Born Pretty Store Nail Polish Review Part 1

Hello everyone!

Today I have part one of a review of some Born pretty store products for you all. Before I start I must say that these products were provided to me by Born Pretty store for my honest opinion, and with that said on to the post! :)

The first product I chose to review can be found here - http://www.bornprettystore.com/gold-color-glitter-nail-polish-nail-p-1313.html

I chose this polish because I absolutely love all things glitter and it looks very beautiful and like a few indie polishes I've had my eye on recently, so here's some swatches...

Unfortunately this polish doesn't have a name, it is listed on Born Pretty Store as "Gold Color Glitter Nail Polish Nail Art -80" I wish it had a proper name as it really is beautiful. As you can see from the above picture this polish contains small gold glitters and larger turquoise, red/orange and gold glitters in a clear base.

For these swatches I layered one thick coat of the polish over one layer of Revlon Lunar, to show all the colours of the glitters. I'm really glad I chose to layer this polish over black, it reminds me of Christmas tree lights and I honestly really love it! The application of this polish was also good, it was a great consistency to work with and one coat applied plenty of the glitter to my nail. I didn't need to dab glitter anywhere it applied very smoothly and evenly.

 

I would reccomend this polish to anyone who loves glitter, it is absolutely gorgeous and can be layered over ,many different colours to create different effects, or built up to be worn on its own.I can't wait to wear this polish again, it's perfect for Christmas but I can also see this looking nice over brighter colours when summer rolls around again.

Thanks for reading :)

Lazy Days of Summer Challenge - Pool Party

Hello everyone!

I'm back to regular posting now and I've really fallen behind with my challenge posts so I'll be posting a lot of these over the next week :) There's even talks of an Autumn challenge happening soon so I better get my skates on and finish this one :P

Today's theme was Pool Party. I found this difficult as I've done a few mani's based around pools and water and things so I really struggled. When I heard pool party though, my first thought was what water looks like when sun hits it, it's all sparkly and bright but also calm and serene, so that's where my inspiration came from...

I decided to keep it pretty simple and go for a water inspired base colour and to create the sparkliness of water reflecting light with glitter.

For these nails I used two coats of Jesse's Girl Mermaids Lagoon for the base, This colour has such a lovely shimmer running through it in the bottle but it barely translates on the nail :( apart from that, the application and colour are perfect! I then layered one thick coat of OPI Last Friday Night over the top.

I really love these two polishes together and they do remind me of water :P I really want to layer Last Friday Night over so many colours as I've only used it over blues, I think it would look beautiful over white, or even in a jelly sandwich! :P

Thanks for reading :)

Birthday Night Out

Hello everyone!

Todays post is focusing on my nails and outfit from my Birthday night out on Saturday! So my theme was pink and sparkly so I tried out loads of idea for my nails, I eventually settled on these...

 I decided to do a sponged graident going from light to dark pink. Please ignore the stupid chipping on my middle finger, clearly my nails don't enjoy clubbing :P

For these nails I used three coats of Color Club Blushing Rose as the base, I then sponged the tip of my nail using Models Own Pink Blush. I was very impressed with how the gradient turned out and I didn;t want to cover it with chunky glitter. So I used one thick coat of China Glaze Fairy Dust, to give just the right amount of sparkle :)

My nails colour coordinated with my outfit and shoes and everything quite well. Here's what I wore on the night...

Super sparkly!! My aim was to look a bit Barbie like... I think I succeeded :P Overall I had a really good night and everyone enjoyed themselves. I got a lot of compliments on my nails in the toilets as well funnily enough :P

Thanks for reading :)

Birthday Nails Part 2

Hello everyone :)
Just a quick update post today for my birthday nails, I added something to my pink and sparkly nails I posted yesterday. If it's possible I think I've fallen in love with them even more! :P Here's what I added...

