notd :)

when i bought rimmel 'rapid ruby', i was expecting a lovely red wine-esque colour with perfect application. whilst the colour was nice, the application didn't live up to my previous experiences with the brand. it stained my nails, and it's one of those nail varnishes that rubs off on stuff it touches so i think it'd require a base & top coat..too much effort!

it's really unforgiving; it made my nails look so wide and in such poor condition! i wouldn't recommend this nail varnish unless you have lovely thin nails in perfect condition.

slight ramble & a notd

as i write this, it's rather late at night. i should be asleep, but i'm multitasking rather impressively. i'm currently in bed, blogging, doing english coursework, and watching gentlemen prefer blondes. admittedly english is getting slightly neglected due to the film and blogging, but still.

i adore this film; marilyn monroe and jane russell are both beautiful and so talented! they really don't make actresses like this anymore :( plus i love how old films sort of brag about being in technicolor rather than black and white, it's rather endearing :)

on to the nail varnish..OK, i admit it. i have a drawer full of nail varnishes that i've never worn. the particular nail varnish in question was given to my mother for me by one of her friends. it's Constance Carroll Diamond Gloss 5 day nail polish, in the shade pink cherry. "pink cherry" is a spot-on shade name in my opinion. it's a gloriously deep pink shade, with an almost jelly-like finish. it's filled with silver glitter; this could be perceived as being tacky, but i still like it! i tried to capture it on camera, but failed miserably..

application is really good and it lasts a fair while too, i'm definitely going to try and find out where my mother's friend got this from and see if i can get my hands on some too :)

notd :)

if you read company magazine, you may know that barry m was voted best nail polish in their beauty awards. over-all, i think this was about right. the only thing i dislike about barry m polishes are the names - so unimaginative! o.p.i came second, and i suppose that was because of people like me who like brands that have good advertisements and campaigns haha.

you may have noticed by now that i adore blue nail varnishes; and this lovely colour may be my favourite ever barry m nail polish. it's called "cyan blue", seriously..is that all they could come up with?! i suppose that doesn't really matter when you get such a nice colour for such a good price with one of the best applications ever. two coats, no base or top coat used, left no streaks and lasted two days on me (this is brilliant because i scratch a lot..i imagine it could last upwards of 4 days on most people).

notd :)

for all the trouble i had with eyeko's posh polish, i still really like the colour. so i thought i'd try my usual trick of putting china glaze's doll house over the top..

it's looks rather leopard-print-like in this picture, but in real life it's much peachier.

i just took ^that^ picture because, despite the flash, it shows the eyeko polish better :)

i really loved how it turned out, and also really like chucking doll house over the top of random nail varnishes :)

NOTD :)

no7 stay perfect nail varnish in "milan" is yet another of my nail varnishes that i've just chucked in amongst my collection and left it there for a while before even bothering to try it out. fortunately, i tried it on the other day and have seen the error of my ways..

this was taken from cosmetic kingdom from google. has anyone ordered from them before? i only came across them when i googled this picture, but they seem amazing. lots of discounted make-up and if the products are genuine and they deliver well, this is an incredible website!

these are some pictures i took myself..

it was just so hard to capture the brilliance of this polish! it's so pink and so glittery, without being tacky. amazing. and it doesn't feel rough at all. i'm not sure if this is holographic? whatever it is, i love it! it's staying power is brilliant and it applies well too. one thing i will say is that it seems to get more silver the longer it's on the nail, despite starting pink.

NOTD :)

why must barry m shade names/numbers be so inconsistent?! my notd today is "vivid purple" but i think i've seen it under a different name before, and it has two numbers on it and i can't work out which is the actual number :/ the numbers are 161 and 939, if that means anything to you.

this is one of those polishes that i've had for so, so long and just didn't really appreciate how good it was until i'd neglected it for a while.

neither of my pictures do it justice, but i think the top one gives a better idea of it. it's so shimmery and such a rich colour, i think it would work with most skin tones too.

i've had this since christmas 2009 and the formula is still brilliant. application is really easy and it doesn't take long to dry at all. i can't even think of one negative for this polish, and i'm even considering putting fake tan on to see what they look like together!

notd :)

models own "purple poppy" polish was on of my first experiences with the brand, and if i'm honest..it wasn't love at first sight. i wasn't fond of the colour and i remember thinking it took absolutely aaages to dry. i decided to give it another go today and i'm amazed how wrong i was!

the top is how it looks in natural light, bottom is flash. i've got three coats on but you could probably get away with just one! i only went for three because i was very bored and it was drying so quick that i thought i may as well keep going haha. i genuinely can't think of anything to complain about with this.

