NOTD: Topshop Tidal and NYX Girls Grand Royal

This is the same mani I had on yesterday but decided to try on a new glitter topcoat (Im a sucker for them... any and all colours I NEED) that I got from NYX when I was in Oxford last week.

Grand Royal is a holographic topcoat, I had seen a similar on in Topshop but for double the price so thought I would give the NYX one a go. Now I'm kind of wishing I just spent the extra £2.50 and got the Topshop one. Its not that this is a bad polish necessarily, but it has very few of the hexagon glitter peices which is what I was most looking forward to. Instead it has a bunch of small holographic glitter.
Nevertheless its still a decent polish and I will use it for nail looks like this in the future.

NOTD: Topshop Tidal

Love. This. Polish. I got this last week sometime and have only just got round to trying it on (thats what happens when you have 130+ nail polishes). Its a pale blue shade with slight grey undertones, the formula is good but a little on the thick side, went on smoothly and evenly and is opaque in 2 coats.

After my disappointment with Barry M's Blue Moon I was sceptical about pale blue polishes but I'm so glad I gave this a chance, might have to go out and buy a backup..

NOTD: Neutral and Pink Glitter

Hi :) so A-level results came out on thursday and I got into my first choice uni. I am so unbelievably happy and it just goes to show that having to take that extra year and working like a mad person was worth it.

Todays manicure was pretty simple, I used 1 coat of OPI's Tickle My Francey over 1 coat of Revlon's Smoky Canvas. On my let hand ring finger, and my right hand middle finger I used 3 coats of Revlon's Sparkling to create an opaque multi-sized pink glitter effect.

I finished off with a coat of Essie's Good To Go top coat.

NOTD: Black And Gold Glitter Gradient

Im getting kind of obsessed with gradient nails recently. This was pretty easy to do, I used one coat of Charge It! by Sephora by OPI then used a sponge to create the gradient effect using a sponge with another coat of Charge It! and Black As Night by Avon. To add more sparkle I used one coat of Deborah Lippmann's Boom Boom Pow.

Sorry for not posting in a while, I went on holiday and didnt schedule any posts. Woops :)

Wish I could teleport myself back...

NOTD: Primark Neon Yellow

I am loving the abundance of neon polishes at the moment and this yellow one from Primark is no different. It came in a set of four, and I cant remember the price but I'm guessing it was around £5.

This colour has slight yellow shimmer to it which I dont really like - I would prefer it if it was a straight up cream polish like Orly's Glowstick. This polish also wasn't as neon as some other polishes I own and the formula was thin and took about 4 coats to make it opaque. And as with most neon polishes it dried with a semi-matte finish.

While this polish has its drawbacks, for a little over a £1 I cant really complain - I will just have to wait until I can get hold of Orlys Glowstick.

NOTD: H&M Blue My Mind Marble

While I was browsing through a few random nail blogs I stumbled upon this technique for creating a marbled nail effect using clingfilm (link to original post containing the technique here!).

I used Models Own Snow White as my base colour and H&M's Blue My Mind - a bright cobalt blue over the top. To get this effect I painted 2 coats of Snow White and let it dry completely before applying one relatively thick layer of Blue My Mind nail by nail. Before this dried, I used small pieces of rolled up clingfilm and gently dabbed some of the blue colour off the surface so the white polish could be seen through.

I really like this effect and although I haven't tried to I'm sure another colour could be layered on top of the blue (I'm thinking pink or yellow). This gives a very different look to water marbling but takes far far less time and with none of the mess or hassle.

NOTD: Pink Glitter Gradient

I have made a ground-breaking decision, my blog will be pretty much solely based on nail polish. World changing I know ;)

Anyway, todays nail polish look was a way to extend the longevity of my nail polish without having to take off my existing polish - Essie's Fiji. I decided to do a glitter gradient using GOSH's Frou-Frou and my newest polish Revlon's Sparkling - a rosey pink-gold glitter consisting of medium sized hexagonal glitter and little micro glitter.  I used a kitchen sponge to place Frou-Frou on about half on my nail, concentrating most of the colour towards the tips, and then added Sparkling just on the tip.

I like how this turned out - someone at work said they looked like princess nails which is a pretty accurate description.

 

 Polishes L-R: Essie All In One Base, Essie Fiji, GOSH Frou-Frou, Revlon Sparkling and Essie Good To Go

NOTD: Essie's Fiji

Sorry for lack of posting - exams and that first rush of freedom from exams have meant that blogging slipped to the bottom of my to do list.

I have been wanting a very pale pink polish for a while now and after reading reviews I chose Fiji, a very pale milky pink. It took about 3 coats for full opacity, 2 might have been enough if you dont mind having a ever so slightly visible nail line.

I have only had this on for a day so I cant really comment on its longevity but no sign of tip wear so far.

Next on my Essie wishlist - Sand Tropez and Cute As A Button.