NOTD: Ethereal Girl

This feature should be re-named Nail of the Month, or perhaps even year, since I get round to updating it so infrequently. But, I finally took some images of my most recent nail polish acquisition and I thought that you might y'know, like to see it, so without further ado, here it is:

The polish is Ethereal, from Rimmel's 60 Seconds Collection, and it is a gorgeous very pale pink shade that I thought was great for Spring, because it reminds me of Spring Blossoms and I think that we're all appreciating the milder weather that has finally arrived, so it seems a very fitting shade at the minute.

As the colour is both pale and neutral, I also thought that this might make a lovely bridal polish, so if you're getting married this is most definitely a great idea, especially if you're looking for a colour that is pretty and girlie, but reasonably priced and has pretty good wear (well, I think so anyway!)

The funny thing is, that when I bought Ethereal, I was actually looking for Rimmel's White Orchid, which my Mum had recently purchased and I'd loved. However, Rimmel don't seem to sell it anymore - or atleast, I haven't been able to find it in any shops.

Has anyone else noticed that a lot of shops appear to have been selling Rimmel off cheap, and the "normal" 60 Seconds and Lycra collections appear to have shrunk and been replaced with their Kate Moss collection. Don't get me wrong, the Kate Moss collection is really pretty and company's need to move forward, but it just seems sad that other beautiful shades get pushed out. but, hey ho!

You might also notice that I still have fairly long nails - go me - I have been a Non-Nail Biter for roughly a year and a half now. Although, I think think is probably the best they've looked in those eighteen months, with all but one nail (my pinkie finger) being relatively long. I say long, I have never gotten used to having long nails, and I'm preferring to keep them relatively short. This is of course getting difficult since my thumb nails appear to grow at the speed of light, so I seem to be trimming them quite regularly, whilst waiting for the other nails to (very slowly) catch up!!

I mean, seriously, look at that thumb nail....

Anywho, I hope that everyone is keeping well and enjoying the beautiful weather. What colours are your nails sporting this Spring?

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NOTD: Metallic Green Grass

This is a Nail of the Day that I have been meaning to share for absolutely months, but am only just getting around to actually posting it - bad Kitty, I know!

Although this look probably classes as "nail art", this has got to be the easiest method of making your nails look fantastic, and it is of course using the popular magnetic nail polishes from Barry M:

It's crazy how effective this look is, especially when you realise how easy it is to apply, without any mess or hassle that comes with nail stamping or nail art pens.

I was introduced to this polish, and the blue one by fellow blogger B who I met last November during my trip to Edinburgh. Since then, I have introduced it to both my Mum and my sister-in-law. As a domino effect, my mum also introduced it to her work colleague who introduced it to several members of her family. My mum also bought a bottle of it for my cousin...so yes, it's fair to say that these magnetic polishes have gone down an absolute treat over the past couple of months!

What I used:

You'll probably notice that the pattern on my nail doesn't exactly match the pattern on the cap. This is because I don't like the pattern that came on this cap, so I swapped it around with another one. There are several different patterns, and I've seen no harm in swapping them around. I'm a fan of the striped effect as seen above, as well as the chevrons.

How it Works:

Basically, all you do is apply a coat of polish as you normally would and allow it to dry. Personally, I like to do two coats but you don't have to - it's completely up to you.

Next, apply another coat of polish, but don't let it dry.

Instead, using the magnet that you'll find on top of the cap that came with your polish, hover over your nail. You'll see that there is a raised bit at the side of the magnet, this rests on your skin, helping to prevent you accidentally touching the nail with the magnet. But, as you can see...what isn't always so easy....

I am always getting polish on the magnet!

The bottle recommends something like 5 seconds, but I like to leave the magnet hovering for longer, because I find that the pattern is more defined, and I personally prefer that, but it's up to you and of course perhaps even a little trial-and-error.

