#GuessThePolish winner!

Hi!

Thanks to everyone who entered my #GuessThePolish giveaway last week! If you didn't already know the answer was *drumroll* Beauty UK! They're reformulated their polish line with a sleek new bottle and 22 on trend shades to chose from for just £2.99 a bottle! Congratulations to Alicia S who wins her very own (branded) bottle of Coral Burst. Your prize will be in the post in the next few days!

There are some lovely colours there, I especially like the look of Let's Hit The Peach and Tealed With A Kiss. I might just have to stop by the Beauty UK stand next time I'm in Superdrug...

Hx

Pin It

#GuessThePolish and win!

Hi!

I'm excited to share something a bit different with you today! A week or so ago I received a lovely surprise package featuring a mystery polish! The polish is a juicy coral red from an exciting new range that has been launched. All you have to do to win a bottle is guess the brand and follow me for a chance to win! Your guess doesn't have to be correct to be entered, just have a go and all will be revealed next week! Onto the polish - this is three perfect, fast drying coats and no topcoat, so you can see how shiny it is! I wouldn't normally chose this colour for myself, but I was surprised to find I love it, and would be great for everyday or to dress up an outfit - perfect for a summer wedding! I, of course, couldn't leave it plain and had some fun with a bit of stamping - could it be a clue I wonder... The bottle I'm holding has had the branding removed, but the bottle you could win will reveal all!

To enter, fill in the Rafflecopter form below with your guess, a way of contacting you if you win and confirmation that you're a follower of my blog, and a winner will be chosen this time next week. There are a few extra fun questions for extra entries too! There will be extra entries to be gained on Instagram and Facebook over the next week too, so keep checking!

Now the boring bit - due to postage restrictions the giveaway is only open to UK residents. If you are under 18 you will need your guardians permission to give me your address so I can send the prize to you. The giveaway will run until midnight on Sunday 8th June 2014 and a winner will be chosen the following day and announced here at 6pm. The winner will have 48 hours to respond or a new winner will be chosen. That's it, have fun!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Don't forget to check back next week to find out if your guess was right! Good luck ;)

Hx

Pin It

GOT Polish? Coral!

Hi!

Today's Golden Oldie is one of my favourite colours, at least on my nails! I have a fair few coral polishes, from high end to drug store, neon to pastel. I chose a pretty polish with a troubled upbringing - I am never wowed by this brand unfortunately. Revlon Tropical Temptation is a really nice colour, but the formula leaves much to be desired - it's thin and watery, patchy and streaky, the brush is thin and stiff, I got nasty bubbles and it chipped within hours, which rarely happens to me anymore. I used three coats when it really could have done with another, but I used a fan brush to 'antique' it with some gold (Nails Inc Chelsea Bridge Road). I love how coral and gold goes together and originally had planned a skittle. Instead I stamped a lock and key on my ring finger, which sort of matched the antique theme.

Not wowed by this, but maybe it was the polish that put me off. Revlon are the higher priced end of the high street for me, but I think I got this one at a discount store. Good job really...

Hx

An InLinkz Link-up

Pin It

Summer lovin'

Hi all :)

With the weather being kind(ish) to us here in the UK at the moment (it's hotter than the devils greenhouse and I love it!), I'm finding myself reaching for bright polishes that I love instead of going for the ginormouse box of untrieds sitting on my kitchen table like I should be. But I love this polish so much that I just don't care! China Glaze Flip Flop Fantasy is such a classic, any neon lover should own it. Seriously. The formula is great, it's eye-searingly bright and is a great pedi colour too. Go forth and purchase... I teamed it with accent nails of white with black heart stamping from Pueen 43 and tied the whole thing together with some small black rhinestones. Please ignore the topcoat smears and bubbles - that's what you get for doing your nails under a fan...

Summer lovin', happened so fast... What's your favourite summer shade?

Hx

Pin It

Totally tropical...

Well it seems that finally here in the UK summer has arrived. And by summer I mean it is hotter than the devils asscrack. Nice bit of imagery there, yes? Anyhoo, I'm not complaining, and in fact I decided to celebrate the heatwave with some totally tropical nails! I'd been wanting to do this for a while, and when my lovely friend Ashley from One Nail To Another posted her version it was immediately bumped up the to-do list!

I started out with a gradient comprising of 4 different texture polishes. The base was one coat of Beauty UK's new Grit Effects in Kensington - a sparkly champagne nude. I then sponged on 3 Kiko Sugar Mats - imaginatively named 639, 640 and 641 - a pale peach, pink and corally-orange. Who knew texture polishes were so good for gradients> Because of the texture they kind of blend themselves, easy peasy. Cleanup wasn't so easy though, especially as all the polishes I used were sparkly. But what's a bit of glitter herpes between friends, right?

Once the gradient was dry (didn't take long) I stamped on a palm tree and painted a little island underneath. No topcoat, obviously, or I would have lost the texture. Still insanely sparkly and summery though. I am in love!

Now I just need a lurid-coloured cocktail, a beach to drink it on and a hot man to serve it to me... Dream on, dreamer...

