MeeBox August 2015

Press Sample 

There's a new nail subscription box on the block called MeeBox - launched in August 2015, MeeBox promises to feature sought-after polishes and treatments as well as independent brands. I've got the debut box to show you today, and the theme is California Dreamin'.

China Glaze Apocalypse of Colour Swatches and Review

Press Sample

More Halloweeny polishes today! I have swatches of two shades from Apocalypse of Colour, China Glaze's Halloween 2014 collection. I think I get excited by Halloween collections more than any other! This collections looks particularly fun because it has a zombie theme, and well, zombies have never been more popular have they? ;)

Shimmer Polish Jasmine Swatches

Press Sample

Hi! I know it's been pretty quiet around here lately. I had a really busy period of time where I just couldn't sit down to blog, and then after that I got sick with a horrible stomach bug right after my last post which I have still barely recovered from! Everything happens at once doesn't it!? I'm going to push ahead this week and catch up on reviews!

Today I have latest in my Shimmer Polish series - Jasmine, a beautiful polish made up of predominantly aquamarine and blue glitter, interspersed with gold, green and red. I've used 2 coats plus top coat, over China Glaze Custom Kicks, a teal green creme. This is another winner from Shimmer Polish! Wonderfully easy application and not at all top coat hungry.

Availability

You can purchase Shimmer Polish via their Etsy store or their website. International shipping is available!

Press Sample

China Glaze Off Shore Collection Swatches and Review - Part 2

Press Sample

Today its time for part 2 of my China Glaze Off Shore swatches! This is the "Stoked To Be Soaked" half of the collection. You can see part one here.

China Glaze Off Shore Collection Swatches and Review - Part 1

Press Sample

Hello! Today I'm showing you the new Off Shore collection for Summer 2014 from China Glaze! In part 1 is the 6 polishes from the "Dune Our Thing" half of the collection. 

A Bit 'O Glitter

Unfortunately this is one of THOSE manicures that looked absolutely lovely on my nails, but failed to translate to camera, which made me sad :( I'm posting it anyway though because this is one of my all time favourite polishes!

Striped Gradient

Hi lovelies. Ugh, my bones are aching today, I think I stood in the cold way too long yesterday...and I'm going swimming tonight too. I think I might sink! Anyway, I've got some nail art today. It didn't quite turn out how I'd imagined it in my head, but I ended up really liking it!

I started with a base of China Glaze Fast Track. I added some striping tape over the top, then sponged on a gradient with Fast Track and OPI My Private Jet. Then I removed the tape and finished with an NYC top coat. 

I just love black and gold together! Fast Track ended up looking a different colour when I sponged it on, which is why the stripes don't fade out, which was my original intention. I like the effect though!

Green and Gold Gradient

Hi! I'm miserable today because I've pulled a muscle in my back and it's agony. I've been wailing like a banshee all day and the house stinks of deep heat. Took me about 10 minutes to get upstairs to the computer...that's dedication, that. 

I love gradients so decided to do a Christmassy one. Kinda reminds me of a dragon or something.

I used China Glaze Glittering Garland, then sponged on some H&M Golden Treasure. 

I love the colours I used, Golden Treasure is my favourite gold and Glittering Garland is ridiculously festive. I might re-create these for Christmas day!

Random Swatch Saturday - China Glaze Champagne Bubbles

Here's another from my seemingly endless stash. Champagne Bubbles is from the 2011 Let It Snow collection. It's probably not a shade for everyone, but I love the little bits of silver glitter! 

Like I said, it's not for everybody...It's a nice Christmassy colour though! 

Oh Christmas Tree!

Here's my second set of Christmas nails! These really didn't photograph well, which I'm dissapointed about. They're SO sparkly in real life but the camera has made them a bit dull :( why are cameras so anti-glitter sometimes? They just don't appreciate the finer things in life.

My base colour is Models Own Snow White, with a coat of China Glaze White Cap on top. 

For the oh-so-cute little trees, I used China Glaze Holly Day, painted over with Models Own Emerald City glitter. The tinsel is Barry M Silver Foil Effects.

The stars are studs from Born Pretty Store, as are the little glequins. (Use code LGL91 for 10% off at Born Pretty, with free worldwide shipping!)

I love how these turned out! I just wish you could see the sparkle!

Candy Canes

Hi! Well, my light box started falling apart already, so I gave up with it and just bought a little light tent from eBay. It was only £10 and came with different coloured backgrounds, so I'm trying out black for a while. It's nice not having to wait for decent daylight to take pictures anymore, but it still frustrates the hell out of me trying to get consistent pictures! I'm a god awful photographer!

Anyway, today I have the first of my Christmas themed nails. I wanted to do a candy cane pattern, but didn't want just plain red and white stripes, so I tried to make it a bit different.

I used Essie Blanc for the base colour, and China Glaze Ruby Pumps on my middle finger. I painted on the stripes (China Glaze Winter Berry) and the candy cane with a small paint brush. I added some silver glequins for sparkle!

It feels really odd having a black background!

Lady Gaga Nail Art

On Tuesday night I went to see Lady Gaga. It's the fourth time I've seen her (1x Fame Ball, 2x Monster Ball, 1x Born This Way Ball) and it was, as always, so much fun! It's always just like a giant disco! Obviously I had to theme my nails for the night, and this is what I came up with.

