Sonnetarium After the Rain & If We Could Meet By the Sea

Good evening! Sorry for not posting for a bit, I've been on a course in Wales. To make it up to you I'm showing you two swatches from the indie brand Sonnetarium. I've had these for a while - I bought them at the same time as Samurai Princess - and I've worn them both before, but kept forgetting to photograph them. Anyway, here they are.

After the Rain has a blue shimmer base with multi-coloured glitter - I could see white, red, green, yellow and purple glitter. The base is pretty opaque so it doesn't need undies; this is two coats on its own. It has a great balance of glitter to base and was a breeze to apply.

If We Could Meet By the Sea has small teal and white hex glitter, smaller white glitter and teal bar glitter in a clear base. It's a really pretty combination and it does remind me a bit of the ocean. I've shown a single coat over Essie Turquoise & Caicos - again, it application was very easy. I think this is my favourite of the two!

OPI Stay the Night (Liquid Sand)

Good evening! Today I have one of OPI's new Liquid Sand effect polishes to show you, Stay the Night. I ordered this and Can't Let Go online before Christmas but they only arrived on Friday...and, fair warning, I am about to rant about why.

I ordered from Nail Polish Direct and my previous experiences with them have been very good, but there is no way in H-E double hockey sticks I'm ordering from them again. When my order hadn't arrived after two weeks I emailed them twice to ask where it was and received no reply either time. Like I said, it finally arrived on Friday with no word, just as I was planning to see if I could get my money back through PayPal. Their Facebook page, it turns out, is full of stories similar to mine - although I'm one of the lucky ones because my order did eventually turn up. So basically...order from them at your own risk.

An-y-way. I had to put Stay the Night on immediately. It has a black base with hot pink glitter and dries to a gritty finish. I thought it would mostly just be like glitter that hasn't been top-coated, but it's definitely got something matte going on. I used two coats for the photos.

I wasn't sure what I'd think of the Liquid Sand effect but I actually really like it. I'm still wearing it and I keep running my fingers over my nails to feel the texture. It's rough but not enough so that it's going to catch on anything. My dad is usually pretty uninterested in my nails but when I showed him these he thought they were pretty cool - then suggested I sandpaper the banister with them!

Have you tried any of the OPI Liquid Sand polishes? What do you think of them?

Estée Lauder Nouveau Riche

Good evening! I have a swatch to share with you today. Estée Lauder Nouveau Riche was a birthday present from a very lovely friend. It's a beautiful bronze-gold that, when you look closely, is actually comprised of pink and gold flecks (you can see them better on my little finger in the second photo). The formula was fantastic and I think it was opaque in two coats, but the lighting was rubbish when I painted my nails so I did a third coat just to be sure!

Retro Half-Moon Manicure

Good evening! At the beginning of December one of my best friends had a murder mystery party based on a 1920s theme. For the uninitiated, a murder mystery party is just what it sounds like - it's a boxed game where a fictitious person gets murdered, and each party guest plays a particular character who is both a suspect and has to figure out whodunnit. We all dressed up like our characters. Mine was based on Chanel so I wore a little black dress, black heels, and a Chanel-esque cream cardigan that I found in Primark for a tenner (bargain!). Naturally, I had to paint my nails to match the theme!

Yup, I went with a half-moon manicure. I've done it once before for a vintage weekend at work (you can see it here) but I like this one more. I used a brighter red this time, Orly Ruby, and I think it looks kinda sexy. ;)

I wasn't the murderer and didn't even guess correctly who it was...boo. But I had a great night anyway. :)

Glitzology Swatches - Part Two

Good evening! This is the second part of my swatches from the indie brand Glitzology; you can find the first part here.

Bad Things is inspired by the TV show True Blood, so I knew I had to buy this polish. It has a deep red jelly base with different shaped red glitter, small black hexes, and silver holographic micro glitter. It also has red hearts - you can see one on my middle finger! This is a surprise favourite for me; I didn't expect to like this polish quite as much as I do. You can build it to opacity on its own but I chose to layer one coat over Orly Ruby.

