My polish collection (picture heavy) October 14, 2009

Okay ladies, I am about to post pictures of my polish collection – they’re not exactly the best in terms of quality or colour accuracy but here they are.  I’m so used to looking at all my colours that I’m finding it difficult to choose what to wear when I change my polish so I would like some help!  Please leave me a comment and let me know what you think I should wear next.  I will be able to go through them one at a time to select my next manicure and the one after that etc (assuming I get any comments lol)

You may notice I have a few issues with blue/green and blue/purple colours, I have a slight colour blindness so if you think anything is in the wrong group that’s why!

Oh and to save me typing long long names, DC = Diamond Cosmetics, CG = China Glaze,  BM = Barry M, C2000 = Collection 2000,  C2000HL = Collection 2000 Hot Looks, SH = Sally Hansen and NI = Nails Inc!

Here we go:

Miss Sporty Silver | DC Matte Smoke | Maybelline Mirror Image | CG OMG | Barry M Matt White (it's not matte!) | Technic Jet Black | DC I'm Raven About You | DC Matte Black | Constance Carroll Wizard

Wild and Crazy Purple Glitter (It's green and black - go figure) | Beauty UK Purple Glitter | Beauty UK Silver Glitter | DC Silver Glitter | DC Opal Glitter

Piggy Polish Island Hopping | BM Block Orange | Miss Sporty Yellow | Jade Suppressed Temptation

Stargazer Red (no number sticker) | DC You Set My Heart Ablaze | No Name Red | BM Red Glitter | Cosmo Porsche Red | NI Knightsbridge

DC Hue Are You? | DC Cheery Cherry | Miss Sporty Red | DC Blackberry | Rimmel Black Cherries | DC Matte Burgundy | C2000 Midnight Rouge | CG Lubu Heels

DC Party Hearty | No Name Gold | BM Gold | NI Battersea Power Station | DC Yukon Gold | DC Chainmail Charm | DC Decadence | DC Joust For Kicks | NI Mount Street | NI Friendly Selfridges

DC Don't Teal My Heart Away | DC Oh, Tiff! | George Streamer | C2000HL Button Moon

DC Never So Ever-Green | Stargazer 135 | Sinful Colors San Francisco | BM Racing Green | BM Green Glitter | C2000HL Ninja | La Femme Ultra green (Major neon, doesn't look it here)

NI Marco Polo House | DC Mystical Knights | DC Midnight Blue | BM Blue Glitter | George Indigo Dazzle

SH Chic Cobalt | DC Metallic Blue | BM Blue Glitter | Rimmel Azure | C2000 Hello Sailor

DC Midnight Passion | NI St John's Wood | Orly Cashmere Cardigan | C2000HL BMX Bandit

BM Vivid Purple | DC Metallic Venom | DC Monarch Masquerade | Stargazer 125 | NI Buckingham Palace | DC Drift Away | DC Hi Ho Silver

Revlon Night Light | Milani Cloud 9

Miss Sporty Pink | Massini Sheer Denim | DC Iced Plum | NI Fulham Road

No Name Pink | C2000HL Hoola Hoop | NI Brompton Road | NI Regent's Place | NI King's Road | C2000HL Dynasty

C2000HL Vixen | SH Plum Sequin | DC Sparkling Sherry | BM Shocking Pink | DC Feelin' Groovy | DC Matte Mulberry | No Name Purple

So that’s my whole collection (well not counting Konad polishes etc)  so please, PLEASE pick me something to wear!  (Feel free to choose a colour to go under a glitter if you’d like to see a glitter.)

Thank you!