If you haven't had chance to try out Barry M's magnetic polishes, I strongly recommend that you give them a go.

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NOTD: Dark Skies

What's this? A blog post? I know, it's been a while and I have so many Nail Polishes that I have to share that it would be rude not to start 2013 with one - even if it is 22 days late!!!

This Nail Polish is from the 17 range at Boots, and is part of their Fast Finish Collection that has claims of "Single coat high shine colour in 60 seconds"*. I'm not really sure how accurate that quite bold statement is because I certainly wouldn't wear this polish after only one coat - well, unless it was a very thick coat of polish.

17 Fast Finish in Navy Glint

The polish is called Navy Glint, and I can definitely tell why. It is a very dark midnight blue shade with a lot of tiny glitter particles that aren't in-your-face or over-the-top, but add a little sparkle to the colour, or the "glint" that the name implies.

As you can imagine, it's really difficult to get an exact match of the colour of this polish, but this last photo (my first attempt at Instagram, since I appear to have lost the cable to my camera, so had to use my phone instead!!) is probably the closest.

It is a very dark shade, that I can imagine a few people not being keen on, but I'm a huge fan of navy blue nail polish so combining it with a little sparkle is pretty fab in my books.

I picked this up from my local Boots store, and it was around £2.99. I'd include a direct link to the product that I bought, but as of writing this the Boots website appears to be having issues and keeps giving me a "Generic Error" message, but I'm sure it'll be easy enough to find :)

What do you think? A fab sultry colour for winter, or a bit too dark?

*Taken from the bottle

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NOTD: Shimmers and Shines

I've been meaning to do a Nail of the Day for absolutely ages, but every time that I think about it, my nails always seem to be chipped or just looking rubbish. So, typically my nails weren't too great today either, but I really wanted to share this look with you because I really love it. Here ya go:

This, to me, is a really pretty, sparkly creamy kind of colour that I thought would look absolutely beautiful for a bride, bridesmaid or anything to do with a wedding. It's simple but with a little sparkly twist.

What I Used

• OPI Play The Peonies (from the Nice Stems! Mini Set)
• Barry M 338 Silver Multi Glitter

Play The Peonies

Play The Peonies is a stunning creamy colour that I can never decide exactly what shade it is. Part of me wants to say cream, whilst another off-white. Then there's something that makes it look like a white polish that I've managed to contaminate with a pink or red shade that has given it a pinkish tinge, even though I am fairly certain that I haven't.

I think that ultimately, it is a very pale pale tone, that is soft and subtle. It's the kind of shade that looks beautifully subtle on its own, but can look absolutely fantastic with a bit of sparkle of nail polish. It's just really adaptable, which I always love.

Silver Multi Glitter

I'm not going to lie. I picked this polish up from Superdrug for one reason, and one reason only: it was so darn pretty and sparkly and oooh!!

This nail polish, for me, is like a normal girls diamonds. I'm not really into diamonds and what-not, so yes, this is definitely my diamonds. It's just twinkly and sparkly and makes me think "wow". And it's funny because the name "Silver Multi" is quite confusing, because you kinda wonder how it can be both silver and multi-coloured, and yet, it really is.

The base kind of colour, that is very fine seems to be silver, and then the very fine glitter is multi-coloured...I think. It's such an amazing colour that I can't entirely tell.

Overall, I think that this is a fantastic look. However, it's not quite as pretty as another shade I tried with this Barry M glitter...but I'll save that one for another time ;)

What do you think of these sparkly nails?

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NOTD: Stars in a Blue Sky

Well, I've finally done it. I have finally moved over to the Dark Side and bought a proper, full-on glittery nail polish. And I am already (sort of ) regretting it!! People really weren't kidding when they exclaimed what a *bitch* glitter is to get off your nails, were they??

I ended up picking up this one, from Ebay for £1.95, because a few people had recommended it, as a cheap alternative to glittery polishes by more pricier brands. The brand is Technic, which I've never heard of myself, and the polish is called Carnival:

Check out all of those sparklies!!