I added two coats of Revlon Lunar to create the cloud shapes and then topped off with one thick coat of China Glaze Fairy Dust to add even more sparkle to these nails :)

I really do love these. I thought of adding one of my Hello Kitty water decals on my ring finger as an accent but thought it might look too cluttered. I'll probably add one tomorrow before I do a polish change, so keep an eye out for that :)

Let me know what you think of these nails compared to yesterdays in the comments.

Thanks for reading :)

Pink & Sparkly!

Hello everyone!

It's my 20th birthday next tuesday (August 7th) and me and my friends are going out to celebrate. The theme for my night out is pink and sparkly so obviously I've been thinking about what to do with my nails :P 

So over the next week I will be sharing my experiments with you all :)

Today I have a simple pink and sparkly look that I actually have fallen in love with, however, I'd  like to include more nail art for my birthday mani! Here's what I did..

For these nails I used two coats of Color Club Foil Me Once. I could have gotten away with one coat of this polish but I did two out of habit :P It's such a beautiful light pink foil and it applies beautifully, would you believe this is the first time I've worn this! I then added two thick coats of Models Own Pink Fizz over the top. These polishes compliment each other beautifully, they blend and look like it's one polish rather than two separate ones, it's so gorgeous to look at! :)

I really love how these nails turned out! They're so sparkly and cute. My friends all told me that they're very "me" :P But I want my birthday nails to represent me a bit more, I'd like to add more nail art of things that I love and stuff. This week will be very interesting seeing what i come up with :)

Please leave any suggestions or ideas in the comments to help me! :D

Thanks for reading,

KKCenterHK Water Decal Review

Hello everyone :)

Today I have another review for KKCenterHK nail art water decals. This time when I was contacted by the company I choose some super cute water decals with cats on! Here's the link to them: http://www.kkcenterhk.com/p5209/N.NAIL-Water-Decals-Nail-Art-WDBLE927/product_info.html

I decided to use them with a complimentary colour that matched the decals...

 For these nails I used one coat of OPI Pink Flamenco as the base colour. This pink is super bright and such a beautiful colour for summer, and with it only taking one coat what's not to love about it? :P I then used one coat of OPI I Lily Love You over the top. This glitter/flakie polish was what started my polish obsession, it was my first OPI polish and I instantly fell in love :)

The water decals are so simple and easy to apply to the nail. The decals come in one sheet, the sheet contains twenty decals and they are priced at $2.82, which obviously is a great price. I cut out the decal I wanted to use from the sheet and removed the plastic from the top, I then run some water over the decal for a few seconds. This allows the decal to slide away from the backing and then I place it onto my nail in the required position and seal with topcoat. the whole process takes about thirty seconds. These decals are great to spice up a regular mani or just to use if you want something quick and easy.

KKCenterHK offer a wide variety of nail art products as well as fake eyelashes and other stuff, check out their website, it's amazing! Also, don't forget about the 10% off discount code if you order, just enter: charlottes-nails at the checkout :)

Thanks for reading,

Nail Mail

Hello everyone :)
Just a quick post today on all the nail mail I've received in the past week and a half :P There's rather a lot, I didn't think there was that much when I sorted through it all in my head but when I got them all together to photograph.. well that's another story :P Some of these polishes you'll have seen before in my Secret Valentine post but I thought I'd still include them to give you a better look at them :) Most of these polishes were from swaps with ladies who wanted bottles of Max Factor Fantasy Fire and other Barry M and Models Own polishes.

Top row, lefgt to right - Technic holographic polish, H&M Berry Love, Essence Twins: Bella & Edward, Gabriella & Troy, Romeo & Julia and Chuck & Blair

Middle row, left to right - Max Factor Fantasy Fire, China Glaze: Tickle My Triangle, Octa Gone Wild & Fireside Glow, Sinful Colors Hottie, Wet N Wild: Lady Luck & Hallucinate, Sally Hansen: Caribbean Coral, Pink Boa & Going Green, NOPI Yellow, It's Me.

Bottom row, left to right - Julep Diane, Funky Fingers Diva, Kleancolor: Starry Purple & Aurora, Sally Hansen: Gray By Gray & Iced Coffee, OPI: Mad As A Hatter & Russian Navy Matte.

