The Luck of the Irish

Happy St Paddy's Day!!

I hope you all haven't had one too many pints of Guinness just yet! because fist I would like to share with you all my St Paddy's day inspired manicure.

I received these two green Essie polishes for my Birthday, just in time for St Paddy's Day. This is Essie Mojito Madness and Essie Mint Candy Apple. I just love them <3 glamour="" glitter="" gold="" he="" inc="" is="" nails="" nbsp="" p="" topcoat.="">

Essie Mojito Madness 

Velentines Manicure: POP art! featuring NEW Barry M Gellys Green Berry + Dragon

I was so excited to see these in my local Superdrug as they never seem to get the Barry M collections until weeks after there are released. I was so excited I just snapped up the two I wanted to try first;  Dragon and Green Berry.

Dragon GNP 11 is the perfect Barbie, hot pink with subtle shimmer, so subtle I didn't even notice it until I got the polishes home and was about to paint my nails. The application of these is a little tricky, Barry M claims that they are one coaters, but I don't think that is the best way. The swatches you see here are all 3 thin coats, which gives a nice smooth, non-gloopy opaque finish.

GNP 11 Dragon

GNP 12 Green Berry

There are four new additions to the Barry M Gelly family, Dragon (pink), Lychee (nude beige), Papaya (orange), and Green Berry (green), and are available in Superdrug now!

Have you tried Barry M Gellys? which colour is your favourite?

xoxo

Valentines Manicures: Lace Hearts

Today's manicure was inspired by MissJenFabulous on Youtube.




Polishes I used:
OPI Parlez-vous OPI? (link)
OPI Alpine Snow (swatch)
OPI Dim Sum Plum (swatch)

Parlez Vous OPI? from the French collection, one of my all time faces, and one of my first ever bottles of OPI <3 p="">

Valentines Manicure: Roses are Red

Today's post is the last in the Valentine Nail Art Challenge and is inspired by fellow participant. 

I knew instantly when I saw Sugar Coated Nail's post that I would be choosing this manicure! I first saw it on OPI's Facebook and it was this manicure that introduced me to the challenge.

It is beautiful and well executed, I'm not sure I have done it justice. Please everyone go check out Sugar Coated Nail's blog for more amazing nail art like this!

I decided to opt for a lilac base colour, this is Rumples Wiggin' from  OPI's Shrek Forever After Collection, one of my favourite all time collections <3 p="">

Polishes Used:

OPI Rumples Wiggin' (swatch)

OPI Jade is the New Black, (swatch)

OPI Gargantuan Green Grape, (swatch)

OPI Dim Sum Plum, (swatch)

OPI Sparrow Me The Drama, (swatch)

OPI Steady as She Rose, (swatch)

Valentines Manicures: Ombre or Gradient.

Ombres are a bit of a Valentines tradition for me, heres my 2011 and 2012 versions...

This year I wanted to try and do something a little different, keeping with the Valentines theme I went with a pink heart gradient. The colours I'm using are all from Barry M. I <3 barry="" m.="">

Valentines Manicures: Splatter

Today's theme is splatter! and I immediately thought of Brookes tutorial....

I know I wanted more hearts, and intended on another tape manicure like yesterdays, but didn't think about how tricky it would be, so I opted to paint the hearts over the splatter design. The scotch tape still came in handy though ... as you will see this gets incredibly messy!

The colours I'm using are Kiko 330 Lilac, 339 Cornflower, 389 Mint Milk, Barry M 307 Lemon Ice cream, and No7 Sugar.

Valentine Nail Art Challenge
Host: datyorkLOVES

1.

datyorkLOVES (HOST)

2.

makeroomforcupcake

(Submissions close in 4d 18h 44m)

Link tool by inlinkz.com

Valentines Manicures: Cloud Nine

Today I am going to share with you this easy peasy Valentines day manicure idea. All you will need are three pretty pink nail polishes - and that's it! nothing else is required (see I told you it was easy)!





First  apply a base colour to clean nails, using a base coat if needed.

This is 2 coats of OPI Sparrow Me The Drama, a beautiful rosy pink from the Pirates of the Caribbean collection. This polish applies effortlessly, OPI really got the formula right on this collection.





Now to make the cloud shape we are going to apply our second colour (Sally Hansen Nail Prisms 01 Diamond), starting each stroke a little further away from the cuticle, and going diagonally. So your first stroke will be roughly 5mm away from your cuticle, the next one 10mm and the third will be 15mm away.





Your clouds are starting to appear!





Now take your third colour and using the same technique apply the next layer of polish. I'm using Barry M Gelly GNP 9 Pomegranate - a stunning bright raspberry pink.





There we have 3 fluffy little clouds!

Apply a generous layer of top coat and your all done!





Of course you could use any combination of colours for this manicure, I'm using pinks for Valentines but you could also use reds. why not try pastels for Easter? or green, red and gold for Christmas?

What colour combinations would you use?

If you try this manicure, feel free to share your links in the comments so we can all see what colours you choose!

xoxo

Valentine Nail Art Challenge
Host: datyorkLOVES

1.	Sugar Coated Nails	6.	datyorkLOVES (HOST)	11.	Nails Love Polish
2.	Fabulous Polish	7.	GypsyV Talks Beauty	12.	Nail Polish Creations
3.	Cutenailstudio	8.	Polish Playground	13.	FabbyNailedIt
4.	Nail Art Overdose	9.	Helena (Nail Wish)	14.	makeroomforcupcake
5.	NormasNails	10.	Racho's Nail Love

(Submissions close in 10d 9h 28m)

Kaleidoscope Owls

Today's nail art is something to cheer up on your Monday morning, I mean whats more amusing than cute, multicoloured owls on your nails? I dare anyone to have a gloomy Monday while wearing this manicure!

There are so many variations of this nail art floating around the bloggersphere so I don't really know who to credit the idea too, but here's my own multicoloured variation.

Aren't they just so cute?

I used mainly OPI polishes for this mani,

The pink is Dim Sum Plum and Mod about You,

Green is Jade is the New Black and Mermaids Tears,

Purple is Funky Dunky and Rumples Wiggin,

Blue is Ogre the Top Blue and Whats With The Cattitude

and the orange is Flit a Bit, and I used it mixed with white for the lighter colour.

The yellow for the little owls eyes was a Barry M, as was the black.

Penny Talk

I instantly knew as soon as I spotted this polish on the reduced shelf in boots it was going to be coming home with me. You see my very generous bf treated me to a beautiful rose gold and navy Michael Kors watch for Christmas, and it was irking me that somehow I did not have the perfect rose gold polish to wear with it. How is that even possible?

A few polished had crossed my mind- Mac Soiree, at the time unattainable. Orly Rage, and Essie Penny Talk. So when I saw it on the shelf I couldn't believe my luck!! It was just what I was looking for!

Surprisingly enough this is just one coat! and no streaks! perfect application (which is rare for a metallic polish)

Penny Talk was released with the Mirror Metallics 2012 collection.

Did you pick up any colours from this collection? if so which was your favourite? and which did you ditch? Let me know in the comments!

xoxo