Heart Strings // Pink & Rose Gold Glitter Nail Art

Ok, now that valentines is over I suppose I can do some real valentines nail art. I've been wanting to do something with this beautiful OPI shade since I bought it in TK Maxx a while ago. It's from their 2019 Nutcracker collection and one of the 3 glitter shades I don't own from that set. I absolutely love it; it's a stunning mix of red and gold glitter.

This one was super easy and quick as well. Just 2 layers of pink and then lightly dabbing the glitter on using the brush. I contemplated using the sponging method but I didn't see the point for this.

Polishes/Tools used:-

- Cuccio // I Left My Heart In San Francisco (sheer pink)

- OPI // I Pull The Strings (rose gold glitter)

- Revlon Colorstay Gel Envy // Diamond Top Coat

Ready, Set, Glam // Birchbox December 2019 Nails

Ahhh this is so late. But, if you've read my New Year post you'll know that December was a weird one for me and I took a bit of a break so I've just got round to doing Birchbox nails! I also missed November as well but that was a Frozen 2 box and I'm not sure if I even want to do something on that design as it wasn't very inspiring to me.

Anyway, I actually really loved the December Birchbox; it came in a beautiful navy velvet-like bag with rose gold detail. There are actually two looks that I could do for this box and I'm still torn over whether or not to do both...maybe I will later on. This one was super easy and quick and would've been perfect for my Christmas party if I hadn't have procrastinated so much last month.

I'd say my favourite item from the box was the Rituals shower oil as it came in my favourite scent; ritual of Ayurveda. I don't actually use it in the shower; I use as just a body oil on pulse points because it smells so good.

Polishes/Tools used:
- Essie // Surrounded by Studs (deep navy)
- Barry M Liquid Chrome // Razzle Dazzle (pink chrome)
- Mavala // Glam Show (rose gold glitter)
- Essie // Platinum Finish Top Coat

Tutu Bijoux // Pink & Rose Gold Snowflake Nail Design

I keep saying "tutu bijoux" like "boop boop be-doo" and it's starting to annoy me. What a shocker, I'm annoying myself. November was a very annoying month though because Black Friday happened right at the end of my self imposed "No Nail Polish November" and I bought all the fucking nail polish. No joke, I literally bought 25 polishes from H&M. 

And so now I have all this polish I just bought and an advent calendar to swatch. So I did a nail look instead because I can't stop.

I just bought the glitter topper from H&M in their sale for £1 and it's just stunning. I wore 3 coats of it alone for the work Christmas party. It does distract from the snowflakes a little too much though. @paulinaspassions also posted a similar look to this a few days ago using some iridescent hexagonal glitter which suits it more. I wish I'd seen the post before I did this!

Polishes/Tools Used:

- Ciaté // Tutu (pastel pink)

- H&M // Bijoux (Rose Gold & Silver glitter)

- Born Pretty // #4 (white)

- Revlon Colorstay Gel Envy // Diamond Top Coat

- Harunouta // L056 Stamping Plate

SWATCHES: Primark Cosmic Chrome & Liquid Metal // Luna & Penny

I've been avoiding Primark polishes because a) they're all below £2 and b) it will do serious damage to my bank account. They have some beautiful shades but I know I'll just go insane and buy the entire shelf. Today is a good though because I managed to restrain myself and only buy these two new shades. But after seeing how these have performed I may just have to let my wallet take a hit because 

Luna // Rose Gold Glitter/Foil

Holy hell. This...THIS is the formula I want the H&M glitter/foil polishes to be. This is how you do a glitter foil. I am wearing just 1 coat! This stuff is insane! Plus it stamps, what even is this stuff and how is it only £1.50? They have this in gold, silver, blue and green but I'm a rose gold ho so this is my favourite. My only gripe is that it takes a while to dry and is hard to clean up but it's worth it. 

Penny // Orange Metallic/Foil

I have a couple of shades similar to this one in Artistic Revolution's "You're not glistening to me" and Orly "Valley of Fire". However, this one is set in a raspberry base and has a slight gold shift. In the bottle in kind of looks like it's on fire when the light hits it. If you got some fire vinyls, this would be perfect thanks to the gold shift. It doesn't stamp as well as Luna and also dries with some brush strokes if applied haphazardly but for the price I can't complain much.