Pheww.. I'm tired after listing all that polish :P And I have more on the way :P I definitely have a problem :P
But just look at how beautiful all my new beauty's are :P I have fallen in love with Mad As A Hatter even more now that I own it :D What are you favourite ways to wear glitter polish? I want to use Mad As A Hatter in a really creative mani somehow :P
Thanks for reading :)
Charlotte xxx

Five Friday Favorites And 100 Followers!!

Hello everyone :)
it;s time again for another Five Friday Favorites :) I really love being able to share some of my favorites mani's with all my lovely followers :) I hope you all enjoy this feature too, let me know in the comments with anything else you want to add :P
Anyway onto the nails...

1. These Aztec print nails are so colourful and creative, this look will be great for summer - http://little-nails.blogspot.com/

2. This ninja nails are simple but so very cute!! - http://daily-nail.blogspot.com/

3. I love sugar skull designs so these are right up my street :) - youtube.com/pixiepolish

4. Everybody loves a holo polish! And the stamped bow is super cute :) - http://cacanails.blogspot.com/

5. I love this creative tape mani, I love how the glitter just pokes through - http://www.nailpolishwars.com/

Make sure to check out all the ladies I've linked to above, they're all so creative :)

Also, you may have noticed I've reached 100 followers today. This is an amazing achievement for me, when I started this blog I never thought people would be interested in my nails or what I had to say. So the fact there are over 100 of you following me is wonderful so thanks to all of you :) Now, I want to host another giveaway to show you how much I appreciate every single one of you but I cant think of any awesome prizes :P So if you think you know something that you would love as a prize from the UK then let me know in the comments and I'll pick some and post the giveaway later tonight :) So keep an eye out for that :P

Thanks for reading,

Charlotte xxx

Nicki Minaj Collection Swatches

Hello everyone :)
Today I have for you swatches of the recently released Nicki Minaj collection from OPI. I pre-ordered the whole collection as I loved all the promo shots of the colours and having a small obsession with Nicki Minaj obviously helped :P Anyway onto the swatches...

Here's a shot of all the bottles together, from left to right - Pink Friday, Did It On 'Em, Fly, Metallic 4 Life, Save Me and Super Bass Shatter. Now I originally thought that Did It On 'Em would be the same as Who The Shrek Are You? from the Shrek Forever After collection but it's not, Did It On 'Em is more of a yellow green than Who The Shrek Are You?. I also thought that Fly would be similar to Ogre The Top Blue from the same collection but Fly is turquoise where as Ogre The Top Blue is true bright blue.

Here's swatches of Pink Friday (Index and pinky finger) Super Bass Shatter (middle finger over Pink Friday) and Metallic 4 Life (Ring finger). Pink Friday is such a beautiful pink creme. Two coats gave me perfect coverage and it applies really well. it's a true barbie pink I felt so girly with this colour on and adding Metallic 4 Life and Super Bass Shatter give it a little more edge :) I used two coats of Metallic 4 Life and that also covered very well, it's such a beautiful combination of colour and glitter, I love it. I really didn't like shatter polishes when they first came out but the colour and shatter pattern of Super Bass Shatter really changed my mind, I can see this getting a lot of use in the summer months. 

I used two coats for both Fly and Did It On 'Em and again they applied like a dream, not streaky at all. This picture isn't very colour accurate for Did It On 'Em though, it's a little more yellow that it shows. However, Fly is a true colour representation and I am in love with this colour, I've been searching for the perfect turquoise forever and I think this might be it :)

I then applied Save Me over both Fly and Did It On 'Em. I LOVE THIS POLISH!!! It's so beautiful, it's silver glitter and holographic bar glitter in a clear base, but one coat covers very well, it's best use is probably as a layering polish as I've used it but it could also be used on it's own with a few more coats, this is beautiful! :)

So there are my swatches, let me know what you think of my first swatching post :) I actually really enjoyed showing you these polishes :)

Thanks for reading,

Charlotte xxx

Swatching Day

Sorry for the lack of posting, I've had a lot of uni work to get through this week, but now I'm back! :) My new nail wheels arrived today so I had a bit of a swatch-a-thon :P I thought I'd show you all how I've spent my day...