Hello Ladies! October 4, 2009

Today’s post is a bit of a mixed post.  I would like to show you my current manicure (which will be Konaded later on today if I remember/can get motivated).  I have copied the one finger different style I have seen on a few blogs lately and basically went for the opposite of what Skye did inThis Post. I really like it:

Nails Inc Brompton Place (pink) and Nails Inc St John's Wood

Now St John’s wood seemed to be a dupe for Orly Cashmere Cardigan, which in turn is also a dupe for Collection 2000 Hot Looks Button Moon (one of my favourite polishes ever).  So next week if I remember I will swatch the three of them side by side to see what they look like.  But I also realised, when contemplating the similarities of St John’s Wood and Button Moon that in fact Brompton Place reminded me of Collection 2000 Hot Looks Hoola Hoop, thus:

Lr- Hoola Hoop, Brompton Place, St John's Wood, Button Moon (and a hella lot of sun!)

And this in turn reminded me of an old post I did where I used Button Moon and Hoola Hoop together, amnd they’re really not dissimilar to the post I have put up today with my current manicure.  Here is the old manicure

Well if you’re still reading after all that, and not horribly confused, then you’re doing better than me! lol

I also wanted to point out that Diamond Cosmetics Opal Glitter ROCKS, especially over Black or very dark Blue.  I have a couple of pictures taken from my Diamond swatchboard, but they don’t really show the awesomeness very well and I’m not so hot at describing things, but see what you think:

Diamond Cosmetics Opal Glitter over Diamond Cosmetics I'm Raven About You

Diamond Cosmetics Opal Glitter over I'm Raven About You

See, Fantastic, the blue-yellow-greenness is so gorgeous!  I think this may be a great contender for some slightly less OTT Halloween Nails!

Hope you enjoyed!  Sorry I haven’t posted for a while.

Nails Inc Knightsbridge September 24, 2009

Hey Ladies!!  How are you all?  Well, I hope.

Just one pic again today as the others I took were a bit rubbish, but this is Nails Inc, Knightsbridge.  I needed cheering up the day I wore this as EVERYTHING is seeming to go wrong at the moment for my husband and I.   So a funky, loud colour and a cute Konad were the order of the day for me.  I really love this colour, it’s kind of red, orange and coral all at once, I can’t really describe it.  I really enjoyed wearing it though.  Here’s my simple (but effective) Konadicure!

Nails Inc Knightsbridge, Konad M10 and M11 (thumbs)

Heee heee, I love these little guys!  M10 is one of my favourite plates, and yet I’ve never used it before this Konadicure.  I also used, on my thumbs, the two ‘cats’ off M11, with their tails facing each other, it was so cute! 

I’m currently wearing Nails Inc Buckingham Palace, which is a purple jellyish polish, and I’m not sure about it.  I’ll try to remember to take pictures before I remove it. 

Thanks for reading!  😀

Lots more Diamond Cosmetics Swatches September 19, 2009

After this post, I have only three more Diamond Swatches to do for you guys.  This is good as it means I can start wearing polish PROPERLY again!  I’m going to rattle through these guys.  I had no drying time issues with any of them, I really loved all the colours (yes really!) especially Decadence and Sparkling Sherry, and the big surprise of the bunch for me was Midnight Blue which is a purpl-y navy blue.  Just lovely!  I’ll try to do better write ups of the diamonds when I post proper posts of them where I’ve worn them as a proper manicure, rather than a quick swatch.

Diamond Cosmetics, Decadence

Diamond Cosmetics, Sparkling Sherry

Diamond Cosmetics, Matte Black

Diamond Cosmetics, You Set My Heart Ablaze

Diamond Cosmetics, Blackberry

Diamond Cosmetics, Midnight Passion

Diamond Cosmetics, Metallic Venom

Diamond Cosmetics, Midnight Blue

Also, Nails Inc had an offer on recently (it may still be on, I don’t know) where you could  buy a set of 9 of their colours and a bottle of base coat for £27.  So I did! Lol.  It came the other day all boxed in a nice display case/gift box thingy, and I was pleasantly surprised.  I had been looking at all my polishes in colour groups the night before it arrived, and I noticed that I have a lot of pinks (despite not really being a pink fan), not as many purples as I’d expected to have, and hardly any brown shades.  In fact all the brown-family shades I have are all from the Diamond haul I’ve just got.  So, this is what I received:

Top L-R: Kensington Gardens (growth treatment), Regents Place, Mount Street, Marco Polo House (looks lovely, very like Midnight Blue by Diamond), Battersea Power Station (which looks like Yuk in a bottle!)