NOTD :)

this nail varnish actually ruined my day. dramatic, moi? it's eyeko's nude polish, though i wouldn't actually call it a nude. it looks fairly nude in the bottle, but i think there's too much of a peachy undertone to call it nude.

do you see what i mean or am i just being overly fussy? so i painted my nails between 12 and 1 (no exaggeration, it needed the whole hour for first coat, drying time, second coat, drying time, touch ups, drying time). i went food shopping and it lasted fairly well whilst i was riffling through the cheap dvds & sneaking far too much unhealthy food into the trolley, but by the time i was on my way home, IT PEELED OFF. like actually peeled. it didn't just chip, IT PEELED. the colour is pretty yes, and i wanted so much to like this, but it's just a no-go for me :(

there were some positives though, admittedly not many:

• it doesn't appear to chip easily (though this positive is kind of counteracted by the whole peeling malarkey)
• the colour is so pretty and there's no need for a topcoat
• ok i thought there were more positives but i can't seem to think of any.

do i really need to list any negatives? unfortunately it looks like my first eyeko order has been a let-down :(

NOTD :)

remember last summer (i think it was either the august or september issue?) when nicole scherzinger was on the cover of cosmopolitan & the free gift was nail varnish from the clothes website missguided? you could either get nude, lilac or another colour i can't remember :( i went for the nude one, it's almost exactly the same as barry m mushroom but with pink undertones. seriously love it!

i painted my nails with it yesterday, then got bored and decided to spruce it up a bit so i experimented with barry m raspberry. i very rarely wear raspberry as a normal nail varnish on my finger nails, it's either a toe-nail polish or one that i use with something else.

i have no idea why the one picture is so much bigger :/. it's good how experimenting with two normal colours can be almost as if you've bought a new polish altogether. considering the missguided nail varnish isn't from a beauty brand, it's very good. it's a bit thin & looks rubbish with one coat but two looks lovely.

in case you can't see properly, on my left hand: there's a little love heart on the thumb, my whole middle finger nail is completely barry m rasperry (because i messed up a vertical stripe, my bad) and there's a horizontal line on my baby finger. on my right hand: the thumb has a diagonal line, middle nail is polka-dot & baby finger has raspberry on the tip :) i quite like the over-all effect! do you often mess around with nail varnishes:)?

NOTD :)

i've been a very busy bee since friday. saturday i had to get ready as soon as i woke up, to go and watch rugby with a few friends :) then as soon as i got home from that, i had to get ready again to go out in the night. the next day was spent recovering..then today i started looking after my nan, hard work i tell you! i'm gonna be spending a lot of time looking after her so i might not have time for anything other than NOTDs, they're just so easy haha.

this nail varnish has been in my collection for some time now, and unfortunately i ripped off the shade name & have forgotten it, boo. i think it's called coral reef, i googled swatches and it seems about right :)

pros:

• colour is nice
• it seems to be quite long lasting
• application is relatively easy
• drying time is reasonably quick
• affordable
• good packaging

cons:

• it takes three coats if you want to avoid visible nail line

clearly, the positives outweigh the negatives - woo! models own, if you're reading this..i love you. i know coral is more of a summer shade, but really? why limit such a nice shade to just one season? it's nice all year round!

NOTD :)

my first ever eyeko purchase turned up today! it took a whopping two weeks but i suppose that's what i get for choosing free delivery haha. i ordered punk polish, nude polish and three mini fat balms. obviously i couldn't get something from eyeko without trying fat balms. i'll be reviewing them soon but for now i'll review punk polish :). it does exactly what it says on the tin - on the pack it says "for neon nails." they definitely weren't lying! it reminds me of two things - pink highlighters and those neon leg warmers.

above is without flash, below is with.

pros:

• it makes a nice change colour-wise
• easy to apply
• i like the packaging (yes, that sways me)

cons:

• it makes my fingers and nails look even more stumpy than they already are
• it's very unforgiving - every little flaw in your nails shows up
• i'm not fussed on the finish. there's kind of little bubbles there? i've had nail varnishes do that before, but only when i've painted them under a lamp. a decent top coat may be able to sort it out but who knows.

overall, a pretty mixed review. i think if you like the colour then the problems with the polish may make it worth it, but if the colour isn't something you'd usually go for then it may be best to steer clear of this polish. what do you think of neon nails?

on another note - i love pramore! "for a pessimist, i'm pretty optimistic" just started playing on my itunes so i thought i'd mention it, ha. isn't the song title brilliant?