Initially tried just applying the glitter in the same way that I would any other polish, but despite the amount of glitter in the pot, I thought it applied quite sparsely, and I wanted something a bit more dramatic about that. But, I'd actually recently been reading a couple of blog posts (from nail enthusiasts who are a million times better at this stuff, than I am), and was intrigued at the idea of applying the glitter using a standard make-up sponge. So, I popped to my local Boots and picked some up, since I don't use them to apply make-up, personally. Plus, that way I wouldn't feel bad once I (potentially) ruined them!!

Admittedly, I had a few hiccups, with the look not going right at all, but the look that I decided to share with you, I am really in two minds about. On the one hand, I think that it looks fab and sparkly. But, then comes the feeling that it looks a tad too "blingy" and over the top. But, really, I think the look is an "acquired taste".

For the main colour, I chose Rimmel's 198 Azure, which is a gorgeous metallic blue shade, because I thought it was quite similar to the blue in the glitter:

And this is how the nails turned out:

To avoid making a complete mess with the actual polish, I applied the glitter in small amounts and dabbed it carefully onto each nail, gradually building it up to get the desired effect. I do think that I maybe used a little bit too much glitter, in this case, but overall, this is the best effort so far, so I'm quite happy with it.

What do you think? 

Cha-ching, or too much bling?

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NOTD: I like to Mauve it, Mauve it

Before I begin, I just wanted to have a little ramble: Basically, I've been a little quiet in the land of Barefeet recently. It's not a case of not wanting to blog any more, and I'm certainly not disappearing on you all, my amazing followers, but I have gotten to a stage where I feel like I need to spend a little less time here, because well, I'm sure most of you understand, I'm just running low on time that I can spend working on it. So, I've decided that I'm going to cut-down how often I post, and I'm going to concentrate mainly on my Makeup in Film posts, and NOTD posts, purely because these are the posts that I enjoy doing the most, and I don't want to churn out random crappy posts just to get a post out there, because that's just wasting my time and yours too. Of course, this means that I might not be doing many product reviews, which have been a bit few and far between for a while. I might still pop up the occasional review, because I do have plenty of things in my "To Review" pile.

So ultimately, this means that I'll probably only be posting two or three times  a week, just for a little, and I hope that you all understand :)

Anyway, back to today's Nail of the Day, and I have another confession today, because the polish that features doesn't actually belong to me *ahem*, but it was one that I hijacked from my Mum whilst she was at work, last week!

I find this a really interesting colour, because here I personally think that it looks like a pinky brown shade. However, my Mum picked up a bottle of this polish in Sallys today, and it looked much more of a pink, and the images really are true to the colour that they are. So, I can only assume that this is one of those shades that always looks different, in varying lights.

But it's still a very nice shade whatever colour it really is, this is what the shade is:

Yup, of course it's OPI and it is their Mauving to Manitoba. After looking at the title of the shade, I decided to look up what colour "mauve" actually is, and various websites stated different things, from purple to pink, and the Lena White website describes it as a "purple-rose", but gosh, I never once looked at it and thought of a purple shade. Hmm, kind of interesting!!

What do you think of this colour?

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NOTD: Mother's Day Special

Some of you might have noticed that I didn't do a NOTD on Friday. The lack of post was for other reasons, but the lack of a NOTD, more specifically, was because I was saving it for today, which I hope that everyone has remembered is Mother's Day. Basically, this weeks NOTD features my Mum (noting that she doesn't know that I'm posting this) and her current love for OPI, which, like me she loves because the polishes apply so nicely.

