Nubar Flake Nail polish

I bought this online weeks ago, and I was pretty excited when it arrived yesterday. I know, a little sad, but i've been pining after this stuff for months, and finally found it somewhere where it was decent price. I bought it on feelunique.com for £6.80, they do free world wide shipping, while the price was the same as usual, just having free shipping is enough for me.

So this is the polish I'm talking about



Hopefully you can see why I'm so crazy about it. It's a clear polish full of little flakes of glitter, which change from blues and greens to reds and oranges in different lights and at different angles. It looks so gorgeous over this turquoise polish, but it's really difficult to capture the effect on camera while its on my nails. However, the photos of the polish in the bottle really show the great effect this stuff has.



It doesn't have a proper name, just nubar 2010 and a little code number.

In the shade, it takes on more warm colours, reds, yellows and oranges.



A few comments on the bottle, which is brilliant. The top is great, perfect to hold on to and makes it so much easier to paint the nails on my right hand which is always troublesome. In the bottle there are a couple of those little metal balls for mixing which is also really good, as I've definitely noticed that my polishes without those little guys always dry up first and have to be thrown away. I also just love then general shape, it's such a pretty bottle, and while not great for taking up space, I can deal with it.

So that's that, my new favourite polish for this winter. I really want to try it over white polish, or nude and see how it turns out. As far as i've tried with swatches and stuff, it looks best over blues and greens as with warm colours it tends to be difficult to see. In the pictures above I've used one coat, but you can build it up with 2 or 3 coats which i've done since and it looks great. Leave a comment if you want to know anything else.

Peace

Nikki

Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Topcoat review

I recently bought the Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Topcoat and I thought it would be good to do a review of the product as i can't find much on it on the web.

So this is the photo i took right after it dried



The first thing I noticed about this topcoat was the really nice finish, like that of acrylic nails or professionally done gels, it looks really shiny and glossy, and makes the colour look very even.

It pretty much does what it says on the bottle, it dries fast. I think 30 seconds is a bit optimistic, but in a minute it's touch dry, but still dentable. However, in the whole scheme of things, it still dries completely in much less time as a normal topcoat, and gives a better finish so it's a winner in my books.

Also, after almost 3 days of wear, it still looks pretty good. I must say that for me, the last few days have been a lot harder on my nails than usual, and I think this topcoat definitely helped. I think after the wear and tear of school, then a party, then thoroughly cleaning my kitchen, then opening parcels and mail that my nails still look surprisingly good. There was some chipping, but i put that down to my hands being soaked on hot water while i was cleaning, then opening mail after. Before that i had no chips in the polish.



There is only one negative point i can come up with for this topcoat. That is that is causes some shrinkage to your polish. Although it's not that noticable, you can see it and while i can deal with it, i would rather do without it.

Still, that's not going to stop me from using this product, and repurchasing it when i run out, I love it and recommend it.

In the UK you can buy this topcoat from most Boots stores, and it costs £5.95 which i feel is a fair price as its quite a big bottle that will last a long time and will make your other polishes last longer too, win win :)

peace

Nikki

Barry M and Sally Hansen Insta-Dri topcoat!

I went shopping today and brought home lots of goodies! all of which i would recommend, I got:

• soft lips french vanilla lip balm- it comes in a longish tube, its sort of in a lipstick form, which i really like and much prefer over those little pots you have to stick your finger in. It's really moisturising and makes my lips feel super soft, which is good as im prone to getting chapped lips, and right now it's freezing and snowing out


• Casual Matt colour lipstick by UNE natural beauty- It's a nice regular lip shade, with a really lovely matt finish. It's not so matt that it looks odd, but more like the texture of bare lips, which i like as i dont really like my lips to look too glossy or like i have anything on them. I have naturally pigmented lips, which a lot of people seem to envy but im not too fond of as it's so difficult to find any lipsticks that will lighten the shade without making them look weirdly grey


• Maybelline expert wear blush in 62 rosewood- it's a nice peachy colour which is perfect for me, it looks natural and subtly and makes me look like i have nice naturally rosy cheeks, without looking too OTT

And finally, and product which actually fits in to this blog, Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Topcoat, I bought this for £5.95 from Boots



I want to go straight in to saying that I'm IN LOVE with this product, it's actually amazing and all I've been looking for. You apply it as a normal topcoat basically, making sure your polish is sufficiently dry. But the magic happens when it starts to dry. It claims to dry in 30 seconds, and they are pretty much spot on. Within a minute of painting it on, my nail polish is completely dry with a nice glossy finish, its dry to touch and it wont dent, perfect as this is always the point when i ruin my nails. According to the packed it has an acrylic polymer complex, whatever that means, which is why it dries so fast and with such a good finish, and they do feel like acrylics. It also says it is chip resistant, and while i havent had the chance to really test this yet, I will in the near future do a full review on this product.

In the photo above, in case you're wondering, I'm wearing a Barry M polish. Unfortunately it doesnt have a name on it, I'm not sure if it just doesnt come with one, or if i've peeled the label off, but its a turquoise/light jade colour, and i adore it. Barry M polishes are really good, they retail for around £3 so are pretty inexpensive, but you get a fairly nice pigmented polish, for the most part they are 2 coaters, and they are about normal in terms of chip resistence.



