Barry M Spring/Summer 2016 Gelly Collection Swatches and Review + Comparison

Hey everyone! I'm super proud of myself for how productive I was on Saturday (for those of you who don't know it's my only nail day), I got tonnes done. Mainly all in the last couple of hours of the day but still. I'm quite a slow swatcher, so the most I've ever done in one day is around 12 polishes I think, although that's largely because I do nail art in between. However, this week I managed 3 nail art looks and I swatched both new Barry M collections in the space of a few hours. I didn't want to end up like I have previously and just leave my review sitting in my 'to edit' folder for months, so I've forced myself to get them edited tonight, and get the post out. 

This year's Barry M Spring Gelly collection* made me think that they hadn't been particularly imaginative. Both the nude shades seemed very similar to previous shades such as Lychee and Coconut. However, I was still excited to give them a try as they never disappoint, and I was right. In fact, I think Cream Soda* is actually a really unique off-white shade. I've done a comparison of the four nude/off-white polishes at the bottom of this post for you to see that there is actually quite a lot of difference in the shades. I think the collection work really well together, and they also fit well with the spring speedy dry polishes too. I think you'll definitely be seeing these in some nail art soon.

Review Week, Day 1: Nicole by OPI - Roughles Collection

Hey everyone! Apologies for the big gap in-between posting, it's been a busy week this week and I also just wanted to focus on myself a bit as I've been feeling quite stressed recently. I intended to do a week of reviews from Monday-Friday but unfortunately didn't have the chance so I'm going to do my best to do it Wednesday - Sunday instead but if not it might overrun into next week. It's been a while since I posted a review, and when I was sorting through my files on my laptop last week I realised I have a lot of unpublished reviews which I thought I had posted, like these pictures from the Nicole by OPI Summer 2014 Roughles collection! I definitely swore quite loudly when I came across the folder and realised I'd never posted them, so now is the time.

Tutorial Tuesday: Beach Nails for Divine Caroline

Hey everyone! I'm currently sunning myself in Italy, so these beach nails are absolutely perfect to post this week. Last year I did nails almost identical to this and I had tonnes of questions asking how I did them, so I finally got around to doing a tutorial, just in time for the next summer time to roll around! You can see the tutorial HERE on Divine Caroline, but there's a sneak peak below!

What do you think? Let me know in the comments! And don't forget to check out the tutorial here

Alice

P.S. Thanks to all your wonderful nominations, I've been shortlisted for the Cosmopolitan Blog Awards for 'Best Established Beauty Blog', and in order to be in with a chance of winning I need YOUR votes, once again. So if you feel my blog is deserving of the title, I would really appreciate your votes here (or you can click on the image on the right hand side which will take you to the same page)

Gradient Polka Dots

Hey everyone! The more keen eyed of you may have noticed that I just posted a design, all of ten minutes ago. But apparently I completely forgot that I already posted it, two weeks ago. I feel like such a dingbat, but I'm blaming the fact that it's hot and it's 1:30am and I really need to sleep! I didn't want to leave you without a design though, so here's a quick and simple polka dot gradient look. I created this gradient for Avon, and you can see the steps to create it on their Facebook page, but I decided to add polka dots to it just to see how it would look, and I really think it makes the design 100x better!

Barry M Summer 2014 Limited Edition Nail Polish for Boots

Hey everyone! Today I have a long-overdue review of the Barry M Limited Edition polishes created for Boots. I know I promised this to you last week but I just haven't had the time to edit the pictures at all. I expected that once I finished my exams I'd have this up instantly but life has just got in the way a bit recently, and I really wish it hadn't because I'd love to be able to sit down and focus on my blog for hours and hours. Tomorrow I will have my review of the Barry M Superdrug Limited Editions, and I can't wait to have both posts up and finally feel at ease that I've done them! 

The Boots limited editions contain 2 polishes, Bikini* and Carousel* I'm not sure when they are available until, but you can still buy them from the Boots website here, where they're currently buy one (£3.99) get one half price, which is definitely a deal worth following!

Tutorial: May Day Nails with Click Fragrance

Hey everyone! Today I have a brand new tutorial for you to learn how to create these cute May Day nails. I know May Day was last week but they'll also be great for summer celebrations! I've created this tutorial for Click Fragrance, and you'll have to click here to see the steps for this design. Click Fragrance is a website that sells cheap cosmetics/makeup and fragrances (and of course nail varnish!) and delivery is free on all UK orders, so you should definitely head over there to have a look!

