Studded Leather Nails

Good evening! Yesterday I showed you the Nails Inc leather effect polish in Noho, and today I'm showing you some nail art I did with it. I used the nail glue that comes with the set and some square gold studs from the Born Pretty Store to give my nails the look of studded leather.

I really liked wearing this but it's not very practical for everyday wear! I think it would look great for a night out though. :)

Nails Inc Leather & Skulls in Noho

Hello! Today I have one of the Nails Inc leather effect polishes to show you. I think 2013 is going to be the year of the textured nail polish, and Nails Inc is always at the forefront of new trends. When I first heard of the leather effect polish I presumed it would simply dry to a rubberised finish, but in actual fact it's much cooler than this; it dries slightly bumpy and really does resemble leather.

I used two coats of the leather effect polish. It's not quite as opaque as a normal black so it does really need both coats. It takes a little longer to dry than normal nail polish and you obviously can't apply a top coat or it will ruin the effect, but as long as you're prepared to wait it's fine. It's worth noting that while the polish doesn't dry smooth it also isn't gritty - it doesn't snag on anything. I actually found it quite entertaining to stroke my nails with this on!

The set costs £19 on the Nails Inc website and includes some 3D skulls, but I chose not to use these. I did, however, do some different nail art with this polish, which I'll show you tomorrow. :)

Have you tried the Nails Inc leather effect polish? What do you think of the texture trend? Are you a fan or do you prefer a smooth finish?

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! :)

Nails Inc Victoria & Foubert's Place

Good afternoon! I have a couple of Nails Inc swatches for you today.

The first is one of their classics, and a colour I think every nail polish addict should have in their collection: Nails Inc Victoria. It's a dark, vampy red jelly. In terms of colour it's quite similar to Revlon Vixen, maybe a tad darker, but with a much better formula (no bubbling!). I could probably have got away with two coats but I did three just in case.

The other is Nails Inc Foubert's Place. I used this as a base for OPI The Man With the Golden Gun, and it looked pretty great. On the website it's described as a grey khaki shade, which is a pretty bang-on description. It has a smooth, easy formula and was opaque in two coats.

Polished Nail Bar

Last weekend we had a Christmas Fair at work, and I was lucky enough to be one of the stallholders. My colleague in charge of the Fair asked the staff if any of us had anything we wanted to sell and so I suggested a nail bar. To my surprise she loved the idea - the Polished Nail Bar was born!

I had so much fun painting nails. I was there both days and although the weather was rubbish we still had a fantastic turnout (the final figure for the weekend was over 3000 people!). On Saturday I only had six customers, but I was much more popular on Sunday and had a steady stream of people who wanted their nails painted. As it's only a hobby I don't have any professional equipment, but I think I managed to make my stall look pretty good anyway.

The base coat I used on everyone was Nubar Foundation Base Coat, and the top coat was Poshe Super-Fast Drying Top Coat because it dries really quickly and isn't toxic like Seche Vite. Interestingly, although the Christmas-inspired nail wheel I created for the occasion was much admired, everyone went for standard nail painting rather than art or rhinestones. Two of the most popular colours were a-england Avalon and Perceval, which I showed in my previous post.

Finally, here were my own nails for the occasion. On Saturday I wore China Glaze Poinsettia with OPI The Man With the Golden Gun (not my favourite gold leaf combo, it turns out) but I forgot to photograph it, and on Sunday I wore Nails Inc Baker Street with China Glaze Glistening Snow as a French manicure, plus a line of rhinestones.

People keep asking me since if I would do the Christmas Fair again if given the chance, and the answer is: in a heartbeat. I wouldn't want to make a career of it, but if I could spend a couple of days a year painting nails and discussing nail polish...how could I resist?!

OPI The Man With the Golden Gun

Hello! I have a very special nail polish to show you today. OPI The Man With the Golden Gun is the only other polish I bought from the Skyfall Collection (you can see Goldeneye here and On Her Majesty's Secret Service here). I initially passed on buying it because of its completely insane price tag of £30, but guess what? I caved. I know, I'm weak.

The reason The Man With the Golden Gun is so special, and so exorbitantly priced, is because it's a gold leaf top coat. I was so excited when it arrived in the post that I put it straight over what I was already wearing, which was Nails Inc Foubert's Place, a grey/green shade:

This is one coat plus a bit dabbed on where I felt it needed it. The clear base colour was a bit watery and didn't really have enough gold leaf flakes in it, but with a little effort I think it looks great. I tried it over a different colour and I think I like this combination even more. This is one coat over Nubar Boyfriend Jeans:

Do you think the price of this polish is justifiable? What's the most you've ever spent on a single nail polish?