Bottom L-R: Buckingham Palace (can’t wait to try), Knightsbridge (looks interesting!), St john’s Wood (HAS to be swatched against Cashmere Cardigan and Button Moon!), Brompton Place, Fulham Road.

So, three more pinks to add to my pink collection (sigh), and two browns.  Fab! Lol.

Well, thanks for reading and enjoy the rest of your weekend!  😀

A few more Diamond Cosmetics swatches September 17, 2009

I had no internet today from getting up at 8am until around half past 5.  None.  This made me sad and grumpy!  But my husband is home now and I feel a bit happier 🙂  So, because I had no internet and I’m not a big fan of TV (especially not daytime TV), and because the sun has been out a little today, I decided to make some headway with my swatching! So there are 6 swatches here, but there’s only one of each so don’t worry, it’s not TOO picture heavy.

Diamond Cosmetics, Hue Are You?

I wasn’t quite sure how I felt about Hue Are You?.  In the bottle it looked lovely but I don’t know, it didn’t seem as nice on my nails as I’d expected it to be.   Although it clearly looks the same on my nails as it does in the bottle, juding from the picture, so I don’t know what I’d expected!  I also made one heck of a mess putting it on, as you can see from the picture!  It was a good formula though and dried well, and is definitely packed with lots of tiny weeny gold micro glitter stuff.  It IS nice, I think I was just expecting something different for some crazy reason!

Diamond Cosmetics, Metallic Blue

This was LOVELY!  Like a blue version of Monarch Masquerade I guess.  I really liked it.  Great formula, dried really fast, the difference in depth of colour between one coat and two was incredible!  It went on fairly patchy on the first coat (which I think was more due to my application as I was trying to avoid my mum’s dog at the time!) but on the second it was just pure perfection!  Beautiful!  Nobody should be without a metallic blue or a metallic purple. 

Diamond Cosmetics, Yukon Gold

When I first saw this in it’s bottle I really wasn’t impressed with it AT ALL!  In fact I think the actual thought was simply “yeuck”.  And, to be quite fair, it isn’t as gold as it looks in Diamond’s swatches, however, once I put it on I really liked it.  It’s like a paler chocolate colour.  It’s totally not the same colour at all but it reminds me of Caramac chocolate.  Or maybe toffe flavoured hot chocolate.  Not as dark as milk chocolate but it DOES make me think of chocolate (as I’m sure we’ve established by now!)  I did really like this and I will be wearing it again (even though I initially didn’t think I would.)

Diamond Cosmetics, Feelin' Groovy

Ok so it took me a lot of willpower to swatch this, I’m not really a bright pink kinda gurl, but once it was on I liked it, it’s cute and summery.  I suppose it’s a glossy version of Matte Mulberry.  It does have a very subtle shimmer to it…maybe a ‘sheen’ is a more appropriate name than a shimmer.  It’s nice 🙂  Would make an awesome base for a black full nail Konad.  (Note to self:  TRY lol).

Diamond Cosmetics, Never So Ever-Green

Everyone raves about Never So Ever-Green and I can totally see why!  I’m really not a fan of dark greens, I’m more a mint green/teal/turquoise fan but I can totally appreciate this colour.  It’s really not an in-your-face shade, the gold teeny weeny microshimmer magic dust stuff (!) in there takes the edge off the green and it’s just beauteous and stunning.  I love it!

Diamond Cosmetics, Cheery Cherry

Lovely, Lovely, Lovely!  I thought this would be nice and it didn’t let me down.  It’s a strong cherry red, the formula is a little thin but it made no negative impact on application and I was a happy bunny!  Lol.  Got some shimmer/sheen in there too.  Lurvely!