Hx

Pin It

Papaya Print

Morning!

I'm partial to a coral colour on the nail, especially in summer, and so because my nails are misbehaving and I got rather too snip happy with the clippers (leaving me with no free edge at all and sore fingertips) I cheered them up with a coral and gold simple stamping combo. The base is Barry M Gelly Hi-Shine in Papaya - smooth, easy, corally-salmon two coater, stamped with Barry M Gold Foil Effects and Konad S1. I treated myself to the stamping plate just for this design and I can see myself getting lots of use from the basket weave alone, so a good investment for my first genuine Konad purchase!

Don't forget to enter the British Nail Bloggers Giveaway!

Hx

Pin It

Starry Skittle Sunday!

Hi all!

It's Sunday and that means stamping! Today's Adventures in Stamping theme was over a skittle base (where each nail is painted a different colour) and my favourite kind of skittles are neon skittles! I used the Models Own Ice Neon collection for my base and then layered a coat of Australis Speck-tacular, a flaky topcoat, over them before stamping stars from QA18 (an ebay purchase) with Konad Black. I layered the neons over white to make them pop a little more, but honestly the formula on these is so good I don't think it made much difference, apart from on the yellow.

Konad black is so messy to clean up, so I apologise that they're a little scruffy but I liked them :) Lots of compliments too, which is always nice!

The Tri Polish challenge for this month is starting this week, so I promise to get some mid-week posts up! Looking forward to this month, I've picked some tricky colours ;)

Hope your weekend has been kind! Hangover central here today - what Sundays are made for!

Hx

Pin It

Tri Polish Challenge day 4

Mornin'!

Last day of this month's TPC and I have to say I'm super happy with how all of my manicures turned out, for once! For the final day this month, I went with a fish scale dotticure using my coral, green and purple, and adding silver in the form of GOSH Holographic Hero. I love how well it turned out, and how the addition of a little bit of holo really makes it look fish scaley. And the sun even came out long enough for me to get a semi-decent pic.

So, that concludes the Tri Polish Challenge for March! Can you believe it's almost April? Next month's colours are pink, turquoise and orange, so I better get my thinking cap on!

Hx

Pin It

China Glaze Surreal Appeal and Water You Waiting For

Hi!

Today we have a poorly sick Helly (I'm just getting over shingles and today it's winning) so I've got a bright fun mani to show you. I think it's safe to say that China Glaze is my favourite polish brand - there is always at least one polish from every collection they release that I really really want. The two polishes I'm showing you today are from the Cirque du Soleil collection (which I have 8 out of 12 of, and I might have to have the other four too). First of all I applied two coats of Surreal Appeal, a bright neon coral toned pink. Barbie nails! As with most neon-leaning polishes, it dried with a matte finish, but a swift coat of Poshe sorted that out.

I then sponged some of Water You Waiting For at the cuticle for some bling! Water You Waiting For is made up of different sized small blue glitter, with a few pieces of green glitter too, in a clear base. I can't wait to wear this one on it's own, it's so pretty.

I got lots of compliments on this look, even from my hairdresser who didn't believe I did them myself! In the UK you can buy China Glaze from Beauty Bay here.

What are your China Glaze picks? I've got one of the hologlam polishes on it's way to me and I can't wait!

Hx



Sponsored post.

Pin It

Tri Polish Challenge - day 2

Morning!

Second tri polish challenge mani for you this morning! Just a quick reminder, the aim basically is to create 4 different manicures using the same 3 polishes, and this month's colours are green, coral and purple. This time I created a saran/cling film base with China Glaze Keep Calm, Paint On over white. Then I added a little butterfly decal that I made using my coral and purple polishes, Natural Collection Antique Coral and OPI Parlez Vous OPI.

I'm hopefully going to make a tutorial on how to make the decals over the weekend, if it's something you'd be interested in? They're really easy! Not something I'd usually wear actually, but I'm trying to encourage spring to hurry up!

Hx

Pin It

Tri-Polish Challenge - day 1

Morning!

Today sees the start of a new challenge over at Crumpet's Nail Tarts- the tri-polish challenge (can't help but think of the Tri-wizard cup when I say that...) The basic premise is that we do 4 mani's a month (on the 3rd and 4th Tuesday and Thursday of the month) using the same 3 polishes. Each month we are given 3 colours, we each chose 3 polishes representing those colours and have to stick to those for the month. We're also allowed to use black, white, silver, gold and glitter toppers. There is no theme, you can do whatever you like as long as you stick to those colours. You have to use at least 2 of the colours in each manicure, and all 3 for at least one out of the four. Confused? Read on...

This month's colours are coral, green and purple. Sounds yukky, but I actually didn't have too much trouble coming up with my polishes: China Glaze Keep Calm, Paint On, Natural Collection Antique Coral and OPI Parlez Vous OPI. The green and coral polishes are fairly similar: pastel shades with fine shimmer, so I thought they'd work together. But of course, pastel purple is lilac, a completely different colour, so I chose the OPI as I thought the dustiness of the colour would compliment the other two.

