Won't Get Foiled Again // White Marble & Gold Foil Nail Art

I love this look, I think I've got the marble smoosh technique down. It's a shame that the top coat smeared the design and I have a broken half nail for an index finger. It reminds me of that scene in Scary Movie 2 when the butler guy is like "take my strong hand!"

Smooshing is so easy as well and requires minimal cleanup. I always start with with one coat of the main base colour (in this case it would be white), then paint a layer of the same colour onto a silicone mat. Whilst it's still wet, I use a dotting tool to run veins of the second polish through the base and then quickly pick it up with a stamper and smoosh it a little to help them mix together. You then just simply stamp on your nails.

After adding a matte top coat (which was the smear offender), I then pulled out some gold leaf foil sheets. The ones I used are from Mont Marte and cost me £3 for 25 sheets. Yes you read that correctly. Gold leaf is crazy expensive when you buy the ones that are specifically marketed for nails, all you need to do is buy the gold leaf sheets used in crafts for a fraction of the price. To get the little flakes, you can pick up parts of the foil with a stamper and break it up into little pieces and stamp it on the nail. Gold leaf can be a little tricky to handle and I find the stamper trick keeps it all from going all over the place.

Polishes/Tools Used:

- Nicole Diary // Born Perfect (white)

- A-England // Camelot (black)

- Mont Marte // Gold Leaf

Meebox // Pool Party Edition

Eurgh, I miss Meebox. I wish they would bring back their monthly subscription as it was so much fun and I completely missed it. Last month they had a huge sale and every box was 50% off so I indulged in two that I've been after ever since I saw them.

This Pool Party edition was the August 2018 box and features 8 full size items from polishes to stamping plates and nail wraps. This is what I love about Meebox; they feature diverse and interesting products to  create a truly themed box that will get the juices flowing. Maniology's Mani x Me is almost there but it's only 1 brand and doesn't feature glitter or other nail art tools and Mani & Lola just feature moisturisers and the same rotation of polish brands.

Puck A Fairy // A-England

RRP £11

Collection: Shakespeare's Fairies

Release Date: April 2018

What can I say, it's A-England and they knock it out of the park when it comes to luxurious holos. This is a perfect shade to include in a pool party box as its chock full of glitter and holo pieces and dries with a super hi-shine finish. This is a shade I currently don't have in my A-England collection and I'm so happy I have it now because it's absolutely beautiful. Puck A Fairy is a bright aquamarine one coat wonder that surprisingly stamps quite well on top of light colours. I think I may have to invest in the rest of the collection now...

Dragon Fruit // Barry M

RRP £3.99

Collection: Gelly Hi-Shine

Release Date: Spring 2013

Oh man, I actually remember when they first released this collection and everyone at work was obsessed with it because of the amazing pastel colour range and high shine finish. My first shade was Blueberry and I think it could be classed as vintage now seeing as how I bought it back in 2012. This one has a little bit of shimmer in it, but it's extremely subtle. This is a true jelly with no streaks and you can use 1 coat for more of a sheer look or build it up for a shiny gel-like look. I love the shade, it's pink but not hot pink and pairs well with the other box items. I'm wearing 2 coats and it did take a long time to dry but I just leave it and watch a YouTube video for 30 mins and then I'm done.

Eternally Emerald // IZ Beauty

RRP (no longer sold, was £6)

Collection: Crystal Vision

Release Date: Spring 2018

It's always nice to discover a new brand however it appears that this brand no longer exists which is a shame. This is almost a one-coater and has a similar formula to A-England polishes. It's also a holo and in the shade it looks a bit "meh" but when the light hits it...damn. You can't overwork this shade though and you need to make sure the brush is loaded up because if you keep going over it, it starts to streak and separate.

Forget Me Not // IZ Beauty
RRP (no longer sold, was £6)

Collection: Blooming Beautiful
Release Date: Spring 2017

This is a nice pastel lilac creme that I'm pretty sure I have somewhere. It reminds me a lot of the shades in the 2018 Wanderlust collection by Cuccio. It needs at least two shades to achieve full opacity and is quite hard to apply. I found it didn't spread as nice as Eternally Emerald but it looks good in photos.

