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!

Joust for Kicks and Hi Ho Silver September 14, 2009

Hi ladies, sorry for the low quantity of pictures in my recent posts, but I’m trying to swatch and post my Diamonds as quickly as possible. There will be more pictures when I’m done swatching all 30 and can get back to nail art etc.

Joust for Kicks was a gorgeous deep, rich chocolately brown with some red and gold flecks in the shimmer. Interestingly in the bottle it seemed to have a greenish hue to the shimmer but I didn’t notice it on my nails (but I haven’t seen the sun the last couple of days so it hasn’t been looked at in full sunlight.) I really liked this, despite it being a shade I wouldn’t normally wear, but I did have some drying issues, although I am putting that down to me not allowing sufficient drying time between coats. This is two coats.

Diamond Cosmetics, Joust For Kicks

 My picture doesn’t really capture the duochrome-ness of Hi Ho Silver very well, due to the aforementioned lack of sun, but it is a lovely silver-purple duo with a definite green flash in there somewhere.  I really liked this one from the swatch but I’m not too keen on it on me.  Maybe three coats would be better, I don’t know.  It looks much better on Scrangie but it would have also helped if I ‘d done an application anywhere near as good as hers!  More haste, less speed in my case.  Here’s the image:

Diamond Cosmetics, Hi Ho Silver

 

That’s all from me this time,  hope you are all keeping well and thanks for reading!

Another Stargazer Swatch and an unmitigated Konad disaster! July 31, 2009

Hi, I’m back 🙂

Today I have some pictures for you of the red Stargazer polish I showed in my haul.  Unfortunately it doesn’t have a number sticker on the bottle, and I’ve just been through all the colour swatches of all the different ypes of polish on the Stargazer website and I can’t for the life of me figure out which colour it could be.  Their swatches are so weird.

Anyway, I really loved this colour, it’s a GORGEOUS cherry red, absolutely stunning.  It does have a bit of a gold shimmer to it too.  My only disappointment is, it didn’t dry very well.  It stayed pretty soft for ages afterwards, in fact I had painted it on, taken some pictures and left it a good 45 minutes or so, then started to wash some dishes and wrecked the whole manicure, as it was just not dry enough.  So I’m not sure what happened there.  I also tried to Konad over it and I will show you what happened there!  My nail ended up being painted THREE times yesterday, in the space of a few hours.

Here are some pictures:

So those were all with two coats, one base coat and no top coat.  Then I did dishes and it totally broke.  I’d also like to say, this polish was on for literally an hour, hour and a half tops, with the same base coat I always use, and when I took it off, even after such a short time it had TOTALLY stained my nails.  I never really get any staining so I don’t know what happened there.  So, I re-did it but as I’d always intended to Konad over it, I only did one coat this time.  The colour wasn’t that much different really.  Sorry by the way for the crappy clean up on these.

So I wanted a full nail, and was gonna do it with China Glaze OMG, as I haven’t Konaded with a non Konad polish for so long!  And I thought the two would go together really well.  SO I set up all my stuff, sat on the floor, and decided to use the full nail argyle pattern from plate M60.  The stamp picked up the polish properly, the polish was fine, I pressed it on my thumbnail using my usual technique….and only half the design stuck.  I thought it might be the China Glaze even though I’ve Konaded with it before, so I took as much of it off as I could without damaging the red underneath (resolving to do a second coat when I’d Konaded the others) and set to with the Silver Special Polish on my other fingers.  The same thing happened again!  Here is a picture:

No what the hell is the deal with this!!  This has NEVER happened to me before.  I don’t know if it was the Stargazer or I was just really unlucky or what.  But, the upshot was, off came the red, and I decided to repaint with the green (135) which I will show you later.  I was wanting to Konad this too but I don’t know if I dare!

Has anyone else had this problem?

Thanks for reading!  😀

Maybelline Mirror Image July 2, 2009

Whilst this polish may not be news at all to most of you reading this, I have only just bought some.  I saw it reviewed on another blog a while ago and then I also found it on The Nailphile and I had to have it!  It was actually a purchase quite heavily influenced by my husband, as I’d obsessed over China Glaze OMG and had a bottle shipped from the US and promptly almost peed myself with excitement when it arrived…….and he just didn’t get it!  But he did one day see a bottle of Sally Hansen’s Diamond Strength nail hardener and comment that if I could find a polish like that, he’d love it.  So I did!!  And he does!

This didn’t go on too well for me, I’ve found with this and the last few manicures I’ve done I’ve got little tiny bubbles appearing in the polish (which I have read about on other blogs and gloated silently to myself, thinking “That doesn’t EVER happen to me!” – Karma bites.) I don’t know if it is maybe to do with the heat increase around here?  I sat out in the backyard in the sun to do this manicure and I honestly WINCED when I first started to paint the silver on, it was that shiny.  It does look awesome, but at fairly close up I can see all the flaws an imperfections in my nail surfaces which is pretty irritating.  Especially that damned crack in my left middle finger nail (as you’ll see all too easily from the pictures.)

