At some point I will be back

I never really got in to this particular blog, but I will be using it much more soon once my exams are done, make up and nail polish reviews and swatches will be the main theme, with maybe a couple of style/hair posts too

ciao

Nikki

Mixing your own nail polish colours

So i couldn't wait to christen this blog with my first post, so i decided I'd just go for it. However, after this I'll have to force myself not to post until after my exams next week.

So I thought I'd start the new year with something that I love doing, that’s mixing polishes, making new colours out of old polishes that I no longer wear by adding pigments or eye shadows. It’s a really great thing to do, you use a polish you wouldn’t have otherwise used, and an eye shadow that you don’t use or want. You can also buy them specifically for this, its your choice. You can do this with a clear coat or a coloured one, bearing in mind that when you add pigment to a clear coat, it’s likely to be fairly transparent.I used an old eye shadow by FCeyes that I never use. It’s a great colour, blue that changes to greens and purples in the light. It looks horrible on my skin, and I cant imagine it looking that great on anyone, but I thought it would look great as a nail polish. It's difficult to see the colour of holo-effect things, but its a shimmery blue colour with purple and green, it just turns out grey on pictures.

First I did a tester, I scraped some of the eye shadow out of the pot using a steel nail file (you can really use anything you think will work),and added about the same amount of polish. I used a white polish that I never use because it’s too thin and needed about 3 layers to build up to a good enough white for French tips. Its from 2true which is a superdrug own brand polish (UK) that’s like £1.99. It turned out to be the perfect polish to use, as it’s thin enough to mix with the pigment well, and show the colour, but because it’s already slightly opaque, the end product is much better than with a clear coat

I added what I guesstimated was about the same amount as there was polish in the bottle, and added it a bit at a time, shaking it thoroughly after I’d added some.The end result is a polish that’s the same colour as the eye shadow, it still has the same colour, shimmer and holo effect that I could never pull off as an eyeshadow, but now it’s a nail polish that is perfectly wearable.

I used it as a French tip in this photo because I had a nail coloured polish that I was wanting to try out, I think it actually looks kind of nice. I thought i'd do a little list of do's and don'ts for mixing nail polishes

• When mixing 2 polishes, try and use ones with similar formulas and i dont recommend using anything expensive
• always do a test first, pour out a little of the polish on to some paper or plastic and mix it with your eye shadow or polish so you can make sure its the colour you wanted, and also to get an idea of the ratios
• dont add too much eye shadow as it will make the polish quite matte when it dries, it will also chip easier
• after adding your eye shadow or other polish, it's going to take a hell of a lot of mixing to get the colour through evenly

Good luck :)

Nikki

Oh hello blogger

So here i am on my new URL, i've been wanting to move my blog over here for a while so i thought i'd do it now as i'm going to be on a short break from posting until late next week. I have a lot of pictures to post so i can't wait. I hope you all have a great christmas and new year, see you all soon :)

Nikki

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