52 Week Challenge Week 4 - Plaid

Hello everyone :)
This weeks 52 week challenge was Plaid. Now I'm not a big fan of plaid nails. They just seem a bit weird to me :P I don't know why but anyway I had some new polishes arrive this week and wanted to use one for the base colour so here's what I came up with...

I used 4-5 coats of OPI Guy Meets Gal-Veston as the base. I've never used any of Sorbet finishes before but I really loved this polish it's such a gorgeous colour that builds really well, this would be perfect for a jelly sandwich :) I then used Models Own Black Nail Art Pen for the black stripes and OPI Alpine snow for the white blocks. I'm not happy with how messy this looks but I never have steady enough hands :P

I'm really enjoying this challenge so far, it's making me try things that I would never normally try and I'm learning a lot of new skills in the process. Also, I've added a page especially for the challenge at the top of my blog, it's got the full list of the challenge and the other girls who are participating so it saves me from keep  posting it every week :P
Hope you enjoyed reading this weeks post :)
Charlotte xxx

A Rather Late Five Friday Favorites

Hello everyone :)
This week has been manic and I woke up this morning and remembered I hadn't done Five Friday Favorites this week :( So I've decided from now on that if I know I have a lot of work to do or whatever then I will schedule my blog posts so I don't fall behind. So I apologise for the late post this week but here we go...

1. I love how cute these birthday cupcake and bunting nails are :) - http://neverlandnailblog.blogspot.com

2. I'm a lover of all things pokemon so this nail art really caught my eye - http://animalscrosshere.deviantart.com

3. This is how I wish my colour block mani had turned out :P - http://chloesnails.blogspot.com/

4. These giraffe inspired nails are beautiful and look so fun :) - http://adventuresinacetone.blogspot.com/

5.  And Finally... Hamburger nails !! Amazing. - http://www.nailnerd.com/

Again, be sure to check out all these amazing blogs :)

Thanks for reading and make sure to check back for Week 4 of the 52 week challenge tomorrow :)

Charlotte xxx

My Stash & January Haul

Hello everyone :)
Sorry for posting so late in the week, classes at Uni have really killed me this week :p Anyway, a lot of you who entered my giveaway said you'd like to see my stash and more haul posts so I thought I'd combine the two this week.
So my stash is still rather small at the minute I have roughly 150 polishes, I need to count soon :p I just keep them in my bed side table at the minute for storage purposes. So here's a look at my stash...

In my top drawer I keep my OPI's, as I have more of them than any other brand of polish. I also keep my China Glaze, Models Own, Nails Inc, Revlons, NOPI's, some Barry M, Essies and base/top coats in this drawer. 

In the second draw are my nail polish collections such as Color Club and China Glaze. Also my less used polishes such as collection 2000, Hot Looks, Wet N Wild, W7 and some Barry M Crackles. Also my finger paints flakies are in here as they don't fit in the first drawer :P

Also in the second drawer I keep this box. It contains brushes, files, cuticle remover/oil, nail glue, stamping plates and tools, nail art pens, gems etc... This just keeps all the smaller things together so I know exactly where they are when I need them.

Here's my haul this month so far. Looking at it it seems a lot of polish to me, I think my addiction is getting worse :P So here we have, OPI nail envy and rapidry duo, Finger Paints Special Effects Collection, OPI Nicki Minaj Collection, 10 new OPI's from lena White sale, Random China Glaze from Ebay, Technic holographic polish, Berry Love polish from H&M, 2 Essie Polishes (1 from Ebay, 1 from my boyfriend) and a China Glaze collection. I'm quite impressed with this haul to be honest :P I got alot of polishes I've been dying to get my hands on, I cant wait to try them all out, maybe I'll do some more swatches, as many of you wanted to see more on my blog, let me know in the comments :)

Also, I got another new camera :P This ones a DSLR so let me know what you think tot the quality of my pictures etc in the comments as I want to know what others think of the quality, colour etc..

Thanks for reading :)
Charlotte xxx

52 week challenge - week 3 colour block mani

Hello everyone :)
Today I have my colour blocking mani from the 52 week challenge to show you. Now, when I read it was colour blocking I had to google it as I had no idea what it was :P I looked at lots of mani's that people had done with this theme and they all seemed centred on clothing and patterns, I thought I'd base mine more on colours so I went searching and found this picture..

This shows different colour schemes and I thought I'd use one of these and incorporate some patterns into my mani. So after lots of debating I picked my colours and set out to work.

I decided to use OPI Alpine Snow, OPI Pink Friday, OPI DS Coronation, Barry M Grey and Revlon Lunar as my colours. I started off by painting my nails in alternating colours as the base and then just adding stripes/blocks of colour as I pleased, it was all a bit random this mani :P

Here's a picture of my nails in the sun to show you the scattered holo effect of the DS I used. I only got a few pictures of this mani as I really don't like how it turned out or how it looks. I really like the colour combination but the whole idea of colour blocking isn't something I really like and don't think I'll be repeating any time soon.