But anyway, here is a look that she wore for a Night Out just before Christmas and that she really loved, and I know that she still does:

As you can tell, I don't get my nail biting from my Mum, who has much nicer and longer nails than me (although I'm getting there!!). This look is actually two nail polishes, with the "colour" of the look coming from the very first OPI nail polish that my Mum purchased on the P&O Ferry between Hull and Amsterdam:

When the description for Diva from Geneva says that it is a "vibrant" shade, it really isn't kidding, because it's such a gorgeous, creamy dark pink that looks fantastic worn alone, be even better jazzed up with a glittery top coat, especially for special occasions. In this case, the glittery top coat comes in the form of a polish from her OPI Muppets Mini Collection, which I have reviewed previously and that you can read here.

I absolutely love this image of OPI's Excuse Moi purely because it beautifully picks up all of the different colours of the glitter: the pinks, the greens, the oranges, the whites, the silvers, the blues. And it looks so pretty and sparkly, and everyone loves sparkles, right?

QUICK MUMMY TIP: One thing that my Mum has said several times, about using a glittery polish, is about how useful they are when you chip the main colour, and don't want to apply another coat. Instead, she likes to just apply Excuse Moi and it "hides" the problem perfectly.

So there you go, that is my Mum's Nail of the Day. Needless to say, I did get her an OPI nail polish for Mother's Day, but I'll share that with you, when she's actually had the opportunity to test it for herself (although, FYI, the colour is gorgeous, and I wish I'd bought another bottle for myself!! Not that I pre-tested it or anything ;P)

And on a final note, my cat of 18 years and 10 months Patch has always been one of those cats that likes to know what's going on, and when he caught me taking photos the other day, for the purpose of this post, he of course had to come and join me. And it really is incredible how fast those wobbly, old legs will move when he thinks that he's missing something!! So, here is a little message from our cat Patch:

What do you think of my Mum's nails? 

How are you treating your Mum this Mother's Day :)

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NOTD: Pompously Purple

To coincide with the return of the more miserable weather, which since initially writing seems to have again been replaced by beautiful sunshine,  I appear to have headed back towards a more wintry shade for this weeks Nail of the Day (I really should rename this Nail of the Week, shouldn't I??). However, I wanted to share this specific colour, because it's a shade that I've been pining over for absolutely ages, after seeing it reviewed on so many different blogs. However, I've only recently got round to grabbing it, when Tesco had a 2 for 3 offer on the entire Rimmel range.

So, here it is, for your viewing delights...

Although the photography kind of dulls the colour a little, Rimmel's Pompous is a shimmery purple shade that reminds me a great deal of the wrapper of Cadbury's Dairy Milk, which I've always felt was an incredibly beautiful shade of purple.

The thing that I really love about this shade, is how un-Rimmel it is. I, personally, have never owned a Rimmel nail polish that has shimmer. The ones I've bought are always plain colour, which I love, but sometimes it's nice to add a little shimmer to my life too!!

Indeed, the shade is so un-Rimmel in so many ways, that when I showed my nails to my Mum, she's expected me to tell her that the polish was by OPI, not only because we both appear to have become OPI Addicts recently, but because it just looks like the type of shade that OPI would sell. It's definitely not a shade we would associate with Rimmel.

But, I think that's pretty awesome, that you can find a shade that someone would think was a more expensive brand, when really you've paid roughly a third of the price for. And I also didn't have to trawl across the country to find somewhere decent that sold it.

What do you think of this Pompously Purple shade from Rimmel?

Do you know of any other Rimmel polishes that have a shimmer? 

Am I just blind, or am I picking the wrong shades?

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NOTD: Cool Breeze

Ahh, the sun is shining, the sky is blue and the smell of Spring is in the air. The problem being that this may be the case at the point of writing this blog post, but since I'm writing it in advance, it may not be the case when it actually goes live. So, if it is piddling down with rain, feel free to revel in your revenge, with the knowledge that I have probably gone to trawl the streets of Lincoln, in the most un-rain-friendly coat invented by man (and you know it was a man, because water always marks the bloody thing. No woman would have allowed that!!)

