Barry M Silk Nail Paint - Forest

There will always be a special place in my heart for Barry M. They were they first nail polishes that I remember buying, and where my love of the manicure was first realised! I have to say that I do have a pretty impressive Barry collection, but I just can't keep up at the moment with all the new formulas that are being released...

Along with their nail paints, Barry M now offer Matte's; Gelly Hi-Shine's; Glitters; the Aquarium collection; Speedy Quick Dry; Sunset Daylight Curing gel style polish; Silks AND Nail Art Pens!!

Phew!

When I visited Boots last week, Barry M were on offer so I thought why not try something new, so I picked up a Silk polish in Forest. The Silk Nail Paints dry to a satin-like finish, that's not quite matte but doesn't have the glossy finish of a regular nail polish.

In the swatches I am wearing two coats of Forest. Firstly without a top coat -

And with TC - 

I much prefer the finish of this polish without the top coat, but it just feels so unnatural to me to not top coat my mani! It is beautiful either way though, definitely my kind of colour. I wish that the purple shift was more noticeable though, unfortunately it gets lost when the polish is applied to the nail.

Barry M Silk Nail Paints are £3.99 each available at Barrym.com.

Have a great week everyone!

WN x

Color Club Pastel Neon Dry Brush Mani

Happy Sunday everyone!

I have been in two minds whether to post this mani, but I decided that I like it so I will!

For these nails I used all four of my Color Club Pastel Neons to create this mani, along with Barry M's White and the Spike Vinyls from Sparkly-nails.co.uk.

To create the look, first start with your base colour (the white in this case) and wait for it to dry completely. (I'm too impatient for this so use my Seche Vite to hurry along the process!) Next add your vinyl. When adding the colours, make sure you have almost zero polish on the brush to create that 'dry brush' look. Remove the vinyl, add your chosen TC and then you're good to go :)

There are a couple of things I'd change if I were to do this look again. I would stick the vinyl so that the point is at the tip of the nail, and I might use a different base colour that might show off the pastel shades a bit better.

But overall, I loved the effect and I think the Color Club polishes are perfect to create that dry brush look with. I have done a couple of others (here and here) if you are interested in seeing them! 

Thank you for reading, and I hope you're all having the best weekend!

WN x

Boots 17 Silver Holo Swatch

Happy Friday everyone! I hope you've all had a good week and have some exciting weekend plans :) 

Unfortunately (!) I had to go to Ikea this week, and conveniently there is a Boots in the same retail park so it would have definitely been rude not to go. As fabulous as online shopping is, I do like to go and actually see things I'm buying in real life occasionally. And I did need some cotton rounds.... Any excuse, I know!

While I was perusing the beauty section, I came across this sparkly silver holo on the Boots 17 stand. I've never noticed that they made a holographic polish before, but I'm not sure how new / old it actually is. If only it came in more colours. Hint, hint Boots!

In the swatch I am wearing two coats of polish with a top coat.

With flash - 

I am very impressed with this polish! For a drug store own brand nail polish, I think it's great value for money and the formula is fantastic. Perfectly opaque and even in two easy coats. The glitter particles are very fine which will help make the application smooth too. 

Now, I may be slightly biased, because I frigging love a holo, and a bargain too for that matter, but I would absolutely recommend this polish to anyone!

Boots 17 Silver Holo nail polish is £3.99, available at Boots.com

Thank you for reading and have an amazing day!

WN x

Black Heart Accent Sunset Gradient Mani

Happy Tuesday polish people! I hope you're all having a lovely week so far :)

Thankfully, today's mani is slightly more creative than the title of this post! I wanted to do a gradient, as I haven't done one for a while and I do love the effect. the colour combo came to me because I was thinking about being on holiday and drinking Tequila Sunrise! Funny where we find inspiration...
I did want to add a little something extra though, so I went for the negative heart in the end.

Colours I used for the gradient are Barry M Gelly Hi-Shine in Papaya (orange); Barry M Pink Flamingo (coral); Nicole by OPI All Kendall-ed Up (hot pink). The black is Barry M too.

I am pleased with how this mani turned out. And I am so in love with the combination of colours in the gradient! 

To create the gradient effect, I just use the standard sponging method. And please don't worry if your mani is textured or look a bit gross whilst you're creating the gradient. Once you add your top coat, everything will be fine! To add the heart, I first drew the outline using the Barry M black nail art pen and then simply filled in the outside of the shape with nail polish and a little nail art brush.

Just FYI, I am now (finally) an Instagram!! I know!! You can follow me HERE if you'd like to :-)

Thank you all for reading and I hope you have a fabulous week!

WN x

Essie Summer Dotticure

Good afternoon everyone. Sunday again and another week closer to my two week break! I hope you've all had a lovely weekend so far. 

Today I have combined my favourite polishes from the Essie Summer and Neon collections and created a simple dotticure with them. (You can check out my reviews of each collection by clicking the links above).

Unfortunately I was particularly off my dotticure game when I created this mani, and it's a bit all over the place! But you guys get the idea ;)

For the base I used Chilato, and dotted Pret-A-Surfer (blue) and Melody Maker (green) on top.

I feel very average about how this mani turned out. I know on another day I would've looked a thousand times better. But hey, I'm no pro, and I've always tried to be real with you guys! This is how an amateur dotticure looks! But I still like it :) 

It doesn't make me feel particularly summery though! I'm either getting a Spring or Winter vibe. I can't decide, what do you guys think?

You can visit Nailpolishdirect.co.uk to purchase Essie here in the UK, for £8.95 each plus free delivery :)

Thank you all for reading and have a great week!

WN x

Flash Tattoo Mani

Happy Friday Everyone!!

Another week of work is over and another weekend is upon us :) I hope you've all had great weeks and have even better weekends planned!

Today's post is a little bit different. I had received some 'flash tattoos' in my June Glossybox, and I have to say I am not a fan of the trend generally but I wanted to try and use them otherwise I feel like I'm just wasting my money on the subscription! So, with anything that I'm not sure what to do with, I put it on my nails.

The tattoos are black gold and silver, so I layered them over the hot pink Hertford Street by Nails Inc as I thought this colour would give the best contrast.

You use these tattoos the same way you use any temporary tattoo, peel off the plastic and soak with a damp cloth (I used a cotton ball as that's just what I had to hand at the time). Take up the cardboard backing and you're done.

I added a top coat to seal in the designs.

I'm definitely pleased with how this mani turned out and I'm also glad that I got to use the tattoos too. 

Unfortunately Nails Inc don't make Hertford Street anymore, though you've probably guessed that from the old bottle shape! You'll be able to get it on eBay I'm sure if you're that desperate, but it's nothing unique at the end of the day.

And with the tattoos, again they're now unavailable as they were in the June box, but they are pretty readily available elsewhere. Check out the likes of Beautybay.com or the Aladdin's cave of awesome that is Etsy.com.

Thank you for reading and have an amazing day!

WN x