All details on colours etc. can be found here on Click Fragrance 

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

And don't forget to check out the steps here

Alice

Tutorial: Red Gradient Palm Trees

Hey everyone! So, currently I have 10 tutorials lying in my 'things still to post' folder on my computer that I did for Licila.si, because I can't choose which one to post first! Today I decided to just take the plunge with my palm trees design, after asking on Instagram which to start with. A tutorial was highly requested in my original post, so I hope I've made it clear enough. I previously hated tutorials due to the time they took to perfect in photographing and in editing, but since I decided that I didn't have to do a full hand for each step it's now a lot easier to photograph and to edit. So let me know if there are any tutorials you'd like to see specifically. Anyway, the tutorial will be after the jump!

You will need:

• Clinique 70 Degrees and Sunny (or a yellow nail varnish)
• Barry M – Passion Fruit (or a red nail varnish)
• Make up sponge
• Barry M – Black nail art penor another nail art pen
• Seche Vite (or a fast-drying top coat)

Step 1: Paint your nails with a base of yellow

 Step 2: Paint both colours overlapping on to a piece of paper. Push your sponge in, and then dab that on to your nail. Once done, clean up around your nail with acetone and cotton buds, and apply a fast-drying topcoat like Seche Vite to smooth out your design

  Step 3: Using the black Barry M nail art pen, draw around the base of your nail like this

 Step 4: Draw the outline of where you want your tree to be, again using the pen

 Step 5: Draw on the leaves coming out from branches, again using the Barry M black nail art pen

 Step 6: Finish off with a topcoat to seal in your design. You can also add a matte topcoat afterwards if you'd like to make it more like my original design.

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

Alice

Seaside nails

Hey everyone! Summer has finally arrived in the UK and I'm loving it! Of course I had to bring you some summer nails to match. These nails were actually another design that I thought about entering into the Beauty and the Beach competition, but decided that they weren't up to much. I know these aren't great but they're definitely something simplistic that you can wear to the beach if you're feeling a bit uninspired.

The base for these is Essence - That's What I Mint but I'm not entirely sure of the other colours because I did them over a month ago. I then used a coat of Seche Vite to finish off.

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

Alice

Beauty and the Beach 2 Competition - My Entry

Hey everyone! So for my second post today I'm bringing you my Beauty and the Beach competition entry. I'm sure most of you know what it is but for those who don't it's a beauty competition held by Travel Supermarket for a chance to win £500 or £1500! All you have to do is upload an entry inspired by the beach, you can find the rules here, but it ends tomorrow so be quick (I am the queen of last minute!). I know this is a nails blog, but of course I'd like to be in with the chance of winning the full amount, so I hope you'll excuse pictures of my face! I'll put them after the jump and the nails before for those of you who dont.

The Nails

So for the nails, I went directly with the 'beach' theme, and painted a beach on my nails. My style is definitely more cartoon-ey so I wanted to stick with what I know best. I decided to add things you can find and do on the beach.       On my thumb I did a rock pool with a crab next to it, on my pointer finger I did flip flops, on my middle finger is the edge of a picnic rug, on my ring finger is a bucket and spade and a sandcastle with a flag, and on my baby finger is a starfish. 

To do these nails I started off with a base of Butter London - Fiver, and then I sponged on Barry M - Blueberry, but I decided it didn't look very good so I used a paintbrush to make it more of a straight line. Then, on the tips of my nails I sponged Butter London - Cuppa. Then I got a tiny piece of sponge using tweezers and sponged on the white for the foam of the waves. I then mixed Barry M - Blueberry with some white to create the 'waves' with a tiny brush, and I used the same white (MASH - White nail polish) for the clouds (which unfortunately haven't shown up too well in photos). The yellow on the rug, sun and bucket is Clinique - 70 Degrees and Sunny, the red on the rug, flag and spade is Essence - Redvolution, and the crab is redvolution mixed with a tiny tiny bit of brown, the green on the flipflops is Clinique - Hula Skirt, the orange starfish is Clinique - Juiced Up, the black detailing, such as the birds, is China Glaze - Liquid Leather, and the darker brown for the stones and sandcastle is Barry M - Mushroom, either on its own or mixed with white. I did all the details with a tiny cut down brush. (Phew that was a big paragraph)

Gradients and palm trees

Hey everyone! No explanation tonight, just nails. I'm tired and I need to sleep, it seems to be a common occurrence than I post late at night and then dont have the energy to write much, so I'm sorry about that! These nails were inspired by the recent sunny weather we've been seeing in Britain, although I'm not quite sure we're up to palm tree standard yet!