Right Ladies, tomorrow will be Oh. Tiff! (and possibly the same with Glittler Silver over the top) and a couple other colours if I have time, as I actually have some plans other than sitting at home on my rapidly growing backside tomorrow.  Thanks for reading!  😀

Playing Catch Up September 7, 2009

Hi Ladies!  Sorry I haven’t posted in a while, and when I have done it hasn’t been with any pictures of nails but I’m playing catch up today.  Just a quick note for those of you who are waiting for Diamond from me, it still hasn’t arrived but I will let you know when it does!

Ok first things first, today I received a parcel from the wonderful Kris who writes for Polish or Perish and I was gobsmacked! We’d arranged a little swap as Kris wanted to get her hands on some Stargazer, and I was desperate for Orly Cashmere Cardigan and China Glaze Lubu Heels. What I didn’t expect was the SIX extra polishes she included!! Thank you so much Kris!! Here is a little (not very good) picture of the goodies she sent me:

Cosmo "Porsche Red" | Lubu Heels | Sinful Colors "San Francisco" | Cashmere Cardigan | Milani "Cloud 9" | Jade "Suppressed Temptation" | Piggy Polish "Island Hopping" | Massini "Sheer Denim"

 Here is the lovely mani I was wearing a few days ago: 

 

Sorry about the lines in that lact picture, that happens sometimes when I take pictures under my desk lamp for some reason.  The pink is Collection 2000 Hot Looks Vixen.  I can’t take credit for the loveliness of this though as I totally ripped it off from the FAB KonADDICT blog, which is an absolutely brilliat resource for all you nail art-ers out there.

And this little beauty which turned out SO CUTE if I do say so myself, was all my own creation.  In case you’re interested, I used Barry M in White, the Red was my “no name” from a make-up kit, Barry M Orange Block, Miss Sporty Yellow, Collection 2000 Hot Looks Ninja, Rimmel Azure, Stargazer 125 and Barry M Vivd Purple.  From that list of colours I bet you can guess what I made……

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

RAINBOWS!

Right Hand (I don't much like the index or middle fingers but the ring and pinky are AWESOME!)

See?!

Awesome Cute-Kitsch!! Love this!

How totally awesome is that manicure!!  If it hadn’t taken me over an hour I’d totally be doing it again at some point in the future!!!

 

Thanks for reading.  I hope you all have a fantastic week!  Mine has got off to a great start!  😀

Collection 2000 Hot Looks BMX Bandit/Hoola Hoop July 28, 2009

 

***Late post as I forgot to publish it when I typed it***

Can I just say I’m in LOVE with BMX Bandit? It is so pretty! I actaully wore it on of the days I didn’t post over the weekend/end of last week, it was part of a disastrous manicure (incidentally it was such a disaster and got taken off so quickly that I can’t even remember what it was!) So I took any excuse to use it again!

This is an alternating French using BMX Bandit and Hoola Hoop (Collection 2000 Hot Looks). Hoola Hoop seems a lot more neon on than in the bottle, but I really like it. It’s like Candyfloss pink 🙂

BMX Bandit and Hoola Hoop

BMX Bandit and Hoola Hoop

Yep evidence of both hands for a change!  I do have two y’know!

Anyway It looked a bit naked, and I seem to have sorta loast the touch with Konad a little lately so I didn’t want to go down that road, and then I remembered in my birthday haul I bought a bottle of silver glitter which hasn’t seen the light of day yet………so guess what….neon, funky french and glitter all in on?  “She didn’t!”  Oh but I did!

BMX Bandit, Hoola Hoop and Beauty UK Silver Glitter

BMX Bandit, Hoola Hoop, Beauty UK Silver Glitter

Yes I have a big dent in the middle finger 😦 The base coats had been left over 24 hours to dry, and there was a couple of hours between the first and second coats of glitter, but for some reason, once that second coat went on it took hours for them to set hard.  Also this gliter is packed with little holo pieces as well as regular silver glitter bits but I haven’t managed to capture them very well.

