Sunday 31 March 2013

2True Shade no 10 Swatch

Hi Girls.

Because I have a feeling the new job may destroy my nails, I'm being good & sorting out all the weeks blog posts. So you should get a new post each day.

Even though I've already posted my challenge nails today, I couldn't wait to share this with you. After the fantastic results I got from yesterdays 2True, I hunted through my stash to see if I had any other polishes I hadn't played with. There are quite a few, but I found another 2True a friend had gotten me.








Again, I'm really impressed with this polish. It does take a few coats, but not even that puts me off. It's very slightly holographic, however the photos do not really show this, despite me taking a photo in front of the window.
Again, this polish is £1.99 in Superdrug, & at the moment, they're doing THREE FOR A FIVER! So look down the back of the sofa for spare change, & go buy yourself some NOW! Well, tomorrow, shops are obviously closed today. Bad Times!

I'm currently in the middle of swatching OPI's The Top Ten. I don't own more expensive polishes, but a lovely lady bought me this set, & so far, I'm completely in love.

I know when I first started blogging, I said that I didn't like plain manicures, so I'm really contradicting myself during the next week, as some will be plain, but these polishes are so beautiful they don't need anything fancy to make them stand out.

Check out the first swatch tomorrow.


Challenge 14 - Easter Nails!

Hi, Girls!

Happy Easter! I'm not a big fan of this holiday. I'm not particularly religious, & didn't receive Easter eggs as a kid, so to me, it's just a long weekend.

I wanted to be original, but other than a Zombie Jesus, which may have offended people, I was stuck. I decided to go for something safe, albeit a little boring.

This turned out amazing in my head, & it may have been. However, Dave is showing Top Gear Specials today, so I did my nails sat on the sofa, whilst watching Clarkson, Hammond & May being idiots. Nothing makes me LOL more than those guys.

Still, I managed something:







My accent nail went wrong, purely because it looked like the boys were going to fall off a cliff trying to get to the Pacific ocean, so my eyes were mainly on that instead of the nail. Plus, I really couldn't be bothered to get up & get a nail brush, instead I used a dotting tool haha. It is meant to me chick legs coming out of the egg first! Meh, thought was there.

I'm going to do something else now, not sure what, & it will be something simple as I think Dave is showing the specials all day.

Perfect Sunday!

I hope you all have a fantastic weekend, & if you did get chocolate, eat it all up & appreciate it!.

Saturday 30 March 2013

2 (good to be) True

Hi girls.

So, as I mentioned, I've got a new job! My nails needed a complete revamp, they were far too long to be able to get through manual work. Now the're short & pretty.

I've decided to use one of my untried polishes today. 2True's Shade no 48. I forgot I even owned this one, a friend passed it onto me not so long ago.

After yesterdays sad swatches, I didn't have my hopes up, this looks gorgeous, but wasn't expecting much:


You can't tell from the photo, but it's very shimmery & a little bit sexy. I put one coat on, & you could barely see anything. Three coats later:




Eeep, it's BEAUTIFUL! I can't put into words how in love I am. 2True is available in Superdrug for only £1,99! That's right, BARGAIN! Move your fingers slightly, & the light picks up tiny bits of glitter. I cannot praise this polish enough. It applied like a dream, dried ridiculously quickly, yet was super easy to clean up.

As I said before, I'm not a fan of plain manicures, so I had to jazz it up even more. I used cheeky plate CH5 & Sally Hansens Lavender cloud.




I still need a bit of practice with the stamper, but I'm pleased with the finish.

Turns out, a happy Kay makes for happy nails! I've had amazing support about the new job, I really have some amazing friends & family. I've pretty much been smiling all day, & a few specific people in particular contributed, they know who they are. :D

Now, I just have to decide what to do for tomorrows weekly challenge. Exciting!

Friday 29 March 2013

Sinful Swatching.

Hi Girls.

I have no nail art today, but I do have a couple of swatches.

A friend of mine bought a few Sinful Colors (Colour*) from Boots, but didn't like them so she passed on to me. I believe they are £1.99 in Boots, so cheap & cheerful. I'm never one to turn down free polish, so I said yes, maybe before she even finished her sentence!