Here's my first nail wheel. This once contains all my blue polishes, although some of them look green in the lighting :p Blue is one of the most prominent colours in my collection of nail polish.

I don't own many yellow, orange or red polishes as I am very pale and don't think they suit me so I grouped them all together on one wheel.

Green is another one of my favorite polish colours, I really love how greens look on my nails. There is yet a green that I've not liked :)

Most of my polish collection is pink :P I love everything pink so I have this obsession with having all polishes I find that are pink.

I don't have many purples even though it is one of my favorite colours. I think I need to make a conscious decision to buy more purple polish :P

This is my second pink wheel as I forgot about my color club sets :P

My small selection of whites,blacks, silvers and greys :P

These are the glitters/topcoats that I felt didn't fit with any of the other colour schemes :P

Here's a picture to show you all my nail wheels together :) My collection is rather small compared to some other nail bloggers. However, I went from owning around 10 polishes in May last year to over 100 :P And obviously it's still growing. My Nicki Minaj collection is being delivered tomorrow and I've ordered ten new OPI's from Lena White. I'm so excited for when these arrive :)

I hope you've enjoyed looking at my small collection :) Remember to come back tomorrow for Five Friday Favorites :)
Thanks for reading :)
Charlotte xxx

OPI Rumples Wiggin' & Color Club Sugarplum Fairy

Hello everyone :)
Today I have another sparkly mani for you to feast your eyes on :P I wanted to use one of my untrieds from Color Clubs Beyond The Mistletoe set and decided on Sugarplum fairy which is a beautiful mix of light purple and holographic glitter. I decided I wanted to layer it over a similar colour and decided upon another untried OPI's Rumples Wiggin' from the Shrek Forever After collection. So here's what I came up with...

I really love how this mani changes depending on the light you see it in. In the shade it's very subtle and cute but when the light hits it the holo glitter comes out to play and even with a thin layer its really striking.

For this look I used three coats of OPI's Rumples Wiggin' which covered well and gave a great pastel purple colour without being too pale. I then layered one coat of Colour Clubs Sugarplum Fairy over the top and sealed with Seche Vite. I was very surprised with this mani as usually my nails chip after 1/2 days and have major tip wear. I've had this mani on for 3 days and only have one minor chip and barely any tip wear, colour me impressed :)

I also messed around with some bottle shots and I really liked how this one turned out, slightly blurry so you can see the holo effect. I think i'll start taking bottle pictures for my posts from now on, they look much cleaner and more professional.