Second is Diet Cokehead. I love love LOVE the name of this one - it describes me perfectly! Hello, my name is Sophie and I am a Diet Cokehead. I drink it every day (sorry, teeth). Anyway, the polish contains red square and hex glitter, black hexes, and red and black bar glitter in a shimmery silver base. Basically, it looks exactly like a can of Diet Coke can. As with Bad Things it's opaque on its own but I layered it over Barry M Silver Foil instead.

Finally I have Snow Day to show you. It has matte white glitter and disco glitter (which looks slightly yellow in my photos for some reason...) with an iridescent blue shimmer. It's a wintry polish but I think it can look good all year round depending on what you wear under it; I used Essie Borrowed & Blue here. It's packed with glitter so I dabbed it on rather than applying normally, but it wasn't really a bother.

As with yesterday's, the polishes needed two coats of top coat to make them perfectly smooth, and there were no curling glitters. I am a huge fan of Glitzology now and I'll definitely be placing another order very soon. :)

Glitzology Swatches - Part One

Good afternoon! Today and tomorrow I'll be showing you some nail polishes from the indie brand Glitzology. It's quickly become one of my favourite indies, both for the quality and uniqueness of the polishes and for the fantastic customer service. The three you'll see today are glitter bombs in clear bases; the ones tomorrow each have a coloured base.

First up is As You Wish. I'm not ashamed to admit I bought this mostly for the name, as The Princess Bride is one of my favourite films. It has large white and holographic teal hex glitter and smaller fuchsia and lavender glitter in a clear base. I layered it over China Glaze Gothic Lolita; there is a lot of glitter in As You Wish so I had to be quite careful applying it that I didn't overload my brush. It gave great coverage in just one coat.

Next up is My Viking Boyfriend. The creator of Glitzology, Stacy, says this is named for her boyfriend, which I think is really cute. This is blue and silver holographic hex glitter, silver squares, dark blue hexes, and silver holo micro glitter. As with As You Wish it's absolutely packed with glitter, so I found it easier to dab it on rather than apply it normally. This is one coat over Nails Inc Baker Street.

Finally I have Skeleton Key. I believe it's inspired by the movie Beetlejuice, which I haven't seen. I absolutely love this one, I think it's my favourite of the three. It has matte black and white glitter (instant WIN) and two shades of purple glitter, all of various shapes and sizes. It contains bar glitter so if don't like that I'd steer clear; I personally love bar glitter! Again this polish is crammed with glitter so you have to be a little careful applying it. I layered one coat over Rimmel Grey Matter; as you can probably tell, I did a slightly thicker coat on my middle finger.

As a general note about all three polishes, they gobble up top coat so I did two generous coats of Poshe to make everything smooth. I'm happy to report I didn't experience any problems with curling glitters (hurrah!). Thanks for reading and pop back tomorrow for part two! :)

Barry M Magnetic Sparkle Gold

Although I've gone off magnetic polishes a bit since the market was flooded with them, I randomly decided a couple of weeks ago that I wanted a gold one (I was feeling in the Christmas spirit.) Barry M Magnetic Sparkle Gold fitted the bill nicely. It's an antique gold, not too much yellow in it, which is the sort of gold I generally prefer. It also has some gold glitter in there - hence the sparkle part of its name. It comes with a diagonal line magnet but I decided to use a chevron one with it instead.

I just realised I do own another gold magnetic polish, but it's a dud one from Nails Inc - I think it was actually recalled because the magnetic effect doesn't really show up! To see really bad photos of it from over a year ago, click here.

Happy New Year!

I'm a day late, but happy new year! Did you do anything exciting? A couple of friends and I went to the top of a hill and watched about ten different firework displays going off in the town below us. It was really beautiful.

Today I'm showing you the manicure I wore to celebrate. It doesn't really scream 'New Year' but I haven't done leopard print in a while so that's my excuse! I used a base of OPI Don't Pretzel My Buttons, which is now my go-to nude shade, and China Glaze Angel Wings, a dense gold glitter, for the blobs. Finally I outlined it using my trusty black Models Own Wah nail art pen.

This might be one of my favourite leopard print designs yet! :) What did you wear on your nails to ring in the new year?