SWATCHES: Maybelline Color Show // Canal Street Coral, Black Edge & Bronze Babe

Canal Street Coral // Light Coral Creme

Collection: Color Show 60 Seconds

Release: ??

Coats: 3

If you search "peach nail polish" on eBay, you will see this polish pop up and it's always out of stock; boo hoo. However, I found it in-stock at my local TK Maxx (where else?) and I immediately bought it because this year is the year of peach/coral/pink shades for me. This one is slightly darker on the nails and has streaks but overall I'm happy with the application.

Black Edge // Black Creme

Collection: Color Show Precise Skinny

Release: ??

Coats: n/a

I was interested in this when I saw it because I thought it would be an excellent black stamping polish as it seems to be specifically for details. For that you will need quite a thick, pigmented polish; alas, this is neither thick nor pigmented. I will admit, it does kinda do well at drawing straight black lines which I guess is the point but I wanted a stamping polish.

Also, this polish will dry up very quickly as you leave the lid off whilst trying to perfect those straight black lines. This is why I prefer using acrylic as I don't have to worry about wasting an entire tube of product in the pursuit of detail.

Bronze babe // Gold Flakie

Collection: Color Show The 24 Carat Nudes

Release: ??

Coats: 3

I actually bought this a while back, a good 4 years I think. I'm currently making my way through my entire collection so I have swatch photos for my app so I thought I'd add this to the post as well. I actually really like this shade; it's one of my favourite gold flaky top coats as you actually get flakes and other shimmery bits. In the swatch I'm wearing 3 coats sponged on my index and middle finger and then 3 normal coats on the others.

Seeing Stars // Pink & Gold Flakies with Stars Design

It's been so long! My last nail art post was a week ago! But, it was birthday and so I went home for 5 days and forgot to schedule anything (I'm now the grand old age of 28...) I also did my nails with a regular base coat *le gasp* and only just took off this look as I'm writing this. I'm quite impressed to be honest. I used the OPI Infinite Shine Brightening Primer with the Avon Mark Gel Shine Top Coat and not one chip. I was quite happy to get it off though because it was so boring wearing the same design for an entire week. I don't know how people do it.

Anyway, I wanted to try and use some shades I rarely use as well as do something vaguely birthday related and came up with this. The inspiration came from Nails Inc who recently released a new duo called Seeing Stars which contains a sheer off-white creme and a clear top coat with star pieces suspended in it. Apart from the stars being gold, it's identical to Ciatés Shooting Star that I received in their Mini Mani Month last year. I blasted it when I got it because the star pieces stick up and it's a nightmare trying to get stars out of it. I still stand by my initial thoughts 10 months later. Bits of fluff kept getting stuck to my nails and washing my hair was quite annoying. Chunky star pieces make for nice looking nail art but are not practical in the slightest. They were also a bugger to remove.

As for the rest of the design, I just really love that Chalky Pink H&M shade and Barely Peach added on top is just a stunning combo. It looks really similar to China Glaze Lawless & Flawless from their Gone West collection. When I first received Barely Peach I was pretty angry as it was nothing like advertised, however I've grown to really appreciate it as a top coat. It really adds another dimension to polishes.

I suppose now though I should really get on with doing some Halloween looks and stop procrastinating. I don't know what it is but when I have to do certain looks, I just get really bored. I love doing random looks that come into my head or copying the design off some mug/candle/blanket I've seen when out and about. Honestly, if I was a full-time blogger, I would be the worst.

Polishes/Tools Used:-

- OPI Infinite Shine // Brightening Primer (base coat)
- H&M // Chalky Pink (dusty pink), Barely Peach (peach flakie)
- Ciaté // Shooting Star (star glitter)

- Avon Mark. // Gel Shine Top Coat

Prismaline // Opal & Tourmaline Design Clairestelle8 September 2019

I'm quite shocked with how these turned out as they were nothing like what I was going for. The birthstone for October is Tourmaline followed by Opal as a back-up. I never understood why you need a 'backup' for birthstones. Tourmaline though apparently comes in almost every colour so I thought I'd do some dark crystals with an opal-inspired background. 

Once I'd finished the look, I realised it looks strikingly similar to the design on the Ciaté Mini Mani Month 2018. I loved the design on that box and was wondering how I could re-create it, now I think I know how thanks to nail powders!

For this look I used some Born Pretty powders and did the 'ol trick of applying it to the stamper, then picking up the stamping design with a black polish. This allows you to get some beautiful duochrome designs going on with little effort. The matte top coat then brings it all together as flakies are the best when they're matte.

Polishes/Tools Used:-

- H&M // Will-O'-The-Wisp (white duochrome)
- Essence Prismatic // Prisma Love (duochrome flaky)
- Nicole Diary // Black Knight (black)

- Barry M // Matte Top Coat
- Born Pretty Powders // Various shades (sorry, they have no markings!)
- Nicole Diary // 086 Plate