Gelish African Safari Collection Review + Swatches

It's my favourite time... a new Gelish collection! The African Safari collection is a lovely group of autumnal shades, and it makes me feel cozy just looking at it. It can't just be me who's excited for big knit jumpers, and sitting in front of the fire with hot chocolate (especially now I have a wood fire in my new house!). Read on for my full thoughts on the colours. 

Essie Glitter Leaves

Hi All! Hope you're having a good December so far. I'm trying to get into the Christmas spirit, I'm feeling a lot better than I have been so I've even been able to sing along to a few Christmas songs. It's good to know that I haven't turned into a complete Scrooge! But whilst I might be getting into the Christmas spirit, it's still Autumn on my nails, with the gorgeous Essie Winter 2016 collection*. These were just a quick design I did to try and get myself back into the swing of things but I ended up wearing them for nearly 2 weeks, which wasn't exactly the plan! But it's a testament to how long-lasting these polishes are. 

Pumpkin Spice - Meebox October Review + Nail Art

Hey everyone! Hope you're all having a good week so far, this is my first 5 day week at work in a few weeks so it's feeling like it's dragging a bit. Today I've got a review of the October Meebox* for you. This is my fourth review of the monthly subscription box, you can see all my previous reviews here. Each month comes with a new theme, and this months theme is Pumpkin Spice*, just in time for Halloween. Each months box costs £20 if you subscribe on a month to month basis, or you can subscribe for 3 months and it costs £18 a month. This might sound like a lot but you get so much value out of a box that it's well worth it. This months box includes:

- Crabtree & Evelyn - Clementine (RRP £6) 

- Lauren B - Nude 01 (RRP £11)

- Leighton Denny - Venus Desire (RRP £12)

- Bundle Monster Giant Stamper & Stamping plate (RRP £12)

With a total value of £41 you're definitely getting a lot for your money. I also like the surprise element of it, and also that there's always at least one nail art look to create out of the products you receive. And, even with an extensive collection such as mine I've only ever encountered one duplicate shade to one I own in a Meebox, which isn't too bad going. This month they were all pretty much new brands to me, except for Leighton Denny. I was also intrigued (and a little intimidated) by the giant stamper from Bundle Monster which I ended up loving once I got the hang of it. I know my stamping skills aren't the best and I don't claim for them to be, but I wanted to give the plate a try nonetheless.

Gelish Sweetheart Squadron Collection [Partial] Review + Swatches

Hey everyone! I've been getting used to being back at work after a nice relaxing week off work, so I'm feeling pretty exhausted today. Luckily I have a 4 day weekend coming up so I only have one more day of work before more relaxation! 

Today I have a couple of the shades from the new Gelish Sweetheart Squadron collection to show you. The whole collection is gorgeous but I have Looking For A Wingman* and Up In The Air-Heart*  reviewed for you today. It's such a great collection for autumn, and there's a shade for everyone in there. Full review after the jump.

Autumn Tribal

I'm so so glad it's friday, this week just seems to have dragged and dragged. Nothing in particular has happened but I'm very happy to see the beginning of the weekend. Especially as the weekend means I get to paint my nails, by Friday I'm sick of seeing the same nails I painted on Saturday still on my nails. Although chip-free, they are growing out considerably so I'll be glad to change them tomorrow. These nails aren't the ones I'm currently wearing, those I'm saving for another day, and I hope you like them as much as I do!

Today's design is another tutorial I created for Divine Caroline. This is a design that I could very easily have gone OTT with, and that was originally my intention. But once I'd done the 'first' part of the design, I loved the look so much that I decided to stick with a simpler design, which is something I never thought I'd say. If you want to see the full tutorial click here.

What do you think? Let me know in the comments!

Alice

Pink Cartoon Acorns for Divine Caroline

Hey everyone! Today I have these cute acorn nails to show you. If you want to see the tutorial for these, you can see it here at Divine Caroline. I wanted to do an autumn design that was a bit more colourful, and I came across these nails by Nailbees. I didn't have time to replicate the full design but I liked the idea of just doing the acorns on their own.

What do you think? Let me know in the comments!

Alice

Green Autumn Leaves

Hey everyone! Today has felt more like autumn than any other day so far, I woke up to the loud noise of the wind and the entrance to work was littered with leaves. So it felt like the perfect time to post these nails, which I'm also currently wearing. I feel like I've jinxed it and made it all the more autumnal by wearing them! Luckily I've got a nice new coat to keep me warm, but it's always nice to get home at the end of the day and get warm in bed whilst you can hear the wind outside.