But, anyway, with the smell of Spring in the air, as I write this, I decided that it was time to whip out some Spring-inspired nails. I wanted to use a colour that represented a part of Spring, and since I'm not really up on wearing yellow (even though I own two yellow shades!!), and I didn't really fancy green, I settled on an absolutely gorgeous pale blue, from Rimmel. After spending so long cooing over the more expensive ranges of OPI and China Glaze, it really is night to delve back into the more reasonably priced range of Rimmel, who will probably always be my favourite range, in terms of colour (although OPI is vastly gaining speed!)

So, this is how they look:

As you can probably see from the picture, I used Rimmel's Aqua Cool Polish for this look. And, unfortunately, it appears to be one of those colours that just doesn't do itself justice on camera, even with natural lighting.

The images make it look like a pale blue, but in reality it's a little bit darker and has a more Lavendar kind of colouring to it than blue, in my opinion. But, I wouldn't say that it is Lavender in colour, it is definitely a blue shade, but there's just something else there that makes it a bit of both. God, I hope that makes sense, because I do think that it's a difficult colour to describe. In that sense, it reminds me of another Rimmel polish, which I "think" was called Blue Me Away, which is a product that I reviewed almost two years ago.

Blue Me Away, was just like this polish in that it advertised itself, in name especially, on being a blue polish, however, there was always something more dark purple about it. I remember when I bought it, I bought it for the main purpose of matching a dark purple top, and all the way home, I was convinced that it wouldn't match, because the top was purple and the polish was "officially" blue. But, I am so glad that I stuck to my instincts, because the purple tones in that blue polish, that yes, most definitely was still a blue polish, worked so incredibly well with my top. I'm thinking that that post might be worth revisiting. I might have to re-purchase the polish (as if that would be a problem) and show it to you against that top, which I do still own.

But, feel free to check out the original review from years gone by, just in case I can't find the polish ARGH!

Going back to the actual product in question, I just want to add that this polish has amazing application. When I was applying it, I noticed that it was starting to look streaky, but by the time I'd finished my hand, I went back to look again, and they didn't any more. It was like it had magically smoothed out.

Anyway, what do you think to this polish? 

Perfect for Spring?

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NOTD: Pink Kitty

It's been a really long time since I got out my Konad Nail Art Stamps, and now that my nails are getting a little bit longer (when I'm not filing them into oblivion, because I still cannot get the hang of this filing lark! Seriously, someone come and file my nails for me. I'll pay you in chocolate!!). So, this Nail of the Day is dedicated to that slightly forgotten art form that is Konad.

I actually tried something very different this time, and used a full nail stamp. I've never used a full nail one before, because I've never had the nails to warrant it and didn't really see the point. But, I fancied something different and here is how they turned out!

I really need to stop using that pink polish don't I? But honestly, that polish alone was worth the price I paid for the whole set. It's just such a vivid colour that really sparkles, on it's own and I love it....if you hadn't already guessed!

I initially started out doing the tiger print stamp, using Konad's Black Special Polish, however, I had two problems using the Black:

1. It didn't stamp very well, at all. As in, most of the polish remained on the stamp, which was a bit rubbish.
2. What did stamp onto the nail didn't show up very well.

So, I changed over to the white polish instead, and I love the overall look that I (eventually) got from this stamp/colour combination.

As you can imagine, it was a right pain in the bum, to photograph the Image Plate, so say hello to my Camera, and the reflection of the window. Unfortunately, there was nothing I could do about that, but it's still annoying none-the-less. Maybe one day, I'll learn how to do it without getting reflections. Like, how do retailers take photos of mirrors for sale, without the camera in the image? Interesting, thought!

Anyway, the image plate that I used was M57, and I used the spots image in the top left of the plate.

The polish was, yet again, OPI's Be a Dahlia Won't You? which featured in my Mirror Mirror Pink Delight NOTD look a few weeks ago. The image above, of the polish, is a much better representation of the colour, than the picture I used in my previous post. Probably because this time I used natural lighting!