I used China Glaze Winter Berry (one of my favourite ever reds) for the base. I used some tiny nail art studs to make the cross, and little hexagonal sequins (or glequins as The Nailasaurus has catchily called them) for the half moons. I used a tiny nail art brush to freehand the heart over a base of Barry M Turquoise.

I love the cross, none of the studs have fallen off yet and I never want to remove it!

I should mention that I don't have internet access at home at the moment, and I'm not sure when it'll be back (maybe a couple of weeks) so posting will be quite sporadic, pretty much whenever I can steal someone's wifi (I'm currently stealing my brother's) I feel like I'm stuck in the dark ages! 

Louise Gray for Topshop - Junkyard - Swatches and Review

Hello! I spotted this polish while shopping with my Mum in Topshop. It's one of four gorgeous glitters in a special collection by designer Louise Gray.

The polish itself is packed with large, medium and small hexagonal blue/turquoise glitter, with an iridescent sparkle. The base has a slight blue tint, but would probably need about 500 coats to replicate how it looks in the bottle! Therefore I've layered it over China Glaze Sexy In The City for this post, and I think it's pretty close to the bottle. You could probably layer it over any sort of blue/turquoise/green and it'd look great.

In my pictures I have 3 coats of Sexy In The City, and 2 coats of Junkyard.

Outdoors in sunlight - 

Indoors in natural light -

Outdoors in sunlight (looks like a jelly sandwich!) -

The formula was great, no bubbling and 1 coat of top coat smoothed it out.

This is what it looks like on it's own, 2 coats - 

Just a very slight blue tint to the base, not worth trying to build up on your nails really.

A couple more outdoor pictures (click to enlarge) - 

It comes in a cute bottle with a metallic lid! -

I love this and want to get the rest in the collection! These polishes cost £6.50 for 8ml. 

P.s. not long left to enter my giveaway!

True Blood nail art

True Blood is one of my favourite TV programmes, and it just started it's 5th season yesterday, so I did some True Blood inspired nail art to celebrate! It feels like I've been waiting for season 5 for ages, I have certainly missed some Alexander Skarsgard in my life...

Red and black gradient, blood spatter, an attempt at the logo and some blood drips. The red is China Glaze Winter Berry, a perfect blood-red that I got on sale in Sally's for £2! If you want to know the other colours used, just ask in the comments.

Also, I think it's time I made a Facebook for my blog. I've been avoiding it as lord knows Facebook is a pain. All of you who have one for your blog, did you make the page from your regular personal account, or did you make it completely separate? What is the best way to do it? 

China Glaze White Cap and Marks and Spencer Bright Aqua

More layering today. White Cap was a polish sent to me by Mel and I love it. It's a very sheer white jelly, full of tiny gold shimmery flakes. 

I layered it over Bright Aqua from Marks and Spencer, which is a turquoise base with turquoise shimmer. It's quite sheer, I needed three coats to cover up my nail line, and even then it's still a bit visible.

It all made for a very shimmery finish and makes me want to jump in a pool!

OPI I Lily Love You and China Glaze Sexy In The City

I Lily Love You is one of my favourite OPI polishes, and I've been trying it out with a few things. I was lucky enough to get it for £5 in the last Lena White sale. 

Here it is over Sexy In The City by China Glaze

 I Lily Love you is a (very)sheer pink jelly base full of chunky, different sized iridescent flakies and glitter, from the Summer 2011 Nice Stems! collection. It really does look like you could eat it. I decided to layer it over Sexy In The City, because I haven't seen it over a blue before.

Turned out really cute!

Look at all those flakies and glitter. I am a complete magpie when it comes to shiny, glittery things.

China Glaze Stone Cold Swatches

Here's another of my favourites from the China Glaze Hunger Games Capitol Colours collection.

Excuse my little finger nail. It snapped off. Looks lovely doesn't it? Some people say Brit nails is short for Brittle nails.

Anyway. This is Stone Cold. It's matte! A dark, gunmetal grey base with lots of muted silver shimmer. 

Formula was typical for a matte, quite thick and gloopy so you need to work fast or it'll drag. Two thin coats  worked best for me.

I love matte and I love dark grey, so I think I'll be using this quite often.

Also, you can now follow me on Pinterest. My head is spinning with all these social networks!

China Glaze Fast Track Swatches

I got some Nail Mail this morning! Oh eBay, I do love you. Mostly.

This is China Glaze - Fast Track, from the recently released Hunger Games Capitol Colours collection. I got so excited when I heard about this collection, since I am a massive fan of the books (well, not so much the third book but that's another, somewhat ranty, story) but when I saw the first swatches emerge, I only really liked four of them. Fast Track caught my attention the most...it's subtle but so beautiful. 

It's a creme beige base, packed with tiny gold flakes, which give it a subtle but noticeable shimmer. It's also not as sheer as you might think, my pictures are three coats but two would have done fine. I'm so in love with it!

Also, I think after seven months of blogging I've finally found a camera angle for my pictures that works for me. Better (extremely)late than never!