Recent Purchase: Nail Polish

I've never tried a Jessica polish before, so I was very happy when my mum brought this one home after a TK Maxx shop. She proudly told me it was only £2, which I think is pretty impressive!

Its a completely different colour in the bottle to on the nails; its basically a clear polish with a slight shimmer to it when you put a couple of coats on. Its very subtle, but just looks a little more interesting than clear nails.

My friend actually bought me this but I'd been eyeing it up for a while. Its a Topshop one- I think its in the shade Float. Its a pretty pale pink to add to my ever expanding pink polish collection, (although I never think of myself as a pink person). I like Topshop polishes because you only need about 2 coats to build a really nice even colour. This is one of the mini polishes which I also love because the consistency of the polish tends to go gloopy before I actually use it all up. 

Helen x 

The Season For Sparkle

When the decorations are unpacked and on the tree, the lights strung up and the tinsel on every surface, you know it’s time for some sparkle on your fingers.

A glitter polish is a really quick, easy way to get the festive spirit on your nails. These are my favourites this Christmas.

Barry M has a very good range of glitter nail polish which are easy to apply and last for around 5 days. Their only disadvantage is that they take a lot of effort and polish remover to get off (like most glitter polishes) but I reckon it’s worth it. Both of these work well layered up on their own, or as a top coat. The green is a recent buy in time for Christmas-it reminds me of a Christmas tree and has little silver stars in it-how could I resist?

The Barry M polish with the lovely glittery lid has recently vanished from my room (really need to have a tidy) but it too works very well on a bare nail as the glitter is pretty concentrated. 

I like to wear this OPI silver layered on top of a dark red or purple, or to add an accent nail.

Similarly, this Ciate silver is great for layering. The glitter in this one is more concentrated than the OPI so it could be worn on its own.

Hope you all have a wonderful Christmas

Helen x

Quick, Fast Drying Polishes

My favourite polishes are the ones that you can wear without a base coat and dry quickly but still look great after a few days. A hard task? Not for these polishes, the ones I come back to when I want a pretty nail without the effort.

Nude or pale pink polishes are great when you're in a hurry as they can be worn without a base coat and it isn't obvious if they chip a little. The gold looks very different when on; it seems to have a pink undertone and needs only two coats to get a colour that will last for days. 

I love Rimmel Polishes as they have wide brushes which cover your nail in two strokes. Their '60 Seconds Dry' range is great-lots of colours to choose from that really do dry in 60 seconds. This one is
 a slightly metallic, shimmery pink. The blue is in '503 Mind The Gap, Victoria' a lovely powder blue.

This Maybelline 40 seconds dry is in 'Turquiose Lagoon' and really does dry in 40 seconds. 

Helen x

Nail Polish Storage

I used to house my nail polish addiction in the top shelf of my bathroom cabinet but as I bought more and more, it stopped working as well. It became more difficult to see what colours I had, and therefore, where the gaps were. 

Initially, I only put one of these plastic nail polish stands in my basket, but quickly realised what good value they were, and just how much nail polish I have! These say they hold 30 bottles each on average, but I have 64 bottles and have only just run out of room, though obviously it depends on the size of the bottles.

                              

I've arranged mine in colour order, which not only looks pretty, but has the advantage of enabling me to see what colours and shades I'm lacking in (and so gives me an excuse to buy more!) When they're all laid out like this, I don't think it looks like I have that many and so I've carried on buying more polish with the result I've now run out of room. I think another Amazon order may need to be placed soon...

                                  

Does anyone else have a weakness for nail polish? 

Helen x 

Summer/Holiday Nail Polishes

The sun is shining (and we seem to have the back end of a hurricane here in the UK at the moment, but that doesn't sound as good) and it's the time of year when lots of people jet off on their holidays or wish they were!

These are my favourite nail polishes for summer (but I'll happily wear them all year round)

                                          

       Barry M 'Key Lime'              M&S 'Golden Glaze'

       OPI White                     Soap and Glory 'Pink Soda'

           Rimmel '503 Mind the gap, Victoria' (What a random name!)

                Barry M 'Bubblegum'

                    Sally Hansen '500 Razzle-Berry'

All of these polishes look great with a tan and are just really lovely colours. I think that  textured polishes, such as the Barry M confetti or sugar range are great for holidays, as they don't chip as quickly, so you can spend more time enjoying your holiday!

Helen x

Prom

On Friday it was my school prom, which was a lovely way to end 5 years with some wonderful people. 

There is no official dress code, and the girls came in a combination of long and short dresses (and one boy came in skinny jeans and trainers) 

I knew I wanted quite a simple dress, and finally found one from Topshop. It's by Jones and Jones, one of the brands at Topshop. Aside from being beautiful, it's also designed and made in the UK, which is great. I paired it with red heels from New Look (these were great as they weren't too high, so I could actually walk in them without falling over, which is always a bonus) My gold clutch was also from New Look. As my clutch was quite sparkly and eye catching, I went for simple red nails-I used the No7 Speed Dry Polish in shade 50 Siren. I didn't want to spend a huge amount on prom, as after all, it is just one night (though admittedly a long one, as I didn't get back till 2am) and found that shops like Topshop, New Look, Boohoo and Accessorize had some lovely dresses, shoes and accessories, so definitely check them out.

My hair took over an hour and a half, due to the amount of hair I have, but it was definitely worth it-I loved it and got lots of compliments.

Prom was an amazing night, and it was so nice seeing everyone dressed up and it was lovely to have an excuse to wear a pretty dress and get my hair done. I didn't want to take off my dress or undo my hair at the night!