Other Items

The box also included some pool nail wraps, hexagon 'glitter' (it's actually just paper), a double ended stamp pen and a small stamping plate. I really appreciated the variety however I would've preferred some actual glitter instead of confetti of Which Meebox have labelled as worth 98p but it has 75p written on it...

I actually already have one of the double ended stamp tools by Born Pretty and I used it once and found it a bit useless as the stamp is super small and not see through (I prefer the clear ones now) and the sponge end can only be used once if your not using paint that can be washed out. The nail wraps are nice but, I'll be honest, I rarely use wraps.

// Verdict

Overall I really enjoyed this collection and I'm super happy I decided to add it to my collection. The holo shades really are something else and I've already managed to make one easy look that looks super cool. I think they could've picked a better stamping plate as I only really like the scales and drinks, everything else looks a bit cheap and weird but the polishes more than make up for it.

Unfortunately this box is now sold out however you can go forth and purchase some of the shades or put your own Pool Party box together using this as inspiration!

Black Forest Gateaux-y // Purple Drag Marble Nails

So I've been obsessing over this video from the Russian nail artist extraordinaire; Sveta Sanders, and been wondering if I could possibly re-create it. She makes it look so easy; it's not fair.

This was my first time trying this though and for a first attempt I don't think it turned out all that shabby. In fact I really like it and I'll be trying it again. It was much easier than watermarbling or smooshing. The cleanup was quicker and I didn't need to use any liquid latex. I think with practice you could use this technique for instant space/geode nails.

I took 93 images of this look; that's how much I couldn't stop staring at my nails. The holo though...I forgot how much I love that Barry M holo topper. 

As you can see, the lines in my attempt are no where near as clean as Sveta's but the glittery shine from the A-England shades make this a straight up galaxy look.

The index finger was the one I did first and that's why it looks so...awful compared to the others. You also need a thick yet runny white polish to drop the other shades into. I stupidly used a quick dry one the first time. I need to buy some more 'throw-away' white polish as you can go through quite a bit doing a look like this.

Polishes/Tools Used:-

- Collection 7 Day Wear // White Out (white)
- A-England // Mustardseed A Fairy (strawberry holo), Maxim (purple holo), Camelot (black)
- Barry M // Diamond Glitter

- Avon Mark. // Gel Shine Top Coat

Little Cactai // Clairestelle8 August 2019 Challenge

I've been wanting to do this look for so long, I've just never had time. For context, I bought a plant pot from TK Maxx about a year ago with this design on it and every time I looked at it I would think "that would make great nails". Well the time finally come and I loved wearing these. My peel off basecoat held up strangely as well for 3 days of wear. Considering I expect a mani to last about 6 hours with my peel base, the polish gods were clearly shining down upon me.

How I did it:
I started off with just 1 coat of Don't cry over spilled milkshakes and then 1 coat of sweet memories. I then mixed some acetone with Giant Peach to give it that glazed painted look. Using the cactai design from Explorer 33 I stamped first using Little Pickle and then followed it up with Dragon and deliberately stamped it a little off.

Polishes/Tools Used:-

- OPI // Don't cry over spilled milkshakes (sheer white)
- OPI // Sweet Memories (sheer pink)
- Sally Hansen Hard as Nails // Giant Peach (peach/pink)

- MoYou London // Little Pickle (bright lime)
- A-England // Dragon (forest green holo)
- MoYou London Plate // Explorer 33 

SWATCHES: A-England // London Vibes 2019 Collection

I can't believe it, I have a full A-England collection upon it's release. At £28 for all 4 though I couldn't exactly say no because holy hell, these are some unbelievably beautiful polishes. They're an amazing collection of purple/pink hues with a flaming holo and I can't stop staring at them. I saw Camden Town for the first time and just knew I had to have it in my collection.

I really wanted the British Subcultures collection released at the same time as well but I had to make a decision; I can't have all the polish, well not yet anyway.

