The Sweetest Memories // OPI & Morgan Taylor

I can't stop staring at this paring. I recently picked up Sweet Memories from TK Maxx. It was just lying there in the bargain bin with no price on and when I took it to the till they slapped a £2.99 price tag on it....bargain of the century. 

Sweet Memories is a beautiful light, sheer pink creme from OPI. Even with two coats it's still quite translucent but that's what I love about it as I'm getting into the whole "sheer" and "inverse" nail trends. They just look so classy and contemporary. Plus they're perfect for work.

I paired it with Morgan Taylor's Sweetest Thing which I reviewed in an earlier post. This has got to be one of my favourite glitter polishes to date; it goes with just about anything, but these two are a match made in polish heaven. 

Of course, being me I couldn't just leave this design be but I decided to take photos before I added anything else. I think I'm going to have to do this design again soon though because I was seriously upset when my peel off base coat took it off after a day :(

Polishes used:

- OPI // Sweet Memories (light pink sheer cremé)

- Morgan Taylor // Sweetest Thing (rose gold holographic glitter)

- Revlon // Quick Dry Top Coat

- Revlon // Colorstay Diamond Top Coat

I used the quick dry top coat just for Sweet Memories, but Sweetest Thing can lay a little bumpy so I used my thickest top coat which is the diamond one. Two coats of that and the glitter was perfectly smooth.

SWATCHES: Morgan Taylor // Sweetest Thing, Ella Of A Girl & No Way Rose

Look at those magnificent pink beauties. I'm currently subscribed to a beauty box called Latest In Beauty where you can choose 9 items a month for £18, and this month these 3 polishes were added to the selection and well I chose them faster than you can say "it's not a problem anymore". (I am thinking of cancelling this sub though for Mani & Lola which is a nail polish box instead of mixed beauty products).

I've never heard of this polish brand before, but they look fancy AF, I love pink and well, just LOOK at that rose gold sparkle:

Let's start with the most basic; Ella Of A Girl.

She's your basic pink. I was expecting this to be slightly more sheer and pastel-y than the solid Barbie pink colour it is. I think it'll make a great base colour for other pink sparkles however it's not really the kind of shade I would wear naked. It also takes about 17 years to dry, even with a quick dry polish.

Next up is No Way Rose:

This is a beautiful metallic rose gold shimmer. It dries with no streaks (unlike some other metallic polishes I've come across) and one coat is pretty good (but I like two anyway). I'm in love with this shade, it's more on the pink side of rose gold which is perfect as I have a few that are more gold/copper but this captures rose gold perfectly.

Then last is Sweetest Thing:

Look at that! JUST LOOK AT IT! Sorry for the caps but it's frankly a sight to behold. It strongly reminds me though of some pure cut glitter I have called Sweet Pink.

Similar right? Because this is in a polish though, I used the sponge technique to get that ultra sparkly, opaque look however it does come at a price as it isn't a smooth as burnishing pure glitter onto your nail. It's still a great polish though and out of all them this is design I didn't want to peel off. The accent nail using the other two polishes didn't quite turn out how I wanted as I forgot to apply a base coat, so the light pink is more of that "inverse" nail trend but they did blend together quite well. Oh, as a bonus, here's Sweetest Thing under some indoor lighting:

Look at that holo come to life. 

The actual Morgan Taylor website doesn't seem to have prices on it however I found all these polishes stocked on NailPolishDirect for £6.95 each, winning! I also found out that polishes are circa 2015; Ella of a Girl is from their Cinderella collab with Disney for the release of the film. These used to retail at £11, so go grab yourself a bargain.

Polishes:

- Ella of a Girl // Light Pink Creme (nailpolishdirect)

- No Way Rose // Metallic Copper Rose Shimmer (nailpolishdirect)

- Sweetest Thing // Pink Duochrome Glitter (nailpolishdirect)

Hippy Sailor // Mandala Dreamcatchers & Nautical Stuff

This design came about because I couldn't decide if I wanted to go nautical or bohemian....So I did both. Thanks to the Rose Quartz & Serenity pairing (I swear that wasn't intentional) this doesn't look to bad. It's not the best stamping skills in the world but I'm getting better every time I do it.

