2011 polish of the year - Orlys Fowl Play

This took no deciding at all for me....its kind of a no brainer that Fowl play from Orly’s Birds of a Feather collection is my 2011 polish of the year, Its no secret that its a dupe for Merry Midnight by OPI and even though they are identical i think Orly has a better formula then OPI and id bet my bottom dollar that you have this in your stash and if you don't then you need to get it.

I very nearly pass this one by, my friend Ruth offered to send it to me after she had a spare, i said i had a Cheaper dupe for it, which id never used so i said yeah OK IL take it and omg I'm so pleased i do because its become my fave polish, its very rare i use a polish more then twice, but this one is my go to when i cant decide which other to wear.

For me 2 layers was enough, i love the way it made my nails look, and they felt much stronger with the polish on, they didn't chip, crack or peal and the polish still looked good after a weeks wear, in fact the photos below where taken about a week after i painted my nails.....To keep it looking shiny and fresh all i did was apply a new coat of Seche every few days.

Anyway I'm not going to ramble on about it, because the photos speak for them self....Congratulation Orly, you are my 2011 Nail polish of the year.

300 Follower Give-Away

I finally made it to 300 Followers and im proud to announce my BarryM Crackle Give away.

BarryM Nail effects - White Forest - Blue Print - Pink Fizz - Purple Rain - Gold Glitter [new]

Nails Inc - Tate & BarryM Red Glitter

I had my Christmas nails planned for almost 2 months, sadly i didn't get to do what i wanted, see my Granddad passed away on the 17th of December, and his Funeral was on the 23rd of December so I've had other things n my mind other then my nails.

I didn't want to keep the Black on that id pained my nails in for the Funeral, and my Grandad used to love seeing my nails as i had a different colour on each time i visited him lol so to not of done anything with them would of disappointed him.

Ii did a quick manicure on Christmas Eve, i used Nails Inc in Tate as a base and BarryM Red Glitter on top and i have to admit i love the Glitter, lol many of you that know me will know i hate glitter, so to find one i liked is a surprise even for me..

Sorry for the crappy way my nails look ......i filed them after i painted them and i didn't clean them up as well as i normally do ...oooopps

R.I.P Grandad i loved you more then i ever showed you, but then i know you knew that.

Nail Mail from the lovley Ruth

So once again i done a swap with my friend Ruth, (she is awesome for swapping) i think this was the largest swap I've done, to others it may be small but to me its the most I've swapped in one go.

It took a couple of weeks to to collect what we wanted but we got there in the end lol

Here is what i got....from to right

Catrice:-  Marilyn & Me - Sydney - New york - I wear my sunglasses at night - Lavenderlicious

Essence:- Blue Addicted- Try'in to be cool - Fall for Me

(I got the Blue Addicted for swapping, so if ya interested then let me know)

Xtreme Wear Wet Cement -  Orly Fowl Play - China Glaze Sea Spray - - I'm not sure what colour the Basic is?

Essence 24 hr hand cream and boy is this delish, it smells so nice, Essence nail oil and a cute little file.

Thank you Ruth this has to be my favourite swap I've done since getting in to swapping....and i look forward to our next swap xxx

Catrice - Lost In Mud

Ive wanted this polish for a while now, and thanks to a great lady called Ruth i now have it, for some reason I'm getting in to this kind of shade more and more and its a hard shade to name lol some say its a medium brown creme, personally id say a mushroom/Taupe colour but it also has a grey undertone to it.

I've seen a few bloggers say its a dupe to Particuliere by Chanel and yes OK i can see why,  I dont have it to compare them but seeing other images i think they are close in colour but to me i think Particuliere is darker, but not by much.....i also think there would be a lot of polishes with a shade like it in their collection, but if you cant get Catrice where you are and don't have a friend like Ruth to get it for you then you would be able to find an alternative easily, like OPI over the Taupe or even Essie Mink Muffin

I normally do a full hand shot when taking my photos, and i did take the photo, i just cant find it so I'm sorry there is no full hand shot but the photos below still show how lovely it is.

Splatter Mani.

After painting my nails with NYC Pinstripe White, i got board after a couple days and decided to funk it up, I've been wanting to try a splatter look Mani for a while but with out the mess, so i used a Stamping Plate, the plate isn't a named one so i cant even tell you what number it is, but i do believe Konad has a paint splat template I'm not sure though so don't hold me to that....but i was super pleased with how this turned out, i wore it for over 10 days and will try it again with different colours.......................Oh i did add some sparkle over the top but its not showing up, my camera doesn't seem to like sparkly things lol

NCY - Pinstripe White

White nail polish for me just doesn't work, i can never get it to look neat, i spend so much time trying to clean up around my cuticles i get annoyed and remove it, but this polish  i bought  from NYC called Pinstripe White might of just change my mind, it wasn't a thin polish that needed many coats i used 2 coats and it covered perfectly, i was impressed with the polish considering its not a overly priced one, i bought a few other colours from NYC so I'm just hoping they impress me the same.

So if your looking for a white nail polish id recommend this one if your like me and stay away from white because you cant get it to look tidy.

My Breaking Dawn nails.