Thanks for reading, if you have any thoughts or requests, let me know, leave a comment!

peace

Nikki

OPI Don't Melbourne the Toast review

This is OPI Don't Melbourne the Toast, and it has to be one of my favourite every day colours. In some lights, and also in the picture, it looks really orange, but in others its more of a salmon pink, and the colour changes a lot depending on the lighting, it's also slightly shimmery which i love.



The polish applies really nicely, each coat is even, but it will need 2 coats at least. It's also fairly hard wearing, for me it will begin to chip after 2-3 days, but if you treat your nails with care (unlike me, I always chip my nails getting books out my bag or chip the polish off myself without noticing) it would probably last longer. In the UK you can buys OPI polishes quite easily, although you wont find them in Boots or Superdrug. Generally, most beauty supply stores will hold a range of OPI colours and can probably order colours in for you, given you know the name. Otherwise, it's online shopping all the way, where you can get some pretty good deals, just beware of post and packaging!

if you have any questions or thoughts on this, please leave me a comment :)

Peace

Nikki

Teal and chrome

A few weeks ago a new H&M opened near me, and having always been a sucker for absolutely everything they sell, clothes, accessories and make up, I got down there as soon as i could to have a good rummage around.

And i wasn't disappointed, I managed to buy some nice stuff, and some presents for people. But more importantly, a nice present for me, a new bottle of nail polish.

I love the colours they do at H&M, they sell a range of really great gloss colours that have a really nice finish and are a really good price too at around £3

And this is the look i went for





I'm not sure of the name of the teal colour i've used, I'm pretty sure it was moody model but apart from the lack of name, you can see it is a dark blue-green teal colour. I've done a thin tip on all nails with Stargazer 232 chrome, which i LOVE, it's one of the best chrome effect polishes i've ever bought. Although it isn't a true chrome effect, it's as close as you can get with a nail polish. If you want a real chrome effect, there are nail stickers you can buy, or you can ask for it at a salon, and they can usually do this effect for you.

I'm growing my nails right now, and i know they aren't very long, but i'm so excited that they are finally starting to look healthy as they grow. I had acrylic nails on for about 6 weeks back in september/october and my nails have only just fully recovered from the damage, so watch out for acrylics, there is an after effect to them! beauty comes at a price :)

peace

nikki

Hey again

My second post on this blog, i just want to get this bad boy up and running :)

So i'm going to post a picture of my nails today, they aren't very interesting, i've done them for school

It's a vintage half moon, in a dark red



You can't really see the colour properly in this, its a dark red, maybe burgundy? which is a really great classic colour to do vintage styles in. It's simple yet looks really nice.

The polish i used is by a brand called 2true, it's a really good budget brand that you can find in Superdrug in the UK. I chose it because of the colour, but it's also really inexpensive (£1.99) and for such a small price, you're getting a decent product. With a top coat on, it's just as good as any other polish in the £5-8 range, so it's good stuff. They also do a really cool range of fluorescent colours, I've got the fluorescent pink, and it's one of my favourites. I did the half moon free hand this time, instead of using guides, so they may be a little squiggley, but i think it looks good :)

Sorry for the blury picture, I've learnt that holding a camera one handed, with the focus on, and trying to either keep it in focus on not blury is more difficult that you would expect, i can never hold it still.

If you want any further information, advice, or anything at all, leave a comment :)

Peace

Nikki

Grey nails

With all the snow we've had this week in england, i was feeling very wintery. Now to me, this kind of time isnt reds and greens, its greys, whites and silvers, gotta love the snowy colours.



So, this is the look. The thumb is the same as the first, second and little finger. I've done a 40's style half moon on all fingers, i did this using those stick on nail stencils for french manicures, although you can do the same thing with reinforcement rings that are made to stop sheets ripping out of folders. You can also do it free hand, and while this isnt a problem for me on my left hand (as im right handed) i cant do it at all with my right hand, and it ends up as a complete mess. The nail polish i used is Bourjois 1 Seconde nail polish. I can't find a name of the colour on the bottle, but it's a dark, slightly shimmery grey. It's a polish that i really like, because it has a wide brush for quicker application, and is formulated to dry in a minute- which i love as i'm always smudging my nail polish before it dries.

I'm a big fan of doing a bit of an interesting ring finger. I think that it's a nice way to get a bit of detail and effort in to what is otherwise a fairly simple manicure. On my ring finger, i used Konad plate m57 for the criss-cross pattern, and then put a cluster of rhinestones on top. I stuck them on using a top coat polish, i think this is the best way. You could use nail glue, but if you have none, a top coat does the same job just as well.

So, leave me a comment if you like the look, or if you want any more detail on it :)

Peace

Nikki

Well hello there...

This is my first post!

This is a nail art/nail polish and make up blog, i will be making regular posts, hopefully about once a week on that kind of thing, this will include photos, tutorials, product reviews, and much more :)