NOTD :)

don't you just love models own? i can't think of any issues i have with the brand as a whole; the packaging is good, there's a wide range of shades, the consistency is generally good, the shade names are on the same level as some higher end brands, they tweet back to people on twitter, and best of all - they're affordable!

sorry about the shininess of my hands, i'd just moisturised haha. this is models own - grey day. it's one of my favourite ever nail varnishes, it's really wearable, such a nice colour. application is really good, as is to be expected with models own :)

NOTD :)

rimmel's 60 second nail varnishes used to be rubbish, as far as i remember. in my memory, they certainly didn't dry in 60 seconds and they also seemed desperate to flee my fingernails. a while back, i was yet again browsing my chemist's pitiful little makeup selection when i came across rimmel's funtime fuschia (or shade number 260, i think) and decided to give into temptation, thinking it'd be worth buying it, even if it's rubbish quality, just because of the colour. i loooove it. it's so pink, so very very pink.

my nails are clearly very stumpy at the moment, one advantage of this is that i can wear super bright colours without feeling like it's OTT. back to the actual polish; rimmel claims it's a "one-coat polish. 1 stroke Xpress [i haven't spelt it wrong, for some reason rimmel spelt it that way] brush for 1 second, easy application. dries in less than 60 seconds." i'm not too sure on the "one-coat" malarkey, it usually takes two coats on mine, but maybe that's just because i'm rubbish at applying nail varnish. i also don't agree with the one stroke thing, but that's because i have rather chunky nails. i think on someone with thinner nails this could definitely just take one stroke. the brush is a very good quality, i haven't got any other polishes that resemble it in anyway. it's wider than usual, very smooth & there are no pesky stray bristles. they may be right on the drying time, i've never actually timed it but it is very quick. you may have noticed i'm rubbish with telling how long nail varnish lasts, this is because i tend to change my nail varnish after a day so it's never on my nails long enough for me to find out haha. this one does seem like a longer-lasting nail varnish than most though. i wear it without a base or top coat & it still applies like a dream and stays glossy looking. also, i put this on about 15 minutes ago and it hasn't been altered by me merrily bashing away at my keyboard.

don't you just love it?! i'm not one for pink clothing but there's just something about pink nails! i can't remember the exact cost of this nail varnish but remember i had less than £5 on me at the time, so it's less than that. it always cheers me up, as sad as that sounds. it's just so perfect and..pink. BUY IT!

NOTD :)

o.p.i's "hot n spicy" from the hong kong collection of spring 2010 is so hard to describe. in some lights it looks neon orange, in others it's red with orange undertones, sometimes it seems coral. so weird. i'm definitely not a fan of this nail varnish; application & staying power are awful. it's really runny so kind of pools together at the bottom of nails. it's quite streaky and takes like three coats to become opaque, plus drying time is quite long. it managed to smudge on my nails before i even left the house today and there's chips everywhere now.

you can probably tell from the pictures that hot n spicy looks different in all lighting! in natural light it's more like the dimmer picture, but with indoor lighting it turns more like the brighter picture. all in all, this definitely isn't one of my favourite nail varnishes.

NOTD :)

yesterday, i finally managed to convince my boyfriend to watch black swan! you would've thought the lesbian sex scene would be enough to persuade him but apparently not haha. its such an amazing film, natalie portman deserves an oscar even if just for the way she plays the black swan! she seriously blew me away, especially since she learnt ballet herself instead of using a stunt-double type thing! it's such a good film & even my boyfriend admitted it should win an oscar for best film!

suppose i should go back to my nails now..i wanted something quite dark & not feminine at all, it didn't have to last long because i just wanted it for when i went to the cinema (i'm changing my nail colour today) so i decided to go for barry m instant nail effects over nails inc denim. i know i'm a bit behind on reviewing this; i thought crackle nails might blow over like the whole matte nail thing, but it seems to be lasting the test of time since o.p.i and china glaze have jumped on the bandwagon! i love the fact that a budget brand like barry m was the first (as far as i know) to come up with the crackle effect. i paid £3.99 for mine off amazon, with free delivery, and for the results it gives this is seriously amazing!

please forgive the state of my nails; they seem very brittle lately so i decided to cut them down to size, and i forgot to clean up around my nails before taking the picture, so they are a mess. i didn't really take the picture to show the colours, i just wanted to show the effect of the instant nail effects. that's after just one coat of each nails varnish, amazing! you just paint your nails with the colour of your choice, then when that's dry, go over it with just one coat of barry m. when you first paint it on, it just turns your whole nail black. as it dries, gaps form and the paint dries in perfect crackle fashion! it's brilliant. i've seen swatches of china glaze and o.p.i's versions, but i honestly think barry m seems better, and for the price you'd be a fool not to try it! i love crackle nails & hope they stay around a while :).