I thought I'd share my own opinion of two of the shades I was given.

First of all, we have Nail Junkie:








(Please excuse blurring of photos, the only place in the flat with decent lighting is the kitchen, & it's bloody cold in there!!)

I was ridiculously excited about this one. Whilst I DESPISE removing glitter polish this look awesome. Sadly, this took FIVE coats, just to get the opacity I wanted. It's ridiculously watery, & I ended up having drops fall on my hand, despite trying to wipe off all the excess so I could only do thin coats. Still, despite ending up a bit too thick, it was so pretty & the glitter really caught the light.
I think in this case, you really do get what you pay for. And yes, it was a BITCH to remove!

Secondly, we have You Just Wait:







If I thought the last one was ridiculously hard to get opaque, this one was a surprise! Again it's watery, & this took SIX coats, plus Sally Hansens Lavender Cloud as a base! I was expecting pretty shimmer. Something pretty. Instead, I got this. Don't get me wrong, if you angle it at the sun just right, it has a slight shimmer, other wise it's just underwhelming. Despite thin coats, it still ends up ridiculously thick.

Basically, I would buy the first one at the price of £1,99, but this one just didn't cut it. It was horrible to apply, took forever to dry, & looks boring. 

I have a couple of untried polishes I want to do swatches of. It will be nice to know exactly what they look like on the nail, so it's easier to decide when doing something arty.

Thursday 28 March 2013

Guess what!

This isn't a Nail post, sorry.

I went for a job interview today.

I got the job.

Eeeep! So excited. I just wanted to share it all with you. <3

Also, I have new hair!



Excuse the miserable expression. It was about 6in the morning, & I was shitting myself over my interview ha

I'll try & do a post tomorrow xxx

Monday 25 March 2013

Challenge 13 - Inspired by Spring!

SPRING IS HERE!!

... Well, that's the rumour. Looking outside my window this weekend you wouldn't have thought so. I had plans of daisies & bees & all the happy spring things, but it's been snowing!

Therefore, my inspired by Spring nails may look a little odd.








I went a bit crazy with the clean up. My fingers look like old ladies fingers as I fell asleep in the bath. I've just started watching The Tudors, so whilst I was cleaning with acetone, I may have got a bit sidetracked.

I really do think these look better in real life. I need to sort out my home made light box again so I can make the most of my camera. The Seche Vite makes my nails ridiculously shiny. (Also, it smells gorgeous! I can't be the only one in love with the smell?!)


Sunday 24 March 2013

Challenge 12 - Violet Nails.

Hi Girls,

I've sucked this week, sorry for lack of posts. Have you ever had one of those days/weeks where you've just wanted to hide away from the world? That was me this week. There is no real reason for it. My Nan is home from hospital, My Brother is okay. I'm not sure if everything just hit me all at once, but I've hidden away in the bedroom for the majority of the last week. I do my nails in a special area in the living, 'cause I'm special, don't ya know ;-) This meant no manicures whilst hiding.

However, I'm back.

Last weeks challenge was Violet nails. I have not done violet nails. I don't own a violet polish, so I've gone with Purple. I must warn you, this is a rushed job. I wasn't too fussed for this challenge, & I have ideas for the week 13 challenge, so just wanted to go this one done, so I didn't 'Fail.' 





So, not particularly great, but it got this weeks out the way. I think the reason I screwed up the stamping was because it was a bit of a half-arsed manicure. My mind wasn't really in it. Also, where I haven't done anything with my nails this past week, including moisturising, they've really suffered. I've dolloped on an extra lot of moisturiser, & shall make myself carry on from now on. No slacking.

I should be posting something new tomorrow. Maybe. We'll say how I feel tomorrow. :P

Sunday 17 March 2013

New toys make for better Manicures!

Hi Girls!