// Verdict

Very impressed. And all Primark items are now cruelty free as well. I'm not wearing any top coat in these photos either; they're incredibly glossy and put some expensive brands to shame. Couldn't recommend them more.

SWATCHES: Soulcal & Co // Heat Shimmer & Bikini

Alright everyone, let's hop on the nostalgia train back to 2008 when we all shopped at Republic and wore SoulCal & Co. Does anyone even remember Republic? We had a shop in Blackpool town centre but it shut down years ago. It had a Schuh store on the bottom floor and I would get my converse and DCs from there because I was an edgy emo/skater (who did no skating) who refused to grow up after leaving highschool (I can gladly say I have now grown up....somewhat...I may be into the whole 'basic' aesthetic right now but once an emo, always an emo. Pretty sure this entire section is the name of a Fall Out Boy song.....).

Funnily enough, whilst writing this post I went back and did a little research and it turns out SoulCal is an own brand of Republic! Republic was bought out by Sports Direct and merged with their USC brand. My apologies to anyone not from the UK reading this but I always thought SoulCal was an American brand. It's still going as well and looking very much like the Hollister line up back in 2010.

I was even more surprised to find out that you can still order this set from Boots online! I found this set in TK Maxx and thought it was some old stock that they had acquired (which it still might be) and for £5 I thought I'd give it a go as it's pink, rose gold and has palm trees on it. Like I said, I'm totally basic now.

Heat Shimmer // Rose Gold Foil

I bought the set for this shade because it doesn't get more Pinterest than this. It surprised me a little as it took a good 4 coats on the swatch wheel but only 2 on the nails. It also has a light duo-chrome finish as it appears to shine a little peach when the light hits it. I love how it looks in the bottle with the brown palm trees so I attempted to recreate that quickly and I really love the result. It does dry with a few streaks in it but unless your super up close you can't really see that. Pleasantly surprised.

Bikini // Bright Pink Foil

Well it doesn't get more sparkly princess than this. It's not a cheap pink though which is again; surprising. I feel like there was a shade from the OPI Christmas calendar just like this. Looking at the swatch wheel it looks very similar to Reykajavik Has All the Hotspots (which is a little darker). Colour-wise though it matches Princesses Rule (how fitting) but that has a shimmer finish. I'd say this is better than both of those though. It needs at least two coats as it's a bit sheer but I'm surprisingly happy with it.

// Verdict

Relatively shocked. I won't lie; I bought them just because I liked how they looked, I wasn't expecting them to perform but Heat Shimmer is really beautiful in the sun. I perhaps paid a little too much for them, I think they should've been £1 each really but I got a cute emery board in the shape of surfboard as well so all it's not all bad. If you like the look of them, they've got loads of them in TK Maxx right now.

....pssst. I used the MoYou London Tropical 31 plate for the design And Zoya 'Codie'.

Hearts // #Clairestelle8 Valentines Challenge

So I'm trying my best to catch up thanks to this amazing cold that decided to grace me with it's presence and this is my design for the 12th which was hearts. On the first entry I did the exact same white marble design on one finger (albeit with a hollow heart) and I liked it so much I just really wanted to do it again. I also didn't have any other heart stamps so this had to do. It also doesn't get much more basic than this; white marble and rose gold? Pinterest is gonna be all over this shit.

I wanted to do something a little more adventurous but I had time constraints and so I had to do a design that was relatively quick. The next prompt is Anti-Valentines which is way more up my street because eff all the happy people in love....can you tell I'm alone....bloody happy people.

How I did it:-

I started out with two coats of the French Tip polish (which is ridiculous for a French tip polish...annoyed I spent £2.50 on it now) followed by the marble print in I Wonder Where using the Explorer 33 plate. I applied a matte top coat and then used stamps from the Explorer plate and BP L002 in Golden Hour.

