Halloween inspired nails...

Well hello again,

Fancy seeing you guys here so soon after my last post...!What can I say though, my brain has been working overtime so I thought "What the heck...one more post won't hurt"!
Now my nail art skills are not the most advanced in the beauty blogger community however I am trying to develop them as I go along. Some of my past attempts can be found HERE and HERE). 
Without further ado here are my designs for Halloween...:)

                                                                Getting ready...

I used all sorts of colours and techniques and as with most tasks there was a lot of trial and error...

However, one polish that is worth mentioning in this post is a recent purchase of mine and it is the Glow in the Dark nail varnish by American Apparel in the colour Moon. 

My inspiration for the nails was ,of course, halloween and in particular my favourite Halloween/Christmas film which is Tim Burton's "The Nightmare Before Christmas". I also drew a lot of inspiration from designs on the internet.

The designs are not 100% accurate of course but I did give it my best try so I hope you like them :) 

I also tried to take a picture of the nails "in action"(glowing in the dark :p)

It is blurry but thankfully some of the designs are still visible. 

What are your plans for this Halloween?

xoxo

A.

NOTD China Glaze "Flip Flop Fantasy"

I have a short and extremely summery post for you guys today!!It a NOTD featuring China Glaze's "Flip Flop Fantasy".

I love this colour on the toes but in order to avoid showing you my feet, I have some finger-nail swatches for you....Enjoy...;)

Have an amazing summer my lovely readers....;) 

My next post will feature more summer-related stuff so if you are interested, stay tuned ;) 

xoxo

A. 

How to: Ombre nails

Heya everyone,

How are you guys? Long time no speaky (nope? no black books fans??O.K. then :P)!
So, this post has been in the works for over a week now. I was questioning how I was going to go about it and when I would find the time to sit down and work on the nails and the pictures. Finally, I took the plunge last night and here are the results of my hard work ;)

HOW-TO....

p.s. you can use 2, 3 or 4 colours(even 5 if you want and you have the nail bed for it)... ;) 

Some colour ideas

Now, I thought I should also make a list of the colours I used as a reference.... (all colours are listed from top to bottom as seen on the nail)

1.  Orly "Pixy Styx", China Glaze "Peachy Keen", Chanel "June"& Model's Own "Lemon Meringue"  

2. Salome "No 29", China Glaze "Peachy Keen" & Essie "Watermelon" 

3. OPI "Ski Teal We Drop", OPI "Thanks a Wind million"& Essie "Mint Candy Apple" 

4. Essie "Lilacism" & Essie "Mint Candy Apple"

5. Barry M "Boots LE No 24"& Barry M "Strawberry I/C" 

6. Essie "Coral Reef" & Nails INC "Chelsea Square" 

7. Chanel "June", Nails INC "Copacabana" & Revlon "Pretty in Papaya"

8.  Essie "Watermelon"& Sally Hansen "Lucky Plum".

I wanted to keep this post short and sweet really however I would love you know whether you are planning on rocking the ombre nails and whether this post helped at all...!! ;) 

xoxo

A. 

NOTD Essie "Watermelon"

Hey you guys,

How was your weekend? I just got my nails done and decided to use one a brighter colour since the weather is sooooo much better and Spring is ,officially, here.
I am not a big fan of the season really but if the season means I get to wear brighter polishes I am all for it really...!! :P
Now I have had this specific colour in my collection for about 10 months and this is the first time I get to see what it looks like on my nails. So, I thought I should share some swatches with you all...!!

 

Now, here is a collage of swatches under different lights. 

This is the one swatch that I feel is THE MOST accurate...

As you can see, it is a pretty accurate watermelon colour (hence the name)

I hope you guys like this post. 

Have a great week.

xoxo

A. 

NOTD Essie "Who's the boss" and a sneak peak....

Just a quick NOTD for you today...featuring Essie's "Who's the boss" nail varnish. This is a wonderful sea foam green which is perfect for Spring.

 I don't actually own this varnish but the lovely lady who does my manicures and pedicures, does. However I loved it so much when I put it on my nails that I thought you should absolutely have a look. I think it is perfectly soft and pretty which makes it very wearable. 

Now, I've realised that my nail varnish box is full, as of a couple of weeks ago. I took a picture some time ago, which I, also featured in a post amongst other pictures. 

This is an even newer picture. It is a little shaky but it doesn't matter...!!

Now, I don't know if you are interested in this but I thought it would be nice to share it with you all. My collection(if you could even call it that) is not as big as some people's but I have everything I could possibly need(at least I think I do). 

See you all tomorrow with another Random Post Sunday

xoxo

A. 

Christmas nails!!

Hello Hello!!!

How are you all?? I just got up a couple of hours ago and I realised that it is already the 15th of December which means we are only 10 days away from Christmas. So, I decided to do a series of Christmas- themed posts starting with nails. I have 8 different nail ideas for you today (4 colours + 4 designs).
I picked the colours and created the designs specifically for you. I am not very good with designs normally but I did try very hard to make these and I hope you like them.