Kings Road // Grey Beige with Flaming Holo

Sort of an off silver with lilac, pink and neutral tones, this is a soft shade that will make the perfect background for floral double stamp mani's; I can already see it now with my the new Botanical plates from MoYou London.

I also really like the lilac shift. It's kind of like Kalinka in that respect but that's a little darker and definitely more grey than this one. As with practically 90% of A-England this is ready in 1 coat and it actually dries quite fast, within about 2-3 minutes which is new for A-England as they take an age to dry. Perhaps I'll be able to do some ombre's with this collection.

Carnaby Street // Beige Pink with Flaming Holo

Urgh, this shade, I have no words; it's stunning. I love soft pink shades and this shade is perfect for casual occasions but then the light hits it and hello holo. The holo chunks in this one are also a lot larger than Kings Road and so it's very shiny and glittery. This is such an elegant shade.

Covent Garden // Coral Pink with Flaming Holo

I almost thought this was a salmon pink. It's very similar to a shade from the China Glaze OMG flashback collection; it does suit my skintone wonderfully though. This one is a little streakier than the other but if you take your time and don't drag the polish by doing too many strokes you can achieve a flawless mani in one coat.

Camden Town // Dark Terracotta with Flaming Holo

I'd say this is more purple than terracotta but that's what it's officially described as. Either way this is my favourite as it's perfect. It's very similar to Maxim from the Return to Manderley collection but it's ever so slightly darker. The holo on this one though is spectacular as the colours just seem so much more vibrant and defined.

// Verdict

Another amazing and beautiful collection from A-England who knock it out of the park every time. I don't think anyone can do pigmented holo polishes quite like AE and make them look so refined and delicate. Out of all the shades I recommend Camden Town the most followed by Carnaby Street. A must buy.

A-England

London Vibes Collection

£11 each or £28 for all 4

SWATCHES: A-England // Mustardseed A Fairy, Crown of Thistles & Waltz of the Flowers

Urgh, my poor bank account this month. With the new releases from MoYou London and my inability to stop buying things from Born Pretty, I thought I would've sated my nail art desires this month. But no, A-England had to make their Gem of Month two STUNNING shades that I don't have. And who can resist A-England? Especially at £4 each? They also still have some polishes left in their outlet...so I bought 4 more sneaky polishes at £3.75 each......This post will contain April's gem of the month shades plus another one I bought and then I'll do a second post on the other A-England shades I have...I need to start doing more swatch posts.

Mustardseed A Fairy // holo coral pink shimmer

Oh jeez, oh man. This shade is just *italian hand gesture*. I knew this would be something special from the moment I saw it and now I have it on I never want it to come off. It's like holographic strawberry jam. And boy the holo is strong with this one. It's quite a chunky polish compared to some other A-England but that just makes it better. It also have a little bit of a iridescent shine to it so it's not boring when you can't see the holo. This one is a little bit sheerer than most AE shades and I'd say 2 coats and your good to go. It does take an age to dry though so it's good that 1 coat looks great by itself. I am mesmorised by this shade; I can't stop staring at it.

If there was a ever a holo polish to buy; it's this one.

Crown of Thistles // holo amethyst shimmer

This is an electric purple that makes me want to put on some epic rock music and go to the club lol. The holo isn't as strong in this one and it has a slight satin finish but it's still a great, fun shade. It feels like this is the type of holo finish the China Glaze OMG collection were going for as this shade and Mustardseed a Fairy are eerily similar to BFF and TTYL, however they did originally come out in 2008, so who's copying who? Either way, these are far superior.

This is a one coater (like most AE shades) but beware again of that drying time.

Waltz of the Flowers // holo light blue to purple multichrome with hints of lilac

You know, I have a few of these grey-ish bullet coloured chrome shades that shift between grey and pink but this is on another planet. The holo keeps this alive at all angles from a dark deep grey to a light lilac. The difference between the two though really gives an added depth to the shade.