What do you think of colour block mani's? What colours and patterns would you use? let me know in the comments, I love reading comments from everyone :) Also, don't forget to enter my 50 follower giveaway :)

Thanks for reading,
Charlotte xxx

50 follower giveaway

Hello everyone :)
I've reached 50 followers! I'm so excited, thank you to every single one of you that has liked my blog enough to follow :P I'm so grateful o all of you so I'm going to hold a giveaway :)
My giveaway is to win 2 models own polishes of your choice and 2 Barry m polishes of your choice :) I think they're pretty good prizes :) Also, it's open to all my followers old and new (but you MUST be a follower!! :P) and internationally too :) So you can check out the websites for both brands to see what polishes you want to win ;P

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

My First Breakage :(

Hello everyone :)
This is a bit of a side tracking post today. i received my OPI Nicki Minaj collection polishes yesterday and was so excited that they were finally here :) I pre ordered them from a local nail supply store that's close to my house, so I was so excited when they arrived. As soon as I got them inside I could smell polish and I almost cried :P I tore open the package very carefully so I could see what had happened and take photos to send to the store. Here's what I saw...

This is the first thing I saw when I got the bubble wrap off, I was gutted as Save Me was the polish I was most looking forward to trying out. So at this point I ran to get an empty polish bottle thinking that maybe I could decant what was left into another bottle...

So I opened the box to see what the real damage was and I almost cried :P This is one of the most distressing things I have seen. Not only did save me break, it leaked everywhere, all over the other bottles of polishes and it ruined most of the name stickers too :(

It took me forever to get the polish off the other bottles and in the process I managed to ruin my mani too :( The polish was everywhere, it even got into the little gap between the bottle and the lids. So I cleaned all the polish away as best as I could. Fly wasn't in this picture as it didn't get much polish on so I didn't want to put it with the others and possibly get more polish on it :P

And here's a bottle shot to show you the damage, the neck of the bottle snapped off cleanly with the lid and every single drop of polish was gone :( Even the ball bearings had gone. I emailed the pictures to the store where I bought them from and she apologized and has sent me a new bottle, yay for great customer service! :) So I should have a new bottle of Save Me arrive today!!

I was planning on doing a swatch post (which will be my first!!) when these arrived yesterday. So as soon as my new bottle of Save Me arrives I'll get on to doing my swatches and post them up here :)

Have any of you got the Nicki Minaj collection polishes? If so which is your favorite? Let me know in the comments :)

Thanks for reading :)

Charlotte xxx

Five Friday Favorites

Hello everyone :)
It's time for Five Friday Favorites, I've been looking forward to this all week. I've been on pinterest browsing many nail art photo's in awe at what some of the ladies on there are capable of, it's amazing :)
So here's another five of my favorite looks this week...

1. This super cute funky coloured french tip mani is beautiful, really need to try something like this out soon - Chloe's Nails

2. This beautiful french mani is brightened up by the sparkly tips :) - http://www.gemsinabottle.net/

3. My son is obsessed with Finding Nemo at the moment so I was looking for ways to incorporate the characters on my nails. This looks like what I'm going to attempt :P - http://wackylaki.blogspot.com/

4. I love how this mani uses simple colours and an intricate design, it really works well together and catches the eye - http://rainbowcreativity.blogspot.com/

5. I love lace nails and although I am not very good at them I will try this :P - http://attackedastorianails.blogspot.com/

make sure to check out these amazing blogs and nails, they're amazing !!

Thanks for reading,

Charlotte xxx

Kreativ Blogger Award

hello everyone :)
Today I'e been awarded the Kreativ Blogger Award from The Dragon Lady. Thanks for this award :)

Here are the rules you have to follow when receiving this award:

1. Link back to the person who gave you this award

2. Complete the form below

3. Award 10 other blogs and let them know in a comment or email

4. Share 7 random things about yourself

FORM:

1. Name your favorite song.

This is such a hard question, I can never choose just one song because I have so many favorites, currently my favorite has to be Super Bass- Nicki Minaj. I Love Her !!!

2. Name your favorite dessert.

Any kind of cheesecake :P

3. What ticks me off.

Ungrateful people. Rude people etc... Anything where you do something nice for someone and they don't appreciate it or don't even acknowledge that you've gone out of your way to do something for them. Amongst lots of other things :P

4.When I'm upset I...

Stop talking and sit staring into space

5. What's your favorite pet.

Cats :)

6.Black or white?

White.

7. Biggest fear.

Spiders and clowns.

8. Every day attitude.

I'm usually quite positive and happy.

9. What is perfection?

My family :) My boyfriend and son :)

10. Guilty pleasure?

Reading my favorite books and eating chocolate :P

7 random facts about me:

1. I have a big obsession with tattoo's and piercings.

2. I want silver hair, it's currently white/light grey with some silvery bits :p Here's a picture, this is as accurate as it's going to get, although the front of my fringe and the other side is tinged slightly purple from silver shampoo :p

3. I am in love with leopards and all things leopard print.

4. I surprise everyone by my musical tastes.

5. I did my A Levels in Musical Theatre.

6. My biggest love is dancing.

7. I try and be nice to everyone I meet :)

Ten other blogs I pass this award to:

1. http://thethingilikenow.blogspot.com/

2. http://majnoonibeauty.blogspot.com/

3. http://nailsbymslizard.blogspot.com/

4. http://moriesnailart.weebly.com/index.html

5. http://geekyowl.blogspot.com/

6. http://operationnailit.blogspot.com/

7. http://undacovanaillova.blogspot.com/

8. http://grapefizz.blogspot.com/

9. http://agirlandherpolish.blogspot.com/

10. http://nail-newbie.blogspot.com/

Make sure to check out all the amazing blogs I've listed :)

Thanks for reading and check back later for Five Friday Favorites :)

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