Keep calm and carry on...

Today I was rather sick.

I spent the day in bed. 

In Pyjama's 

reading my kindle and drinking vanilla tea 

(I felt the choice in mugs was rather fitting)

There is one upside to feeling this sick!

I literally could not leave my bed...

and luckily my nail polish collection is next to my bed...

you know what that means.

I decided to paint my nails blue... 

but what shade of blue to choose?...

I know!

every shade of blue! 

The end result some colourful nails.

Pinky: Bling Sea Blue

Ring: Revlon Ocean Breeze (scented)

Middle: Bling Bright Blue

Index: Revlon Mint Fizz (Scented)

Thumb: Revlon Midnight Affair 

Crackle polish?...

Today I had a wonderful time at a friends house. We did all sorts of amazing things!

Including (girlyest of all) painting our nails.

As you all know I have a hefty collection of nail polishes - but missing from my collection are the OPI (or any brand) shatter effects.

My friend had some black shatter, so I jumped at the chance to try it!

And this is the result. What do you think?

I'm still unsure if I LOVE it as I'm used to having precision and controlling the look of my nail polish. But I think I could learn to love it.

I really like the greeny colour under the black. And perhaps would prefer a silver shatter over the red.

I'll let you know if I decided to buy some for myself!

Red: red carpet by Sally Hansen

Green: Ocean Breeze by Revlon

Black shatter by LA girl (cheaper alternative to OPI)

yummy golden nails...

Yummy! 

some new scented nails.

Today I decided to opt for an "orange" look (as requested by MyLove)

(I secretly think he only said orange as he was looking for a way to avoid my spending time painting my nails, he thinks I don't have orange nail polish... I showed him!)

But why be boring and stick to one colour?

So I opted for a brighter red base coat (to match my top) and did an Orange top coat.

This look turned out beautifully! 

I really love how the orange shimmery flecks look golden and magical against the red.

(I must add that although the nails smelt yummy, it was more of a gummy lollies scent than oranges)

Base coat: Sally Hansen: "Strong Nails Now"

Base Colour: Revlon: Revlon Red (2 coats)

Top Coat: Revlon: Orange Fizz (1 thick coat)

Konad criss cross - with a bit of Fizz

A second Konad attempt, and I think they worked quite well.

I really wanted to try some of my new scented nail polish (to see how they look and how long the scent lasts)

I began with a Revlon "Midnight Affair" base coat

White Konad special nail polish with Criss-Cross design

Three nails have Colada Fizz (by Revlon) as top coat

and two have Mint fizz (the darker blue)

Overall love the look! and the sheer-ness of the Fizz nail polishes meant it only tinted the criss-cross slightly, so the pattern was still really visible.

The middle nail polish is Midnight Affair (I used as base coat)

left: Mint Fizz

right: Colada Fizz

Update on the nail polish.
The mint fizz scent lasted really well and was still minty fresh after about 3 days.
The colada fizz smelt ok up close for about a day and a half... Towards the end it started to smell a bit stale.

But luckily I had the mint fizz to cover the scent. I will try the colada fizz alone sometime in the future to see how it smells on its own.

my new Konad nails

This is my first attempt at Konad nail art..

I first chose two bright colours (I wanted to make a statement)

Blue: Bling Bright Blue

Red: Revlon Raven Red

(this wasn't my best paint job - but I will be tidying it up later anyway)

I then found my Konad supplies...

Special Polish: White

Image Plate: M57

Konad Scraper

Konad Stamp

This is actually really quick and easy to do.. at first I was pressing too hard when scraping (so I scraped off too much nail polish) and nothing was transferring to my nail. 

I finally figured out the right amount to pressure to apply when scraping and the nail polish pattern transfers really easily...

It is sort of like applying a film of dry nail polish when you stick it on your nail.

There is no need to wait for it to dry once you stick it. 

It is also really good because the nail polish just wipes of the skin (if you scratch with tweezers or something).

I used a cotton bud to press the pattern into my nails at the edges (as you can't really get the stamp completely against every part of your nail).

Don't forget to apply your topcoat.

Overall super easy process!

This is my end result.

This is where I purchased my products.

and here is a easy to follow youtube tutorial 

Orange fizz

This is the first of my new revlon "fizz" polishes I have tried. I felt like a bright splash of colour and boy does this provide.

Positives:
I really love the colour it has slight flecks of glitter in (which are more like tiny tiny bits of foil - as they stay flushed with the nail, not risen like some glitter, and it gives a more shimmery look than chunks of glitter)
They shimmer most when they catch the light, but when you look at them you can tell the nails are shimmery because of the slight textured look.

And the smell is spot on!!! I love the smell of citrus, this is the best nail polish to wake you up in the morning.

Minor downside:
The nail polish is quite sheer so you do need to paint a few layers if you want a solid colour look.


This is the finished product.

Revlon "fizz"

Yay! Today I received my order of some of the Revlon 'fizz' collection.

This is one of Revlon's Scented collections. each nail polish has a glitter/shimmer to it, and I think Revlon brought out "matching" lip-gloss for each polish.

from left to right

Colada Fizz (coconut)

Orange Fizz:

Grapefruit Fizz

Mint Fizz

(reviews to follow)

Nail polish

So I'm some what a nail polish fiend.

If I see a new colour I just have to have it.

Now most people rave on about OPI and yes, sometimes their colours are cooler and admittedly they do have a pretty darn awesome iPhone app.

But my nail polish love is Revlon.

That's right the iconic shaped bottle the gold printed letters around the base of the neck.

I find revlon nail polish to be smooth and easy to apply. It doesn't clump up over time, and they're the provider of my favorite top coat "999 colorstay top coat" (GET SOME)

Now I'm no nail technician, and I don't think I'm an expert on nail polish. But I love the stuff, and I like to try new colours/patterns/styles.

After Revlon my other favorite nail polishes would have to be:

Australis: they usually have quirky different colours and come in a cute cylindrical bottle. The formula is easy to apply, doesn't get clumpy overtime and tends to dry smoothly (admittedly I ALWAYS use a topcoat)

Sally Hansen: (mostly "salon effects- real nailpolish strips") these allow you to do patterns you never though possible. They're similar to minx nails worn by many of the celebrity's but don't require a UV lamp to set. They say they'll last up to 10 days; and I'd agree. I can usually keep mine on for a good week (with a few chips at the end)

More on each brand and colour later.

some more nail polish fun

So I got a new nail polish today (no shrinking violet) the ring-finger purple one.

I decided I wanted to do something a bit different and exciting, so I decided to do a DARK mani! 

Each of the nails is a different dark colour

Green: australis: Here today gone tomorrow

Blue: Revlon: Midnight Affair

Purple: Revlon: No Shrinking Violet

Red: Revlon: Vixen (one of my very favourite nail polishes!)

Black: australis: Blackmail

Later on today I painted my friends nails for her 21st party.

(this is a photo I took yesterday to show her different options)

we ended up doing a silver tip with a pale pink stripe similar to

this nail \/