Polishes/Tools Used:-
- Avon True Colour Nail Experts // French Manicure Tip (....white)

- Cuccio Colour // I Wonder Where (light grey)
- Ciaté // Golden Hour (rose gold)

- Barry M // Matte Top Coat
- MoYou London Stamping Plate // Explorer 33
- Born Pretty Stamping Plate // Valentines Day BP-L002

Under The Basic Sea // Mint & Pink Mermaid Nails

I told you I couldn't resist putting a load of stamping designs on it! I tried to do some reverse stamping as well and ruined my pinkie and the middle finger *le sigh*. I just received one of the new Born Pretty Sea World plates that I ordered early last month and I had to do something with it. I think mermaid nails are some of my favourite designs to do but I may invest in one of the new MoYou London plates which have them coloured in already for you because clearly I need more practice.

How I did it:-

The ombre was done in this post, but basically it was a 1 layer Crush in Lake Como followed by 4 sponged layers of Crush & Lake. I then used the BP-109 plate for the scale pattern and coloured some scales in using Golden Hour and Stop, Shop & Roll. The other designs came from the Sea World S001 plate with the same two shades. When reverse stamping, you might need to apply a layer of top coat on your nail before you stamp as you could end up ruining it (like I did on the pinkie...urgh).

Polishes/Tools Used:-

- Cuccio Colour // Crush In Lake Como (sheer pink creme)

- Zoya // Lake (sheer mint creme)
- Ciaté Gelology // Golden Hour (metallic rose gold)
- Morgan Taylor // Shop, Stop & Roll (teal multi-shift shimmer)

- Revlon // Quick Dry Top Coat

- Barry M // Plumpy Top Coat
- Born Pretty Stamping Plate // BP-109
- Born Pretty Stamping Plate // Sea World S001

Dark Wonder // Look Fantastic November 2018 Beauty Box Nails

This one is coming at ya a bit late this month but I got it done eventually. I mainly had a hard time visualising what I wanted to do; especially since last months was so lackluster...but then so was the box and colours so I didn't really have much to work with. This months was much better, although I wish the entire box was the same design as the bath bomb, but you can't have everything.

I have around 400 polishes now as well and I still had trouble matching the grape purple shade of the box....I have a feeling this problem will never go away. That said, after I stuck a matte top coat on the blue shade; perfect match,

The middle finger is actually a gradient of 4 shades based on the background of the little magazine that you get with the box. It looked a little boring by itself once I had done the leaves so I free handed *shudder* the LF and squiggles with a rose gold shade. As you can see it's not great....I've just ordered one of the typography plates from MoYou though (thank you Black Friday) and it contains lots of letters in a standard font that I can use going forward. Although the dry brushing effect kinda matches the style so it's not completely awful.

The other base coats are Knee Highs and Venom with a matte top coat. After that I used Tropical 36 and Summer Vibes 03 to create the layered leaves. On the blue nails I used a combination of Feeling Free and August Plum and then on the purple nail I used Knee Highs with The Antidote stamped on top (look at me using these Mani & Lola Shades!).

Even though the clean up is a little messy (I'd just pushed my cuticles back earlier that day so they're a little unruly looking; they look better after a day or two) I actually really love how this turned out. It's both moody and perfect for winter but glamorous thanks to the addition of Golden Hour. I originally had the toucan on the index finger coloured in as well, but I went outside the lines and messed up the beak so I took it off and started again. 

Polishes/Tools Used:

- Ciaté Gelology // Knee Highs (dark shimmery blue)

- Barry M Superdrug Limited Edition // Venom (purple shimmer with gold shift)

- Orly Breathable Treatment + Color // The Antidote (dark plum)

- Orly Breathable Treatment + Color // Feeling Free (dark lavender)

- NYC In a New York Minute Quick Dry // Lincoln Square Lavender (dark pink)

- MoYou London Nail Lacquer // August Plum (light plum/purple)

- Essie // Ruffles and Feathers (teal green)

- Zoya // Codie (very dark cool brown)

- Ciaté Gelology // Golden Hour (rose gold shimmer)

- Barry M // Matte Top Coat

- MoYou London Stamping Plate // Tropical 36

- MoYou London Stamping Plate // #SummerVibes 03

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)