For the Mandala/Dreamcatcher nails I started out with one layer of Sweet Memories then followed that up with 4 sponged layers of Alanala & Breanna ombre'd together. I then stamped the design on top and hey presto!

I love the colour of those two W7 polishes however on their own they're not great, sponging solved that problem. They almost had a chrome effect by the 4th layer and the subtle colour shift looked beautiful when the light hit it in the right way:

I didn't get the best photos of this design but I'm definitely going to be doing it again, perhaps using a stamp that doesn't cover up the nail so much. 

The nautical design isn't the best and the lines are a little wonky but it's still cute and I think I'll try to improve it. Especially since I now have a stamping plate with ye olde map lines on it.

Here are the polishes I used:
- OPI // Sweet Memories (light pastel pink)
- W7 // Alanala (blue to lilac/pink colour shift)
- W7 // Breanna (pink to blue colour shift)
- Born Pretty // Stamping Polish #4 (white)
- Essie // Blanc (white)
- Born Pretty // Stamping Polish #284 (blue)
- Born Pretty // Stamping Polish #3 (black)
- Revlon // Colorstay Gel Envy Diamond Top Coat
- Born Pretty // Liquid Latex
- Born Pretty // Stamping Plate BP L051 & BP 33

First Try at Galaxy Nails + Welcome!

Hey guys, welcome to my blog. I say guys, no one is reading this lol. There are literally millions upon millions of blogs on the internet and thousands get created every day and I'm just another figure bolstering that statistic. But you know what? It keeps my mind occupied.

I'm currently on the last year of my degree and I need to keep the pace going but I know if I stop, sit down and start watching netflix, I won't get back up again for 3 days, so that's where this blog comes in.

I used to like nail polish, I hoarded it quite a bit but never actually used it. My cuticle care was abysmal as well, but then, several months ago, Safiya Nygaard followed a tutorial by someone called Simply Nailogical. I went and watched that video and now I have consumed almost everything Cristine has done (in the least stalkery way possible...) Her channel and blog though really inspired something in me because I'm now obsessed (and I mean obsessed) with doing my nails. In the space of 4 months, my polish collection has grown from 100 bottles to 200 and it's growing exponentially. 

So, here is my first nail art post; my very first attempt at galaxy nails. I love space. Star Trek: Enterprise is my favourite TV show and ever since I was 5 I wanted to go to space. So, expect a lot more space-themed nails in the future.

Anyway, this particular galaxy design was inspired by when I layered Nail Junkie on top of Starry Starry Night when swatching. I loved the depth of the colours and the holo glitter chunks on top of each other and decided to try and expand it.

I started out with a black base coat (just 1 layer) and topped it off with one layer of Starry Starry Night. This in itself looks great:

I then used a small brush to dab on Alanala & Breanna in a disc-like fashion (it didn't turn out the best but practice makes perfect!)

Afterwards, I added one layer of Nail Junkie to add some holo sparkle and depth before drawing on a few stars with a white polish.  Last but not least was the glossy top coat to make it all shine.

I don't have a proper macro lens yet (it's one of the few lenses I don't have, go figure), so I'm currently using a 50mm lens (on my Nikon) and cropping in and then using a 24mm lens on my Canon (which has one of the most awful UI's in the world). Hopefully in the new year though I'll have saved up enough to purchase an 85mm macro lens.

Thanks for clicking and joining me on my polish journey!

Polishes Used:
- Essie // Ridge Filling Base Coat
- Essie // Licorice (black)
- Essie // Starry Starry Night (new formula) (deep translucent blue with sparkles)
- W7 // Alanala (blue with lilac/lavender shift)
- W7 // Breanna (pink with blue shift)
- Sinful Colours // Nail Junkie (translucent blue/teal with holo sparkles)
- Essie // Blanc (white)
- Essie // Platinum Grade Top Coat