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?

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.

From the Vault

I have bit of a different post for you today. I have a lot of photos I haven't posted of manicures I did late last/earlier this year before I became more serious with my nail blogging. I'm actually cringeing a little at the thought of posting these because they're so amateurish. I know my manicures aren't as good as many other nail bloggers', but they're a helluva lot better than they were even just six months ago. (I'm really recommending this to you, aren't I?!) But I'm going to show these anyway, because if nothing else it shows how much I've improved! There are some swatches and some attempts at nail art. I stress the word 'attempt'.

Nails Inc Black Taxi with OPI Rainbow Connection on the ring finger. A weird combination. Also, a bizarre hand position. It reminds me of that moment in Toy Story when Buzz Lightyear asks the little alien toys who's in charge: "The claaaaw."

Illamasqua Kink. It's one of those rubber-finish polishes. Terrible photo, but I really like the polish. Also, my index fingernail appears to be freakily long in comparison to the others here.

OPI Warm & Fozzie. Love this polish. Barry M Copper, a new release, is supposedly very similar to this if anyone is looking for a cheaper alternative.

Nails Inc Old Bond Street. It's a dark grey with a pink/purple shimmer. It's completely gorgeous and I should really re-swatch it so you can see it better.

Essie Lady Like. It's hard to tell from the photo, but it's a greyish pink. It's very work-appropriate. I actually wore it to the interview for my internship a few months ago.

Essie Lady Like with Essie As Gold As It Gets. A random combination I tried out. Subtle, but I like it.

OPI Alpine Snow with Nubar Opulent Pearl. I wanted to see what Opulent Pearl, a flakie top coat, looked like over a white polish. Not much, apparently. I also seem to have decided that painting half my skin would be a good look.

Nails Inc Jermyn Street. I think this was the first nude polish I ever bought, and it's still my favourite. Its formula is unbeatable.

OPI Fly with OPI Save Me. Not a very original combination, but they go well together.

China Glaze For Audrey with Nubar White Polka Dots. LOBSTER HANDS!!! I used a Big Ruby nail tattoo on the ring finger.

a-england Galahad and a-england Tristam. I remember I was so chuffed with this manicure, but my Seche Vite was getting to the gloopy stage when I put it on and the whole thing just bubbled like a witches' cauldron! I was devastated.

Nails Inc Seven Dials with Barry M Silver Foil. I quite like this manicure, but it's a terrible photo. Although the foil looks gold, I actually used a silver polish but the green underneath changed its colour!

So there you have it, my crappy swatches out there for all the world to see. Am I the only one who cringes when looking at early photos of one's manicures? Does anyone else feel they've come a long way since they started nail blogging - whether a few months or a few years ago?

Faded Jeans and an Old Time Movie

It was so windy today that the historic house I work at couldn't open to the public in case any trees in the grounds came down and brained someone! I spent the day polishing brass instead (such a glamourous job!) and now I absolutely reek of chrome polish. Nice. It also completely destroyed my manicure, which happened to be Nubar Faded Jeans topped with an indie glitter.

You'll probably have heard of the Nubar Jeans collection, which was released last year and is a cheaper alternative to the Chanel Les Jeans collection. It consists of three blue polishes - considering my love of blue nail polishes, it is pretty much my dream collection! Faded Jeans is the lightest shade of the three. It's a pale blue with a very nice shimmer that shows itself best in the sun. The formula was good; I used two thickish coats.

Isn't it pretty? I love that it's pale but somehow bright at the same time, if that makes sense! I decided to use a recent indie polish purchase, 365 Days of Color Old Time Movie, over the top. It's a black and white glitter polish, but instead of hex glitter or the like, they're shards. They mostly lie flat on the nail, but a couple stuck up so I just pulled them off with a pair of tweezers while the polish was still wet. I used one generous coat, plus a topcoat, for the photos below.