Whilst I do really love this look, it wasn't the easiest one to do, and I don't think I have the patience to do it again, personally.

Anyone who is familiar with Konad, will probably know that sometimes, it is just a pain trying to get it right. Either I wasn't scraping the polish off the plate fast enough, or I stamped it in the wrong place on my nail, or I was just getting polish all over my hands!! And god, I wish I'd taken a photo of how messy my hands were by the end of doing this look, not only on the palms of my hands, but also all over the fingers.

Basically, I think that the problem with doing a full nail stamp, is that the image is never going to be the perfect size for all of your nails. And in my case, it was the perfect size for absolutely none of them! For my finger nails, the stamp was just too broad, and I ended up stamping just as much onto my skin, as I got onto my nails. On the first image, at the top, on the left, you can see that there is still some white print remaining on my pinky finger! 

In the end, I can just about get around them being too wide, because I can at least remove the excess polish from my fingers.

But, the thumb nails are the complete opposite, in that they just weren't broad enough for me and hence I ended up with nails that only looked half done, hence why there are no images of my thumb for this one! I know some people would just say to do another stamp in the space, but I don't know about anyone else, I just cannot line up stamps to do that. So, I didn't bother.

If you haven't yet had chance to try out Konad, and are interested, but don't know where to start, I actually wrote an FYI post regarding Konad, last June that you might find useful. It offers help and tips for which products to buy etc. 

What do you think of this look?

Are you a fan of tiger and leopard prints?

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NOTD: Ruby Reds

Just a really quick post today, to show you how I've been wearing my nails for most of this week. The main colour in this look, is actually a polish that I've been craving since before Christmas, and I spotted it in a Blog Sale recently, so obviously I quickly grabbed it. It's also a polish from a company that I've never tried before, so I was pretty excited to try it out. I started the week by only wearing the main colour, by itself, however my Mum thought that perhaps it would look nicer with a bit of glitter over the top, so I decided to give it a shot.

Anyway, this is what they're looking like today:

The red is a very shimmery red, that wasn't quite the kind of red that I'd been expecting, but it's a really weird shade, because under different lighting it look different shades. Sometimes it looks like a very dark red, whilst outside it is of course a much bright red.

In the images you can definitely see that this is a very shimmery polish, which you obviously can't tell on my nails, because of the glitter over the top, but it really is a pretty colour. It'd probably a bit better suited to the Christmas period, but heh who cares right ;)

The top coat was the exact same one that I used a couple of weeks ago, in my Mirror Mirror Pink Delight NOTD, but here is a better image of that polish, because the one on my previous post wasn't that good quality:

As I said last time, this is more like chunks of foil that glitter, and the chunks are definitely larger and more random in size than other glitter-based polishes that I've tried.

Overall, I don't think that I like this NOTD as much as I liked the Mirror Mirror Pink Delight look. And that seems really weird for me, because I'm a much bigger than of red polishes than I am of bright pinks, which I don't normally favour.

What do you think of this weeks look?

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NOTD: Mirror Mirror Pink Delight

You might recall, a few weeks ago, I posted about Lena White's OPI Sale. And well, me being me, couldn't resist ordering myself a couple of bits and bobs for myself and others. One of the products that I picked up in the sale was their Nice Stems Mini Collection, for the bargain price of £5.50, and after having a little play around, I created this Nail of the Day, which I really, really love.

I took advantage of the snowy weather today, to take some photographs of my nails, in natural light against a snowy background and wearing my awesome gloves (okay, so the only person that thinks that they're awesome is probably me, but I love them so much!!)

It's not that I dislike pink per se, but I tend to find that it doesn't really suit me or doesn't look right. I have a bright pink, similar to this, by Rimmel that I just cannot get myself to like. And yet, I absolutely love this look more than words can express, and I've found myself looking at my nails....a lot! Sad, maybe.