Here is the nail wheel with all 8 "picks"...

Let's take a closer look.....

Designs

Left to right: Present, Snowflakes, Rudolf, Santa's Suit

Colours

                    Now for colours I chose the classic Gold, Green and Red and a sparkly purple.

From left to right: OPI "Goldeneye", Barry M "Racing Green",OPI "Wocka Wocka!" &          Zoya"Daul".

These are my picks for Christmas/New Year's nails for 2012. What are yours??

xoxo
A.

OPI "The Bond-ettes" mini nailpolish set

Hello and happy mid-week guys !! :P
How have you been? How was your week so far?? I have some exciting nail varnish swatches for you today. As most of you already know, OPI released their Skyfall /James Bond collection. Some of the colours were exciting and others ,not so much. However, I was looking for one of them and couldn't find it anywhere so when I realised it was available in the set with the mini varnishes I decided to pick that up instead of going on a wild goose chase so-to-speak.
Now, without further ado, here are some pictures of the varnishes...!

                                                                          Packaging

 From left to right: Goldeneye, The Spy Who Loved Me, The world is not enough and Live and let die.

Comparison...

Mini VS Normal

This is "Goldeneye" and I bought the full size bottle before I purchased the set.

Swatches

Goldeneye

The Spy Who Loved Me

The World Is Not Enough

Live and Let Die

Now, since the last one(live and let die) is the reason why I bought this set in the first place I also have some swatches of this polish ,on the nails, to share with you...

Did you pick any colours up from this collection?What do you think of these colours??

xoxo

A. 

I ♥ owls NOTD

Quick NOTD from me today featuring my attempt to do an owl nail design....!!!I really wanted to have more than one owls on my nails but I did start working recently and I didn't think it was appropriate. I chose a nude base which is my all time favourite Essie "Sand Tropez" (swatches HERE). I also made the owl using OPI's "Barefoot in Barcelona" which is relatively nude as well.
Anyway.....take a look and let me know whether you like it or not. Also keep in mind that I am not the most talented person when it comes to designs so please be lenient.

What do you think??Decent?? :P

xoxo

A. 

Quick NOTD featuring Zoya "Daul"

I am sorry I've been absent for so long but I've been quite busy and not in the best mood to be honest. But that's not really something that should concern you guys!! :) :)
So here is my NOTD. I used this new nail varnish by Zoya called "Daul". It is somewhat difficult to explain what the colour looks like. It is an super shimmery varnish but the glitter is so fine that shows up almost as a sheen on the nail even though the particles are visible. The base colour is a purple (mid toned grape I'd call it...if that makes any sense) and the glitter particles are mainly gold.
Here are some photos....

The photos don't do this varnish justice. It is gorgeous and in my opinion perfect for the holidays.

What do you think?

xoxo

A.

p.s. I had my nails done on Monday morning and these photos were taken today. I think it looks pretty good....!I have experienced chipping with my other zoya varnishes but this holds up pretty well from what I can tell.

NOTD: Essie "To buy or not to buy"

Soooooooo here is a brief post featuring my NOTD which is Essie's "To buy or not to buy"...!Enjoy....

xoxo

A. 

NOTD: Sally Hansen Salon Effects "Girl Flower" & mini review.

Hey girlies...!!!

I am back from a not-so-hot holiday. Well let's face it...it sucked...!!Nonetheless I am back with a special NOTD featuring one of Sally Hansen's Salon effects styles called girl flower.

Let me say that I have had this for a long time (5 or 6 months) and didn't get around to using them until last week, right before I went on holiday. 

This started of as a revolutionary product. For those of you who are not familiar with it, it is a set of real nailpolish strips. It comes in a variety of styles and colours and each package contains 16 strips in two individual packs. It also comes with a mini cuticle stick and a mini nail file/buffer. 

So my mini review will be a short list of the positive and negative aspects of this product(as always)

So...

+

Longevity

A wide selection of styles

Easy application
The strips fit most nails
They look like nail varnish.

-

Difficult to remove

You cannot re-use any left-over strips since they dry our after a while
Not widely available outside the U.S. 

Tip: The instructions suggest that you don't need a base coat or a top coat. Well I've done it both ways and I can tell you that I would suggest you use both if you want your manicure to last. 

I find this product very exciting so I thought I should share this NOTD & a mini review with you...!I hope you liked it...!!!

Also, don't forget our collaborative giveaway which runs until the 28th of August (check it out HERE)

xoxo 

A

NOTD Featuring Essie's "Mint Candy Apple" and Models Own "Lemon Meringue"

I have a candy like NOTD for you today. I love pastels and lately I have been trying different combinations. This combo I think is one of the best ones I have tried so far so I thought I should share it with you all.
Hope you like it...

 Let me know what you think ;)
xoxo
A.