I really like this combination - it reminded me a bit of a speckled robin's egg. I was rather sad to see it destroyed by my brass-polishing frenzy!

If you want a better idea of what black and white glitter polishes are available, Sarah at Chalkboard Nails has a comprehensive guide to them here. Are you a fan of them?

Deborah Lippmann Wicked Game

Deborah Lippmann polishes aren't widely available in the UK and they're pretty pricey. Until recently, the only polish I had from this brand was Razzle Dazzle, which came in a GlossyBox last year. However, I saw some nice swatches of Wicked Game online recently and it looked like my sort of colour, so I took the plunge and bought it. At £14, it now has the distinction of being the most I have ever paid for one bottle of nail polish!

Wicked Game is a purple/green/grey duochrome that is often described as looking like an oil slick. Application wasn't great. It dries to a chrome finish so it shows every imperfection. It also bubbled like crazy. Sad. Anyway, photo time:

Despite the application issues, I like it. It has a very strong duochrome effect, and I love the colours it shifts to (even the green!). There are various similar, if not identical, polishes out there though - so if you're not willing to splurge on this brand, I believe Wet n Wild Anatomy, Essence Where's the Party?, OPI Not Like the Movies and Nubar Purple Beach are all quite close.

Comparison: Nubar Innocent Whispers & OPI Give Me the Moon

Last month I showed you Nubar Innocent Whispers, a pretty grey/pink duochrome. I mentioned that it reminded me a bit of OPI Give Me the Moon, so here is the proper comparison between them!

In the bottle, these two polishes are clearly very different. The Nubar looks lilac with a blue shimmer, while the OPI just looks...grey. But as we all know, what a polish looks like in the bottle very often doesn't translate onto the nails, so here's what they look like on me:

From left to right:
Nubar Innocent Whispers (two coats)
OPI Give Me the Moon (two coats)
Nubar Innocent Whispers (four coats)
OPI Give Me the Moon (four coats)

Hmmm, they're still not as similar as I thought they'd be! The Nubar is much pinker - and sheerer. The OPI is paler and more opaque, and it doesn't shift colour the way Innocent Whispers does. What is similar, however, is the blue shimmer apparent in both these colours. Oh well, at least we know now that they're not even remotely dupes!

P.S. Apologies for the horrendous state of my hands! The freakily warm weather in March has played havoc with my skin, and even my beloved E45 cream has been powerless against it.

Nubar Innocent Whispers

I began an internship last Friday that I'll be doing two days a week until August. While my paid job is one that allows me to wear whatever nail polish I fancy, I wanted to tone it down a bit for my first day of the internship while still being true to my bold tastes. Naturally, the answer lay in one of Nubar's duochromes.

Nubar Innocent Whispers is a pretty opalescent duochome that shifts from grey to blue to pink. It's very sheer and isn't really meant to build up to full opacity, but I did three coats and more or less banished any VNL. I had no problems with the application, but there was a teeny tiny bit of bubbling on my index finger after using a top coat.

As you can see, it's demure enough to be suitable for work, but interesting enough not to make me yawn. It actually reminds me of OPI Give Me the Moon, but I'd have to compare them side by side to be certain (would anyone like me to?).

And just in case you were in any doubt that this was a true duochrome...

Yes, that really is the same nail polish!

Stripy Spring Manicure

Here's a fun manicure that I did last week. Stripes and pastels are two trends that are always very popular in spring, so I decided to incorporate both into a nail art design. I started by painting my nails with two coats of OPI Alpine Snow, a white creme. I then used striping tape to paint vertical stripes in Nubar Absolute, a pale blue with holographic glitter, which I have previously shown you here. Finally, I used a nail art brush to freehand Alpine Snow in a bow shape, and added a diamante in the centre.

I mucked up my index finger a bit (story of my life!), but it turned out rather well all the same. Unusually, it actually looks better on my right hand, but since I'm rubbish at taking photos of that hand you get the slightly less brilliant one.