What I used:

I used two polishes from the Nice Stems mini collection:

The photo for Be a Dahlia Won't You is absolutely awful, and definitely doesn't represent the true colour of the polish, which is really annoying. However, I genuinely think that the photos of the polish, on my nails is an excellent and true representation of the pink, so that's something :)

Be a Dahlia Won't You is an absolutely stunning rich pink (or Fuchsia!) colour, which a lovely shimmery effect. It looks gorgeous on it's own, and is definitely a "wow" kinda colour. It still amazes me how much I love this pink. It really is not my usual taste.

I Lily Love You is a pink glittery shade, very similar to Excuse Moi, from the Muppets Collection which I reviewed a few weeks ago. However, you might remember that on it's own, I didn't really feel that Excuse Moi looked that great, personally, but I Lily Love You is a really pretty colour alone, or as a top coat. What I love most about this polish is the fact that it's not quite like other glitter-based polishes. The sparkle comes in bigger sizes, that come across as foil. I don't know if it is foil, but the boyfriend described them as looking like mirrors, or a stain-glass window. The only problem with the larger glitters, is shown in the pictures of my nails, where you can see that the foil sometimes looks like tiny strips of sellotape that aren't stuck on properly, but I can assure you that they are.

Despite loving the two polishes together, I did feel that the glittery bits dulled the base polish a little, so I perked it up a bit with a basic clear top coat that gave the polish it shine back.

I picked these up in the Lena White sale last month, however, I checked and Collection is still available, for £11 each for the full-sized 15ml bottles, or £10.80 (reduced from £12.95) for the collection which includes both of these polishes, as well as Come to Poppy and Play the Peonies.

What do you think to my pink sparklers?

Did you hit the Lena White Sale? What did you get?

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NOTD: Sparkly Surprise

I'd really love to take credit for today's Nail of the Day, because I think that it is so clever. So simple. But so, so clever. Indeed, I found this idea on Charlotte's blog Lipglossiping, and I really do think that it's fab idea, so you should all definitely go check out her post.

Basically, the idea is to take a nail polish that is boring, you don't like, or you've fallen out of love with. Of course, a non-glittery one! And then add a pigment to it, to give it a little sparkle, and jazz it up a bit. Charlotte recommends using as fine a pigment as you have in your possession.

Typically, I'm one of those girls who gets a bit "chicken" about experimenting with mixing products together, because I always worry that I'll ruin them, and when I've spent money on them, I get a bit nervous about that. But, choosing a fine glitter was really easy to do, because I've had this glitter for over five years. I bought it as part of one of their 3 for £10 (or something similar) in Superdrug, and I think I've used twice, if that. But, this was the glitter that I used:

I made an absolute mess with this glitter when I was playing with it, as you can probably tell from the jar and lid. I literally had glitter all over my hands! I thought about cleaning up the jar, but I just wanted to point out that this could get messy, especially if you're anything like me!!

Choosing a polish was a little bit more difficult, because I never use the Barry M glitter dust, and I knew that there would still be plenty left, should I decide in the future that I want it, for any reason. However, when it came to choosing a polish, it had to be one that I genuinely didn't want anymore, in it's current form anyway.

I opted for an E.L.F nail polish, purely because they're cheap, and I knew that if I changed my mind, it wouldn't be breaking the bank to pick up a new one. Picking the colour wasn't quite so easy, because I love all my E.L.F polishes to a degree, but in the end I opted for this one:

Purple Pleaser is a polish that I like, but don't wear very often, and I did think that it would benefit from a little sparkle. Unfortunately, in my excitement to try this out, I forgot to take a picture of the product before I put the sparkles in, really sorry about that. Nevermind. But, you can just make out the sparkly bits in the above picture. But, in case you can't here is a close-up so you can really see:

The only issue that I had when mixing the glitter dust into the polish, was distribution. I opted for two methods: 1. Mixing it round with the brush, and 2. Shaking it like a polaroid picture (oh, now there is a song!!). Neither method seemed to distribute it to the bottom though, as you can probably tell, and most of the glitter appears to have stayed at the top, with it gradually petering out the lower down the bottle you go. But, in all honesty, I don't think that it effected the look on my nails, when I applied the polish, because they still ended up looking fab!