So, I went for something simple for my first manicure, adding white (Barry M Matt White) and Gold (Avon Golden Vision) and freehanding some stripes. Simple, really pretty and spring-y! I love it :)

Check out the other lovely ladies taking part, and watch out for part 2 on Thursday!

Hx

Pin It

Monkey See, Monkey Do Monday - Kayla Shevonne's Chic Coral Stripes

Hello!

Now, we all know I love a bit of coral, and one of my favourites is the origianl Nails Inc Baker Street (they've now recycled the name for a bright royal blue that is becoming somewhat a cult shade because if a certain bootylicious Beyonce wearing it). I picked this up on ebay after looking for the blue and I'm glad I did because it is lovely!

Still on the search for cute ideas for my nubbins I cam across this design by the awesome Kayla Shevonne and pinned it for future reference. She used tape in her manicure, but I wasn't bothered if mine was a little bit wobby (adds to the charm dontcha know) so I freehanded mine. I started with two coats of white, blocked out the coral parts and then added the stripes with a black striper polish. Cute and chic!

I love how you can see a perfect reflection in the polish lid in this picture!

Kayla didn't show what she did on the thumb of this manicure so I made it up. And actually I think it's my favourite nail! Once again, it was easy enough to do on my right hand too, so they even match :) Maybe nubs aren't so bad...

Check out the other Monkey See Monkey Do-ers below!

Hx

Pin It

NOTD - Revlon Tropical Temptation

My name is Helen and I have a problem.

I nubbed my nails and was in the mood for a peachy-coraly-orangey-pinky polish, so I trotted off to my stash and pulled out a few of my polishes that fit the bill....

Ahem. Do I need all of these  peachy-coraly-orangey-pinky polishes? No. Surprisingly though, there aren't any exact dupes, but still.

Anyway, I went for Rimmel Tropical Temptation, a pretty coral that I'm sure I picked up in Poundland. It was a little streaky, but polishes this colour often are for some reason. I added a couple of little butterfly stickers as accents.

I was going to go for a big butterfly and a small one on the ring finger as well as the thumb, but I couldn't quite fit them on my newly nubbed nails. Usually my little and ring fingers have the longest nails, and never peel, but I took them all short to give the peels on the index fingers a chance to grow out and the misfit nail on the other hand to redeem itself (uit's getting there!) I may keep them short until stubby catches up and until them I'm lavishing lots of TLC and Lemony Flutter on them!

Are there any colours in your stash that you have far too many of? Somehow I can't quite bring myself to have a cull...I'm a collector I guess!

Hx

Pin It

Untried Month - Nails Inc x3

Hi! For today's post I used 3 untried Nails Inc polishes I had - Baker Street (the old version, not the hot new blue one :( ), Eden Grove and Denim. I got all three on Ebay fairly cheaply, and I actually love Baker Street and don't know why they gave the blue version the same name. It's a lovely jelly-ish bright coral. I can see me wearing it on my toes a lot this summer. I then used Eden Grove and Denim for another cloudicure. I love how long these make my finger nails look! And how easy they are is a bonus too.

Baker Street on it's own, with flash it's showing a little bit too pink...

I really like how the muted blue and green give it a kind of 70's wallpaper look... I would have kept it on longer but I took my boys swimming, which equals death to any manicure. Good for getting hair dye off skin though!

Hx

Pin It

Purple Crumpet Fairy Challenge - Day 11, Pastel Patchwork

Hi loves!

For today's challenge I followed a tutorial by the immensely talented Kayla Shevonne. I thought it looked quite simple (certainly simpler than how I was planning to do it...) and it wasn't too bad - it just took me an age! My hand looked like a claw when I was finished...hence the strategic accent nail on the right hand. I think it works great as an accent nail though! Ahem, that's my excuse...

I started with a coat of Beauty Uk Soft Grey and then drew the patches with a purple striper polish (I don't have a black, and thought it would be easier with a striper rather than a brush and separate polish). Then I filled in the rest of the patches with Collection 2000 Fruit Salad and China Glaze Aquadelic, just using the bottle brushes. Then I went back over the lines with the striper and added the stiches. Result, cute nails and hand cramp!

It's not perfect, but is it ever? I think this is the most detailed freehand nail art I've ever done and I love it, and the possibilities are endless! Pinks, brights, monochrome, metallic...yep, love.

I did try and get Mr NN to do the other hand for me, but he couldn't copy the design right, gave up and drew a willy instead. Say no more.

Hx

Pin It

Purple Crumpet Fairy Challenge - Inspired by Jewellery

Morning loves

This week's PCFC was to base your mani on your favourite item of jewellery. I don't think I have a favourite item, and the only thing I wear daily is my engagement ring (and since the Mr and I aren't getting along so well at the moment I wasn't basing it on that LOL) so I chose this pretty charm bracelet. It's only a cheap bit of tat, but it's pretty and I love the coral colours. To recreate it I used an old shimmery coral-orange by Collection 2000, followed by a coat of Nubar 2010. Once that was dry I added some random butterfly stamps with Barry M Gold Foil. I also rounded out my nails a little...what do you think?

I hope you like it :)

Hx

Pin It