Halloween Spider Webs

When I was in Spain a couple of weeks ago (I can't believe it was that long ago already!) I went on a mission to find some Essence polishes. I thought they'd just be sold in chemists like nail polish is here, but apparently not. After some Googling I found a shop on Calle de Fuencarral called Beautik. It turned out to be a great place - not only did they sell Essence, they also stocked Catrice, Konad, two Layla ranges, and a few other brands. I was quite restrained and limited myself to one Catrice, a Konad plate, and four Essence colours, one of which I'm showing you today.

I really like grey polish at the moment, so Essence I'm the Boss is right up my alley. It's a medium to dark grey polish with sparse-ish silver glitter. It's really pretty and was opaque in two easy coats. To make it Halloween-y I stamped spider webs using a Bundle Monster plate and Barry M Silver Foil. I'm still working on my stamping skills so the image didn't transfer perfectly, but I think it adds to the effect rather than detracting from it (that's my story and I'm sticking to it). Finally, I used Nails Inc Black Taxi and some striping tape to make black French tips.

I went to Waitrose today and they had a section dedicated to Halloween food and decorations. I bought a bunch of it. Apparently if something is coloured orange and black at this time of year, I will buy it. All of it. People don't really trick or treat where I live but I bought some spooky chocolate just in case - and if we don't get anyone, oh well, more for me!

As Seen On... Rebecca Likes Nails

Hola! Today is the final day of my holiday... I'm leaving sunny (hopefully) Madrid for my dear (but probably wet) Surrey. Today's post features a manicure from Rebecca Likes Nails. She posts stunning nail art and swatches, and I owe her a lot because I got the idea of these posts from her! She always does an 'As Seen On' series when she's away.

- - - - -

I was originally going to do a different design of Rebecca's, but it shows part of the bare nail and mine are horribly stained at the moment. She recently did this manicure however, which is itself based on someone else's, and I knew I had to try it for myself.

The original version uses a green creme, but as you can see I decided to go with purple instead - specially, my favourite purple creme ever, Nails Inc Little Miss Naughty. The grey is Rimmel London Grey Matter and the black and white are my trusty Models Own nail art pens.

- - - - -

So that's it for my 'As Seen On' series and my holiday! I hope you've enjoyed seeing these designs as much as I enjoyed doing them. :)

As Seen On... Lucy's Stash

Hola! I'm still in Spain (today I'm travelling from Seville to Madrid) so I have another scheduled post for you. Today's manicure is one inspired by the blog Lucy's Stash. Lucy does a lot of beautiful nail art looks, and her swatches are so amazing that I always lust after every single one of the polishes afterwards (even the greens!).

- - - - -

Recently Lucy showed a stunning half-moon manicure, and I knew as soon as I saw it that I had to try it for myself. Hers used Models Own Jade Stone which I don't own, so instead of searching my stash for a close match I decided to use a completely different polish. I settled on Kiko 336, a bright blue that's a very close dupe for Nails Inc Baker Street.

I began with two coats of Barry M Matt White, and once this was completely dry I used some hole reinforcers to create the half-moon design with Kiko 336. When this was dry too I used my Models Own nail art pen for the small black detailing. I think it looks a lot like a lace doily or something!

You wouldn't believe how many compliments I got when I wore this. In Boots the girl who served me told me my nails looked 'lush' and then called over one of the other sales assistants to look too!

As Seen On... The Nailasaurus

Hola! I'm currently in Seville enjoying some good weather (well, hopefully!), so this is a scheduled post. Random fact: this is the first time I've been to Spain in eleven years. The last time I went I was a teenager! Anyway, today I have another manicure for you inspired by one of my favourite nail bloggers.

- - - - -

The Nailasaurus is a fellow Brit whose blog I've been reading for well over a year. She's really imaginative and comes up with a lot of flawlessly-executed nail art looks. One of my favourites is her famous studded manicure.

The base for this was two coats of Nails Inc Black Taxi, and the studs are from eBay. I didn't use a top coat as to be honest I didn't wear this long enough to need one - it's just not practical for every day. It would be great for a night out though!