This is how they turned out:

The glitter has created a polish that is a little lighter in colour, and the sparkles are really pretty because they seem to shine in all different yellows and greens, which I'm really sad didn't show up in my terrible photography. This is what I get for attempting indoor photos without natural lighting, which is what I normally try to do as often as I can! But you can still see them a little bit :)

What do you think? 

Will you be trying this out?

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NOTD: Creative Nails

I've been playing around with my new Model's Own Nail Art Pens again, but this time I decided to give the white one a try, and me being me, I decided to be a little bit creative. This look is completely improvised, I haven't copied anyone else's designs, so any similarities are purely coincidental, and if it looks crap well, I'm still learning :)

What I used:

Polish and Pen

• Elf Nail Polish in Royal Purple - Despite buying this polish months ago, this is the first time that I've own it properly, other than as an initial swatch, and the colour is absolutely gorgeous, it's very vibrant and shiny and a really beautiful purple shade.
• Models Own Nail Art Pen in White - I only used the smaller nib. I haven't really managed to master the larger one just yet. I think I might be too heavy-handed for it, but I'll have another go some other time.
• No.7 Clear Top Coat - Thanks to my £5 off voucher, this only cost me £2 and is my first real experience with a No.7 polish, so whoop!

And how did they turn out?

Like this.....

Oooooh!

And you know how much I like to include the thumb, in my NOTDs, because well, the thumb always gets left out in photos ;)

Yay for Thumby :P

They're not perfect, but I really love this look, because it's simple but I think it's quite elegant and classy. It's definitely given me inspiration to try other similar patterns.

What do you think? 

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NOTD: A Dotty Delight

Models Own /
Wah Nails

I'm certain most of you know about Models Own's recent 50% Off Sale. Having never bought anything of Models Own before, I decided that I'd take a little browse, and I came across their Nail Art Pens, in conjunction with Wah Nails. But, I didn't want to spend £20 or whatever it was to get them half price, and I didn't want to pay the P&P either (yeah, I'm tight, I know!) so I scooted over to ASOS who I know offer Free (albeit very slow) Delivery.

I did come to a little bit of a problem on the ASOS website though: Did I want the Black Nail Art Pen? Or, did I want the White Nail Art Pen? It was a very tricky decision!

Solution: Buy both! So, I did.

On a quick side note, this is the first time I've ordered from ASOS in almost a year, and I definitely have to commend their brilliant delivery service tracking system, which not only told me exactly where my parcel was, it also told me what time it was going to arrive...to the hour! That is rather impressive. But, the best thing for me, was that I wasn't going to be in when it was due to arrive, but the email that they sent me to keep me updated gave me the option of re-scheduling my delivery which I really appreciated.

Personally, I thought this was a great delivery service, and I can't understand why other companies don't do something similar, to prevent us from waiting in all day for a parcel that has to be signed for.

Anywho, I had a play around with the white one first, as I was wearing a red nail polish at the time, but I made a bit of a mess of it, and in the end, decided against taking any pictures, because they really looked that bad.

So, in the end, I decided to paint my nails a metallic purple (one used is by GOSH), and I used the smaller nib to do lots of random dots.

Dotty, dotty, dotty :D

And my thumb...just because....well, because I felt like it!

I did worry that maybe I'd gone a little dotting mad, and had done a few too many, but I was actually complimented on my nails, and asked where I'd had them done, which was really nice :)

I'll do a more in-depth review of my thoughts about the Nail Art Pens later, when I've had more opportunity to test them out properly.

What do you think?

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