I was accompanied by next door’s cat, Pebbles whilst I did this, I adore her, she’s one of the most amusing cats I’ve ever known.  I’d love a cat but Hubby says no at the moment so I just play with her instead!  There are a couple of pictures of her at the bottom too 🙂

^^Those were both after the first coat – see what I mean about my middle finger’s nail?  :-((

^^After one coat of base and three of silver.  Shiny Shiny!!!

And Pebbles…..

 

Bridal Nails (part 1) June 29, 2009

Ok, so I was going to swatch Indigo Dazzle next after the Streamer incident, but I was a little bit traumatised by the ordeal I had with Streamer and it has put me off the other George polis.  So instead I thought, I’ve got my next wedding coming up this Saturday (I’m a wedding photographer by trade, you can check my site out at http://www.buckleystudios.co.uk if you’re interested) and I thought it would be nice to do some bridal-esque nails.  So I am currently parading a lovely simple subtle manicure and I have tried twice to take pictures of it but failed miserably.  So I have one decent picture. 

 

I started with a base coat of Sally Hansen Hard as Nails with Nylon as ever (the pinky looking one which is called natural), then one coat over that of Miss Sporty in pale pink (it doesn’t really colour the nails that much but give a lovely natural and healthy colour, as well as great shine to the nail).  I then freehanded the tips in Miss Sporty Silver, and Konaded the butterflies from M36 in Konad Silver Special Polish.  On the middle finger of each hand I ‘glued’ (If I have let the polish dry, I dab the slightest amount of clear polish on to the back of them, rather than using nail glue as this can melt the polish underneath if the gems move, but other wise I press them into slightly tacky polish) individual silver rhinestones along my smile line.  Finished off with a good coat of Konad Top coat.  I think it looks lovely 🙂

Some more samples and some news! June 23, 2009

Ok I’ll deal with the news first.  My online webshop is now open!!  You can find it at http://www.flashynails.co.uk (if this address doesn’t work quite yet give it a day or so, as I am still waiting for the address to go live.)  Currently there is only some Konad stuff on there, as that is the only stock I have recieved thus far but I am awaiting some rhinestone sets and some lovely glass nail files and some buffing blocks.  I AM EXCITED!  I have made sure that I am (hopefully at least one of) the cheapest Konad stockist online.  Postage charges are also amazing if you’re in the UK as well.  It’s nice to know I can supply nice things for people at a slightly cheaper price.  I am constantly on the lookout for some other nail things to stock, I want to be stocking the things that people want to buy so if you have any ideas, let me know and I will see what I can do.  

I’m also awaiting a delivery of a brand of polish which I really like, it’s good quality and great prices, and I’ve fallen in love with an American brand called Adoree and I’m hoping to get the go ahead to start stocking their AMAZING selection. 

Anyway so here are some more of my amateurish Konad designs! 

^^I really like this!  It’s cute and fun and I think it rocks!  First time out with the sponging method.  I didn’t look too good at first but once it’s had the other designs on, I think it’s fab!

^^I also really love this.  I need to grow my nails so they can be long enough for me to do thing like this to my own actual nails!  I’ve been thinking of getting acryllics done, but I keep remembering how they trashed my nails when I had them put on for my wedding so I think I’ll avoid.  The temptation is big though!

^^  😦  Got a bit of a case of the smudgies on this one, which is a shame because it looked pretty cute before I smudged it with the tc. 

^^Sorry for the poor pic quality.  I like this, I freehanded the tip as I just can’t get to grips with the plain French plate, and I think it looks pretty good.

^^Again quite a poor picture.  This one doesn’t look too great in real life either.  The blue is too strong to Konad effectively without using plain black or white.  I’m learning  these lessons slowly!

^^This could have looked awesome but for some reason the white just didn’t come off very bright or crisp which was a shame.

^^Believe it or not, this was my husband’s idea for a design.  I’ve been pestering him to do me some sample Konads as he’s failry interested in how it works (well as interested as you could expect a man to be I suppose!) he refused, but he told me how to do this one!  The top set of flowers irriate me a little as they are not wuite over to the side enough, and I was so annoyed when the tc caused dragging too 😦

^^I like this.  I wish the top stamp had gone on more cleanly but I love how bright and blinging it is.  Don’t know how easy the washing up would be with all the stars on there though!

So there you go.  I have resolved to get better at Konading, and when I think back to my very first attempt, I can definitely see an improvement, so fingers crossed I’ll continue to get better!