So the Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn opened in the Cinema, Ive had tickets booked for 3 weeks ago, i wanted to go on the opening night but my sister was working and we had to book for Saturday for 5 of us, my mum, sister, nephew and his friend and me, of course i had to do my nails for the event lol, i didn't have much time so kinda rushed it and it didn't turn out as neat as i knew i could do it, but i thought heck no one will see if because it will be dark lol

Mistakes i made was painting all my nail Black, i should of just painted it half way from the cuticle because when i added the red to the tips, the black was hard to cover so it peaked through at the very top of my tip, but IL remember that for next time, also the red isn't as intense as it looks, the flash on my camera made it look super bright...

Looking at the photos i don't like how it looks :-(  this is why i don't normally do designs, cuz i suck at them ..lol no pun intended.

Thursday Haul...

I had a HUGE Nail polish haul yesterday.......Every thing below, i bought Tripple of....your probably thinking "hmmm why did she buy all this 3 times over" well this is why lol

There is one lot for me to use and keep, second lot is for me to add to my swap list (for me to get other goodies from over seas that dont have access to these brand) and the third lot is for a BarryM Give away im having when i reach 300 followers ;-) so keep an eye out for that.


NEW from GOSH......Mini Bottles called OH MY Gosh  i tried to grab all the colours but some where sold out so i grabbed what was left, there is 20 to the collection and are £2.99

Baby Blue - Cobolt Blue - Classic Red - Orange Squash - Bright Yellow - Brown Grey - Apple Green - Mouse Grey - Red Noir

BarryM.... Red Glitter - Grey - Fuchsia - Navy -  Cobolt Blue - Mushroom

BarryM Nail effects - White Forest - Blue Print - Pink Fizz - Purple Rain - Gold Glitter [new]

GOSH - Silver - Gold - Black Passion - Minty

Technic Carnival

 Technics - Black - Shimmer Blue.

Thats 93 bottle of nail polish eeeekkkkkk

Jesses Girl - JulieG Collection - Siletto

I didn't think id ever be saying this, but I've found a polish colour from Jesses Girl that i like more then their Glee shade, I'm so in love with this colour, its Stiletto from a special limited collection called the JulieG Collection.

It actually went on and dried a little darker then it is in the bottle, i don't know how to explain the shade, maybe a mushroom colour? i don't know, what do you think? oh no maybe taupe yeahhhh that's more like it.

I applied 2 good think layers of the polish, it goes on so well such a please to work with, the brush is awesome the photos below actually had no clean up, that's how well it is to work with the brush and the lid.

I have 3 other polished I'm dying to try on, but I'm so in love with this colour i think IL wear it a few more days till i have to remove it lol

If you would like to check them out you can visit them at their site Jesses Girl Cosmetic or on Face book HERE Let them know i sent you xx

Jesses Girl - Riff Raff

When i received my package from Jesses Girl Cosmetic, this was the one polish i was looking forward to trying first, its a lush chocolate brown with a slight shimmer to it which id say was gold

I used Seche base coat and i applied 2 layers of the polish, i guess you could do one, but out of habit i done 2 then a good  layer of Seche top coat, the polish lasted over 7 days with out chipping

There polish is very good quality for little cost, $2.99 from Rite Aid (for those who live in the US)  its a good formula, the brush is shaped just right to help you get that perfect application and the shape of the lids are so comfortable, you get a good grip and they are great to work with.

Of course no polish can over take my favourite Glee polish but this is a close contender, for joint first....and i do believe that Riff Raff is also Christine's Favourite color too.

If you would like to check them out you can visit them at their site Jesses Girl Cosmetic or on Facebook HERE

Guest Post By Jacquelyn - Lil' Frankies

When Kellie asked me to do a guest post on her blog, I was quite surprised... my nail designs pale in comparison to hers.

I am a stay-at-home-mommy and I just do my girls' nails in my spare time.  As you can guess, we don't spend alot on nail polishes.

A week or so ago, I stumbled across this tutorial on youtube: HERE by goldiestarling and fell in love right away - I simply adore CUTE Frankenstein's, So the girls and I dug through our polishes to find the correct colours.

For this design, we used:

Avon Smooth Beginnings Base Coat

Avon UV Gloss Top Coat

Avon Nailwear Pro: French Tip White

Claire's Scented Polish: Lime

Claire's Cosmetics: Sparkled Green

After applying the base coat, I applied French Tip White to all nails.

Omitting the ring fingers, I used a dotting tool (two sizes) and applied Lime green dots across the nails.

On the ring fingers, I painted on a green rectangle - covering about 2/3 of the nail.

While that was drying (a very important step when doing small children's nails) I used a smaller dotting tool and applied the sparkling green to SOME of the original green dots.

Returning to my "green rectangle", I added some black (using the Nail Art Pen).  For the facial features and scar, I squeezed out some of the nail pen polish and used a very thin art brush for more detail.

Top coat was then applied to protect the design.

And here is the finished result, Pretty simple, eh!

Kellie also asked me to do a quick review of the polishes...  As mentioned above, I don't have many brands to compare to, but I am happy with the ones we use.

I find the Avon polish dry quickly - which is essential for little girls that do not want to sit still long.