As I've mentioned previously I did an Amazon wish list after a friend suggested it. My oldest cat has diabetes, & where I'm struggling to find work, we were having a rough time feeding the cats. I put so many cat things on, but as I didn't expect anyone to really pay attention to it, & instead I was using it as more of a list of things I wanted/needed to buy when I had cash, I put pretties on it.

This manicure today is brought to you by some very generous people.













The O.P.I is Austin-Tatious Turquoise. It's gorgeous! I've never owned an O.P.I before. It took a couple of coats, but it was worth it! I used Cheeky CH8 for the accent finger, using Barry Ms Gold foil, incidentally this is the only thing I used in the manicure that I already owned. I then used Seche Vite topcoat. I'm not sure how I managed without this. It's amazing!

Finally, an amazing friend of mine bought me a camera! She gave me a link to add to my wishlist & bought it. I still cannot believe it. It's amazing. I'm still trying to think up a name for it. This means better quality photos! This is my first time using it, & I'm obviously still learning, so the photos will improve, but considering this is what it can do when I have NO idea what I'm doing I can't wait to see what I manage to come up with.
So a MASSIVE shout out to my friend (she knows who she is) I love you big time you sexy thang!

So as you can see, we have been more than spoiled. There are some AMAZING people in the world, & I'd like to do inappropriate things to every single one of them.

Friday 15 March 2013

Cheeky Stamping Plates Review

Hi Girls!

One of the things I received off the wish list was a set of Cheeky Stamping Plates. I've used Konad plates before, but they all had tiny images on. There are 26 plates in a small box, which is pretty cute, & were each protected by cellophane. There were quite a few full nail designs, which I couldn't wait to get stuck into.

I have to confess straight away, I'm not great at stamping. By the time I'd gotten to my middle finger, I'd got the hand of it. My thumb & forefinger leave little to be desired, but I stress this is not the product at fault, S'all me! Thankfully, I'm not reviewing myself.

 As you can see, I did start with a different design to begin with, & didn't do it right, instead of starting again, I wanted to see what it looked like with the squiggles on top. I got my answer, it doesn't look great.

 Yes, I am messy.
There is more than enough design for the nail. I'm just still learning how to get the hang of it. So if you're a stamper beginner, then you can see how easy it is to do. I little bit of patience 7 practice & I think this could be beautiful.

I'd even go as far to say I much prefer these plates to my Konad ones. I find it much easier to transfer the design from the plate to the stamper.

If you have a tenner to spare, I would definitely recommend getting this set. I wish my set had who send them to me from my wish list, as I'd love to say Thankyou.

Thursday 14 March 2013

Challenge 11 - Glitter Nails.

"I'm like a shooting star, leaping through the sky..."

Hi, Girls!

Sorry for being AWOL. I've had a bad week. My Grandmother is in hospital, & my Brother had a car crash yesterday. The Good news is, someone is watching over us! It's strange, when my Nan went in hospital, I went outside for some me-time and 'spoke' to my Grandpop. He died when I was five, but I was very close to him. I asked if he could watch over all my family & make sure everyone is safe. I'm not a believer in God as such, but I really do believe that he may have helped. 

In other good news, I had a ridiculous amount of things arrive from my Amazon wishlist. Seriously, a ridiculous amount. Our cats are good for food for months.

Because of this, I wanted to do a shooting star manicure to go along with this weeks challenge. They're lucky, & you make a wish on them. Seemed perfect for this week. 





I've said it before, & I'll say it again. Sally Hanson polishes are a bitch to tidy up. Major staining. I've acetoned & I've had a bath, & this was the best I could do clean up up wise.

I'm using a very shoddy camera right now, & this manicure looks so much better in person. All fingers were supposed to be the gradient, but I buggered up the shooting star on the accent nail, & I couldn't be bothered to re-do the gradient. I don't think it looks too out of place. I ended up using a star gem I got in a kit from Poundland. I thought it would make it look very tacky, but I don't think it looks too bad.

I also got a few presents from people to help with Nail Art. I am getting a new camera from a lovely person, so I can't wait for you to get some decent photos.

Love to you all.

"Like a shooting star, across the midnight sky, wherever you are you're going to see me fly."