I’m currently suffering with a summer cold (which I hope goes away before Saturday as we are at another wedding) so I don’t think there will be any new nails tomorrow, but if I feel better there’s a chance so check back 🙂

Thanks for reading! 😀

New Konad Goodness! June 19, 2009

So my Konad Pro Salon Kit came on Tuesday.  I did take some pictures of it but they came out blurry (not good since my other job is a professional photographer!)  So I won’t be uploading them!  However I have done some lovely new Konads on some falsies – I was trying to use at least two different designs on most of the nails as I don’t have any proper full nail designs on any of my plates (the Pro Salon Kit only goes up to plate m49 I think it is) and I tend to have some sort of mental block when I’m trying to think which designs would work with what, etc.  So, I took a little bit of inspiration from pictures in the Konad book which shows different designs for the first 30-odd plates, and then worked in some of my own ideas from there.  So here’s some new goodness…

^^Ok so I thought I’d really like this when I decided to do it, and I do like it, but I seem to be cursed whenever I try to Konad in Silver or Gold.  For some reason it always comes out very pale and I don’t seem to every be able to get good coverage.  This was also the first time I’ve ever used one of the Konad French tip plates, and as you can see the silver didn’t ‘stick’ on one side.  Ah well, live and learn!

^^ *Sigh* I LOVE this!  I only wish my nails were long enough and slim enough to do this on myself.  Obviously I have had a few issues here with the designs not going on as cleanly as they could/should but I’m still getting to grips with the whole Konad thing, and I’m actually very proud of this!  In a way I sort of like that it isn’t perfect. 

^^ Whilst I do like this, I don’t think I’d wear it myself.  I’m just not an animal print kind of girl!  I put glitter over it because it seemed very bare when it was done and you could see a bit of overlap from where I’d had to join the design as this isn’t quite a full plate (and these nails are super long.)  However the only glitter I have is blue/green so I wasn’t sure if it would look ok.  I think it’s not too bad though.

^^ Sorry about the ‘No Name’ polishes – they are from a make-up set I was bought for Christmas and once I threw out the packaging I had no idea what the company was called.  Anyway, I digress.  I quite like this, if only it was crisper.  The red star gem at the bottom is covering a blank patch where the design didn’t all go onto the nail.  I really like the image I’ve used to tip the nail, but it always looks SO much better on everyone else’s designs than mine!

^ When I first started this nail, I wanted to just do the daisy print as a full nail.  However I printed it on at the bottom and was astounded by how awesome it looked against the plain nail.  So, I don’t know why I decided to tip it, or why I thought that tip would be a good idea but never mind.  Sorry about the quality of the pic by the way, it is actually one of the few nails I’ve done where it does actually look crisp, but the pic isn’t as sharp as I’d have liked.  I did a version of this nail for my own manicure last night, using the daisy print as a diagonal tip (black on white again) putting butterflies in the bottom corner of the nail too.  It looks awesome!

^^ YAY FOR STARS!  I LOVE stars!  I just had to use this tip as I think it is awesome.  Couldn’t think of what else to put with it so I chose the laces.  I don’t really like it, but I so will be using that tip again.

^^ I Think this is my fave.  I just think it looks amazing!  Perhaps I’m deluded 🙂  Anyway I love this pink, I will probably be purchasing another bottle of it in case they stop making it.  This is kind of similar to one of the designs in the Konad booklet, but I like it all the same.

 

^^I really REALLY like this one too.  Hello Sailor is SUCH a gorgeous colour.  Brilliant. I think this is quite subtle (the Konading rather than the colour of course.)  Like it lots 😀

So that’s it for now, sorry about the quality of the pictures, and sorry for it being a crazy long post!