Red & Gold Christmas Konading

Well, I haven't updated in a while due to various reasons, the mains ones being a busted laptop and my old camera driving me insane. I was lucky enough to get a brand new camera for Christmas! :) no more desperately trying to make it focus! I love love love it. 

I hope everyone had a WONDERFUL Christmas. This is how I had my nails, as red and gold are my absolute favourite Christmas colours (also the colours of Gryffindor...HP nerd alert).

The base colour is OPI - The One That Got Away, and the stamping colour is Barry M Gold Foil Effects. I finished with NYC top coat. The stamping plate is Konad M60.

This is only the second full mani I've done using a Konad plate...I think I'm finally getting the hang of it. The Barry M foils make great stamping polishes.

Quick haul picture before I go...I was given these Calvin Klein polishes for Christmas. There's some really pretty colours that I can't wait to swatch!

Barry M Instant Nail Effects Foil Gold and Silver Swatches

I had high hopes for these because I love Barry M polishes. The official word on them is -

 "Instant Nail Effects foil is an amazing addition to our Nail Paints. It is applied like any other Nail Paint but with a luxurious foil finish previously only acheived from a salon manicure. It only requires one coat and is very quick drying."

The finish did end up being quite nice, but I had some trouble with visible brush strokes, leading to me needing more than one coat on some nails. It did dry quite quickly though.

As you can see, there's visible brush strokes no matter how hard I tried! It goes on like silk, which does make it somewhat fiddly to manage. It looks lovely in sunlight though! (see below)

The silver was a little easier to apply, I didn't end up with as many brush strokes.

 

Overall I wasn't as impressed as I thought I'd be, but I'll definitely be using them again. Maybe practice makes perfect when it comes to the application of foil finishes. Also, I hear these polishes are really good for stamping, so that alone makes them worth it to me.

You can get these in Superdrug for £3.99 each.

Shimmery Leopard

I decided to bust out a Konad plate because I haven't used one in ages. I'm rarely in the mood for the unholy mess I end up making! 

I used OPI - Designer...De Better from the Muppets collection as a base. My Mum got this for me last week and I'm really impressed with it. It's so shimmery and sparkly yet warm, so perfect for this time of year.

I stamped on a couple of accent nails on each hand using Konad m57 and Konad special polish. I then filled in the leopard spots with OPI - The One That Got Away from the Katy Perry collection. I finished with a top coat from NYC (I picked some of this up on the recommendation of Sammy from Nailasaurus) and I'm pretty impressed with it so far, since it only cost £1.79.

Pretty happy with it, the combination of the OPI polishes are super shimmery. You can't tell from these pictures, but my middle finger nail is about to snap clean off. Joy!

Also, I'm at 170 followers! Thank you to everyone who follows me :) Thinking of having another giveaway if I manage to hit 200. 

Barry M Coral Swatches

A little complaining to do before I start - My favourite nail (lets face it, we all have a favourite nail...or am I just strange?) has split half way down (on my swatching hand no less) so that's 3 completely broken nails this month. My hands look a complete mess! I swear I have tried everything to prevent breakages but nothing works. Also, my camera is going all crazy on me, refusing to focus and taking awful grainy pictures :( hopefully Santa will bring me a new one, but until then I'm stuck with a crappy one. All this is making blogging much too difficult! /end complaining...for now :P

Anyway. This is Coral by Barry M. I LOVE this polish. I honestly do not have a Barry M I dislike.

  

It's a very bright, orangey coral, super easy to apply and opaque with two coats. Like a lot of Barry M, it seems to be a hybrid of creme and jelly, though I'd lean mostly towards jelly.

I like wearing it on nights out when I'm wearing mostly black clothing, it makes dark outfits pop! 

Models Own Jade Stone Swatches

Hello! Still swatching my way through my Model's Own collection. This is the first time I've tried Jade Stone, and I have to say I love it. 

 

This is a minty green creme. I never used to like this kind of colour, but I'm officially a convert. 

Opaque after two coats, this can be a little streaky, but if you're having trouble a third coat should sort it right out. Formula is great, as it is with most Models Own polishes. I think I'll be wearing this for a while :)