The base was 70° and sunny by Clinique, which I'll be reviewing in the next few days, sponged with Barry M - Passion fruit, I then top coated that and used the Black Barry M nail art pen to create the palm trees.

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

Alice

Then and Now: Week 5

Hey everyone! Today's post very nearly didn't happen but I set Saturday as the date as Saturday it shall stay, even if it means coming back to uni from home to do it! This time is another summery design, just to opt out of the christmas nails (which I promise will happen soon enough), I did go through my 'archives' for the then and now challenge to find something more christmassy but I only have one design so I shall do that nearer christmas, turns out I was a sucker for bright colours 2 years ago!

I actually remember doing this design, mainly because I did the bees so thick that after 4 hours they still hadnt dried and were instead smudged all over my dressing gown (which has since pretty much just turned into a paint palette and I've got a new one for when I'm not painting my nails). So this time, I obviously didn't want to repeat that, but I knew I wouldn't because I have learnt from my mistakes (or so I hope!). Anyway, aside from having to do the acrylic paint that was coming off on my thumb there were no mishaps this time, and I am typing this with the manicure still perfectly in tact! See the original picture after the jump!

Day 16: Tribal Nails (Part 2)

I really didn't want to take these nails off, so I did what I originally intended to do with them (but forgot to do like a doofus) and mattified them! I love mattified nails as I've said before, not only do they make taking pictures a billion times easier but they also look so cool! I hope you like them as much as I do :) (Part 1 here)

I used Rimmel's Matte Top Coat in addition to yesterday's colours

Alice

P.S. Do I get some kind of woman/blogger points for actually managing to post this before midnight (shock horror)?

Day 16: Tribal Print

I love doing tribal print. Somebody asked me to do a tribal nail set for them a while ago which forced me out of the 'I won't be able to do tribal print and I'll feel like a failure so I'm not going to try' mindset and made me do them, and they're great because my OCD can fade away and I dont have to be precise, I can just splodge whatever the hell I want on there and hope for the best. However, I did get a bit carried away on the detail today, I can never be simple can I? I hope you like them :)

I used toooooo many colours to list but the black and white is acrylic paint :)

Alice

Day 14: Flowers

Sorry again for the lack of posting, I've been so busy!  So I present to you lovely readers... abstract flowers! Hope you like them, I wanted to try something a little different to my usual floral designs and I based it around a scarf I saw a few weeks ago. Hope you like them!

Alice

Day 11 - Polka Dots

Hi everyone, sorry for not posting yesterday, my body was aching all over from a class at the gym and I wasn't ready for my battle with photoshop. So day 11 is slightly delayed but I hope it's worth the wait! Anyway on to the nails...
After day 10 I realised how super easy gradients were and I wanted to incorporate them into my design for 'polka dots', I also felt like I've been using too much blue recently and not enough pink so here you go. I'm sure this design has been done before but I dont know who by I'm afraid. Hope you like them!

Decided to try the usual blogger's way of posing..

I used Barry M - Baby Pink, Barry M - Matt white and the China Glaze in the picture (I'm not at home so I can't tell you for sure, sorry!) topped off with one coat of Seche Vite

Alice

Day 6: Violet Nails

Hi guys! Sorry for the 2 day delay, I've been super busy with a wedding and a birthday party to attend. I struggled for inspiration for today, I even took to googling 'violet things' but all that came up was violets, as in the flower, NOT HELPFUL. So I went with the flower thing, especially as I was about to go to a "summer" wedding (we should be so lucky in Britain, tsst). So I'm sorry these are so generic/uninspiring but I hope you like them anyway!

I used an unnamed purple from a Boots gift set and China Glaze 'Something Sweet'

Alice