I can tell this is an older shade as it has one of the older thinner brushes and it's quite a sheer formula. Not streaky but does require two coats for maximum effect. This was the last shade I added from the outlet as I had already chosen a grey shade and this one looked to be a little different. It's not another silver holo polish and definitely stands out on it's own.

A-England

Gem of the Month

The Outlet

Wedding // #Clairestelle8 Valentines Challenge

Since my last nails were ridiculously wedding-y I struggled to decide what to do for this prompt as I didn't want to incorporate lace/flowers into the design again. When pinteresting wedding nails it would appear that your nails must either be; sheer pink, pink with sparkles, rose gold, white, white lace, pink, pink with white lace, pink with white lace and rose gold sparkles or nude with rose gold sparkles....I see pink is a recurring theme here. So, I decided to do...pink nails with sparkles....so original.

To be fair though I did attempt some other blue and beige nails but I hated how they turned out so did these instead. I completely forgot I had Anne of Cleves though and it's just such a beautiful pink shimmer that I knew I had to use it for this prompt.

This design is just 1 coat of Crush in Lake Como with Anne of Cleves sponged at the tips until I was happy with the coverage, followed by top coat. I love how simple yet elegant it is. You can't see my thumb in any of the photos because I stamped some white lines on it to add some detail but it just looks weird. I think this gradient look just kinda speaks for itself.

Polishes/Tools Used:-
- Cuccio Colour // Crush in Lake Como (sheer pale pink)

- A-England // Anne of Cleves (rose holo)

- Avon Mark Gel Shine // Top Coat

SWATCHES: A England // Katherine of Aragon & Katherine Parr

Oh my godddddd, I'm in love. I first heard of A England when browsing through very old Simply Nailogical blog posts and fell in love with the regal, holo-tastic shades. I started following them on instagram and lo and behold they do an offer of 2 polishes for £8 every month; which is great because these cost £11 a pop. 

Lasts months duo were Katherine of Aragon (I just want to say Aragorn...like every time) and Katherine Parr. They just arrived in the post (with free delivery, so £8 you, go check it out, it's a steal) and I've never wanted to slap some polish on my nails more.

I am gobsmacked by the performance of this polish. I thought KoA would be this sheer gold metallic number that would take several coats but no. In one coat this stuff is practically ready to go. And the holo shift; I can't even. 

This is my first time buying polish from an 'indie' brand. And by indie, I mean polishes that you can't get from the store. These are polishes though that don't need anything else; I would happily wear these shades on their own for a week. Which is a challenge for me as I like to change my polish pretty much daily. 

Onto the polishes though....

Katherine of Aragon // A England (10ml - £11)

Katherine of Aragon is a holographic antique champagne that I swear colour-shifts into a darker colour around the edges; although my eyes may be playing tricks on me. You really see the gold though when you sponge this shade; but you do lose a lot of the holo. It's definitely better brushed on however it takes about 5 years to dry, even with a quick dry top coat. When sponged though it dries within a minute.

In fact, I think that's the downfall of these polishes; they're beautiful but they take forever to dry. I ended up doing these swatches several times because they kept smudging or lifting off. However, due to the quality of the polish and that you can get full opacity in one coat it's not a deal breaker.

Katherine Parr // A England (10ml - £11)

On the website this is described as a "lapis lazuli blue scatter holo with a hint of lavender and a subtle pink blush" and whereas this is a stunning lapis lazuli shade it's hard to see the holo and almost impossible to the see pink. These swatches were taken under two daylight toned light boxes and a LED halogen lamp but I still couldn't capture the holo. In broad daylight it's hard to see as well. Not that I'm angry because the detail is still stunning and there's some holo in there but it's more subtle than KoA. For the most part it looks like a blue mixed with silver glitter.

Another one-coater and it's done but even with a quick dry top coat it takes hours to properly 'set'.

For November they have Camelot & Perceval which are nowhere near as stunning as these shades however I may have to add them to the cart because I really just want to build up my indie collection more. There are several shades on their website though that have me drooling; like Anne Cleves so after Christmas I may just have to shell out on some more A England.