I can't stop rubbing them! Does that sound a little bit wrong? Ok, moving on...

I'm not usually a yellow fan, but these I loved. I thought they wouldn't last the day but I kind of don't want to take them off!

Hx

An InLinkz Link-up

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Stardust, swirls and shimmer!

Hi!

Sometimes it's good to just wear what you like on your nails. As a blogger I sometimes get buried in challenges, reviews and themes and don't actually get to just dig into the stash and grab what I want! Now I'm up to date with challenges, reviews etcetera for a week or so, so I'm going to get some "me" manis under my belt! Starting with this one! I bought three polishes from Nails Inc's Stardust collection, and I combined this pretty Paulton's Square with Barry M Prickly Pear. Paulton's Square contains blue metallic glitter in a shimmery pink and blue duochrome base. It is fairly sheer, but Prickly Pear is a perfect match and I bet it would look great over a dark base too. There's the perfect balance of glitter and shimmer, I used two coats and the bigger pieces of glitter don't get buried by the shimmer, and it isn't bumpy on the nail. I left it plain for a while, but the morning after I did it, my Pueen buffet set arrived and so I had to have a play! I stamped a simply swirly pattern in Color Club Cold Metal.

I'm really happy with how well these matched! I have two more of the Stardust collection and I think I might use them the same way! I have lots of new stamping plates to play with after all ;)

Hx

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Enchanted Polish February 2014

Hi!

I'm excited about today's post! I have never understood the whole Enchanted Polish hype to be honest (I'm the same with Lynderella or anything limited edition, slap a limited label on anything and it somehow makes it less desirable to me...maybe I'm odd), yes they're pretty but are they really that special? I have always been curious, and since EP release a "monthly" polish I decided I would treat myself to February's for my birthday. Now this was a risk for two reasons - the most obvious being that recently EP has been releasing the monthly polishes as 'surprises', meaning you don't actually get to see the polish you're buying until you have it in your hands (or the first person who gets theirs puts it on Instagram). So it's a big risk, but I knew that if I didn't like it I would be able to sell it on quite easily, as this time there was only a half an hour "window" in which to order so people were bound to miss out. The second risk is one I used to take all the time, but not so much recently. It was an expensive polish (probably the most I have ever spent on one polish) and it is obviously sent from the states, which to my mind brings up all sorts of images of customs fees, damaged packages and Royal Mail hiring a bomb squad to destroy the little bottle of pretty...

Anyway, it arrived, I love it and all is well! February 2014 is a pink toned dusty purple holo that is just about as me as you can get. A lot of the earlier swatches I saw showed it as more pink, but to my mind it is definitely a dusty purple leaning to pink. I'm on the fence about the formula - it is very thick, forming strings and blobs almost imediately, and application was tricky as it dragged a little bit. If you were careful you could get away with one coat, but I stuck to my usual two here. I stamped a little leafy pattern from the new Pueen buffet plate set as an accent, and left it topcoatless, worried about affecting the fiery holo.

The sun even came out for it's debut! I am happy with my purchase, for the most part and I'm sure the formula can be fixed with a bit of thinner (when I eventually get around to buying some...) and I'm sure it will stamp well. The pre-order for March and April 2014 is this evening I believe, but I wont be ordering. I don't think I like buying polish before I know what it looks like, it's scary! I got lucky this time, but usually Lady Luck is not my friend!

Did you go for February 2014? What do you think about the whole blind buying thing?

Hx

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