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?

Essie Fest

Hi guys! In another attempt to break away from blues, here's Essie Very Structured with Essie As Gold As It Gets. VS is a dark terracotta colour, somewhere between red and brown. I bought it in the mini set last year but have only just got round to wearing it - for shaaaame! To jazz it up a bit I layered AGAIG, a gold flake top coat, and then used GOSH Matte Effect over it.

Nails Inc Pudding Lane

Nails Inc Pudding Lane is from the Sprinkles Collection that came out quite recently, which is four polishes with a coloured base and multicoloured matte-ish glitter. They're based on the idea of cake sprinkles (yum!), and each bottle has a picture of a cupcake on it. Pudding Lane has an aqua blue base with gold and dark blue glitter.

The coloured base is very pigmented and was opaque in two coats, and as the glitter is densely packed there was no trouble getting it out of the bottle. It does need a coat or two of topcoat though as the glitter is very thirsty! Removal was a pain in the you-know-what as a result of all the glitter, but for such a pretty polish I think it's worth the hassle.

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween! I don't know about you, but my evening has been spent watching Fred Astaire films (NOT horror movies) and praying no trick-or-treaters come to the door, which fortunately they haven't. My manicure today isn't overtly Halloweeny, but I rather like it anyway.

I saw a tutorial the other day for a shredded funky French mani, and I decided to try my hand at it. I didn't have the patience to do it on every nail so it was only on my thumbs and ring fingers; my other nails had the standard French design on them.

After applying a base coat I did two coats of Nails Inc Augustus Street, which is a grey suede-effect colour that was part of their Texture Collection from earlier this year. I paired this with two coats of Illamasqua Vice, a rubber-look deep cerise. I'm not a huge matte fan as a rule, but I thought the difference in texture between the suede and the rubber would look pretty cool. The normal French was done freehand, while I cut a jagged pattern out of Scotch tape for the other nails.

It's definitely not perfect - especially as I couldn't use a top coat to seal and smooth it - but for my first attempt at a shredded mani, I don't think it's too bad. I really like the contrast in textures, it creates a bit more interest.

A Simple Halloween Manicure

I'm pretty rubbish at doing facy nail art, so I was ridiculously excited at the beginning of this year when the crackle trend really took off. It's such an easy way of making your nails look a bit different without actually having to do any tricky designs. The first crackle polish I bought was the black Nails Inc Camden, and yesterday I decided to use it to make a very simple Halloween manicure that anyone can replicate.

I started off with a base coat and then did two coats of Barry M Block Orange. I've been a huge fan of Barry M nail polishes for years - they come in a wide range of colours and are actually very good quality given how inexpensive they are (£2.99 usually). I then did a coat of Nails Inc Camden and waited for it to dry thoroughly. I was going to use a standard top coat but changed my mind and used GOSH Matte Dry top coat instead to make it a bit different.

Usually I'm on the fence when it comes to matte nail polish, but I rather like how this turned out. I was going for just the standard orange/black Halloween colours, but I think it looks a bit like glowing lava oozing from a volcano, with the black crust forming on top as it dries (or is that just my overactive imagination...?). A surprising number of stangers told me they liked it today, so it's a win as far as I'm concerned!