A spot of luck

I haven't blogged for ages! I've really wanted to, but literally haven't had the time. Work has been crazy and then I went to New York for my birthday, so it's been non-stop. Anyway, I'm here now and shall vow to be more regular in my blogging.

Today I want to tell you about some luck I had recently; I won my first ever blog giveaway! Sophie from sophiejanethorne.blogspot.co.uk ran a giveaway to win a Wet n Wild nail polish in red - and lucky old me won.

Sophie is so lovely that she actually included a couple of extra items for me to apologise because she had a slight postal delay. So not only did I get the Wet n Wild polish, but also a Maybelline one and a strawberry flavoured Lypsyl.

As I got these items a month or so ago now, I have had time to fully try them out and review them.

Wet n Wild Wild Shine nail colour
Love the colour, it is a really bright red with a hint of pink in a certian light and as it's a gel polish it looks great on. It's really shiny, especially with a top coat on. It lasted well, but not quite as well as the Maybelline.

Lypsyl Strawberry Polka-dot
Tastes great and contains SPF. It claims to be tinted, but I couldn't notice much, maybe a slight pale pink, but not really. The downside to this is that it is quite a hard textured balm, you really need to rub it on. It worked best when I had it in my pocket and then used it as the heat had softened it. 

Maybelline Super Stay 7 Days gel nail colour
This is amazing! The red was probably a shade darker than I'd normally go for as I have quite fair skin, but it looked great and lasts soooo well. In fact I put this nail varnish on for my 5 day holiday to New York and it last the whole trip. So not quite 7 days, but I don't think I had time to put a top coat on.

I will definitely buy more of these Maybelline 7 day polishes.

To finish, thank you very much Sophie for the gifts, it's so generous of you to run these giveaways. Everyone else head over to Sophie's blog for beauty reviews, recipes, fashion and more.

My first time at nail stamping

Today I had my first go at nail stamping! My sister came over at the weekend and lent me some bundle monster plates so I thought I'd give it a go. I won't go through the "how to" as there are so many videos on YouTube on the subject and they are all quite easy to follow. 

I started off by doing a couple of coats of Rimmel's Marshmallow Heaven then used Barry M's silver foil effect for the stamping as recommended by my sister (thanks sis). Finally I topped it off with a top coat to protect my pretty stamps. Note to self for future; try to apply top coat in one swipe as if you keep going over a spot it smudges the stamp.

Overall, it's a fairly easy method to come up with really effective results. It is harder to do the hand you write with as I'm sure you'd expect, but not impossibly hard.

I think I'll invest in some plates of my own.

 

I used bundle monster plates 213, 317 and 320.

New MUA nail varnish review

MUA nail varnish: ★★★★★

Since discovering MUA, my makeup collection has been able to grow wildly without me spending wildly. On my courtesy look through the makeup stands in Superdrug yesterday I discovered they had a new nail varnish range out. Cute little bottles with the MUA letters shaped on the glass and a lovely range of bright colours ready for the bright weather (we can but hope), and they only cost £1!

 

I picked up a lovely bright pink with a hint of orange called Bright Coral and a white called All Nude. Obviously too excited to try one at a time, I tried them together, here are the results.

The colours and great, and so far so good on the chip-free staying power. The brush was a good size and got a nice even coverage of the nail. They were also quite quick to dry. The only downside is that they are quite thin and require 3 coats to ensure that they are opaque. I did 3 coats on the white and only 2 on the coral and I'm regretting that now.

Overall, I'm really happy with them and for £1, I can't really fault them at all, so for that reason I am giving them 5 stars!

Ciaté nail polish free with Marie Claire

This month's Marie Claire comes with a free Ciaté nail polish (and a Jergens moisturiser).

There are two great colours available; a pastel peachy pink called Pocket Money and a light shimmery gold called Sand Dune.

These are well worth the £3.80 you pay for the magazine seeing as Ciaté polishes retail at £9.

The colours are a great addition to my collection and perfect for Spring. They complement each other nicely too.

Nail Polish Stand

Greetings from my new house! It's been a very busy and stressful couple of weeks, but I'm absolutely loving having a house. (Lots of home decor posts to follow).

The first thing that I decided to buy for myself in the new house is a nail polish stand. I've been looking at a few on eBay for a while but didn't want to buy before the move. I ended up ordering one from Amazon for £7.99.

I've got the muji acrylic draws already so wanted to go with the clear acrylic look to match. It fits approximately 30 bottles on it and is nice and sturdy. I would definitely recommend.

Valentines heart nails

 Heart technique easiness: ★★★★★


I saw this tutorial on YouTube and thought of Valentines day. I've used the heart technique (which anyone can do with a hair grip/bobby pin - no specialist nail art tools needed) from the video to create a romantic valentines manicure.

Will go perfectly with my red dress!

ASOS £30

Update

Pink version of the manicure:

A classy stripe - nail art with decorative tape

A little while ago I came across this picture on Instagram:

I thought it looked like a really classy manicure and wondered how they got the silver lines looking so crisp and straight. Then one day, whilst browsing on eBay, I discovered the answer - nail art tape!

I ordered a set of 10 different colours from Hong Kong for the bargainous price of £1, and they took a couple of weeks to arrive.

When they arrived I had just painted my nails blue the day before, so I picked the red tape as I thought it would go nicely against the blue. I hastily watched a couple of videos on YouTube on how to use the tape and set off on my "easy" hand.

It is very tricky to do on yourself, particularly cutting it close to the edge of the nail. If you aren't careful you will pull the tape to a funny angle or even completely off.

After sticking the tape on, you need to put a top coat of nail varnish to seal it. I liked the look a lot! What do you think?

I only got round to doing one hand as my boyfriend came round for dinner. I was going to try do the other hand after, but disappointingly the tape had completely come off one finger and was peeling at the edges on 2 other fingers. This may be down to the fact that I used a matte finish top coat rather than a normal one, so I'll have to give it another go at a later date when I've got a bit of time (this is not a quick mani by any means).

Update
Black and gold version:

Triangle nails

Ease: ★★★★★
Effectiveness: ★★★★★


This is my last post in August. Since I started this blog a short while ago, I've clocked up just over 400 views. Thanks to everyone who has read and commented on my posts.

Anyway, back to business...


I saw this style of manicure on the Cute.A.S.Nails blog recently and decided it was something that a person of my novice nail skills could do.

I used my Rimmel nail varnish that I've mentioned before in previous blogs. I started off with a couple of coats of the marshmallow heaven, then used the matte finish top coat. Once it was fully dry I taped the points on the nails and used a thick coat of pear drop to create the triangles.

This is the finished result!

Chevron/fishtail nails

I came across this nail technique on Robin Sparkles blog and thought it looked really effective, so here is my attempt!

The good thing about this technique is that it is pretty easy to do with your wrong hand as well. So both hands end up looking decent.

I used Rimmel nail varnish in 702 Marshmallow Heaven, 703 Peardrop and 239 Your Majesty.