Helen x

NOTD:Quick and easy

I've been really enjoying bright, spring like colours on my nails at the moment. This week I'm wearing MUA's pretty baby pink (I don't know the actual shade name or number-sorry) To make it a bit different I used my nail art set to draw a pink line a third of the way into my nail. I then used my Barry M clear polish over the top. 

Helen x

New Nail Polish

Despite realising I actually have plenty of nail polish and promising to myself that I wouldn't buy any more for a while, I've recently bought two polishes in the space of a two days. Ooops...

I have two MUA nail polishes and for £1, they're surprisingly good so when I saw this pink MUA polish, I couldn't resist buying it! It's a very pretty pink and is perfect for spring. I applied two coats of this and it lasts a good few days.

Recently I was in Swindon and my mum and I had a few hours to kill so we popped into the Designer Outlet Centre. I went into The Cosmetics Company Store and it was AMAZING. I managed to resist temptation to buy lots of Origin Skincare and Clinique makeup I don't need, and eventually settled on this Mac Nail Polish, which I got for a bargain £7!

It's called Screening Room and is a dark green with a hint of blue. I had to apply 2-3 coats to get a really even, rich colour, but it dries really quickly. I applied a topcoat but it began to chip after two days which I was a bit disappointed by.

Now my Nail Polish collection has expanded even more, I really won't be buying any more for a while! Probably...

Helen x

Quick pretty nail colour

I painted my nails yesterday so I thought I'd do a quick post to show you them. 

I painted my nails with a clear base coat and then applied Make Up Academy's Plum Noir which is a lovely rich,as the name suggests, plum colour! I applied two coats of this to get a really intense even colour. I then applied a clear top coat and then used my O.P.I silver glitter polish on the ends of my thumb nails just to make it a bit more interesting. 

Hope you liked this post!

 Helen x

Beauty Bargain of the Month

Each month I'm going to post about an amazing sale or offer that's going on, or just a really good product at a really good price.

I've never really been to Poundland before but I went in last weekend and I was really impressed. There was lots of branded shower gels and face wipes which I was tempted by, but then I spotted the nail polish! There was lots of different brands and colours, but there seemed to be a lot of Sally Hansen polish. I chose 3 polishes, but there was so many good colours I could easily have away with more. I picked out two Sally Hansen polishes and a Maybelline polish. 

First is this Sally Hansen polish. It's a magnetic nail polish which I'd never used before but it was really easy to use and gives a great effect. It's a really nice colour.

This is my second Sally Hansen polish. I haven't tried it yet but it's a sugar coat polish, so it has a textured finish. It's a nice deep teal colour, and I'm looking forward to trying it.

This is the last polish I bought. It's a Maybelline 40 seconds dry and its a lovely turquoise colour.  I like quick dry polishes as it means you don't have to sit around for ages waiting for them to dry, so this is perfect for me.

Please let me know if you've found any beauty bargains!

Helen x

Best Winter Nail Polish Shades

I love to paint my nails and I got a lot of nail polish for Christmas so I've been painting them even more recently as I want to try out all my new shades! I thought I'd do a post on my favourite winter nail polishes, as although I don't exclusively wear them in Winter, they are very good wintery colours. 

First is this lovely O.P.I deep red colour. I got a set of 10 mini O.P.I polishes for Christmas and they're a great size as I tend to find that polish goes gloopy before you run out of it, so I end up throwing out bottles before they're empty which is a waste of money. This red is so lovely and is a great colour as you can see. I'd never tried O.P.I before but I was quite pleased with the results. I really like the brush-it's nice and wide, although I did find it a little tricky to get an even covering.

Next are some paler shades. The one on the left is a Rimmel 60 seconds dry in the shade 510 Euphoria and on the right is another O.P.I miniature though I'm not sure of the name as it doesn't give it on the bottle. I love Rimmel polishes as the brush is really wide and so they're very easy to apply-I need to get some more! This is  lovely pinky shimmery colour and can be quite subtle depending on how many layers you apply. The polish on the right is a pale pink and is really subtle so would be suitable for school. 

On the left is a Barry M polish. It's a limited edition glitter and is shade 343. I apply two layers of this to get a nice solid layer of glitter, but this would also look great on top of another colour. I love a good bit of glitter to make dull rainy days brighter! On the right is a Make Up Academy colour in the shade Koala Bear. I like this but you have to apply two shades, but it looks really good with big baggy jumpers!

Next are some more reds. On the left is a W7 polish which my friend got me. I'd never have even looked at W7 polish,  but I quite like this one. I normally put this on one finger and then paint the rest a brighter red. It is red with red glitter dispersed in it and gives a nice coverage. On the right is an O.P.I slightly shimmery dark red which is a good winter shade and very Christmassy.

Hope you all liked this post and please let me know what your favourite winter shades are!

Helen x

Paperchase Nail Art

For Christmas I received some Paperchase nail stickers. I'd never used nail stickers before, but they were surprisingly easy to apply. You get 24 stickers in a pack, so there are enough to do them twice. You paint your nails with a base coat, allow it to dry and then select the right size sticker. You have to place it quite carefully on the nail to avoid any wrinkles and then smooth it down. To help them adhere to my nails, I held a hairdryer over them for about 10 seconds. Then cut the sticker a bit shorter, fold the excess over your nail and gently file it off before applying a base coat. It took me quite a long time to apply them, but I am a bit of a perfectionist! They lasted for 5 days and were only slightly chipped when I took them off. They were £4.50, so considering you get two sets, I think they're really good value.

Helen x