Barry M Autumn Glitter Leaves

Hey everyone! It's been so long since I created these nails that I'd completely forgotten I did them. I did them last Autumn, but Autumn had finished by the time I got around to thinking about posting them and it was too late. So instead I thought I'd save them for this year, and luckily I remembered before it was too late this year. I created these for Barry M using their Autumn 2014 Gelly collection, and a full tutorial is after the jump.

Exclusive: Barry M Autumn/Winter 2015 Sunset Daylight Curing Collection Review + Swatches

Hey everyone! I have my first ever exclusive to show you, which is pretty exciting. Today Barry M released 4 new polishes to add to their Sunset Daylight Curing collection* for Autumn/Winter, exclusively for Boots. I was sent these last month to create some exciting things with (which I'm sure you'll hear about soon) and I was given today as the first posting date for these, so here I am! The new collection consists of a dark purple, a dark red/wine shade, a dark mushroom shade, and a light pink. The light pink seems to be a bit of an anomaly in the collection, but I think it helps to brighten them up a bit. If you didn't see my review of the original collection you can see it here. The Sunset polishes cure in daylight, and they're supposed to last longer and be harder than regular nail polish. Yet, with the same removal as regular polish. Although, they also cure under artificial lighting, which will be helpful in the Autumn and Winter months. As we saw with the older collection they also have a wider brush than regular Barry M colours, just like the Quick Dry collection, which makes application a lot easier. 

Barry M Silk Nail Paints Autumn/Winter 2014 Review and Swatches

Hey everyone! Two posts in one night, aren't you feeling lucky! I felt like it was probably about time that I began to catch up on posts as I've barely posted this month. Having started a new job, trying to balance uni, and trying to run my blog and also trying to have a social life is proving difficult. I'm doing my best but I am falling behind with posting and I'm really sorry about that. 

Anyway, today's second post is my review of the recent Autumn/Winter Silk collection that Barry M released to add to their Spring Silk collection. The original silks had a gorgeous matte finish and these are no different. I think these are a little different though as they seem to have more depth to them and they also look really enhanced with topcoat. I've shown you both with and without topcoat in my swatches to give you a comparison, and you can decide for yourself which you prefer.

Tutorial: Autumn Birds for Barry M

Hey everyone! I hope you've all had a good week! I'm hoping next week will be a bit better for me. You may or may not have noticed but I decided to take a few days break from blogging, it's not been too long but things were getting a bit on top of me so I thought a few days break might do me good, I haven't even turned my laptop on for 3 days, which for me is a very weird occurrence. Now I feel ready to get back in to blogging, I'm going to try and post a lot more as I have a huge backlog of posts to show you. 

Today's post is another tutorial I created for Barry M, my last design was this toadstool design and you all seemed to love it, so hopefully you like this one just as much! I absolutely love birds, and I knew I wanted to incorporate them into a tutorial at some point, I still get requests to do a tutorial for my Rob Ryan bird nails, but for now this shall have to do! Tutorial steps will be after the jump

Barry M - Autumn/Winter 2014 'Tribal' Gellies Collection Review and Swatches

Hey everyone! Today I have a long-overdue review of the six gorgeous new gellies from Barry M for Autumn 2014. I've heard this described as the 'Tribal' collection and an email from Barry M said the same thing, I don't know if that's an official term for the collection but I think it suits it. It also suits just being an autumn collection, as the colours are so perfectly autumnal. I've already done quite a bit of nail art with these which will be coming up soon, and I'm sure I'll be doing plenty more designs! 

Barry M Autumn/Winter 2013 Classic Matte Nail Polish Collection

Hey everyone! Today I have one of Barry M's exciting new collections to show you, the Classic Matte collection. I'll be posting the Royal Glitter collection and the other new polishes within the next week. They are due for release on the 25th September in Superdrug and October 2nd in Boots. I'm really impressed with this whole collection, and with what I've seen of the other collections. Barry M has really pulled it out of the bag this time!

I'll put the rest of the post after the jump otherwise it may end up being too long

Autumn Nails Tutorial

Hi everyone! So last week I created this tutorial exclusively for DIYfashion.com click here to head on over there and see what I did, hope you like it!

Alice