NOTD :)

last night i had a sudden urge for red nails, so i reached for my favourite ever red nail varnish - models own red alert. it's the perfect colour, kind of a fire-engine red. i don't think it's the classic red nail, more a modern classic red nail if you get me. it's got the perfect amount of orangey undertones & looks good in every light!

application is perrrrfect! by the way, it looks like the picture, only glossier & with not so many orange undertones. back to the application..it takes three coats, which might seem like a pain in the bum, but only if you want to get it perfect. you can get away with two but on my nails, you could still kind of see the little half moon shape at the bottom of my nails (i have no idea what they're called *hangs head in shame*). the consistency is brilliant, it's really liquidy, not gloopy t all! it really does glide on the nail & it seems to dry in no time at all! ah, i love it! it didn't chip overnight either which is always good, plus it's cheap as chips! the only issue i have with this polish, and i mean the only, is that it's one of those nail varnishes that stains around your nails when you take it off. it might just be me but that really makes me feel dirty and tramp-like! still a brilliant nail varnish though :)

o.p.i pearl of wisdom

pearl of wisdom was from the hong kong collection, it's still available on asos but i don't know if you can get it anywhere else. if you're looking for an opaque nail varnish, don't look to pearl of wisdom. after three coats it's still translucent but i've never tried making it opaque so i can't tell you how many coats it takes. pearl of wisdom is, however, a really nice sheer polish. when i wear it on my own nails i don't really like it. not on its own anyway, but it's nice over other polishes. this time, i tried it on false nails. the nails i use are the nailene full cover active square nails. they come in a pack of 200 and they're only like £5, i can't remember the exact amount but it's definitely less than £10. i love these nails 'cause they're a nice change without the commitment of professional false nails. they last for 2 or 3 days and they look just the same as (actually, better than them sometimes if i do say so myself). aaanyway, back to pearl of wisdom.

when other people say they can't capture the colour of a nail varnish in picture i never really believe them or understand why they can't. that was until i tried photographing pearl of wisdom. it was SO hard. i took the pictures in this post on my blackberry, and they're rubbish even for my crappy phone. you can't see it in any of the pictures, but pearl of wisdom is almost holographic. in certain lights, it look glittery purple and pink, it really is fascinating.

you can kind of see the glittering in that picture, but not properly. gah i need a new camera! i definitely think "pearl" of wisdom was the right choice of name, pearl-like is the only was to describe it. length of wear is normal quality, drying time is really fast. not annoyingly fast, so that it drags before you've even finished painting the nail, but fast enough for you to not have to wait around for it to dry. when i first wore this polish, i was super annoyed with it. i thought it was a glittery nude but it was completely different to what i expected. i'm glad though, there's plenty of nudes out there but none really like pearl of wisdom. i'd definitely recommend this nail varnish don't write it off straight away, it'll grow on you :)

NOTD :)

even though basically everyone has seen numerous swatches of barry m mushroom, it's one of my favourite nail varnishes so i'm going to blog about it anyway :). if you're one of the few that hasn't seen it, mushroom is a gorgeous light brown shade. it reminds me of galaxy chocolate, nom. i hate how people make fun of brown nail varnishes with the poo comments, ha, i think they look really nice. mushroom is one of my go-to nail varnishes because it's suitable for so many occasions. i painted my nails with it yesterday, then felt like changing it up a bit, so i painted one nail on each hand with doll house by china glaze. doll house is the typical "barbie" nail varnish - pink with lots of glitter. i can see why some people would think it's tacky or a bit too much, but i like it for going over other nail varnishes or just on one or two nails :)

on my other hand, doll house is on my index finger. i quite like how it looks, and my nails are actually an alright shape for once! the consistency of mushroom is brilliant, i usually find barry m are a bit hit and miss. with a thick coat and careful application, mushroom would be good to go with one coat! i'm a bit careless though so tend to stick to two coats. i did this at about 9pm yesterday and there wasn't even any tip-wear until i got home from school today, and then it was only minimal. i'm always a bit confused when it comes to applying glitter nail varnish, is there really a correct technique?! i put two coats on this time, but i wasn't trying to cover the whole nail.

this was taken at night time, with flash, so it's a bit overly bright, but i like how my nails look so i uploaded it anyway, haha. i buy my barry m nail varnishes from boots, they're on offer quite often so it's always worth a look! i've never tried ordering from the china glaze website before because amazon is cheeper *looks sheepish* when i bought mine it was £8 or £8.95, i'm not sure, but i think prices change on amazon quite often anyway.