Dior Rosy Bow

Good evening! I have a polish from Dior's Spring collection to show you today. Rosy Bow is a gorgeous pink creme shade with a hint of coral. I'm not usually drawn to pinks but when I saw this one in store I knew it had to come home with me! The formula was brilliant, I used two coats and had no problems.

It's a bit more pink than it appears in my photos; it's one of those shades that's very difficult to photograph accurately!

Work Hard. Play Hard.

Happy Monday! Did you all have a good weekend? I went to an ice hockey game. I don't think I've ever voluntarily been to a sporting event before...in fact, I've actively avoided them in the past! But it had a great atmosphere and our team won, which made it even better. Also, it was all kinds of excellent watching the players try to beat the *bleep* out of each other! XD

Recently I went on a night out in London and I wanted some fun nails that would stand out against the black dress I was wearing. I settled on an old favourite, China Glaze Flip Flop Fantasy - you can see my swatch here - but I blinged it up a bit with China Glaze Golden Enchantment, a holographic gold micro glitter top coat (what a mouthful!). Then, as if that wasn't enough, I used some square studs that I got recently from the Born Pretty Store.

Okay, so the end result is kind of tacky and possibly something that would grace the nails of the girls in The Only Way is Essex, but I like it anyway. Oh, and the best/weirdest thing about my night out? I bumped into one of my cousins! Neither of us live or work in London but we both happened to be out with friends from work on the same night. Of all the pubs in all the towns in all the world...

China Glaze Flip Flop Fantasy

Another day, another neon nail polish...

My brother and I share a car (our mum's old one) but he's gone to Australia for six months, which means I have it all to myself - hurrah! I decided to give the inside a proper clean today, which took an HOUR. In the process I found - none of which was mine - eight water bottles, two cassette to mp3 player converters, an EpiPen that expired nine years ago (neither of us could even drive then!), two sunglasses cases, and an inflatable kangaroo. No joke.

Right. Back to nail polish. China Glaze Flip Flop Fantasy is something of a legend. It's a neon coral shade that, as far as I know, is completely unique. If you want to get your nails noticed it's the perfect polish, because it is LOUD. For the photos below I used three thin coats plus top coat because as with all neons, it dries to a matte finish. The first two are in the sun and the second two in the shade to show how the colour really pops.

I'm also wearing this on my toes at the moment, but I'll spare you the photos because I think feet are creepy!

China Glaze Surfin' For Boys

I think I've been showing a lot of neons on here recently, but to be honest they're almost all I've been wearing on my nails! I've got to make the most of summer while I can. Today's neon is China Glaze Surfin' For Boys, a bold red-leaning coral with shimmer. The shimmer wasn't keen to show itself, but you can see it peeking out in the last photo. I used two coats plus top coat, and it was instant love.

You may have noticed that between this post and the previous one my nails have got dramatically shorter. They were the longest they've been for a good six months due to the wonders of OPI Nail Envy (a huge thanks to Jai for recommending it a while ago!), but I found that they just weren't very practical for work and whatnot. I love the idea of long nails in theory...but in practice, not so much. What's your take on them?

China Glaze Neon Leopard Mani

I went a little mad a few weeks ago and bought eight polishes from the China Glaze Summer Neons Collection - yes, eight! Well, originally I bought six, but then I decided that I had to have a couple of the others too. XD This is the most polishes I have ever bought from one collection, but I'm going through a neon phase at the moment and the CG ones are just all so gorgeous. Today I'm showing you a leopard print manicure that uses five of them. This is great if you're indecisive like me and can't decide which one to wear!

I began with two coats of China Glaze White On White before doing random blobs of Surfin' For Boys (coral red), Sun-Kissed (yellow), I'm With the Lifeguard (green), Splish Splash (blue) and Beach Cruise-r (purple). Once they'd dried I used my trusty black nail art pen to do the outlines, and covered with a top coat. I was really chuffed with how it turned out.

All five of the neons have a beautiful shimmer running through them that shows best in the sunlight photo below:

This is not a manicure for the faint-of-heart! My nails practically stood out from a mile away. I wore this for much longer than I usually wear my manicures because I couldn't bear to remove it!

Nubar Opulent Pearl

Yesterday I showed you the pretty coral shade Nails Inc Drury Lane, and today I'm showing you what I layered over it: Nubar Opulent Pearl. It's a flakie polish that predates Nubar 2010, and instead of the red/gold/green shifting flakies it has ones of every colour. I tried it over white a while ago and it was pretty much a huge FAIL. Fortunately, today's layering was much more successful!

The effect is quite subtle, but I like how it adds a little something extra to Drury Lane without overpowering it. WIN.

Nails Inc Drury Lane

When I hear the road name Drury Lane, the first thing I think of is this:

'Do you know the muffin man,
The muffin man, the muffin man,
Do you know the muffin man,
Who lives in Drury Lane?

Yes, I know the muffin man,
The muffin man, the muffin man,
Yes, I know the muffin man,
Who lives in Drury Lane.'

The second thing I think of is that Drury Lane was a den of prostitution and iniquity in the 18th century! (Have I mentioned I'm a history geek...?) But from now on I'll also think of this rather nice polish from Nails Inc. Drury Lane is a pink-leaning coral creme. I think it's been in my stash for quite some time without me wearing it...I don't actually remember buying it to be honest, so it was probably a freebie or something! It glided on smoothly, like all Nails Inc cremes, and was opaque in two coats (although I'm wearing three for the hell of it). I think it's the perfect summer colour.

...I'll just leave you with this:

Topshop War Paint

Just a quick post today to show you a fun, summery colour. Topshop War Paint is a bright red/coral shade that is almost, but not quite, neon. I wore this a few times last summer before I started blogging - it looks especially great as a pedicure colour. The formula is good; two coats for full coverage, although I did an unnecessary third coat.

As you probably know, the Queen's Diamond Jubilee is only a few days away so on Friday I'll be doing a themed Foodie Friday post, and on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday I'll be showing you themed manicures! I'm really looking forward to it, and I hope you enjoy them! :)

Neon Leopard Mani

After a couple of weeks of glorious sunshine the weather has turned rubbish. We've had so little rain in Surrey for the last few months that I didn't even know where my umbrella was (I still don't). I decided that the best cure for miserable weather is...neon nail polish!

I've had China Glaze Purple Panic and Flip Flop Fantasy in my collection since December, but it seemed a bit weird to wear neons in the winter so they've been languishing in one of my storage containers. They both got their first outing in this manicure! Purple Panic is a neon hot pink with purple shimmer and Flip Flop Fantasy is a neon coral pink. They are both eye-wateringly bright.

Anyway, without further ado, here are the photos (ironically, the sun did appear a little while I was taking them):

What do you think?! :)