Thanks for reading :)
Charlotte xxx

52 Week Challenge - Week 1

Hello everyone :)
Whilst browsing around the PAA facebook I found out about the 52 week challenge from a post by Liz Marie Rodriguez over at http://imsimply-complex.blogspot.com/. I thought it would be interesting to take part in, so here's the list for you to look at..
1. Jan. 1st - "Make it Sparkle" Mani
2. Jan. 8th - French Tip Mani
3. Jan. 15th - Color Block Mani
4. Jan. 22nd - Plaid Mani
5. Jan. 29th - Newspaper Mani
6. Feb. 5th - Half Moon Mani
7. Feb. 12th - Valentines Day Mani
8. Feb. 19th - Corest Mani
9. Feb. 26th - "Vintage" Mani
10. Mar. 4th - Polka Dot Mani
11. Mar. 11th - "St. Patricks Day" Mani
12. Mar. 18th - Skittle Mani
13. Mar. 25th - Ruffian mani
14. Apr. 1st - Striped Mani
15. Apr. 8th - "Easter Day" mani
16. Apr. 15th - Dotticure Mani
17. Apr. 22nd - "Earth Appreciation" Mani
18. Apr. 29th - Cartoon Mani
19. May 6th - Floral Mani
20. May 13th - Bows Mani
21. May 20th - Fruit Mani
22. May 27th - Splatter Mani
23. Jun 3rd - Ombre Mani
24. Jun 10th - Flag Mani
25. Jun 17th - Pride/Rainbow Mani
26. Jun 24th - Neon Mani
27. July 1st - "4th of July" Mani
28. July 8th - Gradient Mani
29. July 15th - "Rockstar" Mani
30. July 22nd - Water Marble Mani
31. July 29th - Crackle Mani
32. Aug. 5th - Needle Marble Mani
33. Aug. 12th - Galaxy Mani
34. Aug. 19th - "Bling" Mani
35. Aug. 26th - Cupcake Mani
36. Sept. 2nd - Tape Mani
37. Sept. 9th - "We Remember 9/11" Mani
38. Sept. 16th - Metallic/Magnetic Mani
39. Sept. 23rd - Dry Marble Mani
40. Sept. 30th - Animal Print Mani
41. Oct. 7th - Patchwork Mani
42. Oct. 14th - "Pink 4 Breast Cancer Awareness" Mani
43. Oct. 21st - Spider Web Mani
44. Oct. 28th - Halloween Mani
45. Nov. 4th - Tribal Mani
46. Nov. 11th - "Mustache 4 Movember: Prostate Cancer Awareness" Mani
47. Nov. 18th - Thanksgiving Day Mani
48. Nov. 25th - Feather Mani
49. Dec 2nd - Glitter Sandwich Mani
50. Dec. 9th - Snowflake Mani
51. Dec. 16th - Red Mani
52. Dec. 23rd - Christmas Mani
53. Dec. 30/31 - You've learned enough, go all out and show 2013 what it's all about!!

Other bloggers taking part in the challenge:

Liz Marie at http://imsimply-complex.blogspot.com/

Kristen at http://darlingnails.blogspot.com/

Caitlin at http://addicted2nails-caitst.blogspot.com/

Sarah at http://prncesssarah02nailloving.blogspot.com/p/challenge-time.html

Jenna at http://www.jennafroggy.com/

Rachel-Karina at http://polishedcriminails.blogspot.com/

Nicel at http://operationnailit.blogspot.com/

Lissa at http://lissasnailblog.wordpress.com/

Liz at http://nothingbutnailpolish.blogspot.com/

Olivia at http://olivia2901.blogspot.com/

Cindy at http://squarepolish.blogspot.com/

Marie at http://polishpolishpolish.blogspot.com/

Laurie at http://lauriestrodesfunwithnails.blogspot.com/

Charlotte at http://nailsactually.blogspot.com/

Kaki at http://www.glitterobsession.com/

Treselaine at http://treschicnails.blogspot.com/

Gypsy at http://gypsysglitter.blogspot.com/

This challenge will let me try all different sorts or nail art and techniques and will also give me something to post about every week. I will also continue to do post any other mani's I do between the ones listed above. I'm really looking forward to doing this as there's several things in the challenge which I haven't yet tried.  

Anyway onto the first mani of thew challenge.. Make It Sparkle !


So for this first mani I thought lots of gitter and maybe a firework type of look, here's what I came up with....

Overall I like how this turned out although it doesn't look like fireworks like I had hoped :P

I used two coats of Revlon Lunar as a base for the black nails and two coats of OPI Alpine Snow for the white accent nail. I layered one thick layer of OPI I Lily Love You over the black nails which really bought out all the flakies and glitter and I love all the different colours you can see in the light. I layered one coat of Milani Gems over the accent nail and topped it off with a matte top coat to give the nails different finishes.

A lot of people said they liked the simple colours used in this mani but the glitter and flakies really jazzed it up and make it sparkle. I really enjoyed this mani just because of all the different colours going on :P

I hope you enjoyed this mani and I look forward to continuing with this challenge :)

Charlotte-Louise. xxxx